Disclaimers and warnings: Neither Death Note nor Peter Pan belong to me. This is not a yaoi. Rated for language and 'stylized violence', as they say in Disney.

AN: As the summary said, this is a Death Note/Peter Pan crossover. I got the idea for this seeing in titles of other fics mentions of "Lost Boys"--and I thought, well, Lost Boys belong in Neverland! This is my first multichapter. I have a problem keeping up on long term projects, but I really hope to see this one through because I think it could either turn out rather silly or kind of fun. (Also, I apologize if I mess up Peter Pan references, I'm going off a memory that's a good fifteen years old.) I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter One: Pan.

There was a soft thump in the darkness.

Near slowly opened one eye, breathing slowly and pretending to be asleep. Someone was in his room. Was Mello setting up some sort of nasty prank?

The window was open, and the moonlight outlined a crouched silhouette. It moved forward, to where Near remembered having left his Legos lying before bed. The figure suddenly dipped, and there was a louder thump followed by whispered cursing. It slowly unfolded again and Near could see through his slitted eye that it had a mop of unruly hair that didn't seem to fit Mello. Had a stranger broken into the orphanage? A burglar? But what kind of burglar would break into an orphanage? Near lay still, watching and debating over whether or not he should call out.

"Cherry?" came a whisper. "Cherry? Are you hiding in here?"

Cherry? What in the world was going on?

The figure slowly felt its way farther into the room. It did not seem to be terribly big; Near thought it might be another child, somewhat larger than himself. With a muffled yelp it tripped over another cluster of Legos. "Come on, Cherry, where are you?"

The likelihood that this was an armed burglar, Near decided, was extremely low. "Who's there?" he demanded.

There was a cry, a couple of hurried steps, and then a crash as the stranger stumbled over a pile of robots and went tumbling to the toy-encrusted floor. Throwing off the covers, Near scrambled to the door and flipped on the light. The sudden brightness revealed the mysterious figure to be a boy of perhaps twelve, about four years older than Near. His dark eyes, wide in alarm, and black hair sticking out in several directions added to his general air of disarray. In bewilderment Near took in the ragged, grass-stained shorts, dirty bare feet, black paint smudged on his cheeks, and what seemed to be feathers stuck in his hair—he appeared quite wild. But before Near could open his mouth to ask any of the several dozen questions racing through his mind, the boy leapt up and flew to the window—

—leapt up and flew—

—and flew—

"Wait!" Near cried.

The strange boy hesitated, crouched on the windowsill. "Wait," repeated Near, holding his hands in what he hoped looked like a peaceful gesture, "What—who—how did you do that?"

"How did I do that?" the boy echoed, quickly recovering from his panic. "Do what? Get into your room? Your window was unlocked."

"No," said Near impatiently, "how did you…." he trailed off, making a sweeping motion from the floor to the window with one hand. Had he just imagined it?

"Oh," said the boy, seeming to be relaxing a little, turning into the room. "Flying? That's easy. All you need is some sugardust and a happy thought."

A skeptical expression traced itself onto Near's young features. "Sugardust," he said flatly. He must have imagined it. Either that or he was having a very strange dream. Near felt rather let down, irritated by the brief irrational fantasy that had flitted through his mind of soaring through the air like one of his robots.

"Yes," said the stranger distractedly, "But, you see, I've lost my cake fairy, and—"

Something clicked. "Cherry?" asked Near, thinking that this person might be a little unbalanced.

"Yes," he said, looking around as though a cake fairy would suddenly manifest itself from underneath a pile of Legos or a Gundam.

"And…who are you?"

"Oh, you can call me Pan," the boy said, clearly still not paying much attention to the younger boy.

"Ok…Pan… I'm Near…maybe I could help you find your…cake fairy." Near wanted very much to have more time to interrogate this bizarre person, and to further investigate that strange illusion he had just pulled off.

And maybe, just maybe it had been real…

"Would you really?" Pan looked at him directly for the first time, and his mouth quirked into a sweet smile.

"Sure…why don't we try out here, I can't say I've seen a …cake fairy in my room."

"Good idea," said Pan, picking his way across the room. "Thanks!"

"Where did you come from anyway?" Near whispered as they padded down the hall. "No one's ever flown in my window looking for cake fairies before."

"Why, Neverland, of course."

"…I see."

.oOo.

Matt stumbled groggily back from the bathroom to his bedroom, one hand trailing on the wall to keep him walking straight in the dark. He was rather less than half awake and thinking of nothing but the soft warmth of his bed, until a pale gold light flickering dimly on the wall of an adjoining hallway caught his half-closed eyes.

He halted abruptly, pushing his goggles into his hair and squinting. The light was growing stronger as whatever was causing it came nearer. There were no footsteps, but he could faintly hear an odd, almost jingling sort of noise.

What…?

Suddenly awake, Matt slid silently along the wall, poising at the edge of the thick darkness, and waited.

