Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Closing Night, 7:23 p.m.
Elphaba

“5 minutes till places,” Madam Morrible called down the hall.

“Elphie - I have to go. The stage is waiting.” Galinda said, pulling away from their shared kiss. She adjusted her dress. She had a quick change in the first scene, and her dress couldn’t show anything.

“Lin - you have time. You don’t go on until the middle of Omigod part 2.” Elphaba took Galinda’s hand. “Besides, look in the mirror. You’re not going onstage in that face.”

Galinda sighed. This was a normal occurrence. She had to get better makeup.

Elphaba reached for her makeup fanny pack. She didn’t wear any herself - none were sold for people with green skin - but she did a pretty mean makeup job on other people. Plus, being in theatre this long, she had learned to always keep makeup around on performance nights - she never knew who might need it.

Elphaba took out a makeup remover wipe and hastily wiped it all over Galinda’s face before redoing her makeup. No one could know about their secret romance behind the scenes of the Legally Blonde rehearsals and performances.

She swiped her brush one last time, then looked at Galinda’s dress. “You look amazing, Lin. Break a leg out there.”

“You too, Elphie.” Galinda started to walk out of the bathroom turned dressing room, but paused at the door. “You coming?”

“Yeah, hold on a sec. I can’t go onstage with this, either.” She gestured to her face, laughed, and swiped a few makeup wipes over her own skin before following Galinda out of the room and going backstage for the final show.

Chapter Text

Rehearsal #1, 3:35 p.m.
Galinda

“Ah shoot - I’m late for rehearsal!” Galinda grumbled as she drove around the building that the rehearsals would be in for the third time.

She was about to start her fourth loop when she saw a girl that looked about her age. She couldn’t really tell - the girl was standing with her back turned to her.

She did the only thing reasonable to do when one is a lead actress and late for one’s first rehearsal - leaned on her car horn until the girl turned around.

“Jesus! You scared me!” The girl jumped.

Galinda was speechless. Besides the fact that the girl had green skin, she was also really, really pretty.

“What do you want?” the girl asked, annoyed.

Galinda snapped back into focus. She had a show to lead - she couldn’t waste it all staring at another woman. “Um, do you know if this is where you go in for the Legally Blonde rehearsal?”

The girl sighed. “Yeah, it is. You’re late, by the way.”

“Yeah - I know. I’ve been driving around this building for 15 minutes. The crew really needs to give better instructions.”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that - I’m part of the cast! I play Vivienne.”

Galinda groaned. “Guess I’ll be seeing a lot of you, then. I’m Galinda. I play Elle. You can call me Linda. Everyone does.

“I’m Elphaba. Nice to meet you.” She turned and walked inside without another word.

Chapter Text

Rehearsal #3, 3:52 p.m.
Elphaba

“Galinda - remember what we talked about last rehearsal,” Madam Morrible said as she started the soundtrack for What You Want part 3.

Galinda looked at Elphaba from the stage. Elphaba felt an unfamiliar feeling rise in her chest. She quickly tried to busy herself with the lines that still needed memorizing, but she couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t stop looking at Galinda.

“What about... love?” When Galinda started singing, a lightbulb went off in Elphaba’s head.

But no, she thought. It couldn’t be. She’d liked boys before - she couldn’t like a girl. Much less the lead actress of a show that she was in.

Galinda was a really good actress, though. It almost looked like she was trying to convince the three guys playing the Harvard admissions officers about something that was happening in her own life.

Could she... no. That was too much to ask for.

For all she knew, Galinda was straight.

But then on “And love never accepts a defeat”, she found Galinda looking at her again.

If she was going to distract Galinda like this, she needed to get out of this spot in the wings. She couldn’t afford to be the subject of one of Madam Morrible’s lectures. Not when she’d worked so hard to get this role.

Just a little bit longer, she told herself.

And a little bit after that...

And soon the song was over.

Galinda made a beeline for Elphaba.

“You were,” she said. “You were watching me.”

“You were really good. I couldn’t stop watching you.” Elphaba said quietly. “You looked at me?” It was meant to be a statement, but it came out more like a question. Elphaba was not used to pretty girls coming up and talking to her.

“Yeah, I did.” Galinda seemed to be blushing. It was hard to tell, in the dim light backstage, though. She reached up and twirled her hair around her finger. “So, what do you think we’ll learn today?”

