AN: Thank you all so much for your reviews! You guys really made my day :).

I'm glad you're all liking little Yero and little Fae so far ^_^. This chapter will have little Galinda in it, and the next chapter will include little Cohvu.

For those of you wondering: ... No. No, Frex did not knock Elphaba out and leave her on the beach to die. No, he did not throw her into the sea. Oz, guys :P (yes, Elphaba'sGirl and Siarenthander, I'm looking at you).

However, Elphaba'sGirl: yes, the story will be that AU. As in, AU enough so that it might be possible that Elphaba is a siren or an angel (she's not, but just to give an example of the AU-ishness of this story :P) Anything is possible *mysterious background music*.

MidnightReadingAddict: You'll find out later on in the story ^_^.

Vinkunwildflowerqueen: You can't even begin to imagine my reaction when I saw that you were not only following my story, but that you've reviewed it, too. Seriously, I completely spazzed. I may have mentioned it before, but you're pretty much my idol - to me, getting a review from you is almost like... like getting a review from Idina Menzel herself. (Okay, that's a bit exaggerated... but just a tiny bit.) Thank you so very much!

Chapter 2. Legally Blonde

'That's how we found her, now two weeks ago,' Fiyero concluded his story. 'Isn't that awesome?'

Galinda stared at him with a penetrating blue gaze that told him that to her, he was the biggest idiot that had ever existed in all of Oz. She often looked at him that way. He wondered why that was.

'Awesome,' she finally echoed, and Fiyero nodded enthusiastically. 'Yeah!'

'The girl has probably been in a shipwreck,' the petite blonde girl stated. 'She was washed up on a beach. There appear to be no other survivors. Her entire family is probably dead and she's been through a horrendible accident… and you think that's awesome?'

He faltered. 'Well,' he said hesitantly. 'If you look at it that way… it suddenly seems a lot less awesome,' he admitted reluctantly.

Galinda heaved a sigh and placed her hands on her hips. 'Fiyero Tiggular, you are so brainless sometimes,' she declared in her high-pitched voice, and he looked up, offended. 'What? Why?'

The small blonde girl shook her head. 'Never mind, Fifi,' she said. 'Where is this girl? I'd like to see her.'

He made a face. 'We can't,' he said. 'The doctor's with her to examine her again, and there are other people with her as well. I'm not sure why, but my Dad said that they're worried because they still don't know where she's from, she doesn't seem to understand any language, and she still hasn't spoken a single word.'

Galinda screwed up her nose. 'Not one word?' she asked incredulously, and Fiyero nodded. The blonde shook her head in amazement. 'How is that even possible?' she asked. 'I mean, I'm pretty sure I couldn't not talk for one hour, let alone two weeks!'

'Yes, well,' said Fiyero snappily, suddenly annoyed with his blonde friend, 'that's because you always talk so much. You couldn't keep your mouth shut to save your life.'

He wasn't sure why he suddenly got mad with Galinda. He just didn't want her to say anything even remotely offensive about the green girl. He had come to like her – the green girl – even though she didn't speak, and to be really honest, he felt bad about thinking that what had happened to her was awesome. She must be really scared and sad. He tried to imagine how he would feel if his parents died in a shipwreck, and he would find himself on a strange beach in a strange country, with strange people all around him that he couldn't understand. He shuddered at the mere thought.

Galinda looked offended. 'You don't have to get all snarly with me,' she said indignantly, raising her chin and poking her nose up in the air. 'You're stupid. I'm going to find Momsie and Popsicle.'

'You do that,' he replied, gritting his teeth in annoyance with his blonde friend. When she had left, he waited for a while before exiting the room as well, heading in a different direction.

When he came to the hallway he was looking for, he could see his father standing outside, talking with the doctor and two other people – a man and a woman. Hamold smiled when he saw his son. 'Hey, Yero. Coming to check up on your little green friend again?' he asked him cheerfully.

Fiyero nodded and made big eyes at his father. 'Can I see her?' he begged. 'Please?'

