AN: Okay, I lied. There's drama in this chapter. And kind of a mean cliffy-ish thing, too. But the major drama is from Ch.20 onward.

Welcome back, BlueD!

18lzytwner: Next chapter ;).

Knowing what will happen, your predictions about Elphaba spending the summer in the Vinkus are incredibly funny to me.

Thedoctor24601, to your review on Rude: Yes, that was me, though I don't currently remember the story it was in xD. Love is all you need, probably. The song is called Let Me Love You. The original version is from Ne-Yo, but I prefer the cover from Glee, which is piano only, just like in the story.

This chapter is dedicated to The Wizard Of Wicked for, once more, being my 300th reviewer! Love your speech, thank you so much, and hereby I send you virtual pie as a reward! *cackles*

Chapter 18. Aliyra

When they were sitting in class one day, Fiyero was jolted from his thoughts by an elbow between his ribs. "Fiyero!"

"Huh?" he said, dazed, looking to his side. Elphaba was stifling laughter. Galinda was glowering at him.

"Have you not heard a word I said?" she demanded in a high-pitched voice.

He made a face. "Sorry, Glin," he apologised, trying to sound as sincere as he could. "I was just… lost in thought."

"There seems to be a lot of that going on lately," Galinda huffed. "It's great that Elphie made you think, but this is starting to get ridiculous. What are you even thinking about all the time?"

He eyed Elphaba up and down suggestively, licking his lips none too subtly. She blushed furiously and he gave her a lopsided grin.

"Oh, nothing," he answered Galinda, his eyes still on Elphaba. "I was just… daydreaming."

Elphaba shook her loose hair in front of her face and bent over her notes in order to hide her dark red cheeks and Galinda heaved a sigh.

"That would be so adorable if it weren't so annoying," she mumbled.

Fiyero wished he could touch Elphaba, but somehow Galinda had managed to claim the seat between the green girl and the Vinkun prince; and every time Fiyero tried to reach out for his girlfriend, the blonde would glare daggers at him and swat at his arm. It was really getting irritating.

Galinda looked over to Elphaba's other side, where Nessarose was sitting, filling her notebook with doodles of 'I heart Boq' and 'Mrs. Boq Parlone'.

"That's it," Galinda declared gruffly. "I'm finding myself a boyfriend."

Elphaba patted her roommate's arm absently. "That will probably take you about ten clock-ticks."

Galinda giggled and tossed her hair. "You're so sweet, Elphie," she gushed. "And you're right, too."

Fiyero and Elphaba rolled their eyes in unison.

Fiyero lost himself in thought again. In his current daydream, he was giving Elphaba a back massage again and she asked him if he would find it easier if she took off her shirt… only she was wearing a dress, and so she ended up on his bed in just her slip. He pictured her face, eyes half-closed and a smile on her lips, as he worked out the kinks in her back… and of course she'd give him an appropriate reward afterwards. He heaved a sigh, smiling himself now, and opened his eyes to look at her. He still couldn't believe she was really his now.

Feeling his eyes on her, she looked up at met his gaze; and when she saw his smile, she smiled back a little shyly. He wiggled his eyebrows and she quickly looked back down at her notes, her cheeks heating up again. He chuckled at her reaction and tried to focus once more on the professor's lecture.

Instead, he found himself thinking about Aliyra.

He had been thinking about her a lot lately. He still wondered sometimes if she was the only reason he loved Elphaba, maybe… even though he knew by now that that could not be all. They weren't that alike. He was pretty sure he loved Elphaba because she was… well, Elphaba.

Aliyra, though, just kept forcing herself on him, unable to leave him alone. He had been dreaming of her lately, too. He had put away all of her pictures, yet she was always there.

Sometimes he wondered if he was really over her. Sometimes he wondered if this was the right way for him to deal with it all. Sometimes he wondered if maybe he had gone all wrong about this… okay, he was pretty sure he had. The partying, the drinking, and the girls had just been a distraction, an attempt to keep himself from remembering and from grieving… an attempt to forget. Had he ever even really grieved for her? He wasn't sure. Was that what was holding him back now?

Maybe that was also why he still, after five years, could not talk about her. Not even to Elphaba. He wanted to tell her about Aliyra and there had been several times when he had been about to, and yet he just couldn't get the words out. She invaded his thoughts, his mind, his feelings, and his dreams; and for the first time ever, he wished she would just disappear.

Immediately after thinking that, he felt guilty.

