Chapter 11
A/N Thank you ElphabLover101, Elphaba's Girl, Wickedly Hope Pancake, Vix Bettison, gagakid, Fae the Queen and LittleMissDelirous for your reviews. You melted me. =)
This chapter is slightly OOC for Elphaba
How to make chocolate milkshake without a blender (also known as 'How to make a milkshake for yourself in the middle of the night without waking the rest of the family and having to share with them').
Place 2 to 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream in a glass. Pour the milk till it covers 3/4 of the ice cream. Mush and smash it around with your spoon until everything is blended. Toss in chocolate chips for more chocolate flavor.
I HATE YOU.
It was just three simple words and yet it said so much.
The message, like the ones before it, was written on a plain piece of Shiz stationary and folded twice before it was slotted into the letterbox outside the café. The letters were always written in large fonts and in capital letters. In this large scrawling handwriting that made Elphaba suspected that it was written with the non-dominant hand. There was no name, no signature and no return address, not that she was expecting one. There was nothing that provided any hint as to the identity of the sender.
She had thought that it was a prank or a mistaken identity and had dismissed the first note, the one that simply read BITCH. And then the second note came one week later.
GET LOST.
The third note came a few days later.
KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF HIM.
And she remembered what had happened the day before. Fiyero had just cleared a table and scratched an itch on his face, transferring a smudge of chocolate milkshake onto his cheek. Without thinking, she had taken a piece of serviette and wiped the stain off his cheek. Fiyero had held that hand and brushed his thumb lightly against the inside of her wrist before letting go.
There were so many of such acts nowadays; simple actions and soft spoken words. He smiled at her from across the room, brushed his fingers against hers when he walked past, leaned a bit closer when he talked to her, and whispered his love when she was slaving over a pot of soup. Small little gestures that made her smile involuntarily when it happened. She was not amused when he decorated his writing paper with the words 'Fiyero + Fae' when he was supposed to studying though.
She remembered that it had happened after lunch hour, and the café was still crowded. Any of the customers could have witnessed that brief exchange. Anyone who had stood outside the café could have seen them through the glass windows.
And somebody who was jealous of her relationship with the Arjiki prince had seen it.
While it came as a surprise, it was not totally unexpected. She had seen the looks in some of the students' faces. They looked at her and Fiyero and the question on their mind was as clear as if it was written on their face – what did he see in her? A girl had insinuated that she had doped Fiyero's food with a love option. A few days ago, another girl had flirted with Fiyero in the café and then gave her a victorious look. Fiyero had come back one day late with his clothes rumpled and a cut on his lips. He had gotten into a fight with a schoolmate who commented that the prince was with her because 'no one had ever tried a green girl before'. Both boys were sent to detention class by Madame Morrible. Elphaba was furious with him.
"Fae?"
She looked up. Fiyero was at the top of the stairs. He was in his typical sleepwear, a well-worn shirt opened at the collar and a pair of drawstring pants. His eyes were half-closed, his hair ruffled. She had no idea how long she had been standing there on the middle of the stairs, her hand on the handrails, lost in thought.
"What's the matter?" he asked. He walked down the steps towards her, his feet made a series of soft solid sounds that sounded so reassuring in the silence of the house.
"Tired?" he asked as he reached her.
She nodded, not trusting her voice. That was partly true.
Fiyero pulled her to him as he leaned against the wall, a hand at the small of her back as his other hand rubbed soothing circles between her shoulder blades. She wrapped her arms around him as she sank into his embrace and buried her face onto the crook of his neck. She closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of his body and way his chest moved with each breath as he rubbed away some of the aches and fatigue.
She had heard of his scandalicious background. She knew that he had a lot of experience in charming girls and dating them. She accepted the fact that he had scores of admirers, girls who would do almost anything just to get his attention. What she did not understand was why he would be interested in her when he could have any of the prettiest and most popular girls. What she did not expect was the tenderness and care that he showered on her. What surprised her was how easy it was to love him, to think of him as hers, to lock their fingers as if they were meant to be together. It was as if being in his arms was the most natural thing to do. As if his kisses were as vital as the air she breathed.
She snuggled closer to him when he was done, unwilling to let go.
"I'm getting cramps from staying in the same position," he whispered cheekily after a while and she removed herself reluctantly. "I'll walk you back to your room." He laced his fingers with hers and pulled her up the stairs.
He bent down when they reached the door of her room.
"I've left a note for you," he said as he picked up a piece of paper that was slotted half under her door.
The paper was folded into a heart shape and it brought a smile to her lips.
"Read it," he told her.
She unfolded the heart shape and found a smaller heart shape inside. Written on the paper was a note.
Didn't get to say goodnight to you just now, so here it is.
Goodnight, Fae.
Read the note behind tomorrow morning.
Elphaba looked up at him with her eyebrows raised and turned over the paper.
