A/N: Hello and welcome! This story has been a lovely challenge to create (a year and a half in the making!) and I can't wait to finally share it! The story is complete with 29 chapters (including its Prologue and Epilogues). It will be updated twice weekly. Reviews and follows are deeply appreciated!

Cover Art: HUGE thank you to artsspangledpumpkin on tumblr for creating the incredible cover artwork for this story! Go check out her art blog and read her stories on FFnet and Ao3 on under the name starspangledpumpkin!

Rating, Pairings, & Genre: This story is rated M for language, sex, and violence. This is Canon-Divergent from the musical after As Long As You're Mine. It is primarily focused on Fiyeraba with elements of Gliyeraba. It contains: Romance, Family, Hurt/Comfort, and Angst (with a happy ending).

Bonus: For chapter updates and bonus content, follow my tumblr elphabaoftheoperawrites!

Content Advisory: Sexual Content

PROLOGUE: THE END OF THE WORLD

Elphaba could never bring herself to regret that night.

"I'm going with her."

"What?"

"What?" Elphaba breathed.

A single look from Fiyero was enough to prove he meant it.

"It wasn't like that…"

"Well, it was."

Fiyero was right. It was like that. During her time on the run, Fiyero Tigelaar had become Elphaba's secret lover. When she felt cold, Fiyero's arms warmed her. When she felt uncertain, Fiyero's words assured her. When she felt untouchable, Fiyero's body tended to her.

He had lived inside her dreams for years. For years that's all he was. A character in her mind playing out her wildest fantasies. Her longing for Fiyero was one of the ways Elphaba kept a grip on her own sanity. Her own humanity.

But now the real Fiyero was doing the things she'd always dreamed about. He was dodging bullets and outrunning guards as they escaped the Emerald Palace. Together. Together. The events were so laughably fantastical that Elphaba had no other choice than to surrender to the senselessness of the moment. With every step they ran, with every frenzied pulse of her heart, she could feel her own logic falling further and further behind where she'd abandoned it in The Wizard's throne room.

She had no plans on stopping for it to catch up.

They barely spoke as they stole into the Great Gillikin Forest, wordlessly ducking under branches and swerving around trees with only the bobbing glow from Fiyero's lantern to light their path. They reached a modest clearing beneath a patch of moonlight and Elphaba tugged on Fiyero's hand to signal him to stop.

"Here?" he asked.

"Here."

Fiyero knelt to the ground and set aside his lantern as Elphaba discarded her hat, bag and broom. When she turned, Fiyero's hand was outstretched towards her. She seized it and kneeled to join him, eyes wide as if she were afraid he'd vanish if she blinked.

Then, Fiyero pulled Elphaba against him and wrapped his arms around her in a clingingly intimate embrace. The rich scent of campfire smoke greeted Fiyero from Elphaba's dress and hair, but Elphaba detected cologne on his neck. Some high brow princely fragrance he'd surely selected special for his engagement ball.

But he was not at his engagement ball. He was with her. He was leaving his world behind, leaving Glinda behind, for her.

They pulled out of their embrace but kept their fingers twisted and their faces close. Fiyero's nose brushed against Elphaba's and their breathing grew labored. Every so often their heads would twitch forward, lips antsy to meet, but each time they'd stop a breath short of joining.

"You came with me," Elphaba whispered.

"I did."

"You left Glinda."

"I did."

"You risked your life."

"I know."

Elphaba stared at him intensely, trying to determine if he was really getting it. If he was grasping the gravity of what he'd done. If he was in his right mind…or if he even had one at all.

"Why?"

Fiyero's jaw stiffened with desirous tension and he dug his fingers into Elphaba's hips.

"Because I've thought about this for years, Elphaba," Fiyero said in a low tone. "I've dreamed about you…for years."

A tingling heat flooded to the extremities of Elphaba's body.

