"Skulduggery, I don't understand you sometimes," China chirruped, making her way through her extensive library.
"I'm surprised you understand me any of the time, to be honest," Skulduggery replied, following China through the maze of books.
"Well, you tend not to make much sense," she commented.
"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that. I'm surprised you understand most people – it must take a lot of effort!" he replied, and China imagined him smirking. She turned round and slapped his arm, chuckling.
"At least I have a brain in my skull," she said, and Skulduggery feigned hurt.
"And you're using it to do what, exactly? Be almost as clever as I am without one?" A wink, China imagined.
"Shut up, Skulduggery," China conceded, rushing off towards the back of the library. Skulduggery celebrated his small win before catching up to her – he still got lost in this labyrinth, even after all the times they'd been in here.
"Slowcoach!" China yelled behind her as Skulduggery failed to keep up. True, she had been boosting her speed with one of the sigils on her legs, but he had the power to manipulate the air so technically he should be able to keep pace.
"Skulduggery!" she called out, momentarily looking behind but not catching even a glimpse of the familiar skeleton figure.
"Skulduggery?" she called out again, a quiver of doubt in her voice this time. Had he left her? Was he bored? Or was he-
"Boo!" Skulduggery shouted, jumping out from behind a bookcase. China screamed and jumped backwards, before slapping Skulduggery in the face.
An asshole. He was an asshole.
"You, you…"
"Extremely dashing and charming skeleton?" Skulduggery suggested, adjusting his hat. It had fallen awry after he had jumped out at China.
"No," China said rather grimly, but she couldn't help the smirk that appeared on her face.
"Glad to see you agree with me," Skulduggery replied, touching the part of her lip that curved upwards just enough to show a smirk. "Your facial expressions give you away."
"You don't have to worry about that," China commented. "You do tend to cock your head to the side a lot when you're confused, though."
"Do I?" he asked, doing exactly as China said he would, before straightening up. "I do not!"
"Of course you don't – the great skeleton detective would never be confused," China said, chuckling.
"No," he agreed, straightening his tie and striding off to another part of the library, letting China trail behind. He didn't like not having the high ground, so walking off was the best thing to do.
China smiled – she did like proving Skulduggery wrong.
"China."
"Skulduggery."
"China. Why?"
"It's funny."
"But is it really?" Skulduggery sighed.
"Yes." China walked around the invisible forcefield in which Skulduggery was currently contained.
"I suppose it's payback."
"Justified, I think."
"How are you even keeping this thing up? There's no sigil that you're standing on or pressing, so how is it working?" A signature cock of the head.
"Oh dear, have I confused poor Skulduggery again?"
"Seriously."
"A pattern of invisible sigils woven into the carpet. I say invisible – I can see them, but no one else can. I'm very carefully stepping to keep that forcefield in place. The sigils are everywhere – personal protection, my friend."
"So naturally you're using them to protect yourself from me?" Skulduggery said, wanting to gesture but getting kept back by the forcefield. His arms bounced off the forcefield when he did so, which made China howl with laughter.
"Naturally," she replied, recovering from her fit of laughter and composing herself, continuing to walk round the forcefield with unnerving precision.
"Care to explain why?"
"I need to stop you getting too close. Emotional attachments tend to… distract me from my work."
"I'd love to be a distraction," Skulduggery commented, and China laughed.
"Perhaps later. I have a couple more books to collect before that can happen."
"I'll wait," Skulduggery said, and China imagined a cheesy love scene from one of those low budget, badly scripted films. "Now let me out."