AN: Hope you like this, it's been about for ages and I'm only just posting it.
Valkyrie and Skulduggery had been called into a meeting with the Elders of the sanctuary. There were a few other important people there that Valkyrie hadn't really been paying attention to when they were introduced. Her mind only focused on one thing. Darquesse. That was the only thing Ghastly had mentioned about what the meeting was going to be about. That's also the only thing that played on her mind during the ride to the sanctuary, she was unusually quiet and Skulduggery didn't like it one bit.
Once everyone had settled in at one of the round tables at the sanctuary, Ghastly spoke. "Now, we all know that this Darquesse is supposedly our biggest threat we'll deal with yet..." He began.
Valkyrie was just trying to drown it all out. She looked around the room. She noted it was a stupidly large with a tall ceiling; there were literally only three things in the room, the rounded table being one of them.
Skulduggery was immediately regretting the decision to let her come along with him. To be honest, he knew she was lying when she told him she was fine with it. She'd told him she could handle it and wanted to know any new information they may have on it. Her.
Now he was sat next to her, watching her eyes start to glaze up with tears. He gripped the arms of his chair tighter and tighter as Ravel and the others went on about ways in which to stop her, kill her even. She had her hands in her lap, and just when skulduggery reached for her hand in reassurance, she stood up.
She couldn't take it any more. Valkyrie was staring at her hands like they were the most interesting thing on earth. She felt tears start to sting her eyes. She couldn't let anyone see her like this, what possible reason would she have to react this way to what they were saying? The only reason was, she was Darquesse, and only her best friend knew about it. Valkyrie could no longer see her hands as the tears had blurred her vision completely. She needed to get out, and quick.
Without grace, she stood up suddenly, her chair making the lousiest noise possible as it scratched against the floor, echoing in the stupid room. This earned lots of attention from the people in the room but she'd gone before they could say anything.
All eyes turned to skulduggery.
He tipped his hat to Ravel and Ghastly, who had halted their conversations for any explanation. Without explanation himself, he left the room swiftly too. His two friends knew skulduggery was going to see if Valkyrie was alright, so they continued their debate on Darquesse.
Skulduggery stepped outside the room, looking both left and right. He stood, read the air, then continued his path to the right. She had gotten quite far away but skulduggery stopped in his tracks when he heard shallow breathing. Valkyrie had walked off to a part of the sanctuary not many people used or visited, she just needed to be out of the way of people in general. She backed up against a wall and slid down it until she was in a crouched position, her face buried in her hands. She needed to even out her breathing and it was proving a difficult task.
Her breathing started out fine, taking one deep breath after another. Then another wave of fear came over her, fear of dying, fear of killing everyone she loved, her family, her friends. Skulduggery. Her breathing came in short and ragged as tears started to build up again. Then she let out a whimper, and if he had one, it would have broken Skulduggery's heart.
What hurt most was that she was trying so hard to keep her tears at bay, but it was like she had no control. She was hunched against a dirty wall, sobbing her heart out into her hands. Skulduggery walked around the corner but she didn't look up. She couldn't, though she knew he was there. Skulduggery said nothing, but sat down cross legged next to her, scooped her up and set her down in his lap.
She buried her face into his jacket, still trying to stifle her sobs. He didn't tell her everything was going to be ok, that everyone would come out of this safe and unscathed. And she appreciated that. All he did was tell her the truth, that he would be with her every single step of the way, fighting alongside her. Them against the world.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie never returned to the meeting, so once it had finished, Ghastly went to see if they were still about. He found them both sitting in each others arms and was about to speak when Skulduggery cut him off with a finger to his lips.
"She's asleep." He said, looking back down on her sleeping form resting against him.
Ghastly looked worried, "Is she alright?"
"I think the whole 'the world is in constant danger and we usually barely just save it' thing finally caught up on her." his soft velvet voice replied, still looking down at Valkyrie. "I'm taking her home." He said, standing up with Valkyrie in his arms like she weighed nothing but a feather. She stirred lightly but just snuggled into Skulduggery's chest.
"Home? It's the middle of the day at the weekend. Her reflection could be at home with her parents." Ghastly said, frowning.
"Oh, no I didn't mean her home, I'm meant our home." Skulduggery said back. Ghastly raised an eyebrow.
"I mean my home, my house." Skulduggery stuttered back, tripping over his words, finally happy with the final ones.
"Uh huh." Ghastly retorted, amusement evident in his tone.
"Shut up. Will you just help me into my car?"
"Sure, sure" he spoke back, the amusement still lingering. They walked to his car is silence. Once they reached the car, skulduggery tossed ghastly the keys, confusion and surprise written on ghastlys face.
"What do you want me to do with these?" Ghastly asked, as skulduggery set Valkyrie in the back seat.
"What do you think, just drive to-" ghastly gave him a look, "- my house." He said while getting into the back with Valkyrie.
"You're letting someone other than you drive the Bentley, is it you I should be worried about?" he laughed lightly as he slid into the Bentley.
The ride to skulduggery's house was relatively quiet, ghastly and skulduggery's minds both on one thing. The biggest threat yet. And the biggest threat was curled up on skulduggery's lap, his fingers playing through her hair.
AN: First Skulduggery fic so the characters may be OOC, hope that doesn't bother many people.
Review and tell me what you think, open to suggestions :))