10.

"20 years! We were brothers in arms – one time we even slept with the same woman—"

"—a-ah! Mr Jessup, have you tried the shrimp martini? It's an acquired taste but you might like it." Glinda laughed nervously as she quickly picked up a glass from a passing server. Mr Jessup was very pleased with the offering and everyone was thankful for the pause in that particular conversation.

Fiyero smiled charmingly, his arm around Glinda's waist felt almost numb from holding it there for so long, "Miss Kustch. How was the move from Filaan to the Emerald City?"

The woman next to Mr Jessup laughed demurely, her gaze had been set on Fiyero all evening and it had been hard for him pretend to not notice. "Harrowing, my dear. I do miss the beautiful pines and mountains in Filaan, but my lifestyle is much suited for the city."

"Well, hopefully you'll be staying here for a good long time."

"Indeed, we might see each other around sometime."

Jessup nudged Glinda discretely, "Watch out girl – Kustch is on the prowl for vinkun meat!"

The party laughed, albeit a little awkwardly.

Conversation flowed and another 20 minutes later, Glinda and Fiyero had already spoken to over 5 different sets of people. It was a nice set up they had here at the ball, beautifully decorated location with wonderfully entertaining segments and bits for the event, it was quite a sight.

When they finally had a second to themselves, Glinda's eye widened, "Oh dear. Have you seen Elphie?"

He furrowed his brows. "She said that she was going to the washroom."

"That was 45 minutes ago."

"Mayb—"

"—Glinda Upland! We've been looking all over for you! How very long it has been!"

Fiyero noticed the defeated sag on Glinda's shoulders as they watched another group of people approach them. She touched his arm, "Find Boq. He'll know where she's hiding."

"Hiding?"

Glinda said with a little laugh, "She hates the talking and the pretending. Just go get Boq. I'll be here."

It shouldn't this hard to find a munchkin man in a sea of gillikinese fancy pants.

Fiyero had been scouring the hall for the last 5 minutes, sweating slightly under his tuxedo. Nobody seemed to know where Boq had gone. He'd even bumped into his brother and his wife – who berated him briefly for the unkemptness of his hair.

"Have you guys seen a munchkin man – about ye tall?" He held his hand to his shoulder. Was that how tall Boq was? He didn't really know. It wasn't like he was paying much attention.

"No we haven't seen a munchkin man lolling around. Why are you asking? And where's your little girlfriend? Did you abandon her somewhere? We spoke about this, Fiyero." Baldr asked a little impatiently.

"I don't have time for this." Fiyero rolled his eyes and left.

He searched around for a little longer but absolutely nobody knew where Boq had gone. It was then that he decided to search in the back, where all the servers and attendants were running about, keeping their patrons' champagne flutes full and the buffet table filled with food.

He slipped out unnoticed and wandered around the empty corridors for a bit. The halls were carpeted with rich red fur and the walls were a cream marble. It was almost insane how extravagant this entire place was.

"Boq?" He called out awkwardly, but there was no response. He walked down the hall briskly, his footsteps muffled by the carpet, and it was then that he heard voices from the corner off from the end of the hall.

"—true, but it has been a long time. I'm sure that there's something we can do about this."

It was a masculine voice. Very pleasant. Almost baritone.

"There's nothing you can say to change my mind. What you're doing – it's not something I can forgive."

This was Elphaba's voice.

"We can make it work. You just have to have faith. This relationship—"

"—faith is a little bit of a touchy subject for me, and there never was a relationship. Leave."

Fiyero had almost laughed at the dripping sarcasm from Elphaba. He took this moment to turn the corner and walked in on the two of them.

The man was tall – 6 feet at least and dressed very smartly. For some odd reason, the lighting in this particular corridor was damaged and it was hard to make out any remarkable features on Elphaba's mysterious visitor.

The man took a glance at Fiyero and lowered his face to Elphaba, "We both know that this isn't the end." He took one of her hands and kissed it, finally leaving in the opposite direction.

The hall was left with Elphaba and Fiyero.

There was a beat of silence before Fiyero spoke as he stepped towards her. "Boyfriend? Ex-lover? Bang on the side?"

Elphaba closed the distance almost angrily, "None of your business. What are you doing back here? You left Glinda out there alone?"

Ah that anger. It was something that Fiyero had instinctively tied to Elphaba. The hazel eyes shone bright with emotion and her green skin was really growing on him. It seemed less like seaweed and more like smooth jade.

Of course, he would never admit that.

