Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 63

She had a light dinner and got herself ready and finished her preparations with time to spare, so she spent it fretting and thinking of all the possible scenarios.

In the end, it got to leaving time and she swore and grabbed the basket and her bag and left the house. At least she was moving now.

She travelled by the late bus to the nice area Nadia lived and walked out into the dark, stormy night in a big raincoat she found in the cupboard she was sure was once Gordon's. There was a bright flash and shortly after, a loud crack of thunder. It was a short walk to Nadia's street and Valkyrie very nearly crossed over and missed it completely before a flash of lightning lightened up the street sign.

She jogged down the street with the basket in hand, finding Nadia's house and running past it quickly. She ran into a neighbour's house and around the back, jumping the wall and hiding behind a tree.

She had to work out what window connected to Nadia's room. It was nine in the evening so Valkyrie expected she'd be in her room, but she couldn't be sure.

There was a light on in three rooms. She took a guess and decided one was an office, another her parent's bedroom and the last would be Nadia's room. She didn't dare take a peek or feel with the air. She just had to hope and pray. The best method.

She decided, based on the size of the gap between windows, that the two end lights were bedrooms because they had the most space, and they had windows on the left and right side of the house respectively, so they were obviously big rooms. Nadia had two windows, so she only had two to decide between. Left or right? Valkyrie didn't know.

She sighed and watched the right one, the one she was nearest to, carefully. It had a balcony. Did Nadia's room have a door? Valkyrie couldn't remember. She took a guess and decided she didn't. She had mentioned liking them, so maybe that was her desire to have one also? Either she got it right or she'd die tonight. Taking a breath, she cut across the garden and around to what she hoped to be Nadia's bedroom.

Working quick, she used the air to pull herself up to the window and looked inside. There was no one in there but she recognised the bedsheets. Thank every god that ever existed.

Valkyrie carefully opened the window and pushed herself and the basket in the room. She closed it quickly and noticed the shower in the ensuite was on. Working fast, Valkyrie pulled off the massive raincoat and used her magic to pull the water from her and put it in a plant pot. There was a little water left but barely. She opened the basket and put a blanket on the bed, then put the basket on it and made the picnic up quickly, warming the bacon and spreading out the rest.

Heart beating rapidly, she sat back against the headboard and threw her shoes somewhere else and tried to relax.

Nadia took absolutely ages in the shower and then took ages getting ready in the bathroom. Eventually, though, she opened the door, rubbing her dark hair with a towel.

She screamed.

"Shh!" Valkyrie hushed her quickly.

Nadia slapped a hand over her mouth and they both silently stared at the door for almost a minute, waiting for anyone to check on them, but no one came. They each let out a sigh of relief.

"God Val," Nadia said with a grin. "What are you thinking? What if they catch us?"

"I'm willing to risk it," she said quietly, tucking her legs under herself. "I made dinner."

Nadia laughed quietly. "I see that." She came over, tucking the large bath towel around her. "Is that bacon?"

"Yep. It's warm."

"What the hell?" She said, grinning and taking a bite. "This is so cool Val. I'm so, so happy to see you."

"Me too," Valkyrie said, losing her smile a little. "I was really worried about you."

Nadia walked about the bed and sat on Valkyrie's lap, holding her shoulders and leaning in for a kiss. It felt very different in Nadia's room. Nadia had been in Valkyrie's room once but they had been younger. This felt a lot different. Valkyrie rested her hands on Nadia's waist, feeling the dip between her hip and waist.

Nadia pulled away with a little smile, pushing some of her wet hair out of her face. "I missed you," she said. "But I was fine. I am fine. I'm just so happy to see you again."

Valkyrie smiled. "Good. Because this took a lot of work and it'd be disappointing if you didn't want to see me."

She laughed and took another ration of bacon to chew on while she got ready. Valkyrie watched her as she nattered about how good the food looked and how impressed she was with the warm bacon, preoccupied with the slivers of skin Nadia showed as she dried herself with the towel still wrapped around her.

She was saying something about her friend at school when she turned around - away from Valkyrie - and undid the towel, letting it hang loosely around her hips as she dug something out a drawer. She emerged with a hair tie and put her hair up, showing off her beautiful back. She covered it with a bra a moment later, just a thin, blue, unpadded one that let Valkyrie see the definition of her breasts when she turned around. She was so interested in that she didn't get a chance to see anything else as Nadia pulled a pair of shorts on under the towel and threw it to the floor.

"Enjoying yourself?" Nadia asked with a grin.

