AN Got this idea from a post on gelphieheadcanons
Elphaba had just finished up her stretches when her teammate, Galinda, approached her. The two had been rivals ever since their freshman year after meeting at track tryouts, just after Elphaba had beat Galinda's time by .022 of a second. Ever since that first day, there had never been a single decent moment shared between the two of them.
"Up for a little race before practice, Elphie?" Galinda spat more than said the nickname, as she typically did. Elphaba stood up from her sitting position on the ground and began to walk towards the track.
"Only if you are, Glinda." Elphaba knew how much the mispronunciation of the Frottican's name irked her and took much joy in the fuming that ensued whenever it was said. The two girls readied themselves at the starting line. "Ready to lose again, Glinda?"
The rest of the team watched from the bench, placing bets on which of the two girls would win. To be honest, it was typically the Munchkin who won. She was leaner, had longer legs, slightly more fit, and was just all around much quicker than the short Frottican. Though, ever since the new season had begun, Galinda had been working very hard at getting a better time. She's improved by nearly ten seconds. 9.897 seconds, to be exact. Elphaba scoffed at the improvement. Regardless of how much the blonde had improved, Elphaba was still the fastest runner to hit the track. She has been ever since she started running for the team.
One of their teammates counted down to zero and the girls were off. The race was planned to be a single lap around the track. Easy. They finished the lap in no time, both at almost the exact same time, neither of them breaking a sweat. Once the two passed the white line that signified the end of the race, it had been apparent that they both had the same thought going through their minds.
To keep going until one of them tired.
One more lap, then another, then another. Both of them were right on top of each other. It was clear, however, that Galinda was beginning to tire before Elphaba had. Her footfalls got heavier and sweat poured down her neck and forehead and her breathing began to be labored. Elphaba was still up for another few laps. Galinda began to fall behind the Munchkin, but she still ran on. With all the energy she had left, the Frottican broke into a sprint, determined to get ahead of her green teammate.
She was so close too.
That was, before there was a searing pain shooting up the Frottican's leg that felt as if it pierced her entire body.
They had been closing in on their sixth lap when Elphaba heard the horrible shriek come from behind her. She stopped short, almost tumbling over, and turned to see her blonde rival laying in the middle of the track, holding her leg close to her body. Before any of their other teammates could react, Elphaba was already by the blonde's side, not knowing what had come over her.
Galinda, despite herself, let tears stream down her face. The blurred image of Elphaba was the last thing she saw before she blacked out from the pain.
"Can you believe it? Elphaba just picked her up and carried her straight off the field. She sprinted all the way here!"
The voices were foggy and just barely penetrating Galinda's ears, but she was able to take them in anyway. But only barely.
"Yeah, that totally wasn't like her at all. Do you think that maybe those rumors are true?"
"What rumors?"
"That the green bean has a… thing for Galinda."
"No way! It's clear that they hate eachother! Not even Elphaba is hard headed enough to try to even so much as make friends with Galinda."
That was the last thing Galinda heard before she fell into another blackout.
"You sure are a whimp, Miss Glinda."
Galinda opened her eyes at the sound of the green girl's voice. She knew it was her, no one else possessed such a cockiness in their speech. Also, no one else dared called her by anything besides Galinda. The blonde tried to move, but there was a shooting pain coming from her ankle, followed by a relieving coolness as she let out a hiss. She looked down to see Elphaba holding an ice pack to her bandaged ankle.
"You must have tripped over your own two feet." A smirk danced across the Munchkin's verdant lips. "Pathetic, really." Even though the words were bitter, they still had a playful tone to them. Something Galinda had rarely ever heard in the girl's voice. At least not towards her.
"Thank you, Elphie."
Elphaba's eyes darted towards the blonde, wide and sceptical all at the same time. Galinda never used the nickname on nice terms, but she had this time. Elphaba raised an eyebrow at the Frottican, giving her a questioning glance.
"For bringing me here, to the nurse." Galinda clarified. Elphaba rolled her eyes and proceeded to hold the ice pack to Galinda's injury, but the bedridden girl went on. "I know it was you, so thank you."
"Don't thank me, Glinda. You're my teammate, I have to watch out for you." The Munchkin's eyes were downcast as she spoke. She would never let the blonde know how guilty she felt; she felt as if it were her fault that she were sitting here in pain. She could have said no to the race. "There are crutches over there for you if you want to get out of this bed." Elphaba motioned to a pair of wooden crutches leaning against the wall, avoiding the blonde's eyes at all costs. The next words were spoken so quietly, Galinda was almost not able to hear them. She had to strain to be able to catch them. "You're not going to be able to run for at least three months."
"WHAT?" Ignoring the pain in her ankle, Galinda shot up into a sitting position. Her eyes were wide in disbelief and her mouth hung slightly open. She felt as though she were paralyzed.
