And.. on that note.. something you've all been waiting for… the conclusion to.. Peter's little thief.. Yes…it is the conclusion.. But not the END of the saga.. Yes dear fans.. I have an idea for a sequel in mind.. I shall give you a few hints… We have a new but familiar bad guy coming onto the scene, a marriage that is not, and… a brand spanking new trip to London!! PLUS Hopefully all these ideas haven't been over used in Peter Pan fics before! If they have.. Hopefully I do it in a nice creative fashion! Stay tuned!!
Dedication: To my readers who were kind enough not to stone me to death in impatience for updates. To Kristen who has put up with my incessant babbling and over obsession for this fic, and of course to Cybele my lovely editor who has to read through overly long emails filled with my bursts of writing and new ideas for stories. *cries* I love you people! WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! onward!!
Sunlight was a very wonderful thing. A week later, one could find the retired thief, lounging about on a rock next to a waterfall, surrounded by mermaids. Aurelia had managed to beat into everyone's brains that she was back to normal and fine.
Her hands were nearly healed, though they would be scarred for eternity. The thief in Aurelia had decided that the oddly smooth hands were actually an advantage. She could now steal things and not have to worry about wearing gloves from fear of being finger printed. Having no finger prints meant no identification. The poet in Aurelia had decided it was shedding the outer thief to allow the inner Aurelia to be a normal person again. To have everyone forget her past and not hold it against her. Aurelia had frowned at both of these thoughts, and had come to the conclusion that, advantage or not, cleansing or not, stiff white bandages were a damn nuisance when one was trying to go about daily business.
To get back to the story, Aurelia was sunbathing, running over strange occurrences in her brain. It had come to her attention that a few weeks back, Peter had said something about 'liking' her or wanting her to 'like' him better. That was the whole escapade when she was saved from purposely running into a tree. At the time of the happening, Aurelia had been too dazed to realize he had said something about liking her, as she was thinking about how he could have talked to Jax. So, what exactly did Peter mean by having her like him better? This confused the girl and she voiced her confusion to the mermaids.
"Obviously he likes you!" Pearl exclaimed in excitement. Shealways was the optimistic, hopeless romantic.
"Perhaps not," Marina said thoughtfully, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "Aurelia's always been a bit mean to him, he could have just wanted to have her complete and total friendship...a sort of truce between the two. No more arguments."
"No more arguments? HA!" Aurelia responded, "That'll be the day."
"The day our dear Aurelia doesn't find something to argue about is the day someone cuts out her vocal chords, though I'm sure she'd find some other way to argue. It is her favorite past time..." Pearl teased, giving the girl a brilliant smile to show the mermaid meant nothing by her comment.
"Maybe it was due to some guilt he had," Coral said, bringing the conversation back to Peter, " maybe he's afraid that Aurelia here is still mad at him for that crystal thing, and by getting Jax's help in having her like Peter more... he is trying to make her not hate him."
"But I don't hate him." Aurelia said in puzzlement looking at the girls confused. She was positive Peter didn't think that way.
"Does he know that?" Coral demanded, eyeing the girl. Aurelia chewed on her lower lip in thought. Okay so she didn't really know if he felt that way or not. It hadn't occurred to her to ask. It's not like when one offers to take another flying that the second is bound to ask the first "Hey? Do you like me? Do you think I hate you?"
"I think he does know, I mean... we go flying all the time..." Aurelia said, trailing off.
"Personally, I don't think the question here is about what Peter meant, that's obvious..." Cerulean sniffed, "the real question is... Aurelia how do YOU like Peter Pan?" Aurelia shot up and began coughing.
"Eh?!" She managed to spit out between gulping air in and choking on it all over again.
"Well... do you... like him as a friend? Or something more? I could even go as far as saying, do you love the boy?" Cerulean replied. The mermaids at Cerulean's blunt outburst all leaned forward, dying of curiosity of the girl's response. Aurelia by this time had managed to stop choking on nothing, and was breathing semi-normally once again. Cerulean's remark had brought up a point Aurelia hadn't even thought to consider. How did she feel about the flying boy? The mermaids seemed to see her blank face. Pearl rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Do you find yourself wishing the two of you spent more time together? Does your heart skip a beat when you see him? Do you sometimes dream of him? Do you find yourself staring at him sometimes? Do you think he has a nice smile? Nice eyes? Handsome face? Do you sometimes wonder what kissing him would feel like?" The small mermaid fired off, a look of horror crossed Aurelia's face after she had considered these questions, turning them around in her mind. She had come up with an answer and... Oh damn. The mermaids burst into musical laughter.
"I believe ladies, we have our answer!" Marina said merrily.
"Certainly only yes being the answer to those questions could bring such a sour look to our friend's face!" Coral added, smiling mischievously. Aurelia flopped back down on her rock and stared at the sky.
"Oh bloody hell." She managed, her response being another round of laughter.
"She's in deep!" Cerulean said, swimming over and poking the mortal in the ribs.
