#meanwhile I just had a bunch of random ideas muddled up together after watching random episodes out of order

[heloflor]

So like I said in a previous post I’ve been kind of obsessed with Cosmo being op as all hell, and after the baby ban stuff it got me thinking about the different types of magic fairies have and how not all magic is accessible for all fairies and also how powerful each fairy we know is.

So here are my ideas for how fairy magic works + how powerful the fairies we know in the og show are, since I’ll be honest I didn’t really think much about the ones introduced in New Wish (4.5k words below):

Ok so first off, all fairies naturally produce magic which then courses through their bodies. This magic is used by their bodies to just function in their everyday lives, maybe being what allows them to float, teleport and shapeshift without using their wands (yes I know in the show when the Big Wand is off fairies can’t do any of those things anymore but shhh).

However while all fairies need about the same amount of magic to function, not all of them produce that amount of magic. As a result, those who produce more than average end up being more powerful due to having some “leftover” magic to use, while those who produce less end up weaker than average. More on that when explaining the types of magic.

This is also why baby fairies are so powerful. A fairy would produce the same amount of magic their entire life, but since babies are smaller their metabolism would require less magic to function, thus leaving the baby with a lot of leftover magic to use.

On that note, I could see all fairy babies being born powerful up until their terrible two, which for the vast majority of fairies is their last large outburst of raw magic. After the terrible two, as the baby fairy’s body grows, their magic starts to reduce.

Now I guess technically it would mean that they’re still stronger than average by the time they’re 8-9 years old, but I actually prefer to think that a fairy considerably loses their power between 3 and 6 years old, so by the time they’re a preteen you can gauge pretty well how powerful they’ll end up being.

This probably makes less sense when taking into account the idea of their body needing less magic when smaller, but screw it I prefer to think children fairies are already almost at the same level of power as their adult selves. Heck maybe that loss comes from their body transitioning from ball-shaped to regular-shaped.

Oh and a fairy’s power is due to genetics with a hint of randomness to it. Usually a child’s power will be either based on one’s parent or a middle ground between both, but you get some rare exceptions with a fairy being born particularly powerful/weak. Though you could argue that last possibility might come from a grandparent or more distant family member.

Now for the magic itself, I see four different types:

1. Wand Magic. This one is the most straightforwards and the one every single fairy can use. A fairy is given a wand powered not by them but by the Big Wand, and as a result they can use it regardless of their own magic. That being said, I could see fairies with more magic ending up having some of it mixing with their wand, thus causing them to do more powerful spells with ease. Also why fairy babies are powerful.

On that note, since we see in the show Cosmo and Wanda getting tired at the same time when doing a lot of wishes, I could see it as either Cosmo using more magic than Wanda thus making them exhausted at the same time, or doing X amount of spells/wishes will make you tired regardless of your amount of magic. I think I like the former more.

And as to why fairies get tired when using Wand Magic despite said wand holding the magic used, I could see casting a spell as still requiring some effort from the fairy, the wand doesn’t do all the work. Adding this in case it needs to be said.

2. Emotion Magic. For this one I like to think that there are two types, depending of the fairy’s strength. The first type, which everyone except fairies with below-average magic can do, it to have their emotions influence their spells. If a fairy is angry when trying to conjure something dangerous, it will make the spell easier. But if they’re sad, it will make the spell harder. Stuff like that. This is also what we see in “Battle of The Dimsonnian” from New Wish with Peri making a giant cupcake when angry. I could see the “giant” part being an accident due to him letting his emotions go to his head (notice the purple glow around his wand when making the giant cupcake).

The second type is what we see Poof do in “Fairly Oddbaby”, with him having the ability to make things appear and disappear depending on his mood. I could see this type of emotion magic as something only fairies stronger than average can do. And the stronger they are the easier it is to use, which also means the strongest fairies need to be careful with their emotions sometimes.

