Dedicated to fermataoso, who reviews everything I write, and who has wanted this for over a month.

"No... We have nothing in common. I am nothing like you, and I never will be, and I will fight you until the day I die!!!" The Wizard's offer of fame, of forgiveness, had been shattered when Elphaba had pulled back the sheet and realized that Dr. Dillamond had lost all powers of speech. The Wizard, knowing he had no power, and especially not compared to Elphaba, ran back toward the giant head he used to address his subjects with as the former Goat ran out into the hall.

"Guards, guards," the Wizard cried, looking to Elphaba as feeble and useless as ever. But her disdain at his weakness was short-lived, as she felt her legs go to mush at the entrance of Fiyero and a few other Gale Forcers.

"Halt," one of the guards barked, though to who, it was unclear.

"Are you alright, your Ozness?" Fiyero wasn't even looking at her.

"Fiyero," Elphaba said, her voice breaking in her throat at his name, one she'd scarcely uttered in the years away from him.

"I don't believe it..." His eyes found her, and she discovered that he was unreadable. But she had cause to hope...

"Oh , Fiyero, thank Oz. I thought you were -"

"Silence, witch!"

How two words could feel so much like being cut open from sternum to stomach she had no idea, but they did. She could only gape at him, thoughts racing, as the guards edged away from her, glanced nervously at her, but still tried to sound authoritative.

"There's a Goat on the lam, sir," one guard to said to Fiyero.

"Never mind all that. Fetch me some... some water."

"Water, sir?"

"You heard me," Fiyero barked. "As much as you can carry."

"Yes, sir!"

All the guards exited; most of them were confused, some of them remembered the rumours about water melting the Wicked Witch.

"Fiyero..."

"I said silence!" Fiyero was drowning, drowning in joy, fear, lust, and, most of all, heart wrenching love, needed to put up a front, and needed a moment to think. He didn't have long, however. The Wizard appeared from inside his giant metal head, the oversized mask he wore.

"No! No," he cried, emerging. Was he trying to save Elphaba, or himself?

"Don't make a sound, your Ozness, unless you want all your guests to know the truth about the Wonderful Wizard of Oz... Elphaba, I'll find Doctor Dillamond later, now get out of here."

How was he telling her to run? In all the time he'd dreamed of her, waited to be near her again, he'd never once thought his suggestion would be to run, at least, not without him.

She was clearly relieved. "Fiyero, you frightened me. I thought, I thought you might have changed."

"I have... changed." He was miserable now, aged by the loss of her, and worn out waiting and searching for her. Hearing his name on her lips felt like she was bewitching him, like magnets under his skin were pulling him toward her.

It couldn't have been better timing, then, for Glinda to enter the room. "What's going on... Elphie? Oh, thank Oz you're alive! Only you shouldn't have come. If anyone discoverates you..."

No, he couldn't lose her again. He couldn't send her on her way and stay and lie to Glinda for... who knew how long? "Glinda, you'd better go."

"Fiyero," Glinda looked confused. "What are you...?"

"Please, just go back to the ball," Fiyero said, feeling tired.

Glinda knew she would not win against Fiyero. She never really won, she only got her way because he refused to fight her. In the case when he actually outright told her to do something, and she fought it, and he repeated himself, she knew he would get his way, no matter what. So she turned to the situation she felt she could handle. "Your Ozness, he means no disrespectation. Please understand! You see, we all went to school together..."

Fiyero saw that Elphaba was turning to go, and it felt like being gutted. "Elphaba!"

The enemy name. Nobody was to call her by that. But, then, nobody was supposed to be moving across the room as if to follow her, either. "Fiyero, have you misplaced your mind? What are you doing?"

It was now or never. Fiyero stood near to Elphaba, and turned to look at Glinda, whose dreams were about to come crashing down. "I'm going with her."

"What? What are you saying?" Elphaba stared elsewhere, unsure of how to feel. Oh, how bitter, to gain the love of your life at the expense of your friend. And would they have had problems if it hadn't been for her? "You mean all this time... the two of you... behind my back...?"

That snapped Elphaba back to attention. "No, Glinda it wasn't like that!" It was only once, after all... a stupid mistake.

"Actually, it was," Fiyero said, thinking back to the years of being in love with her. Realizing how his sentence sounded, he tacked on, "but it wasn't... Elphaba, let's go... let's go!"

His hand in hers, they ran, both trying to ignore Glinda's betrayal and her words, flung after them like a curse: "Fine, go! You deserve each other..."

