Chapter Fifteen: Lover's Quarrel

Fiyero headed in slowly. By the time he'd gotten there, the door had been long locked. He bit his lip and headed to the living room where Frex was sitting with Nanny, Shell and Nessa. "Is there a key to that door?"

"Lovers quarrel?" Nanny teased.

"I'm afraid it's more than just a tiff. Please, sir," he turned to Frex, "let me into the room."

"Why don't you just wait?"

"That might be weeks, years. She's stubborn."

"True enough," Frex got up, went into his own room and grabbed a key. He handed it to Fiyero. "Just please, close the door and don't come out of the room naked."

"I don't think that'll be a problem with the mood she's in."

"In any case, I'm asking you to anyway."

"Will do." Fiyero unlocked the door and stepped into the room. Elphaba was staring at him hauntingly, having heard the key turn in the lock. "Will you listen to me?"

She turned away and closed her eyes.

He came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. She shrugged him off and he did as she wished. Fiyero sighed, "Okay, so I'm a guy."

"Your point?"

"Men are obsessed with sex."

"There's this thing called control," she said, still looking at the window. Elphaba could not let him see that her eyes were beginning to get moist.

"I know. I've behaved a bit stupidly. I apologize."

She turned around and looked at him, staring into his eyes as if she was confused by what she saw there. "What don't you get? It's not that simple, Fiyero."

He reached to touch her face and got slapped away. Fiyero winced and said, "I guess you're right. But Fae, I don't know what I can say that'll fix this. You're hard to read and I'm afraid if I say anything, you'll take it the wrong way, or I'll say the wrong thing altogether."

Elphaba went back to looking outside. "Say what you want to say. Go ahead. Not saying anything isn't going to fix this, that's for sure."

"Okay. Elphaba, on our wedding night I discovered that I could fulfill my most intense dreams while pleasuring you, as well. Ever since then all I've focused on is that: our shared passion and bliss. I just thought that we could both enjoy one another at the same time, and I probably wasn't thinking too much that we can do that in other ways that aren't as wild. My life revolves around you, you know, but sometimes the image of you in my mind keeps me from thinking about anything other than sex."

"That's not an excuse. And you don't have to imagine me naked every time you think about me."

Fiyero was exasperated. "I'm running out of things to say."

"I'm running out of energy to listen."

He nodded silently and left the room. Fiyero looked around for a linen closet.

"What are you doing?" Frex asked, running into him.

"I'm trying to find sheets to make that other bed."

Frex winced. "She's really angry, then, isn't she?"

"I don't want to talk about it. She's got a right to be and I can't seem to find the words to make her forgive me just yet." Fiyero hung his head.

Frex shrugged. "I'll bring the sheets, a pillow and a blanket into her room in a moment."

Fiyero went back into the room, the door of which he'd left open (no surprise), to catch Elphaba wiping at her eyes with a handkerchief. He opened his mouth, but could find nothing to say. Aside from their wedding night, he'd never seen her cry.

She spotted him and muttered, "Allergies, damn."

They both knew it wasn't allergies, but he didn't push it. He went to his bag and found the old, seldom-used pajamas he had and changed into them. Frex then brought the blankets and such into the room and Fiyero took them from him and shut the door.

It astounded her that he was even capable of making a bed himself. She was fairly sure he'd never had to do it before. When he turned around for a moment after he'd finished, she quickly looked away.

"I'm going to sleep. Have a good night."

She didn't speak. That night, her pillowcase dried more than one tear.

They slept separately the next night, as Fiyero was still struggling to put his words together. However, when they were headed back to Shiz on the train, there was no choice. Fiyero didn't plan for there to be a problem by that night, anyway.

"Elphaba?"

She was sitting in the window seat, the same way she had on their way back from the Vinkus after their honeymoon. Elphaba looked up at him expectantly. Her book was practically unread in her lap. "Yes?"

"I really don't know if there's such a thing as 'the right thing to say', and I wish I knew, but I'm really sorry and I love you. I'll do anything." He admitted pathetically.

"Fiyero, it's not that easy. You don't just get to ask me how to get me to forgive you and do as I ask." She shook her head sadly. Elphaba wanted so badly to let everything go and to just be with him again, but she was too strong to allow herself to do that so simply.

