A/N: my silent reader, the Lafayette to my Hamilton, this one's for you Western Sorserez
Sadness and Secrets
Ochre stood, glaring at the male in front of her, dark eyes filled with rage, her full lips pinched into a thin line as she listened to his tirade against her, how she was becoming a liability to the cause and could very well blow their cover if she wasn't careful. "They are children Demarkus! They've only just entered their twenties, but they're still children! Especially when it comes to the unforgiving, deceitful world of politics!" she snapped. "They will be used as pawns in a cruel game and you know it!" her pale sharp features turning pink with fury.
"You speak as if they don't understand what they're in for! Did you not read the papers in the summer?! They're more than aware! One of them is a witch!"
"Headstrong and foolish!"
"One of them is a Winkie Prince for Oz's sakes! The great Oz himself isn't likely to declare war on the Winkies by harming their crowned ruler! And that green bean... I mean, what is it with her? I'll bet she's the witch among them. She can't possibly be green everywhere. I'd like to see if-"
"Oh, give it a rest! She's old enough to be your daughter!" she looked sickened.
"If I had one." He smirked lecherously. "Just because you walked away from your family. You can't make up for it by helping them out of something you know can't be stopped."
She glared and slapped him, walking away wordlessly, ignoring him shouting after her.
Elphaba found herself walking along the streets of the Emerald City, her arm linked with Fiyero's, and she could barely concentrate on the conversation he seemed to be having with her. He lead her inside a pub, accidentally knocking into a cloaked woman as he pushed open the door. He expressed his apologies as the hood fell away revealing the woman with tumbling, rich auburn hair and pale skin. Elphaba's eyes widened in recognition as the woman slipped away.
"Elphie!"
She looked around, unable to see the person calling to her, and Fiyero didn't react.
"Elphie!"
The green girl's eyes flew open, she sat up in bed with a sharp gasp and her heart thumping wildly in her chest. She glanced up seeing Glinda watching her with a concerned look upon her face, and then return to her bed.
"You were fidgeting in your sleep... Did you see anything else?"
"I... I'm not sure..." she admitted, and she hated to admit that her visions were getting more frequent. "I think it was... I think something happens that makes my aunt follow us to the city..."
"What do you mean?"
"Fiyero and I... we look a bit older, maybe like... a couple of years? We were walking down a street, he was talking but I couldn't really tell what he was saying... And he was in a Gale Force uniform... I ... we got to this pub and all I can see from this perspective is the red hair and pale skin and we'd just knocked into her... The me in the vision appears to recognise her, and I can only guess it's my aunt because she's the only one with red hair and pale skin who can walk."
Glinda listened with a thoughtful expression on her face. "But why would she come to the city with you?"
Elphaba shrugged. "None of this makes sense."
"Ooh! Are you wearing a ring?"
"Glinda!" she scoffed, almost telling her that there had been a thin silver band on her finger, and quickly decided against it. "No, I'm not." she lied with a smile.
The blonde pouted. "You're right, it doesn't make sense."
Elphaba laughed and shook her head. "Whatever, Lin..." she kicked off her blanket and stood up, heading to the bathroom for a shower.
Glinda picked up a small bag from the floor, examining the nail polishes within, humming quietly to herself despite her headache. After five minutes she heard the door knocking frantically and she got up from her bed. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" she threw on her pink fluffy dressing gown, grabbed Elphaba's thin blue one from her chair and she swiftly threw it inside; getting a "thank you!" in return before she went to the dormitory door and opened it. "Fiyero! What are you doing up here?"
"Hiding from Nessa." he winced.
Her eyes widened as if taking in his appearance for the first time. "What happened? Oz, you're bleeding! Get in here before somebody sees you." she dragged him inside and closed the door.
"Yeah..." he gingerly touched the cut on his chin and his cheek. "That would be because she knows that I know Boq wanted to break up with her, so she threw her shoes at me. For a half-Munchkin, she's got some surprising strength."
She giggled. "Don't let Elphie hear you say that." she smiled. "Stay here." She headed to the bathroom. "Elphie, I'm coming in."
"Glinda!" Elphaba screeched, hiding behind the shower curtain. "There is such a thing as personal space! Get out! And shut the door you're letting the cold air in!"
"Oh, hush, Elphie! You've got nothing I haven't seen on myself before, yours is just greener." Glinda rolled her eyes, grabbing the first-aid box from their bathroom cabinet.
