¥ - Lost and Found - Peter Pan (Robbie Kay) - ¥

¥ 19 - Sunshine ¥

Aria was woken in a new and strange place, a blanket over herself and pillows under her head. Whose home was she in? For a moment she feared she was home, still dissociated by her surroundings. What would her parents say? They would be mad at her for leaving, she couldn't face them—

"Aria are you okay?" Emma asked her, watching the teen wake from her sleep. Aria was struggling to breathe under the panic her mind had forced her to believe was true and sat up too quickly, her blood rushing and making her feel dizzy in addition to her current symptoms. Emma rushed to her side and squeezed the girl's hand, hoping the sensation would calm her. Aria managed to breathe finally and thanked Emma.

"You okay kid?" Emma double-checked.

"Peachy. Thought I was home for a moment," Aria explained.

"Why... would you be scared of home?" Emma asked, concerned for the girl's home life.

"Nothing bad, just... I. I left home for Neverland. I don't know how to apologise to my parents for it."

"Why did you run away?" Emma inquired, fearing a worse conclusion than was true.

"Isn't it obvious. This isn't my world, it has reduced me to weakness, something Neverland never did. Anxiety disappears on Neverland and I finally fit in. I don't know how I'd ever explain that to my mum and dad."

Emma was relieved it had not been what she had thought, but still worried for Aria all the same. "I mean running away to live with a psychopath doesn't really count as fitting in," Emma joked, hoping to lighten the mood as she made her coffee.

Aria stood from the sofa, keeping the blanket around her shoulders. "He wasn't always like that. We know his soft side and what he can be. He wasn't always a monster," Aria defended Pan.

Emma raised an eyebrow before grabbing mugs from the cupboard. "Coffee?" She offered.

"No thanks, I don't drink it."

After getting freshened up with the 'Charmings' as they were called collectively by some of the others, Aria was ready for her second day hunting down Pan. As she regrouped with them, Emma handed her a folded piece of paper. "We found this with you last night. Sorry we read it, but we had to make sure it didn't have any clues in it."

Aria took the note with curiosity, opening its folded corners and reading the writing upon it. It was a note from Pan that read:

"Dearest Lost Girl,
Come join me, find me, and I won't harm you again. We can be together finally, I promise to make everything up to you for real. I can erase your fear, everywhere can be like Neverland. You can be safe and happy in your own world, I swear upon it. No more tears Aria. Just sunshine."

Aria felt it pull at her heart, the softness she spoke of to Emma coming through clearly in the note. He wanted her happy ending for her, to find his in her, but he was going about it all wrong. This method he had chosen would only push between them and drive them further apart. With a little of his sunshine stored in her smile, Aria pocketed the note and followed the others to Mr. Gold's shop, where Pan would wake after they had swapped Henry and him into their own bodies.

She stood silently in the corner, away from Mr.Gold as she watched Henry sit in Pan's body. It was wrong for her to admire his smile now, as it was not his own, but seeing it on his face was warming all the same. As she stood solemnly in a corner, Mr. Gold approached her. "I don't know what you see in him," he commented.

"More than most," Aria replied shortly.

"I assure you I know him more than you. He's my father," Gold explained.