Chapter 163

Valkyrie and Nadia began their journey to New York early the next morning, having Fletcher teleport them to the nearest city to New York Fletcher had been to since he hadn't been before out of fear of being caught teleporting, getting taxis to the airport and then taking a plane. It was almost a five-hour flight from the state they were in but the journey was pleasantly boring. Nadia looked up things to do the entire time and Valkyrie worked out the logistics of where and when they could visit those places in the six full days they were going to have before travelling back on the sixth late at night. Today they'd have a half day.

Once at the airport in New York it was a nightmare getting a taxi and then a nightmare travelling to their hotel. Valkyrie had found a nice, but not super fancy, hotel for them. It had a double bed, a desk, wardrobe, bathroom and a small sofa area with flatscreen on the wall. All the furniture was simple but the room was large enough to walk around without feeling restricted.

"This is nice," Nadia complimented when she walked in. "Ooh, look at the view."

Valkyrie came over and had a look. "It's cool," she said. It looked out into the street which was packed with people and cars. It was busy and energetic. Not necessarily beautiful, but definitely different to what they were used to. "Should we hang our stuff up? There are hangers in the wardrobe."

Nadia did want to do that, so they spent half an hour settling in before getting hungry. Valkyrie decided to ask the person on the front desk what was good and they were recommended a Japanese restaurant, a pizza place and a mandarin buffet. It was only four-thirty, but neither of them had eaten in a while so they chose the buffet.

It wasn't far to walk. It was very hustle and bustle, and the buildings were extremely tall, but it was all very exciting to the girls. They held hands and stayed out of the way of everyone. On their way they saw a lot of different people and Nadia commented as they went that this may have been the most diverse mortal place they'd ever visited, and Valkyrie was tempted to agree.

"Good afternoon," the woman at the front doors of the mandarin buffet greeted them. "Table for two?"

"Yes please," Nadia smiled.

"Okay. I should warn you that the meal is not open for another half an hour. You are welcome to have drinks and wait," she said, and led them to their table. The place was packed already, since they were in almost the dead centre of the city, and it did seem a little strange that this restaurant liked to wait to let people eat but Valkyrie didn't mention it. They sat down and ordered drinks, nothing alcoholic since the drinking age was twenty-one and neither of them had a licence stating that, nor did they look it. They just got fizzy drinks instead.

"This is strange," Nadia whispered.

Valkyrie shrugged. "I'm so hungry I don't care. I just want these fifteen minutes to be over."

"Oh, look," Nadia giggled, ducking her head. The men behind Valkyrie had gotten up and, swaying like they were drunk, tried to get passed the staff to the food. They actually got to the plates and were taking food as the chefs were bringing it out to the middle of the room to put in the serving stands. The entire room watched as the bouncers took all three of them and were thrown out, their three very angry girlfriends following and then walked away from the men on the curbside, abandoning them. The room cheered before a bell went and they were allowed to get their food.

Valkyrie and Nadia went to the front with the crowds and ended up somewhere in the middle. Trying to be a good girlfriend for Nadia, since it was her birthday holiday, she let her go first. They chose very similar foods. They both loved dumplings, spring rolls and the meats. Valkyrie didn't actually know the names of what she was eating as it was all in a language she didn't understand, but it was seriously good.

"I'm so glad we got a table here," Valkyrie practically moaned between her bites. Nadia giggled. Nadia told her about the texts she and her friends had been exchanging all day, as well as some other places she had thought of to visit. Valkyrie just nodded and enjoyed the food. When they were done and had paid extortionate prices, they chose to go on a little walk to a nearby park. There were small snowflakes falling around them and the streets seemed to have cleared a little as everyone had found a restaurant or bar to occupy. It was like a lull, a short intermission in the activity where everyone was eating or hadn't left the house to begin their nightly activities. In an hour the streets would be filled again but this time with the early night goers and their numbers would rise over the evening.

Until they came out, Valkyrie held Nadia's hand and smiled at her, enjoying the cold air and soft crunch of light, fresh snow beneath their feet. They came upon a much busier street towards the tourist centre where there was a park, nothing massive but large enough to be hosting a small fair. There were a few small rides under marquees for small children, but mostly there were stands for various foods and drinks, music and little activities to win toys.

"Oh, Val, we have to go in!" Nadia said, giggling and jumping up and down like a child on Valkyrie's arm. The weight of the little ring in the little pocket on the inside of her jacket almost burnt her skin but she held her thoughts down and instead took her hand and they jogged together around to the front entrance.

"Five dollars each," the man at the front asked. "How old are ya's?"

They had to show him their fake I.D. cards which were now only a year ahead of their real ages. In fact, Nadia's claimed she was eighteen, nineteen in a few days, which she was very close to being able to discard. He gave them neon orange wrist bands and let them through.

"This is so fun," Nadia breathed, her eyes bright and wide, holding Valkyrie's arm. It made her feel good to have her girlfriend hanging onto her so cute and happy. She couldn't describe the feeling; it was just so good. "Should we get a drink?"

"We're not allowed alcohol," Valkyrie reminded her and then spotted a hot chocolate stand. "Oh my god, let's get a drink."