"Mello!"

Mello jerked awake as Matt jumped onto his legs.

"Matt?! What the hell!" He shoved Matt's arms away as his friend thrust some sort of light in his face, flipping over and yanking the covers over his head. "I'm sleeping, you ass!"

"Stop sleeping and look at this!" Matt shifted so he wasn't sitting on the blonde, which made Mello slightly less inclined to simply knock his head off and go back to sleep, and prodded him in the back with his elbow. "Come on, before it escapes, I don't know how much longer I can hang onto it, it's struggling pretty hard—"

One baleful eye poked above the sheets. "Escapes?" Mello repeated, the one word penetrating his sleep-fogged mind. Looking suddenly appalled, he sat up a little. "Shit, Matt, you better not have brought some crazy kind of bug or something into my room—"

"I don't think it's a bug, I don't know what the hell it is. Just look at it, Mel!"

Suspiciously, Mello lifted his head enough to peer at Matt's clenched hands. This had better to be worth it, he thought grouchily. If not he was going to chuck Matt's DS out the window the first chance he got for being such a jerk.

The…thing…that writhed against Matt's white-knuckled grip was glowing brightly, but it wasn't any sort of bug Mello had ever seen either in person or in pictures. He sat up and looked closer, blue eyes widening. Tiny feet kicked desperately, and poking up above Matt's fist a tiny arm was pounding the boy's fingers and a tiny head glared up at them, mouth open and yelling in a tiny voice what was clearly a rant of fury and pain.

"Holy shit, Matt, you're hurting it! Don't hold so tight!" He grabbed at Matt's wrist, and the redhead, startled, dropped the…it. Instead of falling, though, the thing shot into the air and flitted about the ceiling, scolding them in an unintelligible buzz.

"What the hell is that thing?" Mello demanded, getting up into a crouch and warily eyeing the thing skitter around his room.

"I told you, I don't know what it is!" Matt said, staring at his hands. "Jeez, look at my hands! It got some kind of glittery crap all over me." He scrubbed vigorously at his palms, but the shimmery gold dust stuck fast.

"You better not get any of that stuff on my bed…you reckon it could be one of Near's stupid weird toys?" Mello said, not taking his eyes from the thing.

Suddenly they heard voices in the hall. "Oh, listen there! Come on!"

"Wait! Pan, that's Mello's—"

A very strange boy strutted into the room, Near peeking around the doorway behind him.

"Near!" Mello said accusingly, "I knew you had something to do with this—"

"I don't—" Near began, and then he noticed the flying thing. His jaw dropped comically. "What—"

"Cherry!" cried the stranger joyfully, "Come on down, it's ok!"

"Who the heck are you? Is this a new kid, Near?" Matt asked, eyeing the feathers in the boy's hair.

Near stepped cautiously into Mello's room—he had never had occasion to come in, but dying to examine that glowing—thing—he took Matt's question as an invitation. "Ah—this is Pan—what on earth is that?"

"How do you know him?" asked Mello suspiciously as Matt answered, "We don't really know, I just caught it in the hall."

The thing was standing in Pan's palm, gesticulating and chattering angrily. His head was bent as he listened, then he threw it back and laughed, which served to further irritate the squeaking thing.

"Pan," said Near, ignoring Mello and staring at the furious creature, "Is that…is that the cake fairy?"

Mello burst into laughter and Matt looked at Near as though he had suddenly declared a fervent belief in Santa Clause.

"Yes," said Pan, turning to him, oblivious to the other boys' reactions. "Would you like to meet her?"

Near stepped forward, his face a study in terror and suppressed eagerness. "Is this some sort of joke?" asked Mello, recovering himself. "Near, I didn't think you had it in you. Who is this bloke, really?" Matt, however, was watching Near with surprise—the younger boy was acting very strangely, he thought. And although fairies obviously weren't real, that thing, whatever it was, certainly was real…and it certainly looked like a fairy from a book…and it certainly hadn't felt like metal or plastic in his hands, warm and struggling and clearly afraid.

Pan held the fairy out gently, and Near leaned forward hesitantly and examined it. The little creature had calmed somewhat, one hand resting easily on Pan's thumb and looking up at him. It was a tiny little girl, with soft golden-pale wings like a moth's and hair as wild as Pan's. She waved shyly up at him with a twig-thin arm. Near struggled to analyze the situation scientifically, but Cherry was so obviously real when she shouldn't be and—

"Hello," he breathed, enchanted.

"Near," said Matt, feeling a tremor of adrenaline, "are you serious? A fairy? Where did this guy come from?"

"Neverland," Pan told him cheerfully.

Near looked at Matt, his dark eyes abnormally wide. "He flew in my window," he said dazedly.

"Now look here," barked Mello. Everyone looked at the blonde, who was starting to get seriously angry at being ignored for so long. "What the hell is going on?" he demanded. "Why am I being woken up at this time of night, what the hell is that thing, who the hell are you, and why the hell is Near in my room?!"

