This story was written as a prequel to a longer AU fic that has been posted in its entirety on livejournal and which will be posted here shortly (in chapters), but it is also intended to be musical canon compliant and can be read by itself as a musicalverse fic.
Fiyero would not know until much later, when Glinda finally made a full confession one night in the Emerald City, that she and Elphaba had loathed each other pretty much right up until the day he arrived (in fact, on hearing the story, he wondered whether they might have gone right on hating each other if he hadn't come to shake things up. Knowing them - well, probably not). Certainly he'd had inklings that there might have been a recent shift in their relationship, but then, it was still early in the school year and they were new roommates, after all. Very different new roommates. Still, he was observant enough to have seen that he wasn't the only one to be shocked when Galinda had joined Elphaba on the dance floor that first night at the Ozdust. The other students had looked plainly horrified at first, and Elphaba had been initially wary and then, clearly, pleasantly surprised. That first touch of white and green hands had sent a frisson of energy through the ballroom that even a newcomer couldn't miss. Without knowing anything about them, Fiyero could have stated confidently that they had never touched each other at all before that moment.
He also noticed that many of the other students were still skeptical at the sight of Galinda striding across the campus the next morning with her arm looped casually through Elphaba's. Elphaba herself looked just slightly awkward and uncomfortable with this small blonde person attached to her arm, but then Fiyero had begun to figure out that Elphaba always looked just slightly awkward and uncomfortable. And at any rate, she was smiling. Occasionally.
After their adventure with the lion cub his curiosity was further piqued about this strange, strange girl - and at the same time, he found himself throwing his energies into his relationship with Galinda, revelling and indulging in the fact that she satisfied all his romantic fantasies of the perfect woman. Yet no matter how perfect she was, no matter how much he tried to just enjoy (and, honestly, he did enjoy it) being with her, kissing her, she never entirely drove her roommate from his thoughts. He was fortunate in that Elphaba never seemed to be far from Galinda's thoughts either, because that way Galinda never found it suspicious when her roommate's name slipped itself into the conversation or when Fiyero seemed pleased to run into both of them together between classes.
Fiyero couldn't entirely make them out, and it wasn't just that they seemed too different to like each other so much. Partly it was that often they didn't seem to like each other - they bickered almost constantly; they called each other names (although without any real venom, he supposed); Galinda pulled Elphaba's hair in class; Elphaba frequently looked as though her roommate were a tiny blonde parasite intent on sucking the life out of her - but then Elphaba would inexplicably offer to correct Galinda's history essay, or Galinda would lean her head fondly against the taller girl's shoulder, and the air between them would feel warm and electric.
Once, while pulling Galinda close to him in an empty classroom of the History building, Fiyero caught a hint of a scent that didn't belong to her - it was too subtle, too light, more clean than perfume-y. He realized who it did belong to a few days later, when he sat next to Elphaba in the only class they had together without Galinda. The context clicked for him immediately; the scent went perfectly with Elphaba's thick dark hair, her way of holding herself as if her body were a deep secret, her skin that had been so unexpectedly soft the one time she'd taken his hand. And once he noticed it, he caught her scent more often: on the shoulder of Galinda's dress - lingering about her neck - on her hands, as though she had just been running them through Elphaba's hair.
Elphaba herself remained an enigma - an enigma who, despite the tiny overtures of friendship he'd sensed from her on the Lion Cub Day, still basically thought Fiyero was an idiot - until the afternoon their literature class had ended with a literal bang. The day had begun in a fairly ordinary way, with Galinda walking Elphaba to class and the two of them deep in some silly argument. Fiyero remembered this one in particular because he had found it so very difficult to keep from laughing (and Galinda hated when he seemed to be laughing at her).
The first thing he'd been able to make out as they came nearer to him across the lawn was Galinda protesting, "Just a little sorcery practice, Elphie, that's all it was - no big deal . . ."
"Sorcery practice that you didn't think I would notice? Galinda . . ." Elphaba's eyebrows were arched so high that she had to have been close to giving herself a headache.
