Douleur Avec Plaisir

Part One- Fiyero

This will be a two-shot continuation of my story "To Feel." I wanted to explore peculiar situation in which I left Elphaba and Fiyero at the end of that story. This takes place as they're traveling through the Impassable Desert to get to Ix. The first chapter focuses on Fiyero and the second chapter will focus on Elphaba, so stay tuned, kids!

And thank you so much, everyone who nominated/voted for me and my stories in the 3rd Annual Wicked Fanfiction Awards! This is my gift to you.

Dedicated to DeeplyShallow, because she encouraged me to start working on my Wicked stuff again. But if you like the shows Bones or Angel, you can go check out what I was working on in the meantime!

Pain. It has a funny way of reminding you that you're still alive.

This had been Fiyero's mantra for the past three months. Ever since he'd become himself again. And he clung to it even now, as he suddenly found his body being flung from the broom and hurtling towards the earth, the air whooshing past him at an alarming rate as the golden ground rushed up to meet him. He braced himself for the impact seconds before he crashed hard into the sand.

Suddenly, he was lying flat on his back, little lights exploding on the edges of his vision as the air was knocked from his lungs. A white-hot explosion of pain exploded along his spine and shot down one of his legs. He lay there for a moment, dazed, unable to do anything but blink up at the cloudless sky, bile rising to the back of his throat.

He vaguely registered a noise coming off from somewhere to his right. He closed his eyes, not caring, for the time being, what the source of the sound was.

But seconds later, he realized what the sound was, and his eyes snapped open.

Elphaba.

He coughed a little, trying to get his breath back so he could call out to her as he struggled to prop himself up on his elbows to look around. As his back and leg throbbed in protest a second time, he almost fell back down.

He heard her again…this time he was sure he knew what the sound was. It was groaning. "Elphaba?" he called.

Then he saw her. She was lying on the ground about twenty feet from him, her back turned towards him. He called her name again and she stirred, rolling slowly onto her stomach and raising her head to look over at him. He smiled at her, but her eyes got huge when she saw him.

She struggled to her feet and ran over to him. He noted that she was favoring one foot and that she held the back of her neck with one hand. She dropped to her knees when she reached him.

"Yero, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" Her eyes scanned his body, checking for injuries. Her hands immediately started undoing the leather laces of his back brace so she could make sure.

He allowed himself to fall back onto the sand, but he stared pointedly at her. "Are you?"

She shrugged, wincing as she did so. "Well, nothing's broken, as far as I can tell." She gently pulled the back brace off of him and moved onto the brace on his left leg.

"You're sure?" he pressed.

"As sure as I can be. That's not to say I won't have a lovely collection of bruises in the morning. Did you break anything?"

"I certainly hope not," he said as her fingers gently made their way up and down his leg.

She helped him turn over onto his stomach so that she could conduct the same examination on his back, skilled hands sliding beneath his shirt to feel out the length of his spine.

"Where'd the broom go?" he asked after a moment.

"I don't know," she muttered. "Hopefully not far. I'll go find it in a moment."

"What happened?"

"Again, I wish I knew," she said, helping him turn back over once she was satisfied that he was, for the most part, unscathed. "I just don't understand it. I mean, there isn't even any wind today, really. And we just get flung out of the sky by some random gust that came out of nowhere."

He laughed. "Well I thought it was fun. Let's do it again."

She rolled her eyes, but was unable to conceal her grin. "Alright, smartass. I'm going to go find the broom. And hopefully the provisions as well, or else we're going to be in really bad shape. You stay put."

"That I can do," he said, waving her off. Once she was gone, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, afraid that he was going to be sick. No, nothing was broken. But that didn't stop it from hurting like hell.

A few minutes later, she trotted back to him, several bags slung over her back, the broom in one hand and his crutches in another.

"We're in luck," she called. "I found everything."

"Excellent," he said as she refastened his braces. "Should we press on, then?"

"No." She took his hands, pulling him to his feet, and handed him the crutches. "I was thinking we'd call it a day."

"Good idea," he said, trying to get his bearings on the sandy ground. The desert was not an ideal place to be using crutches.

Elphaba mounted the broom after re-fastening the provisions to its back end. "Here," she said, helping him get on the broom behind her. "I think I saw a place up ahead where we could stop. After what just happened, I'm not so sure if I'm up for pitching the tent tonight, so if we can find someplace decent let's just camp in the open."

"What kind of place is it?" he asked. He slid his arms around her waist. "If there's water, great, because we're running out, but we shouldn't camp too close. Anywhere there's water in a place like this means there's bound to be some wild animals nearby."

"No, it's more like a big boulder," she said with a sigh. "It's a few miles ahead."

"That works too." He chuckled. "I don't think this place even knows the meaning of the word 'oasis'."

"But we'll definitely have to find water soon," she added firmly. "And I don't know about you, but I need a bath."

He shrugged, enjoying the light breeze on his face as they flew low over the sand. "I'd like one too, but we're weeks away from civilization in any direction, so honestly it doesn't matter all that much whether you bathe or not."

"I guess not," she muttered, "but there's you."

"You're seriously worried about that?"

"A little," she confessed. "I never really had to think about it before, because it wasn't like you could..." she trailed off, sounding as though she feared she was being insensitive.

