A/N: Alrighty. Here is a reposting of Chapter 5; I took it down to revise the ridiculous amount of grammatical errors that I had over-looked before. Nothing new. Although Chapter 6 is well on its way. ^^

It took a capacious amount of self-control to prevent Fiyero from pumping his fists in the air while exiting the edifice. The successful banter that had just preceded ousted any traces of weariness and bitterness out of his mind and he all but skipped down the stone steps. His lenient air took hold of him once more and he allowed himself the pleasure of casually sauntering to his next class rather than run-walking as he had done for every other class transition that day. Not that that was even necessary for this particular change of classes; the history building was fairly close to his previous class. In fact, it was just coming into view now; the quaint architecture of the pointed steeple that dully pierced the azure sky, the cream-colored shutters that were left ajar to allow the mid-autumn breeze into the stuffy rooms…

The rather large mob that was assembling before the front entrance.

Fiyero's body reacted faster than his thoughts and he immediately broke into a fast-paced trot, making a beeline for the crowd. He had no idea what he was expected to see when he got there, but with the plethora students, teachers and just random bystanders that had accumulated by the time he had reached them, it might as well have been a murder. Fiyero lingered on the outskirts of the large group that had encompassed the mystery object of interest, arcing his neck up and outward, attempting to make out what everyone was murmuring and bustling about. No luck; the mob was far too dense for whatever was in the center to be visible. Curiosity getting the best of him, Fiyero began to rudely elbow his way through the thicket of people until a shrill utterance rang out over the noise.

"Disperse! Disperse, students!" Madame Morrible had perched herself on the top step of the building's entrance and was wedged between two unfortunate students. She fluttered her hands dismissively and everyone thought better than to disobey her; no public scandal –or tragedy- was worth a reprimanding from the frightening headmistress. "Anyone here taking this course is exempt from it for the day!" She took another look whatever spectacle still lay beyond Fiyero's view and shook her head. "I mean… until further notice. And anyone here not enrolled in this course... well, for Oz's sake, find something better to do than torment this poor man!"

Torment?

Then Fiyero spotted him. In the midst of the dissembling crowd, Dr. Nikidik was hunched over on the bottom of the stoop, taking long, exaggerated draws from a cigarette. The meek man's face was unnaturally pale and his eyes were blankly fixated on the cobble stone floor. He mouth, in between the deep inhalations of smoke, moved quickly, uttering some nervous, unintelligible gibberish.

"What happened?" Fiyero found himself asking no one in particular, not taking his eyes off this wreck of a human being.

"Who can say?" a girl lingering within the vicinity responded. "When I came he was just… sitting here like this." She gestured at Dr. Nikidik as if he were incapable of hearing her. A malicious little smirk spread over her lips. "But hey, if it's getting us out of class, I say, 'who cares?'"

The girl sniggered just as a flash of emerald shot into Fiyero's peripheral vision. He immediately reacted, turning his head just in time to see a flitting, dark-blue skirt disappear into the slim gap between two buildings.

"Um, yeah… right," he mumbled absentmindedly to the girl as he broke in to a sprint for the alley. The mouth of the backstreet was only about twenty yards away, but he pumped his legs, gaining a ridiculous amount of speed, anyway. He wasn't about to let her slip from his view and evade him. Fiyero Tiggular was not one to let his prey escape. He ducked into the slim opening, his eyes darting around to catch a trace of the fleeing emerald girl, hoping she hadn't already dodged him.

No. Fiyero noted that the alley didn't diverge; it was one long stretch of a street, dimmed by the immense shadows that one building threw onto its companion. The prince squinted into the poor lighting, significantly slowing his pace to a meandering walk. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sharp change; blinking feverously, he was able to make out the lean figure pacing rapidly about ten feet away. His heart skipped a beat and he eagerly opened his mouth to draw out words, a greeting, anything! But, his lips found themselves blanking. Once again, he had acted without thinking. Once again, he had no idea what to say.

Once again, Elphaba had left him tongue-tied.

He stood their belligerently, stupidly awaiting to be noticed, but she didn't seem to register his presence in her panicked state. Rather, she continued to march back and forth, clutching the crooks of her arms in her emerald palms. Her breathing was sharp and erratic and Fiyero could see the rise and fall of her chest with each breath drawn. Cautiously, he took a step forward, his foot knocking against some haphazardly strewn piece of trash as he did so. The noise was hardly something worth acknowledging, as small and insignificant as it was, but Elphaba stop dead in her tracks, her head snapping up.

For a long while they both just stood there, unmoving. She in the shadows, her eyes wild with shock and terror and he, in the midst of a small ray of light filtering in from the opening, illuminating his sympathetic demeanor. Two separate worlds kept apart but such a minute amount of space, standing, regarding the other.

It was she who spoke first.

"What?" she spat, a notable quiver to her voice.

"I…" Fiyero began. He stared at her, unable to finish the sentence stemming from a thought that hadn't really been there in the first place. Instead, he asked the question that had already been waiting to pop out of his lips. "What were you running from?"

In that split second, her chocolate brown eyes had never encompassed such a look of vulnerability; all at once, they seemed to scream in anguish, plead for help, but, above all, look relieved. Relieved that they didn't have to maintain a barrier to true emotion. Yes, I saw you; you don't have to pretend to be strong anymore.

But just for a split second.

She straightened herself and narrowed her eyes, allowing her hands to tuck themselves into the crook of her elbows, rather than cradle them protectively. All traces of vulnerability dissipated as she took on her usual stern, indifferent countenance. But, despite the transformation, a tremble was still evident in her voice.

