Except One

Peter felt Regan stiffen in shock as he bent down and kissed her. He himself was shocked. He was Peter Pan! He didn’t kiss.He didn't kiss girls and he certainly didn't kiss mermaids!This was a grown up thing to do.And Peter was just a boy, a boy who would never grow up!

It was just pretend,that was what he told himself.It was pretend, it was make-believe so he wouldn't lose Regan.

But the threat of losing Regan for good caused this to matter no more. Right now, he wasn’t Peter Pan, the boy who didn’t grow up. He was simply Peter…a boy who was afraid of losing everything he cared for. Of losing the person that had quickly become the reason for the smile in his eyes, and the laugh that rolled around his mouth.

Regan’s mermaid lips underneath his were cold and wet, tasting like the salt water of the sea. Regan gasped as his warm lips met hers and she reached out, grasping his bare arm, half thinking of pulling him into the waters, to watch with dangerous eyes as the legend himself was claimed by the sea. She could hold him there and stare with glee as water filled his lings with a fiery burn. But something stopped her, as the memory of the boys laugh and smiling eyes flashed in her mind once again. A memory formed not too long, a memory of a boy she should know. A boy she should love..

But as she pulled away from the boy called Peter, she stared into his baby blue eyes, a mixture of shock and fear on his face as he realised what he had done, and waiting to see what Regan would do.

She floated backwards in the water as Peter scrambled upwards, his cheeks tinted with red. He placed his hands on his hips again, his feet grasping for a hold on his rocky, uneven perch and she opened her mouth, looking at the memories before her eyes that the sea had washed clean but Peter's warm inexperienced kiss had brought back.

She gave a stifled shocked gasp as she remembered everything. Peter, her Peter saving her, bringing her to Neverland, flying with her, laughing with her. Her friend, her boy Peter.

She forgot about William, the pirate who had charmed her over the past week, the pirate she had been seducing.It would always just be Peter.

“Peter!” she whispered and he moved towards her again “Oh Peter! I remember. I remember now!”

Peter gave a delighted smile of relief, reaching out his hand for Regan but she did not take it, instead looking down at her own body, her tail shimmering under the water. She looked up at Peter again, who was staring at her curiously.

“Peter…I’m a mermaid…” she spoke slowly, “How…how can I come back to you”

Peter frowned “I…I don’t understand Regan…how are you a mermaid?”

Regan shook her head “I don’t know Peter…I don’t know…it’s the others…they…they dragged me down and then...I had a tail and I forgot you and I forgot everything”

Peter beckoned to Regan “Get out of the water Regan…maybe your tail will disappear”

Regan bit her lip with her sharp tooth “No Peter, I don’t think it works like that…I think I need to want to be human again…and stop being a mermaid”

Peter smiled “Well do that then Regan!"

Regan hesitated, looking out into the open sea, where she had the freedom she had always craved for, unbound by ropes or chains. There were so many reasons to stay in the deep waters.She could be free here…in the sea, alone….

All alone…

And then she looked at Peter, his blue eyes forever smiling at her. He was the one reason she had to leave, the one reason she could want to live on dry land and lose her gift. He was holding out his hand having no doubts that she would not follow. But he wanted her…he had kissed her. She had been kissed by Peter Pan.

That was something not even Wendy Darling had achieved. For it was she that had given Peter her kiss.

And with Peter she would never be alone….she wanted to go with Peter..

A sudden pain flamed through her body, and Regan threw her head back to cry out in agony. It ripped up and down her spine like a carnivorous monters biting and shedding everything in it’s path.

“Regan! What is it?” Peter called out to her frantically.

She gasped out again, unable to talk and began to tremble where she was floating in the water. She felt like something was slicing through her whole body with a kitchen knife.

What was happening?

She began to sink and she allowed herself to drift downwards, knowing it was part of whatever process was occuring with her body. She felt herself begin to spin eerily in the water and she looked around. There were more mermaids with her, their eyes angry and disappointed. They had given her the gift of the tail, the beauty and the charm. And now she did not want it anymore.

Rock stared at her, his blue eyes cold and sad. He watched as Regan’s tail slowly became undone and suddenly she was floating in the water, her white dress upon her once again floating around her like a sheet.

Regan was tired and in pain. She did not have the energy to swim and watched with a sorrow, the sky above the water and sighed, air bubbles escaping her mouth. She had been so close.//

Peter circled above the water, watching the shape of Regan as the mermaids crowded around her and finally he couldn’t wait any longer. He plunged down into the cold water and saw Regan, the Regan he had left with her legs and her pretty white dress, on the sea bed. He swam down to her, shaking an angry fist at the mermaids who were watching her curiously but not attempting to help. Typical.

They backed away as Peter grasped Regan and shot up into the sky, miniscule water droplets raining down from them onto the surface of the sea. Regan blinked and looked at Peter, wincing at the aftershocks of the pain that had been engulfing her body.

She squeezed Peters arm “Thank you boy” she whispered, before dropping her head into an exhausted sleep, trusting Peter to bring her home to their Nevertree safely.