It had started out with a question. "Do you want to go out for dinner tonight?" Alek had asked.

"Sure," Deryn had replied.

"There's a movie theater nearby, too," Alek added. "I heard that that a terrible movie is playing in it. We can go see it afterwards and make fun of it."

Deryn took the time to look up at Alek over her newspaper, which she was sipping at a mug of coffee from behind. "That sounds nice," she said absentmindedly, returning to her newspaper. Prohibition causes violence in New York, the headline read.

Alek knew how Prohibition, which had seemed like a good idea at first, was becoming extremely problematic for the American government. Banning alcohol, the government claimed, would reduce crime rates dramatically and instill values in today's youth. Yes, there was much underage drinking, but putting a ban on it was bound to stir up some trouble.

And stir up trouble, it did. Sleazy businessmen selling alcohol on the Black Market, alcohol passed under countertops in bars, and deaths from drinking medicinal alcohol that was concentrated enough to kill a man (or woman). Really, the U.S. would be better off ending Prohibition for good. The economy did much better without it.

Also, Alek had never had a nice, proper date with dinner, with gourmet food and wine. It would be more romantic if there was wine, he decided.

"I have to go, but I'll meet up with you here later today, alright?" Alek said.

Deryn just mumbled "Mm-hm," not bothering to look up again. When asked why she was too absorbed in her newspaper to look up or acknowledge him, she would say that there was no reason to. He was right there and she was right there, and he could tell her whatever he wanted to while she was reading. Whenever Alek said that he loved that she would come over every morning but would like to be able to talk to her more often, she would just say, "I love that I can come over so early, too. It's great, you getting me free breakfast and tea every morning." Never once did she comment on the true intention of his words.

Deryn was not angry at him. No, not at all. She just wasn't talkative in the morning. She was also awkward about anything to do with their romantic relationship. Alek could bear this arrangement as it was as long as she continued to come over every morning.

"So I'll meet you at the usual place in the park outside of the university?"

Another "Mm-hm."

"I'll see you later, then, Deryn. I love you."

Three seconds passed by.

"I love you too, Alek."

Alek stifled a laugh at her awkwardness. "Goodbye." He laughed even more as his partner told him to just hurry up and leave or else he would be late for the lecture. He went outside and, realizing that it was raining something fierce, and took an umbrella from the umbrella stand to protect him from the elements. It looked like it would be a gray, gray day in Manhattan.

— — — — — — — — — — — — —

Yet another gray, gray day in Manhattan, Deryn inwardly complained. She could not say that it rained more in America than England, as that was a statement untrue, but she still hated the rain. Especially when it was cold, like how it was now. This was explainable by the fact that it was winter, but still. Why must it be so bloody cold?!

Deryn shivered. She stood under an ancient-looking tree. She would say oak, because those are usually associated with ancient-ness, but she was no expert in dendrology. Also, she didn't care. Also, it was too cold to think clearly. Also, it was raining, which may or may not have been mentioned earlier. Alek was late by—Deryn checked her watch—five minutes, too. Those could have been five minutes on their merry way, or five minutes in the shelter of some nice restaurant.

She didn't know which restaurant, just that Alek had told her to dress nicely when they had met each other by chance at the café neighboring Deryn's house. So, as requested, she was not wearing slacks, but rather, a skirt (with pants underneath) and a blouse. Also, rain boots. Thank goodness she had the feeling that she should put those on. Elsewise, she would be walking through the muddy puddles of Manhattan with shoes that were anything but waterproof. Every soldier knew that wet socks meant getting sick or getting a foot fungus and that they should be replaced at least once each day.

...But, now that she was back in regular society, it was considered strange if you didn't change your socks daily. The wet socks thing was just re-enforced by her inner soldier.

Deryn huffed. The (oak?) tree she was standing under had just dumped a large amount of rain on her umbrella, knocking it out of her hand. She picked it back up, extremely aggravated, and leaned against the tree.

Her mood elevated when she saw Alek walking towards her. It was a fast walk, and the his umbrella was threatening to turn itself inside-out. She couldn't see his eyes from underneath it, but she could see his teeth, which were chattering. He had taken an umbrella to protect himself from the rain, but only a light coat, which did little to keep him warm in temperatures this cold.

Deryn, being her sensible self, had a large, wooly coat on that went down to her knees, making sure that she was warm and dry.

