Okay- I started this story a LOOOONG time ago. I even posted an author's note, and said I get the first chapter up within a few days. See...that didn;t happen. One, I got a job, two- the heater in our house broke. You may not think that has much to do with me being lazy and not putting anything up- but see, I write all my stuff out on paper before I type and set them. The other way we heated our house- is we have a fireplace. It got so bloody cold in my room two weeks ago I burnt the entire six chapters I had done at that time before I actually fully woke up...

...so, I had to rewrite it all : and this is the first result, a good old, totally fluffy prologue. The actual first chapter should be up (this time for real) within a few days.

I am really sorry to anyone who actually browsed this- trust me, nobody feels stupider than I do at the moment.

Anyways:

Disclaimer-I do not own any Wicked Characters. I DO own a quilt, one which my other is currently making me fix, because someone cut holes in it whistles... I don't one any Wizard of Oz things, either. I never get first dibs on anything so good...

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The soft swish of water as it rocked against the shore of the landlocked watering hole.

Sighs; one form the dust blowing wind, and the other, a sigh of comfort as someone slipped as quietly as one could into the colder water.

A shimmering reflection of pales stars and a half moon which glowed in the night sky, on the now disturbed mirror that was the desert pond.

A scraggly, overcropping tree, and many, many rocks, which bordered the shores, closing it off from being reclaimed into the dry sands around them all.

And two people, relishing the freedom this current cover of night gave them both.

"Oh come on now- When you said you wanted to stop for a swim, I was under the impression that some splashing about and swimming was going to be involved!"

" I never said I wanted to swim- I needed to bathe!"

The two voice- both of different genders, laugh: though not open, unhalting laughs- they no longer had the right to be so boisterous about their merriment, and so were forced to keep it muted, and short. In the silence that followed, the male speaker shifted on the rocky outcropping, folding his legs beneath him in an unhumanly flexible way. The woman- in the water, made her way towards him, feeling out the way carefully before her, and making firmly sure that her feet continued to be in contact with the gritty bottom.

" I don't swim, anyways."

" I suppose you wouldn't, would you." Replied the male, voice turning thick with false demureness. " Considering your damn well near considering suicide at this very moment.

A long fingered hand flicked water up at her dry-docked companion.

"Shut up."

Again, that cheated laughter, all too quick, but this time, ending because both leaned respectively up or down, and met halfway in a gentle kiss...

From which Elphaba broke away first, as of yet still unaccustomed to the new roughness of Fiyero's fabriced cheeks.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Was her lover's reply, as the straw man sat back to better study the woman below him, and find what caused the quick dismissal.

"Like what, exactly?"

" Like...I don't know. You're baleful...regretful...sorry. Do I really look that bad?"

"No, It's not- not you."

"I thought we'd gone over this!" Fiyero sighed, for indeed, they had- several times in the past three days. " You did what you had to do. I'm okay with it, not to mention grateful. End of story."

Again, silence between them. To all the world, save perhaps the pair themselves, and a winging (S)saker above, the desert may as well have been completely dead. The water parted, as the emerald woman stepped to the rock again- hair trailing behind her like some mass of blackened water plants- a nymph of children's stories. Fiyero reached out to her, and she extended her own damp one into his glove, letting him chivalrously pull her closer.

"Whatever you say- it's never going to stop me from feeling sorry."

" I know, just...try."

They met again to kiss, and this time, stayed that way for a very, very long time.

That night, it was just them: man and woman; Wicked Witch and scarecrow; Elphaba and Fiyero. Alone in the world, but alone with each other.

And in love.