Tobias

~

Peter sat up in the hammock at the mention of popsicles, his game forgotten. “I want a blue one,” he called down. Green was his favorite color, but blue was the better flavor. Raspberry trumped green apple any day of the week.

“Where were you?” he asked curiously from his perch above Tobias.

~

A blue one. He reached into the box to see if there actually was a blue one left. “I was in my room, well the other room.” he said as he went to deliver the raspberry flavored popsicle to Peter. “I was doing things I didn’t want to bore you with.”

“Peter! Peter are you here?” Peter mimicked in Tobias’s voice from his spot in the hammock above Tobias. He grinned as he hid up there, glad Tobias was home so he wasn’t alone with his thoughts anymore. The game was childish, but Peter didn’t care. He wanted a space where he could still be childish, and he had that space with Tobias. It seemed to be the only safe space these days.

~

Tobias rolled his eyes, shaking his head at Peter’s mimicry, pulling out one of the strawberry flavored popsicles that was left. “You want a popsicle?” he asked “Umm I think there’s one of the green ones left. Maybe a blue” 

“Peter” he called as he stepped into the room, shedding his coat and going into the kitchen “Peter are you here?” he asked as he opened up the freezer looking inside to see if there were any popsicles left from the last box he’d swiped from the Ababwa Corner Store

~

Tina sniffed, shaking her head. “No,” she mumbled, turning her head just enough to see Tobias out the corner of her eye. “I bought the lights on eBay, and the nail gun at Felix’s.” Tina glanced down at his hand as he took hers, thankful for the small comfort. “D’you promise?” she asked, though it felt more desperate than hopeful. Then a small breath of relief came and Tina wiped away a tear with the back of her hand. “Thank you…” she squeezed his hand back.

“I don’t think I can do either. I’m… I’m scared… I don’t think I can just break it off. I’m not just off fucking a pirate for the fun of it, it’s really stupidly complicated and I wish it wasn’t. And then Peter just makes it more complicated, because I’m too terrified to tell him because I know it’ll upset him. I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t want him to hate me. I think I’ll die if he does.”

~

“Good, cause that’d be stupid if you did” he let out a single sort of chuckle that made his chest move in a quick up and down motion. “Cross my heart, hope to die. Break a promise, never fly” he smiled a little, giving her hand another squeeze. 

He paused a moment after listening to her, before moving to sit on the floor across from her. “Yeah, he asked about when you were coming home. That definitely sounds complicated. Are you living with him, T? Is being at his place the game or is here the game?” he asked, unsure of which part was make believe now for her, or if any of it was. “I can’t guarantee he won’t hate you if you tell him, but I know he will if you don’t.” he reached across to wipe a thumb on her cheek under her eye. 

“Also I have to know....did you have sex with the pirate in a bathtub?” he smirked with a raised brow “cause it was really sounding like it, and honestly, I don’t even know how that works logistically cause bathtubs don’t feel like they’d fit two people in that sort of way. Feels like it’d be very cramped and uncomfortable”

~

Tina scrunched her nose, a familiar guilt holding the pit of her stomach. She had convinced herself, at this point, that she was doing an absolutely god-awful job of making Peter happy, between disappearing all the time, keeping secrets, getting upset over a wedding and pretending to kill Tobias. “Well I wasn’t with him, was I? He was looking after you. I was– He didn’t–” By this point, she couldn’t keep herself from crying and buried her face in her knees. “I think I would have told him the wrong things… and he would hate me for it…” she admitted quietly, remembering all to well the three-day-long panic she had found herself in, and exactly what she had told Hook when he found her. “Please don’t get my hopes up, Tobias. I don’t think I can hold anything else. He’s marrying you. And that’s final because I’ve already spent way too much money on eBay on fairy lights and that stupid nail gun.”

~

Tobias swallowed before rolling over to his side in order to look down at her on the floor by the side of the bed. “Wait, you bought the nail gun on eBay? Why didn’t you just go to Felix’s?” he raised a brow, before reaching down to find her hand and taking it, “No matter what happens with me and Peter, married or not he will always love you. I will always love you” he squeezed her hand “and don’t worry I’m not going to tell Peter about James, I love Peter, but that’s not my place, but you should or break it off with the pirate. Honestly, I’d suggest the second, but I think he really does care about you, which is weird with him being a pirate and all, and I don’t know if he makes you happy...maybe he does. So, that’s why I’m not telling Peter because you deserve to be happy....even if it’s with the fucking pirate and we did make a blood oath. Peter needs to know though, and it’s better he hear it from you than finding out on his own cause eventually he will.” 

~

Tina held her breath in a desperate attempt not to burst into tears on the spot, and listened. The first matter, confusing as it was given she hadn’t read the messages, seemed unimportant. The second was worse, but as Tobias went on it didn’t feel like the most pressing issue. The third stung, and her heart hit the floor.

