Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The panic of having to socialize was enough to prevent Timmy from scrolling on his phone. Now, stable people would use this time to be productive. It wouldn’t be that hard to poof up his homework or the stuff he had to study for his exams. He could train (which, no, thank you) or he could do the thing Jorgen tasked him with and study the rules.

But as any overwhelmed and anxious teenager that had tons of stuff to do and was under immense stress, Timmy Turner felt guilty enough to not fall asleep and yet exhausted enough to not move an inch from his spot on the floor where he was laying on. He was obviously very busy. Which was why he stared blanky at the ceiling, faint static playing in his mind, doing absolutely nothing but spiral thinking about all the things that were on his agenda. Procrastination at its peak.
It was waaay past midnight already and yet nothing happened, aside from the glaring red eyes directed towards him and their whispering. It would be hard to ignore that if Timmy weren’t already used to such stares that just wanted to watch him fail and crumble. He got them from football, from his classmates, from the bullies, from his old Teacher Mr. Crocker, from Vicky whenever they crossed paths and so on – the list was only growing. It was something that had become part of his life. The only thing that still bothered him about that fact was the fear of receiving this stare even from his loved ones one day … The day they would finally peek behind the mask, see his true worth and decided he wasn’t worth it anymore. Even without Friday the 13^th he wasn’t very lucky. Most of his wishes turned against him just like most of his allies thought he was kind of a jerk too and they were sort of right. He probably deserved so for some wishes he made in the past and his behavior.

You know, just the average wandering thoughts coursing through his brain as he silently wallowed in self-pity.

But he was a kid back then. Any child, with siblings or not, craved attention, appreciation and tended to be unaware of the consequences their actions caused for themselves and others. That was normal, right? Being blunt, easily riled up, emotional, seeking companionship, wanting to be popular and have fun. Acting considerate and making responsible wishes was like asking a baby to stop being so dramatic – it fell on deaf, or rather not understanding, ears. He couldn’t possibly grasp the whole concept of wishing for nearly and literally anything a kid ever wanted and dreamed about and still hold back for the sake of everyone else. If you had so much power, anyone would (ab)use it for their personal interests, right? Like going in a store and buying everything you want without having to look at the price tag.

Why give kids fairies if the risk was so unforeseeable in the first place? Well, he certainly had his fair share of consequences through selfish gains. Aside from his friends and fairy family, he didn’t really care about what others thought of him or what he did to them. At least he didn’t realize it. And he still didn’t, probably … So he was at least lucky in that regard of having Cosmo and Wanda as his moral compass and guidance when all he had from his parents were white lies and oblivious forgetfulness … or rather indifference.
It was easy and fun to do what he wanted and go on magical adventures of course, but sometimes he was mad at his parents. They either acted like morons or like they didn’t care, giving him dangerous chemicals or letting Vicky chain him to a doghouse and crying about how they were stuck with him and so on. When they did care, however, that fluke was over the next week.

He didn’t blame them, though. He never did. He knew they loved him and maybe he should’ve just called them out on their bullshit, since that worked a few times back in the day – even if it had to be reversed. Because part of the whole fairy godparents thing was, after all, that his life had to be miserable. If his parents were normal and caring all the time and if he had gotten rid of Vicky and Mr. Crocker – where he had plenty of chances to do so – or his bullies, then his life wouldn’t be miserable. And he only managed to have his fairies for so long mostly because of that!
Now, if his memories were lost, he would only have the miserable parts left. After all these years when he was about to be an actual adult, it was too late to change that. Too late to have a real and happy childhood with his family and the few friends he had. Now with A. J. barely keeping contact and Chester and him having different schedules and responsibilities, he not only felt misunderstood, but more like the leftovers of something that once was … or could have been.

Sadly, not all memories he shared with magic were also magical. Knowing just what chaos he unleashed and that wishing to never be born would result in a much better world and life for everyone else was just cruel. Only now that he was older and knew what it truly felt like to not be appreciated, regardless of what you did, it just made him sad. And sometimes not even the supportive words oof his godfamily helped with that, because the fear of loss filled every syllable with bittersweetness.
The contract changed most of it, of course. He had no excuse to be miserable anymore, it was just his personality now. Great. If he wouldn’t know how much trouble it caused, he would like to wish for not having emotions again. Because feeling nothing made it easier to not care about anything than now, being stressed and torn apart. If he could be like his family, immortal and forever young, that sounded nice. But then again, he cared too much about his parents and his friends. He wouldn’t want to lose them and the thought of not going on missions with Jimmy, Danny and SpongeBob or watching movies with Chester and A. J. just hurt too much.

