A Merry Xmas update from me! I hope whichever holidays you spent is/have been a good one! Glad that we landed on a good, long chapter for today. Again, a reference to the one-shot, but it should be easy to follow if you've read everything up 'till now.
TriceTokushu: No trouble about long reviews, I love reading 'em! Calico's definitely survived a lot of unnecessary crap, huh? And to be dealing with it all being a lie is even worse when he was hospitalized for it even. He'd probably have no words left for Mama Cosma after this. Won't spoil anything, but in terms of Wanda lying, she's definitely on thin ice. You're about it being hypocritical of her. Goes to show that even in trying to help, her dishonesty is gonna make a worse effect. It's gonna take some trouble for her to understand the extent of her mistake.
DoggyPocky: Yup, Wanda is being irrational in not telling Cosmo. Their both making mistakes in this story, as that's what I intended. And her lying won't do good for either of them. Calico has been through quite a lot, so it only seemed as if he would resort to some bad measures. While Cosmo was also treated similarly by Mama Cosma, I feel like becoming a godparent and marrying Wanda kinda got him to avoid depression, but only just by a little (I know that mental illness doesn't get avoided by just life changes). He and Wanda do have more good life experiences than bad though. And if Fop Wiki says that fairies could have heart attacks, then I'm glad I didn't totally make it up! And now I get what you mean with the anti-fairies. I feel like with Anti-Cosmo and H.P. specifically, they may have a mutual deal of avoiding getting in each other's way. I say them specifically, because I like to belive that part of the pixies are good and not all evil, because that would be categorizing.
. . .
. .
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"Rhonda, isn't it?"
Wanda licked her lips nervously, clutching the papers close to her chest. "Wanda, actually."
Magna shook her head. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I suppose my memory is fading after all these years."
"Actually, your memory would serve you right.." Wanda spoke timidly. "Because when we first met I did introduce myself as Rhonda. Or rather my husband did."
"I don't understand?"
The pink fairy didn't know how to go about this at all. There was no way to go about it. She'd met this lady once in her entire life and it was milleniums ago only weeks before Wanda's wedding. Showing up in hopes of finding Cosmo's father but to find his wife instead, and learning through her the awful news about Calico. And to never speak to this woman since? To have never searched for her nor Calico since? What obligation did Wanda have to spill the truth here? What obligation did she have to go along with Cosmo's lie to begin with?
"I'm..I'm Wanda." She again introduced. "And the man I'd met you with is my husband Cosmo..."
Magna was silent, no doubt. And Wanda could only look down to her feet momentarily in waiting for her response. Nothing else appropriate came to mind to say. In a hub of silence however, Wanda looked back up at Magna. The poor woman could only look at the younger fairy with a loss for words as she held the door frame stiffly.
"Oh, goodness.."
"Yeah." Wanda peered down awkwardly again.
"How..how could..?" Magna stuttered. "What could encourage your return suddenly? After what I told you all those years ago about Calico..." The tangerine fairy stopped in horrid realization. "Oh god. Oh god, I told you everything, thinking you were family friends...I told Calico's son to his face that his father couldn't see him because it meant Calico's death?"
"Please, Magna." Wanda assured sadly. "You didn't know. It was Cosmo's idea to pretend like we were family friends. We did so in case things would turn out for the worst. Which it did..."
"Oh, but I should have known.." Magna spoke, now on the verge of tears. "I knew it. I knew the green was familiar. If I only had the chance to look at his eyes maybe I would have figured out he's-he's.." she stopped sadly as she lifted a shaky hand to her mouth in silencing herself.
Wanda still looked away. "I'm sorry.."
"Oh dear, it's not your fault.."
The pink fairy looked up.
"Come, come." The older fairy encouraged, ushering Wanda inside. She quickly led her to a nearby couch in the quaint living room, sitting before the large window that viewed the outside porch. As Wanda sat on the comfortable seating unsurely, she gripped the papers with nervous intent.
"Where is Cosmo?" Magna asked, still wary of the whole situation.
