The feeling of Want was a funny thing, Glinda decided. It was associated with greed and evil, but everybody did it. It also seemed that whatever you wanted in life, you would always lack. Take Glinda, for example. She was an aristocrat. She had wanted for nothing for her entire life, and one would think that she would be glad because of this, but she wasn't. She didn't mean to sound whiny, but she had always felt there was something she was missing. In a life where she could've had everything she ever wanted, she still found herself wanting something more, something she was never able to fully or properly obtain. But what?
Well, Glinda did eventually figure it out. She wanted love. All the money and resources in the world and she wanted the one thing money couldn't by. How typical! But Glinda, not one to take "no" for an answer, strove to obtain love in the best way she knew how: power and popularity. To some degree, this worked. She was beloved by all, and she received their warmth and admiration with much gratitude and grandeur. And yet, it still wasn't enough, and she still wanted more...
At last, though, Glinda met a certain ill-tempered, green-skinned girl, who seemed dead-set upon becoming Glinda's worst enemy. But what Glinda hated most about the green girl was not her skin color or her attitude, it was her freedom. Although the girl was impoverished, and although she was considered a freak by all who knew her, she was still free. She was strong and brave, loud and proud, large and in charge. It seemed that no matter what life did to try and break her, the green girl refused to die. She remained strong-willed and determined through it all, and that was what Glinda truly hated about her. Glinda hated her free spirit, so different to Glinda's own, which never failed to cave to the pressures of society whenever society cast its judgmental eye upon her.
What's more, Glinda knew that she wasn't really loved at all. She had slowly but surely come to understand that although the students of Shiz worshipped her, they did not really love her in the way she wanted them to. They loved her for what she could show them. A pretty smile, a toss-toss of her golden curls, a benevolent wave. It had never been about what Glinda possessed within, it was only what she could display, and because of that, the love she was showered in by her peers was always very shallow and false. Glinda was not nearly as free or happy as one might think. The life of an aristocrat was rich, but empty, and nobody really cared for the real Glinda. It was also hard, trying to be the perfect girl that everyone so desired. After all, one wrong word could ruin her! The green girl, Elphaba, had no such stressors. She had no shame, or pressure, or invisible chains set upon her by society the way Glinda did. Though Elphaba's life was by no means easy, at least she was free.
But as time passed, Glinda's selfish eyes opened to see Elphaba wasn't really as free as she seemed either. Instead, she had different chains and pains, but they were still very real. Having learned this, Glinda felt guilty for having been so hard on the already-suffering green girl, but she also felt better knowing she'd found somebody to match. In Elphaba, Glinda had finally found an equal. She'd found somebody who truly understood her, and the pain she felt whenever society pressed down upon her shoulders. She had finally found someone who would truly care about her, and not just what she could do for them. When Glinda realized what Elphaba valued her for, Glinda also realized what she truly wanted. Like before, it was love, but now at last, Glinda understood what kind of love. It wasn't the love that came from adoring friends and family, but the true and stalwart feeling and commitment of one who invests their very essence into another in the belief that the other person is worth the cost.
Elphaba had been that way for Glinda, putting her joys, faith, hope, feelings, fears and dreams in Glinda because she felt that Glinda was worthy of knowing such secrets. To Glinda, that was a massive, and real, declaration of love, and now that Glinda knew that she had this love, the one she had been seeking for her whole life, she knew she'd go to the very ends of Oz and farther to keep it! Soon, Glinda began to love Elphaba in return, just as much as Elphaba already loved her. Glinda loved Elphaba not for Elphaba's love of Glinda, but rather, for her love of truth. Elphaba wasn't judgmental, and Glinda loved it.
So now here they stood, so many years later. Glinda had made good on her vow to go to the ends of Oz and beyond to keep her Love, and this was where it had brought her. Elphaba was with her now, obviously feeling the same way Glinda was. Yes, the only thing that ever really mattered to Glinda stood before her now, and though they were stuck in a dark castle with war surrounding them on all sides, Glinda finally felt free, and for the first time ever, her feeling of Want had been satisfied.
AN: Literally just a drabble where Glinda thinks about how Elphaba has made her life complete. It's set around the time of "For Good", but is a quick trace through Glinda's whole life.
