Elphaba woke the next day with a groan. She wriggled around in the bed to find she was unimaginably sore. Half-asleep, still, she mumbled to Fiyero, "My god, what did you do to me last night?"
He grinned at her. "You don't remember?"
She paused and then sighed longingly. "Now I do. What time is it?" Her cheeks darkened when she found that her voice was scratchy and hoarse. Elphaba tried not to think of all of the times she'd cried out the previous night.
"Seven," he answered.
"How is it that no matter how late I'm up, I still manage to wake myself so damned early?"
"Elphaba, it's seven at night." He clarified, and then called for a servant. A second later, he added, "It would only make sense, since we didn't even get to sleep until nine this morning."
"Oh, yeah. Mmmm, I did so enjoy that shower. It must've been quite the long one, though. I just couldn't make myself get out of the water."
"I know. I was almost to the point where I was going to write to Glinda and demand that she undo that spell." Fiyero teased, stroking her hair.
"Don't whine. You liked it, too."
"Right up until the point when my skin got so shriveled it was about to fall off, sure." He chuckled. There was a short knock on the door and Fiyero tugged the blankets over them and then shouted, "You can come in."
A middle-aged Arjiki woman, who Elphaba assumed must be one of the servants, entered the room. "Yes, Prince Fiyero?"
"Tell me someone came in here to check on us when we didn't leave the room today, right? I don't care if it's our honeymoon, we haven't eaten and I would think that might concern someone."
"Bezien knocked and peeked in earlier, just to make sure you two were still alive." The woman informed him.
"All right. Just asking. Thanks, Perria. Would you be willing to whip something up for us and bring it in on a tray, if that's not too much trouble?" Fiyero requested, eying Elphaba's thin form beneath the silk.
"No trouble at all, Master Fiyero. Is there something specific?"
Fiyero looked at Elphaba. "Fae?"
"Anything. I'd eat just about everything right now. No meat." Elphaba grumbled.
"Double that. I'm starving." Fiyero nodded at the woman. "I appreciate it."
"Not a problem, Master Fiyero." The woman closed the door meekly.
Fiyero watched Elphaba snuggle up to him and wrap her legs around his own, hugging him warmly. He cradled her body against him happily. "We slept through our first day as husband and wife."
"I guess we did," Elphaba agreed. "But I'll bet we're not the first, nor the last."
"We're probably the first to take that long of a shower on our honeymoon. Hell, we're probably just the first to take that long of a shower altogether!"
"Stop making fun!" She pouted melodramatically. "I've never been in the water. It was nice."
"The part I thought was nice was when you were whimpering against the wall."
Elphaba climbed out of the blankets, tore a pillow from under Fiyero's head and smacked him with it. "It was our wedding night so we had sex. Stop glowing about it, damn it!"
"'So we had sex'? So we had lots of sex. And incredibly passionate, hot sex, thank you. Do you want me to tell you how many times you screamed last night, Fae?"
"You stupid male, you counted, didn't you?"
He only smirked.
Elphaba lunged for him, ready to fight.
The door opened and Perria walked in with some food on a tray. "Oh, sorry…"
Elphaba turned beet red and dove back under the blankets. "Just having, uh, a little… um…"
"Disagreement," Fiyero supplied, laughing.
Perria reached onto of the shelves near the bed and got a small, wooden bed-table, specifically for eating in bed. "Is that what they're calling it these days?" She handed it to Fiyero, and then reached for another one, which she handed nonchalantly to Elphaba.
"No, really," Elphaba protested, "We were having an argument."
Placing the tray on Fiyero's bedside table, Perria raised her eyebrows and headed towards the door. "I'll leave you to settle your differences, then. Call for me when you need me to pick up the trays."
When the door shut behind the woman, Elphaba giggled. "I think I like her."
"Didn't I tell you that you'd love this?" He kissed her.
She looked away. "Yeah."
But it was only so long before she began to stop loving their easy life. One morning, Fiyero found himself waking alone, being shaken awake by Perria. "Master Fiyero! You'd better come see this."
Fiyero grabbed for Elphaba and she wasn't there. His mind reeling, he asked, "Where's my wife?" Quickly, he pulled on a pair of pants and followed the woman.
Perria didn't answer, only led him into the first floor study. She gestured to Elphaba's desk. "I found this a few minutes ago, when I was looking to ask her what she'd like for breakfast. She wasn't in the bedroom with you when I peeked in, so I came down here. I didn't read it all."
