Hi! The story below is basically Kai x Cinder fluff, so if you're not interested in that stuff, this is not the story for you. And WARNING - I'm a sucker for soppy fan fiction, and I tried to make the characters not cliche or anything, but I think the soppiness leaked through... a lot. So... yeah. Sorry not sorry ;)

It's actually my first story on this website, made from a boring afternoon, a computer, and finishing the book 'Winter'.

So hope you enjoy, and FYI - I didn't get around to including the whole crew in this fanfic :( so i might write something else about it later.

Oh, and pretty please review! Constructive feedback is welcome, but I wasn't that fussed about this fic. No hates please :)

Thanks! Hope you like it!

PART ONE

Tell Me Your Secrets

This was it.

Today was the day.

Cinder was going to tell him everything.

She shivered slightly as she got out of bed. Cinder had known Kai for over a year since she'd started at Lunar High. A year of nervously pulling at her gloves when she was talking to him, and wearing full length cargo pants even in the hot summer months.

She'd done her best to hide it from him. And today he was going to find out.

Cinder hurriedly pulled on clothes and made her bed. The other kids in the orphanage were starting to wake up, and she wanted to get a proper breakfast before they started wailing. Cinder was one of the oldest orphans, and she'd known the orphanage for as long as she could remember. In fact, Cinder had been barely more than a baby when her house had burnt down in a horrible accident, killing both her parents.

Cinder had barely escaped with her life, but she'd been chronically injured. Her hand and whole leg had been amputated, and were replaced with robotic parts. Parts of her brain and nervous system had also been replaced.

Cinder was part cyborg.

Only the orphanage leaders and Cinder's best friend Iko knew. But everyone else had no idea.

Cyborgs were looked down upon with disgust by everyone. They were unnatural and untrustworthy.

Cinder sighed as she pulled her hair up into its usual messy ponytail. Kai wouldn't think that about her. He couldn't. She wouldn't let herself imagine the alternative.

Today was the day.

Kai was going to tell her everything.

He frowned at himself in the bathroom mirror. His dark hair needed cutting, and he brushed it out of his eyes with a sigh. Who was he kidding? Cinder would never feel the same way.

She'd arrived at Lunar High a little over a year ago, and hadn't talked to anyone except Iko, a blue-braided girl who giggled or squealed with nearly every sentence.

It had taken Kai nearly a month to work up the nerve to talk to Cinder. At first, she'd just brush him off with a sarcastic comment, but he kept trying. And slowly, she started to open up.

Kai fell in love with her not long after.

She wasn't breathtakingly beautiful or anything, but pretty in a kind of plain way, until you bothered to look properly. And she was so easy to talk to.

But she'd never asked to be more than friends. Kai had warred with himself for nearly a year, wondering why this girl was so different from others. Wondering why he didn't think he'd be able to bear a refusal.

But today would give him an answer.

"KAI! WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?"

Kai grinned and leaned out the window. His friends Thorne and Wolf were waving at him from behind his fence. They had their school bags slung over their backs, and they looked annoyed.

"You take forever to get ready!" Wolf called.

"Were you styling your hair or something?" Thorne asked, smirking.

Kai self-consciously ran a hand through his hair, trying to flatten it. "I bet you guys don't even know what a brush is!" he called as he grabbed his bag.

Kai was out the door a few seconds later. "Let's go."

"Let's go, he says." Thorne said to Wolf. Kai rolled his eyes. "Point taken. Come on."

They walked up the road, the route so familiar to Kai that he could probably have got to school with his eyes closed.

When they reached the school, Kai felt a flutter of nerves and wished he hadn't eaten that much toast for breakfast. He scanned the crowd of students for Cinder. Chocolate hair, cargo pants, gloves, and probably an annoyed expression.

"You okay?" Wolf asked him. "You seem… distracted."

Kai nodded, distracted. "That sounds like a good idea."

Thorne elbowed him. "Wake up."

Kai sucked in a deep breath. He'd spotted Cinder under a tree. "I have to do something. Catch you guys later."

Thorne muttered something to Wolf, who laughed, but Kai was already ducking through the crowd.

Here goes nothing.

Cinder was so distracted, she didn't see Kai until he was right in front of her.

"Oh. Kai." she said, by way of greeting.

"Cinder." he replied. "You're not usually at school this early. Everything okay?"

Cinder fiddled nervously with her gloves. "Yeah. Fine."

She took a deep breath. She had to know. "Kai - "

"Cinder - " he began at the same time. Kai looked nervous for some reason. But not nearly as nervous as Cinder felt.

