Cold Hearted

The Invitation

Elena POV

I woke up to the sound of rustling all around the room. Mal had given me a spare bed to sleep in and Bruni kept me warm all night, to be honest, I was so tired I got a wonderful sleep. Bruni was snuggling into my chest to stay colder and he was keeping me warm all night, it made ignoring the terrible back support from the mattress easier.

I opened my rested eyes and looked around the room a little to see Mal putting on her Isle gear and brushing out her hair. I put a hand over Bruni to keep him on my chest as I slowly sat up and stretched a little with a yawn. Mal looked over at me and smiled,

"Good morning sleepyhead, it's nearly ten in the morning"

I giggled a little and popped my back and neck a little. I took a deep, slightly vocalized, breath and hummed,

"Good morning, how long have you been awake?"

She looked at me through the reflection of the shattered mirror she was looking into and straightened out her hair a little to lay flat on her shoulders,

"Since six or seven, well up and at em. Time to get dressed and go steal a meal or something"

I sighed and stroked the top of Bruni's head with my bare hands as I take my gloves off when I go to sleep most of the time. Bruni cooed as he stretched out and sprawled on top of my chest. I giggled as I woke up his cute sleeping self. He eventually woke up and immediately asked for snow as he does, so I placed him on the bedside table and gave him a good mound of snow before getting up and doing some more stretching as I walked to where I put my clothes to get dressed. To sleep in I simply kept my tank top on and took everything else off besides my underwear of course, now I just have to put myself together the rest of the way.

I slipped on my gloves first of course, then the fishnet tights first before slipping on the leather shorts that go along with it.

Mal went from getting herself ready for the day to picking up a can of black spray paint and beginning to work on a new piece of art on the wall. The stained glass windows brought in rather pretty light into the room, especially when it hit the murals on the wall. After I did my basic necessities in the bathroom, I sat down at Mal's vanity after she gave me permission to use her things which I thanked her for since I don't have my own things.

I picked up her hairbrush and went ahead and began detangling my rather wild hair, apparently it's a family thing to wake up with obscenely wild hair. It happens to my mom, to my aunt, but not to my uncle. He's the only one that doesn't wake up with a birdnest for hair.

As I brushed my wavy and soft hair, I began straightening out the front pieces that were a little shorter than the rest and styled it like my mom normally wears it down. As I was styling my hair, I swear I began hearing footsteps. I brushed it off as leftover paranoia from last night's encounter with Harry and took some deep breaths. But the steps didn't stop. I must be hearing things, I must be!

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye came a figure, I held in a gasp and shot my head that way to see... Ben? What's Ben doing here? Dressed in full leather Isle gear as well, but how?

"Ben?"

His head shot over to me and Mal's head shot our way as soon as I spoke. She shakily gasped as Ben looked at both of us with a look of massive relief as he looked between Mal and I,

"I'm glad there's not a picture of me with horns and a pitchfork"

He said to Mal who was staring at him with a dropped jaw. She blinked rapidly as if she was waiting for this vision of him to disappear, but he is no vision,