Ahem, well, this was a scene I thought about a while ago, and I thought it was really cute, and well . . . I decided to post it. I decided I needed a brief break from all the doom and gloom of Cursed Blood. Takes place in my previous story, Dangerous Secrets, and is sort of a "deleted scene" so to speak. It's cute, it's fluffy, it's sappy and incredibly cheesy. So I think you guys will like it.

"Augh, this is taking forever. How much further did you say the Emerald City was, Boq?"

He shrugged, his tin shoulders squeaking slightly. "I've never been there before, but if my guesses are correct, we should be there in a few days."

I rubbed my weary eyes. Last night had been a long and tiring night. I couldn't sleep at all, no matter what I did, and when the sun finally peaked over the horizon, I was dead tired and ready to collapse. But I needed to get home, and out of this strange and twisted world.

Scarecrow had his hands clasped behind his head and looked up at the tree tops thoughtfully, watching as birds chirped as they flew in between the branches. "I'm sure we'll get there soon enough. Patience is a vice."

"You mean it's a virture, you moron," Boq, aka Tin Man, growled in a steely voice.

"Well excuse me, princess," Scarecrow said. "I have a fried brain, in case you forgot. So sorry if I mess up a quote."

Tin Man gave him a cold glare and I sighed loudly to myself. Those two could never get along. Especially not after the incident where Scarecrow had that nightmare . . .

I shuddered, but pushed the thought out of my mind. We would get to the Wizard soon enough. And he'd better help us or I'll beat his sorry ass.

Lion whimpered quietly. "So . . . so when we see the Wizard . . . you sure he's not going to hurt us or . . . kill us, right?" he said worriedly.

I laughed. "Why would he want to kill us? We've done nothing wrong."

Tin Man shot Scarecrow a look as if to say that Scarecrow would be smitten on sight. I rolled my eyes. What did Tin Man know? Scarecrow was only a harmless sack of hay.

But . . . not quite . . . he was so human, so alive and full of energy. I often wondered if he had once been human like Boq, but that was ridiculous. Impossible. I shrugged it off, but every time I looked at him, or when he looked at me with those brilliant sapphire eyes . . .

I mentally slapped myself. Stop it, you idiot. Don't start telling me you've fallen for a talking inanimate object!

A part of me really did like him. He was so sweet and funny. And he-

I slapped myself again. Just . . . just don't think about him. Forget Scarecrow. He's not even human.

I unconsciously started to run my hand through Lion's thick fuzzy mane. He was like a giant teddy bear and I loved to cuddle up with him. Lion didn't mind and leaned his head against my side as I affectionately scratched his ear. I laughed to myself. This was so cool. How many people have actually pet a wild lion? I couldn't even begin to imagine the looks on my friends' faces when I told them. Not that I ever would. Who would ever believe me if I told them I dropped into a magical land with talking animals and witches? It's like something out of Harry Potter, or Narnia.

"Oh boy, trouble dead ahead," Tin Man said, not sounding concerned at all.

And indeed we were. The road narrowed drastically and the left side dropped off at least twenty feet straight down like a sheer cliff to the forest floor below, covered with dried leaves. The right side was lined with vicious thorn bushes that would leave some nasty cuts and shred Scarecrow to pieces. It was going to be real tricky crossing the path.

Tin Man went first and tried to cut down the thorn bushes with his ax, but it did very little to push back the bushes. So we walked forward on the narrow path, careful to keep away from the edge and the thorn bushes at our backs.

I couldn't help but look down th sudden drop, almost like a canyon, except instead of rocks, it was just dirt, thankfully. I wasn't too worred about falling over, but it would be hell trying to climb back up that ledge.

We were nearing the end of the narrow pathway where the road opened back up again when suddenly a loose brick gave way beneath my foot. I yelped, and tumbled down the drop off.

"DOROTHY!" Scarecrow cried, and grabbed my hand. But he ended up being pulled off the path and we tumbled down the cliff together. I landed flat on my back with a loud oof! and seconds later, Scarecrow flopped right on top of me, face down.

