Disclaimer: I seem to keep forgetting these, but as no one has sued me, I'm guessing y'all know I don't own "Wicked."

Elphaba stared straight ahead as she made her way to Doctor Dillamond's room. What was going on with her? She was ticked off at Fiyero, certainly, but he probably hadn't deserved for her to go off on him like that. Not that she'd apologize. That would just be completely against all of her principles. Plus, what if he were to figure out that she…was having some sort of weird mental breakdown over him? It couldn't be actual feelings for him, could it? Of course not. Ridiculous. This whole thing was really brought on by lack of sleep…or something. She rolled back her shoulders and entered the classroom, not paying attention to anything other than the clear path to her desk, and then sitting at the desk itself.

To the shock of the entire class, instead of beginning the lesson, Dr. Dillamond announced that it would be his last day at Shiz. As government officials pulled him away, Elphaba overcame her horror and leapt to her feet to try to rally her classmates into doing something about it.

Their new professor had seemed to be waiting for this little show to finish before making his appearance known. In a perky-to-the-point-of-making-Elphaba-want-to-stab-him-with-a-pen voice, he began to lecture. She was so aggravated that she couldn't settle down to listen, nor did she particularly care what he was saying anyway. As a result, she had no idea what was going on until he whipped a black cloth off of something which she'd heard referred to as a "cage," revealing a trapped Lion cub.

Her loud protests at this cruelty were drowned out, something she did not appreciate at all. By the time he said, "One of the advantages of caging an Animal while it is so young is that it will never learn to speak," she was fuming.

"Why doesn't anyone DO SOMETHING?" She bellowed.

The next thing she knew, everyone in the classroom was helplessly gyrating and shaking. Everyone, that was, except herself and a certain Winkie prince. "What happened?" Fiyero demanded. Even he had the sense not to ask, "What did you do?"

"I don't know," she admitted, "I just got mad and then…" She gestured to her classmates, still looking frustrated.

"Does this mean you're not mad at me?" he inquired. Before she could answer, though, he'd darted forward and seized the cage. "Are you coming, or not?" And he ran from the room.

She dashed after him. "Careful, don't shake him!"

"I'm not!"

"We can't just let him loose anywhere, you know, we have to find someplace safe." She warned him. She couldn't stand the way the poor thing had looked there in that cage, and she'd do anything she had to so that he wouldn't be faced with that anymore.

"I realize that! You think I'm really stupid, don't you?" Fiyero's hurt and exasperation were obvious.

She rolled her eyes. "I think you're a lot smarter than you let on. There, satisfied? I'll probably never say it again."

He didn't respond, making a show of walking further away from the buildings before releasing the Cub. "He should be fine."

When he turned, her eyes widened. "You're bleeding. He must have scratched you."

He raised him eyebrows. "Or maybe you did."

She blushed a forest green color, and before she could stop herself, she reached out and caressed his cheek. To her utter shock, his response was to lower his head until their lips were touching. For a moment, she was frozen, and all of a sudden, she knew exactly how the writers of every horrid cliché in the known world must have felt. Words couldn't accurately describe the pure bliss filling her entire being at that moment. Elphaba, you fool, what are you doing? Her mind screamed at her, and she pulled away. "I have to go." She could barely bring herself to run, but she had to. She couldn't put him through dealing with her. She just couldn't.

"Elphaba, wait!" He followed her, and, being taller and able to take larger steps, caught up easily. He caught her wrist in his hand to try to keep her in place. She wrenched away, but didn't continue moving. "I'm sorry. I couldn't help it…" Fiyero confessed, ducking his head and rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly. "I wish I could say that we'll forget all about what just happened if you want, but I really don't want to."

Elphaba stared at him, dumbfounded. She was about to respond when she felt exactly what she'd been dreading all day. A raindrop. One, single raindrop fell from the sky and onto her cheek, like a precursor of the downpour that was about to begin.

AN: Weird place to end, I'm sure, but...oh well! It's longer than the last chappie, but not by much...sorry. It's 'coz that's basically where I stopped writing and I need to check on some things before continuing. Review me anyway, and keep in mind what I said about the RENT fic I've got up if that floats your boat. Just 'coz you guys are so sweet to me with this one, and I'd like to see if you'd like that one too. Sorry about this monster AN. REVIEW!