Stuck
In which, Fiyero accidentally locked himself in a closet with Elphaba.
Fiyero didn't know what to do. He felt his pulse quicken and he began to feel his palms clamming up. Each time he swallowed to try to moisten his parched throat, he could feel the heat in his chest grow warmer and warmer. Elphaba's body was trembling against his own and his arms, for some Oz forsaken reason, ached to wrap themselves around her waist.
They'd been trapped in the tiny closet for what seemed like forever and Elphaba had given up yelling at him after their second(?) hour stuck in here.
How could their current situation possibly his fault! He didn't know that Elphaba would get so defensive over her silly green bottle. It didn't even seem very expensive. Even if he dropped it, he could very easily have replaced it anyway. But Elphaba wasn't very impressed with his explanation and ended up lunging at him, screaming at the top of her lungs, and boy does she have a pair of lungs.
Fiyero exhaled gingerly. Every little movement seemed like a grand gesture when the two of them were pressed up so closely together. He glanced down at the green skinned girl standing in front of him. She hadn't said a word in a while and frankly, it was starting to worry him.
In the short time that he had known her, Fiyero noticed that Elphaba rarely had nothing to say to him. Granted, it was mostly sarcastic remarks and yelling on her end, the fact she hadn't even began rambling worried him.
"Elphie—"
"Don't call me that." She snapped back.
Oh, good. She was talking again.
"Did Galinda tell you when she'd be back?" He asked carefully, trying not to offend her with the sound of his voice.
"She said she'd be back 2 hours ago," he could almost see her grimace in the darkness, "But knowing her, she won't be back for another couple of hours."
"We'd better get comfortable in here, I guess," he allowed himself a little chuckle but he could feel Elphaba stiffen. Oops.
He pressed himself against the back of the closet, trying to give her more room. Even as he did that, he could feel Elphaba shift uncomfortably… Oh Great Oz, they were going to be stuck in here for another two hours at least, and then Fiyero would have to explain to his girlfriend what he had been doing in the closet with her bestfriend for over 4 hours.
He heard the sound of glass clinking against the wooden closet doors and was reminded painfully of the reason they were stuck in here in the first place.
For some reason, Fiyero was emboldened by this, "So, what's the story?"
"W-What?"
"The bottle," he pressed. He could feel Elphaba shrinking desperately away from him and Fiyero felt a sting in his chest. "There had to be a reason why you were willing to lunge at me just to get it back."
"That's none of your business."
"You attacked me because of it," he commented, frustration in his voice. Now usually Fiyero would never press Elphaba if she didn't want to share, but her reaction to the bottle had been (at least to him) a little overblown, and he felt that he deserved to know.
She exhaled deeply and he could feel her body trembling slightly. Again, he felt the need to wrap his arms around her to calm her. Fiyero kicked those thoughts out of his head before he got himself into more trouble.
"It belonged to my mother." She said in a small voice. "That's all."
She sounded so vulnerable. It was a word that Fiyero had never associated with Elphaba Thropp. She was supposed to be the headstrong, loud voiced, sarcastic bookworm. She wasn't supposed to be soft and fragile as well. It just didn't fit the image of her that Fiyero had concocted in his head.
He dipped his head slightly and sighed, lips accidentally brushing against her hair.
"I'm sorry," he said softly.
"… Just leave it alone, alright." There was something sad in her voice. A catch in her breath. Elphaba took a deep breath and cleared her throat awkwardly, "So. What were you doing in our room anyway? W-Wait, more importantly," he could hear slight alarm in her voice, "how did you get in here?"
"Galinda gave me a spare," he said nonchalantly. "I wanted to surprise her."
"Oh I heard you reserved a private booth at that new restaurant outside of campus for your date tonight," she commented curiously. "She already knows about, if you're trying to surprise her, it didn't work."
"Oh no, the surprise was me arriving early," he laughed.
To his surprise, she laughed too. To be honest, Fiyero had been simply expecting her to roll her eyes at him. He felt a smile form on his lips. He liked her laugh. She laughed like she was trying to suppress it and it ended up making her snort. His chest felt warm again.
When their laughter died down, there was a pregnant pause. Something had changed in the air between them, and Fiyero didn't know if he didn't like it. In laughing they had unconsciously moved closer to each other, no longer desperately pushing as far away from each other as possible. He could feel her every breath and she could almost hear the sound of his heartbeat.
"So, E-Elphaba.."
He wasn't sure what he wanted to say, but when the closet doors gave way and Elphaba yelped as she fell backwards, Fiyero remembered calling her name as he reached out to catch her right before he knocked his head on the edge of the bedside table and blacking out.
He was dreaming now.
He was dancing with Galinda. Her soft blond curls twirling as he spun her around. She was saying something to him now, her smile reached her beautiful blue eyes. He couldn't quite hear what she said but he simply nodded and smiled back. Suddenly, he heard a voice. A hauntingly beautiful voice. It sounded so familiar.
Fiyero turned around and the scene changed. He was wearing a uniform, his hair oiled back neatly. Galinda was in a stunning dress that made her look absolutely out of this world. Around them, there were people in masks dancing cordially to muted ballroom music. Fiyero thought nothing of this. This was just a dream. Playing along, he leaned down to Galinda and whispered a compliment as he smiled gently.
