A/N: First of all, I would like to apologize for my inappropriately negative and dogmatic tone towards Gelphie in the former version of this A/N. I do not usually read fics with a Glinda/Elphaba pairing, and this is the first time I have ever attempted to write one. However, I certainly have nothing against anyone who enjoys doing so. If I offended you with the earlier A/N, I am sincerely sorry, and most definitely did not mean to do so.
Okay, this is an idea that's been kicking around in my head for ages and ages, and I finally got so fed up with it that I just had to write it or be driven out of my ever-loving mind. I'm sure I'm not the first one this idea has occurred to, but I hope you enjoy my version of it.
Mild swearing towards the end. You have been warned.
Disclaimer: We all know who owns RENT and who owns Wicked. And we all know it damn well isn't me.
xXxXx
Fiyero Tiggular slumped into a chair at one of the study tables in the Shiz University library with a weary sigh. After the hectic pace of life among his group of friends, the peace and quiet of the library was almost a welcome change. Never thought I'd be glad to come in here, he reflected with a rather cynical half-smile. Not too long ago, he would have confidently predicted that he would never be caught dead in this building. But then again, not too long ago, he would also have confidently predicted that his former girlfriend Galinda Upland would never dump him in a million years. So how had both of these incredibly unlikely events somehow managed to happen?
It had all started the night of that party at the Oz Dust Ballroom about six weeks ago, he decided, thinking back on it afterwards. After Galinda had gone out onto the dance floor and rescued her roommate from an extremely awkward moment caused by the one-of-a-kind pointy black hat she had given the green-skinned girl earlier, something had changed between the two girls. Neither one ever said a word about it to anyone, but the two of them had somehow become inseparable seemingly overnight. Then, three weeks or so after that, Galinda had informed him out of nowhere that she was terribly sorry, but it just wasn't working out between them, and that she thought they should go their separate ways.
Of course, it was only after she had broken up with him that he'd found out the blonde had been seeing someone else behind his back. That was bad enough in and of itself, but even more humiliating was the fact that the "someone else" was none other than her roommate, Miss Elphaba Thropp, who he had met that night at the Oz Dust. He wanted Galinda to be happy, he supposed grudgingly, but still, it was a rather crushing blow to his male ego to be dumped by his girlfriend in favor of another girl. All of his friends were still making jokes about it three weeks after the fact, and it wasn't looking like anything he said or did was going to make them stop anytime soon. He'd taken to spending his evenings holed up in the library because it was the one place he knew they would never think to look for him.
He guessed he could see what attracted Galinda so strongly to Elphaba. The green girl was certainly no beauty by conventional standards, but even Fiyero had to admit, there was just something about her. She was different, unique… exotic. Yes, that was the perfect word to describe her. Most people avoided the girl like the plague because of her green skin, but to be honest, he didn't find it at all repulsive. Unusual, certainly, but not necessarily in a bad way. And when you gave her half a chance and got to know her a little, she really did have a captivating, almost… magnetic personality.
His musings were interrupted as the subject of his thoughts entered the library. She was almost even with the table where he sat before she noticed him, and when she did, her eyebrows shot up. "Well, well. I never thought I'd see you of all people in here. What's the matter, did you get lost?"
He narrowed his eyes at the sarcasm in her tone. "I didn't know it was against the rules to sit in the library," he told her crossly.
"Well, it may not be against the rules in general," she conceded, "but it's certainly against your rules. Won't being seen in here ruin your reputation?"
"I really don't think my so-called reputation can get any more damaged than it already is, thanks," he grumbled.
She shot him an interested look, not used to hearing the normally carefree prince talk like this. "Whatever happened to 'dancing through life'?" she wondered as she took a seat across from him.
He shrugged. "Maybe I've decided to turn over a new leaf."
Elphaba smirked. "I'll believe that when I see it." Then her voice took on a tone of genuine interest. "But really, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out at some wild party with all your friends?"
"Some friends," he frowned, not pleased at the reminder of the source of his current troubles. "Thanks to you and Galinda, they haven't stopped tormenting me for three weeks. That's why I'm here – I'm trying to get away from them. Hiding in here is the only way I can get a moment's peace."
