Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Chapter 22

After the embarrassment of The Tanith Talk, Valkyrie had not thought about anything for a while, content to simply flirt and, admittedly, she did 'mess around,' as she called it in her head, more over time, becoming more comfortable with the idea.

Eventually, though, she did think about it, late one night weeks later, and decided she would wait a while longer before stepping forward with her relationship. With Valkyrie's fourteenth birthday coming up in a few months and Nadia's fifteenth not long after, she didn't expect it to be a long wait necessarily, but certainly not until after those events. She hadn't spoken to Nadia about it yet and didn't intend to. She just didn't feel exactly ready for that.

She pushed that from her mind as she took the roll of tulle material from the stack Panda had sent her to retrieve. They were making a dress for one of his client's children, and if she learnt enough, he was going to let her help him make a new protective coat for work.

Holding the surprisingly heavy roll, she brought it over to Panda. "Is this right?"

He glanced at her. "Yes, roll it out on the table. I need you to measure six metres, cut it straight, then cut that lengthways from the middle. Okay?"

"I can do that."

Valkyrie lay the material down on the large table. The material was maybe three metres tall but there must have been hundreds of yards tightly rolled up around the tubing. Carefully, she rolled it out and cut it to Panda's specifications, moved the roll so it was out her way, and carefully used the middle guide on the table to slice the material. She had helped him design this dress for the eight-year-old. It was going to be blue in a ball-gown style but have a support skirt under it to help with the weight. The tulle was going to be layered on top of the hoop skirt to give it a big, blue princess effect.

Folding the pieces, she took them to Panda who was just finishing with the shoes, a pair of silver flats the mother had specifically ordered. They were not the prettiest, but the mother had been very insistent. At least Panda had convinced her against the orange feathers.

He moved them aside and she very carefully helped him fold the top layer of material while he quickly folded the layer that would sit under hers. It was difficult with all the pins and knowing it was going to a real person. She didn't want to mess it up and she wasn't exactly the best with delicate things. When Panda was done, he cut another two pieces like she just had, and did two more under sections and finished the bottom one just as Valkyrie did the top one. He inspected it.

"That's good. You left the right amount of space with the pins this time."

She nodded. "Yeah, it was easier to pin like this too."

"You can help me feed it through the machine," he said. "Here, check the thread – and gently feed it through."

Slowly, Valkyrie stitched the tulle with the machine, her tongue pocking through her lips, and soon the top layer was in its neat, permanent folds ready for the dress. She took it over to the dress and with Panda's help, they pinned it to what they had already made. Within minutes, Panda had stitched the rest of the layers and they had pinned and sewn it to the rest of the blue material, sewn it together as a skirt, pulled it over the feather-light hoop skirt and they carefully began hand sewing tiny silver sequins to the layers of skirts, including underneath so when she spun around it would still sparkle.

"You did really well designing this," Panda said suddenly. He was very quick at sewing the sequins on. She felt almost flustered working next to him sometimes, seeing him move through things so easily. It had helped when Snake accidentally got it into his head to help one time too and she had been a lot, lot better at it than him.

"Err, thanks," she said. "But I don't think I can do it again. I'm enjoying the making part though."

He smiled at her. "You do have to get quite creative. Sometimes I get ten, twenty people come in and they all want the same design, the same colours, the same styles and they all have to be unique. It can get a bit difficult then, because if one is better than the other, or one of them prefer another dress I make, they might come storming back in. The women tend to be the worst. No offence."

"Scared of angry women?" She said cheekily, looking up at him and poking her thumb with the needle. "Shit."

He rolled his eyes. "If Skul catches you swearing outside of fighting criminals, he won't be happy."

"You have participated in my vocabulary lessons," she reminded him. "Other than Wolf and Weasel, Tanith is probably the worst."

She saw him get a little red at the mention of her sister and she grinned. He looked up at her and scowled. "Don't even think about it."

"I'm not," she grinned.

"You are, and I said not to. Don't. It's not happening."

"Are the others on your back too?"

He grumbled under his breath and looked back at his work.

"Me and Tanith were talking a few days ago," she said, looking down too.

"Oh?" He said hopefully, looking back at her. She didn't say anything. "Valkyrie Cain, if you leave me like this, don't think I won't ground you."

She laughed. "Yeah, sure. Just like you did last time."

'Last time' she had received a group grounding where the others had gotten together after they found out she had bought some expensive clothes one day when she went out with Nadia after being told she wasn't allowed to spend over a certain limit. She had had her cards, cash, and pocket money revoked for a month. Instead, she had just asked for money or someone's card when they went anywhere and instead of spending too much of her own money she earned from work or pocket money from chores, she just spent their money. A lot of it too, as they had felt bad for grounding her and just wanted to give her things. They had decided not to take away money from now on and it just didn't work out.

"That was different," he said. "Tell me what she said."

She rolled her eyes. "She hasn't decided. She liked you and thinks someone else is nice too, but she wouldn't pick between you both, but she also said she wouldn't necessarily say no if either of you asked her out. I think she has a preference to you although she didn't say it in so many words. I'm not sure if she wants to date anyone right now though, she said she likes how things are. But, like I said, I don't think she'd say no if you asked her out."

He nodded, thought about it, and looked back. "What do you think?"

"Me?"

"Yes," he said, getting embarrassed. "You know her best."

She grinned. "Make her some clothes. She would love that. I think she just needs an indication you like her too and she'll stop worrying so much."

"But you said she prefers me? Despite there being someone else she likes."

Valkyrie shrugged. "Came off that way. I don't think there's any major preference either way, she just spoke about who she thought was attractive and liked the personality of." Ghastly blushed a little when she mentioned attractiveness. "Honestly, I see her gravitating to you to talk to and be around in the day to day."

Panda nodded resolutely. "I'll think about it."

Valkyrie smirked, and they finished their dress quietly, Valkyrie letting Panda think of what he wanted to make Tanith.

When they went home later, all sitting around the table, or rather everyone who was currently home, Erskine suggested they organise a Christmas Sanctuary party. Valkyrie loved the idea and that was enough for him to say he'd have everything organised in the next week or two. She grinned and was glared at by Panda until Tanith said she had to go – a vampire case she had to do with a few friends – and she sent a picture of a dress Tanith had liked to him. It was above her normal budget, Valkyrie knew, and it was a bit cheeky to suggest Ghastly make someone else's design, but it would definitely score him a few points, she bet.

He looked at it and nodded, putting the phone away. Valkyrie tried not to laugh at him. Crow caught her eyes and they both had to hold it back for Panda's sake.

Just a filler really, sorry :( But it will lead to fun things at least :)