Title: Look To The Western Sky
Author: masque101
Fandom: Wicked (The Musical)
Summary: It doesn't look good for our heroine
Disclaimer: Wicked is not mine, just borrowing it for a bit of fun.

Chasing the sunset, racing the moonrise, towards the western sky. Behind me is the Emerald City; yesterday I finally thought I had found the place where I belonged, today I am an outcast once more. Behind me is the Wonderful Wizard of Oz; yesterday he was my salvation and my hope, today he is the face of my enemy. Behind me is... 'I hope you're happy how you hurt your cause forever.'

Chasing the sunset, racing the moonrise, towards the western sky. Before me is the Vinkus; an unknown land to those in Oz who have not read the right books or gone to school with a Winkie Prince. Before me is a freedom I have never known; no longer bound by the rules and restrictions that govern the law abiding of Oz. Before me is... 'I hope you're happy now that you're choosing this.'

The Great Kells appear before me; the jagged peaks piercing the blanket of mist surrounding them, and there nestled amongst the natural spires hides Kiamo Ko. I'm not sure the Winkie Prince had my safety in mind when he boasted that his family had two castles but beggars can't be choosers and I need somewhere safe.

This castle will be my home; this fortress will be my stronghold. With a book and a broomstick I just declared war on all of Oz.

I am betrayed. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is nothing but a charlatan, a fraud. With no real powers of his own he wanted mine; magical and ruling powers combining to crush the Animal population, the very thing I was petitioning him to prevent. I believed in him, to save Oz, to save the Animals, to save me. My belief in the Wizard is shattered; my hatred of the Wizard is woken.

The called me enemy, they called me evil, and they called me a Wicked Witch. Simple names should mean nothing to me after a lifetime of hostility and prejudice, but I find myself embracing them, absorbing each epitaph and allowing them to fuel my anger. They want me to be their Wicked Witch, the new enemy that the Wonderful Wizard can unite the people against, then here I am.

But every story needs a hero...

I look down at my clenched fist, only just remembering what I hold within. My fingers uncurl and reveal a silver chain and a pendent lying in my palm. Glinda gave it to me; in our last moments together she tore it from her neck and pressed it into my hand.

I remember another time, not so long ago, when I held another gift in the palm of my hand. A pink flower - once hers, now mine. The first night we kissed, the first night we made love, the first night I held her trembling body in my arms and buried my face in her golden hair. I had never allowed anybody to touch me like she did; she made me feel alive, body and soul. In her eyes I was beautiful and I was desired.

I trace the pendent and let the chain run through my fingertips. The metal is warm from being held for so long; warm like it felt against her skin last night as we lay in bed. In the time that we have been lovers we have made love, slept together, had sex and fooled around whenever and however the mood would take us, but last night was different. It was all of the above and something else entirely. Was it the excitement of the Emerald City making us giddy and playful? Was it the play of colours and light upon her body that drove me to worship and possess her? Or was it a deeper realisation of something that I did not have the courage to give voice to? But she did.

I press the pendent to my lips and close my eyes against the tears that threaten to fall. last night she told me that she loved me and today I am alone. Who would ever have thought that someone could love this freak of nature? In her eyes I was loved and I believed her. Then why am I alone?

She always told me that she was never ashamed of her feelings for me, that she wanted to tell everyone that we were together and damn the consequences. Today I asked her to make that choice, to take that leap of faith on out relationship, to live our dreams the way we planned them. But the reality of loving me was too much to ask of her.

She begged me to say I was sorry, that I could still have everything I had ever wanted and dreamed of. I knew she was talking about the two of us; as the chosen of the Wizard we would no longer have to hide out relationship, no one would dare to question or object. But the cost of that sacrifice was too high; it required me to be someone I can never be, even for her.

I left her there; I left her in the Emerald City with the Wizard. She will have the life that was supposed to be mine. She will be respected and admired; because she has a strength of character that can't be ignored and will make her a great leader. She will be worshipped and adored; because she is still Galinda Arduenna of the Upper Uplands and she won't stand for anything less. And she will be a force of good to bring the wicked down, to bring me down, because very story needs a hero.