"Oh, come on, it can't be that bad."
"Oh yes it can! These have been the worst three weeks of my life, and it's all your fault!"
"Now you're just being melodramatic. As a matter of fact, you're acting uncannily like Galinda at the moment. It's really rather disturbing."
"I have a right to be upset! Do you know what it does to a guy to have his girlfriend dump him for another girl?"
The green girl looked rather taken aback, as though she hadn't really considered it before. "I guess you have a point," she admitted slowly after a moment.
"Do you want to hear what Galinda said to me when she broke up with me?" he continued. "She told me, 'Life is like a tango – sometimes you have to change partners.' Can you believe it? As if a relationship was no more important than some stupid dance!"
"Actually, considering it was Galinda who said it, I do believe it," Elphaba told him matter-of-factly. "You know as well as I do that she doesn't take anything seriously."
"You can say that again," he agreed. "You know, sometimes I wonder how in Oz the two of you got together. You couldn't possibly be more different from each other."
She shrugged thoughtfully. "Maybe we're drawn to each other because we each see in the other what we lack in ourselves."
"What do you mean?"
"It's like the old saying – opposites attract. We're each everything the other isn't. The two sides of a coin, if you will. Both totally unique, but incomplete without the other half."
"Hmm… I guess I never thought of it that way before." As much as Fiyero hated to admit it, her explanation actually made a lot of sense. Maybe that's why Galinda and I didn't last, he realized. We're just too much alike. He decided that he had held his grudge against the green girl long enough. He was a prince, after all; he was supposed to be charming and chivalrous to everyone, right? And besides, it wasn't entirely Elphaba's fault that Galinda had broken up with him. She had been the motivation for it, but when it got right down to it, he was fairly certain that she would never have asked or encouraged the blonde to do such a thing. So, swallowing his pride, he rather hesitantly began, "Look… I know I've been sort of a jerk to both of you the last few weeks. So I'm sorry. You're both my friends, and if the two of you are happy with each other, then I should be happy for you."
Elphaba raised an eyebrow, impressed. Obviously this was about the last thing she had been expecting him to say. "Well… thank you, Fiyero," she accepted his apology, her tone surprised but pleased. "I'm sure all those so-called friends of yours haven't made it an easy three weeks for you. I guess Galinda and I should have realized that would happen. So I'm sorry, too. We certainly didn't mean to put you through all this."
"I know you didn't," he assured her. "No offense to Galinda, but she's not clever enough to do something like that intentionally. And you're not cruel enough."
"Are you implying that Galinda would be cruel enough, if she was clever enough?"
"Hey, you're the one that said it, not me."
"Hmm."
"So, anyway, how's it going with you two?" Fiyero wondered then, changing the subject. "I guess I haven't really taken the time to ask before now."
In reply, Elphaba's face lit with the first genuine smile he had seen out of her since they started talking. "We're doing great. I've never been happier in my life." But then her smile faded slightly, and he sensed there was more to it than the simple answer she had given him.
"But…?" he prompted.
She gave him a look that clearly showed her displeasure at having her declaration questioned. However, his suspicions had evidently not been misplaced, because after a moment her gaze shifted to the table between them as she quietly continued, "But… I don't know… sometimes I feel like… like she's just not entirely there. Like she isn't completely committed to our relationship."
"Ah." Fiyero nodded knowingly, having experienced a very similar feeling himself. "Well, that's the normal state of affairs for Glinda, I'm afraid. You'll get used to it eventually."
"That's just it," she protested. "I don't want to get used to it. I don't think I should have to. I may not have much romantic experience to speak of, but that's just not how a relationship is supposed to be, at least not the way I understand it."
"Well, there's your problem right there."
"What?"
"You're thinking in terms of the way you understand romantic relationships. You have to think like Galinda. Then the way she acts will make perfect sense."
"Now that is a truly frightening concept."
"I didn't say it was easy. But a relationship isn't all about you."
