Chapter 124
"Hey Val," Nadia smiled when Valkyrie finally found her just coming in from the back door.
"Hey," Valkyrie replied quietly, taking the stack of perfectly folded, cold but dry laundry from Nadia's arms. "How was your day?"
"Fine, I mean, you've only been gone for four hours," Nadia shrugged, going through the kitchen without looking over at the breakfast bar where Saracen and Erskine were sitting despondently. Valkyrie didn't acknowledge them either – it had only been a few hours of punishment for them so far, so it was acceptable. "I got the rest of your washing done, and my own. I hope you don't mind, I put our clothes in the machine together. I don't know, I thought it might be weird to put our clothes together but we didn't have enough separately for a wash. I hope that's okay."
"It's fine baby," Valkyrie said, sneaking a kiss onto her cheek without dropping anything. "Anything exciting happen?"
Nadia shook her head. "No. Should it have?"
"No," Valkyrie nodded. "It feels really strange in the house now you know. I mean, it's lovely that you're here and I wanted that for ages to be fair, even if it was just visits or temporary or whatever. But there's just all this tension in the air."
Nadia hummed. "It's been empty for the most part. Before you woke up, I mean."
Valkyrie shook her head. "Whack."
"Whack?" Nadia smirked
Valkyrie grinned. "I'm amazing." That was received with an eyeroll, and then they were in the bedroom and Valkyrie placed the clean clothes on the end of the bed. After watching Nadia split the clothes into their own piles, Valkyrie had a sudden thought and sat on the bed. "Wait."
"Hmm?" Nadia wondered.
"Where are your clothes?"
"They're right here."
"I mean where's all your stuff? Are you living out a suitcase?" Valkyrie asked, looking around stupidly. She couldn't see one in her room.
"I moved it into Tanith's old room across the hall when you could come home from Kenspeckle's a few days ago. Tanith called him and told him you're back to normal by the way. You have to go in for a check-up but he said to tell you it'd only be half an hour at most so you have to do it."
Valkyrie grimaced, not feeling like going to the doctors but also not wanting to search for Skulduggery more and recognising that a doctor's visit extended her time not searching. "I'll go later. But I was just thinking – well, if you're okay with it, you could just move all your clothes into my wardrobe and we could, like, share."
Valkyrie knew she was putting on puppy eyes, but Nadia looked conflicted and wasn't quite looking at Valkyrie's incredibly convincing face which was unfortunate for Nadia because Valkyrie knew it was adorable. After giving her a few minutes to think about it, Valkyrie reached out and gently took Nadia's hand. Smiling, Nadia sat onto the bed and squeezed Valkyrie's hand.
"I don't know if there's room," Nadia said uncertainly.
"I don't mind moving some stuff. I did a massive clear out with Erskine a while ago, but I could do with another. I don't wear over half of what I have you know," Valkyrie said quietly with a little joking in her voice to make it a little sincere so that it wouldn't seem as if she was pushing Nadia into it, but not so much that Nadia didn't think Valkyrie was serious. Nadia bit her lip in thought. "I guess it must be a bit quick for you. I mean, yesterday I needed help doing normal things and you were helping me put my clothes on, but I have no clue what happened these last couple of weeks. It just feels like one moment I was at the Sanctuary, then there were a few little flashes like I was going in and out of consciousness, and then I woke up in the front door. To me, this is kind of what I had been hoping for for a little while."
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Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain
Fanfiction(This story is written as a fanfiction, but can be read as a story without having read any of the books.) Valkyrie Cain, the adoptive daughter of the Dead Men, has had a life full of love and magic. But as she gets older, times become scarier and sh...
