Chapter 12 Moving Forward

A/N Many thanks to musicgal3, PocketSevens,niki, Aren, david, ShiningHeart of ThunderClan and FLTF for the reviews.

ShiningHeart, rewrote the first part of this chapter so that it is from Fiyero's POV. Hope you like it.

This last chapter is dedicated to musicgal3 for being so passionate in her reviews for this fanfic.

Hope you guys will review and let me know if you like the ending!

A/N2 updated on 2nd Nov 2014 to fix the grammar mistakes.

Fiyero sat on his bed, his eyes narrowed in concentration, a sketch book propped against his bent legs. It was Saturday morning and he was at work, indulging in a hobby that no one knew he had.

The prince always gave others the impression that he was always in action, always up to one mischief or another. What most people did not know was that he had a quieter side. No one in Shiz, until Elphaba, had known that he loved hiking through nature. No one in Shiz, not even Elphaba, had known that he sketched, and could do it reasonably well.

He had been hard at work for an hour or so, and his most recent sketch was bearing fruit. He had outlined the round metal table (not his main focus), completed the side profile and the hair, and was putting the finishing touches to the fingers. Fiyero had no idea why, but he loved to draw fingers and hands. He took an eraser to rub away a knuckle, and then draw it again, making it smoother, to convey the gentleness in which the subject had used when twirling her hair with her long slender fingers.

When he was done with the fingers, he put down his pencil and looked at the drawing. It was not completed yet, but he could clearly see what he had seen that day, when he was in the queue waiting for his turn to order the food. The peacefulness on her face when she thought no one was watching her. He remembered how, on that day, he had told her that he would protect her whenever she needed it. Subconsciously, he reached out his hand and touched the subject's cheek.

Fiyero had no idea how it had ended up this way. One day, she was commenting on how he played with her hand (and letting him played with it), and the next day, she shrank from his touch. He had terminated their month-long arrangement when he saw how tired Elphaba was (Galinda had insisted that it was due to him overloading her with work), and since then, he had not been able to find a chance to be alone with her. He was pretty sure that he would find out the reason for the abrupt change in her behavior if he had the chance to talk to her again, alone.

Just then, someone knocked on the door, breaking the silence.

He placed his drawing face down on his bed (he did not want whoever that is at the door to accidentally see his drawing) and went to open the door. It was Cammie, a pretty brunette from his Calculus class. She was dressed in off-white sweet floral dress with a poofy skirt that ended above her knees and had a bright smile on her face.

"Hi!" She said with a perky voice that reminded him of Galinda's. "A few of us are planning to go to Ozster's tonight. Would you like to join us?"

Fiyero gave her a smile. Not so long ago, he would be spending every night over the weekend at a place like Ozster's, with a girl like Cammie. But at this point, he did not look forward to spending a night with a group of giggling girls.

"I'm sorry, but I got to rush some project out. Some other day perhaps."

Cammie looked a bit disappointed, but nonetheless gave him a wide smile.

"Sure. You owe me one, Fiyero." She told him with a little giggle.

Fiyero smiled and nodded his head as she skipped away, her poofy skirt bouncing. He was about to close his door when something made him looked up to his right.

She was standing there, one door away, a look of confusion on her face.

"Hey," he said, a real smile growing on his face as he stepped out of his room.

She gave him a little smile.

"Are you looking for me?" He asked.

She shook her head, and hugged her pile of books closer to her chest.

"I – I was supposed to go to the library, but I guess my mind wandered and took a wrong turn." She bit her lower lip, sounding unsure.

Fiyero grinned. He remembered when that had happened before. The four of them were walking to the cafeteria for dinner one evening and Elphaba had wondered off as she was thinking of some project, and her legs brought her to the library instead.

He gave a silent thank to Lurline for legs that had a mind of their own.

"I should go now," she said as she turned to retrace her steps to the library.

"Wait!" Fiyero called out. Elphaba stopped and turned around.

"I - ," it was his turn to stammer. "I have a book that I need to return too. Why don't you give me a moment to get it and we will go together." He nearly stretched out his hand, but changed his mind when he remembered her aversion to his touch.

Elphaba stood there, undecided.

"Please, it won't take a moment. I just need to find it. I borrowed it two weeks ago, remember? Ozian Economics for Dummies. Maybe you can come in and help me to look for it." He was almost pleading.

Elphaba hesitated, but followed him back into his room nonetheless.

Fiyero started to look under the mess of his room for the library book. Behind him, he could hear Elphaba putting down her own books and looking for that same book. His effort was half-hearted, his brain hard at work trying to think of something that he could say to her.

