9 Down: Moment of revelation (8)

Fiyero smiled politely at the couple who exited The Wilted Rose as he approached and held the door for him, slipping inside and gazing around. It never failed to surprise him how busy the café was at seven-thirty in the morning, although every time he commented as such, Elphaba rolled her eyes at him.

Speaking of whom- Fiyero perked up as he spotted her at what he had come to think of as her table, tucked away in the corner and partially hidden from view. Fiyero swiftly joined the line and placed his order before making his way over, only to be surprised to see that Elphaba wasn't alone this morning.

"What are you doing up this early?" he greeted Galinda, pulling over an empty chair from the next table so that he could join them.

"Good morning to you to, Fiyero," Elphaba said without looking up from her newspaper, and Fiyero waved her off.

"I just meant that you're not usually up this early," he said to Galinda. "I thought you don't have any early classes this semester?"

Galinda pouted. "I've got to work on my group project for my Sociology class, and this is the only time Remrelagreed to meet."

"And I wouldn't let her ditch him and make him do all the work," Elphaba added.

That made sense.

"And I get up early most days!" Galinda insisted. "Elphie, tell him."

"She does," Elphaba confirmed. "She just spends an hour getting ready before she leaves the dorm suite."

Galinda gestured to her perfectly made-up face and hair. "This doesn't just happen, you know."

Fiyero nodded solemnly, gesturing to his own face. "I guess we can't all be as lucky as me," he teased her.

Elphaba scoffed, almost choking on her coffee and Galinda narrowed her eyes at him.

"Since when are you up this early?" Galinda demanded of Fiyero in return.

Fiyero shrugged. "I'm trying to develop better morning habits," he said. "I think all of Fae's lectures about the health benefits of waking up early are starting to rub off on me."

Elphaba did look up at that, taking a more careful sip of her coffee this time. "It's nice to see that someone listens to me."

Fiyero grinned at her, and then lowered his eyes to the paper before her.

"Need my help with the crossword?" he asked jokingly.

Elphaba rolled her eyes, and then surprised Fiyero by handing him her pen. "Be my guest," she said, a note of challenge in her tone.

Fiyero was never one to back down from a challenge, so he took the offered pen and paper from her with a pointed look. And maybe it was just that he was competitive, but Fiyero was determined to complete as much of the crossword as he could. And it had absolutely nothing to do with wanting to impress Elphaba. However, Fiyero could feel Galinda frowning at him as his head bent over the paper, and it was rather distracting. Or maybe today's crossword was just extra hard.

After he'd completed as many clues as he could, Elphaba took the pen and paper from him to do her turn and Fiyero looked to Galinda and raised an eyebrow questioningly. The look she served him in return was rather knowing, and it made Fiyero's stomach squirm.

He resisted the urge to make a face at her, and instead focused on drinking his coffee, which had arrived while he'd been musing over eight across.

"Are you going to the OzDust this weekend, Glin?" he asked her, in a not very subtle attempt to distract her.

"I think so," Galinda nodded. "I'm meeting Milla later to try and find a dress. We want to dress on theme."

"On theme?" Fiyero repeated. "Isn't the theme just… fall?"

"Colour Me Autumn," Galinda corrected him. "Although I still think October Sky was a better idea, don't you?"

Fiyero blinked at her, as Galinda looked at him expectantly and Elphaba raised her head with a faint smirk.

"Sure," he agreed to placate Galinda and then raised an eyebrow at Elphaba. "What, Fae?"

"Sixteen down can't be Florix," Elphaba said simply, shaking her head.

"It has to be," Fiyero argued. "Because look- that one can only be Morgaine Jinx."

"But that makes this one fealistic. Which is not a word, the last I checked."

Fiyero scoffed. "Like you know all the words."

Elphaba raised an eyebrow at him, and Fiyero relented with a sigh. "Fine. What's sixteen down then?"

By the time they'd successfully completed the crossword, Galinda's lips were pressed together into a thin line, although Fiyero couldn't get an accurate fix on what emotion she was conveying- or trying not to. Fiyero pointedly ignored her, but Elphaba frowned right back at her when she noticed.

"What's wrong?" she asked her.

Galinda's face cleared as she smiled at Elphaba. "Nothing," she reassured her. "I just had an epiphany, that's all."

Elphaba's eyebrow rose slightly. "Is it that Remrelhas been over at that table waiting for you for the past ten minutes?" she asked, pointing towards a table by the window.

Galinda looked over in the direction where she was pointing and blinked. "Oh, right."

She sighed, got to her feet and collected her things.

