Chapter 143

There was a moment of shock and then Nadia made a noise, not one of pleasure or humour, but of 'I-can't-get-away-help' and Valkyrie had had enough. She jumped up, stumbling a little, grabbed one of Vasuda's hands, pulling it away from Nadia. Except, she had a grip on Nadia's hair and when Valkyrie did that, it pulled on Nadia's head. Nadia's cry of pain got the others to start telling Vasuda to stop and she gave up trying to kiss Nadia.

"Get off of me!" Nadia immediately cried when her mouth was free to use again.

Vasuda's face darkened and she tried to lean in and force Nadia to kiss her again, but Valkyrie was still quick enough, and probably stupid enough, to grab Vasuda by the throat and pushed her back. It worked as she let Nadia's hair go, but she also flailed and fell to the ground in a heap and gagged violently. Valkyrie supposed she had used more force than necessary, as she was a very strong, tall young woman and Vasuda was a small, weak little piglet.

Nadia burst out crying and Valkyrie turned in time for Nadia to throw herself onto Valkyrie and sob on her shoulder.

"I should have believed you!" She kept saying, as well as "I'm sorry!" and "Why did she do that?" Valkyrie just tried to calm her down, rubbing her back and telling her it wasn't her fault that Vasuda was a disgusting idiot.

Charlotte, Dhiya and Prema were rubbing Nadia's back and telling her it was alright, trying to comfort her, while the others either looked away out of embarrassment for what Vasuda had done or outright glared at Vasuda. No one said anything to her and she had stopped gagging and was just quiet now. Valkyrie didn't care and after a few minutes trying to calm Nadia down unsuccessfully, she decided it was all to do with Vasuda being in close proximity and told the others they were going and just left with Nadia. She didn't know that the others planned on doing but she did not care at that point, especially as the last half hour of drinking had hit her system all at once and she knew for a fact she was stumbling and slurring her words and was really not sober in any way.

She kept her head enough to go into the kitchen where Tanith, Erskine and Dexter were once more and sat heavily in a chair, Nadia following onto her lap heavily and still crying uncontrollably.

"What's happening?" Dexter immediately asked, putting his mug down and rushing over.

"Vasuda practically assaulted Nadia!" Valkyrie immediately said, then felt very lightheaded and swayed a bit before continuing. "Nadia was challenged to eckemo kiss Vasuda, so she did, and then Vasuda grabbed Nadia and kissed her and Nadia couldn't get away and got hurt and Vasuda pulled her hair and now she's crying."

"What happened to Vasuda?" Dexter asked.

"I grabbed her by the throat and probably hurt her. She fell over and was just sitting there when we left," Valkyrie said, trying to say everything as not-drunkly as she could. "I hate her stupid face."

Dexter sighed and rubbed Nadia on the back. "Nadia? Honey, will you calm down and talk to us?"

Valkyrie was almost surprised by his change in tone but put it down to her being too drunk to understand how to talk – sober-her would have thought that was stupid but drunk-her didn't know how to form proper thoughts anymore – and it actually worked. Nadia very quickly started to breath better and stopped crying so badly and within five minutes of Dexter talking softly to her, Nadia was still upset but much better. She even sat in her own seat.

"Come on, talk to us," Erskine said, sitting down too and trying a smile. "Tell us what's got you so upset. Other than being kissed."

"She kissed me," Nadia just said sadly.

"And why has that upset you so much?" Tanith asked, stroking Nadia's hair.

"She hurt me."

"How?"

"She hurt my hair and my head and my face."

"Your face?" Erskine asked.

"She put her face on my face really hard," Nadia said, her words starting to slur as badly as Valkyrie's. "And it was just like what Emily did."

"Who's Emily?" Tanith asked with a frown.

"She's who Nadia dated at school," Valkyrie tried to whisper, but actually just very breathily said in a louder voice. "She was a bitch and not nice."

"Yeah," Nadia agreed, looking up at Tanith with big eyes. "She was a dick."

Tanith just nodded. "And she hurt you?"

"Yeah, she made me kiss her too," Nadia said, looking at the table. "I thought Valkyrie was wrong but she was right. I feel stupid and like I've drunk too much and I want to go to bed."

