Chapter 170

As a family, they knew there was one big American tradition that they wanted to take part in as a part of their holiday time – getting a Christmas tree. None of them were Christian or necessarily cared for many of the big traditions, but since living with Valkyrie they had always had a tree and decorated it, usually had a lot of treats as well as a roast dinner on the day, plus all the presents. This year had to be smaller what with the massive money lose thanks to the house renovation, plus Valkyrie's own spending on Nadia's birthday car, and the fact they were in a different country, but that didn't matter to Valkyrie, Tanith, Nadia and Erskine – it was Christmas and they needed a tree!

Solomon had gotten back from his most recent trip to the Necromancy Temple right in time for the festivities. That notwithstanding, him and Anton chose to stay back to go food shopping. "Sounds like a plan!" Erskine had joyfully said before ushering everyone into the car. With the same big grin on his face he told Valkyrie, "Suckers, I hate food shopping! They got the wrong end of the stick here."

Valkyrie had laughed at how certain he was but it faded by the time they had arrived at the massive tree farm three hours away. If she had to listen to Fletcher and Erskine plan 'eye spy' any longer they were both going to be dead.

"Thank god," Nadia muttered, stretching. Valkyrie smiled at her and kissed her lips.

"You're so cute," she whispered, pulling her away from the car so Tanith could manhandle Laila out of the car and into a wrap.

"Get a room, lovebirds," Tanith told them. Valkyrie and Nadia giggled as they watched Tanith struggle and then whoop when she had her baby out of her car seat. Laila looked around with big eyes. Being in the area they were, it was about fifteen degrees Celsius and they were happy in their jeans and shirts. Well, Nadia had worn a short sleeve top and decided it was too cold, so she had stolen Valkyrie's jacket. But that was just expected.

"We do have a room," Nadia said just loud enough for Tanith to hear. "But the walls are thin."

Tanith grinned and laughed. "I know. I'm between you and Dexter and Saracen."

They all shared a laugh as they went through the field acting as a car park. As they got to the front entrance they had to wait for a tiny Prius with a tree larger than it to go past before they could get in.

"How big of a tree are we getting?"

"Six foot," Saracen said. "We measured before we left."

"Smart," Valkyrie nodded. They had to pay a small fee to go in.

"There aren't many left," Nadia commented.

"How many types are there?"

"There's three I think," Dexter said, looking around at all the families. There was a group of maybe fifteen children chasing each other with branches knocking into everyone. They skirted around them and went deeper into the farm. "I think we'd only want Douglas or Noble Fir though. They're the nice ones."

"What's the other type?" Tanith asked.

"I don't remember," he said, looking around. "There's no signs."

"We can still see everything though," Valkyrie pointed out. Almost all the trees had been chopped leaving big gaps to look between. A lot of the remaining trees were either quite short, incredibly tall, or looked to be falling apart. One of them had even been half chopped and then abandoned, and was almost brown. "I hope we can find one today."

"We have to! There's nowhere else to get trees for miles," Erskine said. He gripped onto Dexter's forearm and pulled him forwards. "Come on, let's find some good ones."

The rest of them followed behind as a more sedate pace, watching the families and trying to spot a good tree.

"Val?" Nadia said quietly. "Is Erskine acting a little bit weird lately?"

"He gets very sentimental around Christmas," Valkyrie told her. "And it's been a shit year – it's been a shit last few months really. Us getting engaged and Christmas is bringing his childish side out way more than usual, but he's stressed about the things that happened, so he's just a bit, you know, manic at the moment. And his childish side generally means hanging off of big strong men. You know, the norm."

"Obviously," Nadia said, raising an eyebrow.

"He just needs time. As soon as we have the house completed he'll have a place to feel settled and cope a lot better. He's not incapable of dealing with the stress, but he needs a home base more than most people. Dexter is the opposite; he likes to move about and get in the action to cope with stress. Staying away from Ireland is going to make him stir crazy."

Nadia nodded and changed the subject. "What type of tree do you want then? I don't actually know the difference. My parents had real trees but they just sort of arrived at the house and our butler put the decorations up."

"That's kind of sad," Valkyrie told her.

Nadia shrugged. "I didn't know most people put decorations up together so I never cared. It was always really pretty. Honestly, I still don't care about putting up the decorations, I just like the aesthetics."

"You sound like a teenager."

"I am a teenager. We need to get some nice ornaments today too."

Valkyrie nodded. "And tinsel."

"No tinsel."

"Yes tinsel."

"We are not putting cheap tinsel on our beautiful tree."

"I don't know if we're even going to get a beautiful tree," Valkyrie said, looking around. "It looks like everyone got the same idea about better ones being at the back and they're all gone."