Also, Alek didn't have rain boots.

"Did you not feel the cold when you walked out of our apartment this morning, Dummkopf?" Deryn greeted him. "Or the rain? Because your shoes are looking bloody soaked."

"I didn't think it would rain this hard," he grumpled in response.

Deryn shook her head. "Let's go," she said. "I want to get out of the rain as soon as humanly possible.

"So… Where are we going?"

"Café Un, Deux, Trois."

"What? Is that French?"

"Actually, it is," Alek said, starting to walk north. "It's a nice restaurant that serves French food."

"As opposed to Italian food?" said Deryn dryly.

"As opposed to Italian food," Alek agreed. "I hear that celebrities go there to eat often. Actors, singers and stuff. Maybe we'll meet someone famous there."

"I think that you're just about as famous as it gets, Alek," Deryn said, linking her arm with his. "So you will be one of those people. The son of the duke of Austria-Hungary, who gave up his claim to the throne in order to be with an English woman who looks like a man most of the time. But hey! I guess I'm a celebrity, too!"

"I suppose so," Alek said thoughtfully. "It's a good thing that the news moved onto other things quickly. Elsewise, we'd be surrounded by reporters on a daily basis, and I don't know how I would be able to go to college with having to keep up my appearance every waking second."

Deryn made an "Mm-hmm" sound, agreeing. Newspapers had gone back to gossip and tabloids pretty fast after the deal with Alek and Deryn. Nowadays, they were not pointed out by people on the street nor gawked at whenever they were together. Deryn suspected that Eddie Malone had something to do with it, but was not sure why he had. From her perspective, it did not benefit him, as most people adored reading about love across social classes and tragic childhoods, but he must have had some motive. Deryn would only know why he had when the time came, but it was no use worrying about something that she could not prevent. So, she shoved it out of her mind with a very firm push and carried on.

"If we're lucky, no one will recognize us," Deryn said. "With my skirt, we're practically going incognito. Hey, maybe we should use aliases, too! I could be Lily and you could be James."

"I don't think we need to use aliases," Alek protested. "You are not in your uniform and this suit hardly classifies itself as worthy of royalty. We'll be fine." His girlfriend looked up and down his suit discreetly. It wasn't shabby-looking, and it fit him perfectly, but it certainly was not expensive-looking. Not that expensive-looking, even though the café they were going to had celebrities. What kind of café was it, anyways?

"Hey Alek?"

"Yes, Deryn?"

"What kind of restaurant is it that we're going to?" Alek didn't respond. Deryn flicked him forehead and repeated, "What kind of restaurant is it?"

"Oh, you know… A nice one…" Alek said vaguely, unlinking his arm from his girlfriend's and shoving it in his pocket. He stared off into the distance, not look at her.

"Hey, look at me," she said, forcing him to do so by pushing his face that way with her gloved hands. "Does 'nice' translate to 'expensive'? Because you know that we're struggling enough on a daily basis, and I don't want you to spend a bunch of money just to woo me. I'm fine something more toned-down."

Alek bit his lip. "It does translate to expensive…" he started, trailing off. Deryn raised an eyebrow. "But we haven't ever gone to a nice restaurant as a couple, and I thought it would be a nice, romantic gesture to do so. Most couples do this kind of thing regularly, and the only reason we have not is because you won't let me."

"I'm a former midshipman who's a woman and you're the former prince of Austria-Hungary. We are not most couples," Deryn said snarkily. Alek moved his umbrella to his other hand, as his left one was getting numb. Wordlessly, she gently took it out of his hands and held it over them both herself. This made more sense, because she was taller, but Alek still felt like he was being left bereft of a right that most boyfriends have: to hold an umbrella over their sweetheart's head because, as said by who-knows-who, "It's romantic".

"We can just order the less expensive food," Alek said offhandedly.

"Sounds good," said Deryn, taking up his hand and shaking it. She grinned. "Then I am going to order soup and garlic knots."

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing else."

"Why?"

"Because those will be the cheapest things."

If there was such thing as a face-palm in the early twentieth century, Alek would have done it. If there a desk available, he would have done a head-desk, which is increasingly popular nowadays, despite the fact that it could knock over other things on the desk, like tea. Or that it hurts.

