Elphaba exited the bathroom quickly, and started to hurriedly pull on her clothes. Fiyero had kicked back, just to rest his eyes, and sort of drifted off, but started when she dropped her bag, the sound of it hitting the floor an alarm that something was going on.
"You're not seriously going to try this again, are you?"
"I should get back. I'm not going to lounge here while you... I should get back."
Fiyero flew from bed, and Elphaba turned away from him. "Don't," he grumbled, pulling on his pants. "Don't pretend you shouldn't be looking."
"I shouldn't be looking," she shot back.
"Fae, please," Fiyero pleaded. It wasn't clear what he wanted, only that he wanted something. "You and I, we're right. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, that it took me so long to realize it, but... You never said anything, either!"
"Because it was never going to happen," Elphaba revealed.
"What??"
"You and I," she sighed, as he pulled on his shirt. "You're so... I didn't want to say, because you already have the perfect girlfriend. What could you ever want with me?"
Fiyero sighed, also, though his sigh was much heavier. "What makes Galinda so damn perfect?"
Elphaba was taken aback for a moment. "She's... Galinda." Fiyero turned her trademark eyebrow arch back on her, and she stammered to continue. "Sh-She's, well... She's so perfect. Beautiful, popular..."
"She wears fancy clothes and plays mindless emotional games with her fellow students," Fiyero translated. "Even if Galinda was the most perfect girl in the world, she's not you. And you are perfect for me."
"Why? What makes us so perfect?"
"We've said that word so many times in the last thirty seconds, it doesn't even sound like a word anymore," Fiyero muttered. At Elphaba's look of impatience, he continued. "We're not really perfect. Nobody is. And we're... You're a brilliant, morale, beautiful woman. I'm a lazy, spoiled former playboy. You've got your work cut out with me, and I'm... I don't deserve you. But I love you. We love each other. And the things that don't quite match up about us are just things we can learn from each other. Being your friend has done more for me than years of attempts by any other person. I wasn't a man before I met you, Elphaba. I was a little boy, trying to seem like a man. I wasn't good enough for you, then... I'm still working on it, but you make me want to be..." he tried to find the words. "You make me want to be everything. Everything you want and need."
"Why do you have to be so wonderful?"
Fiyero heard the tremor in her voice, which was quiet and unsure. "I'm not, Fae. Telling you how I love you and why isn't wonderful, it's basic." He moved to her, then, and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. "Do you need to hear it again? Do I need to say it over and over until you believe it? I will," he smiled. "It's nice to be able to admit it. It was a relief just to admit it to myself. I'll tell you over and over again that I love you."
Elphaba shook her head. "I still won't believe it." She studied him. "I can't comprehend that there's love within you that's only for me. I've never had that before."
"Well you have it now," he murmured, stroking her face before gently pressing his lips to hers. "Unconditionally." He kissed her awhile longer, before pulling away. "If I keep kissing you... I should go find Galinda," he said, though it was clear he regretted his decision to cease the amazing kissing. "Should I get you some breakfast, or -?"
"No," she shook her head. "But thank you."
"I'll just feed myself before I go then," he grimaced. "Better to get my strength up."
"I'll see you later, then."
"I love you, Fae," he said, as if willing the universe to conspire against them.
She smiled in return, and set off to break up with her own significant other. She found him in the courtyard, reading, as usual. He really was an intellectual match for her, she knew.
But studying Kers, she compared kissing him with kissing Fiyero. Kers tried to be bold in his actions, he wasn't slow, he wasn't patient. Well, it wasn't that. He didn't take baby steps. I leapt from one step to another, so that, even if he'd waited three weeks to do it, it still felt rushed.
Fiyero built, whereas Kers jumped in where they'd left off the last time. It wasn't... She never felt prepared. A man who was in tune with her needs would know that, wouldn't he?
