Second To The Right, And Skate On Till Morning, 2/11
Title: Second To The Right, And Skate On Till Morning
Rating: G
Summary: Peter Pan AU. Adam and the Orser-Wilson kids reach Neverland!
Disclaimer: I own neither skaters nor magical flying children, and anything that happens to them herein is entirely fictional.
Part 1
As it turned out, Evan was wrong about the Milky Way. Not only was there plenty of ice to skate on, but the peculiar combination of outer space and fairy dust made it possible for jumps to last longer than they ever could on an earthbound rink. “That’s cheating!” Evan said when Adam had Johnny push him into a fifteenth rotation.
“Not everything is a competition, Evan,” said Yu-na, gliding past with one foot above her head. “Just have fun!”
Evan looked skeptical, but his expression quickly changed to blissful when he landed his first octuple jump. “This is awesome!”
Johnny, the rotations from his own jump slowing down, waved Quatchi in Evan’s face. “Push me, push me!” he said. Rather than bicker as he usually would have done, Evan grabbed his brother by the wrists and spun them both until they fell, dizzy and laughing, onto the star-filled ice.
“They’re so immature,” Yu-na said fondly as Johnny mashed ice shavings into Evan’s hair.
“What’s immature?” asked Adam. He was trying to walk on his hands, which kept slipping.
“It means childish,” said Yu-na. She tried a backflip, but landed softly on the ice with her head next to Adam’s. “I guess to you, that would be a compliment.”
“Is it usually not?”
Yu-na considered. “Not at home,” she said, “it’s different out here, isn’t it?”
“Very different,” agreed Adam. “In Neverland, not being childish isn’t allowed!”
Yu-na laughed. “It sounds wonderful.”
“It is!” Adam flipped back onto his feet. “Come on, I’ll race you!”
“Race me?”
“To Neverland!”
“But Adam, I don’t know the way!”
“Oh?” asked Adam. “Oh, that’s right.” He took Yu-na’s hand, then started skating, pulling her behind him. “This way!”
“Johnny! Evan!” Yu-na shouted over her shoulder. “Follow us!”
“But I wanna skate some more!” pouted Johnny as Evan hoisted him onto his back and hurried after the other two.
“You can skate in Neverland!” said Adam.
“Really?”
“Really!” The edge of the Milky Way approached. “Hold on tight, Your Highness,” said Adam, and he skated off the edge, switching from skating to flying at the very last second.
Evan skidded to a stop a few feet before the edge. “You okay up there, bro?” he asked. “Got your lovely thought?”
“I’m fine,” said Johnny, and to prove it, he pushed off of Evan’s back and into the air.
“Okay,” Evan said to himself. “Okay, you can do this. You’re Evan Frank Orser-Wilson, you flew onto this thing, you can fly off it.” He took a deep breath, thought of how proud his fathers would be if they could see him, and flew.
“Slowpoke!” laughed Adam when Evan joined the group.
“It’s all right, Evan,” said Yu-na, who saw the telltale signs of the beginning of a sulking fit. “I would have been scared, too, if Adam wasn’t holding my hand.”
“Wasn’t scared,” said Evan.
“Were too!” said Johnny. He was on Adam’s back now, playing with his hair.
“Was not!”
“Were-”
“Boys!”
“Sorry, Yu-na!”
“Hey,” said Evan after flying peacefully for a few minutes, “where’s the little guy?”
“Little guy?” asked Adam.
“You know, with the wings, and the light…”
“Jeremy?” Adam looked around, then frowned. “He must be off doing fairy things. He’ll catch up, though. He always does.”
Jeremy, in fact, was trying desperately to catch up. He had discovered the hard way that bulldogs are not the most aerodynamic of creatures, and so was pushing Blade along the Milky Way, hoping to speed the process along. Blade was doing his best to help, but he was exhausted, and would have given anything to curl up in his kennel with a juicy bone. Only the thought of the children kept him going.
Adam and the Orser-Wilsons had no such difficulties, however, and soon they were within sight of Neverland. “It’s beautiful!” whispered Yu-na when she caught her first glimpse of the island. “Look how it shines! It’s like glass!”
“Is it made of crystal?” asked Johnny.
