A/N: I don't own Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Gordon, Ghastly, or the Dead Men. Val is in her 20s I guess.
It was a few days before Christmas, and my partner, Skulduggery Pleasant, was behaving very strangely. He'd called out of the blue and picked me up at Uncle Gordon's mansion and now we were walking the streets of Dublin, admiring Christmas displays and all the holiday booths that had been set out for some Christmas fair I'd never heard of.
As we walked by a hot chocolate stand Skulduggery had insisted I get one, and now he was debating what type of hot sugared nuts I'd enjoy best. I felt his curious gaze from behind his disguise and fumbled for an answer. "Uh, cashews." I offered and he nodded, buying me a huge cone to take home then a cone for there. Then he bought several more.
"Christmas gifts." He assured me. I wanted to ask in the worst way if he was feeling all right, but his velvety voice was approaching cheerful for once, not grumpy or snappish so I let it slide. Though when he stopped at a booth and accepted a red scarf to put over the black one of his disguise I wondered.
"Now we're a matched set." He said happily as he tapped the red in my jacket, then slung a friendly arm around me.
"Now you're being silly." I said, resisting the urge to cuddle in like I used to when I was little. But he didn't object to a friendly arm slung around him, at least.
"I'm never silly." He insisted playfully. But he was being silly and I knew why suddenly. It was my first Christmas without my family and he was helping me cope. It brought a lump to my throat that I sipped my coco to cover. "You've awfully quiet. Thinking of the tree you'd like?" He asked gently.
"Tree?" I asked doubtfully.
"Yes, my most loyal combat accessory, a tree. We'll be meeting with some experts later I hired at no small expense." He said then waited patiently for it to dawn on me as we walked.
"You're taking me to the Dead Men anti-Christmas party?" I asked excitedly and he nodded. "Wow, it's like getting to go to a Festivus party, only better." I said in awe and he chuckled.
"Usually, but Ghastly and the others want you to have a nice Christmas, so you'll indulge them by going tree and ornament shopping tonight. They knew I'd be taking you on a dry run this morning. I'll give you some advice and you know how I hate repeating myself, so listen up." He said and stopped withdrawing his arm to stuff his hands in his pockets. I stopped with him, withdrawing my arm and paying attention for once.
"You get to choose how you handle the holidays, Valkyrie Cain. You and no one else. Don't become like us if you can avoid it." He said gently. I could sense his smile even behind his disguise and smiled in return.
This, I thought, is going to be the strangest Christmas ever.
Now was that short or what? But I wanted to get it out of my system. Christmas in July and all that jazz.