Chapter Text
Dev awoke in an unfamiliar bed. He felt atop his head and found a tiny, floating crown; the previous day’s events were real, after all. He swung his feet in the air as he got out of bed and his muscle memory conflicted with his newfound ability to float. His room had no mirror. He thought of his wand and it appeared in his hand.
“A mirror,” he said, and flicked the wand at the wall. An oval mirror appeared on it, and confirmed what Dev already knew. A fairy looked back at him from his reflection. He floated closer, pressing his hands up against the wall, to inspect himself as he hadn’t the night before. He looked mostly the same, but the blue of his irises seemed to shimmer like mica, and deep within his pupils, he thought he saw stars. On his back were a pair of iridescent wings. He had learned the day before they simply phased through any clothing; he did not need holes cut out for them.
Dev opened a dresser drawer and found his own clothing inside. Peri must have moved them with magic. He got dressed by hand, forgetting he could simply poof out of his pajamas. Uncertain where to put them, he dropped them to the floor.
He opened the door a crack and peeked out. He could hear Peri and his parents talking in the kitchen. He strained to listen; they were not talking about him. He crossed the hall to the bathroom quietly. He floated in front of the sink and looked at his hand. A bottle of hair gel appeared. Convenient. A comb poofed into his other hand, and he commenced his morning routine of slicking his curls flat against his scalp. He tried to avoid his crown, only to find it simply went around his hand if he got too close.
Unable to stall any longer, Dev floated to the kitchen to face his new foster family.
“Good morning, sport!” Wanda said. She smiled at him, but her brows were furrowed.
“Anything special you’d like for breakfast on your first full day as a fairy?” Cosmo asked. “I can make eggs, pancakes, waffles, parfait…” He counted his suggestions off with his fingers.
“I’ll just have cereal,” Dev said. “And I don’t know if I really count as a whole fairy.”
“You are a whole fairy, you just have a cap on your magic,” Peri said. “We’ll work on getting it lifted together, all right?” He poofed up a bowl of cereal with almond milk at Dev’s place at the table.
“Let’s worry about that later,” Wanda said. “How did you sleep?”
“Fine,” Dev said. “What do we do today?”
“I was thinking we'd take it easy for a bit. Then maybe we could practice things like shapeshifting,” Peri replied. Dev looked down at his bowl of cereal and stirred it.
“Are you going to tell Hazel about…” He trailed off.
“Not right away, if you don’t want us to,” Wanda said. “But we’re going to have to eventually. She’s going to notice.”
“I’ve been wondering, too,” Dev said. “How come I became a fairy if there’s no guarantee this’ll even work?”
“So you could stay in Fairy World,” Cosmo said.
“I’ll explain this, dad,” Peri said. “You see, time passes differently in Fairy World. If you were to spend even just one night as a human, years could go by on earth. But as fairies, we can come and go at any point in time.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Dev replied.
“Don’t think about it too hard, Deverino,” Wanda said. “It’s not supposed to make sense.”
Cosmo and Wanda left shortly after to start their day with Hazel. Dev and Peri stayed at the table and stared at one another. Peri gave him a tense little smile.
“I’ll clean up,” he said, and gathered the dishes.
“I’ll be in my room,” Dev replied. He poofed into the room Cosmo and Wanda showed him to the night before and sat on the unmade bed. He wondered if they already had this room prepared, or if they created it specifically for him. Their home seemed endless, with more doors than he could keep track of. He lied down and reflected on how he got here.
“Ow!” Dev exclaimed. A purple coconut lay on the floor beside him. “What the–?” He lifted it and found a face on the other side. “Peri!?” The coconut poofed into his former fairy godparent.
“Oh, good, it worked!” he said.
“What worked?” Dev asked.
“My plan to restore your memories,” Peri replied.
“I never lost my memories,” he said.
“What!” Peri exclaimed. “How?”
“I don’t know!” Dev said. “Because of my sunglasses, maybe? But more importantly: why are you here?”
“Because… I mean I…” Peri rubbed his temples. “Look. I meant it when I said that I care about you. And the person who is supposed to be looking out for you isn’t. Me being taken away and your memories being wiped–nevermind that it didn’t work–doesn’t change that. I want to help you, Dev.”
“Why would you want to help me when I almost killed you?” Dev asked, squinting his eyes suspiciously. Peri threw up his hands.
“I literally just told you,” he said.
“So, what, you’re just going to be my fairy godparent again? Wouldn’t that be against ‘Da Rules’?” Dev said, wiggling his fingers in air quotes.
“Well, yes, but it’s not without precedent,” Peri said. “I know I wasn’t a great godparent to you. I kept trying to split the difference between the fundamental rule of godparenting–the child must get what they want–and what I felt you needed, which was for someone to care enough to tell you ‘no’ sometimes instead of just doing whatever would get you to shut up. I messed up. There’s so much I would do differently if I could do it all over again. I want a second chance with you, if you'll let me.” Dev's eyes darted all around the room. He pressed his pointer fingers together and pouted.
"I want… I want…" Dev couldn't finish his thought. Peri crossed his legs and rested his chin on his hand.
“But the thing I’d really like to do is maybe too crazy. I don’t know if I could do it. And I don’t know if it’s something you would want, either.”
“You? Wanting to do something crazy?” He raised an eyebrow. “Now that’s something I want to hear.”