"Fiyero!" Galinda hissed beside him and he sighed, shaking himself from his thoughts once again.

"Yes?"

The blonde threw her hands up into the air. "Never mind."

He was about to reply when there came a knock on the door and everyone looked in the direction of the sound.

The professor seemed a little irritated. "Can I help you?"

The girl standing in the doorway leant against the door with a bored expression on her face. "I'm new," she said as an explanation. "Is this Life Sciences?"

The professor nodded and gestured for her to take a seat, which she did. Most students focused on the lecture again after that, not really paying much more attention to the new girl. Fiyero, however, was staring at her with his mouth wide open.

"Aliyra," he whispered.

Galinda looked at him curiously. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing."

Elphaba had noticed him staring and the moment she took in the girl's appearance properly, she knew why Fiyero was so shocked. The copper-coloured hair, freckles, full lips, and hazel eyes… this girl was basically the spitting image of Aliyra.

She looked at Fiyero again, who was still gaping at the girl, and she sighed. She couldn't really blame him. Even if the girl did not look so much like a now-deceased girl from Fiyero's past, she was so beautiful that she probably attracted stared from every boy on campus, taken or not… and Elphaba could only imagine how he must feel now, all his memories probably re-surfacing.

That did not mean she had to like it, however.

"How is it even possible that they look so much alike?" Elphaba wondered aloud that night, when she was sitting at the piano in the music room with Fiyero.

He sighed irritably. "Can we please stop talking about her?"

Elphaba frowned. "No," she said a little more bitingly than she had intended. "We cannot stop talking about the girl you have been staring at all throughout the day."

Now he looked guilty. "It's not what you think."

"Of course it's what I think," she said matter-of-factly. "She resembles someone who died and whom you loved a lot. I get it, Fiyero." She shook her head. "It's just strange, and I still don't understand why you can't talk about it," she said, noticing the way his face darkened. "It's not healthy to keep everything in."

He snorted. "Look who's talking."

She fell silent, staring down at the piano keys. She just did not know how to get through to him. He didn't seem to understand what she was saying – or maybe he just did not want to understand.

"Here." He covered her hand with his own, gently moving her fingers. "It's easier if you press this key with your ring finger, rather than your middle one."

Recognising his peace offering, she adjusted her fingers on the keys, pressing them. He smiled and she carefully started playing one of the melodies he had tried to teach her since they had started.

When she finished, he kissed her cheek lingeringly. "You are amazing."

She smiled, but it was a little forced.

They played for a little while longer, with Fiyero teaching her some new chords and tricks and trying to teach her how to play the song they had written together on the piano. She relaxed again after a while, trying her hardest and feeling giddy every time she got it right. Fiyero praised her exuberantly, seemingly to make up for his earlier curtness with her, and she decided to just let it slide. She understood that he must be upset. It was strange, after all.

When they were in Fiyero's room a few days later – Elphaba sitting hunched over her notes at his desk, studying; Fiyero lying on his back on the bed and tossing a pillow into the air, then catching it again, bored out of his mind – Fiyero suddenly said, "They're not related."

Elphaba looked up, slightly disturbed. "What?" she asked, blinking.

"The new girl and Aliyra," said Fiyero, throwing his pillow up again, then catching it. "They're not related. No way they can be. Cedence's father is from Quadling Country and her mother is from Munchkinland. She told me everything she knew about her family tree and for as far as I can tell, there's not a drop of Vinkun blood in her body."

Elphaba removed her glasses, suddenly feeling unsettled, a knot in her stomach.

"So the new girl's name is Cedence," she stated, trying to keep her voice neutral. That made sense – a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. "And you talked. Quite a lot, from the sound of it."

"Yeah, I went to sit next to her in my Politics class," Fiyero said, completely oblivious to the way the raven-haired girl was feeling. "She told me everything about her family and she asked a lot of questions about the Vinkus, what it was like living there, things like that… she knew a lot about me – my reputation, you know, the partying and the girls, and stuff like that."

Elphaba swallowed, but for some reason, the lump in her throat seemed determined to stay exactly where it was.

"She's not like Aliyra at all when it comes to personality." Fiyero pushed himself up into a half-sitting position, looking at Elphaba. "She's not really deep, or anything, but she's kind of fun to hang out with."

Forcing herself to smile, Elphaba managed to say, "I'm glad you found yourself another friend."

Fiyero, finally sensing that something was wrong, frowned. "Fae? Is everything okay?"

