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Elphaba had her head rested on her hand, elbow to the table, and she took in the room before her. Somehow Fiyero and Glinda had convinced, or in Elphaba’s words ‘dragged and taken hostage’, to the Ozdust on a Friday night. They gave quite the convincing arguments of not having gone together as a group recently, and the simple second one, it was a Friday night. Elphaba didn’t feel as though the reasons were convincing enough, but Fiyero and Glinda had felt as though it was. Either way, the green girl got dragged by her friends to the last spot she wanted to be.
She moved her wrist around in small movements, trying to bring back feeling to her hand, realizing just how long she had been positioned like that.
Fiyero noticed from the one side of the ballroom, and waved to her. Elphaba looked confused, then realizing her hand motion must have looked like a wave, and tried to explain through hand motions, but the distance made it impossible, so she just turned it into waving back to the prince. He returned it with a smile, and began to walk towards her.
Elphaba tried to swat him away, that it wasn’t an invitation to come over, but he just kept walking to her, until he plopped down in the seat beside him, “Hey.”
“Hello Fiyero, I didn’t mean that as a wave, I was trying to bring feeling back to my hand.” She replied as she was still moving her hand around.
Fiyero shrugged, “I know, I was trying to get out of that conversation,” he looked over his shoulder and followed his gaze to the girl behind him. Elphaba didn’t recognize her, but knew the type of girl she was by the clique of friends around her, one of the bubbly popular girls.
“Oh, you ‘Mr. Dancing Through Life’ isn’t as deeply shallow, and genuinely self-absorbed as you want us to think” she raised an eyebrow at him.
Fiyero’s hand grabbed hers, and brought it down to the table, “Hey, we can’t have people knowing my secret…” He joked, but Elphaba was still just staring at their hands touching. She didn’t flinch which she was proud of, but she felt as though her cheeks became warm, and noticed Fiyero looking too. After a clock tick, he slowly let go of her hand.
He leaned back in his chair, slouched, “Well, Miss Elphaba, if you’re so keen on not joining us on the dance floor-“
“So, people can laugh at me? No thank you, Fiyero.” She cut him off, fidgeting with her hands.
“I was going to say to have fun, but you didn’t let me finish…” He shot her a look, and she felt slightly bad, “I’m sorry. It’s just being out there; it isn’t my idea of fun. You or Glinda, sure. You two thrive on attention.” She could feel the bass from the music vibrating the table, and looked over to where she had seen Glinda last, and sure enough, the blonde was surrounded by friends, dancing and laughing along with them.
“Honestly, I don’t really love it all,” Her gaze suddenly on him, and he shrugged, “It gets old. You never know who’s your friend, for you, or because you’re a prince.” He said it so nonchalantly, but Elphaba could hear the slight hurt in his voice. Elphaba turned to him, and surprising him and herself, she grabbed his hand back into her, “You’re smart, Fiyero, more than you give yourself credit for.”
She said it so sincerely, that Fiyero felt as though he could believe her. Their hands stayed together for a moment longer, before Elphaba pulled hers back.
Fiyero sat up straight in the seat beside her, changing the subject, “Well, Miss Elphaba, you’ve been sitting here for an hour. What observations have we made?”
“We?”
He waved a hand at her, “You.”
She let out a soft laugh, “Well, I’ve noticed a lot actually. It just takes a couple of minutes of watching people to make an observation.”
Fiyero took a long look around the ballroom before speaking, “Such as?” he challenged her. She smiled, he knew she loved a good challenge.
“That girl over there,” she pointed out a girl in a teal dress, he nodded, “she’s been sitting alone over there for at least the last hour, since we got here. She’s waiting for someone.”
Fiyero noted how many times that the girl glanced towards the clock, “I don’t think they’re coming.”
Elphaba nodded, “She’s been watching that clock all night.”
And sure enough, just as they mentioned it, the girl got up walking over to a friend, caught their attention to say something. The friend nodded their head, and the girl turned and left the ballroom rather sadly.
