Chapter Text
“What if we lived on Earth?” Cosmo had asked one night, cradled in Wanda’s arms.
It wouldn’t feel right to call it unexpected.
Fairy World had always been unkind to him. To both of them. It was riddled with disapproval, misunderstanding, and bad memories — things they could only find shelter from in each other. It was saying something when their best escape was going to Earth, yet even that had to be done in secret.
Wanda had to swallow down a self-conscious urge to ask if he was unhappy here with her. She didn’t want to make him feel bad for asking that. She understood it too well, and she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t considered his hypothetical before.
“Wouldn’t that be something,” she said with a laugh, inwardly kicking herself for such a stupid answer. She wanted to sound more positive than that. It was possible, but it came with a commitment she wasn’t yet certain about.
Cosmo was looking at her like he hoped that wasn’t all she had to say, so she had to keep going. “It’s, uh, not something just any fairy can do without stirring trouble. Only fairy godparents can do it, I think.”
And then he was looking at her like that fact hadn’t changed his hopeful mind at all.
Wanda chuckled nervously. “Let’s take care of a few other things first before we start thinking about that, anyway…”
☆ ☆ ☆
About a year and a half after that conversation, Wanda found herself on high school grounds for the first time since her own graduation.
She was beaming as Cosmo brought her beneath the bleachers like he’d done back then, except this time he didn’t need any grand distraction to precede it. They didn’t need to hide from their parents, as neither of them were here (and, also, they were adults now). Wanda worried that her boyfriend might’ve been upset about his mother missing his graduation, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it, anyway — Mama Cosma had quite literally been banned from the premises following her aggressive attempts to disclose where Cosmo was living now. It was for the best, as that only made him all the more afraid to see her again.
If he was sad about it, which they both knew deep down that he was, he wasn’t showing it now.
Wanda had been all but clinging to him since the ceremony ended, squeezing him into one more hug as soon as they’d come to a stop beneath the bleachers. No one was paying them any mind—but then again, when they were the ones only paying attention to each other, it was hard to really tell.
“Oh, look at you,” Wanda gushed, holding him at arms’ length. “So sophisticated in your robes.” She’d been saying things like that all day, clearly with no signs of stopping.
Cosmo grinned, bashful yet proud.
“I knew you’d make it here. I knew you would.”
“I had this reeeally awesome tutor,” he explained, making Wanda giggle.
“Oh? And she—”
“You don’t know who it is!” Cosmo interrupted, urging her to play along.
Wanda rolled her eyes, but started over. “They had a wonderful, uh… Student? Subject? Learner? Who they knew always had it in him, despite what people would say.”
Cosmo’s eyes shone as he continued.
“She was this girl I always daydreamed about, both before and after I met her. As soon as we started dating, I would sit in class and think, ‘Wowie… When I graduate, I’m gonna marry that girl.’ Which,” and at this point he looked away in sheepish embarrassment, “probably didn’t help how bad my grades were, but, um…”
Wanda wondered if she was still supposed to be playing along. Not that it mattered now, because there was no way she possibly could. She could feel her mind grinding to a halt as it registered what might be happening.
Cosmo looked to her again. He took her hands into his and she could feel that they were clammy. “Then, somehow, things kept going right for me. E-enough that I can be here now, in the place where you first told me you loved me, thanking myself for not screwing everything up so far because that’s usually what I’m really good at, and ask you… Ahh…”
“Cosmo?” Wanda spoke softly. There was a knot in her throat and hot tears in her eyes, but she was smiling.
Once he’d caught his breath, Cosmo dropped to one knee and fished something out of his pocket, planting it in Wanda’s hand. “I know you told me what your answer will be before, but… But… Gggghaahhhh Wandawillyoumarrymeplease!”
Wanda’s vision began to swim. She couldn’t even see what he’d put in her hand, but upon closing her fingers around it she thought it felt like a pen cap. That made her laugh, endeared.
It was hard to believe he was doing this now. He’d given her a hefty heads up, yet it still felt so sudden and unexpected. She didn’t know how to describe it. She wasn’t going to keep him waiting, though. She wasn’t going to think about her answer either, because she’d already given it. She already knew. She might’ve known the day she’d met him.
Wanda embraced him again, throwing her arms around his neck. Her feet popped and her legs both kicked in the air. “Yes,” she squealed, sniffling and letting the joyous tears fall. “Oh my gosh, yes. Yes and yes again. I love you, Cosmo, and you aren’t a screw-up.”