“It’s ice,” said Evan. “Isn’t it?”
“That’s right,” said Adam. “Not all of it, and not always, but mostly.”
“So we can skate everywhere?” asked Yu-na.
“Uh-huh! Do you like it?”
“I love it!”
“Me too!” said Johnny. “And so does Quatchi!”
“It’s really cool,” added Evan.
Adam beamed at them. “I hoped you’d like it. We have a lot of fun here!”
“Like fighting pirates?” Evan asked excitedly.
“Like fighting pirates,” said Adam, but he frowned as he said it. “There are a lot of them there now. I have to do something about them.”
“I’ll help!”
“Good! But you have to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” asked Evan, a slight touch of anxiety revealing itself in his voice.
“Leave Captain Morozov to me,” said Adam. “I want to kill him myself.”
“You got it,” said Evan, the monotone restored.
The group flew on, the Orser-Wilsons gaping in wonder as they drew closer and closer to Neverland. “Prepare for landing!” Adam said at last, and led the others down past a mountain, through a forest, until finally touching his blades to the surface of a frozen lagoon. Yu-na almost made a perfect landing, but she stumbled at the last second. Johnny crashed into her, and Evan into him, and all three fell to the ice.
They would have simply laughed off the accident, but Johnny made a startling discovery. “There are girls down there!”
Yu-na followed his gaze and squealed. “Mermaids!”
After one glance, Evan turned red and refused to look anymore. “They’re not wearing anything!”
“Mermaids don’t,” said Adam. He waved to the mermaids, who were pointing and giggling at the newcomers. They waved back, and one of them blew him a kiss. “You’ll get to meet them when the ice melts!”
“Oh, that would be lovely!” said Yu-na. She stood up and brushed off her nightgown. “When will that be?”
Adam shrugged. “It depends.”
“On what?”
“On the-” But Adam’s explanation went unfinished, for he was distracted by four fur-clad figures skating towards them. “It’s the lost boys! You’ve got to meet them!” he said. He raised his voice. “Greetings, boys! I’m back!”
Once within speaking distance of Adam, the lost boys halted, nearly in unison. “Welcome back,” said one of the boys. “Who are they?”
“You’ll never guess!” said Adam. “I have brought you-”
“A mother?” asked another lost boy hopefully.
“No, better than that! A queen.”
“A queen?” The first lost boy looked unimpressed.
Adam extended his hand to Yu-na, who took it grandly. “Boys, I present to you Queen Yu-na. Obey her as you would me.”
Evan and Johnny hung back shyly, but Yu-na brought them forward. “I’m so happy to meet you, boys,” she said. “These are my brothers, Prince Evan and Prince Johnny.” Johnny poked Yu-na. “Sorry, Princess Johnny.” Johnny poked Yu-na again, and this time he held up his sasquatch. “And Sir Quatchi.”
“Hello,” the boys mumbled.
“Hello, Your Highness,” said Adam pointedly. He could never resist a game, even one where he would not be in charge.
“Hello, Your Highness!” repeated the boys. The first boy still wasn’t impressed. The second looked as if he still wished Yu-na had been a mother. The third made an elegant bow, and the fourth stared at Yu-na in awe.
“Why, thank you!” said Yu-na. “Please, Adam, won’t you introduce them?”
“Certainly,” said Adam. He gestured to each boy as he said their names. “This is Mullet, Bear, Bug-”
“It’s short for ‘Ladybug!’” interrupted the last lost boy. “We called him that at first because that’s what his baby clothes looked like but Adam said it was too long so Bear said we should call him ‘Lady’ but ‘Lady’ means ‘girl’ and he’s a boy so I said we should call him ‘Bug’ and we did!”
Yu-na smiled graciously at him. “That was very clever of you! And you are…?”
“Googly,” said the boy, gazing adoringly at Yu-na with the eyes that gave him his name.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Googly,” Yu-na said, then winced at the torrent of words that followed.
“It’s very nice to meet you, too, Your Highness! I bet you’re the best queen in the whole world! Can I show you around your kingdom? I want to show you everything! I’ll find you all the best fruit and the softest furs and we can go flying and skating together and I’ll kill pirates and Indians for you and it’ll be awesome and you’re pretty and I hope you stay here forever!”
