Cinder pushed herself out from under Rampion's engine, wiping accumulated grease off of her hands and onto her clothes, her mind flashing back to before all this began, and she was just a simple cyborg mechanic, with a controlling stepmother and her old Iko by her side. She even missed her too tight metal foot and the shunning looks from neighboring storekeepers.

It was weird to think that that was her normal life.

That was her happy life.

What total bullshit.

She walked around the spaceship like a nighttime security guard, securing the perimeter. She wasn't ready to let her guard down yet apparently. How could she be? She was a fugitive. If she wanted to get out of this mess alive, she could never let her guard down.

It was dark in most of the rooms of the ship, save for the captain's port and the kitchen where Scarlet and Wolf still stood, shamelessly giggling and flirting despite everything happening around them.

Cinder walked into one of the barracks and slumped onto the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, wriggling to the corner and wrapping her arms around her legs, engulfed in cold darkness. She stared into the black depth for a long time as thoughts stormed her mind, bombarding her with unwanted visions of a dystopian nightmare, a world ruled by the Lunar Queen because of Cinder's failure. Even just the thought of that happening seemed to send the rooms temperature down a few degrees and she shuddered with the frigid thoughts coursing through her veins.

As her night vision began to kick in, Cinder started making out the silhouettes of the few objects in the barren barrack; a nightstand, the legs of the other identical bunk bed across the room, a lamp that had burned out long before Thorne had ever stolen the ship, accompanied by a rugged second era bible.

The air stung her watering eyes, reminding her that she hadn't blinked in a long time. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall, but her eyes wouldn't stop watering, hot tears pricking at her lash line.

Then she realized that she was crying.

She was legitimately crying, one tear after another. No. You don't fucking have time for this, Cinder. Get yourself together.

The entire population of Earth is depending on you.

Believe it or not, that only made her tears fall faster. She sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Fuck," she muttered to the shadows.

"Cinder?" a voice called from the darkness.

She couldn't see anyone there, and she knew it wasn't Iko.

Suddenly a head popped down from the bunk above her. Out of pure shock, fear, and her on edge vulnerability, Cinder let out a scream that could have been deafening, but faltered into more of a whimper, since her voice was cracked and dry, and threw a pillow at the unknown shadowed monster.

The pillow simply fell to the floor with a soft thud and the shadowed monster used their arms as leverage and swung down to her bunk, sitting next to her.

Cinder could make out a chiseled jaw line and his crystalline blue eyes sparked for a moment as he studied her. It was Thorne.

A shadowed monster? What was I thinking? Am I really so delirious?

"Cinder? Are you-Wait, are you crying?" Her heightened night vision and the small amount of light that there was helped her capture a look of concern on his face, but an eyebrow was raised quizzically, almost comically, assuring her that he wasn't entirely distressed.

She turned away, though it didn't matter much since she was sure he could barely see her anyways. She wiped away another tear that had accidentally escaped. "No," she lied blatantly.

"I know you think I am, but I'm not stupid, princess." Cinder could feel him flashing a small smile at her but there was a dash of hurt in his voice, because he knew she didn't believe him. But she did. Yes, he was obnoxious and narcissistic, but he was smart and handy, more than she gave him credit for. Without him, she wouldn't have made it as far as she had.

She winced and tried to hug herself into the wall. "Don't call me that."

"I don't-oh." He faltered. Then she realized he hadn't called her Princess, as in Princess Selene. Just princess. Like a term of endearment. Cinder let out a small, bitter snicker to mask her anguish.

They were silent for a moment, which is something that rarely happened within such a close radius with Thorne. It was nice, compared to him talking. Cinder found it slightly awkward though, and was sure Thorne felt the same way. At that very moment, he was probably wracking his brain for some half hearted joke to fill the silence.

But instead of an apathetic joke about the Lunars or the weird hybrid wolf men or Scarlet's flaming red hair, his arm wrapped around her and he pulled her closer to him, making her abandon the wall she had been trying to meld into. She buried her face into his chest and began weeping like a hysterical little girl. She tried to stop, refusing to take solace in Thorne's uncomfortable comforting, but couldn't. Of course. Once you start crying, you can't stop until you're literally too dehydrated to cry anymore. That's how it usually worked.

Thorne's hand raked gently through Cinder's tangled mess of hair. "It's going to be okay," he said simply. Affectionate, but simple. Neither of which described Thorne.

