Elphaba woke up, rolled out of the bed and began tugging on the first thing she pulled out of the closet. What did it matter how she looked? There was no one she wanted to impress anymore. Why bother? She looked over and saw Glinda had been up for some time and was almost ready for her morning class. "Hey."
Glinda smiled at her comfortingly, as she had every morning for the past three days. Today would be especially tough on her roomie, she knew. It was Friday, and that meant the first day of Advanced Life Sciences Level II since what had happened with Fiyero.
At exactly the same time that it would have happened on every Friday morning before that, there came three raps on the door. The two girls looked at one another. Glinda moved to answer it, but Elphaba rushed in front of her, just glancing at her. She'd need to deal with this herself. And so she took a deep breath and opened the door. "What?"
Fiyero was standing there, just like always. He had his hands behind his back and brought one out the moment she opened her mouth, revealing two flowers: a tulip and a purple hyacinth. "Um, the tulip signifies a declaration of love, and I figured it'd just be another way to tell you that I love you and the purple, uh… I forget its name, well, it means 'I'm sorry'."
"Well," Glinda commented from inside, "that took some research."
Elphaba held her head as high as she could manage. "Probably. There's got to be some book for guys on 'flowers to get her to fall at your feet' or something. It doesn't work with me. Very original. Flowers. What a grand idea!" She said, rolling her eyes.
"I'm not done," he protested quickly. "Please?"
Elphaba folded her arms across her chest. "What you will."
"I wasn't trying to hurt you, Elphaba. I love you. I was just waiting for you and he started talking to me and I tried to avoid talking of sex, but he is how he is and it doesn't work like that and the longer I tried to pretend not to be aware, the more he made me feel like some pathetic schoolboy."
"You are." Elphaba replied.
"I am." He nodded, taking it. "And it was stupid. But Elphaba, guys talk like that sometimes. I didn't mean to demean you, or us."
"You certainly did."
"I never did anything just so I could have sex with you. That was never my motive, Elphaba, please believe that."
"Why should I?" She challenged.
"If I had, Elphaba, would I be here right now with flowers and more trying to make it up to you?"
"Maybe just so you can have the satisfaction of pulling one over on me again."
"I never pulled anything over on you. Please."
Elphaba looked away. "Prove it."
"Nothing is good enough to prove it in your eyes, Fae," he said softly, "and I know that. But let me try and make it up to you. Come with me."
"To class?"
"We're not going to class," he pushed.
"You're right. We're not going to class together, because you aren't walking me and I'll be walking alone. Have a good day, Fiyero." She gathered her wits and, using her book bag as a shield, tried to push past him on her way to class.
He caught her arm, as he always had in the situations he really needed to. "Give me the day."
She eyed him warily. "What're you hiding behind your back?" Sneaking her arm from his grip, she began to walk, allowing him the choice to follow her.
He fell into stride with her as they began to walk, seemingly headed towards the Life Sciences building. "You have to come with me to find out," he teased, maneuvering every time she tried to peer around him so that she couldn't see.
Her curiosity had peaked. "But class?"
"Forget class for a day."
She looked up at the building they'd reached. "I don't do that."
"Elphaba!" Crope and Tibbett were headed towards them. "What's going on? Shouldn't you be headed inside? It's spring, and we know how our dear Elphaba dislikes the rain."
"There isn't a cloud in the sky. Besides, Elphaba dropped something. We're just making sure we don't have it before I walk her back to her dorm to get it." Fiyero insisted, grabbing Elphaba's wrist.
She didn't argue. That gave Fiyero the only hope he'd had in the past few days. He grasped it as he did her wrist and she followed him. It took her a moment to ask, "What are we doing?"
Finally he exposed his other arm, holding a picnic basket. "That's not the only thing I have," he nodded towards the book bag on his shoulders, "but we're going to start by having a breakfast picnic, spending some time together, having lunch, spending more time together, and having dinner."
"How did you fit that much food in there?" She studied the basket.
"I have my ways. That's not all. There's some in my bag."
"So, where are we going to have this picnic?"
"In the little forests behind Crage. We really are headed back towards your dorm."
