No, it's not a multichap. It's a very sappy, silly one-shot that popped into my head after re-reading my 100th Drabble and that I'm now using to try and placate you until I FINALLY finish The Monster Within and start posting that. To be honest, I don't know if it's any good, haha. I do recommend you read chapter 100 of Drabbles before this.

She had to be quiet. That's what her father always told her. If she wasn't quiet, he'd lock her away in her mother's closet to keep her out of his way. Sometimes he'd hit her or send her to her room without any food. She'd learnt to be quiet if she didn't want him to punish her.

She had been quiet, even when the other kids had pushed her over and kicked her while she'd been lying on the ground. She'd kept quiet even when her father had shouted at her because she was dirty and there was a long tear in her dress. He'd sent her up to her room without dinner and she'd curled up on her bed, her knees drawn to her chest and her chin resting on top of them. She was shivering and her back hurt, but she didn't cry. Crying didn't help.

She was startled, however, when she suddenly felt a hand on her arm and her head shot up. There was a man crouching down beside the bed. A man with bright blue eyes and a friendly face.

"Who are you?" she asked accusingly, sitting up straighter despite the stab of pain that sent through her back. "How did you get into my room?"

"You sent me here," he told her. "I come from the future. When you're older, you're going to send me here with your magical powers. Accidentally," he added, "but still." He looked sheepish. "It's a bit of a long story."

She didn't question that. Not really. She'd had so many strange experiences with her magic by now that she supposed she could believe this; and besides, how else had he gotten here? The staff never let any stranger upstairs and her window was closed and secured from the inside, as always. He hadn't been here when she'd come into the room and she knew he hadn't come through the door or she'd seen him sooner. He was probably telling the truth.

Still, her eyes narrowed and she demanded, "Prove it. Prove that you're from the future."

"How?" he asked patiently and she thought about that for a moment.

"If you know me so well," she said, "tell me something I've almost never told anyone."

He smiled sadly at her. "Where to begin? You have magical powers, love books and your dream is to make a difference in the world. You love Nessa and you take care of her as if you were her mother. Your father hates you and treats you horribly… and you believe it's your fault that your sister is crippled and your mother died giving birth to her."

She stared at him with huge brown eyes, completely frozen, and he scooted a little closer.

"Elphaba," he said softly and the fact that he knew her name didn't even seem so significant after everything he'd already said. "That was not your fault."

"Yes, it was," she argued, almost without thinking. "If I hadn't been born –"

"It was not your fault," he interrupted her firmly. For the first time, he sounded a little angry, but he didn't seem to be angry with her. He reached out to gently brush a strand of hair away from her face and asked, "They hurt you today, didn't they? The kids at school. You told me about it, in the future."

She nodded wordlessly and he smiled at her again, but his eyes were sad.

"I need you to know something, Elphaba," he said, meeting her gaze and holding it. "I need you to know that you have a difficult time ahead of you, but you're strong and you can make it through; and someday, not too long from now, I'll be there. I love you."

She frowned. "You can't," she said, shaking her head stubbornly. "No-one can ever love me. Father always says so. Even Nessa doesn't really love me."

"She does," he assured her. "And I do, too. You won't meet me for another while yet, but I can promise you that you'll be happy. I'll be there for you and I'll help you. You just have to hold on, Elphaba. Promise me that no matter what happens, you'll hold on."

She nodded. "I promise." She studied his face. "You really love me? The older me, I mean? Do I love you, too?"

He laughed a little at that. "I should hope so," he said, smiling. He took her hands in his. They were so small now, he noted, but they had the same long, slender fingers – and already they had the same chewed-off nails. He'd been trying to break that habit of hers for ages. "I'm so sorry I can't be here to protect you now already," he murmured, but she gave a little snort.

"I don't need you to protect me," she declared, pulling her hands back and crossing her arms. She glared at him. "I can protect myself."

He grinned, although she wasn't sure why. "What?"

