Love Is A Perspicacious Thing

Prolog:

Alek was dead…

Or at the very least that was how he felt. Of course now he felt cold, he saw the red soaking his piloting jacket. The ghoulish red blood being absorbed into the bright gold cords and that adorned his beloved coat, Highlighting the already red crest of his family. Almost shining against the blue, But that meant nothing now. Aleks' heart felt like it exploded as his mind went into shock.

"n-nn-no." he struggled out.

'This couldn't be happening' he thought. his mind racing trying to make sense of everything around him, the Large Zeppelin assaulting the Leviathan, the Gyrothopter being shot down and its pilot leaping from the contraption landing on the Leviathan just barely. he was hoping that it wasn't real. That the pilot had fell to his death. that nobody had been struck with a bullet.

but he had saw the German pilot. He heard the Shot. And now eyes wide as he looked and saw the wound the Pistol had made, before his mind shut him out he briefly congratulated the Hydrogen Sniffers on their good job at keeping the hull there been even a whiff of the flammable gas, the Great Air Beast would go up in flames.

And finally as darkness closed around him, the last sensation the young Prince Felt was something Leather and heavy in his right hand…

When he awoke he was standing over a grotesquely mutilated corpse. The chest looked like a butcher hacked at it with a cleaver. The ribcage in pieces as if something had crushed it inward. The face of the man faired no better, the head completely removed from the body. It had a slice from the left jaw across to the back right of his head, grey matter mixed with blood and there was a few teeth in the fray.

Alek wondered what had happened and then noticed two things.

One was the pistol, and FN 1910. The same pistol that was used in the attempted assassination of his parents 7 and a half weeks ago. The Pistol's cold grey steel appearing almost silver in the dawn light of that mid-summer morning.

The second thing Alek had noticed was the object in his hands. It was the bright Steel of an American Calvary Saber, a gift to Alek he had received from the son of the American Ambassador to Austria-Hungary late last year. A Patton saber, once again the Habsburg Family crest engraved intricately on the hand guard.

He then made a harrowing third observation.

The Third Observation was that both the Saber and Alek were covered in Blood, Guts, and bits of Bone…

For the second time in his life, Alek had killed a man.

"Gods Wounds" he said and then began to say a prayer for the mans soul. But before he could utter another word, he heard a small sound behind him.

"A-A-All-ek?" a Voiced coughed out barley audible in the battle around them, it sounded weak and injured along with something else Alek couldn't quite tell what it was.

Aleks eyes widened. "Dylan!" the boy cried out rushing to his side "are you ok?" The boy looked at the Midshipman and swore in German. Dylan had taken a bullet to the chest, barely missing his heart and lungs by two centimetres. The bullet had not passed clean through the 15 year old, And that was very bad. Blood flowed freely from the small unimpressive looking wound. But Alek knew that the look was misleading, had the bullet gone through the boy Alek would have to cover two wounds to prevent the bleeding. But luckily the bullet was embedded in hard muscle only about 4 centimetres in the midshipman. Effectively immobilising the region.

Alek took out his handkerchief. The last thing he had from Sophia Ferdinand, his mother. The Habsburg seal mocking him once again, "If you don't stop the bleeding with a sterile bandage…" it seemed to say, "then Dylan's chances of survival plummet."

Alek pressed the sterile silk to Dylan's Upper chest, Favouring his left and blood free hand lest the blood contaminate the wound. The wound was right above her bindings. The bullet had gone high, keeping the lasses secret safe for the time being.

"Alek what happened" Dylan said weakly and with a touch of what Alek now realised was fear…

But not Fear of dying or being shot… Of him, of what Alek had done to the Clanker Soldier just a meter or two away.

Deryn had seen what had happened and had every bloody right to be afraid. Alek had let out a howl after she had been shot, drawing his saber and mercilessly attacking the man. But that wasn't the part that scared the clart out of him. What scared him was the frenzy he was in after he killed him. Alek had brought his saber up and down on the mans chest after killing him… over and over and over the sound of flesh yielding to metal was heard, only occasionally broken up by the sound of a bone being shattered.

Alek had then struck the head the man violently. The force bringing the head off and making it roll down to a net on the side of the leviathan meant for catching any objects dropped from the ratlines. Then the scariest bit came, after The young Price brutalised the man he laughed coldly as if he were mad in the attic, then the laughter had turned to crying, then silence. Then the boy that Deryn had grown fond of seemed to come back to her.

The midshipman was snapped back to reality with a sudden and painful pull, Alek was attempting to bring her to her feet. She strained to hear the prince say "hold on Dylan! I will get you to Dr. Busk as fast as possible."

Fear shot up and throughout Deryn. Her secret would be found out, she would be kicked of the ship and out of his majesties royal air service and most importantly, away from Alek…

She was about to protest when a group of riggers came up out of the ventral bee canopy, using the shortcut to get from the inside of the leviathan. They shot past them running carefully along the spine to there stations along the exterior.

Once the had passed they were inside the secondary bee colony. It was smaller than the first and located on the top ventral side of the ship directly diagonal from the main colony, "balancing issues" Mr. Rigby had stated when she asked.

Deryn pushed the sudden unimportant memory away and spoke to Alek as they reached the ladder. "Alek, you cant take me to Dr. Busk! You just can't!" she said in a panicked voice.

