A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I've been busy and I posted the last chapter without making sure I had the next chapter ready so I could upload weekly (ish)…
I'm sure you guys know I don't own Skulduggery Pleasant
Fletcher: Wow, you actually just did the disclaimer normally without any funny or weird lines
Me: And you know you just ruined it now
Fletcher: Dammit!
Me: You're an idiot.
Chapter 11 That Fight and Break Up
Of course she was annoyed. It was just like a normal couple (if Skulduggery and herself could ever be considered normal). The man would sit on the couch watch the television unmoved by anything while the woman looked over constantly desiring to talk to him.
Except it was even more infuriating as Skulduggery was not watching the television but sitting on a chair staring into blank space, doing nothing and still refusing to talk to her. It truly made her want to start a fight.
Didn't he know how much she wanted to talk to him? After all it was the first day that they had worked separately (she had taken a case with Tanith and he had taken another with Ghastly) and she had so much to tell him. How they found a creepy, blind, snake guy who was keep a werewolf as a pet and then a little old lady who was part troll. It was so interesting!
"So how was your day Skulduggery?" she asked him casually, her eyes penetrating the back of his chair.
There was quiet for a moment.
"Fine"
Just fine and he said it like it was nothing. The first time they had spent not working together in years and that was all he could say.
"What did you and Ghastly do?"
Silence.
"Not much" he finally answered.
It was maddening.
"You are not going ask me what I did?"
"No"
Cringing she went on with writing down in her journal (not a diary a journal, the Sanctuary made employees give a monthly journey of all their cases).
"You don't want to talk to me at all?"
"No" that hurt.
"Is there anything you are doing right now?"
"Not really"
"Then can you talk to me?"
"No"
She slammed her pen on the desk.
"Why not!"
"I'm thinking"
"And so you can't talk to me?"
"No"
…
"What are you thinking about?"
"Well I'm not sure, how to put this. So I think I'll just take a big leap" he said and got out of his chair and stood next to the seated Valkyrie…
…and then he got down on one knee…
OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH
"Valkyrie Cain" said Skulduggery reaching into his pocket. Valkyrie could help but feel the heat come to her cheeks and her heart race like fire.
He pulled out his hand and opened it and inside was-
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Valkyrie was shocked.
And then Skulduggery laughed.
"Can't believe you fell for that. Now leave me alone damn woman, I'm busy" he said and sat back in his chair.
Valkyrie felt tears prickling in her eyes. She stood up and felt her knees buckle.
"You're the worst Skulduggery" she said flatly and ran out of the room leaving the surprised Skulduggery alone.
She sat on the steps and cried. He was always so mean to her. Why can't he ever be kind and compassionate for once! Just once she was asking for him to actually do something nice or romantic without any sardonic or sarcastic loose ends to it.
For once she just wanted to be normal. Have a normal life and a normal boyfriend.
How out of character was it for her to cry! She felt so stupid. She was supposed to be the strong woman who stood besides the most annoying but brilliant detective on the planet.
She heard the door open and close but she didn't look back (rather bury her head in her hands in despair that he would see her like this).
"I'm sorry" he sincerely said. She tried to answer but all that came out was a hiccup.
He sat down next to her and stayed silent.
"I didn't think you would react that way" he said and she could hear the guilt in his voice.
"I'm sorry too" she said and leant against his shoulder. He wrapped a bony arm around her.
"For what? You didn't do anything wrong"
"I don't know. Hearing you actually saying something sincere makes me feel sorry"
He held her closer. She liked the feeling.
"Hey listen Valkyrie" he started, "Maybe this isn't going to work out between us"
That was a shock for her.
"What?" she said looking up at him, "What do you mean?"
"Well, I definitely think I'm not the right person for you. You deserve much better than me and I can tell that sometimes you wish that things were different- that I was someone else. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying you don't love me because as we know I am absolutely brilliant but can you really see us together in the future? Hundreds of years later, well if we haven't been killed yet, us together, you probably looking ancient and I still remaining in my unnatural beauty. Can you really see that?"
Valkyrie thought.
"Can you see it?" she asked.
The skeleton held her closer resting his head on her shoulder. Curling and hiding away as if he was finally closing down all his defenses of sarcasm and fake arrogance and let out a simple and small-
"Yes"
Valkyrie moved so she could see his skull better.
"Most definitely yes" he continued. She smiled softly.
"Me too" she said and hugged him.
"I can't see a world without you Skulduggery. I wouldn't want one without you. And yes you can be unbearable sometimes, idiotic and stupid but I can get past that"
"And I'll try to be more considerate of when you are suffering from PMS" he said and hugged her back.
"Ha, ha very funny"
"I know. I'm a genius comedian"
They hugged for a while longer and the decided to go back into their apartment.
"Was you're whole attitude since you got home was because we didn't work together today. Was that why you seemed so quiet?" she asked as they walked up steps hand in hand.
"Hm? Oh no. I had a blast of a time without you. Ghastly makes such a better partner"
"You can shut up now"
"I love you"
"I love you too"
A/N Woops forgot to put '…well almost' in the title. Hopefully I didn't scare you guys cause I would hate to do that.
Well I didn't win any of the competitions I entered (but that isn't stopping me from buying all my beloved books). Still…sad…
I wrote this all with a keyboard which I have to press 'u' multiple times until it came up. See how I labor for you?