"Maybe a little," Valkyrie blushed, sitting up a little higher on the bed. "Do you want something to eat?"

"Yes! I've been starving since I last saw you," she said, sitting on the bed next to Valkyrie. She grabbed a biscuit and took a big bite, leaning to lay on Valkyrie's arm. "Mum and Dad have been going crazy. I've been trying to calm them down or at least make them less mad at you but it's not working well."

Valkyrie put an arm around her. "What's been going on?"

She sighed. "They just blame you. I get that they're being protective but trying to keep me from you isn't going to work – point in case. But I just don't get why they suddenly hate you so much. I mean, Mum's always been love and hate, she is about everything, but Dad's been on my side since forever and suddenly he's telling me to break up with you? How is that fair on me? What did I do? What did you even do? You came and protected us, you saved us, and he's just so mad at you for it."

"They're upset Caelan used you to get to me," Valkyrie said quietly, breathing in the scent of Nadia's freshly washed hair.

"Yeah, but how is that your fault? Like, you're younger than me and they expect you to somehow predict what he's going to do and save me in advance? I just don't get it. I don't want to break up with you so I'm not going to. It's just making me really mad with them."

"They could stop us communicating," Valkyrie pointed out nervously.

"Why? It would mean they couldn't communicate with me either. Anyway, the reason I'm really stressed is that Mum's decided she's not speaking to me until I say all this what your fault, which it isn't, so I'm not. I'm avoiding her. I – I've kind of been not eating much."

"Not eating much? Baby, you can't starve yourself," Valkyrie said in concern. "You'll get ill."

"I know, don't worry. I got a friend to bring me snacks from the back gate, it's fine. And now you've come so I have lots of food here. It's fine, I'm not getting ill or anything, I go downstairs at night and stuff, it just means that in the daytime I can get a bit hungry because I'm not having full meals." She glanced at Valkyrie's face. "I'm still eating! Don't worry, alright? I have lots of snacks, and my friend's bringing more tomorrow."

"She better," Valkyrie grumbled, getting some more bacon. "Eat this. And here, I brought a few little presents."

Nadia laughed but did what Valkyrie said as she got the wrapped gifts out. Nadia was laughing as Valkyrie put them all in a pile in front of her. It was a little bit excessive. She opened them all between eating and they giggled about them. Valkyrie had got her candles and incense, a pretty little watch that she pretended 'wasn't as expensive as it looked', a pretty top Nadia had wanted but never got around to buying, some nice colouring pencils and some adult colouring books Valkyrie had thought she'd like.

Along with that were some photo frames and printed pictures of them for her room and wherever else Nadia could hide around the house.

After a hug and thank you, they chatted and ate while Nadia updated Valkyrie on her other friend who'd found out she was pregnant. The father was not someone her parents would be happy about, not that they'd be happy anyway, and Nadia had wanted to talk to her but was now on house arrest.

"She won't hate you," Valkyrie said soothingly, running a hand down Nadia's arm. "It'll be fine, just you see."

"Yeah," Nadia sighed. "At least that's one thing going for us. There's no way for us to get pregnant so my parents can't hate us even more at least."

"Yeah, there is that," she smirked. Clearing her throat, she tried to act nonchalant. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that."

"Being pregnant?"

"No!" She laughed. "I mean, like – well, I wanted to talk a bit about maybe taking our relationship further. And stuff. You know?"

Nadia picked at the sheet. "I want to do that too. I just wasn't sure when you'd be ready for that step. You being younger than me, I guess I was worried I'd push you or something."

"You couldn't do that," Valkyrie smiled. "Just look at your little arms. You've got no chance."

"Be serious!"

"I am being serious! I wanted to talk to you about this for ages."

"Say it then."

"I am."

"You haven't though."

"I don't want to."

She laughed. "Why not?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't want to say it wrong and ruin it. That would suck."

"I guess," Nadia conceded, sitting up onto her knees to look at Valkyrie better. "I think I would like to move our relationship up to the next level, but I think I'm nervous about it since my parents might send me to boarding school at the end of summer. I don't want to rush things."

"Neither," Valkyrie said quickly. "But, we don't need to move into, like, full-on sex or anything."

"No, I'd want to be a bit slower than that," Nadia said with a nod. "But still. I think I'm just overthinking. I don't want to regret anything or for us to do it and then not work out a few days later like so many people."

"We're not like other people. You mean the world to me. I love you so, so, so much, Nadia," Valkyrie said with as much conviction as she could in her voice. "I'd do anything for you if I could. We are not going to break up right after we do anything. We're not breaking up until we've tried every option and we're good and ready. That time is nowhere near us."

