AN: New chappie for you!

Musicgal3... I'm just going to say that you're the creepiest person in existence. Didn't I warn you before to get out of my head? SO WHY ARE YOU STILL IN THERE? Seriously, you should start a career as a psychic.

Elphaba'sGirl: The story kind of starts when the couple are already together and the girl is already pregnant, so none of the questions about where/when the baby was conceived/the first kiss was/the couple got together can be answered :3. I'm really loving this game, so what's next? :D

Chapter 6. The reason

Another week, four more magical outbursts and two visits to Madame Morrible's office later, Gazilon just couldn't stand by and watch any longer.

Fiyero was trying his hardest to get Elphaba's attention, which only resulted in her turning to Gazilon even more often. When Fiyero tried to corner her in a hallway, she would drag Gazilon into a niche and kiss him until the Vinkun prince had passed by.

"El," Gazilon tried one time, but she had shushed him.

"Just kiss me," she had whispered, meanwhile peering over his shoulder to see if Fiyero had moved along.

When he was gone, Elphaba had tried to move out of the niche again, but Gazilon had kept her there.

"Elphaba," he said softly.

Her dark eyes flashed up to his for a moment before she looked away again. "Don't do this," she warned him, looking over his shoulder instead of at his face. "You were right before. I want to keep him safe and in order for me to do that, I have to hurt him. And I know it isn't fair, but I all of all people should know by now that life never is."

With that, she had hurried away from him.

That had been a few days ago. Every time Fiyero managed to get her to talk to him, she ended up either running away or losing control of her magic. One time the prince had succeeded in pulling her into an empty classroom and kissing her again and she had slapped him. She felt horrible about that, but she had to. She was finding it more and more difficult to keep this all up – especially because of the look in Fiyero's eyes every time he saw her with Gazilon. A look that was enough to break her heart… but she couldn't give up. Not without endangering him and she could not and would not do that.

He looked so sad. So hurt. As if she had done something horrible to him. And she was doing something horrible to him. After all, he didn't know that she was doing this for his own good. To keep him safe. He didn't know how badly it hurt her that she had to do this. He had no way of knowing that she spent ten minutes in the girls' bathroom bawling her eyes out after every conversation she had with him. He didn't know that she cried herself to sleep every night, waiting to Galinda to fall asleep first so that the blonde wouldn't suspect anything. It almost physically hurt her that she had to do this to him, but he had no way of knowing that.

It was one day when they were in Gazilon's room doing homework together that he suddenly put down his pencil and declared, "This has to stop."

She blinked a few times, then frowned and peered at him over her glasses. "What does?"

"You," he said. "You and Fiyero."

Her eyes widened. "Am I being too obvious?" She sounded panicky. "Gaz, I'm sorry – I'll try harder, I promise. I'll avoid him, I won't look at him anymore, but… but if I'm not doing this right, you have to tell me. I can't risk it, Gaz, I just can't –"

"That's not what I mean," he interrupted her gently. "El, you're amazing at this. Really. You're a great actress. Everyone believes you."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Really? Because if someone notices…"

"No-one will notice." He squeezed her arm. "But I just can't watch this any longer. El, I think you should tell him."

She gaped at her fake boyfriend. "Gazilon," she said when she found her voice again. "Are you completely out of your mind?!"

He shook his head. "Elphaba, those magical outbursts have been giving you away," he said. "I never really realised how deep you and Fiyero went, but you and him… it's just sad to look at. Really. You put up a great show for everyone else; but when we're alone, I can see it in your eyes. I see it in his, too. It's wrong. You two shouldn't be apart."

"And he shouldn't be dead," snapped Elphaba. "I don't have a choice, Gazilon."

"We can still keep up the act," he said quietly. "It would be a secret. To the outside world, you'd still be with me; but in private, you two could be together."

She was still staring at him as if he had gone crazy.

"El, you're my friend," he said. "I can't stand seeing you like this. To be perfectly honest, it's the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life. You two should be together. Or if that's not possible, at least he needs to hear the truth."

She opened and closed her mouth a few times.

"If you don't tell him, I will," Gazilon threatened, and she caved.

"Okay," she whispered, looking down. "I'll tell him."

When Elphaba asked Fiyero the next day if he could come to Gazilon's room that night, his first reaction was to refuse.

"You're asking me to come to your boyfriend's room?" he demanded. "What, so that he can beat me up for pining after his girlfriend?"

