Of course, his flight is delayed. At this point, he's learned not to expect anything else. Kai sinks into the stiff seat next to his suitcase and glares daggers at the information board displaying the angry red lettering next to the number for his flight. At this rate, he'll only be home just barely before the New Year and he definitely wouldn't have time to get to Scarlet's house on time for the party.
He runs a hand through his hair and shoots Wolf a quick text, explaining his situation. He had been hoping that the weather and congestion of travellers would have cleared up enough for him to get home, but considering there is still a heavy flurry of snowflakes falling outside, his hope is dwindling.
Kai lets his gaze wander around the mostly empty airport terminal. There aren't very many people travelling tonight. It is New Year's Eve, after all. Most people have already returned home to their families, but Kai has not been fortunate enough to have had the same opportunity. In theory, he had been with family since he worked under his father and had been working all through Christmas, but he wasn't with the family that he wanted to be with: his friends.
Most of the people in the terminal are travelling with friends or family, so Kai feels slightly out of place. His wandering gaze lands on a stray traveller who looks as alone as he is. She is wearing a coat that almost makes her disappear in all of its fluff and fur trim. From what he can see, she has dark hair that is pulled out of her face, but there isn't much else he can see from across the terminal.
The bells of the announcements in the airport chime and they call for the delay of another flight. To his dismay, it is his again. Instead of leaving at 5 like it should have, or 6 like the initial delay said it would, the flight is now scheduled to leave at 7:30. He lets out a long sigh, but the girl across the long room catches his eye.
She is slouched further in her seat and Kai picks up the sharp scowl on her expression. He figures that they are probably on the same flight, judging by her reaction. With another glance around the mostly empty place, he stands from his seat, grabbing his suitcase by the handle. If he isn't going to make it home in time to celebrate with his friends, he might as well try to be friendly with someone else.
She looks up as he approaches, arching a brow in surprise. "Can I help you?" Her voice is guarded and stiff and Kai is momentarily frozen.
She's very pretty. In fact, she's a lot prettier than he had initially thought. He's standing, like an idiot, in front of her, and by the look on her face, he knows she's not particularly amused. He blinks and snaps out of his distracted trance.
"Hi," he says. "I'm Kai."
She nods, pursing her lips. "Cinder."
"Do you mind if I sit?" he asks carefully.
She shrugs. "Knock yourself out." Her tone is still a little cold, but he figures that she's just on guard around strangers. She's probably introverted.
He pushes his luggage to the side and sits down two seats to the right of her. Her eyes follow him as he sits and he still has her attention. She's curious about him, even if she's not saying anything outright.
"You're by yourself?"
She nods. "Yeah, I'm going to New York." She glances up at the display board. "I guess I should say trying to get to New York because who knows if this flight will ever leave."
Kai laughs. "We're on the same flight then."
Cinder cracks a tiny smile. "Partners in hell, then."
Kai shrugs. "I don't know, an airport in Chicago is exactly where I want to be on New Year's Eve."
Cinder rolls her eyes. "You're joking, but this is honestly probably better than where I would have been otherwise." Kai raises an eyebrow. She sighs. "I was supposed to go to the apartment of a friend of a friend for some New Year's party, but I wasn't sure if I would even go."
"Not a people person?"
"Not in the slightest," she says. "I'm a mechanical engineer. I don't like people very much, and generally, they don't like me."
Kai shrugs. "You seem fine to me."
She seems a little taken aback at his reply, but her smile softens. "Not sure you'll be agreeing with that sentiment in a few hours."
"In my line of work, I know more than a few difficult people. I'm sure I can handle an engineer."
She laughs at that. "What field are you in then, if you're used to such difficult people?"
"Corporate management," Kai says. He leans back in his seat a little, trying for a more comfortable position.
Cinder shakes her head. "Okay, that is understandable." She pauses to study him. "Aren't you a bit young for management though? You're what, twenty-three? Twenty-four?"
"Twenty-four," Kai says. "It's a family business, if that explains anything. You're pretty young for an engineer."
"Twenty-three," she says. "I'm working with a company I did a co-op for during my bachelor's." She suddenly blinks and does a double take.
Her hand rubs her forehead and she lets out a groan of frustration. She pinches the bridge of her nose and slouches further in her seat. He raises an eyebrow at her. She peeks open one eye and stares at him.
"I'm an idiot," she says. "You're Kai Dehaui. That's why you're in family business, isn't it? You're everywhere in the press as a business genius for someone so incredibly young."
Kai sighs. "Ah yes, the legacy. See, all the publicity is my father's thing. I really wish they could just leave me alone, honestly."
Cinder cracks another small smile. "Understandable. People are the worst."
Kai tears his eyes from Cinder and scans the terminal again. The flight to California has left and there are significantly fewer people around as such. There's a young family sitting not too far away with two young girls who are curled up in the laps of the parents. Kai smiles softly. He remembers when he used to travel during the holidays with his parents. They haven't done anything like that recently.