Then again I could see them capable of feeling a strong emotion all the while blocking the part of them wanting to tie that emotion to their magic. So unless they really lose control or don’t have a good grasp on that separation between magic and emotion, it’s not that big of a deal.

3. Inner Magic. This one was originally based on Poof’s terrible two but this is actually something the Fairy Council does as well. But yeah basically in the show you see some rare instances of characters using magic without a wand, with their hands having a glow around them. I like to think that this is basically a fairy tapping into their own “leftover” magic, being able to do everything a wand could do without needing one.

This would be by far the strongest type of magic but also the most rare, as only about 50-100 fairies would have enough “leftover” magic to use it effectively (the number of fairies capable of doing it depends on how many citizens Fairy World actually has. If it’s like a thousand, then only like 15 fairies can use it if not less. If it’s a million, about 100 or less can. It would be really, really rare). Well I guess every single fairy has access to it during their early years, but once they get past their terrible two, it’s gone.

And because it’s so rare, and also because I see the Fairy Council as self-centered who care more about their own self-preservation than the safety of the fairies and as a result feel threatened by the fairies stronger than them, Inner Magic wouldn’t actually be taught. The fairies capable of it would simply be told that it’s very dangerous “especially since you never learned how to master it!” and that they need to never use it. Only wand magic for your overpowered freaks that we definitely would not want to kill if we had the ability to do so without losing support or causing a riot that would make us lose our stand as leaders of Fairy World!

And fun fact, this and the next type of magic are the reason why I went with the idea of “fairies produce magic and the more they produce the stronger they are”.

4. Residual Magic. This one is based on “Nectar Of the Odds” and “Crocker Shocker” (ignore the Crocker lore for this one it sucks) in which Cosmo specifically has particles of magic being taken out of him which can then be used to infuse other stuff with magic. Then I saw “Mooooving Day” in which yet again Cosmo specifically is able to put magic in a drink. Also after watching “Abra-catastrophe” I couldn’t help but compare the cupcake to Cosmo’s socks nectar and sparkling drink.

(If I had a nickel for every Fairly Oddparents episode revolving around a drink spiked with Cosmo’s magic which also featured an underground slave cave and Doug Dimmadome is there for some reason, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?)

So yeah long story short the idea is that, when a fairy is particularly powerful, their body has so much “leftover” magic that you can basically scrap it off of them without hurting them. And that magic could be used to create magical artifacts such as the cupcake from “Abra-catastrophe” (and while this isn’t how it would actually happen it’s kind of cute to imagine Cosmo helping craft Timmy’s cupcake with his own magic).

This type of magic would be less rare than Inner Magic but still pretty rare, at least in order to get a lot from a fairy. Like some fairies who are stronger than average but not part of the “elite” would likely have Residual Magic but to a very small and limited amount. It might also be harder to collect as a result, having to meticulously scrap it off every piece of clothing or scrub the fairy’s body to get it.

On that note, I like to think that every time a fairy with Residual Magic changes clothes, they would wring out their previous ones on top of a container to collect the magic particles and then have it sent to some Fairy manufacturing place that uses it for magical artifacts.

Lastly, given its use here, Residual Magic is capable of granting rule-free wishes. This is why in “Nectar Of the Odds” one kid has their dog show up (from the kid’s phrasing the dog was likely dead and I don’t think you can revive things according to Da Rules?) or why Dale Dimmadome doesn’t get brought back to the nectar stand after Timmy turns 18 (granted this could also be because it technically wasn't one of Timmy’s wishes so it might work independently, but then again it means the wish should’ve come undone after Dale turned 18 so yeah either way it being rule-free works better).

And between the possibility to take it straight from a fairy and it granting rule-free wishes, Residual Magic would be considered the most high-risk type of magic, and powerful fairies who visit the earth need to be careful not to let their clothes hang around or ruffle their hair for too long.

