#The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader

[skulduggery-pleasant-bp9]

The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader (Part 3)

WARNING!: Cursing, abuse, blood x gore, injury, happened in the Mevolent war times, mention of torture AND MORE ! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!

Hopeless followed the pair into a small, dark alleyway. He hid close by in the shadows and listened in.

“We wouldn’t be in all these troubles, if you would have checked right after the fire !”, the woman yelled angered at the man.

“You can yell at me later ! We need to find the damn brat, before anyone else does !”

“And how do you plan to do that ?! No one saw him ! He could be anywhere !”

“The Mistake probably ran to the graveyard, to his Mother’s grave ! We will get him there !”

The woman stared at the man and then nodded.

“If this fails...I will fucking end you, Kody.”, the woman threatened.

“It won’t Amanda. We will get the damn brat and kill him for real this time. I won’t do the same mistake again.”

Hopeless couldn’t believe his ears. They really didn’t plan to leave M/n alone. What awful assholes.

‘I have to tell the others !’, he thought.

Hopeless quickly and quietly ran away and back to camp. As he suspected...M/n was in very high danger.

-With the Dead Men-

Anton continued to hold M/n, while the five year old shook in nerves and fear. Ghastly and Saracen had their weapons in hand, aiming at the front door. Erskine and Dexter hid behind furniture, for a surprise attack and Skulduggery already packed everyone’s belongings for a fast escape.

Hopefully they don’t have to run right now...

The door opened and Hopeless entered quickly. He locked the door right after.

“Hopeless ! What did you find out ?”, Skulduggery asked.

He looked at everyone and then at M/n.

“You need to have a Taken name as fast as possible. Two people are looking for you and they told everyone your Given name.”, he warned the boy.

M/n’s eyes widened further than they already were and he clung to Anton tighter.

“They are here ? Kody and Amanda ?”, the boy asked.

“Who are these people ?”, Dexter asked.

M/n turned to the rest of the Dead Men.

“Kody is my producer and Amanda is his flame. The one’s that tried to kill me.”

Anton’s face darkened at that information. From the others the faces darkened again, besides Hopeless.

“There is more. They are not planning to leave Fox alone anytime soon. They called him horrid names and are planning to finish what they started. Kill him.”, Hopeless quickly informed.

Now the Dead Men were in murder mode.

“Not if we can help it.”, Ghastly growled out.

“What’s the plan, Skul, Hopeless ?”, Erskine asked darkly.

“We lure them somewhere and then get rid of them.”, Skulduggery informed.

M/n shook his head.

“Useless. The trap has to be as subtle as possible. You forgot what I told you, Amanda can read minds and control it for a short time. I need to make some bracelets, that will keep her out and then you have to stage everything, like it is real.”, the boy said.

“We will NOT risk your safety like that !”, Saracen and Dexter yelled.

“I grew up with these psychos for two years. They aren’t THAT stupid, guys... You will have to pretend like you hand me over to them. I know how to survive, trust me. I survived them until now.”

“Are you to one hundred percent sure, that you can survive them again ?”, Anton asked him softly.

M/n smiled and snuggled more into Anton.

“I am.”, he said into his clothes.

The truth was that M/n had no idea if he will survive it. The burning story building was already a challenge to escape from. But he had not much to lose to be honest. And if they die, then he doesn’t mind dying too. At least he can see his Mom again...right ?

“What should we do ?”, Skulduggery asked M/n.

“They will probably expect me at my Mom’s grave... We will stage everything there. Hopeless will say that he sighted me and the rest of you hides. I will play my role...as soon as they try to kill me or use magic more than twice on me...you come out and beat them up.”

“You want them to hurt you ?”, Anton asked shocked and worried.

“They need to feel safe and alone. They will be too careful and run away as soon as you would jump out. Trust me...”

Everyone, besides Fox, stared at Skulduggery. He took a deep breath and sighed.

“Alright...”, he agreed with distaste.

M/n nodded and then went into the kitchen. He pulled out some herbs and started to braid the different kinds of herbs together into a bracelet. He did that six more times and then made himself a ring.

“I didn’t want us to be in the rain and to possibly to get sick, but we have to get rid of them as fast as possible.”

“So tomorrow ?”

M/n nodded and then slowly went into his room. He refused to go to sleep though.

-With the Dead Men-

“Are you sure about this ?”, Ghastly asked Skulduggery.

“He knows them better than us. If he says it has to be, then it has to be.”, he replied to Ghastly saddened.

He HATED this idea...

“What is Fox’s Given name ?”, Dexter asked.

Hopeless hesitated, but sighed and nodded.

“M/n L/n.”

Anton’s head snapped up.

“What ? Repeat the name.”, he urged on.

“M/n L/n.”, Hopeless repeated, confused.

Anton get up from the couch and ran circles, deep concern in his eyes.

“What is it ?”, Saracen asked.

“M/n L/n was reported missing a year and four months ago, by Mevolent himself.”, Anton informed.

They stared at him wide eyed.

“What ?!”, they all yelled at Anton in shock.

“He himself and some of his minions went through the village often, asking for the boy with a picture of him. No one ever saw him, but it is said that he didn’t give up.”

“Did he start a war because of that ?”, Ghastly asked.

“Maybe... Maybe he is the mysterious Godfather and he was hell bent to find Fox, after he found the mess Kody left behind...”

“Fucking hell...”, Dexter cursed and sat down.

“If we ask him, do you think he would answer ?”, Erskine asked Anton.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know... But who would want to go to him and ask ? That is death itself.”

“White flag.”, Skulduggery suggested.

“You would really tell him that you don’t plan to fight ?”, Hopeless asked.

“If HE is Fox’s Godfather, then we should at least try to communicate with him. If he really agreed to take in a child, then he can’t be that bad, right ?”

“He did prove a lot of times that he actually cared about him. The times he went searching for him himself is shocking.”, Anton agreed.

“Maybe he thought that by causing a war, Kody and his flame would sacrifice Fox to safe their own skin.”, Ghastly suggested.

There was silence for a while.

“Get your coats. We are meeting a madman.”, Skulduggery huffed out and went for his own coat.

“Are you sure that we should risk our lives on a theory ?”, Dexter asked worried.

“Dead sure.”

There was no changing Skulduggery’s mind. They grabbed their coats and then left, knowing that M/n will be safe on his own. Then they ran for the castle, Mevolent was in.

-Time skip-

They stood in front of the entrance and made a white flag. Skulduggery stood on a big stone after that, while the rest hid. Then he yelled loudly.

“HEY !!! MEVOLENT !!! ANYONE ?! WE COME IN PEACE !!”, Skulduggery yelled from the top of his lungs and swung the white flag.

Someone went to one of the open window of the castle. By the helmet, it looked to be Mevolent himself. Skulduggery swung the flag a bit more before he stopped. Mevolent seemed to have understood and he disappeared from the window.

Skulduggery looked behind the rock, at his friends.

“I think he is coming or he sends someone to come get us.”, he informed them.

The bridge of the castle was let down and out came Mevolent and his wife, Serafina. They were armored and had weapons. Skulduggery got down from the rock and the rest of his Team came out of hiding.

“I knew it ! It is a trap !”, Serafina hissed.

“No, no ! Still peace. I did say ‘we’.”, Skulduggery quickly defended.

“That he did, my Dear. Please calm down.”, Mevolent replied.

She looked at him and nodded.

“Pardon me.”, she apologized.

“It’s fine Miss. I understand why you are so cautious. I would be too.”, Skulduggery replied.

“Why are you here ? And most importantly...why in peace ?”, Mevolent asked.

“We have a question. After that we either need to talk or we leave and see one another never again.”, Ghastly now mixed himself in.

The rest of the Team nodded. Mevolent crooked his head to his right in curiosity, while Serafina looked at them with suspicion, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“That must be very important, if you came to me personally, then.”, Mevolent said in thought.

“Honey, they are the Dead Men, I am surprised that they are even here, in peace.”, his wife replied to him.

“Hmm.”, he hummed in agreement.

Then he looked at them.

“Do ask. I feel civil tonight.”

Anton stepped forward and looked at Mevolent.

“You have been searching for a boy, named M/n L/n.”, he started.

Mevolent and Serafina froze up at that. His wife’s eyes were wide open in shock.

“Yes I have, so ?”, he asked feeling threatened.

“Why ?”, Anton asked.

“Pardon ?”, Mevolent asked confused.

“Why did you search him ? Are you his Dad or...?”

Mevolent stared at them for a long while and then sighed. Serafina looked down at the ground.

“I am...M/n’s Guardian. His Godfather. His biological Mother and I were close friends and she told me what she was fearing and what she knew was happening. Her husband...Kody Brooks, was abusive, unfaithful, hated his child and he would never stop by murder either. She was afraid that she might die soon and her Son would be tortured by Kody. I offered to take him in when she would die. She happily accepted and told me the places he could be, if he is not in the house anymore. I checked on her every night...until I found her dead body. It was a mess. But M/n and Kody were gone and it seemed like they left last night. It must have happened shortly after I checked on her and she was still fine. I should have waited longer.”, Mevolent explained.

Serafina let a tear roll down her face.

“Maureen Necro was a great friend, mother and wife. But HE...he destroyed everything ! I would give ANYTHING to kill him !”, Serafina said outraged.

Mevolent pulled his wife into a gentle hug.

“Is that why you started the war ?”, Saracen asked.

Mevolent nodded.

“I hoped that, if I inflict fear, he would run away and leave M/n behind. He was a selfish bastard anyways.”

The Dead Men looked at one another. Everyone nodded at Anton to tell them.

“Well...we found M/n.”, Anton said.

Serafina’s eyes widened.

“WHAT ?!”, the pair yelled in shock.

“Well, maybe not like that, he found us. He escaped his Father and came back to his home village. He ran into us by coincidence. A mage chased him, who wanted to kill M/n and he was hurt, unable to run anymore. He healed our wounds, because we seemed nice and didn’t kill him. We killed the mage that chased him and since then he was with us. He lived in the dumpsters before he found us.”, Anton explained a bit more.

“Since when has he been with you ?”, Mevolent asked.

“Not long. Two to three days. He was back in town 2 weeks ago, if I remember correctly. He had no idea a war was going on, until that mage tried to kill him.”, Erskine answered.

“And you told us just now ?!”, Serafina asked at them angered.

“He didn’t say his name.”, Skulduggery informed her.

“Then...how did you find out ?”, Mevolent asked.

“And what did you call him instead ?”, Serafina asked worried.

“He said Buddy, Bud, Little Fox. Anything that is not Child or Kid. And Hopeless was in town today and meet Amanda and Kody. They told everyone M/n’s name and are actively searching him.”, Anton explained.

They froze.

“Why are they here for him ?”, Mevolent asked darkly.

“To finish what they started.”, Dexter said darkly.

“And that is what ?”, Serafina asked.

“M/n didn’t escape out of the new house they lived in. He was trapped in a building that Kody set on fire. He was supposed to burn to death, but he escaped and came back here. That is what M/n told us.”

The wedded pair had their hands balled into fists and Mevolent seemed to growl.

“M/n is with us still and he made a plan with us of how to kill the both of them, but we don’t like the plan all that much...”, Hopeless informed.

“What did the boy plan ?”, they both asked.

“Tomorrow we go to his Mother’s grave, they will expect him there. Hopeless is supposed to get them and we are supposed to hide. He wants us to only attack and kill them when they are beating the crap out of him, to say it lightly. Because, according to M/n’s words, they would otherwise be careful and run the moment we jump out of our hiding spots.”, Skulduggery explained.

Mevolent took in a sharp breath and went over to a tree, punching it so hard that it fell over.

“That means that we can’t disagree with what M/n said. We won’t be able to do anything against that plan. Kody and Amanda are slippery rats. No matter how many people you set on their tail, they always escape. They are very observant and careful people. My Husband always does that when he knows that he can’t do anything about something.”, Serafina told them, slightly saddened.

“So we have to watch him getting beaten ?”, Anton asked in worry.

