Now that the review issue is fixed, I decided to just post this one-shot. Happy New Year everyone!
This one is bookverse in the sense that Elphaba is allergic to water, just because I like to experiment with that idea a little bit every now and then (and it makes for such nice Fiyeraba fluff).
It was snowing.
Elphaba Thropp detested snow. It looked so nice, so innocent, all white and fluffy; but it burned her just as badly as water did. It was treacherous. Deceiving. She hated it.
Her friends and sister had always loved it and she had spent hours back at Shiz watching them through the window of her room as they made snow angels, built snowmen, and pelted one another with snow in snowball fights. She could never join in, for obvious reasons. She did go outside when it had snowed, but once it was actually snowing, she could only go out if she packed herself up with so many layers that the snow wouldn't be able to penetrate them.
Her water allergy had always made her life difficult. She couldn't bathe, instead having to use oils to keep herself clean. Whenever it rained, she was stuck inside; and she always had to be careful of people – or she herself – spilling drinks, because they could result in nasty burns that would take weeks to completely go away.
Fiyero, once he found out about this, had always been extremely understanding and careful. Even back at Shiz, after learning about her allergy, he would often stay inside with her when the others were out in the snow or the rain, keeping her company. She always insisted he didn't need to do that and he always insisted that he didn't mind, but he didn't want her to feel left out. He said that he knew she had felt that way too often in her life already and he didn't want her to feel it ever again if he could help it. She'd pretended to be irritated and rolled her eyes at him, but it had meant more to her than she could possibly say.
And now here they were, years later, at the outskirts of Oz, in a cabin most commonly used by Gale Force officers. Elphaba had protested against the arrangement at first, but Fiyero assured her that with the threat of the Wicked Witch now gone, all guards would be called back to the City for celebrations, after which they would be re-assigned to different missions. Hardly anyone would be around and she couldn't deny the fact that it was wonderful to be sleeping in a bed again, cooking on a furnace, and curling up with a book from the large bookshelf by the fireplace. These types of cabins were scattered throughout Oz and they had hopped from one to the other over the past few days, progressing slowly in the direction of Fliaan, where they were planning to settle down.
They'd had to flee such a cabin only once so far, when a stray Gale Force soldier had approached it with the intention of spending the night there. Elphaba and Fiyero had sneaked out of the window, their meagre belongings packed in Elphaba's satchel, and they had instead found cover in a cave. She hadn't minded at all, having spent years on the run, but she hated that she was dragging Fiyero with her into this life of running and hiding. She was eternally grateful that her spell had worn off after a while, leaving him a man once again instead of a scarecrow, but she still felt guilty.
He wouldn't have any of that, however. That night in the cave, they had argued about it and she had eventually ended up bursting into tears, so suddenly and so violently that she knew she had scared the wits out of Fiyero. She loathed herself for being so weak, but she couldn't help it. Everything she had bottled up for so long now came flooding out and Fiyero had pulled her into his chest, allowing her to bury her face in his shirt to let it soak up her tears before they could burn her skin, and rocked her back and forth like a child.
"Elphaba," he had whispered, his breath tickling the hair by her ear. "Don't you understand? You have nothing to be sorry for."
She had shaken her head, disagreeing; but he had only tightened his grip on her. "Sweet Oz, Fae, do you really think I mind sleeping in a cave?" He had pulled away a little to look at her, cupping her face with both hands and gently wiping her eyes dry with his thumbs. "Sweetheart," he whispered, holding her gaze, clearly wanting her to believe him, "I would willingly spend the rest of my life sleeping outside in the cold, running from Gale Force soldiers, and never normally talking to another person again if it meant I would be with you. Especially if the alternative is for me to let you go forever."
She could hear the sincerity in his voice and much to her horror and embarrassment, it had made her start to cry all over again. He hadn't said a word about it. He had just held her and done everything he could to keep the tears from burning her until the flow finally slowed and then stopped, after which he gently dabbed her eyes dry and gave her a smile. "That's better." He had kissed her, softly, almost reverently, brushing his lips against hers before pulling back again just a little to murmur, "I love you so much, Fae. I wish you would believe that."
"I love you, too," she breathed and he had kissed her again.
Something had changed between them after that. She still didn't fully believe him and she still felt guilty, but it just felt… different. They travelled towards the border of Oz, staying in one of those small Gale Force cabins every night – Fiyero, having been the Captain of the Guard, naturally knew exactly where to find those cabins.
It had been a little less than a week now since he had come for her. After faking her death, she'd had to spend a few days in the trapdoor below the floor in the highest tower of Kiamo Ko whilst waiting for Fiyero, who had been stuck in the Emerald City as the people celebrated Elphaba's death and congratulated the scarecrow on helping to kill the witch. The green girl had been prepared, packing food and warm clothes away in the room below the trapdoor and even a few books, which she all finished during the long wait. Finally, he had come back and they had left together. Her spell on him had worn off over the next few days and by now, he was completely back to normal.