Mullet and Bear exchanged glances. Googly wasn’t a bad sort, but his enthusiasm did get tedious at times. Fortunately, Adam called them over to show Evan their weapons, and they were spared the rest of Yu-na and Googly’s one-sided conversation.
Johnny, meanwhile, was wrinkling his nose at the lost boys’ outfits. They were not exactly what he imagined when Adam had mentioned fur. Bear in particular looked rather like Quatchi, and as much Johnny loved his sasquatch, he would never turn to him for fashion advice. The only boy who met with his approval was Bug. “I like your stripes,” he said.
Bug’s face lit up, and he smoothed his zebra hide vest. “Thank you! I like your birds.”
“They’re swans!” Johnny informed him. “My favorites. Are there swans here?”
“There’s the Never bird,” said Bug. “She looks a little like that. And she has babies! They look like just balls of feathers, but then they hop around and snap at things!” Bug demonstrated, complete with baby bird noises.
Johnny laughed. “I like you. Will you be my friend?”
“Of course!” said Bug, and he threw his arms around Johnny, who hugged him back.
Suddenly, there was a loud thud on the ice, followed by a softer thud and a faint tinkle of bells. “Jeremy?” said Adam, turning toward the sounds.
“Blade?” said the Orser-Wilsons.
Jeremy flew wearily to Adam and landed on his shoulder. Blade lifted his head and panted at his charges, then slumped down again.
Yu-na, Evan, and Johnny quickly made their way toward Blade, the lost boys following curiously. “You poor thing!” exclaimed Yu-na. “Did you come all this way to take care of us?”
Blade nodded, and then, seeming to regain some of his strength, he narrowed his eyes and growled. Yu-na recognized it as his, “What were you thinking, your fathers will be worried sick about you!” growl.
“Oh dear, you’re right,” said Yu-na guiltily. “We should have left a note. Adam, is there any way to send a note to our fathers?”
“Maybe Jeremy,” Adam began, but he soon had to clap his hands over his ears to protect them from Jeremy’s emphatic refusal. “Maybe one of the other fairies, then.”
“We’ll ask them tomorrow,” said Yu-na. “For now, is there someplace warm we can take Blade so he can rest?”
“There’s our home under the ground!” said Adam. “I was going to take you there next, anyway. I bet you’d like a rest, too, Your Highness.”
“I suppose I would,” admitted Yu-na. She smiled at the lost boys. “Would one of you like to carry Blade? He can’t walk very well on the ice.”
“Can I?” asked Bear, and when Yu-na nodded, he picked up Blade, who snuggled gratefully into his arms.
“Everyone ready? Forward, skate!” said Adam. He, Jeremy, and Yu-na took the lead, followed closely by Googly and less closely by the others. Johnny and Bug skated together, while Evan kept a respectful distance from Mullet, who had impressed him with his four daggers. Bear, somewhat hampered by Blade, brought up the rear. He didn’t mind being behind everyone else, as it meant that when he scratched Blade’s ears, no one could see how big and silly his smile got when the bulldog licked his face in return.
The home under the ground was reached by a secret, icy tunnel, so steep that they had to take a sled, which Adam and Mullet hauled up by a hidden rope. “Sometimes it melts and turns into a waterslide!” Googly yelled to Yu-na as they rounded a corner. “It’s so cool! But there’s another tunnel if you don’t want to get wet!”
When they popped out of the tunnel, Yu-na scrambled out of the sled and looked with satisfaction at the cavern which made up their residence. It was one room, warm and cozy, with a fireplace in one corner and an improbable patch of ice in the middle. Various toys and weapons were scattered around the floor - Yu-na made a mental note to speak to her subjects about cleanliness. There was one giant bed for the lost boys, and a smaller one for Adam. Yu-na frowned. “Where will I sleep?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Adam. “You can have my bed tonight, and I’ll make you a better one tomorrow!”
“What about us?” asked Evan.
“There’s room for you with the others!”
Evan and Johnny looked at each other doubtfully, but decided not to make a fuss.
“Now that that’s settled,” said Yu-na, “what do we do for dinner?”
