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wicked-secretsanta · 4 months

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Merry Christmas @vinkunwildflowerqueen!

Read it on Ao3

Glinda squealed as she tore the wrapping paper from the package. Her birthday gift from her parents had arrived three days early, and the blonde, not known for her patience, couldn’t wait a single tick-tock. The only thing that stopped her from opening it as she walked from the campus post office back to her room was that she had other bags to balance.

She opened the card and skimmed over it, just to be able to say she read the card first, and tore the tissue paper that protected the box. Her squeals intensified (if that’s even possible), as she discovered what was in the box.

“Ooh! A camera!” she grinned, carefully removing the new device from its box and pulling the bubble wrap off. It fit perfectly in her hands.

She had always loved photography, mostly as the subject. She loved having her biggest smiles and most iconic poses captured forever, as well as the attention.

She exhaled softly, carefully examining the sleek black and silver finish. She carefully put it beside her on the bed and fished out the accessories that came with it.

She took out the instruction manual, a neck strap, three rolls of film, and a coupon to buy more. She diligently read the instruction manual, consulting the pictures at each step, and was able to successfully secure the neck strap and properly insert the first roll of film.

She turned the tiny dial with her thumb, stopping when she heard a soft click. She could take thirty-six photos per roll. She squinted into the viewfinder. “What shall I photograph first?”

Her fingers hovered over the shutter button as she scanned her room through the viewfinder. She wanted to make sure her first photo was a perfect one. She could take a photo of her beautiful, color-coordinated shoe rack, or her perfectly-made bed, or –

Keys jingling in the door pulled her focus and she grinned. Her roommate would be the perfect test subject. She stepped closer to the door and positioned herself, her finger ready to capture the perfect photo as soon as she saw Elphaba through the viewfinder.

The second the door opened, Glinda captured the moment.

“Ack!” Elphaba yelped, dropping the bags she was carrying as her hands flew to shield her eyes from the sudden flash. Her shoulder collided with the doorframe, and she winced, but didn’t move her hands. “My eyes!”

“Elphie!” Glinda removed the camera from around her neck and placed it on her bed before rushing to her roommate's side. “Are you alright?”

Elphaba had slid down and was kneeling on the floor amongst her bag’s scattered contents. Her glasses had flown off her face and Glinda picked them up and carefully pressed them into her hands. “I…” She slowly opened her eyes, but all she saw were large, dark spots covering most of her visual field.

“Here. Let me help you.” She handed Elphaba a few of her books, but realized what happened when she didn’t look at her or take them. “Oh, sorry. Here.” She helped her roommate to her feet and led her over to her bed.

Elphaba carefully placed her glasses on her pillow, since she couldn’t use them at the moment. “Oz, Glinda. What are you doing? What was that?” Elphaba groaned, squeezing her eyes shut and pressing her palms against her eyelids.

Glinda picked up the information manual and flipped through it. “To make sure the flash is turned off, the flash button light should not be lit,” she read. She looked at her camera. The flash button was lit. “Oh. Whoops.”

Elphaba slowly opened her eyes and blinked multiple times. The dark spots slowly gave way to blurry colors, and after a few more frantic blinks, her vision was fully restored, and she slipped her glasses back onto her face. “You never answered my questions.”

“Momsie and Popsicle sent me a camera for my birthday.”

“Your birthday is three days away.”

“The package came early. And I couldn’t wait. Look, it’s one of the newer models! The Kine Exakta!”

She looked at the offending object in her roommate’s hands. “Oh. Well, I hope it was worth temporarily blinding me.”

Glinda giggled and looked at her roommate through the viewfinder. “Smile, Elphie!”

Elphaba quickly turned away.

“I turned the flash off. I promise.”

“I don’t want my picture taken, Glin.”

“Aww. Why not? Photos are black and white, if you’re being self-conscious.”

“You know I’m always self-conscious. And the day Oz gets color photography is the day I leave Oz.”