Valkyrie nodded definitely far too much. Dexter and Erskine half carried, half marched the two of them to their bedroom upstairs. The three helped them out of their clothes and into big old tops Valkyrie had taken from Anton, Erskine and Dexter over the years. She had no idea which used to be whose anymore. They were loose on their bodies which helped with the amount of liquid in their bellies. Her brothers and sister than helped them take off makeup and spoke softly to get them to tell them their symptoms, none of them caring at all about the girl's nakedness nor the fact they looked like overgrown toddlers in just big shirts and no pants.

Valkyrie was a lot worse off than Nadia and had drunk almost five large shots of whiskey, over half of the wine bottle in the snug, two glasses of wine at the restaurant and one bottle of cider. She recalled Dexter telling her off for mixing her drinks and him, Tanith and Erskine claiming they had to teach her how to drink when she threw up into the bin Tanith was already holding up to her face without Valkyrie ever realising.

After drinking a lot of water and being almost thrown into bed, Valkyrie and Nadia passed out within seconds of each other.

.*****.

Morning came way too early and with a banging headache and stomach-ache. Valkyrie had only woken up because Nadia had woken and dropped her glass of water on the floor and swore.

Groaning, Valkyrie drank half her own water, took the medicine which was on the side and gave her glass to Nadia who was looking at her with pleading, big eyes. The memories of last night came to her quickly and she was sure she remembered almost everything, even if it wasn't word for word. The amount of alcohol she had to drink was awful, she knew. No wonder she threw up before bed. Wincing, Valkyrie remembered that some of the other girls had drunk even more than her and were a lot smaller, so she assumed it was going to be bad for them. Then again, she was a pretty new drinker, the others had done this before.

Plus, although she was in pain, she was able to think more rationally about Vasuda.

She tried to ignore those thoughts in favour of helping Nadia. They needed to clean themselves, so they quickly went to their shared bathroom, moving quickly so they wouldn't have to put anything else on under their oversized shirts, and they got showered and then sat in a seriously hot bath for almost half an hour just pruning and feeling warm and happy with all the bubbles.

They got out and decided they needed a pampering despite both of them had headaches, and they stayed in the steaming bathroom with nose pour strips on and did each other's nails, and then put on moisturising masks because they were dehydrated and Nadia was convinced it would help, and whilst it did its thing they put mousses and oils into their hairs to make it seriously soft and then braided each other's hair. They left the room almost two hours after they entered it, got themselves in some comfortable clothes and finally decided they couldn't put off going downstairs any longer because they were starting to feel sick from not eating.

The girls were down there, all eight of them, plus all of Valkyrie's family including Ghastly and Laila who were spending valuable time together once more. It always lifted Valkyrie's spirits to see them spend time together, so she got to smile at least a bit. Valkyrie didn't so much as look at the other girls at all as she sat down at the table and served herself and Nadia a plate of English cooked breakfast. Their plates consisted primarily of hash browns.

"Fun morning?" Tanith asked, looking at their nails.

"Yeah, it was alright," Valkyrie said, and then silence reigned once more. It was a little awkward but Valkyrie ploughed through. No one left the table even when they had finished as they waited for her. Solomon and Anton were standing since there weren't enough seats, waiting also. She was sure it was giving the girls some anxiety, but Valkyrie could see they were worried and being protective, wanting to see what Valkyrie chose to do considering what Vasuda had done. Of course, it would help if Valkyrie even knew what to do with her.

She started by clearing her throat and looking at the girl, who looked back. She was obviously unwell, although they probably all were to at least some degree, and had eaten very little. She stared at Valkyrie with a mix of emotions, the main being nervousness.

"Vasuda," Valkyrie started, leaning back in her chair. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

Vasuda swallowed before answering. "I wasn't. I had too much to drink. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? Drinking too much? Sorry to me for drinking too much? I think you've gotten onto the wrong end of the stick if you think that's what's got everyone upset with you," Valkyrie told her flatly. She barely felt any emotions towards the girl other than a vague dislike – it was almost surprising but Valkyrie felt she had used up all her ability to deal with the girl. From the moment she landed in Ireland Valkyrie had felt everything she was meant to, and now she just wanted it finished so she could quietly live with Nadia and her family and train and fight people like a normal girl.

