"Peter.... Pink? Sick?", Cubby asked with a confused expression as Slightly shake his head in response.

As soon as Peter returned to Neverland from the Human World, the Lost Boys were about to greet him a 'welcome back' until they noticed Peter's cheeks that were somehow flushed in a light shade of pink as his whole face was formed in an unreadable expression.

"It doesn't look like he's sick to begin with.", Slightly stated as he crossed his arms in front of his chest while Nibs hummed as he thought of something.

"Did you fell on your head or something?", Nibs asked as Peter suddenly raised an eyebrow by the random question and shook his head in response, letting out a sigh.

Slightly let out a slight smirk by the sudden thought.

"It seemed like he did fell but not on his head.", Slightly laughed as the twins suddenly giggled, getting his point.

"What do you mean?", Peter asked, confused on what the boy was pertaining to.

"You fell in love!~", the twins said in unison, making the other Lost Boys say 'Ooooohhhh' as they now get it.

"What??? Pfft, no.", he denied, looking away from them and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Nibs raised an eyebrow as he looked at him in disbelief.

"Peter.", Nibs called, which Peter responded to right away by looking back at him with his eyebrows raised, meaning 'What is it?'.

"You're so bad at lyi---Oooff-"

Slightly elbowed Nibs chest, immediately making him groan and successfully stopped him from finishing his sentence.

"Shush."- Slightly

"Sorry."- Nibs

"So...", Slightly started off, obviously about to change the topic.

"How'd it go?"

Peter made a quick exhale through his nose, probably calming himself first before he started telling everything that happened from earlier.

----

A few minutes had already past until Peter was done telling them what happened. At first, the boys panicked by the event that she unexpectedly made physical contact by hugging him from behind, but when it comes to the last part, some of the lost boys giggled while the rest was impressed by the unexpected events.

"And that's what we call....'the ship has sailed'...", Nibs joked, which Peter responded by letting out a playful scoff before rolling his eyes at him as Nibs grinned in response.

"She's as crazy as yo--OW!", Nibs was about to add another tease until Slightly smacked his head, glaring at him.

"Shush."

"Tsk, fine.", Nibs grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Anyway. Did you tell her everything she needs to know? As in EVERYTHING about it.?", Slightly asked, specifically pertaining to Peter's touch or Peter being touched.

Peter went silent for a few seconds by the sudden question before shaking his head in response.

"I didn't tell her...that much...She's kinda like the type that gets driven so much by curiosity and even dares to ask various questions...meaning, it may never end until her curiosity is no longer there... So to avoid that..., it's either I stay silent or change the topic right away so she wouldn't be able to push even further on knowing something that can possibly end to a point that's quite..... inappropriate for her to handle...", Peter answered, making some hand gestures with his hands as he explained and making Slightly raise an eyebrow as he listened to Peter.

"Then, what you're saying is..", Slightly started off.

"...you're still hiding things from her?", Slightly finally asked, slightly tilting his head to the side as Peter sighed.

"Unfortunately, yes...", Peter breathe out, feeling disappointed at himself for still hesitating to tell Madison anything even though he said he would.

The other boys on the other hand, decided to remain still, feeling that they shouldn't interfere at the moment. Slightly sighed as his face soften, letting out the words..,

"Inappropriate or not, it's still the truth, Peter...", he calmly said in a straightforward way, earning a moment of silence in the room.

Slightly, being the second tallest besides Peter and the second eldest of the group, he was most likely to be in second command while him and Peter mostly talked about things casually. Even though it may be about personal matters or not, the other Lost Boys are free to listen whenever they're there.

"Well....I had to... If I told her that much...she might ask sudden questions that can lead to the topic about how she died or when she'll die. It might sound random and quite a ridiculous thing to happen but...knowing what type of person she is, it's highly possible for her to ask such a thing...And by thinking of that possibility, I don't want her to live on while mentally pressured on anything that can harm her.", he explained, making the other boys frown while the rest were confused.

