It was, to put it simply, a long day. When he'd brought Elphaba back, it'd only been early morning, and he'd planned to stay until lights out, since it was Saturday. He snacked on the soggy leftovers in his bag and watched Elphaba. She didn't stay asleep too long, but when she woke up, she was incomprehensible and didn't stay awake long, either.
Glinda spent most of the day on the other side of Elphaba's bed, watching her, too. She wouldn't look at Fiyero and when he tried to make conversation, she simply ignored him. He demanded she tell him what she was acting that way for and she said, simply, "I'm afraid this isn't the type of conversation I want to have while she's sleeping right here."
"Fine. Nanny will watch her. Come into the hallway." Fiyero pressed.
"You don't give up, do you?" Glinda stood, shaking her head and following him into the hallway.
"I didn't mean for this to happen!"
"No, you're just lucky. You knew just how to get her weak and you 'saved' her by bringing her back here. So of course, when she wakes up, she'll love you again."
"She already loved me, damn it! The papers didn't predict rain. Elphaba forgave me long before the rain started, anyway. We hadn't even planned to be out there that late, but we got distracted…"
Glinda's eyes widened. "Ew! You had sex, naked, in the middle of the forest?"
Fiyero sighed, exasperated. "We had two picnic blankets."
"Bugs can crawl onto blankets."
"Bugs can also crawl into dorm rooms!" Fiyero retorted.
"Just… ew."
"Glinda, whatever you think of that, please, I don't want to hurt her. Would you stop suspecting me? Before the entire thing in the city happened, you had no problem with me."
Glinda looked him and up and down. "You're changing her. I've never seen her so upset by something until all of this."
"Would you rather she didn't feel?"
"No, I just… it's not normal for her."
"I think that what you're trying to say is: Elphaba going through the ups and downs of a relationship isn't normal because you don't like the concept of her dating anyone longer than the first month or two when you can call it 'cute'."
"No, I didn't mean that. I just meant…"
"What?"
She buried her face in her hands. "Okay, you're right. I just didn't expect her to be in a relationship and do the sort of things that other people do in relationships. It just seemed unlike her. It's not that I think it's wrong."
Fiyero nodded. "I know, Glinda. I just wish you'd stop suspecting me of evil plans to hurt her."
"I don't know what you said, Fiyero, but she was certainly hurt when she came in after going to meet you for lunch."
"Look, that was me making a mistake. Everyone does. I feel bad for it. I don't want to hurt her. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt her like that, Glinda." He tore her hands from her face and stared at her. "Believe me. I love her, that's all."
Glinda bit her lip and looked into Fiyero's face. "Fine. But if you ever go back on that, if you ever hurt her, you're dead."
"Oh? You could kill me?"
"I could."
"I don't plan on finding out how you'd try, since I'm not going to hurt Elphaba, but I doubt you could." Fiyero teased.
"Master Fiyero," Madame Morrible drawled. "There's been quite the search for you and our Miss Elphaba."
"Elphaba's inside, ma'm. She's very ill." Fiyero then gave the headmistress a short, PG and rundown version of the events of the previous day. "I'm sorry."
"Well, you two did ditch class purposely, so you will be punished for that as soon as she recovers. Why don't you have Nanny bring her to the infirmary?"
"It's a special case. If it gets worse, we'll take her down there," Glinda promised solemnly.
The headmistress nodded and walked away. Fiyero and Glinda looked at each other and laughed. "I think it's best Nanny takes care of her. What could the people in the infirmary do? They've never dealt with this before. Nanny has." Fiyero decided.
"Yes, that's what I was going to say." Glinda agreed. The two headed back inside and sat down on their respective sides of Elphaba's bed.
Elphaba opened her eyes and looked up at Fiyero, who had taken her hand. "You again."
"Yes, it's me. You're stuck with me still."
"I don't mind." She told him.
"No?"
"Not at all. Could you read me something?"
Fiyero took a deep breath. For once, she was acting stable, but he didn't have another book. "I don't have any more books, Elphie." He got an idea. "Can I tell you a wonderful little fantasy story?"
