"I'll… I'll tell everyone the truth."
"No! Then they'll just turn against you!"
"I don't care!"
"But I do! …Promise me you won't try to clear my name."
"Elphie-"
The witch rounded on her.
"Promise!"
Glinda shook and her breath came in small shallow puffs. She grabbed the green hands to still them. Elphaba gasped, ripped from her frantic thoughts by the gentle touch. Glinda used the rare moment of calmness to peer into the face she knew so well and yet looked so different now that she was closer. There were dark shadows under Elphaba's eyes that had never been there before, not even when she had stayed up half the night back at Shiz to study, and her high cheekbones seemed sharper, the jaw set hard. Glinda's fingers twitched softly and she could feel a new roughness in the tense digits she was holding. Dark eyebrows furrowed low over the storming eyes, glaring at her with their same old fierceness. But now she could see the layer of confusion within them, so barely concealed it seemed unfathomable she had not noticed it before.
"Alright, I promise! …"
The witch's shoulders pulled up as she took two quick laboured breaths and her clawed fingers relaxed. She could feel something half buried inside her break and spill, but what it was she couldn't say.
"…but I don't understand."
Elphaba raised her gaze and looked at Glinda now for the first time, in a long time. Her eyes travelled over the impossibly lovely face, and perfectly made up hair. She saw the whiteness under the expertly applied blush, the parted mouth quietly grasping for air as if speech was no longer an option, the widened eyes. Blue, so very blue, burning bright as stars with feelings so powerful she had no names for them. And everything that could not be said was very clear suddenly as they swam with unshed tears.
Glinda opened her mouth, but all she could force past the Oz sized, sickening lump in her chest was a breaking whisper, helplessness crystallising at the edges
"Elph-"
Elphaba exhaled haggardly and like lighting she closed the space between them. A moment later dark lips met pink, long green fingers burrowed into golden curls, eyes shut so tightly they burned. Glinda winced in surprise and just stood, trembling, on the spot. A small sound, not unlike a sob, broke forth and then her own delicate hands were on Elphaba; grabbing onto the front of her dress so tightly that her knuckles whitened. She kissed her back and before she knew it Elphaba threw her arms around her, crushing her against herself as close as she could.
An exquisitely manicured fingertip raked through one of the countless badly mended seams on the green woman's chest and curled against skin. The touch of warmth and the hint of a pulse radiated up Glinda's arm and through her entire body where it caused a searing hot tear deep within her. Glinda squeezed her eyes shut to keep from crying out as the pieces of her self flew in every direction. 'Life, life - she's alive. Still, alive.' That one thought echoed through Glinda the Good, and suddenly it was the only thing that mattered. Her heart and head held onto it for dear life. She grappled for more contact, but it wasn't enough. Finally Glinda let go of the fabric under her fingers and mirrored Elphaba's actions, wrapping her arms around her and tangling her hands in that silken black hair wrapped so tightly in its bun at the back of her head.
Elphie moaned low in her throat and they swayed dangerously together as each was doing their best to melt into the other. The witch could feel everything: The light-spun curls embracing her fingers; the warm arms embracing her. Elphaba pulled the other woman closer, held her impossibly tighter, lost in the taste of Glinda's lips and the sensation of falling. Scents of sweet perfume and powder filled her head, feather light sensations of sliding silk under her touch, little sounds in the towering silence of the Castle. 'Glinda.' She found her mind repeating, over and over and over. 'Glinda, Glinda…' It was the pinpoint of light while every other thought was a scream. She wanted more of it. More.
Elphaba finally pulled back with a ragged gasp for air, but Glinda took her face in her hands and kissed her again. She could not, would not stop - for she knew if she did, it would all be over. She didn't know whether the wetness she felt on her cheeks were her own tears or Elphaba's, but she didn't care, she only cared for the feeling of Elphie pressing her lips desperately, needfully, into hers.
There were no more words. And it seemed everything that could not be said had a translation suddenly.