AN: This one is for Meg, aka PerlogAnnwyl, for her 19th birthday today; and also a little bit for my Mum, even though she'll never read it, because it's her 50th birthday today. Happy birthday to both of you! :)

It's based on a quote Meg gave me from the final episode of How I Met Your Mother, and somehow it inspired me into writing... well, this. I'll warn you now - it's so sweet and fluffy that your teeth will hurt and the occasional not-really-fluff-fan might throw up :P.

"Daddy?" Fiyero's nine-year-old daughter asked him when he was putting her to bed one night, tucking her in and sitting down on the edge of the bed.

He picked one of her stuffed animals off the floor and set it down on the bed. "Yes, princess?"

"Do you believe in…" She furrowed her brow, trying to remember the word. Then her face brightened. "Fate?"

"Fate?" Fiyero echoed, stunned that his daughter would ever have heard that word, let alone ask him if he believed in it. He was pretty sure he had never mentioned the word 'fate' in front of the kids before, and he was almost positive that Elphaba hadn't, either – she hated everything that even remotely resembled the idea of fate. Or a God. Or predestination.

Fiyero frowned a little and looked at his daughter. "Where did you hear that word?" he wanted to know.

She folded her teddy bear in her arms and looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes – chocolate brown ones, just like Elphaba's. "Aunty Glinda told us about it," she said earnestly. "She says it's what's brought you and Mummy together." Her eyes shone with excitement. "Is that true?"

Fiyero sighed, inwardly cursing Glinda for causing these kinds of awkward conversations between himself and his children. He was so bad at this. How was he supposed to explain this stuff to a nine-year-old?

"Da-ad," a whiny voice came from the doorway as their middle child, eleven-year-old Bae, shuffled into the room. "Xalo is teasing me again!"

"No, I wasn't!" Xalo protested as he came after his younger brother, scowling. "I was just asking him about this girl at school he was talking about the other day, and –"

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone about that!"

"Boys," Fiyero said wearily. "Calm down."

"Yeah." Little Rosey looked at her brothers and said solemnly, "Daddy is going to tell me about fate."

Xalo wrinkled his nose. "That thing Aunty Glinda talked about the other day?" he asked. "That's not real, Rosey. People make their own choices and they are not guided by some strange, unseen power."

That sounded far too wise for a twelve-year-old and Fiyero gave his eldest son a knowing look. "Have you been talking to your mum?" Xalo was absolutely his mother's son – he had been analysing things practically from the moment he had first started talking and he and Elphaba could have endless discussions about one thing or another.

Xalo nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. I asked her about it the other day and she explained to me what it meant and why she doesn't believe in it, and she thinks it's nonsense that fate could be what brought you two together."

"Do you believe in it, Daddy?" Rosey asked curiously, sticking her thumb in her mouth. Her brothers perched on the edge of the bed as well now and three pairs of eyes were looking at Fiyero expectantly.

He sighed again. Weren't these conversations more Elphaba's kind of thing?

"Listen," he said, making himself a little more comfortable and looking at all three of his children, meeting their gazes one by one.

"When your mother and I met," he began, "it wasn't exactly love at first sight."

"You ran her over," Bae stated in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, having heard the story many times already. Elphaba and Fiyero had always been very open to their children, feeding them bits and pieces of their lives as bedtime stories when they were younger; and once they had started asking questions, they had told their children the truth. They knew nearly everything, from the way Elphaba and Fiyero had met to the whole Wicked Witch of the West-business and the fact that Fiyero had been a scarecrow – also thanks to Glinda, who insisted that they should be made familiar with their parents' history at the youngest possible age.

Fiyero resisted the urge to groan at his son's comment – he hadn't really run her over, after all, so why did everyone keep saying he had? – and instead said, "Yeah, something like that. Anyway, we started off not really liking one another… and we might never have gotten together at all if it weren't for that Lion Cub."

He looked out of the window for a moment, lost in the memories of that day. "The thing is… so much could have gone differently," he said. "If I hadn't been kicked out of so many universities, I wouldn't have gone to Shiz and I might not have met your mother in the first place. If that Goat professor hadn't been removed and that Lion Cub hadn't been brought in, we might not have fallen in love. If she hadn't defied the Wizard, maybe I never would have realised how much I really loved her. Maybe I would have stayed with your Aunty Glinda and married her instead."

"Ew!" the boys exclaimed in horror at the same time.

Fiyero laughed. "Oh, come on, Aunty Glinda isn't that bad, is she?" he asked, amused.

"She's nice, I suppose," Xalo conceded. "But she talks all the time."

"And if she had been our mother," said Bae, making a disgusted face, "the whole house would have been pink."

"She would have made us wear pink," Xalo corrected him, and Bae's eyes widened in terror.

"No!"

Fiyero grinned at his sons. "Next time you see Mummy, tell her how grateful you are that she flew off on a broomstick and became a wanted criminal," he suggested, and the boys both nodded vigorously.