"Just that you apparently haven't changed that much as you grew older," he told her and she blinked.

"Oh."

"No matter what your father tells you, Elphaba," he said solemnly, "you are beautiful, inside and out; and you're smart. You are amazing and you're going to do great things one day, even if it might not be in the way you always imagined. You'll make it through. Okay?"

"Okay," she agreed hesitantly.

He stepped back. "I have to go now. I think something is pulling me back to my own time," he apologised.

She nodded. "All right. I'll see you in a few years, I guess," she said, one corner of her mouth lifting in a half-smirk, and he smiled widely at her.

"Yes, you will," he agreed and then he vanished. Just like that, he was gone.

Elphaba never really forgot him, but she didn't think much about him again after that, either. Part of her thought it must have been some kind of dream – or a vision, maybe. She'd had those before, after all. That was probably why, twelve years later, she didn't recognise him right away. It wasn't until they were both crouched over a caged Lion cub together that she looked into his eyes and realised with a start that she'd seen him before.

He was still a boy, she thought as she studied his face, while back then, he'd definitely been a man. He had probably been older when he'd visited her from the future – or perhaps he'd only seemed older to her nine-year-old self than he seemed to her now. From what she remembered, this was a less serious version of him, less weathered, and younger in every sense of the word. Still, it was him. She was sure of that.

He didn't know it, of course; but over the course of the next couple of months, she tried to puzzle out what it all meant and she tried her hardest to remember everything he'd said to her then. He'd said he loved her. That was insane. She knew he could and would never do such a thing. She probably misunderstood that part – or even imagined it.

As the happenings unravelled during the following years, she didn't really think of him again. Not of the man who had visited her that day so long ago, anyway; she thought about the boy she'd left behind a lot, which was arguably the same thing, but still. It wasn't until years later, when she was lying in his arms and she asked him what he would do if he could go back in time and change something, that he brought it up again.

At first, she was so overcome by emotion at the sincerity of his words that she could only choke on her tears and burrow into his arms. She'd pulled back after a while to ask him, "Do you really mean that?"

He'd stroked her cheek and said, "Of course, sweetheart," and then, somehow, there'd been a burst of magic and he was gone. Just… vanished. Disappeared. There one moment, touching her in that tender way only he had ever touched her, and gone the next.

He returned to find her nearly going crazy with worry, but she stopped pacing across the room when she saw him again to all but throw herself at him. "Yero!" she cried. "I'm so sorry! What happened? What did I do?"

He was smiling, though, even as he held her to him. "You did it, Fae," he told her, taking her face between his hands and looking down into her eyes. "You did it. You sent me back in time."

She could only stare at him, speechless now, as memories came rushing back to her of that one night so long ago. She had no idea how this worked – time travel was a tricky business and until now, she hadn't even thought she was capable of doing anything with it – but she didn't question him, because she remembered now. She remembered him when he'd come to her room fifteen years ago… which was where she had sent him just now. It made her head spin, but she knew he was right.

Eventually, she managed, "I know," and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"You know what?" he whispered into her hair. "You are absolutely amazing, and I was right." He smiled as he drew back a little to look into her eyes – those same eyes he'd looked into only a little earlier, but so much more mature now. There was a sadness in her eyes now, a weariness, that hadn't been there in the eyes of her younger self and he wished he could somehow take it away. "You really were a beautiful little girl," he told her, "and you've grown into an even more beautiful young woman. I'm so proud of you, Fae, and I love you so much."

She was crying again and he kissed her deeply and slowly, unsure of what else he could do to convince her that he was telling the truth. Regardless of whether she knew it or not, he realised, she had listened to him. Her younger self, anyway. She'd held on. And that was all that mattered, because it had eventually brought her to him; and no matter what she thought or how insecure she could be, he wouldn't miss her for the world.

*gags a little* Right. I'll go crawl into that dark hole and try to finish TMW, shall I? Until later, my pretties!