AN :
Thank you for all your reviews, and welcome for the new readers and reviewers :) Special thanks to Lillifaba for promoting this fic in Tumblr. :)
I'm posting this with minimum editing because I am feeling so frustrated with work and stuff. And it does not help that I spent days working on a oneshot and it turned out so meh :(
"Elphie!" Galinda ran down the stairs, the hem of her skirt swirling around her knees like a rush of flowers in the wind. She wrapped her arms around the green girl the moment they were close enough, letting out a squeal. The two footmen standing at the door kept their faces blank.
The blonde was alone at home, excluding the servants. She wore a V-neck dress in pastel green, her hair pulled to the side and secured with a silk ribbon and left cascading down her shoulder as if she was expecting visitors any moment.
"Why didn't you tell me you are coming?" she asked, her grin wide on her face.
Elphaba tried to smile but failed.
"Oh my dear Elphie, you must be tired. Come, let's go to the parlour." She gestured to the different servants. "Get her luggage. Prepare the Rose Room, the room facing the garden, and bring some tea to the parlour."
The footman came back in with just a piece of small luggage and a long, oddly-wrapped package.
"Just two?" Galinda looked at Elphaba in shock, which elicited a chuckle from the green girl. She missed her.
"Yes, just these two."
"Sweet Lurline." Galinda waved at the air. "Pardon me. But you'll realise that you need a new wardrobe soon, like tomorrow!"
"No."
"Yesssssss," the blonde emphasized the word, her head bobbing with her fist as she reverted to the sign language that the girls had used when they were in Shiz. "Over here, no one wears the same dress twice in a season. It's unheard of. It's inappropriate. It's…. socially unacceptable! How long will you be here?"
There must be a change in her expression, for Galinda took a deep look at her, and the golden smile flattered for a moment before it went up again.
She linked their arms together.
"Come. Let's go to the parlour for some refreshment while they set up your bedroom." She led the way to a room just a few doors away. The whole house was bright, the wallpaper beige with pale pink and violet petals, the carpet dark with bright curls and shapes. The corridors were lined with full-length windows on one side that opened up to a garden, the day curtains billowing in the gentle breeze.
The parlour had pink wallpaper, a fireplace at the side with a grand piano and a harp next to it. There were silk cushions on the couch, and Galinda placed one behind Elphaba's back as she sat down.
"You must be tired after the long journey. How long did it take for you to come here?"
Elphaba told her.
"That's terribly long."
Elphaba shook her head. The journey was long, but the time in the carriage gave her time to compose herself and time to think, though after every round she would find her brain as foggy as before. But at least she knew where her destination was, and that she would see Galinda at the end of the journey. The trip with its fixed destination gave her a sense of purpose, unlike the last few months at Kiamo Ko where she seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, where it seems that with every day she was more lost than before, lonelier than before, and further away from Fiyero
A maid came in with a tray of cakes and tea. Galinda dismissed her the moment the tray was put down and poured out the tea.
"Chamomile," Galinda commented as the scent hit the air. "Just perfect." Elphaba took a sip from the cup and nibbled on a slice of cake that was offered. The cake was soft and flavourful, but it tasted like ash in her mouth. She put the cake down and went to the open windows.
"Your garden is beautiful."
"Thank you." The blonde went to her side. "The credit goes to the gardeners. I have a whole platoon of them. They came twice a day to tend to the garden. The one I have problems with is the greenhouse. Nothing grows there. Everything that I put inside wilts after a few weeks and I can't figure out why. I have just ordered a new batch of plants for it again. Perhaps you can give me pointers and show me what to do? Why don't we finish the tea before we pop by the greenhouse?" She wrapped her hands around her friend's green ones as she guided her friend back to the couch.
"You must be exhausted from the journey. I tell you what. We'll look at the greenhouse tomorrow. Why don't you go to your room and have a nap? I'll wake you up when it's time for supper. If you're up for it, we can have a sleepover." Galind squeezed her hand in anticipation.
"No, I can't impose on you and your husband like this. I'll look for another accommodation." She knew how contradictory her statement was. Why had she asked the driver to go straight to Galinda's house instead of stopping at the nearest club that was opened to solo female travellers if that was her intention all along?
