When Boq entered the classroom, he headed straight for Elphaba and Galinda.

They were friends – sort of, anyway. It wasn't really uncommon for him to sit with the girls, especially in classes that Nessarose did not take. Usually, though, he'd take a seat next to Galinda and sit there drooling over her for the entire duration of the lesson.

He wasn't wearing his usual look of adoration upon laying eyes on Galinda now. Instead, he looked rather serious.

He walked up to Elphaba and stopped in front of her. "Elphaba? Galinda?"

The green girl looked up from her conversation with her best friend and furrowed her brow when she saw the look on his face. "Boq?" she queried. "Is something wrong?"

He hesitated.

"I'm not sure if anything is really wrong," he said eventually. "It's just that I went to pick Fiyero up for class today, and… well, he's sick. Like, not life-threateningly sick, or anything," he hastened to reassure the girls, "but I still think he has one hell of a fever. He looks like crap. I tried to make him go and see the nurse, but he refused, telling me he'd be fine, blah, blah… frankly, I don't believe one word of it. I thought maybe one of you could…"

"Um, no," Galinda said, waving her hands in the air as if she could hold his question off that way. "Sorry. I mean, I feel bad for Fifi, but I'm not going to take care of him. I hate sweat, and puke, and bacteria, and I do not want to risk getting sick myself when Milla and Avaric are throwing that amazifying party next weekend – especially since that super-cute boy I saw at the café the other day will also be there. No way I'm missing out on my unofficial date with him."

Boq looked confused. "I thought you were ogling my roommate's brother?"

"Not anymore." Galinda tossed her hair. "I'm actually glad Fiyero and I didn't work out," she said. "I had no idea how many other cute guys there were here at Shiz… plus if I had still been his girlfriend, I would be expected to go and take care of him right now, but now I can just politely refuse and be on my way." She giggled.

Elphaba sighed and started re-packing her books into her bag. "For Oz's sake, Glin. Don't worry, Boq, I'm already on my way."

Galinda gaped at her. "Really? You're going to skip class?" she asked in amazement. "You? Skip class?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm skipping class," she answered the blonde. "We both know that Boq is hardly ever impressed by anything, so if Fiyero is sick enough for Boq to be worried, then he's sick enough for me to skip class in order to take care of him. I guess that's among a friend's duties, right? Especially since you won't do it." She looked at Boq. "Take notes for me?"

"Of course," he assured her and she nodded gratefully, then left.

She went straight to Fiyero's room, knocking on the door. "Yero?"

No reply. She knocked harder. "Fiyero? Open up, it's me."

When the door still did not open, she tried the doorknob. The door wasn't locked and she swung it open and entered, slowly closing it behind her. "Yero?"

She was greeted by the sound of retching coming from the bathroom and she grimaced in sympathy, dropping her bag on the floor and following the sound. She found him next to the toilet, just leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes.

Boq had been right – he did look like crap. He was pale, there were dark circles under his eyes, and there was sweat glistening on his forehead.

He opened his eyes and yelped, startled by her sudden appearance. "Fae!"

"Hi." She saw that his eyes were unfocussed and glazed over a little. She was pretty sure he did, indeed, have a fever.

He ran his fingers through his hair. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in class?" His voice was hoarse.

"Boq said you were sick." She tried to help him up, but he shook her off.

"I'm fine."

He tried to get up, only to fail miserably. She just rolled her eyes and dragged him to his feet, supporting him as she helped him out of the bathroom and back into his bed.

"I'm really fine," he protested weakly. "You don't have to stay here for me. You can just go back to class."

She sighed. "Oz," she muttered. "I always thought that out of the five of us, I was the stubborn one."

"You're not patented on being stubborn," he mumbled, a ghost of a smile flashing across his face, and she smirked.

"That much is true."

He shivered. She leant over him to pull the blankets over his body, tucking him in. She gently laid her hand against his forehead and he closed his eyes at the coolness of her fingers, which felt great against his burning skin.

He watched her as she moved into the bathroom to get a thermometer and pushed it underneath his tongue. She went to get a glass of water and a wet cloth. She checked his temperature – 39 degrees Celsius – and dabbed his face with the cloth before placing it on his forehead.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "And don't you dare say 'fine'," she added when he opened his mouth.

He sighed and his shoulders slumped as he gave in, knowing there was no way he could fool her, anyway. "My head is pounding, my stomach feels queasy, and I'm cold. And dizzy," he admitted.

She rose and got some more blankets from the closet in the corner of the room, which she draped over him. He mumbled a thanks and she squeezed his hand. "Anytime, Yero."

He drifted off to sleep after a while and she went to grab a book from her bag, settling down on the bed beside him with her back against the headboard. She read for about an hour, until Fiyero suddenly shot up from the bed and dashed off into the bathroom to vomit again.

She immediately put her book away and followed him, crouching next to him and rubbing his back soothingly as he threw up. When it was over, she silently handed him a glass of water so that he could flush the taste out of his mouth.

When she tried to take him back to his bed, he sagged against her, hardly even able to hold himself up. She talked soothingly to him and helped him to lie back down.

