Celeste Academy One Shots

Holly Jolly

Valeriana was staring out the window in her room and a sad sighed escaped her lips. She was homesick, and Christmas was coming up. She loved spending time around the Christmas tree with Jareth, her mom and...at one time her dad. She highly doubted any of the twelve even knew what the holidays were or had ever built a snowman, but she kept these thoughts to herself as she made her way downstairs for dinner.

The Circle was as lively as ever with their sibling like bickering while they all waited to see what Charles had prepared for dinner. Corvan sat in his seat at the head of the table as usual and his green eyes scanned across the pages of the book he had been reading. Tamara and Keelan were arguing over whether breakfast or dinner was better, and Elfre was staring very pointedly at Raziel who must've made another comment about her being an elf.

A sad smile graced Valeriana's face as she thought fondly of the time that her mom and dad had been adamant about having her and her brother dress up as elves for seasonal pictures for a Christmas card. At the time they argued about it, but it was one of her favorite holiday memories...even if the pictures did turn out atrocious. Another sad sigh escaped her as she sat in her designated place at the table.

Corvan quirked a brow at her usual quietness and was about to ask exactly what her problem was, but Genevieve beat him to it.

"You okay over there, Val," she asked gently. At Genevieve's words the group seemed to silence themselves as they looked the fifth ranker.

"Who? Me? Yeah, I'm fine!"

"Are you sure," Tamara questioned further. That seemed to open the floodgates.

"Come on, Val! What's wrong?"

"Tell us, so we can help!"

"We're your friends. You can trust us!"

Val was already a bit fragile, and all the pressuring questions finally caused her dam to crack. While the Twelve continued to bombard her with questions, Valeriana felt anger flood her veins. Before she knew it, she had stood up, shoved her chair under the table and stomped back up to her room. The questions finally stopped, but she could feel stares boring into the back of her head.

She heard chairs scraping across the floor, and Valeriana slammed her bedroom door behind her, hoping it would ward them off.

~

Zevlin was the first to push his chair back with the intent to go after the obviously distraught fifth ranker. The rest followed his lead minus Corvan and Brindon. Charles wasn't even finished cooking yet. As the rest rose to their feet, Corvan flashed them his signature look.

"If one person takes one step towards that staircase, I will personally set your dinner on fire. Enough," Corvan said as he redirected his gaze back to whatever he was reading. In fact, he was reading a tome about the human world, and he had a sneaking suspicion of what was under that stupid witch's skin.

"But...Corvan! Somethings wrong and we want to help," Keelan said with big eyes.

"Do any of you think that forcing her to talk is going to help her? All you did was run her off! It's enough. Leave her be. I will not be telling any of you again," Corvan said with a sense of finality that brought the matter to an official close. Everyone sat down and tense silence surrounded the rest of the evening.

When the food was finished, poor Charles didn't understand why Valeriana wasn't at her seat or why nobody felt like eating, but based off the tension in the room, he chose not to bring anything into question.

~

Valeriana didn't know what had made her so upset. She knew that the other rankers were her friends, but this was something they couldn't help her with. They couldn't just take her home for a few days to spend the holidays with her family. She wasn't exactly given a winter break!

Valeriana sighed again and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. Deciding to be productive, she made her way to her desk with the intention of getting ahead on her schoolwork. Before she could even sit, a light knock echoed throughout the room. With an aggravated sigh, Valeriana flung the door open to be face to face with the idiot devil himself holding a book under one warm and a tray of food carefully balanced on one hand.

"W-what? What are you doing," the fifth ranker asked quickly and her brow wrinkled in confusion. Why was Corvan being...nice?

"The others are genuinely worried about you. They didn't mean to upset you with so many questions. I came here to bring you dinner, so I wouldn't have to listen to you complain about being hungry later," the first ranker said matter-of-factly as he walked into her room and set the tray down on the coffee table in front of her couch. Valeriana shut the door and flopped on the plush velvet couch and gently pushed the food away. After all, she really wasn't hungry.

Corvan sat down gracefully in an arm chair across from her and proceeded to continue reading from that damn book of his.

"You're upset over something. You miss home."

Valeriana's gaze met Corvan as tears filled her eyes. He had no idea how badly she wanted to go home.

"It's Christmas. It's my favorite holiday. And I'm stuck here...when I could be home with my mother and my brother," she managed to get out in one piece before any tears escaped.

"I see. We don't have this...Christmas here. We celebrate other holidays in Valmenia, but I can tell this must be important to you."

"It doesn't matter," Valeriana said with a shake of her head,"The rest of you can go home. You can visit. I can't, and I don't know when I'll be able to again. This is more than just a holiday."

Heavy silence settled over the two as Corvan truly registered what she had said.

"Corvan, thank you for bringing me dinner, but I know you were sent by the others to see what was going on. If you don't mind, I would like to be alone for awhile."

With that, Corvan stood with a nod of acknowledgement and made his way to the door. Before he took his leave, he took a quick glance over his shoulder and saw how upset Valeriana truly was. Her shoulders were shaking as she cried and her head was in her hands.

He would giver her the time she requested, but he would be taking care of some errands of his own.

Either he would find a way to take her home for this Christmas she keeps talking about, or he would bring it to her.

Part one...to be continued.

A/N: so I had someone send in a really cool request centered around Christmas and the holidays annnnnnd this is just part one! Please don't forget to vote and comment! Thanks!