Hey guys! I got back relatively early and since I managed to write quite a bit for my new fic on the car ride home, I decided to give you an early (or, well, on-time) update. (And Austria was wonderful.)

missgalindaaa: I'm not planning on writing a sequel for this at the moment, but I'm keeping my options open!

Thank you all so much for your support on this fic, it's been a great ride with you all there and the amount of reviews was overwhelming, so thank you for that. Virtual Apfelstrudel for all of you!

Disclaime: The author of this fic cannot be held responsible for any tooth damage due to the high level of sweet and sappy fluff in this chapter, nor will she pay for anyone's dentist bills.

Epilogue

Elphaba pushed the door open with her hip and slipped into the room, carrying a tray in her hands. Hero, who was sleeping on the rug beside the bed, now raised his head to look at her, his tail wagging enthusiastically. She placed the tray on the nightstand and scratched the dog's ears before quickly locking the door behind her – just to be sure. She then cast a quick spell, crawled back onto the bed next to a still-sleeping Fiyero, and started to kiss his neck.

He stirred, and slowly a broad grin spread across his face. "Mm. I wouldn't mind waking up like this every day."

She smirked and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Happy birthday, Yero my hero."

He kissed her back without so much as opening his eyes, pulling her closer against him and rolling over so that they were both lying on their side, facing each other. Only then did he open his eyes and his grin widened to the point where it nearly split his face in two.

"Fae," he whispered, tracing her features with the tips of his fingers.

She turned her head to kiss his fingers. "Only for today," she warned him, "and only as long as no-one can see me."

It was the first time in a while he had called her "Fae". She was Cassadi now and because none of them wanted to risk slipping up about her true identity, everyone – including Glinda, Oscar, and Fiyero – had taken to calling her "Cassadi" (or a variation thereof; Glinda still insisted on "Cassie", while Fiyero had gone back to shortening her name to "Cass"); not just in public anymore, but in private as well. The risk of using her real name was simply too big.

Today, however, because it was Fiyero's birthday and she knew how he had always felt about her transformation – preferring "the real her" – she had gone back to being Elphaba. After all this time, it was disconcerting to look down at green hands again instead of pale ones. She glanced at the mirror once as she sat up. She actually had to get used to her old look and she found that she still did not particularly care for it.

This was about Fiyero, though, and not about her; and seeing the look on his face more than made up for the slight discomfort the transformation caused her. He traced her features with his fingers, starting at her forehead and going down her cheeks to her jaw before cupping her face and kissing her again, softly this time, almost reverently. She kissed him back, happy that her surprise for him was so well-received.

"I got you breakfast in bed, too," she murmured against his lips.

He grinned. "I'd rather have you in bed than breakfast."

She pulled away to roll her eyes at him. "You're lucky it's your birthday, then," she said, raising an eyebrow, "because if you play it right, you might just get both."

He laughed and pulled her into his side even as he reached for the tray on his nightstand. He fed her a piece of fruit before stuffing his own mouth full with pancakes, which made her roll her eyes at him again.

"So what is the plan for today?" he asked with his mouth full.

She gave him a disapproving look, but he just grinned at her and she sighed and gave up. "Celebration out on the balcony tonight, followed by yet another ball," she summed up glumly. "I don't really know why that's necessary, but I suppose I'll just dress up and look pretty, as usual." Ironic, really. She'd always thought that looking pretty was something she would never be able to do, but these days, she seemed to be doing it a lot. The fate of a crown princess, she supposed – although she was far from idle when it came to her role. She wanted to actually do something, too, and so she attended a lot of meetings with Oscar and he involved her in nearly every decision he had to make and every matter he was investigating.

"In any case," she said, leaning over him with a small and slightly wicked smile, "it means that we have nowhere to be until at least dinnertime."

"Mm." Fiyero ran his hands down her back, resting them on her hips. "And of course you can't go outside looking like this, can you? People will start screaming "Witch!" and that is the last thing we want."

"Exactly," she said. "So I suppose that means I will have to stay in here all day long."

