(AN: I have big plans, Maeline, for all of our characters. And I usually don't ship gelphie, but the Grimmerie series is sort of an experiment with trying a gelphie story. All I can say is that you're wise not to get your hopes up.)

(I promise I'll be getting back to the story, but 1] I don't want too many cut-aways to Trism or the Wizard or Madam Morrible, kind of undermines the villain if we know what they're doing every two seconds and 2] those 'big plans' I have are really really dark, and so I need some kind of light, fluffy chapter to keep our spirits up before we get serious!)

(All names of places in Shiz and the Emerald City come from Out of Oz, and there will be various humorous references to both that, Wicked the musical and the Oz-series, when appropriate. So enjoy!)


Pink

Though Elphaba definitely knew that it was not safe, she also knew that they could not live in Kiamo Ko with no more rations. The food she had brought for Glinda lasted those several months, and now it was gone. And with another mouth to feed for an indefinite amount of time, they would need more food.

But there were other places safer of travel for the looking of supplies than Shiz. It was only a few short miles from the Emerald City, the seat of the Wizard's power. Why she was taking them here, however, was beyond Glinda's understanding.

So there they were, looking for a market near Railway Square. Elphaba had gloves and a hood thrown over her head: the hat was back at Kiamo Ko. Glinda, who also would be noticed in her usual frilly, sparkly attire, wore an old dress of Elphaba's that was too big for her to fit in again. It was with a twinge of regret that Glinda noticed exactly which dress it was she was now wearing - the one that Elphaba wore that day in the attic of the Emerald Palace.

"I can't believe you talked me into wearing this-this..." Glinda stuttered as she looked down at this plain black dress. The skirt was far too long for her liking, and no other bit of skin was shown other than her hands and her face.

"Black goes good with blond," Elphaba replied cheekily.

"If you're at a funeral, then yes," she hissed back. "Oh, Oz, whatever happened to my clothes!"

"Didn't you have them brought over to the Emerald City when you moved there?" Elphaba asked.

"Yeah, but it's too dangerocious going back there."

"Excuse me?" Dorothy perked up. "What's 'dangerocious'?"

"Oh, look at this!" Glinda exclaimed. "This girl doesn't know the Universal Ozian dialect. By Preenella's wand, what do they teach in schools back at Kansas!"

"Lots of things, but I've never heard of Preenella or Universal Ozian."

"Just stay with me, Dodo," Glinda said. "I'll show you the ropes."

"It's Dorothy, actually."

"That's so..." Glinda made a noise. "Can I call you 'Dory'?"

"It's a little..."

"Perky?" Elphaba queried.

"Elphie, would you cut it out?"

"Could you please be quiet with the E-word!" Elphaba hissed.

"Why?" Glinda whispered. "Nobody knows you by that name."

"What do they know you by?" Dorothy asked.

"We're still in enemy territory," the green woman said. "Why I ever allowed you to convince me to come out here is beyond me."

"We're starving," Glinda returned. "We don't need flying houses coming after us if we're dying of starvation."

"We're not dying, Glinda dear." Elphaba replied, with a smile and a roll of her eyes. "I've gone for weeks without food."

"Well, good for you! But I haven't!"


Several minutes passed and the trio found themselves at a bakery that sat by an old coffee shop near the Station. Where Elphaba got the money for their food, however, Glinda did not know and did not ask. Food was on her mind right now. As fortune would have it, Dorothy had a little wicker basket with her, into which they put their food.

"Might as well be useful," Elphaba had said.

Two loaves of bread, a small wheel of cheese, a very small ("...and very cute" in Glinda's words) tub of butter and some corn from Munchkinland - the rare golden kind - was what they bought. Dorothy asked why they didn't have any meat, which Glinda also repeated.

"It's a long story," Elphaba said. "Let's just say that certain Munchkin-butchers don't care if the veal they're cutting came from a cow or a Cow."

Glinda felt ashamed for asking. She knew Elphaba was sensitive about the cause of Animals. That's what had caused this mess in the first place.

Elphaba had the broom underneath her cloak, but would not mount up until they were outside the town walls and out of sight. They were now making for the gate near the Peach and Kidney Pub. As they were walking, they saw an enrollment poster for St. Prowd's Academy in town. It had the cheesiest of slogans written across the picture of many smiling young students.

We're proud to be Prowd's.

"Why can't we just drop her off at St. Prowd's?" Elphaba asked.

"Elphaba, what a thing to say!"

"I mean, come on, Glinda!" she returned. "It's insane, dragging a little girl into the Wizard's war. This isn't her war, and she could get hurt."