"Elphaba—"

Elphaba cut Fiyero off by grabbing his face and pressing her lips to his in a fierce kiss. Fiyero grunted against her mouth but immediately reacted to kiss her back with equal passion. Elphaba made a sound Fiyero greatly enjoyed, a muffled whimper of sorts, as his teeth grazed her lower lip. She rooted her fingers in his hair and Fiyero groaned, unhinged and overwhelmed by her. He swept his tongue across her mouth as his hands hurriedly roamed up her hips and—

Fiyero broke their kiss with a heaving gasp, tearing himself away from Elphaba with his hands out where she could see them. He was consumed by the moment, consumed by her, and feared he wasn't handling her with the sweetness she deserved.

"Why did you stop?" Elphaba hissed in annoyance. "I didn't tell you to stop."

"I just…" Fiyero panted "I can't control myself with you."

"Then don't."

Fiyero's eyes dilated at her words and Elphaba grabbed a fistful of his shirt.

"I want you, Fiyero," Elphaba stated plainly, too heated to play coy. "Do you want me?"

"Elphaba…" Fiyero said, voice gravelly with warning.

"Do you want me, Fiyero?"

Elphaba repeated her question with similar bluntness, but her eyes held the faintest ghost of uncertainty. Fiyero didn't assuage her doubt with words, instead he lifted them both higher to their knees and pulled her flush against him so their hips collided together. Elphaba uttered a weak sound, her query more than answered as she felt his desire against her. Fiyero cupped the side of her face and leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

"Are we safe here?"

"We are safe nowhere."

The truth clicked in Fiyero's mind and, determined to stop wasting time, he urgently guided Elphaba to lay back against the forest floor. As her hair fanned out across the ground, Elphaba banished her natural impulse to check for danger. To think clearer. To be less reckless. She wanted to empty her mind. She wanted to lose herself in Fiyero just once. Just this once. Sensibility be damned.

Elphaba made a contented sound as Fiyero settled over top of her and tilted her chin upwards to receive his lips again. He was warm. She always imagined he'd be warm.

But it wasn't enough.

"I need more," Elphaba muttered impatiently. "Otherwise I won't believe it. Otherwise I'll think you're just another dream."

Fiyero rose to his lover's challenge by beginning to sensually grind his hips against hers as they kissed. His hands drifted generously up Elphaba's thighs and the curve of her waist, but it was when Fiyero began to indulgently knead her covered breasts that Elphaba became a whimpering mess. Her hips moved needily against Fiyero's and he growled against her lips, his hands growing greedier, less gentle in their explorations. Elphaba wickedly welcomed the change…

But it wasn't enough.

"I need to feel you, Fiyero," Elphaba said urgently, capturing Fiyero's chin in her hand. They locked eyes, their pulses racing wildly. "I need to feel you inside me."

"I can't believe this is happening," Fiyero breathed.

"Neither can I," Elphaba said, kissing him once. "Help me to."

Fiyero frantically sat back on his knees and tore off his suspenders before grabbing the bottom hem of Elphaba's dress. He pushed it upwards so it bunched around her waist, groaning softly as he worked in appreciation of what little he was able to see. With eager efficiency, he removed only what was necessary. Heat at last rose to Elphaba's cheeks and her breath hitched slightly when Fiyero parted her legs to align his hips with hers.

Despite his previous practicality, Fiyero now took care to press his lips to Elphaba's for a long, sweet kiss. His hand reached for one of hers and he laced their fingers as his eyes met hers. Elphaba could feel his hand trembling.

"Are you nervous?" Fiyero whispered.

"No," Elphaba shook her head. "I'm not. Not with you."

"And you're—?"

"Yes," Elphaba whispered fiercely, before he could ask. "I'm sure. Love me, Fiyero. Love me like it's your only chance."

She held his gaze intensely.

"Love me like it's the end of the world."

Understanding flashed across Fiyero's face. The implication was clear. Love me like it was the end of the world…because it very well could be.

Without further ceremony Fiyero kissed Elphaba one more time, tightened his hold on her hand, and then he entered her. Elphaba's mouth fell open against his in a softly strained cry and Fiyero instantly stalled, moving to cup her wincing face.

"Are you—" he breathed anxiously. "Should I—"

"Don't," Elphaba shook her head emphatically. "Don't stop."

She couldn't stand to waste precious time on something as trivial as comfort.

