5. The Night's Fire

"You're not very talkative tonight," Fiyero observed a while later. He was still sprawled on the bed. Elphaba was sitting cross-legged against the pillows at the headboard, watching him.

She shrugged. "I'm not a very talkative person."

"You were talkative last time," he pointed out, but she scoffed.

"I already told you. You caught me at my weakest then. I felt like I owed you."

"And you don't anymore?"

She scowled at him. "Do you think I owe you?"

"No," he said and she smirked at him.

"There you have it."

He rolled onto his back, looking at her upside down. "But I want to know more about you, Fae," he whined. "I want to know how long you've been here with Madame Morrible, and if you remember your family, and what your childhood was like, and what you like to do, and if you have friends…"

"Two and a half years, a little, miserable, reading, and yes."

He rolled his eyes at her. "I'd like some more information, Elphaba."

"No," she said, crossing her arms. "I don't like talking about myself. I've already told you way more than I have ever told anyone after only having known them for such a short period of time. I'm not telling you anything else. My life is none of your business, Fiyero."

"Um, okay, ouch," he said, not entirely joking. He rolled back onto his stomach. "At least tell me how you're feeling now, then," he said, suddenly serious. "Are you still in pain?"

She shook her head. "I'm fine now," she assured him. "The pain is gone. Even though it hasn't been that long ago, it almost feels like it hasn't really happened to me, you know? I'm just… all back to normal by now."

He huffed. "Like that is a good thing."

"It's my life, Fiyero."

"That doesn't mean it's a good thing." He looked at her again. "Was it bad?" he asked. "The first time after…?"

She couldn't suppress her shudder. "Let's just say that first night made me even more grateful for what you did the night before," she told him. She hadn't really meant to be so honest. She didn't mean to say a lot of things around him – this strange, silly prince who couldn't see how wonderful he really was, how much his one act of kindness had meant to her – but he had this effect on her that she wasn't entirely sure she liked. Only Galinda was usually this good at getting her to talk about herself.

"That bad, huh?" Fiyero winced and she could see the guilt in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Fae. If I hadn't been so stupid and selfish, I could have come back the night after and –"

"Stop it," she snapped. She pointed a menacing finger at him. "Just because you helped me that night, Fiyero, doesn't mean you are responsible for me or have to take care of me now. I'm a big girl. It may not have seemed that way when you first saw me, but I can take care of myself."

"I know that," he said a little indignantly. "That's not what I was saying." He sighed irritably, running his fingers through his hair. "You're frustrating, do you know that? I'm trying to befriend you and to help you, and all you do is refuse to tell me about yourself and trying to push me away."

"People don't usually need me to push them away," she muttered, bowing her head and letting her long curls fall around her face. "They usually do a great job going away all by themselves – if not because of the green, then because of my profession. I'm not used to having friends, Fiyero. The only friends I have are some of the other girls here and however wonderful and genuine they are, they're mostly friendships born of circumstances."

He softened. "Well, I'm your friend now, so I'll teach you how it's done," he told her, which made her smile a little. "Lesson number one: Friends talk to their friends about themselves."

She narrowed her eyes at him. He gave her an impish grin and she shook her head, grinning as well.

"You start," she said. "If friends know all about one another, then why don't I know anything about you yet? The only reason I even know your name and the fact that you're a prince is because Topaz told me, and yet you already know so much about me – more than anyone, really, aside from my best friend."

"Topaz is your best friend?" he asked in interest.

She began to nod before she caught herself. She scowled at him. "There you go again. This was about you, not me. I'm not saying anything else until you tell me about yourself."

He chuckled. "Fair enough. What do you want to know?"

She tilted her head to the side, thoughtfully taking him in. "Well," she said teasingly, a mischievous glint in her dark brown eyes. "I already know you've been a jerk for most of your life..."

He chucked a pillow at her, but she caught it, laughing, and threw it right back at him.

"Siblings?" she asked.

"None. What you said about me being the only current heir to the throne is true – no siblings, no cousins on my mother's side. Not even an aunt or uncle."

She sat up a little, intrigued despite herself. "That's right – the throne is passed to you through your mother, right? Not your father?"

