Elphaba and Galinda sat in silence together, each girl on her respective bed with her nose buried in what she found most interesting at the moment. For Elphaba, this was another book full of the lectures of early Unionist ministers. For Galinda, it was her newest makeup pallet. But unlike Elphaba, Galinda's full attention was not in her pallet. Instead, every once in a while, she would cast a glance at her green-skinned roommate, just thinking. Sometimes, she thought about Elphaba as Elphaba was: a green-skinned college student who just so happened to also be her roommate. Other moments, Galinda would catch a glimpse of that emerald skin in the reflection of her mirror and she would wonder to herself what Elphaba would look like in makeup. The idea alone made her scoff, but it was a thought she entertained nonetheless.
But sometimes, just sometimes, Galinda would catch a glimpse of Elphaba and see how intently the green girl was reading her book and she would find herself envious, wishing that and wondering if Elphaba would ever look at her with such focus and interest. It was a silly and trifle thing to worry about, but it struck Galinda anyway and the more she thought about it, the more she wished Elphaba's attention would be on her instead of a book in the same way Galinda's own attention was stuck far more on Elphaba than her makeup pallet. Galinda became very agitated.
But Galinda, contrary to common belief, was not an idiot. On the contrary, she was deeply intelligent. Hers was just of a different brand. True, she did not understand the deep nature of the way the world worked like Elphaba did, and true she did not always enjoy her college lectures the way some of her peers would, and true she would not always study for or ace tests, but Galinda was still not stupid. Her type of intelligence came from observation and manipulation.
Maybe Galinda had no idea how to read or write essays, but she knew how to read people and, in response, write her own self back to them. Galinda knew all the ins and outs of social etiquettes and, as of right now, those lessons were serving her well. She had no doubt that Elphaba was totally unaware of how deeply she was being studied, and Galinda was sure that Elphaba was equally unaware of Galinda's interest, infatuation, with her. But that was because Galinda was an excellent actress. She knew how to keep a straight face, an unreadable visage. In fact, she was so good at controlling her emotions and expression she had, more than once, wondered whether or not she would've flourished with a degree in theatre instead of one in sorcery.
But no. The longer Galinda thought about it, the more she realized she would actually be quite horrible at the performing arts. Sure, she knew how to maintain an aura of calm and she knew how to keep anyone from seeing the way she really felt or thought, but she had no idea how to turn that sort of emotional vacancy off. It was one of her greatest weaknesses. Galinda was so good at hiding from the public eye that even she didn't know where, or who, she was. She could hide her true self so well that she didn't know how to get that true self to come out again.
This problem was manifesting itself now. She wanted dearly to talk to Elphaba, to just go and demand that the green girl pay attention to her, but every time Galinda steeled her nerve to do so, her lips would twitch slightly as though to open, then she would seal them shut again once more. She had no idea how to stop acting, to turn off her prissy princess side. Galinda would make a terrible actress. She was only good at playing parts she already knew well, but Ozma (or the Unnamed God, based on who you believed in) help her if she knew how to adapt to new roles. So, for the rest of that painfully quiet evening, Galinda made no sound as she agonized in her mind over what she might say to Elphaba. Elphaba, meanwhile, remained oblivious to all of this.
But fate finally decided to be kind to Galinda, and as the chilly evening finally bled into a dark night, Elphaba began to move. With the time for rest drawing near, she, albeit reluctantly, began to sit up and place her book off to the side. She still said nothing, it not occurring to her to do so, but the mere action of her moving to get up was enough to finally force Galinda into action.
"I say, Elphie, must you always be so droll and drab?" the young woman hid her true fondness and affection for the green girl behind a snide remark and a bored tone.
"I say, Ms. Galinda, must you always be so cruel and careless?" Elphaba replied, not missing a single beat as she hopped up from her bed to change out of her day-clothes into her nightwear. Despite herself, as Elphaba turned away, Galinda smiled. Witty, fiery Elphaba. Leave it to that cunning green girl to not only respond to Galinda's icy remark without missing a beat, but also to do it in the exact same manner Galinda had addressed her in. Galinda really did adore Elphaba. But once again, she would not allow it to show.
"How can I be anything but when all you do is sit around and read boring minister sermons?" Galinda maintained a snobbish air as she continued to tease Elphaba on her choice of reading. Part of Galinda hoped Elphaba wouldn't take these insults to heart, but part of Galinda already knew she wouldn't, and that was part of the reason Galinda felt so at ease, being so openly rude to the green girl. She knew that the green girl would see these remarks for what they were: teasing and playful, even though Galinda's tone might've convinced an outsider otherwise.
"The same way you can take pleasure in spending hours and hours on ending doing little more than staring into a small silver square in the palm of your hand," Elphaba responded, firing back just as quickly as Galinda, but with the same uninterested tone. Galinda almost laughed again, but she caught herself at the last second and reigned in.
