AN. The menu is what I had at my uncle's wedding whilst writing this. And the duck story is true. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine.

7

There were fifty people coming to Lurlinemas dinner at Kiamo Ko that night, mostly all members of Parliament, government officials and prominent Vinkuns; although there were several of Ibrahim and Kasmira's closest friends attending as well and of course, Micah and Corin.

Fiyero was well accustomed to the custom by now, but he could honestly say he hadn't had this much fun at one of these dinners in years. He, Elphaba, Galinda, Boq, Nessa, Micah and Corin had a table together, and they laughed and talked all evening.

Then, of course, there was the simple fact that Fiyero could simply not take his eyes off his girlfriend. When she'd first entered the room that evening with Galinda, wearing her new dress, the necklace Fiyero had given her that morning and the earrings he'd given her for their one month anniversary, her long black hair pinned up on top of her head, Fiyero had almost forgotten how to breathe.

Corin, always helpful, had elbowed Fiyero in the ribs. "Dude, inhale."

Fiyero had done so sharply at the sudden pain in his side, and Corin laughed at him. "What happened?"

Micah had seen Elphaba enter too, even if Corin hadn't, and he turned to his friend solemnly. "You do know you're the luckiest bastard in Oz, don't you Tiggular? If we hadn't been friends since we were eight, I'd hate you."

"Thank you," Fiyero replied cheerfully.

Corin still had no clue. "What is it?"

Micah nodded over his shoulder, and Corin turned to see, unfortunately taking a sip of wine at the same time. When he saw Elphaba, he choked on it and half spat it out.

"Dude, inhale," Fiyero grinned at his friend cockily, before striding quickly over to Elphaba and kissing her vehemently.

"You look… so amazingly, incredibly, Ozdamn beautiful," he whispered to her and she blushed.

"It was Galinda," she explained. "I think I have about a million pins embedded in my scalp," she half-laughed as one hand went up to touch her hair, but he caught it and shook his head as he kissed first the back of her hand, then her palm.

"You're perfect. Inside and out," he murmured and she blushed even harder.

"Can you guys please not make me cry after I spent an hour doing my makeup?" Galinda begged and Fiyero startled, completely forgetting about Galinda.

"Hey, Glin. You look gorgeous," he grinned at her and she beamed.

"Thank you, Fiyero! Doesn't Elphie look absolutely beautiful?" Galinda gushed and Fiyero grinned in silent agreement as Elphaba averted her gaze in embarrassment.

Eventually Boq and Nessa joined them, and the seven of them grabbed one of the small tables scattered throughout the room.

"You'll see what I mean about the food," Fiyero warned them as they sat and Elphaba looked amused, remembering his complaints before they'd left school.

"Yero, it can't be that bad," she rolled her eyes.

"I swear to you, I never recognise what's on the plate in front of me," Fiyero replied. "Micah, Corin- back me up on this."

Both men nodded. "Yeah, I don't come back every year for the food, let me tell you," Corin said.

When a servant came over to fill their wine glasses, Fiyero stopped him.

"Hey, Prio, what's on the menu for tonight?"

The young man recited immediately. "The entrée is a warm barbeque duck breast with a salad of watercress, witlof salad and toasted cashews with sweet soy dressing. For the main we have an oven roasted three bone lamb rack, kifler potatoes, eggplant puree, confit eschallots, gremolate and lamb jus. And dessert is a berry chocolate parfait."

Galinda's eyes practically glazed over at the mention of dessert. "Yum," she sighed dreamily.

Boq looked hesitant. "Uh, what exactly is gremolate and lamb jus?"

Fiyero pointed a finger at the Munchkin dramatically. "Exactly. I rest my case," he declared triumphantly.

Elphaba laughed. "Please! Like you won't eat everything on your plate regardless of what it is!"

"True," Fiyero admitted. "But I like knowing what I'm eating."

As they ate, Corin couldn't pass up the opportunity to embarrass his old friend in front of his girlfriend.

"So, who wants to hear some stories about the scandalacious Fiyero Tiggular?"

"Me!" Elphaba and Galinda said in unison and Fiyero looked alarmed.

"What? No!"

"Shush, Yero," Elphaba held up a hand to her boyfriend before turning eagerly to Corin. "Go on."

Corin looked delighted. "Well, first of all- let me separate some rumours from the facts. Our little Yero here wasn't always the smooth, charming, charismatic prince you fell in love with Elphaba."

Elphaba scoffed at that description, but quickly turned it into a cough as Fiyero turned to her.

"Sorry- continue," she said innocently, determinedly not looking at Fiyero.

Micah took over. "Corin's right, that all kicked in around the age of twenty. I'm sure you don't want to hear about the three years in between twenty and when he came to Shiz."

"But before all of that, Fiyero had a few, short, ill-fated relationships. My personal favourite, was the very lovely Miss Kheri," Corin grinned.

Fiyero groaned, knowing immediately which story he was planning on telling. "Don't," he begged but his friends ignored him.

"So, we were seventeen," Micah set the scene for them. "And Kheri was a girl in our class. She and Fiyero went out for three and a half weeks, before she broke up with him, because he was too immature and unromantic."

Elphaba's interest was piqued, knowing Fiyero as she did. "Really? What happened?"

