Christmas spirit in Sol

So… Here’s my entry for the one-shot contest. I want to apologize in advance for my English; it’s not my native language, so my choice of words may be weird. Please bear with me.

And, in case it’s not clear, I’m not shipping Bree and Hailey in this story. I just thought it would be interesting if they developed some sort of friendship. (I’m Chailey all the way. hehe)

I hope you enjoy it.

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I woke up and stayed in the same position for a few seconds, admiring the rays of sunshine entering the bedroom through the big window, until I remembered what day it was. I then proceeded to jump out of the bed and put on my oversized Christmas sweater and a pair of jeans. I had intended to spend the holidays with my father, as usual, but, after thanksgiving, he suggested that Aeolus could use some Christmas joy and convinced me that he would be alright on his own.

I had spent the last three days gathering everyone in Sol to decorate the whole city. We even had a huge tree that was particularly fun to garnish. My grandfather had been really worried about the war for the past weeks, even though there hadn’t been another attack in the last weeks, but promised to save some time that night, when we would have dinner with our closest friends.

I still had a lot of free time until dinner, so, after a quick breakfast I decided to go look for Chase.  He was nowhere to be seen inside the castle, so I went to the training yards. From a distance, I noticed there was someone there, which was strange, since grampa had given everyone a day off. As I walked closer, I was able to distinguish lilac wings and a flaming red hair moving fast and throwing knifes in tiny targets. I started to turn around, but stopped, admiring her ability. As my eyes got used to the speed, I could see her concentrated expression. There was something more in her eyes as she swifted through the air. It looked like she was… troubled.

I must’ve stayed there watching for a long time until she decided to land with her usual get-the-hell-out-before-I-kill-you face and started gathering her equipment. 

“Don’t you have some ‘princesing’ to do?” she asked slightly out of breath, without looking at me. I bit back a sassy response in the name of Christmas Spirit. 

“I, uh…  I’m looking for Chase. Have you seen him?” 

“No. He and everyone in junior troops would be here training as they should, if you hadn’t convinced the king to give the whole city a day off when we are in the verge of war.” Now she was looking at me and I wished she wasn’t, because her angry stare kind of made me want to run away. 

“My grandfather gave everyone a day off because… Nevermind. It’s no use arguing with you.” 

I turned around and began to walk away, then I heard Bree sigh and call. 

“Wait…” she looked down when I stared at her “The people… everyone was terrified of the war since they attacked Sol, but… You were able to get it off of everyone’s mind with your weird little lights and colored balls and annoying songs. People stopped panicking, so… I think you did a good job. Maybe I'm just jealous.”

I stared at her in silence for a few seconds, wondering whether I should ask her if she had it her head. It was my turn to call her when she turned around.

“Hey, I… You could have joined us, too. It was really fun. Maybe we can find some more houses to decorate, if you want to.” 

For a split second, Bree looked like she was about to smile, but then she frowned again and turned into her old self. 

“I don’t have time for this. I have some important stuff to do, unlike you.” She was trying to make me mad, but instead I laughed. 

“Oh, do you? Like what?” 

“Like… checking the… uh… armory.” 

“Bree…” I said, giving her a condescending look. 

“What?” She ask, sounding slightly more desperate than she would have liked.

“Are you… afraid of the war?” 

“Don’t be stupid, princess. Of course not.” She said and then, noticing that I was still waiting for her to explain herself, she continued. “I just hate feeling so…” She sighed, looking at her own feet. “… powerless. We don’t know what they’ll do next and I can’t stand just sitting here doing nothing.” 

We stayed in silence as I tried to figure out what to say. I never expected Bree to talk about her feelings like that, especially to me. I mean, Bree hated everyone, but it always seemed like I was her favorite target. I opened my mouth to respond, but she turned away and cut me off as she went back to gathering her training equipment.

“I don’t even know why I said that to you. You’re used to being useless, it mustn’t even bother you.” 

“Why do you have to fight all the time?” I asked, clenching my fists. 

“Oh, it’s really fun getting to your nerves.” She looked at me to give me a sarcastic smile. 

“No, that’s not what I mean. Why do you have to be the first in command of the junior troops all the time?” I looked down at my closed hands. 

“What are you saying, Hailey? I am the first in command of the junior troops.” 

“Yeah, but that is not all you are. You are a person, too. You can have some time off.” I looked up at her eyes and smiled. “After all, it’s Christmas.” 

She opened her mouth to protest, but then sighed and asked in a defeated tone: “Okay… so what am I supposed to do? If you tell me to bake cookies I’m seriously going to throw a knife in your face.” 

“Okay, okay. Chill out. How about you help someone?” 

“And why would I do that?” She raised an eyebrow. 

“Because it’s the Christmas spirit.” I smiled annoyingly. 

“Right… but how will I help anybody?” 

I pictured her trying to help a little kid. No, not good. She would probably make him cry just by looking at him. I ran my eyes through the training field and an idea popped into my head. 

“You can help me learn how to throw a knife!” 

“But you are horrible with knifes.” She looked unamused. 

“Aaand that’s why I need you to help me learn.” I answered with a smile, determined to not let her get into my nerves. She huffed and handed me a knife. 

We spent the rest of the morning training with all sorts of targets. We started with bigger ones, then moved to smaller ones and finally to the ones that moved around. From time to time she would make a mean comment about my lack of ability, but, other than that, she was actually pretty patient. By the end of the morning, it was clear that I didn’t have a natural talent for knife throwing, but with Bree’s tips I was able to at least hit the big targets and small targets almost every time, and the moving ones about half of the times. 

My stomach started growling and we decided we had trained enough for one morning. 

“Alright, now that I have fulfilled my Christmas duties, you can leave me alone, bad-aim princess.” She said, trying to sound annoyed. 

I obediently walked away, but, halfway to the castle I remembered something and ran back to Bree, who was almost done putting everything away. 

“Hey, Bree.  I was-“ 

“Oh my God, are you going to chase me for the rest of the day?!” she yelled. 

“Calm down, Grinch. I was just going to ask if you want to join us for dinner tonight.” I smiled, thankful that Bree didn't know who was the Grinch. 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just get the hell out of here.” 

Smiling, I ran away before she threatened me with a knife again. I may be mistaken, but as I looked back, I thought I saw something in Bree’s face that looked like a smile. Not her usual sarcastic and mean smile, but a genuine smile of someone who just discovered a friend. Well, I guess I just witnessed a true Christmas miracle.