Elphaba Thropp

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

Galinda gasped in surprise when Elphie said she couldn’t think of anything more fun than shopping. “I would think you would prefer the book place to shopping,” she said. As she felt Elphie’s hand on her waist and her thumb running over her hip, Galinda realized she might have backed herself into a corner. She felt herself grow a bit flustered when Elphie asked her what she thought was more fun than shopping. “For you, or for me? Or for both of us?” she asked, trying to buy herself some time. “If we’re talking about both of us, there are some fun activities that only we can do together in a private place.” Galinda was trying to keep her breathing steady so not to let Elphie see she was having a slight reaction to her touch. “I think kissing is probably more fun than shopping,” she said, pressing a kiss to Elphie’s cheek. That seemed like a safe option, one that hopefully wouldn’t give an opening for Elphie to try and fluster her more.

She raised an eyebrow at Galinda’s comments about things they could only do in a private place. “Oh?” She asked in interest “tell me more about those” she requested as her hands moved just slightly to add a bit more pressure to the way she touched Galinda. She had to contend with her thicker nightgown, she didn’t want there to be any question of what she was trying to do. “Mmmm yes” Elphaba agreed after the kiss on her cheek “I agree,kissing is more fun than shopping” she informed her as she leaned in to press kisses along Galinda’s neck, feeling her pulse quicken. She leaned in a little heavier on top of Galinda, stretching ever so slightly to reach her neck so their bodies were pressed together. After giving a light suck on her pulse point and nipping at it lightly enough not to leave a mark but hard enough for Galinda to feel. “What’s more fun than kissing?” She asked voice still sounding casual as her lips got closer to Galinda’s ear. Her left hand started drifting up her belly. But she wouldn’t touch anything until Galinda mentioned it. one of Elphaba’s favorite pasttimes was flustering her girlfriend when she was trying to act like she wasn’t affected. Her actual favorite was usually what came after.

“More fun than kissing?” she repeated, hating how breathless her voice already sounded. “I suppose it depends what you enjoy most,” she said, acutely aware of Elphie’s hand on her. “Cuddling can certainly be fun, and it does need a private place,” she tried, hearing her voice still sounding somewhat desperate. Oh Oz, maybe she could press her words a bit further without seeming like she was giving in. “But if you want to do other things that can be more fun, I think there’s certain kinds of touches that can be nice,” she said, pressing herself up slightly against Elphie’s hand. It wasn’t too needy or desperate what she had said, at least she didn’t think so. “Are there other things you think are more fun?” she asked, still trying to regain some semblance of control over the situation. She leaned forward and gently pressed her lips against Elphie’s, bringing a hand up and tangling it into her hair. This was clearly going to be a losing battle for her, but maybe that wasn’t the worst thing after all.

“Hmmhmm” She answered in a lower than usual hum when Galinda asked what was more fun than kissing. She nipped at her skin again, then licked that spot to sooth it, poor thing she was starting to loose more of her composer. Her own hand was millimeters from cupping her breast and was nearly there when Galinda’s mentioned cuddling. Elphaba actually pulled back from her neck to hover over her and look at her with a raised eyebrow “cuddling?” She questioned surprised. She looked over Galinda’s face and could tell she was spinning her wheels trying to get out of this and she almost laughed at her. She could see the desperation in her eyes snd almost encouraged her to just ask for what she wanted when she spoke again and mentioned touches. “There you go” she nodded encouragingly and finally let her hand cup Galinda as breast. “ I love touches” she breathed out relieved Galinda wasn’t going to keep trying to fight it. She was about to answer her question about other things she thought were more fun when Galinda surprised her by leaning up to kiss her lightly. The kiss was soft, but Elphaba pressed forward to deepen it, feeling a moan at the back of her throat she hadn’t realized was coming. After a few moments she pulled back just slightly, enough to reply, “I think kissing and touching might be my favorite thing” she informed her, lips brushing Galinda’s, hand caressing and squeezing lightly. “I also love feeling your skin under my hands” She added as the hand at Galinda’s waist started bunching up her nightgown to try and find the edge to get under it. “What else do you think is fun?” She asked lips still on Galinda’s.

Hearing Elphie’s question, she knew that Elphie was very aware she had nearly won. Galinda leaned up and kissed Elphie again, lightly tugging on her hair. After she pulled back again she whispered, “I know it’s not an activity, but I love your hair too.” She so wanted to see where this was going to go next, and she knew if she didn’t answer Elphie’s question, there was a chance Elphie might make her wait for it. She was so much better than her at being patient, somehow. “But an activity, I love when you kiss and touch me, but I also love when you use your mouth,” she admitted, shifting a bit underneath Elphie to try to encourage her to keep pulling her nightgown off. “I promise I’ll be quiet,” she said, very aware of where they were and that she needed to be at least a little bit careful. She wasn’t sure what all Elphie had planned, but she was desperate to see where everything went next.

“My mouth?” She repeated pulling back to look at her to make sure they were both on the same page. She looked at Galinda for a moment and could see how hard she was breathing snd how much she seemed to be enjoying everything. She wasn’t sure how far they could push it here in Galinda’s bedroom. She still hadn’t really figured out the silencing spell yet. “Are you sure?” She checked when Galinda said she could be quiet. But she could already tell they were both too worked up to stop. “Okay, I can use my mouth” she agreed trailing kisses down Galinda’s jaw to her neck as she worked on pulling Galinda’s nightgown up more. “First this needs to come off” she requested pulling back to sit up a bit so she could pull Galinda’s nightgown over her head. Once it was off and Galinda laid back down Elphaba looked her over for a few moments with an adoring smile. “You’re so beautiful” she told her before leaning in to kiss her lips again for a moment before trailing her kisses down her jaw to her neck while her hand returned to its place on her breast. Once she dipped her kisses low enough she switched from kissing Galinda’s collarbone to sucking lightly “I love to kiss you all over. But I also love to suck and bite and lick your skin as well” she told her as she nipped on her skin and soothed it with her tongue. She didn’t know how long they were supposed to keep talking about what they were doing, they hadn’t really done that before and she didn’t know if Galinda wanted her to keep doing it.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

Galinda gasped in surprise when Elphie said she couldn’t think of anything more fun than shopping. “I would think you would prefer the book place to shopping,” she said. As she felt Elphie’s hand on her waist and her thumb running over her hip, Galinda realized she might have backed herself into a corner. She felt herself grow a bit flustered when Elphie asked her what she thought was more fun than shopping. “For you, or for me? Or for both of us?” she asked, trying to buy herself some time. “If we’re talking about both of us, there are some fun activities that only we can do together in a private place.” Galinda was trying to keep her breathing steady so not to let Elphie see she was having a slight reaction to her touch. “I think kissing is probably more fun than shopping,” she said, pressing a kiss to Elphie’s cheek. That seemed like a safe option, one that hopefully wouldn’t give an opening for Elphie to try and fluster her more.

She raised an eyebrow at Galinda’s comments about things they could only do in a private place. “Oh?” She asked in interest “tell me more about those” she requested as her hands moved just slightly to add a bit more pressure to the way she touched Galinda. She had to contend with her thicker nightgown, she didn’t want there to be any question of what she was trying to do. “Mmmm yes” Elphaba agreed after the kiss on her cheek “I agree,kissing is more fun than shopping” she informed her as she leaned in to press kisses along Galinda’s neck, feeling her pulse quicken. She leaned in a little heavier on top of Galinda, stretching ever so slightly to reach her neck so their bodies were pressed together. After giving a light suck on her pulse point and nipping at it lightly enough not to leave a mark but hard enough for Galinda to feel. “What’s more fun than kissing?” She asked voice still sounding casual as her lips got closer to Galinda’s ear. Her left hand started drifting up her belly. But she wouldn’t touch anything until Galinda mentioned it. one of Elphaba’s favorite pasttimes was flustering her girlfriend when she was trying to act like she wasn’t affected. Her actual favorite was usually what came after.

“More fun than kissing?” she repeated, hating how breathless her voice already sounded. “I suppose it depends what you enjoy most,” she said, acutely aware of Elphie’s hand on her. “Cuddling can certainly be fun, and it does need a private place,” she tried, hearing her voice still sounding somewhat desperate. Oh Oz, maybe she could press her words a bit further without seeming like she was giving in. “But if you want to do other things that can be more fun, I think there’s certain kinds of touches that can be nice,” she said, pressing herself up slightly against Elphie’s hand. It wasn’t too needy or desperate what she had said, at least she didn’t think so. “Are there other things you think are more fun?” she asked, still trying to regain some semblance of control over the situation. She leaned forward and gently pressed her lips against Elphie’s, bringing a hand up and tangling it into her hair. This was clearly going to be a losing battle for her, but maybe that wasn’t the worst thing after all.

