AN: AO;VEKLWAVOKLDSG ROYAL BABY ALJFA;VKSDFVOKFDLJFAVKOLSJVNAOKLFHDF *has a spastic Royal fangirl seizure and passes out*

Dear Shell,

Your letters have truly become much too few and painfully far between. You have no idea how happy I was to get an envelope with your handwriting on it. These last few weeks have been so...strange and active, to say the least. On my first day alone, I helped with the person who might just be the single most notorious patient in this entire place, but even with all the "fame," he's nothing but a myth to about 99% of the people here, and that includes the staff. I know I'm being cryptic, so let me explain:

There's a patient here by the name of Fiyero Tigelaar. He is a nineteen-year-old Arjiki boy, and is the only son of the Arjiki king and queen, as well as their only remaining child, seeing how one of his sisters is apparently estranged to the point of being disowned, and the other one died two years ago. The story goes that he was very close to this second sister, a girl about two or three years younger than him named Niobe. She died of tuberculosis when he was seventeen, and his grief began to come out in the form of hysterical fits of anger directed at anyone and everyone for absolutely no reason that would start with no reason, and during one of which he somehow succeeded in knocking over an amoire, which then proceeded to crush his left arm, leaving it completely paralyzed, and him unable to even feel it for the rest of his life, let alone actually use it for anything. That fit was apparently the last straw, and his parents, not wanting him to hurt himself or anyone else again, committed him to this place. He's been here ever since. He's the only patient on the sixth floor.

He's kept in total isolation and lives in room 602, in which there is nothing but a window, a round nightstand where he's allowed to keep up to four of his books at a time and some charcoal, which he uses to draw incredibly lifelike pictures on the walls of people, places, and things from his home back in the Vinkus. When I first met him, when I followed my mentor, Bria, into the room, he had his back turned and was shading in the irises on a picture of his sister.

I don't understand it, Shell.

With the exception of his arm and the fact that he suffers the occasional nightmare that wakes him up screaming and in tears, I can see absolutely nothing wrong with this boy, and especially nothing mentally wrong with him. I can't figure out why he's here. You know what he told me? He told me that he's broken. And when I told him that I'm broken, too, he said twice in a row, "You're not broken." And then he started to tell me that I'm "just..." but he fell asleep before he finished, so I never found out what I am. But you know what else he told me?

He says he feels safe with me. He says he can't explain it, but he just feels safe. Maybe it's because I "sort of" remind him of his sister, but...And he said that I'm "different from the others," but he's not sure how. That I'm "different, but not in the way that [he is] because there's nothing wrong with [me]...different in a good way." And when I tried to tell him that being different doesn't mean there's something wrong with him, if he hadn't been under sedation at the time, I swear, he would have laughed, because the very next thing he said was, "Elphaba, I'm a depressed masochist with a dead arm."

There's something about this boy, Shell. I don't know what, but he just...there's something almost...magnetic about him, and I'm not just talking about his eyes, even as amazingly pale and clear as they are! Something about him that I can't identify is just...it's like it's pulling me in, and now that I've seen him, met him, spoken to him and all these things, I can't just turn my back on him, I couldn't even if I wanted to, because as broken as he thinks he is, even if it's true, I honestly believe that he is not beyond repair. I truly believe with all my heart that this supposedly broken boy can still be fixed, and it's only a matter of the right person coming along and figuring out how, and I am determined to do absolutely everything I can to make that happen as quickly as humanly possible, because I am telling you, Shell, this boy does not belong here. He looks people in the eyes, carries on conversation, smiles, laughs, draws, reads, has nightmares and memories and is so much more normal than anybody else I've seen here so far.

