AN:

Aaaaaaaaaand here is chapter five already!

Not much else to say lol

Happy reading!

MLE

Chapter Five: Negotiations

Galinda bounced out of bed, humming some tune she still remembered from the ball the night before. She stretched her arms, released a high-pitched squeal and sashayed over to the window to draw back the curtains. It was raining. The blonde pouted briefly, but soon her expression lit up again. She had enough sunshine in her heart that morning to make up for the lack of natural light and warmth and thus was rather unperturbed.

The door to her bedroom opened and her handmaiden's head appeared in the small gap.

"Oh, you're already up, My Lady," she realised with some surprise and opened the door fully so she could rush into the room and retrieve some fresh underclothes from the wardrobe.

Galinda and her maid completed their usual morning routine and when everything was done, the blonde, despite the bad weather, slipped into a light, pink sundress. Mostly left to her own devices and given plenty of freedom, she was certainly developing the one or the other quirk.

On her way out of the apartment, she noticed a bouquet of fresh flowers on one of the end tables. The pink and white roses smelt wonderful and looked even lovelier in their vase of Glikkun crystal. There were at least fifty of them – a costly gift. Apprehensively, Galinda plucked the card from admits the tender blossoms. It read Sir Chuffrey's name and she exhaled noisily.

"The Baronet inquired about your health this morning," the maid informed her and Galinda wrinkled her nose.

"If he asks again, you may tell him that I'm feeling better, but that I'd rather spend the day quietly so I can recuperate."

The other woman cast her a curious look, yet of course, she was in no position to question her superior.

"As you wish, My Lady."

Leaving her room, Galinda's first steps were in the direction of the breakfast room, but midway, she paused and thought better of it. She decided that it would be prudent to skip breakfast that morning, for there would be plenty of guests present who had stayed the night and as it appeared, Sir Chuffrey would most likely be among them. Seeing him again seemed almost worse a prospect at that point than running into someone who might recognise her; risking both would have been ludicrous.

So she turned left where she usually would have turned right and descended the grand staircase down to the big hall. As she reached the backdoor, she found that umbrellas had been placed at the guest's disposal and she quickly took one and opened it before stepping outside. She walked as close to the castle wall as the narrow footpath would allow, so as to keep her shoes and the lower section of her skirt as dry and clean as possible. Headed for that small, inconspicuous door Fiyero had led her through a little while ago, her steps inexplicably quickened the closer she got to her destination. When she pulled the door open, she realised that it was far heavier than it looked and grumbled a little about already breaking a sweat before even climbing the first flight of three (or possibly more?) stairs.

Arriving on the third floor, she gingerly knocked on the door to Elphaba's room, almost startled, when this time a clear 'enter' sounded form the other side. She pushed down the handle and swiftly slipped inside before the Princess could recognise and close the door on her.

Silence span between them as Galinda stood leaning against the rough wood of the door while Elphaba seemed too engrossed in her book to even notice her. Eventually, however, after long, green fingers had turned the pages seven times, she looked up, defined brows furrowing immediately.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice conveying her irritation, but without much of the usual edge to it.

Together with the fact that the Princess had not yet pushed her out of the window or down the stairs, Galinda considered this a good sign and a bright smile appeared on her face. She crossed the small space of the room, grabbing a plain, wooden chair on the way and positioned the chair and herself right next to Elphaba's bed.

"Well, Elphie, now that we're friends -"

"Whoa!"

The tall woman shot up from where she had been sitting jack-knifed on her bed and held out two long arms in defence.

"Hold it right there, blondie! Last night was, well…"

It was a fascinating sight for Galinda to see habitually confident and sure-footed Elphaba struggling for words. Avoiding the shorter girl next to her bed, the Princess's eyes stoically stared at an old speck of dirt on the wall. Her hands, however, ran relentlessly through her hair, forcefully yanking on some of the silken strands.

Finally, she heaved an exasperated sigh and brown eyes found blue ones, fixing them with a glare.

"Give the devil an inch and they'll take a mile," Elphaba pressed out between clenched teeth before looking away again.

"Listen, me playing nice for one ozdamned evening doesn't mean an invite to barge into my room whenever you feel like it -"

"I knocked and you called for me to come in," Galinda corrected, but the Princess chose to ignore her and continued, undeterred.

