Vanity

Eleniel: 15

Eleniel liked to think she could do something as simple as brush her own hair, but the truth of the matter was that, most mornings, she couldn't. It was not that she lacked the actual ability to brush and braid it – she simply did not possess the patience most other elves had to comb the knots out after sleeping... especially as her hair seemed to look as though she'd been walking in wind going one hundred miles per hour. Only Eru knew how the twins managed to wake with not one strand of hair out of place.

Her patience regarding her hair typically all depended on what mood she woke up in. Normally, she managed to scrape by without throwing her brush at the wall in agitation, but it also wasn't a rarity for her to walk into someone's room for help, hair tousled on top of her head, face like that of a balrog, and brush clenched tightly in her hand.

Or, in this case… brush stuck in her hair.

Today's victim of her platinum locks fell to Glorfindel, who merely opened both eyes at the sudden awakening from where he was still resting in bed when his door opened and revealed the young elleth. Quite intriguingly, she looked more hopeless than angry this morning, desperation shining in her eyes and, as mentioned before, brush tangled within the mountain of hair.

He didn't move as Eleniel shut the door behind her and walked toward his bed, simply raising his eyebrows and letting the corners of his mouth turn upwards slightly at the inevitable reason for why she was paying him such an early visit. "Good morning," he said.

"Help," she replied, stopping at the bed and staring at him intensely. He would have played a little game with her and continued to torment her, but he knew she would only get upset and, really, he was still fairly tired himself. This was just one of those mornings.

Heaving a sigh, he sat up and crossed his legs under the covers, patting the space in front of him. She eagerly clambered up, sitting with her back to him and wincing as she felt his hands begin to work on her hair.

"Valar…" he said, shaking his head at the mess he'd been presented with. "Were you fighting a balrog in your sleep?"

Eleniel sighed and glanced down at her lap. "I despise my hair."

She felt the rumble of his chuckle. "Perhaps you should have come to me before you decided to feed your brush to the monster."

"I did not know it would get stuck."

"Yes, well-" He gently tugged at the brush to see if his attempts at loosening the hair around it had been at all effective- "you know enough to realise when you are going to experience a bad hair morning."

"Every morning is a bad hair morning." She yelped as a particularly harsh tug on her hair caused a dull pain to pulse through her head. "Ow!"

Glorfindel grimaced. "Sorry," he said, "but I got it out!" He waved the offending object when she turned to look at it before returning it back to her hair and beginning to gently brush away the knots. It took some time, and a lot of complaining on Eleniel's side, but, eventually, her hair was perfectly straight and free of all lumps and bumps. He pat her back as he tied off the braid and immediately fell back down again with a sigh. It really was too early for this.

Eleniel jumped off the bed and moved over to the mirror, a relieved smile appearing on her face when she noticed the vast difference in the hair she'd walked in with and the hair she would be leaving with. "Perfect," she said, stroking the braid. "Not a strand out of place."

Glorfindel would have rolled his eyes had they not been closed. "Your vanity will soon get the better of you."

The elleth glanced at him in the mirror with a mischievous smirk. "It didn't with you." She heard him chuckle before removing an arm from under his head and motioning for her to come to him.

"Very funny," he said tiredly, "but I am going back to sleep, and if you are not going to leave then you may as well join me." Eleniel shook her head with a laugh and turned to walk back to the bed, climbing in next to him and fitting herself quite neatly against his side. Of course, she had woken up almost half an hour before and began brushing her hair with the intention of leaving for breakfast early, but she supposed a few extra minutes of sleep would be rather nice.

"Thank you for helping, hair-slayer," she muttered against Glorfindel's chest.

He pinched her. "Cease your talking and go to sleep."