AN : Do you remember holiday movies where celebrities would appear in cameo roles? Since this is a holiday fic, I have some Wicked characters popping up here and then. There's Dorothy and Toto in the last chapter, so who's next?

They waited outside the door for more than thirty minutes for the police to turn up, and then went downstairs to the only bench in the motel when nobody did. Two men in blue finally appeared an hour later, after Liir had fallen asleep in Elphaba's arms, and they led the duo to the third floor.

The room was trashed, as much as a barely furnished room could be. The wardrobe door was ajar, the drawers yanked open, and the quilt and bedsheets were ripped from the bed. There was a crushed can on the bed, brown liquid soaking through the mattress, and a piece of luggage on the floor, its contents strewn all over the place. Fiyero could see shirts, jeans and children's clothes. He could also see a few pieces of undergarments. He sneaked a glance at Elphaba and found her blushing.

Thankfully nothing was stolen; there was nothing worth stealing. Elphaba and Liir had travelled light, and she had her cash with her when she left the motel room. Liir, who was roused from sleep by the noise made by the police officers, was ecstatic when he found that his teddy bear was unharmed. One of the police officers passed the soft toy to him and he climbed into Elphaba's arms with the teddy and promptly fell asleep again.

The motel manager finally turned up and permission was given for Elphaba to collect her belongings under supervision.

The motel manager also offered her another room for the night.

"No," Fiyero responded immediately, and everyone looked at him. Elphaba glared at him.

"There's no way I'll let you stay here. What if the burglars come back? What if they are armed? Think about it."

"They won't come back. Not tonight. And it's just for one night, Mr Tiggular. I'll look for another accommodation tomorrow."

"You're coming with me."

"What?" she looked as if he had grown a pair of feelers on his head.

"You're going home with me. Both of you."

"I don't think it's a good idea to wake up your family in the middle of the night."

"I live alone."

"I can't inconvenience you."

"So you would rather stay here, imagining the worst with every creak and sound? Would you rather have me stay awake the whole night worrying about Liir? About both of you? You can't put him in such a dangerous situation." The mention of her son softened the look on her face.

"I can take care of myself. I can't trouble you."

"You can. I'm giving you permission to trouble me. This is not open for negotiation. Unless you're hesitating because you really believe that I have a dungeon at home."

She shook her head.

"Look, if you really feel bad, you can do something for me. Mop the floor, cook, fix a faulty light. Or you can edit my memoir."

She chuckled briefly, and Liir stirred in her arms. She patted him gently until he fell back into deep sleep. He took it as consent.

"I'll pack your things for you."

"No." She shook her head again, blushing slightly, and he recalled the undergarments, her undergarments on the floor. "I'll do it. Can you please carry Liir for a while?"

He nodded, his hand brushing against her coat as he reached out for the sleeping boy and cradled him against his shoulder. It did not take long for Elphaba to finish packing, and she raised the topic again when they walked to his car.

"There are a few motels around this area. Perhaps some of them will still have rooms available," she suggested.

"That's out of the question," Fiyero replied as he unlocked his car. He handed Liir back to her and put her luggage into the car boot. He then buckled the boy into the booster and tucked the soft toy into the crook of his arm.

"You know something? I lied. I'm a kidnapper, and I'm now officially abducting both your son and your luggage."

It was past three when they finally reached Fiyero's apartment. He had turned on the heater and lights on the way back, and he shrugged off his jacket the moment they entered the house and hung it on the coat rack by the door.

Fiyero placed the luggage against the wall and closed the door behind him. He reached out for the boy, bringing him into his arms easily, a process that they were now familiar with, having done it several times that day.

The Arjiki carried Liir up to the loft with Elphaba following behind.

"Mommy?" His eyes fluttered open when Fiyero lowered him onto the bed.

"Yes, sweetie?" Elphaba ran her hand through his hair and took off his jacket.

"Where am I?"

"You're at my place, buddy," Fiyero explained. "Go back to sleep."

"But I haven't showered," the boy mumbled.

She chuckled. "It's alright. It's late. You can shower tomorrow morning. Here's your teddy." She tucked the teddy bear next to him.

"Goodnight, Mommy." His eyes began to close again.

"Goodnight, baby." She kissed him on his cheek.

Elphaba was on the floor when Fiyero came out of the shower. Her luggage was opened, and her nose crinkled as she inspected her clothes.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She brought another shirt to her nose.

