12 Down: Usual pattern of activity (7)

It was usually just Elphaba and Fiyero for breakfast, either in the campus dining hall or The Wilted Rose, especially on weekends. Galinda's morning routine was a process, and she wouldn't emerge from her dorm room with a single hair out of place- after all, she liked to say, you never knew who you would meet throughout the day. Boq was an early riser, being raised on a farm, but he liked to spend his mornings doing his schoolwork before many other people were up. Nessa had friends from her classes with whom she ate most mornings, and she preferred to linger in bed on the mornings when she had late classes or on the weekends.

That left Fiyero, who had long ago decided he'd readily get up at dawn if it meant extra time with Elphaba. Thankfully, getting up at dawn wasn't necessary. But he'd come to love these mornings at each stage of their evolution, from the moment he'd decided to become Elphaba's friend. Now that they had been dating for two months, there had been another slight shift.

They met out the front of Elphaba's dorm building each morning now, and walked to breakfast hand in hand, whether into town or to the dining hall. Elphaba still refused to have any kind of conversation until she'd had at least one cup of coffee but Fiyero got to sit beside her instead of opposite her now, their sides pressed together as closely as he could manage. And after Elphaba was "mentally coherent" as she called it, they'd do the crossword puzzle in the paper together. Somewhere along the line in those two months, it had become the best part of Fiyero's day.

And then Elphaba went back to Munchkinland. It hadn't been planned, but Nessa got a letter from their father that he was ill and Nessa insisted they go home. Which was the last thing Elphaba wanted to do, but she couldn't let Nessa travel alone. Frex wouldn't care that Elphaba was there, but she also wouldn't put it past him to make her feel guilty for not being there.

They were gone for four days and Fiyero admittedly moped around for the majority of it.

"I can't decide if this is sweet or pathetic," Galinda commented over lunch on the second day. "What in Oz's name are you going to do this summer when you're apart?"

"I'm working on that," Fiyero reassured her. "And let's go with sweet, okay? And maybe not tell Fae about this?"

"Oh no, I'm going to tell her," Galinda replied bluntly.

It was Thursday evening when Fiyero was lounging around morosely in his suite when there came a knock on the door.

"It's open!" Fiyero called out, too lazy to be bothered getting up.

The door opened cautiously, and Boq's head appeared. "Just thought you might be interested to know that Elphaba and Nessa just got back," he informed him.

Fiyero perked up at once, lifting his head. "Really?"

"The carriage is outside Morrible's quarters," Boq nodded.

It took everything in Fiyero not to rush over to Elphaba's dorm immediately, but he knew that her first priority would be getting Nessa settled, and she might like a moment to freshen up herself after the journey. However, when he did ultimately cave and knock on her door, she didn't look at all surprised to see him.

"How's your father?" he asked her, after kissing her hello.

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "He's fine. He has the flu, he's not in any danger. Except now Nessa is saying her throat hurts, so all this means is that I missed classes and went all that way for Nessa to get the flu and probably pass it on to me."

Fiyero grimaced sympathetically. "Do you want food? Or coffee?"

"Honestly, I'm just exhausted," Elphaba said apologetically. "Nessa kept needing to stop, so we-"

Fiyero squeezed her hands lightly. "It's fine, Fae. I just wanted to come see you."

Elphaba's smile was wan but grateful. "Thanks. Do you know where Galinda is?" she asked, nodding towards Galinda's empty half of the suite.

"No, but I would guess she's with Milla," Fiyero replied. "Lampenbroke up with her this morning, and it was big. Milla is devastrated."

Elphaba arched an eyebrow at him.

"You weren't here and I was hanging out with Glin, and I have been bored," Fiyero defended himself.

Elphaba rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched. "Uh huh. Well, I'm sure Galinda will tell me all about it when she gets back."

Whether Elphaba wanted to hear it or not.

"Breakfast tomorrow morning?" Fiyero asked hopefully, and although it was pretty much a given, his heart still lifted at Elphaba's answering nod.

"Eight?"

"Eight," Fiyero agreed, kissing her one last time before he managed to tear himself away to let her decompress after the trip.

The next morning went as it was supposed to. Fiyero met Elphaba out the front of her building and they decided to head to the dining hall for breakfast instead of heading into town. With only a short detour to get the paper, Fiyero found himself positively bubbly as he sat next to Elphaba and watched her drink her coffee.

"Okay, what?"

Fiyero blinked. "What?"

Elphaba put her mug down and raised an eyebrow at him. "You're staring. And it's weird."

Fiyero smiled at her sweetly. "It's weird that I want to look at my very pretty girlfriend?"

"Nice try, Tiggular."

"Fae, you've got to learn how to take a compliment."

"Not the bullshit ones you give me to avoid the real reason," Elphaba retorted pointedly. "Spill. I haven't had enough coffee for this yet."

Fiyero shifted in his seat, feeling the back of his neck grow warm. "I missed this," he admitted reluctantly.

"This? Breakfast?"

Fiyero waved a hand vaguely. "All of it. Breakfast, the crossword… just sitting here. I didn't really realise it had become a whole thing, and then the last few days we didn't do it, and it felt weird to not be doing it."

Elphaba's face softened. "Oh."

"Oh?" Fiyero echoed.

"A good 'oh'," she added hastily. "I mean, this has been my morning routine for ages, and I wasn't sure how it would go having another person there. We both know I'm not exactly a morning person. But when I was at home, it did feel different to be doing the crossword by myself. Even though there was a lot less arguing and people trying to make up words to make things fit in the spaces-"

"You can just say that you missed me too, Fae," Fiyero interrupted.

Elphaba chuckled, ducking her chin for a moment. "I missed you too," she said quietly.

"And I resent the implication that I make up words," Fiyero continued in mock outrage. "I'll show you. Let me see that paper. Where's the pen?"

Elphaba rummaged through her bag until she found a pen, handing it to him with a small smile.

"Alright. One across," Fiyero read aloud. "'Slogan.' Five letters."

"Motto."

Fiyero wrinkled his nose. "Easy. What about this one? 'More unusual.' Also five letters."

And so they made their way down the list, as per usual, trading the pen back and forth. Elphaba kept glancing over at him with poorly concealed amusement, just waiting for it. Fiyero knew, and he didn't disappoint.

"Four letters- 'frets.'"

"Mope."

"It can't be. We said this one was sect. So it has to begin with S."

Fiyero paused, just for dramatic effect before he said what they both knew he was going to say.

"Sope,"

Elphaba snorted, even as she buried her face in a hand.

"Here," Fiyero said, reaching over and making to pluck the pen from her other hand. "See-"

"Stop," Elphaba protested, and Fiyero did, more at the look on her face than anything else.

"What?" he asked her.

She shook her head, still smiling. "I really did miss you," she confessed quietly.

Fiyero beamed, leaning over to kiss her lightly. "Me too. I was soping around all over the place."

"And now you ruined the moment."

It was worth it.

AN. If you are from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Korea or the UK (or if you follow international productions of Wicked super closely) you may have seen Suzie Mathers as Glinda at some stage, or at least know her name.

Back in July, Suzie and her wife both welcomed beautiful babies after two years of IVF. Their story has been featured on a show here in Aus, 7 Spotlight and is now on YouTube (Suzie and Laura both shared the link on their instagrams, so I'm assuming it can be watched internationally). It's a great video, so if anyone wanted to watch it, you can (I've also shared the link on my Tumblr).