AN: Funny to see how you all hate Gazilon right now... I think that'll change later on. I mean, the poor fellow has done nothing wrong at all... you'll see.

Severussnapefan123: that's true, isn't it? None of them are happy at the moment... :P GoGGP will get happy again soon, I can promise you that much.

Musicgal3: NO. YOU CAN'T HAVE FIYERO. HE'S MINE. MINE. MIIIIINE. MY PRECIOUSSSSSS. Okay, we're twins, right? (Non-biological - I'm just adding that to be sure :P.) We'll share him.

Elphaba'sGirl: I love all your baby-gender-logic... but I'm very sorry to tell you that neither of the parents has a strong preference for either gender :P. Keep on trying, though!

Chapter 4. The kiss

Elphaba and Gazilon were sitting in a private corner of the Primrose Café. Two cups of coffee were standing on the table between them and they were both having a piece of pie – though their attention seemed to be more on each other than on the pie.

It had been a week now, and there had been no change. Elphaba and Gazilon seemed happier than ever. It was clear that Nessa was very happy for them both, and Galinda was, too, though she kept casting these sympathetic glances in Fiyero's direction. Apparently she was the only one realising that he was dying inside. Elphaba certainly didn't notice it.

He had kept his word to Nessa. He hadn't been trying to break them up. He, too, could see that Elphaba truly was happy with him; and Nessa had assured him that Gazilon was an honourable young gentleman. Fiyero had even sought refuge in the library, flicking through old newspapers. Gazilon's family came up more than once, but nothing came up that Fiyero could hold against the boy. His grandfather had been granted a medal of honour by the Wizard for his loyal services. His mother had a lot of family who lived in the Emerald City, all of high status. An uncle of Gazilon's was a mayor, his father a renowned businessman. Gazilon himself was even mentioned on the front page of the Emerald Courier, being pictured with the rest of his class as they had graduated two years ago. His name was mentioned in the article. Apparently he had passed his exams cum laude and the Wizard had already expressed his wish to see more of Gazilon in the future.

Yet another thing the stupid boy had in common with Elphaba. Out of all students the Wizard could pick to invite to come see him one day, he just had to pick both Elphaba and Gazilon. Galinda was even grumbling about the fact that the two of them seemed to be talking about it all the time – how badly they wanted to meet the Wizard, what they still needed to do in order to achieve that particular honour, in which classes they should get better grades to impress His Ozness and how long it would take before they would be officially invited – maybe they'd even be invited together.

Galinda liked Gazilon – as she had told Fiyero before, he was smart, handsome and kind, polite to everyone and very gentlemanly to the female students. They often hung out together – Elphaba, Gazilon, Galinda, Nessa and Boq.

Fiyero never joined them.

It wasn't because he wasn't invited – Galinda, Nessa and Boq pleaded with him to come along all the time, and even Gazilon invited him along a few times with one of those beaming smiles that made Fiyero's blood boil. It didn't escape his attention that Elphaba didn't ask him to come. Not once. In fact, she seemed to be avoiding him like the plague.

At first he had thought that there was something about their relationship that Fiyero didn't know. He had confronted Elphaba about it a few days ago.

"Are you getting married?" he had demanded. "Is that it? Your father set you up with him and pushed you into an arranged marriage?"

She had just stared at him, shocked.

He'd taken her shock as a sign that he had hit the nail on the head, and he had taken her hand. "Fae, you can tell me," he promised her. "We can figure this out together, and –"

She had yanked her hand out of his grip, shaking her head violently. "You really don't understand, do you?"

He had just looked at her in confusion.

"Let me spell it out for you loud and clear." She brought her face very close to his, taking his breath away. "I. Love. Gazilon."

He swallowed.

"I'm allowed to be in love with someone else, Fiyero. I didn't do anything wrong. There was nothing between us. Not yet, anyway. You have no right to claim me or to forbid me to see someone else."

"Nothing between us?" He kept on staring at her. "Fae… I love you. I have for over six months now, if not longer, and –"

She had held up one hand. "Don't make this any harder on yourself – or me – than it already is," she said softly. "I love Gaz. I love him. We're perfect together."

He scoffed. "You sound like Galinda."

That had only earned him a glare. "Fiyero, we just… we're happy. I love him. We share the same interests, he's easy to talk to, he's sweet and kind and I love him. Okay? Did it get through to your thick skull? I love him."

