A/N: Useless Gelphie musings. This damn pairing just won't let me be.

There was something curiously masculine about Elphaba's jaw, Galinda thought, and it was only exemplified by the boyish scowl she wore. A sharp dash of mouth, like an angry brush of paint that sat beneath thin eyebrows, so often drawn together in irritation or thought. She gave the appearance of a rough sketch, the first draft of an artist who was angry with the world.

Sitting in her dark corner of the dorm, she belonged more to the world of words that she surrounded herself with than the reality she lived in. Galinda saw how she fed off those books, how they consumed her completely. It was like a love affair. She stayed up all night in the throes of passion with a hard-covered volume, fingering each page and holding it close- then come morning she would discard it and reach for another. A brief affair, wild while it lasted; destroyed with no chance of reprieve once it was done.

Beside her Galinda felt childish. For all the glitz and glamour she provided, Galinda could not quite match the ferocity of Elphaba's presence, or the power she seemed to radiate. No amount of glitter had the spark of Elphaba's eye; no hat the beauty of her wit. Beside Elphaba, Galinda was a caricature. A dreadfully dishonest doll, propped into all the right positions, rose lips painted into an unwavering smile.

She hated her and she loved her all at once; she was both patronising and in awe.

She knew she had power over the green woman, though, and she exercised it mercilessly. She felt how Elphaba looked at her. She saw the brief snatches of desire in her emerald eyes. She would undress without caution, flaunt herself in front of her roommate, delighted at the discomfort with which Elphaba squirmed when she stepped out from the bathroom in nothing but a loosely clutched towel. Galinda loved more than to feel Elphaba's glare as she stood too long before her wardrobe, coquettishly indecisive as to what to wear, her creamy skin outrageous against the dark of the dorm.

What do you think, Miss Elphaba, shall I wear my red dress or my blue? Galinda would ask, her head thrown over her bare shoulder, sweet puzzlement on her features.

I've no opinion, Elphaba would choke out, abhorrently glad of the permission to freely look at Galinda.

Galinda could not explain why Elphaba's attention was so addictive to her. She could only say that it became a challenge to see how far she could push the green girl; before Elphaba would inevitably retaliate and demand to know her intentions (and what, exactly, were her intentions?). Galinda could not understand Elphaba's fascination- it was not attraction, surely, they were both girls- but she knew that it excited her in a way that boys' little obsessions with her never had.

What are you reading now, green bean? she would sigh, snatching at whichever book happened to be in Elphaba's hands and sliding up against her roommate's knees, smiling as she felt her stiffen at Galinda's touch. She would read the next few paragraphs in a high pitched, pompous voice, turning the academic drivel childish.

Give it back, Elphaba would order, quietly stern but not at all insistent, and stop pretending that you don't understand it, because you know as well as I that there's a brain beneath that hair.

Galinda would turn around and place her chin upon Elphaba's knees, mock horror on her face. What a shocking revelation, Elphie, really. I do believe you've seen right through me.

Once when she tried this, however, Elphaba grabbed the book straight back and flushed a deep emerald. Galinda could only read the words bodies entwined and bared breasts before the page was pulled away from her eyes. She made no comment, only raising her eyebrows slightly at the green girl with a smirk on her face. Elphaba glared defiantly back, still dark green in the heights of her cheeks.

Galinda searched for the book everywhere after that brief encounter, but she found no sign of the midnight-blue cover. She was more disappointed than she cared to admit. Bodies entwined played through her mind like a record, and she began to notice Elphaba in quite another way. It was one thing to tease her girlishly, with flashes of skin here and there, a harmless game; completely another to imagine being with her (how would that even work?)- her body flush against Elphaba's, her lips at Galinda's throat, her hands beneath her dress, along her back... No, quite another.

Galinda dropped her frilly pretence quite suddenly. It was now not a case of 'accidentally' brushing Elphaba's arm, or undressing without caution. When they sat together at a desk she leant over to Elphaba quite forcibly and pressed her breasts against her shoulder. She ran her fingers over Elphaba's arms and legs more slowly than necessary, commenting on the smoothness of her green skin, or asking if a lotion she'd recommended had had any effect. She moved close to Elphaba when they talked, her face near enough for the closeness to be noted, but far away enough for it to be left unquestioned.

Galinda was sure of what she wanted now, and knew that Elphaba's desire matched hers, but she was stubborn and still inhibited enough to refuse to initiate anything. There was a stalemate in what had abruptly become a relationship between the two (for what else could Galinda call it? It was certainly not a friendship, they were certainly not friends) and for a time Galinda let her advances cool, tired of the stolid response they earned her.

When Galinda brought an escort back to the dorm one night, some handsome-but-dull boy from the other campus, it was not for her own benefit. Her interest in the boy (as with all boys, but Galinda assumed that natural) was nothing so exciting was the prospect of firing Elphaba up. Sure enough, when the girl returned from her weekly- well, whatever it was she did on Friday afternoons- to find her roommate pressed up against some hulk of a boy and making a rather unnecessary amount of noise, she was enraged. The source of her fury was too intangible and complicated for Elphaba to quite understand; but she knew outright that what she needed was this boy gone from the dorm- whatever implications that need would suggest.

"Galinda." She said loudly. "If you could take a moment to extract yourself from Romeo, I'd like a word."

A word always bode ill when associated with Elphaba; it was always rather more than one word and the need for a word never arose in happy times. Galinda smirked inwardly as she straightened herself and walked out into the hallway, leaving the boy (whose name she already couldn't recall) to squirm uncomfortably and to wonder whether he could escape through the dorm window.

"Is there a problem, Elphaba?" Galinda said sweetly when they had stepped into the hall.

Elphaba glared at her and crossed her angular arms tightly. "Who is he?"

"Oh, him?" Galinda waved her hand coquettishly in the direction of the dorm. "Just some little thing Pfanee insisted I meet. He's rather nice, actually."

Elphaba's arms reached further around her sides as she tightened them. "Maybe I wasn't clear enough. My question should have been, 'What is he doing in our room?'".

"Oh, does it bother you?" Galinda raised her eyebrows challengingly.

"Yes, sweet Lurline, of course it bothers me! Do you think I want to see you two spitting all over each other while I try to work?"

Galinda paused before looking up at Elphaba from under her eyelashes and said, "Well, I suppose if it bothers you that much I could always go back to his dorm. His roommate might be more obliging and it would leave you the entire room to yourself. How does that suit, Miss Elphaba?"

The speech hit like a tiny blow in the very quiet war the two girls were waging, and Elphaba felt it in the gut. As Galinda turned to open the door and return to whatshisname, the green girl reached out to grab her by the elbow and turn her back.

"Must I really say it?" she hissed, whispering. "Must I? You know well enough why he bothers me; in fact that was your entire design in bringing him here!"

Galinda's features turned stony and it was her turn to fold her arms. "Say it. Tell me why you really want him gone and I'll throw him out the window myself."

They stared at each other for what felt like a millennium (though in reality little more than ten seconds passed). It was Elphaba who broke contact first, drawing her gaze away from Galinda's fierce stare.

"Fine." She said, looking at the tiled floor. "I want him gone because I can't stand to see you with someone who isn't..."

Galinda held her breath and moved closer to the green girl. Elphaba suddenly looked up and glared at Galinda with something close to ferocity.

"Someone who isn't me."

Galinda smiled and the boy was instantly forgotten by both. As always, she had got what she wanted.

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