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"Well, miss Elphaba... Are you going to kiss me?"
"Excuse me?"
It only took a second, and then Galinda's eyes widened, and she tensed against Elphaba, her whole body going taut. Gone was her splendid little dreamy smile, replaced with the most horrified furrow of her brows, akin to the face someone would pull upon seeing a ghost, or seeing Elphaba's green face for the first time. That is to say "excuse me" was decidedly not the thing to answer when one was asked to kiss Galinda Upland.
But the fumble had happened, what a massive screw up that was and, like the impressive feat of a contortionist, Elphaba had managed to put not one but both her feet in her mouth. In half a clock tick Galinda was gone from her lap and scrambling to get upright, swaying dangerously on her tippy toes as she tugged her robe tighter around her lithe frame.
Elphaba missed the warmth of her body, the pressure of her hands on her shoulders, the anchoring weight of her legs draped over her thighs, immediately.
"Galinda," Elphaba started, sitting up, though she was clueless as to how to continue, let alone finish her sentence. Both her body and mind had trouble catching up to what was happening. Are you going to kiss me? "I—"
Galinda cleared her throat, turning her back to Elphaba and stalking a few paces ahead, no clear aim in sight. "Apologies, dear Elphie, it appears as though I had forgotten about my little rendezvous at the bottom of the Suicide Canal. I'm terribly late, you see—"
"Galinda—"
"Perhaps I ought to take a shortcut through our balcony." She took a sharp turn to the left, hands reaching towards the handles. "You know, I do so hate to be late and it is a beautiful night to try jumping off of it."
"My sweet—" Elphaba finally managed to move from her soft, warm spot on Galinda's bed, reaching gently for her silk clad arm.
A breath itched out of Galinda as she slipped from Elphaba's grasp and leaned back slightly against the glass doors. A crazed smile was stretching her shiny lips and her equally as shiny eyes looked everywhere but Elphaba's face. The floor was cold underneath the soles of her feet, but she hardly paid it any mind. Her heart was beating so forcefully, thudding against her ribcage like it didn't belong in there, that her whole body was burnt and alive with the rush of blood in her veins.
"Galinda," she started again, fingers twitching in the space between them, a few feet maybe, and she tilted her head to try and catch her eye. Galinda's lip trembled as she opened her mouth.
"Really, I should think it's about time someone, namely me, tries this way out of our room, to get somewhere, namely six feet under, to put an end to this madness. I mean, two flights of stairs, it's a bit much, don't you think?"
She smiled wider, eyes skittish as they bounced from Elphaba's face, to her neck, to the floor, back to her face again and to the ceiling.
Do something. Anything. Say something, Elphaba. Deescalate. Are you going to kiss me?
"Oh yes," Elphaba sighed, a shaky little one, nails catching on her nightgown as she flexed her fingers. "Terrible. I don't know why anyone would pay such a great deal for a private suite when you have to exert yourself so much just to get to it."
She took a step forward.
"I should file a complaint." Galinda gulped, looking down at her feet, pressing herself further back against the glass doors. The handles squeaked weakly. "Request they do something about it. It's ridiculous."
"They could slice the building in half." A short, surprised puff of laughter pushed out of Galinda. Elphaba let herself smile as she kept shortening the space between the two. "Relocate one half somewhere else on campus."
"They should've contracted us to plan the building in the first place. Stairs are no good for anyone, I wonder who thought of that." Elphaba watched as her chest heaved slightly. Wetness threatened to spill at the corners of her big, beautiful, fretful brown eyes. Her bottom lip was trapped in pearls of white.
She took a deep breath to compose herself, tear her eyes away and focus on the flutter of Galinda's eyelashes instead of the flutter of her own heart. "Galinda, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you so."
An incredulous guffaw. "Offend me? I'm sorry, Elphie, that I offended you. I misinterpreted everything." She took a big, quivering breath, turning her head away as she roughly wiped under her eye with the heel of her palm. "I made a fool of myself and made you uncomfortable in the same breath. Oh yes," she nodded, "truly terrible."
"You didn't make me uncomfortable," Elphaba was quick to refute. "You haven't, I was just... startled. I didn't know."
