AN: I think the description says it all... Enjoy and please review! :)

Disclaimer: Wicked belongs to Gregory Maguire, Stephen Schwarz and Winnie Holzman, but not to me. Never me :'(.


'Elphaba, let's go… Let's go!'

And so they ran, away from the throne room, away from Glinda, crisscrossing through the hallways of the Emerald Palace. It was only when Fiyero stopped around a corner after a while, to catch his breath and to determine their position, that Elphaba came to her senses. She whirled around to face him. 'Go back.'

He looked at her in surprise. 'No.'

She shook her head. 'You have no idea what you're getting yourself into,' she said flatly. 'Don't do this, Fiyero. You can't come with me – just go back.'

'I'll go back.' She looked up in surprise and he locked eyes with her. 'If you tell me that you don't love me.'

Her eyes widened and she was speechless, for perhaps the first time in her life. He continued, 'If you can honestly tell me that you don't love me, that you don't feel anything for me that's different than how you ever felt about anybody else, then I'll go back. But you have to look me in the eye and say it first.'

She met his gaze and opened her mouth. She wanted to. She wanted to tell him she didn't love him, because she knew that would mean he would be safe. He would go back to Glinda, whom she was sure would forgive him his brief moment of insanity, and the blonde would come up with some excuse for the Wizard and Morrible. If she told him she didn't love him, he could continue being the Captain of the Guard, being loved, he could marry Glinda and live happily ever after…

But she couldn't. She couldn't lie to him.

She closed her mouth again and looked away, and that was the only answer he needed. He leaned in a little, bringing their faces impossibly close, and then he pressed his lips against hers, ever so softly, in a sweet, loving kiss. She gasped and he pulled away after a while, cupping her face with his hand, caressing her jaw line with his thumb. 'I knew it.'

'You're throwing everything away,' she whispered, looking up in his beautiful azure-coloured eyes. 'Do think about this, Fiyero. I don't want you to regret it later; if you decide to come with me now, there's no going back. You'll lose everything you've worked so hard to get, everything you care for.'

He shook his head. 'I don't need all of that. It never meant anything to me in the first place; everything I need and care for is right here in front of me.'

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to compose herself. Then she opened them again and looked at him, switching off her emotions and showing him her practical side. 'We have to get out of here.'

He followed her around a corner, through another hallway – they could hear the shouts of the guards running through the palace, looking for them, but fortunately, they didn't encounter any. Finally, they reached a large window and Elphaba studied it for a moment, nodding after a while. 'This will do.' She looked back at him over her shoulder. 'Stand back.' She closed her eyes, muttered something under her breath, and the glass window splintered with a lot of noise. She mounted her broom and looked at him. 'Last chance. You can still go back.'

He shook his head fervently as he sat himself down behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. 'Never.'

She already hated herself for this, for being weak and selfish, for not forcing him to stay behind, but she just couldn't and so she gave in. She kicked off and they soared high up in the air, leaving the palace, the city, the guards and Glinda far behind.


'You need to rest.'

Elphaba shook her head without even looking back at him. 'We need to cover as much distance as possible. They're probably after us already.'

'We're at least a daytime's journey ahead of them,' Fiyero countered. 'You look exhausted, Elphaba. You need to rest.'

'Fine,' she snapped and unceremoniously plopped down onto the forest floor. 'Better?'

He examined her more closely. 'Are you… mad at me?'

She looked up at him, a tired expression on her face. 'Why did you come with me?'

He was surprised. 'Isn't that obvious? Because I love-'

'Don't you dare say that!' she snapped, eyes suddenly blazing. 'You don't, Fiyero, you don't!'

'I do.'

'You can't!' She jumped to her feet again and started pacing up and down the clearing. 'It's just not possible, Fiyero. I can't even believe I let you come with me – you were clearly not in your right mind. Did I accidentally cast a spell on you, is that it? Yes, of course, that must be it… Or did you just lose the last few brain cells you had left? I suppose that's a possibility, too, because practically every reason is more probable than the reason you just tried to give me.'

He would have chuckled had the meaning behind her words not been so painfully clear. 'Elphaba…'

'Don't,' she said simply, turning away from him. 'Just… just go back to Glinda. I'm sure you guys can figure something out to explain you coming with me, and you can go back to the life you-'

'I don't want to go back to Glinda,' he interrupted her, sitting down beside her, taking her hand in his. 'I want to be with you, and no one else. I don't love Glinda… I never really did – not like that, anyway. And maybe I'm brainless… but perhaps you should consider the other option as well – that I'm wise for coming with you. I don't regret that in the slightest, Fae, and I never will.'

