War cries filled the air on the mountainside, ringing across the vast expanse of empty space, but it did nothing to drown out the harsh pounding of his heart within his ears. Chanyeol bulldozed through foliage, plant after plant falling victim to his heavy footfalls and charging body. Gravity propelled him forward, both a blessing and a curse, as he nearly lost his footing more than once, compelled to move faster than his legs could actually carry him. Face-planting right now would be terrible luck, not only because of the horde of yelling, angry men hot on their heels, but because of the petite body he carried in his arms. Cinderella clung to his neck for dear life, skirts bunched around her legs from Chanyeol hastily having scooped her up. He was fortunate that she was light, else this may have been much more of a challenge. But to fall would mean to compromise not only his safety, but the princess’s. Her father would not have that. And neither would Baekhyun.

This was far from the first time Cinderella had needed rescuing, seemingly having a knack for running into trouble, but not often were he and the lost boys dispatched to take care of it. This was normally Baekhyun’s business. But their flying leader had taken off for another realm today, nowhere to be found when the princess’s cries were heard off the shores of Neverland. 

Chanyeol was not an official second-in-command by any means, but the rest of the lost boys always acted like he was such in Baekhyun’s absence. They respected him in a weird kind of way when the other wasn’t around, even if he didn’t need them to fall in line like his subordinates. He’d always thought perhaps it was because he was the tallest of the lot, towering above most, save for Sehun, who fell short only an inch or two of him. He wasn’t even the oldest, as far as he remembered, although age had very little meaning in Neverland.

But the only kind of respect Chanyeol craved was from Baekhyun. He cherished the boyish grins that lit up his face when he returned to eleven boys still high off their last discovery of treasure in the cove. Once, they’d found a chest half buried in the sand, and within had been more gold coins than one could count, and a warped golden crown which Baekhyun had the habit of wearing atop his head whenever they celebrated. Chanyeol thought he looked like a true king with it on; the one and only boy ruler of this island, regardless what any grumpy hook-handed pirates may have to say about it.

Cinderella screamed loud and shrill, and before Chanyeol could glance over his shoulder, an arrow flew past, narrowly missing the princess’s feet. She retracted them quickly towards her chest, and the boy had to shift his arm to avoid dropping her. “Please stay as still as you can, princess. We’re nearly home,” he panted, despite his lungs feeling like they were on fire. They weren’t the only thing aflame, however, as a nearby bush seemed to spontaneously combust. Flaming arrows, Chanyeol concluded. 

The castle couldn’t be very much further now, could it? His sword hung at his hip should he need to use it again, but he really didn’t want to have to multitask right now. Jongin sped on ahead, followed by a wheezing Kyungsoo attached at his hand. “Princess, how many lost boys can you see behind me?” Chanyeol asked.

“One… One…”

“One?” Panic struck him abruptly. 

“One…Two………Eight. I see eight.”

With Jongin, Kyungsoo, and himself, they were all accounted for. One less thing to worry about in this mad dash to safety. “And how many men?”

Arms tightened around his neck, a soft cheek pressed against his jugular and hair tickling the underside of his jaw. “I…Th-there’s too many. I can’t…”

Chanyeol difficultly swallowed, urgency pushing him forward still. They were going to make it out of this.

The boy barely heard Minseok sidle up to him over the sound of his own breath harshly escaping his body. “Chanyeol, there’s a river up ahead to the left.” 

He processed this information before nodding. “To the left, then.” Hopefully the rest knew to follow.

Only a few more arrows whizzed by, given how most of the men pursuing them favoured swords, and Chanyeol was grateful. Getting impaled was not in the plans for today, especially not by one of those flaming arrowheads. He veered sideways, trying not to let his centre of gravity shift too far to his right, where the slope attempted to pull him. Through the trees, he could glimpse slivers of murky blue. That gave him a second wind. Over stumps and through ferns he went, needing desperately to reach the water. 

“JUMP” he screamed to the others, regardless if they actually managed to hear him or not. Through the last thicket of trees, the ground vanished beneath Chanyeol’s dirt-stained, calloused feet, and then he was falling before being engulfed in freezing cold. A weight left his body from the impact, giving the boy much more ease to kick himself back to the surface. He took a gulp of air, but wasn’t quite out of the woods yet. A head of brown hair bobbed like a ship in the wind just ahead of him. “Princess!” A few kicks got him close enough to latch onto her small wrist and tug her over. 

Chanyeol saw no signs of men on the banks, and allowed himself a sigh of relief as he let the current carry him further downstream. To be safe, he would wait before making for shore. His limbs could relax a little as they only had to focus on keeping himself afloat. Turning himself to drift down the river backwards, he saw several other heads following them, accompanied by some victorious laughter. The bandits wouldn’t dare jump into the waters after them; especially not the ones who only had flammable arrows as their weapon.

Once all eleven boys and one princess had dragged themselves onto the bank, many collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, others attempting to unclog their ears.

“Pwah! You got water up my nose!” exclaimed Yifan before smacking Junmyeon upside the head. Jongin was helping Kyungsoo get twigs out of his hair, and Jongdae lay flat on his back, gleefully grinning at the sky. “We almost died,” he said, entirely too cheerful. 

Chanyeol was clapped on the shoulder, and saw Minseok walk past. “Wait until Baekhyun hears this.” The other was right; this would make for quite the tale to tell the adventurous other indeed. A bit of risk, a lot of danger, and a happy ending neatly tying the end with a bow. Just how Baekhyun liked it. 

Cinderella sat beside him, wringing out her hair as she cast occasional glances over. 

“Is your castle very far, princess?”

She shook her head, looking like she wanted to say something, but words would not form upon her tongue. Chanyeol shot her a questioning look.

“Thank you,” she replied quietly, rosy cheeks going a bit rosier than usual. The princess fixed him with a look he couldn’t quite place, and in an instant, Chanyeol had damp lips upon his equally damp cheek, there barely for a moment, but very much there. The boy blinked, unused to this sort of thing. The lost boys did not shy away from physical contact with one another, but never had any of them kissed him. 

“You’re…welcome,” he returned after clearing his throat. The girl smiled before rising to her feet, and Chanyeol was left wondering if Baekhyun got this same treatment every time he saved the princess. The corners of his mouth tugged downward at that and he vigorously started rubbing at the still-tingling spot on his cheek, wishing to erase it from his person.

••••

Chanyeol watched as Cinderella scampered off through the huge iron front gates, escorted by two guards with funny feathered hats on their heads, now able to call this one a mission accomplished. He lingered a little longer, marvelling at the sheer size of the castle. It made him feel small, but not in a bad way. It was big and imposing, but it got the boy’s imagination going, just like the big mountain or vast sea in Neverland did. Surely all the crowns in there were polished to a permanent shine and weren’t bent out of shape. Those guards had been wielding huge pointed staffs, sharp enough to impale someone if need be, so perhaps there was a training yard, where men duelled and practiced. And surely a place this big had more food than you could ever hope to have. Chanyeol’s mouth was practically watering at the thought. Still, he didn’t know if he’d want to trade the life he currently had for all of this luxury. 

Bringing himself out of it, he turned to face the rest of the crew. “Time to head home, boys.” It was followed by a collective cheer.

“Can we go swimming at the beach when we arrive?” asked Minseok, head poking out from behind Yifan. 

“Of course we can. But the last one in the water has to hunt dinner tonight!” Chanyeol challenged with a wicked grin. A few groaned, mainly those who still struggled with their bow and arrow, but others like Jongdae and Sehun looked positively confident that they wouldn’t be the losers of the night. It wasn’t uncommon for them to turn nearly everything into a competition, always including some stakes simply because they could.

“Swimming? Without me?” came a voice full of mirth.

Chanyeol whirled around to see a boy draped in vines striding down the beaten path towards them, hands on his hips and a lazy smirk on his face. His nose was pointed up defiantly. Chanyeol would have broken into a grin, except that Baekhyun had not come alone. A girl accompanied him, eyes wide and wandering. Her baby blue gown reached down to her calves, matching the blue bow in her hair. She matched Baekhyun in height, thus making her shorter than Chanyeol. Their eyes met, and while Chanyeol cocked his head curiously, he could swear he saw the girl’s smile dim. He was probably just imagining it, he concluded after the girl resumed looking around. 

Baekhyun hadn’t brought anyone back since…well, since him. Chanyeol was the most recent addition to the lost boys, and that had been quite some time ago, although the boy could not give an approximation of exactly how much time had elapsed since then. It just felt like he’d always been in Neverland. 

“You’re back…” the taller noted, surprised.

Baekhyun’s gaze found him. “Earth is such a strange place—you wouldn’t believe some of the things I saw this time. One of the weird little trinkets I saw a kid playing with reminded me of you, actually,” the boy stated, pointing a finger. “Maybe next time I’ll snatch it right up and bring it back.” Baekhyun grinned at his idea, and Chanyeol found that he would like that very much, although he couldn’t help but wonder what exactly the other had seen.

“How did you know where we were?”

“Easy. Got back to the island, and nobody was there. Poor hosts, you all are,” he snorted. “We checked a few other places, and then came here, since Cinderella hasn’t needed rescuing in a while. I knew it was bound to happen soon, I just didn’t think you’d be the one to come save her.” There was a smugness in Baekhyun’s features.

“And we nearly died in the process,” replied Chanyeol, pursing his lips, as a shiver shot up his spine from the memory of plunging into the river.

“That wouldn’t have happened if I’d been around.” A -eating grin was directed his way.

Chanyeol’s mouth was open, ready to retort when the other shifted his attention away, instead walking back to where the other lost boys eagerly bounced around the very overwhelmed girl. Ah yes. He’d nearly forgotten about the girl. 

“Everyone, this is Wendy. Be nice, cause guess what? She tells stories!” Baekhyun announced, throwing his arms out, and this earned an excited reaction from several of the boys, who looked at Wendy with a new sparkle in their eye. 

Baekhyun looked proud of his find, but Chanyeol couldn’t bring himself to feel as excited as he should be. Having a girl along would be different to say the least. Aside from Cinderella and Tinkerbell, he could scarcely recall the last time he’d seen one. From his distanced position, he watched her carefully. Her face was far less pointy than Cinderella’s, cheeks rounded and lips a little fuller. Her eyes were big, but they held little more than a coldness, he noted, as she briefly glanced his way.

The lost boys refused to get too far from the new addition to their family, eagerly asking just how many stories she knew and if she liked rabbit stew. Through the sea of heads bouncing around, Baekhyun’s mass of messy black hair emerged, and he reached out to pull Chanyeol in. “I have perfect timing. You’ve saved Cinderella, and now I’ve brought you a gift to celebrate.” He grinned in Wendy’s direction. The other boy fit perfectly into his side, just beneath his arm, and he fought the overwhelming urge to mess up Baekhyun’s hair even more than it already was. 

A soft tinkling sound alerted him of Tinkerbell’s presence, and he looked up to find her circling just above heir heads, a bright yellow orb leaving behind a shimmering trail of dust. Some fell into Chanyeol’s eyelashes, turning them a glittering gold for a second before it faded. Soon he knew he’d be coated in the stuff for their journey back home. 

Perhaps they couldn’t fly like Baekhyun, but at least they had a means of achieving it temporarily. Fairies were wonderful little creatures in Chanyeol’s opinion, and not just for the magic their dust contained. They could light up the dark night like small lanterns, and had excellent navigational skills. The lost boy still held fond memories of the first time Baekhyun had shown him the fairy hideout. The creatures crowded the great, big, twisted tree in the woods, many perched upon the branches and leaves watching the rest dance in graceful circles through the air. 

The boys broke apart and were all lining up now, preparing to return to the island. Chanyeol found himself at the front. Baekhyun’s hand shot up to grasp Tinkerbell and he made his way down the line, gently shaking the fairy to expel enough dust to blow onto each lost boy. He leaned in towards Chanyeol first, eyes closing as his mouth pursed. Most of the golden dust fanned across his neck and chest, and Baekhyun smiled at him before moving down the line. Chanyeol’s feet lifted from the ground, and he couldn’t help but grin, the sensation always sending his stomach topsy-turvy, but in the best way possible. Once all of them were hovering, Baekhyun dealt with Wendy before bringing himself to the front of the queue, and she slotted herself in between him and Chanyeol. 

And so, instead of Baekhyun’s small foot, he found himself grasping Wendy’s impossibly clean one, nails neatly trimmed and polished. Her heel had no callouses, and even felt soft to the touch. A clear sign of her outsider status. Had his own feet been this way when he’d first arrived? Chanyeol didn’t think he could get his feet to look that spotless even if he scrubbed them in the bay for eight hours straight. 

“Hold on tight!” Baekhyun exclaimed, glancing down the line over his shoulder. A pair of hands closed around Chanyeol’s ankle, and he brought a second hand to grasp Wendy’s, preparing for the sharp jerk. 

*********

Chanyeol frowned at the tree some fifty yards ahead, lowering his bow to his side. His arrow had missed. A shove to the shoulder had him staggering over, catching himself on a thick tree. 

“Jongin! Chanyeol missed!” Jongdae sing-songed, bounding off through the leaves towards the other. 

Chanyeol brushed himself off, ratty cotton shirt left at home in favour of remaining bare-chested on this warm day. The three others who’d come along also hadn’t bothered with shirts today, save for Sehun, who still wore a deer skin on his shoulders. Baekhyun always had the look down pat, just a few vines crossing over his middle. The latter was currently absent, gone to show Wendy Mermaid Cove. As much as he felt that absence, he didn’t wish to be in Wendy’s place, for he was not fond of the mermaids. The last time he’d gone with Baekhyun, one had tried drowning him, and would have succeeded had Baekhyun not hissed at the thing. Vicious and cunning, they were. Handy for information, he guessed, but only Baekhyun could understand mermish anyway. They could go frolic with the mermaids all day if they wanted. “It’s not like I care,” he muttered to himself.

Here in Neverland, there weren’t very many rules, no standards to adhere to, aside from what little Baekhyun expected of them, which was why Chanyeol could currently see Jongdae and Sehun suspending Jongin over a leafy plant that suspiciously looked like poison ivy. The upturned boy wailed, flailing his arms. 

“What’d he do; lose a bet?” Chanyeol called over, running a hand through his messy black curls. Picking his way between the trees, he could clearly see it was indeed the rash-inducing plant growing a few inches beneath the boy’s head. 

Jongdae grinned a little wickedly. “I said you looked a little distracted today, and he said you could still outshoot me. Thanks for the help,” he winked. The calf he held slipped down a few inches, and Jongin screeched below before shooting Chanyeol a helpless look that still held an accusation laced within, like it was his fault he was seconds away from having his face suffer a fiery death. 

“I think it’s when Baekhyun mentioned going to see the mermaids this morning. I swear I saw you go stiff as a board. Still get nightmares, Yeol?” teased Sehun, forgetting his hold on Jongin’s leg. Chanyeol blinked as Jongin flopped to the ground, flattening the plant beneath him. 

“I do not.” To be frank, Chanyeol couldn’t have said exactly why his mind was adrift today. The occasional random funk was likely it. Maybe the mention of mermaids really had brought back bad memories. 

“Well,” started Jongdae. “I hope the mermaids like Wendy more than they like you, cause she hasn’t even told us any stories yet. She promised she’d tell me the one about Rubble Skin Skin.”

“The one with the spinny wheel?” grumbled Jongin from the ground, having already accepted his fate.

“Yeah, that one! Imagine being able to turn stuff to gold! The pirates would be the ones to come stealing from us.”