He was so tired of being split apart and having this whole puberty inducted emotional rollercoaster.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” Sick of laying around sulking, Timmy pushed himself upward. The sore muscles in his arms made themselves known, but it was manageable. His hair was tousled, and he was glad only his training clothes were in such poor condition and dirty, not his real ones. He was sitting on a blanket but still, since fairies flew around everywhere, he could literally see the only footprints of Jorgen on the ground in a small film of dust if he paid attention to it. And well, also his own now. Although he didn’t walk in through the entrance since he was poofed in by Jorgen … Well, that only proved how little the strangely absent staff cleaned this place. Whatever. It wasn’t as if a prison had an image to uphold. He shrugged it off and looked over at the rule book, lazily using the star-end of the fake wand to draw it closer to him.

Cosmo perked up from their card game. The three had played go-fish since they knew that if Timmy was in one of these silent moods, he wasn’t up for talking so they left him alone for a while until – usually Wanda – decided that it was enough, and he could use some distraction. She would have given him not much than ten more minutes anyway. It was still going to be a long night, after all. “I can’t believe it! Our Timmy, studying on his own?! He must be an impostor!” Cosmo let his cards fall as he flew upward in shock. It wasn’t like he was about to win anyway; his hand had been bad and he lost all earlier rounds too. “He must be an anti-version or something! Quick Wanda, we need to find the real one!”

“Stop that Cosmo, you know only fairies have anti-versions.”, she reminded him. “Jorgen will test him later, so it’s good he’s taking the training serious.” She smiled at her godson proudly and together, they hovered over to accompany him. Timmy didn’t bother, it was just their way of showing affection and he appreciated to tension diffusing antics, such as Poof who curiously poked at his lucky-crown charm.

Timmy flipped listlessly through the pages. Logically, the most important rules had to be on the first ones, so he only needed to learn a few paragraphs, right? Or maybe Jorgen was aiming for the rules that were added specifically because of him. Knowing the rule enforcer, he would make this stupid test unnecessary unfair und tough anyway, no matter how much effort the teen put in. The only rules that really caught his interest, however, where the really ridiculous ones. Oh well, if he was going to fail, he could at least entertain himself a while.

So that’s what they did. He flew over most or the pages and stopped whenever he read something that seemed a little … out of context. It was a fun little game, since him and Poof actually learned something while hid godparents – mostly Wanda – explained them. “Why can’t I wish for Tom Cruise?”, Timmy asked as he raised an eyebrow. Thus far they had managed to pass the time until 3 a.m. at least.

“Well, silly, that’s because everyone would wish for him, and the poor guy can’t be everywhere at once.” Wanda floated above him to see the page better. Cosmo joined her, adding. “Yeah and he has more important things to deal with – family always comes first, you know?”

“That’s Vin Diesel, Cosmo … And no, you can’t wish for him either. Or Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Poof visibly deflated at his mother’s words. “We just had many bad experiences with celebrities in the past since they draw a lot of attention to them.”

Timmy figured every strange rule was based on a wish and its history. He was a prime example for that. “Alright, that makes sense.” Unlike the breakfast-wish rule, because he liked to sleep in on weekends now and getting up at lunch should be socially acceptable in his humble opinion.

“And since we can’t change the rule book all the time and add every newcomer, we mostly just warn about the risks of wishing for famous humans to appear.”, she concluded, evidently shoving the memories of events were they had brought many famous people into their mess aside to not ruin the message behind the rules. Just because they were a bad example didn’t mean every fairy with a godchild made these mistakes.

“Especially Elvis!” Cosmo pointed at the paragraph that contained not wishing for Elvis Presley with not one but three exclamation marks. Timmy raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t question it any further. He flipped through another few pages but, as it was always the problem with reading and his attention span, was starting to get bored of that. It felt almost like that time when he had to learn the atlantian law to bail Cosmo out, only that he just needed to study the parts that were needed for. This was a gigantic book however – the lone act of running his fingers along the sides made his body recoil and his brain beg for a fun hyperfixation instead. He had done at least something, so maybe that would be enough?