On the desk, there was a newspaper, the previous day's paper, open to the back page. In bright red pen, someone had circled a small sidebar with the headline "Thirty Animals Killed in Accidental Fire, Ten Injured". "No," Fiyero shook his head. Beside the paper, he found a sheet of paper, a note labeled for him to read. He felt sick.
"Fiyero,
Please don't panic when you read this. I don't know why I'm asking you not to when I know you will, no matter what I tell you. I can't sit back and enjoy this life, not while this is still happening. When I married you, I swore I'd always love you, and I will, darling, I promise. But I can't stay here. I don't know what to tell you. You can't even imagine how terrible I feel, taking off when we haven't even finished our honeymoon. Don't come after me. By the time you find this in the morning, I'll be hours ahead. I wish I could do this and have you, too, but I can't and we both have to accept this. Maybe one day… wait for me, love, if you can. I'll understand if you can't. Oh, Yero my hero, I love you so much. I'm so sorry…
Love always,
Fae."
Fiyero put the letter down, shaking. How could she do this to him? She'd promised to wait and to try. If she'd had doubts like this, why had she married him? What made her think she could just walk out on him, after he'd done so much for her, after the mansion, after everything? He was fuming. Quietly, he said to Perria, "Have my travel bags packed for what could be an undetermined amount of time. Tell Bezien to tell the carriage driver to get the carriage ready for a journey to the Emerald City, no stops, not even for more than an hour's rest or bathroom break. Do you understand me?"
Perria nodded, "Yes, Master Fiyero." She fled from the room.
Fiyero pocketed the note, clenching his fists. Hell if he wasn't going after her. She'd get herself killed. And even if she didn't… Fiyero closed his eyes and brought a hand to his forehead. He loved her too much to let her do this. "Oh, Fae," he whispered, "why?"
Within the hour, he was sitting in the carriage staring out the window. He'd told Perria to explain to his mother what was going on in the briefest way possible. Fiyero wouldn't do it himself. She might try to stop him, or at least delay him. That couldn't happen.
The Vinkus passed by, day turned into night. His driver insisted on stopping for half an hour to feed the horses. Fiyero shrugged indifferently and used a bathroom quickly. He made sure to ask if anyone had seen an incredibly inconspicuous green woman heading towards the city. There wasn't a trace of her.
The driver was still feeding the horses when he returned. Fiyero nodded at the driver to take his time. He didn't want the horses slowing the journey later if they became malnourished. After a moment, the driver joined him as the horses nibbled at their food. "Urgent?"
"Very," Fiyero said. This was the same driver who'd taken he and Elphaba back to Kiamo Ko the day after he proposed. He shuddered; he didn't want to think about that.
"I don't know much about what's going on, but I wonder why you didn't take your new wife. You two seemed pretty attached." The driver did not mean to intrude, only to help.
"Yeah, we did."
"Is there something wrong with the marriage already, sir? You can explain it to me. I'm an expert. I've been married to Riana for ten years."
Riana was their cook. Fiyero tried to smile. "The reason she's not with me is why we're on this trip, my friend. She, well, she disappeared."
"Oh. Walked out on you or…?"
"Elphaba has a lot of passion. Unfortunately, there's too much for her to focus it just on me."
"What do you mean, if I may ask?"
Fiyero sighed heavily. "She pretty much ran off to join the Resistance, from the tone of the note she left."
"During the honeymoon?"
"She said she couldn't sit still anymore."
"Look, Master Fiyero, maybe sometimes people love other people more than it can be returned. Perhaps she didn't feel for you as strongly as you do for her. It's a hard thing to accept…"
"No." Fiyero cut him off. "It's the way she is. She just has so much enthusiasm, and she's dedicated it to me, to the Animals, to politics. But she can't have them all at once, and so she's changed her mind and decided to try for another rather than just me. When she gets stubborn about something, there's no changing her mind, not until later, when she realizes that she made the wrong choice, when someone gets it into her head."
The carriage driver nodded silently. "I certainly think she loved you. I hope for both of your sakes that you can salvage your marriage and convince her to return with you."
"Thank you, my good man. Let's get moving again, if that's all right."
The driver stood and reined the horses again. Fiyero crawled back into the compartment, alone on the bench, wrapping a blanket about him as the night air of the summer grew cold. He yearned for Elphaba to hold on to. For a moment, he wondered if she didn't love him as he did her, and then he began to cry.