Glinda rolled her eyes. “Oh, Elphie. You’re so dramatic. Now, smile!”

“Why would you even want to take my picture?”

“Because years from now, I’m gonna want to remember my days at dear old Shiz, and you are a part of those memories, whether you want to be or not. So I can either remember you for your beautiful smile, or your frown that could curdle milk. Pick one.”

Elphaba worked her jaw. She really didn’t want her picture taken, but knew that Glinda wasn’t going to back down, no matter what excuse or threat she used. With a resigned sigh, she gave the blonde a small smile.

“Elphie, you look like you’re being held at gunpoint. Smile like you mean it.”

“You mean like my life depends on it.”

Glinda pouted, and that’s what got Elphaba to give her a genuine-looking smile. She clicked the shutter and bounced. “Perfect!”

Elphaba sagged and flopped back onto her bed. “Thank Oz.”

“Come on! Let’s go find our friends and take more photos! I have three rolls of film to use.”

“You’re not going to use three rolls of film in one night.”

“Just come on!” She grabbed her friend’s arms, pulled her off the bed, and dragged her out of the room.

Classes were ending for the evening, meaning the campus was abuzz with students heading to the cafeteria, dorms, or one of the various cafés. The two expertly maneuvered through the crowds in search of their friends.

“Nessa! Boq!” Glinda waved.

The two Munchkins turned and smiled. “Hi, Glin. What’s that?” Nessa asked.

“My parents got me a camera for my birthday. You two, get together and smile!”

Nessa looked up at Boq, who stepped beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Nessa leaned closer to him and grinned.

“Perfect!” Glinda smiled after snapping the photo.

“I didn’t know you were into photography,” Nessa said as the four headed to the cafeteria.

“I’m normally on the other side of the camera. My room at home is covered wall-to-wall with photos of me. I mentioned that I wanted to try taking photos over Lurlinemas break, and my parents got me the camera.”

“Have you taken any other photos?” Boq asked.

“Elphie’s been helping me test it out,” Glinda smiled.

The green girl nodded. “I’m the reason the flash is now off and will not temporarily blind anyone else.”

“I have three rolls of film to use. But I can’t just take photos of anything. It must be special.”

“I hope you didn’t plan on taking photos of us eating,” Nessa said, giving Glinda a wary look. “I don’t want a photo of me with pasta sauce all over my face floating around.”

“No. I’d hardly consider that ‘special’. Oh, there’s Fiyero! Fiyero, over here!”

The prince looked up and waved, hurrying over to his friends. “Hey!” He eyed the camera around the blonde’s neck. “Ooh, a camera.”

“Birthday gift from her parents,” Elphaba supplied as Glinda assumed a familiar position. “Uh-oh.”

Fiyero was ready and struck his most dashing pose, his hands on his hips. Nessa and Boq laughed, Elphaba rolled her eyes, and Glinda was beyond delighted.

“Ooh! You must take one of me!” She handed Fiyero the camera and smiled so brightly, the flash wasn’t necessary.

Fiyero snapped the photo, which started a mini photoshoot with everyone, except Elphaba, taking turns on both sides of the camera.

“No,” Elphaba frowned after she was asked, for the seventh time, to be in a photo. “You already got two out of me, and one of them was unplanned.”

“Ooh. You got a candid of Elphaba?” Fiyero grinned, and Elphaba glared at him.

“A picture is worth a thousand words, Elphie. You need to make sure each word matters,” Glinda said.

“There are approximately 200,300 words in the Ozian language, but I could never string enough of them together to properly convey how much I hate this,” Elphaba groaned. “You will get nowhere near two hundred photos of me for your ‘thousand words’.”

Nessa tugged on her sister’s hand. “Just one photo, Fabala. Take one with me.”

Elphaba looked surprised, but it passed as quickly as it arrived. Knowing that her weakness was being unable to deny her sister anything, she stood closer to Nessa’s chair. The younger Thropp took her sister’s hand and lovingly leaned her head against her arm. The sisterly physical contact got Elphaba to melt a little and she tenderly kissed the top of Nessa’s head, which made Nessa’s smile grow just as Glinda took the photo.

