Chapter 3

A/N: Hee,hee. Enjoy!

Tanith could feel herself blushing. She had just thanked a guy that had just said that he'd be her nut-job. How many guys said that kind of thing and turned out to be sane?! But this guy did seem strangely level-headed. She knew that she was a head-case, but this guy wasn't shrinking away from her in horror. They had looked away from each other, and now Ghastly Bespoke was concentrated on the road. She looked at him sneakily, taking him in. He was well-built, there was no mistaking that, with strong, muscled arms and broad shoulders. He was bald, with scars running down the back of his head and face in every direction. He must have seen some action in his life-time, Tanith thought. Seriously, the scars this guy had were unbelievable! Not that that was anything to really admire, she thought. Scars like his must be hard to live with. But couldn't he heal them? Scars, even ordinary ones, healed over time, but Ghastly's ones looked as though he had just got them overnight, and Tanith knew that wasn't possible.

Also, his face wasn't all that bad. She'd seen worse. Hello, she'd once fought a guy who had not so much a face, as a collection of muscle! And then Skulduggery Pleasant...anyway, Mr Bespoke's face wasn't that bad. He had nice eyes. She had looked into them a moment ago; they were a soft blue, not icy and pale like China Sorrows' or Mr Bliss', but deep and warm. They were surrounded by tired bags but that didn't take away from them, and he had a nice smile as well. It was ruined slightly by the scars running all the way through it, but...wait, what the hell was she doing? Was she checking him out?! She glanced at him and shivered. No, no she couldn't be. He must have been...a century older than her, at least. She hadn't met a man she really liked for so long, and tonight wasn't going to be an exception...

Ghastly Bespoke cleared his throat to speak, and Tanith almost jumped, wiping her eyes swiftly.

"Well, I've heard all of that stuff about glory and honour before, you know," he said with a shrug. "My mother always gave these speeches when she was teaching me to box."

"Oh," Tanith said in surprise, her eyes relatively dry now. "She was a fighter too?"

"Oh yeah, a bare-knuckle boxing champ," Ghastly continued. Then a strange touch of distance crept into his voice. "I decided not to follow in her footsteps though. God knows, I had enough nicks and bruises to begin with." He let out a small laugh. Tanith was confused.

"Wait," she said "Didn't you get those...um, those, nicks and bruises, from fighting?"

"Oh no!" he said with a real laugh this time. "No, um, I was born this way. My mother was cursed when she was pregnant with me. I think it was a competitor who had lost against her and got sore about it that did it."

"Oh," Tanith flushed bright pink. "I'm sorry."

Ghastly shook his head. "You don't have to apologize. I'm fine with it, really. I've learned to live with it. I took up a career as a tailor, both because I love to do it, and also because I figured that I had enough scars already. So I grew up as the eldest child, the sewing child, and the ugly child.

Tanith shook her own head. "You're not ugly, Mr Bespoke. "

He laughed. "I've been called it too often to think otherwise, Miss Low. I don't mind it anymore. Why do you think I called myself Ghastly?"

"Oh please." Tanith could feel herself getting passionate again. "The people who would call you ugly are just...small minded, arrogant little prigs with a limited vocabulary. You may be ghastly in appearance, Ghastly by name, but you are not, from what I've seen anyway, ghastly by nature. Okay, I have met 'ugly', alright? I have dated ugly. Men with handsome faces who are the most dishonourable, indecent, dishonest pricks you could imagine, who would be willing to torture and harm a person purely for the fun of it. They are ugly, Ghastly. That, is what ugly is, and you are not."

She caught herself, and found she was breathing deeply. She took one long breath and then looked at Ghastly. He was staring at her, blinking, but when she turned to him he looked back out of the windscreen.

"Um, thank you, Tanith," he muttered. She blushed and looked at her knees.

"You're welcome," she mumbled, but found herself smirking slightly. A few minutes of silence passed, and then they took a turn into a deserted, pot-holed street full of warehouses.

"Here we are."

GXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTXGXTX

They drove up Denholm street, with its old warehouses and cracked pavements and parked the car outside the warehouse Serpine had bought. Ghastly braked and the two got out, stepping into the humid night. The sky was covered with clouds. There were no stars, and nor was there a moon.

"Do you think there's anyone inside?" Tanith asked, looking up at the building and letting her long jacket fall open in the warm evening.

"Dosn't seem like it," Ghastly replied, feeling very professional. He let his own tattered bomber jacket fall open. "We should probably wait until Skul and Valkyrie arrive before we investigate properly."

"Investigate," Tanith repeated in the London-accent, rolling the word around on her tongue. "In-ves-ti-gate..."

Ghastly smirked "You don't do much investigating, do you?"

"Well," she began, rustling her blonde hair defensively with one hand. "No, I mean, I'd do..research, you know, if I needed to but...not much investigating, no."

Ghastly chuckled, hand in jacket pockets. "Don't worry. I'll show you."

Ghastly paused, realising what hehad just said. Then he coughed, looking at the ground.