I don't need a crystal ball to tell me that I have a girlfriend who does not follow instructions. But I guess it is after midnight now, so here is my morning message.
Good morning, Fae. Have a great day.
She chuckled softly.
"Good morning, Yero," she told him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. She did not understand certain things, but perhaps that was no need to understand.
"Come here Fifi," Galinda beckoned to the prince the moment he entered the café. She was at her favourite table and Fiyero sat down next to her. Nessa and Milla were at the same table.
"Here," she passed a piece of paper to him. "We drew this up for you. I know it's long overdue."
"Fifty rules for dating Elphie," he read. "What is this? Fifty rules?"
"Mmhmm," Galinda made a sound as she rested her chin on her palms. "Drawn up after consultation with Elphie. With inputs from Milla and Nessarose."
"Does Boq have to follow fifty rules too?" he asked Milla. The brunette shook her head. "Then why me?"
"Because you are not dating Milla. Go on, read it," Galinda edged him on.
"Number 1 – no open display of affection in the café, including the kitchen. Number 2 – no kissing in front of Galinda or Nessarose. Number 3 – no mushy talk in front of Galinda or Nessarose… wait a minute, why is this all about you and Nessa?"
"Because I am your ex-girlfriend, Fifi. Do you know sad I will be if I see you kissing or whispering sweet nothings to Elphie? It's like having my heart trampled on every day." She tried to suppress a giggle, looking nothing like a sad ex-girlfriend.
He turned and looked at Nessa.
"Do you mean you will be sad too?"
"I will throw up, Scarecrow," she made a gagging sound.
"There are forty-seven more rules, Fifi."
He read on.
"Number 4 - Do not give Elphie pink flowers. Why?"
"Have you forgotten that pink is my favourite colour!?" the blonde exclaimed. "It will be so heartbreaking to see pink flowers when they are not for me!"
"Number 5 - Do not mention any of your ex-girlfriends in front of her, unless that girlfriend is the pretty and popular Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands. Are you sure Fae agreed to all this?"
"I am her Grand Vizier, Fifi. I advisssssse her."
Fiyero gave up and went into the kitchen.
"Fae, did you come up with this?" he waved the paper in front of her.
She read the header and laughed.
"Galinda suggested it."
"So you didn't come up with this."
She took another peep. "I did. Rule number forty-nine and fifty."
"Do not treat Elphie like a helpless damsel just because you are dating her. Do not use the relationship as an excuse to slack in your homework. Great, I will ignore the rest of the rules since they are not from you," he declared as he gave her a peck on her cheek.
Elphaba only gave him a smile and went back to work.
It was after dinner when Elphaba brought in the mail. She walked into the café, a pile of paper in her hands as she sorted through the mail. Fiyero noticed that she stopped at a particular piece and a frown formed on her face.
"What is it?" Nosy Fiyero asked.
She shook her head but there was something on her face that told him otherwise, and he quickly reached out the grabbed the topmost paper from her hands.
"Hey." She tried to take it back.
"Is it a love letter?" he teased as he unfolded the paper and then his countenance changed.
"What is this?" he asked, even though he had no problem reading the sentence inside.
"What is it?" Galinda quipped as she took a peep.
"You don't deserve him," she read the message out loud. "Who is this for?"
"It's for Fae," Fiyero explained, the shock not leaving his face.
"For Elphie?" Galinda read the note again, this time silently with just her lips moving. "This is a hate mail, Elphie!" she exclaimed.
Fiyero pulled Elphaba to the nearest seat.
"Have you been receiving mails like this?" He kneeled down in front of her, engulfing her hands with his. "Why didn't tell me?"
"It doesn't matter. She is not the only one who thinks that you are too good for me," she replied, her head down.
He lowered his face to look up at her. "You are too good for me. How can you keep something like this from me?"
She kept quiet.
Fiyero kissed her fingertips. "We're going to find out who sent this, alright? And then I will ask her to stop. Nobody can say things like that, not when I am so crazy about you."
He leaned forward and kissed her gently on her lips. Galinda did not remind him that he was breaking one of the fifty rules.
"Why don't you have an early night," he suggested. "I will close the cafe."
She shook her head. "No, I'm fine."
"Fae…."
"I'm fine, really. Remember rule forty-nine."
"I'm not following the silly rules."
"Rule forty-nine is from me."
"Oh."
Fiyero kept an eye on the letterbox for the next few days. When he was in the café, he would run to the letterbox every time someone walked past the letterbox, just to check if a hate mail had been deposited.
"You make a terrible detective, Scarecrow. You are so obvious," Nessa told him as he came in again. "That person will not dare to send another hate mail, not at the rate that you are checking the mailbox."
He slouched on his usual seat.
"Do you still have that letter, Scarecrow?"
He nodded.
Two days later.
It was lunch time. The café was crowded.
Fiyero was in class, and Nessarose was having her lunch and project meeting with CeCe at one of the tables. The two girls sat at a corner, eating and discussing at the same point. Elphaba handled the crowd alone, moving from one table to another as she tried to fulfil the orders as fast as she could.