"You were gone for almost 45 minutes. We were worried – well, Glinda was."

"I was distracted." She replied curtly.

"I can tell." He snorted, "He's pretty intense, isn't he? You like that in a man?"

Elphaba's jaw locked, and her eyes narrowed. "I am very close to socking you in the face. The only reason why I haven't done so already is because I'd have to explain to Glinda why I beat up her boyfriend and left him to bleed dry in a dark corridor."

"You really hate me don't you?"

"Well aren't you a smart little cookie."

"I like Glinda. I really do. And I can see us going the distance. I thought I would never be ready to call someone my girlfriend for a long time, but I like really like Glinda." He looked her straight in the eyes, unwilling to turn away. "You're her best friend – family, really – and you hate me. Do you see where this is going?"

"You find Glinda a better boyfriend and then leave the country forever?"

"Ha. Cute, but no." He rolled his eyes, "We have to start playing nice or Glinda's going to leave the both of us."

Elphaba stiffened slightly at the thought, "No she won't. She'll leave you probably – scratch that – eventually. But not me. We've been through a lot together."

Fiyero chose to ignore that. "We're going to have to get along. The animosity between us is stressing her out and we don't want that." He reached his hand into his pocket, "and because I'm such a charming, handsome, bright-eyed genius, I propose a solution."

Elphaba seemed unimpressed, although her body seemed to relax a little bit – the dress suited her, he noticed belatedly.

Fiyero fished out his phone from his pocket and tapped on his calendar app. "We'll go on a 'friendship date'. Maybe if we knew a little more about each other, we'll hate each other less."

"I don't want to go on a date with you."

"It's not a real date – woman, please."

She flipped him off.

"Fine, I deserved that. But the offer stands. We'll go on a date – friendship date, stop looking at me like that – and we'll talk and have lunch… like a real date but for friendship."

Elphaba looked uncertain, but she was definitely coming around to the idea. He could tell by the lack of yelling. Finally, she resigned. "I don't know the first thing about planning these things."

Fiyero grinned, his chest suddenly feeling lighter, "I'll plan the whole thing. I've gone on enough dates with women to know what works—"

"—it's not a real date." She growled.

"I. Know. That." He replied impatiently, "I'll handle it."

"Maybe the devil is real. He must've possessed me for me to even think of agreeing to this stupid endeavour." Elphaba groaned to herself.

"It'll be fun. By the end of the day, we might even like each other." He smiled amusedly at the thought.

Boq touched his bowtie distractedly.

He was supposed to meet Milla by the loading bay at the back of the building. It would be secluded enough for the two of them to just be with themselves, since everyone was busying themselves with the event that was currently happening in the main hall.

Sure, he'd spent the entire evening looking for her only to receive a text that informed him that she was busy handling some 'stuff' with the techies. But at least she was the one to suggest that they should meet in 20 minutes.

Just the thought of seeing her again was making his chest feel all warm again.

They weren't technically dating, he believed. They've never talked about it explicitly and whatever they were right now, it just seemed to fall into place on its own. They talked about everything under the sun, just not about what they were doing.

This thing.

Sneaking out to talk, staying late in the office to watch funny videos together, him walking her home every other night.

It doesn't have a label. They enjoyed each other's company. She kissed him on the cheek. He bumped her on the shoulder when they walked side by side. It certainly implied something, but they weren't dating.

It's just a thing.

Boq exhaled in exasperation. He was letting it get in his head again. He wasn't going to be the one bringing it up. No. Not tonight. Things are too perfect right now. Plus – he's looking really dapper. Glinda said so herself. He'll be fine.

Well.

He liked her. That's for sure. He already knew that. And she knew that. At least that's what he thought. Well, the implications were there. It should've been obvious enough. Unless – oh sweet Lurline – unless she believed that he was gay? Todd from accounting warned him about the suspenders.

"Boq! Sorry I was late, it's just so crazy out there."

His eyes were wide with fear when Milla shuffled over to him, glancing over her shoulders cautiously. She was so pretty. Her brown bob had begun to grow out to a sweepy thing that just touched her shoulders and just for tonight, her cheeks were dusted with a little blush and her eyes lined with black liner. Her dark green dress hugged her body tightly and it literally made him dizzy just because of how pretty she looked right now.

"Are you okay?" She asked worriedly as she reached out with a hand, rubbing his left arm.

"I-I'm cool. I'm fine." He managed to force out. He felt his face burn in embarrassment at the thought of her kissing him on the cheek that night, while all along believing that he was gay.