'I hope you're happy in the end, I hope you're happy, my friend.'

She reaches for the necklace around her throat, pulling it sharply to snap the chain. She takes my hand in hers and places the trinket in my palm before clenching my fingers tightly. She presses our joined hands to my heart.

'Look to the western sky.' I tell her.

She pulls me to her, her lips crashing against mine.

We both know this is goodbye.

"Glinda..." Her name on my lips; a whispered farewell to a friend.

"GLINDA..." Her name torn from my soul; an anguished cry to a lost love.

Finally the tears begin to fall, this time I don't even try to stop them. I clutch the pendent to my aching heart and wonder if she is looking to the western sky and watching the setting sun.

~fin~

Title: Wonders Like I've Never Seen
Author: masque101
Fandom: Wicked (The Musical)
Summary: Just one night, one good night and yes it finally is that night
Disclaimer: Wicked is not mine, just borrowing it for a bit of fun.

I could watch her for hours; especially like this when she doesn't realise that I'm even there because it's only then that all of the barriers are gone.I wish it could be like that whenever we are together, but even when we make love I know that there is something she is holding back from me, that there is one last barrier she keeps around her heart to protect herself. I don't blame her for wanting to shield herself from the rejection that she has faced through all of her life but I want her to know that with me her heart is safe. I want her to know that she can trust me to protect it for her.

I'm not sure when watching Elphaba became my favourite pastime. Was it that first night we spent together? When she looked so peaceful sleeping beside me, her hair splayed over my pillow, her skin glowing in the moonlight. Or was it that time in History class? When she caught me staring at her and raised her eyebrows as though she could read the inappropriate thoughts in my head, and they were inappropriate.

Sometimes I don't stop at watching though; sometimes those inappropriate thoughts just have to be acted upon. In Sorcery Madame Morrible often leaves us alone in our studies and as soon as she is out the door I'm in Elphaba's lap and kissing her senseless. It's not totally unrelated, sometimes when we kiss Elphie's powers still manifest; we've had to explain charred text books on more than one occasion. And there was that time we were working on multiplication spells and we broke apart from a kiss to discover another two Glinda's... that was just freaky.

Tonight there are no inappropriate thoughts running through my mind; tonight I am watching her because she looks so happy. This afternoon we arrived in the Emerald City, the place that Elphaba has dreamed of visiting her whole life. Maybe it's because the colour of her skin blends, not with the other people but with the city itself, making her special, making her accepted. As we walked the streets she reached for my hand, the only time she has ever done so in public, and it felt so right... I think we've found the place where we belong.

Tonight my lover looks 'positively emerald' as she stands on the balcony of out hotel room absorbing the sights and sounds of the sity around her. I'm not sure this place is ever quiet; there always seems to be music playing, people dancing, endless shows and attractions and I think Elphie is trying to take in as much of it as she can before we return to the mundane where she is simply the green girl that everybody stares at or shuns.

I could watch her for hours but the sudden smile gracing her lips tells me that my time is up - she knows I'm watching her.

"Glinda?" There's an amused accusation in the way she says my name.

"Elphaba?" I respond in an identical tone.

"You're doing it again."

"I can't help it if I love to watch you My Emerald Beauty."

"What am I going to do with you My... Pink... Powderpuff?" She wrinkles her nose and chuckles, "No, that one won't work either."

It's been three months since we became lovers and we still haven't worked out a pet name for me. We've tried all kinds of combinations of flowers and candy and baby animals with the usual endearments but so far we haven't found the name that fits. I think it will have pink in it though, she seems fixated on the pink, I don't know why.

She turns away from the city and whatever else she might have been about to say dies on her lips as her gaze finds me. Now she is watching me and it's as though she has never seen me before. She seems confused but at the same time curious as she takes a step closer and raises her hand to lightly run her fingertips down the side of my face. I instinctively reach out and place my hand over her heart and realise why Elphaba was so entranced in looking at me; the glow of the Emerald City at night has painted my skin the same colour as my lovers. Shoulders to fingertips and cheekbones to lips, every inch of exposed flesh has taken on a verdant hue similar to hers. It maybe an illusion, but for this moment she isn't different and she isn't alone anymore.

