Work Text:
The poppies filled the lecture room as Elphaba’s classmates collapsed around her. The shock only took a moment to register before Elphaba prepared to spring into action–
“What in Oz is happening here?”
Her head whipped around, meeting the confused eyes of Galinda Upland. “I–”
Galinda didn’t give Elphaba the time to respond. “Is this a new trend? Or a game?” Galinda gasped. “Or drugs?” She stood up, incensed at the thought. “And no one shared with us. I will not stand for this Elphie, I will not.”
“It was me,” Elphaba said, quick as she could before Galinda could get in another word. “I think I did this. We have to hurry.” She pushed up from the desk, hurrying down the stairs, barely aware of Galinda’s footsteps behind her.
“Where are we going?”
There wasn’t time for Galinda’s questions. Elphaba couldn’t be sure how long the magic would last and she had to get the lion cub away. The certainty filled her mind as she reached the cub, her hand grasping the cage’s handle. Just as Galinda’s hand clamped around her wrist.
“Elphie. What are you doing?”
“Saving him.” But Elphaba pulled her hand away, Galinda’s hand still holding her tightly.
“Cubnapping! You can’t removify a baby from his home.”
Elphaba snapped, “His home? This is a cage.”
“He has a room all to himself.” Galinda waved her free hand around the cage. She pouted. “I don’t even have that.”
“Galinda.” She pulled free from Galinda’s grasp and picked the cage up with both hands. “If you’re not going to help, don’t get in my way.”
Without a glance back, Elphaba hurried out of the room, hoping on hope that the spell affected more than just the classroom. She chewed on her lip as she looked down the hall and tried to decide what the safest route was.
Click clack click clack click clack.
Despite the situation, Elphaba couldn’t keep from smiling as the tell tale click clack of heels on tile hit her ears.
Galinda burst from the room. “You’re right. No one deserves a room–cage– that small.” She squeezed Elphaba’s hand, eyes brimming with earnestness and the hint of a tear. “We’ll find him a quaint two bedroom home.” She paused. “Or at least a nice studio apartment.”
Very softly Elphaba whispered, “Thank you.”
They rushed down the hall.
Fortunately, Elphaba’s first months at Shiz had given her a talent for skulking around unseen by others and Galinda knew just about every dark corner and unused hallway the university had on hand (for “scandalacious purposes” she claimed). So it wasn’t hard to escape without notice. They made it to the school gates, Elphaba making for two abandoned bikes.
She opened the cage, hesitating a moment before pulling out the lion cub who was just beginning to stir from his slumber. Elphaba tried cradling him–as well as one can cradle a lion–but the gesture felt off, wrong even.
Galinda laid a delicate hand on her arm. “May I?”
Elphaba nodded and Galinda pulled a yellow and white gingham shawn from her bag.
“I took it from Milla.” Galinda offered in explanation as she began to wrap it around the cub. “Don’t give me that look, I told her it’s not her color. This is a favor. ”
Elphaba could only smile.
“There.” She took the cub, cuddled in his new blanket, into her arms. “I don’t know if cats like to be swaddled but he’s not getting a choice. We can’t have our boy getting cold.”
“Our?” Elphaba’s eyebrows raised.
“Well, I’m not going to be a single mother Elphie.”
Elphaba turned to the bikes and chose one to sit on before Galinda could see the blush on her cheeks. “Let’s use these.”
“Where’s the little man?”
One day Galinda would run out of phrases to befuddle Elphaba with, today was not that day. “The what?”
Galinda gestured to the bikes with her head, arms full of lion. “The little man who makes the bike go. He sits there.” The seat. “And pushes the spinnymawhatsits.” Pedals. “While I sit on the seat.” Handlebars.
The image of Galinda’s lifetime of innocently demanding bike rides from unsuspecting but obliging men filled Elphaba’s head. “I think that’s something only you get away with.”
“That’s not fair.” She looked down at the cub, nose twitching in his sleep. Softly, she added, “I’m starting to think a lot of things aren’t fair.”
“Get on.” Elphaba gestured to the handlebars. “I’ll be your... little man.”