They would only have to travel for a few more days before they would reach the desert separating Oz from Fliaan. She wished they could have taken the broom, but it would have been too dangerous; they could not risk being seen. She was still carrying it with her, however, since they would fly across the desert to the land lying beyond – it was safer that way. They would never be able to return to Oz and Elphaba already knew she would miss her best friend dearly, but Glinda was really the only thing she would miss and she knew her friend could never know. It was better this way. Aside from Glinda, she had no regrets about leaving.
She was currently curled up in an armchair with a book. Thank Oz these places were all made as comfortable as possible, since one never knew when some Gale Force soldiers would stay here; the cupboards were often filled with food that wouldn't easily spoil, there was usually wood for the fireplace and the furnace, and there were filled bookcases present as well, much to Elphaba's delight. This particular cabin, however, had been out of firewood; and so Fiyero had gone out the door to go and gather some. She had wanted to go herself, but he was less easily recognised than Elphaba was. Also, it was snowing, so it wouldn't be safe for her to be outside right now, anyway.
She was worried about him, of course, but she pushed that feeling away. He was just gathering wood in the forest around the cabin. He wasn't far and he wouldn't be in any danger. There weren't even any people around here, anyway. It was winter, which in the Vinkus meant bitter cold and snow; there was constantly a thick pack of white covering the ground and most people preferred to stay inside in this weather. Certainly no-one got the idea to go wandering around in a deserted part of a forest, so Fiyero should be safe – especially now, because the snow was falling thickly. It looked like it might be a blizzard, even.
Looking through the window, she couldn't help but shudder at the sight of all that white, thanking Oz that she was safely inside. When she was little, she remembered seeing snow for the first time – it didn't snow that often in Munchkinland – and she had been elated, pushing Nessarose's chair outside so the two girls could play together. Nessa had laughed and bent down, managing to gather some snow off the ground, which she had playfully thrown at her sister, intending to have a snowball fight. Her laughter had abruptly faded when her sister had cried out in pain, ugly blisters forming on her face and neck, where the snow had hit her. That was how Elphaba had first found out that frozen water was still water and therefore she could not touch it without it burning her skin. It was a hard and painful lesson and one that had led to her hating snow with a passion from that moment onward.
She was just about to return her attention to her book when something green caught her attention in the snow. For a heartbeat, she thought it was Fiyero returning; but then she realised he had been dressed in dark blue, not green – some clothes they had found in the wardrobe in one of the first cabins they'd stayed in. She tensed, tentatively moving closer to the window in order to see better through the still heavily falling snow.
Gale Force.
Two of them, trudging through the snow, making their way over to the cabin. There was not a doubt in her mind that they intended to stay here. She couldn't let them see her or their entire plan would be ruined. She had to go.
She barely had time to sling her satchel over her shoulder and throw her cloak around her, yanking up the hood. They were already opening the door while she quietly slipped out of the back door and into the treacherous snow.
She ducked her head to protect her face and tried to keep her cloak drawn as tightly around her as possible, but she knew it would only be a matter of time before the snow turned into water and soaked through the thin fabric of her cloak to burn her skin. She didn't know what to do. Was there any shelter around? Should she go find Fiyero? If he was caught by the soldiers, she'd never forgive himself and if he saw the Gale Force and realised she had to have left the cabin, he would be worried sick… but if she went looking for him, it might be too late for her to find shelter against the snow.
Deciding that she would just keep walking and go with whatever she found first – shelter or Fiyero – she moved forward, careful to keep her bare hands covered by her cloak and her face down. Even as she did so, she tried to glance around her, afraid that more Gale Force soldiers might be heading this way or that the ones inside the cabin had spotted her and would come out, but there was no-one to be seen. The entire world was white and she shuddered. It wasn't long before the skin of her hands and neck started tingling and she knew the wet snow was seeping through her cloak already.
"Elphaba!" she heard suddenly and she whirled around, raising her head in surprise only to wince when some snowflakes landed on her now unprotected face. Fiyero was by her side in a clock-tick, worry clouding his azure blue eyes. "I saw the Gale Force entering," he said. "Thank Oz you got out in time. Are you all right?"
She nodded, then shook her head. "I am for now," she said finally. "But we need to find shelter. Soon."
He touched her cloak, feeling how sodden it already was with snow, and he nodded quickly. "Let's go."
He tried to protect her as they walked, keeping his arm around her and tucking her into his side as if he could shield her from the potentially fatal snowflakes that way. He remembered first finding out about her allergy, one day when it had been raining and she had appeared in class with angry red dots covering her skin. She hadn't wanted to tell him what happened, but he had persisted until she did. He hadn't seen her burnt very often; she was usually careful enough to avoid it.
