her little laugh when he tells her that he and his family live in the other castle, because of course they do 🥹 look at the way she LOOKS at him, she’s so in love 😭
this scene freaking hurts me for her because she just went from having one of the best nights of her life to having everything ruined for her in the space of two seconds, but i love that she had fiyero there to offer comfort to her when she needed it the most 😭
[Fic Synopsis: Almost a year after Elphaba's departure from the Emerald City, Fiyero finally tracks her down. What begins as a reunion quickly becomes something far deeper when he confesses the truth he's carried since their days at Shiz:
He chose the wrong girl.
As they plan Elphaba's return to expose the Wizard's lies, they must navigate a dangerous double life. With Fiyero accepting the role of Captain of the Gale Force to protect her, the two of them work in secret to change Oz from within - even as the risk of discovery grows higher every moment.]
Read here on AO3
Or stay here and keep reading under the cut! ❤️
—————
It was cold and still dark out when he began riding away from the Emerald City after leaving his quarters and getting Feldspur from the stables the next morning, only the faintest hint of blue starting to creep across the horizon as he encouraged the Horse into a canter. He had a limited amount of time with her—two, maybe three days—before he would have to return in order to help with preparations for the opening ceremony, and he was determined to make as much of that time as possible. Even if that meant getting up before the crack of dawn to avoid the other guards catching him and questioning why he was up at such an hour and where he was going.
He could feel the cool morning breeze running through his hair as he began navigating his way through the woods in the direction of her hideout, and he gave himself a second to just close his eyes and take a deep breath in. Despite having to get up at such an unozly hour, he felt more awake than he had in days. Just the thought of being with her again—of being free—for the next few days was enough to rid him of the weariness that still lingered from so much time spent pretending.
With her, there were no responsibilities he had to honour and no façade he had to maintain.
With her, he could just be himself.
With her, honestly, he could just be.
The darkness was still thick between the trees surrounding her hideout when it finally came into view, the torches dotted around the place the only light, and he smiled to himself as he began to bring Feldspur to a stop. He dismounted him easily, trying to be as quiet as possible since he was almost certain she would still be asleep, before beginning to unbutton the cuffs of his sleeves as he made his way toward the entrance. The Animals nearby stirred and lifted their heads at the sound of his footfalls, but they no longer feared him the way they had the first time he’d come. They knew him now—they knew they could trust him—and so they simply laid their heads back down and returned to sleep as he came to stand in the entrance to the hideout. Immediately, his gaze went to the bed in the corner and he chuckled quietly under his breath at the sight of her. She was curled up on her side, one hand tucked beneath her cheek as a bare shoulder peeked out from beneath the blanket and her curls laid across her pillow like spilled ink. She looked so peaceful—so unguarded for once—and there was something so beautiful about it. Enough so that he spent the next few minutes just standing there, studying her features and watching her sleep without a care in the world.
Oz, he was mad about her.
Before too long, the urge to make his way over to her and make her aware that he was there—even if that meant waking her and disturbing her peace—got the better of him and he ventured further into the hideout. He kept his footsteps as soft as he could as he made his way across the dirt floor towards the bed, his gaze never leaving her figure, and when he got there he lowered himself carefully down onto it behind her. For a moment, he simply sat there and watched the muscles in her back shift with each breath she took, but then he reached out and let his fingers graze the soft skin of her shoulder. When she didn’t stir at his touch, he edged further onto the bed before lying himself down behind her and slipping an arm around her waist. His nose buried itself in the dark hair at the back of her head after he’d laid there for a while, and he breathed her in before risking brushing his lips against the side of her neck—right beneath her ear. It was so light that it probably couldn’t even be called a kiss, not really, but it was enough to make her stir for the first time.
The way she shifted in his embrace and the soft little sound she made in the back of her throat made him smile against her skin, and he couldn’t help leaving another kiss to her neck while his thumb stroked against her stomach through the knitted blanket. He knew she knew that it was him when she eased her hand out from beneath the blanket and let it find his, pressing herself back against him, and he kissed her neck once more before resting his chin on her shoulder and grazing her jawline with his nose. “Mmm…” He hummed under his breath as the arm around her waist tightened, pulling her back flush against him. “Good morning.”
“Is it?” There was a slight grumble in her voice as she cracked one eye open to see that it was still practically pitch-black out. “I think your definition of the word ‘morning’ differs a bit from my own.”
