Hello to anyone reading this. Sorry it took so long to get this updated, I had actualy almost finished it about a week ago, but my computer deleted it, so alas, I had to start again.

I apologise for any bad grammer, It's 2:20 am, Ive been writing all night and I put off studying for my exams to get this finished, so hopefully you will all love me enough for that that you won't notice as much. However unlikely that is.

(I will also point out that because of said exams, i will have a little trouble getting time to write, but cross your fingers and hope that I will want to write even more when I have the chances)

I hope you like this chapter, because its a pretty important one.

Read, enjoy and please review :)

Valkyrie laughed as they tumbled over the banister, the thrill of falling overtaking her true emotions for the moment and just having fun. She didn't bother trying to push against the air and stop their fall, she'd leave that to Skulduggery. Their fall slowed incredibly just before they hit the floor, slowing enough that there was no pain when they hit. She chuckled again, as they lay on the floor, limbs entangled and her breathing fast from the thrill.

She stayed where she was for a second, enjoying the closeness, before she pushed herself of him to stand up. She stumbled a little because their legs were still all twisted, but she managed to get to her feet without falling over, which she considered a great accomplishment, considering the sharp pain in her stomach and the burn inside of her which she was doing her best to ignore.

Skulduggery got to his feet quickly and straightened his suit indignantly, obviously not pleased about being so easily ambushed. "You're lucky you didn't hurt yourself." He said, though she could see he was trying to keep himself from smiling. The facades face was always so easy to read. "And more importantly, you're lucky you didn't hurt me."

She rolled her eyes, but already the smile was fading, now that the rush from their little game was going away her feeling slowly seeped back inside her, the feeling of foreign unwanted hands on her body, the sting of shiny blade on her stomach, the ache that wouldn't seem to leave the area between her legs. She sighed and forced herself to smile, not wanting him to see how much she was hurting. She had to be strong. And it was her own fault anyway.

"You're so egotistical, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Many times." He said smartly, picking up his hat and dusting it off carefully.

"You'd think you'd have got the message by now." She plucked his hat from his hands and placed it on top of her head. "I think I earned this, seeing as you were so easily taken off your feet." She smirked at him cheekily. "How very ungraceful of you Mr Pleasant."

"Don't be foolish Valkyrie, I'm me, I'm never ungraceful. It is physically impossible."

"And your tumbling over the banister would be a show of what? Your slick dance moves?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "My dear Valkyrie that was merely me giving you a chance to think you'd won against me for once. I thought you needed it, because I've been beating you for so long, I thought I'd be a gentleman and give you a chance to feel good about yourself."

She narrowed her eyes at him, showing she knew he was lying. He chuckle and reached out to grab his hat. She stepped back out of his reach.

"Nope, my hat now. I earned it. It looked better on me anyone." She grinned. "I look sexy and mysterious."

"You look like you stole a hat from someone with amazing style, now give it back."

"No, make me." She challenged. This easy banter they shared distracted her from her thoughts, made her feel better, she couldn't ignore the physical pain she was feeling, but at least this helped her ignore the emotional pain.

He sighed like he was going to give up, and then so quickly she almost didn't get away he sprung forward, hand out. She sprang backwards, just out of his reach, but felt her back hit one of the walls of the hall they were now standing in. He grinned at her and stepped closer. She quickly put her hands on top of her head, holding the hat in place.

"You'll never get it back."

He put his hands on either side of her, and raised his eyebrows. "You're not going anywhere until I get my hat back."

Valkyrie felt her heart leap into her throat as she looked up at him, his tall, very thin frame so close to her but not touching, and suddenly she had to focus very hard on keeping her breathing even. "You're very annoying, you know that right?" She asked breathlessly. He didn't seem to notice.

"And yet you still find me oddly attractive," He smiled, "And very handsome of course."

She knew he was joking of course, but her smile faltered for just a second. She chuckled, sounding a little off and shoved at him, though it was half hearted and he didn't budge. For a skeleton he was very strong…. And firm…. And tall... and- She shook her head a little, forcing her thoughts back to the present. "You wear a different face every day."

"And yet my impeccable dress sense and winning personality overpower the weirdness of my wearing different faces every day, and women everywhere find themselves swooning whenever I'm near."

Valkyrie stared at him, hoping he couldn't hear her heart thundering in her chest. Oh god it's true, she thought to herself, and even her mental voice sounded breathless, It is so, so true Skulduggery.

"Dear Gods, who inflated you're ego; I swear it wasn't this huge before."

