《Remember the Rules》Rule #10: Stay In Your Comfort Zone
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A/N: Play the song when Lily gets annoyed with Felix. I modified it to better fit the situation, but I don't own it. :) No authors note at the end, though. Yay you! PLAY THE SONG AY THE RIGHT TIME. IT HAS MEANING, PEOPLE.
It's funny how much one day can change you. Not only did I have my memories back, but I knew, on some level, who I was. It wasn't easy, but I knew that it was a far better option than stumbling around blind for eternity.
My pan flute was warm in my hand as I walked back to camp, reminding me of its presence. As if I needed reminding. What had I done back there? Pan had left in a hurry after I'd finished playing; he'd seemed almost... human. For a second, at least. Was that because of the magic? If it was, what kind of magic was it?
I'll bet your voice is even more powerful.
If just my flute could make Pan uncomfortable enough to rush off to god-knew-where like that, what could my voice do? And water...
It would have been fatal.
It seemed like every time I got answers, more questions arose. Maybe that was why I put the flute back to my lips. Maybe it was so I could finally get some sense of how it worked. Maybe I thought it would take the danger away from my magic once and for all.
Whatever the reason, I did it, and the song I played was one I didn't know I knew. It was sweet and sad, like a long forgotten dream. More than that, though, it was raw; it felt like I was playing emotions as I walked, not notes. And more than that, I could feel the magic around me, a dark blue aura of nostalgia. The words floated through my head, begging to be sung.
I know you... I walked with you once upon a dream... I know you... The look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam... And I know it's true... That visions are seldom all they seem... But if I know you... I know what you do... You love me at once... The way you did once... upon a... dream.
I refused to sing them. I had no idea what would happen if I did, no idea who could be hurt. When I played the last note, I heard someone clapping quietly behind me.
Wildcat- John, I reminded myself -stood there with tears in his eyes. He wiped them away hurriedly when he noticed me noticing. "That was great," he said, his voice cracking slightly.
"How much of that did you hear?"
"Most of it. I was going to say something, but you looked so preoccupied that I just waited, and then you started playing and it just..." he trailed off.
I looked down sheepishly, but there was an opportunity here that I couldn't pass up. I needed to know what the magic had done. "It just what?"
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John shrugged. "I remembered some good times from back home. There weren't that many of them, but they were there."
Nostalgia. So that's what the magic had done. I wondered what Pan had remembered, to make him go like that. I'd never seen emotion like that from him. Actually, I doubted anyone had; he was too cut off from the rest of us. Had he remembered a place? A person that was special to him? Something that had happened? Who was Pan, really? I didn't know anything about him.
Why do you care?
I don't.
Yes you do.
Why would I? He's just a brat with way too much power.
Then what does that make you?
What did that make me? If I really thought of Pan as just some spoiled kid, I started to see the similarities between us: the flutes, the magical capacity, even Felix, who seemed to care about us equally, albeit in different ways. If Pan was just a teenager that needed to learn how to use his power responsibly, as I'd thought to myself many times since getting here, then what did that make me?
"We missed you at the wake up this morning," John said, breaking me out of my reverie.
"Before you even ask," I said with a subdued laugh, "Even I don't know where I was."
"Oh, it was one of those days," he said knowingly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked indignantly. I swore that if that was a jab about being a girl, I would-
"No, nothing like that," he laughed, interrupting my silent threats. "I just meant that sometimes, when someone has a really bad day, Pan sometimes takes them somewhere to decompress for the night. No one really knows where, and we're never able to find the place unless he lets us."
"That's..." I had nothing to say. It was incredible that Pan would do something like that for us. Maybe it was a ploy to keep us docile and obedient, but it didn't seem like it would be smart to just do that for no reason. No, it wasn't a ploy; it was a real, honest-to-god nice thing that he did. It brought me back to the ever-unanswered question: Who was Peter Pan, really?
A few hours later, I was miserable for other reasons.
If I'd known that it would take over my every waking moment, learning magic would have stayed at the butt-end of my to-do list. Snippets of songs that I'd never heard, and I knew now that I'd never heard them, kept popping into my head, unbidden.
My heart is pierced by cupid, I disdain all glittering gold...
On my own, pretending he's beside me...
There is nothing can console me...
Your mother and mine. Your mother and mine...
But my jolly sailor bold..
"Ugh, this is driving me crazy," I groaned at Felix before dinner. "I can't shut myself up!"
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He smirked at me evilly. "Welcome to my world. I can't shut you up either."
