A couple weeks had passed since Irina had discovered that she could speak with others using her mind. She had been able to keep it a secret from Esme so far, which pleased her. If this was the only thing that she could keep to herself, then she felt as if she still had control over her life.  While she had been practicing how to shut out the voices and keep them out for extended amounts of time with Esme, on Irina's own time, she had been working with Abel on keeping her thoughts from over flowing into him and his thoughts into her mind. It would make the mind links easier to cope with.

All of her mental exercises had been productive, regardless of how tiring they were. She had been able to sleep more now; being able to shut out voices at bed time helped her get about four hours of sound sleep until they woke her up again. She had even taken to taking naps with, or around, Abel. She had become used to his mind and, with focusing on him only, she'd be able to get a couple hours more. The improvement was physically visible. Her dark circles had become less prominent, and her cheeks seemed to have gotten their color back. 

"Hel-lo, Irina. Abel. Sleep, good?"

Irina looked up from building a pyramid out of some crackers and smiled at Stasya, "I did sleep good, actually. How are you?" She smiled at the young girl before turning back to her cracker pyramid. Abel had been reminding her to eat while they sat at their normal spot, but she had found her appetite still hadn't returned even after all this time. 

"Have you noticed not everyone is in here? People are usually raiding the fridge during this time." 

It was at that moment that she noticed Nikolai walk in and make a bee line towards the food. 

[i][b]"Hi Nikolai!"[/b][/i]

She watched him until she saw the change in his face which meant he heard her in his mind, and once they made eye contact, she waved at him. Regardless of their rough first impression, the two had formed a strong friendship that felt like they had known each other for years rather than weeks. "Esme will be looking for me since I skipped our training this morning. I slept in on accident. I'm sure I'm in for it later on today." Her voice was quiet as she turned her attention back to her food and began to eat little by little. "I just need a break from it all."