Chuckling, he reached for the edge of the blanket that she had wrapped herself up in and gave it a tug so they could share it, his hand seeking out her hip through her nightdress as he placed a kiss on her shoulder. “Couldn’t sleep, so I thought I might as well just ride out here rather than lying there in my quarters for hours on end, wasting time,” He murmured against her skin before tucking his head into her neck with a sigh. “Oz, you don’t know how hard it’s been the past few days, pretending to go along with all that. I think I’m handling it well though. Morrible and the Wizard suspect nothing, and I’ll try to keep it that way up until the opening ceremony next week. Glinda’s driving me mad though, going on and on about how important the whole thing is. Sometimes, I don’t know who’s side she’s really on in all of this. She brings it into question.”
“She’s in a difficult position,” She reminded him sleepily, her eyes closed again. “She knows the power they—Morrible most of all—hold. She knows what they’ll do if she speaks out, and she’s scared. I understand it.”
He huffed. “But if you were the one in her position? You wouldn’t let that fear hold you back from doing the right thing and telling them all the truth. From clearing her name. That’s the difference.”
“I know,” She took his hand from her hip and brought it around to her front, lacing their fingers. “But I don’t need her to clear my name. I’ll do that for myself when I come back. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“But I do worry about it,” He admitted. “I worry about you. I worry about what’ll happen to you if something goes wrong. If someone gets to you before I can do anything about it.”
She was quiet for a while after he’d said those words, but eventually she let out a sigh and turned over beneath the blanket to face him, a hand coming up to rest upon his cheek as she settled beside him once again. “I keep telling you, nothing is going to go wrong,” She reminded him as her thumb ran back and forth across his skin, scraping gently against the stubble growing there. “I planned it out. I know what I’m writing and I know the escape route I’ll use if I need to get out of there fast. I’m safer than ever now with you as captain, so I just need you to trust me and trust that I know what I’m doing. Trust that I’m stronger than they are.”
The corner of his mouth quirked into a smile as he lifted his own hand up to stroke her hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear. “You think I could ever doubt that? You’re stronger than all of them combined.”
In the next moment, his lips had found hers and he was kissing her with all the passion yet all the tenderness that he could muster up, and she couldn’t help but moan softly into his mouth as it deepened instantly. She could feel the haziness of sleep begin to lift as she responded to him, meeting him kiss for kiss as her tongue tangled lazily with his own and her hands begin to wander, and before too long she was rolling him onto his back and moving to straddle him. The two of them parted for a breath, chuckling gently at the sudden change in position, before she captured him in another kiss and let her hands find his so that she could pin them at either side of his head. After a time, she began to trail her kisses away from his mouth, letting her lips skate across his cheek and along his jawline before they finally found the sensitive skin of his neck.
His breath caught and he arched up into her when her teeth scraped against his pulse-point, his hands tightening their hold of hers as a groan came from deep in his chest. “Feeling more awake now?”
“What do you think?” She hummed in his ear, sucking the lobe gently into her mouth before turning her attention back to his neck.
“I think…” He rolled his eyes at her teasing before suddenly flipping them so that she was beneath him on the bed, his hips slotting perfectly against her own. “You’re actually going to be the death of me.”
She smirked at that, stretching up to steal another kiss before giving him the only suitable response in that moment.
“Good…”
—————
By the time they finally stilled some time later, the first light of morning had begun to creep into the hideout and she smiled to herself as she laid there beneath him on the bed and ran her fingers lazily through his hair. She could still feel him trembling slightly from the aftershocks that had hit him—could still feel his breath coming in short, shaky little gasps against her skin as he laid there with his face hidden in her neck—and she was unable to keep from kissing his forehead when she turned her head in his direction. He looked well and truly wrecked—more so than she did, she imagined—and there was just something about seeing him like that that filled her with pride. Whether it was the knowledge that she had the ability to leave him in such a state or something else entirely, she was unsure, but she supposed it didn’t matter all that much.
“Oz,” He finally managed after lying there with her a couple of minutes longer, his hand skimming her thigh before coming to settle upon her waist. “That was—”
“I know…” She cut him off with a chuckle, shifting beneath him to make herself a little more comfortable as she ran her foot lazily up and down his leg.
Neither one of them said a word for a time after that, content to just lie there and bask in the aftermath of what they had just done. The evidence of their passion was clear in the little red marks she had sucked into his neck—placed strategically so that they would be concealed by the collar of the jacket of his uniform—and in the way that her lips were still swollen and slightly bruised from his kisses. They were both completely dishevelled, they knew, but they couldn’t find it in themselves to care. It wasn’t as though either of them were going anywhere. It wasn’t as though anyone was actually going to see either of them looking like that.
It was the sound of her stomach rumbling that finally broke the silence that had fallen, and he laughed aloud at the sound as he pushed himself up on his forearms to look at her. “Was that your stomach?”
