"Would you hand me the other box of star ornaments, please?", Elphaba demanded from her space on a chair in the dining hall.
She had been elected to put up the star ornaments around the hall as she was taller than most of the girls in her year.
Fiyero walked by, swinging a broom over his shoulder.
"Reporting to cleaning duty! I gotta say, the witch I stole this thing from was not very pleased."
He broke into laughter about his own joke and then watched Elphaba struggling to pin up the ornaments.
After a few seconds she turned around, annoyed.
"You do know that you will actually have to start cleaning at some point, right?"
"Not if I can put it off for a little."
"Fiyero, start sweeping", Elphaba commanded, pointing to the black and brown checkered floor of the dining hall.
Halfheartedly, Fiyero started sweeping around, not moving from the spot he was standing in.
Elphaba started to get impatient.
"Have you never cleaned anything before?"
The moment she saw Fiyero's sheepish grin, she already knew the answer.
"Of course not, your royal highness, come on, hand this thing over."
As she took the broom out of Fiyero's hands, she noticed how warm they were in contrast to her frigid ones.
"Wow, you've got cold hands", he stated.
So he had noticed as well.
Quickly, Elphaba withdrew her hands.
"No wait, let me warm them up a bit."
Immediately, he took her hands into his again and started rubbing them from the outside.
Elphaba felt her heart beat faster.
This was such a gentle gesture, so unlike Fiyero's usual gruff behaviour.
He is Glinda's boyfriend, she reminded herself.
Suddenly, a loud shriek disrupted the quiet murmuring of the dining hall.
"Snow Trumpets!"
"Glinda, why in Oz's name are you yelling like that?", Elphaba said disapprovingly, as her friend approached at a fast pace, her finger pointed at something above their heads.
"Snow. Trumpets", she repeated sharply and Elphaba noticed that her usually gleeful expression had been replaced by a rather sour one.
"I heard that the first time, what do you mean?"
"You two. Have you already done it?"
"Done what?", Fiyero asked irritated.
Only then Elphaba noticed that he was still absentmindedly rubbing her hands and quickly took them away.
"Kissed, of course, you sillyheads!"
"Why would we..."
Glinda didn't let Elphaba finish, she took her head in both hands and turned it upwards.
"Because you're standing under a branch of Snow Trumpets, that's why! It means you have to kiss! An ancient Lurlinemas custom."
"Oh."
Elphaba suddenly felt as if the room had turned several degrees warmer.
"I-, uhm, Fiyero is your boyfriend, shouldn't you..."
"No", Glinda snapped, much to her roommate's surprise.
"But-"
"It's Lurlinemas tradition. Whoever ends up under the Snow Trumpets has to kiss or otherwise there will be misfortune upon those who haven't kissed until the day of Lurlinemas. So go ahead, kiss already, I really want this party to be great and I can't have both of you being unlucky during the preparations."
Elphaba turned around and looked at Fiyeeo.
He replied with a little shrug.
"Well then."
Fiyero observed Elphaba's face as she averted her gaze to the floor and her cheeks were suddenly flushed by a notably darker shade of green.
"You aren't blushing right now, are you?", he grinned and took her hands again.
"Miss Elphaba Thropp, may I kiss you in the name of the Snow Trumpets so the Lurlinemas celebration will be saved?"
Elphaba's face was burning and her heart rate had increased to a dangerously fast pace.
Why did it have to be him?!
She felt herself nodding and a moment later, Fiyero's lips were on hers.
It was short and sweet, not at all like she had imagined her first kiss to go down.
But then again, she hadn't imagined her first kiss to be in the middle of the university dining hall, in front of several people and most importantly, she didn't think it would be given to her by her best friend's boyfriend, with her approval!
"I- have to leave now", she brought out and then escaped from the scene, leaving behind a baffled Glinda and a smug looking Fiyero.
"She likes me", he announced and made Glinda swat at him.
"She does not! You're my boyfriend!"
"You are aware of the fact that you just encouraged us to kiss, are you?"
Glinda looked at him as if he was acting particularly dumb.
"But it was under a branch of Snow Trumpets, you had to kiss, don't you understand?"
"To be honest, I haven't fully gotten behind your strange Lurlinemas customs yet but I must say, I do like this one."
He turned around the room as if searching for his next victim.
"Hey, anyone want to step under the Snow
Trumpets with me?"
He grinned as he elicited an angry grunt from Glinda and finally pulled her in under the branch of white flowers.
"Better be sure we have a portion of extra luck for your Lurlinemas Ball, don't you think?"