Chapter 20

Nadia's parents drove out of the car park, leaving them alone with each other. Valkyrie turned back to Nadia and pulled her into a hug. "I missed you."

She grinned and kissed her lips lightly. "I missed you too."

"I expect my reward at some point too," Valkyrie warned her with a grin, leading her into the building. "I was promised."

Nadia smirked at her. "I haven't forgotten. You're like a needy child sometimes."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "No," she said boldly. "I just want you too much."

Nadia flushed darkly and then they were in the golf centre, Valkyrie trying not to think about the art of flirting and what could potentially be cringy versus actually good. The dining room had been turned into an open hall with some tables and chairs, a buffet, DJ and dancefloor. There were more than a hundred Edgley's with their various surnames if they married, their partners, children, a few friends of the family. Valkyrie took a deep breath, holding Nadia's hand tightly and bracing as some drunk man came up to them enthusiastically.

"Stephanie!" He said loudly. "I haven't seen you since you were knee high to a grasshopper! You've grown so much."

"Yeah, nine years will do that," she said, looking around for a grandparent.

"You must remember me, though," he said, nodding. "Remember, I would swing you around when you were little."

Valkyrie nodded. "Of course I do. Sorry, Nana wants to…"

She pulled Nadia passed him and she greeted her Nan, then Pap, then some other relatives and Valkyrie thought at least six hours must have passed when she got through the other side and through the whole thing, no one mentioning Nadia. She pulled her in and put an arm over her shoulder.

"I think that's enough relatives," she sighed in relief. Nadia smiled at her. "Food?"

"God yes," she said, yanking Valkyrie to the buffet. They picked up plates and took little sausages and finger sandwiches for themselves and Valkyrie found the crisps and dips too though Nadia did get a few carrot sticks to look good.

"I hope you're not going to make me eat those," she said.

"Of course not," Nadia said, then stuck one in Valkyrie's unsuspecting mouth.

"Bitch," Valkyrie said under her breath and ate it. Nadia laughed loudly and then went to a side room to eat.

Carefully, Valkyrie got a box out her bag and Gordon faded into existence. "Valkyrie! Oh, and Nadia, it's so good to see you again."

"You too," Valkyrie said. "We're at the reunion."

"Ah yes," he said, peering through the door. "Incredibly. They're so drunk so early. Someone will fall over soon, mark my words."

Valkyrie rolled her eyes and ate her food, watching as Nadia stole her crisps. "Excuse me, you chose carrot."

"I changed my mind."

She took her plate away. "No way."

"You won't get your reward," Nadia whispered under her breath, too low for Gordon to hear.

Valkyrie thought about it. She sighed and pushed her plate forwards.

"I better not witness anything," Gordon muttered, glancing back on them. They both turned to him guiltily. Obviously they weren't as quiet as they thought. "I should tell Dexter and Skulduggery what you're up to."

"You can if you want," Valkyrie said, munching away, and pulling Nadia closer and deciding it wasn't worth worrying over. She hadn't seen her in a long time!

"Yeah, if you tell people you're here," Nadia smirked.

Gordon turned back to them with a smile. "Aww, so grown up."

"God's sake, not you too," Valkyrie said. They had almost finished eating already. "No one's mentioned Nadia yet."

Gordon smiled softly at her. "Don't worry, no one will take it badly. Maybe some comments about phases and all that, but it sort of runs in the family. Well, I know the homosexual gene thing is a bad topic considering the history with it, and I don't mean it in a bad way at all, but our family certainly has a suspicious amount of gay and transgender members in it. It definitely seems to be very slightly, mildly, inheritable."

Nadia looked at him, thinking. "Do you think it is? Inheritable, that is. Not just a coincidence? I don't know anything about the gene thing."

Gordon shrugged. "Some things just don't matter," he said wisely. "It doesn't matter who you are or how you present so long as you aren't hurting people, so who cares if it's inheritable. Or that's my opinion on the matter anyway. Valkyrie, you know Great-Aunt Gladys?"

"The one married to Phil or Edmund?"

"Phil. She was born an Edmund actually," he said matter-of-fact, a contemplative looks on his face. "At any rate, this family out of all families just doesn't get much of a chance of caring. We are related to so many people that are somehow 'wrong' – and I say that word sarcastically, in case that isn't obvious – it just wouldn't work out. I suppose the older generations wanted a peaceful family more than to look like perfect Christians or whatever we were. Also, we cut out the other half of the family. We're the liberal Edgley's. The conservative and especially religious Edgley's don't like us, and we don't like them. We do occasionally gain one of their members when they come out, however, and they are always welcome."

Valkyrie kissed Nadia's forehead and Gordon decided to go back in his stone after a few more minutes watching the party. Closing the door for the moment, Valkyrie turned back to Nadia.

