AN:

Sweet Oz! It is here. The absolutely final chapter!

Well, Everyone, I cannot thank all of you enough for your continuous support! Whether you just read or subscribed or favourite or commented or did all of this… You guys are really amazing! Without you I would not have had the endurance to finish this story.

A special shout-out for Elphabalover101, Elphaba'sGirl and NiatheWickedLover, who have been reading and reviewing from day1! Thank you so much guys!

Then I would like to thank The Wizard of Wicked for the one or the other suggestion/ inspiration along the way.

I also owe special thanks to MoonlitInuko! Our correspondence has been quite enlightening at times and surely had quite some influence on the story.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

There will be more projects coming up soon – 1 one-shot related to this story (but maybe not everyone's cup of tea) and 1 funny/silly one-shot. I have no idea whether I can even do funny/silly… I hope it will work out somehow lol

I am also going to fix up the existing chapters of my other story and as soon as that is done I'll start writing new ones. If you have already read it and plan to keep reading once I start updating again: I won't change much, so no worries. If you have not read it: It's not quite like ALTR, so I can't guarantee that you'll like it, but of course I would be happy if you'd give it a shot – once it's fixed that is, so keep your eyes open for the first actual update.

BUT for now I need a little bit of a break – way too many 4am updates! Desperately have to catch up on some sleeeeep!

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

So, and now for the last time here:

Happy reading!

xoxo MLE

Epilogue: This Gift or this Curse

It was late in the afternoon when Elphaba decided that it was finally time to slip away from the busy halls, packed with industrious servants and buzzing with an already too large crowd of wedding guests. Their 'Big Day' was going to be in a week's time and some of the invitees visiting from more remote regions, as well as a few special friends of the family, had already arrived.

To say that she was not the least anxious about the wedding would have been a blatant lie. She was tense, excited, daunted, ecstatic, full of fearful expectation and delirious with joy, in addition to so many other things; and all at the same time. Fiyero was better than her at keeping up the pretence, but she was certain that he was just as restless as she was. For tonight, however, all these worries were trumped by her entirely solitary trepidations about an experience of a very different kind. Her personal moment of truth was quickly drawing closer.

Nervously, Elphaba followed the secret passage that began with a hidden doorway in the library, then led her up a few winding staircases and finally ended near her old quarters in the southeast tower. She was glad that Fiyero's parents had agreed to host the festivities at Kiamo Ko instead of Kvon Altar, for here she at least knew how to escape the hustle and bustle for a few hours. She pushed the portrait of King Fiebarald II aside and squeezed through the narrow exit. Only a few more feet away, the door to her secret little hideout was waiting for her.

She pushed the ornate key in the lock and with a tired groan the door flung open. Stepping inside, she took a deep breath. This was her sanctuary. Beside her, only Fiyero knew about this place. To staff the allegedly unsound tower was out of bounds. Fiyero had invested much time and thought in renovating and furnishing these rooms.

There was a beautiful, antique bureau and a couple of bookshelves stocked with books she planned to read. Once in a while she would use the convenient shortcut to the library to exchange those she had already finished for new ones that interested her. Yes, reading was what she did most of the time when she hid up here and anticipating her need for comfortable sitting accommodations, her prince had provided a bed, a couch, a window seat and a comfortable, large armchair by the fireplace.

Although she was accustomed to being alone and in the past had, in fact, much preferred to withdraw herself from noisy company, she had somewhat changed. This also was something Fiyero seemed to have foreseen. It was true that there was no one up here who would ever disturb her, yet there was one other permanent resident. Scanning the room, Elphaba found that, as usual, Malky the white cat was already occupying the seat by the fire. At first she had been worried that he would get too lonely all by himself, but he was an old, sometimes slightly grumpy fellow and appreciated having his peace. Elphaba left the scraps of food she had brought for him on the floor by the door and crossed the room, making herself comfortable in the window seat.

For once she was not reading, instead her eyes followed the path of the sun with rapt attention. In the end she could not tell how long she had been sitting there, but at some point the sun had disappeared and the moon stood high and full in the night sky. Its pale light fell through the window and on her bare arms. She tore her eyes away from the silver orb in the sky and studied her skin's almost ethereal appearance in the moonshine.

Alone in their shared bed, Fiyero could find no sleep. After a good while of tossing and turning, counting sheep and some more tossing and turning, he turned the light back on and reached for the note his love had left him on the nightstand.

'Need some time to myself.

Don't wait up for me.

Love, Elphaba'

Well, whether he wanted to or not, his body had already decided that he would wait up for her anyway. From outside he heard the chime of the old grandfather clock. It was two hours past midnight. Why was she gone for so long and what did she need 'time for herself' for? She did not have second thoughts concerning the wedding, did she?

No, of course not.

Or maybe she did?

Maybe she was already gone? Maybe she had run away?

