Chapter Fifty-Three: Hypocrite?

Fiyero sighed and rested his cheek on his hand. He was getting dreadfully bored. Really, it had been nice talking to Anlea for the first two days she'd been there, catching up was always fun, but it was getting irritating now. She was always touching him, which totally ruined the daydreams he was having about Elphaba. By this time, Fiyero had begun to remember why he hadn't, in fact, married her.

"So, Fiyero, are you agreeable to that?" She was asking.

He snapped his head up. "Hmm? What?"

Anlea frowned. "Well, I guess it is getting late. You should probably get back to the wife."

He glared at her. Fiyero did not like the tone Anlea used whenever she talked about Elphaba – mocking, rude, sarcastic, disgusted. It didn't help that Elphaba and his relationship wasn't going so well. By the times he got to be alone with her every night, there wasn't much to say or do except sleep. She'd grown distant and he had been hoping, tonight, to find the time to talk to her about it. Unfortunately, it didn't look like that would be the case. "Yes, I probably should."

"Have a good time." She teased.

I wish, he thought. It was too late to "have a good time". And even if it hadn't been, he doubted Fae would've really wanted to, not in the mood she was in. He didn't know what in Oz was her problem. She used to get annoyed because he was around her too much. Well, thanks to Anlea and to his dismay, that had stopped, what could she possibly be mad about now? "You know where your guest room is by now, I assume? I was hoping you'd have figured it out after a week and a half and I could stop walking you." Fiyero said coolly.

She wrinkled her nose. "I'll try."

In any other time, any other situation, that sort of thing would've had Fiyero do the polite thing and show her the way. But he knew she was only trying to get him to do just that and that she did not, in fact, need his help. "Goodnight."

"You, too."

Elphaba was asleep when he entered the room. He groaned. Damn. Fiyero had really wanted some time alone with her. It would be unfair to wake her, though. Instead, he planted a kiss on her forehead and got into bed. She shifted. "Are you asleep?"

"Trying to be."

"Oh. Okay, then. I won't bother you. Sorry."

She groaned inwardly. If only he would bother her, wake her in the middle of the night, kiss her until she gave in and opened her eyes, tease her until she moaned, something. As he pulled her body slightly closer to his, she wondered if he really needed her beside him or just the comfort of another body. Elphaba shuddered and tried to forget her thoughts.

Fiyero hugged her closer. "You all right?"

"Fine. Just one of those moments, where someone walks over your grave or whatever."

This caused Fiyero to shiver, as well. "I don't want to think about your grave, or mine." He whispered.

She didn't answer and fell asleep.

Anlea was worse the next day. She was constantly leaning into him and feigning weariness to lean her head on his shoulder while his father spoke. He was trying to shrug her off when Elphaba entered the room unannounced.

Her eyes zeroed in on Anlea and Fiyero. At that exact moment, in the midst of what she didn't know what Fiyero shrugging Anlea off, it looked as if his arm was around her. She cringed. Fiyero's father gave her an expectant look and she opened her mouth but said nothing.

Fiyero stood up. "Fae?"

"Sorry, Your Highness," she managed to blurt to Fiyero's father before turning on her heel and leaving the room.

"That's it." Fiyero said.

"What?" His father asked.

"I get it. You wanted me to marry Anlea. Mom doesn't seem to have a problem with Elphaba, and neither do I. Screw your bullshit 'royal business', I need some alone time with my wife!" Fiyero snapped. He glared at Anlea and his father, and then strode out of the room after Elphaba.

She was in their bedroom, staring at the wall, silent. When he cleared his throat she said, "Anlea could give you children, I'll bet. Beautiful children."

"Is that what this is about again?"

"No." She still didn't turn to him. "You loved her once."

"I was infatuated with her when I was six."

Elphaba took a deep breath. "I'm not accusing you of committing adultery; you're too much of a gentlemen to actually do that."

"Are you even listening to me?"

"I can't. I won't hear you pull another 'but Fae, I love you so much, I'd die'. You don't need to bother. Go ahead. I'm giving you permission to do as you wish, since I know you won't do anything if I don't say it's okay. But just be aware that I've been thinking of sleeping in my own room, or maybe my own little hut in the village, or maybe in the schoolhouse…"

"Shut up." He grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth with his hand, trying not to wince when she bit down. "You are going to listen to me."

"Why? So you can explain? So you can say 'Fae, I'm sorry, I thought I loved you, but I don't. Please forgive me for taking your virginity, two years of your life and making sweet love to you all the time,'?" She hissed. "Or 'please forgive me for marrying you, making you love me, putting you through hell by trying to kill myself because I thought I loved you so much, satisfying you both physically and emotionally in the most wonderful ways possible…'" Elphaba covered her face and trailed off.

Fiyero squeezed her against him even harder, sitting on the bed with her and kissing what he could of her cheeks that weren't covered by her struggling hands. "I've never loved anyone but you. I never thought I loved you; I knew. Anlea irritates me to no end. What you saw was me trying to shrug her off. All she's been doing is touching me and I don't like it. Do you really think I want to be locked up in that room with her and my father all day? I did it because my father told me to. But he only told me to because he wanted me to marry Anlea. I didn't see that. I didn't see that she was in on it, too. You saw that, and you thought I saw that. I didn't see that. I'm a little dim sometimes."

She grudged him a short laugh.

"Please believe me. Would I have even come in here after you? Would I have yelled at both my father and Anlea two minutes ago? I do love you more than anything, I always will, and you, of all people, should stop being paranoid. Kalendrio."

She wanted to believe him. Turning and looking up at his eyes, she saw no falsehood. "You're right. Who am I to talk? I tell you to stop hanging around me all the time, almost commit adultery, and then get jealous when some girl hangs on you and you're not constantly with me? I'm a bit of a hypocrite. I guess I just like you around more than I let on." Elphaba smiled slyly.

"Just a little?" He teased.

Elphaba buried her face in his chest and he buried his in her hair and cradled her in his arms. "I'm sorry."

"I am, too."

When Anlea had to leave (the next day), it was morning, before Elphaba had headed off to school. After breakfast, Fiyero and Elphaba stood together in the hall to see Anlea off. Once Anlea had left, Elphaba turned to head upstairs to grab a few things, but found Fiyero's father standing in her way. Elphaba could not look at Fiyero's father. But he looked at her. "Elphaba."

She didn't speak, only wrinkled her nose at him.

"I should've trusted my son's judgment. That woman is damn annoying. No wonder he didn't marry her. I figured that much out when I was stuck with her for two hours. He married the right woman the first time, and I apologize for not seeing that."

But Elphaba, being one who holds grudges well, could not easily forgive him. Instead she said, "I see," and ran up the stairs.

Fiyero shook his head. "She's not so easily swayed."

"Stubborn?"

"You bet."