Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's note: I gave this story a rating of M to be safe, though T probably would've worked. I was introduced to Wicked first through the soundtrack - which I got about a year ago - and later the book. I finally got to see Wicked a couple of weeks ago and it was amazing! This is the first Wicked fanfic I've ever done and though I've seen a couple on here with similiar stories, I hope mine will be unique. I know that Elphaba is going to seem out of character to a lot of people. That was intentional. I'd love to know what everyone thinks of it. Constructive criticism is cool, but please no flames. I'm definitely open to suggestion though, especially when it comes to names. I have a few new characters who will enter the story later on and am having a tough time picking names for them. This story takes place after the Lion cub incident. For the purposes of this story, when Madame Morrible offers Elphaba the chance to see the Wizard, Elphaba doesn't accept it right away but has decided to think about it. This is more of an issue later on, but just wanted to clear that up before you got started with the story. Hope you like it!

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Rainy days were the worst – especially when you were stuck in a boring old classroom listening to some boring teacher talk about things that were just boring. At least that was what had been going through Fiyero Tiggular's mind as he tried to concentrate. It had been raining all day and rainy days had a tendency to make his mind wander. He would much rather have been back in his room sleeping than sitting here trying to be interested. He gave up trying to pay attention to the lesson and instead turned his attention on his fellow classmates. To his left sat his ever so perky and usually pink wearing girlfriend, Galinda – or rather Glinda now that she had changed her name in support of Doctor Dillamond after he had been fired. At the moment, she sat there with her sparkly pink pen doodling on her pink notebook obviously having trouble paying attention as well. He and Glinda had started dating pretty soon after he arrived at Shiz – but why? He pondered that question in his head. She was the most popular girl in school, he was the most popular guy – it just seemed natural that they would be a couple. And in the beginning it had been great – after all she was a nice girl, definitely one of the prettiest girls in school, and smarter than she let on. She was fun to be around and he usually found himself being entertained by all her antics, but lately he had been feeling a bit, well, discontent about the relationship. He cared about her, yes, but if he were to be honest with himself he wasn't so sure it was as anything more than a friend. A movement to his right caught his attention and he found another classmate, the studious Munchkin boy Boq leaning over to pick up his pen.

As odd as it may seem, Fiyero had actually struck up a friendship with the Munchkin boy. Boq definitely wasn't all that popular – after all, the guy actually paid attention in class and did all his assignments – on time at that. He was probably one of the smarter guys at the university. Fiyero on the other hand was not exactly known for his brain power and was expected to hang out with the popular crowd. But somehow the two had become friends, which made for awkward situations sometimes as Boq was clearly in love with Fiyero's girlfriend. Just now Boq was eyeing Glinda was open admiration as she doodled yet another section of hearts on her notebook. She could probably ask him for the moon and he'd stumble over himself to get it. What made the situation more complex was that Boq had been sort of pushed into a relationship with Nessarose Thropp after Glinda had convinced him to ask her out. He shook his head at the absurdity of it all and turned his focus to Nessarose.

Nessarose – or Nessa as she was called – was a girl most people considered tragically beautiful. She lived her life confined in a wheelchair and was doted on constantly by her father. Nessa was a bit of a strange girl, a little quiet at times. She had been thrilled when Boq had asked her to the Ozdust ballroom that night, unaware that he had only asked her because Glinda wanted him to. She was completely taken with the Munchkin boy and Boq had stayed with her because he couldn't bring himself to break up with a girl in a wheelchair. Nessa was so fragile in a lot of ways and Boq feared that she would just shatter if he left her.

"Now who can answer the question? Mr. Tiggular?" the teacher's curt voice broke into Fiyero's ponderings.

'Great.' Fiyero thought to himself. He had been so focused on his other classmates that he hadn't even heard the question and for that matter, had no idea what they were even talking about.

"Well I think the answer is fairly obvious Professor." He said, stalling for time. "If one just simply looks at the problem, the answer just about jumps out at you."

"Would you care to enlighten us?" the teacher said, clearly not fooled by Fiyero's stalling.

"I...well..." Fiyero started.

"Do you even know what we are discussing, Mr. Tiggular?" the teacher interrupted.

"I...no." Fiyero mumbled.

"In the future, I would appreciate if you could put however many brain cells you have into focusing on the lesson. Maybe then your grades wouldn't be so, well, dismal. Can someone please clue Mr. Tiggular in to the issue as to what we have been talking about?" The teacher asked.

"Don't worry darlingest, I wasn't paying attention either." Glinda whispered to him.

"Imagine my shock at that." Fiyero muttered.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Nothing, dear." he smiled at her.