You know...in some ways...he reminds me of you. And I think that maybe that's part of why I'm drawn to him, you know? I mean, take the first time I met him, for example. Once Bria had given him the shot we'd gone in there to give him, he said, "OUCH!" and then proceeded to demand why she couldn't do that in his dead arm, and she basically told him, "Because it wouldn't do its job if I did, I've told you this before," and you know what he did? I kid you not, Shell, he threw his head back, made a face, and whined, "But it HUUUUUUUUUUURTS-UH!" and then let himself fall backwards and just lay there on the floor with his limbs all sprawled out around himself, his eyes closed, and his face all scrunched up, and it was just so adorable and it reminded me of a child, but more than anything, it reminded me of the little "shows" that you're so fond of putting on for everyone, and so I got down there with him, got him to open his eyes, and just said, "You, sir, are acting like my older brother."

Oh, hell! And while we're on the subject of silly behavior, don't even get me started on my roomate! Her name is Galinda Arduenna, but when she was a little girl, a friend mispronounced her name as "Glinda," and it stuck as a nickname, so everybody calls her Glinda instead of Galinda. Anyway, she's my age, and I swear to Oz, Shell, this girl is my complete polar opposite in every way imaginable! She's about four-foot-eleven without shoes on, so as you might expect, she pretty much only wears heels, and she LOVES the color pink. She's got a pink blanket on her bed, a wooden jewelry box shaped like a heart and painted primarily pink, her nails are pink, her makeup is mainly pink, she's got a trunk she keeps under her bed, I've caught glimpses of pink in that, there's pink on her music box, pink, pink, PINK! She says I should see her room at home, but honestly, between you and me, I'm sort of glad that I haven't and probably won't! She's got curly blonde hair, pretty blue eyes, her voice is kind of high-pitched and nasally, and she is a bundle of hyperactivity and bounciness and energy and squeals. She's a real sweetheart, though, and despite being on far ends of the spectrum, she was the very first friend I made here. In fact, she did something for me on my first day that I will never forget as long as I live.

When I first got here, by which I mean AS I WAS COMING UP THE FRONT WALK, Glinda was the one who was standing on the front steps waiting for me, and when I got up there, she gave me a very warm and welcoming smile and said, "Hi there, you must be the new intern!" Later on, she told me that she'd been told she would be getting a new roomate, and when she overheard that I was supposed to arrive on that particular day, she was absolutely determined to be the very first person to greet me when I got here because she wanted to get off on the right foot so that she hopefully wouldn't "screw things up" like she apparently has with some past friendships, and I just...I was absolutely speechless when she told me this, because as I know that you're aware, I've never had anyone do that sort of thing before, so it...it was unexpected, but I'm very grateful that she thought I was important enough to go out of her way just to meet as soon as I got here. And I truly don't think that she has any idea how much that gesture really meant to me.

Anyway, she's Gillikinese, and was born and raised in a place in the Pertha Hills in the Upper Uplands called Frottica. She's engaged to a guy named Fintan, and they're getting married next spring at his family's place in Tennikin. She's got a picture of him, and I have to admit, he's not bad looking, though if they ever have children, between her genetics and his, those kids will be VERY blonde and blue-eyed!

Hm...Well...not much more to report on my end, so I guess I'll end things here. I miss you so much, Shell. You used to always be right around the corner when I needed you, and now you're just...I'm not...Don't think that I resent you or anything, because I don't. I could never resent you after everything you've done for me, but...I respect your choice to travel, and I understand your whole thing about needing to have freedom and find yourself and everything, but sometimes I just...It's been hard, you know? Since you left, there've been times when I needed you, and then I remembered you weren't there, and...I just...

I miss you, okay? I miss having my big brother around. And I wish you would at least come visit or something. Even if only for a day or two.

Anyway...yeah. Just...take care of yourself, okay? Try to stay out of trouble and write back soon.

Much love,
Elphaba (a.k.a. your little Lizard Girl)

AN: Filler chapter, I'm sorry, I just...I can't... ;KVAJLDF;AKDLJ;LKFSDAJ BABY LITTLE ROYAL BABY NEW PRINCE AOIFJKA;LDSF;AOEKLJDSofL *passes out again*