AN: Nibs is gender fluid in this story. It will go from the time they are a child to season 3 of the show. The entire thing is one huge AU, because I -like most Fans- refuse to believe that Peter is indeed Rumple's father. So in this story Peter is Rumple's much younger brother. This is my first time writing fanfiction so I hope you all like it!

~Luna

Chapter 1

I slowed my pace to a light jog, trying to catch up to my best friend who was a whole year older than me. Which meant his legs were a lot longer than my stumpy little ones. There were seldom clearings in the Enchanted Forest, yet we had found one not too far from our village. We were playing Ogre Wars, with him being the nasty ogre and me the valiant knight. My sword was his dagger, his club a fallen tree branch. It was dangerous play, but being children, we had no sense of the word danger.

I hacked off a twig from the branch. "Ha!" I shouted, trying to lower my voice to one I thought a knight would use. "What ever shall you do now, nasty beast?!"

He just roared before tackling me, turning our ogre war into one of tickling. I struggled before tickling him back, in that one spot between his too prominent ribs. Practically dying of laughter, he rolled off of me. It wasn't long before just a look dissolved the two of us into a flurry of giggles. I sat up in the field, picking dandelions and trying to blow off all of the wish seeds. He propped himself up on his elbows, hair sticking out in all directions as most ten year old boys' did.

"What do you wanna play now?" I asked, fitting a few purple flowers into the beginnings of a crown.

"I dunno," he stated. "We could play Knights and Dragons. I'll be the knight and you can be the princess since you're a girl."

I dropped my crown, tackling him again. "Am not! Say it! Say 'Nibs you are not a girl'!"

He just laughed. "But you're only only a boy on some days. What are you?"

I sat back on his legs, thinking hard for a moment. "I'm both and none at all." I said after thinking it through.

"Fine, you can be the dragon. And I'll still be the knight." He agreed.

I got off of him and roared, raising my arms above my head to be pretend wings. He grabbed his dagger and used it as a sword again, both of us shouting insults at the other. We played for what seemed to be hours, but was probably only ten minutes until Peter's older brother came to get him. I didn't like Rumple, there was something off about the way he cowered at anything. Something that could get Peter killed and almost had at some points.

I watched the two leave and continued to run in the field until I heard my mother calling for me.

The village was a short distance, but still long enough to make one winded if they had run all the way there. Which is what I had done. I sat on one of the chairs at our table, breathing hard and red faced. My mother sat bustling around the kitchen, trying to throw together dinner.

"Hi Mama." I said. "Peter and I played all day today."

She nodded in return. "Nessa, dear, I told you I would rather you not hang out with Peter. His brother's wife has been seen around pirates no less you are not to repeat that." She added hastily.

"Mama I'm not a girl today." I corrected her. "I'm a boy, I'm Nibs today."

She turned around, big wooden spoon in hand. "You're a girl, Nessa. That what you were born."

"No I'm not. I'm a boy today. I was a girl last week." I argued, trying to make her understand. Peter had gotten it so easily, why couldn't she?

"To bed with you. I will have none of this nonsense in my house." She stated, pointing with the spoon to my attic bedroom. I dutifully followed her orders, for if father found out the punishment would be much worse.

My room wasn't much, a small bed and dresser lined one wall with a chair on the other one. On the chair sat a big stuffed rabbit Peter had won for me a few years ago when a traveling circus wagon had rolled into town. Smiling fondly, I undressed into my nightgown, blowing out all the candles in the room and waited by the open window. It was our signal, when one of us was in trouble the other would enter through the window.

Peter didn't keep me waiting long, but he had tears in his eyes. I thought it was from the wind, but the way his lip quivered showed me that was not the case.

"Why are you crying?" I asked.

"We're to move," he said. "They want to go to the city by the castle... I'm to be an apprentice. They want to make me grow up."

I hugged him, feeling the girl nature kick in. "You can run away. Tomorrow afternoon. We'll do it together."

He shook his head. "Nibs we're leaving in the morning. I'm to grow up. I don't want to grow up."

I nodded, holding him at arm's length. "Then let's play pretend." I suggested, knowing it was his favorite game. "We don't live here, we have our own island. There's no time and no mean brothers or bad mothers."

"Neverland," he supplied.

For the rest of the night, we played that Neverland was real. My tented sheets became our treehouse, the rabbit being the ferocious Neverbeast raiding our camp. My parents downstairs were pirates, ones we feared to wake. The roof was our tree canopy and the other houses we could see we're the Picanny tribe of braves. We played until dawn, when the two of us retired to our separate beds.

In the morning, I woke up to find the dagger lying on the floor. I panicked, grabbing the blade and rushing downstairs. After a quick "Hello Mama", I hurried out the door. There was a wagon leaving the village, and I could just barely see Peter in the back, trying to fight back tears.

"I'LL WAIT!" I shouted, clutching the dagger. "I'll wait to grow up with you."