"Yero, darling, you shouldn't punish him so harshly."
"Why not? Look what he did! For Oz's sake, Elphaba, what don't you understand?"
"What I do understand is that they're in love." She retorted. "She loves him. He loves her. So what if they got us into a little disagreement?"
"Fae, we barely spoke to each other for two weeks!"
"But…"
"And, if you don't remember, he's supposed to be married to someone else! His marriage has already been arranged for him."
Elphaba let baby Galinda claw at the hair that hung out of the loose ponytail she'd tied it in. The baby sat on her lap and Elphaba was bouncing her maternally as Fiyero held Dendrio, who was poking him for lack of attention. "You're going to yell at your brother for breaking the oath of an arranged marriage? Does his situation not sound familiar to you?" Elphaba laughed.
Fiyero paused and shook his head. "You win."
"I always do."
"Oh, no you don't."
"I do."
"If it weren't for these two, I'd have you crying for mercy right about now." Fiyero threatened.
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Everything is an allusion to sex with you, isn't it?"
"This entire situation consists of sex." Fiyero replied. "Anyway, as I was saying, Sidrio has still completely disobeyed the house rules. He and that servant girl…"
"She has a name. Her name is Vernia."
"Whatever. They had sex in our bedroom. They're not allowed to be in there at all."
"And where did we first have sex? Your dorm. Were we allowed to be in there together? No." Elphaba said simply.
"At least it was mine."
"That's true. But we were lucky. Go easy on them, Fiyero. They're in love."
"What am I supposed to tell my mother about Sidrio and his arranged marriage, huh? Am I supposed to tell her the truth?"
"Yes! She'll understand. She understood with us, remember?"
He sighed. "We didn't cause fights."
"I agree they need to be dealt with. You're right, we should punish them. But we cannot tear them apart."
"I'm king, here. Don't forget that."
"And I am your wife, not to mention your queen." Elphaba snapped. "Yero, we just finished fighting over something pointless. Let's not get into another fight, please."
"Of course not, my Fae. But I still disagree with your idea of punishment. Grounding my little brother will do him no good."
"It'll teach him not to use our bedroom again." Elphaba cradled baby Galinda in her arms and kissed the baby's forehead.
The sight of her so tender and maternal softened his initial anger. "Fine. I see where you're going. But you have to let me be in charge with this. He is my brother, after all."
"Had it been Lali, you would never even think to punish her this way."
"No, I'd kill the bastard who was using her."
"Overprotective." Elphaba teased in a singsong voice.
"Look, you know as well as I do how adolescent boys can be."
"Fiyero, he's not an adolescent anymore. He's a year younger than we were. Calm down."
Fiyero picked up his six-month-old son and placed him back in the cradle. "Come on. We have some punishments to deal out."
"Promise me you'll be easy on them?" Elphaba held baby Galinda tight against her chest.
"I promise."
Elphaba put Galinda in her cradle and dusted herself off. "Are you going to let them be together?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Not really. You'd be a hypocrite if you didn't."
Sidrio and Vernia were sitting solemnly in the living room when Elphaba and Fiyero came in. "So," Fiyero said, "anything you two have to say for yourselves?"
Elphaba snorted.
He glared at her. She was undermining his authority! "What?"
"Sound familiar?" Elphaba giggled uncontrollably.
Fiyero only cocked his head. "What?"
"Morrible and Saned. The day we got caught."
Sidrio perked up, "Who got caught? Doing what?"
"Elphaba! Look what you've done. I'm never going to be able to finish doling out punishment if you keep…" He broke into laughter, too. "Damn it."
Elphaba took over. "Okay, you two. We understand that things can get out of control sometimes, especially when you love one another. But it was very wrong of you to use our bedroom as a place for sex. I overheard you one night. Do you know that? And do you know what I thought? Well… never you mind that. It doesn't matter. You have to learn what's crossing the line and what's not. And using our bedroom was crossing the line. Sidrio, Fiyero's going to talk with your mother about evading that marriage you're trapped in - "
"Yes!" Sidrio hugged Vernia, who was laughing.
"But you are not out of hot water, all right?"
They nodded soberly.
"You are not to leave your room except for meals and any family activity for a month, and you, Vernia, are not to visit him. Vernia, you're on clean up duty for the next month. And you can start with the blankets in the library."
Fiyero nodded, having come back to himself. "If I ever catch you two in any room you shouldn't be again, I will make sure of it that you two aren't allowed to see each other again. So you're off the hook for now. Just keep it that way. I don't want to have to separate you two anymore than you want me to. Vernia, you probably won't be a servant for much longer, but as long as you are, get started cleaning. Sidrio, go to your bedroom now."
The two lovers looked at each other, stole a quick hug and were off to their separate punishments.
"Well," said Elphaba, "I think we handled that quite well, don't you?"
"You handled it more than I did."
"That's because you lost control."
"I wouldn't have if you hadn't had to bring up Shiz."
"I couldn't help it!"
"And telling her to clean the blankets in the library…"
"I thought that was very fitting. They created the mess. I figured I might as well make them clean up what was left of fixing it."
"I don't think it's quite fixed yet, Elphie my love."
