It was promising to be yet another day of pointlessly questioning witnesses.
Valkyrie usually enjoyed this type of work, and she still found herself looking forward to even the tiniest chance that they might find out something useful today. But they never did find out anything and, after each of these days, it became harder and harder to get up the next morning.
Nowadays, the best thing to wake her up on the way to work was her motorcycle. She still loved the Oompa Loompa, but the invigorating speed and fresh air of an early-morning bike-ride helped Valkyrie clear her head.
She raced over the foggy country roads to Roarhaven, through downtown core, to a suburban neighborhood in the new part of town. It was located relatively close to where Diamond had her little townhouse.
Skulduggery was waiting for her by the Bentley. The spring season was slowly dipping over into summer, and it was getting warmer outside. Despite this, he was wearing one of his covered outfits; a night-blue three-piece with a big coat. Valkyrie parked next to him, and they got ready for the next interrogation.
The first door they knocked on belonged to a woman called Brynn Fathom. She had windswept ash-blond hair that looked a bit unkempt, as though she had spent hours braving a storm inside her own four walls. Her eyes were of a stormy blue-grey, and their natural state seemed to be to nervously dart around in search of the closest escape route. She wore practical clothes; boots and rain-proof pants, beneath a clean but patched-up old jacket.
Finding Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant, standing on her doorstep, didn't seem to help her flustered state.
"Oh, its you two," Brynn nervously said, "they told me you'd come."
"We'd like to ask you a couple of questions regarding the disappearance of your friend Lirienne Shoal," Valkyrie said, "could we come inside?"
Brynn skeptically mustered them, "umm... actually? No, I'd rather you don't."
"Okay, well," Valkyrie said and glanced at Skulduggery. He wasn't being helpful, so she continued, "our reports told us that your friend was taken from your home, about two days ago?"
"Yes," Brynn somberly confirmed, "she was visiting me for dinner."
"Do you remember the moment Lirienne was abducted?"
She bitterly snorted. "No, I don't even remember getting seperated from her."
"When is the last time you remember seeing her?"
"Umm, it must have been... a little after six o'clock."
"You've also mentioned monsters?" Skulduggery suddenly chimed in.
Fathom faltered and frowned, "umm, monsters? No, I haven't mentioned anything about monsters."
"Yes, you have," he confidently said.
"No I haven't," she insisted, "I haven't seen a real monster my entire life!"
He curiously cocked his skull at her. "Now that makes me wonder, what is your motive to lie about that?"
"Motive?! What are you trying to say?" Brynn worriedly asked, fluster and confusion growing by the second, "are you saying I'm under investigation?!"
"Should you be?" Skulduggery challenged. "Why would you call us in to talk about monsters, and then claim not having seen any monsters? What game are you playing?"
Valkyrie was admittedly similarly confused as Brynn, about this weird new strategy of his. She was about to ask him what game he was playing, but she also couldn't lie that she was curious to see it play out.
"No, that... That's not at all how that happened!" Fathom argued, now visibly confounded, as well as growingly concerned for her innocence. "Yesterday morning, I called the sanctuary because Lirienne went missing! And today they called me, to tell me that you two are coming to question me!"
"Your witness report clearly states monsters," Skulduggery insisted, "you also mentioned them just now."
"I, no, I..." Brynn precariously stuttered, "no, I didn't. I haven't mentioned... Have I mentioned monsters?" The more she argued, the more uncertain she seemed to become about her own sanity, until she seemed to mostly be arguing with herself. "I don't remember any monsters... Or do I? I mean, my memory is super hazy from that day... But it's not hazy anymore, and I know that didn't mention monsters! I remember what happened today, I know what I just said!" The poor woman was now at the edge of tears, and the tension in the air was virtually palpable.
Skulduggery's next question seemed to drop like a pin in perfect silence. "Do you?"
Brynn's eyes widened in horror, as tears of despair collected in them. "Have I gone mad?! Good grief, what on Earth is wrong with me?! Oh please tell me I'm not mad!" She burst out crying.
