tofi's trail: keywords

Peter Pan had never been interested in welcoming the new members of the Shooter of the Magic Bullet, but his adoptive father was of the opinion that Peter Pan needed to get to know people a little better instead of only staring at his computer screens. As if Peter Pan stared at the screens only for fun. He did enjoy himself immensely in the cyber space, but he was also working for the Magic Bullet and King Arthur. He enjoyed himself well enough while doing so, but he had his own life plans and they didn’t involve the Shooter of the Magic Bullet or any of its members.

Since he had never been interested in greeting any of the new members, he was reluctant to leave his computer for the sake of meeting a few of them, but he did as he was asked so he wouldn’t give anyone any cause to doubt his loyalty. It would do him no good if Arthur figured out his intentions.

There were three of them. One was a small Latina called Rumpelstiltskin, another was a plain looking Japanese man called Gretel, and the third was a tall European man called Hansel. As usual, few names that Arthur gave his subordinates made much sense to Peter Pan. Snow White made sense because she shared features with the fairy tale character she was named after. And King Arthur made sense because Arthur was their leader, though Peter Pan found it sort of ridiculous to stylize oneself as a king just like that. And what about his own alias, Peter Pan? Did Arthur think that he didn’t want to grow up? That definitely wasn’t the case.

He mentally shook his head, focusing instead to at least memorizing their faces and their aliases, since it would be annoying to be corrected if he got it wrong. It might make them thinking that he didn’t care. Which he didn’t, but that was beside the point. He only stuck around as long as he had to, leaving the more interested members to give the new members the obligatory tour of their current headquarters, and he returned to his computers with relief of having successfully escaped.

*****

He tended to be left alone most of the time because of his rank, and because people quickly understood that he was more interested in getting absorbed in codes and data rather than in human interaction, but sometimes new people were bold enough to ignore his rank and got close despite that.

The man called Hansel was that type, as it turned out.

*****

He didn’t get to be alone for a very long time. The man with wavy blond hair entered Peter Pan’s computer room without waiting for an answer after he knocked on the door. “That actually makes sense to you?” Peter Pan looked up at him, brows furrowed. He was not usually questioned regarding his skills at a computer, even if some might doubt him they did so in silence. Except it didn’t really sound as if he was being questioned, not entirely. Hansel sounded a bit amazed as well. Or maybe amazed was not the right word, but there was something like it present on Hansel’s face. Which was a very pretty face, even in Peter Pan’s uninterested eyes. Prettier than Snow White for sure, although he didn’t see the appeal everyone saw in her. Maybe it was because she was so absorbed with Arthur.

“It does,” he said. He narrowed his eyes as Hansel poked one of the screens, pointing at one of the codes he was working on. “What’s that mean?” Peter Pan pulled Hansel’s hand from the screen, then released it. “Would you understand if I explained it to you?” he retorted, and Hansel shook his head, a “nope” passing his lips without hesitation. “What about that one?”
“If you could stop touching the screen,” Peter Pan said, glaring up at Hansel. It was not all that easy to focus on work when there were fingers all over the screen.
“Oh sorry,” Hansel said as he slid his fingers down the screen. Peter Pan’s glare intensified. It turned into a startled expression, when Hansel lifted the sunglasses from his nose.

“Would you look at that, your eyes are actually pretty.” Peter Pan scowled in confusion. “You sound surprised,” he said, and snatched back the sunglasses from Hansel’s hand. “Well, since you apparently hide your eyes all the time,” Hansel put a hand against Peter Pan’s chin and tilted his head up so he could better look into his eyes, “I thought that maybe they were ugly, but they’re not. So why do you wear those?” He pointed with a too well-manicured finger at the sunglasses in Peter Pan’s hand.
“Because I want to,” Peter Pan lied. Hansel hummed thoughtfully, keeping his gaze locked with Peter Pan’s. “Alright, works for me.” Could he tell that he was not telling the truth? That wasn’t a good thing. As he was trying to figure out a way to tell if Hansel really could tell certain things about him - the man must be really perceptive if that were the case - Hansel sat down on the edge of the table, looking at Peter Pan. “You’re not what I imagined when I was told the King had a son.”

“Alright then, never mind that.” The expression that briefly passed across Peter Pan’s face seemed to betray him, because Hansel shrugged. “Can’t say I don’t get it a bit.” Peter Pan looked at him with startled confusion, and Hansel leaned forward to speak in a low voice, so nobody but Peter Pan could hear what he said, despite only the two of them being in the room. “I can’t say I care much for my family relations either,” he clarified. He straightened up, leaning against the table once more, with a calm grin on his face. Then he stood, and as he left he patted Peter Pan on the shoulder. “Looking forward to working with you, Mister Wizard,” he said and waved as he left the room.

Peter Pan watched the empty doorway for several moments after Hansel had disappeared. If he had not figured things out before, he definitely knew now. The man was...startling… There was no better word for it. But it seemed as if he had no intentions of telling anyone of his real feelings regarding Arthur. It didn’t put him at ease, but maybe he wouldn’t have to constantly watch out for what Hansel said to people. Maybe he should place a listening device on him though, just in case.

