Glinda wasn't sure if she was surprised or not when Elphaba came into the room that evening.

"What, no library tonight?" She sounded tired, even to her own ears. She sounded as tired as Elphaba looked.

The green girl shook her head and sank onto her bed, scooting into the corner and curling up as tight as possible. She watched as Glinda turned to the mirror and went back to brushing her hair.

"What?" the blonde asked eventually. She looked over her shoulder. "I can feel you watching me. What is it?"

Elphaba's cheeks turned a darker green, but her gaze never wavered. "I miss you."

Glinda looked away. "I miss you too."

"I'm sorry."

She sighed. "You know what's ironic? I was so worried when we left for Lurlinemas break. I thought for sure you were going to spend a month at home, buried in Dillamond's research, and you would forget all about me."

Elphaba's eyes widened, but Glinda still wasn't looking at her. She went on, "Now, I almost wish that had happened. At least then it would make sense why we're so distant."

The green girl swallowed and tried to find her voice. "You…you thought I'd forget about you?"

"Yeah."

"Me too."

"What?"

"I was afraid you'd come back after Lurlinemas and not care about me anymore." Elphaba rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. "Maybe you should have. You would have been better off."

Glinda finally turned around to face her. "Is that why you get so upset? You think I'm forgetting about you?"

Elphaba flinched, even though Glinda's voice was as gentle as possible. "No. Maybe. I don't know. I just…I know I don't have a right to be mad when you flirt with Fiyero. It just makes me think…" She groaned and buried her face in her hands. "I don't know!"

"And you hate not knowing," Glinda said quietly. She rose from her chair and walked over to sit next to her.

"Yeah." The green girl looked up and, ever so slowly, began uncurling herself. "I care," she said suddenly. "I told you I didn't, but I do."

Glinda nodded. She knew that. "Remember last semester when we first became friends? How we couldn't stop arguing and fighting all the time?"

Elphaba winced again, but she mumbled something that sounded like a yes.

"You told me that we just had to give ourselves time to adjust to things. We had to get used to being friends, but we'd figure it out eventually. You were right, as usual." She gave a half smile and took Elphaba's hand. "And I think what you said still applies. We just have to…adjust some things. And give it time."

Elphaba stared at their hands. Slowly, instinctively, she brushed her thumb over Glinda's knuckles. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I've been such an idiot. I never should have—this never should have gone so far. I'm so sorry."

"Me too."

"You didn't do anything."

"I was afraid," Glinda said, squeezing her hand. "So were you. We just…didn't handle it very well."

If someone had asked her what she was afraid of, Elphaba couldn't have answered. But no one asked her, she didn't have to put it into words, so it was a little easier to say, "I'm still afraid."

"Me too. Elphaba?"

"Yeah?"

"Fiyero doesn't mean anything. If I flirt with him, it's just because that's how we interact. He knows I want nothing more than friendship, and he would never do anything to change that."

The green girl sighed. "I…think I knew that. It was just…"

"I understand."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too. Now quit apologizing and hug me."

"Well, it's about time," Crope said by way of greeting the next morning. "You two are looking reasonably companionable this morning."

"Give them a break, Crope," said Tibbett, "Everyone has lovers' spats once in a while."

"You," Elphaba said, scowling at them both. "Are not helping. At all." Still, she and Glinda sat down next to each other, and Glinda reached over to hook their pinkies together under the table.

"Just wait until the two of you get into it," Boq said to the boys. "You're both more dramatic than Elphie and Glinda combined."

"I take offense to that," Crope said indignantly.

"I don't," said Tibbett happily. "I take it as a compliment."

Elphaba let out a laugh—that relaxed, wild cackle Glinda used to hate so much—and curled her pinky tighter around Glinda's. A jolt of thrill went through the blonde as she watched her, and she realized something. She was still scared—Oz, she was terrified—but she had learned her lesson. She had feelings for Elphaba, and if the green girl found out and hated her, then so be it. But she wasn't going to let her fears hurt Elphie anymore.

