Neverland is Forever

Lily stirred in her sleep, the sound of discordant bells pulling her out of her dreams. She'd had a most wonderful dream. A strange boy had taken her from the home for girls, away to a magical place of dreams where she weas free from everything that she had ever worried over.

Lily sighed and stretched, her eyes still closed, reluctant to let the dream float away so soon. But the bells continued to jangle and would not let her sleep.

She sat up in the bed, ready to get the other girls prepared for the day. Slowly, Lily opened her eyes, surprised to find that she was in the bed of vines within the giant oak tree.

"So it wasn't a dream," she whispered to herself. Suddenly a burst of energy struck her, and she rose to her knees to peer around the edge of the little alcove the bed was located in, hoping to see Peter.

He was there, seemingly having a heated argument with a candle. Maybe he is daft after all.

But upon closer inspection, she saw that it was not a candle, but a miniature woman with wings glowing very brightly, and that was also the source of the jangling. A fairy! Lily thought happily. How wonderful. But since it seemed she and Peter were speaking about something important, she remained in the alcove, not wanting to disrupt.

"Tink, I don't know why you're acting this way!"

The pissed off pixie placed her hands on her hips, another string of musical yet angry sounds coming from her mouth.

"What do you mean? She won't leave me, she'd never leave me!"
More discordant jangling.
"I don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean, 'last time'?"
Peter paused, the look on his face one of confusion and consternation.
"You're wrong Tinkerbell! Lily is not going to leave me. She's mine and she always will be!"
Exasperated, Tinkerbell flew out of the tree, leaving Peter to wonder what had gotten into her.

Lily felt that now was perhaps as good a time as would present itself to let Peter know she was awake.

"Hello, Peter, good morning!"
"Oh, Lily, good morning," Peter greeted her, his face instantly brightening.
"I slept wonderfully, Peter. I say the best sleep I've ever had."

Peter nodded happily and began listing off all the things they were going to do that day. First Lily located some discarded pirate's clothing, and washed it, hanging it out to dry. She would make some alterations later so that she would have a set of more comfortable clothes. The frock would not do well with the obviously active lifestyle lived in Neverland.

Now began her sword training. Peter presented her with a sword that he had stowed away, his second favorite. Lily took a few practice swings, getting used to the feel of the sword.

"Okay now, first you should learn how to block. I'm going to come at you slow with the sword, then you hold yours up and try to block it." Peter swung at her a few times, Lily successfully blocking each hit. He began swinging faster, Lily clumsily blocking the faster blows at first. But as they went on, her skill increased.

"Wow, you're better at this than Toad, and he was the quickest learner of all the Lost Boys!" Peter exclaimed. "Now let's move on to striking." They continued practicing for a good portion of the morning, Peter praising Lily's quick grasp of the basics of swordfighting.

"At this speed, you'll be top-notch in no time."

Lily wiped the sweat from her brow, her pale skin flushed with exertion. "At this speed I'll be half-dead before a pirate can get to me."

Peter's familiar grin returned. "Well, if you're that tired, I suppose you won't be up for a swim in the lagoon then?"

Lily's face brightened. "The lagoon? That's sounds positively lovely, Peter. Shall we go now?"

"Yes! It's off to the lagoon we go!"

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A/N: Okay, I promise, next chapter is some lime-y action, lemons to come later. And you guys just wait till you see what's in store for the villain. Because there always has to be a villain!