title: Everything That Really Counts

summary: "You may still have my entire wardrobe," she whispered into Elphaba's shoulder, a quick nuzzle, "even if you only wish to hurl the contents into the nearest wastebasket. Shoes and all."

rating: PG

pairing: Elphaba/Glinda, musicalverse (omg) Post-Popular, pre-sadness inducing things.

a/n: this is based on a picture my four year-old cousin drew for me. it was a pink blob and a green blob surrounded in another pink blob. his explanation was: "This is Elphaba and this is Glinda. She turned Elphaba pink because she was mad."

-

"Miss Elphaba," said Doctor Dillamond, rubbing a hoof over his aching head, "I seem to have forgotten the slides that are needed for class today. You know where I keep the supplies, don't you? Would you please run off and fetch them?"

Galinda, seeing her chance (and perhaps realizing that she was the reason for Dillamond's migraine), pounced.

"Oh, I'll come with you, Elphie!" Galinda said brightly, clasping at Elphaba's hand as if the pain would be too much to bear if forced to surrender her fingers. Elphaba managed to bite back any number of equally witty quips, filing them away for later use. She was becoming a remarkably good actress, a skill that Galinda did not often approve of, but for a blessed few minutes away from that damnedable history lesson, she would acquiesce.

Galinda, after all, had quite the flair for the dramatic herself. Her face, screwed into the most well-rehearsed of smiles, fell into a deep scowl the moment the door to the classroom closed, yawning and stretching as if she had just run a mile.

"This class shall be the death of me," she moaned, batting her eyelashes theatrically at Elphaba, her newest game was forcing out giggles. Elphie had the strangest laugh, not bubbly or pretty like hers, it hardly ever even seemed truly genuine, even when Galinda knew quite well that it was. Galinda was not even sure that she liked it, so strange and harsh and somehow just as pronged as the rest of her. But she quite enjoyed the chase. "You will be missing me next year, Elphie, because there is not a chance in hell that I'll pass. I'll surely fail or else I will die, and you shall bury me and cry for at least a month. You'll be all alone, won't that be sad?"

Elphie indulged her with half of a snort and a toothy grin, and Galinda, pleased enough for now (and even more pleased that she had not received a lecture on ifyouonlyappliedyourself or its feckless partner thisisclearlynotthebestthatyoucangive), reached up to unconsciously toy with a lock of her inky hair. "Don't, you'll muss -" she caught herself just in time for Galinda's eyes to light up.

"You are paying attention!" Galinda squawked like a chicken, which would have been bad enough on its own, but this appeared to be a dearly-waited for event in the never-ending series of trials that she was beginning to view this friendship as (surviving nail polish had been particularly testing), and so Galinda's arms suddenly snaked themselves about her midsection, and the high-pitched cries quickly made brightly colored spots dance in front of her eyes.

"And you are leaving me with little choice but to shave my head, Galinda," Elphaba said in what she hoped was an ominous manner, but her voice was obscured in the poufy bundle of absolute girl and girliness and Galinda herself in the middle of it all. A cherry on a sundae, smooth white cream in the center of a puffed-up pastry.

"Well," said Galinda, brusquely pulling back and giving Elphaba a sharp tap to the scalp, "at least you already have the wardrobe to look properly despondent at my funeral." Elphaba did not resist rolling her eyes this time, but allowed Galinda to lead her to the closet where the slides were kept just the same. "Someday we'll have you in something different," Galinda simpered, a dreamy smile as she no-doubt was picturing Elphaba gliding about in a frothy nightmare of a gown, like some kind of centerpiece. Preferably to a table which was serving salad, she supposed.

"I promise to wear head-to-toe pink to your funeral, does that appease you? This is of course assuming both that I manage to clear enough time from my busy schedule and that I am not the reason for your surely quite untimely demise."

Galinda rolled her eyes. "I'd offer to will you the entire contents of my closet, for I, unlike you, love you enough for that, but I have no doubt that you would completely and utterly fail to appreciate it, and I am now in no mood besides!"