Hamold laughed. 'Sure, son. They're just done with her. Your mother is still in there – be quiet, though. She's asleep.'

Fiyero wrinkled his nose. 'Mom?'

His father laughed again. 'The girl, Fiyero.'

'Oh.' Fiyero slowly pushed open the door and slipped inside. The green girl was still in her bed, curled up in a ball, sound asleep; Lori was sitting in a chair next to the bed, looking lost in thought. When her son entered the room, she looked up and smiled at him. 'Hi, sweetie. I thought you would still be playing with Galinda.'

Fiyero made a face. 'Galinda is stupid.' Then he looked at the green girl in the bed, before directing his azure-coloured gaze at his mother. 'Is she going to be okay?' he asked worriedly, and his mother sighed. 'We're not sure, Yero,' she said softly. 'The doctor thinks that she'll be fine, physically at least. She doesn't seem to be hurt in any way, just very exhausted and a little confused.'

Her son looked back at the girl in the bed. 'That's good, right?'

Lori nodded. 'It is. But until she starts to speak, or at the very least trusts us enough to let us come closer to her, we can't do any more tests. She won't let us touch her – we had to hold her down to the bed to get the necessary tests done – and she is obviously very scared.'

'I would be, too,' said Fiyero gravely. 'If something like this had happened to me.'

Lori smiled at him and gracefully rose to her feet, running her fingers through her son's hair as she watched the sleeping girl in the bed. She planted a kiss on the top of Fiyero's head. 'Why don't you keep her company for a while?' she suggested. 'Who knows, perhaps you could get her to talk. She might be more comfortable around someone her own age.'

Fiyero's face brightened. 'I'll try my best!' he promised, and Lori gave him another smile before leaving the room. 'I'll be in the library if you need me.'

The young boy studied the green girl in the bed. She was a little pale, but her breathing was even and she seemed calm, though not entirely peaceful. She was still a bit tense, he noted. But then again, he couldn't blame her, after everything that had happened.

Her long ebony hair fanned out of the pillow, and he resisted the urge to touch it - it just looked so soft. There was a light bandage around her lower arm, and he remembered the peculiar thing that had caused it.

It had happened on the day after they had found her, when they had tried to wash her up a little. The moment one of the maids had come out with a bucket of water and a sponge, she had scrambled backwards on the bed, eyes wide with fear; and when they had tried to wash her, gently touching the green skin of her arm with the wetted sponge, she had yelped in pain. When the sponge had been pulled away quickly, they had discovered, much to their horror, that the skin of the girl's arm had turned red, with small, but angry blisters covering the place where the sponge had touched her. Some more examinations by the doctor had confirmed what they had already started to suspect after that day: the mysterious green girl was allergic to water.

They'd been cleaning her with oils ever since, but Fiyero still found it fascinating that someone could be allergic to something as basal as water. He wondered what would happen if she fell into a lake, or into the sea. He shuddered at the mere thought – if a sponge full of water did this to her arm, an entire sea of it would probably kill her. Slightly disappointed, he realised that she would never be able to go swimming with him – and that while he so loved to go swimming in the sea.

Oh, well, he decided, she could just stay on the beach and watch as he swam. They could still play on the beach together, as long as they stayed away from the water. He was already looking forward to showing her the sea turtle's eggs, hidden away in the sand.

Suddenly, a thought struck him. How could she have been in a shipwreck if she was allergic to water? Wouldn't she have died the moment she fell into the sea?

He frowned a little, screwing up his nose in thought. She hadn't been wet when they had found her, he remembered. His father had thought that was because she had been there for quite a while already, and she had just been dried by the wind and the sun; but perhaps she had never been wet at all…

But that would mean she'd dropped from the sky, and that seemed equally unlikely.

He cocked his head a little to the side. Perhaps, he decided, perhaps her accident, the shipwreck, was what had cause her water allergy in the first place.

