Bunnies and Butterflies

For Glitter-Bunnii
on her 13TH Birthday

"Bunnies and butterflies."

Elphaba looked at Fiyero over the top of her glasses. "Come again?"

"Bunnies and butterflies."

"What about them?"

"That's what we need."

Elphaba's eyebrow inched towards her hairline. "Why?"

"Because it's too still. I mean, here we are, sitting outside on a lovely spring day…and there are no animals around. Aren't there supposed to be animals out at this time of year?"

"So you want bunnies and butterflies?"

Fiyero nodded.

"Why those particular creatures?"

Fiyero shrugged. "I don't know. They just seem to go together."

"Well, if you want bunnies and butterflies," Elphaba said, turning her attention back to her book, "you can go and find some. I'm not stopping you."

"I don't know to find animals," Fiyero protested. "At least, not those ones. And if I did, they'd probably run away from me or something."

Elphaba glanced at him, a look of amusement playing on her face. "Butterflies can run?"

Fiyero rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean." There was a pause, before he tentatively asked, "I don't suppose you know of a…I don't know, maybe like an enchantment spell or something to entice the bunnies and the butterflies over here…?"

"You what?" Elphaba cried, staring at his hopeful face. "What am I, the pied piper?"

"No, you're an amazingly-talented magic person."

"'Magic person'?" Elphaba echoed.

Fiyero shrugged. "Well, I didn't want to call you a sorceress, otherwise you'd start arguing with me that you aren't good enough yet to be considered one; and I certainly didn't want to call you a witch because that's plain mean. Thus, you are now a magic person. So, amazingly-talented magic person, do you have such a spell?" He gave an exaggerated pout and widened his eyes in a puppy-dog-like fashion.

Elphaba sighed and snapped her book shut. "Why are you always able to somehow convince me to go along with your crackpot ideas?"

Fiyero beamed and kissed her cheek. "Because you love me."

Elphaba grumbled under her breath something to the contrary, but she couldn't stop a small smile from appearing on her face. "I think I might be able to do something. There's this new spell I learnt last week…I might be able to adapt it." She paused. "If I can remember it." There was another long silence as Elphaba contemplated the spell, and then she murmured some foreign-sounding words as Fiyero watched on in fascination.

A few moments after Elphaba finished chanting the spell, a flutter of blue butterflies appeared. One landed in Elphaba's long, black hair, and Fiyero smiled.

"That would make a perfect portrait," he commented.

Elphaba glared at him. "Do you want the bunnies or not?"

"Yes, please."

"Then shut up." Elphaba began to chant another spell.

This time, however, the spell did not work, for instead of bunnies appearing, standing there in front of Elphaba and Fiyero with her back to them was a young girl. She was holding something up to her ear and was talking seemingly to herself.

"…and I just wanted to check that we're still alright for tonight – you know, considering it's my Birth…" – the girl trailed off as she turned around and clocked the strangers standing in front of her – "…day. Look, hon, I have to go. I'll call you later, yeah? Okay, bye." The girl pulled the object away from her ear and pressed a button, then stood gaping at Elphaba and Fiyero for a moment as they gaped at her in return.

And then she startled them all by letting out a loud, ear-piercing scream.

Immediately, Elphaba began apologizing, but stopped when the girl yelled, "Oh, my Oz, it's Elphaba and Fiyero! I have no idea how I got here, but this is totally Ozmazing and Ozsome!"

Finally, Fiyero spoke up. "Wait, you know who we are?"

"Of course I do! Everyone knows who you are! Oh, this is…wow." The girl paused. "But…how did I get here?" she wondered aloud, looking around at the forest.

Elphaba grimaced. "Ummm…a spell gone wrong? But that's not important right now. The important thing is figuring out how to get you back to…wherever you came from."

The girl's excited demeanour slowly dropped. "Wait, what do you mean? I thought this was my Birthday present…"

"It's your Birthday today?" Fiyero asked, and the girl nodded. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen," the girl replied, suddenly quiet with disappointment.

"Well, we can't let you leave without a Birthday party! Can we, Fae?" Fiyero looked at Elphaba.

Elphaba hesitated, then shook her head. "No, I suppose not. Though it's not like I'd be able to stop Fiyero from organizing a party," she said with a rueful chuckle. "But I agree, Fiyero; I think we should do something. You know, make it worth the trip."

