Valery Interview

The red head felt somewhat awkward inside the yin-yang twins house, not for any other reason than they were dragons. Traditional. She could so easily insult them. But so far so good, they had led her without question to Valery's room.

"Thanks," she said, pushing up her black rimmed glasses to sit properly on her nose.

"You're welcome," they said together, causing her to giggle. They grinned, knocked on the door and waited just a moment before opening the door. "Visitor for you, lovely!" they yelled and shoved Nicki into the room, closing the door behind her.

Valery's room looked like any typical teenage girl's. Posters on the walls and music and magazines everywhere. The only odd thing was the pile of baby stuff, not yet fully organized, in one corner of the room.

The rooms owner was sat on her bed with her headphones around her neck and her mp3 player on her knee. She waved at the redhead in greeting.

"Hello," Nicki said, she smiled at Valery. "Do you want some help with this?" She asked, pointing at the pile of baby stuff. She understood what the teen was going through. She knew that the twins had given her a nursery adjoined to this room too.

"Nah, I'll get around to it in a little bit," Valery said with a shake of her head, loosening a few black hairs from her messy bun.

"I don't mind, I've had to do all this before." Nicki laughed, but she pulled over a chair and sat on it in front of Valery. "How are you feeling anyway?"

"Normal I guess?" Valery answered. "Sometimes I'm so queasy I don't even want to see food. But I've been told that will go away."

"If you're lucky it will," Nicki agreed, but she also knew that it could end up staying and be awful. "How are you liking it here so far?"

"It's nice. Definitely better than the apartment I shared with my grandfather. Quieter than back home too. No servants to spy on you. No fancy parties. But there's so much nature. And bugs. So ew. I could do without the creepy ghosts too," Valery replied.

The red head just grinned, she was amused. Valery was such a girlie girl, but not in an annoying way which was a very novel concept for her. "How are you getting along with Zeke and the twins?"

"Zeke is fun. He's so loud and spazzy. I bet he's great at parties. He can be super annoying though when my stomach is trying to murder me. In a cute way. Like is that a thing? Cute annoying? Oh well. My friends back home are all about Crave. They'd probably die of jealousy if they knew I was living with him." Valery felt kind of smug about that. "The twins are weird. For me," she said quietly as if afraid they'd hear her. "They're just so not what I'd picture big deal gods to be like. At all. I guess it's not so weird they take interest in people. Gods kind of do that right, adopt those they find worthy? I don't think I'm worthy of truth or ideals. So I don't know. At least they're nice and not all scary dragonish?"

Nicki nodded to show she understood. "I can see how it would be overwhelming for you, if it makes you feel better I think twins are meant to be weird, talking in unison and all of that." She said, trying to reassure her. "Don't doubt your worth either, if they see it, it's there. Have you spoken to your parents or grandfather since you left?"

"I have with my grandfather. He's doing a little better. He has a full time nurse that's helping him to recover faster. I think he's nervous about me living so far away and with strangers but I also think he's relieved to not have to be the one to care for me and the baby. I can't blame him. He can barely care for himself now," Valery said. "I haven't reached out to my parents yet. Not sure if grandfather has either. I'm procrastinating and being cowardly. They're going to flip out and I'm just not ready to deal with that."

"If you know how they're going to react, you need to be stern about your communication, you know? They can't change your mind, they can't make you feel bad. At least, you shouldn't give them the power to be able too." Nicki said, because her parents hadn't been so happy either. Well, her mum hadn't been and ended up kicking her out. It had been hard. "If you need help with it, you should ask the twins. Specifically Jiyong, he's so charming. You know?"

"Maybe. They're helping me out so much already that I do t want them to have to deal with my drama too. Krei offered to talk to them back when he first found out but I didn't want to involve him too much either. I guess now he's probably used to their kind..." Valery shrugged.

"They're here for you, you need to learn to ask for help, Valery. Trust me, it took me far too long to ask and I soon learned the hard way." Nicki said, she didn't want the girl to have the struggles she had. She wouldn't either, the boys would take care of her. "What do you think of the rest of the group? Any you like best?"

"I'm not sure about a favorite," Valery said. "Maybe Hikari? She's very nice and seems pretty chill. The girl twins are pretty fun to talk about fashion with but Mandisa kind of scares me. She's so intense. Mireya is a little easier for me to he around." She thought about the boys then. "I'm really used to Krei already. He's like a big brother. I have hard time believing the negative things people say about him. Edens intimidating. He's just so pretty. I'm not sure how I feel about a boy being prettier than me," she said with a little laugh. "Drake is cool. Also kind of intense but not in a scary way. I'm kind of still getting used to fiends taking on human forms. I like gaius. He's very warm and cuddly. Jiro is weird...I don't think I've ever seen him smile. Tan is much sillier and easier to talk to. He's not so scary for a dragon."

"I think Jiro is hard to understand, Mandisa comes off harsh to protect herself, Hikari wears her heart on her sleeve and gets hurt easy, Drake is well... Drake." Nicki laughed, Drake was just an odd ball. No worse than Jiro though. "Tan is the most adorable of dragons, only second to Mireya, who is just lovely because she's a fairy. You'll easily fit in with them, even with the baby coming. Have you picked a name?"

"No, I don't want to do that until I know what I'm having. That way I can't get excited about a name and then get disappointed if I can't have it," Valery said.

"That makes sense. You can ask Jiro," Nicki pointed out, because really Jiro would know better than anyone. "If you are eager to find out, that is." She added on and then looked thoughtful. "What are your goals in life, Valery?" The redhead asked, her head tilting to the side.

"Goals? I don't know. Not to fail as a mother, I guess..." Valery thought about it for a little but then just shrugged. "I haven't really given it a lot of thought. The way I was raised, I was just supposed to stay pretty and attract some important person's son to further my family's social standing. So since my future was pretty much planned for me and I was to just be what my mother is, well, I never really thought about it and soon it won't be about me but the baby so I guess I don't have one other than that."

"You have the best support. It's not just about the baby, you need to work on you as well and what you want beyond being a mum." Nicki replied, shaking her head. But she could understand why she would think so. "If you want an education get one, if you want to do music, talk to Haru. If you want to model, Mireya. If you don't want that, figure it out. You've got time. Something must spark your interest."

"Oh. I guess you're right. I think I'll figure it out after things with the baby have calmed down. No use getting excited and starting something now for pregnancy leave to interrupt it," Valery said.