Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Chapter 16

In the morning, Valkyrie was thirsty, hungry and still quite tired but a jolt excitement rushed through her and she grabbed her phone that was in the covers with her where she'd accidentally forgotten it. When she unlocked it, she had that message from Nadia still.

Typing quickly, she wrote, 'I loved it too, I'll find a nice place for our date soon. How are you? X'

She left it at that, pulled on pyjamas and went down to the kitchen where the others were having their breakfasts and teas. They all smiled or grinned at her when she took her seat and she spent considerable effort not looking at them and simply spreading jam on her toast instead. Finally, when she had poured herself orange juice to go with it, she looked at Tanith.

"So," she said, sipping her juice. "Anything fun happen on your end?"

Tanith smirked but told her she'd had a nice time talking with an old acquaintance, dancing with their friends and occasionally spying on her and Nadia out the window.

"Sounds like a nice time," Valkyrie said and completely ignored the suggested opening. She bit into her toast and felt her phone vibrate and looked at it. 'You woke me up! Screw you. But I'm happy to hear from you x'.

Valkyrie smiled and texted back, 'I'm about to be interrogated'.

'Why?'

'They think it's funny. Brb,' she sent and then put her phone away for the moment. She still had everyone looking at her. "You got your question time," she frowned at Weasel, Wolf and Snake. "And you probably told everyone else so no one can even begin."

"You can't do that, Val," Tanith said, in mock-horror. "You're our experiment."

"Our practice child," Snake added.

"Our chance to live like a kid again," Tanith continued.

"You already do that," Valkyrie pointed out. "But you also have a motorbike, so you do it better. I don't see what's so fun about this."

"What's so fun is that this is your girlfriend," Wolf pointed out. "And it's going to be really fun for us to tell you what to do."

"Right, first off, I'm not doing anything you tell me, secondly, she is not my girlfriend yet so please don't start saying that. And lastly, you were giving me all these rules last night and now you're contradicting yourself," she said hotly. "You can't have it both ways."

"Yes, but we thought you'd like someone bad," Crow said. "Someone too old, or annoying, or someone that interrupted us or that–"

"Shut up," Valkyrie interrupted.

He sighed. "Hopeless. What we thought would happen didn't, and you chose a nice person your own age with similar interests that didn't try to kiss you or do anything we didn't like so we don't have to worry."

"We basically spend all night judging you two," Tanith cheekily provided. Valkyrie threw a spoon at her which she caught and put in the right place. "And we're getting off-topic. Where are you two going to go?"

Valkyrie sighed. "I don't know yet, okay? Let me think first. Also, don't we have a case to finish today Skul?"

.*****.

It took almost three weeks before Valkyrie and Nadia were able to get together for their date but in the end, it worked in their favour. They talked over that time about their interests and things they liked, and the conversation never ended between them. Valkyrie couldn't think of anyone she liked more at that point in time. They phoned each other whenever their schedules allowed, which wasn't often, but they texted the rest of the time, so much so Valkyrie had gotten in trouble with Crow for the phone bill he'd been charged.

Apparently, it was coming out of her pocket money which had almost made her laugh as she didn't get pocket money, she was just bought whatever she said she wanted. She didn't ask for anything in the shops for the week following though, so she supposed she served her punishment.

On the date itself, they went for a hike in a nature park with a very tall hill, which Valkyrie thought sounded lame on paper but it truly was a really big hill, and trekked for hours chatting and playing silly games, finding the companionship they'd had at the ball all over again. Valkyrie brought a packed lunch for them including lots of biscuits for the walking, hot chocolate, sandwiches, chocolate bars, oranges and grapes, all of which they ate in a pretty picnic at the top of the hill on a large rock they used Elemental magic to get themselves on top of.

"What magic do you have?" Valkyrie asked while they ate lunch.

"Mostly Elemental," Nadia told her, "but I want to be a doctor at the moment so I'm also branching into Adept, specifically healing magic. I want to get an apprenticeship at some point but my mum says she won't let me until I've finished University."

"Wouldn't you need to go to medical school?"

"An apprenticeship would basically be the same, but a few years extra knowledge would obviously help. That's how it works in the Magic Community," Nadia informed her. "I suppose, if we stay together for that long I mean, we would be a good match in that way. You save the world and get all these injuries and I can save you."

Valkyrie smiled and leaned over and kissed her cheek, making both of them blush and be quiet for a short time before they started throwing grapes at each other and laughing.

When they had walked back to the village nearby, Nadia bought them an ice cream just as it started raining and they sat in the rain on swings eating ice cream and trying to outswing the other before Nadia's parents arrived to pick her up. They left the swings and ran to meet them under a large tree that kept the water mostly off of them.

"Nadia!" Her mother exclaimed when they got them. Valkyrie suddenly became nervous again. "You're soaked through! What were you thinking, silly girl?"

Nadia's mother used her own Elemental magic to dry her but, though she offered her hand and introduced herself as Fauve Keena, she did not offer to dry her as her own brothers would have offered.

Mrs Keena, as she was expected to call her, was a small, thin woman with very pale skin and a thousand freckles, deep orange-red hair and blue eyes, whereas her husband, a quiet man named Anand Vinay who was from India though Nadia had already told her he had travelled to Ireland he was much younger, some two-hundred years previous, and established a business before meeting now-Mrs Keena, his wife. He was dark in skin, eyes and hair but did seem more openly friendly than Mrs Keena who seemed happy to treat her like a troublesome friend she couldn't quite detach from her precious daughter.

