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Five times Fiyero thought Glinda and Elphaba were dating, and the one time they actually were!
- Behaviour
Fiyero had been friends with Glinda, formerly Galinda, Upland for almost all of his life. Or at least, for as long as he could remember. They’d hit it off immediately in kindergarten and ever since then, they’d never left each other’s side. They were best friends, confidantes really, Glinda knew Fiyero better than anyone else and Fiyero knew Glinda just as much, which was why he’d been convinced for a few days now that his best friend was hiding something from him.
He started getting suspicious when she started acting weird, well weirder than usual. He thought he recognized the signs in her behaviour that pointed to her having a crush: she got up earlier than usual to bake (he could hear her rattling in the kitchen of their shared flat at ungodly hours of the morning, really, who got up before 6am ?? Anyways, it was well known to their friends that Glinda loved to bake for the people she loved), she was even chirpier than usual and Glinda was already one of the generally happiest people he knew, she walked everywhere with that extra spring in her step, she’d started going on random rants about the beauty of life and how happy she was, she seemed to consider her outfit choices and makeup looks with even more care than usual, and all the more suspicious she seemed to get lost in her thoughts a whole lot more than usual, with a dreamy look on her face and a silly smile on her lips, particularly in class from what he’d seen and heard. And it was saying a lot that he’d noticed something different considering Glinda had always been, well Glinda, slightly unfocused, easily distracted, a bit forgetful, that sort of thing.
To be honest, Fiyero was definitely used to her behaviour, but there was just this extra little something that reminded him of how she acted when they were 10 and she seemed to really really like being “friends” with this girl two grades above them. Fortunately though it was only a few months before Glinda started to realize that she might like girls, and she finally came out as a lesbian when they were 14. Fiyero was so glad at this point that she’d stopped being in denial. Glinda had started acting the same way again when she’d developed a little crush on Shenshen, one of their mutual friends and a few other girls in her youth.
All of this to say, Fiyero was convinced Glinda liked someone. And he’d decided to make it his mission to find out who. That day, he decided he’d start by consulting their friend group to determine if he was the only one who’d noticed Glinda’s stranger than usual behaviour.
When he got to uni he immediately sent a text to Pfannee who was sure to be hanging out with Shenshen. He needed to find them and fast. Once he got their location he hurried there. As soon as he saw his friends from afar, he waved, getting a response from Nessarose, one of the new additions to their friend group, along with her older sister Elphaba.
Nessarose and Elphaba had been introduced to them just a few weeks ago by their friend Boq when he’d started dating the youngest Thropp sister. They’d gotten along well with the rest of the group and Fiyero could already see that he would be extremely good friends with Elphaba. Unfortunately for him at first, Glinda seemed pretty strongly opposed to this idea, she’d always been extremely protective of their friendship after all. But it appeared that she’d gotten over what bothered her pretty quickly because Fiyero hadn’t had to listen to her whining about his and Elphaba’s proximity in a while.
Fiyero sat down next to Boq and immediately noted that Glinda and Elphaba seemed to be the only ones missing. He didn’t loose a second and leaned over the table, looking Pfannee in the eyes.
“I need you help”, Fiyero told him seriously. Pfannee who’d been laughing with Shenshen suddenly got serious and turned his attention to Fiyero.
“What’s happening?” he asked somewhat concerned.
“I noticed something weird about Glinda and I need to know if I’m going crazy or if you guys have also noticed it” Fiyero declared before telling the whole group what he’d noted in his best friend’s behaviour. When he was done, he caught Pfannee and Shenshen exchanging glances. He frowned.
“What’s that about?” Fiyero asked confused. The two best friends started smiling and finally, decided to reveal what they knew.
“Well, most of our classes are with Glinda so we see her more than you guys do, at least in class” Shenshen said, Fiyero nodded, that was true he had less classes with Glinda than he used to, “and we noticed the other day that she’s spending a lot more time on her phone during class. She’s even more distracted than usual, giggling to herself and smiling all the time. We got a bit curious, so Pfannee kind of looked at what she was doing and turns out she’s been texting someone a lot” she finished with a smirk on her lips.
“Fuck I knew it!” declared Fiyero. “Who is it? Could you see the name?” he pressed them.
Pfannee shrugged “There was no name, she saved the person on her phone with only a green heart. I tried asking her about it but she started blushing and told me to mind my business.”