"- and least of all, does it give you leave to create some ridiculous pet name for me. May I remind you, that we're not that familiar, Lady Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands. Furthermore, I do not intend to ever familiarise myself with you to a level where such intimacy would be appropriate, nor would I appreciate being called anything but my full given name, even if we – hypothetically speaking – were that close. Do you understand?

"You may skip that wretched title though," she added in an afterthought. "I get this terrible urge to retch every time I hear it – which thank goodness isn't all too often."

'Such vulgarity!' Galinda thought to herself, but refrained from commenting.

"Well, my apologies," she said instead, genuinely abashed. "This was indeed rather bold of me. I don't' know what came over me. Of course, I'll refrain from using this name for the time being."

She didn't quite know why she had included the last four words and she cringed at Elphaba's quirked eyebrow, anticipating another outlash. She took a few steps backwards as a measure of precaution. In the end, the raven-haired Princess only huffed and threw her hands up in frustration and the blonde got off almost unscathed. The scrawny woman climbed back into her bed and picked up her book, continuing where she had left off. Ignored, Galinda remained standing near the door.

"So what do you want from me?" came Elphaba's voice from behind her book some time later, catching Galinda off guard.

"I-I felt lonely," she admitted. "And I'm sure you do, too, since Prince Fiyero seems otherwise occupied at the moment…"

"I'm fine," came the curt reply.

"But don't we all need some company from time to time?"

Elphaba scoffed.

"I have all the company I could possibly need right here: philosophers, scientists, visionaries, poets – you name it."

Slightly taken aback, Galinda blinked a few times, then stemmed her hands on her hips and cast her a disapproving look.

"These are books, Elphaba."

"Your point being?"

"Sweet Lurline, you're really difficult!"

"No one told you to bother, unless my brother -"

"No, he didn't send me," the blonde moaned. "However, I maintain that you require company – human company, Your Royal Stubbornness."

Exhaling noisily, Elphaba marked her current page in her book and put the heavy tome aside. Galinda's mouth twitched ever so slightly in anticipated triumph, but the Princess was about to disappoint her.

"Miss Galinda. If I remember this right, you were the one who told me to refrain from making assumptions. Yet here you stand, assuming an awful lot about my person. How about you follow your own advice from time to time?"

The petite girl's eyes widened and she could feel her ears turn red. Her shoulders slumped a notch and she averted her gaze sheepishly, but without verbally admitting her faux pas.

"If you're so lonely, why don't you go and socialise with Lady Sarima?" Elphaba suggested with a smirk. "It appears to me that you and her have similar views on the necessity of human contact."

"As you can imagine, she doesn't like me all that much," Galinda replied, pouting just a little.

"I'm shocked," Elphaba deadpanned. "And what tells you that I don't dislike you even more than she does?"

"You were generous enough to put up with me the other day."

Her eyes still trained on Galinda, the green woman felt for her book. Her fingers brushed the friable leather and distractedly, she picked the book up to hide herself and her growing fluster behind it.

"Yes, I was," she replied wearily. "And perhaps, I'm already regretting it."

"In that case, first of all, let me thank you for not hounding me from your apartment the instant I set foot in it, and secondly, please allow me to try and make you unregret what you did that evening."

Lowering the book just an inch, Elphaba shot her an amused glance.

"That should be interesting."

"Well…" Galinda tried to think. "Why don't we spend some time together to get to know each other better?"

Brown eyes rolled and the book once again became their sole focus of attention.

"We are already spending time together and as I said, I'm not particularly interested in getting any more acquainted with you, Miss Upland."

"A walk in the gardens, perhaps?" Galinda tried anew, suborn, yet hopeless.

"This hardly is the right weather for that."

"It's scarcely more than a drizzle now; nothing an umbrella couldn't ward off."

"I dislike rain in any form," Elphaba replied in a tone so assertive that it effectively ended the conversation.

Galinda acknowledged that Elphaba had won this battle, yet was determined to win the war. Quietly, she moved her chair into the corner by the window and sat down. A book that looked just thin enough for her taste lay on the window board and she decided to bridge the time by browsing through the pages.

Thin the book might have been, but she soon had to surrender to the difficulty of the subject matter. By nurture, she was more the literary type, drawn to pretty words and poetic expressions; the scientific vocabulary in Elphaba's book was almost as incomprehensible to her as a foreign language.

