Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 13 - Official Sister

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

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Chapter 13

Wolf and Bear got back from their own adventure two days later, thanks to some very lucky weather and winds, and Valkyrie was the one that got to the door first to greet them.

"Valkyrie Cain!" She shouted as soon as they were out of the car.

They grinned – well, Bear smiled but she could see his pride so it was proportional happiness as far as she could tell – and Wolf ran and gathered her into a giant hug, throwing her in the air and catching her. She laughed and pulled herself from his arms. "I'm so proud of my Cub!" He kept saying. "And I still need a victory hug from you!"

She laughed and ran to Bear for one of his own hugs that made her relax. "I'm very proud of you," he rumbled quietly.

"Thanks," she grinned. "Come on, you have to meet Tanith still."

She led them in after they grabbed their bags and they went to the living room where everyone was in lounge clothes, which Valkyrie had struggled with at first but after seeing Crow in his full suit next to jogging bottoms and the lack of shirts on the others, she found a funny side and decided it was the best, and there was a chorus of 'Hellos' and 'Nice to meet you'.

"Shut up," Bear said to Weasel after he tried to reintroduce himself despite knowing each other for centuries.

"This is Tanith," Valkyrie said, sitting beside her in hopes of directing the meeting to Tanith rather than everyone else's idiocy. "She is my friend and she said she'd stay a while to help with training me. You're not allowed to be friends with her."

Wolf nodded. "Of course. I always encourage pets, they can be fun."

Tanith rolled her eyes and went back to the manuscript Valkyrie had baited her into the living room with. She was impressed Tanith had looked up at all.

"How was your trip?" Crow asked. "No problems?"

"No, we had a strangely good time," Wolf said. "And Bear got – er, a new friend. Impressive right?"

Bear smacked Wolf, hard, across the back of the head and Valkyrie laughed though she did try to stop, honestly!

When the laughter and exchanges of stories were completed, they were starting to get hungry, as they often did.

"We should go out for food," Wolf said. "We need to celebrate."

There were happy agreements and they all squeezed hazardously and probably illegally into Panda's van and drove out into Dublin. They parked in the centre, or as close to it as possible since it was a city that didn't do particularly well with cars, and all piled out. Valkyrie stood between Wolf and Bear and their group got a few looks on the way but with Tanith laughing with Panda behind her, no one bothered getting in their way. Not that Valkyrie would have let anyone ruin their fun.

Valkyrie picked out a nice sandwich place to eat at she thought the others might also like. Gordon had taken her there most times there had been a celebration between them and it was nice to be back in its familiar dining hall. It wasn't expensive too which Valkyrie wasn't really worried about, but it was nice since there was eight of them. Well, seven to eat. It was still a lot.

"Hello," a waitress greeted when they came in the door. "How many today?"

"Eight," Valkyrie said promptly.

"Alright, come this way," she said, picking out menus. "We'll push two tables together for you."

Of course, Wolf helped the little lady with the table. Even Valkyrie, despite her somewhat lacking knowledge of the male mind, could tell he had seen an opportunity to show off to the pretty, young waitress and had taken it. She rolled her eyes and they all sat down. She was at the head and Bear and Tanith were on either side of her.

She looked over her menu. "I never know what to get," she muttered. "Gordon always got the same thing though."

"What would he get?" Tanith asked curiously.

"Spicy turkey. He ordered the same at a different place once and he almost cried 'cause it wasn't the same. He said it was gross," she grinned. "He tried to slip some into my food to trick me but I didn't fall for it."

"Why's that?"

"I had soup."

She snorted. "For such a smart man, he seems pretty silly sometimes," Tanith commented. "I like the sound of the seafood wrap."

Valkyrie nodded. "That one's nice. I think I'll copy you. I can't decide."

They all ordered and they soon received their food and ate in companionable silence with just a few mutters of enjoyment and conversation. Carefully, Tanith picked a piece of her salad onto her fork and flung it onto Valkyrie's plate.

"Hey!" Valkyrie protested, picked it up and threw it onto Tanith's few remaining salty chips.

Very, very quietly, the girls grinned and commenced war.

Valkyrie threw a piece of tomato into Tanith's drink and shook with laughter and Tanith had to bite her fist to stop from making a scene. The rest of the table had turned to the other side to watch a different conversation. Only Bear was watching them unreadably. Tanith carefully balanced an olive Valkyrie had thrown at her on her fork and, after placing it carefully on the edge of the table, hit the slightly bent end and it flung in the air and pinged off the side of Valkyrie's glass but didn't go it. Valkyrie had to hold her sides she was laughing so much and Tanith had thrown her head back, giving her the perfect chance to grab the olive and lob it at Tanith and it fell down her shirt.

Valkyrie was making airy, choke-like sounds now, trying to hold back her laughs and suck in enough oxygen. Tanith was crying slightly and trying to fish the olive out from between her boobs. Even Bear was chuckling quietly.

Taking the opportunity, Valkyrie took a whole cherry tomato and it hit off the top of Tanith's head and it jumped over the table to interrupt the seemingly important conversation and Valkyrie couldn't hold it back anymore when they turned to see Tanith's hand down her shirt and them both with tears in their eyes and began laughing loudly which got Tanith going.

"You're a cow," Tanith wheezed to her. That just made it worse for Valkyrie and she almost face planted her plate clutching her stomach.

"What's going on?" Panda asked from besides Tanith.

Bear shrugged. "Women things."

Valkyrie snorted and tried to calm down, but then she and Tanith looked at each other and it got bad again because she had stuck her hand back down her top to get the elusive olive out and it cracked her right back up. The men shook their heads and Crow asked for the bill.

Valkyrie and Tanith left with grinned and armslinked, muttering between themselves about silly things and some of the thingsthey liked in the shops as they walked by, primarily sweets and to see movies.The men, who they could hear behind them, watched in bemusement.