"Here," she said, feeding him two aspirins and handing him a glass of water. "I hope you can keep this down. It'll help."

"Thanks," he muttered, taking the pills. She smiled at him and made to rise to her feet, but he caught her hand in his. "Don't go," he pleaded, inwardly wincing at how pathetic he sounded. Oz, she must think he was such a wuss.

"I'm not," she said with a reassuring squeeze of his hand. "Just wait, I'll be right back."

She disappeared into the kitchen and he could hear her rummaging around with things. It took her a while to come back, carrying a hot water pitch.

"My mother used to do this for me," she explained, crawling onto the bed beside him again. "She always said the heat helps against stomach cramps. It might make you feel better." She reached under his layers of blankets to place the hot water pitch on his cramping stomach.

He immediately relaxed and a small smirk tugged at her mouth. "Better?"

"Yeah." He reached for her hand again. "Thanks."

"No need to thank me all the time. That's what friends are for, isn't it?" She settled beside him with her book again, though she had to hold it with one hand, since he refused to let go of her other hand.

He drifted in and out of a restless sleep for a while, feverish dreams waking him up every time before he could fully fall asleep. He shivered, despite the sweat he could feel forming on his forehead. He blinked and looked at Elphaba, who was still sitting beside him, reading her book. Their fingers were still entwined and she looked almost ethereal in the dim light that filled the room. She seemed softer, somehow.

She glanced at his face and he pretended to be asleep until she returned her attention to her book. He continued to watch her. He knew he would never voluntarily have told her that he was sick, let alone ask her to come over and take care of him. He felt pathetic, gross, and exhausted, and he was sure he looked that way, too – plus he wouldn't want to expose her to the flu as well.

Despite all that, though, he was immensely grateful that she was here. Being sick was bad enough as it was. Being sick alone was even worse.

She suddenly turned her head, catching him off guard, and she caught him looking at her. A faint red colour crept up his cheeks and he cleared his throat, looking away; but his eyes snapped back to her face when he suddenly felt the backs of her fingers against his cheek.

She was frowning slightly. "Oz, Yero, you're burning up." She picked the cloth off his forehead and took it to the bathroom to soak it with fresh, cold water before placing it back on his forehead. She stroked his hair. "How are you feeling?"

Her gentleness surprised him. In all the time since he had met her, he'd known her to be many things, but gentle had never been one of them.

"Okay," he managed. "My stomach is feeling better."

She smiled. "I'm glad."

"My head still feels horrible, though."

"That's to be expected. The aspirin takes a while to kick in." She moved to sit behind him, gently pulling his head into her lap as she started to massage his temples. "Does this help?"

He actually heaved a sigh of relief. "Yeah, that helps a lot. Th-"

"Don't you dare thank me again."

"But you don't have to do this, and yet you're here. The least I could do is thank you."

"Oh, stop," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You're making me blush."

He laughed quietly, an action he instantly regretted when his stomach threatened to lurch again. So far for it feeling better. He stayed very still for a few moments, breathing deeply, until he felt a little less nauseous.

Her fingers strayed from his temple and down his face, to his chest. She shifted a little to remove the hot water pitch from his stomach. Instead, she trailed soothing circles with her fingers there.

His breath hitched in his throat for a moment and he opened his eyes to look at her face. She was wearing a look of concentration, rubbing his stomach with one hand and his left temple with the other, trying to relieve his nausea and his headache at the same time. His nose was filled with the smell of her – the coconut shampoo she always used, mixed with a scent entirely her own.

"Hey, Fae?" he murmured, eyes drifting shut again.

She hummed softly in response.

"I've been thinking…"

She huffed a laugh. "That explains your headache."

He half-opened his eyes to glare at her before closing them again and continuing. "About that Lion cub, and everything."

She suddenly went quiet, her hands stilling on his head and stomach.

He opened his eyes once more and looked up at her. "I think about that day a lot," he confessed.

She stayed silent for a while. He barely caught her reply when she said softly, "Me, too."

Somehow, the vulnerability he heard in her voice and showed in her lowered eyes, combined with his fever and the flutter of her fingers against his skin, gave him the courage to blurt out, "You know what I regret most about that day?"

She blinked and retreated, a flash of hurt in her eyes, and he realised with a start how that had sounded. He tried to struggle himself up so that he could look at her, but she pushed him down impatiently.

"You're sick. Stay down."

"Fae…" He reached up and took her hand again, looking up at her pleadingly. "That's not what I meant. I mean… I only have one regret about that day. Okay, maybe two."

She took a deep breath, clearly unsure if she wanted to hear this, but she forced her face into a neutral expression. "What are they, then?"

"Running away," he said, wrestling himself into a sitting position despite her protests and attempts to hold him down.

He brought his hand up to cup her face. "And not kissing you when I had the chance."

Startled, her eyes snapped up and she met his gaze; and Fiyero brought his other hand to her face as well and kissed her. He figured that if he was crossing a line and she'd hate him, he could always say his judgement was clouded because of the fever.

She didn't respond at first and he was afraid that he was, indeed, going to have to use his fever as an excuse to keep her from slapping him… but then she kissed him back.