"I don't know. It smells terrible."

He picked up one of Liir's shirts and smelt it. "It smelt like alcohol. Beer maybe. And the shirt's damp. I remembered seeing a can of beer on the bed. I assume you didn't drink it. Was it from the bar fridge?"

"Ugh!" She found the culprit – a few of the shirts were soaked with the said beer. She had packed them in a hurry and had stuffed all the clothing together, and now all of them were stained.

"Why don't you just dump everything into the washing machine? They'll be dry before morning. And you might as well take a shower at the same time."

He might as well speak in alien. She stared at him.

"Look, you are going to stay here overnight. Your clothes are all dirty. You have been out the whole day. Liir can get away with not taking a shower because he's asleep and he's a child, but I don't think you should. Neither should the clothes stay dirty. I can lend you one of my shirts, but I don't have pants of your size."

She turned red at the last sentence.

"I'm not trying to be funny. It's simple logic. You'll only get dirty again if you put on your dirty clothes after you've showered. And I don't have a female friend that I can call at 3 am for an emergency loan."

"Unless you prefer a rug?" He pointed to the rug under the coffee table.

"A shirt will be fine," she muttered, her face still red.

"So how long will you be here?" he asked when she came out from the shower. He had passed her the longest shirt that he could find, and still, the shirt barely covered her thighs, revealing a pair of shapely, pearly green legs. Her hair was wet, and it almost reached the small of her back. And while he knew that she had most probably found a clean pair of shorts or something, he could not help but wonder what she was wearing underneath.

Or not wearing.

He turned away before his brain went into overdrive and slid the mug of hot chocolate that he had prepared across the counter to her.

"Here. Have something hot."

She muttered her thanks and wrapped her hands around the mug.

Elphaba had been busy with Liir or sorting out the clothes since she came here, and now she finally had the time to look around the place. The house was decorated mostly in white with an open concept kitchenette and high ceiling in a minimalist design. A bachelor pad, the type that graced the cover of a lifestyle magazine for singletons who had never experienced the joy (or pain) of scrubbing crayon drawings from a wall. A staircase led to the loft where the bedroom was. There was a painting on the wall, splashes of blue, green and other colours that could mean anything from a sunset to a couple embracing to the inside of a disturbed mind. Full-length windows lined one side of the room, opening out to a balcony, though all she could see then was mostly a reflection of the lit kitchenette and, in the middle, a man and a green woman who was showing way too much skin.

She tugged at the shirt and tried to smooth out the curls of the fabric at the hem.

"So how long will you be there?" Fiyero repeated his question, not remembering if she had answered it when she had so distracted him. She looked up and flushed when she realised that he had been looking at her.

"I'll look for another motel tomorrow," she replied as she let go of the shirt reluctantly.

He laughed when he realised that she had misunderstood his question.

"No, I'm not asking you to leave. I'm asking how long you will be here, in the city. How long is your holiday?"

She opened her mouth and then closed it again.

"Another long story?"

She shook her head. "Just a few days."

He could not help but chuckle at how little she was willing to share. He'd found out the answer sooner or later.

"I'll look for another accommodation tomorrow," she repeated.

It was his turn to shake his head. "Stay."

Her eyes widened in surprise.

"It's going to be a hassle to move in and out. My place is available, and it's no trouble."

"I can't possibly trouble – "

"Didn't I just say that it's no trouble?" He narrowed his eyes. "Let me guess. You have never given anyone any trouble in your whole life, never asked anyone for help. You were born knowing how to walk and talk and file your taxes."

"Of course not." She exhaled.

He put down his mug and opened his arms.

"Come here."

"What?" she spluttered.

"You need a hug."

"I don't." And just when he thought that she could not turn any redder.

"Hugs are good for you. It releases oxytocin which reduces stress. You're all tensed up and stressed enough as it is, with Liir missing yesterday and someone breaking into your motel room today."

She continued to stare at him.

He beckoned at her with his fingers.

"No." She shook her head and then pretended to be very busy sipping her drink.

"Really?" He raised his brows. "This offer is not going to last forever. How do they say it? 'While stocks last'?"

She chuckled, but she still shook her head.

He chuckled, dropping his arms as he remembered how she had not even dared to touch the door of her motel room when his hand was on the knob.

"It's late. Why don't you go to bed? You can share the bed with Liir."