“Maybe,” She bit her lip self-consciously. “But, I mean, can you blame me? Anyone would have worked up an appetite after that.”
“Yeah, I am quite good, aren’t I?” He smirked, only backing down when she rolled her eyes at him and gave his chest a half-hearted little slap. “Hang on. I actually have something for you. Stay here.”
He shifted his weight and moved from over her completely then, and she watched from where she laid as he got to his feet—not even bothering to put his clothes back on—and started to make his way back in the direction of the hideout’s entrance. Unable to stop herself—because, realistically, who could—she pushed herself up onto her elbows and admired his figure from behind as he padded nakedly across the dirt floor. “You’re going to scar Feldspur for life if you go out there looking like that, you know,” She told him when he glanced back at her over his shoulder just before stepping outside, feeling her gaze burning into him.
“He’ll just have to close his eyes then, won’t he?” He shrugged.
She shook her head when he finally left the hideout and disappeared from view for a time, reaching for the blanket and pulling it back up her body to keep away the morning chill, and when he returned again there was something wrapped in cloth in his hand. She had a feeling she knew exactly what it was, and she felt herself begin to salivate ever so slightly as he made his way back over to the bed. “Fiyero, you didn’t.”
“I managed to sneak some cherry frazzles from the kitchens before I left,” He told her as he sat down next to her again and handed it to her, chuckling under his breath as he watched her unwrap the pastry with all the eagerness of a child on Christmas morning. She was adorable. “I remember you liked them. I brought some juice puffs too, but I think we should make them last. We do have three days before I have to go back.”
She nodded, breaking the cherry frazzle in half and handing him one half of it before biting into her own. Her eyes fell closed a moment later and she let out a deep groan as the flavour exploded across her tongue.
“That good?” He teased.
“After eating mainly eggs and fruit for the past year?” She said with her mouth full, crumbs dropping onto the blanket she had over her. “This is the best thing ever.”
They finished their halves of the pastry at the same time, near enough, and after swallowing his last bite he reached out with a smile and wiped away the little bit of cherry that had gotten caught at the corner of her mouth. “I’ll make sure to bring some with me each time I come out here,” He told her after sucking his thumb clean, moving to sit beside her properly on the bed and wrap his arms around her so he could draw her close. “But, I mean, if things go the way we’re hoping at the opening ceremony then I won’t need to come out here any more because you can just come home. I want that for you. I hate the thought of you out here.”
“It’s not that bad,” She looked around, taking in all the work she had done on the place in the time she’d lived in it. “In a way, it’s become home.”
“But you’re not safe,” He reminded her. “Not as safe as you could be. As you will be once the Wizard and Morrible have been exposed and the Ozians see them both for what they really are.”
She was quiet for a moment before she tilted her head back against his shoulder and looked up at him. “Is there anything you can tell me? About them? About the Gale Force? Is there any inside knowledge you have?”
“There’s not too much to report. I haven’t been in the position that long, not in the grand scheme of things, and I get the feeling Morrible doesn’t trust me yet. Not fully,” He admitted. “But I’m doing everything in my power to throw the force off your scent. Which would be made far easier, you know, if you didn’t keep coming in and out of hiding and taunting Ozian officials every other day. You don’t help matters too much.”
“I have to be allowed to have some fun,” She defended herself, a humorous lilt to her voice. “But I’m not taunting them. I’m teaching them a lesson. They’re using Animals to do their labour for them. It’s sickening.”
He nodded. “I know, but I want you to try to lay low until the day of the ceremony. The less attention you draw to yourself in the meantime, the less on edge the Ozians are going to be and it’ll help your cause.”
“You’re no fun, you know that?” She almost pouted.
“I don’t have to be fun. That wasn’t what I promised you,” He kissed the side of her head. “I promised you I would protect you no matter what, and that’s what I’m going to do. Whether you like my methods or not.”
She was unable to keep from smiling at that. He cared so much. He was so determined to keep her safe, and she couldn’t begrudge him that. “I know. And I love you so much for that.”
“I love you too,” He murmured, leaning in to brush his lips against her own in the softest kiss. “More than you could imagine.”
—————
“So…” He broke the silence as the two of them sat together near the fire-pit later on that day, an arm around her shoulders as they stared into the flames and listened to the sound of the rain coming down outside. “I know about the plan for the opening ceremony—about the message in the clouds—but you haven’t told me yet what your plan is after that. In both scenarios. If you get the munchkins to listen to what you have to say, then what are your next steps? To go to the Emerald City with them in tow and hope the people there will do the same? And what if the plan doesn’t work out the way we want it to? Do you have a back-up plan?”
