AN. I meant to have this up for the film's release... and then Christmas, and then New Years and then... any other time in the past three months. Life has been a lot for a while, but here we are!

Hello to everyone who has found my work since November, or who was inspired to return to Oz after the films release! I've had a lot of lovely messages from people, and it's been so great to see.

Leap Into Faith

Fiyero was having the perfect Saturday. It was warm enough to swap out the coat for a light jacket for the first time this year; April meant that everything was blooming- little bursts of colour springing up among the city streets- and the more winter began to loosen its grip on the Vinkus, the more Fiyero's spirits lifted. It was too nice of a day to stay in his apartment, so he'd headed out with no real destination in mind.

He'd treated himself to breakfast at his favourite cafe, taken a stroll through the farmer's market and then wandered in and out of a few stores before stopping in at The Book Junction to pick up a book he'd ordered for his father's birthday. It was crowded- story hour for the children was just ending at the back of the store- so he didn't linger.

When he stepped back out onto the street, he ducked over to a nearby bench on the street to better fit the book into the growing number of bags he was now carrying. He was just musing whether it was worth going home, even just to dump everything; or if he should get lunch nearby first. Did he even have food for lunch at home? And if he went home, would he be bothered going out again for groceries? Probably not.

"Fiyero?"

Fiyero blinked, startled from his mental inventory of his pantry. He spun around, and his stomach did something weird as his brain connected the woman standing before him with an all too familiar name.

"Athalia."

The woman who had crushed his heart.

It had been three years since he'd last seen her, since she'd walked out of their shared apartment for the last time with the last box of her things. And despite the fact that Athalia had not been his last relationship, he found he was not as prepared as he would have liked to see her again. Or maybe he was taken aback by the very prominent baby bump she was sporting. The few mutual friends they still shared had mentioned in passing that she was married, but he couldn't remember anyone mentioning a baby. Then again, it had been awhile since he'd seen any of them either.

Athalia smiled at him, like her last words to him hadn't been "I wish things could be different."

"Hi," Fiyero said awkwardly, realising he should probably say something.

"Hi," she said brightly. "How are you?"

"Great," Fiyero said automatically, before he could even work out in his own mind if it was a lie or not. "Great. I'm great. Things are great. You?"

Athalia's smile spread as she ran a hand over her stomach. "Great," she echoed.

Fiyero nodded.

When he said nothing else, Athalia ran her hands over her stomach once more. "I'm pregnant," she said unnecessarily.

Fiyero resisted the urge to point out that that much was fairly obvious. "Congratulotions," he said instead. "When are you due?"

"July," she beamed. "We're so excited. Griffon- my husband- he's got two little girls from his first marriage already, but I have a feeling this one is a boy."

"Like you always wanted," Fiyero noted, not sure what else to say.

Athalia's smile softened. "Yes. What about you?" she asked him, her eyes flickering down to his left hand.

In hindsight, Fiyero blamed the pity in her eyes that made him answer with anything but the truth.

"I'm engaged."

Athalia's face lit up. "Oh. That's wonderful! Oz, I didn't know you were seeing anyone, no one mentioned it."

Fiyero forced a smile. "Thanks," he lied, instantly regretting everything.

"When's the wedding? Have you been together long? Your parents must be thrillified."

Fiyero was too distracted trying to compile a mental list of everyone he knew who might still be in contact with Athalia to come up with well-crafted lies right now. He didn't need this to come back and bite him on the ass later.

"It's pretty recent," he lied easily, rearranging the bags in his arms. "Uh, look. It was great to see you, and congratulotions on the baby; but my fiancee's just in the bookstore and we're about to go grab lunch, and-"

"Oh, I was on my way to have lunch too!" Athalia interrupted. "Why don't we go together?"

Fiyero stalled. "Uh…"

Athalia smiled, placing a hand on his arm. "I'd really love to meet her. And you know, I've wanted to reach out for a while now… tell you I'm sorry for how we ended things."

The way she had ended things, Fiyero corrected her mentally.

"Echo and Marvey are so careful not to mention you when I see them, and I'm guessing it's the same for you," Athalia continued, "but I don't want that. I know I'm one of the first, but when our friends are all beginning to get married and have families, wouldn't it be nice if we could see each other at social events without it being awkward?"