Tanith continued to play with her hair, glancing at him bashfully now and then, the two of them leading against the warehouse wall. After a minute she chuckled to herself. Ghastly looked at her.

"What is it," he asked.

"Tanith shook her head. "No, it's just...back there, in the car. Me going on about honour and sacrifice like that..I got carried away. Sorry."

"Don't be," Ghastly assured her "What about me, reminiscing about being the 'ugly kid in the family'? What's that, if not getting carried away?"

Tanith laughed sunnily. He looked at her fondly. She had a very beautiful laugh. It wasn't forced, it wasn't fake, it was just real.

"Yeah, I guess," she said smiling, "We're quite a pair, right?"

"Hmm," Ghastly agreed. He looked away and shrugged. "Well, if you want."

Tanith looked at him. "What?"

Ghastly looked back at her. She was curious. He smiled. "Well, you're friends with Valkyrie, right?"

"Friends?" Tanith looked at the ground and smiled softly. "I guess we are. She's a sweet girl, well suited to this life...and she's a bit of craic. I guess we are friends." She looked at Ghastly. "And you and Skulduggery are friends too, right?"

Ghastly smiled now. "Very close friends, yes. Have been for years. Anyway, my point was...well, they're probably going to become partners now, and...if you and Val are friends, do you think you would end up helping them every so often?"

Tanith blinked. "You mean like, if we survive all of this? And I can afford plane tickets to Ireland every weekend?"

"Well, not every..." But then Tanith smiled at him, and he got that she was joking. He smiled. "I mean, well, I'm going to be helping them too, probably..."

"So what are you saying?" Tanith asked "That we should team up?The two of us?"

Sure, Ghastly thought. If it means spending more time with you.

"Well, if you want to call it that," Ghastly continued. He saw her face. She didn't look sure. Now he felt like a complete prat and went red behind his scars.

"Um, you know," he said quickly. "That's only if you want to..."

"No, no," Tanith said quickly, shaking her blonde curls. Then she was still, a soft smile creeping across her lips. "I'd like that. Very Much." She seemed to think for a moment then said, with a laugh. "Hmm, Low and Bespoke. We'd, um, probably have to think about the name, but..."

"How about just, Tanith and Ghastly?" he suggested with a grin. Tanith grinned back.

"That's perfect." They smiled at each other for a moment, and Ghastly felt happier than he had in a long time time. After a moment though, Tanith's smile dropped, and her beautiful face turned sad. She looked away from him, staring down the street.

"Mr Bespoke," she began, hesitantly. "If this...is, the end of the world, if Serpine does win this war..I want you to know, that it has been a pleasure talking to you tonight." She looked at him with those hazel eyes, and smiled. "It has been nice to have someone to talk to, for once."

"The pleasure was all mine," Ghastly replied honestly. He looked at the ground for the moment. He didn't know what had come over him. Suddenly he felt hot and flustered, and had no idea why. He couldn't meet her in the eye, and yet he wanted to so badly. He couldn't find the right words, to say how he felt. What was wrong with him? Was this what he thought it was? No, impossible, he hardly knew the girl...

"And I would like to tell you, Miss Low," he blurted out before he even knew what he was going to say next, "Tanith, that talking to you this evening has been...wonderful." He looked up and smiled at her. "Thank you. I just wanted to tell you that, if tonight is our last night. And-"

He broke off, in case he said too much. Tanith waited for him and when he didn't continue, she laughed.

"What is it?" she asked lightly. "Were you going to tell me you love me or something?"

Ghastly didn't answer her. At this, her smile dropped slowly, and her heart began pounding strangely. He lifted his head and looked at her with soft blue eyes. She looked at him. He opened his mouth, about to speak, then closed it again. Then he let out a fake laugh.

"No, I was just going to say your hair is like the sunshine, or something corny like that," he covered, shrugging. Tanith scowled and punced him in the arm."You pig, you had me worried there," she joked. He laughed.

"Ah, now this is the start of a wonderful partnership." He commented.

"You better believe it is," she told him and then the breath was almost knocked out of him as she kissed him swiftly on the cheek. It was the briefest touch, but to him it continued to tingle long after it add finished. His first kiss...He looked down at her. She smiled, almost bashfully.

"Just in case," she said quietly. Ghastly looked at her, this girl, whom he had known little over a day. A killer, a slayer, a Londoner... and the most spectacular person he had ever met. He looked at her blonde hair, her red lips, her deep, hazel eyes and how they stared into his. If they had been left for a moment more, he didn't know what would have happened. Would another awkward silence fall upon them? Would he say something stupid, or worse, do something stupid? Would he kiss her, and would she kiss him back?

They never found out what would have happened, and now they only remember what did, and what did happen, was Skulduggery Pleasant's black Bentley purred up the street. Tanith and Ghastly looked at it, and then looked at each other. Tanith stared at him then smiled, and shrugged.

"It's showtime, handsome," she said, grinning and putting her hand on her sword. Ghastly smiled back, and they looked on towards the Bentley. His feelings could wait for tonight. They had a job to do. They would fight tonight, the four of them together, and if they survived, if they won, they would have all the time in the world. Love could wait...