"We're not at the back yet," Nadia said, obviously trying not to pout. "I want a nice tree."

"I'm not sure if I can promise that. But it's nice weather at least."

"Not very Christmasy though."

"Hey, why are you getting upset? It's just a tree, next year we'll make sure we get one before this. It's not the end of the world," Valkyrie said comfortingly, putting an arm over Nadia's shoulders. "We're going to have an awesome Christmas dinner so it'll still be a great day. There's no use getting upset over it."

"I know, I'm sorry. I guess when we moved in and decided to do up the house I sort of had grand plans for Christmas' and I just want that right now you know? I don't want to wait for the nice things anymore."

"I get that. Trust me, it'll go faster than you think and we'll still have a nice Christmas. It just won't be as aesthetically pleasing as you want it to be."

Nadia cracked a smile. "I guess I can live with that."

"Yeeeah, you've kind of got to," Valkyrie joked, getting her girlfriend to laugh. "It looks like Erskine's found something."

They got closer and saw him and Dexter were turning around and around looking between two trees. There was a snapped red and white tap between the two, obviously meant to be splitting up the two sections, and the trees were different looking. Both were just below six feet, nice and wide. They were full and pretty and didn't look rubbish like the others they'd walked past. Not perfect or quite as tall as they wanted, but certainly very nice trees by any standards.

"This looks hopeful," Valkyrie commented.

"They can't decide which looks better," Saracen explained, watching them with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. They were arguing about colours and smells and how many decorations they could fit on each.

"Well, I like this one," Valkyrie said, pointing to the very full and green one. "It looks like a fancy tree."

"But this one has a great colour," Erskine said with exasperation, holding both hands out to the other tree. "And it's meant to be one of the fanciest you can get. And there're only less branches because it lets us have more ornaments on it, and when we do that it'll be really full and sparkly. This other one won't have almost anything on it."

"Yeah, but the Douglas," that was the one Valkyrie liked, "smells like a Christmas tree and the Nobel doesn't!" Dexter said, holding his hands out imploringly to Erskine. "And why would you want a bluish green when you can have a perfect green?"

"Because it's way more fun and Christmas is about fun, not having fancy stuff!" Erskine said, stomping his foot.

"He does have a point," Tanith agreed.

"Even if I wouldn't let go of this Douglas, you'd need a better Nobel than that," Dexter said stubbornly, crossing his arms. "That one looks okay over here but the back is already falling apart."

"But that will be against the wall so it doesn't matter," Erskine argued. "We're not putting it in the middle of the room."

"Oh my god," Valkyrie muttered, looking between them as they started to argue about the smells again. "Right," Valkyrie said, putting her hands up and silencing them. "Let's just take a vote. Stand next to the tree you like best."

Valkyrie and Nadia went to the Douglas, while Tanith and Ghastly joined the Nobel Fir team. The two groups started down Saracen and Fletcher.

Saracen sighed and went to the Douglas, getting cheers from them.

"It's up to Fletcher," Tanith grinned. "Four on each side."

"No, you have three," Valkyrie frowned.

"Baby likes this tree, don't you sweetie," Tanith said, ticking Laila's neck and getting her to squeal and kick her legs excitedly. "You love this tree so much."

"Fine, it's up to Fletcher then," Valkyrie said, looking at the boy. Fletcher was looking between the two groups with big eyes and a lot of worry. "If you come to our side, we promise to protect you from the Nobel's revenge," Valkyrie told him seriously.

"Hey, that's not true, we wouldn't do anything to you," Tanith said. "If you come here we'll make sure you get the best food on Christmas day."

"That's a lie, I've lived with her and I know she'll lie and take all it for herself," Valkyrie said back. "She's a pig."

"Oh no," Fletcher said under his breath and rubbing his brow nervously.

"Well, we'll let you put the star on top," Tanith said.

"What?!" Erskine almost screeched. "No way!"

"Fletcher, come here and I promise I'll stop them fighting and you can teleport home instead of driving," Nadia said firmly.

Like a cat to milk, Fletcher was on their side before Erskine and Tanith had stopped bickering enough to notice. Valkyrie high fived Nadia.

It was dictated, by Dexter, that Erskine and his group had to go and get the people at the front to buy and cut down the tree while their group could stay with the tree. They waved the losers off.

"That was fun," Nadia said with a smirk.

"They're going to kill me later," Fletcher said, shaking his head and them immediately brushing a hand over his hair.

Nadia frowned at him. "No, they won't. God, why don't you just cut your hair shorter. Surely it's easier to spike if it's shorter."

