Title: Fireflies

Genre: Romance/Humor

Rating: K+

Pairing: Poof/Piper

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A/N: This is somewhat AU, considering some of the facts about Anti-Fairy World and whatnot are slightly changed. Piper is pretty young here, probably around six or seven, which makes Poof around thirty, or, in looks, a young-looking ten.

You might want to read 'What Hurts The Most' first to fully understand this one, but I suppose you could read this one and enjoy it without reading 'What Hurts The Most.' You might be a bit confused as to who Piper is, though.

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Piper sniffled as she leaned against the bookshelf, her face buried in her arms. Her curls were disheveled as was her pale blue nightgown, but she didn't care. She was upset, and if she looked upset, so be it.

Suddenly she stood up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I don't care what Daddy says. I don't have to be evil to be a productive person. There are plenty of perfectly nice people who are productive, like…like…" Piper then burst into tears because she couldn't think of a single perfectly nice person who had even been very productive. Her mother was nice enough, but then again, her mother was also known as one of the dumbest anti-fairies who ever lived.

Angry with both herself and everyone around her, Piper violently kicked the bookshelf and a few books tumbled down. She whimpered as she avoided the falling books but one hit her rather hard on the head and she tumbled backwards. She raced forwards to pick up the assaulting book and throw it across the room, but she then realized that it was a book completely foreign to her. She had never seen it before in her life despite the fact that it was on her bookshelf. The only thing on the front was a giant number eight made out of sparkly foil. She opened it and cooed happily at the bright pastel pictures and sparkly foil. The foil appeared to be getting more sparkly by the second. Soon it was downright blinding and she dropped the book to rub her eyes.

When she opened them again, there was a young boy standing there.

Piper did the first thing that came to mind. She screamed, but of course, nobody came to help her. Her parents had gone off to go terrorizing many hours ago. She was in the castle all alone.

"Don't be afraid, Piper," the boy murmured, bending at the waist so that their eyes were level. His eyes were a soothing lilac color as was his hair that curled at the ends to give him sort of a messy, rumpled effect. His face was the most innocent, delicate face she'd ever seen, and all of this together made Piper's fear go down and her curiosity go up.

"Who are you?" Piper asked softly, reaching forward and pressing her hand to his cheek to assure herself that he really was real and not a figment of her imagination. His skin was warm and soft to the touch.

"My name is Poof, dear child, and I have been assigned as your fairy godparent," he remarked, reaching up and removing her hand from his cheek and clasping it in his own, lightly pulling her to her feet. The second her bare feet hit the carpet, the ceiling of her attic bedroom opened up and revealed all of the stars in a midnight blue sky.

"It's beautiful," Piper gasped, staring up into the glowing night sky. "Where did they come from? There are no glowing lights in Anti-Fairy World, only purple clouds, and the sky is red, not blue."

"There is a place called Earth where there are people just like you called humans. They feel the same emotions as you and want the same things you do, and they run around in fields of grass and look up at a sky just like this one," Poof explained. "I cannot take you to Earth just yet, my superiors have forbid it, but they haven't forbidden me from letting you share in their sky."

"What are those glowing lights called?" Piper queried.

"They're called stars, and each one has a name just like yours or mine. There are billions of them, trillions of them, and when they fall to Earth they come alive," Poof answered. "Look, here come some now."

Many stars seemed to fall from the sky but upon closer inspection, they were tiny little bugs with lights attached to their backsides.

"Glowing mosquitoes?" Piper squeaked, hiding beneath her bed, for she had never seen a bug that was not out to harm her.

"No, Piper, these bugs won't hurt you, dear. They're called fireflies and they mean no harm. They only want to teach you to dance," Poof coaxed, gently taking her hand and leading her over to where a large group of them had gathered, gently flashing their lights at her in welcome.

"Hello, fireflies," Piper smiled politely, and they all flashed their lights at once and surrounded her. She felt strange being surrounded by so many little creatures. She was terrified that she might hurt one of them because they were so tiny and fragile-looking.

"Don't worry. They may be tiny creatures, but they're very strong. You wouldn't be able to hurt one of these if you tried," Poof assured her.

"I would never, ever try to. They're beautiful. Thank you for showing them to me," Piper smiled. "Are they from Earth, too?"

"There is a creature on Earth like them called the lightning bug, but these fireflies are much more advanced than them. They could fly up to the moon and back in a nanosecond," Poof told her, and Piper's eyes grew very wide.

"Which one?" Piper asked, for Anti-Fairy World had thirteen moons all in different shades of red.

"All of them, and your seven suns, too, all before you could blink your eyes," Poof answered. "They're miraculous creatures, my favorite of all of the worlds' various species. They're assigned to miserable fairy children and grant their every wish."

"I would love to have one of those, but I'm not a fairy," Piper sighed sadly.

"No, you are a human child, and a very miserable one at that. That's why I was assigned to you. You see, I'm a fairy and I've just completed my course at the Fairy Academy. Most fairies just get assigned to whatever kid is most miserable at their time of graduation, but I was an exception to that rule. You see, Piper, before you were born, your other father made a wish to make sure you'd be happy living here with Anti-Cosmo. He gave you his godbrother. He gave you me," Poof smiled gently. "Now that I've gone through the fairy academy and you're old enough to follow Da Rules, I get to grant every wish you make to make sure you're happy."

"You've already made me so happy, and I haven't even made a single wish yet," Piper whispered. A firefly tapped on Poof's shoulder and stated something in a quiet, squeaky voice that Piper couldn't hear. Poof grinned.

"Yes, of course, I nearly forgot about that. The fireflies have offered to teach you to dance, if you'd like to learn," Poof offered.

"Of course!" Piper squealed, and then frowned. "But wait, I don't have a partner to dance with. The fireflies are much too small."

"But I'm just the right size," Poof smiled, taking one of Piper's hands and placing the other one on her waist. They followed a group of fireflies that lead them in a mellow dance around the room. The rest of the fireflies sang a soft melody that Piper never wanted to end, even though she couldn't understand the words.

"How long will you stay with me?" Piper queried.

"Forever," Poof softly promised, pressing a soft kiss to Piper's forehead. Soon Piper grew very sleepy as it was rather late at night, and she fell asleep in the middle of a spin as she danced. Poof effortlessly caught her and carried her to her bed.

"I think we'll get along just fine, Piper," Poof whispered, and as the fireflies went away and the ceiling closed back up and the sky returned to its usual red and violet, Poof turned into a kitten and snuggled in beneath her arm, beneath the blankets so that nobody would come across him if they came in to wake Piper in the morning.

And Piper dreamt of firefly songs.

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