“Hmmhmm” She answered in a lower than usual hum when Galinda asked what was more fun than kissing. She nipped at her skin again, then licked that spot to sooth it, poor thing she was starting to loose more of her composer. Her own hand was millimeters from cupping her breast and was nearly there when Galinda’s mentioned cuddling. Elphaba actually pulled back from her neck to hover over her and look at her with a raised eyebrow “cuddling?” She questioned surprised. She looked over Galinda’s face and could tell she was spinning her wheels trying to get out of this and she almost laughed at her. She could see the desperation in her eyes snd almost encouraged her to just ask for what she wanted when she spoke again and mentioned touches. “There you go” she nodded encouragingly and finally let her hand cup Galinda as breast. “ I love touches” she breathed out relieved Galinda wasn’t going to keep trying to fight it. She was about to answer her question about other things she thought were more fun when Galinda surprised her by leaning up to kiss her lightly. The kiss was soft, but Elphaba pressed forward to deepen it, feeling a moan at the back of her throat she hadn’t realized was coming. After a few moments she pulled back just slightly, enough to reply, “I think kissing and touching might be my favorite thing” she informed her, lips brushing Galinda’s, hand caressing and squeezing lightly. “I also love feeling your skin under my hands” She added as the hand at Galinda’s waist started bunching up her nightgown to try and find the edge to get under it. “What else do you think is fun?” She asked lips still on Galinda’s.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

Galinda gasped in surprise when Elphie said she couldn’t think of anything more fun than shopping. “I would think you would prefer the book place to shopping,” she said. As she felt Elphie’s hand on her waist and her thumb running over her hip, Galinda realized she might have backed herself into a corner. She felt herself grow a bit flustered when Elphie asked her what she thought was more fun than shopping. “For you, or for me? Or for both of us?” she asked, trying to buy herself some time. “If we’re talking about both of us, there are some fun activities that only we can do together in a private place.” Galinda was trying to keep her breathing steady so not to let Elphie see she was having a slight reaction to her touch. “I think kissing is probably more fun than shopping,” she said, pressing a kiss to Elphie’s cheek. That seemed like a safe option, one that hopefully wouldn’t give an opening for Elphie to try and fluster her more.

She raised an eyebrow at Galinda’s comments about things they could only do in a private place. “Oh?” She asked in interest “tell me more about those” she requested as her hands moved just slightly to add a bit more pressure to the way she touched Galinda. She had to contend with her thicker nightgown, she didn’t want there to be any question of what she was trying to do. “Mmmm yes” Elphaba agreed after the kiss on her cheek “I agree,kissing is more fun than shopping” she informed her as she leaned in to press kisses along Galinda’s neck, feeling her pulse quicken. She leaned in a little heavier on top of Galinda, stretching ever so slightly to reach her neck so their bodies were pressed together. After giving a light suck on her pulse point and nipping at it lightly enough not to leave a mark but hard enough for Galinda to feel. “What’s more fun than kissing?” She asked voice still sounding casual as her lips got closer to Galinda’s ear. Her left hand started drifting up her belly. But she wouldn’t touch anything until Galinda mentioned it. one of Elphaba’s favorite pasttimes was flustering her girlfriend when she was trying to act like she wasn’t affected. Her actual favorite was usually what came after.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

When Elphie picked out a skirt for Nessa, Galinda smiled and nodded. “I think that will work perfectly.” The material wasn’t too thick that it would be too warm for Shiz either. “I think she’ll like it too. It’s a beautiful color and those skirts are so nice for when it’s cold.” She was about to ask Elphie if she wanted to go pay when she mentioned finding a scarf. “Scarves are over this way,” she said, pointing Elphie in the right direction. They walked over to the accessory area, pausing in front of a selection of scarves. Galinda picked out a couple options in the same color as the skirt, just with different patterns in the make of the scarves. “Which one do you think she might like best?” she asked, holding the scarves up for Elphie to look at and consider. They were all of similar length, so really it would just be up to Elphie to decide on what pattern and thickness of the material Nessa might like.

She sort of loved the way Galinda was pointing out all of best options for her gift but still letting her make the final decisions. It sort of felt like they were buying the gift to give to Nessa together as a couple which was nice. She was also surprised by how into getting gifts for Nessa Galinda was. Not that she expected her to be upset by it, but having her be so encouraging snd supportive of her relationship with her sister was nice. Even if she knew Galinda didn’t always agree or like the way Nessa behaved or treated her her respecting their relationship meant a lot to her. She looked over the scarf options and chose one that matched the shirt color but had multicolored flowers on it. “This is very Nessa , thank you. I’ll have to tell her how helpful you were in picking all her gifts.” She smiled at Galinda “maybe we can both sign the card, if you’d like. You don’t have to of course, I just meant you practically hand picked every thing I got” she tired to explain quickly hoping she didn’t make her uncomfortable. “Let’s go pay” she suggested and headed for the register.

Galinda watched as Elphie considered the scarf options, thinking about which one she might like best. She grinned when Elphie picked one for her. “I think it looks great,” she agreed. She started to put the other scarves back when she heard Elphie mention them both signing the card. “You’d want me to sign the card?” she asked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Elphie to offer that to her. Galinda also had never bought a gift with a significant other like this before, so it was all a new feeling to her. But it made her feel very special that Elphie wanted her to sign the card for her sister. “If you’re sure, I’d like that,” she said, briefly taking Elphie’s hand and squeezing it. “Although if she asks I’ll make sure she knows you picked everything.” She wanted to make sure Elphie got full credit for going out and shopping like this. When she suggested they go pay Galinda nodded, following her over to the register and watching as she bought the gifts. Once they were done she took Elphie’s hand as they walked out of the store. “Did you want to go anywhere else? Or would you rather go back to the house?”

“Of course!” Elphaba nodded easily “you did most of the work and pouted me in the right direction the whole time. Nessa would love to know how involved and helpful you’ve been.” She insisted. Growing up if it was even possible nessa had fewer friends then even she did so she’d love to know Galicia was so involved and thinking about her over break. She was happy Galinda didn’t try to pay for the gifts for her since she would sign the card. Once they were outside she squeezed Galinda’s hand and smiled “Im all done. Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” She asked “I’d be happy anywhere you’d like to shop as well. If not you can take me home and we can spend the rest of the night together” she smiled at her .

Once outside, Galinda considered their options. “Maybe we just head home?” she said, thinking about how late it was. She flagged down a carriage and informed the driver they wanted to go to the Upland estate. Once he said that he could take them, Galinda opened the door and waited until Elphie had gotten inside with her bags. She followed as well, closing the door behind her so they could get going. “I did mean what I said earlier, if you need more space in your luggage we can buy you more to go back to school,” she said, nodding at the bags full of Nessa’s presents. “But we can always figure that out once we start packing.” She settled against Elphie, leaning her head on her shoulder. “Thanks for going out with me tonight. I think it was good to get out of the house for a bit.”

She kissed her head again at Galinda’s words sad laid her own against hers. “Thank you for taking me. I love going out to eat and on dates with you” she replied softly, loving getting to spend moments like this with Galinda, “I had fun at dinner and shopping with you” she pointed out with a smile “but then again I always have fun with you” she told her with a little squeeze around her shoulders,

The carriage continued making its way toward the house and eventually Galinda felt it make the final turn up the driveway. “Almost there,” she said, feeling a bit more tired than she thought she would originally. Once the carriage came to a stop, the driver came around to open the door for them. Galinda stepped out of the carriage and paid him before turning to offer Elphie her hand to help her down as well. Once she was certain they had all their bags, she turned and led Elphie into the house and then up the stairs. They made their way upstairs before heading into their room. Galinda felt relieved to be back, and helped Elphie bring the bags with Nessa’s gifts over to the closet. “I’m going to get changed,” she said, once the gifts were safely inside. Galinda went over and found a nightgown before heading into the bathroom to wash her face and get ready. Once she was all done and had changed into her nightgown, she went back out so Elphie could use the bathroom while she put on her nighttime skin products. “It’s all yours, my love,” she smiled over at Elphie before sitting down to wait for her to finish getting ready as well.

