Hello all my beautiful people. :) I have been on a fanfiction hiatus for a very long time and haven't really been able to finish a fic. However, I have been going through such a strong fangirl freakout over the Lunar Chronicles that I just couldn't stay away.
The plan for this story is a little shaky. I just started writing and this is what happened. As for plot and story, I am just kind of making it up as I go so please don't expect too much. Also it may not be very long. I suppose that depends on how busy I am until school starts back up. I apologize profusely for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I did proof-read a couple times so I think I should be near perfect but I own whatever I screwed up.
The content of this story is rated T for teen. It may be fine to keep it at K+ but I figured T would be appropriate and gives me some room. Any other thoughts, questions or comments are welcomed and appreciated. I will say I don't enjoy flames. They aren't helpful. But constructive criticism is welcomed.
So without further ado, this is my very first Lunar Chronicles fic. I hope you enjoy and I look forward to hearing from you all.
~o~o~o~
Captain Carswell Thorne of the American Republic ship "Rampion", was a very confident man. His reputation for being dashingly handsome, charismatic, and daring were legendary all over the world. Even though he was recognized as a major criminal worldwide and was being pursued by the largest powerhouse governments the galaxy could offer, the ladies could not get enough of him. He was a charmer and very attractive.
What woman on Earth and in space could resist his deep, sparkling blue eyes, light brown hair, chiseled features, and a body that may very well have been sculpted by the gods?
Grudgingly, he had to admit that he could count one, but she didn't count. She was part machine.
Thorne sighed as he reclined in the Captain's Chair in the cockpit of the Rampion, glowering. Sometimes perfection came with a cost. Such as attracting the affections of a beautiful young Lunar he found in a satellite.
Cress was wonderful. She was sweet and kind, even if she was rather naive. She had a beautiful voice, especially when she sang. Though he didn't have much of an opportunity to look at her before he was struck blind, his imagination more than made up for what he couldn't see.
She was more than even that. Cress was wickedly smart. She could hack her way into the most heavily encoded and protected firewall in the time it would take to eat breakfast. She was able to block satellites from detecting the Rampion and break into the securities system of any government. Thorne had never met anyone with her skill.
The problem was, she was good. Too good. Cress had such a strong sense of right and wrong. A sense that had been long lost on Thorne. Since joining forces with Cinder, he hadn't met people with morals like Cress's.
Thorne rubbed his eyes tiredly, which was funny because he was still blind. Being blind was an exhausting experience, but fortunately or unfortunately (he couldn't decide), he was getting used to it. He was able to use his other senses better to compensate for his lack of sight, and Cress was an invaluable resource he used to help him get around.
She pervaded his thoughts constantly. While he loved his Rampion more than anything, there was very little to do on it until they arrived in Luna, which left him plenty of time to contemplate their complicated relationship.
She had said she loved him during a feverish babble in the desert, but after talking about it later, she told him she didn't mean it. She had changed her mind and that they were good.
Thorne rapped his cane on the ground in frustration. He couldn't figure out if he was happy or disappointed in that revelation. She was a nice young gal, however a young woman like her shouldn't go for men like him, no matter how perfect he was.
His ears picked up the sound of footsteps behind him coming into the cockpit.
"Evening, Captain," Cress said in a strangely small voice. Thorne flashed her a dazzling smile.
"Hello there darling. What can the magnificent Captain Thorne do for you?" he asked brightly. He sensed her sit on the chair next to him.
"Just a little tired. I've been working on recovering blueprints of Artemesia, and sifting through the newsfeeds. There's a lot of talk about Cinder and the royal wedding between His Majesty and Queen Levana. People aren't very happy." Her voice was so small and quiet, probably due to her exhaustion. But it still bothered Thorne to hear her sound like that. She laughed lightly.
"I had almost forgotten why I came here in the first place. It's time to do your drops."
Thorne quirked a smile. "I was wondering if it was time yet." She said nothing but he heard her rustling. Probably retrieving the drops from somewhere.
"We can go somewhere else or do it here. Whatever you'd like," she replied. His grin grew wide.
"That is quite the offer darling, but I don't think there's quite enough room here. We'd need to do it somewhere with more privacy." Thorne gave Cress his signature wink. Oh he wished he could see her blush.