Valkyrie shot her an apologetic smile. "Would you excuse us for just a moment?"
She grabbed Skulduggery by the arm and pulled him away. They distanced themselves a couple of steps and turned their backs to the sniffling woman.
"What are you doing?" Valkyrie quietly murmured over to him.
"I'm confusing her," Skulduggery proudly murmured back.
"I can see that. My question is; why?"
"Ah, well, I've been wondering... Isn't it odd how you and I have been chasing after this case for months, questioning every single witness and never getting anything out of them... But then, Diamond and Nuke just so happened to stumble over a crime scene, and they immediately got useful answers from Patricia?"
Valkyrie confusedly shrugged. "They got lucky. Maybe the perpetrators did a sloppy job on Patricia."
"See, I don't think so," Skulduggery murmured, and his voice nearly hissed for excitement, as his finger rose up and turned in a circle along to his explanation. "Every time you and I get to a crime scene, we arrive there with lots of preconceived notions. We were told there was an attack, people got hurt, people went missing... And so, we show up and we ask them questions about it."
Valkyrie's eyes slowly widened as she was beginning to clue in on his point. "But when Nuke and Diamond talked to Patricia, they didn't know that anything had happened yet..."
"Precisely. They came in with a fresh perspective, as they have the neat tendency to do. So, what if the issue hasn't been that we know too little...?"
"...What if we know too much?" Valkyrie agreeably concluded.
Skulduggery snapped his fingers at her in confirmation. "We need to stop approaching this as investigators and start to adapt the mindset of our witnesses. We need to be clueless."
"Alright, okay, I see your point," Valkyrie hesitantly agreed, "the thing is just..." She contritely grimaced. "...You're making the poor woman cry."
They glanced over their shoulders, back at Brynn. She was watching them with wide eyes full of remaining tears, and wearily waited for them to finish their one-on-one conversation.
They returned their gazes to the front.
"Ah, yes," Skulduggery admitted, "I can see that."
"So, how about I do the confusing part," Valkyrie suggested, "and you do the thing where you listen and cleverly put things together in your head?"
He contentedly nodded, "excellent plan. I am brilliant at doing that."
They turned around and walked back to Fathom. It seemed like she had calmed down somewhat, but she looked more insecure than ever.
"I'm very sorry about my partner," Valkyrie convincingly bluffed, "you must understand, we've had this conversation a million times, and they all tend to blur together after a while."
"Oh... Yes... Of course they would," Brynn sniffed with a mixture of relief and remaining uncertainty, and wiped her tears away. "But I must admit, maybe I did see something... I just... Ugh, I just can't remember! Lirienne is missing, and I'm being no help at all!"
"Why don't you start from top?" Valkyrie gently suggested, "tell us exactly what happened."
Brynn took a deep breath and told them what had happened. Her friend had come over for dinner, and they had shared a glass of wine while waiting for the oven to finish baking their food. They had chatted and laughed like normal, but as they'd pulled the food from the oven, a loud sound had distracted them.
Brynn had gone to the window to see what was going on. She'd seen one of her neighbors shoot a gun at something; the origin of the noise she and Lirienne had heard.
The next thing that Brynn remembered was waking up in her bed the next morning. She had noticed that Lirienne was gone, and that she couldn't remember where and when she had gone. Brynn had run outside, finding other people that were dazedly looking for their loved ones. This was when she had called the sanctuary for help.
When she was done talking, Skulduggery glanced at Valkyrie like he had noticed something important. This probably meant that he had found a parallel or a clue of some sort, and wanted her to explore it.
Valkyrie strained her mind to figure out what he meant. But just a moment later, as she thought back at their interview with Patricia, she noticed it too.
"Brynn, what exactly did you cook that day?" she asked.
Surprised by being asked not about the gun-fight or the missing people, but about her cooking skills, Brynn took a second to cluelessly stare at her. "Umm," she then said, "steak?"
