AN: This is my first Story and I'm not sure if there will be more stories or not but here is one that the intent of it being a Christmas present to my good friend Grumbello. So here it is please respond and let me know your thoughts, any thoughts good or bad.

Dedications: Grumbello Merry Christmas my friend thanks for the inspiration to write and post and put my thoughts out there thanks mate

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or references to Wicked. But I Point out that Wicked had no disclaimer in its beginning and it's just a fanfic of Wizard of OZ so this is a fanfic of a fanfic and just to cover my tail I'm gona say I don't own any characters or references to Wizard of OZ either. Actually I don't anything but a Dog a Cat and an Apartment which reminds me of everything I don't have. If you want to sue me for that well then you need something better to do with your life.

With nothing else to add please enjoy

BLACK HAT CHRISTMAS

She looked up at the tree filled with decorations of all sorts. Shiny glass balls of red and green and pink, red swirly candy canes and cinnamon scented gingerbread men and old family ornaments consisting of bells and ribbons painted gold and silver. There were new decorations bought this year, bubbles and wands, brooms and ruby slippers, puppies and blue checkered aprons. Then there were those that were the most special, the ornaments that she and Elphaba had collected for their Christmases together. They were the ones that circled the top part of the tree, strings of preserved and dried berries, mistletoe and bows. There were treasured pictures of the lovers in snowflakes and hanging snow globes and Glinda looked upon these in a mixture of fondness and sadness. The only part that was bare was the tip top that was left only a blank green of the evergreen tree. Most trees had a brilliant star of various cuts from a large emerald jewel or an angel with various decorations of emeralds in the dress, but on top of Glinda's tree there were only bare branches. In her hands she held the ornament she and her Elphie had topped their trees with.

She looked down at the black hat in her hands. It was old and tattered even when Glinda had first laid her eyes upon the item now it looked even more worn and frayed. It had been through so much just in the brief time it had been in her life. It had gone miles above any other hat. It had soared on the head of the Wicked Witch while she rode her broom stick. Glinda could never suppress a smile at seeing the hat on the witch, the cruel gift that brought them together. The hat had gone through hiding and running with the Wicked Witch after she was first labeled wicked. It had been there when Elphie had snuck to Glenda to see how she was and to show her she still loved her long in to the early morning. It was there through the mistakes they both made with Fiyero and the making of the ruby red slippers for Nessarose. It had been to the death and funereal of Nessarose, and to the love and argument later that night. It had been there through everything with Dorothy and the Wizard. It had been there when they came back to each other at the castle. Best of all it had been there from the start. It was the start. That hat was there from the beginning of everything that happened to her Elphie and the Wicked Witch of the West. Worst of all it had been there when she left for good. It was there when the water poured over the Wicked Witch killing her Elphie. The hat and the Grimerie were all that was left of her Elphie. Before the girls were separated the hat was there every Christmas atop their Christmas tree in their Dorm room. A sad smile formed on her lips as she remembered that night so many Christmases ago.

Together she and Elphaba had gone out with ax in hand to retrieve their very own Christmas tree. Glinda had insisted that they get one of their own just as she did with her family every year before. She had forgotten to take in to account that her Popsicle and servants were not with them to cut down and haul back the tree. After convincing Elphie to cut it down they struggled to move it back to the dorms and up into their room. After they had it in the stand and holding its own upright position they stripped their jackets, layered clothing, and boots. Elphie's face had been covered in tiny little blisters from the snow that had started to fall in her face from the branches. Small rings of blisters were formed around her arms and ankles from where it had melted around and through her sleeves and pants and gloves and boots. Glinda had rushed to get Elphie's oils and nurse the blisters first with a kiss then with the oil and finishing with another kiss to each and every one and finally one to her lips. Once doctored up they had decorated the tree with the many ornaments that they had bought or made the day before until only the top was left uncovered. Then Glinda went to her dresser and pulled out a large emerald five point star with deep intricate patterns of endless swoops and swirls cut into it. Scattered about the patterns were pale pink rubies and deep blue sapphires. She turned around to find Elphie had a porcelain faced Angel with long curling blond hair and blue glass eyes. She was in a stunning dress of tiny sequin sized emerald gemstones. They looked at each other and smiled. Neither one would fold and let their ornament decorate the top of the tree over the ornament chosen by the other. They tried to convince each other, Glinda wanting Elphie to place the angel atop the tree and Elphie wanting Glinda's glorious star to shine bright from the highest branch. That is until an idea struck Elphaba. She asked Glinda to close her eyes and she moved back to her dresser and started rummaging around. Glinda heard the tree rustling and began to fidget and bounce wanting to open her eyes and see Elphie's idea. The rustling stopped and her hands were pulled away from her eyes. Glinda looked up and tears instantly filled her eyes as on top of the tree she could see the old black hat that had brought them together. Her Elphie had told Glinda that she was her blonde hair blue eyed emerald angel and that she was green enough to be a living emerald star herself. So they agreed that the hat that meant the world to them was the perfect tree topper.