"Th-That's not..." she stuttered. Thorne laughed and reached for what he guessed would be her leg. She was very tense.
"I'm just teasing sweetheart. Here is fine," he said, trying to be soothing. It worked well enough it seemed, because her voice was more relaxed.
"Just...lie back a bit if you can and look up. There you go, just like normal," her soft voice filled his head as he leaned back in his chair. As she dropped the medicine into his eyes, she hummed to herself another beautiful tune that twisted his gut. He loved it when she sang. Thorne could feel her breath tickle his ear and neck as she hummed, and he suddenly became acutely aware of the heat radiating off of her body and the closeness by which she stood. It was maddening.
Cress dropped two drops into his eyes then suddenly stopped and pulled back.
"Everything okay?" she inquired, sounding more than a little concerned. Though his heart was pounding a little more loudly than he'd like to admit, Thorne gave her another award-winning smile and assured her that he was never better. Satisfied, she finished the last of the drops and left his side. He didn't like how much he missed her presence next to him.
"Your vision should start returning pretty soon. We're about a fourth of the way through the drops and Dr. Erland said your vision would return gradually." Cress sounded so dull. If he could see her face, he might've been able to guess what she was thinking about, but as it was, he was pretty clueless.
"Cress, are you alright?" he asked without any sort of flirtatiousness.
"Yes of course I am!" she exclaimed with such a false happiness, it made him cringe.
"You really gotta work on that. If you really want to convince someone that you're happy, you can't have such a false enthusiasm," Thorne smiled to make his point.
"I'm okay," she replied sounding considerably better. "Like I said earlier, I'm just really tired. It's been a long day and I have a lot on my mind." Oh.
"I'm all ears and body if you want it," Thorne replied, trying to make her laugh a little. She laughed slightly.
"That's okay. I'm... I'm going to head to bed. Goodnight Captain." Her retreating footsteps were the only indication that she had left.
"Goodnight Cress," he attempted to call after her. Thorne sighed.
"Sweet dreams."
~o~o~o~
Cress was not okay. Not even a little. She wouldn't tell him that of course.
Try as she might, Cress couldn't stop thinking about him. Thorne thought she was young and naive. Perhaps she was. But she wasn't completely stupid and ignorant. She knew a thing or two about people.
It was difficult to accept that the net dramas were complete rubbish in comparison to the real world. In the dramas, when a woman told a man that she had feelings for him, he either kissed her romantically and they lived happily ever after until the next season, or he told her that he didn't feel the same way about her and never spoke to her again.
Neither of those things had happened with Thorne. Perhaps he still thought that she was over him and didn't have feelings for him anymore. That's fine. But he hadn't done his part in telling her that he doesn't love her and it could never work between them.
What frustrated Cress the most about her awkward relationship with Thorne was that he had neither accepted her or rejected her. They were in this awkward stand-off that was going nowhere and simply broke her heart and drove her mad.
When her flirted with her, made jokes about them being together, or even walked in on her while she was in the bath (granted that only happened once), it made her think that perhaps he really did have feelings for her. There were times when they were alone where he was so kind and gentle with her. He acted very different from the charismatic and pretentious persona he had created for himself.
It didn't make sense and it confused her.
Cress walked her way from the cockpit to her bedroom, passing by various crew members doing different things. Kai and Cinder were sat very close to each other over a screen, and talking very quietly and mysteriously. Sometimes they would look at each other with doe-eyes and then look away laughing. Cress couldn't help but roll her eyes. Cute.
Wolf was less enthralled. She found the scarred warrior in the kitchen, grimly staring off into the table, as if it would give him the answers of the universe. She felt tempted to engage him in some sort of conversation, but quickly decided against it. She knew he was an ally, but he still terrified her.
Cress was rather burned out on the idea of looking at anymore screens. She had have her fill of false news stories about Cinder and Kai. Plus they were already safe from satellites and anything else that could detect them at this point. All she could do was rest until it was time to do the Captain's drops again.
At the thought of him, images of their desert escapade, the hotel, the fights they'd been through, and finally their romantic kiss in the midst of battle came flooding back to her. It was enough to make her want to bash her head into the wall to make them go away.
Cress had had quite enough of the doe-eyed swooning and hopeless romances in her head about Captain Thorne. Nothing would happen between them and that was that.
He told her so.