"I like it long though," Fletcher countered, the other hand going up to check it more thoroughly.

"Yes, but it would look better and be easier if it's shorter. And I've been meaning to ask, what product are you using? Because I'm worried it's damaging your hair," Nadia crossed her arms to look at him. Valkyrie and Dexter looked between them in amusement.

"I don't know, just a generic wax I think. I use hairspray too now it's getting longer," he said somewhat defensively.

Nadia nodded. "That's okay. I'm just worried that you're stripping the hair of all its healthy oils. You need to let your hair rest. You wash it every day, right?"

"Yeah," he said.

"That sounded like a lie," Valkyrie chipped in helpfully.

"Fletcher," Nadia started. Fletcher looked like he might wilt under her unimpressed expression. "Look, I know you like it spiky but you need to wash it every day! It's really unhealthy for your hair otherwise and it could get really dry and become damaged. I was told that if you used too much hair spray, your hair can get so damaged it falls out. And you need to get it trimmed regularly too or you'll get split ends."

"I do wash it every day," he said quickly. "But I fall asleep without meaning to sometimes, that's all. It's not that bad."

Dexter chose to step in. "Aw, leave Fletcher's hair alone! We all make mistakes." Fletcher winced. "I think I have a picture of the Dead Men from the sixties and our hair was insane back then. Mine was almost at my hips and Anton was just starting to grow his out. Erskine had a buzz cut at one point but I think that was a little after that photo. I think him and Saracen actually had mohawks at some point."

"We need to see those pictures," Valkyrie grinned.

"I'll find them when we go back to Ireland. God, and the clothes we had!"

Dexter reminisced with them for a while before the tree-man and the rest of their family got back and he had to stop his stories of hundreds of years past. The tree was skilfully cut and the bottom bagged properly. Erskine had recovered and was already planning on what he wanted on the tree, and helped Dexter in carrying it back – Fletcher had to go too because Dexter and Erskine wanted to show him how the car ties worked as 'man bonding'. Nadia, Tanith, Saracen, Valkyrie and Ghastly went into the small café where Ghastly was stared at a lot and caused someone to drop a plate. It was a small little room, and quiet enough with the staring for the one person who looked away from Ghastly to be heard when they made a rude comment about Tanith breastfeeding in the café. The elderly women went very pale and looked away quickly when she got five mean glares.

They ordered hot chocolates and American sugar cookie which Nadia and Valkyrie had never had before.

"What are these made of?" Nadia asked, taking a bite out of one with pink frosting.

"They're normal biscuits," Dexter told her, putting one in his mouth whole. "Goob d'ough."

"Here's your hot chocolates," a young woman said, coming up to their corner table with a tray of drinks. She looked straight down and didn't dare look at them.

"Thank you," Ghastly said, and she took a shaking breath and almost ran away with the tray.

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "Weirdo."

"Hey, did you get an update from the builders recently?" Tanith asked as she tried to adjust Laila without flashing her entire breast. Laila was fussing and pushing her arms up and everywhere, making Tanith's life difficult. Tanith easily stroked Laila's head and she started to calm down and drink again.

"Yeah, I got an email," Nadia nodded. "They had to stop a few weeks ago because of the bad weather, but the snows been clearing up in Ireland for a little while now so they want to get back to work after their holiday, which ends on the second of January. As long as it doesn't snow again they'll keep going on the extension and possibly get it done by the end of that month, and then it's just another month of touching up the exterior and doing the inside. They have everyone available on the job so it's going quickly. Plus the house was repointed last time you guys did renovations, so that's a massive chunk of work already done."

Dexter nodded and picked up his fifth cookie. "I don't think it'll be done by the time we're all, you know, back together after Valkyrie's operation."

"Your mouth is covered in pink," Valkyrie told him.

"Are you gonna lick it off?"

"Do you want me to?"

Ghastly put his head in his hands and they all got a laugh. Valkyrie threw a plasticky, cheap napkin at Dexter. "You're right, it won't be totally done, but they should have downstairs finished so we'll have to act like we like each other and pull our beds into one of the ballrooms for a while. They'll finish the upstairs before going to the library, but then the carpenters will have to do it up so we'll still have to wait. I guess if they do it one apartment at a time we'll just have to move in as things are ready."

"If they do your apartment first, can I move into the spare room?" Tanith asked.

Dexter gave her a look and put his hand out and waved it around in an unsure gesture. "I'm not sure that's a great idea. Two young women, just moving into their own place together. Months of being surrounded by family. Do you really want to expose you and baby to that?"

"I don't think I'll care," Tanith said bluntly. "I'll be too sick of the rest of you."