“Now that we got that over with, let’s go eat,” Elphaba said, the tenderness immediately dissipating once she heard the shutter click, and trudged to the front of the group.

“Oh, Elphie. We’ll get you to love having your photo taken,” Glinda teased, and Elphaba didn’t dignify that with a response.

(LINE BREAK)

The first roll of film was finished before her birthday, and the first thing Glinda did that Saturday morning after breakfast was run to town to get them developed. She found it hard to contain her excitement, but half an hour later, the darkroom technician came back out with a small envelope of her processed negatives, as well as the actual negatives in case she wanted to make more copies later.

She thanked and paid him before running back to campus, waiting until she was back in the privacy and sanctity of her room to open the envelope.

She sat cross-legged on her bed and carefully removed the photos like they were precious artifacts and sifted through them. The first photo was the one she took of Elphaba as she entered the room. She couldn’t see much of her, due to the flash reflecting off her glasses and filling most of the photo, but she could tell she had captured her roommate’s surprise before the chaos ensued.

The others were much better; there was the good one she took of Elphaba, Boq and Nessa, Fiyero, people sitting on a lawn, Elphaba and –

Wait. People sitting on a lawn? Had someone else’s photo accidentally gotten mixed up in hers?

Glinda stared at the photo. Upon further inspection, she recognized the pattern on their clothes and realized it was the Shiz uniform, and the ‘lawn’ was the quad in front of the founder’s statue. She didn’t remember taking any photos other than the ones of her friends. She studied it closer. No one was looking into the camera, so she figured she must’ve pressed the shutter by accident and never noticed.

While not one of her planned, posed photos, it was still a decent picture. The angle was wide enough to capture three separate groups of students, and she recognized a few, namely Pfannee, ShenShen, and Milla, sitting together on a picnic blanket, with multiple books piled around them. ShenShen was leaning on Pfannee’s shoulder, and Milla was lying on her stomach, her feet in the air. The other two groups held various, similar positions with their study groups. Some were smiling, some were frustrated, and a few had fallen asleep.

She smiled at the candid photo. While her photos of her friends were wonderful, there was something about the unplanned photo that was intrinsically perfect. It felt more lifelike than the others. A little glimpse into their student life.

The lock clicked and Glinda quickly hid the quad photo under her pillow. “Hi, Elphie!”

“Hi. Oh, the photos are ready.” The green girl dropped her bags on her desk and sat on Glinda’s bed next to her.

Glinda handed them over and smiled as Elphaba went through them. “They came out nice.”

“Whose forehead is that?” Elphaba asked, holding up a photo of someone’s forehead, eyebrow, and half an eye.

“I think it’s Fiyero’s,” Glinda giggled. “I let him hold the camera, and I think he tried to take a photo of himself.”

Elphaba rolled her eyes. “Yeah. That sounds like something Fiyero would do.” She continued to go through the photos, pausing on the one with her and her sister.

“You can keep that one. I can get an extra copy for Nessa.”

“This is the first photo of Nessa and me together,” Elphaba whispered, her finger delicately tracing over her sister’s face. “There are tons of photos of Nessa back home, and none of me – for obvious reasons, but she’s never requested one of us together. I didn’t think she’d want one because…”

“You two look very similar. I mean, obviously, because you’re sisters.”

“Nessa has always been a pretty girl. ‘Tragically beautiful’, while the best I could hope for was ‘beautifully tragic’. No one, especially her, would ever try to see any similarities between us.” She studied how Nessa held her hand as she lovingly leaned her head against her arm. She was kissing the top of Nessa’s head, and both girls were smiling. She held the photo up to the mirror and studied Nessa’s face, then her own reflection. “I suppose, if not for the green, we would truly look like sisters.”