She dropped two glasses of milkshake at Nessarose's table and was turning around when she bumped into someone behind her.
"Yero!"
"Hey beautiful," he said softly as he lifted his left hand. "This is for you," he told her just as she registered the flowers in his hand. It was a small bouquet of red, yellow and white poppies, tied together with a silver ribbon.
She blushed. "It's beautiful."
"You're beautiful," Fiyero told her as he gave her a quick kiss on the corner of her lips. Before she could say anything more, Fiyero slipped the hand holding the bouquet around her waist and pulled her to him.
She ought to know what was coming next, but somehow she did not, and the next thing she knew his lips was on hers again.
This time, it was not a brief kiss. It was not a light kiss. It was the kind of kiss that most girls would only read or heard of and would never experience in their real lives. It was the kind of kiss that Fiyero gave when he was at his most affectionate and only when there was no one else around. Elphaba felt the flowers crushed against her back as he pressed her closer to him, his hand on her face. He deepened the kiss and she did not even realise it when she wrapped an arm around his neck, the other arm clenching the back of his shirt as she returned the kiss. She did not register the wolf whistles that some of the customers gave. She did not even remember who she was and where she was. All she could feel was the way Fiyero held her, the way his mouth moved against hers, and the loud pumping of her heart. When he finally let go, she had to place her arms on his chest and lean onto him, because her legs were so weak that she was afraid they would leave way. He knew it, and he held her tight and chuckled softly.
He released her only when he was sure that she was able stand on her own, but not before giving her a gentle kiss on her lips again.
"I love you," he told her with a twinkle in his eyes.
And it was only then that she took in his swollen lips and wrinkled shirt with the first button almost popping out that she remembered that they were in the middle of the café, the fully packed café. She pressed her palms against her cheeks, feeling the heat as her face reddened to rival a Quadling's.
"We'll talk about this tonight," she warned him before she fled into the kitchen.
"Woah! You are going to sleep in the corridor tonight, Tiggular." One of the customers hooted, not knowing that the prince had been sleeping in the corridor all this while.
Fiyero pulled out an empty chair at Nessarose's table and sat down, a wide grin on his face. He placed the limp flowers on the table. "Ladies," he greeted them.
Nessa excused herself.
"I'm going to check on Fabala. You embarrassed her, Scarecrow."
Fiyero chuckled.
That left Cece and Fiyero. The Gillikinese was smiling, but her face was flushed red with anger and the smile was forced. He noticed that her hands was gripping her pencil so hard that it was going to snap into two.
He looked at the plain Shiz writing pad that she had on the table and pulled it over. On an impulse, he took Nessa's pencil and began to shade on the paper. It had been several days since the last note was written, but the shading revealed the huge capital letters that appeared like magic, the imprints left over when the writer exerted too much pressure when writing the last message.
He passed the writing pad back to her, looking smug.
Cece looked at the paper as if in a trance and then quickly stuffed her stuff into her bag and left the café.
"Where's CeCe?" Nessarose asked when she came back to the table.
Fiyero only shrugged.
"So it was Cece?" Galinda asked later that night as she looked at the piece of paper with marvel. It was the last hate mail, and the paper had been covered with a light pencil shading that revealed imprints of the words written on the another piece of paper that had been placed on top of it. There were the notes taken during a class.
Nessa nodded.
"I only know that it is someone from my class," she pointed to the notes, "but there are so many girls there and most probably all of them have a crush on Scarecrow." Fiyero beamed at this point.
"And then he mentioned that Cece had been catching him outside his classes, and we thought that we should test her."
"By kissing me in front of everybody?" a mortified voice came from the counter. Nessa turned backward to look at her sister. Her face was in her hands, and she could see that her sister was red again.
"I just told him to kiss you, Fabala. I didn't ask him to kiss you like that. It almost bordered on being pornographic."
"Hey," Fiyero protested.
"I think now there will be more girls swooning over the unattainable Vinkun prince," Galinda said. "Oh well, I'm glad that we found out who it is. No more hate mail." She stifled a yawn.
"All thanks to Nessa," Fiyero added.
"I told you I am the smart one in the family."
"I got to go. Bye everyone," Galinda said as she stood up.
Fiyero stood up hastily. "I'll send you back," he offered. Galinda gave him a genuine smile.
"You are such a gentleman, Fifi," she teased him.
Fiyero cast a backward glance at his girlfriend as he left the cafe. Her face was still in her hands, and he could hear the soft growling that was emitted from her. Yes, he was a gentleman, plus it was best to avoid Elphaba for a while longer.
A/N Alright, I am super stressed at work. So I have drawn a simple picture for this chapter. The drawing was about the scene when Elphaba wiped off the milkshake stain on Fiyero's face and can be found in my tumblr (URL stated in my profile). Please note that I am not artistically inclined.