"And I have nothing you want, so you may have my corpse. I'll leave strict instructions to the undertaker to stuff it and have it propped in your future study, perhaps a good scowl stitched onto my face, hopefully it will be an encouragement, or at least a testament to my life's work, for I am reasonably sure that I will die fighting the vain attempt to get you to study."

"Yes, I knew that was coming!" but Galinda was quaking with laughter now, and tears were running down Elphaba's face, they both leaned on the other simply to stay upright.

"And anyway, by then," Elphie gasped, "you will be a frightfully good sorceress - " here, she hunched over in a torrent of chokes, Galinda had to thump her on the back, "and then! And then you can enchant me into whatever frock you choose. My eternal rest will be nothing but beauty sleep."

"Obviously. Just so long as we keep the scowl, I wouldn't recognize you otherwise. And so long as I am set up behind you when the time comes, and they can pose me just so, so I look absolutely bored out of my brains - "

" - and about to throw something heavy."

Galinda stooped, clutching her knees to catch her breath, snorting like a piglet, and Elphaba burst out laughing once more, slumped against the wall next to her, holding her stomach and slowly sinking to the floor. That set Galinda off again, and it became somewhat of a vicious circle. A few senior girls glared at them, which only sent them into further peals of giddy giggles, the sort that brings an ache to your gut but still won't stop.

They finally abandoned all attempts at movement, and collapsed on the floor, a blur of skin and fabric and hair and the most inelegant guffaws that Galinda had ever allowed escape her dainty lips.

"And you, pretty Elphie," Galinda said when she had at last managed to compose herself, although her face was still a ruddy red where it rested upon Elphaba's shoulder. She wagged her fingers about as if pulling apart the smoke in some invisible crystal ball. Elphaba found herself rather transfixed, despite herself. "When I am the most fearsomely fabulous sorceress that has ever lived, you shall be the new Wizard of Oz. Well, the Witch of Oz, rather? Beautiful and wise, at any rate, and with a never-ending supply of boring reports to scour over until your eyeballs finally fall out and roll away in protest."

Elphaba gave her a bashful smile as she wiped away the last of her tears, her throat was rather hoarse when she spoke again, "And we shall be the perfect team."

Galinda merely linked their arms and led them onwards.

"You may still have my entire wardrobe," she whispered into Elphaba's shoulder, a quick nuzzle, "even if you only wish to hurl the contents into the nearest wastebasket. Shoes and all."

"And you may have all my books."

- - -

"We appear to still be locked here," Galinda said unhelpfully. It turned out that the older supply closets tended to slam shut after you when you did not prop open the door. The discovery had not been merry, to say the least. Galinda had used several words that Elphaba would have before sworn that Galinda did not even know, as well as a few that she appeared to have made up on the spot, but which sounded appropriately improper.

They had been pounding on the door and calling out for the last ten minutes to no avail, and Galinda was feeling rather cranky.

"Very astute of you," Elphie huffed, she couldn't see her hand in front of her face. "So glad that you're managing to turn this into a learning experience. Any other observations? Water is wet; maybe you could write that one down and put out your own philosophy textbook when we're out of here. Please make sure to credit me somewhere."

Galinda plopped herself flatly down onto a crate filled with dusty old jars. "Well I may as well be comfortable enough to starve!" she said hotly when Elphaba shot her a glare. "Oh, stop it, Dillamond will come find us when we don't turn up. Come on, Elphie, sit down with me, you're sweating like mad and it will ruin your blouse."

Stubborn as she was, Elphaba continued to pound for another minute or so before complaining of a splinter and sitting down as snappishly as she could muster.

"I do hope someone manages Nessa back to her room," she said softly after ten minutes of testy silence. Galinda reached out for her hand once again.

Knowing when to hush, not one of her strong points, was actually creeping in on them, and Elphaba went on after a moment, "I mean, I know she can get herself home, but she worries about...there could be mud. She could get stuck. And then woe betide me," and a sad sort of smirk was faint on her face, visible enough in the flickering candlelight that Galinda had managed to dig up.

"Here," Galinda offered, not making any comment about sisterly affections or lack thereof, "let me look." She scooted herself closer to Elphaba, and took her green fist and the tweezers from her purse. "I'll get it out."

