A/N: I don't own Valkyrie or Skulduggery. Story is in Val's point of view, obviously. Thanks go out to Deep In The Night for reviewing and following.


Skulduggery continued being nice as we arrived at a diner. Getting the door of the Bentley for me with the briefest tip of his hat. "Skulduggery!" I hissed, but he just chuckled in amusement. I wondered at that point if he'd gone entirely insane and we were exposing magic to the world, but as we entered the diner, no one gave him a second glance.

He smiled as we slid into a booth by a window so we could, I reckoned, see the Bentley. At least that hadn't changed. Skulduggery slid his collar down slightly, and I saw a flash of bone imprinted with sigils. "Enchanted hats. And you fell for it too." He said cheerfully. "Still looking for octopus people, Valkyrie?"

I wanted to slap the grin right off his face. "I was twelve!"

"And yet you believed me, you'll believe anything I tell you, won't you?" He purred dreamily in his velvety voice. "Santa Claus is real, and he works for the NSA." He said brightly and I couldn't help but laugh.

"You're in a good mood." I said fondly, kind of forgetting I didn't do fond because it freaked him out, but Skulduggery seemed OK with it. He just prodded me gently to order whatever I wanted and I fought the natural eyebrow raise that would normally come with him being generous. He loved me in his own way, and if Skulduggery was crazy he needed someone with him to protect him.

When my burger and fries came his gloved hand shot out and I watched in fascination as he snagged a fry. Oh Lord, he's really lost it. I thought as he raised it to his teeth. But then he was chewing, and it was gone. I stared at him in shock. "Uh-" I stammered and Skulduggery tapped his collarbone briefly.

"The option was always there." He admitted. "I just gave up on a lot of things for a very long time. Call it penance if you like. But you've taught me someone can be an absolutely horrible human being and still need to eat, so I though, why not?" I glowered at him and Skulduggery just laughed.


Sorry, I know it's super short, but I was in the midst of writing when the phone rang and my whole day slid sideways.