Fiyero chuckled quietly at their bickering, for once not allowing himself to think too much on Glinda's comment on her friend.
"Get out! What in Oz do you need that for?!"
"Your sister took a good aim at your boyfriend with a pair of shoes."
"Hey!"
Elphaba let out a squeak at the additional voice, pulling the shower curtain closer around herself, her face burning with embarrassment. "I hate you," she growled.
"I love you too, Elphie!" she sing-songed and bounced out of the room closing the door behind her.
"You do realise I will pay for that little stunt later." She heard Fiyero tell her friend. "So will she!" she shouted.
Glinda waved her hand nonchalantly and pushed him into her chair. "Oh, she'll be fine." she started to clean up the cuts on his face and she patched them up. "There, all done."
"Thanks." he had to laugh and he stood up. "I'd better go wait outside so she can come out of the shower."
"And if you get asked why you're here?"
He shrugged. "I've waited out in the corridor for the two of you before." he grinned and left the room.
"Okay, Elphie he's gone outside," Glinda called.
Ten minutes later, the door swung open once more revealing a rather annoyed looking Elphaba, fully dressed, her still wet hair wrapped up in a towel on her head.
"I wasn't the guilty party. She dragged me inside." He held his hands up.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll get to her later." she sighed, her irritated expression melting, leaving behind a small smile. "You can come back in if you want to."
He nodded and followed her back inside. "If Glinda's worried, nobody saw me out there."
She gave him another slight smile. "Is that what she dragged you in here for? For propriety's sake?" she raised an eyebrow as she sat on her bed, drying her hair with her towel.
"Yup. I've had to remind her I've waited out there plenty of times for you both, I've even waited inside while you finished getting ready." he laughed.
She rolled her eyes and tied her still-damp hair into a ponytail and muttered a quick-drying spell. "Why did Nessa attack you?"
"I knew about the breakup. She found out."
"Ooh..." she winced. "I'm sorry."
He shrugged. "She doesn't know you know though, so don't worry about that." He sat beside her on the bed and leaned back against the headboard, wrapping an arm around her when she lay back with him. "It doesn't hurt now," he added when she gently touched the patched up markings on his face.
She nodded. "Still... she shouldn't have lashed out at you." she shook her head and decided to change the subject. "Have you started your Politics essay yet?" she questioned with a raised eyebrow, although she already knew the answer.
"Of course I have...not... I've been meaning to, but I keep getting distracted."
She scoffed loudly. "Distracted, indeed! By what?"
"You," he smirked and she slapped him on the chest.
"You're incorrigible."
"Beat me all you want, it's true."
"I'm sure you enjoy that more than you should." She rolled her eyes, her finger tracing a pattern on his side where she'd memorised the location of those curious, stunning blue diamonds.
"Well, now that you mention it..." he laughed when she dug her nail into his skin. "Je t'aime tout mon coeur."
She blushed and bit her lip, continuing to trace her patterns.
"Un jour tu les verras."
Her blush deepened and she buried her head into his shoulder. "Arrête ça," she spoke softly.
He laughed quietly and kissed her head. "Comme vous le souhaitez."
A short while later, Glinda emerged from the bathroom wrapped in her dressing gown after her own shower and she collapsed on her bed with a soft groan. 'Oz, I definitely feel like I'm coming down with something...' she thought poutily.
"So what's the plan for today?" Fiyero looked between them both, deciding it best he didn't comment on how ill Glinda was starting to look. He wasn't that stupid, thank you very much.
"Hiding in here so that I don't have to face Nessa?" Elphaba huffed. "Or... go to the library to start your essay that needs to be completed by Friday." She gave her beloved a pointed look.
"I vote to stay here," he answered almost immediately, earning an elbow to the side. "Think about it, if you leave the dorm, the chances of running into your sister greatly increase, which means you have to face her and answer questions you don't have the energy nor the patience to answer. She can't get to you up here."
"An uncalled-for jab at my sister," she smirked.
"But true." He grinned.
"You're a terrible liar anyway, Elphie." Glinda put in.
"Thanks. I love you too," she said sarcastically.
"Can't I just leave it until tomorrow?" he tightened his embrace.
"No." she tried not to laugh and tried even harder not to give in to him as she lightly poked his side. "Come on, move it."
He groaned and seemed not to notice her hesitation. "But I'm too comfortable."
