AN: More fluff coming up, both this chapter and the next!

PerlogAnnwyl & TheLilyReviewer, you're right, I changed it!

Thedoctor24601: Yes, 'definishly' and 'congratulotions' and things like those are from the musical ;).

Broadwaygirl21: What Musicgal3's longest 'aww'-record was? Honestly, I don't exactly remember, but I think it was six hundred and something pages in Word. Good luck breaking that :').

Chapter 13. Ice, ice, baby

They walked to the restaurant together, where Fiyero asked for a table for two and they were led to a table in the corner.

Elphaba looked around a little nervously. "I don't usually come in places like this one," she admitted, fidgeting with the hem of her dress. "And while we're at that… I just want to tell you now that people are going to stare at me and wonder what in Oz someone like you is doing here with someone like me," she added. "Just so you know. It doesn't really bother me anymore, but you -"

"Elphaba," Fiyero interrupted her sternly.

She laughed slightly, already knowing what he was going to say. "I'm talking too much again, aren't I? Sorry. No, I never let anyone else talk."

He grinned at her. "That's not what I was going to say," he said, "but okay, good to know."

She looked down, feeling a little embarrassed, but he reached out to lift her chin back up with his fingers so that she would look at him.

"Fae," he said. "I don't care if people wonder why I'm here with you. Let them wonder – it's none of their business." His eyes flashed for a moment with something she couldn't quite place. "They're stupid and ignorant, anyway, for not being able to see past your skin colour."

She blushed.

"And don't you dare tell me that it 'doesn't really bother you anymore'," he continued, looking at her intently. "Not after what you told me that night after I saved you from Suicide Canal. I know it still bothers you. It's only understandable that it does. And I understand why you put on a brave face around anyone else, but I don't want you to do that around me, Fae. I know you better than that. You can trust me. I promise."

She nodded and flashed him a quick smile, feeling a little uncomfortable. "Thanks." Thankfully, the waitress arrived then to take their orders, so she didn't have to think of anything else to say.

They made easy conversation as they waited and through the meal as well; and afterwards, Fiyero paid the bill, despite her protests, and walked her home.

"I hope you had a good time," he said as they set foot on campus again.

She smiled. "I did," she said. "Thank you."

"Thank you." He took her hand, their breaths leaving small puffs of steam in the cold winter air as they looked at each other. "Without you, I would probably have flunked out of Shiz before Lurlinemas."

"You just needed some motivation," she said. She shivered a little. Even though Galinda had agreed to let the green girl wear tights and she was wearing a vest underneath her coat, she was still cold.

Fiyero wrapped his arm around her and squeezed her close, rubbing her upper arm with his hand.

"Better?"

She nodded, dropping her head against his shoulder. He rested his cheek against her hair and that was how they walked to Elphaba's dorm room together.

"So…" Fiyero said as they came to a halt in front of the door. "I'll… see you tomorrow?"

"I'll meet you at the cafeteria for breakfast," Elphaba agreed and he smiled at her.

"Great. So…" He opened his mouth to say something. Then he closed it again, unsure of what to say.

He really wanted to kiss her, but how could he? He hadn't even told her how he felt yet. He had told himself he would, but it just hadn't come up. If he kissed her now, she'd totally freak out.

And so he just finished lamely with, "Sleep well," and left.

Elphaba opened the door to her dorm room, intending to go to sleep right away; but of course her roommate shot up the moment she heard the key in the lock.

"And?" the bubbly blonde girl asked excitedly, throwing her fluffy pink blankets back and sitting up, eagerly watching her roommate. "How was your date?"

Elphaba sent a horrified look in her friend's direction. "It wasn't a date!" she protested. "Just a 'thank you' dinner!"

"Yeah, right," Galinda giggled. "And I'm the Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

"Fiyero and I are just friends, Galinda!" the green girl insisted as she disappeared into the bathroom. "Nothing more!"

"Elphie," the blonde said pointedly as Elphaba appeared from the bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth. "You got dressed up. Fiyero picked you up. He took you out for dinner. He paid – or I'm assuming he did, anyway. And then he walked you back home. I know you probably won't admit I'm right, but that sounds an awful lot like a date to me."

Elphaba paled and her toothbrush dropped from her mouth as she gaped at her roommate. "Oh my Oz, you're right!"

Galinda giggled as she watched Elphaba pick up the toothbrush and all but run into the bathroom again. She heard the sound of running water and then Elphaba came back in. Her make-up was washed off, but her face was still ashen.

"Do you think he saw this as a date?" she asked anxiously. "What is he expecting of me now? I mean… Galinda, no, this can't be right – why in Oz would he ever want to go on a date with me? He just wanted to thank me for helping him study!"

