WARNING! SLIGHT LEMON IN THE MIDDLE! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH ABOUT SEXUALITYNESS LOLOLOL.
"Do I really have to barking do this?"
"Come on, Deryn. This is going to be fun!"
Deryn flinched. She still wasn't used to Lilit knowing her real name – come to think of it, she still wasn't used to the word 'fun' being applied to what they were about to do.
Lilit grabbed her arm and led her up to the unassuming advertisement plastered to the wall, the long strings of beads around her neck clicking gaily. She turned to address the former midshipman in her grip.
"Now I know parties aren't your strong suit – "
"Aye, and neither are dresses," Deryn said as a gust of wind blew down the alley, ruffling the fringe along her hem.
"I'm sure your prince would beg to differ. As would I," Lilit said, smiling.
Deryn fiddled with the fabricated feather sticking out of her headband and said nothing. Lilit shook her head, amber eyes sparkling. Her dark hair had been fastened flat to her head in delicate pin curls, but one stubborn ringlet hung beside her face, swaying to and fro with the movement.
"It's your bachelorette party, and we're in the middle of New York in the roaring twenties! There is no way you are not going to enjoy yourself tonight." With that, she turned to the billboard and knocked a rhythm on the wood. Suddenly, the smiling face of a doctor-extolling-the-virtues-of-Prohibition was replaced by a doorway filled with sweet smoke, reddish light, snarky laughter, and jazz music.
"Welcome to your first speakeasy, honey!" A friendly girl about the same age as Lilit emerged from the smokiness. Her black bobbed hair was about the same length as Deryn's now, but she wore her dress with an unfathomable confidence that Deryn didn't think she would ever be able to mimic. "Well don't just stand there like wet blankets – get in here and let the boys buy you drinks!"
Lilit laughed as the girl led them deeper into the dimness. "Millie, I left for half an hour and you've got boys lined up at the bar! What will Jimmy think?"
"Jimmy won't think nothing, hon. D'you see him here?" Millie glanced over her shoulder mischievously. "Anyway, flirting isn't illegal. Nothing is in this joint!" Both girls laughed.
Deryn just smirked, too preoccupied with her surroundings to really follow the conversation. Once her eyes had adjusted, she spied men in sharp suits and fedoras, smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor. But she was an airman-turned-spy – she was used to men drinking pints and smoking tobacco. What was shocking about the speakeasy was that the women were all doing the same things! They wore fine dresses and dark eye makeup, smoked cigarettes through long, thin pipes, and drank liquor just like the men. They were in charge of themselves, without escorts, batting their eyelashes at the men and dancing to jazz beats with wild abandon. Oh, how Deryn's Mum and Aunties would be scandalized!
She followed Lilit and Millie through the tightly packed throng, and thought back on her and Alek's conversation earlier that very day.
"Now liebe, I want you to understand something, something about your actions tonight," he had begun.
Deryn refrained from rolling her eyes. "I know you daftie. I'll be careful."
Alek nodded, still tense. "Yes, of course, that too, but I was going to say-"
She cocked her head to the side. "You know I would never do anything…like that…with anyone else…right, Alek?"
"But that's just it! I wouldn't care if you did! Well, I mean, of course, I would, but…what I mean is, I want you to have fun tonight, Deryn. I don't want you to feel guilty about anything you do. We are getting married tomorrow, no matter what…so I want you to do what you want to do before that happens."
Deryn smirked, a grin threatening to break the surface of her composure. She placed her hand on the side of his face and kissed him gently. "Blisters, Alek. If I wanted to be doing anything else, you know better than anyone else that I'd be barking doing it." She thought about what she said and laughed. "And I mean that almost literally, if you know what I mean."
Alek laughed with her. "Unfortunately, I do." He kissed her. "Nevertheless, what I said still stands." They had kissed once more before she had had to get ready to go.
Millie was now standing at the bar, passing around a bootlegged bottle of liquor to her roomates (one of which wore a decidedly old-fashioned, yet high-class outfit), to Lilit, to Deryn, and finally to Millie's new male friends. The liquid burned down her throat, but she was used to the fiery caress of alcohol by now, unlike Lilit and Rich-Girl, who were coughing drily as she passed the bottle to the right. Her hand brushed that of the man who received it, and she resisted the urge to punch him as he smiled at her coyly and took a swig. She settled for scowling at him.
The rich lass was revealed to be a Miss Dorothy Ho, the daughter of a rich insurance company owner, step-daughter of a famous singer, wife of a Chinese immigrant, and sister-in-law to Millie. Deryn laughed at all of these titles.
"Barking complex you are then, lass?"
Dorothy responded with a charming smile and an, "Aren't we all?" And Deryn couldn't very well argue. So she drank to the statement, giving in to the odd, effervescent atmosphere and resolving to not care what any of the other ninnies in there thought of her. Millie heard a song she knew playing over the stereo, and pulled Dorothy onto the dance floor. Deryn decided to follow suit, grabbing hold of Lilit (who just managed to finish her drink and slam the bottle back onto the bar) and dragging her beside their friends. Deryn caught on to the dance ("It's called the Charleston!" explained Millie, flailing her arms and legs as an example), and didn't care a wee bit that she must have looked ridiculous doing it. She felt a heavy thump on her shoulder, and her knee twinged a bit as she spun around to spot the offender. Her airman swagger took hold of her automatically and she began to swear at them to watch where they were going.