Valkyrie frowned, "you bake your steak in the oven? I thought it goes in the frying pan?"
"It does," Fathom confirmed, "you use the pan to make the outside of the steak crispy, then you put it in the oven to reach the temperature you want. Temperature as in; rare, medium-rare, well-done..."
"And at what temperature do you take your steak?"
Brynn was now outright snorting at the absurdity of the question, but seemingly also at an amusing memory of the previous night. "Well, I take mine medium-rare, as any connoisseur should of course," she wryly joked. "Lirienne likes hers well-done. I always tease her about that, but she'll refuse to eat any meat raw. It works out for us though, as I'll just fry up her steak first and put it in the oven before mine."
Valkyrie glanced at Skulduggery.
Skulduggery nodded. "On it," he announced and pulled out his cellphone. He looked for a number, somewhere inside his text messages, and then called it.
"Good morning, Patricia, this is Skulduggery Pleasant," he said once the line had been picked up, "I have another question for you, if you'd endulge us for one more?"
Patricia's voice sounded tense but excited, from what Valkyrie could tell at a distance.
"We were wondering; that salad you made the day your husband went missing...? What was on it?"
Patricia too was audibly bewildered by his choice of question, but she replied something.
"It's called a country style salad?" Skulduggery precariously relayed the response.
"Oh, yeah," Valkyrie knowingly nodded, "lettuce, corn, and ranch dressing. Ask her if it had ham or bacon on it?"
Skulduggery relayed the question. Once he received the response, his skull snapped around to look at Brynn, then at Valkyrie again. "Thank you, Patricia, have a good day," he said and hung up.
"Yes?" Valkyrie hopefully asked.
"It had cooked bacon," he meaningfully revealed, "she had just pulled it out of the oven."
"Cooked meat," she concluded, "or the smell of it."
"The perfect way to locate settlements of living breathing human beings."
Skulduggery and Valkyrie looked at each other for a moment longer. Slowly but surely, a triumphant grin spread over her face. Judging by the way he chuckled, Skulduggery felt quite similar.
"Did we just find a clue?" Valkyrie excitedly asked.
"Yes," he proudly confirmed, "indeed we did."
"Does that mean I was helpful?" Fathom asked.
Valkyrie had almost forgotten that she was there, and she made sure to redirect the smile at her. "You were incredibly helpful. Thank you, Brynn, I think we'll go talk to some more witnesses now. The sanctuary will let you know if we find out anything about Lirienne."
Brynn still looked rattled by everything, but she seemed encouraged by this. "Good luck!"
They waved as they walked away, and then went straight to the next address on the list. The house was only a couple of doors down from Brynn's, and was owned by one Oberon Cascade. As far as they knew, Cascade hadn't lost anyone, but he had bore witness to the events and he also had a big gap in his memory.
"That last strategy worked out well," Skulduggery said, "let's do it again."
Valkyrie nodded, "agreed."
He reached up to activate his façade. It was the slender face of a younger man with light brown hair and hazel eyes.
Valkyrie puzzledly frowned at him. "This is a mage's neighborhood. The next witness is a sorcerer too."
Skulduggery shrugged. "The more confusion the better?"
She thought about it, and then cluelessly shrugged back in confirmation. "I guess...?"
They arrived by the door of Oberon Cascade and rang the bell. He was a man with thick chestnut brown hair, and dark squinty eyes that appeared blurry through a pair of smudged glasses. His clothes looked new but, despite his chubby build, they were too baggy on him.
"Mister Cascade? I'm Valkyrie Cain, this is my partner Skulduggery Pleasant. We just so happened to be in the neighborhood and we heard some weird rumours going around...? We were wondering if..."
That was about as far as Valkyrie got. While she had introduced them, Oberon's eyes had grown wide with disbelief. As she had talked on, they had fearfully flickered back and forth between the two people on his doorstep.
