Twenty-Seven: Strange
And so some Friday nights they would go out with the others before returning to Fiyero's apartment. Elphaba insisted on leaving with Galinda every time and stopping at her dorm beforehand so that it wouldn't look like she was staying with Fiyero. But people were suspicious nonetheless.
They were celebrating their last day of finals and the day before they were all to go home for the summer. Fiyero was mourning more than celebrating. He did not want to return to Kiamo Ko quite so soon and for three months. This semester had passed much too quickly for his liking. Tonight and tomorrow night in the hotel would be the last full nights he'd spend beside Elphaba until they returned to Shiz.
"I'm glad classes are finally over!" Boq exclaimed.
"I'm not." Elphaba muttered.
"Of course not. No one would bother talking to you if they didn't just need your help on their homework," Avaric snapped.
Fiyero was sitting between Boq and Avaric and felt Boq nudge him to remind him to keep his cool. He swallowed hard. "Shut up, Avaric."
"Of course, little loverboy comes to her defense. I almost forgot. The two freaks are in love."
He saw Elphaba bite her lip and gave her a steady look. "I just think you're an asshole, Avaric. Leave Elphaba alone."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Do you really want to find out?"
"Fiyero, stop it now!" Elphaba cried. "This isn't about you." She turned to Avaric. "You are an asshole; he's right about that much. But we certainly aren't in love – at least I'm not."
Fiyero didn't like what she had said, but he knew it had to be said.
"That doesn't surprise me. I figured you didn't have the capability to love," Avaric responded.
Fiyero got up and walked out. As he did, he heard Elphaba say, "Now look what you've done. He's going to be all melodramatic about this until I go and talk to him. That is not what I wanted to do. Thanks a lot."
Once he was outside, he sat on a bench near the café. Elphaba wasn't long in following him. He sighed. "I know, I know, I shouldn't have said anything."
"You're damn right you shouldn't have! Really, Yero, we only have to deal with him tonight and then we get a lovely three months without him."
"I'm not looking forward to that, either."
Elphaba looked around, made sure no one was watching, and touched his cheek lovingly. "You think I am? I'm just trying to look on the bright side here. This summer I don't even get to teach your siblings, all I get to do is work in the kitchens. The only intellectual stimulation I had is gone."
"I'll stimulate you," Fiyero put a hand on her knee.
"Oh, don't you go there! You know we have to be careful." She brushed his hand away nervously.
"I meant intellectually." He feigned innocence.
"Maybe you did, but it wasn't the only thing you meant."
"You caught me." He shrugged.
"This is going to be different than winter break, Fiyero. We're both going to have more to do, which means there are going to be more people watching us more often. You have all those lessons and shadowing with your father, and my duties in the kitchen are more intense now."
"We'll find time."
"I know you will. But we have to be careful. You know what will happen if we're not."
It wasn't a thought Fiyero relished. "I do. I won't get us caught, Fae. You seem to think I'm completely helpless to stop myself."
"Sometimes I think you are," she laughed, smiling at him sweetly.
Galinda walked out and joined them. "He is so rude sometimes! I swear, if Crope didn't have some hopeless crush on him, we would never put up with it!"
"Does Tibbet know?" Elphaba grinned.
"He does. But Crope doesn't realize that." Galinda sat down next to Elphaba and looked over at Fiyero. "But Fiyero, you really are asking for it."
"We've gone over it already." Elphaba informed Galinda. "He knows he's a blithering idiot."
"Hey!" Fiyero protested. But he had noticed every time Elphaba made a comment like that, she did it with affection. It was a strange way to display her love for him, but it was part of what he loved about her. So he wasn't really offended at all.
Galinda looked horrified. "Honestly, Elphaba, how do you expect to keep a man when you talk about him like that?"
"He knows I don't exactly mean it. Right, Yero?"
"Most of the time," he teased.
"You are the strangest couple," Galinda said decidedly.
"I thought we were cute?" Fiyero laughed.
"That, too. But you are awfully strange."
"Can you expect us to be normal, Galinda? Never mind our situation, just look at us. Of course we're strange." Elphaba seemed amused.
Fiyero liked that they were different. He did not want convention. Convention was what his parents were forcing upon him. But he wanted something different, something real. "I like your strangeness," he told Elphaba sweetly.
"And I like yours," Elphaba laughed, blushing. After a moment's pause she said, "Galinda, I'm waiting for you to make some sappy comment about how cute or romantic this is."
"Oh! I wasn't listening. That lady is wearing the cutest dress over there and I was just wondering where she got it or if I could get one of the tailors back home to make something like it."
"I suppose that shouldn't surprise me."
Fiyero did not understand for the life of him how these two women could ever have a conversation, but he tried not to wonder too much. Elphaba was more feminine than she thought she was. She needed a girl to talk to about her issues just as much as any other girl. He wondered what Elphaba told Galinda about him. Probably not a lot. Although sometimes Galinda said things that made him wonder.
"I'm going to miss you this summer, Elphie."
"I might just miss you a little, too, Galinda."
"Can I write you?"
"I don't know." Elphaba turned to Fiyero. "Can she write me? I mean, would your parents hate it if I received letters from my peers?"
"I'd like to think they wouldn't have a problem. But I can't be sure." Fiyero didn't like that Elphaba had to go to such lengths just to talk to a friend. When the castle was his, she'd have a little bit more control over her life. But until then, they'd just have to work around things as best they could. "What I'd suggest you do, Galinda, is address the letters to me and then seal them in another envelope with Elphaba's name on it inside the envelope addressed to me. I promise not to read them. And I'll send out whatever it is she wants to write back."
"If I want to write back," Elphaba amended.
"Are you sure your parents won't think it strange that there's a Gillikun girl writing you?"
"They might," Fiyero admitted, "but I don't particularly think it will bother them. Even if they did suspect something," Fiyero tried not to laugh at the thought, "they wouldn't much care. You're no threat to my marriage. You're leagues away and no Gillikun girl would ever move out to the Vinkus."
"No, I'm the real threat." Elphaba sighed. "And would your parents even think you'd be in love with a Gillikun girl? It's so unlike you."
"It is. I have more exotic tastes. No offense Galinda, but Gillikun is not the exotic I'm talking about."
"I know exactly what exotic you mean," Galinda giggled. "Elphie makes me well aware."
Elphaba glared at her friend. Fiyero tried not to grin at that. He didn't mind Elphaba telling Galinda anything. In fact, it made him happy to know she cared enough to talk about it. He could see Elphaba resisting the urge to slap Galinda. She said instead, "Galinda, that was completely unnecessary."
"I'm sorry." The blonde didn't exactly look like she meant it.
Elphaba shrugged.
And he had thought Elphaba couldn't get any stranger.