“Sadly yes. But we both will be there tomorrow too. We will help.”, she notified them.

“Did he still have his book about herbs and healing balms ?”, Mevolent asked them.

“Yeah ! I saw it stick out of the bound of his ripped, old pants.”, Dexter said.

Mevolent sighed in relief and nodded.

“Why was that so important ?”, Ghastly asked.

“It was a gift from me, to him when he was 2 years old. Many powerful healing herbs, how to make a healing balm that heals instantly and more was in there. In case he would have needed it.”, he explained.

“Ah...”

“We all need to sleep for tomorrow. Please go back to your camp. We will meet tomorrow.”, Serafina said kindly.

They said their Goodbyes and then left. When they came back, they checked on M/n, who was passed out in his bed and then they went to sleep themselves. No one noticing the sheet of paper on M/n’s desk.

-The next day at the Graveyard-

M/n refused to eat, he was too nervous to keep anything down. He put on his old, ruined pants and ruined one of Ghastly’s fine work on a shirt, apologizing for ruining his hard work. The tailor only waved him off and said that he can make such a shirt again.

They all hid on top of trees, the leaves covering them from sight. Soon enough they spotted Mevolent and Serafina too, they were on the same tree, Anton was on.

“How is he doing ?”, Serafina asked Anton in a whisper tone.

“Not well, he didn’t eat anything and didn’t get enough sleep. He is very nervous. He came in the middle of the night to me and he woke up a lot of times, from Nightmares. I had to gather everyone in the Living room, so he had some calm hours of sleep. He felt safer with all of us in one room.”, he whispered back.

“He likes you. The Team.”, Mevolent stated in a whisper.

“Yeah and we like and care about him too. He grew very quickly on us. We had a lot of fun and playful fights these small days and we bonded pretty quickly.”

“Fun, eh ?”

“We never laughed that hard since the war started. The wild flour fight in the kitchen he had with Ghastly and Skulduggery was the best. He is good in card games, but he needs work on humor and understanding when someone laughs with him and when someone laughs at him. He...needs a lot of work to have at least a bit of a proper childhood.”

They stayed silent at that and just observed. Hopeless didn’t have to get them as it seemed. They went to the graveyard themselves. Anton and Mevolent growled darkly as they saw them. Overprotective men.

-With M/n-

“Wish me luck, Mommy...”, M/n whispered.

Then he got up, took a deep breath and turned around.

Kody and Amanda were close enough to M/n’s liking.

“There you are, you damn brat !”, he yelled.

“Kody ! Behave.”, Amanda yelled and looked around.

She didn’t see anyone and then glared at M/n.

“You little useless piece of shit caused us enough trouble. We are going home NOW.”, she stated darkly.

She went to grab M/n, but he kicked her into the knee and then ran for it.

“Fuck you, you two fucking assholes !”, M/n yelled.

“Why, this brat !”, Kody snarled.

He was ready to chase M/n, but Amanda held him back and glared at M/n as she got up and he continued to run.

“M/N L/N STOP.”, she commanded.

M/n froze up instantly. The Dead Men panicked, he didn’t have a Taken name ! The boy took a deep breath and then turned around, staring at her and sticking his tongue out.

“NOT MY NAME, BITCH !”, he yelled back and continued to run.

Kody’s and Amanda’s eyes widened in shock.

“The brat has a Taken name now ?!”, he yelled.

The Dead Men and the wedded pair were in shock that he found his name, but they were happy for him none the less.

The abusive adult pair chased M/n and of course they were faster than him. Kody used his wind and slammed M/n against Ghastly’s tree with brute force. M/n yelped and his head had an injury. Mevolent and Anton wanted to act at that, but Serafina held them back.

M/n shook his head and got up, but Kody sent another wave of wind against M/n and slammed him again against the tree.

“I will kill you the same way I killed your disgusting, ugly, useless Mother ! This time you won’t survive, you disgusting Mistake !”

He grabbed M/n by the hair, making him scream in pain as he was torn up by the scalp. He wasn’t scared though, just angry. Kody slammed M/n’s head against the tree trunk harshly, making him scream again, his nose was broken and his head hurt badly now.

The Dead Men, Mevolent and Serafina wanted to jump in right then and there, but waited a bit longer, until M/n gave the signal. M/n was about to hit the trunk again, as he twisted his way free and then bit Kody in the left arm. He yelled in pain and slammed him with wind against the tree again. M/n hit the back of his head harshly and was close to passing out.

He looked up and at Anton’s tree. Anton stared at M/n concerned and worried sick.

“H-help...”, M/n whispered loud enough for him and Ghastly to hear, then he passed out.

“Fuck the signal.”, Anton growled lowly and went straight for attack.

The others followed and surprised Amanda and Kody.

“Who the hell are you ?!”, she yelled at them.

Kody’s eyes widened as he saw Anton Shudder.

“They are the Dead Men and Mevolent with his wife...”, he informed Amanda.

Her eyes widened in shock and fear at that. Kody summoned fire and threw it quickly at them, Anton snarled and went straight for him. He got him by the throat, closing his hand around his windpipe and continued to press, while Serafina held Amanda down.

“How DARE you... I would kill you if I would want to waste my time on scum like you. But I have a more important matter to tend to.”, Shudder growled darkly.

Ghastly put magic binding handcuffs on Kody’s hands and Skulduggery did the same on Amanda. Mevolent was at M/n’s side and trying hard to stop the bleeding, while Dexter and Serafina roughened up the two bastards. Death was too good for them...

“I can’t stop the bleeding.”, Mevolent said in slight panic, as Anton slid down next to him.

“We don’t have the time to stop it, we need to heal him as fast as possible. This is a severe head injury.”, Anton said and quickly pulled out the balm he snuck out with himself.

He pulled out a towel from his bag that he took with himself and gave it to Mevolent, who then wettened it.

“Get the blood off so I can see where I have to put the balm on.”, he explained.

Hopeless came running to them too, with Ghastly and Skulduggery. They ripped their own shirts and helped too, while Mevolent hurried and gave Anton enough sight, before more blood came gushing out again. He quickly put the balm on his hand and rubbed it on M/n’s wound, he looked around and did the other wounds too. As they were almost done, Saracen was rushing over and took off his shirt, giving it to Anton. Anton quickly wrapped M/n’s wound up and then he took him and carried him away, back to their camp.

Skulduggery gave Mevolent the location of where M/n is with them and he even told them that they can have these two abusive shits. They gladly did and planned a whole torture session already.

Dexter stared at M/n’s Mother’s gravestone in the meantime and was saddened. She must have been a great Mother, so sad that she was forced to leave so early... The rest of the Dead Men joined his side and also just stood there, paying their respects and sadness. She didn’t deserve to die so early, nor did M/n deserve the life he had to live until now.

With that they left soon after.

-At the camp-

M/n was in his bed and Anton took off the shirt, rubbed more balm on the boy’s injuries and then used actual bandages. They should have done something sooner... Anton isn’t sure if M/n will even make it at this point.

One of the reasons he hated about himself... He always got fond of someone and then they suddenly leave. One of the reasons he decided to be cold and distant in the war and yet...M/n got in by just being himself. If this boy doesn’t make it, he will fucking cry and he rarely ever did.

“How is he ?”, Skulduggery asked softly.

“I don’t know. His pulse is slow and his breathing is normal, but...I don’t know if he will pull through, Skul. His skull got smashed against the log four times and the injuries were serious, but a doctor is too far away from here. They moved a day ago and aren’t near here anymore.”, Anton whispered out.

Skulduggery entered the room and sat beside Anton, who kneeled right next to M/n’s bed, watching him, afraid he might leave as soon as he looks away.

“I never saw anything like that before... I never saw anyone being so brutal to their own child, so...murderous. If that is what M/n always had to go through, no matter what he did, then I am surprised he survived until now.”, the male stated softly.

Skulduggery listened to Shudder, watching M/n too.

“His balm will heal him. He hasn’t left us yet and I don’t think he is planning on it anytime soon. He is a strong five year old. He will pull through.”, Skulduggery tried to cheer his friend up.

“And what if he won’t survive this time ?”, he asked.

He went quiet at that.

“You...think he won’t make it already, huh ?”

Anton stayed silent and wiped his eyes. Skulduggery noticed that Anton was actually crying. He got very close with M/n in this short amount of time. They all did, but Anton was the most connected with him.

“Why did you bond with him so quickly ?”, he asked.

Anton sniffed.

“His past and his urge to help us, even though he didn’t know us at all...it impressed me and made me proud. Even though he was abused, he still tried to see the good in strangers. Not everyone has that trait. And even though he bugged me a bit, it was nice and...adorable. He acted like an actual five year old that was curious about everything and wanted answers. And he only wanted attention from us, when he was really down. His Nightmares and slight random worries were the only times he asked for our comfort. He...was very considerate, even though he shouldn’t be. A toddler is supposed to be ignorant and always wanting attention. I just...I just felt very close to him thanks to all of that.”

Skulduggery nodded softly, understanding what he meant.

“It is said that we can connect faster with broken children than we can with normal ones that need adoption. We have an urge to help broken children, so they can still enjoy a bit of their childhood and life, so they don’t become rotten eggs and the next villain in line. But...when you do that, help a broken child to be a bit more stable...you bond with it very fast and it is getting stronger each second you spend with them. And when something bad happens to them that they might never recover from...we get very emotional.”, Skulduggery softly told Anton, putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort.

“I don’t want him to leave.”, Shudder sobbed out.

“None of us want him to leave. He won’t go, Anton. I believe in him. You have to believe in him too. He will pull through. He is a strong kid.”

Shudder looked at his friend and nodded. He will believe in M/n, if it will get the boy to survive this...

-Five days later-

Mevolent came over each day, asking how M/n was doing and if he already woke up. It was always a no and his heart continued to sink each day. Anton refused to leave M/n’s side, he didn’t want to eat, shower or even change his clothes. He wanted M/n to wake up. He redressed his head and smeared new balm on his injuries, to keep the wounds clean and to busy himself with something.

He barely talked with anyone. He was in a stage of grief that the Dead Men have never seen before. They voiced their concerns to Mevolent and he told them to bring him everything, so he doesn’t have to leave M/n’s side, but otherwise he didn’t know how else to help. All they could do was wait for a miracle.

That night Mevolent stayed over, hoping that something good will happen. As long as M/n breathed, he was alive...But that didn’t kill the chance that he might die anyways and they just torture him into a slow painful death.

-Day six-

Anton just sat there, staring. He was so tired, but he refused to sleep. Mevolent entered the room for the first time and looked around. It was cozy, he had to admit. Then he spotted the desk and the piece of paper, no one else witnessed yet. He went over to the desk and picked the note up, reading through it.

Tears ran down his face underneath his helmet and he had a wobbly smile. He sat down next to Anton and tapped his shoulder. He barely looked up, just hummed.

“M/n will be okay.”, Mevolent said.

“I hope so.”, Anton replied.

Mevolent chuckled and then read out loud what stood on the paper.

“ ‘Hello Dead Men, I have a feeling something will go wrong in our plan, but no worries ! The balm will heal anything and everything on injuries. Please don’t be sad, I’m tough, I will survive. Whatever damage I will receive, I had it worse and lived. I might fall into a coma, but as long as someone redresses and puts new balm on the wounds, I will be just dandy.

Hope to see you all soon, Keiran Fox.’ “

Anton’s head snapped up at that and his eyes were wide. He reprocessed the information and then smiled and had fresh tears in his eyes.

“It was on his desk. You should have looked.”, Mevolent said softly.

He gave Anton the note, petted Keiran’s hair softly and then left again, spreading the message. Anton started to laugh and sob in relief.

“You little Fox, you ! We should have known that you would leave us a sign in case.”, he said.

Not even two minutes later, all the Dead Men piled in and asked to see the note. They were so relieved, but also annoyed that they never noticed the piece of paper on the desk. Anton felt better, knowing that Keiran partly expected something like this to happen.

He was so relieved that he finally allowed himself to fall asleep, next to Keiran’s bed. The others in the house were relieved that Anton finally took some rest. They left the room and sat on the couch in the Living room, with Mevolent.