He tilted his head, which looked a little odd when he was wearing a face. "Valkyrie, I can't help it if I have a way with women, but to have my full effect I need my hat, so as cute as you look wearing it I do need it back, please hand it over."

If Valkyrie had had anything in her mouth she would have choked, but as it was all she could do was splutter uselessly for a few seconds before she took a deep breath and lean back against the wall. He hadn't meant in the way she wished he did, but it still made her head spin and her heart leap to hear him call her cute. "I told you, make me." She retorted, her voice weaker than before. Obviously he was still completely oblivious to the effect he had on her.

He narrowed his eyes and grinned evilly, stepping closer to her, their bodies so close to touching that she thought she was going to go crazy. God how did he do this to her? Her breath hitched a little, and she knew that it would be best for her sanity if she just handed over the hat, but for some reason she stayed right where she was, hands on head, looking up into the handsome face he was wearing. Oh she would regret this later, her heart would ache and she'd hate herself for this punishment, but right now all she wanted was this, to be this close to him, even if it was just for a moment and not for the reason she truly wanted.

"Valkyrie," He said slowly, his voice low and extremely sexy. Her knees went weak and she had to lean against the wall fully for support. "You do know I could take it from you in a second by force if I wanted to right?"

"Yes." She breathed, not even able to think enough to argue with him like she usually would. She noticed his left eyebrow twitch in surprise. So he had noticed.

"So why not just give it to me now, save yourself the shame of being beaten by me once again." He was speaking slowly, humour in his voice, as well as a hint of persuasion that made her want to just give in and give him whatever he wanted.

"Nope, I told you, it's mine now, until you earn it back."

He smirked, before she could dart out of the way his fingers shot forward, tickling her ribs expertly. He'd had six years to learn how to tickle her, and now he knew how to do it perfectly. She bit her lip and wriggled, trying to keep her hands on the hat, but he just doubled his efforts, and as soon as her hands began to loosen he pushed her lightly against the wall, holding her there while he plucked the hat from her head and placed it on his own. "Ah, how I've missed you."

Oh god, Oh my god, was all she could think. Skulduggery had his arm across her chest, pinning her to the wall. It was pressed against her breasts, though he hadn't seemed to notice yet, and their bodies were just touching. There was no force, but they were touching. Move away, please move away, She begged silently in her mind. Her body was tingling where they touched, and her mind was fogged, the only real coherent thought she had was that she needed to kiss him, and if he didn't move soon she wouldn't be able to stop herself.

He smiled proudly and looked down at her, the smile fading as he took in her strained expression. "What's wrong, did I hurt you?"

She shook her head. "Then what's wrong?"

She let out a shaky breath, and when she breathed back in again it pressed against his arm, making the fabric rub against her from the pressure, and she almost moaned. He wasn't doing it on purpose, she reminded herself, he hasn't even realised. "Nothing," She lied, her eyes anywhere but his face, "I'm fine."

He used his spare hand to touch her chin, using his thin bony fingers to tilt her head up so she was looking at him. "You can trust me Valkyrie, I know there's something going on."

"There's not, I'm fine I swear."

"I don't mean just now, I mean in general." He looked down at her, concerned, not even seeming to notice just how close they were. "I know there's something wrong with you. You've been acting different for months now, I didn't say anything, I thought you would come to me… but you didn't." Almost instantly the fun atmosphere was gone, and she really didn't like the way this conversation was headed.

"This isn't like with Darquess, it's really not important Skulduggery, please just…" She trailed off, not sure what she wanted, she wanted him to move away, to move closer, to stop asking her what was wrong, to keep worrying about her, to hold her and kiss her, and tell her he loved her. "I can't, I really can't." She shoved at his chest again, a little more solid this time, her need to get away growing desperate.

He pushed back against her hands and pressed against her chest a little harder with his arm, keeping her from getting any real strength behind her push. She knew she could use air to push him away, but that might make him angry, plus, with his arm pressing against her breasts like that she doubted she would be able to concentrate enough. Already she could feel her hands shaking with the amount of effort she was putting into controlling herself.

He sighed. "Valkyrie, why lie to me? I'm much too old and wise to fall for such tricks, and I'm very serious when I say, I'm not letting you go until you tell me. I gave you time to come to me, and now I need to know what you're keeping from me, we're friends, and I want to do everything in my power to help you." He smiled and tilted his head, which put their faces even closer, and that was it, she gave in.

A year she had been perfectly controlled, holding back and now everything seemed to go in slow motion as a pained noise left her lips, and her fingers gripped the front of his rumpled shirt, tugging him forward, until their lips connected, not even giving him a chance to be surprised. The moment their lips met her heart leapt in her chest, made her feel like she was going to explode, despite the fact that she was kissing the façade, and in the back of her mind she knew it wasn't the same as kissing him properly. But it still felt so good.

