Chapter Thirteen: Why didn't you say so?

It was an easier thing to forgive than he'd felt it had been at first, and Fiyero simply couldn't be angry with her for such a thing for so long. Elphaba was… Elphaba, after all, and he should've known, with the way she dealt with her emotions. So one lazy Sunday afternoon, the couple had dinner early and decided to head back to the dorm and spend some "quality time" together.

Fiyero was kissing her. He had her up against the wall and they were very far into it when there was a loud knock on the door. Ignoring it, Fiyero whispered in Elphaba's ear, "I've got an idea."

Elphaba, in response to both the knock and Fiyero's comment, called out, "What do you want?"

Boq's voice rang through the door as Fiyero murmured something to Elphaba. "Can I come in?"

"Oh, no. I said no… I mean oooh!" Elphaba giggled as Fiyero pulled her away from the wall, glad the shades were drawn.

Boq, oblivious, said, "But I need some help on the literature homework."

Elphaba, not even sure who she was talking to, replied, "Give it to me."

"Okay. Well, that book, we're supposed to be at the turning point by tomorrow and I'm so far away from it. Have you gotten to the climax yet?"

"Almost there, very, very, close," Elphaba gasped.

"Good. Well, you know more than I do."

"Mmm, more, yes, so much more."

"Stop bragging. So, the part at the beginning, where the main character girl is all freaked out, that's because she's going to die, right?"

"Oh, yes, yes, yes," Elphaba's voice sounded back.

"Great. That's all I needed to know. I'll see you at dinner at the café tonight?"

"Yes, right there, right there!"

"I got it. Fiyero, too?"

Elphaba had no idea what Boq was saying anymore, all she could concentrate on was the rush flowing through her. "Oh, Fiyero, darling, yes, Fiyero!"

"Later, then." Boq left.

"Later", when the rest of the group was at the café and Fiyero and Elphaba were lying in bed, ready to fall asleep, Fiyero asked, "What book is it that you and Boq are reading?"

Elphaba chuckled to herself. "Nothing. We're in completely different reading groups reading different books. He must've forgotten."

Fiyero raised his eyebrows. "He's going to kill you."

"I'm sure. He's almost a foot shorter than me and I fight dirty."

"That you do," Fiyero teased. "What are you going to say when he asks why you said all of that stuff, then?"

"I'm normally pretty quiet, aren't I?"

"Huh?"

"When we're… you know."

"Yeah, you are."

"I guess I just had to answer him, but when I did try to talk, it just didn't come out," Elphaba speculated.

"Something came out, all right."

She whacked him with a pillow; he caught her by the waist and tugged her closer and then they fell asleep.

In the morning, she set out for class with Fiyero, Crope, Tibbett, Avaric and Boq. Fiyero, as always, married or not, carried her books. Boq was flipping through the book he'd been reading. "Wait a second… Elphaba!"

Elphaba bit her lip.

"How is it that she's still the talking at the end when she's supposed to be dead?"

"Oh, Boq, I forgot to tell you last night…"

"Why weren't you two at the café? You said you would be."

"Well, we were asleep."

"That early?"

"We'd exhausted ourselves," Fiyero piped in. Avaric gave him a high-five and Elphaba rolled her eyes.

"Elphaba, the book!"

"We're reading different books, don't you remember that? I totally forgot about it until later that night as I was about to fall asleep, and it was too late."

"You just said you went to bed early! Hold on, if you went to bed that early because you 'exhausted yourselves', when did you exhaust yourselves? When I talked to you through the door, you weren't doing anything."

"It's called multi-tasking." Elphaba grinned.

"That's why you sounded so winded… aw, nasty!" Boq covered his ears, as if remembering. "My god, why couldn't you have just told me to go away?"

"I told you not to come in. I figured you'd go away, but you didn't." Elphaba shrugged. "Not my fault."

Fiyero was just laughing and Avaric was patting him on the back. Elphaba didn't resent this in the least, actually, since she enjoyed Boq's reactions so much. Crope and Tibbett seemed to be pretty amused as well.

