The Effects of Gravity 23/?, by ainsleyaisling
Title: The Effects of Gravity 23/?
Author: ainsleyaisling
Rating: PG
'Verse: Musical AU; some details from bookverse
Pairings for Story Overall: Glinda/Fiyero, Elphaba/Fiyero, Glinda/Elphaba
Summary: Tensions break, and Fiyero has news.
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.
~~Elphaba~~
She tried to make her way quickly from literature class, knowing that Glinda was more than usually jumpy these days and reacted rather badly to Elphaba coming home later or slower than expected. It was all the more disturbing because she didn't cry, or scold, or cling when Elphaba did return - all things Elphaba had experienced before. She would simply look at Elphaba and nod with her jaw set and her eyes dark, and say calmly something like, "You haven't been arrested, then?" And then she wouldn't speak for at least an hour. Elphaba was beginning to think fondly on the crying and the scolding.
But as she was trying to edge her way toward the door, a firm hand closed over her elbow. Fiyero. "I need to show you something," he said under his breath, his lips barely moving, as he dropped his satchel over his shoulder.
"Does it have to be now?" she asked, not taking the time to apologize or even really to feel guilty for the sharpness of her tone.
"Yes," he said emphatically. "It's important."
She made for the door again, pulling him along with her. "Can you show me while we walk?"
"What are you in such a hurry for?"
She dropped her voice, looking carefully at the other students rushing past them. Most if not all of them were too pleased to be released from class to be paying any attention to Elphaba and Fiyero. "Ever since those students were arrested last week, Glinda gets very nervous when I'm late."
"She's got you on a short lead," Fiyero marveled.
"Are you entirely heartless, or just very good at faking it?"
"Both?" He tugged on her arm. "Come on, Elphaba."
"I'd just rather not put up with the look on her face - can we go, please?"
"Fine, but -" He let himself be dragged toward the classroom door and didn't finish his sentence until they were outside. "Aren't you working for the Wizard? Why would she expect you to be arrested?"
"It's Glinda; she doesn't need a reason." Now she did feel guilty - she slowed her pace slightly and added, "Anyway, you know we can't really trust anyone. Or anything. Anything could happen any minute."
"That's cheery. But -" He pulled at her hand and led her around a corner, away from the exit to the building. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. What I wanted to show you."
"What?" Now she was concerned - she didn't know what she had thought before, but honestly it hadn't entered her mind that Fiyero might actually need to show her something important.
He shook his head. "Not here. If you're in a rush to get back to Glinda, can you meet me later? Somewhere no professors will see us?"
The look on his face was suddenly intense, serious. She found herself nodding slowly. "I guess. Where?"
"Well." He looked away from her, biting his lip. "The library?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, Fiyero, but there are usually quite a lot of professors in the library."
"My dormitory?"
"Are you insane? Trying that once was enough for me."
"Yours then."
Elphaba hesitated. Certainly she was much more willing to risk Fiyero getting caught running across campus after curfew than herself, and he had proven himself rather adept at getting in and out of their room. "Is it something Glinda can hear?"
"That depends on exactly how skittish she's been lately."
Elphaba frowned at him. "She's nervous, but she's not a child. If it's not some kind of secret only I can hear, then she can handle it."
"I figured you'd tell her anyway, if you thought it was best." He nodded quickly, decisively, and pushed off from the wall he had been leaning against. "Tonight then. Make sure Glinda's expecting me too, so I don't scare her."
"All right." This side of him, seen so much more often lately - the serious side, the side that cared, that worried about whether he would frighten Glinda - so distracted her that she almost forgot the thought that had crossed her mind while they were talking. By the time she remembered he had started to walk away, and she had to reach after him and grab his sleeve.
"What?" he asked, turning back to face her.
"Your roommate."
His face went oddly blank. "What about him?"
"He's - he said something to us . . ." She paused and started over. "Do you trust him?"
"I guess."
"I mean would you trust him with - with something like whatever you're going to show me."
"Oh." His hesitation was just long enough for her to notice that she was still holding onto his arm, and to drop her hand quickly. "I'm not sure."