Glinda smiled softly. “Then I’ll let this one be extra special, just for you.”

Elphaba’s lips twitched. “Thanks.”

She always considered Nessa to be much more beautiful than her, and this was the first time she carefully studied the similar facial features they shared. She never put much thought behind it before, since Nessa didn’t go around advertising their sisterhood. But looking at this black and white photo, the absence of color got her to see how beautiful she could be.

“Besides, I think she’ll want this one instead.” She grabbed a photo of Nessa, Boq, and Fiyero together, with Nessa giving Fiyero bunny ears.

(LINE BREAK)

Glinda sighed melodramatically as she took down another string of photos from the wall and carefully placed them in a shoebox. She was taking down the photos that had spilled over onto Elphaba’s side of the room, and she had promised her roommate that she’d have them down by the time she returned from her final exam.

She had purposefully hung up the self-portraits she and Elphaba had taken together in their full-length mirror (she had gleefully called them ‘Elphie Selfies’, and only stopped when Elphaba threatened to hide her camera where she’d never find it). She smiled at all the fun poses she made Elphaba do, and placed the one where the two of them formed a heart with their hands on the green girl’s pillow. She was going to take it home, whether she wanted to or not.

She looked at the clock. She still had half an hour before Elphaba’s exam finished, so she quickly finished taking down the photos and pulled a shoebox from under her bed.

She had gone around campus, and even to the town, with her camera around her neck, taking as many pictures as she could. She brought extra rolls of film with her each time, and never left an outing with less than a roll filled. She spent more money on film than she did on clothes the past year, and surprisingly, she had no regrets.

She had captured photos of people studying, walking, socializing, sharing food, dancing to music only they heard, reading, and doing other slice-of-life activities. The indistinct conversations and bustling atmospheres provided a good cover for the camera’s click, which wasn’t very loud to begin with, and even though the photos were taken at chest level, without her looking in the viewfinder, they still came out good.

She realized that some of the best photos came from people who didn’t realize their photo was being taken. It sounded stockerish at face value, but she didn’t plan on sharing the photos anywhere, so she didn’t see the harm in taking them just for herself. She found that she really liked taking candid shots, and made quite a collection for herself over the last two years.

She knew it wouldn’t make a difference if she left the shoebox in plain sight, since there was nothing out of the ordinary about her multitude of shoeboxes, but since these were her extra special secret photos, she took extra care of them.

She had created a sub-section of photos specifically dedicated to candids of Elphaba and Fiyero’s outings. Her best friend and ex-boyfriend began dating shortly after she got the camera, and she got the idea for their subsection once she realized how good she was at taking these secret shots. Most of the photos were of them walking hand-in-hand, of Fiyero carrying her books, or of them sitting under their favorite oak tree near Suicide Canal. Lots were taken mid-conversation, which led to lots of unplanned, silly facial expressions. She even managed to catch a moment when Fiyero tripped over a large sidewalk crack, and Elphaba had to reach out to steady him.

Unbeknownst to her roommate, she was toying with the idea of giving them these photos. Assuming they stayed together (and she had bet money that they would), she could give Elphaba and Fiyero these photos as a wedding present. It was cute enough, and she knew them well enough for it not to be as weird. She had worked so hard on these, and even harder at staying hidden and not letting them know she was documenting their relationship.

She went through the photos one more time before slipping them back into their designated box and taping it shut. She just hoped those two wouldn’t break up and waste all her hard work.

(LINE BREAK)

A few years later…

Glinda was supposed to be focusing on the flower arrangements on the tables. That was her job. That was the job she gave herself. So why was she in the bridal suite instead of doing her job?

“Glin, I think we have enough photos of my face being caked in blush,” Elphaba said, looking up at her friend’s reflection in the mirror.

The blonde looked up from her camera’s viewfinder. “How would you know how many photos I took?”

“She’s counting clicks,” Nessa chuckled and lifted her head so the hairstylist could pin her hair in place.

