After a lot of practicing and several mishaps, Elphaba had finally managed to successfully enchant a broom with the power of flight. Her feet had hardly touched the ground since that day.
"Elphie, why can't you just stay on the ground like normal people?" huffed a neglected Glinda from below.
"Because I like it up here. Besides, I'm not normal," Elphaba called down.
"Why are you like this?" Glinda called back up in irritation. Finally taking pity on her roommate, Elphaba conceded to fly back down to the ground.
"I can give you a ride if you want," the green-skinned girl offered as she continued to hover, but only a few inches off the ground instead of several feet. Glinda eyed the broom warily, partly wanting to say no for safety reasons, but when Elphaba extended her hand, Glinda just had to agree...
"AAAAAHHHHH!" screeched Glinda, after Elphaba took them in yet another loop-de-loop.
"I LOVE IT TOO!" Elphaba laughed over the wind. She continued to whoop while Glinda simply buried her face in her roommate's back, silent. After just a few more minutes, however, Elphaba finally let the ride end and Glinda was, blessedly, returned to the ground.
"Thank Oz!" the blond cried, kneeling down to feel the ground against her knees and hands both, a very uncharacteristic thing for someone like her. But that was how one knew that flying high was not her forte.
"I take it you didn't like it?" teased Elphaba as Glinda rubbed her hands on the grass gratefully.
"How do you stand it?" Glinda asked in amazement, still trembling slightly and definitely breathing hard.
"It's just nice to feel a breeze that doesn't come from a perfume bottle," teased Elphaba.
"Well, maybe that's true... Hey! Wait a minute!" Glinda protested, finally hopping to her feet to glare at Elphaba.
"Glinda, I could fill a novel with all the strange, crazy scents I've almost choked on because of your extensive collection," the green girl snorted. "I mean, where to even begin? You had flowers, fruits, different settings, different countries, different times of day, the list goes on!"
"Ok, ok, I get it, I get it!" Glinda huffed as Elphaba finished reeling off scent number 57. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going back to the dorms to change. My dress is all wrinkled now and I think it's got some grass stains about the hem!" she said as she stood to go. Before she got too far, however, Elphaba snuck behind her and scooped her back into the air.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Glinda shrilled, trying to push herself away.
"Just giving you a lift to the dorms," Elphaba replied. "And I promise, promise, promise that I'll go slow, ok?" she added. There was so much sincerity in her voice that, despite Glinda's fear of flying high, she nodded anyway and allowed Elphaba to fly them away.
ooo
Glinda paced her royal bed chambers in fear. Elphaba was about to be executed soon. Soon being like... in 10 minutes. Breathing hard, tears pricking at her eyes, the little blond continued to pace her corner in a panic as she tried to think of a way to save Elphaba. Part of her wanted to see if she could just go down there and use her clout as Glinda the Good to help the green girl out, but that same part of her knew an idea would only get her in trouble as well, which would be of no use to Elphaba. Another part of her wanted to create some kind of a distraction, but then, what kind of distraction would she create? And yet another part of her wanted to see if she could just sneak Elphaba away to safety. But that was folly too. Elphaba was a huge enemy of the state, there was no sneaking her anywhere. At least four Gale Force guards were watching her at all times. And Glinda couldn't think of any excuse that would convince the guards to leave Elphaba's side...
CRASH! Glinda jumped in surprise as something right outside her room fell to the floor. Frightened from the loud interruption and already being quite on edge about Elphaba's impending doom, the little blond strutted angrily over to her bedroom's fancy wood door and shoved it open, blue eyes searching dangerously for the impudent idiot that had made such a horrible sound. It was some foolish little servant girl, she'd knocked an entire table of vases over. Already, the girl was on her hands and knees, trying to scoop up the broken shards of pottery. Normally, Glinda would've been far more gentle with such an obviously young and frightened child but, today, she could only bark a harsh order.
"Foolish child! Get a broom! Or you'll cut your hands and stain the carpet with your blood, which will be even harder to wash out!" she cried.
