Strength
A.N. Thanks for the reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
Once Fiyero had left the room, Glinda sighed and leaned back in her chair. "So, did you have a good time today? Come on, admit it."
Elphaba smiled and said, "Yeah, I did. Thanks."
"Well, it was Fiyero who threw the whole thing together. He really loves you, Elphie."
"Yeah, I know." Elphaba's smile faded a little bit as she looked at Glinda. "Hey, Glinda, I'm sorry if I've, well, if we've been making you feel uncomfortable with us being together so much. I know I would feel a little awkward if he had to take care of you this way."
How Elphaba was always able to read her feelings was something that Glinda never quite understood. "It's alright, Elphie. If he doesn't carry you around, how else are you going to get anywhere? I mean, I could try to carry you but that could be dangerous to both of us."
Elphaba laughed at this, but this time it wasn't the fake laugh that she put on to make everyone around her believe she was ok. "I missed being able to laugh with you like this. So what do you want to do?"
"You're not tired? Normally by this time you're either asleep already or at least partially there."
"No, I guess being alone with you gives me extra energy."
Glinda thought for a moment, and then leapt up from her chair. "I know! I can give you a makeover!"
"Again? Glinda, we've done this already, remember?"
Glinda looked up from the various tools she was collecting. "Yes, but it didn't last. Come on, we need to impress Fiyero. We need to show him that I can take care of you just as well as he can."
"From what I remember, the first time you "Galinda-fied" me he said something to the effect of "You don't have to do that." But if you really think it's nessecary…"
"Well, maybe Galinda-fying you isn't, but Glinda-fying you is! This is completely new."
"And the difference would be…"
Glinda paused for a moment. "I'm not sure. I haven't decided yet. This is the first Glinda makeover I've done." She pulled Elphaba's chair closer to her bed, so that she could sit on her bed while she worked. "Now, let's see. Last time I did this I left your hair down…maybe this time I should do something a little different."
Glinda worked on Elphaba's hair alone for what seemed like an eternity to Elphaba. Once the hair was done, she still wouldn't allow Elphaba to see her progress. "I only reveal my completed work" she said. She then moved on to clothing, remembering that makeup didn't do much for Elphaba's skin tone. "Let's see…honestly, Elphie. I don't see why you can't wear something with a little more…color. Or at least own something with a little more color."
"I do. It's called my skin." Elphaba replied. "How much more color do you want me to have?"
Glinda had given up on Elphaba's closet and moved on to her own. She cursed herself for being so short. Nothing in there would fit her. Except…yes, that might work. Glinda reached into the back of the closet and pulled out a pair of jeans. They had been given to her as a gift from a distant relative, but apparently the relative was too distant to know of Glinda's height. They had always been much too long on her, but she kept them with intentions of getting them hemmed. She judged that they would most likely fit Elphaba. She went back into her closet and pulled out a pink and white sweater that had also always been too big on her. "OK, I found you an outfit" she said to Elphaba, holding the clothes behind her back. "But you have to close your eyes while I do this."
"You want me to close my eyes as you undress me? Glinda, that just sounds wrong on so many levels…"
"Just do it, Elphie."
Elphaba closed her eyes, and allowed Glinda to complete her "project". It took Glinda longer to dress her than it did for Fiyero, but she chalked that up to the fact that Glinda had not had much practice at this.
"OK, you're done. Open your eyes." Glinda turned Elphaba's chair so that it faced her mirror.
The last time Glinda had made over Elphaba, she had run away upon seeing the results. This time, she could not run away. She stared at herself intently. Somehow, Glinda had managed to get her cast through the leg opening of the pants, and it was barely even visible. She looked almost normal. Her hair, although mostly left down, now had a thin braid down one side, rather reminiscent of the hairstyle Elphaba had had when she first met Glinda.
"Well, what do you think?" Glinda asked.
"I'm not sure…It's not bad, but it just doesn't look like me…I look so normal."
"Well, that's a better reaction than I got last time. Just try it out for a day or so…we have to show Fiyero." This Elphaba agreed with. The two then started to make small talk with each other, but there wasn't much to discuss. Elphaba hadn't been alone since returning from the Emerald City, and Glinda had only been alone for short increments of time. Still, the two managed to make each other laugh.