"You didn't know?"
Are you going to kiss me?
Galinda's eyes were big and wet and she was finally looking at Elphaba. A slight frown now tugged at her lips. Her collarbones jutted against her skin as she held her breath. They were close now. Faces closer than they had been on the bed, inches away.
Galinda had her hands clasped behind her back, resting near the door handles as though she was still considering escaping any moment now. With great braverism, Elphaba reached out and stroked gently at the side of her arm with the ridges of her knuckles in an attempt to coax one of them out. It worked, Galinda let Elphaba bring her hand forward. She could feel goosebumps raise as she let her fingers trail to the inside of her wrist and slot them between Galinda's.
A rush of breath washed over her jaw, her neck, and her eyes fluttered close. She squeezed once. And again. Galinda squeezed back.
Are you going to kiss me?
"I didn't know that... that's what was happening."
Galinda's brows ticked up as Elphaba opened her eyes. "What, you thought I just courted all my friends?"
She had a small smile, tender and gentle in such a way that Elphaba knew it was to appease Elphaba's own nerves, which only made her heart swell bigger in her chest. Galinda's thumb swiped against her skin.
Are you going to kiss me?
"I just," Elphaba sighed again. "I wasn't sure that's what it was." I've never been flirted with before, she wanted to say. I've never had a friend like you before. I've never really had a friend at all, before.
Galinda let her head fall back with a soft groan. "Here I thought I was being too obvious." She sniffed, swinging their hands beside them. "I guess I'm losing my touch."
"You aren't." Elphaba's other hand reached to tug faintly at the pink of her robe, hanging loosely at Galinda's side. "You aren't. I'm sure anyone else would've picked up on it." She bowed her head then, looking at their interlaced hands. "Or, I mean, acted on it. It was driving me crazy."
Galinda straightened. "Was it?"
Elphaba rolled her eyes, turning her head away. A shy smile betrayed her. "Galinda."
Just as she was pulling away from her grasp on her robe, Galinda caught her wrist. "Elphie," she replied in a whisper. "You drive me crazy."
Elphaba's head jerked back to her, eyebrows raised and mouth slightly agape.
"You drive me crazy," she reiterated in the same soft tone, "I don't know what to do with myself half the time. All of the time. I see you and I'm rendered breathless. I have to reconstruct myself every time you look at me. I'm a useless little thing. I start to shake just at the thought of you." A small, nervous giggle. "I think about you all the time. I don't know what to do."
Are you going to kiss me?
It was all making Elphaba's head spin. Her heart hadn't stopped jumping and stuttering and falling over itself and she was sure Galinda could feel it under the loving pressure of her finger tips where they circled her wrist. All the air in her lungs spilled out of her when Galinda loosened her grip and she could feel her hand start to tremble against her.
She trailed it up to Elphaba's elbow and pulled, making her stumble forward. "Elphie..." Galinda was looking at her lips, tongue darting to wet her own.
Elphaba knocked her forehead gently against hers, shutting her eyes. She couldn't really stand upright anymore, and so both of their weight rested against the quietly rattling doors. Galinda was smaller than her for once, leaned back as she was, and Elphaba had to brace her hand on the glass so she wouldn't slip and fall.
Are you going to kiss me? Are you going to kiss me?
Elphaba sucked in a breath, tilted her head away for a moment, eyes still closed, as Galinda's hand slid up to her shoulder. "Elphie, do I make you feel the same?" She brought their joint hands to rest against her breast bone. Elphaba could feel the chaotic thump of Galinda's heart against the back of her hand. It was stuttering even worse than her own.
Elphaba shuddered, face warm, heart high in her throat. She nodded once, twice, forehead still against Galinda's. She hummed yes. She rasped, "Yes. Yes, I don't know what to do."
Are you going to kiss me?
"Oh Elphie..." Her soft palm cradled Elphaba's jaw and she leaned into it, into her. Galinda's nose brushed hers softly, but she did not move forward.
"Are you..." Elphaba croaked. She swallowed. "Are you going to kiss me?"
She felt Galinda's stuttering breath land somewhere above her lip. "Yes. Yes, I am going to kiss you, now."