DISCLAIMER: The Leviathan trilogy is Scott Westerfeld's, not mine.

Enjoy!

"My ears aren't that large… are they?"

Deryn laughed, setting her sketchbook down, "Do you want the truth, your princeliness?"

Alek huffed, reaching out for the sketchbook on the table. Deryn had been begging him for months to allow her to draw a portrait of him. It was the perfect way to pass time, besides making snide comments on the size of the former prince of Austria's ears. Working at the Zoological Society could be boring work; missions weren't always flowing in, and there were days where Dr. Barlow just had them sorting papers.

Barking uneventful business, being a lady boffin's assistant.

"Let me see-" Alek started, flipping to the page where Deryn's sketch was.

"I'm not done yet, you can't!"

She tried to grab it from him, but he held it above his head, trying to get a good look at it.

Deryn loathed it, being shorter than him. During their days on the Leviathan, she had always been an inch or two taller than Alek. Now, he was seventeen years old, and had hit one of those spontaneous growth spurts. Deryn remembered Jaspert's sixteenth year; the same situation, where his stomach had seemed to be a bottomless pit.

Boys.

"Dumkopf, give it here-"

"My ears aren't that big, Deryn! Honestly!"

"Alek, I said give it to me now-"

She jumped for it, but he moved his arm, laughing.

"Not as short as used to be, am I?"

Deryn cursed under her breath. She really hated being shorter than Alek.

"Please?" Deryn asked dejectedly, coming to her last resort.

Alek pretended to think, rubbing his chin. He suddenly grinned.

"A trade, then?"

Deryn blinked, "What could you possibly want from me? I'm a commoner, you're a prince… well, you used to be," she added as an afterthought.

He rolled his eyes, muttering something. took a large step closer to her, gently tilting her chin up.

"Don't pretend like you don't know," he whispered, his green eyes twinkling.

She felt her cheeks redden, but she looked at him straight in the eye, "Dr. Barlow will be here any-"

"What, is the famous Dylan Sharp afraid of a boffin?" Alek smirked.

"In her case, yes," Deryn muttered. Dr. Barlow really could be quite frightening when she tried.

"You really are a ninny, aren't you?" Alek replied, a bit exasperated, at the same time amused.

"Look who's talking," she said, smiling slightly. She could feel the space getting closer between them. His lips were almost on hers-

"Mr. Sharp!"

Alek jumped at least three feet away from her. He coughed, a surprised expression on his face. If she wasn't so embarrassed herself, she would have laughed at him.

Dr. Barlow blinked, her eyes flitting between the two. Her loris chuckled, settling itself on her shoulder. Deryn glared at the beastie, and it seemed to smirk at her.

"What were you two doing, if I may ask?" the lady boffin asked, trying her best to wear a serious look.

Deryn cleared her throat awkwardly, "We were, um-"

"Organizing," Alek blurted out, before she could finish.

Deryn felt herself choke.

Dr. Barlow's eyebrows shot up, as the loris on her shoulder chortled.

"Organizing, were you?" She moved her gaze to the haphazard piles of paper on the desk, crookedly stacked on top of each other.

She looked back at him, "It seems you had a few distractions."

Alek flushed, staring at his shoes with a harsh determination.

Deryn piped up, filling in quickly, "We were just starting."

"I see. Well," Dr. Barlow replied nonchalantly, "I'll leave you to your work, then. It seems you still have quite a lot of organizing to get done."

Alek nodded numbly, as Dr. Barlow looked at Deryn. She forced herself to look at the boffin, trying to remain expressionless as possible.

Without another word, Dr. Barlow turned around and walked out, the door shutting behind her with a soft click. They could hear the sound of her heels become increasingly softer, until it completely disappeared.

Deryn swore loudly when it was safe, giving Alek a cold look, "Organizing?"

He shrugged, "It's not my fault she decided to barge in like that!"

"At least try next time, aye?" She said a bit bitterly, moving to the stacks of paper on the desk.

Alek nodded sheepishly, but then realized what she had said. She gave her a taunting grin.

"Next time?"

She blushed, fumbling with the papers in her hand, and pretended to ignore him completely.

They worked like that in silence for a while. From under the table, a small ball of soft fur crawled out, humming.

Bovril straightened itself and looked at it's masters, who were dutifully doing their work without a word.

It giggled softly. Both of it's humans wouldn't talk to each other, small smiles adorning their faces. Bovril scampered back into it's hiding spot under the table, content. It settled into the dark, getting ready for yet another nap.

"Organizing, indeed."

Bovril makes everything better. ^^

I wrote this for my friend's project, Write ALL the Genres! It's for five days, with each day being a different genre. The task is to write something for that genre in a day. It doesn't have to be big; can be a simple one-shot, like this one. This was for the romance prompt, as you can see. I don't usually ever write romance, but I had to make an exception for the project. I failed miserably, but I hope you guys get at least one laugh out of it. :)

Please review, and let me know if it was any good!