No one was saying anything. Cinder was sitting on some of the makeshift furniture and Kai was sitting next to her silent and fidgeting. He looked nervously at wolf- but the lunar operative hardly noticed- he too busy mourning scarlet. He turned his attention to Thorne, who was blind for now but if he knew the young emperor was looking at him would have surely flashed him one of his infamous smiles. Kai finally turned his gaze to cress- who responded by cowering behind Thorne. Cinder sighed. Maybe this was going to take some time. Kai looked back at cinder a hopeless expression on his face. She cleared her throat.
" well, uh, maybe I should start with some introductions. Um, this is -" cinder was cut off by Thorne who hadn't lost any cockiness with his sight, though she wished he had.
" yes we know- that's Kai the emperor." To Kai he said, " cinder has told us so much about you!" Yes, this was definitely one of times she was grateful she couldn't blush. Thorne held out a hand and smiled showing all his twinkly white teeth. " I'm Captain Carswell Thorne!"
Kai didn't take the hand. this was the only real criminal who escaped from their prison. the one who was winking in his prison photo. Kai couldn't quite understand why cinder had had to pick him to run away with. "I've heard quite a bit about you too and I am sure that you're cadet Carswell Thorne."
"On the contrary your majesty, you see I'm the captain of this fine ship"
" this STOLEN ship, you mean."
"now you have no proof that I am not going to give it back."
Kai opened his mouth to protest but cinder but in- "okay! Okay, why don't we move on to wolf?"
" oh, yes. The dangerous wolf/ lunar hybrid who works for queen levena and could probably kill us all in less than a minute." He leaned in close to cinder to whisper "cinder, are you sure about your crew? Because I'm starting to have slightly mixed feelings about your choices..." wolf heard him.
Wolf growled. Kai gulped. " I used to work for the queen. Now I work for the true lunar heir, cinder. And I'm helping you. And scarlet." His expression softened and then looked haunted. " my alpha. Who I failed. Who could be dead..." He suddenly got up and within 2 seconds was back in scarlets old bed, the that had taken cinder ages to get him out of. She sighed. Maybe she should just let him stay there for a while. She knew he wasn't helping scarlet right now but neither was this conversation- she was just trying to get things going. Well, better move on.
"And this is cress."
Well the last one didn't seem too bad. She didn't seem like the type of person who would steal a ship or kill millions but then Kai knew that people were pretty much NEVER what they seemed. "So where do you come in to all this?"
"well, um, I'm basically the teams hacker?" She looked to cinder as if to make sure what she said was right. Bit before cinder could say anything that arrogant criminal spoke up.
" yeah she's really good with computers and all that stuff cause she got locked up and spent 7 years in a satellite thing-a-ma-bob all alone doing hacky, spy- ish things for that stupid queen." He held her closer looking slightly angry and more than a little protective.
" wait, so you were the one spying on me and reporting back to the queen?!"
"hey! It's not like she had a choice!" Thorne shouted.
Kai took a deep breath. " I know I'm sorry. I know you're all good people, I mean cinder obviously trusts you but I need some time." He stalked back to the room he woke up in, no doubt leaving behind a group of surprised faces.
When he got back to his room he slammed the door and sat down on the bottom bunk bed. Stars above, what was cinder thinking! She's dragged him onto a ship full of criminals! How were they ever going to overthrow levena? Two of them used to work for her!
There was a hesitant knock on the door. "Kai? Can I come in?" Cinders worried voice drifted through the door. She was worried about him- but she had enough things to worry about. He should have been helping her, not adding to the list.
Kai put a smile on his face, forcing it to stay there, hoping it looked natural."yeah, sure come in!" He cringed at the obviously faked brightness in voice. Cinder came in and sat next to him on the bed. She took his hand- in her human one. Kai thought she was still afraid of him hating her cyborg parts but instead being repulsed by them like society told him too he was merely fascinated and even thought that having tons of useful tools in your hand couldn't be a bad thing.
Cinders words pulled him away from his thoughts. She was trying to comfort him. "they really are nice when you get to know them. Even Thorne is okay. Most of the time." Kai doubted that was true. But, he could get used to them. Even iko who was kind of annoying, but cute. She still wouldn't let him see her until cinder fixed her neck. Though... There was someone missing.
" where's Scarlet and what did, um, wolf mean by my alpha? Some lunar thing?"
" no, some wolf and scarlet thing- we just think its their way of saying 'we're dating' though we don't really know where they are on that. Scarlet wouldn't come with us unless we brought wolf too. He's nice- he's letting me work on my lunar skills on him cause he's hard to control"
"and he's so depressed because...?"
" when we were rescuing cress a-"
" rescuing? Is this when Thorne went blind?"
" yes. Now let me finish." Wow, there was definitely a lot to catch up on. " A thurmatage came and kidnapped her. She's probably on lunar and they could be doing anything to her and it's all my fault" she looked down at her lap.
"how could this possibly be your fault?"
"Sybil glamoured the gaurd to look like scarlet so I saved him instead of her. I should have notice but I didn't and now wolf blames himself and she's, she is probably dead." Now it was his turn to comfort her.
Kai reached over and grabbed her other hand. Her metal hand full of gizmos and gadgets and weapons- he held it. He lifted her chin so she had no choice but to look in his eyes. His completely human, chocolate brown eyes. " it's not your fault. As much as you'd like to think you're an expert- you're not, you're still new at this, still learning. Scarlet won't be dead. She may have a few scratches but they won't kill her -they need her for information. You can get her back and you can take levena. You won't be alone- you have have your crew, there are millions who would rather have cinder, the renowned mechanic" And also the dangerous escaped lunar fugitive... "As lunar queen rather than levena and you have me. I'll be with you and I'll help you. You. Can. Do. It." With every word his face inched closer to hers. She didn't move away. No, she moved closer, filled with the courage from Kai's words. He kissed her, softly once. Then again and cinder kissed him back ignoring the signals her cyborg brain was telling her. The kiss got deeper and by the end both were breathing hard.
