Chapter Text
After going back to the Wizard’s palace, after seeing the Wizard take off back into the sky, watching him leave her behind to clean up the country he had spent the last few decades destroying, after Munchkinland, after Gilikin and Quadling Country, after allowing herself a scalding thirty minute shower, scrubbing desperately at the years of guilt that had caked onto her skin, her tears mixing with the water so that she didn’t have to think about them, Glinda returned to Kiamo Ko.
It was a mess of swirling tornadoes of monkeys and Winkie soldiers, many of them in mourning, all of them confused. None of them seemed all that surprised to see Glinda. It was strange how sure of her they seemed, how their lack of decorum made Glinda feel more welcome than she had in so long. She climbed the stairs to the tower where she had seen Elphaba disappear into whatever it was she had disappeared into. She didn’t think it was death. It couldn’t be death.
“Chistery,” Glinda called out, searching for him amidst the sea of grieving monkeys.
She fell to her knees just over the melting spot, covering her eyes, her palms pressed to her cheekbones, her fingers curling into her hair, and felt the tears gather in her hands. A set of small fingers tapped her on the shoulder. She wiped frantically at her face as she turned around to see Chistery, his eyes filled with the same sorrow.
“She left you behind, too, huh,” Glinda muttered, taking his little hand in hers. “But she took that damned hat.”
Chistery looked at her with reproach, like she was skirting dangerously close to a secret she wasn’t supposed to be keeping. Glinda smiled wryly at him, the tug of her cheekbones feeling sharp, contrite. She breathed deeply.
“Don’t worry–Everyone else in Oz is happy to believe in the melting. They’re glad to have a way out from under their fear, so long as they don’t have to see her again. But those of us who aren’t so glad she’s gone… we’re more difficult to fool, aren’t we?”
Chistery nodded. Glinda watched the struggle behind his eyes, the understanding wrestling to put itself into language. Glinda nodded back at him as if to say, We see each other .
“Chistery, I would understand if after all of your experience with the Wizard, you didn’t want to work with me, but I have to ask you–I have to–is there any way you would look for her for me? I just… I need to know she’s alright. That she’s safe.”
Chistery nodded sagely. He squeezed Glinda’s hand, then let go, taking off into the sky. He made a show of turning west. Good, Glinda thought. Further west was smart. As she watched Chistery fly away, Glinda couldn’t help but be envious of him, of his freedom, the freedom of his bond with Elphaba. Glinda felt the weight of her responsibility to the citizens of Oz more than she ever had. It was real, now. In all of her insistence that she could do the most good when she was powerful and beloved, she had accidentally made it true.
In the months that followed, as Glinda tried to pull Oz back together, to inspire a little bit of goodness and empathy in the citizens who had all been forced to play some role in the ideological war the Wizard had been waging, she enlisted others to look for Elphaba, more flying monkeys or the odd Winkie soldier, a private in the Wizard’s guard who had trusted Fiyero too much to turn on him, an Emerald City merchant who had remembered Elphaba’s kindness and harbored that secret all these years. She even dragged Boq into it during a semi-drunken night of catching up.
“She’s alive, isn’t she?” Boq had said.
He didn’t seem suspicious or angry, just curious, matter-of-fact, even. Even under all that tin, he had that same calm demeanor to him. Glinda sighed.
“The truth is, I don’t know. I have no idea where she is, or if she’s safe, or if she’s even alive. There are an awful lot of people who have been happy to hear she’s dead, so I doubt it would be hard to find a few willing to kill her.”
She looked sharply at Boq, knowing the role he had played in the Witch Hunts. Boq shrunk under the stern knowingness of her gaze.
“In my defense, she’s done more to me than most of those who hated her,” he mumbled.
“She saved your life!” Glinda exclaimed, glad to finally have a place to put her rage, a place where it was safe to come to Elphaba’s defense.
And so she found herself explaining how it was Nessa who had shrunk Boq’s heart, giving him all the context she had managed to piece together without really hearing the full story, and by the end of it, she had him agreeing to go south and look for Elphaba between the desert and the border of their neighboring country. It did feel a bit like she was taking advantage the way she used to, especially hearing him say “For you, Miss Glinda? Consider it done,” but she rationalized it by thinking of Elphaba, who was owed anything she could get.
Nothing in Oz was easy. Each part of the country had been affected by the Wizard’s propaganda to varying extents, with the Emerald City and Munchkinland being the most deeply affected. Glinda resolved to start working through the bullshit where things felt easiest, with the Winkies and the Quadlings, and just do her best to keep the rest of the country safe and intact. As much as it pained her to play along with the villainization of Elphaba, she knew it was more important to plant the seeds of Animal equality and do her best to prioritize upholding their rights. She took some solace in the fact that that’s what Elphaba wanted, too.
