The Effects of Gravity 14/? by ainsleyaisling
Title: The Effects of Gravity 14/?
Author: ainsleyaisling
Rating: PG
'Verse: Musical AU; some details from bookverse
Pairings: Glinda/Fiyero, Elphaba/Fiyero, Glinda/Elphaba
Summary: In which everyone is confused.
Disclaimer: Wicked belongs mostly to Gregory Maguire, and musicalverse belongs to Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and possibly Universal.
Notes: Previous section can be found here. This really could have been part of the last chapter, but I thought it would have been a bit long. So you're getting another shortish post pretty fast.
~~Glinda~~
Elphaba didn't say much of anything once Glinda's tears had slowed, simply sitting there and letting Glinda lean against her. After what seemed like a long time Glinda rubbed the back of her hand across her wet eyes and asked quietly, "Did he tell you very much?"
"No," Elphaba replied, seeming a little startled by the sudden noise. "He just said that he had to end it, that it would have been wrong of him not to."
Glinda nodded, feeling the comforting soft brush of Elphaba's sweater against her cheek.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"What he said, that's basically what happened." Glinda gently prodded Elphaba's knees until she stretched her legs out straight and Glinda could lay her head in Elphaba's lap. It was every bit as comforting now as it had been when she was exhausted on the train that morning. "He . . ." She turned toward the fire, her fingers twisting a little in the hem of Elphaba's skirt. "He said he doesn't love me in a romantic way, and he didn't want to lie to me anymore."
"I'm sorry," Elphaba whispered, her fingers running through Glinda's hair. "He looked so upset when I saw him - he said I should go find you right away."
"Thank you for coming."
"As if I wouldn't have." She squeezed Glinda's shoulder. "Hold on, the kitchen gave me something for you - us." She slid herself carefully out from under Glinda, and Glinda sat up in consternation.
"You told the cooks?"
"No, I didn't tell them." Elphaba stretched up to retrieve her satchel from the bed. "I just said my roommate was having a very, very bad day. They like me there."
"So what did they give you?"
With a small triumphant smile, Elphaba pulled a bottle out of her satchel and handed it to Glinda. It was a very good Gillikin wine - Glinda didn't know enough to be able to tell if the year was particularly good, but she knew the label. "Did they pull this from the faculty stores?" she asked in awe.
"Probably. They must like you, too."
"They don't even know me." She felt strangely guilty about that, although a month ago the idea that she should present herself in the school kitchen for a conversation with the cooks would have seemed absurd.
"Sure they do. 'Pretty little Miss Galinda,' they said. 'Such a sweet thing.'" Elphaba almost managed not to roll her eyes when she said it.
"I'm not sure I deserve for them to think that."
"Well, maybe you'll write them a nice note." Elphaba took the bottle from her hands and revealed that her satchel also contained a corkscrew. "Anyway, I'm sure half the workers at the university know you're being trained by the Wizard. That makes you special, if they didn't already have a reason to think so."
"You're making a mess of that," Glinda said softly, watching Elphaba struggle with the corkscrew. "Give it to me."
Elphaba gladly passed her the bottle and the corkscrew, which she had been trying somehow to use sideways. "Now I know what the youth of Gillikin get up to," she commented, watching Glinda's more or less deft handling of the implement.
"Half of the youth of Gillikin are more likely just to break the neck of the bottle." Glinda managed a half-smile for her roommate as she held up the neatly extracted cork. "But my parents like a glass with dinner, and my mother thought a lady should know how to serve. Usually of course the cook would open it in the kitchen, but . . ." She shrugged. "I don't suppose you've also got glasses stashed in that bag of yours?"
"No luck. I was worried enough about breaking the bottle."
"In that case we'll be very like the youth of Gillikin." She raised the bottle, declared, "To degeneracy," and took a careful sip.
"All right?"
Glinda swallowed slowly, feeling the liquid start to warm her throat. "All right. Here." She passed the bottle to Elphaba, who took a sip and wrinkled her nose a little as she swallowed. "Up to the standards of Munchkinland?"
"In Munchkinland it's mostly beer." Elphaba held the bottle out and looked at the label. "I never realized wine was so bitter."
"Dry," Glinda corrected gently as Elphaba handed the bottle back. "Sometime we'll try a white wine from Frottica; it's sweeter. You ought to come and visit for break, you know. Or at least part of it."
