“It is,” Maggie murmured. “And you canstopcalling me ‘pet.’”
The captain’s lips parted, another argument ready to break through the surface, when a clatter of noise came from the remnants of his study. “What are you buffoons waiting for?” Hook bellowed, using his sword to point at the doors. “Get in there!”
One of the pirates wore a flushed, sickly face. “W-We can ‘ardly get inside, captain!”
“Try harder!”
The trio of pirates glanced around at each other before bracing the flames and ripping open the doors. Billows of black smoke exhaled from within the room, filling the air and pulling a slurry of coughs out of everyone who remained. The cloud curled upward until everything was foggy and hazed. Maggie whipped her head around, ignoring how the smoke made her eyes burn the more she looked. There was a figure within it all, one that darted expertly above their heads, creating streaks within the smoke.
Maggie almost wanted to laugh with relief.
Peter.
As the smoke began to dissipate with the constant breeze coming off the gentle ocean waves, Maggie kept herself within Hook’s grasp, no longer struggling. If Peter was still looming overhead, he surely had a plan of escape, one that she’d need to catch onto the moment it happened. Hook was still in the middle of barking orders, his voice scratched and coarse from the smoke.
“Well, well, Hook. I have to say: I like what you’ve done with the place!”
The captain’s arm instinctively tightened around Maggie’s waist. She gazed up at him, catching his expression the moment he realized that the King of Neverland was aboard his ship. While she wouldn’t call it outright fear, there was nothing in Hook’s face that told her he was ready for it. Maggie bit back a smirk.
“Peter Pan,” Hook snarled as he turned around. “I’m surprised. You’ve stooped so low as to drop helpless,weakdamsels on my ship.” He reached for Maggie’s face, using the hilt of his blade to tug at her chin. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”
Maggie jerked back. “Speak for yourself.”
Finally, she turned to look the King of Neverland in the face. Everything about him was lit up with energy and excitement. Dirt and sand was smudged along his skin. The shirt he wore had a few new rips along the bottom hem. His sword was well used, the shorter blade Maggie saw before no longer on his person. In the midst of battle, he looked as handsome as he was at peace.
“Holding beautiful women against their will aboard a flaming ship is out of line, Hook,” Peter called out, his lip tugging into a smirk as the sunlight bounced off his blade. “Even for you.”
“The young lady may no longer want to be leashed to you, Peter Pan,” Hook boisterously boasted, as if she had agreed to it long ago. “Have you considered that?”
Peter raised a brow, shimmering eyes only glancing in her direction. The playfulness never left him as he raised the sword, taking on the stance of a skilled warrior. “Suppose we let the swords do the talking, Hook?” He grinned. “It’s the only thing you’reslightlygood at.”
The captain released an infuriated bellow before lunging at Peter. Not once did Hook’s grip leave Maggie, his hold on her only tighter than before. They moved like they were caught in each other’s orbit, a dance that could not be replicated by anything else. Peter was unflinchingly fluid, like someone who spent a lifetime being on a stage. In front of him, Hook parried and stabbed with an unavoidable assertiveness. They were yin and yang, they were each other, they were nothing alike but exactly the same.
All of it felt neverending. Peter’s eyes remained fixated on the captain until a random moment, when he dove forward, his blade shrieking as it slid alongside the other. There was a look in his gaze, one that Maggie wished to savour like a chocolate. It spoke of hundreds of things, but in that very moment, she somehow knew exactly what he needed.
Peter stepped back as Hook advanced, manipulating the King’s assertive move for himself. Hook curved, forcing his arm to loosen around her just enough. It was a sliver of weakness, the inch needed for her to make a single movement. Anything else, and it would’ve all been for nothing. Anything else, and she might get them both hurt… or worse.
No,she told herself.I am the heroine of this story.
Maggie jerked her elbow high above her head before slamming it into the center of Hook’s abdomen. She heard the exhale be forced out of his chest as he began to lean forward. Lifting her leg in the same fashion, Maggie didn’t escape his arms until she heeled him in the crotch. Hook’s groan bellowedover the ship’s deck as Maggie leapt in the opposite direction, already hovering in the air.
As the famed Captain Hook collapsed to the deck, Maggie shot into the sky high above their heads, not daring to even steal a look over her shoulder. She didn’t stop until the fairy dust felt strained, and she overlooked the haphazard beach and smoldering pirate ship. Out from a cloud of black smoke came Peter, his expression bright as he came up alongside her.
On the shore, the remaining pirates rushed back to their row boats. The Lost Boys followed them all the way, making sure that there weren’t any stragglers who might’ve tried to bother the town later. The fire raged on, no matter how many buckets of ocean water were tossed over it. Maggie could only imagine Hook’s contorted look of anger from where she hovered, a grin already pulling at her cheek.
“What happened to staying at the treehouse?”
Maggie raised her eyes, almost surprised to hear his voice. The exhilaration was leaving his expression, replaced by a softness she didn’t quite understand. Perhaps he was simply concerned about her safety. When she hadn’t responded, Peter came closer.
“Be honest with me, Magpie. Was that your stunt? Setting the fire?”
A blush as warm as the flames scurried across Maggie’s cheeks. “N-Not that it was planned, you see. I-I wasn’t ignoring you at all. I-I got the Lost Boys, but once everyone was gone, I just couldn’t –”
The King of Neverland surged forward, arms already outstretched. He enveloped her in a tight embrace, not at all like the captain’s cold iron-clad grip. Laughter pooled out from his lips as they spun around, the sky and world around them entirely fading away. As they came to a stop, Peter grasped Maggie’s warm cheeks, and brought his lips down upon hers.
The feeling was not at all like their previous kiss. Maggie knew she was already miles upon miles in the air, but she suddenly believed it to be possible that the kiss ascended her into the heavens themselves. She walked on the air, she frolicked through the clouds, she plucked stars from the sky and swallowed them. The feeling was so strong it might’ve burst from within her stomach, if she didn’t pull away for a much needed gasp of fresh air.
“Each day,” Peter breathed, “I wonder how the humans managed to lose you. How could they not see how clever you are? How talented?” He shook his head, a smile broadening across his face, like the rising sun. “No matter. I’m only glad to have found you.”