There were gasps in the crowd and his head snapped up to see what the commotion was about. His eyes were guided to where everyone was pointing and whispering. At the top of the stairs stood Elphaba, her skin was a shade greener than he'd remembered. But Oz, she was beautiful. Her hair was undone, the long, wavy locks reaching her waist. Her dress so intricately hugged the curves of her body, curves that Fiyero hadn't thought that Elphaba had until now.
He couldn't quite see her face because of that pointed hat that she wore so iconically, but he thought instantly that she was beautiful. He watched as her lips formed the syllables of his name.
"Fiyero…"
He could almost hear her. The sound of the crowd was slowly drowned out. Even Galinda's grip on his arm seemed to loosen.
"Fiyero…"
He smiled. Oh the sound of her voice.
"Wake up."
He blinked.
His eyes couldn't adjust to the bright lights as Fiyero groaned loudly, immediately trying to grab anything close to him to shield his eyes. He grabbed what felt like bed sheets and buried his face under it.
"Let go of my skirt you creep!"
"Elphie!"
He felt his respite get yanked away and he groaned again. He blinked slowly, rolling to his chest and using his elbows to prop himself up. His vision was finally returning to him. He looked around, his forehead throbbing slightly.
Galinda touched his face gingerly, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs, "Fiyero! Does your head still hurt? Are you feeling better?"
Worry was evident in her eyes. Her soft hands on his cheeks was soothing. He smiled gently, "Yeah, I'm feeling better." Something clicked in his head and suddenly he remembered Elphaba falling and him reaching out for her. "Where's Elphaba?"
His eyes searched the room in panic and it was just seconds before they landed on the green girl sitting cross legged on her bed, watching him bemusedly. She smoothed her skirt self-consciously.
"I already explained what happened to Galinda," she commented nonchantly. She climbed back down from her bed and made a bee line for her desk, "I know you're probably going to want to nurse him back to health, Galinda, so I'm just going to make myself scarce."
"Elphie… You know we don't mind if you hang out with us," the blond chided seriously. She wanted anything but to make Elphaba uncomfortable. And moreover, she had been stuck in that tiny closet for the last few hours!
Galinda couldn't believe how horrendible it must've been! Not that she would've minded being in such close quarters with Fiyero, but Elphie had made it very clear that she didn't like the Vinkun Prince very much. Thank goodness she had decided to come back early to prepare for her date with Fiyero!
"It's fine, Glin," Elphaba smiled, "I prefer studying alone anyway. I've already lost enough time and brain cells being in that closet with the Prince."
"Oi!"
Elphaba smirked at that, picked up her books and after a wave of her hand, she left the room.
Fiyero furrowed his brows at that. His brain still throbbing from the fall. He laid his head on Galinda's legs, frowning slightly, "How long was I out?"
"About an hour. We were really worried about you, you know." She said sweetly. Galinda led Fiyero up and got him to lay in Elphaba's bed. Having a boy in her own bed would be too scandalacious of course. Elphie wouldn't mind.
"You looked like you were having a really nice dream." Galinda commented with a laugh.
Fiyero felt panic rise in his chest but quickly masked it with a dismissive chuckle, "Oh nothing you'd like to hear about." He jumped up from bed, instantly regretting it when his brain scrambled, "H-Hey, I'm already feeling better. We can still make the reservation if we head out now…"
"Oh, I can't possibly go on a date at the Riverra looking like this!" The blond gasped, horrified at his suggestion.
"Maybe you can doll up and we'll head to the Ozdust instead? I heard Pfannee and ShenShen are there tonight with some of the others."
"Weeell, if you don't mind waiting…"
Fiyero grinned and gave her a wink, "Anything for a beautiful lady."
Now, in the library, Elphaba was staring at her books, but nothing was registering. Maybe Galinda had been right. She was still in shock from her claustrophobic experience in the closet and even if she tried, she won't be able to get any work done tonight.
She sighed heavily as she closed the thick volume.
When Galinda had unlatched the closet, she had immediately fallen backwards. She could remember the look on Fiyero's face. His eyes fixated on hers as he reached out for her. She heard him call her name, but immediately after that, all in that split second, she heard the painful thud of his forehead connecting with her bedside table.
She couldn't quite believe how worried she had been when his eyes refused to open and it had taken Galinda to remind her that his chest was still rising and falling. Elphaba decided to attribute that to guilt. She wasn't worried about him. She merely felt guilty. Of course.
She sighed again and glanced out the window, something that she hasn't done in a long time.
There was a squeal and it caught Elphaba's attention. She caught a flash of blond as she skipped and frolicked. Following behind her was Fiyero, of course. She watched Galinda giggle as she wrapped herself around Fiyero's arm. He smiled sweetly down at her.
Fiyero's eyes quickly glanced up at her window however, and in panic, Elphaba quickly withdrew herself from the panes. She decided then she would bury everything. If she had any sort of feelings, good or bad, for Fiyero, she was going to bury it. Feeling nothing was better than having to deal with all these confusing emotions swirling around in her chest.
At this same time, Fiyero decided that he had to figure out what all this strange warmness he'd felt when he was with Elphaba, and he was determined to see it through.
A/N All Fiyeraba. All fluff. ;) Reviews? Comments? I'm planning to write a 3 part series next so if you guys have any prompts or ideas, feel free to shout out!