Louis lay in a practically catatonic state at the edge of the forest. He hadn't let any of the Lost Boys near him since he had come back from Hook's ship last night, nor had he spoken to anyone. Tink was impossible to move, but if he could have made her leave, he would. He wanted to stew in his own misery by himself.

On the flight back to the island, Louis had started thinking again about what Harry had said. He had sounded so certain that Louis had grown, and it unsettled him. As soon as Harry had left, however, he had pushed his thoughts to the side to focus on getting free and rescuing the Lost Boys. It had taken ages just to get ahold of that blasted knife with his foot. Then he'd had to try to get it up to a hand without dropping it...needless to say, it wasn't the easiest thing he'd ever done and it had taken quite a bit of concentration.

However, when he'd returned to his thoughts, he came to a few uncomfortable realisations. He forgot most things and people. He forgot most of his past and what he'd done as well. So how did he know he didn't grow? The few memories he had from early on featured a reflection much more similar to the five year old boys he used to bring to Neverland. When had he started bringing older children? When Louis really thought about it, he noticed he never brought boys younger than six anymore, and they were more often around eight to ten years old.

He didn't used to think that much about height because he could always fly to get higher up...but he didn't always need to anymore. Climbing trees didn't require flying for a boost, and he had no issues picking fruit when he was simply walking.

No. Louis did not like this thinking thing one bit. These things implied change, and change implied growing. Louis did not want to grow. He refused. And yet, it had all happened so gradually that he hadn't noticed. He'd been around for quite a few years, and none of the Lost Boys were there long enough to notice changes...Oh no, this was very bad.

"Tink?"

She fluttered closer immediately.

"Do I⁠— am I different than when I first came to Neverland?"

Tink gave him a measuring look before deciding he could handle the truth.

"Really? But⁠— but I'll never grow up! I said, I said, I...can't actually remember why I know that. But I won't!"

She flew closer to pat him on the cheek.

"No! You don't need to comfort me, because it's not a problem. It's not happening. Y⁠— What?" he spluttered, "What do you mean it's not just physical?"

Louis straightened himself up.

"I will never do things the grown up way. I do not act grown up, I only concentrate on fun! I do not think like⁠—" Louis cut himself off and put his head in his hands. "Is that what that was? All those...suffocating questions? But⁠—but the other pixies fixed it. They're not everywhere anymore."

Tink shook her head.

"It wasn't the pixies? What do you mean I just grew to accommodate them? I did nothing of the sort! I didn't⁠—I didn't grow at all, especially not for more thoughts."

Louis huffed.

"I don't have to do anything I don't want to. I am not going to grow up."

He angrily took flight, heading to the lagoon so he could play with the water nymphs. Frustrated tears sprang into his eyes and he impatiently wiped them away. Maybe the nymphs would make him feel better. Playing with nymphs wasn't an adult thing to do anyway, so there!

Louis dived straight from the clouds into the middle of the lagoon, startling the mermaids and nymphs, as well as the birds and squirrels in the surrounding trees. His clothes would dry at some point later, he supposed. He surfaced and, recognising his face, a few nymphs came over. Louis simply hugged them, treading water. He needed that comfort feeling again. The tears wouldn't stop coming because he was so frustrated and confused, which frustrated him more because he didn't want to cry, which, in turn, only made him cry harder.

The nymphs helped a bit. They didn't seem to mind being held, and they were soft and squishy and very cute. Still, it didn't help enough, and Louis continued crying for a long time, whilst Neverland gently created a current to bring him to land. He squeezed the nymphs closer and sat on the bank, still unable to regain his composure. Louis wasn't entirely sure why he was crying, but he knew that he was upset and confused and it hurt.

"L⁠—Pan?"

Louis recognised the voice immediately. Harry.

"Why are you always around when I want to be alone?" he replied tearily, wiping his face and refusing to look up.

"Are you...okay?"

Harry sounded sincere and Louis couldn't muster up the energy to be rude.

"You⁠—you t-told me I-I'm growing up. And I a-am, T-tink told m-me, an-and I don't want t-to," he reluctantly let the nymphs free, as they were beginning to protest.

"Oh," Harry walked over to crouch next to Louis, feeling terrible that he'd caused this. "That's not a bad thing, though. It's good, you know, change is necessary."

"Well not for me. I d-don't want to, and I-I'll get old and boring, and I'll die."