Yes, Elphaba could be difficult at times, maddening even, but deep inside he knew that this was something he need not to be concerned about.

Yet somehow he still was.

He grabbed his robe and made for the library.

It was a quick ascent to her secret quarters. He rapped at the door, but received no answer. Slowly he opened it. It was unlocked, which told Fiyero that she had to be here. Or at least had been here.

Entering, he almost stumbled over Malky who devoured the leftover sausages and slices of cheese in his feeding dish.

"Elphaba?"

The prince looked around, but not a soul to be seen. A candle flickered on the bureau and an oil lamp hung by one of the windows, but the room was still quite dark.

"Fae, are you here?" he tried again.

"What are you doing here?"

Hearing her voice, he felt an enormous wave of relief wash over him. And then a small splash of guilt.

"I'm sorry," he told the bodiless voice in the darkness, "I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I was just so worried…"

"Did you not find my message?"

"Well, I did, but-"

"Then why are you here?" Elphaba's voice repeated, slight exasperation apparent in her curt manner of speaking.

Fiyero lowered his gaze.

"I… was scared that you could have left me and run away. I know how unnerving this whole wedding business is for you… and me, evidently."

He suddenly noticed how thin his voice was and how shaky his hand.

"But you are here," he continued. "Right here. And well, I guess. So I think it's time for me to leave you to it and go back to bed and try and catch some sleep."

Just as he was about to turn around, he could see one of the curtains move and a tall, slender shadow emerge from behind it.

"No, it's fine," Elphaba said softly, "You may stay if you wish."

On her way in his direction, the light of the oil lamp illuminated her features and his eyes widened.

"Oh, sweet Lurline, Elphaba!" he exclaimed. "How? How did that-"

"A curse," she interrupted him quickly.

He followed her gaze and noticed the open book on the ancient bureau.

"'On creating monsters'?" he read the title of the chapter out loud and she nodded slowly.

"From now on it will transform me every month at full moon."

He could tell that she was nervous. Uneasily she shuffled her feet, her eyes barely made contact with his own.

"Well, you must have done something wrong, Fae," he chuckled. "You don't look like a monster to me."

"Oh, I'm sure some would disagree," she countered, not quite successful in trying to make herself sound nonchalant. "But yes, I did tweak the curse a little so its effect would be milder."

Fiyero stepped closer now, a big smile on his face.

"A genius is what you are, Elphaba Thropp. Pure genius!"

Before he could reach her, however, she held her hand out in a repelling gesture.

"Well, I was not completely successful," she admitted and the prince started to crane his neck and cock his head to detect whatever anomaly she could possibly be talking about, finding nothing.

"What is it?" he asked completely clueless.

She seemed to grow even more uncomfortable and began chewing her lower lip incessantly until she drew blood.

"Damn," she cursed under her breath. "I should be more careful."

Fiyero covered the last few paces between them and carefully lifted her chin with his index finger.

Forced to look at him, she inhaled sharply and inadvertently revealed two elongated, pointy fangs.

With a sharp motion, she turned her head away and blushing averted her eyes.

Fiyero only sniggered quietly.

Cupping her cheek with his hand and running his thumb over her tightly shut mouth, he offered her an affectionate smile.

"I think they are rather sexy," he whispered.

Then he leaned in to kiss her; hesitant at first, testing the new limits this transformation could possibly offer, but soon he was confident enough to deepen the kiss. And somehow he was able to convince Elphaba to let go of her hesitation and concerns and stop resisting.

"I love you Yero," he heard her moan in between kisses.

This was the first time since her memory loss that she had used his nickname and he could have cried for joy, but instead he simply held her so much tighter and kissed her with all the passion and love he could find in his heart.

It was hard to tell who took the initiative, but eventually they ended up on the bed, the restricting clothes discarded. In the light of the full moon their bodies and souls met in a fervent dance that was so much more sensual and powerful than anything either of them had ever experienced before.

Later, once the fire within them had burnt down and they were too tired and exhausted to do anything but, they just lay there, entangled in each other's embrace.

Lazily his fingers played with her raven curls.

"Fae?" he asked with a distant look in his eyes, "Is there any way at all to lift this curse?"

She stiffened and her breath caught in her throat.

"No, I… I don't believe there is," she choked out in a trembling voice.

"Good," Fiyero replied smiling and began planting butterfly kisses along her jaw line, down her neck and along her collar bone. "Thank Oz. Because I'm really looking forward to all those full moon nights with my green girl."

AN:

For everyone who hasn't read the book: Malky is actually Elphaba's cat in the book.

Concerning the fangs: As an adult book-Elphaba has perfectly normal teeth, but as a small child, her 1st teeth are razor sharp. Originally I wanted to go with that, but then I thought that it would be way too difficult to kiss like this – ever kissed a piranha?! So I just made her have fangs. I hope it's not to vampiry xD