The man who had bumped into her was the very same one she had scowled at back at the bar. He laughed at her countenance, a kind of wonder in his eyes, or that might've just been Deryn's imagination. "Whoa there, doll face! I'd say you was either half seas over or well and truly hard-boiled!" He exclaimed. Deryn narrowed her eyes. She had understood less than half of what he had said, but she wasn't about to show it.
"Well I'd say you were either a blistering half-wit or a daft barking bum-rag." They stared at each other for a moment more, tensely silent, before the man cracked a smile. His eyes were a shocking blue that pierced through the smoke of the speakeasy, but they looked down at Deryn (he had a good few inches on her in height) with only amusement – and the slight, sharp edge of something else that she couldn't identify. She returned the smile warily.
"Ben," he introduced himself, sticking out his right hand. He offered no last name, and she didn't ask for any. She just shook his outstretched hand firmly and said, "Deryn."
The music changed abruptly, turning into something slow-tempo and swanky. Ben bowed low, obviously meaning to make a joke but only reminding her of her beloved prince.
"May I have this dance?" he asked, raven-colored hair falling over his stunning eyes before he swept it away with a brush of his fingers. Deryn hesitated.
"I dunno if I should…" but she was swept up in Ben's strong arms before she could protest. They swung about the dance floor, Ben dipping her low and spinning her until she was dizzy and breathless and definitely feeling the liquor set in. They kept dancing, Ben placing his hands on her waist and Deryn swaying her hips in what may have been one of the most girlish motions she had ever committed to. If only Alek could see her now!
That thought stopped her. What would Alek do if he saw her now? Then again, he had told her to have fun and do what she pleased…
"What's a matter, doll face?" Ben whispered in her ear. His breath gave her chills, and she quite forgot what she was thinking about. She began dancing again, closer to him than before…reveling, for once, in what it was to be a woman. Suddenly he was gripping her tighter than before and she was twisting up towards his lips…
"DIG!" Someone yelled. The speakeasy dissolved into panic and chaos. She felt a small, distinctly feminine hand grab at hers and pull her away from Ben's hold. She ran with Lilit as the red-and-blue lights flashed in time with the wailing sirens, the sounds getting fainter and fainter the farther they ran.
"You okay, Deryn?" Lilit called back to her.
Deryn recalled her early days of spywork – the constant chases across rooftops and through tunnels and buildings to catch Germans – and laughed. "Don't you worry about me," she said. "I used to practically run through cities for a living."
Not long after they stopped hearing the sirens, Lilit relaxed and gave them both a moment to catch their breath and take stock of their location. Deryn saw that they were in the middle of a field of grass before she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She let it wash over her, and soon found herself on the ground, looking into the unfocused eyes of Lilit. Or were her eyes the fuzzy ones?
Lilit giggled. "You're pretty! As a girl and as a boy," she added.
Deryn felt her face go hot. Did she used to blush before? She heard herself answer, "I thought you were beautiful from the first moment I saw you." Before she knew what was coming out of her mouth, she was giggling too. "That's why I was mean to you at first. I thought you were too pretty for Alek to be close with." She gasped. "YOU made me jealous!" Deryn tried pointing an accusing finger at Lilit, but achieved only brushing her hand across her golden face. Deryn blinked and brushed a stray curl behind the girl's ear.
They inched closer to each other until their lips touched. Lilit deepened the kiss, and Deryn responded, putting her hands in the girl's hair and freeing all of her curls from their pinned-imprisonment. Lilit pulled back and shook the remaining pins off of her hair and into the grass before rolling on top of Deryn and kissing her again, pulling her ever closer. Deryn took this as a challenge, rolling until she was above the girl. Their legs were entangled and they were panting when they heard a little cough from above. They flew apart as Deryn spied Ben, watching quietly, leaning on a tree. The hard edge in his eyes was much more pronounced now, and Deryn finally realized what it was – lust.
"Well, don't stop on account of little me." Deryn glared at him.
Lilit flushed, but was the first to speak. "I suppose you find us…objectionable?"
"Quite the opposite, little ladies, I find what you were doing here as a fine service to men everywhere. In fact, I might just pay to see it again," he said, licking his lips.
Deryn picked up the nearest thing at hand – which happened to be a handful of bobby pins – and threw it at him. "Get stuffed," she said, getting up and waling with Lilit to the street.
Ben followed doggedly. "P'raps I'll see you vamps around here some other time?"
"Not likely," Deryn said. "I'm getting married tomorrow."
Ben faltered. "Well, that is a shame."
She smirked as Lilit flagged down a walker-cab. "Not really." And with that, she jumped into the walker before it lumbered away.
Lilit addressed her before they got back to the hotel she and Alek were staying at. "Well," she said. "I definitely had fun."
Deryn grinned in spite of herself. "Aye, so did I…the kind of fun you only need to have once in a lifetime! Thanks Lilit."
Deryn climbed out of the walker in her partially ruined dress as Lilit called after her, "Remember to indulge in curiosity everyone once in a while, Deryn. Alek will appreciate it."
The walker carried Lilit out of sight to the hotel she was staying at, leaving Deryn to puzzle over the riddle the girl had presented her with.
She could puzzle later. Now it was time for her to marry her blistering beautiful prince.
Later, when Deryn told him what had happened that night, he asked her why she had done those things with Lilit.
"I told you before," she said. "The girl's a barking good kisser."
Alek laughed and replied, "Well, wait until you hear about my night…"