Chapter Text
Once again, the kings of two opposing countries were discussing important matters as their families watched on in silence. The princess of the Francoeur kingdom waited with her mother as her father droned on.
Being royalty had never been more difficult to Marie, as she shifted her weight slightly in her pinched shoes in an attempt to find some relief. The kings in front of her had been discussing for almost an hour without any sign of stopping soon. From the corner of her eye, Marie saw her mother’s lips tighten as a guard failed to stifle a yawn.
Once her eyes shifted from her mother and the guard, Marie found amusement in a white blonde tendril that had fallen from her pinned hair. She swayed and bobbed slightly as she watched the curl dance and stretch. Her lips twitched into a small smile at the sight, until a shift of movement quickly pulled her gaze from the tendril and onto the prince in front of her. The prince smirked when he realised he had caught Marie’s attention, and pursed his lips to blow a sickening kiss in the princess’s direction.
King Thorold of Cyrce, the other king discussing in the almost empty throne room, was proud of his son. Holding the boy in high esteem ever since the day of his birth. Prince Eduard was handsome, sure, but he held a darkness that Marie feared would one day consume her.
The prince of almost fifteen years delighted in torturing those he deemed less important than him. Leaving many for his dogs once he had finished, human or animal falling prey to the purposefully starved mutts. Eduard was menacing, cruel and was no match for a girl of Marie’s standard, prince or not. He had no patience for the kindness the small princess held, despite her being wise beyond her years and beautiful, to boot. Her dimpled cheeks and her bright blue eyes held the attentions of many, despite her desire to be hidden from the public eye.
Marie was the spitting image of her mother, the white-blonde hair and the button nose lightly spattered with powder covered freckles. But despite her gentle heart, her father betrothed her to the heartless prince for the day she turned eighteen. At which time Eduard would have already turned twenty-one.
Eduard desired control of all in his father’s kingdom and aspired to gain full control of Thomas’ kingdom on the side. The prince expecting the princess and the kingdom to be under his full control from the moment she was to say, “I do.”
This was the reason the kings before them were having a discussion, the two men eager to find a way around the engagement. Thomas taking the lead in order to protect both his family and his kingdom. “Eduard cannot wed my daughter yet; she is too young,” he said firmly as his eyes flicked to his wife for some form of assistance.
Thorold sighed and pressed the bridge of his nose at the circulation of the topic. The issue having been already discussed more than once that day. “Thomas, I agree fully, but your kingdom is failing. There is nothing else we can do. Except, of course, summon… him.”
Thomas swallowed down the lump in his throat and shook his head at the suggestion. “No… he would take her from me too… there has to be another way. What about my eldest?”
“Toulouse? What about him?”
“Until we can unite our kingdoms, what if we united with another?”
Thorold shifted in his chair as he mentally debated the thought for a moment. “You are already making this merger against the will of all your ancestors. Why make another?”
Thomas shook his head and shrugged. “Do I have a choice, Thorold?” The king looking once again to his wife for encouragement, but the queen kept her gaze high, her eyes avoiding those of her husband’s. “I’ll send a raven on the morrow, but for now, a break?”
The kings returned to their respective parties, the merger still on for now, poor Marie still set to marry the prince in front of her. As her parents stopped to talk, Marie excused herself to the garden, some fresh air desperately needed after the tension of the throne room. Strangely, she felt the urge to run through the courtyard. Past her mother’s garden and straight towards her old treehouse, the place forbidden since her first blood. Slowly, her steps increased in pace as she remembered the last time she had stepped foot in her old treehouse.
“A lady cannot be seen climbing trees Marie, you are a woman now,” her governess had rambled as the woman stripped the bedsheets. Marie remembering it to be the moment her childhood shattered before her in a mixture of blood and tears. She was barely ten at the time.
Marie’s dress tore on a twig as she ran, her pinching shoes determined to draw blood, but still she continued. More tendrils of hair fell from her slowly loosening updo to match the first, her bow coming undone on the back of her dress, but still she ran.
Marie bolted towards her treehouse with pure abandon, desperate to regain some of her childhood between the wooden planks of the tiny home. But as she neared the place where it should have been, she found nothing but a clearing.
Marie felt herself sink into the soil, her knees and hands dirtied instantly as quietly the princess sobbed, unaware that her treehouse was in the same place it had always been. It was the princess that had taken a detour straight through a tear in the fabric of reality. Marie unaware that as she sobbed on the forest floor, she was no longer in the kingdom of her father, but the kingdom of another entirely.