Well, simple did, actually. To her, at least, Thorne was really simple, a well oiled rig, with moving gears comprised of charm and charisma and a weird, alluring bewitchery that some girls (most girls) found attractive.

"No, it's not. Nothing is going to be okay. Levana is too powerful for me, Luna is too strong for us. Their hybrids will destroy us, and there's worse to come, I just know it. Queen Levana will control us, and it's all because of me. It's all my fault. Every fucking-" she halted.

What was she doing?

Venting?

To Thorne?

She silenced herself with a quiet mumble and pulled away from him, wiping her eyes. Thorne let go of her hair and sat in silence with her again. She expected him to leave. He'd tried his best. That's all you can do, right?

But he didn't. "Cinder, I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," she muttered.

"I have so many things to be sorry for. I haven't exactly been the best-"

"Don't even. Don't even say that. You have been the best to me. You've been better to me than anyone ever has. You've done more for me than you should have. And honestly, you should have left a long time ago. Because I'm afraid I've put you in a really dangerous place, and that there might be no getting out now."

"Who said I wanted to leave, princess?" he teased. Cinder could practically feel him winking.

"I don't want you to die because of me."

"I would never die because of you. I would die for you," he replied seriously. He could sense her disbelief. "I mean it, Cinder. I have nothing better to do with my life. I'm a fugitive. Do you honestly think I want to go back to my old life of being a cadet, even if I could? No, not after being here with you. Things are just better with you, even if the situation seems bad. And if it's this much better in this situation? Well, it has to be fucking amazing in a good situation. And I think I'd be willing to die for that."

Cinder tried to get over the shock of him not constantly joking, and failed miserably. She tried to push it out of her mind; she was afraid her system would overheat and she would shut down completely, which is really not what she needed right then. They sat in silence for yet another moment (these long pauses were beginning to severely unnerve her) while Cinder processed everything he had said.

"How about you don't die at all?" she finally countered.

An arm still around her shoulder he pulled her over to him again and kissed the top of her head. Cinder waited for a snarky remark about her dirty hair but was met only with a soft murmur. "I'll try my best."

She sniffled, let out a weak laugh, and subconsciously tried to smooth her hair. "I'm a mess. Always have been; always will be." Except now her cluttered mind and messy life wouldn't simply result in a customer's broken android's memory chip being lost; now it would result in a nearly apocalyptic war and millions of lost lives and human-wolf hybrid overlords.

His hand came in contact with hers and he snaked his fingers in between hers. He let out a small snicker and squeezed her hand, fingers intertwined. "I wouldn't have guessed that when I first met you."

She repositioned herself so that she could look up at him. "Really?" she asked, amusement scattered across her face.

Cinder pulled his hand that held hers over her stomach and lowered her head onto his lap; a small twitch of a confusion and surprised smile crossing his face as a shocked stutter escaped. "Uh-uhm, well, yeah. When I first met you-"

"I jumped through your ceiling," Cinder recalled as she nodded her head back and giggled.

He let out a deep throated chuckle and continued. "You were an independent, smart, beautiful cyborg prison escapee who wouldn't fall prey to my irresistible charm."

She got caught on the word "beautiful" as she was reminded of her Lunar gift controlling him. "I was using my Lunar glamour on you," she admitted out loud, assuring herself he already knew. She paused, then raised an eyebrow skeptically. "You know that, right?" Cinder smiled a little to herself as more memories of their first meeting flooded back to her.

She hadn't been trying to use her glamour on him, really, but he was extremely obnoxious. She wasn't trying to appear more beautiful than she really was, she really wasn't, it was just an uncontrollable side effect of her glamour. (Though it didn't help her self esteem when she managed to stop the glamour and he asked,"Are you the same person who was just here? You were way prettier a minute ago.")

"You didn't need to," he responded.

Cinder looked up at him, a smirk of flustered amusement casting shadows over her face.

"Cinder, you are crazy, and stubborn, and tough, and mean, and you shot me with a tranquilizer dart-"

"You were pointing a gun to my head!"

"-but," he continued, eyeing her acutely, "you are the most beautiful Lunar cyborg wanted fugitive lost princess mastermind I have ever laid eyes on."

"How many Lunar cyborg wanted fugitive lost princess masterminds have you met?"

