(…) means twin's telepathy and ((…)) means Cosmo and Wanda telepathy.

No, I don't own FOP or any reference to its varied characters mentioned herein, and unless the new episodes that follow 'School's Out' begin showing the love again, I wouldn't want to. So, for now, Butch Hartman can keep his name tacked on…even if it is for nothing more than the royalties at this point.

Oh…and I don't own The Big Comfy Couch either. That belongs to some broadcasting company in Tennessee I think. : )

Fairly OddParents : The Next Generation

Chapter 27. Sincerity

Cosmo floated by his wife's head almost fretfully as he watched her sleep. She'd insisted on just taking a nap on the couch instead of her bed, believing it would only be for a little while. Maybe two hours at the most, she'd said. No more than the time it took Timmy to get the twin's explanations and everything was wrapped up enough to get them home. A short nap would be fine she'd asserted.

Cosmo wasn't as convinced.

Though everything had worked out and the kids, as well as all the fairies, were fine, he still couldn't help but feel worried and anxious. It still unnerved him that he and his wife had been so forcefully and successfully, separated for 24 hours. The last time anything even close to that had happened had only ended up being about two hours and he and Timmy had been trying the whole time to get her. This time though…he was the one who had been caught and he hadn't been able to do anything. Sure he avoided unnecessary work when he could. But he'd rather it had been him suffering the torture of trying to find his Wanda and getting hurt rather than her have go through it.

Cosmo looked at her cheek and a mixed measure of both anger and sadness swept through him at the sight of the large bruise that covered it. Though it had faded dramatically in the last hour, no longer that awful purple and blue, he hated the sight of it on her. Certainly it was a travesty to mar such a beautiful face with such ugliness. He wanted it, and the bruise she had sustained on her left side from hitting the steel beam as well as the pain that would linger for a day, gone.

The fairy gently placed his fingers on his wife's cheek and with a slight breath, a pale pink sparkle of fairy dust settled on her cheek briefly before seeping into the pores of her skin. While he'd never been the absolute best when it came to healing magic, when it was for Wanda, he always seemed to manage to cast it with aces.

Wanda's eyes fluttered open then and she looked up at Cosmo in curiosity, before smiling gently.

"You know, its not going to help it go away any faster. You've already given me six times more than I can use."

Cosmo pulled his hand away slowly to wring it with his other before him.

"I, I can try, right? Maybe this time, it would?"

Wanda looked up at him lovingly as she reached for his hands and took them both in hers.

"Oh Sweetie. I am so lucky to have someone as wonderful and caring and loving as you in my life. And I'm so proud of you, for always trying your very best for me."

At her words of praise, Cosmo grinned broadly.

"Well, I am your husband," he replied haughtily as he confirmed to her why he would try so hard.

Wanda laughed lightly.

"Yes you are dear."

Suddenly Cosmo smiled almost slyly.

"Heeeeey. You know what else husbands can do besides try to do their best for their wives?"

Wanda's eyebrows shot up in both curiosity and even a slight bit of worry. Curiosity at what he could possible consider a duty as a husband, and worry since there was always the chance that what he was going to say might not be all that positive. Especially since practically anything could come out his mouth.

"What's that hun?" she asked a little hesitantly.

Cosmo smiled smugly.

"They can kiss their wives."

There was a moment of shocked pause, before Wanda smiled brightly with a coy look. This was definitely an answer she liked.

As for Cosmo, he didn't always understand all of the expressions and looks that crossed his wife's face, but he certainly understood that one more then well enough. He happily began to lean forward, and as their eyes closed in expected anticipation of contact, a sudden lavender colored cloud appeared by the front door and a soft voice coughed out as unobtrusively as possible, "Ahem."

Cosmo and Wanda quickly looked over in unison to see an all too familiar face watching them with a grim smirk upon his lips.

"Wandissimo?"

The fairy smiled.

"Forgive me. Am I interrupting?"

Cosmo glared.

"Uh, duuuuh!"

"Oh, Cosmo. Be nice," admonished Wanda gently as she sat up.

