About a week had passed since the night in the pixie clearing and Louis had been occasionally showing up on the ship, usually in Harry's quarters just to give him a kiss and leave. One night, he had returned Harry's sash and decided to sleep over, squishing himself into the spare space in Harry's hammock. The next morning, Harry woke up confused at the lack of Louis in his cabin or anywhere on the ship. He spent the morning moping around until sometime in the late afternoon.

As he steered the ship aimlessly across the waters, a blur of green moved through his line of vision and he felt something lightly perch on his shoulders. He looked up to see Louis' grinning face leaning over him as he sat on his knees atop Harry's shoulders. He leaned down to kiss the captain upside down and then flipped over his head to float in front of him as if he were laying on his side.

"Hello captain, how goes it?" he winked exaggeratedly.

Harry laughed and reached for Louis' cap, plucking it quickly off of his head to examine.

"What's this?" he asked, toying with the straight red feather now stuck in the cap.

Louis shrugged.

"Thought I should show a little representation. After all, your eyes match my outfit, I ought to give a little leeway," he responded.

"Why did you leave early this morning?"

"Woke up early and had an idea. Had to find the right bird. It takes a while, you know, especially to find a nice one that doesn't mind you taking a feather."

Harry caught him about the waist and turned him upright so he could kiss him. Louis wrapped his legs tightly about Harry's waist and leaned into the kiss. Harry walked backward until they were leaning back against the ship railing, and was pulling Louis closer when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and looked over to see Smee trying to discreetly back away belowdecks from what he'd walked into. Harry sighed and rested his head on Louis' shoulder.

"What?" Louis asked.

He just shook his head gently, but Louis was persistent.

"Harry. What?"

"Just gotta figure out what to tell Smee. He was just up here."

Louis uncoiled his legs from Harry's waist and moved back slightly.

"Is that a problem?"

"No...I just hadn't thought about Smee and Horace. I don't really know what to say...and how can I stop being Hook? Doesn't there need to be one?"

"Maybe just don't say anything. I'm not gonna talk to the Lost Boys. As for the Hook thing, I'm sure Neverland'll figure that out. It's smart."

Harry sighed.

"I guess."

~*~

"So how is it that you can understand Tink? No one else can, as far as I know," Harry asked speculatively as he ran his fingers through Louis's hair.

"I don't know. I never really thought about it. Does she even try to talk to you? She just talks to me," he shrugged and Harry grimaced as Louis's shoulder dug into his ribs.

"But she doesn't even appear to⁠—"

"Let's go for a walk."

Harry was briefly taken aback by the abrupt interruption, but he let it go and nodded.

"We're a little far away from the island right now, so it might be a bit."

"Pssh," Louis scoffed, "it's like you forget about flying."

He grabbed Harry's wrist and dragged him up from the hammock, throwing a handful of pixie dust from his pocket carelessly behind him over Harry's head.

"Remember: believe."

Louis surged forward, still tugging a floating Harry along by the wrist and flung open the door. He zoomed up the stairs and into the glare of the setting sun fast enough to disorient Harry, who looked faintly sick and was beginning to spin a bit off kilter. Grinning at Harry's apparent inability, Louis circled back around him and grabbed him about the waist from behind to guide him.

"Thanks," Harry said softly.

"Of course."

They flew under the thick cover of the trees and stopped. The vibrant, multihued rays of light shone in between the slanted tree trunks and filtered softly down through the canopy. Louis gently turned Harry around so that they hovered, facing each other, with Louis's hands on his waist.

Harry leaned forward to kiss him softly and their bodies began to sway lightly in the breeze. They waltzed slowly around in the air, revolving and weaving between reaching branches and unforgiving trunks. The piercing oranges and yellows, muted dusky blues and purples, and the warm glowing reds and pinks all painted their skin like stained glass. They gazed at each other in wonderment at the beautifully alive colours dancing across their skin.

The reflections in Harry's eyes were so beautifully entrancing: his wide green eyes reflecting intermittent glints of orangey-pinks and light stripes of violet created a hypnotising kaleidoscope that Louis found it difficult to look away from. They spun and swayed and dipped and pulled each other closer. They spun until the colours faded and pinpricks of stars were the only glimmers of light illuminating small, bright patches of skin.

They held each other close, still slowly revolving, the lengths of their bodies pressed almost seamlessly together. Louis's face was buried in the abundance of curls tucked behind Harry's ears and he pulled back just enough to kiss him. It seemed like they had been kissing for hours (but then again, one can really never be certain of time in Neverland) when they broke apart to the sound of a shout.

"Oi! Peter, is that you?"

They looked down to see a scrawny blonde boy squinting up at them and Louis sighed. He slowly brought them down to stand on the ground and stepped toward the Lost Boy.

"Hook?! What is Hook doing here? He can fly too?"

"Erm. Just⁠— just hush up for a moment. That's not really Hook. You see there was some sort of...confusion."

"What? How is that possible? What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter, he's not Hook and that's all you need to know. Why aren't you back at camp?"

"'Cause I didn't want to be. I wanted to know where you were because you haven't been back for a few days."

"It's none of your business. Go back and go to sleep."

"You're no fun anymore. You're starting to sound like an adult," the boy sneered the word distastefully.

Louis looked as if he'd been smacked. He was gone in the blink of an eye, curled up in the high boughs of one of the trees, leaving a confused Lost Boy and Harry. They awkwardly nodded to each other in acknowledgement before the boy left and Harry tilted his head up, searching the dark trees.

"Louis?"

"What?"

"Where are you? Can you come back?"

"Yeah." Louis flew down slowly to the ground and sat carefully with his knees to his chest.

"Are you okay?"

"No," Louis whispered, "I don't think so."

"What's wrong?"

"I had⁠— I had thought, from when we talked before down by the lagoon, that maybe I can't stop the growing up, but that doesn't mean I have to act like normal adults. But what he said...I am, aren't I? That was no fun, that was the type of thing a parent would say, wasn't it?"

"No it wasn't. Everyone can be secretive. Telling him your doings were none of his business was something most kids, adults and in between would do. You're not going to suddenly become a different person Louis. Okay? You're going to stay Louis."

"You say that, but you don't really know. How am I supposed to know? How am I supposed to just trust what you say when you have no way of knowing?"

"Lou...just believe. I can't be certain, no, but I do know that growing up doesn't necessarily make everyone a normal 'grown up.' It's not age that determines your behaviours."

"You're just saying that to make me shut up until it slowly happens anyway and then I won't notice because by then I'll be all boring and old."

"Shh, Louis, you know I would never do that. I wouldn't lie to you that way. Come here," he held out his arms for a hug and Louis hesitantly crawled forward into his embrace. "You don't have to act any way you don't want to."

"But what if I start wanting to because I'm getting old?"

"You won't, but even if you did, then there would be nothing you could do about it, so there's no point in worrying."

"I guess. That's not very reassuring though."

Harry squeezed him tighter and nestled his nose into Louis' unruly hair.

"Maybe not, but I didn't promise reassuring, I promised truthfulness."

"Okay. Thanks then."

Louis turned for a kiss and Harry grinned a bit before leaning down to press their lips together gently.

"I love you."

"I guess I love you too."

Harry smiled into Louis' neck and squeezed him tighter still.