Skin Deep.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. It's all Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman and, of course, the wonderful Gregory Maguire.
A/N Last night's wonderful standby Fiyero, who I swear is a Fiyeraba shipper himself, inspired this. It was written fast and is unbeta'd but I hope someone, somewhere, will get some enjoyment out of it :)
Her skin didn't bother him.
So it was green. What of it? It was clear his fellow students had a problem with it though, and that must be part of why she had showed up for class today, clearly uncomfortable, in a Galinda-esque outfit with a pink flower, of all things, in her hair. He hadn't been at Shiz for very long but he'd heard enough about the 'green freak' to know that people here weren't much impressed with the girl's hue. He, however, failed to see the problem.
Oh, there were things about her that he didn't like, alright. There were definitely things about her that did bother him. She was rude, cynical, obnoxious, and derogatory. She never smiled, always frowned. She studied too much. She never paid any respect to anyone except her sister and her room mate and she didn't seem to give a jot about him, even when he'd been nothing but charming ever since Galinda had introduced them at the Ozdust. There were many things he didn't like about her, but her skin was not one of them.
Actually, and he would never risk saying it out loud, but he thought that, once one got over the initial surprise of meeting someone with glimmering, emerald skin, it was kinda...well...pretty, in its own way. Not Galinda-pretty. Not bubbly pretty. Pretty wasn't even the right word at all, really, but..it wasn't ugly. At least it was different.
At least she was her own person.
That's why he didn't like the Galindafication. At all. Objectively speaking, yes, it might be an improvement. He liked her hair this way. It was long and shiny and he liked how the sunlight in the classroom made it sparkle and seem nearly blue. Her clothes were nicer too. Slightly more fashionable and form-fitting, which meant he could now actually see a form underneath her clothes. He liked that too. But it didn't suit her. Especially the flower. The pink, the frillyness. It wasn't her. And the fact that he knew that made him almost stop in his tracks. And the realization that he apparently had an opinion on his girlfriends roommate's outfits and the fact that he felt the need to tell her so made him think he was better off not thinking.
"You don't have to do that you know."
He wasn't sure what had made him say it. He just knew she shouldn't have to be doing this, just to try and fit in. There wasn't anything wrong with her.
He was glad for the interruption of their professor. The look on her face at his remark had been one of distrust and weariness and he wasn't in the mood to explain himself. To anyone. Least of all himself. He plopped down in the empty seat next to her and ignored the puzzled look in her eyes.
Instead, he tried to focus on what Professor Dillamond was saying. Something was clearly going on at Shiz these days, even someone as dead set on dancing through life as he was, had no choice but to see that. Their professor being pushed out of the classroom, to be immediately replaced by some incredibly badly dressed dudes pushing a shady-looking cart that made noises, was a wake-up call if nothing else was.
He thought it was strange, yes. He supposed it wasn't a good thing, if he was forced to think about it. But he wasn't really paying attention to any of that, because the girl next to him had gone and got herself all worked up and was now yelling at the entire class ( was she ever going to realize that was not the way to get them to listen?).
Horrible Morrible got her to sit down again but he could feel her energy, her frustration rolling off of her in waves, and then the creepy dude revealed a lion cub in a cage and she was up again. Oz, did that girl never get tired of being this...this...well, like this?
Although...he supposed she had a point. The cub, as far as he could see, obviously wasn't happy, and it wasn't normal for a cub to be in a cage. And he wondered for a minute why he was still seated, why he wasn't with the rest of the class, gaping at that poor thing. Maybe if she'd never been there, if he had never met her, he would not be the only one still seated. Actually, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be.
But now…well...he did know her and although they weren't exactly friends, he didn't want to see that disappointed look on her face, if he could help it. She had this look of complete and utter incredulity and resentment that he had been on the receiving end of a fair share of times, and that had bothered him for some reason. He wasn't that interested in what that guy had to show them anyway. Even he could see that this guy's arrival meant bad news. He sighed. He could feel Elphaba next to him, fidgeting and he knew it was only a matter of time, minutes probably, till she'd be yelling again.
He sighed and got up to see what was going on exactly but he didn't get the chance to figure out anything because the new guy said something about Animals not learning to speak and, as expected, Elphaba was out of her seat again, ranting, and looking at him. Him. Like he was supposed to be doing something.
"What are we going to do?"
His head swerved in her direction.
Wait...what did she say?
"We?"
What in Oz name did she think they could possibly do?
"Well, somebody's got to do... .something!"
With the last stressed word, all sanity jumped out the window as lights flickered and all their classmates started..well...he didn't know what they were doing exactly, but he knew that they weren't supposed to be moving like that.
"What just happened?"
She looked frightened. Frustrated, angry, but frightened.
"I don't know..I...I got mad and.."
He felt his body move out of its own accord as he rushed forward.
Looking back now, a few days and many confusing thoughts later, he couldn't say for sure what possessed him to run up to grab that cage, to start running, to expect her to follow. He had just been sitting there, thinking (and yes, yes, wasn't that in itself cause for worrying) and she had gone and turned the entire class bat-shit crazy. And before he knew what he was doing, before he had time to think about what he should have really thought about, he was grabbing that damn cage and making for the door, calling for her to run with him.