I stared up at him in total shock. Our lips were firmly pressed against each other. Scarecrow stared straight back down at me, and it took him a moment before he realized he was kissing me. He jumped off suddenly and backed away, looking extremely awkward. I couldn't stop blushing.

"I . . . uh . . . I didn't mean to do that," he said bashfully.

"I know," I said quietly, unable to keep from smiling.

"It was a total accident."

"Absolutely."

"And I would never try to kiss you intentonally," he added, tugging at the rope tied around his neck. He kept adverting his eyes, and I couldn't help but think that if he could blush, he would be very, very red.

I was slightly taken aback by his statement. "What do you mean you'd never kiss me?"

It only then dawned on him how hurtful his comment actually sounded. "Well, I don't mean that I don't want to kiss you, I'd like that a lot- wait! That's not what I meant! I meant that it would just be weird and . . . I don't think I'm . . . I mean . . . ugh . . .what I mean is that I'm not the guy for you. I-"

I grabbed him by the rope tied around his neck and pulled it, yanking him close and I firmly planted my lips against his. He gave a muffled cry of surprise, and his blue eyes went wide. I could feel him tense, then slowly relax as he returned the gesture. His lips were coarse, but had a certain warmth to them, and I kept kissing him passionately, and he too returned the gesture. I wrapped my arms around his neck, he wrapped his straw filled arms around my waist and pulled me closer. We finally parted, I in need of a breath, and we looked at each other, smiling and giggling quietly.

"Wow," I said with a laugh.

"What is it?" he asked gently, pressing his painted nose against my own.

I laughed again. "My first kiss, and it's with a scarecrow!"

Scarecrow's smile vanished, and he lowered his eyes shamefully. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, Scarecrow, I didn't mean it like that," I said softly, cupping his face in my hand. He placed his cloth glove gently over mine and looked at me with sad eyes.

"Then what did you mean?" he asked.

I smiled. I leaned forward and gave him another kiss on the lips. "I couldn't have asked for anything better."

He smiled, and gently pulled me closer before sharing another brief, yet passionate kiss.

"Hey! Are you guys ok down there?!" we heard Tin MAn shout down to us.

I looked up to him. "Yeah, we're fine. Just slipped."

"Alright. Can you get back up on your own? We don't have any rope."

I nodded, and both Scarecrow and I climbed up the drop off, pulling ourselves up with tree roots that poked through the soil. Scarecrow occassionaly gave me a few pushes up the side off, and I faintly wondered if he was doing it genuinely to help, or if he just really wanted to touch my ass. I laughed it off, and once we were close enough to the top, Lion offered his tail to us, and we pulled ourselves out of the gully.

"You sure you guys are ok? That was a rather long fall. Good thing the forest floor's so soft," Tin Man said.

"Yeah, we're fine," I said with a nod. Scarecrow nodded and smiled.

"Ok, let's go then." And we continued down the path without another hesitation.

Scarecrow and I walked hand in hand for the rest of the time, smiling and laughing quietly to ourselves. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and whispered in my ear.

"You sure you're ok?"

I smiled and looked back up at him. "Of course."

Elphaba glared at Fiyero, once they were safely out of Oz and somewhere alone and secluded.

"I think you have some explaining to do," she said coldly.

Fiyero threw up his arms. "How was I supposed to know that you were actually my girlfriend?! I forgot everything when I was turned into a scarecrow!"

"But why did you have to kiss her?!"

"I wasn't thinking!"

"Apparently," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now get over here and kiss me."

"Gladly," he said, and in a single smooth movement he whipped her around and planted a kiss firmly on her green lips. Elphaba smiled in delight as she returned the kiss.

"Does that mean I'm off the hook?" he asked teasingly.

"Oh, I suppose," she sighed, also teasingly. "But remember, you're my scarecrow!"

"Always and forever."

Well, I liked it, so there!

Please review!