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Unlike the original story, this time it was Elphaba who ran scared from the clearing. Fiyero's not happy about that.

His insistent knocking was probably enough to disturb the whole floor. After the emotionally straining day he had, he could not have cared less.

"Who is it?" came a singsongy voice through the closed door that could belong to no one but Galinda.

"It's Fiyero. Is Elphaba home?"

"Um…hold on just a clock-tick!" Galinda sang back. The prince waited outside of the dorm room with his hands on his hips, listening to the inarticulate yet distinctly harsh whispers exchanged just beyond the old wood. With each passing moment of their hushed exchange he became more and more impatient until finally he rapped angrily on the door again.

"Hold your colored horses!" came Galinda's provoked cry. Finally, she opened the door, showing him a frustrated sigh and a squint over her shoulder to the obviously present but still unseen green girl, before plastering on the fakest smile he'd seen on her in a long time. "Why hello Fiyero. I didn't expect you to come by."

She was so full of it and she wasn't afraid to show it, especially considering how she projected so both he and Elphaba behind her could hear. "Hi Galinda. I need to speak with her."

"Elphaba is not taking any visitors at the mome—" She had just taken in his appearance. "What in Oz's name happened to you?"

He didn't bother sparing a glance down at himself. He knew what she was seeing: the foliage-flickered sludge smeared on his boots, the grimy stains at his knees, the patches of unknown slime splattered about his clothes and hair, and the overall dirt and clay-tinted splotches across this arms and face. After Elphaba had left him in the woods, turbulent and saddled with that damn Lion Cub, part of him had wanted to just let the Cub go as he did last time and run after her. But a nearly three-year guilt stayed him, for now that he was older, more burdened, and more conscientious, he couldn't bring himself to let the young Animal fend for itself. So he stayed for hours with it, diverging from the original path until he could find it suitable shelter – a small cave by a stream – and comforted it in its cage it until it trusted him enough to linger once he let it go. He scavenged for berries and nuts with it tentatively trailing him, leaving the food in small piles for the Animal to taste, and splashed through the shallows of the stream, catching fish with his hands and tossing them to the tiny creature on the bank to kill and eat.

It was all enough to distract him from his fretfulness for a while, even though the angst-ridden look on Elphaba's face before she ran from him kept materializing into his mind, angering him just enough to kick large rocks or chuck innocent fish downstream (to live another day, he justified) before the sight of the excitable Cub distracted him once more. At one point, he had even kept a decently sized fish for himself and skillfully gutted it with a sharp, jagged rock he found near the cave, but as he struggled to light himself a fire to cook it, that increasingly plucky little Lion had run up to him, snatched the meat from his side, and ran off to gnaw at it, too full at that point to actually eat it. So, he had collapsed, tired and discouraged, and finally allowed himself a moment of self-pity.

It only took 45 minutes since that point to end up at Elphaba's door. After delving into obsessive thoughts that urged him to his feet to pace, he eventually told the Lion where he was going and why, assuring him he would return to check on it, and took turns rashly sprinting to find Elphaba and dragging his feet, irresolute about what to do once he did.

The urge to change and clean himself didn't strike until he was halfway up the stairs in Crage Hall, and by then he couldn't be bothered. He knew he was a desperate mess – literally and figuratively – but he was hurt, confused, lovesick, and far too hungry to worry about how he appeared, even in front of Galinda.

"It doesn't matter. Galinda, let me talk to her."

"Aside from the fact that she asked that I didn't, I wouldn't let you in here like that."

"Why won't she? What did she say? What happened?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"What do you mean?"

Galinda peeked over her shoulder again, appearing conflicted, but then made as though to shove him into the hall—realizing the potentially messy error in that, she shooed him back and joined him in the corridor, shutting the door behind her.

Students were still coming and going from their rooms to and from late dinners, study sessions and parties so Galinda cast a paranoid glance down the hallway. Fiyero did too, though without the same embarrassment as he was more concerned about eavesdroppers and, depending how this conversation went, witnesses. Once she was certain no one was in earshot, Galinda poked him hard on a clean spot on his chest.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"I don't know!" she admitted testily. "I get home from a nice afternoon with the girls to find Elphaba all fidgety and coy. I don't like coy, Fiyero, I like to know things! And the only things I know are that the good Doctor got sacked, something-or-other about a Lion of all things, and that whatever is going on has something to do with you! And whatever it's about is making her so worked up that everything in our room has a static charge! I've been getting shocked by everything metal I touch! My hand mirror is metal, Fiyero!"

"Ow, stop poking me!" he cried, slapping her hands away. She dodged his filthy fingers deftly.

