A/N: First appeared on DeviantART, this was a request from Blackbird31. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Leviathan or any of the characters, as much as I wish I did.
"All right, Tazza, how do you feel?" the boffin asked, making sure the entire contents of the little glass vial had successfully made their way into the thylacine's body.
"Like someone put my brain inside a tiny little rat-creature. How do you think I feel?" answered the loris from the table. The thylacine made a small noise of resent from his spot on the floor.
"Oh, it actually worked!" she exclaimed, shocked.
"Why is this a surprise for you?" Tazza asked from the loris' body. "I do not appreciate being used as a guinea pig for experiments—"
"Shut up, Tazza," Dr. Barlow said. "Both of you, go back to my bedroom. I have visitors coming."
Tazza in loris form rolled his eyes and followed his original body, run clumsily by the loris, into the back room of the boffin's quarters. Dr. Barlow cleared the table of all evidence of her last experiment, getting the tea set out. "Where did I put the cream… ah, yes, here it is…" she filled the little pitcher with the thick white liquid. It was made from fabricated cells, leaving it easily available and less likely to spoil than normal dairy. There was a knock at the door, and the boffin hurried to answer it, letting in her favorite midshipman and the Leviathan's resident young clanker.
"Sit down," she instructed, doing so herself. She poured tea, motioning for the two boys to fix it themselves. Dylan filled his cup to the brim with cream and then dumped a slightly excessive amount of sugar into it—back in Scotland sugar was probably on ration and he hadn't had much of it at all for quite some time, Dr. Barlow guessed. Alek just poured in some cream and took a tentative sip, seeming somewhat surprised by the taste. He's probably never tasted fabricated cream before, the boffin guessed.
The boffin was only able to take one sip of her tea—black, of course—before the alarms went off. Dylan jumped up, draining his overly sweetened tea, and was just about to announce that he had to get to his station when the alarms stopped, just as abruptly as they had begun. "Should I go?" he asked. A messenger lizard came scampering into the room through one of the wall pipes, delivering a message in the captain's voice informing the boffin that 'her presence was needed in his quarters immediately.'
"Go find Rigby. If there's no battle, go back to your cabins," Dr. Barlow said, hurrying to grab her notebooks and a few vials on her way out.
…
Rigby explained to Deryn and Alek that there was no battle; it had simply been a false alarm. They returned to their respective cabins, falling asleep somewhat quickly.
Deryn awoke to the sound of someone speaking loudly in Clanker. Bewildered, she opened her eyes, seeing Count Volger standing over her bed. She made out the words "prince," "morning," and "Aleksander."
"What are you…" she groaned, looking around. It took her a moment to grasp the fact that she was looking at Aleksander's cabin. Somehow, she had woken up in the prince's bed.
A small glance at her hand revealed that something was wrong. She knew that hand—in fact, she'd spent a bit too much time studying it. It was squarer than her own, darker, the fingers thicker and less graceful. It was definitely Alek's.
Sliding clumsily out of bed, she said, in her best imitation of Alek's accent, mistakes somewhat masked by the way she muttered it, "Gotta go" in German. She grabbed Alek's coat, throwing it on over the pants and shirt Alek had apparently fallen asleep in. Without bothering even to put on shoes, she booked it out of the cabin.
…
Alek awoke to the sound of a bell. This was strange, because the bells didn't actually go off in his cabin. He wasn't on the strict schedule of the other members of the Leviathan, he and the count were pretty much responsible for being where they needed to be at the right time by their own means.
He sat up, bumping his head on the bunk above him. Two problems: one, there should be no bunk above him, and two, his head should not be that close to it.
He stood up and immediately tripped over a pair of boots on the floor. Dylan's boots. What else was odd was that when he went to examine his knee for injury, it did not look like his. The clothing he wore weren't his either.
