I don't usually get personal on here, so I appreciate you letting me get all mopey last week. You definitely cheered me up, as usual! I feel like I have the best reviewers. Admittedly, I like to reread them sometimes because it's hard not to feel really good when I see the nice things you put. :)
I just want to take a moment before I let you guys dive in to this chapter to address something that Leia Emberblaze brought up. While this story has had a fast pace and a lot of action in it, it's not going to be a constant throughout the rest of the story. There is a reason I categorized this as a drama rather than an adventure story because fixing and building the relationships is my biggest priority, not putting in action sequences for the hell of it. And there is still a lot of work to do. Let's let Elphie and Glinda talk some things out, shall we?
Elphaba watched them bicker all the way back out the room. Glinda gave a cute wave and Fiyero shot a distressed, pitiful look before the door snapped shut behind them, leaving her alone once more. She sighed, wishing they had stayed longer than five minutes but also grateful for a few minutes of assured privacy. She particularly missed Fiyero's presence.
But rather than sit idly, and catching Glinda's hint, she grabbed the bathrobe and made for the bathroom to wash up. After running the bath, she slid in, hissing slightly at the heat of the water. After a few moments, her muscles relaxed and she groaned from exhaustion.
Her weariness was hitting her like a ton of bricks as the adrenaline she experienced only a few minutes before evaporated. She wished she had provided herself a cold bath instead of a hot one if only to keep herself from falling asleep in this unfamiliar place. That idea alone was enough to get Elphaba to hastily finish cleaning up and climbing out of the fancy tub, warm water rolling off her body into puddles at her feet.
Her skin was raw and red from the hasty scrubbing she did to try to remove the dirt and blood that had stained it, and this color was something she had never experienced before in her life. She tried to ignore the anomalous reaction that occurred with the familiar feeling of irritation, but no matter how much she tried to put it out of her mind she kept touching and glancing at the redness, apprehensive but fascinated.
She very, very quickly became ill at looking at herself, so she tied the robe Glinda gave her tighter around herself and left the bathroom with the sweet-scented, soapy water draining away.
Elphaba sauntered across to the sliding glass door and slipped out onto the magnificent patio that lay just beyond. It was a sufficient distraction to say the least; from one of the tallest towers of the Emerald City, nearly the entirety of Oz's capital could be viewed from the balcony. Where the gleaming green buildings ended and beyond the towering walls of the city, the western lands of Oz stretched golden as far as the eye could see.
A breeze blew across the balcony and she wrapped her arms around herself, breathing in. The air was fresh and cool; for Elphaba, the hours after the storm were almost as enjoyable as the ones during it, if not more (she didn't have to worry so much about being zapped by lightning, especially being at the top of one of the tallest towers in Oz). The rain had stopped sometime in the last couple hours but cool mists still rode across the wind and the dark clouds still covered the skies. The spray was healing and refreshing against her sensitive skin, and with a deep breath it was enough to awaken her dulling senses.
The door to the apartment slammed behind her and she turned around to her two blondes barging into the room following floating boxes and bags. It seemed in the near half an hour they had been gone, they not only managed to collect all of Fiyero's belongings but also never stopped squabbling.
"You could show a little more appreciation!" Glinda said, gracelessly dropping the load to the floor with a flick of her wand. "I could have made you carry all of that!"
"I said thanks! What more do want from me? 'Oh, thank you, Your Goodness! You're so good, Your Goodness!'?"
"Actually, that doesn't sound so bad," she responded with a wink to Elphaba as she reentered the apartment and Fiyero brooded. Glinda shot sparks out of her wand to drive Fiyero into the washroom, and Elphaba could swear the look he returned to the Good Witch shot sparks of his own before he disappeared behind the bathroom door.
"It looks like you and Fiyero are getting along all right," Elphaba commented carefully, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"We're trying," Glinda responded, leaning lightly against the dresser across from her friend. "I'm not going to deny that I'm still upset with him, but he's aware of it. I like finally feeling like I'm able to tell him what I think without being worried about scaring him away."
