Warning: Slight sexual themes.
Also, kudos to Cernunnos Cain for giving me a fantastic idea…
Entry #19: Written July 19th
Dear Diary,
OH GOD.
Right.
So, today was sort of weird. Like…a nice weird, though. I'll begin with the fact that as I was sitting in the tree outside, the back door flew open, and Fletcher sprinted out of it. Tanith was right behind him, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"LIKE A VIIIIRGIN," she shouted, "TOUCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME."
"SHUT UP," Fletcher shouted back, teleporting that next instant.
I frowned and jumped from my perch and landed in front of Tanith safely. "That was pretty harsh, Tanith," I said quietly. "And how did you find out?"
"Monsieur Rhett called, asking to speak to Mr. Bliss, and he explained what went on at that meeting the other day," she replied. "I figured I could make fun of him for a bit, and then feel bad."
"Or you could…not say anything about it."
That next moment, Fletcher teleported right next to me. "Valkyrie's a virgin too!" he shouted, trying to take some of the slack off of himself.
Tanith shrugged. "I know, and I'm not surprised."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I muttered angrily.
"You're so conservative, Val!" Tanith exclaimed. "You need to-"
"Valkyrie!" China shouted from the house. "Skulduggery wants you!"
"I'm sure he does," Tanith whispered to Fletcher, who smirked slightly. I glared at them both and casually meandered over to the back door. Ghastly told me to go to Gordon's study, so I climbed the stairs and entered the room quickly.
Madame Gabs was sitting on the desk. Uh.
I frowned.
"What are you doing here?" I asked skeptically.
"You and Skulduggery have an assignment," she replied dully. Her eyes cast to the corner of the room where Skulduggery was, and Monsieur Spar was sitting in a chair near him. My God, I hadn't even noticed them.
Anyway.
Madame Gabs explained everything about what we had to do. She explained that they were putting us back to work after our nice absence. Skulduggery and I were to shack up at Église Saint-Sulpice and to just peruse the church and such. We'd be there from 7 at night to midnight. Well alright then! Just spring that on us! Skulduggery agreed to do this, so I had no choice but to say yes too. Madame Gabs bowed her hand and hopped from the desk. She strode out the study, and Monsieur Spar got up swiftly, walking behind her protectively.
"Wow," Skulduggery mumbled, coming to stand close to me, "that was abrupt."
"I think they corner us on purpose. She'll get us to do whatever she wants, seriously."
He nodded and said, "Ah, those French, oui, oui."
Alright, fast forward. The time is 7-ish, and Skulduggery and I had just arrived at the church. Monsieur Rhett was waiting there for us, and he handed us both those recurring little gadgets we get when we do these stake-outs.
Skulduggery and I entered the church stealthily, avoiding strange looks from different people who were wandering around in it. We pretended to tour the place, and then when everyone had left, we really began searching and investigating anything. Skulduggery's hand was facing palm-up, ready to strike. I kept a coil of shadows swirling around in the air in front of me, flicking them around every once and a while.
"So," Skulduggery abruptly said, "what's the relationship status with you and Monsieur Rhett?"
I looked at him skeptically and said, "Who wants to know?"
"I do," he replied.
"Uh, well," I said, "I guess we're not together or anything, but we're like we were before. Why are you so hung up on this?"
Instead of answering my question, he replied with another question. "If he had asked, would you have stayed here?"
"What is it with you and your deep questions? What's making you so depressed like this? Why now to ask me all this?"
"Can you just answer my question, please?" he asked quietly.
I sighed and wrung my hand out from my shadows. I gripped Skulduggery's bony shoulders and kept him still. "No matter what, I wouldn't leave you. Whatever happens, you'll still be there, and I'll still be there, so we'll be there together. I won't move countries just because of a nice guy that I met. Monsieur Rhett is sweet, but we're not meant for each other. Now, don't ask another question like that again, okay? I don't like it."
Skulduggery held up his hands in defense, nodding vigorously. "I just want to know, Valkyrie," he answered softly, looking downward.
"Then ask me happy questions before you ask me depressing ones."
Skulduggery laughed. I let go of his shoulders and tickled my shadows across his torso. He brushed them away, annoyed, but he seemed slightly excited about something. We both remained pretty silent after this, only muttering to each other every twenty minutes or so. But suddenly, Skulduggery broke the silence.
"I enjoyed your abrupt subject change about the virgin sacrifices thing," he bluntly said.
I grinned slightly. "It was like a sudden revelation. And it kind of makes sense, unless there's another thing that Fletcher and I have in common…Which I doubt."
"Who would have thought that Fletcher would be a virgin?" Skulduggery wondered thoughtfully. "I expected him to have various diseases, from all those stories he's told us."
"I haven't been able to talk to him about it," I replied. "I want to bug him, and ask why the heck he'd lie about all that, but Tanith keeps torturing him with Like A Virgin, by Madonna."
