AN: "Three updates on three stories in just one day?" I can hear you all think. Yes, that's right. I should totally change my name to Ultimate Queen of Updates. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
Just kidding, of course. This is just what happens when Christmas gives you inspiration and the site decides to keep you from logging into your account, leaving all your updates sitting in Microsoft Word, unposted and unread... sniffle sniffle.
PocketSevens: Like I said, that's what it's based on ;). I love that movie.
NymeriaFae: It is! :)
Severussnapefan123: He didn't... yet.
HollyBush: I'm sorry for distracting you! But I love that you're reading and reviewing, so I'll just keep on distracting you for at least ten more chapters *smirk*.
Chapter 2. Needed
When he woke up in the morning, she was gone.
He blinked a few times, stretching; then he pushed himself up from the couch and looked over at the bed. "Elphaba?"
His bed was neatly made up, the pillows fluffed and the blankets straightened out, but the green girl was nowhere to be seen.
Fiyero pushed the blanket off him and rose to his feet, looking around him sleepily. "Fae?"
He ran his fingers through his messy hair and walked over to the bathroom, poking his head around the door; but she wasn't in there, either.
Feeling a bit more awake now, he hurried over towards the small kitchen, then to the formal sitting area, but Elphaba was nowhere to be found.
He went back into the bedroom and stared at the bed. Nothing, no proof whatsoever that she had slept there. He didn't understand. Where had she gone? Had she left?
He closed his eyes for a moment, mentally kicking himself. No, of course she hasn't left, you brainless idiot. She was never here in the first place. You just had a strange dream, that's all.
He sat down on the bed, his fingers playing with a pillow. What else could it have been but a dream? He really was stupid for believing that it had really happened. People didn't show up in your dorm room when they were in a coma. He scoffed at himself. Had he really believed that her ghost – soul, spirit, whatever – had come to visit him? He must be going crazy now.
He sighed, put the pillow back and went into the bathroom to get ready for class.
When he came out of the bathroom again, towelling his wet hair, there was a delicate knock on the door. "Fifi, dearest? Are you ready?"
He sighed and opened the door to reveal his bubbly, blonde, pinkified girlfriend. Only she wasn't bubbly, her blonde curls were hanging limply down her face, and she was wearing…
"Galinda," Fiyero said, shocked. "Are you wearing black?"
"Dark blue," she said defensively. She sniffled. "Black is the colour of mourning, Fiyero. Don't say such awful things. Elphie will be fine again, just you wait and see."
He softened and squeezed her hand. "Of course, Glin."
She sniffled again. "I just… I wanted to wear something that reminded me of her," she said in a small voice.
He dropped a kiss on the top of her head, then let go of her, moving back towards the bathroom. "Give me a clock-tick to do my hair."
"Okay." Galinda turned around and frowned in confusion. "Fiyero? Have you slept on the couch last night?"
He was silent for a moment. Then he appeared from the bathroom again, laughing a bit nervously. "Why would you ask that?"
Galinda pointed at the couch. "There's a blanket there," she said. "And pillows. And your bed is completely made up, which means you didn't sleep there, because you couldn't make a bed this neatly to save your life."
Fiyero stared at the bed for a few moments. Then he turned around again and stared at the couch.
If Elphaba wasn't really here, then why in Oz did I sleep on the couch?
"I, um… I fell asleep on the couch last night," he lied. "I was just sitting there all night… thinking."
Galinda smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "You've been doing that an awful lot lately." She sighed and sat down on the couch delicately. "Though I can't say I really blame you. I've been thinking a lot myself these past few days."
He wasn't sure what to say at that, but Galinda shook her head and rose back to her feet again. "Come on, or we'll be late for class."
He offered her his arm, which she accepted gracefully, and together they walked across campus to their first class of the day.
