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“Trick or treat.”
Fiyero stood before Elphaba with a near overflowing basket of wax paper wrapped treats in his hands and a faux-innocent smile on his face. For a moment, Elphaba considered slamming the dorm room door in his face, but then she’d have to look at his impression on the wood every day until the end of term.
“All out,” Elphaba replied.
“Good thing I brought my own.”
Elphaba snorted. “Galinda’s not here.”
“Then we should get to taste testing before she has a chance to gobble them up herself.”
Elphaba fought the smile that tugged at her lips. Her damn mouth was the reason why he was here in the first place. He and Galinda had bought two beautiful boxes of chocolates for her and Nessa as thanks for saving Boq’s hair after Galinda nearly burned it all off in an attempt to straighten it. She gave her box to Nessa, who shared hers with Boq, who told Fiyero about it, who asked her how she could resist such treats. She was honest and told him that she didn’t like sweets.
“I think Nessa stole my sweet tooth,” Elphaba had joked at the time. “We’d always cheer her up with a slice of cake. But other than that we didn’t really have sweets growing up except for Lurlinemas.”
Even then, the vinegar candy she’d pull out of her stocking tasted like they’d been gathering dust all year long. After a while what little craving she had for sugary confections waned.
“It’s not the end of the world because I don’t like candy,” Elphaba said.
“From what you told me, you’ve only had one type of candy. And it wasn’t even good candy.” He shook his basket. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained?”
Elphaba glanced at the kaleidoscope of bright colors and irregular shapes. They didn’t look appetizing, but that stoked her curiosity even more.
“Fine,” she said, unable to hold back her grin anymore. “Let’s do a taste test.”
Fiyero practically skipped inside. Elphaba laid a clean blanket on her bed for him to dump the candy basket over: pastel buttons, jelly beans, candy corn, lollipops, peppermint stick, cinnamon bells, butterscotch, caramel clusters, lemon drops, licorice (both red and black), toffee roll, molasses taffy, malt balls, maple chews, ribbon candy and rainbow wafers. Elphaba had a stomach ache just looking at it all.
“There’s no way I can eat all of this,” she said.
“Goodness, no. You’d just end up hating it,” he laughed. “I wasn’t sure what to get you so I picked a little of everything.”
Her face flushed hot and she prayed he couldn’t tell. She curled her fingers on the edge of the bed to resist running them over her plaited hair.
“You didn’t have to do all this,” she murmured.
“I didn’t, but I wanted to.” He pointed to the small paper bag of electric yellow balls near the center of the mess. “Try a lemon drop first. They’re more sour than sweet.”
She did like sour things, so she plucked one drop out of the bag, plopped it in her mouth, and—
“It’s not sour at all.”
Fiyero looked at her, flabberghasted.
“What? That can’t be true.”
“I can taste the lemon a little, but it’s just sugar.” She scowled at him. “You lied to me. I was promised a sour treat!”
“I did not lie. These are—augh!” he yelped after tossing one in his mouth, his eyes screwed shut. “These are definitely sour.”
Elphaba chuckled as she watched him struggle to endure the supposedly sour coating to reach the sweet middle. He rolled his head back against the bed frame in relief, his Adam’s apple throbbing with each swallow. Elphaba cracked the lemon drop between her teeth.
“I can see how this stuff can wear down your teeth,” she said.
He rolled his head forward and smirked. “Tell me about it. My baby teeth were wrecked between all the sweets and grass I’d eat.”
Elphaba quirked a brow. “You were serious about eating grass as a child?”
“Considering the only real friend I had as a child was my Horse, yes. Speaking of,” he said, pointing at the peppermint stick, “peppermint is Feldspur’s favorite, so you should try that next.”
Elphaba smiled at the thought of a lanky little Fiyero on all fours and trying to graze with an equally young Feldspur, but she felt a pang of sympathy for having no real friends growing up. At least he had Feldspur and she had Nessa.
“What do you think?” he asked after Elphaba took a few experimental licks.
“Tastes like brushing my teeth.”
Fiyero ran his hands over his face and groaned, but now he was more determined than ever. They moved away from hard candy and he suggested the black licorice, but one whiff of the anise-flavored sweet made her want to gag. The molasses taffy looked and smelled similarly abhorrent.
Rapping her fingers over the air, Elphaba closed her eyes decided to let fate choose the next candy she’d try. Her hand fell on a butterscotch.
“Here goes nothing,” she said as she popped the small disc in her mouth.
Still sweet. But there was a toasted creaminess to it.
“Not bad,” she said at last.
“Excellent!” He popped a butterscotch in his mouth as well. “I forgot I liked these.”
They chewed in companionable silence. Their eyes met. He scrunched his nose and looked so sweetly boyish—heat flared over her cheeks again and she turned her attention back on the candies before them. Between the sugar rush and an act of generosity she wasn’t very accustomed too, no wonder her heart was skipping every other beat.
“I don’t think I should have anymore today,” she said, the butterscotch nearly dissolved on her tongue.
He nodded. “Best to end on a high—er, lukewarm, note.”
“And I don’t want to get sick. But maybe…maybe we can try again tomorrow?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
She smiled at him until he took a piece of black licorice and popped it in his mouth.
“How can you eat that?”
“It’s one of my favorites,” he said with a grin. “because the best kind of sweet is bittersweet.”