A/N: Plot bunny. Yes, I'm still working on Features of a Rose, although I'm not sure when the next update will be, since it's now exam time. I hope you'll be patient with me! This was just a little one-shot that I thought would be fun to write, and it was a nice little break from my work. Because who doesn't love angsty Fiyeraba, right?

When Elphaba had first seen the poster on the notice board, she ignored it. She had more important things to worry about than a shiny new poster, given that she had slept in that morning after Galinda forced her – against her better judgement – to attend a party at the Ozdust ballroom the previous night. The alcohol had been flowing, and the night and the pumping music lasted long. And now she was running late for History with Dr Dillamond. If she missed the start of class and some vitally important piece of information that caused her to fail, she would hold Galinda's pretty blonde head personally responsible.

It wasn't until later that day, after having made it to History just in time for roll call and then meeting her roommate for lunch, that she took a closer look. A small crowd of students was gathered around the noticeboard. Elphaba would have walked right passed them, but Galinda tugged on her hand, eager to see what the commotion was about.

"Glin, I really don't care what's happening. It's not like anything this student body is excited by would interest me."

But Galinda was having none of it. She pulled her disgruntled green friend towards the source of the excitement – Avaric Tenmeadows, with his bronze hair mussed artfully and cover boy grin, was loitering by the noticeboard, waving a sheet of paper above his head. "Roll up, roll up. Ever dreamed of fame and fortune? Well, it's your lucky day. Sign up sheets available here! Star in the Shiz University spring play, and show Oz your talent!"

Elphaba snorted in a very un-ladylike fashion. "Is he serious? Fame and fortune from a university drama club?"

"Oh hush, Elphie," Galinda slapped her arm lightly. "Just go with it. It's advertising."

"I thought parties and mischief were more his thing?"

Galinda looked at her as though she'd said something very odd. "Of course, they are. You don't think Avaric can be interested in the school play too?"

"Nope, not at all." But it wasn't Elphaba who had spoken. Fiyero sidled up between them, dropping his arm casually around Galinda's shoulders. "Av's just doing this for the perks."

"What perks?" Elphaba asked him curiously.

Fiyero grinned at her. "Horrible Morrible said she'd give him a free pass to leave campus out of hours on account of his – ahem – good behaviour on the condition that he advertised this play thing."

Elphaba gaped at him. "Are you serious? Good behaviour? She does know that it was Avaric who trashed the library last week, doesn't she?"

Galinda crossed her arms and pouted. "How come he gets off campus out of hours and the rest of us don't?"

"She doesn't know," Fiyero answered Elphaba first. "She's still holding Lerren Underhill on suspicion of the crime. And she knows Av will just use the pass as an excuse to get hammered. Which he does most nights anyway, but if he does it after receiving a privilege of sorts from Morrible, she'll have an excuse to expel him."

Elphaba frowned. "And Avaric doesn't know this?"

"Oh, he knows," Fiyero said cheerfully, slinging his other arm around Elphaba's shoulders. She tensed at the unexpected contact and tried to ignore the way heat spread through her body from his touch. "He just sees it as a win-win situation," Fiyero continued. "He gets an excuse to go out drinking without having to sneak out, and he'll be free of this place all in a oner."

"Aw, Tiggular, stop blabbing about my master plan," Avaric sauntered up to them, pushing through a gaggle of short-skirted, perfumed girls.

Fiyero smirked at him. "Master plan, my foot."

"It's a great plan!" Avaric defended himself. Smoothly, he stepped closer to Galinda, grasping her hand and kissing it. "What d'you say, Miss Upland? Want to join the Shiz play?"

Galinda looked aghast. "Avaric, whatever do you mean by kissing my hand? Don't you know I'm taken?" To underline the point, she twisted in Fiyero's embrace and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Isn't that right darling?"

Fiyero smiled at her. "Of course, Glin."

Galinda beamed and tilted her face up, clearly requesting a kiss. Fiyero obliged her.

To distract herself from the way her stomach twisted watching them kiss, Elphaba focused her attention on Avaric. "So, what's this play then, Tenmeadows?"

Avaric smiled wolfishly at Elphaba. "Wouldn't you just like to know. I promise it involves lots of fun, though. Hey, if you join, you may even get to have some fun with me. I don't normally go for vegetables, but hey, I can branch out."