Galinda sat down in her usual seat and Fiyero took the seat next to her. Ever since they had befriended Elphaba, they had compromised; Elphaba refused to sit in the back and Galinda and Fiyero both refused to sit in the front, so they took a seat in the middle, next to the window. Galinda was staring out of said window, her chin in her hands, apparently lost in thought, and Fiyero felt sorry for her. Even though he didn't love her, he thought it was awful to see her like this. She was still pretty and she was smiling all the time, but her heart wasn't in it; her smile didn't reach her eyes and there was a certain sadness about her that was weighing her down, causing her to walk instead of bounce, smile instead of giggle, keep quiet instead of talk all the time. It was so unlike Galinda and it was unnerving to say the least.
Fiyero sighed and for the umpteenth time since he had entered the classroom, his gaze was drawn towards the empty seat next to him, where Elphaba usually sat. The teacher came in and asked for their attention, and he slowly looked up and fixed his gaze on the blackboard, but his mind was miles away.
As the professor started the lecture, Fiyero's mind wandered. He really should break up with Galinda. No matter what would happen to Elphaba, it wasn't fair to lead his blonde girlfriend on like this. In his mind, he started practising different ways to tell her.
Galinda, I need to tell you something. I'm in love with someone else.
No. Too blunt.
Glin, I'm really sorry, but… but you're not the one for me. And I don't think it's fair to keep this up when my heart so clearly isn't in it.
That was a nice beginning. Now for the hard part.
In fact, I'm actually in love with someone else.
He would have to bring that carefully. And once Galinda would calm down and ask him with whom, he would have to tell her.
With Elphaba. Yes, indeed, with the green girl, the school outcast, who is currently in a coma. I'm leaving you for someone who might never wake up again. Isn't my timing just splendiferous?
He sighed, drumming his pencil against the table impatiently. He really was an idiot. Why couldn't he have done something about this sooner?
"Stop fidgeting and pay attention," a voice next to him hissed, a hand clasping his to stop his movements.
He sighed again. "Yes, Ga-" He cut himself off when he realised that the hand currently covering his was emerald green, and that the voice he heard was not his girlfriend's.
His head whipped around and his eyes widened when they locked with Elphaba's chocolate brown ones.
He involuntarily jumped, hitting his knee hard against the table and yelping in pain. The professor interrupted his lecture to glare at the prince over his glasses. "Master Fiyero?" he asked sarcastically. "Is there a problem?"
"No, no," he hastened to assure the man with a small, nervous laugh. "Not a problem. None at all."
"Would you mind if I continued my lecture, then?" the professor said pointedly, and Fiyero motioned for him to go ahead.
Then he turned towards Elphaba. "What in Oz are you doing here?" he hissed.
She snorted. "You really think I would miss any of my classes?" she hissed back at him. "I may be in a coma, but if I ever do wake up, I'd like to not be behind in every subject imaginable."
"When," Fiyero corrected her a bit crossly. "Not if you wake up, when you wake up. Because you will."
She gave him a look, but ignored him otherwise. "Besides," she continued, "it's not like I have much else to do." She leant back in her chair. "At first I thought it was kind of nice that no-one can see me – it's the first time in my life that I can go wherever I want without being stared at." She smiled absently. "But then," she sighed, "then I realised that life is actually pretty boring when you have no-one to talk to."
"Well, now you have me," he said, grinning.
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "I'm really glad you can see me, Yero," she said. "Never thought I'd say this, but I started missing human contact."
He slowly reached out to take her hand under the table, and her smile widened.
"I thought I just dreamt everything that happened last night," he confessed to her in a whisper. "I mean, you were gone this morning, and I… well, I thought my mind had been playing tricks on me. Where did you go, anyway?"
She shrugged. "To check up on Galinda," she said. "And Nessa." She paused. "And my own… um… body."
He nodded in understanding.
"Fiyero?" Galinda whispered from his other side, a puzzled expression on her face. "Who are you talking to?"
He turned towards her, plastering on a bright smile. "No-one," he said as innocently as possible. "I was just talking to myself."