The one time he had seen her burnt by water that still haunted him the most was a little less than a week ago. She had faked her death, yes, but they had both known beforehand that she wouldn't be able to evade the water completely whilst disappearing through the trapdoor. She hadn't, either. Dorothy had thrown the bucket of water at her and although she'd worn a few layers of protective clothing and tried to avoid the burning liquid as much as possible, she had still been hurt. It could have been much worse, but he vividly remembered the image of her when she had emerged after hearing him calling for her. He'd never seen her burnt so badly, although she assured him that she'd been through much worse earlier in her life. Those burns had only just healed and now she would already be getting new ones.
She whimpered and he snapped out of his thoughts, his head whipping around. "Fae?"
She was gritting her teeth, grimacing a little, and he could see in her eyes that she was in pain. "It's soaking through, isn't it?"
She nodded, shivering. He suspected it wasn't from the cold. He wildly looked around him, searching for a cave or a grove of trees – anything that could provide some shelter – but he found nothing. There were only trees. Trees and snow, still fluttering down from the grey sky, as if to mock them. He could feel Elphaba starting to tremble underneath his hands after a while and not long after that, her legs suddenly gave way and she collapsed.
He shot forward faster than she could blink, catching her just before she hit the pack of snow covering the ground and hurt herself even further. When he carefully opened her cloak a little and peered inside, he bit his lip so hard he tasted blood. Underneath the cloak, her clothes were all but soaked, just like his own by now. The only difference was that she could die because of it.
He gently scooped her up in his arms, cradling her to his chest as he felt her continue to shudder. He murmured soothing things to her, but he wasn't even sure if she was fully conscious anymore; she clung to him and mumbled his name once, but she didn't open her eyes. Desperate, he kept going, looking in all directions until he finally spotted what looked like an old, run-down shed. He all but ran towards it, slipping inside and closing the door behind him with a sigh of relief. They'd made it. Now he had to try to make Elphaba comfortable and assess the damage the heavy snowfall had done to her.
He laid her down on the cave floor. Slowly, as gently as possible, he peeled her layers of clothing off her. She shuddered again, whimpering softly, but she didn't wake up. Maybe it was better that way, although it also worried him. How bad was it, exactly? Her face had mostly been spared, but the burns that were already forming there made him feel sick to his stomach. He could only imagine how much worse the burns he couldn't see had to be. As he carefully undressed her, he had to continue biting his lip to keep himself from throwing up. Her skin was raw and angry, covered in burns – some worse than others, but hardly any patch of skin had been spared and he could only imagine how much pain she would be in once she woke up.
That reminded him of the cream she always kept with her for exactly this purpose and he rummaged around in her satchel, finding the jar and opening it clumsily. He was afraid to touch her, but he had to, in order to apply the cream. She was feverish, her forehead feeling warm, and he knew the cream would help.
Taking a deep breath, he rubbed his hands warm, then covered them in cream and gently smoothed the stuff over her skin, starting with her arms and then moving to her back before coming back around to her front. She moaned softly in pain as he did so and he winced, feeling guilty, but he knew it had to happen.
Once all the blisters were treated, he looked around for something to put around her. It was the middle of winter – he couldn't very well leave her without clothes, but there was no way he could put those wet clothes back on her, either. Finally, he remembered the spare blanket she always kept in her satchel and he pulled it out and wrapped her up in it, pulling her into his lap and gently rubbing her body in an attempt to warm her up, careful to not let his own wet clothes touch her skin.
She stirred after a while and he felt her wince. "Yero?"
"Shh," he murmured, resting his chin on the top of her head. "It's okay. You're safe now."
She whimpered. "It hurts."
His heart broke at that, but he tried not to let it show. "I know, sweetheart, but you're going to be okay." He gently felt her forehead. It was still too warm, but it seemed less warm than it had been a while ago.
"Thank you," she whispered and he blinked at that.
"What for?"
"Saving me," she mumbled. "Again. Yero my hero. I love you."
He bit his lip to keep the tears at bay at that. "I love you, too, Fae. Is there anything else I can do to help you?"
She shook her head slightly against his chest. "The cream should do the trick," she said, flinching a little as she moved and it hurt her skin. "It'll take a while, though. I think I have a fever."
"I know. You do." He sighed. "There's really nothing I can do for you?"
She raised her gaze to meet his and she instantly recognised the look he had on his face. It was the same look he'd had a week ago, when he saw what the water from Dorothy's bucket had done to her.