"Well," he played along, "then I, being the great boyfriend I am, will sacrifice my birthday to spend the whole day inside with you. Do you have any ideas as to what we could do?"

She kissed him. "I suppose I could think of something."

He laughed and kissed her back before scooping up another mouthful of pancakes. "Seriously, though," he said, once again talking with his mouth full, earning him another disapproving look from his girlfriend, "I love you."

She blinked back at him. "Why this spontaneous declaration of love?" she asked with just a touch of sarcasm. "Because I brought you pancakes?"

"That's part of it," he said seriously. She slapped his arm and he laughed, quickly feeding her some more fruit to shut her up. "Well, just because it's true, for one, but also because you did this," he gestured at her, "for me. I know you don't like looking at your old self, even though I'll tell you once again that you are beyond beautiful –"

"It's not just that," she cut him off quietly. "No, I've never liked my skin, but it's also... it mostly only reminds me of bad things, you know? The way I grew up, my mother's death and Nessa's disability, being bullied and ostracised all the time, the way Father treated me – and then I'm not even mentioning the whole Wicked Witch of the West thing and my years on the run." She shook her head. "Cassadi feels like a fresh start," she said. "Even with everything that happened to me when I was her – Morrible's plans, Nessa's death – it just... feels better than my old self, I suppose."

"I can understand that." He wrapped his arm around her and she snuggled up to him, her head on his shoulder as she stole a piece of pancake from his plate. "But that only makes it even more amazing that you did this for me."

She smiled. "Well, I lied to you for a long time. I'm still trying to make it up to you."

He sat up straighter to look at her, suddenly serious. "Elphaba..."

"I know, I know. You forgave me, I don't have to make anything up to you. So you said. But it still feels that way, you know. I did hurt you – a lot. Especially by letting you think I was dead." She noticed how he flinched, even though he tried to hide it, and she pointed at him. "See? That's what I'm talking about."

"That was not your fault," he protested. "Fae... you didn't even know how I still felt about you."

"Stop," she cut him off. "We've had this conversation. Multiple times. You're going to keep insisting you forgive me and I'm going to continue feeling guilty, anyway, because that's just who I am. I don't want to ruin your birthday by arguing about this. I changed myself back for today because I love you and I wanted to do something special for your birthday, and I know you love it when I look like this. That's why. Okay? Can you please just take advantage of the locked door and me in your bed now?"

He chuckled and kissed her again. They finished their breakfast together and then he wrapped her in his arms and they just sat like that for a while.

Despite her teasing him about her being in his bed, they had never actually slept together. It had been well over a year now since Morrible had tried to expose her and ended up in Southstairs; Elphaba – or, well, Cassadi – and Fiyero had been together ever since and they were happy, but they had agreed to take things slow. More accurately, Elphaba had insisted on doing so and Fiyero had eventually grudgingly given in. Thinking he'd lost her had made him want to take three leaps ahead and not wait any longer with anything – marriage, children – but Elphaba had convinced him to wait.

"We have time," she'd told him when they had been talking about it. He'd been anxious and she'd leaned up to kiss him softly. "Yero, I love you. Everything is okay now. I'm not going anywhere."

He had eventually accepted that, albeit a little reluctantly. She knew he still wanted to marry her as soon as possible and start the rest of their lives together, as he always put it, but she appreciated it that he was willing to wait for her. After everything she'd been through, she just wanted some peace for a while. She didn't want to leap from one thing into the next – she felt like she'd been doing that her entire life long.

Hero clambered onto the bed and nestled himself in between the couple, his tail whipping them both in the face as he did so. Fiyero grunted and Elphaba laughed. "Bad dog."

Hero just wagged his tail some more and laid his head in Elphaba's lap. She smiled and petted him, then suddenly sat up. "Oh, that reminds me – I almost forgot your present!"

"Another present?"