"Oh." She flashed him a strange look, but directed her attention back to the lecture.
Fiyero sighed. Elphaba sniggered beside him. "The perks of being invisible."
He grunted. "Yeah, but if someone hears me, I'm the one that will get the weird looks," he muttered, crossing his arms.
She sniffed, mirroring his gesture. "And that would just be awful, wouldn't it? To get weird looks from your classmates?"
He realised what she meant and felt a bit guilty. "Okay, okay, point taken. I'm sorry."
She nodded, accepting his apology.
"But still," he continued, "I don't think it's fair. There's two of us talking during a lecture, and yet if the teacher catches us talking again, it's me that will face punishment, not you."
Her eyes narrowed. "You don't think it's fair?" she hissed, her voice dangerously low. "Are you serious? You know what, Fiyero? There are worse things than getting detention!"
"Like what?" he grumbled, remembering the last time he was in detention. He'd had to write an essay for three hours – three hours! – about the history of Oz. He shuddered at the mere memory. Those had been the worst three hours of his life.
Elphaba, however, was now fuming with rage, her dark eyes deadly, but with some hurt shimmering through. "Like being in a coma and not knowing if you'll ever wake up again!" she snapped.
With that, she abruptly disappeared.
Fiyero sighed. It was official. He had screwed up – big time.
When he came back into his dorm room late that night – he had been out for dinner with Galinda, Nessa and Boq - he nearly dropped his bag when he saw Elphaba curled up in the window seat with a book in her lap.
She looked up and smirked. "Are you going to be shocked every time you lay eyes on me?"
"I am if you're going to keep showing up at random times and places," he retorted. "And aside from that, I'm still not really used to this – I mean, can you blame me? You're not supposed to be here at all!"
Her smirk faded and he cringed inwardly. Wrong move, Tiggular. Why was he always so brainless around her?
"I'm sorry," he muttered, staring at his feet. "That was rude."
"But true."
He looked up now. She had drawn her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, staring out of the window, making it impossible for him to see her facial expression.
"No," he said, moving closer. "I'm really sorry. About earlier today, too. I was being brainless and stupid, and what I said just now was uncalled for. I'm sorry."
Her shoulders rose and fell in some sort of half-shrug. "It's fine, Fiyero." She turned her head to cast a brief glance in his direction. "It's not like I'm not used to you being brainless."
He chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, I know." He kicked his bag in a corner and went to sit in the window seat next to her. She scooted over a little to make room for him and he crossed his long legs, looking out the window as well. "Did you go to your other classes today, too?"
She shrugged again. "I went to my Life Sciences class," she said. "But other than that… It's not like I can take notes, and it just feels so… wrong to be there amongst all those other students that don't even know I'm there."
By now he knew her well enough to read between her lines, and he heard what she wasn't saying. "You heard them talking about you." It was a statement, not a question.
She sighed. "It's nothing I haven't heard before." He gave her a look and she rolled her eyes, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "Okay, it is, of course. They're no longer wondering whether I'm green all over or whether I ate grass as a child. Instead they're wondering whether someone tried to kill me or I tried to kill myself. Apparently they think both of those theories are plausible, given that so many people hate me and I am a very depressed and unhappy person." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, but he knew that she was only doing that to hide the fact that it stung what other people were saying about her.
"Fae, I'm sorry," he said softly, but she waved him away.
"Don't be. It's fine." She snorted. "The best one, in my opinion, was Avaric's. He's convinced that I tried to 'degreenify' myself and that the spell backfired, leaving me in a coma."
"Yes," Fiyero muttered, his face darkening upon remembering the little incident in the hallway a few days prior. "I heard."
"Funny, though," she mused aloud, "how they never even considered that maybe, just maybe, the strange, outcast green girl just had a stupid accident. I mean, accidents are far more common than murders. Or suicides, for that matter. Why would they immediately assume that something that extreme happened to me? Because I'm green? Does that mean I can't get hurt in an accident like any other normal person could?"
