Chapter 1

Disclaimer : I am just very obessed with Wicked fanfic. Please R & R! :)

Elphaba Thropp stood among a crowd of fifty or so. They were all milling around, waiting for the speech to start. She held, in her hand, as many other people around her did, a piece of paper, stating the time and venue (this place) for a rally. An anti-wizard rally.

She knew it was foolhardy to come. After all, they are in Shiz, a University that openly supported the Wizard and the laws that he had passed. Madame Morrible could swop down any moment with her team of security guards and arrested all of them.

But she was curious.

Just as she was beginning to get bored, a tall lanky student whom she recognized from one of the senior classes jumped onto what was his makeshift stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you here to listen to latest news. As we all know, the wizard had recently announced that all Animals should be removed from their professions, and should be reduce to their 'rightful'", he wiggled his two fingers of both hands to indicate quotation, "positions."

"Did I miss anything?" A familiar voice spoke next to her. She looked up and looked at the boy next to her. He was one head taller than her (and she was considered tall for a girl), with blonde hair and the most beautiful blue eyes (with long eyelashes) that she had ever seen. Add on his handsome features that, more often than not, carried a genuine smile, a royal title, and a love for partying, and there it was, Prince Fiyero Tiggular, the most scandalicious boy in Shiz.

"No, he had just started," she told him, as the two of them turned their attention to the crowd.

The speaker continued. "Obviously he had not seen how much we work hand in hand with the Animals. They worked as teachers." Chants of "Doctor Dillamond" went up. "They worked as nurses, drivers. I even heard that he had one or two of them in his offices!"

The audience jeered at the wizard's double standards.

"If they had been working among us for so long without been exposed as fraudulent, why is there a sudden law that said that they are just animals, rather than the same level as humans?"

More cheers.

"And do you know what have I heard this morning? I heard that Vinkus, even backward, tribal Vinkus, had spoken up against this newest rule. The Council of Vinkus had announced that they will not impose banns of any kind."

Loud cheering erupted, together with chants of "Vinkus! Vinkus!"

"Is it true?" Elphaba asked Fiyero.

He nodded his head. "The Council announced it yesterday," he said. "My father wrote and told me about it." Elphaba nodded. She had understood from previous conversations that the Vinkun Council was made up of the three biggest and most influential tribes in Vinkus (including the Arjiki tribe), and their words were as good as the whole of Vinkus speaking, since there was no overall Vinkun King.

"Look at this!" The speaker suddenly pointed his finger at Fiyero. "The prince of Vinkus himself! Come, good man, come and gave us a speech!"

There was more cheering, and the people around Fiyero pushed him towards the stage. He turned back at Elphaba, looking embarrassed, but went on stage nonetheless.

"Thank you for inviting me on stage, errr…" Fiyero hesitated, not knowing the man's name.

"Mo," he told him.

"Thank you for inviting me on stage, Mo, " Fiyero repeated, looking at Elphaba. He noticed that she was not looking at him. She was looking at the sky where the dark clouds are gathering. Fiyero remembered that Elphaba would always fall very sick if she was caught in a downpour. Obviously, she remembered that too, and he could see the worried look in her eyes even though she was quite a distance away.

He decided to make it short. "Vinkus recognized the intelligence of Animals, and supported them as much. Thank you." With that, he quickly jumped off the stage and ran back into the crowd where Elphaba was.

"That was a short speech," she told him, amusement in her eyes, just as the first drop of rainwater hit the ground.

"Let's go," he said, as he grabbed her hand and ran as a thunderous downpour started.

The crowd dispersed, with everyone running in different direction. Fiyero led Elphaba to one of the nearby shelters which was unoccupied. Despite being sheltered, the strong wind blew the rain in, and Fiyero shifted Elphaba so that he would block most of the rain that came in. He took off his coat and turned it inside out. There was a waterproof lining inside his coat and had thus remained dry, and he used it to wipe the droplets off Elphaba, who had beginning to shiver.

Having dried her, he looked at her again. She was still cold, her lips turning more grey than it usually was. Fiyero cursed her weak health (no doubt aggravated by all the late night studying), and then pulled her into his arms, where he hoped she could get some warmth. He heard a surprised yelp from her, and smiling, started to rub her cold arms.

"I'm trying to keep you warm, silly," he told her. He then heard a muffled reply from his chest, where her face was crushed against.

After rubbing her arms for a while, he released his deathly hug on her, and started rubbing her hands, blowing on them to give them some much needed heat.

And when he was blowing at her hands, he looked at her. Elphaba's expression was priceless, alternating between shivering, and embarrassment of having so much contact with the prince. Fiyero felt a skip in his heart, and before he knew it, he did what he had managed to refrain himself from doing so far.

He pulled her to him and kissed her.

At first she stiffened, and then Fiyero felt her hands, which were squashed between the two of them, unclenched and her fingers placed lightly on his chest. He deepened his kiss and felt her hands shifted and gripped his shirt. Fiyero smiled, all the while not breaking contact. He knew that she never had a boyfriend and most probably had never been kissed, but loved the feeling on her lips on his too much to go slow or to stop.

And when he did stop, he could feel the heat on her face that he was touching. Elphaba quickly removed her hands from his chest, as if she was touching something forbidden, and she blushed.

She turned away from him to look at the rain which had lessened considerably and mumbled something.

"What?" He asked, amused.

She mumbled something like "Got to go," and then run into the rain.

Elphaba did not fall sick that day.