Her eyes again filled with tears as she remembered her first Christmas away from her love when Elphaba was in hiding as the Wicked Witch. It came time to top the tree and neither her love nor the hat was there. Fiyero was though and he knew the tradition of the hat. The next night he arrived with an eerily identical hat, which even had the same sandalwood smell as Elphie's oils and hair treatments, which Glinda sent back to where ever it had come from only the real hat would do. And that year there were only green bare branches on the top of the tree just above all the ornaments that were hers and her loves. The next year was the same it came time to top the tree and her green love and her hat were gone but Fiyero was there with the eerily similar hat, which Glinda suspected was the same one from the year before but now it looked slightly more warn, and again it was sent back. Each year it repeated no Elphie, no tree topping hat and Fiyero with the same warn hat which seemed to be slightly more warn each year and each year shed send it back to where it had come from.

Now was her first Christmas after the death of the Wicked Witch of the West, after the death of her Elphie. She stood now with hat in hand, tears in eyes knowing that Fiyero had been helping Elphie all those years, among other things, and wondered if he had brought her their hat each year. Then she wondered if Elphie was saddened when it was sent back or if it then topped the tree where ever Elphie had been or if Elphie had even had a tree. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she felt arms slip around her waist. Glinda went stock still eyes clenched shut and breath held terrified that the smallest movement would cause the feeling to fade back in to memory alone as it had every time before. The feeling grew and she felt the small frame of her green love press against her back and the warm breath against the back of her neck. The tears streamed down her face as the hope and fear battled inside her. She hopped that somehow it was real but feared that it wasn't and she knew that when it wasn't real she would be devastated again.

Then the words whispered in to her ear "Shhh my sweets it's all going to be ok. It's all ok now."

Glinda felt one of the arms leave her waist and reach for the hat in her hand. Glinda's head started to feel light and she started to feel dizzy from not breathing. Squeezing her eyes tighter she took a slow breath but moved nothing else.

The voice was clean in her ear "This belongs on the top of the tree remember?" The hat shifted from her grasp and left her hands all together. The feeling of the presence behind her began to fade the way it had come. First the breath on the back of her neck was gone followed by the small frame that was once pressed against her back. When the arm left around her waist started to pull back Glinda panicked. A sob escaped her lips and the matching tears fell down her face. Her hands shot to her waist in an attempt to catch the hand and savor the fleeting feeling pull it back and get lost in it forever. When her hands closed over the feeling on her waist she felt the warm smooth skin of the hand that had been holding her. She held it tight still keeping her eyes closed. Of all he times she had tried to catch the fleeting feelings she had never been fast enough finding only her stomach where the feelings had been. Now she held that feeling in her trembling hands afraid that opening her eyes would wake her from the dream of being with her lover again.

There was a soft chuckle then the feeling came back stronger the arms sliding tighter around her waist and the small frame pressing tighter against her back and the breath warmer on her skin. Then there was more, the tickle of silken hair and the hot breath on her neck then the feel of a chin resting on her shoulder. "Do you not want my hat on the tree? Or is it that you do not trust what you feel?"

Glinda felt and heard the soft pft of something hitting the floor and then everything was spinning slowly behind closed eyes. The feelings pressed that small frame against her front. Her hands still clasped the feeling's hand at her stomach while the feeling's other hand had moved to her stomach.

"Glinda my sweet, open your eyes and look at me." The hand on her stomach moved from her stomach to her face with her hands still clutching it. She nuzzled her face against the hand cupping her cheek tears streaming faster down her face and in to the palm of the hand cupping her cheek. She heard an intake of breath through clenched teeth at pain and her eyes shot open.

Standing there in front of her in a long black dress covering the green skin from neck to Wrist and ankle wearing the same black cloak Glinda had wrapped around her shoulders many years ago. Her long hair was braided down her back in one long strait braid and atop her head she wore a solid black wool knit cap. She looked much as she did when they first met. Slightly older and much more warn and stressed but the dark brown eyes, even though they held the same love for Glinda and the same Elphie deep within them, on the surface you could see how the years had jaded her. She looked just as she had when they last saw each other moments before her death. There's something different now, something new. Under the edge of the cap is a scar, a healing scar a lighter brighter more neon green than the rest of the emerald skin.

Glinda moved one of her hands from the hand against her face to the scar under the cap. Her fingers brush it lightly as it ran clear across her forehead but didn't seem to go in to the hair line on either side. Her fingers pushed up the cap pushing it to the floor uncovering the scar. It was barely over a centimeter thick and looked more like someone had tried to scalp her more than anything.