Finally, a word about all the fairies we know in the show and how powerful they are:

- Cosmo: I see him as the third strongest fairy in all of Fairy World. It seems like a ridiculously high ranking but you gotta remember that according to “Fairly Oddbaby” fairy babies are notorious for being incredibly powerful, yet Cosmo was still too much to handle to the point of banning all babies.

So I think it’s fair to say he’s part of the top 5, at least top 10 strongest fairies. And he’s not the n°1 strongest fairy for me because I don’t like “chosen one” type characters ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also someone needed to have enough power to step in during Cosmo’s Terrible Two before he destroyed all of Fairy World if not the entire universe.

Also, after watching “This is Your Wish” I can’t help but see Cosmo as kind of a prodigy magic-wise, because in the kid flashbacks from that episode, Cosmo knew what he was doing. At some point he’s even capable of hitting a moving target with his wand in his mouth! And turn it into a giant dragon! That’s some serious talent!

So with that in mind I like to think he’s a natural at using magic. The issue is that the things he comes up with are dangerous, and since he has the ability to spawn it without issue he ends up causing chaos without meaning to.

Also also I saw one moment from a “Oh Yeah!” short in which Cosmo apparently messes up a wish, Wanda points it out and Cosmo reacts by looking at his wand and saying “I need to get that fixed”. Likewise in the first episode of New Wish when Cosmo struggles to aim at Hazel and turns the whole kitchen into her, he starts hitting his wand while asking “Why can’t I work this thing?!”

With that in mind, I like to think that this is how Cosmo usually reacts when his spell isn’t what he expected. He’s incredibly powerful, is aware of how powerful he is, and again he’s very good at magic. When he casts a spell, he knows exactly what it will create (he just doesn’t realize the consequences of it). So when his spell doesn’t work as intended, he blames the wand.

But anyways, magic-wise Cosmo can do all four, though he almost-exclusively uses Wand Magic with the occasional Residual Magic when he wants to fuck around with Timmy (I mean he’s done it at least twice).

Like all the other overpowered fairies he was told not to use Inner Magic, though I like to think him attacking Crocker at the end of “Abra-catastrophe” was him using it, the muscles did nothing other than boost his confidence. I also like to think he used Inner Magic a lot as a kid and early adult up until the Fairy Council got through to him about not using it. That or he accidentally hurt a lot of people using it at some point and was convinced afterwards seeing how much destruction he caused. That second possibility could explain him never using it unless the situation is that dire all the while having little issue messing around with Residual Magic. 🤔

As for Emotion Magic, he keeps it under control, and I could actually see Cosmo as someone who avoids being angry specifically to avoid making a mess with his magic (I mean while he does get mad at times he’s definitely someone who ends up sad more often than angry, or turns his anger into sadness).

Btw I made a long post exploring the angst side of Cosmo’s magic because as said in the intro I’m obsessed with it.

- Wanda: She’s average strength, meaning she can do Wand Magic easily and has the “first level” of emotion magic (having emotions influence spells) but everything else is blocked off. She doesn’t produce enough magic to use it without a wand or to have residuals that can be collected.

And I like to think that while she’s completely fine with her level of magic, and if anything seeing Peri and especially Cosmo struggle internally because of their powers makes her more than happy to not be powerful, it still pains her to see her family like that and sometimes makes her wish she was the op one so she could be the one carrying that burden instead of them.

On that note I like to think that if some of the strongest fairies were to talk about overthrowing the Fairy Council or at least tell them off for discouraging them from using their full magic, Cosmo might be hesitant to join while Wanda would be all for it. In general Wanda would be pretty tired of the bullshit the Fairy Council imposed on Cosmo and Peri. More on that in the baby ban post.

Lastly I could see Cosmo “sharing” his magic (not sure how exactly it would work) with her when they grant wishes together, with Wanda enjoying the feeling of it if only because it makes wishes much easier to grant compared to on her own. I could also see some cases in which, when granting a wish, Wanda mainly affects how the wish will turn out while Cosmo mostly gives the magic allowing said wish to be made, and Wanda would definitely feel satisfied upon being able to summon exactly what she wants when she otherwise wouldn’t have been able to make the wish so precisely. Meanwhile Cosmo’s more than happy to provide and trusts his wife on how those wishes will turn out.