I smacked him lightly, knowing that he was joking. "I'm serious, Felix. I don't even know what's happening anymore. I've never heard any of this stuff before, and I don't think I could just come up with it without trying."
He shrugged. "That sometimes happens. By the way, that reminds me. What did your Claiming show you?"
"So you knew about that." I glared at him, but I wasn't surprised; Felix knew pretty much everything that happened on the island. "Apparently, it was really unusual." He seemed to think I was stalling and gave me the universal hurry the ef up look. "I have affinities for music and water."
He raised an eyebrow. "Impressive. That's a pretty rare combination."
"So I've heard. But now that I know, it's like it won't leave me alone." I closed my eyes in annoyance. "There are voices singing and playing music in my head. Songs I've never heard, but somehow I know them."
"Well..." Felix slowly got a suspicious grin on his face. "I know of one way to get a song out of your head, but you've got to trust me."
That sounded dangerous, but I nodded anyway.
How had I gotten into this situation? How could I have let this happen, and why had I let him talk me into this? Oh yeah, because he was Felix, and he had me wrapped around his little finger.
There. I admit it.
But however it had happened, I stood in front of the boys, who all looked at me expectantly, because of Felix's damn speech: "So it seems that our sister has a hidden talent, boys. Am I the only one that wants her to show off a bit?"
A vehement "No" resounded. I was surprised; I didn't think all the boys liked me that much.
"Then sing for us, Lily!" Felix shouted gaining a roar from the boys.
Fantastic. Now I had no choice, even though I'd been so careful about not singing in the first place. Well... It couldn't be helped. When the boys settled down enough to let me hear myself think, I looked at Felix. "I hate you for this." Then I took a deep breath and let the song that had been on my mind the most just kind of... Flow out of my mouth:
Upon one summer's morning,
I carefully did stray
Down by the walls of walking,
Where I met a sailor gay.
Conversed with me, a young lass,
Who was in terrible pain,
I said, "Killian when you go,
I fear you'll ne'er return again."
My heart is pierced by cupid.
I disdain all glittering gold.
There is nothing can console me
But my jolly sailor bold.
His hair in hangs in ringlets.
It's strands as black as coal.
My happiness attendant
Wherever he may go.
From Tower Hill to Blackwall,
I'll wander, weep, and moan
All for my jolly sailor
Until he sails home.
My heart is pierced by cupid.
I disdain all glittering gold.
There is nothing can console me
But my jolly sailor bold.
There was a strange silence when I stopped, as though the boys were entranced. Felix sat next to me, nodding sagely. I stared in a sort of horrified wonder at the people around me, who- with Felix as the exception -were under some sort of spell that... I'd caused.
"I see," Felix said. "That was unexpected."
"Um... What happened?" I asked. This was a little creepy; the boys were giving me these weird looks, and it was making me uncomfortable. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Felix laughed quietly. "You're so naive it hurts sometimes, Lily. They're looking at you like that because they're in love with you."
"Infatuated, to be more precise. True love spells don't exist." Pan, once again appearing out of the blue- or rather, the green -looked at Felix sharply. "Boys! Wake up."
It was like a switch flipped. Their clouded eyes cleared up and many of them blushed and looked pointedly away from me. Someone coughed awkwardly.
"Bed!" Pan barked. "Now! All of you!"
The boys scurried away and I turned and walked to the tent quietly. I could hear raised voices from the site. Actually, I could only hear Pan's voice.
"Are you an idiot?" I'd never heard him so angry before. Come to think of it, I'd never actually seen him angry. Just a little annoyed. But this was straight up fury. "You tell me to keep your secret, and then you go and flaunt it like that? Not to mention using Lily for it! Do you know how goddamn dangerous that was? She's a ticking time bomb right now! You really mist have a death wish, Felix, because you not only put yourself and Lily in danger, you put everyone on this island at risk."
"I didn't know," Felix said, not disrespectful, but not backing down either. "How was I supposed to know something like that? I didn't know that she would make everyone act like that, and by the time I realized, it was too late. She already knew I wasn't effected, so there was nothing I could do!"
"Well now you do," Pan snapped. "And I expect you to behave accordingly. Understood?"
"Of course, Pan." Felix sounded like a puppy, berated for something he knew he wasn't supposed to do. Silence followed, or maybe they just kept speaking, too quietly to hear, but when Felix came into to tent, I pretended to be asleep. It was my fault he was in trouble in the first place.
I figured it was the least I could do.
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