"What about you?"

"I'll take the couch."

"No, I can't. I have given you enough trouble. I shouldn't take your bed too."

"It's a very comfortable couch." He decided not to tell her that he had a housewarming when he first moved into the place. There was loud music, lots of food and too much alcohol, and around midnight he had found nerdy Boq from IT losing his virginity to Milla, the redhead from Accounts, on that very same, very comfortable couch. There were just some things that you would not talk to someone you barely knew. He shook his head to clear his head of the memory. "And I'm sure Liir will want to see you when he wakes up in the middle of the night and finds himself in a strange place."

"Thank you," she said with a faint smile, and he could not help but smile back.

"Come on, it's late. It's bedtime."

"I'll wait for the washing to be completed."

"Just leave it. You can take it out tomorrow morning." He could not believe that he was talking about such a mundane, domestic topic with someone whom he had just met.

She shook her head. "No, I'll wait. I have my books to keep me company."

"And I have control over the switches. Come on, the clothes can wait. I'm sure they won't resent you for leaving them in the dryer overnight."

He took his time to wash the mugs and wipe the table though, long enough for the dryer to chime and Elphaba to take out the clothes. She folded them neatly and placed them on one of the stools.

"Goodnight, Ms Elphaba," he called out when she climbed the stairs.

"Goodnight, Mr Tiggular."

Fiyero lay on the couch. As he drifted off to sleep, he heard a child calling for his mother in the dark. He imagined her reaching out and pulling her son into her arms as she spoke, her fingers running through his hair, comforting him, her voice soft and mellow.

"A ceiling bed!"

"It's a loft, Liir," his mother corrected him.

Fiyero opened his eyes, and he saw a boy looking down at him from above.

"Good morning, Daddy!"

"Liir, it's – " Elphaba sounded exasperated.

"It's alright," he told her. "Good morning, Liir."

The boy rushed down the stairs and stopped when he looked out of the windows.

"Mommy, look at this." He gaped at the view outside. Elphaba stopped next to her son. They could see part of the city outside, even the Emerald Tower in the distance. The mountains served as a backdrop, and the sky was clear, the colour of baby blue.

"It's beautiful."

"I bought this apartment because of the view. Fell in love with it the moment I walked through the door. I like how bright and airy it is. The agent brought me to other houses after that, but no, nothing but this one. You can call it love at first sight."

"Love at first sight," she repeated, amused.

Liir propped onto the floor next to him with the teddy bear. Fiyero reached out and cupped his cheek, and the boy grinned.

"Good morning, Mr Tiggular," she greeted belatedly. "Liir, you got to brush your teeth, and a shower."

The boy rolled his eyes and tucked the teddy into Fiyero's arms before he stood up and followed his mother to the bathroom.

"Why do you call Daddy Mr Tiggular, Mommy? He's not my school teacher." Liir asked when they were brushing their teeth.

"It's a form of respect, Liir."

"So why didn't you call me Mr Liir?"

Elphaba laughed. "Of course not. You're just my little boy. Next time when you're older, there will be people who will call you Mr Liir."

"I guess it means Meena's mommy does not respect her daddy then. Because she never calls him Mister."

"Meena's mommy can call her daddy by name because, well,", Elphaba paused for a moment as she tried to think of an appropriate answer, "they're family."

"We're family with Daddy now, Mommy. So are you going to call Daddy 'honey' like what Meena's mommy does?"

Elphaba choked on her toothpaste.

She knew that Fiyero had overheard their conversation when they came out and there was a grin on his face.

"Is he usually so chatty in the morning?" he asked nonchalantly.

She smiled. "I'm sorry if he's too talkative."

"He's not too talkative. Trust me. He's such a lively child." He opened the cupboards overhead.

"There's cereal and hot chocolate in the cupboard, and eggs and milk in the fridge." He pointed out. "And you can help yourself with the coffee machine."

Liir was already seated at the counter by the time Fiyero came out of the shower, a bowl of cereal in his hands.

"I'm sorry I didn't prepare anything. I don't know what you like," Elphaba apologised.

"No worries, I can help myself," Fiyero waved her apology away as he went to the kitchen top and popped a capsule into the coffee maker before he decided what cereal he wanted for the day.

He settled down on the opposite side of the counter.

"So where do you want to go today?" he asked them.

"The park?" Liir replied before his mother could respond.

