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"Looks like I’m not the only girl who has you wrapped around her finger."
Fiyero gave Elphaba a half smile while he wrapped his arms further around Dorothy. The little girl was pressed firmly against his chest, trying in vain to bury herself in the straw to avoid the cold of the night. However, obvious tremors still racked her scrawny frame. It was a pitiful sight, indeed.
"I'm being very selfish right now," Fiyero sighed. "She needs to be over by the fire, not here with me. I’m not able to keep her warm."
"Nonsense."
Elphaba untied her cloak, laying the long black fabric over Dorothy and Fiyero. They both watched as Dorothy's shoulders instantly sagged in relief, before her whole body succumbed to the newly found comfort.
"See? She’s asleep." Elphaba quietly told Fiyero as she sat down next to him. "The little thief must be exhausted."
"Now Elphie, that’s not fair," Fiyero's light tone was as teasing as it was scolding. "Glinda was the one to give her Nessa's shoes."
"I know that," Elphaba rolled her eyes, "but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t just give them back to me. It’s not like she needs them to walk or anything. Her legs appear to work perfectly fine."
"Fair enough," Fiyero sighed.
The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, before a particularly biting breeze cut through Elphaba.
"You’re shivering!" Fiyero exclaimed. "You should go back to the fire."
"I should do a lot of things, I suppose. However, I make it a point never to do anything that somebody else tells me that I should do."
"Elphie, please."
Despite only being painted on, Fiyero’s eyes still held the glaze of tears. Honestly, it was worse than Dorothy's dog's attempt at getting a bite of her dinner earlier.
"I'm alright." Elphaba smiled placed a hand on Fiyero's cheek. "It must be nice for you not to feel cold anymore."
"Truthfully, the cold never bothered me anyway," Fiyero grinned, "but it does give me another excuse to keep away from any lit matches."
Elphaba quickly stared at the ground as her face began to flush.
"I’m so sorry about throwing fire at you earlier. Had I known it was you—"
"I understand, Elphie. I mean, how could you have?"
There was movement under the cloak as Fiyero clearly tightened his hold on Dorothy.
"I’m actually more upset that you almost hit Dorothy with it. If she’d been burned…I really don’t know what I would’ve done."
"Why though?" Elphaba unintentionally glared at the sleeping girl. "What exactly has this girl done to earn your loyalty so thoroughly?"
Fiyero had the audacity to let out a laugh. "Are you seriously jealous of a child, Elphie?"
Elphaba didn’t give a response, only blowing a stray hair out of her face. She hadn’t noticed when Fiyero suddenly grabbed her hand. The straw poked out from underneath his glove, but Elphaba still found herself melting into his grip like before. He was still her Fiyero.
"I don’t know why I care about her so much," Fiyero finally said. "I thought it was because she had freed me from that cornfield the guards left me in. Then, I thought it was because she was so nice to me, when I’m sure most people would have written me off as a freak. But, I think it was more than that. Those reasons feel…so shallow now, I suppose."
"Well, you were never much of a deep thinker."
Elphaba leaned up against Fiyero’s shoulder, their hands still intertwined.
"What do you mean? I’ve got a degree in Think-ology!"
Elphaba scrunched up her nose. "Think-ology? Who came up with that?"
"Who do you think?" Fiyero smirked.
It wasn’t hard to guess. A phony subject like that had the Wizard written all over it.
"I had to come up with something to ask for," Fiyero explained. "It’s not like I could tell him my true heart's desire. Although, we’re together again, so I suppose he did grant it."
"Don’t give him any credit," Elphaba snapped. "That little girl in your arms had more to do with our reunion than the Wizard ever did."
"I'm sure she'd love to hear you say that."
Elphaba rolled her eyes, "I'll be sure to express my gratitude when she wakes up in the morning."
"That’s almost the spirit, Elphie!" Fiyero gave her hand a squeeze. "She thinks you hate her."
"I—"
The word died on Elphaba's lips when a small whimper escaped from Dorothy. Her eyes were still closed, but that didn’t stop the small trickle of tears. Fiyero was quick to try and hush her cries, his own soft whispers mixing with Dorothy's shuttered breathing. Eventually, she calmed down enough to slip right back into her original slumber. Fiyero had already let go of Elphaba, and was now running his free hand through Dorothy’s tangled curls.