Cosmo huffed as he flopped onto the couch next to Wanda and crossed his arms in annoyance.

"My apologies," said Wandissimo as he floated forward. "I was wondering if I might have a word with you."

Cosmo gave Wandissimo a distrustful glance. "Depends on which word you plan on using."

Obviously, though they had been willing to assist each other only an hour ago, now that it was over, it was back to business as usual. Of course, interrupting an attempted kiss didn't earn brownie points with Cosmo either just then.

"I should think," started Wandissimo with a smirk, "that it would hardly matter to you since the word, and the many others I wish to impart, are intended for your wife and not you."

Cosmo blinked for a moment before realizing that the purple eyed fairy was implying that he not be present to hear the exchange.

"Hey!" he said indignantly, standing quickly in challenge.

Wanda glanced up at the ceiling with a sigh.

"It's okay Cosmo," she said with a soft look at him. "I'll be fine."

Cosmo gave a grimace as though he hardly wanted to agree, but nodded.

"Alright, but I'm gonna' be over there."

He pointed to the far wall of the living room dramatically as he looked at Wandissimo.

"Right over there!" he said again as he started to back up in that direction. "Right here, so don't think I can't see you, 'cause I'm not letting you out of my sight for second. Got it? Not for a moment, not a for millisecond, not for a…"

"Yes, yes. We understand," said Wandissimo with a roll of his eyes. "You're watching me the whole time. No please put your feeble display of protective pride away before you hurt yourself. I assure you that I will not be spiriting her away."

Cosmo crossed his arms again with a humph as he turned his back to Wandissimo, but his head was turned just enough that his eyes remained on his wife.

Wanda gave a gentle shake of her head at her husband's over protectiveness as Wandissimo sighed.

"Buen dios," he muttered. "How you put up with him, I'll never know."

"Oh, it's not as hard as it first looks," replied Wanda with a smirk.

Wandissimo gave her a disbelieving look.

"I shall take your word for it, mi a…" Wandissimo paused awkwardly. "…Wanda," he finished after clearing his throat slightly.

Wanda looked at him curiously and the purple eyed fairy glanced away. A long pause followed leaving Wanda to wonder what precisely was on his mind that Wandissimo, of all fairies, would have trouble getting out.

"So?" encouraged the waiting fairy.

Wandissimo looked back and opened his mouth…but nothing came out. He cleared his throat slightly again in apprehension and from across the room Cosmo called out, "You know, you should really get that looked at."

Wandissimo shot a baleful glance at Cosmo and the green haired fairy asked, "What?" innocently.

Purple eyes looked back at Wanda and the slowly disappearing bruise on her cheek.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked hesitantly.

"A little."

Wandissimo raised his wand quickly, but her voice stayed any other action from him.

"It's alright. I've gotten enough healing magic from Cosmo to last through all my aches and pains for the next fifty years."

She saw as Wandissimo's eyes flicked towards Cosmo in surprise, before she chuckled.

"Okay. So maybe with him it'll cover a week's worth."

Wandissimo shook his head as his wand arm dropped back down to his side.

"So, shouldn't you be with a godchild right now?" asked Wanda choosing something usually happily shared to open a discussion to help ease what ever discomfort Wandissimo was apparently suffering from.

The fairy grimaced.

"Unfortunately, my godson was unusually distraught by my disappearance and made the mistake of revealing my presence in his life to his parents when he half destroyed his home looking for me."

Wanda gave a pained look.

"Oh dear. I'm sorry to hear that. Did you try asking Jorgen for a reprieve on the boy's behalf? I mean, extenuating circumstances, right?"

He nodded.

"I did. But not even I could persuade him to reconsider otherwise this time."

"So they'll reassign you?"

Wandissimo closed his eyes and looked down.

"Jorgen has given those few who lost their godchildren because of this, a month off before reassignment."

Wanda looked at him sympathetically.

"It's not enough though, is it?"

The black haired head shook once.

"I'm really very sorry, Wandissimo. But, at least you were able to help him for a little while."

"Perhaps."

He then looked up with a sigh.