He grew excited at that idea. Yes, that was probably it. She had probably been in the water for such a long time that her skin couldn't take it anymore – she'd just gotten an overdose of water, and now ever drop was too much for her. He congratulated himself proudly on that conclusion. And then Galinda told him that he was brainless!

The green girl moved a little, and then her eyes slowly opened. When they focused on him, they widened slightly in fear for a moment, and he smiled at her in an attempt to reassure her. 'Hi. Sleep well?'

She didn't understand him, of course, but his voice seemed to calm her nonetheless. Slowly, she sat up, her dark brown eyes never leaving his as she pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

'I was just telling Galinda about you,' the prince told her, mirroring her position and resting his chin on top of his knees. 'But she doesn't understand any of it. I guess that's because she's blonde – I heard Dad say that once, that blonde people are dumb.' He felt at his own hair. 'Am I blonde?' he asked, suddenly insecure. 'I mean, my Mom always says my hair colour is 'sandy', but I'm not sure if that's blonde or brown or something in between.'

The girl just looked at him with large, doe-like eyes and an unreadable expression on her face.

'I'm gonna go with something in between,' Fiyero decided. 'I guess officially it would be blonde, but I don't want to be blonde, because then I would be dumb, so my hair is just blonde-brown-ish.' Satisfied with his reasoning, he returned his attention to the green girl. 'I wish I knew your name.'

She blinked at him and he inched closer, balancing on the edge of his chair. He put both his hands on his chest. 'I am Fiyero,' he said, slowly and clearly. He pointed at himself. 'Fiyero.' Then he pointed at her, giving her a questioning look.

She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. Fiyero's face fell – he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. 'You can tell me,' he said a bit indignantly. 'I won't bite or anything. I just want to know your name.'

She tilted her head a little to the side and pursed her lips, clearly thinking something over. He noticed once again that her hair fell like a silken waterfall over her shoulder when she did that. She was pretty. Not pretty like Galinda, but pretty nonetheless.

'I'm really sorry about what happened to you,' he said sincerely. 'Even though I'm not really sure what that is, you know, what happened to you, I'm still sorry about it – I think it must have been awful.'

Though she still couldn't understand him, there was something in her eyes that made him believe she got the general lines of what he was trying to say. Understanding, maybe. She might not understand his words, but she understood the tone of his voice and his facial expression. Her face softened a little. Then she looked away and said, so softly that it was barely audible, 'Elphaba.'

He held his breath, excited. 'What?'

She turned to him again, briefly looking into his eyes before lowering her gaze. She leaned over the bed and softly tapped his chest. 'Fiyero,' she said. Then she patted her own chest, declaring, 'Elphaba.' He noticed that the words came out strangely, as if she hadn't talked for a long time or was used to talking in a different language; she was speaking with a strange accent that he couldn't place. It sounded nice, though. Melodious.

'Elphaba. Is that your name?' He grinned at her. 'It's a pretty name,' he told her, and she blushed a little, convincing him of the fact that she had, again, caught the meaning of his words. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear self-consciously and inched back a little, away from him.

'Say something else!' Fiyero encouraged her, but she huddled in her blanket, just watching him vigilantly. He wanted to say something else, but just then, the door was thrown open and a tiny little blonde in a pink cupcake dress burst in.

'Oh my Oz, she really is green!' Galinda screeched, nearly giving the green girl, who had been sitting on the bed with her back towards the door, a heart attack.

Fiyero jumped to his feet. 'Galinda!' he said reproachfully, but the blonde just stuck out her tongue. 'Shut up, Fifi.' She bounced over towards the bed and extended her hand for the green girl to shake. 'Hi! I'm Galinda Upland,' she informed the other girl. 'Of the Upper Uplands,' she added significantly. 'And my Daddy is really important.'

'What does that have to do with anything?' demanded Fiyero, and Galinda looked at him haughtily. 'I just want to let her know where she stands.'

'You're so self-con…' What was the word again? His Dad had tried to teach it to him a few days before…

His face brightened when he remembered. 'Self-conceited!'