She loved the way Galinda always hurried to offer her her hand can when getting in and out of a carriage. It was another thing that surprised her about Galinda. She used to think Galinda would want to be catered to in that way, but it was rare when she got the chance to beat her to open a door or pull out her chair. “Such a chivalrous young lady, thank you” she flitted lightly ss she was being helped out of the carriage. These types of things always made her feel warm she fuzzy inside. She enjoyed it more than she would have thought she would. Once they were back in the room Elphaba tidied the room up a bit while Galinda got changed. Then pulled out a clean nightgown and scarf so they’d be ready when it was her turn in the bathroom. Once Galinda was finished Elphaba went in to brush her teeth and wash her face before changing and braiding her hair in one long braid for bed then applying her scarf to her head to keep her braids safe. Finally she put her clothes in the basket and headed back into the bedroom. It was much colder now without all her outside layers so she hurried to get into bed under the covers. She sat up to wait for Galinda to join her watching as she finished her last few face creams “are you sleepy or did you want to stay up a bit longer?” She checked once Galinda started coming over to get into bed.

After they were both ready and Galinda had put on all her skincare, she watched as Elphie climbed into bed. “We can cuddle for a bit, if you want,” she suggested. She wasn’t completely tired, but she also knew Elphie had used a lot of energy that day. She didn’t want to make Elphie stay up later if she wanted to sleep. She stood up and made her way over to the bed, climbing in next to Elphie and making her way under the covers. She laid down and held her arms open for Elphie to come join her, smiling invitingly. “How are you feeling?” she asked, wanting to make sure she was doing alright after all the work they had done that day.

Elphaba considered a sarcastic retort to Galinda’s offer of cuddling, but she didn’t even want to joke in any way that would make Galinda think she didn’t want that. “ I always want to cuddle with you” she assured her with a smile. She took her glasses off and sat them on the nightstand while she waited as Galinda got situated then laid down in her arms, her face pressed to Galinda’s neck for a few moments. She breathed in deeply before kissing the juncture of her neck and shoulder softly, then laid her head down on Galinda’s shoulder, her arm across Galinda’s middle. “I feel good” she promised knowing Galinda worried about her when she did magic. “How do you feel after today?” She asked looking up at her. “You had a big day today” she pointed out.

“Thank you for letting me go shopping with you for your sister. And for letting me sign the card.” She was still very touched that Elphie wanted her to be included and a part of the actual giving the gift. “It means a lot to me, to be a part of all of the pieces of your life.” She loved the idea of thinking of future holidays together, times when they would go shopping and picking out gifts for other people. “I promise I won’t make you go shopping all the time when we get back to school,” she said, smiling at Elphie. “But it is fun, sometimes, right? Especially being able to buy a gift together like this?”

“Oh I would never go shopping without you. That would almost feel like cheating” she teased lightly but she knew what Galinda meant , she squeezed her tighter “you are very welcome my sweet” she leaned in to kiss her chin. “You mean a lot to me. Of course I want you involved in everything I have . With Nessa it’s complicated because of the way we grew up, but I want you to know her and for her to love you like I do…” she paused “okay maybe not exactly like I do” she joked “you two are the most important people in my life, in vastly different ways, but I want you to be comfortable with her and have a relationship with her if you want one. It would make me so happy.” She told her honestly. As she said it out loud it felt like she was comparing the two sides of her own heart. She didn’t know how she could love two people so wholly with out one pulling from the other but she did. “Thank you!” Elphaba almost cheer when she said she wouldn’t make her go shopping all the time. “It was fun” she agreed at once “I always have fun with you, no matter what.but yes this was fun to do together” she agreed

“Good. There are times it’s okay to go by yourself, like if you’re buying me a present for example,” she said, grinning and looking at Elphie suggestively. When Elphie mentioned Nessa loving her like she did, she raised an eyebrow at her. She was about to make a teasing remark when Elphie quickly corrected herself. “If someone is important to you, then that someone is important to me, too,” she answered. “I’ll do my best to get along with Nessa and hope that she can like me. But if you ever need time with just your sister, you can tell me. I know there’s aspects to your relationship that I can’t share.” Even if Elphie had been forced to take on more of a caretaker role at times, she knew their relationship was special to her. As Elphie agreed with her, she grinned. “I’m sure there’s things you find more fun than shopping though, right?” she teased, looking at her to see her reaction.

Elphaba raised an eyebrow when Galinda tried to lead her into a different direction with her comment. “More fun than shopping?” She asked sounding unsure, “I’m not sure if I could think of anything more fun than shopping” she teased for a moment even as her hands came up to hold on to Galinda’s waist, one thumb brushing over her hip bone ever so lightly . “You tell me, what do you think Is more fun than shopping? She asked leaning further into Galinda was she waited for an answer.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

When Elphie picked out a skirt for Nessa, Galinda smiled and nodded. “I think that will work perfectly.” The material wasn’t too thick that it would be too warm for Shiz either. “I think she’ll like it too. It’s a beautiful color and those skirts are so nice for when it’s cold.” She was about to ask Elphie if she wanted to go pay when she mentioned finding a scarf. “Scarves are over this way,” she said, pointing Elphie in the right direction. They walked over to the accessory area, pausing in front of a selection of scarves. Galinda picked out a couple options in the same color as the skirt, just with different patterns in the make of the scarves. “Which one do you think she might like best?” she asked, holding the scarves up for Elphie to look at and consider. They were all of similar length, so really it would just be up to Elphie to decide on what pattern and thickness of the material Nessa might like.

She sort of loved the way Galinda was pointing out all of best options for her gift but still letting her make the final decisions. It sort of felt like they were buying the gift to give to Nessa together as a couple which was nice. She was also surprised by how into getting gifts for Nessa Galinda was. Not that she expected her to be upset by it, but having her be so encouraging snd supportive of her relationship with her sister was nice. Even if she knew Galinda didn’t always agree or like the way Nessa behaved or treated her her respecting their relationship meant a lot to her. She looked over the scarf options and chose one that matched the shirt color but had multicolored flowers on it. “This is very Nessa , thank you. I’ll have to tell her how helpful you were in picking all her gifts.” She smiled at Galinda “maybe we can both sign the card, if you’d like. You don’t have to of course, I just meant you practically hand picked every thing I got” she tired to explain quickly hoping she didn’t make her uncomfortable. “Let’s go pay” she suggested and headed for the register.

Galinda watched as Elphie considered the scarf options, thinking about which one she might like best. She grinned when Elphie picked one for her. “I think it looks great,” she agreed. She started to put the other scarves back when she heard Elphie mention them both signing the card. “You’d want me to sign the card?” she asked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Elphie to offer that to her. Galinda also had never bought a gift with a significant other like this before, so it was all a new feeling to her. But it made her feel very special that Elphie wanted her to sign the card for her sister. “If you’re sure, I’d like that,” she said, briefly taking Elphie’s hand and squeezing it. “Although if she asks I’ll make sure she knows you picked everything.” She wanted to make sure Elphie got full credit for going out and shopping like this. When she suggested they go pay Galinda nodded, following her over to the register and watching as she bought the gifts. Once they were done she took Elphie’s hand as they walked out of the store. “Did you want to go anywhere else? Or would you rather go back to the house?”

“Of course!” Elphaba nodded easily “you did most of the work and pouted me in the right direction the whole time. Nessa would love to know how involved and helpful you’ve been.” She insisted. Growing up if it was even possible nessa had fewer friends then even she did so she’d love to know Galicia was so involved and thinking about her over break. She was happy Galinda didn’t try to pay for the gifts for her since she would sign the card. Once they were outside she squeezed Galinda’s hand and smiled “Im all done. Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” She asked “I’d be happy anywhere you’d like to shop as well. If not you can take me home and we can spend the rest of the night together” she smiled at her .

Once outside, Galinda considered their options. “Maybe we just head home?” she said, thinking about how late it was. She flagged down a carriage and informed the driver they wanted to go to the Upland estate. Once he said that he could take them, Galinda opened the door and waited until Elphie had gotten inside with her bags. She followed as well, closing the door behind her so they could get going. “I did mean what I said earlier, if you need more space in your luggage we can buy you more to go back to school,” she said, nodding at the bags full of Nessa’s presents. “But we can always figure that out once we start packing.” She settled against Elphie, leaning her head on her shoulder. “Thanks for going out with me tonight. I think it was good to get out of the house for a bit.”

