Author's Note: Sorry this is late. With school started, it's hard to squeeze in time to update, let alone on time.

I hope you enjoy the chapter. I love snarky Tootie. I don't love, however, addressing the season five concerns I set myself up for earlier. Rawr. Sorry for the rehash, especially since I feel like this is treading on Convos with Wanda territory a bit in the beginning.

Chapter Eight: Dancing with Wolves

Cosmo launched himself at her again and she pushed him away. To her surprise, she could float again and did, levitating above him. Cosmo whined and she grimaced, disliking the necessary conversation. She'd avoided speaking about it for a while, but now, it had to be said. Timmy wasn't the only one suffering silently, and she was afraid if they kept ignoring the problem, it'd only escalate.

"We have to talk."

He cocked his head at her; her rejection had sunken in, but not fully. His ears pulled back and he gazed steadfast at her.

"About what?" he said. "Timmy? Doombringer? Tootie?"

"Us," she said. "Cosmo, how long did you think this could go on?"

"What go on?" he said and blinked innocently. She grimaced. She knew he'd be clueless. He was always clueless. On the rare occasion he seized the information quickly, she wondered whose influence it had been.

"Your derogatory comments about our relationship, your insinuations you'd rather be married to someone else…" she sighed. Juandissimo had allowed her to sleep, but only for a short while, and she felt bone weary, rocked by today's events. Cosmo lifted his head and gawked.

"But I don't mean it," he said. "Timmy liked it and, and…it couldn't have been that bad, right?"

Wanda glared. "Didn't you wonder why I stopped talking to you mind to mind? Or why I'd suddenly disappear during the day?"

"Yeah, but…" he shook his head slowly. She folded her arms across her chest and grimaced.

"There's no 'but', Cosmo," she said. "This has to stop, this cycle of you hurting me and my hurting you, just to try to inflict the damage. I don't want to hurt you…and…"

She swallowed hard. "I'm still fairly sure you don't want to hurt me."

"Of course I don't!" he exclaimed and jumped to his feet. He nuzzled her stomach and she allowed it, grimacing. She didn't rub his head fur or otherwise acknowledge the affection, however, and instead stared straight ahead at the door. How much of this could the children hear? She really didn't want to leave the bathroom only to confront Timmy about it. Tootie probably wouldn't speak, since it wasn't her place, but Timmy would try to unearth everything he could about the situation.

"I've been hurting you?" he asked. Gritting her teeth, she proceeded to tell him every hateful moment they'd had in the last year, which he might or might not have noticed.

When she finished, his mouth dropped. "But I didn't…I didn't…"

"Don't get me wrong," she said. "I'm very glad to find you and Timmy unharmed and relatively safe, regardless of whether Tootie's now involved too. But something has to change in our relationship."

"Could you…could you change me back?" he said in a low voice. Blinking, she gawked at him. The request was sincere, though she couldn't fathom the reason behind it. Concentrating, she 'located' his real form within a magical network, floating in a nebulous space in her mind. She'd never tried to turn someone back without a wand, aside from herself, and it'd been easier with her since she'd done it before.

The magical network extended around her and connected her to every faerie in Dimmsdale and the world beyond. Though she couldn't tell what every single faerie was, she could tell where the web was strong, where faeries prospered, and saw, out of the corner of her mental eye, where the edges frayed. After that point, she didn't concern herself. She focused on Cosmo's normal form, which was close enough to her to be almost hers. Without Cosmo wearing it, it was vacant, eyes closed, hair a drab grey. All distinguishing color the magic had leeched from it.

Imagining it on him, she dragged it from its space in the netherworld. Unlike her form, it didn't call to her and she ground her teeth. It didn't want to budge. She 'spoke' to it, not in her words, but in feelings and pictures, telling it that it was so like herself as to be her twin, and its owner had given her permission to take it. The magical contract hesitated and then, like a reluctant, whipped dog following its master, it beckoned to her call and trailed her back.

Once it was 'in the room', or, its construct was, she fitted it onto Cosmo and waited. It didn't fit securely, too small to fit his current frame, and she had to meld the two magic forms. Sweat trickled down her brow and she ground her teeth again, certain she'd end up breaking one or two. She nudged the wolf form inside his faerie form, convinced the two they were the same, and waited for an acknowledgement. A pop ensued, she opened her eyes, and Cosmo was in his normal form. She panted, her chest constricting, and her throat burned.

"Wanda!" he exclaimed and she shook her head. She dropped out of thin air and landed on the floor; breathing heavily, she waited for the dizzy spell to pass. It was a shame they didn't have any magic, including their telepathy. It'd be faster to explain to him in telepathy and easier for him to understand, since he'd receive her emotions too. Then again, their telepathy had been ebbing away for months now.

Cosmo dropped to his knees and bowed his head to her. A long time ago, dragon shapeshifters had existed as part of the faerie culture, and some of the practices continued. He showed her his neck, which was a sign of vulnerability and acknowledgement thereof in the dragon community. Startled, she gawked at him. She hadn't even known he'd known the move. Or maybe it was subconscious.

