Own Nuthin'
Alek POV
Alek paused outside the door of the hotel room. Lilit and Dylan were the only ones in there. Should he give them some time alone? Perphaps they were kissing! Ha! He ought to wait for a convienient moment.
"How dare you!" He heard Lilit scream. This did not sound good, not at all.
"It's true! You have your sneaky little paws all over him, and you know it!" Dylan bellowed.
"Well, at least I'm not ashamed of my gender!"
"I'm not ashamed! I don't have a barking choice!"
"Oh, a martyr now, are we?" The girl shrieked.
"Shut your ugly mouth!" Oh dear.
"I will not! At least I look better as a woman than a man!"
"Stop being so desperate! You're an embarrasment to your species!"
"I see! I get it now!" Lilit cried with delight. "You think he loves you!" she laughed manically. "You actually think he would ever love you!"
Wait, what? What on earth were they talking about?
There was an indignant little scream and a loud smacking noise.
"I'll tell him! Just you wait, you little liar! How dare you hit me!"
"He'll never believe a Monkey Luddite like you!"
"Oh, really? Really?" She laughed again. It was a chilling sound.
Dylan called Lilit several choice words. There was another loud smacking noise.
"You Darwinist-" There was a nasty thud, and two girlish screams of frustration.
"Let me go!"'
"You barking twisted-"
There were various shrieks of pain.
This had gone on long enough. Alek burst in, and was promptly amazed.
Dylan had pinned Lilit to the floor by her shoulders, while Lilit squirmed and kicked.
"Dylan! What's going on!" He pried the two apart. "Lilit, are you alright? What happened?"
She smirked. "Ask Mister Sharp."
"Alright. Dylan, what's gotten into you?"
Dylan stared at his boots. "Nothing." All the fight went out of him.
"Go on, keep lying to the only person who trusts you!" Lilit spat.
"I'm not lying." Dylan mumbled.
"Yes you are!"
"No!"
"Alek! Alek, I must tell you, Dylan's-"
"Don't!" Dylan yelled. "Don't listen, Alek! Please-"
"You tackled a girl! You violated a young woman's honor! Why would you attack Lilit?"
Lilit rolled her eyes and muttered in German, "At least Dylan couldn't have raped me."
"Explain from the beginning. Ladies first." Alek sighed.
The pretty girl laughed derisively. "Be specific."
Dylan quietly began to cry, shoulders shaking.
"Alek, she's lying!"
"Oh, I'm the liar here?"
Before Alek had time to react, Dylan wrestled out of his grip and pelted to the door.
"I tried to tell you!" And then he was gone, running like the wind.
"Lilit," Alek started steadily," What happened?"
"We got in a fight, because Dylan is a jealous Darwinist son of a gun."
"Jealous? Who's he jealous of? Some other young man?"
"You could say that."
"Who?"
"You."
"What? I even told Dylan that you two could be together, that I don't want to court you. Um, no offense."
Lilit stared in the direction Dylan had ran.
"You know, just go talk to Nene."
She too ran out, looking worried.
He kneeled beside Nene's bed, feeling rather stupid.
"What have you come to ask, child?"
"It's about Dylan." He explained the strange scenario he overheard.
The wizened face tensed.
"Oh dear. I knew you would catch on sooner or later."
"Can you tell me why he might be angry with Lilit?" The matriarch fixed him with a gaze of steel.
"Will you promise me something?" Alek opened his mouth to speak, but Nene cut him off with a wave of a wrinkled hand.
"Would you still be friends with Dylan no matter what I tell you? Even if it was a tremendous secret? Even if you feel angry or betrayed? Because your friend had no choice."
"Yes. I owe him my life a million times over by now."
"I will not tell you."
His face fell a fraction.
"But I can help you. Tell me what you know about Dylan, suspicious things."
"A-alright. He's being blackmailed by Volger. Something about a 'little secret,' which he apparently figured out based on posture, his expression, and his defense of me."
"Keep going."
"Let me think... He got very upset when I mentioned that women can be rather mad sometimes."
Nene grinned. "I suppose we can be."
"And I've never seen him change, but I think he's one of those people who's touchy about privacy."
"What about his clothes?"
"I guess they're normal. They've always seemed sort of large on him. He's quite skinny."
"What does your creature say about him? I've heard it's quite..."
"Perspicacious?"
"Yes."
"Bovril calls him Mister Sharp. Only he says it funny, like Mister Sharp. He heard it from Volger."
"The one who's blackmailing him."
"Yes. But I don't understand what this means."
"Think, child. What have we learned?"
"Volger found a tremendous secret about Dylan, enough to force him into treason. He found this from the way he stands. He defends women. He refuses to let anyone see him without clothes. He's very slender. Finding out might make me feel betrayed, but Dylan had no choice. He is jealous of me and got into a fight with Lilit. "
"And Bovril?"
"He says 'mister' in a sarcastic way that he picked up from Volger."
"So this secret is?"
For a few minutes, he stared at the patterns in the carpet. Mister Sharp. Mister Sharp.
His eyes widened in shock. This had to be a dream. Elephants all the way down.
"Dylan is a girl!"
Nene looked pleased.
"Where is he, I mean, she?"
"Currently, upstairs. Sobbing her heart out, with her head on my granddaughter's shoulder."
"Lilit? But they just-"
"Women can be quite mad sometimes. Was she jealous of you?"
"That's what Lilit said."
"Oh, go upstairs. Bring tea." She gestured to a tray with two ceramic teacups on it. If anyone had the gift of foresight, it was Nene.
He knocked gently on the door.
"Papa?" Lilit asked.
"No, Alek." He heard a frantic noise, and a low hum, the kind Lilit used with Bovril. "Er, I have tea..."
Lilit opened the door a crack, and gently took the tray.
"Wait out here." He nodded, and sat against the wall.
He heard snatches of a conversation.
"It's just so-! I mean, I never thought-!"
"I know, I know."
"I guess..." Dylan trailed off.
"Shh."
"Will he hate me?"
"No, no. It's alright."
"I just had this fantasy that it would all click into place."
"Maybe it will."
There was a long silence.
"I'm a soldier."
"Yes."
"I am still the same person."
"Of course you are."
Another horrible pause.
"Can I have some tea?" Dylan said softly.
"Go ahead, Deryn." Well, that was a delvelopment. Deryn sipped her tea noisily, and sighed.
"Just come in, you Clanker sod," Deryn said loudly. Alek walked in and stood awkwardly. Lilit motioned him to sit at a writing desk, while she and Deryn sat on Lilit's bed.
Deryn's familiar face was stonily calm. She pushed Lilit's unresisting arm off of her shoulders and sniffled, straightening her back.
"I'm still me, you know."
"I know."
"I guess when you get the chance, you'll run a mile."
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, we're not in love or anything. I promise that you will always be my good friend."
Behind Deryn's back, Lilit was mouthing frantically in German. Alek couldn't lipread well, but he thought he saw dummkopf more than once.
Deryn looked the same way she had when she dashed out of the hotel room. Cautiously, Lilit placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Maybe you should leave again."
"Maybe you should."
"May I come back for walker practice?"
Lilit stealthily nodded.
.
.
.