Fiyero nodded. "Mum's family is the royalty," he confirmed. "Dad just married into the royal life. In my family, the throne is always passed on to the eldest child, regardless of that child's gender. My father was of high status, but he was not a prince before he married my mum. They are equals when it comes to power, though. It doesn't matter so much who is the actual heir and who married into the family. Generally, both carry equal responsibility for the people."

Elphaba tilted her head to the side again, her ebony curls tumbling across one shoulder. "I think I like that idea," she decided. "It's pretty modern." She looked at him. "Other family? You said you're currently staying with your grandparents."

"I have an aunt, an uncle, and two cousins on my father's side," said Fiyero, "but we almost never see them anymore since they moved to the Glikkus. My maternal grandparents passed away when I was little, but my paternal ones live here, just out of town." He made a face. "My parents sent me to live with them because they hoped their simple lifestyle would help get me back on track and stop my childish behaviour," he confessed. He smiled a little wryly at Elphaba. "It wasn't the lifestyle that did that, though."

"All right, stop," she said sternly, holding up one hand. "Fiyero, my story did not change you. Youchanged yourself. The things I told you wouldn't have had any influence on you at all had you not been susceptible to them in the first place."

He opened his mouth to protest, but she wasn't done yet.

"Perhaps my story was a final nudge in the right direction," she went on hotly, "but it wasn't the reason you've suddenly started thinking about everything. You did that all by yourself. You keep talking yourself down, but you're not brainless and you're not as shallow as you think you are." She met his gaze. "You could do great things for your people, Fiyero," she said softly, "and I think you will. It's only natural for someone with your responsibilities to try and run away from them for a while, but you'll be a great king when the time comes."

He could only stare at her for a moment. "Do you really have that much faith in me?" he asked incredulously. "When you barely even know me?"

Now it was her turn to stare. She'd always thought her self-esteem was low, but she'd never expected someone like Fiyero to be able to feel the same way about himself. Did he not see what a great person he was?

"Of course I do," she said finally, softly. "I'm sure there are more people than just me who have faith in you. You just need to have faith in yourself. You're much smarter and you care a lot more than you give yourself credit for, Yero."

He wasn't sure what did it – her faith in him, the things she said, the soft look in her dark eyes, or the fact that she'd called him "Yero"; but he suddenly felt the overwhelming desire to kiss her. He leaned in a little and she tilted her head to the side once more – he'd noticed she did that whenever she was confused or thinking about something. "Fiyero?"

He was so close now that their breaths mingled and he looked at her. She blinked slowly – once, twice – and he closed the final distance between them and softly pressed his lips against hers.

She made a muffled sound of surprise against his lips, but then he felt her kiss him back, her arms slipping around his neck. He tangled his fingers in her hair and tried to deepen the kiss. She let him, her fingers moving to the buttons of his shirt, but then he stopped her.

"Fae," he breathed. "What are you doing?"

She frowned at him. "No, what are you doing? Do you want to take off your own clothes? That's fine, too."

He gaped at her. "What?! No!"

"Make up your mind, Fiyero," she said with a frustrated sigh. "Either make use of the services you paid for or don't, but stop fooling around."

It took him a few moments to understand what she was saying, but when realisation finally dawned on him, his eyes widened in horror and he gaped at her again. "What?!"

She crossed her arms and leaned back against the pillows, waiting for him to say something, but it took a while before he found his tongue again.

"Fae," he said. "I told you I wouldn't do that. That's not why I'm here and I don't want that from you. We're friends, remember?"

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, because as I said, I've never had many friends," she said sarcastically, "but for some reason, I don't think friends usually stick their tongues down each other's throats."

He flushed a bright shade of red. It would have made her laugh if she wasn't so confused... and a little hurt. He'd almost had her convinced of the fact that he was different.

"I know," he said. He wasn't sure how to explain this. "I just... really... like you," he finished lamely, cringing at his own choice of words. Where was the smooth playboy prince persona he'd been keeping up for the past years?

Her eyes were wide and incredulous as she took him in. "You like me?" she echoed, dumbfounded. "What the hell, Fiyero? What's that even supposed to mean? What do you want from me?"