"Sure," she said miserably, staring down at her notes. She shook her head and took a deep breath. "You know what? No, I'm not okay. I've got a really bad headache, suddenly. I think I'm going to go home."

Fiyero looked at her, mildly surprised. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Would it help if I massaged your shoulders? Sometimes tense muscles can cause headaches, and –"

"Maybe later." Elphaba gathered her things and swung her bag over her shoulder.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Fiyero called after her as she yanked open the door.

"That won't be necessary," she said. "I'll be fine. Bye, Fiyero." With that, she left, quietly closing the door behind her.

"You're jealous," Fiyero accused the next time he spoke to her, which was a few days later. Three days, in fact, in which she had managed to avoid him, despite the fact that they had the same classes. Frankly, he was amazed at her ability to find a seat where he could impossibly reach her or come anywhere near her; and somehow him waiting for her at the beginning and the end of class hadn't worked, either. He still wasn't sure if she just moved faster than a strike of lightning or managed to blend in with the crowd very well. For the only girl on campus with green skin, she was surprisingly adept at hiding.

Now, Elphaba's head shot up, her jaw dropping slightly. "What?"

Fiyero swallowed a bite of his lunch and waved his fork at her. "You're jealous because I'm spending so much time with Cedence," he said. "I get it, Fae. It's okay. I didn't really think of how it would seem to you… I'm sorry. It's just that she reminded me so much of Ali, and then once we started talking, she turned out to be really nice… but there's no reason for you to be jealous, Fae, really. I promise. Nothing happened and nothing ever will happen. Cedence and I are just friends."

"I," she said angrily, stabbing her salad as if it had done something horrible to her, "am not jealous, Fiyero. I'm not like those petty girls who squeal indignantly all over the fact that their boyfriend was talking to another girl. You're entitled to have friends, no matter how female or beautiful they are and no matter how much they resemble your dead girlfriend."

Fiyero looked as though she had slapped him and Elphaba wanted to kick herself at the hurt look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she apologised immediately, lowering her eyes. "That was insensitive of me."

"It's fine," he said, but his voice sounded strange even to his own ears.

Elphaba looked at him in concern. "Yero? I'm really sorry," she said again, biting her lip. "I shouldn't have said that… it came out completely wrong."

"It's okay, Elphaba." The fact that he didn't call her 'Fae' told her enough. "I'm finished." He pushed his half-full plate away from him and rose to his feet. "I'm going back to class. I'll see you around."

With that, he left.

There seemed to be a lot of that going on lately, Elphaba thought sadly as she finished her salad, even though her appetite was all but gone now. She wasn't sure where it had gone wrong, but she and Fiyero seemed to be fighting a lot lately, mostly over stupid things. It wasn't even fighting, really – there was no yelling involved… just quiet accusations, or mean remarks, or insensitive words – that, and a lot of disappointment and sadness.

She looked up when Nessarose wheeled herself up to her sister, looking angry.

"Boq broke up with me again," she said, frowning. "I can't believe the nerve of that boy. He should be grateful to have me!"

"Maybe you should be more grateful to have him," Elphaba said softly, thinking about her own situation with Fiyero.

Nessa's frown deepened. "No," she said. "It's the other way around. Sometimes I think he simply does not deserve me."

Elphaba sighed sadly. "I know what you mean." No-one deserved a green-skinned freak for a girlfriend, after all.

"Do you?" Nessa eyed her sister, raising one eyebrow. "Fabala? What's wrong?"

The green girl waved her away. "Nothing."

What if that was it? What if Fiyero had finally come to his senses and realised who exactly he was dating? The frog girl, the artichoke, the school outcast… the aberration. She stared down at the table, a thousand thoughts running through her head. Meeting Cedence and befriending her had probably convinced him of the fact that he was much better off without Elphaba. Cedence was so much prettier than Elphaba could ever hope to be, and then there was the fact that she looked like Aliyra… Fiyero still hadn't told her who Aliyra was, exactly; but she was pretty sure she knew the answer. She must have been a girlfriend of Fiyero's. A fiancée, maybe… or even a wife, if it had been an arranged marriage. She knew those things were rather traditional in the Vinkus.

In any case, it was obvious that Fiyero had loved this girl very much and that he still did. She'd heard him, murmuring Aliyra's name in his sleep. One or two times, he had accidentally called Elphaba 'Ali'. She always pretended not to hear.

But maybe she could no longer ignore it.

Maybe she just had to face the fact that Fiyero was completely done with her.

Reviews are like pie to me! *cackles some more* Sorry, I couldn't resist.