"You mean...you wanted her to live normally..?", one of the twins asked as Peter looked at them, nodding in response.

"But didn't she say that she's willing to let her lifespan decrease, just for you?", Nibs butted in, making all of them look at him as Peter answered right away.

"I know what she said, but it's still not okay for her to waste it like that. Besides, she has her own life.... it was very possible for her to continue living and be successful one day, but now....she just took that opportunity away from herself.", Peter said as he frowned.

Peter honestly didn't know how'd Madison got the sudden thought of it...but she was actually right about him knowing on how long one's lifespan is, but what she wasn't aware of...is the fact that he could also see a hint or a short vision of a human's future once by just looking straight into their eyes.

And as soon as he looked into Madison's eyes?

He was so relieved because he saw that her future was beautiful...

She actually went through all the pain her father caused and grew up to be a fine adult.

Peter didn't know how it turned out that way, since it seemed impossible from what he's seeing in the present...

Yet... who would actually know...?

It wasn't him that's controlling her life.....

After all...

The one who's controlling it, was Madison, herself.

---

..after all that they've been through until now....who also would've known that the kind of miracle that can only be awaited in the future...

turns out like this...?

Everything he saw from before was now shattered as soon as Madison hugged him.

Just like that.

"Peter...? Are you okay.?", the twins asked in unison with a hint of worry in their faces.

Peter looked back at the twins as he slowly nodded in response.

"You sure..?", Nibs asked this time, not believing the simple nod he gave.

Peter let out a smile as he chuckled.

"Yes, yes... I'm fine. Don't worry.", he softly said before letting out a soft sigh to himself.

Slightly, on the other hand, was obviously not convinced that he is fine. He raised both of his eyebrows the second he noticed Peter's facial expression turning into a mix of a few emotions before his eyes trailed down to see Peter's hands that were slowly balling into a fist.

It might not be much of a sign for the other boys to read what Peter's actually feeling...but for Slightly? He can easily read him as soon as he saw it.

Anger....

Sadness...

-

-

-

And Guilt...

"You usually deny your real feelings to yourself by not saying anything...but the second I had a chance to look closely at the faces you're giving...I could totally see every inch of emotion on it. At this moment...I could say that Nibs was right, you're really terrible at lying, Peter.", Slightly thought as he slowly frowned at him.

-

-

"I promised...", Peter suddenly let out, earning the look of curiosity from all of the boys as Peter felt a sudden pain in his heart as soon as he said the word 'PROMISE'

"Hm...? Promised what...?", Nibs asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Promised...whom..?", The twins said almost in unison as they tilted their heads at him.

"I promised her mother to look after her. But now look how it went. Her life turned even worse because of me. Just because of that ONE TOUCH, everything in her future while she's alive is now shattered....And I---", Peter abruptly halted on his words the moment he saw the boys flinch in front of him.

Without him realizing it at first, his voice suddenly raise due to his emotions, which was the reason that made some of the boys flinch at his tone before the time he realized it.

Peter stood silent for awhile and looked down at the floor before sighing deeply.

"And I...blame myself for everything...", he finally said as everyone in the room stood quiet.

The atmosphere suddenly felt a lot tense at the very moment so no one bothered to utter a word until....

-

-

-

Cubby spoke up.

"P-peter...?", he called, earning everyone's attention towards him.

"Hm?", Peter hummed in response, seeing the boy had his head lowered as he fiddled with his fingers before speaking up again.

"You said...long time ago...if h-human t-touch you and lives....b-ba...", he paused for a moment as he struggled saying the words.

"What is it, Cubby? Come on, you can do it.", Nibs said, giving Cubby a bit of motivation to speak as Cubby took a deep breath before looking up at Peter with a worried look as he tried to repeat his sentence for the second time..

And this time, his sentence became more clear and understandable than before.

-

-

-

"You said a long time ago.... If human touch you and lives....bad things happen...right?"

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