“I was hoping for her, whoever she was waiting for would show up.” Elphaba voiced.
Fiyero nodded, trying to not remember the times he had stood up girls in the past. Seeing it from this perspective, could see how disappointed the girl was as she left.
“Okay, whose up next, Miss Elphaba?”
Elphaba almost snorted at the formality, but obliged, “That guy,” pointing to a guy on the edge of the dance floor, “He’s trying to get the courage to ask a girl, I believe one he likes, to dance, but he keeps backing out.”
Fiyero watched the guy Elphaba pointed out, and sure enough, you could see him pep-talking himself to go ask her, and at the last minute, would back off, “Well observed.”
She shrugged, “It’s hard not to, when sitting here. Oh-“
Fiyero whipped his head over to the direction Elphaba’s gaze was in, and he could see why she had exclaimed. The guy from the edge of the floor, was now beside a girl in a soft yellow coloured dress, and was speaking with her. He seemed rather nervous, but they could tell his bravery paid off, as the girl nodded, taking his hand and leading him further into the dance floor. Fiyero made a face, and nod that Elphaba could only take as Fiyero being proud of the guy for finally working up his courage.
“He did it…” Elphaba said, with almost pride in her voice, “I could never.” Her voice trailed off at the end, almost like that part wasn’t supposed to have been spoken aloud.
Fiyero stole a look at Elphaba, noting she almost seemed…sad? Like there had been a missed opportunity in her past. He rubbed his hands together, “My turn.” He smirked towards the green girl, who waved a hand to take the lead.
“There!” Elphaba followed his gaze, and saw a couple sitting at a table across from them. They were holding hands, and sitting close, but seemed like their relationship was in its early stages.
“Okay, Mr.Observant, what’s going on there?”
Fiyero smiled, taking her words as the challenge they were, “I think they are a recently together couple, you know, this might be their first time out as a couple somewhere, maybe it’s even a date?”
Elphaba nodded, “Completely possible,” she watched the couple for a moment more, “I wonder too if one is more believing in the relationship than the other.”
Fiyero turned his head to the side, in questioning, when Elphaba motioned to watch more. Fiyero then saw what she was talking about. They seemed rather comfortable together to the normal passerby, but the longer he watched, he saw it. The guy would place his hand on hers, and she’d gently slide it out while looking around like they were going to get caught by someone. He then said something to the girl, and she sadly nodded, and then he rubbed her arm reassuringly before turning his gaze to the dance floor, “I see what you mean.”
Elphaba nodded, “It seems like she feels as though she can’t let him show affection, for some reason.”
Fiyero nodded, and looked to the dance floor and indicated with his head in a direction, “What about her?”
Elphaba looked over, and knew immediately who he meant. Glinda spinning and dancing on the dance floor, “Honestly?”
He nodded, and she scrunched her nose, before studying the blonde and the group around her. Fiyero gave her a clock tick to study them, and then she turned to him, “She’s being flirty,” she started with, and Fiyero let a snort slip, to which Elphaba turned around to face him, “What?”
He smiled, “Elphaba Thropp, the Elphaba Thropp, knows what flirting is?”
She felt his gaze on her, “Yes, Mr.Tiggular, I may not do it, but I know what flirting is. She is my roommate after all. I have to listen to her ramble on about boys all the time, for hours at a time.”
Fiyero watched her slightly for a moment. He wondered if she actually could tell, because that hand touch earlier had been completely on purpose, “Okay, so what’s going here?” He nodded to their friend.
Elphaba studied again before speaking, “It’s definitely in who she’s not flirting with. Watch.”
And Fiyero did. He watched as Glinda danced and bopped around with the group surrounding, and her roommate was right, she was being flirty with all the boys out there, except for one. There was a boy to the right of her, just staring at her taking in the moment. Fiyero recognized him from a class that Elphaba and he had together, “Is that Ren?”
