Indy's Green Hat: It will take Nessa a while to warm up to Fiyero. And I mean… a while.
Torchakaywrites: No lion cub scene in this story.
ExoticPeachBlossom: *Hair whips around face due to strong wind as a tornado is seen forming in the background of the rainstorm* Yup! #NessaHasNoChill
Ultimate Queen of Cliffies: As usual, you know me so well. Of course something else is gonna happen. Actually, a lot's gonna happen. And there's a reason for Nessa's overprotectiveness.
So, #NiaHasNoChill is still going very strong, and I am very happy about that! :-)
As the weather began to get cooler, and the leaves began to change colors and fall from the trees, Fiyero began to see a change in Elphaba. She seemed more tired and short of breath. When he asked her about it, she would brush it off and say that the cool air makes it slightly harder for her to breathe.
"I'm fine," Elphaba said as she helped him study for their literature test. "It's not even that cold. It's much worse in the winter."
Fiyero paused a moment before changing the subject. "Why don't we take a break?"
"Yero, we've only been studying for fifteen minutes."
"That means it's time for a break."
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Yero, you can't work for fifteen minutes and then take a two-hour break."
"I know, but I know this really nice café right off campus called the Royale Rose. They make a really sweet cup of hot chocolate. I think that would be a very nice place to spend a break."
"Hot chocolate does sound nice," Elphaba mulled. "Alright. We'll get the hot chocolate and come right back here to finish studying."
"Deal!" Fiyero smiled as he helped the green girl to her feet. They gathered their books and headed for the door. They were halfway across the campus when a voice stopped them.
"Fabala!" Nessa shouted as she hurriedly wheeled over to her sister. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Out," Elphaba replied shortly, but Nessa wasn't finished.
"I can see that. I'm asking where?"
"I don't have to answer to you all the time, Nessa," Elphaba said, rolling her eyes.
Nessa shifted her gaze to Fiyero. Her gaze then locked on their linked arms and she frowned. "Where do you think you're taking my sister?"
"We're getting some hot chocolate," Fiyero answered.
"The café is the other way."
"We're going to a different one."
"Where?"
"Right off campus."
"We're allowed to go off campus, Nessa," Elphaba sighed.
"Elphaba, where is your hat and scarf?" Nessa gasped, startling Elphaba by the sudden change of subject.
"It's not that cold, Nessa. I'll be fine in this jacket."
"You should be wearing a coat."
"It's not even that cold!"
A sudden breeze whipped through and Elphaba shivered slightly. Nessa's frown deepened as she went through her bag and pulled out a brown wool beanie with a matching scarf.
"Put this on," she commanded as she handed the items to her sister.
"Nessa…"
"Now, Elphaba!"
Elphaba, realizing that it would probably be better for her to just do with her sister wanted this time, put on the hat and scarf. "Happy now?"
"It's too cold for you to be out without a coat. Either go back inside and get one or go back inside and stay there."
"You're not the boss of me, Nessarose," Elphaba snapped. "I'm going to get hot chocolate with Fiyero and that's final. If you don't like it, too bad." She grabbed Fiyero's hand and pulled him away before Nessa could say more.
"Fae, if you want, you can go back inside and continue studying while I get the hot chocolate," Fiyero said as Elphaba pulled him towards the edge of the campus.
"Don't you start, too," the green girl huffed. "I'm fine."
"I'm sorry. I just… I don't want to make you and Nessa argue."
"We always argue. It has nothing to do with you."
Fiyero pulled Elphaba to a stop, causing her to look at him. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, Yero. I'm sure. Nessa… she's just… let's just go. I'll tell you later."
Nodding, Fiyero led the way to the café. It was a little place in a nearby shopping area. It was quite busy as people went in and out of the shops, rested on the benches, or tried to pull their protesting children behind them.
"Why do you and Nessa argue so much?" Fiyero asked as they sipped their hot chocolate. "Every time I see you two, you're arguing about something."