Her other hand, the one that had been resting on her satchel, rose to her lips and she took one nail gently between her teeth - Glinda's gesture, she realized as soon as she did it. "All right," she said.
"It's not that I don't trust him," Fiyero explained, frowning in concentration at the brick wall next to his face. "I just don't know enough about him, really, to know if I trust him with that sort of thing." Elphaba nodded, and Fiyero added, "You know - for that matter - how do you know you can trust me, with that sort of thing?"
"I have no idea," Elphaba said after thinking about it for a moment. "I suppose we just do."
"We?"
"Me and Glinda."
"Of course." He reached out and patted her shoulder awkwardly. "See you later."
When Elphaba had made her rather confused way back to her room, Glinda was sitting up at her desk with a small fortress of spellbooks surrounding her. She lifted her head as Elphaba entered, that horrible hard look on her face, and Elphaba tried desperately to forestall whatever she was going to say by crying out, "I'm sorry - Fiyero needed to tell me something."
Glinda closed her mouth for a moment before speaking. "What?"
"He said he had to tell me - us - in private. He's coming here later."
Glinda glanced around their room in quick alarm. "Here?"
"Yes." Elphaba dropped her satchel on her bed and sat down to unlace her shoes. "He has been here multiple times before."
"Yes, but I've got - things everywhere."
Despite the seriousness of the day's conversations, Elphaba had to grin at the look on her roommate's face. "They're called books, Glinda. All evidence to the contrary, I don't actually think he's disgusted by them."
"I don't mean that." Glinda sighed and set down the papers in her hand, running her fingers through her hair. Even slightly tumbled it was still, of course, perfectly beautiful. "And I don't - I mean, it's not that I care what he thinks. Anymore. It's just - I hate to be sloppy."
"Well, I doubt he'll come until after curfew anyway and it's not even dinnertime yet. We've got plenty of time." Pushing her shoes aside, Elphaba picked her way across the room in bare feet and leaned over Glinda's shoulder. "What are you studying?"
"Are you trying to distract me?" Glinda asked, craning her neck to peer up at Elphaba.
"Yes."
"Well. All right." She found Elphaba's hand and tugged her down so that she was kneeling next to Glinda's chair. "Not terribly subtle, are you?"
"You don't exactly require subtle," Elphaba said immediately, much more harshly than she had intended. She drew in a hissing breath and winced inwardly, waiting for Glinda's response.
Glinda looked down at her for a moment and clearly stopped before saying the very first thing that had come to her lips. Instead, after a beat, she said, "What was that for?"
"I'm sorry," Elphaba said reflexively, gritting her teeth.
"No, you're not."
"Glinda."
"No, of course you are. But what - why?"
"I -" Elphaba shook her head, feeling the words dry up. "I don't know, I'm sorry."
"Elphie -"
"What were you going to say?"
Glinda was drawn up short. "What?"
"A minute ago, you were going to say something else. What was it?"
Glinda's eyebrows drew together as she looked down at Elphaba. Finally she said, "I'm not that simple."
"I didn't say you were, but I could tell you were going to say something else and you stopped, so -"
"No, that's what I was going to say. I'm not that simple, Elphaba." Her tone bit sharply, much more sharply than she had managed in a long time.
"I don't - think you are."
"You do, a little." Glinda crossed her arms over her chest and continued to glare downward, her eyes effectively keeping Elphaba in place on her knees on the wooden floor. "Don't manage me."
"I -" Elphaba was beginning to feel eerily like Fiyero - like any boy, she supposed, when faced with Glinda. Or possibly with any girl, in an argument. "I'm sorry?"
"Don't apologize if you don't know what for." Glinda's arms clenched more tightly with anger, but she looked as if she might suddenly start to cry.
"I do know what for." Elphaba's instinct was to get up and put her arms around Glinda, but she stayed where she was. "And I'm sorry, but if you're going to react so badly every time I come in late, or every time you don't know where I am, then you need to be managed." Too much, she knew right away. She almost flinched, half expecting Glinda to slap her.
Glinda inhaled with a little gasp, and her lower lip turned white as she bit down on it. At last she asked, "How long have you been wanting to say that?"
