A/N: Hello everyone!
So, in light of the spreading of Covid-19 and since I have more time than ever, I have decided to take part in this challenge. As I am sure you are aware of the concept, let me just say this: I will not publish the list of prompts beforehand (even though I'm sure many of you know the list) but will name each chapter after the prompt of the day. I will give trigger warnings and such if I think them necessary. Let me say though that these are GELPHIE based oneshots, which means that the two of them can be anywhere between enemies, friends, lovers and wives as I see fit for the given prompt.
Now, without further ado, happy reading and let me know what you think! :)
"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
A green finger traced the words on the page in front of her over and over again as she read them aloud. They cut through the silence of her dorm at Shiz University that her roommate had left behind when she went to spend the afternoon with her army of friends. Not that Elphaba minded the silence, or the lack of company.
At least that was what she told herself.
It didn't bother her that the room seemed emptier without the ditzy blonde in it. She didn't miss her mindless chatter and often unwanted company, nor did she miss the attempts of Galinda trying to give her a makeover or color her nails or doing her hair – no, definitely not.
She was just glad that they didn't spend their days fighting anymore. Because it was exhausting to think of snarky remarks and it took away some of her reading time, not because she secretly hated the kicked puppy look evident on Galinda's face before she raised her perfectly manicured eyebrows and stormed out of the room.
If lying to yourself was a sin, she was wicked through and through. Not that it would surprise anyone, Elphaba herself included.
She took another sip of the long cold coffee sitting on her nightstand before reading that second to last sentence once again.
"If good and evil is prominent in everybody", she mumbled to herself while scribbling the text passage in her tattered notebook, "then it must be unbalanced in most."
Her eyes skimmed over the remaining words on the page, trying to see if the author addressed some kind of unbalance of good and evil in humans, but he skipped right to means of punishing those who listened to the wrong side of their hearts. She scowled down onto the text. The author had so much potential up until now, but his apparent lack of interest in the distribution of the opposite forces was more than a little disappointing.
She was just about to slam the book shut and try another one, as the unmistakable sound of keys turning in a lock announced her roommates presence. Elphaba let out a deep sigh and buried herself further behind the book she had just lost interest in. Maybe, if she just seemed absorbed enough, Galinda would ignore her as she had done so often before.
"Elphie!", a chirpy voice exclaimed, and the green girl rolled her eyes. Well, that didn't work out.
She barely looked up from where she had jackknifed herself on the bed, but that didn't seem to faze the blonde in the slightest.
"You haven't moved at all since I left, have you?" Elphaba didn't grace her with an answer, after all it was all too obvious, so she just shrugged. "Don't tell me you've been reading this entire time!"
A weird slurping sound made her finally look up from her book.
There she was in the middle of the room, one hand on her hip, the other holding a blindingly pink milkshake, its equally pink straw between equally pink lips. She should have looked ridiculous, Oz, Elphaba wanted to find her so, but weirdly enough she only found her endearing.
"One day you will have rectangles in your eyes from reading so much."
"That's nonsense", Elphaba replied while forcing herself to look back at the page instead of her bright bonbon of a roommate.
"Pardon me?"
"It's nonsense", she repeated, a little more forgiving this time. "Just like children won't get square eyes from watching too much TV. That's just what their parents tell them to scare them."
"Yes, I know that. Smartass", Galinda said, but the evident smile in her voice made the words lose their usual bite.
When another slurping sound came from the other side of the room, Elphaba shot her an annoyed look. "Why can't you drink silently like normal people? I'm trying to concentrate."
"Oh please." Galinda flopped down on her pink frilly bed, the milkshake in her hand dangerously close to spilling. "If you were still reading that old thing you would have turned the page at least two times by now."
Elphaba silently cursed to herself and quickly turned the page, barely remembering the words she had been so engaged in just a few moments earlier before Galinda had easily torn her concentration to shreds. But the shuffling of the pages only sounded like defeat.
Galinda grinned like a child on a Lurlinemas morning, revealing her flawlessly white set of teeth. For some reason unknown to Elphaba, her breath hitched in her throat at the sight. "See? You're usually a ridiculously fast reader. What's the matter?"
"Maybe I'm just concerned that you will spill some of that obnoxiously colored liquid on our floor. Is there a reason you decided not to use a lid?"
