Voila! The next segment in this story. Sorry it took so long, I lacked inspiration for a moment there. But tumblr resurrected me.

This chapter is rated T, well, it it probably K+... no sexual themes at all. So all is well in this one.

Enjoy!

You Can't Change Him

I laughed, looking at his picture. "Oh jeez, that guy was such a tool."

"Fiyero, Avaric was your best friend at the time."

"I know, but now... I just don't even understand how we could have been friends."

"Well that's easy. You were a tool too."

At that, I spit out my coffee, effectively covering the old Shiz yearbook in the brown liquid. Elphaba just giggled at the expression on my face. "Elphie!"

"Fiyero, it's true. You were ridiculous. You always had to make a scene."

"I did not-"

"Don't lie to me," she told me with a sly smile. "You loved the attention. Still to this day I do not understand what caused you to go from being a useless playboy to the respectable man I married."

Jeez, did my wife have a way with words.

I put down the yearbook and approached her. I took her hands in mine, and gently ran my finger over her wedding band. "Elphie, I changed because of you."

"That's impossible," she told me, casting her gaze to the floor. "You can't change people."

I considered this. "Well, it's not so much that you changed me, but I changed for you."

"What in Oz are you talking about?"

I sighed, trying to find the best way to explain this to her. "When we first met..."

"I hated you," she supplied.

"That's all well and good," I told her, kissing her nose, making her wrinkle it in that adorable way that I love. "Because I hated you too."

"Excuse me?"

"I hated you. I hated you for your superior attitude-"

"I did NOT-"

"Do you ever let anyone else talk?" I asked her, gently ribbing her for one of our first conversations so long ago.

"No, sorry," she replied sheepishly.

"But mostly, I hated you for being right."

"Right?"

"About me. I was superficial and shallow. I only cared about myself and what others thought of me."

"Until..." she prompted

"Until that night with the Lion cub."

"I don't think I'm following."

"If you stop talking, and let me finish, perhaps you would."

"Don't you dare to speak to me that way, Fiyero Tiggular!" She was only teasing, but the venomous look hidden behind the twinkle in her eye made me take a step back.

"Sorry, Fae," I apologized.

She looked at me sternly for a moment, then softened. "Go on."

"For a long time after that night, I wondered why you hexed everyone else in our class, but not me. That night, I realized I felt something for you beyond just friendship, but I couldn't quite place it. And certainly there was no way you felt the same about me. I was sure of it." For once, she didn't say anything more, just stared at me expectantly, so I continued. "But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that you must've felt something. Because why else would you have chosen me to help you that day? And I knew your powers weren't perfect, and they sometimes did things even you didn't understand, but that must've meant something."

"I realized that day that there was more to me than my dancing through life philosophy. Honestly, I used that as a way to distract myself from my own disappointment in myself. I had failed out of countless universities, had no true friends, and was by all accounts, a selfish ass."

"Fiyero-"

"Elphie, you really have no idea how much that day changed me. I can't even properly explain it to myself, let alone to you. What I do know is that it made me see what a better person I could be, if I just tried a little harder. I tried to be a better person for you, to be deserving of someone like you."

She was beginning to tear up. For someone who was so obviously strong, powerful, and resilient, she did have her moments. "But you had Galinda. Excuse me, Glinda."

"I did, but she was just as shallow as I was, if not more so. Along with realizing I could be more, I realized I also wanted more. You were, and still are, more. And I spend every day trying to remain deserving of you."

Now she was in full blown hysterics, crying fat, wet tears. I pulled her into my chest, and held her tight. It was hard to hear her, as her head was buried in my chest, and she was still crying, but I was still able to understand her words. She is my wife, after all. "It is I who don't deserve you, Fiyero. You are more than a lonely green girl like me could've ever asked for. You've been amazing and wonderful and perfect, and I love you more than you could ever know."

I pulled her chin up so that she would look at me, and kissed her, trying to show her just how much I loved her. I may not have known it at the time, but I always had loved her, and I certainly always will.

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