And then, well…then she'd barked at him, ordered him around and offended him. And he'd stood there, marveling at this whirlwind of energy and anger, trying to get a word in edgewise, wondering whether he should just tell her she looked fine the way she'd been before his girlfriend had got to her. And whether or not she ever shut up. He only voiced the latter and it earned him a glare, followed by a slightly sheepish look. As if she hadn't considered that he might have something to say. The way she never seemed to consider anyone might have something to say. Then again, most people didn't have much to say to her. Still, he did. And she looked at him, embarrassed and she mumbled an apology and stared at her feet. She did that a lot. He was about to say something when she opened her mouth again. Unbelievable. He couldn't stop the smirk that touched the corners of his mouth. But then she made an attempt to analyze him and hit too close for comfort.
He walked away.
And then…then everything changed.
She'd lunged after him to grab his hand, he'd felt the static shoot up his arm and stared at her in wonder. He hadn't seen that coming. Not just the static, that electricity, Oz what was that?, but the act itself. It seemed so….desperate. And she'd never before come across as desperate. Aloof, distanced, lonely maybe, but not desperate. She'd shocked herself with it too, he could tell. She ran back to the cub, dropped to her knees in front of the cage and said something about not wanting to frighten it. And he finally came around to asking himself what he was even doing there in the first place. With her. And why he hadn't been affected by whatever mojo she'd pulled on the rest of the class. Again, he only voiced the latter. She looked at him. Embarrassed still but determined to look him in the eye, to not hide. Her face was close to his now, closer than it had ever been. And he wasn't bothered by her skin. He was bothered by the fact that he felt himself leaning forward, eyes trained on her face, darting to her parted lips. So the moment she touched him, he jumped up. He said something incoherent, grabbed the cage and ran. But he didn't run from the green. He ran from the girl.
It took him hours to shake that feeling, and he knew that he shouldn't have run, that he should have stayed. She'd deserved that at least. She'd never done anything to him. She'd never asked him for anything and he was pretty sure that it was only her desperation and frustration that had made her look to him, in the first place. He was the only one in that room that treated her as a person. She simply didn't have anyone else to turn to and he'd been right there.
But then and there, surrounded by poppies and sunshine filtering through trees and her fingertips on his face, it'd been a bit too much. He had a girlfriend, he didn't know her, he wasn't sure what he wanted, what it meant, what he felt. They weren't even friends. They weren't anything. They weren't...he didn't know what they were and they weren't anymore. He wasn't sure he'd ever known at all.
But when he'd calmed down, when he'd had the time to assert the situation, he'd determined that it had simply been the thrill of it all. The excitement of what had happened in class, the adrenaline of what they'd done, the pleasure of …well…of being with her. Because he did enjoy being around her. There was no way around it, and he didn't see any reason not to admit that. She was his girlfriend's best friend, after all. Why shouldn't he enjoy her company? He hadn't seen her all that often, true, but the few times he had actually spent more than a few minutes in her company, she'd turned out to be by far the most interesting person in the room. She was still prickly and rude, and it still bothered him, but she was also…well…interesting. Definitely unlike anyone else. And that had nothing to do with her skin. Although not many seemed to share that opinion.
He hadn't really seen before what her life was like. He hadn't really paid much attention to it. So it wasn't until now that he started to see her skin. And that he started to see what it meant to have green skin in a world of creamy complexions. It meant she always sat alone in class, unless Galinda, or himself, sat next to her. It meant that nobody called her by her name. Artichoke, green bean, string bean, frog. They called her by her color but never by her name. It also meant that no one talked to her. About her, yes. At her, definitely. In the corridors, on the school grounds, in the dorm common rooms, he could see and hear now, the names they called her and the things they said about her as she passed. But to her? No.
They didn't do it with Galinda there, no one willing to risk pissing off the popular blonde, but their opinions hadn't changed. She was still a freak. She was still ugly. No one sat with her at lunch-time when Galinda wasn't there. And when Galinda was there, and people were forced to put up with the presence of the campus freak, then still no one would sit in the spot next to her. The spot he occupied at the moment, as he looked around and observed more than they would think to give him credit for, as she sat stiff in her seat, with her shoulders tense and a frown on her face. Nobody talked to her, nobody looked at her, nobody invited her to the outing they were planning right then. And that bothered him.
So he looked even closer. As they all made their way to the next class, found their seats, snoozed through the lecture on whatever-it-was-that-mattered, he tried to see what it was that all his fellow students saw. He tried to see the abomination, the ugly. But he couldn't find it. He simply didn't see it. The girl was green, yes. Her skin was strange, yes, because it shimmered in the sun and it shone like silver in the right light, but she was a girl. A smart, obnoxious, defensive, but also, as he now knew, a vulnerable and kind girl. With big brown eyes and the shiniest hair he'd ever seen (and he could only hope Galinda would never hear about that). And he quite liked her.
And there was nothing wrong with that, he decided. He was allowed to like her, wasn't he? He was allowed to spend time with her, even, if that was what he wanted. And it was what he wanted. They could just forget about that whole awkward Lion cub thing and be friends. Because he figured she could use a friend. And, if he was being honest; so could he.
So, he decided, they'd be friends.
Whether she liked it or not.
Originally, this was supposed to be a one-shot, but I have so much more written for this, that I am very carefully considering turning this into more...would anyone be interested at all?
Either way, I hope you'll review :)