"I haven't -" Giving up, Elphaba rocked back over her heels and sat down on the floor. "Don't make it like that. It's just not fair of you, to accuse me of trying to manage you when you need such careful treatment or you get angry with me, Glinda. And you know it."
Glinda turned her head away furiously and stared at the window. "I don't mean - you know I don't mean to try to - tell you what to do, or . . ."
"I know," Elphaba said, forcing her voice to gentleness despite the quick, not entirely logical anger that she could still sense in herself. "But effectively -"
"I know. I know." Glinda lifted one foot and propped it against the desk; apparently Elphaba was not the only one who had accidentally adopted her roommate's mannerisms. The thought, oddly, cooled some of her anger. "I'm just so afraid, all the time," Glinda continued, absently, her sternly controlled voice completely at odds with the color flooding her cheeks as Elphaba looked at her. "I don't mean - you're right, I suppose I've been managing you, haven't I, by being so ridiculous."
"You're not being ridiculous," Elphaba said softly. "But -"
"But it can't go on, I know. I know." Glinda rubbed one hand over her eyes, and now Elphaba did clamber to her feet. But Glinda held out her hand to stop Elphaba before she came any closer. "No, don't," she said. "I can't be - I don't want you to have to baby me."
"That's not what I was doing."
"Yes it is, Elphie, and if I do manage you by getting upset over things, then you know just as well that you let me."
Elphaba stopped, considering. "Yes. I suppose."
"So don't. I'm supposed to be able to help, to be your partner, with the Wizard and everything, not to - fall apart and need you to take care of me."
"All right," Elphaba said, uncertain of what else she was supposed to say, or do. "But -"
"But what?"
"Well, I'm not going to just ignore you if you do -" Not "fall apart," even Elphaba knew that would be the wrong thing to say. "If you're upset by something. I'm - your friend, not your drill master."
"I know that. I guess. I'm just trying to blame you for the way I've been acting." Glinda shrugged. "I'm not much for subtlety either." Elphaba smiled, and Glinda said, "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"Are you under the impression that you did?"
Glinda blinked. "Didn't I? I wanted to."
Now Elphaba had to fight not to laugh and insult her. "You can now, if you want."
"Oh, never mind." Glinda waved a hand. "The moment's passed."
Elphaba stepped forward finally and reached out, and Glinda held up her hand again to interrupt. "No, really -"
"It's not to baby you," Elphaba said immediately. "Just -"
"Just what?"
Elphaba took a step away, feeling rejected. "We had a fight, then we made up. I think. I just thought - I don't know, I haven't had a lot of friends to fight with before, maybe I was wrong."
"Oh." With one last rub at her eyes Glinda stood and came closer, wrapping her arms around Elphaba. "You're right, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry for how I reacted, before."
"I'm sorry I was - harsh." Elphaba let her chin rest on Glinda's shoulder and felt a gentle hand on the back of her head. "You know I don't think you're simple. At all."
"I know. And I earned it, anyway." Glinda turned her head and pressed a tiny kiss to Elphaba's cheek. "I love you," she said softly.
Elphaba nodded fiercely, though she was unable to say anything. She blinked back uncomfortable tears and waited for Glinda to move away.
~~Glinda~~
Fiyero appeared not long after curfew, just as Elphaba had predicted. Glinda fought - successfully - the urge to fix her skirt, to smooth her hair, to sit at her best angle, while he was there. She didn't feel especially (or even a little bit) flirtatious, but her pride was a powerful motivator. Still. Not a prince, she told herself firmly. Not a boy. Just a person. A person who wants to help us.
Fiyero was perched uncomfortably on the edge of Elphaba's desk, handing her a folded piece of paper without speaking. Elphaba glanced at Glinda as she unfolded it. "What is this?" she asked after clearing her throat quietly.
"Political science assignment," Fiyero said. "We got it this morning."
"It was your political science professor, wasn't it?" Glinda asked from her position on the end of her bed - the first time she had let herself speak since he climbed into the room. "That you and Elphaba saw sneaking around the Animal housing that night."
"Yes," Fiyero said, and Elphaba nodded as her eyes scanned the paper. From the look on her face, Glinda could tell that something was wrong.