Elphaba did not respond. While she never bothered to be polite with Fiyero, she remembered feeling the same concern that Glinda did about speaking her mind to him that day she fell in love with him in the forest near Shiz. Unlike Glinda, however, she felt that after her mouth had run away with her and she had ripped into him. To Elphaba's eternal surprise, he had not been easily deterred by her opinion of him, even if he was surprised to hear it. That look she saw in his eyes, while it had been confusing for her at the time, continued to invade her thoughts and memories in the years that followed: that flicker of vitality, defiance and character that constantly hid beneath that arrogant mask of his, alongside his insecurity.
She didn't want to tell Glinda these things, though. While her friend behaved as though she wasn't hurt by the whirlwind that tore through all of their lives in the last couple weeks and changed everything, Elphaba knew better. Even in their years apart, she could still read her old roommate as well as any textbook. She wondered if Glinda could figure her out in that same way, and as the blonde glanced up with a knowing look, she didn't doubt she could.
"You're not going to stay long, are you?" Glinda asked sadly. "What are you going to do now?"
"I guess I'll need to go into hiding," Elphaba responded, slowly walking around to the desk she earlier ignored and finally looking down at it. Her fingers gently pushed aside papers, revealing a news article hiding beneath it from the week before regarding her and Fiyero's escape from the Emerald Palace. "I don't know if you've forgotten, but I'm the Wicked Witch of the West."
"I don't know if you've forgotten, but the Wicked Witch was green as sin. No offense," she added hastily, to which Elphaba just shrugged nonchalantly. "You've been given the opportunity for a fresh start. What if this magic, this queer spell you cast, was for a reason? So you can leave all this Wicked Witch nonsense behind you and live a normal life?"
"And what, hide in plain sight? Hope that everyone is too empty-headed to notice?"
"They could be convinced easily enough that you were wicked."
"And that the Wizard is truly wonderful," Elphaba agreed. "Have you thought about him, and about Madame Morrible? Goodness knows they wouldn't react well to big-mouthed Elphaba Thropp being around, let alone alive."
"Don't be silly. Elphaba Thropp is dead."
She understood Glinda's meaning, but she still couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in astonishment at the brazen statement. She was right, however: Elphaba Thropp, in all her green wickedness, died two days ago from a severe allergic reaction to water and would forever remain that way. Or so they hoped.
"Elphie," Glinda said, striding across the room and resting her hand on Elphaba's shoulder placidly. "I understand what you're saying, I really do. But…I had a moment back in Munchkinland, when I went to that town where they found your remains, that I had never felt more alone in my life. It was bad enough having to witness Fiyero's murder and know that I'd never see him again, but…without you too…" Glinda had to stop to keep herself composed. She dropped her hand from the taller woman's shoulder and stepped away, looking at the floor. "It doesn't matter," she said finally, her voice quiet. "I'll make it work; I'll claim you to be my kin or something, and no matter if you choose to stay or go you'll be safe as long as people trust my word."
"Thank you, Glinda," Elphaba said sincerely. "I'll give it thought."
As she smiled to the only friend she ever had, she wondered if the simple gesture was one of greeting or farewell. She initially had planned on leaving soon after arriving whether or not she found Fiyero and never returning again. After everything that had occurred, a part of her had finally given up on her hopes and dreams for herself and for Oz and she wondered whether it would ever really return.
She turned her head and looked down at Oz's great capital through Glinda's glass patio door. She had always thought here, in the heart of Oz, was where she belonged, but that had all changed the moment she learned the truth about the great and wonderful wizard that ruled it. Could she possibly make her life and her way like she and Glinda had once ignorantly predicted they would?
Elphaba's eyes fluttered shut as she imagined the infinite terrain and mountains beyond the city walls. She had come to adore the Vinkus in her years of travel more than she anticipated she would. She had spent years in each of Oz's four states and she preferred it most; it was the only one who experienced the four seasons and the climate to match. If she could die anywhere, it would be in the flowing, beautiful grasslands. It was there she felt the most free and at ease, and it was there she planned on escaping with Fiyero if they even could.
She wondered if what Glinda said had any merit about this transformation that she went through, this aberration of her skin and of her life, being for a reason. Was it meant to give her another chance at existence, with a new face and name? She never held stock in such hot air before, but that was only because she never found reason in any aspect of her being or experiences.