"What do you mean Dylan? You're shot you dummkopf! I can't just sit and watch you die!" Alek retorted. Something in his eyes made Deryn want to faint, she saw the concern in them, the fear of losing a comrade very apparent. "Tell me Dylan, Why can't I take you to see the Wichser Azer?" Alek was so mad and frustrated he unintentionally switched to Clanker mid sentence, he went on for a second and swapped back, taking a deep breath.

"Alright Dylan, please tell me why you cant see Dr. Busk?" Alek said setting her down and moving her hand to hold the wound shut while he grabbed rope, tying it around her.

"you have to trust me Alek, the knot goes other way you ninnie I don't want to fall you daft prince. Its best if you just take me to your quarters for now."

Alek hesitated, "his quarters? why on earth would he do that?" but then pressed on fastening the rope tightly but carefully around the Injured midshipman. "I do trust you Dylan, but I need to know why i just cant take you to see the Medical officer, you need medical attention."He said.

Then he added so softly that Deryn almost didn't hear him say. "Please, I can't lose another family member in this war..."

Deryn looked at Alek as he slowly began lowering her down the ladder to the ventral area of the ship. "Ill explain once you get me there, deal?" she said hoping that would be enough.

Alek was silent for a moment then replied "Deal Mr. Sharp"

Deryn smiled softly just as an explosion of the aft section of the ship rocked her sideways hard to the left. Deryn felt like a feather and realised with horror that Alek had been rocked as well and that the rope slipped.

The wooden deck of the floor below rushed at her and Deryn crashed and was promptly knocked unconscious.

She awoke to the slamming of a door, the boom of it shaking sleep from her as pain flared up in her left shoulder. She winced and looked around the room her vision clearing, she saw that she was in Alek's personal stateroom; she blushed slightly realising that she was in his bed…

"So now will you tell me why I brought you here?" Alek said to her. Deryn now realised that they had just arrived. The sweat on Aleks face telling the midshipman that much. Which means that slamming sound was the door, Alek had sealed them off from the rest of the ship and the battle outside. "Dylan? What is going on? What are you not telling me?"

Under different circumstances Aleks Austrian accent combined with concern would have been cute to her. But now it sounded deathly serious.

"Well…" she ventured. "you see the thing is Alek is that-" Deryns sentence had been cut short by another rocking of the ship, bouncing her up and off the bed for a split second then down again onto her bad shoulder. She cursed very un-lady like but in a manner that would make her brother beam "Mother Fucking Son of a Cunt Poacher!" she spat out. Her vision blurring slightly.

She was about to pass out from Alek's observations, He scolded himself for not being more careful when bringing him here. but it wasn't Aleks fault that the entire crew manned the closest route to his stateroom. Alek knew that the wound re-opened and if he didn't seal it soon, she would lose too much blood

"schielb drauf" Alek sounded off as he pulled out his rigging knife and expertly (but Horrifically to Deryn) sliced her shirt down the front cleanly in two and moved his Piloting Jacket away from her soldiers. " I will have to re clean the wou-"

Alek froze, neatly and carefully around Dylan's breasts where white medical bindings, a compression wrap that to Deryn was necessary to keep her secret hidden, Alek stared for a moment not understanding,"Medical Bindings? was this from the crash weeks ago" Alek thought. but she was moving fine, and the bandages were similar to that of tales he heard about girls doing such a thing to minimise the size and look of their...

Realisation slammed into the Prince who then blushed and swore.

"fick mich!" he said adverting his gaze "sie sind ech Madchen" Deryn didn't have to speak clanker to know what that meant.

He was saying that she, was a girl.

"Alek please, you must understand, you need to keep this a secret." She blathered out, fear rising in her voice. "if the crew were find out I'm a girl my carrier is over, i'll never fly again. i'll-" she was cut off by Aleks piercing Glare

Alek looked in her eyes, and all the little pieces fell into place, this explained everything odd he had noted about the midshipman, when he refused to bathe back at the castle or when she insisted on showering after Alek and Newkirk. How she always got flustered during there fencing lessons when he adjusted her stance, the last thought made Alek curse himself, already pushing away impure thoughts.

"Dylan…" Alek began "do you really expect me to do that, when your life is clearly in danger?" Alek hoped she had a solution.

"I do ya bumrag, you have medical training don't you? so why don't you fix me just up?" Deryn stated her voice concealing the fear and her eyes holding back tears, not from the pain but from the look of hurt in Aleks eyes." You patch me up and we go on as if I was never shot, Simple." Alek silently swore, he forgot he had medical training! And didn't do anything sooner? Forgetting key training he had to improve the condition of his best friend? What kind of a man was he?

But he wasn't a man, he was a boy.

he was a boy... And she, was a girl!

Hands fumbled to open the med-kit that he kept on him at all times, for once the Prince thanked Count Volger for the 2 years he spent being forced to learn field medicine and simultaneously cursing himself for complaining about it to the Wild Count.

"Alright Dylan, I'll do this for you and in return you explain why you kept this from me." Alek want asking a question Deryn realised, he was making a statement.

"Then would you kindly make haste and fix me up your princlieness" Alek took another step towards the door…

Deryns eyes grew to the size of tea platters and then she realised what Alek was doing. He was locking the barking door, Alek twisted the latch shut and braced a chair up against the door. Making sure he would not be interrupted.

"Dylan I'm not going to lie to you." the young prince said slowly. "this will hurt almost as much as the initial shot"

And with that Notion the set to work…