"What, Elphie?" she asked.
Elphaba cleared her throat again and held the paper out at a distance. Her glasses sat folded on her nightstand, and she seemed a bit uncomfortable with trying to read the words on the page. "Research assignment," she read slowly and distinctly. "Exploring governmental methods of monitoring illegal and subversive activity by - my goodness, does she really expect not to get caught? Giving something like this to students?"
"What, Elphaba?" Glinda repeated.
"I think she doesn't have to worry about getting caught," Fiyero said, his tone grim. He looked over at Glinda and explained, "She wants us to spend the next two weeks observing any suspicious activity among our fellow students, or faculty members, or just people in town, and report on anything we notice. All for the sake of 'research,' of course."
"And if someone does happen to realize that she's scrounging for real information, who cares?" Elphaba said. "What could possibly be wrong with being patriotic and serving Oz, and the Wizard?"
"Except that it's asking students to report on one another," Fiyero said. "I thought you'd be interested."
"I bet she wouldn't have done it," Glinda said, the thought suddenly strikingly obvious, "if you had been in the class, Elphaba."
"Or you." Elphaba was still frowning down at the paper in her hands, but Glinda felt the full force of the absent-minded compliment anyway. "I wonder . . ."
"What?" Glinda and Fiyero both asked at the same time.
Elphaba's head lifted and she tried to encompass them both with her gaze. "If she gave this assignment specifically because of Fiyero. Knowing he knows us."
"Expecting him to report on us." Glinda captured her thumbnail between her teeth and worried at it with slight pressure. "It seems likely. Or at least possible."
"I hope it goes without saying," Fiyero said, "that I have no intention of telling her, or anyone, anything about either of you."
"Of course." Elphaba wasn't paying much attention to him at the moment, but Fiyero didn't seem to mind terribly.
"You are going to have to tell her something," Glinda pointed out. "About somebody. You can't just come back at the end of two weeks and tell her you're completely unobservant."
"Well," Elphaba started, and Fiyero, without ceremony, smacked her shoulder with the back of his hand. "Oh, don't pretend to be offended," she said. "It's not as if you've worked on making a reputation for scholarly concentration. Anyway," she added, looking to Glinda, "it's not Fiyero's powers of observation that I'm worried about. It's everyone else's."
"I'm confused," Fiyero admitted.
"Me, too," Glinda said. Their eyes met over Elphaba's head, and he gave her a tiny smile.
Elphaba twisted to look at Fiyero over her shoulder. "How many students are in that class?"
"Fifteen," he replied.
"Fifteen people," she echoed, turning her attention to Glinda. "Fourteen, not counting him, all looking out and reporting on any signs of 'subversive' activity by their fellow students."
"Not all of them will be." Glinda let her eyes flicker toward Fiyero as she explained. "I'm sure some of the students in that class are . . . of our opinions. They must be, right? I mean, if there's a -" She stopped, uncertain whether she should reveal to Fiyero what Rikk had told them.
Elphaba apparently understood immediately. She turned back to Fiyero and asked, "What do you know about the Resistance?"
His eyes widened a little. "The one you're probably talking about? Nothing. Unless you mean the one in the Vinkus."
"There's one in the Vinkus?" Now it was Elphaba's turn to sound surprised.
"There has been for years. It's practically out in the open. Not to outsiders, of course -"
Elphaba interrupted with a quick wave. "You know we're safe."
"You'd better be." Fiyero coughed. "Well, ours is mostly about secession. It'll never happen, but the movement's been building steadily anyway. I suspect you're talking about something entirely different."
"We only heard about it last week," Glinda said, after a look to Elphaba for - well, not permission exactly. "It seems to be Munchkinlanders mostly, or at least that's what Rikk said." She held her breath, not certain whether she should have mentioned his name, but if they were going to trust Fiyero, they might as well trust him - right?
Fiyero looked down at Elphaba. "Is that why you asked me about him?"
"Sort of," she replied.
"Well." Fiyero thought for a moment, then slapped his hand down on the desk. "Lend me a pencil, and start telling me what I should report to the professor. Glinda's right, I have to say something - but it doesn't have to be true."
