She was not meant to be there. It was not a place for a girl like her.

Still, the door of the fraternity house swung open, revealing at least 100 18-25 year olds milling about; those who didn't have a red solo cup had an uncapped beer instead.

No, this was not a place for a girl like her. She wasn't sure it ever would be.

"C'mon, Cinder!" Peony urged. She was a year and a half younger than Cinder, and only a freshman, but far more popular than the latter as a result of being a cheerleader. They were step sisters, but it was a well-kept secret, though a result of Cinder's fear of ruining Peony's popularity more than anything. Still, Peony insisted on involving Cinder in social events. It got irritable now and again.

"I think I should go home," she replied nervously. She could almost feel her prosthetic leg shaking naturally along with the rest of her body, stress hormones running rampant through her veins. "I think I'm getting a flare up."

Peony leveled a glare at her, pulling her through the doorway. "You took your medicine before we left, and you mentioned this morning that you were having one of your rare good days, AND you promised!"

Her younger step sister never did believe the excuse, though sometimes it was a legitimate one. Cinder cursed herself for crying wolf, knowing it wouldn't do her any good in the future, and resigned with a sigh, pushing on into the house.

As was expected, Peony found a small group of her friends and casually melted away toward them. Cinder found a spot in a corner of the room and moved there, observing. Always observing. It was a strong point of hers.

The first thing she noticed was how loud it was, the sound waves from the speakers seeming to vibrate through her very bones, and she couldn't even place the song. She pulled herself up atop the dresser that was carelessly placed against the wall, seeming to have no real purpose but to just take up space.

She kept her arms around herself. The second thing she noticed was him. He was almost always late to things, though she never noticed him showing up late to class. He was thr star quarterback of the college football team and 3.9 GPA Honors Student, so he was allowed to do things like that. Cinder knew nothing about football or sports, but she knew him from the Honors Program meetings and her Calculus II course. Kaito Hou was the most adored man on campus, and so far out of her universe that it didn't even matter that she harbored feelings for the sweet boy she'd known for two and a half years.

But of course, in a flourish, she came after him. She was always right behind him, because she could never manage to be right next to him.

The head cheerleader. The only person anyone would consider worthy of Kai's time. Levana Blackburn. Some jokingly referred to her as the Queen Bee, with her co-ed entourage following her everywhere, though some speculate that they really viewed her as a queen. The daughter of a congress member, she was quite popular, though not exactly liked. There was a difference.

If she could've, Cinder would've sunk further into herself. The only person she hated more than her step-mother, Adri, was Levana. Even in university, she had been made an easy target of ridicule. The girl with a fake leg - a result of a house fire that killed her birth parents. The girl with a chronic illness that sometimes left her confined to a wheelchair, but she was probably faking it, since "she walks just fine sometimes!" The awkward girl who was too smart for her own good. The freak. These things stopped outwardly bothering Cinder back in high school, but still tore her apart from time to time. Levana knew all the right buttons to push, though. Cinder figured she was a well-seasoned bully.

Cinder must have spaced out, because the next thing she knew, Peony was shoving a drink into her hand. "Come on, Iko is our DD tonight. You can have a little fun while we're here!"

Iko appeared next to her, perfectly sober but absorbing the chaotic atmosphere nonetheless. "Seriously. We only need one sober driver, so please don't ruin my night. If it were you instead, I'd already found a date for the evening!" Iko said with a wink, her slender body leaning over in a quick laugh, short cropped brown hair falling around her jaw in a lovely wisp. If not for it being her turn to be Designated Driver, there was no doubt that she'd already be three sheets to the wind. She'd gotten there before them, and had probably had just one beer to loosen up, and probably no more. Thankfully.

Cinder glanced at the red cup that was forcibly placed in her grip. The liquid looked more like a watered-down juice than anything, and perhaps it was, just not exactly with water. "What's in it?"

