AN: I loved your reviews! ^_^ I know you're all looking forward to some fluffy Fiyeraba... well, here it is. It's still friendship-Fiyeraba, though. Or, well, I guess it's part friendship-Fiyeraba and part one-sided Fiyeraba. Still, it's better than Fiyero calling her an asparagus, right?!

Musicgal, your review made me laugh so hard. Let me teach you a lesson: don't steal your Mom's cookies. Ever. :P

Everyone who thought that Elphaba is some kind of water sorceress... Maybe. I'm not saying anything.

Chapter 8. To change his ways

For a long while, they didn't say anything. They watched the turtle together as it crawled through the sand for some time before returning to the ocean, disappearing between the waves. Finally, Elphaba broke the silence.

'Why?'

He looked up, slightly startled. She still didn't look at him, but it was clear that she was waiting for a reply.

He sighed, picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water. 'I don't know. I guess I just became self-absorbed and shallow, or something.'

She shook her head. 'You're not self-absorbed and shallow. I know you're not. You might be able to fool yourself, but you can't fool me.' She looked at him now, meeting his eyes. 'Something is going on that's making you behave like this, and I'd like to know what.'

'What business is it of yours, anyway?' he snapped at her, and she narrowed her eyes. 'I've had to put up with you like this for over four years,' she pointed out to him a bit snippily. 'I think 'the sour pickle' has a right to know.'

He reddened slightly. 'Alright,' he muttered under his breath. 'I guess you're right.' He sighed and threw another pebble. 'The problem is that I'm not really sure what the problem is myself. I just… I didn't like my life. Or what's left of it, anyway. I don't feel like I really have much of a life.'

She tilted her head a little to the side. 'How come?'

He sighed again. 'Isn't life supposed to be what you make of it?' he said quietly, and she nodded. 'That's what they say, yes.'

'But that implies that you have the freedom to make something of your own life,' he mused.

And suddenly, she understood it all.

'You resent the fact that your entire life is laid out for you,' she said, confident that that was it. 'Am I right?'

His head jerked in her direction and he looked absolutely stunned, convincing her of the fact that she was, indeed, right. 'That's it, isn't it? You can't choose how to live your life, because you're the only heir to the Vinkun throne, and you hate that… and so you decided to dig your hills in and become… well… this.' She made a vague gesture indicating him. 'You feel like once you take the throne, your life – or at least the freedom that you have now – will be over, and so you decided to make the most of that freedom. Why you chose to do that by dating more girls than Galinda has dresses and getting drunk all the time, I will probably never understand… but it's the reason, isn't it? That's why you started dancing through life.'

His continued silence was all the reply she needed.

'I get that, Fiyero,' she said quietly. 'I understand that it's a difficult thing to accept. You don't have a choice, and that must be hard, but this isn't the solution to that problem. If anything, you're only making it worse.'

'How do you do that?' he suddenly demanded, looking up, and she met his eyes, startled. 'What?'

'Reading my mind,' he said. 'You're doing that more often than I care for. It's starting to get a little scary.'

'So I'm a scary cucumber now?' she asked sarcastically, and he watched her for a moment. 'That really bothers you, doesn't it?' he said, sounding a bit surprised. 'You never used to care about people calling you names before.'

She sighed and rested her chin back on her knees. 'I didn't,' she admitted. 'I mean, I don't. You know I'm used to people doing it. At school, in town – even your parents' guests usually stare, or make a remark about it. And I don't really care when they do it. But you… You're my best friend, Fiyero. Or used to be, anyway. And yes, I won't lie to you – that hurt. I never thought you would sink that low. Everyone else, I could understand – they don't know me, they only see my skin… but you? The one person that I thought would never do something like that?' She looked him in the eyes for a brief moment, and he saw all the emotions in there that she usually so carefully hid away. Then she averted her eyes again, watching a few birds soaring through the sky. 'Yes, that bothers me.'

'I really am sorry.'

'I should hope so.' She rose to her feet, looking down at him. 'I hope you mean it,' she said. 'And I hope you're going to act like you mean it, because otherwise you're going to lose us all.'

