A/N; I'm sorry for the unexpected hiatus friends. Covid and isolation really did a number on my writing. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. I love you all

Sadness and Secrets

Days had passed since that night, and things weren't getting any better. Fiyero had just gotten word that Miko was almost caught in the crossfire, and he was feeling torn. He was glad to be away from the fighting, glad to be with his friends and with his love, but that nagging sense of duty to his country had been pulling at him.

"What's wrong, Fifi?"

Fiyero barely looked up from his breakfast, seeing puffy pink skirts in the corner of his eye flop down before him. "Everything? Nothing? I dunno." he groaned.

"Is it something to do with what happened over the festivations?"

Elphaba. He should have known. He forced himself to look at his friend with a crooked smile. "Nothing I can't deal with. I always knew my time would come sooner or later."

"My, how very cryptic of you."

The grin slipped into a smirk at the familiar drawl behind him. "It's true though, isn't it!" he spoke as his girlfriend dropped beside her roommate and they ate their own breakfast.

"Oh, hush, being so pessimistic! That's my territory." she raised a sharp eyebrow. "You'll not achieve anything by wondering what if. And it's a long way off before you have to take over anything anyway. Got more chance of me taking over as Eminence in Munchkinland tomorrow."

He snorted while Glinda giggled.

"She's right, Fifi."

"Of course she is. It's Fae. The day she's ever wrong about anything is the day hell freezes over."

Elphaba scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"And anyway, I have a bone to pick with you. Why would you pick up a stranger on the side of the road with a letter for Elphie?"

"Because he's brainless and thought he was doing the right thing. I've had this argument already."

He nodded. "What she said. And knowing my driver as I do, if I hadn't of acted quick, he would have shot her."

"He wouldn't! Would he...?" Glinda gasped.

"For that journey, my life is in his hands, he has to do whatever it takes to protect the crown." he shrugged and he pushed his plate away from him, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Elphaba. "I don't have to like it but that's essentially what he's there for. So if I can stop an innocent woman being shot dead... well..." he finished with another shrug. He waited for them both to finish breakfast and the three of them stood up and left the canteen, noting a difference in their small group, Ollivander hadn't come down yet, and Boq was... well, Oz only knew what Boq was doing.

"You're thinking again."

He blinked and looked down at the voice who broke his train of thought, giving Elphaba a half-smile. "And you're still to blame for it." He teased. Glinda had left them for another friend she found in the crowd.

She sighed, ignoring the deflection. "Yero, what's going on?"

"I don't know," he answered truthfully once he realised she wasn't fooled. "I just... I wish I knew." it wasn't a conversation he wanted to early in the morning and right before class to boot, no doubt she would be concentrating on the lesson while his head would be somewhere in the clouds. He settled for drawing her closer to him by the hips as they walked.

"You told me it wasn't that serious."

"It's not! For now, at least." he hastened to reassure her, or himself, he wasn't sure about that. "I just mean being back here too. Haven't you noticed anything about Boq?"

"Like what?"

He shrugged. "He seemed a bit distant... angry, almost, when I tried to talk to him last night."

That piqued her interest. "He's been alright around me." in fact, he'd been nothing but courteous to her. A little distant, perhaps, she acknowledged. "What was he angry about?" maybe she should try and talk to him... She could catch him in her Life Sciences lesson just after Sorcery... "Never mind, I'll see if I can get through to him."

Fiyero nodded and walked with her to her Ancient Literacy lesson, parting after he managed to steal a kiss from her and he headed to his own class.

Elphaba found her seat next to where Ollivander should be but was nowhere to be found. Instead, she concentrated on looking forward and ignoring the usual glares from other students, which she was quite used to by now.

Fifteen minutes into the lesson, Ollivander sheepishly came into the classroom and swiftly took his seat beside his friend, muttering apologies to the teacher who had to stop midway through an explanation of Ozma the Terrible's early reign six centuries earlier.

"See me after this lesson, and we will discuss it then." the teacher glared in his direction before going back to the lecture.

"What happened to you?" Elphaba whispered.

"Uh... I'll explain after this..." he mumbled, not looking at his friend.

The witch cast a sideways glance at him, noting the turmoil there and she shook her head, turning back to her notes. "I'll copy what you missed so far."

"Thank you..."

Once the lesson was over, Elphaba hung back by the classroom door waiting for Ollivander to be dealt with by their teacher, grimacing when he was warned about a deduction in credits if he was late again. She left as he bounded his way up to her.

"I'm sorry." Ollivander told her once more.

"What's going on? First Boq and now you... Is something going on?"