Sehun was staring pensively into the leafy canopy above. Chanyeol knew he was imagining himself with a golden cloak and a crown of his own. He often wore the one back home when Baekhyun wasn’t looking, rather liking the weight of it on his head. 

Chanyeol slung his bow around his shoulder, deciding he’d had enough for the day. “They’ll be returning soon, won’t they? We should be home to welcome them back.” The other standing two nodded to each other, while Jongin finally got to his feet. 

“I hope you’re right. Baekhyun promised me he’d come catch some squirrels,” said Jongdae.

Baekhyun, for the most part, was here, but sometimes left to go have other adventures in faraway lands, whether to save a princess, or best some creepy critters. He never could quite sit still. In those absences, time crawled along, stretched to a point where it felt like it was no longer moving. The wait was always the hardest part, especially when he was gone for more than a few days. There was no denying the energy and presence the flying boy brought to the group. 

On the walk home, the three boys kept their distance from Jongin, who walked a few paces ahead, neck beginning to look a little splotchy. 

Wendy made good on her advertised abilities, for the second she and Baekhyun returned, everyone settled in the common space and she told them the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, an awfully devious trickster. The girl had a way with words, gesticulating wildly when there was action, and remaining completely still, pausing, when there was suspense. The lost boys were perfectly enraptured by their new storyteller. Chanyeol’s eyes, however, wandered to the small boy who lounged haphazardly in the great wooden chair. His attention belonged entirely to Wendy, shifting in his seat whenever a new twist in the story presented itself, and gently parting his lips when the princess was to give up her firstborn child to the imp. Chanyeol ended up experiencing most of the story through Baekhyun’s reactions. It came as moderate shock to the boy when the other seemed to sense his gaze, and suddenly was no longer gazing at Wendy, but rather at him, that signature gleam in his eye and the corner of his mouth quirking upwards. Time may pass slowly when Baekhyun was gone, but Chanyeol wished it passed even slower still when he was actually there. 

As Baekhyun’s eyes turned back to the entertainment, Chanyeol did the same, but found himself unable to register the ending of Wendy’s story, save for the snorting laugh Baekhyun gave when he supposed the imp had been defeated.

Dinner, after Baekhyun had gone hunting with Jongdae, carried them into the evening, sun on the cusp of beginning to set. Most of the boys, full and sated, had left to play a few rounds of hide and seek, Baekhyun and Wendy staying behind so that the former could show her how to swing a sword. A pretty important skill to have around here. Chanyeol sat amongst the ferns, propped against a tree, and watched them from across the clearing. 

He could easily put himself in Wendy’s place as he’d once been, being patiently taught by Baekhyun how to quickly deflect or step out of the way. Chanyeol had only ever fought pirates since then, but he’d fought them enough to say he had very effective swordsmanship skills. 

A hand reached out to correct Wendy’s hold on the weapon. Chanyeol couldn’t quite make it out from here, but she looked hesitant to be wielding the thing. Chanyeol pulled his own sword from his belt, turning it in the last few dying rays of sunlight that filtered in through the trees. He remembered being excited to learn how to fight, eager to learn, eager to improve, and even more eager to receive praise from his teacher. Shutting one eye, he held the sword vertically and positioned it right between Baekhyun and Wendy’s figures in the distance, creating a visual divide. Something heavy weighed on his chest as he watched on, a longing to be in that position again overtaking him. If he moved the sword to the left, he knew it wouldn’t sweep Wendy further away. Things would be easier if she weren’t there, he admitted, simply because he didn’t know yet if he much liked the changes her presence brought or not.

Chanyeol felt a warmth on his shoulder, and looked over to find Tink sitting there, tiny hand propped on her tiny chin. “Hey Tink,” he greeted gently as he let his sword droop to the ground. “Bored?” A tinkle from the fairy answered his question. “I know, I could go play with the others. But I don’t really want to.” He looked over at Baekhyun, whose time was increasingly becoming occupied by the girl standing across from him.

“Was it like this when I came along?” he asked, leaning his head back against the tree. In the distance, some foliage rustled in the breeze. “Sorry,” he apologized when the fairy confirmed that it had been even worse. “I guess he really gets wrapped up in his new recruits. You think she’s here for good?”

The fairy shrugged, which did nothing to comfort the boy. “The others have already started taking to calling her ‘mother’.” Chanyeol laughed dryly. Out in the clearing, Wendy had successfully parried, earning an excited reaction from Baekhyun. “And Baekhyun ‘father’. Can you imagine that? Baekhyun? A father? They’ve never called him that before…” He sighed. The new titles didn’t sit well with him, to say the least. Neverland was all about the dangerous and carefree. The only adults out here were the pirates, and even so, none of them had children. Parents were serious and everything this place was not. And parents were…partners. Something he’d always assumed, or perhaps hoped, he and Baekhyun were. A captain and his first mate, ready to sail the seas with their crew, no matter how stormy the weather.

Tink stood on his shoulder and flew up to pull at his earlobe. “Owww. What? I should—I should what?” Chanyeol looked over at the two figures in the distance, swords crossed. Baekhyun had Wendy pinned to a massive tree, closing in. “It’s awfully tempting,” he grumbled. The fairy eagerly nodded. 

He and Tinkerbell got along quite well. The fairy almost always accompanied Baekhyun no matter where he went, like a sparkling sidekick. Chanyeol often wondered what that was like. She could only convey one very basic emotion at a time, making her both comical and rash, but not simultaneously. Right now, she perched upon his shoulder like a small golden devil whispering into his ear. The important thing to note was that he did not have any angel sitting on the other shoulder to reason him out. She egged him on, and the boy only found himself agreeing. Within a few seconds, he was on his feet, walking out towards the clearing.

Sword in hand, he saw Tink fly up into the trees from his peripherals, and continued making a beeline for the two exchanging blows. Baekhyun noticed him first, lowering his sword and turning to face the newcomer. Wendy did the same shortly after, but while Baekhyun looked pleasantly surprised to see him standing there, Wendy remained stoic, not a trace of a smile to be seen anywhere on her face. Did he feel bad about interrupting? Not one bit, no matter the looks Wendy might be giving him.

“Want to practice?” That was the best excuse he could think of to cut in. It was a pretty poor one, but he knew Baekhyun could hardly resist a round of swordplay. But would it be enough to end his practice session with Wendy? 

Before the other boy could answer, all three turned their heads towards the north end of the clearing, where a red and winded Luhan burst from the foliage. He pushed on forward to come tug at Wendy’s arm. “Wendy! Wendy! You need to come quick! Jongin and Kyungsoo can’t stop scratching. They’re all red and puffy, and Jongin’s crying. Please, Wendy,” he pleaded, yanking harder still. 

The girl looked back at Baekhyun. “I…” She awkwardly held up her sword, and Chanyeol gladly took it from her, freeing her hand. She let herself get pulled, staggering through the leaves and vanishing with a rustle. 

“Does she know what to do?” asked Chanyeol, despite being happy he was now alone with Baekhyun. He couldn’t help the slight concern for the boys. When they wound up injured or incapacitated, they usually just waited it out with at least one lost boy on watch duty.

“She knows a lot of things,” was the other’s reply, crossing his arms over his chest with his sword pointed safely away from Chanyeol. “She isn’t just a good storyteller—she talks about this medicine stuff too, and how it can help heal wounds and sickness. And soon enough I’ll have her whipped into shape to swordfight,” he grinned.

The words came out before Chanyeol could stop them. “You seem to think very highly of her…”

Baekhyun’s brows lifted. “Oh yeah, she’s pretty fun. I still have lots I want to show her. I really should have brought a girl over much sooner. Better late than never, huh?”

Chanyeol set his jaw, remembering his secondary motive behind coming over, already having fulfilled the primary one with Wendy gone. “Seeing how we’ve got a moment; I think I can disarm you in a few minutes, tops. You’ve surely gotten a bit rusty after being gone all that time,” he challenged, throwing Wendy’s sword aside in favour of properly wielding his own.

“Oh-ho.” Baekhyun uncrossed his arms, eyes filling with mischief as he got into stance. “I don’t know which lost boy got that idea into your pretty little head—my bet’s on Jongdae—but you’re sorely mistaken.”

Chanyeol cockily grinned, falling into that familiar feeling of playfulness. A realm he was comfortable within. He bickered plenty with the other boys, but Baekhyun was by far his favourite to trash talk. He twirled his sword boastfully a few times; entirely unnecessary for the purpose of fighting, but a means of intimidating nonetheless, even if he knew not much could make the other boy cower. He faced challenge head on, sometimes with very little thought, and he somehow almost always emerged victorious. That was just one of the many amazing things about the flying boy. 

Baekhyun was the first to dance forward, forcing Chanyeol to cease his twirling. He extended his arm just in time to catch the other boy’s steel, and he was quick to follow it up with a slash round the right. His opponent was quicker, moving out of the way and cutting upwards. Not a forceful blow, but rather meant to catch him off guard. Thankfully, Chanyeol had a pretty solid grip on his sword. “You forget I’m not some bumbling pirate.”

There was a loud clang as both their swords met in the middle in a tense X. “That’s because you were trained by the best.” Baekhyun stuck his tongue out at him and abruptly pushed off, making Chanyeol stagger back a few steps of his own. “And only the drunk ones bumble. Remember when Red Locks nearly clipped your ear right off?”

Chanyeol responded by lunging forward. He did indeed remember. His ears weren’t exactly easy to miss, big as they were. He rather liked them, though, and would hate to imagine himself without them. Then whose ears would Baekhyun tug when he was being annoying?

Baekhyun let Chanyeol run right past him, kicking him in the bum for good measure. The latter fell to his hands and knees. He hunched over, breathing unsteadily. 

“Chanyeol?” he heard not far behind him when he had yet to move. He waited a few more seconds, then rapidly flipped over, swinging out at Baekhyun’s feet. Feigning obviously never worked on pirates, who preferred if you were bleeding or dead anyway. But a pirate, Baekhyun was not. The latter shot into the air instinctively in his hobble to jump over the sword, now hovering two feet off the ground.

“No fair!” exclaimed Chanyeol before the other slowly lowered himself back down. The lost boy hauled himself to his feet and spun to resume the fight. “No flying.”

Baekhyun pouted, deflecting his swing easily. “Telling me not to fly is like telling a fish not to swim. That’s not how it works.”

“Except,” Chanyeol grunted as he lunged. “It is. Don’t make me whistle for Tink.” Steel clanged together in rapid succession, Chanyeol backing the other up to the edge of the clearing. Finally, he felt like he was getting somewhere.

“You should. I’m sure she isn’t far.”

“Eh, she’d probably take your side anyway.”

Baekhyun grinned, not denying it. Legs grazed leafy plants, and the boy launched off the ground again, but Chanyeol was quicker. His hand shot out to grab him by the knee, and with a sharp yank, he pulled him back down to earth. Their bodies collided and both toppled to the ground, laughing. 

“So who wins, then?” asked Baekhyun when their laughter had subsided and both lay flat on their back, exhausted.

Chanyeol turned his head to look at Baekhyun, whose hair had fanned out on the leaves littering the grass. It was now that the boy realized just how little sunlight was left, shadows dancing across Baekhyun’s face in the dim light. “I guess we’ll just have to have a rematch.” 

Baekhyun seemed to like the sounds of that. “An adventure is never truly over, after all,” he winked before letting gravity lull his head back to the centre. They lay in comfortable silence, enjoying the light breeze across their skin and coming down from their high. Chanyeol could see some stars starting to show as the skies darkened still. When it went pitch black, he’d be able to see them all, twinkling above as though Tink had painted the sky with her dust. At the beach, you could see each one clearly, able to imagine pictures within them, but right now the trees overhead obstructed most of the view. Looking over again, Chanyeol stared at Baekhyun’s profile, his eyes shut and lips pulled into a vague smile. “What are you thinking about?” he asked softly.

“How great it is to be Byun Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol chuckled, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “That’s what you always say.”

“Because it’s true. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol conceded, smiling to himself. Not an ounce of regret could be found within him for the life-altering decision he’d made all that time ago by letting a small boy sweep him away in the night. It had nearly gotten him killed a few times, but dying fighting alongside Baekhyun seemed like a heroic way to go. He didn’t think he would mind, even if he wasn’t ready to die just yet. He still had far too many adventures left to live out. 

“I think Wendy’s starting to see it too.”

And there it was. It had been stupid to assume he could escape the subject for very long. He lost his interest in gazing up at the sky. “That’s…good,” he replied absently, pushing himself to his feet. Baekhyun watched from the ground, confused. “I think I’ll head back, in case the others returned. I want to make sure Jongin’s okay.” 

Baekhyun nodded in understanding. “Don’t run into any pirates on your way there.”

“You know I’ll give them heck if I do,” he offered with a half-hearted chuckle before turning on his heels and pushing past the plants. His stomach sank to his knees with every step. Wendy truly was prominent in Baekhyun’s mind, perhaps occupying more space than he’d originally estimated. This moment would have come sooner or later—Baekhyun would eventually add to their clan of misfits, get a shiny new toy to play with. Chanyeol’s shine had probably worn off quite a while ago, much as he’d like to think otherwise. He became less interesting when positioned next to the latest, greatest thing. Is this what scruffy teddy bears and wooden blocks felt like when children grew up and abandoned them?

Baekhyun did not age; he was the boy who would never grow up. By that logic, he should never need anything more. Chanyeol, and every other lost boy before clearly hadn’t been enough. Maybe all he’d needed all along was a girl. A Wendy.

Chanyeol kicked at a loose twig on the ground, wood crackling on impact. He was probably overthinking things. All the other lost boys had accepted their new reality, and to lag behind on that front made him feel broken, like he was missing something everyone else thought obvious. Wendy liked to play and tell stories, and conveniently the rest of them liked to play and listen to stories. There was nothing to dislike.

The boy sighed in defeat as he reached the great tree, lazily yanking on the vine to open the crooked wooden door. 

••••

As the days wore on, Chanyeol was starting to notice that the animosity was not one-sided. He hadn’t fabricated the way Wendy’s smile would slide right off her face whenever he entered the common area or joined her game of tag with the lost boys. She avoided him at all costs, and the boy was somewhat grateful for it. They’d never really spoken, and he didn’t know what he could possibly say to her. Even in a room crowded with boys, when she wasn’t speaking with Baekhyun, her somber gaze would find him, they would lock eyes for a moment, and Chanyeol could feel it permeating the air. The friction. At times, her eyes even looked like they carried a sadness. He suspected that she may have picked up on his feelings towards her. Was he that obvious?

Wendy sat by the tree that late afternoon, weaving together twigs and flowers into what looked like a crude crown. It was mainly composed of lilies, but he could spot a few violets throughout. Her fingers carefully threaded long blades of grass between the twigs, looking very peaceful in the sunlight. Her dress wasn’t quite as vibrant of a shade of blue as it had been when she’d first arrived, dirtied by hours spent outdoors. When all of them had gone to the beach to bathe earlier today, happily flinging their thin bodies into the waves, Wendy had elected to stay behind. 

Looking at her from here, not gazing coldly at him or being stuck to Baekhyun’s side, he would admit she was pretty. Maybe he could see whatever Baekhyun saw, but then again, Cinderella was beautiful as well, and he’d never brought her back here. He’d estimated that Wendy was perhaps a bit older than himself, even though age was completely irrelevant. The only distinction made was between children and adults. Pirates were adults, and they were children. Good vs evil; it was simple. Chanyeol couldn’t have told you his age even if he wanted to. Most things about his life before Neverland had fled his memory long ago, with no effort made to recover any of it. There was no use thinking about such things; Neverland was his home, and always would be. 

