An Awfully Big Adventure

Chapter 2: ⁠Hello ̶ Who Are You?

"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.