Fiyero felt almost victorious, he fucking knew it. She definitely had a crush, now on who? He had to find out. But before he could start theorizing, he noticed Nessarose and Boq whispering on his left. He turned his attention on them and when he crossed Nessarose’s gaze she suddenly fell silent. He knew then, something was up.
“Do you guys know something ?” Fiyero asked the couple, getting closer to them. Boq started blushing and his girlfriend nudged him lightly. They seemed to be silently debating whether to say something or not. Nessarose then sighed, shrugged and started speaking.
“Boq has most of his classes with Elphaba, and from what he’s told me she’s been acting weird too in class.” She looked at Boq and he took over.
“Yeah, she’s been pretty distracted too also texting non-stop and blushing, which is pretty out of character for her”.
“I’ve also noticed she’s been acting different at home, she seems a lot happier, like she’s singing in the shower, she doesn’t complain nearly as much as usual, and the other day I even caught her giggling and daydreaming” Nessarose added. She seemed almost worried. “I’ve literally never seen her act like this” she finished.
Fiyero took in all of this new information. Then he looked at his friends and asked with an enormous grin on his face.
“Are Glinda and Elphaba dating ?” he gasped, “do you think they’re together right now ?”
- Gift Giving
A few days after the conversation with their friends, Fiyero had tried to “subtly” ask Glinda if someone was sharing her life. Even now, three weeks later, he still physically cringed at the response he’d gotten from his best friend. Glinda had looked at him like he was an alien, scoffed and then said almost defensively “Will you guys stop pestering me with this? No I’m not dating anyone and no I’m not interested in anyone either”. She’d then fled the living room quickly, a suspicious blush adorning her cheeks, to lock herself up in her room till the following morning. She’d avoided him for 2 whole days after that.
Her answer hadn’t done anything to convince Fiyero of what Glinda declared, on the contrary, he was even more sure of himself now. And Glinda’s actions were only contributing to strengthening his suspicions.
You see, for the past 2 and a half weeks, Glinda and Elphaba had developed the very weird, though admittedly sickeningly cute, habit of giving each other gifts every single day.
The first time it happened was accidental, they’d baked something for each other and exchanged it at lunch. Glinda and Elphaba had been sitting close together at their lunch table, kind of in their own world, talking and giggling the whole meal while the others were talking together. When time for dessert came, Glinda suddenly started squirming uncomfortably in her seat while Elphaba fiddled with her glasses. The two girls were so invested in their interaction that they hadn’t noticed the rest of the table had fallen weirdly silent, watching the scene closely.
Glinda had shyly gotten out of her lunch bag the batch of salted caramel and chocolate chips cookies she’d baked for Elphaba before giving them to her.
“Here, I brought these for you, I was baking a batch for Fiyero and I last night and I remembered you told me they were your favourite so I packed you some” the blonde had said quietly, attempting to be nonchalant but failing spectacularly. Fiyero had frowned, he knew for a fact that was a lie, she’d baked those cookies specifically, and he hadn’t even been allowed to get one.
Elphaba’s dark skin had started to be covered by a deep flush while a soft smile had taken over her lips. She hadn’t bothered responding to Glinda and instead had placed a small raspberry pie in front of her, watching her reaction closely.
“Well, I made this for you, we had some leftover raspberry and I know they’re one of your favourites so I thought why not.” Fiyero’s eyebrows had shot up at the admission. He’d shot quick glances at his friends across the table and found they had the same expression on their faces. Finally, Glinda had noticed their friends’ interest in the scene unravelling before them and had blushed even harder if possible. Fiyero had taken pity on his best friend and had started a new conversation with Nessarose about Beyonce’s tour.
Ever since then every day there was something new. It was mostly thoughtful little things: like Elphaba getting Glinda her favourite drink after an intense cheerleading practice. Or Glinda getting Elphaba her favourite snack in the middle of the morning because she knew the dark-haired girl often forgot to eat breakfast. Or a new pen because Elphaba’s favourite one had ran out of ink.
What was so peculiar about this habit was that both of them were considerate, caring friends, but these little attentions were only reserved for each other.
Once again, this new piece of evidence only convinced Fiyero and the friend group that Glinda and Elphaba were dating secretly. Who knows, maybe they just weren’t ready for it to be public knowledge, so the friends decided to keep quiet for now.
- Compliments
Glinda and Elphaba seemed to have taken their… well whatever it was they had going on, to the next level. For a few days now, Fiyero and the whole friend group found it almost impossible to be around the pair without gagging.
