AN: It's funny how some of you are like, 'Yay, she told him! Fiyeraba!' and others are like, 'Nooo, this is horrendible! Fix this!'. I get it, though. And it will be... fixed... sort of... okay not really, but it's not going to stay like this forever.

Elphaba'sGirl: YES, finally one that is actually usable on my couple! I'll miss our girl/boy game, though. According to this one, the baby will be a boy. Elizabeth and Xanne-Li will be happy... though I'm going to give it some more thought before making a definite decision.

Musicgal3: You. Elizabeth. If you're trapped in my mind, you sit down calmly and you don't move, talk, listen or read my mind. Close your eyes and ears right now! I love your fistpumps, by the way. And yes, I confuse Frozen and Wicked myself sometimes these days :'). Also, I have to finish it. You hope he proves you wrong? I doubt he will!

This chapter is for Caricature of a Witch, because she's caught up on all my stories and I'm glad to have her back reading and reviewing again :).

Chapter 7. The secret

Gazilon stared at her as if she had sorely disappointed him.

"You sent him away," he echoed flatly.

She shrugged.

"Are you serious?" he wanted to know.

"What else was I supposed to do?" Elphaba demanded irritably.

Gazilon quirked an eyebrow. "How about… talking about what's going to happen next?" he suggested slowly, as if he was talking to a toddler. "I don't know, agree on when you'll see each other again?"

"Tomorrow in class," she said.

He raised his other eyebrow. "Elphaba, I know that you know what I'm talking about," he said sternly. "You're not as dense as you're pretending to be right now. Spit it out."

She sighed and flopped back onto the bed. "Nothing," she declared. "Nothing is going to happen next, okay? He knows. He promised me he'd keep his distance in the romantic sense and in return I promised him we'd be friends again. That's it."

"That's it," he repeated, flabbergasted. "Friends."

"Are you just going to repeat everything I say?" she growled. She grabbed the blankets and pulled them over her head.

"Elphaba," he said, finally having enough of it. "Are you completely out of your mind?"

She poked her head out from underneath the blankets to glare at him.

"Look," she said, pushing the blankets off her again. She sat up to be able to look him in the eye. "He knows now. He understands why we can't be together. That's all. There's not going to be a secret relationship, Gaz. I can't take that risk."

"It seems to me that he is more than willing to take that risk," Gazilon pointed out.

"It's not just about him!" snapped Elphaba. "This is about Nessa, too, and about Galinda… I can't be that selfish, Gazilon! If anyone finds out –"

"Then we'll make sure no-one finds out!" He sat down on the edge of the bed to look at her. "El, I'll help you. I promise. But I don't want to sit here and watch you doing this to yourself."

She frowned. "I'm not –"

"Yes, you are, and you know it. You're miserable without him and he's the same without you. Elphaba…" He took her hand in his. "We're in this together," he said. "And it sucks. For both of us. But if this is the chance we get to make sure that at least one of us can still be happy, then I'm not going to let you screw it up."

She stared at him for a long time.

"You know what?" she said after a while.

He cocked his head a little to the side. "What?"

"You're like the big brother I never wanted."

He chuckled and pulled her off the bed, pushing her in the direction of the door. "Go. As long as you're careful, I know you can pull this off, El. Good luck."

She sighed. "Thanks." With that, she disappeared through the door.

On her way to Fiyero, she ran into Nessa.

"Hi, Fabala," she greeted her sister, wheeling up to her. "How have you been?"

Elphaba shrugged a bit stiffly. "Fine."

Nessa sighed. "Look, Fabala," she said gently, "I know it hurts, but –"

"No, you don't," Elphaba cut her off sharply. "You don't know. Not at all. You have no idea."

"Fair enough," the younger girl conceded. "But it's for the best."

Elphaba glared at her.

"What?" Nessarose defended herself. "It is! You know that as well as I do, Fabala!"

"For the best," Elphaba echoed. "For who, exactly?"

Nessa opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again.

Elphaba snorted softly. "Exactly."

"Elphaba…"

"I know I have to do this, Nessa," Elphaba said, kneeling down in front of her sister to be able to look into her eyes. "I know. Believe me, I do. And I will do it. You have my word. But don't ever try to tell me again that it's for the best, because it's not. How would you feel if Father broke you and Boq up and set you up with some other boy you don't even know?"