Another two minutes of silent flinching and concentrated digging, and Galinda had played the nurse well enough, flicking the splinter to the floor with distaste. She pressed Elphaba's palm to her lips, kissing it better, and handed her her hand back, resting her chin on her palm and leaning forward, staring at Elphaba's chin, lost in thought.

"Thank you," Elphaba said, a touch uncomfortably aware of how close they were pressed, made worse when Galinda looked up at her with blue eyes that shimmered even more in the low candlelight than they did in the summer sunshine.

"Of course."

"You are -" Elphaba began, but closed her mouth quite quickly, blood was rushing to her face and she was not quite ready for that just yet. Not to think about it, not even a little.

Galinda quieted her voice even lower, enough to make Elphaba lean in closer to hear her, an unexpected side-effect that was most pleasing. "What did you want to say, Elphie?" Hushed so, her voice sounded disparate from its usual musical pattering. Not worse. Enticing, almost. But she did not dare.

It was truly disconcerting when it struck her just how beautiful Galinda truly was. And it happened far too often. And it was happening now.

"What were you thinking about just now?" Elphaba ventured. That was safe. Valid, even. She so rarely saw Galinda immersed in her own mind. It was a novelty, if nothing else.

"You, of course," Galinda said without an inkling of insincerity, still serene, even as a bit of a strain entered her voice.

A hint of a blush.

"I just need to..." trailed Elphaba as her fingers bridged the nonexistent gap, touched what was close (they will not desist, despite her silent protests) and wished for what was far.

A bit closer still. Just a bit. Not even an inch. But enough.

And then there were lips. Hands, and hair. Not a second later (perhaps an hour later?), they were suddenly standing up with no idea of how or when it happened. Someone was pressing the other against the wall, but the shelves were in the way, and it was all a whirl, either one could have just as easily been the other, it was so dark in here, and absolutely impossible things were happening as if they were the natural way of the world. Too afraid to stop (if they stopped it would never happen again, this frightening new kind of magic), but no idea of what was to happen next.

A sudden noise outside the closet made Elphaba jerk backwards as if lit afire. Her fingers snapped the top two buttons off of Galinda's newest blouse and her flailing elbow sent a full container of ink down Galinda's front, the two events combining to cause her face to redden with what Elphaba should easily recognize as rage, it being Elphie's most-used expression.

"What was that?!" yelped Elphaba, uncharacteristically unobservant of Galinda's ire, although she would steadfastly argue that she could be forgiven, given the panic that the thought of being discovered (although as they were no longer a single entity, this could easily be explained away) made bubble in her belly.

"Elphaba!" hissed Galinda, "look what you've done! Just! Just look what you have -"

Elphaba clapped her fingers around Galinda's mouth. Galinda tried to bite them.

"Ouch!" yelped Elphaba, pulling back her newly-dented digit. "Hush, Galinda, I heard a sound, and -"

"Elphaba Thropp!" Galinda said in her most dangerous voice, fully prepared to smack her roommate right across the green mug that she had been kissing (fairly enthusiastically) not a minute before. "Now you listen, and look at what you - "

"Later," Elphaba said distractedly, trying to grope for another candle or a torch so that she could find her way out of here, all thoughts of any kind of romance forgotten, or at least buried once more for the time being.

Galinda was feeling much the same, but for a different reason. Her head ached as if about to explode, and Elphaba yelped a strangled wail as Galinda's glare fell upon her.

This was her newest blouse, after all!

- - -

So it really was Elphie's own fault that when Boq and Fiyero had finally wrestled the door open, their mouths fell agape as well.

The four of them were silent for a few seconds before Galinda spun around rather severely on her heel, and pointed a finger up Elphaba's exceedingly horrified face.

"I," she said, prodding Elphaba's chin, Galinda's entire body trembling and her voice seething with something, she was about to either collapse in laughter or kill them all, perhaps both if she took some extra time, "am a fearsome sorceress indeed."

And Elphaba, encased head to toe in the most exquisite pink ruffles that Galinda had ever seen in her life, was not inclined to disagree.