She was getting worked up now, but the moment she realised that, she deflated again, sighing.
"Whatever," she said wearily. "Let them think what they want. I just… don't want to hear it if I can help it." She swallowed. "Not to mention that Galinda and Nessa were in that Life Sciences class, too, and… well, I just can't stand looking at them," she confessed softly. "Galinda tries so hard to be cheerful, but I can see how sad she is, and Nessa… she looks like she might burst into tears at any given moment. She's my little sister, Fiyero." She looked up at him sadly. "She has always been my responsibility. Not just to care for her in a practical way, but to make sure she's happy, to comfort her when she's sad, and… and now I'm the reason she's sad and there's nothing I can do to comfort her. Nothing whatsoever."
Fiyero reached for her hand and she slipped her fingers into his, giving him a small, but grateful smile when he squeezed her hand consolingly. He didn't completely understand where she was coming from – he knew that she cared for Nessa very much, but he didn't know how deep that bond went. Nevertheless he did understand how hard it must be for her to see the ones she loved in so much pain, and he felt sorry for her. It must be horrible, what she was going through.
She was picking at one of her toenails now, and only then did he realise that she wasn't wearing any shoes. Now that he thought about it… she hadn't been wearing any shoes the day before, either. He wondered if she even had shoes as a ghost-spirit-soul-something.
She was wearing one of her usual black frocks, but she wore her hair down, and he wondered if this was what she had looked like when she had ended up in that coma.
Immediately he laughed at himself inwardly. She was run over by a carriage. Do you really think she was walking across campus barefooted?
"Hey, Fae?"
"Mm?"
"Just wondering." He frowned a little, slightly confused. "Where are your shoes?"
She looked down at her feet, then back up at him. "Really?" she demanded in exasperation. "That's what you're wondering about? With everything that's going on, you want to know where my shoes are?"
He flashed her a – hopefully – charming smile. "I have a keen eye for detail?" he tried.
She laughed and threw a small pillow at him. "You're such an idiot. I took them off, okay? When I tried to go to sleep, the first night after it happened, I took my boots off, and then they disappeared. I didn't really see that coming, but I can't say I really care, either. I've always found it nice to walk around barefooted."
He shook his head, smiling. "You're a piece of work, aren't you?"
Her eyes narrowed. "I'm just going to pretend you meant that as a compliment."
"I did," he told her truthfully.
Her eyes narrowed even further until they were nothing more than two dark slits.
"Galinda wore dark blue today," he said, changing the subject, and she looked away.
"Yes," she said quietly. "I know." She let out a small laugh. "It's strange, really… I never thought anyone would miss me. I never thought anyone would care… to see Galinda this upset now, and Nessa…" She swallowed. "And you," she added softly. "On the first day, I hid behind a curtain in my hospital room, and… and I saw you. You came to visit me."
He nodded. Of course he had come to visit her. He loved her – even though she didn't know that.
"It was awful," she said quietly. "It really was awful to see you like that."
She shook her head and rose to her feet. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep now."
Not wanting to push her, he nodded and quickly changed into his own nightclothes, settling down on the couch and turning off the lights.
It was quiet for a while. Then she confessed softly, "In a way, it's… nice. To know that I would be missed, you know? That there are people out there who actually care enough about me to… I don't know."
He nodded, even though she couldn't see that in the dark.
"But then again," she whispered, "they would get over it. I really do think they'd miss me, Galinda and Nessa, maybe even Boq… but they'd get over it eventually. I guess they like me, but no-one really needs me." She sighed and turned around. "You know what? Never mind. Goodnight, Fiyero."
Her breathing quickly evened out, and he closed his eyes. "I do," he whispered. "I need you."
But he knew that she was already asleep and hadn't heard him.
Go on ahead. Click that review button. It's begging you to click it, do you see that? It's looking at you pleadingly, with those cute puppy eyes and that cute pout, begging, "Click me! Click me!" You don't want to make it sad, do you?
