AN: No, no fluffy Fiyeraba yet. Elphaba is not going to give up without a fight.

Sorry for the long delay, but here's the next chapter!

Chapter 10. When you talk to boys

When Fiyero entered the library and located Elphaba in her favourite spot – the corner they'd been studying in when they had been trapped a week prior – his face brightened. 'Fae!'

She didn't even look up, just pointed at her book. 'I'm studying.'

He sighed, sitting down next to her. 'Can we just talk?'

'No.'

'Just for a minute.'

'I said no.'

'Please?'

She slammed her book shoot. 'What about 'no' don't you understand?' she snapped at him, before rising to her feet and walking out of the library with large, angry strides.

Quite frankly, Fiyero was stunned. 'Fae, what in Oz…' he started, but she just kept walking.

Of course, he wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily. He ran after her, catching up with her and walking in front of her, facing her. 'Fae, you're being ridiculous.'

She glared at him.

'I just want to talk,' he said. 'I'm not going to bite you, or pounce on you, or rape you, or something. Just talking.'

'Get lost, Fiyero.'

Now he was starting to get angry. He grabbed her arms, forcing her to stop walking. 'Talk to me,' he said through clenched teeth.

She brought her face closer to his. For a moment, he thought she was going to kiss him, but then she spat, 'No,' shoved him aside with her shoulder, and walked away.

Nessa wheeled up towards her sister. 'Fabala?'

Elphaba's face immediately softened upon seeing her younger sister. 'Hi, Nessie,' she said gently. 'How are you doing?'

'I'm fine,' Nessa assured her. 'I just wanted to talk to you.'

Elphaba groaned. 'Why does everyone want to talk to me these days?' she grumbled, and Nessa laughed softly. 'Fabala, Galinda told me about you and Fiyero.'

Elphaba's cheeks darkened. Galinda had done what? She made a mental note to strangle her blonde friend later.

'And I just wanted to tell you that I think she is right,' Nessa continued. 'I think you two would be cute together. And I think it's great that he is already talking about you two living together –'

'Galinda told you that, too?' Elphaba interrupted her sister, fuming now. Nessa, however, just looked back calmly.

'Elphaba,' she said. 'I know you're in love with Fiyero.'

Elphaba gaped at her sister.

'It's pretty clear from the way you look at him,' Nessa said, sounding just a little smug. 'And the fact that you, the ever unfaltering Elphaba Thropp, blush whenever you're around him, kind of gives you away as well.'

A dark red colour slowly crept into the green girl's cheeks.

'And I think he's really into you, too.' Nessa patted her sister's hand. 'Just give him a chance,' she advised her. 'He's kind, he's a gentleman, he's a good friend. He seems to be taking this seriously.'

Elphaba stared at her sister for a while. Then she asked her, in the coldest tone she had ever used with her younger sister, 'And what makes you think this is any of your business?'

Nessa turned her chair with a wounded expression on her face. 'Just think about it, Elphaba,' she said sharply. 'And if you're too much of a coward to admit that you love him back, then the very least you could do is act normally around him, instead of hurting him and pushing him away just because you are afraid to let him in.'

With those words, she wheeled herself away.

'Elphie!' Galinda squealed the moment the green girl stepped through the door. 'I have the most splendifericifying idea!'

Elphaba just stared at her blonde friend wearily for a moment. 'Galinda,' she said after a while.

'Yes?'

'Why do you hate the word 'splendid'?'

Galinda looked confused. 'I don't.'

'And what do you have against the words 'horrible', 'amazing' and 'perfect'?'

The blonde blinked at her. 'Nothing!'

Elphaba nodded slowly. 'Okay.' She walked over to her bed and plopped down onto it without explaining anything else to her roommate.

Galinda was still confused, but she shook it off and started beaming again. 'Don't you want to know what my idea is?'

Elphaba, now lying on her stomach with her face buried in her pillow, said in a muffled voice, 'Not really.'

Galinda jumped onto her roommate's bed, causing the green girl to wobble back and forth. 'Elphie, remember the dance I was talking about earlier?'

'No.'

The blonde fell silent. 'No, you don't remember it, or no, you already know what I'm going to ask and your answer is no?'

A muffled chuckle came from the pillow. 'The latter.'

Galinda scowled. 'Oh, come on, Elphie,' she whined. 'My idea is wonderful! You see, Elphie, you should go with Fiyero. Then you two will dance, and he'll see how beautiful you are and it's a dance, so you'll both get a little bit tipsy, and then you'll kiss again and you'll declare your undying love for each other and I get to be the maid of honour for your wedding and I'll be the godmother to your children…'

Elphaba raised her head to glare at her friend.

'Elphie, please,' the blonde pleaded, but Elphaba didn't budge.

'No.'

'Pretty please?'

'Leave me alone, Galinda.'

Galinda huffed and crossed her arms. She was silent for a while, and Elphaba thought she'd given up; but then she said, 'Alright, a compromise. You and me are going. Together. You don't have to go with Fiyero, but you have to go nonetheless.'

Elphaba looked at the blonde in exasperation. 'Oh, yes,' she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. 'So that the moment we arrive at the dance, you can abandon me for some handsome guy and tell Fiyero to keep me company the rest of the night?'

Galinda flushed - how did her friend know about her secret plan? 'Elphieeeeee…' she pleaded. 'Come oooon! You've been swooning over one another for, like, forever! And the other day when you got drunk, Fiyero was so sweet to you, and –'

'Glin?' Elphaba asked suddenly, sitting up.

Galinda stopped herself in the middle of her rant. 'Yes?'

