Once they arrived back at the pixie city, Tink immediately flew to Louis' side.

"At least three of them are alive ⁠— I'm not sure about the fourth. Yeah, well, they wanted to eat the water nymphs. I know, I know, Ha⁠—uh," he coughed lightly. "Hook made me leave. Well yeah, it was probably for the best. We'll catch up with them again later if they pull anymore of this funny stuff."

He looked over to Harry. "Come on, let's help."

"What can we do?" he asked.

"Oh. Yeah." Louis glanced back at Tink. He seemed to be forgetting more and more often that Harry couldn't understand her. Maybe it was just that he wasn't used to having someone else around all the time. "She said there isn't a whole lot we can do because we're too big, but we can get rid of the broken stuff," he gestured to the branches, and large, glittering hunks of buildings strewn about the clearing.

"Right."

Some time later, Harry flopped down onto the grass, and patted the spot beside him for Louis to come lay down. They had finally finished getting all the debris into a neat pile in the corner of the clearing ⁠— though it had taken a surprisingly long time to do so.

He grunted as Louis flopped down on top of him instead of next to him, but he wrapped his arms around him to keep him there anyway.

"So what do you suppose we should do about those guys? Are we assuming they're supposed to be the new Hook and crew?"

"Did it look like they were going to stop killing things to you? We need to stop them. Maybe he's supposed to be the new Hook, maybe he isn't ⁠— either way I don't think they should stay here, and I'd much prefer them dead."

"But⁠— I don't know, do you think maybe Neverland brought him here so he could take my place so that we don't have to worry about keeping being enemies?" Harry asked hesitantly.

Louis picked his chin up from Harry's shoulder to look him in the face. "What? I don't care ⁠— we can't just let them continue! We're figuring this out, whatever, we don't need him to take your place." Harry wasn't looking at him, and Louis carefully brought up a hand to turn his face over to look at him. "Harry, it's not worth it. I didn't know⁠— if you want to stop being Hook, we can fix that, but these guys are really bad. Besides, if that's what Neverland really wants, they won't really die. I don't think it is, though. I mean look at how much destruction they've caused...even if it brought them, I think it wants them gone now."

Harry closed his eyes and sighed, flopping his head back onto the grass. "Yeah, sorry. I don't want them to continue, it just...seemed like an opportunity, like it fit too well to not be intentional."

"Well Neverland does have a lot of sway, but that doesn't mean we can't choose to do what we want. And what I want is them to stop hurting everyone, so we've got to get rid of them."

"Do we have to kill them?" Harry asked, swallowing hard. "I know⁠— I know it's not a big deal to you, but⁠— but I never meant to kill anything, and I know they deserve it, but I still feel bad. My crew, I, have killed so many Lost Boys that didn't deserve it, I just don't think we should unless we don't have a choice."

He hadn't said anything before, hoping that he would never be in a situation where he was expected to kill again since Hook and Pan had stopped fighting, but he couldn't hold his tongue now. Harry didn't know exactly what it had been like before he'd arrived in Neverland, but it was clear Louis didn't have a problem with killing.

Harry had seen him kill countless numbers of his own Lost Boys and, well, he tried not to think about that often. He tried not to think about the children he hadn't realised yet wouldn't wake up that first time. Or how, even though he hadn't directly done anything since then, he still watched it happen. He tried not to think of a lot of things, and it was actually disturbingly easy to put out of his mind.

Perhaps it was because his whole life here felt surreal. Whatever the reason though, he couldn't put it out of his mind now, not when he had a chance to stop it happening again.

Louis simply shrugged, unbothered. "You don't have to, I'll do it."

"That's not what I mean. I don't want you to do it either!"

"Why?" Louis sat up, annoyed. "I want to!"

"I know you do! That's why you shouldn't! You take too much joy in it."

"Why shouldn't I? They're bad! They're trying to destroy Neverland!"

"Killing people is bad! We can stop them without that."

"Why? People die all the time! You never cared before! And if they're dead we know they'll stop, if we don't kill them then all we have is their word!"

"I did care, I just didn't say anything! I didn't know what to do, but I thought since we stopped fighting it wouldn't be a problem anymore!"

"You think just because we don't hate each other anymore we've stopped fighting? What about when we get bored? The boys get restless, and I bet your crew will too ⁠— why wouldn't we still fight?"