"Does she get nightmares often?" Elphaba finally asked.
Fiyero sighed, "As long as I’ve known her. I don’t think she even realizes how many she has."
"You seem good at comforting her."
"Practice." Fiyero shrugged. "I don’t sleep, so I’m always up whenever she starts to cry. I usually just tell her she’s safe and that everything is okay, then she falls asleep in my arms. It was kind of awkward the first time she woke up and I was still holding her, but it sort of became our routine after a while."
That wasn’t what Elphaba was expecting to hear. Of course, she had noticed the closeness between Fiyero and Dorothy, even before he revealed himself as her lost lover, however, that just made it more confusing. The Fiyero she knew was protective and kind, just not to this level with anyone other than herself. Glinda didn’t even stir his affections as much this little girl could.
"She told me that she’d miss me most of all," Fiyero smiled fondly down at Dorothy. "I suppose that’s what did it in the end."
Elphaba nodded silently as she too found herself staring intently at Dorothy. Fiyero had filled her almost immediately about how the Wizard had set off in his balloon for the world he and Dorothy originally came from, a not-so-subtle suggestion by Glinda for him to leave Oz permanently. Unfortunately, Dorothy’s dog had jumped out at the last second, with the girl chasing after him, and thus the Wizard flew off without either of them. He couldn’t, or more likely wouldn’t, stop for them.
Dorothy's troubles didn’t stop there. Upon his departure, the Wizard handed over control of the Emerald City to her three companions until his return. With that indefinite deadline now set, Fiyero instantly found himself thrusted into a power struggle that he had not been prepared for in the slightest. Despite being gifted a new heart, Boq had retained his singleminded obsessiveness. Only it wasn’t Glinda that held his desire anymore.
Or, maybe she still did, and this was all just some misguided way of trying to impress her. It didn’t matter to Fiyero. Not when Boq planned to use Dorothy to seize control.
Dorothy was a celebrity for her defeat of both the wicked witches, as well as her meeting with the Wizard. Boq immediately decided to capitalize on her popularity. With nowhere else for her to go, Dorothy naturally stayed in the Emerald City with the friends she had made along the way. With his newfound power, Boq appointed himself her official guardian.
"That room he kept her in," Fiyero explained with barely concealed anger, "it was like a cage, Elphie! There were silk curtains, but no windows behind them. There was a feather bed Boq 'joked' about tying her to every night. He even held the only key to the door. She couldn’t even unlock her own door without having to ask for him to do it! It was horrible."
Elphaba put a hand on Fiyero's shoulder and gave a tight squeeze. She wasn’t sure he felt it, as he continued to glare at nothing in particular.
"I had to get her out of there, Elphie."
Elphaba couldn’t argue with him, no matter how much she wanted to. She dedicated her life to fighting against injustice inflicted upon the weak members of Oz by those in power. While that originally meant the Animal population, Elphaba reluctantly had to include Dorothy. She was a member of Oz, if just for now, and she needed Elphaba's help.
"I used Boq's own oil can to quiet the hinges on the door to Dorothy’s room. I also managed to steal the key when I asked to get a closer look at his heart."
"Sometimes it’s good not to have a brain," Elphaba told him. "No one expects you to be so conniving."
Fiyero originally planned to leave the Emerald City as soon as Dorothy had returned to Kansas. With her safely with the Wizard and far away from Oz, then nothing would be able to hold him back from retrieving Elphaba and the two of them then setting off into the sunset together forever.
However, it seemed that even when a scarecrow plans, God still laughs.
"What did the lion say when he caught you?" Elphaba asked.
Lion had been given Fiyero's old position as head of the guard by Boq in another blatant attempt at consolidating his own power. He didn’t even argue against the Tin Man. Some king of the forest he would have made.
"He’s still a coward." Fiyero shook his head. "But, I think he might remember something from that time at Shiz. If nothing else, at least how awful it is to be a small child shoved into a cage. He let us go, but refused do anything further. He’s too afraid of being wrong at this point. After all, he has to have realized the Wizard was a conman, his gifted courage is a sham, and Boq is currently gunning to become Oz's next dictator."
"He won’t be able to get that far. Glinda will stop him."
