A/N - Heh. So where were the rest of you on that last chapter? Disappointing, if you ask me. But I'm posting anyway. Thanks to my friend Chris, who pretty much inspired this entire chappie, and to Yero My Hero for proofing me, because I'm too lazy to do so. Review, guys, c'mon, please? Only a few chapters left...
"Here, eat this stuff. You need it more than I do," said Fiyero later, just as the dusk was closing in on them. "You're too thin, Elphie." His sapphire eyes glanced over Elphaba's thin, willowy body.
"Fiyero, please. I can take care of myself. I'm a big girl. Really." She hoped that Fiyero hadn't seen her steal a fleeting glance at herself. Elphaba had noticed her ever-decreasing weight, too. Usually she could hide it, but when she was bare, it was difficult to ignore. The skin stretched tightly over her protruding ribs frightened the both of them. She took the food from Fiyero's outstretched hands. "Thanks," she said meekly.
"No problem." Fiyero sat next to her and watched her eat, making sure she ate every last bite. He hadn't known her that long, but he felt like he had known her his whole life. Fiyero only wanted her to be safe and healthy.
"What are you staring at?" she asked him. "You're making me uncomfortable."
She still didn't believe what he had told her about liking her for who she was. Taking a deep breath, he mustered the courage to voice what he had been thinking of since the day with the Lion cub. "Elphaba."
Elphaba smiled, showing her white teeth - a pretty contrast to her emerald skin. "What now, Fiyero?" she asked, more fond than irritated.
"I love you." He came straight out with, no more playing, no more pretending. It was out in the air, nothing left save Elphaba's reply.
"No," she said blankly. "You don't. No one loves me. This was one sick joke to play on one socially inept green girl, Fiyero. I expected better from you." She stood, brushing the bread crumbs from her skirt.
"I'm not deceiving you, Elphaba, and you know it. Why are you-?" He wanted to ask her so badly why she was so afraid, why she denied any possibilities of love, why she tried so hard to hurt herself with her own words. She sensed this, cutting him off before he could say anything.
"My life, over the past three years, has become increasingly like a raindrop, Fiyero. My chances, which were always miniscule, have gotten even smaller. I don't have the capacity for 'love'," she said, refusing to meet his eyes.
"You don't? I could've sworn that-"
"Stop it! Just, stop-!"
"Elphaba, shh! Listen," Fiyero said at the sound of footsteps marching through the thick wooded area. Walking to edge of the clearing, Elphaba took his hand and pulled him back.
"Don't," she said. "They only care about me if I'm with someone. I won't have you being that someone, Fiyero." Her response was intense and filled with passion.
"You do care," he whispered in her ear, hoping for her response to be something remotely positive. Well, Elphaba positive, anyway.
"Of course I do, you dunderheaded fool!"
Fiyero gave her a quick kiss to quiet her. "Shh, they're still around. Do you think..?"
"That it's my pagan worship cult?" she asked dryly.
"Pagan worship?"
Elphaba shrugged. "I don't know what they are, really. I heard they were against the Wizard, so I signed up. I could've joined a fucking sex cult for all I know."
Fiyero gave her a wary glance, hoping she was joking.
"Yes, Fiyero, I'm kidding. If that's the term that you want to use for it, that is. All I know is we're a bunch of radicals attempting to kill the Wizard, and go vegan at the same time."
"They're gone," Fiyero said, gently prying his hand from Elphaba's, just to make sure.
"No," she said, snatching his hand back. "Don't you dare go alone, Yero my stupid hero. If they're waiting, you're as good as gone." She gulped.
He nodded, and led her out of the clearing to the trail. To Fiyero's relief, the path was empty.
Wrapping his arms around Elphaba's now shivering body, he led her back to where they had made camp. "Sit," he commanded, pointing to the log. "You're exhausted. I can see it."
She sat obediently. "You're not lying, are you?" she asked quietly after a moment.
Fiyero sat next her, taking her hand. "Lying? Me? Never. At least, never like that," he added, when Elphaba gave him a look. "Ever since that day, I've been thinking about you. You know that, I can tell you do. I've tried to convince myself that I was happy with Glinda, but, for Lurline's sake, I wasn't. Not as her beau. I need someone, as crazy as that sounds. I need you."
Elphaba took a deep breath. She wasn't used to the things she was feeling. She couldn't say it. She couldn't. As much as she wanted to, the words, 'I love you', were stuck in her throat, and she didn't think that they would ever come out. Fortunately, in a sense, they didn't have to.
"You don't have to say anything," he said quietly, sounding almost hurt.
She gave him a pathetic look, then said, "Fiyero, sometimes I wish-"
"Don't wish," he said. "The world will only let you down, Elphaba. You, of all people, should know that."
"I know. But sometimes, one can't help it. You know?"
He smiled. "Yes," he said softly, his voice full of…regret? "What do you wish for then, Miss Elphaba?"
"I wish…that I could be beautiful. Just one day, and I would happy," she said, turning her eyes from him to examine their locked fingers.
Fiyero smiled. "Why wish for something you already are?."