Nadia laughed at her as they skipped over into the line. There were about ten people ahead of them, all men and looking like they'd been sent to stand there by their families to order. They looked around at the people as they waited, stealing little kisses until it was their turn. Nadia chose a honeycomb chocolate drink with chocolate flavoured whipped cream, a flake and little strawberry chunks that sunk halfway into the thick cream. Valkyrie chose a white chocolate drink with raspberry sauce, normal cream, more sauce, and a flake also. The drink was proper melted chocolate, not powder, and was almost overwhelmingly strong in taste, while also seriously hot and melty. They kissed with their cream moustaches, grinned and licked their lips, and went off with their styrofoam cups to look around.

They found a rubber duck fishing game close to the centre and noticed there weren't many people surrounding it. The prizes were a bit rubbish, as expected, and they chose to have a go because it reminded them on when they were children. There was a little counter for their drinks to go on too. Valkyrie and Nadia had a few goes, Nadia catching two nulls and a low-level present one, where she chose a little peppermint candy cane, and then Valkyrie had her go. She was much more lucky, all three of her hooks got something – she had two small and one slightly bigger than small but not quite medium prize, but the person manning it seemed happy and let her trade it for a medium gift. She got them a tub the size of her hand filled with pink, purple and blue cotton floss.

"This feels right," Nadia smiled, taking a small chunk and putting it in her mouth. "And it's my colours. Mm, I haven't had candy floss in forever."

"Neither," Valkyrie smiled, sipping her drink.

"Want any?"

"No, I wouldn't wait to catch you bi-ness," Valkyrie teased.

Nadia pretended to humph but had a smile. "What, you're going to upset all of mankind. You used to say you liked both."

"I know, but then time went on and I realised the fault in my thinking. I mean, I'm not going to scream it and think it could never change. Some men look very nice. But we all like things that look good, that doesn't mean I want to kiss it."

"Well, surely you only want to kiss me, all the time," Nadia said, looking up at Valkyrie innocently.

Valkyrie gave her a deadpan look. "You literally cheered me on to kiss your friend."

Nadia couldn't help the smirk. "That was pretty funny."

"Just funny?"

Nadia just shrugged and smirked. "Hey, will you win me a big teddy like a really good girlfriend?"

There was a ball throwing game for large toys. Valkyrie agreed of course. She didn't have to play fair. Rounds came with two balls and she had to hit some bottles down. Both of the first times she hit them with all her strength and they didn't fall, so she got another round. She threw the third time, and honestly was surprised when the bottles fell, she had been about to use her magic on the fourth go, but she managed it anyway.

"Good job, you've got a nice arm," the man at the counter said. He had a marine tattoo peeking out on his hand. "You want to try for the big one?"

'The big one' was a small selection of very giant toys. Nadia was immediately on her with the puppy eyes so she agreed to try. She just had to do the same thing but with more bottles. She did use her magic here – she had two balls. Failed the first time, won with a little help from Nadia the next. She knew what to do when Valkyrie gave her a look, they would not be pushed around by a fairground game. Nadia sent the bottles scattering behind the board they were on.

"Woah, good job," he said, a bit surprised. Valkyrie almost thought it was rigged. "What toy do you want?"

Nadia chose the largest one. It was a dark brown bear with a beige tummy and nose, and was about the height of Valkyrie and twice as large. Nadia giggled and grabbed the toy, leaned all the way back to keep it off the ground, and started trying to walk around with it.

It took some convincing, but eventually Valkyrie got the thing from her and convinced her girlfriend it was home time. Nadia pouted a bit but after getting a pick-a-mix, she conceded and Valkyrie led the way. It was very hard with the toy, especially with so many drunk people now milling around but it wasn't too bad. A half-hour walk back, a laugh from the receptionists on duty, a very strange elevator ride, and they got back to their room.

"Ah, this is nice," Nadia smiled, sitting on the bed. Valkyrie spent a few moments setting the bear on the sofa to look like it had an arm on the armrest and its legs crossed.

"So," she said slowly. "Want to try shower sex?"

Nadia laughed and raced to beat Valkyrie to the bathroom.

I feel like these girls deserve a holiday so bad! And only a little while until the big question! I might be more excited than you, and I've already written it.

Lord Duck the Second: Yeah, I hate Mr Hagan too, it's why I killed him rather than having him arrested. It was just more satisfying. My big thing about the new real books now is that Alice lives there and Val hasn't said or done anything about it. Isn't she worried for her sister?! It doesn't sit well with me. And yeah, Skulduggery is one hundred percent coming back! It's not been that long in book time, only a few months, and he is going through three hundred years-ish of torture and other horrible things. He should come back in the next year of the fanfic, but not, like, New Years Day or anything. It'll still be a while, but I have his coming back planned. I would have said spoiler, but it's not much of one. What is an SP series without SP? But I will keep the whole 'redeeming' him part for later ;)

DemiseRim: I feel you, I hate Hagan too. Like I said above, it bothers me that in the real books, Val has done nothing about in and Alice lives there. What if the same things happen to her? She has to end his soul. Yeah, they be doing the fuck on this holiday a lot. It was just all those paper walls and all that torture was getting in the way of their sex life for a moment there. It just be like that sometimes.