"They love you."
Glinda jumped and fell against her giant four-poster bed, blue eyes wide and darting around for the source of the sound. "Elphaba?" she gasped as the voice settled into her consciousness and she realized that she recognized it. Her heart started to pound, her pulse rushing in her ears.
As Elphaba stepped out of the walk-in closet, Glinda ran to her, but was stopped by a vicious shove, sending her sprawling on her back on the plush white carpet.
"Don't touch me," Elphaba snapped, taking off her hat and tossing it to the floor beside Glinda. She didn't know why she kept the ratty old thing... she should have disposed of it as soon as Glinda abandoned her those years ago.
"Elphie?" Glinda asked, her wide eyes going even wider, watching raptly as the hat floated to the floor beside her.
"I haven't been Elphie since you left me to fend for myself," Elphaba said, steepling her fingers under her chin. When Glinda tried to sit up, she placed a booted foot square on the blonde's chest and pressed her back down.
"Elphie you're scaring me," Glinda finally said, her voice shaking.
"Am I?" Elphaba asked, slowly removing her boot. "Good."
"Why are you being like this? I thought we were friends. I thought-- I thought we loved each other."
Elphaba let out a loud cackle, throwing her head back. "I thought so too," she hissed, all traces of amusement gone in an instant as her dark eyes bored into Glinda's sweet, frightened blue ones. "I did love you once... but alas, you chose glamour and popularity over what was right, you chose fame over friendship, and you threw away everything we had worked so hard to build together. You took the easy road so you wouldn't have to work for anything, and me? Well. Let's just say I haven't turned out so... bubbly."
"Elphie I still love you... A day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought of you and wished you were here with me so I could tell you I'm sorry."
"You're sorry? You're sorry?" Elphaba asked, her eyes flashing with carefully concealed hurt masked as anger. "Prove it."
"Yes, I'm sorry," Glinda repeated, beginning to cry. Seeing Elphie again had given her hope, for one split second, and now she wondered if her Elphie was even still in there. "How can I prove it?"
Elphaba put a long, thin finger to her lips and tilted her head to the side in thought. Then she moved back into the closet and returned with one of Fiyero's belts, folded in half, and produced a loud cracking sound as she snapped the leather menacingly.
Glinda's jaw dropped as she stared, unmoving. "You mean to..." She couldn't say it. How could she say it? It was too improper.
"I mean to," Elphaba confirmed with a smirk, grabbing a pink silk nightie out of Glinda's bureau and tossing it at her. "Take off that ridiculous dress and get into this."
Glinda got to her feet, intending to obey, but couldn't undo her own buttons. Her face flushed with shame, both at what Elphaba was going to do to her and at making the wrong decision not to go with her best friend when she had the chance, the blonde moved to stand in front of her leering companion, and turned her back. "If you'll undo me," she said, trying to maintain some dignity.
Elphaba took her time, freeing the gaudy pearl buttons one by one, and then slid her hands over Glinda's shoulders, pushing the dress down her arms and over her hips.
Glinda shivered, enjoying the touch in some perverse way, and when her dress was pooled at her feet she stepped out of it and quickly slipped on the nightgown. "I hope this makes you happy," she said quietly, and while part of her was being insincere, part of her really meant it.
"Oh, it will," Elphie said darkly, guiding Glinda to the bed and giving her a firm push between the shoulder blades to bend her over. With a laugh she plucked the hem up and dropped it on the small of Glinda's back.
"Elphaba!" Glinda gasped, turning her head, but before she could give words to her protest, the belt connected solidly with her satin panties. "Oh!"
Elphaba cackled again, and swung the belt again, and again, and again, repetitively, until Glinda was squirming and crying and groaning with each smack. "What's the matter, girl?" she asked, dropping the belt and sitting, dragging the crying girl across her lap. "This is nothing compared to what I've been through. It would have been easier to take if I'd had my best friend with me, but she was too attention-hungry to do the right thing."
"Elphie I said I'm sorry!" Glinda sobbed, wanting more than anything to have her friend back, no matter what the cost to her physical well being. She was grateful at least for being across Elphaba's lap - it provided the littlest comfort, and she could almost pretend it was just a quarrel, that she was taking punishment and would then be forgiven, and everything could go back to the way it was before they left Shiz. But Elphaba had never punished her like this before. If she were upset, Glinda got the silent treatment for a day or two, and then they were friends again. This, this was different. Elphie was so different.
Now she was being spanked, and Oz forgive her, she was just happy to feel Elphaba's hand on her. She didn't realize she was pressing her backside into the smacks until Elphaba stopped and cleared her throat.
"Am I to believe you're enjoying yourself?"
Glinda's face burned, and she lowered her hips back to rest on Elphaba's thighs. "I'm enjoying being close to you," she said honestly. "If this is the only way I can get it, I don't want it to stop."
Elphaba snorted with derision, and the smacks grew harder in her attempt to ward off the sudden resurgence of affection for the little blonde. Glinda shouldn't be taking comfort in anything!