"Chuff? He's out of town again. He won't be back for a long while, and your presence is more than welcome. It's always so lonely here. Of course, I have a whole house of maids and butlers and cooks and gardeners, but it's different. I can't talk to them. They may be nice and courteous to me, but it's 'my Lady this' and 'my Lady that'. They talk to me because they're paid to do so – they're not my friends. You'll stay here and keep me company, won't you, Elphie? Please?" The blonde tugged at her sleeve.
"Let me show you your room," the blonde added when her friend did not turn down the invitation.
The Rose Room was two doors from Galina's bedroom. She looked around the room. It was decorated in a different design from the one that Galinda had done up for her when she moved into the spare room in Fiyero's suite after she was discharged from the infirmary, but there was something distinctly Galinda in the design and the setting – the pastel wallpaper, the laces on the cushions, three in a row, the small floral patterns, and it was as if she had been to this very room before. The strange familiarity draped into Elphaba's body like a soft comfortable shawl, and she sat on the bed, suddenly aware of the exhaustion that she had ignored throughout the journey.
Her luggage was already next to the bed, and she did not protest when Galinda opened it up and took out her dresses, giving them a shake each before hanging them in the wardrobe. The blonde took out the other items and put them into the dresser drawers and stowed the luggage at the side of the wardrobe together with the long package.
"Well," she swiped her hands against each other with a smirk. "I guess you're staying for a while now."
Elphaba looked around the room. It was strange, how both of them were so different, had different plans in life, and now they were almost the same – married but lonely, with no one to talk to.
No, she was not married to Fiyero. Not in the eyes of his people.
"Galinda, there is something I didn't tell you."
"What is it?"
"It's my greenhouse."
Galinda waited for her to continue.
"I no longer have one. It's gone."
"Gone?"
She nodded. "It's gone. It's no longer there. There was a thunderstorm. I could not sleep the whole night, but I did not hear anything. When I went there in the morning, there was nothing." She cackled at the words, remembering it as if it had just happened yesterday. Her eagerness to get away from Yackle and her ramblings. The rain pasting her hair to her face. She had not brought an umbrella because the greenhouse was just behind the corner next to the kitchen, a short distance without shelter. The carnage that she saw when she turned the corner. Overturned racks, shattered pots, the flowers and stems crushed, the roots tore off. The glass walls were shattered, crystalline pieces everywhere. She remembered the rivulets of rainwater, mixed with soil and bruised petals, looking eerily like blood.
They said that a bolt of lightning must have struck the greenhouse at night and had looked at her with strange eyes when she insisted otherwise.
"Elphie?" Galinda stood before her, her hands on her shoulders. "It's just a greenhouse. You can build another one."
The care and concern in Galinda's voice seeped through the impenetrable façade that Elphaba had been wearing for the few months. A sob broke out of her, as if the walls inside her was crumbling just like the glass walls of her greenhouse.
Everything was gone. Her clothes. Her greenhouse. Her sense of direction. Her life. Fiyero. And Galinda pulled her into her arms when the green girl shook uncontrollably, her body wracked by sobs.
The days in Frottica passed by in a blur.
The curtains in her room were usually pulled shut, and half the morning would be gone before Galinda came up with a tray. The blonde would have her second breakfast next to the green girl, as she lined out the plans they would have in the afternoon. Even though Chuffrey was away, there were still tea and dance parties that Galinda had to attend as the wife of one of the richest men in Gillikin. On those afternoons, Elphaba would spend her afternoon indoors, in the small library facing the beautiful garden, with a book that she would barely touch. She retired early every night, staring at the ceiling, her body too tired to move, her brain too exhausted to sleep. And she dreamt endlessly when she finally managed to fall asleep, dreams that she could hardly remember when she woke up the next morning.
"He introduces me to everyone as his clever wife, the one who is smart enough to go to university. But does he seek my opinion when it comes to his business? Does he share with me what he has done during the day, what he talked about in his business meetings, the deals that he has closed successfully? No, he wants me just the way other men want their wives, pretty, submissive, obedient. Never question him. Don't give your opinion. Don't talk back. All men are the same." Galinda paused and put a hand on Elphaba's arm. "I don't mean Fiyero, of course. Fiyero is one in a million. Exceptional."