"But I did not come here to talk about that. I came to tell you some things about your husband…"

Wanda started to protest, thinking that perhaps this was another of his attempts to get her to leave Cosmo, but Wandissimo put his hand up to invoke silence before he added, "…and myself."

She blinked at him in surprise.

"I was in that cell for just over a week when they brought him in. Though there were some that had been there longer, most of us were of the same mind. We were angry and we were scared, but it was for ourselves. Of course we were concerned over the welfare of our godchildren, but they were at least some where else and free from our prison. We grew used to that thought…complacent believing that we would eventually get out of there somehow. We were happy enough I suppose that none of us had been killed off yet and we were willing to deal with it until advantage came our way. Of that we were all in agreement. When Cosmo came in however, we were quite awakened to something far beyond ourselves.

"The moment he was tossed into the cell, he was disconsolate, he was miserable and filled with grief. But it was not for us, himself or our situation. It was for you. For the one person who was free. He was desperately worried about our only hope. He did not wish for you to come, but was heart broken knowing that you would none the less. He could not think that your presence would mean our freedom. To him it only meant your danger.

"No one there had yet thought on such terms. We had all been too occupied with ourselves and getting free. He was ordered put upon that wall because he seemed to be of interest to them and while up there, he was ridiculed and mocked because of his love for you. He was threatened and belittled and yet he did not break. He said nothing save that he did not know where you were at the moment he'd been asked. Yet even this he did not wish to say. He said it only because a life was threatened."

Here he paused and Wanda waited quietly for him to continue.

"My life. He was told that if he said nothing, I would be killed. He chose to speak and spare me death. When I asked him why he did not keep his mouth closed, why he did not just let them dispose of me, he said that he did not want me dead and felt sure that even had they killed me, they would have just brought someone else out to threaten him with their death. He said that some times, there are some things that are bigger then one fairy's wife."

Wanda looked over at Cosmo quickly to find her husband's head bowed in what almost looked to be shame, obviously having eavesdropped to hear more than a little of Wandissimo's statement.

"You cannot imagine his guilt over this," continued Wandissimo. "And I must admit that I have never before witnessed so unselfish an act. I saw from him a level of emotion and meaning I'd never considered about him before and…I was…impressed. From this experience, what I saw from him, I am much clearer now on some issues that I had not fully understood before. I…understand now that I never truly did have a real chance for your affections and total love. I was an experience in your life to be learned from and left when the time, and your real love, came. I was meant to be left the same as you and Cosmo were meant to be together. He is a moron and a buffoon still, but he loves you as no other can. As not even I could, and…as hard as it is to say it, I respect his greater love for you and tell you that I accept this. I can and will accept it, and I make a promise to you that by my honor I will no longer seek affections that were never mine to have."

A fine eyebrow flicked up and Wandissimo gave an admitting half smile at the fairy's half questioning gaze.

"But, if you and he should ever see reason to change the arrangement, I would most certainly be open to accept your company."

Wanda looked back again at Cosmo by the wall and smiled lovingly, not just with her lips, but with her eyes as well and Wandissimo sighed. He hadn't missed the inference of her gesture and knew from that alone, that his was a hope better left buried. Buried and forgotten.

Wandissimo backed up a step.

"Well, I have said what I needed to and I should go."

"Wandissimo," called Wanda quickly.

He looked at her quietly, a glimmer of trepidation in his eyes. Truthfully, he had never looked, or felt, so unsure in his entire life.

"I appreciate you coming here and telling me everything. It was very brave and…honorable of you, and I respect what it took to do this. Even now that you're no longer looking at us in that way, maybe you can still look at us as friends. If you're comfortable with it that is."

Wandissimo blinked in mild surprise, before he gave a small smile and a nod.

"I would be most pleased to accept that proposal."

From the other side of the room, Cosmo rolled his eyes as he mumbled aloud, "Yeah, I bet you would."

He jumped slightly at the sharp glances that issued from both his wife and Wandissimo.

"You know dear," started Wanda with a cunning look. "When I asked him to be a friend, I meant to both of us."

