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As Cress tiptoed down through the crew's quarters towards the kitchen, she heard a loud thump along with a muttered "Stars above!" coming from Thorne's room. Although she didn't want Thorne to think she was eavesdropping, she forced herself to turn around and see what he was doing. She tentatively knocked her tiny hand on the steel door three times, and before she decided to scurry off the door opened and Thorne stood, looking right at her, or at least he was trying to. A big smile was spread across his devilishly handsome face, and Cress blushingly noticed that he hadn't shaved yet; he still had a little stubble which Cress though made him look even more handsome then his usual clean-shaven chin.

"Cress! Come over here, I need to show you something." He sat down on his unmade bed, waving her over.

"How did you know it was me, Captain?" Asked Cress, timidly walking through the doorway into Thorne's chambers, eyeing the tiny bottle of liquid on Thorne's nightstand.

Thorne laughed. "No one else walks on tiptoe around here, or knocks. Especially Cinder."

Cress was slightly disheartened, but she didn't want her voice to show it. She sometimes imagined that he could sense her nearby, even though he couldn't see her. She know that her hope that they were connected somehow as a result of their time in the dessert was irrational, but the sappy romantic in her kept clinging onto the belief that he felt so too.

"What did you need to show me?" She asked.

"Well," Thorne started, fiddling with the small bottle, "I was hoping that maybe you could help me with the eye drops that, you know, your-I mean, Dr. Erland gave me."

Cress almost winced at the sound of her dead father's name, but she caught herself just in time. She didn't want to burden him with her problems; as much as she wanted to curl up into his arms and tell him everything she was feeling, she decided that he was far to busy with his own.

"Of course, Captain."

He grinned with that irresistible smile once again, wiggling his eyebrows with a look that Cress secretly thought had the same kind of magic as the old net-drama stars, yet somehow better. "Of course, when I'm back to my full eyesight, I don't think you'll be able to withstand the penetrating glance of my full charming charisma."

Despite the fact that it felt wrong every time she thought it, Cress couldn't help but be relieved that he couldn't see her blushing as red as a tomato. She held her hand out for the bottle, but then realized he couldn't see her hand. Then, with a burst of confidence she didn't know she had, she stepped closer to him, a few inches away from where he sat on his bed. As she took the bottle from his hand, she thought she felt a spark of electricity through his fingers, and, daring to look up at his face (even when he sat down he was taller than her), she speculated that she saw in his dreamy eyes she same kind of look that she gave him when she believed he wasn't looking. But it was gone in a flash, and he let go of her hand to let her administer the drops.

"Hold still" She warned, and placed her hand lightly on his shoulder, with the other above his right eye.

Noticing that Cress was alluringly close to him, Thorne teased, "Aces Cress, you should probably buy me dinner first." When Cress didn't respond at first (as a result of her superhuman effort to control her imagination), Thorne laughed uncomfortably, which made Cress think that maybe he wasn't exactly joking.

If you want me to continue this story, please let me know in the comments!