"Okay," she agreed.
"Once upon a time," he began slowly.
"This is cliché," she warned.
"I don't care." He answered. "This is a story about two people, a boy and a girl. Anyway, once upon a time, there was a smart, beautiful girl from Munchkinland. Only, not everyone could see how beautiful she was because she was very different."
"How was she different?"
"Her skin was different." He smiled down at her. "As I was saying, this girl got to be of age to go to college. Her roommate was a Gillikin blonde girl who, at first, didn't seem to like her very much." Fiyero ignored Glinda's huff. "They got to be friends. The different but beautiful girl also made friends with a science professor of hers, an Animal, the last one on the staff at her school. She worked for him over the summer. When the second school year started, the Animal was murdered and she was devastated.
"There was also a boy from a far away part of Oz. He was a prince there, actually, but no one really cared at school. This prince started college in what should've been his second year, but he'd been home-schooled the year before until he'd finally convinced his parents to let him go to college with other students. He happened to be going to the same school this beautiful but different girl was going to. His first day, he stumbled into her class, as it was also his class. This boy and the girl didn't get along very well at first, but he secretly stared at her when no one was looking."
"And the girl did the same." Elphaba interrupted.
He squeezed her hand. "They were forced to work on a project together and they became friends. Then there was a ball that required mandatory attendance and an escort. He took her. They fought; they kissed. Two days later, they were officially dating.
"The boy loved the girl very much and saw that she was beautiful. However, this girl was a very independent girl and he was afraid to tell her how he felt. They dated for a year when the girl, because of her intelligence, was invited to the Emerald City with her best friend and sister to meet the Wizard. The boy insisted on going along. They shared a hotel room and the best friend and sister shared another. On the last night in the City before the girl was to meet the Wizard, the boy and the girl made love for the first time. It was wonderful and the boy, again, wanted to tell the girl how he loved her, but he was still afraid.
"The next day, the girl met the Wizard and found that it was he who was repressing the Animals, and, directly or indirectly, was the cause of her mentor's death. She wanted to run away into the city to join the Resistance. The boy tried to stop her. He finally said that he loved her and it shocked her so much that she fainted."
"It didn't shock her," Elphaba corrected, "it just scared her a little."
"And so he took her back to school and when she woke up, she told him that she loved him, too. The girl's family and friends found out that they had made love and none of them were happy about it, but the boy and girl didn't care, they loved one another too much. Later that year – as it was their third year in college – they got in a fight. Just when they made up, the girl became ill." Fiyero paused.
"And then?"
"I'm not sure yet. I believe that she gets better."
"What happens after that?"
"I don't know. That's in the sequel."
"If the boy could decide how the sequel would go, what would it sound like?" She asked.
"Hmmm. Well, I think the boy would like it very much if his love would get better quickly. And then he'd just like to be with her and do the usual things lovers do. After a while, I believe he'd like it if they got married."
"But the girl is very independent," Elphaba pointed out.
"You asked what the boy would like, not what might happen."
"Oh, right." She closed her eyes again.
He wanted to keep her awake. "Tell me, Fae, what do you think the girl would like the sequel to sound like?"
"I think she'd like it if she got better quickly, too." Elphaba almost giggled. "And then I think she'd like to finish school. She'd like to work for the Wizard and change his policies. She'd also like, after things become more stable, to maybe get married. But even that makes her nervous."
"Why?"
"As you said, she's very headstrong. Not only that, but she doesn't know if she'll be able to change the policies she'd like. She may have to resort to joining the Resistance, and a marriage would be difficult. Besides, she doesn't want to become too needy."
"The boy loves her, though."
"She knows that. But she doesn't want something to go wrong."
"He wouldn't let anything go wrong."
Glinda was just sitting at the side of the bed, sniveling by this point. "The best friend would like it if the girl stayed safe," she opined.
Fiyero added, "And the boy would like his part of the story to come true."
"She's stubborn and autonomous."
"But she loves him." Fiyero reminded her.
"That she does." Elphaba turned over to go to sleep, still holding Fiyero's hand. "That she does."