Googly nearly tripped over his own feet in his eagerness to show her the pantry.
Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11
Rating: G
Summary: Peter Pan AU. Adam and the Orser-Wilson kids reach Neverland!
Disclaimer: I own neither skaters nor magical flying children, and anything that happens to them herein is entirely fictional.
Part 1
As it turned out, Evan was wrong about the Milky Way. Not only was there plenty of ice to skate on, but the peculiar combination of outer space and fairy dust made it possible for jumps to last longer than they ever could on an earthbound rink. “That’s cheating!” Evan said when Adam had Johnny push him into a fifteenth rotation.
“Not everything is a competition, Evan,” said Yu-na, gliding past with one foot above her head. “Just have fun!”
Evan looked skeptical, but his expression quickly changed to blissful when he landed his first octuple jump. “This is awesome!”
Johnny, the rotations from his own jump slowing down, waved Quatchi in Evan’s face. “Push me, push me!” he said. Rather than bicker as he usually would have done, Evan grabbed his brother by the wrists and spun them both until they fell, dizzy and laughing, onto the star-filled ice.
“They’re so immature,” Yu-na said fondly as Johnny mashed ice shavings into Evan’s hair.
“What’s immature?” asked Adam. He was trying to walk on his hands, which kept slipping.
“It means childish,” said Yu-na. She tried a backflip, but landed softly on the ice with her head next to Adam’s. “I guess to you, that would be a compliment.”
“Is it usually not?”
Yu-na considered. “Not at home,” she said, “it’s different out here, isn’t it?”
“Very different,” agreed Adam. “In Neverland, not being childish isn’t allowed!”
Yu-na laughed. “It sounds wonderful.”
“It is!” Adam flipped back onto his feet. “Come on, I’ll race you!”
“Race me?”
“To Neverland!”
“But Adam, I don’t know the way!”
“Oh?” asked Adam. “Oh, that’s right.” He took Yu-na’s hand, then started skating, pulling her behind him. “This way!”
“Johnny! Evan!” Yu-na shouted over her shoulder. “Follow us!”
“But I wanna skate some more!” pouted Johnny as Evan hoisted him onto his back and hurried after the other two.
“You can skate in Neverland!” said Adam.
“Really?”
“Really!” The edge of the Milky Way approached. “Hold on tight, Your Highness,” said Adam, and he skated off the edge, switching from skating to flying at the very last second.
Evan skidded to a stop a few feet before the edge. “You okay up there, bro?” he asked. “Got your lovely thought?”
“I’m fine,” said Johnny, and to prove it, he pushed off of Evan’s back and into the air.
“Okay,” Evan said to himself. “Okay, you can do this. You’re Evan Frank Orser-Wilson, you flew onto this thing, you can fly off it.” He took a deep breath, thought of how proud his fathers would be if they could see him, and flew.
“Slowpoke!” laughed Adam when Evan joined the group.
“It’s all right, Evan,” said Yu-na, who saw the telltale signs of the beginning of a sulking fit. “I would have been scared, too, if Adam wasn’t holding my hand.”
“Wasn’t scared,” said Evan.
“Were too!” said Johnny. He was on Adam’s back now, playing with his hair.
“Was not!”
“Were-”
“Boys!”
“Sorry, Yu-na!”
“Hey,” said Evan after flying peacefully for a few minutes, “where’s the little guy?”
“Little guy?” asked Adam.
“You know, with the wings, and the light…”
“Jeremy?” Adam looked around, then frowned. “He must be off doing fairy things. He’ll catch up, though. He always does.”
Jeremy, in fact, was trying desperately to catch up. He had discovered the hard way that bulldogs are not the most aerodynamic of creatures, and so was pushing Blade along the Milky Way, hoping to speed the process along. Blade was doing his best to help, but he was exhausted, and would have given anything to curl up in his kennel with a juicy bone. Only the thought of the children kept him going.
Adam and the Orser-Wilsons had no such difficulties, however, and soon they were within sight of Neverland. “It’s beautiful!” whispered Yu-na when she caught her first glimpse of the island. “Look how it shines! It’s like glass!”
“Is it made of crystal?” asked Johnny.
“It’s ice,” said Evan. “Isn’t it?”