Elphaba turned to her son. "Liir, the park is near to a train station. Why don't we go there on our –"

"I'm free today, so let's go together." She looked at him sharply, and he remembered what she had said the night before, about not wanting Liir to get used to having a father figure around. And he wondered if she had been let down by men too many times.

"I don't like the train though," he changed the topic. "I was robbed on a train when I first came here. At knifepoint." He pointed his spoon at his throat like a weapon.

Worry crept into Elphaba's eyes.

"But that's an isolated incident. I have taken the train many times since then without any problem. And since an experience in the Emerald City is not complete without trying out its public transport system, we shall take the bus, and the train."

Liir cheered.

The nearest bus stop was a ten minutes' walk away. Liir walked between them, and he commented enthusiastically on everything he saw.

"A bird!"

"It's flying. Look at its wings!" He imitated the flapping of the wings.

"Wow, Daddy, there are so many leaves! Can I bring one home?"

"One, two, three, so many birds!" He ran towards the birds that had descended onto a field and were pecking at the soil, and they flapped their wings and took off squawking, incensed at being disturbed by a laughing boy.

"What is this?" He traced the outline of the interlinked O and Z on one of the older street lamps, its base green with oxidation, and Fiyero told the boy how this particular stretch of road was among the first place to be installed electric lamps in the city.

"Flowers!"

"Is this the train station?" he pointed to an entrance to an underground shelter. (The answer was no).

"There's someone inside that house."

"Is that snow?" (No)

"Do you think the park will be crowded today?"

"Do you think Teddy will be lonely at home?"

The trip on the bus was uneventful, though a few passengers did stare at Elphaba when she boarded the bus, but they soon lost interest and turned away. Eight stops later, they got off the bus and went into the train station. The station was on the main line, and the train was crowded with locals and tourists alike. Fiyero led them to a corner, away from the crowd.

"it's just five stops, but the next stretch could be bumpy," he warned them.

Elphaba nodded, and she pulled the boy closer to her.

The train stopped at the next door, and more passengers came in, pushing the trio deeper into the corner. Elphaba lifted Liir into her arms, and Fiyero pressed his palms on the walls beside her, forming a little corner of their own. He spread his legs to keep his balance as the train sped through the uneven tracks, and he thought he could smell the scent of his shampoo on her even when the air was a mix of perfume and food smells.

They got off at their destination, glad to be out in the cold again.

"Mommy!" Liir pointed at something big and round behind a row of trees. It was a Ferris wheel. Even from a distance, they could see the colourful design on the capsule walls as the wheel turned slowly.

"That's the amusement park," Fiyero explained.

"Can we go there?"

Elphaba pretended to be annoyed. "First, you want to go to the park and now you want to go to the amusement park?"

"Can we go there tomorrow?"

"We'll talk about it tomorrow. We're here." She pointed at the bronze gates in the distance, and Liir ran over.

"Faster, Mommy. Faster, Daddy."

The park was large, sprawling a few hundred hectares, and they had to look at the map inside the entrance to see where they wanted to go. There was a huge playground in the middle of the park, and they made their way there.

Along the way, there were statues, sculptures, fountains, trees and ponds. There were also benches and pavilions scattered around the place, offering enough resting spots for the visitors. It was winter, and most of the trees had shed their leaves, leaving their bare, grey trucks stretching into the blue sky.

Elphaba stopped almost at every fountain and statue and read the words on the plaques, and Liir would go to her and read it together, their lips moving in silence. It seemed to be a ritual between mother and son, something that they had done hundreds of times before.

"You really do like history," Fiyero commented after the fifth plaque or so.

"Don't you find it interesting? Who commissioned this statue, when it was erected and for whom? It's just a few short sentences, but it says so much about the life and times of that era. This one," she touched the bronze dress of the soaring angel. "The model that posed for this statue is the wife of the first captain of the Gale Force."

"And how did you know that?" he asked.

"I read it from a history book."

"You must have read many history books in your life."

Elphaba shrugged. "I was surrounded by books when I grew up, and most of them are history books."

"It must be boring," Fiyero guessed.

"I love it."

"Don't you hate it?" She looked at him, not knowing what he was talking about. "I mean, don't you hate it when you have to keep reading the same kind of books?"

"Why would I? Tell me, Mr Tiggular, would you end up hating kind-hearted souls if you grew up surrounded by them?"

