This had to be the third time, at least, that she double checked everything on her list. Elphaba didn't know why this was making her so anxious, this wasn't even that big of a task. But then again, what if she had missed something the first couple of times and this next run through would be the one where she caught something?

Screw it, Elphaba shook her head and went back into the pantry. She wasn't going to be at the markets with a sane state of mind if she didn't re-double check this again.

As she looked at all the labels of food, she made sure to spot the ones that were empty and jot them down in her notepad. Well, they were already jotted down, she made sure that she wrote down the correct item.

Apples, tea, yeast, rice…and on. There really wasn't that much, only less than ten items. Did she miss something? She didn't think so.

Just one more run through.

Ok, she finally felt a bit more satisfied at the fact that she had in fact written everything down and hadn't missed anything.

"I thought you left already," Elphaba jumped at his voice.

"Shoot, stop doing that," she laughed softly. "I would have, only I had to make sure that I didn't miss anything."

"You mean to tell me you've been at that for almost 30 minutes?" Fiyero arched his brow.

"What?" Elphaba glanced at the clock. Sure enough, she had been in the pantry for about half an hour. "Wow. sorry, it's just that for some reason I keep thinking I missed an item and kept going back to make sure and even though I do have everything, I still feel like I'm missing something and then I just have to go back in there just to ease my mind and -"

"Whoa, Fae, slow down," Fiyero rubbed her arms up and down. Her hyperventilating was worrying him. What had her so on edge today? It was so unlike her. "Are you really that nervous for the coronation? I thought that was my job," Fiyero joked.

"I…I don't know exactly what has me on edge today," she admitted. All she knew was that she'd woken up and for some reason this entire day has been stressful and now just writing down an Oz forsaken list was driving her out of her mind. "Maybe…maybe I am nervous? I have to interact with people. And I don't like people, especially foreigners," she moved away from him and started pacing the room. "I have morning duties that day and since Queen Baxiana wants me to be a server at the banquet that means I'm on all afternoon and night so if I don't get some rest today, I'm not going to be at my best tomorrow, which it seems like that'll be the case cause I need to get so much done today that I'll probably have to continue working well into the quiet hours and even then I don't know if I'll be able to finish on time -"

"Ok, ok, ok," he forced her to sit down. The fact that Elphaba didn't even try to stay standing told him how out of it she was. This really had her really stressed. But he didn't think that was all it. She'd been able to handle workloads way bigger than this when she was younger. That didn't mean it wasn't the reason she was stressed today, but it very much made Fiyero doubt it was work that had her on the edge.

Or maybe it was just this. Maybe this was a build up of pent up emotions she hadn't let out before. Either way, he could figure that out later, right now he needed to try to calm her down.

"Elphaba, take some deep breaths - deep - not short," he kneeled down in front of her and grabbed her hands. "Elphaba -"

"I really should get to -"

"No," he sat her back down. As he'd expected, she'd gotten dizzy the moment she'd stood up. She'd been hyperventilating too much.

"I'm going to pass out," Elphaba rubbed her eyes.

"No you're not, you're fine," Fiyero tried to reassure. "Just breathe as normally as possible, here," he breathed deeply and encouraged her to do as he did.

It took a couple of minutes, but Elphaba finally started to breathe normally.

"Do you feel better?" Fiyero asked, still concerned.

"Sort of," he could tell she was about to start hyperventilating again.

"No, Elphaba, deep breaths."

"Right. Right," she nodded and steadied her breathing. She squeezed Fiyero's hands, feeling much more grounded. "Lurline, I'm sorry Fiyero."

"Don't be ridiculous, Elphaba," he thought carefully before deciding on asking, "what's wrong?"

The green girl slumped in her chair. "I don't know," she laughed sadly, "I know that's not really an answer, but I seriously don't know why I'm so stressed out today."

"Maybe you're a bit overworked," Fiyero offered. "Do you need to rest today so you can just worry about tomorrow?"

"I'm already on food duty - "

That wasn't a 'no'. "Finish this, then we'll figure out what needs to get done while you go lie down."