"And she's still here!" Dorothy pipped up. "I'm ten-years-old, gosh darnit! I shouldn't be treated like a child!"

"Ten's young to twenty-five, or thirty-eight."

"Is that how old you are?" Dorothy asked. "Twenty-five and thirty-eight?"

She pointed first at Glinda, then at Elphaba, as she spoke.

"She just called you old, Elphie!" Glinda giggled.

"Just shut up!" she snapped at Dorothy. "No, I'm not thirty-eight! Now come on!"

They continued walking down the street, the gate just a few blocks ahead. It was even in viewing distance. As they passed by the Peach and Kidney, Elphaba told them to wait for her while she went into the pup alone. Glinda and Dorothy stood seemingly forgotten on the side of the street, looking this way and that wistfully.

"Is she always like that?" Dorothy asked.

"Hmm?"

"El-Fa-buh," Dorothy said. "Is she always so grouchy?"

"I don't know," Glinda said. "I'm just her girlfriend. And it's 'Elphaba'."

"Didn't I say that?"

"No, you said 'el-Fa-buh'."

"Ain't that the same thing?"

"No, that ain't the same thing!" Glinda returned. "I didn't spend almost two years at Shiz studying Linguification not to positively perfect the pronunciation of the names of every person I meet!"

"Wow! That was a mouthful!" Dorothy exclaimed.

Glinda smiled, then turned her eyes about. Suddenly she gasped the loudest, most ear-piercing, girlish gasp she could ever emit.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"I don't believe it!"

"Believe what?"

Glinda ran into the alley behind the Peach and Kidney, hands up to the level of her eyes and shaking over-dramatically. Dorothy followed after her.

"What's going on?"

But Glinda was now head-first in a very large trash-can. It was rather comical, to say the least. If Dorothy knew anything about Glinda's obsession with immaculate beauty, this would be even more comical and she would be busting at the sides with laughter.

Out she appeared, holding something filthy in her hands. Dorothy thought she saw a hint of pink in this old, ragged thing that Glinda had apparently lifted out of the trash-can.

Just then, Elphaba appeared on the other side with a brown paper bag in her hands. Glinda stowed the filthy thing under her cloak.

"There you are," Elphaba said. "Don't you have any sense to be walking in an alley?"

Glinda apologized and on they went. As they were walking out of the alley, with Elphaba's head turned back at Glinda, chiding her for doing such a foolish thing, she bumped into someone. The person was tall, about six feet, but did not look much bigger than Elphaba. So it was surprising when they bumped into each other that this tall, black-clad person did not even budge.

Whereas Elphaba was thrown to the ground, landing on her back.

"Watch it, cabbage!" the tall woman said, before walking off with the air of a queen.

This was quite alarming. Elphaba looked over herself, but could see no visible sign of her skin showing. This was not good: that person knew her by more than just her skin color, and that was quite disconcerting to say the least.


Back at Kiamo Ko, the trio were in the kitchen. It was rather small, and very basic. An open fire-pit sat in the middle, with a very small flu that let smoke out through a hole in the north-wall. Glinda, who hadn't cooked a single meal in her life, sat with Dorothy by the warmth of the fire, while Elphaba was busy preparing. She usually found her own food, but did have to make food for Nessa (Father's orders), so she knew her way around the kitchen, to say the least.

But it was not her favorite job.

"You really need to learn how to cook, Glinda," Elphaba said. "This isn't exactly my forte."

"You'll do fine," Glinda returned.

"Just keep an eye on the corn, will you?" Elphaba asked. "I don't want it to burn."

Elphaba then tore one of the loaves of bread apart, and used a knife to cut off hunks of cheese and gave these to Glinda and Dorothy.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Glinda asked.

"I'm not hungry," Elphaba stated.

"You need to eat, Elphie!" Glinda insisted. "I'm pretty sure you've lost weight since Shiz, and it wasn't just that book."

"What book?" Dorothy asked.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to listen to other peoples' conversations?" Elphaba asked.

"No, my mother's dead. So's my father."

"Just eat your food and don't interrupt!" Elphaba snapped.

They finished their meal in silence.


Elphaba went up to the East tower, thinking of all that had happened in the past few months. It was all very fuzzy, large periods of time where she would draw nothing but a blank slate. What exactly had happened to her during that time?

And why did that strange woman know who she was?

"Elphie?" a voice asked from down the winding stair-case that led to the top of the east tower.

"Yes, dear?" Elphaba returned, half-jokingly, half-affectionately.

"Dorothy's asleep," Glinda returned. "Can I come up there?"

"Be my guest." Elphaba sighed.

Slowly, the sound of bare feet patting on the stone cold floor echoed up from the stair-well. Elphaba turned around, stifled a giggle and covered her face. She turned a slight shade of violet.