"You are so beautiful." She breathes as her eyes flutter closed.

"You are always beautiful." I seal my declaration with a kiss.

A different song drifts up from the streets below, "Dance with me."

Her eyes snap open to reveal sheer terror at the thought.

I can't escape the chuckle that escapes me, "Dance with me."

She nods her head and steps away from me, raising her hands to begin the sequence of moves that I have come to think of as The Elphie.

I take her hands in my own and draw her closer to me, "No, like this," I place her hands around my waist and curl my own around her neck, "Now imagine that we're in bed together, except we're standing up and not naked." She giggles at the description but I think she gets the idea; she begins to move her hips in time with mine, in time with the haunting melody that plays through the night.

She leans down and kisses my lips, a kiss meant only to be short and sweet but I have other ideas. I chase her lips with my own; I bury my fingers in her hair and quickly turn the kiss into something more. When it ends and we are both breathing hard, our lips swollen, our eyes locked. As much as the thought of making love on the balcony overlooking the city appeals to me... I take her hand and lead her back into the hotel room, "I think I like it better when we're lying down and naked."

Inside I look down at my body and discover the glow of the Emerald City has followed us. When we reach the bed I push Elphie to sit on the edge while I stand in front of her. I make sure that I have her full and undivided attention and then reach for the straps of my dress, easing them over my shoulders and allowing the garment to fall to the floor. Having watched the dress land at my feet her eyes work their way back up my body, flowing along my legs, across my stomach, over my breasts and back to my face. Then she is one her knees before me; her hands and lips travelling the same path as her eyes. It's almost an act of worship, slow and sensual.

But then the time for slow and sensual has passed; I catch her eyes as they flicker from adoring to amourous. She surges to her feet and takes my face in her hands; sometimes her kisses are dizzying, sometimes her kisses are gentle but this kiss is priomal and urgent and desperate. The rough fabric of her dress brushes against me and while the sensation isn't unpleasant it reminds me that I'm naked while she is still fully clothed, and that just won't do. My hands start to fumble with the fastenings of her dress, Elphaba decides to help, and eventually it joins my gown on the floor at out feet and we tumble onto the bed.

There's something different in the way we make love this time; in the way our bodies move against one another, every touch of her hand and every caress of her lips seems to reach inside to my soul. I think I want to stay like this forever. Here in this wonderful city, with this wonderful woman, in this wonderful moment... forever.

Later I wake to find myself alone in our bed; still sleepy I gather the bedsheet around my body and stumble towards the balcony, stopping in the doorway. Elphaba is exactly where I expect her to be, but instead of looking out over the city she is looking back at me. A slight breeze is stirring her hair and the short black slip she is wearing, I catch my breath. I think again about why I enjoy simply watching her. It's because of her beauty, it's because of her intensity, it's because she is strong and passionate and has an amazing smile, it's because...

"I love you Elphaba."

And in her eyes I see the final barrier fall away.

~fin~

Title: Sudden Silence, Sudden Heat
Author: masque101
Fandom: Wicked (The Musical)
Summary: Just one night, one good night, but still the same night as before.
Disclaimer: Wicked is not mine, just borrowing it for a bit of fun.

My earth did move but not in the way I expected it to. My body certainly shivered with every toush of her hands and her mouth upon it, and quaked when I felt her fingers enter me. But it was somewhere deep inside that the greatest shift took place. As we hung in the infinite moment afterwards, where bodies continue to pulse gently against one another, where ragged breathing comes back under control, where racing heartbeats slow to something approaching normal, where hands touch and eyes meet, I realised that my world wasn't just about me anymore. My world has become this place where she gazes down at me with her soulful eyes and the fall of her midnight black hair tickles my face. My world has become Elphaba.

I pull her body close, wanting to feel her weight and her heat against me. Feeling the tremors that run through her body and into mine, it feels incredible, she feels incredible and I feel... I feel complete. Is that too much? Too soon? To unbelievably naive? To think that after all my dalliances with boy after boy after boy that this is what I've been waiting for. I press a long lingering kiss to her lips before laying her head upon my shoulder and falling into a very satisfied slumber.

