A/N I haven't forgotten my other fic (I know it's been a few months) but I wrote this a month or so ago and decided to post in on a whim. The song is "Feel For You" by the band Nightwish – please look it up on YouTube before reading as it will probably make a lot more sense then. And thanks to Lady Alyss for your beta reading, even if I didn't really listen to any of your advice!

Disclaimer: Derek Landy owns Skulduggery Pleasant, I own the mistakes and the rubbish writing, and God owns the glory. Enjoy! (hopefully)

Feel For You
A Skulduggery Pleasant/Nightwish song-fic

You were my first love
The earth moving under me
Bedroom scent, beauty ardent
Distant shiver, heaven sent

The day he walked into her life, he turned it upside down. A mysterious stranger, with a skull for a head. Suddenly all she thought she knew was false. Everything changed. Whether for better or worse she couldn't say. The only thing she was sure of was him, the only person she could trust to tell her what the hell was going on. Day after day she spent with him, day after day getting to know him better. She knew all his habits, knew all his little pet hates and dislikes. A skull shows no expression, but when he smiled, she felt it. She didn't understand it. How could a skeleton be beautiful? Sometimes she wondered if he realised what a simple change of expression could do to her. She tried to keep it hidden, deep inside. But she knew something. He was the centre of her world now.

I'm the snow on your lips
The freezing taste, the silvery sip
I'm the breath on your hair
The endless nightmare
Devil's lair

She found herself staring at him when she thought he wasn't looking. She shadowed his every move, turning into a shadow herself. Her eyes traced his every feature, memorising him. She didn't think he knew, but he could sense it. Just her presence there, always watching him. He grew accustomed to the feel of her gaze, yet never quite comfortable. She was giving her heart away to one who could never return her affections. It pained him to see it. He didn't want to see her get hurt in this way. But what could he do? She would be the death of him, he knew that, though whether metaphorically or literally he couldn't say...

Only so many times
I can say I long for you
The lily among the thorns
The prey among the wolves

She had given up trying to banish such thoughts from her mind. The only place she ever wanted to be was by his side. Forever and always. She would always be his, but he would never be hers. That was simply the way it was. He never even noticed her. Not in that way – the way she wanted and longed for. And it hurt.

Someday I will feed a snake
Drink her venom
Stay awake
With time all pain will fade
Through your memory I will wait

Sometimes she wondered if she could ever escape the pain. She wished there was a way to end the misery inside her heart. But there was only one way out from this. She never contemplated it, but accepted it as inevitability. One day, she would die. He probably wouldn't, given the fact that he was already dead. She only hoped that he would remember her fondly – as a friend if nothing more. For him to keep her alive inside his heart as long as he lived; it was all she could pray for.

Barely cold in her grave
Barely warm in my bed
Settling for the draw tonight
Puppet girl your strings are mine

That day, looking into her eyes as he pulled the trigger – no, the reflection's eyes – he realised how his feelings had changed. "It's not her" he kept reminding himself, over and over again. "It's only an imitation of her. It's not real". But that couldn't stop the feeling deep inside, that gut wrenching sensation as he saw the light leave her eyes. She lay there in his arms as he carried her to the Bentley, limp and lifeless. Yet the warmth still lingered in her body. He could feel her motionless form against his bones while her head rested on his chest. It awoke such emotions deep inside him, emotions he had long forgotten. He found himself forgetting she was dead, forgetting that it wasn't even technically her that he was carrying in his arms. He just enjoyed the sensation of having her pressed against his body (well, skeleton). The warmth that radiated from her brought back all he had once loved and lost back to him. His mind wandered, imagining how things could be if their situation was different. If she wasn't a fourteen year old girl and he wasn't an ancient skeleton. If it could be possible for them to be together. If she could be his...

This one is for you
For you, only for you
Just give in to it never think again
I feel for you

She didn't think she could bear it much longer. All the emotions, all the unspoken thoughts had built up through the years, and now were tidal waves waiting behind a dam that was slowly collapsing. She had to tell him. How he was the only thing that mattered to her in her life now, how it was him that kept her going through the day. How every day she woke up wondering if it would be the last ever day she could see him, hear his droll remarks and endure his irritating sense of humour and constant self-assurance in his own abilities. All those little things, even things that could be annoying at times, they were what made him who he was. They were the things she loved so much about him – loved so hard that it caused her an almost physical pain at times. It was too much. She had to tell him. That he was the only one she could ever care for, the one who haunted her dreams at night and her thoughts every waking hour. Her life, her everything, would always be his. All she ever wanted was to eternally be next to him, for them to ever be as one. She would feel his pain, and he would feel her joy. And together, they would remain for evermore. As they were always meant to be.

Barely cold in her grave
Barely cold in my bed
Settling for the draw tonight
Puppet girl your strings are mine

She would never be dead to him again. If she ever entered into that darkness, it would only be for him to follow without hesitation. He felt the warmth of her body pressed up against his ribcage, her hair gently tickling his cheek. Her breath was hot on his frozen bones, her heartbeat thudding against his hollow chest. The sensation of their bodies so close together, two entwined as one. She was his, forever, and he was hers. And they would never be separated, not even by death. Together for eternity.