The Unfortunate Case of Messy Rooms and Broken Doors

The rays of the morning sun warmed the cool autumn air that seeped through the open arched stone windows of the old palace hallways which have yet to undergo the renovations that the more lived in sections have received. There were sounds of construction in the distance and a low buzz of activity with palace staff members flitting around in a flurry of cleaning and completing assigned daily tasks. 

It had taken effort, but Valery had managed to make its back in record time and minimal damage to her body, despite crashing hard into a pole somewhere in the beginning of her sprint. 

After formally informing a palace Staff member of her arrival, she had headed to her room to shower and change. She switched out her sunglasses for her proper ones and slipped into a pretty pink long sleeved dress and slipped on her favourite leather boots. Her hair was still wet from her shower when she left her rooms with the intention of seeing her sisters, who were located all the way on the other side of the palace. 

The sound of  indistinct yelling in the early morning drew Valery’s attention towards the Eastern Barracks courtyard. 

There, the palace guards were lined up in neat rows at the centre standing in attention as the Captain of the Guards barked orders at them.

Catching the drifting eye of a familiar guard who looked particularly dead-eyed that morning, Valery mouthed a ‘good morning’ with a cheery little wave as she skipped past. The guard straightened up with a bright look in her eyes and subtly returned the greeting with a twitch of her fingers. 

Valery’s smile widened and she returned her focus to arriving at her destination. Six years ago, she remembered finding this journey much more aggravating with how vast and maze-like the palace felt, but now she found even the tiniest imperfection in the glass to be familiar. 

The rhythmic clack of flat heeled boots skipping against the polished tile floors was a familiar sound to the palace staff, who all turned her way as she passed by. They offered her polite bows or friendly waves, depending on their familiarity with her, in return for her greetings. 

Usually, some of the more chatty and friendly ones would spare a moment of their busy schedules to have a chat with Valery and update her on anything she had missed in her time away, but they all regrettably seemed to be far too busy to stop for a chat with her today. 

It was strange. 

Valery frowned, unable to think of any events or visitors that could bring about this level of activity in the palace at this period of time. Her uncle usually kept her informed of everything going on in the Court, so it was strange for her to feel so out of the loop. Something  that required preparation of this scale would have been mentioned to her earlier for sure. 

Something must have happened in the time she was away. 

Upon finally arriving at the familiar large wooden double doors of her siblings’ shared room, Valery slowed her skip down to a stop before opening the doors with a sharp enthusiastic kick. 

“Good morning, my darlings! I’m back!” 

Valery’s smile faltered slightly.

The bedroom of the royal nieces was large and spacious but also surprisingly an absolute mess. 

There were toys, clothes, art supplies and paper scattered everywhere and there were even crayon and pen scribbles all over the walls.

Two large four-poster beds were located on opposite ends of the room with their deep purple drapes closed, but the sound of barely suppressed giggling coming from the slightly ajar doors of the walk-in closet said another story. 

Deciding to chat with the little menaces later about cleaning up after themselves, Valery huffed out a quiet laugh and made her way to the closest bed. 

“Gosh, looks like my babies are still asleep,” she mused out aloud for them to hear. “I better wake them up before our cousins decide to finish breakfast without them.” 

There was an aborted sound of distress but no other indication of them reacting to it otherwise. 

Valery’s eyes narrowed and she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her lips curled up in a smirk. 

Her sisters were not willing to take the bait this time, it seemed.  

She opened the curtains of the bed and made a sound of confusion. “What? There’s no one here.” She made her way to the other bed and opened its curtains as well for good measure and made a sound of distress. “Luna? Sola? Where on Earth could my darling sisters be?” 

She took her time looking under the bed and around every nook and cranny of the room while keeping an ear out for their quiet sounds of amusement. Eventually, Valery made her way to the closet.

"Now, this is the only place I haven't checked, but what could my sisters possibly be doing hiding in the closet? They should know by now that I would always accept them regardless of who they choose to marry one day."

Now that got her a response. 

She made sure to grip both handles before opening to reduce the chances of the children running off. 

She was met with two unhappy faces. 

Lunarys, the older twin, looked at Valery with her purple eyes and button nose scrunched up and made a sound of disgust. “Ew, Valery. Marriage? Gross! Why would we ever get married when everyone our age is so gross.” 

Solarys nodded her head in earnest agreement, “Yeah. Both boys and girls. All nasty. Yuck.” 

Valery laughed. Then she went down to her knees and pulled her two favourite people into a big hug. 

“Oh, my babies. I missed you both so much! I feel like I haven’t seen you for a hundred years! I swear you’re both a meter taller than you were three weeks ago.”

