AN: This is the Lion Cub scene, slightly altered... and thus, this chapter doth end with - aye, thou hearest it right - a CLIFFY. Because it's been too long.

Love how everyone got scared because of the cackling, and of course you all immediately sang Let It Go when you read the chapter title :P.

I like your theories about Aliyra. Looks like most of you think she's either his little sister or his girlfriend/fiancée/wife (with some of you adding a pregnancy). I'm not saying anything, but your theories are interesting.

Broadwaygirl21: Sorry, no, I didn't get the quotes :3. Thank you so much, though! (And hey, I'm a 'special doctor'-to-be... your parents could just send you to me! *more cackling*)

Thedoctor24601: PIE. And thank you for the flying monkey support. And are you really apologising for leaving a long review? The longer, the better! Bring it on! :D

Chapter 6. Lions and feelings and guilt, oh my

"Hey, Fae?" Fiyero asked when the two of them were in class together later that afternoon. The lecture had just finished, but Elphaba was still going over some of her notes, fixing them and ordering them until she was satisfied with the result; and Fiyero had decided to wait for her.

Galinda had come to talk to him earlier that day and she had left him a little worried.

"I had a talk with Elphie the other day," the blonde had explained, "and I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to tell anyone else…" She had sighed a little dramatically, as if she was carrying the world's weight on her shoulders. "But I feel like I have to tell someone, or I'll simply burst! You know I'm not good at keeping secrets, Fiyero!" She had even wailed a little.

He had promised her not to tell anyone and she had then proceeded to tell him what Elphaba had told her about Nessarose and the life that was awaiting the green girl after Shiz. Fiyero, frankly, had been shocked; and when Galinda had asked him to keep an eye on Elphaba whilst the blonde was in the Emerald City, he had agreed. And so here he was.

She didn't look up from her notes. "Hmm?"

He nudged her leg with his foot. "Do you want to hang out tomorrow?"

She blinked, then frowned at him. "'Hang out'?" she echoed, lifting one eyebrow.

"Yeah." He flashed her his most convincing grin. "You know, spend time together. Go somewhere. To the park, or to Suicide Canal, or to have a drink at the Primrose Café… something like that."

"Um…" She seemed to take a long time thinking about that question, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Why?"

"Why?" he repeated incredulously. "Well… um… because it's fun? Why else?"

She gave him a look, her dark eyes narrowed.

"You're up to something," she concluded. "You're acting suspicious. Spit it out, Fiyero. What's the problem?"

"There's no problem!" he protested a little too quickly.

She arched an eyebrow again – the other one this time, Fiyero noticed.

He squirmed under her gaze. "Don't look at me like that," he almost begged her.

She smirked. "Then tell me what's going on."

"Nothing!" he cried, but since he could see that she would not be fazed, his shoulders slumped and he gave in. "Okay, okay. Galinda came to talk to me earlier, and… she's just a little worried about you, is all. About leaving you alone this weekend," he clarified at Elphaba's puzzled look. "She asked me to spend some time with you." He figured that sounded better than 'she asked me to keep an eye on you'. Elphaba would feel like he was controlling her and then she would never agree, he knew.

Even now, she sighed irritably.

"Galinda is overdramatic and paranoid," she said a little snippily. "Don't listen to her, Fiyero. She's always needling me about me having to spend more time with friends and less with books, about my health, constantly telling me she's worried about me… there's nothing wrong with me, okay? I'm fine. You don't have to 'hang out' with me." She used her fingers as quote marks.

"I know I don't have to," Fiyero said, taking one of her hands in his own. "But I want to."

She eyed him suspiciously.

"And honestly," he added, "I'm a little worried about you, too. Especially with Avaric picking on you like that…"

"I can handle Avaric," she said brusquely.

"I know," said Fiyero. "But he did give you bruises." Before she could protest, he had already pulled the sleeve of her dress down to reveal her upper arm and he gave her a pointed look. "Bruises that still haven't faded, nearly two weeks later," he added.

She squinted at him and yanked her sleeve back up with more force than strictly needed. "What, are you my mother now?" she bit at him.

He stood his ground, however. "Look, Fae, would you stop being so defensive all the time?" he demanded a little gruffly. "Or do I have to give you the whole friend speech again? Just say 'yes' and we could go and do something fun tomorrow. It's very nice outside – why don't we go and have a picnic or something like that? Or find us a place to have a drink on a terrace somewhere?"