She kissed her head again at Galinda’s words sad laid her own against hers. “Thank you for taking me. I love going out to eat and on dates with you” she replied softly, loving getting to spend moments like this with Galinda, “I had fun at dinner and shopping with you” she pointed out with a smile “but then again I always have fun with you” she told her with a little squeeze around her shoulders,

The carriage continued making its way toward the house and eventually Galinda felt it make the final turn up the driveway. “Almost there,” she said, feeling a bit more tired than she thought she would originally. Once the carriage came to a stop, the driver came around to open the door for them. Galinda stepped out of the carriage and paid him before turning to offer Elphie her hand to help her down as well. Once she was certain they had all their bags, she turned and led Elphie into the house and then up the stairs. They made their way upstairs before heading into their room. Galinda felt relieved to be back, and helped Elphie bring the bags with Nessa’s gifts over to the closet. “I’m going to get changed,” she said, once the gifts were safely inside. Galinda went over and found a nightgown before heading into the bathroom to wash her face and get ready. Once she was all done and had changed into her nightgown, she went back out so Elphie could use the bathroom while she put on her nighttime skin products. “It’s all yours, my love,” she smiled over at Elphie before sitting down to wait for her to finish getting ready as well.

She loved the way Galinda always hurried to offer her her hand can when getting in and out of a carriage. It was another thing that surprised her about Galinda. She used to think Galinda would want to be catered to in that way, but it was rare when she got the chance to beat her to open a door or pull out her chair. “Such a chivalrous young lady, thank you” she flitted lightly ss she was being helped out of the carriage. These types of things always made her feel warm she fuzzy inside. She enjoyed it more than she would have thought she would. Once they were back in the room Elphaba tidied the room up a bit while Galinda got changed. Then pulled out a clean nightgown and scarf so they’d be ready when it was her turn in the bathroom. Once Galinda was finished Elphaba went in to brush her teeth and wash her face before changing and braiding her hair in one long braid for bed then applying her scarf to her head to keep her braids safe. Finally she put her clothes in the basket and headed back into the bedroom. It was much colder now without all her outside layers so she hurried to get into bed under the covers. She sat up to wait for Galinda to join her watching as she finished her last few face creams “are you sleepy or did you want to stay up a bit longer?” She checked once Galinda started coming over to get into bed.

After they were both ready and Galinda had put on all her skincare, she watched as Elphie climbed into bed. “We can cuddle for a bit, if you want,” she suggested. She wasn’t completely tired, but she also knew Elphie had used a lot of energy that day. She didn’t want to make Elphie stay up later if she wanted to sleep. She stood up and made her way over to the bed, climbing in next to Elphie and making her way under the covers. She laid down and held her arms open for Elphie to come join her, smiling invitingly. “How are you feeling?” she asked, wanting to make sure she was doing alright after all the work they had done that day.

Elphaba considered a sarcastic retort to Galinda’s offer of cuddling, but she didn’t even want to joke in any way that would make Galinda think she didn’t want that. “ I always want to cuddle with you” she assured her with a smile. She took her glasses off and sat them on the nightstand while she waited as Galinda got situated then laid down in her arms, her face pressed to Galinda’s neck for a few moments. She breathed in deeply before kissing the juncture of her neck and shoulder softly, then laid her head down on Galinda’s shoulder, her arm across Galinda’s middle. “I feel good” she promised knowing Galinda worried about her when she did magic. “How do you feel after today?” She asked looking up at her. “You had a big day today” she pointed out.

“Thank you for letting me go shopping with you for your sister. And for letting me sign the card.” She was still very touched that Elphie wanted her to be included and a part of the actual giving the gift. “It means a lot to me, to be a part of all of the pieces of your life.” She loved the idea of thinking of future holidays together, times when they would go shopping and picking out gifts for other people. “I promise I won’t make you go shopping all the time when we get back to school,” she said, smiling at Elphie. “But it is fun, sometimes, right? Especially being able to buy a gift together like this?”

“Oh I would never go shopping without you. That would almost feel like cheating” she teased lightly but she knew what Galinda meant , she squeezed her tighter “you are very welcome my sweet” she leaned in to kiss her chin. “You mean a lot to me. Of course I want you involved in everything I have . With Nessa it’s complicated because of the way we grew up, but I want you to know her and for her to love you like I do…” she paused “okay maybe not exactly like I do” she joked “you two are the most important people in my life, in vastly different ways, but I want you to be comfortable with her and have a relationship with her if you want one. It would make me so happy.” She told her honestly. As she said it out loud it felt like she was comparing the two sides of her own heart. She didn’t know how she could love two people so wholly with out one pulling from the other but she did. “Thank you!” Elphaba almost cheer when she said she wouldn’t make her go shopping all the time. “It was fun” she agreed at once “I always have fun with you, no matter what.but yes this was fun to do together” she agreed

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

When Elphie picked out a skirt for Nessa, Galinda smiled and nodded. “I think that will work perfectly.” The material wasn’t too thick that it would be too warm for Shiz either. “I think she’ll like it too. It’s a beautiful color and those skirts are so nice for when it’s cold.” She was about to ask Elphie if she wanted to go pay when she mentioned finding a scarf. “Scarves are over this way,” she said, pointing Elphie in the right direction. They walked over to the accessory area, pausing in front of a selection of scarves. Galinda picked out a couple options in the same color as the skirt, just with different patterns in the make of the scarves. “Which one do you think she might like best?” she asked, holding the scarves up for Elphie to look at and consider. They were all of similar length, so really it would just be up to Elphie to decide on what pattern and thickness of the material Nessa might like.

She sort of loved the way Galinda was pointing out all of best options for her gift but still letting her make the final decisions. It sort of felt like they were buying the gift to give to Nessa together as a couple which was nice. She was also surprised by how into getting gifts for Nessa Galinda was. Not that she expected her to be upset by it, but having her be so encouraging snd supportive of her relationship with her sister was nice. Even if she knew Galinda didn’t always agree or like the way Nessa behaved or treated her her respecting their relationship meant a lot to her. She looked over the scarf options and chose one that matched the shirt color but had multicolored flowers on it. “This is very Nessa , thank you. I’ll have to tell her how helpful you were in picking all her gifts.” She smiled at Galinda “maybe we can both sign the card, if you’d like. You don’t have to of course, I just meant you practically hand picked every thing I got” she tired to explain quickly hoping she didn’t make her uncomfortable. “Let’s go pay” she suggested and headed for the register.

Galinda watched as Elphie considered the scarf options, thinking about which one she might like best. She grinned when Elphie picked one for her. “I think it looks great,” she agreed. She started to put the other scarves back when she heard Elphie mention them both signing the card. “You’d want me to sign the card?” she asked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Elphie to offer that to her. Galinda also had never bought a gift with a significant other like this before, so it was all a new feeling to her. But it made her feel very special that Elphie wanted her to sign the card for her sister. “If you’re sure, I’d like that,” she said, briefly taking Elphie’s hand and squeezing it. “Although if she asks I’ll make sure she knows you picked everything.” She wanted to make sure Elphie got full credit for going out and shopping like this. When she suggested they go pay Galinda nodded, following her over to the register and watching as she bought the gifts. Once they were done she took Elphie’s hand as they walked out of the store. “Did you want to go anywhere else? Or would you rather go back to the house?”

“Of course!” Elphaba nodded easily “you did most of the work and pouted me in the right direction the whole time. Nessa would love to know how involved and helpful you’ve been.” She insisted. Growing up if it was even possible nessa had fewer friends then even she did so she’d love to know Galicia was so involved and thinking about her over break. She was happy Galinda didn’t try to pay for the gifts for her since she would sign the card. Once they were outside she squeezed Galinda’s hand and smiled “Im all done. Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” She asked “I’d be happy anywhere you’d like to shop as well. If not you can take me home and we can spend the rest of the night together” she smiled at her .

Once outside, Galinda considered their options. “Maybe we just head home?” she said, thinking about how late it was. She flagged down a carriage and informed the driver they wanted to go to the Upland estate. Once he said that he could take them, Galinda opened the door and waited until Elphie had gotten inside with her bags. She followed as well, closing the door behind her so they could get going. “I did mean what I said earlier, if you need more space in your luggage we can buy you more to go back to school,” she said, nodding at the bags full of Nessa’s presents. “But we can always figure that out once we start packing.” She settled against Elphie, leaning her head on her shoulder. “Thanks for going out with me tonight. I think it was good to get out of the house for a bit.”

