Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

New students were hardly a rarity on Castle Wulfenbach, given the presence of the school on board. In all honesty they showed up often enough to be considered a form of entertainment. Still, it wasn’t often they got new students as strange as the girl Von Pinn had informed Sleipnir was her new roommate. As soon as she saw Sleipnir enter the room she had hopped to her feet and stuck out a hand, then hastily dropped it back to her side.

“Hello… you are, um, uh, Slipper, yes?” The girl had a thick accent and spoke haltingly.

“Sleipnir.” She crossed her arms and gave the girl a once-over. She was short and slight and had long, dirty blonde hair, her face smattered with freckles, and blushed like a tomato, sitting back down on the bed and twisting the drawstrings of her bag around her hand.

“Sorry, sorry, I am. Not good, I speak little. Sorry. Sleipnir. I can remember that.”

“You better. What’s your name?” The girl looked confused, mouthing the words to herself for a moment, before her expression cleared up.

“Oh! I am called Maxine Murry. It is very nice to meet you, I want to get along. We can be friends.”  There was a hopeful twist to her expression at the last sentence, her tone going wistful despite the fact that she had clearly memorized her response. Murry wasn’t a name she recognized, so the girl must have been a hostage for a new spark on board.

“Sure, whatever. Just don’t touch my stuff. So if you don’t speak Romanian, what do you speak?”

“I speak English. Do you speak any? I would-” Sleipnir shook her head and the girl’s face fell.

“Okay. I can practice with you, maybe?”

“Maybe.” Sleipnir was mostly annoyed. She hadn’t wanted a roommate in the first place.

Eventually, over the next four months Maxine was there, the truth came out in fits and bursts. Maxine wasn’t a hostage for anyone. She was just child of some English merchants who’d died in the wastelands and the Baron had taken her in out of pity since she was the only member of her family left. She ended up at the bottom of the pecking order, if not at the absolute bottom by virtue of not even having seniority over almost everyone else, let alone a total lack of title or important parent. She was a crybaby, liable to burst into tears at little frustrations, treating books like they had personally betrayed her when she read.  She got easily distracted, staring off into space and sometimes forgetting what she was doing in the middle of a task. She hung out with Gil a lot, probably because they both were nobodies, but since Tarvek liked Gil she seemed alone a lot of the time.

For a crybaby though, Maxine was sometimes weirdly adventurous. She wasn’t scared of the jägers, or at least didn’t act scared, going up and poking at them. One time she even stole a jäger’s hat and ended up being chased across the airship, which was super cool. After that stunt it was a lot easier to get other students to include her, but it was hard being friends with someone who didn’t really understand half of what you said and didn’t even seem to get most of the rules of the games.

The story was wrong about Maxine’s origins entirely. Maxine was certainly not from England, though since English was her first language it worked well enough as a cover. Maxine was also not taken in out of pity. Maxine was a student here because the Dreen had insisted.

See, the story went like this. Once upon a time in a fantasy world, a young boy named Gilgamesh found out that he wasn’t an orphan. In fact, he was the heir to an Empire ruled by a baron. His best friend was a prince named Tarvek, who was secretly the heir to an empire that didn’t exist anymore, and together they did wonderful, marvelous, fantastic things, like making a talking lobster or small robots that could learn and talk. They grew up together and solved mysteries and one day they realized they were not only friends, but that they were interested in each other romantically and were quite in love. They went off to Paris and were heroes, eventually, and met a girl- a young woman, really- named Agatha, and found out she had a legacy of her own. The whole thing was a popular collection of novels, collectively known as “The Baron’s Heir” series, and Maxine had devoured the novels, reading them over and over again. The Dreen had come to her (had taken her) and told her that they wanted Maxine to make sure things would go well. They’d chosen her to help, out of everyone who’d ever read the series, and she’d get to meet all her favorite characters and make herself part of the story. Of course she had agreed. Why wouldn’t she?

They taught her what they could, some basic Romanian, the rules she would have to follow, and warned her what would happen if things went wrong. They showed her what they would do if she broke the timeline beyond the point she could keep things going as they planned. (The reminder of the cost of failure stood in the Baron’s office, a macabre statue that she swore was slowly, slowly blinking every time she glanced over.) They’d dropped her off at the Baron’s office, a spindly hand laid on her shoulder and a drawstring bag with a pair of pajamas, a pair of overalls and a family photo in her hands as they talked in quietly hissing strange voices. It turns out everything is harder when the fictional characters you loved to read about are real. Real people have real feelings and real opinions and real voices, and sometimes it overwhelmed her. She was only nine years old and she was responsible for making things go right. It took eavesdropping for her to find an opportunity for her to try and fix anything. Well, not fix. Just to hurry along.

There was a light knock at the door to Klaus’s office, then a pause. Klaus looked up from his paperwork for a moment, then went back to reading the trade agreement he’d just begun reviewing. There was a second knock, this time more insistent, then the sound of a throat being cleared.

“Hoy, mebbe hyu should go back to bed, kiddo, de Baron is busy.”

“It’s important! You hafta let me in, I gotta tell him!” Hm. A child’s voice, clearly upset, speaking in English.

“HOY! She’s slippery, Johann!”

Oh dear. Normally he’d let the jäger guards deal with this but it was the Dreen-gift who was currently playing at being a student. Was a student? She certainly went to classes. He stood up and walked over to open the door, the girl almost stumbling from the door being opened when she had her hand on the doorknob.

“Miss Murry? What’s the matter now?” She straightened hastily, shooting the jäger a wary glance.

“Can I come in your office to talk, Herr Baron, sir? It’s important.”

“Of course.” The girl sighed in relief, shooting Johann and Ivan a smug look over her shoulder as she entered and sat down at a chair across from him. “Now, what’s so important you had to tell me right away and couldn’t make an appointment, or even show up during the day, Miss Murry.”

The girl took a deep breath, fiddling with a piece of her hair nervously, then the words spilled out of her without so much as a breath between sentences.

“Tarvek and Gil are sneaking into the record room sometime soon. Gil wants to know who he is and Tarvek wants to help him, and they’re gonna find the story you planted and Gil’s gonna cry and you’re gonna tell him but not Tarvek, and it’s going to cause problems, Tarvek’s gonna keep looking and they’re gonna fight about it.”

Ah. Well, now that would cause problems. Especially given the Sturmvoraus boy’s sneaky habits and the not-insignificant fact he was passing information to his own father.

“Is that all, Miss Murry?”

The girl’s face screwed up in concentration as she seemed to be trying to figure out how to phrase things. “You should- you have to tell-” The girl began flickering strangely and she gasped, hands flying to cover her face.

“I’m not gonna say it, I’m not, I’ll change it, please don’t!”

“Miss Murry?!” Klaus started to stand up, reaching out to try and touch the girl and reassure her when just as suddenly as it started, she stabilized.

The girl dropped her hands into her lap and took a shaky inhale.

“You- Tarvek is going to find out. It’s important, you need to know he’s going to find out and that he and Gil aren’t going to get along as long as Gil is keeping secrets, I’m sorry, they won’t let me say more, I wanna help more, I’m sorry.” The girl did seem truly unhappy about this development, seemingly unable to meet his eyes, instead glancing at the statue over his shoulder and back down to her hands.