If there was one person Elphaba was confident of, it was Glinda. Glinda worked far too long, and much too hard, to create a better Oz. She had even managed what Elphaba couldn’t when she got rid of the Wizard. There might have actually been something to her ideas of working within the system to create meaningful change, but Elphaba would have never lasted long enough to be able to make an impact. She’s never been the type to just keep her head down when bad things happen around her. It’s probably why she was never popular.
"We still need to find her, though."
Fiyero had been adamant about that from the moment he and Dorothy returned to Kiamo Ko. Elphaba offered to consult the Grimmerie for a spell that would send Dorothy home, but Fiyero was hesitant to accept that form of help. While he took his being turned into a scarecrow with a "it is what it is" attitude, and he certainly didn’t blame Elphaba for her attempt at making him immortal, Fiyero didn’t like the uncertainty of what exactly Dorothy might be subjected to. Elphaba…had to agree.
"Glinda must have had a plan," Elphaba told him. "There’s no way she would have sent Dorothy to the Wizard without one."
Fiyero nodded silently. The fire she set had long since gone out, leaving only the glow of the moon lighting his face. Elphaba had to admit, Fiyero was beginning to look more and more like his old self the later the night dragged on. Her beloved prince. The boy who's mission in life was to spend it dancing. The friend who risked expulsion from yet another school in order to help her free a lion cub. The man who faced down the entire Gale Force just to allow his love the chance to escape.
And all she could do for him in return was replace his bones with straw.
"It’s late," Fiyero said. "We’re not going to be able to start looking until morning anyway, and Dorothy isn’t the only one who needs to sleep."
"I’m fine."
Elphaba tried to tell him. However, that was the exact moment when a yawn escaped from her. Fiyero eyed her knowingly, while Elphaba silently cursed her body for betraying her like that.
"Come closer, Elphie."
Fiyero carefully slid the cloak over Elphaba so that it now covered her up as well. Dorothy must have senses the additional warmth, and Elphaba felt as the little girl leaned against her. Elphaba instinctively went to push her away, but she stopped herself. There were worse fates than being cuddled by a sleeping child, she supposed. Absently, she began running her long fingers through Dorothy’s hair, loosening up any knots she got caught on.
"Look at you two! I’d call that progress," Fiyero smirked, much to Elphaba's chagrin.
"You’re not going to tell anyone about this," she told him with a small smile of her own.
"Of course, I won’t! Do you think I’m going to actively play with that fire? Have a little faith in me, Elphie. I will, however, bring this moment up the next time you complain about her."
"And I'll be waiting nearby with my matchbook."
The two of them quietly laughed, and Elphaba snuggled up against Fiyero. She had missed having him by her side more than anything else.
"Go to sleep," Fiyero whispered. "I can keep watch by myself. Another benefit of not needing to sleep."
He made it sound like such a good thing, to be made out of straw now. Elphaba supposed that must just be his way of coping. Once a spell was cast by the Grimmerie, it was permanent.
"Maybe I’m brainless…Maybe I’m wise…But you've got me seeing through different eyes…Somehow, I’ve fallen under your spell…And somehow I'm feeling…It's up that I fell…"
Fiyero's voice was soft as he sang their song. Elphaba glanced up at Fiyero, he hadn’t seemed to notice that she was still awake.
"Every moment…" her own voice now joined in with his, "As long as you’re mine…I'll wake up my body…And make up for lost time…"
Fiyero had a way of smiling that was designed to break hearts. He hadn’t lost that ability.
"Just for this moment, as long as you’re mine…"
Elphaba wasn’t prepared for Fiyero to lean in so close. He smelled like a cornfield.
"I still love you," she suddenly blurted out.
"And I never stopped loving you."
Dorothy stirred in her sleep, catching both of their attention in anticipation of another nightmare. Luckily, it seemed to be a false alarm. Leave it to the girl to ruin yet another moment for Elphaba. However, the witch was unable to find it within herself to be angry. In fact, she instead felt the same rush that overcame her senses the day she cast the levitation spell on her broom. The feeling of flying through the air, of truly defying gravity, was unmatched by any other experience. Well, except for how she felt when with Fiyero.
The morning would come, but they still had tonight. They would have every night and day because there was nothing stopping them now. No fake Wizard to keep them apart, no more bounty hanging over her head because she was dead, and no lingering doubts about his feelings.
"Thank you, Dorothy Gale," Elphaba whispered into the little girl’s ear. "Thank you for bringing my love back to me. You and your little dog, too."