Then, before Valkyrie could finish her sentence, Oberon swirled around and ran away.
They looked at each other, and then darted after him. Valkyrie barged right through the front door of his house, and Skulduggery looped around the outside.
Cascade wasn't the fittest guy, so it wasn't hard for Valkyrie to keep up. Yet, he had gotten himself a headstart, and he knew his own house much better than her. Along the way, Oberon pulled books and boxes and small pieces of furniture into her path. Valkyrie jumped over the boxes and chairs and a dresser, and grunted as a stack of books rained over her from the side.
He disappeared into his bathroom, and Valkyrie was about to count her blessings, before she burst into the room. There was a big window above the bathtub, and it was standing wide open.
She cursed and jumped through the window herself. She landed in Oberon's yard, and spotted him running for the fence to his next-door neighbor. He awkwardly but successfully climbed over it.
Skulduggery was now above them, levitating at a tall distance. He didn't drop down quite yet, like he was giving Valkyrie a chance to catch the runaway, before he'd inevitably swoop down and save the day.
Valkyrie growled with frustration at herself. She charged magic into her hands and feet, tried to recall her practice runs, and jumped. With a relatively controlled quadruple-shot of magic directed at the ground, she launched herself upwards. Her magic crackled and lashed out beneath her, and propelled her body over the fence.
This much she could manage, nowadays. The tricky part was the second half of the jump; the landing.
Valkyrie did the same as before; she shot her magic out through her extremities, in order to push from below and feather her fall. Yet, she always had a hard time balancing herself in the air at the same time. Her dancing lightning magic wasn't as stable as air magic; it was rather wobbly in fact.
And so, one of her feet usually came down before the other, and Valkyrie was forced to inelegantly roll out her fall. If she hadn't rolled, a full faceplant surely would have been the inevitable result.
At least she had made it over the fence, Valkyrie gathered, and she had done it much faster than Oberon. She was almost caught up to him, and he was slowing down and heavily panting from the effort.
"Oberon, stop!" she called after him, "we're not here to hurt you!"
Cascade hectically glanced back, saw how close Valkyrie had gotten to him, squealed for panic, and ran a little faster. She followed him through his neighbors yard, past their house, and onto the main road.
Suddenly, the roar of an engine!
The next moment went by rather quickly. From seemingly out of nowhere, a motorcycle appeared from the side. It cut into their path, abruptly breaked, and stopped right in the way.
Oberon cried out in alarm, just before he ran directly into the bike. He wailed and then grunted, as his body flipped over the bike's front wheel and hit the ground.
Valkyrie had to seriously hit the breaks on her legs if she didn't want to run into the motorbike, herself, and follow Cascade's example. She stopped just in time, and surprisedly looked up at the familiar person that sat on top of the bike. All brown leather; long blond hair; big longsword.
Tanith Low brightly beamed at her. "Hi, Val! Lost something?"
After Oberon had regained consciousness, as well as his bearings, they helped him up and briefly checked him for injuries. Other than a developing bruise on his forehead and a broken set of glasses, he seemed neither concussed nor otherwise injured.
"Mister Cascade," Valkyrie asked him afterwards, "could you tell us why you ran away?"
"Well, I just... I just got confused," Oberon admitted. He wearily glanced at Skulduggery's façade. "You said that's Skulduggery Pleasant, and I saw him fly, but..." He apologetically shrugged at him, "I always thought you were... a skeleton...?"
"Ah," Skulduggery said and reached up to deactivate his façade.
As the false face flowed down and revealed the bare skull beneath, Oberon looked both unsettled and relieved. "Oh..." he said, "I see..."
Skulduggery glanced at Valkyrie. "Too much confusion isn't good either, apparently."
She agreeably nodded, "it's a delicate balance, it seems."
Tanith looked like she wasn't sure what was going on, but also like she wasn't about to interrupt to find out. She had climbed off her bike and was now patiently waiting for them to finish up.