Unfortunately for everyone around them, the two girls had started randomly complimenting each other. It didn’t seem so bad when you thought about it. In fact, Fiyero thought it was kind of adorable the first few times it had happened. But what started as affirmations of mutual appreciation had quickly turned into disgusting sessions of gazing lovingly into the other’s eyes while they practically spouted lovesick nonsense.
“Oh Elphie, your smile is so pretty”, “Oh Elphie, I wish I could spend all day with you”, “Oh Glinda, you’re so kind”… On and on anytime they saw each other.
And honestly, the endless compliments were bad enough on their own. But when you added to that the never-ending blushing and giggling that accompanied each sentence, Fiyero was so close to grabbing Glinda by the collar to shake her into either: 1) admitting something was going on between her and Elphaba before he lost his mind or 2) realising she needed to do something so that there would actually be something going on between her and Elphaba.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
After a few days of the same general behaviour from Glinda, Fiyero was one giggle away from completely losing his mind. He was contemplating confronting his best friend once more, at the risk of pissing her off for real when Glinda decided to finally talk to Fiyero. During one of their movie nights, Glinda grabbed the remote and paused Notting Hill before turning on the couch to face him. Fiyero focused his attention on his best friend, noticing she was playing with her fingers nervously.
“Fi, I need to talk to you” the blonde declared dramatically with a sigh. Fiyero nodded once, signalling he was paying attention and supportively put his hand on his friend’s knee.
“You know when you asked me if I was seeing someone?” Glinda asked softly.
Finally!! Fiyero thought, finally she’s admitting it. He would finally be able to put all this wondering behind, because he would finally get the confirmation tonight, after weeks and weeks of Glinda’s and Elphaba’s strange behaviours, she was admitting they’d been dating.
Fiyero nodded softly once again.
“Well, I’m not exactly seeing someone, but I do have a crush on someone” Glinda announced proudly. Fiyero who was internally celebrating paused.
“What do you mean you’re not seeing anyone?” he asked, almost desperate.
“I’m not, no” answered the blonde, then “but I don’t know if she likes me back, I feel like I can’t read her” she added sadly.
It took everything inside of Fiyero not to slap the obliviousness out of his best friend. Instead of resorting to violence (because violence isn’t the answer Fiyero, remember), he took a deep breath, looked his best friend in the eye and said.
“Let me guess, the person you’re crushing on is Elphaba right?” Glinda’s mouth opened in shock.
“How do you know?” she asked, squinting her eyes in wonder.
Fiyero sighed, then “Because you are so fucking obvious Glinda Upland!”.
“What? I am? I thought I was being sneaky” she answered with a small pout. Once again, Fiyero had to breathe, he would never stop being taken aback by his friend’s naivety.
“Oh honey, I’ve known for weeks” he said with a small smile. “And if you want my opinion, Elphaba absolutely feels the same, you two are like lovesick teenagers”.
Glinda really did not seem convinced “But maybe she only sees me as a very good friend” she said sadly.
Fiyero was screaming internally, now he had to convince Glinda that YES Elphaba really did feel the same way, because there was no way in hell that she wasn’t.
- Jealousy
As hard as Fiyero thought it would be to convince Glinda of Elphaba’s affection for her, it was actually even worse than he could’ve predicted. She was terrified of ruining their friendship, she also thought she didn’t deserve the other girl. So yeah, it was pretty tough. Though he had to admit that for once, he didn’t do much he mostly observed as both Glinda and Elphaba obliviously benefitted to his “happily ever after” plan (thank fuck!). But he honestly just wanted them to sit down and talk, and was that really asking for too much ? No, he didn’t think so.
Barely a week and a half after his best friend’s “revelation” and Fiyero was already a spectator as Glinda and Elphaba had started acting even weirder than usual toward each other.
Glinda had been the one to start the whole ordeal. She’d caught Elphaba being very close with a friend from class in a corridor. She’d then sneakily gone past the two girls to reach their friends outside. As soon as the friends had seen Glinda approaching from afar, they’d known something was wrong. She was red from the neck up, her eyebrows were scrunched hard and she was muttering under her breath. When she finally reached the table, she stopped walking abruptly, almost stomping the ground with her right foot. At that, Pfannee burst into laughter.
“Why are you acting like a spoiled kid?” he managed to ask in between gasps for air. Everyone around the table was sporting a small smile, clearly enjoying the scene unfolding in front of them.
“Elphie was just shamelessly flirting with some girl in the hallway” Glinda answered, almost sadly.