Despite the unrelated commotion around them, she could definitely hear a subtle ‘phew’ from Cosmo as he wrapped his arms around her.
Wanda opened her hand to view it over Cosmo’s shoulder, surprised and yet not surprised at all to see that the pen cap she held was covered in chew marks. She could imagine just then that Cosmo was the only fairy in history to propose with such a thing, and she was probably the only one who’d accept it. Even that felt like a special thought.
“You really said yes,” he breathed.
“She really said yes!” she then heard him laughing and whisper-shouting to random distant passersby, and in that moment, grinning from ear to ear, she couldn’t care less if they happened to notice.
☆ ☆ ☆
The days after that were a whirlwind.
The next thing that Cosmo and Wanda would learn about one another was that neither knew squat about weddings. What came to mind was surface level familiarity — there were fancy white clothes, flowers, tall cakes, rings and I do’s, but without the knowledge that wedding planners existed for hire, they thought themselves responsible for organizing all of it.
“So when do we do it?”
“Why not tomorrow?”
“No, too soon, we don’t even have anything to wear…”
“Then let’s get shopping!”
“Wait, wait! What about, uh… Guests? Would anyone even be a good idea to invite?”
Silence.
“I dunno…”
“Hm… Okay, forget the guests for now.”
“Yeah, it’s not like they’re the ones who marry us! Uhh, right?”
“Right, that’s the duty of… Oh, what are they called? Do they even have a name? Of course they do…”
“Wedding people!”
“No, it has to be something professional… Ugh, hold on, I’ll be right back.”
As soon as Cosmo heard Wanda say that, he took a gentle but firm hold of her sleeve. It was so quick that it almost seemed to be instinctive. “I wanna come,” he said so sweetly, almost with concern, even when he didn’t know where she was going.
With an apologetic smile, Wanda poofed the two of them outdoors.
☆ ☆ ☆
There, Wanda's task was to find someone—preferably a married someone, if not two married someones —who looked like they’d know the answer she sought.
She was beside herself with excitement and intensity when she found her first possible candidates, having to actually refrain from grabbing hold of their shoulders when she asked: “Do you know the word for the person that officiates a wedding?”
The pair of fairy strangers looked at one another, then at Wanda. “A…wedding officiant?” one of them responded.
Wanda blinked, then let out a ridiculous laugh. “Oh, haha. Yep, that’s it! And, uh, would you happen to know one that we— I could contact?”
“Er, we just had our friend do it, but…”
Wanda frowned. A friend? They couldn’t have a friend do it—that’d be too risky, and she was quite sick of things being risky. Contacting family was most definitely out of the question, too, which was exactly why they were outside consulting strangers for this.
“That’s alright,” Wanda said, waving a hand. “Thanks for the info.”
“Aren’t you—” the second fairy piped up, but Wanda’s knee-jerk instinct was to shut them down before they could finish whatever that was about to be.
“No, I'm not,” she said, linking her arm with Cosmo’s. Her other hand pointed a finger at the pair, only as intimidating as a mob daughter could be. “This interaction did not happen and will not be spoken of.”
The pair were confused but otherwise compliant. Cosmo waved goodbye to them just before Wanda flew elsewhere with him, extending their search to someone who either was or knew of a suitable officiant. It became more of an inconvenience than anything each time they came up short, having to redeliver that vague, unconfident threat each time someone was getting a little too nosy.
As soon as they got something, however, they ran with it — literally. Poofed back into their apartment and sat shoulder-to-shoulder upon the couch with some notes in hand.
“Okay,” Wanda said, pulling her phone out.
“Can I do the calling?” Cosmo asked. “You just did all of that talking outside, so I wanna do something too.”
Those words made her pause, forcing her to consider just how much of this she was about to take on herself. There was nothing coming to mind as far as rationalization went, so she handed him the phone as well as the number and name to call.
He punched it in and put the phone to his ear, Wanda leaning in with rapt attention. She was sitting on her ankles with her hands on her knees.
“Hiii,” Cosmo said after several seconds of ringing. “We need an officer.”
“Officiant,” Wanda corrected.
“Officiant!” Cosmo repeated after her. “For a wedding, pretty please.” … “Uh-huh.” … “We don’t know that yet…” … “Or, um, that either. But it’ll probably be somewhere really secret?” He looked to her for help.