Author: ainsleyaisling
Rating: PG
'Verse: Musical AU; some details from bookverse
Pairings for Story Overall: Glinda/Fiyero, Elphaba/Fiyero, Glinda/Elphaba
Summary: Tensions break, and Fiyero has news.
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.
~~Elphaba~~
She tried to make her way quickly from literature class, knowing that Glinda was more than usually jumpy these days and reacted rather badly to Elphaba coming home later or slower than expected. It was all the more disturbing because she didn't cry, or scold, or cling when Elphaba did return - all things Elphaba had experienced before. She would simply look at Elphaba and nod with her jaw set and her eyes dark, and say calmly something like, "You haven't been arrested, then?" And then she wouldn't speak for at least an hour. Elphaba was beginning to think fondly on the crying and the scolding.
But as she was trying to edge her way toward the door, a firm hand closed over her elbow. Fiyero. "I need to show you something," he said under his breath, his lips barely moving, as he dropped his satchel over his shoulder.
"Does it have to be now?" she asked, not taking the time to apologize or even really to feel guilty for the sharpness of her tone.
"Yes," he said emphatically. "It's important."
She made for the door again, pulling him along with her. "Can you show me while we walk?"
"What are you in such a hurry for?"
She dropped her voice, looking carefully at the other students rushing past them. Most if not all of them were too pleased to be released from class to be paying any attention to Elphaba and Fiyero. "Ever since those students were arrested last week, Glinda gets very nervous when I'm late."
"She's got you on a short lead," Fiyero marveled.
"Are you entirely heartless, or just very good at faking it?"
"Both?" He tugged on her arm. "Come on, Elphaba."
"I'd just rather not put up with the look on her face - can we go, please?"
"Fine, but -" He let himself be dragged toward the classroom door and didn't finish his sentence until they were outside. "Aren't you working for the Wizard? Why would she expect you to be arrested?"
"It's Glinda; she doesn't need a reason." Now she did feel guilty - she slowed her pace slightly and added, "Anyway, you know we can't really trust anyone. Or anything. Anything could happen any minute."
"That's cheery. But -" He pulled at her hand and led her around a corner, away from the exit to the building. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. What I wanted to show you."
"What?" Now she was concerned - she didn't know what she had thought before, but honestly it hadn't entered her mind that Fiyero might actually need to show her something important.
He shook his head. "Not here. If you're in a rush to get back to Glinda, can you meet me later? Somewhere no professors will see us?"
The look on his face was suddenly intense, serious. She found herself nodding slowly. "I guess. Where?"
"Well." He looked away from her, biting his lip. "The library?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, Fiyero, but there are usually quite a lot of professors in the library."
"My dormitory?"
"Are you insane? Trying that once was enough for me."
"Yours then."
Elphaba hesitated. Certainly she was much more willing to risk Fiyero getting caught running across campus after curfew than herself, and he had proven himself rather adept at getting in and out of their room. "Is it something Glinda can hear?"
"That depends on exactly how skittish she's been lately."
Elphaba frowned at him. "She's nervous, but she's not a child. If it's not some kind of secret only I can hear, then she can handle it."
"I figured you'd tell her anyway, if you thought it was best." He nodded quickly, decisively, and pushed off from the wall he had been leaning against. "Tonight then. Make sure Glinda's expecting me too, so I don't scare her."
"All right." This side of him, seen so much more often lately - the serious side, the side that cared, that worried about whether he would frighten Glinda - so distracted her that she almost forgot the thought that had crossed her mind while they were talking. By the time she remembered he had started to walk away, and she had to reach after him and grab his sleeve.
"What?" he asked, turning back to face her.
"Your roommate."
His face went oddly blank. "What about him?"
"He's - he said something to us . . ." She paused and started over. "Do you trust him?"
"I guess."
"I mean would you trust him with - with something like whatever you're going to show me."
"Oh." His hesitation was just long enough for her to notice that she was still holding onto his arm, and to drop her hand quickly. "I'm not sure."
Her other hand, the one that had been resting on her satchel, rose to her lips and she took one nail gently between her teeth - Glinda's gesture, she realized as soon as she did it. "All right," she said.