He fancied the thought of streaming some K-Drama or watching videos on his phone since that would help to pass time. His gaze roamed over to a rather unnoticeable clock above the exit. It was still only 3:30 in the morning. This was horrible.

Timmy groaned in frustration and stood up to stretch his legs. Even if he was exhausted and his muscles still throbbed from the earlier training, he was getting restless. And sleep deprived from all that reading. If he blinked for too long, he wouldn’t be able to open his eyes again. The more he thought about that, the more he needed to suppress a yawn. His long nap had lost it’s fleeting purpose. Or the sheer, absolute boredom was at fault for that.
“Maybe I should check on the cells or something.”, he thought out loud. Of course, Poof was excited by the idea, much to Wanda’s dismay. He wanted to reassure her by saying ‘Come on, what’s the worst that could happen?’ but thought better than to jinx it. Things always went wrong when he said that.

His eyes wandered around the hall, most criminals just glaring or turning away from him. Even if they had something to say, most of the cells were soundproof to a certain degree. They didn’t do anything either, most of them slept, which only affirmed Jorgen’s statement that they wouldn’t try anything until 9 a. m.

The hallway Jorgen mentioned earlier caught his attention. Of course, he wouldn’t succumb to his curiosity, he wasn’t a kid anymore. Grownups followed rules and he wouldn’t go against them. Since Jorgen clearly said that he failed if he did exactly that. Only a fool would consider taking advantage of Jorgen’s absence. Who knew, maybe he would set an alarm off if he went that way? He was basically told to stay right here and do nothing but keep an eye on all these creeps. So that’s what he was gonna do. Right.
Yet, he couldn’t turn away and there was this itch in his fingers. The thrill of childish adventures and mischief he hadn’t felt in so long. A whispering voice in his head lured him with toneless promises. A sudden urge overcame him the longer he stared in that direction and goosebumps overtook his whole body.

“I wished I knew what’s down that hall.”, he mumbled to himself on autopilot before he even realized it and was jerked out of his daze when he heard Cosmo next to him say “Okay!” as he simultaneously lifted his wand. Since that technically had nothing to do with his training or the task directly, it wasn’t interfering with the contract’s rules, but Timmy tried not to rely on wishes that much anymore, since he wouldn’t be able to have them granted for much longer, if they got reassigned someday. But old habits died hard, as it seemed.

“Wait, no –“ Before Timmy or Wanda could stop Cosmo, a magic cloud surrounded them and he was teleported to what looked like some sort of security surveillance room. Monitors of nearly all corners of the prison were on the wall and a dashboard with too many buttons and lights was in front of it. “Oh great, it’s actually helpful and convenient. No wonder Jorgen didn’t want me to know about that.” He crossed his arms. Why wasn’t he be allowed back here, where he could keep an eye on everything at once without being among the sharks? Jorgen had never shown him this place! And besides, why were all these chairs empty? Was he literally the only guard in this giant dungeon?!

He was so mad that he completely forgot to ask himself why the wish earlier slipped right off his tongue. But oh well, apparently, it was a good thing that happened. Otherwise, he would still sit on the dusty floor.

“Jorgen takes his job very serious, he wouldn’t make it harder for you on purpose.”, Wanda tried to reason with him, but the more she thought about it, the less she believed it herself. Timmy was alone in this prison to guard over 80.000 Anti-Fairies by himself with nothing but a charm and a fancy bat. Perhaps Jorgen actually wanted Timmy to give up up his fairies on his own He always told her godson to quit whenever it would become too much, which wasn’t that surprising since he had to hold up his side of the contract too. Wanda wanted to believe the warden was above petty revenge, even if Timmy did the same to Jorgen when he was his parttime fairy; forcing him to grant childish wishes until he quit. “Well, we should still head back anyway. If he visits unannounced, we’re in trouble.”