“I’ll handle it.”

“You promise?”

“Miss Murry. No, Maxine. I promise, I’ll look out for my son, fighting between those two would certainly be a problem.”

“Okay. Okay, good.”

Three days after she had gone to the Baron to share her information, Maxine noticed Gil had come to class with red-rimmed eyes and a distant look on his face. More importantly, she noticed Tarvek completely failed to show up. Mistress Von Pinn had ears like a hawk and a sharp eye for tomfoolery, so she couldn’t pass Gil a note, but as soon as the first class of the day was done and they were taking a break, she sought Gil out.

“Gil! Where’s Tarvek? He’s your roommate, right? Is he sick or something?” Gil glared at her thunderously and crossed his arms.

“Gil…?”

“He’s at the departure bay for the smaller ships. He’s leaving.” Oh. That would explain the bad mood. Maxine wracked her brain, trying to figure out what could have happened but came up with nothing like this in the novels. Well, nothing said the novels were always right. Maybe Tarvek’s sister had a birthday or one of his relatives was sick or dying.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine until he comes back. I can keep you company, and we can both take notes for him so he doesn’t miss anything important.” Gil stared at her, something strange and bitter in his expression.

“He’s not coming back. He got caught spying. Good riddance, I guess.” Maxine had to have heard him wrong. She had to have. She blinked, trying to make Gil’s words make sense. This definitely wasn’t supposed to happen.

“That doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t. He’s not supposed to leave! He’s not! You’re just playing a mean trick on me and lying. He can’t leave , he’s supposed to, to-” It was like Maxine stuttered in space. She jerked to the side while also standing still, as if part of her failed to move with the airship under her feet. She took a shuddering gasp, tears welling up in her eyes and she shook her head frantically.

“No, nonononono, please, please don’t, I can fix this, I can, he hasn’t left yet, right? I have to fix it, please, give me a chance, come on!” Gil took a step back, then another, startled.

“He- his airship was supposed to leave sometime in the middle of class. I- don’t be so upset, please, Maxie. He wasn’t actually your friend or mine you know, he was just using us to spy.”

“He wasn’t! He couldn’t have been, he liked you! He liked you, I know it, the spying wasn’t that bad. He didn’t deserve it, anyway, he had to stay! Couldn't you have stopped the Baron? He'd have listened to you if you asked, I bet!”

“It doesn’t matter . He was a spy, and now he’s gone.” Maxine’s face crumpled and she started crying in earnest, forgetting all the Romanian she’d learned. 

“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Her job was supposed to be to keep the story on track, or even for the story to happen ahead of schedule by helping them. With Tarvek gone, she didn't know how to make the story happen at all.

Chapter Text

Maxine had gone to the Baron that very afternoon, pounding on the door until she was let in.

“Please, Herr Baron, you have to bring Tarvek back! I need him here! I- your son needs him here!”

The Baron had leaned back in his desk chair, his face lined and tired and annoyed.

“And why exactly is that Miss Murry? The boy was a spy, you yourself told me that he and my son would squabble over keeping secrets. If the Sturmvoraus boy found out who Gilgamesh was, his father would know, and I can only assume half that viper pit of a family would find out as well. This is what is safest for my son, not to mention the other students.”

Maxie leapt out of her chair, stamping her foot impatiently.

“But it’s not! Gil- now he’s alone! His best friend is gone and he’s sad and angry because he thinks his friend was a liar the whole time! He doesn’t have anyone looking out for him, you need to bring Tarvek back to the school!” The baron had stared her down patiently, waiting for her to pause.

“Even so, I cannot simply bring him back. The boy was caught spying, and not only spying, but sneaking into restricted areas. Even if the other noble students are spying, they certainly never have made it to the records room. He could do too much damage.”

“But he wouldn’t! I know he wouldn’t! He was, I mean, he would-” Maxie tugged on her hair. “Gil was going to need him. I just didn’t want them to have to keep secrets from each other.”

The Baron’s face was as impassive as a rock, but he laid a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

“Bringing him back as a student would be condoning his actions. Worse, it would make me look soft. These students are hostages, Miss Murry. I cannot afford leniency, and I cannot take back my rulings. I am… sorry it has caused you and my son distress, but you are going to have to make things work.”

Maxie had been escorted back to her dorm room where she had stared at the ceiling for hours before sleep came to her, ignoring Sleipnir’s attempts at conversation. She jumped at every small sound, the statue in the Baron’s office that stared with unseeing eyes haunting her thoughts. When sleep finally came, her dreams were filled with spidery hands reaching out while she tried to run, her body moving slower and slower until it stopped while the world moved faster and faster around her. She woke up just after dawn in a cold sweat, her heart jackrabbiting in her chest.

Yo̩͔͕u͚͚ ̯c̢a̪̟̜̫̻͓̲n̹̣̤͕̣ ͏̝̯̗̙̲̳͉s̳̦̣͜ͅt̹̬il҉͙͕͈̖l̰ ̻͚̰͖͚̼̙m̩͙̟̱̗̝ͅa̗̖̭̮̠̘k̺̹̲ͅe̬̥͇̗̙̩ ̺͕͍̬͜i̲͖͇͕̙̹͡t̡̩͙ ̝̘̱̱̟ͅw̴͖͕̗̻͍̙o̼͞r̤̥̞̻̤k͖̣̦̝̝̭͈.͝ ̮̩D̸̙̲̳̝̼̫o̺̰̭n̡̼̹̭̥͈̙'̵̗̥t͖͚͇̻͞ ͙͍̱͖̜̲͡di̧͓̪͇̟s͎͓̹a̯p̙͎ͅp̮͎̣̪̻̫o̩͉̠̹i҉͓̘n͙̗̪̱̱̦͚t̵͚̩̝͓ ̗͜ṵs̸͉͕.

She started pacing the room, spinning plans in her head. She still had a chance, she was still here and still knew some thing, even if it wasn’t as much as she thought she knew. Had known. She was still going to be able to help. So. The question was where she should start. How she could start, maybe?

She wasn’t going to ask the baron to intervene anymore unless she absolutely had to. That was a no-brainer. He meant well but he was still an adult and still would think he knew better than her, probably, about everything, and she wasn’t allowed to give him too many details to prove she knew what she was talking about. She probably shouldn’t tell Gil she knew anything, either. She wanted to be his friend for real, probably needed to actually be his friend and that wouldn’t happen if he thought that she was only trying to be friends because the Baron told her to be nice to him or something. He definitely wouldn’t tell her anything he wanted to keep secret if he thought she was going to go tell his dad.

She… well, she couldn’t do a lot of the things Tarvek had done to help Gil out. Tarvek had gotten them both into places she couldn’t and he’d known a lot more because he was actually a prince, and Maxie was just a (very) foreign kid. She barely knew enough Romanian to understand all her lessons without needing her pocket Romanian-English dictionary. Maybe she could flip some of the lessons? Ask Gil to teach her more? Mrs. Goddard had said in math class at home that the best way to learn something was to teach someone else. That could work.

At least, once he actually trusted her. They were already kind of friends, or at least closer to being friends than just acquaintances, but they hadn’t hung out much because Gil had Tarvek. He was probably going to be prickly for a while yet. She remembered when Becca had turned out to be awful and dragged her outside after she fell asleep at the slumber party so she woke up cold in the dark, she hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone or be friends with anyone for weeks. Finding out your best friend was a spy who wanted to have people overthrow your only family was probably way worse.