She didn't question the 'Fae' at that moment; instead, she let out a mirthless cackle. 'I don't think that 'other option', as you call it, is likely, my dear Fiyero. I'd still go with 'brainless'.'

He cupped her face with both hands and looked into her eyes intently. 'I love you.'

She flinched away from his touch. 'Don't say that! It's impossible!'

'Why?' he demanded. 'Because you're green? Well, that's unfortunate for you, then, because I do love you. Elphaba, I've loved you ever since that day with the Lion Cub. I wanted to tell you, but I was too scared, and then when you were gone… I felt like killing myself for not speaking up earlier. I went along with Glinda because she had already lost you and I just couldn't leave her as well after that, she was so heartbroken already. I also stayed with her because she was the only one who still knew who you really were, whom I could talk to about you… and I guess the main reason I never stopped that whole circus after that was because I didn't think I'd ever see you again, and if I couldn't be happy with you, being fairly content with Glinda seemed a reasonable second. But I never loved her, Elphaba. Not the way I love you.'

They were both silent for a while, Fiyero waiting for Elphaba to speak up, and Elphaba trying to process Fiyero's words. Eventually, she whispered, 'I don't believe you.'

He didn't answer her. Instead, he slid his arms around her waist and kissed her. Not a soft, sweet kiss like the one he had shared with her back at the palace; this kiss was hungry, eager, fervent, almost desperate. He felt her tense at first, but then she melted into him and gave in, winding her arms around his neck in an almost instinctive reaction, responding to him. Her reaction encouraged him to deepen the kiss and she moaned softly, sending shivers of pleasure down his spine.

It was only their need for oxygen that broke them apart after a while, both of them breathless. He traced her jaw line with his index finger and she closed her eyes. 'You are so beautiful,' he told her solemnly, and her eyes flew open immediately, searching his face – for any sign of deceit or dishonesty, undoubtedly. When she found none, she looked away and fixed her gaze on the leaves covering the ground. 'You don't have to lie to me.'

'It's not lying,' he told her earnestly, tilting her face so that she would look at him again. 'It's looking at things another way.'

She didn't say anything, just kissed him again, but he pulled away after a moment. 'Do you believe me now?'

She looked at him sceptically. 'That I'm beautiful? No.'

'We'll work on that,' he assured her, smiling slightly, 'but that's not what I meant. Do you believe that I love you?'

She stared at the ground again. 'I don't know,' she confessed softly. 'I'm not even sure I believe that you're really here with me.'

He folded her in his arms and glanced at her. 'I am. And I'm here to stay. I promise.'

She sighed and leaned into him. 'Then I guess… I guess I believe you.'

They were silent for a moment, content just holding each other, before she said quietly, 'I love you, too, you know.'

It felt as if his heart started doing dances and somersaults in his chest at that and he grinned widely and a tad goofily, but he managed to keep his voice neutral as he said causally, 'I know.'

She looked up at him. 'But the Gale Force… Fiyero, what if they find us? What if they-'

He cut her off with another kiss. 'Don't even go there,' he warned her softly. 'We have at least this night before they can get to us, and I'm intending to make the most of every single clock-tick we have, no matter what happens tomorrow.'

She smiled against his lips. 'I'd like that.'

He pressed his lips against her again, kissing her passionately, deepening the kiss almost immediately this time. Her eyes fluttered shut and she surrendered as he softly urged her to lie back down on the forest floor, pressing his body against hers. She tugged at his shirt and he started unbuttoning her dress, slowly, one button before the other, meanwhile trailing butterfly kisses down her neck and collarbone, causing her to moan softly. 'Fiyero… Are you…'

'Yes,' he said, levelling his face with hers again for a moment to gaze into her eyes intently, trying to convey his sincerity. 'Yes, I'm absolutely sure about this. There's nowhere I'd rather be right now than here with you, Fae. You have to believe that.' His eyes suddenly clouded a little with concern. 'You do want this, don't you? I mean, I don't want to pressure you into doing anything you don't-'

She interrupted him by kissing him again, tugging his body over hers, breathing in his scent and relishing in the feeling of having him with her, of knowing that he was hers to have now. Not Glinda's, not anyone else's, but hers. And she was his. Completely.

'I love you,' she said breathlessly and he responded with another kiss. 'I love you too. But are you sure you want this?'

She gazed into his eyes and immediately lost herself in those beautiful sky blue depths. She pulled him even closer to her, until she could feel his warm breath caressing her face and she closed her eyes for a moment, completely lost. Then she opened them again and she nodded, determined. 'I want this.'

He kissed her once again, slowly and deeply this time.

And as her eyes fluttered shut again and she gave herself to him, she was sure she had never been, nor ever again would be, this happy in her entire life.