She nodded. "Thank you. I love you too. So what type of moving up are we doing if we're not going up to sex level?"

Valkyrie held her breath and decided to be bold – she leaned forwards and kissed Nadia softly, opening her mouth and letting their tongues dance. Being slow and gentle, she pushed Nadia down on the bed and continued to kiss her, moaning into Nadia's mouth.

She lowered herself onto Nadia's body, their covered breasts touching, their stomachs resting on one another and legs brushing up against each other. It was so new to Valkyrie to be on top of someone, at least without fighting them, but at the same time, it felt so comfortable.

Nadia moaned as Valkyrie trailed her hand over her bare side, the skin flicking as her muscles reacted to being touched by someone else so intimately. Valkyrie's mouth trailed over Nadia's neck as she stroked her abdomen and the elastic edge of her shorts. Nadia's breaths came out short and rapid, her legs tensing around Valkyrie's.

"You've got too much clothes on," Nadia whispered to Valkyrie. "I want to see more."

Sitting up, Valkyrie unbuttoned her red shirt and let it fall off the edge of the big bed, then looked at Nadia who smiled and she pulled the spaghetti strap top off too, revealing her own dark grey bra. Sitting up, Nadia reached out and stroked Valkyrie's badly scarred stomach, tracing the faint line of the developing muscles there. Her scars were on show for the first time in real life and Valkyrie almost felt self-conscious again, but Nadia barely acknowledged them, focusing on her shape and muscles instead. It was so amazing to suddenly feel this... perfect, womanly, even sexy.

"Will you take your trousers off?" She asked, looking Valkyrie in the eye.

Valkyrie did, she had to do what Nadia asked, it was some sort of driving need in her, and they too were discarded on the floor to show her matching pants. Nadia practically tackled Valkyrie onto the bed, rubbing their nearly nude bodies together and kissing each other with more vigour. Nadia was more forwards that Valkyrie was, kissing straight down the middle of her breasts and to her stomach. The familiar feeling of being wet flooded over her and all those other feelings of nerves melted away with Nadia's kisses. Nadia trailed a finger over her pants and Valkyrie lifted her hips, letting her girlfriend pull them off.

Sitting up, Nadia looked Valkyrie over, naked apart from her bra and staring at Nadia with lust filled eyes. "You are so pretty," she said, running a hand up Valkyrie's leg and gently pushing them open to sit between.

"You need to make it equal too," Valkyrie said, pushing up on her elbows.

Nadia smirked and pulled her shorts off before falling onto Valkyrie and they rolled around, rubbing their skin together and getting light feels of each other's folds on their legs at the moved. Valkyrie made the first move this time, putting a hand between Nadia's legs and softly – very, very softly – brushing over Nadia's clit, watching as Nadia's eyes closed and she moaned, pushing her body down for more contact with Valkyrie.

That moment of first intimate bliss between them set something off, and they spent so much time exploring each other with their hands, moaning and kissing forgotten as they enjoyed their own pleasure and listening to the other.

Valkyrie crept towards her orgasm quicker than she ever did alone, Nadia's thin fingers rubbing her and playing with her clit better than she'd imagined in all those nights alone in bed, and she worked hard to bring Nadia there too, groaning like crazy as Nadia slowly pushed her fingers in and out of her pussy and began to scissor her fingers until she could slide three in, suddenly kissing her lips as she moaned and her clit throbbed with pleasure beneath Nadia's other hand.

She was almost dripping wet and had completely stopped touching Nadia to fall on her back, arching her spine as the pleasure rolled over her again and again. She had to bite her hand to stop herself shouting, her body tensing until she came all too soon in a way she never had before.

God, she loved this girl.

She rode the high for just a little while before grinning and flipping them over to Nadia's quiet laugh. It was a lot easier to focus on Nadia now her needs were a tinsy bit more sated. It took longer but it was good for Valkyrie who quickly became addicted to the sounds and smells of Nadia, who clenched the sheets and arched her back, or would spread her legs for Valkyrie to thrust her fingers but would kick them in pleasured frustration if she slowed down. As Valkyrie kissed down the inside of her girlfriend's thigh and used both hands on her, Nadia came with a small cry. Valkyrie continued, like Nadia had, until her girlfriend practically went slack on the bed and with a light kiss on the crease of her thigh, Valkyrie crawled to hover over Nadia.

"I love you, Val," Nadia said, her forehead sweating.

"I love you too," she replied, kissing her nose. "I'm not sure what we're meant to do now."