Wanda licked her lips. "I-" If she simply said she was here without Cosmo knowing that wouldn't make her look good anyhow. "Some stuff has come up recently about his father and...I just needed to come out here myself."
"Does Cosmo know?"
It's like she pinned her on the spot. "I..sort of." Wanda said. "Cosmo's been having these...vivid dreams. About his father. Of course we didn't think much into it, but the more things became clear, Cosmo eventually had to seek out his mother and ask. She didn't say much but was clearly hiding something. I looked into his work and knew that somehow it was bringing about some kind of trouble. And after everything I've found, I'm thinking his dreams may have not been that far off..."
"But..Cosmo could simply not come?"
She wouldn't drop the question.
Wanda closed her eyes. "I..he just...Cosmo nearly broke the last time we came here...and he's so distant every time I look at him...I needed to find out. But, I couldn't risk getting him more h-hurt." Her voice trembled.
"Oh, dear." The woman sympathized, placing a hand over hers. Wanda was surprised by her comfort as she looked up at her.
"I'm sorry, I know it sounds awful of me.."
"No, no." Magna disagreed. "If anything it sounds like your protection."
Wanda gave a gentle smile through her tears.
"But dear," Magna carefully said, looking at the papers she held. "This is dangerous work for you to be meddling in."
"Dangerous, how?"
The tangerine fairy's eyes trembled.
"Magna, please." Wanda begged. "Please, we already have one Mama Cosma lying on our hands. We don't need anymore. I can't standby and watch this destroy Cosmo...I just can't...I need your help."
With glossed eyes, Magna blinked in empathy. Supposedly Mama Cosma did inflict enough lies and manipulation upon everyone. Even as Calico's ex-wife, Magna owed the truth if not Mama Cosma.
"Wanda," Magna spoke. "Calico is a hardworking man. And while everything I told you about his illness is true, we're lucky that his work somehow created a diversion. He's dedicated his life to helping people that it's worked miracles for his heart. Enough to heal the heartache about losing his son."
"Saving lives?" Wanda asked.
"Well, I'm not sure how this would be explained.."
"I'm a godparent, saving lives is in my book."
Magna nodded. "Pixies."
Wanda blinked.
"Are you familiar with H.P. and his henchman Sanderson?"
"In recent light.." Wanda glanced at the papers she held. "That's what came to you about, I think H.P. used godparent impersonation to get information about humans and now he's using it to take over this war."
"Horrid, evil pixies." Magna spoke with a taste of both hate and fear on her tongue. "Making deals with helpless creatures only to rob them blind. Calico had started going into business against them a long time ago. Freeing people from their contracts with H.P. and his deceiving nature. Because Calico was so good at what he does, he eventually became the worst of H.P.'s opposers. He's been anonymous as of late, because..." Magna drifted off, and looked to her ringing hands in her lap.
Wanda licked her lips. "Is that why you two split..?"
"No dear, we split long before he did." Magna explained. "Civilly, might I add. But we remain friends. When I first received notice of this, that's when I notified Calico right away."
The tangerine fairy looked distant for a moment before looking into Wanda's eyes in warning. "The point is, his work is not something even I can meddle in."
"But-"
"Calico would never want his son to find him in a time like this," Magna said, reaching for the documents. "Wanda, please you and Cosmo need to stay far away from this."
"Magna, I-"
"It's too dangerous of work." Magna took them from the pink fairy's limp grasp.
Wanda didn't know what to think. How dangerous could it possibly be? She'd already done more research than intended and hadn't planned to stop after this. However, as much as Cosmo was figuring out as much as he could, Wanda had been the one doing the deep-dive on these pixies. She was the one who held that supposed 'top secret' work. Not Cosmo. If there was any real danger...
She could deal with a little mess.
"To tell you honestly, I was suspicious myself after that visit with you two a long time ago." Magna suddenly said, causing Wanda to bring her thoughts back down from the clouds. "Especially when your husband resembles Calico in many ways now that I think about it." Magna admitted, looking to be ashamed of herself. "Supposedly I kind of knew that your husband had to be Cosmo, but, I guess I tried to disbelieve so much for Calico's sake that I soon forgot about that visit of yours entirely."
