Cinder opened the door to the bathroom in the hotel room she shared with Iko. They were staying at a nice hotel in Hawaii, where Kai had offered to take her with him to relax and get away from all of his emperor duties for a week. Well, not completely, because he still got comms and private meetings on his portscreen all the time. Cinder sighed and turned on the shower. It felt good to let the hot water run over her skin. She unwrapped a package of one of those free hotel bath soaps and cleaned herself thoroughly, remembering that time in the sewer with Thorne. She turned the water off when she was done, and made a mental note to take the soap and shampoo with her.
Stepping onto the fuzzy bathmat spread across the tiled white floor, Cinder toweled herself off carefully, making sure to dry all her metal joints so they didn't rust, and wrapped herself up in a towel before heading out of the bathroom to retrieve her clothes. She went back in again.
Cinder slipped into her new pair of black yoga pants. They were a bit too tight for her taste when she and Iko had gone shopping the day before for new clothes, but Iko had convinced her that she had a beautiful figure and that they fit her nicely. She then put on a light green and light blue striped tank top, which she decided she loved. Jewelry came last; she fastened a pair of light blue studs onto her earlobes and a rhinestone-covered bracelet. A crescent moon necklace hung around her neck.
Cinder ran a brush hurriedly yet kind of carefully through her dark hair, glancing over her reflection in the tiny, smudge-covered mirror that had obviously been touched too much and no amount of cleaning could erase the marks.
She still couldn't believe she was Princess Selene. Satisfied, she opened the bathroom door to leave.
Iko stood in front of her when she opened the door, as if she had been waiting there for Cinder to emerge.
"Oh, stars, Cinder, you look fabulous! I wish I were you right now." the little android gushed, her metal grippers grasped together in awe. "Oh, no wonder Kai wants to date you." she added.
"We're not DATING, Iko." Cinder muttered. The orange light of her lie detector flashed in the corner of her vision. Ikr still remained excited.
"Are you sure? He brought you here, to Hawaii, ONLY to get away from his emperor duties? He could've done that without you."
Cinder just pressed her lips together. "I guess my relaxed personality is contagious, and I instantly calm others down." she snorted sarcastically before heading to the door. Yeah, right. When was she ever calm? "Bye, Iko!"
"Okay, well tell me all about your date with the Prince later! Bye!" Iko waved as Cinder shut the door to their room, room 4032.
Cinder walked in the velvet-carpeted narrow hotel hallway, passing the noisy Ice machine and many rooms before she reached the two shiny silver elevators.
She pressed the little down arrow and waited for the elevator to arrive; a small clock claimed the time in Hawaii to be 4:30 in the evening. She was now used to the time in Hawaii, having been very jet-lagged when she had arrived the day before.
The elevator opened. A little elderly Woman smiled as Cinder got in. The woman had already pressed the lobby button. Cinder stood there awkwardly. She had half-expected to see Kai in the elevator, even though he and Cinder had agreed to meet up in the lobby. She remembered the time in the palace when she and Kai had been in the elevator, and had almost kissed. Her heart fluttered as she stepped into the lobby. She scanned the room for Kai, and found him, smiling next to a big potted plant beside the information desk. Oh, he was so gorgeous. Cinder walked over, her heart fluttering wildly.
"There you are, Cinder!" Kai smiled a breathtaking smile. She was glad to see he was in a lime green Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, and that she wasn't too casually dressed.
"Sorry I'm a few minutes late." Cinder returned his grin. "Iko was chattering away." she would've blushed, if she was capable.
"Ah." Kai chuckled. "It's fine. Well, we might want to get going. I told them we'd be there at 5:00."
Kai opened the door for her as they left the building.
"Where are we going?" she asked, as they walked along the side of the road.
"You'll see soon enough." A sparkle of amusement glittered in his eyes. "I don't know if I like surprises." Cinder glanced in the windows of the stores they passed, usually displaying mannequins with bathing suits on and various beach items, even though Hawaii had only a few beaches that were all rock-filled.