"It's not that I don't trust him," Fiyero explained, frowning in concentration at the brick wall next to his face. "I just don't know enough about him, really, to know if I trust him with that sort of thing." Elphaba nodded, and Fiyero added, "You know - for that matter - how do you know you can trust me, with that sort of thing?"
"I have no idea," Elphaba said after thinking about it for a moment. "I suppose we just do."
"We?"
"Me and Glinda."
"Of course." He reached out and patted her shoulder awkwardly. "See you later."
When Elphaba had made her rather confused way back to her room, Glinda was sitting up at her desk with a small fortress of spellbooks surrounding her. She lifted her head as Elphaba entered, that horrible hard look on her face, and Elphaba tried desperately to forestall whatever she was going to say by crying out, "I'm sorry - Fiyero needed to tell me something."
Glinda closed her mouth for a moment before speaking. "What?"
"He said he had to tell me - us - in private. He's coming here later."
Glinda glanced around their room in quick alarm. "Here?"
"Yes." Elphaba dropped her satchel on her bed and sat down to unlace her shoes. "He has been here multiple times before."
"Yes, but I've got - things everywhere."
Despite the seriousness of the day's conversations, Elphaba had to grin at the look on her roommate's face. "They're called books, Glinda. All evidence to the contrary, I don't actually think he's disgusted by them."
"I don't mean that." Glinda sighed and set down the papers in her hand, running her fingers through her hair. Even slightly tumbled it was still, of course, perfectly beautiful. "And I don't - I mean, it's not that I care what he thinks. Anymore. It's just - I hate to be sloppy."
"Well, I doubt he'll come until after curfew anyway and it's not even dinnertime yet. We've got plenty of time." Pushing her shoes aside, Elphaba picked her way across the room in bare feet and leaned over Glinda's shoulder. "What are you studying?"
"Are you trying to distract me?" Glinda asked, craning her neck to peer up at Elphaba.
"Yes."
"Well. All right." She found Elphaba's hand and tugged her down so that she was kneeling next to Glinda's chair. "Not terribly subtle, are you?"
"You don't exactly require subtle," Elphaba said immediately, much more harshly than she had intended. She drew in a hissing breath and winced inwardly, waiting for Glinda's response.
Glinda looked down at her for a moment and clearly stopped before saying the very first thing that had come to her lips. Instead, after a beat, she said, "What was that for?"
"I'm sorry," Elphaba said reflexively, gritting her teeth.
"No, you're not."
"Glinda."
"No, of course you are. But what - why?"
"I -" Elphaba shook her head, feeling the words dry up. "I don't know, I'm sorry."
"Elphie -"
"What were you going to say?"
Glinda was drawn up short. "What?"
"A minute ago, you were going to say something else. What was it?"
Glinda's eyebrows drew together as she looked down at Elphaba. Finally she said, "I'm not that simple."
"I didn't say you were, but I could tell you were going to say something else and you stopped, so -"
"No, that's what I was going to say. I'm not that simple, Elphaba." Her tone bit sharply, much more sharply than she had managed in a long time.
"I don't - think you are."
"You do, a little." Glinda crossed her arms over her chest and continued to glare downward, her eyes effectively keeping Elphaba in place on her knees on the wooden floor. "Don't manage me."
"I -" Elphaba was beginning to feel eerily like Fiyero - like any boy, she supposed, when faced with Glinda. Or possibly with any girl, in an argument. "I'm sorry?"
"Don't apologize if you don't know what for." Glinda's arms clenched more tightly with anger, but she looked as if she might suddenly start to cry.
"I do know what for." Elphaba's instinct was to get up and put her arms around Glinda, but she stayed where she was. "And I'm sorry, but if you're going to react so badly every time I come in late, or every time you don't know where I am, then you need to be managed." Too much, she knew right away. She almost flinched, half expecting Glinda to slap her.
Glinda inhaled with a little gasp, and her lower lip turned white as she bit down on it. At last she asked, "How long have you been wanting to say that?"