“I don’t know. Judging by the fact that like, all of us were called, probably a big ensemble number.”

“Oh my god, I hope we do the finale. I love the finale.” Galinda started humming it. “Plus, you’re in it too - and I get to reject Fiyero for the gazillionth time!”

Elphaba laughed. “And then you’ve gotta propose to my sister’s boyfriend...”

Galinda cringed. “Oh my god, ew. See, this is why I don’t date boys. Too much drama."

She was the lead actress of the show and not straight? The only thing that could describe how Elphaba felt in that moment was one of those cartoonish exclamation points hanging over her head.

Galinda must have seen Elphaba’s reaction, because she said, “If you are a homophobe, I’m literally gonna scream. I can’t deal with this stuff.”

Welp. Elphaba could have handled that better.

“No, I’m an... ally.” That was a lie, she was totally questioning everything right now. “I’ve never really cared which gender I liked.” That was true. She’d always taken for granted that she liked boys. Until now.

God, Elphaba was freaking out.

It was only the third rehearsal, and her love life was already flipped inside out and upside down.

Thank god she was single, at least.

Chapter Text

Rehearsal #4, 8:55 a.m.
Galinda

God. She was so screwed, after what happened last rehearsal with Elphaba.

The nice, pretty girls were always the straight ones, weren’t they?

“Hey Siri - play Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift.”

Galinda had always liked that song, ever since she’d sung it for a choir concert in fifth grade. Today it was going to do an extra important job - it was going to give her the courage to make things not awkward with Elphaba, now that she knew things had to be purely platonic.

Also, it was a great song in general.

If Galinda was completely honest, even though she wasn’t straight, she was a Swiftie. Plus, Taylor Swift had a couple songs with not-so-straight lyrics.

And a couple songs that she could pretend were gay. Especially when thinking about her various romantic adventures.

She honked at the car in front of her. Seriously, if this traffic kept up, she was gonna be late.

2 minutes and one song later, thankfully, she wasn’t. She saw Elphaba sitting by herself in the front row and ran over to sit next to her. She was writing in a notebook, so Galinda didn’t disturb her as much as she would have liked to.

That is, until she noticed that the notebook was a journal, and that Elphaba was writing...

“Elphaba?” she whispered.

Elphaba slammed her notebook shut. “That was - Linda?” She closed her eyes. “Dear God, this is bad.”

Linda forking Upland, Galinda thought. Get your act together. She likes you - do something about it!

Elphaba stood up and ran out of the theater that they were in.

Galinda followed her.

“Elphaba!” She grabbed her wrist.

Elphaba turned around. She looked down at Galinda’s hand on her wrist. “Lin- mmph.”

Before Elphaba could finish saying her name, Galinda covered her mouth. “You do not have any explaining to do.” She paused. “I never thought I’d see the day where a ‘straight’” - she did finger quotes - “girl liked me back.”

“Liked you... back?” Elphaba breathed.

Before either of them could say anything, Shenshen burst into the hallway. “Linda? Oh, there you are. Oh - and Elphaba - they need you guys for Whipped Into Shape.”

Galinda sighed and rolled her eyes. “We’ll continue this later. Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

Rehearsal #5, 4:02 p.m.
Elphaba

“All this time I thought I was proving myself and making a difference... but I’m just one big blonde joke. That’s all anyone’s ever gonna see,” Galinda as Elle said, cuing Elphaba.

“That’s not what I see.” It was kind of true to real life. Elphaba had always seen through Galinda’s popular facade to who she was as a person. Even that first day.

“Vivienne?!” Galinda looked at the girl playing Paulette - someone named Shenshen. Elphaba didn’t know Shenshen very well, but Galinda did. They were pretty good friends - along with this guy Pfannee, who played Callahan.

“We girls have to stick together.” Elphaba looked at Galinda and thought about what had happened last rehearsal. No, no, nononono she could not be thinking about this right now it was the wrong time.

Elphaba missed her entrance into the song because she was thinking about Galinda.

“Hold!” Madam Morrible called. “Okay, I’m not an expert on this stuff, but whatever’s going on with you two,” - she pointed at Galinda and Elphaba - “you need to resolve it.” She turned around to face the rest of the cast sitting in the front row of the theater. “The rest of you guys, let’s run What You Want part two.”

Chapter Text

Rehearsal #5, 4:04 p.m.
Galinda

Elphaba and Galinda went off the stage and walked to the hall where they’d had their previous interaction.