"Me changing my skin colour for you does not really count as a present," she told him as she moved across the room and rummaged around in a drawer, "and besides, this present is related to that. Here." She handed him a package and he eagerly unwrapped it. What appeared looked a lot like a hand mirror, but when he looked closer, he saw that it contained moving pictures of himself and Elphaba as Cassadi from the past year.

"I enchanted it," she explained, climbing back onto the bed beside him. "It contains a lot of our memories together from the past year. You can tap one," she demonstrated that by tapping the glass, "and it will play for you – without sound, unfortunately, since I couldn't figure out how I could make that work."

"This is amazing," he breathed, tapping the moving pictures one by one. Each time he did so, the picture in question became larger and the memory started playing from beginning to end.

She grinned. "There's more." She took the hand mirror from him and showed him the back. "See the E on the back here? If you trace it with your finger," she did so, "you'll get some different memories." She turned the mirror around again and handed it back to him.

He sucked in his breath. There she was – Elphaba. Green skin and all. "I suppose that explains what the E stands for."

She grinned sheepishly. "It was the best I could come up with. Here – I included a lot of memories from Shiz," she showed them to him, "but also some of my time on the run, because you're always asking me what that was like, what I did and who I was with, and a few of my childhood... I figured you'd like to see for yourself."

He suddenly hugged her tightly and then pulled back to kiss her. "I love it. It's perfect, Fae. Just like you."

"What did I tell you about being sappy?" She was smiling, though. "I like it when you say my name," she said, pushing Hero aside so she could sit closer to Fiyero again. "It reminds me of Shiz. I suppose my old self does not only carry bad memories with it."

"Thankfully not." He kissed her again. "You know," he mused, stroking her cheek, "I missed saying your name, too. "Cass" is nice, but it's different."

"Well, as long as we're alone, I suppose "Fae" is fairly safe," she said. "Even if someone overhears, it doesn't sound like "Elphaba" at all, so no-one would think anything of it – except maybe that you're horrible at coming up with nicknames."

He grinned. He carefully placed the mirror on the nightstand and kissed Elphaba deeply. "You're sure we have nowhere to be, right?"

She shook her head. "I cancelled all my Grand Vizier appointments – Glinda can handle them by herself," she murmured against his lips. "Today I'm all yours."

"Hopefully not just for today," he said and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine. I'm just generally all yours. Okay?"

"Perfect." He grinned widely, stroking her cheek before pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "I love you, Elphaba-Fae," he whispered, emphasising her name, which made her roll her eyes at him once more. She kissed him fiercely again, winding her arms around his neck and losing herself in him as she so loved to do.

She knew she would be ready for all the things he wanted soon. Deep down, she knew they would get married someday – that they would have children, maybe even grandchildren, and that they would probably end up ruling Oz together once Oscar stepped down. She was getting there, slowly but surely, and she did want that future eventually.

For now, however, she was content with the way they were. Morrible was in Southstairs and she had Oscar, Glinda, and Fiyero now, who supported her in every area of her life. She had the best friend in the world, a boyfriend who loved her more than life itself, and a father who was trying his very hardest to not only teach her the things a father should teach his daughter (and the things a ruler should teach the crown princess), but also to keep earning her respect and, perhaps one day, her love. There was not much more she could ask for. Finally, she truly knew what it was to be loved; and despite the conditions and sacrifices that came with, she felt like she was right where she belonged.

-THE END-

When you guys get back from your dentist, it'd be great if you'd leave one last review :P. (Oh, Elphaba's dress from the previous chapter is on my blog now with the other dresses I posted previously; I couldn't upload it before since I was in Austria.)

My next fic is called No Way Back and will be the sequel to Roads Not Taken (yes, the titles sort of match on purpose), although I'm pretty sure it can be read separately, too.
I'm not sure yet when I will start posting, since once again, I'd like to have a bit of a head start on it and I have a pretty busy few weeks ahead of me (cosplaying, birthday (including mandatory birthday party), and I'm spending as much time with my friend in the next few weeks as possible because she'll be moving to Austria at the end of September).

Thanks again and I hope I will see you all again when I start posting No Way Back!

Maddy