The twists and turns of the palace were familiar to Fiyero, and he led her with ease, with aid of a lantern, until they emerged outside the palace walls, near the back gardens. It was only then that he paused, pulling her into his arms and, gasping for breath, tried not to cry. "Where have you been?"

"Fiyero, we don't have time -"

"Don't tell me we don't have time," he said. "You've been away for years, don't tell me we don't have time to hold each other."

"We'll have time," she promised, squeezing him. "Later."

He looked into her eyes, looking melted and like he'd never looked at her before. "Elphaba..." He kissed her, softly, and it took all her will to place her broom between them.

"Hop on," she said, wishing he could push her against a nearby wall and explore her. He obliged, though he didn't look thrilled about it, and they disappeared into the night, toward the Great Gillikin Forest. As they flew, she decided to get the conversation they had to have out of the way. "So, I was... I saw you and... At the Baum Street Orphanage."

Fiyero held her tighter around the waist. "I named her Fae," he said in her ear. "I don't know if you managed to catch that."

"How did you manage to find her?"

"Pure dumb luck," he said. "And it wasn't until I saw the letters that I began to think..." It occurred to him at that moment that there was still a chance he was wrong about Fae, and he was afraid to continue.

"That she was ours?"

Fiyero held her tighter. "She is, then?"

Elphaba leaned back into him and slowed the broom. "She is." Both thought they might cry, and were glad they couldn't be seen by the other. "Where is she?"

"Somewhere safe," he said, hoping his voice didn't reveal his worry that she wasn't all that safe.

Climbing off the broom, Fiyero took Elphaba's hand and led her to a more secluded area. He took off his coat and put it down on the ground, then pulled her tentatively into his arms, sinking down to his knees. His hands trembled around her waist and up her back, then down around the front and up into her hair. He kissed her gently, hesitantly, until she pulled away.

She was going to ask why he was being so cautious, until she saw the fear in his eyes. "What you so afraid of?"

"I want nothing more than to be with you, but I don't know how you feel. Elphaba, you've been gone so long..."

She couldn't think of a response, so she kissed him. "Don't be gentle with me, I need to feel it," she said. "Kiss me too hard, hold me too hard, I want to really feel it. I can't... It's hard to believe you've come with me, please, help me believe..."

"How could you not believe?" His question was followed by a deep kiss. He explored her as he had that night, but with more urgency - they didn't have long, and knew they had to make every last moment last. He promised, she promised, and then, they began to remove each other's clothing.

"Elphaba," he whispered. "I've missed you..." Pushing all hair from her face, he kissed her, kissed every inch of her face, then began to work down her neck. "Didn't you miss me? I looked everywhere for you, and you never came... You never came."

"Fiyero -" her breath caught in her throat as he slipped her dress off and went to work on her neck. "Of course I missed you..."

"Then where were you?"

"Working," she gasped. "Leaving you to an easier life, with Glinda, though that's all shot to hell, now, I suppose..."

"I was never really with Glinda," he muttered. "You said to stay with her, so I did, for you."

She pulled away. "You can't have stayed just for me," she pointed out. "That's absurd."

"What else would I have done? Ended things with her, broken her heart in the public eye and led the people of Oz to hate me? Then what, have to resign from the Gale Force? How would I have found you, then?" She had no response. "What was the difference, Elphaba? If I couldn't be with you, what was the difference? I was dead inside, anyway."

Elphaba had felt that way, too, but by necessity. The Wicked Witch of the West didn't have a daughter. She couldn't. She didn't have friends like Glinda, she didn't have lovers at all, least of all a lover like Fiyero. She was Alone, save her broom, her hat and her Grimmerie. It made no difference, if she couldn't have her baby and her baby's father.

Her hands slipped off his shirt - had she been unbuttoning it? "Well?" She looked up at him. Oh, he was waiting for an answer.

"I suppose... you did what was best," she conceded. "I'm sorry..." She took his earlobe in her teeth gently, and, through them, murmured, "I'm sorry it took so long for us to see each other again."

"I'm going to do more than see you," he moaned, encouraging her to explore him with her hands. They massaged over his shoulders and around his waist, then up his back as she pulled their bodies close together. Her hands found the waist of his pants and undid them urgently, and he dropped back, pulling her onto his lap.

His hands massaged up her legs and took her hips firmly in hand as she leaned over to kiss him. Sliding his hands up, he tried to push her dress off. "Fiyero," she gasped, sitting up. "I don't..."