Fiyero's eyes lit up. "I'll make the arrangements immediately." He turned to go and begin preparations for the party when a thought struck him and he stopped in his tracks. "What name shall I put on the banner? I just realized that you know our names, but we never asked yours. How rude of us."

The girl smiled. "It's okay. My name is Bunnii."

Elphaba and Fiyero stared at the girl for a moment, causing the girl to become a bit uncomfortable. She shifted slightly. "What?"

Elphaba turned her gaze onto Fiyero. "That explains it," she murmured excitedly. "That explains how the spell didn't work. I got the wrong bunny!"

Bunnii looked confused. "What's going on? What does my name explain? Why does my name explain anything?"

"Elphaba cast a spell that was supposed to make bunnies come," Fiyero told the girl, "only for some reason, you showed up."

"I must have got the spell slightly wrong," Elphaba added, "so instead of ending up with rabbits, we got you. The wrong bunny. I'm sorry about all this."

"Oh." Bunnii thought about this for a moment, before a big grin spread across her face. "That's okay. I feel kind of special, actually. Besides, this has to be the best Birthday present ever."

Elphaba laughed. "If you say so. Now come on; we have a party to organize!"

Elphaba led Bunnii back onto the Shiz campus while Fiyero ran ahead to start making the preparations.

"So, Bunnii, where exactly are you from?"

"I'm from Earth," Bunnii replied.

Elphaba's eyes widened. "No way!"

Bunnii laughed at Elphaba's reaction. "Yes, way."

"Sweet Oz, I can't believe I managed to summon you from so far!" Elphaba groaned. "I don't know how I'm going to get you back there."

"Maybe I could stay," Bunnii suggested brightly.

Elphaba laughed but shook her head. "I don't really think that's possible. But we'll figure that out later."

The pair continued to chat, and soon they came upon the Great Hall.

"Ready for your party?"

Bunnii looked at Elphaba quizzically. "But Fiyero has only just started preparing for it…"

Elphaba grinned. "Fiyero is a whiz at throwing parties. He'll have it organized by now. So are you ready?"

"I…I guess…"

"Oh, just a moment. The Birthday girl needs to look the part!" Elphaba closed her eyes, mumbled, "Please let this one work," and then chanted another quick spell.

Instantly, Bunnii's plain jeans and T-shirt were exchanged for a glittering party dress.

"There," Elphaba said in satisfaction as Bunnii looked down at herself and gasped in delight. "You look gorgeous. Now come on!"

They entered the Great Hall, and, sure enough, the place was already swinging with music as people danced along. Bunnii looked around and saw that the building was filled with rainbow streamers, colourful balloons and a lot of glitter.

"Wow," she breathed. "This…this is…Ozmazing!"

"Glad you like it!" Fiyero grinned as he popped up behind the girl and slung one arm around her shoulder, draping his other arm casually around Elphaba's shoulders. "Though I did have a little help."

As if on cue, a blonde and pink cupcake barrelled up to the group. "Bunnii! Welcome to Oz and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

"You probably already know who Galinda is," Elphaba said drily.

Galinda pulled Bunnii in for a hug and then began to babble on excitedly about the party. "Do you like it? Of course, I do think it would have looked better if we'd gone with a pink theme, but of course rainbows are pretty, too. So are you going to come and dance?" She stood there, blinking her big, blue eyes at Bunnii hopefully.

"Uh…"

At that moment, however, a group of girls pushed their way in front of Galinda.

"She can come and dance later, Galinda. But first…" The girl who had spoken turned to Bunnii. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUNNII, from all of your fellow fanfiction writers!"

The group of girls lined up to give Bunnii Birthday hugs and wish her happy returns for the day as Galinda leant over to Elphaba and Fiyero and whispered, "What's fanfiction?"

"And now, CAKE!"

Immediately, the gathered party-goers clambered around the table and began pushing and shoving, each trying to get a large slice of cake. Bunnii stepped backwards in alarm, but Galinda, Elphaba and Fiyero weren't as fast, and the three of them were quickly caught in the crush.

"Oh, what the heck!" Fiyero's voice rang out as he dived through the crowd. A moment later, he reappeared with icing on his nose, his head tilted adorably at Bunnii as he held a squashed piece of cake out towards her. "Happy Birthday?"

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Elphaba, Fiyero or Galinda; those characters belong entirely to L. Frank Baum and Gregory Maguire. Glitter-Bunnii belongs only to herself. I DO, however, own the story, and it is protected in my name under Australian Copyright Law dating back to 2013.