Something told her, though, as she and Elphie spent most of the meal tangling their fingers and poking each other's hips, that she didn't have much to worry about.

"Go on, Glinda," Elphaba said. "I'll be back to the room soon."

The blonde hesitated, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Should I even bother asking?"

Elphaba grinned, only a little sheepish. "You're just going to have to trust me, my sweet." Her grin slid into more of a smirk and she turned away, heading for the table Boq was still standing by.

"It's not that I don't trust you," Glinda grumbled as she left and hurried to catch up with Crope and Tibbett. "It's that I worry about you."

Back in the café, Elphaba grabbed Boq by the elbow and leaned down to murmur in his ear. The Munchkin tensed and nodded, following her out of the building.

"Do we have to do this outside?" Boq whined as they rounded the corner and huddled against the back wall of the café. "It's too cold."

"Less people," Elphaba said quietly, looking around. "There's something we need to talk about."

"Did you drag me out here to thank me? Because really, it was a pleasure calling you an idiot."

The green girl scowled. "Just for that, I'm not going to. And no, that's not why I came out here."

"Then why—?"

"We're close."

Boq's mouth hung open for a split second. Then he closed it and shook his head. "You're kidding."

"I'm not." Elphaba's eyes danced, and a trace of excitement ran under her urgent tone. "I've proven all the parts to be equal. In a nonliving brain, all the components are perfect matches. But…"

"But that's a non-living brain." Boq leaned against the wall, puffing out his cheeks. "It doesn't do anything to prove consciousness."

"Exactly."

He shook his head. "How can you prove equal consciousness? How is that even possible?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure," Elphaba said slowly, "But I might have an idea."

The Munchkin looked sideways at her. "Let me guess. It's dangerous, probably stupidly so, and you need my help."

Her eyes darted around for a moment, then landed back on him. "I need to get into Morrible's office."

"You what?!"

A green hand clamped over his mouth and Elphaba leaned in close. "Quiet!" They both held still for a long moment, listening hard. When everything remained still and peaceful, Elphaba lowered her hand. "Are you going to let me explain, or are you going to yell loud enough for half the campus to hear you again?"

Boq scowled. "Please, go on. Tell me why you want to go on a suicide mission."

"It's not a suicide mission. Not if we're careful." She took a deep breath. "Look, we're trying to prove equal sentience, right? So we have to figure out just what sentience is—how it works, where it comes from, and how to prove it."

"Yeah. And?"

"Think about it. Who do we know that has experimented with conscious thought? What sort of creature—or machine—exists that mimics sentience?"

His eyes widened. "You can't be serious."

"You know I'm right, don't you?"

"I know you're crazy."

"Boq."

He took a deep breath. "Yes, you're right. Of course you're right. That tiktok creature she fiddles around with—Grommetik, right? It has all the signs of sentient thought."

"But it has no brain with which to think," Elphaba said. "Tiktoks were invented to be mindless machines, running errands for their owners and such. But this one is different. It can move around and do things without being ordered."

"So…what?" Boq asked. "Morrible's tampered with that thing, and it can mimic conscious thought. How does that help us prove…?"

"You said it yourself. Morrible tampered with it. She's the one who came up with a way to give false sentience. If we can figure out how she did it—whether it's magic or science or something else—then we can put that up against the minds of Animals and humans."

"Let me get this straight. You want to break into Morrible's office—praying, of course, that we don't get caught by her or that creepy Grommetik thing—and fumble blindly through her belongings until we find evidence as to how she created a false consciousness, even though, for all we know, such evidence may or may not even exist?"

"You think I'm stupid, don't you?"

"No, I think you're brilliant. And also insane."

Elphaba flashed him a grin. She folded her hands behind her back and started pacing. "There has to be a book or a scroll somewhere. Something that she used to learn about the mind. She's clever, but her field of knowledge is centered on sorcery. Consciousness and sentience—she would have needed help understanding all of that."

