A/N: I had this written for a while, but did anyone else's account just shut them out these last few days? I almost went insane.

Freedom was the night air rushing through my coat. Freedom was the tiny sparks of electricity I felt when holding onto her waist. Freedom was the power to just laugh, soaring too high for thought or reason- or remembrance.

But soon the air had chilled me to the bone, my hands were sweating on her jacket and laughter had abandoned me to breathlessness. The city below us, previously so grand in its lights and nightlife, now looked terrifying and accusatory.

"Elphie?"

The wind blocked out my words. They faded into the breeze, wasted breath in the night air. I glanced behind, but I knew that the Chuffrey House would be long gone- along with my Faba. Burying my face into her deep black cloak once again, I closed my eyes and let go of feeling.

***

"Come with me."

To the Emerald City, I finished automatically. It had been just like this, when she'd asked me that first time. My hands were in hers, just like now. Her eyes were just as beautiful back then as they pleaded for me to sucumb. And my heart was just as hopelessly lost.

"Where?" I whispered, feeling again like a teenager- a lost lamb waiting for her Shepard. She'd taken my ability to stand up for myself, to object, to reason. She'd taken me. And yet I was more myself when I was with her then any other time. She was my other half; a half that had been removed once- and I didn't think my body could handle another separation.

"Away. Together. You said no once, Glinda. You said no, and look what it did to both of us. I cannot leave without you. Not again."

"Then don't leave."

She looked at me, and I dipped my head. We both knew she couldn't stay. It was an impossibility- the fact that we had remained undiscovered this long was miraculous in itself. We were working on borrowed time. Luck, never on our side, should not be pushed too far.

"Faba..."

"Will be alright."

"How can you say that? How could you know?"

"She's a kid, Glinda. She'll be perfectly all right. Chuffrey will send her to live with someone nice, shower her with expensive gifts, send her to the best private schools... You know the story. Wouldn't she want her mother to be happy?"

"She's my baby, Elphie. My little girl. I can't just leave her."

"But you could leave me?"

We both knew the answer to that.

***

We touched down, in what felt like an eternity later. I slid off the broom and stood, wobbling. My legs felt like jelly; my head swam. Elphaba alighted gracefully, years of practise showing themselves. She faced me with a smile that quickened my already unstable pulse, and all objections seemed to evaporate from my mind.

"You're okay?" she asked, a tenderness in her voice I'd almost forgotten. Before I could answer, she swept me into her arms.

"Put me down." I complained. "I feel like a child."

Elphaba smirked. "It's not my fault you're about the size of a five year old."

I folded my arms and pouted dramatically. Elphie laughed again, and started to carry me towards the house of the garden we'd flown into. I looked around, realising that I'd been so caught up in my thoughts (And her, if I was being honest) that I'd barely spared a glance for our surroundings. Now that I did, however, I was less than awed.

"Elphaba. Do you honestly expect me to stay in this dump?"

"I realise, my sweet, that it's not quite the Emerald Palace, but I thought we could fix it up quite nicely, with your- uh- decorative skills and my, um, encouragement. In any case, this is only temporary. Being socially shunned as I am, it's best for us to live nomadically rather than fixedly."

"But there're no curtains!" I whined, sorely unimpressed with my future abode. It was a farm, far removed from everything, in the Vinkus, if I'd been paying attention on the flight over. The house (cottage, more like) was barren and near derelict, an empty kitchen with a gas stove and a couple of chairs, a modest fireplace and one bedroom containing a single bed, thin mattress and a quilt. Not even one sequin.

"Oh, I'd forgotten what a baby you could be." She shook her head, and plonked me down onto the spindly kitchen table. "Looks like a five year old and acts like one too."

A few hostile moments passed.

"I... I suppose I could... Live, without. The curtains."

She made no reply, still staring pointedly at the burnt fireplace.

"I thought all you wanted was me. That's what you said, Glinda. You said you didn't need any of the stuff that Chuffrey could give you. You know I can't afford... I'm not him. I never will be, and I don't want to. Poverty and love, that's all I have to offer." She turned, her mouth set in a firm line, but her shining eyes soft around the edges. I stood stock still, feeling ridiculous in my flowing gown. "Take me or leave me."

I rushed to her side, and grabbed her face to mine. I stared into her eyes, trying to convey wordlessly all that I felt.

"I love you. I always have. No amount of riches could ever take me from you again." and I kissed her full on the mouth, struggling to show her that I meant it this time. She leaned into the kiss, and I felt the salt of a tear wipe onto my face.

"There's only one bed." I spoke when we broke apart, my heart on fire.

"For God's sakeGlinda!" Angry again.

I put a finger to her grass green lips. "I like it. Reminds me of that trip on the train, to the Emerald City."

She blushed deep green. She obviously remembered those nights as well as I.

"That's what I thought of too. That trip was so..."

"Free? Naive?"

"Before life got in the way."

"We're together now. And nothing's going to bring us down."

But she heard the lie in my voice. Fabala was back there, and she knew as well as I that I couldn't leave her for good. And one day we'd be found- it wasn't a question of what if, it was a question of when.