I had a few people after the last chapter tell me their weirdest/funniest broken bone/injury stories, which was really interesting! My weirdest one is spraining a toe when I tripped over a step at a pool party when I was 10... I didn't even know you could sprain a toe!

5 Down: Process of transformation; Change of state, as from caterpillar to butterfly (13)

For being eight o'clock in the morning, it felt much earlier than that. Mostly due to the dark and heavy clouds that hung low overhead and blocking the sun completely. Just two days before anyone would have sworn that spring had sprung a few weeks early, but today they were plunged back into the depths of winter. Those who had managed to drag themselves out of bed despite the awful weather hurried through the streets, huddled in their heaviest coats or hiding under umbrellas.

Fiyero, however, strolled casually towards The Wilted Rose with a light step, whistling quietly. He barely noticed the weather of the bitter February morning, and he was oblivious to the almost bewildered looks he was attracting from those he passed. Fiyero was in a great mood, and nothing could ruin that for him. Because last night he'd had a date with Elphaba Thropp. And it had gone well. Really well. He might even go so far as to say it was the perfect first date- despite the fact that Elphaba was still on crutches for her fractured foot.

It was habit now upon entering the café to glance towards Elphaba's usual corner table, no matter if Fiyero expected to find her there or not. He certainly hadn't expected to see her there this morning, between the weather, her foot and the fact it was a Sunday morning and therefore she had no classes to go to. But there she was.

Skipping the line of people waiting to order, Fiyero weaved around them to reach her table.

"Hi," he said, faintly breathless for absolutely no reason at all.

Elphaba jolted slightly, her eyes widening as she looked up at him and her mouth parted slightly.

"Hi," she replied awkwardly.

"What are you doing here so early?" he demanded.

Elphaba tilted her head confusedly. "Am I not meant to be?"

Fiyero gestured pointedly to the crutches that were leaning against the wall beside the table, and Elphaba's lips twitched.

"You remember that I had the crutches last night, yes? And every day for the past four weeks?"

"I know," Fiyero acknowledged. "But…"

He shot a glance over his shoulder through the window, the dismal weather seeming much more foreboding suddenly. He'd worried about Elphaba on crutches when the ground was still wet so much this time of year, either with snow or rain, and he honestly didn't trust most people beyond their small friend group to help Elphaba if she'd happened to fall on the crutches while she was alone.

"I'm a big girl, Yero," Elphaba reminded him gently. "And will you sit down?"

Fiyero blinked and sank into the empty seat opposite her.

"Why are you up so early on a Sunday morning?" she asked him.

Fiyero shrugged. "Woke up and couldn't sleep."

He left out the part where he couldn't sleep because his brain kept replaying the night before and he was just in too good a mood to linger in bed. Elphaba just nodded, her eyes falling to study the pattern on the silverware intently.

"Anything interesting in the paper this morning?"

Her eyes flickered to him, back to the paper and then back to him. "Oh. Just the usual," she said.

Fiyero's heart sank slightly. Had last night not gone as well as he'd thought?

"Fae?"

Her eyes flew to his and Fiyero leaned forward slightly over the table. "Are you… I mean, is everything okay?" he asked. "Did I do-?"

"No!" Elphaba cut him off hastily, her eyes widening briefly. "No, everything's fine. I just… I don't know how to do this."

Fiyero's shoulders eased even as hers slumped in misery.

"Elphaba, I meant what I said last night," he said quietly. "It's just you and me. Nothing changes if we do this."

"If we date, I think a few things are going to change," Elphaba pointed out.

"Not change," Fiyero argued. "More like evolve."

"Evolve."

"Yeah. Like, what's the word for when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly?"

Elphaba's lips quirked. "Metamorphosis."

"Yeah!" he agreed.

Fiyero faltered, and then reached over the table for her hand, the way he'd wanted to last night but hadn't worked up the nerve.

"Nothing needs to be weird," he told her. "We go slow. I mean, other than Galinda, does anyone know that we went out on a date last night?"

