Wounds of the Heart


A/N: I have no excuses. I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update. In my defence, my two months of volunteer work turned into almost a year and I'm still in Palestine, over 11 months later. For those of you interested, I work with a solidarity organisation in the West Bank and I had no idea I would stay this long, and no idea how consuming it would be. I rarely call my mother, I rarely write fanfiction. Anyway, enough about that, here's the new chapter. I hope you like it, I really, really hope you like it. If anyone is still reading please review and let me know your thoughts, all your reviews mean so much to me- I can't state that enough.


The three former friends stood in silence for what felt like an eternity before someone spoke again. It came as a great surprise to everyone that it was Glinda who spoke up first.

"You're not a scarecrow."

Fiyero scoffed. "Your powers of observation are astounding as always."

Glinda blushed and looked away. Elphaba was still struck dumb; she had not expected to see her former lover again, let alone with him returned to his original form.

"Have you nothing to say to me, Fae?" Fiyero inquired in a tone that Glinda couldn't place.

"Fiyero..." Elphaba finally said, she opened her mouth to speak again but no words came out.

Fiyero smirked at the green witch, "Why am I not surprised that you have nothing?" He shrugged and took a further step into the castle entrance; he shook his wet shirt and a drop of water splashed from the material onto Elphaba's bare arm. She hissed in pain as the water made contact, Glinda gasped and quickly dried the reddened area, covering it with her palm.

Glinda glared at the formed scarecrow and Elphaba stared at him with wounded eyes.

He shrugged, "My mistake."

The witches said nothing, though Glinda did not remove her hand from Elphaba's arm.

"Well," he said, "I don't see why we should all be stood to attention, especially as this is my castle after all." With that he headed towards the stars and took them two at a time in great strides. Halfway up he turned back to the motionless girls, "Are you coming? I believe we have a lot to discuss."

As Fiyero disappeared from view, Glinda moved her hand and checked the burn, "are you okay, Elphie?"

Elphaba slowly looked down at the red mark on her arm, then back up to meet Glinda's concerned eyes. "It's fine," she said, "it doesn't hurt."

"Can I do anything?"

"I suppose you should come up the stairs with me." Elphaba shook her head, disbelief still coursing through her veins. "I can't believe he's here. I can't believe he's himself." Elphaba turned back to her blonde friend and tried to smile, "I suppose it's a blessing."

Elphaba turned away from Glinda and followed the footsteps of the former Scarecrow.

"Wait!"

Elphaba stopped and turn around. "What is it?"

"Elphie…I…" She had so many things to say, so many things to ask. She felt sick, she was tried, she was confused, and she wanted to be held. Glinda wanted to forget all about Fiyero's sudden reappearance and beg to be held by her green friend, to kiss those soft lips again.

"Glinda, can we discuss more later? I think I need to go speak to him."

Elphaba turned away before Glinda could respond, continuing up the stairs.

Glinda, for her part, was unable to move. The shock felt as though someone had dropped her from a great height. Her pulse was rushing and her head was reeling.

For a moment she leaned a hand against the castle wall to steady her balance, noticing for the first time her bloodied knuckles from her 'fight' with the wardrobe earlier.

A thousand questions continued to throb through her mind, each fighting for dominance, although three kept repeating over and over.

Why is he here?

How is he himself?

What does this mean for Elphie and I?

With no answers in sight, Glinda shakily made her way up the stone staircase, still touching the castle wall to steady her shaky legs.


Fiyero glanced around the room and several objects caught his eye immediately. The first was a battered wardrobe, with what looked like dried blood on the broken door. He walked over to it and inspected its contents, empty.

The second was a glint out of the corner of his eye, and even from across the room he could see it was a knife. This was definitely something important, he could tell, and wondered exactly what this had to do with the rather nasty looking cut placed across Glinda's chest.

A thought crossed his mind and he grinned widely, oh this would be fun.

He turned to face Elphaba as she entered the room, he did his best to smile genuinely, and truly enjoyed the look of confusion painted across her green face. When he discovered her at Kiamo Ko, he'd wasted no time in travelling as fast as possible. And what a surprise to have found Glinda present as well? It was far more than he could have asked for; any other time he would have been truly curious about their 'reunion'. However, today was no time for curiosity, he had a witch to convince, a debt to fulfil, and time was running out.

"So, Fae, have you missed me?"

"Fiyero…I…" She could barely speak. "How are you here?"

"Well like most men I was born with two legs and I've been using them for quite a few years now."

Elphaba frowned, "don't be flippant, please."

"I don't see why I should be answering your questions, you are the one who is in my castle. Uninvited, my I add."

This question clearly flustered her, he could tell.

"I'm sorry, I followed Glinda here-"

"Ah, I see, so it's the other witch who has been trespassing? I'll take care of that later."

"Fiyero…what happened to you?"

"What happened to me? I'm returned, Elphaba. That's what has happened." His lips curled into a cruel smirk, "it's a wonderfying thing!"

Before she could respond, Glinda entered the room. Fiyero narrowed his gaze; even from afar he could see the thinness of her frame, the weakness of body, and that tantalising cut, though unfortunately, he noted, it had stopped bleeding.

"Well now we're all here! The fun can begin. So, Galinda, would you like to tell me why you fled to my castle?"

"I don't know why you've forgotten, but it's Glinda, Fiyero. The 'Ga' is silent." She said shortly, the tendril of worry in her stomach growing larger by the second.

He shrugged his shoulders, "My mistake. I suppose having straw for brains for so long affected my memory. Allow me to try again, why did you come to my castle, Glinda?"

She shifted uncomfortably, "I didn't think anyone would be here."

"Now I know you're not quite as dumb as you look, so how about this time you try actually answering my question?"

"Fiyero!" Elphaba cried out.

"What? Aw, did I hurt your feelings?"

Glinda's face had reddened and Fiyero could see her eyes had grown wet; clearly it would not take much to push her over the edge.

"N-No, I'm fine. It's fine."

"Really? You seem a little pale, skinny too. It's not the best look for you, Your Goodness."

"Fiyero!" Elphaba cried out again, she moved closer the former Scarecrow, "what in Oz has gotten in to you?"

He waved her off, "Oh, Fae, you're so touchy. Glinda knows I'm just teasing, right?"

"…Right," came back the uncertain reply.

"Now," he leaned casually against the castle wall and stretched an arm across his body. "Let's skip this and get down to what I really want to know."

Elphaba frowned, "what do you mean?"

"To be honest, ladies, I would like to know if you stabbed her, Fae, or if she did it herself? Either way it's a good day for me!"

Neither witch spoke. They stared at him in shock, both unable to utter a word. Fiyero crossed the room and bent down to pick up the knife lying on the floor. He casually walked over to Glinda and handed it to her.

"Perhaps you should finish the job right this time? It would certainly save me the trouble." He winked and was pleasantly surprised to tears stream down Glinda's face just as she turned to flee the room.

He clapped his hands together and grinned, immensely enjoying the look of disgust and confusion etched onto Elphaba's face. "Now that's out of the way, I have a proposition for you, Fae. I think you're gonna want to hear this!"


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