Elphaba nodded, “You cannot speak a word of this…” Fiyero continued watching them on the dance floor, “Glin is falling hard for that boy, but hasn’t made a move yet. I’m pretty sure she’s not exaggerating this one, and Ren likes her too. Neither has done a thing about it yet.”
He nodded to Elphaba’s words, but grabbed her hand again to get her attention when she looked down to her drink, “Look…”
Elphaba didn’t even register his hand still in hers, when she looked up just in time for Glinda to, all too smoothly, slid away from the group who were all too absorbed in their conversations to see the blonde slip away, over closer to Ren. She held her hand out to him, which he took smiling, and it seemed as though they found their own little corner of the dance floor to have a moment, “Maybe I stand corrected. Neither had made a move until tonight.”
It wasn’t until she felt herself getting pulled out of her chair, that she realized Fiyero had her hand in his, “Fiyero…” she dug her the heels of her feet into the floor as hard as she could, but it was fruitless.
He turned to her, “It’s one dance, Fae.”
She pulled him to a halt, finally before he got them too close to the dance floor, “Fae?”
He looked sheepishly, like she was going to hex him for it, “Yeah? It’s a nickname?’
Elphaba thought on it for a moment, before retorting, “What’d you even get that from?”
“I got it from a variation of Fabala,” he shrugged, “I figured Nessa and Glinda both had nicknames for you… I can take it back.”
She shook her head, “No, it just caught me off guard. It’s fine.”
Fiyero smiled, grasping her hand tighter, leading her just towards the edge of the dance floor, and he was surprised when she didn’t dig her heels into the floor against him. He thought the moment that he took her away from the table, she’d have been running out before he could catch her. But surprisingly, she was, however reluctantly, walking with him to where Glinda and Ren stood. Glinda shot the green girl a look, looking between Fiyero, their hands joined, and back to her. Elphaba felt her cheeks warm again, and she just shot the blonde a look of “Don’t even.”
Glinda decided to hold out on the green girl until later when they were back at the dorm, but before she could, Fiyero had whisked her past Glinda, and onto the dance floor edge, “One hand here,” as he placed her hand on his shoulder, “And here,” he slid her hand from within his own up to his neck, where he could feel how warm her skin was on his. He saw her stiffen when he placed his hand on her hips, but as he slowly swayed them, he saw her relax ever so slightly. He looked down to see her eyes peering up at him, now observing him as if looking to see if he realized what he was doing. He just smiled down to her. The song came up to the bridge, and started to finally build up to its ending. He smiled sadly, knowing Elphaba would pull away when it finished.
As predicted, Elphaba pulled away when the song ended, but she didn’t run, “Thank you, Fiyero,” she picked at her hem of her dress, “for the dance.”
She excused herself back to the table, and Fiyero watched as she walked away. He brought a hand to the back of his head, dragging a hand through his hair, before following the green girl to the table once more.
Glinda sighed, and laughed, while she danced with Ren to the next slow song that echoed through the ballroom, “They don’t see it, do they?”
Ren looked up to Elphaba and Fiyero and where their table was, “That they both feel something, but they’re dancing around it?”
Glinda nodded, “He’s got to realize his traditional methods are going to go right over her head,” she smiled watching them, “He wasn’t even talking to that girl that excused himself from earlier…”
“What?” Ren questioned, watching the blonde now as they danced.
Glinda nodded, “He just made it look like it so he could go over to her. He needed a plausible excuse to go over without seeming like he was seeking her out.”
She really had to giggle at the moment, she realized that just as those two had been observing people together at the table, Glinda had been observing them herself. Fiyero had taken his moment with Elphaba when he had noticed she and Ren move away from their crowd. She watched now as they talked at the table again, Elphaba seeming slightly more relaxed.
“He’s falling hard for her,” Ren noted, and Glinda nodded before laying her head on Ren’s shoulder as they swayed, and a smile danced across the blonde face as she watched them, “And she is falling just as hard for him.”