I've just realised that this is my 10th story ever! Virtual cookies all around!

Also, sorry for late update all, it is assignments every week at uni and I'm going camping over the weekend so it'll probs be just the one chapter this week, but next week we will be back to two! But hey, long chapter to make up for it!

Dare 4 - Thief in the Night

It had been three days since the cross-dressing incident and still no one had heard anything from, or seen anything of, the Winkie Prince. He had been holed up in his dorm away from the prying eyes that could not decide if what they had seen had actually happened. When he finally did appear however he was calm and right back to his usual charming self, working hard to pretend the 'incident' had never even happened.

As Fiyero swaggered his way down the corridors towards his next class he heard something no young man who has ever had the pleasure of attending Shiz University wants to hear; Madame Morrible calling his name.

"Mr Tiggular!" warbled Morrible as she stalked towards him down the hall, students parting before her like the red sea.

Fiyero swallowed hard before plastering on his most charming smile. "Yes, Madame Morrible?" he said suavely.

The old fish put her crow-like hands on her hips and tried her best to look menacing. She did not have to try particularly hard.

"Your behaviour a few days ago on the campus lawn caused several students mental harm!" she squawked.

Fiyero's hand flew to his breast in shock, "My fan girls!"

"Yes," Morrible sneered, "the poor dears could not bear the fact that their icon of masculinity could possible cross-dress, let alone so blatantly."

Fiyero shook his head and felt his heart drop. "Madame, this has all been a terrible misunderstanding. You see I-"

"I don't want to hear it, Tiggular," Morrible interrupted before leaning in close enough for Fiyero to see each and every one of her gaping, barely-disguised-by-a-thick-layer-of-make-up pores and whispering. "Don't tell me you didn't enjoy your sick little experiment."

Morrible cackled as she walked off back to her office to plan her next diabolical scheme to humiliate yet another of her students.

"Wow, man, she really got you, ey?" said Boq, suddenly appearing right next to Fiyero's elbow, to which Fiyero gave a startlingly accurate impression of a gecko in the nearest wall.

Recovering quickly, the Prince brushed of his precious white pants and approached his munchkin pal. "Hey, Boq," he said, "I didn't see you there."

The munchkin frowned up at him before shrugging. "Okay."

The pair walked towards their Politics class for a few minutes before an idea dawned on Fiyero's brain like never before (which is not a joke about how he is supposed to be brainless. Gee, really gnawing at old bones aren't we?)

"Boq," Fiyero stopped and looked his munchkin pal square in the eye. "I dare you to steal Madame Morrible's garden gnome collection and set them up like students around the campus."

"What!?" The munchkin squeaked. "Why me?"

Fiyero put his hands on the little man's shoulders. "Because right now I can only ever dare Elphaba and the repetition of it all would probably start to get me down after a time, so you are now a part of the Dare War!"

"I'm not a part of this crazy mess you people have become so fond of!" Boq protested, squirming free and walking briskly away leaving Fiyero to come up with a new plan.

"It's only a small task," said Fiyero as he jogged up next to Boq, "it should be easy." The Prince had resolved that he'd have to taunt the

Boq stopped, crossed his arms and gave an excellent impression of Elphaba's dry laugh, "Ha ha."

"Well, I don't mean to belittle you or anything but you are chicken." Fiyero cocked out his elbows and flapped them like wings, clucking as he ran, bow-legged around Boq.

"These are very original," Boq deadpanned, "not like I haven't heard those before."

Fiyero stopped clucking (mainly because he was getting looks and he did not want a repeat of three days ago) and put on his best disappointed-mother face. "Does Boq-ey boo not want to play today? Does he want to run back to Nessa and never do anything fun ever again?"

"Urg!" the little man threw up his hands in resignation. "Fine!" he declared, "I'll do it."

Fiyero whooped and punched the air.

***Time Passes***

That night, Boq made his way through the darkened corridors of Shiz towards Madame Morrible's rooms, duffle bag over his shoulder. He knew the way well seeing as he went to see Nessarose there all the time.

Just as he reached for the handle the munchkin let out an involuntary squeak as Fiyero popped up behind him. "Yo," said the Prince casually, practically causing a heart attack in his slightly younger companion.

"What are you doing here?" Boq hissed.

"Just checking that the deed is done," replied Fiyero. "Plus I figured your baby munchkin arms wouldn't be big enough for all those gnomes to fit into, so I brought a bag."

"I already have a bag!" whisper yelled Boq in reply holding up his own bag as evidence.

"Oh," Fiyero replied dumbly nodding his head. "I'll just come along for the ride while I'm here then."

"Fine, just be quiet!"

The pair made their way into the rooms, creeping on all fours past Nessarose's bed and into the neighbouring room where Horrible Morrible resided after hours.

There, along the far wall by the window was a large cabinet, and inside the cabinet were dozens upon dozens of miniature ceramic men in funny hats. Morrible's Garden Gnomes Collection.

