The fairies exclaimed at the food, devouring every last crumb before offering as many compliments as possible to the chef. Though they were all devoted to the Lost Boys, Maggie couldn’t help but let pride settle into her heart once more. Every last one of the Lost Boys were dutiful students. They listened to every word Maggie had to say, and took to making the menu for the evening all on their own. She caught a glimpse of Dash and Scamp expertly rolling out pastry dough in the kitchen and it had brought a tear to her eye. Perhaps it was a silly thing to cry over – and she was sure that it was – but there was something about seeing them excel that felt as much as her accomplishment as it was theirs.
The Lost Boys were quick to join her as the rest of the party goers munched on their finger food.
“Wonderful jobs, I hear, on the food,” Maggie exclaimed as she twirled.
Dash came up alongside her, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her along the floor. “All thanks to ourwonderfulteacher!”
Her laugh mingled with the sound of a fluted instrument as they twisted and turned all around her. How could she not be filled with laughter during such a joyous time? She tried to remember another point in her life that provided her with thesame kind of elation, but quickly drew up blank. There weren’t people in the human lands that welcomed others with open arms. There would always be the outlier, a kind person or two, but Maggie was never lucky enough to come across them. In all her time scouring the land for a place that would finally accept her, Maggie never found a people as beautiful as those who called Neverland home.
Men, in particular, weren’t kind to her. They did not regard her as a thing of beauty, as a friend, as a partner through life. No matter where she looked, she was never the ideal. And the ideal was never kind enough to grant her any sort of help. Maggie would always end up on her own in the end. But in Neverland, Maggie couldn’t find a time where she had been alone. Where there was a man who disregarded her in a way that felt familiar. Amongst the Lost Boys and their King, there wasn’t a hardened soul at all.
Speaking of their King –
A hand scooped around Maggie’s waist, lifting her off her feet and through the air as the music surged toward its climatic moment. She squealed in surprise, fluttering her feet about until the stranger lowered her back to the floor with a flourish.
“Surprised, Magpie?” Peter asked, his chest rising and falling with the music.
Maggie beamed.Could there be anything better than this?“No,” she replied as he tugged her back into his chest. “Only happy.”
The music surged another time and the dancing burst across the treehouse’s foyer. Fairies joined in on the fray, twirling each other around and hollering to the chorus. The Lost Boys found their own partners amongst the rowdy crowd, coursing through the dancers as though they were flying high above Neverland’s treetops. Not once did Peter’s hands loosen around Maggie’swaist. Not once did he search for another partner, or look toward a different girl.
The world around them faded into a blur of color.
Maggie thought she would’ve minded being caught up in someone’s orbit but she was wrong. It wasn’t at all like gravity being centered in on Peter, making her nothing but a circling moon that was devoid of all life. It was like being a cold planet lost in the dark reaches of space, suddenly caught in the attention of a lonely sun, who had so much light but nowhere to put it. Peter’s light washed over her the longer he stared, a warmth she had never known touching every part of her body. How could someone go living for so long without knowing that sort of feeling, of experiencing such a pure and unadulterated light?
Peter’s face grew boyish as he smiled sheepishly. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Like what?” she asked, no longer remembering that there was music playing only a few feet away, or people dancing around them.
“Like you’re really seeing me for the first time.”
“No,” Maggie murmured. She reached for him, letting her palm find the shape of his cheek and remain there. Perhaps there was a crowd of eyes watching them, the entire island of Neverland looking in on their King and the human baker he once kidnapped, but Maggie no longer cared. There was only her and Peter Pan. There was only their future, there was only the feeling of her hand against his warm cheek.
Peter smirked and leaned into her touch. “No what, Magpie?”
And when she spoke again, there wasn’t a single doubt in her mind.
“I have seen you,” Maggie said. “I have seen you and I don’t know if I can ever look away again.”
The teasing and humor drained out of Peter’s face. He slowed to a stop as the world came rushing back, the joyous song quickly reaching its end. There wasn’t a face angled in their direction, but Maggie was wrapped in Peter's expression. Something changed.Was it something I said?
Peter intertwined their fingers. “Can we go somewhere quiet? To talk?”
“O-Of course,” Maggie quickly replied, ignoring how fast her heartbeat was.
Without another word, the King of Neverland led her through the partying crowd, and to the winding staircase. They followed the path up through the treehouse, and even though Maggie felt as though they had been walking for forever, she knew that they had barely reached the second floor. Peter curved off the stairwell at the first balcony. The moon rested high in the sky as the music echoed in the distance, where the party continued raging on with the Lost Boys. Peter came to a stop beside the railing, reaching to take both of her hands in his own.
Maggie gulped down her anxiety. “S-So what did you –”
He swooped down before she could finish, catching the last of her questions with a kiss. She melted instantly against his touch, falling forward into his chest. Peter engulfed her frame with his long arms, the firmness of his embrace snapping around her like the walls of a cage. Maggie never thought a cage to be welcoming, to be kind, to be a home – but maybe it wasn’t a cage at all, but the sturdy walls of a home. The more she kissed him, the easier it was to imagine living in Neverland at his side.
Starting a family with the King of Neverland on the island of dreams flashed across her vision. Going out flying with the Lost Boys. Becoming closer than she’d ever been with anyone before. Everything she had deemed inaccessible long ago was suddenly in her hands, in Peter’s eyes. How could an island answerdreams? How could an island have heard every wish she ever made and saved Peter for this very moment?
How was it possible and how could Maggie at all be deserving of it?
Peter drew away but didn’t dare go far. He rested his forehead against hers, even if the height difference forced him to bend his neck at an awkward angle.. He laced his hands together at the small of her back, drawing her closer and closer, until there was nowhere else to go.
“I need to tell you something,” he whispered.