“Wendy does look nice today, doesn’t she?” whispered a newly-appeared Luhan at his side, grinning. “Baekhyun chose mother well.”

Chanyeol chose to disregard the use of parental terminology, as it made his insides twist uncomfortably. He did not deign Luhan with a response to his question, opting to swat him off. “Shouldn’t you be out getting water with Sehun?”

“I was, but then I saw you looking at Wendy. Thinking of going over and asking for a story?”

No, that was not quite what Chanyeol had been thinking of doing. He wanted to maybe confront her somehow, but not about her stories. 

He was taking too long to answer, apparently, as Luhan emitted a shrill whistle that could probably be heard across the island. “Wendyyyyyy!” he called over, and Chanyeol’s eyes went wide. But it was too late.

Wendy rose, still holding her crown. He noticed the way her eyes found the smaller boy at his side, but firmly avoided him, as though he were invisible. After brushing off her gown, she strode over. “What is it, Luhan?”

“You look very pretty today, Wendy. Well, you always do, but,” he smiled. If Luhan could take the form of a food, he would be the sweetest, most toothache-inducing berry found on the island. Of that, Chanyeol was convinced.

“You’re very kind,” replied Wendy with a soft laugh. “Here, hold still.” Taking the flower crown in both hands, she gently placed it atop the boy’s head. “Is that all, Luhan?”

Luhan was positively beaming. “I was thinking of making a request for tonight’s story, but I realized Chanyeol probably has some better ideas. Chanyeol knows a lot,” he nodded. Chanyeol sure didn’t feel like he knew much sometimes. “Can’t wait to hear it tonight!” Clutching proudly to his crown, Luhan sauntered off into the brush. Wendy watched after him, not turning her head for the longest time, and Chanyeol contemplated just darting off too. 

His feet shifted, ready to make a run for it, but Wendy spoke, halting those thoughts. “And what story did you want to hear, Chanyeol?” There was no mistaking the stiffness in her voice.

The boy scratched the back of his neck. “Luhan was just kidding. Any story will do.”

Wendy made a noncommittal sound.

“I’m surprised Baekhyun hasn’t taken you somewhere today. It seems you two are always gone,” he pointed out, trying not to sound too bitter.

Wendy began to walk, and Chanyeol followed, able to take much slower strides to keep up with her shorter ones. “Can’t always be leaving, delightful as Baekhyun is.” The statement felt oddly pointed. “Quite the charmer, he is. Very difficult to say no to.” Chanyeol could attest to that fact, but stubbornly refused to agree with the girl on anything out loud.

“You two get along very well.” It was a statement, an observation. “You’re the first girl he’s ever brought here, so you must be awfully special.” His eyes narrowed slightly. 

Another vague hum as Wendy’s lips turned downward. They walked further into the woods in thick silence, briefly passing three lost boys playing some game they’d likely made up ten minutes ago, with Kyungsoo sitting on a rock keeping score. Lost in his thoughts, trying to come up with something witty yet to-the-point to deter Wendy from getting too close to Baekhyun, Chanyeol hardly noticed the fact that Jongin was no longer red anywhere and was laughing with the rest.

They followed a lazy stream down a hill, Wendy being the one once again to make the first move in the conversation. He may not be her biggest fan, but Chanyeol could not say that Wendy was not brave. Perhaps even braver than himself, but that was going a bit far. “Have you ever thought about returning home?”

That one came out of left field, and Chanyeol recoiled as though he’d been hit. “This is home,” he replied defensively. “What? Are you feeling homesick?” He felt hope rise within him that maybe she would be well on her way back to where she came from in no time. The boys would be sad to lose their storyteller, but then things could go back to normal, and Chanyeol was convinced he’d find peace. 

“Is that what you’re hoping? For me to leave?” The hurt was evident in her voice, mixed with potent anger. There was no going back now in this conversation. He’d made his position clear. While that had been his intention in speaking to her, there was regret buried keep down, for he could see her eyes getting glassy. Was she about to cry? Chanyeol suddenly didn’t know how to carry himself—what was he supposed to do now?

“You s— OW!” the boy exclaimed mid-sentence, staggering over as pain stabbed through his foot. Whatever solid, pointy thing he’d stepped on emitted a loud crack, and he looked down to see a twig flower crown snapped in half. 

He quieted down immediately, hand flying to the sword at his side. Before he could draw it, three pirates appeared, one short and the other two tall. A cloth was being shoved into his mouth, causing Chanyeol to gag, and was tied tightly around his head. 

The short, burly pirate grabbed Wendy like a sack of potatoes and flung her over his shoulder. She kicked and screamed into the gag, but silenced and stilled when the pirate pressed the steel of his sword flat against her leg in warning. 

Chanyeol’s sword was taken away, tossed into the stream while he could only watch, restrained by the tall pirate behind him. The third pirate tilted his head to peek at Wendy, eyes alight with amusement. “A girl, eh? Byun finally got lonely and found himself a girl,” he snickered, flicking at the hem of Wendy’s nightgown. Yellow, crooked teeth filled his grin, and Chanyeol was pretty sure he’d faced off with this pirate during their last run-in with the crew. His bushy red hair had grown some since then. 

Chanyeol’s eyes darted around, as though expecting Baekhyun to burst through the leaves and save the day. There was no mistaking the fact that the flying boy was the one hero of these stories, and so his absence was worrisome. Last Chanyeol knew, he’d been catching some sleep inside the tree. 

“Hold her up a little. I want to see her face.” The pirate obliged to the command from the other, sliding Wendy down his front until her chest sat at his shoulder rather than her hips. From his position, Chanyeol could only see the back of Wendy’s head as the pirate rounded to the other side. “Pretty one, she is. Mermaids were right.” A knobbly finger inserted itself beneath her chin, lifting her face. “Hook will be mighty pleased to know the rumours were true. And you,” the pirate leaned to the side so he was suddenly staring Chanyeol square in the face. “Pretty one too, but not what we came for. Still, we aren’t ones to refuse extra loot.” He winked, and the boy felt sick. 

He had many questions, like how they’d found them, or why exactly Hook wanted Wendy. Impossible to ask any of them with this cloth almost choking him. 

“You’re a pesky one too. Hook hasn’t forgotten how you stole one of his favourite hooks; I’m sure he’ll have something special planned for you too.” Chanyeol did remember this—a quick climb on board, nimble fingers filtering through a lush velvet box. He’d accidentally pricked himself on the sharp end of the immaculate hook, the latter having been tossed out to sea with a triumphant grin during his escape. “A’ight, bring them round to the others and get them in the boats,” the pirate ordered gruffly, pointing into the woods to his left. 

The others? Chanyeol jerked and began to kick anew as he felt himself lose his footing upon being dragged. Leaves and branches slid beneath his feet, which were unable to gain traction in the dirt while he struggled. Eventually his captor tired of this and clenched a hand in his dark curls instead to pull him along. The boy wailed into the cloth, tears springing to the corners of his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. Baekhyun wouldn’t cry; he would be out of this situation by now, or would at least be laughing, knowing he still had the upper hand. 

How many others had they taken? His mind traveled to the scene from earlier, to a smiling and laughing Jongin. To the broken flower crown. Luhan. He wriggled all the way to the boats despite the painful tugs on his scalp. His wrists would definitely bruise later from the vice-like grip of his captor’s hands. 

The stretch of sand on this part of the beach hid behind a wall of hanging vines, kept in the shade from the scorching sun. The lack of sunlight allowed his eyes to grow in size at seeing Minseok, Sehun, Kyungsoo, Yifan, and Jongin screeching and struggling against the bigger pirates, with the exception of Luhan, who lay limp in big meaty arms. A few made eye contact with him, a brief and passing moment between them, before they all eventually saw Wendy, and their real concerns made themselves known. They were used to dealing with pirates, nasty as they could be, but Wendy was new to this. Her big eyes held nothing but fear in them as her gaze met Chanyeol’s, and while he wished her gone, he realized he did not wish her gone like this. 

His bottom dropped onto the wooden of the rowboat bench hard, Wendy stuffed in beside him. The short pirate rowed, while the other two sat behind them, ensuring that they didn’t try pulling an escape. In a space this small, Chanyeol knew better than to act up. Any escape attempts would have to wait until they were aboard the Jolly Roger. It loomed in the distance, peacefully bobbing in the waves with its sails down. Those wooden decks had seen their fair share of fights and scuffles. 

Up and down rocked the small rowboats, slowly getting closer and closer to the ship. From the side, he could see Wendy going a little green from the repetitive motions. Throwing up would not be pretty with a gag shoved into . He mainly watched the other boats, each carrying their sets of lost boys, and hoped Luhan was alright. They’d find their escape eventually. He knew they would. 

They were lead onto the boat with harsh shoves willing them to climb the next rung, and the next. The crew had all come out onto the deck to check out the spoils, many grinning wickedly with their rotting teeth. Chanyeol could pinpoint a few he’d personally outsmarted once or twice. Glass-Eye McKenzie watched him carefully with the eye that had earned him his name, never having forgotten that the boy was the reason he limped a little these days. The largest grudge of all, however, was held by Hook, who truly despised Baekhyun for not only feeding his hand to the crocs, but also slipping right through his fingers every time he tried to claim his vengeance. The presence of the pirates around the island kept the lost boys on their toes. 

“What have we got here? A pack of little boys…”

“And a girl!” shouted another from the crowd as Wendy came into view. Several shuffled closer to get a good look.

“Now, now. This pretty lady’s for Hook, but maybe when he’s through with her, I’ll bring her back out for the lot of you.” Their scrawny captor grinned. A sharp kick to the back of his knee had Chanyeol almost buckling, but he caught himself to walk faster down the line of pirates. “But these ones are all ours,” the pirate added lowly, and the others cheered. The boy was momentarily released, only to be grabbed by Glass-Eye McKenzie, who had come forward to very literally seize his opportunity. 

The rest of the lost boys were snatched by any greedy pirate wishing to claim them. Luhan, on the other hand, had not left the one man’s arms. As Chanyeol got dragged off by Glass-Eye McKenzie, he thought he heard them murmuring something about Sleeping Beauty, followed by a snicker. 

“You couldn’t run off for very long,” McKenzie rumbled, seemingly making his way to one of the hatches that lead to the lower decks. “You young ones think you’re all invincible, but you won’t be getting away so easily this time.” 

Irony was a strange yet fascinating creature, poking its head in at the most convenient and perhaps more inconvenient of times. It was always there, hiding, in case it should need to show itself. Baekhyun could summon fairies and mermaids easily enough, but Chanyeol could be deemed the irony whisperer from time to time. With a swing of his hips, he rammed his side into the pirate’s bad hip. The reaction was instantaneous, hands releasing from his arm as the other’s fingers scrambled for the rigging to keep upright. 

And Chanyeol made a run for it. 

“Get that filthy rat back here!”

Two pirates were on him now, one with his sword drawn. The unarmed pirate dove, hugging him around the waist before both crashed to the ground. Chanyeol could barely breathe beneath the weight of the other. His tall frame was lifted upright by a pair of sweaty hands, and he found himself pinned to the edge of the ship, a sword placed beneath his chin. “You’d best behave, boy, or I might have to feed you to Hook too. Better yet, I say we slit your throat right now and spare ourselves the trouble.” The pirate looked over at his companion for approval. 

“Think you can squeal nice and high for us?” The sword turned ever so slightly, edge digging into the tender skin of his throat. Chanyeol kept his breaths shallow, trying not to make his fear known while scrambling to come up with a plan. “A’ight, Sandy, take the gag off so we can hear him scream like a girl.”

The sword being lowered and cloth being removed from his mouth felt like finally surfacing after a long dive. Chanyeol gasped, grateful for the influx of air to help him think. 

“Yeol!” yelled Minseok, only to be knocked over the head by his accompanying pirate, falling to the deck with a dull thud. Jongin tried wriggling free from his captor to run to the fallen other, but found himself restrained even more tightly. 

Through clenched teeth, Chanyeol made the split-second decision to drive his knee up towards the armed pirate. The latter dodged sideways, and angrily swung his sword. The boy quickly jumped and drove his foot at the other, making contact with a rounded yet surprisingly solid stomach. There was a sting on his leg just as the grip on his front was lost, and Chanyeol winced as his back dragged against the splintery rail. He felt his center of gravity shift, pirates yelling something he couldn’t decipher, and he briefly registered the heart-stopping sensation of falling, before his body slapped the water, and everything went black.

Somewhere in the murky abyss, Chanyeol hazily dreamed of yarn-haired dolls and great smoke-spewing birds.

*********

His peaceful slumber was disturbed by a persistent burning in his throat. His limbs ached, weak and tired, and while his entire body was freezing, his head felt warm. He’d much rather return to sleep, however his brain was awake and very persistent on rebooting his system. Eyes slowly fluttered open to be greeted to the surprise of his lifetime. Baekhyun—more specifically his mouth—coming right at him. A violent jerk traversed his body and he began to hoarsely cough. Baekhyun straightened with a gasp. “You’re awake!”

“What… on earth… were you… doing?!” Chanyeol spluttered between coughs, eyes bulging out of his head. He realized they were in a cove, sand damp from the tide having recently receded. “Where… The boat…”

“We’re on the southern point of the island. The fairies found you and led me over.” Baekhyun looked out at the sea, where there was no Jolly Roger in sight. Looking back at Chanyeol, the most curious thing happened. The newly conscious boy was positive he could detect a rosy tint on the other’s cheeks. “And I was trying to save you! Wendy showed me.”

No longer in a fit, Chanyeol sat upright. “By putting your mouth on me?!” Like clockwork, the bitterness seeped back in as the possible implications of Baekhyun’s last statement dawned on him. “And why exactly would she be needing to show you mouth…stuff?” The boy bent his knee to bring his calf closer in order to inspect the cut that ran beside the bone. 

“Oh, that was after Jongin got itchy. She treated him, and later when we were alone, she explained all this other stuff that could patch up wounds, and even save lives. Like this. I forget what she called it, but I’m supposed to blow into your mouth,” Baekhyun explained. He frowned, trying to remember. 

Despite having his intrusive feelings about Baekhyun and Wendy, Chanyeol felt his annoyance fizzle slightly at the sight of his small pout. It didn’t take much for Chanyeol to bend to the other’s will, and he sometimes wondered if Baekhyun had the same hold over the other boys. That made him a good leader, he supposed, even if the lot of them were more like rambunctious brothers than a proper crew. And currently, almost half of said crew was missing, so he really should be focusing on that instead of the sunspots on the other’s face, near where his nose wrinkled. 

“Everyone else…are they safe?” Chanyeol asked before hissing as he tried touching the wound.

Baekhyun crawled forward to swat his hand away. “You probably shouldn’t touch that; but you can stand right?”

“I think so.”

The other nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer. “At least I don’t have to go get any fairies. As for the others, that depends who you mean.”

Worry gripped him then. “Who I mean? Did something happen at the hideout?”

Baekhyun shook his head, plopping down on his backside in front of Chanyeol. “We were all just confused. You, Minseok, Luhan, Yifan, Sehun, Kyungsoo, and Jongin never came back. We waited, even went looking in the woods in case you’d gotten carried away playing. What happened, exactly?”

And so Chanyeol told him, taking care to leave out his conversation with Wendy, all the way up to his tumble from the ship. 

