AN: Okay, as much as I tried to avoid confusion in the previous chapter, some people still seem to think that Fiyero forced Elphaba. If he did, it was only by whining, and she wasn't necessarily asking him to stop. That's half the problem. She doesn't know how. I was trying to establish that by the ending scene in thirty-six. That scene actually had a point! It was to establish that he planned to keep her up, and to establish that she couldn't help but let him because, whenever he touches her like that, she wants it, too.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Compromise

Elphaba sighed, looking up at Fiyero through drowsy eyes. He moved the blankets away, undressed her and then wrapped the blankets around her. "Sleep. It's a Friday, love, we'll talk in the morning."

She wasn't sure if she actually nodded or not, but that had been her intention before her eyes closed. It was hard to concentrate when she was falling so quickly into sleep. However, the fact that he made no move to join her unsettled her and she opened her eyes questioningly. "Where are you going?"

He shook his head, smiling gently at her. "I'm going to leave the room, for once. I have a few business affairs I need to discuss with my father."

Elphaba turned to her side and tugged the blankets tighter around herself. "Okay." She felt lips on her forehead for a moment and thought she might've heard the distant sound of the door closing. It didn't much matter to her.

She woke up again when it was dark out, looking around hurriedly. There'd been something moving near the side of the bed. She laughed at her foolishness when Fiyero slipped into the blankets beside her, kissed her forehead again and held her, as always. "What?" He asked.

"Nothing. I just scared myself, that's all."

He raised his eyebrows, but she didn't notice in the black of the room. "All right. Going back to sleep, then?"

"I think, if that's okay…"

She wasn't possibly asking him if she was allowed to go to sleep, was she? He knew she never let him control anything, even if he tried. It scared him to realize what he must've had to behave like to turn her into this. "Since when do you need my permission for anything?" He pretended to tease her, but he didn't really think it was so amusing.

"Good point." She yawned. In a voice not so much accusing as it was weak and lazy, she whispered, "But wouldn't you like it better that way?"

"No." He answered quickly. "Sometimes I may think I do," he paused, "but you wouldn't be you if you let me control you. It's not who you are. I love you, not some submissive weak little creature."

"I know. We established a long time ago that I didn't want you to expect something from me that I'm not. It's just that lately, you can't seem to deal with the way I am and the way I show my affection to you."

"Fae, it's not that…" He trailed off, not sure what to tell her. It wasn't that he wanted something she wasn't from her; it was that he wanted too much to always be around what she was. Sighing, he stroked her hair and said, "Look, you wanted to go to sleep. I'm not stopping you. This conversation is not stopping you. I can wait, so can this conversation. When you wake up, I promise we'll talk about this. But I think it's best, now, that you sleep."

"Mmmm. That sounds good." She reached up and kissed him softly on the mouth and then settled back to lay her head on his chest. "But you're going to be my pillow."

He bent his neck to nuzzle his chin against the top of her head. Relaxing against the mattress again, he replied, "Whatever you want, my Fae."

Eyes closed already, she giggled and said, "I think you should keep that mindset." If he did respond, neither of them could remember, for sleep took their conscious minds and left them to rest.

She had no idea what time it was when she woke up, for it was still dark. Squinting towards the clock, she turned over and climbed on top of her husband in a completely non-sexual way, straddling him at his belly-button rather than the waist, leaning down so her face was just above his and covering her chest with the length of her hair. When he grunted and tried to push her away wearily, she held her ground. "Wake up, my sleeping prince. Feeling well-rested, are you?"

It took him a minute to understand her, and when he did, he gave her a glare through eyes still fuzzy with slumber. Looking at her, he reached up and ran a thumb along her cheek, saying reluctantly, "I deserve this, don't I?"

"Yes, you do. Besides, you'd said we'd talk when I woke up. Well, I woke up." She was grinning now, an expression visible even before eyes had completely adjusted to the lack of light. The lamp was on Fiyero's side of the bed; she reached over without changing position and in a moment both of them covered their eyes from the sting of brightness. Elphaba was able to uncover her eyes first and she said, "So, can we talk?"

"Only if you get off of me." Fiyero said.

"Why?" She pouted, bouncing lightly.

"Fae!" Fiyero gasped, "You're going to kill me if you do that! I know you don't weigh much, but my stomach hurts and my ribs are about to cave in."