"Keep telling yourself that," Galinda sang out as she turned off the small light on her nightstand.

Elphaba just stood there in the middle of the room for a few moments, not moving. Then she quickly changed into her nightgown and crawled into bed, thoughts running through her head.

She already knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep for a long while yet.

Fiyero was just sitting at a table, stirring his coffee, when Elphaba came into the cafeteria. He lifted his hand to wave at her, but then he frowned. Her face looked like a thundercloud… and Galinda was trailing behind her, chattering happily – which he figured must have something to do with Elphaba's mood.

"Morning," he said with a smile as they came into hearing distance.

Elphaba grunted and sat down.

Galinda beamed at him. "Good morning, Fiyero!" she gushed. "Isn't it the most beautiful day? I was just telling Elphie here that we should all go out and do something fun!"

"And I was just telling Galinda here," Elphaba said a little snippily, "that she did not have to accompany me to get breakfast, and that I wished she would just leave me alone."

"And then I told Elphie I invited Nessa and Boq over for breakfast as well," Galinda informed the prince, "so if you and Elphie want to smooch, you'll have to find some other time to do it."

Fiyero choked on a sip of coffee. Elphaba buried her face in her hands.

"Oh, there is Nessa," Galinda pointed, either oblivious to her friend's reactions or completely ignoring them. She waved at the wheelchair-bound girl. "We're over here, Nessa!"

Nessarose wheeled herself over and smiled at the others. "Good morning, everyone. Boq isn't here yet?" she asked, looking for the Munchkin.

Galinda shook her head. "Not yet," she said, "but he'll probably get here soon. I'm going to get myself some food," she decided. "Can I get you anything, Nessa?"

"No, thank you," the girl declined politely. "I'll wait for Boq to arrive first."

"Elphie?"

"No," the green girl grumbled, head still buried in her arms. "I suddenly don't have any appetite anymore whatsoever."

"Oh, don't be dramatic, Elphie," Galinda scolded her friend, but she didn't push. Instead she just turned around and bounced off to get herself some breakfast.

Boq arrived not long thereafter and Elphaba didn't even get a chance to speak to Fiyero alone. She had a thousand questions to ask him. What had he meant by last night? Had it really been just a dinner to thank her for her help, or had there been more to it? Did he like her as a friend? Or more?

As they ate – well, Nessa, Galinda, Boq, and Fiyero ate; Elphaba just picked at the muffin her sister had gotten her without really eating anything – Galinda talked about their plans for the day.

"Since it's a Saturday," she was saying, "we all have the day off, and even though it's not snowing – it would have been absolutely amazifying if there had been snow, but, well, I can't control the weather – it's still cold enough so that the temperatures are below zero, and I was just thinking – all the lakes are frozen right now, so how about we go down to that small lake in the woods we've been to a couple of times to go ice skating?"

"Ice skating?" Elphaba echoed incredulously. "Really?"

Fiyero's face lit up. "Ooh, ice skating!"

Nessa just looked crestfallen. "I wish I could come," she said softly, "but…" She gestured towards her chair.

"Don't worry, Nessa," Boq tried to comfort her. "I'll stay with you… we can go and do something else. Or if you like, we could go and watch the ice skaters on the lake and have a picnic," he suggested. "Then we'd still all be together…"

Nessarose smiled widely. "That's a great idea, Boq," she said enthusiastically. "I'd love that."

He beamed at her.

Fiyero looked at the green girl opposite him, grinning. "That's four against one, Fae."

"I never said you couldn't go," she said, finally looking up from her now-deceased muffin. "I hope you'll all have fun. I'll go and work on my Literature essay."

Fiyero looked horrified. "What? No!" he protested. "You can't! You're not allowed to!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"He's right, Elphie," Galinda declared. "You're coming with us."

"I don't even own ice skates!" Elphaba protested weakly.

"We can rent them," said Galinda, firmer than her roommate had ever seen her. "You're coming along, Elphaba, if I have to drag you by your hair."

"Now that would make an interesting picture," Boq muttered under his breath.

Nessarose, Galinda, and Elphaba all glared at him. He quickly shoved a forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

Elphaba ended up losing the battle with her friends and so after breakfast, they all set out for the lake together. There were several booths set up around the lake. As Galinda had predicted, there was a booth where one could rent ice skates; one for hot drinks and one for cake and biscuits; and another one that sold blankets and sweaters, in case someone hadn't dressed warmly enough or wanted a blanket to sit on.

Galinda was bouncing and gushing the entire time, clearly loving it. She waited impatiently for Elphaba to put on her skates and when the green girl was done, her roommate immediately dragged her out onto the ice.