He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "There's nothing to worry about, love. Remember, this goes both ways, so frankly, it's me who should be worried. As a rule, men smell worse than women at any given moment."

She laughed. "Especially in school, when you wore so much of that god-awful cologne that I could hardly stand to be around you."

"But…" he began, pretending to sound hurt. "But I always thought you liked it."

"No, Yero. I liked you despite the cologne."

He sighed huffily and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Well in that case, I hope you enjoy the new, improved, unwashed me."

"Always."

***

By the time they reached their camp site, it was late afternoon and the sun was beating down upon everything with a fury. Both of them were badly sunburned, though Fiyero hardly saw how that was possible. The color of Elphaba's skin had always warded off sunburn, and she had spent the past five years under a blistering desert sun. He himself had grown up in the hottest, driest part of Oz, and the only thing that had ever happened to him when he spent time in the sun was that his already tanned skin grew a few shades darker. But Elphaba's skin was now tinged with a sickly olive color, and his own was flushed with splotchy red. The skin that surrounded the long scar that stretched across half of his face, already sensitive enough anyway, stung horribly.

Elphaba set up camp, moving slower than usual because she was presumably still sore from earlier. Fiyero felt a familiar guilty twinge as he watched her work- even now that he was human again, he was of absolutely no use to her when it came to things like this. Regardless of her attempts to persuade him otherwise, he often felt like he was only a hindrance to her, especially now that she was determined to nurse him through what promised to be an excruciatingly long recovery, concerning herself over wounds that would never truly heal. And if he could hardly take care of himself, then he sure as hell couldn't do much to take care of her.

The next order of business, much to their relief, was to smear themselves with gratuitous amounts of the goopy aloe paste that Madame Frost had forced them to pack in excessive quantities in order to soothe sunburn. Beneath the merciful shade of the boulder, which was roughly the size of a two-story building, Elphaba stripped down to her cotton shift and tied her heavy hair back into a loose bun, and Fiyero took off both braces, his boots, and his shirt. Together, they managed to cover themselves with the aloe, which eased the burn that had spread from their faces and necks even down to their shoulders, chests, backs, and arms, despite the fact that they always made sure to stay covered while out in the open.

It took Elphaba several minutes to carefully spread the paste around the thick, ropey scars that covered his back. At one point, her fingers met a particularly tender area, and he immediately flinched away from her.

"Easy, love," she murmured. He felt her fingers move more gingerly. After a few moments of silence, he heard an agitated sigh.

"What?"

"Nothing."

He frowned. "You know, you don't have to- Uh, I mean, you can stop now if you want to."

"No, it's not that, Yero. I just-" She ran a finger lightly across his shoulder, tracing one of the scars. "These should be mine."

He stiffened. "No, they shouldn't." She remained silent, and his shoulders drooped. "And I'd never, ever want them to be," he added softly.

"But-"

"Fae, we've discussed this. No regrets. Aside from having lied to you about it, I wouldn't have things any other way."

Her hand dropped, and he slowly turned himself around to look at her. He caught a glimpse of her pursed lips and her wide, glassy eyes before she turned away from him, digging determinedly through one of their packs. He thought he saw a tear land on the bag's soft leather surface.

He ran a hand through his hair, troubled. He doubted she'd ever accept the fact that hers was a life worth saving.

"Here," she said abruptly a moment later, thrusting a small bottle of amber liquid into his hands.

He sighed. "I thought we were going to see whether I could do without it."

She glared at him, her expression now hard. "But you fell."

"So did you," he pointed out, looking at her ankle. But he knew she was right. Between the fall and the sunburn, he could hardly bear to move at all right now.

"It's probably a just little sprain," she said, shrugging him off. "I'll deal with it later." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Now drink that."

"All of it?"

"Yes, all of it." She rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you're like a six-year-old who doesn't want to eat his vegetables when it comes to this stuff."

"Alright, you win," he said, uncorking the bottle. "But afterwards…" He gave her a lopsided smile.

"But what?"

"You know what," he said, his grin broadening. "You said yourself that I taste good after I drink this stuff." Her resolve began to crumble, and he saw a little smile tug at the corners of her lips. He decided to push the envelope a little. "And just think: after I have a whole bottle of it, I'll feel nice and refreshed…for hours and hours…"

She snorted. "Cad."

"Guilty as charged."

"Now drink."

He obeyed, grimacing as the fiery liquid seared his mouth, nose, and throat. But within seconds of finishing it came an instantaneous feeling of coolness, lightness, and relief. Release, even. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, savoring the feeling.

"Better now?" Elphaba asked, resting a hand on his arm.

"Oh yes."

"Good," she said matter-of-factly, leaning in and kissing him. "Because I actually rather like the idea of you being all 'nice and refreshed' right about now."

His arms slid around her back, pressing her body to his as he kissed her deeply. He could taste the aloe, fresh and sweet, on her lips, and feel the strong drumming of her heart against his own chest.

At long last, she pulled away, his faced cupped in her hands. She was smiling wryly at him.

"What?" he asked, unable to keep the grin off his own face.

She cocked her head to one side, studying him. "You need to shave," she observed.

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes.

***