Elphaba just sighed. "No," she said softly. "Of course not. I just… I need to talk to you. In private."

"We can go to my room," he said, but she shook her head.

"What if people notice?" she asked him logically. "I have to keep up appearances, Fiyero. I'll explain everything, just… just come to Gazilon's dorm room tonight."

He hesitated.

"Please?" she added.

He sighed, but gave in upon seeing the pleading look on her face. He nodded.

"Okay," he said. "I'll be there."

He thought about it the rest of the day, unable to concentrate on anything else. What would she want to talk to him about? Part of him couldn't help but fear that she was going to punch him, or hex him, or do something else to assure that he would stay out of her way from now on; but she had looked so serious, so… sad. He felt a tiny sliver of hope, but he didn't dare listen to that feeling. After all, if she wanted him back, why in Oz would she want to meet him in her boyfriend's room?

When he knocked on the door that night after dinner and heard Gazilon call, "Come in!" he was prepared for anything. Or so he thought.

What he was not prepared for was the sight that greeted him.

Elphaba was curled up in the middle of the bed, clutching a pillow to her chest, sobbing. And then Fiyero noticed that Gazilon was sitting behind her, rubbing circles on her back and stroking her arm in an attempt to comfort her, and Fiyero's eyes narrowed.

"What did you do to her?!" he demanded angrily, stepping forward.

Gazilon looked genuinely shocked. "Me? Fiyero, no, you misunderstand," he said hastily, quickly backing away from Elphaba, because the Vinkun prince looked like he was about to commit a murder.

"Fiyero, no!" Elphaba cried from the bed, sitting up. She wiped her nose with her sleeve, still pressing the pillow to her chest. "It's not Gazilon's fault," she said hoarsely. "He didn't do anything wrong."

Fiyero, however, was still glowering at the other boy; and Gazilon gulped.

"I think I'll just go," he said, slowly making his way over to the door. "Give you guys some privacy… I'll be back later."

Elphaba smiled tiredly at him. "Thanks, Gaz."

He returned the smile. "Good luck." Then he left.

Elphaba buried her face in her hands again, unable to look at Fiyero. He sat down on the edge of the bed a bit tentatively, reaching out to rub a tense spot between her shoulder blades. "Fae?"

She surprised him by turning towards him and burying her face in his chest, still crying, fingers grasping his shirt.

His arms immediately went around her, holding her close as she sobbed into his shirt, soaking it with her tears. He held her until she calmed down a little, but she didn't let go of him.

"Fae?" he whispered, stroking her hair. "What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything." She looked up at him. "In fact, if it weren't for him, you wouldn't even be here right now," she said softly. Her tears started falling again. "I wanted to tell you," she said, her voice choked. "But I couldn't."

"Why not?" He gently wiped away her tears. "Elphaba, what's going on?"

She took a deep, shuddering breath, then let out a mirthless laugh. "I don't even know where to start."

She brought her hand up to his face. She hasn't been this close to him since they said goodbye before the summer… not counting the times he had kidnapped her into an empty room and kissed her, or the time she had slapped him.

She touched the spot on his cheek that was still a bit red from where her hand had hit him a few days prior. "I'm so sorry about that," she whispered, new tears stinging her eyes.

"It's okay," he whispered back. He couldn't even describe how good it felt to be together with her like this again – without either of them yelling or forcing the other into a kiss.

"Yero?" she asked him in a small voice.

He stroked her cheek. "Yeah?"

She closed her eyes for a moment. Then she cupped his face with one hand and leant up to kiss him.

He stopped her.

He wasn't even sure why. It almost happened automatically, and when he saw the hurt and crestfallen look on her face, he regretted it instantly.

But he had feelings, too. And he needed an explanation first.

"Fae," he said in a strangled voice. "I love you. All you've done is push me away, and it's killing me to turn you down right now, but I need a reason first. Why did you do it? What in Oz is going on?"

She bit her lip and looked down.

"I'll tell you," she said. "But you have to promise me that you will never, never tell anyone else about it. People's lives are depending on this."

He was a bit stunned to hear that it was something that important, but he nodded nonetheless. "I swear. I won't say a word."

She heaved a shuddering sigh. "A few weeks into summer vacation," she began softly, "my father noticed that I'd been getting a lot of mail from the Vinkus. I didn't know this at first, but… but he opened some of the letters you sent me."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "When he realised what was going on… he got mad. He started screaming at me that I had to break up with you, that I could never see you again, if I even realised what I was doing to his reputation… Gaz was already with us by then – what I told everyone about him and his parents was true. He travelled a lot, but his parents actually came to see my father for a reason."