Glinda's voice shook as she spoke for the first time "Wha-wha-what did this?"

Elphie reached up and took Glinda's fingers in her own and pulled them down to kiss her finger tips. "It's the price I paid for pretending death, for when Dorothy threw the water on me. The cape you found me all those years ago was meant to stop the rain and water. The plan was to let it happen and protect myself with the water proofing of the cape while I dropped below a trap door. Letting the world think I was dead, killed by the water. I didn't get the cape high enough fast enough. I would have been here sooner if it wasn't for the part where the burn was so severe as was the pain that I couldn't see for days and then getting up and about was a chore as well. Once I could move along the darkness unseen as I did for so many years before, I came here. I came back to you my sweet."

Glinda leaned forward and pushed up on to her tip toes to place a line of genital kisses along the fresh scar. Then she pulled Elphie's palm to her lips and kissed the new burn there from her tears.

Elphaba leaned down and picked up the black hat with a soft smile. "I'm going to put this where it belongs now." She slowly pulled away giving Glinda time to stop her. "Is that ok?" At Glinda's nod she stepped back pulling fully away leaving only their hands together. Still slow in her movements she laced their fingers together and pulled Glinda to the tree. Holding tight to Glinda's had she climbed the few steps up the small step ladder to reach the top. She slipped the black hat over the top branch and onto the top of the tree hiding the few top green branches underneath. With feet flat on the floor once more she backed up pulling Glinda back in to her arms to admire the fully decorated tree.

A kiss to Glinda's cheek turned the blonds head to look at the green woman. "Are you real?"

Elphaba looked in to the blonds sad fear filled eyes. "Yes my love I'm as real as you or the tree."

Glinda's sad eyes dropped to the floor "I've had dreams that you came back before. I've imagined your arms around my waist as I stood remembering you or thinking of you. And Every time if I blink or breath or try to feel you the feeling fades to nothingness, to just a memory. Or I wake from the dream and find my bed empty. You're gone and were never there just dreamt up." A new wave of flowing tears streaked her face and she fought for strength to carry on. "And every time I feel like I lose you all over again and like I'm dying inside all over again. I can't keep living through your loss. If this is a dream it's a new one, one more vivid than ever before, one that will surly cause my broken heart to stop beating when I wake."

At the thought of the grief her love had gone through Elphie's heart broke. She had missed her love but she hadn't though her dead. Now realization of all that she had put the pink woman through brought stinging tears to her eyes and the desperate need to show her love that she was real. "Glinda, what didn't I do in your dreams? What would I never do that might show you that I'm really here?"

Glinda uttered two soft words that would not have been heard if it had not been for the deadly silence of the room and the few inches that separated them "Kiss me"

No sooner than the words crossed her lips did Elphie Press her green lips to her pink ones in a deep soft kiss. Elphie pulled Glinda around to stand pressed against her holding her tight together from lips to hips. Glinda's arms slipped around Elphie's neck holding her tight in fear of losing her still. Elphie called upon every feeling she had for the blond puling them together in her chest then pushing them out through the kiss into Glinda.

Glinda felt the warmth against her lips spread through her body burning her finger tips and tingling her toes spreading like a buzz in each and every cell in her body. Glinda's body hummed filled with love and happiness that only Elphaba could have filled her with. Then the warmth pressed at the jagged edges of her broken heart then washing over them with a gentle southing touch. The warmth flowed from her fingers and toes rushing to her heart filling it with that hope and love and happiness that she hadn't felt in the months, since the night in the castle. Their lips separated and their eyes gazed in to the others. Elphaba seeing in Glinda's eyes that she knew Elphie was there and real and staying. The tear filled eyes were crystal clear oceans no longer fogged by sadness fear and loss. Glinda could see reality as she looked in to the dark brown eyes of Elphie, of her Elphie.

They shared a smile and pressed their foreheads together continuing to look into the others eyes. Then they turned and admired the finished tree with a complete Christmas once again. All was right they were together and safe and the tree was topped appropriately. Glinda turned in the green arms and leaned back in to her Elphie and looked up at the tree.

Nothing else needed to be said or done at that moment. True there was much to talk about and much to sort out but tonight was Christmas Eve. All the talking and sorting and planning could be done later all that was important that night was that the lovers were alive and well in each other's arms. Their relationship, whatever it may progress to as, Elphaba's living status, and the hiding required keeping it so, and the future outcomes of Oz could all wait until another day. For tonight the room would glow with pink and green magic and the Black hat would top the Christmas tree for at least one more Black Hat Christmas.

AN: Well I hope you enjoyed and everyone has a Merry Christmas. May the Christmas bells bring Piece to all the world and good will to man. And as a Christmas present to me you can all click that little button up there and leave a response good or bad if you leave one at least I know you read the story. Thanks for reading what my imagination comes up with.

DJ