She rolled her eyes and forced herself out of his arms and she got up off the bed. "Fiyero! Déplacez-le maintenant!"
"Fine." He pouted and got up, watching her grab a pile of books and put them in her bag. "My future wife is the brain of Oz."
"Arrête de dire ça!" she picked up her pillow and threw it at him, making him laugh.
"No, because it's true, you are."
"No, I'm not, because you haven't even asked me yet. And even if you had, I'd have rejected it." She put the bag on her shoulder.
"I know, I know. After graduation." he grinned. "But in my head I have, and I've already got the perfect proposal planned." He couldn't resist winding her up even if it was true.
"Ooh! What is it?" Glinda perked up.
Elphaba took that cue to shove him to the door. "Don't even think about it. And you, go and see the school nurse, you look horrendible."
Glinda pouted and said nothing in response, her best friend was probably right.
Fiyero laughed and dragged her out the door with him. "Fine. Be that way. But I'll not stop thinking about it."
"Oz please don't give yourself a headache."
He closed the door behind them and then kissed her lightly.
"No, you can't kiss me to make me forget about your essay." she shook her head and rolled her eyes. Yes, he can, and it works. The voice in her head piped up.
"I can try." He put his arm around her waist and left Crage Hall with her, avoiding Nessa as they walked, and they headed to the library building.
"No, you won't, not this time." She smirked at his questioning look. "I have a job to do in here, so I'll be checking up on you." she handed over her bag which held her notes, taking out a few of the books to take them back to the librarian. "Go on."
"You tricked me," he pouted, making her laugh and he watched her walk away. He walked off to find a table to sit at and make a start on his essay.
Elphaba walked to the desk where the librarian was seated.
"Ah, Miss Elphaba. I'm sure you're not due in today. Are you returning your books?" she smiled at her.
"I know, but it's the only way I can get Fiyero in here and actually work." Elphaba laughed with a nod and handed over the books.
The woman shook her head at her with another smile and a raised eyebrow. She quite enjoyed watching them tease each other and making each other laugh. "It'll backfire on you one of these days."
"Until then I'll keep doing it."
"You can make a start in the back room if you like. It is in a bit of chaos, I will warn you..."
"Thank you." Elphaba grinned and headed to the room in question, her dark eyes wide at the sight before her. "Chaos? Yeah, no kidding..." she muttered, wondering where to start first. It would take her a few long evenings for her to get it back into order, she was sure.
Half an hour later she heard a knock on the door, she looked up from a box she was currently rifling through. "Come in!"
Fiyero walked inside, looking around the room. "Did you have another episode?" he smirked.
"Very funny."
He laughed at the sarcastic tone. "What are you doing?"
"Finding my way through the mess." she smiled and deposited the box on the table beside her. "Is everything okay?"
He shrugged. "You got another note. I found it when I was looking through your essay notes." He held it out for her.
She slid off the table and walked over to him. "What does it say?" she took the piece of paper from him. She vaguely recognised it from the invitation she'd received from the Wizard all those months ago. Somebody from the Palace is doing this... She realised.
"Nowhere is safe, not even with the guards. I'll come for you again in time, and this time you won't escape unharmed." The words were imprinted in his brain no matter how much he tried to shake it off, he watched as her face hardened.
She glared at the offending piece of paper, shoving it in her pocket. "It's fine, I'll deal with it."
"Fae, no. You need to be careful, whoever this is is deliberately targetting you. You should at the very least tell the guards or Madame Astoria."
She scoffed. "And what exactly are they going to do? I said I'll deal with it."
He growled, frustrated at her stubborn behaviour. "Elphaba, this isn't a game. You're being threatened by someone you don't know in a place you should feel safe!"
"Oh, I didn't know that! Thank you so much for enlightening me!"
He clenched his jaw and rolled his eyes at her. "Why are you-...? You know exactly what I meant."
"And you don't need to worry about me. I can look after myself, Fiyero, I did it for a long time before you, and I'll continue to do so with or without you."
He covered up a flinch at that by averting his gaze for a second. "Tough luck for you then, Elphaba. Because I do. I'm always gonna worry about you and I'm always gonna want to protect you, regardless of whether you can do so yourself or not."