Cosmo's jaw dropped soundlessly at that and Wandissimo smirked as Wanda summoned Cosmo back over to the couch with one flexing index finger.

With a nervous swallow, her husband floated forward slowly to stand before her. She gave him a dead even gaze, then asked, "And he will be one to both of us, right?"

Refusing to meet anyone's eye, Cosmo fidgeted nervously.

"Right?" pressed Wanda with a slightly warning tone.

Cosmo gave a defeated sigh as he peeked at Wanda through his long green bangs with an anxious smile.

"Yes, dear," he answered finally.

Wanda gave an agreeing nod.

"Good" she announced with a smile, her warbly voice covering over the sound of a magical poof from before the front door.

"There you are!" a new presence in the room suddenly exclaimed.

The three looked to see Fleur floating forward towards them with a perturbed expression on her face, her arms crossed.

"I've been looking every where for you," she said as she gazed pointedly at Wandissimo. "Don't you know how to tell anyone where you're going? Sheesh. You'd think you wanted to get lost or something."

Wandissimo started to open his mouth to say something, but before a word could escape, she'd continued on.

"Someone promised me dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Fairy World after saving him in the warehouse and he's not about to stiff me out of it no matter who he's visiting."

The little powder blue haired fairy grabbed Wandissimo's arm as she looked at Wanda.

"You don't mind if I borrow him for a little while, do you Wanda?"

Wanda looked at the younger fairy curiously.

"Oh no. Not at all. Especially where a dinner debt is concerned. But what happened to Lily? You didn't lose her did you?"

Fleur waved it off lightly.

"No no. She and her folks just went out to some fancy dinner thing she couldn't get out of. She didn't think it too safe a place for me to follow so she gave me a few hours to relax. So I figured, 'Hey! Why wait to collect on my dinner out.'"

"Well, that was nice of her considering you only just returned. Was she happy to see you?"

"Thrilled," grinned Fleur happily. "She even hugged me! She's never hugged anyone before! She's not usually the demonstrative type you see."

Wanda smiled. She wasn't about to tell Fleur that that had only just changed the night before.

"Oh," continued Fleur suddenly, having remembered more to say. "And she wanted me to make sure that the next time I see you, to tell you that she thanks you for keeping your promise to do everything you could to help save me and all the other fairies."

"Oh, well, tell her she's welcome, but you'll make sure to let her know that it certainly wasn't all me. It was more like a concerted effort and a lot of the credit really goes to Tommy and Tammy."

Fleur nodded.

"I will," she agreed with a nod before looking back at Wandissimo. "Okay Mo', lets get going. There's a plate of Angle hair pasta with my name on it and I'd like to get to it pretty quickly if you don't mind. Need to get the taste of that gruel junk out of my mouth, ya' know? Yuck."

Wandissimo gave her a shocked look before flexing his muscles.

"I am Wandissimo Magnifico! And promise or not, the sexiest fairy in the universe cannot just be told when and where he must…"

As Wandissimo continued to protest, Fleur gave the fairy a bored glance before quickly, and firmly, switching her grip from his arm…to his ear.

"Yeah yeah, save it for the mirror pal. Now its time for dinner and I am starved, so lets go. Later Wanda! Bye Cosmo!"

With that, the little fairy flicked her wand and the two disappeared amid a pale blue puff of smoke.

Cosmo looked at Wanda in some blank surprise.

"Mo'?" he asked in confusion.

Wanda grinned with a flick up of one eyebrow.

"I think Wandissimo has finally met his match."

"Really? But I thought that you…" Cosmo began before Wanda placed a hand over his mouth briefly to silence him.

She smiled sweetly.

"I'm nobody's match but your's sweetie," she said with a wink.

Cosmo looked at her a moment before he grinned.

"Oooooohhhhh."

The mood though was broken a moment later, when Cosmo's grin dropped and he turned his head down.

"I'm sorry Wanda," he said softly.

Wanda looked at him curiously, not sure what to make of an apology whose reason she couldn't account for.

"For what sweetie?"

"For being the reason you were hurt and...and betraying you."