The pink fairy nodded. "I'm sorry about the divorce."
"No need," Magna spoke gently. "We do love one another dear, just not in the way we thought. I'm forever grateful for Calico to have found his way back from depression, grateful to myself for having helped him as well. However, we both knew we had married simply because we were both rocks for one another, but not too much beyond that. He's still a dear friend of mine, now. And I don't believe he is looking for anything more than that with anyone."
Wanda nodded faintly. For a woman who's been married happily for over nine-thousand years, the word divorce supposedly caused her immediate thoughts of fear and sadness. She and Cosmo could never. But the way Magna described it seemed far more wholeheartedly than she heard in a long time. Splitting up had always meant surreal heartache for Wanda. Not just through a divorce, but the way she and Cosmo's relatives had purposely tried to divert the two as adolescents made it haunting.
"That's too bad.." Wanda mumbled. She then corrected herself quickly. "I'm sorry-! I mean...well..it's just with Cosmo's mother being so distant from not only me but him as well, I suppose there was another chance for a mother of Cosmo's and mother-in-law of mine to actually be...well, approving."
"Oh," Magna empathized. "Do not beat yourself up over what that woman implies. She was a mental abuser if I ever heard one. Draining Calico until he could no longer take it. I'm surprised poor Cosmo had not reached out for protective services in his years living with her."
"He never fended much when he was young. But, neither did I for that matter.." Wanda sighed.
"Calico and I may have split," Magna clasped her hands together. "But I am forever grateful for our time together. And if a mother-in-law presence is ever needed for your sake, or a mother in general for you or Cosmo, I will pay that fee. I'm sure Cal would feel the same."
As little as they knew about each other, the woman was a saint. Wanda wouldn't deny it. Far more warmhearted and soft than Mama Cosma came off to be with just about anyone. And while she was no longer Calico's wife, she was clearly on no bad terms with her ex-husband to have called him in warning of everything so easily. Perhaps this woman was the ray of hope sent Wanda's way in helping Cosmo.
"Thank you," Wanda told honestly. "Thank you very much.."
Maybe he'd been a bit of a jerk.
Not in the sense that he'd been hurling bad behaviour, but the distance Cosmo had been creating was no blind factor to him. He'd been hurting Wanda by doing so and was only coming to terms now that maybe, just maybe, he was slightly in the wrong from it.
It didn't help him though in still feeling like trash.
His father was nowhere of nowhere land, his gloominess had retired over to exhaustion, his judgment of himself as a lack of man was less harsh and more of a truth he felt he could only accept defeatedly. And his worry for Wanda from the dreams that did not subdue, were becoming tired. If something was going to happen, he'd ask for it to jump out at him already.
Cosmo mumbled his thoughts to himself incoherently, doing up his necktie in the hanging mirror of the living room. At least he'd bothered to get dressed after sleeping away his troubles most of the day while Wanda was out doing errands. She didn't even bother asking him to come, probably sick of his behavior.
For god's sake, could the universe throw him a bone maybe? Give him a little more insight on where his father could be? Wanda was off doing meaningless whatever when there was nothing, absolutely nothing, on Calico Cosma that Cosmo could get a hold of. Did Wanda even care about that at all?
Whatever she thought of it, it didn't matter. Cosmo had been the one shutting her out. Not to say he was about to admit to her just how much less of a man he actually was that he'd been hiding, but he was ready for some kind of effort as he finished doing up his tie. Just in time for the lock of their front door to click.
Cosmo rounded the corner through the archway to the front foyer of their house, watching as it opened and Wanda entered. She looked to her husband in a pause, then closing the door behind her.
"Hey." She said.
"I got dressed."
Wanda, unexpectedly, sported a small smile. "I see that."
She unlooped her purse and hooked it to the wall coat rack near their door. Holding her arms, she drew forward in meeting her husband.