She looked up at him through her thick, dark eyelashes. "You know about the attacks from the Glikkus, right?" she asked him.

He nodded, and she sighed.

"Father heard that the terrorists have been targeting leaders now," she said quietly. "He grew worried and he contacted some people he knew in the Glikkus, asking them to make certain arrangements between the Glikkus and Munchkinland to keep himself and Nessa out of danger. They agreed, and they sent Gazilon's parents to do this."

"I was right, wasn't I?" Fiyero asked her, stunned. "When I asked you about the arranged marriage thing."

"It's not a marriage." She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "But yes, our parents did arrange for us to be together. My father… he ordered me to break up with you and he told me that from now on, I would be dating Gazilon. After graduation, we would be married, and that would be it. It's his way of assuring his and Nessa's safety. The Glikkun people agreed to that; but they have spies everywhere, Fiyero. This terrorist group is bigger and more powerful than they have shown up until this point. They're everywhere."

He reached out to take her hand in his, softly rubbing the back of it with his thumb. She smiled softly, amazed at the tingling feeling that rushed all through her body at even that small, simple touch.

"That's not all, though," she whispered, looking up at Fiyero again. "Yero, they… they were planning on targeting Shiz."

Fiyero drew in his breath with a sharp hiss.

"They agreed not to do it," she said, "but only if the bond between the Glikkus and Munchkinland remains intact. They wanted Munchkinland as an ally and Father agreed, but he had one condition and that was that they would not target Shiz – purely because Nessa goes there and she has a lot of friends at Shiz, too. She would be devastated if they were all killed. So the Glikkuns agreed, but they warned Father that the moment this alliance would falter, they would go through with it."

She took a deep breath. "I'm the alliance," she said. "Me and Gazilon. Right now we're the only thing binding the Glikkus and Munchkinland; and both my father and Gazilon's parents have made it very clear to us that if we fail to convince everyone – everyone - that we're together, thus publicly showing off the bondage between our provinces, the consequences would be horrible. The Glikkus would launch an attack on Shiz, and… and Father threatened me personally that if I failed, he would come here himself and singlehandedly kill you and everyone else I care about."

Fiyero was absolutely shocked. He had mentally prepared himself for many possible explanations for everything that had been going on; but he had never imagined that it would be so huge.

When she met his eyes again, her own were filled with tears. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry I had to hurt you like that. Yero… please believe me when I say that it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. But I just had to. Don't you see? I… I couldn't let anything happen to you. I couldn't live with myself if you got hurt, or… or worse… because of me. I love you. I love you, and that's why I had to push you away."

And finally, it all made sense.

"Oh, Fae…" He wrapped her in his arms, tears in his own eyes as well now. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'm sorry that this had to happen to you, and I'm sorry for being such a jerk. I only made this all harder on you."

"No!" She shook her head fervently. "Yero, you… you didn't know. You couldn't know. And I'm so sorry for… for treating you the way I did…"

"I know." He kissed her temple. "I understand now. I don't blame you, of course I don't."

He felt her heave a shuddering, but relieved sigh. "Thank you."

"What about Gazilon?" he asked, and she let out a soft laugh.

"Gazilon is actually swooning over Galinda," she said as she sat up a little, looking at him. "They're getting along really well – you know, as friends – and he really, really likes her, but of course he can't do anything about it. He's really not that bad, Yero. He can't help this situation any more than I can, but he tries to at least be a good friend to me to make this less horrible. We're just… just friends. We're trying to pull each other through this, but that's all. I don't love him and I never will." She touched his cheek lightly. "The only one I love is you."

And then he did kiss her. He wrapped his one arm around her waist, splaying his fingers against her back, while the other one tangled in her long, silky hair; and he leant forward and pressed his lips against hers.

She responded immediately and he deepened the kiss, pulling her even closer until she was flush against him. He had missed this so much. He had missed her so much.

"Don't shut me out again," he whispered when they broke apart and she rested his forehead against his. "I understand how hard this must be for you, and I understand that we might not be able to be together, but… but at least talk to me. I can't handle you shutting me out, Fae. Please."

She trailed random patterns on his chest, gaze fixed on her fingers before raising it to meet his again.

"Okay," she said softly. "I promise."