I don't know how much time has passed when I wake. It's still dark and moonlight filters through the window bathing the bedroom in an eerie blue white glow; casting interesting patterns of light and shadow about the place and across the green skin of my lover. Elphie is still sleeping, sprawled across half the bed on her stomach; she looks beautiful, dishevelled, tousled, downright sexy and at the same time achingly vulnerable and adorable.

I once called her phosphorescent, and a steamed artichoke, and I think I called her a green bean - all thoroughly unoriginal, but easy because... well just because really. carefully, so as not to wake her, I lower the cover exposing more of her body to my eyes. I want to study the play of bone and muscle beneath smooth skin the colour of... of emeralds, like the city she dreams about visiting some day. Emerald Beauty, now that's a nickname I'd like to get used to calling her, My Emerald Beauty. She stirs and the sheet slips a little revealing the curve of  a hip that proves far too enticing for me and I lean across to press my lips against the soft flesh. It isn't enough and my lips move to her lower back and begin to trail upwards, whispering along her spine. A soft moan tells me that my ministrations have woken my slumbering lover.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." I'm so not sorry I woke her.

For a few seconds she seems confused; surprised that she is naked in my bed... with me... also naked. I can tell the moment that the memory returns to her, she surges towards me, seizing my lips with her ownand kisses me. The kiss is full of force, and passion, and desire and I really like it; that's the kind of 'good morning' kiss I want every day and I really don't care that it isn't morning yet. It just means that in a few hours I get to wake up and experience another of her dizzying kisses. When the kiss threatens to become something more she gentles the intensity and slows the pace and we pull away from each other hesitantly.

"I should probably go to my own bed." She says as she unwinds my fingers from where they have tangled in her hair.

"No." I untangle my fingers myself.

"Stay." I press her back down on the bed.

"Snuggle." I wrap myself around her, effectively keeping her prisoner.

"Why do you want to get out of my bed?" I should like a petulant five year old.

"I..." She begins as she gazes across the room to her own bed.

I know why.

"Hold that thought." I tap the end of her nose before climbing out of bed and moving towards her side of the room. I reach under the single pillow and retrieve what I'm looking for. I hold up the green bottle and watch the moonlight glint in the reflective surface. "When I was little my Mother gave me a teddy bear, I slept with that bear every night, " I'm sitting on my bed again and when she reches for the bottle I let her take it, "When I grew up I didn't need the bear anymore, but I still had my Mother." I slip back into bed beside her and clasp my hand over her hand and the bottle she holds. "If we put this under my pillow will you stay here with me tonight?"

"Yes." It is no more than a whisper, but it's enough.

"And tomorrow night?"

"Yes." The word is stronger this time, tinged with a hint of laughter.

"And the night after that?"

"Glinda!" But she is giggling.

She wraps her arms around me and kisses the top of my head. "I must clash with the covers."

It's funny but it shouldn't be, I don't want her to clash.

"It's almost spring." I announce. My incongruous response confuses her; I swear I can feel her raise her eyebrows, eventhough I can't see it.

"And?"

"The rose bushes in the quadrangle will be coming into bloom. Pink roses with green leaves..."

"And green thorns."

"Hush now." I poke her in the side for stopping my poignant speech. "Pink roses with green leaves, why does nobody ever question whether they belong together or not, they just do."

"I don't know." She holds me tighter and I press a kiss to the heartbeat beneath my cheek before drawing a heart shape with my fingertip, I stop myself before I can place a 'G' and an 'E' inside it though.

"This has to be our secret." She sighs.

I snap my head up to meet her eyes, "Why?"

"What would people say if they knew that you were taking the green girls to your bed?"

I tried to think about it but for once what other people thought wasn't registering with me, especially when Elphaba combines the words 'green girl' and 'bed' in the same sentence. "I don't care."

"Yes you do. Think of everything you would lose. Being friends is one thing, but being lovers is completely different."