The door burst open. "Mr. Sharp!" the lady boffin threw the door open, stepping in. "What are you doing on the floor? Oh, never mind. We had to make an emergency course change back to Const—I mean Istanbul. I think I picked that one up from the Clankers. Anyway, I need you to talk to this family—the daughter, in particular. We need their help with something… we've decided you'd be the best one for the mission. Come on, get up, get dressed. Your dress uniform, of course. We'll be there in only a few minutes." The door shut, the boffin disappearing behind it.
Alek stood up, absolutely bewildered.
…
"Aleksander!" Dr. Barlow called. They were only yards from Deryn's cabin. Oh, why?
"Y-yes, Dr. Barlow?" she asked, hoping her accent was believable.
The boffin seemed to be in too much of a hurry to care. "I need you to walk Tazza for me. Come along!"
"I really need to—"
"I'll cover for you in the controls," she said. "They've got your man Klopp in there, anyhow. They're fine."
"Can I just—"
"We're wasting time, Alek!"
Deryn sighed, following the boffin to her quarters.
…
Alek knew which jacket and shirt and pants and such were parts of Dylan's dress uniform, so they weren't that hard to find—they rather stood out in his dresser as being the only thing he had that looked new, as they had recently been replaced due to the incident with the spices. He dressed quickly, hardly paying any attention at all to what he was doing. He needed to find Dylan—fast.
Fully dressed, he ran Dylan's comb through his hair, using the tiny mirror that hung over the dresser to make sure his part was straight, and fled the room in search of Dylan. He was intercepted by the boffin—of course. "Mr. Sharp, we're about to anchor. Let's go!"
…
"Oh, hello there, Alek!" Newkirk called. "Did you hear, we're going back to Istanbul!"
"Are we, now?"
"Yes! I'm surprised Dylan hasn't told you. Well, I suppose he's really busy right now—he got chosen for a special mission. I can't wait to find out what he's doing, it must be something really important…" the midshipman went on, but Deryn wasn't listening. If I'm Alek, he must be me. They're assigning me a mission—barking spiders, they're going to make him do it! Clart, this is not good. I need to get him out of there… come on… barking spiders, how am I going to do this? Clart, clart, clart… I need to find him… Dummkopf!
"I have to go," she said, leaving Newkirk with no further comment.
…
Alek hardly knew what was going on. Somehow, in the last half hour, someone had explained to him what he was to do, and he had been asked to repeat it back to them, and apparently he had, although he didn't remember a word of it now, and then he'd been brought all the way back to… was this Lilit's house?
He was escorted to the door, then left alone to let the big brass knocker fall against the plate of metal on the door one, two, three times.
The door opened, and Lilit ushered him inside.
…
Deryn found her cabin empty, her clothes from last night strewn over the upper bunk, her dresser open, her uniform missing. Tazza waited impatiently as she made the bed and tidied the dresser—she didn't want to be punished on Alek's behalf. But if he'd changed, he'd taken his—her—clothing off…
She ran out of the room, searching for any sign of Alek. When she got to the mess hall, they had alrealy anchored, and Rigby informed her that "Midshipman Sharp" was already on his assignment and "would be back on board by evening."
Barking spiders.
…
"All right, Mr. Sharp," Lilit said, sitting him down on the sofa next to her. Alek wondered furiously why everyone kept doing that Mr. Sharp thing—Volger, Lilit, even the stupid loris. "I've got a proposal to make with your people."
"A-all right," Alek stuttered.
Lilit's eyebrows scrunched together. "Are you all right?"
"I'm f-fine," he said, but his German accent showed through.
Lilit grabbed his face by the chin, forcing him to look left, then right, as she examined his profile. "What's your real name?"
"My—"
"Your real name."
"Dylan Sharp."
She narrowed her eyes. "You know what I mean."
"I—I don't."
Lilit frowned. "Who are you?"
"Who am—"
"I know you're not Dylan. Tell me the truth, and no one will get hurt."
"What do you—"
"You're Alek, aren't you?"
"What? How did you—"
"AHA!" Lilit shook her head. "Those Darwinists will do anything to drive me crazy. What did they do to you? More importantly, what did they do to Dylan?"
