Love and War: Chapter 19

Deryn ran down the crowded hall, stumbling over passersby and beasties, not bothering to apologize. Her mind was too scattered for that. Bovril hung on to her neck for dear life until Deryn finally came to the door, Alek's door. She turned the knob and let herself in and to her dismay, the room was empty. Alek's things were gone, and more importantly, he was gone. That ninny of a prince. Deryn didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.

"He left us, Beastie." Deryn said softly. She wondered where they were by now. Perhaps it wasn't too late to slip a word to the captain. Deryn shook her head in disbelief as she forced back the tears threatening to sting her eyes. She couldn't do that. That would be selfish. Of course, Alek wasn't being remarkably generous at the moment either.

"Deryn?"

Deryn quickly turned to her right and saw the ninny prince in question smiling wide. Every muscle in her body urged her to throw her arms around Alek and press her lips against his in public. She smiled back instead, disregarding the fact that he used her real name in public. She was just happy to see him, and she rather enjoyed hearing her name roll of his tongue.

"What are you doing here? I thought you had left."

Alek raised a brow, "Without saying goodbye?"

"Aye," Deryn shrugged.

"Our plans went…downhill."

"Oh," Deryn said, trying not to seem too happy. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not," Alek smiled daftly.

"Me neither," Deryn admitted, feeling ridiculously happy. They were both grinning awkwardly; the two of them probably looked mad to any onlookers. And yet, all of the miscellaneous commotion going on in the hall seemed to be blocked out, nobody else mattered.

"Do you mind if we go inside," Alek nodded towards the door. Deryn smiled and felt preposterously girly as they escaped into the room. Once inside Alek rubbed his arm nervously. "Um…apparently…I…" he sighed, and Deryn was taken aback by his sudden lack of composure. Alek noticed as well and blushed. "Sorry…"

"Just spit it out!" Deryn said.

"Very, eloquently put," Alek said sarcastically, which was strange since he still managed to sound nervous."

Deryn rolled her eyes. "Alek…"

"Right." He said quickly. "Look, apparently I am not supposed to have romantic feelings for you." Deryn's giddiness quickly disappeared and was replaced by anger and frustration. Was that the reason he brought her in here, to tell her that they could never be together, after everything that happened between them? If so, then he had another thing coming, such as a swift hit in the gut. "But I do," he then said.

"Oh," she said delicately.

"And I don't care anymore if I'm not 'supposed' to."

Deryn smiled, "Alek," she breathed. She had waited patiently for months for him to say something like that, and didn't want to ruin it by saying the wrong thing. "I have feelings for you too," Deryn said, feeling happy again.

He smiled. "Good," Alek said, looking relived which Deryn found ironic. He rubbed her arm shyly. A rather lackluster reaction after he pinned her against the wall earlier. "And I know things are going to be complicated, but…it pains me to imagine life without you. And I don't want to end up like Volger, and Dr. Barlow."

"Of course not, they're an odd pair."

Alek choked a laugh, "That's not what I meant."

"Well, we won't," She pulled him closer, and pressed her lips against his prompting a chuckle from Bovril. She pulled away reluctantly. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

"I'm glad." He got that noble and daft look in his eyes. "This may be 'daft', as you would say; it's pretty frightening, in fact. But I'm still glad we have each other. It's frightening in an adventurous way, like in a book. And as long as we have one another I think…we will be alright." Alek sighed again. "That's all I wanted to say."

"I'm glad you said it."

"I've never been in this situation before. God's wounds, I've never even felt this way about a girl before. What do we do now?"

Deryn smiled mischievously, "More of this," she said devilishly and kissed him again. Sparks danced through her body, a feeling that never seemed to get old, and for a minute she imagined that she was free falling through the air.

"Finally," she heard Bovril say from her shoulder. Deryn smiled, and then went back to kissing her prince. And the best part was that he was kissing back. She supposed she should be worried about the fact that he was an emperor, and she was as common as dirt. But at that moment it seemed to float to the back of her head. She'd worry about it later. They had their entire lives ahead of them. And they were going to spend it together. She'd make sure of it.

The end.