He wasn't sure how long they stayed like that before he finally pulled away, resting his forehead against hers.

"Sorry," he breathed. "I shouldn't have done that."

She blinked, clearly dazed; then her face fell and she averted her gaze. "It's okay. I mean, I understand," she said, trying to make her voice sound normal, but a slight tremble gave her away.

"Oz, Fae, that's not why." He gave her a slightly exasperated look. "I've been wanting to do that for months already. I don't regret kissing you."

She looked confused. "Then why –"

"I only regret being too much of a coward to kiss you before, especially since then I at least could have kissed you without transferring a bazillion bacteria to you and risk you getting sick as well. Not even to mention my puke breath."

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "I don't care about your puke breath, Yero. As for the bacteria, I'm sure all 'bazillion' of them were already transferred to me in the three hours I've been in this room, sitting right next to you. If I get sick, so be it, but you kissing me is not going to make much of a difference anymore at this point."

He gave her a lopsided grin – not quite his usual one, but it was close. "Does that mean I can kiss you again?" he asked cheekily.

Much to his amusement, he saw a faint blush creeping up her cheeks and she avoided his gaze again. "I… I guess," she muttered, feeling her cheeks heating up.

Fiyero pulled her back to him and pressed his lips against hers again, wondering how he could have gone so long without doing this. He tangled his fingers in her hair, pulling her tighter against him. She kissed him back, her arms coming up to wind around his neck.

They kissed for a long time before they finally broke apart and she buried her face against his neck, only to pull away sharply when she felt the heat radiating from his skin. "Yero…"

He grinned at her, feeling giddy. "You can hardly deny that I'm hot now, can you?"

She rolled her eyes and pinched his arm, causing him to yelp. "Fae!"

"You deserved that." She studied him and he saw a glint of worry in her eye.

"What?" he asked her teasingly. "Do I look flushed? You can't really blame me, you know."

A blush slowly coloured her cheeks when she realised that his flushed face probably wasn't caused by his fever. She bit her lip and looked away. "Um…"

He pulled her back against him, nestling his face in the crook of her neck. She relaxed and ran her fingers through his hair, gently massaging his scalp.

"You know?" he said, his voice muffled by her neck.

"Mm?"

"You make a good pillow."

She chuckled.

He ran his fingers down her side and up again, eventually finding her hand and threading their fingers together. She squeezed softly and dropped a kiss to his hair.

"Go to sleep," she whispered. "You need it."

He made a non-committal sound, already half asleep. "Fae?"

"Yeah?"

He suddenly felt too exhausted to force his question out, but she understood without him having to ask it.

"Don't worry," she whispered, still stroking his hair. "I'm not going anywhere. At least not until you're better."

He smiled, feeling relieved; but then his smile faded and he looked up at her seriously.

"And after that?"

She laughed, but he caught the nervousness behind the sound. "If you think I'm going to be living with you from now on, you've got another thing coming, Tiggular."

He just kept on looking at her. "Elphaba…"

She stared down at her lap for a few moments before raising her gaze to meet his.

He squeezed her hand again. "I, um… I'm in love with you. And," he went on when he saw her eyes widen and her mouth open, ready to protest, "I know you've never done anything like this before, and you're probably scared. I am, too. I've never felt for anyone what I've been feeling for you since we saved that Lion cub together, Fae."

She was still gaping at him, her mouth slightly open, but no sound coming out.

He chuckled nervously. "Wow. I actually managed to render you speechless?"

She blinked and shook her head, scowling. "Shut up." But he could see the shock linger in her eyes.

"I just hope that… um…" He cleared his throat. "You know, even though you're scared… you're willing to give this a try. Us, I mean. Our… relationship, I guess. Because I'd really, really love for you to be my girlfriend."

"Your girl-" She cut herself off, shaking her head. "Fiyero –"

"Don't run." His grip on her hand tightened. "Please? I know that's your natural response to things like these, but I… I care about you. A lot. And I don't think I could handle it if I lost you right now. I mean… if you're really too scared, or, whatever, to give this a chance, then… then we can just stay friends, if that's what you want. I just… don't want to lose you. And… am I even making sense right now? I'm rambling, I'm so-"

"Hey," she cut him off, pressing her finger to his lips. She was smirking slightly, though, which gave him some hope. "Do you ever let anyone else talk?"

He couldn't help but grin at that.

"I'll give it a try," she said softly. "If you're sure about this, I mean… which I still can't even begin to comprehend, by the way, but let's save that for some other time. And I need to think about this some more, but… but I guess I could be your girlfriend. I mean, I'd like that."

A beaming smile lit up his face and he dropped his head back to her neck, planting a soft kiss there as he closed his eyes. "Thank you."

She leant her head against his and allowed her own eyes to flutter shut as well. "Would you please go to sleep now?"

"Mm. 'Kay." He snuggled up against her, smiling when he felt her hand drop to his stomach again to resume her gentle massage there. "Love you."

He drifted off to sleep and she waited until his breathing had evened out completely and he had relaxed against her before whispering, "I love you, too."

Second part will be up soon :). Please review?