Hands down my favorite fiyeraba fanfic of all time: "Skin Deep" on fanfiction.net by HollyBush from 2012 is so well written and offers such a great introspective of the characters, especially Fiyero. He's my favorite Fiyero fictional character. It begins at Shiz, then goes AU after Elphaba flees, Fiyero's desperate search for her after becoming Captain, finding her and all that entails. This author only wrote two multi-chapter fiyeraba fics, I believe. And I just have to share because I'm always looking for great fiyeraba fics (there are a lot of bad ones) and I'm hoping this helps someone else who is searching, too. If anyone knows of any similar fics, please share. I've read a lot of them but I would love to be surprised.
P.s. if anyone knows the author please beg her to come out of retirement and write a sequel or more fics :)
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7880438/1/Skin-Deep
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"It took him a moment to remember how to breathe and when he drew one, it was shaky.
He swallowed and wondered for a moment what he was supposed to do now. What was he supposed to say? He knew what he wanted to tell her, but it seemed too strange now, too crazy, too impossible to start spouting off declarations of love to a woman he hadn't seen in three years, hadn't spoken to. A woman he didn't know.
She stood at the far end of the room, on the very edge of the darkness behind her, ready to pull back into it, it seemed.
"Yackle tells me you wished to see me."
She sounded so...business-like. He wanted to step forward, but didn't.
"See you..." He scraped his throat.
"Yes, I wanted to see you."
He could not stop the nervous laughter that erupted at that. He'd wanted to see her, yes. That was the mildest way to put it.
"Would you care to sit down?" She needed space between them. Distance he wouldn't be able to close. She pointed at a chair, as she sat in the one opposite.
She nearly smiled at that. It was such a Fiyero thing to say. A small shrug accompanied it, the way it had always done at Shiz, when she'd suggested they study and he'd had no choice but to agree. Or hadn't wanted to disagree. She'd never been brave enough to wonder.
"So..." Her hands were twitchy, wringing. She was nervous, and she detested herself for it. He saw it too and it made him feel a little better.
"What brings you here, Captain?"
He frowned at that. He hadn't expected that. None of his daydreams and fantasies about this moment had included his job at all. Strange as it may be.
This had always been about them.
He didn't want anything else. He couldn't deal with anything else.
She looked at him, expectantly. She really wanted to know what he was doing there.
He couldn't finish it because he didn't know how to. What was he supposed to say?
She was losing her patience, he could tell. He'd always been able to tell.
He smiled at the sound of her name from his lips. It had been such a long time. And here she was. Right here.
Where had she been all this time?
He couldn't stop the question from tumbling from his lips.
He wanted to know more than anything, but realized this was not the time, nor the most important question.
"Never mind. You can tell me that later." Her eyes widened at that, her eyebrows raised.
He ignored it. He didn't know why she was so surprised. He considered for a moment telling her everything right then but knew immediately that wasn't the best approach. If she was anything like she had been, it would only scare her away. He opted for what he'd always found the most successful tactic; don't give her a choice.
He looked around and plowed on, aware of what he was doing and that it might not work, but also aware that he had to do something, because she clearly wasn't going to, and this was his best shot. Might be his best shot.
Her eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline.
He was treading on very slippery ice, but there was no turning back.
"Well...yes.." Obviously. Seriously.
She looked at him as if he were a child that needed to be explained something he should already know.
He ignored that too. He couldn't afford to get distracted.
"Can that infamous broom of yours carry two?"
He didn't want to hear what she had to say. He didn't want to hear her protest.
"I'm not sure there's another way so I really hope it does.."
Desperation and panic made her voice pitch.
She'd had enough. Patience had never been her virtue.
He'd always had plenty, especially with her but it was nowhere to be found today.
"Elphaba! You can't honestly believe I am going to let you leave here without me!"
They stared at each other, over a wall of silence, simmering anger and longing.
It was a whirlwind then. He couldn't hold himself back anymore. He leaped forward, to where she stood, shell-shocked, one hand found its way to her face, cupped her cheek, his fingers in her hair. The other landed on her hip, nearly crushing bone as he pulled her to him.
His lips were on hers before she could protest. She would have, had she known, had she seen it coming, had she not wanted it this much. She'd have stopped him, she was sure she would have, but she didn't know how to stop something like this.
She'd dreamed about this for three years. Longer than that. How was she supposed to stop this? But she knew she had to. She could not allow him to distract her so easily, to sway her from what she knew was the best thing. From what she knew was right. And this wasn't right. This was the Captain of the Gale Force. Her best friend's boyfriend and, if the gossip was anything to go by, soon-to-be-husband.
She managed to pull back. To pull herself away.
He was out of breath and his fingers clenched and unclenched, their grip on her waist so tight it should hurt. She put her hands against his chest to push him away but his grip only tightened further.
She struggled for breath as she took a few steps backward, straightened her dress so she wouldn't have to look at him.
He watched her retreat. 3, 4, 5 steps away from him, and the panic he felt at that made his chest cramp up.
"No. Fiyero." She took another deep breath. Why was she always out of breath when he was around? Oz...nothing had changed.
"No. We...I need to think. You need to think. For a minute, you need to think of what you're doing."
He looked at her in confusion.
"You think I need to think? The last thing I need to do is think."
The look on her face took him back three years.
"Fiyero. Why are you here?"
"I..." What was he supposed to say? Why was she even asking?
"For you." Of course. He couldn't make it any simpler. It couldn't be any simpler. Wasn't it obvious? Hadn't it always been obvious?
"Well...I..." He wanted to tell her, he did. But the way she looked at him unnerved him. She was scarier than he remembered. More intimidating now that she held all the power. Even if she didn't know it.
"You're Captain now, after all." The time to breathe, his internal struggle, had allowed her to put her defense back up. Full force.
"What do you want from me, Captain?"
She was being nasty and she was doing it on purpose.
She never did have any people skills. He supposed three years spent alone hadn't done much to help.
"You found the Wicked Witch of the West. Congratulations. Now what do you plan to do?"
Oz, she was impossible. He told himself to stay calm. Reminded himself that he loved her. That strangling her wouldn't make him happy, in the end.
His mouth was set. Grim. Determined.
"Enough of that. You know that I'm not here to hurt you."
"I know nothing of the sort, I..."
She never finished her sentence. He didn't let her.
"You know that, or you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't have come."
She said nothing at that, so he knew he was right.
He didn't want to argue. She was so self righteous! Oz, this woman. How had he forgotten about how absolutely insane she drove him?
He took a tentative step forward. Her eyes narrowed but she didn't move. He bit back a grin.
"Elphaba..I'm here for you. I came her looking for you, like I've been looking for you, searching for you, for three years. I am Captain, I joined the Gale Force, to find you. Or have a chance at it, at least. To keep track of you, as much as you let me."
Her face didn't change, but something in her eyes did.
"Elphaba.." How many time had he said her name? More in the last ten minutes than in the last three years.
He closed the distance left between them, and looked into her eyes and smiled, gently, innocently, adoringly. His face lit up, sparkles in his blue, blue (oh...too blue) eyes, let his finger trace down her nose.
"Because I love you, Elphie."
He shook his head lightly, as if he couldn't believe that he was there, as if he couldn't believe he still had to explain this to her. He kissed the tip of her nose, then her forehead, then her lips. Softly.
"Why else would I be here? What else would I be doing but look for you?"
His hands cupped his face now, his thumbs stroking her temples, her cheeks and he let his nose touch hers, rubbing teasingly, before he pulled back only the slightest bit to look straight and unflinching, into her eyes.