"So," Cinder says and he turns back to her. She's fiddled with her hair and strands of it are drifting down from her ponytail. "What's a big business guy like you doing flying somewhere on New Year's Eve?"
"My father is here in Chicago, as is our head office, so I was here, working, over Christmas, but now I've got some freedom. I'm going to New York to be with my friends for a while."
She blinks at him. "You worked over Christmas?"
He shrugs. "Yeah. I mean, I celebrated with the friends here, but I would have rather been in New York."
Cinder laughs. "Wow, that sucks. I was just here because I didn't want to be around anyone besides my best friend, Iko."
Kai is surprised by this. "I know you said you're not a people person, but you didn't spend the holidays with your family."
Cinder looks away and Kai instantly feels bad. He's struck a nerve and he wishes he could bash his face into the table.
"Sorry," he apologises, "I didn't mean to bring up bad feelings or anything."
She just shrugs. "It's not your fault I had a really terrible childhood." She glances at him and for a moment he's lost in her eyes. They're brown and simple enough, but they're darker around the edges of her irises and he feels like they're drawing him in. "For some reason," she continues, "I feel like telling a complete stranger about my horrible family."
Kai smiles sympathetically. "Family was never my strong suit either. My dad was always pretty awful, and my mom was the one who always tried to bring us together for the winter holidays. It was a nice change from the detachment I was used to with my dad."
Cinder's eyes widen. "She died, didn't she? It was in the news a while ago. Kai, I'm so sorry."
He looks up at the high, arching ceilings. "We knew it was coming."
He feels a weight rest against his hand and he looks down to see that she has reached over and touched his hand gently. "Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. My dad was the same."
He rotates his hand gently so that he's kind of holding hers. "You really don't feel like a stranger to me, Cinder." He squeezes it softly and is about to continue speaking when the sensation he gets shocks him into silence.
She retracts her hand like it's on fire, tucking it into the folds of her winter jacket. Her face is flaming and she looks ashamed. Kai can only blink stupidly as his brain tries to process what happened. She is wearing gloves, but he knows that there's something wrong with her hand underneath.
"Well, believe me," she says, bitterness in her tone. "You would know if we had met before."
Kai is still stuck on her hand. "Is your hand-" he cuts off, unsure if the question is appropriate.
"Metal?" she finishes. She lets out a long sigh.
Kai twists in his seat to face her better. Cinder lifts her hand from the folds of her jacket and slides the black glove off of it. The fluorescent lights overhead glint off of what looks to be a titanium appendage. She pushes her sleeve up a little and he sees that her wrist and hand are entirely made of polished metal. The joints are seamless and the whole thing looks like it's from a sci-fi movie, but it doesn't alarm him.
"My left hand and part of my leg," she says carefully. She sounds much more nervous and guarded than she has been through the whole conversation, even when she thought he was a stranger.
Kai knows why. She's been alienated because of this before. To him, she is not any less human, she just has something that makes her a little different. "What is it made of?"
Cinder blinks at the innocence of the question. "Uh, steel mostly, but there's titanium plating where I could afford it."
"Did you design it? It's beautiful," Kai comments. His eyes are drawn again to the delicate intricacies of the limb.
Cinder is apparently stunned into silence. Kai looks from her hand to her face and sees a look of complete confusion in her expression. "How are you okay with this? Everyone is always so freaked out and I've been called Robot-Girl more times than I can count. Why are you acting so normal?"
"It's just a hand, right?" Kai says. "I don't see why I should judge this–as far as I've gathered–brilliant, interesting, and beautiful person with a metal hand. I mean, the personality isn't something that was synthesized in a lab. That's you. And so far, I like Cinder, even if she hasn't told me her last name yet."
A shy, genuine smile spreads across her face. "It's Linh. Cinder Linh. And you, Kai Dehaui, are nothing like I had imagined you would be."
He extends his left hand towards her. "I hope that's a good thing."
The cold metal of her false hand touches his hand as she shakes his hand in greeting. "It is," she confirms.
As a generalization, Cinder is easy to talk to. Kai is convinced that she doesn't hate people as much as she says she does, but he doesn't press her. They continue to chat aimlessly, exchanging stories from school and occasionally dipping into family affairs of the sour variety. Cinder's upbringing is drastically worse than his, but she pities him not making any real friends until university.
Cinder attended MIT, which Kai is pleasantly surprised to find out. She's proven her intelligence to him already and his NYU business degree doesn't feel as hefty as it usually does. She moved to Chicago to work, like she's precious said, and lives with her best friend, Iko.
