Hello my wonderful readers,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Technically Christmas ended two and a half hours ago but I still felt like I had to put a Christmas pressie out there for you guys to enjoy.

So the story:

This is Valduggery… Like super-duper Valduggery.

Valduggery Status: Married for around a century

Skul is human (courtesy of Nye or something – I don't know, just think of something).

Val is about 170.

Anyway, yeah… Hope you enjoy this. Please review and favourite as always. It really is appreciated. Also, any Valduggery haters, please don't read, it'll just make you upset.

I hope you guys who celebrate Christmas had a brilliant Christmas and anyone who doesn't I hope you had an awesome day anyway because I'm in a super good mood and have had sooooooo much SUGAR!

Okay, speak soon…

Love, Cait (RedIvySparrow) xx

Valkyrie woke in unusually empty bed and sat up. She looked at the clock on the table next to her. 5:34am, December 25th. She smiled, knowing instantly where her two children, and presumably her husband would be right now. She got out from under the duvet, went to the door and snuck downstairs.

By the time she got down one set of stair, which wasn't that long, she could already hear her daughter babbling in the way that babies do, and her son getting over excited as he moved towards the living room. Valkyrie sped up, padding lightly across the first floor landing and down the stairs to the ground floor. Down here was wooden flooring, but with all her detective training over the last 160 years she remained silent. She heard her husband's voice coming from down the corridor and ducked into the alcove underneath the stairs.

She saw him walk by and grinned, following. He came to the end of the corridor and walked through the arch into the back of the house. Here was the more modern part, the open plan kitchen, dining room and second living room. Valkyrie stood in the archway, was about to say something funny when a soft thud came from the living room. Her husband didn't appear to notice, and so she turned to go and investigate.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist and she was spun. Skulduggery, her husband, kissed her and she grinned against his lips, and then kissed him back. They parted, their noses still touching.

"That never gets old," she said, smiling.

"You really thought you could sneak up on me?" he asked.

"Well, rumour has it the great Skulduggery Pleasant has been getting a little soft these days."

"Merry Christmas," Skulduggery murmured.

"Merry Christmas. You didn't wake me."

"I didn't."

"Why not?"

"Because you were up at two wrapping presents."

"Yeah, so were you."

"Well, Blair and Thorn aren't going to let us both sleep in," he replied.

Valkyrie laughed, "No, I suppose not." They kissed again. "This is a nice Christmas," she said quietly. "Can we stay like this?"

"I wouldn't mind that…" Skulduggery grinned that boyish grin of his.. "I mean," he continued. "He's what… six now?"

"Three," Valkyrie corrected.

"Right. Three's a mature enough age to open your Christmas presents and stay downstairs for an hour or so…"

Valkyrie slapped his arm, but then pulled him in for another kiss.

"Mum, stop," came a voice from the doorway. Blair. Valkyrie jumped, turned to him and smiled.

"Hi Blair," she said, a little too cheerily. "Aren't you opening your presents?"

"Dad said I had to wait until he came back through," he said. "Hurry up!" And with that, their little boy ran back through to the living room, making aeroplane noises as he went.

Valkyrie turned back to Skulduggery and glared at him, and he smiled innocently.

"Really? You had to tell him to wait? That could have bought us at least half an hour!"

Skulduggery gasped in mock horror. "Valkyrie, you should be thinking about spending more time with our two beautiful children in there, not about finding ways to avoid them."

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I wasn't thinking so much about them as about the person I was avoiding them for," she said, smirking.

"You don't mean me, do you?" Skulduggery was smirking too.

"Possibly…"

He chuckled, and was about to say something when Blair came running through again.

"Come on!" He started jumping up and down excitedly. Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery and sighed.

"Okay. We're just coming," she said.

She took Skulduggery's hand and Blair shot off down the corridor again. Valkyrie grinned and followed with Skulduggery. They came in as Blair skidded to a halt in front of a massive pile of presents placed in front of the Christmas tree. Thorn was in her crib in the corner, gargling playfully. Valkyrie went to her and picked her up, sat down on the sofa. Skulduggery came and sat next to her.

Blair opened his presents with a giant smile on his face, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie watched. Valkyrie helped Thorn unwrap her presents and at the end of it all the living room was a mess. While Blair played with his sister and some of his new toys, Valkyrie and Skulduggery cleared the wrapping paper and toys from the room. Well, Valkyrie cleared the toys and Skulduggery used the air to carry the paper outside and incinerate it. Everyone watched that bit. They had turkey for dinner and when it was getting late (and Valkyrie wanted some quiet) Skulduggery took Blair up to bed and Valkyrie settled Thorn in her crib again. Skulduggery came back downstairs and Valkyrie curled up on the couch next to him, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Today's been nice," she murmured into his collarbone. She felt him nod. Valkyrie started to close her eyes, then a thought popped into her head. "Your present!"

Skulduggery sat up. "Ah yes. I almost forgot to give yours to you."

"Wait here," she said quickly, padding down to the back of the house. She went into the living room area, to the drawers and took out a small black box, then went back to the living room. Skulduggery was still sitting there, so Valkyrie sat next to him. He was holding a small black box too. She grinned. "Happy Christmas," she said, and they swapped boxes.

Valkyrie opened the box to find a silver bracelet, with a charm hanging from it. On the charm, it said 'The sparrow flies south for winter, until the end…' She smiled, thinking of the gift she'd gotten Skulduggery; silver cufflinks, one with 'Be brave,' and on the other, 'Until the end…'

"It seems we had the same idea," Skulduggery said, smiling.

"Great minds think alike," she replied.

"You just admitted I had a great mind."

Valkyrie laughed. "Shut up." She kissed him. "Thank you," she said softly.

Skulduggery kissed her in return. "Thank you."

They sat in silence for a while, and Valkyrie looked up at him, butterflies in her stomach. "So, I may have one other thing for you," she said, smiling warmly at him. Skulduggery arched an eyebrow.

"Another thing?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Well, it hasn't arrived yet."

"Okay…"

"And it won't arrive for a while."

Skulduggery suddenly looked at her, a smile on his face. "You're not…?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Seriously?" he asked. Skulduggery's eyes were twinkling.

"Yes, Skulduggery, I'm serious."

Skulduggery laughed and kissed her and she wrapped her arms around his neck. They parted, then hugged and Valkyrie rested her head on his shoulder again. "Merry Christmas, Skulduggery," she said.

His velvet voice was just loud enough to be heard. "Merry Christmas."

So there you have it! I really hope you enjoyed, once again, be sure to leave a review so I can improve my writing! Also let me know what you did for Christmas / any presents you got / any other fics you want me to do. I'll have a lot of free time to write over the holidays, so just let me know if you want me to write anything.

Also, will be doing a Doctor Who fic (probably 10th or 11th doctor), so any fans of Doctor Who look out for that!

Anyways, Merry Christmas guys! See you soon! Xx