Rifiuto: Non Miriena

A/N: Written: 2013. Found: 2017.- Licia

That night, after Fiyero returned to Briscoe Hall, Glinda and Elphaba split the blankets and pillows between them, making a bed for Raven on the floor between the their beds. She'd managed beforehand to pack a few toiletries- her toothbrush, hairbrush, shampoo and the like, but hadn't thought to pack a change of clothes or her pajamas, seeing as she was so intent on making it out of the school without being caught and away from Bookend. She'd barely remembered to grab the small stone-carved jewelry box her parents had given her when she was a child before she'd left.

Glinda lent her a nightgown, and once her knapsack was tucked beneath the pillows- for each girl had given her one from their set of two- she settled down as Elphaba turned out the lights. Spring break began that weekend, and Glinda, who would normally be going back to Gillikin for break, decided to stay at Shiz so Elphaba wouldn't be alone.

Raven lay among the blankets, trying to will herself to sleep, to no avail. "Elphaba? Glinda?"

"Yes?" Elphaba's voice was soft, and Raven heard the bed shift as the green girl moved onto her side.

"I'm sorry if I'm intruding-"

"You're not intruding." Glinda spoke up, from her bed on Raven's right. Her voice was tired, and she yawned.

"But I am. I'm a random girl from a land you've never met, who just shows up on your campus one day, that you willingly lie for so I won't get caught tresspassing-"

"You're fleeing a bad situation." Elphaba replied, cutting her off softly. "Trust me, I fully get it, and I don't blame you for running away. If I had the chance, I'd have done the same thing."

Raven turned towards Elphaba's bed, but the green girl didn't add anything further to clarify her statement. But it was evident, the barely concealed hurt in her voice. What does that mean?

"As long as Horrible Morrible thinks you're Elphie's cousin, you're welcome at Shiz, and welcome to stay with us. And honestly, you and Elphie look enough alike, you could be sisters. You look more alike than Elphie and Nessa do- and they're blood sisters." Glinda yawned again, and within minutes, she was snoring softly, curled around one of her pink pillows. After a moment, Raven shifted onto her side, facing Elphaba's bed.

"You have a sister? What's she like?"

"She's sixteen. She doesn't have any arms."

"That's horrible."

Elphaba shrugged. "It's my fault. If I hadn't been born green, my mother wouldn't have chewed pinnoble leaves and Nessa wouldn't have been born armless."

"That's not your fault." Raven whispered. "It was the leaves or whatever they were that caused her deformity. It's basic science." Elphaba nodded, though Raven couldn't see her, knowing she was right.

"Do you have any siblings?" The question startled the teenager momentarily.

Silence. "... no. Well... no... unless you count Apple."

"I thought she was just your roommate."

"She is. But technically, she's my step... step-niece, I think. Maybe my stepsister. I can't exactly remember which."

"How can she be your stepsister, unless-"

"My mother is Snow White's stepmother, and we share the same father, which makes Snow White my older half-sister, by my father's first marriage."

"And therefore, you're Apple's aunt, because she's Snow White's daughter." Elphaba concluded, and Raven nodded, sighing.

"Our father is the Good King. Snow's his daughter by his first wife, I'm his daughter by his second. We share his DNA, making us half-sisters through him. So we're stepsisters and half-sisters. And Apple is my half-step-niece."

"How are you stepsisters?"

Raven sighed. "I heard a rumor once that my mother and father had me out of wedlock, and that it was assumed for a time that I was the child of another man. That I was passed off as Snow White's stepsister to hide the fact that I had been born before their marriage, but in actuality, I'm her half-sister by our father. If the rumor is true, and I was truly born before their marriage took place, then I have no claim to the throne of the Good Kingdom. Snow White holds it, and it will automatically go to Apple. Which, honestly, I could care less if I ever take the throne of any kingdom. I want nothing to do with power, or the Royals who run in those circles."

Elphaba let her words sink in, before,

"I've read that in some versions of that fairy tale, the Evil Queen and the Good Queen were one and the same, which if we go by that logic, would make you and Snow White regular sisters. Apple would still be your niece, however."

"That sounds almost easier to handle than steps and halves." She licked her lips. "You have... our fairy tales here?"

"My sister and I grew up reading the stories about Snow White and Red Riding Hood; they went by different names- The Porcelain Princess and the Men of Stone, Little Bobbin Girl and Her Basket of Buttons, and the like- but the premises were still the same, the morals and lessons still the same. True love conquers all and never trust strangers-"

"Never stray from the path." Raven whispered, thinking of Cerise and the conflict she seemed to feel whenever she talked about becoming the next Red Riding Hood.

"It's like I have no say in which path I can take. If I stray from the path, I'm punished, but if I stay on the path, my life is... is not my own."

"And I strayed from the path."

Elphaba pushed herself onto her elbow, leaning over the side of her bed to meet the girl's gaze in the darkness. "What?" Raven looked up, meeting Elphaba's gaze despite the darkness. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Goodnight, Elphaba." The green girl nodded. As her breathing eventually became even, Raven reached beneath the pillows, slipping her hand into her knapsack and pulling something out. In the darkness, she studied the designs of the green glass bottle, unaware that its twin lay under a set of pillows only a foot or so away.