As Fiyero and Elphaba had jokingly dreaded, Nessa not only wrote to Elphaba and her father about Elphaba's "wicked" activities during the Emerald City trip, she had Nanny "proofread" it. Nanny's reaction was not as harsh as Elphaba had predicted it might be, though.
Putting down the angel-adorned stationary of Nessa's letter, Nanny raised her eyebrows towards Elphaba, whom Nessa had called into the room adjoined with Elphaba and Glinda's, insisting she stayed until Nanny had finished reading. "So, young Elphaba decided she was curious about sex and, instead of taking the words of a book as the truth, chose to go and find out everything for herself." Striding to the chair that her older, greener ward was sitting in, Nanny forced Elphaba's chin up and looked into her great-granddaughter's eyes. "It was the Winkie boy you're seeing, I presume?"
"Didn't Nessa specify in her 'report' to Father?" Elphaba didn't even blink.
"Well, she wrote," Nanny picked up the pure white paper again, "'on the night before the official visit with the Wizard, apparently Elphaba and her boyfriend, who was staying in the same room as she but, they claimed, slept in the second bed, committed the sin of fornication, which they repeated at least once on the hotel stays of the return trip,'" Nanny quoted. "She goes on to explain how she first discovered what you'd done – by admission of said boyfriend in a feeble attempt to convince you against running away – and also describes the way she found the two of you one morning."
Elphaba winced. "Doesn't that tell you enough?"
"Mostly. She did say that it was your boyfriend. I'm just confirming for myself."
"You have your confirmation, then." Elphaba answered simply.
"Very well." Nanny put her hands on her hips. "So, what would you and this young man…" Nanny was interrupted by a knock on the door in the next room.
Elphaba stood up hastily and opened the door. "Fiyero." She almost brightened into a smile, but it faded quicker than it came. Nanny had followed her and was tapping her foot expectantly. "Fiyero, did I ever tell you that you have the strangest timing?"
"I was just stopping by to give you this," he brought his arm out from behind his back. "Remember how I told you I'd gotten you something for Lurlinemas but I'd forgotten it back at the dorm?"
"Oh!" Elphaba took the medium-sized box he handed her and hugged him. "Thank you."
"You don't have to open it while I'm here if you don't want. I'll just be heading back to my dorm…"
"Nonsense, dearie." Nanny burst in. "Why don't you sit down for a bit? It's awfully cold outside. It would be silly for you to have made the trip all the way over to Crage and not spend a moment or two getting warmed up. We were just talking about you, coincidentally."
Elphaba wanted to die right then and there, but she simply turned and led Fiyero into the room. He sat down as he had so many times, on the edge of her bed and waited for her to sit next to him, confused when she didn't. "Wait, you were talking about me?"
Nanny cackled. "Don't worry, young man, it was nothing mean. I was just inquiring about the status of your relationship with my Fabala. You two have been seeing each other for some time now, haven't you?"
"A little over a year," Fiyero answered, giving Elphaba a look. What was wrong with her, anyway?
"That's quite a long time. Any plans for marriage?"
"Nanny!" Elphaba exclaimed, horrified. "We're only in the middle of our third year in college, we have more than an entire year to complete. There's no need to make such plans." She placed the gift Fiyero had given her on the top of her dresser. It would not have been terrible to open it in front of him – in fact, she sensed he almost wanted her to – but she did not wish to open it in front of him with her Nanny beside her, too.
Fiyero lowered his eyes and turned away from Nanny. He'd actually considered proposing to Elphaba at some point that would make it feasible to have a summer wedding, but he saw it obviously wasn't the greatest idea until school was over, and that would be more than a year. But he loved her, didn't that make it right?
Nanny got up and went into the other room, leaving the door wide open. "I'm sorry. I must be acting dreadfully embarrassing."
Elphaba finally sat next to him. "She knows," she whispered.
Fiyero gulped. "Oh."
"Just ignore the entire talk about marriage, really. She's just trying to scare us into getting married because, well, you know, we've had sex." Elphaba said softly.
"I thought we weren't going to talk about that and act as if it never happened."
"This is a special case. We aren't going to talk about it again, okay? I was just explaining why she's pressing the entire marriage thing."
"We have been together a while," Fiyero commented.
"Yes, but a lot of people are and end up hating each other. We've got an entire year, anyway. Why bother?" Suddenly Elphaba seemed to realize something. "You weren't suggesting that we get married, were you?"
"No, no. I was just seeing your Nanny's reasoning, that's all. I agree with you." He smiled and put an arm around her. "And I do love you."
"I know."
"How did she find out?"
"Nessa wrote the letter to father and shrewdly had Nanny proofread it."
Fiyero snorted.