Fiyero chuckled. "Oh well, I guess not. And stop calling me Mister." He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. "You make me feel older every time you called me Mister."

She smiled but said nothing and moved on to a sculpture. It was a woman on her knees, her hands raised to the sky.

"Look at this." She pointed at the words at the base of the figure. "'Woman in tears'. But doesn't she look as if she is smiling?"

"Smiling at what?"

"Maybe she saw an angel in the sky?"

Fiyero laughed at her optimism and followed her as she moved on.

"You know. You can call me Fiyero, or Yero, if you like."

The enigmatic smile on her face remained.

The sound of the traffic lessened when they moved deeper and deeper into the park, and they could hear the chirping and calling of different kinds of birds from the trees. There were other visitors nearby, but the park was so large there was enough space for everyone to walk around without disturbing one another.

They stopped at a lake. There was a series of boardwalks connecting to a pavilion in the middle of the lake where a choir of singers were rehearsing for their performance.

They leaned against the railing and listened to the different groups practised their respective parts before they came together. They sang through the first verse before the conductor asked them to stop and gave her comments. Some of the singers tittered, but all it took was a stern word from the conductor before they straightened themselves and tried again. The second round was better, and the choir managed to hit the chorus before they had to stop again.

A herd of swans swam closer to the pavilion, perhaps attracted by the singing, and Liir tried to attract their attention by waving a blade of grass at them.

"Here's some munchie, big birds," he called out, but the swans ignored him. Fiyero laughed.

Elphaba's handphone chimed, but she ignored it.

Just then, the choir started to sing again. This time, they managed to sing the song from start to finish. They clapped and burst into laughter when the conductor praised them for the effort put in. Elphaba joined in the applause, and Fiyero followed.

"I'm tired," Liir announced. "Can we rest over there?" He pointed to the field.

Elphaba nodded. Fiyero went first, and he settled on a spot of his choice. Elphaba selected a place a distance away. Liir, the boy who had claimed that he was tired seconds ago, was running around his mother, pretending to be a swan and flapping his arms. He ran wide circles around the field, once, twice, three times and then 'landed' with a loud crashing sound (seemed that he was not a swan anymore, but a plane) into his mother's arms. Elphaba laughed as she ruffled his hair, and he lie down on her legs and declared, "I'm tired!" and made his mother laugh again.

He sat up immediately, looking around and spotted Fiyero sitting where he was. Liir patted on the ground next to them, inviting him over.

Fiyero jumped to his feet immediately.

By the time he went over, Elphaba had taken out her phone and was reading a message. It was the first time Fiyero saw her using the handphone, and it was only then that he realised that he had not reached for his phone the whole morning; a first for him.

Elphaba frowned slightly as she typed out a reply. Her phone rang less than five seconds later, the ring tone soft and simple. Elphaba excused herself and walked a distance away, turning around when she stopped so that she could keep a lookout for Liir.

"Who do you think is on the line with your mommy?" Fiyero asked the boy, but the boy only shrugged.

She hung up after a while and came back to them.

"Who is that?" Fiyero could not help asking.

"A friend," came her typical short reply.

A friend? A female friend? A male friend? A friend who happened to be Liir's biological father? He wanted to know.

She put the phone into her bag, a slight frown on her face.

"Mommy, let's go!" Liir called out.

"Aren't you tired just a minute ago?" she asked, the affection undeniable in her voice.

"I'm not tired now. I'm fully charged." He pulled at her hands, trying to pull her to her feet. "Get up, Mommy. Stand up."

And her face lit up again.

They came upon a food van and bought some sandwiches that they ate as they walked. The path meandered like a river, leading them off track to different parts of the area before bringing them to their destination.

"Is there any supermarket nearby, Mr Tiggular?"

"I'm not going to answer your question if you keep calling me Mr Tiggular."

She smiled and kept quiet. Two could play the game, he thought.

But he gave up after a minute of silence.

"Alright," he raised his hands in surrender. "There's one near to the bus stop. Why do you ask? Are you going to cook for me?" He corrected himself immediately. "For us?"

She shook her head. "I'm just curious to know what they have in the supermarkets here."

"The usual - groceries, food and stuff." He shrugged.

"Maybe you can show me where it is later."

"Sure. In that case, let's have an early dinner here. The supermarket closes pretty early if I am not wrong."

