Fiyero lathered his shaving cream onto his face, grimacing at his reflection. He had been living in the Emerald City for a month, and he had been surprised at how easy it had been for Glinda to convince people that he was not a traitor to Oz. She had managed to make them accept him in the space of one speech, glossing over some of the finer details in order to leave out the nature of his affair with Elphaba. She had made it sound like some great big misunderstanding, which he preferred to pinning his desertion on Elphaba by claiming she had put him under some sort of spell. It had taken him a while to become accustomed to living in the Emerald City again, so he had kept the beard he had been sporting when he first returned to the city; it helped him to blend in a little bit more. However, it bothered him now, so he started to shave it off carefully. As he moved his razor under his chin, his door burst open, and he jerked his hand, nicking the delicate skin.
"Shit," he cursed quietly, stemming the small flow of blood welling to the surface. He glanced at Glinda's reflection in the mirror and said brusquely, "What do you want?"
She winced and said, "I need your help."
"With what?" he asked, continuing his task of shaving.
"Since you're the ambassador for the Vinkus, I thought you might want to know about the diplomat from Munchkinland who is expressing an interest in raising the tax on imports from the Vinkus," she replied. "He's very argumentative, and I thought you might be able to reason with him."
He sighed and rinsed his razor blade as he said, "I told my parents that this would happen. I'll be there in just a minute."
"All right," she said softly. "Do you mind telling me what the problem is?"
"My parents are trying to increase the funds in the royal treasury by raising the taxes on all imports. We import a majority of our goods from Munchkinland, so they're being hit harder than the other provinces," he explained as he splashed some water onto his face and wiped it with a towel.
"So, they're raising taxes on the goods they import from the Vinkus in order to retaliate?" she asked thoughtfully as he crossed the room to rummage through his dresser drawers.
He shrugged as he stripped off his shirt and pulled on another one. Glinda's eyes widened, and she averted her gaze. Fiyero noticed her reddening cheeks and smiled slightly; he had forgotten about his effect on women.
"I, um, need to change my pants," he said as he rubbed his neck.
She blinked and stuttered, "Well, I'll be waiting outside. For you. Take your time."
She turned on her heel and nearly ran out of the room as he chuckled in amusement. When she had closed the door behind her, she leaned against the wall and tried to slow her heartbeat down by breathing slowly and deeply in and out of her nose. She had forgotten how damned attractive he was, and in that moment, she had experienced a surge of desire for him that embarrassed her. He had fallen in love with her best friend and proceeded to run off with her; Glinda had no place in his life anymore except as a friend. She placed her cool palms on her cheeks and closed her eyes.
Fiyero pulled off his pants the second the door closed, feeling slightly guilty. He had been so used to being with Elphaba and simply changing his clothes when he needed to, regardless of her presence in the room, that he hadn't realized he would make Glinda uncomfortable. He wondered for a moment if she still found him as attractive as she had two years ago, then shook his head. He was being egotistical and ridiculous. He smiled bitterly at his reflection as he started to leave the room. Elphaba would have been amused at how much her insistence on using her large vocabulary with him no matter whether he could understand her or not had influenced his word choices.
"Are you ready?" he asked Glinda as he slipped out of his room.
Glinda started at his appearance and said, "Yes. He's waiting for us in my study."
Fiyero walked beside her silently before asking, "Exactly how angry is he?"
"He's mainly been insisting on speaking with you," she replied, allowing her gaze to flicker over his features before focusing her eyes straight ahead. "He didn't seem to think I would be able to handle the problem. It seems that the Wizard didn't get involved in affairs such as these, leaving them all to their own devices. It's made quite a mess now, but I hope that can be fixed. What are you going to tell him?"
"I first want to find out how high their taxes are," he said lightly. "If it's not going to hurt Vinkus merchants too badly, I'll probably allow this to slide. If it is, then I'll see if we can't reach a compromise. There are some goods that we've started to produce in the Vinkus that we used to import from Munchkinland, so we're trying to make it cheaper to buy the products from local merchants rather than the imported goods."
"Who would have thought that the two of us would ever be talking about something like this," Glinda murmured. "I wonder what she would think of all of this."
Fiyero grimaced and said quietly, "I don't know, Glinda."
"Oh, I didn't mean to…I mean…I'm sorry," she finally said, a miserable look on her face. "I guess I'm just used to the idea that she's, well, gone."
He sighed and said, "I understand. Don't apologize. You have every right to talk about her whenever you want, and you shouldn't feel like you can't just because I don't like to."
She bit her lip and paused outside the door to her study, "Well, I guess you should go in. Do you want me to come with you, or do you want to handle this on your own?"
He thought for a moment, noticing the hopeful look in her eyes, and said, "I would like for you to stay. You probably know a little more about this than me, and I think your opinion could be valuable in this discussion."
Smiling gratefully, she pushed the door open, and he followed after her, his hand instinctively moving to rest on her lower back as they walked to greet the ambassador from Munchkinland together.