Title: Charms
Author: Angel Leviathan
Disclaimer: Wicked, the characters, concept, etc, aren't mine.
Summary: Glinda was perched on the edge of her bed in only her undergarments, one of Nessa's shoes dangling from the toes of her right foot.
Notes: Bookverse.
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The sight that met her eyes the moment she woke up had the ability to both stun and enthral Elphaba. Turned on her side, covers flung down to her waist in the night, she feigned sleep for a few seconds more to observe the blonde girl across the room through drawn eyelids.

Glinda was perched on the edge of her bed in only her undergarments, one of Nessa's shoes dangling from the toes of her right foot, which she held to the morning light pouring in through the window.

Part of Elphaba wanted to rush across the room and smack some sense into her, whilst the other simply wanted a few moments more to watch how the shoe reflected the light across the face and shoulders of its kidnapper, making her shine like none of the powders and paints she always used.

Glinda studied the shoe as if searching for some sort of power, for something that had the ability to make Nessa frighteningly beautiful and Elphaba bitterly, silently, jealous. She turned her foot this way and that, watching the sparkle of the shoe send flashes of light dancing round the room. The shoes were stunning. More so than any of her footwear, more than any shoes she had seen or had presented to her. She failed to see what Nessarose had done to deserve such a gift and what Elphaba had done to not.

"She'll wake soon, you know."

Glinda jumped and the shoe clattered loudly to the floor, making her cringe.

Elphaba sat up in bed. "Well. What do you make of them?" she asked.

Her roommate reclaimed the fallen shoe and swiped up its mate, before setting them both where she had found them. Nanny wouldn't suspect, wouldn't remember the exact position the shoes had been in. Nessa wouldn't go searching for them herself unless Nanny couldn't locate them. Glinda quickly scampered back across the room and onto her bed. She paused in thought for a moment. "They're like no shoes I've ever seen."

"They don't sell them in any village or town I've ever seen, that's for sure. I doubt you'd find a similar pair even in the Emerald City," Elphaba responded.

"I suppose they're all the more precious for being one of a kind…"

"One of a kind," she repeated.

Glinda's gaze dropped to the sheets of her bed. "Oh, Elphie, I didn't-"

"Didn't what? As if I should care that Father gifted them to Nessie and not to me! What would I do with such shoes? What justice would be done to them hidden under my black skirts and dresses? And besides, I've never been one for heels." Elphaba kept continuous eye-contact, voice level and expression neutral. "They're just shiny baubles. Don't let them fool you. They might do wonders for Nessa, but I would like to think that you have at least begun not to be blinded by needless extravagance." She stretched and swung her long legs over the side of her bed. "Besides, they're far too cheap for your taste," she commented. "Old shoes and blown glass. No, Glinda dear, those shoes should have no hold on you."

For the life of her, Glinda couldn't find a single word to respond with.

Elphaba tried to make a point of crossing the room to the bathroom without letting her gaze fall upon the shoes. From the corner of her eyes she saw their sparkle and closed her eyes for a few moments longer than was necessary to simply blink.

"…Then why do you want them so?" Glinda whispered, appearing incredibly childlike in her many ribbons and frilled underwear, knees drawn to her chest.

Elphaba feigned a sudden deafness and closed the bathroom door behind her without providing an answer.

Fin