Cheese in this chapter, and the introduction to a whole new reason for Elphaba to hate Rilt.
Just read the darn thing.
"Come on, I want to show you something!" Fiyero grinned, seizing Elphaba's verdant hand and yanking her out of the dining room. Neither had eaten much breakfast, and Rilt, Biaxana and Follor had wondered at their apparently non-existent appetites. They didn't pay much attention when the two young people left the room: let the children be children, as far as they were concerned. After all, they were only seventeen and nineteen. Barely grown up enough to tie their own shoelaces. The 'adults' finished their food with conversation about politics and the economy.
"Fiyero! Where are you taking me, you fool?" Elphaba chuckled, her boot-clad feet scuffing quickly along the hardwood floor.
"Somewhere I think you'll love," the young man replied, tugging her faster down the corridor. She submitted, following close behind.
Soon, they reached a slightly open door, and Fiyero turned to her, grinning.
"Close your eyes." he commanded, and Elphaba arched her eyebrow elegantly in confusion.
"This is going to be entirely above board, isn't it? I am a married woman." she sniggered, trying to settle the erratic beating of her heart before it got loud enough for her companion to hear. Fiyero shrugged suggestively, a teasing smile appearing on his chiselled features.
"Okay, if you won't close your eyes…" he sighed, stepping behind her and covering her face with his hands. He let his long thumbs graze her temples, and Elphaba barely managed to suppress a frission of excitement. Fiyero guided her forward, and she heard him kick the door lightly, opening it. They continued on, and then stopped in the middle of the room.
"Alright…Three, two, one…Open!" Fiyero cried, whipping his hands from her face. Elphaba took a moment to adjust to the light, and then gasped.
Books.
The biggest, highest, widest, brightest, most beautiful library Elphaba had ever set foot in.
Bookcases soared skyward, full to the brim with universes of knowledge. There were three balconies all looking out over the main atrium of the room. Each floor was a separate planet in itself, all to do with philosophy, politics, religion, nature, the arts, history, and even a section packed full of novels. There were spindly spiral staircases at the four corners of the room that lead to the upper floors, and there was a magnificent stone fireplace on one wall, surrounded by cosy looking chairs and sofas.
"Do you like it?" Fiyero chortled, his heart soaring higher than the ceiling when he saw how clearly enthralled Elphaba was. She turned to him, and he grinned broadly when he caught the change in her eyes. They were no longer shadowed and melancholy, but were now shining and sparkling with glee.
"Do I like it? Oz, Fiyero!" she cried jubilantly, throwing her arms out and spinning around on the spot like a child dancing in the snow. He laughed, and she shifted her awed gaze to his face. "I love it, Fiyero. I've never seen anything so stunning! How did you know…?"
"How could I not know, you mean. The last time I saw you, I'll swear you had a book in every pocket. And in your letters you were always telling me about some book or other that you had read and enjoyed. My parents aren't avid readers, and I only find interest in certain places in here…But I thought you could get some use out of it, while you're here." he explained.
"Can I…?" she queried, nodding her head towards the book lined walls. Fiyero waved his hands and Elphaba darted off so quickly he barely saw her move.
She danced along, uttering small exclamations of delight every time she saw a title that caught her fancy. He watched her intently, making a mental note of every sound and movement she made. He admired how sinuously she moved, marvelling at the way she would reach lithely for the top shelf then melt gracefully towards the floor, all the while expressing her delight by way of soft gasps and, once, a squeal.
Fiyero felt like there was an entire butterfly house inside his stomach, and he felt his pulse race and face heat up, before a shudder poured icy coolness down his shoulders. She fascinated him.
"You can have it, if you'd like." he ventured suddenly, and Elphaba snapped around, as though she had forgotten he was even in the room.
"I couldn't leave a gap in the shelf that way," she laughed, gesturing to a book he hadn't even realised she was holding. He shook his head.
"No, you misunderstand me. I mean you can have the room. Consider it a late wedding present." Fiyero smiled sardonically, as the green young woman's jaw dropped. "You can come here as often as you please, while you're here. And even after you're gone, I'll consider it your room. It's your room, from this moment on. It always will be your room. Come and visit it as often as you like," he added, and Elphaba noticed the double meaning in his words. Fiyero realised that he had inadvertently divulged his feelings without intending to, and the unreadable expression that crossed the girl's face showed him that she had understood.
Elphaba stepped away from the bookcase, laying the book she was carrying carefully on a table that had a vase of poppies on it. She crossed the room towards him, ending up barely a foot away from him. Without warning, she slid her arms around his waist and laid her cheek on his chest, sighing contentedly.