It might also be possible that them sharing magic allows Wanda to grant wishes she otherwise wouldn’t have the power to do. For example at the end of “Fool’s Day Out” when Timmy wishes for the entire world to be covered in laughing gas, Wanda uses her wand while also lifting Cosmo’s. This moment could be interpreted as either them needing to work together to grant such a wish or Wanda on her own not being able to do it. I also can’t help but wonder if, had she been the one granting the secret wish, time would’ve started back at some point after a few years, while with a fairy like Cosmo granting that wish it was literally going to stay frozen for at least a couple thousand years. Then again in “The Same Game” (when the whole world becomes a gray blob) she’s able to reverse Timmy’s wish on her own.

(Btw this has nothing to do with this post but in “Fool’s Day Out” the April’s Fool fairy has a risk of getting “comedy backup” and now I can’t help but wonder if every fairy profession has that one condition that, if not followed, leads the fairy to explode??? But I’m just going to stay with the idea of every fairy being at risk of magical backup since in New Wish’s “Fairy For a Day” the music fairy makes a comment about “granting each other’s wishes”, implying fairies can avoid backup by granting other fairies’ wishes, it’s not just a godparents thing)

- Poof/Peri: He’s basically a middle ground between his parents, being more powerful than average to a noticeable extent but still far from the strongest. Like he’d basically be in the 20-30% strongest fairies, while Cosmo is in the 1%.

Magic-wise, he uses Wand Magic and is pretty used to both versions of Emotion Magic, though it takes some effort for him to summon things without his wand (aka with his emotions). Other than that he can’t access Inner and Residual Magics. For Residual Magic I’m not even sure if he’d even have a small amount of it.

And in regards to his wand, it is indeed a wand made to limit his magic, making him as powerful as an average fairy. And the reason why he has this wand when there are thousands of fairies just as powerful if not stronger than him is strictly due to his father’s identity. Basically the Fairy Council is punishing him for being Cosmo’s son because they’re paranoid he might become as strong as him and don’t want to deal with another Cosmo.

- Jorgen: While he’s apparently possibly the oldest fairy we know of (the whole thing about an ancient war and how all fairies looked like him back then), the more I watch of the og show the more it seems like Jorgen isn’t actually all that powerful? Like he’s definitely the strongest fairy physically, but magic-wise he’s far from being the top dog.

Ultimately I like to think that he’s stronger than average, likely to a noticeable extent, but still weaker than a fairy like Peri. Which I guess would put Jorgen in the 30-40% stronger range?

Also with him being an ancient fairy and how they were all warriors back then, I could see the fairies of his time being more powerful magic-wise than the current ones (and maybe his wand also has a few differences compared to the smaller wands, like maybe not being fully reliant on the Big Wand and requiring the holder to give some of their own magic to function or something). So Jorgen would be average for a fairy of his time, which equates to stronger than average compared to the smaller fairies.

Oh and abilities-wise he can only do Wand and both Emotions Magics (like Peri basically, just less powerful).

- Mama Cosma and Schnozmo: I like to think both of them are a bit stronger than average (they got it from Mama Cosma’s side of the family, I really like the headcanon that it’s her side that’s related to Jorgen) but not to the most noticeable extent. Like in a fight against an average fairy it’s pretty obvious they’re the more powerful ones (I mean Schnozmo was able to fight off a bunch of fairies pretty easily while Mama Cosma straight up kidnapped a mafia boss like it was nothing), but on a day-to-day basis there really aren’t any particular differences between them and most fairies. They might not even realize that they’re more powerful (they’re basically on the line right above average).

Abilities-wise this means they have the same as average fairies, meaning Wand and first-type Emotion Magics.

And yes this means that Cosmo’s power was partly due to genetics but also mainly a big part of randomness with how crazy powerful he is in comparison to them.