However, even half-hearted effort paid off sometimes and Fiyero soon found the library book under a pile of paper. He turned around, the book in hand, to see that Elphaba had stopped looking long ago.

She was standing next to the bed, his sketch book in her hands. Damn, he had forgotten all about that sketch book.

"Elphaba?"

She looked up at him, surprise on her face. "I never knew you draw."

"I had a few more if you are interested," he found himself saying.

She thought for a while, and then nodded. He went over to the bed and took out a box from under it.

He took out the most recent entries and passed it to Elphaba. Paper in hand, she sat down on the bed and did not even notice when he sat next to her. There were more than ten pieces of drawings which he had drawn in the past few months. There was one of a raven hair girl reading a book in the library. Another sketch of her drumming her fingers on the table as she rested her face on another hand. A sketch of the same girl and a blonde with bouncy hair as they laughed over some inside joke while seated on the grass. A sketch of Doctor Dillamond gesturing with the blackboard behind him. And another sketch of the same girl with an armful of books walking along one of the many corridors of Shiz. The same girl as she absentmindedly tucked a strand of stray hair behind her ear.

Fiyero held his breath as she looked through the drawings. When she was done, she held them in her hands, deep in thought. She was quiet for some time, and Fiyero wished that she would say something. Anything. And then she turned and looked at him.

"They're beautiful," she told him.

Fiyero reached out and touched her face with his hand. "You're beautiful," he told her, as he leaned in to brush his lips against hers, moving on to kiss her on her lips when he realized that she did not flinch from him.

When Fiyero moved away, he noticed that her whole face was flushed.

"What was that for?" She asked, her voice soft.

Fiyero was dumbfounded. When he kissed a girl, she would either squeal and kiss him back, or go into shock. This was the first time he was questioned by a girl that he had kissed. It was going to be a long day. But that single sentence also gave him a clue on her behavior for the past week.

He adjusted himself so that he was seated forty five degrees towards Elphaba, removed the sketches from her hands and held her hands in his. He then tilted his body so that he was looking up at her, as Elphaba was looking down at her own hands.

"Elphaba, I have been attracted to you for a long time. I - "

She shook her head vigorously. "Not me. Not from you. You are the prince charming of Shiz. You dated pretty and popular girls. Girls like Cammie. Not girls like me."

Fiyero ran his hand through his hair, getting slightly frustrated.

"Yes, I know my reputation. The brainless prince who just go for any girl so long she is pretty and wear a skirt. But that change when I met you. You are smart, amazing and beautiful. I can't say that I like you from the beginning, but somehow it just starts, and it just snowballs and sweeps me away. Would I be sketching you so many times if you are not always on my mind?"

Fiyero stopped. There was no reply from her. He started to caress her hands with his thumbs, all the while still holding her hands in his. She did not stop him. Feeling encouraged, he continued.

"I know that you will most probably scream and run away if I ever ask you out. So when the bet came up, I knew it was a chance for me to get close to you without you feeling awkward, without other people giving you strange questioning looks. You know there are some people that you can talk to when you are part of a crowd, but both will be tongue-tied when it's just the two of you?"

Elphaba nodded her head.

"I wanted to use those four weeks to find out how you are when it is just you and me alone. On that night, I didn't go to Ozster's." Elphaba looked at him with her eyebrows raised. "I went back to my room and studied throughout the night. I never left my table. I ate there, and I didn't sleep. All I wanted was to absorb all the information so that I could do well for that paper. "

"You could have let me won," she told him.

"No, I can't. I know you. If you have won, you would make me do something silly like carrying Galinda's books or ordering food for everyone. I wanted to know you better, just me and you. If you turn out to be a nightmare, then I can tell myself that it is not going to work out, and maybe it is just my fate that I should only date one of those pretty girls. But I knew that I had to try. I gave myself four weeks to let you know me better, and for me to know you better. "

"And?" Elphaba asked.

"And what?"

"How did I fare?"

Fiyero detected the slight challenging tone in her voice which made him smile. He kissed her again.

"You only made me fell deeper," he told her.

One year later…..

Elphaba and Galinda were on their way to their next class. Galinda had just broken up from her nth boyfriend a few weeks ago. Two other boys had indicated their interest since then, and both had asked her out for dinner on Saturday.

"What should I do, Elphie? I am so confusified!" She cried.

"Why don't you just stay in the dorm with me? Whoever who does not understand the need for female company is most probably not a good boyfriend." Elphaba suggested.