Solarys gasped, looking up at Valery with wide eyes. “Really?” 

Ever the skeptic, Lunarys pulled away a little to frown at her. “Liar! We only grew five millimetres taller, Valery. We measured!”

“Oh yeah. I forgot,” Solarys said, dropping her head in disappointment. 

Valery gasped, “A full five millimetres? Are you serious? That’s amazing! I haven’t seen you two in so long that it looked like you grew a lot more to me.” 

That eased the tension in Lunarys’ face and returned the smile to Solarys’.

“I suppose that is reasonable,” Lunarys said with a nod, easily accepting Valery’s weak justification. “You haven’t seen us in a while. And if we combine that with the possibility of your eyesight getting worse…” 

Ouch. Her eyesight was not that bad, thank you very much. 

Valery kissed them both on the cheek and carried them in her arms with ease to an oversized comfy couch near the entrance. There, she listened to them excitedly talk about everything they had been up to in the time she was away. Afterwards, when they pestered her for information on what she had done, she regaled them with exaggerated stories of her own experiences and adventures in the wilderness.  

Valery was in the middle of describing an epic fight she had with a wild demonic bear over a single piece of beef jerky to the absolutely enraptured Solarys and the increasingly doubtful Lunarys when the nannies arrived. 

There was a horrified gasp from Maryanne and a wrinkled frown from Lin as they took in the state of the twins’ bedroom. Their condemning gazes turned to Valery as if she was the one responsible for it. 

“Good morning?” she hesitantly offered with an uncertain smile.

After hearing a second-hand report of the twins' behaviour from the nannies, Valery politely informed them that she would get the twins cleaned and dressed for the day herself before dismissing them.

The nannies were very unhappy with her decision, as always, however they had no choice but to follow her request as Valery had a higher authority than they did as a princess. 

Maryanne and Lin never like leaving the twins in her care because they usually ended up dressed in clothing that the nannies considered highly improper for a member of the royal family to be seen dressed in.  

Valery never cared for their opinions. There was nothing inappropriate or wrong with the choices that Valery allowed the twins to make. The only thing the nannies could possibly even attempt to criticise was how mismatched their clothes were, but Valery did not see how bad taste could be a sin. 

Propriety be damned, Valery would never force her sisters to wear a single piece of clothing they disliked. 

What Valery did slightly feel bad for was the off-hand observation Lin made about the broken door handle. Valery had a bad habit of kicking this particular bedroom door open, but this particular result had always been avoided because the doors to the room were usually unlocked. 

This time had been different because the twins had apparently been absolute menaces without Valery’s presence to keep them in check. So, the doors had been locked to protect the palace from their nighttime reign of terror. 

Valery brushed and braided their hair while simultaneously cracking up and attempting to lecture them for their naughty behaviour. Her words and actions were probably too contradictory to get her point across, if the pleased looks the twins exchanged were anything to go by. 

“C’mon, guys, I’m being serious. Please try to keep the property damage and traumatisation to a minimum while I’m away.” 

Solarys pouted and clung to her long coat sleeve. “But, Valery, we didn’t even do anything! Whatever Maryanne and Lin said are lies!” She whined.

Valery smirked, “So, you weren’t the clever people that came up with the brilliant idea of switching all the sugar and salt supplies in the kitchens?”

The twins stared at her with their big purple eyes. “Brilliant idea?” They simultaneously asked, promptly exchanging another glance. 

Valery found it absolutely adorable and fascinating how the pair seemed to be able to communicate without a single word being spoken out loud. 

“It was me, Valery. I was the one that did it. That was my idea,” Lunarys confessed proudly, puffing her chest out with her hands on her hips. 

Solarys shot her sister an annoyed glance. “Not true! I also helped Valery. Luna just came up with the idea. I’m the one that figured out how to do everything.” 

Valery’s smirk became absolutely sharklike as she reached out to pinch both their cheeks. “So you confess to your crimes, you little villains!” 

Understanding that they had fallen into a trap, the twins exchanged another short glance and gave her identical teary-eyed looks. 

“You tricked us, Valery!” Solarys shrieked, aiming a kick at Valery’s shin, which Valery generously allowed to connect with an exaggerated wince. 

Lunarys, on the other other hand, expressed her annoyance with her by simply turning her head with a huff. Choosing to give her the silent treatment instead. 

Warmth filled Valery’s chest and she couldn’t help the delighted laughs that bubbled out of her in response to her sisters’ familiar antics. 

It was great to be back home. 

She really missed them.