"I've already seen you, remember? You're beautiful." He sat up to kiss her neck and eased her dress over her head. Met with her undergarments, he chuckled. "So many layers," he complained, eyes alight with mischief. He paused, remembering the guilt he'd felt the last time they'd done this, wondering if she'd really wanted it. "If you're not comfortable..."

"No," she said, realizing she was being foolish. "No, Fiyero, I -" she pulled the rest of her clothing off, he assisting with the final item, and he wriggled out of his pants.

"You are..." he shook his head, finding himself wordless as he took in the sight of her long hair twirling around her shoulders and down to her waist. She glowed, and he wanted to get caught in the light. "You are radiant," he said, resuming work on her neck until she arched toward him, giving him greater purchase to the rest of her body.

"Fiyero," she moaned.

He grunted, spurred on by the sound of his name on her lips. He wanted to hear her scream it, he wanted it more than he'd ever wanted anything. The years apart had done strange things to him. When they'd been together before, he'd been a boy, barely twenty, and foolish. He'd grown up, though he realized he was still young, after all. And she even younger. As far as he knew, she'd been innocent until that night in the Emerald City... Had she been with others since then? She seemed more worldly, she got over her insecurities faster, but perhaps that was just age.

"More, please," she gasped, as his hands traveled from her breasts (though his mouth never strayed from there) down the front of her. She was less inhibited, he realized. She didn't even flinch; she was completely in the moment.

Or perhaps that was just desire? Years apart, as lonely for her as they'd been for him?

He certainly enjoyed feeling desired. After awhile, she pushed him back and leaned to explore his chest with her mouth, reciprocating. Her hot kisses on his chest and down his stomach stole his breath, and he felt insane wanting her to continue south with that tongue while also wanting it entwined with his as their hips aligned. He didn't have to choose, however, as she stayed down where she was, exploring and fondling, prodding and massaging. His hands found the back of her head and buried themselves in her hair as he moaned.

But he didn't want satisfaction yet. He was content to let her arouse him, but he wanted to turn that arousal back on her, and so he did, taking her face in his hands and angling it toward him as he sat up. She paused, and climbed back onto his lap as he tugged her toward him, instantly rewarded as his mouth went to work on her neck.

Fiyero felt as though he could continue on her neck forever, and as though if he had to spend one more moment not connected to her, he'd perish. As if reading his thoughts, she moved so that she was braced just above him, and, at the urging of his hands on her hips, slid herself down.

Both moaned, and paused where they were, savouring the feeling of being part of one another. After breathless, open-mouthed kisses and the soft caress of hands on necks, cheeks, waists and backs, they found a rhythm instantly.

Fiyero was in love with being able to see her as they moved. Her head fell back almost instantly, and he clamped one hand onto her waist to keep a handle on things, to give himself the idea of control, and gave the other hand free reign over her, sliding an open palm up her stomach before allowing it to settling on her breast for awhile, teasing it in rhythm to their movement. As her breathing got away from her, he took pity and slid his hand up to stroke the side of her face, then pulled her close and flipped them, so that, rather than sitting together, he was on top of her.

She moaned at the change, one achieved without breaking apart, and smiled a sensual smile of lust and triumph. This was so good, it was almost too much ot bear. As he continued to thrust, and she continued to meet him, she lost herself in the feeling of being tended to, being touched, being loved. She felt herself tightening, the heavy heat low in her stealing her breath, and was only brought back to reality by Fiyero, who had taken a moment to remember the last time they'd been together and subsequently started to panic.

The last time they'd been together... He loved baby Fae, but that can't have been easy for Elphaba. And they weren't safe, now, either. "Elphaba," he panted in her ear, hating himself. "I have to... I have to stop."

"What? Why?"

"If I finish... what if you get pregnant again?"

Elphaba felt like they'd been in a dark, cozy room of lust, and suddenly, someone had flicked on a blinding light and turned down the heat. She took a moment to process his question, then answered. "Then I get pregnant," she whispered, kissing him.

"Elphie, I'm close," he groaned, though he hadn't stopped.

"Then finish," she whispered in his ear. "I want you to." He flipped them again, and she sat up, looking triumphant once more, and he anchored her hips and did all the work, which was good, because every bone in her body seemed to turn to jelly. "Fiyero..." He felt her come, heard her, watched her, and realized what living was all about. It was totally and completely about Elphaba, and about Fae, and the future. Future children, future nights of passion. It was about the past, present and the infinity of tomorrow all coming together in one moment, a moment of being truly alive. He knew this and more as she climaxed.

He had forgotten.

She took him with her.