"Not necessarily. Not every grown up is the same. You can still be yourself, you've just...learned more. And I doubt if it's taken you over a century to get to your teens that you'll get old very fast, and as for dying...you still live in Neverland, you might not have to worry about that. And if you do, it won't be for a very long time."

"Being grown up is not just knowing more. They all want to do things the same way. All rules and everything," Louis protested, not noticing he had stopped crying at some point in the conversation.

"Maybe a lot of them are like that, but they aren't all. And look at you, you're grown up in some ways already, but you're certainly not boring."

"Yeah, but I haven't gotten all the way there yet. I could be."

Harry laughed.

"You definitely won't be, trust me."

"Okay."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, just staring out over the lagoon.

"Why are you being nice to me? We're supposed to be enemies, why can't you get that? But you're always helping me. I don't need it," Louis spoke up.

Harry gave a small smile and acted on impulse, leaning over to kiss Louis briefly on the mouth.

The boy sat back and blinked comically in surprise.

"What do you have to thank me for?" he asked, curiously.

Harry had to work very hard not to laugh. He shrugged.

"A lot of different things," he answered vaguely.

"But I'm the one that should be thanking you. You're the one being nice when you don't have to."

Harry made a noncommittal noise.

"It's not always necessarily just a thanks, sometimes it's just...nice with certain people."

"Earth customs are very peculiar. That thimble was a little different, I guess. How can you tell what they're for?"

"You can't really tell, I guess," Harry shrugged, "and Earth things are only weird to you because you live here. To us, Neverland is extremely...unusual." He paused, debating whether to ask, "What do you mean it was different?"

"That's stupid. What's the point if you can't tell what it's for? And I don't know, I feel weird," he brought his fingers to his lips, "Tingly and warm, like magic. Do you have magic?"

Harry chuckled.

"No, unfortunately I'm about the farthest thing from magic there is here."

"Hmm, very similar to pixie dust if you accidentally get it in your mouth."

"I'd imagine there aren't very many people that have that particular problem. If you weren't constantly flying it might not happen."

Louis stared at Harry for a second, sneaking a hand into his pocket, before quickly bringing it in front of his face and blowing. Pixie dust scattered all over Harry's face and in his hair, and Louis collapsed with laughter at how shocked Harry looked.

"How strange...you're right," Harry smiled.

"Well I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to pixie dust," Louis said importantly.

The dust was so fine it covered Harry's skin and hair in a barely visible layer of gold. It winked and glinted in the sun, making him appear as if he was glowing and simply getting brighter and darker. Louis looked down at his hands, but they weren't glowing. The water had dissolved the dust, leaving no trace. He frowned, turning his hands over.

"Do I normally look like that?" he asked.

"What?"

"You look all glowy from the pixie dust. Do I normally look like that?"

"I do?" Harry leaned over the lagoon to try to see his reflection, "Yeah, usually your hair is like that, but it's not this bright⁠—wow."

Louis nodded, appeased. It made sense since he usually used much less and simply threw it over himself. He just wanted to make sure that he could sparkle too.

"It's very pretty, your hair looks like metal. Like bronze," Louis said and reached out to touch a curl, looking shocked when it still felt like hair.

Harry pulled some of his hair up to his face to look at and tried to brush it off, which didn't help at all. He sighed and crawled forward to the lagoon, dunking his entire head in and shaking it around.

"There," he sat back, dripping water.

Louis frowned at the loss, but didn't say anything.

"I didn't think this through, did I?" Harry asked as he tried to wring out his long hair. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a length of string. Piling his hair on top of his head, he tied it in place, which made Louis laugh.

"You look like Tink like that."

"Really?" Harry asked archly.

"Well nobody else here puts their hair up."

"Then we're practically one and the same," Harry said sarcastically.

"Oh! Speaking of Tink, I forgot, but I have to go back and talk to her. I sort of left in the middle of our conversation because I was upset." Louis looked a bit regretful to be leaving.

Harry just nodded. "Okay. I guess I should probably get back as well," He looked up to where the sun sat high in the sky. Food would probably be nice too.

~*~

Only when Louis landed back at camp, ready to tell Tink about what happened at the lagoon, did he realise he'd forgotten again. He'd forgotten completely at some point during their conversation that he and Harry were supposed to be fighting against each other.

He sighed and decided to just go to sleep instead of finding Tink. Who cared if it was the middle of the day?