As Elphaba walked back into the dorm room, Glinda jumped up and eyed her. Glinda pointed at Elphaba's hand. "You're getting married?"
Elphaba pretended it was nothing. "I guess so."
Glinda jumped up and down and Nessa stared at her sister. After a moment, Glinda stopped to breathe and the room was silent.
"I'm sorry, Nessa," Elphaba said softly. "It was what I had to do."
Nessa just looked at her.
"Please, Nessa," Elphaba begged, hating herself. Only her sister could cause her to show this much weakness.
"Please what? Forgive you for abandoning me?"
"I'm not abandoning you. People grow up and get married, Nessa, it's the way things work."
"Father did not send you to school to become a useless housewife!"
"I'm not going to quit school, Nessa."
"Then who'll pay for it?" Nessa challenged.
"If father won't, wouldn't that be doing exactly what you just said he didn't want?" Elphaba replied smartly.
Nessa sighed grimly. "How can you leave me?"
"You have Nanny and Father and Shell. Nessa, please understand. We have no choice. If I don't marry him, he has to get married to someone else, and neither of us wanted for that to happen."
"That doesn't make it all right."
"But it does! It's makes it just fine." Elphaba protested. "It's the only way for him to be happy, and for us to be together."
"I never thought he was that important to you. You never acted that way before."
Elphaba bit her lip. True, she hadn't acted like Fiyero meant that much to her, but she was never one to show her feelings. He did mean something to her. Just how much and what she wasn't sure. She'd come to learn and to love him fully, in time, she hoped, and there were probably few people in the known world that she could ever feel that way about. "Well, he is important to me."
Nessa closed her eyes, pained. "Oh, Fabala, I don't know what I'll do without you."
Immediately following the letter he sent to his parents informing them of Elphaba's acceptance, his mother replied, informing him of several things he was not so happy about. He wasn't sure if he could even hope to bear all of the burdens they'd placed upon him. One evening, he invited Elphaba into his room. Fiyero had decided he'd better at least warn her before the wedding.
She settled onto his bed. "So, only two weeks until the holidays, huh?"
He grimaced. "I need to talk to you."
"About the wedding?"
"Sort of. Well, there are a lot of crazy traditions. It's different than you would think. You know how the old custom if for women to be virgins on their wedding nights… and for the bride and groom to make love and whatever, well, there's more to it than that."
"Is it the thing with hanging the sheets out the window to show the blood? I always thought that was a bit odd, but I don't see why we have to have a discussion about it."
"There's more to it than that. See, the groom's family, if they so desire, want to prove the woman is a virgin."
"Isn't the blood enough?"
Fiyero swallowed hard. "I wish it was. But over the years, people have gotten clever. Um, I don't know how to tell you, but in our culture, the groom's family actually is given the option to watch the deflowering and first coupling on the wedding night."
Elphaba didn't say anything.
"And my family is going to. I know they're doing it just to put me through hell, but they are."
"So your family basically gets to sit back and observe me lose my virginity?"
"I'll be there, too, you know."
"I'll try to remember that when I'm lying naked, being stared at by your entire family bleeding from a very private orifice!" She growled, folding her arms over her chest and turning away from him.
"Elphaba…"
"How can you think I'd allow you to subject me to this?"
Fiyero gasped. "What? Are you saying now that, because of this, you won't marry me?" He questioned.
Elphaba groaned. It did sound silly. She'd already agreed to marry him. How could something he had no control over change her decision? "No, I'll marry you. But I will not enjoy our wedding night."
He put a hand on her arm gently. "I'll try and make it as easy as possible in any way I can. I promise."
"If you're expecting me to thank you for that, I won't."
"Elphaba, I don't like the idea any more than you do. It repulses me. But my family… it has to be done. I wish it didn't have to and we could be alone."
"It was going to be awkward and painful enough as is."
"I'll try not to make it painful," he insisted.
"Fiyero, it's going to hurt."