Nadia was blushing massively but Valkyrie just shook her head. "I think I'm just going to let Anton take the room."

"Anton has his own house!" Tanith retaliated.

"Yeah, but he doesn't annoy us," Valkyrie said, eating a small stray marshmallow. "Let's not talk about that though, I'm going crazy talking about the house all the time. Have you heard from Pa?"

"He seems stressed," Dexter said, frowning at his drink. "As soon as all this stuff is over, I think he'll be on his way out."

"That's probably the bit where the job gets easier," Ghastly pointed out.

Dexter shrugged. "He seems pretty upset though. Coping, but tired. With Elder Crow gone things are tough. He did mention someone in a friendly country coming to visit though," he said, trying not to say anything that would give away what they were talking about. "He seemed to think they might be willing to become an Elder."

"We've never had a non-national Elder before," Ghastly said, frowning himself.

"Pa seemed pretty happy about it though. I expect it's a friend from the war, but he hasn't told me anything important in case of interceptions. It's probably someone that will just be with us through the hostilities," he whispered the end of that sentence, "and will retire as soon as things settle. Seemed like a good idea to me. Plus it would as good as secure us an ally if things go bad. He said there had been secret meetings between our people and this other country, so we're as good as set, anyway. He also said they found a spy from a different foreign country a few days ago but won't say from where."

"Things are happening then," Valkyrie sighed.

"Hey, don't worry," Dexter smiled. "It's Christmas and we'll be home soon. Just focus on Nadia and your training. That's what's important right now. We'll focus on the rest."

"How is your training going?" Ghastly asked with a serious look. He always avoided that topic when at all possible – even leaving the room – because he was so worried about the Magic Keeping risks.

"It's going well. I still have to do a lot more but Norma is really happy with what I'm doing and so was Solomon in terms of actual skill. Our 'talents' are very similar when it comes to basics, and since he was teaching me before I have a bit of an idea of what I'm doing, but style and all the little branches of what's possible are completely different."

Ghastly grunted. "At least your learning."

Valkyrie smiled softly, knowing this was extremely hard on him. He wanted to be supportive. But he was a stubborn man and being supportive of something he totally disagreed with, with it being someone he wanted to protect, was incredibly difficult for him. "I think Solomon wants to take me over there soon for some experimental training. Just to see how much more I can do. I'll probably go over the weekend with him and then come back by myself and leave Solomon to keep researching. If we have time, that is."

"Sounds good," Dexter told her, finishing the last of his drink and taking all of the last of the cookies in his hand. Tanith wiped at Laila's spit-chin and they were ready to go.

Since Erskine had taken over the tree, Valkyrie and Nadia sort of wandered to the edge of the trees to look at some expensive ornaments they couldn't get this year – as they'd probably be broken before next Christmas – and listened into Erskine talk to himself about colours. Tanith and Saracen were talking, and Dexter had Laila and stood with Ghastly and Fletcher by the exit. A small swarm of people had arrived and it was nice to be with her girlfriend out of the way.

"It's nice not to be working," Valkyrie said, smiling.

"Yeah," Nadia nodded, crossing her arms uncomfortably.

"What is it?"

Nadia didn't say anything, just looked away. Confused, Valkyrie went to ask her if it was about the Christmas tree again when we heard some boys laughing. Listening hard, she heard them whispering together but couldn't make anything out.

"What did they say?" She whispered to Nadia softly as a family went past them.

"They're insulting us."

"How?"

Nadia went to say but the family moved on and it was quiet again so she didn't speak. The only thing that did that to Nadia, other than talk of her family, was when people made comments about her sexuality. Trying not to get frustrated or angry with the kids who made the comments, Valkyrie suggested a walk. It wasn't hard to notice they were being followed because the boys didn't even try to hide it.

"Would you like to cause some trouble or just leave?" Valkyrie asked. After the homophobic lady when they went on their first day out in America, and also the girl that attacked Valkyrie years ago, anything to do with being told her sexuality was wrong just made Nadia close up in fear of being shouted at or attacked it seemed, and Valkyrie realised she needed to try harder to make her feel comfortable. It wasn't fair that her girlfriend was made to feel insecure or unsafe over something that was so natural and happy. It barely even made her mad, she just felt really upset... and small. She wanted to wrap her and Nadia up in a blanket nest and cuddle in their home.

Nadia thought about it for a moment. "Maybe a little trouble?"

