The Effects of Gravity 6/? by ainsleyaisling
Title: The Effects of Gravity 6/?
Author: ainsleyaisling
Rating: PG
'Verse: Musical AU; some details from bookverse
Pairings: Glinda/Fiyero, Elphaba/Fiyero, Glinda/Elphaba
Summary: Fiyero tries to figure things out, and he and Elphaba fail utterly at understanding each other.
Disclaimer: Wicked belongs mostly to Gregory Maguire, and musicalverse belongs to Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and possibly Universal.
Notes: Previous part can be found here.
~~Fiyero~~
The Munchkin came running after him as he crossed back to the dormitory - Fiyero would have pretended he didn't notice the other boy calling his name, but he had learned that Boq was both incredibly persistent and also a surprisingly fast runner. He turned and waited for Boq to catch up.
"Have you seen Glinda?" Boq panted as he came close enough not to shout.
"She's in her room," Fiyero replied noncommittally, lifting one hand to gesture toward the girls' dormitory.
"Then -" Boq paused to catch his breath, one hand pressed to his heart. "Then she's all right?"
"She's . . . fine, she's with Elphaba." He couldn't have explained why he equated the two. Suspicion made him narrow his eyes at Boq: "Why shouldn't she be?"
Boq gasped for air. "Well - everyone knows - Elphaba . . ." Still out of breath, he waved his hands around in a vaguely witchy manner. "And - Milla told me - her roommate told her - something bad was going to happen - to Glinda. Figured - Elphaba - trying to - help Glinda . . ." Finally he gave up and sagged against a tree, looking imploringly at Fiyero.
"Wait - Milla's roommate told her something was going to happen to Glinda? Meaning she knew about it in advance?"
Boq nodded, breathing deeply. "Milla thought - hold on." A burst of coughing later and he seemed able to speak. "Milla thought her roommate had planned some kind of prank on Glinda. Something to . . ." He frowned. "'Knock her down a peg,' I think is what she said. But if Elphaba lost her temper like that - I was afraid something really bad must have happened."
"It almost did," Fiyero said grimly. "And what Elphaba did wasn't exactly 'losing her temper.'"
"So you've seen Glin- er, them?"
"Yes - do I know Milla's roommate?"
Boq shook his head. "I don't know - she's in our history class. Her name's Noala."
"Thanks." Ignoring Boq for the moment, Fiyero looked around him until he spotted two girls walking in their direction. "'Scuse me!" he called out. Both girls turned and immediately smiled, blushing prettily at the attention. "Are you girls headed to your dormitory?"
"Yes," one of them replied, her smile broadening. "Want to walk us there?"
"Sorry, no time. Would you mind doing me a favor?" He turned back to Boq, who was still leaning against the tree. "Got something I can write a note on?"
"Anything," the girl replied, leading her friend closer.
Fiyero took the sheet of paper and pencil Boq handed him and scrawled a hasty note. "Take this and give it to -" Not Glinda, she would still be too distraught. "To Elphaba Thropp, on the third floor - you know her?"
The girl raised her eyebrows. "She's hard to miss."
"Never mind that - just give it to her, please?"
The girl held out her hand for the note, and her friend - possibly afraid of seeming rude - said, "We know her room - she and Galinda are just at the other end of the hall from me."
"It's Glinda," Boq muttered from behind Fiyero. As the two girls hastened away, he asked, "You don't think they'll read it?"
"Of course they will," Fiyero replied. "But I don't think they'll understand it. Listen, I have to . . ." He motioned toward his dormitory and took off without waiting for Boq to reply.
The initial rush of accomplishment at discovering - well, all right, being told by Boq - the identity of one of the girls responsible for plotting against Glinda was already fading by the time he reached his room, and the slightly sick, dizzy feeling he'd had in his stomach all afternoon was slowly returning. His roommate, a tall Munchkinlander named Rikk, looked up as he entered and said, "You look terrible. Where've you been?"
He and Rikk didn't associate much - basically the only thing they had in common was being rich enough to merit sharing the most expansive suite in the building - but the boy wasn't bad as a roommate. Fiyero tried to rearrange his expression into one slightly less pained as he replied, "With Glinda."
"Oh?" Rikk set down the book he'd been reading. "It is true her roommate hexed Malin and two other guys?"
"Basically."
"So they did . . ." Rikk seemed unable to find a tactful way of asking what he wanted to know, but his looks and awkward gestures gave Fiyero the basic idea.
"No," he replied. "Not exactly. She, uh . . ."
"Defended herself?"
Fiyero nodded and pointed at his roommate. "Yes. Right."
Rikk whistled through his teeth. "Well, good for her, I say."
