-:-November-:-
As the night wore on Elphaba became increasingly aware of two things. One was that everyone apart from herself continued drinking. Coincidentally this led to the whole lot of them becoming incredibly drunk. Two was that as they became more drunk Fiyero, Avaric, and Boq all seemed to gravitate toward Glinda. The only reason this particularly agitated Elphaba was because the blonde was seated next to her and so Elphaba had unwittingly become the only thing keeping Fiyero and Avaric from sitting directly next to the singer. As such, every now and again one or the other of them would lean dangerously into Elphaba's space, and each time they did so it annoyed her exponentially more.
Directly after one of these incidences Elphaba reached down with the thought of scooting her chair further away from the bothersome duo. As she attempted to do so however, it came to her attention that it would be impossible. At some point during the evening Glinda had moved her chair so that the edge of her chair nearly molded with Elphaba's, making one large chair instead of two separate ones. The green girl's first impulse was to reprimand the blonde for doing this, until she was distracted by Boq on Glinda's other side and more specifically, the look he was giving the blonde. With a dull groan Elphaba folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair, forgiving the blonde silently for her closeness. It was going to be a long night.
-:-:-
At one point Elphaba considered just getting up and leaving. Her mind was changed for her mid-thought when Boq leaned a little too close to Glinda, which in turn caused the blonde to lean away, rubbing shoulders with Elphaba in the process. Brown eyes flitted over to the short man and their owner growled lowly. The shorter man instantly reclined in his seat again as if nothing had happened. After this the boys all seemed to behave for a short while, knowing better than to pester Elphaba. They'd heard stories of what happened when you did that.
The conversation drawled on casually for a while longer, and Elphaba continued to ignore it and enjoy her personal space. (Excepting the space immediately to her right where Glinda had occupied in her attempt to keep a respectable distance between herself and Boq). Instead of taking part in the conversation the green girl's attention wafted over to Crope and Tibbett, who both thankfully had remained on their side of the table. Elphaba made a mental note to thank them for that fact later.
She also made a mental note that it was good they had stayed over there now what with their mutual arm waving and general movement. They appeared to be telling some sort of story about how they'd distracted an opposing group of thugs earlier in the week. She'd joined the story too late to really understand, not that she cared to anyway.
The entire table burst into laughter as the pair finished their story. A fact that was perfectly fine with Elphaba, until she felt a hand on her knee which sent a shiver running up her spin. It seemed that Glinda, in her joviality, and meant to slap her own knee in amusement. The blonde hadn't yet realized, in her intoxicated state of mind, that she'd missed and was now resting her hand on her neighbor's knee instead.
Elphaba shot up and grunted something that could have passed as a farewell. The chair, which should have been thrown back by the force of the tall woman suddenly standing, remained where it was, latched together with Glinda's chair. This made it nearly impossible for Elphaba to leave without getting someone else to move first. While she busied herself trying to swat Fiyero away so she could depart, Glinda stood as well.
"Well I hate t'be Mrs. Grundy(1), but I better get goin' too," the blonde commented amid a slur a giggles.
Fiyero stood instantly, as did Avaric and Boq. Elphaba cringed as they all hollered in triplicate something about escorting her home.
With a smile as wide as her face Glinda informed all of them that they could all take her home. This sent the three of them arguing about whom should be allowed the privilege, as clearly only one person could possibly walk the blonde home. Elphaba scowled at the four of them before casting a glance around the room to gauge how many people were staring at them yet. It was only then that she realized how late it must actually have been as only the bartender, themselves, and one or two other stragglers still remained.
While Elphaba distracted herself with plotting out her easiest route of escape, Glinda grinned as the argument quickly became more heated. She loved it when people fought over her. Still though, she took a step back to avoid what was threatening to become a brawl. As she did so however she tripped over the foot of her chair and stumbled backwards. For the second time that night Elphaba found herself drawn from her thoughts by the blonde falling on her, again instinctively raising her arms to steady the singer.
"ENOUGH!" the words echoed around the empty room, the green girl obviously enraged by this point.
The group hushed instantly. In fact the boys all seemed to shrink a little at the pure anger rushing off Elphaba in waves. Glinda found this greatly amusing and giggled under her breath. Elphaba rolled her eyes and set the blonde back on her feet. The men seemed to give a silent sigh of relief, both shocked and pleased that the blonde's laughter had calmed the green girl. Crope was the first to speak after that, and he was the first to speak any sense.