She thought for a time, trying to figure out for herself the best course of action—truthfully, she’d been so focussed on just getting them to listen to her that she hadn’t thought that far ahead—before sighing as she cuddled a little closer to him. “I’ll need time before going to the city. Getting the munchkins to listen to what I have to say is one thing but getting them to truly believe me is another and Morrible is going to do her best to make it as hard for them as possible. Some of them are going to be sceptical. The Wizard is telling them I can’t be trusted day after day, and that’s not going to just go away in a moment. Once I have enough of them on my side—once I’m sure they believe me and want the same things I do—then I’ll take matters to the city. No-one there is going to believe me if I stand there on my own and tell them, but my chances will be higher if I have even a handful of people on my side. The hardest part is going to be getting the Wizard to actually admit to them that he’s a fraud. That he’s been lying to them about everything this whole time.”
He hummed in agreement. “He’ll do all he can to keep from having to do that.”
“I know,” She admitted. “That’s what makes it so difficult. I have to make it impossible for him to be able to deny it. I can’t give him any opportunity to worm his way out of it. I just…I don’t know how to do that yet.”
“Hey…” He stroked his thumb against her shoulder, waiting for her to look up at him before continuing. “You don’t have to work every single detail out right this second. You have enough to be dealing with already, getting people to hear you out in the first place. Once you have more people on your side—once progress has begun being made—then you can start thinking about how you’re going to deal with him. It’ll be easier then too, because others will have ideas and it won’t all be on you. Just focus on the smaller parts of it for now. I don’t want you doing too much, Fae, because the only thing you’re going to do is burn yourself out.”
She nodded. “Maybe, at some point, I can try to get in contact with Nessa. I haven’t seen her since…since it all happened and since Father died, but she can get people to listen to her with her being Governor now.”
“No. I know she’s your sister, but that’s too much of a risk for you to take.” He shook his head, tightening his hold of her on instinct.
“I don’t mean now,” She explained. “I mean after the ceremony. I’ll try to explain what happened to her, and if I can get her on my side then getting the munchkins to trust me will be made so much easier.”
He sighed, still not liking the whole idea. “And if she doesn’t listen? Or worse, if she double-crosses you and turns you over to the Gale Force? What then? You have Boq to consider too. He believes in the rumours.”
“Fiyero, she’s my sister,” She frowned. “She wouldn’t do that to me.”
“And you’re sure of that, are you?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m not. I don’t trust her.”
An uncomfortable silence fell over the two of them for a time after that, neither one of them looking at each other as he looked around the hideout and she stared down into her lap while she played with her hands. Eventually though, she managed to find her voice again and she forced herself to look at him. “You don’t know Nessa like I do. We may not be as close as we once were, but she wouldn’t want to see me dead, Yero, especially not when I’m the only living family member she has left. If I go to see her, the worst thing she’d do is refuse to help me, and if that happens then I’ll just find another way to make things work. I’ll be fine.”
“The more people we bring into this, the more nervous it makes me,” He said, his voice quiet. “I can’t protect you if you end up getting yourself handed to the Gale Force. I mean, you know full well that I would do all I could to get you out of that situation, but I already know it wouldn’t end well. Both of us would end up dead and Morrible and the Wizard wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Involving Nessa—it’s a ginormous risk, Fae.”
“But isn’t all of this a ‘ginormous risk’ in itself?” She pointed out. “Fiyero, we’re taking a ‘ginormous risk’ every second we’re together. Every day this goes on. You knew that when we agreed to enter into this.”
How was he supposed to argue with that?
How was he supposed to tell her that that wasn’t the case when it was?
He’d known full-well that what they were doing was dangerous the second it started, but he hadn’t cared and he still didn’t.
He wanted her, and he was in this for the long haul.
“Damn it, I hate it when you’re right…” He scoffed, shaking his head as he forced himself to meet her gaze. “Fine. If things at the opening ceremony go to plan? I don’t mind you going to see Nessa, not if you’re so certain that she can be trusted. But if it doesn’t? If the smallest part of it goes wrong? I don’t want you going anywhere near her, and I want you to promise me that. I want you to mean it. You keep away from her.”
Her response was the smallest nod as she brought her hand to his cheek and let her thumb stroke gently against his skin. “I promise you. If I thought I was putting myself in danger, I wouldn’t even consider it.”
“I just…” He swallowed thickly, leaning his forehead against her own. “I just can’t stand the thought of anything—”
“I know,” She cut him off in a voice no higher than a whisper. “But it won’t. I know what I’m doing. You still trust me?”