With that, she left back for the castle, leaving him behind to ponder on her words.

'Mom?'

Lori turned from where she had been making herself a cup of tea at the kitchen counter to watch Fiyero walking in, an expression on his face that she couldn't quite place. 'Yes, Fiyero?'

He lowered himself onto a chair, watching her as she moved around the kitchen. They had servants, of course, but Lori – and Hamold, too – preferred to do the little things herself; she found it nonsense to ask a servant to make her some tea when she was perfectly capable of doing so herself.

'I just talked to Elphaba,' he said.

Lori cast a brief glance in his direction before focusing on her tea again, pouring hot water in her cup. 'Did you call her any kind of vegetable during that talk?'

He looked indignant. 'No,' he said defensively, but he deflated a little when he realised how horrendible he really had been towards his friends and family. He sighed and buried his head in his arms.

'Then do continue.' Lori placed her cup on the table, setting another one down in front of her son and looking at him expectantly. 'What did you two talk about?'

'Sea turtles,' he muttered, his voice muffled by the fact that he was still covering his face with his arms. 'Vegetables. Freedom. Mindreading. Jerks.'

Lori raised one eyebrow, sipping her tea. 'That sounds like an interesting conversation,' she said drily. 'Would you care to explain?'

He flashed her a faint grin. 'Yeah, well…' He paused. 'I guess I just…' He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, before blurting out, 'I really am a jerk, aren't I?'

'You're my son,' Lori said calmly. 'I would hardly ever call you a jerk.'

'But you think I am, right?' When she didn't reply right away, he added, 'You can say it. It's not like it isn't true.'

She was stunned. He could see that, even though she tried to hide it. 'Huh,' she muttered. 'That really was an interesting conversation.'

He leaned his chin back on his arms. 'It was.' He looked up to meet her eyes. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'About everything. For making you cry, most of all. I never meant to do that.'

Now she had tears in her eyes, and she rose to her feet and moved around the table to pull him into a hug. 'I knew it,' she said. 'I knew the old Yero was still somewhere in there.'

He grimaced. 'Was I really that bad?'

She pulled away to look at him. 'Yes,' she told him bluntly. 'Yes, you were.' She hugged him again, but he pulled away, taking a deep breath. 'Mom?'

Lori looked at him inquiringly, and he sighed.

'We need to talk.'

Elphaba barely saw him during the next few weeks – they were all preparing for finals, which were coming up in a couple of months, and Elphaba usually locked herself in the library or her room to study. When spring came, however, she abandoned her tight schedule of going to bed early in order to rise just as early, making the most of her time; instead, she sneaked out of her room and out of the castle in the middle of the night, heading for the beach. She found herself a comfortable spot and spread out a blanket, before lying down on it on her stomach, pulling a second blanket tight around her shoulders, and waiting.

Before long, she heard a sound, but it didn't sound like a turtle at all. She looked up, only to find Fiyero approaching her. Without saying anything, he sat down on the blanket next to her, a flask filled with hot chocolate in his hand. With a pang, she remembered how they always used to share such a flask whenever they came out here at night.

'What are you doing here?' she asked, though it came out a bit sharper than she had intended.

He took a sip from the flask and made himself comfortable next to her, looking down at her for a moment, sapphire eyes sparkling. 'What do you mean, what am I doing here?' he asked, grinning his lopsided grin. 'Did you really think I was going to miss the turtle's nesting season?'

She looked up at him, her eyes huge and almost black in the moonlight. She searched his face; when she realised he was being sincere, she let out a soft, strangled cry and threw her arms around his neck. 'I love you!' she blurted out.

Immediately, she pulled back, clasping both hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with horror. 'That's not what I meant!'

He was looking as if he was trying his hardest to stifle his laughter. 'I know, Fae.'

'No, seriously not!' she tried desperately. 'I'm just happy that you're you again, but, I mean, I don't love you… you know?'

He chuckled. 'I know. It's okay, Fae. I get it.'

She let out a breath. 'Okay.' She took the flask from him and gulped down some of the hot chocolate, immediately almost choking on it because it was exactly that – hot chocolate.

