Astrid frowned darkly at the girl. That hadn't been the reaction she was expecting. If the girl could understand French, showing her where she was wrong would be much easier, but since English was the only option, she would have to make do.

She stood up, next to the girl in the mirror. "You are... Better now..." She struggled for words that would convey her meaning, "more... Looking... At you... From... Person... With... Decisions..." Her lips pursed together in thought. That didn't sound quite right. Hopefully the girl would understand that she was trying to tell her she would be respected more.

She studied the little girl on the bed with her dress and headband. It wasn't exactly an evil thing to do, giving her a makeover, but it had been fun. Plus, it had been a while since she had had an interaction with someone that wasn't aggressive. Maybe she would do two evil things the next day to make up for it.

>>"You are... Better now... more... Looking... At you... From... Person... With... Decisions..."

Abby listened to Astrid struggle with her words. She didn't blame her. English was strange even to her. "Mature?" she offered. Then a knock sounded on the door of the room.

>>"Mature?"

"Yes, mature," Astrid looked rather pleased as the little girl supplied her with the word she had been searching for. The girl did look more mature. At least, Astrid assumed she did, since she wasn't entirely sure she had the right meaning of it in her head.

A knock sounded behind them on the door. For a second, Astrid froze. It was likely room service. As her breath caught in her throat, Astrid instictively reached out and clamped her hand over Abby's mouth, dragging her out of sight and into the bathroom.

"Quiet," she warned the little girl in a whisper as she covered them with the shower curtain. She changed her wings to crystal form and got ready to attack if necessary.

Abby let out a muffled squeal as Astrid's hand covered her mouth. With wide green eyes the twelve year old stared in shock at the older girl. She wasn't sure what to do as the winged girl moved them into the bathroom.

>>"Quiet."

The blonde nodded a little, now scared. She watched in amazement as the black winged changed to crystal.

"Hello? Housekeeping?" a voice called into the now empty room.

Astrid kept her eyes on the door and her hand clamped over the little girl's mouth as she waited for the housekeeper to enter. If she had been thinking straight, she would have just picked the girl up and flown out the window. But instead, she had panicked and they were stuck.

The housekeeper was quiet for the most part, except when she found the makeup and hair supplies on the bedside table. Technically, the room was supposed to be empty. There was silence for a few seconds as Astrid watched her look at the stuff through a little crack in the door.

"Is someone in here?" The housekeeper ask in a shaky voice. Her hand hovered over the phone next to the supplies before she turned around. She stepped forwards and pushed open the bathroom door, letting a gasp escape her mouth.

"Leave," Astrid hissed at her, ready to fire crystals of she refused. The scene would look rather odd to the housekeeper; a mutant girl holding a younger girl captive. If it hadn't been for the threat of violence, she probably would have screamed as loudly as she could manage.

>>"Leave."

Abby watched in something akin to terror as the Hispanic woman fled from the room. Part of her wanted to be upset with Astrid for being cruel, but another part was just happy it was over. When she heard the door to the hotel room slam shut, Abby opened her mouth a little and stuck out her tongue. She made sure Astrid knew how she felt about the treatment.

The bratty little girl was licking Astrid's hand. Licking it. Astrid recoiled immediately, shaking off her pale appendage with an extreme vigour. It felt sort of cold as the cool air brushed across the wet portion of her skin. 

Astrid balled her hands into fists and placed one on either hip. Her black eyes fell on Abby in an intense glare, doing her best to make her regret her actions. Would she have rather have been caught or had the stupid little maid get a little scared. She simply couldn't understand some people. Especially since she had been nothing but helpful, something Astrid generally wasn't, to this little girl. No good deed goes unpunished, right?

She shook out her head of tangled black hair with a huff and looked at the little girl. They had two options: wait for the authorities that the stupid maid had probably called, or leave before they could be ambushed. Of course, Astrid would normally opt for option number one, but she wasn't sure that the little girl would be able to hold herself in a fight. And, for some reason that escaped her, Astrid was being nice to her. It was a strange feeling.

"We are leave now," Astrid announced and walked quickly out of the bathroom to grab her things. She expected that Abby would follow her, and didn't bother to look back to check.

Abby was a little proud of Astrid's reaction to her lick. Served the girl right. She wasn't sure why she was still listening to the older girl. She didn't seem very nice. From stealing clothes to scaring people. Abby was wondering how she would explain the day's events to her friends.

>>"We are leave now."

Should she listen to the girl? Abby was probably already in trouble for the clothes thing. It wasn't like the time she met Panu. That was fun and she had agreed to it. This was more like... kidnapping? Maybe.

"Why should I listen to you?" she asked, though she did move to the bathroom doorway. Just so she could see Astrid better.

>>"Why should I listen to you?"

Astrid merely rolled her eyes (although it was difficult to see) at Abby's response. There was no way she was going to put all that work into a young, impressionable girl, and then let her run away back to her parents. No, that just wouldn't do. Plus, from what television had told her, parents didn't take well to their children dressing with heavy makeup and all black clothes.

"Stole clothes, remember?" Astrid pointed to the girl's new outfit. "You run, I tell." That would surely impact her bad attitude.

>>"Stole clothes, remember? You run, I tell."

"An argument can be made that you kidnapped me," Abby stated. She stayed put. The girl had carried her to the store and the hotel. Then the hotel lady saw her held by Astrid. At the moment Abby looked like a victim.

Astrid narrowed her eyes at the little girl and walked up to her so she could use her height to stare down at her. There weren't that many people she could do that with, but fortunately, the little girl was one of them.

She spread out her wings to look more imposing as well and then crossed her arms. It was the most intimidating stance she knew. So far, though, she had only been able to use it on children.

"They not take me," Astrid smirked at Abby. "But you stuck."

The older and taller girl was a little scary all puffed up like that. But Abby stood her ground. She hadn't done anything wrong. Abby was innocent in all of this.

>>"They not take me. But you stuck."

Abby tilted her head, trying to figure out what the girl meant. She got the first part. Astrid could fly away. The part about her was what caught her. 'Stuck' could mean a lot of things. In context to Astrid being able to fly though...

"You have to land sometime. And who do you think they'd believe? The one who by all accounts took a little girl for no reason or the little girl that was taken and forced to do things she didn't want to? What will the cameras and eye-witnesses say?"

Sometimes being evil was hard. Witty responses don't always come easily, you know. So when the little girl came back with all her logic, Astrid had a hard time coming up with what to say.

She wasn't even intimidated by Astrid's most intimidating move, for god's sake! If that didn't scare her, then what would?

Then it hit her. The one thing the little girl didn't like; flying.

Astrid scooped up Abby hastily by her legs, holding her in an awkward, less-than-secure position. If the threatening stance hadn't scared her, then this surely would. It was time to scare the socks off of one tiny, adolescent blonde.

She flapped her wings and jumped out of the open window, stopping mid-flight to hover above the oncoming traffic.

"Still want leave?"

Suddenly Abby was in the air. Again. This time she didn't like nor care about why she was being carried. She screamed. Loud and shrill.

>>"Still want leave?"

She could see the cars below them. She stopped screaming. "You're crazy! Put me down! Gently!" she yelled at the winged girl. No way she could survive that fall.  "Please!"

Yuck, screaming little girls did not make nice noises. "Fine," Astrid cried out instinctively, "just not scream!"

She flapped her wings and soared higher in the air to get somewhere safe. She didn't feel like going back to the hotel, so she chose to go to the top of a tall, nearby building instead.

She dropped the little harpy from just a few feet in the air, in a way that would probably hurt just a little, but wouldn't cause her any harm. "Happy?"