In Oz, 3 old friends stand together once again in Scarecrow's study. Lion picks up his pals in a huge hug and he announces joyfully
"Just imagine the greatest team in Oz back together again."
"Watch it, you are denting my ugh frame, I can't keep on having Niccy fix it everytime we caught up."
Scarecrows chuckle at this
"Ya, because having you fiance fix you up isn't a normal occurrence."
At this Lion puts them down and Tin punches Scarecrow lightly on the shoulder, as they laugh joyfully. Scarecrow goes behind his desk and bends over to pick something up.
"Anyway, Dorothy will be here in the matter of days possible a week if things go by smoothly on their end."
He comes up with a box full of his decorating ideas from the night before and starts fiddling with the papers and decoration.
"I think we could spend your guys first day, well half day, back decorating her room. I got so many ideas but I'm not sure what would work, I really should have asked her last night."
Scarecrow stops abruptly when he sees his friends faces frozen in a questionable shock. Scarecrow guessed
"You guys don't know about the mirror portals do you?"
Tinman piped up with a
"We do, Glinda sent a report to us an hour or so before we arrived, it's just well…"
Lion cuts in
"Your acting like a lovesick goof, I'm sure Dorothy would be fine with a room just like ours."
Scarecrow places the items that are in his hands down on the desk and rubs the back of his neck as he sits down.
"I know I just…. I just wanted everything to be perfect for her."
His friend stood there puzzled as they processed everything, then it was like a light turned on in their heads. Tinman went to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder
"Crow, not to make assumptions but do you have well … a crush on Dorothy?"
Scarecrow stared back and forth at his friends as he sunk into his set giving that doomed laugh as he accepted his fate,
"First Glinda, now you guys. Hahaha ahh, I thought I had hidden it pretty well, I guess not."
Lion went to his other side
"But how did you, when we had met her she was just a little girl?"
Scarecrow gets up and walks over to his fireplace and he smooths out his hair. He turns back to them as he explains in a nervous rant that may show signs that he might have practiced this a few times.
"Well, I realized this about 4 years ago, during the time when I officially became king. Things were hectic from all the needed changes from the extremely messed up and segregated government the wizard left. The nobles were trying to get their hands into oz in a form of sending their princesses to "court" me."
Scarecrow plops down on his chair at court me.
"But none of them even got close to it though, not a single one had that sparkle in their eyes or the curious spirit when they had a chance learning something new. My mind started to think of Dorothy constantly, about our adventures and when we first met. She was my first friend and the first person to be kind to me. I started to long for her to be with me and how my heart began to fluttered when I dreamed of her. I never even considered romance till … the photos showed up."
Scarecrow pulls out a small weather photo out of his pocket it had a fancy M on the back of it.
"It started 4 years ago, every year on the dot I would get a new picture of her. I could tell that she didn't lose that spark that she had as a kid. I of courses asked Glinda what she knew about it, and all she said was that they knew how much I missed my friend and wanted to remind me of why I took the crown in the first place."
He places his head in his hands
"I'm sorry if this seems strange to you guys but it's how it is."
Lion moves over to Scarecrow and pats his back. Tin asks
"Its ok we understand, when we all first got together I felt that you were closer to her than the both of us, and it makes sense how you could fall for her in that way. Do you mind if we see the photos?"
Scarecrow nods and tell Tin that they are in the top drawer of his desk. As Tin looks for them Lion ponders out loud
"Yea didn't she say something about missing you the most or something on those lines."
Scarecrow sighs
"I will miss you most of all, Scarecrow."
Lion leans back
"Yea you got it, hard pal."
They laugh as Tin comes back with the 3 black and white photos that are preserved individually between 2 small square sheets of glass and held together with bolts and nuts at each corner. He places them on the coffee table in front of the sofa, Scarecrow places the fourth down next to them after he arranges them oldest to newest :
Photo 1- 1936 age 17
It shows Dorothy at the age of 17 nervously smiling at her desk with "Miss. Dorothy Gale" written in fancy cursive with music notes beside it.
