This was inspired by fanart I found a while back, and I was listening to For Good while writing it. If you listen to that song (specifically the bridge to the end) while reading, I'm pretty sure it will bring you to tears, it did for me! I'll try to find the link for the picture and put it on my profile or something, 'cause it's a really good drawing! So read, review, and enjoy!

Galinda never thought she'd see the day Elphie wore anything but black. She was wrong.

Today, the green girl wore an oversized white button down shirt and a pair of beige capris. It didn't look too bad, either, Galinda thought. If only it didn't have all that paint on it. Elphie was sitting on the floor with her jars of paint all around her and a sizeable sheet of white paper in front of her. Currently, she was using every shade of green that there was possible to be, filling in a sketch of a city outline. She had already painted the road leading to her city bright yellow; Galinda didn't need any more clues as to what it was.

"City - of - Emeralds," She read out from the top of the paper. "It's so pretty!"

Elphie frowned. "The rest of the paper needs more color."

"How about this?" Galinda said, passing her friend a jar of paint the same color as her hand. When Elphaba reached for the paint, she got a little bit of the green paint on her hands on Galinda's.

The blonde looked curiously at the smudge, and smiled mischievously. She dipped her fingers into the jar she'd just handed Elphie and drew a smiley face in the paint on the other girl's hand.

Elphaba looked at her hand curiously. She dipped her brush back into a jar of emerald green paint and with a wicked smile drew whiskers on the side of Galinda's face. Galinda gasped for a second, then grabbed another one of Elphie's brushes and drew a heart in the pale paint on the green girl's cheek.

"Oh, you're on!" Elphaba said, and poked Galinda's pink dress with her wet brush. The bubbly girl looked scandalized and switched colors; filling in the heart she had made neon pink. Elphie retaliated by painting all of Galinda's left hand green.

Galinda wiped it off on Elphie's shirt.

"So that's how you want to play?" Elphaba grinned in a way that would scare the Devil and put a glob of green paint on the back of her friend's precious dress. Galinda squealed and colored half of Elphie's face in her peachy paint.

"I'll get you for that, Glin! I swear!"

Half an hour later, both girls' faces were opposite colors and they were rolling on the floor, laughing so hard their sides hurt. The City of Emeralds painting lay forgotten in the corner, and poor Galinda's dress was half green.

Elphaba sobered up first. "How does it feel?"

"Huh?"

"You know, being green."

Galinda thought for a moment. "It feels… normal. What's it like with my skin tone?"

"Nothing changed…"

"Well, maybe that's because you know you're still green underneath. Or maybe it means that on the inside, you're just as 'normal' as the rest of us."

Elphaba looked shocked at the depth of Galinda's words.

"Elphie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"Anything, Glin."

"Can you promise that you'll stay like this? That we'll stay like this?"

"What do you mean?"

Galinda took a deep breath. "You'll always be the opinionated green girl with big dreams, and I'll be the fluffy, bubbly, pink girl that always sees the better side of things. I want us to stay this way. I don't want to lose you. If it weren't for that hideodious hat I gave you as a joke, I'd still be a shallow, prissy girl. I love you like I'd love a sister, and we've brought so much into each other's lives. I just don't want us to grow up."

Galinda finished her little speech with tears in her eyes, gripping Elphie's pale hand in her green one.

Elphaba, too choked up to say anything, merely nodded. Suddenly Galinda smiled.

"Oh, the wonders of what a little green paint smudge can do."

And no matter what, Glinda never forgot that day. So when she returned to Kiamo Ko a week after Elphie's melting, it came as a shock when she discovered her lost friend's hat sitting exactly where it had seven days before, and underneath it the completed City of Emeralds painting.

On the back of the paper, there was a note in the same exact green paint that had started the little color war:

I Promise.