(A/N: Thanks for reviews from the last chapter and thanks for reading!)


For the first ten seconds, Fiyero had absolutely no idea what was happening to him. His peripheral vision was suddenly non-existent, his heart was on the cusp of beating itself into cardiac arrest and his lungs had also, in a show of self-destructive stubbornness, refused to work. He was too young for a stroke, too healthy for a heart attack, he hardly thought he'd managed to trigger himself into a psychotic panic attack, for heaven's sake! What the hell was—her eyes locked steadily with his and- God, he had missed her.

"Fiyero! I can explain-" Somewhere to his right, Avaric was prattling out a terribly poor explanation, but it seemed his ears had selectively chosen not to listen, tuned specifically to just her.

"Your Highness."

Fiyero blinked at the title, frozen in place now for a whole manner of different reasons. Avaric's prattle came to an abrupt halt, the guard who'd let him in shifting nervously behind him. Whatever had changed in his posture, whatever he was doing now, it seemed he'd made his sudden anger all too apparent. He stood straighter, his expression shuttering off into a cool indifference as he pulled tightly at his jacket.

"Miss Elphaba." He said without inflection, "Why am I not surprised." And really, why was he? Of course she was in trouble again, in a jail no less, and of course she was with Avaric. When were those variables ever one without the other?

"Your Highness, Avaric-"

"It may have been three months since we last spoke, but I'm sure you remember my name Miss Elphaba." Fiyero spoke over her harshly, his expression offering no sympathy as she startled.

"I'm just being respectful." She said quietly.

"Oh by all means, whatever you're comfortable with." Fiyero said coldly, "I for one, would be more comfortable however, if you paid Avaric here the same courtesy you seem intent on serving me, Miss Thropp."

"Now Fiyero-" Avaric started, his tone berating.

"You know Avaric," Fiyero spoke over him impatiently, "I really can't tell if I find it endearingly amusing or just flat out hypocritical that you are the one preparing yourself to dole out admonishments in this situation." He turned slowly toward his friend, the sharpness of his smile harsh on his face, "I can't say I'm surprised really, it's only about the tenth time you've been arrested for petty crimes. However, I would enjoy to hear the story about how you somehow found a way to drag my-" he halted abruptly, "—how you managed to drag Miss Thropp into this."

"Well I-" Avaric began again, cutting himself off as the guard, who had momentarily forgotten why he was even there, finally found the key to their holding cell.

"You can tell me on the way back to the Vinkus." Fiyero ground out irritably, stepping out of the way as the cell door slid to the side. He let Avaric past him and was about to call Elphaba along too before noticing that the guard was relocking the door. Startled, he stepped forward to intercept him, "What in Oz do you think you're doing?" he demanded, "I've clearly not collected all my charges yet!" he gestured angrily towards Elphaba. The guard let out a squeak as his keys clanged to the ground.

"B-but your Royal Highness, Sir, majestic lord, sir, you only s-sent bail for M-master Ava-"

"Oh-" Fiyero let out a choice curse, "Bill me!" he said, shoving the guard back towards the cell door and gesturing at the lock.

"Your Highness, that really isn't nece-" Elphaba began as the guard obediently began fumbling with the lock. Fiyero whirled around on her furiously, startling her into silence as he pointed at her viciously.

"If you think for one minute that I am going to allow you to sit in a jail cell for the rest of the night…!" Fiyero trailed off, leaving his threat for what it was, "I understand my company revolts you, but at the very least it must be preferable to a jail cell!"

"I never said your-"

"Excuse me for the assumptions I've made in your absence." Fiyero snapped as the guard finally managed to unlock the cell door. Elphaba opened her mouth to retort hotly, but fell short as she saw the briefest flash of hurt in his eyes. He covered it quickly as he shoved past the guard to yank the cell door open himself. She didn't move and he let out a long-suffering sigh, "If you make me physically drag you home, I promise you, I will be even less pleasant than I already am."

"But honestly Fiyero, when are you ever pleasant?" Avaric said in the tense quiet that answered Fiyero's threat.

"You'd have to get that information from a second-hand source Avaric, seeing as it is remarkably difficult to be pleasant around you." Fiyero snapped at his friend before turning back to Elphaba, "Miss Thropp, I have not got all day. I have a fiancé and children waiting for me at home." Elphaba stiffened at his words and for a brief moment, Fiyero felt guiltily triumphant. The feeling fled him as she bowed her head slightly before walking out of the cell.

"Of course, of course, sorry, I don't mean to be so difficult all the time." She muttered.

"And yet you seem to manage just fine." Fiyero gave her another hard glare as he slammed the cell door shut behind her and began striding out of the room. As he walked ahead of her he took a moment to breathe, to let his hard mask fall slightly. It was…it was overwhelming to see her again and he didn't know at all where they stood. Exiting the police station he went to his car, briskly opening the passenger door for her as Avaric climbed into the back. She bristled at the gesture and his fist clenched around the handle in another brief flash of anger.

"I trust you can close the door on your own." He all but growled at her as he left her to get in as he circled the car to get to the driver's side.

"I didn't ask you to open it in the first place." He heard her mutter. He slammed his own door a bit harder than was necessary and then waited impatiently for her to close her own door and fasten her seatbelt. As soon as he heard the click of the seatbelt he peeled out of the station parking lot, his eyes staring straight ahead. The car was silent as he drove steadily down the road, the passing time doing nothing to calm him down for some reason.