Anyways, I think I've established that there was no face-palm and no head-desk. So, Alek settled for an incredulous look aimed at his girlfriend. "How about we just split the food we order?" he suggested.

"Sounds good. That cuts the money right in half." Deryn rubbed her hands together, laughing quietly and scaring Alek a little. Goodness knows how excited she got whenever there was a chance to save money. The only problem with this rubbing-hands motion was that it left nowhere for the umbrella to be held. This resulted in the umbrella bouncing on their heads once and then falling to the ground.

Rain was suddenly coming down at full force on the couple's heads. Deryn cursed loudly. She reached for the umbrella, but it was rolling away now, away from them and into the busy street. It came to a stop, which was nice, because it would not have been fun to go chasing after it. So, she picked it up and walked back over to Alek, who was standing hunched over, trying to conserve body heat.

His teeth were chattering. Deryn's were, too, but she was used to the cold rains of Manhattan. Alek, on the other hand, took a cab through the city more often than not, and as a result never got a chance to have the full New York experience. Deryn held up the umbrella and they began walking again. "Do you want to just run there?" she asked him softly. "We're get there faster, even if we'll be wetter."

Alek nodded, and off they went.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

The date went nicely. The food was enough to warm them, they split the check (...and the food), and the movie seemed to be off to a good start. It was a tragedy about some girl (Deryn thought her name was Amelia something-or-another) losing her love, her home, and everything she held dear before dying of a heart attack.

Deryn thought it was hilarious.
Maybe it was the way the actress clutched her throat at the end, maybe it was the way that everything was exaggerated quite dramatically, and maybe it was both. Who knows? Any way, Deryn could be heard laughing throughout the entire thing. The other movie-goers hushed her, as did Alek at first. However, after about 15 minutes of putting his hand over his girlfriend's mouth to suppress her giggles, he gave up. In fact, he joined in.

Quietly, so as to not disturb the others too much, he began narrating the story as read from the words on the screen. This was done with a comically deep voice, complete with strange inflictions and putting emphasis on random words. "Little to her knowledge, the burglar had stolen all her jewelry by the time she was home from the market!" The silver screen showed Amelia walking through the door, clasping her hands to her cheeks as the camera fixed itself on her face, which was showing a rather ridiculous surprised look.

Deryn stifled giggles of hysteria. Alek was trying to hide his laughter, but was not doing a good job of it.

A few more minutes in, they couldn't repress their laughter any longer. They no longer tried to pretend they were enjoying the movie; their boisterous rang throughout the cinema, causing a lot of people to shout out phrases such as "Shut up!" and "If you don't stop laughing, I am getting the manager!"

In the end, the manager was summoned and the couple was kicked out. They apologized to the man, but he didn't seem particularly keen on hearing their apologies. He was more keen on muttering about how out of control youngin's were nowadays, and how boys should find someplace else to rendez-vous so that he could make a decent living. Alek and Deryn didn't bother pointing out that Deryn was not a boy. They doubted that the manager would care.

The walk home (which was dry except for the puddles, which had yet to evaporate after the rain stopped) was filled with more laughter and making fun of the terrible movie. Alek's voice was perfect for narrating, and Deryn's was perfect for imitating Amelia's, if she did say so herself. All in all, it was a rather lovely date.

They stopped in front of Deryn's apartment at around 9:00. They would have went around town a bit, maybe stopped by Central Park, but...again with the puddles. Alek was going to have a cup of tea at Deryn's house and then depart. Deryn unlocked her front door and Alek held it open for her.

"Thank you, good sir," she said in a high-pitched voice, curtseying with her skirt.

"You are quite welcome, fair lady," he replied in a deep voice.

They drank tea, chatted about how much they hated politicians, debated whether or not tanks should be used in the military, and ended with a passionate make-up session.

Nah, I'm just kidding. Sorry to get your hopes up.

It ended with something more like a "Goodbye!" and a kiss on the cheek and a threat to not come by earlier than 7:30 or else somebody would get seriously injured.

That was as romantic as they would get, but that was just how it was. It was friendship with kisses and chocolate, and that was good enough for the two of them.

Hello! This is our first post on the combined account of Bush Fire Transition. If you haven't seen the profile, this is a joined account involving emeraldvk, emsaduem, and Lady Cocoa, the last two being the authors of these series of drabble-like chapters. We hope you enjoy and review!