"COSMO! WANDA!"
Wanda inhaled quickly, bracing herself. Here we go…
12-year-old Timmy stormed into the small office (through the only door in the whole building with hinges) and dropped his backpack on the floor, glaring at his fairy godparents. "YOU LEFT ME THIS MORNING! JUST LEFT ME! I MISSED THE BUS, GOT RAINED ON, AND WAS LATE TO SCHOOL!"
He took a deep breath before continuing. "THEN, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS, JORGEN HAS TO COME GET ME BECAUSE YOU TWO CANNOT STOP SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER FOR FIVE MINUTES!"
"Is this true?" Timmy spun around to see a woman fairy with white hair in a beehive hairdo sitting at a wooden desk behind him. She adjusted her bifocals and peered at Cosmo and Wanda, who were sitting in two appalling mustard-colored armchairs opposite. Cosmo bit his lower lip and looked guilty, but Wanda seemed to have not heard her at all and was instead staring intently at Timmy, her eyes narrowed. "Where's Poof?"
Timmy sighed and blew up into his bangs. "Mama Cosma's. He managed to keep himself an eraser while I was at school, but we dropped him off when Jorgen picked me up early." He glared at them.
Cosmo grinned as Wanda scowled. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "Why her? Why not Big Daddy, or Blonda?"
"Stop being so hard on Mama! You wouldn't give Poof to Blonda if she was the last fairy on Earth!" Cosmo cried, his grin gone.
"Cosmo, your mother hates me!" Wanda yelled, giving her husband a dirty look.
"ENOUGH!" Timmy yelled, causing both of them to turn his way. The woman behind him cleared his throat. "Timmy, perhaps you'd like to sit down."
Timmy glared at her. "Where am I? Jorgen was too disappointed in them," he tossed a look over his shoulder, "to tell me anything."
"This is a fairy counseling facility, Timmy," the woman said, gesturing to an empty straight-backed chair on Wanda's left. When Timmy just stood there, she continued. "I'm Dr. Hyde, and it's nice to meet you." She extended a hand, but Timmy ignored it. He shuffled to the empty seat and sat down.
"Now," said the doctor, pressing the tips of her fingers together. "Why doesn't someone tell me when this started?" She was looking at Cosmo and Wanda, but they were too busy not looking at each other to pay her any attention. She let out a small sigh and focused instead on Timmy, who was surprisingly tired of all the attention he was getting from the counselor. She was obviously waiting for a response, however, so he obliged. "It started a few months ago, after Poof's birthday."
Dr. Hyde made a quick note. "And just to be sure, Poof is…"
"Our son," said Cosmo quietly, not looking at any of them. The doctor made another note.
"I see," she said quietly. "And, why have you two been arguing?"
It was amazing how such a simple question could have such a complicated answer. Timmy didn't feel like he should be the one to answer that question, mostly because he didn't feel like he could do it justice. It wasn't his place to state why his godparents hadn't been getting along as of late. He stared at the fairies on his right intently, silently begging them to answer. After some time had passed and the room remained silent, he voiced his opinions. "Anytime, guys."
Wanda looked up. "Does Timmy have to sit here and listen to this? I mean, wouldn't he much rather be in school…" She stopped talking at the look Timmy was giving her. She sighed. "I feel that Cosmo doesn't respect me anymore." Timmy sighed rather loudly, and Wanda glared at him. "You really shouldn't be here, I don't know why Jorgen…"
"You don't think I respect you?"
Wanda's attention was taken off of Timmy and directed towards Cosmo instead. "Yes, you're always calling me fat and boring and you say I'm a nag."
"But…" Cosmo seemed confused, as though he didn't quite understand what he had done wrong. Dr. Hyde seemed satisfied. "Now we're getting somewhere." She directed her attention towards Cosmo. "Did you know that what you were saying was making your wife upset?"
Cosmo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well, sort of."
The doctor raised her eyebrows. "Sort of?"
"Well, sometimes, after I say something, she'll glare at me for a while and sort of sigh a little bit," Cosmo muttered. Dr. Hyde made another scribble before talking in Timmy's direction. "And what do you notice happening between these two?"
Timmy looked embarrassed. "Why should I get an opinion?"
Wanda looked hurt by this. "Sweetie, you're our godson. We care about how you feel."
"Yeah," Cosmo piped up from his chair. Timmy scowled.
"You're doing a lousy job of showing it," he grumbled, crossing his arms. Wanda bit her lip and the doctor gestured for him to go on. Timmy took a deep breath.
"I wake up every morning and these two start arguing and Poof starts crying," he began. "Then I get on the bus usually," Timmy still seemed a little upset about what had happened that morning, "and they keep arguing and Poof keeps crying. Then I have to hide them in my backpack so the kids don't hear them arguing and Poof crying. Then I go home and they keep arguing and Poof keeps crying, and then I go to bed, and they argue after Poof's asleep." Timmy finished his monologue and stared at his godparents. "I'm more worried for Poof then for me."