"He… he would never do that," said Nessa quietly.

"Exactly." Elphaba rose again. "I'm not trying to be the victim here, Nessa. I'll do what I have to do, no matter what. But I don't want you sitting here telling me that it's for the best and that you know how I feel, because both of those things are far from the truth and you know it." With that, she turned around and walked away from her sister… only to bump into Fiyero.

She sighed. "Hey. I was looking for you." She moved to take his hand, then changed her mind and took his arm instead, figuring that looked less intimate. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

"Nessa knows," he said as they walked across campus together. "Doesn't she?"

"She does," Elphaba admitted. "She's my sister. She was there over the summer, when… when everything happened."

Fiyero frowned. "And there she was, giving me all that crap about you being so in love with Gazilon and that I should just accept it and get over it," he muttered angrily. "And all along, she knew. Does she not care about you being happy?"

"She cares more about people being alive," Elphaba pointed out to him, which he had no answer to.

"So… why did you come to find me?" he asked her.

She looked at him, bit her lip, then glanced around her. Maybe a walk wasn't such a good idea; she needed to talk to him in private.

She opened a door on her right and glanced inside. "Empty classroom," she said, before pulling Fiyero in with her, making sure they weren't seen by anyone.

She closed the door behind them and turned around to face Fiyero again.

"It was Gazilon's idea, actually," she said. "For me to talk to you."

Fiyero wasn't really sure what to say. "Oh. What about?"

She lowered her eyes and shuffled back and forth a little. "About…" She swallowed. "He wants us to have a secret relationship."

Fiyero stared at her.

Elphaba shrugged. "He says he can't stand to look at us and that I was an idiot for letting you go just now," she said softly. "And I… I guess he was right. I mean, I'm scared – terrified, actually – but… but I think Gaz is right. I think we can pull this off without anyone knowing."

Fiyero chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. "You know?"

She looked up at him. "What?"

"That Gazilon guy is making it really, really hard for me to keep on hating him," he admitted a bit sheepishly.

Elphaba laughed softly. "Then stop hating him," she said. "He has done nothing wrong, Yero. On the contrary. If it weren't for him, you would still be in the dark about what was going on."

Fiyero looked at her, his sapphire blue eyes soft. "Fae," he said. "If you don't want to do this, I understand. I mean… It's killing me not to be able to be with you, but I don't want to endanger you. Or anyone else. I don't care about myself, but you've told me that this isn't just about you and me – it's about your other friends, everyone else at Shiz. It's about Nessa, Boq, Galinda… I'm just saying that I would understand it if you can't do this, and I won't push you."

"I know." She took a deep breath. "But… but what Gazilon said… it's true. It's been horrible without you, Yero. I love you. I want to be with you. And if we can keep it a secret…"

Before she had even finished speaking, Fiyero had already wrapped his arms around her waist and was leaning down to kiss her. She happily complied, closing her eyes as she melted into the kiss; and in that moment she just knew that this was the right thing to do. Maybe it was selfish; maybe it was dangerous… but she just couldn't live without him.

"I love you, Yero," she whispered when they broke apart for a moment and he looked down into her eyes.

He smiled and tenderly tucked a stray strand of ebony hair behind her ear. "I love you more."

She rolled her eyes. "Fiyero, I'm not going to play that game with you."

He pouted playfully. "You don't love me most?"

She grumbled. "Yes, I do. I love you most. Happy now?"

He grinned at her. "I love you more than most."

She punched his arm.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Elphaba discovered - much to her surprise - that this new arrangement actually seemed to work out quite well.

It was proving to be quite difficult to schedule in her time with Fiyero, that much was true. Between her classes, studying, dates with Gazilon and time she spent with Galinda or Nessa, or with their entire group, she didn't have much time left; not to mention that they had to be careful not to be seen in public.