"Come on, Elphie, let's skate!"

Nessarose and Boq settled on a blanket and watched the others as they set foot on the ice. Fiyero turned out to be very good at it, which surprised almost everyone.

"We have cold winters in the Vinkus," he explained. "I've been ice skating my entire life."

Elphaba had never been ice skating before, but she turned out to be a relatively quick learner. Fiyero and Galinda helped her at first, each grabbing one of her arms and slowly dragging her forward; but Elphaba soon discovered that Galinda was dragging her down, rather than forward.

"Glin," she said suspiciously after a while. "Do you even know how to ice skate?"

Galinda giggled. "Of course I do! Momsie and Popsicle took me ice skating several times when I was little," she said. She cleared her throat. "I'm just… not very good at it."

Fiyero quirked an amused eyebrow at her.

"Popsicle always helps me!" she protested. "He takes my hands and drags me, and all I have to do is stay still! But," she added with a giggle, "I discovered a while ago that it doesn't matter how good you are at ice skating… as long as you have someone to help you."

She looked around and suddenly let go of Elphaba to stumble towards a handsome boy some distance away. Elphaba and Fiyero both watched as the blonde quite literally fell into the boy's arms, giggling and fluttering her eyelashes at him. A minute later, he had one of her hands in his own and his arm wrapped around her waist and he was 'teaching' her how to ice skate.

"I can't believe that actually works," Elphaba said in amazement.

Fiyero chuckled. "Of course it does." She let out a surprised shriek as he suddenly wrapped one arm around her own waist and laced his fingers with hers, guiding her to ice skate just like the boy was doing with Galinda.

"You didn't have to pretend to be bad at ice skating to get my attention, though," he told her teasingly.

She blinked. "But I didn't – Fiyero! What are you saying?" she demanded in a high voice.

He grinned. "I'm saying you have my attention," he whispered, his breath tickling the hair next to her ear. "All the time."

She blushed deeply, though she tried to hide it.

"You can let go of me now," she said after a while. "I can do this on my own."

"Of course you can," said Fiyero, letting go of her. "Because Oz forbid someone help you with something."

She bristled. "Now you wait just a clock-tick," she said irritably, raising one finger and pointing it at him. "I can ask for help if I need it. I just –"

"Don't need it?" Fiyero finished drily for her.

She glared at him. "Exactly!" With that, she turned around and skated off. Before she was even five metres away from him, though, she slipped. She tried to regain her balance, but failed; and with a yelp, her back slammed down onto the ice, the air knocked from her lungs. She stayed there for a moment, trying to catch her breath.

Fiyero approached her. "Are you alright?" he asked her, a concerned look in his azure blue eyes, and she grunted.

"Fine. It's just my dignity that's hurt."

Fiyero chuckled.

She tried to push herself up. Fiyero held out a hand to help her, but somehow, he ended up slipping as well and he all but fell on top of her, nearly crushing the air out of her again.

He grinned a bit sheepishly down at her. "Hi."

She chuckled breathlessly. "Hi."

He knew he should probably get up, but somehow along the way, he had gotten lost in her eyes. She was so close that their noses were almost touching and she was looking up at him with those big, doe-like eyes of hers…

"So far for not needing help, huh?" he teased her, unable to restrain himself.

She narrowed her eyes, but then she deflated.

"Yeah… I guess," she conceded. She heaved a sigh.

"That's not a bad thing," he told her. "Everyone needs help sometimes. And I'm always happy to help you."

She searched his face, though for what, he wasn't sure. He smiled and she returned the smile a little hesitantly.

His eyes were drawn to her lips. He wondered, again, if they felt as soft as they looked and what they tasted like. Somehow, the entire lake and all the people seemed to disappear and they were the only ones left.

He leant down just a little, holding his breath when she parted her lips slightly and her eyes fluttered shut.

I'm going to do it. Right now. I'm going to kiss her…

And then, right before their lips connected, there was a loud squeal beside them.

"Oh my Oz, Fifi! Elphie!" Galinda flapped her arms in a panicky movement. "Are you okay? Did you fall? Fiyero, get up, you're crushing her!"

The moment broken, Elphaba's eyes snapped open again and Fiyero hastily scrambled back to his feet, holding out a hand to help Elphaba up as well. Her cheeks were red and she refused to met his gaze as she managed to balance herself on her ice skates again.

"Are you alright, Elphie?" Galinda asked again, worried, and her roommate nodded.

"I'm fine, Glin," she said quietly. "We just fell, that's all. We'll live."

She skated off without sparing him another glance. He sighed and went to join Boq and Nessa.