"No," Vasuda said quickly, her eyes narrowing for just a millisecond, enough for Valkyrie's detective eyes to see the anger and hate behind her mask. "I'm sorry to Nadia that I kissed her when I shouldn't. I'm sorry, Nadia. Can you forgive me?"

Some of the girls glanced at Nadia, but mostly the judgement was on Valkyrie it seemed. Valkyrie shook her head. "Nadia can forgive you in her own time. You can't ask for it in front of people and expect her to answer back, that's pressuring her."

"Well, it's true," Vasuda said back more hotly. "I do hope she forgives me because I'm sorry."

Valkyrie just shrugs. A thought occurred to her and she smiled at Vasuda. "So. What are your plans for getting home today?"

The others seemed alarmed, but they stayed quiet and relaxed slowly as they realised Valkyrie only meant for Vasuda to leave. She wasn't sure how Nadia would appreciate Valkyrie's decision, but she had already made her mind up that Vasuda wasn't staying.

Vasuda looked at her plate and back up again a few times, realising she had actually dug a hole she couldn't get out of. "I'll phone my parents," she said slowly, and Valkyrie nodded.

"Sounds good. A taxi will be here in," she looked at the clock on her phone, "three hours for you. More than enough time to book a plane, pack and say your goodbyes. You should probably get into it though, they're, like, five and a half hours ahead of us in India."

Vasuda didn't need much encouragement to leave the dining room to go talk to her parents. Valkyrie wasn't sure what story she'd give them but it didn't matter. There were some questions to Nadia after that all asking how she was and if the two of them were well, and the couple asked about Nadia's friends in return. Being as they all didn't feel the greatest after going way overboard the night before on drinks, they decided to have a nice, relaxing day indoors.

Her family in tow, they set up movies and talked all day, not seeing Vasuda at all until the taxi at the front gate beeped its horn and Vasuda looked into the parlour where not one of them turned to look at her and she left the house with her suitcase, having to go all the way up the drive to get to her car. No one mentioned it or talked about it at all.

Laila got loved on a ton by all the girls, and although Tanith had started to get really healthy again and was breastfeeding almost exclusively now, she let the girls feed her through the day with some breastmilk she had pumped and stored for later. Ghastly didn't seem to mind as he had had Laila last night and was tired. Tanith left to pump more milk – she had been given a lot of encouragement by the baby caring course she was on and was very strict about it while also not putting too much pressure on herself – and other than fussing over babies, the girls watched movies and ate Anton's food and had a good time with Valkyrie's family.

Dexter and Saracen stuck close to Nadia, though Valkyrie didn't know why and none of them gave any indication as to why. Valkyrie assumed they were just being protective.

As evening came around, the girls got really into talking about house plans. Most of the detail went into Valkyrie and Nadia's personal rooms, primarily what the bedroom would look like. Erskine got them to talk about other details he needed and Valkyrie just sat back and enjoyed being with her family, getting a hug from Solomon also as they sat quietly together. She really enjoyed that.

They slept in the room at the back of the house with Nadia's now seven friends for their last night, and in the morning it was all panic for them as they tried to work out whose makeup was whose and tried to pack everything away. Valkyrie and Nadia sat around and tried to be patient, and when they were ready for the final time, they got into rented cars once more and were driven to the airport.

Hugs went all around and Fleet kissed both Valkyrie and Dexter on the cheek for the fun of it and they all got a laugh out of it, and Valkyrie and Nadia held hands as the seven tearily left for their departing plane.

"Ready to go home?" Valkyrie asked Nadia softly.

"Yeah," Nadia smiled, the bags under her eyes accentuating quite how ready she was. "I'm going to sleep for a week."

I hope that doesn't read as rushed as it feels, but its how it came out of my brain you know? Not much else I can do but let the words come as they do. By this point in the story, I'm sure you're used to it though ;) I hope the Vasuda ending was okay, she didn't deserve any of their time or words!

Remus Cyka Crux - It's not bad, just sad ;) At any rate, I learnt everything from various fanfictions, I'm just pulling it all together for the stories. I'm not very confident in writing these types of 'scenes' but I think the quality is improving slightly. I say that with caution, of course, some people might hate it! I'm proud I can pass on these sacred messaged I once learnt here to the new generation *wipes tear*