With a sigh, she put the volume aside and looked over to Elphaba, who seemed not to have moved the entire time, save for her left hand that was charged with the important task of turning the pages. She strained her eyes and craned her neck to make out the title of the book she was reading. The word 'Animals' was all she could decipher, but she assumed that the book must have been of similar content as the one she had tried to skim.

"You're really interested in Animals, aren't you?" Galinda asked, breaking the silence for the first time in at least an hour.

A small, affirmative noise was the only reply she received.

"On my second day here I saw an Antelope water the flowers and I was so startled that I almost tripped over my own feet," Galinda remembered. "You have a lot of Animal servants here, but you must know, in Gillikin, I have never even met their kind. I think Gillikinese don't deem them worthy to enter their homes and therefore don't enlist their services."

For the second time that morning, the Princess dogeared the most recent page of her book and set her reading aside. This time it was for the sake of a proper conversation – a grand win for Galinda.

"I'm afraid it's more than just petty snobbery," she said solemnly and the blonde found herself moved by the sad expression her dark eyes had assumed. "Soon after his inauguration about fifteen years ago, the Wizard began to implement bans that would restrict the Animals' rights and freedom. Year after year, the concessions would become less and the restrictions more. There are bans on movement, transportation, education, employment; in most areas of Oz, being an Animal these days means living like an animal, but with the awareness of the injustice humans inflict on them, while mere animals mostly live in blissful ignorance."

Galinda cocked her head.

"So your parents are defying the Wizard by employing Animal servants?"

"Not quite. They would if they were to give them higher-ranking positions, but they are too craven to take it up with those ninnies in the Emerald City."

Galinda could see Elphaba's jaws working and wondered what upset her so. Her mind shaped by her upbringing, she was convinced that there must be a natural order to the state of things, or they would not be the way they were. After all, The Wizard was a just ruler.

"Well, surely Animals are fairly different from us humans, which would make coexistence rather difficult."

The look she received in return shocked her. Rather than amused or angry at her ideas, or perhaps lacking knowledge on the topic, Elphaba appeared hurt, an expression of emotion much stronger than any Galinda had witnessed so far.

"Your mindset practically begs the question whether I ought to be considered a human or an Animal and whether it would be more fitting to treat me the way they are being treated."

Galinda almost gaped at her, but quickly reminded herself that this would be most unbecoming. Her disbelief, however, was the same. Never would she consider Elphaba anything but human, green skinned or not.

"Animals possess the same spirit we do; they think, talk and feel like us," the Princess continued. "The only differences are the shape of their bodies and their coloration. A fine reason to be ostracised," she added with a hollow laugh. She took a tense, shaky breath, then concentrated her gaze on Galinda to search for a reaction.

Elphaba's words had moved the blonde, but also rocked her entire world view – not only in regards of Animals, but also in regards of the Wizard, whom she had always trusted and respected as her deputy. If Elphaba was indeed right, his treatment of the Animals (of which she had had no knowledge up until that day to start with) would be cause for serious concern.

All in all, this was far too much to digest for the heiress apparent, and she felt terribly overwhelmed. Her first instinct was to escape the small room and catch some fresh air to help her sort out her thoughts. But for the first time, she had some sort of a proper conversation with the green Princess, and for reasons still beyond her, she did not want to ruin this opportunity. Since she knew that the taller woman was waiting for a reply, she fought to gather at least a few words.

"I must admit, I don't know much about Animals," she said quietly, subdued. "I have never been taught anything about them."

Elphaba nodded and her eyes softened a little.

"Does that surprise you? If society doesn't even deem them worthy of letting them polish the dirt off their shoes or scrub their floors; why would they have the slightest interest in learning about them? It would seem like a terrible waste of time."

"Yeah…"

Scrambling off her bed, Elphaba brushed past the blonde and retrieved a book from her well-stocked shelf.

"Here." She pushed the thick and heavy thing in Galinda's small hands. "This is a text on basic biology. It was published before the Wizard's reign and is not biased against Animals. You might find it rather informative."

Galinda nodded as she pressed the book to her chest.

Over the next few days that followed, Galinda visited Elphaba often, sometimes twice a day or more. Getting along with the green, wayward thing was a challenge to say the least. There was a lot of back and forth - whenever she made some progress, some minor setback had to be expected as well.