Finally, she regained her composure, and she cleared her throat awkwardly. 'Anyway…' Then she remembered what they had been talking about and she beamed at him. 'Seriously, though… this is amazing, Yero.'

He sighed. 'Yeah…' he said. 'I talked to my Mom, and my Dad… multiple times, actually.' He moved to lie down on his stomach, mirroring her earlier position, and she followed his example. 'I told them everything,' he said quietly. 'About… what you said. Why I did it.'

When he didn't say anything else, she prodded, 'And what did they say?'

He sighed again. 'They understood, of course, but…' Yet another sigh. 'I can't really get out of it. The whole heir-to-the-Vinkun-throne-thing, I mean.'

She inched a little closer and laid her hand on his arm. 'Maybe you don't have to,' she said quietly. 'Fiyero, you're not King yet. You can still do so many things before that time. And even when you are King, you're going to have advisors, servants, everyone is going to be at your beck and call… I'm sure you could find someone to temporarily take over whenever you'd need a break from it. You could still make all those trips you were dreaming about. You can still train to be a Gale Force soldier, if that's what you want. You can go off to college and do whatever you like – unless it's dancing through life,' she warned him, and he laughed. 'I won't. I promise.'

She smiled at him, causing her dimples to show. He hadn't realised how much he had missed that smile until now.

'I talked to Cohvu, too,' he said. 'I apologised to him, and we talked for a long time. We're friends again.'

She squeezed his arm. 'Good for you.'

'Actually, I think his reaction was the funniest of all,' Fiyero mused. 'When he realised I was being serious, you know, about changing and apologising and wanting to make things right again, and stuff… and I think he only really believed I was serious after he made me throw my tight white pants into the fire in the fireplace…'

'Thank Oz,' Elphaba muttered under her breath. 'I loathed those pants.'

He flashed her a smile. 'Well, they're gone. All fourteen pairs of them.'

She rolled her eyes. 'You're worse than Galinda when it comes to clothes.'

'Was,' he corrected her. 'I was worse than Galinda. Trust me, no more tight pants for me. They were uncomfortable. Besides, they weren't even that awesome.' He shook his head. 'But, anyway, when Cohvu realised that I was serious, he fell down upon his knees and started crying exaggeratedly, 'Hallelujah! Praise the Unnamed God!''

Elphaba laughed. She could imagine her friend doing that.

'And then my father,' Fiyero continued, 'he said, 'Don't thank the Unnamed God, thank Elphaba'. And then Cohvu started singing, 'Hallelujah! Praise the Almighty Emerald One!' I think he ran off to build you a statue somewhere.'

She laughed again – Oz, he loved that sound. He had heard it way too little in the past years, and he felt ashamed again when he thought of what had caused it. He really had been behaving like an idiot.

She hugged him again briefly. 'Welcome back, Yero.'

From the corners of his eyes, he saw a turtle crawling up onto the beach, and he smiled. 'It's good to be back.'

Quite a few turtles came to the beach to nest that night. Elphaba knew that there were many, many more turtles that had already laid their eggs in one of the previous nights, or that would lay eggs in the nights after this one; in the Vinkus, nesting season lasted about a week, and turtles ventured out onto the beach almost every night during that period.

Fiyero and she watched it all quietly. They shared the flask of hot chocolate and they talked softly every once in a while, but mostly, they just sat still, watching the turtles and enjoying each other's company. Elphaba was lying on her stomach again, wobbling her feet in the air, and Fiyero grabbed one and tried to tickle it, but she pulled away with an indignant squeal. 'Fiyero!'

He grinned at her. She sat up and swatted at his chest. 'What in Oz are you doing?' she demanded. 'You were never the cuddly kind.'

His grin widened. 'Yes, well, I have to make up for the past few years.'

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. 'True.' Then she smirked and started tickling his sides, making him squirm. He toppled over, begging for her to stop.

She leaned over him, her dark eyes sparkling. 'Say the magic word.'

He looked back at her for a moment, mesmerised by her face and the feel of her long hair falling down to tickle his cheek. 'Turtle?'

