Taken aback, Galinda shifted her gaze from the Heiress of Oz to the prince of Vinkus and back to Elphaba.
"Did I miss something?" The blonde asked.
Fiyero sat himself down without invitation from either of the girls (being Fiyero and all) and stared at Galinda.
"Hello Miss Upland," He smiled and took Galinda's hands into his own "Nice to see you again." He said as he softly kissed the back of her hand. An obvious blush was spotted on Galinda's cheeks but neither party present acknowledged it.
Getting ready to answer Galinda's question, Elphaba took a deep breath, preparing herself for the questions that the blonde was sure to fire.
But Fiyero beat her to it.
"You see, Miss Oz here was a childhood friend of mine. We were really close," For some reason, he looked at Elphaba with a wicked grin on his face before pulling off a pout and staring back at Galinda "but then, she just shut me out."
At this, Elphaba's eyes bulged and her eyebrows furrowed. "Excuse me, dear prince I did not shut you out, we had merely grown apart over the years of obvious sepa-"
Elphaba was interrupted by a loud impolite snort, soon followed by a laugh. Galinda, on the other hand, just watched the interaction before her unfold.
"Fae, I was kidding." Fiyero managed to say in between his little laughing episode.
The Heiress of Oz snapped her head towards the prince, with eyes full of wry coldness. "Don't you ever kid about such things, Master Fiyero." She hissed as if his mere name brought her such disgust and her tone was that of something full of disdain.
Realizing his mistake, Fiyero knowingly grabs her hand and smiles at her sadly. "I'm sorry, Fae. I forgot."
By now the blonde had a thousand question circling violently inside her head. But one question kept coming out of the blue and unconsciously, it slipped from her mouth. "How do you know each other?"
Snapping out of his reverie, he directs his gaze towards Galinda as he let go of Elphaba's hand. "Long story short, we were friends since childhood. I used to visit the palace as a child whenever my parents would come to the Emerald city to discuss politics with the Wizard. Naturally, as kids, we played and we grew closer. Starting that time, I would come to the palace every summer and spend time with Elphaba. After a while, my parents and I stopped visiting."
"Why?"
"I don't actually know myself." There was his sad smile again, as if reminiscing the past.
Bringing herself back into the conversation, Elphaba stares at Galinda blankly before asking: "How did you jolly pair meet?"
And at the same time, Galinda and Fiyero replied: "At Political Science."
There was an awkward pause, and during that pause, Elphaba stared down at her cup of coffee and her hands kept on fidgeting. Fiyero was staring at Elphaba with such love in his eyes, and Galinda….well she was doing the same.
Neither of the three knew what the other two was up to, that was until Elphaba decided to look up and caught both of them staring at her, and being the numb being she was, she snapped at them both: "What are you lot staring at? Fiyero, I'd have thought you'd be used to my peculiar skin by now."
Surprised, Fiyero answers "Oh no, Fae. It's not that. It's just… wow, I can't believe you've grown so much. I-I mean not too..- I meant, uhm… you just look a bit different.
Your eyes have a darker hue of green in them, and somehow, at the same time it has a more vibrant glow to it. Your cheekbones are more.. prominent, in a good way of course." Quickly reassuring the verdant girl.
He comes closer to Elphaba and cups her cheeks, in which Elphaba flinches a little but lets him. "And let me see those dimples."
"No."
"Come onnnnnnn! Just smile for a bit."
"I said it before and I will say it again, no."
Fiyero pouts and looks to Galinda desperately, 'Help me' he mouths.
Seeing this interaction Elphaba looks at Galinda as well, "Glin, no, don't side with this imbecile."
Galinda sniffles a laugh and stares at Fiyero, "I'm absolutely sorry, Master Fiyero. But it seems you may as well handle this yourself. I would not let myself get tangled into whatever this is." She motions to the space between Fiyero and Elphaba.
Elphaba snorts. "Galinda, do not tell me you have assumed something so foolish. And to think you've caught me speechless with your wit and logic. Where are they right now?"
"Where are they who?"
"Your common sense, my sweet Galinda." Hurt, the blonde was supposed to answer back, until the pet name registered in her head, but she chose to save that for later. Not rising up to the green girl's bait, she asks another question.
"I supposed you two had some sort of connection."
Elphaba smiles, "Oh yes, we do. The Witty and The Brainless."
Fiyero rolls his eyes and answers: "Sure," he dramatically leans into Galinda's ear and stage whispers: "She likes thinking so highly of herself. She also likes insulting me, I think she's trying to tell me that she likes me."
Now it was Elphaba's turn to roll her eyes at him. She sighs.
"Fool."
Galinda felt as if she was eavesdropping on some private conversation meant for lovers. But inside, as she was telling herself this, her mind kept reminding her that the pair was not romantically involved. Maybe it was just the way they communicated with each other, wasn't it?
Producing cough-like sounds, Galinda sits up. "Elphie, I'm going up for a bit. I feel quite queasy ."
Surprised, Elphaba calls out to Galinda. "Glin, I might as well come with you. I am in dire need of more logical people compared to this commoner." She points at Fiyero.
Fiyero snickers, "I'm here you know. And I can bring you to the gallows for treason your Ozness!"
Galinda observed the interaction once more, what the pair had was comparable to childhood friendship, insults and such. Inside though, Galinda felt giddy to actually be given a chance to see harlequin Elphie. Inside the smarts, the stoic façade, the sharp tongue (her mind completely got away from her at this point, how had she interpreted that wrong?), and the all work and no play thing, there was a silly and happy-go-lucky child inside.
In rare moments, Elphaba really would let herself go and speak as if she were still at the castle running around with Fiyero, and at those times, she speaks like it too. "Treason my ass." She says as she stands up from her chair and grabs Galinda's wrist.
