Once upon a time...

[nevergrowsup]

Fights, whether they be with angry monkeys or angry boys, were all well and good when they were going on. But the afterwards was not quite as fun

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[bennet_beauty]

She had merely come to check upon the date and nothing else, but when she caught sight of a familiar looking boy with many a bruise, Jane could not help but stop in shock. "Peter?" she asked worriedly, lifting her skirts to rush into the room. "Oh! What has happened?"

[nevergrowsup]

"Hullo Jane," he said, sounding only a little bit glum.

He tongued the cut on his lip, then shrugged. "We got into fights with monkeys when we were exploring- and then some boy got into a fight with me. I beat him though."

[bennet_beauty]

"With monkeys!" she reacted, with no small amount of shock and surprise. The news of a fight did worry her, but she could not say anything, for she knew nothing about it. She merely sat carefully nearby, a hand upon her ever-rounded stomach. "And do you feel well?"

[nevergrowsup]

"They started it," Peter said quickly, because he wasn't the sort to bully poor monkeys into an argument.

"I guess, except that climbin' isn't so much fun 'cause it makes things hurt worse." He hadn't liked finding that out either.

Peter shoved some more of the unreadable books to the side of the couch. "You want to sit down? Your baby looks a lot bigger."

[pokerplayereyes]

"What the hell happened to you?"

Ned was standing in the doorway with a cup of tea. He'd spent most of the afternoon attempting to make real Watchman's tea, but, damn it all, Vimes was right...the pots were just too damn clean.

The Watchman sipped his tea and sighed mournfully.
Too clean by half.

[nevergrowsup]

Peter looked up from the book to see Ned, who'd eaten the flam with him. "A monkey ambush."

After a moment and with obvious reluctance, he added. "And a fight with a bigger boy. But I got him in the end."

[pokerplayereyes]

Ned raised an eyebrow.

"Monkey? Gods. You're lucky to have come through alive."

Ned was not only an excellent Watchman...He was an excellent Revolutionary and he had poker player's eyes.

"Well, good. You should never let bigger boys get the better of you."

[nevergrowsup]

Peter nodded seriously. Finally, someone who really appreciated the danger of it all. "They were real mad too. But me and Arya had swords so we chased them off before they could get at any of the little girls."

In all honesty, the fight was probably more evenly matched than Peter really said, if only because of Will's extra few few inches Once he got tackled, it was hard for Peter to squirm away from him. "He'd just come here and said nasty things about it."

[little_moons]

"'Least tell me you won," I say, flopping down onto the couch next to the kid, jostling him a little on purpose. Jesus, he looks like hell. Bet anything Eostre's pissed.

[nevergrowsup]

Peter gave him a withering look, but jostled his shoulder back against him.

"Of course, I won. Against the monkeys and the boy."

He amended himself after a second. "Or I would've beat the boy if that man hadn't made us stop fighting."

[little_moons]

"Monkeys?" I say, barking out a laugh, "What the hell are you getting into fights for, anyway? Don't you know Eostre'll kick your scrawny little ass for stuff like that?"

[nevergrowsup]

"We were exploring, and the monkeys had their tails in a knot. They started throwing things at the little girls, so we had to take care of them."

It was, of course, even more dramatic and less silly than it sounded. But Peter didn't exactly account the battle with monkeys as one of his greater victories.

"They started it!" He said, and it was practically a whine. "The monkeys and the boy. And Eostre's already real mad at me about it."

[doctorcuddymd]

Cuddy had finished in the clinic later than she'd planned. She'd exchanged shifts with Wilson because he'd asked, they were friends, and they did those kinds of things for one another. Of course it had more to do with the talk they'd had than she wanted to admit, but that was beside the present point.

She hadn't seen Peter in awhile, and the sight of the boy brought a smile to her mouth. Walking into the rec room, she tilted her head to catch the title of the book he was reading.

"Jack and the Beanstalk. One of my favorites," she smiled. "How have you been, Peter?"

[nevergrowsup]

"Is that what it says?" Peter asked, tilting his head to the side as he looked at the page.

Somehow, with all the squiggle lines on the page, he expected that it'd say more than just three words.

He looked up from the book at her, then shrugged. "I been okay, I guess. My lip hurts a lot, but I put ice on it before."

[doctorcuddymd]

"That's the title of the story." Cuddy came to sit down beside him. With her closer distance she noticed immediately the damage done to his face. Her forehead moved into a frown.

"It looks like it hurts," she said, her voice not without sympathy. "What happened, Peter?"

[nevergrowsup]

"Oh." What a very boring sort of title for a story. Maybe learning your letters wasn't worth it, if this was the sort of story they wrote down.

"Hmmm>" He looked up fro the book at her, then brings his thumb up to his eye again. "Oh, I got into fights."

[liberatedpet]

Jeroen walked into the rec room, sitting down beside Peter's feet without a hello. He leaned forward a bit, squinting at Pete's face. "What is that?"

[nevergrowsup]

Peter leaned forward to Peter could see it better. "It's a black eye," he said, poiting to the bruise on his face.

"And dis-" Peter pulled his lip out some. "Is a split lip."

[liberatedpet]

"Ow," Jeroen said, feelingly, reaching out to touch Peter's face, lightly, careful not to hurt. "Hurt?"

[nevergrowsup]

Peter closed his eyes at the last touch. Part of that, but not all of it, was cague worry that Jeroen might poke him in the eye.

He shook his head slightly. "A little bit. I'm okay though."