“What was that?” Galinda inquired.

“I... missed my entrance.”

“Yeah. I know. Why?”

“I was.” Elphaba pushed up her glasses. “I was thinking about what happened between us last time we were in this hall together, alone.”

Galinda licked her lips, effectively removing the lip gloss she’d put on this morning because she wanted to look pretty to Elphaba. “You mean, when I discovered you liked me?”

“And then Paulette interrupted us - I have to admit... I was thinking about you for... ever since then,” Elphaba said quietly.

“Shenshen,” Galinda corrected. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you, either. I never see you outside of rehearsal, so...”

“Well, there’s an easy fix to that.” Elphaba reached into her pocket and took out a simple phone with a black case. “Do you want my number?”

“Sure!” Galinda’s phone, in all its pink sparkly glory, looked quite flashy next to Elphaba’s, but she pulled it out anyway because who wouldn’t want to get Elphaba’s number in this situation? “Yeah, I know, it’s a bit... bright.”

God, why was Elphaba staring at her like that?

She’d thought she knew how to handle love, but then this... this woman comes barging into her life and steals her heart and now she’s afraid she’ll never get it back - and this woman is kissing her and it’s better than any of her previous kisses ever and now she knows she’ll never get it back and she’s kissing her back and...

Elphaba drew back. “I’m sorry, was that okay? I probably should have asked first-”

Galinda has a bad habit of cutting people off physically, and it wasn’t about to stop now, because she said, “Elphaba,” and pulled Elphaba in for their second kiss, which was - if it was even possible - even better than their last one. “Elphie,” she murmured against the other woman’s lips.

“Yes?” Elphaba whispered.

“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that for?”

“Longer than me?”

“Ever since the day I first saw you from my car,” Galinda answered. “Oh, and by the way, can I call you Elphie?”

“Oh my god, Lin-”

“Can I call you that? You can call me Lin,” she giggled. “You called me that last rehearsal too, accidentally, and I like it.”

“You - Lin - “ she said, testing out the new nickname on her tongue. “Yes, you can call me Elphie. You remember everything, don’t you?”

“And that’s why I’m amazing,” Galinda joked.

“Lin,” Elphaba laughed. She kissed Galinda again.

“Elphie, we should probably get back.” Galinda said, not totally detached from Elphaba’s face. “We have a show to learn.”

“Aw, fine.” Elphaba took Galinda’s hand with those long, slender, angelic fingers of hers and led Galinda back to the theater. “Just know that this will not be the only time we come back to this hall to do this stuff.”

She giggled, and Galinda’s heart positively melted.

Chapter Text

Between Rehearsals #6 and #7, 11:31 a.m.
Text Exchange

Galinda Upland:
elphie
i’m bored
wanna run lines

Elphaba Thropp:
Okay. Nessa’s here with me and also wants to run lines.
Musical fever has set in LOL.

Galinda Upland:
lol it was shenshen’s idea
i wanted a private room here at shiz
but something got mixed up and instead of me getting it, pfannee got it
so now i have to listen to ireland on repeat for hours

Elphaba Thropp:
I mean, for the past hour Nessa has been talking to the guy playing Emmett on the phone.
(I told you they were dating, right?)
So I get that because I’ve had to listen to every single song and scene that ANY of them are in.

Galinda Upland:
omg your sister’s dating emmett?
that’s soooooo cute!
oh wait yeah you told me that lmao

Elphaba Thropp:
Lin, no.
It’s not cute.
That’s my sister you’re talking about.

Galinda Upland:
what? i can’t say something’s cute?
just be glad she hasn’t found out about us
shenshen suspects and it’s the most annoying thing ever

Elphaba Thropp:
LOL.
Does she approve, at least?

Galinda Upland:
bold of you to assume she doesn’t already know
shenshen’s known i’m a lesbian since i was like 5 or smth hahaha
she’s been nagging me about you ever since she broke us up in the hallway before whipped into shape
i haven’t told her anything but it’s only a matter of time...

Elphaba Thropp:
At least she didn’t catch us the second time.
You know, someone’s going to, one day or another.

Galinda Upland:
we’re prob fine
i’ll care if you care, but i don’t really care myself

Elphaba Thropp:
Neither do I.
I’ve always been the weird one.
Now can we PLEASE call so we can run lines?

Galinda Upland started a video call.
11:34 a.m.