"Well, it's not all about her, either."
He smirked. "Let me know if you ever succeed in getting that through her head."
Elphaba laughed a little at that, and they lapsed into silence for a moment or two, during which he determined with considerable surprise that he quite enjoyed having a simple, semi-normal conversation with the green girl. And he realized that he didn't want it to end quite yet. Wondering what in Oz had gotten into him, he asked rather hesitantly, "Would you like to go somewhere and get a drink and maybe talk some more?" Then, seeing the expression on her face, he added hastily, "I mean, just as friends, of course…"
For a moment or two she just stared at him, looking completely thrown for a loop. But then she slowly nodded. "All right," she agreed with a slight smile. "I guess we could."
Highly relieved that she hadn't dismissed his invitation at once and laughed in his face, Fiyero returned her smile with one of his own. They stood and gathered their things, and then left the library together.
Half an hour later, they sat at a table along the edge of the main room in one of the more popular taverns near campus. The place was sufficiently crowded that they both felt relatively certain they would not be noticed together by anyone they knew. The only drawback was that they practically had to shout to be heard over the music throbbing from the dance floor across the room, which made it a bit difficult to hold what was supposed to be a rather private conversation. But since everyone else in the room was shouting to each other as well, they decided that they had little danger of being overheard, and chose not to concern themselves about it any more. Having ordered and received their drinks, they settled in to continue the chat they had begun in the library.
"This is… very strange," Elphaba said rather awkwardly, breaking the ice. "I never thought I'd end up going out for a drink with you of all people, especially considering… Galinda." She used the name as a sort of blanket statement, intending it to signify everything that had happened over the past three weeks.
"It's incredibly strange," he agreed. "But hey, if you want to learn to tango, you've got to take lessons from a professional."
She smirked. "And you're a professional, are you?"
"Where Galinda is concerned, yes, I am."
"Prove it."
"Well, let's see." Fiyero paused for a moment, and then inquired, "Has she ever given you that annoying-and-yet-at-the-same-time-infuriatingly-endearing pout of hers and called you some pet name that gets on your last nerve? Like… oh, I don't know… 'pookie,' maybe?"
Elphaba frowned slightly and shook her head. "No, never."
He shrugged and moved on to a new topic. "Have you ever – even if it was only for a clock-tick – doubted one or two of her kisses?"
This time it was clear that his question had struck the green girl a bit too close for comfort. She shifted uneasily in her chair. "Hmm. Maybe you are a professional." She stared down into her drink thoughtfully for a few seconds, and then looked back up at him. "Tell me something. Did your knees go weak whenever she walked into the room?"
"Every time," he confirmed with a nod, hiding his slight twinge of amusement at hearing the usually-unemotional Elphaba admit to such a thing. "But I guarantee she already knows how she affects you. Everything she does is part of her master plan to maintain control in your relationship. So you've got to be careful."
"And while you two were together, did she ever… flirt with other people?"
"Are you kidding me? Elphaba, I was lucky if all she did was flirt."
The green girl made a face. "I'm sorry I asked."
"I know it's driving you insane right now," he sympathized, "but eventually you'll come to accept it. It's just who Galinda is. You can't only love a person's good qualities, you know. You have to take them for who they are, faults and all."
"I suppose that's true," she conceded. Then she raised an eyebrow. "That was incredibly profound, coming from you."
"Despite your opinion of me, I do manage to come up with something halfway intelligent on occasion," he grinned.
She laughed and shot back teasingly, "Even if those occasions are few and far between."
"Touché."
At that moment, her eyes flickered over his shoulder, and widened in shock. "Oh, sweet Oz!"
"What's wrong?" He turned in his seat to see what had startled her.
"It's Galinda!"
"What? Where?"
"Over there!"
He followed her gaze, and quickly spotted the blonde for himself. She was out on the dance floor with several of her friends, having a marvelous time from the looks of things. He mentally kicked himself for suggesting that he and Elphaba come here. The idea had occurred to him because he knew the place fairly well – he and Galinda had been there several times on dates. But he had somehow failed to consider the possibility that his former girlfriend might come on her own with just a group of friends. And it figured that it would happen the very night he and Elphaba happened to be there.
