DISCLAIMER: Wicked isn't mine.

AN. There's a tiny reference to Out of the Blue in here :)

Blackout

By Vinkunwildflowerqueen

Elphaba was not a dramatic person. Whilst she had been known to become irritated by things others deemed unworthy (such as people who dog eared library books; those who spoke during lectures (especially those within earshot of Elphaba); and those who confused 'affect' and 'effect'), the closest she came to dramatic outbursts was when she lost control of her magic. Unless you counted threats of bodily harm and violence against her roommate when Galinda tried to give her a makeover as dramatic. Elphaba did not. Galinda did.

Whilst Nessa could throw herself a grand pity party at times when she truly lamented her chair and what it had taken away from her; she wasn't that much of a drama queen. Probably due to the fact that Elphaba had pretty much raised her and had made it clear from an early age that she wasn't going to put up with such behaviour.

Living in a dorm building that housed fifty girls meant that Elphaba had seen more than enough drama since starting Shiz. Elphaba had seen hysterical sobbing fits caused by breakups, fights with the boyfriend and fights with friends. There had been the time a girl on the second floor been heard sobbing all night upon discoverating she had gained ten pounds; and the time the entire building had been woken up in the middle of the night when one girl found a spider in her bathroom. It had been so loud security had been called.

And that wasn't even getting into what Elphaba had to deal with when Galinda had accidentally torn her fifth favourite skirt one day.

So Elphaba really wasn't surprised when the building erupted in screams of panic one night when the power went off during an electrical storm. In fact, she found it a little amusing.

Except for the part where Galinda let out an ear piercing screech about three feet away from her.

"Galinda! For the love of Oz! Some of us want to leave our eardrums intact!" Elphaba exclaimed, putting down her book calmly and turning towards where Galinda had been a moment ago. Before the lights went out.

"Since when are you afraid of the dark, anyway?" she asked, getting off her bed and feeling around in the dark. "It's just a blackout."

"I'm not afraid of the dark," Galinda replied, sounding deeply insulted. "But Elphie, weren't you listening?!"

"Nope," Elphaba replied nonchalantly.

"Elphie, Arne just crashed Leatrice and Tyron's wedding! And now I'll never know why!" Galinda wailed.

Elphaba rolled her eyes. Galinda was utterly obsessed with a radio soap opera, So the Drama, which consisted of (in Elphaba's opinion) the most ludicrous plots ever. It was on every weeknight, and Galinda never missed an episode. Every weeknight, between six-thirty and seven-thirty, Galinda was practically glued to the radio in the girl's room.

Sometimes, especially if a particularly dramatic (meaning ridiculous) plot or cliffhanger was happening, Pfannee, Milla, Shen-Shen and several other girls would listen together. That was Elphaba's cue to hide herself in the library if they were meeting in their room. Sometimes even if they weren't.

When one character's dead boyfriend had come back from the dead, the outcry had been so enormous Elphaba could hear the commotion from down the hall.

She and Fiyero mocked it openly, much to Galinda's chagrin. Nessa derided it as nonsense in conversation, but Elphaba suspected her sister liked it more than she let on. And Boq had started listening to it in their early days of Shiz in the hopes of forming common ground with Galinda and impress her, and had gotten hooked. He had occassionally been known to join the girls for big plot reveals.

Fiyero and Elphaba found this maybe even more amusing than Galinda's obsession with the soap.

Of course the highlight for Elphaba had been when she had found a bunch of drawings on Galinda's desk that she had done of some of her favourite characters; based off how she imagined them while listening to their voices. She had teased the blonde mercilessly for months, and even now liked to bring it up on occasion.

Now, Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Glinda, these shows take a week to get through a day. You could tune in three days from now, and they'd probably still be halfway through the wedding scene."

Galinda refused to admit her best friend was right.

"What are you doing anyway?"

Elphaba was still rummaging around in the dark. "Looking for… aha!"

There was more movement. Galinda could hear her friend moving around the room and then a moment later little flickers of light began to appear around the room and Galinda saw that Elphaba had lit some candles.

"You have candles?" the blonde asked in surprise.

"No, I have matches."

It took Galinda a moment to connect it. A whiff of vanilla helped piece it together.

"You lit my scented candles?!" she shrieked, leaping up.