"Were those two thoughts connected?" Elphaba smiled. "I think I'd like that, if my father would let me. There are plenty of people to look after Nessa at home."
Glinda laid her hand over Elphaba's where it rested on the floor. "Thank you for this."
"Of course." Elphaba turned her hand over so that she could hold Glinda's in return. "Any time."
"Hopefully I won't make a habit of it," Glinda said.
"I'm sure you won't. I'm having a hard time believing even one person was able to let you get away."
"That's how I intend to think of it from now on. A narrow escape." Glinda smiled and found that it actually made her feel a bit better. "You're very sweet to me, Elphie. Are you sure I deserve it?"
"No."
Glinda's laugh surprised herself so much that she set down the wine bottle she was holding and leaned over and kissed Elphaba. Elphaba drew back, looking concerned, but Glinda shook her head and took her friend's hand. "Not because of Fiyero," she assured her. "Just because." She kissed Elphaba again, slowly and carefully, tasting the wine on her mouth and stopping only when she felt Elphaba's hand tentatively touching her face. Elphaba smiled shyly when they parted, then reached out and hugged Glinda tightly.
"You'll feel better?" she asked in a whisper.
"I will," Glinda said. "Eventually."
"Oh!" Elphaba exclaimed suddenly, rising to her knees. "I forgot - I promised - Nessa, that I would come and see her. She had something to talk to me about."
Glinda's forehead furrowed as she watched Elphaba reach for, then reject, her discarded shoes. "It can't wait till the morning?"
Elphaba's face was apologetic. "I promised, you know how she'll fuss. I won't be long, I swear."
"Want me to come with you?" She didn't really want to leave the room, but she didn't much want to be away from Elphaba either.
"No - stay here and stay warm. I'll be back as fast as I can." Elphaba ducked out the door, smoothing one hand over her mussed hair as she went.
~~Elphaba~~
She hovered in the stairwell on the first floor, watching until the front foyer was clear, then darted from the building and into the shadows. The frozen grass was almost unbearably cold under her bare feet, but she hadn't wanted to make Glinda suspicious - she wouldn't ordinarily have put on her shoes (or, for that matter, her cloak, and so the rest of her was cold as well) just to run down to Nessa's room.
Lights were on in far too many of the rooms in the boys' dormitory - nearly all of them, really - and she ducked behind a tree to count over to the right room, thanking her lucky stars that at least she only had to get to the first floor. The eighth window from the left was nearly dark; it looked as though the occupants had lit only a small lamp back within the recesses of the room. With another quick glance around her to make sure she wasn't seen, Elphaba darted to the side of the building and, crouching down beneath the window ledges, made her way over to her target.
She knocked on the window with a cautious fist, keeping the rest of her tucked below the ledge just in case. She heard the creaking rush of the window being thrust up, and a familiar head poked out - not the one she had expected, but familiar nonetheless.
"Elphaba?" Fiyero's roommate whispered into the darkness.
She looked around nervously and straightened to her full height, leaning as close to the building as possible to take advantage of its shadow. "You're probably wondering what I'm doing hiding under your window," she whispered in response.
"Not really - Fiyero told me he expected you. He had to go and see the monitor for a moment, but he said to let you in if you came while he was gone." Rikk took a step back and extended his hand through the window to her. "Coming?"
"I don't really need to come in," she whispered, shifting from foot to foot to keep the cold off of each as much as possible. "I can just talk to him out here when he gets back."
"Are you sure? You look cold." Rikk glanced down. "Are you not wearing shoes?"
"I told Glinda I was just going downstairs to talk to my sister. If I'd gotten all bundled up . . ."
"Got it." Out of seeming curiosity he asked, "What if she goes to look for you?"
"Then I think fast. Or confess, I suppose." Self-consciously she tried to hide the fact that she was dancing between feet on the cold grass. "I can't believe I agreed to this."
"Me either," Rikk replied genially. "But he really was worried, you know."
"I know."
"Sure you won't come in? I'm completely trustworthy."
"I'm sure you are, but no thanks."
He leaned his elbows on the windowsill and said, as if simply trying to make conversation, "You know, Kiren really liked your sister."
"Did he?"
"You sound skeptical."
"Not really."
"No?"
"All right, yes, skeptical." Her smallest toes were beginning to feel uncomfortably numb. "Not because I don't believe someone would like her, mind."
"You just don't trust Glinda's interference."
"Her motives I trust - this time. It's her results I question." A bobbing light to her left caught her attention, and she ducked closer to the building wall and pointed. "What's that?" she whispered.