Fiyero immediately knew what was going on, and it was his turn to laugh, softly. Glinda Upland was jealous. That was absolutely hilarious. Before he could add anything though, he noticed behind Glinda that Elphaba was walking up to them. He smirked, then while maintaining eye contact with his best friend, nodded his head toward the approaching girl.
Glinda quickly sat down at Fiyero’s left side, leaving only Fiyero’s right side for Elphaba to sit at. That was highly unusual as Glinda always took any opportunity she had to sit as close as possible to Elphaba, and that’s when Fiyero realized his best friend might be beyond hope. Elphaba looked taken aback by Glinda’s decision to sit so far from her, but she quickly settled down on Fiyero’s right side, already absorbed in a conversation with her sister. Glinda on the other hand seemed intent on ignoring Elphaba, her eyes would never leave Shenshen or Pfannee’s faces, and she looked tense, so still she seemed almost unhinged. After a while, Elphaba kept on trying to catch Glinda’s attention, but the latter kept on pretending not to notice. The atmosphere quickly became a bit tense and when all of them started walking towards the building to go back to their respective classes, Elphaba caught up to Glinda, letting Boq push her sister’s wheelchair out of the grass and towards the path.
“What’s going on, why aren’t you talking to me?” Elphaba asked the blonde girl worriedly.
“Why don’t you go talk to your new girlfriend” a still upset Glinda then spat, reeking of jealousy, quickly leaving a shocked Elphaba in her wake. When the rest of the group, trailing behind, had finally reached Elphaba, she seemed completely lost.
“But I don’t have a girlfriend” she muttered to Fiyero.
“Well, maybe you should tell her that” he answered, not wanting to say more than he should.
Elphaba frowned, and then seemed to understand something important.
“Okay, thanks Fi. See you later” she said before hurrying to class.
That day after class, when they’d all met on campus to hang out together for the last time of the day, Fiyero knew something interesting would happen. He knew it as soon as he’d seen Glinda and Elphaba catching up to the rest of them, deep in conversation. Both of them had seemed pretty upset, Glinda’s eyes seemed to be full of unshed tears of frustration, and Elphaba’s hands were shaking. When they’d gotten close enough to the group, Fiyero could make out what they were saying and he cringed, both of them were so stubborn. Instead of making up and talking it out like they should’ve been, they were just arguing more. It had taken 3 more days for this issue to be completely resolved, Elphaba had had to reassure Glinda extensively and give her a lot of one on one “best friend” time. He felt victorious, they’d finally sat down to talk it out. Maybe there was hope after all.
- PDA & co.
After the whole jealousy incident, Fiyero was absolutely certain that Glinda and Elphaba were finally dating. It just made sense, they’d had their first real fight, it was resolved quite well and pretty healthily with a lot of communication. Logically in Fiyero’s mind it wouldn’t make any sense if after those literal HOURS of yapping sessions about their feelings and their “friendship”, they hadn’t revealed their romantic feelings for each other. And yet, he soon came to realise that these idiots still hadn’t resolved this particular issue.
And really, he couldn’t be blamed for the way things turned out, he’d just had enough, he was so close to loosing his fucking mind. So, of course when he saw Glinda playing with Elphaba’s braids, while sitting in the girl’s LAP for christ’s sake, of course he assumed they were finally dating. And of course, he commented on it.
His face had broken into a huge, relieved grin, and he’d almost yelled with pleasure “AH, you fucking lesbians finally got together!”.
He had only realised his mistake when he noticed that the smile on Elphaba’s face had completely frozen in a sort of deranged grimace and that Glinda’s hand had fallen from the dark girl’s hair at the same time as her face dropped. He was willing to admit that his brain kind of short-circuited at that moment. The girls had slowly disentangled themselves from each other before avoiding the other’s gaze awkwardly. Glinda, who was completely red from the neck up had cleared her throat before gathering her courage to look at Fiyero with a fake smile and say “What are you even talking about Fi, we’re just best friends.”
