Chapter 37

For their one-year anniversary in February, Fiyero had taken it upon himself to plan something special for the occasion. He refused to tell Elphaba anything, only that she should "dress nice".

"I always dress nice. Even if Galinda complains that everything I wear is a season behind," Elphaba retorted. "And you do realise that 'nice' isn't a dress code, yes?"

Fiyero sighed. "Fine."

Reluctantly, Fiyero let Galinda in on some of his plans and left her in charge of Elphaba's wardrobe for the night. Galinda was thrillified to be in the know and was rather frustrated at Elphaba's nonchalant attitude towards the night.

"Don't you want to know what he has planned?" she demanded. "You hate surprises. Why don't you want to know?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes as she packed her bag to spend the night in Fiyero's room. "Galinda, this semester Fiyero's already felt the need to festivate the anniversary of the day he came to Shiz and we met; the anniversary of the day I interviewed him for the paper; and Valentine's Day," she pointed out.

He'd also completely spoiled her in an effort to distract her from the one-year anniversary of losing her book. It hadn't worked, but Elphaba was very appreciative of his efforts.

"I'm not sure any of those needed to be festivated, but nothing was a disaster. I trust him."

Elphaba felt that was a testament to how far she'd come in the past year, that she wasn't worried about whatever Fiyero had planned. Galinda clearly disagreed.

Elphaba placed the dress Galinda had picked for her to wear the following night on the top of her bag and closed it.

"Make sure you hang the dress up as soon as you get to Fiyero's room," Galinda warned her. "Or it'll wrinkle."

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Galinda, I know. Relax, will you? I'll see you on Monday."

Galinda nodded. "Fine. I want to hear about everything he plans though," she said. "Take notes."

"Take notes?"

"What? You're a reporter. And a nerd. You take very detailed notes," Galinda reassured her.

Elphaba frowned, tilting her head. "I'm going to assume that's a compliment. See you on Monday," she said and left.

When she told Fiyero, he laughed.

"You are a nerd," he nodded. "It's one of the things I love most about you."

"Again, thank you?" Elphaba replied, hanging up her dress in the closet.

Fiyero leaned over and kissed her. "You're welcome, angel."

Elphaba rolled her eyes, shutting the closet door and sitting on the bed. "So, not to interfere with your grand plans to surprise me tomorrow, but do we need to be anywhere at a certain time tomorrow?"

"Er, no. Not really."

She raised an eyebrow. "Then why did you insist that it would be so much easier for me to stay here tonight?"

Fiyero shrugged, sitting down next to her. "It is easier. I like sleeping next to you."

Elphaba smiled. "I like sleeping next to you too."

"Besides," he grinned. "I think I'd like to establish morning sex as an anniversary tradition."

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "You want to establish that as a tradition every morning, regardless of any anniversary."

"This is true," Fiyero agreed.

When Elphaba woke up the next morning, the bed beside her was empty. Apparently, the rule about not leaving the bed when one was sleeping, only applied to her.

She rolled over with a yawn, squinting blearily at the alarm clock. It was only just past seven o'clock, which was way too early for Fiyero to be up on a Sunday morning. She sat up slowly, pushing her hair back and tiredly rubbing her eyes. She pulled on Fiyero's robe and got out of bed in search of Fiyero. The suite was empty, much to her bewilderment.

Stifling a yawn, she curled up on the couch and rested her head on the couch pillow, her eyes drifting shut. When the sound of a key turning in the lock echoed through the darkness, she wrenched her eyes open and jerked her head up.

"Hey," Fiyero greeted her softly, his arms full of flowers and bags. "What are you doing sleeping out here?"

"I woke up and you were gone," Elphaba explained tiredly, sitting up. "Where were you?"

Fiyero kicked the door shut, grimacing apologetically. "Sorry. I thought I'd be back before you woke up. There was a surprisingly long line at the florist for a Sunday morning. Or any morning, really."

He came over to the couch, set down a bag and two coffee cups on the coffee table and handed her the bouquet of roses in his arms.

Elphaba's face softened as she took them, breathing in their perfume with a small smile.

"Yero… they're beautiful. Thank you, hon."

Fiyero leaned over and kissed her. "Happy anniversary, angel," he murmured.

"Happy anniversary," she said softly. "You could have woken me, you know. That rule works both ways."

"You looked too peaceful to wake," Fiyero replied simply. "And I really thought I'd be back quickly."

He grabbed the bag from the coffee table. "Breakfast? Coffee?"