Elphaba took a small sip of her drink before answering. "Nessa is very overprotective sometimes. I understand why, though. Her reaction to me blacking out at the Ozdust was only half of her usual freak-outs. When we were little, I used to get very bad attacks that were much worse than me just passing out. And she was there to see almost all of them. I think it must have scarred her for life, seeing me like that. Sure, I've taken care of her since she was a baby, but sometimes, I wonder who the big sister really is."
"Have you ever tried to talk to her?"
"She never lets me speak. Every time I try to talk to her about something, she always has to bring up my illness in some way. Always asking me if I need anything or if I feel alright or if I want to lay down. I think she's scared."
"Of what?"
Elphaba shrugged. "I don't know. Seeing me have another attack that might leave some kind of lasting effect. Anything."
Fiyero nodded and finished his drink. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's not your fault."
"I feel like it is. You two didn't argue this much before I came, did you?"
Elphaba paused. "Well… we did argue… but not this much, no."
"I don't want to come in between you and your sister, Fae."
"You aren't. Nessa is just going to have to learn that I have a life I want to live and she cannot police it."
"You think she will?"
"Will what?"
"Back off, for lack of a better term."
Elphaba smiled. "Probably not immediately. But after a while, she'll realize that I'm right."
"Don't you fuss over her, too?"
"I do, but not the way she does to me. I do it because I care for her, not because I'm scared. I know when to help her and when to let her do things on her own. Like with her going on dates with Boq. All I did was threaten his manhood once and that was it."
Fiyero chuckled. "Would you like another drink?"
Elphaba thought for a moment, then nodded. The prince took their cups and went back to the counter to order their drinks. He soon returned, both of the cups heavily topped with whipped cream.
"I hope you got the hot chocolate, too," Elphaba said, staring at the amount of whipped cream on the cup Fiyero placed in front of her.
"Just drink it," Fiyero chuckled.
Elphaba rolled her eyes, but brought the cup to her mouth, taking a sip before placing the cup down. She looked up when she heard Fiyero make a noise and saw him trying to hold back a laugh. "What?"
"N-Nothing," the prince said, finally losing it and laughing.
Elphaba frowned slightly. "What are you laughing at?"
Instead of responding when he composed himself, Fiyero took a sip of his hot chocolate and when he placed his cup back down, Elphaba saw a whipped cream mustache on his face.
"Now we match," the prince chuckled.
Elphaba rolled her eyes and wiped her mouth. "You're such a child sometimes."
"Aw, come on! That was fun and you know it."
"It was… slightly amusing."
"I'll take it," Fiyero said, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
The couple stayed in the café for a while longer, finishing their drinks and making small talk, before leaving.
"Hat and scarf," Fiyero said once they got to the door.
Elphaba frowned.
"I just don't want Nessa to kill me."
"She's not going to kill you, Yero."
"You never know. She looked pretty murderous earlier."
Elphaba rolled her eyes, but put on her hat and scarf before Fiyero opened the door. She had to admit that it was getting cooler, but the hot chocolate warmed her up. Maybe it was time for her to pull out her heavier jacket.
"Thank you for the hot chocolate, Yero," Elphaba said as Fiyero dropped her off in front of Crage Hall.
"You're welcome, Fae," the prince smiled. He gave her a very chaste kiss on the nose, but Elphaba still stared at him and blushed anyway. "I'll see you later."
"Yeah…" Elphaba said, still slightly dazed by the kiss. It wasn't even considered a "real" kiss, but it still made her heart flutter.
"Bye."
"Bye." The green girl watched as the prince hurried away to the boys' dormitories. She went back inside, grateful for the heat and went back to her room, replaying what had just happened over and over again in her head.
"It's snowing! Elphie, look! Snow! It's finally snowing!" Galinda exclaimed, looking out the window as she clapped her hands together.
Elphaba didn't look up from her book. "That's nice."
"Elphie, don't you want to see the snow?"
"I know what snow looks like, Galinda. We get snow in Munchkinland."
"But I bet it isn't as pretty as this."
"All snow is the same. It's just cold, wet, white water. It's very similar to rain."
"Except snow is more fun and prettier than rain," Galinda huffed. "Do you not like snow, Elphie?"