She wanted to try and fix things fast, but that was going to be way hard. She kicked her bed frame in frustration and then hopped around holding her foot and yelling because she was still just in her socks, which woke Sleipnir up and got a pillow thrown at her face because it was still so early. Whoops. At that point Maxie decided to sit back down and try and catch another hour of sleep.

That morning she sat down in her usual seat for classes, two to the left of Gil. The empty seat behind Gil stuck out like a gap where someone had lost a tooth. Just like the way she would prod the bloody socket of a missing tooth with her tongue, she couldn’t help but glance at the empty seat. This was her fault, so she was going to have to fix it. Mistress Von Pinn had called on her to ask what year the first major revenant event had been and she’d had to ask her to repeat the question twice because she didn’t understand before she was forced to admit she didn’t remember. Her notes were full of strategies to help Gil instead of any useful information on the Other War.

During their reading lesson they went to the library, with the buddy system in full effect. Instead of pairing up with Sleipnir like she normally would, she went to Gil.

“Um. You did not have a partner now, right?” She shook her head, holding up a finger. “Wait. You do not have a partner. I am getting better!” Gil gave her a smile, nodding his head.

“Yeah, no partner. Wouldn’t you normally pair with a girl?”

“There are lots of girls. They will not be alone. And I yelled at you yesterday, which was not nice, and I am sorry. So, buddies?” Gil shrugged.

“Why not?”

Maxie beamed at him. “Thank you! Um. You do not mind walking to the English books, right? I am not good at Romanian still, I get upset with the books.” She ducked her head a little sheepishly, grabbing at the back of her neck.

“I guess not. Aren’t the books in English kind of hard, though?” Maxie’s smile dimmed a little. Right. This problem.

“I am not stupid! I am very smart in English! Romanian is new and hard and I sound like an idiot but I am not stupid .” She crossed her arms over her chest, daring Gil to contradict her, when an idea came to her. “I can prove it. We can get the same book, in English and Romanian, and I can tell you about things to prove I read it.”

Gil seemed surprised at her outburst. “I don’t think you’re stupid.”

Maxie gave Gil a brittle smile and grabbed his hand to lead him through the stacks. “Yes you do. Everyone does a little. It is okay, I sound dumb because of my, um, vocabulary and my, er, uh… see? I do not know enough words, it’s the word for the way a person makes sounds. It is nice you say you do not think it though.”

Maxine’s plan here was double-pronged. She wanted to get Gil interested in things Tarvek had originally provided the impetus for learning, and she wanted to make a friend. If this plan worked out, he’d at least be more interested in her and might know more about marine life even without freeing lobsters from a tank before a planned diplomatic dinner. The titles on the shelves shifted from information on English culture to books about on sailing in traditional ships, Maxine scanning the shelves intently before grabbing a book entitled “The Encyclopedia of Marine Life” and handing it to Gil hopefully.

“I know they have this in Romanian too, and it is fun, yes? I like the ocean, it is big and beautiful and there are many interesting animals.” She rocked her weight back on her heels.

“I… guess? I believe you when you say you aren’t stupid though. You don’t have to prove anything.”

“But I do! And I want someone to talk to about my books. You do not have to, but I would really like you to. It can be something fun so we are friends.” Gil made a strange facial expression and his body language changed, which wasn’t encouraging, but he nodded anyway. Maybe she was reading him wrong. People were confusing.

“Sure. Like a book club.”

“Yes! Exactly! Thank you very much.” Maxine was practically skipping alongside him as he went to pick out his own books, including the encyclopedia, only grimacing a little when she picked out a Heterodyne Boys story from a shelf that proclaimed in large lettering it was aimed at young readers. When Von Pinn rounded them up from the shelves for lunch, Maxine was so excited she felt like she could glow, waving at her roommate with a smile.

“Sleipnir! Did you find any good stories? I have a book on the ocean and a Heterodyne story and a book on the first airships.”

Sleipnir rolled her eyes a little. “Shhhh! You’re being too loud Maxie, we’re still in the library.”

“Oh. Right. But did you?” Maxine couldn’t stand still, shifting her weight from foot to foot and trying not to bounce in place.

“I guess. I got a story about some construct that solves mysteries that looked alright. Holzfäller didn’t say anything stupid, right? He’s been upset all day but he shouldn’t take it out on you.” Maxine shook her head.

“He told me he didn’t think I was an idiot. It was nice.”

Gil kept his word, which meant Maxie had someone to talk to during lunch when Sleipnir was busy with her real friends. Most of the conversation was crustacean and/or cetacean-centric, which could have gotten boring pretty quickly, or at least frustrating, but Gil was nice. He never tried to cover the page on her dictionary if she pulled it out to look up a word or to grab it away from her, and he wouldn’t talk over her when it took her a minute to come up with a word. He wasn’t very forthcoming with any information on anything but the book they were both reading, true, but it was a start. The problem was he didn’t trust her yet. Which was fair! She was fine with that, really. He’d been hurt pretty badly by basically his only friend. It made sense that they didn’t hang out unless she went to him, and that Gil never initiated any conversations. He was too busy being caught up in his own head and all he’d given her to work with was lobsters.  Maybe if she talked about dolphins and their family groups for long enough, he’d decide he liked her enough to talk about something besides how long lobsters could live and how they had interesting color variants.

On Saturday, Gil was pulled out of the morning fencing lesson and by the time lunch rolled around he still wasn’t back. Maxine figured out he was probably with his dad, which was good! Gil deserved some family time. But this only drove in all at once how lonely she was. When she had Gil there to sit with, it was easier to ignore it because he was there and talking to her, and it’s hard to feel lonely in the middle of a conversation. But looking at the other students eating at the tables, she just couldn’t bring herself to go and sit alone. Instead she sat at the table Sleipnir and her friends were eating at,. Most of the students ignored her but when she worked up the nerve to try and talk, her dictionary on the table in front of her, Lucinda grabbed her dictionary and put it under her chair, sneering at her distress.

“If we wanted your input we would have talked to you, dummy. Can’t even hold a conversation on your own yet.”

Sleipnir looked uncomfortable and started telling her off but suddenly Maxine couldn’t take it anymore. She stood up from her seat and walked down the halls aimlessly, swiping across her cheeks with a sleeve to try and stop the tears. It was stupid to cry over this, but being left out hadn't hurt so much when the story was still happening. She could remember what Gil and Tarvek had done in the story and it felt almost like being included, less like being an outsider looking in. Now the story wasn’t happening because she’d gotten Tarvek sent away, and Gil was still sad and angry, and she was trying so hard to connect with him but he wouldn’t let her in.

She was pulled out of her own head by a bright green hand with very sharp claws clapping down on her shoulder. “So. Hyu is de leetle Dreen-Gift, huh?” Maxine gave the jäger a wary look, trying not to panic as she realized she was somewhere she wasn’t sure she’d ever been before, past the library and towards the labs where the Baron’s sparks worked.

“Yeah. How’d you know?” The jäger’s grin, impossibly, seemed to grow wider.