"I believe I can do that Professor." Another voice cut in. Fiyero then turned his attention to the girl who had spoken. Elphaba Thropp. Sister to Nessarose, roommate to Glinda. Now here was a girl worth pondering, he thought. Elphaba was almost the exact opposite of her sister. Where her sister was timid and insecure, Elphaba was never afraid to voice her opinion – as unpopular as that opinion might be. Elphaba was regarded by her classmates as a discusticified freak who also happened to be a know-it-all in the classroom. Elphaba always paid strict attention in class and her grades were consistently fantastic – a constant source of annoyance to her classmates. And Elphaba did have another thing that set her apart from the rest of the school. From the world, really. Elphaba's skin was a very interesting shade of green. With long, silky dark hair and dark eyes she was definitely exotic. Her classmates saw that as a reason to ridicule her but Fiyero thought she was actually quite beautiful in her own way. He had recently gotten to see another side to the green skinned girl the day that Doctor Dillamond had been fired.

The new teacher had brought in a Lion cub in a cage and Fiyero and Elphaba had rescued it. She had been so worried about the cub, so outraged at its being stuck in that awful cage. She cared deeply – maybe even too much. Fiyero thought back to the day with a sigh. Maybe she was the reason why he was questioning his relationship with Glinda. Something had happened between Fiyero and Elphaba that day when she had grabbed for his hand. Her hand had been soft, surprisingly so. And later their eyes had met and if he didn't know better he would've sworn that the air between them had actually sparked with electricity. The feeling had scared him and he had used the cub as an excuse to flee. Sometimes he found himself wondering what might have happened if he had stayed.

'Wonder what it'd be like to date a girl like her' he thought to himself and instantly pushed it out of his mind. Where had that thought even come from? Yes, Elphaba was interesting and passionate, smart and strong – but guys like Fiyero didn't date girls like that. Did they? He watched her while she explained what they had been discussing, not hearing a word of it. She must have felt him watching her because when she finished, she immediately looked over her shoulder and looked at him. She raised her eyebrow and he gave her what he thought was a charming smile. She merely rolled her eyes and turned back to the front of the classroom. His smile turned into a scowl. All of the other girls at Shiz fought desperately for his attention and usually would erupt into massive giggles when he'd give them that smile. Elphaba however was not impressed – not even the slightest bit. Her attitude towards him had changed since the Lion cub incident but he doubted she considered him a friend. After all, she considered him stupid – stupid, but not really stupid, he recalled with a chuckle.

From her spot in the classroom, Elphaba was doing some pondering of her own. Why in the world had Fiyero been looking at her like that? She had felt someone watching her and something in her had known instantly that it was him. She couldn't figure out her feelings for the prince. He was good-looking, sure, with an easy-going charm and she had originally thought he was superficial and shallow. Now she wasn't so sure. He had helped her that day with the Lion cub – no one else seemed to care, in fact they all seemed to be intrigued by it. None of them had lifted a finger to help her but he had jumped in almost instantly, grabbing the cage and running out of the room. He still insisted that he was indeed superficial and shallow, no deeply shallow, she thought with a smirk. She remembered how it had felt when she had grabbed for his hand and sighed. He was about to storm off, but she had stopped him. She had not been expecting what it had felt like when she grabbed for it. Her hand had felt oddly right in his hand and there had been a wave of heat that had flooded through her. Ever since that point he was in her thoughts more than she cared for him to be. Surely she was not developing a crush on the prince. Elphaba didn't do crushes. She had no interest in love, or rather no real belief that it even existed. And besides even if it did, he was dating her roommate. Still...there was something about the prince. She quickly collected her things as soon as class was dismissed, prepared to go to the library to study. From behind her she heard Glinda's excited squeal.

"It's finally Friday! We get two days without classes!" she exclaimed. Elphaba rolled her eyes as she suppressed a smile. After the dance, she had actually come to regard Glinda as a friend but sometimes she was entirely too perky. She looked over and Glinda was literally hopping up and down in excitement. "We should do something to celebrate!" Glinda cried.

"It's just a Friday, darling, we have one every week." Fiyero teased her.

"Yes, but this week has been so horrendously horrible! I want to have some fun!" Glinda said. "Come on guys!"

"I think some fun would be nice." Boq said quickly. Elphaba held back a snort.

'I bet you do' Elphaba thought. 'you just want to hang out with Glinda.'

Glinda let out another squeal of delight. "That's one! Come on Fiyero! Please? Pretty please?"