Elphaba looked up. "It's not that I don't like it. I do like watching the snow fall."
"Haven't you ever played in the snow? Built a snowman, made a snow angel, had a snowball fight… anything like that?"
"Well… it wouldn't exactly do wonders for my condition."
Galinda blinked, then sobered when she realized what Elphaba meant. "Oh. I'm so sorry, Elphie."
"Don't be," Elphaba said, waving it off. "I'm fine with it."
"Did you ever… you know… play in the snow before you got sick?"
Elphaba thought for a moment. "I have this very vague memory of going outside in the snow with my mother. I was around two years old and she was pregnant with Nessa. We got bundled up and she took me outside into the gardens to play. I don't remember much else about it, but it's one of the few happy memories I have with her."
"It's nice that you have some happy memories of your mother," Galinda smiled. She still didn't know much about the green girl's mother, but was there to listen to the green girl on the very off-chance she would tell a long-forgotten story about her. "Do you have any Lurlinemas plans?"
"Stay inside, stay warm, try not to have an attack, and try to make it special for Nessa, just like I do every year."
"Your father doesn't host a ball? He is the governor after all."
"He does, but I don't go. I'm not very big on parties. He also kind of doesn't want me to go because of my skin, but he's never outright forbidden me to go. Nessa doesn't want me to go because she thinks it would be too much for me, although she has outright told me this."
"Does Nessa go?"
"Of course. She's the jewel of the family. And she loves the ball."
The blonde went into a long rant about everything she planned on doing over the break. Elphaba was glad that they were done talking about her and her family. Her family was still one of the topics, right above her condition, which she wouldn't willingly talk about with the blonde, even though they had been best friends for around two months.
"Are you and Fiyero going to write over the break?"
Elphaba thought for a moment. "Well, we are friends, and I don't think he wants a repeat of what happened when we were kids."
"Is he your boyfriend yet?"
"Yet?" Elphaba gasped.
"Yes, yet. You two act like you're a couple already. You have nicknames for each other…"
"That's different…"
"You go on dates…"
"They're not dates!"
"And you spend a lot of time together. All you have to do now is make it official."
"Glin…"
"Has he kissed you yet? And I'm not taking about those sweet little chaste kisses he gives you on your nose, and sometimes on your cheek. I'm taking about a real, deep kiss, complete with tongue and everything."
Elphaba blushed deeply and threw her pillow at the blonde's face. "No. We haven't."
"Well, when you become boyfriend and girlfriend, we'll just have to fix that," Galinda giggled as she caught the pillow and returned it to Elphaba's bed.
Elphaba made a noise in the back of her throat. They still had a week and a half until the start of the Lurlinemas break. Nothing could possibly happen in between that time.
Fortunately for Elphaba, she was wrong. Around three days later, Fiyero asked the question that Elphaba knew would change her life as she knew it.
"So, Fae, are we… um… a… ah… are we a… couple now?" Fiyero asked, somewhat nervously as he walked her to her mathematics class.
Elphaba blinked. "A couple?"
"Yeah, I mean like… I'm a boy, you're a girl, we've been friends for a while and everything, and –"
"We go on dates together," Elphaba finished for him.
The prince smiled slightly. "Yeah. And… so, are we a couple?"
"I suppose we fit the qualifications for a couple, don't we?"
"We do," Fiyero smiled. "We even have cute nicknames for each other."
Instead of rolling her eyes like she wanted to, Elphaba found herself chuckling, but then quickly sobered. "I… I don't know Fiyero. I've… I've never done anything like this before. I want to, I suppose… I think… but…"
"I know it's scary, but we can take it slow. We can do the same things we've been doing. We can do whatever you want. I'm not saying we have to jump right into 'boyfriend and girlfriend' mode officially. Think about it."
"Okay. I'll think about it."
Fiyero smiled and gently took her hand, giving it a light squeeze. "Taking it slow?"
Elphaba nodded. "Taking it slow."
So, this was a very chill chapter. I will return to #NiaHasNoChill in the next chapter! Stay tuned (and review! Especially if you want to see more Fiyeraba!)