And every evening, Galinda sat in her bed, Elphaba's biology book in her lap. She would let her dainty hand glide over the cover and read the title. That was about as far as she would get. She had yet to muster enough courage to challenge her longstanding views and ideals by allowing this new knowledge to disabuse her from any misconceptions she might be holding.

So when she and the Princess talked, she meticulously avoided the subject of Animals. Instead, she learnt that Elphaba was interested in various religions – their history, theories and specific customs – but was an unconvertible atheist and did not even believe in the existence of her own soul (which horrified Galinda, yet she would never tell the emerald woman). One afternoon, she saw her read a collection of ancient ballads and sought to impress her with her broad understanding about Gillikinese Classics, but had to find out that Elphaba often read for the sake of reading and, in truth, despised poetry.

About a week after her first visit to the Princess' quarters, Galinda once again got up early in the morning, looking forward to seeing her unusual friend – or whatever she should call Elphaba. Morning routine completed, she found herself standing in front of the mirror a little longer than usual, struggling to make a decision regarding the right dress to wear. No sooner had she finally chosen a sky blue, long-sleeved day dress, a knock on the door could be heard and her maid hurried out of the room to answer the door. She returned with a calling card, which she promptly handed to Galinda.

'Meet me at the bench by the paddocks as soon as you can.

Fiyero.'

The blonde kept staring at the piece of paper, chewing her lower lip. Although she did not have a fixed appointment with Elphaba, by now she was sure that she was expecting her nonetheless. On the other hand, she had not seen much of Fiyero of late and had been eagerly waiting for a chance to spend some time with him. She folded the card and stuffed it in her sleeve.

Not even ten minutes later, she arrived at the small wooden bench. The Prince was nowhere to be seen, so she sat down and waited. She did not have to wait long.

She turned when she heard the clip-clopping of hooves and spotted Fiyero, riding on his golden stallion, another horse, a pretty dun stallion, followed on the lead.

"Care for a hack?" he asked with a bright smile.

"Oh, I would," she replied as she stood, her lips pursed in slight disappointment. "But I'm afraid your message was too cryptic. I did not dress for a ride."

"You fine ladies always make everything so complicated," he chided her teasingly. "I really don't see the problem. Come, let me show you how this is done."

He skilfully leaped off his horse and stepped closer to Galinda. With a sharp whistling sound, he called the mount he had brought for her.

"May I?" he asked, his lips widened into a playful grin.

"I, I suppose – Whoops!"

Seizing her by her slender waist, he lifted her with ease and placed her firmly into the saddle. He then began to fiddle and fumble with her skirts, causing Galinda to avert her eyes, her head hot and flushed.

"Done," Fiyero announced at last and she hesitantly turned her head to look, hoping the blush had at least somewhat subsided.

She looked down her legs. The skirt of her dress had been pulled to the side and tied with a short rope. She gave a soft sniff at the thought that the material would be crushed and wrinkled horribly once the ties were removed. Of course, such minor issue could not be allowed to spoil her pleasure and she offered him a shy smile.

"So you think this will do, My Lady?"

Galinda giggled a little embarrassed and nodded.

"What happened to the mare I'd been given the last few times?" she asked as they left the castle grounds. "I thought that we two girls were getting along rather nicely."

"And I thought this mount might be more fun," the Prince laughed.

'Fun' meant more challenging, but also a realistic chance at beating him as the next race – which she did effortlessly.

When they reached a cliff with a scenic overview over the Thousand Year Grassland, they decided to take a rest and Fiyero produced some snacks from his saddlebags. They ate and chatted and laughed and just before they set off again, the Prince placed a makeshift crown of wildflowers on the top of her golden curls, crowning her winner of their race earlier.

"You know what I've been wondering?" Galinda asked, playing with the ends of the reins while allowing her horse to saunter along.

"Not really, so I hope you're going to tell me, Lin."

"Excuse me if that sounds silly or inappropriate, but how did you escape your father?"

"'Escape' is an excellent word choice, actually. He really has an iron grip on me this time.

"I told him I'd go and spend some time with my sister. That's all I'm allowed to do when he's around, and even that only every couple of days."

Galinda nodded thoughtfully.

"I wasn't under the impression that your parents are too fond of their older daughter."

As soon as she had uttered the words, she regretted them, but Fiyero seemed indifferent.