Elphaba let out a shaky breath. Normally, she wouldn't want to take a break or not work, but today…she was just exhausted, physically and mentally. Maybe Fiyero was right, maybe she was a bit overworked. She'd barely had a chance to sit down all day yesterday. "Yeah," she exhaled. "Yeah, ok."

"Almost done with the list," this was good, they were running good on time.

"Fae, don't stress yourself out. This is the only thing you have to do today. Take your time."

That was hard. Even if she was going to have an easier day today, it didn't mean that the stress for tomorrow was gone. But Elphaba did have to admit that she was more relaxed than she had been all morning, and Fiyero was a big reason why. "Right," she nodded. Relax, take your time.

"What else do we need?" Fiyero asked.

"Um," Elphaba began. "We need tea bags, pomegranetes, and coconuts," she did a double take. Why was that on there? "Why is coconuts on here?"

"For the guests we have coming from that island…that I can't remember the name of right now," he needed to remind himself to look that up.

"Oh…yeah I can't remember the name either," but she knew which one he was talking about.

"Here, how about I take care of the tea bags, and you get the fruit? You're much better at picking out the best ones."

"Sounds good," she nodded, barely stiffling a yawn.

"You are really out of it," he rubbed her back.

She groaned. "Don't remind me, I might crash right here," she leaned into his touch then fixed her posture, rubbing her eyes and opening them wide. "Make sure to get the green ones."

"Will do," he said before they separated.

"Fiyero Tiggular?"

Fiyero turned around at the voice calling his name. "Sam? Sam Hendrex?"

"Hey!" The two men hugged.

"How long has it been?" Fiyero asked as he pulled away, still not completely over the shock of seeing his old friend again.

"Depends, how long ago did we get kicked out of Jeron's Community College?" Sam laughed.

"Good times," Fiyero laughed, remembering all the trouble he and his friend got into.

The two of them made small talk for a while, catching up with what's been going on with their lives. It turns out that Sam was married now and expecting his first child.

"Did you ever go back to school?" Fiyero asked.

"Planning on it," Sam nodded. "Once the kid gets a little older. What about you? Last I heard you were at Shiz."

"I was, I graduated a couple years ago."

"Really?! You managed to graduate? Who would have thought!" he patted Fiyero on the back.

"Not even my own mother, that's for sure."

"What are you doing here anyways? Don't you have employees that do the grocery shopping for you?" Sam asked, seeing the bags in Fiyero's hands.

"I'm helping out one of them," he said. "She's really stressed out today."

"Is she by any chance green?"

Fiyero was a bit taken aback by that. "Yeah, actually how…"

"That green girl over there has your family's crest on her skirt. Took a wild guess," Sam motioned behind Fiyero.

The prince turned around and sure enough, there was Elphaba. And there was a guy talking to her. And he was too close for comfort. "Yeah," his voice was a bit strained. He coughed. "That's her."

"Huh. Has she always been green?"

This had to be the most uncomfortable she's ever been in her life. And that's saying something. Apparently, this guy, about her age, maybe a little older, had just moved to the Vinkus with his family and had never been to this market before, so he asked her for help on where to find things.

She was more than happy to help, but once she'd pointed him towards the direction he needed to go, he'd stayed. Why? He didn't need to. And she was uncomfortable. She didn't know him, even if he'd told her his name, which she didn't even remember. He was standing a bit too close to her and he just wouldn't stop talking.

Elphaba got that he wanted to make conversation, but she still had a job to do, not to mention she wasn't interested in making conversation. Not like they could even if she'd wanted to. He wouldn't even let her talk. He just kept talking over her. And it was downright annoying.

"You seem cool," he smiled at her.

Now how could he know that if he hadn't even given her the chance to even speak two words to him? She put on a fake smile anyways. "Thanks."

"Say, would you like to hang out later tonight?"

"I'm working," she said immediately. Even though she technically wasn't, but a small little white lie wouldn't hurt.

"Oh, well how about tomorrow?"