"I honestly have no idea…"
…
Deryn went to Alek's room and changed clothes, trying not to look any more than she had to. Dressed as inconspicuously as possible, she somehow managed to sneak off the ship. This was something of a miracle, but maybe the other airmen trusted Alek a bit more now. Or maybe she, being one of them, was just good at looking like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
She had sort of manipulated Newkirk into accidentally telling her where "Dylan" was, and somehow she still remembered the way.
She was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off, but the person was persistent. Assuming he was one of the hundreds of people trying to sell something, she turned to tell him she wasn't interested. And then she was face to face with the last person in the world that she wanted to run into right now.
Eddie Malone.
…
"So, have you figured it out yet?" Lilit asked.
"Figured what out?" Alek asked. Dylan's body was still somewhat hard to function in for him: he kept reaching for things and hitting them just to find that his arm was an inch or two longer than it should have been.
"You know what I mean. The secret. Dylan's secret." She laughed. "Oh my God, her face when I kissed her! I totally knew the whole time, I was just stirring things up so she'd tell you sooner. Well, I'd probably have kissed her anyway. I mean, that girl is barking gorgeous, either way you look at her! And for someone so confident, she really is awkward when it comes to romance. I'm sure you know that by now, though, right?" Lilit chuckled.
"WAIT, WHAT?" Alek started shouting something in German, then realized that Lilit had no idea what he was saying. "Who are you talking about?"
"Barking spiders," Lilit breathed. "You're in her barking body, and you STILL haven't figured out that your best friend is a girl?"
The series of expressions that flashed across Alek's face were, in Lilit's opinion, quite fascinating. First, he seemed absolutely bewildered. Then, he seemed almost thoughtful. Then, his whole body seemed to tense up, every muscle going rigid. Then his eyes got wide, his breathing fast. And then he looked furious. "H-She's a girl," he whispered.
"What I want to know is how you're just figuring this out now! I mean, I think Bovril's hinting, and Dylan's hinting, and, like, the whole barking universe's hinting, would sort of add up by this point. I mean, I knew from the beginning. But then again, I'm not a sexist pig. I've seen enough girls in pants to realize that it is physically possible for them to function without their legs bound by large sheets of fabric."
Alek did not seem to be absorbing anything she was saying. He was just staring at his hands—Dylan's hands—and thinking. Of course, he should have known by now. But… but…
He jumped off the couch and shot out the door.
…
"Alek! Back for a visit, are you?" Eddie raised his camera, but Deryn pushed it away. "Not a good time, Malone. I need to be somewhere."
"Just one photo?"
"No."
"One story?"
"No."
Deryn started running, attempting to lose herself in the crowd. After a while, she spotted a tall, blond figure up ahead. Now, she wasn't exactly used to seeing herself from behind, but something told her that there weren't many yellow-haired boys in British Air Service dress uniforms walking around this part of Istanbul. She took off at a sprint, ignoring the shouts and glares of the locals she was nearly running into. "ALEK!" she called.
He turned, and she saw her own face looking at her with a mix of shock and confusion. "I know," he said.
"You—" Deryn was interrupted by Alek, who chose the absolute worst moment to kiss her. Because not only was everyone on the street staring, a certain American journalist was holding up a camera and grinning like a fool.
Realizing she was back in her own body again, she detached herself from Alek. Holding herself at her full height, which was just taller than Eddie, she stared him down. "For the record, I am a girl," she growled, "And if this ends up in a paper, I will kill you."
Alek happened to look back at Lilit's house to see her standing on her balcony, celebrating as though she had just won the Great War. Thrusting her fists into the air, she looked as though she was about to explode from excitement. Seriously?
…
The lady boffin took another look through her lab. "Where did I put that formula… oh, there's the fabricated milk!" She moved it over to the desk so she would have it for her lunch. "Wait, what did they put in their… oh, never mind. I must have made more than I thought."