Surprised by his roommate's seeming approval of Elphaba, or at least of her actions, Fiyero only nodded again and collapsed onto his bed.
"Hey - are you sure you're all right? You really don't look well."
Fiyero covered his eyes. "I'm . . . fine. I just . . ."
Rikk let a long while elapse before asking, "You just what?"
Fiyero opened his eyes and surveyed his roommate. They weren't particularly good friends, but he was probably better than nothing. And suddenly Fiyero had a desperate need to talk to another male. "I - have you ever liked someone you weren't supposed to?"
"Um . . ." Rikk frowned. "Is this about Glinda?"
"No - I mean - have you ever . . . been attracted to someone without - understanding why, or - someone who's all wrong, someone who . . . probably wouldn't ever think of you that way? You understand?"
Rikk's eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair. "Um - look, Fiyero - I . . . well, I don't want to offend you, but - er -"
Fiyero sat up far enough to throw a pillow at him. "I'm not talking about you, for Ozsakes. I mean a girl."
"Oh," Rikk said with enormous relief. "In that case - yeah, I think I know what you mean."
"Yeah?"
"Although - are there any girls who wouldn't ever think of you that way? Aside from those two Gillikinese girls who're dating each other, they don't count."
Fiyero rolled his eyes. "Trust me, I found one."
"And she's not -"
"Like those two Gillikinese girls? I don't think so - although I guess anything's possible." Hmm - that was something he hadn't considered before, even though he did know how close the two girls were, how devoted Elphaba was to Glinda . . . He lay back on his pillows, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I think it just got even more complicated."
"How is it complicated? You like the girl. She doesn't like you - you say. You have a girl who does like you . . ."
"I know." Fiyero shook his head. "Glinda's - perfect, right?"
"Pretty much."
"And I do . . . like her. A lot." He couldn't explain the rest of the problem without giving away who he was talking about, so he settled for saying, "That's how it's complicated."
"You like this other girl enough that you can't just forget about her, even though you don't think she likes you and you're otherwise happy with Glinda?"
"Exactly."
"Wow. How have I missed this girl?"
Fiyero laughed shortly. "Believe me, you haven't."
"You going to tell me who it is?"
"No."
"All right then."
Fiyero sat up again, feeling fidgety. "She - you know, I could understand if - I mean, we're all sometimes . . . fascinated by what's different, right? By people who're completely different from us?"
"Sure."
"If it were just that, I could understand. Even if I only liked her because she challenged me, or - because getting her to like me would be a challenge, that would make sense. But I'm - attracted to her - really very attracted to her -"
"Physically, you mean."
"Yes! And normally I wouldn't be - I mean, she isn't the kind of girl I would normally be attracted to. Not to mention, normally I can be around a pretty girl - lots of pretty girls, even - and, nothing. No problem. But her - I get distracted just from standing too close to her. It's ridiculous."
"And she's not interested?"
"I think she's warmed up to me a little since we met, but she doesn't have much use for me, no."
Rikk moved from the chair to the end of his bed. "You've got a problem, all right."
"What would you do? If you were me?"
"Honestly?"
"Yeah."
"I'd forget about this other girl." Rikk crossed his arms and frowned. "Attraction is fun, but you've got something good going on with Glinda and you don't want to mess it up for a girl who doesn't even like you."
Fiyero exhaled heavily. "I don't think she likes me," he said more to himself than to Rikk. "Every now and then . . ."
"What?"
"Well - every now and then, I'll - touch her, or something, and I think maybe I see - I think she has some reaction. But . . ." He couldn't explain to Rikk that he was afraid that reaction was simply surprise and discomfort, because Elphaba seemed so unaccustomed to anyone touching her at all. "You're right. Glinda's - she's Glinda."
"She's perfect."
"Yes, she is."
~~Elphaba~~
She ignored the stares that followed her as she stalked into her literature class, ignored the other students who had been nervously shuffling out of her way since hearing that her magic had the power to knock people unconscious. Fiyero was already sitting in his usual spot, and she noticed with her usual stab of relieved - pleasure? - that he was holding her place with his satchel. He gave her a strange, undecipherable look as she sat down, but she ignored that and leaned close to whisper, "Madame called us in this morning. Noala was expelled, and she turned in one other girl too."
He glanced around them to see if anyone was paying attention (they weren't) and leaned in so that his chin hovered over her shoulder, his hand on the small of her back to hold her where she was. She could feel his hand trembling; from anger, she supposed. "What other girl?" he whispered.
"Her name's Karinna, I don't know her but Glinda does."
"I thought you said there were at least three of them." In his curiosity he had shifted his hand higher on her back to draw her nearer, apparently not even noticing that his fingers had tangled in the ends of her hair.