She kissed her head again at Galinda’s words sad laid her own against hers. “Thank you for taking me. I love going out to eat and on dates with you” she replied softly, loving getting to spend moments like this with Galinda, “I had fun at dinner and shopping with you” she pointed out with a smile “but then again I always have fun with you” she told her with a little squeeze around her shoulders,

The carriage continued making its way toward the house and eventually Galinda felt it make the final turn up the driveway. “Almost there,” she said, feeling a bit more tired than she thought she would originally. Once the carriage came to a stop, the driver came around to open the door for them. Galinda stepped out of the carriage and paid him before turning to offer Elphie her hand to help her down as well. Once she was certain they had all their bags, she turned and led Elphie into the house and then up the stairs. They made their way upstairs before heading into their room. Galinda felt relieved to be back, and helped Elphie bring the bags with Nessa’s gifts over to the closet. “I’m going to get changed,” she said, once the gifts were safely inside. Galinda went over and found a nightgown before heading into the bathroom to wash her face and get ready. Once she was all done and had changed into her nightgown, she went back out so Elphie could use the bathroom while she put on her nighttime skin products. “It’s all yours, my love,” she smiled over at Elphie before sitting down to wait for her to finish getting ready as well.

She loved the way Galinda always hurried to offer her her hand can when getting in and out of a carriage. It was another thing that surprised her about Galinda. She used to think Galinda would want to be catered to in that way, but it was rare when she got the chance to beat her to open a door or pull out her chair. “Such a chivalrous young lady, thank you” she flitted lightly ss she was being helped out of the carriage. These types of things always made her feel warm she fuzzy inside. She enjoyed it more than she would have thought she would. Once they were back in the room Elphaba tidied the room up a bit while Galinda got changed. Then pulled out a clean nightgown and scarf so they’d be ready when it was her turn in the bathroom. Once Galinda was finished Elphaba went in to brush her teeth and wash her face before changing and braiding her hair in one long braid for bed then applying her scarf to her head to keep her braids safe. Finally she put her clothes in the basket and headed back into the bedroom. It was much colder now without all her outside layers so she hurried to get into bed under the covers. She sat up to wait for Galinda to join her watching as she finished her last few face creams “are you sleepy or did you want to stay up a bit longer?” She checked once Galinda started coming over to get into bed.

After they were both ready and Galinda had put on all her skincare, she watched as Elphie climbed into bed. “We can cuddle for a bit, if you want,” she suggested. She wasn’t completely tired, but she also knew Elphie had used a lot of energy that day. She didn’t want to make Elphie stay up later if she wanted to sleep. She stood up and made her way over to the bed, climbing in next to Elphie and making her way under the covers. She laid down and held her arms open for Elphie to come join her, smiling invitingly. “How are you feeling?” she asked, wanting to make sure she was doing alright after all the work they had done that day.

Elphaba considered a sarcastic retort to Galinda’s offer of cuddling, but she didn’t even want to joke in any way that would make Galinda think she didn’t want that. “ I always want to cuddle with you” she assured her with a smile. She took her glasses off and sat them on the nightstand while she waited as Galinda got situated then laid down in her arms, her face pressed to Galinda’s neck for a few moments. She breathed in deeply before kissing the juncture of her neck and shoulder softly, then laid her head down on Galinda’s shoulder, her arm across Galinda’s middle. “I feel good” she promised knowing Galinda worried about her when she did magic. “How do you feel after today?” She asked looking up at her. “You had a big day today” she pointed out.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

When Elphie picked out a skirt for Nessa, Galinda smiled and nodded. “I think that will work perfectly.” The material wasn’t too thick that it would be too warm for Shiz either. “I think she’ll like it too. It’s a beautiful color and those skirts are so nice for when it’s cold.” She was about to ask Elphie if she wanted to go pay when she mentioned finding a scarf. “Scarves are over this way,” she said, pointing Elphie in the right direction. They walked over to the accessory area, pausing in front of a selection of scarves. Galinda picked out a couple options in the same color as the skirt, just with different patterns in the make of the scarves. “Which one do you think she might like best?” she asked, holding the scarves up for Elphie to look at and consider. They were all of similar length, so really it would just be up to Elphie to decide on what pattern and thickness of the material Nessa might like.

She sort of loved the way Galinda was pointing out all of best options for her gift but still letting her make the final decisions. It sort of felt like they were buying the gift to give to Nessa together as a couple which was nice. She was also surprised by how into getting gifts for Nessa Galinda was. Not that she expected her to be upset by it, but having her be so encouraging snd supportive of her relationship with her sister was nice. Even if she knew Galinda didn’t always agree or like the way Nessa behaved or treated her her respecting their relationship meant a lot to her. She looked over the scarf options and chose one that matched the shirt color but had multicolored flowers on it. “This is very Nessa , thank you. I’ll have to tell her how helpful you were in picking all her gifts.” She smiled at Galinda “maybe we can both sign the card, if you’d like. You don’t have to of course, I just meant you practically hand picked every thing I got” she tired to explain quickly hoping she didn’t make her uncomfortable. “Let’s go pay” she suggested and headed for the register.

Galinda watched as Elphie considered the scarf options, thinking about which one she might like best. She grinned when Elphie picked one for her. “I think it looks great,” she agreed. She started to put the other scarves back when she heard Elphie mention them both signing the card. “You’d want me to sign the card?” she asked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Elphie to offer that to her. Galinda also had never bought a gift with a significant other like this before, so it was all a new feeling to her. But it made her feel very special that Elphie wanted her to sign the card for her sister. “If you’re sure, I’d like that,” she said, briefly taking Elphie’s hand and squeezing it. “Although if she asks I’ll make sure she knows you picked everything.” She wanted to make sure Elphie got full credit for going out and shopping like this. When she suggested they go pay Galinda nodded, following her over to the register and watching as she bought the gifts. Once they were done she took Elphie’s hand as they walked out of the store. “Did you want to go anywhere else? Or would you rather go back to the house?”

“Of course!” Elphaba nodded easily “you did most of the work and pouted me in the right direction the whole time. Nessa would love to know how involved and helpful you’ve been.” She insisted. Growing up if it was even possible nessa had fewer friends then even she did so she’d love to know Galicia was so involved and thinking about her over break. She was happy Galinda didn’t try to pay for the gifts for her since she would sign the card. Once they were outside she squeezed Galinda’s hand and smiled “Im all done. Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” She asked “I’d be happy anywhere you’d like to shop as well. If not you can take me home and we can spend the rest of the night together” she smiled at her .

Once outside, Galinda considered their options. “Maybe we just head home?” she said, thinking about how late it was. She flagged down a carriage and informed the driver they wanted to go to the Upland estate. Once he said that he could take them, Galinda opened the door and waited until Elphie had gotten inside with her bags. She followed as well, closing the door behind her so they could get going. “I did mean what I said earlier, if you need more space in your luggage we can buy you more to go back to school,” she said, nodding at the bags full of Nessa’s presents. “But we can always figure that out once we start packing.” She settled against Elphie, leaning her head on her shoulder. “Thanks for going out with me tonight. I think it was good to get out of the house for a bit.”

She kissed her head again at Galinda’s words sad laid her own against hers. “Thank you for taking me. I love going out to eat and on dates with you” she replied softly, loving getting to spend moments like this with Galinda, “I had fun at dinner and shopping with you” she pointed out with a smile “but then again I always have fun with you” she told her with a little squeeze around her shoulders,

The carriage continued making its way toward the house and eventually Galinda felt it make the final turn up the driveway. “Almost there,” she said, feeling a bit more tired than she thought she would originally. Once the carriage came to a stop, the driver came around to open the door for them. Galinda stepped out of the carriage and paid him before turning to offer Elphie her hand to help her down as well. Once she was certain they had all their bags, she turned and led Elphie into the house and then up the stairs. They made their way upstairs before heading into their room. Galinda felt relieved to be back, and helped Elphie bring the bags with Nessa’s gifts over to the closet. “I’m going to get changed,” she said, once the gifts were safely inside. Galinda went over and found a nightgown before heading into the bathroom to wash her face and get ready. Once she was all done and had changed into her nightgown, she went back out so Elphie could use the bathroom while she put on her nighttime skin products. “It’s all yours, my love,” she smiled over at Elphie before sitting down to wait for her to finish getting ready as well.

