Never
by crystal tiara

Disclaimer: I don't own "Petshop of Horrors"; Matsuri Akino does.

Peter Pan: "Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again."
Wendy: "Never is an awfully long time."
- "Peter Pan", J.M. Barrie

You were never much of a talker, but you always told the best stories.

You spun tales like they were woven cloth, and captivated Junrei and Pon-chan the most when you shared the fairy tales and legends that you knew and loved. Having seen creatures far more interesting than those told in myth and lore, I admit that I wasn't interested in pixies, mermaids and the like.

But there was one tale you told, one tale that I remembered the most. It was the story of a boy who would never grow up. I can vividly recall the way your story began: "All little boys grow up, except for one…"

I remember it clearly because it reminded – and still reminds – me of a boy I know – of you. You, who would rather not make that treacherous leap from your own world to the world out there – the cruel and unforgiving world that you always thought might devour you anytime. You wanted to stay here, protected, with Count D, with us, where reality wouldn't get you and knock you down. That was your desire – to spend the rest of your days in bliss, forever sheltered from life.

It pains me to say this, Chris, but this is not your world; this is not your life. Much as I – we – would rather keep you here, you were not meant to live with our kind. There is no Neverland, and if there was, it was never meant for ordinary humans. Humans like you, who have lives to live and people to grow up with. The sad reality is that children do not remain children forever, and that Count D and the rest of us won't always be here to shelter you from society. I know that you want these moments of happiness to last forever, but they must come to an end. Think about your stay in the pet shop as a story that you might tell – it needs an ending.

I'm sorry, but it's not going to end in "happily ever after".

You need to leave us and grow up – find friends of your own and adapt to your world, just as animals do what they can to survive in the vicious wilderness, for such is the cycle of life. You have to find your way back home, to leave the comforts that you have known in this paradise. To dwell with us eternally, with a voice only we can hear and beings only a chosen few can see, will be a big mistake. You must break the spell – as your fairy tales go – and make your voice heard.

Kanan and Junrei may be upset with me, but I know that I was not wrong in my decision to let you go. It would be selfish of me to hold on to you, a stranger to our world, no matter how well you might have adapted to it. But when you leave, I will mourn and weep for you.

Because the very moment you leave this pet shop might be the last glimpse I – we – will ever have of you, for you might never return.

Because there might come a day that your eyes will be blind to us, that you will never be able to see us the way you used to.

Because today you might remember us, but there's no telling that one day you might not, and all of us here might be reduced to bedtime stories that you will tell your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Because when your memory gives out you might never know that once upon a time, you were a lost boy who almost never found your way back into reality.

Still, I will hold on to the hope that years from now, when you have lived your life and breathed your last, you will return to us. When you depart from your body, from the vessel that holds your soul, all of us will be here to welcome you. Maybe then you can live with us, and make our world your home, your Neverland. You can leave everything else behind and never have to step out of our world again.

But then again, it must be true. Never really is an awfully long time.