Milla looked unconvinced as she retracted her hand from his arm. "Did something happen?"

"We need to talk." He said seriously. He felt rather proud that he hadn't stuttered as he spoke.

There was a slight fall in her features when she heard those words. "O…kay? Is something wrong?"

Boq removed his jacket and folded them neatly as a means to steady his nerves. "I'm –"he coughed awkwardly, "–I'm not gay, Milla."

Milla looked at him for a long time.

"We hope that everyone is having an absolutely splendid time. We do have one final event happening here tonight, please let us welcome Miss Elphaba Thropp to the stage!"

The crowd clapped politely as Elphaba was led to the podium that had been set up for her. It was impossible to see the audience when she was up here. The stage lights were so bright, it was almost hot against her skin.

At least not seeing the faces of the people down there made it easier for her to make her speech.

"My great-grandfather, was over a hundred years old when he died. He had been but a child when the turn of the century brought in the advances of technology that allowed us build everything that we see around us."

As she spoke, she could hear the murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

"When the Eminency was abolished in Munchkinland all those years ago, my family was awarded with a large sum of money by the government. It was almost like they were saying 'we're sorry that you're not important anymore. Here have some money.'"

There were many laughs from the audience, but Elphaba didn't understand why. She was being painfully straight-faced and sarcastic. Were these people drunk?

"As the only child, Peerless Thropp would be the first heir to not hold the title of Eminent in over 300 years. And it had stuck to him until he was in his late 20s. That was when he started the company."

There was a silent montage playing behind her. The crowd seemed incredibly moved, but Elphaba simply wanted this to be over as soon as possible.

"In the very beginning, Thropp Co was Thropp & Daughters. A trading company that operated out of a warehouse in Colwen County, located in northern Nest Hardings, Munchkinland. As the name suggested, Peerless owned and operated it with his 5 daughters. By the time he was in his 50s, Thropp & Daughters became Thropp & Company and then again shortened to Thropp Co."

There were cheering and clapping. Elphaba assumed that the graphics behind her were stimulating the crowd and she promptly ignored them.

"Now, over 85 years later, I'm standing here in my great-grandfather's place as CEO and chairman of Thropp Co. To carry us onward towards a brighter future, one that Peerless had once envisioned when he started us out, grounded in that warehouse in Munchkinland. With the help from everyone here, our shareholders, partners and our faithful employees, we will defy gravity."

Defy gravity? Ridiculous. But everyone seemed to love it as people exploded into cheers and applause. Elphaba refused to smile when the photographer requested and simply stepped away from the podium and stalked off stage. The hosts quickly took back the limelight and announced that it was now the end of the evening.

Drinks and food will continue to be served but there will no longer be anymore events on the agenda. Everyone was now free to mingle as they please, until they wanted to head off. From experience, Elphaba knew that nobody would be exiting the hall till well after midnight.

"You were amazing up there!" Glinda gushed when she had found her attempting to sneak off to the halls again. The blonde crushed her friend in a hug and Elphaba wheezed for effect. "Could've used a dazzling smile or two, but it's an improvement from last year." She concluded.

Elphaba shrugged. Suddenly she was struck by a thought. "Has anyone seen Boq? He told me that he 'would be right back' and I haven't heard a peep since."

"I was looking for him too, actually. Before I found you." Fiyero was slowly recalling as well.

"What?! Where could he have gone all night?" Glinda fussed. She began searching through her contacts in her phone, looking for Boq's name.

"He's on call for tonight, wasn't he? Something went wrong?"

"Everything looked fine from the stage."

Finally, Glinda sighed. "I couldn't get to Boq, but I called Serani and she said that Boq clocked out about 20 minutes ago and handed everything over to her in a hurry. He didn't mention why or where he was going."

"He ditched me." Elphaba's eyes widened. She wasn't angry, no, she was amused, really. For some reason, Elphaba felt a strange sort of respect for Boq. She found herself wondering where he could've run off to at 10pm at night. Not home, surely. There was never anything for him to do at home. She had known from his incessant complaining over the years.

"I guess you're stuck with us tonight, aren't you?" Fiyero flashed her a strange smile which made Elphaba want to throw her shoe at him. But instead, she simply narrowed her eyes at him.

Glinda noticed the exchange and raised a perfected sculpted brow. "Am I missing something?"

"Nothing important, I assure you." Elphaba turned away from Fiyero and smiled passively at Glinda. "Champagne? I accidentally made eye contact with Tenmeadews and he's making his way here."