It lasted barely a second, and then he was pushing away from her, stumbling back until he hit the other wall of the hall, his eyes wide in surprise, and his hand over his mouth as he stared at her. The small piece of hope she'd felt was slowly fading. He was reacting very badly.

She stared back. What could she say, she'd lost control and kissed him, after so much effort of pretending, she'd messed everything up.

She opened her mouth to apologise, but no sound wanted to come up, her blood was still pumping hard through her veins, her lips still tingled, and despite how awful the situation was, she was turned on. She closed her mouth, unable to speak and just looked at Skulduggery, at the surprise that was written all over the façade. Whatever he had thought was wrong with her, he hadn't expected that.

"Oh," He whispered quietly, the silence of the hall allowing his voice to carry to her. "I see."

"I- I'm so sorry." She leaned back against the wall, needing it to support her so she wouldn't fall to her knees like she wanted to. She wanted to lie, to make up excuses, and perhaps a few months ago she might have, but she knew there was no use, it wouldn't work, so all she could do was stand there and wait for him to decide what to do.

He slowly stood up straight, stepping away from the wall, and straightened up his shirt before he slowly undid the top button, at first she was confused, but she understood when he reached inside and the façade suddenly melted away, leaving his own grinning skull to look at her. Were this any other situation she'd call him a coward for getting rid of the face that would show his emotions, but right now she could understand.

He tilted his head forward a little and when he spoke, the pity in his voice almost tore her heart in half. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise, I should have noticed."

She rubbed her face with her hands, trying desperately to quell the emotions that were rising inside her. "I didn't want you to notice, I don't know how I kept it from you this long, but I didn't want you to know." She moved her hands and looked at him. "I was just going to pretend, you didn't have to know, we could have just gone on like normal, and you wouldn't have had to deal with this." Despite the fact that her eyes were dry there was tears in her voice, and she was talking fast, like she always did when she was freaking out.

Her frustration was growing, and although she was frustrated with Skulduggery for pushing her, she knew it was her fault, for losing control, for keeping it a secret, for falling in love with him. But she wanted him, and she knew that if he would just give her a chance to love him then they could be together and be happy. She didn't care that he was a skeleton, she knew he didn't have the same… things as other men, and actual sex was out of the question, but that didn't matter. Didn't that just show how much she loved him?

She looked at his blank, grinning skull, which was angled towards the ground and took a hesitant step towards him, her legs shaking. "Please don't hate me." She begged quietly. "I can't help it, I…" She tried to get the words out, but they wouldn't come, if she said them, it would make everything to real.

Skulduggery sighed and pulled his hat off with one hand, running the other over his smooth white skull. It was a moment before he spoke. "I'm sorry, I didn't notice. I should have." He looked up at her. "I…you have to understand Valkyrie…. I'm over 400 years old… I'm a skeleton, I'm dead, and your just a girl… yes, you're 18, and that makes you a woman and I understand that, but in most people's eye… your still a child…you and me, I just don't see how it could work out."

She bit her lips and dug her nails into the palm of her hands, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill. She had expected this of course, but she'd never imagined those words could hurt so much. He stepped forward slowly, hesitantly and put a hand on her shoulder, as though he was worried he would be encouraging her feelings by comforting her. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

She laughed bitterly and gave him a disbelieving look, a few tears managing to make their way down her face. "Do you think I would have kept it to myself for this long if I hadn't already considered all of that? I already know all of these things; I knew you would say all of this, so I kept it to myself." She looked away from his face and glared at his shirt, a slow but steady stream of tears running down her cheeks. She glanced up at him desperately. "But I know we could work Skulduggery, there are so many things that say we would be good together."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry Valkyrie…"

Skulduggery was shocked, to say the least. When he had begun pestering Valkyrie, finding out she had feelings for him was the last thing he expected. He'd thought maybe she had a secret boyfriend, or knew a secret he didn't, or something else as equally mundane. Those thoughts had of course blown out the metaphorical window when he'd felt her soft lips against his. It had taken him a moment to react, a split second where the wonderful feeling of the kiss had overpowered all awareness of the situation, but then of course he'd remembered exactly who it was that was kissing him, and that was the end of that.