"But not much. I won't let it. I'll… I'll do anything I can to help. Anything but pull back. If I have to lie there with you just like that all night I will, Elphaba, don't doubt it. I will never hurt you more than what has to be done. Believe me."
"God, Fiyero," she turned back to him, face pale, "I'm scared out of my mind!"
"Come here," they sat back down and he held her. "I hate this. But as long as I remember that it's for the sake of keeping us together, it doesn't seem as bad."
Elphaba thought for a moment. "I'll try that… nope, doesn't work."
Fiyero almost laughed. "Oh, Elphaba, you are just…"
"Fiyero, don't you get it? We're talking about sex. That's not meant to be," she blanched, "watched!"
"I know, I know. I understand that. My family does not. Do you want to debate it with my mother when we arrive for the winter holidays?"
"I think I will!" Elphaba replied haughtily. "She's a woman, after all. I'm sure she'll understand."
"She's also a woman from the Vinkus. My mother has been taught that it's how things go. Elphaba, she probably won't see your point at all."
She buried her face in her hands. "I don't know how I'll stand it."
"Shhh, shh. Anyway, there's a bit more, but nothing too bad. Afterward, the servants will clean the bed and we'll be bathed, separately…"
"Fiyero, I can't…"
"I know. I've already written back asking for them to use oil."
She couldn't find immediate reason to protest.
"And then we'll be left alone to do as we wish, whatever that may be. No more. After three weeks, we'll return here for school."
"That reminds me, I meant to ask you about something. Where will we be living when we come back? I don't see how we can come back and go back to the way it was."
Fiyero nodded. "Right. You'll stay here. I'll have a new bed brought in."
"But this is a dorm."
"But this is my dorm. I was given my own dorm for a reason, Elphaba. I know it might feel weird, considering it's the boys dormitories, but there's the other door and stairs right there that only I can use."
"You are so spoiled!"
"It works out, doesn't it?"
She shrugged passively. "I guess it does. Is there anything else you've neglected to tell me?"
"No. Well, there are other customs, but none that involve my family and therefore don't have to be followed unless I chose to, and believe me, I most likely won't." He paused and gazed at her. "Elphaba?"
"I can't believe I'm doing this."
"I can't believe you're doing this, either."
She laughed at that, genuinely. "Too late to go back now."
"It isn't. If you really don't want to…"
"No. I do. Don't think that I don't, it's just some of these crazy traditions have me freaked out." Elphaba reassured him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. "But, sweet Oz, we're to be married in only weeks!"
He hugged her. She pulled him back onto the bed. Fiyero gave her a look. "What was that for?"
"That was for me being a little tired. It's snowing and I'm too lazy to walk back. I'm allowed to be here until ten, right? It's only seven. I need a nap or something." She laid back and closed her eyes drowsily.
Fiyero smiled at her. He wanted to sit there for all time, but he had homework to do – homework he was sure she'd probably done already. Carefully, he got off the bed.
"Hmmm?"
"I've got homework. I'll wake you up in an hour, all right?"
"Thank you."
He sat down at his desk and opened his life sciences book. Fiyero turned around to make sure he wasn't bothering her.
She was asleep, on her side, with her hair spread across the pillow and her arms clutching the pillowcase. Elphaba hadn't bothered with the blankets; she wasn't cold. Her legs were bent and her skirt was at her knees. Breathing slowly, she was finally peaceful. There was a hint of a smile on her soft lips.
Fiyero just gazed at her. He couldn't help grinning to himself. Maybe, just maybe, the entire thing was not troubling her nearly as much as he worried it might be.
"Fiyero?" She looked up at him.
He shook himself out of his trance. "What?"
"What time is it?"
"Oh!" He looked around. "Nine."
"What happened to an hour?" She teased.
Fiyero shrugged, his cheeks darkening noticeably. "I must've forgotten. Did you sleep well?"
"Obviously, if I'm only waking up now."
"I'll walk you back to Crage," he offered.
Jokingly, she commented, "Oh, but whatever will you do? I don't have my books for you to carry."