"I understand that. I have to." He went to her and sat beside her in the window seat. "I can't stand us being angry at one another. All I can give you is love, and if that isn't enough to make this better, I don't know what is."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Have you ever felt that we're too inexperienced for marriage? I don't know how to respond to you right now."

"I think that we'll learn as we go along, like we are now." He took her hand in his and kissed it.

She slowly withdrew her hand. "I just don't feel like the things you're saying are enough. Yes, I know that love should make everything better, but so should understanding and if you understood me well enough, you'd know the things to say and do without just going back to the simple stuff and saying, 'I love you'. There's more to it than that."

He took a deep breath. "I'm not obsessed with sex, you know, actually. It's making love to you that occupies my mind so much. Elphaba, when I close my eyes and think of you, I see your eyes, the hazy, dizzy look they get when I make love to you. That look is the way I know you love me. You didn't say it for a while and that was all I had to remind myself that you did really love me. I don't think about you naked."

She gazed at him weakly. "Are you saying that this is my fault?"

"No. Not at all. I should've stopped thinking the way I did when you said that you loved me, but I didn't. Sometimes, I think of the way you smiled at me when I brought you chocolates, actually. Or the unconditional trust you had for me, even in the mess of our wedding night. Or the way you giggle – not laugh – when you're feeling really loving. I want that back." He tilted her chin so their eyes met. "I love you so much you can't even imagine how it hurts when you're upset."

She shivered. "I…"

He wrapped his arms around her, barely giving her the chance to move away. "Please."

Elphaba let herself be pressed against him, not resisting, but not assisting, either. She took in the feel of his arms around her, his hands on her skin. After a moment, she pulled away slightly and blinked. "Fiyero, I love you, too. I just wish you stop acting so juvenile."

"I will. Give me the chance and I'll prove it to you. If you want to make love, we'll make love. If I want to make love, I'll think twice before begging you."

"We are young… and just married. I like it, too. It's just that, occasionally, you go too far."

"I won't anymore." He promised desperately.

Elphaba could find nothing more that she wished for him to say. Instead, she kissed him passionately. "I've missed that. Two nights without you was too much. I mean, two nights without, like, being near you, I don't mean sex."

"I know what you meant. I feel the same."

"I don't mean that I couldn't live without you for two nights, it's just that you were right there in the other bed and I could've been next to you and I wasn't… it's not that I'm attached to you or anything." Elphaba was stuttering in her efforts to explain.

He laughed and kissed her again, pulling her close to him and tangling his fingers in the soft waves of her silken hair. Fiyero tugged her closer and closer helplessly; he couldn't get enough of her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he took his free arm and lifted her, dropping her gently on the bed. "I'm asking," he breathed, "if you would like to make love now."

She yanked him by the collar down onto the bed. "Is that answer enough?"

He kissed her neck tauntingly, "I don't' know. It might be."

Elphaba took trembling fingers to open his shirt and marveled at how beautiful he was. She paused for a moment. "Considering the context of the argument, make up sex seems a little contradictory…"

Fiyero only kissed her again and she didn't argue. He slid her dress over her head and smiled down at her. "I'm sorry, but I love you."

"Are you sorry that you love me?" She asked playfully.

"Not at all. The fact that I love you is the best thing in my world," Fiyero told her honestly. He nuzzled his face in her neck as she giggled and cupped her face as she pulled down his trousers. "I'm asking again."

She finished undressing him and brought his hands so they could finish undressing her. "Mmmm, I think I'm answering again." Elphaba opened her legs without hesitating. "Love me."

"I already do," he murmured as he slid inside of her. Fiyero gripped her hips and moved swiftly, thrusting so fast she found it hard to catch up. His teeth nipped at her breasts and her shudders of delight let him know to continue.

Her eyes were clouded with lust as she lifted her hips to meet him and she panted uncontrollably. "It's nice to do this when my family can't walk in."

He grinned as he pulled her even tighter against him. "Wrap your legs around my waist."

She obeyed and cooed in pleasure. "I like, I like."

"That's what matters."

Elphaba threw her head back and whimpered softly as ecstasy thundered through her veins. She held on to Fiyero as her body shook from the aftershocks and he completed his own climax. "Fiyero…"

"What, love?" He asked, lying beside her again.

"I'm such a hypocrite."