She remembered hearing his voice when she was below that trapdoor, calling her name, and she'd come out right away. She'd been horrified at the transformation he had gone through, but he had perhaps been even more horrified by the blisters covering her skin. The water had soaked through her clothes, leaving angry splashes of burns on her legs and torso, and there were some blisters in her face as well. She didn't think it was too bad, especially not since she had been prepared and kept her jar of burn cream below the trapdoor; she'd applied the stuff a few times already and in her opinion, the burns looked much better than they had at first, but she would never forget the look on his face when he'd laid eyes on them. It was a mix of guilt, love, and sympathy, and it was a look she didn't think anyone had ever directed at her before.
He looked the same way now, like he was on the verge of tears. He was almost begging her to let him help her, but she honestly didn't know what he could do. She was in pain and her mind was foggy because of the fever, but all that was normal and couldn't be helped right now.
"I'm okay," she whispered. "Or I will be, anyway. It'd have been worse if I'd stayed outside any longer, but you got me to shelter in time, Yero, don't worry."
"Are you sure?" he asked, his voice sounding a little strangled. "Because I refuse to let you go, Fae. After everything we've been through, both apart and together... now that I finally found you and we're going to be together forever, I'm not going to allow you to die on me. Okay?"
She had to chuckle softly at that. "I won't die, Yero. Promise."
"Okay." He exhaled slowly. "Okay. Good. Do you need to sleep? What do you need?"
"Sleep is good," she murmured and he gently lowered her to the floor, lying down beside her and wrapping his arms around her – tightly, but not so tightly that his embrace would hurt her skin.
"Are you sure?" he whispered and he didn't need to clarify what he meant.
"I'm sure," she said quietly. "Yero, if I was dying, I'd tell you. It's true that too much water – or snow, in this case – can kill me. That bucket Dorothy threw at me would probably have been the end of me if I hadn't been prepared."
He tightened his grip on her at that and she hissed a little in pain, causing him to loosen his arms around her again. "Sorry."
"It's okay." She shifted a little, grimacing at the stinging sensation all over her body. She always hated getting burnt. It was an annoying kind of pain that took way too long to fade. "Anyway, this wasn't nearly enough water to do me in," she assured him.
"There are a lot of burns," he protested, but she shook her head.
"They're all superficial," she explained. "They hurt like hell, but they're not serious enough and the cream will prevent them from getting infected. Stop worrying, Yero my hero." She nuzzled his jaw, pressing a soft kiss to the skin there. "I'll be fine."
He let out a shaky breath and buried his nose in her hair, closing his eyes for a moment. After a while, he felt her body slowly relax against him and he knew she had fallen asleep. He supposed it was for the best, because sleep would help her heal, but he kept an eye on her all the time as she slept nonetheless, afraid that something would happen. She was his world and it was true what he had said before. Now that he finally had her, he refused to let her go again.
He went to check the cabin again the next day and the two Gale Force soldiers had left, so he carried Elphaba back there, spending the next few days tending to her burns and nursing her back to health. Seeing his genuine worry for her in his eyes confused her and it led to more than one talk about their relationship. She watched him as he bustled around the cabin tending to the fire, making her hot tea to drink, and gently treating her burns with the cream two times a day. Finally, she was beginning to understand how much he really cared for her and she only loved him for that all the more.
At some point, he gingerly traced the healing blisters on her face with his fingertips, looking unhappy.
"What's wrong?" she asked, but he shook his head and sighed.
"I just... I hate that I couldn't protect you from this," he murmured gently, wincing in sympathy at how painful they looked. She covered his hands with hers, making him look up to meet her gaze.
"You can't protect me from everything," she said solemnly. "It wasn't your fault. If anything, you did protect me. If you hadn't gotten me to that shed, it'd have been far worse."
He sighed. "I know." He pulled her into his arms, letting her rest with her back against his chest, and he put his chin on her shoulder. "But I love you. You know that. I'd do anything to keep you from getting hurt, but sometimes there's just nothing I can do and that's frustrating."
"I know," she said softly, twisting her neck to be able to look him in the eye. "But I hope you know that no matter what, you'll always be my hero. Not because you protect me, but because you want to protect me."
He tightened his grip on her, pressing his lips to her temple. "Always, Fae."
For all his feelings of guilt and all the pain she was in, she thought as she looked at him and saw the love in his eyes, this might actually have been a good thing. She'd been so insecure, so uncertain about this relationship, about his love for her; but he had spent the past few days convincing her that it really hadn't been a spur of the moment thing. He really did love her, he wanted to build a life with her, and he was in this for the long haul. That was something she hadn't let herself believe until now and she was grateful for it. With their relationship now established, she felt much more confident when it came to the future. Who knew? They could make this work. Perhaps they'd even be able to actually build a life somewhere, start a family... be happy.
For now, however, she just kissed the man she loved most in the entire world and relished in the feeling of being in his arms, feeling happy, peaceful, and loved.
Reviews are a really good way to start the new year! ^_^