And the worst part was that he could tell she genuinely meant it. And that she made a good point. Fiyero only wished she had raised that point before he'd invented a fictional fiancee.

"Uh, I mean, I can ask… Fae," he said slowly, pulling a name out of thin air. "I'm not sure if we're ready for lunch just yet, but-"

Athalia waved him away. "It's fine," she reassured him. "You go ask her, and if today doesn't work, let's set up dinner!"

Fiyero blinked. "Sure," he agreed weakly. "Just- one sec."

Blindly, he turned and re-entered the bookstore, standing rather stupidly in the doorway for a moment and watching the other customers.

Would she believe that "Fae" had slipped out the back? Would she notice if Fiyero slipped out the back? What were the odds of her believing him if he just said she must have misunderstood what he'd said- no, that one wouldn't work.

Let's not gaslight the pregnant woman, Tiggular, he told himself sternly, taking a deep breath.

Nope. There was only one option that made sense here.

He moved through the bookstore slowly, carefully surveying the customers. Everyone seemed to be in groups, annoyingly. He shifted past two women trying to wrangle their two toddlers and an infant, exchanging polite apologies as one toddler rushed down the aisle so quickly he almost barrelled into Fiyero's legs and knocked him over, and Fiyero had to spin to keep his bags from knocking over the second toddler. Just as he regained his balance, his foot caught on something and he almost fell over again.

"Ouch."

"Sorry," Fiyero apologised instinctively, and then looked down and paused.

At his feet, sitting on the ground next to a pile of books, was a woman who appeared to be about his age with green skin.

"Sorry," he repeated, staring at her and trying to decide if he was more bewildered by her skin or her seating choice.

The woman rubbed at her knee, which Fiyero could only assume was what had tripped him up. "It's fine," she reassured him, waving him off. "My fault. Too many books, not enough arms; and not enough willpower to make decisions about how many books I should buy, as opposed to all the ones I want to buy."

Fiyero glanced over his shoulder through the window to where Athalia stood waiting, looked back to the woman with her pile of books and blurted out; "I'll buy them all for you if you'll be my fiancée for the next hour."

The woman stared up at him, arching an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Fiyero realised just how insane that sounded and mentally smacked himself. He took a deep breath, cleared his throat and started again.

"Sorry. Hi. I need a huge favour. Do you see that woman outside? The pregnant one?"

The woman craned her neck upwards to peer behind him, and then nodded warily. "Sure."

"She's my ex," Fiyero explained hurriedly. "We broke up three years ago- it wasn't great; but this is the first time I've seen her since. She's married and pregnant, and somehow I ended up saying I was engaged. And now she wants to meet my fiancée- who I said was inside here- and have lunch."

The wariness in her eyes remained, but it had lessened somewhat. "Okay," she said slowly. "So, say I agree to this and have lunch. What then?"

"I don't have the exit plan all figured out yet," Fiyero admitted. "But all I'm asking for is one lunch, and then you'll never see me again, I promise."

Her eyes flickered towards the window again and back to Fiyero. "And I get what out of this?"

Fiyero gestured to the small pile of books next to her. "Free books? Free lunch? A funny story to tell your friends? The knowledge you've done a good deed for the day?"

Her cheek dimpled slightly as she studied him for a moment with dark eyes that honestly made Fiyero feel more unnerved than running into Athalia had, and then she nodded. "Alright."

Fiyero couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief as she got to her feet and collected her pile of books from the floor.

"Which answer won you over?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," she responded, moving past him towards the register and Fiyero grinned.

He suddenly had a good feeling about lunch.

"I don't suppose your name happens to be 'Fae', or anything that 'Fae' could be short for?" he asked hopefully as he paid for her books.

She eyed him with another arch of an eyebrow. "It's Elphaba."

"Elphaba," Fiyero repeated. "Meh, I can make that work."

Her eyebrow somehow got even higher. "How?"

"Trust me."

Elphaba didn't look like she trusted him at all; and Fiyero couldn't say he blamed her.

"And you are?"

"Fiyero," he introduced himself, handing her the bag of books.

Elphaba surveyed him once more and then nodded. "Alright. Shall we?"