She looked up and it was so. Crage stood in front of her and quickly became a looming form behind her as she trailed behind Fiyero to the edge of the woods. "Why should I trust you? You're taking me all alone somewhere that no one knows where I am. You could do whatever you wished to me."
"I'm not that much of an idiot. As pathetic as I feel admitting this, you'd probably kick my ass." He started into the forest, following a faint path. "I have a solid destination, actually. Trust me."
How many times had she trusted him? How many times had he failed her? The answer was many and none. So she went.
They reached a clearing big enough for their picnic blanket and three more with a stream running through the corner. It wasn't bright and sunny – the trees contributed to that – and it wasn't abundant with flowers, but it was a good setting all the same. He laid out the blanket, stood and gestured for her to sit. "Please have a seat."
She shrugged and sat down unceremoniously. He sat beside her – too close – and she scooted away. "Not so fast."
He didn't fight her. "As you like." Fiyero reached into the basket and unrolled one of three tightly wrapped cloth packages. "From the hotel in the city I remembered you often like to eat a lot of fruit in the mornings, as well as a bagel." The cloth unraveled to disclose all of these things and more.
Elphaba bit her lip, gnawing on it hungrily. She hadn't been hungry until she'd seen all of this food. Hesitantly, she reached for some grapes. "That was very observant of you."
Fiyero smiled; he knew he was getting somewhere. He grabbed an orange and began peeling it, eager to sink his teeth into the fresh fruit (he'd gone through the trouble of gathering most of the fruit that morning before the sun had risen).
They munched in silence and Elphaba stared at him when they were finished. "So, what does this 'spending time together' encompass, exactly?"
"Well," he tried to hide his pride as he reached into his bag and fumbled for a book, "I was thinking we could read something."
The book fell open in his lap and Elphaba gasped, wide-eyed. "Fiyero, that… that book was so expensive the storekeeper wouldn't even let us look at it."
"But you wanted to. And, though I'm not filthy rich, I can save up enough within a few months to buy this, and so here it is. Or is it too expensive to read?"
"No, no!" She brought her hands to her mouth. "We can certainly read it."
"Get comfortable," he invited. "I'll read."
Elphaba laid down on her stomach and propped her elbows up with her chin in her hands. "Okay." She took a banana from the supply of fruit and opened it, biting off pieces contentedly.
He began to read to her, just like he always had, and watched hopefully as she became enthralled with the story. Fiyero restrained himself from taking her into his arms; he didn't want to alarm her. She'd scamper away if she wasn't in control.
His voice was smooth and sweet, the way she loved. She crawled closer, trying to be subtle, but failing, and only grinning lopsidedly when he caught her. Still uneasy, she laced her fingers through the fingers of his free hand, not daring to get closer yet.
Fiyero was glad the book was long. They read until his arms were around her and the sun was in the middle of the sky (from what they could see). He gently prodded her and whispered, "Watch the forest right behind the stream."
She turned and looked at him suspiciously, but again was too intrigued to disobey. Elphaba gazed at the trees beyond the stream, stiffening when branches snapped and movement led a deer into the clearing. "How did you know?"
"Routine," a voice raspy from disuse answered.
"Oh!" Elphaba jumped. It was a Deer. "You…"
"Don't tell." The Deer traipsed closer to them.
"Fiyero, you never talked about…"
"I was waiting to tell you. Sometimes, when you're busy, I sneak off here. Clindra talks to me, sometimes about you."
Elphaba shifted. "Me?"
The Deer said, "I've heard about you a lot. I'm lucky when he talks about anything else."
Elphaba flushed. "Yero…"
She'd called him Yero. He brightened immediately. "I well, kind of explained what happened, and she helped me a little bit. That's how I knew she'd be here."
"What do you mean 'explained what happened'?"
Fiyero laughed. "Are you going to kill me because I told a Deer about specific things that have happened between us because I wanted to know what I could do to prove I love you?"
"I can't, can I?" Elphaba giggled.
Clindra was beside the couple now. "I have a mate. He doesn't like humans, much, though, no matter how much I tell him that there are some humans who have good in them, like Fiyero."
"Yes, he is a good person, isn't he?" Elphaba decided again. "He's quite a good person."