"I will talk to you later," she said, almost threateningly as her eyes lingered on Fiyero.

Fiyero inwardly winced and averted his gaze, finishing his coffee quickly. Elphaba seemed nonplussed as she gathered her own things.

"I've got to duck to the library before my lecture," she said.

"I'll walk with you," Fiyero said hastily, making a sudden vow to avoid Galinda for as long as possible and eager to begin immediately.

Galinda's parting look suggested she wasn't fooled for a moment.

Fiyero did his best to uphold his vow, but discoverated that avoiding people didn't really work when they knew where you slept. Galinda gave him all of twelve hours grace before she knocked on the door to his suite to confront him.

"You like Elphaba!" she exclaimed accusingly the moment Fiyero swung open the door.

Fiyero shushed her, even as he ushered her inside. "Oh my Oz, Galinda. The whole damn building doesn't need to know," he replied, before realising that he probably should have at least tried to deny her accusation. Was it too late now?

"Of course I like Fae," he said, closing the door behind her. "We're friends."

It was worth a shot, right?

Galinda placed her hands on her hips and stared at him pointedly. "I mean that you like her," she replied. "And don't lie to me, Fiyero Tiggular. I can sniff these things out a mile away."

Fiyero scoffed. "Then we should have had this conversation ages ago," he said without thinking.

Galinda's eyes widened, his words hanging between them for a long moment.

"Oh," she breathed, her voice small. "You- you've liked her for a while then."

Fiyero winced. "Kind of," he admitted, praying to every deity he'd ever heard of that she wouldn't ask for specifics.

He could practically see the questions lurking in her eyes (How long? How did it start? When?) and he braced himself, racking his brain for an explanation that would leave Elphaba and Galinda's friendship unscathed, even if it meant Galinda hating him.

And then Galinda took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay."

Fiyero hesitated. "Okay?" he repeated. "Okay… what?"

She held up a hand. "I'm processing," she said sharply.

Fiyero nodded slowly. "Right. Do you want to sit while you process?" he offered.

Galinda primly seated herself on the couch, and Fiyero sat beside her almost warily, just waiting for her to say something.

"Are you going to ask her out?" Galinda asked finally.

Fiyero ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know," he admitted. "I don't know if she'd want that, and… I like being friends with her. And you. I don't want to wreck that, and I bet even if she was interested in dating me, she'd say the same thing."

Galinda wrinkled her nose. "That does sound like something Elphie would say," she agreed.

Fiyero paused, mentally weighing whether to ask the question that was on the tip of his tongue. But he just had to know.

"How did you figure it out?"

"I told you. I always know these things."

Fiyero shook his head. "No. There was something this morning that tipped you off," he insisted.

Galinda broke into a smile. "Fiyero, you did the crossword puzzle."

Fiyero snorted. "Hate to break it to you, Glin, but I have done a crossword puzzle before. That was my parents' idea of quality family bonding time while I was growing up."

Galinda's eyebrows lifted in surprise just briefly. "Really? I never knew that."

Fiyero shrugged, shifting slightly. "It's not exactly something I tell Ozbeat magazine or anything," he mumbled, averting his eyes.

"It doesn't exactly fit with your reputation," Galinda agreed.

She reached over and placed a hand on Fiyero's forearm as it rested on his knee. "But I think that proves my point still. You didn't hide it from Elphie," she pointed out gently.

A lump rose in Fiyero's throat suddenly. Because what was he supposed to say to that? That he hadn't seen the point, because Elphaba had seen through him before he'd even begun to get to know her? Because once he did get to know her, he knew if there was ever a glimmer of hope for them after that moment in the clearing, there could be no more hiding of who he was?

"Are you going to tell her?" he asked quietly.

"No," Galinda said without hesitation. "But I am going to investigate to see if she-"

"Galinda."

Galinda bounced to her feet. "Trust me," she insisted, drowning out his objections.

She was almost to the door when she spun around to face him, pointing at him sternly. "Are you going to hurt her?"

Fiyero blinked. "What?"

"If I do this… if you date Elphie- are you going to hurt her? Are you going to break her heart?"

Fiyero wondered if there was an unspoken 'like you broke mine' at the end of that sentence that she'd swallowed down. It had been some six months since they'd become friends post-breakup, but they'd never really talked about it or Fiyero's reasons for doing so, or Galinda's feelings.

"That's the last thing I want to do, Galinda," he replied quietly, meeting her gaze solemnly.

The 'I didn't want to hurt you either' was unspoken, and Galinda's eyes gleamed with silent acknowledgement as she studied his face carefully.

"Okay," she said again and then let herself out of the suite.