Title: All That Glitters

Author: Angel Leviathan

Disclaimer: Wicked, characters, concept, etc, aren’t mine.

Notes: Bookverse. Set after Nessa’s funeral and Elphaba’s visit from the Wizard, but before she and Glinda cross paths for the final time.

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Midnight at Colwen Grounds found Glinda of the Arduennas beside the window of the room she had been offered for her stay. Her husband had decided to leave directly after the funeral, not to her great surprise. Curtains slightly open, she stared out into the blackness, trying to see past her own reflection. Folding her arms, she sighed gently as she let the curtains swing shut. Glinda crossed the room to sit beside the low fire she had kept burning. She had dismissed the servants still working in the mansion after their mistress’ death, stating that she could cope with her dress and the fire herself. As it was, she had eventually slipped out of her dress and fittings and into her lacy nightgown, taken only a couple of the pins out of her hair, and spent the remaining time staring into space.

A gentle knock on the door startled her. Before she could reply, the door opened a little, to reveal green fingers creeping round the rim.

“Elphie…” Glinda uttered, confused. She stood and rushed to the door, “Elphie, it’s the middle of the night, what could you possibly-“

The Witch shut the door behind her and leant against it. She wore a more simple nightdress than her former roommate, in black, as always. Thick socks covered her feet to her ankles and she kept a ragged shawl clutched tight around her, “I want you to understand why I want those shoes.”

Glinda ran a hand through her loose curls, “What’s done is done, I can’t undo it…”

“You shouldn’t have done it in the first place. I don’t quite understand why you did. You know better.”

“Maybe I did. At one point. Maybe you, as always, think too much. You can’t claim to anticipate how I’ll behave anymore, Elphaba, you lost that gift when you left me to deal your sister and do whatever I thought was right.”

The Witch's eyes narrowed. She advanced towards the blonde, slowly, “I want those shoes. I want them because they are mine by right, I want them because they were my Nessie’s. I want them because whatever you did to them has made them deadly in the wrong hands, I want them because they were not yours to give away, and I want them because whatever perfume you wear has clearly intoxicated you so greatly that you cannot comprehend that last fact!”

Glinda took a couple of paces back before she stood her ground, “Where were you when that house fell, Elphie? Where were you?” she raised her voice, “Where were you when Nessa wouldn’t eat or drink back in Shiz and Nanny had to force water down her!? Where were you when she sobbed at having to take your place in this house!?”

“I had-“

“More important things to do than take care of your poor sister and that ignorant blonde girl you left behind?”

The Witch rushed at her, shawl falling from her shoulders, and pinned her friend against the far wall, “More important things to do than wave my wand and hope for the best,” she insisted, voice low.

Glinda shivered, but made no effort to escape. Blue eyes locked with brown, “You want the truth? You want to know why I gave that alien girl those damn shoes?”

“Yes. I do.”

“Because I could,” she stated, “Because I was the only one there. What would you have done with them? Worn them? No. Tried to extract whatever power you think they have? You really think they are a threat in the Wizard’s hands? Perhaps you do, I don’t know what goes on in that head of yours, I never did,” she tried to square her shoulders, feeling the pain of green fingers digging in, gripping hip and shoulder, “You would have kept them and looked at them and felt as sick as you ever have in your life. They wouldn’t make you feel better, they wouldn’t connect you with your father. You would have stared at them and known you failed as a sister. That you left me to do a job you were too selfish to see through to the end. They would have destroyed you.”

The Witch hesitated and drew back, releasing her. She swallowed, “You’re right, Glinda. You don’t know what goes on in my head.”

“I didn’t do it out of spite. I did it for you.”

“I want those shoes.”

“I know,” Glinda replied, voice shaking, “But you can’t have them.”

The Witch sighed, clearly trying to control herself. She reached for the small tiara still sitting in Glinda’s blonde curls, “You swapped your mind for jewels, my sweet,” she said.

The Gillikinese quickly made to reclaim it, “…Maybe so. Perhaps it’s better that people believe that. But it’s best not to think in this world, Elphie. I would have thought you would have learned that by now.”

The green woman stepped forward to embrace the smaller figure. She felt gentle hands rest on her hips as she rested her head on Glinda’s.

“…I miss Nessie already…” Glinda murmured, “…She was a nasty piece of work at times, but I will miss her…”

“Don’t think about it. If that’s your way, follow your own advice…don’t think,” the Witch replied. She sighed, “…I can’t forgive you, Glinda. I can’t.”

The blonde stepped back, “Then go. You know why I did it. Just go.”

The Witch uttered not one more word, but turned on her heel and left the room, closing the door swiftly and quietly behind her. She didn't even stop for her shawl. She padded silently back to her room, itching to depart, desperate to end the unwelcome brush with her past.

Glinda slid down the wall and sank to the floor. Her right hand curled to crush the ridiculously expensive hair ornament she still clutched, bending the framework and dislodging fine gems that clattered to the floorboards. Blood dripped from her palm to join them, flowing like she knew Elphaba’s tears didn’t, and Nessa’s did.

She had lost them both.

There was nothing left now.

Fin