She had been exasperated, and her exasperation had only fuelled his own anger.

"It sounds to me like you're trying to convince yourself," he challenged her.

She froze in her tracks, slowly turning around, eyes narrowed dangerously. "What did you say?"

"You don't love him," he said. He was bluffing, but he had hoped it would pay off. "You love me."

"I don't believe you." She shook her head slowly. "You must be the most arrogant, self-centred, selfish prick I have ever met in my life!" she snarled. "Not everything is about you, Fiyero! I don't love you and I never did, I love Gazilon! And if you can't accept that, then just… just go!" With that, she had spun around and stalked off, fuming with rage.

She hadn't spoken a single word to him since.

Not that she had spoken much to him before, either. Every time he tried to get her alone, she had made up some vague excuse. Gazilon was with her almost twenty-four hours a day. She made sure to spend some time alone with Galinda, or with Nessa; but not with him. Never with him. They barely even talked. Despite what Nessa had said, Fiyero felt like they weren't even friends anymore. She was treating him like he wasn't even there.

At first he had been suspicious of her behaviour; but then Galinda had pointed out to him logically that maybe Elphaba didn't want to be around him right now because it would be awkward.

"After all," she'd told her ex-boyfriend, "I'm really sorry I have to say this, Fifi, but you're acting like a lovesick puppy. You're acting like Biq when he was still in love with me. I ignored him, too, remember? Have you got any idea how annoying and awkward it is when you're trying to spend time with other people and there's a boy sitting across the table with this sad puppy-look on his face, staring at you all the time? No offense, but I can understand her."

Honestly, he could understand her, too… but he just couldn't help himself.

And now he was sitting at the Primrose Café, stirring his coffee without drinking it; pretending to be listening to Galinda and Nessarose's excited chattering, but really studying the couple across the room. Gazilon was cutting off a small piece of his vanilla cake with strawberries now, feeding it to Elphaba. She giggled and opened her mouth, her eyes never leaving Gazilon's.

Elphaba didn't giggle. She never giggled.

"Seriously," Fiyero said out loud. "Is she under some sort of spell or something?"

Galinda and Nessa looked up, slightly annoyed by him interrupting their conversation.

"What?" Nessa asked. "Who?"

Fiyero nodded towards Elphaba and Gazilon. "Fae."

Galinda sighed. "Fiyero, really – you're going to have to let this go."

"I can't."

"You have to." The blonde looked at him, uncharacteristically solemn for once. "Fiyero, you're only making this more difficult for yourself. Just leave her be. Please."

Now Elphaba was trying to feed Gazilon a piece of her own pie, but instead of closing his lips around the fork she offered him, he kissed her fingers. She giggled again, blushing, and leant forward over the table to kiss his lips.

"See? She never kissed me in public," Fiyero said unhappily.

Nessa and Galinda shared a look.

"Fiyero," Nessa said slowly. "You went on two dates."

"And she did kiss you in public," Galinda reminded him. "The day she left back for Munchkinland."

"I thought that was just the start of us being together," Fiyero whispered, eyes still trained on the two students at the other end of the room. "I never imagined it was going to be the end."

Nessa placed a comforting hand on his arm, but she didn't say anything. She had no idea what she could say.

It was one day in their second week of classes that Fiyero tried to confront Elphaba again.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he said as they were gathering their books after the bell rang. "Alone?"

She gave him an exasperated look, but she did turn to Gazilon. "See you at the café for lunch?"

He smiled at her. "I'll be waiting."

She returned the smile and leant up to kiss him. Then he left and she turned back to face Fiyero.

"Fae," he said. "I… I know I've been behaving… well, maybe a bit stupid… lately."

She softened and shook her head. "It's fine, Fiyero," she said. "I understand. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He took a deep breath. "I mean… you can't help it if you don't feel the same way about me, and… and I want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy." He looked at her. "So I'll try to stop acting like a lovesick moron."

She smiled and leant up to kiss his cheek. "Thank you."

He tried his hardest to ignore the way his heart started fluttering in his chest when he felt her lips on his cheek.

"I was just hoping we could at least be friends again," he said quietly. "I miss you."

She hesitated.

She hesitated.

Why in Oz was she hesitating?