"Because people die!"

"So what?! We fight, they die. We go hunting, they die. We go swimming, they die. We go exploring, they die! No matter what we do, somebody dies, that's just what happens! There's animals and mermaids and tides and water that's too deep! There's staying out in the sun too long, getting too thirsty, eating the wrong things, stepping wrong and hurting yourself bad, and having something fall on you! There are bites and cliffs and magic! Anything and everything kills them! They die, that's just what they do!"

"But why not help that not happen?"

Louis stood, angrily pointing down at Harry. "This! This is why we don't like grown ups! Because we'd never have any fun, and for what? Stay in the tree all the time and always be careful so they can live a couple more moons? I should have known. I thought you were like one of the boys, but you're not, you are too old."

"Lou, I wasn't saying⁠—" Harry started to sit up, but Louis cut him off, pushing him back down with a foot to his chest.

"No! I don't want to talk to you again, and stop using my name. I don't care if you can't really die, you will find yourself with a knife in your throat, and then I will go get rid of those men!"

Harry lifted his head, still trying to sit up. Louis was being ridiculous. Harry knew his moods could swing wildly at times, but there was no need for this. "Come on, Lou⁠—!" he saw a flash of silver, and then there was a searing, splitting pain between his eyes. His vision went red, and then black, and he slumped back to the ground.

Louis leaned down and wrenched his dagger out of Harry's forehead. "I told you, I warned⁠—" he cut himself off, not liking how distraught his voice sounded. That was stupid ⁠— he wasn't upset. Louis had told him and he hadn't listened, and Harry ⁠— no, Hook ⁠— was the enemy again now anyway.

He forcibly swallowed the lump in his throat and turned away before he did something stupid like wipe the blood from Harry's ⁠— HOOK'S! ⁠— face, where it continued to flow from the wound, pooling in his eye sockets and streaming down the sides of his face from the corners like he was crying red. Louis was not upset about this. He was fine.

He stalked off into the forest in search of the men from earlier. A faint tinkling sound reached his ears, and he quickened his pace, ripping a few leaves off of a tree as he passed to wipe his blade. The faster pace would, of course, do nothing to deter Tink from following along behind, but he continued to ignore her. A lecture wasn't what he wanted to hear right now, and he had the feeling she disapproved of what he'd done.

Good thing he didn't care for approval.

He didn't need her approval, and he certainly didn't need Harry's. Maybe he had been going to wait until they did something else to try and kill them, but now that he knew Harry ⁠— Hook, dammit! ⁠— wanted to let them just go free it was an entirely different matter. Louis was going to find them and kill them immediately, and solve this whole issue.

In fact, it shouldn't have even been an issue. It was all his fault. If Louis hadn't been hanging around him all the time he would've never gone soft like this. Fuck, Louis would've never been like this before, and he certainly wouldn't have felt bad ⁠— not that he did now! ⁠— killing Hook again.

Dammit. Louis hated change.

~*~

Harry awoke with an agonising lurch.

He laid on the ground, struggling to draw in air with an awful thick sensation that felt more like breathing treacle than oxygen. A painful cough forced its way out of his chest, and he vomited without warning. Shit.

He managed to roll onto his side to clear his mouth so he could at least try to make another attempt at breathing.

It may have been a few very long moments or several hours, Harry didn't know, but his breathing eventually settled and started to feel a bit more normal, which left him with enough space to realise everything else that was wrong.

Firstly, he couldn't see a thing. He tried experimentally blinking, but quickly stopped when he felt a sharp, ripping sensation in his eyelids and they refused to move. Okay, so maybe that was a bad idea.

His arms were weak and unsteady, but he managed to bring a hand up to his face, and felt something dried and flaky all across his face, sealing his eyes shut. A bright flash, and then splitting pain between his eyes. Right. Louis must have thrown his dagger.

So then this was blood, great, he knew from experience that he wasn't going to be able to just rub it off, or rip his eyes open on his own ⁠— he would definitely need water. The only question was how the hell he was supposed to get back to the lagoon when he was this weak and couldn't even open his eyes.

He heaved a deep sigh and forced himself up and onto his elbows.

Progress was, predictably, very slow. Harry wasn't even actually certain he was going in the right direction, but he was going forward, and that was all he could do for now.