In the dim light from the candles, she saw Elphaba wince. "Glin, my ears. Please! And seriously, you have candles all around this room you refuse to light. You do realise that is the sole purpose of a candle, right? To give light?"

"They also look pretty!" Galinda insisted. "Which is ruined once you light them!"

Elphaba couldn't be bothered arguing with that. Instead, she crossed the room to peer out the window.

"The whole campus is dark," she noted with casual interest.

Galinda shuddered as a roll of thunder sounded overhead. "I hate storms," she sniffled.

"I'm guessing you're not alone," Elphaba said, cocking her head as they heard cries out in the hall.

"I hope Nessa's ok," she added, mostly to herself and biting her lip. Nessa had always hated storms.

"She'll be with Morrible, she'll be fine," Galinda reassured her. "Which is probably the only time you can say that sentence," she added, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

Elphaba had to agree.

She moved away from the window and sat on her bed.

"Now what?"

She could read, but the candles didn't give off that much light, and she didn't want to strain her eyes. Elphaba could only be thankful that the limited lighting also eliminated Galinda's favourite pastime as a possible activity- makeovers.

"I don't know," Galinda admitted.

The two girls sat there for a few moments in silence.

"Do you think the power will come back on soon?" Galinda asked hopefully.

A flash of lightning lit up the room for a moment, and Galinda winced.

"I doubt it," Elphaba sighed. "We could just go to sleep?" she suggested half-heartedly.

She could hear the horror in Galinda's reply. "At seven o'clock on a weeknight?!"

"Well, you come up with something then," Elphaba challenged her.

Galinda pondered this. "I don't know," she muttered. She reached over and started playing with the radio.

"Galinda, you can't will the power to come back on," Elphaba sighed.

"I'm missing the wedding," Galinda moaned. "How long has it been?"

"About five minutes at the most, and if you're going to keep this up until the power comes back on, I am going to tape your mouth shut," Elphaba threatened.

"It's the wedding of the year!"

"It's fictional," she snapped back. "And I was referring to you asking how long it had been."

"Oh."

Galinda sat back on her bed, leaning against the thousand pillows she had on her bed. Suddenly, she looked over to Elphaba in interest.

"Can you magic the power back on?"

Elphaba, to her surprise, hadn't thought of that. "I don't know," she mused. "Maybe…"

She leapt up again and rummaged around on her desk, holding a candle so she could see better. Finally, she found her Sorcery book and instructed Galinda to hold the candle so she could look through the book.

Finally, she shook her head. "Magic and electricity don't mix, apparently. Sorry, Glin. Looks like you're stuck in the dark. Oh, wait!"

Galinda's hopes rose, watching as Elphaba flicked through a few pages, read something to herself and began chanting.

The room filled with light, and for one moment, Galinda thought her friend had done it. Then she realised the power was still off. But Elphaba had conjured out of the air a ball of light which floated near the ceiling. The room was still dim, but there was a lot more light than there had been previously.

"Oh, that's better!" Galinda exclaimed happily. It wasn't her soap opera, but it was light. As she looked around the room, she realised something.

"I wonder what everyone else is doing. I don't hear anything, do you?"

Elphaba cocked her head towards the hall. It was quiet. She got up and stuck her head out into the hallway, which was even darker than their room.

"I guess everyone's staying still."

"I don't blame them. I hate walking around in the dark, I'm always tripping over things."

"That's because you don't put your things away," Elphaba scolded her.

Galinda made a face at her.

"Maybe you should offer everyone more light?" she suggested, nodding towards the ball.

Elphaba considered that for a moment. "No… I don't know how long it'll last. I don't want to use all my energy giving everyone light and we're back in the dark."

"Plus, you don't want to give them light," Galinda guessed knowingly and Elphaba grinned.

"We could read now that the light's better," she suggested. "Or I've got a deck of cards somewhere?"

Galinda wrinkled her nose. "No…"

There was a crashing sound from out in the hall, and then there was a heavy knock on the door.

Galinda squealed in alarm. "Sweet Oz! What is that?! Do you think someone's breaking in?"

"What burglar knocks?" Elphaba demanded, getting up to answer the door. "Geez. Blackouts make you so paranoid."

"What if it's not a blackout?" Galinda demanded. "What if the storm is a coincidence and some psychopath cut the power to get inside and kill us all?!"

Rolling her eyes, Elphaba opened the door.