Fiyero glared darkly at him. "You will do nothing of the sort."

"Oh, you're such a wet blanket Tiggular. Fine, if you insist. I'll just go for your little girlfriend instead."

Galinda gasped and daintily slapped him on the arm.

"He's bluffing," Fiyero growled. "The play is nothing like he's describing."

"How would you know?" Avaric laughed heartily.

"I just know you, Avaric."

Avaric scoffed. "Fair enough. Well, if you change your mind, there are still spaces left," he wiggled the sheet in their faces. Elphaba scoffed, and Galinda crossed her arms and sniffed, turning away.

Avaric seemed to find this highly amusing. "The offer still stands you know." He leaned in close to whisper seductively into Elphaba's ear. "Both offers."

Fiyero seemed to have had enough. "Alright, Av, back off. Go annoy someone else for a while."

"Suit yourself. Hey, Tiggular, see you at Lerren's little get-together tonight?"

Fiyero muttered something that sounded like agreement, but Elphaba couldn't be sure.

"Can you believe his nerve?" Galinda sounded suitably outraged. "It was so improper."

"Let's just go, Glin," Elphaba awkwardly shifted out from under Fiyero's arm – he still hadn't removed it.

Galinda took on an injured air, whipping out her powder from her designer handbag and touching up her lipstick, as though she had gotten dirty just from being in Avaric's presence.

Elphaba rolled her eyes at her roommate's antics.

…

Later, back in the dorm room, Elphaba had stationed herself at her desk, hoping to make a dent in her History assignment they'd received today. Galinda perched on the edge of her bed, and Elphaba could hear the sound of her rocking to and fro, the way she always did when she was thinking something over. For a while, she ignored her. Better to let her get all that thinking out of her system.

She kept on rocking however, and eventually, Elphaba sighed, putting her pencil down and turning around. "What is it, Glin?"

Galinda turned wide, surprised eyes on her. "What is what?"

"You're thinking about something," Elphaba explained patiently. "What are you thinking about?"

Galinda's jaw dropped and she ceased her rocking. "How did you know I was thinking, Elphie?"

An amused smile played at the corners of Elphaba's lips. "I know you, Glin. Now come on, spit it out."

Galinda took a deep breath and kicked her legs like a small child, twisting her hands in her lap. "Okay. I was just thinking – what if we signed up for that play?"

Elphaba stared at her. "You want to join the play? Why?"

"Oh, I don't know!" Galinda spoke breathlessly. "I just think it would be fun! Wouldn't it be fun, Elphie? You and me could both join together!"

Elphaba turned back around. "Nuh uh. No way." She picked up her pencil and recommenced writing. "I am not taking part in a university play, Galinda."

"But why not, Elphie?" Galinda whined.

"Because," she spluttered. "It's not me, Glin! I can't be in a play."

"Oh, of course you can," Galinda giggled, standing up and skipping over to her. She threw her arms around Elphaba's neck from behind, affectionately, startling the green girl. "You silly thing. You don't give yourself enough credit. I see how dramatic you are on a day to day basis. You'd be a great actress!"

"I am not dramatic!" Elphaba huffed.

"Oh, yes you are, Elphie. Please, please, please will you join?"

"Glin..."

"Please?"

Elphaba groaned and laid her head down on top of her notebook in frustrated resignation. "Fine."

"Yay!"

"How did I get myself into this?" Elphaba moaned.

Galinda giggled. "Because you love me, of course!"

"That, I can't deny."

…

The next day, indeed, Elphaba found herself scrawling her name beneath Galinda's curvilinear script on Avaric's sign-up sheet. Avaric's self-satisfied grin when they had asked to sign up was almost enough to make her turn back around and tell Galinda she could do the play alone. Almost. Galinda's pouting face when she had been about to chicken out was enough to get her to irritably write down her name.

"Elphaba Melena Thropp, don't write as though you're signing your own death warrant," Galinda chided.

"Who's signing their death warrant?" It was Fiyero.

"We're signing up for the play, Fiyero!" Galinda announced to him happily.

Fiyero seemed to do a double take as he narrowed his eyes at Elphaba. "Wait. You're signing up for a play?"

Elphaba grunted. "You needn't sound so surprised."

"Yes, she is," Galinda linked her arm with Elphaba's. "She's doing it because she's a talented actress, and she needs to get out and have more fun, and because she loves me too much to say no to me."