Rikk leaned out the window and swore softly. "Patrol," he said. "Haven't you ever seen them before?"
"We're on the third floor and we face a tree, so, no."
"You'd better come in now or they'll catch you." He extended his hand again. "Honestly, Elphaba, they're looking for people breaking curfew. Fiyero should be back any second."
"Well . . ." The bobbing light was coming closer. "All right." She placed her hand in his and propped one foot against the window ledge, using both to lift herself high enough to slide through the window and hop down onto the floor. He surprised her by slowing her fall with both hands on her waist - but then, she supposed at some point she'd have to stop being surprised. After all, he'd only ever been polite to her and, unlike the rest of his classmates, had never shown any reluctance to touch or be near her.
Perhaps he was color-blind. She had once met a color-blind Munchkin farmer who thought she was merely an odd shade of brown.
Rikk stepped away to a respectable distance once she was actually in the room, saying, "You'd better come away from the window and stay out of the lamplight, just in case."
"Right." She ducked into the nearest corner and leaned against the wall. "Where did you say Fiyero had gone?"
Just then the door opened, and Fiyero ducked hastily into the room and shut it behind him. He started to say, "Did El-" and then he noticed her and froze. "Oh. Elphaba." He coughed. "Good, you came in."
"I wasn't planning on it," she said, "but the patrol came by."
"Right."
Rikk stepped between them on a clear path to the door and asked, "Should I leave you . . ."
"No," Elphaba said quickly, holding up a hand to stop him. "I won't be long."
Fiyero spread his hands, taking a few steps closer to her and around his roommate. "So?"
Her eyes flickered over to Rikk, who was watching with benign interest. "She's . . ." She's fine. She kissed me. She's not at all fine. She will be. I couldn't tell you which of us is more disturbed at the moment, but I'm beginning to think it's me. "She'll be all right."
"But how is she right now?"
She's slowly getting drunk and quickly confusing her roommate. "She's - well, she's upset. You had to know that."
"But you'll - you're . . ." He stepped closer still, unaware that Rikk's gaze had shifted to his back, observing the movement. Elphaba frowned in fresh confusion. "You're taking care of her?" Fiyero finished finally.
She made herself look at him, instead of watching Rikk watch them. "Yes."
"Thank you."
"It's not a favor to you." She wasn't being deliberately unpleasant, just stating a fact.
"I know." He sighed. "Thank you for coming. I would have worried."
"You're welcome," she said quietly. "I'd better get back now; I told her I was just going down to Nessa's."
"Of course."
Rikk, out of some sense of chivalry perhaps, or perhaps he simply felt that he had taken upon himself the responsibility for helping Elphaba navigate the window, stepped to her side again and helped her onto the sill with one hand in hers and the other at the small of her back. She thanked him awkwardly and jumped to the ground, wincing as her feet - which had defrosted slightly in the warm room - touched the grass. The window slid closed, but while she was recovering herself and checking for any observers she distinctly heard Rikk inside the room say something she didn't really understand.
"Great Oz - that's not 'complicated,' my friend; that's a disaster."
When she got back to her own room Glinda was staring contemplatively into the fire, swaying the wine bottle from hand to hand with perilous balance. "Nessa all right?" she asked as Elphaba shut the door.
"She's fine. She - got a letter from our father and wanted to tell me what it said."
"Anything interesting?"
"Not to me." She sat down in her former place beside Glinda, subtly stretching her frozen toes toward the warmth of the flames.
Glinda reached over and placed a hand on Elphaba's elbow. "You're cold," she said, rubbing her fingers over the chilled fabric. "Nessa's room must be frigid; didn't she have the fire lit?"
"There's a draft in the stairwell."
"Oh."
Elphaba shifted backward enough that she could lean her back against the end of Glinda's bed. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
Glinda righted the bottle and set it down before her, studying it with seeming interest. "All right," she said. "Not all right. I don't really know."
After a slight hesitation Elphaba held out her arms, and Glinda slid back to settle into them, leaning her head on Elphaba's shoulder. Their hands tangled together over Glinda's stomach, and Elphaba felt more than heard her deep sigh. "Thanks," Glinda said.
"You don't have to thank me." Glinda's hair brushed against Elphaba's cheek as she leaned their heads together. "I'm here." It was fast becoming a mantra of theirs.