"You first." she said quickly.

Kai shook his head. "You go."

Cinder was having trouble swallowing. "Okay." She pulled off one of her gloves, showing him her human hand.

Kai looked at it with interest. "I've never seen you take those off." he remarked. "I was beginning to wonder if you had claws instead of hands or something."

She bit her lip. Kai's smile faded. "Cinder -?"

"My parents were killed in a fire when I was two." she said in a rush, relieved that her voice sounded reasonably steady. Kai's eyes widened, and he put a hand over his mouth.

"I nearly died." Cinder continued. "The doctors didn't know what to do. So they used a last resort." She fingered with her other glove.

And pulled it off.

Cinder's metal hand gleamed cruelly in the light. It felt as intimate as taking off all her clothes.

Kai's jaw fell open. He stared at her hand in shock.

Cinder gulped. What am I doing?

"I'm part cyborg." she babbled. "My right leg was amputated, and now that's metal too. They replaced parts of my brain and nervous system. Even some of my organs, and my spine. And I - um, can't blush, or even cry…" she trailed off as she looked at Kai.

He wasn't just shocked. His face was horrified, and… disgusted.

Kai will understand. Cinder had convinced herself.

He won't care.

He's different from the others.

But he wasn't. Kai hated her. And if Kai was disgusted, then - then there was no hope for Cinder at all. She could never be human.

A punch in the gut would have hurt less. There was a white hot burst of pain behind her eyes, because she couldn't even cry like a normal human being.

Cinder's retina display went haywire, screaming at her about spiking adrenaline levels and a racing pulse.

She stuffed her gloves back on. "Kai, I'm so sorry, you don't have to - " Then she cried out as her head began to pound. Her cyborg parts were overheating.

Kai was pale, his eyes wide moons, and his mouth stretched in horror.

Cinder began to run. She didn't know where she was going, only that she had to get out of this school, and as far away as she could.

"Cinder!" Kai yelled after her. She heard pounding feet, but Cinder was already out of the school. She was pounding down the road, unable to think about anything but Kai's disgusted face.

Outsider

Inhuman

Unnatural

Outcast

She didn't see the car until it was too late.

Who on Earth cared about the cycle of metamorphic rocks?

Kai glared down at his notes page. It was blank. He tried to listen to the teacher up the front, but they sounded muffled somehow, as if Kai was inside a bubble. He felt numb.

She's a cyborg.

Cyborg.

"It's not possible." he muttered.

"What?" Thorne asked from beside him.

"That marble is a metamorphic rock." Kai said. "My life is a lie."

"Mr. Kai? Would you care to share your interesting discussion with the class?" Mistress Sybil said coldly.

Kai slid lower into his seat. "Not really, miss."

Someone sniggered.

Mistress Sybil glared at him. "Oh, but I insist."

"I… was just wondering where Cinder was."

"Cinder?"

"Brown hair? Gloves?" Kai prompted, feeling sick inside.

"Ah yes. Her." Mistress Sybil looked around and tutted. "Skipping classes. I'll have to have a little chat with her."

Kai felt even worse. He looked back down at his non-existent notes. She lied to me.

But he knew why she had. Because he would have reacted exactly how he had today.

It just didn't fit. Cinder - determined, smart, funny Cinder, - a cyborg?

It was the last class of the day, and Cinder had missed all of them. He'd texted her at recess, and tried to call her at lunch, but she hadn't touched her phone.

She was fine. She had to be.

Darkness.

Pain.

"Lucky she's still alive…"

"Serious injuries…"

"Not responding - "

She didn't want to open her eyes.

The announcement came the next day.

Kai almost missed it, he was so tired. He'd lain awake all night, guilt keeping his eyes open.

"Yesterday there was a terrible incident involving one of our students, Linh Cinder."

The speaker cracked for a moment. "She was involved in a car accident, and was hit straight on. Linh Cinder is now in hospital, with serious injuries, and currently in a coma. If anyone knows anything about why she wasn't at school, please come to the head office after class. Thank you."

Terrible incident involving…

Hit straight on…

Currently in a coma…

Kai hated himself. Because only now that she was hurt, did he realise that it didn't matter.

It didn't matter that she was a cyborg.

She could have been part dinosaur for all he cared. Because she was still Cinder, even if she had a metal leg, even if she was terrified to take off her gloves, even if there was a computer in her brain.

She was still human.

And she could die.

Hope it wasn't too soppy! New chapter coming soon and pleeeez comment :)