At some point in the conversation, Kai had shifted seats so that they were sitting directly next to each other, without the seat buffer. Cinder had shed her jacket and gloves, unafraid of his judgement. She's still painfully pretty and Kai almost curses himself for meeting such a girl in such a chance situation where they may never see each other again.
"So your friends in New York," Cinder says without looking at him. She's fiddling with her hand, and Kai is watching her. "Do you celebrate New Year's every year together?"
Kai smiles. "I mean, the original three, including myself, have been friends since first-year university. The others came along each year, but Scarlet hosts every year. It's a nice break considering we all live all over the place."
"Everyone flies out for New Years?"
"Yeah," Kai says. "Scarlet's happy to cram us all into her apartment and we're all just happy to be there."
"Sounds nice," Cinder says. "I'm not one for the holidays and everything. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if it ticked over to the New Year right now. We're away from loud and irritating people and it's nice."
Kai shakes his head. "You've clearly been doing New Year's wrong. Don't you get excited about a new start?"
Cinder laughs at him. "You're the one in business. You of all people should know that the whole 'new start' stuff is fake. It's just another day. It's pageantry." She pauses. "But I'm hopeful it won't suck as much as this year did. This year wasn't as bad as last year, so maybe I'm actually getting somewhere."
"That's the spirit," he says. "New Year's is about having some fun and being hopeful."
She shakes her head. "You're too optimistic."
Kai shrugs. "Maybe so, but we'd both be sitting alone right now if I was not the way I am."
His comment elicits a genuine laugh and a gentle smile from Cinder and Kai's heart pounds.
"Fair enough," she says.
They end up in one of the small restaurant-bar places in the terminal sitting across from each other at the table. Cinder has been clear that it's not a date and that he won't be paying for her. He had simply laughed and stolen a fry from her plate.
He doesn't quite understand how he feels so connected to this strange girl so fast, but something about her is real and unique and he's almost grateful for the unfortunate delay in their flight.
His mind picks up on something she had mentioned earlier. "You're going to a friend's place tonight?"
"Friend of a friend," Cinder corrects. "I've never met her, but apparently this New Year's thing is a thing they do every year. I was going to be alone on New Year's since Iko's with her girlfriend, but my friend offered me a ticket and invited me along."
Kai blinks. The whole scenario is deceptively confusing because it sounds exactly like something that had been explained to him when he was booking his ticket.
"Cinder, you wouldn't happen to be friends with Carswell Thorne, would you?"
She drops her fry. "No way. Thorne is part of your group?"
Kai laughs. "Yeah, that asshole was at NYU. We've been friends since second year." He pauses to decide what this means. "So I guess you're coming to Scarlet's then."
Cinder smiles at him. "I guess I am."
Kai points a finger at her over the table and smirks. "You are going to have the best experience you've ever had on New Year's Eve, I guarantee it."
Cinder returns his smirk and leans back in her chair. "Guess you're going to have to prove it."
Before he can dignify her with another witty reply, there's a boarding call projected around the terminal. It's for their flight. They'll make it to New York in time after all.
With eight people crammed in Scarlet and Wolf's apartment, it's a tight fit, but Kai is happy to be there. Scarlet and Wolf are engaged now, Winter and Jacin are back from their travels, and Cress is graduating this year. Thorne is just Thorne, but Kai notices that he seems ecstatic that Cinder has joined them.
As it approaches midnight, the TV is tuned to the channel displaying the ball drop, but Kai isn't interested in watching it on the tiny screen. He steps back and admires his friends all crowded around the TV and he feels content. They're his family, much more so than his father, and he regrets not being here with them for Christmas.
He realises, with a start, that Cinder is missing and he turns around quickly. There's a silhouette on the balcony, so he steps outside to join her.
The balcony is covered so the snow has been kept off of it, but it's still freezing. It's equally as cold as Chicago had been, but neither of them are wearing jackets. Kai doesn't say anything to Cinder as he stands beside her. Her hand is curled around the freezing metal railing without a care and he's almost concerned until he realises which hand it is.
"You can almost see Times Square from here," Cinder points out, gesturing towards the crazy light show they can just barely glimpse.
"It's on the TV if you want to see it better," he says.
She shrugs. "I'm good. Unless you're cold."
He is about to reply when they both hear their friends counting down excitedly from inside. Cinder turns to face Kai completely and he grins at her. As the clock ticks over, Cinder's freezing metal hand finds Kai's jawline and she kisses him.
It's tentative and short because she pulls back from him quickly. Kai is paralysed with surprise. Cinder turns back to the skyline and shifts nervously.
"That's a thing people do at midnight, right?"
Kai smiles and breaks out of his trance. He tugs gently on Cinder's arm so she faces him again. His hand finds her waist and he leans in.
"Happy New Year," he whispers.
Author's Note: Happy 2018 everyone! Posting this now, because I'm not going to be home later tonight or for most of tomorrow, but I hope everyone has a great (and safe) New Year's!