"But girls! It's Peter we're talking about here! The boy is an arrogant egotistical snob! He thinks every girl should fall at his feet and drool. What good am I if I do the same thing? He wouldn't take me seriously... and besides I don't know if he likes me or not. Well, what I mean is, I don't know if he likes me as a friend or... like likes me as I obviously appear to like him..."
"hmm... That's true... So we're back to the original problem."
"I'm still trying to get over Miss 'I hate Peter with a passion' falling for him!"
"Didn't we tell you he was dreamy? You should have believed us." Aurelia rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Ladies? Could we please get to the problem at hand here?" She demanded before sighing as the mermaids gave her blank looks, proving they had no idea what she was talking about.
"Whether or not Peter likes me as a friend or... or more..." This, as the thief found out, was not the thing to say as the mermaids immediately began arguing their points on the subject, at the same time. She tapped her fingers in impatience before throwing her hands up in the air and screaming out.
"ENOUGH!!!! Let's take a nice... vote by a show of hands..." Aurelia said, her voice becoming calm again. After the vote, the girl officially decided that democracy was a bloody nuisance and a damn waste of time. It really didn't help when an even number of people voted on a subject, and the decision was split down the middle. Three of the six mermaids had decided Peter may like her just as a friend, and the other half insisted that he was in love with her.
"You're simply jealous and not over the flying boy. You're still hoping he'll fall in love with you." Cerulean snapped, obviously a defender of Peter being in love with the mortal girl.
"Oh yeah?! And you're just an irrational hopeless romantic fool who can't analyze their facts!" Coral bit back, believing Peter to want to just be Aurelia's friend. The other mermaids backed up their causes, yelling at each other and calling each other horrid names. Aurelia decided she needed to do something.
"Um... Girls?" ... no response...
"Girls?" She said a bit louder, getting annoyed.
"Hello?!" She was still being ignored completely. Aurelia had become frustrated. In her frustration, her fuse began to shorten, and shorten, until it simply...
"TO HELL WITH THIS!!" ...exploded. Enough was really enough. This argument was completely pointless, not only that but it was becoming extremely annoying.
The mermaids silenced as they watched Aurelia dive off her rock, swim to the shore and stalk off into the forest.
"Damn it what better way to find out what you want to know, than the source? I'll just tell the idiot how I feel and if he doesn't feel the same, then oh well it was worth a shot, if he does, corking for him." she muttered as she stomped towards the Hangman's tree. The door was kicked open and she marched down the stairs, flinging the bearskin leading to Peter's area away and staring in annoyance at the emptiness.
"Oh bloody... I just made a life altering decision involving Peter Pan. It'd be nice if he were polite enough to be around for it! That's just like him too... annoying prat."
With that, Aurelia stormed back out of the hideout ready to search the whole damn island until she found that stupid flying boy.
About an hour later, the huntress had come upon her prey. She had to approach the situation very delicately as the specimen was very sensitive. The notorious GPM, a very endangered species was highly selective about his territory. It had taken a good hard search to find him at where he now rested. A clearing filled with wild flowers, with a gentle stream skipping along through it. He only came out once in a while so the huntress had to be careful as there only one left of the species in the world. Soon though, with a bit of luck that one would be hers! GPM being an acronym for Green panty-hosed man. Green panty-hosed man being Peter, and the huntress being Aurelia who was currently sneaking around in the bushes trying to sum up her nerve.
As soon as she had seen Peter land in the clearing, all of her anger had disappeared, with that all of her courage disappeared as well, and the only thing left was complete fear. She was terrified of exposing her feelings to, well to be blunt, such an oblivious, dense idiot. It was bad enough having to come to terms that she was in love with this idiot. What if he rejected her? Or worse, laughed in her face? God, what if he really did just want to be friends? That'd be a great scenario.
"Oooh. You only said that because I was being mean and you were afraid I didn't want to be your friend anymore! Well then, um... forget I said anything about loving you, it was... it was a dare from the lost boys! Yeah... the lost boys put me up to it..." She'd be shattered, and she'd have lied and she'd have to stand watching the boy flirt with every other female on the Isle. That would be pleasant.
She sighed, wanting painfully to just turn back and ignore the entire problem, but wouldn't she end up being just as angry and hurt seeing him flirt with the other girls in the end? Especially knowing he'd have no clue to her feelings. Plus there was that small miniscule chance he may return her feelings. Oh why was love so damn confusing?! Which would hurt worse, him flirting after she told him how she felt, or him flirting while she kept it to herself? Oh damn. What a dilemma. Stupid Peter, this was all his fault!
In thinking such, Aurelia became angry. It always was his fault for something or other. She stormed out of the bushes ready to yell at him for making her fall in love with him, and in the process of clambering into the open she alerted Peter, who jumped, and spun around. As soon as she saw his face, all words of anger vanished from her brain and she stood there, frozen, tongue-tied. What the bloody hell was I thinking?! A voice in her head screamed out. You weren't thinking, another voice offered. Great. Now she had voices in her head. She was like a deer caught in headlights, her muscles stiffening.