Elphaba summoned up a memory from long ago, the last time she and Glinda were together in the old attic somewhere in the Emerald Palace. She asked Glinda to come with her, but her friend couldn't and didn't. If she even dared to consider the idea of destiny or fate, she had to wonder if she and Glinda were ever meant to be together again. What if Glinda chose to go in her own direction all those years ago for a reason and she was supposed to do the same now? If she decided to stay near to Glinda, would she be clutching on to something that was destined apart? She knew that without having known Glinda she wouldn't have become the woman she was today, and that, for better or for worse, Glinda had changed her for good. Maybe that was all that was intended for them and nothing more.
Oh, but what did it matter– she didn't believe any of that hogwash anyway.
She just knew that in those last moments with her best friend before their dramatic parting so long ago, she wished only the best for her friend as she strove to accomplish something different and incredible with her life, and that she found bliss. Elphaba didn't need to open her eyes to see Glinda's residence or look down at her dress or glittering jewels to realize that her friend did get what she wanted and deserved, but did she get her bliss, without regrets?
"I hope you're happy," Elphaba said into the silence, her voice coming out somewhat strangled as she hoped with all of her heart that it was true. She refused to cry, however, even as her best friend gave her a terribly sad smile in return.
"I try to be, I just don't know how or what I want anymore," Glinda said sadly, her reserve holding much stronger than Elphaba's as she frowned slightly. "But I haven't given up yet, and I hope you haven't either."
Elphaba didn't know how to respond, but thankfully she didn't have to and instead watched Glinda cross the room and pick up the picture frame she had looked at earlier, of their charmed circle's last night at Shiz together.
"I just know," Glinda said, holding up the image between them so Elphaba could see it clearly, "that I now realize how that night was the happiest I had ever been. If I could turn back the clock I would go back to that time with the knowledge I have now: that the people I love are real happiness, not fame or popularity or adoration." Glinda turned the frame around so she could look at the photo once more and she sighed lightly. "Out of all of the pictures I own, this has always been my favorite," she continued quietly, her blue eyes flowing over the image fondly. "I hired a boy with a camera to take this. I had no idea it would be our last time together; how could I have? I've stared at it so often, wishing you were still across the room from me, reading for hours and hours like you used to. I've also stared at it without knowing that I was so utterly unaware of how Fiyero actually felt inside, even though the proof has always been in that look he had in his eyes. He loves you so much, Elphie, and it took me years but now when I look at this picture I finally see to whom his heart truly belonged."
Glinda suddenly sniffled and as she pulled her eyes away from the frame in her grasp Elphaba saw the tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. She took a shaky breath and fanned her face with a perfectly manicured hand until she was once again composed. "I knew I shouldn't get going talking so much," she said, laughing unconvincingly and returning the object to the bedside table with an indifferent wave at it. "I probably ruined my makeup."
"Not at all, my pretty," Elphaba told her as she felt her guilt churning restlessly in her stomach.
Her friend wiped a finger anyway under her eye to clean up any loose mascara before she muttered, "I wish I didn't have to go. I still have so much work to do down there, but I'd rather just be with you and Fiyero…"
"You will have time with us, I promise," Elphaba told her, and Glinda nodded. "What do you have to do now?"
"Oh, I've left a little girl waiting for me for the last hour. I told her I'd be right back. Hopefully she isn't crying that I've forgotten about her, I'll have no sympathy."
With that, Glinda waved politely, strode out of the room through the glass door that led to the balcony and disappeared out of sight in her magnificent pink bubble down towards the city below.
Elphaba, alone in the stillness, was allowed a moment to prepare herself, but no more. She still had to talk to Fiyero.
The next chapter is easily my favorite; perhaps you can guess why by the last sentence? Review and maybe I'll post it next week ;) Oh, oh, speaking of Fiyero, I was a scarecrow for Halloween (and I made the costume myself, too! It turned out pretty darn well, IMO). I've been excited to tell you all week. What did the rest of you dress up as (if anything)? Anything Wicked/WoO related?
If anyone is interested, I changed my profile picture to a drawing of the photograph described in this story that I made like two years ago or something when bored in my film class, just for funsies. :)