“So one of the pirates nicked you, eh?” Baekhyun asked, cocking his head to look at the cut. “I can just imagine the looks on their faces,” he snickered. “But I wonder if they think you’re dead. One heck of a surprise that’ll be when we show up to free the others. We’ll see if they can beat a ghost.” 

“I’m not dead yet,” Chanyeol retorted, jabbing the other’s foot with his big toe. “Didn’t go through you, now did I?”

Baekhyun grinned. “You’re perfectly solid. Else I wouldn’t be able to do this.” And he leaned forward, propping a hand on the sand to playfully tug at Chanyeol’s ear. “You’d strike fear in the hearts of some of those pirates as a ghost, I’m sure, but I’m glad you aren’t one just yet.” The boy sobered, but it was fleeting, before he put a smile back on his face. It made Chanyeol’s windpipe tighten for a second.

“You would have made sure of it anyway, with your fancy mouth stuff and all,” he pointed out with an awkward chuckle and a vague hand gesture. It required an incredible amount of concentration not to turn a shade of pink at the image of the alternate reality where Baekhyun would have had to complete the maneuver. Self-consciously, he wet his lips and fixated on his cut.

Baekhyun hummed. “Wendy said it wasn’t like kissing. Which is weird, cause she said some people call it the kiss of life.”

“Kissing,” Chanyeol deadpanned.

“Yeah,” The boy shrugged. “Don’t really know how one goes about doing that, but Wendy said it was nice.”

“Ah.” He really didn’t know how to respond to that. “So you and Wendy didn’t…”

“Kiss? Oh, no. She was just using that as an example to help explain, I guess.” Baekhyun dug his heels into the sand and scooted closer. “Have you ever done any kissing, Chanyeol?”

From nearly dying to this. Today was getting stranger and stranger. “I mean, Cinderella kissed me after I saved her, I think.”

“Could you show me? I’ve been wondering ever since.” Baekhyun looked up at him, hopeful. So Cinderella didn’t have a habit of giving him kisses on the cheek. Interesting.

It took a moment or two before Chanyeol’s brain remembered how to function. The task at hand seemed so horribly daunting, yet he couldn’t pinpoint why. “I– sure. Just sit still.” Baekhyun gazed at him expectantly, waiting. “On second thought, close your eyes too.” The other’s stare was unnerving him. Once Baekhyun had done as he was told, Chanyeol steeled himself. He leaned over, head coming round the side, and gently pressed his lips to the other’s cheek, as Cinderella had done. He allowed himself a breath before fully retreating, loudly clearing his throat to signal to the other that he was done.

Eyelids fluttered open, and Chanyeol could visibly observe the thoughts rolling through the boy’s mind playing on his face. “She was right. It is nice.” He ended up smiling sweetly. “And definitely not like blowing into someone’s mouth. Why would someone mistake it for that?” 

Chanyeol meanwhile wondered if he’d accidentally swallowed a particularly feisty butterfly. “I don’t know,” he replied quietly. He squeezed his stomach, thinking that might help kill the critter somehow.

“Come on, the others are waiting for us.” A hand was extended once Baekhyun was on his feet, and Chanyeol took it, pulling himself upright. The cut stung, but it didn’t impede his movement. If anything, his lightheadedness was likelier to be his demise. 

The shorter picked his way up into the bushes, and Chanyeol followed behind. “They took my sword,” he announced, remembering the missing weight at his hip. 

Baekhyun looked over his shoulder as he ducked beneath a large leaf. “We’ll get you another one once we get back. The boys will be thrilled to know you’re okay.”

The taller was still left kind of reeling by the fact that just moments ago he’d kissed the other’s cheek, and now they were back to usual conversation, as though nothing were. Maybe he was just being odd for lingering on it, whereas Baekhyun clearly didn’t. This was just like shaking off an injury, like the cut on his leg. You ploughed on.

And plough on, they did, up and over hills, and across a few creeks, until the tree came into sight. The remaining lost boys stood before it in a huddle, turning when Jongdae first spotted them. “Chanyeol!” he exclaimed, which was then echoed by a few others. 

“This slippery one got away. Extra help for when we make our assault.” Baekhyun grinned. “Oh, Junmyeon, can you go get Chanyeol a sword from the chest? He’ll need one if he’s to be of any help.” Junmyeon saluted before darting off through the trap door. 

Chanyeol ate like a pig that night, so exhausted and aching that warm food entering his mouth felt like the best thing that had happened to him all day. Admittedly, it wasn’t, but it did definitely come in second place. The only thing he needed now was sleep.

Stretched out on his skins, Chanyeol stared at the ceiling of the small alcove. The rest of the alcoves in the twisting roots were empty as most of the lost boys had decided to stargaze tonight, Junmyeon convinced that they’d see some shooting stars tonight. Chanyeol would much rather be staring up at the rich tapestry of stars, but he didn’t think he could move even if he wanted to. He shut his eyes, trying to find a peaceful state of mind to drift off.

“Yeol?”

His eyes opened again, head turning to see the shadow of Baekhyun’s head poking into the space, followed by the rest of him. “Heading to sleep?”

Chanyeol lazily nodded. “Tomorrow you’ll explain the plan?”

A snicker emanated from the other’s position. “When do we ever have a plan?”

“Not often,” he admitted. “But it helps.”

The sound of Baekhyun’s breath was much closer than the snicker had been. “Tomorrow we’ll get our supplies together, and then we’ll attack as soon as we’re ready. We’ll have Wendy back in no time.”

Chanyeol frowned through the dimness. “And the other lost boys,” he replied, thinking them rather important. After a moment of silence, he added, “The pirates… They mentioned having come for ‘the girl’—what if this is all happening because you brought Wendy?” He thought back to Luhan’s limp body, a sour taste being left in his mouth. The timing fit.

“None of this is her fault. We’ll save her, and they’ll know not to mess with her again. I’m sure she’s out there giving them grief.”

The laying boy looked back up at the ceiling, remembering the girl’s scared look. “I don’t know about that,” he said, just loud enough for himself. 

“Hm?”

“Nothing,” Chanyeol quickly replied. 

Things were quiet for the longest time, and for a second, he thought Baekhyun had left, but was proven wrong when the other lightly coughed. “Well, good night, Chanyeol. You’d best be in good fighting shape for tomorrow. I’ll need my right-hand man.”

He needn’t worry. Chanyeol would fight alongside Baekhyun even if one of his limbs was missing. His right-hand man. He smiled a little at that. “I will be.” Now he was sure Baekhyun had left. The space felt cold again, and just as empty as before. Lifting his hand up to his face, he tentatively pursed his lips on his palm, and then pressed his hand to his cheek. It was warm, but it definitely wasn’t the same. He hardly even knew what he was trying to do. Chanyeol to his side, giving a resigned sigh before shutting his eyes.

*********

Between missing breakfast and barely catching lunch, and then banging his head on the trap door, Chanyeol’s day was not off to a good start. His stomach grumbled as he sat alone, finishing off what little scraps remained from the meal, head dully throbbing. He felt much more energized than he had yesterday and his cut had started scabbing over, but the headache and hunger weren’t doing his mood any favours. 

Baekhyun and several lost boys were gathered around a stump in the main chamber, speaking low amongst themselves. Chanyeol had yet to round the corner, but he could hear them. Rather than make his presence known, he stopped and remained hidden. Eavesdropping felt strange when not done on pirates, but some choice words in the conversation gave him pause.

“Got it?” Baekhyun asked.

In the silence that followed, Chanyeol could infer that the rest were nodding. 

“So you’ll go in and get mum, and I’ll stand watch with Jongdae,” said Yixing. 

“Exactly. We’ll get her first, and the rest of you can work on freeing the others. From what Chanyeol told me, she’s probably being kept near Hook, and Hook’s mine.” He could hear the determination in Baekhyun’s voice. He always got this way when it was time to deal with pirates. Hook and Baekhyun went back quite a ways, and so a face-off between them was almost always inevitable. 

Jongdae got a little sidetracked after a moment. “Just imagine; after this mum’ll be able to tell us the epic story of how you saved her! I think I’d much rather hear that one every night than Rum Bell Skill Skim.”

“Hey! I like that story!” Junmyeon piped up.

A few snorts. “We all know your favourite is the one about the princess who eats the apple, Myeonnie.” Chanyeol wasn’t 100% positive, but he thought that was Zitao speaking. 

“Besides,” Junmyeon started up again, disregarding the other’s comment. “Most of her stories are about a brave prince rescuing the princess and saving the day. This’ll fit right in!”

A high giggle that could only belong to Yixing indicated that he was far from the only one who liked the idea. “Wendy is of course the prettiest princess. And that would make Baekhyun here a dashing and brave prince.”

“Well, I am awfully brave and dashing,” agreed Baekhyun, and one could practically hear the smirk in his voice. Jokingly—or perhaps not so jokingly— his own ego was something the flying boy could do like no other. “Alright,” he picked back up shortly afterwards. “Let’s make this one heck of a great story to tell, yeah?” Several sounds of enthusiastic agreement followed.

“And what about Chanyeol?” Everyone quieted at Jongdae’s question. Chanyeol unknowingly held his breath. “He’ll be helping out, right?”

“Of course,” confirmed Baekhyun. “He’ll help us get Wendy back and free the others. I’ll talk to him later before we head out.”

From his spot, Chanyeol could feel it. That ugly thing curling its way around his chest like thorny vines. He just couldn’t shake it. Wendy told riveting stories, but he realized he had no desire for her and Baekhyun to be the stars of their own tale. It just seemed wrong to him, and he would not sit and listen to these fairytales, no matter how skilled the storyteller. Shaking his head, Chanyeol slunk back to his alcove to lay on skins again. To stew, perhaps.

In the afternoon, three of the boys headed out to scout the beach and see if the ship had changed positions. If all went well, they’d attack before the end of the day. Chanyeol had stayed back, sat on a fallen tree as he sharpened his sword with a stone. It would need to be nice and sharp if he planned on poking any pirates with it.

Jongdae hopped past in his peripherals. “Chanyeol, should I get a short or long sword for Wendy? You know, so she can fight with us once she’s freed.”

Chanyeol did not look up. “She’ll make do with anything you give her.” He swore by Hook’s feathered hat that if anyone said ‘Wendy’ one more time, he’d explode. He was tired, and his leg was sore, dammit. The boy sharpened his sword with unnecessary added vigour. 

“I’ve been thinking, and when we rescue Wendy—“

Within a second, Chanyeol had shot to his feet, sword falling to the ferns below, and whipped around to come face to face with Baekhyun this time, who was startled by the other’s abrupt reaction. “I get it! I know, we’re rescuing Wendy! She’ll be back before you know it, and you’ll all get to throw a ceremony in her honour. The prince and princess will live happily ever after! It’ll be great!” He threw his hands in the air, and turned to stalk off. 

A hand gripped his bicep, yanking him back. He faced Baekhyun again, chest heaving, and unsure of what to do with his clenched fists. 

“You’re upset.” The shorter’s lips curved downward.

“You think?” he retorted stiffly.

The other’s face visibly soured. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. What matters right now is the rescue, getting W—”

“Don’t.” Chanyeol’s jaw tightened. 

“Don’t what?”

“You were going to say ‘Wendy’. Ever since you brought her, it’s been Wendy this, Wendy that. She’s nice, and pretty, and the lost boys love her. I’d expect nothing less. But you’ve grown fond of her too.”

Baekhyun’s expression was twisted somewhere between confusion and hurt. “And I can’t like her?”

A moment of silence. “You can, but suddenly the world seems to revolve around her like she’s the sun. You spend all this time with her, and…”

“The same amount of time I did with you when I first brought you to Neverland! She needs to learn how to survive here.”

Chanyeol pulled his arm free of Baekhyun’s now loose grasp. The other’s logic was sound, but it did nothing to appease him. “The pirates,” he said after a very long pause. “When they captured us, they said you’d finally gotten lonely enough to bring a girl. Is that true?” Insecurity bled from him like an open wound, thick and heavy.

With a light shake of his head, Baekhyun stepped back, looking much more solemn now. “Chanyeol, where on earth is this coming from? I brought Wendy so we could have a storyteller. So we could all have fun together. Don’t ruin that fun for no reason.”

“Fine,” replied Chanyeol with a note of finality. “I won’t. Like I said, go rescue your princess, and everything will be fine and dandy.” He calmed, almost to a frightening degree, before he turned away and began to walk. He made it past the wall of vines on the West side of the hideout before accelerating to a jog. 

Chanyeol cared not where his feet took him, as long as it put distance between himself and Baekhyun. The easiest way not to rain on his parade was to simply not be there. Leaves and sprawling plants passed him by, a many rock and twig stepped over, but the boy took no notice of where exactly he was heading. Hands roughly rubbed at his eyes as he refused to cry despite his frustration. He ran until his lungs burned and he decided he could run no more, crashing into some moss at the mouth of a small cave. 

The boy glanced over at the hill he’d just run down, no pursuers in sight; no Baekhyun. It made him feel lonelier than ever, and it hurt. Baekhyun had just watched him go, and probably wouldn’t care if he got punctured to death by a wild boar out here. Or bitten by a venomous snake. There were plenty of those. He didn’t want Chanyeol ruining things, and so now he wouldn’t have to worry about it. He wouldn’t tarnish the perfect picture, mum and dad with their hoard of horribly misbehaved children. He wouldn’t be the one person in the room who wasn’t grinning from ear to ear as Wendy recounted how the prince had so heroically saved the princess from the grimy pirates. 

Sprawled in the moss, Chanyeol decided he would go no further. He was in the process of curling up on his side when he heard a tinkle. “Please, not now, Tink.” His voice was small, and he almost didn’t recognize it himself. He felt a disruption in his hair. And then a yank. “Ow!” He straightened, rubbing at his scalp. The fairy fluttered before him, small arms folded across her chest. 

“What?”

Tinkerbell flew forward, pressing both hands into his dimple and trying to forcefully push the corner of his mouth up. “There’s not much you can do for me, Tink. But thank you.” He extended his finger, letting the fairy settle upon it. “Promise me you’ll go defeat those pirates with Baekhyun, yeah?” 

She just fixed him with a look. Sometimes Chanyeol wished she could speak, but in times like these, he was rather grateful, certain he’d be receiving a speech right about now. “Why do I hate her, Tink?” he asked desperately, looking down at the fairy. His frown turned into something much more sorrowful. “Why do I want to be her?” Hearing it said aloud made him realize it was indeed true. It was perhaps the only way Baekhyun would pay attention to him like that. Although, he couldn’t quite define what he meant by ‘that’. The boy thought back to their kiss at the cove, lips tingling in remembrance. The other had said he and Wendy hadn’t done anything of the sort, but now that Baekhyun knew how, he had to wonder… 

But it shouldn’t matter. It was just a stupid kiss on the cheek. Even Cinderella had given him one. Still, he had no wishes to repeat that particular experience, regardless how grateful the princess may be. The same couldn’t be said, however, for the kiss he gave Baekhyun.

“You know what, I don’t even know what I want. I’m so…confused.” And it scared him. The boy fisted his hand in his hair and squeezed his eyes shut. “Tink, am I going insane?”

The fairy sat down, gently patting his finger. He opened his eyes again, cheeks wet, and he cursed himself for letting it happen. His gaze shifted to the forest beyond, only looking back when he realized the fairy was no longer perched on his finger. Tinkerbell hugged herself against his cheek, salty tears rolling over her glowing hand. The droplets held a bit of sparkling dust within them by the time they dripped off his chin onto his knees. And the next moment, she was gone, flying off through the trees.

