Later that night, Galinda tiptoed back into the room. She'd stayed out longer than she'd really intended, for reasons unknown even to herself. It wasn't even as though she'd even had a particularly pleasant time; ShenShen and Pfannee had latched onto a comment she had made about Elphaba being decidedly strange, and had taken it upon themselves to spend the rest of the evening analyzing, in detail, everything that they found to be odd about Galinda's room mate. It had been fun at first, but the list had worn on and on, and Galinda had had to fight to keep her eyes open by the end of it.

Unsurprisingly, as it was past midnight, Elphaba was already asleep when Galinda got home. The problem was that this also meant the lights were off, and the blonde was having rather a hard time navigating her way towards the bathroom in order to change into her nightdress for bed.

"Ouch," she whispered, as she tripped over something hard and banged her elbow painfully on the sharp corner of her dresser. Bending down, she fumbled on the floor to see what it was she had tripped over, and found, to her annoyance, that it was one of Elphaba's books. It had to be Elphaba's; her own were stacked away on a shelf someplace forgotten.

"My proof that books are anything but useful," she mumbled, picking it up by its corner as though it was a dirty sock, and attempting to drop it gracefully onto the dresser out of harm's way. But the inevitable complication of darkness caused her to miss the dresser by a few feet, and the book fell against one of her own hat-boxes, predictably causing the whole pile to come crashing down around her. Squealing, Galinda jumped back to avoid the avalanche and her back hit against the bathroom door which promptly opened; causing her to fall inside with a thud.

The light clicked on, and Galinda sat up slowly, shielding her eyes against the light which had suddenly filled the room. Once her eyes managed to adjust to the new brightness, she caught sight of Elphaba sitting up in bed, wearing a grey nightdress and a heavy frown.

"What in Oz's name are you doing?" she asked, her voice low and dangerous as her eyes travelled across the havoc Galinda had wreaked, "And what did you do to our room?"

"I was trying to find the bathroom," Galinda huffed defensively, climbing to her feet and surveying her position. "I guess I found it," she added with a giggle, finally registering where she had landed.

Elphaba, however, was not amused. "And you didn't think to turn the light on?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she watched Galinda begin to ferret around, trying to match her hats with their appropriate boxes.

"I didn't want to wake you," Galinda admitted feebly, suddenly aware of how silly that sounded now.

Elphaba snorted. "Well, you certainly did a very good job of not waking me."

Galinda bit back an angry retort as she slotted a yellow hat back into its box, remembering that Elphaba had done her laundry for her earlier. "Well, I do apologise," she said finally, concentrating hard on her task to prevent any sarcasm from creeping into her tone, "I'll do my best to be quieter next time."

"Well, quieter shouldn't be too difficult for you. You couldn't have been any louder."

Galinda looked up, opening her mouth to protest angrily that at least she had been trying to be considerate, when she noticed Elphaba swinging her legs out of bed, suppressing a yawn as she did so.

"What are you doing, Miss Elphaba?" she asked in surprise, a little caught off guard.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Elphaba replied irritably, standing up with a stretch and walking over, "I'm coming to help you clear up the hideously over-decorated accessories you've spilled everywhere."

She knelt down beside Galinda and began lining up the boxes, placing their lids next to them. Galinda watched her in confusion.

"Since I have no idea which hat goes where, I'll line up the boxes, and you find the hat which goes in each one," Elphaba said, answering Galinda's unasked question. Cottoning on, the blonde nodded, beginning to pick up each hat and placing it in the box pre-ordered by her room mate. There they worked in a half-companionable, half-uneasy silence, until Galinda finally got up the nerve to speak.

"Elphaba?" she asked, timidly using Elphaba's name without the honorific. The green girl turned to look at her for a moment, surprised; before recovering and returning to her chore.

"Yes… Galinda?" she replied, which Galinda considered a much friendlier acknowledgement than her usual grunts.

"Elphaba, I can't help noticing…" she paused, biting her lip as she contemplated how best to phrase her thoughts. "You've been awfully nice to me lately," she said finally in a rush, "Well, nicer than usual, I mean."

She looked over at Elphaba to see her reaction to her observation. The other girl was now stacking the boxes which they had filled, unperturbed as ever. "And?" she asked, with a shrug.