'Wrong magic word!' she chided him, and immediately punished him for it by starting to tickle him again. 'No!' he cried, trying to scramble away from her. She clamped her hand over his mouth. 'Shut up, you're scaring the turtles.'

He made a muffled sound and she removed her hand. 'So what's the magic word?'

'Please,' he gasped, and she pulled back. 'Good enough.'

He took a moment to catch his breath, then looked up at her. She was watching the turtles again, a soft look in her eyes and a smile playing around her lips. He blinked for a moment. In the moonlight, she looked like a mythical creature – the mermaid or siren he had mistaken her for when he had first found her, perhaps.

She looked at him when she felt her eyes on him. 'What?' she asked with a small, nervous laugh, and he shook his head and averted his eyes. 'Nothing.'

She kept looking at him for another while, trying to find out what he was thinking, undoubtedly, but he avoided her eyes, looking at the sea turtles instead. He yawned. 'We should probably head back.'

'Just a while longer,' she whispered, gaze fixed on the turtles as well. They were slowly, one by one, starting to retreat into the sea, and she smiled at the sight. 'We'll be back in two months, guys,' she whispered to the animals. 'To see your babies hatch.'

Fiyero smiled. 'We most certainly will.'

She looked back at him again, her eyes unreadable, but her face soft. 'I'm really glad you're back, Yero.'

'I probably should have realised what I was doing years before,' he admitted. 'And I guess I did, on some level. I just didn't want to see it, you know… that I was hurting everyone around me by acting like a jerk. All I wanted was to prove to everyone that I could do whatever I wanted to do.'

'Well, you did.' She sighed and let herself fall back onto the blanket, staring up at the stars.

'You yelling at me certainly helped.' His face fell a little. 'And you telling me you hated me.'

'I don't hate you,' she said. She looked at him. 'I hated who you had become.'

He went to lie down next to her. 'I really am sorry.'

'I know,' she said. 'It's okay. I get it. Just promise me you'll never do it again.'

He laughed softly. 'I guess I can promise that.'

'Good.' She yawned, quickly covering her mouth with her hand, and Fiyero chuckled. 'Now do you want to go back?'

She shook her head. 'Not yet.'

They lapsed into silence again as they turned their attention back to the turtles.

The next thing he knew, his eyes slowly blinked open and he had to squint against the sunlight.

Wait. Sunlight?

His eyes widened when he realised that they must have fallen asleep. It was morning. He moved to push himself up, cursing under his breath. His parents would be worried sick if they found out he and Elphaba had been gone all night.

The moment he moved, however, he became aware of a soft weight on his chest. He blinked again and looked down, only to find Elphaba there. She had snuggled closer to him in her sleep, resting her head on his chest as if he were a pillow. She was still asleep and he stilled his movements, not wanting to wake her.

He took the opportunity to study her, now that he was sure she wouldn't snap at him for doing so. He hadn't taken the time to look at her – really look at her – in years now, and he was stunned by the changes in her. With a pang, he realised that so much had changed while he had been so busy dancing through life. Not just Elphaba; he had noticed the changes in Cohvu, too, and he was sure that he would see them in Galinda when she would come over. He had missed so much.

He thought of all the things that had happened to Cohvu, things his friend had needed his support for. His grandfather dying, his little sister getting sick… and all the while, Fiyero had been right there, but not really there – all he had been thinking about was how to stay popular, what new pants he was going to buy, which girl would be his next girlfriend. He had never felt so ashamed before in his life.

He looked down at Elphaba again. The early sunlight seemed to illuminate her emerald skin, making it glow. He reached out to brush a strand of hair from her face. She murmured something in her sleep, stirring slightly, but she didn't wake up.

Again, he started wondering, watching her closely, taking in her every feature. How could he not have noticed how much more mature she was? How she looked like a young woman now, instead of the girl she once was? That her hair had become longer and curlier over the years, her lips fuller, her dimples even more noticeable? How could he not have noticed how beautiful she had become?

How could he not have noticed before that he was absolutely, completely, hopelessly in love with her?