A slow smile lit up Fiyero's face. "That, I can very well imagine."

Elphaba shifted uncomfortably at the light in his eyes when he said that. The light directed at her.

"Well, why don't I sign up too? Since you girls are both doing it." Fiyero reached for a pen from his pocket and made to add his own name to the list.

Galinda started bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet and squealing. "Oh, will you Fiyero? Thank you, darling!" She launched herself at him and kissed him gleefully.

"Oh, come now, that's enough," Elphaba's sarcastic voice interrupted them. "It's bad enough that I'm doing this at all. I don't need to see you kissing him to death." She really didn't want to see that.

"Oops, sorry, Elphie."

…

A week later, Elphaba stared at the small slip of paper in her hand.

It was the slip of paper indicating the role she would play. The roles had been picked at random. So there was no way the process could have been rigged just to taunt her. Could it?

"Hey Fae!" Fiyero jogged up to her, that annoying nickname rolling easily off his tongue that he seemed to have reserved for his sole use. "What role did you get?"

Elphaba swallowed to try and wet her suddenly dry mouth. Galinda had already told her what role she and Fiyero had received. Elphaba had been unable to attend the initial meeting to announce the parts, as she'd been helping Dr Dillamond with a special project after class that he had asked her to help with. She was very excited about the opportunity to work alongside her favourite professor, so had not really been concerned about being there to get her part in the play with everyone else. She had arranged to come and pick it up from Morrible's office after she was finished with Dr Dillamond. She now stood outside the office trying to process what her brain was telling her.

"I, um..." she licked her lips. "I'm playing Holda."

Fiyero blinked, and a strange look passed over his face that she couldn't quite decipher. "Oh. Really?"

Elphaba nodded. "Yeah. Really."

"I'm playing Jerrin," he told her.

She gulped. "I know. Galinda told me." She still hadn't looked up at him. She hadn't talked herself into it yet.

"Jerrin and Holda are the main romantic pairing in the play... right?" Fiyero looked at her imploringly.

Finally, she met his eye. "Yeah." She had no idea what to do with that.

She was a horrible best friend. She wasn't supposed to be attracted to her best friend's boyfriend. That wasn't how these things worked. It had been bad enough when she had started to feel... strange... around him, after they had saved that Lion Cub together. But then it had gotten worse.

The more time she spent with him, the more she came to love him. And the more she loved him, the more she noticed about him, which caused her to love him more.

At first, she had been able to convince herself that it was just a crush, and it would pass. Maybe it had started out that way. As a crush. But it certainly hadn't stayed that way. The fact that they had gotten these roles was just a horrible stroke of bad luck.

She had worked so hard to keep it a secret from Galinda. It was so hard, but she was managing it. She was pretty sure Galinda didn't suspect a thing. But how was she supposed to remain neutral while pretending to be in a romantic relationship with Fiyero, even if it was only as Jerrin and Holda? She shook herself. She would just have to get over it. Fiyero could never be hers. She knew he would have to find a wife, as Prince of the Vinkus, and it was looking likely that he would choose Galinda. She certainly knew that was what Galinda wanted.

What she wanted didn't matter. Even if he and Galinda weren't together, there was no chance of him ever wanting to marry her. This was just a play. It wasn't real. She would simply have to ingrain that into her head.

"Well," Fiyero stalled. "Do you want to maybe go and get something to eat? We can have a look over the script then. Rehearsals start tomorrow."

Elphaba bit her lip. "Yeah. Okay." Then she smiled as something occurred to her. "I think this might be the first time you've ever suggested preparing work beforehand."

Fiyero grinned at her. "I have my moments."

…

He had his moments indeed. And he'd done very well. Elphaba was a little taken aback by how he'd thrown himself into practising the script over dinner, but it made her smile.

What hadn't made either of them smile was when they had reached Scene Ten of their speed read-through, and come to a very unfortunate realisation.

They would have to kiss.

Elphaba had a very restless sleep that night, thinking over the implications of that. Galinda had been rather quiet since they had told her about it, but had assured her friend that she didn't mind, and that she didn't blame her. It was an unfortunate coincidence, she insisted. That was all. But still, Elphaba felt horribly guilty about it. Or perhaps it wasn't so much the kiss she felt guilty about, as the fact that she could think of little else since they had found out.