Galinda frowned, not having prepared herself for that reaction. She grabbed a box and piled it with the others in the same way as Elphaba was doing, in order to buy herself more time.

"Well, we haven't exactly had the best start with regards to sharing a room, have we?" she asked finally, kneeling back down and fidgeting a little awkwardly with the hem of her dress, "I mean, we made it clear from day one that we disliked one another…" her voice trailed off, and she looked expectantly up at Elphaba. The other girl was staring at the pile they had so far created, frowning thoughtfully as though considering this. Galinda waited as patiently as she could, until Elphaba finally met her eyes.

"Galinda, I didn't really dislike you," she said finally, the frown still prominent on her face, "But look at us. We're so different; you with your designer clothes and buzzing social life. And me, well…" She shrugged, before adding simply, "I'm not like that."

Galinda, who hadn't expected something so in-depth, looked curiously across at her room mate. Elphaba was right of course; they had simply clashed due to their differences. Well, there was also the underlying fact that Elphaba had gotten into the sorcery seminar rather than her; which Galinda couldn't help still being bitter about. But she was willing to overlook that detail for the purpose of their discussion.

"No, you're not like that," she agreed, hugging her knees to her chest, "But that's what makes you different, Elphaba."

Elphaba smiled weakly. "I think I'm different enough as it is, Galinda," she replied, with an awkward glance downwards which illustrated her exposed green hands.

Galinda shook her head. "I don't mean different in that way. Oh, I don't know what I mean," she said in confusion, swinging her blonde curls.

Elphaba laughed, not cruelly. Galinda couldn't help noticing that it was the first time she had heard Elphaba laugh like that, and the effect was rather nice. Almost contagious, in fact. Galinda giggled too, for no other reason than the nicety of laughing. Elphaba shot her a brief smile which she returned, feeling something which could only be described as a flutter as she did so. Starting at the sudden feeling, Galinda stood up; and immediately noticed Elphaba scrambling to her feet too. Perhaps she had felt the same thing.

They stood awkwardly, avoiding each other's eyes until Galinda caught sight of the last remaining box which hadn't yet been stacked. She made a lunge for it; a second later than Elphaba did. Consequently, her left hand ended up placed over Elphaba's right one. Galinda dropped the box hurriedly, stepping backwards so that Elphaba was left holding the box alone.

"Sorry," she giggled nervously, horrified to find herself blushing. What in Oz had gotten into her?

"It's fine," Elphaba replied with a brief smile. She began to place the box on the top of the pile, before reconsidering and handing it to Galinda.

"Here, you do the last one," she said with a grin. Galinda grinned too, and took the box from her room mate's hands. She knew the whole thing was silly- it didn't matter who piled the last box. But still she placed it on herself- pride of place.

"Perfect," Elphaba smirked, before turning to go back to bed; their task accomplished. Galinda stayed where she stood for a moment, before realising that there was no longer any reason for her to hover around her hat boxes. Quickly turning away from Elphaba, she headed into the bathroom to finally get changed.


As Elphaba slipped back into bed, she wondered vaguely about what had just happened. Had she really just spoken to Galinda in a civil, almost friendly way? And what in Oz was that she had felt, first when they had exchanged a smile, and then later as their hands had touched? Had that just been the flicker of warmth at a potential first friendship? Elphaba considered the thought, before pushing it out of her mind. What did it matter what it was, anyway? They'd probably both have forgotten this encounter by the morning.

Elphaba was just pulling her blanket over her thin, green body; when she heard a bright voice filtering through the bathroom door. "Goodnight, Elphie!" she heard Galinda call cheerily.

Elphaba froze. What was that Galinda had just called her? Elphie? Elphie? Elphaba shook her head slowly, trying to take in this new-found friendliness. Elphie? It was perky- very much so, in fact- but she supposed she would have to put up with it if she and Galinda were going to continue being polite to one another.

"Goodnight, Galinda," she replied in a slightly exasperated voice, before reaching up and turning the light out, hoping sincerely as she did so that Galinda would have the sense to turn it on again when she was finished in the bathroom. Otherwise, she could probably count on being rudely awoken again in an hour or so to find the entire room dismantled.