"Did you have a nice time, dear?" She asked Nadia.

"Yes mum, we went on a hike and had ice creams," she told her, rolling her eyes. She, Valkyrie could now see, took more after her father than mother in looks, though she wasn't at all masculine. She had the same dark hair, though Valkyrie did see a hue of her mother's coming through in the sun, her father's dark eyes and though it was a lot lighter, her skin without the freckles did seem to take after her father too.

But her form was more after her mother's – high cheekbones, small nose, a mole on her neck, the same long fingers and her body shape seemed the same too. Valkyrie wouldn't dare think too much about it, but Nadia had more of a waist than her mother despite being thirteen. Mrs Keena was wearing a very tight shirt that showed off her flatness. In fact, she didn't need to think of it more, some other relative had passed down a much curvier body to Nadia compared to her mother. Her chest was probably already the same as or larger than her mothers, although only just. Not that it meant anything at all. Or that Valkyrie had thought about it. Or compare it to her own flatness. Nadia continued: "And yes, we will be seeing each other again soon."

"I'm glad you're meeting new people, you know," she said softly, cupping her daughter's cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too Mum," she said exasperatedly, then stepped back and took Valkyrie's hand. "I'm going to say good-bye now."

"Okay," Mrs Keena said. She didn't move, just watched. Valkyrie looked between mother and daughter, growing more amused and awkward at the same time, before looking at Mr Vinay who was outright smirking and took his wife by the hand, pulling her away to the car to give them privacy.

"Sorry," Nadia apologised to Valkyrie. "I don't want to leave you by yourself."

"It's alright," Valkyrie said, holding both her hands. "I can fight off anyone you know. Being an awesome warrior princess and all."

Nadia snorted a laugh. "Sure, sure. I will get to see you soon, right?"

"You could come over for a family dinner if you want? We could go on a walk around the house, play hide-and-seek – don't laugh, it's the best game ever invented ever – and have more ice cream."

"But you arranged this one, I need to make one for you," she pouted.

"Better get on that then because I want to have you over at some point. How else am I meant to show off, hu?" Valkyrie grinned and got a kiss on the cheek before they said their good-byes and parted.

Nadia went off home and Tanith came out from hiding quickly after. "Ooo, you got kissed!"

"Shut up," she grinned, taking the offered helmet and putting it on.

.*****.

It was another two months and getting close to Christmas when they next got to meet, at Valkyrie's mansion. It wasn't a proper date, she supposed, but it was so good to see the girl she was so quickly coming to adore, she didn't even care. The months hadn't stopped the permanent conversation and neither had Nadia's mother who had some issues with her daughter growing up and dating. Plus, they had discovered video calling, so there was no stopping them now.

For the not-really-date, Valkyrie got Nadia a present for her birthday in just a week – December twelfth – which was just a pretty necklace, some perfume she had recently run out of, a top, and chocolate. She really liked chocolate.

Nadia had hugged her and been grateful for the presents before kissing her cheek again. Valkyrie grinned at her. "You're going to get me so teased later. They're spying on us, probably."

Nadia laughed and they took a walk around the house as it was raining and even showed her Gordon's office and the saddening story of her finding her surrogate father dead in his chair but lightened the mood by pointing out he had indeed finished the story and it was on its way to being published which Valkyrie knew he's have been pleased about. She hadn't been in the room since finding him dead. Being with Nadia made it easier. It gave her something else to focus on.

"How did the Dead Men get custody of you though?" Nadia asked. "I figured family related to you would always get to take you."

Valkyrie shrugged. "Gordon had it organised that Crow, Skulduggery, was my guardian for when he died but said that they were all my brothers. It's confusing really, because at first, I thought Crow would want to be my dad and take that role but we're just really good friends, brother- and sister-in-arms really, and the rest of them are somewhere between brother, uncle and best friend so it's a little strange to explain. Plus sometimes I think Wolf, Snake and Weasel flirt with me for fun which is not very family-like but they also are. Do you know what I mean? It's all just for fun. Nothing weird or anything."

"Yeah," she smiled, looking over one of the bookcases. "It's a unique situation. It's going to create unique dynamics."

She went to pull one of the books out but it stopped halfway and a loud click was heard. The girls looked at each other and stood back. The bookcase slowly opened with soft clicks to reveal a hidden room.

"Cool," Nadia grinned. "Did you know about this?"

Valkyrie shook her head. "That's an Echo stone."

They stared at it a moment, not sure what to do, when it glowed and Gordon Edgley's image slowly appeared.

"Oh!" He said. "Stephanie. And someone else. You shouldn't be in here."

That was the first time Valkyrie cried in Nadia's arms.

You met Gordon! I realise editing this I haven't mentioned him much in future chapters but its okay because Dead Men... right? Please keep reviewing! :)

Lonelygirl702 - you should make an account and we can talk! Valkyrie will be lesbian but at this stage, she hasn't worked that out. I have plans for Fletcher, I have written ahead of this chapter by a lot so I know a little but I'm going to make him a friend at the end, haven't made solid plans. I want to do something different with him, you know? Everyone writes him the same way. Don't be discouraged though, just because he can't get with Valkyrie doesn't mean I won't have fun with him! Same with Caelan but more violent ;)