Chapter Thirty-Two: Behind Closed Doors

And so Fiyero and Elphaba began preparing for "the school year". Fiyero sent out notices to all the huts around, and Elphaba began working on what she was to teach. She had decided to teach only five through ten year olds, as they were most impressionable and she could not handle teens.

Elphaba's first problem was books. They had no textbooks. Quickly, though, Elphaba began sitting down for hours each night writing what she deemed to be important in the science, math, writing and history into one large textbook, which she had no way of copying, which became her next problem. When she asked Fiyero what she should do, he suggested she simply re-copy what she'd written. It would go by much quicker when she'd already done it once.

And so, with Fiyero's help, she copied quickly – but never sloppily – the words she had written and, when finished, had copied fifteen books. This was probably not enough, but she would have to make due. Students could share.

Fiyero then brought up that she had no way of spreading the Kumbricia religion. She couldn't very well teach the Kumbricia bible in class, and didn't she want older converts, too?

"I very well can teach it in class. Yes, I want older converts, but we'll see. I think we'll have a sort of meeting night, spread information about it, and see what happens. What's most important to me, Fiyero, is that I follow it."

Fiyero shrugged. "Whatever you say, my Kumbrician priestess."

She looked at him, not sure what to make of the nickname. "If you call me that in bed, I will kill you." She decided.

"You wouldn't kill me," he retorted, "you love me too much."

"Fine," she acknowledged, rolling her eyes and closing her books, "but I will deprive you of sex."

"I knew that was coming." Fiyero grunted. "But I think you couldn't keep it back any more than I can. So, we won't be worrying about that. Besides, I won't call you that… well, not in bed, at least, if you don't like it."

Elphaba jumped a little when she felt Fiyero's hands on her shoulders. "Thanks, I think."

"Speaking of bed, it's getting late. The servants are probably asleep already." He kneeled at her side and held a hand out. "My beautiful Kumbrician priestess, will you join me in our bed?"

"As long as you stop calling me that the minute we get there, fine." She took it and wrapped her arms around him as they stood together. Kissing him heatedly, she giggled and pulled back to look at him as he stumbled towards the door of the study. "A little distracted, my prince?"

"Only by you," he smiled and carried her up the stairs, dropping her smoothly to her feet as soon as they got to the landing. He slipped a hand under her blouse as they made their way towards their bedroom, kissing and laughing.

When he tugged at her skirt, Elphaba gasped and pulled him down the hallway. "Must get to the bedroom, first," she pleaded. They were two steps from the doorway when Fiyero pressed her to the wall and started nipping at her neck. "Yero…" She blinked, feeling his knee slid under her skirt and between her thighs. "Yero!" Her hands slipped down and began unbuttoning his pants. "I want…" she sighed, "you… in me… now!"

The doorway beside them opened and Fiyero's mother, weary and dreary eyed, yawned as she exited the bathroom. She cleared her throat, thanking Oz the castle was thick stone, and that she hadn't heard their previous activity though the broad walls.

Elphaba yanked her hands from the depths of her husband's trousers, blushing fiercely. "I'm sorry," she grabbed Fiyero's hand and steered him towards their bedroom, "we…"

Fiyero's mother, not wanting to hear anymore, waved them into the darkness of the room and turned to go back to bed.

Her husband looked up when she came into the room. "The door was only halfway closed, what are they doing out there?"

Laughing, she climbed into bed. "Things they shouldn't be doing in the hallway nearest our bathroom, which is why I sent them into their room."

"We need to keep that door closed. I've heard more than enough from just the few times you leave it open and he carries her to bed."

Wrapping the blanket around her, she said, "They're young. Let it pass."

"How is she not pregnant by now?" He wondered aloud.

"She confided in me that she's on birth control. They don't want children right away like we did. Who can blame them, if this is what comes of it? I certainly don't want to wake up, forty-three years old, have to go to the bathroom, and come out to find my son with his wife's blouse removed and her hand in his pants. Who'd want that? Maybe they're smarter than we think."

"I don't think they're thinking very much right now." He mumbled, turning over to fall asleep.

An hour later, Elphaba groaned. "She saw us."

Fiyero, holding her in his arms, as always, said, "What?"

"Your mother. And my hands…"

"Your hands were only where I wanted them to be. Well, maybe not. Because when your hands are there, it makes it a bit harder for your…"

"Shut up. What must she be thinking?"

"By now? She's probably fast asleep." Fiyero stroked Elphaba's hair gently. "Relax, Fae, we're married. She's got to know we have sex."

"She's your mother! I don't think she needed to see what she saw."

"She's lucky she didn't see us two minutes later, then," he replied teasingly.

"Oh, Yero my hero, if that ever happens again, I don't know what I'll do." Elphaba shook her head and then rested back against Fiyero. "We need to wait until we get in here."

"Where's the fun in that?"

She elbowed him in the abdomen. "Not having to see your mother looking at us the way she looked at us. Fiyero, as much fun as it was aside from that, it was incredibly embarrassing to be caught touching you where I was touching you in front of your mother!" Elphaba exclaimed, rolling over and burying her head in a pillow.

In the morning, at breakfast, the younger children chatted happily, as usual, but there was a silence among the adults that was more than unusual. Whenever Fiyero's eldest sister, whose husband sat shyly beside her, tried to make conversation, Elphaba or Fiyero would ignore it, and "the parents" would just nod. After breakfast, Fiyero drew Elphaba to him and said, "Let's take a walk."

"Actually, we'd like to talk to you two for a moment, if that's all right." Fiyero's mother said softly, but with enough force to show that she was serious, as she glanced towards her husband.

As the servants cleared the plates and everyone else went of to what looked like a somewhat happier start of the day, the four of them drifted towards the sitting room and took seats. Elphaba looked at Fiyero guiltily and then stared towards the pillows, as if they were suddenly the most interesting things she'd ever seen. Fiyero, a bit bolder, still, slipped an arm around Elphaba's waist, keeping her rooted to him, and nudged her head so she looked at him. She only gulped and slipped her gaze to her hands.

"Last night," Fiyero's mother began.

"I'm sorry." Elphaba said quickly. "We didn't mean to do that where we were. We'd… we'd gotten that close to our room, and we were almost there…" Her face was burning. She mumbled something about "just getting excited".

Fiyero's father chuckled and then caught his tongue after a glare from his wife. Turning to Fiyero, he said, "Look, we understand that. But it could have just as easily been one of your little siblings and not your mother. What would they think, seeing your wife caressing you, you kissing her heavily, both of you bare above the waist?"

Elphaba's eyes widened and Fiyero bit his lip, watching her.

"The display I encountered last night was incredibly inappropriate for anything but inside the closed doors of your bedroom. I don't care what you do in there – you two are happily married – but you absolutely cannot take that anywhere else where you could be seen. There are children in this home, for Oz's sake!"

Quietly, Elphaba said, "We should have known better. M'am, I promise it won't happen again."

"I want to hear that from my son more than I want to hear it from you." Fiyero's father grumbled.

Fiyero tightened the arm around Elphaba. "We promise. I'm sorry, mom, dad, I just… I love her so much… we got carried away."

"You most certainly did. Don't use love as an excuse. What I saw last night was not a product of love as much as it was lust. I don't doubt your love for one another, but you need to keep it in its place. Do what you want as much as you wish, just keep it behind closed doors."

That night, when Fiyero reached for Elphaba again, they'd both made sure the doors were closed indeed.