"And anyway it looks so much better, really -"
They were close enough that Fiyero could ask, "What did she do?" Although he was addressing Elphaba, he looked at Galinda.
His girlfriend smiled sweetly - she was clearly rather proud of herself. "I took in her dresses."
"Took them in . . . as in . . . ?"
"As in, made them smaller," Elphaba clarified, her voice rising at the end.
"More tailored, Elphie dear, not smaller. You do look so much more -"
"You had me convinced I was gaining weight!"
"I shortened your skirts too - did you also think you were getting taller?"
"You -" Elphaba broke off and looked down reflexively. "You did!"
"And it's much better, isn't it, Fiyero?"
Fortunately he barely had time to stammer, "Well - uh . . ." before Galinda continued, "And anyway, I think we're getting away from the main point here, which is that I did a spell. Correctly. And repeated it several times without setting anything on fire."
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Congratulations. We've got to get to class." She motioned between herself and Fiyero. "Do try to stay out of my closet while I'm gone, will you?"
"Go play nice with the other kids, Elphie." Galinda gave her a little wave before turning to go.
"If the other kids aren't driven mad with lust by the sight of my bare knees," Elphaba called after her.
"Well, I know I am," Galinda said with a last smile over her shoulder. "See you later, Fiyero."
To cover his amusement as they headed toward their literature class, he asked, "Did you accidentally pick up my essay the other day? I couldn't find it, and I thought maybe when the wind blew everyone's papers . . ."
"I have it. Your short declarative sentences burn my brain," she responded, pulling the offending essay out of her bag and holding it out to him.
"What -"
"I made notes."
"Of course you did." Her cramped handwriting snaked in neat but curving lines around the edges of his text. "If I edit this for next time, will you learn to write in a straight line? This is making me dizzy."
"You're welcome."
He resisted the temptation to stick his tongue out at her as they entered the classroom. Now that would have caused some talk.
At any rate, it wasn't the class itself that day that he thought had maybe changed Elphaba's mind about him a little - and it certainly wasn't his literature essay, which even he had to admit was probably terrible. It was what had happened on their way out of class, when he was walking Elphaba back to the girls' dormitory in the hopes of running into Galinda a little before their arranged meeting time.
They were walking side by side without speaking, Elphaba taking large strides possibly in an attempt to outpace him, but his long legs easily keeping up. He had been surprised, actually, the first time he had stood close to Elphaba and discovered that she was not tall. Sure, anyone looked tall standing next to Galinda - but Elphaba was also so lean and spare, and carried herself so gawkily, that he had imagined she must be at least his height until he'd joined them on the dance floor of the Ozdust and had to look down to catch her eye.
It turned out to be lucky on this particular day that they were not the same height, because it allowed him to take quick action without risking concussion for either of them. They were just passing the old building that had once housed the university's Animal faculty, and of course until recently had housed only Dr. Dillamond, when with just a hint of a warning hiss the building exploded into a ball of fire. A flash of extreme heat was followed by bits of flying glass and burning wood, and all around students were screaming, running, dropping to the ground to avoid the debris. Without thinking Fiyero grabbed Elphaba, who was closer to the explosion than he was, and whirled her around so that her back was to the flaming building. Her forehead collided sharply with his shoulder as he pressed her tightly into his arms and bent his head low over hers, trying to shield them both. Amid the distracting sensations of the ends of her hair brushing his fingers and her arms thrown instinctively around his waist, he felt something very hot fly past his hands and winced at the contact.
When the sound of the explosion had died down and only lingering shouts for help filled the air, Elphaba pulled forcefully away from him and asked, before he could, "Are you all right?"
"Yes, I think. You?"
She didn't answer, instead focusing on his face. Gone was the shy Elphaba who had reached out with trembling fingers to brush his cheek when the lion cub had scratched him; this Elphaba took his chin firmly between her thumb and forefinger and turned his face from side to side until she was satisfied that he hadn't been burned.
"I felt something hot, are you sure you're all right?" he asked again.
"I'm fine." Her worried eyes flickered toward the shell of the building, now burning quietly in the background. "Do you think anyone was in there?"