She kept on looking at him, studying him intently, as if judging his sincerity. He made his famous puppy eyes at her and she caved.

"Fine," she said. "We'll hang out. But only because I know you'll be stalking me if I don't agree to this."

He grinned at her. "You know me too well. I'll meet you in the courtyard at noon?"

"Sure," she agreed, and his grin widened. He bowed exaggeratedly, catching her hand and kissing it before she could pull it away.

"I will be awaiting your arrival, Milady."

She pulled her hand back and hit him across the head with her notes. "Idiot." But she was smiling.

It was that Monday, when they were both in History class together, that suddenly all kinds of things happened at the same time, pulling Fiyero into a whirlwind of action.

First, Doctor Dillamond was taken away and a substitute took his place. There was a Lion Cub, cowering and terrified, locked up in a cage; and as the students gathered around the cage in interest, Elphaba started yelling, horrified at what was going on. Then, suddenly, the entire class went completely crazy, twitching and moving around as if their bodies had a will of their own; and Fiyero did the first thing that came to his mind.

He leapt forward, grabbed the cage with the Cub in it, and shouted over his shoulder at Elphaba, "Are you coming?"

They ran, out of the classroom and out of the building, towards the forest right next to the eastern border of campus. They jumped over tree roots and dodged bushes before finally coming to a halt in the middle of a clearing, both of them panting slightly.

"Don't shake him," Elphaba said when he swung the cage down.

"I'm not." Even though he knew as well as she did that he was – not on purpose, but still.

"And we can't just let him loose anywhere," Elphaba continued quietly. "We have to take him somewhere safe."

Fiyero sighed. "I realise that," he said irritably. "You think I'm really stupid, don't you?" He put the cage down and turned to face her, his hands on his hips.

"No!" she said. Then she muttered under her breath, "Not really stupid."

He heard, anyway, and he bristled. Here he was, trying to be nice to her and befriend her; and all she did was snap at him and insult him.

"Why is it that every time I see you, you're causing some sort of commotion?" he sneered angrily, thinking of the party at the OzDust, and the whole ordeal with Avaric at Pfannee's party… and now this again. Not that he minded all that much, but still.

"I don't cause commotions, I am one!" Elphaba snapped back before brushing past him.

He snorted a mirthless laugh. "That's for sure."

She whirled around to face him again, narrowing her eyes. "Oh, so you think I should just keep my mouth shut, is that it?" she demanded of him. "Do you think I want to be this way? That I want to care this much? Don't you think I know how much easier my life would be if I didn't?"

He tried to interrupt her, but she just kept on raging and ranting, seemingly unable to stop. He rubbed his forehead wearily before shouting, "Hey!"

She fell silent.

"Do you ever let anyone else talk?" he asked gruffly. Again, it wasn't that he minded. Not at all. She had a pretty voice – melodious and a little breathy, though it tended to get a sharp edge to it whenever she was annoyed. Or angry. Or sarcastic. Come to think of it, that sharp edge was more often present than not.

"Sorry," she said now. "But can I just say one more thing?"

He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, but didn't interrupt her again.

"You could have walked away, back there," she said. She sound almost incredulous. "But you didn't. You… you helped me. With the Cub, I mean."

He shrugged. "We're friends, right?" he said. "That's what friends do. They help one another."

A smirk was tugging at the corners of her mouth. "So," she said a little smugly, "no matter how shallow and self-absorbed you pretend to be…"
"Hey, hey, hey," he cut her off sternly. "There's no pretence here. I happen to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow."

Her smirk widened. "I was right about you."

He frowned. "What?"

"Not my first impression," she corrected herself, "but I just had a gut feeling that you were different than you pretended to be. You're not like Avaric. You're not happy with a life of partying, drinking, sex, and pestering green girls. In fact," she said, circling him like she was a predator and he was her prey, "I don't think you're happy at all."

Ouch. That one cut a little too close to home.

"Look," he said grumpily, "if you don't want my help…" He made to walk off – she could handle that Cub by herself. Miss Smarty-Pants.

"No, I do!" she said quickly, lunging forward and grabbing his hand.

