Chapter 151
A week went by in the blink of an eye, a routine settling in fast. In the very early late-November mornings, the whole house would awaken as a bath was drawn, by Laila being awoken by her mother to be fed and changed, by the sound of the old gas cooker being clicked to life by Anton downstairs. It was an enjoyable part of their stay in America, the part that made it feel like a holiday. They would get ready and do exercises unless they were on a mission in which case the Dead Men would leave early for that. But on the days they hadn't left early on work business, Valkyrie, Dexter, Anton and Ghastly would go out for a sprint around the town that left them gasping for breath, and then they would spend time working out in the back garden with the rest of the family. Tanith and Laila would come out in the morning too. Laila would coo at the clouds and Tanith had begun to take on some easy exercises to begin to get back in shape. Nadia would follow Tanith's lead and struggled a lot, but it was nice to see her put in an effort.
The rest of their time had been easy. All the missions they had gone on had been early morning or late evening, and all of them had been easy with relatively no harm to themselves – at least by their standards, they had still been highly volatile and dangerous situations. Valkyrie had gone back to the Necromancer Temple once more, Nadia and Solomon following her and being unhappy about the idea. Nadia just seemed to not like Norma and her sister, and Solomon was still brewing on the idea of Valkyrie and the Magic Keeping issue. But they were going back for the magic training, so it seemed like she was going to get her choice respected.
She wasn't able to help with Solomon's unhappiness, but she decided it was time to do something nice for Nadia. That day her family decided to go out once more on a trip to see a small town a few miles away for fun. Everyone was going but this time, Valkyrie and Nadia stayed back.
"So," Valkyrie smiled, holding Nadia's hands. "I thought, since everyone is going out, we could have a little date lunch."
Nadia immediately brightened. "Aww, Val. That's really sweet."
"It's alright. I made a little picnic," Valkyrie told her and brought her over to the living room where, on the coffee table, was a wicker basket full of treats and fruits she knew Nadia would enjoy. "It's been a really nice holiday so far, even if I am away working sometimes, but I thought we needed some alone time."
"It's really pretty," Nadia complimented, sitting on the sofa with Valkyrie. "I didn't even see you make all of this."
"To be fair," Valkyrie admitted, "it's mostly just in packets." She picked up a packet of Nadia's favourite chocolate biscuits and handed them to her smiling girlfriend. "And anyway, nothing is too much work for you."
Nadia laughed a little at how cheesy Valkyrie was being and thanked her. They enjoyed the little finger sandwiches she had made that morning. They stuck on a movie they had found in the shops a few days prior and hadn't yet watched, speaking over it as they shared the food, kissed and were generally just very inappropriate on the sofa. They made it to the bedroom before things got too serious.
"You know," Nadia said softly when they had finished kissing and crawling all over each other's bodies. "I could imagine my whole life with you."
Valkyrie smiled softly at Nadia's glowing, beautiful face. She was looking out of the window and couldn't see Valkyrie's gaze.
"Can't you see it? I can imagine living in our new house and going downstairs and hugging your brother's good morning, and all having breakfast together. We'd all go off and work or whatever we all do and come back in the evening and it would be all smiles and small talk about our days and we'd go upstairs to our apartment alone and hold each other. I can imagine all the years, the ones where we are so in love we can't get enough of each other," she said with a sneaky smile. "And I can imagine when we fight and make up, and wait up late for each other to get back, and celebrating our birthday's and all the Christmas' we'll have together. One day we'll be married and have children, Val. I know we will."
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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...
