Chapter 12

Fiyero jolted awake when his alarm buzzed, slicing through the darkness. Beneath his arm, Elphaba stirred and it took his sleep-addled brain a moment to realise that his arm was slung over her waist.

"It's early," she mumbled sleepily.

"It is," Fiyero agreed, patting her hip above the covers as he sat up. "Let's go."

Elphaba rolled over and pushed herself up onto her elbows. Fiyero didn't need any light to see the incredulous expression she was undoubtably giving him, but he reached over to switch on the lamp beside the bed away. They both flinched at the sudden light, Elphaba hissing through her teeth as she shielded her eyes.

"What in Oz's name are you on about?" she demanded sleepily. "It's- it's five in the morning!"

"I know," Fiyero replied, stumbling out of bed and hopping slightly from foot to foot at the icy floorboards. "I would rug up, but also wear layers. And wear shoes good for walking."

"What?"

Fiyero ignored her, muttering curses to himself under his breath as he grabbed some clothes and headed for the bathroom.

By the time Elphaba had her turn in the bathroom, Fiyero had crept down to the kitchen to make coffee. It placated Elphaba a little when she came downstairs and he handed her the thermos, but it was clear she was unhappy to be awake so early and without any idea as to why. Fiyero, by contrast, was remarkably chipper.

"I thought you were a morning person?" Fiyero asked her teasingly, picking up the backpack from the kitchen counter he'd been filling.

"This is not morning," Elphaba muttered, clutching the thermos to her chest. "This is about half an hour before morning."

Fiyero chuckled. "Come along, dear."

Elphaba levelled him with a look as he shepherded her out of the kitchen. "I don't love 'dear' as a term of endearment, just FYI."

"Noted."

Fiyero had already grabbed the keys to his dad's car the night before, so he steered Elphaba towards the garage and into the passenger seat. Fiyero reached into the backpack and handed her a banana and a muesli bar.

"You might want to eat that."

Elphaba regarded him suspiciously, but unwrapped the bar. Fiyero grabbed a bar for himself before tossing the backpack in the backseat and climbing into the car. Elphaba fell into a doze not long after they started driving, leaving Fiyero alone with just his thoughts and the radio for company. Fiyero glanced over at her for a moment before returning his gaze to the road. It had been two days now since Elphaba had told him about the fallout with her family, and although she seemed fine, Fiyero found himself continuously checking on her.

On Monday night, after Elphaba had fallen asleep, Fiyero had hesitantly pulled up the inQAitbrowser on his phone. He felt rather guilty as he typed 'Elphaba Thropp Munchkinland Social Worker of the Year' and found the article from The Munchkinland Post from two years ago. He'd had to subscribe to get past the paywall, but finally he was able to read the article and find the quote that had ultimately changed everything for Elphaba.

'When asked about her inspiration to get into social work, Miss Thropp phrases her response carefully. "One thing that [has always been] clear to me is that no-one can see everything that happens inside a home. Sometimes things slip through the cracks. If I could help be a voice for those who need it, be a support, that's important to me."

There was more, but Fiyero couldn't stomach reading more than that. It was subtle, but clever. Carefully. The words within the square brackets. All easy to hint at the truth of Elphaba's childhood without Elphaba explicitly saying anything. Just to plant a suggestion of the truth. No wonder it had all escalated from there.

Fiyero felt rather useless. He wanted to help, to be able to fix things. Well actually, he wanted to arrest Elphaba's father and drag him over the coals. But even if Munchkinland had been in his jurisdiction, he knew that wasn't going to happen. Fiyero tightened his grip on the wheel as he drove. He always hated cases that involved kids, and apparently the fact that Elphaba was a grown woman didn't change that.

"Where are we?" Elphaba asked tiredly when Fiyero parked the car.

Fiyero watched as she blinked slowly, looking around and taking in the almost empty parking lot, bathed in the early Wednesday morning light.

"This is my favourite place in the Vinkus. Attleline National Park," Fiyero answered her. "And that," he continued, pointing up at the mountain. "Is Mount Attleline."

Elphaba leaned forward in her seat to peer through the windscreen up at the mountain. "Okay…"

Fiyero grinned. "I had to wait until there was less snow to bring you here. Come on."

He unbuckled his seatbelt and was out of the car and slinging the backpack over his shoulder before Elphaba scrambled from the car.

"Wait, we're going hiking?"

"Yep."

Elphaba turned to study the mountain again, her gaze wary.

"It's an easy hike, Fae," Fiyero promised her. "I swear, this will be great."

Elphaba sighed, turned to him and shrugged. "Okay. I'm game. What the hell?"

Fiyero grinned in delight, something incredibly fond fluttering in his chest.

"Alright. Let's do it."

They walked in silence at first, before Elphaba spoke up.

"You said this was your favourite place?"

"Yeah," Fiyero nodded. "Dad and I used to come here for hikes year-round. Sometimes in the summer, we'd do family picnics here. And then when I was in high school, my friends and I would come here. Well, Jules wouldn't. He'd rather swim than hike."