"Tequila and mango juice. Pikachu Tears, they called it. Whatever that means. Come on, live a little!" Peony urged. The pressure bothered Cinder a bit, but she knew her step-sister was only trying to help.

She took a drink. It was cool, trailed by heat. She stifled a cough. "That's not half bad, but I'm not sure I like tequila that much."

Iko giggled. "It's the tequila that doesn't like you. Or anyone, really. Finish that cup and you won't even feel the next one. It'll help you lighten up! You can make friends!"

Cinder clenched her jaw. "They'll just ignore me when they're sober." Even then, she took another gulp. Anything to make the anxiety dissipate.

Peony sighed and Iko groaned. "If you need anything, we'll be over here." Iko gestured to the opposite corner of the room. "Try not to disappear on us." The two walked away and Cinder sank back into her solace.

She watched from a distance as Levana and Kai exchanged words. Levana was always flirting with the boy who constantly turned her away, who remained expressionless throughout every conversation.

Sometimes, Cinder thought of his smile. The moments in which she noticed him noticing her were short and fleeting, but stars, did he have a beautiful smile. Perfect white teeth juxtaposed to his honeyed skin and thick, unkempt black hair that fell past his brow when he forgot to sweep it to the side or was deep in concentration. His smile made her heart soar, though she'd probably never admit it.

She listened to the two bicker from afar. Cinder had learned enough about her to know that when Levana was drunk, Levana was angry. She made a mental note not to let her notice that she, the biggest outcast, was there. She urged herself to become smaller as Levana and her entourage stormed away from Kai in a huff.

She studied Kai as he laughed it off with his friends, how it seemed as if their altercation hadn't bothered him, and it probably hadn't. She counted the steps between them, each a blade that would cut her if she moved even one more closer. But she must've stared too long and too hard, because he caught sight of her. And there was that smile again. Stars above, she could feel her face warming, and her eyes widened as he started making his way toward her, away from his friends, away from her comfort zone.

Cinder took a deep gulp of the mixed drink as he approached her, finishing off the cup. "Hey, you're Cinder, right?"

She nodded cautiously. "That's me."

He grinned. "I'm Kai!"

She nodded again. "I know... We've met before. A few times. We've done group projects together."

"I know, I just didn't know if you remembered."

How could she ever forget? "I see."

He seemed unmoved by her clear discomfort. "So what brings you here?"

"My friends dragged me," she replied, almost too quickly. "They told me I need to loosen up, so they made sure I wasn't the DD for once. I don't really want to be here. Not that it's a bad thing to want to party. Just that... just that it isn't my scene, is all. It's totally cool if it's yours, though!"

His smile never faltered as she rambled, and he remained attentive, chuckling in all the right places. "No, it's fine. It's cool that you're here, and it'd still be cool if you weren't."

She laughed nervously. "You're just being polite."

"Maybe." He shrugged, lazily gripping the red cup in his hand. "I can tell it's not your scene but, believe it or not, I'm kind of glad you're here."

"Bullshit." Cinder never cursed, but it seemed to be the only reply that fit.

"I'm serious!" He laughed again. "You seem really chill. It's nice to get to see you outside of an academic setting."

She threw a glance around the room. "Drinking with a bunch of college students isn't an academic setting?"

"I don't think I'd call it that," he said.

"Could've fooled me."

He laughed.

After a moment of silence between them, he leaned in. "So, what're you in for?"

"Biological Engineering," she replied. "You?"

"Pre-law."

"And you took an advanced calculus course because...?"

"I like math." He grinned. "It's universal and there's always a solution."

Cinder considered the statement. "Unless there isn't a solution."

"No solution is still a solution in math," he reminded her matter-of-factly. "I love it. Anyway, what're you doing with your super smart engineering degree?"

"Biological Engineering," she corrected. "I want to create prosthetics that can actually work with your nervous system. Basically creating a prosthetic that moves like a real body part, but isn't."

"That sounds impossible."