“That’s right,” said Adam. “Not all of it, and not always, but mostly.”
“So we can skate everywhere?” asked Yu-na.
“Uh-huh! Do you like it?”
“I love it!”
“Me too!” said Johnny. “And so does Quatchi!”
“It’s really cool,” added Evan.
Adam beamed at them. “I hoped you’d like it. We have a lot of fun here!”
“Like fighting pirates?” Evan asked excitedly.
“Like fighting pirates,” said Adam, but he frowned as he said it. “There are a lot of them there now. I have to do something about them.”
“I’ll help!”
“Good! But you have to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” asked Evan, a slight touch of anxiety revealing itself in his voice.
“Leave Captain Morozov to me,” said Adam. “I want to kill him myself.”
“You got it,” said Evan, the monotone restored.
The group flew on, the Orser-Wilsons gaping in wonder as they drew closer and closer to Neverland. “Prepare for landing!” Adam said at last, and led the others down past a mountain, through a forest, until finally touching his blades to the surface of a frozen lagoon. Yu-na almost made a perfect landing, but she stumbled at the last second. Johnny crashed into her, and Evan into him, and all three fell to the ice.
They would have simply laughed off the accident, but Johnny made a startling discovery. “There are girls down there!”
Yu-na followed his gaze and squealed. “Mermaids!”
After one glance, Evan turned red and refused to look anymore. “They’re not wearing anything!”
“Mermaids don’t,” said Adam. He waved to the mermaids, who were pointing and giggling at the newcomers. They waved back, and one of them blew him a kiss. “You’ll get to meet them when the ice melts!”
“Oh, that would be lovely!” said Yu-na. She stood up and brushed off her nightgown. “When will that be?”
Adam shrugged. “It depends.”
“On what?”
“On the-” But Adam’s explanation went unfinished, for he was distracted by four fur-clad figures skating towards them. “It’s the lost boys! You’ve got to meet them!” he said. He raised his voice. “Greetings, boys! I’m back!”
Once within speaking distance of Adam, the lost boys halted, nearly in unison. “Welcome back,” said one of the boys. “Who are they?”
“You’ll never guess!” said Adam. “I have brought you-”
“A mother?” asked another lost boy hopefully.
“No, better than that! A queen.”
“A queen?” The first lost boy looked unimpressed.
Adam extended his hand to Yu-na, who took it grandly. “Boys, I present to you Queen Yu-na. Obey her as you would me.”
Evan and Johnny hung back shyly, but Yu-na brought them forward. “I’m so happy to meet you, boys,” she said. “These are my brothers, Prince Evan and Prince Johnny.” Johnny poked Yu-na. “Sorry, Princess Johnny.” Johnny poked Yu-na again, and this time he held up his sasquatch. “And Sir Quatchi.”
“Hello,” the boys mumbled.
“Hello, Your Highness,” said Adam pointedly. He could never resist a game, even one where he would not be in charge.
“Hello, Your Highness!” repeated the boys. The first boy still wasn’t impressed. The second looked as if he still wished Yu-na had been a mother. The third made an elegant bow, and the fourth stared at Yu-na in awe.
“Why, thank you!” said Yu-na. “Please, Adam, won’t you introduce them?”
“Certainly,” said Adam. He gestured to each boy as he said their names. “This is Mullet, Bear, Bug-”
“It’s short for ‘Ladybug!’” interrupted the last lost boy. “We called him that at first because that’s what his baby clothes looked like but Adam said it was too long so Bear said we should call him ‘Lady’ but ‘Lady’ means ‘girl’ and he’s a boy so I said we should call him ‘Bug’ and we did!”
Yu-na smiled graciously at him. “That was very clever of you! And you are…?”
“Googly,” said the boy, gazing adoringly at Yu-na with the eyes that gave him his name.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Googly,” Yu-na said, then winced at the torrent of words that followed.
“It’s very nice to meet you, too, Your Highness! I bet you’re the best queen in the whole world! Can I show you around your kingdom? I want to show you everything! I’ll find you all the best fruit and the softest furs and we can go flying and skating together and I’ll kill pirates and Indians for you and it’ll be awesome and you’re pretty and I hope you stay here forever!”