'Do you even know what that means?' Galinda asked nastily, and Fiyero scowled at her. 'Yes, I do. Just because you're a dumb blonde, doesn't mean we all are!'

Now Galinda's face slowly turned red. 'I am not a dumb blonde!' she squawked at him. 'And you're one to talk, you're blonde, too!'

'Am not! My hair is sandy!'

'It's the same thing!'

'No, it's not!'

Suddenly, they both became aware of the green girl, who had pulled her blanket up to her chin and was looking from Fiyero to Galinda and back with wide eyes. Fiyero stared daggers at his blonde friend. 'See what you did? Now you scared her!'

'Me?!' Galinda protested, but then she shook her head and declared, 'You know what? I'm a lady, so I'm going to stop fighting now. Fighting is not ladylike.' Again, she stepped closer to Elphaba. 'Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, pleasure to meet you.'

Elphaba blinked at her.

Fiyero quickly moved to the other side of the bed, drawing the green girl's attention. He pointed at her. 'Elphaba.'

She nodded.

He pointed at himself. 'Fiyero.' Then she pointed at the bouncy blonde. 'Galinda.'

'Ga-lin-da,' the green girl repeated after him slowly, and Fiyero nodded. 'Yes. That's Galinda.'

Elphaba reached out for the other girl, touching her blonde curls. 'Galinda.'

The blonde nodded enthusiastically. 'Did you say her name was Elphaba?' she asked Fiyero, and the prince nodded. 'It is.'

'That's too long,' Galinda declared. 'I'm going to shorten it to…' She thought about it for a moment, then her face brightened. 'Elphie!'

Elphaba cocked her head, confused. 'Elphie?' she echoed, and Galinda squealed. 'Oh my Oz, Elphie, do you want to be best friends?' she asked the green girl excitedly. 'We could be best friends! I could teach you all about fashion, and we could watch cute boys together, and go shopping and have manicures and pedicures – I'm not sure what those are, exactly, but Momsie says it's something that ladies do together - and I could give you makeovers-'

'I'm not sure, but it sounds like little Miss Galinda has wiggled her way into the room,' a new voice said. When the children looked up, they found Hamold in the doorway, smiling at them all.

'Hi, Uncle Hammy!' Galinda cried enthusiastically. He wasn't her real uncle, but she called almost every adult she knew well 'uncle' or 'aunt' – including the friends of her parents, as well as the parents of her friends.

Hamold laughed, but just then, Elphaba opened her mouth and asked, slightly confused, 'Hammy?'

'No, no!' Fiyero hastily jumped in. 'Hamold.'

'Hamold,' Elphaba echoed, and Fiyero nodded, then patted his own chest. 'He's my father.'

She tilted her head to the side inquiringly.

'Daddy?' he tried. 'Papa?'

Now her face brightened. 'Papa!' She turned around to look at Hamold. 'Hamold,' she said again, then she looked at Fiyero. 'Hamold papa Fiyero?' she asked, pronouncing the words carefully in that strange, melodious way.

He nodded, grinning broadly, excited that she understood him. 'Yes! Exactly!'

The King, meanwhile, was gaping at the green girl wide-eyed. 'But…' he sputtered, still staring. 'But she… she's talking?'

Fiyero nodded proudly. 'Yes. Her name is Elphaba. I got her to talk – isn't that awesome?'

Before he knew it, he was being chased out of the room. 'You can come back later,' his father said hastily, before telling a maid to fetch Lori and the doctor. Then he closed the door behind them.

Galinda huffed. 'I wanted to talk to her some more!' she whined. 'She's my best friend now!' She paused. 'What are they going to do with her, anyway?' she then asked, and Fiyero shrugged. 'I think they're going to do more tests,' he said. 'You know, because she's finally talking, and stuff.'

'Oh. Okay.' Galinda perked up. 'Can we go and play with Cohvu, then?'

Fiyero looked puzzled. 'Why?'

'Because,' Galinda said as if this much must be evident, 'he's cute.'

Fiyero just wrinkled his nose.

He would never understand girls, he decided. Especially blonde ones.