"Are you suggesting something?"
"Yes, I am." He took her hand and, though it was a bit late, they went to bed.
Sidrio and Vernia were married one cool fall day two months later. The day was nice, the wedding was held outside, and it rained lightly. Since the rain was light, the wedding stayed where it was, except the king and queen of the tribe had to stay inside. Sidrio and Vernia were to have a similar honeymoon to Elphaba and Fiyero's, except it was to be shorter and a lesser section of the castle was to be taken up, as they were not to be king and queen, but still part of the royal family.
The reception and dinner were held inside the castle, in the royal dining room. At the table of the royal family, the conversation was giddy.
"So, when are you two going to make me a grandmother?" Fiyero's mother joked.
Vernia practically spat out her drink – which was not champagne, for one isn't supposed to have alcoholic beverages when carrying a child – and Elphaba smiled as she sipped her champagne. Earlier in the week, Vernia had confided in Elphaba that she was two and a half months pregnant. This was something no one but Vernia, Sidrio and Elphaba knew. Out of respect, Elphaba had withheld this information even from Fiyero, who'd have been angry had he known. After she swallowed her water, Vernia said, slyly, "Oh, I don't know."
Sidrio, who'd behaved calmer about the whole ordeal, joked, "We'll be trying very hard, starting tonight."
Elphaba commented, "You sound like him on our wedding night," she gestured to Fiyero.
Sidrio really did spit out his champagne. "I didn't need to know that."
"Sid, be careful! You almost got that all over my dress!" Vernia said angrily.
"Sorry, dearest."
Elphaba whispered to Sidrio, "After what we had to deal with, walking in on you two, you deserve to know a lot."
"Not tonight, we don't." Sidrio replied.
She nodded in agreement. Fiyero slid an arm around Elphaba's waist. "Time for the king and queen to start the dancing." He swept her off her feet.
Lying in bed that night, Elphaba decided it might be the time to warn Fiyero that Sidrio and Vernia were expecting. "Yero?"
"Yeah?"
She kissed his chest in the dark and murmured, "She's pregnant, you know that, right?"
"I could've guessed."
"Really?"
"She was acting very familiar."
"I saw no difference."
"You women can't tell."
"Believe me, it was obvious to me she was pregnant, but only because I am a woman." Elphaba told him.
"You're ignorant to the other signs. The poor thing threw up this morning. She's a bit young, isn't she?"
"They're younger than we were when everything happened at Shiz, so, yes, they're younger than we are. But I think she'll be fine."
"You're probably right."
"She'll be a good mother."
"Sidrio, on the other hand, might not make the greatest father."
"He'll do fine."
"I hope. But, in case they emotionally scar their child, I think we should have another."
"Very funny. What you really want is sex."
"Yeah, you caught me."
Glinda had tried to come out for Sidrio and Vernia's wedding, but she'd been held back for some reason she neglected to tell Elphaba about. She said she'd come out for the twin's birthday, and she'd be bringing someone along.
"Do we have room for that?"
"She said they'd stay in the same room."
"She's hiding something."
"For sure." Elphaba said. "But, that's okay. I've managed to hide our daughter's name from her for almost an entire year."
When she rang the doorbell, even Lali had been waiting in excitement to see "Auntie Glinda" and her guest. Fiyero and Elphaba couldn't have been more shocked.
"Boq?" Fiyero said after opening the door.
"What is he doing here?" Elphaba asked, confused.
"I'll tell you all about it later." Glinda waved Elphaba's question away. "Now, let us get settled and I am dying to see your little ones!"
A servant girl (the servant girl who'd taken Vernia's place, in fact) took Boq and Glinda's luggage and Elphaba led Glinda to the nursery, Boq and Fiyero bringing up the rear.
"So, exactly what is going on?" Fiyero asked Boq in a low voice.
"Glinda will say something soon. She can't hide things for very long."
Fiyero raised his eyebrows but continued following the women up the stairs.
"Look, Fiyero, I don't know if I've ever told you how sorry I am about the way I behaved back at Shiz."
"You mean right after our last winter holidays? About Elphie? Don't apologize, it's not anyone's fault. I understand how you felt."
"But, you see, I was never really in love with Elphie. It's just that she's like a sister to me and I'm a bit protective. I've always been in love with someone else." Boq glanced up the stairs towards Glinda.
"I could've guessed."
Boq only smiled.
When they entered the nursery, Glinda squealed. "Oh, they're so cute!"
"That's Dendrio and the girl is," Elphaba made a dramatic pause, "Galinda."
"You didn't!" Glinda squeaked.
"I did."
"I can't believe you!"
"Uh, sorry?"
"Sorry? Don't be sorry! Elphie, I'm honored."
"Oh, god, here she goes."
"You named your daughter after me. That truly makes me feel special." Glinda beamed down at the little girl. "If we have daughters…"
"If you and who, Glinda?" Asked Elphaba, pretty sure of the answer.
"Oh, Boq and me. We're engaged."
AN: It's so strange. This was the one that took the longest to update, and now I've got TWO new chapters. Do you like? I always thought Glinda and Boq would be kind of cute. Merry Christmas!