Howdy, y'all.
I'm in finals and about to graduate college and apparently I needed my old form of stress relief (Fiyeraba) back. I hope anyone who might see this is doing well! Just a little oneshot.
If you'd stopped him five years before and told him pretty much any part of this scenario, he would have laughed in your face and told you that you'd had too much to drink and needed to switch to water for the rest of the evening. Him, in the middle of the woods with a green-skinned-fugitive having given up living in the lap of luxury, listening to her tell him about her vision that house was flying through the sky? It was too much for anyone to believe. As a rule, Fiyero hadn't worked hard, or cared about anything or anyone if he could avoid it. Apparently caring for Elphaba was not something to be avoided (and if that wasn't the understatement of the century he didn't know what was).
All the same, there he was, listening to her and reaching to remove a dried out leaf that had gotten caught in her hair. Strangely, the part that he was having the hardest time believing was the fact that she was telling him to not go with her- after he'd just given up everything for her, what made her possibly think that he'd be willing to part with her again?
However the look in her eyes wore him down. He knew there would be no arguing with her and she would not be willing to allow him to tag along after her. Funny, he'd been the head of Oz's entire military and yet he was realizing he would only be dead weight if he'd insisted on going with her. "Listen," he said, looking her straight in the eyes as he said it. He'd always thought they were brown-black but now that he was studying her closely, committing her to memory he realized they were hazel. Bits of green and gold flecked in. Why hadn't he noticed that before? "My family has a castle out west in Kiamo Ko. No one's been there for centuries expect those who watch over it. We have never lived in it."
For just a second, it was like she forgot the stakes at hand- the flying house she was sure would harm her sister and was caught by the little detail. Her eyebrow crooked up a bit at the corner in confusion. "Where do you live?"
"The other castle." It was as if that was the most obvious answer, ever.
"Oh, of course," she said and he realized that she was nearly laughing at him- because it would be just like him to have an entire castle out in the middle of nowhere and not think anything of it. The ultimate indulgence.
"It's the perfect hideout; secret passageways and tunnels," he explained, trying to be serious. "You'll be safe there."
He watched her expression change. He didn't understand how the rest of the world could see her as this Witch, as she'd been branded. She was different and intense and a little scary in a lot of wonderful ways- however she was evil by absolutely no means. At that moment she just looked frightened." We will see each other again, won't we?
"Elphaba, we're gong to be together always." She was the one who was frighteningly determined. That didn't mean he wouldn't work hard to get what he wanted. She'd known him as a lazy slacker, but now that there was the prospect of something that he wanted just out of reach... well, he could show her what a little motivation did for him. "You can see houses flying through the sky, can't you see that?"
He leaned forward to kiss her, the sensation of her lips pressed against his still foreign and different, though pleasant. She wasn't covered in powders and perfumes and lipstick like Glinda had been, and she had to grip the wooden handle of her broom too tightly, too frequently for her hands to not be covered in callouses. He liked the difference, wanted to explore her and let it become the familiar. Part of him was again tempted to convince her to stay with him, even despite the brief plans they'd just made to get her to her sister's side and to their little hideaway out west. No, he knew that would be the quickest way to lose her. She'd never abide being tied down so he just quietly told her, "Go."
She hesitated, leaned in to kiss him again and then she ran, grabbing the broom and he watched her take off. He felt the whirling of the wind and knew that if things went badly she would never get back to Kiamo Ko. He wasn't about to go and wait there for her return which might never come. He didn't have the benefits of her broom and so he ran east, to where she'd grown up and hopefully where her sister still was.
He never would have believed this story if you'd told him before, and that was probably the best part.