Darkness and Light

Four.

Prince POV:

"No. There isn't anything that I need to tell you. Not anything that isn't public knowledge already at least," Brian said, looking at me with a small smile before he turned his attention to Mya, who was walking towards us from the back with the jumpsuit in her hand. "Talking about me?" She asked with a smirk as she looked at us with her head tilted.

Brian laughed, taking the jumpsuit from her hand and placing it back on the rack that I got it from before he shook his head. "No ma'am, we were not." A hum was heard throughout the room as Mya picked up another feather and wiggled her eyebrows with a glint in her eye. A hint of playfulness was expressed on her face as she blew it in my direction, causing little feathers to get into my mouth. "Hey! Excuse me, my tongue is not meant for boa feathers, Miss Mya!" I said in a playful tone, smiling widely as her infectious laugh filled my ears.

"Really? Oh, my bad. I didn't know the man in heels was too good for feathers!" She sassed, digging into her pocket for her carton of cancer sticks as she nodded her head towards the opened double doors with one between her lips. "Come out with me?" She asked, taking the cigarette out of her mouth and placing it between her fingers instead as she waited to see if I was going to follow her.

Nodding my head, I walked beside my new friend who smoked way too many cigarettes and laughed silently to myself when I noticed her staring once again at the heels on my feet with an unreadable expression. "What? Like something you see?" I whispered, watching Mya lick her lips and look at me with curiosity when we made it into the atrium. Her silence was confusing to me, but her joyful expression told me everything she didn't.

"I told you, I dig those." She said, pushing the door open and gesturing towards my heels as we stood outside in the frigid winter air and walked down to the bridge where I watched her cup her hand against the cigarette and light it a few feet away from me. Her baggy sweatpants and sweatshirt intrigued me and made questions swirl in my mind as she continued to smoke in her own little world, seeming to ignore my presence for a moment with her right hand behind her back. "Favorite animal?"

Her innocence, I thought to myself as I mirrored her expression and pondered my answer. This twenty questions game is looking like it's going to stick around for awhile! "All of them are God's creations, so I'll say all," I answered truthfully, rocking on my heels and watching Mya smoke another cigarette after she put the first one in the ashtray I had no idea was there. "You?"

Blowing out smoke, she peered at me with her second cigarette in between her fingers and smiled gently before she answered my question with joy in her tone. "Dolphins," Surprised by her response, I smiled widely and asked her why. "It's said they're known for saving drowning sailors and other people in distress. Also, if you see them in the ocean, they're a sign of good luck," She said, biting her lip before she inhaled one last time and sheepishly looked away from me.

Flicking her second cigarette into the ashtray, Mya stood against the bridge wall for a few seconds before she started walking ahead of me back up to the front doors with her hands stuffed into the pockets of the worn out sweatshirt on her body. "You're so tired," I mumbled softly, maintaining the fact that she didn't like to be touched as she looked at me and bowed her head. "Come on, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping," Nodding, my new, very quiet friend followed me upstairs to the spare bedroom with her hands behind her back, a curious expression, and a lingering smell of smoke attached to her body.

—

"Miss Mya, may I present, your room." I said dramatically in a British accent as we walked into the guest bedroom upstairs. The room was bigger than The Little Kitchen and Mya's eyes widened at the size and lavishness of it, which I laughed at. "So, does it meet your specifications mama?"