Even so, easing Elphaba through the initial ache stayed at the forefront of Fiyero's mind as he continued at a controlled pace. He peppered her face and lips with tender kisses as a comforting distraction, but whether the distraction was more for her sake or for his, he couldn't say. It was taking everything in him not to lose control with her.

In time Elphaba began to breathe easier, her discomfort fading with every rock of Fiyero's hips. Then, she let loose a pleasured moan as her body adjusted to his and she raised her hips to meet him on the next sweet thrust.

"Elphaba…" Fiyero growled, alerting her to his fragile control.

"Don't hold back," Elphaba breathed. "Give me everything, Fiyero. Everything you can."

It had to be everything. They needed to give, take, be everything. If it wasn't now, it may never be.

Upon her urging, Fiyero's last bit of control snapped. He hiked Elphaba's legs higher around his hips and they both cried out as he began to love her without restraint. Elphaba half-heartedly pinched her lips together to be quieter, but she could not resist voicing her ecstasy for long. Modesty was the furthest thing from their minds. The ground was dirty and cold. Twigs from the forest floor rooted and twisted into Elphaba's hair as they moved together frantically.

It was rushed. Unrefined. It was real.

But it wasn't enough.

"Mark me," Elphaba asked, hardly believing her own crassness. "Bite me, Fiyero."

Fiyero groaned and Elphaba gasped as he bent his head to shamelessly suck on her neck. She moved one hand to the back of his head to keep him there and roughly clawed her fingernails into his back with the other. Even as they created them they dreaded the day the bruising and nail marks would inevitably fade. They needed souvenirs, physical proof that they could carry with them to prove that their joining had actually happened.

Elphaba spent her existence thinking through her every move, taking precautions, planning for every possibility. But in that moment, just for that moment, she could see no further than what was directly in front of her eyes.

Fiyero.

Fiyero's breath, Fiyero's hands, Fiyero's teeth, Fiyero's lips, Fiyero's body.

Fiyero's eyes.

Fiyero's eyes.

Fiyero's eyes.

He was the only thing that existed. He was the only thing she could see. Then and there Fiyero became the whole of Elphaba's world.

And what a world it was.

"I love you," Elphaba gasped without thinking. "Fiyero, I love you."

Fiyero stared at her intensely before bending to kiss her.

"I love you too," Fiyero murmured. "Good Oz, I love you too."

Fiyero's body tensed and tremored and Elphaba's hands clumsily grasped at his face.

"Yes," Elphaba panted encouragingly, tightening her legs around him.

She needed him.

"Yes—"

She needed all of him.

"Fiyero, yes—"

She needed everything he could possibly give her.

"Elphaba."

Their eyes met and Fiyero was undone. With a shuddering sound he gave all he had to Elphaba. To Elphaba, Elphaba, Elphaba. Elphaba's lips parted in awe, still blissfully twisted with him as their worlds harmoniously combined.

Fiyero gently collapsed atop her, his ear against her heart, and they held each other. They held each other as close as they could manage, yet somehow still not close enough. In time their breath slowed and evened and Fiyero carefully moved to lay beside Elphaba on the ground.

A vivid slice of starry sky peeked through the openings of the trees as they stretched high into the heavens. The sounds of the forest returned, the chill of autumn, the scent of the earth. The world pieced itself back together sense by sense until it was wide again and filled with multitudes. Until, for better or worse, it contained all that it had before.

And more.

Elphaba jumped slightly as she felt Fiyero's fingers brush against hers. She turned her head to the side and found him looking at her. Her heart thudded anxiously, as if she were more frightened to hold his hand than to do all they'd just done. After a moment, she delicately laced her fingers with his and they returned their attention to the moon above their heads.

They lay hand in hand in perfect silence until their blessed night, to their surprise, began to betray the first evidence of dawn. The sun they hadn't expected to rise began to shed light on the reality they'd abandoned the night before.

Logic had at last creeped back to them and brought with it its companion.

Consequences.

Elphaba and Fiyero would soon come to find that the end of the world was easy…

It was the start of a world that was hard.