"Nothing," she said sharply.

"Oh, so you were just going for your usual midday jog, then?" Fiyero queried, trying to permeate her defenses. Elphaba raised and eyebrow and scowled; of course, the joke had fallen flat.

"Fae," Fiyero took another step forward, attempting a different approach. "I just want to help you."

Elphaba's brow furrowed as her gaze was downcast. Fiyero took another step.

"Please talk to me. I'm sure it's not as bad as you think," he paused and before adding confidently, "It wasn't your fault." He was positive of this, although he was still completely oblivious as to what "it" was.

"My fault…" she echoed, despondently.

"Elphaba," Fiyero felt his voice come out in a whisper, matching her own hushed tone.

"Of course it was my fault!" Elphaba's head suddenly jerked upward to face him. Somewhere behind her, a ceramic pot could be heard crashing into the side of one of the brick edifices.

As the shards fell to the floor and exploded into smaller cantles upon impact, her face fell. But her eyes were fixated on Fiyero, her face taking on a demeanor of helplessness once more. "Oh, Oz…"

What happened next was a bit of a shock for both of them. In one quick movement, Fiyero had slinked his muscular arms around her quaking form. Her body instinctively jerked under the touch, but he refused to let go. Slowly, her shock receded and she fell into the comforting gesture.

"Of course it was my fault," she whispered again.

"What happened?" Fiyero said softly. Elphaba shifted under his arms, drawing her slender hands up to attempt to return the foreign embrace. As the tips of her fingers grazed his bare arm, a small rush jolted through both of them and Elphaba quickly withdrew the touch and took to leaning into his shirt instead. She sighed.

"I was trying to confront Dr. Nikidik before the class started," she began. "There were files left behind by Dr. Dillamond- all of the research he had been conducting had been stored for safe-keeping in his desk. It was all information he had collected-"

She halted speech, pondering whether or not to extrapolate.

"Well, the details I'm sure are irrelevant to you," she said finally. "But, it was work that he had been toiling over for the bulk of his career. He was on the verge of a breakthrough, and I was hoping that perhaps I would have been able to continue his work for him. Had I been able to… get my hands on it." She trailed off.

"He didn't let you take anything?"

"He had discarded all of it," she hissed. "It's all gone." Her voice broke and Fiyero reaffirmed his hold on her, drawing her nearer.

"I-it's alright," he said, unconvincingly.

"How can you even say that?" she shrieked, spinning under his grip to look up at him. "All of that effort was disposed of in a matter of seconds by someone completely incompetent of understanding its worth. No, it's not alright!"

Fiyero was silent for a moment. "I'm… sorry."

Elphaba just stared at him, examining his face.

"But… you were working on it with him, right?" he said after another moment of uncomfortable reticence. "Don't you have an idea of what was left behind? A basis to build up from?"

"I only understand the gist of what he was doing," she sighed. "I knew that his work ran far, far deeper than the synopsis he would give me. That's why I was hoping to acquire his notes. Then perhaps I would have been able to expand upon what was already known. Now, I guess it's back to square one, though."

"Oh," was all Fiyero found himself able to say.

Another uncomfortable silence took hold of them and they started to become very aware of how tightly they were gripping each other. They disbanded quickly; she crossed her arms and averted her eyes while he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

"So," he said. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did you to him to leave him completely mentally incapacitated."

"I-I lost control," she confessed, shame blatant in her voice. "The details are hazy, but I think… I sent his desk through the window…" All at once, Fiyero burst out laughing.

"It's not funny!" Elphaba shouted, but found herself giving way to a smirk.

Fiyero finally composed himself, his jeering decrescendoing into a light chortle and then just a bemused smile. The alleyway was voided of noise once again, but the silence that preceded the laughter had a note of comfort to it, not tension. Elphaba regarded him, her smirk dissolving into solemnity, as did his goofy grin. All at once, the setting began to shift and they were back at the edge of Suicide Canal. Elphaba looked up at him with the same expression she was wearing now and her hand found his cheek, caressing the scratch- now a faint scar- that the Lion cub had made. Her lips moved but whatever she had said was lost in the daze of Fiyero's mind. An outside force began to draw them together, eliminating the small space between their lips before either of them were able to register what was really happening- what was really about to happen.

"There you two are!"

Galinda stood silhouetted by the sun in the entrance of the backstreet. Elphaba and Fiyero quickly backed away from one another, the shrill voice of the tiny blonde jerking them back into unpleasant reality. They both glanced over to Galinda's unreadable expression, hearts pounding, wondering if that momentary scene of intimacy had really just happened. And, if it did, if Galinda had just caught them.

"I've been looking all over for you," Galinda stepped towards them, her bubbly smile plastered on her prettily made-up face. Apparently she hadn't. "Did you hear that class is cancelled?" She interlocked her arms with both her boyfriend's and her best friend's, recreating a now-tangible space between them.

"Is it really?" Fiyero muttered, his mind still lost in a haze.

"Yep!" his girlfriend chirped, giving a little tug of his arm, pulling him fully back into reality.

"In that case, how about we all go find some lunch?" he suggested. "I haven't eaten all day."

"Whatever you want," she beamed, moving in and nuzzling into chest, her arm still entwined with Elphaba's. "Oh, and let's see if Bi- I mean, Boq, wants to tag along."

Fiyero let himself be dragged off, entangled in his girlfriend's grasp. Glancing over, he caught a glimpse of Elphaba in the oncoming sunlight. Her eyes stared directly ahead, focused on some unnamable object off in the distance. And she remained silent.

You're not the only one stuck at square one, he sighed, inwardly.