"Alright, well, maybe it would be better for you to go home and take a breather," Valkyrie said to Cascade. "Why don't we come around again later today, after we've spoken to your neighbors?"
Oberon nodded, flustered but more relieved by the second. "Yes, maybe that would be best... I'm, uhh, I'm very sorry... I'll be, uhh... I'll be at home then." He awkwardly trudged away, towards his house, rubbing his sore forehead.
As he walked off, a pair of eyes and a pair of eye-sockets turned to look at Tanith.
"Umm... Hi!" she said and expectantly held her arms out.
Valkyrie sighed and gave her a hug that was somewhat heartfelt and somewhat reluctant. "Hi, nice to see you. Finally," she said and tried her best not to sound too snarky.
"Yeah, umm, sorry about that," Tanith awkwardly said and contritely swung her upper body side-to-side. "I haven't been in town for a while."
"Yeah, I've noticed. You couldn't have called?"
Tanith uncertainly glanced in Skulduggery's direction. "Well, I did run into Skulduggery in Roarhaven close to Christmas time, over a year ago. I thought he'd let you know that I'm available..."
Valkyrie glowered and glared at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I did tell you," Skulduggery immediately defended himself. "I wrote you a text message. It said; 'what are your thoughts on vampire cows? Also, I just ran into Dexter Vex and Tanith Low.'"
"Oh, yeah," Tanith tentatively chuckled at the memory, "Hell Cow."
"You never responded," he concluded in Valkyrie's direction, "so I assumed that you might be... irked."
She shook her head in bewilderment, "what? No. You never sent me that."
Skulduggery sighed and held out his hand. "Phone," he demanded.
Still glowering at him, Valkyrie pulled out her phone, unlocked it, and handed it to him. Skulduggery clicked around on it, scrolled for a moment, and then handed her the phone back.
She looked at it and blinked in surprise. He hadn't been lying; that was verbatim the message he had sent her. The arrows on the message indicated that she had read it too.
"I don't remember that..." she worriedly murmured, "why don't I remember that? Did I get hexed by the monsters too?"
"Well, were you having dinner? Were you cooking meat of some sort?" Skulduggery asked, although he didn't sound like he was seriously entertaining the idea.
"No, umm..." Valkyrie thoughtfully murmured as she delved deep into the faded memory, "someone was visiting me... But I just can't remember, who..."
"Ah," Skulduggery nodded in recognition, "that was probably Myosotis Terra."
She frowned at him, confusion mounting once more, "who?"
He looked at Tanith. "The point is; a friend, who Valkyrie quite literally can't remember, visited her a year before you did."
Valkyrie raised a brow at that and then turned to also expectantly look at Tanith.
Tanith seemed more flustered than ever, as her shoulders insecurely pulled up more by the second. "To be fair... I did come here a couple of months after you returned, but then, you two suddenly weren't around anymore."
"Ah, yes, you may blame me for that fun little outing," Skulduggery said, although he couldn't quite sell his humor this time.
Valkyrie's glare didn't waver. "You still could have called me."
Tanith sagged in defeat. "I'm sorry, okay? I really am. I guess I just..." She heavily sighed. "Things won't ever go back the way they were. I won't go back to the way I was. Dex and I... We've changed since Saracen and Ghastly..."
Valkyrie's frown of accusation quickly turned into one of sadness.
"We're just not the same fun people, you know? And after everything you've been through, you need someone to rely on, and I just don't know if... If I can be that person to cheer you up right now."
A moment of somber silence passed. Eventually, Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie. "We can be fun and cheer people up."
She agreeably pouted and, as she glanced back at him, a silent message passed between them. They nodded to each other and delved into their act with full conviction.
Skulduggery pretended to be mystified by an invisible wall, quite alike a mime. Meanwhile, Valkyrie jumped from foot to foot, arms extended outwards to make jazz-hands, unnaturally wide clown grin plastered over her face.