She sighed and bit her lip, hearing the hurt in his voice and she immediately felt guilty, hearing the use of her name and not her nickname served to hit her directly through her heart. Hearing him call her Elphaba was foreign to her now. "I know... I'm sorry..." she closed the gap between them to wrap her arms around him. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"I know." He wrapped his arms around her waist. "I just don't want anything to happen to you. I know you can look after yourself, but you don't have to do it all of the time. That's what I'm supposed to do if you'll let me." He held her close and rested his head on top of hers.
"Nothing will happen, I promise. Let me take care of this." She closed her eyes.
He nodded slightly, taking the note back from her while she was distracted, slipping it into his trouser pocket and quickly returned his hand to her back. They stayed there for five minutes, both unwilling to move from the comfort they provided each other.
"How far did you get with your essay?"
He shrugged. "Not far, I was just starting it when I found that."
She nodded. "Come on, I'll come and help."
"What about all of this?"
"It can wait. Trust me it's gonna take more than a few hours to get through this lot..." she smiled and they both headed back to his desk.
A couple of hours later, she finished reading over his work, writing in her own notes and she passed it back to him. "There, now all you have to do is rewrite it with those points and you're done." she smiled.
He nodded. "I'll get to it later. Well... After I take you out tonight."
"What are you up to? We're already going out this weekend."
He grinned. "I know. And I want to tonight as well," he told her. "I want to take you to something I found a couple of weeks ago when you met up with your aunt again."
"What?"
"You'll have to wait and see." he knew she hated surprises, but he couldn't resist this one. He shook his head at her pout. "Nope, for once, that's not going to work." He planted a kiss on her cheek. "Go on, you've got work to finish."
"Fine." she pouted again and stood up, leaving him alone.
He laughed quietly and packed away the notes and left the library, only returning through the day to bring her food.
Later in the evening, he waited outside Crage Hall for her, not paying any attention to the guards patrolling nearby.
"Well, your face is certainly looking better," Glinda commented as she walked out. "If you're waiting for Elphie, she's been summoned to Nessa's room. I've gotta go, I'll be late and Olie will leave without me." she grinned and skipped away without letting him get a word in.
He blinked, watching the blonde dressed in pink feathers and he shook his head. "What in Oz..." he muttered, shaking his head. He looked around, making sure the guards weren't looking at him and he slipped inside the building, setting off for Nessa's room at the end of the corridor on the ground floor.
"Nessa, there will be others... Boq is not the only boy in school." Elphaba tried to console her sister.
"But I don't want anyone else!" Nessa sobbed. "I want him..."
Elphaba sighed quietly and hugged her. "I know... But I did try to tell you, Nessie... I thought you'd sorted it out?" she looked up seeing the door open and Fiyero quietly slip inside.
"We did! I listened, I really did!" Of course, she had, sometimes Boq had to be reminded of his duties to her but she had listened... hadn't she?
He shook his head slightly as he caught Elphaba's eye over her sister's shoulder.
"Is it because he's not over Glinda? Is that what it was? Because she's pretty and she can walk and-"
"Alright, enough." Elphaba gently took hold of her sister by the shoulders. "Nessa, you're beautiful. The reason you can't walk isn't your fault, and one day someone is gonna see that too." she sighed. "Yes, we know Glinda is pretty too, Oz, she'd be the first to admit it and we all know it. He will never fully be over his crush on her, but he also would like to see her happy. And she is. Ollivander isn't the right man in his eyes but for her, that's exactly what he is. And Boq would never hurt Glinda. He didn't even want to hurt you."
Nessa nodded.
"Besides, come on... Boq and Glinda together? The day that happens is the day the whole world falls apart, it would be a disaster!" Elphaba smiled, attempting to lighten the mood.
Nessa wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "You must have seen Fiyero talking to Boq at the dance that night... did he tell you what they talked about?"
Elphaba froze for a split second. "Nessa, I can go longer than a minute without looking for him you know."
"Liar, you always look for him."
She shook her head. 'So it makes me feel safe knowing he's there. Is that so bad?' she thought. "Nessa, you have to remember-"
"Did he tell you?"
"I didn't have to." Fiyero stepped in, finally making his presence known. "We all knew it was coming, we all tried to tell you."
"It was just a case of when and not if." Elphaba finished, a little relieved at his help.
"Get out!" Nessa turned in her chair to glare at him. "This doesn't concern you."