"Like a v-iiir-iiir-iiir-gin…" Skulduggery sang softly, under his breath. I laughed loudly, surprised he even knew that song.
"I bet that's your favorite song or something," I murmured.
"Madonna tends to have those types of songs, doesn't she?" Skulduggery replied, shrugging happily.
I laughed again, and Skulduggery punched my shoulder lightly. After this, we discussed pretty much everything. Really, we did a pretty crappy job of keeping quiet and actually searching the whole place. But nothing happened (for once), so that's a plus.
BUT.
The good/bad stuff happens as we're leaving.
Two of the Sanctuary agents arrived to relieve us of our watching, so as Skulduggery and I were leaving, I swear on my life I saw Colette again. I gasped and pushed Skulduggery out of my way and bolted to where I had seen her. She had been leaning up against the wall, but when I got there, she wasn't there. Skulduggery rushed up to me, asking over and over what was wrong, but I just shook my head and turned around. I figured it was no use trying to convince him that I had seen her. The other time this happened, it didn't go too well.
But anyway, Skulduggery sighed and led me out of the church, and I noticed the two agents go over to where I was looking. They searched it for a little bit, and when we left, I couldn't see either of them anymore.
So, Skulduggery and I got home safely and I went straight up to shower. Skulduggery sat around in the room, and he seemed to pull out a book as I shut the door to the bathroom. When I came out of the bathroom, I threw my clothes into a corner and combed my hair. I finished combing it, and without asking, Skulduggery instantly dried it. I smiled and turned and Skulduggery was right in front of me, like, three inches away from me.
"Woah, personal space," I mumbled and slipped away from him. I felt his arm yank on mine, and I was pulled back, and his arms wrapped around my waist tightly. "What are you doing?" I hissed.
"Shh. Just relax," he told me quietly and pulled me even closer. One arm released my waist and cupped my face gently. I gasped as I suddenly felt his cold/warm skeletal lips on mine. Without thinking, I slid my arms around his neck and melted into him. (Ha, sap.)
His body gently began pushing forwards, forcing me back a few steps. I felt the wall up against my back soon. Skulduggery let go of my face and gripped my hips and pushed me up against the wall firmly. I gasped as his teeth moving from my lips to my neck and gently nipped at my skin, sending shivers and goosebumps all around my body.
His one hand slid from my hips to my thigh and the backside, yanking it up and hooking it onto his own hip. I only whimpered slightly and yanked him closer. His hand gripped the fabric of my shirt, and I shivered when his hand felt the hook to my bra. His other hand began pulling the front of my shirt up. Diary, do you know what I did then?
I stopped him.
I had a perfectly ample opportunity to make my undying love known to him, but I just stopped him.
So I jerked back suddenly, planting my feet firmly on the ground. I leaned up against the wall, thinking a moment.
"Are you okay?" he asked calmly, trying to read my expression.
"Yeah," I replied, "but I…I…"
"I get it, I get it," he mumbled, pulling me into a regular hug. His hands pressed firmly against my back and curled around my shirt. "I didn't mean to attack you like that. Human instinct."
"Creeping up on someone and then mercilessly making out with them?" I whispered, throwing my arms around his neck.
He shrugged. "That's pretty much how life goes, right?"
I laughed and pulled back. Skulduggery released me and gave me a lingering kiss on the cheek. He swiftly left the room, shutting the door quietly after that, leaving me to think about this little incident and to write it down.
See, Diary, I love Skulduggery. (Shocker!) But what I hate most about him are his mood swings. I don't mean the fact that he's happy and then depressed in a second, but I mean those times when he's joking and then super serious next. He's a complicated guy, yadda yadda, and I had thought that those drastic changes in mood were neat when I was younger, but now I find them obnoxious. And like, earlier, when we were walking about Paris a few days ago. He and I had that serious talk about…uh, stuff I don't remember.
"I will say that ending on that crazy romantic line, we carried on like none of the previous conversation had happened."
This happens to me/us constantly. I don't like it. There are days when I just want Skulduggery to sit down and openly and willingly explain what goes on in his head. I want to know what he thinks of everyone and everything around us.
Diary, now I'm wondering if that's just too big a risk. Like, would we not work out if he continued like that? I know that that's his natural nature and everything, but there is a time when everyone just has to pour out their feelings.
But Diary, no matter what Skulduggery does, I'll still love him. I said that I'd always be there with him, and darn it, I meant it.
~Valkyrie
So, credit to Cernunnos Cain for being awesome and suggesting "Like a Virgin" to be factored into this. And just saying, the song is Like a Virgin, by Madonna.
And hey, through some crazy events, I've got a lot of plans for new story! Cernunnos Cain is also helping me out with that! Go love her (right?)!
Thanks for reading everyone! Sorry for mistakes! :D