Wanda, just as clueless, gave a very unhelpful nod.
The longer the officiant seemed to speak, the more conflicted Cosmo’s expression became. It took Wanda a lot of effort not to take the phone from him.
“Uhhh… Haha, okay, we’ll just call you back later…!”
Cosmo hung up and lowered the phone. The smile he gave was equally guilty and amused. “I think we gotta think about this more…”
Following a beat of tension, Wanda broke it with an exhale of laughter. “Oh. Yeah, okay, that was probably obvious.”
☆ ☆ ☆
Two weeks of patience they didn’t know they had in them later, they sat in admiration of the attire they’d bought for the day ahead. An elegant white dress hung beside a white and green-accented tuxedo, waiting to be worn.
“Why haven’t we just put them on and done the marriage ourselves again?” Cosmo asked.
“Well, now it’s because we didn’t do all this waiting and all this research and licensing just to throw it all away.”
“Licensing,” Cosmo echoed. “And we can’t even driiive…”
Wanda snickered, pressing a kiss to Cosmo’s shoulder before she leaned her head against it. “And it’s still because I’d like it to be official. I know it’s totally boring to bring up that it is a legal process, but I think the ceremony will be really special and romantic…even if it is a secret.”
“Eloping is also a way more fun word,” her fiance added, giggling excitedly. “I just can’t believe it’s already a thing and not an idea we came up with!”
“I know,” Wanda commiserated.
In the comfortable silence that followed, Wanda wondered about other fairies that have married in secret. She wondered if humans did it too, down on Earth. She wondered, with a great deal of selfish doubt, whether anyone’s experiences were similar to hers and Cosmo’s.
She thought about her father and her sister and all the others that wouldn’t get to witness this, knowing it was for the best. She thought of an overwhelmingly endless, unknown future and realized she ought to stop there.
“We should get some sleep,” she said, reluctantly leaning away from Cosmo.
“Like that’s gonna happen,” Cosmo replied, climbing beneath the covers regardless.
“Eh, that’s probably true.” Wanda got situated with him, reaching for her wand. “Might have to bust out the sleeping dust…”
“Wait! Not yet.”
He waited until she faced him and the big, sweet grin he wore. His crown was glowing ever brighter and his wings were almost certainly fluttering beneath the blanket, as wide awake as one could be. Wanda couldn’t blame him. “The next time we go to bed, it’ll be as husband and wife…”
Wanda smiled. “Doesn’t feel real yet.”
“But it will tomorrow?”
“We just won’t know ‘til we get there, sweetness. Goodnight.”
☆ ☆ ☆
“Cosmo, Wanda,” announced the officiant, “the two of you have gathered here today to be united in marriage.”
He spoke to them, to the sweet-scented air, to the flowers and the trees, the butterflies and the breeze, for there was nothing and no one else. For once, the secrecy was their own—a choice they made rather than forced themselves into.
It was a beautiful, remote spot in Fairy World, shrouded in nature and made to feel like their very own. The flowers that bloomed below their floating feet were pink and green, matching those that adorned the standing arch behind their officiant.
The two fairies’ hands were joined, their eyes locked on one another as they listened.
“I understand you have your reasons for eloping,” the officiant said smilingly. “No matter what they are, what's important is that they have brought you here. Our kind are eternal, and it is with one another that you two have chosen to spend that time. Have you decided to share your vows here and now?”
“Yes.”
“Cosmo, we’ll start with you.”
“Um…” Cosmo released Wanda’s hands, fishing a couple of index cards out of his coat pocket. An inner conflict was made clear as he looked between Wanda and the words he’d written, likely unsure which to focus on—one was a necessity, of course, and the other a desire. “Wanda…” he eventually started speaking, staring at a card with sudden brewing tears. “You…”
He couldn’t get any more than that out. He gave a pout that quickly devolved into weeping, proceeding to drop the cards and then cover his eyes with his hands.
“Oh, hon,” Wanda said in a voice that threatened to crack, bringing her arms around him.
She gave the officiant an apologetic smile and he nodded in understanding, floating a few paces back.
“You want me to do mine first instead?” Wanda asked her fiance.
Cosmo nodded, forcing his sobs to quiet down so he could hear her.