Tanith stared at them in disbelief for a moment, then she burst out laughing.
When this had the intended effect, they stopped their monkey dance and smugly appreciated their success of lifting Tanith's mood.
She wiped away a tear that had sprung from sadness but had run free from laughter. "Okay, fine, you lot win this one," she amusedly admitted. "I've missed you guys."
Although Valkyrie was still very much irritated with her, she tried to smile with sincerety. "I've missed you too."
Tanith adoringly tilted her head against her shoulder, "aww."
"Now, would you like to join us in trying to confuse people, but only to the correct degree?" Skulduggery invited her.
"Sure, that sounds fun!" Tanith happily accepted.
They got back to work and talked to the remaining witnesses on the list. The first time around, Tanith made things more confusing for everyone, including herself.
Yet, as they got better at balancing the levels of puzzlement they inflicted upon their unsuspecting test subjects, they received a couple more random but interesting clues. They didn't quite seem to create a full picture yet, but there was a whole host of other forgetful witnesses for them to visit, and revisit, who might be able to fill in the gaps.
Plus, Valkyrie had a feeling that Skulduggery was finally putting together a proper theory. He probably hadn't shared it yet, simply because there hadn't been an opportune enough moment to show off his genius.
When the sun began to make its way towards the horizon, Skulduggery's phone rang. He pulled it out and checked the notification. Though it clearly wasn't a call that had caused the beeping sound; the app displayed on the screen looked to be his alarm clock.
"Ah," he cheerfully announced, "five o'clock in the afternoon! See you tomorrow, Tanith!" With that, Skulduggery walked off towards the Bentley.
"Umm... See you?" Tanith confusedly mumbled. She and Valkyrie exchanged a bewildered glance.
"Wait for me here. Don't go anywhere," Valkyrie warningly told her as she jogged away backwards.
Tanith winked at her. "Don't worry, I'm all yours for the day!" she called across their developing distance.
Reassured by this, Valkyrie quickly caught up with Skulduggery and walked by his side. "What's at five in the afternoon?"
He glanced at her but continued walking. Meanwhile, he explained to her, as though she was still a child; "well, dear Valkyrie... Many employed people - some might even say; most employed people - have a so-called 9-to-5 job. That means they go to work at nine in the morning; and they go home... at five in the afternoon."
She facetiously nodded along, "no way, really? Thanks so much for enlightening me every day! I mean seriously, how do you still manage it?"
"I am indeed an amazing mentor."
"Okay but seriously, who are we catching on their way out the office? And why can't Tanith come with us?"
Skulduggery mustered her again. When he replied this time, he sounded somewhat confused, himself, "we? No one. But you two are of course welcome to catch someone, if you're feeling like putting in some overtime. Just make sure that they've actually committed a crime first."
"I don't get it."
The way he looked at her now appeared somewhat exasperated. "As much as it might not seem this way; as sanctuary employees, you and me technically count to this category of 9-to-5 people."
That lessened her confusion to no degree. "Okay? Do you keep track of our working hours now? Since when do you care about clocking out on time?"
"Since I have an appointment nearby, in ten minutes."
"You do?" Her puzzlement immediately made room for intrigue. "What kind of appointment?"
Suddenly, there was an obvious smirk in his voice. "The kind that, I believe, is nowadays refered to as a 'date'."
"Oh," Valkyrie finally clued in, "a date! That makes way more sense. Dye lives just around the corner from here, right?"
"Convenient, isn't it?"
She agreeably nodded to him, "what are you guys planning on doing?"
There now was an excited smile that she could detect in Skulduggery's voice. "Wednesday's is Board Game Night."
"Ooh, board games, those are fun," Valkyrie approved. "I bet you guys only play the old-school stuff. Like Checkers and Chess."
"We do play those. Diamond has introduced me to a couple of the new ones however. Monopoly, for example."
Valkyrie snorted. "Monopoly isn't new."