Kai turned down a small street and came to a house, a large, open house. They walked across a tiny tiled floor bridge that led over some water. Inside, there was a big Living room to the right, with a long, narrow table set for two behind it, but there was no wall in the back and it opened onto a big, white floor surrounded by grass with a pool in the middle. There were a few benches, and many bushes and flowers ran around it. To the left of that was a tiny little mini beach that led into water, where a small rowboat was waiting. Lights were strung all around. "Oh, thank you. This is just magnificent!" Cinder told him, as an employee escorted them to the table and two others came and set plates in front of them: Lasagna and green beans.
"Oh, this is one of my favorites!" Cinder gasped. "How did you know?"
"It's one of my favorites, too." Kai looked surprised. "Well, Bon Appetit."
Cinder speared some of her beans onto her fork and ate them slowly, thinking.
"Hey, are we going in that boat after dinner?"
"Yes. This place is teeming with workers. I'd like to get away and have some peace and quiet, wouldn't you?"
"That sounds nice. The hotel is quiet, until the little toddlers next door wake up and start running around." Cinder sighed. She finished with her beans and moved onto her lasagna. "Sorry. If there was a room with the guarantee of no noisy neighbors, I would've chosen it for you." Kai cut his pasta and twirled it around with his spoon before putting it in his mouth.
"It's alright. I love the hotel room, it came with a free soap, shampoo, chocolate, and those drinks in the fridge that you THINK are free, but you actually have to pay for them if you drink them and there's no sign whatsoever telling you that." Cinder was done eating before he was; she had always been a fast eater, not a pig, but she had always finished first. "Mm, yeah. And the pillows?" Kai wondered.
"Not too hard, not too fluffy. Just right."
"Are you trying to quote Goldilocks?" "Maybe. I SHOULD be quoting Cinderella." Cinder grinned.
Kai smiled. It was getting later. They were both done with their meals, and waved away the desserts. They stood up from the table, and Kai surprised her by holding her hand, her cyborg hand. She hoped her metal fingers weren't that cold.
Prince Kai led her down to the small beach, where he stayed on the shore while she stepped into the white painted rowboat, and pushed them off, away from the beach. He jumped in at the last second, and took care of the oars. Cinder felt annoyingly useless watching him do all the work, but she didn't know the first thing about rowing. Instead, she dipped her human finger in the darkening water, dragging it along, leaving ripples on the surface. Kai stopped rowing and took both of her hands in his. They watched the sunset in the sky, the pale oranges, yellows, and pinks, like sherbet up in the sky. "It's so beautiful." Kai and Cinder said in unison, then smiled at each other. As the sun began to sink lower and lower beneath the horizon, Kai leaned forward, close to her. He tilted her chin up with his fingers, and before she knew it, he was kissing her.
She kissed back, and the kiss seemed to last for a long time, even though it was only like 5 seconds. He wiped a strand of her dark hair away from her face.
"I love you." He said, his voice warm, not sounding like the businesslike Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth at all. More like the young Prince he was when he and Cinder first met.
"I love you too." Cinder replied. "Without Nainsi, I probably would've never met you in person." she smiled, referring to when Kai had first come to her stall in the market in New Beijing, hoping to get her to fix his beloved android. She was an excellent mechanic, after all. Kai nodded as he began to row back to shore.
When they got off the boat, it was dark, but still as warm as it had been in the daytime. Good old Hawaii, hot 24/7. They thanked the workers and walked back to the hotel, cyborg hand in human hand. Kai was getting used to her Cyborg-ness.
They made it to the lobby really fast. She bid him goodnight and took the elevator back up to level 4, tingling with happiness. Her body didn't threaten to do an automatic overheating shutdown, though.
She got back to the room and realized she hasn't taken the room key with her, so she knocked on the door.
Ikr answered it with a smile.
"Cinder! How did it go?" she asked, as Cinder closed the door behind her and kicked her leather boots off. "Good."
"Did you two have fun?" Iko asked eagerly.
Cinder smiled."Yeah. He took me to a nice rental house near the water, which he had reserved for the two of us."
Cinder got into her pajamas and climbed into bed, happy thoughts running through her head. Iko squealed in delight.
"He's so nice. Good night, Cinder."
"Yeah, he is. Good night, Iko."