They finally reached the centre of the park. There was a huge playground there with a forest theme. There were a few tree houses, a series of rope bridges of varying heights, a treetop obstacle course for older children and a tower made of logs. Fiyero assumed that the place would be more crowded in summer, but there was only an older boy there when they arrived. Liir made a whoopee sound and flew down to the play area without another word.

"Liir, be careful!" Elphaba called after him.

There was a café next to the playground, and the adults walked over, choosing an outdoor table so that they could keep a close watch on the boy. There were heaters placed around the tables, and they took off their coats and draped them over the chairs.

Fiyero ordered some finger food and wine.

"Juice for you?" he asked as the waiter hovered beside him.

"I'll have the same as you."

"I've ordered wine."

"I'm not a teetotaller." He asked for another glass.

Liir and the other boy started to play together. They took turns chasing each other, using fallen branches as weapons, calling out threats at the top of their voices.

"What do you think they are pretending to be? Musketeers? Pirates? Knights?" he asked. "Or murderers?" He got an embarrassing laugh out of her.

Liir suddenly fled the scene and ran back to his mother, tugging off his coat at the same time. The boy with the blond hair followed him.

"It's hot," he explained as he quickly dumped his coat on his mother's lap before spinning around and running back to the boy, his makeshift sword held up. The boy taunted him goodnaturedly and ran back to the playground.

"He seems to make friends easily, and he's definitely enjoying himself," Fiyero said as the food and drinks arrived.

"He had been talking about this playground since he knew that we were coming to the Emerald City. Someone from his playgroup came here last year and told the other children all about it." The boys were now competing against each other, seeing who could cross the longest rope bridge in the shortest amount of time.

Fiyero closed an eye and looked at the children.

"What are you doing?"

"Look at them." He formed a rectangle with his fingers, framing the boys in between. "Maybe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, or maybe it'll only last a day. But I bet he'll remember this boy forever and cherish the memory. How do you capture this? I try to find ideas everywhere," he explained. "I work in advertising. Not something as life-changing as a good book."

She remembered now.

"Your company. Red Windmill. Didn't it win some award recently?"

Fiyero nodded. "It was for Emerald Air and their new destinations."

"So what do you do? Do you work a lot with models and such?"

He chuckled. "There're always people who will clamour to work with the models. I usually work in the background - brainstorming, coming up with ideas and concepts. Sometimes I come up with mockups. Did you notice the painting in my house?"

She nodded.

"I was supposed to come up with a mockup for an insurance company, but inspiration struck and I painted that instead."

"What does it represent?" she asked, curious.

"Thoughts, emotions." He did not elaborate further.

"So what shall we do tomorrow?" He changed the topic suddenly. She looked at him sharply. "Shall you or I decide?"

She looked down at her lap.

"I'm meeting someone."

"Oh." Somehow, he sounded like a dejected puppy to his ears.

To his surprise, she covered her face with a hand made a tiny sound. "Ugh."

"What's wrong?" Was she going to meet Liir's biological father? Was that the purpose of this trip? He reached across the table and touched her wrist gently. She dropped her hands on her lap.

"It's nothing… just that… she's my best friend but she didn't know about Liir."

"What?" Did he hear wrongly?

Fiyero moved to the empty seat for Liir and sat facing her as he held her by her fingertips. And this time, she did not move away.

"It's been many years since we met. She's been busy with her studies, and then she got married…. We just kept in contact first via letters, then phone calls, phone messages. There was never a good time to tell her about him. Imagine her surprise when I turn up tomorrow with him. Maybe I should cancel the meeting. Maybe I should tell her that I am not feeling well."

"And miss the chance to meet up with your best friend?"

"Ugh!" This time her agonised cry was louder.

"You know," Fiyero's brain was ticking. "Why don't you go on your own? I'll take care of Liir. Maybe we'll stay at home and do something, or we'll walk around the neighbourhood. And you go and enjoy a day with your best friend whom you have not met in years."

"No, I can't trouble…"

He waved her objections away. "It's no trouble. You should know by now how much I adore him. Your boy has wrapped me around his little finger since day one."

He turned around to look at the playground. There was another child, a younger girl, who slowly made her way to the playground. The boys simultaneously snapped to attention, as if it was Ozma who had approached them. They stood motionlessly and sucked in their stomach and held their breath as she watched them. And then the girl stood on tiptoe and touched Liir, and the older boy could not take it anymore and collapse into laughter. And then Liir whispered something to the girl and both of them started chasing after the blond.