“Elphie, it’s my job to document every moment of your wedding. It’s for posterity,” Glinda insisted.

“It’s not your job. We hired an official wedding photographer,” she said, gesturing to the young woman with a professional-looking camera. “For posterity.”

The photographer, whom the blonde had banished to the doorway, gave Glinda a small smile and wave.

“Yes, but she doesn’t have as much experience photographing you as I do. I know how to get your good side.” She snapped a photo of Elphaba scowling at her. “So cute!”

“Glinda, you’ve taken enough photos. Give it a rest.”

Glinda let out an annoyed grunt and placed the camera back in her bag, safely tucked away in the corner. “Fine. I’ll be nice and listen to you. But only because it’s your wedding day.”

Elphaba smiled and motioned for the photographer to take her place. The three girls laughed and talked, letting the camera clicks fade into the background. After almost forty-five minutes of primping and preparing, Elphaba was in her full wedding attire, complete with makeup and accessories.

Her hair was in a braided updo, wrapped around her head, and adorned with tiny flower clips and a tiara with a veil attached. Her wedding dress was an ivory, princess-style ballgown, befitting her new role, with delicate floral lace adorning the corset and long sleeves of the lace-embellished bodice. It had a closed back, secured with multiple buttons, a high neckline, and a voluminous, shimmering sparkle tulle skirt.

“You look positively princessified!” Glinda gushed, wiping a tear from her eye and fanning her face.

“Glin, go check on the table flowers,” Elphaba commanded good-naturedly, but couldn’t tear her gaze from her reflection.

“I’ll go with her,” Nessa volunteered, sensing that Elphaba probably wanted a moment alone.

“Nessa, stay.”

It sounded more like a question, and the brunette exchanged a look with the blonde before nodding to her sister. Elphaba dismissed the photographer, waiting until it was just her and Nessa before going over to her bag.

“I have a present for you.”

“You have a present for me, on your wedding day?”

Elphaba smiled and pulled out a large envelope, handing it to her sister. “I wanted to wait until your birthday, but I don’t fully trust the postal service with something this important.”

Nessa looked at the envelope with surprised reverence and carefully opened it, pulling out a photo. She stared at it with tear-filled eyes, her hand over her mouth. “Fabala… this is… this is the photo Glinda took of us.”

Elphaba knelt in front of the chair, carefully smoothing out her skirt. “Back at Shiz, when she first got that annoying, infernal camera,” she added, but couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “She had volunteered to make a copy for you, but I ended up making one for myself. That’s the original.”

“Fabala, I can’t –”

“Keep the original, Nessie. It’s okay. There are plenty of other photos, but I thought you’d like to keep this one.”

“I… this is… thank you.” She pulled her sister into a hug.

Elphaba rested her chin on Nessa’s shoulder, completely melting into the hug. She was grateful for the quiet time with her sister before the chaos of the day started. She was so tuned in that she didn’t hear the door creak open, but she heard a click and whipped around. “Glinda Upland, I swear to Oz!”

“Going!” the blonde called, closing the door and running away.

“Unbelievable,” Elphaba muttered, shaking her head and standing.

“I’ll go check on the flower arrangements,” Nessa volunteered with a laugh, squeezing her sister’s hand and quickly hurrying out. “And I’ll take her camera away.”

“Thank you!”

(LINE BREAK)

“Finally!” Fiyero exclaimed, pushing the door to their marital suite open.

He insisted on carrying Elphaba over the threshold, and Elphaba didn’t put up much of a fuss. He twirled her once and set her down with a loud, faux-groan, and playfully rubbed his back.

“Oh, stop that!” Elphaba chuckled, lightly whacking his arm. “Don’t tell me you’re getting too tired to continue ‘dancing through life’.”

“That was more of a philosophy than a literal way of life,” Fiyero chuckled, then surprised Elphaba by pulling her back into his arms and twirling her around the room. He kissed her and they continued dancing to the residual music in their minds. “I’m nowhere near tired. I love you,” he whispered once they pulled away from a passionate kiss.