She's trying to protect my standing, my position in society at the cost of her own feelings. She's right, Galinda Arduenna has a responsibility to represent her family, but I don't want her to think that she isn't important to me, that I would willingly conceal my true emotions because she isn't deemed worthy enough of them, it's simply not true. "I'm not ashamed of how I feel about you."

"Glinda?" She coaxes me for the answer she wants to hear, the answer that we both know I have to give.

"Alright, this is our secret." Now I want my answer, "As long as you know that I'm not ashamed of my feelings for you."

"I know." She kisses the frown from my brow and guides my head back to her shoulder.

I snuggle as close to her as I can and settle down to slep once more, thinking about another good morning kiss as I whiper, "Goodnight my Emerald Beauty."

"Goodnight..." I can tell that she's trying to think of something appropriate to say in return, "Glinda."

Oh well, "We'll work on a name for me tomorrow."

~fin~

Title: A Strange Exhilaration
Author: masque101
Fandom: Wicked (The Musical)
Summary: Just one night, one good night, no not that night, another night.
Disclaimer: Wicked is not mine, just burrowing it for a bit of fun.

I'm standing in the darkness of my room, staring out of the window into the night. I've always liked the night, liked the darkness; the way I could pull it around myself like a cloak and hide amongst the shadows. A place where no one can see that I'm different and that I don't belong. I've lived my life knowing that I'm an outcast and showing everybody that I didn't care in the slightest when deep down, well maybe not so deep, I really did care, and hurt.

Father despised me from birth, convinced that my affliction was a punishment for his lack of fair or some such nonsense. He was so scared when Mother became pregnant again that he made her chew milk flowers, it killed her and left Nessa unable to walk. He blamed me and despise turned to hatred.

I know that I'm only attending Shiz University to be a caretaker for Nessa but I intend to make the most of the opportunity given to me. I didn't expect things to be any different here than they had been at home. I didn't expect to make friends or win any popularity contests. I just wanted to make it through my classes without failing and make it through the year without killing my roommate.

More than anybody I should know that first impressions are not always the correct ones. More than anyone I should know that appearances can be deceptive. But it didn't stop me from making my mind up about her from the moment we met. Blonde. That was how I described her, one word that fills the mind with so many stereotypes of ditzy, shallow and dumb. As I hid behind the persona of the moody loner she presented herself as the bubbly popular one and though the reality was not too far from the truth it was enough; one night, one moment of glimpsing the relatity and the possibility changed everything between us.

It was the night at the Oz Dust Ballroom; she wanted to make everybody laugh at me and when they did she wanted to make everybody stop. In an action that could have destroyed the standing that she had worked so hard for since she had arrived at Shiz she stepped forward and accepted me. She gained their admiration and respect and though it terrifies me to admit it, in that glimpsing moment, she gained my heart.

That night we danced, we laughed, we walked and when we returned to our room we both seemed to be searching for some way to prevent the evening from drawing to a close and so I allowed myself to become her new project. She touched my skin, she ran her fingers through me hair, she painted my lips with her colour and placed a flower behind my ear - the flower I'm holding in my hand as I stand in the darkness, staring out of the into the night and thinking of her, Glinda.

The flower is pink... pink goes good with green, was what she told me. Does pink go with green? Does Glinda go with Elphaba? When I think about her I think about all the pretty words I read in those dreadful poetry books that Mother left behind. The way that her golden curls glow in the sunshine, the way her blue eyes sparkle when she smiles, the way she moves as though she is grace itself. I wipe away the single tear that falls from my eye, foolish words and foolish thoughts Elphaba. I'm alone tonight because pink flowers go with blue diamonds, because Glinda goes with Fiyero.

She was taken with him from the moment that he breezed into town with his casual approach to life and reckless abandon of all the rules. He's handsome and wealthy and perfect for her. I torture myself as I think of them together; stolen kisses, warm embraces, whispered words, such simple pleasures that were never meant for me, but it doesn't stop me dreaming.

Too caught up in hopeless dreams I don't even notice when the door opens and she enters our room. It isn't until her soft, sweet voice reaches me through the still silence that I realise I am no longer alone.

"Elphaba?"

"Glinda?" I close my hand, hiding the flower as I attempt to hide my feelings.