He sighed. "I don't know." he told her truthfully. "I don't know what happened over break but Boq hasn't been the same since he came back. He seemed... angrier. And it's not like him."

"Did he say why?"

"Something to do with home."

She paused with her next thought. 'Home... it can't be Nessa... either of them would have said something by now... Home... home... ho-' "Oh no." her stomach dropped into her shoes.

"What?"

"His family. We have to find him."

He nodded and the two of them wasted no time in running, heading to the lesson where they hoped he would be. They got to Agricultural Sciences just as people were filing out of the room.

"Sorry, was Boq in the class?" Ollivander asked one of the students, who shook his head no.

"Shit!" Elphaba muttered.

"He could still be in his rooms?" Ollivander suggested. "We could try there. Maybe it's not as bad as we think."

"I admire your optimism." she smiled faintly and nodded. "Alright... let's check there." she sighed and they both headed out of the lecture building heading toward the boys' building, slipping inside unnoticed. Slowly Elphaba edged her way up to Boq's room and she knocked softly. "Boq?"

"What do you want?!" he yelled from behind the door.

'Shit!' she thought again. "What happened, Boq...?"

Ollivander waited down the corridor cautiously, watching her.

"Can I at least come in?" there was a long silence before the latch clicked. "I'll be fine," she whispered to her waiting friend before slowly entering the room, her breath hitching in her throat at the sight of her broken friend. "Boq...?"

"It's... it was my mum..." he whispered, his eyes and face too sore from crying to even care what she saw. "She was helping out in the market, I think... and two of the old buildings in the square collapsed under the weight of so much snow."

She gasped and dropped to his side. "I'm so... so sorry..." her eyes filled with tears and she gripped his hand. Suddenly the past few days made sense. "When will you go home?"

"Tonight... my dad will send someone for me from the train station."

"Do you need any help to pack?"

He shook his head. "No... maybe? I don't know... I still haven't told Madame Astoria yet."

"I can ask Ollivander to tell her you have a family emergency?" at least he wasn't angry now. If anything, he looked lost.

"Yeah... yeah I think that could work."

She jumped up to the door and peered her head around, beckoning Ollivander over. "Boq needs to leave tonight, family emergency, could you tell Madame Astoria?"

"Are you gonna be alright with him?"

She nodded. "He won't do anything now." she watched him reluctantly leave her and she closed the door before going back over to her friend. "Y'know, you've got a lot of people worried over you. And these angry outbursts aren't you either." But we all deal with grief differently...

"I'm sorry." he cringed, jumping slightly when he felt her arm go around his shoulder and a whispered; "don't be." into the air.

A moment later, Elphaba let him go to grab a suitcase from inside his closet and dropped it on the bed. "Come on, we should start packing if you're gonna leave tonight," she told him in response to a quizzical look.

Half an hour later they were done, and the door swung open revealing Ollivander with Glinda and Fiyero in tow.

"You were going without saying goodbye?" Glinda put on her best scandalised tone with a pout. "Biq you're our friend! Whatever has happened is clearly something big and we want to be there for you."

Boq stood in the middle of the room, dumbfounded and lost for words, grateful to have his friends around him, even if he had been awful to them. "I... I'm sorry for the way I acted," he said once he found his voice.

"Don't worry about it, at least it makes sense now." Fiyero grinned, causing Boq to laugh just a little. "Family comes first, whatever happened. Do you want us to come with you to the train station?"

Boq nodded, unable once more to find his voice, looking around the room at the faces he knew so well.

The group gathered around him, enveloping him within their circle and moments later, they were leaving the dorm and crossing the courtyard to leave campus. They made their way to the train station trying to fill the suffocating silence with talk of nothing and everything, and Boq didn't want it to end. Eventually, the train station came into view, as did the carriage Boq was meant to travel in.

"Please write to us when you get home?" Glinda asked, to which he nodded.

"Yeah... yeah I will." he turned and jumped into the carriage before they could hug him again, he didn't think he could handle the second time, barely waving to them as he was pulled away.

"Are you okay Elphie?"

She nodded, looking at Glinda. "Yeah... or... I will be." she sighed. "It's his mom. She..." she trailed off as they started to walk back.

"No wonder he lashed out." Ollivander cringed and Fiyero nodded.

"Yeah. Totally makes sense now."

"I'm not going to tell Nessa what happened. The last thing he needs is for her to take it upon herself to play the concerned 'friend'." Elphaba sighed.

Glinda nodded, linking their arms together as they made their way back to campus with a heavy air about them.