"I'd like to believe it isn't." She mindlessly tugged at her clothes, assuring that her pant legs covered her fake leg as much as possible.

He glanced down quickly enough to remember why it would be important for her, and offered a kind smile. "You definitely seem like the type of person who could get something like that done."

She looked down into the now-empty cup in her hand. Her head was swimming, but she felt just fine. It was nice. "Thanks."

"Cinder?"

She lifted her eyes to meet his. "Kai."

"Would you believe me if I told you I've had a massive crush on you since we first met at that Honors Program meeting?"

"No," she replied flatly, a bit taken aback by the way she so easily hid the way her heart jumped into her throat. "I'd tell you that you're drunk and should return to your friends before you make a mistake you'll regret in the morning."

"I'm DD tonight," he said with a smirk.

"What?"

"I haven't been drinking," he explained. "This is just soda. The guys wanted to have a good time and I just wanted to relax, especially with finals looming, yet here I am."

Cinder swallowed hard. "Then this must be some sort of prank."

She flinched as his warm fingers, rough from handling a football for so many years, brushed her hair behind her ear. "I may be a jock, but I'm not a liar."

She swatted his hand away. "You're being ridiculous, Hou."

"I see we've dropped the casual conversation, then." His lips curled downward in obvious disappointment. "C'mon, Linh. What'll it take to convince you?"

She tried to imagine herself anywhere but there, anywhere but there and having that conversation with that particular individual. She harrumphed. "Cyborg body parts, probably."

"Weren't you just mentioning that you feel those are possible?" he replied, his scowl mutating into a crooked smile. The third thing she noticed was the way it made her heart skip.

"Those are two completely different ideas. You and I aren't even in the same universe," she told him. She crossed her arms. "You should get back to your friends."

He heaved a sigh. "I'll see you around, Cinder."

She looked away and said nothing as he left, visibly upset with his shoulders slumped.

She didn't even get a moment of peace before she saw the entourage approaching her, Levana at its head, her anger as clear as a cloudless sky. Cinder hopped off the dresser and straightened her back, prepared to defend herself. Levana's expression only darkened. "And what were you doing talking to him?"

Stars, this was so high school. "We were only talking."

"Talking? Ha!" A shrill laugh rang from the pale woman in front of her. Peony and Iko noticed immediately. Cinder watched them approach as she tried to straighten her back impossibly more, but her view of the two was obstructed by another person. By Kai. "He only pities you, you know."

"Stop, Levana," he growled before Cinder could respond, grabbing her arm lightly.

Levana gave him a sideways glance. "This is none of your business, Kai."

Cinder wet her lips, wished she had another drink. "It is his business. Our conversation, however, was none of yours."

Levana quirked an eyebrow, her attention shooting back to Cinder. "Excuse me? I have a right to know what he was talking to some other girl about!"

"Last I heard, he still refuses to date you," she replied with a purse of her lips, her mind wondering why she was baiting Levana. She was better than this petty jealousy.

Levana drew the back of her hand across Cinder's face, and she could feel a long stiletto nail cut open a wound in her cheek, just below her left eye. "Watch yourself, bitch," Levana sneered, turning on her heel and walking off, but not before passing the most disgusted look she could muster to Kai.

Kai jumped in front of Cinder as soon as there was space and he wiped the trail of blood from her cheek. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay? If I knew she would've done that, I'd have-"

"Stop." Cinder smacked his hand away. Embarrassment was mounting in the form of a blush across her face, she could feel all eyes on her. "Don't touch me. I'm fine."

She could see Peony and Iko behind him, still on the other side of the room, gawking. In shock. Some friends they were, not seeing her discomfort and rescuing her themselves.

"Let me help you clean it up, at least," he offered.

She rolled her eyes. "Point me to a bathroom and I'll take care of it myself."

He was almost begging. "Cinder-"

"Fine!" She cut him off again, "Fine." She gestured to the arching exit of the room with a flourish of her arm. "After you." He turned away and began to walk, and she followed him, hating the way her awkward gait drew even more disgusted looks. She hugged herself, wishing she could make herself impossibly smaller.