Mullet and Bear exchanged glances. Googly wasn’t a bad sort, but his enthusiasm did get tedious at times. Fortunately, Adam called them over to show Evan their weapons, and they were spared the rest of Yu-na and Googly’s one-sided conversation.
Johnny, meanwhile, was wrinkling his nose at the lost boys’ outfits. They were not exactly what he imagined when Adam had mentioned fur. Bear in particular looked rather like Quatchi, and as much Johnny loved his sasquatch, he would never turn to him for fashion advice. The only boy who met with his approval was Bug. “I like your stripes,” he said.
Bug’s face lit up, and he smoothed his zebra hide vest. “Thank you! I like your birds.”
“They’re swans!” Johnny informed him. “My favorites. Are there swans here?”
“There’s the Never bird,” said Bug. “She looks a little like that. And she has babies! They look like just balls of feathers, but then they hop around and snap at things!” Bug demonstrated, complete with baby bird noises.
Johnny laughed. “I like you. Will you be my friend?”
“Of course!” said Bug, and he threw his arms around Johnny, who hugged him back.
Suddenly, there was a loud thud on the ice, followed by a softer thud and a faint tinkle of bells. “Jeremy?” said Adam, turning toward the sounds.
“Blade?” said the Orser-Wilsons.
Jeremy flew wearily to Adam and landed on his shoulder. Blade lifted his head and panted at his charges, then slumped down again.
Yu-na, Evan, and Johnny quickly made their way toward Blade, the lost boys following curiously. “You poor thing!” exclaimed Yu-na. “Did you come all this way to take care of us?”
Blade nodded, and then, seeming to regain some of his strength, he narrowed his eyes and growled. Yu-na recognized it as his, “What were you thinking, your fathers will be worried sick about you!” growl.
“Oh dear, you’re right,” said Yu-na guiltily. “We should have left a note. Adam, is there any way to send a note to our fathers?”
“Maybe Jeremy,” Adam began, but he soon had to clap his hands over his ears to protect them from Jeremy’s emphatic refusal. “Maybe one of the other fairies, then.”
“We’ll ask them tomorrow,” said Yu-na. “For now, is there someplace warm we can take Blade so he can rest?”
“There’s our home under the ground!” said Adam. “I was going to take you there next, anyway. I bet you’d like a rest, too, Your Highness.”
“I suppose I would,” admitted Yu-na. She smiled at the lost boys. “Would one of you like to carry Blade? He can’t walk very well on the ice.”
“Can I?” asked Bear, and when Yu-na nodded, he picked up Blade, who snuggled gratefully into his arms.
“Everyone ready? Forward, skate!” said Adam. He, Jeremy, and Yu-na took the lead, followed closely by Googly and less closely by the others. Johnny and Bug skated together, while Evan kept a respectful distance from Mullet, who had impressed him with his four daggers. Bear, somewhat hampered by Blade, brought up the rear. He didn’t mind being behind everyone else, as it meant that when he scratched Blade’s ears, no one could see how big and silly his smile got when the bulldog licked his face in return.
The home under the ground was reached by a secret, icy tunnel, so steep that they had to take a sled, which Adam and Mullet hauled up by a hidden rope. “Sometimes it melts and turns into a waterslide!” Googly yelled to Yu-na as they rounded a corner. “It’s so cool! But there’s another tunnel if you don’t want to get wet!”
When they popped out of the tunnel, Yu-na scrambled out of the sled and looked with satisfaction at the cavern which made up their residence. It was one room, warm and cozy, with a fireplace in one corner and an improbable patch of ice in the middle. Various toys and weapons were scattered around the floor - Yu-na made a mental note to speak to her subjects about cleanliness. There was one giant bed for the lost boys, and a smaller one for Adam. Yu-na frowned. “Where will I sleep?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Adam. “You can have my bed tonight, and I’ll make you a better one tomorrow!”
“What about us?” asked Evan.
“There’s room for you with the others!”
Evan and Johnny looked at each other doubtfully, but decided not to make a fuss.
“Now that that’s settled,” said Yu-na, “what do we do for dinner?”
Googly nearly tripped over his own feet in his eagerness to show her the pantry.
Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11