This close, she could feel the heat radiating off his body and could catch the now-familiar scent of his skin. Glinda's, she reminded herself sharply, taking a deep breath before she spoke. "Karinna supposedly planned the whole thing, that's why Noala was willing to give her up. They both say there was no one else but I know they're lying."
"What does Madame say?"
"That maybe I was mistaken about hearing three separate voices."
"Were you?"
She pulled back to look him in the eye. "No."
He looked around hastily again before saying, "So there's still a third."
"Yes."
The professor had begun to rap his pointer against the chalkboard to begin the lecture. Elphaba turned to pay attention, but Fiyero leaned close and hissed in her ear, "How's Glinda?"
"Still staying in our room," Elphaba replied, trying to move her lips as little as possible. "She thinks she'll go to class tomorrow."
"Should I come and visit?"
And climb through their window again, possibly terrifying the life out of poor Glinda? "I don't think so," she whispered. "I think she needs to feel like she can hide if she wants to."
Their professor was already deep into a discussion of Gillikinese sonnet form, but Fiyero brushed his hand gently against hers and whispered, "Does your face still hurt much?"
"A little." Actually it throbbed every time she opened her mouth enough to speak loudly or to eat, but she wasn't going to admit that.
"It looks pretty painful."
Almost forgetting that there was a lecture going on, she gave a brief, derisive laugh. "At least I don't have to worry it'll mar my beauty."
"You're right," he whispered close to her shoulder, "but not for the reason you think."
She turned sharply to look at him and found his face entirely too close for comfort. She shifted away from him on the bench, muttering, "Maybe you should pay attention to the lecture."
"Yeah," he agreed quickly. He shifted slightly away from her as well, clearly uncomfortable. Elphaba listened to a few sentences on the meter of Gillikinese sonnets without hearing anything but Fiyero's soft breathing beside her, and then a hand touched hers to get her attention and he said quietly, "I do love her, you know."
She wasn't sure why he would say that just now, but she certainly didn't have to ask who he was talking about. She nodded, catching his eye for a brief second. "I know," she said. "So do I. And - I appreciate that you want to be there for her right now."
For some reason she didn't understand, this statement seemed to make him momentarily - sad? Worried? Something flickered across his face, but then he patted her hand and turned himself to face the professor, effectively ending their communication.
Author: ainsleyaisling
Rating: PG
'Verse: Musical AU; some details from bookverse
Pairings: Glinda/Fiyero, Elphaba/Fiyero, Glinda/Elphaba
Summary: Fiyero tries to figure things out, and he and Elphaba fail utterly at understanding each other.
Disclaimer: Wicked belongs mostly to Gregory Maguire, and musicalverse belongs to Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and possibly Universal.
Notes: Previous part can be found here.
~~Fiyero~~
The Munchkin came running after him as he crossed back to the dormitory - Fiyero would have pretended he didn't notice the other boy calling his name, but he had learned that Boq was both incredibly persistent and also a surprisingly fast runner. He turned and waited for Boq to catch up.
"Have you seen Glinda?" Boq panted as he came close enough not to shout.
"She's in her room," Fiyero replied noncommittally, lifting one hand to gesture toward the girls' dormitory.
"Then -" Boq paused to catch his breath, one hand pressed to his heart. "Then she's all right?"
"She's . . . fine, she's with Elphaba." He couldn't have explained why he equated the two. Suspicion made him narrow his eyes at Boq: "Why shouldn't she be?"
Boq gasped for air. "Well - everyone knows - Elphaba . . ." Still out of breath, he waved his hands around in a vaguely witchy manner. "And - Milla told me - her roommate told her - something bad was going to happen - to Glinda. Figured - Elphaba - trying to - help Glinda . . ." Finally he gave up and sagged against a tree, looking imploringly at Fiyero.
"Wait - Milla's roommate told her something was going to happen to Glinda? Meaning she knew about it in advance?"
Boq nodded, breathing deeply. "Milla thought - hold on." A burst of coughing later and he seemed able to speak. "Milla thought her roommate had planned some kind of prank on Glinda. Something to . . ." He frowned. "'Knock her down a peg,' I think is what she said. But if Elphaba lost her temper like that - I was afraid something really bad must have happened."
"It almost did," Fiyero said grimly. "And what Elphaba did wasn't exactly 'losing her temper.'"
"So you've seen Glin- er, them?"
"Yes - do I know Milla's roommate?"
Boq shook his head. "I don't know - she's in our history class. Her name's Noala."