"Lia! What're you doing here?" Peter asked, shock evident in his voice. She silently continued to stare, her eyes never leaving his. His eyebrow rose in confusion as he scratched the back of his head.
"Lia? Are you alright?" He tried again. No response. His hand waved in front of her face a few times. As his hand passed before her eyes a third time she gently grabbed it and gave his hand a soft squeeze. Her other hand came forward to slowly cup his cheek, thumb caressing the skin slightly. Now Peter was the one to be frozen in shock as the girl slowly leaned forward and captured his lips with hers. It was a small kiss, a brief touch really, but it was enough to snap Aurelia out of the trance-like state she was in.
It was also enough to turn Peter's face bright red before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell unconscious to the floor. Aurelia looked at the form at her feet and did a very un-Aurelia like thing. Panicked.
"Oh my god! What the hell did I just do? That was smart Aurelia, just kiss him without any warning or any hint of your feelings you blasted fool!!! I've totally ruined it!" She babbled, wringing her hands together.
Peter stirred, moaning as he got over that extremely brief moment of confusion. His eyes opened and he sat up, Lia decided she didn't want to face what ever he was going to say and quickly tossed some of her ever present pixie dust into the air, leapt into it and flew away. Peter jumped up, leaves clinging to his hair and clothing.
"Wait! Lia? Lia?!" He shouted before rolling his eyes, "girls are so weird." He soon also left the clearing, hot in pursuit.
Aurelia flew faster than she ever remembered flying. Luckily after all of those practice sessions she had control and really did know how to stop. This time she faced a bigger problem; she didn't know where the heck she was going. Peter could find her any where on the Isle. An idea came to mind.
He'd never look for her in Skull Rock! Never ever! She quickly changed directions, tilting with the wind and speeding to the odd rock formation. So intent was the girl upon reaching her goal, she missed entirely that one who had been flying for a longer time than her was steadily catching up.
Peter's heart was thundering. That sweet gentle kiss Aurelia had given him confused the boy, but it also gave him a hope that she perhaps felt the same way about him as he did her. Peter had acknowledged there was a special place in his heart for the girl for quite some time now. For the first time he had found himself scared of rejection, perhaps she would laugh or brush his feelings off like an insignificant piece of lint. He knew with certainty that if this should ever happen, he'd be devastated. But that kiss, Aurelia had had a strange glint in her eyes and there was no way she'd ever do something like kiss him unless her feelings for him were more than just friendship. With this in mind he sped up, soon practically at the girls ankles as they got to Skull Rock. He entered through one of the eyes above, as she entered the mouth. Aurelia didn't realize that Peter knew this area better than his own hideout...
The ex-thief leaned against a wall, and let out a sigh of relief. This was a good hide out, he'd never think to find her here. She closed her eyes and smiled. By being here she was sparing herself from the embarrassment of explaining that kiss. She could relax now. It appeared though, she relaxed a bit too soon for abruptly the girl found herself pinned against the wall by a boy. Namely, Peter Pan. Her eyes flew open in shock and she let out an undignified squeak.
"P-Peter! What... What a ... a..." she started.
"Why did you kiss me?" Peter demanded. Not letting her get out of this one, She blushed.
"I think it'd be obvious." She mumbled, refusing to meet his eyes. He frowned.
"It's obviously not as obvious as you think." he said in exasperation. Aurelia sighed. Of course he'd make her come out with it bluntly. That was just his way.
Damn it.
"I.. I .. well.. you see I.. um.. I've come to realize. Oh damn." She groaned in irritation. She raised her head to gaze straight into his eyes. It was just gonna have to be spat out somehow.
"ikissedyoucauseiaminlovewithyou." She said in a great rush, realizing that she didn't have a clue as to what she just said. Peter smiled warmly, his face lighting up.
"You do?"
"Do what?"
"Love me."
"You understood that?!" Peter grinned.
"I've had practice, the lost boys do the same thing when they've gotten into trouble." He responded. She blushed, painfully aware his hands were still firmly holding her against the rocks just incase she got some insane idea to fly away again to prolong this overly embarrassing situation. She raised her gaze again to find a look of grim seriousness within his eyes.
"Peter?" she whispered.
"Were you serious? That wasn't a joke was it?" he insisted. Aurelia saw the fear of rejection in his eyes and her own fear disappeared.
"It wasn't a joke, Peter." She assured him.
"Good. Cause... cause I feel the same way." he murmured. Aurelia started, blinking stupidly. He continued, not noticing her reaction. He was babbling now.
"I... well I think I've known for a while now... but I was afraid that you just thought of me... but then you kissed me and..." Aurelia smiled up at him, he suddenly whipped back to look at her. His eyes bright and clear.
"Would you kiss me again?" he demanded. Aurelia blushed, and as her answer she leaned up and pressed her lips against his softly. For the first time Aurelia realized that she had finally been thwarted. It appeared the thief had finally had something stolen from her; her heart.
That's all for now folks! *cries* Thank you everyone who has stuck by me and read this story. I don't think I expected half of the response that I recieved and I'm so grateful!! Also if you want me to email you as to when I post up the sequel please tell me in your review or something?