"Only the people who were at the restaurant who have eyes," Elphaba said dryly.

"We could have just been having dinner, it wasn't necessarily a date," Fiyero pointed out. "People know that we're friends. So, there's no gossip. Not until we decide to say anything. Everything is just normal."

Elphaba rested her chin in her free hand, studying him.

"What's normal?"

Fiyero grinned. "I'm going to order pancakes and coffee, you're going to read the paper and do the crossword. I will help."

Elphaba smiled at that. "Okay," she agreed quietly.

Fiyero reluctantly let go of her hand to go place his order, and when he returned to the table Elphaba met his gaze without faltering.

"Just to clarify," Fiyero said as he resumed his seat. "Last night was a successful first date, yes?"

Elphaba paused, and Fiyero resisted the urge to hold his breath until she spoke again.

"I want to say yes," she said eventually, and Fiyero's heart leapt. "But given that last night was my first date ever, I'm not really sure what the criteria is for a success."

"Galinda didn't have anything to say on the subject?"

"Oh, Galinda had a lot to say," Elphaba said with a roll of her eyes and Fiyero laughed.

"Is she still mad?"

Elphaba huffed out a laugh. "Yes. Although somehow she's more annoyed that I agreed to going out on a date with you with a broken foot than she is at you for asking me out while I have a broken foot."

"To be fair, I did suggest it as something to festivate when you get the cast off," Fiyero reminded her.

Elphaba shrugged. "I didn't want to wait," she said almost shyly, and Fiyero beamed.

"Me either," Fiyero admitted. He hesitated and then cleared his throat. "Galinda… she's known for a bit that I wanted to ask you out. That's probably why she's not really mad at me- because I finally did it."

Elphaba's brow furrowed warily. "How long is 'a bit'?"

"Four months," Fiyero confessed in a rush, reaching for her newspaper. "What's the crossword-?"

"Four months?" Elphaba repeated incredulously. "How? What did you tell her?"

"I didn't tell her about the Cub," Fiyero said quickly, his voice low. "I didn't, okay? I just said that I liked you. And she'd already guessed that. I just confirmed it."

Elphaba tensed slightly, and Fiyero knew why. Ten months on, and they'd still never really talked about that day. Maybe they should- no, they definishly should. But not today. Not now.

"Four months?" she said again, her voice small.

"Yeah, who knew Galinda can keep a secret, right?" Fiyero joked, and was rewarded with another small, vaguely shy smile.

Fiyero's order arrived shortly after, and Fiyero took note of the way Elphaba slowly relaxed while he ate, focusing her attention on the crossword.

"Oh, Oz."

That caught Fiyero's attention, pulling him back from where he'd been distantly staring at Elphaba's long fingers absent-mindedly twirl her pen while she studied the crossword clues.

"What?" he asked her.

Elphaba sighed, her mouth quirking for a moment. "Nine across. 'Prince BLANK of the Vinkus.'"

Fiyero grinned widely. "I'm a crossword clue? That is amazing. Let me see."

Elphaba handed over the paper and when he gestured impatiently for it, also the pen. As he wrote in his own name, he could feel her watching him and was pretty sure she was rolling her eyes- she wouldn't be Elphaba otherwise- but she said nothing. Until he started filling in the next clue.

"Hey," she protested, reaching for the pen.

Fiyero pulled it back out of her reach. "What? It says belch. I know that one."

Elphaba sighed and reached for the paper instead, and Fiyero swatted her hand away gently. "You'll get it back when I'm done," he reassured her.

"Does this have to be part of our normal?" Elphaba asked him tiredly.

"Me helping you?"

"You interrupting my morning routine," she corrected him.

"If I do it often enough it can become part of our normal," Fiyero grinned at her.

Elphaba rolled her eyes, but didn't argue as he went back to the crossword puzzle.

If you were going to be a crossword clue, what would the clue be?

Mine would be "Fanfiction writer who never passes up the chance to write a wedding."