“Are you kidding? This is obviously better than sitting in that hall! And look, nobody is here – not a single warden! He wants me to fail no matter what I do – it’s not fair!” So much for acting like a grownup. Timmy was furious. And also stubborn enough to think that if Jorgen used some stupid loophole to his advantage just to make it harder for him, then he would do the same. He was already stressed enough with his human school life and had barely any free time to relax and meet his friends as it was! And NOW Jorgen forced him through that? What the hell?! “Two can play that game. He said nothing would affect me as a godchild even if something went wrong. And if there is no breakout, he has no reason to be mad at me.”
Timmy stubbornly sat down in one of the much too small chairs. They would probably still have the right size if he were ten, but now it was like sitting at the children’s table. The contract only mentioned Da Rules, so if he broke Jorgen’s personal or any other rules, that wasn’t so bad. Yeah, sure, he had to listen to his mentor, but he could find an excuse for that later. Like always, he would find a way around it. Maybe he’d also search for fitting loopholes in the book or contract that he could use to his advantage? All he had to do was reading the paragraphs more thorough again and … wait a second. That was exactly what he was supposed to do in the first place. Ugh, studying. Disgusting.

… Or was Jorgen aiming for that outcome, figuring the best way to make him do his job was by learning out of spite? No, that was too smart, even for Jorgen. Timmy was probably just being paranoid and thinking too much into it. The warden had a sadistic humor and could be a real jerk if he wanted to. He liked to rub his superiority in everyone’s faces when he got the chance – he was the one that pulled this sick joke when he wished to never be born after all. And Timmy was still, to this day, not sure if Jorgen would’ve actually gotten rid of him if he had failed that test. So one could never be certain if the muscle-fairy was on his side or not.

His train of thought was interrupted by a loud and rusty creak nearby. A heavy metal door with a red lightbulb above opened seemingly by itself, revealing another, but dark and unlit hallway to their left – it fitted the jail’s dungeon setting more, unlike this high-tech room. Cosmo immediately hid behind Wanda, while Poof clung to one of Timmy’s shoulders. Okay that was … strange. Fairies had no real need for doors (and stairs) except if they wanted to lock something in or out and this door seemed like it wasn’t intended to be used regularly, if ever.

Maybe it was the gloomy atmosphere or the tense situation, but the hairs on his neck stood up and Timmy couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched off.

“W-we should go back. What if something happens while we’re gone?” Wanda once again warned, her senses tingling. “Cameras can be tricked easily by magic, after all. We can’t be sure that everything is alright in the cells.”

“And I don’t think heavy metal doors are supposed to open by themselves out of nowhere.” Cosmo bluntly stated, while he still used his wife as a shield. “That’s too creepy!”

Now, these moments were rare, but his godfather was right. The jail was obviously abandoned except for the prisoners behind thick magic proof glass and them – so the only conclusion was that someone or something else was also in here. Since Anti-Wanda had been oddly quiet and unnoticeable in the mass of Anti-Fairies, Timmy would take a hot guess and say it was probably either Anti-Cosmo or Foop that played tricks on them.

His fairy brother seemed to have a similar thought. “Bad guy! Poof poof.”, Poof shouted and pointed with his tiny wand towards the door.

“Poof is right. What if someone is in there and tries to … I don’t know, break a hole in a wall to let them escape?” Timmy tried think of a solution. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as good with strategies and planning as Jimmy. He would know what to do for sure, because he could analyze any situation with several possible outcomes. Like for example, in difficult missions he would stay behind and monitor them, while the others split up and – “That’s it! Alright, Wanda, you and Poof go back while Cosmo and I check this hallway out.”

Sadly, Poof didn’t agree with him on that one. He clung even tighter with his small pudgy hands on the fabric of Timmy’s black shirt and frowned in an adorable similar way his mother did at the same time. “Bad idea. Poof stays!”, he declared before Wanda even opened her mouth fully.

Even if he could only watch his brother’s expression from the side, the human teens heart warmed at that. As an only child, he wasn’t used to be the responsible role figure or had any idea what it felt like to care for someone so much … or that someone else looked up to him and cared about him in the same way. It had changed something in Timmy over the years. He learned to be considerate of another one’s feelings and wellbeing. He learned what it was like to be happy over even little things, such as seeing the little guy laugh and smile at him. And, of course, he learned how much panic and fear it carved into his chest when even the thought of losing that smile or seeing Poof injured because of him crossed his mind. Sure, the cosmic child was able to defend itself well enough on its own, much better than Timmy could ever by providing protection with only his fragile mortal body … But it didn’t change the fact that Timmy Turner would put the lives of his loved ones before his own. An act of selflessness he sometimes still doubted was genuine.

