Disclaimer: The rights to the Lunar Chronicles do not belong to me. Celebrate that.
Author's Note: As said in the summary, these are all unconnected one shots I wrote for Kaider week on tlcshipweeks! Please enjoy. :)
(Note: For the 'Dreams' theme.)
When Kai's mother died, he swore he would never marry. The pain in his father's eyes had been too much, the mourning period far too long. The ache of losing her had lasted well into his adolescence, and his father always skirted around and away from the subject.
When Kai's father came down with the same illness that'd killed his mother and promised to repeat the act, he swore he'd never have children. Not to produce an heir; not even then. Losing his childhood, his innocence and freedom, was too painful. He couldn't risk doing the same to another person, especially not his own blood.
But when he met Cinder, he felt something change. The second they'd made eye contact that day at her booth, he knew something would happen between them. Something beautiful, but fleeting. Everything in his life was fleeting.
But he hadn't expected this. He hadn't expected her to be the lost princess he was searching for. Hadn't expected to be there, on that cargo ship, still unmarried despite a heavily-planned wedding to the evil Lunar queen. Hadn't expected Cinder to feel the same way he did.
Still, he wondered if she dreamt of him the way he did her.
In his dreams, they're together. The war is over and the Lunar Revolution was a success, and she's happy and they're together in the palace and he feels like, finally, life is okay. After everything, he gets to end the day with her, and she is home to him.
In his dreams, they're getting married. They're happily in love, a couple who spreads jealousy across the globe. She's pregnant and glowing and their children are nothing if not the most beautiful in the galaxy.
When he wakes up, reality sets back in and he can't forget that those dreams aren't real, and that there's too good of a chance that neither of them will make it out alive. Too much risk, too much potential that things will not end well. It's wrong to entertain them, but what can he do? The dreams are far more preferable over the nightmares.