"Probably kiss," she whispered. "But I really want to clean my hands. It's kind of sticky."

"Agreed."

It might not have been a crazy romantic afterglow, but Valkyrie knew she'd remember those moments forever, regardless of whether they called it touching, sex or whatever else, she just loved every part of it. Every part of Nadia. Her heart practically stuttered when she watched her move into the bathroom naked, hips swaying and wet hair messed up.

"It's strange," she said as they washed their hands.

"What, that we've still got our bras on?" Nadia laughed, looking at their reflections in the mirror.

"Yes. But also that we're so, like, young, but I feel so sick of waiting. I just want to move in with you and live together forever. We could eat chocolate strawberries and bacon on the bed and talk all day."

"And then touch each other all night," Nadia finished with a grin, hugging Valkyrie. "I think it's weird how much taller than me you are. Look! You're almost a foot taller than me. How tall are you?"

"I'm five foot eight or nine. And you're basically five four."

"No! I'm five five and a half. I'm still tiny though!" Nadia complained. "And you're so much stronger than me."

"You could work out," Valkyrie suggested.

She grimaced at her reflection. "Exercise? My efforts stop at tennis and swimming on holiday, thank you. Maybe a little running but I'm not good at that. And anyway, I like it. Look, if I stand in front of you – you have to be, like, two inches wider than me in the shoulders!"

"Hey, I'm just big boned," she said with a grin, kissing the top of Nadia's head.

"Don't do that, I look like a child," Nadia complained.

"You don't act like a child," Valkyrie smirked. "Much."

Nadia snorted and kissed Valkyrie. "I'd love if you spent the night."

Valkyrie kissed her a few times and leant back. "I'd love to too. But I don't want to ruin it getting caught in the morning. If I go, I can come back. If I'm caught, I'll be hung, drawn and quartered by your parents."

"True that," Nadia conceded, and helped Valkyrie pack a few things back in the basket and collect her clothes. After a final brush of her hair, Valkyrie kissed her goodnight and stepped out of the window into the rain and wind of the night, leaving only her jacket behind for Nadia to wear.

It was a long, but nice, walk to an area she could get a taxi from, which dropped her back at the mansion. It must have been three in the morning, hours since she left that evening, but several lights were on and waiting.

She sighed, knowing what was coming, but still hopeful. She very, very carefully unlocked the door and walked into the house.

No sound was made but she was sure they were there. She quietly closed the door. She had expected someone to accost her at the door. She dropped the basket and kicked off her wet shoes and threw the raincoat to the ground as silently as she bothered since she was sure they were only quiet to spy on her and ducked her head into the living room.

Literally everyone was sitting there staring with big grins.

"Oh, my God. You guys need to get a life," she said, grinning back. "Are you waiting up for me?"

"Yes," Tanith said with a shit-eating grin. "So. Why were you gone so long?"

"I was visiting Nadia. You all know exactly why I was gone, don't play with me," she said brushing some hair out her face. "You act like you don't already know."

"Yeah, but what happened?" Gracious, one of the Monster Hunters, asked from the edge of his seat with his more reserved partner Donegan and Fletcher.

"We spoke for a while," she said, leaning on the doorframe. "Nadia's friend is pregnant."

"The one that had that scare a few months ago?" Tanith asked.

"No, a different one," Valkyrie said. "Honestly, her friends are stupid. And Nadia's parents have turned into crazy anti-Valkyrie Nazi's. Her mum won't talk to her until Nadia says all this was my fault or some rubbish, so Nadia isn't eating much because she doesn't want to see her. She ate most the food I brought over."

"Anything else?" Aurora asked with a grin.

Valkyrie pretended to think about it. "Hmmm, nothing that's any of your business," she said sweetly to the group. "You're all overgrown children, you know that?"

"But the details!" Aurora whined.

"There are no details," Valkyrie said with a laugh, looking at all the crestfallen faces. "And even if there were, I'd hardly tell my family and a bunch of relative strangers."

"Harsh," Gracious said with a big grin. "I say all sorts of uncompromising things happened."

"Agreed!" Snake said immediately, one last pack of biscuits in his lap.

"Sure, sure," Valkyrie said, rolling her eyes. "You speculate all you want. I'm going to bed."

She left to cries of disappointment but by the time she was in her room, she was giddy with excitement at the thought of how well the night had gone.

It's all fun times in Val's world ;) maybe it's bad to say, but it was actually fun to write! I've never written 'lemon' before, so there you go. I don't expect feedback necessarily but I hope it at least wasn't stupid! :)