"Yeah, that's sort of true. However, despite everything, he thinks she has a good influence on me, keeping me straight, focused and grounded, he says."

"I see. Have you told her that you are seeing me instead?"

The Prince choked out a humourless laugh.

"Sweet Lurline, no! She most certainly would disapprove," he added grumbling.

Galinda sighed quietly and let her gaze wander, surveying the beautiful landscape. She almost regretted accepting Fiyero's invitation. No matter how adamantly the green woman insisted that she was perfectly content all by herself, often calling Galinda a 'pretty, little nuisance' when she paid her one of her visits, she knew with an absolute certainty that she was very lonely – perhaps the only reason why she still put up with her. In agreeing to spend time with the Prince, she had not only forsaken the Princess her own time, but also robbed her of her brother's attention. The longer she thought on the issue, the guiltier she felt.

Sometime after nine in the evening, an emerald whirlwind burst through the door to the Princess' room – and it wasn't Elphaba. The petite force of nature, named Galinda, swirled from the door to the side table of Elphaba's bed, placing a small bundle there, then bounced back to the window to retrieve a chair that she positioned near the bed.

The small storm died down when the blonde flopped down on said chair, suddenly sitting perfectly still, big, blue eyes expectantly trained on the raven-haired Princess. The Princess warily stared back at her, her threadbare blanket pulled up to her chest to cover most of her greenness.

"Come on, Elphaba," Galinda said jovially and rolled her eyes. I've seen you when I first came in. It's not like you're naked."

"What are you doing here?" Elphaba countered with a question. "It's in the middle of the night!"

The blonde giggled.

"It's barely quarter past nine! Besides; I know that you don't sleep before long past midnight."

"I'm not dressed!"

"We're both girls and there is nothing for me to see anyway. That scratchy-looking thing you're wearing is concealing everything just fine."

Elphaba's gaze fell onto her bare arms and she huffed.

"I very much prefer not to flaunt my skin everywhere," she muttered grumpily.

Leaning forward, Galinda gingerly reached for her bare shoulder to stroke it comfortingly, but when she felt how the taller woman flinched beneath the touch, she slowly retracted her hand.

"Hey, it's just me, Elphie."

The pet name had slipped out accidentally and earned her a glare from the Princess, but miraculously, the emerald girl began to relax a little and shifted into a more comfortable position.

"What's this?" she asked curtly, motioning towards the package on her side table.

Galinda perked up.

"I brought you some of the gateau we had for dessert."

"You pilfered that from the table?"

"Don't be silly! They would surely have noticed and I would have died of shame!"

The blonde made a dramatic gesture.

"No, I snuck into the kitchen and asked Nanny to pack one of the leftover pieces for you."

"Also rather risky," Elphaba pointed out and Galinda blushed just a little.

"Yeah, well, it was absolutely delicious and I didn't want you to miss out. And… I wanted to apologise for not coming earlier today. I was… busy."

Elphaba's brow furrowed.

"I told you, I'm fine by myself."

"Are not!" Galinda objected, pouting and crossing her arms. "No matter what you say, I know that you depend on me for company by now."

An incredulous laugh could be heard, followed by an appreciative 'mh.'

"This cake does look good," Elphaba, who had just opened the bundle, admitted.

Galinda's face beamed.

"Now if I only had a spoon or fork…"

Galinda's face fell.

"Oh no! I, I'll fetch you one!" she exclaimed as she jumped up.

Elphaba grabbed her wrist to hold her back, however, the action took the blonde so off guard, that with only the gentlest amount of force, she unintentionally pulled her down on her bed. Galinda's face flushed, Elphaba turned away awkwardly.

"Never mind the cutlery," she mumbled, "I'll just eat it with my fingers."

"Are you sure?" asked Galinda who had recovered relatively quickly.

The green woman nodded mutely.

There was a moment of silence. Perhaps, Elphaba was waiting for her to move off the bed and at one point it had seemed like she was about to say something, but her mouth closed again without producing any sound. Instead, she merely scooted over a few inches. Galinda preferred staying on the bed as long as she was not being shooed away. For one, it was marginally more comfortable than the chair and secondly… secondly… Well, whatever.