Fiyero smiled.

"Or maybe I will bring him to the amusement park since you're not keen on that at all. He'll like that."

The children played until the sun was setting and the girl's guardian, an old lady, called for her. The other boy's mother called for him as she was leaving, and the children scattered.

"Goodbye, Liir. Hope to see you soon, soldier." The boy saluted.

"Bye-bye, Liir," the girl said.

"Goodbye Trism! Goodbye Candle!"

She came down when Liir was asleep and sat on the barstool. Fiyero was making a cup of hot tea for himself, and he prepared one for her.

"Tea?" she asked. "Wouldn't it keep you awake?"

"No, that doesn't work for me. Nothing can keep me awake if I don't want to. Don't drink too much if you are sensitive to caffeine, not that there's much inside."

Elphaba smiled and took a sip. He dragged his stool so that he could sit closer to her and hear her better.

"Are you nervous about tomorrow?" he asked.

"Maybe." She took another sip, her hands wrapped around the mug to keep them from fidgeting. "I haven't seen her for almost a decade."

"Hmm," he made a non-committal sound.

"What will she think? That I, someone who grew up within the holy walls and who prayed and listened to the sermons every day, turn out to be a single mother?"

"You grew up in a church?"

She nodded. "I grew up in a mauntery."

She stopped and looked at her drink.

"Why we go to the balcony?" he suggested. "You have not seen the view at night yet."

She shivered the moment they stepped out into the open air, and he passed her a throw blanket that he had kept in the tiny cupboard at the corner of the balcony. They sat in silence, sipping their tea and admiring the night scene, and it was a while before she spoke again.

"They … the sisters found me under a status of Saint Aelphaba, wrapped in nothing but a thin shawl. They said that I would have died of exposure if Sister Yackle has not left a shovel outside the garden and only remembered it around midnight. Perhaps whoever who left me there was hoping that I would not live the night. It must be God's will if a baby is left at the doorstep of a holy place and didn't make it. After all… " she looked down, at her hands cradling the mug.

"I'm not the only baby who was left there," she continued. Fiyero noted that she did not use the word 'abandon'. Perhaps that word spoke too much of cruelty, of the viciousness of humans, in her mind. "There were usually one or two every year, most of them girls. But there are always some families who are keen to adopt. They think that a child adopted from the cloister will bless the family. They usually go for the boys who can help them on their farms. For the ones with golden hair or blue eyes. Or the one with the pale skin contrasting with dark hair. Or beautiful curls. Even the plain-looking ones but with a sweet disposition will get a chance. Most of the children do get adopted eventually."

Except for her.

"The sisters tried to teach me as much as they can. They taught me several languages - Ozian, the Munchkin dialects, Qua'ati, Gillikinese..."

"What about Arjiki? That's my language."

She shook her head.

"They taught me Math, History a bit of Astronomy and Chemistry, and Geography. They let me access the library; I can read whatever books I want." He knew that her favourite topic was history. "They took good care of me, made sure that I ate well and slept well. They're good people. But there was just something incomplete. There was something, like a piece that was missing inside me. An ache." She placed a hand over her heart. "And for years, I didn't know what it is."

She paused.

"And then the news came."

"What news?"

"They were told that the place will be closed down. It was too expensive to maintain so many monasteries and maunteries and the decision was made to close down some of them or to merge them with others. The sisters who were old enough were given two choices. Stay within the faith, and they would send us to other maunteries around Oz. Or we could choose to leave and join the world outside. We had to decide in four weeks."

"You chose to leave."

She shook her head.

"I couldn't make up my mind. The idea of going out to the big world, the world that I have only read in books, is nothing short of exciting. Imagine no more routine prayers and duties, but you can do whatever you want, eat whatever food you fancy, have your own private space and decorate it the way you want. But it meant leaving a place that I was familiar with for almost twenty years. It means being financially independent. And I'm green. The sisters tried to tell me that I'm just a normal person despite my verdigris, but I know that I'm different. I know that other people see me as different. Will the outside world accept me?"

She took another sip from her tea.

"I was still undecided three days before the deadline. And that night, before bedtime, I prayed to Saint Glinda for a sign. That night, like the other nights before, I could not sleep. And I thought I heard a sound outside; it sounded like an injured kitten. I went out to investigate. I followed the sound to the well that we no longer use. And next to the well was a baby."