“When we were on that rooftop at the school dance, I told you I wish I’d met you sooner. That rings true to this day, but what matters is that I met you at all. If you hadn’t spilled my lunch on me — and trust me, I still think of that with all the fondness in the world, ha — we may have stayed strangers. I’d still be someone who’d never known how it was to feel like I belong, to feel important, to feel like a good person, to feel like myself…”
Cosmo had at this point uncovered his eyes, watching Wanda intently from just over the tips of his fingers.
“…There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to thank you for seeing me not just as Big Daddy’s daughter, or as that popular-yet-plain chick in school, or the non-pretty twin, but as the Wanda that someone actually wants to get to know. You’re so kind, thoughtful, sincere, silly, and perfect to me, and the least I can do is pledge my heart to you, return your boundless love, and be the one that treats you better than our world ever has. You deserve it.”
Wanda wiped a more elegant stream of tears (compared to Cosmo’s) from her face as she finished.
“Ghh… Can I kiss her yet?” Cosmo pitifully asked, drawing a subdued laugh out of his fiancee.
“Not yet,” the officiant said, returning to his spot. “Would you like to give your vows another go?”
“Oh.” Cosmo picked his cards up off the ground, looking at them uncertainly. He bit his lip. “I-I don’t know if I can yet. I want to, though, I promise! I’m sorry… Can I do it later?”
Though Wanda instinctively nodded, she let the officiant give his answer.
“Certainly. Now, with those promises made, let’s proceed with your declarations and the exchanging of rings."
The couple joined hands again. Slowly and fondly, Wanda stroked her thumb along Cosmo’s skin.
“Cosmo, do you take Wanda to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“Yes!” he said, passionately and without thinking.
Wanda smiled patiently, mouthing the correct words to him.
“I do!” Cosmo tried again.
“And Wanda, do you take Cosmo to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do.”
“Do you vow to share your magic, your lives, and your dreams? To love, cherish, and care for one another as lovers, friends, and companions for all eternity?”
“We do,” they said in unison.
The officiant grabbed his wand. In a flourish, two golden bands came to be. “Now, with these rings, your magic and your souls shall be joined as one.”
He must’ve gotten the hint that it was better to let Wanda lead, since he gestured for her to take one first. As she did, the band surged with a mysterious glow of magic.
“As a symbol of your binding commitment, please place this ring on Cosmo’s finger.”
She took a little breath before lifting Cosmo’s left hand, sliding the band on his ring finger. It morphed to fit him and its magical glow dissipated, seeming to seep right into Cosmo’s skin.
“Fancy,” he gasped under his breath.
“Now, Cosmo, as a symbol of your binding commitment, please place the remaining ring on Wanda’s finger.”
He took it like it were the most precious, fragile thing in the world. The process was mirrored — it glowed, resized itself to fit Wanda, then seemingly released its magic into her.
“I don’t think we coulda done that by ourselves,” Cosmo whispered in awe, and Wanda giggled.
“Splendid. Cosmo Julius Cosma and Wanda Venus Fairywinkle, by the magical power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The officiant bowed his head. “You may now kiss.”
Wanda’s now-husband took hold of her face, all but throwing himself into the kiss he’d been waiting to give her. She beamed as she returned it, unable to help thinking to herself how much better he’d gotten at kissing since their very first one. In a sense, though, this one felt like its own brand new first.
“Congratulations. The next chapter of your lives awaits, your stories joined as one.”
Frankly, Wanda couldn’t have put it better herself.
☆ ☆ ☆
“We’re home, my wife!” He’d have liked to carry her all the way back, but to avoid nullifying the fact that their marriage was secret, he settled for picking her up princess-style as soon as they’d poofed indoors.
“Mmhm,” Wanda said dreamily.
“I mean, to our totally romantic marital suite that isn’t just our apartment…!” Cosmo had his wand clutched in one of his hands at a somewhat awkward position, but could still use it to conjure up a bundle of rose petals that fell from the air like confetti.
“Ooh.” Wanda reached a hand out to catch some.
“And…” Following another ding of magic, a ridiculously tall wedding cake appeared on the nearest table.
Wanda grinned at it.
“Aaaand…” Cosmo paused. “A-actually, haha, I don’t know what else. Oh! My—” Since his hands were full with holding her, he again used magic to pull the index cards out of his pocket. “My vows. Um, honey, maybe if you do something funny while I say them, I won’t cry this time…”
Wanda bit her lip, still unable to help a big smile. She did want to hear them, but…
“Take me to bed first,” she said instead.
