Ever Ever After

By Vinkunwildflowerqueen

AN. Well, this is my very first WICKED fan fiction. Let me first start by saying, I love, love, LOVE WICKED. It's magic.

I admit, I was slightly apprehensive before I saw the show the first time- how would the Australian cast live up the Broadway soundtrack? I mean, the amazing Idina Menzel is a lot to live up to. But, OMG the Australian cast is amazing. Jemma Rix and Lucy Durack, who play Elphaba and Glinda respectively are incredible; and I saw the show twice, once with Rob Mills as Fiyero, and once with Tim Campbell. They were both great, but Tim Campbell is now forever Fiyero in my head. I actually cried when the show left Sydney on September 26, and am currently saving to go see it in Brisbane in January!

DISCLAIMER: Trust me, if I owned WICKED we wouldn't be waiting around for a movie- there would be a movie.

Chapter 1

Elphaba Thropp had never believed in the concept of 'happily ever after'; much less conceived or entertained the possibility she was entitled to or would have her own. But all that was before Fiyero.

One part of the old fairytale ending had always confused Elphaba: what exactly consisted of a happily ever after? Was it enough just to be happy?

It had been a year since Elphaba and Fiyero had fled Oz, leaving everyone… leaving Glinda, to believe that the Wicked Witch of the West was dead. After leaving the castle at Kiamo Ko, the couple had travelled discreetly- or as much as it was possible for a green-skinned woman and a talking scarecrow to be discreet- through the forest until they left the borders of Oz and reached the kingdom of Quox.

There, they set up home in a small cottage on the outskirts of a small village, which gave them the anonymity and privacy they craved. And they were happy… for the most part. Being hopelessly in love, alive and together after so long didn't stop them from arguing on occasion- they were both strong-willed and stubborn, but these never lasted long.

Most of their arguments were fuelled by Elphaba's guilt over Fiyero's… condition, and his complete acceptance of his new body and lifestyle. Being a scarecrow wasn't perfectly ideal admittedly; being much more flammable than previously posed a problem and he couldn't deny he missed the full range of human experiences, like being able to touch things, for example. But he was alive, and he had Elphaba, finally, after so long of dreaming and wishing, and so he was happy.

Elphaba, for her part, was still in frequent disbelief that Fiyero really did love her, and wanted to spend forever with her. But she sensed that Fiyero was lacking…. Missing something, and despite his protests that it was unnecessary, barely two months after they'd settled in Quox, she begun searching for a way to return him to his human form.

It had taken nearly eight months, and a few attempts, but finally she'd succeeded. Although Fiyero had accepted his life as something made of straw, he was overjoyed to be human again, and his happiness thrilled Elphaba, and she had felt that this was as close as she could come to 'happily ever after'.

Fiyero, however, had other ideas.

"Fiyero?" Elphaba called out as she entered their small house one day, returning from town.

"Don't come in yet!" Fiyero yelled back in a slightly panicked voice when she went to enter their bedroom.

Elphaba's eyes narrowed. "Why in the name of Oz not?" she demanded.

There was the sounds of shuffling, hurried footsteps and a small crash, then the door was opened and Fiyero stood there in the doorway, trying to look casual and innocent.

"You're back early! How was town?"

Elphaba wasn't fooled. "Fiyero… what are you doing in here?"

Fiyero smiled his most charming smile, and stepped back to allow her to see and enter the room.

Elphaba's jaw dropped. Their bedroom was filled with flowers and candles; and it was absolutely beautiful… not that Elphaba's suspicions were distracted nor quietened by this sight.

"Yero?"

"Do you know what today is?" he asked her quietly as she turned to face him.

She screwed her brow up in thought.

"Wednesday?" she offered finally and Fiyero laughed as he approached her.

"You're so sentimental, Fae," he teased her gently and she smiled. She still wasn't sure where his nickname for her had come from, but hey, anything was better than Elphie, wasn't it?

"Well then please enlighten me, O Genius One," she said sarcastically, rolling her dark brown eyes at him. "What is today?"

He smiled and cupped her jaw in his hand. "It's been a year today that we left Oz," he reminded her, and Elphaba's eyes dawned first with realisation, then confusion and suspicion returned.

"So… you decided the best way to celebrate would be to create a lot of mess and the possibility of burning the house down?" she asked slowly.

