Peter Pan Imagines (Once Upon a Time)

Never Fail

Peter Pan never fails.

That's what his Lost Boys say, anyway, that little expression they love to repeat whenever he outsmarts another shipful of pirates, evil queen, or the latest villain to come to the island and challenge his status. Peter has said it himself more than a fair amount of times, savoring the syllables on his tongue as if by declaring it alone, he'll have that much more power to find the means to his ends.

Now, however, Peter feels surprisingly close to failing. He has been trying to actualize a goal of his for quite some time, yet somehow he is absolutely no closer to succeeding than he was at the beginning. In fact, he might be even farther from achieving this dream than at first. Every one of his efforts seems to push him away time and time again.

The name of this particular conquest, you might ask? Peter Pan wants the heart of someone quite close to him. He wants to steal that beating organ directly from someone's chest without a single drop of blood. No violence, only metaphors. He wants someone to fall in love with him, and that person is Y/N L/N.

Peter was not supposed to fall for her. In fact, he specifically has been going about his days all this time in the hopes of never falling in love. Love is a weakness, a distraction from the true glory of not caring about anybody except for oneself. That's what Peter had been preaching, at least, but all it took was one daring Lost Girl and he's absolutely set on her.

It's ridiculous. Peter has been trying to shake this crush for a while now, but nothing he does ever seems to work. He spends some time in his Thinking Tree to identify all the things about Y/N that he seems to love in the hopes of talking himself out of them, but no dice. He tries to treat her like any other Lost Boy so he'll start thinking platonically instead of romantically, and they end up sparring and he's got his sword to her throat and she's grinning at him and– oh no, he's even worse than before.

No, there's nothing Peter can do about getting rid of his terrible affections. The only solution, then, is to get Y/N to like him so he can stop pining and get on with himself. However, this is far easier said than done. Y/N is headstrong, wild, out of her mind, and that's exactly why Peter loves her. This does, unfortunately, lead to Peter's attempts having less success than he would prefer.

He's trying again now, though, and this time, it's going to work. At first, Peter was worried that perhaps he wasn't being direct enough– if Peter himself didn't think himself capable of love, it's not like anyone else would think that he would fall victim to such an occurrence. Y/N might not even realize it, and believe him to just be talking to her like any other friend.

He's not blind, of course. Peter is Peter, and at the end of the day, that means he's the most brutal of all of them, the most cunning, the most devoted to trickery. Most of the Lost Boys wouldn't put it past Peter to make someone think he liked them far better than he did just to achieve a result if he so wished.

Y/N is different, though. For once, there's no gambit involved. Peter is simply in love, and although that may not seem conceivable to anyone who isn't him, it's true. The objective from here on out is not to win a prize, but a heart. Peter may have had less luck on that front than he'd like as of late, but today is going to go differently. He can feel it, or at least he'd like to pretend as much.

Today, he's going to be direct. In fact, Peter doesn't think he could possibly be more obvious. The Lost Boys are holding a celebration of sorts to welcome their latest arrival, some bedraggled looking boy Peter's shadow summoned up earlier today, and the sounds of their wild whoops and cheers should cover up any words spoken between him and Y/N.

She's sitting on a log on the outskirts of the festivities, watching the dancing and cheering with a glint in her eye. Y/N had been one amongst their wailing numbers only a little while ago, but she relinquished her spot in the ranks to the new boy.