"So," she said, suddenly nervous but trying not showing it. "That reward."

Nadia smirked. "Come here."

Valkyrie did and she was pretty sure the older girl knew she was nervous. Still, she came to her and moments later was pushed against the wall roughly by Nadia. Suddenly, she was kissed on the lips, hard, and Valkyrie closed her eyes, trying to focus on the feel on Nadia's lips and the feel of her hands on her biceps, the feel of their breasts pressed together. Valkyrie put her hands around Nadia's waist, shamelessly feeling the curve of her waist dipping in and out at her hips and back up.

Nadia moaned slightly, squeezing Valkyrie's arm and Valkyrie grinned, tensing it for her girlfriend who took a moment to rub it over. After a moment to let Nadia feel her up, which was incredibly exciting and more than they'd ever done before no matter how tame it may seem, Valkyrie crouched and picked Nadia up completely, blushing and grinning when her legs wrapped around her waist.

"I think I like this," Nadia said, looking into her eyes. It felt as if the music had melted and it was just the two of them together. It was suddenly not nerve-wracking or embarrassing or difficult. She knew what intense, desperate feeling Tanith had meant when she'd spoken to her about these things. Nadia leaned forwards and kissed her deeply and Valkyrie opened her mouth and they slowly began to experiment using their tongues. She wasn't the best at it and Valkyrie was certain they didn't have long alone, so she moved boldly, kissing down Nadia's jaw to her neck, kissing her ear, her shoulder and back up to her mouth where she was kissed furiously.

Panting, they looked back at each other smiling and, letting her down, it felt as if the world came back into view, but a little bit better.

She giggled into Nadia's hair.

"You're such a kid," Nadia muttered into her neck teasingly right as the door was opened. Good timing on their behalf at least.

"Oh," Crystal said, staring in surprise.

"Evening," Valkyrie rolled her eyes, kissing Nadia's forehead protectively – if anyone would pick on her for having a girlfriend, regardless of whether or not they were homophobic, it would be the Toxic Twins, simply to annoy her. In fact, she was ninety percent sure they weren't homophobic, they didn't seem to be evil, per se, but she one thousand percent sure they'd say something homophobic to wind her up.

They came into the room further, beginning to glare. "Why are you in here?"

"I want to be."

"That's not a good reason," Carol snapped. "Aunt Linda is looking for you. Dad wants to talk to you too."

Valkyrie sighed, putting Gordon's box back in her bag and taking Nadia's hand. "Come on, let's face the family."

"Are you dating?" Crystal asked quickly. Valkyrie looked back at her.

"No, I'm just taking advantage of her," Nadia snarked back.

They left the room and Valkyrie couldn't help but laugh at her stupid cousin's attempt at harassing her. They went and found her aunt Linda, just managing to stop laughing in time to look not happy enough to talk for long.

"Oh, Steph," Aunt Linda said, quite drunk. She was actually technically one of her biological fathers' cousins, but everyone their age was aunt and uncle, everyone older was grandma and grandad, and everyone above that tended to be called Nan and Pap. It was an easy system that helped a lot when they were a really big family. Her twin ten-year olds were messing around with some other cousins, her five-year-old twins on iPads in the corner with fizzy drinks. "I've missed you. Tell me, how are you doing?"

"Grand, I'm grand," she said easily. "Having fun."

"You're going to school? Dance, singing, cooking, swimming?"

"Yes," she said trying to get out the hug she was still in. "Well, no singing or much swimming anymore but I still do school and dance and can't get away from cooking."

She pulled away sharply. "You're doing the cooking at home? Is that why you're not singing? You tell my Stephanie right now–"

"I decided!" She said loudly before her aunt went off on one. "I chose to stop and to take on more martial arts. I love it."

Aunt Linda thought about it for a moment. "So not cooking?"

"Only when I want to. We all do the cooking, share the chores," she added. "I need to stop them using too many spices. They'll kill me."

Nadia snorted. "You won't be enjoying dinner at mine."

Aunt Linda let her go and looked, finally, between the two girls. "Steph, who is this young lady?"

"This is my girlfriend, Nadia," she said. "Say hello."

"Hello."

"Hello," Aunt Linda also said.

A horde of relatives descended upon the table and Valkyrie pulled Nadia away before baby stories and awkward moments about her dead parents could be brought up. Looking around, she found Beryl and Fergus sitting somewhat sober together and moodily at a table. Sighing, she led Nadia over for the final visit.

"Carol said you wanted to see me," she said when she got there, standing behind them. They jumped and turned around.

"Oh, there you are," Beryl said, plastering a smile on. "Look at you, so grown up."

"Thanks," she said.