"My point is," Fiyero continued his story, "that if a single, small thing had been changed… Mummy and I might not have ended up together." He paused for a moment, then nodded. "So yes. I do believe in fate. I believe it's what brought your mother and I together; and it's also why I believe that even if things had not happened the way they did happen, we would still have fallen in love and we would still have gotten married, in the end. Because we're meant to be together – and that, too, is fate."

The kids were all silent for a few moments.

Then Bae said grumpily, "You sound like Aunty Glinda now, Dad. All sappy and romantic." He shuddered. "I think I'm going to puke."

"Hey!" Fiyero said indignantly.

Rosey was looking up at him with a small frown. "I don't understand," she said.

Fiyero sighed. "Never mind," he muttered. "I guess this conversation came too early."

Xalo, however, was looking thoughtful. "What about bad things, then?"

"What about them?" Fiyero asked as he ruffled Bae's hair, tickling Rosey with his other hand.

"If things are meant to be," said Xalo slowly, "then why do bad things happen? Are they meant to be, too?"

Fiyero smiled – as much as he hated discussing philosophical topics with his children (mostly because he always felt like he couldn't explain things properly; Elphaba was the smart one in their relationship, after all), he always marvelled at their childish logic and intelligence. Especially Xalo, who was just old enough to comprehend these kinds of things and definitely had his mother's brains, could be very perceptive and sharp in his comments. Sometimes it felt like discussing something with a young, male version of Elphaba.

"You know what?" he said, pulling Rosey into his lap, but looking over her shoulder at Xalo. "We've been through a lot, your mother and I. We've been to hell and back, actually." He looked at Bae. "But I'm glad it was such a long and difficult road," he said, "because the hard things in life are what teach you the most. Everything that's happened has made us stronger – individually, as a person; but also in our relationship. If nothing bad ever happened, we wouldn't appreciate the good things so much."

He stroked Rosey's hair. "When I first saw your mother," he said, "I saw nothing more than what everyone else saw – a girl with green skin. I did not look past that until days later, when I started to get to know the girl behind the skin." He smiled softly at the memory. "If we hadn't been through everything that we've been through now, fate would still have brought us together, but it wouldn't have been the same," he said. "It's those things, the bad things, that shape us and make us who we are. It were those things that taught me the most important life lesson I've ever learnt: the fact that I loved your mum and that I would continue to do so, as much as I can and for as long as I can, for the rest of our lives and beyond. The bad things taught me to love. They taught me to live. Bad things are part of life, but everything happens for a reason."

He realised he had been musing more to himself than to his children now, and he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Rosey had fallen asleep against his shoulder. Bae was picking at a loose thread on the blanket, clearly bored out of his mind. Xalo was the only one who still looked interested.

Fiyero gently lifted his daughter from his lap and laid her down in the bed, tucking her in and pressing a kiss to her honey blonde hair before shooing his sons off the bed and out of the room. He closed the door behind him and brought Bae and Xalo to their own bedroom, tucking them in as well.

"Dad?" Xalo asked as Fiyero came to his bed and blew out the candle on the bedside table.

The prince looked at his son in the dark. "Yes?"

"Is that true, what you just told us?" Xalo asked quietly. "Is Mum really the most important lesson you've learnt in your life?"

Fiyero chuckled. "And what a lesson she was," he said fondly. "Yes, son, she really was. A lesson, a love, a commotion… she's everything. She always has been – it just took me a while to realise it."

"Wow." Xalo was quiet for a while, staring ahead of him with a thoughtful expression on his face. "You must really love her a lot."

"More than anything in the world," Fiyero agreed. He poked his son's side, making him squirm. "But don't worry, you and your siblings come right behind her."

He went to tuck in Bae as well and then rose to his feet and moved towards the door, intending to leave. Before he could set foot in the hallway, however, Xalo asked in a whisper, "Dad?"

Fiyero turned around. "Yes, Xalo?"

"Do you think I will find love like that, too, one day?" Xalo asked. Unlike his brother, he didn't sound sarcastic – he sounded genuinely curious. "Like you and Mum have?"

Fiyero smiled. "Who knows, bug." He winked at his son. "Just be sure to keep your eyes and ears wide open," he advised him. "The love of your life might not be what you expect her – or him – to be. Fate can surprise you sometimes. However," he added, "it is never wrong."

Xalo nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Dad. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, son." Fiyero closed the door behind him, breathing a sigh of relief. That had gone better than he'd thought it would.

He turned around, only to see Elphaba leaning against Rosey's bedroom door, one eyebrow raised.

He winced, then opened his mouth.

"Before you say anything," he said quickly, "I know you don't believe in fate and you're probably going to yell at me for poisoning the kids' thoughts with strange ideas, or something like that; but Xalo asked what I believe and I told him the truth, so really, you can't blame me for anything, you know."

She didn't pull a muscle.