"But aren't you and Fiyero going to celebrate your anniversary this weekend?" Galinda stopped and asked.

"No. I told him I don't want any celebration. No celebration, no gift." Elphaba told her best friend just as she detected the smell of a familiar aftershave. That was followed by a hand reaching for her left hand. Elphaba interlocked her fingers with his, a smile forming on her lips.

"Yes, no celebration, no gift," the topic of their conversion confirmed. "I have a strange girlfriend, Galinda. Oz's economy will crash if there are a few more girls like her." Elphaba turned and smiled at Fiyero.

"When did you starting getting concerned about Oz's economy?" She teased him.

"Well, Oz's economy must flourish because it is closely tied with Vinkun's economy. When Vinkun's economy suffered, my tribe suffered. It's all inter-related. I do study when I need to, Elphaba." He pretended to be offended.

Galinda giggled as she watched the lovebirds bantered with each other.

The two had been so low profile at the beginning of their relationship that it was a few weeks before the Shiz population knew that they were together (and that was only when Fiyero could not resist it and lean across the dining table to kiss Elphaba full on the lips during lunch). What happened next was a dip in popularity (for him), an increase in hostility (for her), and two death treats (two girls who threatened to jump into the Suicide Canal if Elphaba did not break up with Fiyero. Fiyero had to tell them nicely that it would not work). Yet, as with all fleeting things in a student's life, life moved on and soon their relationship was no longer the topic of the day.

"Can you come to my room after class?" Fiyero asked Elphaba.

"Why?"

"I want to show you something."

Elphaba nodded, and Fiyero ran for his next class, but not without giving her a kiss on her hand.

Galinda looked at the departing prince and sighed.

"Elphie, can I have Fiyero if you ever break up with him? He's so perfect." She asked dreamily, only to hear her best friend's chuckle. "Alright, I will let him know you are first in line."

Elphaba turned up at Fiyero's room when her class ended.

He brought her into the room and made her sit on the bed, and held her hands again.

"Elphaba, I know that you said no celebration and no present for our anniversary. But you never said no to tradition."

Elphaba raised her eyebrows. "What are you up to?" She asked.

Fiyero smiled sheepishly. He took out a small little box from under his pillow. He opened up the box and took out a necklace. It was a simple chain, and hanging from the chain was a pendant. The pendant came in 2 colours – the inner part was a squarish emerald with rounded edges. Encircling the emerald was a series of blue gemstones, forming a squarish border with rounded edges. The pendant shimmered in the fading sunlight which entered the room.

"In Vinkus, when two young people are in love, but do not want to get engaged or married, the boy will go and craft out a pendant like this and gave it to the girl. The inner square represents the girl, and the outer square is like the boy's arms around her. If the girl wears it, it will mean that she accepts his love and is no longer available. You don't have a tribal colour, so I use green, and blue is my tribal colour. The blue stones are called Vinkunite, which is one of the most precious gemstones in the whole Oz, and can only be found near the Great Kells." He explained to her.

Elphaba's eyes went wide. "You crafted this for me?"

Fiyero shook his head. "No, I took the short cut. I am never good in craftwork, so I got this made by one of the best craftsman in Vinkus. But that does not mean the meaning is not there. "

Elphaba laughed at his confession.

"But it is too expensive. I cannot accept this." She shook her head.

"Elphaba, this is made for you. If you reject this, it means that you rejected my love. I promise you that I won't be getting you anything that expensive for a long time, not until I propose to you anyway."

Elphaba looked away, but he noticed a slight blush on her cheeks. Fiyero looked at his girlfriend of one year. She was not the prettiest girl he had dated. She was also not the most caring. It took him weeks before she publicly held his hand in public, and a bit longer before she said the three important words to him. He knew that she would never pounce on him in public and showered him with kisses, nor whispered sweet nothing to him. She would never let him dance through life, but would constantly push him to do better. But he also knew that she loved him in her own way, and that he was deeply in love with her, and that he would never exchange her for anyone else.

"So will you wear it?" Fiyero asked.

Elphaba nodded a yes, and then turned around so that he could put the necklace around her neck. She turned back, and looked at the pendant hanging from her neck. "It's beautiful," she whispered.

"Beautiful like you," he told her as he pulled her close and kissed her.

Elphaba wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

"Happy Anniversary, Fiyero."

A/N The end! Hope you guys and gals like the ending. Currently am working on my next Fiyeraba. Most probably it will be out around Christmas/New Year period. Do keep a lookout for it !