I thought a quick look back at Shiz was in order, check up on how everyone is doing with Elphie gone and all.
Nightmares
"No! I can do it on my own!" Glinda heard Nessarose scream from the next room. She sighed to herself. Nessarose had become impossibly difficult since Elphaba had left. Elphaba, Nessie's protector… and Glinda's closest friend.
She looked into the mirror without seeing, and splashed cold water onto her face. Her mind had been wandering to Elphaba a lot in the past couple of days. She'd had no idea how much everyone at Shiz needed her- they were all falling apart. Nessa insisted on trying to do things independently, though she often failed. Fiyero had become reserved and quiet, and spent most of his time wandering the grounds or trying to go back to the city. Boq became intensely busy with studying and refused to go to social gatherings, and she, Glinda, spent many nights lying awake. She had to do something. What would Elphie do? she found herself thinking, but then threw the soap across the bathroom in a moment of rage. Elphie wasn't here to help- she didn't care! Glinda immediately regretted her anger and looked at the bar of soap lying rather pitifully on the floor. She pushed tears back from her eyes for the second time that morning and crossed the bathroom slowly to retrieve the soap.
• • • • •
"Fiyero?" he heard a voice say as he jerked awake.
"Elphaba?" he called out into the dark corners of the room as he sat up quickly in bed, shivering.
"Go back to sleep. It was only a dream," Boq said, trying to comfort him.
"Yeah…" he muttered and rolled over into the warmth of his bed. Boq stood over him for just a moment before turning away. Fiyero heard Boq's feet as they padded across the floor, and heard him climb into bed. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Every night since he'd returned to Shiz, he's had long dreams in which he became lost in the Emerald City. Every time he thought he'd found Elphaba at last, the Gale Force appeared, blocking his way, always accompanied by a milk-white cat clamping the string of a red balloon in it's mouth. He wrinkled his forehead, wondering what the dream could mean.
"If- If you find Elphaba…" Boq's voice trailed off uncertainly before he continued. "Tell her that we miss her."
"I will," Fiyero whispered.
He got the sudden feeling that maybe he wasn't the only one who loved Elphaba after all. Guilt overwhelmed him- how could he keep the information of Elphaba's whereabouts to himself while everyone else mourned her disappearance? He opened his mouth, but quickly clamped it shut again. If he told Boq, or anyone, she would leave, and he doubted he could find her again.
He got out of bed in the darkness and pulled on some clothes. He saw Boq move in his bed as he walked towards the door.
"I'm going for a walk," he said as he closed the door softly behind him.
Cold Mornings
Fiyero meandered slowly down the lamp lit path that circled the school grounds. He kicked a stone with his toe until he tired of it, and then stopped and settled himself against a tree. He wondered briefly if he was going crazy. Did he love Elphaba? The constant, throbbing pain in his heart told him that he did. He only had two months left until graduation. From where he sat, two months seemed like an unbearably long time. Not just for him, but for everybody. He stood up and began to walk again. It was a bit colder than he had thought it would be, and he shivered as the wind bit harshly at his nose, face, and hands. The numbing sensation calmed him somewhat. He stopped walking and sighed. His feet had carried him to the train station without his notice for the third time that week.
"Oh, what the hell," he said, boarding the train, and waited for it's departure.
○ ○ ○ ○ ○
His fingers reached for the door handle and tugged. It didn't budge. He let his breath out in frustration, and it formed icy crystals in the morning air. He glanced around on the ground for something to pick the lock with and he spotted a dull wire poking out of the dirt. He grabbed it up and fumbled it into the lock, praying… Click.
He hurried silently through the door and up the stairs. There he saw her, shivering upon the mattress with the blanket sprawled across the floor. He stepped out of his clothes and pulled the blanket into the bed with him. He lay behind her curled up form and pulled her close.
"Fiyero…" she breathed in a sleepy voice. She turned her face to look at him. "Oh, Fiyero." She seemed unsurprised and yet disbelieving that he was there, all at once. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps she thought she was dreaming.
"I'm here, Elphaba," he said as she turned over. "I'm here."
She gathered him into her arms and they fell asleep.