"Tenmeadews? As in, Avaric—"

Glinda was immediately cut off by a haughty laugh. The party of three each turned to come face to face with a tipsy Avaric Tenmeadews. As if he wasn't obnoxious enough alone, he was accompanied by two ladies, a red head and a brunette, both of whom were making eyes at Fiyero.

"Look what we have here," Avaric grinned, "Elphie Thropp! It's been a while."

"Avaric." Elphaba replied stoically.

"Mr Tenmeadews! It's good to see you again." Glinda smiled sweetly. At this, Avaric's grin grew impossibly wider.

"Miss Glinda! Every day you become even more beautiful than the day before. We have to get together sometime. My father just bought a new yacht that I'm just dyingto take out for a spin." He took her hand and kissed it, winking at her suggestively. Standing next to her, however, was Fiyero, who didn't take too kindly to Avaric's forwardness.

He reached out with a hand, smiling charmingly, "Mr Tenmeadews. We've met before."

Avaric took a second to stare at Fiyero's outstretched hand, and after a beat, finally took it. The hand shake was stiff and harder than necessary. "Tiggular, wasn't it?"

"Yes. You're much more talkative in social situations aren't you?" Fiyero said with a polite laugh. The intention and meaning in that comment was only missed by the two bimbos hanging off of Avaric's arm.

The blond man snorted, "Truth be told, I was quite hungover that day. Finances. Such a bore. You must feel like killing yourself every day having to deal with that."

"It's not every man's game, that's for sure." Fiyero chuckled falsely. He felt a nudge from Glinda and quickly, he changed the topic. "So who might these two ravishing ladies be?"

When they were finally acknowledged, the two ladies seemed to perk up. The red head spoke first, her lips were plump and coated in glossy lipstick, "Pfannee. My father owns the Pfann Perfumery, amongst other things."

"Daddy was the on the news recently for a sex scandal wasn't he?" Elphaba snarked quietly to herself, although it was loud enough that both Fiyero and Glinda had heard it, causing them to stifle a snort.

The brunette introduced herself next, not having heard Elphaba comments on her friend. "Shenshen Mikos. My family owns 51% shares on Munchkin Airlines."

"We went to school together, didn't we?"

Elphaba's sudden involvement in the conversation stunned the circle. Avaric seemed tremendously amused while Shenshen and Pfannee looked absolutely horrified. Fiyero could only smile, and next to him, the only thing that was running though Glinda's head was how much she wished Boq was back here controlling the things that came out of Elphaba's mouth.

"I-I don't know what you mean!" Shenshen shot back.

Elphaba was relentless, "We did. You sat next to me in Vinkun Studies. You sanitized your elbow every time we accidentally brushed against each other."

"This is perfect!" Avaric cackled.

"Elphie, please!" Glinda seethed in a hushed voice.

"Alright fine." Elphaba resigned. She smiled politely, at her company, "Terribly sorry for that. I must've been mistaken. Allow me to withdraw from this conversation, I've got some business to attend to in the washroom."

With that, Elphaba gave Avaric and his dates a curt nod and walked away.

There was an awkward silence that ate away at them until Avaric lost it. He burst into loud, cackling laughter and wheezed, "I'm absolutely in love with that woman!"

"You're really something else, aren't you?"

Elphaba stared at Fiyero's face as he said that. She had just come out of the washroom when she found him leaning against the wall, arms across his chest. He didn't look upset or anything, just slightly amused.

"I'm green, for one." She replied dryly, turning away from him and walking away.

He followed her, keeping up with her pace easily. Irritation began to crawl on her skin – just how persistent can one guy be?

"What's up with you and Tenmeadews?"

"What? Avaric?" Elphaba paused, confused by his chosen topic of conversation. "Why are you asking?"

"I'm curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat." She narrowed her eyes at him to make her point. Fiyero simply shrugged.

"It just seemed like you two knew each other."

"We work in the same business. Our paths were bound to cross one way or another." Elphaba began her brisk walk again, "Why on earth were you waiting outside the washroom?!"

"Glinda sent me to find you. She was worried that you might've gone hiding."

"Avaric and his two bimbos gone yet?" She asked with a sigh.

Fiyero's eyes twinkled with mischief, "Were you jealous? I'm thinking that you and Avaric had a thing and now you're jealous that he's brought two bombshells to the party."

Elphaba's eye glazed over as she stared at Fiyero incredulously. "Are you serious?"