As they headed for the door, bag of books in hand, Fiyero placed a hand on the small of her back and she glanced back over her shoulder at him.

"We're supposed to be engaged," he reminded her.

She tilted her head in acknowledgment and opened the door, leading the way over to where Athalia waited. Athalia's eyes widened slightly at the sight of them, but she had no other visible reaction.

"Athalia, this is Fae, my fiancée," Fiyero introduced them. "Fae, this is Athalia."

Athalia thrust a hand towards Elphaba. "Hi, it's nice to meet you, Fae."

"You too," Elphaba said politely. "It's actually Elphaba."

Athalia frowned. "Oh. I'm sorry. Fiyero just-"

"Fae is a nickname," Fiyero said hastily. "Inside joke. Long story."

Athalia looked between them hesitantly. "Oh."

Elphaba smiled politely, and Fiyero felt like he should explain more, but also felt like he'd dug himself a big enough hole already.

"Lunch?" Fiyero asked swiftly, eager to get this over and done with. "Where should we go?"

They settled on a cafe a block away, and managed to make it through the walk there and ordering food before Athalia turned to Elphaba.

"I don't know how much Yero told you, and I do appreciate that this may be a little odd. But we still have a few mutual friends, and when I ran into him, it seemed the perfect opportunity to clear the air rather than meeting at a future social event. You know?"

Elphaba nodded, taking a sip of water. "It's a mature decision," she agreed.

Athalia beamed. "I'm so glad you agree. So, tell me. How long have you two been together? How'd you meet?"

"A bookstore," Elphaba replied rather dryly, and Fiyero resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Funny.

"Yeah," he agreed. "In line waiting for the new Froth Gunner book."

Athalia blinked in surprise. "Wow," she said, although Fiyero wasn't sure what she'd found so surprising. "Didn't that only come out in October?"

Fiyero did the math in his head, and inwardly winced. He supposed getting engaged after only seven months wasn't exactly typical.

"Well, when you know you know, right?" he said, reaching out to take Elphaba's hand and hoping she'd sell it.

She let him entwine their fingers loosely, and smiled at Athalia. "Trust me, I was surprised too. But he was surprisingly persuasive."

"Buying you books goes a long way when arguing my case," Fiyero said, winking at her.

See, she wasn't the only one who could be funny.

Elphaba's mouth twisted slightly as she tried and failed to stifle a smile. Fiyero took that as a victory and his chest swelled as a grin broke out over his face.

Athalia chuckled, so Fiyero assumed the exchange had come across as a private joke between a couple. Then she nodded to their entwined hands. "No ring?"

"It's getting resized," Elphaba explained smoothly before Fiyero could panic. "It was a little too big, and I didn't want to risk losing it. That can't be good luck for a marriage, right?"

Athalia laughingly agreed and Fiyero silently praised himself for his excellent choice in fake fiancée.

"Like I said, it's recent," he chimed in. "Only last week, actually. Hopefully we'll get the ring back on Monday and it'll be a perfect fit."

He followed this up with a gentle squeeze to Elphaba's hand, and Athalia noted the gesture with a smile.

"So, what do you do, Elphaba? Are you from the Vinkus?"

"I'm from Munchkinland originally," Elphaba replied, and Fiyero had to remind himself to act like this fact was not supposed to be new to him. "I work for a non-profit that works for Animal welfare. I don't think Fiyero ever mentioned what you do?"

"Oh, I'm in marketing," Athalia said easily. "That's how we met, our desks were next to one another. But I'm working at a much better agency now."

Fiyero felt like he should defend his workplace- it wasn't as bad as she implied- but it didn't seem worth the energy.

Before their food arrived, Athalia excused herself to the bathroom. The moment she was out of earshot, Elphaba slid her hand out of Fiyero's, turning to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Engaged after seven months? Really?"

"Crazier things have happened," Fiyero defended himself.

"If you got me to agree to marry you after seven months, I doubt that."

"I thought we made it abundantly clear that I won you over with books," Fiyero grinned, gesturing towards the bag of books under the table and Elphaba laughed.

"Some would say that is the best way to get on my good side," she admitted. "How long were you and Athalia together?"

