Midday Saturday found him in Railway Square with bags of heavy textbooks and various odds and ends for his dorm he'd need if he indeed was to relive his school year. After spotting Galinda's golden head glinting amidst a healthy lunch crowd at one of the more popular cafés, he had half a mind to avoid her. But she was smiling and laughing as she had been known to do and his heart panged at the sight, for it had been far too long since he had seen her so carefree. Before he knew it he was at her table, winking down at Pfannee, Shenshen and Milla.
"Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all!" Galinda said, her eyes sparkling as he spun a chair around and dropped in it so his forearms were on its back. "Lovely day, isn't it?"
"Quite. Hello, ladies," he said politely to her friends, even though he hated them all.
"I do hope you all had the opportunity to be acquainted at the party last night."
"Briefly," Fiyero mentioned, and deciding to show off he recited with just a hint of doubt, "Milla, Pfannee and Shenshen, right?"
"Very good!" Galinda said, impressed, applauding joyously at his memory. "We had all just been talking about how enjoyable the evening had been and how we must make it a thing to do."
"Absolutely," he responded appropriately, not really caring.
He vaguely wondered if Galinda had invited her newest friend out to tea and sandwiches with the girls; no doubt Elphaba would have scoffed at the suggestion as much as Phannee and Shenshen would have feigned nausea.
"It looks like you've been out shopping," Galinda noted, flawlessly moving along the conversation.
He spied his two overfilled bags at his feet and decided it best, given the company, not to admit they were mostly filled with books. "Yes. In my hurry to leave my last school it seemed that I had forgotten my favorite comb…"
Their predictable sympathy was satisfying and entertaining. "Oh dear!" they cried, and Galinda covered his hand with her own tiny one in a gesture of emotional support. "Let's get you some tea," she suggested considerately and flagged down a waiter.
Before long the other girls departed, off to salon appointments or whatever engagements succeeded lunch, leaving Galinda and himself alone. He asked her countless questions of which he already knew the answers and brought up subjects he knew were of interest to her, like architecture and sorcery. His heart swelled every time her eyes lit up; he truly did love her, he knew, but not as he did Elphaba. Rather than compare them, he found contentedness in just enjoying her company for a while, and it wasn't until only the dregs remained that he finally inquired about her roommate.
"If you're asking me why she's green, I do not have an answer for you," she said. "Though there have been many interesting theories…"
"I don't care about that," Fiyero said, waving a hand as if to brush the topic away. "I found her to be quite…enigmatic."
"She's a difficult thing, isn't she?" Galinda mused, but mildly. "Always with her nose in a book. At one point in the beginning of the semester we had managed three weeks without a social nicety. Oh, I was as much to blame, but we've warmed up to each other now. She can actually be quite charming, in her own way."
"She didn't seem to like me."
"That's just Elphaba. I'm sure she'll come around in no time, now that we're friends. I've taken her on as a project of sorts." Galinda perked up then. "Ooh, let me show you the things I bought for her today…"
In the evening, while he had been lounging across a sofa in one of Briscoe Hall's studies flipping through a newspaper he had found in town that day, many of the boys from the dorm came rambling, rattling through the halls, banging on doors of friends. "We're off to the pub," they chanted. "Come on out!" Spying Fiyero stretched across the furniture, it was inevitable that he would be their next target.
He decided to go, to enjoy their joie de vivre, to forget his woes by regressing into that carefree young man whose body he possessed, but then he discovered the spectacle down at The Boar and Fennel was that of a Kumbric Witch performing. While they laughed at, toasted to, and objectified the witch, Fiyero watched on in discomfort and anger, for it reminded him too much of the rowdy shows bars would put on in the Emerald City with tawdry women with green-painted faces. He wanted to be sick. He snuck out the back when no one was looking and returned to his room, absolutely exhausted.
His head hit the pillow and he was out in moments. He slept almost all of Sunday away.
He needs his sleep to be in prime form for when he sees Elphaba in the morning to make up for the other night. :) How do you think their next interaction will go?