"I haven't -" Giving up, Elphaba rocked back over her heels and sat down on the floor. "Don't make it like that. It's just not fair of you, to accuse me of trying to manage you when you need such careful treatment or you get angry with me, Glinda. And you know it."
Glinda turned her head away furiously and stared at the window. "I don't mean - you know I don't mean to try to - tell you what to do, or . . ."
"I know," Elphaba said, forcing her voice to gentleness despite the quick, not entirely logical anger that she could still sense in herself. "But effectively -"
"I know. I know." Glinda lifted one foot and propped it against the desk; apparently Elphaba was not the only one who had accidentally adopted her roommate's mannerisms. The thought, oddly, cooled some of her anger. "I'm just so afraid, all the time," Glinda continued, absently, her sternly controlled voice completely at odds with the color flooding her cheeks as Elphaba looked at her. "I don't mean - you're right, I suppose I've been managing you, haven't I, by being so ridiculous."
"You're not being ridiculous," Elphaba said softly. "But -"
"But it can't go on, I know. I know." Glinda rubbed one hand over her eyes, and now Elphaba did clamber to her feet. But Glinda held out her hand to stop Elphaba before she came any closer. "No, don't," she said. "I can't be - I don't want you to have to baby me."
"That's not what I was doing."
"Yes it is, Elphie, and if I do manage you by getting upset over things, then you know just as well that you let me."
Elphaba stopped, considering. "Yes. I suppose."
"So don't. I'm supposed to be able to help, to be your partner, with the Wizard and everything, not to - fall apart and need you to take care of me."
"All right," Elphaba said, uncertain of what else she was supposed to say, or do. "But -"
"But what?"
"Well, I'm not going to just ignore you if you do -" Not "fall apart," even Elphaba knew that would be the wrong thing to say. "If you're upset by something. I'm - your friend, not your drill master."
"I know that. I guess. I'm just trying to blame you for the way I've been acting." Glinda shrugged. "I'm not much for subtlety either." Elphaba smiled, and Glinda said, "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"Are you under the impression that you did?"
Glinda blinked. "Didn't I? I wanted to."
Now Elphaba had to fight not to laugh and insult her. "You can now, if you want."
"Oh, never mind." Glinda waved a hand. "The moment's passed."
Elphaba stepped forward finally and reached out, and Glinda held up her hand again to interrupt. "No, really -"
"It's not to baby you," Elphaba said immediately. "Just -"
"Just what?"
Elphaba took a step away, feeling rejected. "We had a fight, then we made up. I think. I just thought - I don't know, I haven't had a lot of friends to fight with before, maybe I was wrong."
"Oh." With one last rub at her eyes Glinda stood and came closer, wrapping her arms around Elphaba. "You're right, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry for how I reacted, before."
"I'm sorry I was - harsh." Elphaba let her chin rest on Glinda's shoulder and felt a gentle hand on the back of her head. "You know I don't think you're simple. At all."
"I know. And I earned it, anyway." Glinda turned her head and pressed a tiny kiss to Elphaba's cheek. "I love you," she said softly.
Elphaba nodded fiercely, though she was unable to say anything. She blinked back uncomfortable tears and waited for Glinda to move away.
~~Glinda~~
Fiyero appeared not long after curfew, just as Elphaba had predicted. Glinda fought - successfully - the urge to fix her skirt, to smooth her hair, to sit at her best angle, while he was there. She didn't feel especially (or even a little bit) flirtatious, but her pride was a powerful motivator. Still. Not a prince, she told herself firmly. Not a boy. Just a person. A person who wants to help us.
Fiyero was perched uncomfortably on the edge of Elphaba's desk, handing her a folded piece of paper without speaking. Elphaba glanced at Glinda as she unfolded it. "What is this?" she asked after clearing her throat quietly.
"Political science assignment," Fiyero said. "We got it this morning."
"It was your political science professor, wasn't it?" Glinda asked from her position on the end of her bed - the first time she had let herself speak since he climbed into the room. "That you and Elphaba saw sneaking around the Animal housing that night."
"Yes," Fiyero said, and Elphaba nodded as her eyes scanned the paper. From the look on her face, Glinda could tell that something was wrong.