"Not until you start talking, mister! What—" She poked him. "—happened—" Poke. "—to—" Poke. "—my—" Poke. "—friend—"

"We kissed!" he snapped, and she was so shocked that he actually had been able to grab her hand with his unwashed one to stop her assault on his ribs. He was breathing so heavily, having already been fraught about the kiss in the forest just hours before this ridiculous moment.

"You what?" Galinda said in a surprisingly soft voice.

"We kissed," he repeated despairingly.

She squinted up at him, confused. "Was it…bad or something?"

"No! How could you ask that?"

"Well sorry! But what would your first thought be if you found out that the reason your best friend was in an absolute tizzy was because of a kiss?"

"It wouldn't be that I'm a bad kisser!"

"It's not like I'd know," she grumbled dejectedly, and he rolled his eyes at her dramatics. "After all, you care about me but just not that way…"

"Galinda, please don't."

"Don't what, Fiyero?"

"Start this."

"I'll start it if I please! What do you expect? Rainbows and sunshine all of the time? My feelings are hurt, Fiyero!"

"Still?"

"Yes, still! You broke my heart! Ripped it to shreds and left it to rot in woe and aloneness and...and gloom! There's gloom, Fiyero!"

"I'm sorry, I truly am."

"Good, you should be." She pouted hammily, tossing her hair, and suddenly he was compelled to narrow his eyes at her, especially as she said, "Now, dearest, why don't you just go on home and think of how cruel you've been to little ol' me…"

"I know what you're doing. You're just playing this up, trying to scare me so I'll leave because she told you to get rid of me."

"Perhaps," Galinda said cleverly, unable to hide a slight smirk. "And if I am?"

"I'll put up with it. I want to talk to her."

"She doesn't want to talk to you."

"I know. But she needs to, don't you think?" She wasn't convinced, so he inched forward, forcing her to tilt her head even more up to look at him. "She kissed me first, Galinda."

"No!" she whispered gleefully, like she was just given the juiciest gossip. "Really?"

He nodded, a small smile appearing on his face as she enthusiastically did a little happy dance in front of him. "I take it you're okay with that?"

"Oh Fiyero, you're cute and all, but I don't plan on fancying you forever. If I don't get to have you, I figure Elphie's second best."

"That's very good of you."

"I know. Just…give me a mo., okay? Wait out here?"

"Wasn't planning on going anywhere."

"By Oz, I don't know which one of you is more stubborn."

It was with her tongue stuck out at him that she slipped back into the dorm. He expected to hear them bicker as before all he heard was a bunch of incoherent yells and grunts and random exclamations. He had been half tempted to put his ear up to the door to figure out what was happening but was glad he didn't when it opened again suddenly and Elphaba was unceremoniously thrown out of it, only to have it shut behind her again.

She ignored him to rattle the locked handle and beat at the door with green fists. "Galinda! I'll get you for this!"

"Hello," he said to her, amused.

Elphaba turned her head over her shoulder and her sharp gaze ran over him. "What happened to you?" Suddenly she became worried. "Is the Lion Cub…?"

"He's fine," he assured her. "I just got a little messy showing him the ropes. I figured a frightened little guy like that might need a tutor."

"You? Tutor?" she mocked, habitually falling into their easy banter before immediately retracting to her cold veneer. "Why did you bother?"

"Because I knew if I didn't I'd look back one day and wonder if I could have done more," he said, speaking with more truth than she could have imagined.

"So, if the Cub's okay, then why are you here?"

"You know why," he said firmly, annoyed with her act.

She looked away, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear timidly. "Look, what happened—"

"The kiss," he inserted, stepping towards her, unwilling to break eye contact even with the temptation to glance down at the lips he wanted to taste again so badly. "That amazing kiss."

"Yes, that," she said, her cheeks darkening. "I-it was a mistake."

"How was it a mistake?" he asked, put out.

"I still didn't have my wits about me and you weren't thinking straight. Perhaps my spell…"

"Your spell?"

"Maybe it did something to you…took you out of yourself and we just didn't see it at the time..."

"Why is it so hard to believe that it actually happened? That I kissed you back because I wanted to?"

"Because I'm not that girl!" she exclaimed abruptly, her eyes clamped shut as tightly as her fists.

He stood there, absolutely dumbfounded and utterly enraged. "And who is? Galinda? You must be kidding me!"

"I can't lose sight of who I am," she said quietly. Her intense eyes were open but they wouldn't look at him, not quite hidden beneath her pinched raven brows. "I won't wish…won't start…"

He grunted in annoyance. "You're so stupid, Elphaba, you know that?"