"What? Cosmo! How do you figure I was hurt because of you? It was Crocker who did this. Not you. And what do you mean, 'betrayed'? "

"I…he made me tell him where you were, which I didn't know. And he made fun of you and I said that they would never find you because you were too smart. Because of me, he figured out that we were more than just friends and that you would come looking for me. So he set that trap. It's…it's all my fault. I let that robot capture me because I wasn't careful enough like you're always telling me to be, and it captured me because I'm with you. And then because I'm with you, you came looking for me and that's why you were there and Crocker hit you…"

Cosmo grew silent as anger flickered through his eyes again having remembered the sound.

"He made me so angry when he did that," he continued in a hushed whisper. "I…I hated him for that. Well…I thought I did. I thought that I hated him enough that I didn't want to help him when he was going to fall."

He looked at Wanda quickly with wide worried eyes.

"Wanda? Is that wrong? To feel like that? To not want to help him after what he did to you, even though I know he could have…that he would…would die?"

Wanda gazed at him in deep sympathy for his confusion and obvious pain, and she could see that this was going to bother him for some time to come. This was one instance where his questionable memory, his safety response to hurt pain and humiliation, would not cover over the events. For the time being, her own pain at their past godson's dramatic and mind-boggling fall from all grace would have to wait to be cried over. Right now, it was Cosmo's spirit which needed more mending. What a pity that all the magic in the universe couldn't heal hearts as quickly as bruises.

She sighed.

"I don't know if I can answer that Cosmo. We all get mad sometimes, I mean, it's just a part of life. Sometimes, we get so mad, that we're willing to consider options that we ordinarily would never have even imagined entertaining. There's even times when a person can be so angry and overwhelmed, that they don't think about what they're doing. They just act out in retaliation. But I don't think that questioning what's right or wrong for one person in such a situation is something anyone except that person can really judge."

Cosmo gave her a questioning gaze.

"Is this one of those point of view arguments?"

Wanda nodded with a gentle smile.

"Yeah."

He rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"Well that figures."

Wanda looked at Cosmo patiently. He was upset and frustrated, confused even over the events that had transpired while she was still unconscious, and though he hadn't as yet told her everything, she had a particularly strong feeling that it was more than just a chase ending with someone getting hurt. After all, with Cosmo there was always more to a story then he might at first be able to say.

"If it helps sweetie, maybe this is one time where you don't have to look so hard at the moment you think is wrong, but rather look at what you did in response to it."

Her husband looked at her curiously.

"Afterward?"

She nodded.

A silent minute passed before Wanda asked, "So? What happened?"

Cosmo didn't blink. Instead, he stared past her into nothingness as he watched the final scene playing out before him once again.

"I tried to help him. I gave him my hand. But he wouldn't take it. He said I couldn't save him. I…I told him that I didn't want him to die, but he didn't… he just…"

Cosmo's voice trailed off as he sniffed and Wanda couldn't let it go anymore. She took hold of him and pulling him to her she hugged him tightly as he did the same in response.

"Oh Cosmo, sweetie. I think you did everything just right."

From against her shoulder Cosmo gave a muffled reply, "But he fell. How could I have if I didn't save him? He…he's…"

"Cosmo honey, " said Wanda as she rubbed one hand on his back soothingly. "He's not dead."

Cosmo pulled back slightly to stare at Wanda in wide eyed astonishment.

"He's not?"

She shook her head.

"But how could he not be? He fell! I saw him. How do you know he isn't gone?"

Wanda gave a sad smile.

"I always know when one of ours is gone sweetheart."

"You do? How?"

Her shoulders shrugged up then down.

"I don't know really. I just do. There's just this moment when I feel a little flash of pain, not physical pain, but something inside like a heartache, and then there's sadness right after. I just get this sense that I've lost something. Sometimes, it'll wake me right up out of a sound sleep and the few times it doesn't, I'll just wake up in the morning feeling that something is missing. I'm still not sure why or how I can. But I haven't this time. Not yet."

"Maybe because you were knocked out when it happened?"

"No. I'd still have woken up to that sadness. And I only woke up to you."