"Fiyero," she began, "I –"

"Please?" He took her hand. "Fae… you were my best friend," he said pleadingly. "I miss being around you, I miss talking to you… ever since you came back with Gazilon this summer, it feels like you aren't even there. You're shutting me out."

Her eyes narrowed and she slowly pulled her hand back. "Fiyero, I thought you just promised that you would stop this."

He was genuinely confused. "What? I'm trying to! Elphaba, I'm just asking you if we can be friends again!"

"You're not asking me," she corrected him. "You're practically begging me. I can't deal with you when you're like this, Fiyero. I will not allow you to make me feel guilty over being with Gaz when I have every right to be with him!"

His eyes widened. "No!" he cried. "That's not what I'm trying to do!"

Or was it? Was he trying to make her feel guilty for being with this new guy? If he was being perfectly honest with himself… maybe. Maybe that was what he was trying to do. If he could get her to feel guilty enough to break up with this guy, he would have a chance with her again.

He immediately felt guilty for even thinking that. She had been right before – he was being selfish.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She looked at him for a long time. Then she nodded.

"Okay," she said. "Thank you."

"So…" He extended his hand towards her. "Friends?"

She looked at him with something in her dark brown eyes that he couldn't quite identify. Then she shook his hand.

"Friends."

He grinned broadly at her.

"If," she said sternly, holding up one finger, "you stop glaring at Gaz as if he has committed a crime. If you want to blame someone, blame me."

He sighed. "What do you see in him?" he wanted to know.

"What's not to see in him?" she retorted. "Fiyero, you're just making this harder on yourself."

"No." Suddenly he grew agitated. How dare she stand here and tell him he was doing this to himself! "No, I'm not making this harder on myself – you are making this hard on me! You and your oh-so-amazing new boyfriend!"

"Don't do this," she warned him, but there was no stopping him.

"Did you ever even consider how I would feel about this?" he demanded, raising his voice. "Did I even cross your mind or didn't you even think of me when you started doing things with him? Did you care at all?"

"Of course I cared!" Elphaba shouted back at him. "I still do! But you're the one complicating things, Fiyero, not me! If you could just accept the fact that I'm with someone else now, at least we could just be friends again!"

"I don't want to just be friends!" he yelled back at her. "I love you! I want to be with you, I thought there was something between us! If you didn't feel the same, you should have said so! You shouldn't have led me on for three whole months!"

"That is so unfair!" Her eyes were flashing now. "I have not been leading you on! It was one kiss, Fiyero! One kiss and two dates! It didn't mean anything!"

He noticed the fact that the chairs and tables in the room started shaking, and he slowly backed away a little.

She noticed it, too, and she caught herself just in time. "I'm going to turn around and go now," she said in a low voice. "Before I get so angry with you that I throw a chair against your head."

She turned around and stomped off.

He sighed and packed his things, slowly going after her. Once outside, he blinked and squinted against the bright sunlight for a moment. Then he discovered Elphaba standing against a wall in the archway. Her arms were wrapped around Gazilon's neck and he was kissing her deeply, pressing her up against the wall. She was kissing him back, too. Fiyero almost couldn't bear to look at it.

He saw them kissing one more time before Gazilon pulled away. Elphaba smiled at him and he took her hand and kissed it, eliciting a giggle from her; then he walked away. Elphaba clutched her books to her chest, smiling after him, before she turned around and walked back into the archway.

Fiyero hadn't been trained to be a hunter for nothing. He silently but quickly followed her, ducking between students. When he finally caught up with her, he acted on impulse; he yanked open a door, grabbed Elphaba and pulled her into the room that was lying behind the door. Luckily for him, it was empty. It was a janitor's closet.

Elphaba spun around and even in the faint light he could see her chocolate brown eyes flaring. "Fiyero…"

He cut her off by pressing his lips to hers in a long, deep, searing kiss.

When they finally broke apart, they were both slightly out of breath. Elphaba was gawking at him and Fiyero cupped her face with both his hands.

"You love me," he stated. He knew he was being overconfident and a bit cocky, but he was willing to take the risk. "I know you do. You may not know it yourself yet, but I'm sure of it. And I am going to do everything I can to make you realise that. I'm going to win you back, or I'm going to die trying."

With that, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, leaving Elphaba still gaping after him.

The next chapter is going to be Elphaba's pov... which is going to clear up a lot of things for you guys ^_^.