Origins

Origins XII

Origins XII

Hook looked at Nico and I with something bordering on hatred, and that scared me. I never saw him with that look before. The other boys were scared, but I saw more fascination than anything else.

"Explain this, boy. And this had better be good before I have you skewered," Hook growled. I grabbed Nico's hand and slowly began to ascend.

"Hold on, Jimmy. I think you're going a bit too far too fast," I said as our fish tails disappeared. Hook's scowl deepend, which I hardly thought possible.

"Your tails are gone," Hook said in an even more menacing growl. I almost cringed.

Only almost.

Nico, on the other hand, looked absolutely terrified. Hook and I glared at each other. I finally sighed.

"You should sit down. All of you," I said, glancing at everyone. "It's a long story." Everyone sat down on the beach, and I recounted the story without the help of Nico. He was still terrified.

"I don't believe your story. None of it. The mermaids are not known to make deals, especially with random boys. And pirates? Pah! The pirates would've killed you for mouthing off to them, boy! I need to be alone!" Hook said. He stomped up the gangplank to the ship and he began sailing out into the sea. That left Nico, the twins, Jason, Sawyer, and myself, of course.

"That went well," I said. Nico was still frozen. "Nico, you can snap out of it now," I said.

"Great! I don't know if I could've kept that up longer!" he said.

"You were acting?" Sawyer said.

"I didn't know you could act," Jason said.

"You did that so you didn't have to talk to angry Jimmy, didn't you?" I asked. Nico smiled, sheepishly.

"Maybe," he said softly so that only I could hear. I rolled my eyes. I glanced at my shoulder where Tinkerbell was currently sitting.

"Can you follow Hook, see where he's going?" I asked. Tinkerbell looked at me angrily. "Please, Tink?" I gave her my most winning smile. With an angry chime, she flew off in the same direction that Hook had gone. Everyone except Nico was looking at me open mouthed.

"What?" I asked. No one responded. "She'll be fine, I promise! As for us, we should probably make shelter here. You find places on the ground. I'll be...doing other preparation," I said. The twins grumbled and went off to find shelter. Nico took Jason and Sawyer to make other preparations. As a point of fact, my other preparations consisted solely of flying and doing none of the work myself. Manual labor was beneath me.

Nico, Jason, and Sawyer were done first, as I expected. Nico was good at working quickly and the twins continued working until well past dark. Everyone except Nico and I were exhausted and went to bed immediately. Nico and I went for a walk instead.

"I know what you're doing," Nico said after a while in silence. In response I raised an eyebrow. "And you could handle this better."

"Hook left, Tink can take care of herself. You and I both know that," I said.

"Do you want Hook as your enemy? It's almost like you don't want friends!" Nico said, his accent thickening.

"You're wrong on both! If I didn't care, why would I send Tink away?" I said back. Suddenly, Nico smiled.

"Send me away? Really? I risk my life and you talk about sending me away!" I heard a familiar voice say from over my head. I reached my hand up and grabbed Tink.

"You came back. So soon?" I said.

"Jimmy is coming back soon. He needs to talk to you two," Tink said, indicating Nico and I.

"Did you have to start calling him 'Jimmy' too, Tinkerbell?" Nico asked.

"Hmm...yeah, pretty sure I did," Tink replied.

"Of course you did," Nico muttered.

"Do you know what he wants to talk to us about?" I asked.

"How should I know? But he did find a cool thing now," Tink said.

"What did he find?" Nico asked. He was so excited, the red nearly left his hair.

"You'll see. I think you'll like it, Nico. Peter, you'll probably hate it, even though it's for you," Tink said.

"Great. Well Neeks, let's get some sleep," I said. We walked back to the beach and fell asleep on the sand, embracing each other.