Traffic [Valduggery, Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction]

Her, Lost

Paradise couldn't look away from his eye sockets. The teeth. The jaw moving without muscle. "Okay."

Skulduggery nodded. How could those skinny vertebrae keep up his skull? "Do you have a name?"

Paradise just stared.

Skulduggery waved a hand. The rain seemed to hit an invisible barrier above, rolling down around the two of them and leaving them dry. He waved his hand again, and water lifted off of his clothes, collecting in the air around him.

"Usually," he said, seeming to focus on drying himself, "I introduce myself to people who already know I'm dead. I've forgotten how flattering it is to leave someone dumbstruck with my mere appearance—very few people are able to do that, let alone without hours of preparation."

"How..." Paradise cleared her throat. "How are you doing that?"

"This?" All the droplets surrounding Skulduggery morphed together to form a ball of water in front of him. "Magic. But I'm sure you've guessed as much. It's elemental magic, though I'm afraid this trick isn't nearly as impressive as your ice rain from earlier."

Paradise wished she could pull all the water from her clothes. She pushed her wet bangs away from her eyes. "You can't do that?"

Skulduggery let the water fall to the ground. "Hm. I suppose I've never thought about trying. May I?" He gestured with his hand. "It doesn't hurt."

"Well, yeah, it's just water, why would it hurt?"

Water lifted from Paradise's clothes, but fell to the ground instead of collecting in the air. She was almost disappointed.

"Do you have a name?" Skulduggery asked, tilting his head. "You don't have to share, of course. I am a complete stranger. Though, to be fair, you did try to mug me, so I feel I have the right to ask for your name."

Paradise wasn't sure why she hesitated. "You can call me Paradise."

Skulduggery's hand fell back by his side. He was wearing gloves. Maybe he was embarrassed by his bones. "Well, Paradise." He said her name as if he was testing out the syllables on his nonexistent tongue. "If you don't mind me asking, are you doing anything right now? I wouldn't want to intrude if you have other muggings planned—but if you are free, could I offer to buy you a slice of pizza?"

...

Paradise inhaled the pizza. It was the first food she'd tasted in almost three days. Skulduggery had bought them both two slices, but had given his up to her after she devoured both of her slices in five minutes.

"So," she said, taking a sip of Coke. "You can do..." She looked around and lowered her voice. "Magic, too?"

"For as long as I've lived." Skulduggery had put his face back on, and Paradise found it weird to talk to. Disingenuous, maybe. "There are many, many people who can do it. There's four cities where only people who can do it live."

"Nothing burns down?"

Skulduggery raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that because you've burned something down?"

Paradise frowned. "I'm just saying you'd think a bunch of people running around with fire would burn some stuff down every once in a while. Even if they're small cities, there's always idiots."

"You being a someone who might have burned something down?"

"I've only burned people." She sat back and crossed her arms.

Skulduggery blinked. "You do have a point. However, there are other types of magic besides elemental."

"That's my type, right?"