Elphaba fidgeted with the blankets a little. 'What happened?' she asked quietly. 'That night, I mean. When we were playing Seven Minutes in Heaven. You and Fiyero were having your seven minutes together, but when you came back, you didn't look very happy. I've been wanting to ask you what happened that night.'

Galinda scrunched up her nose. 'Well…' She trailed off. 'Nothing.'

Elphaba looked at her friend. 'Glin, you can tell me –'

'No, I mean, literally nothing happened,' she elaborated. 'I tried to kiss him and he pushed me away. I tried to do all kinds of things, really,' she was blushing a little, 'but he didn't respond at all. He told me that I was a little drunk and he didn't want to take advantage of me, but he admitted to me later that he had realised not long before that that he was in love with you, not me, and that it didn't feel right for him to do… stuff… with me… when you were the one he wanted to be with.'

Elphaba flushed. 'You're making that up,' she accused her friend.

Galinda shook her head wildly, sending her curls flying around her face. 'No! I swear I'm not!' she said.

Elphaba groaned and buried her face in her pillow once more. 'What am I going to do?' she wailed.

Galinda giggled. 'Let me give you a makeover, run off to Fiyero, and kiss him?' she suggested with a glint in her eye.

Elphaba just huffed, but the blonde girl smiled to herself and started humming softly as she made her way over to the bathroom. It wasn't going as fast as she'd like, but she knew that pushing Elphaba too hard would only have the opposite effect of what she was trying to achieve, and so she was satisfied. At least her friend was making progress.

But that was where she was wrong.

'Fiyero.'

He turned around, surprised at the sound of her voice; but when he saw it was really her, a careful smile lit up his face. 'Fae.'

She sighed, her shoulders slumped. 'We need to talk,' she said, sounding as if that was the most awful thing in the world, but he was glad she said it nonetheless.

'Let's go into the courtyard,' he suggested, and she nodded listlessly.

'Fine.'

They sought out a relatively private spot near the Shiz park and sat down on a bench. 'First,' Elphaba began, looking as if she had swallowed something extremely sour, 'I think I should apologise for being rude to you for the past days.'

He could tell that she really hated having to admit that she'd been wrong, and so he stopped himself from teasing her and just smiled encouragingly. 'Thank you.'

She glared at him. 'Anyway,' she continued with a sigh. 'I… I think I need to give you an answer. It's not fair to keep you in the dark.'

When she didn't say anything after that, he prodded gingerly, 'And?'

She stared at her hands, neatly folded in her lap. 'I think we should just stay friends.'

She didn't look up. She didn't want to. His silence told her enough – if she would look up now, she would see his face, the look in his eyes, and she didn't think she could bear that.

When he finally broke the silence, his voice sounded a little strangled. 'It's… it's because of what I said, isn't it?' he croaked. 'About… living together, and all that.'

'No.' Yes. 'It's just that I'm not… not ready for this.'

She could hear the hope in his voice. 'So you're saying it might still happen? One day?'

'Sure,' she agreed half-heartedly, still not looking up. 'One day.'

They lapsed into a slightly uncomfortable silence that lasted for a few minutes. Then he said determinedly, 'Well, I'm not going to stop trying.'

Now she did look up.

He knelt down in front of her, taking her hands. 'I understand you're scared,' he said solemnly. 'I do. I'm scared, too. But, Fae… I know you. It's not like you to let your fears get you down. The Elphaba that I know would face her fears, and I know that that's going to happen someday. And when it does, I'll be there.'

She narrowed her eyes at him, not sure why she suddenly felt so irritated with him – perhaps because he was completely right. 'I'm not scared,' she snapped, pulling her hands away forcefully. 'You don't know me, Fiyero. You don't know me at all.'

The wounded expression on his face would have been enough to melt her instantly, had she not been so worked up already. Now, it only fuelled her anger. 'And you can wait all you want,' she spat, 'it's not going to happen. Ever!'

He frowned, getting a bit angry himself now. 'What happened to 'one day'?' he demanded.

'Maybe I was just trying to make you feel better!'

It felt as if she had slapped him. 'What did you just say?' he asked in a low voice.

'You heard me!' she yelled. 'Just leave me alone already! I don't need you constantly following me around and telling me what to think and how to feel! I am not scared, so stop telling me that I am!'

'We're only telling you that because we can see it, Elphaba!' he said angrily. 'Not just me – Galinda, too. We care about you, Fae, and if we see that you are scared, then we want to help you with that!'

'Well, perhaps you're only seeing what you want to see!'

He gaped at her. 'Excuse me?'

'Perhaps,' she hissed, 'you're just projecting your own feelings on me. Perhaps you're telling yourself that I am scared because you can't face the fact that I just don't like you!'

'Are you serious right now?'

'I'm always serious! If you knew me only half as well as you seem to think you do, you'd have known that!'

'If you didn't like me, you shouldn't have kissed me back in that library!'

'Maybe I just felt sorry for you!'

He stared at her, disbelief written all over his face. She knew she was crossing a line here. She knew she was driving him further away with every word that came out of her mouth. She knew she should apologise to him before it was too late.

But once her temper took over, she just found herself unable to stop.

'Just get lost already, Fiyero!' she was yelling now. 'I don't want you anywhere near me! Just leave me alone!'

'Alone,' he sneered. 'That's right. Alone. That's how you're going to end up if you go on like this!'

She paled visibly, eyes darkening with anger; and before he knew it, he found himself being thrown all across the courtyard, slamming rather painfully with his back into a tree. He fell onto the floor, gasping for breath, raising his head to stare at Elphaba incredulously.

She just turned on her heels and left.