Around five in the evening, just as it was beginning to get dark, Elphaba strained to look out the window. "Glinda, is it still snowing?" she asked.
Glinda stood and went to the window. "Yup, and pretty hard too. Won't be surprised if they issue an emergency order for everyone to stay inside."
"Can they do that?" Elphaba had never heard of such an order.
"Oh, sure. They don't want people suing the university for injuries caused by traveling from building to building in the snow. Don't worry, I'm sure Fiyero's been home for hours already. It's a good thing he left when he did. If they issue an order they send an Ama around to all of the rooms to…"
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Glinda opened it and saw not one of the Amas in the doorway, but Madame Morrible herself. Elphaba saw her too, and suddenly felt an urge to hide somewhere.
"Hello, girls. Sorry to disturb you, but I thought I should inform you that the storm outside is going to get worse before it gets better, so we are requesting that all students stay where they are for the duration. At the very worst, we should have the walkways cleared and everything back in order by this time tomorrow.
Glinda didn't want Madame Morrible to stay any longer than she had to, so she didn't say much in response. Luckily, it seemed that Madame Morrible was responsible for informing all the girls in the building. She left quickly without a word to Elphaba, which is exactly how Elphaba wanted it.
"Wow…we could be stuck in here for 24 hours."
Elphaba glanced at the clock. It was now ten after five. She suddenly felt a pang of worry, although she couldn't quite place its source.
Glinda sat down on the bed behind the chair and put her arms around Elphaba's shoulders. "It's ok, Elphie. We're going to be fine, even without Fiyero here." Elphaba realized that Glinda had found the reason for her worry, which had apparently shown itself in her face. This was the first time she had been separated from Fiyero for this long when she wasn't asleep since they started dating. She knew that there was nothing for her to be afraid of and that Glinda would be there the entire night, but she still felt a little apprehensive at the thought of spending that amount of time without him.
Fortunately, being with Glinda didn't allow much time for dwelling on such feelings. She had soon enough changed the subject by saying "I love snow, don't you? It's so pretty, especially at night."
"Yeah, I guess so. It's nice if I'm inside, that is." Elphaba replied.
"Oh, yeah. That's right. The water thing. So…that means you've never been able to touch snow, right?"
Elphaba shook her head. "I did once, when I was about four. I saw the other kids having a snowball fight, and someone threw one at me so I grabbed some snow to fight back. It doesn't snow too often in Munchkinland; or maybe we were wandering at that point, I don't remember. Either way, it was the first time I had seen snow."
"Oh, you know what would be perfect to do tonight?" Glinda asked, her old bubbly self coming through. "Let's decorate for Lurlinemas!!!"
"Umm, ok." Elphaba didn't really have much protest for Glinda decorating, though she didn't know how much help she would be. Glinda went over to her closet and took down two boxes from the top shelf. She put one box on the floor by Elphaba's feet. "Here, these are the lights. You untangle these while I get our tree set up."
Once again, Elphaba had no protest so she dove into the mass of tangled wire inside the box. She had managed to separate one strand when Glinda announced that the tree was up and she was ready for the lights.
"Elphie, that's all you've done? You're supposed to be the smart one, remember?" Glinda said jokingly as she took the one free strand over to the miniature tree.
The rest of the decorating took about three and a half hours, thanks in no small part to Elphaba's struggle with the lights. When it was completed, it actually looked very nice. Around 8:45, Elphaba let out a yawn, a little louder than she meant to.
"I guess my energy powers are starting to run out, huh?" Glinda asked. "Do you want me to put you in bed now?"
Elphaba truly wanted to say no. She was actually having a great time with her roommate. But her body wouldn't let her.
Glinda didn't bother changing Elphaba out of her "Glinda-fied" outfit. It proved to be enough of a struggle getting her into the bed. Elphaba actually did most of the job herself, leaning on Glinda for support on the right side.
Once Elphaba was in bed, she directed her attention to the decorations around the room. At first it was just a way to avert her eyes from Glinda getting ready for bed across the room, but the more she looked at them the nicer they looked to her. She had never seen as many decorations in her whole house growing up as she was now seeing in this small room.
Glinda got into her bed, whispered goodnight to Elphaba, and turned off the light. Elphaba held the green bear close to her and fell asleep, doing so without fear or worry for the first time in almost a month.
A.N. Wow, that was a long one! Please review!