WARNING: slight spoilers for "Uglies" and "Pretties" below. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: not Scott Westerfeld. This chapter would be awkward if I was him :P

Deryn hates goodbyes.

The family was leaving after a day visit- the youngest great-grand kids still at an age where they placed big, sloppy kisses on Alek and Deryn's cheeks. The twins raced each other out to the car, giggling.

Their parents, Deryn's granddaughter and her husband, squeezed Deryn's hands and thanked her and Alek for putting up with the rowdy crew again.

The oldest great-granddaughter, Lillit, was hugging them goodbye as well when suddenly, her eyes lit up.

"Wait! I almost forgot! I'll be right back!" she tore out the front door, down to the car parked in the driveway. She brought back a box of books.

"I remember that last time you said you get bored when no one's visiting," she explained, her fourteen-year old flushed face beaming at Deryn and Alek sitting, amused, in their wheelchairs, "so I brought you some books. The girl in the series has all sorts of cool adventures. She sounds just like you, Grandma Deryn."

Deryn smiled, "How nice of you, Lillit! I look forward to reading them!"

"Does she get in all sorts of trouble?" asked Alek.

Lillit grinned and nodded. So much like her namesake.

"Excellent! Sounds just like your grandmother!"

Deryn still loved the sound of his voice, even after all these years. Even when he's teasing her.

Lillit leaves; Alek and Deryn settle in for a quiet evening.

Alek attends to some correspondence- they still keep up with what's left of the Society, although the remaining members mostly view the old couple as relics of another age.

Deryn finishes a letter to one of their daughters, a boffin working in southern India on new anti-venoms.

Then she wheels her chair (a technology that Alek improved back when Count Volger and Dr. Barlow began needing them) over to the box of books Lillit brought, pulling out the top one.

"Uglies," she read. She looked at it dubiously- it didn't look like any sort of adventure book. More like a book on how to apply makeup, or some other girly thing.

But she had nothing else to do; she began to read.

Alek sits next to her, holding her hand as he reads some dry political book.

This is how it has always been, Deryn yearning for adventure and Alek continuing his princely education even now.

They breathe in synchrony. Alek rubs her knuckles, tracing ridges and scars that he has memorized long ago.

Deryn is convinced that their hearts beat together. The years of chemistry between them… how could their hearts beat to anything but the same music?

Four hours later, Alek turned in for the night. Deryn started on "Pretties," book number two. She was much too engrossed in the story to be able to sleep now.

By midnight she couldn't keep her eyes open any more; she wasn't as young as she used to be, and no matter how interesting the book was, she couldn't stay up any longer.

The next morning, Alek gave her a dumbfounded look: she was reading before breakfast!

"Any good?" he asked, munching on some bacon.

"Mmmhmmm."

"Must be. You skipped food."

Deryn didn't deign to answer. Zane and Tally had just been captured by the Specials (apparently Shay was a Special now). Alek could tease her until he was hoarse for all she cared.

She finished "Pretties" with a contented sigh. She reached for "Specials" but was stopped by Alek, daft boy. (yes, he was still a boy in her mind, despite their years of marriage and raising their five children together)

"You need to eat and take your medicine," he said gently, but with strength.

He should know better than to interrupt her when she was concentrating- but, to please him, she did as he asked.

"Specials" and "Extras" were finished by the end of the day. It was Saturday, no one was visiting that day.

"I like this Tally character," said Deryn conversationally, knowing that Alek never minded when she spoiled books for him. He even liked getting her opinion on things before he read them.

"She doesn't take yackum from anyone. And the writer must have met Count Volger to get the evil Dr. Cable just right."

Alek gave her an arch look. She and Volger had never ended up being friends- their personalities had always been at odds.

"Well, the technology isn't very realistic- there aren't even any fabricated beasties! It's in an alternate reality or something. Though it does have hover boards. A little old-fashioned, running off of magnets!"

"Anyways, I don't know who this Scott Westerfeld is, but he should write another book! He's plumb amazing."

A/N:

Plotless one-shot and drowning in fluff! So uncharacteristic of me :P

Yes, Deryn, HE SHOULD KEEP WRITING SO WE CAN ALL READ YOUR STORY. Ahem.

Anyways... Trying to write chapters 9 and 10 of The Last Mission is proving to be about as productive as beating my head against a wall; with a similar headache resulting.

So this chapter is just for fun! Better than nothing- or maybe worse than nothing, I don't know.

Aaaannnndddd I told myself I wouldn't bore you all with a long author's note, but this chapter does need a little explaining.

First off, I don't think that this idea has been written about before, but I may be wrong. If there is another story about this here, sorry! I'm not going off anyone else's work (except writing Scott Westerfeld's awesome characters)

Second, the timing is all messed up. I know. Scott-la published "Uglies" in 2005 and he finished the series with "Extras" in 2007. So Deryn and Alek would have to have been at least 108 years old.

So you can pick the explanation:

science is so advanced by now that the life expectation is a lot older than it is now. So it's not really too strange that Alek and Deryn are over a hundred.

Westerfeld wrote the series earlier in this alternate dimension... Like in the 1980s or 1990s

and Deryn are just awesome incarnate; OBVIOUSLY they would live longer than normal.

, time traveling? I'm out of ideas here...

So pick one. Or multiple; I don't care. Or possibly just decide that this is terrible fluffy stuff and not worth reading this extremely author's note. Which may very well be longer than the actual story. :P