Elphaba shook her head and kissed him, winding her arms around his neck. "Later," she murmured.

Fiyero grinned and deepened the kiss, moving the bag of food and flowers aside and scooping her into his arms.

"You have such good ideas."

Elphaba laughed as he carried her back to bed.

They had originally planned to exchange gifts over dinner that night, but Fiyero didn't even make it until noon before he got impatient and pulled a wrapped package from his closet and handed it to her.

"Happy anniversary!"

It was large and flat and Elphaba looked at him in bewilderment.

"You were not going to cart this over to wherever we're having dinner tonight, were you?" she asked him. "Or are we eating here?"

"Just open it," Fiyero prodded her impatiently.

Elphaba pushed back her hair and began to peel away the tape carefully. As the paper came away, a strangled gasp fell from her lips.

"Yero," she breathed. "Wha- I just- I don't understand."

Her hands trembled as she held up the painting.

"This is a copy, right?" she asked faintly. "A reproduction?"

"Uh, no. That would be a Kole Ingram original," Fiyero confirmed casually.

Elphaba stared at him with wide eyes.

"How?!" she demanded.

He shrugged. "I wrote to Mrs Stengel, and then I arranged it with my art guy."

Elphaba's eyes got even wider somehow.

"Ok, my parents' art guy," he amended.

He took her hand gently. "Fae, we're one of the only people in Oz who know what this painting means. And it means something to us. Mrs Stengel agreed that we should have it."

"Have it?"

"I bought it," Fiyero reassured her quickly.

Elphaba's head spun dizzily. "Yero, that sounds really expensive…"

"Actually, I got it for a pretty good price," Fiyero said. "Or, what I'm told is a pretty good price."

"Can they do that? Just sell parts of the collection?"

"Mrs Stengel doesn't care about the money, Fae," Fiyero said softly. "If they wanted an art collection for the money, they wouldn't collect Kole's work."

Elphaba raised her eyebrow slightly in surprise.

"Again, according to my parents' art guy," he shrugged.

"They could have sold it all to a gallery or museum a dozen times over the years. They keep it because it means something to their family. Because of Alivia."

Elphaba stared at the painting and let out a slow breath.

"Do I want to know how much you paid? Or how much this is worth?"

"No," Fiyero replied immediately. "But know that it is not the most valuable painting in the collection. Not even close. Any value comes from the fact it's the first, not because fancy art people think it's any good. Does this help?"

Elphaba considered that carefully. "A little," she admitted. "What exactly am I supposed to do with this now? It feels really wrong to just hang it up in my dorm room next to Galinda's poster of the kittens sitting in the pink sparkly shoes."

Fiyero laughed.

"I didn't think that far ahead," he admitted.

Elphaba leaned over and kissed him, caressing his stubbly jaw with her thumb.

"I love it, hon. It's… the most thoughtful, meaningful, I'm sure ridiculously expensive gift I could have imagined. Please don't do this for any future anniversaries," she begged him.

"I make no promises," Fiyero grinned. "Where's my gift?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes and carefully put the painting on Fiyero's desk before she fetched the gift from her bag. As she returned to the bed, she looked apprehensive.

"I feel a little bad now," she confessed. "It's just… when I had the idea for this gift, I thought it was really meaningful. But after the painting…"

"It'll be fine, Fae," Fiyero reassured her, reaching for the gift and ripping off the paper.

Inside the box was a notebook, the pages of which were filled with Elphaba's handwriting.

"It's the first three chapters of the book," Elphaba explained tentatively. "Only the first draft. But I thought you might want to read it. Tell me what you think."

Fiyero's face lit up. "You want my opinion?"

Elphaba nodded. "Yeah. Although you can not tell Galinda I let you read it, or she'll kill us both."

Fiyero laughed as he kissed her. "This is great, Fae. Seriously. I know what a big deal this is for you."

Elphaba shrugged. "I'm already sleeping with you," she pointed out. "It's not really more of a bigger deal than that. Plus, you've already read stuff I've written before.

"I suppose that's true," Fiyero said thoughtfully. "Speaking of which…"

He drew her into his arms and began to kiss down her neck.

"Your parents really have an art guy?" Elphaba asked him, even as her eyes fluttered shut.

Fiyero paused and drew back to look at her, one eyebrow lifting.

"Seriously?"

"I'm sorry," she laughed. "I just didn't know this. I didn't know your parents were into art."