She hadn't yet said that she loved him, but he knew it without her saying it. His mind wanted him to believe that to her it was a crush, and he couldn't help but think that's all it really was, but he could see it in those dark eyes of hers that it was much more to her, she thought she loved him, and that made the whole thing much, much worse. She couldn't truly love him of course, he knew that, after all, he wasn't even alive; he was just a walking talking skeleton, not at all boyfriend material.

He had no real heart in his chest, but the feeling of a heart still remained, and when the tears started flowing down her face it felt like his non-existent heart was breaking. This was his fault. He should have realised this would happen, it was natural for teenage girls to get crushes on older men who influenced their lives, and nobody influenced Valkyrie's life more than Skulduggery had. He'd taken her from her old life and thrown her into a world of magic and fun, a world with charming skeletons and plenty of fun and dangerous adventures. How could she not get a crush on him after he'd given her all that?

She stepped back to lean against the wall again, and he let his hand slip off of her shoulder. They stayed silent for a while, just looking at each other, Valkyrie still crying, neither of them with anything to say.

She was pretty; there was no denying that, she was beautiful in fact, Skulduggery had obviously noticed, it was hard not to, with her stunning black hair and dark eyes, which contrasted perfectly with her pale skin. She was tall and very slim, and she had even developed some nice curves over the past few years, and that along with the muscle tone her training gave her ended in her having an almost perfect body, only a fool wouldn't notice her.

But of all the times Skulduggery had noticed these things over the past few years, not once had his thoughts been romantic. In fact, he'd never even considered the idea, she was Valkyrie, his partner, the little 12 year old girl he'd saved that first night, the girl who saved the world countless times, who'd risked the faceless ones to bring him back to this world, the girl who had lived every day of her life knowing that at any time she could destroy the world, but not once had he thought of her as anything more than a friend.

"I know you think we could work," He said finally, "But you're letting your emotions cloud your judgement. I'm sorry for not noticing sooner and discouraging you, but apparently I'm not as good at reading people as I thought I was, and I really am sorry for that, but you need to understand that you and I can't work Valkyrie." She stared at him, her expression barely changing. "There are too many things in the way, and…I don't return your feelings, I love you like a friend, I've known you since you were twelve, I just don't have romantic thoughts about you."

She studied him for a moment through her tears, her eyes scanning his blank skull, as though searching for something, what that was exactly he didn't know, but she soon spoke up again. "Have you tried?"

"Pardon?"

She looked at him blankly. "I said, have you tried? You're just assuming, but have you even once sat down and considered it? "

When he didn't answer she seemed satisfied and continued. "You say now that it couldn't work, and I know I all those things bother you and I don't blame you for that, but please, I want you to at least think about it."

He shook his head. "I don't want to promise you things and then get your hopes up, even if I did sit down and consider having a relationship with you, it wouldn't make a difference."

She growled, a frustrated noise, and for a moment he was surprised, but soon realised it was aimed at herself not him. "That's not what I meant, I don't want you to consider being with me that's not what I'm asking. All I want you to do, is actually try and see if you could have romantic feelings for me, I'm not asking you to do it now, I'm just asking you to do it. And if you don't think you could ever feel anything for me then I promise I'll never mention it again."

He started to shake his head, but she grabbed his arm and her tears flowed faster and she looked at him, her eyes filled with desperation. "Please," She whispered, "Please just do it for me, I…" She glanced away. He knew she was embarrassed to have him know her feelings, but obviously she was putting her pride second to her feelings for him. "I really do love you." Her voice broke on the word love. "I love you, and I can't stand to just pretend this never happened without you even giving it a second thought, I need this Skulduggery."

She took a shaky breath to try and calm herself down, and she let go of his arm. "And I promise you that if you don't change your mind I will pretend this never happened, we can go back to the way we were, I'll force myself to get over my feelings for you, and you'll never have to worry about it again."

He stared at her for what felt like a life time, before finally he nodded. "Alright, give me time, and I'll think about it, but I'm not promising anything. My feelings are the way they are." A voice in the back of his head told him he was a fool, but how bad could it really be? And really, what were the chances that just thinking about it would make him feel things he obviously didn't feel? He felt relatively positive that he could spend the next week thinking about them, and still wouldn't develop romantic feelings for her. Although he had been wrong before…

So what did you think?

I apologise if it was crap, I will admit it's not my best work, but this is my first real attempt at Valduggery, so bear with me. It was a bit sad, yes, but it was needed, because for this i just don't see Skulduggery taking to the idea of them being together straight away, even if I do think they flirt like crazy in the books.

It can only get better from here, and reviews encourage me, so you know what to do.

Virtual cookie to the first reviewer! (^_^)O See, there it is, right in that things hand there, I know you want it.