AN: Part two :). Thanks so much to all of you who have reviewed; and in case you're interested and didn't see it yet, I quit my hiatus and started posting my next multichap. It's called Where Loyalties Lie, and I'd love for you to check it out and leave a review!

Fiyero knocked softly, then opened the door and peered into the room. "Fae?"

She was lying in bed, her cheeks red and her skin sweaty, and he gave her a sympathetic look as he closed the door behind him and moved to sit on the edge of her bed. "Hey."

"Hi," she croaked. "You didn't have to come."

"Of course I did." He smoothed her hair away from her forehead and pressed a kiss to her burning skin. "I told you it was a bad idea to kiss you with that flu. Now you got my bazillion bacteria after all."

She chuckled weakly. "Well, nothing we can do about that."

He smiled and took her hand in his, squeezing softly, before rising to his feet again. He started to move around the room – closing a curtain, getting a glass and filling it with water, then searching the bathroom for aspirin… only to find some distinctly girly things of Galinda's that made him flush a bright red, almost purple. She sniggered at his face and he gave her a glare before resuming his bustling.

She watched him as he ran around, trying to take care of her, and she felt grateful that he was there.

It hadn't even been two weeks since their first kiss; but ever since he had gotten better and started attending classes again, she felt like he had been pushing her away – which was ironic, given the fact that he had been so afraid that she would run off. He seemed to be avoiding her and he almost never kissed or even touched her again. It was like he was always tiptoeing around her, trying to placate her with a smile and a few words, but she didn't understand. He'd told her he loved her, so why wasn't he acting like it?

And then the doubt had started to set in. Because what if he didn't really love her? What if his fever had been so high that he'd been delusional? He had been imagining things, or he just hadn't been able to think clearly, and he regretted everything now? His words. His kisses…

And now here she was, in the same position he had been in two weeks prior… and it was as if those two weeks had never happened. He had only been in the room for five minutes and he was already so sweet, so thoughtful, taking care of her the way she had of him before. Would he do that if he didn't really love her? Perhaps. He wouldn't do it if he hated her, though.

So if he might not love her and he probably did not hate her, where did that leave them?

"What are you thinking about?" he asked as he returned to her bedside, helping her sit up so that she could take the aspirins with some water.

She shrugged lightly. "Nothing, really."

He stroked her cheek, feeling the heat radiating from it, and he sighed. "I'm really sorry, Fae. I think this is my fault."

It wasn't anyone's fault but her own, but she didn't tell him that. "It's fine, Yero," she said instead, scooting over a little. He kicked off his shoes and lay down beside her, wrapping her into his arms. She relaxed against him, closing her eyes and heaving a sigh of contentedness and relief, happy to have him back. Or, at least, she hoped he was back now.

When he whispered, "I love you," in her ear, her heart fluttered and she smiled, unable to help herself. She heaved another sigh and snuggled up against him, wrapping herself around him as tightly as she could, revelling in the feeling of his arms around her.

"I love you, too."

He looked at her, suddenly serious. "You do?"

She was confused. "What?" she asked with a small laugh. "Of course I do. I… I told you that before, didn't I?"

"Yes," he acknowledged. "But…" He shifted a little, then sighed, clearly uncomfortable. "Fae, I… I just don't want you to feel pressured."

She blinked at him.

"You said you wanted to think about all this," he said, gesturing at the two of them. "I said I wanted you, no matter what, that I didn't want to lose you… and I've been, like, trying to give you time to adjust. Especially since when I tried to hold your hand in public the first day I got back, or kiss you, you just tensed up and I thought… I thought I might be pushing you too hard. I didn't want that. I meant everything I said, Elphaba, and if we're going to do this – this relationship, I mean – then I want you to feel comfortable with it. I didn't get the feeling that you were, so I tried to keep my distance a little and let you figure things out, but… to be honest, I just got the feeling that you were drifting further away from me with every passing hour."

She stared at him.

Then she burst out laughing.

It worried him, especially since it sounded a little hysterical. "Fae?"

"You've been keeping your distance," she echoed his earlier words, the laughter dying in her throat, "because you didn't want to pressure me?"

He just looked at her, concern still visible in his sapphire blue eyes. "Yes."

She shook her head. "Yero…" She took a deep breath and stared down at the blankets. "I thought you regretted it."

"What?"

"This." She made a vague gesture. "What you told me, when you were sick, and… and those kisses. Us."

His jaw slowly dropped when he realised what she meant. "What?!"

"What else was I supposed to think?" she demanded. "You were withdrawing, you hardly even touched me anymore… don't think I didn't notice, because I did. Of course I did. But I thought it was because you regretted everything that happened when you were sick, that maybe you weren't really thinking clearly, and you just wanted to gently let me down, or something."