Chanyeol was alone again, and used the back of his hands to wipe his face. The day wore on, the boy eventually pulling his shirt over his head to bunch it up and use it as a pillow. He was exhausted, despite having done next to nothing today. 

His stomach growled eventually, paining him so much he scavenged some berries from the area to eat. Day faded into dusk as the woods became a maze of shadows and slivers of moonlight. He was certain the others were gone by now, engaged in harrowing battle against the pirates. Chanyeol smiled a little imagining himself there, shoving poor old Smee off the plank before crossing swords with Glass-Eye. Baekhyun would give him that grin across the deck, and swiftly they’d change positions, causing the two pirates they’d been engaging to smack into one another. Fighting alongside Baekhyun was a feeling he could scarcely replicate, save perhaps for the kiss, although the latter brought in fear that was not present in the other activity. It almost seemed silly to find fighting a swarm of pirates easier than all this. A good swordfight had never driven him off into the woods, had never sparked disagreement between he and Baekhyun.

A gentle rustling from behind made him stiffen. Maybe it was one those venomous snakes, finally coming for a snack.

“Chanyeol.”

He shut his eyes, not turning towards the voice behind him. “Why aren’t you gone to save the day already?”

“I believe at this point, I’d be saving the night,” Baekhyun chuckled softly.

“You know what I meant.”

“Yeah.” A breath. “We couldn’t leave, because we’re missing someone.” Chanyeol knew the boy meant him.

“You’re missing half. What’s one more person gonna do?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders. Heck, Baekhyun alone could probably go save everyone else no problem. The flying thing was a huge advantage over the rest.

More rustling, and though he couldn’t see Baekhyun, he knew the other was right behind him. A warm hand on his shoulder made the boy inhale sharply. 

“Chanyeol, could you at least look at me?”

He was very tempted to stubbornly refuse, but after chewing out the inside of his cheek for a moment, he shot to his feet and spun to face the other. “Happy?”

“Happier. All that stuff about Wendy… It still makes no sense to me, but I don’t want to get into it right now. I just need to know if you’ll come back with me to fight.” Baekhyun’s expression softened, a silent plea held within. 

Rather than answer, Chanyeol replied with a question of his own. “Do you ever get…sick of me sometimes? Bored?”

Baekhyun’s head tilted off to the left. “…No? What the hell gives you that impression?”

“Nothing,” said Chanyeol, gaze diverting downward. Slender fingers found their way around his jaw, lifting his head back up to meet Baekhyun’s unwavering stare.

“Will you fight?” The question was slower, much more firm this time around.

Everything else melted away around the other’s fingertips on his face. His injury, his frustration towards Baekhyun, and even the anger he harboured for Wendy for a brief moment. The boy swallowed as the other’s eyes pierced into him. It was so easy to cave when it came to Baekhyun. So, so easy, it was almost embarrassing, which is why he fought off a blush as his lips parted to utter a “yes”.

Baekhyun’s face lit up, but Chanyeol was disappointed as the hand dropped from his face, coming instead to Baekhyun’s mouth so he could emit a shrill whistle. Within seconds, Tink was zipping in, and something told him she hadn’t been hovering very far away this whole time. Baekhyun seized her small figure in one hand and gave her a shake to spread some dust on him, likely so they could fly back to the others and be on their way. As soon as she was no longer needed, the fairy vanished into the trees.

“So we’re okay?”

Chanyeol slowly nodded. “For now, I think.” That didn’t seem to be completely satisfactory to Baekhyun, whose smile dimmed slightly.

“For now… Is there any way to change that to just a yes? You fight better when you’re in a good mood.” 

Of course this would all be in the interest of putting up the best fight against the pirates. Chanyeol tried not to feel too saddened by it, despite wishing for the motive to be something more. Was there even anything that could bring up his mood fully? The boy glanced down as he felt the other take his hand. Baekhyun just looked at him expectantly now, waiting for an answer before they could take off and join the others.

He was about to reply with a shake of his head as to not delay, but the selfish side—the one that had been paining him so ever since Wendy’s arrival—gave him pause. There was something that would make him happier right now. Something he desired. Perhaps it was too much to ask, but, “Baekhyun, could I…could I, um, kiss you?” His heart hammered in his chest, but he wasn’t sure if it was in anticipation or in fear of rejection.

He received a strange look, which then dissolved into a soft laugh. It almost sounded relieved? “Like at the cove? Yeah, sure, especially if it’s going to help.” Baekhyun smiled and closed his eyes, turning his head to offer up his cheek. Just like that.

For a second, Chanyeol just watched him with some form of admiration. Similar to how he would watch the king and queen fairy twirl in circles with golden dust filtering out through the tree roots. Or how he’d gaze at the starry night sky. He could liken Baekhyun to many things he thought to be wonderful on the island. 

“What’s the matter?” Baekhyun asked behind closed eyes, unsure why this was taking so long.

“Sorry.” Chanyeol’s face grew hot, and he was glad the other couldn’t see. This was just like last time; he just had to lean in and do it. Except it wasn’t. The weight on his shoulders this time around felt much heavier. Baekhyun had not asked him to kiss him—Chanyeol had asked to. He still didn’t know what he was feeling, but contrary to what he’d told Tink earlier, he knew what he wanted in that moment. The boy leaned down and placed a gentle peck on the other’s skin before retreating.

Baekhyun opened his eyes again, looking pensive. “Should I give you one now? You’ve given me two; I feel like I should return the favour.”

All Chanyeol could do was nod, not trusting himself to speak. The other boy leaned up onto his toes, bracing his hands on the taller boy’s shoulders. His kiss was much quicker, but still, Chanyeol discovered that receiving might be even more enjoyable than giving. Before he could utter a word, Baekhyun shifted his head over and kissed his other cheek. 

“There, now we’re even. Am I as good at this as I am at swordfighting?”

The taller had a dopey smile on his lips, feeling an energy surge through his veins. “I’d say so.”

“You know, it’s kind of fun. Maybe we could do more of it after we’ve rescued everyone.”

Chanyeol nearly choked.

“You’re looking a little pale. Not falling ill, are you? Maybe you just need another one of these,” And Baekhyun pecked his cheek again, using his grip on the taller’s shoulders to steady himself. No, that definitely was not going to fix the situation. Chanyeol was wound tight as a coil.

“Chanyeollllll,” Baekhyun whined after the lack of a response. “Cat got your t–”

The shorter never did get to finish his sentence, silenced by Chanyeol’s mouth colliding with his own. This wasn’t the meek kiss on the cheek that Cinderella gave him, and in theory it shouldn’t work, but somehow it did, as though he’d accidentally discovered something extraordinary through this one dumb, impulsive move. It was a kiss that lingered, both too shocked by the foreign sensation or perhaps too engrossed to move away. Baekhyun’s lips were rough just as his own were, chapped from hours spent outside, but he realized as the gentle breath left his body that this was what he’d truly meant when asking for that kiss. This is what he’d wanted. The shorter’s hands tightened on his shoulders, fingertips pressing into skin with the slightest stab of nails.

Baekhyun came down from his toes, Chanyeol craning over instead to maintain contact. The former breathed out long through his nose. When the kiss did end, their mouths gently came apart, slow and uncertain. Chanyeol would admit that was the most frightening thing he’d done in a very long time.

“What was that?” Baekhyun asked softly after a moment. The gears in his head could be seen spinning a mile a minute.

Chanyeol’s tongue darted out to wet his lips, trying not to fixate on how breathless the other sounded. “A kiss.”

“But that was nothing like what you did before…”

“I know,” was all Chanyeol could really provide. He was ready to have it end at that, much as he didn’t want the moment to end at all.

“Do it again.”

Chanyeol thought he’d misheard, staring wide-eyed at Baekhyun. It took a few seconds, but when his brain clocked in, confirming that the other had just said what he thought he’d just said, Chanyeol wasted no time in closing the gap once more to chase Baekhyun’s lips. It wasn’t any less enjoyable the second time around, he was delighted to discover. This kiss was tinged with a more experimental colour as both tried to figure out how to do this.

They came apart, breathing more heavily than before. Things were quiet as their breaths gradually calmed. “You’re thinking happy thoughts,” Baekhyun pointed out softly after a time, and Chanyeol opened his eyes, looking down to see that he was right. Neither of their feet touched ground, both hovering a handful of feet in the air. A product of fairy dust and his emotions. He wasn’t sure when that had happened, having been a bit too distracted to notice anything. Looking back up at Baekhyun, though, he could feel that something was off. The lustre and novelty of the experience had worn off for the other, and he’d grown pensive. Chanyeol’s previous euphoria twisted into something almost uncomfortable.

They began their gentle descent, drifting back down to the ground as the silence between them grew ever more awkward. Chanyeol didn’t know what to say, and Baekhyun was quick to avert his eyes whenever he looked his way. Baekhyun released his hold on him, opting not to follow Chanyeol all the way down and stay in the air, just out of reach. 

Chanyeol wondered if this was a mistake. Neither could look at the other, clearly dealing with a lot of inner turmoil over this simple action. It was Baekhyun who broke the deafening silence, back to his leader tone. “We should get back. The boys will be wondering what’s taking so long.”

“Oh….um, yeah. Right.”

Baekhyun didn’t even bother replying before taking off, and Chanyeol was left dazed and confused, having to will himself into the air and try to catch up with the other, although he always stayed a few paces behind, suddenly cautious to get too close. There would be time to figure this out after they saved the others, he told himself.

The boys were indeed waiting for them when they returned, all lined up on the shoreline and whooping as they made their landing. In the few minutes it had taken to return, Chanyeol had e part of his mind off, and the other part on; the part that knew how to swordfight nearly as well as Baekhyun. They would get the rest of the boys back.

“Good to see you back, Chanyeol,” greeted Junmyeon, lightly clapping him on the back.

“Yixing and I were worried you’d run off to go join the pirates or something,” added Jongdae.

Chanyeol gave a half-hearted chuckle. “I wouldn’t have gotten very far off shore without fairy dust.” 

Jongdae didn’t seemed convinced. “You’re a pretty good swimmer,” he insisted, arms folded across his chest. “But in any case, you’re not a very good fighter without your sword.” Junmyeon produced the sword he’d discarded hours ago in his frustration. 

Chanyeol took it in hand, feeling its weight for a moment before nodding. There wasn’t any more reason to delay. “Let’s go save the day, shall we?” The boys gave a cheer, with Baekhyun watching on with a determined grin, although Chanyeol noticed he was not included within the scope of the other’s gaze. He shook it off as he turned towards the sea, which was washing ashore in rhythmic waves. 

Baekhyun made the rounds, giving Tink a shake and giving each lost boy a generous sprinkle. Once they were all afloat, Baekhyun led the pack out over the open water. Chanyeol kept low at the back, occasionally hopping along the water’s surface to give himself brief bursts of joy. He had to stop as the wind picked up, though, greatly increasing the size of the waves. The silhouette of the ship rocked up ahead, surely putting the strongest stomachs onboard to the test. 

“INCOMING!” A voice in the distance brought them all to full alert. 

Chanyeol swept to the side as there was a loud bang and a cannon ball whizzed past. The group dispersed then, as it was clear they’d been spotted. Chanyeol’s heart raced in his chest as he swerved up high, and could see several of the others parting left and right. 

“FIRE!” 

Another canon ball was blasted, and the boy could only hope the rest were quick enough to avoid it. They would need every last sword they had to pull this off. 

He noticed someone had landed up on the decks, followed by another, and the screams announced that the fight had broken out. Chanyeol shot down like an arrow, slicing at the nearest pirate as he made his landing, hard on both feet. Grunts and yells filled the air as more lost boys entered the battle. 

Swords clashed, and Chanyeol found himself locked against a pirate with a beard white as snow. The other’s beady eyes stared at him from between the two crossed blades as they struggled for power. The pirate’s left arm was bleeding, presumably where the blade had caught him a moment ago. Chanyeol was the one to push off, staggering back a few steps before hopping forward with another swing. His sword glanced off the other’s, and the boy hit his side on nearby rigging. 

He quickly ducked onto the other side of the ropes when another pirate came careening into them, driven back by Jongdae. They hardly had time to exchange a glance before Jongdae had to fend off a swing from the white-bearded pirate. Chanyeol jabbed the latter in the left arm for good measure before flying up. 

Another figure hovered, looking down at the scenery.

“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol called out to him, and the other’s gaze shot up to meet his. 

He flew over, noticing the crease in the other boy’s brow. “I can’t see her anywhere,” Baekhyun stated, eyes scanning carefully over the decks below before shaking his head. “We cut some of the boys loose from the post they were tied to. Wendy wasn’t with them.” 

Looking down, Chanyeol saw that he was right. It was easy to pick out the lost boys from the pirates, smaller in stature, much less clothed, and lacking any of the large beards and moustaches boasted by the pirates. It was hats and beards versus heads of ratty hair and animal skins. The boy pressed his lips together, sticking to a formal tone. “We’ll find her. She has to be around here somewhere.”

Baekhyun nodded, and without another word, he flew back down into the fight. Chanyeol followed suit, landing near the bow to break up two pirates ganging up on Yixing. He swung at one while hearing a yell and feeling something wet on the back of his shoulder. Glancing over, he saw Yixing holding his right arm. With a cry, Chanyeol stabbed the pirate the boy had been facing, struggling for a moment to pull his blade back out. Yixing roughly shoved him aside and both of them tumbled to the floor as the second pirate’s sword swung through the empty space previously occupied by the two boys. 

Chanyeol got up and rushed to a nearby post, where Junmyeon was struggling to pull Minseok free from his bindings. Junmyeon was looking a little rough, his left calf thoroughly scraped and blood dripping from a cut on his thigh. “Go,” Chanyeol told the other. “I’ll take care of it.”

His fingers fumbled with the ropes, before he gave up and cut Minseok free with his sword. “Take this,” he said, shoving his sword into the boy’s hands. Chanyeol then got back up to his feet and turned in a circle, searching for another weapon. 

A mass abruptly fell from above, flattening the boy to the deck. It knocked the wind right out of his lungs, and he gasped for air beneath what he now realized was a pirate. Grimy, and with a long twisted moustache, the pirate wasn’t moving. Dead. Chanyeol clawed and pushed at the body, trying to worm out from beneath. His ribs hurt, and it felt like he had splinters in his back, but those were unimportant as he finally got on two feet again. A pirate charged with a hoarse yell, and Chanyeol instinctively shot up into the air as his only defence. 

A sword… He needed a sword. The pirate that had fallen on him wasn’t holding one, and he needed to act fast because this fairy dust would wear off soon. 

He recognized Glass-Eye McKenzie down below dueling against both Jongin and Kyungsoo. Chanyeol made a beeline for the trio, landing upon the pirate’s shoulders. It caught Glass-Eye off-guard, and the boy took the opportunity to try wrestling the sword from his hand. He had a hold on the man’s wrist, and tugged as hard as he could. Nails were scratching into Chanyeol’s ankle, drawing blood as the pirate flailed about, trying to buck him off. Kyungsoo jumped in to help then, cleanly slicing across the man’s stomach. Glass-Eye fell to his knees with a garbled scream, and that was when Chanyeol was finally able to yank the sword from him. 

No longer defenceless, he hopped off and pivoted to charge a tall gangly pirate, knocking him to the ground where Chanyeol delivered a blunt blow to his head with the hilt of his sword once…twice, and then a third final time before jumping off the man. His ribs ached with every breath he heaved, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins made it a faint whisper at the back of his mind. 