The Winkies, for the most part, seemed mostly apathetic to the idea that Elphaba had been any real danger, having faced no real consequences for her brief residence in Kiamo Ko other than the disruptive presence of the monkeys. Comforted by this, Glinda spent more and more time there, establishing her own habitation in the twice abandoned castle and spending nearly as much time there as she did at her apartment. She slept in Elphaba’s old bedroom up in the North tower–though she did replace her lumpy straw mattress with something much more comfortable–and tried to imagine Elphaba’s presence warming the room at night.
The monkeys lived alongside her. Glinda eventually began to pay them to be ambassadors to the human Winkies, sending them into town with simple instructions like “be friendly” and “say hello!” Their public outreach efforts seemed to do a great deal in terms of Animal-human relations. Glinda was pleased with herself, though her success meant she couldn’t justify as much time at Kiamo Ko. She reluctantly packed most of her things, but she left the new bed. Sometimes, back in her Emerald City apartment, she imagined an exhausted Elphaba returning to find somewhere soft to lay her head.
When Elphaba finally came back to her, it was both shocking and it wasn’t. She arrived on her broom just outside Glinda’s balcony, the way she had so many times before. She didn’t touch down, though, just hovered in the air, like when she had confronted Glinda about her engagement. She looked good, like she’d been eating enough, and sleeping, too. Glinda folded her arms once more on the railing and pretended she wasn’t burning at the thought of being close to her again.
“I hear you’ve been looking for me,” Elphaba said.
“Well, yeah,” Glinda huffed. “I know water doesn’t fucking hurt you, Elphie. I would’ve killed you by now if it did.”
She thought of the wet warmth of her mouth on Elphaba’s skin, Elphaba’s sticky face popping up from between her legs, taking Elphaba’s fingers into her mouth, replacing one kind of wetness with another. She thought of her tears at Elphaba’s bare back. Elphaba ducked her head, the brim of her hat covering everything above the tip of her nose. Glinda’s chest felt like it was sinking in.
“Come inside before somebody sees you,” she said. “Quickly.”
Elphaba did.
The inside of Glinda’s room had become something else entirely since the last time Elphaba had been there. Her desk was littered with papers–contracts, letters, payment receipts, legislature. Her bed was unmade, half of her clothes hanging on furniture rather than a rack, her side table filled with stacks of paper that had spilled over. There were teacups strewn about every surface, leaving rings on her dresser and little drops on important paperwork.
The Wizard’s rule had been that of a dictator, even with the various local authorities in Oz’s quadrants, and with him gone, Glinda had found herself with much more responsibility than she could’ve ever dreamed of, and with hardly anyone to advise her. Fortunately, the Wizard had also been greedy enough to leave her with a great deal of money and resources. Still, it was a lot more work than Glinda had ever tried to do, and with that work came clutter.
“You look busy,” Elphaba remarked.
“I mean,” Glinda said, gesturing vaguely with outstretched arms in a way she hoped conveyed a kind of emptiness. “Who else was gonna do all of this stuff? It’s kind of just me, now.”
“Is there no one you can trust to help?” Elphaba asked, sensing Glinda’s overwhelm.
Glinda raised her eyebrows at her accusingly.
“Well, there was this one woman,” she said.
It was growing increasingly difficult not to let the hurt win.
“I’m sorry,” Elphaba said. “I’ll go.”
Glinda’s brows knitted together, and she fixed Elphaba with a harsh look.
“Elphaba. I have spent the last six months tirelessly looking for you. Why on earth would you think I’d want you to leave?”
“You’re upset,” Elphaba said.
“Yes, I am,” Glinda said back. “Because you keep fucking abandoning me over and over again, and now your solution is to leave me again? It is awfully hard not to be upset about that.”
Glinda could see the way Elphaba physically held her tongue back in her mouth, the thoughtful way she set her jaw and searched with her eyes for the right thing to say, something to calm, to explain herself.
“I really am sorry,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave you, if it helps. I know I did, but I didn’t want to. It’s just that Fiyero–”
“Fiyero?” Glinda asked. Her relief was quickly replaced with something uglier. She couldn’t help the hostile way she tilted her head. “Is Fiyero… Are you two… All this time?”
Elphaba guiltily shifted her weight. She shrugged.
“We had to pretend.” She swallowed. Her next words felt practiced, mantra-esque. “It was the only way to be sure we’d be safe.”
“But you’re with him,” Glinda said. She had to ask, even if she already knew. Thick, jealous dread rose in her throat like bile. She could almost choke on this new information, on the thought of the two of them together while she toiled away making Oz into something Elphaba could be proud of.