"He called you 'Elphie'. Only Glinda and Boq ever called you Elphie."

"He's delusional and his only goal in life is to waste his entire family's fortune and to torture me with his presence in the most inconvenient of places."

Fiyero shrugged, "He said that he was in love with you."

At this, Elphaba paused. She glanced over to Fiyero and noticed how blank he seemed to look. He was being serious. She didn't know if bursting out into maniacal laughter was a good idea right this moment.

Something about it bugged her, however, and she asked, "Why do you care."

"I don't." He replied almost instantly, albeit a little forcefully. "I just think that it's interesting to know that Avaric Tenmeadews is in love with you. He didn't look the type."

She rolled her eyes, "In fear that you might actually be stupid enough to think that he loved me, I'm going to say this: No. He is not in love with me. He was pulling your leg, as he always does. Nothing is ever serious with Avaric. We went to school together at one point in my life and that was how we first met."

Fiyero stared at her for a long time and Elphaba was tempted to simply walk away. But a second later, the corner of his lips twitched, as if he was forcing back a smile. "You are an interesting woman." He said finally.

"And you need to leave me alone." She retorted, turning away from him and stalking off, back to the main hall where Glinda waited for them.

It had been such a strange night tonight, Glinda felt.

The first oddity being Boq's disappearance. It was very unlike him to run off without so much as a call to either Elphie or herself. He was usually such a stick in the mud about being on the grid at all times. She'd have to roast him a little bit when they returned to work on Monday.

The second oddity – which was frankly the larger oddity – was how civil Elphie and Fiyero seemed to be with each other tonight. They tolerated each other, that was for certain, in the beginning of the event, but when Fiyero had come back from his search for Boq and Elphaba, they had actually seemed… well… amiable. It was the strangest thing. She was happy, of course, but she couldn't help but wonder what might've happened.

The gala was a huge success and she was sure that come Monday, her inbox would be filled with congratulatory emails. It was closing in to 2am now and most of the guests have already headed home. The only people left mulling around were the staff and a few shareholders discussing one thing or another.

"I've called us a cab. It should be here in 20 minutes." Fiyero said as he finished with his phone call. Elphaba and Glinda both made noises of approval. Sleep was the only thing on their minds right now.

"I'll be going home tonight." Elphaba said with a small yawn, "my legs are killing me."

"Why isn't there a seat around here?" Glinda complained tiredly, "There is literally no place to sit."

Fiyero looked over the two girls with great amusement. "This is something I won't get to see every day."

"Shut up, you giant lumbering man. You don't have to stand around all night in stupid heels." Elphaba growled weakly. "Can I take them off? There's nobody important here anyway." She pleaded to Glinda.

"No, Elphie!"

"I hate heels!"

"Do you want me to come home with you tonight?" Fiyero asked, cutting into the enlightening conversation. Glinda looked up at him and pursed her lips.

"I don't know. Do you want to come over?"

Elphaba began to make gagging noises.

"Don't be such a child, Elphie." Glinda tapped her friend on the shoulder. She turned to address Fiyero, but paused when she noticed the look on his face as he watched Elphaba. That smile. She'd never seen it on him before.

His eyes flicked over to hers, and the smile disappeared, "Something wrong?"

"No, not really. Maybe you should head home tonight. I'll probably be knocked out all night anyway." She replied hurriedly. Her deflection earned her a concerned stare from Elphaba and raised brows from Fiyero. He seemed curious but said nothing.

Just moments later, their cab arrived and sleep was the only thing on their minds.

A/N I've got a pretty good idea of where this story would be headed, and I've got maybe 25 chapters planned out.
I'd like to apologize to readers who're seeking fluffy fiyeraba right at the get go. Unfortunately, I'm more of a slow burn kind of writer :P
It would probably be a little while before our favourite pair would get together, but at least they're civil with each other now!

Since the traffic seems to be a little slow for the last chapter, I'd just reply to the reviews here.
Ultimate Queen of Cliffies - No worries. She's got a couple of fractured bones and purple bruises, but she's a champion. I've switched to working from my home office to care for her, so I find myself writing a bunch when things started feeling bleak.
Thanks for your review! And don't worry. I saw what you meant! Thanks for the heads up :)

Mother yackel - Yeah... Things happen, and we'll just have to deal with it. Life goes on, etc etc. Thanks for being here :)
"Something wicked this way comes!" That's awesome! If only you knew what I've got planned down the road :P