As I try to regain my composure the silence between us extends until, for once, it is I who cannot stand the quiet any longer.

"I thought you were spending the night with Fiyero."

"I was... at least that was the plan... but he said he knows..." She stumbles over her words, but then continues, "Elphie, why are you standing in the dark and staring out of the window?"

Tell her anything except the truth. The truth mens making myself vulnerable before her and I'm not strong enough, not brave enough, to admit that I can't stop thinking about how just being near her makes me smile inside.

"I was just thinking."

"What about?" She has moved closer to me; I can smell her perfume, hear her breathing.

"About what's happening in Oz, with the Animals." Animal Rights had been the furthest thing from my mind but she knew that it was something I cared about and could plausibly be thinking about right then.

"You're lying."

Or maybe she knew that I was lying. Her arm brushes against mine, making my body shiver, making my body tingle and then she is standing before me, gazing up at me, looking into my soul with those sparkling blue eyes. She reaches for my closed hand with her own and tries to pry my fingers loose, I can't let her see but her pleading eyes destroy any resistance I might have had and my hand opens to reveal the crushed pink flower resting in my green palm. Delicate fingers touch even more delicate petals, coaxing life life back into the bloom before she speaks, "You were thinking about me."

When she looks up againI look away, terrified that my feelings are revealed in my eyes, ashamed that this green girls could even have the audacity to fall for the beautiful Galinda Arduenna of The Upper Uplands. I'm just beautifully tragic Elphaba Thropp, Third Descending and next Governor of Munchkinland would have been the perfect suitor if she hadn't been born green, but alas.

She curls my fingers around the flower and holds my hand in her own, "I was thinking about you."

My head snaps up at those words, my eyes locking with hers, searching for dishonesty but a shy smile tugging at her lips tells me that she is sincere.

"What about Fiyero?"

"He knows. He asked if I would think on him more if he turned green with envy. I mean really... Your being green is hardly the reason I wanted to be here with you tonight instead of him."

I couldn't care less what colour he turned, especially when she began trailing her fingertips along my arms, to my shoulders, to my throat and along my jaw. She tilted her face upwards and began leaning towards me, realising she meant to kiss me my world started spinning... in the bad wat that sometimes happens when I'm scared.

"No. We can't." I turn away from her, trying to get the pounding in my head to cease. But she must have seen the fear in my eyes rather than the rejection in my words because she doesn't let me go. An arm curls around my waist and another across my chest, she pulls me close and I can't escape. For someone so small she is remarkably strong, or determined.

"Oh Elphie, why not?" her body is warm against me, her heartbeat steady as mine raced, her lips pressed innocently against my exposed shoulder.

"I can't. I ..." I couldn't speak; lights beginning to flash behind my closed eyes, pulse rushing, head reeling, face flushing, all those things I felt when I hated her, but maybe I never did. "I can't."

"Can't what?" She holds me ever more tightly to her own body as mine threatens to tear itself apart.

"I can't lose control. Bad things happen when I lose control."

"What things?" She turns me in her embrace and places her hand on my chest. I take her hand and move it to my wildly pounding heart and feel her touch sear into my very soul.

"When my heart beats so fast and I lose control anything can happen. Sparks fly, the earth moves..."

But before I can complete my list of spinning wheelchairs and students with flailing limbs she presses her lips against mine and she is kissing me.

Despite my innocence and inexperience in these matters something inside of me takes over and I am returning the kiss with equal enthusiasm. I realise how desperate I have been for this since that first night of our friendship. Now when she touches my skin and runs her fingers through my hair I don't hold back the feelings that it ignites in my body. I let the desire burn through my blood and make me brave as I run my hand lightly up her side, bearly grazing her breast, but it is enough to cause a quiet moan to escape her lips. The sound is my undoing. There is a blast of heat as the fire in the hearth suddenly blazes to life.

We break the kiss and turn to look at the rising flames. I'm terrified, but I have a strong suspicion that Glinda is amused by this turn of events.

"Sparks fly." She states, I can hear the smile in her voice as she reaches for my hand and pulls me towards her bed, "Let's see if you can make my earth move."

~fin~