“In a manner of speaking,” Elphaba said, beating around it, like she was afraid. It had been so long since Glinda had seen her afraid.
“Is it like us? Like we were for all that time?” Glinda asked, then quietly, “Or are you better to him?”
“It isn’t like us,” Elphaba said, though the way she said it was elusive.
“You’ve slept with him, though,” Glinda accused, her words a double edged sword.
“Once,” Elphaba admitted. “Probably more, if he wasn’t straw now.”
“What?” Glinda asked just as it hit her. “Was that him? With the girl?”
Elphaba nodded.
“With the girl. It was the only way to save him. The only way I could find, at least.”
“Do you love him?” Glinda asked, which was much more pressing than the straw, at least to her.
“Yes,” Elphaba said, but there was something hesitant in her voice, something she was carrying like a millstone, a fugitive thought she had been harboring. She tilted her head down severely, so that she could properly look into Glinda’s eyes under the brim of her hat. “But it isn’t like us.”
Glinda felt herself be drawn in by Elphaba’s smooth voice and smoother eyes, felt her body physically lean into Elphaba’s face. She took a stubborn step back. Elphaba took off her hat, wringing its pointed tip between her fingers.
“Why didn’t you take this?” she asked and took a step forward, canceling out Glinda’s stubbornness.
“I don’t know,” Glinda said.
“Fiyero put it back on my head,” Elphaba said, like that was supposed to mean something (it did). “When he came to get me from the tower so that we could leave.” She took another step towards Glinda. “How does it make you feel to know about the two of us?”
It was a sadistic question to ask. Glinda felt like her ribs were a precarious cavern in some treacherous mountain, like her chest was caving in on itself, stifling her heart in an avalanche; but underneath that, there was a blistering possessive impulse. It peeked out like the beginnings of a flame, flickering with each millimeter of space Elphaba broached, a lean here, a toe there, until it was roaring. If Elphaba had thought her reaction to Glinda’s engagement was intense, Glinda planned to match her tenfold.
“When I’m done with you, you won’t even remember how he felt,” Glinda said in lieu of an answer.
“Glinda,” Elphaba breathed, her voice hoarse. Her eyes closed for a long moment when Glinda’s hands began to roam across her hips, fingers twisting in the fabric of Elphaba’s skirt to pull her closer. “I really have missed you.”
“I need to see you,” Glinda murmured.
“I’m here,” Elphaba said.
“I need to see you,” Glinda repeated, this time tugging the zipper of Elphaba’s skirt down over the curve of her ass.
A hungry flicker of understanding lit up behind Elphaba’s eyes, and she shrugged her cloak off, her hands moving to hurriedly undo the buttons of her shirt. Glinda unclasped Elphaba’s bra through the fabric of her button down. She watched it sag behind the fabric Elphaba had already managed to undo. The motion of it made her so ravenous she couldn’t stop from taking the shirt from Elphaba’s hands and ripping it open, sending the last few buttons clattering to the ground.
Elphaba looked as though she might be annoyed for a second, as if she might fuss over Glinda’s impatience, but Glinda’s lips were on hers before she had the chance, stifling everything that wasn’t fire and need. Elphaba, having denied herself the feeling of Glinda’s lips and hands for so long, fell instantly into the kiss, practically shivering at Glinda’s wanton touch. Glinda relished in the familiarity of Elphaba’s hips, her waist, her thighs, the small of her back, the edge of her ribs. She dragged her lips down Elphaba’s jawline, down her neck, digging teeth into the inside of Elphaba’s shoulder, rolling her underwear down all the while.
She pushed Elphaba up against the wall just beside her bedside table, pushed Elphaba’s thighs apart with her leg, smirked as Elphaba bunched her dress up in anticipation of the top ridge of Glinda’s kneecap brushing her center. She held Elphaba’s hands at her sides, possessive fingers wrapping around Elphaba’s wrists as her tongue lay claim to Elphaba’s collarbones, her breasts, her nipples, crouching to reach her hips, her stomach, straightening back up to pin Elphaba’s hips to the wall when they started to buck up. Glinda relished in the way Elphaba squirmed under her, in the heat rising under her skin, in the feel of her lips against Glinda’s cheeks and neck, against anywhere she could reach in the moments where she maintained some control of herself.
Those moments were few and far between.