"Why yes, Elphie, actually there is." The blonde giggled as she played with the milkshake in her hand, obviously amused how Elphaba's dark eyes followed her every move, as if she could stop the swirling liquid from spilling by sheer willpower. "There's a sign in the store saying every lid less saves a turtle. Or Turtle, whatever. So it's all for economical sustainability."
Elphaba had to physically refrain herself from laughing out loud at the confidently delivered statement, concealing the small smile that still forced itself onto her lips behind her book. "You're right and wrong, my sweet, as I'm sure you actually wanted to say ecological sustainability since that would imply saving any animals, turtle or Turtle. However, since I am sure that the same company which sells bright pink milkshakes in cups made of plastic pays no mind to what their products could cause in the animal or Animal world, but only looks to their own profit, you are right that they probably do it for economic reasons. After all, they are charging you the same price for less involved material, as well as probably less of the actual milkshake, since there is no lid to prevent it from spilling."
For a few seconds Galinda just stared at her with a blank face, before shrugging and taking another sip from her milkshake. "Be that as it may, I'm sticking with my original statement."
Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"
"Smartass."
This time it was impossible for her to hold back the cackle forming in her throat, and strangely enough, Galinda's melodic laugh soon joined in. The unfamiliar sound was like hearing a new song for the first time – the melody is still strange but something in the back of your brain clicks and you know, you just know that this will be your next favorite song.
When it faded, Elphaba tried her best to ignore the tug in her heart, begging her to make the blonde laugh again. These weren't her feelings. She was annoyed by Galinda's laughter whenever she talked to her friends on the phone, annoyed by the fact that it never ended and that it kept her from reading. Only this time, she wasn't.
Not knowing what she should do or say next, she riffled through the pages of her notebook, not really reading any on her views on good and evil at all. For some reason, they suddenly didn't seem as important anymore.
"Elphie?"
"Yes, my sweet?", she replied without looking up, thus missing the sparkle in the blonde's blue eyes as the endearment once again slipped from her tongue.
"You should try some!"
This time she did look up, not without once again screwing her nose at the drink's offensive pink color. "No, thank you."
"Why not?"
"Because this looks like it might turn me pink", Elphaba deadpanned, but failed to hide the amusement on her normally scowling face.
Once again Galinda giggled as if she had delivered the funniest joke in Oz, and Elphaba could feel her cheeks growing hot. Sweet Oz, she might not even need this milkshake to turn her pink, Galinda's laugh could do so well enough on its own.
Before she could have the chance to recover from these new and unwanted feelings in her stomach, her blonde roommate crossed the space between their opposite beds and flopped down beside Elphaba. The drink in her hand swirled dangerously close to the edge, threatening to spill onto the books piled up around her.
"Come on! It tastes like strawberries!" Galinda nearly poked her with the straw at the attempt of getting her to try it.
"I'm allergic to strawberries", Elphaba blurted out as she ducked her head to escape the offending milkshake, while also trying to keep it within her sight, so she could stop it from spilling in time. A task that was near impossible with a surprisingly strong blonde also thrown into the mix.
"No, you're not. You're allergic to peanuts and pink and any kind of fashion sense but not to strawberries!"
"Galinda, be careful!" Elphaba yelled instead of an answer as a small droplet of pink liquid spilled over the edge and onto her grey covers.
"Oops", she replied with a sheepish twinkle in her eyes, and once again held the straw to Elphaba's lips. "You better drink it before it spills on one of your precious books about…"
She paused for a moment to lean over and catch a glimpse of one of the titles, the drink swirling from side to side. "About the mysteries of good and evil. Goodness, Elphie, no wonder that you're always so sour if this is what you're reading for fun."
"Maybe I'm just sour because of my obnoxious roommate", the green girl snapped back, but her heavy breathing from their little fight made the statement use all its usual vigor.
"Well, your obnoxious roommate won't stop from getting you to try this drink, even if it means ruining all your books in the process."
"Galinda, you're being-"
The blonde cut her off by pressing the straw a little harder to Elphaba's mouth. "Put those lips of yours to better uses, Elphie."
"You're evil, you know that, right?", the green girl replied, but Galinda only winked at her.
And finally, Elphaba obeyed.
A/N: The quote in the beginning is not mine, but from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956, which I found on goodreads . com.
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