Now closer to the side table, Elphaba at least had better access to the cake. She picked up the slice with one hand and used the other to catch any falling crumbs. Galinda watched her eat, glad to see that she enjoyed the treat. When a long, dark tongue licked the remnants of cake and cream off thin, green fingers, she once more felt the heat rising in her face. She was just as scandalised as fascinated by the view and quickly turned away, fanning herself with a book she had found on the floor.

"Hey, this is a very ancient text," Elphaba reproached her lightly and took the fragile object out of her hand.

"It's very stuffy in here," the blonde complained. "I think you should get out of here more often. You need some fresh air."

"Are you sure? The green might only get greener," Elphaba remarked wryly.

Galinda gave the matter some thought and came to the conclusion that it would be worth the risk. Truth be told, she could hardly imagine the Princess' skin getting any more vibrant than it had always been, for it was already a very lush, brilliant emerald.

Taking a clock-tick to think, Galinda leaned against the wall on the other side of the bed, ignorant of the fact that her arm was only a hair's breadth removed form Elphaba's bent legs. Elphaba, on the other hand, did notice and - mostly unsuccessfully - attempted to fold up even further.

The shorter girl perked up when an idea popped into her head and turned her head to smile at Elphaba – again, missing the uncomfortable expression on her face.

"Do you ride? We could take two horses and-"

"I do not condone slavery," Elphaba cut her off sharply, "be it humans, Animals or animals."

Tilting her head, Galinda pursed her lips.

"Horseback riding is about partnership between the rider and their horse. I wouldn't call it sl-"

"If you're going to tell me the same rubbish Fiyero has been trying to sell me for over fifteen years, better don't bother."

The cold tone in the Princess' voice was rather effective and Galinda surrendered. With a tired groan, she slumped back against the wall and already began to ponder on her next suggestion. Elphaba still had a comment or two to get off her chest.

"How would you suggest, horseback riding could be objectively distinguished from slavery in a more conventional sense? This so-called 'partnership' is based on one party shoving a piece of metal in the other's mouth and imposing their will on them."

"You make it sound really crude and cruel, Elphaba. A good rider uses very fine-tuned, barely noticeable commands."

"Unless the horse disobeys," Elphaba interjected and Galinda gave a wave with her hand.

"Fine. Point taken, we're not going horse riding."

Bothered by her inability to conceive a decent plan to lure the Princess out of her den, Galinda began to nervously tap her index finger against her chin. Her thinking was disrupted as the clock struck ten. The finger stopped and her hand fell into her lap. She turned to look at Elphaba, who in return looked up from the book she had picked up at some point.

"You better go. They will close the doors any second now."

The blonde nodded dejectedly before crawling off the bed and slowly making her way to the door.

Then, with a movement so brisk that Elphaba shrunk back in surprise, she whirled back around and once more hopped onto the bed.

"I know something! We talked about it over dinner; we should go to the carnival that's in town! It will be a lark, believe me."

"And how do I know that you won't simply sell me to the freak show there?" Elphaba questioned, her expression dead serious.

"Miss Elphaba!"

The green woman sighed and looked away.

"Galinda, I don't think that this is my kind of fun."

"Well," the blonde began hesitantly, "then what is?"

"I don't know… A day in my parent's vast library, a walk in the woods-"

"Deal!" Galinda cut her off and scooted a little closer.

"P-pardon me?" the Princess almost stammered.

"First you take me to the carnival and later we take a walk through the woods – it's that easy!"

"When did I agree to that and why in Oz would I ever do that?"

"Because with Fiyero otherwise engaged, I'm your only hope for company and I shall refrain from seeing you until you do agree."

"All hell would break loose if I simply leave the castle, let a lone with you in tow!"

Galinda giggled.

"Oh, I'm sure you have your ways," she said and winked at her.

The green woman brought her hands up to massage her temples.

"Lurline, safe me!" she cried, but relented.

Satisfied with the outcome of their chat, Galinda flounced down the stairs, but found the door locked. Irritated, she returned to Elphaba's room and asked for assistance. At first, the Princess tried to scare her and denied the existence of any alternative passages back to the other side of the castle. When the blonde decided that the small bed in her room could fit two, however, she quickly changed her mind and told her about a passageway through the library in the attic. To Galinda's great dismay, she had to climb all those stairs and find the way entirely by herself, as Elphaba refused to accompany her. But once she was safely tucked in her own bed, the smile returned to the blonde's face in anticipation of their excursion to the carnival.