Chapter Twenty-Two: Checking In
He watched Elphaba when he woke up the next morning. Carefully, he pulled the blankets off of her and stared at her body. He could hardly believe that the woman lying beside him was his wife. He had even more difficulty believing that he'd made love to her twice the previous night, once making her reach orgasm. There was a knock on the door and Elphaba yawned and blinked, smiling up into his eyes. Quickly, he pulled the blanket over her naked body – he didn't want anyone to share the vision he'd been blessed with – and called, "Come in."
Glinda and Boq opened the door hesitantly. "We just wanted to say goodbye. We didn't see you two leave the reception. Your parents told us you'd gone upstairs and we didn't want to interrupt you…" Glinda was blushing feverishly now.
Fiyero and Elphaba smiled at each other knowingly. Elphaba said daringly, "How do you know you didn't interrupt us just now?"
"Ew!" Glinda ran out and shut the door.
However, Boq grabbed her and they knocked and opened the door again. Boq said, "We just wanted to let you know that we had a really good time last night, didn't we, Glinda?"
Glinda shuddered. "Look! Their clothes are on the floor. Boq, maybe we shouldn't have come up here."
Elphaba snorted and sat up, carefully holding the blanket so nothing was revealed. "Did you two dance together?"
Boq nodded, Glinda folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air. She said, "We have to leave, the carriage is waiting to take us back to Shiz. I'll miss you not being my roomie," she admitted.
"I'd hug you, but… well, you know." It was Elphaba's turn to blush.
"Ew!" Glinda said again, and this time Boq and her didn't return to bother them again.
Later that afternoon, after making love again and getting dressed, Fiyero suggested, "Can we go downstairs and say hello to everyone who's still here? They might get worried if they don't hear from us by nighttime."
"They wouldn't be surprised." Elphaba dismissed, grinning. "It's our honeymoon. We could spend the entire time in the bedroom and no one would give it a second thought."
"Can we, though? I think my parents would like to know that the 'royal couple' had a good night."
"I wonder if my family's still here." Elphaba said.
"I hate to tell you, but I severely doubt it. They probably left the reception the same time we did." Fiyero tried to restrain himself from making a face.
"You don't like my family much, do you?" Elphaba guessed.
"Well…"
"It's okay, neither do I." Elphaba went to her bag. "Of course we can go downstairs. Just let me do something." Digging through her bag, she brought out a bottle, shook a pill into her hand and swallowed it without any water.
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure I don't get pregnant before I finish college, that's what. I've been taking these for a month now. You wouldn't want me to get pregnant because of this honeymoon, now, would you?"
"I wouldn't care. I want a big family. We might as well get started," Fiyero winked.
"Nope. I'm finishing college, Yero. There's no way I'm going to let the past few years go to waste after how hard I've worked."
"How would they go to waste when you met me?" Fiyero teased.
"You know what I mean," she looked at him. "I certainly didn't come to college expecting to meet someone and get married."
"Neither did I."
"But we did." Elphaba pulled Fiyero out of the lazy chair he was sitting in and hugged him. "You wanted to go downstairs, love?"
"Yes," he wrapped an arm around her waist and said, "let's go."
Fiyero's mother looked up from her reading when Elphaba and Fiyero came down the stairs. "There you two are. Did you sleep well?"
Elphaba nodded. "Most comfortable bed I've ever slept in."
"I'm glad to hear it. Do you two want anything to eat?"
"I'm starved," Elphaba said. "I haven't eaten since the reception. The servants brought us breakfast, but I was still sleeping and the food got cold."
Fiyero's mother stepped out of the room momentarily. "I'll get you something."
Fiyero and Elphaba sat down on the couch. Elphaba laid her head on Fiyero's shoulder. "Don't tell your mother, but I do believe the only reason that bed was so comfortable was because I shared it with you."
"That bed's going to see a lot, I expect." Fiyero kissed Elphaba. "There are many things I still want to try." He put his lips to her ear and began whispering.
"Yero!" She smacked his knee gently. "Don't talk about that now."
Fiyero's mother came back in holding a tray full of food. She placed it on the coffee table. "Eat what you like."
"Oh, thank you!" Elphaba pounced at the food. "I am so incredibly hungry. Your son," Elphaba informed Fiyero's mother, "is incredibly exhausting to deal with."
"He was exhausting as a baby. I'll tell you that much." She smiled. "I took care of him for long enough, anyway. You're welcome to him."
"Great." Elphaba laughed.
Fiyero glared at the two women and sat back in the couch. "She wasn't complaining this morning. She seemed perfectly happy to have me this morning. After we were, uh, rudely awoken, she couldn't stop telling me how happy she was."
"Oh, yes, I wasn't sure if I should've let your friends come up to say goodbye, but that poor girl seemed desperate to see Elphaba."
"She was. It's fine," Elphaba reassured her. "I was probably about to wake up anyway."
Fiyero's father came in about then and greeted them. "How does it feel being married?"
"Wonderful," Fiyero said quickly, knowing Elphaba would make some smart remark if left to answer on her own. "Right, Fae?"
"Tiring." Elphaba responded. "Very tiring. I hope the reception didn't take to long to clean up after, did it?"
"We have servants for that." Fiyero's mother laughed. "You should probably get used to that."
"We have a little while to go until we're living here, so I probably shouldn't. We have the rest of this year and next year to deal with. By then, I'll be as good as a slave, anyway."
"I wouldn't treat you like that!" Fiyero exclaimed. "I'd be your slave."
Elphaba finished eating and wiped her hands on a napkin. "Really? Then take me back to bed, darling. I'm feeling a little sleepy."
He picked her up playfully and said into her ear, "You'll be more than a little sleepy by the time I'm done," and took her upstairs.