Lightly, he grazed his nose against hers. “Always.”
“Always?”
“Always…”
—————
It was past midnight, and he was still wide awake.
It had been hours since they had had that talk near the fire-pit—since she had brought up the idea of her going to see Nessa—and still, he couldn’t stop thinking about it and just how much of a bad idea it seemed. She’d told him she trusted Nessa and that she knew she would never go behind her back and betray her the way he feared she would, but there was always a chance. There was always a chance that she’d act out of character and turn her over to the Gale Force just to make a point. Just to prove to people that she was nothing like her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, even more so if people started asking questions and then rumours began to circulate. He hadn’t seen Nessa for quite some time, but from what he’d heard? The death of her father had changed something in her. She took her role as Governor incredibly seriously, and she seemed to buy into the lies being spread. But was that the truth or was she just pretending to go along with them to maintain her image? To see to it that the munchkins continued to put their faith and trust in her?
Really, he had no idea, but that was what worried him.
Elphaba was certain that she could trust her, but he wasn’t.
If she double-crossed her and turned her over to the Gale Force, then he knew what would happen to her and each image that flitted through his mind when he thought about it was more sickening than the last one. She would be killed, there was no doubt in his mind about that, but he just knew it wouldn’t be a quick death. She would be made to suffer for the ‘crimes’ she had committed against the Wizard and he knew there’d be nothing he could do to keep it from happening. Not when he’d be in the same position. It didn’t matter to him, facing death for his alliance with her—it was the risk he’d gladly taken when he entered into all this with her—but he couldn’t bear the thought of her being made to face such torture. And the chances of that happening really weren’t all that far out of the realm of possibility if she tried to involve Nessa in their plan.
Just as his thoughts began to get the better of him, he felt her begin to stir in his arms—as though she could read his thoughts, even in sleep—and he turned his head in her direction just as her eyes fluttered open. “You’re still thinking about what we talked about earlier, aren’t you?” Her voice was gravelly with remnants of sleep as she brought a hand out from underneath the blanket and laid it on his chest, sighing to herself.
“Sorry,” He shook his head, his hand running lazily up and down her spine. “It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. Something about it feels off, no matter the angle I look at it from.”
She used the hand on his chest to push herself up slightly after lying there next to him for a while, the two of them shifting together until she came to lie on her front against his chest and they were face-to-face. “I know. And I understand why you’re worried. The more people we involve, the riskier this whole thing becomes for the both of us. There is a chance that going to see Nessa could make things worse instead of better, I’m not lying to myself about that, but if it goes right then I’ll actually have someone with real power on my side. From what I’ve heard lately, all Nessa has to do is snap her fingers and things get done. They fall into place for her. If I go to her and I make amends with her? She has the power to get people on my side. She has more power against Morrible and the Wizard than I do right now, that’s for sure. If she agrees to help me plant doubt in peoples’ minds? This whole thing will be over much faster. I just have to trust that when she sees me, she sees her sister and not what everyone else sees. I have to believe she still has that inside her.”
“And if it turns out that she doesn’t?”
“Then I won’t give her the chance to double-cross me. I already told you, I know her better than you do. I know her better than anyone. If she’s being insincere then I’ll know about it and I’ll cut all ties with her.”
That managed to make him feel a little better about the whole thing. Her promising him that off her own back.
“You mean that?” He tightened the hold he had of her, pressing his lips to her forehead and then to her temple before pulling back to look her in the eye again. “You won’t have any further contact with her?”
“I mean it,” She echoed, leaning in to kiss him tenderly. “Now, can we please get some sleep? You’ll feel better about this in the morning.”
He gave her a look before nodding, sighing deeply as he settled down beneath the blanket with her and let her tuck her head beneath his chin. “I just want you to be careful. That’s all.”
“And I will be,” She murmured into the darkness, already beginning to fall back to sleep once more.
It wasn’t long before her breathing evened out and he realized she’d drifted back off, and he buried his lips in the hair at the crown of her head as he stared up at the criss-crossed branches that formed the ceiling. There was still a part of him that was worried about the whole idea. But, then again, he supposed there always would be. This whole plan of theirs was one big risk. It had the power to cost them both their freedom. It had the power to cost them both their lives, and that was something that they were both well aware of. Deep down though, he knew better than to doubt her. Not only had she managed an entire year out here all by herself, managing to come to the aid of the Animals and have dealings with Ozian soldiers without being caught, but he’d told her earlier that she was smarter than all those fools combined and he’d meant that.
He knew she had the power to pull this off.
He knew she had the power to do anything she set her mind to.