On other days, Galinda would bring her to different parts of town, to parks and lakes, bookstores and markets. They took long walks in the gardens, their arms linked, Galinda nodding her head at acquaintances who were there at the same time. Sometimes she would make the inevitable introduction, introducing Elphaba as a friend from university, but made no effort to engage them in a conversation, and Elphaba was grateful for that.
The order of new plants arrived, and the girls changed into pants and aprons and slapped on straw hats that Galinda proclaimed were too hideous to be seen outside of the greenhouse (she said the same when she put on the old dress that she did not even remember bringing over from her parents' place when she moved to her marital residence) and went on their knees. Elphaba poured new soil onto the ground, and dug deep into it with a spade, mixing the old soil with new. She opened up a package of fertilizer, and Galinda wrapped her silk handkerchief around her mouth, looking like a child playing bandit. They stood side by side, their heads close together, discussing where each plant should be placed, if it should stay in the pot that it came from, or if it should be transplanted into the ground. The maids came in at different times of the day, bringing in salad for lunch and cakes for tea and putting them on the glass table in the middle of the greenhouse. They brought in lamps to light up the place when night fell, and soup for dinner, and usually, the food would be cold by the time one of the girls' stomach was loud enough to distract them from their work.
There was no news from Fiyero.
"I am going out in the afternoon," Galinda announced as she waved an invitation card in the air.
Elphaba nodded as she sipped from the dainty cup in hers.
"Aren't you going to ask me why?"
"You'll tell me if you want to, won't you?" Elphaba replied.
"Elphie!" Galinda slapped the card on her arm, but she chuckled at her friend's reply. "Can't you just pretend that you are curious?" The green girl replied with a smile.
"This," she waved the card in her hand, "is a message from my favourite dressmaker. She's back in town, with bales of silk and satin and the prettiest laces and ribbons any girl has ever seen. And yours truly, as her best customer, will get to choose first."
There were really bales of fabric, but each of limited quantity ("she cannot afford to have two of her customers wearing clothes cut from the same fabric. It'll ruin her reputation", Galinda explained behind her back). Elphaba stopped before one, her hand almost touching the almost golden silk under her hand.
"It'll look good on him, won't it?" Galinda spoke her thoughts out loud. "Do you want to get it for him?" Elphaba shook her head. But Galinda gestured to the dressmaker, and the green girl had no doubt that the cloth would soon make its way to Vinkus.
The session ended soon after, with Galinda buying almost half of the goods, and the blonde brought Elphaba to a nearby cafe for high tea. The waitress brought them to one of the private rooms on the second floor and retreated after food was served. The two friends enjoyed the busy scene below them, and the cool air provided by the tall trees.
"Maybe I should open a place like this."
"A cafe?"
"A café. A cake and pastry place. Somewhere where friends and families can come and enjoy fine food and have a relaxing afternoon. The place will be surrounded by a garden with beautiful flowers. The flowers will come from our greenhouse."
"Our greenhouse?"
"Yes, ours, because you have a hand in it too. I can serve cake made with flowers – roses, chamomile, chrysanthemum. What do you think?"
"You?"
"Yes, me. Why not? I'm going to the lady boss, so I will help out when things get busy. Chuff does not have to know."
Elphaba chuckled at her dream, and then she suddenly froze.
"Elphie?"
The green girl did not seem to hear her. Galinda looked around. There was no other customer on the second floor, but Galinda had seen a few customers on the first floor when they first entered the place. She could hear the giggles of a few girls as they good-naturedly teased a friend, the voices of two men speaking in a language that she could not understand, the bright sounds as someone cut a slice of cake on a porcelain plate. But they had the floor and the room to themselves, and the walls and doors did not allow anyone to look in. But Elphaba was looking at the door, her brows knitting.
And as Galinda was looking at her, she could see a strange expression on her face.
"Elphie?" the blonde placed a hand on her friend's arm. "Is anything the matter?"
The green blinked at her touch, and the expression was gone.
"Nothing." She mustered a smile. "So tell me more about this café that you are planning to open."