"Just you. Hey, I'm trying to give you a compliment. Give me a break, okay?"

Cinder sighed, swearing she could see her breath in the cold, dark, recycled air. "Thank you." She stopped, thinking for a few moments before correcting herself. "Thank you, Captain," she smiled.

Cinder found herself shivering under the blankets of the bitter shadows and the thoughtful gaze Thorne's arctic blue eyes, even though his hands were warm.

"You're cold," he pointed out.

"No, I'm not."

"You said the same thing when I asked if you were crying."

"Well, I wasn't."

"You obviously were."

"Shut up."

He was right though. She was crying. But now, lying in the dark, her eyes dry, she realized the crazy part wasn't that he had caught her crying. The crazy part was that he had helped her stop crying. Thorne. If someone had told her a day ago that Thorne would be her anchor in her mental breakdown, she would have never believed it.

"C'mon," he said, lifting himself of the bed. "You need sleep." He held his hand out.

Cinder began reaching her hand out, but was haunted by the reflection of scarce and scattered light on her metal hand and jerked it back, her body locking up.

Instead she refused and let out a small whine like a child refusing bedtime, which she kind of was. "No. No, I'm not tired, it's fine, I need to stay up and I need to clear my head, and I need to make a plan, and I need to make sure Scarlet and Wolf are okay, and speaking of that, are you okay? I mean, I shot you with a tranquilizer-"

Before she could say any more, Thorne bent over and lifted her up bridal style. Cinder squirmed in protest but her aching bones were far too weak to really fight him; after a mere few seconds she fell limp and groaned with turmoil. She felt almost self conscious with Thorne holding her. I mean, I'm made of metal. I have to be kind of heavy, right? she thought.

The blankets on the top bunk were balled up from when Thorne had been laying there, but he managed to smooth them out while still holding her and threw her down onto it with a small grunt. Cinder let out a whine as her sore body hit the uncomfortable spring mattress, but found herself taking some odd form of comfort in the fact that the bed was still warm from Thorne being there.

Thorne lifted the covers up to Cinder's chin but she kicks the covers off of her and crossed her arms in defiance. "Tuck me in all you want, Dad, I'm not going to sleep." She lifted her hands to her head and rubbed her temples; in a surprisingly quick change of tone she said softly, "I don't think I can."

Cinder turned her head to the side as Thorne stood on his toes to be face-to-face with her. He kissed her forehead; a gesture that would have been sweet but instead just left her beaming in awe. She gaped at him, but the gape soon contorted into an intoxicated smile of someone who was clearly sleep deprived.

"Just try to get some sleep," he whispered. He turned his back to her and began to walk out of the room when her arm reached out and caught him by the collar. He whipped around, startled. "Yeah?"

Cinder's arm snaked around his neck and pulled him close to her. Their faces just inches away from each other, she could feel his cold, perpetually minty breath waver as his eyes looked at her innocently, questioningly. Her own heart was racing, but in lurching and staggered beats; her heart was literally skipping. Cinder's choppy breath intake was halted as Thorne put both his hands on either side of her face and hungrily pushed his lips against hers.

That was him, always wanting to make the first move.

She didn't kiss him back, not at first, she was too petrified and dumbfounded. But soon she closed her eyes and found herself melting into the kiss, her lips melding with his, their tongues stuck in a mash-up of a duel and a dance, battling for dominance, just like their entire relationship. She'd never really kissed anyone before; not counting the forced trying-to -save-the-world kiss she'd had with Kai at the ball. And she liked this kiss much better. It was warm and made her shiver at the same time, like fire in love with ice.

He broke away from the kiss abruptly and studied her face, looking for any sign of what she was thinking, if he had done something wrong, if he had done something right, some sort of guidance, but found her eyes too exhausted and foggy to get a clear reading.

Until he heard her whisper.

Her whisper faltered at first, and was unnervingly quiet, like a ghost's breathing, but he heard it.

"Can, um-Can you stay?"

A flash of a wicked grin crossed his face in the dark room, and he, somehow gracefully, managed to jump onto the top bunk with her, one arm on each side of her, like he was in the push-up position.

What little light there was seemed to shine directly onto his teeth, causing them to gleam in a devilish smile that returned Thorne to his mischievous default setting.

"Thank you, Captain."

"No problem, Princess."