"I have to tell you something," she said, feeling cliché. Kers could tell that it wasn't going to be good. Even if he and Elphaba hadn't been drifting over the past week or so, he would have known that she was about to break bad news simply by her facial expression. She didn't wait for him to respond. "I can't be with you anymore."
"Oh," Kers murmured. "I... I understand."
Elphaba shifted, feeling tense with discomfort. "I just don't think... I can't trust you."
"I should've saved you," he nodded, staring at the ground.
"It's not just about the Philosophy Club," Elphaba tried to explain.
"Well, no. You're in love with Fiyero," Kers shrugged. "I was never going to win in the end. Has he realized he loves you, too?"
Elphaba was gobsmacked. "That's not..."
"I really do love you, Elphaba," Kers admitted, looking broken. "I know that I didn't... There are things I would take back if I could. I'd give anything to take back... Even though it will never win your heart in the end. If loving you was enough I'd be perfect for you."
"Kers, you're such a great -"
"Don't," he interrupted, his eyes wet with the tears he was trying to blink back. "Don't placate me." He leaned to her and kissed her softly on the cheek. "I hope you two work it out, even though I can't imagine Galinda taking this any better than me."
Elphaba couldn't make her mouth move in time to argue as he turned and walked away. Her legs, though, her legs started to run even before she knew where she was going, and even before she could admit what she was going to do when she got there.
She caught him just as he was about to ascend the final flight of steps to their dorm room. "Fiyero," she gasped. "You can't. You can't do it." She stopped to catch her breath. "Kers looked... I can't be the reason Galinda's face looks like that. I can't do this to her."
Fiyero looked horrified. "I can't keep dating her," he hissed, glancing around to see if anyone was nearby. "It's a lie, Fae."
"Then lie to her. And forget us. I'll never forgive you if you break her heart," Elphaba threatened, hating that she sounded so convincing.
"Elphaba, you can't! You can't do this, you can't just walk away," Fiyero cried.
"Yes, I can," she informed him.
"That's disgusting," he whispered. "That's your heart, Fae. That's your heart you're messing with, and mine!"
"Fiyero, please... Don't make this harder than it needs to be."
"'This'? As if it's nothing?" Fiyero threw his hands in the air. "This is you telling me we can't be together."
"We were just friends for a really long time, Yero, we can do it again."
"I can't," he shook his head. "Not after last night. I can't..." Fiyero's mind raced over the memory of moving with her, being flush up against her, tasting her, caressing her. It was the sexiest thing he could ever remember, and it was so because it had been with her, because everything he'd done had been for her because he loved her. To not be able to reach out and pull her close at will after knowing the true contentment and bliss of making love to her would be beyond torture. "I love you too much, I want you too desperately. I didn't think it was possible to want you any more than I did, and now I know that... I don't even think I've tapped into the extent of this -"
"Fiyero, it can't happen. This needs to be what it always was, which is the beautiful man and his beautiful girlfriend, happy and popular, and I am meant to be alone. I don't deserve to be the reason Galinda -"
"Forget about her," he growled. "Think of yourself for once, and if you can't, think of me."
Elphaba shook her head. "I can't do this to her." He looked for unbelievably frustrated and heartbroken, she relented. "We'll still see each other, and... Maybe the two of you won't work out, or maybe... Let's just take a step back from this, alright?" She took his hand in hers. "Fiyero, please."
He knew he would relent, if she needed him to. She was his unending weakness. Looking around quickly, he kissed her. "I'm going to make it impossible for you to stay away from me," he warned. "I'm going to seduce you over and over until you give in and decide that we'll be together."
"That's not fair," Elphaba whispered.
"Neither is being apart. I won't endure it for long," he reminded her. He turned to go.
"Aren't you going to go in?"
"Not now," he murmured. "I can't yet."
Elphaba nodded. "I'll... see you later?"
He nodded sadly, and left, not looking back once. It was only then, when no longer frantically on the defensive, that she fully comprehended that she'd saved Galinda's heart only to wound Fiyero's, and that she wasn't sure it was a fair trade.