It was dark in the Philosophy Club and she liked that. It was dark enough that no one could tell the color of her skin, which meant no one would recognize her, assuming anyone from Shiz was in this Oz-forsaken place. She couldn't figure out why she had bothered to come here in the first place, either. And the noise! Sweet Oz, was it loud. Elphaba stood near the far end of the room, watching couples along the walls beside her make out (or do even more than that - some of them were missing items of clothing) as people danced suggestively in the center of the room.

Nothing she saw was shocking to her, though. She'd seen it all before, sometimes in her own home. Plenty of it she had done more than just see… and she wasn't necessarily ashamed of that. At one point, she had been, but not anymore, especially not here.

At fifteen, a boy she'd been tutoring late one evening at the school had propositioned her. Nanny had warned her many times that it might happen, despite the fact that boys didn't usually find her attractive. Nanny had told her to spurn such advances. But she hadn't listened to Nanny's advice. Why should she? Elphaba had always been curious. What was she saving herself for, anyway? Marriage?

Word had gotten around the school quickly after that regarding Elphaba's willingness to experiment. The girls called her names while the boys began walking her home. They were never interested in much more once they'd gotten what they wanted, though. But that didn't surprise her and she didn't care. She'd gotten what she wanted, too. It was the way the girls treated her when they heard about it that stung more.

But none of those girls were here, and so when she'd arrived at Shiz, she'd resolved to keep to herself. She didn't need rumors flying, and she didn't need the distraction, even if it was often a brief distraction. Elphaba would study, get her degree, and get out. That was the plan - at least it had been for the last year.

She'd heard about this place from whispers among her classmates. It was both feared and admired. From what she could gather, no one she knew had ever gotten the courage up to actually go inside. Always curious, she decided to see what it was about, though that didn't mean she meant to do anything. Her second year hadn't started yet. There was only so much studying she could do before classes started up again.

When she'd entered, a dwarf had tried to sell her tickets to some kind of show that, well, relied on audience participation. But she wanted to stay anonymous, so she shook her head and continued on into the dark room that smelled of sweat and sex. She wasn't sure if she wanted to stay. There were private rooms off the one side, equally as badly lit as the main room. But sex? Sure it felt good, but it didn't motivate her enough to ignore the shriek of the music and the smoke that hovered in the room. With one last glance around the room, she turned to leave. This had been a ridiculous idea.

Before she reached the door, a hand brushed her arm. "Excuse me?" It was a male voice with a small lilt on the "e" sound, apparently an accent.

She turned towards the man, whose features she could barely make out in the lighting of the room. "What do you want?"

"I just…" He sounded like he couldn't be much older than her, though age was hard to tell in a voice. And his accent, was it Vinkun? "I thought I could buy you a drink. You seem… uncertain."

She took a deep breath, debating on how to respond. Elphaba could handle a drink. As a teenager she'd snuck entire bottles of communion wine from her father's stores a number of times for her and any number of young men. So she wasn't worried about getting drunk. Besides, even if she did, sex had been on her mind somewhat when she came here tonight, so it wasn't as though she'd regret it. But the atmosphere was thick, as if it was pressing on her skin, causing the air she breathed to be heavy. She did not want to be around this noise, either. "It's so loud in here, I think I'd better just leave."

"I can buy us a bottle and get us a private room."

His accent made his voice sound like a song, and she liked it. Part of her wanted to give in. Even just listening to him talk would make this little adventure worth the risk. "I suppose that would be agreeable."

The young man went over to the dwarf who had tried to sell her tickets to a live show earlier and flashed some coins which the dwarf took eagerly and handed over a bottle and a key.

As they closed the door behind them, the music faded to only a rumble behind the walls. She could live with that. Elphaba watched the young man as he headed over to a lamp (if you could call it that, it was mostly just a candle in a jar) on a small table beside the only other piece of furniture in the room: a bed. "Wait!"

He hesitated. "What?"

She thought quickly and took off the scarf she had worn to help hide her features as she lit the candle herself. She threw it over the jar. "I like a little mood lighting," she lied. This way, if he saw the color of her skin, maybe he'd think it was simply a trick of the light - her scarf was green, anyway.

Elphaba was barely able to see his mouth form a grin, but she could hear it in his voice. "Well, then, shall we have a little wine?"

"So you're a wine man, then? No beer? No whiskey?"

"You looked like a girl who drinks wine. Was I wrong?"

She laughed lightly and sat down on the bed. "Not at all."

"And as for me, I'm willing to drink a little bit of everything. I'll try anything once. I've never had this wine before. What about you?" He passed her the bottle and sat beside her.

"Me neither. But I'm very fond of trying things, too." She opened it and took a gulp; a bitter sweetness touched her tongue. She swallowed and handed the bottle back to him. "Not bad."

"So, what's your name?" He asked before he took a sip himself.

She paused. "You want to know my name?"

"If you don't want to tell me, at least give me something I can call you."

She could live with that. "You can call me Fae. And what about you?"

"Yero," he said. It sounded foreign, beautiful.

Elphaba grabbed the bottle from him and took another sip. "What brings you here, Yero?"

"Curiosity, mostly. What about you?"

"A bit of the same," she answered, giving him the bottle once more. "What made you ask me for a drink, of all the women in this place?"

"I was watching you. I mean, it was kind of hard to see you," at that they both laughed, "but even just your silhouette, you intrigued me. You don't carry yourself the way any of the other women in here do. You don't seem… desperate."

"I'd think most of the men in here would want desperate."

"Well, I'm not most of them," he shrugged.

"You don't… sound like most of them. Please don't think I'm rude, but that accent, is it Vinkun?" Her curiosity had gotten the best of her. But what could it hurt?

"Yes. You have a good ear."

"I've done some travelling," she murmured.

He placed a hand on her knee. "So have I." And then he kissed her.