He sighed and his shoulders slumped. "Please don't kill me."

She opened her mouth; but before she could say anything, Rosey called, "Daddy?"

Grateful to postpone his execution a few minutes, Fiyero hurried over to his daughter's bedroom door and opened it. "Yes, princess?"

"Can I have some water?"

"Of course." Fiyero quickly went to fetch her a cup and had her drink some of it. Then he smoothed her hair away from her face and hugged her. "Now go back to sleep, okay?"

She yawned and snuggled deeper into the blankets. "Okay."

"That's my girl." He stayed in the doorway for a bit longer, watching Rosey as she slowly drifted off to sleep again, the blankets drawn to her chin and her teddy bear cradled tightly in her arms. He smiled at the sight.

He started a little when he suddenly felt Elphaba wrapping her arms around his waist from behind, slipping underneath his arm and leaning her head against his shoulder. Honestly, he had expected her to be mad at him. Annoyed with him, at the very least. He'd feared she was either going to yell at him or ignore him for the rest of the night… but not this.

"Fae?" he asked her carefully.

"That was really sweet," she murmured, watching Rosey, but her attention was on him. "What you told the kids."

"Really?" he whispered back. "You're not currently thinking of ways to murder me?"

She sniggered. "I'm always thinking of ways to murder you," she teased him, and he stuck out his tongue.

She pressed a kiss to his cheek before nestling her head on his shoulder again. "No, I'm not mad at you, Yero. Of course not."

He grimaced. "Even though I seem to have changed Xalo's mind about fate not existing?"

She laughed a little. "Yero," she said, looking up at him with a smile in her eyes, "the way you told them your story, you almost convinced me that fate exists."

A bright, dazzling smile lit up his face. "Really?"

She moved away from the door and closed it, so that they wouldn't wake Rosey up. "I said almost," she said sternly, but Fiyero was grinning at her.

"I'll make you believe one day," he promised her.

She snorted. "I'd like to see you try."

"Oh, you'll see me try." He took her in his arms and kissed her forehead. "Because I really do believe in it, Fae. That we were meant to be, you and I. I mean… despite everything, we're still alive and together… and happy. Don't you think that means something?"

"It means my brains and magic were enough to keep us from getting killed," she said drily, "and that Glinda is so good at smiling, talking and tossing her hair that she managed to clear my name… eventually," she added wryly. "And it means that you're crazy enough to stand being around me all day and even be happy about it, too."

"You're so unromantic," Fiyero complained. "Sure, it means that, but –"

"You're not going to convince me," she interrupted him in a sing-song voice, moving away from him and back towards the living room.

He smirked. "Oh, no?" He chased her, eventually catching her around the waist and pulling her back into his arms, starting to tickle her.

She squirmed and hiccupped with laughter as she tried to get away from him. "Stop!"

"Admit it."

"I'm not admitting anything!"

His fingers found her sides, where he knew she was most ticklish. "You believe in it, too, don't you?"

"I don't! Fiyero, stop!"

"Never." He grinned at her.

She tried to scowl at him, though her grin made that almost impossible for her. "You'd better stop right now," she warned him, gasping for air, "unless you want to be turned into a newt."

He stopped and cocked his head a little to the side, pretending to be thoughtful. Then he shrugged and started tickling her again. "I'll take the risk."

She grabbed a pillow from the couch and started hitting him with it, and he chased her all around the room several times before they finally collapsed on the floor, both of them panting and still laughing.

"On a serious note, though," Fiyero said quietly after a while, wrapping an arm around Elphaba's waist and pulling her closer to him. "Do you really not believe in anything I said to the kids?"

She paused, thoughtful. "I never said that." She shook her head. "The part about bad things happening… I can hardly disagree with that. We both know that what you said is true – the bad things made us stronger. I'm not sure if I agree with the whole meant-to-be thing… but I don't think it's really important." She looked at him. "Whether it is because of coincidental circumstances or because it is written in the stars, the important thing is that we are together now, and that we're happy."

He smiled and kissed her nose. "I love you."

"I love you, too, you romantic, sappy idiot." She kissed his lips properly.

After a while, he rose to his feet again and held out a hand to help her up as well, but she was looking up at him with a slightly uncertain look in her dark brown eyes. "Yero?"

"Yes?"

She bit her lip. "Did you mean… everything you said to the kids?" she asked him quietly. "I mean, everything you said to them about me?"

He understood what she meant. "Yes," he said immediately. "I told you this before, Fae, and I'll tell you a thousand times again, even if you call me a stupid idiot every time. I love you. I love you more than anything in this world. You mean everything to me, Elphaba, even if you still don't believe that. I've loved you from the moment we rescued that Lion Cub together, maybe even before that; and I will never stop doing it. Ever."

She was silent for a few moments. Then she allowed him to help her up before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply.

He kissed her back, marvelling at the fact that every time he thought he couldn't possibly love her any more than he already did, she did something to prove him wrong.