"Mmmmmmmmmmnnnnn..."

Thump, thump, thump, thump. Mommy's softer than any pillow. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Her heartbeat is sweeter than any song. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Alina squeezes her eyes shut and snuggles closer. Thump, thump, she feels the beat drumming through her body. Through her eyelids, her world is orange and pink. Mmmm, the gentle sleepy moan escapes her lips to mingle with the sounds of soft breathing. Her head rises with her Mommy's chest, then they sink again in time. Up, and down, and up again, with fingers massaging through her floofy purple hair. Her world is blankets so heavy they feel like a hug from some wonderfully downy animal. Her world is a tangle of sisters pinning her in place. Her world is the softest of kisses from Mommy and her words that make her trust herself enough to open her eyes again because this is real, this is real, this is real. 

Her world is a room too small and too simple to be so perfect. But that's exactly what it is. Down by her feet, Jessamine snores as she rolls and flops onto her belly across the bed and all its occupants. Typical Jess, how'd she even get out from under all the blankets? Like this, her pastel pink camisole and matching shorts feel even more like a brazen defiance of the cold still lingering over the kingdom than they did when she insisted on putting them on last night. She never gives an inch, silly Jess. She reaches behind her to scratch her thigh and then immediately drops back into a deep sleep. Like this, it's easier to see the lean, sharp muscles cut across every inch of Jessamine's slinky body. All that training, all that effort, bearing fruit. She's so beautiful, thinks Alina, the most beautiful thing in the world. 

On the other side of the bed, Freesia is so deeply asleep that Alina wonders whether she'd even move if fireworks went off in the room. Her lanky, maybe not so awkward as Alina remembers it after all, body is half curled into a ball, and her face is buried in a combination of Mommy's side and a tangled mess of her own hair, which has gone every which way during the night and apparently decided it was going to stay that way. Somehow, her prim and prissy nightgown is absolutely immaculate. It's a good look for her, like a ballgown that's been optimized for sleep and snuggles, but poor thing, however long she's had it she's never found the time to treat the silks like you're supposed to. The star burst patterns that run all up and down the material are just [i]exploding[/i] with too-sharp colors in every shade an Illuminan princess could possibly imagine. Freesia... Sunless no longer. The colors she'd sworn off of wearing until this moment seem overeager to make up for missed time. And she's so beautiful, thinks Alina, the most beautiful thing in the world. 

Alina stretches, but just a bit. She has to be careful not to disturb Mommy. Not that she's asleep, but since she... got better, she's been flinching at any sort of too big or too fast motion. So she has to content herself with just sitting up a teeny little bit to roll her shoulders back while she wills her legs to stretch themselves while still trapped under Jessamine. And she's sure to settle right back down where she was, so that Mommy won't think she's trying to leave. She couldn't, right now, even if she wanted to. Even though she'll have to. Soon. But not yet. She suppresses a yawn. No more sleeping, no more wasting this precious time. She sneaks one sea green sleeve out from under the blankets and lifts it up to her face to rub the sleep from her eyes. And then stops when she feels the crystal there. Oh, right. She makes a show of doing it anyway, then wraps her arm around Mommy. 

"Good morning, Mom."

Her voice feels too quiet, but it's a morning just for the pair of them right now. Eventually her sisters will wake and then there will be an absolutely perfect moment full of life and love and light... but then that moment will end and Alina will have to leave again. Not yet. Not yet. Right now is just the two of them, because that will last longer. Her eyes drink in her mother, who despite so many years still looks to Alina like a bigger and more perfect her. If only she could be that beautiful. If only she could move like...

She tilts her head up to watch a little more. She's careful to keep a smile on her face, keep a light in her eyes, but... but Queen Halcyon doesn't move with grace this morning. The fingers keep stroking her hair, it never stops feeling wonderful, but underneath it is a current of energy that Alina is too familiar with. There's a, a, a [i]coldness[/i] to all her little motions, like her beautiful, perfect mother is fighting with every part of herself not to shiver in the blankets of this soft, warm bed. The happy little fire in the fireplace won't help her. The girls around her will help more, but still.

Alina knows what fear looks like. Alina knows what having ice inside you feels like.

"Does it still hurt too much? Would you like me to do another treatment before I... I mean, today?"