Glinda attacked Elphaba’s body like her mouth was permanent marker, like she could tattoo Elphaba with her teeth so that everyone who looked at her would know she was Glinda’s. She sucked aggressively at all the places she could latch onto, brushed her lips fervently against every inch of skin, felt the gratifying twitch of muscle under her tongue. Eventually, her hand found its way between Elphaba’s legs. Glinda intended to take things slow, to toy with her, to really make Elphaba feel the kind of denial she had put Glinda through for far too long, but the second she felt how wet Elphaba was, how affected she was…
To say she folded was an understatement. Glinda pushed two fingers deep inside of Elphaba, not bothering to warm her up further. Elphaba gasped, not quite ready for it, but still rocked instantly down into Glinda’s splayed hand. Glinda pulled her face back for a moment and a half, wanting to properly see Elphaba’s face as she pumped in and out of her, nice and slow, deeper each time, laying her claim. Elphaba’s mouth fell open the second her eyes met Glinda’s, her chest rising with the force of a heavy breath. Glinda felt her lips begin to curl with a cocky smile. She buried her face back in Elphaba’s neck, not relenting in her biting and her sucking until she felt the call once more to drag her lips down Elphaba’s body.
When her face reached the lower swell of Elphaba’s stomach, she pulled her fingers out. Elphaba sighed with frustration, but it was short lived when Glinda quickly replaced her fingers with her tongue, burying it deep inside Elphaba and bringing her dripping hand to Elphaba’s stomach, pressing Elphaba’s cum into the space below her navel and brushing her clit with her thumb.
When Elphaba began to whimper, Glinda knew she had been successful, that any moment she was going to be swallowing everything Elphaba had to offer. She did so gladly, enjoying the stickiness dribbling down her chin. When Elphaba’s legs stopped shaking, Glinda stood back up and kissed her, admiring the gasping breaths Elphaba had to take against her mouth, still not quite recovered.
“Can I lie down now?” she asked.
Glinda shook her head.
“The bed is for women without scarecrow boyfriends.”
Elphaba rolled her eyes. Glinda looked coyly at her. She wiped under her mouth just to watch Elphaba watch the motion.
“Now, were you to lay on top of me, if you weren’t technically resting in the bed, I suppose that would be allowed.”
She sat down and patted her lap. Elphaba walked over to her with something just a bit sharper than amusement. She straddled Glinda’s lap and pulled her dress over her head, the rough edges of her hands brushing Glinda’s bare tits, before she allowed Glinda to maneuver them into a lying position, one that had Glinda’s thigh conveniently right up against Elphaba’s soaked pussy. Glinda wrapped her arms around Elphaba’s back, appreciating the way their chests felt all squished together. She allowed Elphie a moment to breathe before beginning to subtly rock against her, grinding her leg into Elphaba’s pussy.
Elphaba was still at first, but then Glinda began to feel the gentle squeeze of her thighs and the renewed pounding of her heart against Glinda’s chest.
“I think it would be for the best if you sat on my face,” she suggested casually, though it came out as more of a demand.
Really, she had meant it as a demand.
Elphaba shifted, pulling herself up onto her knees with Glinda’s headboard. Glinda watched the way her muscles shifted, in her arms, her legs, her abdomen. Elphaba hovered just over Glinda’s face, perched like a conqueror, her body stretching up towards the sky. Glinda grabbed Elphaba’s hips. She ought to bring her back down to earth, at least a little bit.
Glinda was positively ravenous. She had been starved of a vital part of her diet, and now that she had tasted it again, she couldn’t stop eating. With Elphaba on top of her, Glinda was able to satisfy her gluttony at another level, able to pull Elphaba further into her mouth by her hips, able to swish her tongue cleanly through Elphaba’s slickness, curl it up inside her with a deft precision that surprised even herself.
Elphaba moaned, low and delicious, spurring Glinda on until Elphaba’s legs were quivering, hardly able to support her own weight. Glinda cupped the backs of Elphaba’s thighs in her palms and wrapped her fingers securely around Elphaba’s hips, determined to hold her there, to make it all last as long as possible.
After several long seconds, Elphaba collapsed backwards, sweaty and panting. Glinda didn’t even mind the sharp way Elphaba’s shoulders smacked into her knees, or the firm pressure of Elphaba’s ass settling on her stomach. She was too proud to feel anything too sharp or too heavy. She licked her lips and grinned. Her own chest rose and fell under Elphaba’s weight. Elphaba’s heels were at the edge of Glinda’s pillow on either side of Glinda’s face, her knees bent, her legs spread around Glinda’s chest, giving her a view that was frankly unforgettable. Glinda gulped at the sight of her, her hand coming to rest on Elphaba’s thigh.
Elphaba didn’t seem to notice what she was doing at first, just enjoyed the soothing rub of soft fingers up her leg, tender at the edge of scar tissue that had long since settled around the lump of a stray bullet, brushing ever inward. Then, Glinda reached the dip at her inner thigh, and she caught on.