Cosmo looked at her deeply for a moment.

"They're written in your heart the same way we're written in theirs. Except…maybe where they remember us being with them and having fun, you remember how much you love them. Maybe when they go, the part of your heart that you gave to them, feels it."

Wanda looked at Cosmo with an contemplative expression.

"You know, I never thought of it like that. I mean, I do love them all, but I never thought I gave myself quite like that to them."

"I don't see how you couldn't," Cosmo said matter-of-factly.

She blinked, her head tilted slightly in curiosity, and Cosmo smiled.

"You've always been more of a mother then a godmother to them. And mothers, especially the really great mothers, give everything they can to their kids. Even pieces of their heart."

Warmed at the sentiment, and the unusually thoughtful words, from her husband, Wanda leaned against him as she wrapped her arms around his lower chest.

"You know," she said after a few moments. "Great fathers do a decent job of loving the kids too. They may not always admit it as openly as a mother, but they have their own way of showing it."

"Phiiiffft," raspberried Cosmo offhandedly. "Big Daddy may show you and your sister how much he cares, but I have yet to see any sign of love for me from him."

Wanda gave a questioning grimace. Obviously her reference to him had gone over his head.

"Uh, Cosmo. I was talking about you and our god kids. Not my father."

"I know," he replied.

The fairy mentally shook her head over it and decided it to be a wiser choice to remain silent rather then ruin an otherwise pleasant moment trying to figure out his rarely understandable train of thought.

A minute passed before Cosmo sighed deeply.

"Hey, Wanda?"

"Hmm?" she replied absently, letting her exhaustion once more convince her eye lids to close.

"Do you remember the time Denny wished for someone to talk too that thought just like him, and we ended up putting a second head on his shoulders?"

Wanda chuckled lightly.

"Yes, I remember. I also remember that even you weren't all that thrilled with the idea."

"Well no. The multi head look might look good on Snowball, but a human? That was just creepy."

Wanda smiled.

"Oh, oh, oh," continued Cosmo with a growing and bouncy cheerfulness. "And remember the time he wanted to see the center of the earth but forgot to put on that special sun block? The burn he got from the earth's core peeled for two weeks! And how about the time he wished that he could fly like a bird and he got albatross wings? He could fly great, but man,his landings were terrible! And then there was the time…"

Yes, even the more forgetful of fatherly types have their own way of showing how much they loved their kids.

Wanda sighed as she settled comfortably in against Cosmo as he continued to ramble uninterrupted about little Denny's not so great adventures; the salve called time already working its own kind of healing magic on her husband's heart. There might be a few bumps along the road ahead, but in the long run, there was no reason to worry.

Yep. Cosmo was going to be fine.

And so would she.

Dear sweet Cosmo just had to feel bad, didn't he? Thinking it was all his fault. Berating himself over it even. Thank goodness he has Wanda there to help him out. Heavens I love those two! They are just too cute for words!

And poor Wandissimo! He lost his godson because the kid got all panicky. I feel so bad for him. Maybe Fleur's company can help him feel a little better. Oh, and I must give some acknowledgement to Aerinsoul. She has the wonderful habit of finding some FOP related thing to use as a mock threat to get me to update faster…like Anti Fairies cursing me and such. She happened in one instance to say that she would make me eat Wandissimo's cooking and I replied that I wouldn't bother making him cook. He could just take me out to some fancy restaurant for dinner being as his face could probably get him into any place in the universe. The whole thing popped into my head during the Fleur/Wandissimo interaction and I figured, "Hey! Why not?" So there it is. If you liked it, cool. If not…um…blame Aerinsoul. Lol. Just kidding. You can blame me if you hate it.

And just for clarification…I am in no way officially stating that I'm pairing those two. In this, I leave it up to you to decide. ;) However, if anyone is as interested as I am with possibly considering a small fic about that, I might consider moving along with a few ideas I've come up with for them. Lol.

Ack. Only one more chapter too go. I hope I don't cry!

BTW… 'Buen dios' means 'good god'.

Oh, and Happy Holidays Everyone!

Trixie21