"Corval...!" the twins of the Celestial Circle yelled together.

"Valion...!" Elfre yelled back at them.

"Corval is better!" Zevlin yelled at Elfre.

"I prefer Valeriana and Zion!" the seventh ranker yelled at them. Her eyes were wide with fury, and you could feel breezes of wind blowing around her.

The other rankers, excluding Corvan and Valeriana, kept whipping their heads back and forth in between, all getting tired and wondering what started this.

The three of them rarely opened this argument about who would be the perfect lover for Valeriana. And when they did, it wasn't usually this heated.

"Can you three please calm down?" Rowe decided to be the first to intervene.

He had seen a few of the decorations being knocked lightly by the breezes from Elfre, and the light crackling of fire in Zevlin's clenched fist.

They ignored him though, as they continued to fight over the same thing.

"I don't get why you have to argue over this nonsense," Charles piped in.

The quarreling rankers turned to him slowly, with slit pupils.

"It is not nonsense!" they yelled as they appeared very close to him.

Charles was so startled that he jumped a foot back and his glasses fell off. Tamara laughed loudly, earning a glare from the fourth ranker.

"Valeriana's well-being is not nonsense, Charles!" Genevieve yelled at him.

"Yeah, weren't you the first among us, except Corvan, to actually care for her?" Zevlin added.

"We just want to pair her up with the right guy that would take good care of her!" Elfre said.

Raziel looked up from his reflection on his mirror. A smirk appeared on his face when he heard what the seventh ranker said.

"So does this mean that you are finally concerned about Valeriana's welfare, little elf?" he asked.

Elfre turned red for a few seconds before she yelled at him.

"I'm not the topic here, narcissist!" she said as she glared at him.

"Yeah the topic here is Corval!" Zevlin yelled.

"For the umpteenth time, it's Valion!" Elfre yelled.

The rest of the rankers sighed.

Ever since they had watched all those movies on Val's laptop, they had adapted the term "shipping" as choosing of one pair of lovers.

The twins and Elfre seemed to be the ones who really took it to such lengths, and officially became the first couple shippers in Valemnia.

They continued on with this for a couple more minutes, their yelling getting louder and louder.

The poker-faced Brindon brought his hands to cover his ears.

"Noisy," he said blankly.

The rest of the Celestial Twelve nodded at his words, with pained ears as well.

Finally, Tamara had had enough.

She suddenly appeared in the middle of the three of them. As quick as lightning and as fluid as the water, she hit each one of them painfully on the back of the head.

It had nearly caused them to completely face plant on the carpeted floor.

They tried to glare at her, but they held themselves back when they saw the angry look she was giving them.

Tamara was the carefree and easy-going type, but when she gives you that look...oh you should not contradict her.

"If you guys really care about Valeriana, you should stop this. She'll know what's best for her when time comes. She may be slow, but she's smart enough," she said.

The rankers turned their attention to her, giving her a your-kidding-look.

"Are you sure you're not saying that to insult her in a subtle manner?" Keelan asked. He took another cookie and ate it without so much as chewing it.

"Subtle," the twelfth ranker agreed as he nodded.

The third ranker waved them off. Just as she was about to speak, Valeriana came running down the stairs.

"If Corvan asks where I am, tell him I've been with you guys since the end of classes!" she yelled when she paused before them while jogging in place.

Their brows rose to their hairline, when she dashed for the nearest loveseat and pretended like she had been doing nothing but sit there.

But if you looked closely, you could see the mischievousness and nervousness in her blue orbs.

A few minutes after that the first ranker came running down the stairs.

"Where's Valeriana?!" he yelled.

The rankers' eyes were stark wide―including Brindon's.

Written across his forehead were the words IDIOT CRETIN. There were also doodles all over his face, round glasses, and a weird beard (hahaha rhymed).

It was written in marker from Val's monthly package.

They had the nagging urge to laugh at his appearance. But, they had chosen to keep quiet seeing that the young lord was in total outrage, which had the temperature in the building rising.

But of course, this didn't stop Tamara. She let out a full blown laugh that had her rolling on the floor purposely ignoring Corvan's mood.

Unknowingly, they each lifted a hand and pointed a finger at Val.

Traitors, she inwardly thought.

"Hmm...what is it?" she asked as she slowly turned to him. Once she did, she laughed out loud like she wasn't the "artist" responsible for the "art" on Corvan's face.

She didn't know why, but when she saw the pen marker in the package from her mom, the first thought that came to mind was to draw on the young Arlandian Lord's face.

It appeared that her training had given her enough skills to sneak up on the sleeping first ranker, without getting caught.

"Don't play innocent with me! I know for a fact that you're responsible for this abhorrence written all over my face!" the first ranker yelled. Val continued laughing out loud along with Tamara.

The other rankers seemed a bit nervous and sweaty, after feeling the temperature in the room had started rising.

They were surprised when Corvan suddenly grabbed the fifth ranker's arm and pulled her to him. He bent his stained face close to her, with a few centimeters left in between.

This caused Valeriana to shut up, as she felt his breath fanning her face.

"You will get...whatever this thing is...off of me, or so help me I'll do something you won't like that you'll remember for the rest of your existence!" he yelled.

To add to the rankers' surprise, he picked her up easily, and swung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

As he made his way up the stairs, Valeriana kept pounding her fists on his back while yelling profanities at him.