- Big Daddy and Blonda: They have average strength and the abilities that go with it (Wand + first-type Emotion Magics). For some reason I could see Big Daddy being slightly less powerful hence the need to be part of a mob? But also I don’t think it warrants the mafia stuff + from what we see him do with his magic he seems pretty strong (him being technically weaker than Mama Cosma can be chalked up to her being stronger than average).

- Juandissimo, Cupid, Cookie, etc: Basically every other fairy we meet would likely be average strength. Though I could see Cupid being less powerful when using a wand but the same strength as others when using his bow, on account of him being a different type of fairy. But yeah other fairies we see from time to time have average strength unless they do something hinting they might be stronger/weaker. Speaking of which:

- Dr. Studwell: I’m singling him out because after watching some episodes featuring him, he keeps getting his ass beaten and tries to avoid danger, so I could actually see him being much weaker than the average fairy. His obsession with his appearance and desire to be hot is him overcompensating for his lack of magic (note that Juandissimo being obsessed with his looks isn’t insecurity unlike Dr. Studwell, dude just loves himself and honestly good for him).

- I could also see that one fairy Jorgen bullies a lot as being weaker than average, which could be a reason for said bullying (apparently his name is Binky?).

Side note but I could see things be though in general for both very powerful and very weak fairies, the weaker ones because they’re constantly being reminded of what they can’t do which heavily lowers their self-esteem + aren’t able to defend themselves as well if needed which makes bullying easier.

For the strongest fairies, because while many would praise their accomplishments, the second they do something wrong they get deemed as too dangerous with people becoming wary around them + I could see the strongest fairies having an “itch” to use more of their magic. Like imagine if fairies have a “need” to use a certain amount of magic regularly (unrelated to the daily amount their body needs to function), for the strongest fairies that amount would be much higher. But due to the “risk” with how powerful they are, they end up using way less than their body needs them to, thus causing a sense of dissatisfaction.

- The Tooth Fairy: Given she’s taller than most fairies (and her outfit seemingly being based on Wonder Woman means she could have fought in the war) I could see her as one of the oldest fairies around, so it would be a similar case to Jorgen with her being average for her time, aka stronger than average compared to “modern” fairies.

- The Fairy Council: Now while I know they’re just fairies wearing cloaks I like to think they’re a different species altogether, meaning their magic would work differently, but I still wanted to include them since I mentioned earlier that I see them as self-centered who care about their own self-preservation above all else.

Basically, if they were to be ranked magic-wise, they would rank number 12 or 13 strongest fairy when combined, meaning there are about 11-12 fairies stronger than them as a unit. And I like to headcanon that, even with those fairies having no desire to take over Fairy World (because honestly why would they?), the Fairy Council can’t help but feel threatened by those fairies.

So yeah those four magical beings were able to find a species that respect them as their leaders (at least I believe the Fairy Council rules over Fairy World?) and they very much want to keep that position of power at all costs. Which is actually also why they don’t outright attack the strongest fairies because that would cause a riot with every fairy feeling unsafe. Plus if they miss the strongest fairies can take them out.

So with that in mind, while I don’t think they would be outright discriminatory against the strongest fairies, they definitely push that narrative that magic can be dangerous when used too much, especially Inner Magic which should never be used (you know, propaganda). So they basically guilt-trip/stress out the strongest fairies into being careful when using their magic.

On that note, I kinda implied it earlier but I could see the reason why Anti-Cosmo is the leader of the anti-fairies instead of the #1 strongest anti-fairy be that the strongest fairy isn’t all that satisfied with the system, hence why their anti-fairy wouldn’t have the drive to take over Fairy World. Not to say the strongest fairy would straight up want to overthrow the Fairy Council tho (I do have some ideas floating around that concept but I’m likely never going to turn it into a coherent story).

