Random? I'm watching Made on MTV. The girl who is being made into a Homecoming Queen hopeful was just wearing one of the Defy Gravity t-shirts. I thought you all would appreciate that!
"How is it, Elphaba?" her younger sister asked.
"How is what?" she said, confused. The two sisters were sitting out on a back patio at their father's mansion, enjoying the Spring weather, watching Fiyero sit with Kalyan in his lap, tossing bread crumbs to a gaggle of geese that flocked in the nearby lake.
"Being married. You were terrified when you left here, you were. But now look at you. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't even consider it haveing been an arrainged marriage. So I was just wondering how it really was."
Elphaba pursed her lips, trying to find a way to describe the last few years of her life. She and Fiyero were just two months shy of their third anniversary. She hadn't been able to stand him during their first, and had been pregnant for their second. "It's... different than I expected it would be," she admitted.
That winter Fiyero mentioned that it was going on three years since Elphaba had seen her sister or her father. "I don't really care if I never see my father. I don't think he would care, either," she'd said, but she'd gone on to admit, "I do miss Nessarose, though. I wish she could meet Kalyan while he's still little."As he knew it was almost impossible and highly impractical for Nessarose to travel all the way to the Vinkus, he suggested they go themselves, and that had been that. She had been so happy to see Nessarose's face light up in wonder when she'd deposited her son in his aunt's lap.
Of course, there had been plenty of awkwardness when it had come to speaking with her father, but that had been expected. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, however. Mostly simple false affection, which was more affection than she'd ever received as a child. He did seem to take to Kalyan, which somewhat made up for it.
Luckily, he'd had an emergency business meeting, and had left the sisters to get reacquainted. Nessarose had seemed distracted for most of the afternoon, and now it was clear why; she'd been trying to come up with a proper way to word the possible delicate question. And now she wasn't quite satisfied with her sister's detail-less answer. "You two've got a baby, so.."
Elphaba rolled her eyes and gave a little hiss of annoyance. "So you're correct in assuming our marriage is fairly normal." A little wickedly, she added, "And it was consummated on our wedding night, in case you were wondering."
Nessarose turned about six shades of red. "I didn't mean-"
"Yes you did, Miss Prim-and-Proper." She softened at her sister's mortified expression and added, "It might have been the most awkward thing I've ever done, but it was fine in the long run."
Nessa took a sip of the tea that sat on a tray next to her chair. "Do you ever wish Father hadn't made you marry him?"
Elphaba shrugged, "In the past, yes. There were times when I wanted nothing more than to come home and sulk and pretend it never happened. But now it's not so bad. I haven't felt that way in a long time."
"You always used to say that one day I would inherit Father's title, and you would hardly cause a fuss, living in a single room of this old house, accompanied by books and only coming out at mealtime. Do you ever wish that had been what happened?"
Elphaba was getting a little annoyed. It seemed her sister was determined to get her to say something negative. "No, I don't think I'd like that, now. I definitely wouldn't give up Kalyan, never."
Draining the last of her tea, Nessarose signalled to the servants that she wished to go inside. "Are you coming?" she asked Elphaba.
"In a minute," she said, watching her little family. The geese had lost interest after Fiyero had run out of bread, and now he was dozing off, leaning against a large oak tree, Kalyan in his arms. The boy's dark eyelashes were closed and his father was snoring lightly.
Elphaba walked over to them, settling down onto the ground beside them. Sensing her presence, Fiyero snapped awake, "Hmm?"
"Nothing, nothing. Nessa just went inside."
He arched an eyebrow. "Is she alright?"
"She's fine. Everyone is," she said, contently shifting Kalyan to her lap and feeling Fiyero's arm wrap around her shoulders. There was no big spectacle; there was no need for one. It was a simple, shared moment that let them both know that there would be no more walking on egg shells around each other, no more putting on polite public faces with awkwardness behind closed doors. Even though they would never have chosen this life for themselves, they were completely satisfied with each other. They had grown together, around each other so that they now complimented each other. It was never perfect; nothing ever is. But they were happy.