“I have a feeling Anton wants to adopt Keiran.”, Dexter said out loud.

“True. He does act like a Father.”, Skulduggery agreed.

Mevolent took off his helmet at that. His short blonde hair and his yellow toned skin were revealed and he put the helmet away, running a hand through his hair and his eyes were silver like. They stared.

“To be honest, if he wants to adopt Keiran, then I will not fight him. I am only a Guardian, but Keiran has to decide himself, where he wants to be and what he wants.”. Mevolent said, ignoring their stares.

“You would gladly give him away ?”, Ghastly asked.

“No, but your friend seems to care a lot about him. He would be sad, if I would take him away, you took care of him, he likes all of you and I only want what’s best for him. You found him first too. I might have set heaven and hell into motion to try and find him, but I didn’t think about searching in other villages. I should have been that smart. Another point where I would think that I might fail him way more than your friend would.”

They were silent in utter shock.

“His Mother would want the best for him. I will not stand in the way of his happiness.”

“And we feared you would fight us if we would ask you for Anton...”, Erskine voiced.

Mevolent laughed at that.

“No, no, no. I would never fight someone that makes Keiran happy. I am only his Guardian to kill the people that hurt him or try to kill him. I might be a Monster, but I’m not THAT bad.”

“Are you really a Monster, when you care about people ?”, Hopeless asked.

Mevolent was silent at that.

“Heh, everyone assumes it. I started the war with the lie to make the Sanctuaries fall and to get the Faceless Ones back here, even though I never planned on it. It was all just to get Keiran back and to safety.”

“Why didn’t you just say that ?”, Skulduggery asked.

“Who would have believed me, hmm ? I had no evidence and Maureen would have NEVER said anything, nor Keiran. Keiran wouldn’t have said anything in fear Kody would have hurt his Mom and Maureen wouldn’t have said anything, because she was scared to lose Keiran. Kody had them both where he wanted them to be and after she was dead, Keiran was missing, so he couldn’t make it official. I had to come up with something and a war was easy enough. The Sanctuaries would have been way too distracted with a war, to notice that I slipped out of my castle and searched for Keiran everywhere.”

Skulduggery was silent at that for a while.

“I would have believed you as soon as I would have seen the corpse. That usually is all I need to believe someone. I know the Sanctuaries like to accuse the one who found the body, that they did it, but I wouldn’t have. I did see some things that taught me to never just accuse someone.”

“Hah... Well sad we didn’t know each other back then, otherwise I would have slammed against your door until you would have came out in the middle of the night.”, he replied chuckling.

Skulduggery snorted at that joke.

“Very funny.”

“Meh, I guess I caused more of a mess, than needed. I’ll so go to jail for this for a long while... Well, I should have thought about that before I started a war...”, Mevolent sighed.

“I think I have to thank you partly though, that you DID start a war. Otherwise I would have never met these awesome men in this house.”, Skulduggery had to admit.

Mevolent gave a weak smile.

“You’re welcome.”

Then his smile died down and it was replaced with a thoughtful frown.

“You might want to get rid of Nefarian Serpine.”, he warned.

“Why ?”, Saracen asked.

“He hates Skulduggery for some reason. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would take out his Family at this point. That man has gone crazy.”

Skulduggery froze up.

“What ?”, he asked the male in shock.

“I have a Sensitive working for me and they saw that he will kill your Family. Even if I would stop the war now, I doubt your Family would be safe. Once something is set in that man’s head, nothing will change his mind to stop it. He will do it no matter what.”

“Shit !”, Skulduggery cursed and got up.

“Hey, if the war would continue, it would take a few more decades for Serpine to get to them, don’t overreact just yet. I will ask them tomorrow to look again and I will report back to you if they will be safe. I just wanted to let you know that he is planning on getting under your skin.”

“Under my skin ?”

“He wants YOU dead. Your Family is just a tool to him and not of importance. I might be unable to imagine how a Father and Husband would react to see their loved ones get killed, but you are a very calm and collected person, Pleasant. It takes something very serious to get you oblivious to your surroundings. You are way too clever when you are like this, so he wants to get you so outraged that you can’t think straight. In my head only your Family came to my mind. If nothing else got you out of control, Family surely will. I let a Sensitive look into it and they saw what I suspected.”

He sat back down and stared on the couch.

“Don’t worry, I will try to figure out if he will be any danger even after I broke up the war. When he is, you can have the honors of killing him. After all, he would go so far as to kill your own child and wife, just because he is a jealous, spiteful, pitiful creature.”

“Nice that we talk about stuff like this in the Morning...”, Hopeless mumbled.

“Before I forget, I rather said it now.”, Mevolent said, shrugging his shoulders.

-A few hours later-

Anton just finished cleaning, rubbing and bandaging up Keiran’s head again. He was about to go wash his own hands as he heard Keiran groaning softly. Anton stopped dead in his tracks, turned around and looked at him.

He had a shocked expression on his face, which quickly turned to relief. He wiped his hands on a used towel and then ran over to Keiran’s side. The boy sat up in bed, held his head softly and had his eyes screwed close. Anton kneeled right next to the bed again.

“Keiran ? Are you feeling any better ?”, Anton asked.

Keiran’s head snapped up at the mention of his name. He opened his eyes and looked at Anton.

“A-Anton ?”, he asked.

“Hey, you little Fox ! You made it.”, the male replied.

“I...I did ? They are gone ?”

Anton nodded.

“Your Godfather and his wife took them to torture them as punishment. How is your head ?”

Keiran needed a second to process and understand what the older male said.

“I feel like I died... I hope...it will get betterer.”, M/n groaned, annoyed, at the last word.

His speaking issue again. He meant to say ‘better’. Anton put a hand on the boy’s shoulder softly, to comfort him.

“No problem. You meant ‘better’. I know. It’s okay.”, he tried to cheer him up.

“I think I suffered through some brain damamage. Oh come on ! I hate my life...”, Keiran complained frustrated.

“Relax, it will heal.”, Anton soothed and then pushed Keiran back into a laying position.

“Don’t get up. You are not healthy enough for that yet.”

Keiran nodded softly and Shudder left. He dashed down the stairs, alarming everyone downstairs.

“Keiran is awake ! But be careful, he has more trouble speaking without messing up. He thinks he got some brain damage.”, Anton informed.

They got concerned, but were happy that he was awake. They all got up and went up the stairs, they entered Keiran’s room and smiled brightly as they saw that he was awake and moving.

“Hello, Keiran. A beautiful name you picked yourself. Black Fox. Suits you.”, Skulduggery said.

Keiran smiled and turned his head slightly, wincing at the discomfort.

“Thanks, Skulduggery. Now...as you left Anton...it just then registered in my brain that you mentioned my Godfather... Who is he ?”, Keiran asked.

Anton frowned at that. Right...Keiran will leave as soon as he is better with Mevolent...He looked at the boy and stepped aside, revealing Mevolent. Keiran’s eyes widened and he was in utter shock.

“YOU are my Godfather ?!”

“I am indeed. I guess your Mother never told you my name.”

“She didn’t, but I know you anyways. You are Mevolent.”

Mevolent nodded and then he started to explain everything. Why he started a war, how he found him now, what he did while Keiran was missing, how he met his Mother and everything else that he deemed important. Keiran had to interrupt him a few times, to slow down and let him process all the information, his brain still not fully functioning.

After a few hours of explaining everything to Keiran, he was in shock. He just stared at Mevolent in slight awe and shock.

“I...I need a minute to digest all of this.”, Keiran said softly.

“Take your time, Keiran.”, Mevolent told the boy.

After a few minutes he was calm and collected, looking at Mevolent again.

“Okay...Anything else ?”, the boy asked.

Mevolent looked at Ghastly and he understood what he wanted. He took Anton by the hand and left the room with him.

“Why are we leaving ? Is something wrong ?”, Anton asked confused and worried.

“This is only for them to discuss and for us to hear about later. Trust me Anton. We need to have a talk anyways.”, Ghastly soothed him as they left.

Skulduggery closed the door and everyone was looking at Keiran. The boy got nervous.

“W-what’s going on ?”, he asked nervously.

“Keiran....you do know that you will have to say Goodbye to the Dead Men, yes ? I am your Guardian and with that you have to move with me.”, Mevolent asked the five year old.

He needed a second to catch up with his brain, but when he did, his eyes widened and he got tears in his eyes.

“I....I have to ?”, he asked saddened to the core.

He didn’t want to leave ! He liked the Dead Men, he BONDED with them, he...he saw them as a potential group of best friends, something he never had before...They all gave off so much parental energy...POSITIVE parental energy.

Mevolent nodded.

“But-but I can visit, yes ?!”, Keiran asked hopeful.

“You won’t be able to. I can’t let you out of my sight and I am a very busy man in my castle. I can’t leave you with servants either. And the Dead Men are very busy people too. They won’t have time to visit as often as you would want. Maybe only once a month or even less.”

Keiran’s hope sunk and then he looked at Mevolent with determination.

“Then I will not go with you. I can handle myself. I had to, for four years, I can live without a Guardian.”, he said.

“That is not how this works, kiddo. I am responsible for your well being. I HAVE to take care of you until you are an adult.”

“Look, I don’t care how much you looked for me. I also don’t care how well my Mommy and you knew each other. I know close to NOTHING about you ! And I am supposed to trust you just like that ?! No !”

Mevolent smiled in his mind. Keiran was really a smart kid.

-With Ghastly and Anton-

They sat in the Living room and Anton just waited, for Ghastly to start the ‘oh so important’ conversation.

“What do you want to talk about ? Don’t just sit there.”, Anton huffed out annoyed.

Ghastly, continued to be silent for a few more minutes until he asked.

“How much do you like Keiran ?”

Anton blinked at Ghastly in surprise.

“What ?”

“You heard me.”

“He is a child, how am I supposed to feel ? Threatened ?”

“Do you like Keiran ?”

Silence for a moment. Then Anton sighed.

“Yes...Yes, I like him. He is a sweet child, can you blame me ? Skulduggery already gave me a small lecture. I bonded with him too fast and now, I have to deal with it, that I will never see him again. Like always.”

“How does your Gist feel about him ?”

“Calm, weirdly enough. It only raged when Keiran was attacked and asked for our help.”

“Do you want him to stay ?”

Anton looked at him, like he was stupid.

“Did you not listen to what I said not even five minutes ago ? Of course I want him to stay.”

“Allow me to phrase this differently then... Do you want to adopt Keiran as your own child ?”

Anton froze up, eyes widened in utter shock at that question.

-With Keiran-

“So you want to stay with the Dead Men, no matter what I try to offer ?”, Mevolent asked kindly.

Keiran nodded determined, but refused to look at them.

“Why do you want to stay with them ? You barely know them.”

“Because they are very nice, since we met, they protected me best they can, they took me in, instead of abandoning me, they helped me make this house and the rooms, they fed me, they cared for me, Ghastly made me new clothes, so I don’t have to freeze with my ragged thin clothes, they played games with me, they bothered to spend time with me, they didn’t yell at me if I teased them or had a small war in the kitchen with one of them. They are amazing people and yes, I might not know them as great as they know each other, but I am willing to get to know them further ! And I can only get to know them better, when I stay with them.”

“Why are you so hopeful that they even WANT you still around ? Because of the few good deeds they did ?”

Keiran’s heart dropped at that, but he put on a brave façade and looked calmly at Mevolent.

“I am not implying that they will want me to stay with them and if that is the case, there is no reason to fight about it. But they give off POSITIVE adult energy and I see them as potentially good best friends in the future and I would be a fool, to just let that chance slip away.”

“You could make friends with other kids your age.”, Dexter suggested.

Keiran gave them a look, like Dexter said the most stupid thing in the world.

“I may be five years old, but I had to grow up faster than other children, okay ? Most kids my age are still eating their own snot, suck on their own fingers, babble stuff they don’t fully understand and just want attention. Even older ones, would just bully you and act like they are better than you, because they are attention seeking blobs. I am not like that, I am feeling like a 15 year old that is trapped inside a five year old’s body.”

