Much Ado About Slippers- A My Fair Lady Story

Much Ado About Slippers Chapter 1: Accustomed to Her Face

Hey all! Here's the first chapter! I hope you enjoy. Also, Mrs. Higgins' first name  is Eleanor, and Colonel Pickering's first name is Hugh just to clarify. Also, my descriptions of Henry and Eliza in terms of physical appearance are a mix of the different portrayals that I outlined earlier, but feel free to picture whichever Henry/Eliza you like best for the sake of this story. This story starts just as Henry says his final line. Happy reading!
-OBG98

"Eliza? Where the devil are my slippers?" Professor Henry Higgins rasped out, staring dumbfounded at the beautiful woman standing by his gramophone. Only minutes ago, Henry Higgins had been melancholily listening to the strains of a cockney accent over his gramophone, devastated by the awful truth that his selfish and tyrannical ways had most likely pushed Eliza Doolittle out of his life for good. Yet here she was, in the flesh, standing a few feet away from him with an unreadable look in her eyes as she gazed back at him. In his flurry of emotions the words seemed to slip from his mouth as he attempted to hide his vulnerable state through his normal self-absorbed cruelty. However, he couldn't fully conceal his slight wince at his rather poor choice of words, glancing away from Eliza quickly and turning his back towards her in an attempt to pull himself together.

"Your...your slippers? How the bloody hell should I know?" Eliza retorted, the tone of her voice wavering slightly as her blue eyes filled with tears. The professor's response hurt her more than she would have liked to admit. A part of her brain was practically screaming at her to walk away and never return, to write this whole thing off as a bad idea. But Eliza held fast, quickly wiping the tears away and squaring her shoulders.

"After all Eliza," she thought to herself, "he WAS listening to YOUR voice on the gramophone."

"Well I... you were the one who... I thought you had..." Higgins stammered, for once completely unable to string together a coherent sentence. He ran a hand through his greying brown hair nervously and spun around to face the stony gaze of Eliza.

"Professor... if you are going to merely stand there and accuse me of misplacing your slippers, then perhaps I am wasting my time," Eliza said sharply, causing Higgins's eyes to widen.

"How DARE you take that tone with me, after all the trouble you've caused me today. If you have come to apologize, then..." Higgins growled, his ire instantaneously returning to him. He gripped the back of his armchair tightly, his expression insolent as he glared at the increasingly angry Eliza.

"Apologize? To you? I'd rather throw myself off the Tower of Bloomin' London!" Eliza screeched, cutting Higgins off mid sentence. She couldn't believe the nerve of this man, and furthermore couldn't understand why she held onto any semblance of feelings for him whatsoever, since it was apparent that Professor Henry Higgins was incapable of having any feelings at all.

"Oh is that so? Well then, why the devil did you come back here?" Higgins roared, his bright blue eyes flashing with rage as he stalked over to Eliza. She met his gaze, jutting her chin forward defiantly as they stood inches apart, her face flushed with anger. After a moment however, Eliza took a deep breath and merely shook her head, stepping away from Higgins with a resigned look on her face.

"There really is no getting through to you is there? I thought maybe for a brief moment you were... that you felt... well, at any rate I see that I was wrong," Eliza sighed. Higgins snarled and glanced away from her, his discomfort returning as he found himself on the defensive once again.

"You assuming guttersnipe... you don't know the first thing about me," Higgins spat out, shoving his hands in his pockets with a vehemence.