Middle Ground
Chapter 4
A/N Thank you SO much for reviewing. And because I forget to mention it with each chapter; thank you, thank you, thank you (add another hundred times to that) to those who nominated and/or voted for me in the Fanfic Awards. I am incredibly proud and honoured. And giddy. Again.
She was being stupid.
An absolute idiot.
Why was she even here?
It was a risk, too much of one, and more than she was usually willing to take.
And there would be no pay-off.
He was safe and happy and well cared for in his cushy palace room with Glinda by his side.
He wouldn't even be thinking of her.
So why was she thinking of him?
Why was she lingering in the woods so close to the Emerald City these days?
What was she even hoping to accomplish?
To see him?
Just to see him?
The answer, sad and pathetic it may be, was yes.
She just wanted to see him.
The look in his eyes haunted her now, and not just in dreams. He'd looked so...glad to see her. Relieved. Pained. Troubled.
Happy.
Not disgusted. Not horrified. If anything, he'd looked...he'd looked...
She nearly growled in frustration with herself. She needed to stop.
There was no point to any of this.
It didn't matter what he'd looked like and what he might or might not have been feeling.
She was risking her life for a glimpse of a man that had no role in her life whatsoever.
She had no business here. She should go.
But she didn't. She'd almost gone to see him, at one point. Had almost directed her broom to the palace. She'd been able to stop herself from actually going through with it but it had thrown her off.
She was well aware of the fact that she had feelings for him. She'd had them since school, since that cub, since even before then, maybe.
She'd always thought he was beautiful, at least. Even when she'd thought he was nothing more than a lazy playboy Prince, she'd known he was beautiful. The most beautiful man she'd ever seen.
He made all the boys at Shiz seem exactly like that...boys.
Just as he now made all his fellow soldiers look like boys.
Oz, he was so beautiful. So utterly attractive. She hated herself for thinking about him, but she couldn't stop.
It was as if everything she'd pushed from her mind, from her life, had returned when she saw him again. And returned full-force.
And now, she was stuck. She wanted to move on, move away, forget about him and go back to the way her life had been, but she couldn't. She'd been able, with too much effort for it to be healthy, to keep herself from coming here for two weeks. Nearly three.
But now here she was, finding herself in the same area as they'd met last time, not even knowing why.
Did she really think he was going to come back? Did she really believe that he was thinking about her, too?
What was she hoping for?
Why did she keep wanting to come back here?
She almost left again, almost convinced herself that nothing would ever come of this and it would be best if she never saw him again, when she heard it.
Footsteps that snapped twigs and branches. Leaves rustling as someone moved through them.
Elphaba tensed and moved towards the trees. Were they alone? Was it the Gale Force? Was this her punishment for being so utterly foolish?
She hoisted herself up into the tree, making sure she could see well enough around her and kept still.
She held her breath as branches were pushed aside by a form she could not yet make out and let it out too quickly when she finally saw who it was.
It was him.
Thanks for reading. I hope you'll leave me a review :)
Next chapter a little later this week!
Oh, and a tip; I got the idea for this fic when I got to see the show in London, during the last few weeks of Rachel Tucker's reign. It was unbelievable. I've just listened to the audio of her very last show and her Defying Gravity and The Wizard and I are through the roof. Check it out if you have the time. Mindblowing.