Glinda lifted their clasped hands to lay over her heart and whispered, "Thank goodness."
Author: ainsleyaisling
Rating: PG
'Verse: Musical AU; some details from bookverse
Pairings: Glinda/Fiyero, Elphaba/Fiyero, Glinda/Elphaba
Summary: In which everyone is confused.
Disclaimer: Wicked belongs mostly to Gregory Maguire, and musicalverse belongs to Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and possibly Universal.
Notes: Previous section can be found here. This really could have been part of the last chapter, but I thought it would have been a bit long. So you're getting another shortish post pretty fast.
~~Glinda~~
Elphaba didn't say much of anything once Glinda's tears had slowed, simply sitting there and letting Glinda lean against her. After what seemed like a long time Glinda rubbed the back of her hand across her wet eyes and asked quietly, "Did he tell you very much?"
"No," Elphaba replied, seeming a little startled by the sudden noise. "He just said that he had to end it, that it would have been wrong of him not to."
Glinda nodded, feeling the comforting soft brush of Elphaba's sweater against her cheek.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"What he said, that's basically what happened." Glinda gently prodded Elphaba's knees until she stretched her legs out straight and Glinda could lay her head in Elphaba's lap. It was every bit as comforting now as it had been when she was exhausted on the train that morning. "He . . ." She turned toward the fire, her fingers twisting a little in the hem of Elphaba's skirt. "He said he doesn't love me in a romantic way, and he didn't want to lie to me anymore."
"I'm sorry," Elphaba whispered, her fingers running through Glinda's hair. "He looked so upset when I saw him - he said I should go find you right away."
"Thank you for coming."
"As if I wouldn't have." She squeezed Glinda's shoulder. "Hold on, the kitchen gave me something for you - us." She slid herself carefully out from under Glinda, and Glinda sat up in consternation.
"You told the cooks?"
"No, I didn't tell them." Elphaba stretched up to retrieve her satchel from the bed. "I just said my roommate was having a very, very bad day. They like me there."
"So what did they give you?"
With a small triumphant smile, Elphaba pulled a bottle out of her satchel and handed it to Glinda. It was a very good Gillikin wine - Glinda didn't know enough to be able to tell if the year was particularly good, but she knew the label. "Did they pull this from the faculty stores?" she asked in awe.
"Probably. They must like you, too."
"They don't even know me." She felt strangely guilty about that, although a month ago the idea that she should present herself in the school kitchen for a conversation with the cooks would have seemed absurd.
"Sure they do. 'Pretty little Miss Galinda,' they said. 'Such a sweet thing.'" Elphaba almost managed not to roll her eyes when she said it.
"I'm not sure I deserve for them to think that."
"Well, maybe you'll write them a nice note." Elphaba took the bottle from her hands and revealed that her satchel also contained a corkscrew. "Anyway, I'm sure half the workers at the university know you're being trained by the Wizard. That makes you special, if they didn't already have a reason to think so."
"You're making a mess of that," Glinda said softly, watching Elphaba struggle with the corkscrew. "Give it to me."
Elphaba gladly passed her the bottle and the corkscrew, which she had been trying somehow to use sideways. "Now I know what the youth of Gillikin get up to," she commented, watching Glinda's more or less deft handling of the implement.
"Half of the youth of Gillikin are more likely just to break the neck of the bottle." Glinda managed a half-smile for her roommate as she held up the neatly extracted cork. "But my parents like a glass with dinner, and my mother thought a lady should know how to serve. Usually of course the cook would open it in the kitchen, but . . ." She shrugged. "I don't suppose you've also got glasses stashed in that bag of yours?"
"No luck. I was worried enough about breaking the bottle."
"In that case we'll be very like the youth of Gillikin." She raised the bottle, declared, "To degeneracy," and took a careful sip.
"All right?"
Glinda swallowed slowly, feeling the liquid start to warm her throat. "All right. Here." She passed the bottle to Elphaba, who took a sip and wrinkled her nose a little as she swallowed. "Up to the standards of Munchkinland?"
"In Munchkinland it's mostly beer." Elphaba held the bottle out and looked at the label. "I never realized wine was so bitter."
"Dry," Glinda corrected gently as Elphaba handed the bottle back. "Sometime we'll try a white wine from Frottica; it's sweeter. You ought to come and visit for break, you know. Or at least part of it."
"Were those two thoughts connected?" Elphaba smiled. "I think I'd like that, if my father would let me. There are plenty of people to look after Nessa at home."