“Glinda, I can’t do it again,” Elphaba whined as Glinda’s fingers inched towards her pussy.
“Sure you can,” Glinda coaxed.
She ran her fingers across soft, slick skin, amazed at the pool of wet heat, beginning to throb between her own legs.
“I’m sensitive,” Elphaba said, shuddering.
“So am I,” Glinda said.
Elphaba seemed to understand the nod to their long months apart, to the emotional turmoil she had been putting Glinda through, or at the very least, her body seemed to respond very strongly to a particular stroke of Glinda’s finger. Her hips began to roll, her ass pressing into Glinda’s pelvic bone, but her movements were arrhythmic and weakening by the second.
“I can’t,” Elphaba said again.
“Okay,” Glinda relented, setting aside her greed, though her hand still lingered at the edge of Elphaba’s thigh.
Elphaba pushed herself up and started to climb back up the bed to rest beside Glinda, but Glinda stopped her. She surged forward and bit down hard on Elphaba’s hip, sucking a bruise there, trying to mold it with her lips into something recognizable. Elphaba watched her mark her territory with darkening eyes. When she finally settled into Glinda’s side, she said quietly,
“Maybe I can.”
Glinda smirked and rolled half on top of Elphaba, distributing her weight between Elphaba’s stomach and her own elbow. She fingered Elphaba until she was coming undone for the final time of the evening, until she was falling back into the bed and curling into Glinda’s side, exhausted. It occurred to Glinda that, if she stayed very still, Elphaba might stay the night.
When Glinda dared to move, it was only to turn out the lamp on her bedside table. As she rolled onto her side to reach it, Elphaba rolled with her, holding her from behind. Glinda allowed herself to settle back into Elphaba, to relish the warmth of Elphaba’s skin pressed flush against her own, to place her hand on top of Elphaba’s, which rested over her stomach. She listened to Elphaba’s breathing become deeper as she slept and tried to match her. Two women, one breath. Two lovers, one heart.
Morning came with a miracle: Elphaba was still holding her. Glinda, once again feeling the urge to stay very still, froze up like a deer. Elphaba chuckled into her shoulder.
“Are you awake?” she murmured.
“Yes,” Glinda said, quick and quiet.
“Did I startle you?” Elphaba asked jokingly, jostling Glinda a bit.
“I’m just not used to waking up like this,” Glinda said. She couldn’t keep the hope out of her voice that maybe someday she would be used to it.
Elphaba didn’t say anything, but she stayed relaxed, and that was enough. Glinda turned over to face her. Elphaba smiled and let them stay nose to nose, just for a moment. She sat up, but she kept her hip pressed into Glinda’s side.
When she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror of Glinda’s vanity, her eyes widened with surprise. She brought her hand to her skin, tracing the hickies that Glinda had left down her neck, against her chest, across both shoulders. Glinda eyed her with a knowing triumph. There was no way to hide what had happened from Fiyero. He would know what they were to each other, if he didn’t already.
Elphaba watched Glinda’s complacently placed eyebrows and sighed. She took Glinda’s hands in hers.
“Look—I have to go. For right now, I have to go soon. I didn’t tell Fiyero that I was coming here, and I don’t want him to panic any more than he probably already is, but I will come back. I know I haven’t given you much reason to trust me, but I promise I will. The part of me that thought I could do this, that I could leave you behind, even for my own safety, even for yours… Well, I’ve seen you now, haven’t I? And having seen you, I’ll have to see you again.” She took a deep breath that could’ve been a sigh. “I promise I’ll be back.”
Glinda decided she could be satisfied with this. After all, Elphaba had only ever broken her word when she had said she would stay away.
She watched Elphaba get dressed, watched her tuck the buttonless ends of her shirt deep into her skirt, watched her try and pull her hair around the marks on her neck.
“Bring him,” Glinda requested.
She didn’t know what made her do it, but some part of her had always been smug confidence, warranted or not, and that part of her knew that, if she could get Elphaba in a room with her, Elphaba was hers. She wanted Fiyero to see that. She wanted him to see that he had a snowball’s chance in Hell of having Elphaba if she was standing next to him, that Elphaba was only his in her absence. She tried not to smile at the thought.
“Why?” Elphaba asked, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “I thought you’d…”
She trailed off. Glinda forced a casual shrug.
“We were friends all that time,” she said. “It could be nice to see him. To all be together, hm?”
“Alright,” Elphaba said hesitantly. “I’ll see if he wants to come.”
And she was off once more, but this time, she left the hat behind, and Glinda knew she’d come back for it.