He stared at their joined hands for a moment. Then he stared at her face.

She quickly dropped his hand, turning away from him with a furious blush on her cheeks. She knelt down next to the cage with the Cub in it, pretending to be absorbed in comforting it.

"Its heart is pounding," she mumbled, shaking her hair in front of her face in order to hide her blush. Unfortunately, since she was still wearing her hair in a braid, that didn't work out too well. "I didn't mean to frighten it."

"Then what did you mean to do?" he asked her softly, kneeling down next to her. "And why was I the only one you didn't do it to?"

She bit her lip, unsure of how to answer that. Then she held her breath, bringing her hand up to his face. "You're bleeding."

"I…" He blinked, trying to look away, but he just kept on staring at her face. "I am?"

"It must have scratched you," she said softly. Never taking her eyes off his cheek, she pulled a small handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at the scratch with it, gently wiping off the blood. His eyes were still transfixed on her face and he suddenly wondered what it would be like to kiss her.

His eyes widened when he realised what he had just thought and he all but jumped away from her, as if he had been stung.

"I… I'd better get to safety," he stammered. "The Cub, I mean… get the Cub to safety. I – yeah." He grabbed the cage and ran off with it, shaking it even more now than he had been doing before.

He ran off and tried to pretend that he was leaving his feelings, his thoughts, and his confusion behind with Elphaba in that clearing.

He avoided her after that, she noticed. He didn't sit next to her in class anymore, he stopped insisting on accompanying her everywhere, and whenever they went out to have dinner with Galinda, Nessa, and Boq, he always made sure that he wasn't sitting next to Elphaba.

And despite everything, despite the fact that he could be annoying and obnoxious and she had more than once wished for him to just leave her alone… it stung. Because she thought they really had become friends over the past weeks, and to see him avoiding her now only confirmed her suspicions: she had crossed a line. She wasn't sure what had been the final straw – her touching him like that in that clearing, or her yelling at him for the umpteenth time, or the fact that she had insulted him – again… but she was sure that she had ruined it now. Their friendship, which had only barely begun, was over already and it was all Elphaba's fault.

"What happened?" Boq wanted to know when he, Nessarose, and Elphaba were sitting in class one day. "First he keeps trying to get your attention, claiming he wants to be your friend; and the next day, he starts avoiding you like the plague and barely speaks a single word to you anymore."

"What did you say to him now?" Nessarose demanded prickly. "Fabala, I told you this so many times already – you have got to get that temper of yours under control. This is getting out of hand. You've never had any friends, and the few friends you do have you keep pushing away with your snarky comments and insults. It's a miracle they even look past your skin – you should thank them on your bare knees for wanting to befriend you!"

Elphaba bristled at that, opening her mouth to argue, but Nessa just kept raging on. "But no, what do you do? You snap at them, act offended at every single word that comes out of their mouth – has it ever even crossed your mind that maybe, just maybe, people are being genuine when they tell you that they like you, or want to be your friend, or that they think you look nice? – and you just push and push as hard as you can until they give up. And now you're here, sulking, because Fiyero is avoiding you." She shook her head. "Well," she said firmly, "it's your own fault."

Elphaba deflated and hung her head, realising her sister was right. "I know," she muttered.

Boq gave Nessa a look and placed his hand on Elphaba's arm a bit tentatively. "Elphie?"

She looked at him.

"Just try to open up a little bit more," he suggested. "Whatever it is that you've done, tell him you're sorry and try to make it right. He'll forgive you." He squeezed her arm. "I get that it's probably not easy, being green, but you need to stop thinking that the whole world is out to get you. Granted, maybe people like Avaric and Milla and Pfannee are… but not everyone is. Give people a chance."

Elphaba sighed. "I guess you're right."

But she just couldn't bring herself to go to Fiyero and apologise. What if he laughed at her? What if he'd tell her that he never wanted to be her friend in the first place – that he had just been trying to have some fun with her, teasing her and making her look ridiculous, but that he had never been serious? Or what if he wouldn't forgive her, if he genuinely cared about her and she had driven him so far away with her behaviour that it was too late?

And so she didn't go to him. He didn't come to her, either. They didn't speak to one another at all for over a week.

Not until Avaric showed up near Suicide Canal one day to carry out his threat.

Dun dun DUUUUUUN...