He sprinted past a parrying Baekhyun, who grunted before flying up and kicking the pirate he was facing in the chest. He landed beside Chanyeol, roughly grabbing his arm. “She has to be on the inside somewhere. Find her and get her off the ship,” Baekhyun instructed in a rush before releasing him and running at the pirate who had regained his footing. Chanyeol would rather be out here fighting alongside the other lost boys, but he would not disobey Baekhyun. 

Chanyeol ran around two active conflicts and up the stairs onto the next level. He got nicked on the shoulder as he passed a pirate clearly trying to decapitate Yifan, and crashed, hard, into the door leading to the captain’s quarters. He hadn’t seen Hook around yet, and so perhaps he was the one guarding Wendy. 

The knob wouldn’t turn. Locked. He rammed his body against the door, but it would not budge. That convinced him Wendy was in there.

The boy whirled around, and delivered an assisting blow to the pirate Yifan was fending off. Chanyeol spied a dagger strapped to the man’s belt, and ducked around him to slip it out from against his rounded belly. He rushed back to the door and dropped his sword in order to jam the dagger into the keyhole. The blade was wriggled and twisted, but it got him no closer to getting through the door.

“Move!” 

Chanyeol barely had time to throw himself to the side before there was a loud bang and his ears were ringing. Wide-eyed, he stared at the hole blown in the door before turning to face Yifan, no longer pursued by a pirate and holding a smoking pistol between his hands. He was mouthing something over, but Chanyeol heard no sound. In fact he couldn’t hear much at all. Screams and clangs were muffled in the background, and his head was positively throbbing. 

It was of no matter. He waved Yifan off and picked up his sword before pushing through the broken door. He could hear his own breaths much more acutely than anything else, as well as the rapid beat of his heart, timed with the steady throb of his head. 

Chanyeol staggered into the room and heard a whimper in the dark space, as though through a tin can with his warped hearing. “Wendy?” He saw her, tied to a chair fallen on its side beside the heavy wooden table littered with stained parchments. It was to see in the dark room, but what few curls of light managed to come in through the small window bathed Wendy’s face in a dull blue. Her cheeks were splotchy and swollen around her gag, but she showed no signs of injury. 

Chanyeol dropped down to the ground beside her, ignoring her stare as he got to work on the ropes. She made a noise of protest, which he realized he was able to hear very clearly now despite the lingering headache, and the boy retracted his sword. “Right, the gag. Sorry.” He pulled the cloth from her head, tossing it aside. He resumed his original task. “Wendy, where’s Hook? I thought he’d be in here with you, and I haven’t seen him down on the decks–“

“Channie, how could you?” she bit out, interrupting him. 

He stopped again, looking down to find her ready to start crying angry tears, clearly at the end of her rope here. Confused, he simply let her continue, and hopefully give more context here. And hold on, had she called him Channie?

“How could you leave me like that? You told me we’d go find a better home together. That we’d run off when mom and Han were out on another one of their trips. But you just disappeared, leaving me with…with that monster!” Chanyeol was even more perplexed, which seemed to only irritate Wendy further. He decided to carefully start cutting again so he didn’t have to look at her. “You don’t remember. I knew it from the second I first saw you by the castle,” she added bitterly. “You looked at me like I was some stranger. Time went on, I waited, and still nothing. Chanyeol, you can’t tell me you don’t remember anything.”

The boy adamantly shook his head, quickening the pace of his slicing. “You’re speaking nonsense, Wendy. We’re going to get you off this ship and–”

“How dare you accuse me of speaking nonsense when you don’t even have the decency to recognize your own sister!” She was practically yelling now, and Chanyeol thankfully managed to release her bindings, ropes falling to the floor. Her last words rang in the enclosed space, and the boy stared long and hard at her. 

Wendy righted herself into a sitting position, chest heaving with her lips pulled into a tight line. “At least now I know where you vanished, and that knowledge looks like it might be getting me killed,” she muttered. 

Chanyeol decided to brush the matter aside for now. He didn’t need anything intruding on his focus. He would sort all this rubbish out with Wendy after they’d all returned home. This was not the time or place to be arguing with her. “None of us are going to die today, Wendy. I can guarantee you that.”

Wendy’s expression softened, and she looked almost defeated. “Except you can’t. And I don’t plan on losing you twice, Chanyeol, even if I’m still upset with you.”

The boy didn’t know what to make of that. Nor would he figure that out now, because two burly pirates barged in, swords swinging. “Go!” he told Wendy with a light shove after both had bounded to their feet. “I’ve got this.” He ran at the pirates with a cry, metal hitting metal before he jumped over the table. Wendy took the opportunity to run past and out the door. 

With the table separating them, Chanyeol stayed light on his feet, ready to bolt in either direction. But the men weren’t stupid, and each one came around a side, forcing the boy to jump back over the table. He made a run for the door but fell to his knees when a sword caught his ankle. It hadn’t cut terribly deep, but he now tried to quickly get up again.

Before he could do so, a large hand grabbed his hair from behind and threw him against the wall. Sprawled on the floor, the two pirates loomed above him, and Chanyeol winced. He looked down at the blade pressing against the underside of his chin.

“Bold of ya to come saving the damsel in distress. Bet you thought you were gonna get away with it too, eh?” Both pirates snickered. 

“I’d say that I have. She left,” Chanyeol breathed hoarsely, still eyeing the steel. His face tightened as he felt the sword press in harder. 

That made the one holding the sword grin. “Not without punishment, boy.” Chanyeol swallowed, his own sword twitching in his grasp.

With stomping feet came barging Yifan, and then Luhan, who threw themselves onto the pirates. 

Chanyeol scrambled to his feet and joined in, the three of them managing to crowd the two into a corner. Luhan ducked and went for the legs of one, and Chanyeol caught a candlestick Yifan tossed over to hit the other round the head. The first howled as he fell, and the second fell with only a thump, out cold. 

“Thanks guys,” said Chanyeol, relieved. “Really impeccable timing there.” Luhan pat him on the shoulder with a smile. Yifan looked positively exhausted. “Hey, Yifan,” he started. “You should get back on shore as soon as you can. Take as many others with you as you can manage. The sooner we can all escape, the better.”

“But what about you?” asked Yifan, swiping some blood off his brow. 

Chanyeol shook his head. “Baekhyun won’t leave here without Wendy. And I won’t leave here without Baekhyun. We’ll come find you on the beach soon enough,” he assured the other. Now that everyone was located and freed, it was merely a matter of getting off the ship. 

Luhan and Yifan exchanged a hesitant look before nodding. “Alright, but don’t get into any more scuffles, because we won’t be around to save you,” advised Luhan, unable to keep a boyish smirk off his face. 

“You have my word,” Chanyeol snorted in reply. The other two boys were seemingly satisfied with that, and made their way towards the exit with a parting nod. 

Now alone in the room, Chanyeol took a second to recuperate, once again aware of his sore rib cage and just trying to find his breath again. He stayed hunched for a moment or two, before he too strode out to where Yifan and Luhan had disappeared. 

Outside beneath the clouds and stars, it seemed things had quieted down. There weren’t as many screams and clangs anymore, and looking to the right, he could see some dots traveling across the water. Hopefully that was most of the boys. 

Walking over to the rail, however, Chanyeol caught a glimpse of the scene down on the lower deck and his heart dropped into his stomach. Baekhyun was on his knees, head held back by a grip a pirate had on his hair. Blood ran down from his left temple, and Hook was circling him. A short distance across, facing away from Chanyeol, was another figure on its knees. One with long hair, wearing a night gown. 

Tink found him, and it was her arrival that tore his wide-eyed stare from the scene. “Tink, did everyone else leave?” The small fairy shook her head. Who was left? Chanyeol looked back down to see, but found Baekhyun staring right at him. Chanyeol felt his heartbeat in his throat as decisions made themselves in his head without him realizing. “Tink, I need some dust.” She flew closer, and he took her in hand, giving her a brief shake over his head. He released the fairy and tightened his grip on his sword. 

Below, one of the pirates came up and smacked Wendy, making her topple sideways. She would have fallen to the ground had there not been a pirate holding her from behind. Chanyeol got unwarranted flashes of a young girl with a bow in her hair getting thrown to the floor as a taller figure advanced into a bedroom, getting closer…and closer… Chanyeol shook it off, and pushed off from the deck. 

Quick as an arrow, he flew feet-first at the pirate holding Wendy. The impact sent all three of them crashing to the ground in a tangled heap. Chanyeol rolled himself off the pile and quickly grabbed for Wendy, pulling her to her feet. Two pirates were upon them then, and he put Wendy behind him as he fended them off, sword swinging frantically to prevent blows from either one. He took a few steps back as a third and fourth pirate ran over, trying to mentally calculate how he was going to fight all of them with one sword. 

From behind a barrel, out came Jongdae with a cry, slashing at one of the oncoming pirates, and successfully catching the attention of the other to duel off with him. As soon as he was able to send the man stumbling off in the other direction, he flew to Chanyeol’s position. “I’ve got her,” he rushed out, and without further warning, the boy leaped off the side of the ship with Wendy clinging on.

Chanyeol’s attention was brought back to his current situation when he got a cut beneath the elbow. 

“Stop,” came a smooth voice. The pirates halted, lowering their swords, and parted to let Hook through. He swaggered over, tightening up his hook hand as he sized up Chanyeol. 

Chanyeol instantly tried to strike at him once he got within reach, but the two pirates grabbed him roughly and slammed his back to the ground. His sword was taken from his hand, and the boy watched it leave his side, horrified. Hook’s black boots stopped beside his head, and the hook-handed pirate craned over him. Chanyeol struggled against the grip that held him down, but that just earned him a painful knee to the stomach. He whimpered. 

“Bring him over,” Hook instructed before turning away. “It’s of little matter to have lost Wendy; we have Byun. And as for this one…” Chanyeol knew he meant him. “Let’s have a little fun, shall we? I don’t appreciate those who steal my things.” Real rich, coming from you, thought Chanyeol.

Baekhyun was Hook’s number one thorn in his side, and while the man would love nothing more than to be rid of him quickly, there was an appeal to playing with his food a bit before swallowing just to make this victory all the more satisfying.

Chanyeol was dragged over to where Wendy had previously been held. The two pirates holding him pulled him up onto his feet, and he could once again feel the ache in his ribs with a renewed vigor. Once in place, one pirate released him to hand over full responsibility to the other.

“Byun didn’t like us playing with his Wendy much, but I sense that he might not like this either.” Hook whirled around then, and put his hook to Chanyeol’s throat. “And you’re already in pretty rough shape. Don’t think we’ll have to do much.” As he tilted his wrist, the boy felt the pointed tip press into his skin, and it dragged down slowly, leaving a line of red in its wake. There was a grunt and then a thump, and when Hook turned around, Chanyeol was able to see that Baekhyun had been pinned to the floor.

The momentary distraction gave Chanyeol time to swing his head forward and slam it back into his captor’s face. There was a garbled exclamation, and the grip on his body slackened enough for Chanyeol to pitch forward, nearly faceplanting. He unsteadily straightened, fists raised and expecting a fight he wasn’t sure how he’d win. Instead, he found Hook with a raised hand, halting any efforts others might have made to get to him. Hook looked utterly delighted as he stared Chanyeol down. 

“You’re certainly a stubborn one, I’ll give you that,” said the pirate. “And little Baekhyun over here clearly cares if I leave you in one piece or not.”

“Let him go… Please, just… Take me instead, or…or…” It was the only thing he could think of in the moment. 

Hook raised his brows. “And why would I do that? You’re not the one who cut off my hand and fed it to the crocs, now are you?” Chanyeol didn’t know what to reply to that. He glanced over at Baekhyun, who glared on at the scene. “Tell you what,” started Hook after a moment. “If you can get over to Baekhyun, we’ll let him go. We’ll let both of you go, just as you came.”

Chanyeol looked from Hook to Baekhyun again. The smaller boy was maybe fifteen feet away, at most. This felt like it might be a trap, but what other choice did he have?

“Chan–“ Baekhyun began to caution, but it was too late. Chanyeol launched himself forward. He took one running step before something cut across the back of his leg, and he fell to the ground, a sharp pain coursing up his body. Hook retracted his sword, an amused grin dancing on his face.

Biting down the pain, Chanyeol pushed himself back to his feet, limping as he tried to proceed forward. Two small steps, and then he got a slice to his back. The boy gasped, and fell to his hands and knees. With some difficulty he pushed himself up, but a boot to the back of the knees had him crashing down again. His legs quivered, but he tried once again to stand. Before he could fully straighten, he found that his legs refused to support him, and he collapsed. 

On his hands and knees now, Chanyeol was panting. He looked up through his bangs at Baekhyun, who looked on with an unsteady lip. “Chanyeol, stop. I don’t need– Chanyeol, stop!” the other shrieked as Chanyeol began to crawl. Baekhyun got a firm slap to the face by a neighboring pirate. 

Chanyeol sluggishly crawled a good three feet before Hook’s boot connected with his face, and he fell onto his side, clutching his nose. Blood gushed from the middle of his face, and he convulsed as he got a hard kick to the gut. His lungs were on fire and his face felt numb, but after a moment of lying there, the boy rolled back onto his stomach. 

“STOP.” The shrill sound made Chanyeol lazily lift his head up. Baekhyun looked him dead in the eye with a desperate plea, teeth clenched and streaks down both his cheeks. They gazed at one another in silence, Baekhyun gently shaking his head. Chanyeol mustered up the energy to shake his own head in reply. I’m sorry.

Everything hurt, but it would be worth it if he reached Baekhyun. He had to try. That was why a moment later, the boy planted his elbows on the wooden deck, and dragged himself forward. His arms trembled from the effort, and he could feel the splinters of old wood stabbing into his skin. He only stopped when Hook’s feet appeared in front of him, blocking the way.

The pirate crouched down, seizing Chanyeol’s chin to tilt his head up at a painful angle. The boy gave a muffled moan. “Foolish child,” Hook scolded. “I can see why Byun has a soft spot for you; you’re just as reckless and stupid as he is. And that’ll get you killed. Is that really what you want?” he inquired. When Chanyeol didn’t reply, Hook tutted. “Didn’t think so.” He released the boy, and his head thumped back down to the ground. Hook gave his sword a twirl. “I think we’ve had quite enough of this spectacle, entertaining though it is.” 

Chanyeol forced his head back up until he could at least get his chin propped on the deck. He looked up at Baekhyun, and crept a hand forward, reaching out with shaking fingers. Grasping only at air and splintered wood. He knew with a sinking feeling in his stomach that he wasn’t reaching Baekhyun. 

As Chanyeol lay there, Hook advanced on Baekhyun, a wicked smile illuminating his face. “I wonder if the crocs will like your hand as much as they liked mine,” he drawled. “Your right one should do just fine.” His swordfighting hand. 

Chanyeol pressed his forehead to the floor, difficultly drawing breath into his lungs. He felt heavy, and rather useless. Shutting his eyes, he braced himself for the sound of steel cutting through flesh, but it never came. The air filled with roaring yells, and then everything got loud again; shouting and metal clanging. It almost sounded like when the battle had first broken out. The boy was abruptly grabbed under the arms and hauled upwards. He didn’t get to register who, nor what was happening around them, and felt the last of his body leave the ground. “I’ve got you,” assured a voice. Baekhyun. At a weightless bobbing sensation, Chanyeol realized they were flying. He was haphazardly slung over the other’s back, and when he managed to turn his head with a groan, he could see the water below, small white caps appearing atop waves. 