Meanwhile, Zevlin was grinning broadly and his sister was fanning her face with a look of joy in her eyes.

On the other hand, Elfre looked like she wanted to break something. Raziel's face with the smug smile directed at her sounded like the perfect choice as of the moment, aside from the twins'.

―――

The moment Corvan reached his room he headed to the bed and dropped Val there unceremoniously. He went back to the door to lock it, effectively insuring that she had no escape.

Val sat up, just as Corvan turned off the lights. Nervousness filled her in an instant. Through the light coming from the fireplace, she could see him slowly taking off his tunic and boots.

Her mouth ran dry when Corvan approached her, while giving her a good view of his drool-worthy muscular torso.

"What...What...are you... doing?" she stammered out as she stood.

A smirk crawled its way up to Corvan's face as he continued his advances.

Once in front of her, he bent down slowly towards her face. Val leaned back, until she was lying back down on the bed.

She was completely red now, and her entire being was engulfed by nervousness―for the lack of better word.

She turned redder when he crawled up on top of her, trapping her in between his limbs. She closed her eyes rapidly when he leaned down towards her.

All of a sudden, a deep guttural laugh erupted from Corvan. The fifth ranker's eyes flew open, just as he rolled off of her. At the same time, he couldn't take it in anymore and let out full blown laugh.

"You...you should have...seen your face!' he said in between his fit.

Valeriana turned red again, but this time, because of absolute anger. A teensy-weensy part of her was disappointed though.

All of a sudden, he stopped laughing and stood up. He grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the bathroom.

"You are going to take off all these writing on me," he said. As he said that, he made his way over to a chair which was right next to the sink and sat there.

"You're going to do it or else I'll tell Lord Aeron and Lady Seraphina all you're shenanigans," he said in a firm tone.

Val's mouth was agape. She could care less about what the Court Leader will say, but it was a different matter for the lady night. She didn't want to disappoint her or anything.

"Was turning off the lights necessary...." She muttered to herself.

With a heavy heart, she grabbed the soap and turned on the water. She quickly began cleaning up her "masterpiece" on Corvan's face.

She didn't do it gently though. The first ranker's bathroom filled with yells of "Do it gently, stupid witch," and "I have to do this to get it off, idiot devil!"

One hour later....

Corvan finally dried his face, which was now free of ink marks. He took the time to check if there were any left, before turning to Valeriana.

But, once he did, she was nowhere to be found. His face scrunched up in confusion as he made his way out of the bathroom.

Once there, his eyes roamed around in search of her. He immediately saw her sleeping form sprawled out on his large couch.

He made his way towards her and bent down. "Valeriana, wake up," he tried to shake her awake, gently. "Valeriana...." He said again, but it only caused her to stir, falling back to sleep immediately.

"Five more minutes, mom," she mumbled.

Corvan couldn't stop the smile that tugged at his lips.

When she was asleep like this, she was really adorable. Nobody would think of her as some stubborn stupid little witch. He ran his fingers through her hair, not being able to hold back the urge to do so.

With a sigh, he rubbed his face.

It wasn't best for her to sleep in his room, seeing that the other rankers might get any weird ideas―Tamara especially.

He opted to just carry her back to her room. He placed his arm around her shoulder, and slipped the other to the back of her knees.

He lifted her effortlessly in princess style. He was finally able to open the door, without bumping Val's head of course. He hoped to the gods that none of the rankers would see him with the fifth in his arms.

Once he reached her room, he quickly slipped inside after finding out that it wasn't locked.

He immediately placed her on the bed.

He was about to leave, but Val caught his arm. He whipped his head towards her and sat on her bed.

"You're...such an idiot jerk, Corvan," she muttered with her eyes closed. His eye twitched in annoyance. Even in her sleep, she calls him names.

He shook his head, and slowly disentangled his arm from her hold. When he was about to leave, her next words made him stop.

"But, you're...a great guy. You're kind...and caring, even if...you're always angry...." She continued as she stirred.

"Thank you, for taking care of me," she said, before she completely fell asleep.

If she would be able to see Corvan's flushed face she would laugh out loud.

He had always wished that she would show an ounce of gratitude, but he didn't expect it to come from her while she was half-asleep.

Even so, it was enough to cause a large amount of happiness to fill him. He sighed, and pulled the covers over her.

He brushed a lock of her hair from obscuring her beautiful face. He stared at her for who knows how long, developing the urge to kiss her.

Slowly, he bent his head down. He didn't know why, but he was drawn to her. He wanted to deepen the kiss once his lips made contact with her soft ones. But, he held himself back and settled for a chaste one.

He gave her another one on the temple, before he pulled away.

Just as he was a few feet away, he stepped on something. He slowly bent down to pick it up. It looked like a small cylinder tube, with a cap.

He pulled it off and a familiar smell filled his nostrils. It smelled like the black thing that was all over his face earlier. His thoughts were confirmed when he touched the tip, and got a black spot on his finger.

It was Val's maker.

He turned back to her and got the wickedest idea he had ever had in so many years.

Revenge, he thought with a naughty glint in his eyes.

#####

Hahahahahaha...I'll be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy writing this.

Hope you guys liked it! This is dedicated to Ms. Lee of course!

Feel free to tell me your thoughts.

And to those who had been reading my book FIRMAMENT, thank you so much!

---Nen