Disclaimer: See First Chapter.
A/N: Where have I been? Indeed, that is a very good question. One that I don't really have an answer to. Sorry and thanks to anyone who's stuck with this through sporadic updates. I promise I won't leave it this long again.
10. Electricity
The Scarecrow woke up to find himself with fingernails.
The sheer oddity of this in itself would set the tone for the remainder of the day, wandering through the desert, and scrounging for scraps of food, wondering where their destination lay - what their destination was.
"How's my hair? Do I look like a tramp?"
Elphaba wanted to reply with something other than a whimper, but words truly escaped her. She wanted a sarcastic retort to make itself immediately known, but finally she had succeeded. Finally, something she had attempted a spell that had not ended in disaster.
"How?"
Fiyero grinned back at her. "What do you mean 'how'? You did it. That last spell must have worked. What the hell do I care how it happened? It did, that's all that matters. Unless there's some sort of quid pro quo, like at midnight I turn into a pumpkin or something."
Elphaba smiled grimly. "I wouldn't rule it out just yet."
"Ah, there's the cynic I know and love." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "I was wondering when she'd come out to play. I've missed her."
Elphaba winced. "I think I preferred you before. You were a lot softer."
Fiyero smirked. "Oh, I don't know. I'd say this me has his perks. I mean, can you imagine having sex with an animated bag of straw? It would be horrendous, and quite possibly illegal too."
Elphaba raised her eyebrows. "And how would you know? Tried it, have you?"
Fiyero sighed. "Fabala, there are some things - like cottage cheese - that I don't have to try to know they don't work. The basic act of continuing the species has never really occurred to a Scarecrow, a flaw so huge that it probably deserves to be mentioned twice."
Elphaba rolled her eyes, but her smile was wide. "And pray tell, how does cottage cheese baffle you?"
"Because it looks like something someone's already brought up, rather than something I would take in." He shuddered. "I don't have to try it. I've only got to look at it to realise that it looks like regurgitated bread, and is therefore about as appealing."
Even when he was disgusted, with his lips curled back and his nose wrinkled, he was disturbingly attractive, and Elphaba had to wonder what on earth he was doing with her.
She could only assume that he felt what she did, something she had felt since the first time they had touched; the tingle in her fingertips, the hairs rising on the back of her neck, and the rapid beating in her chest.
The electric current.