She was in the large hall of Kiamo Ko, looking for Fiyero but she was surrounded by tall, nameless faces and faceless people. She knew that Fiyero was somewhere in the hall, but she could not see him, and she was unable to look over the shoulders of these strangely tall people. She tried to squeeze between them, but they moved around, never noticing her, yet blocking her every move and turn, speaking in a strange language that she did not understand. A path cleared, and just as she caught a glimpse of Fiyero, it closed again, cutting off her access. She called out to him, but the conversations around her increased in volume, and it drowned out her voice. She pushed her way through, calling his name, and just when she had almost reached the spot where she last saw him, a crack appeared on the floor under her feet. She took a step back, and the crack widened in both length and width, forming a chasm that opened up to a bottomless void that she could not cross.
Elphaba sat up with a start, her hand going to her mouth subconsciously to stifle her soundless scream.
Her heart pounded, loud in her ears, and it took her a while before she realised that she was not in Kiamo Ko. She was in the guest room in Galinda's mansion, all alone.
Elphaba touched the bedsheet. It was wet, soaked with her sweat. She felt hot, stifled, and she willed her heart to slow down as she looked around the room as she called upon a light, trying to ensure that there was no one. The door was closed and locked. So were the windows.
She took a few deep breaths as she rubbed the goosebumps on her arms until her heartbeat slowed to normal.
It was just a dream, she told herself.
The room felt stuffy, and Elphaba got out of the bed. She had shut the locked the windows before she went to bed, and now she opened the window closest to her. The air outside was cold, and she shivered in her thin nightgown. But the cold air cleared her head.
It was just a dream, she told herself again, but she could not help but remember that Fiyero had not written to her at all. She could blame it on his busy schedule, she could blame it on the non-existent postal arrangement between Gillikin and Vinkus. Perhaps a letter would come tomorrow, maybe a stack of letters, all sent out on different dates but held up somewhere.
Or she could simply face the truth.
The conversation in Arjiki at the café, between two Arjikis as they exchanged information they had of home, the speakers oblivious to the fact that Elphaba was upstairs.
Suddenly she could not stay in the room any longer.
There were only two places that she frequented in the big mansion, but she was not in the mood to be surrounded by books. She made her way to the greenhouse instead. She knew that it would be cold outside, but she could not stay in the room any longer, the room that seemed to close on her. As she traversed the long corridor, the glass building came into view. She expected the place to be in the dark, but even from a distance, she could see that there was something. At first, she thought that it was a reflection of the moon, but it was a moonless night, and the nearest street lamp was too far away. She increased her pace, nearly breaking into a run as she got closer. There was a light inside the greenhouse. Did the person who destroyed her greenhouse in Kiamo Ko follow her here? She shook her head at her irrational thought. There must be a logical reason why there was a light in the greenhouse. Maybe it was a servant who was checking on the plants. Or maybe someone had gone in to retrieve a shovel or a spade.
The door to the glasshouse was ajar.
Galinda had added seats around the glass table in the middle of the greenhouse. There was a couch big enough for three people, flanked by two single couches surrounding the table. A lamp was on the floor, next to the table.
Elphaba was about to step in when she heard the sounds. She paused.
She could hear a woman's titter, followed by soft whispers. The back of the couch was facing Elphaba, and the sound had drifted from there, though her view of the occupant was blocked by the furniture itself.
The woman said something that Elphaba could not hear, and it was only when another voice replied that Elphaba realised that there was more than one person in the greenhouse. It was a man, his voice low, his words indecipherable. But the tone in his voice was unmistakable. She used to be the recipient of such gentle tones, such soft whispers, back in Shiz, back in Munchkinland, in the early days in Kiamo Ko. Before Fiyero found it difficult to be even in the same room as her.
There was a moment of silence before it was broken by the soft sounds of kissing. The man muttered something – endearments, declarations, promises. The woman giggled, and they kissed again. The sounds of movements as the weights shifted on the couch.
The woman gave off a little sound from the back of her throat.
Elphaba backed off, one silent step at a time, until she was sure that that the couple amid the greenery would not be able to see her if they ever looked up. She turned and fled down the corridor.
She never saw the woman's face.
But she would recognize that voice anywhere.
AN : LittleMissDelirious, how did you manage to read my mind all the time? :D