"I'm still working," Elphaba said. Now that was true. There was a whole coronation she had to help set up and an after party she had to work in afterwards.

"Next weekend?"

"Still working," she laughed nervously. Couldn't he get the hint?

"Is there any day you aren't working?" he chuckled.

"Um," technically Sundays, but she wasn't going to tell him that. "Not really. I live at my workplace," she went with instead.

"You're a live in?"

"Mhm," Elphaba nodded.

"Oh. Well, can't you work something else with your employer? I hear they usually treat live-ins pretty well.

"Well," Elphba racked her brain trying to think of something that would make sense to say. "I really can't. My employer is very busy right now," she stressed. That was actually true. Queen Baxiana had a lot on her hands now that she was transferring power over to Fiyero. "She really needs all hands on for now," yeah. That sounded pretty good.

"Oh come on," Elphaba almost rolled her eyes. You come on, she thought. "You can't find one day to get out of work for a bit? Does your employer own you or something?"

Just as she was about to be blunt and say that she just didn't want to hang out with him because he was annoying, someone spoke before she did.

"Technically yes," Fiyero. "And I'd like to know what you're talking about with my underaged employee."

"Undera - have a good day," he waved at Elphaba and walked away from them, leaving Fiyero with a smirk and the green girl with her jaw to the floor.

"Seriously, that's it?!" she asked incredulously.

"What's wrong?" Fiyero smiled a bit at seeing how shocked she was.

"He's been bothering me non stop for over ten minutes. If I had known it would be my age that scared him, I'd have led with that!"

"Are you ok though? He didn't do anything to you, right?"

"Nothing other than bother me. Oz, I have to say my face hurts from plastering a fake smile," Elphaba rubbed her cheeks. "Thanks for the help."

"Anytime Fae," he smiled.

She playfully punched his shoulder. "My brother from another mother."

His smile dropped ever so slightly, but she still caught it and it made her frown. "What's wrong?"

"Hm?" Fiyero asked.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah," he shook his head as if to say of course.

But Elphaba still felt uneasy as they walked back to the castle. Had she said something? She thought back to their conversation, she couldn't think of anything she'd said that would've upset him.

Her anxiety lessened when he smiled at her as he sent her off to her room. It was genuine. She could let it go for now. She was so tired.

"What are you doing here?" Galinda asked when she entered the room.

"I could ask you the same question," Elphaba stifled a yawn and closed the door behind her. "How come you're here, I thought you were going to help with sewing the table cloths."

"I was. We finished earlier than we thought so we went ahead and started to set up the ballroom. Naturally, all that carrying heavy tables from one place to another made me sweaty and you know how much I hate being sweaty so now that I had my break, I took a shower and changed my clothes."

"Mm," Elphaba nodded.

"I still have a bit before my break is over. Then I'll help Piere with the silverware. What about you? I thought you were going to be busy all day."

"I was supposed to," the green girl belly flopped on her bed and smiled when she felt Galinda take off her headband and play with her hair. "But I've been so on edge today, I think I had a panic attack -"

"Are you ok?!" Galinda sounded horrified.

Without lifting her face from the bed, Elphaba, she reached out and felt for Galinda's hand, squeezing it tight once she found it.

"I'm fine," she reassured. "I guess I'm a bit overworked. At least that's Fiyero's theory. He sent me to just rest for the rest of the day."

"Oh," Elphaba couldn't see it, but Galinda was smiling fondly. "Well I'm glad he's looking out for you."

"Hm," Elphaba hummed, already half asleep.

"Rest well, Elphie," Galinda covered her with a thin bed sheet and lightly closed the door behind her after exiting the room. She wondered if she could find sometime during the day to have a little chat with Fiyero.

Something's telling her he needs it.

I am so sorry if this is all over the place and not making sense. I'm not sleeping well. Hopefully I can go back and make some edits. Also, I'm having a bit of writer's block, if anyone has any suggestions for this (and Hurricane if y'all would like) you're more than welcome to send me a message or leave a comment :)