"Well, it was only Dr. Dillamond, right? And he's gone."
She frowned. "I'm going to go check. No one else is, they're too busy making sure nobody was hurt out here."
"Elphie," he started, Galinda's pet name for her slipping out in his distraction.
"You can wait here if you want." Coming from her, it was definitely a challenge.
"Why do things like this always happen when you're around?" he asked resignedly as he jogged after her.
She stopped just a few feet from the burning building, trying to peer through what had once been a window. "Hello?" she called, coughing a little from the nearness of the smoke. "Anyone? Anyone there?"
To his relief, no one responded. He pulled her back to a safer distance, silencing her protests with, "It's too hot, and you'd never be able to check this entire building anyway. Not without getting killed. And look, the fire brigade is coming. See?" Besides, he was now fairly sure that the backs of his fingers had been burned - the skin still felt much too hot, and it looked as though it might be starting to blister.
Elphaba bit her lower lip, but she observed the fire brigade coming (slowly, he would admit) and let him pull her away.
"Come on," he said, softening his tone. "I'm sure no one was in there."
She nodded, as the little Munchkin boy Boq ran up to them calling out, "Hey, you two all right?"
"Does anyone know what happened?" Elphaba asked once Boq had come close enough not to shout.
"Only that it wasn't just here. Someone passed me and Nessa right before it happened, saying that at least five more buildings had gone up in the center of town -" he lowered his voice "- mostly shops owned by Animals." Before Elphaba could ask he waved a reassuring hand and said, "One of the other girls took Nessa back to the dormitory, she's fine."
"So someone's going around blowing up buildings associated with Animals?" Fiyero whistled through his teeth. "I hate to say it, Elphaba, but I'm beginning to think you're right - this isn't just about university policy."
"We heard lots of people are hurt downtown," Boq told them. "A couple of the shops were so close together that whole blocks are on fire. That's why only a few men came to stop the fire here."
"Well, at least no one here seems to be too badly hurt," Fiyero said. Elphaba didn't seem capable of speaking anymore, and her mouth had gone very thin.
"Yeah." Boq was clearly not paying attention to them anymore. "Listen, I said I'd go help - medicine major, you know . . ."
Fiyero waved him away and laid a tentative (and sore) hand on Elphaba's shoulder. "Come on, let's go find Galinda and tell her - what?" Elphaba had frozen, all the color draining from her face and leaving her a sickly celery shade. "What, Elphaba?"
"Galinda," Elphaba said faintly, "said she might go down to the shops this afternoon with some of the other girls . . ."
"The shops -" His eyes met her wide, frightened ones, and they both turned - someone swore, although he couldn't remember later whether it had been him or Elphaba - and dashed for the girls' dormitory. Elphaba was strong and fast, but eventually she started to fall behind and he grabbed her hand, urging her on. When they reached the door she panted, "You're not . . . allowed . . ."
"I don't care!" He shoved her ahead of him through the doorway. "Go on, I don't know which room is yours."
"Third . . . floor." She was gasping by the time they had charged up the two flights of stairs, but she had enough breath to call, "Galinda!" as they emerged from the stairwell.
Galinda's head peered out into the hallway, and both Elphaba and Fiyero skidded to a stop and sighed with relief. "Where have you two been?" Galinda demanded, as Elphaba sagged against the wall with one hand over her chest. "I heard the noise and someone said the faculty house blew up, and I knew that was on your way back, and you didn't come for ages . . ." As she came closer, it was clear that Galinda had been crying.
"I'm sorry," Elphaba said, still trying to catch her breath. "We were - and then we thought you might have been . . . never mind, we're sorry, honestly, don't cry." She crossed the short remaining distance to her roommate and wrapped her arms around Galinda.
"I'm not crying," Galinda said into Elphaba's shoulder. Her breath hitched at the end, however, and she appeared to be hugging the other girl back very tightly. They stood there for a long while with Elphaba's hands gently stroking Galinda's hair, and then Galinda suddenly lifted her head and said in a quite normal voice, "Fiyero, you're in the girls' dormitory."