"To think, I was ready to open that door…" Boq couldn't quite get over it.

"Don't worry, it was locked." Elphaba informed him. "The shades were drawn and the lights were low, but we can't stop noise from going through the door, you know."

"Why'd you even respond?"

"I don't quite know." Elphaba admitted thoughtfully.

Fiyero wrapped his free arm around Elphaba's waist as she grabbed her book from him. He kissed her quickly. "See you after class? I'll meet you back here."

She and Boq headed up the stairs into the building their literature class was in as Elphaba waved to Fiyero and called back, "After class, then."

Boq was glaring at her.

"What?"

"I know you two are married, which means you've probably got to have sex every once in a while…"

"Every once in a while? I think it's a bit more often than that."

"Thank you, Miss Informative. As I was saying, I don't need to know about it. Just the thought of it… ew."

"I'm glad I disgust you."

"I don't mean it like that. Anyone having sex grosses me out."

"You're never having children, then." Elphaba stuck her tongue out.

"I'm going to fail this test. Had I known last night, I could've at least skimmed the book more!"

"How did you forget that I'm not in the same literature circle as you?"

"I just forgot. Was any of what you said even true about your book?"

"No, not really. I just wanted you to go away."

"Why didn't you just say so?"

"Because at the same time, it was the last thing I wanted to say, just not to you."

"Okay, this conversation is over." Boq walked away and headed towards a seat far away from Elphaba.

Elphaba aced her test.

Glinda grabbed her during lunch. "Elphie, Boq just told me the oddest thing. Yesterday, were you and Fiyero…?"

"It's not uncommon. Why is that odd?"

"When you were talking to Boq through the door?"

"He asked a question." Elphaba answered simply. "I don't see why this is such a huge deal. So, Fiyero and I have sex. We're married. We live together. No surprise."

"You didn't mention that when you, uh, spoke to Boq."

"What would you like me to do, say, 'Excuse me, but Fiyero is sexing my brains out, please come back later,'?"

"Maybe you could say something else."

"I could come up with something else. Hmmm, how about…?"

"Don't!" Glinda cut her off. "You'll just say something even more vulgar and I'm trying to eat. Where is your food?"

"Fiyero's getting it."

"Since when have you allowed him to do that?"

"Since I'm just glad he doesn't behave in certain other ways," Elphaba said hotly, thinking about what he'd be like if he was anything similar to his father. She let him be as sweet and pathetic as he wanted, now, because she was simply grateful he wasn't something else.

As if something had told him he was being spoken about, Fiyero appeared with two trays of food balanced easily in both hands and placed one of them in front of Elphaba and the other in the spot next to her on the side Glinda wasn't on. "Hey," he kissed Elphaba on the cheek.

Elphaba was uncomfortable kissing him back, but smiled warmly at him, "Thanks. You really don't have to do that."

"Don't start this discussion again," he warned.

Elphaba apparently had no desire to as she began to focus on her food. "Gross. Sometimes I wonder what they use to make this stuff."

"I told you, Fae, if you want to go out for lunch, I'll take you whenever you want." Fiyero reminded her.

Glinda decided to push her way back into the conversation. "Aw, that's so sweet. Fiyero, when I get married, would you please give the man I marry tips?"

"Are you hitting on my husband?" Elphaba demanded.

"Ew, no. I just think the way he treats you is nice. Aside from that," Glinda looked Fiyero up and down, "no way."

Fiyero wasn't sure if he should be offended by this, so he ignored the comment.

Elphaba thought it was funny, though. "Sometimes, I thought the same thing."

"You did not!" Fiyero dropped his fork.

"Darling, I'm kidding."

"I love you."

"I love you, too." They kissed.

"Please, you two, did you forget that people can see you? I am eating."

"We could do worse," Elphaba offered.

Glinda groaned. "Will you two ever grow up?"

"Nah."