Photo 2- 1938 age 19
She is sitting at a cafe table in a sundress, holding her hat as if to prevent it from blowing away.
Photo 3- 1940 age 21
She is standing, smiling the biggest smile she could muster in front of the Castro Theater with "Fantasia" on the sign.
Photo 4- 1942 age 23
Dorothy is standing in the Golden Gate Park's Strybing Arboretum on a stone path right in front of a fork in the road. It appears as if the paths are splitting off of her as she smiles lovingly at the camera with slit tilt of the head.
The 3 friends sit there gazing at the photos, Scarecrow is smiling warmly as the other two looks in amazement. Lion picked up the most recent picture to have a closer look
"Well she has grown up quite a bit, I can hardly recognize her"
Scarecrow laughs happily
"Just wait till you see her in person, she still has that sharp tongue and curious attitude from back then."
Tin adds in
"All right you need to tell us what happened last night between you two."
Scarecrow leans back as they got closer looking like a bunch of school girl in a gossip circle waiting for the juicy details. Just before he could say a thing the emerald mirror stated to glow.
~^0w0^~
At Dorothy's apartment, she sits on her bed staring off into space while in one of her night shirts and matching bottoms. Her and Marvel had spent that evening at her bank to get all her finances set, then came back to the apartment and started packing. The only room that wasn't touched yet was her bedroom, this was her first home after leaving Kansas. She felt the tears start to creep up
"So this is really happening"
She looks over to the egg, she needed to talk to someone, the night before was the first time in a long time she was able to just talk to someone freely. She moves over to the egg and begins the call, once the picture became clear. She waited until she saw Scarecrow come running around his desk, with a big smile on his face. She gave a smile to hide tears that threatened to show them
"Hey, Scarecrow I hope I didn't interrupt anything ."
He stumbles a bit
"You are perfect… perfectly fine, actually you have a wonderful time…. Dorothy are you ok?"
He had noticed her watery eyes, but once he said the Tin and Lion ran over to his side. With worry in their voice, Tin was first to talk
"What happened Dorothy, did someone hurt you?"
Then Lion blurted out
"Oh let me at them, I'll show him a thing or two."
Dorothy was shocked to see her other two friends again out of nowhere
"Lion, Tinman. "
They smiled joyfully, Tin says smoothly
"Hey, long time no see."
She smiled happily before crumbling down with her tears flooding out, Scarecrow placed a hand on the mirror lightly as he wanted to console her. She wipes her tears away,
"Sorry, guys I just … so much has happened today, I guess I'm just a bit overwhelmed at the moment… It's just Esteban is being controlled by the witches and it's all because of me."
Dorothy hugs her pillow tighter as her friends watch slightly cursing the distance that divides them from her. Scarecrow speaks up
"Wait you mean the foreign speaking scoundrel you complained about last night?"
Dorothy nodes as, Lion and Tin look at each other questingly then nodding in slight agreement that Scarecrow is the jealous and overprotective type.
"It ends up that he has only been doing that because the witches were forcing him to form any kind of bond with me. Even one full of annoyance and disdain, he is called a puppet of sin."
Scarecrow leans back slightly thinking, I'm still going to punch that guy when I have a chance. He had to have sinful thoughts about Dorothy for that curse to work on him. He rubs the back of his neck as he got his mind back on track,
"So what does this mean for the plan?"
She looks up to him after she fixed her hair,
"We are leaving a few days sooner than planned, at least after my last day at the school. So at least 5 to 6 days here but there its…"
Scarecrow cuts her off he tried to hide the big smile from forming
"3 days."
She nodded slightly, they caught on to the wave of emotion coming over her. Scarecrow places a hand on the mirror as he said
"Don't worry Dorothy just remember none of this is your fault all right. Soon enough you'll be here with us and we'll face this together,... and I'm sorry that you have to leave your home again darlin', special after all you did to get back to it."
She places her hand on his as she smiles lovingly at him,
"Thanks, Scarecrow, I don't know what I would do with you."
