So, I debated about whether I would respond to concerns about Nessa taking a liking - nay, an obsession - to Fiyero. HollyBush, being the bad influence that she is, told me not to say anything to you guys and let you keep worrying, but I want you to know I'm nicer than she is. So, to put your minds at ease, I want to let you know that I give the girl some credit! I genuinely considered taking the story down a path in which Nessa crushed on Fiyero but truthfully, I do believe she is fixated on Boq and I also believe that she believes that Fiyero likes someone else, presumably Galinda or someone she doesn't know. So worry not people, Fiyero has enough problems without Nessarose's fickle heart being one of them. :)

Fiyero had truly underestimated how social he used to be. Back during his original experience at Shiz, he spent his weekends taking Galinda out on the town, spoiling her with fancy restaurants and spinning her around the Ozdust, or out with the boys from his dorm to share a keg of beer and a few laughs.

After the experience at The Boar and Kennel with the Kumbric Witch, he avoided being dragged out with the boys. It left him feeling sick without even a sip of the alcohol he didn't enjoy drinking so much anymore.

Still, though he often spent his free evenings in the common room at Briscoe Hall, his feet propped up by the fireplace with a good book in his hands, he wasn't meant to sit still long and was absolutely incapable of expending his days holed up, especially as the last heat of summer still lingered in the air.

One Sunday he found a couple of strapping Gillikese guys tossing a discus back and forth on one of the large lawns on campus and on a whim asked to play with them. Before long, most likely because of the popular prince's interest, some of the other boys from the dorm joined them, then a couple from the neighboring dorms, and within a couple weeks they were able to hold a proper scrimmage of a classic Vinkun sport.

It involved two teams and one disk, with the purpose of each team to get the disk across the opposite goal line. It was passed between teammates, each of whom had to plant themselves in place once they held the disk until they released it into the air again. Once they became more comfortable playing together, they became rougher as men tended to do, and while Fiyero often found his knees or hips scraped from diving for the disk he also had bruises from being either accidentally or purposefully tackled.

Many of the guys catcalled out to the girls who more often than not assembled to watch them play. Even Galinda and her groupies stopped by once, shrieking in chorus with the other girls and calling out his name every time he was near the disk. Tibbett and Crope would push in the crowd, swooning and falling about in the grass, but since he never saw a green-skinned person among them he didn't do much more than snicker at them all.

Shiz was not used to seeing such unauthorized, untraditional events at Shiz, and Fiyero was pleased he had his part in continuing to change history about the campus. Being more physical and used to male camaraderie following his stint in the military than he had been his first time around, he found his Sunday games physically satisfying. More than once on soggy days he'd walk home with a temporary limp, covered in muck, tired but with a smile on his face.

He still kept his lunch dates with Galinda on Saturdays. As the leaves slowly changed about them, so did Galinda. She still fancied him and didn't resist an opportunity to flutter her plump lashes at him or pause picturesque as they alternated easy conversation, but her feelings about her friends clearly began shifting, judging by their less and less frequent presence with each week. Fiyero's outward indifference to Pfannee and Shenshen since his arrival was purposeful, for regardless of any action of his they would more-or-less become a thing of the past in Galinda's life as Elphaba became a more positive influence.

That just meant that Galinda required new shopping buddies on her trips to the square on Saturdays. Sometimes that meant Fiyero, who did appreciate a new belt or shirt every now and again, but once that meant Elphaba and Nessarose, the latter of whom looked like the cat who swallowed the canary at being chosen while the former looked as if she had swallowed a lemon.

As Nessarose's mood improved in the couple of weeks following her brief and ill-fated relationship with Boq, so did Elphaba's attitude towards Fiyero, as though she had either come to forgive him for his interference or in hindsight had seen the value in it. Whatever the reason, shared classes together had been more cordial and the Saturday lunch at Galinda's favorite café was rather enjoyable.

They talked of the sisters' upbringing and of Munchkinland, of people at Shiz and of their mutual history class, but as was common in Galinda's presence nothing ever went into depth. This disappointed him, for the paltrier the information that was shared about Elphaba the more he wanted to know. He didn't get a chance to take control of the conversation to remedy that problem before Galinda decided she was done nattering and was ready to find herself and Nessarose new dresses.

Nessarose had a grand time of it, having never had a girlfriend to shop with before, but Elphaba quickly became bored of flipping through hangers of fashionable attire. To his delight, when he offered to wait outside a particularly hated store of his after over an hour of trailing Galinda about, she had chosen to join him.

They stopped at a cart that sold chilled, flavored custard and he got them each a small cup.

"Why aren't you going to be governor?" he asked as they wandered back to the storefront. The question had been eating at him since that life-changing day in history class, when he finally conceded to his royal responsibilities. While he had, as Dr. Dillamond said, proposed progress between their two nations, even when he were to become king it would not be the brilliant green girl with whom he would work and he didn't know why.

"Because Nessarose is," she said, stabbing at the creamy treat with her wooden scoop, perhaps so she could avoid looking at him.

"Aren't you older?"

"Yes," she said pointedly, "but not favored."

"Why?" She shot him a look as if questioning his intelligence and he scowled. "That's not a good enough reason."

"It's as good of a reason as you're going to get," she said, slipping the spoon between her lips to suck on it.

He was too busy thinking about the conversation to even consider the sensuality of the moment. "I don't need to spend the rest of the semester getting to know you both to know you're better suited for the position."

"Father has made his opinion clear on the matter."

"But you don't disagree with me," he realized.

They observed through the glass storefront as Galinda held up a dress for Nessarose, before draping it across her seated form with enthusiasm. Galinda then wheeled Nessa back through the store to try on the outfit she picked out and Elphaba's brow furrowed over her watchful gaze.

"She isn't good at taking care of other people because she has never learned to take care of herself. But Nessa is strong-willed and smart. If she ever comes down from her plinth, if ever allows herself to be the bitch she really is, she'll be better than I," she said dryly.

"My, you're bitter."

"Don't you know affection when you see it?" she scoffed. "I love Nessa. She's a pain in the neck, she's intolerably self-righteous, she's a nasty piece of work. I'm devoted to her."

"I know you are," he said truthfully. "If there is nothing else I learn about you, I know that. Particularly after that night you came storming into my bedroom raving about her, somehow immune to my rather attractive state of undress."

She ignored his jab. "Our father required me to babysit Nessarose through most of my childhood. When he dies and she becomes governor, I'll have to take care of her again."

He frowned. "What a hideous prospect for a life."

She seemed resigned, defeated. "I can't agree with you more."

If what Elphaba, the Witch of the West, had told him after her visit with her sister was true, then Nessarose had expected as Elphaba did now that her sister was to give up her own pursuits in order to serve the Governess. But that couldn't be the life that Elphaba would have accepted; he was certain of it. She was the smart one, the strong-willed one, no matter how much she loved her baby sister.

"But what do you want?" he asked, only having an imprecise notion of her original desires before they all went to hell, after which all she wanted was redemption and stability and solace. "Where do you really see yourself after Shiz?"

"I see myself – oh, you're going to laugh at me – in the Emerald City," she said, her face lighting up slightly even though her arms wrapped around herself insecurely. "Working for the Wizard. Making good."

He couldn't imagine a thing he wanted to do less at the moment than laugh. Fiyero tried to at least smile for her. "I bet you'd be great at that."

"And how could you know?"

"I tried telling you I was smart, but you still seem convinced that I only sit in the front of the classroom because I like the view," he said as seriously as he could. He was overjoyed when she was the one who laughed.