She loved the way Galinda always hurried to offer her her hand can when getting in and out of a carriage. It was another thing that surprised her about Galinda. She used to think Galinda would want to be catered to in that way, but it was rare when she got the chance to beat her to open a door or pull out her chair. “Such a chivalrous young lady, thank you” she flitted lightly ss she was being helped out of the carriage. These types of things always made her feel warm she fuzzy inside. She enjoyed it more than she would have thought she would. Once they were back in the room Elphaba tidied the room up a bit while Galinda got changed. Then pulled out a clean nightgown and scarf so they’d be ready when it was her turn in the bathroom. Once Galinda was finished Elphaba went in to brush her teeth and wash her face before changing and braiding her hair in one long braid for bed then applying her scarf to her head to keep her braids safe. Finally she put her clothes in the basket and headed back into the bedroom. It was much colder now without all her outside layers so she hurried to get into bed under the covers. She sat up to wait for Galinda to join her watching as she finished her last few face creams “are you sleepy or did you want to stay up a bit longer?” She checked once Galinda started coming over to get into bed.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

When Elphie picked out a skirt for Nessa, Galinda smiled and nodded. “I think that will work perfectly.” The material wasn’t too thick that it would be too warm for Shiz either. “I think she’ll like it too. It’s a beautiful color and those skirts are so nice for when it’s cold.” She was about to ask Elphie if she wanted to go pay when she mentioned finding a scarf. “Scarves are over this way,” she said, pointing Elphie in the right direction. They walked over to the accessory area, pausing in front of a selection of scarves. Galinda picked out a couple options in the same color as the skirt, just with different patterns in the make of the scarves. “Which one do you think she might like best?” she asked, holding the scarves up for Elphie to look at and consider. They were all of similar length, so really it would just be up to Elphie to decide on what pattern and thickness of the material Nessa might like.

She sort of loved the way Galinda was pointing out all of best options for her gift but still letting her make the final decisions. It sort of felt like they were buying the gift to give to Nessa together as a couple which was nice. She was also surprised by how into getting gifts for Nessa Galinda was. Not that she expected her to be upset by it, but having her be so encouraging snd supportive of her relationship with her sister was nice. Even if she knew Galinda didn’t always agree or like the way Nessa behaved or treated her her respecting their relationship meant a lot to her. She looked over the scarf options and chose one that matched the shirt color but had multicolored flowers on it. “This is very Nessa , thank you. I’ll have to tell her how helpful you were in picking all her gifts.” She smiled at Galinda “maybe we can both sign the card, if you’d like. You don’t have to of course, I just meant you practically hand picked every thing I got” she tired to explain quickly hoping she didn’t make her uncomfortable. “Let’s go pay” she suggested and headed for the register.

Galinda watched as Elphie considered the scarf options, thinking about which one she might like best. She grinned when Elphie picked one for her. “I think it looks great,” she agreed. She started to put the other scarves back when she heard Elphie mention them both signing the card. “You’d want me to sign the card?” she asked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Elphie to offer that to her. Galinda also had never bought a gift with a significant other like this before, so it was all a new feeling to her. But it made her feel very special that Elphie wanted her to sign the card for her sister. “If you’re sure, I’d like that,” she said, briefly taking Elphie’s hand and squeezing it. “Although if she asks I’ll make sure she knows you picked everything.” She wanted to make sure Elphie got full credit for going out and shopping like this. When she suggested they go pay Galinda nodded, following her over to the register and watching as she bought the gifts. Once they were done she took Elphie’s hand as they walked out of the store. “Did you want to go anywhere else? Or would you rather go back to the house?”

“Of course!” Elphaba nodded easily “you did most of the work and pouted me in the right direction the whole time. Nessa would love to know how involved and helpful you’ve been.” She insisted. Growing up if it was even possible nessa had fewer friends then even she did so she’d love to know Galicia was so involved and thinking about her over break. She was happy Galinda didn’t try to pay for the gifts for her since she would sign the card. Once they were outside she squeezed Galinda’s hand and smiled “Im all done. Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” She asked “I’d be happy anywhere you’d like to shop as well. If not you can take me home and we can spend the rest of the night together” she smiled at her .

Once outside, Galinda considered their options. “Maybe we just head home?” she said, thinking about how late it was. She flagged down a carriage and informed the driver they wanted to go to the Upland estate. Once he said that he could take them, Galinda opened the door and waited until Elphie had gotten inside with her bags. She followed as well, closing the door behind her so they could get going. “I did mean what I said earlier, if you need more space in your luggage we can buy you more to go back to school,” she said, nodding at the bags full of Nessa’s presents. “But we can always figure that out once we start packing.” She settled against Elphie, leaning her head on her shoulder. “Thanks for going out with me tonight. I think it was good to get out of the house for a bit.”

She kissed her head again at Galinda’s words sad laid her own against hers. “Thank you for taking me. I love going out to eat and on dates with you” she replied softly, loving getting to spend moments like this with Galinda, “I had fun at dinner and shopping with you” she pointed out with a smile “but then again I always have fun with you” she told her with a little squeeze around her shoulders,

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

When Elphie picked out a skirt for Nessa, Galinda smiled and nodded. “I think that will work perfectly.” The material wasn’t too thick that it would be too warm for Shiz either. “I think she’ll like it too. It’s a beautiful color and those skirts are so nice for when it’s cold.” She was about to ask Elphie if she wanted to go pay when she mentioned finding a scarf. “Scarves are over this way,” she said, pointing Elphie in the right direction. They walked over to the accessory area, pausing in front of a selection of scarves. Galinda picked out a couple options in the same color as the skirt, just with different patterns in the make of the scarves. “Which one do you think she might like best?” she asked, holding the scarves up for Elphie to look at and consider. They were all of similar length, so really it would just be up to Elphie to decide on what pattern and thickness of the material Nessa might like.

She sort of loved the way Galinda was pointing out all of best options for her gift but still letting her make the final decisions. It sort of felt like they were buying the gift to give to Nessa together as a couple which was nice. She was also surprised by how into getting gifts for Nessa Galinda was. Not that she expected her to be upset by it, but having her be so encouraging snd supportive of her relationship with her sister was nice. Even if she knew Galinda didn’t always agree or like the way Nessa behaved or treated her her respecting their relationship meant a lot to her. She looked over the scarf options and chose one that matched the shirt color but had multicolored flowers on it. “This is very Nessa , thank you. I’ll have to tell her how helpful you were in picking all her gifts.” She smiled at Galinda “maybe we can both sign the card, if you’d like. You don’t have to of course, I just meant you practically hand picked every thing I got” she tired to explain quickly hoping she didn’t make her uncomfortable. “Let’s go pay” she suggested and headed for the register.

Galinda watched as Elphie considered the scarf options, thinking about which one she might like best. She grinned when Elphie picked one for her. “I think it looks great,” she agreed. She started to put the other scarves back when she heard Elphie mention them both signing the card. “You’d want me to sign the card?” she asked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Elphie to offer that to her. Galinda also had never bought a gift with a significant other like this before, so it was all a new feeling to her. But it made her feel very special that Elphie wanted her to sign the card for her sister. “If you’re sure, I’d like that,” she said, briefly taking Elphie’s hand and squeezing it. “Although if she asks I’ll make sure she knows you picked everything.” She wanted to make sure Elphie got full credit for going out and shopping like this. When she suggested they go pay Galinda nodded, following her over to the register and watching as she bought the gifts. Once they were done she took Elphie’s hand as they walked out of the store. “Did you want to go anywhere else? Or would you rather go back to the house?”

“Of course!” Elphaba nodded easily “you did most of the work and pouted me in the right direction the whole time. Nessa would love to know how involved and helpful you’ve been.” She insisted. Growing up if it was even possible nessa had fewer friends then even she did so she’d love to know Galicia was so involved and thinking about her over break. She was happy Galinda didn’t try to pay for the gifts for her since she would sign the card. Once they were outside she squeezed Galinda’s hand and smiled “Im all done. Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” She asked “I’d be happy anywhere you’d like to shop as well. If not you can take me home and we can spend the rest of the night together” she smiled at her .

