The rain lasted through the night, and so it was to a dull grey light that Glinda woke. Still sleepy, she turned over, blinking, then sat up.

Elphaba was pacing the length of the small room, slowly, worrying the edge of her sleeve as she walked. Every so often she'd stop and bite her lip, or look out at the rain, or shake her head. Glinda closed her eyes, briefly, in sympathy. She got up and, unnoticed by the green girl, crept barefoot across the room until she stood at the foot of her roomie's bed. Elphaba still hadn't noticed her. Glinda cleared her throat.

"You didn't sleep well either, did you?"

Guiltily, Elphaba stopped pacing, turning to face her roomie. She shook her head. "No."

Glinda nodded. Elphaba sat down on her bed. "Glinda," she said unsteadily, "tell me- last night-" She hesitated, and Glinda sat down next to her. She reached out and put her hand over Elphaba's, curling her fingers under the other girl's hand.

"You didn't dream it."

Elphaba let out a long breath. Her fingers curled around Glinda's. "You thought so too?"

Glinda nodded again, shifting her legs so she knelt facing Elphaba. "I did. I actually-" She giggled, nervous. "I woke myself up in the middle of the night. The rain had slowed down, and it was darker, and it nearly felt like a different day, and I started to think that it was all in my head and I couldn't get back to sleep."

"I nearly woke you up to ask you," Elphaba admitted, "but you looked so… I didn't want to wake you," she finished.

"You could have." Glinda let her hand rise to brush the green girl's hair out of her face. Elphaba grinned sarcastically, the spell having been broken.

"Now you tell me."

Glinda giggled at that, and brought her hand back to clap it over her mouth, and Elphaba pulled her hand away and kissed her instead, a little hesitant. Glinda shut her eyes as their reluctance melted.

Someone cleared their throat loudly, and they sprang guiltily apart. Nessarose surveyed them from the doorway. "Good morning," she said dryly.

Glinda's mouth had gone dry, and her heart pounded in her throat. Tense, she looked to Elphaba, but the green girl was speechless. She stared at her sister, her expression cycling so quickly through different emotions that Glinda could not place them.

Nessa's eyebrows went up, though not so much in shock as in wry acknowledgement. "No, Nanny, they were still asleep," she called softly over her shoulder, her eyes never leaving the girls.

For a moment that seemed like an eternity to Glinda, the room was still, the trio of gazes unblinking. Nessa looked from Elphaba to Glinda and back; Glinda looked from Elphaba to Nessarose. Elphaba's eyes remained on her sister. Finally, she found her voice. "Nessa," she said wearily, but the younger girl shook her head.

"Later."

"Nessa-" said Elphaba again, quickly, almost apologetic, and again Nessa shook her head. Glinda, feeling acutely that she was intruding on something, stood, going aimlessly to her desk.

"No," Nessarose said firmly. "Not right now. It can wait."

Elphaba bit her lip. "I'd rather we-"

"Elphie," said Nessarose clearly, interrupting her, "I knew." The words stopped Elphaba in mid-sentence, and she closed her mouth abruptly. Glinda turned to stare at her in shock.

"I knew there was something between the two of you," Nessa clarified, softer, realizing the impact of her words.

"How?" asked Glinda, shaken.

Nessarose threw her sister a glance. "Later," she repeated. Glinda thought she saw Elphaba nod, almost imperceptibly, and then Nessarose turned and left.

---

That night, the rain finally began to let up, and a quiet figure slipped through Crage Hall's dormitory. When Elphaba tested it, she found her sister's door unlocked, and peered in. Nessarose was awake, waiting for her, and Elphaba settled at the foot of her bed, the familiarity of the situation disrupted by an air of tense uneasiness. Elphaba bit her lip, looking down, unsure, and Nessa took pity on her. "You want to know how I knew?"

Startled, Elphaba looked up. She nodded.

Nessarose grinned. "I do live with you two," she admonished gently, smiling. "It's not as if it was that obvious, though, but there are some things that just can't go unnoticed. And… when you'd first started arguing, I'd asked Glinda, and she told me you were arguing over a boy, which somehow didn't seem right to me."

Elphaba shifted. "I'd been wondering," she admitted softly, "since we only figured it out last- yesterday, ourselves."

Nessa shut her eyes briefly. She'd never heard her sister say we in quite a way as she just had.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. "I just thought I should tell you, that's all. Elphie-" she added tentatively, "it's all right with me…"

"What?" Elphaba's head snapped up. "Nessarose, I do not need your permission to have a relationship-" She nearly flinched as she said the word, and that gave Nessarose an opening.

"But Elphaba-" The younger girl's face was blank and calm, leaving no room for doubt or confusion. "That's what you wanted to ask me. Isn't it?"

Elphaba stared at her, forcing her anger down. It subsided, gradually, and she sighed. "Sort of. I didn't know, since you knew about us-" She looked down, twisting the hem of her skirt between anxious fingers. "If it changed anything with us…"

"Besides that I'm happy for you? Of course not."

Elphaba glanced up.

"Why should it?"

Elphaba nodded shakily.

"I was right, before," said Nessarose softly. "It was Glinda that changed you."

Slowly, Elphaba shook her head. "No," she told her sister. "It was Glinda who showed me who I- who I could be."

"You'd never known that before?"

Elphaba's smile was barely visible. She shook her head and looked down at her hands. Then, in the darkness, so Nessa couldn't see, she brought one hand up to brush her lips, and shivered at the memory of the blonde girl's touch.

"No, Nessie. Not like this."

She rose, catlike and silent, and went to the door, pausing with one hand on the knob. "Good night, Nessa."

"Good night, Elphie." Nessarose grinned, impishly. "Fresh dreams."

"Oh, hush," muttered Elphaba good-naturedly, and shut the door.

Two days later, Ama Clutch died.


It's been forever and a half, hasn't it? I'm sorry. I'd thought NaNoWriMo would take up most of my time in November; it turned out I didn't have time for it at all. But Nessa's too much fun to write as omniscient, and I couldn't resist. Besides, I missed you.

I have a story for y'all, too. A little while ago I saw Gregory Maguire at a book-signing for A Lion Among Men. Someone asked him about Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked, if he just meant them to be friends, or what. His reply was: "Well. All I can say is this: it depends on what you mean by friends."

…this is why we love GM (by the way, I'm forgetting my disclaimers, all this is his). That's pretty true, though, isn't it?

They made the review button more convenient! Lovely, isn't it? Go on, give it a whirl. You know you want to.