"Miss Elphaba, why don't you take Glinda home?"
Tibbett snorted cheerily at this, raising a hand to his mouth to hold back all out laughter before adding, "Yes, because clearly you're the only one who can be trusted to get her home safely and not take her off to get some nookie(2)!"
The other three men seemed to take offense at this and all began talking at once in their defense. Glinda merely giggled again, swaying on her feet before leaning lazily up against Elphaba. The green woman seethed silently and glared up at the ceiling, cursing bother this situation and herself for getting caught up in it. A tiny hiccup brought her attention back down to the woman on her shoulder however.
Elphaba couldn't help but soften at the face she was presented with. It was clear that the copious amounts of alcohol she'd consumed were now catching up with the small woman. In fact the previously perky blonde now appeared to be nearly asleep. Given her chosen resting spot Elphaba wasn't quite sure how though. Not only were they standing but the green girl more than acknowledged that her shoulders were rather boney. She couldn't picture an existence where standing with a boney shoulder as your pillow could be comfortable, so instead she settled on blaming the alcohol. With no further words spoken the taller woman looped an arm under Glinda's and led her away from what had now become a mock trial with Crope and Tibbett playing judge.
-:-:-
"Pos-i-lute-ly. . ."
Elphaba wrinkled her nose. The further they'd gotten from the Filibuster the heavier Glinda seemed to have gotten. This was partially due to her walking pattern becoming more erratic, often tripping up Elphaba in the process and partially because she was diving deeper into the realm of sleep walking and dead weight.
"Posilutely what?" the green girl grumbled as, for the umpteenth time that night, she tried to get the blond to walk straight.
"'M pos-i-lute-ly splifficated(3). . ." the blonde drawled, barely enunciating enough for Elphaba to gather what was being said.
"Yes," the taller of the two grunted, trying to correct the blonde's path again, "You don't have to inform me of your state of ossification(4)."
The blonde said no more but giggled lightly as Elphaba gave up trying to get her to walk and instead hefted the smaller woman over her shoulder. The girl remained quiet for a good block like this, watching the ground sway as she was carried. This seemed to please both of them for a time, but by the time two blocks went by Glinda groaned ever so slightly.
"Elphie. . . 'm gonna upchuck. . ."
Elphaba tensed immediately, pulling the blonde from her shoulder and trying to get her to stand. The threat of vomit down her back caused her enough panic to even overlook the shortening of her name. "Oh no you don't, come on there's a rubbish bin right here. Go on!"
Glinda swayed a bit and nearly fell to her knees before the taller woman came to her aid and righted her again. The blonde pouted drunkenly and half-heartedly raised a hand to hit Elphaba's shoulder with. She only managed to raise her hand about half way and instead clasped her hand around the taller woman's elbow instead, leaning heavily into it as if her hand weighed a ton. "Elphie. . . carry me normal. . ."
The green girl stood for a second with a brow raised. Did Glinda just call her 'Elphie'? She frowned at the realization. She didn't want to get nick names with people, she didn't like people. She especially didn't want to get a nick name that was so. . . perky. The blonde's eyes fluttered closed for a moment and she swayed dangerously before Elphaba picked her up and cradled the blonde in her arms.
At this point Elphaba realized two more things. That Glinda was much harder to carry when she was asleep because of the dead weight. Also, that Glinda was asleep and Elphaba had no idea where she was going. A looked a panic swept across her face as she shook one arm to try to get Glinda to wake up.
"Hey. Hey! Don't fall sleep where am I going?"
The blonde did not reply, unless you considered a small burping noise a reply. Elphaba ceased her movement immediately, not wanted to stir up the blonde's stomach contents again. She huffed, ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach before moving off into the night once more.
"Fine you can stay at my place. Just this once. But you're sleeping on the couch!"
-:-:-
1 – Mrs. Grundy: A kill-joy.
2 – nookie: sex
3 – splifficated: drunk
4 – ossified: drunk
A/N: So sorry it took me so long to post this up. As a thank you for your patience I'm gonna upload two chapters in a row. Now granted these two aren't all that great but 'January' is going to be good. And exceedingly long. So look forward to that I suppose?