"Nothing, really," said Vex, winking at Skulduggery. "We just thought that you may be a bit rusty after a few hundred years, and if you needed a little help to get your girl, well, we could help."
Skulduggery didn't move as the three men continued to grin at each other and laugh.
"Obviously," continued Rue, "We have a plan prepared if you want our help. Nothing to fancy, but we'd say it's likely to work."
"Honestly though," added Vex, sighing,"it's incredibly nice of me to be offering to help you at all. My friend in need and I step up once again. You needed to learn to dance, I taught you. You didn't invite me to your birthday party,and I still showed up. And now you want a girl, and I am here to help once again. But do I get thanks, do I get appreciation? No. No I do not, I get my shirt insulted."
Skulduggery sighed, still sounded rather nervous. "First of all, I never had a party. It wasn't even my birthday. And yet you still showed up, and insisted on cake. You didn't even get me a present. Even Val gets me birthday presents.
"Ah. Back to the crux of the matter," said Ghastly
Rue nodded happily. "Valkyrie."
"What?," muttered Skulduggery, sounding most unlike himself.
"Skulduggery, look," sighed Ghastly. "We know you love Valkyrie. We've known you for years,and you can't hide your feelings from us. So stop denying it, and let us help you."
"Valkyrie? What?" Exclaimed Skulduggery.
"Skulduggery, drop it," said Vex, starting to sound slightly annoyed.
"Fine," muttered Skulduggery unhappily. "But no one can know but you three. She's only 16 and I'm over 400. It could never work. I'm a skeleton!"
"None of that matters," said Ghastly softly.
"Of course it matters!" Exploded Skulduggery. "She's beautiful, and young and talented. I'm old, a skeleton and a bad person. She deserves far better than me."
The three men were all shocked to hear Skulduggery sound to unsure of himself. When anyone was asked about the famous Skeleton Detective, they would usually describe him as confident, daring and witty. Unless it was someone who didn't like him. Then he was annoying, cocky and a click at the door, they saw Valkyrie walk in, pulling her hood down and looking confused.
"You never told me you had company, Skulduggery." Said Valkyrie, frowning at him. "What's been happening?"