AN: The bad news is that this chapter is probably the worst one of this entire story. The good news is that that means it can only get better from the next chapter onward. Right? Right.

I agree with you all that it was kind of mean of Nessa, but I figured she's still Nessa and she mostly just thinks about what she wants and not how it can make someone else feel.

Kudos to Elphaba'sGirl for the Wonderwomen reference ^^.

I love the whole #OperationFiyeraba thing on Twitter. It's genius :P.

Chapter dedicated to Woodland59 for being the 400th (!) reviewer! :D Virtual Portugese dessert of your choice for you!

Chapter 23. Hurt

When Nessarose and Fiyero had come up with their plan, they had thought it to be perfect. It was so easy: Nessa would get Elphaba to come to the Vinkus, where Fiyero would have two entire weeks to win her back.

What he hadn't taken into account, however, was Elphaba's talent for avoiding him.

She disappeared constantly. Fiyero took all of his friends out of the castle sometimes, to show them the gardens, or the villages nearby, or the Thousand Year Grasslands; and though she seemed to love it all, she didn't spare him as much as a glance. He never got to speak to her alone and even in public, she would not say a single word to him.

His parents liked her – and the others, too – very much and the feeling seemed to be reciprocal, which he was happy about, but not as happy as he once would have been. If Elphaba really didn't want him back, it wouldn't really matter if she liked his parents or if they liked her, after all.

He managed to corner her one day, five days after she had first arrived. She was exploring the library – as she had spent most of her free time doing – and he came to look for her, finding her between the shelves.

"Hey, Fae," he said.

She glanced up briefly before returning her attention to her book, not replying.

He sighed. "Fae… come on. I know I messed up, but you can just talk to me, can't you? If you really can't get back together with me, can't we at least be friends?"

She pressed her lips together and said nothing.

He leant against a bookshelf. "So you really hate me that much."

"I don't hate you," she said wearily. "I just don't feel like talking to you right now."

He looked at her. "I'm really sorry."

"I know you are, Fiyero. That's not the point." She put the book back and turned to face him. "It's like I told you before – you're just not supposed to be with me."

"And who are you to tell me that?" he demanded.

"The one you've been pushing aside in favour of Aliyra for the past months," she snapped.

He recoiled, as if she had slapped him – which, frankly, was how he felt. He knew he had made mistakes. He knew he had done things that had made her feel like he still loved Aliyra more than he did Elphaba. He had done many things wrong with her, but now she was crossing a line.

"That," he said in a low voice, "is not fair, Elphaba."

"It's how you made me feel!" she shouted at him. "Looking back now, I can't even remember a single thing about our relationship that was not in some way connected to Aliyra! Did you even love me at all, or did I just remind you of her, too? You told me I am like Aliyra when it comes to personality – was that the reason you got together with me in the first place?"

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, lost for words. He wanted to reassure her that it wasn't, that he really loved her for her… but how could he, when her question had been something he had so often asked himself in the beginning?

He knew now that yes, he really did love Elphaba for who she was, and that had nothing to do with Aliyra; but he hadn't known that in the beginning. He hadn't been sure himself. He could lie to her now, but he knew she would see through him – she always did.

And so he didn't say anything, which confirmed Elphaba's suspicions… but even though she had thought about it countless times already, even though she had suspected it, it still hurt more than she could say.

She pushed past him and fled the library, running up to her room and hiding away there for the next few hours. She didn't want to cry, but she couldn't help it. Had any of it been real at all? Had he ever really loved her for her? Or had it just been everything about her that had reminded him of Aliyra? She had hoped that he would deny it, tell her that she was completely wrong in thinking that, that he really did love her for who she was and that it had nothing to do with his deceased fiancée… but he had just stood there without saying anything, thus telling her all she needed to know.

She buried her face in her pillow, sobbing.