"Welp! It was new to me." Skulduggery stopped and turned to her, as they arrived by the driver's side of the car. "How about you? Any plans for tonight? Is Alex swinging by?"
"Nope, they're still recovering from the last mission." She shrugged, "I'll probably just snuggle up with Xena on the couch and watch a movie. Maybe I'll make some popcorn for the both of us."
"Maybe the dog would like to play some board games with you."
She snorted. "I think Xena prefers playing outside."
Skulduggery pulled out his key chain and flipped it around his finger. "Well, then. Enjoy movie night with the dog."
"Enjoy date night," Valkyrie teasingly shot back and begun retreating towards Tanith.
He tapped his hat and unlocked the car door, "thank you, see you tomorrow morning."
She smirked. "Nine o'clock, on the dot!"
Skulduggery got in, and she watched the Bentley drive off with a smile. Then, Valkyrie walked back to where Tanith was waiting. As she walked, she thought of Alex, and she wondered how he was doing right now. She wondered what Tanith might think of him, or what she would say about the odd date they'd had a couple of days ago.
Valkyrie partly expected of her wayward bestie to have disappeared again. Yet, as she turned the corner, Tanith was sitting halfway on her bike-seat and curbing her boredom with the help of her cellphone.
She curiously looked up, as Valkyrie approached, and pocketed her phone. "So?" she asked, "what shady business is he up to now?"
Valkyrie unwittingly frowned, "huh?"
Tanith hopped to her feet. "Skulduggery?"
"Oh," she said and shrugged, "going on a date."
Tanith ironically snorted, "right." She invitingly gestured at her bike, "wanna ride with me?"
"Sure," Valkyrie cheekily replied, "but I think I'll take my own."
Her face lit up with excitement. "So, that bike I saw parked next to the Bentley is really yours, huh? It's gorgeous!"
A meaningful smirk began tugging at her lips. "Yup. Found someone new to ride with."
As Tanith immediately clued in on the hint, her bright smile of delight was joined by a wide-eyed look. "Are you seeing someone? Someone who rides?"
The smirk slowly grew, "uh-huh."
"Oooh," Tanith beamed and teasingly asked, "guy? Girl? Neither, both?"
"Both."
Her face dropped for awe, "wait. Are you saying...?"
Valkyrie couldn't help but chuckle at the astonishment on her face. "Yup. Right about now would be a good time to welcome me to your side of the shore."
Tanith happily did so by squealing for delight. She bounced up and down on her feet, all the way over to Valkyrie, until she had her trapped in a big hug. Valkyrie laughed as she hugged her back properly this time.
"I've got to know more!" Tanith demanded when they parted, "who's the lucky person? And how does it work? Do they switch gender on the daily, or...?"
"Their name is Alex," Valkyrie replied as her smile transformed to be a bit coy, "and they basically go in monthly intervals. Unfortunately I see much more of him, than I do of her."
"Interesting... Unfortunately, you say?" she teased, "does that mean you have a preference?"
"Umm, no, not really," Valkyrie felt compelled to clarify, "it's just, umm... It's complicated."
Tanith nodded like she understood, much better than she had the information to do. "I see. What does Alex do for work?"
Her brows meaningfully twitched upwards. "That's classified."
She blinked in surprise as her brows twitched similarly, "really? You're dating a spy? What's that like?"
Valkyrie sighed contritely. "To be honest? Kind of lonely sometimes."
"Awww shucks," Tanith pouted, indicating both her sympathy and her endearment, "they go away alot?"
She pouted back in confirmation and in agreement to the notion, "yeah... Sometimes I wonder if it's a mistake, you know... getting too attached to them? I like having Alex around, but that also means missing him all the time, and I'm not even sure if they're ready to commit..."
Tanith empathetically sighed. She appeared to think something over for a moment, then she seemed to change her mind about the bike-ride. "You know what? I think I saw a little café down the street. Do you wanna get a coffee and catch up?"
Valkyrie smiled, "sounds grand."