They returned home to celebration after celebration, and Elphaba worked insistently so that the majority of her life would not have to change. Of course, she would have to do more work. Oz needed to be ruled, and ruled well. But she had decided upon keeping Glinda and Nessa to share the work, and Fiyero as well. It pleased her that none of them treated her too much differently.
After settling into a new routine, setting things so that her wishes were carried out mostly by others and that she was simply there to check up on things, Fiyero asked her if she would consider having children soon. She laughed and said, "I'm twenty-six, I'm ruling Oz, if there was one other very difficult task to add to that…"
He never knew if she was sarcastic or not. So he just went with whatever she did. Fiyero didn't really have a preference either way at that point; he just wanted to keep their life together as she would want it, and that was how he would like it. Nothing fazed him much by this point.
On Juni's seventeenth birthday, she and Shell announced their engagement. The entirety of Kiamo Ko, including the mansion on the outskirts, went into a frenzy.
Rogelio approached Fiyero one evening a week before the wedding. "You're close to the boy, aren't you?"
"Sort of. Why?"
"Well, we haven't seen much of his family, except for your wife, and someone has got to have a man-to-man talk with him before the wedding night. I'm not so sure I'm up to it."
"You're the one that's married with… how many kids?" Fiyero kidded. "I'm not Juni's dad."
"Exactly. The moment I think about…" Rogelio shuddered. "I can't."
"His father might. He is coming out for the wedding, isn't he?"
"Fiyero, you know the family better than I do and even I know the man's a minister and is in no way going to have anything to say about sex."
"I think it's only fair that if mom gives Juni a talk before the wedding, you give him one."
"It's different. Your mother is a woman, she understands. It's harder when she's my little girl, son. You'll maybe find that out someday." Rogelio said.
"Maybe," Fiyero smiled.
"Would you please just talk to him for me?" Rogelio pleaded.
Fiyero had never been too good at refusing his father. So he discussed it with Elphaba.
"No way! I'd rather give him the damn talk. There is no possible… ugh! You scare him. How can you even think you could talk to him without making him hide in a corner? He doesn't need it. He's eighteen. He's a boy. He knows."
"My father still gave it to me anyway." Fiyero pointed out.
"And you almost laughed. You told me so on our wedding night."
"Still, I think it's necessary."
"No you don't. Your father does."
"Fine. But I want to do as he asked me." Fiyero argued.
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "You are incredible. Absolutely incredible."
"Huh?"
"Your behavior makes no sense to me, and yet I love you. I'll never get it."
"Fae, would you just calm down and let me talk to him?"
"If you must. But just remember to watch what you say, because if you're not careful, sooner or later he'll realize that you're speaking from experience, and then it'll come to him that the only experience you've had is me, his sister. That might gross him out." Elphaba warned.
"That could be fun."
Elphaba groaned. "I'm showering. You have a good time talking to your future brother-in-law… oh, wait… that doesn't work. He's already your brother-in-law because of me, but now he's marrying Juni. Oh, I'm not going to try and figure out what term to give to that. Shower time." She headed into the bathroom. "I'm not waiting up for you."
Fiyero snorted. "I'll wake you up, anyway."
"That's what you think," she called through the closed door.
He found Shell alone in his room. The door was open and so Fiyero knocked on the doorframe. "Can I come in?"
Shell gave Fiyero a fearful look but nodded. "Uh, sure man."
"I'm not here to kill you. Even if I wanted to, Elphaba would never let me get away with it."
"That makes me feel much better."
"It should," Fiyero told him. "On the other hand, when I tell you why I am here, you're going to wish I was here to kill you."
"It's that bad?" Shell scooted over on his bed to a far corner, leaving more than enough room for Fiyero.
Fiyero sat down, giving Shell a good amount of room. "Well, it might be. It all depends on how you look at it."
"Is it about Juni?" Shell looked up, concerned.
"In a way. But not in the way you think. I… oh, I don't know how to do this." Fiyero admitted. "Elphaba didn't send me in here. In fact, she doesn't want me in here. My father asked me to, and so I am here. Okay, Shell, in a relatively short amount of time, you're going to marry my sister."
