AN: for anyone confused by the summary, in the book Elphaba tells Fiyero three times that she loves him before he reciprocates. THe quote below is when he realises he loves her (long before he says it)

More than anything else he wanted to walk the streets of the Emerald City with Elphaba – there was no more beautiful place to be in love, especially at dusk as the shop lights went on, golden against the blue-purple evening sky. He had never been in love before, he now saw. It humbled him. It scared him. He couldn't bear it when their forced absences went four or five days. – Wicked, City of Emeralds (page 193)

But she woke up just then, and in the moonlight covered herself with a blanket. She smiled at him drowsily and called him "Yero, my hero," and that melted his heart.

He slid into bed next to her, trying to keep her awake with delicate kisses on her neck and shoulder. She protested sleepily, tried to pull away with a muttered comment, closed her eyes firmly and refused to react. He gave up on waking her up and snuggled closer instead. She mumbled for him to "hurry and up and go to sleep, I have to be up early," with those words he knew she'd have left by the time he woke up – no matter how lightly he thought he was sleeping he never heard her unless she deliberately made a noise.

"Will I see you tomorrow night?" he asked quietly, sometimes she would tell him if he didn't ask but he'd found himself alone with Malky more than once.

"Not tomorrow night," she said, after a moment's hesitation. "The night after."

The next two days passed in an agonisingly slow fashion but the sun finally began to set on the second day and he made his way to Elphaba's home, bearing two bottles of wine and a small basket of food.

"Such a bountiful offering from a pauper prince," she remarked, with an expressive quirk of an eyebrow. "I hope you didn't beggar your people to produce such a feast."

"Not at all, it was a gift from a gentlemen wishing to discuss a trade agreement. I thought I'd share, if you haven't eaten already?"

He was concerned as she lit the lamps and he looked more closely at her. Her face was drawn, there was some emotion in her eyes he couldn't fathom, and he wondered if she'd eaten since he left two days before.

"I haven't," she replied simply and went to put out her chipped crockery, leaving him to wonder if he had only imagined the shadows in her eyes. The cat slipped in through the window, meowing as he smelled the food in the basket.

"I should warn you," he said. "I haven't checked the contents of the basket but form the smell there's definitely some Gillikin cheese in here and, unless your familiar over there is fond of smelly cheese, some sort of meat as well."

"Malky used to live on the streets," she remarked in response. "He'll eat anything he can get. Is there any bread in there?"

"A whole loaf of it," he replied, setting the food out on a cloth draped over one of the crates. "Butter and some apples as well."

"A veritable feast for one of us," she said, alluding to the fact he stayed somewhere in the richer part of town despite the Arjiki people's lack of material wealth.

"I'd rather eat this meal with you than all the fancy food in the world with them," he replied, quickly offering her a drink to avoid being forced to elaborate.

Elphaba refused to touch the small joint of roast meat or the Gillikin cheese so Fiyero shared them both with the cat while she ate bread and butter. They finished one bottle of the wine together, with Fiyero taking the larger share of it.

"I missed you," he said, when they'd eaten, pulling her close to him for a kiss as he'd been wanting to since she opened the door for him.

"I know exactly what you missed," she replied cynically. Fiyero pulled away, hurt by the insinuation.

"Well if you're not in the mood…maybe I should leave."

"I didn't say I didn't miss you as well, dearie," she replied and pulled him back towards her with a singularly feminine smile.

Later that night they lay together in the moonlight, blanket tangled around their lower limbs, not quite ready to sleep. Fiyero was pleased to see that Elphaba's eyes didn't look as haunted as they had earlier and Elphaba was, despite herself, pleased that it had been so easy to coax him into staying with her. At this particularly moment he seemed quite occupied with running his fingers through her hair and examining the texture.

"So beautiful," he whispered, almost scared of disturbing the momentary peace between them.

"You're drunk," she accused him, irritably snatching her hair away from his hands.

"Definitely," he agreed seriously, it had been very expensive wine after all. "But that's not what made me think that, just what made me say it."

"Clearly you need to sleep it off," she huffed at him and started rearranging the blanket to cover them both properly.

"I love you."

The blatant non sequitur startled Elphaba, who had been expecting some light-hearted response to her semi-serious suggestion. She stared at him, wide-eyed with shock, before responding harshly.

"Don't!"

"Don't what?" he asked in confusion. "Don't say I love you? I didn't mean to say it like that, too much wine I guess. Elphaba?"

"Don't love me!" she protested harshly. "I won't stand for it!"

"I don't understand," he replied and she could see he was genuinely muddled by the wine he'd consumed earlier.

"I'll tell you in the morning," she said softly. "When the hangover wears off."

He smiled sleepily, that smile that made her feel girlishly weak-kneed, and snuggled down under the blanket.

"Goodnight Elphaba."

"Goodnight Fiyero."

She waited until he was definitely deeply asleep, she could always tell when he was dreaming, then quickly packed her most important things away into a bag thinking ironically of her boast when they first met again.

I can pick up and be away in thirty seconds, she had said to him on that day, thinking she would see him once then forget he existed, having no idea how deeply he would worm his way into her life and her heart.

It had only taken thirty seconds to pack the few things she treasured as irreplaceable then she spent a few minutes watching him sleep, marvelling at how young he looked when she knew he was the same age - physically - as her. On the inside she felt decades older as she picked up the bag and disappeared into the night, leaving a whisper of 'I love you too' to echo through the silent room.