“Haven’t we done this before?” A voice said from behind the girl.
Marie’s eyes widened as she turned to see a boy a little older than her dressed all in green. The girl was afraid, not of him, but because of the sense of recognition that filled her as she looked upon the stranger. Marie gulped down the lump in her throat and wiped a stray tear with the back of her hand. “Before?”
The boy scoffed a single laugh. “You forgot me again? Come on Princess, that’s not fair.” He grinned widely and gestured at a tree in front of the pair.
Marie’s gaze drifted over to see two pink hair ribbons tied to the tree branches floating gently in the breeze. The girl stood slowly and brushed herself off before inspecting the ribbons, curious as to how they were hers, and how she knew that fact. “I… I don’t…”
The boy grinned as he raised a set of pipes to his lips. “It’ll come to you,” he said before he played a tune that Marie could not hear, no matter how hard the girl yearned.
Choosing to ignore the silent pipes, Marie instead studied her surroundings and the strange boy in front of her. She noted the smell of pine and flowers and even the smell of the sea. And as she closed her eyes, the memories came back to her. She remembered clambering up the trees around her, running on the beach, diving into waterfalls. And as she opened her eyes to look at the boy on the rock playing his silent music, Marie remembered who she had done all those things with.
The girl took a few calming breaths as the boy continued to play his silent song. “They weren’t dreams, were they?”
Slowly, the boy shrugged as he pulled the pipes from his lips. “Some of them were.”
Something in Marie built as she smiled at the boy. Her nostrils flared and before anyone could say anything else, the girl was away, an impish laugh escaping her lips as she headed deeper into the forest. “Come on, Peter!” She called, urging the boy to follow, his own laugh emerging as he bolted after her, the two of them whooping and hollering through the trees.
Marie led Peter up the mountain and straight to the waterfall, waiting for only a few moments to take off her shoes before jumping. The wait was long enough for the boy to catch up, and together, the two fell into the water below. After they came up for air, Marie found herself splashing the boy in front of her.
“You made me forget again, Peter Pan!”
Peter chuckled deeply, splashing the girl back with a well-placed slap of the water. “Of course I did. It’s no fun if you come here and know instantly.”
Marie giggled and splashed him again before quickly emerging from the water and removing the outer layer of her dress, leaving herself in a petticoat and her undergarments before bolting off once again, barefoot through the forest. Peter ran beside her and soon they arrived at the camp in the middle of the island, Marie dropping on a log to gasp for air as the boy chuckled.
“Not as young as you once were.”
Marie smiled before her face dropped, the fun forgotten. Her mind drifted to the discussion of her age her father and Thorold shared not a few hours before. “I am to be married soon.”
“Oh, not this nonsense again. Marie, I’ve told you, come and live here.”
Marie released a single breathy laugh. “You would have to drag me away from my family.”
“I would do that,” Peter admitted, his face serious as he spoke.
“No, Peter.” Marie smiled warmly. “They need this. It’s my job.”
A pause rested between them before the boy turned his head to look at her once again. His brow furrowed, as if he was worried about something. “How old are you now?”
“Nearly twelve,” Marie admitted before she sighed sadly. “I don’t want to marry him.”
“He can’t be as bad as me.”
“You are admittedly a little dark, Peter, but you… you don’t frighten me like he does.”
“I should.”
“Yes, well, I don’t feel like you’re going to kill me whenever you look at me. Also, you don’t look at me like you want to eat me.”
“It isn’t eating you he wants,” Peter mumbled under his breath, knowing full well the disgusting minds of some men.
“Father’s kingdom is falling and now Toulouse is to be married before me to unite another kingdom in an attempt for growth. I must be able to do something more than marry… well, a monster.”
Peter sighed and stood to pace a little. “Marie. The only thing I can do is keep the bridge between here and your land open. I made a promise to you to never close it off.”
“I know, but… you may have to.”
The boy whipped around, his pacing instantly halted. “You want me to make you forget again?”
Marie shook her head. “You want me to forget you?” Peter shook his head, the boy for once looking like an actual boy, as Marie watched his sadness loom. “You should get some friends. Others that are lost like you.”
“Lost?” Marie nodded as Peter frowned. “I’m not lost.”
“But they might be. Boys and girls like me, who want to escape.” Marie admitted sadly. “But those who cannot find a home, family… lost… just lost.”
“Lost boys?” Marie nodded again. “Then you can be the first, my lost girl.”