"I don't see where you're going with this. For a relatively long amount of time, you have been married to mine. Big difference."
"This has nothing to do with your sister, let's make that clear."
"Um, all right."
"Shortly after you marry my sister, I expect, you and Juni will explore the very intimate joys of one another's bodies."
"Oh, god, you were right. I really do wish you'd have just killed me." Shell hid his face in his hands.
"You know you have to have this talk, Shell." Fiyero tried.
"And now I want to die."
"I'm telling you, you don't want to die a virgin. Life only gets better from here." Fiyero assured him. "I'm not going to pretend to be scornful of sex or anything. I'm a man, too, Shell. We have similar thoughts, at least in that respect. But the wedding night and/or the first time is something different than just sex."
"And/or?"
"Some people don't wait."
"Well, I figured. But why are you saying 'and/or'? Do you think I would possibly ever do that?"
"No. I'm speaking from," Fiyero took a breath, "experience. I knew plenty of kids who were in the first year of college, meaning they were your age, and they had already had sex."
"What do you mean 'experience'?"
"I've talked to people. I know. Shell, stop questioning me. I have a point to make. Women are fragile. You have to be gentle with them, even the ones that act like they don't need it. Sex isn't all roses. Women hurt. Some bleed. There's pretty much no way to avoid that unless… well, unless you… there's just no way." Fiyero flushed darkly. "It won't always hurt, maybe only for a moment, maybe just once, maybe a few times, it all depends."
Shell was immediately very shy and curious at the same time. "Fiyero, um, I really care about Juni, you know, and I really wouldn't want to hurt her, but if that's the only way…."
"That's the only way. She'll understand that. And because she loves you, she'll endure that. But you cannot forget for a minute that it's not going to be flowers and butterflies for her."
"Does it feel gross?"
"I really don't know. In my experience, it was a bit different. As I said, some women bleed, some don't. I was lucky." Fiyero shrugged. "But please don't get too morbid about this. It is worth it. It is beyond worth it, bud. I'm telling you this because I know."
Shell grinned for a moment. "That's good to know. What about, like, making sure she wants to do it, too?"
"You'll know. She'll say it, or you'll just look into her eyes and you'll know. It's instinct. What else are you to do on a wedding night, anyway? My experience was a bit different than yours will be. The wedding night was not painful at all, for anyone, except for maybe my mom, who cried so hard she ruined three handkerchiefs and the rim of her nose was bleeding."
"I know, man. I was there."
"You were only fourteen, I recall."
"Wait, you said your experience? Why didn't it hurt her?"
"I'm not going into detail, Shell. You find out everything on your own way from here on out. I just wanted to give you some advice."
Shell studied Fiyero a moment and then paused. "Oh, ew, sick!"
"What?"
"I just remembered, all that experience… my sister… oh, I'm going to be nauseous now!" Shell fell back on his bed.
"Shell…"
"The not bleeding and the wedding night and all of that was about my sister! Okay, I knew you two had to have done it, like, you're married, but… still! You and my sister!"
Fiyero just shook his head, patted Shell on the back and left the room. Elphaba was asleep in their bed. He climbed in beside her and ruffled the blankets until he was sure it had woken her and she was only pretending to be asleep. Then he said out loud, "Oh, well, too bad, she's sleeping. Well, I can touch some. Hey, maybe I can help her have a good dream." Fiyero slowly slid an arm over her shoulder.
She flinched. "Oh, no you will not!"
"Caught you!"
"Damn."
"I wasn't really going to do that! You know me. But I figured you'd freak out."
"How was your talk with Shell?" She rolled over and propped her head up on her palm.
"Well, he didn't need too much explaining. He knew the general stuff, what it is, how babies are made."
"You know that very well, though, don't you?" She commented playfully.
"Well, I don't know, Fae," he joked, "how are babies made? We haven't seemed to make one yet."
Elphaba bit her lip. "Um, about that. We kind of have."
"What?" He looked at her, joy and anticipation in his eyes.
"Yeah. We're going to have a baby."