“Ho, shows vat hyu know, kiddo. Hy’ve been vere hyu are before," the jäger nodded as if she was imparting sage advice. "Vorzt gig Hy ever had, und Hy worked cuztomer service! Hyu ever vork cuztomer service?"
Maxine blinked. "...I'm turning ten in two weeks," she pointed out.
"Dot hyu iz! Dodged a bullet vit dot vun," the jäger said with a wink. “Hyu can call me hyu Auntie Lia.”

“You were actually a dreen-gift?” Maxine squinted at Lia suspiciously, as if that’d change the fact of what she saw with her own two eyes. “I thought jägers didn’t like the Dreen-gift. They warned me you guys would probably be suspicious on principle and everything.”

“Now dat iz a long story. To make it short, Hy vas vit de Heterodyne’s when dot Storm King made problems und Hy liked de family so much Hy got de long term job. Hy came by to meet hyu becawze my brodder Johann met hyu and remember how ve got someting in common!”

“Oh. I’ve only seen the statues before, I didn’t realize we could, you know, keep going here after we got past everything we know.”

“Ve do! Izn’t dot nice? Zo vat is hyu doing in dis part of de ship und not at the school, keed?”

Maxine had been cheering up despite herself but the reminder of her problems wiped the smile off her face.

“It’s just- I’m kind of lonely, and everyone thinks I’m weird and kinda dumb, and nobody wants to listen either, and the other kids take my stuff sometimes because I’m not important and I’m not strong so I can’t make them listen.” Embarrassingly, her voice cracked in the middle of her sentence and tears welled up despite her best efforts to stay calm. “Sorry ma’am. I know it’s dumb.”

“Hoy! Who hyu calling ma’am? Hy told hyu, call me Auntie Lia. Dun worry, hokay? Hy can help vit dat.”

Lia took Maxine back to the dorm that evening in considerably higher spirits than when she’d left the lunch table. A lot of the students were still in the common area, playing some kind of card or board game in groups or working on individual projects. Maxine scanned the room for a moment. Sleipnir, at least, seemed happy to see her back, waving at her, and Gil had returned even though he was absorbed in a drawing pad with charcoals. Zulenna had looked her over with a sneer, ignoring Lia entirely.

“What, did you forget how to ask for directions or how to read signs or something? We aren’t supposed to just wander the ship on our own you know.” Lia had turned on her with a sharp grin, somehow making her small frame take up more space.

“My leetle Maxie vasn’t alone! Hy vas vit her de whole time. Und she told me some verra interezting tings. Hyu bretz leave her alone, hokay? Hy hear one ov hyu pick on her, Hy vill eat hyu! Und Hy don't care if mozt of hyu is royalty, Hy haff eaten vorse!"

Maxie’s hand flew up to her mouth in shock and she couldn’t help but giggle a little. “Auntie Lia! You can’t say you’re going to eat people.”

“Hy can. Hy just did.” Lucinda got to her feet, putting her cards down and stamping her foot.

“I’m telling Mistress Von Pinn!”

“Go ahead. Hy dare hyu,” Lucinda faltered in the face of that crocodile grin. “Have a goot time playing vit de odder kids, Maxie!”

That night Maxie stared at the ceiling and started to take stock. It had been a week and a half since Tarvek had gotten kicked out. She was less alone. That was good. That was- honestly really very good. She even had someone she could point to now and claim as family in front of the other students. And she’d gone around with Lia meeting the other jägers, and they’d smiled at her or messed up her hair or grinned. She had so many people now! That didn’t fix things for Gil though. If she thought about the network she found herself in and then compared it, the picture wasn’t pretty. Gil didn’t have Tarvek anymore, he definitely didn’t have an aunt Lia waiting in the wings either. It was just the Baron, sometimes, and maybe Maxine, when she could get him to let her in. She’d have to fix that as soon as possible. She ran through what she could remember of the story in her head, trying to figure out what would still apply, and made a plan.

Chapter Text

Maxie had kept her plan of making friends with Gil via book club rolling. This week she’d picked a book that would have more discussion opportunities than an oceanic encyclopedia. She hadn’t quite expected the plot differences a book like “A Little Princess” would have in this world, but it did make the story much more interesting. Everything being underwater was fun, for one, and it was interesting that the characters weren’t all white English girls. Given the rapid approach of her birthday, she’d also started spending more time in the kitchens so she could make some sweets to share. Her jäger aunt might have cut down the bullying but it didn’t make her any friends. Hopefully the sweets would.

Maxie had thought she was getting used to Europe and Castle Wulfenbach but baking itself had thrown her for a loop. At this point five months in, she’d gotten used to the lack of maple syrup, but it was other little things that threw her. Chocolate wasn’t really widely available, and neither was vanilla, two flavors she’d considered universal. She’d coaxed Lia and a few of the other jägers into being her guinea pig for the desserts, which was good, because they’d eat anything. Her first few attempts to modify recipes based on her memories didn’t turn out very edible. Strawberry cake had been a goopy disaster that had barely risen at all, and her lemon cake had been bland because she’d had to use lemon juice instead of lemon extract.

“Iz not dot bad, keed. Hyu keep trying, ja?” Lia’s face was sympathetic, and vaguely distant, like she was remembering things herself.

“I want them to turn out good, though, and it’s getting close. Nobody will like me better if I give them gross cupcakes.” Maxie stamped her foot impatiently, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “I can’t even make peanut butter frosting because there’s no such thing as peanut butter!” She froze, waiting to see if there was a backlash, and relaxed when there was none. Peanut butter probably wasn’t important, but you never knew. She’d found herself frozen for a moment mid-word at lunch when she’d tried to compare the bullying Sara faced in the book to how Gil was bullied by the other students. Mistress Von Pinn had herded her to the doctor’s for a rather unpleasant examination, and she’d been forced to take an even more unpleasant tonic, worrying that she’d had an absence seizure, but Maxie knew the truth.

“Vell, vhy dun hyu try to use a rezipe, Maxie? Expeerimentashun is all vell und goot but iffen hyu vant a tasty batch before hyu birthday, hyu should try de schtuff vot somevun already figured out.” Lia sounded amused and Maxie leveled an unimpressed look at her face, her cheeks and the tips of her ears starting to burn a little bit anyway.

“Aun-tie , have you been waiting to tell me that this whole time ?!”

“Noooo? Hyu iz a clever keed, Hy’m sure hyu vould haff figured eet out.” Lia looked overly innocent, but there was a very toothy grin across her face regardless. Maxie grabbed her still-battery spoon and flicked it at her indignantly.

“You WERE! And you’re laughing, I know you are, you’re TERRIBLE!” Lia cackled, flinging her hands up to cover her face.

“Oh nooo, my vun weakness, a leetle gurl vit a spatula, hy am defeated!” Lia reached behind her and grabbed a handful of flour that she flung at Maxie’s face, the impact causing Maxie to let out a surprised screech and she swung the spatula at Lia again, spattering the jäger and the wall behind her with lemony cake batter. The ensuing food fight was very fun and very messy, and got Maxie banned from the kitchen for three days and Lia on Von Pinn’s blacklist for inciting a student to mischief despite Maxie’s protests.