Elphaba paused, stepping carefully over some rocks. Fiyero reached out to steady her needlessly, taking her hand in his.

"What about Sarima?"

Fiyero almost fell over, because he was fairly sure he'd never mentioned Sarima's name to Elphaba. "Okay, which family member blabbed?"

Elphaba chuckled. "Minali. And she didn't blab. She just said that your breakup was pretty awful. Is she the one you told me about? The one who moved to the city with you?"

Fiyero faltered briefly, but nodded. He didn't love talking about Sarima. That part of his life was long over, and he didn't like dwelling on it. But Elphaba had shared her story with him. He could only return the favour.

"Uh, yeah. We met at a bar, and it was that whole kind of love at first sight crap in those movies my sister and Jules love."

"You said that you thought she was the one?"

Fiyero scoffed. "Yeah. I was twenty-five when we met. I don't know why I was stupid enough to think The One was even a thing. But I guess I've always tended to fall fast and fall hard," he reasoned.

Elphaba paused and Fiyero paused too, turning to face her. She wasn't looking at him, her gaze rather intensely fixed on a nearby tree.

"I don't believe in The One either," she said quietly, her brow creased. "I just don't think the odds work out for there to be one exact match for every person. But I don't think it's stupid to believe in it. To find the idea comforting."

Fiyero arched an eyebrow in surprise, which Elphaba caught as her gaze flickered over him and she shrugged.

"Look, yeah I tease Galinda about the idea, and I can't help but roll my eyes when she starts going on about it. But I don't think she's stupid for believing in it, and I've never told her that she was. I do think it's stupid that the whole idea has been romanticized to the point that people would give up on a relationship instead of putting work into it because they think it's just… not meant to be."

Her head tilted slightly as she smiled slightly at him. "You have a lot of really solid, healthy relationships around you, Yero. Your parents, grandparents, cousins. It makes sense that's something you'd want. If I had good relationships modelled for me, maybe I'd want to believe in it too."

Fiyero's cheeks felt rather warm considering they hadn't walked that far yet, and he loosened his scarf around his neck slightly.

"So, anyway," he said, turning away to continue up the path. "Sarima got along with the whole family, and she was patient while I was working out what I wanted to do with my life. I had a Law degree- because that's what you do in my family. By the time I graduated, I knew I didn't want to be a lawyer but had no idea what I did want to be. When I met Sarima, I was working a whole bunch of odd jobs while I figured it out. Then going through the Academy, deciding to leave the Vinkus… I figured we'd get married one day. Not that either of us were in a rush for that."

Elphaba walked beside him silently.

"She cheated on me," Fiyero said, squinting up at the sky. "With some guy she worked with. And I don't know whether the worst part is that I didn't even catch her out in the end, or that she said it was my fault."

His gaze went back to Elphaba at her sharp intake of breath and grinned ruefully. "Yeah. She said that I worked too much and left her alone. She'd moved here with me, left behind all her friends and a new job, and she was lonely. I think she must have made pretty good friends at work if she was able to have an affair with this guy for five months, but what do I know?"

Fiyero shrugged. "I hate sounding bitter about it."

"I'd hardly blame you if you were," Elphaba replied. "I would have been furious."

Fiyero shrugged again. "I felt more… disappointed? Hurt? Mostly I felt stupid that I hadn't noticed anything. She just came home one night and told me that she was leaving and why. She answered every question I had, and then we split."

"Amicably?"

"I wouldn't say so," Fiyero admitted. "The last time I saw her, she said she hoped that one day I'd forgive her, and that we could be friends. I've forgiven her, but I don't want to be friends. I haven't seen or heard from her since. Nor do I want to."

Elphaba's hand slipped into the crook of his elbow, and squeezed it lightly. "Thank you for telling me."

Fiyero reached up his other hand to grasp at her fingers lightly for a moment, but said nothing.

They walked mostly in silence after that, until they reached the top of the trail, where there was a quiet little lookout. The only thing of note there was a few flat boulders that made a good makeshift bench, and Elphaba sank onto closest one wearily while Fiyero rummaged in the backpack and pulled out a bottle of water for her, and another for himself.

"Wow," Elphaba breathed out, when she had regained her breath enough to really take in the view.

Fiyero chuckled as he sat on the boulder beside her, brushing off a little snow as he did. "Bit different from the views in the city, huh?"

"Just a bit," Elphaba agreed.

"And Munchkinland?"

Elphaba shrugged. "There's mountains up in the north, but where I'm from? It's just farmland, once you get out of the city centre."

Which had its own beauty at different times of year, but nothing compared to the mountains and expansive forest that was laid out before her eyes here. As she drank it in, something about the view seemed rather familiar to her, like she'd seen it somewhere before. Not that she was surprised- a view like this, it was the type of idyllic picture that was made to be plastered all over calendars and postcards.

"Do you miss it?"

Elphaba shook her head without hesitation. "No."

Fiyero didn't ask more, and she didn't offer.