"Listen, I-"
The ringing of a phone blared from Cosmo's back pocket, and he reached for it. Wanda sighed as Cosmo looked at the collar ID.
"Sage," he muttered, looking to Wanda.
She shrugged. "It's fine."
Pressing answer, Cosmo held the phone to his ear. "Hi, Sage." Wanda watched as Cosmo jerked very lightly from some kind of hasty commotion being said at the other end, making Wanda curious as she drew forward.
"We're both here," Cosmo answered his friend, looking at his wife. "Yeah..one sec."
He held the phone out and pressed the speaker button upon Sage's request to talk to both of them.
"Sage?" Wanda asked.
"I've got the greatest news! You'll love this!"
Wanda pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Sage, we're kind of in the middle of-"
"There's an announcement being made at a rally at the small square between Starpoint and Phoenix, right on the edge of Pinkpebbles Park."
"And..?"
"The speaker is CALICO COSMA!"
Wanda's face fell, quickly looking to Cosmo in worry. The revelation that she had not seen in her husband in days hit against his eyes as if it had always been there.
"What?" He asked.
"Boy, get down there!" Sage encouraged.
"I-I-" Cosmo threw caution to the wind, nodding excitedly with a smile. "I will! Thanks!"
He hung up as Wanda made frantic efforts to stop him. "No Cosmo, we can't-!"
The raising of Cosmo's wand made him and Wanda disappear, and materialize outside the crowd of rallies on a public street corner. Right near Pinkpebbles Park, a park familiar to Cosmo and Wanda for their romantic strolls, just as Sage said.
Wanda still couldn't protest as Cosmo took her by the wrist to the edge of the crowd where fairies threw demands.
"Calico, what does this mean?"
"Will it help the war?"
"Have you made contact with H.P.?"
Cosmo switched his gaze back and forth between the demands of random fairies. He drew his attention forward to the wooden stage platform. Gasping quietly as he clung to Wanda tighter, who could only look upon the speaker on the platform with worried eyes.
The green fairy above the platform nodded to the demands, two others of a lilac and cyan color by his side in support.
"With confidentiality in our work, I can say in the most honest way, that our work won't ever be done until H.P. is put to a stop. Not just this war."
Cheers of agreement hooted in the crowd. Cosmo looking back and forth between them and Calico excitedly.
Wanda attempted to tug at Cosmo's shoulder. "Cosmo, we should go-"
"What about those in contract with H.P. you could not help?" One asked.
"I will continue to say it until I'm blue in the face," Calico stated. "Work with a clientele is never done unless they say so. I'm not perfect, neither is my team. But the cut-offs which ensued these bad endings with my clients have come from the effort being put against my attempts to help from the same clients. Now I ask you, for the sake of a human race that is on the line, keep your demands high but do it safely. Put in your word but do not get involved in the wrong battle. Keep yourself civilized but demand that better benefit is put towards them. And I promise, we will bring results."
More cheers escalated, just as Calico was lead by his team to float across the stage and leave it on an opposing side. Cosmo and Wanda had arrived just when it had ended.
Cosmo turned towards his wife, grinning. "Is this what you've been doing, all day? Trying to find out where this was all happening to surprise me?"
Wanda was frantic. "Cosmo, please listen to me-"
"You little miracle worker, you!" Cosmo exclaimed happily as he gripped Wanda's hands in his.
She shook her head desperately. "No, Cosmo, you don't understand-"
He'd already taken off through the crowd.
"Cosmo!"
Squeezing through fairies who were beginning to gather out of the square but still in Cosmo's way, the fairy rustled through rapidly. His wife directly on his tale and already losing him amongst the sea of the crowd. Cosmo only looked forward. His heart only lugged forward. He raced after the opportunity he promised he would never, ever, let slip away again. And he was never going to live it down if he let this slip away now. No matter what crazy thing may come out of his mouth in the next few seconds of his life, it was only now. Just as he reached the end of the crowd that was edging away.