"Great," he muttered sarcastically under his breath.
"We've got to leave, Fiyero! She'll kill us both if she catches us together!" Elphaba warned. He thought she was overreacting just a bit, although she had made a valid point. Galinda certainly wouldn't be happy to find her girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend here together on what, at first glance, could easily be misinterpreted as a date or something like one. And an unhappy Galinda was never enjoyable to deal with.
"I don't think she's seen us," he decided after considering the situation for a moment. "If she knew we were here, I doubt we'd be sitting here wondering about it." Elphaba gave a 'hmph' of agreement, and he continued, "If we leave now, we ought to be able to make it out of here without her spotting us."
"The sooner, the better," she nodded. "Let's go."
The two quickly settled their tabs for the evening and headed for the exit. He reached the door first, and held it open for her. But just as she stepped outside, she turned around to cast one last glance over her shoulder for some reason that he couldn't guess – and stopped dead in her tracks. Her expression betrayed nothing, but from the way that her face had suddenly gone pale, he guessed that whatever had caught her attention wasn't something she had expected or wanted to see. Cautiously, he turned slightly to catch a glimpse of what she was looking at.
Over on the dance floor, Galinda was getting quite close with one of her friends – Shen Shen, he thought it was; he never had been able to keep all the names of the blonde's crowd straight in his mind. The two girls were dancing pressed up against each other, their provocative movements often putting them in very compromising positions. The song ended as they watched, and before their eyes, Galinda slid an arm around her partner's waist and pulled her down to initiate what, from where Fiyero and Elphaba stood, looked like an exceptionally passionate kiss.
He couldn't help the small glow of satisfaction he felt that the blonde had just effectively driven home the point he had been trying to make to Elphaba all night. However, his elation at being proven right was quickly doused as he realized what had to be going through the green girl's mind after seeing such a display from her alleged girlfriend. If the look on her face – a combination of stunned disbelief, humiliation, disgust, and fury – was any indication, her feelings at the moment were something quite similar to his own when he first found out that Galinda had broken up with him in favor of Elphaba.
"Elphaba…" he began hesitantly, not really sure what he could say to make things any better.
But she cut him off with a shake of her head. "Don't," she whispered. "Please. Let's just get out of here."
They walked back to campus in an impenetrable silence. Elphaba didn't say a word the entire trip, just stared at the ground right in front of her feet, and since it would have been terribly awkward to try and make conversation when he knew she wouldn't respond, this left Fiyero with the opportunity to think about what had just happened.
There was some poetic justice in the situation, really. Elphaba was now experiencing the same thing that she had done to him, whether she had meant to do it or not. But, Oz help him, he actually felt sorry for her. Galinda had wreaked havoc on his mind and his heart, and it made him unexplainably angry to see her doing the same thing to someone else, especially to someone that he considered a friend. Elphaba didn't deserve the misery the blonde was causing her. No one did – except maybe Galinda herself.
When they stopped outside her dorm, the green girl turned to him abruptly. "Well, aren't you going to say it?" she demanded.
"Say what?" he wondered, giving her a perplexed look.
" 'I told you so.' We both know you're thinking it; why don't you just come right out and say it, hmm?"
"You think I wanted that to happen? You think I'm glad you saw her cheating on you?"
"Aren't you?"
"Of course not! She hurt you. Why would I be happy about it?"
"Well, it certainly proved you right."
He frowned. "Elphaba, I don't care about being right. I wish I hadn't been right. And I definitely didn't think what I told you would apply so soon."
"What that girl does to people she claims to love, I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy." She leaned dejectedly against the wall next to the door, her arms crossed over her chest and her shoulders sagging, the very picture of defeat. "I just want to know why. Why does she do this, Fiyero? Is it because I'm not good enough for her? Why?"