"Now when have I ever turned down a chance to have fun?" Fiyero said with a grin as he hooked an arm around her shoulders. Elphaba tried to sneak her way to the door, hoping to avoid being included. It wasn't that she didn't want to hang out with everyone, she just had so much work to do – she really needed to get to the library.

"Elphie?" Glinda asked.

'Damn.' Elphaba thought to herself. "I have a lot of work to do," she started.

"Oh please Elphaba? It sounds fun." This time the request came from Nessa, who was more than willing to partake in any activity that her dear Boq was doing.

"Please? Will you, will you will you???? Come on, please!" Glinda pleaded.

"I'd like to but –" Elphaba started again.

"Alright compromise." Fiyero cut in. "Elphaba, go to the library now and meet us at the pub in about an hour."

"Two hours." Elphaba said, resigning herself to the fact that Glinda's urgings were only going to get more persistent.

"One hour." Fiyero repeated. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"An hour and a half." She said.

"One hour." Fiyero said for a third time. "Come on, you spend all your time at that old place. I'm sure your studies will not suffer if you only get in one hour tonight. You can spend the day there tomorrow, if you must, but you're meeting us in one hour."

"Or what?" she challenged. He smirked.

"Or I'll walk over there and carry you out myself." He said.

"You don't even know where the library is." She shot back.

"I do so. It's three buildings over, the crumbly gray one with the big sign that says Library on the front of it." He countered. "Don't make me come get you."

"You wouldn't dare." She said. When he merely grinned at her, she raised her eyebrow. "You wouldn't..."

"One hour." He repeated, leading the others out of the room. He looked back and winked before continuing on. Elphaba couldn't resist sticking her tongue out at him behind his back. She grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

"Carry me out...he tries that, he's a dead man." She muttered to herself as she hurried through the rain to get to the library. As she reached the doors of the building, she was overcome with a terrible sense of foreboding. Maybe she should've gone with them. She quickly dismissed the thought as she found a table. She was just being silly, after all what could possibly happen at the library? She set about finding some books and sat down to begin her studying.

One hour later

"Well it's been an hour and she's not here." Glinda said. She was seated at a booth at their favorite pub between Boq and Fiyero with Nessa pulled up across from her.

"You gonna go get her?" Boq asked Fiyero.

"I said I was didn't I?" Fiyero said, getting up.

"Oh darling, you're not really going to carry her out of there are you?" Glinda asked.

"Hey what good's a threat if I don't follow through with it. I'll be right back." Fiyero gave them a grin and left the pub.

"Oh I'd love to be there for that." Boq laughed.

"She's going to try to kill him if he actually attempts it!" Nessa said, her eyes sparkling.

"Oh he'll attempt it, I know." Boq said. "I just hope he comes back in one piece."

"Oh dear Oz, please bring my boyfriend and my roommate back with no harm done to either." Glinda kidded.

Fiyero made his way back to campus – the pub was only two blocks away. Which was a good thing for him as it was still raining. He thought he was going to enjoy hauling Elphaba out of the library. He did warn her after all, what would happen. He glanced up at the gray sky. 'What a dreary day this has been' he thought to himself as the library came into view. He was about to about to go up the steps but a strange sound made him stop. "Hello? Is someone there?" he called. He waited and heard the sound again. It almost sounded as if an animal was stuck somehow or worse, hurt. He followed the sound and nearly tripped over something. "What the – " he looked down and saw that the object he had tripped over was a bag. A very familiar bag. It looked like Elphaba's bag. He frowned. Something wasn't right here. Why her bag out here and where was was she? He called out again. "Hello? If anyone's out there, I'm not going to hurt you." He took a few more steps and thought he detected some movement in the bushes. He carefully moved past them and gasped. To his great shock, Elphaba lay in a heap on the ground. Her clothes were torn and ripped in several places and she had several cuts and scrapes along her arms and on her face. "Elphaba?" he squatted down next to her. He noticed a big gash on the side of her head. His sense of alarm grew. It looked like she had been knocked out somehow and was starting to come to. But what had happened to her?

"Elphaba, come on sweetie, wake up." He urged. Her eyes slowly fluttered open and it looked like she was having a hard time focusing. "Elphaba, are you alright? What happened?" he asked. She looked at him and blinked a few times as if trying to will her eyesight to get back to normal.

"My head..." she mumbled. "It hurts."

"We need to get you to a doctor. Can you sit up?" he reached for her and she jerked back.

"Don't hurt me." She said softly. Fiyero was instantly puzzled. He had never known Elphaba to be scared of anything – well maybe her strange powers, but never another person. But who? And how? He pushed his questions aside for the time being. Right now he had to help her.