"Nothing you don't want as well," he said immediately. He took her hand. She snatched it back and he tried to hide his disappointment at that. "Elphaba, I'm not going to take advantage of you. You can trust me."

"Can I?"

He frowned a little. "That's not fair. I helped you, didn't I? I've never tried anything before."

"No," she agreed cautiously. "Why was that? Just because you felt sorry for me?"

"At first, yes," he admitted. "But then it became more than that. Even that first night, I liked you. I wanted to get to know you better and with every new thing I learned, I started liking you more. I guess I just... oh, Oz, this is embarrassing, and maybe it's just because of the whole thinking thing, but I think... I think I'm starting to fall in love with you."

She gawked at him.

Then she threw her head back and cackled.

"You're in love with me?" she guffawed. "And you really expect me to believe that? Do you think anyone would ever fall in love with a whore, Fiyero? Especially a green one? And that's not even mentioning the fact that you're a prince – a prince with a reputation for dating and bedding as many women as he could in as little time as possible, if Topaz's stories are correct. Then there's the fact that we've only known one another for a week... You can't be in love with me, Fiyero. This is ridiculous. I mean it – why are you here? Could you just stop playing with me and take what you came for?"

"I didn't come for that!" he shouted at her. "How many more times do I have to tell you? I like you, Elphaba. I care about you. Is that really so hard to believe?"

"Yes!" she yelled back at him. "People like you don't care about people like me! The fact that you insisted on being friends was ridiculous enough, but this is just preposterous! You can't be in love with me, especially not after spending just two nights together!"

"Well, I am," he told her angrily. "Don't ask me why, but I am. Do you think that's easy for me to admit? After spending years trying to deny the fact that love even exists and acting like girls are only there for pleasure? You can keep denying it, Fae, but you did change me and I barely even know you. Don't you think that scares me, too?"

She fell silent, just watching him as he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration and got off the bed. He started pacing back and forth, trying to sort out his thoughts. Then he suddenly stopped and looked at her again. "You're a hypocrite," he accused her.

Startled, she sat up straighter, bristling at his accusation. "Excuse me?"

"You're preaching to me about not giving myself enough credit and having to have more faith in myself, and yet here you are, talking yourself down. Why wouldn't I be able to care about you? What makes you such a horrible person? The green skin? The job? If those things make you a bad person, Elphaba, then my past actions definitelymake me a bad person." He folded his arms in front of his chest and raised his chin. "So, there. Where does that leave us? Are we both terrible people or are we maybe both not as bad as we think we are?"

Elphaba glared at him, pulling her knees up to her chest. Fiyero stared back defiantly and raised his eyebrows, silently asking her for a reply; but she just narrowed her eyes at him.

Then she suddenly started to chortle.

Fiyero blinked, taken aback. He had not seen that coming. "What?" he demanded.

"Look at us," said Elphaba, grinning as she indicated the both of them. "Are we really arguing right now about which one of us is less of a horrible person than the other?"

Fiyero considered that and then the corners of his mouth turned up. "We are, aren't we? I suppose that is a little silly."

"Just a little," she agreed, chuckling. She shook her head and sobered. "I don't know, Fiyero. This is a little hard for me to believe."

He bit his lip. "I know." He sighed and approached her, sitting back down on the bed and burying his face in his hands for a moment. "I'm sorry. It came out of the blue, too. We'll just see how things go, okay?"

She hesitated, but then said quietly, "Okay, I guess."

He looked at her. "Are you tired?" he asked, suddenly concerned. "You look tired."

She gave him a wry smile. "I haven't slept all that well the past week."

"Sleep now, then," he urged her. "I don't mind. I'll just nap in the chair again."

"Don't be silly." She crawled under the blankets and scooted over, arching an eyebrow at him.

He grinned at her and joined her in the bed, which was big enough for at least three people to fit in. A part of him longed to pull her closer (and a different part of him longed to do entirely different things to her), but he silenced all the suggestive voices in his head and simply said, "Thanks. 'Night, Fae."

"Good night," she whispered, watching him. He turned onto his side, his back towards her; and she heaved a small sigh and then turned onto her other side, figuring she might as well make use of the unexpected chance to get some extra sleep.

Favourite lines? :)