A deep cough woke her up. Elena blearily opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings- most notably the strong muscular army wrapped possessively around her bare waist. Elena lifted his arm gently inching out from underneath it. Henry coughed again in his sleep, causing Elena to pause before slipping out from under his arm completely. She slid over to the edge of the bed and looked over her shoulder at Henry, his handsome features lit by the flickering light of the fire. Elena noted that she must not have been asleep for very long, as her hair was still slightly damp.
She looked around and spotted what she was looking for- the brass statue of the archer. She paused for a second, taking in the sounds of the crackling fire and Henry's soft breathing, before rising slowly from the bed. She had only taken a few steps before letting out a shriek as she lost her balance and fell crashing to the floor. Elena looked around her to see what had caused her to fall over and noticed the ankle cuff that tethered her to the bed.
Elena heard the bed creak as Henry rolled over to the edge, gazing down at her sleepily.
"And where are you going?" he asked, a smirk playing across his lips even in his sleepy state.
"Untie me" she growled, realising how ridiculous she must look- on the floor, totally naked, chained to a bed.
"MMMmmm, I don't think so" he replied, rubbing his tired eyes.
"I am not an animal - you can't keep me chained to a bed" she spat, trying to pry open the ankle cuff with her bare hands, which proved unsuccessful.
"I can and for the time being, I think it a prudent precaution" he grumbled sleepily.
"Precaution? From what exactly? You said it yourself, we have slept together in the same bed almost as long as i've been here" she said, annoyance etched into her tone.
"From you, my beautiful scheming Princess. You think that I wouldn't notice that you've taken a particular fancy to one of my sculptures? The archer?" he said, his eyes alert and piercing, no longer veiled with sleep.
Elena kept her face impassive. "I don't know what you're talking about" she said with a shrug.
"Come now, I've slept in this room for many years. I happened to have noticed that that particular statue is a few inches from it's proper place" he said, as he reached out for the chain, which was stretched taught, caused by the angle that Elena lay on the floor.
"I was only looking at it, from an artistic point of view. The bow is slightly out of scale with the rest of the statue" she lied haughtily.
"I'm sure you were only interested in it for it's, er, artistic value" Henry chuckled.
"If anything" Elena countered, "YOU are the one that should be chained to the bed, it's YOU who can't be trusted".
Henry let out a bark of a laugh. "So you want to chain me up Princess? I never thought that you had such deliciously dark thoughts. Maybe down the road we can revisit that one" he said, his tone dripping with innuendo.
Elena looked at him, her eyes narrowed. "You know very well what I meant" she said, a pink blush spreading across her face.
"Hush now, Princess" he said softly, as he pulled on the chain. "It's late and I'm exhausted - come back to bed" he said, mid yawn.
Elena snorted. "You think I'm going to willingly get into bed with you? You must still be dreaming" she said, yanking her chained foot out of his grasp.
Henry sighed and scratched his head. "Fine" he said sleepily, rolling over, a loud groan issuing from the mattress.
Elena stood up and inched towards the bed, reaching out for a pillow, but Henry pulled it out of her reach, along with the bedsheets. "Oh no, Princess" he muttered, "it's all or nothing" he said, his eyes closing slowly.
Fuming, she lay back down on the cold floor, muttering to herself as she stretched out and attempted to find a comfortable sleeping position. She was so angry with Henry that she wouldn't have been surprised if actual steam was billowing out of her ears. After many minutes of tossing and turning, she found a relatively comfortable position on her side, the only problem was that without the sheets and a mattress, she was cold. Elena pulled her knees up to her chest and tucked her hands between her thighs, warming them. She drifted off to sleep listening to Henry's light snoring, but awoke a few hours later, shivering from cold.
The fire had died down to a collection of glowing embers and her ankle cuff denied her the possibility of stoking or fixing it. She turned fitfully for almost an hour, but failed to fall asleep due to the freezing temperature.
Loathe as she was to slip into bed with Henry, it was the only option other than catching a death of a cold lying on the floor. Elena seriously considered just letting herself get sick, but her oath to her father steered her thinking clear of that conclusion, for if she were to gain any leverage, she would need her wits about her and not be incapacitated by fever or worse.
She got painfully to her feet, and approached the bed shivering. She hoped that Henry would have kept to one side of the bed, but he was obviously so accustomed to sleeping alone that he lay prone in the middle of the bed.
Elena gingerly sat down on the edge of the mattress and slowly lay down, trying her best not to disturb the large slumbering man beside her. As she lay on the edge of the mattress she realised that it was a little warmer than the floor, but not warm enough to cause her shivering to subside.
She reached over and gently lifted the sheet that was covering Henry and slipped under it, holding her breath for a moment as Henry's snoring ceased suddenly, but she relaxed as she didn't feel him stir. Elena inched a little closer to Henry, using the heat radiating off his naked body to warm up. The shivering continued though, despite their close proximity.
Elena slowly rubbed herself against the mattress, hoping the friction would warm her a little. She yelped suddenly, as she felt Henry's arm wrap around her stomach and yank her across the bed against him.
"My goodness, it's like hugging and icicle!" he grumbled as nuzzled sleepily against her neck.
"Let... let... let go of me" she said, her teeth chattering.
"Make me" he breathed warmly against her neck.
"As you wish" she whispered, reaching behind her and wrapping her ice cold hand around his soft shaft.