"Yeah, Elphaba, any conversation involving my parents is a conversation for a later time," Fiyero retorted and returned his lips to her neck.

Elphaba laughed but didn't argue.

Later that night, Elphaba exited the bathroom after finishing her hair and makeup.

"Ok, I just need to put my shoes on and then I'm ready," she announced.

Fiyero smiled softly as he took her in. "You look beautiful," he murmured, kissing her cheek softly.

Elphaba beamed, straightening his tie. "You don't look so bad yourself. Are you ready to go?"

"Can we skip dinner?" Fiyero suggested.

She rolled her eyes. "No. Fiyero, this was your grand plan, remember?"

"Yes, and now we know I should not make plans," Fiyero nodded.

Elphaba giggled and went to grab her shoes.

He took her to The Peacock, where he'd arranged for them to be seated at the very same table where they'd sat for their first date a year ago.

"I have to admit, I'm very impressed," Elphaba said as the waiter poured them champagne and left them to peruse the menus.

Fiyero winked at her. "The night's not over yet."

As they walked back to campus after dinner, Fiyero hurried her along quickly, much to her bewilderment.

"Are we in a rush to get somewhere?" she asked him.

"Not exactly," Fiyero replied. "Hang on. Here. Stand here."

He drew her to a stop under a streetlight and turned to face her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"No, wait. Here," he said, turning her a little to the left.

Elphaba raised her eyebrow. "Ok. What's here?"

Fiyero stepped forward and placed his hands on her hips, resting his forehead against hers.

"This is the spot where I kissed you for the first time," he explained quietly. "Which, technically, was a year ago yesterday, I knowBut I'm still counting it for tonight."

Elphaba's face softened, sliding her arms around his neck.

"Still impressed?" he asked her.

"Very impressed," she grinned, kissing him softly. "You're setting the bar very high for future anniversaries."

Fiyero grimaced. "Er, yeah. I'm never going to be able to top this," he shook his head.

Elphaba laughed and kissed him again.

When she recounted the night to Nessarose and Galinda- the parts that were appropriate to be recounted- both girls were brought to tears.

"I don't know what's more romantic," Galinda declared, wiping her eyes. "Him buying the painting or remembering the spot where you had your first kiss."

"It's the painting," Nessa said firmly. "Are you kidding me? It's obviously the painting. Where is it now, Fabala?"

"Lying on the dining room table in Fiyero's suite," Elphaba replied. "I'm actually terrified to move it anywhere, because Yero won't tell me how much it's worth, but I know it's worth a lot."

Nessa nodded wisely. "This is true," she said, which was not at all reassuring to Elphaba.

"Do you know how much it's worth?" she asked her sister.

"Not really," Nessa confessed. "I'm not trained for appraisals. But I could guess."

Elphaba shook her head. "No, it's ok. I think I'll sleep better not knowing."

"What did you get him?" Galinda asked her.

Elphaba faltered for just a moment. "A book," she replied, averting her gaze.

Galinda frowned. "A book? For a one-year anniversary? That's not very romantic, Elphie."

"It's more romantic than it sounds," she said vaguely and changed the subject.

It took Fiyero two weeks to read the chapters Elphaba had given him, and by the time he finished, Elphaba was practically crawling out of her skin.

Late one Friday morning, she sat at her desk in the Gazette office working on an article, when Fiyero suddenly appeared at her side.

"Hey," he greeted her, pulling over Boq's empty desk chair and sitting down.

"Hey," Elphaba replied, looking up. "Did you want to get lunch before class? What's going on?" she asked, noting his expression.

He grinned at her. "I finished it."

Elphaba's eyes widened and she dropped her pencil. "Oh, thank Oz. You read so slow," she stressed earnestly.

"Seriously. How do you read so slow?!"

Fiyero rolled his eyes. "Don't rush me," he scolded her. "Come on. Do you want to know what I thought?"

Elphaba faltered and let out a breath. "Ok," she agreed. "But not here."

They went into town and sat at their usual booth in the pub, Elphaba fidgeting nervously the whole time.

"I want you to be honest," she told him firmly. "Don't hold back."

"Fae, come on," Fiyero rolled his eyes. "I can be honest."

"Yes, but I don't think you can be impartial."

He grinned unashamedly. "There is that," he agreed.

Fiyero pulled out her notebook from his bag and pushed it across the table towards her. Elphaba's eyes widened as she spotted the coloured slips of paper sticking out from the pages.

"What are these?"

"My notes," Fiyero replied.