"A little less than a year and a half. Lived together for five months," Fiyero replied easily. "She ended it. Got offered a job in Ugabu, wanted me to go with her, but I wasn't sure. I thought we were going to take a breath and talk it over. Next thing I knew, she told me she'd already accepted it and was leaving in a week. I could either follow her, or we were done."

Elphaba was watching him intently, and Fiyero felt a little uncomfortable. He gave a little shrug, trying to shake it off.

"I didn't want to leave. Maybe I would have gone, if we'd talked about it. But once she made the decision without me, that was it."

Elphaba nodded slowly. "I get that. I had a somewhat similar issue. My family didn't want me to move here. We haven't spoken much since."

Fiyero winced. "How long ago was that?"

"About seven and a half months," Elphaba replied shortly, looking away.

"Just in time to meet the love of your life," Fiyero joked, feeling the rather pressing urge to make her smile again. "Lucky you."

It worked. Elphaba snorted, a smile flickering over her face. She looked back at him, but then her gaze flickered past his shoulder, and Fiyero assumed Athalia was returning.

"I hope you've got a proposal story up your sleeve," she warned him, her voice dropping. "Because she will undoubtedly ask, and I'm leaving that up to you. Better make it a good one."

"What, are you going to score me?" Fiyero asked.

"It's a proposal I apparently accepted," Elphaba reminded him. "So, yes."

But she was grinning, and Fiyero couldn't help but grin back.

"I've known you for fifteen minutes, but sure. No pressure," he said and she laughed.

Sure enough, Athalia had barely resumed her seat before she'd looked to them eagerly. "So? How did you propose?" she asked Fiyero.

Elphaba looked to him expectantly, and Fiyero could almost hear an 'I told you so' in the arch of her eyebrow. Fiyero took a sip of water and cleared his throat.

"Well, it was pretty amazing- if I do say so myself," he said lightly. "You think it was easy, convincing this girl to marry me after only seven months together?"

Athalia chuckled and Elphaba was stifling a smile as she looked at him, her chin resting on her hand.

Fiyero grinned at her, just studying her; trying to think of a proposal that was suited best to her- the little he knew about her. He knew few facts, but he somehow knew that whatever kind of proposal would win this woman over, it would have to be something simple, genuine and deserving of someone who would agree to pose as his fiancée for unknown reasons.

"Actually, it wasn't planned," he said, staring at Elphaba. "We were in a bookstore and Fae- Elphaba was looking at books on… philosophy."

Elphaba quirked a brow slightly, but Fiyero couldn't tell if she was reluctantly impressed or judging him.

"Philosophy?" Athalia repeated.

"I like to read," Elphaba said with a little shrug. "About all sorts of things."

She looked to Fiyero curiously, as though wondering how he'd known that. Fiyero had just picked the smartest sounding subject he knew anything about- he'd taken exactly one philosophy course at university, and had attended a grand total of three lectures for it (because honestly, who's bright idea was a philosophy lecture at eight am on a Monday morning?).

"She was trying to explain to me the philosophical concept of…" Fiyero paused to take a bite of his food, admittedly stalling while racking his brain for anything that sounded familiar. "The leap of faith," he said, feeling rather proud of himself for remembering it.

"Leap into faith," Elphaba corrected quietly, her eyes on him and her food forgotten.

Fiyero and Athalia both blinked at her and Elphaba cleared her throat, averting her eyes and shifting in her chair.

"Sorry. It's just- a 'leap into faith' is a better translation."

Fiyero grinned at her, reaching over and taking Elphaba's hand where it lay on the table before he could think better of it. And she let him.

"This is why she was explaining it to me," he told Athalia.

Athalia smiled faintly. "I'm sorry, I don't… I'm not familiar with it. I was a Business major," she laughed. "What is it?"

"Yes, Fiyero; what is it?" Elphaba asked him, her eyes glinting.

Fiyero narrowed his eyes at her slightly, and then cleared his throat, trying to remember anything about the class, other than that his professor had been rather attractive- there was a reason he made it to three whole lectures at that hour.

"It's really just the idea that logic and reason can only take you so far sometimes. Eventually you need to trust your instincts and leap into the unknown."

"Sounds like you," Athalia smiled at him. "You've never been much of one for logic, have you?"