Around her friends, she tried to keep her cool. She pretended to be angry, but not upset; she always made sure that no-one saw her tears – not Galinda, not Nessa, and especially not Fiyero. But just because she was hiding it well, didn't mean she wasn't sad. She was heartbroken, but what could she do? He didn't want her. He didn't love her. No-one loved her. She remembered what she had told Fiyero one day early in their relationship and she realised that that was still true: no-one had ever really loved her, and no-one ever would.

"Nessa?"

The wheelchair-bound girl looked up from where she was talking to Boq and smiled at Galinda. "Hi, Galinda."

The blonde joined the other two, perching on the edge of a couch. "I just wanted to discuss with you two how Operation Fiyeraba is going."

Boq chuckled at the name, but Nessa's face fell.

"Not well," she said with a sigh. "Not well at all. She's still avoiding him. He is annoyed that she ignores him, rather than talks to him; she insists there's nothing left to say. He tries to talk to her, she pushes him away. I think she's being incredibly childish, not to mention selfish, but of course she doesn't listen to me."

"She's hurt, too, Nessa," Galinda said softly. "They both fought and they both said and did things that hurt the other. It's not just Elphie's fault."

"And now Fiyero's angry, too," Boq chimed in. "I talked to him only this morning. Apparently his parents went to talk to Elphaba to explain to her everything they knew about Aliyra and Fiyero's relationship with her." Initially, none of them had known about Aliyra, except for Elphaba; but then Fiyero had told Galinda the day of the ball, after Elphaba had broken up with him, and she had told the others. None of them had heard the entire story from Fiyero, but the short version they knew, combined with the things they had heard Elphaba and Fiyero yell at one another, had told them enough.

"They did?" Galinda asked in surprise. "That's sweet of them… maybe if Elphie understands it better, she'll come around."

"Only his parents agreed with Elphaba that he is probably not over Aliyra yet, and not ready for a new relationship," said Boq drily, "and though they definitely approve of him having her as his girlfriend, they told her they can fully understand why she broke up with him."

"So Fiyero is furious with his parents for choosing Elphaba's side," Nessa concluded.

Boq nodded. "Pretty much. And then he got mad at Elphaba again because he thought she had done something to manipulate his parents into saying that, which kind of shocked her, I think. I can't blame her. She would never do such a thing and we all know that. If Elphaba is anything, it's honest."

"Sometimes a little too honest," Nessa muttered.

"She must be upset," Galinda said softly. "That explains why she's hiding away in her room again."

Nessa moaned and buried her face in her hands. "What are we going to do?" she asked in exasperation. "He is mad at her, she is mad at him. I think they both still love one another, but what if they're right in breaking up, Galinda? What if they're just too different? Sometimes love isn't enough to make a relationship work."

"Of course it is!" Galinda waved a hand in the air. "We can't give up yet! Elphie and Fiyero need us, and we're not going to stop trying until they are back together!" She rose to her feet. "I'm going to talk to Elphie right now!"

She found the green girl in her room, curled up in the window sill. When she heard the blonde enter, she wiped at her eyes and forced a smile, but Galinda could see that she had been crying.

"Elphie…" she said softly, sitting down beside the green girl.

Elphaba sniffled. "He called me a liar," she said, trying to pretend that didn't bother her, but her voice was shaking a little. "He accused me of lying to his parents in order to gain their sympathy and get them on my side. I asked him why in Oz I would do that, and he said it would be to get back at him." She shook her head. "How can he think that of me? I would never do that, Glin. Never. If I wanted to get back at him, I'd do it directly and not through his parents… not even I would stoop so low. But he thinks I would, and then I got mad and…" She shrugged.

Galinda kept quiet, wanting to let Elphaba talk.