"Wanda, I'm so sorry…" he said. "I don't even know what I can do to make it up to you…"

She sighed. "Right now, I don't have the energy to be upset."

"You're dying?" he said, jumping to conclusions. She smiled weakly.

"Ready to pass out again," she said. Cosmo made an 'oh' and she beckoned him to her. After the initial dismissal, he was disinclined to join her and she smiled at him. She didn't mean to deliver mixed signals. She was just too tired to rehash this, especially when it looked like he finally understood, and she didn't know when she'd see him again. After all this, she just wanted him to know what was going in case…

"It's all right," she said. "Right now, I don't want to think about it."

"I do," he protested. "After all I did and-"

"Cosmo," she said softly, "you can think about it later. I don't know when the next time I'll see you."

"Yeah but…" his lower lip quivered and she grimaced.

"Put it out of your mind just for now," she said. "We have worse problems and I don't want to think about those now either. We're only going to be together for a short while."

"But all how can we do anything if I know I already hurt you?" he said. Damn, she never should have brought it up, but it had seemed so important before she'd drained herself.

"By not hurting me now," she said and touched his cheek. "We'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes."

Timmy couldn't hear anything from the bathroom. Not that he was eavesdropping, mind you, because the last time he'd tried that his godparents had gotten severely annoyed. Also, after their ordeals, he thought they deserved their privacy. He just realized he had no idea what had happened before Wanda was dumped in their cell. He hadn't even asked. He'd been so focused on himself, he didn't know what had happened to Wanda or Tootie.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?" Tootie said flatly.

"Pretty much everything up until this point," he said. "I know I've been a jerk and even if I don't like you, you can't help being a girl."

Tootie stared at him. "That's your apology?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Kinda, yeah."

"You're lucky I love you, Timmy Turner," she said. "Or I'd never forgive you."

Smiling weakly, he stared ahead and wondered when his godparents would be done. Whenever his parents needed to talk without him, though, they could be locked up in their room for hours. Sometimes they sent him to the movies with his friends while they did whatever it was adults did. He thought again of Jorgen and Cosmo and Wanda assuring him Jorgen had misled them. When and if Timmy got out of here, he had a bone to pick with the Fairy World leader.

"You're not mad at me anymore, right?"

There was a pregnant pause and he stared at her.

"What?" he pressed.

"You have a lot to learn about girls," she said and scowled. "And I don't mean Trixie Tang when I say 'girls', either."

"Trixie…" he grinned from ear to ear and she groaned.

"Do you want to hear what happened or not?" she said flatly.

"Wait," he said. He wanted to return to his favorite fantasy, about him and Trixie married with children who naturally looked just like her. They'd live in a mansion and never have to worry about anything ever again. He'd wake up to her and spending every minute at her side. Then she'd glance lovingly into his eyes and fall in love with him all over again.

"You're thinking about her right now, aren't you?" she said.

Her hand would be soft, like velvet, on his face and he'd lean forward to kiss her…

Ow! Timmy jumped. Nowhere in his fantasy had Trixie decided to kick him. His calves hurt and he looked up at Tootie, who was glaring at him.

"Welcome to reality, Timmy," she said. "There's no Trixie here and even if there were, do you really think she'd keep her mouth shut about your faeries?"

"Of course she would," Timmy said.

"No," she replied. "She wouldn't. She'd use them to get whatever she wanted, however she wanted. You can't even tell what she's really like because you're so smitten."

"You just don't like her because I do," he said.

"Sometimes," she said, "I wonder if you even realize how little sense you make."

"You're jealous," he said. "I'm in love with Trixie Tang and not you."

"You're not in love with her," she retorted. "You're infatuated with her, like Juandissimo is infatuated with Wanda."

Normally, he'd have argued the point, except the second half of her sentence completely derailed him. Mouth agape, his mind struggled to form words and produce a sentence at least somehow coherent. This was what he got instead.

"You? Juandissimo? Know?"

Anyone else would have slapped a palm to their forehead and groaned.

"I know a lot more than you think I do," she said. "Especially since you make it a habit of screaming everything especially when you think no one's around."

"If you know so much, how come Fairy World hasn't mind wiped you or taken them?" he countered.

"I don't know," she said. A tiny purple fleck flew off her finger and he stared at it. It glowed for a second and then was gone, like it had never been. He had too much experience with strange phenomena now to equate it with exhaustion.

"What's really going on?" he said. "Are you working for Doombringer too?"

"And what?" she snapped, glaring at him, "I like to beat myself up for fun? If I were working for Doombringer, don't you think I'd stop letting Vicky push me around?"

The thought hadn't occurred to him. He looked at the floor.

"We'll find out tomorrow why we're here," she said. "One way or another, she won't keep us in the dark for long. I don't know her very well, but I can tell you one thing. If she and Vicky are remotely similar, she'll be stringing us along for a while, but it'll be enough for us to figure out what's going on if we stop to think about it."

"Yeah, but Vicky's not that smart," he said.

"True," she said. She hugged her knees. With a sad smile, she looked toward the bathroom. "Nothing I ever wish for becomes reality either."