A/N: Okay, I'm finally updating this- winging it.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
The spell, suddenly, was broken, but the tension in the air was still so thick it was palpable. Fiyero wiped his brow, shocked to find that he had been physically sweating. Shocked at what had been said. Shocked at the oddness of the situation- of his life. How had he, a tribal prince, yes, but an altogether ordinary man, and now he was being told that he and his lover were in violating the order of the universe just by existing. He couldn't help but smile. Life with Elphaba is never boring. His companions, however, looked anything but amused.
Liir looked as if he were going to throw up, or pass out, or both. His face looked pasty. Had Fiyero been at Kiamo Ko when Liir was yanked out of the fishwell, he would have been distinctly reminded of that incident now. And Elphaba…Elphaba looked stricken, nothing short of stricken. She had a look that was unfortunately familiar, a look that meant she was on the brink of either a- well, a meltdown- or a rehardening of herself, neither of which were good. Yackle simply sat, staring at her, looking self-satisfied.
"So for now, we shall see how it plays out," she finished. Something twisted in Elphaba's features, making her look at once hardened and cold and very, very young. She leapt up in one fluid motion from her seat and dashed out the door, into the damp cold of the day.
She ran through streets and alleys, not back toward the corn exchange, not toward the old Resistance headquarters, nowhere from her former life. Her booted feet struck the slick ground so quickly that they couldn't find or lose traction. She was practically flying. The wind whipped her hair free of its loose chignon and pulled the hood of the cloak from her face. She slowed a bit, and suddenly she was striding, the Wicked Witch of the West in the flesh, green as sin, hair and skirts flying, walking proudly through the streets of the Emerald City as if she ruled the entirety of Oz, as if it was her birthright.
Several people saw her and scurried quickly out of her way. By the time she had cooled down enough to return to the corn exchange, where Fiyero and Liir had roused Nor and Cass into somewhat of a panic, the Gale Force had been alerted and the new leadership of Oz, despite the protests of Lady Glinda, had made finding the imposter of the Witch who had been seen at one of Glinda's own parties and now stalking the streets a top priority.
Elphaba herself was unconcerned with the fact that she'd been spotted.
"Let that damned puppet scarecrow and the rest of them think the Resistance is alive and breathing," she spat. "He tricked me, anyway."
"How do you mean?" asked Liir, who had been there.
"I thought he was Fiyero," she said, "And he wasn't."
"You're being irrational," said the real Fiyero.
"I am not irrational!" yelled Elphaba.
"It's not even the same scarecrow," added Liir.
"This is not the point!" Elphaba screamed. "Damn it!"
Nor and Cass exchanged glances, in the way of teenage girls, and each tried desperately to repress the sudden inexplicable urge to laugh.
"It's not funny, either!" Elphaba shrieked at them.
"Sorry," Nor muttered.
"If you think I'm going to walk on eggshells around you because I'm your father's fricking mistress you are sorely mistaken!" Elphaba went on hysterically.
Liir couldn't help himself. He cracked up, as hysterical as his mother.
"What's so funny?" she yelled.
Fiyero, too, good-natured as he was, saw some of the humor in it, and Cass, then even Nor, got caught up in the laughter, leaving Elphaba surrounded by four hysterically laughing people. Needless to say, she did not take this well.
"IT'S NOT FUNNY!" she yelled.
"It kind of is," admitted Fiyero.
"Argh!" Elphaba slammed her hand into a wall. "I am not irrational," she repeated quietly. Fiyero pulled himself off the floor and went over to her side, placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Life is irrational," he told her. She hit her hand lightly against the same spot on the wall several times.
"I'm not," she insisted.
"I know," said Fiyero.
"I had no sleep, my defenses were breaking," she said.
"I know," Fiyero reassured her.
"Oh, sweet Lurline," Elphaba gasped suddenly, breaking away from the wall and Fiyero and burying her head in her hands. "They know, don't they? Someone, someone in the Palace knows where this is. Where we are. We have to go, we have to run-" Elphaba pulled her hair loose and shook it out and paced, back and forth, back and forth, as if she were going to wear a hole in the floor. She looked up desperately.
"But where are we going to go?"