"That, Ms. Elphaba, was a delicate art!" Galinda insisted, then it was Elphaba who made the first laugh.
"You must show me some time, then, what sort of special skill it takes to study one's self in the mirror for so very long that you would consider it an art form!" she crowed and Galinda wasn't sure if Elphaba's laugh annoyed or enchanted her, though she thought she had a pretty good idea...
"Well, for one, it takes a very keen eye and an intelligent mind. It takes patience, coordination, and a real talent for aesthetics," Galinda replied poshly. Elphaba laughed again and shook her head in amusement before settling back into bed, finally facing Galinda head on. Although Galinda was pleased to have finally secured Elphaba's attention, she suddenly realized just how shy and strange she felt when the green girl's intense focus was all on her. It was almost frightening. Elphaba was brilliant at reading. How much of Galinda was she able to read? Were those impenetrable brown eyes seeing into her soul? It felt like it, and Galinda suddenly felt very exposed and vulnerable. It was uncomfortable.
"Well," Galinda tried to regain composure. "I am sure it takes a great deal more to analyze a face than it does to absorb words off a page!"
"Ah! I beg to differ!" Elphaba replied with a playful smirk. "For it is not so hard to look at a face and read it, all of its lines and contours readily available in the right light, but to read is to do far more than process and comprehend words. It is also to drag up old ideas and send new ones back down. It is a conversation, not nearly as half as stagnant as peering into a looking glass and trying to see who looks back."
"But what if the person who looks back is unrecognizable to the person who looks in?" Galinda challenged, trying to sound intelligent, but in that one remark, both she and Elphaba seemed to understand that Galinda had just revealed something immensely private and personal about herself.
Suddenly ashamed at having said such a scandalous thing, Galinda pretended to gain a rekindled interest in her mirror while Elphaba studied her with interest. Galinda was well aware of the keen eye Elphaba was giving her, and it took all of her strength not to insist that Elphaba stop looking, or at least stop looking at her like she'd just said something of wonderful and marvelous intelligence. But Elphaba wasn't just going to let Galinda out of philosophizing that easily...
"Now there's a conversation I would be happy to engage in!" the green girl said happily. "You've finally said something intelligent!"
"What conversation?" Galinda tried to sneer.
"One based upon what makes an identity and what one is to do when the person they see in the mirror is not the person that looks into it," Elphaba replied, still grinning from ear to ear.
"Well, if you are so interested, why don't you give it a go?" Galinda tried to brush off the feeling of warmth that came with hearing Elphaba compliment her intelligence, because that warmth also came with an embarrassment at being so vulnerable around such a hawk-eyed and deep-thinking college student. She was still worried Elphaba would read her too closely and see something wrong with her, something that she had been trying so hard to cover up. Galinda worried she would say or do something stupid that would ruin Elphaba's opinion of her, so she tried to deflect the conversation back onto Elphaba. She even tossed the green girl her makeup set, mirror out and open.
Elphaba caught the mirror and looked into without hesitation. Galinda was mildly surprised by this, knowing that Elphaba typically tried to avoid mirrors just so she didn't have to face her green skin. But now here she was, ready and willing to look into Galinda's mirror at once.
"Well? Do you recognize the person you see? Do you know the girl in the mirror?" Galinda prompted, interest growing despite herself as Elphaba continued to make faces at herself in the mirror. Elphaba finally looked up from the mirror, mirth in her eyes.
"Not at all," she admitted, then she looked back at the mirror and began to address her own reflection. "Hello, you," she told her reflection. "I don't know you, and you don't know me. In fact, we hardly recognize one another at all, and yet here we both are, together! Isn't is strange how that works?" and again, Galinda felt a laugh rising up in her throat. How silly it was, to see Elphaba talking to her own reflection like this!
"I do say, Ms. Elphaba, are you quite sure you haven't gone mad?" Galinda teased.
"Not at all," Elphaba replied easily. "On the contrary, I am sure I am quite mad!" and Galinda didn't bother to ask why this idea pleased Elphaba.
Instead, for the next few minutes, Elphaba played with Galinda's little mirror, tilting it this way and that, getting all different angles of her face and looking quite amused all the while. Galinda was entranced. It was so odd, seeing Elphaba acting so childish and... girly... Yet even though Elphaba was doing a very girly thing at the moment, admiring herself in a mirror, there was still a sort of Elphaba-ness to the whole thing and Galinda didn't feel like this was out of character for her at all. But eventually, even Elphaba grew disinterested in the mirror, having thoroughly exhausted the theories and philosophies surrounding what made someone who they were, and she handed the mirror back to Galinda.
"Done so soon?" Galinda teased as Elphaba got up to give her the mirror directly.