But in Fiyero’s defence, this was the last in a long line of events that involved a whole lot of touching and gooey stuff between these two. Like first of all, they were always holding hands. A few weeks ago, a drunk Glinda had confessed to Fiyero that she was “hypnotized” by Elphaba’s body, both “in a horny and non-horny way” to quote the poet herself. And he was pretty sure that he’d seen Elphaba looking at Glinda’s butt or legs with a hazy look in her eyes one too many times for it to be strictly platonic. Once when Elphaba was crying he’d seen Glinda kiss her EYELIDS, like isn’t that so cute? But also, please wake up guys?! During their group movie nights, they wouldn’t be caught dead not cuddling each other, Glinda with her face in Elphaba’s neck, Elphaba’s chin resting on her head most times. Glinda had also started stealing Elphaba’s sweatshirts anytime she could, and she spent her time with her nose in them, smelling her scent. They would stare way too much at each other’s lips, with a dreamy look on their faces. Elphaba, who loved to be independent and categorically refused help, would let Glinda carry her stuff whenever the blonde girl wanted to. Like, it was objectively too much for it to still be a strictly platonic relationship, right?
+1. In love
Fiyero was about to have a heart attack. Or maybe he’d already had one and he was dead. Because if he wasn’t dead, he was surely dreaming. He had to be, because there was no way in hell that after all this time, he was finally seeing Glinda Upland and Elphaba Thropp making out on his shared couch with the blonde.
Fiyero went out that night, he’d told Glinda in advance that he was going on a date with Charles, a cute guy from his economics class who’s obsessed with formula 1. He was so excited, he’d noticed Charles a while ago and he couldn’t wait to finally go out with him to hopefully get to know him better. And the date was amazing they’d had a great time, until they sadly had to cut it short because Charles had received a call from his roommate Carlos telling him that his dog Leo was having explosive diarrhoea everywhere. Charles had looked adorably distraught, promising to make it up to Fiyero as soon as they could find a time to meet again, not leaving without a peck on the cheek and a charming smile.
Anyways, that’s why Fiyero was home earlier than he’d planned on getting there. And he guessed, that’s why he’d caught Glinda and Elphaba in a passionate make out session on the couch, a forgotten movie playing in the background.
When he came to, he’d been standing there for a while, the distracted pair still oblivious to his presence. He quickly debated whether he wanted to make his presence known or try to discreetly slide away to his room when he noticed his best friend moving, straddling the darker girl to deepen the kiss, and just like that the decision was made for him. He started to swiftly and quietly get away from the front door and the living room towards the corridor when he heard a gasp. He turned his head and made direct eye contact with Glinda’s wide brown eyes. He groaned and sighed before turning completely to awkwardly greet the two flushed girls. Glinda was once again completely red; her lips were puffy and her hair slightly dishevelled. Elphaba was in no better state, her braids once in a high ponytail were completely out of place, her glasses had slipped down her nose and her cheeks were deeply flushed. Fiyero was honestly both smug at being right, and apologetic at interrupting them. But, maybe if he’d walked in 20 minutes later, he would be scarred for life right now, so perspective.
“Hi Fi” Glinda said warily, “weren’t you supposed to be on a date with Charles?” she asked. Fiyero had a hard time focusing on her question because she was still straddling Elphaba, the dark girl’s hands on her waist.
“Uh, yeah I was, it just got cut short, he had to run home, something with his dog being sick” he answered.
“Right” Glinda said softly, making a face, the embarrassment catching up to her in the quiet of the flat, only broken by the soft sounds of the movie still playing on the tv behind them.
“So”, Fiyero said with a smirk, finding some satisfaction in the awkwardness of the moment “I was right then, you definitely like each other”. He heard Elphaba groan at that, Glinda quickly got up from her lap, making her way to Fiyero, the other girl on her tail.
They stopped in front of him locking hands, and looking at each other softly.
“Should we tell him now?” Elphaba asked. Glinda once again pulled a face. She inhaled deeply, before looking at Fiyero.
“Look Fi” she started, “you can’t get mad alright, we just had so much fun making you squirm trying to get us together.”
Fiyero’s brain stopped. What?
“What?” he asked dumbly.
“Well, you see, Elphie and I have been dating for a while now”.
“Define a while please.” Fiyero asked, a mad look taking over his face.
“It’s been a few weeks” Elphaba answered.
“Since we resolved my jealousy problem” Glinda added, dissolving into giggles with her girlfriend. “But Fiyero you were so invested it was hilarious to see you get so confused at us”.
“What. The. Fuck.” He answered. “I swear to god Glinda Upland I’m going to call your mums and tell them all that you’re putting me through” he said dramatically. “Ugh, congrats I guess, I can’t even savour this win you’ve ruined it for me” Fiyero added with a smile on his face. He hugged them both quickly before starting to make his way towards his room, intending to text Charles to tell him about what he’d found out when he yelled out “I better be the first person you tell when you’ll be getting engaged or I’ll end the both of you”.
FIN