"Thanks." Ignoring Boq for the moment, Fiyero looked around him until he spotted two girls walking in their direction. "'Scuse me!" he called out. Both girls turned and immediately smiled, blushing prettily at the attention. "Are you girls headed to your dormitory?"
"Yes," one of them replied, her smile broadening. "Want to walk us there?"
"Sorry, no time. Would you mind doing me a favor?" He turned back to Boq, who was still leaning against the tree. "Got something I can write a note on?"
"Anything," the girl replied, leading her friend closer.
Fiyero took the sheet of paper and pencil Boq handed him and scrawled a hasty note. "Take this and give it to -" Not Glinda, she would still be too distraught. "To Elphaba Thropp, on the third floor - you know her?"
The girl raised her eyebrows. "She's hard to miss."
"Never mind that - just give it to her, please?"
The girl held out her hand for the note, and her friend - possibly afraid of seeming rude - said, "We know her room - she and Galinda are just at the other end of the hall from me."
"It's Glinda," Boq muttered from behind Fiyero. As the two girls hastened away, he asked, "You don't think they'll read it?"
"Of course they will," Fiyero replied. "But I don't think they'll understand it. Listen, I have to . . ." He motioned toward his dormitory and took off without waiting for Boq to reply.
The initial rush of accomplishment at discovering - well, all right, being told by Boq - the identity of one of the girls responsible for plotting against Glinda was already fading by the time he reached his room, and the slightly sick, dizzy feeling he'd had in his stomach all afternoon was slowly returning. His roommate, a tall Munchkinlander named Rikk, looked up as he entered and said, "You look terrible. Where've you been?"
He and Rikk didn't associate much - basically the only thing they had in common was being rich enough to merit sharing the most expansive suite in the building - but the boy wasn't bad as a roommate. Fiyero tried to rearrange his expression into one slightly less pained as he replied, "With Glinda."
"Oh?" Rikk set down the book he'd been reading. "It is true her roommate hexed Malin and two other guys?"
"Basically."
"So they did . . ." Rikk seemed unable to find a tactful way of asking what he wanted to know, but his looks and awkward gestures gave Fiyero the basic idea.
"No," he replied. "Not exactly. She, uh . . ."
"Defended herself?"
Fiyero nodded and pointed at his roommate. "Yes. Right."
Rikk whistled through his teeth. "Well, good for her, I say."
Surprised by his roommate's seeming approval of Elphaba, or at least of her actions, Fiyero only nodded again and collapsed onto his bed.
"Hey - are you sure you're all right? You really don't look well."
Fiyero covered his eyes. "I'm . . . fine. I just . . ."
Rikk let a long while elapse before asking, "You just what?"
Fiyero opened his eyes and surveyed his roommate. They weren't particularly good friends, but he was probably better than nothing. And suddenly Fiyero had a desperate need to talk to another male. "I - have you ever liked someone you weren't supposed to?"
"Um . . ." Rikk frowned. "Is this about Glinda?"
"No - I mean - have you ever . . . been attracted to someone without - understanding why, or - someone who's all wrong, someone who . . . probably wouldn't ever think of you that way? You understand?"
Rikk's eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair. "Um - look, Fiyero - I . . . well, I don't want to offend you, but - er -"
Fiyero sat up far enough to throw a pillow at him. "I'm not talking about you, for Ozsakes. I mean a girl."
"Oh," Rikk said with enormous relief. "In that case - yeah, I think I know what you mean."
"Yeah?"
"Although - are there any girls who wouldn't ever think of you that way? Aside from those two Gillikinese girls who're dating each other, they don't count."
Fiyero rolled his eyes. "Trust me, I found one."
"And she's not -"
"Like those two Gillikinese girls? I don't think so - although I guess anything's possible." Hmm - that was something he hadn't considered before, even though he did know how close the two girls were, how devoted Elphaba was to Glinda . . . He lay back on his pillows, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I think it just got even more complicated."
"How is it complicated? You like the girl. She doesn't like you - you say. You have a girl who does like you . . ."
"I know." Fiyero shook his head. "Glinda's - perfect, right?"
"Pretty much."
"And I do . . . like her. A lot." He couldn't explain the rest of the problem without giving away who he was talking about, so he settled for saying, "That's how it's complicated."
"You like this other girl enough that you can't just forget about her, even though you don't think she likes you and you're otherwise happy with Glinda?"
"Exactly."
"Wow. How have I missed this girl?"
Fiyero laughed shortly. "Believe me, you haven't."
"You going to tell me who it is?"
"No."
"All right then."
Fiyero sat up again, feeling fidgety. "She - you know, I could understand if - I mean, we're all sometimes . . . fascinated by what's different, right? By people who're completely different from us?"