He was still gaping at her.

"You wouldn't talk to me," she continued. "And I didn't want to really bring it up, or do anything, because I thought I would only make things more awkward for you… so I didn't say anything. But I thought…" She swallowed, suddenly feeling tears stinging her eyes. "I thought we were over," she whispered, "before we'd even really begun."

"Oh, Fae…" He pulled her into his arms again, hugging her tightly to him as he stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. "I'm so sorry. I never wanted to make you feel that way."

She buried her face in his chest. "Does that mean we're okay?"

"We are." He smiled. "Of course we are. You… you don't need to think about it anymore?"

She shook her head. "I don't think I ever really did," she confessed softly.

"So…" He squeezed her hand. "Will you be my girlfriend, then? For real, this time?"

She looked up at him and he could see a light in her eyes that made his smile widen.

"Yes," she said a bit shyly. "I… I'd like that."

He grinned at her, relieved. "Great." He gently ran his fingers through her hair and they sat in silence.

"How are you feeling?" he asked after a while.

"Fine," she said, earning herself a stern look from him. She smiled slightly when she remembered that he had insisted on being fine, too, when she had asked him how he was feeling at first.

He traced her features with his finger, trailing it along her forehead and down the side of her face, to her jaw, before touching her lips. "I'd kiss you, but I don't want to get sick again," he said teasingly.

She made a face.

He smiled and touched her forehead again to check her temperature. "When did you get sick?"

"Last night," she muttered. "Or, well, early this morning, really. I just felt flushed and then cold again. Glin checked my temperature and it was a little too high, so she forced me to stay in bed."

He was frowning now. "What does 'a little too high' mean?"

She shrugged. "Thirty-eight degrees or something."

"I think it's worse than that now. You're like a furnace." He reached over her to grab the thermometer he had put on the nightstand and made her put it under her tongue. He waited a while before taking it out again to check her temperature.

Immediately, he shot up into a sitting position, his eyes wide.

"Shiz, Elphaba," he swore. "That's over forty degrees Celsius! This can't be good – I need to get you to the nurse!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yero, it's fine, I –"

"No, Fae, it's not fine!" He was panicking now. "I don't even understand how you are still conscious and coherent right now! Or are you? You're not hallucinating or something, are you?" He cupped her face and stared into her eyes, trying to determine whether she was alright.

She shook him off. "Fiyero –"

"I'm taking you to the nurse right now," he decided, trying to lift her out of the bed, but she stopped him.

"Fiyero!"

He looked at her, panic in his eyes, and she had the decency to look sheepish.

"I, um… I have a confession to make."

He frowned and sat back down on the edge of the bed. "What is it?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm not really sick."

He blinked. "What? Of course you are. You feel hot, you're sweating, and the thermometer –"

"Yeah…" She grimaced, giving him a guilty look. "Sorry about this, but, um… I might have… cast a tiny little spell on myself."

His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "What?"

"I didn't know what else to do!" she defended herself. "You wouldn't really talk to me, and I just… I wanted to know if you still cared. But I couldn't ask you, I just couldn't, so… I figured that if you thought I was sick, you'd feel like you owed me something for that time I took care of you, and so if you still cared, even a little, then you'd come and take care of me and I thought maybe we could talk then…" She looked down. "I'm sorry."

He didn't know what to say.

"What kind of spell?" he finally managed.

She shrugged. "Just a simple spell to heat things up. Morrible taught us so that we could, you know, heat up our coffee after it got cold, or something… I don't think she ever thought Glin or I would use it on ourselves. I wasn't even sure if it would work on my skin, but it did… though I meant to keep my temperature around thirty-eight degrees – I guess I can't completely control it. It should wear off soon, though." She looked at him guiltily. "I never caught your flu, Yero. In fact, I don't even think it would be possible for me to get sick nearly two entire weeks after I spent time with you when you were sick," she added.

Now it was his turn to look sheepish. "Yes, well, I know nothing about diseases or incubation periods," he said with a small laugh. "Biology has never been my strength."

"No, because you never come to class," she teased him, which made him roll his eyes with a smile.

"Oz, Fae…" He shook his head and lay back down beside her, staring at the ceiling for a moment. "I can't believe you actually did all that in order to be able to talk to me."

She flushed a little – not from the spell this time. "Yes, well…"

"Next time," he cut her off, wrapping his arms around her again, "just come find me and talk to me. I won't bite. Okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

He kissed her. "I love you, my silly green girl."

She smiled a little and kissed him back. "Love you, too, my brainless prince."