He lead her around the groups of people, all chatting – no doubt about what'd just happened – and drinking something, and then up the stairs, down the hall, and to the left. The bathroom was rather spacious, and relatively nice and clean for one used solely by college boys.

Kai instructed her to sit on the counter, which she did reluctantly, and reached into the medicine cabinet, his hand retreating with peroxide, two cotton balls, and three butterfly bandages.

He cleaned the blood with one cotton ball. Cinder hated herself for her heart jumping at his touch. Warm. Gentle.

Perhaps loving. .

"This'll burn," he warned, soaking half the cotton ball in peroxide.

Cinder sucked in a dramatic breath. "I'm not sure I can handle it!"

Kai chuckled, touching the cut ever so slightly with the peroxide. She flinched, but it wasn't too bad. "Sorry," he muttered. "It'll only sting for a moment."

She studied him as he reached for the bandages, delicately pulling one of them from its wrap, the way he squinted at her cut as he dabbed it with the dry side of the cotton ball. His fingers were slightly calloused and rough, but she wondered what it'd be like to hold them inside of hers.

A silly, absurd, ridiculous thought.

"This might hurt just a bit," he warned again, picking up a bandage with one hand and using the other to push the skin on either side of her cut together. It did hurt a little, but it was nothing she hadn't already been used to. After sticking the 3rd one on, he took a step back and examined his work. "There, all better."

She lifted her hand to feel where the cut still stung and was met with the rough surface of a bandage. "Thanks, I guess. I really could've done it myself, you know."

He smiled shyly. "I know, but I feel like it's my fault she hit you, so I thought I'd help."

Cinder hopped off the counter and cleared her throat. "Well, I appreciate it. But I'd like to get back to my friends now."

"Cinder." Her heart lurched at the sound of her name. It rolled off his tongue so easily, like he'd been practicing the coming conversation for a long time. She clenched her jaw. "I have serious feelings for you."

"Thanks, but you've no idea what you'd be getting yourself into," she promised.

Kai pulled a hand through his hair. "Maybe I don't care, Cinder. I like you because you're honest, you're real. You don't pretend to be something or someone that you're not. You're smart. You're so smart. And you're beautiful." Cinder cleared her throat, wondering who told him about the kinds of things women want to hear.. Still, he continued. "I can't help but not care about whatever I'm getting myself into, because it's a little too late for that."

She grit her teeth, the frustration in her finally mounting, mixing with the sadness she felt, her anger coming to fruition. "But you should care! You and I don't belong together, not in this lifetime. We're too different. You're cool and popular and loved by all, and I'm just Cinder. It would never work out. It's not supposed to! Why are you denying it?"

Having said his peace, he added nothing, only covered the tiny, but still too great, distance between them with a slight lean, cupping her face between his hands, pulling her lips against his.

SHe didn't realize how much she wanted to kiss him back until she realized that she couldn't. Cinder seemed to almost freeze in his grasp, and she knew that he knew it was a mistake. Still, she felt empty when he pulled away.

He dropped his hands to his side immediately and took a step back. "I-I'm sorry," he stammered.

Cinder's hand flew to her mouth, her fingers feeling her lips, a tingling sensation behind them telling her that they wanted more. She inhaled deeply. "It-It's okay. You took me off guard."

"I should've asked," he admitted.

She dropped her gaze. "It's not that I don't like you, Kai. Trust me, there's so much to like. And that's the problem. Because even if you do actually like me and this isn't some sick joke, there's still the fact that Levana will never leave well enough alone. Even if we're the happiest couple in the world, it won't matter, because she will tear us apart."

Kai sighed, and she knew that he knew that she was absolutely right. "I'll protect you."

"I can protect myself," she grumbled. "The problem is that it doesn't matter how strong I am, because she knows every tactic necessary to absolutely destroy me. It's not worth it."