"No, of course not, that's not it at all!" Fiyero sighed heavily and raked a hand back through his hair. "Look, I wish I could explain it to you. Hell, I wish I could explain it to myself. But I'm afraid the best I can do is to tell you not to take it personally. It isn't anything about you that makes her behave the way she does. It's just… Galinda. It was bound to happen sooner or later."
Elphaba shook her head. "I ought to just give up right now. I'll never be able to keep her attention from wandering to other people."
"Oh, don't think like that," he admonished. "You've got to look on the bright side as much as you can."
"What bright side?" she asked sarcastically. Then a faint smile curled the corners of her mouth. "You know, even if I were to go back to the very beginning of our relationship and start over knowing what I know now, I'd still fall for her."
Fiyero nodded sympathetically and agreed, "She's irresistible, all right. And she knows it damn well. No one stands a chance against her charms. All her romantic experience lets her pull you in and then dangle you from a string until she sees fit to cut you loose and let you fall."
"And then you're left flat on your ass, wondering what you ever saw in her in the first place."
"But even then, you pretend to believe the lies she tells you, because you know you'll never be able to leave her like you should." He gave a short, cynical chuckle. "Oh, but rest assured, the end will come. It's just that it'll be her that decides when, not you. And you can't do anything except play dumb when it happens, because you don't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that you've suspected as much for a long time."
"It's a tango all right," Elphaba smirked. "A tango straight to hell."
He shrugged. "Look at it this way: at least we'll have enjoyed the trip."
"I guess that's about all we can hope for, isn't it?"
"Considering that it's Galinda, we're lucky to get that much." Fiyero paused, and frowned as he wondered, "Why in Oz do we love her when she treats us like garbage?"
"And she can be so obscene!" Elphaba shuddered and made a face at the memory of the blonde locking lips with Shen Shen back at the tavern.
"What can you do? You can't live with her, and you can't live without her," he quipped with a helpless shrug, effectively summing up the whole confounding puzzle that was Galinda Upland.
"You can say that again." She glanced up at the face of a large clock tower that stood nearby. "Well, I'd better head inside before I get in trouble for missing curfew."
"Yeah, same here." He gave her a searching look as he asked, "You sure you're all right?"
She nodded reassuringly. "You know, I actually feel pretty good now. Thanks for commiserating with me, it really helped."
"Anytime," he replied. "And if you ever need someone to talk to about Galinda or whatever… I'm here."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Remember," he reminded her as she dug in her satchel for her key and let herself into the building, "life is like a tango. But that doesn't mean that Galinda has to be the one doing all the partner-changing."
She turned for a clock-tick and gave him a look that he couldn't read. Then she smiled slowly and nodded, and disappeared inside without another word.
Upstairs, Elphaba unlocked the door of the suite she and Galinda shared and slipped inside. Kicking off her boots, she sank down on her bed with a tired sigh… and stood up again quickly as she sat on something that crackled. She turned around to discover a small piece of paper that had apparently been left on her bed. After picking it up and smoothing it out, she read the short message penned on it in a familiar loopy handwriting.
Hi Pookie!
I'm going out with some of the girls tonight, so I won't be back until late. I just wanted to let you know so you don't get worried. Miss you already!
XO
Galinda
"Pookie…" she muttered aloud in a disgusted tone, recalling one of the questions Fiyero had asked her earlier. "I'll give you 'Pookie!'" Angrily, she crumpled the note up into a tiny ball. Then, changing her mind, she opened it back up and tore it into tiny little pieces, which she deposited with an inordinate sense of triumph in the wastebasket.
But the feeling of victory only lasted a moment or two, and when it faded, it left her feeling even more despondent than before. She contemplated Fiyero's last words to her before they parted. Remember, life is like a tango. But that doesn't mean that Galinda has to be the one doing all the partner-switching.
Perhaps it was time Elphaba did a little switching partners of her own.
xXxXx
.: shudders :. Well, there you go. Hope it wasn't too awful.
This was originally intended to be a oneshot. However, while it was being written, an idea for a second chapter made itself known. This hypothetical second chapter would be based on "Take Me or Leave Me." If you would be interested in me turning this from a oneshot into a twoshot, please let me know. Thank you.