Timmy blinked, thinking that the sun was playing tricks with his eyes. Her crown cracking? Wasn't it...
Indestructable?
"Wanda?" he asked. "What's... what's up with your crown?"
Wanda looked at him with her teary pink eyes. "Oh? My crown? Is it less bright? Yeah, that's normal when a fairy's sad. That happened to Juandissimo when I dumped him." She put her head back in her hands, sighing.
She doesn't know, Timmy realized. "No, not that. It's... cracking. Breaking. Whatever word you want to use."
Wanda's head snapped up. She had stopped crying in her shock. "C- cracking?!" she half-whispered, half-yelled. "No. No. It can't be..." she jumped up and looked in the mirror over Timmy's dresser. As her fushia eyes wandered up to the reflection of her crown, she bit her lip and whimpered. "I don't believe it..." she said softly.
"What's the big deal?" Timmy shrugged. "You can always get another crown, right...?"
"It's not that simple, Timmy." Wanda was now regurgitating the words that Timmy had heard countless times from her. "Each crown is as sacred to a fairy as their soul. Each fairy only has one crown, and one crown only. After the Falling -remind me to tell you about the Falling someday, Timmy- Jorgen made them almost indestructable." She bit her lip again and looked at him. "...Almost."
"Almost?" Timmy asked. "What'd you hit your head on?"
If the situation weren't so severe, Wanda would have laughed at the child's cluelessness. "No, Timmy. Jorgen made them unbreakable... but only in physical terms."
"Andddd what does this have to do with-"
"I'm getting to that," Wanda snapped, slightly annoyed at Timmy's interjections. "If a fairy's heart is broken enough, then they have a certain amount of time -it depends on the fairy, and no, Timmy, I don't know how much time I have- until their crown breaks."
"What happens when their crown breaks?" Timmy inquired.
Wanda hesitated. "They..." she glanced in the mirror once more and gulped. "They die."
Just at that moment, the one and annoying Juandissimo poofed into the room, carrying flowers. "Wanda, I have come to ask for your strong -did I mention that I was really strong, speaking of strong?- for your strong forgiveness and eternal lo..." his accented voice trailed as he noticed Wanda's breaking crown. "Wanda! Oh, my sweet flower!" He clasped her hand. "Your crown... I fear that you are dying."
"I know," Wanda growled, not bothering to tug her hand away. She knew that Juandissimo wouldn't give up.
"Allow me to heal your heart and repair your crown," he continued, kissing her hand. (Wanda's face turned the colour of her hair.) "I will not sleep until your crown is gold and glowing, and full again, and all your tears are wiped away."
"Or until I die," Wanda retorted, trying to push the handome fairy away with her foot. "Go away... I don't like you anymore, ok-ayyyy?"
But of course, Juandissimo, being Juandissimo, persisted in his nonstop attempts to get Wanda to love him again. "Wanda, dearest, I-"
"DON'T YOU 'DEAREST' ME, YOU SELF-CENTERED EGO MANIAC!!" Wanda shrieked, finally snapping. Juandissimo finally got the hint and started racing around the room.
"Timmy!" he shouted. "Hide the rolling pin!!!"
:::
Cosmo sat at his mother's dining table, sipping tea and watching the clouds roll by out the window. "Tell me, mother... why didn't you appeal to Wanda that much?"
"I'm not completely sure," Mama Cosma admitted, shrugging and placing some cookies in front of her son. "I would hate anyone who took my son."
"Took away?" Cosmo inquired, taking time to munch on a cookie. "Mother, I may have been living in a different place, but I wasn't gone forever!" he exclaimed, taking another sip of tea. He sighed and turned his attention back to the fluffy clouds outside. "I feel slightly guilty for leaving Wanda. She was crying a lot... with her tears like rain and cries of sorrow like thunder-"
"Oh, don't start that!" Mama Cosma growled.
"What's wrong with being poetic?" Cosmo asked, slightly hurt.
"It's really weird-sounding and I have a strange time following it."
"...Oh."
:::
Poof sat in his crib, thinking of his mother and sobbing quietly. Why did his father leave his mom? What had gone wrong between them? He let a loud sob and covered his mouth; he didn't want to let Mama Cosma hear him, because last time, she completely mauled him until Cosmo pulled her off. (Cheek-pinching, baby talk, the whole shebang.)
He closed his violet eyes and tried to imagine his mother. The pink hair and eyes, the yellow shirt, black pants...
How could this happen?!
"MOMMMYYY!!!" he cried, unable to contain himself any longer. "MOM!"
:::
Cosmo heard his son's anguished cry and hovered to the nursery. "Oh, Poof," he sighed, stroking the fairy-baby's head. "I'm sorry, my child. It's my fault that you're in such anguish. I did not mean to cause such pain for you!" He looked down. "But I cannot go back to Wanda now. I have already left her, and I know that she will not take me back. Wanda... she may have already forgotten me. I only left her because I'm now smart enough to realize she'd be... she'd be better off without me." He stared down lovingly at his child, tucking him in. "I love you," he said. "I love you so much. You're all I have left now, Poof." He stared at his child, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips. He kissed Poof on the head, wishing him a happy goodnight.
It was the last time he ever did so.
:::
Timmy sat in his room, holding the sides of his head, going insane with guilt. The room seemed to spin in front of him although he stood still.
"Timmy? Sweetie? Are you okay?"
What did she just say? Did Wanda just ask if Timmy was okay? Okay?! "No, I'm not okay!" he shouted. "I just made Cosmo leave you and take Poof with him and now you're sad and dying and it's all my fault because I don't think things through and I might lose all of you forever and that's one of the things that I can't bear!"
Wanda said nothing, looking down and glancing in the mirror the odd time, hoping to see her crown whole and glowing, with Cosmo by her side. And maybe, just maybe, Poof would be in his cradle, nestled under some handwoven blankets. And Timmy would be thinking of things to wish, and Juandissimo would leave her alone...
Ah, those were the days.
Why couldn't it be like that now?
She sighed quietly and dove into the fishbowl, swimming into the castle. Yes, the place really did seem empty. The absence of him surrounded her like a dark abyss, threatening to engulf her in its black, murderous terror. The halls were bare of the echoes of his voice, his bed was absent of his presence, and even the floors themselves seemed slightly more hollow now that Cosmo was gone. It all pressed in on the pink fairy, the pressure forcing tears from her eyes. Questions ran though her head.
Is he happier without me?
Where is he?
Is there some other girl?
Are we better off this way?
What's happening to Poof?
Is he just staying at his mother's?
How much time do I have?
When I am I...
She gulped, sitting down.
When am I going to die?