But she did. The sting was welcome, it made her feel alive again, and even as she cried, holding fistfuls of her expensive, frilly comforter, she wanted more. She wanted to take whatever Elphaba could give her. "I love you," she said through her tears.
"Don't say that!" Elphaba shrieked, panic seizing her chest. She was past this. Past feeling. Past caring for anyone or anything.
"But it's true," Glinda said quietly. "I've never stopped loving you. I only wish I'd been brave enough to tell you when it really mattered."
"Stop it," Elphaba warned.
"My heart's been broken since the day you flew off on that dirty old broom..." The blonde wiped her tears and turned her head back to look at Elphaba. "Please, Elphie... please. Touch me."
Elphaba growled and felt between her legs, her nostrils flaring as she found Glinda wet.
If she never had another wish come true in all her life, Glinda would still be satisfied if Elphie granted this one. She'd wanted it since the moment they danced together at the Ozdust Ballroom, and she'd been too scared to ask. Not now. Not now that she'd already lost everything dear to her. She had nothing left to lose. If Elphaba refused her, she was no worse off than she had been since arriving in the Emerald City, alone and broken-hearted. "Oh please," she breathed past trembling lips, parting her legs when she felt Elphie's hand between them. "It's always been you, Elphie."
She'd always imagined it gentle and loving, but sometimes reality brought a different dimension, and as fingers curled in her hair and tugged roughly, she arched her back and hoped for pain. Hoped Elphaba would mark her, claim her, scar her in some way so she'd have something to look at and remember once her love had disappeared again. She hoped Elphie would hurt her, so she could stop missing her and stop aching for her every morning, night, and day. She had grown up a lot over the past few years, and the first lesson she'd learned was that life was rarely fair.
"Hurt me," she pleaded.
Elphaba startled, then gave a fierce yank on Glinda's perfect hair. "Don't say that to me," she snapped. "I want to hurt you."
"Then hurt me," Glinda cried out, her head throbbing, sure a few strands of hair had been pulled out. "Hurt me, Elphie."
Elphaba growled, her face twisted with rage, her fingers poised to pentetrate the blonde with savage and painful force, but she couldn't do it. Damn Glinda, she couldn't do it. She pushed her to the floor instead and stood to leave.
Sprawled on the carpet, trying to collect herself, disappointment and regret ringing in her ears, Glinda realized that Elphaba meant to leave, and that was the last straw. She'd had enough now! She sprung to her feet in a move reminiscent of her days at Shiz, and launched herself onto Elphie's back, hands around a slender green neck and legs hooked fiercely around her friend's waist.
Elphaba gasped in shock, prying at Glinda's fingers around her neck, but try as she might, she couldn't dislodge the bundle of unbridled energy clinging to her like a vice. "Get off of me," she nearly shouted, but Glinda didn't budge.
"No," Glinda said petulantly, locking her ankles together over Elphaba's stomach. "You flew in here and threw me around and you spanked me, Elphie, and I let you! You're not leaving until we talk! I love you, you stupid girl! You are not walking out on me now that I finally have you back!"
"I don't love you," Elphaba lied.
"I don't care," Glinda lied back.
"I have to go."
"Then you're taking me with you, because I'm not moving."
"You've always been a stubborn little brat, and this time it's going to get you killed," Elphaba threatened her, her voice wavering almost imperceptibly on the last word.
"Well great!" Glinda shouted. "The only time I feel alive is when I'm with you, anyway! Even if you're treating me very, very badly! If you're going to kill me, Elphaba Thropp, then do it. Right now. I know you can't pull me off of you, but you can use magic. So do it."
"You'd rather die than let me go?"
Glinda breathed in deeply the scent of Elphaba's hair. "Yes," she whispered.
Elphaba's carefully constructed walls crumbled to dust, and she fell to her knees, openly weeping for the first time in her life.
Glinda scrambled off of Elphie's back and knelt in front of her, wrapping her friend in her arms, clutching Elphie's head to her chest as tears soaked her nightie. "Do you love me?" she asked.
"Yes," Elphaba sobbed, accepting the comfort she didn't deserve.
"Then stay with me," Glinda pled, her own tears returning.
"You know I can't," Elphaba said, her voice strained but no longer angry.
"Then take me with you," Glinda insisted, refusing to loosen her hold. "I made the wrong choice once... I'm not going to do it again."
"And Fiyero?"
"He'll understand. We've talked so much about you, Elphie, and he knows how I've always felt. Stay with me tonight, we'll leave before the sun comes up, when everyone is sleeping."
"I can't promise anythi--" Elphaba started to say, but a stinging slap across her face cut her off. She exhaled sharply, one hand flying to her cheek. And then Glinda's hand was under her dress, fingernails dragging up her thigh, fingers working inside her knickers, pausing for the briefest of moments to give her time to refuse, then claiming her with one smooth thrust, ripping a gasp from her throat. Her hips pressed down, seeking more, and Glinda filled her.
"Promise," Glinda whispered harshly, stilling her fingers, watching the play of torturous pleasure on Elphaba's face. "Promise to take me with you, Elphie."
And Elphaba did.