Cosmo blinked at her, returning her smile. “Well, it isn’t bedtime yet, but I’d be a jerk to refuse you now! So I, your husband, will take you, my wife, to bed.”
She leaned up, cupping her hand around his ear and salaciously whispering to him what she really meant by that.
“Ohh,” he said with red-faced realization. He giggled boyishly. “What I meant to say was I, your husband, will take care of you, my wife, in bed, knowing exactly what you meant this time…!”
He then carried her off to the bedroom, seeing to it that it, too, was showered with a bit too many rose petals.
☆ ☆ ☆
As the sun set, a far cry from their previous night, her dress and Cosmo’s suit now laid rumpled on the floor among petals, playing cards and other silly things they’d occupied themselves with between rounds of consummation.
They relaxed against the headboard and pillows of their bed, physically and emotionally exhausted, the taste of one another—and of wedding cake, of course, the one that they’ve so far hogged all to themselves—lingering on their lips.
“Don’t want this day to end,” Cosmo murmured.
“But what’ll you get to do tomorrow?” Wanda prompted him.
He thought for a second, then grinned. “Say 'good morning to yooou, my wife'… And then make you breakfast, as your husband, except it might have to be more cake because we have way too much leftover…”
“Sounds good to me,” she laughed. “But aside from that, probably, I meant that we’ve just shaped how every day is going to be from now on. We’re going to be married for forever, Cosmo. I can’t believe it.”
Not at all for the first time that night, she positioned her left hand next to Cosmo’s in a way that showed their rings close together. He basked in admiration with her.
“Every day keeps getting better,” he whispered.
“Mm,” Wanda hummed in agreement.
After a while, Cosmo turned and peered over the side of the bed at his discarded clothing.
“You wanna read what you wrote now?” Wanda assumed.
“…Yeah.” He leaned down to retrieve his cue cards, sitting up once he had them in his hands. “They’re, ah, stained. With tears… And I don’t write that good, but I think I can do it. Are you ready?”
“So long as you are.”
Wanda found herself taking a breath. This could quite literally be anything, knowing him. She wouldn’t underestimate his ability to pour his heart out more eloquently than he’d ever give himself credit for, however.
“Okay… Wanda… This is a lot of stuff I’ve already said to you before.” He squinted, still reading. “Not that I’ve written it yet, but I will now. You’re really special, cool, pretty, awesome, smart, and talented. But then there’s stuff I’ve only said to myself, like how I don’t know why you like me. I don’t know how you could choose me. I don’t know how I haven’t messed this up. But if there’s one dumb thing I won’t do, it’s think too much about it.”
Wanda’s heart swelled, conflicted. It hurt to hear some of this, but she didn’t want to interrupt him.
“You love me and I love you, a lot. I’m lucky you did choose me. I think you’re my soulmate, and the love of my life, and my other half, and my reason for living… I don’t even know what any of those are supposed to feel like, or maybe I just didn’t before I met you. I want to be a good husband and a hero that defeats whatever makes you sad or scared. I want to live on Earth one day with you, maybe forever. Anywhere where people will finally like us, maybe. But I’ll only go where you want to go, too. Just as long as we’re never apart from now on, I’ll be happy.”
By the time he’d finished, Wanda was tearing up again. She opened her arms for him and he settled into them. He kissed the tears from her cheeks and she let out a half-sobbing laugh. “Oh, thank you, Cosmo. That was wonderful. But we will be working more on the way you talk about yourself sometimes.”
“You weren’t very nice to yourself in your vows either,” he retorted, only mildly argumentatively.
She sighed. “You’re not wrong, but you’ve helped me a lot with that. I can only hope to return the favor, whether here…or when we live on Earth.”
“When?” Cosmo repeated, perking up. “So you really want to?!”
“If you’re ready for a lot more years of schooling,” Wanda chuckled. “Or, uh… training, that is. I think it’s both…?”
His face fell at that, if only for a moment. “Weeelll… Like I said, I’ll go wherever you wanna go. School without you was terrible, I at least don’t want to go through that again!”
“You won’t, sugarbear.”
Nothing he did, she’d ensure, would be done without her — and vice versa. It was the only thought steeling her for this decision she never thought she’d make.