“I love you, too.” She kissed him again and playfully hurried away before he could pull her back.

They chased each other around the room until Elphaba’s eyes fell on a box wrapped in light blue paper.

“Fae, what’s that?” Fiyero asked when she picked it up.

“I don’t know. I just noticed it.” She took the card taped to the top and opened it, rolling her eyes with a laugh. “It’s from Glinda.”

“When did she find time to sneak away? I didn’t see her leave the dance floor the entire night.”

“I’ll never understand how she can manage to be the center of attention, and extremely sneaky, at the same time. Listen to this; ‘Dearest darlingest Elphie and Fifi…’” Elphaba gagged and Fiyero snatched the card from her, ignoring her face as he continued reading for her.

“‘Don’t think too hard about how I snuck away from the party. It’ll make your newlywed heads explode. Anyway, if you’re too tired from the reception or from doing something else, this present can wait. Actually, I want it to wait if you found this after doing the ‘something else’. Just make sure you open it before I see you again, which should be anytime within the next fifteen hours. All my love, Glinda.’ And she put a large heart next to her name, look.”

“I know how she signs her letters,” Elphaba chuckled, then took the present.

She and Fiyero opened it together, and lifted the cover to reveal an emerald, leather-bound book.

“Okay, Glin got you a book. What’d she get me?” Fiyero asked, pushing the tissue paper aside to find his gift.

Elphaba opened the book, her eyes immediately tearing up. “It’s not a book, Yero. It’s a photo album.”

He looked over her shoulder. “It’s… photos of us. At Shiz. I don’t remember her taking these. We’re not even posing.” They sat on the bed, studying the multiple photos Glinda had taken. There were a few of them with their friends, but it was mostly their couple’s photos. They laughed, reminisced, and offered explanations for ill-timed photos.

“How did she do this? I never knew… Was she stalking us?” Elphaba asked, seeing the photo of Fiyero tripping over a large sidewalk crack.

“Honestly, that doesn’t surprise me.” He smiled at a photo of him twirling Elphaba in the air, her hair dancing around her face, and a wide smile on her lips. “But she is good at photography.”

“I’m surprised she’s not a private investigator.”

“She’d be the best. Sneaky and – Hey! I remember this one! Glinda let me take it,” he proudly announced with a wide grin, pointing at a photo of Elphaba looking out a window.

She tilted her head. “Oh. That’s why it’s blurry.” She chuckled and kissed his pouting lips. “These are… really nice photos. While I’m going to have a long conversation about the stalking, I love that our best moments are memorialized.”

“It will make telling our kids the story of our relationship easier.”

“And keep it accurate. Wait… how did she manage to include photos of the wedding ceremony? Nessa took her camera. I visually confirmed she had it. I can’t believe… you know what? I’m not gonna ask any more questions I’m not sure I want the answer to.”

“Good choice, especially when it comes to Glinda.” He slipped his hand into Elphaba’s and gave her a quick kiss, turning the page to find two photos of them sharing their first married kiss, along with writing in a neat, sparkly pink script.

Thank you for not letting my hard work and great photos go to waste. Congratulations Elphie and Fiyero!

Elphaba had to laugh. “Oz, that girl.”

“I think I’m a good enough photographer to pick up where Glinda left off,” Fiyero mused, flipping back to his blurry photo of Elphaba.

“Yeah.” She flipped back to the photo of the two of them together, sitting at their favorite table in the café. They were snuggled together, cheeks touching, and Elphaba was clutching her mug of tea. Fiyero took it, and it was significantly better than his forehead selfie and blurry Elphaba’s window photo.

“You don’t agree?”

“I agree with you.” She took the book and put it on the nightstand. “I’ll even let you pick up where she left off.”

Glinda had been right. A picture is worth a thousand words. And every single word mattered to her.

#vinkunwildflowerqueen #gifts'23 #wickedsanta23

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