Glinda laid her hand over Elphaba's where it rested on the floor. "Thank you for this."
"Of course." Elphaba turned her hand over so that she could hold Glinda's in return. "Any time."
"Hopefully I won't make a habit of it," Glinda said.
"I'm sure you won't. I'm having a hard time believing even one person was able to let you get away."
"That's how I intend to think of it from now on. A narrow escape." Glinda smiled and found that it actually made her feel a bit better. "You're very sweet to me, Elphie. Are you sure I deserve it?"
"No."
Glinda's laugh surprised herself so much that she set down the wine bottle she was holding and leaned over and kissed Elphaba. Elphaba drew back, looking concerned, but Glinda shook her head and took her friend's hand. "Not because of Fiyero," she assured her. "Just because." She kissed Elphaba again, slowly and carefully, tasting the wine on her mouth and stopping only when she felt Elphaba's hand tentatively touching her face. Elphaba smiled shyly when they parted, then reached out and hugged Glinda tightly.
"You'll feel better?" she asked in a whisper.
"I will," Glinda said. "Eventually."
"Oh!" Elphaba exclaimed suddenly, rising to her knees. "I forgot - I promised - Nessa, that I would come and see her. She had something to talk to me about."
Glinda's forehead furrowed as she watched Elphaba reach for, then reject, her discarded shoes. "It can't wait till the morning?"
Elphaba's face was apologetic. "I promised, you know how she'll fuss. I won't be long, I swear."
"Want me to come with you?" She didn't really want to leave the room, but she didn't much want to be away from Elphaba either.
"No - stay here and stay warm. I'll be back as fast as I can." Elphaba ducked out the door, smoothing one hand over her mussed hair as she went.
~~Elphaba~~
She hovered in the stairwell on the first floor, watching until the front foyer was clear, then darted from the building and into the shadows. The frozen grass was almost unbearably cold under her bare feet, but she hadn't wanted to make Glinda suspicious - she wouldn't ordinarily have put on her shoes (or, for that matter, her cloak, and so the rest of her was cold as well) just to run down to Nessa's room.
Lights were on in far too many of the rooms in the boys' dormitory - nearly all of them, really - and she ducked behind a tree to count over to the right room, thanking her lucky stars that at least she only had to get to the first floor. The eighth window from the left was nearly dark; it looked as though the occupants had lit only a small lamp back within the recesses of the room. With another quick glance around her to make sure she wasn't seen, Elphaba darted to the side of the building and, crouching down beneath the window ledges, made her way over to her target.
She knocked on the window with a cautious fist, keeping the rest of her tucked below the ledge just in case. She heard the creaking rush of the window being thrust up, and a familiar head poked out - not the one she had expected, but familiar nonetheless.
"Elphaba?" Fiyero's roommate whispered into the darkness.
She looked around nervously and straightened to her full height, leaning as close to the building as possible to take advantage of its shadow. "You're probably wondering what I'm doing hiding under your window," she whispered in response.
"Not really - Fiyero told me he expected you. He had to go and see the monitor for a moment, but he said to let you in if you came while he was gone." Rikk took a step back and extended his hand through the window to her. "Coming?"
"I don't really need to come in," she whispered, shifting from foot to foot to keep the cold off of each as much as possible. "I can just talk to him out here when he gets back."
"Are you sure? You look cold." Rikk glanced down. "Are you not wearing shoes?"
"I told Glinda I was just going downstairs to talk to my sister. If I'd gotten all bundled up . . ."
"Got it." Out of seeming curiosity he asked, "What if she goes to look for you?"
"Then I think fast. Or confess, I suppose." Self-consciously she tried to hide the fact that she was dancing between feet on the cold grass. "I can't believe I agreed to this."
"Me either," Rikk replied genially. "But he really was worried, you know."
"I know."
"Sure you won't come in? I'm completely trustworthy."
"I'm sure you are, but no thanks."
He leaned his elbows on the windowsill and said, as if simply trying to make conversation, "You know, Kiren really liked your sister."
"Did he?"
"You sound skeptical."
"Not really."
"No?"
"All right, yes, skeptical." Her smallest toes were beginning to feel uncomfortably numb. "Not because I don't believe someone would like her, mind."
"You just don't trust Glinda's interference."
"Her motives I trust - this time. It's her results I question." A bobbing light to her left caught her attention, and she ducked closer to the building wall and pointed. "What's that?" she whispered.