“Tobias…” she started meekly. “Please don’t say that, it isn’t fair.” For all Tina was heartbroken and jealous, she loved Tobias enough to know that none of this bullshit was his fault. “Peter chose you. Not me. It doesn’t matter if I want to be with him, it’s what Peter wants, and what’ll make Peter happy. And you make Peter happy, and he makes you happy.” Tina drew her knees up to her chest. It was easier hiding down here than looking him in the eye. “I love both of you too much to take that away… It wouldn’t be fair. A-And besides, isn’t it better for two people to be happy than one?”

~

“Not fair? It’s the truth, T” he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “You make Peter happy too. I don’t know what he would do without you in his life, Tina” he swallowed, shaking his head a little. “and if you’d been the one to be with him when you were high as fuck and told him all the things I apparently did, then you’d be the one he’d be with now.” his hand moved up to run through his hair, before he moved to lay down, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m pretty sure he’s always loved you the most. I think even when Wendy was here, even though it might not have seemed that way.” 

Tina had been rather pre-occupied with locating her mysteriously missing phone when a knock came at the door. There wasn’t much time to get up and answer from the floor beside her bed before Tobias opened the door anyway. Her head popped up, but before she could even ask if he had seen her phone he went off. And the colour very quickly drained from her cheeks.

She opened her mouth to speak, but ended up opening and closing her mouth like a guppy for a solid thirty seconds before any noise made it out. “Can you close the door and say that again, because I think I just heard, like… three words…” Tina knew, at this point, that she was absolutely fucked, and ducked back down behind the bed.

Tobias turned around to push the door closed. Repeat what he’d said, okay, he took in a breath “Ask for a raise. What are you thinking fucking the pirate? Do you want me to tell Peter you want to be with him, so you can be with him because when I’m happy things get ruined, and I love him, like...like to the point I sometimes feel I can’t breathe or function just right when he’s not around, but I love you too, and you’re not happy and that’s my fault. Don’t try to say it isn’t, because it is. We both know it is.” he swallowed, before taking her phone out and tossing it onto the bed “So, just tell me what you want me to do, and ask the fuck pirate for a raise cause I’m like 99% sure he’ll give it to you”

“Tina” Tobias gave one knock on the door of Tina’s room that had been built at the motel during the remodeling. He reached down to turn the knob finding the door unlocked, so taking it upon himself to just enter. “Okay, first off, ask your boss for a fucking raise. Second, YOU’RE FUCKING THE PIRATE? What the fuck, Tina? Third, third I - I don’t know what to do, because I love Peter and you love Peter and I love you and - and I’m happy with Peter, but you’re not happy because you want to be with Peter, and I know the hierarchy of things and that I’m supposed to come third or last or whatever, and I don’t know what to do because me being happy is going to ruin everything, and ugh just fucking ask your boss for a raise” 

James: I don't really mind, but I rather discuss the details with her.

James: If she wants one I won't say no to her.

James: Like I won't say no to Smee

James: Or peter or you know any other of the I think they are called lost boys?

James: I don't mind handing out pocket money.

James: What do you think about yourself?

James: Think Tina will get a raise by just asking?

James: Not sure who you are but you should learn a bit about how Tina converses with me.

James: Make sure she gets her phone back alright ;)

James: If you say so, see you at work.

James: Don't stay up too late.

Tina: I do say so

Tina: that raise will be on my next check, right?

James: Tell me when you aren't ending up crying in my arms because of Peter.

James: You don't need to bottle everything up, Tina. Your feelings are valid, and if you are hurt it is no shame to admit this.

James: You are preparing the wedding of the guy you have been in love with for years.

James: After what happened at the event...you can't tell me you are okay. We both know you aren't.

Tina: I'm not hurt

James: You know I'm just worried about you.

James: Tina, I understand. You know that I'll always love you no matter what.

James: That will never change.

James: Was more thinking like 5k?

James: Tina you already earn most in Neverland :/

James: Are you still mad about the whole Peter thing?

James: It's not like you to sound like old you out of the blue.

Tina: 5k even better. let's do that one

Tina: what if I am still mad about it?

James: Fine, but you know I was joking right.

James: We don't have to have sex so you can get a raise.

James: Also the twins miss you, when do you plan to come home?

Tina: Great.

Tina: $5 raise yes? Yes.

Tina: Thanks

Tina: Haven't decided yet.

James: You'll have to do better than that, why not repeat what we did after ;)

James: Tina, I'm not giving you another raise.

James: It's like the party, my answer is no.

James: You better not crawl into my bathtub again.

James: No, is no.

Tina: give me a raise and i won't