"Avaric," he finally bit out into the silence, "I believe I was promised an explanation."

"Well you see," Avaric began, after a moment, "I came down here to see an old friend, you see and uh—I was just walking past Elph—Miss Thropp's grandparent's home when I heard some noises and so naturally, I went to the back of the house where I'd heard the noises to see what it was, and surprise, surprise I found Miss Thropp there, having clearly jumped out of a window from the third floor -" Avaric was cut off as Fiyero, in the span of two seconds, jerked the car to the side of the road before slamming harshly on the brakes. The car's occupants jerked forward and back as the car jerked to a stop.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Fiyero yelled at Elphaba, his voice loud in the otherwise silent countryside.

"Now Master Avaric explained it wrong, I climbed out of a window-"

"And fell in a bush-"

"Avaric shut up!"

"I beg your pardon, shut up?!" Avaric bellowed back as though he were some sort of sensitive queen.

"Avaric you are not helping!" Fiyero yelled at him.

"Well then, I think I'll just go in that case-" Avaric sniffed indignantly as he opened his car door. Fiyero hissed out a frustrated sigh.

"Avaric, get back in the car!" he said, twisting around in his seat.

"You know Fiyero, yelling at someone who's leaving because they were being yelled at, is not conducive to getting them back in the car!"

"Avaric, would you just get back in the car?" Elphaba asked, her tone not exactly patient. With another sniff, Avaric climbed back into the car. Fiyero turned back around, his hands white-knuckled around the steering wheel, his gaze boring intensely into the dirt road ahead that disappeared into the dark country night.

"Avaric, Miss Thropp, I apologize. I lost my temper." He finally said, his voice tight. Elphaba prayed Avaric wouldn't make another smart comment just because that was what Avaric did.

"Hmph." was the surprisingly short response Fiyero's apology got from Avaric. Elphaba just nodded, even though the King wasn't looking at her. Fiyero nodded to himself, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes briefly before starting the car again. The car started smoothly, and it was silent as they drove further through the night, no one daring to say anything else, not even Avaric.

Fiyero could still feel his heart pounding heavily in his chest, the rapid rhythm was, in a bittersweet way, familiar to him. It reminded him of the time she'd so stupidly run out on his roof, and when he'd woken up one morning only to find out that she was gone, as though she had never really existed. He could feel her presence next to him, and though he had reacted badly to Avaric's account of their predicament, he found her presence alone was slowly calming him down. He had missed her, he realized, more than he had ever thought. He realized now that she had ruined him and his whole family by coming into their lives, the minute she'd stumbled through his door in that sorry excuse for a dress, they'd been ruined…so much so, that the only way, the only possible way to fix things, would be for her to come back. As he drove further towards the Vinkus, a small warmth began building deep in his chest, knowing that she was back, that everything would be alright now.

"It's a left at the next intersection."

Fiyero was startled out of his thoughts as she spoke. It took him a moment to process what she was saying, because quite honestly it didn't make any sense to him.

"What?"

"At the next intersection turn left." She repeated, "My grandmother's house is in that direction."

Fiyero blinked in confusion again. He was about to ask her to kindly explain what the hell she was talking about before it occurred to him. From the minute they'd met again in that police station, they had both careened down remarkably different paths of expectations. She had never planned on returning to the Vinkus, and for some reason, it had never occurred to him that she wouldn't.

"Right." He finally muttered when she looked at him in his silence. He seemed to numbly turn left as she'd instructed, the information sinking into him, latching onto his heart and dragging it down. All of a sudden her presence next to him was all too fragile and his heart began its ascent into a furious rhythm. He was going to lose her again. As they headed down the road to her grandmother's estate, he had the burning desire to turn around and pound the gas until they were back home in the Vinkus, and her absence would become a distant memory they would never speak about. But she didn't want to go back with him. They wanted different things. In fact he didn't even know what exactly he wanted at all, just that he wanted whatever she didn't. He wished he could tell her what to want.

Almost ironically, it began pouring rain.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Fiyero murmured as he switched on the windshield wipers, leaning forward to peer up at the dark sky. He tried to keep driving, but eventually the roads became too muddy and he could hardly see anything, despite the windshield wipers. As lightning crackled the sky, it became all too clear that the storm would not be ending anytime soon.

"Miss Elphaba, I hope your grandmother will be kind enough to allow us shelter for at least the night in lieu of this raging storm!" Avaric yelled from the back over the roar of the rain, "Though I haven't the slightest clue what she has against us in the first place!"

Elphaba's eyes widened at the prospect of Avaric and Fiyero under the same roof as her and her grandmother. The very idea almost made her sick. The king for his part, seemed to sense her aversion to the idea and took it exceedingly personal.

"We'll only stay the night, Miss Thropp." Fiyero snapped, "Don't worry, you'll be rid of us by tomorrow morning." Elphaba wanted to say something, to send the message that she didn't hate him as he seemed to think she did. But the words died in her throat as she finally saw through the thick downpour that they were right in front of her grandmother's estate. And there her grandmother and father stood in the doorway, arms crossed, and waiting for them.


(A/N: Thanks for reading! There is a very small reference to a film in here if anyone noticed)