*o*o*o*

The kitchen ban was probably a little helpful in the end, because the free time reminded her she should probably pay attention to the friends she had both on the castle and, possibly even more importantly, off it. She ate her lunch quickly, nodding absentmindedly as Gil talked about the science book he’d gotten that talked about famous constructs throughout history, like Adam Prometheus Frankenstein or Punch and Judy, then pulled out the paper she’d been writing on.

“Is hopefully written ‘in speranta’ as two words, or ‘insperanta’ as one?”

“Oh, is that the essay Professor Popescu is having us write about the fall of the first Florentine Empire?” Gil looked intrigued, glancing over Maxie’s shoulder.

“No, I’m having a hard time with making that the right length. I might need to repeat myself more. I am actually trying to write Tarvek a letter and I want to tell him I hope he isn’t too lonely.” Gil pulled a face, leaning away from Maxie’s paper.

“Why would you wanna do that? He was a spy, remember? And it’s not like he was even that nice to you when he was here.”

“Yeah, but he’s all alone at home now, and being alone is awful. I don’t want him to think we forgot he existed. Besides, he couldn’t have spied on you or me really, because we don’t have families. Or we did not, I have an aunt now, but I don’t think he knew that.” She hummed, chewing on her thumbnail a little.

“Also, you haven’t answered my question.”

“It’s two words, but this is a stupid idea. He probably won’t even write back since he only was friendly to get you as a minion or something.”

“Well, I won’t know for sure unless I write to him and find out!”

To Prince Tarvek Sturmvari Sturmvori Stormvur Of Sturmhalten,

I miss having you around on Castle Wulfenbach and in classes. You and I were not very close but I always thought of you as a friend anyway. Hopefully you aren’t too lonely at home, you have your sister around, but that’s not the same as having a friend your own age. I think Gil misses you too but he won’t admit it, I think he’s mad about the spying. I’m not, because it’s not like you were spying on me, since I didn’t have anyone worth spying over.

Oh! You remember that the other students teased me for not having any family of note, and my clumsy Romanian? That’s not true anymore! I have discovered I have an aunt, named Lia. She is a jäger, and probably not my aunt exactly, but she’s a relative !! My Romanian is improving a lot too, my mother always said language goes faster if you surround yourself with it. Sometimes I miss her and home something awful, but I can’t see her or my home again so it makes no sense to dwell on it.

You probably will be glad to hear that you missed out on dissecting a mimmoth in science class, given your pet midmoth. I was so repulsed I had to leave the room to vomit in a trash can, but Gil enjoyed it a lot. How is Rembrandt, anyway? I miss being able to come around and pet him when I’m lonely.

I bet you’re surprised by how well I can write, I’m much smarter in English and in writing than when I try and talk. Gil and I have formed a kind of book club where we read the same books, mine in English and Gil’s in Romanian, and we talk about them! The most recent one is “A Little Princess”, which is set in England and I enjoy it a lot. The main character reminds me of Gil, in a way! Maybe you could read it too? We could do a correspondence book club of our own too!

My birthday is also coming up shortly, I plan on sharing cupcakes with the other students to celebrate! If this letter reaches you before May 17, have a carrot cake cupcake then for me, and if it reaches you after that date have one when it gets to you.

Your friend, Maxine Murry

The letter had landed on Klaus’s desk unceremoniously, caught by his recent flag for all correspondence headed to Sturmhalten given the Sturmvoraus boy’s spying. The envelope it was in was relatively simple, with doodled lightning bolts flanking the address “Prince Tarvek of Sturmhalten ONLY, NO SNOOPING!!” written in a childish hand, with  the phrase no snooping underlined twice, and the return address the Dreen-Gift student. He regarded the envelope skeptically and broke the seal cautiously to hide signs of tampering. Normally, he wouldn’t personally check the correspondence of a student that young, but other students weren’t Dreen-Gift. His eyebrows rose steadily higher as he scanned the letter. On the surface it appeared to simply be a standard letter a child might write to a friend, but surely that couldn’t be all. Not with how loudly she’d protested his decision to send him home and the knowledge she possessed. A second read-through offered no more clarity. The lesson mentioned had indeed occurred recently, the date she included in her closing paragraph matched the birthday given on her records, and he certainly could glean no useful information from ‘carrot cake’. She’d mentioned Gil several times, but only as any child would mention one of their close friends. The only thing that was potentially of concern was the book mentioned, which could be a subtle hint to Gil’s identity to try and slip by the Dreen rules against direct statements and the censors aboard the Castle she surely had to be aware of.  He excised the title to prevent it from being read at all, put the letter back in the envelope and resealed it, putting it in a pile to send on.

May sixteenth drew closed on an overcast sky, with a promise of rain on the horizon. Maxie was belting out a Taylor Swift song with just a touch of venom as she frosted the last few of the two dozen carrot cupcakes she’d baked, Grigori watching her bake bemusedly.

“ But all you are is mean! All you are is mean, and a liar, and pathetic

And alone in life and mean, and mean, and mean, and mean!”

“Zo… are hyu singing about ennyvun specific-like, or iz hyu juzt mad?” Grigory asked, reaching out and swiping a cupcake. Maxie made a vague noise of protest at the cupcake theft, pausing in her singing and setting the pastry bag down as she frosted the last cupcake.

“I’m just mad that everyone is still awful! Some of the students are okay, but everyone else doesn’t get any cupcakes.” Grigori took a bite of the cupcake and made a surprised and pleased sound.

“Now dot iz a punishment, dese are tasty.” Maxie perked up, looking at him hopefully.

“Normal-person tasty or jäger-tasty?” Grigori made a vague noise, waving a hand at her, and Maxie sighed, picking up a cupcake herself and taking a bite. Oh. This tasted almost exactly like her mom’s carrot cake. She pumped her fist excitedly, chewing and swallowing happily.

“I did it! I nailed these cupcakes!!”

“Hy told hyu dey vere tasty.” Grigori offered bemusedly, standing up and adjusting his shirt.

“Oh man, I bet mom will be so-” Maxie cut herself off, crossing her arms like it would stop that train of thought. “Never mind. Thank you for taste-testing, Grigori!”

“Iz no problem, keed.”

Maxie was practically buzzing as she went back to her room, grinning at Sleipnir.

“It’s my birthday tomorrow, I’m so excited!” Sleipnir turned her head, seeming interested.

“Really? How old are you turning?”

“Ten. It’s my first double-digit birthday.”

“Oh yeah, you are older than me. I guess I forgot. Happy birthday? Well, a little early, but still.”

“Thanks!” Maxie giggled, pulling her nightgown on over her head. “I hope it rains, it’s practically a tradition.”

Sleipnir wrinkled her nose as she reached up to turn the light off. “How would rain be a tradition? It’s rain. And you’re from England, isn’t that underwater so there isn’t weather?”

“For as long as I can remember it’s rained on my birthday, or when we celebrate my birthday. When I was like four I’d even tell people my birthday was on a rainy day instead of the actual date.” Maxie smiled, hoping Sleipnir wouldn’t remember the second part of her question.

“O-kay then. Still kinda weird.” Sleipnir sounded bemused, but not annoyed, which was good. Maxie plowed forward with a fond tone of voice.

“Nah, the weirdest tradition in my family is smearing butter across the nose on a birthday to help you slide through the next year with grace.”