At the very least, I do imagine the strongest fairy having secretly taught themselves how to master Inner Magic, possibly hoping to teach it to the other fairies capable of it. Also they can’t write down their research in fear of the Fairy Council finding it out (I don’t think I mentioned it earlier but discouraging fairies from using it does include not writing anything down about it, so if a fairy has info on Inner Magic, they got it from an unapproved source). And fairies are immortal so they have the time to teach it anyways.

Finally, if I have to talk about the power of the Fairy Council, since I don’t think they’re fairies they actually don’t work on the same power basis as them, but from what we’ve seen they basically have the equivalent of Inner Magic. Which could also explain why they’d be so paranoid over fairies learning to use theirs.

And with the assumption that they came up with Da Book which directly influences the fairies’ ability to cast spells, and with them being able to prevent fairies reproduction, it seems the Council also has the ability to “modify” at least one species to their liking, possibly others. Maybe this ability to change fairies is also how they got in power in the first place if you want to go there. Hell it could even be how fairies are changed to look like the dominant species on earth. Though the Fairy Council can’t touch other species’ magic or else there wouldn’t be op fairies.

[nicknellie]

@julie-n-phantoms requested: I saw this really cute idea once, about Willie having a whole bunch of different fun flavored chapsticks and making Alex guess what they were when they kissed. So maybe that, and Willie just keeps using it as an excuse to kiss Alex at the most random times and poor Alex keeps bluescreening?

This is so cute omg I love it! It ended up kind of short because I’m extremely tired and haven’t written Willex in a while, but I’m still very happy with how it turned out. Thank you for the request and sorry it’s taken me so long to get round to it, I hope you enjoy! Title from I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry (ofc lmao).

The Taste of His Cherry Chapstick

Not for the first time, Alex found himself questioning exactly how the rules around ghosts worked. He had been a ghost for quite some time now and he kept thinking that he should really have these things figured out, but being dead was a lot trickier than it seemed. Alex could sit on chairs, but he could also walk right through them; he could change his clothes, but he still hadn’t figured out how his clothes became invisible to lifers just like he was; he didn’t have a body, but he could still get hurt (he had Caleb to thank for cluing him in on that one). He had long ago accepted that the rules of being a ghost would always be hazy and muddled and that sometimes he would just have to get on with it, but every now and then something would happen and it would totally stump him.

Like right now. Willie was putting chapstick on and Alex was simply could not wrap his head around it.

“Why do you need to do that?” he asked Willie, breaking the soft silence between them. They were sat in the studio on the sofa together, Willie with his legs casually crossed over Alex’s lap, lying back as he applied the chapstick.

Willie shrugged easily, popping the cap back on and slipping it into his pocket. (Pockets were another ghost thing Alex didn’t understand and he might have spiralled into that a little more if he hadn’t been so fixated on the chapstick.)

“Stops my lips getting chapped,” Willie said. “It’s kinda in the name.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Alex replied, “but you’re a ghost. Can your lips even get chapped?”

“Yeah, that’s why I bought the chapstick,” Willie explained, meeting Alex’s bewildered look with an amused smirk. “That and the fact that it’s a nice flavour. Do you want to test it?”

Alex shook his head violently. “Absolutely not. I don’t trust it. How can we still use it even when we’re dead? There are some things that should not cross the line between life and the afterlife, and this is one of them.”

Willie giggled. “Alex, it’s literally just chapstick.”

“I know that. I’m not using it.”

Willie rolled his eyes affectionately, but then the amused smirk he’d had on his face morphed into something much more mischievous. Alex knew that look – it meant Willie had got an idea and there was absolutely no way of telling whether or not it was a good one.

“Well,” Willie said slowly, sitting up and shuffling so that he could properly look Alex in the eye, “there’s more than one way you could try it out.”

“How?” Alex asked sceptically.