Fiyero blinked, stung. "Uh, well-"

"That's why we work so well together," Elphaba cut in, squeezing Fiyero's hand. "I can rely a little too much on logic. When I was explaining the concept to Fiyero, I was pointing out all the flaws. And Fiyero was arguing the opposite, about all the ways it works. I asked for an example, and he said marriage."

Fiyero stared at her stunned. "Right," he said slowly. "Because when you get married, there's no guarantee it'll last. But getting married and vowing to commit to someone for the rest of your life just because you love them now… it's a leap of faith."

Fiyero smiled faintly. "And so I asked her to take a leap of faith with me. And marry me."

"Apparently he was quite convincing," Elphaba said, smiling back at him softly.

"That's actually quite beautiful," Athalia said. "Fiyero, I'm surprised. I never pegged you for such a romantic."

Elphaba's chin lifted as she turned back to Athalia, squeezing Fiyero's hand again. "Like Fiyero said, when you know, you know. Right?" she asked sweetly.

Athalia smiled back, but it was the smile Fiyero recognised from when she'd been forced to interact with colleagues she found particularly painful when they'd worked together. Which made him feel pretty good, actually.

They'd barely finished eating when Athalia cleared her throat. "Well, this has been lovely, but I really should be getting home. My husband will be wondering where I am."

"Of course," Elphaba said smoothly. "We should get home too."

"I'll get the bill," Fiyero offered. "My treat."

"Thanks, honey," Elphaba said slyly and Fiyero grinned at her broadly.

He paid the bill and then they headed out to the street.

"Fiyero, I'm glad I ran into you," Athalia said. "I'm glad to see you're happy."

Fiyero slid an arm around Elphaba's shoulders. "Yep, I am. Happy."

Elphaba chuckled under her breath and extended a hand to Athalia. "It was nice to meet you," she said, but Fiyero knew she was lying.

"You too," Athalia replied and Fiyero definitely knew she was lying.

Once Athalia had rounded the corner and was out of sight, Fiyero let out a breath and dropped his arm from around Elphaba.

"You, are my new favourite person in Oz," he informed her and she laughed.

"Philosophy? Really?" was her first question and Fiyero shrugged sheepishly.

"Well, I tripped over you in the Literary Criticism section, so I figured you're pretty smart. I don't know anything about that, and Philosophy was the smartest subject I could think of that I knew anything about."

Elphaba ducked her head. "Well, you did pretty well. That proposal… it would have been pretty convincing."

Fiyero grinned. "Yeah?"

She shrugged. "Not saying I would have said yes… but it definitely would have been… thought provoking."

Fiyero chuckled. "Well, thank you. Again."

"I'd say any time, but… I really hope you never have need for another fake fiancée," Elphaba said dryly.

"Me too," Fiyero said tiredly and she laughed.

"So… I should probably get going, I have some work to do."

"Right," Fiyero said hastily. "Sure. Thank you. I hope I didn't keep you from anything important."

"If it was that important, I would have said no," Elphaba reassured him. "No matter how pathetic you looked."

"Ah, so that's what convinced you to say yes."

She grinned. "We'll never know, will we?"

She said goodbye and turned in the opposite direction Athalia had left in, disappearing into the crowd. It took Fiyero five steps towards his own home before he whirled around and hurried after her, accidentally hitting more passerby's with his shopping bags as he weaved past people, searching for that hue of green.

"Elphaba!" he called out, when he finally glimpsed her.

She looked over her shoulder, seemingly startled. "Hi?" she said cautiously.

Fiyero strode up to her. "Hi," he said, a little breathlessly. "Random question- but would you want to get a drink sometime? With no exes around or pretend engagement?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh."

"I just think that you are… really interesting. And it's not often you meet a girl willing to pretend to be your fiancée, and I'd like to get to know you better. The real you."

Elphaba hesitated. "What makes you think that-?"

"Call it a leap into faith," Fiyero grinned.

She chuckled, her cheek dimpling again. "Alright," she agreed. "One drink."

Fiyero brightened. "Really?"

Elphaba shrugged. "Like I said, you were quite convincing," she said.

Fiyero grinned.

Sometimes, you could only go with your gut.