“I’m not lost, Peter.”
Peter felt himself move forward, his need to protect the girl a strange one. “Yes, you are, but I won’t take you, not yet.”
“But you will wait for me, right?”
Peter smiled warmly, prompting the girl to smile back, her button nose crinkling slightly. After a moment of silence, Marie stood to leave, causing Peter’s smile to fade once more as parting was something he always despised. “Already?” Marie nodded sadly, her eyes avoiding his gaze. “But you only just got here.
“I have to finish this.”
“You’re gonna marry him?”
Marie made a gagging sound before laughing. “No, but I think I know a way around this whole thing.”
“You want to borrow the emerald, don’t you?” Marie nodded as Peter pulled a small jewel from his pocket.
“How did you know?”
“Your kingdom is poor, and you don’t want to forget this place, so you intend to return it.” Marie paused, waiting for his answer. Slowly, he approached her and gently put the jewel in her hand. “Keep it.”
“Are you- “
“Keep it,” Peter repeated, his shoulders raising slightly into a shrug. “You can wear it as a necklace.”
Marie looked down at the small emerald in her hand as it sparkled in the hot afternoon sun. “How do I use it again?”
“Hold the jewel in one hand and the thing you want to multiply in the other. It will take a while, but you should be able to make enough, just not too much at once, or it will start to draw energy from you.”
“Thank you, Peter.” Marie placed a chaste kiss on his cheek and turned to leave before she glanced back. “Oh, could you?” With a wave of Peter’s hand, the girl was perfectly dressed again, her hair all back in place and her shoes once more upon her feet, thankfully a little bigger.
Politely, she curtsied before heading back to the tear, stepping through easily to find herself face to face with her treehouse. Time having barely passed and the sun in the same position as it had been the moment she left, which by Neverland standards had been at least a few hours.
Calmly, she tucked the emerald into her hair and made her way back to the palace. Time having barely passed, resulting in no one having missed her. The kings were still sipping on brandy as the prince whittled something out of wood, his gaze fixed on the princess as she passed by.
“Mother,” Marie spoke firmly as she approached the queen. “I have a proposition.”
“Not now, darling.” The woman frowned, her eyes closed as she rubbed her temples firmly. “Why don’t you sing me your pretty little song? That always cheers me up.”
“But mother- “
“Yes, dear Marie.” Thomas grinned brightly at his daughter from across the room. “I haven’t heard you at the piano for weeks.”
Marie sighed and sat at the bright white grand piano her father had gifted her for her sixth birthday. The instrument played only on special occasions, Marie practicing on something a lot smaller for her lessons. Flawlessly, she played her scales before starting her song that she and her mother had written together a few years prior. Marie having never forgotten it.
When Marie finished, all in the room gave her a polite clap before she tried to talk again to her mother, only to find the woman had excused herself during the song. The queen having used her daughter as a distraction in order to leave. Marie huffed before returning to the spot she had been standing in all afternoon to watch the kings fuss over another matter entirely, their brandy glasses still in hand.
What Marie didn’t notice was the prince sneaking up behind her and resting his hand on her back, where her dress scooped. The girl quickly swallowed the bile that had risen at the feel of Eduard’s skin upon hers before speaking calmly so as to not draw attention to others. “Please don’t touch me, your highness.”
“Why not, little Marie?” Eduard leaned to whisper into Marie’s ear, the sound of his voice and the feel of his breath making the girl’s skin crawl and her stomach lurch in the worst way. “One day I shall be your husband, and believe me, I will touch more than just your back.”
“Eduard, we shall be making our leave before the roads get too dark,” called Thorold, his chair scraping as he pushed it back from the table. “Say your goodbyes.”
“Goodbye little wife,” Eduard purred into Marie’s ear. “Hope to see you again soon.”
After they had gone, Marie suppressed a shudder before cautiously approaching her father. “Might we discuss something?”
“Not tonight, Marie. I’ve spoken enough for one day.”
“But father.”
“Enough.” Thomas spoke sternly but never shouted, his point coming across clear enough. “Go wash up for supper. You will be dining alone tonight.”
“As usual,” Marie muttered as she made her way out of the throne room and back to her bedroom. The girl made an effort to hide the emerald in her jewellery box before washing up and making her way down for dinner. When she returned to her bedroom later that night, Marie collapsed upon her bed and instantly dropped into a deep sleep. The excitement of the day proving to be too much for her entirely.