Strength
A.N. Thanks for the reviews. Sorry this update has taken so long, but things have been crazy for me. Luckily, I'm on spring break this week so I'll have time to update things. Happy spring, everyone.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
Two more days passed. Both Glinda and Elphaba's health showed slight improvement, but they were both still nowhere near what Fiyero considered to be healthy. What worried him the most were the fevers. Glinda's had gone down to 102, but Elphaba's hadn't changed at all in two days.
It was also getting harder and harder to keep Glinda and Elphaba in bed. Now that Elphaba's cast was off, her old spirit was returning, though its return was slowed a little by the sickness. It seemed every time Fiyero turned around Elphaba had some new reason she had to get up. Glinda wasn't much better.
On the third day of the mini epidemic, Fiyero arrived at the girl's room to find Elphaba already up and dressed. Glinda was nowhere to be found, but the sound of running water coming out of the bathroom suggested she was taking a shower.
"Elphie, what are you doing?" Fiyero asked.
"Glinda and I are…" Elphaba was interrupted by a coughing fit. Fiyero folded his arms and patiently waited for the coughing to subside. "We're going out to do our Lurlinemas shopping today." Elphaba continued once the coughing had stopped.
"You are voluntarily going out shopping? That doesn't sound like you, Elphie."
"It's not really. It was Glinda's idea."
Fiyero put his hand to Elphaba's forehead. "Elphie, I don't think this is such a good idea. You still feel very…"
As if on cue, Glinda emerged from the bathroom. "Oh, no you don't! Don't you dare try and talk her out of this. We're both well enough to go out and we need to get our gifts for the party. Lurlinemas is just two days away and tomorrow every store will either be much to crowded or will have nothing left."
Fiyero didn't say anything. He simply crossed the room and put his hand to Glinda's forehead. "Yup, just as I thought. You're still burning up too. I really don't think it's a good idea for either of you to be going out. It's not that big of a deal if we put the Lurlinemas party off until you're both better."
"Yes it is, Fiyero. This is Elphie's first real Lurlinemas and we're going to do it right! Come on, Elphie!" Glinda grabbed Elphaba's wrist and before Fiyero could say anything else the two were out the door.
Glinda led Elphaba down to the closest shopping center. "Ok, so first we're going to split up and look for gifts for each other. Then, we'll meet back here in half an hour to shop for Fiyero and possibly Biq" she said.
"Boq. His name is Boq, Glinda. And what does possibly mean?"
"Well, Elphie, if I'm still feeling up to it after we get a gift for Fiyero then we'll shop for Biq."
"Boq"
"Whatever. Ok, see you in a half an hour!"
At first, Elphaba wondered why she had agreed to this. She really wished that she had brought Fiyero with her, even though she knew that that would have made buying him a gift impossible. But being alone in a crowd was starting to feel a bit intimidating. She did her best to remember how she used to ignore the stares and snickering that always seemed to come her way. However, they seemed to sting a little more than they used to.
Meanwhile, Fiyero sat in his own room, for the first time in over a month doing so without staring across the courtyard into Elphaba's window. He was adjusting the wrapping paper on his gift for Elphaba, the necklace he had seen in the window a few days before. As he applied the last piece of tape to the paper, he sat back and looked out his window. It was beginning to get windy, and the sky was once again that faithful shade of grey.
"Those two better hurry up and get home" he thought to himself. He doubted that the slight improvements they had shown over the past few days would hold up to walking outside in a snowstorm.
Just then, something caught his attention in the courtyard below. Two figures were slowly making their way across the snow-covered grass, not bothering to stick to the paved walkway that was the safer, but longer path. The skin color of one and the hair color of the other gave their identities away to Fiyero as soon as he saw them. He leaned back in his chair and relaxed a bit. They were on their way home, and they were at least still able to walk.
About half an hour later, Fiyero heard a knock on his door. He opened it to find Elphaba standing there, shopping bag in hand.
"Hi Elphie. Glad to see you made it back alive from shopping with Glinda. I hear that's no easy task."
"It was actually quite enjoyable, except for this stupid headache."
Fiyero's eyes immediately filled with concern. "Are you ok? Maybe you should sit down for awhile…" He guided her into the room and sat her on his bed. He then noticed the bag in her hand. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to it.
"This is my gift for Glinda. I'm supposed to wrap it over here while she wraps mine in our room. That way they stay a secret." Elphaba explained. "You wouldn't happen to have any wrapping paper or tape, would you? I kind of forgot to bring them."
Fiyero handed Elphaba the roll of paper and the tape, along with a pair of scissors. Elphaba moved herself to the floor and rolled out a much to generous portion of paper, and laid the gift in the center of it. After cutting the paper from the roll, she sat there for a few minutes, as if she was contemplating the best way to go about wrapping the gift.
It occurred to Fiyero that this was possibly her first time wrapping anything. "Uh, Elphie? You do know what you're doing, right? You've wrapped gifts before?"
Elphaba turned her head to Fiyero and said "Well, no. But I'll figure it out. How hard can it be? I'm just covering this box in this paper." She then proceeded to stare at the task in front of her for another five minutes. She would fold one corner up, then decide that wasn't the way to go and put it back down.
After five minutes or watching this, Fiyero finally asked "Need a little help?"
Rather than argue her gift-wrapping ability, Elphaba simply nodded her head. She laughed a little, and said, "I must look pretty stupid to you right now. What kind of person doesn't know how to wrap a gift?"
Fiyero eased himself out of the chair and onto the floor next to Elphaba. He pulled her a little closer to him and held her in his arms. "The kind of person I love", he said. He rocked her back and forth a few times before getting back to the task at hand. "Now, let's wrap this gift. What did you get her anyway? A "Beauty Queen Bath Set"?"
"Look, this was also the first time I've shopped for anyone before. And I didn't have you there to help me with that one. I know Glinda spends a lot of time in the bathroom, so I grabbed something with the word "bath" on it. Just help me wrap it, please?"
Fiyero then went into his lesson on "How to Wrap a Gift." Fortunately, Elphaba was a fast learner so the job only took them about five minutes. Once they had wrapped the gift, Elphaba stayed for a while longer. The two of them sat in Fiyero's chair, Elphaba on Fiyero's lap, watching the snow fall.
A.N. Once again, sorry about the delay with this chapter. Hopefully the next one won't take so long.