Chapter 14
Practically no one saw neither Elphaba nor Fiyero for the rest of the weekend, other than the few times Fiyero stopped by Glinda and Elphaba’s shared room to pick up clothes and books. When Monday rolled around, Fiyero was briefly spotted in class before disappearing as soon as it ended. Tuesday he was briefly seen it the dining halls with a lunch container and a practically wicked smile as he convinced the workers to let him take some food and leave, an otherwise banned action. It wasn’t till Wednesday that Pfannee finally flagged him over and forced him to sit at a table with the rest of the group, though as soon as he sat down, he seemed anxious to leave.
“Where have you been all week?” ShenShen asked. “No one’s seen you in forever.”
Shell looked down at her words. He knew of course, that Elphaba was in his room, and that every time he ran out of class, he was heading back to the dorms, back to her. That was a hard thing to explain though, and so he hadn’t. Fiyero looked to Glinda, who pursed her lips together. She had also stayed quiet about the entire thing, much to his relief.
“I’ve just been busy,” he said. “Midterms are coming up, so I’ve been writing most of my notes in Ozian, since that’s how I’ll be writing during testing. It takes longer for me to go over them though.”
It was a sorry excused, but an excuse, nonetheless. His fingers grazed the table repeatedly, creating a tapping motion over and over. Glinda grabbed his hand, settling the movement he hadn’t even realized he was making. When he looked down at met eyes with her, a look of concern was fairly obvious. He was being rather inconspicuous, and it was likely to look rather telling, even if there was nothing to tell.
“I should go,” Fiyero said. “I have a test on Friday, and I really must study.”
Then he stood up and bolted, making his way towards the dorms, just as he did the day before.
“He’s acting odd,” ShenShen said.
“Yeah,” Avaric said. “He’s barely left his room in the past few days, other than for class.”
“I’m going to go make sure he’s okay,” Glinda said. “I would be a rather awful friend if I didn’t make sure he was okay.”
With that, she ran after the prince. It took her a moment to catch up to him, but luckily he hadn’t made the turn into the boys dormitory yet, otherwise it would have look uncouth, for her to walk into it all alone. She grabbed his hand, pulling him back. With a huff on annoyance, he settled against the wall and looked down at the perky pink witch.
“How is she?”
“Slowly getting better. Though she tried to cast a simple spell yesterday and bleed from her nose for nearly an hour. She wants to go back to classes but won’t take care of herself enough to do so. It’s infuriating.”
“Elphaba’s always infuriating,” Glinda assured Fiyero. “From the way she speaks to the glares she gives, there is never a moment I don’t look at her and wonder what is going on in her mind. Even when I kissed her, I couldn’t tell what was running through that overstuffed brain of hers.”
“You kissed her?”
Fiyero was trying not to feel Jealous at the idea that Glinda had touched Elphaba in a way he had only dreamed of. He knew it was ridiculous, that he had no right to feel any sort of way. Yet, he did. A part of him was seething at the idea, and another part mourning at it.
“It was a complicated moment,” Glinda said. “Then she brushed off whatever it was.”
“She’s rather apt at that,” Fiyero replied. “Brushing people off, I mean.”
Glinda gave him a questioning look. Clearly, he was speaking from experience. She couldn’t help it, she was a nosy little thing, and wasn’t ashamed of it. Knowledge was power, wasn’t that what he father always said.
Fiyero seeing the look in her eye, and desperately tired of keeping everything that occurred over the summer to himself, broke. He told her everything, from their meeting at the train station, to the events in the clinic, and the morning after at the Witch’s Den. Glinda listened intently, taking mental notes of each passing moment. When he finally finished, she looked at him almost adoringly.
“I think she likes you too,” Glinda said, placing her hand atop his own, which she was already holding.
“And how would you know such a thing?”
“Because I saw the way she looked at you. How she settled into your touch. Though maybe I am basis, given that I readily settled into it as well.”
There was a truth to those words, Glinda realized. Not because Fiyero was a prince, or the perfect level of attractive, but because he was genuinely kind. Without question, he marched off from the group with her to go to some bar that was Oz knows where. He didn’t hesitate to run to Elphaba when she collapsed, cooked her a homemade meal to help her recover, and was diligently adding her back to health. He was a genuinely good person. The kind of person she might have settled for sharing a life with, if it hadn’t been for the talk she shared with Elphaba that day and how she was revaluating all her life choices.
“Glinda,” Fiyero said, a hidden blush forming at her words.
“I mean it,” Glinda said, standing on her tiptoes, she placed a kiss on either of his cheeks, then a peck of his lips that was so quick, he was only sure it happened due to the taste of her strawberry gloss. “You are exactly the kind of person she needs. Someone who doesn’t run when pricked by her rough edges.”