Elphaba gave in to a half grin. "She also forced me to sit in the room while Nanny read it, too. You saved me from the rest of that conversation, though, which makes you my hero." She cocked her head, testing the sound of the words on her tongue. "Fiyero, my hero." Giggling, she nuzzled his shoulder. "One syllable too many, but I think I like that."
"Get rid of a syllable, then."
"How? Fiyero hero… that doesn't work. Oh! Yero my hero."
"Cute." He teased.
"I will never call you that in public, I promise."
"I don't think I'd care if you called me that in public nearly as much as you would care."
"Probably."
"Hmmm. I think you need a pet name now, too."
"Is this what happens when people get close? They start giving each other ridiculous nicknames?"
"I think it's kind of fun."
"I think you're a sentimental romantic fool," she replied.
"But you love me because of that, don't you?"
"Not just that." She was immediately shy.
"Oh, why else?"
"This isn't fair!" She pouted. "I'm no good at this sort of thing."
"Okay, okay. Back to finding you a name. Let's see… Elphaba. El… no. I don't like that. It's just a letter. Pha… that really doesn't work. Fa…."
"You could just use Fae?" She suggested.
"Too one syllable. Fae-Fae, I think."
"Fine. You're Yero my hero, Yero for short." Elphaba thought maybe she liked this cute thing a little bit.
"And you're Fae-Fae, Fae for short."
"Never in front of anyone else."
"Never." He answered seriously, playfulness lurking behind his gaze.
They burst into laughter and fell back onto the bed. As they tried to catch their breath from the fit of chuckles and giggles, they looked at one another. Fiyero cupped Elphaba's face in his hand and she placed a hand behind his neck. "Yero my hero."
"Fae-Fae." He kissed her.
Just as they were sharing a deep, somewhat steamy kiss, Nanny returned into the room. Fiyero's hand had slipped up Elphaba's blouse slightly, to grasp to her bare side and pull her closer. Elphaba's hand had snuck between the buttons of his shirt, running her hand along his chest. They both sat up and twisted away from each other the moment the old woman cleared her throat.
Fiyero scooted to the other side of the bed quickly. "Uh, anyway, Elphaba, as I was saying, about the Lurlinemas gift… would you care to open it now?"
Nanny's eyes were gleaming with mischief. "Do what the boy says, Elphaba. It's incredibly rude to receive a gift, put it down and go back to socializing, especially when the gift comes from someone you're so close to."
Elphaba bit the insides of her cheeks to stop herself from making a smarmy remark. "Oh! Fiyero, I'm sorry. I did almost forget." When she knew Nanny couldn't see her facial expression, she rolled her eyes at him knowingly.
He nodded. "That's fine, Fae."
She shuddered. "Very funny." Elphaba stood up and grabbed the box that Fiyero had handed to her only a few minutes ago. "You didn't have to get me anything, you know."
"I wanted to." He reminded her. "Even if you didn't believe in celebrating, I like giving you things."
She sat back down next to Fiyero, slowly untying the bow and lifting open the box. Inside of it was a glass carving – no, an emerald carving. It depicted two characters (two characters who looked suspiciously like herself and Fiyero) holding hands while, seemingly, strolling. The boy character was kissing the girl character's cheek.
On the bottom, a silver plate to which the carving was fastened so it could be placed anywhere and stand up straight, a note was engraved. She read it out loud. "My beautiful Elphaba, you are my heart and my world. Love, Fiyero." Elphaba looked at her hands, tracing the carving with restless fingers. Whispering, she asked, "But this was before we went to the City. I thought you said you didn't want to tell me that you…"
"Signing something as 'love' is different," he put a hand over hers to settle her fidgeting finger movements. Fiyero noticed Nanny was staring at them, wondering what they were saying.
The old woman said, "That's very kind of you, young man, to give my Fabala such a gift."
Elphaba only nodded.
"Aren't you going to thank him, Elphaba?" Nanny pushed.
When Elphaba looked up at Fiyero, he noted that her eyes were faintly moist, but he didn't say anything about it. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him fiercely. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He kissed her nose, not ashamed to do that much in front of Nanny. Fiyero then righted himself and headed towards the door. "Thank you for inviting me inside. I'd better get back. Goodbye, Nanny. Goodbye, Elphaba. See you tomorrow."
"Bye." Elphaba said softly, still staring at the present in her hands.
As the door closed, Nanny said, "What a sweet boy he is. Such a contrast to what I just found out…"
"Nanny, please." Elphaba moved towards the dresser and placed the emerald depiction on top of it.
"You're getting uncomfortable with his affections, aren't you?" Nanny wondered aloud. "Well, you shouldn't be. After what you've done, it would only make sense that both of you should feel something. It only concerns me that you seem to think you don't." Shaking her head, Nanny left the room again to check on her tea water.
"I do. It just scares me," Elphaba sighed, glancing at the shimmering green stone. "I do feel something."