"Hi," a sopping wet Fiyero greeted her, sounding breathless. Boq waved from beside him, equally as soaked.

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Not a psychopath, Glin. Just two idiots. What in Oz's name are you two doing?" she demanded. "It's absolutely pouring."

"Well, clearly," Fiyero replied sarcastically, gesturing to the state of his clothes. "But with the power out, we thought we'd come check on you girls."

Elphaba raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Were you afraid of the storm?" she teased them.

"No!" Boq said immediately, almost too quickly.

"Just bored," Fiyero admitted.

"Not as bored as you're going to be when you're stuck in bed with pneumonia from being soaked to the skin," Elphaba pointed out

"You're so concerned with our health, but you're leaving us shivering in a cold, dark hallway," Boq retorted.

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Get in here," she said, holding open the door.

"Did one of you fall just now?" Galinda asked, getting off her bed.

Boq reddened.

"Boq tripped up the stairs," Fiyero informed them cheerfully. "But bright side? At least we know now we can find your room in the dark!"

"How is that a bright side?" Elphaba demanded.

She strode to the closet, flinging it open and grabbing some towels which she gave to the boys.

"How did you get light?" Boq asked, staring up at the ceiling.

"Elphie used magic," Galinda answered. "Fiyero, you're dripping all over my bedspread," she complained.

"Sorry," Fiyero apologised. "Um, speaking of magic… Fae, have you got a spell a bit more effective than these towels?"

"Probably."

A quick search and a spell later, and the boys were both dry and warm, much to their relief. Then Fiyero happily bounded onto Elphaba's bed and stretched out to lie down.

"So, what are we doing?"

Elphaba swatted him to make him sit up and move to the end of her bed so she could sit against the pillows.

"Nothing. I'm listening to Galinda mope about missing the fictional wedding of the year."

Boq gasped. "Leatrice and Tyron's wedding! I forgot about it! That was today?"

Galinda turned to him in horror. "You weren't listening?"

Boq shook his head regretfully. "I have an Agriculture essay due tomorrow I was working on. I lost track of time until the power went out. What happened?" he asked eagerly. "Did they get married? Because I really thought she was going to run after last night."

Galinda shook her head with the air of someone who has important secret information. "She didn't run. But Arne interrupted just before Leatrice could say "I do"!"

Boq gasped, seating himself awkwardly on Galinda's desk chair. "What? Arne? Why?!"

"I don't know!" Galinda wailed dramatically. "The power went off before he could say why!"

Elphaba groaned, putting her head in her hands.

"Can we please not talk about this nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense!" Galinda and Boq said in unison.

Fiyero grinned. "Besides Fae, it's obvious why he crashed the wedding."

"It is?" the others all said together, Elphaba sounding sceptical, Boq curious and Galinda in amazement, clearly wondering what clues she had missed.

Fiyero nodded wisely. "Naturally. He crashed the wedding because he's discoverated that Leatrice and Tyron are actually half-siblings because Tyron's mother had a secret affair with Leatrice's father. So to let them marry would just be really wrong. And illegal," he added as an afterthought.

Elphaba burst out laughing, but whether she was laughing at Fiyero's answer or the look of utter horror on Galinda and Boq's faces was anyone's guess. Galinda was actually speechless.

"Wha- but- no!" the blonde finally spluttered. "There is no way that is what happens! It's completely ridiculous!"

"Have you not been listening to the show?" Elphaba pointed out. "I think Fiyero's idea is the most logical thing I've ever heard on that show."

"But it can't happen! Rollin would never cheat on Hany! They've been together forever, and they've been through so much. It just wouldn't happen," Galinda insisted stubbornly.

"Yeah, they're soul mates," Boq agreed. "Rollin was never going to throw that away on an affair."

Fiyero crossed his arms defiantly. "Well, if anyone can think of a better suggestion, be my guest," he said in an injured tone.

He caught Elphaba's eye and winked subtly. She grinned, quite liking this new game.

"Alright," she began, moving up to sit on her knees on the bed.

Galinda groaned, but let her friend continue.

"My theory is… Arne crashed the wedding because… Leatrice isn't actually Leatrice, but is in fact her evil twin; who kidnapped Leatrice so she can marry Tyron herself and become heiress to his fortune."

"Nice one," Fiyero said, impressed.