The two of them walked back to his room in silence. The whole time, their hands still clasped fiercely together. An odd feeling ran over Glinda as she thought about Elphaba and Fiyero, how they seemed to fit together in an odd way. A great love, she was sure the two of them could be. Somehow, it made her sad to think about, like it meant she was truly losing something more than a marriage candidate. It made her rather morose.
Fiyero didn’t fail to notice.
--
Walking into the room to find Elphaba looking over books in her sleepwear was a common enough sight. Though usually Glinda found her asleep with said book still open. Elphaba immediately brought her hands to her ears, not quite covering them, but clearly getting used to a loud, sudden sound.
“Oh Elphie,” Glinda cooed. “I can leave if it’s too much.”
Elphaba shook her head, indicating that wasn’t necessary.
“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s not nearly as bad as the first day, I just wasn’t expecting it.”
Glinda suddenly squealed, sending Fiyero off kilter as the blonde ran to the bed, sitting next to Elphaba to look at the page she was reading.
“That’s a first edition of Advanced Magic and Mystic Arts, isn’t it?” Glinda couldn’t find it in herself to lower the pitch of her voice as she crooned over the book. “I’ve been begging my Granny for her copy, but she said not until I’ve passed the intermediate sorcery seminary.”
Elphaba scoffed at the statement, nodding with an agreement.
“This is Rain’s copy,” Elphaba explained. “She gave it to me on my seventeenth birthday.”
The two girls went on, talking about the spells in the books. Elphaba, who seemed to have a much better grasp of the languages used in spell work and spent a good amount of time translating the meanings of spells to Glinda.
“I can come back later,” Fiyero joked after a good twenty minutes. “If that’s preferable.”
The two girls finally looked up at the guy whose room they had monopolized. Glinda wore a sheepish look, but Elphaba was beyond being embarrassed, given that she had been stuck in the room for a better part of the last week.
“You’re free to join us, you know,” Elphaba said. “Your exile is self-imposed.”
Fiyero didn’t hesitate once the invitation was given. He made his way to the bed, leaning against the white sheets as he looked over the book of magic laid out on the bed. The symbols and complicated unknown script left him confused. Listening the excitement in Glinda’s voice as she read about each spell out loud, and Elphaba’s joy explaining the magic she so clearly was impassioned about was more than enjoyable than whatever else he could think to be doing. He barely noticed when fingers tangled in his hair, every once and a while, the fingers would loosen and run through his dirty blonde locks. Overtime his head fell against Elphaba’s thigh, relaxing into her touch.
“Is Rain still here?” Elphaba asked, after what felt like hours.
“Yes,” Fiyero answered. “She’s waiting till you can cast a ‘muting spell,’ at least that’s what she called it.”
Elphaba nodded, her mind seemingly wandered elsewhere as she heard the answer.
“I think I’ll be able to in a day or two,” she spoke more seriously now. “Then I can get back to life, back to class - as mind numbing as it can be, and it’s felt like forever since I’ve been to the Ruby Raven.”
“So now we can talk about it?” Glinda asked, rhetorically of course.
“You were the first one to bring it up,” Elphaba reminded her. “And I never said you couldn’t talk about it. I just strategically avoided giving you an opportunity to talk about it.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?” Fiyero laughed, his thumb running up and down her shin.
Elphaba stilled a bit. She didn’t know exactly how to talk about a part of her life that for so long only belonged to her. Sure, Tip and Lox knew, as did Rain, but they watched her perform when it was a tool for survival, not something she used to express feelings she otherwise couldn’t otherwise verbalize.
“Would it be too much to ask for an invitation next time you perform?”
Fiyero was sincere in his request. If she said no, as disappointed as he would be, he wouldn’t cross that boundary. It was obviously something sacred to her, and he wasn’t going to intrude on that more than he already had. Elphaba looked down at Fiyero, who pressed his cheek her leg, and ran his hands back and forth against her skin, as if it was a plush blanket or a fur rug. She doubted he was even conscious of his hand motions, seeming far too relaxed to think too hard about much of anything going on around him.
“I guess there isn’t much harm, considering. Just don’t go inviting anyone else.”
“We wouldn’t do that,” Glinda assured her, gripping her arm tightly. “I haven’t even told Pfannee or ShenShen, and they begged me to tell them what happened that night!”
Elphaba rolled her eyes and shook her head, rather amused at the response. It felt surreal, sitting here with Glinda, and enjoying her bubbly personality, instead of wanting to suffocate it with a pillow like usual. She did enjoy it though, as she enjoyed Fiyero’s gentle touch. For the first time in a long time, she felt overwhelmingly normal.
She forgot how much she had missed it.