"For the love of Oz, Fiyero. If you were still made of straw…"

"It's a good thing my brilliant girlfriend changed me back then, isn't it?" Fiyero grinned at her, and she rolled her eyes again.

"Alright, Tiggular that's enough. What's going on?"

Fiyero took a deep breath, and took her hands in his. "Fae, I've been thinking-"

"A dangerous pastime," she couldn't resist quipping and he glared at her.

"Do you ever let anyone else talk?" he demanded, although there was a hint of a smile behind the words as they both recalled the first time he'd asked her that question.

"Sorry," she apologised with a small smile. Fiyero paused, trying to decide best how to do this.

"What did I call you just before?" he asked her.

Elphaba resisted the strong urge to groan- she hated these questions, she never knew what he was referencing to.

"Fae?" she guessed and Fiyero smiled patiently.

"Just before that."

Elphaba sighed and cast her mind back. "Your brilliant girlfriend?" she guessed again dryly.

Fiyero grinned as he nodded. He always found it amusing how she would so readily accept she was smart or powerful, but Oz forbid he tell her she was beautiful! Then she couldn't protest fast enough.

"What's your point?" she asked him, and Fiyero's nerves, which had faded momentarily, returned full-strength.

"My point is… it's not enough anymore."

He could see the confusion in her face. "What's not enough anymore?"

"Calling you my girlfriend. It's not enough."

Elphaba was officially bewildered. "Ok. So you're moving onto what? Partner, lover, significant other?" she guessed.

"I was leaning more towards 'wife'," Fiyero replied quietly.

Her reaction was immediate. Her eyes widened, her face turned a paler shade of green and she dropped their joined hands, actually taking a step back.

"Fiyero…"

Fiyero had had a suspicion she might react like this, but well… it still hurt. He'd made only a few casual references, jokes and hints about marriage in the past month or so, but she'd always brushed them off and changed the subject.

"What? Is the idea of marrying me that horrible?" he asked her, his hurt showing slightly.

Elphaba looked at him pleadingly. "Of course not," she replied quietly.

"Then what? Explain it to me! Why won't you marry me?" he demanded.

Elphaba hesitated, then sank down on to the edge of their bed, pushing her hands through her long dark hair.

"Fae? Please, I need you to explain this to me," he added more quietly, sitting next to her. "Don't shut me out, just help me to understand. Let me in that head of yours."

Elphaba took a deep breath. She wasn't sure if she could find the words to explain to him why she was so against the idea of marrying him, but she knew she owed him that much.

"You're a prince," she began finally. "Princes like you don't marry people like me."

"You mean green people?" Fiyero asked with a raised eyebrow and she nodded.

"Exactly."

"Love, you're the only green person I've ever heard of. That's not an argument."

Weakly, Elphaba accepted that and moved on to her next point. "Until you… my mother was the only person who has ever loved me. My father hated me from the day I was born, it's because of me Nessa was stuck in that chair her whole life! It's my fault my mother died. I was only three when she died, for all I know, she hated me too."

"Why would your mother hate you?" Fiyero asked in shock.

"Their marriage was never the same after I was born. I was green, for Oz sake! Father didn't want to claim me as the next Governor of Munchkinland, and he resented my mother for not giving him a normal child. That's why he made her eat the milk flowers when she was pregnant with Nessa, and that's why she came too early."

"And what does all this have to do with marrying me?"

Elphaba chuckled. "People not care as much as they did in Oz, that I'm green. But they still stare at me… at us, when we go into town. You deserve to be married to someone beautiful… and regal. Someone worthy of marrying a prince. Someone like…"

Elphaba's voice trailed off and they both knew what she hadn't said. Someone like Glinda.

Fiyero took her hands in his again. "If I wanted to be married to someone like Glinda, I would have married Glinda," he answered bluntly.

"Fae, how many times do I have to tell you that I don't love you for the colour of your skin? I love you because you say what you mean, because you're passionate, because you stand up for what you believe in. I love you, because you made our whole history class at Shiz go crazy to save a Lion Cub. Because you're not afraid to wake up a sleeping prince when his driver almost runs you over; or to dance on your own in a really dorky hat when everyone's staring at you."