Standing there was Glinda, and she was wearing that frilly pink party frock that she had worn that night at the Oz-dust Ballroom.

"Where did you get that?" Elphaba asked.

"I found it in a trash-can outside the Peach and Kidney," Glinda said. "Dorothy and I cleaned it up."

"And how did you know it was yours?" Elphaba asked. "That's hardly a wise thing to do, pulling stuff out of the garb..."

Glinda walked over to Elphaba, turned around and pulled her hair back, revealing a tag that clung to the inside of the collar.

H. Suserity, Upper Uplands.

Beneath that was an untidy scrawl of G. Upland.

"This actually was yours?" Elphaba asked. "But who would throw this away?"

"Remember when we went to the Emerald City?" Glinda asked.

"How can I forget?" Elphaba returned.

"After you invited me," Glinda said. "I pulled you off to the nearest store and bought new clothes."

"I remember," Elphaba said. "Nothing made Glinda happier than shopping."

"Well, we were going to meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz," Glinda stated.

"'So called,'" Elphaba added, with quotation fingers raised.

"And I thought we needed some nice clothes," Glinda continued.

"You needed some new clothes," Elphaba said.

"It was too much time to run back to Crage Hall and rummage through my wardrobe to find something appropriate then run back to the Train Station before it took off without me!"

"Rummaging through your wardrobe is something not even I would want to do," Elphaba returned.

"Hey!" Glinda gave Elphaba a playful shove.

"So you left your clothes back at Shiz..." Elphaba continued.

"No, I brought as many as I could get," Glinda said. "But they must have missed this one."

They sighed, and Glinda's eyes looked over at the brown bag sitting on the table.

"What did you get at the pub?"

"Are you sure that little girl's asleep?" Elphaba asked.

"Why are you so mean to her?"

"Why are you so nice to her?" Elphaba returned. "I'm beginning to think you want to adopt her."

"Elphie!"

"Well, you're acting like you want to be her mother or something!"

"She doesn't know anybody here," Glinda reasoned. "And she's far away from home and probably scared. If you were in her position, wouldn't you want someone to help you?"

"If I were in her position," Elphaba quickly-retorted. "I'd tell that yap-dog of hers to back down. I swear, it keeps looking at me as if it wants to bite my leg."

"And here I thought you loved Animals," Glinda commented.

"I do!" Elphaba replied. "It's just that animal hates me."

"Have you tried talking to it?"

"I don't even know if it can," Elphaba mused. "Though I can't imagine a world where Animals can't speak. That thing hasn't spoken yet."

"Well, sooner or later, Elphie, you'll have to reconcile with Miss Dorothy."

"She annoys me to no end."

"And I'm sure you scare her," Glinda laughed. "Now tell me what you got at the pub."

Elphaba rolled her eyes, then picked up the brown bag and revealed its contents. Glinda laughed when she saw what it was, though only for a moment.


It was almost midnight. They were both in Glinda's bed-room. Elphaba had crashed out from the drinking and now could not move to save her life. Glinda hadn't drank that much, since she had another plan in mind.

Making sure that Elphaba was asleep and the door closed, she crawled out of the bed and began removing the pink party frock. She then took the white-gray bed-sheet and tore it off Elphaba. This she wrapped around her person, then crawled back onto the bed. With great care, she began removing Elphaba's clothing, a snicker of delight on her face.

Not that she meant to have her way with her while Elphaba was passed out drunk. That was just too naughty. But there were other things she could do that would be harmless fun, especially with a passed out friend and a frilly pink dress.

"I was right, Elphie," Glinda whispered, trying hard not to laugh. "Pink does go good with green."


(AN: Well, what do you know? This chapter has story-merit after all)

(And I have no idea what 'sexual tension' is [still not quite sure what a 'Mary Sue' is either, since some use it as an insult against a morally-good female character or to describe overly-endowed and unrealistic super-characters], but of what I have heard of a certain definition about it, that means that we won't see what happens onscreen [or in text] at least until the end [-wink wink-] and even then, I don't know)

(Hilfan Suserity is sort of an anagram of Susan Hilferty, the costume designer of Wicked. And that part about Glinda buying a dress between the Train Station scene and "One Short Day" is sort of based off of something Kristin Chenoweth said in her last show with Menzel ["Let's go to the Emerald City!", "Let's go shopping!"]. Though I think she probably did run back to her room and pick out the yellow dress from her enormous wardrobe [I sort of think she had it with her since "Dear Old Shiz" in one of those giant boxes she was riding upon]. lol)

(I think you can guess what's about to happen).