The men were all silent at that statement.

-With Anton-

“Of course I would. I doubt he would give me any trouble.”, Anton said after a while of silence.

“You would have to get used to being called Dad at some point and you would have to be more open with your thoughts and emotions. You think you can manage that ?”, Ghastly asked.

“I could.”, Anton said determined.

Ghastly nodded, got up and motioned for Anton to follow him. Anton did so.

-With M/n-

“If you want to stay with the Dead Men, you need someone to adopt you.”, Mevolent finally stated.

Keiran looked up at them, with wide eyes.

“We noticed how attached Anton got to you. Do you want to be adopted by him ?”, Erskine asked softly.

Keiran looked at the floor.

“Only if he wants to.”, he replied.

He would be happy if Anton adopted him. Anton was nice and gave good hugs and was comfortable to cuddle when he needed it. But...did Anton want to adopt him ?

Then the door opened and inside came Anton and Ghastly.

“What did he say ?”, Ghastly asked.

“Only if he wants to.”, Saracen replied.

“What about him ?”, Hopeless asked Ghastly.

“He said he would love to.”, Ghastly replied.

Mevolent nodded and got up.

“I will get the papers tomorrow so you can sign them, Shudder.”

With that Mevolent left, with a smile on his face. As long as Keiran was happy, he was glad. That was his and Keiran’s Mother’s goal anyways. To give him a happy life. He put his helmet back on and then went back home.

“P-papers ?”, Keiran asked confused and scared.

“The adoption papers, dummy. Anton wants to adopt you and you want to be adopted, so you both get what you want.”, Skulduggery said teasingly.

“S-so I can stay ?!”, Keiran asked excitedly.

All the men nodded and smiled. Keiran’s smile was as bright as the sun right now. The brightest he ever smiled since they met him.

“Yay !”, he cheered.

-Many years later-

“And that was how Keiran Fox was one of us and Anton’s Son.”, Skulduggery finished.

Stephanie stared at him.

“If Mevolent wouldn’t have ended the war and warned me about my Family’s safety, I could have lost them and my own life. It was almost sad that he was executed for what he did. But it wasn’t us who did it, that was Vengeous. I have no idea how he did it, but he killed Mevolent when he didn’t look out. But he already sent the peace treaty and with that, the war was officially over. He might have been killed, but it was too late to continue the war. Most importantly, because Keiran saw everything and told us, so we reported it to Meritorius.”

“Wow...”, was all Stephanie got out.

Suddenly a motorcycle came zooming near them and halted quickly. The driver took off his helmet and dark hair was to see, then a face. He looked at Skulduggery and Stephanie.

“Hello Uncle Skul ! Dad sent me to greet you for (from) him, the Hotel is very busy at the moment. I heard you needed some help. Did you finally get something against Serpine ? I saw him spying at your Family yesterday, told your children and wife to go to Dad’s Hotel, for safety.”, the male explained.

Skulduggery froze up and frowned.

“He was near my Family ?”, he asked dangerously quiet.

Stephanie looked at him concerned and slightly scared, while the male just shrugged.

“Yeah, I whooped his ass and mopped with him the floor, but it won’t be the last time he will show up at your Family’s doorstep. One day I won’t be there in time and then you have no one left. So please tell me you have something against him. Papa is getting worried.”

Before Skulduggery could even reply with some clues he had, Stephanie interrupted.

“Skulduggery, who is that ?”, she asked.

“Oh, how rude of me ! Hello there, Ma’am, my name is Keiran Fox. Some also call me Keiran Shudder, because I was adopted by Anton Shudder.”, Keiran introduced himself.

He had a strand of his favorite color in his hair, his eyes had a very obvious hue of Sapphire blue, mixed with a tinge of ruby red in them. A sectoral heterochromia, if Stephanie remembered correctly, it was called.

“You have pretty eyes.”, she complimented.

Keiran chuckled softly at that compliment.

“Why thank you. Yours are pretty too. Do you already have a Taken name, girl ?”, he asked.

She shook her head.

“Ah, what a shame. Tell me your Taken name when you have one, yeah ? I’d like to meet up with you and chat a bit.”, he said kindly.

“S-sure !”, she stuttered out, blushing.

“You have a phone ? I can give you my number in case you need help and Uncle Skul isn’t near to help.”, Keiran offered.

She nodded and gave him her phone, he put in his number and gave it back to her, after he wrote himself.

“I will save you up as ‘Uncle Skul’s friend the unnamed girl’ until you have your own Taken name.”

She nodded softly, still staring at him in awe, while Keiran typed in what he said he will. After that he put his phone away and stared at Skulduggery.

“So ? Serpine ?”, he asked, getting back on track.

“I know that he killed Gordon Edgley. Me and her think that he is after the Scepter of the Ancients and Gordon might have had it and the key.”, Skulduggery answered.

“But it is just a myth...”, Keiran said confused.

“He believes it is true and I think we saw enough to have learnt, that not everything is what it seems.”, Skulduggery replied smartly.

Keiran got a darker face.

“I’ll gather the others, you come to the Hotel. We will try to figure this out. If the Scepter is actually real and Serpine finds it, before we do, we are so gonna be fucked.”, Keiran said.

Skulduggery nodded and went to the Bentley. He stopped when he noticed that Stephanie didn’t come with him.

“Are you coming ?”, he asked her.

“Can I ride with him ?”, she asked.

“You have no safety clothes for that.”, Skulduggery countered.

“Hey, I can keep a woman safe on my vehicle, Uncle ! It is not THAT much of a trip.”, Keiran defended himself.

There was a long moment of silence, then Skulduggery sighed in frustration.

“If she has even ONE scratch on herself, when I arrive, I will tell your Father to forbid you from driving your vehicle, for three months. Got it ?”

Keiran nodded with a big smile and helped Stephanie up.

“Hold on tight, this baby has real speed.”, he warned her.

She held on tightly and Keiran put his helmet on her head, then he started his motorcycle and zoomed off with her.

Skulduggery shook his head sighed and wore a small smile.

“Kids...”, he said under his breath in amusement.

Then he got into his car and followed after them, to Anton Shudder’s Hotel Midnight.

End ? Part 4 ? What do you want ?

Masterlist HERE !

#derek landy #skulduggery pleasant #male!reader #not the canon au #read warnings above #valkyrie cain #ghastly bespoke #my au #skulduggery pleasant x reader universe #anton shudder #Dexter Vex #Saracen Rue #Hopeless #Erskine Ravel #Dead Men #The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader (Part 3) #Child!Reader #Alive!Skulduggery Pleasant

[skulduggery-pleasant-bp9]

The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader (Part 2)

Again got longer than I wanted it to be, Part 3 is in the making. I explained on update-blog-bp9 everything. Please give it a look. ^^

WARNING!: Abusive adults, mention of murder, mention of Violence, mention of being hurt, blood x gore, Fluff AND MORE ! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!! It takes place in the Mevolent War..

The Dead Men sat on the couch and relaxed, while M/n was out of the house. He looked for more herbs, to make more of his balm for them. While he collected them, he was deep in thought of what his Taken name could be. Sure he loved to be called Little Fox, but that isn’t a name now, is it ? It is a nickname, nothing more and nothing less. They only call him that, because he doesn’t like being called and referred to as “Kid” and “Child”.

The Dead Men offered to help him, but he refused their help, saying that they don’t even know what they would have to look for. It was a very good argument and they decided to stay and keep watch. Skulduggery wanted to talk into M/n’s head that he could just show and teach them what to look for, but M/n wanted to collect the herbs himself.

“What do you think we should show him first ? For him to get a feeling of how to be a child ?”, Saracen asked.

“Maybe play some games ? Like hide and seek, catch...cards ?”, Hopeless suggested unsure.

Ghastly turned to Skulduggery.

“You have a child, Skul. What do you think he needs ?”, he asked.

Everyone looked at him.

“Well, I know for a fact that kids need a lot of attention, care and love. My child is friends with other kids his age. It usually helps them to understand each other and to not argue about silly things all that often. They play a lot. My child is up to a lot of mischief when I was around. But the most important thing, a child needs, is having complete trust in an adult. Otherwise, you can forget about it.”, Skulduggery explained shortly.

They looked at one another.

“Who will try to bond with Fox ?”, Dexter asked.

Everyone looked at Skulduggery. His eyes widened as he realized what that meant.

“No ! I already have a child. Not planning on another one ! The kid would get attached to me ! How would I explain this to my wife, without letting it seem, that I’m not lying, that I didn’t cheat on her in the war ?! She is a very jealous woman !”, Skulduggery protested.

“You are the only one who handled a kid before.”, Anton pointed out.

“We have no idea how to act with one around.”, Erskine added.

“You are a Father. You can deal with kids.”, Ghastly deadpanned.

Skulduggery stared at them all and then slumped on the couch.

“Fine, but you will explain that to my wife.”, he gave in.

The rest of The Dead Men smirked and gave each other a high five in victory. Skulduggery grumbled moodily at that, but stayed seated. Then the door opened and inside came M/n again. Welp time to start acting like a Father now.

Skulduggery got up and approached M/n.

“Do you need any help, Fox ?”, he asked.

“Yes actually. Can you heat up the stove and get out a big metal pot ? I need two full and one half a cups of water too.”

Skulduggery nodded and went for the kitchen.

“And a wooden spoon !”, M/n added hurriedly.

“You got it !”, the male replied.

“Question, Fox.”, Ghastly started.

M/n looked at him.

“Yes ?”

“Which room is who’s ?”

“You can decide. I didn’t sort any bedrooms to anyone.”

With that he carried his herbs into the kitchen and watched Skulduggery prepare everything.

“Well then we should claim our Bedrooms.”, Erskine stated.

“Without Skul and Fox ?”, Dexter asked.

“They get the rooms that are still free.”

“That’s rude. Fox made this happen in the first place. If he wouldn’t have repaired the house, we would be wet, cold, dirty and sick tomorrow. If it is really supposed to rain heavily from tomorrow on for four days, we would have been screwed without his help.”, Anton defended.

“Fine, fine, we wait for these two.”, Erskine gave in.

They waited for 30 minutes and then heard Skulduggery and M/n laughing. Ghastly got up and went to the kitchen, curious what they were laughing about.

As he entered he just stared at them. M/n was covered in remains of herbs and Skulduggery’s hair was wet. They still laughed.

“What happened here, you two ?”, Ghastly asked with a small smile.

Skulduggery turned to Ghastly, smiling and trying to catch his breath.

“This fine gentleman insulted me and paid the price with wet hair and clothes.”, M/n started.

“And in return, for his gracious hospitality, I covered his head with the remains of the herbs he used. Aren’t we beautiful, Ghastly ?”, Skulduggery finished.

Ghastly snorted at that question.

“Very beautiful indeed. I bet your wife loves his husband with soaking wet hair and clothes, smelling like a dog. And no one ever hated a flower child. Perfect for weddings.”, Ghastly wheezed out.

M/n and Skulduggery stared at him in slight offence, then at each other and smirked. Skulduggery got out the flour, while Ghastly was too busy to not laugh like an idiot and looked away. M/n grabbed a bottle with water and some remains of the herbs, he couldn’t use in the balm.

The two grinned evilly at each other and then M/n swung the open water bottle, spraying Ghastly wet. The tailor yelped as the cold water soaked his clothes. He stared at the big wet spot on his clothes and opened his mouth to protest, but Skulduggery already swung the open flour bag and covered Ghastly from head to toe in white flour.

“Poof.”, Skulduggery snorted out, which made M/n snort too.

Because Ghastly still had his mouth open, some flour fell in his mouth, which he spat out and then coughed at. He glared at Skulduggery, ready to scold him, as M/n threw the remains of herbs on him and then laughed.

Ghastly looked at his clothes in dismay and then at M/n and Skulduggery, his friend, that behaved like a four year old right now. They were both laughing their asses off.

“Such a pretty man ! Mr. Bespoke is a very pretty male now !”, M/n howled in laughter and fell on his back on the floor.