“You’re right, that is weird.” Sleipnir’s voice was almost flat. Whoops. She’d probably said too much or missed a cue. Maybe the lights being turned off? Maxie rolled over and tried to go to sleep, ignoring the strange icy feeling in her chest.

*o*o*o*

May seventeenth began with a clap of thunder that woke Maxie up from a dream that felt buttery and warm, the memory of her mother’s laughter ringing in her ears. She sat up with a jolt of surprise and stretched, orienting herself mentally. Oh. It’s my birthday, today . The realization slammed into her with the force of being headbutted by a sheep and her eyes stung. It hadn’t really registered until this moment that this was going to actually be her birthday, and that her mom wasn’t going to wake her up with her favorite breakfast, her siblings weren’t going to elbow each other in the sides and argue over who got to give her the card they’d all signed to celebrate her hitting double digits. She blinked hard, trying not to cry and feeling like the wind had been knocked out of her. Despite her best efforts she couldn’t stop the train of thought from barreling forward. Her grandmother wasn’t going to bake a cake and show up to celebrate, she definitely wasn’t going to get the Taylor Swift CD she’d wanted. She probably wasn’t going to get a real present at all. There wasn’t even going to be a silly crown her dad made out of tinfoil. It was just her, and the carrot cupcakes she’d baked and frosted all on her own. For some reason this was the thought that set her off and she hiccupped, letting herself cry as hard as she wanted.

There was a rustling sound from Sleipnir’s side of the room and Maxie’s breath stuttered as she tried to catch her breath and calm herself down, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in them.

“Maxie? Hey, are you okay?” A small warm hand landed on her shoulder, trying to get her to look up. “Is it- is it the storm or something?” Maxie shook her head, not trusting herself to talk and trying to will Sleipnir away.

“Did you have, like, a nightmare or something?”

“N-no. Sokay, I’ll b-be f-f-f-fine, it’s st-stupid. Go ‘way.”

“It’s probably not dumb if you’re this upset. C’mon, you can tell me.” Sleipnir leaned against her side, just like her sister Katelynn would, and that did her in.

“I- I miss my momma, and daddy, and KK, and Maddy and even J.W. even though he’s basically a baby still and stupid, an’ I wanna go home, an’ I can’t, and it’s stupid but it’s my birthday and they aren’t here! They aren’t ever gonna be here for it again , and I miss them!” Maxie went back to crying with a vengeance, sobbing so hard it was hard to catch her breath. Sleipnir’s mouth dropped open into a perfect little ‘o’ of surprise.

Tentatively, she reached around Maxie and started rubbing her hand up and down her back, not sure what else to do in this situation.

“It’s… it’s not stupid. I miss my parents sometimes too and I can go home and see them. Okay? It’s not dumb.” Slowly, Maxie’s tears tapered off, her breathing getting more regular.

“S-sorry. Did I wake you up?” Sleipnir gave her a side-eyed look, hugging her around the shoulders.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re friends, right?” Maxie’s breath hitched again and she blinked rapidly to force back another wave of tears, looking at Sleipnir with a surprised smile.

“Yeah, I guess we kinda are, aren’t we?”

Maxie handed the cupcakes out during lunch. Gil had barely looked up from the book he was reading, though she wasn’t sure if it was because he was just that focused on what he was reading or because he was still upset about her writing a letter to Tarvek.  She hoped it was the first thing. Sleipnir and Theo had seemed surprised and excited by the cupcakes, which was awesome, and she had enjoyed the look on Zulenna and Lucinda’s faces when they didn’t get one. She’d handed most of the cupcakes out a little at random, based on how nice the other students had been recently. Mistress Von Pinn had a strange, pinched look on her face when presented with her own cupcake, but she probably wasn’t that big on sweets. She seemed the type. Now she was just down to the cupcakes for Auntie Lia and a few of the jägers who’d helped with taste-testing as she walked down the hallways purposefully, hoping to find her quickly before the lunch hour was over.. A bright green hand reached over her shoulder to grab a cupcake off the plate and she made a wordless noise of protest, slapping at the offending hand with the hand that wasn’t holding the plate.

“Hoy! Those are special! ”

“Ho, dey are? Hy’m sorry, hy didn’t realize!” Maxie turned around, laughing from surprise.

“Auntie Lia! You startled me. Sorry, I thought you were one of the other jägerkin. That actually is for you.”

“Hy vould hope zo, giffen all de taste-testing. Happy birthday, keed.” Lia fluffed Maxie’s hair up with the hand not holding a cupcake, her toothy grin comforting.

“Thank you! I should get these to your friends too, they all helped taste-test. Except Grigori, he had one last night.”

“Vat, no time to talk vit hyu auntie? Juzt going to rush avay?”

“I gotta finish up before lunch hour is done or Mistress Von Pinn won’t be happy….” She fidgeted unhappily, tugging on a piece of her hair. Lia laughed.

“Howzabout Hy give de knuckleheads hyu cupcakes, and hyu take de time to help me get hyu birthday present?” Maxie’s jaw dropped.

“You don’t have to get me anything! I promise, I’m just happy you remembered.”

“Nonsense! Vat kind of auntie dun get her darlink niece a birthday present? Especially on a birthday az beeg az ten? Dot’s a whole decade, hyu know.” Maxie set the plate of cupcakes down, swallowing against a lump in her throat, and threw her arms around Lia in a hug.

“Dun be too excited yet. Iz a jäger-style present. Hyu need a hat. ” Maxie stepped back and looked at Lia quizzically.

“Step vun: put dis on.” Lia produced a package from under her own hat, offering it to Maxie who regarded it with suspicion.

“Why’re there multiple steps? Can’t we just get a hat?”

“Nope! C’mon, Hy’ll trade hyu for de cupcakes.” Maxie handed the cupcake plate over warily.

“Auntie Lia? This is a helmet.” Lia nodded, looking rather like the cat that had caught the canary.

“ Why do I need a helmet?”

“Hyu vant to find out?”

“Oh my gosh yes.” Maxie jammed the helmet on her head and buckled it, cackling eagerly.

During dinner, Maxie attracted more than her fair share of stares. In the other students’ defense, she had been half an hour late to come back from lunch hour, down her upper left canine (thankfully, it had already been loose), with the addition of a dark green hat that looked suspiciously similar to Sergeant Scorp’s, complete with the symbol of the Vespiary Squad. Mistress Von Pinn had lectured her for what seemed like ages after class was up, too, but Maxine had held onto the hat stubbornly. Of course she got interrogated about it over dinner, the story had to be fascinating.

“She actually threw you at the Sergeant?!” Theo’s jaw dropped and Maxie smiled at him smugly.

“I mean, yeah, it seemed like the best way to take him by surprise. It was wicked.”

“Wicked?”

“Um, English slang. It means something’s really cool, or sometimes that it’s very something?”

“Oh. So that’s what knocked the tooth out?”

“Weeeeelllll…. The sergeant didn’t knock it out. That’d be me flubbing the landing and hitting my face on the wall.”

Theo laughed uproariously, and Maxie smiled back.

“Are you gonna keep it?” Gil asked.

“Yeah! He was really cool about it, he said I won it fair and square, but Mistress Von Pinn is still super mad, I think she’s gonna murder Auntie Lia if she does something like this again, or at least catches her.” Sleipnir cleared her throat to get Maxie’s attention and she turned her head, her hair thwapping Gil across the face.

