That night, Elphaba found herself cloaked in the alleyways of Shiz, looking for an empty apartment to rummage through. She had her hood pulled completely over her head as she always did on these escapades as to hide her face from any witnesses. Always cautious, Elphaba was.

When she found an apartment that she was sure had been abandoned for the night, she scaled up the side of the stone building to reach its second floor window. Upon reaching it, she skillfully picked the lock of the window and carefully slid the glass up. In the dark, Elphaba did her best to take in the layout of the apartment. It was simple, a couch and a coffee table in the living room, only the necessities in the kitchen, a small bedroom with a single bed, and two bathrooms, one in the bedroom and one in a nook off the living room across from a coat closet. Elphaba checked the pockets of the coats in the closet, finding only a single silver piece forgotten in the pocket of a frumpy blue sweater.

There was a growling heard low in Elphaba's stomach that lead her to steal a small piece of bread from a kitchen cabinet. She also pocketed a few silver spoons from one of the drawers while she was at it. Preparing to resume searching the apartment, Elphaba heard a growling that certainly had not come from her insides. A ragged dog appeared from the living room and lunged at the thief. She sidestepped, just barely missing the animal's attack. Not expecting the dog to recover so quickly, Elphaba felt a sharp pain emanating from her calf. She hissed in pain and kicked the dog away with her good leg.

The robber limped towards the window through which she entered and struggled to scale back down the wall. Halfway down, Elphaba lost her footing and came crashing down to the ground below her. Not feeling that anything had broken, she tried to get to her feet, only to stumble back to the cold cement. Heavy footsteps sounded from in front of Elphaba. A large silhouette of a person loomed before her.

The next few moments were a blur before she finally passed out.

The verdant woman woke up the next morning in her own bed, safe and sound. For a moment she had thought that perhaps her escapade the night before had been just a dream. That thought was quickly dismissed when she attempted to move and felt the pain of a thousand needles go up her leg. Moving worn covers out of the way, she inspected her leg. The area in question was bandaged well beyond what she could have possibly managed to accomplish. Carefully, she slid out of her bed. It was then that she noticed that she had been clothed in pajamas that she did not remember putting on herself. Hanging on the closet doorknob was a worn blue sweater that she certainly did not own, yet seemed familiar in a way. Elphaba pushed the thought aside and left her room, limping as she went.

The moment she entered the connected living room/dining room/kitchen area she was assaulted by the smell of breakfast being cooked. A dark-skinned man was standing over the stove, his back to Elphaba, a pan with unidentifiable contents in one hand and a spatula cocked to the side in the other.

"Yeah, I don't think I did this right... What do you think?" The man turned around and held the contents of the pan out for Elphaba to see.

"Who the hell are you?" Elphaba shouted, taking a step back from the man. His face dropped and he looked almost hurt, even the pan and spatula in his hands drooped slightly. It was then that Elphaba noticed the beautiful blue diamond pattern tracing down the side of the man's face.

"I'm Fiyero, remember?" He asked, he bowed his head a little, reminding Elphaba greatly of a dog that thought it was in trouble. "I found you outside my apartment. I brought you up so I could fix up your leg, you had a pretty nasty bite. Then you told me you wanted to go home, so I brought you here. I didn't feel okay leaving you here alone, I wanted to make sure you were going to be okay. I wanted to make sure you would wake up in the morning and to make sure that you didn't have a concussion." Fiyero lifted up the pan for Elphaba to see again "I-I went to the market and got some stuff to make breakfast, but I don't know if it came out right. It... It looks edible at least."

The memories from the night before began to filter back to Elphaba. Fiyero made his way to the dining table and set down the pan and spatula. Elphaba could now see that the contents of the pan were supposed to be a mix of hash browns and home fries. Burnt, but certainly still edible.

"You really shouldn't be putting too much pressure on that leg, Miss Elphaba." Fiyero cut through her thoughts. Elphaba felt a hand on her back gently leading her towards the table. The man pulled out a chair for her and helped her into it with a gentle grip on her elbow.

"What gives you the right to break into my apartment and tell me what to do?" Elphaba hissed, wrenching her arm away from him.

"Well, to be completely fair," Fiyero began as he retrieved two plates and some silverware. He sat down at the table across from the green woman. "You did break into my apartment first. I'm letting you keep the spoons you took. In fact, you can have the whole lot of them if you want, including the forks and knives. I've been meaning to get new silverware for ages. I can bring them by some other time if you please, assuming there will be another time." He gave her a smile that could only be viewed as charming. "I hope there will be. Also, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and I'll assume that the silver piece that fell out of your pocket at I was bandaging your leg did in fact belong to you. I put it on your dresser in the dish with your copper pieces."

Elphaba muttered a shy thank you as she held back from completely devouring the serving of potatoes Fiyero had dished out onto her plate. She would be lying if she said she had been eating well for the previous few days.

Elphaba soon found another topic to pick apart to break through the silence that had consumed them. "What makes you think you bandaged my leg properly? It could be infected. I could have rabies right now for all you know. You're no doctor by the looks of your shotty apartment."

"You're one to talk about 'shotty apartments'" Fiyero chuckled as he looked around Elphaba's tiny, deteriorating apartment. Elphaba found herself smirking as well. "And I may not be a doctor, but I am a veterinarian and I know for a fact that Tibetarius does not have any rabies or diseases of the like fo you to worry about. You'll be fine. You just have to change the bandages every few days. Every other day would be most preferable. If you want, I could come over and do it. You know, seeing as how I have the supplies for it and such." Fiyero looked down and began racking at what was left of his hash browns and home fries.

It was then that Elphaba realised that this Fiyero boy had not at all been taken aback by her verdigris. In fact, he seemed very comfortable with it. Surely it wasn't due to his own dark coloring and blue diamonds? Even though they made him look different, she knew those markings anywhere. They were the markings of royalty in the Vinkus. Or at least the marking of highly respected people. Though they may not seem that way to people of the Gillikin, they were certainly beautiful. They made him beautiful.

"Back home, this was my maid's favorite recipe." Fiyero cleared his throat and stood up. "Well I can see that you should be able to make it through. I'll be back tomorrow to redo the bandages. I must go, I have to be at work in an hour."

"Thank you." Elphaba said sheepishly as the man made his way to the front door. He gave a curt nod and opened the door. His first attempt to exit was not successful for he crashed right into the doorframe. Getting over his daze, he chuckled, stuttered a goodbye and left for good.

Elphaba then realized that she herself had to get ready to leave for work.

AN Long wait, but I hope it was worth it.