"You're awfully cranky," Pan observed.

"The hell I am!"

"Look, chill out, man," Matt said. Now he was uncertain too, but he was starting to look at the situation rationally. "You know it's very unlikely that Near cooked this whole thing up as a prank just to wake you up, and I know I'm not in on anything, and Near looks like someone just whacked him with a lead pipe."

Mello cooled down about half a degree. "Ok then, you," he said through gritted teeth, pointing at Pan, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Pan looked wickedly amused by Mello's anger. "I'm Pan, and I came from Neverland because Cherry here got lost and I came looking for her." He peered curiously at the blonde. "And who are you?"

"Ah, this is Mello and I'm Matt," Matt said quickly as Mello scowled and opened his mouth. "And…er…did you say that's a fairy you've got there?"

"A cake fairy," he clarified.

"And how did you say you got here from 'Neverland'?" Near asked, cutting off Mello's scornful retort. If fairies were real, perhaps he really had flown.

"I flew, of course," Pan laughed. "That's the fastest way."

Mello snorted. "Oh, come on now," he snapped. "This is just ridiculous! Near, I don't know what the hell you're playing at, or if you really do want to believe all this crap or what, but I don't have to stay awake for this. Everyone, get the hell out of my room, and—"

Near's face was expressionless. Maybe I did simply want to believe it, he thought, and his heart sank.

"Wait a second," said Matt, as Pan headed cheerfully for the window. "If you can fly, that's easy to prove."

"Ok then," Pan said, and jumped lightly into the air. And stayed there. He grinned in obvious delight at their reactions.

Matt gaped, pointing needlessly for Mello's benefit, and Mello sat bolt upright. "How're you doing that?!"

Something like fireworks were going off in Near's stomach. "Sugardust," he whispered, staring at Matt's sparkling fingers. He looked abruptly at Pan. "So then—there really is a Neverland? Where is it?"

"Second star to the right," Pan said, pointing out the window. Cherry flitted to his shoulder as he unlatched the window and shoved it open.

It sounded insane. But fairies were real and little boys could fly, and there was only one way to know for sure, and that was direct observation. "Can I come?"

"You're cracked," Mello told him disdainfully, but his voice wavered and he was staring at Pan. "Sure, go ahead and take me too. We'll take a little field trip, then I can laugh at you when it all turns out to be a bunch of bullshit!"

"You can all come if you want," Pan said, looking back from the window. Something impish glinted in his black eyes, and Cherry's wings twitched. "Come on then, I don't want to hang around all night."

Near shuffled apprehensively to the window, and Mello, heaving an exasperated sigh, threw himself out of bed and stomped after him. Matt, not wanting to be left out, joined them warily.

"Ok, first you need some sugardust—Matt, it looks like you've got plenty already—Cherry, if you would?"

The cake fairy buzzed into the air, shooting Matt a dirty look as she flew by him, and shook out her wings over Mello and Near. Near examined the glittering dust curiously as it stuck to his sleeves and hair, but Mello just rolled his eyes impatiently. "Come on, get on with it."

"Alright then, I'll take your hands—" he grabbed Near's hand on one side and Matt's on the other, and Mello grudgingly took Matt's other gold-dusted hand. And then, dragging the boys after him, he sprang out the window.

The night was clear and sharply cool, the breeze clean and startling on their faces. Near gasped as he watched the yard and gate of Wammy's rush by beneath them. As the road rapidly shrank to a narrow ribbon and the lights of the nearest town twinkled in the dim shadows of the moon-washed hills, he suddenly became horribly, viscerally aware that there was literally nothing between him and the increasingly distant ground. He clutched Pan's hand in a death grip, too breathless to scream, too frozen to struggle. The image of their small bodies crunching and splattering on the road below made his bones twinge. Near was soaring, all right—and it was the most terrifying thing he had ever experienced.

"Don't look down if you're nervous!" Pan called out rather belatedly.

Matt didn't have words to describe how amazing it felt—epic just didn't cover it. He spread his arms wide and gloried in the feel of the wind in his hair, hoping he wouldn't wake up from this bizarre and realistic dream any time soon.

Mello wasn't sure how he felt. Caught between disbelief and panic, he was left in a sort of stunned state, starting to wonder if he had gotten himself into far more than he had bargained for. As they climbed higher and higher, the strange feeling of distance wrapped itself tightly around him, until the darkness that came over him wasn't night anymore.

Suddenly he became aware of the sound of birds and rustling water in the blackness, and the clean scents of soil and leaves and something sweet he didn't recognize. The next thing he noticed was that the cold night breeze was gone, and he was lying on what felt like a thick mat of warm moss.

"Whoa," he heard Matt say beside him, and he opened his eyes. Flickers of bright blue sky mirrored them from behind lush, softly waving branches.