"Shut up, my hat was not that bad," Elphaba scowled at him, but she was smiling slightly as he recounted their history.

"It really was, love."

"I can't marry you," she said softly. There was a slightly fearful look on her face, as though he would leave because of her refusal to marry him; and that thought almost made him laugh, but he didn't want to upset her further.

"Why not?"

"Because… it's too normal! What's next, Yero? You want children and to live happily ever after?"

"Why not?" Fiyero shrugged.

"Green people don't get to live happily ever after," she retorted.

"I've never heard that rule before," he replied and she glared at him.

"I'm sorry you didn't get the memo."

"So, you don't get to live happily ever after, because you're green. Is that it? That's why you won't marry me? Is it the whole concept, or just the happily part?"

Elphaba was getting irritated with him, but answered him anyway. "It's the 'happily' part, it's the 'ever' part. It just doesn't happen."

"Why not?"

"Because every time I'm happy for a moment, something bad happens, and I'm sick of it," she snapped back. "I'm sick of losing people I care about, every time I get close to someone, they leave. My mother, Nessa, Glinda… you. Marriage and the fairytale ending seems to be pushing my luck. I don't get happy, I don't get forever. I just get the after. And I don't know why you're so keen on the idea, anyway. We're already together, and it's not like we don't live as though we're already married."

Fiyero forced her to look at him, his eyes fierce with an expression Elphaba couldn't quite place, but which told her he wasn't giving in.

"Do you remember that night in the forest?"

He didn't even have to ask, of course she remembered. It had felt so surreal, like it wasn't even her… until it had all come crashing down with Nessa's death and Fiyero's subsequent capture and torture at the hands of Gale force.

"That night, I told you I loved you and wanted to be with you," he said quietly. "I told you, that for as long as you were mine… for whatever time we had together, I wanted to make the most of it. You're still mine, Elphaba Thropp. And I know we've been to hell and back, but you haven't lost me yet, and you're not going to. You are mine, forever."

"I am yours," Elphaba agreed in a whisper. "You have my heart until the end of time, you know that. Why does that mean we have to get married?"

"Because I have your heart until the end of time," Fiyero repeated her words with a smile. "And I want you to be mine in every possible way until death do us part. And that includes legally. So, marry me. And be my wife. Let's show the whole world that you are mine… and that I'm yours."

Elphaba stared at him for a long moment with wide eyes. She couldn't think of anything else to say, until she whispered,

"Ok."

For a moment, Fiyero thought he'd misheard and he did a slight double-take as it sunk in.

"Ok? You said ok? You'll marry me?"

She nodded, unable to resist smiling at the pure elation in his eyes. She'd never seen that much happiness in his face before, not even when he'd become human again.

"Yes, I'll marry you."

She had more to say, but Fiyero kissed her before she could say anything else and wouldn't let her talk.

"We're not inviting the whole world though," she said sternly when she finally got a chance to talk.

"In fact, the less people the better."

Fiyero nodded in agreement, it wasn't like they had many people to invite anyway. Actually they had no one. The only people in the world they would want at their wedding was Glinda… and that was impossible. Maybe Fiyero's family, but again, they thought their son and heir to the throne was dead.

"Just us, a priest and a witness," he promise with delight.

"And I'm not wearing white," she warned him.

"Love, you can wear whatever you want," he promised her. He would have promised her the moon right now, anything as long as she was really going to be his wife.

"And wipe that stupid grin off your face," she scowled at him. Fiyero tried for a moment, but failed miserably.

Impatiently and faintly uncomfortable at how clearly thrilled he was, Elphaba rolled her eyes and stood up.

"I'm going to go make dinner."

Before she could move though, Fiyero grabbed her hand. "Oh, no you don't. Wait a second."

Elphaba turned towards him with a raised eyebrow, and stared at him as he sank down on to one knee.

"Fiyero!"

"I'm going to do this properly, because when I tell our children this story, I don't want to have to tell them I had to convince you to say yes."

Elphaba felt a moment of panic at the mention of children, but was completely distracted when Fiyero reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Inside was a simple silver engagement ring with a small diamond, set with even smaller emeralds alongside it.

"Elphaba Thropp, I am going to love you until the end of time and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you do me the extreme honour of marrying me, and being my wife?"