Boq gave Fiyero a look and they scuttled quickly across the room to the cabinet.

Boq gave the door a try but to no avail. "Locked," he muttered.

"Let me try," said Fiyero, and before Boq could protest the Prince had given the door a hard tug.

The flimsy lock rattled violently before it gave way with a crack that resounded perhaps a bit too loudly as Morrible stirred in her bed. the boys froze in terror, waiting for the Head Shizstress to wake and bust them, but it did not happen. After a moment the fish-lady settled again and the boys let out the breath they didn't know they had been holding.

Waiting a few more moments just to be sure they were safe, the boys opened a door each and started carefully lifting the gnomes off of their shelves and into the bags they carried, barely registering that each gnome had an individual plaque stating his name, job and star sign.

"How many of these things does she have?" whisper-exclaimed Boq as he lifted down a Mr Periwinkle from a particularly high shelf.

Fiyero never got to answer, because Mr Periwinkle decided that he did not wish to be kidnapped and slipped from Boq's Munchkin hands landing with a loud clatter in the bag amongst his brethren, somehow unharmed.

Morrible shot upright in her bed at the noise.

Boq and Fiyero froze in terror.

This, undoubtedly, would have been the end for the munchkin and the Winkie Prince, but fortunately for them Morrible liked to sleep with a mask over her eyes due to her room facing the eastern sun. The two boys, realising that the head Shizstress could not see, made a mad dash for the open window and launched themselves out, clutching the bags of gnomes to their chests to stifle the noise.

They landed mostly intact in the bushes at the bottom. One of the gnomes had clanked a bit to hard against another and lost a hand.

Not even bothering to check if Morrible had woken properly to notice she had been stolen from, let alone gotten up to investigate the noise outside, and sprinted across to their dorms only stopping for breath when they were safely inside and sure she had not seen them.

"Well, that's phase one down," said Fiyero, nodding with satisfaction and barely contained adrenaline giggles. "I look forward to the morning when I see the rest!"

The Prince passed his bag over to the munchkin and walked off to his dorm, leaving Boq by himself, with two very full bags of garden gnomes and the daunting task of placing them around the college like students.

The following morning, Fiyero was woken by the enraged scream of an obese elephant seal. Oh wait, it was Morrible. He dressed quickly and ran down the stairs onto the lawn where he saw what would undoubtedly go down in Shiz history as the 'Gnome Incident'.

Morrible was out in her fluffy purple nightgown with matching slippers and rollers in her hair, frantically tugging at a ceramic man in a little red cap standing in a huddle with a series of other little men of pottery.

As Fiyero wandered further he noticed there were gnomes sitting on benches to have a chat, gnomes walking in pairs down the path, and yet more gnomes laughing around the vending machines. Most remarkably, despite efforts otherwise, the gnomes had not, could not, be moved from where they stood.

Just as the Prince walked past a garden to see a group of gnomes playing frisbee, a hand shot out of a bush and pulled him through revealing a very tired and shaken Boq.

"This is brilliant!" exclaimed Fiyero gesturing wildly around the courtyard. "What- How did you-"

"They kept falling over so I super glued them down!" the munchkin hissed.

Fiyero did his very best to not burst into laughter seeing as Morrible was just within earshot. Not that she would have noticed as she was too busy distractedly retying her nightgown and ordering students to get to class as she pulled at the head of one of her beloved gnomes, pulling it clean off of the rest of his body.

Just then, a unknowing green girl was on her way to class.

"What happened here?" Elphaba muttered to herself as she walked past the bush Fiyero and Boq were hiding in.

"Elphaba!" whisper-called Fiyero from the bush. The green girl looked thoroughly confused at the voice that called to her from no-where. That is until Fiyero's hand reached out from the bush and yanked her in.

Elphaba looked at the pair and quickly made a deduction. "Was this a dare?" she asked, a grin slowly spreading across her face. Fiyero grinned back and nodded.

"You, sir," laughed Elphaba as she shook her head at Fiyero in disbelief, "have outdone yourself."

They three could only sit and try to stifle their laugh as Morrible tried fruitlessly to pry her gnomes from the concrete.

So much of my headcanon for how these characters interact calls back to my story The Social Experiment from 4 years ago. Even some of the jokes are still going! Like the gnome thing? That started back then! We are even going to see Avaric in two chapters or so and he will fit the old idea (with a few updates as well).

The Garden Gnome incident is an actual thing that actually happened over a decade ago at my old school. A friend of mine's year 12 class used it as their end of year prank. They stole 74 gnomes -the number of students in their year- from yards all around the area and super glued them around the school in comical places. You can still see patches in the concrete where they were stuck to this day…

Btw, thanks heaps for all your reviews! Keep it up, they make my heart smile!

Next chapter: In which Boq dares Elphaba.