"But Leatrice doesn't have an evil twin," Boq argued.

"That she knows of," Fiyero countered.

"I think she would know if she had an evil twin," Boq insisted.

Elphaba waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, who ever knows they have an evil twin?"

"Good point," Fiyero agreed solemnly.

"You two are just horrendible," Galinda snapped. "It's plain as day that Arne crashed the wedding because he's in love with Leatrice, ok? He has been for years."

"But she doesn't love him," Boq said. "He knows that. He's ten years older than her, and a friend of her brother's! She's always said he's like a brother to her, since he's looked after her when her brother died."

"Which is why her brother isn't really dead," Fiyero jumped in.

"What?" Boq gaped at him.

"Nope. The carriage accident was staged and he's been in hiding undergoing treatment for a rare and terminal disease so as not to subject Leatrice to the trauma of watching him die," Fiyero said gravely. "When Arne told him about the wedding, he knew he had to see her one last time to stop her making a huge mistake and ensure his sister will be taken care of and loved."

"Of course. And he never liked Tyron," Elphaba added. "Her brother will insist that she marries Arne as his dying wish so he knows the two people he loves most in the world will be together and ok once he dies."

Boq gaped at them incredulously, as though they were actually making sense and revealing the true plot.

"You guys aren't taking this seriously at all!" Galinda snapped and jumped off her bed, storming into the bathroom and slamming the door.

Elphaba and Fiyero broke into hysterical laughter, as Boq just sat there. Elphaba laughed even harder as she realised something.

Getting off her bed, she crossed the room and tapped lightly on the bathroom door.

"Glin?" she called, trying to keep her voice steady and not laugh.

There was silence.

"Is it dark in there?"

A pause. Then, "Yes," Galinda responded in a stiff, dignified tone.

Fiyero, realising Galinda had stormed into the bathroom in a huff with no light, let out a shout of laughter. Even Boq tried to stifle a smile.

Elphaba waved a hand at Fiyero to shush him, and called back through the door.

"Are you coming out?"

"No. Not if you're going to mock something I love."

"Would you like a candle?" Elphaba asked helpfully.

Another, longer pause.

"Please," she said, still trying to hold together her dignity.

Elphaba picked up a candle from Galinda's nightstand and returned to the door.

"Here you go, Glin."

The bathroom door opened slightly so that Galinda could take the candle.

"Thank you, Elphaba," she said coolly and closed the door again, locking it.

Elphaba turned and saw Fiyero had stuffed his face into one of her pillows to stifle his laughter, and Boq was just managing to keep a straight face.

"How long will she stay in there?" Boq asked.

"Until the power comes back, you two leave, or she gets cold or bored in there," Elphaba replied, snatching her pillow back from Fiyero and grimacing slightly.

"You better not have gotten germs all over my pillow, Tiggular."

Fiyero tried to regain control of himself. "So, what do we do until the power comes back or Galinda comes out?"

Elphaba thought about it, and then opened the drawer of her nightstand, withdrawing two decks of cards.

"Poker?"

Fiyero grinned. "Awesome. Playing for money?"

"No," Elphaba refused flatly, settling herself on her bed and gesturing for Boq to bring the chair he was sitting on closer. She reached under her bed and pulled out a bag. "We'll use pretzels as chips, ok?"

"You have snacks here?" Fiyero asked in amazement. "Why do we not spend more time here?"

"Because it's a girl's dorm room," Boq reminded him dryly, taking the pretzels from Elphaba to deal some out to each of them. "We're not supposed to be in here."

"Oh yeah."

Fiyero poked Elphaba in the ribs as she shuffled the cards.

"See, Fae? Not only did I risk my health and safety by coming to check on you, but I also risked expulsion."

"My hero," Elphaba deadpanned, dealing the cards.

"Alright boys, it's two pretzels to open, five card draw. Fiyero, don't eat the chips."

"I'm hungry!"

"There's a chocolate stash at the back of Galinda's closet she pretends not to have."

"Fiyero Tiggular, don't you dare touch that chocolate!" Galinda's outraged voice came through the bathroom door.

"Come out here and make me!" Fiyero yelled back teasingly.

They all waited, but the door didn't open.

"This is fun," Fiyero said cheerfully once he'd found the chocolate and returned to his position.

Elphaba had to agree. It would be even more fun once she creamed the boys at poker.

The End