“Yeah Sleipnir?” The redhead reached across the table and smeared a pat of butter across Maxie’s nose and Maxie went quiet, going crosseyed to look at her nose.

“Hey, don’t be mean, it’s her birthday!” Gil protested. Sleipnir rolled her eyes at him, shrugging her shoulders awkwardly.

“To help you slide through the next year, right?” Maxie’s throat felt tight as she nodded, smiling at Sleipnir.

“Yeah. Yeah, thanks.”

Chapter Text

Maxine had woken up to a silent room, which was an alarming change when she’d woken up several times in the night to Sleipnir coughing or sniffling. More alarming was the nurse she’d run into not three steps outside her bedroom door, who’d politely but firmly taken her by the arm and informed her classes were canceled, voice muffled through a facemask. Maybe panicking and pulling her arm through the hand holding her wasn’t necessary, but she was startled. The nurse’s eyes had gone wide but Maxie had sheepishly gone back and offered her hand to the nurse with an apology and followed her meekly and silently to the medical area, where she’d been sat down on an exam table and told to wait, the office door cracked open.
Time seemed to drag on as she stared at the clock, glancing through the open door and watching various medical staff all walking around the area, talking to each other in low voices as they seemed to go in and out of other exam rooms, and eventually she got bored with just sitting there and hopped to the ground, pulling some tongue depressors out of the jar and attempting to create a structure rather like a house of cards on the counter from sheer boredom. She got so absorbed in her stacking and leaning it came as a surprise when the door finally opened and she jumped guiltily, sending her tower toppling down as she glanced over at the nurse, a short and rotund woman who seemed almost grandmotherly.

“Good morning honey, it’s nice to see you! I’m Nurse Bachman, I’ll be checking you over. Do you think you could sit back down on the exam table for me? Let me take your temperature?” Maxie regarded the nurse warily, crossing her arms defensively.

“Why couldn’t I go to class? What’s going on?”

“There’s a pojar outbreak. Most of the students are already showing some symptoms. You didn’t have a fever when we checked earlier without a thermometer, but your roommate did. We don’t want it to spread more, though most of the students have been exposed already, so no classes.” Maxie frowned, pulling herself up to sit on the table again and facing the nurse. She was so much more fluent than she’d been when she first got here but every now and then she’d hear a word she had no translation for.

“What’s, uh. What’s pojar? I don’t know that word.” The nurse gave her a stern look, shaking the thermometer at her after wiping it off with a cotton square she’d dampened with alcohol.

“Open up and let me take your temperature and I’ll try and explain, okay?” Maxie’s mouth snapped shut and she regarded the thermometer warily. She hated having to hold the thermometer under her tongue, she ended up gagging half the time.

“Do I have to hold it in my mouth? I don’t want to.” The nurse gave her a distinctly unimpressed look.

“No, it’s not optional.” Reluctantly, Maxie opened her mouth and held the thermometer in place, doing her best not to gag and breathing in slowly through her nose. Hopefully this would be over fast. “Pojar causes a cough, red rash and a fever. Your eyes might itch as well, or you might have a runny nose. I believe the English word is measles? It’s very contagious, so it’s important we keep this contained.” Maxie raised her eyebrows, which shifted the thermometer and made her gag. She took another deep inhale, trying to keep her breathing steady.

“Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be too bad this far, and you students aren’t likely to have any complications, but the better monitoring we have the better the odds are.” Maxie nodded, then gagged again, this time hard enough to make her stomach lurch. Hastily, she pulled the thermometer out of her mouth.

“Measles though? That still… um, that still happens to people? How?”

“I believe it was brought aboard by an airman who’d come back from leave. Now put the thermometer back in.” Maxie shook her head rapidly, crossing her arms in front of her, one hand still holding the thermometer.

“I can’t catch measles so I’m fine and I don’t need you to take my temperature, honest.”

“You’ve already had it?” Nurse Bachman gave her an appraising look, probably trying to judge how much she trusted a ten year old.

“No?” Maxie swung her feet, bouncing them off the wooden sides of the exam bench alternately. “I’m immune because I got a shot from my doctor at home.”

“And this immunization was effective?” Nurse Bachman seemed skeptical. 

“Nobody I knew at home who got the shot ever caught measles?” Maxie gave the nurse a hopeful look, holding the thermometer out to her. The nurse plucked it from her open palm and shook it for a moment as she shook her head.

“Interesting as that is to hear, I do need to finish this examination before I can consider letting you go back to your room or to anywhere besides the student areas.” Maxie groaned, which the nurse took as an opportunity to put the thermometer back in her mouth.
“It’s not like that airship crash happened to preserve your medical records, Miss Murry, and besides, you may only be immune to a different variety, given the English environment. Just breathe deep, okay? Through the nose. It should only be about two minutes.” Maxie gave Nurse Bachman a wounded look.

“Don’t give me that, young lady. The sooner you cooperate, the sooner this is done.”

Maxie finally managed to escape the examination what felt like hours later. She had a clean bill of health and a bandage on her arm where she’d had blood drawn to test if she was immune to as many things as she knew she was. Now she just needed to find something to do that wasn’t sitting alone in an empty room, reading a book, and she was pretty sure she had a good idea what that should be.

“Mistress Von Pinn?” Maxie did her best to stand up straight, fidgeting with a ribbon she’d wrapped around her fingers and pausing in the hallway outside her room. The blonde construct looked vaguely surprised that Maxie had spoken up instead of simply going in her room.

“Yes, Miss Murry?” Oh dear. Was that an annoyed-but-trying-to-be-patient tone, or a busy-but-willing-to-listen tone? Too late now to pretend she didn’t say anything, she might as well go ahead assuming it was the second.

“Um… I know everyone is sick and you’re trying to bring around lessons and make sure nobody is getting into trouble and stuff, and I guess bringing people back to their rooms after the doctors check them out, but I can’t get sick and I don’t wanna just sit in my room and I’ll be lonely without Sleipnir so I was wondering if maybe I could help you? I could, um, carry the books or food or something?” Von Pinn seemed to consider for a moment.

“Please? I don’t just want to sit around all day, I want to help, and I used to do this when my little siblings were sick at home so I probably won’t get in your way.” Maxie crossed her fingers behind her back hopefully as Mistress Von Pinn seemed to consider it before she shook her head.

“Aw, Mistress Von Pinn, come on, I wanna help! Please?”

“Yes, well. While your desire to assist me is admirable, Miss Murry, you don’t cease to be a potential carrier just because you cannot become sick. You are to stay in the dormitory common area and avoid the quarantined students.”

“Oh come on! That’s not fair, please? I’ll wash my hands really well and everything.” Maxie stomped her foot indignantly.

Mistress Von Pinn raised an eyebrow.

Maxie fixed her posture and ducked her head apologetically. “Sorry ma’am…”

“So… if I can't help, who else is okay? I know Sleipnir’s sick, but who else is? Theo? Zulenna? Oh, is Dennys sick? He’s already getting over that cough, right? Catching measles would be really bad for him, right? And Gil wasn’t there for dinner last night and he missed fencing entirely, he didn’t even sit out like I have to, is he sick?”