At the border of the park, the three fairies including the green hair similar to Cosmo's, floated on their way to a parked van at the edge of the Pinkpebbles' border. The trenchcoats paying a familiarity to Cosmo from the same night he'd spotted them in that diner. And now, no mystery was in the way of him opening his mouth and hollering the thing he'd never thought he would since the day his mother kicked his father out of his life forever;
"DAD!"
The lilac and cyan fairy stopped and turned, as did Calico.
Wanda emerged from the crowd quickly and halted far behind with a small gasp of worry.
One pair of green eyes looked to the other, and in a brief moment, the world seemed to stop. The man that stood not far along from Cosmo seemed as if he'd been slapped in the face as he looked upon the fellow green fairy in nothing but absolute startlement. Like he was looking into a face that was his own.
Cosmo beamed a small smile, opening his mouth-
POOF!
Engulfed in the pink smoke before Cosmo had barely a chance to breathe out another word, he found himself amongst the quietness of the neighborhood park right outside the town square. Looking at the base of the familiar tree, Cosmo's face fell and he turned around in confusion. Wanda stood behind him, panic frozen on her face as she held her wand high. The light died down slowly from impact.
"Wanda?"
She lowered her wand.
"What'd you do that for?"
Wanda anxiously twiddled the wand in her hands, looking back and forth with frantic eyes of hiding everything she'd kept from Cosmo. Knowing she couldn't blatantly say meeting his father now would be dangerous. He wouldn't believe her for a second.
"...you changed today." She remarked timidly. "I need to know why."
"What..? I don't understand-"
"I need to know why Cosmo!"
He flinched from the sudden thrash in her voice. Was she angry with him?
"Wanda, my dad! We need to go back to my dad!" He reminded.
"Cosmo, we can't."
"Why-"
"I need you to let me know what the heck is going on with you or so help me," she demanded quickly. Composing herself, she tightened a fist and scrunched her face before letting it all loose with a sigh.
Even with the opportunity of meeting his father torn straight from him once again, Cosmo knew Wanda wasn't going to drop it for as long as eternity. He thought frantically about the time he had left to catch his dad again. He needed to admit it now and get it over with quickly.
"Wanda, I'm..." he licked his lips. "I'm not man enough for any of this."
She looked worried.
"And...I'm scared that what's been going on in my head when I sleep..." he clutched his head of hair for reference, "is just gonna...make it true."
"Cosmo-"
"And my dad, what'll he think?" Cosmo said. The brief period of excitement he'd felt before, which was like the real Cosmo, had died. And he was pacing backwards to a zombie again.
"Cosmo, please.."
Her husband was surprised by the anguish in her voice, picking up tears in her rosy-colored eyes.
"Has everything we've been through in our life taught you nothing?" Wanda asked. "You're more a man than anyone I've ever met."
"Anyone can say that...doesn't make it true.."
"Well, you were more a man before all this."
"What?"
Wanda tilted her head in spite. "Honey, don't act like you haven't been shutting me out from everything. You've been retracting into this shell kind of person, and it's doing the complete opposite of what you're trying to do. You don't need to be anyone but you, Cosmo. You've known that for years! Why is this changing?"
"Maybe it's not enough."
"It's always been enough."
"Well, I don't need you to tell me what's enough." He suddenly bit quickly at her, obvious reprimand in his face.
Wanda halted in sudden anger. "Excuse me?" She hissed.
"I'm trying to work things out for the better, and you don't seem to get that!"
"Work things out for the better-?" Wanda was appalled. "That's ridiculous, Cosmo."
"IS IT?" His voice carried.
"Sweetheart, you're miserable trying to be someone who isn't you! You know yourself better than anyone. The only reason you're being so closed off is that you're scared! I get it Cosmo, you've never faced anything like this before with your dad."
"And maybe I would have finally faced it had you not poofed us away!" Cosmo said. "Why'd you do that?"
Wanda stopped with a choking of her words, fearful as to how quickly he was catching up on her. She wouldn't let it happen though. She dug her grave too deep by this point to reveal any of what she'd done now.