"I said some horrible, horrible things to him," the young witch confessed quietly, "and then my magic got out of control and I threw him back against a wall, and he… he started screaming at me that I'm a witch and that he didn't understand how he had ever loved me, and then I screamed back at him that he never did, that he'd been lying to me all along and that Aliyra had been the only one he'd ever loved, and he told me to keep Aliyra out of this and that I shouldn't blame other people for lying when I've been lying to his parents myself… he just didn't believe me when I said I didn't do that. He called me a lying, insensitive witch, and I called him a cheating, good-for-nothing jerk… and then he stormed off and so did I."

She looked out of the window again, apparently not even realising that there were tears in her eyes or Galinda was sure she would have wiped them away. "It's really over, Glin. I knew it was, of course I knew… I'm the one who broke up with him. And maybe it was not fair of me, to judge that kiss so harshly, but it wasn't just that kiss – it was everything before that as well. It's just… I didn't want to hope, but secretly I did hope that maybe, after some time, he'd be more at peace with Aliyra's death… and maybe we could even get back together, eventually. Or at least be friends again. I never meant to lose him forever, Glin."

She realised her tears were falling now and she wiped them away with her sleeve, but they just kept coming.

"And I know it's stupid," she said in a trembling voice. "But I was scared. I kept feeling like something was wrong with our relationship… or maybe I was just fearing it, because to me it still doesn't make sense, him and me together. I was scared of him leaving me, but also of him staying with me. I was afraid I would fail at being a girlfriend the way I always have at being everything else, and that I would lose him. And then that whole thing with Aliyra came up and it gave me an excuse to break it off… only I didn't really feel relieved, just empty, and I didn't know what to do… I still don't." She looked at Galinda, her cheeks wet with tears. "I miss him. So much. But I didn't know how to deal with everything. I love him, but he hurt me so badly, and I hurt him… and I don't deserve him, Glin. I know he was willing to forgive me for everything I said and did, but he shouldn't have been. I don't deserve forgiveness. And I just kept on driving him away, further and further away… I don't know why. Maybe to test how far I could go before he'd stop loving me. And it seems that now, he finally has."

"Of course he hasn't," Galinda said softly, wrapping her arms around her best friend. "Oh, Elphie… it doesn't work like that. You've caused one another so much pain, but don't you see? The people you love have the power to hurt you the most." She looked at Elphaba. "You didn't hurt Fiyero any more than he hurt you," she said. "Did you stop loving him because of it?"

Elphaba shook her head wordlessly, tears still streaming down her face.

"Exactly," Galinda said. "So why would he?"

The green girl lowered her eyes.

Galinda hugged her again. "You need to stop thinking of yourself as a failure, Elphaba Thropp. You are amazing, do you know that? You're the perfect daughter, the best sister a girl could ever wish for, and you're the bestest friend in the entire world. You're a wonderful student and you were a fantastic girlfriend, too. It's your own insecurities that keep holding you back. Stop worrying. And if you do worry, then talk about it. You have no trouble telling me that you think I should clean my half of the room and buy less pink clothes, so why is it so difficult for you to tell Fiyero what you think about your relationship? I never thought you, of all people, would have such a big problem with words."

Elphaba said nothing, fidgeting with the hem of her dress.

"Talk to him, Elphie." Galinda took a handkerchief and used it to wipe Elphaba's tears away. "You're not damaged beyond repair. You can still fix this – both of you. You can be together again. You can be happy. Just talk to him."

"I told you, Glin," Elphaba whispered. "He doesn't want me back. Not anymore. He said he couldn't understand how he ever loved me…"

"He was angry," Galinda said logically. "People say things they don't mean when they're angry. And it's a terrible thing to say, and I'll slap him for it, that I promise; but you shouldn't take it too seriously, Elphie. You said things you didn't mean, too."

She hugged her friend once more. "I'll talk to him," she promised, "and I'll make sure you two will get your happy ending, Elphie; because if anyone deserves it, it's you. I love you. You're the bestest friend ever."

"I love you, too, Glin," Elphaba replied quietly, returning the hug.

Galinda let go of her and looked into her eyes.

"We'll fix this," she said. "I promise."

Elphaba hoped she was right.