He pointed them out to her. "So, the green ones are questions I had; the blue ones are bits I wanted more on and I thought maybe you could expand on, and the orange ones are just thoughts I had while I was reading. My commentary, so to speak."

Elphaba flicked through a few pages, and then looked up at him.

"I have never wanted you more," she said solemnly.

Fiyero grinned. "Well, hold on to that feeling and we'll come back to that tonight," he winked.

Elphaba chuckled. "Sounds good."

Fiyero reached for the menu and then paused.

"See, I was thinking sex, but you're going to want to go through all my notes, aren't you?"

Elphaba nodded brightly. "Yes," she confirmed.

Fiyero sighed. "Ok."

So that night, they lay curled up in bed as Elphaba read through Fiyero's notes on her first three chapters.

The scene where Alivia and Kole (tentatively named until she decided if she wanted to change their names or not) first met was marked with both green and blue notes.

"Something just felt missing," Fiyero said tentatively, seeing her frown over it.

"I know," she reassured him with a sigh. "I felt that too."

She stared at the page, chewing on the end of her pencil.

"We know they met at the philosophy lecture," she said slowly. "And we know that's where they met up when they ran off together. But we still don't know where exactly on campus it was. And I'm having trouble picturing it, which makes it hard to write."

"So just change it," Fiyero suggested. "Make something up."

"I can't," Elphaba protested.

"Why not?"

"Because… that's not what happened!"

She sighed and scowled at her pages. "How can I get the story right if I don't know where it started?"

Fiyero regarded her for a moment and then got out of bed.

"Get dressed," he told her.

Elphaba frowned, pulling off her glasses. "What?"

"Get dressed," he urged her. "We're going out."

Elphaba glanced out the window in bewilderment. "Now? Yero, it's late. And cold, and it's snowing."

"Just get dressed," Fiyero repeated.

Confusedly, Elphaba obeyed and once they were both rugged up against the cold, he led her out of Briscoe Hall and out to the courtyard.

"Where did we meet?" he asked her.

Elphaba looked at him blankly. "Here," she said, puzzled.

He shook his head. "No. Find me the spot. Where did we meet?"

Elphaba stared around the dark courtyard, shivering.

"Fiyero, I have no idea," she finally confessed.

"Me neither," Fiyero said.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly. "Our story is no less amazing because you don't know where we started, is it?"

Elphaba tried and failed to stifle a smile.

"I see your point."

"That is not an answer, Elphaba."

She rolled her eyes. "No," she said patiently. "Our story is no less amazing because I can't remember the exact spot where we met."

Fiyero grinned and nodded. "Well, alright then."

Elphaba chuckled and moved closer to him, resting her head on his chest.

They stood in silence for awhile as the snow fell silently around them.

"I think I'm going to give them their happy ending," Elphaba finally broke the silence, her voice barely above a whisper.

Fiyero pulled back to see her face. "Alivia and Kole? Really?"

Elphaba nodded. "Yeah. I think they deserve that, even if they were both pretty happy with where they ended up."

Fiyero smiled and kissed her softly. "I think that sounds like a good ending."

They turned and headed back to Briscoe Hall, hands linked.

"I think you should make Alivia and Kole meet here in the courtyard," Fiyero said. "In the book."

"Why the courtyard?"

"Well, wherever they met, that's where they agreed to meet when they eloped, right? And Kole wrote that was the spot where he used up all his luck. The courtyard was pretty lucky for us. They could borrow it."

"Hm. Should I have one of them almost run the other over?" Elphaba asked innocently, smirking faintly.

"You can't give them our whole story, Fae," he replied, squeezing her hand. "But they can have the courtyard."

Elphaba smiled, her steps pausing as they neared the door to the building. She leaned up and kissed him. "You're very wise," she told him softly.

Fiyero had no idea what exactly he'd said that was so wise, but he shrugged modestly.

"I know. It's such a burden," he grinned at her. "I'm also handsome and charming. I'm irresistible. Quite frankly, I don't know how you keep your hands off me."

Elphaba laughed, kissing him deeply. "With great difficulty," she reassured him. "Can we go back to bed now?"

Fiyero held open the door to the foyer and bowed. "After you, milady."

AN. Taylor Swift... it rained for 90% of the show and was still the most amazing night and so worth the wait. I've never been so happy to stand in the rain for 2.5 hours. And then we went and watched a Shakespeare play this morning.

See you on Tuesday for the last chapter!