"Sure."
"If it were just that, I could understand. Even if I only liked her because she challenged me, or - because getting her to like me would be a challenge, that would make sense. But I'm - attracted to her - really very attracted to her -"
"Physically, you mean."
"Yes! And normally I wouldn't be - I mean, she isn't the kind of girl I would normally be attracted to. Not to mention, normally I can be around a pretty girl - lots of pretty girls, even - and, nothing. No problem. But her - I get distracted just from standing too close to her. It's ridiculous."
"And she's not interested?"
"I think she's warmed up to me a little since we met, but she doesn't have much use for me, no."
Rikk moved from the chair to the end of his bed. "You've got a problem, all right."
"What would you do? If you were me?"
"Honestly?"
"Yeah."
"I'd forget about this other girl." Rikk crossed his arms and frowned. "Attraction is fun, but you've got something good going on with Glinda and you don't want to mess it up for a girl who doesn't even like you."
Fiyero exhaled heavily. "I don't think she likes me," he said more to himself than to Rikk. "Every now and then . . ."
"What?"
"Well - every now and then, I'll - touch her, or something, and I think maybe I see - I think she has some reaction. But . . ." He couldn't explain to Rikk that he was afraid that reaction was simply surprise and discomfort, because Elphaba seemed so unaccustomed to anyone touching her at all. "You're right. Glinda's - she's Glinda."
"She's perfect."
"Yes, she is."
~~Elphaba~~
She ignored the stares that followed her as she stalked into her literature class, ignored the other students who had been nervously shuffling out of her way since hearing that her magic had the power to knock people unconscious. Fiyero was already sitting in his usual spot, and she noticed with her usual stab of relieved - pleasure? - that he was holding her place with his satchel. He gave her a strange, undecipherable look as she sat down, but she ignored that and leaned close to whisper, "Madame called us in this morning. Noala was expelled, and she turned in one other girl too."
He glanced around them to see if anyone was paying attention (they weren't) and leaned in so that his chin hovered over her shoulder, his hand on the small of her back to hold her where she was. She could feel his hand trembling; from anger, she supposed. "What other girl?" he whispered.
"Her name's Karinna, I don't know her but Glinda does."
"I thought you said there were at least three of them." In his curiosity he had shifted his hand higher on her back to draw her nearer, apparently not even noticing that his fingers had tangled in the ends of her hair.
This close, she could feel the heat radiating off his body and could catch the now-familiar scent of his skin. Glinda's, she reminded herself sharply, taking a deep breath before she spoke. "Karinna supposedly planned the whole thing, that's why Noala was willing to give her up. They both say there was no one else but I know they're lying."
"What does Madame say?"
"That maybe I was mistaken about hearing three separate voices."
"Were you?"
She pulled back to look him in the eye. "No."
He looked around hastily again before saying, "So there's still a third."
"Yes."
The professor had begun to rap his pointer against the chalkboard to begin the lecture. Elphaba turned to pay attention, but Fiyero leaned close and hissed in her ear, "How's Glinda?"
"Still staying in our room," Elphaba replied, trying to move her lips as little as possible. "She thinks she'll go to class tomorrow."
"Should I come and visit?"
And climb through their window again, possibly terrifying the life out of poor Glinda? "I don't think so," she whispered. "I think she needs to feel like she can hide if she wants to."
Their professor was already deep into a discussion of Gillikinese sonnet form, but Fiyero brushed his hand gently against hers and whispered, "Does your face still hurt much?"
"A little." Actually it throbbed every time she opened her mouth enough to speak loudly or to eat, but she wasn't going to admit that.
"It looks pretty painful."
Almost forgetting that there was a lecture going on, she gave a brief, derisive laugh. "At least I don't have to worry it'll mar my beauty."
"You're right," he whispered close to her shoulder, "but not for the reason you think."
She turned sharply to look at him and found his face entirely too close for comfort. She shifted away from him on the bench, muttering, "Maybe you should pay attention to the lecture."
"Yeah," he agreed quickly. He shifted slightly away from her as well, clearly uncomfortable. Elphaba listened to a few sentences on the meter of Gillikinese sonnets without hearing anything but Fiyero's soft breathing beside her, and then a hand touched hers to get her attention and he said quietly, "I do love her, you know."
She wasn't sure why he would say that just now, but she certainly didn't have to ask who he was talking about. She nodded, catching his eye for a brief second. "I know," she said. "So do I. And - I appreciate that you want to be there for her right now."
For some reason she didn't understand, this statement seemed to make him momentarily - sad? Worried? Something flickered across his face, but then he patted her hand and turned himself to face the professor, effectively ending their communication.