"Come my sweet Galinda, let us go forth and escape the idiotic prince and venture into more intellectual grounds."
Not surprisingly, Fiyero stayed in his seat but laughed. And the pair, made their way back to Crage Hall.
Back in their room, Elphaba was fixing her things for tomorrow, oblivious to the blonde sitting on her frilly pink bed.
Elphaba was sitting the way the tribes in Vinkus sat. "The Vinkun sit" with both legs tucked neatly together looking like a pretzel of some sort.
Stacks of books were found to her left and to her right, infront of her was her various Pfenix feathers (albeit she never used them). She was too intent on her work to notice the blonde's 'pst'-ing noise.
"Elphaba!" Galinda almost shouted. Almost.
The Heiress of Oz looked towards her bombastic ―and rather loud― friend. "What is it?"
Suddenly losing all the confidence she had just a few clock ticks ago, Galinda bowed her head and stares at their carpeted floor. "N-Nothing. Never mind."
"Oh dear, alright. I am sorry for snapping on you like that. Now, what is it you wanted to tell me?" She said contritely.
"Not actually tell, I wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead." She smiled.
"What did you call me while we were at the café?"
"Hmmm? What? With Fiyero?"
"Yes."
"What did I say?"
"You don't remember?"
There was a pause. An anxious pause.
"No."
"Oh… Never mind then."
"Wait, Glin, I apologize. I really do not keep track of anything I say. As you might have inferred, I am quite tactless." She smiled at the blonde before standing up and leaving her work to head over to Galinda's bed and sat beside the blonde. Hoping to calm her nerves and hopefully ask her what the blonde was meaning to ask her.
Galinda giggled. "That."
"Hmm?" Confused, she moved her head closer to Galinda's face.
The blonde gulped. This was not good. The air was getting thicker and heavier with the fizzles and crackles of the ever-present sparks.
"..W-What y-yo..u ca-alled me. You..uhm, said 'Glin'." Elphaba's face was dangerously close to her own that she could have sworn she felt Elphaba's breath on her face. And with this proximity, the blonde could clearly smell the intoxicating scent of peppermint and sandalwood.
"I suppose you were right. I guess my subconscious thought it had a nice ring to it. You don't mind do you? That I call you 'Glin'?"
She blonde shrugged, "Surprisingly I don't. My mother used to call me by that name; I never liked it when people I was not quite fond of would call me 'Glin'. But coming from you, I think it's fine. Honestly, I like it when you call me that. So no, I don't mind." She smiled.
Both girl's face was flushed, the other a darker shade of pink and the other, a darker hue of green.
As Galinda said those last words, Elphaba felt as if her heart had suddenly grown wings and was now fluttering inside her and beating the walls of her body to let it roam free. And the constant ba-dump rhythm it had was now going a thousand Ozmiles per clock tick.
She did not speak for quite a while for she was afraid that if she did, her voice would break and reveal her confusion.
"I-I am honored to be considered a person whom you are 'quite fond of'." Elphaba finally replied. Glad that her speech had only broken once.
They stared at each other for quite some time, exchanging warm smiles and simple hand touches (safe for the level of friends). Yes, Galinda stared at Elphaba's light green eyes, but for once or twice she had caught herself unconsciously staring at Elphaba's lips.
..Which were…awkwardly paler than they were.
"Elphie?"
"Hmm?" The green girl replied and noticeably, her eyes were beginning to slowly flutter close.
"Are you alright? Would you prefer that I bring you to your bed?"
The blonde felt Elphaba's head lean on her shoulder, and she also felt Elphaba shake her head. Her body vibrated, maybe because of Elphaba's murmured 'no'.
A few clock ticks passed and Galinda could feel Elphaba's breathing even out.
Galinda was about to conclude that her roommate was simply tired from their first day of school. That was until Elphaba gasped and visibly paled all over.
"G-GLINDA."
Ignoring the mispronunciation of her name, the blonde caressed Elphaba's cheek.
"Elphie, shhhh shhh. I'm here."
"GLINDA NO!" Elphaba shouted, eyes still closed. Elphaba was thrashing and her forehead was slick with sweat.
Galinda tried to grab her friend by the shoulders, but to no avail for Elphaba was much stronger than herself.
A few more attempts and then at the last one, the blonde was surprised to have been able to calm Elphaba down and hold her. "Shhhh, I'm here. I won't hurt you." She cooed, as if she were talking not to a seventeen year old, but to a child.
Elphaba's eyes slowly flutter open and Galinda could see something different about her eyes, they were not the Heiress of Oz's normal eye shade. They were an eerie dark green that seemed to have been mixed with purple.
"Galinda?"
The blonde was about to reply when Elphaba's body suddenly became heavier. Due to the weight, Elphaba's body fell back on to the bed. Galinda was thanking every single deity or Unnamed God above that they were on her bed, for if they were standing, she was sure she would not be able to catch Elphaba.
Fleetingly, Galinda wondered why the sudden event happened as it did. And instead, fixed the things Elphaba had left unattended. The blonde also fixed her friend's position on her bed, for a moment, Galinda thought of sleeping beside the green girl but she thought better of it. She would not take advantage of Elphaba's drowsiness or unconscious from (whichever, Galinda thought).
She made her way to her friend's Maroon bed, and gently sat there. The clothe felt smooth and velvety, Galinda assumed that the clothe was made from none other than the most expensive kind in all of Oz: Ozian Silk. Then she positioned herself in the middle of the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a moment until she felt her eyes slowly flutter close.
As they were well on their way to closing, Galinda whispered softly, but not too softly that it could not be heard.
"We'll find out."