"What, Elphie?" she asked.
Elphaba cleared her throat again and held the paper out at a distance. Her glasses sat folded on her nightstand, and she seemed a bit uncomfortable with trying to read the words on the page. "Research assignment," she read slowly and distinctly. "Exploring governmental methods of monitoring illegal and subversive activity by - my goodness, does she really expect not to get caught? Giving something like this to students?"
"What, Elphaba?" Glinda repeated.
"I think she doesn't have to worry about getting caught," Fiyero said, his tone grim. He looked over at Glinda and explained, "She wants us to spend the next two weeks observing any suspicious activity among our fellow students, or faculty members, or just people in town, and report on anything we notice. All for the sake of 'research,' of course."
"And if someone does happen to realize that she's scrounging for real information, who cares?" Elphaba said. "What could possibly be wrong with being patriotic and serving Oz, and the Wizard?"
"Except that it's asking students to report on one another," Fiyero said. "I thought you'd be interested."
"I bet she wouldn't have done it," Glinda said, the thought suddenly strikingly obvious, "if you had been in the class, Elphaba."
"Or you." Elphaba was still frowning down at the paper in her hands, but Glinda felt the full force of the absent-minded compliment anyway. "I wonder . . ."
"What?" Glinda and Fiyero both asked at the same time.
Elphaba's head lifted and she tried to encompass them both with her gaze. "If she gave this assignment specifically because of Fiyero. Knowing he knows us."
"Expecting him to report on us." Glinda captured her thumbnail between her teeth and worried at it with slight pressure. "It seems likely. Or at least possible."
"I hope it goes without saying," Fiyero said, "that I have no intention of telling her, or anyone, anything about either of you."
"Of course." Elphaba wasn't paying much attention to him at the moment, but Fiyero didn't seem to mind terribly.
"You are going to have to tell her something," Glinda pointed out. "About somebody. You can't just come back at the end of two weeks and tell her you're completely unobservant."
"Well," Elphaba started, and Fiyero, without ceremony, smacked her shoulder with the back of his hand. "Oh, don't pretend to be offended," she said. "It's not as if you've worked on making a reputation for scholarly concentration. Anyway," she added, looking to Glinda, "it's not Fiyero's powers of observation that I'm worried about. It's everyone else's."
"I'm confused," Fiyero admitted.
"Me, too," Glinda said. Their eyes met over Elphaba's head, and he gave her a tiny smile.
Elphaba twisted to look at Fiyero over her shoulder. "How many students are in that class?"
"Fifteen," he replied.
"Fifteen people," she echoed, turning her attention to Glinda. "Fourteen, not counting him, all looking out and reporting on any signs of 'subversive' activity by their fellow students."
"Not all of them will be." Glinda let her eyes flicker toward Fiyero as she explained. "I'm sure some of the students in that class are . . . of our opinions. They must be, right? I mean, if there's a -" She stopped, uncertain whether she should reveal to Fiyero what Rikk had told them.
Elphaba apparently understood immediately. She turned back to Fiyero and asked, "What do you know about the Resistance?"
His eyes widened a little. "The one you're probably talking about? Nothing. Unless you mean the one in the Vinkus."
"There's one in the Vinkus?" Now it was Elphaba's turn to sound surprised.
"There has been for years. It's practically out in the open. Not to outsiders, of course -"
Elphaba interrupted with a quick wave. "You know we're safe."
"You'd better be." Fiyero coughed. "Well, ours is mostly about secession. It'll never happen, but the movement's been building steadily anyway. I suspect you're talking about something entirely different."
"We only heard about it last week," Glinda said, after a look to Elphaba for - well, not permission exactly. "It seems to be Munchkinlanders mostly, or at least that's what Rikk said." She held her breath, not certain whether she should have mentioned his name, but if they were going to trust Fiyero, they might as well trust him - right?
Fiyero looked down at Elphaba. "Is that why you asked me about him?"
"Sort of," she replied.
"Well." Fiyero thought for a moment, then slapped his hand down on the desk. "Lend me a pencil, and start telling me what I should report to the professor. Glinda's right, I have to say something - but it doesn't have to be true."