Skulduggery laughed louder at that.

“Now no girl will say no to you, Ghastly, Buddy !”, Skulduggery laughed out.

The tailor just glared at them with a small smile, giving away that he wasn’t actually mad at them. Clothes can be washed after all.

“Who would say no to this pretty specimen ?!”, M/n wheezed out.

Skulduggery fell to his knees, not having laughed that hard in a long time. Ghastly chuckled and then picked up the open flour bag, which was still half full. Skulduggery and M/n noticed that and got up, backing away from the tailor.

“Now, now, Ghastly ! We can talk about this !”, Skulduggery stuttered out as Ghastly got closer to them.

“Too late, Pal. I will make you both white !”, Ghastly yelled playfully.

Skulduggery quickly grabbed M/n and carried him out of the kitchen, running as fast as he could.

“NEVERRRRRR !!!”, Skulduggery yelled after he passed Ghastly, who looked at where they just stood, dumbfounded.

He snapped out of his stupor and then started to chase them with the bag of flour.

“GET BACK HERE YOU TWO !”, Ghastly yelled.

Skulduggery ran through the Living room, giving the rest of The Dead Men a sight of how they looked. It made them chuckle and shake their heads softly. Not long later Ghastly entered and they actually started to laugh loudly. Even Anton did. Ghastly looked so ridiculous !

The tailor stopped dead in his tracks as they laughed and swung the bag of flour over all of them with one swipe. They gasped and stared at him. Dexter and Saracen even had to spit out some flour.

“That’s what you get !”, he sassed them and continued to run after Skulduggery and M/n.

They stared at their clothes in dismay.

“GET BACK HERE, SKULDUGGERY !!!”, Ghastly yelled.

“YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE !!”, Skulduggery yelled back.

M/n and Skulduggery entered the Living Room again, Ghastly very close behind. Now or never ! Ghastly swung the bag and hit Skulduggery’s back with the flour. Skulduggery felt that and pouted.

“MY CLOTHES !”

“Mine are worse than yours, stop whining.”, Ghastly scoffed playfully.

“I don’t care about YOUR clothes ! I care about MINE !”, Skulduggery complained playfully.

He set M/n down and turned to look at Ghastly with a glare.

“This means war, Bespoke.”, he growled out.

The tailor dropped the bag of flour and lifted his arms in surrender.

“Now, now, Skul ! It was just a little revenge !”, he protested.

Skulduggery jumped on Ghastly and tickled him, making Ghastly break out in uncontrollable laughter.

“Skahahahahahal ! Ahahahahaha ! Stahahahahap !”, Ghastly screamed out between laughs.

“Hmmm....Nope !”, Skulduggery replied, smirking.

He continued to tickle him until Ghastly let tears slip, then he stopped. Ghastly pouted at that, but refused to say anything. Was probably for the better. Just then everyone noticed that M/n was missing and Skulduggery looked in the kitchen for him, spotting him clean up the kitchen floor.

“Fox, we can do this later. You don’t have to clean this up now. Let us make dinner instead !”, Skulduggery suggested.

M/n looked at him and smiled.

“Okay.”, he replied and got up.

He threw the rug away and then went to wash his hands, which Skulduggery followed after too. Then he pulled off his jacket and folded up his sleeves of his white dress shirt. They met in the kitchen again.

“So what shall we make ?”, the man asked the boy.

“Hmmm...Colcannon and Champ ?”, M/n asked.

Skulduggery looked in the fridge and the cabinets. He found everything they would need and then nodded.

“We can make it. We have everything. You wanna make it, Fox ?”, the male asked.

“Yes !”

At that Skulduggery got everything out and on the table in the kitchen. M/n got out two knives and two cutting boards, bringing them over to the table. Skulduggery got out a big pot and filled it half with water, then he put it on the table and they got to peeling the potatoes.

Skulduggery was surprised that M/n could peel them so skillfully, but then again, his biological Father probably made him do that...

“I love peeling potatoes ! It reminds me of Máthair... I always helped her in the kitchen.”, M/n said saddened.

So his MOTHER taught him this. Alright, luckily Skulduggery was wrong this time, that the Father made M/n do that.

“Always ?”

“Yes ! She was sometimes very clumsy... So I offered to help and after I bothered her for a while, she taught me some stuff about preparing food. I mostly cleaned the kitchen up after too, so Máthair can rest. Athair always hurt her when she wasn’t done cooking when he returned from wherever he came from, or the kitchen wasn’t spotless. He always wanted food on the table and kitchen spotless clean before he is home.”

Ah, as Skulduggery feared. M/n’s Father did also abuse his wife in front of his own Son. That made his blood boil.

“I miss her...”

Skulduggery snapped out of his silent rage and looked at M/n, who had a frown on his face now.

“What happened to her ?”, he asked the boy.

“The bastard came home, that’s what happened.”, M/n snarled angered.

Skulduggery stopped peeling his potato and stared at M/n in shock. The boy can curse.

“Mom and I just finished cleaning the kitchen that night. And that asshole came home. He was very calm, emotionless like most of the times when he came home. I was never allowed to eat on the table with him and my Mom when I turned two years of age. He wanted to starve me, but she always let me sneak food in my room, before he came home, so I had my food in my room. Something was odd about him that night. I refused to go to my room and eat. I waited in the shadows and watched what he was about to do to her this time.”, M/n said in monotone.

Skulduggery continued to listen closely.

“After they were done eating, he jumped up from his seat and rushed over to her, she couldn’t react that fast and her Necromancy object was in her pocket. She couldn’t defend herself this time. He grabbed her hair and banged her head against the table, as hard as he could. Over and over again. I ran out of the shadows and attacked him as he slammed her head against it a second time, bit him in his right leg. He manipulated the wind and threw me harshly against the wall, continued to slam her head against the table. I got up ready to fight again....as her skull split open... Then he stopped. He dropped her disrespectfully to the floor, grabbed me harshly and dragged me out of the house, to his new flame and a new location.”

Skulduggery’s knife dropped to the floor, his blood ran cold, body frozen in horror. So that’s what happened to his Mother... And the child saw it all. How badly he wanted to kill that man right now !

M/n took a deep, sharp intake, tears running down his face and wobbly smile on his face.

“I should be traumatized...yet I just feel sad and boiling rage. I should be scared of him, I should be unable to talk about it, but I only feel rage...I want to kill him, Mr. Pleasant. That is not what a five year old should want, right ? What is wrong with me ?”, the kid asked the grown up.

Skulduggery looked at M/n with a very honest gleam in his eyes.

“We are all different, Fox. Don’t forget that. You ARE traumatized, but not in the way others would be. Your rage is your coping mechanism. You are not scared of him, because he killed someone you loved dearly. You want revenge. I would want revenge too, if someone killed my family. I wouldn’t fear them, I would actively hunt them down. You might be only five years old, but he triggered your rage none the less. There is nothing wrong with you. It is normal. You are grieving. It will take you a while to get over it.”, Skulduggery calmly explained.

“But I was only three years old that night !”

“That doesn’t matter. You loved her and you already hated him. It only fuelled your hatred to rage.”

“So...I’m not a Monster ?”, he asked, wiping his tears away.

Skulduggery smiled at him. An honest smile.

“You aren’t a Monster. HE is the Monster. And if I am going to be fully honest...me and the rest of my Team are Monsters too. We are in a war and kill to survive. Those who don’t kill, die. We are more of a Monster, than you ever could be.”

M/n looked at Skulduggery with wide eyes. The adult continued to give him a warm, honest smile, which made M/n soon smile too.

“Th-thanks...”

“It’s no problem. And just call all of us by the first name, little Fox. We don’t mind.”

The boy nodded softly.

“Now I have to wash my knife....”, Skulduggery sighed, picked it up and went to the sink.

He washed his knife and then came back. M/n seemed to be in deep thoughts as he finished peeling his potato.

“What are you thinking about, Fox ?”, Skulduggery asked as he grabbed another potato.

“About my Taken name...what I wanna be called...”

“Any ideas yet ?”

“Only that I want Fox to be in it... But I still need a first name...”

“So Fox is your surname ?”

“Yes. I’m planning on it...”

“Hmmm... How about something that means ‘Dark’?”, Skulduggery suggested.

“Dark ?”

“Your past wasn’t all that bright, black foxes exist, you seem to like darker colors and even though everything you’ve been through was dark, you made it out, like a clever Fox. It might suit you.”, he explained.

M/n thought about that as he peeled another potato.

“Hmmm...Good idea. Thanks !”

“Sure.”

With that they continued to peel potatoes and then they cooked the food, preparing the rest for the dish. After a while they finished and served the food to the rest of the starving Dead Men.

After that, they both got thank yous and compliments, then they all went to bed.

-The next day-

M/n was still asleep, as Skulduggery gathered The Dead Men in the Living room.

“What happened ?”, Anton asked, seeing how serious Skulduggery was.

“I didn’t want to tell you yesterday, what I heard from Fox. I know how his Mother died.”, the man informed.

“How ?”, Erskine asked.

“His Father killed her in front of him. Bashed her head against the table until the skull cracked open. He tried to stop him and safe his Mother, which didn’t work. His Mother was a Necromancer and his Father is, what I assume, an Elemental Mage.”

They stared at him in utter shock, horror and rage. Oh they wanted that man dead now.

“Also he was bloody three years old when that happened.”, Skulduggery added.

“I want to kill him.”, Anton growled out.

The rest nodded at his statement. Then they heard a door open and close, Ghastly ran to the kitchen, making breakfast.

M/n arrived in his new shirt and pants, that Ghastly adjusted for him. The pants previously belonged to Anton and the shirt to Hopeless.

“Good Morning. What is for Breakfast ?”, M/n greeted.

“Good Morning !”, the Dead Men said in a chorus.

“And Ghastly is making pancakes.”, Dexter answered.

“Cool ! I didn’t had these in AGES ! Last I had pancakes was when I was two years old and Father was gone for a whole week.”

“He made a food order, right ?”, Ghastly asked from the kitchen, mixing the pancake batter.

“Yeah. He called it a menu card. Most of it was disgusting pea soup and only vegetables with over seasoned meat and sauces. He loved it over seasoned, but I was too sensitive with my taste buds for it. He always smacked me when I asked him for less seasoning this time, or when I said it is too spicy for me. Said I acted like a pathetic girl...”

“Then what did you have ?”, Dexter asked the boy worried.

“When Ma was still alive, she smuggled me some good seasoned food in and then over seasoned the rest that still cooked. Other times I wasn’t so lucky and had to either starve or steal some bread.”

The Dead Men were in murder mode at that. They already had a plan forming in their head, how to find him and kill him off.

“Now say... Skulduggery, does your Team have a name ?”, M/n asked curiously.

“We do. We are called ‘The Dead Men’.”

M/n’s eyes widened in shock at that. Then he laughed loudly.

“YOU ?! He is scared of YOU ?! Hahahahaha !”, M/n laughed out loud.

“Who is scared of us ?”, Anton asked.

“My producer ! He heard of you and was scared shitless. Said to someone he won’t join them when you are around ! You might be Killers, but you act so nice and goofy right now ! I can’t take it serious that he is scared of YOU ! Hahahahaha !”

The others chuckled and Ghastly was on the stove, cooking the pancakes.

-With ???-

“How could you possibly be this STUPID ?!”, yelled a woman at a male outraged.

They stood in a burned down building. Searched every inch of a body, but there was nothing.

“He was a stupid 5 year old ! How was I supposed to know the mistake had some brains ?! At least we are rid of him ! So why do you care so much about him surviving it, woman ?!”

“If that brat tells anyone about what you and I did to him and his Mother, we will be hunted across the whole world, you dimwit !”

The man’s eyes widened at that in understanding, now panic set into him slightly too.

“He is a brat. I bet he died in the forest and ended up as food for animals.”

“Are you counting on that ? He ESCAPED a 5 story building, set in flames, ALIVE !”

Alright, that made the man feel dumb now.

