Peter clapped his hands to catch the saddened boys' attention. "Alright you ugly mugs, time for my story!"
Tootles shot him an annoyed look. "You aren't very sensitive are you, Peter?" He said, crossing his arms in disapproval.
"I'm so going to enjoy this!" Slightly grinned excitedly, leaning towards his leader eagerly. "C'mon then Peter! Start talking! Tell us about how you ended up with Jimmy." Slightly's voice was taunting, clearly wishing for payback for all the times Peter had made him and his friends tell their pasts.
Peter chuckled in a guilty way while scratching the back of his head, "Well... you guys were there for half of it."
Twins rested a hand on his chin in thought, trying to remember what his leader was taking about when something clicked in his head. "Oh yeah! You were in the middle of getting a kick in when we and Jimmy visited a workhouse. Jimmy saw you and saved you. I remember!"
Fox bit his lip and his eyebrows furrowed. "Then, why were you in that place? Why were you getting a kick in?"
Peter straightened up, "Well..."
X-X-X
The workhouse on 19 Bow Street was an old dusty place and was far from pleasant. At least in nine-year old Peter's opinion; then again, he was known as the 'punch bag' to the owner of the workhouse and his right hand men.
"Hayy, Punch Bag, come over here for a minute." The owner of the workhouse requested as Peter was cleaning beneath one of the biggest machines. The machine was so loud that Peter couldn't hear his boss and so, he kept cleaning. "Punch Bag! Are you ignoring me?"
Peter kept scrubbing beneath the machine, his focused face making him seem like he was actually ignoring his boss. Angered, his boss stomped over to him and grabbed his ankles which jutted out from beneath the machine. Surprised the nine-year old let out a squeak and pulled away from his boss; causing the man to fall to the ground.
Although the boss was uninjured and managed to dodge the whirl of the machines, he was now fuming. He believed that Peter had tried to kill him so he dragged the boy out from beneath the machine by his hair. "Ow, Ow, Ow! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Peter apologised and yelped again and again; his hands gripping his hair like the boy was scared it was going to get ripped off.
The boss leaned closer to Peter's small ears and hissed. "Alright, Punch Bag. I'm having a visitor today so I will postpone your punishment for now; although, I'm thinking about dipping your hands in hot acid for what you just tried to do."
Peter shuddered, remembering the last time that happened to him. His hands had stung for a month and he was certainly not excited for having, yet, another experience with the acid.
Peter's boss was far from a kindly man. He was strict, smug, impolite and aloof; particularly towards Peter and god how the brunette hated him. Never once had Peter seen his boss show sympathy when someone was hurt by the machines or even killed. He just stared at the injured/dead body with a blank look while it was carried out by other workers and Peter hated him because of this.
X-X-X
"Nice man, then," Tootles said, his hands in his hands.
Peter nodded. "Lovely," He muttered sarcastically. "Anyway, I was told I couldn't misbehave by my boss and I honestly was planning to do it; after all, I was already in trouble. But things went a little differently"
X-X-X
A hard punch came to Peter's cheek rather suddenly and he fell flat on his back. Another moment later, a punch came to his stomach; winding him rather badly. "C'mon Punch Bag! Get up already!" A hand yanked the dizzy Peter to his feet roughly before yet another punch to his arm knocked him on the floor again.
This was something Peter had grown used to; getting beaten up by some of the higher workers and being used, literally, as a punch bag for them to practice on. Apparently, his mother had done something rather bad just before she died and this was punishment for it. However, Peter didn't believe this. He believed they just liked to use him as a punch bag for no reason whatsoever.
But Peter put up with it. He was told that if he ever fought back, he would be punished and Peter had grown sick of punishments. So, he allowed the blows to come. After all, it increased his pain tolerance which could come in handy someday.
In the corner of his eye, he saw his boss enter with a tall man with a bowler hat and a bunch of boys; causing Peter to presume they were the visitors. Were they new workers or something? Maybe if they saw him getting beaten up they would see sense and run for it. If they didn't... well that was their bad. When yet another punch came, except this time to his temple, Peter fell down to the floor again.
The brunette blacked out for a second as the punch only nipped his temple, but it was enough for him to feel sick and shocked. "Oi!" The man in the bowler hat said as Peter gradually got up into a sitting position. "What do you think you are doing to a little kid?!"
One of the workers turned to look at the man with a smirk. "What does it look like I am doing? Playing pat-a-cake?" For emphasis, the worker slapped Peter on the cheek and the brunette scrunched up his eyes with pain. Suddenly, two arms grabbed his shoulders. At first, Peter thought it was the workers but then he realised that the hold was much weaker and not as rough. Once on his feet, Peter realised that two of the young boys had helped him to his feet; one had blonde hair and the other had darker skin.
"Are you okay?" The man asked as Peter turned to face him. Peter nodded hastily and smiled brightly; knowing he should behave for his boss.
"Perfect!"
"Are you sure? You are bleeding a bit."
"Yeah, they have beaten me up worse than this before..." Peter stopped smiling as he realised he'd said too much. Dammit.
The man put a hand on Peter's shoulder and smiled softly. "I'm James Hook but you can call me Jimmy and you are?"
"Peter. Peter Pan."
"Pleasure to meet you, Peter Pan."
X-X-X
"... I bet you can guess what happened after that," Peter said as he leaned against the wall, smiling brightly.
Fox straightened up. "So basically, you were getting beaten up for no reason when we met you?"
"That's disappointing," Slightly muttered.
Peter laughed. "So I guess that is it then... we all know each others pasts. Whose do you think was the worse?"
"Tootles!"
Tootles cringed a little as everyone said his name. "I would have said Twins myself. With Fox being the better of."
Fox scowled. "Why?"
Curley broke in, "Because you didn't have to spend hours learning the trade of pickpocketing."
Peter got to his feet and stretched a bit. "C'mon guys. Let's try getting the stove going again!" Everyone gradually got to their feet, minus Twins, and walked over to the stove. As they went, Twins murmured, "I'm bored again now."
Three days later; the pickpockets with terrible pasts went to Neverland.
The End
And... it's over. Thanks so much to everyone who had followed/faved/reviewed this story and stuck around with it and sorry this took so long to complete.
Anyways, for the last time, please review and I hope you enjoyed reading 'How They Came To Be'