He could feel himself blushing, which he hated. "I followed Elphaba. She said - we were afraid you might have been hurt in the explosions downtown."
"More explosions? But - if someone sees you -"
"Yeah, do you think we could . . ." He gestured toward the open door of their room.
"Oh." Both girls ushered him hastily into the room, and Elphaba shut the door behind them just in time for Galinda to exclaim, "Fiyero, what happened to your hands?"
He sat down gingerly on the fluffy pink bed that had to be Galinda's. "Got a little bit burned, I think. Some debris hit us - me - or something."
"You told me you were fine!" Elphaba accused.
"Well, I'm not dying or disfigured. See?" He wiggled his fingers at her, trying not to wince. "And I think you're bad luck for me, Miss Elphaba."
She rolled her eyes and asked her roommate, "Do we still have that burn salve?" Galinda nodded and grabbed a jar off the nearby dresser.
"Why do you have burn salve in your room?" Fiyero asked as Galinda passed him the jar.
"Sorcery class last week . . ." Galinda began.
"Galinda's tendency to ignite things instead of levitating them . . ."
"Enough said," Fiyero interrupted with a hidden smile.
"But if you got burned - Fiyero - where was Elphie when stuff hit you?" Galinda asked abruptly.
Fiyero could feel his face heating up again, and Elphaba sent him a quick look that clearly said You're on your own. "She was - I kind of grabbed -" He held out his arms in a circle in front of him, miming holding on to another person. "You didn't get hurt, did you Elphaba? Your back?"
With a little squeak Galinda pushed Elphaba down into a chair and began running her hands over the back of her roommate's head, parting her hair to check for wounds. "Why didn't you say something?" she asked.
"Because I'm perfectly fine?" Elphaba replied.
"The ends of your hair are singed," Galinda said almost triumphantly. And of course they were; Fiyero could clearly remember Elphaba's hair hanging over his hands when he held her. "Are you sure your back isn't burned?"
"I think I would know." Elphaba reached for a pair of scissors that sat on the desk. "Cut off the burnt parts, would you?"
"Well," Galinda said, smiling at Fiyero as she began to trim the singed hair, "I'll say thanks for preserving Elphie, because I doubt she will."
"Sorry." Elphaba started to lift her head, but Galinda pushed it back down. "Thanks, Fiyero, really. I just - I was thinking about all this with the Animals . . ."
"It's all right." He had finished applying the salve to his injured knuckles, and the burning had indeed been soothed. "You're seeing the Wizard next week, aren't you?"
"Yeah," Elphaba mused. "So at least I can tell him . . . although something this big, I'm sure he'll hear about it."
"So don't worry. There's only so much you can do, right?"
"I guess." She managed to raise her eyes to his without disturbing Galinda's efforts and offered him a faint smile. "Now get out of our dormitory before someone sees you."
He left as Galinda was trying to convince Elphaba to let her trim a bit more off her hair, "as long as I'm here."
When he saw them in class the next day, they seemed back to normal - for them. True, Elphaba was still quieter than usual, but Galinda made up for it by chattering at her until Elphaba sighed with exasperation and clapped a hand over Galinda's mouth. Which Galinda apparently bit, because Elphaba cried out and pulled her hand away, shaking it. She pushed a strand of loose dark hair behind her ear and opened her mouth to reprimand her roommate, but whatever she had been about to say died on her lips when Galinda shook her head and said gently, "No, Elphie, leave it." She reached out to tug Elphaba's hair free from behind her ear and arranged the newly shorter strands in a gentle wave around her face. "Much better."
Elphaba made a face, but she also took hold of Galinda's hand and squeezed it as the professor stood to begin his lecture. Galinda turned and caught Fiyero's eye. "And just what are you smiling at?" she asked.
His smile grew deeper and fonder, and he caught the hand Elphaba had released and brought it quickly to his lips. "Nothing at all."
A week later, Elphaba took Galinda - Glinda, rather - with her to the Emerald City, and nothing was ever normal again.