Aside from all that mushy stuff, it was – as Jimmy would put it – only logical to send them away. Wanda wouldn’t leave them behind, especially Poof. Cosmo alone in the main hall would be … contra productive and Poof alone instead was also not ever happening. And Timmy wanted to have at least a little moral support and protection, thank you very much. Going in the dark hallway by himself with no weapon to defend himself was … Oh shit.

Only now he realized that he left the fake wand with the book behind. That was probably not a very good thing if he had to fight. Not to mention his legs were still sore and a stupid crown wouldn’t help at all unless he could throw it like a boomerang (how were these things even able to float ovver the head without falling off anyway?).

Okay, okay. Think. Think, like Neutron would. Or just don’t mess this up. He could do this. He could just sprint back and – no wait. Right, he should take advantage of that while he was still able to do so. “I wish I had my … err, the wand-thing Jorgen gave me.”

Cosmo and Wanda both held their wands up and luckily the wish wasn’t off their limits. The weapon landed heavily in his hands but Timmy managed to fall on his knees this time.
“Alright, I know you think this is a bad idea but we don’t have time to discuss everything beforehand.” He gently ruffled through Poof’s hair, displaying his best almost-convincing-smile. “You can protect Wanda and make sure no one escapes. We’ll be back in a few minutes. Alright?” When neither Poof nor the other two agreed, he added a soft “Please.”

His little brother’s big eyes bored into his very soul for a long moment, until the young fairy caved in and nodded.

Cosmo, naturally since he had to go into the dark and creepy hallway, wasn’t thrilled about the idea. “I don’t know Timmy, maybe we should just call Jorgen. So far, no one has escaped yet, so it shouldn’t count as failing, right?” He had a really bad feeling about this, so bad he couldn’t diffuse the tension with his usual random and quirky behavior. There was this strange pull in his chest and his head automatically turned towards the corridor. He swallowed. Something was seriously not right, and it was very untypical for him to be so silent all of a sudden.

On one hand, Wanda wanted to go with them, but she wasn’t sure if Poof should come along. And leaving him alone was also out of the question in a jail. Sure, they all dealt with worse, and Poof was used to crazy and dangerous things – much to her dislike. But leaving the cells unattended would also cause her godchild trouble and he tried so, so hard to keep their family together and he deserved a break. “Alright hon, only if Cosmo is fine with it. I leave you guys to it, but if you’re not back in ten minutes, I will call Jorgen!”

Timmy supposed he could life with that threat. It probably was just another boring hall, and they were being paranoid. He really didn’t want to jinx anything, he really didn’t. “Okay, fair enough. Cosmo? If you really don’t want to, I can go alone, it’s fine.”
It was totally not fine and his grip subtly tightened around the handle of his newly acquired weapon. But it was his job and if they weren’t here he would’ve had to investigate alone anyway. Time to be a responsible and grownup, brave, manly man. He wasn’t scared of creaking doors, dark hallways and unknown threats – he overcame worse things. He ate danger for breakfast. And he most certainly wasn’t panicking, mentally running in circles, screaming bloody murder, and asking the heavens why it always had to be him that got into these kinds of situations.

After what felt like an eternity of nerve wrecking, Cosmo, although still not facing them and keeping his head locked in the feared direction, surrendered rather unproblematically. “Y-yeah no, it’s okay. I can do this, I’m a distant Von Strangle after all.” A strained smile plastered on his face while he waved his son and wife goodbye. His mock-bravery couldn’t hide the horror in his eyes.

“Are you sure?” Of course Wanda knew if anything happened, Cosmo could poof them both back to safety and since he would get this over with as fast as he could … but it was Cosmo, they were speaking of. No, she sould have a little mor faith in her husband and godchild. They wouldn’t take long anyway. So even with her senses screaming at her, she took Poofs hand. “… Alright. But you better be careful, you idiots.” She masked her worry and ported herself and Poof to the main hall before she could decide against it in the last second. Maybe, hopefully, this was all just for nothing and Jorgen simply decided to prank them … or whatever unlikely scenario she wanted the reassure herself with.