"Have you ever been to Morrible's office? There could be a thousand books in there, not to mention all the scrolls and papers that would be in her desk. This is…"

"Impossible, I know." Her eyes met his, and he was shocked to see a silent plea in them. "But we're so close. If we can just figure this one thing out, we can do it. We can finally prove—"

"I know." Boq let out a breath. "This is bigger than anything else we've done. It'll take planning, and we'll have to learn Morrible's schedule, and how that tiktok thing works, and—"

"It'll take time," Elphaba agreed, stopping him before he got too worked up. "But it's what we need to do. Well, what I need to do. You know I won't ask you to—"

"Oh, shut up, Elphie. There's no way I'm dropping out now."

Her lips twitched. "We should probably go. I told Glinda I wouldn't be long."

"Okay. Library tonight?"

"Yeah. Front steps at eleven."

"Sounds good."

They walked around the building and back into the main square. Elphaba turned her head to say tell Boq goodbye as they parted ways, but she was stopped by something in the corner of her eye.

"What's wrong?" Boq asked quietly, noticing her expression change.

Elphaba tilted her head, nodding to the café behind them. Fiyero was leaning against the wall, hands stuffed in his pockets, kicking at a couple of spare bricks. Boq's forehead wrinkled at the sight and he looked back at the green girl.

"You're just being paranoid."

"You're the one who said he was getting curious."

"And you're the one who said no one else would find out."

Elphaba glared ahead. "I say a lot of things. I'll see you tonight." She turned sharply and headed back to the girls' dorm, leaving Boq to keep walking alone through campus. And try as he might, the Munchkin couldn't shake the feeling of a certain pair of Vinkan eyes watching him.

A storm rolled in that night, blotting out the stars and rattling their window with the heavy wind. Fortunately, any rain or snow maintained its distance, so Elphaba could still make it to the boys' library unharmed. Unfortunately, the thunder and lightning—however distant—created a whole new problem.

"You're leaving again?"

Elphaba shouldered her bag. "Go back to sleep, Glinda."

"I wasn't sleeping…I can't."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Glinda shift further away from the window. Elphaba bit her lip. She didn't want to leave Glinda alone like this, not with her mysterious fear of storms. But what choice did she have? She lingered near the door, eyes darting between the trembling blonde and her own, empty bed.

"Stay in my bed." The words came out as soon as Elphaba had thought them, and she had to resist the urge to smack herself in the forehead.

Glinda watched as the green of Elphaba's cheeks deepened, and she felt her own face flush red. "I-I—"

"If you want to, I mean," Elphaba said quickly. "It's further away from the window, and even if you fall asleep you'd know when I'm back, so I thought…" She rubbed the back of her neck and looked at the floor. Stupid stupid stupid. "But I know, the sheets are ugly and it gets kind of cold and—"

Glinda pulled her thick pink blanket around herself and hopped out of bed. She padded across the few feet of space between the beds and crawled onto Elphaba's plain black sheets. They smelled like her, and just that was enough to ease Glinda's fears. She glanced up at the green girl. "Are you sure, Elphie?"

But Elphaba was grinning uncontrollably, her cheeks a darker green than Glinda had ever seen. "I, uh…yeah. I'll be back soon. Sleep well, Glinda." Before Glinda could respond, she turned and bolted out the door.

Elphaba was still blushing when she reached the boys' library, although she could easily blame it on the cold. Boq looked up as she approached.

"I'm curious," he said, standing. "Was all of this—the library, the science labs—was it all just practice? Was Morrible's office always the end goal?"

"If it was, I would have never let you help me." She gave a short laugh. "You know, Dillamond warned me on the day he left to stay away from her."

"Well if we do this right, you'll be doing just that."

"Hopefully. But we can focus on that later. Right now I only need—" Elphaba froze, eyes widening. Her jaw set and her head tilted just slightly, as if straining to catch something. Boq held his breath, waiting. Then he heard it.

From behind them, not too far away, came the soft crunch of frozen grass beneath a pair of shoes.