"Nessa, if Boq didn't ask his friends for help, he would have stayed unhappy, and he would have ended up resenting you, and would have gone elsewhere eventually." Elphaba sighed. "At least doing it this way he-" she was cut off by her sister's slap. Her dark eyes narrowed at the petulant looking eighteen-year-old and she bit the inside of her cheek briefly to stop herself from lashing out.
Fiyero watched as his girlfriend's hands twitched before curling into fists in her lap, and for once, he was nervous for Nessa. He'd seen her magic in action, both controlled and not, it intrigued and frightened him in equal measure.
"I'm going to allow that one," she spoke in a deadly calm tone and then stood up. "But I'm going to let you cool down because if you think I'm going to carry on this conversation right now, you can forget it." She crossed the room to Fiyero.
Nessa scoffed. "You never react! You make this big show of self-control, but you won't do anything! No wonder father could always do what he did, knowing you would never do anything to protect yourself!"
"Nessa, that's not a good idea," Fiyero warned as the nearby mirror cracked and splintered, the glass clattering noisily to the floor. He didn't dare touch Elphaba right now, no matter how much he wanted to. He saw the obvious fire in her entire body consuming her and her self-control rapidly waning. All he could do was stand in front of her, pointlessly hoping to save Nessa from an outward reaction.
"No! She should be on my side! She should be there for me, not talking my boyfriend into leaving me!"
"She did no such thing." He defended her, shaking his head. "Nessa you know the truth! You know she's told you countless times to change your attitude with him."
"What the hell do you know anyway! You can't talk! With your track record, I'm surprised you haven't-" Any further words were silenced, but her mouth kept moving. When she realised what had happened, she glared daggers at her sister, no doubt soundlessly cursing her apparent nonexistent soul. Elphaba had still not made a single sound, despite casting the spell to silence the tirade.
The furious witch walked around her boyfriend, stalking back to her sister like a predator cornering its prey. The urge to do more to get it into her sister's head was there at her fingertips, but she hung on to that last thread of control as though it were a life raft on violent waves in the ocean. "This is going to be the final time I reprimand you for interfering in matters that do not concern you and bringing up the past when there is no need. You want a reaction? Remember this." she loomed over her sister, green fingers gripping the arms of the wheelchair so tightly they almost turned white. "You throw that around like he's the worst man in Oz as if he's the only one to ever do something so stupid. When will you listen? I don't care who he was with before me. But that's not even why you're saying it. You're not saying it to make me jealous. You're trying to make him feel guilty for his past actions. For what purpose? So he'll get so angry with himself that he'll think about leaving me because he doesn't want to hurt me? Nessarose, that will never happen, I won't allow it." she told her. "Fiyero is not at fault here. And I am not the reason you're acting like the spoilt brat you've unfortunately been raised to be."
"You had a hand in bringing me up too." Nessa spat voicelessly and gaped when she felt her cheek stinging. Her sister had finally slapped her.
Fiyero jumped into action when Nessa's books were sent flying from the shelves as soon as Elphaba had snapped. He grabbed her and pulled her away from her sister. "Come on," he told her gently, cringing when he felt the violent tremors in her arms. She was past angry now and he didn't want her to make herself more upset. he gripped her arms tighter and dragged the frozen woman from the room, hoping his grip wasn't going to mark her skin as a result later. "Walk away now, Fae. That's the reaction she wants." he kept his tone quiet.
She allowed him to move her out of the room and close the door behind them. Fury and anger left her body as soon as she was out of her sister's sight and she turned to him for comfort, wrapping her arms around him tight and burying herself as close as she could to him.
"Shh..." he hugged her close, letting her hair loose from its braid and he ran his fingers through it, an action she couldn't even bring herself to smile over. It took him ten minutes to calm her down.
She sighed. "I... I've never..."
"I know." He kissed her head. "I know. Look, go and get your coat. What I've got to show you will cheer you up."
She smiled a little and shook her head. "I don't feel like going anywhere..."
"Go on," he urged gently. "It'll be better than sitting around feeling guilty over a perfectly justified reaction. Even if it did scare the hell out of me."
She giggled softly and nodded, reluctantly pulling herself away and she headed up to her room, grabbing her coat from the back of the door and made her way back down to him, slipping the coat on as she did.
He held her close, making no comment on how thin it was, but made a mental note to talk Glinda into getting her a new one. He lead her out of the dormitory building and off-campus.
"You're not even going to tell me where we're going?"