Mistress Von Pinn shot Maxie a look and she paused sheepishly, letting the construct get a word in edgewise. She was probably on the verge of getting in big trouble.

“Yes, the majority of the students are ill. The infected students are staying in the infirmary to better be monitored. All other students that haven’t shown symptoms and haven’t had measles before are confined to their rooms until either the incubation period has passed or they show symptoms. Now to your room, Miss Murry. I believe there’s a letter waiting for you.”

“There is?!” Tarvek's letter must have finally arrived! "Okay, thank you Mistress Von Pinn, I'll go right in and not bother anyone, I promise!" 

Maxie fumbled for the door handle and she scanned the papers on her desk for the letter as soon as she closed the door behind her. It didn’t take long- it was in a rather nice envelope, on top of a small package wrapped in brown paper. She couldn’t help but gasp in excitement, flapping her hands for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and carefully opened up the bright red seal.

To Maxine Murry-
Congratulations on your birthday, and the fortuitous discovery of a relative, as unfortunate as it may be that said relative is a jagermonster. I am sure that came as some relief. I am advancing in my studies to the satisfaction of myself and my parents. Anevka and I are getting along as well as any siblings, I suppose.
Rembrandt is as well as can be expected, though it took him the better part of the month to adapt to Mother’s cat once more. I am currently reading a book on the lesser-known Sparks who worked alongside Van Rijn and his apprentices during Andronicus’ reign. I hope you enjoy the gift.
-Prince Aaronev Tarvek Sturmvoraus, of Sturmhalten

Well. He’d answered her questions, mostly. It was just… that was all he’d done. Maybe he was stressed? He had to be, right? He’d been sent home unexpectedly and his parents were probably mad he got caught, and- this had to be worse than even the silent treatment Gil had given Tarvek in the story. She ripped open the box, finding three little bags labeled ‘Candied Fish’. Ew. She flopped down on her bed and popped one of them in her mouth anyway. Huh. Salty-sweet enough she could barely taste the fish part. In the story, Gil and Tarvek had made up around now, right? She remembered everyone getting sick in the story, so they had to spend a lot of time together in their room. But now Tarvek wasn’t there. And Gil probably had meas- oh. Maxie grabbed the two unopened bags of candied fish, a notebook, and some writing utensils. She needed to find Gil as fast as possible.

There were jägers at the door of the lab, which was good for her, because if it had been humans or the lackya she never would have even found the lab, let along gained access. She just had to tell a jäger it was part of her job and they’d point her in the right direction. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

The lab smelled like lemons, iodine, and low tide. Gross. Her nose wrinkled involuntarily as she glanced around. There was a tank in the corner filled with a weird blue gel that seemed to be empty of any subjects, an island with Bunsen burner that was currently unlit, a microscope and some test tubes with liquids of various colors, a lab table covered end to end in papers, and- there. A human sized tank that seemed to be filled with water and three lobsters resting at the bottom, with Gil on the other side of the tank. She met his eyes awkwardly and held the notebook and candied fish out.

“I brought you these?” She should have planned for this. She had enough time before now- she just. She forgot. How could she forget this was coming?

“Put them on the table over there. I’ll look at them later.” There was a strange edge to Gil’s voice she couldn’t quite recognize- it was deeper somehow, or maybe more resonant, and it almost made the hair on the back of her neck raise up- and she complied with his directions in a flash.

“Now put some gloves on and come get the lobster with the purple bands on its claws out, I need to check the results on my latest blood test.” Maxine grabbed the gloves and pulled them on, grabbing a step stool and dragging it next to the take while Gil hopped down from his own step stool and started to prepare a slide from one of the tubes.

“Where should I put it? Won’t it try and move?”

“Just hold it for me, I’m busy.” Maxine reached in the tank and grabbed the lobster instead of asking any more questions.

“Put it on the scale, the hanging one, and read his weight off to me.”

“Got it. Um… five-point-four kilograms, I think? It’s wobbling between that and five-point-three.”

At that point she slipped into an easy rhythm with Gil. This was- she was caught up, but it was fun. They were moving together like a well oiled machine, and she had no clue how much time was passing. It could have been five minutes, or it could have been five hours. The lobster was strapped to a table, Gil was doing something to its’ legs that not only made her squeamish, but hurt her eyes to look at, and he snapped out an instruction she couldn’t quite understand. He needed… something, and also the small set of clamps. Or maybe he needed only the small set? She took a wild guess and handed him one of the tools.
Gil glanced at the clamps he’d been handed with a disgusted expression and whirled on Maxie frustratedly.

“I said a fifteen percent solution of growth hormone, not the clamps! I need those later!! Are you stupid or something?!” Maxie shrank back, her eyes burning with tears.

“N-no, you just were talking fast, and I didn’t-”

“It was simple directions! What kind of minion are you anyway?” The sparky harmonics to his voice rang in her ears almost painfully.

“I’m trying my best, it’s just-”

“Just what, Maxie?” The sneer in his voice hit her like a slap. She hated, hated, hated when people talked at her like this.

“I was doing my best, but you weren’t speaking clearly and I didn’t understand you and I guessed because I knew I heard you said clamps! I’m trying to help you even though I don’t have to and I’m not stupid! So SHUT UP!” Gil seemed surprised and Maxie angrily swiped her hand across her face. She hated crying like this.

“Wait, why are you crying?” Gil seemed to have left the madness place and instead seemed confused.

“Because I’m mad, stupid! I was trying to help you and you just yelled at me even though you know I don’t understand everything yet and you were using weird words and talked too fast and gave me too many directions at once!” Maxie crossed her arms in front of her chest angrily, planting her feet obstinately and trying to act like she wasn’t still crying a little.

Gil set his jaw mulishly, crossing his own arms and stomping in frustration.
“Yeah, well, if you can’t understand me maybe you shouldn’t be in my lab! Now everything’s all screwed up and my experiment is running behind!”

“Maybe I shouldn’t!! Or maybe, maybe, you shoulda been nicer if you wanted help!” Maxie waved her arms around angrily, her Romanian vocabulary escaping her and she inhaled sharply, which lead to a humiliating hiccupy sob. If Romanian wasn’t working, maybe she’d just give Gil a taste of his own medicine. English would be easier anyway.

“Good luck being any faster without me here to help hand things to you and play fetch! Or- or whatever you want to call it! I’m trying and trying and trying and I hate it when people think I’m dumb, and I thought you didn’t! I thought you knew! But you don’t, apparently, because all I had to do was screw up once and you started insulting me!” Gil looked confused and wrongfooted. Perfect.

“Yeah, see, that’s how I feel almost all the time! It sucks when you can’t keep up, doesn’t it?!”
Maxie crossed her arms, stamped her foot, and stormed out of the room.

“Maxie! Maxie, wait!”

She slammed the door behind her. Now that she’d dropped out of that rhythm with Gil, she realized she was almost uncomfortably hungry, she was tired, and worst of all, she couldn’t stop crying. At least Gil was smart enough to not follow her. Or he was just staying with his stupid project that Tarvek was supposed to be the one helping him build. She found a corner of the hallway and sat down to try and clear her head. Stupid Gil. Stupid Tarvek. Stupid Baron, not telling her things that were going on with Gil. She just… needed a minute. Just a minute longer… Maxie drifted off.