They stared at each other for a few moments forgetting the other two that are in the beside them. As they stood by Scarecrow they mouthed to each other starting with Lion
"Well this is awkward, do you feel it too?"
"Yea maybe this would work out if only had the heart to say how he feels."
Tin points down to Scarecrow, then Lion add on to it
"Or just gets some courage and faces this head on."
"Aren't we assuming things way too soon maybe we need some female help."
"We could ask Dorothy."
With that Tin facepalmed, snapping the two out of their trance. Dorothy clears her throats as she tries to change the situation
"Anyway, how are you guys, Scarecrow told me about a few things that changed with you two like Nicole and Lea."
The two took a second before they shared their love lives and other life events when they had returned to their homes after their first adventure.
~^0w0^~
Lion had gone back to his pride that he was separated from and saw it was being led poorly by a greedy lion who ate like a king while the rest starved. After challenging him to a fight, he had beaten him comically, he took the role as the leader and then he meets Lea. Their romance started as old friends meet again, to budding interest, then a strong friendship where they have each other's back.
Tinman started traveling all over Oz to see what he had missed while rusted. As he stopped at one new invention and mechanical towns around the Emerald City, where he had met Nicole. They had the most electric relationship ever, (yes, this couple is my pun couple), the moment when their eyes met in her shop made Tin's heart almost jumped out of his caged chest.
~^0w0^~
The room was filled with laughter for a few hours until one of the servers came by with tea for the guys. Scarecrow noticed that she was starting to fall asleep,
"Dorothy, what time is it there?"
She looked over at her clock and yawned
"It's about 3 in the morning."
Tin speaks
"Maybe we should let you go to sleep."
Lion nodes
"Yea your half asleep, we will see you soon."
She nodded, then Scarecrow agrees
"That is a good idea Tin."
Tin and Lion say their goodbyes before leaving the room and right before Scarecrow started to say goodbye Dorothy cuts him off with a sleepy voice
"Scarecrow?"
He looks at questioning her
"Yes."
She hugs her pillow tightly
"Your sure its ok for me to just to drop in like this, I'm not sure how long I'm going to be there or if I'll be able to go back to my world"
Scarecrow nods a bit to happily and said
"Ooh, don't worry you can stay here as long as 8you desire, forever even."
He realizes what he had said and blurted out nervously
"That's if you would want to"
Dorothy laughs
"That's so sweet of you, Thank you Scarecrow"
Things go quiet for a bit before she speaks again
"Seriously Scarecrow, just knowing that your here for me makes this so much easy."
Scarecrow smiles lovingly
"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, I can't wait to show you everything. I'm so sure that you will love it here. For now, you should get some rest you look exhausted."
She yawns as she lays down
"All right then, good night Scarecrow."
He nods
"Goodnight Dorothy, I love you."
Scarecrow covers his mouth as his screams in his head, what the hell Crow, why did I say that?
Now she is going to hate me and wants to forget everything. I'm supposed to be smart for crying out loud. Dorothy closes her eyes as sleep takes her, not realizing it she says
"I love you too."
Scarecrow sits there quietly as she fully falls asleep, once she does he ends the call and heads to his friends that were waiting just outside the door. Lion promptly asked
"Well are ya to get something to eat, wait why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"
In which scarecrow answered with another question
"If someone says I love you when their barely awake does that count?"
His two friend thought about it before Tin said
"Well technically yes but it would be for the best to get more proof for the true meaning of it."
Scarecrow started to walk a few steps ahead of them in a bit of a dancing spinning motion
"I'll take that."
His friends watch him walk off cheerfully, they knew from then on they going to have to help these two so it doesn't end up like some cringy teen romance.
Hello Daring, sorry for being gone for so long school started up again and being an animation student it makes finding time a bit hard with work and the club on top of all the studying. I'll try my best to post at least one every month or 2 and I promise the action will start soon, just taking things slow. I hope to see you all soon my beautiful darling, now have a wonderful night and sweet dreams or a beautiful day and wonderful things.