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

When Elphie picked out a skirt for Nessa, Galinda smiled and nodded. “I think that will work perfectly.” The material wasn’t too thick that it would be too warm for Shiz either. “I think she’ll like it too. It’s a beautiful color and those skirts are so nice for when it’s cold.” She was about to ask Elphie if she wanted to go pay when she mentioned finding a scarf. “Scarves are over this way,” she said, pointing Elphie in the right direction. They walked over to the accessory area, pausing in front of a selection of scarves. Galinda picked out a couple options in the same color as the skirt, just with different patterns in the make of the scarves. “Which one do you think she might like best?” she asked, holding the scarves up for Elphie to look at and consider. They were all of similar length, so really it would just be up to Elphie to decide on what pattern and thickness of the material Nessa might like.

She sort of loved the way Galinda was pointing out all of best options for her gift but still letting her make the final decisions. It sort of felt like they were buying the gift to give to Nessa together as a couple which was nice. She was also surprised by how into getting gifts for Nessa Galinda was. Not that she expected her to be upset by it, but having her be so encouraging snd supportive of her relationship with her sister was nice. Even if she knew Galinda didn’t always agree or like the way Nessa behaved or treated her her respecting their relationship meant a lot to her. She looked over the scarf options and chose one that matched the shirt color but had multicolored flowers on it. “This is very Nessa , thank you. I’ll have to tell her how helpful you were in picking all her gifts.” She smiled at Galinda “maybe we can both sign the card, if you’d like. You don’t have to of course, I just meant you practically hand picked every thing I got” she tired to explain quickly hoping she didn’t make her uncomfortable. “Let’s go pay” she suggested and headed for the register.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

“I think a lighter wool would be alright for Shiz,” Galinda said, looking through the various skirts. “The thick ones most likely no, unless it was uncharacteristically cold. But if you feel the skirts you can tell which ones are thinner than the others.” She tested out a few different options, selecting a gray, a navy, and a burgundy. “These should all work,” she said, handing them to Elphie to look at for herself. “A scarf or a sweater would be good options as well, but these skirts might be nice if she wanted to go into town or had an evening social event. They’d keep her warm and they look nice. I think any of the colors would suit Nessa.” Galinda just didn’t know if Nessa had opinions on length or what colors she preferred to others, but she knew Elphie would likely know that information. “I think this is shaping up to be a very nice themed gift, things local to Gillikin. It shows you thought of her on your trip,” she added, trying to be encouraging.

She looked at the skirts Galinda indicated as being thinner. She hadn’t noticed they drew too different but now that it was pointed out to her she could tell. She picked up a deep red skirt and held it up to her own waist, it fell to just below her knee so she shook her head and put it back then pulled out a longer one in a similar shade “this is nice” she commended “ and it’s long enough for her to wear in her chair without it bunching up.” She explained “I think I’ll get this one” she decided when Galinda said she thought the gift was shaping up to be nice Elphaba smiled “yeah I think so too. Hopefully she likes it and doesn’t think the things I bought her are too boring. We tend to have different tastes in clothes and books. But I think she will like what I got her.” She smiled “let’s find a matching scarf and I think her gift is complete”

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Once she was done paying and said that they could move to the next store, Galinda considered where to take her. “We can definitely find that,” she said, having a better idea now that Elphie mentioned clothing unique to the region. She took Elphie’s hand and led her outside, turning to the left and starting to make their way to the next store. After walking a couple of blocks, she turned them to the clothing store and held open the door for Elphie to walk inside. She hadn’t taken Elphie to this clothing store yet; it was a bit smaller but known for featuring more local designers and fashion. “The other stores we’ve gone to have had clothing that’s a bit more applicable to other parts of Oz,” she explained, leading Elphie over to look at some skirts. “But this store really features clothes that do best in the Upper Uplands.” Galinda pointed out the skirts in front of them. “See how these are all made from thick wool? They wouldn’t make much sense somewhere very warm, but for the weather we get in Gillikin, especially northern Gillikin, they’re much more suited.” There were all sorts of options, sweaters, blouses, skirts, whatever Elphie might like to look at for her sister.

She nodded and followed Galinda as she led her to the new store, and looked at the items she talked about. Most of the things she pointed out were pretty heavy materials specifically for the freezing mountain climate in Frottica, which might not be practical at shiz and certainly not Nest Harding. “Do you think the items here are too heavy for Shiz?” She asked her. “I know like me Nessa gets cold easily but I don’t know if I want to get her something she can only use a few weeks of the year” she explained. “I think she’d like some of these skirts” she explained looking at a rack of various colors of long wool skirts. “But if it’s too warm maybe I’ll just get a scarf or sweater” she suggested “what do you think?” She asked looking up at Galinda.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda took Elphie’s hand and helped lead her over to the stationary. “I recognize some of my gifts,” she said, squeezing Elphie’s hand as they looked at the various options. There were a number of choices, especially with colors and patterns like Elphie mentioned. Galinda wanted to wait and see what Elphie picked before making any of her own suggestions. She watched as Elphie picked some stationary, notebooks, and pens, smiling in approval at her selections. “I think those are perfect. Nessa should definitely like them. Did you want to look at anything else?” She knew Elphie didn’t want to buy more books for herself, but she wanted to at least give her the option one more time before they paid for the gifts. Galinda just liked being able to buy things for her girlfriend, but if Elphie didn’t want to look at any more books that evening, she’d go with her to check out and figure out what store they should visit next.

When she finally pulled back and Galinda asked if she wanted to look at anything else Elphaba felt the pull to go look at the books around the store, but resisted “no, not today. I think I am ready to go with these, but maybe before we head back to school I can come look around and pick up some books from authors from the area that I might not be able to find anywhere else” she suggested. She really did want to just sit in this store for hours on end and look into everything here, but she knew Galinda would be bored to tears. She headed to the counter and purchased the things she picked out for Nessa, making sure to get ahead of any offers from Galinda to pay for these too. It was her sister she should pay for the gifts she was going to give her. “Maybe we can look at a clothes store?” She asked “I think something small would be a nice addition to these things, a scarf or sweater. Maybe a skirt or something specific to this region?” She asked looking for Galinda’s input.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda looked at both books that Elphie had selected. One was a book she recognized; the author was from Gillikin and Galinda remembered studying some of her poems while in school. The other one she didn’t recognize, but could tell from the cover it was another current author. “This one is good,” she said, pointing to the book of poems from Gillikin. “I think she’ll like it, I remember liking some of her poems when we read them in school.” She doubted that Nessa would already have that book, especially with it being by a Gillikinese poet. “There’s some stationary by the front of the store if you’d like to look at that, too?” she suggested, pointing it out to Elphie. “But I think she’ll really like the book you selected. It’s a good option for a book of poetry.” Galinda, not having any siblings, had never really had to think about how to buy a gift for a brother or sister. She wondered how much more challenging it was than for buying a gift for a friend. “Should we go look at the stationary, or would you like to look at any other books while we’re here?”

“Let’s go look at the stationary” she nodded and put the other book back before taking Galinda hand and letting her lead her to the stationary section of the store. She’d actually been here before, she’d gotten some of the stationary she’d given Galinda here. “I got some of the things I got you for Lurlinemas here” she told her with a smile. “Nessa likes color and patterns” she informed her as she looked over the notebooks and different pen sets. She picked up a note book and a few different color reams of paper to put in it, she also selected some nice colorful writing pens as well as a little case for them. “What do you think of these?” She asked her as she showed Galinda the selections she made.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda stood up and offered her hand to Elphie, walking them out of the restaurant. “We can go to the bookstore first,” she said, turning them to the right and heading in that general direction. “You’ve probably been in here, but they have such a nice selection,” Galinda explained as she led the way to the store. “I hadn’t really gone in there much before this year. When I had gone shopping in the past with Momsie or people from school, we usually just went to clothing stores.” After a few minutes, they arrived at the book store, Galinda holding the door open for Elphie. “After you, my love,” she said, waiting for her to walk inside so she could follow. “Do you want to look by yourself for a while, since you know what kind of books she likes? Or would you like company?”