Just the mere thought of kissing him was enough to send her off into a tailspin of emotion.

The next day, all the students filed into the Shiz sports hall where they would be commencing the rehearsal. The Drama professor was a Horse, Dr Reginald, with a pleasant smile and energetic air about him. Elphaba had never taken Drama, so was not acquainted with Dr Reginald. But it always pleased her to see Animals in Shiz. Excitedly, she left Fiyero and Galinda to approach him immediately and introduce herself. She could almost feel the amused stares of her friends boring into her back, but she didn't care.

Dr Reginald was lively and interesting, and Elphaba judged that she wouldn't mind having him direct the play. Happily, she returned to Galinda and Fiyero, grunting when Galinda threw her arms around her, laughing. "Oh, you're so funny, Elphie. You're so strange."

"Um, thanks, I guess," Elphaba mumbled breathlessly. "Glin. Can't breathe."

Galinda jumped back, looking apologetic. "Sorry."

"Alright, everyone, let's begin," Dr Reginald called them to attention, and Elphaba stood very straight, giving him her complete attention.

The rehearsal passed by fairly quickly. At first, Dr Reginald simply wanted them to do a run-through of the entire script to get a feel for the whole play. It wasn't the kind of play that Elphaba would normally be interested in, but somehow, Dr Reginald managed to make it interesting, and she found herself engrossed. To her intense surprise, she found herself actually having fun.

The bombshell hit towards the end of the rehearsal, however.

"Now," Dr Reginald announced. "I know this isn't normally how we would go about things, but I really feel it would be good to spend some time focusing on the play's turning point, Scene Ten."

Elphaba went very, very still, the colour suddenly draining from her face. She exchanged a quick glance at Fiyero, who looked as disgruntled as she was.

"Scene Ten is a very important part of the play, as it is the moment when Jerrin must make a decision as to whether he is going to stay on his current course, or whether he's going to give up his career, status and fiancée for Holda. Miss Elphaba, Master Fiyero, I believe you two have been given the roles?"

Mutely, they both stood up.

Dr Reginald smiled. "Do you think you could read through the scene again for us? It would be good if you could experiment a little with how it might look on the stage. Don't worry about getting it perfect. This is just an improvisation stage, to see what you're both capable of."

Shakily, Elphaba nodded and turned to Fiyero.

She hated being the centre of attention. Now everyone was looking at her. Really looking at her. But that wasn't what worried her, for once. Not at all.

Biting her lip, she held up her script and started to speak.

After the first couple of lines, the scene flowed pretty well. Elphaba found that she was actually enjoying acting. Of course, Fiyero was highly distracting throughout the whole thing, but she did her best to ignore the agitated butterflies in her stomach. She almost forgot what was coming. Almost.

Soon, Fiyero read out the line that was to lead up to the... kiss. Elphaba's knuckles went white as she gripped the script hard, and her hands began to shake. Fiyero finished speaking, and as he turned his beautiful blue eyes on her, her mind went blank. Timidly, he reached out and she handed him her script, which he passed to the student sitting closest to them with his own script. He grasped Elphaba's hand gently in his own, and her heart raced.

"Holda," he said. "I choose you."

Fiyero looked conflicted for a moment, but then he was leaning forward.

Elphaba focused on breathing evenly the closer he got. She wasn't sure how well it was working, but she had to try. She needed to stay in control. In control. He wasn't hers – he was just acting. Acting.

Elphaba's breath hitched, and his lips pressed against hers. A soft groan passed her lips, too quiet to be heard by any of the other students. Without meaning to, she found herself responding to the kiss, and her hands rested uselessly against his chest. His mouth was gentle, so gentle. She almost wanted to cry. She had dreamed of this so much in her sleep, but how she'd imagined it didn't even come close to how it was in reality. The kiss lingered for perhaps a little longer than was strictly necessary, and then it was over.

Then reality set back in. She became aware of clapping, and as she turned, she noticed that Dr Reginald had stood up, and was smiling at them approvingly. The other students were clapping too, looking slightly stunned. "That was wonderful," Dr Reginald told them. "I really think you two have great potential. You were very believable."

Elphaba closed her eyes as she sat back down, her legs feeling very wobbly. Believable. She had believed it too, she realised. No matter how much she had told herself it wasn't real, when he kissed her she had believed it. And her heart felt bruised.