Elphaba only paused for a moment, marvelling how one minute he could be the boy from Shiz, singing about 'Dancing Through Life' and the next she saw the Vinkus prince, and Captain of the Gale Force.

"Yes, I will," she said softly and he beamed as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

"I love you," she said to him, once he'd risen to his feet and pulled her to him.

"I love you too, my green girl. With all my heart."

Elphaba rolled her eyes again, and pulled away gently. "I'm going to start dinner."

Once, not long after leaving Kiamo Ko, they had been talking before Elphaba went to sleep- Fiyero still being a scarecrow at the time had no need of sleep- and the conversation had turned to the events that had transpired in the cornfield.

She'd rolled her eyes and looked at him in fond exasperation. "Really? You swing down and it's 'let the green girl go'?"

Fiyero shrugged with a grin. "I couldn't call you Elphaba- they didn't know your name. We were told not to use it so it was more impersonal. But I wasn't going to call you a witch."

"I am a witch. Wicked Witch of the West, remember?"

He'd shook his straw head softly. "No you're not. You do witchcraft, but 'witch' is just a label. 'The Green Girl' is who you are. You're my Green girl," he'd added and Elphaba had reluctantly accepted that.

He only called her his green girl in rare moments when the situation warranted it. Usually that was after Elphaba had awoken from another one of her nightmares… but apparently proposing was acceptable too.

"So, how do you feel about getting married as soon as possible?" he asked her as they ate dinner that night.

Elphaba laughed. "Why not? It's not like we're waiting for anything… or have to send out invitations," she agreed and Fiyero caught her small sigh after that sentence.

He knew she'd give anything to have Glinda at their wedding, Fiyero- despite the awkward situation the three had left things back in Oz, felt the same. But it was too dangerous for anyone in Oz to know they were alive.

"She'll be here in spirit, Fae," he said quietly and she nodded.

"Right, I know. So will your family."

"And yours."

She scoffed. "Right. Maybe my mother. Father and Nessa weren't too fond of me the last time I saw either of them."

Fiyero was willing to argue that any differences she'd had with her father and sister in the past would have surely been put aside for such a happy occasion as Elphaba's wedding, but kept his mouth shut. Elphaba's family relationships were always a touchy subject with her, and Fiyero wasn't done basking in the elation of realising Elphaba had finally agreed to be his wife.

"Is next week too soon?" he asked instead, changing the subject.

Elphaba nodded after only a moment. Now that she had made up her mind to do this, and strive for a moment's happiness; overcoming her fears for her- and Fiyero; she couldn't deny she wanted to have the wedding as soon as possible. After everything that had happened so far, she couldn't shake her uneasy feeling that the longer the engagement was, the greater chance of something going wrong- which Elphaba fully expected it to.

"That should be enough time for me to find something that doesn't clash too horribly with green," she said lightly and Fiyero scowled at her.

"You know as well as I do Elphaba, that a lot more goes with green than you make out," he said sternly and she laughed.

"Yero, relax! I'm supposed to be uptight about being green, not you."

Fiyero's scowl softened, but he sighed. "I know, it's just… if you could see yourself through my eyes…"

Elphaba got up silently, and came around to his side of their small table, where she perched herself on his knee and kissed him.

"It's so much more than enough that you see me," she said quietly. "Because no one else has ever seen me as anything more than green."

Fiyero smiled and kissed her again, his arms wrapped securely around her waist. "I love you, Fae. And I can't wait for you to become Mrs Tiggular."

Elphaba smiled softly, Fiyero's obvious joy at the idea was infectious.

"I love you too, Yero my hero," she whispered, and Fiyero's heart melted, as it always did when she said those three little words.

It had begun as a gentle tease after they first left Oz, "Yero my hero," she'd called him with a gentle laugh when they'd been talking about the day they'd saved the Lion Cub together.

But it had gradually developed into a deep term of endearment, something she only called him in their most private and intimate moments. And it affected Fiyero in a way like nothing else, not even her "I love you"s- which had been so hesitant in the beginning of their relationship as though she was still afraid of rejection and had gradually become more frequent.

Fiyero kissed her again, deeply and his hands moved to tangle themselves in her waist-length black curls. The next week could not go fast enough.

AN. Please feel free to review! Remember you don't have to have an account to review.