Willie’s only response was to lean forward, that devilishly cute little smirk still on his face, and press a sweet, chaste kiss to Alex’s lips. It took Alex by surprise and was over before he could even kiss Willie back as Willie pulled away with a soft, self-satisfied smile. Alex, meanwhile, was still struggling to process what had happened. It wasn’t like he and Willie had never kissed before, but the fact that he hadn’t been expecting it combined with how brief it was and how happy Willie looked to have solved the chapstick issue meant that his mind was lagging a little as it tried to catch up. It did not help that Willie was beaming at him, looking effortlessly adorable.

“So?” Willie prompted after Alex had been silently staring at him with his mouth open in shock for almost a minute. “What flavour do you think it is? Do you like it?”

Alex dragged his mind back down from where it had been launched into the heavens. He reminded himself that he was here, with Willie in the studio, that conversations only worked if both people were talking, that staring was rude, and that there had in fact been a point to the kiss. He cleared his throat, trying to school his features back to neutrality but knowing he failed when Willie giggled, and then licked his lips.

“Um… is it cherry?” he guessed. His mind was still a little foggy and more focused on the fact that Willie had kissed him rather than what flavour the chapstick was.

Willie grinned, digging the chapstick out of his pocket again and showing Alex the label on the tube. “Yeah, man! You’re right, great job!”

As Willie settled back into his original position with his legs kicked over Alex’s lap, Alex pushed his momentary panic out of his mind and tried to be normal again. He had thought it would be a one-off, that one kiss and his one guess, and that would be the end of it. But apparently, Willie had other ideas because it just kept happening over and over again.

The second time it happened was in the middle of the night. Willie had got the bright idea of going to the museum at midnight to see all the art and exhibits in the dark. It had turned out to be an amazing idea – the low light gave every painting and sculpture a completely different energy, some more sinister, others infinitely more sad, some seeming so different to how they were during the day that it would have been hard to tell they were the same piece of art at all. Alex followed Willie around the museum with an affectionate smile on his face the whole time, a loving warmth in his chest as he listened to Willie talk about all the art and what it meant and who made it. It was always endearing whenever Willie talked about art; his passion and enthusiasm and the way his face positively lit up was enough to make Alex fall in love a thousand times over.

It was going so well and Alex felt unbelievably lucky that he got to be the one there with Willie. But then Willie stopped talking for a moment and Alex watched him reach into his pocket and pull out his chapstick. He couldn’t help the way his mind wandered to the last time this had happened, when Willie had pressed that one gentle kiss to his lips and backed away. When he saw Willie’s eyes light up, he knew he was thinking of the same thing.

“Want to try?” Willie asked. It was an innocent enough question, but they both heard the implication behind it – Willie was asking for another kiss.

Alex loved kissing Willie, but it still made him nervous every time, mostly because he couldn’t believe someone as incredible as Willie would actually want to kiss him. So momentarily, his nerves caught up with him and he couldn’t reply to Willie, not with words at least. He gave a quick nod before swallowing his nerves and cupping Willie’s jaw to pull him into a kiss.

He made sure this one lasted longer than the other, but it still wasn’t more than a few seconds. Alex tried not to pout when Willie pulled away, but smiled to himself when Willie rested their foreheads together.

“What flavour do you think it was?” Willie asked quietly.

Oh yeah, that was what Alex was meant to be figuring out. Well, he didn’t think he could really be blamed for forgetting that detail when just a moment ago he’d been kissing the love of his afterlife. Again, his mind took a ridiculous amount of time to get past the excitement and giddiness of the kiss and actually focus on the question he’d been asked.

“Is that cola?” he asked after a minute or two.

Willie dropped a feather-light kiss to the tip of Alex’s nose (and Alex was not too proud to admit it made him go slightly weak in the knees) and then pulled back with a smile. “You’re two for two. You’re getting good at this game, hotdog.”

“We’ll have to keep playing so I can get even better,” Alex replied. It might have been smooth if not for the fact that he was blushing so profusely that he could literally feel the heat in his face, and his voice was a little pitchy with a cruel mixture of nerves and the awkwardness that came with not being very good at flirting.