*****

He kept an eye on Hansel. Of course he would, after the content of that short conversation that they had had. As a result, he ended up making several observations, and during one of the times when Hansel for some unexplained reason sought him out, brought up one of them, during an instance where he wanted to distract Hansel from the screens. For some reason the man kept asking about things that he didn’t understand even if Peter Pan explained them, and he kept touching the screens, too.

“You’re a soldier?” he asked. He was pleased that for once, the one that was surprised by a sudden question was Hansel. After a few moments, Hansel nodded. “Ex Foreign Legion,” he said. “You can tell?” His question was accompanied by curiosity. Peter Pan had not yet seen him fight so he had not known that he had been part of the French Foreign Legion - not that he was all that good at telling the difference between different armies’ fighting styles. “You move like a soldier,” he pointed out. “Differently from some but still like one. In a more relaxed way.” Hansel hummed in consideration, as if he had never thought about that before. “I’d tell you my name but I’d like to see if you can figure it out on your own,” he said. The look Peter Pan sent him was one that spoke volumes of what a low-level challenge that was. But instead of pointing it out, he turned to one of the screens, to hack into the Legion’s records. “John Dune,” he said. Hansel snorted, pressing a hand over his mouth. His lips was curved up in amusement. “That was fast,” he said.

“Irish Traveler born in Britain, one of only six Brits to be admitted to the Legion in---” Hansel cut him off before he could list more of the information listed in the records. “I know my history, buddy,” he said. His amused expression looked a little strained for a few moments, before his usual cool smile fell back into place. “You really are fast with those things.”

“As you said before, I’m a Wizard,” Peter Pan said with a smirk, and Hansel laughed. “Sure seems like it. I never knew anyone capable of magic before.”

*****

“So what’s yours?” The sudden question, uttered very close to his ear, startled Peter Pan out of his concentrated typing on the keyboard. “What?” He looked up in confusion at Hansel. He had not noticed when he entered the room, and he had not noticed when he leaned against the chair he was sitting in. Hansel looked amused, as he did when he had tried to catch Peter Pan’s attention several times without success and he finally managed to grab the cracker’s attention.

“What’s your name?” Hansel’s face was awfully close, he thought, but on the other hand, Hansel seemed to lack certain boundaries on occasion. Peter Pan smiled, though the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “That’s unimportant,” he said. “I’m here for the cause and King, nothing else matters.” This time he knew, that Hansel knew that he was lying. The cause, maybe, but not Arthur’s cause. For his own cause. He turned back to the computer, planning to ignore Hansel until he left.

Hansel was not intending to leave just yet though, apparently set on finding an answer to a question Peter Pan didn’t really want to answer.

“Well, I’m not,” Hansel said into his ear, in that silent voice, and Peter Pan turned his head to look him in the eyes. “Then what are you here for?” he asked, removing his sunglasses so his sight was not obscured by the shade. “Well, first it was for myself. I was bored and, mmh, stuff. I’m sure you’ve read about why I’m not in the Legion any more.” He made a motion toward the computers with a hand that neither of them were looking at. Peter Pan nodded. He had read about the incidents leading to Hansel being dishonorably discharged. What was true and untrue still stood to question, since official documents tended to lie a fair bit. They were written by people and people lied, after all. At least that was what Peter Pan had seen and experienced. There were often plenty of things hidden from view, and Hansel surely had his own version of what had happened. “Now I’m figuring,” the former soldier continued, “I might as well be here for you.”

“Excuse me what did you just say?” Peter Pan couldn’t stop the words from falling from his lips. What Hansel had said was simply too surprising. As he said it, he had spun in the chair, making it spin with him, and Hansel took a quick step back so he wouldn’t get hit by the cracker’s head when he spun around and momentarily overbalanced.

It took a few moments, while Peter Pan righted himself in the desk chair again, and stared at Hansel in shock and confusion, but then Hansel stepped back in front of him again and leaned forward, putting his hands on the chair's armrests. He leaned close again, their foreheads touching and eyes locked on eyes, so he could once more speak in a voice that no one else could hear, in case anyone passed by the open door leading into the room.

“I don’t know what it is you’re planning but I’m going to be here for you and your cause, that seems much more interesting. You seem much more interesting.” A lock of Hansel’s long hair tickled Peter Pan’s cheek, but he ignored it, focused on Hansel’s words instead. “And once you’ve reached your goal, Peter Pan, tell me your name?”

“I…” Peter Pan stared into Hansel’s unwavering gaze. He never noticed before that his eyes were such a warm brown. “I will, consider it,” he finally managed to stutter out. Hansel’s eyes closed in a smile, and Peter Pan jumped in his seat when he pressed a quick kiss to the cheek that had been tickled by his hair. “Good enough for me,” he said, and pulled away.

Then he left. Just like that. He seemed to be in a good mood, but… Peter Pan was left even more confused than the first time Hansel came to have a chat with him. The man was a mystery even when his whole past was an open book to Peter Pan’s hacking skills.

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