I Dream of Disney (Volume II)

4 - Magic Always Comes at a Price [OUAT Peter Pan x Reader] Part I

Part I - The Price of Pride and Pity 

"I still don't understand why she is here." 

"Regina - "

"This is a rescue mission! It's not a tropical getaway!" Regina snapped, "My son is in danger and you decide to bring the entire town of Storybrooke with you!" 

"This is my ship," Hook remarked icily, "And I get to decide who comes and who doesn't."

The pirate took out his aggression on the limb of a nearby palm frond. As he trudged through the perilous jungle that was Neverland, he swung his sword with a flowing, lissome movement that severed the tessellated frond from its stem. The plant withered to the floor while the stem oozed purple sap, viscous and lustrous like blood from a wounded vein. The pirate grimaced. 

"Where's your ship now, Captain?" Regina remarked pointedly, "I don't see your crew and the beach is far from our camp. I don't see the worth in having your clingy, hero-worshipping pirate around. She doesn't even have any magic." 

"Magic always comes at a price," Hook replied coldly. 

The Evil Queen, who decided to call herself Regina Mills in this non-magical world that she had fabricated, marched hotly on the heels of the pirate captain. The winds were strident and difficult to withstand, tossing the Queen's shiny black hair over her shoulders and sending it over her pale face in short, painful lashings, but she managed to keep pace with Hook. It had been a stake-out mission, a way to clear the area so that camp could be made securely for the night. It had promised to be a silent stalk in the undergrowth, persisting in stealth, but Regina had decided to take out her frustration of not finding her missing son, Henry, on the one-handed pirate. Hook marched on, silent and focused. 

Regina wasn't done yet. 

"It's just that she's so annoying," Regina complained, "Always quiet. Listening. It disturbs me." 

Hook muttered, "I wish you would be quiet for once." 

"What was that?" 

"Perhaps if you spent more of your time concentrating on the matter at hand," Hook remarked, "and not on how much you dislike my first mate, you might have found your son already." 

"If she spent her time concentrating on not being so distractingly obnoxious," Regina agreed, "Maybe I would have." 

Hook sighed and came to a stop beneath the shadowing branches of a tamarind tree. Doing a precursory glance of his surroundings, checking the undergrowth for traps or camouflaged bodies and monitoring the darkening skies for Pan's bedevilled shadow, he decided that the area was clear. He turned to the Evil Queen with an expression of irritation etched into his face. 

"The area's clear. We can head back to camp," Hook said. 

He had not yet sheathed his sword, as he believed that one must always be suspicious while on this accursed island, and it was a gesture not lost on Regina. With a mocking smile, sharp enough to slit wrists, the woman wrapped her arms around her torso. It was mainly to deride him, but it was also to ward off the unbearable cold that she was not accustomed to from living in Storybrooke, Maine. The town that she had created to finally give herself a happy ending. 

How well that had turned out, Regina thought. 

"Scared, hook-hand?" Her voice was unapologetically loud. 

Hook ignored her. 

"Not that it matters to you," Hook glared, "She shows promise as a sailor. She's skilful with many nautical procedures: navigation, tying knots, steering the ship, climbing the rigging...She needs some work with her swordplay, but she's hardy and stubborn as any good pirate."