She rocked herself, her eyes looking far away.

"I brought him in and woke up the Mother Superior and a few of the sisters. They were tired, exhausted from all the packing and labelling that they had been doing for the past few weeks. Mother Superior instructed me to take care of the baby. So the next day, while I was packing with them, the baby was strapped to me in a cloth sling. I had to help with the packing, but I also had to prepare his milk and feed him whenever he is hungry. I had to change his diaper whenever he soiled himself. I made up my mind before the sun set that day."

"The baby is Liir."

"We didn't know where we would be posted to. The baby would most probably go to one place while I would be sent to somewhere where. But it was not just that. Maybe it was pure selfishness, but for once, there's something that is mine, totally mine. He was so tiny, so helpless. Everyone was too busy to even look at him. It was just me. He has nobody but me."

"So you left the cloister with Liir. It must not be easy."

"There were a few sisters who have decided to leave, but they have left once their plans were made. I was the last one, and Mother Superior asked the people in the nearest village for help. She gave me some money, and I stayed there for a few weeks while they tried to find a job for me. Someone in the village knew someone who knew someone who had a job in another town, and I was to go with the baby. I worked there for a few months, and then one of them suggested that I should register Liir's birth with the authorities and claimed him as mine. I went to the authorities, and they asked me for the father's information, and I just, I just fled."

"Why? It is not an offence to register a child's birth without the father's particulars."

"I just panicked. Once he's registered, he will forever be labelled as a fatherless child. He will be flawed, imperfect in the eyes of others. But he's perfect, he's my perfect little boy."

She looked into her cup. It was empty.

"Do you want more tea?" Fiyero asked, but she shook her head. He took their cups and put them on the coffee table.

"I went back to register his birth one week later."

How? He wanted to ask.

"Someone left this at my door." She tucked a hand into her pocket and handed him a small piece of card. However, he knew what it was even before she removed her hand from it. It was an identification paper. His.

"Oz," was all Fiyero could say. He remembered now. He had gone on a road trip during the holidays. There was a girl that he met at a pub, blonde and exciting. He brought her to his hotel room that night and woke up two days later with a terrible headache and his cash, belongings and identification papers all gone. He was sure that Elphaba would not appreciate the story.

"I didn't ask who was the one who left the paper at my door. It's a small rural town, and not everyone can be a lawyer or doctor. But they have been showing us nothing but kindness since day one. But I still moved away when I had the chance a few months later. I don't want to live there anymore, in a place where everyone knew the truth about Liir's parentage. So, when I have saved enough, I looked for another job and moved to another town where nobody knew us, and I started all over again. And then I moved again after a few years."

"I'm sorry I drag you into this mess," she added after a while. "But, at that time, all I wanted was for Liir to grow up thinking that he has a father and a mother, that the people around him see him as complete. I don't want him to think that he is a forsaken child, a broken, unwanted piece, unloved even by the person who gave him life. I wanted him to be surrounded by love, to feel secure in the fact that the people whom he loves will not leave him. You'll be surprised by how much that little information can affect a person."

She stood up and paced around before she suddenly spun around and faced him. "Or maybe I am just being selfish. That all I want is someone to call my own." She flailed her arms, like a bird desperate to get out of its cage. The blanket slid off her shoulders to the floor. "Maybe all I wanted was somebody who needs me, who can't do without me." She pursed her lips and turned away from him as she wrapped her arms around herself, her shoulders dropping as she exhaled.

Fiyero took a step forward, and he held her elbow from behind. He heard her sharp intake of breath, but she did not step away.

"Elphaba, you may think that you have bad intentions when you started, but look at Liir now. Look at how happy he is, how assured and confident he is. See how much he loves you. And it's so easy to see that you love him with all your heart and will do anything for him. He may not be your flesh and blood, but a family may not be related by blood. He is your son, and you are his mother, his amazing mother, and don't you dare forget that."

He wrapped his fingers around her wrist, feeling the warmth of her skin, the beat of her heart as he brushed his thumb on the inside of her wrist. She was porcelain, she was glass, delicate and fragile. Fiyero ran a finger along her arm, imagining a line, a hairline crack, just one of the many on her skin that only he could see, like broken pieces of a sculpture that had been hastily glued together. He pulled her into his arms, his breath aligning with hers.

And they stayed there until it was too cold to stay outside anymore.