hey this is a story about if skulduggerywas in love. it is not, and i repeat, not, a valduggery but it thought it was quite cute, the thought of skulduggery having a crush on someone. it takes place after mortal coil and all the events have stayed the same. i dont own any of the carachters othere than charade. the first chapter is slightly boring but i think it might get better. or atleast i hope it will... annny hoo read and reveiw and i hope you enjoy...

They strolled into the sanctuary on one of their routine call ins, to finish off some of the mounds of paperwork which had piled up on to skulduggery's desk. This, he had told Valkyrie many times, was why he did not often choose to have a desk, as it was a place where paper work could be piled upon.

They found grand mage revel in the foyer. He was talking with a woman and when skulduggery caught sight of her he simply stopped. Valkyrie chuckled at the sight of her friend and walked forward, to join the conversation.

Valkyrie had met the women before, on quite a few occasions. She was called Charade Beam and she was a good friend of Erskine and Ghastly. They had all known each other during the war and Erskine had once let slip in a conversation with Valkyrie, that skulduggery had that of a small puppy dog crush on her. This was made painstakingly obvious every time he was in a conversation with her, as the oh so charming and debonair skulduggery pleasant, tripped over his words and she was sure if he could blush, his bones would be bright red.

Charade turned at the approach of Valkyrie, smiled and greeted Valkyrie with a heart warming hug. She was the same height as skulduggery and she always looked good; but not in a perfect way like china. You could tell that charade joined in with the fighting and she was proud of it. She had large, dark forest green eyes, with flecks of amber dancing through them and plump pink lips and a regular sized nose. She was often found in jeans and a shirt, but today she had chosen something slightly less impractical if not slightly more feminine. She wore a deep blue knee length dress which gathered at one shoulder and hugged her figure, and floated out down near her knees. She had past shoulder length, tightly curled, chocolate brown hair, which today had been gently pulled into a band at the back of her head leaving the curls to tumble down across her shoulders.

Valkyrie loved talking to charade as she could always come up with some sort of story to make skulduggery squirm in embarrassment, and she loved teasing him. She was also one of the best combat fighters Valkyrie had seen, and she boasted on a regular basis, that she had beaten skulduggery in almost every fight he had tried with her. Of course he always said that he was taking it easy on her, and that he would never truly unleash his skills on a girl.

Charade was an adept, with a highly unusual skill, that had come in handy whilst fighting the war with Mevolent. She could change her form into any person she wanted, within a blink of an eye.

She had told Valkyrie that she had been part of the undercover team for the Irish sanctuary and that this was the reason behind the combat training. She had said that it was no use becoming the enemy, if you could not at least fight them off when they found out it was you.

"Valkyrie! It's so good to see you!" and she smiled broadly at Valkyrie making her feel warm inside. Charade was a mage who looked young for her age, as she looked to be in her mid to late twenties, but was actually about 350. She had an English accent with a touch of Irish in there.

And then skulduggery walked forward and stuck out his hand,

"Good to see you again Charade." He said slowly, trying to get each word right. Charade raised one eyebrow to him and batted his hand away and surrounded him in a bone crushing hug, he then lifted her up and spun her around. She laughed and batted at his arms to get him to put her down. She smiled at him, and Valkyrie knew that skulduggery was smiling too.

"I have to spend more time in Ireland! Its official" she smiled not taking her eyes off of skulduggery, him looking into hers. Erskine cleared his throat and they both turned to look at him,

"Well then, now that that moment is over," both he and valkyrie raised an eyebrow at the two sanding in front of them and chuckled "you were saying, Charade, that you didn't have a place to stay tonight?"

"oh yeah, I was just gunna call in at the midnight hotel, but it seems to have moved to Egypt for the night, I may as well just go to an ordinary ho-"

"I have a soom rare" skulduggery cut in with.

"... That's ... lovely skulduggery; I mean I don't, quite, understand what a soom is but, it sounds nice..." Charade looked confused yet amused at the detectives slip up, and Valkyrie bit her lip in order to try and stifle the giggles which threatened to erupt.

"I mean a room spare" skulduggery quickly interrupted with, now Valkyrie knew he would've blushed if he could.

"That sounds more like it, and you wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not! How long are you staying for?"

"Well I just arrived from England not more then an hour ago, hence the dress, but I think I'm just in town for the annual ball tomorrow and of course to see the new GRAND mage! I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner!" and she playfully slapped Erskine's arm. Ghastly strode in at this point and charade turned to him, "and you!" she pointed and Ghastly looked shocked, "on the council of elders, I never thought I'd see the day"

"hello to you too charade" he gave a limp smile and hugged her "well ill try to catch up with you later but right now..." and he trailed off, gesturing his hands to the left, and turned to wander back down the hall. He hadn't been quite as chatty since Tanith had gone.

"Ah, something else you forgot to mention as well there?" she just looked quizzical at the two men standing in front of her. They both looked to their shoes and Valkyrie went quiet. "It's a long story" she said softly.

"Well I don't need to be told right now do I?" she smiled gently at Valkyrie and gave her another hug, Erskine and skulduggery got to talking. "Now let's see you smile, what is there for me to tease Mr. Pleasant about this time?"

i hope you didnt think it was too sucky... the next chapters should be better, but be warned there will only be a small amount of action in this story... but please read it anyway :)