“What I want to do is–and I don’t know if it’s something I could do–but it is something I want to try–I’d like to adopt you,” he said. Dev’s eyes widened behind his shades, and he recoiled in surprise.
“You–you want to adopt me?” he asked. His mouth hung open.
“Yes. I don’t feel good leaving you in Dale’s care,” Peri said. "It doesn't solve anything to wipe your memory."
“How would it work?” Dev asked after a moment’s silence. “If you were to adopt me, I mean. Like, can a fairy even adopt a human?”
“No. What would have to happen is–and it’s possible to do, we just don’t advertise it–you would become a fairy,” he said.
“I want to be a fairy!” he exclaimed, grabbing onto Peri's shirt.
“Careful with my clothes, please!” Peri said. “Anyway, I need you to understand what a serious choice that is. Literally everything would change. Your body would change in more ways than just the obvious. It would result in an Anti-Dev being created. If I succeed in court, your existence as a human would be erased. Everyone you knew would forget you. Your friends, your dad, everyone.”
Dev frowned and walked to a massive window. He pressed his forehead against the glass.
“What do I have here, anyway?” he asked. “My dad doesn't care about me and I lost the only friend I ever had.”
“Dev, Hazel's not one to hold a grudge. I don't think that bridge is burned,” Peri said.
“I want to be a fairy and stay with you,” Dev said. Peri bit his knuckle.
“Maybe I can convince them to let us give it a try,” he said. “I think I have a case I can present to the Fairy Court!” He raised his wand, and the two were transported to a courtroom. Jorgen sat at the judge's podium in robes and a powdered wig.
“Periweri,” he thundered. “Why have you called Fairy Court into session?”
“I want to argue for custody of Dev Dimmadome,” Peri replied. The courtroom spectators gasped. An organist played a dramatic sting.
“This is very unorthodox,” Jorgen said. “But you may present your case.”
Using memories recorded on his wand, Peri presented evidence of Dale Dimmadome's negligence. He went through incidents leading up to Dev being assigned a fairy godparent all the way to Dale nearly usurping him as ruler of Fairy World.
“I realize that Devin hasn't exactly endeared himself to the Fairy Council or to Fairy World at large. But I can't in good conscience leave him with the source of his misery. I believe that Dev would be better suited under my care,” he concluded. Murmurs spread across the court, and Jorgen banged his gavel to call for order.
“Your puny pleas have moved me,” Jorgen said. “I believe you have a case here. I will grant you temporary guardianship of Dev Dimmadome. To do this, I will make Dev a fairy. However, in light of past events, I will add limitations to his magical abilities.” He banged the gavel to signify his order.
“What!” Dev exclaimed, frowning. Peri put a hand on his arm. A notary appeared and read a list of conditions off a piece of paper.
“Development Dimmadome may teleport distances of no more than 1000 feet (305 meters). He may summon small objects (e.g., snack items, tablet, headphones, books, toys) no larger than two feet across and two feet high. He may not summon any person (human, fairy, or other species) except for his custodian (Periwinkle Fairywinkle Cosma). He may shapeshift into any object or animal below 1000 pounds (454 kilograms).”
Jorgen stood and pointed his wand at Dev, who screwed his eyes shut. The pulse of magic coursed through him, and his feet lifted off the ground.
“Whoa, cool!” Dev exclaimed, despite his disappointment. “I'm a fairy! But, wait–wouldn't that create an anti-fairy?”
“Yes, it did.”
A crack of thunder plunged the room into darkness. Everyone turned to the back of the courtroom as another dramatic organ sting played. An anti-fairy floated in the doorway with a smile that lacked malice. His blue eyes seemed to glow in the dark. His hair was slicked back, but pieces of it stuck out at the sides, resembling devil horns.
“I'm Ved,” he said. Jorgen appeared beside him and grabbed him in his fist.
“And this one is a ward of the state until I figure out what to do with him,” he said.
“You could give him to Irep,” Peri said. “Knowing him, he'd probably love to look after an Anti-Dev.”
“If Irep wants to do that, he will have to fight for him,” Jorgen said. “And you will have to continue to fight for Dev. This case resumes in one month. And you!” He pointed at Dev with the hand holding Ved. “Prove to me you can be trusted with them, and I will allow you to have full access to your powers.”
“If it makes you feel better, Dev,” Ved said, unbothered by the hand crushing him, “My magic is limited, too. So don't blow this for us!”
“This court is dismissed!” Jorgen announced. He slammed the foot of his wand on the floor, and the courtroom around them vanished. Peri and Dev were back in his bedroom in the Dimmadome house.
“I thought you said the memory of me would be erased,” he said. “Why is my stuff still here?”
“That’ll only happen if I win the case,” Peri replied. “In the meantime, I’ll leave a changeling so no one notices you’re gone.” He raised his wand and poofed in a Dev-shaped puppet.
“A puppet? You really think that’s going to fool people?” Dev asked.
“Yes,” he said, his eyebrows raised.
“So, do you really think Irep would want to look after the anti-me? What’s gonna happen to him?” he asked.
“Well, Irep may not admit to it,” Peri said, “But I wasn't kidding Jorgen; I think he really would love to look after a little anti-you.” He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. “Now comes the hard part.” He raised his wand, and the two were in the front room of Cosmo and Wanda’s apartment.
“Welcome home, son!” Wanda called from the kitchen.
“Mom? Dad? I need to talk to you,” Peri called back. “Um. I did something kind of crazy.”