"Hannah, darling! Go get your brothers for dinner!" A woman's voice called up the stairs, and the girl in the room carefully marked her place in her book and set it down.

Louis sighed and stretched out from his curled position as she left the room. He had been resting his chin on his hand on the windowsill, carefully far enough to the side that he was blocked from view by the curtains.

He had been occasionally checking in on Wendy...well, Hannah, as he'd found out she was actually called. Not that Louis could particularly talk about fake names. She had been such an interesting and fun addition to the Lost Boys and he often missed her company. Still, it was true he often forgot she existed.

And yet the same went for many things. If Hook wasn't around, he often forgot there were pirates after them at all. He neglected to learn most of the Lost Boys' names either, as they were all generally similar. They often disappeared or died (usually from sickness, some sort of animal, or Hook's crew), but he was always going out to get more children from their beds, so he didn't think there was much of a difference. He wasn't sure anymore how long ago it had been that Wendy and her brothers had decided to go back, and he was sometimes startled by the changes in them between his visits.

Louis was well aware that time passed differently in Neverland than it did here on Earth, but it was still a bit alarming to think that one day he might come back and Wendy ⁠— er, Hannah ⁠— wouldn't be there anymore. Her brother John was already growing a small beard!

He pushed off of the window and flew away into the evening sky.

~*~

"Peter! Peter, where have you been? Tink said you wouldn't let her come along, and you've been gone for hours," one of the lost boys whined.

Louis crossed his arms and landed gracefully. Tink? Oh, yes. Well, he'd forgotten about her too.

"None of your business," he replied haughtily, "it was personal and it doesn't concern you."

Another boy snickered.

"Watch out Peter, you're starting to sound," he paused, and finished the sentence in a dramatically hushed voice, "grown up."

Louis scowled at him.

"Never!" he swooped back into the air and did a few loops over their heads. "I know! Let's go collect fruit for a feast tonight!"

There was a collective cheer from the small group of unwashed boys, and they all scattered into the forest.

~*~

Louis was hanging upside down from a tree, eating part of a pineapple (something that he should have been taking back to add to the feast), when the tree shook violently. He let his legs go and flew upright, only to see that Hook's ship had somehow silently pulled onto the beach when he wasn't paying attention. Hook was visible in his obnoxiously red coat, watching from the deck as his crew stormed forward, throwing rocks. They had a net and most were armed with knives.

Louis laughed, gliding up higher to do a backflip and kick the two net-bearers in the face. He swooped down and snatched up one of their daggers, then kicked another crew member in the stomach, using the force to launch himself back into the air. He hovered just out of reach of the last three, taunting them.

"Oh, come on guys. How long have you all been doing this? And you're still useless?"

He threw the partially eaten pineapple (which he had somehow managed to keep ahold of the whole time) at the back of one of their heads, and the crew member collapsed. Then he flew down to violently knock the last two standing crew members' heads together.

"Ah! The difficulty!" he sighed jokingly, dramatically pretending to swoon as he floated himself toward the deck of the ship.

Harry was apprehensive. Robert had said a boy, and Harry supposed it was true that he was a boy, but he himself was only sixteen. Whilst this Peter Pan had seemed younger from far away because of his tiny stature, now that he was getting closer Harry could see he looked to be about fourteen ⁠— certainly not the mischievous eight year old he had expected.

Pan was also incredibly quick, and so energetic, which surprised Harry a bit. And he could fly. How had Robert not told him that? The ease with which he had unflinchingly dispatched Harry's crew was alarming as well, and he clearly had a flair for the dramatics when doing so. This probably scared Harry most of all because this all seemed to be a joke to the boy, but the injuries his crew members had taken didn't look like they felt funny at all to him.

He quickly lunged toward Pan once he was within reach, although he wasn't entirely sure what he would do if he caught him.

"Nah-ah!" Louis laughed as he flipped over Hook's head, stealing his hat. He held the dagger in front of Hook's throat and held Hook's hat out tauntingly just in his field of vision. He peered around the side of Hook's head to speak.

"I told you, Captain, you can't⁠—" he stopped suddenly, giving him an appraising look that Harry thought was much to adult for the boy's juvenile face and demeanour, "⁠—get me...Hello. Who are you?"

Aʀᴛ ʙʏ ᴘᴀssᴛʜᴇᴘᴇɴᴄɪʟ ᴏɴ Tᴜᴍʙʟʀ

Louis floated down to stand in midair so he was just taller than this pretend-Hook, although he kept the knife at his throat and twirled the stolen hat just out of reach.

Harry cleared his throat, and tried in vain to make his voice sound deeper and more authoritative.

"What do you mean? I am Captain Hook, most feared pirate in Neverland," Harry said uncomfortably. Apparently this Pan didn't know the meaning of personal space.

Louis leaned even closer so that his nose nearly touched pretend-Hook's cheek.

"Really? How interesting. And here I thought he was completely different. Honestly, you're not even a good liar. You'll never convince anyone like that," he chided.

"I am," Harry protested weakly.

Louis took away the dagger, swiftly holstered it, and flipped upside down, twirling a strand of pretend-Hook's hair around his finger.

"Alright, Curly. Firstly, your hair is much too light, and you have such a baby face," he pinched 'Curly's' cheek teasingly. He abruptly flipped right side up and continued, "mean old Hook didn't have that."

He tilted his head and peered closely at Curly's eyes. "And those big green eyes ⁠— my Hook certainly didn't have those! He would've sooner cut them out of his skull than have something match my outfit."

He finally backed up a bit, and Harry saw that he was, indeed, wearing all green. A pair of green shorts that didn't quite make it to his knees and a ragged green shirt that was much too loose. He also had several vines wrapped around his hips that he appeared to be using as a utility belt, and a small green hat, which was a silly, pointy little thing (but, admittedly, no more ridiculous that Harry's plumed monstrosity of a headpiece).

"And he was much better at holding that fake hook all the way inside his sleeve."

He pushed Curly's hook further into the sleeve so his hand could no longer be seen.

"There. So who are you?"

"I-I'm Harry."

"Hmm, so where is Hook?"

"I am Hook."

Louis gave him a look.

"We've been through this, Harry."

"N-no, really. He told me I had to take his place as Hook because it was time for him to go."

"Go where?"

"He killed himself, said he was so old he was done here and he wanted to see what was next. He said he was ready for the next adventure."

"Hmm, I didn't know if he could die. That's a shame, well, no," Louis pondered quietly, "does this mean I've won? ...No," he rose his voice to full volume, "I shall simply continue my feud with you then."

He held out his hand.

"This is the one time I will do this. This is the beginning of our never ending battle, got it? Me and my Lost Boys against you and your crew. I guess since you've told me yours, I will tell you my real name is Louis. There, now you can't complain anything is unfair now." He lifted his chin haughtily. "But if you ever use it, I'll murder you on the spot ⁠— I swear it. To you from now on and to everyone else I am Peter Pan."

Harry thought Louis was saying a lot of scary stuff to be smiling and bouncing around so cheerfully as he was, but he shrugged and shook Louis's hand anyway.

"Got it."