#tlcshipweeks cress x thorne theme: lucky
"Thorne! Seriously?" Cinder whined. "You do know that I have more important things to do, right? Like rebuild a whole country?"
Thorne doubted that that was more important than his problems. "The universe hates me, Cinder! It's conspiring against me! I have tried to take Cress out on a date in every single city, town, and middle-of-godforsaken-nowhere-inhabited-by-humans place we have travelled to, and that's saying a lot considering we're carrying the letumosis antidote to pretty much everywhere in the world."
Cinder raised an eyebrow at him. "And what made you think I would be the person to ask about this? It's not like I have any experience in dating or dates."
Thorne scoffed. "Yeah right. You're, what, seventeen now and—"
"Remember the time when I was a lunar-cyborg living in the Eastern Commonwealth, turned fugitive with a pretty-boy idiot?" Cinder cut in scathingly.
"Well considering you and His Majesticness," Thorne sang teasingly. "And, ah, your…" He watched Cinder squirm through the netlink, getting more restless the more he dragged it out.
"Spit it out, Thorne," Cinder snapped.
Thorne grinned. "Iko may or may not have told me of your dates via netscreen with Kai."
Cursing under her breath, Cinder whirled away from the screen and stomped away. Thorne could see she was wearing a white tank top and some cargo pants, and he wondered where she had found the clothing, as he knew for a fact that the seamstresses on Luna refused to make anything of its kind.
A few muffled noises later, a voice Thorne recognised as Liam Kinney saying, "Your Majesty—" before being cut off by a mechanical-like squeak that Thorne assumed was Iko. "Iko," Cinder's voice travelled through the netscreen Throne held in his hands. "I told you not to tell anyone!" Excuses were made, all of which were just out of reach of Thorne's ears, or rather Cinder's netscreen, before Cinder returned to his line of sight. She was flustered, but trying to act cool. It made Thorne want to burst into a fit of laughter.
Instead, Thorne hummed, "So about my dating problems…"
"All I can say, knowing you and what you call your romantic skills, is that you're going to need all the luck you can get." Cinder leaned forward and said, "So, good luck with that."— and disconnected the link.
All the luck he could get… not a bad idea.
Thorne and Cress were stationed in Paris, and were expected to stay in the city for at least the next four days. Thorne decided that if here – in the city of love and light – wasn't the place in which he would finally be able to make his move, then nowhere was the right place.
He and Cress had travelled all around the globe to deliver the letumosis antidote to those infected with the fatal disease. Their efforts had resulted in the disease very nearly being destroyed, aside from a few minor outbreaks in the larger cities of Earth. Paris was among those counted as still getting regular outbreaks of letumosis throughout the city, and so had come the request from the Earthen Union leaders for Cress and Thorne to stay in the city to keep a regular supply of the antidote readily available.
Over the past couple of months, Thorne had tried to take Cress out on their first official date, but something always went wrong. Thorne was ready, and he and Cress were going to have their date, whether the universe liked it or not. He would not allow some stupid ball of rock – or fate, or whatever was taking enjoyment in making his life hell – decide this for him.
"Captain? Are you okay?" Cress asked when she found him packing a bag full-to-bursting with food and water – and some scissors. "Planning on a long trip?"
"I need luck!" Thorne was racing around the room, trying to find everything he needed before he set out on his trip to find some luck. He spun around to face Cress. She startled back a step, but before she could do anything else he gripped her shoulders and he gave her a quick peck on the lips. Pulling back he said, "We are going on our date tonight and we are going to get all the way through it if it the last thing I do." With that, he raced from the room with the speed of a 214 Rampion full of fugitives.
Cress was sitting at a table for two in the "fancy Paris restaurant" that Thorne had booked a reservation at for their date. She hadn't been waiting long before she saw Thorne outside the restaurant window, carrying something she could identify in the shadows of the night. He had also somehow lost his bag in the time from when she last saw him.
As she watched, he nearly tripped over a black cat sleeping on the sidewalk. She could almost hear his cursing of the cat from outside. He stumbled his way into the restaurant and an attendant pointed towards her in response to the question on his lips.
He looked her way and grinned brightly when he saw her. His grin somehow grew wider as he gave her a slow once over, before he made his way to the table. She smiled back, blushing to the roots of her hair.
Before he sat down, he presented a bouquet of flowers from the pile of things in his arms. "Thank you," Cress whispered, bringing the flowers up to her nose to smell. She looked up at him. "What's all that stuff you're carrying for?"
Thorne sat each thing in his arms down carefully on the table, all arranged in a neat row along the edge. "It's our luck." On the table was a horseshoe, a jar filled that contained some leaves and what Cress thought might be a ladybug, and…
"Is that a fake four-leaf clover?" she asked, poking it with the tip of her finger.
Thorne shrugged. "I couldn't find a real one, and I figured a four-leaf clover's a four-leaf clover, fake or not." He dropped down into his seat, still fidgeting with the supposedly lucky items.
Cress laughed aloud, but inside she was secretly flattered that he had gone through so much trouble to try to ensure that another date of theirs didn't get interrupted or ruined again. But… Cress had a sudden thought that struck her as hilarious. "The cat outside that you tripped over?"
"Yeah?" Thorne asked, still preoccupied with their lucky charms.
Cress approached the question carefully. "Did you know that, uh, black cats are actually considered to bring bad luck?"
The words had barely left her mouth when a scream sounded within the restaurant. "The plague!" someone screeched. Everyone in the restaurant but Cress and Thorne jumped to their feet and made a run for the door. Despite knowing that there was an antidote for letumosis readily available, old habits died hard.
Cress watched the frantic people around them, her gaze slowly tracing its way back to Thorne whose mouth was gaping open with astonishment and disbelief. "I guess fake four-leaf clovers don't work?" Cress squeaked.
Thorne raised his fist in the air, cursing the universe, and cried, "Again?"
Their next date would need to be planned for away from civilisation.