Valkyrie grinned, throwing all negative thoughts out of her head, and walked towards the entrance, drawing the buggers out by holding Nadia's hand. They both heard the giggling and childish insults about how 'gay' they were but Valkyrie steadily ignored them. She walked straight past Ghastly, Dexter and Fletcher who were waiting for them. The boys walked past Tanith and Saracen. As soon as the boys passed with their stupid remarks, her brother and sister stalked so closely behind the boys it was creepy and in no way stealthy. Valkyrie gave Nadia a smile and walked past her other brothers and sat on the bench on the other side of the exit to watch the show. She didn't need to do anything to these idiots with a family like hers.

The boys very suddenly noticed that they had made a mistake when Valkyrie crossed her arms, turned to look directly at the boys and glared in a way she usually only mustered up for the nastiest of criminals. They all stumbled but tried to pass it off and turn around – where they found Dexter, Saracen, Tanith and Ghastly surrounding them in a semi-circle with their arms crossed and glaring.

"Do you have something to say, kid?" Ghastly growled.

"N-n-n-no sir!" The middle one stuttered in a high pitched voice. The other two shook their heads and repeated it.

"Really? Because you were being pretty vocal a moment ago," Tanith said. Fletcher looked on from behind her brothers with baby Laila in his arms. She was smiling at her mother's back and shaking her fists like nothing was going on. Fletcher didn't seem to know what to do, especially since this was probably his first time holding the baby.

"We didn't mean it!" The tallest said after a moment of open-mouthed fear. "Really! It was just a joke!"

"Do you think we're having a laugh?" Dexter asked in almost a whispered, puffing up like an angry cat. "You insulted my sisters, and that mean you insulted all of us. Do you like following teenage girls around? What did you plan on doing to them?"

"Nothing!" They all said immediately.

"Really? I've never heard of three young men following girls around for nothing," Ghastly growled, puffing up as well.

"Did you do it," Saracen said with absolute calm, "because you watched your father drink as a child? Or because your mother threatened to leave him and abandon you? Or perhaps the time you two accidently watched that disgusting video together pushed you to recreate it to cope – and pulled in your brother to make him suffer too."

The three stared with complete horror. Valkyrie honestly just felt bad for them now and couldn't help but look away and cringe. She squeezed Nadia's hand and gave her a smile rather than watch the boys. Trust Saracen to just know how to fuck up these kids day.

"I know what you are thinking," Saracen said in a way that truly made it seem like he actually could tell. Perhaps he could. "I know what you," he pointed at the older one, "were thinking about my sister. Don't. You. Fucking. Dare."

The boy stumbled back.

"You two," he addressed the younger one, "need to not follow him. He'll get you in trouble. Understand?"

They just nodded quickly.

"Good. Go back to your mother, tell her what you did and apologise for being who you are. Go," Saracen told them in a dark voice.

They were gone immediately and Valkyrie had to frown at Saracen. "That was more than harsh."

"You don't know what he was thinking," he told her simply and walked out of the exit. Valkyrie and Nadia stood but didn't follow him.

"I just kind of thought you'd tell them to stop being stupid and scare them a bit, not that. They're just stupid kids," Valkyrie said somewhat defensively. "Bringing up their home life was a bit… you know. Crap."

Dexter sighed. "Yeah, it was a bit rough." He pulled her into a tight hug and then brought Nadia in. "But Saracen always knows. Maybe they'll be so shocked they'll never do that again."

"That wasn't really about what they said about us," Nadia said in a small voice. "Was it?"

They were all silent for a moment. Fletcher awkwardly moved towards them, holding Laila. He looked uncomfortable. "Hey," he said with fake cheeriness. "Happy Christmas!"

Valkyrie forced a laugh. "We don't need this right now."

"Let's go home, work out, train Nadia to kill men, and watch a movie," Tanith said somewhat sarcastically. "I'm not sure this trip could be any more bipolar."

"Yeah," Fletcher said, looking down at Laila. After a small moment, she looked up at him with big eyes. They held contact for a moment and then Laila looked back down and at the group quietly like she understood the meaning of the universe.

"Let's think about food!" Valkyrie tried. "We all like food! And Christmas involves a lot of food!"

She got a few smiles, thank god. She was lucky that Erskine came bounding towards them and they had to put on a very happy front for him as he needed this crap even less than them, so they kept it from him. He came and told them about the reindeer at the very small nearby town and soon it was like the incident never happened as they laughed, stroked the animals and enjoyed spending time with each other.

Oof I don't know why I did this but I did and there's nothing you can do about it :P

At least they are all happy at the end though, and it's a cute little fluffy chapter! I forced myself to write the future chapter I've been stuck on. Now I have to go into an even larger fight scene... but I have the real books to help me so hopefully I won't be too long.

I'd love to see your thoughts :)