"So, what exactly do you do now that we've walked all the way up here?" Elphaba asked eventually.

"Ah," Fiyero replied, suddenly looking rather awkward. He pulled his hat off so that he could run a hand through his hair, leaving it lying on his knee as he bent over to reach into the backpack again.

Elphaba eyed him curiously until he pulled out an expensive looking camera.

"Is that what you bought the other day?" she asked. She was sure that she would have noticed if Fiyero had brought that with him on the train.

"Yeah. My current one is pretty old, so I thought may as well take advantage of the sales, right?"

"What kind of photos do you take?" Elphaba asked curiously.

Fiyero waved a hand dismissively at the view before them, standing up and walking a few feet away, fiddling with the camera. Elphaba remained sitting on the bolder but watched him carefully. Fiyero took a few shots before returning to sit beside her.

"Can I see?"

"Sure," Fiyero shrugged.

Elphaba took the camera, although she didn't really know what she was looking for. Her knowledge of photography and art was limited to 'do I like this?' and nothing at all technique-wise. But when she looked at the photos Fiyero had taken, she was impressed.

"These are good," she said honestly.

"Thanks," Fiyero replied, a note in his voice Elphaba couldn't place.

Something was nagging in the back of Elphaba's mind, and the more she examined the photos, the stronger it got.

"Wait."

Fiyero looked at her innocently.

"The photos in your apartment. And the one over the mantle. Did you take them all?"

Fiyero made a face. "Uh, yeah," he said sheepishly. "Kinda."

"Kinda?" Elphaba repeated.

"Okay, yes," he amended. "But it's not that big of a deal."

Elphaba levelled him with a pointed stare. "Then why has this never come up in the whole time I've known you? I subscribe to you on Timely," she reminded him. "The only photos you ever post there are terrible candids where inevitably someone's eyes are closed, or food."

Fiyero grinned. "That's because the 'someone' is usually Corin, and it annoys him."

Elphaba didn't grin back at him, and Fiyero waved a hand vaguely. "Photos of places and photos of people are different," he shrugged. "I don't know how to explain it. It's just something I do. It relaxes me… gets me out of my head for a minute."

He nudged her. "Come on. You don't have any hidden talents I don't know about?"

"No," Elphaba said honestly. "I can read a novel in a few hours, but that's not really a talent."

She looked through the photos again. "These are really good, Yero. How did you even get into this?"

Fiyero scrunched up his face a little. "It's not that interesting, really. I was away sick when we picked elective classes in high school one year, so I got dumped in whatever class had room left- which was photography. It turned out that I actually liked it. Had a pretty good teacher, and then Dad's parents got me a camera for my birthday that year."

He gestured to the view before them. "This is all the kinds of stuff I take photos of. Landscapes and stuff. And then yeah, they make good gifts for family members and friends."

"Do I get one?" Elphaba asked, much to Fiyero's surprise.

He arched an eyebrow. "You want one?"

"You do owe me forever," she reminded him, a grin teasing faintly around her mouth.

Fiyero groaned. "Okay, I have to ask. What's on the list so far? Besides this photo?"

Elphaba laughed at that, and the sound drifted onto the breeze that surrounded them, making the sound appear brighter and clearer than Fiyero thought he'd ever heard it before. For a moment, he could only stare in fascination and drink in how her face looked as she laughed, her face tilted up to catch the morning sun.

"Nothing."

Fiyero blinked, his brain taking a moment to connect the dots.

"What do you mean, 'nothing'?" he asked confusedly.

Elphaba turned to face him then, her face softening. "I mean… nothing," she repeated. "Yero… you're my friend. And other than the fact that I feel horrendible lying to your family when they've been so lovely towards me, if I've actually helped at all-"

"You have," Fiyero cut her off, taking her hand in his. "Are you kidding me, Fae? Look, maybe I exaggerate a bit about my family sometimes, but it's been great having you here. I love Kas and all my cousins, but when everyone is paired off… it's been nice having someone on my side."

She smiled faintly. "This Fae thing is going to stick, isn't it?" she asked.

Fiyero chuckled. "Probably," he admitted. "I don't know… I think it suits you," he said softly.

A strand of hair blew into Elphaba's eyes, and without thinking twice about it, Fiyero reached out and brushed it back. His hand stilled but didn't drop, and Elphaba was very still beneath his hand. She stared at him silently, and Fiyero's eyes fell to her slightly parted lips and something dropped in his gut. Almost startled, Fiyero dropped his hand and cleared his throat.

"Ready to head back down?" he asked, standing swiftly.

Elphaba nodded, handing him back the camera. "Sure," she agreed.

As they headed towards the trail, Fiyero was overcome with the urge to take her hand in his once more. But he resisted, suddenly fearing that if he did, it would mean something quite different than it had on the way up.

AN. I was working on a one-shot for NYE, but... ya girl has tested positive for Covid. So, when I am able to finish it and post it, let's just pretend it's still New Year's, okay? Likewise, if updates are sporadic this week, this is why. Currently I feel okay, but we'll see!