“He probably went back to his home village. We go there and ask if anyone has seen him and say that we are looking for him. That he went missing. The mistake is a child, no one believes kids. They always lie !”

The woman was in thoughts and then nodded.

“Fine. Wear some poor looking clothes and then let us go. The sooner we find the brat, the better.”

The man nodded and they rushed off, back to their home to get their plan into action.

-With The Dead Men-

They finished Breakfast and played a card game. It was Rummy. M/n also played with them and he won three times in a row. Oh wait...we have to correct ourselves...

“Rummy !”, M/n yelled and finished the game again.

“Oh c’mon !”, Dexter complained and threw his cards away in frustration.

Anton sighed and put his cards down.

“God damn it !”, Erskine moaned frustrated and threw his cards on the table.

“I was so close...”, Saracen said saddened and put his cards down too.

“Me too, Rue.”, Ghastly sighed and put his cards down.

Hopeless put his cards down in silence, but smiled. At least M/n had fun.

“Welp, I wasn’t close at all, so I’m fine with losing.”, Skulduggery voiced and put his cards down too.

“If you want I can tap out and you play alone ? I seem to make some of you angry...”, M/n voiced concerned.

“No, no. Vex and Ravel are always that childish when they lose.”, Hopeless told M/n.

“Oh....okay ! Do you want to play another game, maybe ?”

“Like ?”, Ghastly asked.

“I heard about a game with dice... You put six in a cup, shake it and when you have two dice with the same number, you take these and try to get a third one... Do you know the game’s name ?”, M/n asked.

“It used to be called The Dice Game, but many call it craps nowadays.”, Skulduggery said.

“Why would anyone call a game...shit ?”, M/n asked confused.

The rest of The Dead Men snorted and Erskine, Dexter and Saracen exploded in laughter. M/n looked at them confused and concerned.

“What ? Crap is another word for shit, right ? Or poop ? Both ? What’s so funny about it ? It’s stupid that a game with rolling dice is called a word related to poop.”, M/n said defensively.

At that Ghastly and Hopeless exploded in laughter, Anton chuckled, slamming his fist against the table to not laugh loudly and Skulduggery continued to snort.

M/n was so confused and felt hurt. They laughed at him... Just like THEY used to... He got tears in his eyes.

“This is not funny ! Why are you laughing at me ?!”, he yelled at them, with tears running down his face.

At that everyone stopped instantly laughing. They looked at M/n, who hugged himself tightly and tried to disappear from his chair. He tried to curl up in a ball, to hide from everyone.

“Hey, hey ! We didn’t laugh at you. It just sounded funny. You are right, of course ! But it just sounded funny. We didn’t laugh at you, promise.”, Dexter quickly tried to reassure.

“Sorry if we seemed to laugh at you, Fox. We didn’t mean to make you cry. Please wipe those tears. We will play the game, okay ?”, Anton tried to calm him down too.

M/n looked at them and felt stupid for thinking that they laughed at him. He nodded, but stayed the way he was and stared down. It concerned The Dead Men. Mostly Skulduggery.

“Fox...did it trigger you to a bad memory ?”, Skulduggery asked carefully.

M/n looked at him and nodded subtly. The adult took a deep breath.

“Mind sharing ?”, he asked the boy.

“Nothing interesting. It’s just...THEY always laughed at me. I hurt myself by accident, they laughed and then...degraded and hurt me. I said something stupid, they laughed at me. I misspoke a word, they laughed and said that I am too stupid to form correct words. I...have these moments sometimes where I wanna say a word, but have a speaking mistake, without meaning to. It’s something I can’t turn off. I guess it’s born on... I know how it is spelled and said, but when I say it, I misspell somewhere and the word is messesed up.”, M/n covered his mouth quickly.

It happened again... Instead of “messed up”, he said “messesed up”. The Dead Men stared at M/n, but nobody was laughing. Not even smiling. They were in shock that M/n had that issue and that his biological Father and Stepmother were that brutal to make him insecure about it.

“Relax, little Fox. We understand. It just happened. You and we knew you wanted to say messed up and that misspelling took place. Don’t worry. No one is gonna laugh at that.”, Hopeless said calmly.

M/n stared at them and they all nodded. No one found it funny. He slowly uncovered his mouth and took deep breaths.

“Okay...Thank you for understanding.”, M/n said softly.

“Does it happen often ?”, Anton asked.

“Not as often as it should, I suppose. It happens randomly and only from time to time. They get really bad when I am pissed off, scared or even sad. Oh ! And when I am hyperactive.”

“Hyperactive ?”, Dexter asked.

“Don’t let me eat too much sugar, otherwise I’m going crazy for a few hours and do a lot of stupid things.”

“Ah...”

“Sugar rush. It usually leads to being hyperactive. In that state your child keeps you on your feet for a very long time. My child was hyper once. Was not fun, guys, I tell you.”, Skulduggery explained dryly.

“Noted. Not too much sugar.”, Saracen said.

“I can eat three cups of sugar a day, but not more.”, M/n explained.

Hopeless wrote that information down.

“I wrote it down.”, he informed them.

They all nodded at that in understanding. For the rest of the day they chatted away, collected herbs, cooked food, prepared their weapons, checked on them, if they still are in good condition, Ghastly made a few new clothes and M/n was mostly in his room, reading a book.

That was until the evening....

M/n asked Hopeless to go collect some more necessities. And when he asked, Ghastly, Ravel and Anton also needed some things. So he made a list.

-The next day-

Hopeless was in the village. He looked at his piece of paper, that he wrote the stuff on, M/n asked of him to get. Ghastly asked for a few pieces of cloths, Hopeless forgot to buy, Anton asked for more food, to restock and pack the kitchen full and Erskine asked for a survival in the wild book. It didn’t help that it was pouring that day too, as M/n warned all of them. The boy gave him a bracelet that was supposed to avoid the chances of Hopeless getting sick.

After a while he had the book, groceries and cloths in a waterproof bag. All he needed were M/n’s requested items. He was on his way to the last shop, as he was stopped by a man and woman, both were mages.

“Hello Sir. We need your help urgently !”, the woman greeted with desperation.

“What can I help you with Ma’am, Sir ?”, Hopeless politely asked.

The woman mage pulled out a picture and showed it to Hopeless, who’s blood ran cold, as he saw the person in the picture.

“Have you seen this boy, by any chance ? He ran away and we are looking for him. His name is M/n L/n.”, she asked.

M/n L/n...So that was his given name...Hopeless studied the picture.

“Hmm...I’m so sorry Sir, Ma’am, but I didn’t see this kid anywhere around here.”, he lied smoothly.

They looked at him, disappointed and the woman started to cry.

“I just want my Son back home, where it’s safe ! I’m so worried ! What if he is dead ?!”, she cried, worried sick.

“I’ll keep an eye out, Ma’am.”, Hopeless assured.

She looked at him, hopeful, then took and held his hand tightly.

“Thank you, Sir ! Thank you !”, she said happily, the man nodded with a smile too.

After that, they parted ways with him. Hopeless hid behind a tree, got out his small notebook, wrote a message, got out a trained mouse, bound the message on it and sent it to the rest of The Dead Men. Then he followed the pair, without anyone noticing.

-With the rest of The Dead Men-

M/n annoyed Anton as to why he didn’t like hugs, to which Shudder didn’t want to answer.

“Come on ! Tell me or else I will hug you !”, M/n threatened.

“I just don’t like them, Fox.”

“You must have a reason why though ! Or are you just hiding the fact that you never got a hug ?”, the boy insisted.

Shudder stayed silent and not long later, spotted Hopeless’ trained mouse running to them. He picked it up, took of the piece of paper and read it. His eyes widened.

“Dead Men gathering !”, he yelled loudly.

Everyone piled into the Living room quickly. Anton made it sound very urgent, so they picked up pace.

“What is it Anton ?”, Dexter asked.

Anton gave the paper to Skulduggery, to read its contents out loud.

“ ‘Gonna be home late, Fox needs a constant eye on him. I think he is in danger. I’ll try to find out more, see you later...Hopeless. P.S.: Don’t let Fox out of the house.’ “, Skulduggery read out loud.

“Danger ?”, Ghastly repeated worried.

“Okay we all got the message. No going out, Fox, and you have no privacy, until Hopeless is back and tells us the situation.”, Skulduggery said, worried.

M/n gulped and nodded, staying seated on the couch, scared. Anton rolled his eyes, already hating himself for what he was gonna do, and sat down next to the boy, pulling him into his side.

“Don’t worry yet, Fox. Maybe Hopeless gave false alarm.”, he told the boy.

M/n hugged Anton tightly, making the adult notice how much he was shaking.

“Shh...Shhh... As long as you’re with us, no one can hurt you.”, Anton soothed.

He looked, worried, at the rest of his Team. They looked at M/n and Anton too, worried sick. Hopeless was almost never wrong...

Masterlist HERE !

#male!reader #skulduggery pleasant #derek landy #read warnings above #ghastly bespoke #my au #skulduggery pleasant x reader universe #not the canon au #erskine ravel #Saracen Rue #Dexter Vex #anton shudder #Hopeless #Kid!Reader #The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader (Part 2) #Alive!Skulduggery Pleasant

[skulduggery-pleasant-bp9]

The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader

It got longer than I expected. When you are so deep into the Story, that you don't realize how much you've already written... TvT

WARNING!: Abusive adults, mention of murder, mention of being hurt, blood x gore AND MORE ! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!! It takes place in the Mevolent War... Skulduggery Pleasant was still alive in this Oneshot !

M/n was all alone in a village. He ran away from the burning house, his parents left him in. His Stepmother and biological Father hated him so much that they wanted to burn him to death. His only hope was that his Godfather will find him soon. Until then he just had to survive.

His Mother said that his Godfather was a good man and he will set everything in motion as soon as she was gone, to find M/n. She knew that his Father cheated on her, that he would run away with his new Lover and M/n. If he wanted to or not.

Even though M/n was only 5 years of age, he could remember a lot of things already. He remembered the way back to the village he lived in for 2 years and he finally escaped and returned here. He lived in the dumpsters of the villagers, but he couldn’t care less.

Did M/n know about Magic ? Of course he did. His Mother showed him her Necromancy and his Father hurt him with fire. He was the one who set the building on fire, to kill M/n. Did M/n already have a taken name ? No. He didn’t find the right one yet. Does M/n have Magic ? Yes he does. Elemental Magic. But he doesn’t want his Father’s Magic. He wants his Mother’s.

What the boy didn’t know yet, was that there was a war in motion. Kill or be killed was the motto right now. All he wanted was to find his Godfather... He learned soon enough that it was war.

He lived 2 weeks in the dumpsters, oblivious to the war that’s been happening, until a mage set the dumpsters on fire, close to M/n. He yelped and stared at the mage.

“Oh, you will be fun to kill.”, the mage said darkly, grinning sinisterly.

M/n gulped and looked frantically for a way to escape. He soon saw the walls and calculated, then he stared at the mage again and jumped from the right wall to the left, higher and higher, until he was on top of the roof. The evil mage cursed and tried to follow. M/n instantly started to run away on the roofs, jumping from one roof to the other, until he had no more left to jump on.

He took a deep breath and jumped down. His ankle made a loud cracking sound, M/n covered his mouth, hissed softly and continued to run. What he didn’t know was that he ran into the battlefield.

-With ???-

They fought against 12 enemies at once. Two of them were already down, so only 5 of them were still fully fighting. Two of them were badly injured, one of the two, who just blocked punch after punch, was badly injured, while the fifth one was running low on bullets. So in total there were three injured people, and two less injured people that still stood their ground and fought, while two were already down.

Who were they ? The Dead Men.

Anton had his gun out and shot, but had to sadly realize soon that the bullets weren’t enough to safe them. Ghastly and Skulduggery fought back on back. Hopeless and Dexter Vex blocked attacks, but couldn’t get any punches at the enemy either. Erskine and Saracen Rue were down. Erskine’s dominant arm was broken and Saracen had no more bullets to shoot, his adept Magic was useless in a fight like this and he had a stabbed right shoulder, it bled badly.