She could only snap.
"It's your own actions we have to blame here!"
"What?"
"As soon as this all started you pushed me away from the get-go! I was fine when you went to confront your mother, but running away? Shutting me out? You went ahead with all this nonsense without taking a second to think about the possible outcomes. Like you always do. This is not something you can be dishonest to me about, Cosmo!"
"He's my dad! I don't see why any of this is about you, at all!" Cosmo retorted.
That hurt more than it should have. Wanda knew it was stupid for it to hurt because Cosmo's father was not a man she knew. Barely a father-in-law for her let alone a present father for Cosmo. But her husband and she had been together for too long a time for this to not include Wanda. She was an extended part of this trek for Cosmo. That was part of being life partners.
"I never said it was about me!" Wanda retorted. "I'm not a standby though, I'm your wife! You can't ask for my help and then shut me out!"
"Maybe I don't need your help! Maybe you're not the solver of all my problems!"
"Then maybe do something different for a change!"
"You don't know what it's like to miss a parent your whole life!"
Wanda's glare sharpened.
"My mother's dead." She snapped with a crossing of her arms. "In case you've forgotten."
Cosmo knew he crossed the line on that one, but his vexation with Wanda couldn't be helped at the moment. Right now, she was the one being fenced up. Getting mad at him without any hesitaton. It only rose suspicion in Cosmo as he shook his head in wrath. The fire was still not extinguished in his eyes as he knew the fight was about to get so much worse in asking.
"What did you do."
Wanda came to the end of the line in her lie. Her husband didn't pick up on things incredibly quickly, but he knew his wife like the back of his hand. Her dishonesty was written all over her face, and if she carried on in hiding it, who knows how worse things could get. She had to admit it.
"I traced your father's work."
"What?"
Wanda braced herself for the worst.
"I went looking for him at some office base of his and ended up taking log-in information for some program," she babbled. "I looked up these records and that's when I started to realize how dangerous his work may actually be. Then I did some of my own research and went to the city's archives. And I figured the only other source left would be Magna, so I paid her a visit...Cosmo, I really, really don't think this is something we should get too wrapped up in."
"Were you gonna tell me at least?"
Wanda averted her gaze to the ground.
Cosmo glared daggers at her. "Wanda!"
She angrily looked back. "You weren't in any condition for me to tell you!"
"You were never gonna say anything!? And I'm the dishonest one!?"
"I was on a fence!" Wanda defended. "If I did or didn't tell you, I don't know how you would've reacted! You've been all out of sorts lately, I couldn't hurt you anymore!"
"What am I to you, one of our godchildren!? You think I'll fall apart if you tell me!?"
"MAYBE! You're not exactly the stablest person, Cosmo!" Wanda said, neither her nor Cosmo believing what she was saying.
"You can't call me a man and then hide stuff from me like I'm a baby!" Cosmo accused. Wanda couldn't argue against that as she could only glower from his yells. "Or are you just afraid that my dad will be like our other parents?"
"What does that mean?"
"You don't wanna risk it, don't you!? You're worried that after everything our parents did to tear us apart, you think my dad will do the same! You'd rather not take that risk! But what about the risk I wanna take, huh!?"
"Cosmo! Do you hear yourself!?" Wanda berated. "Every single hour I've put into tracing your father's work has been for you! Only you! Everything about this has not for one second ever been about keeping you for myself!"
"What does that matter now, Wanda!? You weren't gonna tell me about my own dad when I've been searching for him my whole life! You were gonna keep that from me! You're a bold two-headed liar!"
"Two-faced, YOU MORON!"
"You LIED!" Cosmo yelled in a blameworthy howl, his face now a deep red as he looked upon Wanda in a sheath of wrath. "You-You-You..You NEVER lied to me! EVER! You promised! How could you lie when you know I've been lied to by mama!? About my dad, too!? I wanted this! You knew that better than anyone! ANYONE!" The pain was evident underneath his anger and Wanda could see it very easily. It weighed a heavy dumbbell on her heart though she was still overstimulated with her own anger as she watched her husband unable to keep composure. Something much deeper broke against his face that caused Wanda more pain than she ever felt for him.