"Ok, so we all went out with our dates to this restaurant," Corin continued. "And Kheri had ordered… something, and she had a bunch of rice left over on her plate. Now, because she was a sweet, loving girl, she thought it would be a nice gesture to arrange the rice into a love heart, for our Yero here. She did so, making a lovely heart-shaped pile of rice and casually brought this work of art to Fiyero's attention."

Micah grinned. "Fiyero looks over at her plate, takes the fork from her and rearranges some of the rice, turns back to Kheri and says 'hey look, I made a duck!'"

Elphaba snorted with laughter and she, Boq and Galinda collapsed into a fit of horrified laughter. Nessa didn't laugh, but she didn't look unamused by the story either. Fiyero wanted to die.

"Fiyero!" Galinda managed to exclaim between giggles and Fiyero grimaced.

"I was seventeen!" he protested in his defence. "I was an idiot, okay? And apparently I'm not much smarter now if I'm still friends with these jerks," he muttered, glowering at Micah and Corin.

"The best part was when Kheri just sighed and said 'yes, Fiyero. That's a wonderful duck,'" Corin choked out, laughing hysterically and Fiyero sighed.

The rest of the night was a lot less humiliating for Fiyero, but not so much for Elphaba. Fiyero made sure to introduce her to pretty much everyone in the room, and especially his parents' friends, who were very much interested in the girl who had won the heart of the Vinkus prince. Elphaba found she very much liked Izanami, who was Kasmira's closest friend and the midwife who had delivered Fiyero.

Midnight came and went, and eventually it was only the young people alone in the ballroom. Elphaba whimpered slightly in pain as she kicked off her high heels Galinda had made her wear and sighed in relief as she flexed her feet.

"Tired?" Fiyero asked as he sat next to her.

She smiled faintly. "No, just sore."

She reached up and began pulling hairpins from her hair, taking advantage of the fact that Galinda was distracted talking to Micah. Corin was fiddling with a record player and Nessa seemed half-asleep, as she watched Boq eat leftover parfait.

Elphaba sighed in relief as the last pin came out and her hair fell in tangle of curls. Fiyero watched her silently, he couldn't deny that he did love Elphaba's hair- apart from her eyes it was maybe his favourite feature of hers. She ran her fingers through her hair quickly and began to braid it loosely, but Fiyero reached out and caught her hand, pulling it down to her lap.

"Don't," he said softly, and although Elphaba looked faintly surprised, she left her hair down.

Corin turned up the music and began to waltz around the room with an imaginary partner and Fiyero laughed.

"Nice footwork, Corin," he called out with a grin, and Corin raised an eyebrow challengingly.

"Well, let's see you do better, Your Highness."

Fiyero shrugged and stood, turning and holding out a hand to Elphaba.

"You owe me a dance, Fae."

Elphaba was startled. "I what? Why?"

His gaze was soft as he looked at her. "Because the last time I danced with you, I had to watch you walk away."

Elphaba met his gaze as she recalled the night of the party in Munchkin City, when Fiyero had called her beautiful and she'd run off.

"I'm not putting my shoes back on," she warned him as she stood and took his hand.

Fiyero grinned as he led her to the centre of the room and pulled her into his arms. He didn't lead her in a waltz or anything fancy, he was just happy to have her in his arms.

Galinda broke off her conversation with Micah to watch them and seeing her expression, he too turned to watch Fiyero and Elphaba dance.

"It is so weird seeing Fiyero in love," he shook his head and Galinda chuckled.

"Maybe he was just waiting for the right girl," she said softly.

Micah smiled. "I guess so."

Corin came and sat beside them. "You reckon they're sleeping together yet?"

Galinda blushed and Micah was horrified. "Corin! That's really not the best time to ask that question!" he hissed and Corin looked faintly and suitably abashed.

Galinda cleared her throat. "It's okay," she assured them, still pink in the face. "Besides, I happen to know they're not. They've only been together four months."

Corin looked sceptical and opened his mouth to comment, but Galinda cut him off. "And you might say that's not important to Fiyero. But it's different with Elphie. He's different. And she's certainly not going to rush into anything like that."

"Because of her skin?" Micah asked hesitantly, not sure if that was an appropriate question to ask, but Galinda didn't seem to mind.

"Mostly," she nodded. "Elphie may seem confident and tough on the outside, but she's actually a very shy, modest and private person. Her skin is a big factor to that- most people aren't very accepting of her when they first meet her. She's not used to… being loved."

Galinda sighed sadly, that simple fact always made her heart ache for her best friend.

On the dance floor, Fiyero held Elphaba close and smiled. "Hey, Fae?"

"Hmm?"

"It's twelve twenty-three. Happy anniversary."

She chuckled faintly and kissed him gently. "Happy anniversary, Yero."

She couldn't believe it had already been four months since the night in Munchkin City. Only four months ago, she had never dreamed she could be this happy, or that Fiyero could actually love her as much as he did and exactly the way she was. Elphaba remembered back to their one month anniversary, when she had been wary of Fiyero's optimism they would make it to a year.

But now, in his arms, it didn't seem that crazy. Elphaba wasn't quite sure how she knew it, and true, the vision was hazy, but she could see a lifetime of happiness with Fiyero stretching out before them. And although that frightened her slightly, it also made her feel happy and loved. For the first time in a long time, Elphaba looked forward to see what the new year would bring.