Disclaimer: Nothing to do with me at all. I just come and psychologically destroy other people's characters.

A/N: I thought I'd begin to creep back into fan fiction with the fandom I started to write in so even though this is incredibly short, let's see how it turns out.

Now that she was older and wiser, well, maybe not wiser but definitely shrewder, it was obvious to Elphaba that she had made a mistake in allowing Glinda to see her to the train station. She would much rather have gone alone. She didn't want fuss and if there was one thing Glinda loved, it was fuss.

Her long sleepless nights were spent wondering why she had allowed Miss Frivolous herself to accompany her. It was a short walk, after all, and it was supposed to be just a weekend away from university so she hadn't needed a hand with any luggage.

Too used to her own company, it wasn't that she had not wanted to go alone or desired conversation. She had not needed anyone to wave her off and tell her they would miss her. Even if she had, Elphaba doubted that she would have chosen Glinda as the person to do it.

Glinda had spent the night sobbing into her pillow. She had needed the distraction and a little fuss to look forward to. That was why.

Elphaba had spent a long time thinking about those moments; her last at Shiz. It was the happiest she had ever been. Nessa had been proud, Boq was looking after her sister and had relieved her of her duty of care, Glinda was prancing around as a converted Animal rights fighter, she was about to live her dream, and Fiyero had brought her flowers.

He had been thinking about that day. He had been thinking the same things that she had, she was sure of it. He had been about to admit that to her.

But Glinda had been there.

And if she hadn't, if Glinda had stayed in her dorm room and organised her shoes or whatever she usually did with her free weekends, Elphaba's impulsive realisation that she did not want to go alone might have been directed elsewhere.

It might have been directed at him.

Would he have gone?, Elphaba wondered. Fiyero had been reckless, certainly, and he didn't seem like the sort of person who was too worried about his education.

But that wasn't the real question. The question was whether he would have had faith in her, whether he would have followed her beyond the Emerald City.

"Yes," she whispered in the darkness.

He was reckless, egotistical, and occasionally stupid; truly, remarkably, stupid. No, she corrected herself, not stupid. He was naïve. He had never been stupid. He had pretended to be, but he was intuitive and often creative. He just failed to grasp the bigger picture.

But he was prepared to take risks. Ultimately, he believed in doing what was right.

He leaned against the wall, his face buried into the cold green concrete. Physically, he had not changed a great deal. He had cropped his hair and his shoulders seemed a little wider, though whether this was a result of the darkness and change in hair-style, Elphaba wasn't sure.

He sighed deeply and turned to face the alley in which she stood, barely daring to breathe. The darkness was all consuming, giving a deep and rich ebony hue to the city, but he might make out the shape of a figure in an alleyway.

He did not.

Elphaba sucked in a slow breath. Whatever he had been, whatever he might have been, he was now the Captain of the Gale Force. Whether he would have followed her, whether he would have shared her beliefs, whether he would have loved her were all irrelevant questions. In the here and now, she was a lone fugitive and he was dangerous.

She watched him for as long as she could, missing the twinkle in his sea-green eyes, wishing for the sight of his lopsided smile, for the sound of his voice.

No matter how many times you defy gravity, you always end up falling. Usually for someone you shouldn't.