Even as the last four words left her lips, she still realized that she didn't believe it, and that she couldn't stop herself. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back. It was her one chance and she didn't want to blow it.

She felt him smile into her, his arms finding her waist, pressing her lightly against the counter. She didn't want it to end, didn't want to retreat back into their everyday lives, but reality weighed on her chest, pushing a distance back between them. Within moments, they were apart again, not a part of them touching.

"If you give me some time," he said, breaking the silence, "I can get her to back off. I'll figure something out."

"Kai, I don't-"

"Cinder," his eyes were pleading, "please."

She gave a quick nod. "Okay, But we should really get out of here before people start getting suspicious."

His eyes dropped to her lips for a half-second before he turned and pulled the door open.

There were a few groups outside the bathroom, but they'd seemed to have lost interest before then. Cinder spotted Peony and Iko immediately, but waited as Kai found his friends and gravitated toward them. They were talking to another small group of guys, but she stomped over to them.

"Thanks for saving me!" she mumbled to them, ripping them from their conversations.

Iko tilted her head, already forgetting the disappointed frat guys, "Are you practicing your sarcasm again, Cinder?"

Peony shrugged. "I figured you were just fine with Kai!"

Cinder shot her a look. "I need to talk to you guys about something."

(/.\)

It took a mere ten minutes to find somewhere that was sort of quiet, and where they could be alone, and she told them everything. Peony and Iko looked at each other in silence for a moment, before grabbing the others' hands and jumping up and down, squealing.

"You guys have to date!" Iko cheered. "I mean, I'll totally hate you and be jealous, but you have to date him!"

Cinder rolled her head back, her eyes pinpointing a singular spot on the ceiling. "Did you miss the part about Levana probably torturing me?" She couldn't shake the lingering feeling of their kiss.

"She's only after him because he's hot and available," Peony said, her tone so matter-of-fact that it was almost convincing. "Trust me. She talks about men in general constantly at cheer practice. Kai's just in her sights, is all. Take him off the market and she'll never bother you again."

Cinder considered that for a moment, before sighing and dropping her head. "It's not just about Kai. She hates me. This will just give her more of a reason to."

"Everyone else hates her, too, you know," Iko reminded her. "It's just her entourage and money that makes her seem so desirable. Everyone just pretends to like her so she doesn't destroy them."

"Right!" Peony clapped. "When you guys date, everyone else will totally take up for you. She'll be outnumbered."

For once, Cinder felt a tinge of hope. "I have to go find Kai. Have you guys seen Levana? I really would prefer to not run into her."

"When Kai took you into the bathroom, she left," Iko told her.

Cinder let out a curt laugh. "Thank the stars. I'll be back."

(/.\)

She found him a few minutes later, out in the middle of the main room with his friends, a serious discussion happening amongst them. Kai seemed a bit… sad. Desperate, maybe. Cinder straightened her back, her lips tingling and begging to meet his once more.

She approached him from behind, lightly tapping his shoulder as soon as one of his friends spotted her. She was pretty sure his name was Ze'ev, but she wasn't sure.

Kai spun around and his eyes lit up upon meeting hers. "Hey, what's wrong?"

She grabbed his arm, her adrenaline soaring through her veins. "I don't care about what Levana does," she said. She tugged on his arm until his lips crashed into hers. A series of howls and woops sounded around them as he embraced her, pulling her as close to him as he could, her fingers getting lost in his soft hair.

"I like this," he whispered, not even an inch between them.

Cinder's laugh was sweet and light and uncharacteristically hers. "Me, too."

He kissed her again. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

She brushed her lips across his. The fourth thing she noticed was that she was shaking. The fifth was that he was, too, though much less than her. "It just seemed right."

Author's Note:If you've read this before, please know that I cleaned it up a bit from its original posting! Zebragirl requested a sequel and I have decided to deliver. Because Kaider.