“ANTON ! THE GIST !”, Hopeless yelled.

Anton hesitated, worried, he might kill one of his Team members.

“For God’s sake ! DO IT SHUDDER !”, Erskine yelled in pain.

Hopeless and Dexter came to Anton’s side and gave him protection, while Anton ripped his shirt open and let the Gist out. It made quick work of their enemies. Ripping apart one after the other.

As they were all finished off, Anton pulled it back inside his chest and lost his balance for a second. Ghastly, Hopeless and Skulduggery were badly wounded and needed treatment as soon as possible, Erskine needed his bone snapped back in place and a bandage, Saracen needed someone to get the bullet out of his shoulder and then a bandage, Anton only needed a few small stitches and Dexter only needed a bandage on his left leg, which had a deep, bleeding cut.

They panted.

“Do you think we can make it back to...our camp ? All our medicine is there and the bandages..”, Saracen asked the rest of his Team.

“We will have no other choice, but to make it back.”, Skulduggery voiced.

The rest nodded at his statement and started to walk back, as they heard quick footsteps, they stopped dead in their tracks, weapons pulled out already.

-With M/n-

He was running as fast as he could, scared shitless. He needed help, or at least a place to hide at for a while ! He wasn’t looking where he was running, he looked around wildly, for any threats and then had his eyes closed, tears running down his face. He didn’t want to die...

Suddenly he tripped over a root of a tree, he yelped and fell, hands in front of himself, to catch himself. He hit the ground harshly and his knee was bleeding.

“Oww...”, he sobbed out.

He tried to get up, but his knee and ankle hurt so bad that he fell again. He sobbed now.

“No, no, no ! Let me get up ! Please !”, he begged his hurting body.

He tried again and stood, but as he took his first step again, he fell down again. He sobbed harder. He will never get away from that psycho mage like this !

Suddenly there were feet in front of M/n’s face and the boy’s blood ran cold.

“P-please don’t hurt me ! I didn’t do anything ! I don’t wanna die !”, the boy pleaded.

“Hey, hey... Calm down, kid. What happened ? Why are you here ?”, the person, which turned out to be a male, asked.

M/n sobbed and carefully looked up, seeing a face covered in scars. M/n looked at him in awe, but also in slight fear.

“I-I was just hiding in an alleyway in the dumpsters as some man wanted to kill me. I ran for my life. I swear I didn’t do anything wrong !”, M/n loudly said.

“You are a stray kid ?”, the man asked in shock.

“M-my Stepmother and Father wanted to burn me alive, not that long ago. I found my way back to the village I used to live in. Mommy said, before she died, that my Godfather would be here and do anything he can to find me. She said he was a nice man. I don’t know where he lives, nor do I know his name. I was just hoping he might find me.”, he explained.

“You do know that we have a war, yes child ?”, another man asked.

M/n looked up and behind the scar faced man. He saw very injured men there. He tried to get up again, hissing in pain as he did so.

“I didn’t know until that man tried to fry me near the dumpsters. I am surprised that I survived for two weeks then... You are all hurt...”, M/n said.

The men looked at one another.

“We were just on our way to our camp.”, the man with golden eyes said.

M/n shook his head and pointed at Hopeless.

“He won’t be able to make it with his injuries. His head is bleeding strongly, his arms have deep cuts and could already have an infection and one of his feet is badly bruised. He might die soon.”, the boy said.

“How would you know that, child ?”, another male asked.

“I had so many injuries myself that I know what might kill you soon and what not. Let me help. I had to bandage myself and my Mother so many times, that I know what I’m doing.”

“We have everything at our camp...”, another male informed M/n.

“Ever tried leaves and stuff ? I know what I’m doing. You don’t need bandages.”, the boy said and then already ran off, with his own injured leg.

The men shrugged and waited for the boy.

“Someone of you, start a fire ! I need to heat up the ingredients for the medicine !”, M/n yelled.

Anton and Dexter decided to do that. They collected wood and then started a small fire. Hopeless was starting to sweat.

“The boy was right. Hopeless wouldn’t have made it...”, Ghastly informed the rest.

Hopeless nodded.

“I thought I might make it...”, he said.

Soon the boy returned and looked at Hopeless.

“I knew it. Alright Sir, I need you to lay down and take deep, steady breaths. Do not sit up, do not talk, do not close your eyes. Understood ?”, M/n asked.

“Yes, understood.”

Hopeless did as M/n told him. The boy threw herbs into a small pot he found close by and stirred it with a skinned and washed stick.

“What are your names by the way ?”, M/n asked after a long while of stirring in dead silence.

“The one with the scars on his face, is Ghastly Bespoke. I am Skulduggery Pleasant. The male with the golden eyes is Erskine Ravel. The male that you want to help is Hopeless. The guy with the blonde hair is Dexter Vex.”

“I’m Anton Shudder.”, Anton introduced with a gruff voice.

“And I am Saracen Rue.”, introduced Saracen himself.

The boy nodded.

“Nice to meet you all. I have no taken name yet.”, the boy said.

The mages stared at M/n in shock.

“What ? You thought I find these names normal ? They are taken names. I know you are mages. My Mom and Father were mages too. My Stepmom was an adept mage...she possessed the power to control your mind for a short while.”

M/n continued to stir the pot with melted herbs for a while longer, then he took off his shirt and ripped it into two pieces, wrapped them around his hands and took the pot off of the fire. He went with the pot to the nearby lake and put the pot’s bottom in there. The water hissed and smoke rose up. After the pot was cooled down, he came back and put his finger in there, to see if it was still too hot. It wasn’t and with that he unwrapped his ripped shirt pieces from his hands, folded them open again and ripped one of the halves into half of it again.

He then put one of the freshly ripped pieces into the herb soup and let it soak. As that soaked, he went to the lake again and wettened his other freshly ripped half. After he returned the other half was soaked, he took it out again and got close to Hopeless. He cleaned the head wound and then softly dabbed the herbs on his wound. Hopeless hissed, but didn’t do anything else.

“These herbs will heal him in no time. I know what I used. It healed my Mother in a matter of minutes.”, M/n explained.

Then he took care of the rest of Hopeless’ wounds. As he was done bandaging his wounds with the washed clean big leaves, he looked at the rest.

“You too or no ?”

Skulduggery let Ghastly go next. He had a badly injured arm and right leg. M/n did his Magic and then pulled Skulduggery aside. His face was injured, his left hand, right shoulder and right leg. His back also got some damage. As he had his wounds covered in the herbs’ balm and leaves, M/n took Erskine next.

“You have a broken arm.”, M/n stated.

“Yes...I doubt you can heal that.”, Erskine said.

“Nonsense. This herb balm can heal anything and everything. But we have to crack it back in and bandage it, so it won’t reconnect wrongly... Wait here. I will collect some things.”

M/n got up and jogged off. After a few more minutes he returned, soaking wet, with sticks, something that worked as a rope, more big leaves and seaweed...

He came back and sat down next to Erskine again, carefully took his broken arm and then looked at him.

“It will hurt like hell when I snap it back in place. I need someone to hold your arm in place then.”, M/n warned.

“I will do it.”, Anton said and kneeled beside M/n.

M/n nodded.

“Whatever you do, NEVER let his arm go. Okay ?”

Anton nodded. Then M/n took a deep breath and...

CRACK !

“AAAAAAAHHH !!”, Erskine screamed in pain.

M/n held Erskin’s arm in position and then looked at Anton.

“Hold it like that and don’t change the position.”, M/n explained.

Anton nodded and they swapped. M/n quickly took the sticks he collected and measured Erskin’s arm with them, then he bundled them together with the rope looking thing. He then braided the big leaves into the bottom of the frame and stabilized it with seaweed. Then he measured the distance between Erskine’s neck and broken arm. He bound another rope working plant into the frame, but this time the front. The Dead Men soon enough understood that it was supposed to help Erskine to hold his arm in place.

Then he got out a pocket knife and cut off the ruined sleeve of Erskin’s shirt, to get to his injured arm. He carefully pulled out the cloth from under Erskine’s arm. Then he smeared the balm on the arm and on the leaves of the self made sling. He picked the sling up and carefully, with Anton’s help, slid the broken arm in. It fit perfectly. Then M/n hung it around Erskine’s neck and it stayed in perfect position.

“Th-thank you...”, the male said, still in pain.

“Sure.”

M/n turned to Saracen and saw his shoulder.

“Come here, we operate.”, the boy said.

Saracen carefully sat down and straight. M/n cut off the ruined sleeve and took a closer look at his shoulder. He made a small sound and looked at it worried.

“That went deep...Let me get something real quick.”

M/n whooshed away and came back with two small, stable sticks. He skinned them and washed them too and then stared at the wound again.

“This will hurt...”

“Just go for it...”, Saracen said with gritted teeth, already awaiting the pain.

M/n carefully inserted the two small wooden, clean sticks and found the bullet quickly. He widened the sticks, making the wound bleed more and Saracen hiss slightly. Then M/n got a hold of the bullet and carefully pulled it out, which made Saracen take sharp breaths and stomp his foot.

“Almost out, Mister Rue...”, M/n said.

“Saracen is just fine, kid.”, he replied.

M/n nodded and then had the bullet out. He cleaned the wound and then smeared the herb balm on it again, then he used some leaves and bandaged it. After that he took care of Dexter and Anton.

“Just wait for a bit and then your wounds should all be healed. Besides Mr. Ravel’s. His broken arm will be healed in an hour or two.”, M/n informed them.

They thanked him and then M/n took care of his own ankle and knee. He took it off after five minutes and smiled as everything was gone.

“The more often you use it, the quicker it heals you.”, he explained to them as they just stared.

Suddenly a voice yelled.

“Come on, little kid ! Come out, come out wherever you are~!”

M/n’s eyes widened in fear. The same mage from before. He looked at the tree next to The Dead Men and quickly climbed it and hid in the crown of it.

Skulduggery and the others stood, ready to kill. The mage appeared and quickly lost his sinister smile as he saw The Dead Men.

“H-hello there...”, he stuttered out.

Anton loaded his gun and aimed it at the mage’s head.

“Any last words ?”, he asked.

“I-I’m just looking for my Son !”

“I hate liars.”, Anton snarled.

The mage shrunk into himself and whimpered.

“I have family..”

He rolled his eyes.

“Almost all of us have a family, no war was ever merciful to spare family members.”, Anton deadpanned and then pulled the trigger, shooting the mage in the head.

Anton’s hand was pulled back from the force of the gun’s shot and the mage’s head flew back, blood spurted out and the body fell to the floor. Skulduggery looked up to where M/n was hiding.

“Come down kid. We will keep an eye on you as long as your Godfather didn’t find you yet.”, he said.

“Promise ?”, M/n asked.

“You are most safe with us, kiddo !”, Dexter assured with a smile.

M/n slowly climbed down from the tree and looked at them, mustered them carefully.

“Are you sure you can watch a child, in a war ?”, he asked.

“We can. Trust us, child.”, Hopeless assured.

“Hmmm...okay then.”, M/n said shrugging his shoulders.

“You trust us ?”, Saracen asked.

“Not one bit. Hell, I just met you guys ! But I need protection, otherwise I might end up dead, so why not ? If you plan to kill me, I at least tried. No matter what I would choose, I will surely die on my own and you are a better choice for now.”

The Dead Men looked at one another and then nodded.

“Okay then. Follow us and you are sleeping with Saracen in one tent.”, Ghastly said.

With that M/n followed them.

“Are you alright with being called kid ?”, Erskine asked after the silence got too much for him.

“Not really, but I don’t have a taken name yet, so I have to deal with it.”

“Any preference maybe ?”

“....boy....buddy, bud....and little fox. I liked them because Mom gave me those nicknames and kid and child remind me of my Father and Stepmother... I HATE these words...”

“Little fox ?”, Ghastly asked confused.

“Yeah ! I am pretty smart for a five year old. I was smart with 2 years of age. I already learnt walking and talking properly at that age. And I experimented on herbs to find out what I would need to make a healing balm. I modified it with three years of age and that was one of the reasons Mom called me a little fox. With three years of my age, Mommy died and I was forced to go with my abusive Father and his new flame. When they tried to burn me in a house to death, I escaped and came back here. I have good memory I suppose.”