"A broom? Yes, your highness!" the girl shrilled in fear, dropping the pottery back to the floor before darting away in terror. Glinda watched her go in disgust. A broom? Yes! Of course a broom! What else would you... a broom. A broom? Yes! Of course! A broom!
In only five minutes, Glinda had managed to run all the way down from her fancy bedroom to the courtyard where Elphaba's execution was getting ready to occur. Glinda found a tent on the edge of the courtyard. It was full of the things that had been on Elphaba's person at the time of her arrest. They were all there for inspection before the execution, just to see if they could weasel out any more information before the green girl was sentenced to her rightful death. Glinda knew this well and made a bee-line for the tent, demanding to see the items of the accused herself. Since this was a more reasonable request, the guard at the tent flap allowed her in without a second glance. Glinda thanked him once before darting in side, wasting no time in grabbing the broom and Elphaba's other items. Then, knocking the guard out with the handle of the broom on her way out, Glinda took flight, flying high over the courtyard and out of sight until she reached the place where Elphaba was supposed to die.
"-bringing one Miss Elphaba Thropp," an official bellowed to the onlooking crowd. He was reading the prelude to Elphaba's execution as Elphaba herself, in chains, was being herded up to her awaiting noose. She wasn't even resisting at this point, just continuing to look at all of the people coming to watch her hang with nothing short of the greatest disdain in her dark brown eyes. The official continued to read on. Glinda, meanwhile, maneuvered carefully over to Elphaba. She was going to wait until right before the noose was slipped over her neck to fly down and scoop the woman right off that awful stage, but not yet, they were still dragging Elphaba forward. Just 10 seconds more. 5 seconds. 3... 2...
Glinda dropped out of the sky without a sound, broom nose pointed down as she spiraled to the ground in a deadly fast and accurate point. At the last second, she completed her sharp descent and yanked the broom nose back up, extending an arm out to grab Elphaba by the back of her shabby white frock that she'd been forced into for the execution and continuing to will the broom up and out. It was such a sudden and silent happening that every onlooker, official and executioner included, could only stand there in complete and utter stupefaction as Glinda flew away, faster and higher with every passing second. It took a full three minutes for anyone to even start to react and, by then, the two witches were gone.
"Glinda?" Elphaba asked, just as stupefied as the others had been. Was this a dying dream? Had her execution really happened? Or...?
"I expect a lavish thank-you for this later, Elphie," Glinda teased, nerves causing her laugh to be twice as high as normal. She finally slowed down enough to pull Elphaba onto the broom properly, tears stinging her eyes again even though she had successfully saved Elphaba's life.
Some time later, though, as the adrenaline finally wore off in both witches, Elphaba managed to speak.
"Why did you do this?" she asked Glinda as they flew onward, as far away from the Emerald City as possible. "Why risk your life and your title for me? And I thought you hated flying high!" she continued. Glinda could only laugh in despair before offering up a simple reply.
"I do hate flying high," she said. "But I'd hate to lose you far more," and then she could say no more, throat closing up again. Elphaba seemed to understand this, though, and said nothing else, choosing instead to let Glinda continue to fly them away.
ooo
Having faked her own death just a few days ago, there was nothing left in all of Oz for Elphaba now. Instead, she was already flying away in search of a newer, safer, more accepting land to call home. But there was still one thing she wanted to do first... She flew back to the Emerald City Palace, despite how dangerous it was for her to be there. She maneuvered her broom over to the room that she knew to belong to the head of Oz. This time, it was no wicked Wizard, but rather, her Glinda the Good. Elphaba had no intention of speaking to Glinda, having supposed to be dead, but she did still want to get to see the beautiful blond one last time before she left Oz for good. By sheer luck, Glinda happened to be standing on her bedroom's fancy balcony. Elphaba smiled at the sight of her, gold hair gleaming in the moonlight, but her smile turned into a dumbstruck look of horror as Glinda stepped up onto the rail of her majestic balcony. Elphaba felt as though all of the breath had been sucked right out of her body. She couldn't even scream before Glinda had stepped off, one foot in midair, 100 feet above ground. Elphaba would remember nothing except that one terrifying little sight before shooting forward faster than a bullet from a gun, urging her broom on a breakneck speed to catch Glinda.