"Well, I figure you must miss it terribly. It must be hard, not being able to admire your own visage for longer than five minutes," Elphaba smirked back down at her, and Galinda pretended to huff in offense, a gesture that only made Elphaba laugh all over again.
"Well, then!" Galinda insisted, shaking her golden curls in attempt to keep the joke up that Elphaba's remark had offended her. "If you must know, I do certainly get jealous when I cannot see myself for long periods of time, for I am the only beautiful thing in this room!"
"I do not disagree with that!" Elphaba laughed heartily back. "Even I cannot stand to look at my own reflection for too long!"
But although that line had been meant as a joke, to hear Elphaba say it at all cute Galinda deep.
"Why, Ms. Elphaba, whatever do you mean? You can't be serious?" she demanded of the green girl.
"There is nothing of great interest within my face," Elphaba replied with a shrug, clearly not understanding what had affronted Galinda this time.
"Nonsense!" the blond insisted. "There are a great deal of things to look at in your face!" then, without even meaning to, Galinda reopened the little mirror and brought Elphaba back in front of it, describing in great detail all of the magnificent features the green girl in the mirror face possessed. She had beautiful dark hair, thick and flowing. Her eyes were like dark, twin pools of endless intelligence, golden stones shimmering at the depths. Her nose was pointed, sharp with intelligence, her cheeks were well-defined, her cheekbones were gorgeous, her lips, though often in a frown, were full and always ready to speak, and her chin was a satisfyingly round-and-pointy shape, neither too circular, nor too angled.
"My, my, Galinda, you certainly have given this a lot of thought, haven't you?" Elphaba asked as Galinda finished explaining to Elphaba all the features her face had that were worthy of study. Once again, Galinda blanched as she realized what she'd done. Reddening with humiliation, she pushed Elphaba away from her before closing the mirror and setting it on her nightstand with a cold finality.
"I am not so stupid as you think I am," she muttered to herself. "I spend a great deal of time thinking, almost as much as you I'd wager, I just have nothing to do with it..." and for another instant, Galinda let another precious bit of information about herself slip. This time, she confessed to being deeply intelligent and pensive, but as a society girl, she had little use for such brains, and they often went to waste. The only thing her culture ever gave her to mull over was what she looked like. Her intelligence was so stunted by the world in which she lived in that the only time she ever really got to use her beautiful mind was in moments like this, staring into a mirror. But a true mind could never be stopped, true intelligence could not be suppressed. Why else would Galinda put so much thought into the face she saw in a mirror?
Elphaba even gave Galinda a sympathetic look, seeming to finally realize just how intellectually frustrated Galinda was. At least Elphaba had her books. All Galinda had was the mirror society had shoved into her hand, but she had managed to turn even that, a symbol of vanity and shallowness, into a wellspring of conversation and intelligence.
"Now, now, my sweet," Elphaba began. "Who ever said you were stupid?" and this was a question Galinda could not answer, for no one had ever told her directly that she was stupid, just that she should not think.
"On the contrary," Elphaba continued. "I think you are incredibly bright, and you have a very sharp mind, and you cultivate a great many good thoughts. You are very pensive, not at all stupid, and I enjoy your conversations. I think you would come to appreciate them too, and see how smart you really are, if only you allowed those thoughts to fester and manifest more than you do now. If only you let that side of yourself shine more often. I think you would be pleasantly surprised with the girl in the mirror if you tried it..."
Elphaba trailed off with a knowing smile, but before Galinda could come up with some silly little protest and go hiding behind an emotional wall once more, Elphaba dared to lean in and press a swift kiss to her forehead.
"But that is a talk for another time, my dearest," she said. "I am tired now and wish to go to bed, so I bid you a goodnight," then, without leaving room for Galinda to say anything, Elphaba returned to her own bed and buried herself under the sheets at once.
But while Elphaba went to bed at once, Galinda remained up for a long time after, thinking about all that Elphaba had said to her that night, regarding what a true face looked like and what a true identity comprised of. Although she did not reach for her mirror again, with Elphaba's suggestion swirling in the back of her mind, Galinda wondered briefly if she would recognize the girl in the mirror if she were to take Elphaba's advice. But that all was only in the back of her mind, because what was at the front was something that refused to leave her brain for a long time more: Elphaba's first kiss. Maybe it had not been typical or official, but Galinda was not going to forget the feeling of Elphaba's lips on her skin...
"Elphie, you terribly mean thing, I think I love you," Galinda said to no one, then at last, even she managed to turn out the lights and go to sleep.
AN: elphiegranger2508, I hope this sort of meets your standards, but I really couldn't think of much else to write between the two. Consider this a "follow up" to the hat/storm scene, only this time, it's the two of them philosophizing over a mirror, with minor dry flirting and banter scattered around the fic before we get that little Gelphie kiss at the end. Hope you liked it!