Elphaba cleared her throat and stood up. She retrieved the wooden crutches and brought them to her teammate, gingerly handing them to her. "You broke your ankle. It's pretty bad."
Galinda snatched the crutches from Elphaba and threw them to the side. Once again despite the pain, she tried to stand herself up. Elphaba tried to assist her, but she just pushed her away. A flood of tears began to run down her face as pain erupted in her ankle the moment she set it on the ground. A bloodcurdling scream filled the room. As soon as she was up, she was down. She fell hard against the linoleum floor. Elphaba dashed right to her side. Galinda was in a bawling heap on the floor, blonde curls falling over her shoulders, hiding her face and a hand covering her eyes so her green teammate wouldn't see the tears streaming from them. Elphaba laid a hand on her back and nearly pulled away when she felt how badly the blonde's body was racking from her sobs.
"Galinda," The girl paused. It was the first time she had heard the green girl say her name the correct way. She was shocked, primarily by the way it sounded coming from her lips and secondarily by the softness of the typically brass girl's tone. "I'm sorry... Everything is going to be okay, though. I promise"
Elphaba was taken aback when she felt the smaller girl's arms wrap around her neck. She felt hot tears soak into her practice uniform, but didn't let it bother her. Against herself, she wrapped her own arms around the blonde and let the petite girl melt into her. She placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head, trying not to give it the power to mean anything.
Elphaba visited Galinda whenever she could. She typically went over to her home after practice, occasionally taking her out to lunch but most of the time they just sat around her room. Elphaba would listen to Galinda talk about the latest gossip and Galinda would listen to Elphaba talk about the latest issue of Scientific Ozian. Both of them lost each other whenever they talked, no matter how much they tried to show interest in whatever the other was saying. However, as the weeks went on, they found more and more things that they could relate with each other on.
They quickly learned more about each other and found themselves getting closer and closer. Elphaba soon found the nickname "Elphie" quite endearing and Galinda had become very taken with the way Elphaba pronounced her name. She discovered that she very much liked the way "Glinda" sounded rolling off of the emerald girl's tongue.
"There's a new betting pool going on in the team." Elphaba announced one day. The girls were sitting in Glinda's bed, Elphaba reading her Biology textbook and Glinda painting her nails. "Two, actually"
"Those girls always find something to bet on. What is it this time?" Glinda mused, lightly fanning her hand to dry the polish. "What do you think, Elphie?" She held her pink polished fingernails up for Elphaba to see. She let out a noncommittal grunt and flipped the page of her textbook.
"One of the bets, well, it's…" Elphaba trailed off. For a moment, Glinda thought it was because she had gotten lost in the text, but when she looked at the Munchkin, she saw her deep brown eyes staring off into space.
"Elphie?" the Frottican snapped her fingers in front of the green girl's face. "What are the bets?"
"Nothing… Nothing important." She waved off the question and went back to reading.
Glinda, careful of her still healing ankle, wiggled her way closer to Elphaba. She nudged the girl's shoulder and formed a pout on her face when she got her attention. "Tell me." Glinda whined. Brown eyes met sapphire ones and quickly darted away, almost as if in embarrassment. When there was still no response, she grabbed the textbook from the green girl and flung it to the other side of the room. Using her upper body strength, the blonde lifted herself up and dropped her self into the taller girl's lap. "Tell meeeeee." She repeated and looped her arms around her friend's neck. She couldn't help but notice the darkening of Elphaba's face as she averted her gaze to the floor.
"Well... one of them is…" She trailed off again, but Glinda wiggling in her lap to try and get her attention put her back on track. However, she kept her voice very low, almost in a whisper. "How long it takes for one of us to ask the other out."
Glinda's own cheeks began to deepen in color. She loosened her hold around Elphaba's neck, but didn't completely drop her arms. "Oh…" She didn't very well know how to respond to that. "W-well what was the other one then?"
"Who would make the first move…"
Glinda, after her initial shock, was suddenly overcome with confidence. In a bold move, she batted her eyelashes and pulled herself closer to Elphaba "And in who's favor is that one, Elphie?" Elphaba's face grew an even darker shade of green than before as the Frottican sidled up closer to her than she ever had before.
"Y-your's." Elphaba did her best to not make eye contact with Glinda.
With that, though, Glinda trailed her hand up the back of Elphaba's neck and tangled her fingers in her raven hair. The Munchkin's breathing became uneven and Glinda could feel her heart beating quicker and quicker. She pulled the green girl closer to her and caught her lips in her own. It was a quick and clumsy kiss and it was obvious that Elphaba hadn't had much experience with kissing. Elphaba was the first to pull away. There was a stupid grin on her face that Glinda had found extremely endearing.
"Between you and I," Glinda said and nuzzled her head into the crook of Elphaba's neck. "I would have bet on you."