Chapter 6: It's worse

All their talks started to become the highlight of her day. The more she got to know him, the more she liked him, and she didn't think that was possible. Every single day proved her wrong.

The small touches, the hugs, the teasing, sometimes they danced together if he happened to need help in seeing what the choreography in his head actually looked like. She smiled, remembering that one day when he'd seemed to be a little distracted.

They had been holding hands while walking to the studio, something they seemed to be doing a lot of lately, and he'd been humming a song softly to himself. When they'd gotten to the studio, he pulled her to the nearest classroom and asked her to follow his lead. He'd lifted her off the ground and tossed her into the air, then caught her in his arms and they'd kept improvising.

He'd just wanted to test a lift, they'd ended up dancing to the entire song. She'd lost herself, it felt so great to dance with him again.

Elphaba knew there wasn't a chance of him ever being more than just her friend, and there was that small voice telling her she was just digging herself a bigger hole, but she'd take what she could get. Even if it did hurt just a little bit.

She loved spending time with him. When he would search for her in the 15 minutes she had in between each dance class at the studio, he'd wait for her and Glinda to walk home with them, more often than not, he stayed until before the sun set so that there would still be light out for when he walked back to the hotel to sleep. And he'd be there in the morning to walk with them to the studio.

Was there ever a time where this wasn't their routine? Had it really only been about two and a half months?

They were sitting on the couch of his hotel room, watching a movie. It was…interesting? She'd never seen this movie before and Glinda had said it was a must. She'd heard people talk about it and reference it before. Fiyero said he'd watched the entire saga with friends before. He'd admitted it wasn't the best thing ever, but that she could judge it for herself.

It was ridiculous.

When the credits had finally rolled, Fiyero turned to her. "So, what did you think?"

"Honestly, kinda awful." she crossed her legs on the couch, "awkward dialogue, the leads seemed to have very little chemistry, and…I don't know. It was just boring overall. To me."

"It's not for everyone that's for sure," he stood in front of her and grabbed her arms, swinging them back and forth, "but you gotta admit there were some ok-ish scenes in there."

She smiled and rolled her eyes, looking at their hands. Green mixing with his slight tan. "Now I can say I've watched it," she muttered, "I guess it could have been worse," she admitted. They turned to the television when they heard it make a noise. "Is that the sequel?" Elphaba asked, reading the title.

"It's worse," Fiyero nodded.

She smacked the remote with her foot, turning the TV screen off and making Fiyero burst out laughing.

"Now you owe me one for making me watch this," she said.

"You just said it could've been worse."

"That does not mean I enjoyed it."

"Fine." he smiled but didn't let go of her hands.

He'd really been struggling lately, with not being able to tell her how he felt. He wasn't sure exactly what he felt. It was all new and scary at the same time. There were days where he was so sure she liked him too, then the f-word would be thrown and his spirits would deflate. But right now, he was holding her hands, rubbing them with his thumb, and she wasn't pulling away.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"When the time presents itself, I'll remind you," she smirked.

"I hope you don't take advantage of me."

"Nah. Don't forget I still owe you one for watching those romance movies when Glinda was sick."

"You're right," he'd actually forgotten about that. "So," he sat on the small table in front of her, and breathed deeply "what if I said that I would like you to make it up to me right now?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Name your price. A dance, a meal…a better movie?" she teased. She stopped laughing when he didn't say anything. "Fiyero?"

He glanced down at their hands. Why am I such a coward?

Her grip on him tightened. "What?"

He raised his gaze to her, his eyes widening when he realized he'd said that outloud.

"Are you ok, is something wrong?" she whispered.

"A date," he breathed out. He panicked at seeing her eyes widen. "Just as friends, next weekend. I've been wanting to go to the park lately, all three of us could go," he smiled.

She sighed and dropped her gaze. There was an ache in his stomach and he fought hard to stop a frown from forming on his lips, she seemed relieved that it wasn't a date.

"Yeah, that sounds lovely, though you didn't have to use that as an excuse," she laughed softly.

Fiyero stood up sighing. He went to the window. Elphaba was confused, she kept her eyes on him. Something was wrong, this wasn't like Fiyero, something was bothering him.

"Yero?" she stood up and hugged him from behind, wrapping her arms around his waist. She knew something was definitely wrong when he felt him tense, he'd never tensed before when they hugged. She placed her chin on his shoulder and sighed. "You wanna tell me what's bothering you?"

"Nothing."

"I've been hanging out with you every single day for more than two months, I know that's not true," if something bothered him, he usually told her right away, or at least said he'd tell her later. Why was this different? And why did it seem to hurt so bad that he wouldn't tell her?

Glinda came back in.

"Sorry I took so long, there was a longer line at the drive-thru than I had expected," Elphaba turned around and saw that Glinda had dinner in her hands, she didn't let Fiyero go.

Glinda frowned at seeing her two friends, the room felt very tense. She mouthed to Elphaba. What's wrong?

The green girl shrugged and shook her head. I don't know.

She took her attempt to comfort him one step further and placed a soft kiss on his shoulder. She had no idea that it did anything but comfort.