~~~
It wasn’t quite as difficult to ride and steer a bike with Galinda perched on the handles as Elphaba feared. It was, instead, much worse. While she barely weighed enough to affect the bike she moved constantly, pointing out this or that by the side of the road, cooing to the cub who had woken up and was not terribly pleased about that fact, or just looking back to Elphaba with the sort of serene smile on her face that made it impossible to look anywhere else. It was a miracle they didn’t crash.
They rode until they couldn’t any more, the paved path turning into a dirt path turning into just dirt and trees. They stopped by a pond that looked every bit a fairy tale even before Galinda knelt down by it, setting the cub down to drink. Elphaba watched Galinda watch him, watched how every movement of his outsized feet or whiplike tail brought new delight to her face. Something very gentle filled Elphaba’s heart.
“Look Elphie!” Galinda gasped in excitement as the cub put a tentative paw on her leg. He followed that with another, then clumsily tumbled into her lap. “He likes me.”
Elphaba leaned against a tree, eyes still fixed on Galinda. “Of course he does. Everyone likes you.”
“You didn’t.” Galinda teased, stroking the lion’s back.
“I’m special.”
Galinda murmured agreement. “Mm.”
A lovely quiet fell over the glen, only the sounds of the forest broke through the moment–the trickle of water, the rustle of leaves, the little content grumbling from the lion. It occurred to Elphaba how badly she wished she could hold the moment tight, the peace, the calm, the little sleeping lion and the girl who held him.
“We could live here,” Galinda spoke quietly, not willing to wake up the baby. “How hard can it be to build a little cottage for three.”
Elphaba held back a scoff and a roll of her eyes. “We can’t–” But when she met Galinda’s eyes she found the look there was so tender she couldn’t finish the sentence. “I could learn.”
“Right! There’s probably a book in one of those book storage locales about it.”
“It’s just wood and nails, how hard can it be?”
“Oh! Oh! I’ll be his momsie–” the lion stirred, growling adorably about the loud noise. Galinda lowered her voice to a hush. “And you can be his... momsie the second.”
One of Elphaba’s eyebrows popped up.
“Lady Popsicle?”
The other one followed.
“We’ll figure it out.” Galinda waved her hand about. “The three of us.”
Elphaba let the fantasy fill her. A home, somewhere she belonged, someone to belong to, a family that wanted her. Just for a moment.
But a moment wouldn’t be a moment if it didn’t end.
“But I suppose, Fiyero would get lonely,” Galinda said, wistfully. “Forest life could never suit him.”
Elphaba sighed. “Where would he go dancing?”
“Exactly.” She shrugged. “Besides, you have a wizard to meet.”
“I do.”
Galinda carefully wrapped the cub up again and stood. “So we’ll just have to find somewhere safe for our boy. Now where are we?” She looked around the forest. “Wait! I know where we are?”
“You do?”
“My old nanny retired out here. I think she’s just over that way.” Galinda pointed at an indistinct patch of trees. She frowned and turned the opposite direction. “Or was it that way. Doesn’t matter. If I’m wrong one way I’m sure to be right the other.”
She began to pick her way forward in her heels, looking back with sparkling eyes when she realized Elphaba wasn’t following. “Are you coming?”
Elphaba’s heart twinged, exhaustion, not of the body but the mind, swept over her. “You go ahead. I think I need rest.”
Galinda nodded sagely, “From being the little man.”
“It’s a hard job.”
“You’re very brave, Elphie.” And for the life of her, Elphaba couldn’t tell if Galinda was talking about the bike or not. But before she could respond, Galinda disappeared into the woods.
~~~
Fiyero awoke slowly from his impromptu nap. It wasn’t exactly the first time he’d slept through a lecture but it was the first time he’d seemed to have done it with a group. Groggily, he realized the chairs to his left and right were empty–Galinda and Elphaba having seemingly ditched the grand snooze soiree. He vaguely thought he might be concerned about such a thing and then he decided if they wanted to run off together it wasn’t really his business and he so hated having to worry or think.
So Fiyero laid his head back down and went back to sleep. Content to never have to think an important thought for the rest of his life.