"Elphie?" asked a stunned Glinda as her "dead" best friend suddenly swooped in out of nowhere and pulled her safely onto her broom.
"What in Oz were you doing?!" Elphaba replied, terror, panic and the purest of grief all evident in her voice. For a moment, Glinda could only stare at her, confused by such a question, but then she realized what it had looked like she was about to do.
"Oh! Elphie! No!" Glinda protested at once, embarrassed, ashamed and, awful as it was to say this, touched. "It wasn't like that! I was about to go down and speak to some of the Ozians again! I was going to fly down to them by bubble! I had already summoned it, too, so it wasn't like I was just walking off the balcony! You just couldn't see it since it's so dark out!" Glinda explained quickly.
For a moment, Elphaba could only look at Glinda, mind racing as she tried to process this simple explanation. When it finally sank in, past all the horrific images of Glinda's body splattered on the concrete 100 feet below, Elphaba instantly cursed her stupidity at once, angry at herself for losing composure and revealing herself to Glinda. She also berated herself for being selfish enough to think that Glinda was trying to kill herself to be with Elphaba again. Surely even Glinda wouldn't be that stupid! Right? But no, Elphaba had foolishly underestimated and overthought the situation and assumed the worst instead of just realizing the obvious fact that Glinda was just trying to take the quickest route from her room to the courtyard below. A bubble! Of course! That was Glinda's trademark travel! Elphaba was such an idiot!
"But wait a minute! How are you here? Why are you here?!" Glinda demanded, interrupting Elphaba's self-deprecation. "It's not safe!"
"You don't say?" asked Elphaba sarcastically, still trying to swallow the last of her fears and ease her still-roaring heart. Then she grew serious again. "I was just saying goodbye," she said. "Because I had faked my death. I was trying to find somewhere safe to go, somewhere out of Oz. But I just wanted to see you again first before I went away," she confessed. Glinda missed that whole last sentence out of shock for the second one.
"Wait! You're leaving? No! You can't!" she cried, though she knew this was untrue. If Elphaba wanted any shot at living, she had to go. But then, if she had to go, could she possibly...? "Take me with you!" Glinda insisted then, pleading. "Don't leave me here alone! And don't make me stay behind this time!" she continued to beg Elphaba. At last, her persistence won out and Elphaba agreed, though she still had a few warnings left.
"I could be flying to my death right now," Elphaba warned firmly. She didn't want to risk Glinda's life.
"No, you'll be flying to our death," corrected Glinda. "I'm not losing you again!" she insisted. Elphaba could only shake her head in joy and fear.
"Why do I let you talk me into things like this?" the green witch asked in mock exasperation.
"Because you love me!" Glinda replied in a cute voice, knowing she'd won Elphaba over.
"True," Elphaba agreed as she pulled Glinda closer to her.
"Well?" prompted Glinda, with firm resolution. Elphaba simply nodded in obedience and flew up with Glinda holding on tight.
If any Ozian had looked up that night, they'd have seen a pink figure and a green figure flying high on a broom. Since nobody did look up, however, they missed it all. They missed the way the girl in pink clung so tightly to the green girl and they missed the way the green girl steered the broom expertly with one hand, her other hand wrapped tightly around the girl in pink. Onward they flew, into the mysterious night.
"Hold out my sweet," whispered the green girl. The girl in pink only snuggled in closer in reply. The green girl smiled at the gesture and continued to fly onward, allowing the wind to take them away.
AN: Just a three-part one-shot of all the times Elphaba and Glinda flew together. And this is somewhat musical based, though it can work with either canon.
And speaking of canon, part of me likes the idea that Glinda is terrified of fast flight (Part 1 of this story), but then another part of me actually likes the idea that she'd be even faster and more extreme than Elphaba, like, she'd be the one to try all these loop-de-loops, laughing like a maniac, while Elphaba would watch in amused exasperation.