That got her attention, but he was too pissed off at this point to be glad for that. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," he spat, half-certain that steam was billowing from his ears like in drawn comics. "You're so intelligent but just so damn stupid sometimes! I've wanted to kiss you for so long and when it finally happens you're trying to convince me that it was because of some damn wayward spell? How can you look me in the eyes every single day and not realize how in love with you I am?"

"What?" she asked, and with her tone suddenly he was brought back to that moment in the throne room, when he told Glinda that he was leaving with the Witch. The memory should have mollified him, but instead it reminded him of all the time he spent trying to convince her of how much he cared for her only to find out it was all in vain, incensing him further.

"I came here to tell you everything tonight! I've fought myself from the moment I saw you about whether I should tell you the truth, and I thought if I came here and told you how I felt that maybe you'd understand. But now how could I? You'll just assumed I've been magicked and it won't mean anything!"

"Fiyero…"

"Just stop. I don't want to hear it. You don't want to talk? Fine, have it your way!"

"Hold on just a clock tick!" Elphaba said, grabbing him as he spun to leave and with surprising strength forced him back around; she wasn't afraid to touch his muddy clothes as Galinda had been. Dark green shadows deepened her expression, reminding him far too much of her counterpart. Behind Elphaba he could see Galinda open their door to watch with concern wrinkling her carefully maintained features. "You don't get to say that you're in love with me and just walk away! Where do you get the nerve to call me stupid when you're going around gushing out nonsense?"

"Nonsense?" he practically screeched at her.

"What would a guy like you know about love?" she said meanly.

She would always go back to that, wouldn't she? That rowdy reputation that he had done away with years before he had even met the girl in front of him at a staged party at the Ozdust.

He came to Shiz the first time a weak imitation of that character that guys and girls whispered about around him, too bored of the same monotonous college repetition to really give it his all, and just as she did earlier today Elphaba had seen right through him. This time around, he couldn't even pretend to be from the same mold as that carefree prince, having been too jaded by that life, too dilapidated from his time in the military, and too fatigued from years of searching for her to continue with the façade.

The change had been her. For the last couple of years, every decision he made he made for her. He left Shiz and pursued a career in the military, which contradicted every instinct he had about life in hopes he could find her and save her. He left a life of lavish comfort and respect to rest amongst the bugs and dangers of the world so he could at least hold her in his arms. When mysterious magic provided him the opportunity, he chose to repeat half a year of his life, one full of plenty of internal conflict and shame, to aid her when the time came. He had rearranged his entire life to become a more respectable man for her by preparing to accept a job of leadership he wasn't sure he wanted for himself and he gave up countless sums of money in support of a cause in which she so heartily believed.

Fiyero had laid awake every night after her disastrous meeting with the Wizard wondering where she was and what she was doing. All that time, Fiyero developed a secret fear that if he had found her that he would find that his affection for her was little more than an infatuation, born out of some long-standing curiosity, and that when he finally had the chance to express it he would find she was not as pretty, as smart, or as passionate as he remembered. He would come to discover that time had indeed distorted his memories of her, but in reverse of what he expected: Her beauty had been muted in his mind, for her hair was more gorgeous than he had imagined, her skin more captivating, her lips more enticing; she was deadly sharp, far too intelligent to want someone like him, and too talented to deserve the brutal life she led; and her passion was utterly pure and entirely unfathomable. As quickly as he had her she was gone from his life again, only to be replaced by this alluring, fiery, headstrong girl that made him loose sleep at night questioning his pale, two-dimensional memories of the Elphaba he had first met at Shiz all those years ago…

So what did a guy like him know about love? A question like that was so petty-minded that his heart hurt as he looked deeply at the person who had the nerve to utter it. "A lot more than you'd give me credit for," he murmured despondently.

Girls down the entirety of the hallway were standing outside of their rooms by now, watching the commotion with no shame. Galinda had stepped behind her friend, unsure of whether to reach out to calm or comfort or dissuade the overwrought green girl between them, and sent him a look of pity he couldn't stomach.

He gave Elphaba a sad smile.

"You're going to be getting a letter within the week that's going to change your life. If nothing else, I had to tell you about that. So…congratulotions, I guess."

He didn't have it in him to stand there to be gawked at any longer. He kept his shoulders high as he left, unabashed about the conversation their onlookers witnessed and about the state of his clothing, and, taking a leaf out of Elphaba's book, turned down their staircase without so much as a glance back.

On his way back to Briscoe Hall, a short guy he presumed to be Boq tried engaging him in cheery conversation but Fiyero stormed past without giving him so much as a glance. He made it up to his room and slammed the door shut behind him, nearly diving headfirst into the bed before he remembered how filthy he was. Crankily, he grabbed his towel and made for the showers, wishing he could just be over this day already.