I am a huge fan of SP: the characters do not belong to me. The computer was a present from my dad, the characters are Derek Landy's, the story is my own. This story is under the premise that Tanith's Remnant is removed, Billy-Ray Sanguine changes his alliances, and Ghastly and Tanith were together. Notice my use of the word 'were', and enjoy!
When they met, she hated him. Not seriously, but she didn't like him, either. He was a 'bad guy'. She didn't even consider it. She didn't know about his biting sense of humor. She didn't care about his looks, marred by two black holes where his eyes would be. She didn't bother to find about the hole in his heart that couldn't be filled by anyone but her.
When they met, he could tell she was something. Hard to kill, obviously. Pretty, also obvious. He didn't think of her as anything but a distraction, though. He'd never actually gotten anywhere with a girl who wasn't just a distraction.
She saw how he didn't want to hurt her, but mistook it for cowardice. She liked him a little less, and a little more every time they met.
He couldn't stop thinking about her. He left the pretty girls alone, finding excuses to go to Ireland. He told himself it was for work, or revenge, but really it was for her. All her.
She lost herself, buried by the Remnant – but she also found herself, a part of her she rejected, and tried not to think about. But even after the Remnant was gone, the part of her she'd discovered wasn't. The part of her that was madly in love with Billy-Ray Sanguine.
He noticed she was different. She actually looked happy to see him, on occasion. She stopped trying to kill him, and he stopped trying to kill her. He also tried to stop threatening the dark-haired brat. For her, he could deal with anything – he'd even give up drinking, and he wouldn't do that for the world. But then again, she was so much more than the world.
She had Ghastly, of course. He was kind and caring, sensitive and warm. But he didn't have the biting sarcasm, or the cowboy boots, or the sunglasses. He wasn't...
He saw how happy she was, and figured he should leave well enough alone. If he really loved her, he'd let her go, right? But he knew she wouldn't come back.
She caught him while he packed. By this time, they were friends. And she'd found she liked insulting him and being insulted. Ghastly didn't do that. Besides, she loved magic. Ghastly just wanted to be 'normal', and she didn't.
She asked him why he was leaving, His excuses were pathetic, but when your heart is shattering, your excuses tend to be pathetic. That was the first time they kissed.
She told Ghastly, and he had no hard feelings. He said he didn't really expect it to go farther than friends anyway. And he never really liked Billy in the first place, so that was okay. 'What you see in that creepy Texan, I cannot fathom,' was all he had to say on the subject. But Billy also said something about an overgrown gorilla, so they were pretty even.
Tanith was beautiful. They say love is blind, but he knew Tanith was beautiful. She was all he could ever think about – no evil gods, no large sums of money to kill people, no 'mercenary deluxe'. Just him, and Tanith.
Billy-Ray Sanguine and Tanith Low. Forever.
You may not like this pairing. I do, actually, and find Billy's wit irresistible. I will write a China-Skulduggery pairing that will follow this one. Because we all know Skulduggery and China-Skulduggery is perfect. Well, some of us. After that, I might write some more. Anyway, until then!