Origins

Origins XVI

Origins XVI

The flight back to Neverland was hard, even with stopping to check in on Tiger Lily's progress (she had already gotten everything taken care of and the fairies had left). Nonetheless, Tink and I made it back, but we had to stop on the other side of the island so I could discard my earth clothes and revert back to my Neverland clothes of leaves.

On my way back to where the camp was, I bumped into Sawyer.

"Peter!" he said, and hugged me. "You're back! We were worried, all of us!"

"All of you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Sawyer bit his lip. That was enough of an answer. "So you mean 'us' as in 'all of us but Nico.'" Sawyer nodded.

"He's slipping in and out of consciousness, but...I think he's still mad at you. I don't think he knows but...he wants to hear the truth from you."

"You know the truth! Would I ever drop him or any of you? Can you seriously believe that I would drop you, Jason, Tanner, Damien, Nico, even Hook no matter how annoyed I may be? Do you believe I'm that bad?" I was yelling, but I didn't care.

"Out of all of us, I probably know you the best aside from Nico. And...well you may be a jerk sometimes. Heck, I've thought of you as a twat many times, but dropping us from a mountain...that's not your style. Never has been. You would humiliate us. God knows I've been at the receiving end of that enough. Especially when we were younger," Sawyer said, shivering despite the blistering heat.

"Do the others agree with you?" I asked.

"I think...most of us don't believe you dropped him. Hook doesn't quite know what to believe, he...halfway wants to believe you dropped him. Nico...there are things he's told me but no one else and...I won't tell you. He'll tell you if he's ready, but he has his reasons for believing you dropped him. I'm choosing to believe that it was either instinct or a lapse in memory. You love Nico too much to harm him in any way that will hurt him physically." Sawyer was right. Nico was the last person I'd ever want to harm.

"How are his wounds?"

"Healing well, but whether that's from me or the fairies is anyone's guess. They arrived and no one knows why but...Peter, you wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?" Sawyer asked with a coy smile.

"I may have called in a few favors I didn't earn. Ow!" I said. Tink had pulled on my hair when I said that I didn't earn any favors.

"Was that?" Sawyer asked.

"Tink? Yeah," I said, and pulled off my hat. She chimed angrily, and took a seat on my shoulder.

"Come on, we should go back. I'm sure you and Nico have a lot to talk about. I think you did more than just call in the fairies," Sawyer said. He really knew me too well.

Nico looked a lot better now, even if his arms and legs were still clearly shattered. But I didn't get very close before one of the fairies flew up and got in my face.

"Go away. He doesn't want to see you now or ever again!" Peyronchire said.

"I know, Pey. But I need to talk to him. We have to get the record straight. Even if he doesn't want to see me, he can still hear me. He doesn't even have to respond. Just listen. Please, Pey? All the fairies with you? That was my favor. I have something for him too. Just...please let me talk to him," I said. I was nearly pleading.

But not really pleading.

That was below me.

"Hmm. No," Pey said.

Tinkerbell flew forward and started talking to Pey. After a few minutes, I saw Pey's resolve crack just a little.

"Fine, you can talk to him. But I'm going to watch the whole time!" she said. I breathed a silent prayer of thanks to the God I didn't believe in and approached Nico.

"I thought I told you to leave," Nico said, his voice colder than ice.

"I did leave. But I came back."

"Where did you go?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I don't actually care. I'm just curious why you weren't gone longer."

"I went home. Back to London. And I visited all of our parents. And your mom."

"Did you? And how are they?"

"Your mom knows we're gay and that we were together."

"Yeah. Were. Because you dropped me!"

"No! Nico, I would never drop you! I would never drop anyone here, I don't want to hurt anyone, but...Nico I want you to be happy, healthy and...I want to hurt you least of all. Never, if I had the choice!"

"Then how did I end up here? Broken?"

"You fell. If I caught you on the way down, we both would've ended up with broken bones."

"I don't know if that's true. I want to believe you but...I can't."

"Ask Tink and Pey. They were both there and they saw what happened." I said. Nico called both fairies over and asked them. Both of them said that he fell and that I didn't drop him.

"How do I know you didn't influence them?"

"I have no reason to influence fairies, much less yours. Are any of your limbs healed yet?"

"My arms are thanks to fairies. My legs still have a ways to go."

"Can I see?"

"Sure," Nico said, then sat up and slapped my face.

Hard.

"Fine, I'll go but...take this," I said. I reached into the pocket in my leaf shorts and pulled out what Mrs. Young had given me and I put it in Nico's open hand. Then I turned and ran into the woods so I could cry my eyes out.