“What happened?” Chanyeol inquired.

“BYUN IS LEAVING; GET TO THE CANNONS!” Hook could be heard screaming a distance behind them. 

They steeply shot upwards. “The others returned. Well, some of them anyway. Wendy wasn’t there, and I didn’t see Luhan or Yifan. They must have stayed back with her.” Chanyeol could only hum in reply. There was a bang, and the pair of them swerved. Hopefully they were close to shore.

By the time he felt Baekhyun drop down, Chanyeol was ready to fall asleep, exhausted and wracked with pain. His back and his legs were the worst, a fire burning up his veins while he had an insurmountable headache. He was set down on the ground, and the boy whimpered feebly at the sensation of plants and dirt pressing into his cuts. Looking down his body, Chanyeol saw the beach just ahead. He let his head drop back down and moaned. 

A hand grasped his own, and Chanyeol looked up at Baekhyun, who kneeled beside him with a crease in his forehead. “You’re bleeding,” Chanyeol noted, spying a fresh cut on the other’s cheek. 

“I’m fine,” replied Baekhyun. “And you’re going to be fine too. R-right?” Baekhyun’s gaze wanted so desperately for him to say yes.

“Probably, I guess. I don’t think Hook is ready for my ghost to haunt him for the rest of his days. You said it yourself.” 

Baekhyun looked like he wanted to laugh, but couldn’t bring himself to. “Why did you do that? Chanyeol, you should have just—“

“Just stayed there and hoped we got out somehow?” He shook his head, but regretted it immediately afterwards, holding back a whine. He was starting to feel a little lightheaded. 

“Chanyeol?” Wendy came in to view, tailed by Luhan and Yifan. “Chanyeol, you…” she trailed off as her eyes traveled down his body, worry written plainly on her face, even if her face was a little fuzzy in Chanyeol’s vision.

They were joined by the others, who had just landed on the beach, and they all crowded around the boy. Chanyeol wanted to get up, to greet them all, clap one or two on the back and laugh about how they’d outsmarted the pirates yet again. But he couldn’t move. Just a shift of his back muscles had his eyes screwing shut. 

“Chanyeol?” repeated Wendy.

“Everything hurts,” he replied, voice trembling. “I just…I just want it to stop. Please.” His whole face tightened, and tears sprang to his eyes, equal parts pained and frustrated. Was this what dying felt like? 

Two hands pressed on either side of his face, and before Chanyeol could open his eyes again, a pair of lips were upon his own. It was a much harder kiss than the ones he’d previously received. Everything went quiet as they stayed like that, and only after a prolonged moment did his eyes gently open to watch Baekyun straighten, palms a bit bloodied from having touched his face. 

“What was that for?” Chanyeol asked in a weak murmur.

It took Baekhyun a moment to reply. “You were so happy last time. Maybe…maybe a bit of happiness will help with the pain.” The boy’s lips stretched into a small, uncertain smile. Chanyeol just gazed at him in silence, unable to properly articulate anything, despite the fact that there was so much he wanted to ask, so much he wanted to say to the boy. Baekhyun had been right—although the pain was excruciating, his stomach had not failed to flutter in the way he’d come to love so much in the few times it had happened. He remained hopeful, remembering that they could talk about this later. That there would be plenty more time to kiss him back later, if the other would let him.

It was Junmyeon’s voice that broke the quiet. “Wait, so does this make Chanyeol Snow White?”

“Yeah,” Luhan chimed in, stunned. 

A chuckle wormed its way out of Chanyeol’s chest, ending with a whimper at the motion it caused in his ribcage. Breathing was getting harder, and as he looked over at Wendy, she looked pensive, but then again it was hard to tell, because there were two– no, three of her. The three Wendys were kind of dancing around, and he narrowed his eyes just before the weight crushed him and the world went dark.

************

Chanyeol couldn’t tell if he was having really weird dreams or not. Just when it felt like he was starting to wake up, everything went dark again, the heaviness crushing in on him. He was vaguely in and out of a lucid state, and a few times he could have sworn people were hovering over him. Wendy maybe? The people would talk sometimes. It all sounded like distant gibberish, though. At first there had just been pain, and then a lingering burn, and now it was more of a numbness. The numbness had lasted the longest.

His throat was dry. Chanyeol swallowed in response, and sighed. He paused, realizing he’d just heard himself sigh.The boy wriggled his fingers, feeling some kind of rough fabric beneath. Scared he was going to be pulled under again, he tried to fully wake, twitching different body parts, and trying to will his eyes to open. It took a second, but he was eventually able to lift his lids with a groan. He was assaulted with light and immediately squinted. What the…

As things came into focus, he saw dull walls surrounding him, and he appeared to be lying on some kind of raised bed. This wasn’t the home tree. He stared at the tubes attached to his arms, following them up to weird machines and bags of liquid. Was he just dreaming again? The thing was, this felt a lot more real than any of his previous muddled dreams. 

“Baekhyun?” he called out, looking around. He was alone; where were the others? “Baekhyun?” he called out louder this time. “Jongin? Minseok? Jongdae?” He looked at the tubes in his arms again and his heart rate picked up. The boy was strangely cleaner than he’d even seen himself. He began to panic. “Wendy? B-baekhyun? Anybody?”

He sat up straight, a soreness lingering in his body and pain still plaguing his ribcage. Looking down at himself, he frowned at the spotted garment draped over his body. “Where am I?” he wondered aloud. Chanyeol yanked the blanket off his lower half, and saw large white things stuck to his legs. 

“BAEKHYUN?” he tried again, growing more frantic as he scratched at the things in his arms, trying to figure how to get them off. He looked up as the door opened, and two people rushed in. Finally, maybe he could get some answers. “Where’s Baekhyun?” he asked. “Where am I?” When they didn’t immediately answer, Chanyeol grew more forceful. “Where are the rest of the boys? What have you done with Baekhyun?!”

The man fiddled with the devices at his bedside, and the woman was trying to get him to lie back down. “Sir, just—“

Chanyeol flailed, hitting her in the shoulder. Suddenly the man was over him and pressed something to his face. The boy struggled only a moment or two before everything faded to black once more.

****************

When he woke again, he saw that he was no longer in the same room. Wendy watched him from the foot of the bed, relief flooding her features as he stared at her. “You’re awake again,” she said, coming to his bedside. She reached down to grasp his hand, but Chanyeol yanked it away. 

“Where am I?” he demanded to know.

“Chanyeol, you—“

“Where. Am. I,” he repeated more stiffly.

“The hospital, Channie. You’re going to be alright. The doctors—“

“The hospital?” he interrupted again. “There’s no hospital in N—“

It was Wendy’s turn to interject. “You’re not in Neverland anymore.”

Chanyeol recoiled. “What do you mean? Wendy, where’s Baekhyun?”

“Chanyeol, just stop for a second! Let me explain,” she urged.

The boy flared his nostrils, not keen on doing as she asked, but there wasn’t a better alternative. He remained silent, leaning back.

“You were badly injured after the fight. The jungle isn’t exactly equipped to be treating injuries like that. I convinced Baekhyun that this was the only way for you to recover. The only way you might actually survive. The fairies carried you over here, and I checked you into the nearest hospital.”

“You made Baekhyun kick me out of Neverland?!” Chanyeol felt his anger rising. 

“I wasn’t going to let you die!” She was exasperated at this point.

“I have to go back.” The conviction in his voice was unwavering. “I have to…to…” Problem was, he wasn’t sure how he would go about doing that. With a huff of defeat, Chanyeol set his jaw. “How long has it been? Since the fight, I mean.”

“Four days.”

Chanyeol blinked. He’d been out for four days? “So…is this where you live, then?”

The girl shook her head. “Not here specifically, but my house is in this city.”

“City…”

“Seoul.”

The boy pursed his lips, looking around the room. It wasn’t much better than the last one. “I don’t like it here. Can I leave?”

Wendy considered her answer for a moment. “Now that you’re awake, they might discharge you. You’ve still got lots of healing to do, though; especially with your ribs. They stitched you up in a few places too—your back was the worst of them. We’ll take you home, and you’ll have to take it easy for a few weeks, okay?”Chanyeol couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “And by home, you’d better mean the tree.” When she shook her head, his frown deepened. “Wendy, I don’t care if you’re my sister or not, you’re going to take me back to Neverland.”

“I can’t do that, Chanyeol. As your sister, please let me take care of you. Please.” She softened, gaze pleading for his patience. 

“I don’t have any choice, now do I?” He sighed. “Sister or not, I still hate you. I hope you know that.”

“I do,” Wendy replied with a note of sadness. 

When Chanyeol was finally discharged, he was given fresh clothing to change into. Looking into the bathroom mirror, the boy hardly recognized himself. His hair lay flat on his head, and the long-sleeved shirt he had on was far too constricting for his liking. His skin was paler than he remembered it to be, and aside from the scab on his face and the bandage over his nose, there were no visible traces left of Neverland. Chanyeol hoped that scab left a scar; that it wouldn’t disappear completely. Wendy told him the cut on his back was going to leave a scar too. Good.

Two adults came to collect him and Wendy—Sunny and Yoo. Wendy introduced them as her parents. At Chanyeol’s questioning look, Wendy had merely shaken her head. He’d need to inquire about that later. 

He was ushered out into the daylight and then into a thing on wheels. A car. It felt vaguely familiar, but not enough so to prevent him from flinching, startled, when it started to move. 

Sunny and Yoo had a big house with two floors, and he was given a bedroom on the second floor. All of this was so foreign—all he wanted was sand, vines, and a sword, but instead he had linens, silverware, and a battered body. He looked around the room for the longest time, unsure what to do with himself until Wendy walked in.

“Dinner will be ready soon,” she told him.

“Okay,” he mumbled in response. He wasn’t very hungry. After Wendy vanished back down the stairs, he shuffled over to the bed and sat down on the bouncy mattress. Being around all these things jogged his memory a bit of the life he might have had before Baekhyun, but it paled in comparison to the memories he held of Neverland. Of ten grinning boys, and an eleventh boy grinning largest of all with his head held high. 

He was called for dinner, but elected not to come down. He didn’t want to eat. Even so, Wendy came by to silently slip him a plate of leftover noodles. Chanyeol stayed in the room well into the evening, the moon having come out for the night. His room had a small balcony, and the boy trudged over to open the glass door and let the night in. The wind ruffled his hair, and if he closed his eyes, he could imagine himself standing at the prow of a ship, or maybe even on the beach, listening to the lull of the waves. But all he could hear was the distant roar of engines, and the occasional honk. Chanyeol sighed, and shut the door again before retiring to his bed, exhausted.

Chanyeol remained a recluse, spending most of his time in bed at the insistence of his hosts. Sunny came by to check on him a few times a day while Yoo was out at work. Wendy had this thing called school five days of the week, so he didn’t always get to see her. 

“How are you feeling today?” asked Sunny as she sat on the edge of the bed, setting a cup of water on the nightstand. 

“Fine,” he replied. “My scab’s gone now.” Chanyeol prodded at his cheek.

“So it is. The rest of your body should be following suit soon enough. Then you’ll be able to run around again. Wendy has told me you’re very fond of pirates and adventure.”

The boy weakly snorted. “I’m not so sure about the pirate part.” Things fell silent as they both looked out the glass door. “Wendy isn’t really your daughter, is she?”

Sunny smiled softly, directing her gaze back at Chanyeol. “I didn’t give birth to her, if that’s what you’re asking. Wendy was a foster child; she was placed with us a few years ago. Even so, that doesn’t make her any less of our daughter,” she explained. “We were worried sick when she disappeared all of a sudden.” She looked pensive. “It’s not like her to go off on nighttime escapades, but I guess a lot of young teenagers get curious and find the desire to rebel a little. We’re just lucky she found her way back home.” Sunny brightened again, offering the glass of water over to Chanyeol.

He processed all this as he drank. He’d already started working out that Wendy was older than him at this point, even though she insisted she was his little sister and that was distinctly how he remembered her in what few fuzzy memories he could conjure. Time was a fickle thing in Neverland—it didn’t matter, or maybe it didn’t even exist. Chanyeol himself didn’t know how old he was. He’d been meaning to ask Wendy as much, but hadn’t had a proper conversation with her since their arrival. “I don’t think she’ll be attempting it again,” he said after lowering the cup from his lips. 

“I should hope not, what with the state of you both. I nearly felt queasy when I saw you, bloodied and bruised. I don’t know what sort of trouble you two got into, but I suspect you’ve both learned your lesson.” She eyed him for a moment. “We’ve been trying to contact your uncle, but it’s been rather difficult. Is he always this elusive? You’d think he’d be worried sick about you.”

As far as he knew, the story was that he was Wendy’s friend, and he was apparently living with an uncle. “Don’t worry about it,” Chanyeol assured her. “He likes to travel around, so he can be hard to reach.” That made sense, right?

Sunny still looked concerned. “Well, you’re welcome to stay with us for as long as you need, Chanyeol. I’m sure Wendy wouldn’t be too displeased with an extended stay,” she smiled. With that, she rose to her feet. “I should let you get some rest. If you need anything at all—“

“Don’t be afraid to ask. I know.” Chanyeol managed a small smile of his own. He watched the woman leave, and set his cup back on the nightstand. Sunny and Yoo were friendly enough, which made all of this a bit more bearable, he supposed.

********

It was the weekend, and Sunny and Yoo were out for reasons Chanyeol couldn’t be bothered to remember, leaving him and Wendy with the house to themselves for the evening. After dinner, the boy had made the trek back upstairs and tossed around this small squishy ball he’d located the day before. He would toss it up in the air, only to catch it again with one same hand. He would count how many times in a row he could catch the ball without dropping it. His last record had been 56, but he was well on his way to beating that now as he tossed the ball up for the 48th time. As it came back down, the ball struck his middle finger, and bounced off across the room. Chanyeol watched it roll further and further away, contemplating if he wanted to get up to fetch it. This wasn’t nearly as thrilling as sword-fighting.

Chanyeol pushed himself out of bed, but rather than crossing the room to get the ball, he made his way out the door. He padded slowly down the stairs, taking care to hold onto the rail until he reached the ground floor. Rounding the corner, he found Wendy perched on the couch in the living room, nose buried in a book. She noticed his arrival, and set her reading materials down on the coffee table. 

“Chanyeol.” She was surprised to see him there.

“Wendy.”

“Are…are you going to sit?”

The boy walked over to the armchair and plopped down, settling back into the large cushion. “I have some things I wanted to ask you. Now that I have little else to do,” he added a bit bitterly. Wendy nodded in acknowledgement. “What happened after I left this place?”

She leaned forward, propping her elbows on her knees. “Well, I was the one who noticed you were gone. Came into your room the following morning, and the bed was empty. I went outside, went up and down the street, but I couldn’t find you anywhere. I was all alone, and scared, and…” She shook her head before starting again. “When our mother came home with Han, she asked where you were when you didn’t come out to greet them. I told them you were gone, and that was it. They just shrugged it off and carried on.”

“I can see why we’d have been planning to escape,” Chanyeol stated pensively, remembering that detail she’d mentioned.

“That’s precisely what I’d thought you did. Just ran off in the middle of the night to never return. I was so mad at you for leaving without me that I broke your train set and cried for the rest of the day.”