"Thank you," she mumbled, sniffing loudly. Fiyero smiled in reply and draped his arms easily around her shoulders, entertained by how small she suddenly seemed: he could feel her heartbeat somewhere around the bottom of his ribcage, and he realised his own was directly under her cheek. Their pulses beat steadily, and in time with each other. The perfect rhythm.
They remained so for a number of minutes, both perceiving the mutual closeness that had appeared since Fiyero's accidental revelation. Elphaba looked up at him, an almost shy smile appearing on her face.
"You're really beautiful, you know that?" she whispered. Her smile upended into a frown when Fiyero snorted, laughing lightly. "What?" the girl shrieked, jumping away. The boy's heart stuttered uncomfortably and he caught her around the waist, pulling her back to him.
"You don't realise that you've said that to me before, do you?" he smiled. Elphaba looked confused, an uncharacteristic expression on her. And, Fiyero noted with a thrill, it was incredibly adorable.
"When?"
"The morning after your wedding. I think you were still drunk, and I heard you throwing up from the hall, when I came to say goodbye." he explained. Elphaba shuddered in his arms, and her eyes darkened again.
"Oh. My wedding." she sighed. The memory of the night and following day were still blurry, but she remember Rilt's account of it.
The contrast between he and Fiyero heightened her detestation of her husband to a point she never thought possible, and just the thought of the old man turned her stomach.
"You're beautiful too, you know." Fiyero murmured, running his fingers along the smooth skin of her cheekbone. The girl tittered, shaking her head.
"No I'm not. Don't lie to me, please. My mother has done it all of my life. I'm not beautiful."
"Yes, you are! What do I have to do to prove it to you?"
"You can't." she muttered, standing on her tiptoes and closing the gap between them, trying to intimidate Fiyero with her expression. However, her shallow breathing made her far less daunting.
"I can try." he shrugged, clasping her face between his hands and capturing her thin, pretty lips with his own. Elphaba immediately responded, clasping her own hands at the back of his neck, revelling in the heat and urgency of his kiss. Their desperation for real affection was clear, and in one kiss they managed to fuse a deep connection that would last for a long time.
Moments later, they broke apart. Smiling bashfully, they conversed in low voices about something and nothing, both slightly alarmed by the suddenness and intensity of their feelings. After exchanging a few more tentative, chaste kisses, they parted properly, self-consciously adjusting their hair and clothes.
"Well…I'll…uh…I'll see you later?" Fiyero smiled hopefully, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. 'Ozdammit, that girl is beautiful!' he thought. Elphaba nodded eagerly, and Fiyero exited.
Rilt entered the library during later afternoon, and squinted around the cavernous room. He'd never been one for reading, a fact that had seemed to irritate both his past wife and present wide to the utmost. A small distance from him, he saw a blur of harlequin curled up into a little ball in one of the chairs. The light of the Vinkus, he noticed with slight satisfaction, was rather more complimentary to Elphaba's skin tone than that of Munchkinland, and he found the hue almost appealing.
Fishing his glasses from the deep pocket of his smoking jacket, Rilt perched the wire frame on his nose. The vision in his left eye still blurred a little, but on the whole everything was clearer. Especially his little wife, who was smiling softly at the pages of her book.
"Elphaba!" he said, raising his voice a little louder that necessary, as he rather liked the sound of his own voice, you see. Her head snapped up and the smile actually stayed in place, much to his surprise.
"Hello, Rilt," Elphaba said politely, her tone less hostile than usual. When she was smiling like that, the old man realised how attractive she had the potential to be. Her skin was still ugly, though considerably less so than it had appeared on their wedding night.
He approached her slowly, as he was so apt to do, and perched on the settee opposite, gawping at her out of his good eye. Apparently being in a room with so many books had done much to brighten her mood, because instead of staring him down, Elphaba actually chuckled a little to herself and went back to the book. At such close range, with no alcohol to mar his already poor vision, Rilt observed how pliant and smooth her skin appeared, and reached out one gnarled hand to touch the velvety skin of her cheek.
As soon as his contorted digits connected with her face, Elphaba juddered away, apparently no longer comfortable.
"What do you think you're doing?" shrieked the girl, wrinkling her nose and frowning deeply.
"I'm your husband. I'm allowed to touch you." he argued, reaching further towards her.
"And I your wife, and I say that you are not allowed to touch me!" Her evasiveness only spurred him on, but he let it lie for the moment, as Elphaba whirled from the room, shaking.
"I'll get you my pretty…" he menaced under his breath, his clouded eyes darkening mercilessly.
Oh yeah. I went there.