Elphaba glared at him "No. I want to be…Glinda beautiful. For you. Don't lie to me and tell me I am." For him. That was it. Elphaba hated the way she looked, but as long as Fiyero…loved her, she would be satisfied
"It's not lying. It's…looking at things in a different way."
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Sure."
Fiyero quickly brought his lips to hers, kissing her with the fierceness that he wished Glinda would allow. But did it matter how hard he kissed Glinda? There had never been anything between them aside from two children playing house. That was it. There was no electricity between them. But with Elphaba, it was different. Oh so different.
Elphaba jerked her head up, alert and looking panicked. "Fiyero, there's someone in the woods."
"What? Where?" he asked, looking around frantically.
"I don't know. But I hear someone crying. Faint, but it's there, Yero. Tell me you hear it! Tell me I'm not crazy!"
What could Fiyero say? He didn't hear anything. "Elphie…I don't hear anything," he said gently, pushing a tendril of her black hair away from her face.
She squinted her eyes at something in the distance, causing Fiyero to turn around. "A house…I see a house." She looked to him, her eyes distant and glazed. "Nessa!" she cried. "It's Nessa, I know it is!"
"Nessa? What's wrong with Nessa?"
"I don't know!" she cried, standing. "I have to go, Fiyero. Something's wrong, she's in pain or something!"
Fiyero grabbed her shoulders. "Elphaba. Breathe. Calm down. What's going on?"
Elphaba shook her head. "I don't know, Fiyero. Believe me, if I did, you would know," she said softly, her eyes slowly regaining focus.
"You have to leave," Fiyero said softly. "Where to? Will you come back to me?"
"I need to get to Nessa. I don't know if I'll come back," she said regretfully.
"Wait. Kiamo Ko. My castle, go there. It's not far from Nessa, if she's where I think she is."
Elphaba smiled, putting Fiyero's over-sized jacket over her thin frame. She quickly braided her hair and swept her trusty 'witch' hat onto her head, covering her eyes and making them look even darker and more shadowed than before.
"Forgetting something?" Fiyero asked.
"What?" She turned, and, seeing the broom, took it from Fiyero's hands. "Thank you," she said.
"Elphaba," he said as she grasped the broom between her hands. "Please tell me that we'll see each other again."
"You know I can't. Not without lying, anyway."
"It might not be a lie," he said softly.
"Maybe not. But do you need worry about that, Fiyero?"
"No," he said softly. He looked at her. "You are beautiful, you know."
"No. I'm not."
"You are," he said.
Elphaba looked down at herself, her ribs hidden. Being told she was beautiful made her feel, well, confident for once.
"Like the hat, by the way, Elphie," Fiyero said, trying to lighten the mood.
She nodded. "Scene for dummies, Fiyero."
Fiyero watched in awe as she effortlessly rose into the air, casting an eerie shadow to the ground. She didn't look down to him. Maybe she wanted to forget Fiyero's face in case they never saw each other again. She didn't seem the kind of person to want to remember pain.
And for the first time, she looked, well, wicked.
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"Where is she?" His voice was cold as he spoke. Monotonous. It scared Skyla shitless. She had seen him mad before, but never like this.
"I…I..I don't know!" she stammered, backing away from the shadowed form as he advanced on her. "She went to the palace, like I told her-"
"What?" His voice boomed loudly in the small slum where Elphaba had once lived. Everything Skyla had recognized from earlier was still there; the books, the papers, everything. Could Fae's disappearance have been unplanned? Skyla shook her head in disbelieve.
He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her into the light. She gasped as he revealed his horribly disfigured face. He pressed her against the wall, pinning her shoulders between the wall and his big body. Skyla winced and whimpered, trying to hold back more emphatic sounds. "What did you tell her to do, Baye?" he asked, sneering at her name.
"Get off of me," Baye breathed.
"Tell me what you did, Baye," he responded without moving.
"I told her to go to the palace. To cause a commotion. To get the Force involved. That's it, I swear, Morfran."
Morfran smiled, then slapped her face, hard. "I told you to never use my name, Baye."
Baye could only glare at him, hatred radiating from her body.
"Why did you give her an idea? You're not that stupid, Baye. I expected better from you. You have totally, completely, utterly betrayed me." He pushed Baye to the floor and she smacked her against the cold, rotting wood. She lay there for a moment, breathing in the musty air as Morfran stood over her, breathing heavily. He snorted, a show of his despise, and kicked Baye in the stomach. She called out in pain, crying and sputtering. "Solve this," he said bluntly, walking to the door.
Baye sat up slowly after he had gone. She immediately broke down, pressing her little fists into her eyes, trying to hold the tears in. She didn't want to cry, she had done so too often. But it was too much. Everything had been too much.
Skyla only wished that Fae could know the reason that she had spent so much time invading her privacy. Fae was irritated by her, and she knew it, but it was the only place that Baye felt safe…from Him. From Morfran.
Safe from the pain that he shrouded over her once bright and happy life.
Baye couldn't let Morfran do the same to Fae. She had to save her.