But somehow, they managed to make it work. Sometimes Fiyero would 'kidnap' her between classes, or when they had some time off together. He would sneak into her dorm room when Galinda wasn't there, or she would sneak into his; and they would spend precious time together, laughing and talking and kissing, sometimes reading together or stalling out an indoor picnic. Gazilon offered his services by pretending to take Elphaba out to Shiz – the town – for a date, while really, he just brought her to a small cabin in the woods they had discovered one day. Fiyero would meet them both there, often with a large basket filled with food, allowing them to have a romantic dinner together even though they couldn't go out in public. Gazilon, meanwhile, just went into town and strolled around for a few hours, getting some dinner himself or hanging out at a bar before going back to the cabin to pick Elphaba up again, after which he would drop her off at her dorm room as if they had been on a date together. Galinda was absolutely infatuated with the guy.

"Elphie," she squealed practically every time he dropped her off. "I swear to you, he's the sweetest, handsomest, cutest, kindest, smartest, most amazifying person I've ever known in my entire life! If it weren't for the fact that you're my best friend and you're so happy with him, I would totally steal him away from you!"

It was those moments, mostly, when Galinda would be swooning over Gazilon and Elphaba and how cute they were together – which, really, she did at least three times a day – that Elphaba found it hard to go on with it. She hated lying to her best friend. She wished Galinda could just date Gazilon and she could date Fiyero – that way, everyone would be happy. But she was forced to keep her mouth shut and smile and nod, pretending to be hopelessly in love with her fake boyfriend.

There was only one thing harder than hearing Galinda talking like that… and that was watching Fiyero when he was watching her and Gazilon together.

"Yero," she said to him every time they were alone together, slipping her arms around his neck and looking into his sapphire blue eyes. "It's all fake. It's just a show we put on, I swear. I don't have any romantic feelings for him whatsoever. He's a friend. That's all. You know that, don't you? I love you, and only you."

"I know," he said. He kissed her softly. "But I don't like sharing."

She sighed and leant into his chest. "Believe me," she muttered. "Neither do I."

Fiyero, for his part, had to restrain himself every time he watched Gazilon and Elphaba being all 'smushy and romantic together', as Galinda always put it. He hated having to watch her as she kissed another boy, allowed him to feed her bits of food, held his hand during or outside of class. All his instincts screamed at him to just jump to his feet and punch Gazilon in the face for stealing his Elphaba, but he kept himself under control. Gazilon had done nothing wrong and Elphaba was in love with him, Fiyero, not with the guy she kept on cuddling with in public.

"I admire you," Gazilon said to him one day as they were all hanging out in the park together. Galinda and Nessa were sitting on a blanket a few metres away, chatting about boys and fashion and make-up as they both fussed over Elphaba's hair. The green girl herself was just reading a book as her best friend and sister styled her long, raven hair, decorating it with wildflowers. Boq, as always, was hovering nearby – though it wasn't clear to anyone whether he was so close to the girls because of Nessa or because of Galinda.

Fiyero blinked at the boy sitting next to him, taken by surprise. "What?"

Gazilon shrugged. "The way you deal with this whole situation," he elaborated. "I know how much you love Elphaba. I can see it in your eyes. And I know how much she loves you – she quite literally glows every time you two are around one another."

Fiyero cocked his head a little to the side as he studied Elphaba, trying to see her through Gazilon's eyes. The young witch, sensing that she was being stared at, looked up from her book for a moment and caught his gaze. She gave him a small, but loving smile before lowering her gaze back to the pages in front of her.

Fiyero couldn't help but smile as well. "She does, doesn't she?"

Gazilon chuckled. "Yeah. And… you know… if it were me, I don't know if I could handle it as well as you do," he admitted. "Watching the girl I love being with another guy, not being able to be together in public…"

"It's not as hard as it sounds." Fiyero shifted, pulling his legs underneath him. "I mean… if I had a choice, I would shout it out at the top of my lungs. I love her, and I want everyone to know that." He looked at Elphaba again. "But I can't. Just like we can't do anything even remotely intimate in public, just like I can't tell anyone, anyone at all, about our relationship. And that's not exactly the way I would have preferred it to be… but the truth is that I can't say I really mind, either. It's a necessity. I understand. And I'm so grateful just to be with her in any way at all."

And that was true. No matter how much it hurt him to see her with Gazilon, no matter how hard he found it sometimes to keep his mouth shut about their relationship, he knew he could keep doing this forever. For her. Because he loved her. And despite everything, all the problems and all the pain… they were happy.

And then the letter came.

I don't think it's much of a surprise what the next chapter will be called, is it? :P