He shook his head with a grin as they walked. "Nope. That would ruin the surprise," he told her as they left Shiz behind.
The pair walked for over an hour, talking about everything and nothing all at once.
"You know I don't believe the awful things she says about you, don't you?"
He nodded, smiling at her. He had his doubts sometimes, and he did feel ashamed of himself, and he resolved to try harder to be the best man he could for her. "Of course. You know I'm not proud of what I did. You saw that front when nobody else did. Fae, I already told her of my intentions, I've told her how I feel about you and it's nothing you haven't heard before. Let her throw it at me, I'll take it for as long as I have to, and if you have any doubts about us, about me, then I'll do my best to make them go away."
She smiled and decided to let the matter drop. Her eyes cast down to the river as they walked by. "Where are we?"
"Just a bit further, up here." he walked her up the shallow, rocky embankment by her hand into a wooded area almost identical to the poppy field where they once set a Lion Cub free.
She stood frozen to the spot at the scene before her. Animals of different species conversing as though it were normal, living amongst one another in what appeared to be their own makeshift community. "What...? I don't understand..."
"Temporary Animal camp before they find somewhere else to call home," he explained. "Unfortunately, nobody knows what happened with Doctor Dillamond, but I'm sure we'll find him eventually."
She nodded, stunned into silence.
He grinned. It wasn't often she was speechless. "Come on." He took her hand again and pulled her towards the trees, closer to the Animals.
"How did you find this place?"
He shrugged. "I got restless and started practising my hunting skills. First, it was just regular animals, then..."
"He lost his balance up in a tree and ended up in the river." A grey Rabbit snuffled with a smirk. "Good to see you a little drier, Master Fiyero."
He rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah. That. Only came out of it with a sprained ankle too!" he boasted proudly.
"Oh, so that's what happened! You told me you just fell out of a tree. I hadn't even noticed the change of clothes."
The Rabbit tilted his head up at the green woman curiously. "You brought a friend?"
"Rohin, this is Elphaba, my girlfriend." Fiyero grinned.
Rohin hopped tentatively towards the two of them, circling her slowly, sniffing at her legs before looking up at her. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Elphaba."
Elphaba remained still and silent until he was done and she nodded. "You too, Rohin. I must say this is quite the surprise, Fiyero."
"I thought you might say that." He nodded still grinning as they were lead further into the camp.
"So, you have an interest in the Animal community, Miss Elphaba?" Rohin queried.
Elphaba nodded. "Yes, I guess so... I'm going to try and help bring Animals back into society when I start working with the Wizard... That's the hope, anyway..." she explained, seeing the camp only strengthened that resolve. "And I want to find Doctor Dillamond."
"Master Fiyero did mention it... He was your teacher, was he not?"
The two of them nodded at the question.
"I hope your plan works, Miss. Although I'm not sure how other people would react to us after a u-turn in events." A Bear spoke up.
Elphaba nodded again. "I will. We both will." she motioned to Fiyero.
That evening, Elphaba forgot about her fight with her sister and got to know the creatures she looked up to and admired. The family of Docks that had alerted the Animals to Fiyero's fall in the river were swimming teachers. Rohin had been a Lurlinist minister in Quadling Country. The Bear had once been a student. The doctor who treated Fiyero for his injury had been a Penguin. She was told of Bahdlum, a Lion who was a carpenter and builder who was out looking for somewhere else for them all to set up camp.
Hours later, they said their goodbyes and Fiyero walked her back to the university.
"I can't believe you found that place." Her voice was still full of wonder.
"You liked this surprise then?"
She smiled. "I wasn't too impressed with the hunting thing, but... Yeah, I did."
He held her closer. "I know. But remember, back home there are no Animals. How was I to know any different unless it's pointed out to me? Which, by the way, I've been told they will do if they ever find me hunting that way again."
"Good. At least I know that you would never deliberately hurt them."
He kissed her. "Never. I guess with a declaration that they'd be protected, we could send them towards the Vinkus... At least they'd be safer." he mused and shook his head as they stopped outside of Crage Hall, a guard glaring at them both for being outside long after curfew. "I'll see you tomorrow." he smiled.
She nodded and gave him one last kiss. "Goodnight."
"You will one night. We both will, I'll make sure of it."
She rolled her eyes at the innuendo and walked inside without a word. He could have sworn he saw her smirk before the door closed.