She waited patiently as Galinda handled the bill. “Thank you my sweet. That was lovely” she thanked her with a kiss on the cheek once they were outside of the restaurant, she wished Galinda let her pay more but she was always very grateful her girlfriend liked treating her and taking care of her. As she mentioned the boom store Elphaba perked up a noticeable amount. She smiled when Galinda held the door open for her “so gentle -womanly, thank you” as she looked around again with a smile she liked this shop, “I came in here when I was shopping for your gifts , I didn’t want to spend too much time in here and get distracted and waste all my shopping time on my own” she Galinda’s question she reached out for her hand and pulled her in towards herself “I’d love it if you stayed with me” she leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek “but if I start to bore you with my excitement over books, you can leave me here.” She assured her “I can’t even buy anything for myself really . I have so many new books to take back with us thanks to you and your father. I don’t have much room for anything else, especially now that I have to bring nessas gifts back to school with us too.” She lead Galinda into the poetry section and started looking through books to see if they seemed like anything Nessa would like. It only took a few minutes to narrow it down to two books to choose from. “I think she’d like either of these, which do you think is best?” She asked Galinda holding up both books for her to see.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”

Galinda took several more bites of her pasta before finishing the bowl. “It will be when you least expect it,” she teased, not wanting Elphie to forget that she was going to try to fluster her at some point, too. She pushed her bowl to the side before smiling at Elphie. “Did you enjoy your dinner, my love?” she asked, more serious now. “Do you need anything else? I know you were hungry from all the magic and the studying.” She wanted to make sure Elphie was taken care of before they went out shopping, especially if they would be out for some time.

She looked up confused when Galinda claimed it would be when she least expected it. She was about to ask what she meant when she realized she meant flustering her. “Is that so?” She asked with a smirk “you think it’s wise to open yourself up to that?” She teased playfully Galinda had gotten her pretty good earlier, she was just able to think quickly on her feet and turn it back on her. “I did enjoy my dinner. Thank you.” She smiled and reached across to take Galinda’s hand in hers when she saw she was done. “Im okay. What about you?” She asked with a proud smile “you did a lot of magical work today too” she reminded her. She was still so proud and excited about this new ability they’d discovered. She couldn’t wait to figure out more about it.

Galinda put on her coat and boots, knowing that they would arrive for the luggage soon. “Are you about ready, my love?” she asked, smiling over at Elphie with her one item of luggage. Galinda couldn’t wait for the two of them to set off for break, and for all the time they were going to spend together.

She told Galindas offered hand, linking their fingers together. She considered Galinda’s comments about the cafeteria but disagreed. “There food isn’t so bad, plus it will be nice for you not to be so worried about being watched every time you eat something” she pointed out. She knew Galinda’s relationship with her mother was very specific and she didn’t ever want to make their interactions any worse than they already were, she could see the toll her mother’s comments had on her so she’d be happier when Galinda could feel a bit freeer to be herself more often.

Their server brought over bread and their iced teas while they waited for their meals. “Elphie,” Galinda started, now starting to think about what they might do for future breaks, “do you think over the summer you’ll want to stay at Shiz? I don’t know if they do summer classes, or if Morrible might make an exception and try to teach you over the summer.” Galinda thought it might be a nice break to stay on campus, but she also didn’t know what she would do with herself all summer. Were the dorms even open? Or did they force everyone to leave campus, no matter their circumstances? She hadn’t put too much thought into what she would do with herself during summer breaks, especially when she hadn’t even been sure her parents would allow her to attend school past the first year.

“Oh” Elphaba commented in surprise and stoped spreading butter on her bread. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it” she told her truthfully. “We haven’t even started the second semester yet. I think staying at shiz could be nice, but you’d hate taking classes during the summer” she pointed out with a smile, clearly already under the assumption that they’d be there together if she stayed “what do you think you’ll do?” She asked looking up at her “would you want to come home again?” She asked

She looked down at her plate and noticed that she had picked apart part of her bread into crumbs. She pushed the plate away slightly and looked up at her girlfriend. “I don’t know if I necessarily want to come home. Momsie has so many more parties in the summer, and she’d probably expect me to attend most of them. She also always hosts a big garden party at our house every year. I don’t know how much time I would actually get for myself. And I wouldn’t want to make you go through an entire summer of that.” She sighed. “I guess we have most of the semester to start thinking about it. Maybe there’s some sort of program or something for students who want to stay on campus for the summer.” She took a sip of her iced tea to try to distract herself, still feeling a bit embarrassed at how she had destroyed part of her bread while thinking.

“We’ll figure it out” she assured her gently. “I doubt want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. So if you don’t want to go home you don’t have to do that. And if you don’t want to stay at shiz we can figure out something else. I do know that I want to be where you are, where ever that is.” She promised with a smile. “If you’ll have me of course” she shrugged. “Everything else we can figure out later” she hoped that this eased Galinda’s mind and apparent worry over the done sides to each of their options.

Feeling slightly better, she peeled off the small portion of bread that she hadn’t destroyed and took a bite. “That’s pretty good,” she said, finishing the rest of the piece. “Is there any shopping or anywhere you’d like to go in town after dinner?” Galinda didn’t think there was anything they needed, but she also didn’t want to necessarily rush them back to the house. Right after she asked the question the server brought their meals. Her pasta looked delicious and smelled excellent as well. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him before he walked away. “Well, this looks like it will be really good,” she added, smiling at Elphie before taking a bite of her dinner.

She laughed when Galinda ate some of her bread and said it was good. “Yeah it is, it’s one of the reasons I liked this place.” She thanked the waiter as he dropped off her pasta and watched as Galinda took a big bite of her food. She couldn’t help the fond smile she gave her girlfriend at that. She loved when Galinda didn’t get worked up over her food she get comfortable and happy enough to eat freely and even enthusiastically. “We can walk around after we eat. I don’t think there’s any one thing that I need, but I like the stores around here, we can see if we see anything we like.” She finally took a bite of her food and gave a little appreciative groan “it’s so good” she commented before taking another bite. “Maybe I can look for a gift for Nessa.” She thought out loud after another moment.

Galinda took a second bite of pasta when she heard the noise of appreciation Elphie made in response to her own food. She put her fork down and grinned at her. “Should I be worried I’m going to be replaced?” she teased, happy that Elphie was able to enjoy her meal. Galinda wanted to treat her in every way possible during their break. She nodded when Elphie suggested going for a walk and maybe even looking for a present for Nessa. “What kinds of things does she like? I can try to help you find something for her. I don’t know her very well, but I do know the stores here so we can try to see what we can find.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Elphie’s sister. She knew there were complicated dynamics in the family, and that Nessa was treated much better by their father, but she had to imagine that Nessa had some of her own struggles with the relationship despite being much more favored. Either way, she would support Elphie as best as she could in the relationship with her sister.

When Galinda made her comment about being replace she looked up first with a confused expression on her face, but once her comments meaning landed she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, “never” she shook her head. “You’re my favorite everything including flavors” she challenged her right back with a small smirk. She took another bite of her food while thinking about things Nessa would like. “She loves poetry, and romance novels. She loves stationary and colorful pens” Elphaba listened off “she loves clothes, fun skirts or socks with cute shoes” she added. “She’s a bit whimsical so she’d like anything with flowers or sparkles on it.” She added. “Not sure if any one store has all that” she looked over to Galinda for the answer

Once she felt like her face was a normal color again, she was able to listen to what Nessa might like for a gift. “Well, a bookstore would likely have the books or stationary, but if you wanted to get her clothes we could find a clothing store too.” She finally felt safe taking another bite of her pasta. “If you wanted to get her a few different things it wouldn’t be too hard to find. I’m happy to help you pick some things out for her.” She lifted her foot and gently knocked it against Elphie’s under the table. “I will have to get you back at some point for making me turn red like that,” she said, finally feeling like she was a bit more recovered.

When Galinda called her name and sounded scandalized Elphaba couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh. She tired to keep it down so she wouldn’t disrupt anyone’s dinner, but she didn’t know how successful she was. Galinda was just so easy to fluster and she loved the way she blushed she got shy afterward. She watched her adoringly as she tried to calm herself down by drinking her tea. The smile on her own face hadn’t left the entire time it took for Galinda to return ti her normal color. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered” she teased lightly. She chuckled when Galinda changed the topic back to gifts for Nessa. “ we’re not in a rush to get back right?” She checked “we can go to a few places and look around”. She looked up when she felt Galinda’s foot knock into hers and knocked her own back, “oh yeah?” She asked with a raised eyebrow “I will look forward to that” she flirted just a bit. “But I’ll probably retaliate just to make you blush again.”