Cosmo and Wanda looked ashamed of themselves. Dr. Hyde cleared her throat. "Timmy, could you step out a second?"
Timmy nodded and walked straight into the door.
"Sorry, honey," said Wanda quietly, waving her wand so that Timmy poofed out of the room.
"Where'd he go?" asked Cosmo.
"I sent him to Mama Cosma's," Wanda replied, looking down. "I figured Poof was missing him."
After reviewing her notes, the doctor looked up. "Alright, before we talk about this, I just want you two to know a few things."
Cosmo furrowed his eyebrows. "Like what?"
"I want you two to know what would happen if you split up," Dr. Hyde told them. She didn't usually go this far when two fairies were just having a disagreement, but she was of the belief that these two needed to have something to think about if the fighting started up again. Both Cosmo and Wanda looked at her in shock. "Split…split up?"
At that moment, the fairy doctor knew that her suspicions had been confirmed, and that the thought had never crossed either of their minds, but she decided not to show that she knew it.
"If you two were to split, you would switch off godparenting Timmy. Usually, it's a weekly thing."
"Usually?" Wanda was surprised. "You mean this has happened before?"
"In rare cases, two fairies can't seem to handle godparenting together," the doctor explained slowly. "But they are usually newlyweds, and sometimes the child is reassigned altogether. But something tells me," she gestured to the spot from which Timmy had disappeared, "that Timmy wouldn't like that very much."
Wanda accepted this explanation without much fuss, but there was something about Cosmo and Wanda that made them different from every other fairy couple out there. They weren't just Fairy Godparents, they were biological parents.
"What about Poof?" Cosmo asked suddenly, and Wanda felt an odd rush of pride that her husband had been genuinely concerned about their son.
"Poof would just stay with Timmy, and you would see him whenever you were on godparenting duty."
Wanda frowned. Even if she had been considering leaving Cosmo, which she hadn't, she would have definitely changed her mind by now. That arrangement sounded horrible, making their godson deal with having divorced godparents. Usually, their godkids' parents were divorced, that's why they got assigned Cosmo and Wanda, to show them that two people really could love each other. Was that forgotten now? And what about Poof? She couldn't even bear to think about him living like that. Beside Wanda, Cosmo was thinking the Cosmo equivalent of the same thing.
Dr. Hyde watched the pair of fairies as the news sunk in. That usually did the trick in cases like this. It was never a serious thing with married godparents; they cared too much about their godkids to stay mad at each other for long. After a few moments of silence, Cosmo and Wanda looked at each other.
"We really didn't think of Timmy or Poof, did we?" said Wanda, a little sadly.
"I'm really sorry, Wanda," said Cosmo. "I didn't realize that I was hurting you. I thought that they were just jokes, and I was being an idiot. I don't want you to leave, I want to stay with you and Timmy and Poof and…"
"Shh," Wanda put a finger on his lips. "It's ok, Cosmo. I should have said something about it instead of just shouting at you. You did hurt me, but I love you too much to let a little argument break us apart." They smiled at each other, and Dr. Hyde let out a sigh of relief. Wanda broke the comfortable silence. "Cosmo, you should call Mama Cosma and tell her to poof Timmy and Poof back here."
"Okay." Cosmo pulled out his wand and flew to the back of the room. Wanda and the doctor could only hear his side of the conversation.
"Mama? Yes, it's Cosmo…no, I'm not moving back in with you! Mama, Wanda's right over there! We just want Timmy and Poof back over here…Timmy? Is that you? Mama, what are you doing to Timmy?"
Wanda gulped as there was a long silence broken only by Cosmo's scattered attempts to say something. Finally, he managed to speak again. "Wanda and I are fine! Just poof Timmy and Poof back here! No, this isn't about the Fairy Academy…"
Wanda sighed and waved her wand. Timmy, holding Poof, appeared right in front of her. All traces of anger were surprisingly gone from his face. He looked at Wanda with big, blue eyes.
"Are you guys okay now?"
There was so much concern in his voice that Wanda almost burst into tears. She wrapped her arms around him and felt him sigh in relief. They were only forced to break apart when Poof started squirming from in between them. After they had separated, Poof flew into Wanda's arms as Cosmo floated up beside them.
"What was Mama doing to you, Timmy?"
Timmy shrugged. "Nothing too horrible. She had me glued to the back wall." He laughed at the expression on Cosmo and Wanda's faces. "No, really guys, it's okay. It wasn't painful."
"Poof, poof!" said Poof quietly, snuggling into Wanda's shoulder. Cosmo turned to Dr. Hyde. "Thanks for everything, Doc."
She smiled. "No problem, you guys. Take care of yourselves, now!" As the whole family poofed out of her office, and she sighed. "Now I just need to tackle Mama Cosma…"