Rational, surreal heartbreak nested deeply in Cosmo's eyes.
"H-How could you..?" He asked quietly as tears brimmed the edge of his eyes. Looking upon Wanda as if she weren't even Wanda anymore.
His wife's eyes broke with silent tears. "Cosmo.." she attempted to draw forward for him with open arms, but he floated back.
"Stay away from me..." he started quietly as his eyes didn't tear away from her. He almost looked scared of her before his pain switched to anger once more as he blew with a final; "Stay AWAY from me!"
Wanda shuttered from his yell at her and could only watch with a constricting feeling in her chest as Cosmo paced backward in watching her with fiery eyes. He then quickly turned and floated away from her along the park's pathway. To wherever, it didn't matter. As long as he was away from her.
Feeling as though she was abandoned to nothing, the constriction in her chest finally broke loose into a sob that filled the air around her. Slapping her hands to her mouth as to cover it, Wanda sank to the ground below her onto her knees. Her hands trailing over her eyes as she hunched over with another audible sob as her crying endured. Her husband had been more hurt than he had throughout this whole mess, and by the fault of her ways, felt only to be blamed.
What had she done?
. . .
Cosmo made it back to the edge of the park near the square, although the crowd had already left. The only remaining were fairies taking down the riot mini-stage with their magic and Cosmo sighed allowed. He wouldn't have missed the opportunity had Wanda not deprived him of it in a flash.
He lowered himself to the ground to kick a pebble in anger and then floated to a nearby bench in the park. Sitting down, his eyes trailed the purple grass as he could feel his eyes burn but fought against it with an angered look. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all.
How could Wanda go about everything without telling Cosmo a single word? About his own father? He was certain he felt nothing but anger and did not want to confront the idea that maybe he'd actually crumble as Wanda said. That couldn't be true! Wanda was the one poking her nose in everything and not telling him...
He felt alone on that bench. But the solitary around him paid very little time before he slowly felt a shift in the wind. A shift in presence. One very particular that Cosmo couldn't channel but in some twisted way he could also acquaint with.
Someone came up behind him, and Cosmo's eyes flicked up.
"Excuse me."
Somehow, deep in Cosmo's subconscious, he knew the voice behind the bench. Like a magical link that had been rediscovered after the longest time. That's exactly what Cosmo felt it to be and his heart felt so prickly and shaky from the mere thought of it.
If the opportunity presented itself...
He stayed stiff as if he had no choice. The little boy deep within him screaming high demands in adrenaline. Begging him to get up and turn around like he was meant for it and nothing else. The boy hit him, batted him, grabbed him by the collar, shook him, begging Cosmo to just do it. But the fairy was a rock.
Though the person behind didn't leave, they said nothing else. They reconciled with Cosmo's stillness and the green fairy almost thought he should make a bolt for it. But he'd tear himself apart if he'd actually let himself be stupid enough to do that. And probably tear the house apart in measure because of it. Cosmo raked a hand through his hair in making his decision.
The green fairy rose from his seat and turned away from the newcomer that came around the bench to meet him. He felt so afraid...
"Cosmo."
His hands trembled. His heart was gonna explode into a million pieces.
Sighing to keep from panic, Cosmo turned around as if a magnetic force was pulling him towards it. He'd kept his gaze trailing along the ground below him and stayed like that for solid seconds. Counting his way into calmness to defuse the bomb in his chest, pounding from the insides.
Cosmo looked up. The green eyes that replicated his hit him like gazing into nothing but a mirror. The familiarity of them from his dream paid its toll like everything else he'd seen.
...And a long-coming reunion was made.
The year-old dread in Calico's eyes reflected his son's. "I knew it was you as soon as I saw you."
To be continued...
. . .
. .
Oh, man. Two halves of the story finally came together. Stay tuned!
~McSgwizzle