Chanyeol looked puzzled. “Train…”

“I’ll show you one sometime. There’s a station not too far from here,” she replied, waving her hand dismissively. “But I did eventually find my escape. Teachers at school noticed my spotty attendance and the small bruises I sometimes had. People came by the house to see what was going on, and they took me away. And then they placed me here.” She looked around the room. “This is what it should have been like from the beginning. If Sunny and Yoo had been our parents, I might still have a brother,” she stated wistfully.

Chanyeol’s insides writhed uncomfortably. “You still do, technically.”

Wendy shook her head. “Your body’s here, but I know your mind isn’t.” It was indisputable fact. At least she realized this. “You could stay, you know.”

The boy knitted his brows together. “Stay?”

“If I told Sunny that you were my brother, I’m sure they would adopt you on the spot. She’s already noted that we look a little alike. That bedroom you’re staying in would become yours, and you could start over. Here. With us.” 

She looked so hopeful that Chanyeol almost felt bad that his answer would not reflect her wishes. “Wendy, this isn’t home for me anymore. I don’t understand all this cars and trains and school stuff. You had to remind me how to use a fork! This isn’t where I belong.”

Wendy looked defeated, but unsurprised. “You could learn it all again. I could persuade Sunny to sign you up for fencing classes, so you could still swordfight.” A pause. “But I know nothing I say is going to change your mind. I see how miserable you are here, and I… I’m sorry for bringing you here.” She looked down at her hands.

“You said it yourself; I’d be dead otherwise. I just wish there had been another way.” He truly did.

Wendy managed an understanding smile. “You really love Neverland, huh?” Chanyeol nodded. “Nearly as much as you love Baekhyun,” she added, just above a whisper, but Chanyeol heard it.

“I…”

“You don’t need to explain, Chanyeol. I saw how the two of you interacted. I watched him kiss you on that beach like all of the other lost boys. That wasn’t the first time it happened between you two.” Well, she wasn’t wrong. “You were even jealous of me for a while, weren’t you?”

The boy’s cheeks took on a reddish tint. “Maybe. You were just spending a lot of time with Baekhyun, and I thought—”

“Well, you thought incorrectly. Baekhyun is definitely very bold, but he was only ever trying to help me adjust to the lifestyle. I guess we both suffered from keeping things bottled inside. Must be a family trait,” she noted with a soft laugh. Chanyeol ended up smiling too. “I should have just told you right away, no matter how peeved I was, that I was your sister.”

Chanyeol reflected on his own misgivings. “I’m not sure I would have believed you anyway. I shouldn’t have just hated you for no reason. You’re not that bad.” Wendy’s smile stretched into a grin, and for a moment, he could almost picture what they’d have been like as siblings. “It happened because of you, actually. The kiss.”

This was news to Wendy, and she suddenly looked very intrigued. “Oh?”

It felt silly to be telling this story, but he pushed on anyway. “After I fell off the boat and washed up on shore, Baekhyun asked me about kissing. Said you’d told him about it. So I uh, I showed him.”

This clicked in with Wendy’s own experiences, and she nodded. “I did tell him. I didn’t have to bring it up, because we really were just talking about resuscitation… But like I said, Baekhyun is very bold, and very curious too. I’m glad the seed I decided to sow that evening ended up sprouting. I might really have a career ahead of me as a matchmaker,” she grinned a little deviously. 

Chanyeol still felt really embarrassed talking about this. He brought a hand up to rub through his hair. “I guess I owe you one. Is it, uh, supposed to feel like your chest is going to explode?”

“What, kissing someone?” She chuckled. “Well, it could mean you’re having a heart attack, but in your case, yes, it’s normal. It can feel like that sometimes when you really care about someone.” Her amused smirk faded as she seemed to sober. “I hope you know that that’s all you’ll ever have with Baekhyun, Chanyeol. What you two have now, the companionship and maybe the kissing… It’s never going to be more than that. In Neverland, everything stays the same; no one grows up. He’ll always see you as the friend he would die for, and the one he also happens to like kissing. You’ll never get to develop even deeper feelings for one another, or move into a new house together, or get married, or perhaps even have children of your own,” she pointed out.

“And I’m fine with that,” he replied. “I’ve never needed anything else. I hardly know what any of those things you mentioned mean anymore.”

“Some people dream about those things their whole life.”

“Not me.”

Wendy nodded, looking off into the fireplace and accepting the reality at hand. “Do you think he’ll come back?”

Chanyeol wished he could say he definitively knew the answer. “He has to. He can’t just abandon me like that.” He wouldn’t do such a thing.

She looked on sympathetically. “I just don’t want to see your heart to shatter into a million pieces if it doesn’t end up happening. First loves can hurt the worst of them all.”

“He’ll come back,” Chanyeol reiterated, setting his jaw. Wendy sighed and things fell into an awkward silence. Eventually, the boy had enough and got up from his seat, intending to return upstairs. 

Wendy watched him walk past. “Channie.” Chanyeol stopped walking, and looked over his shoulder at her. “Thank you. For saving my life.”

The boy just sort of nodded before carrying on and out of sight. 

***********

The days were long, but as days stretched into weeks, Chanyeol started to regain more mobility. When his ribcage didn’t feel so tender, he could go out back and run around the yard, kick some balls around if he wished. To get a change of environment, he started taking short walks up and down the street. Sometimes he thought about just carrying on onto the next street, and then the next, and just continuing to walk without ever looking back, but then he’d be all alone. No Baekhyun, and no Wendy. Here in Seoul was not where he would find Neverland, no matter how far he walked. 

When Wendy got back from school, it became a routine for her to come up to his room after she’d finished her homework, and she would read him a fairytale. It was about as close as they could get to recreating the scene in the home tree, lacking another eleven boys and a big twisted wooden chair to complete it. Chanyeol was appreciative of the gesture as he came to enjoy her presence more and more. 

Wendy might have been a good younger sister, but he was discovering she made an even better older sister. Just like how she’d been a mother to the lost boys for that short period of time. He learned that she was fourteen, and on the matter of age, he’d taken the opportunity to inquire about his own age. Apparently he’d been about a month shy of his thirteenth birthday when he vanished. Wendy had been nine at the time. Meaning he’d been gone for nearly five years. Five whole years. It was staggering to think about, but it hadn’t felt like that long back in Neverland. He supposed he never had paid any attention to the passing time there. That technically meant he was about eighteen now, even though he still looked like a thirteen year old. “You’d be an adult by now,” Wendy had said. Now wasn’t that a horrifying thought. This fact had bamboozled him for days afterwards.

Every night, he would open that glass door and stand out on the balcony, staring up at the sky, as though expecting Baekhyun to show up. But Baekhyun never came. He always felt the demoralizing drag as he reluctantly shut the balcony door and went to bed. Despite this, he upheld the habit, as one of the few things that still gave him hope. 

When he wound up with a cold after standing out on the balcony during a rainy night, Wendy kept him company when he was awake, and would bring over the medicine Sunny had already measured out. Every conversation they shared revealed new things about this strange place, and about Wendy herself. At one point, while still bedridden, he’d asked about the night Baekhyun had visited her.

“I swore I saw a shadow go past my window, and at first I was paranoid. I grabbed my lamp and walked over to the window. A head of messy black hair just appeared, and I screamed.” She laughed, remembering the moment. “Yoo came in, asking what was wrong, but the boy was gone. I just told him I had a nightmare. When Yoo left, Baekhyun came back, and pointed for me to open the window. I still don’t know why I did, honestly.”

“So he came in, and tried to sweep you away to Neverland?”

Wendy nodded. 

“But why did you go? Life here seems to be pretty good; Sunny and Yoo genuinely care about you.” He was a bit puzzled. Chanyeol hadn’t needed much convincing because he’d been searching for an escape for as long as he could remember, so it seemed, and the boy before him had been beautiful and persuasive. He hadn’t exactly thought of boys as ‘beautiful’ before then. Wendy’s situation had been very different.

“I was going to refuse, but then I wondered… This was all so sudden and seemingly impossible—I mean, he was flying for god’s sake—so I wondered if maybe, just maybe, this was how you’d left too, all those years ago. I clung to the small hope that maybe I would get answers, so I took the leap of faith, quite literally, out that window and into the night. I told Baekhyun that I did not intend on staying too long, wherever he was taking me. But then I found you.” She looked up at him, smiling softly. “I couldn’t believe it, and I could have hit you when you didn’t recognize me at all. Here you were, nonchalantly prancing around while I’d been grieving your disappearance for longer than any person should.”

Chanyeol winced, feeling a bit guilty. “Sorry.”

That conversation had stayed with him for a while. It had been five years, and while he’d forgotten her, she hadn’t forgotten him. He could understand why she wanted him to stay. 

Chanyeol was recovering swiftly, well on track to being back to full form soon. He’d gotten his stitches removed already, and now the skin just felt a little tight around the healing cuts. His nose was no longer broken, and it almost felt strange not to have any bandages against his skin at all times of day. 

Time passed faster than he would have imagined, and Sunny and Yoo were still unable to reach his ‘uncle’. Once, he’d eavesdropped on them conversing about taking him in, and they’d mentioned getting him back to school now that he was better. That was when things got a lot less fun in the Son household. Fear settled into his gut, and he felt like he was waking up in the hospital all over again. He started to consider his options, and that extended one-way walk was sounding much more appealing now. 

Wendy had noticed the change in him, and had tried telling him things were going to be okay, but things were not going to be okay. He started spending more time out on the balcony, not just limiting himself to the night anymore, but spending stretches of time during the day there too. He acquired quite a tan after a while from doing so. 

He couldn’t stay here.

***********

Eight weeks. It had been eight weeks since Chanyeol had left Neverland and last seen Baekhyun. He counted each passing day, acutely aware of the tally in his every waking moment. His hope was beginning to wane, and on some nights, the boy just wanted to cry. He’d had this confusing, wonderful thing with Baekhyun, and it had all been snatched away from him before he could explore it any further. Enjoy it any further. It wasn’t fair.

Maybe he would end up having to go to school with the rest of the kids. To be mundane and pretend like he hadn’t fought off a horde of pirates, didn’t know how to shoot an arrow, and hadn’t rescued Cinderella a handful of times. It was looking more and more likely that he’d be forever stuck in this magic-less world. Maybe he really would have to grow up like the rest.

Chanyeol’s greatest fear, however, worse still than never seeing Neverland again, was forgetting. He’d forgotten about his life here so easily, and he was scared it would happen again. That Neverland would fade in his mind, and this place would become all he knew. That he’d forget all the lost boys, forget Baekhyun, forget his first kiss and the inexplicable way Baekhyun made him feel. He didn’t get very many adrenaline rushes here in Seoul—not like he used to—and he clung to those memories tighter than he’d ever held anything, just trying to keep them fresh in mind. It was the greatest battle he fought within the four walls of his bedroom.

Tonight the skies were clear, and he could see the moon, tall and proud in the sky although not quite full yet. He never really got to see the stars much. Wendy told him it was because there was too much light here in the city, when he’d asked. Another reason why he didn’t belong here. Not only was this place devoid of magic, but you couldn’t even see the damn stars. He’d been robbed of that too. 

Clutching the rail, Chanyeol let his head drop between his shoulders. “Baekhyun please,” he whispered. Looking back up, he searched the sky, as he often did with little success. 
“Where are you?” 

He noticed one little star up near the moon. That was new. One little star had seemingly beaten the light emanating from the city to say hello. It must have sensed that he needed it. Chanyeol managed a small smile. “I don’t suppose you would know where he is either?” He was met with silence and then the sound of screeching brakes in the distance. The boy sighed and shut his eyes. Releasing the rail, he turned around and shuffled back into the room, wind blowing his hair forward. 

Chanyeol turned to shut the door, but a large projectile came at him through the opening, and before he could react, his back hit the floor. The breath was knocked from his lungs—although thankfully his ribs didn’t hurt anymore—crushed by a heavy mass that had hit him dead on.

“Chanyeol,” it murmured.

His arms went slack, and he looked up at the boy grinning down at him. “Baekhyun.” Chanyeol’s arms wrapped around the other with a vigor. “You’re back,” he breathed against Baekhyun’s shoulder. “You’re actually back.” 

Baekhyun pulled back after a moment, propping himself up on his forearms, and ended up frowning. “Why are you sad?” he asked, perplexed. He reached a thumb down to swipe at the other’s cheek. Chanyeol was crying.

“I’m not sad,” he replied, smiling through tears. 

Baekhyun considered this for a moment. “Is it because I’m too heavy? Hold on.” He got to his feet, and held a hand out to help Chanyeol up.

With them both upright, Chanyeol rubbed at his face to try to get himself to stop crying. “Where have you been all this time?” He still couldn’t believe the boy was before him now, just as dirt-stained as he remembered. He was sure his pyjamas had a few spots on them now. 

The shorter placed his hands on his hips and looked around the room. “After we brought you over, there was some conflict to deal with. Hook and some of his pirates came on land to finish what they started, so we had to fend them off again. Depleted his numbers a bit. That left the home tree pretty torn up. It took a while but the lost boys and I fixed it all up to welcome you back.” He smiled proudly, and as Baekhyun’s gaze traveled down the north wall, it stopped to fixate on a specific spot. Chanyeol followed his gaze to find Wendy standing in the doorway. Baekhyun’s eyes traveled back over to him. “…You are coming back, right?”

Chanyeol looked at Wendy, and slowly nodded. Her eyes looked awfully glassy in the dim lighting of the room. “I am.” Wendy came forward, and Chanyeol met her halfway in an embrace. She held him with the same strength he’d held Baekhyun just a moment ago. “Thank you,” he whispered into her hair. “For everything. Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to come along with us?”

Wendy nodded against the side of his head. “My place is here. And I would rather not get kidnapped by pirates again.” A shaky chuckle escaped her. 

Chanyeol inhaled deeply, having anticipated the answer. “Give Sunny and Yoo my thanks. I would have been honoured to call them my parents, had the circumstances been different.” They released one another, and Chanyeol noted his sister was doing an admirable job of keeping in her tears. 

“It’s good to see you again, Wendy,” Baekhyun smiled with a bow of his head. “We really miss your stories.” He reached out to take Chanyeol’s hand. “We should get going. The boys are waiting.” He started to pull the other towards the balcony. 

“Chanyeol.” Both of them stopped to look at Wendy. “Promise me you’ll visit. Promise me you won’t forget.” Her lip quivered slightly.

After exchanging a glance with Baekhyun, Chanyeol nodded. “I promise. I’ll see you soon, sis.” They shared a small smile before the two boys made their way out to the balcony. Baekhyun turned to face him and opened his palm to release some fairy dust, which he blew onto the taller. In seconds, Chanyeol felt his feet lift off the cold concrete, and he felt happier than he truly had in weeks. Everything felt right again, coated with pixie dust and Baekhyun’s hand in his. 

“Oh, I have the craziest story to tell you on our way back. You’ll never guess what Kyungsoo did while you were gone.”

And with that, the two boys shot off into the night, bound for a place far away, where children never grew up and adventure was around every corner. Wendy watched until they disappeared from sight with a blink of light. She lingered a moment longer before shutting the glass door, sniffling as she did so. The girl retired to her bedroom, where very little sleep managed to find her that night. 

In the morning when she descended for breakfast, Yoo served her some eggs, and asked if Chanyeol would be coming down.

“He left last night.”

Both of the adults paused what they were doing, and stared at Wendy. “He left? Where did he go?” asked Sunny, puzzled.

Wendy looked up at both her parents with a bittersweet smile. “Home.”