"Fine." She clambered off of him and laid back down, turning over on her side so they were facing each other. Fiyero took one of her hands, clasping it in his instinctively and she didn't protest. "We're going to talk. But no matter how angry we get, neither one of us moves much. If one of us says something that offends or hurts the other, instead of stomping out of the room, we explain. This way, we can say anything we want, but we're still going to be here, next to each other, no matter what. Okay?"

Fiyero seemed to like that idea. "Sounds fine."

He had no idea that she'd said that more for him than for her. In every fight they had, it was much more likely for her to pull away or leave the room than it was for him. She didn't want him holding back anything he wanted to say because he was afraid he'd have to sleep alone. "One more thing. I don't want you forgetting this throughout the entire conversation, because it's not changing. I love you."

Fiyero cupped her face and smiled. "I love you, too."

Elphaba squeezed the hand that held hers and began, "Fiyero, I know I don't act quite the way you want me to…"

"No, Fae, don't." He stopped her. "I only want you to act like yourself."

"You don't seem to let me." She stated.

He bit into the inside of his cheek, contemplating something. After a moment he said, "I'm sorry about that. Fae, it's not that I want you to be another way, I just want to be with you the way you are as much as I can."

"And that's the way you love me. In some ways, Yero, we love the same, like the fact that I would die if you were taken from me for long enough. In other ways, though, we don't love the same way, because you love like you want me around always. I love you more than anything, but I could love a million people that way and still want to be alone for a nice chunk of time. My love for you isn't any less strong than your love for me is, it's just different." Elphaba sighed. "I wish I could change it so we both got what we wanted. Unfortunately, you want my companionship almost too much, and I want to be alone almost too much. It's too bad we couldn't just wave a wand and even it out."

"I don't mean to be so… overbearing. I get scared of losing you to someone else, sometimes. I can't lose you."

"You won't," she said firmly. "But you have to trust me, not try to control me."

"I hate it when you're right as much as you hate it when I'm right," he joked, trying to lighten the mood. "And you are right. You were right before, too. About the baby thing, you read me like a book, even if I didn't want to admit it."

"You didn't need to tell me that; I knew." She took a deep breath. "Nonetheless, maybe I shouldn't try and separate myself from you as much as I do. I married you, after all, and that's not what I'm acting like."

"And it's not what I acted like, either."

"We could compromise," she offered. "I'll stop telling you to leave me alone; you'll stop trying to control my every move. You can still come get me two hours after the school day ends, as long as you don't act funny if someone else is talking to me. I kind of like having you to walk back to the Palace with, anyway."

"You know what the other night was about, then, don't you?"

"I think it was the most pathetic and insecure thing you have ever done and if you ever try it again, I will not hesitate to do something very violent to very important part of you," she replied. "You don't need to remind me that I love you and go home with you every night. You don't need to remind me that you can give me the most powerful feeling of ecstasy so sweet I can barely imagine it. It's not that easy to forget."

He laughed. "I don't know what came over me…"

"I do. Jealousy and protectiveness and paranoia and complete and utter idiocy."

"I won't let it happen again."

"And even if you do, which I hope dearly that you don't, I won't let it. It wasn't exactly all your fault. I should've put a stop to it when I had the chance."

"I didn't give you much of a chance. Once it was over, I'd just find another way to please you before you could even figure out I was done."

"I know. It worked, too. And there are times when I wouldn't mind staying up all night with you – maybe not doing what we did quite as much, but…"

"I know. But I don't think we will. If we ever do stay up, well, a little late, no school nights, right?"

"Right. Never."

There was a long pause. "I don't think we have much more to say."

"True," Elphaba concluded, "well, then, we worked this out in a relatively short amount of time. Hopefully, what we agreed on will help – if we honor what we agreed on, that is."

"I will. And if I ever don't, you have the right to slap me as hard as you want."

"And if I don't, you have the right to… well, not to keep me up all night, but to steal me away for a few hours to talk." Elphaba shifted and looked out the window. "It's still dark. I guess we should just go back to sleep." She rolled over.

Fiyero wrapped his arms around her waist and spoke, though it was muffled slightly by her hair, "We're going to be okay, then?"

"Yes, I think we're going to be just fine."