"And you brought a friend, it's nice to meet you," she said, shaking hands with Nadia.

"How do you do?" Nadia said, adopting a strict, polite attitude. Valkyrie could see the snark radiating from the girl already.

"Oh, I'm fine, how are you dear?" Beryl said, grinning without a smile.

"I'm happy to be here," Nadia said. "As Stephanie's girlfriend, I feel honoured she'd bring me to such an important family event."

Beryl looked blank for a moment before she said "Oh," and her husband took over, his drunkenness taking over.

"She must what to marry you," he muttered, a little dazed from the alcohol. "S'what it means, right, wife? You want to marry someone, bring – hick! – bring them to the fam-ly reunion."

Valkyrie nodded seriously. "Yes. Going to a family reunion with her means we will marry. Set the date next week."

Nadia snorted, and Beryl glared at Valkyrie.

"Don't be so rude," she said. "I can still petition to have you taken from those men. Really, leaving a young lady with a single man, giving someone you barely know all you have–"

"He's a widower."

"Sorry?"

"Skulduggery Pleasant is a widower. He was married, and he had a baby with her, but they were murdered. That's why he's quiet and he was chosen to adopt me. He is raising me to be independent and invited his friends to live with us, including a woman, so that I wouldn't be alone or bored or treated badly. Not that Skulduggery ever would, but that's why he was picked and why I live with the other guys. They were all soldiers, they fought for your freedom and they still work in Ireland fighting for our lives, and they have never hurt me, they have only and will only ever protect me. They love me. And all you do, when I'm given my inheritance from my surrogate-father, when I'm given his friends as guardians, is glare and be snotty about it. You need to grow up."

They started at her and after a moment, Beryl burst into tears. Fergus looked at her with wide eyes, then to Valkyrie, and back again a few times, before opening his mouth and closing it. Valkyrie gave up and took Nadia into the entrance hall.

She sighed, and Nadia hugged her. "Was I too mean? I feel like I was too mean. They're obviously drunk and don't know what they're saying."

"No, baby, you said the right thing."

She sighed and let herself be held for a few moments before smiling. "Come on. I need to dance with you still."

They grinned, and the rest of the night was spent in each other's arms, dancing and becoming bolder as her relatives became drunker and more annoying. Together, though, it was fun to play around, touching each other in mostly innocent places – only acceptable to be seen by the children places! Not that they were thinking of the children…

Getting to the end of the party at around two in the morning, Tanith came into the hall to see the girls rubbing against each other with challenging grins on each other's faces and let them mess around, dancing between the relatives and eyeing each other up.

Eventually though, Valkyrie led Nadia into a spin and caught sight of Tanith, giving her a wink that made her older sister laugh. Bringing Nadia in, she held her by the hips and told her it was time to go. Nadia looked around, saw Tanith standing there, stuck her tongue out and started kissing Valkyrie. Everyone was too drunk or didn't care so they were able to basically make out in the middle of the dance floor – Tanith didn't care and if Valkyrie had before, Tanith could easily see the switch in her brain turn off as soon as Nadia's lips connected with her own.

It was sort of funny for Tanith to watch. On one hand, it was her little sister, who she wanted to protect and hold and train and help, but also see her flourish and make mistakes and grow into a woman who did to woman things like sex and make out and have fun and dance. It didn't mean she didn't occasionally feel a little concern though. Valkyrie very obviously wasn't ready for big things and Nadia was a year older than her.

Plus, watching the girls kiss was not something she intended to make a habit of. She just didn't want to see her sister get hurt because she thought she was ready for something she didn't understand, not that she didn't want her sister to do what she wanted. She made a mental note to talk to Valkyrie some more about the subject so even if she did decide to do something like sex so young, she would at least understand what she was getting into. Tanith was very firmly on the pro-choice side, and wouldn't be entirely surprised if Valkyrie pressed on in her relationship, she just wanted to make sure she knew all the facts before she did anything.

On the plus side, no teen pregnancy, which could only look good for their 'parenting' skills.

After a little while, Nadia pulled away – Valkyrie was looking a little wide eyed and dazed with desire – and they made their way to Tanith. Nadia and Tanith spoke about the party as they all got in the car and it was a nice ride back to Nadia's parents' house where Valkyrie walked Nadia to the door, kissed her for a little bit and said goodbye before Nadia disappeared inside. Tanith watched Valkyrie stand on the porch for a little bit, twisting her foot around as she thought and then went back to the car into the passenger seat.

It was silent on the way back. Valkyrie was happy, just sad to see the girl go. When she was home and had thanked Tanith for the rides, she stripped, showered, removed the make up and went to bed. She didn't fall asleep until over an hour later, flushed and naked under the sheets.

Slut! Whore! Sinner!