The Dead Men stared at him in shock. Only five years old...

“Seems like your Father was...”, Dexter hesitated.

“Unfaithful to my Mom ? He was. She knew and she asked someone she knew very well to be my Godfather. She knew he would pull something on her. I couldn’t safe her in time, but she said that my Godfather knew and as soon as she is gone, he will come looking for me.”

“Huh...So we just have to wait until he finds you.”, Saracen said.

“If he is still alive, yes...”

Soon enough they were at their camp and M/n was in awe.

“You have a wooden house here too !”, he exclaimed.

“Ah...it is in terrible condition and doesn’t belong to us.”, Ghastly informed the boy.

M/n scoffed and then left.

“Little Fox ?! Where are you going ?!”, Dexter called after him in worry.

“You will see. Take a rest for the balm to work quicker.”, M/n replied.

They were worried, but obeyed. Anton stayed awake the longest, wanted to keep an eye on M/n....but he fell asleep too.

M/n had more than elemental Magic to his use. He made some trees fall and cut them to shapes, then he brought them over to the run down house and fixed the damage it took. He always looked at the sleeping men and then continued when they were still sleeping. As he was with his abusive Father, he was forced to repair the house often, because he damaged it with a raging fit, made him clean up his own blood etcetera. M/n was used to it and this was a piece of cake for him.

He opened the door and saw that the house was still in very good shape from the inside. He grabbed all the stuff from the camp and put it into the house. He then woke up Hopeless and told him to wash himself. He did so, his wounds were fully gone.

“That is very useful, Fox.”, Hopeless praised.

“Thanks, but I need your help.”

“What is it ?”

“Can you go to the village with Anton and Dexter and get some furniture ? Trust me, it is worth it.”

Hopeless looked at M/n skeptical, but sighed and nodded. The kid helped them once already, he is doing it again, probably. Hopeless woke up Dexter with Anton, told them to wash themselves and then they were off with new clothes on. M/n watched the others rest, then crafted a big sleigh for the three to carry the rest back.

After a few hours, they returned with boxes.

“We have to go back to get the rest.”, Hopeless explained.

Hopeless dropped 2 big boxes, Dexter 5 smaller ones and Anton one big box. M/n nodded and gave Anton a piece of plant rope in the hand. He looked at the kid confused.

“I made you a little backup tool.”, M/n explained and pointed at the self crafted sleigh.

The three males smiled at him and then left with it. M/n opened the boxes and carried inside the furniture pieces. One was a couch, coffee table, table, and the five other packages held silverware, dishes, cups and tools to craft with.

M/n took out the hammer and started to put the table together, that only had nails. Then he took the screwdriver and wrench and screwed the couch together. He stacked the boxes with kitchen utensils next to the front door, so they won’t be in the way. Then he put together the coffee table. He always looked at the blueprints so he won’t fuck it up.

As he was done with the coffee table, the three men returned with a full sleigh.

“Fox ?”, Hopeless whisper called.

M/n stood up and left the house.

“I’m in here. Get the boxes inside, if you can’t get some inside, just bring the contents of them inside and pile them, separated, for each furniture. Don’t forget the blueprints.”

They did as told and then got the next load.

M/n had to find out that most of the stuff was kitchen apartment, so he started with the stove, which was gas. The blueprints simplified it for him, thankfully. Then he started with the sink. He saw the pipe, he had to connect the sink with for later, so he started to put everything together and then connected everything together.

When M/n moved with his abusive Father to his new Lover, M/n was forced to repair any damage that was there and he had to built in and out sinks and faucets. His childhood with his Father was Hell, but now it came in handy. Doesn’t mean he thanked that fucker. As a five year old M/n shouldn’t know any of that as much as he does. He should have been a child, that played with toys and was worry free.

After he finished that, he built together the cabinet that belonged to the faucet and sink. When he finished with that he started with the cupboards and got 3 big ones done as the three returned. They piled everything in again and Hopeless grew worried for M/n.

“Fox...take a break.”, he said to M/n.

“Nonsense ! I’m fine, Hopeless.”, he said smiling and went to the next cabinet for the kitchen.

Hopeless sighed and left again with the other two, to get the last few bits.

As they returned again, M/n was done with the kitchen and two closets for the living room. He sat on the couch, taking a small break. Hopeless was in awe that M/n was so fast and actually got a whole kitchen done already. The kid had his eyes closed and took calming breaths, but he was not asleep.

“Was that all ?”, the five year old asked.

“I have to go back and get a few more things, but Dexter and Anton will stay behind. They will help you.”

M/n looked at them then and nodded slowly.

“Okay. Take care of yourself, Hopeless.”

“Of course. You too, little Fox.”

M/n smiled.

“No promises. Putting together furniture is a pain sometimes...”

Hopeless chuckled and then left. He needed the sleigh again, but set Anton and Dexter on M/n to find out how he knows all of this stuff. He shouldn’t know any of that at such a young age, or at least he shouldn’t put furniture together at all !

M/n sighed and got up.

“I rested for a few minutes, I should be able to continue.”

Dexter nodded and Anton looked at M/n skeptically.

“How do you even know any of this ?”, Anton asked.

“Abusive adults... When they are too lazy to do something themselves, they forced me to do it. Comes in handy now, but that doesn’t mean that I am thanking them. I know I should be acting more like a five year old, but how am I supposed to ? I never had a proper childhood. I don’t know how being a child works anymore. Just how to be useful and productive.”, M/n explained and then went back to work.

Dexter frowned at that and looked at Anton, who looked at Dexter. That was unhealthy and not just abusive. They treated M/n like their personal slave, that was torture. Abuse is long off the hook, this was torture.

“Mr. Shudder, can you put one of the beds together ? Mr. Vex, can you put together a closet for a bedroom ?”, M/n asked.

“Our first name is just fine, little Fox ! And sure we can !”, Dexter said happily.

M/n nodded softly and then opened the next box. It owned a small cabinet for the living room. He pulled the contents out and sat down on the floor, looking at the instructions on the blueprint, then sorted everything, got the tools needed and started to put it together quickly. Anton and Dexter frowned at that. The kid seemed exhausted, but refused to show any symptoms of it.

They carried two big heavy boxes up the stairs and saw that it had more than eight rooms. Good. They took the first room and then they started to unpack everything, then sorted and then started to build everything together.

-Time skip-

Hopeless took a lot of time to come back. He looked for stuff for Ghastly to work with, some holders for guns, small wardrobe bars, candles, hygienic stuff, toiletries, food, drinks, bed stuff and much more.

When he returned all three of them were sitting on the couch, the boxes were empty and everything was in the house.

“I got the Bathroom and other necessities.”, Hopeless informed.

They looked at him and nodded. Hopeless brought in the Bathroom stuff first and the three of them dragged it all to the last empty room and built in the bathroom. M/n connected the faucets, sink, toilet, bathtub and shower, while Dexter and Anton built the two cabinets together.

After an hour they were done and sat back down. Hopeless organized the rest. He put the candles at places where they are easy to see and grab from, put more kitchen utensils in the cupboards, cabinets and drawers, put up the wardrobe bars, then he put food and drinks in the fridge and more. After he put the hygienic stuff and toiletries into the Bathroom cabinets, he returned to the other three.

“Where is Ghastly’s room ? Do we have extra rooms ?”, he asked.

“Yeah, there are some, in the far back, upstairs.”, M/n answered.

“Okay, thank you.”

With that he dragged the rest of the stuff upstairs and installed a whole tailor room in one of the empty ones. After he was done, he left the room and sat down on the couch too, huffing. He even put together two armchairs.

“Are we done ?”, Anton asked.

“We are. I have nothing more.”, Hopeless answered.

M/n smiled and then fell asleep.

“He was tired...”, Dexter mumbled as he saw M/n out cold.

“What did you find out ?”, Hopeless asked.

“His Father and Stepmother were abusive and tortured...Fox. They forced him to do what they want and when they were too lazy to built or repair something, they made him do it.”, Anton answered.

Hopeless was shocked into silence.

“He was probably forced to take care of his own and his biological Mother’s wounds too, because that man didn’t.”, Dexter whispered out.

“Holy shit...”

Then M/n woke up again and jumped up, full of energy, which worried the other three a bit. No one is so quickly full of energy again...

“Let’s wake the others, tell them to wash themselves and get them in here. We didn’t put all our effort in this, so they continue to sleep outside in the cold and muddy nature. It is supposed to rain for 4 days straight.”, M/n said.

They stared at him in awe. He knew the weather too.

Then he went out and hit the cleaned metal pot with a thick stick, making loud noises, that woke them all up rudely.

“Wake up ! Get cleaned ! Get your bodies inside after you are clean !”, M/n said excitedly.

They all got up groggily and grumbled as they went to the small pond to wash themselves. After a while Erskine could be heard.

“HOLY SHIT ! MY ARM IS ACTUALLY HEALED !!!”, he yelled.

M/n smiled brightly and giggled. Hopeless, Anton and Dexter stared at M/n, as he giggled, with wide eyes.

“Awww ! That giggle was so CUTE !”, Dexter fanboyed.

M/n blushed and looked at the ground.

“Hey, you don’t have to hide from us. You are still a kid, so act however you want.”, Anton told M/n calmly.

M/n nodded softly and then entered the house again. Soon enough the rest of The Dead Men came back, freshly washed and wearing new clothes.

“So...where is inside ?”, Erskine asked.

“The house. Little Fox fixed it. And we collected furniture and utensils.”, Hopeless answered.

They stared at them with gaped open mouths.

“Just look for yourselves.”, Anton sighed and entered the house again.

“By the way it will be pouring weather for four days straight.”, Dexter informed the others.

“From where do you know ?”, Ghastly asked.

“Little Fox.”

With that they entered the house and were in awe of how cozy and welcoming it looked.

“Who organized all these rooms and built all of it up ?”, Skulduggery asked.

“Little Fox did most of the work, because we collected everything. Dexter and I helped later on and lastly did Hopeless his own finishing touches.”, Anton told him.

“Little Fox already knows how to build furniture and how to connected pipes with faucets and stuff ?”, Saracen asked in shock.

“Abusive Father and Stepmother, forced him to know all this already.”, Dexter informed softly.

They were in shock.

“He also has no idea how to be a child.”, Anton added.

“Well then, we will help him !”, Erskine voiced.

All The Dead Men agreed to that. ‘Operation showing Little Fox how to be a child’ was set in motion.

I am planning a part 2 ! But this Chapter is so fricking long already. T-T

Masterlist HERE !

#male!reader #skulduggery pleasant #derek landy #read warnings above #not the canon au #ghastly bespoke #erskine ravel #skulduggery pleasant x reader universe #Saracen Rue #Anton Shudder #Hopeless #Dexter Vex #The Dead Men #Child!Reader #Alive!Skulduggery Pleasant #MY AU #The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader

[skulduggery-pleasant-bp9]

Skulduggery Pleasant x Reader ONESHOTS

They will have no SMUT ! Only Fluff and stuff. I will put warnings in case something is triggering though.

The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader

The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader (Part 2)

The Dead Men meet M/n – Skulduggery Pleasant x Kid!Male!Reader (Part 3)

Jealousy made a Monster – Father!Anton x Son!Reader

Trouble (Part 4 of Dead Men meet M/n)

Angry kids (Part 5 of Dead Men meet M/n)

Romantic Oneshots (Fluff)

Stressful week – Anton Shudder x Male!Reader

#derek landy #skulduggery pleasant #male!reader #valkyrie cain #erskin is male!reader #ghastly bespoke #not the canon au #read warnings above #erskine ravel #my au #The Dead Men #Fem!Reader #Fluff #Angst #Hurt x Comfort #Saracen Rue #Dexter Vex #Anton Shudder #Mevolent #Lord Vile #Hopeless #Larrikin #Corrival Deuce #Reader can have different names because different events