Willie didn’t mention it though. He just smiled softly, squeezed Alex’s hand, and said in a low voice, “Oh, we’re definitely going to keep playing.”

The third time it happened, Alex wasn’t expecting it at all. Half because they weren’t alone, and half because he hadn’t seen Willie put the chapstick on.

Julie and the Phantoms had just wrapped up a gig. Flynn had hired them to play at her birthday party (well, less ‘hired them’ and more the fact that the boys had wanted to give her a birthday present but they were all ghosts which made things like that very difficult, so they and Julie had offered to provide live music at her party instead) and it had gone brilliantly. Not only was the crowd enormous because Flynn had invited practically the whole school – which meant the band would get tons of exposure – but they had clearly been loving the music too. They were easily the best crowd the band had ever played too.

But maybe Alex was biased – he tended to say every crowd was the best crowd just as long as Willie was in it.

Willie and Flynn hadn’t actually met because they were yet to find a way of making Willie visible to lifers, but Flynn had heard enough stories about “Alex’s super cool skateboarder ghost boyfriend” to know that he could be counted as a friend, so he had been invited. As always, Alex had sought him out in the crowd and played like he was only playing to Willie. That was always when he performed his best.

When they finally finished their set and headed into the makeshift backstage area (which was really just Flynn’s bedroom), Alex barely had time to register what was going on as Willie came running into the room, grabbed Alex’s face and pressed a hard kiss to his lips. Alex distantly registered a few cheers from his friends, but he was too distracted to bother telling them off. All that mattered was the fact that Willie was kissing him and it was even more of a rush than the performance had been.

When they finally pulled away, Willie breathed, “You killed it up there! I swear, I’ll never get tired of hearing you guys play. I’m proud of you.”

“If you’re proud of all of us then how come only Alex gets a kiss?” Luke asked. Alex knew that he was joking, but he still bundled Willie up protectively in his arms, ignoring the way that just elicited laughter and ‘awwww’s from his friends.

“You liked it, then?” Alex asked quietly. He knew Willie always loved their performances, but it always felt amazing to hear it.

“I loved it, just like I love you,” Willie whispered back. Alex melted a little. “Did you like it?”

“Like what?” Alex asked. “The performance?”

“No,” Willie said, that sly smirk back on his face. Suddenly Alex realised what was going on, how he’d been caught off-guard. “My chapstick. Did you like the flavour?”

This one was totally unfair. Alex hadn’t know he was supposed to be thinking about the chapstick. He’d been so caught up in Willie that it had been the very last thing on his mind. Briefly, he entertained the idea of kissing Willie again to try and get another taste, but he knew if he did that he probably wouldn’t be able to stop and he wasn’t so keen to do that while his friends were still in the room, even if they weren’t paying attention anymore.

“That’s cheating!” he said. “I didn’t know we were playing.”

“You’ve gotta guess, hotdog,” Willie returned with a laugh, “those are the rules.”

“You never told me there were rules.”

“You never asked.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” he admitted reluctantly. “Was it… I don’t know. Blueberry?”

“Not even close,” Willie said. He pressed another kiss to Alex’s lips and pulled away before Alex could lose himself in it, which was disappointing but probably a good thing.

He tasted it this time, doing his best to focus on it, but it was very difficult with Willie so close and so cute. Still, the proud smile he got from Willie when he finally guessed watermelon made his restraint and effort completely worthwhile.

From then on, he learned to expect it. To look forward to it too. He went shopping with Willie to buy new multipacks of fun flavours (though shopping was another weird thing as a ghost because even though they left money on the counter it felt a lot more like shoplifting) and they continued their guessing game for months and months. But truth be told, it had started to feel less like a game and more just an excuse to kiss each other. It took another month or two for Alex to realise that had probably been Willie’s plan all along anyway – when he asked Willie about it, the laughter he was met with was more than enough answer.

But he wasn’t complaining. He got to kiss his boyfriend all he wanted, and neither of them ever got chapped lips.