Rikk leaned out the window and swore softly. "Patrol," he said. "Haven't you ever seen them before?"
"We're on the third floor and we face a tree, so, no."
"You'd better come in now or they'll catch you." He extended his hand again. "Honestly, Elphaba, they're looking for people breaking curfew. Fiyero should be back any second."
"Well . . ." The bobbing light was coming closer. "All right." She placed her hand in his and propped one foot against the window ledge, using both to lift herself high enough to slide through the window and hop down onto the floor. He surprised her by slowing her fall with both hands on her waist - but then, she supposed at some point she'd have to stop being surprised. After all, he'd only ever been polite to her and, unlike the rest of his classmates, had never shown any reluctance to touch or be near her.
Perhaps he was color-blind. She had once met a color-blind Munchkin farmer who thought she was merely an odd shade of brown.
Rikk stepped away to a respectable distance once she was actually in the room, saying, "You'd better come away from the window and stay out of the lamplight, just in case."
"Right." She ducked into the nearest corner and leaned against the wall. "Where did you say Fiyero had gone?"
Just then the door opened, and Fiyero ducked hastily into the room and shut it behind him. He started to say, "Did El-" and then he noticed her and froze. "Oh. Elphaba." He coughed. "Good, you came in."
"I wasn't planning on it," she said, "but the patrol came by."
"Right."
Rikk stepped between them on a clear path to the door and asked, "Should I leave you . . ."
"No," Elphaba said quickly, holding up a hand to stop him. "I won't be long."
Fiyero spread his hands, taking a few steps closer to her and around his roommate. "So?"
Her eyes flickered over to Rikk, who was watching with benign interest. "She's . . ." She's fine. She kissed me. She's not at all fine. She will be. I couldn't tell you which of us is more disturbed at the moment, but I'm beginning to think it's me. "She'll be all right."
"But how is she right now?"
She's slowly getting drunk and quickly confusing her roommate. "She's - well, she's upset. You had to know that."
"But you'll - you're . . ." He stepped closer still, unaware that Rikk's gaze had shifted to his back, observing the movement. Elphaba frowned in fresh confusion. "You're taking care of her?" Fiyero finished finally.
She made herself look at him, instead of watching Rikk watch them. "Yes."
"Thank you."
"It's not a favor to you." She wasn't being deliberately unpleasant, just stating a fact.
"I know." He sighed. "Thank you for coming. I would have worried."
"You're welcome," she said quietly. "I'd better get back now; I told her I was just going down to Nessa's."
"Of course."
Rikk, out of some sense of chivalry perhaps, or perhaps he simply felt that he had taken upon himself the responsibility for helping Elphaba navigate the window, stepped to her side again and helped her onto the sill with one hand in hers and the other at the small of her back. She thanked him awkwardly and jumped to the ground, wincing as her feet - which had defrosted slightly in the warm room - touched the grass. The window slid closed, but while she was recovering herself and checking for any observers she distinctly heard Rikk inside the room say something she didn't really understand.
"Great Oz - that's not 'complicated,' my friend; that's a disaster."
When she got back to her own room Glinda was staring contemplatively into the fire, swaying the wine bottle from hand to hand with perilous balance. "Nessa all right?" she asked as Elphaba shut the door.
"She's fine. She - got a letter from our father and wanted to tell me what it said."
"Anything interesting?"
"Not to me." She sat down in her former place beside Glinda, subtly stretching her frozen toes toward the warmth of the flames.
Glinda reached over and placed a hand on Elphaba's elbow. "You're cold," she said, rubbing her fingers over the chilled fabric. "Nessa's room must be frigid; didn't she have the fire lit?"
"There's a draft in the stairwell."
"Oh."
Elphaba shifted backward enough that she could lean her back against the end of Glinda's bed. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
Glinda righted the bottle and set it down before her, studying it with seeming interest. "All right," she said. "Not all right. I don't really know."
After a slight hesitation Elphaba held out her arms, and Glinda slid back to settle into them, leaning her head on Elphaba's shoulder. Their hands tangled together over Glinda's stomach, and Elphaba felt more than heard her deep sigh. "Thanks," Glinda said.
"You don't have to thank me." Glinda's hair brushed against Elphaba's cheek as she leaned their heads together. "I'm here." It was fast becoming a mantra of theirs.
Glinda lifted their clasped hands to lay over her heart and whispered, "Thank goodness."