The Captain's Wife

"You cannot be serious."

The shout came from a surprising quarter. Crescent Moon Darnel would usually have been described by everyone who knew her to be quiet, gentle, generally submissive, and an undoubtable daydreamer. Her house, where she lived with her father after her mother passed away, was always quiet, what with her own shyness that kept her from inviting her friends from work over and the fact that her father, as a rich lawyer with a busy schedule, could rarely be found at home. At a young age Cress had learned domestic skills such as cooking and cleaning, and looking after herself completely independently. That loneliness and the fact that often her only company was electronic devices had led to her being remarkably good with computers. Hence her job at the most advanced computer security company in the city of Artemisia, the capital of her homeland, Luna.

But now? One of the rare times her father had come home to the unnecessarily large house they shared before she turned in for the night, he'd sprung on her the unwelcome news that he had arranged a marriage for her to his client's son, Carswell Thorne.

"I won't. I won't. I refuse."

She'd heard of him, certainly. Being the rich son of a famous company owner, Thorne had always been in the spotlight, much like Cress, who'd always cowered from it. Therefore it had been plastered over the newspapers of Luna when he'd been arrested for shoplifting some years ago as a teenager.

She'd even met the man on several occasions; this wasn't the first time her father had helped his mother with legal matters. He'd dropped out of the army shortly into his training, and had barely met it to the rank of Cadet, yet he insisted on her calling him Captain, on account of his fancy car, his "ship". She'd always found him insufferably arrogant, and had often had to excuse herself from his company before she started harbouring violent thoughts. Cress was not a violent girl.

Nevertheless, she found herself tugging insistently on her long blonde hair - loose against her simple night dress - in distress. A distant part of her was alarmed she would rip it out of her head but the rest of her mind dismissed the notion. It wasn't exactly uncalled for.

Taking a deep breath, she spun on the balls of her feet to face her father again. His short, unthreatening stature did nothing to help her look him in the pale blue eye - so similar to her own - since she had inherited the same height from him, meaning she still wasn't quite as tall as him. She flexed her hands in exasperation. The feeling was a foreign one to her, she not usually having the guts or inclination to be exasperated at someone. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

So she spoke. In her same quiet unauthorative, uncommanding voice, but for once he listened, and nodded along as she spoke. She still couldn't be certain he was considering her words, though.

"I don't want to have an arranged marriage, Dad. I want the chance to fall in love, or at least have a say in who I'm with. I don't want to be forced into a union with someone I barely know and despise the little I do know about him, just for the sake of a company or money. I want to make my own path."

"Crescent," she almost cringed at how gentle he was being, like he still thought she was a little girl. Who knew; maybe she was, and was acting like one. "You have to know that I would never offer your hand to someone I didn't think would be good enough for you, or provide for you sufficiently. I know my distance may not have conveyed this message, but I love you. If I thought this Carswell Thorne was going to hurt you - and before you say anything, yes, I do know about his criminal record - I would never even consider this. I wouldn't let him in the same country as you. But his mother is a dear friend of mine, and her boy needs this, not only to calm his reputation, but to force him to settle down and shoulder some responsibility."

Cress looked down, unable to meet her father's kind eyes. He reached out a hand and tilted her head back, wiping away a tear. She hadn't even realised she was crying. "And believe it or not, you need it too. I know you have friends at work, but you never invite them round here, you barely go out, you have an inactive life. You're only twenty, Crescent, you need to be out there with your friends, living life to the fullest. Not moping around this empty house."

Cress had never understood why her fond but admittedly distracted father had made a good lawyer; he was too soft. But she saw in now, with the way he spoke, his utter conviction in what he was saying. She found she couldn't refuse.

She nodded slowly, not meeting his eyes, but she saw him smile. His hand around her chin fell away, and just before he disappeared through the door he turned to say, "By the way, I invited your fiancé and his mother over for dinner tomorrow night. A nice friendly official meeting in a pleasant environment."

Cress took a deep breath to calm herself. It paid off as her father continued with his excited rambling.

"So that means you'll have to take tomorrow afternoon off work to go to the shop and buy yourself a nice dress. You'll want to look your best. Maybe you could take that friend from work you told me about - Mindy?"

"Cinder." Cress muttered beneath the stream of his rant.

"And she could help you pick out your outfit, and possibly do your makeup..."

"That's not exactly what Cinder likes doing, Dad," she muttered again, no more confident that he would bother to listen than she had been the first time.

"Just make sure you look your best, sweetheart, okay? We don't want this deal to go sour."

And just like that, Cress's views on the whole thing were reverted back to the beginning.

"So let me get this straight," Cinder laughed, though to her credit, it wasn't a laugh of amusement, but of disbelief. "Your father, big business owner guy, has arranged a marriage for you to one of his clients' sons?"

"That's exactly it," Cress grumbled, not quite meeting her friend's sympathetic brown eyes. "And he asked me to ask you to take me shopping for a 'nice dress' this afternoon." She made air quotes with her fingers, before spinning in her chair back to face the computer screen full of code.

Cinder extracted a screwdriver from the pouch at her waist, expertly twisting the handle to embed the screw into the side of the computer box she was fixing. "Sounds like torture," she remarked cheerfully, before her face fell into a more wistful expression. "Sounds like something Peony would enjoy."

Cress cringed. Cinder's father, Garan Linh, had had her dumped on his doorstep at a few days old, her mother not having the will to put up with her. When Cinder was eleven, her father had married a woman, Adri, who already had two daughters: Pearl and Peony. Garan had died soon after and when Cinder was eighteen, Peony, who had been the only one she viewed as family, had caught the same bout of disease going round and died. Blamed for her father and stepsister's deaths, she'd been cast out on the street and eventually got an apprenticeship with a mechanic, Dr Erland, who'd taught her everything she now knew about machines, and who had given her the shop she now owned so he could go travelling in his old age.

Cress remained silent as Cinder sank into her pain-ridden past. When she popped back up, it was with a deceptively bright smile. "But I know someone who might be interested in helping. She's certainly more qualified than me to say whether a dress is nice or not."

"Don't court yourself out so quickly, Cinder," came a voice from the door. Cress jumped, but Cinder turned to the source like the dark side of the moon to the sun.

Kaito Prince, the owner of the firm Cress worked at and Cinder was often employed for repairs by, stood in the doorway, light streaming from the opening window behind him, catching the glint of the gold band on his ring finger - the gold band that matched Cinder's. He had his signature put together yet messy look, with a suit, crisp white shirt and red and gold tie, but rumpled long hair and creased trousers. He smiled brilliantly at his wife, who reciprocated the gesture.

"Don't count yourself out so quickly," he repeated, gaze fixed on her like she was the first sunrise he'd ever seen. "You always look beautiful."

Cinder blushed violently. Her inability to hide what she was feeling was what Cress had always liked most about her; you could always rely on the fact that what she was saying was the truth.

Cinder brushed a lock of brown hair out of her face, smearing a long line of grease across her forehead in the process, but that obviously didn't mar the image of her reflected in Kai's brown eyes.

"Kai?" Cress regretfully butted in on their moment, but he rarely came to the office and she really needed to ask permission to skip work later that day. "Could I possibly leave the office early today and take Cinder with me?"

Kai furrowed his brows in confusion; she was more likely to be seen pulling extra hours than cutting them. "If you must. Why?" He turned to his wife as he noticed Cress's beseeching look. "Cinder?"

The mechanic in question rolled her eyes. "Cress's father has engaged her to this guy and she's supposed to be meeting him for dinner this evening. She asked me to help her pick out a dress."

Kai nodded, sending Cress an apologetic glance at her predicament. She shrugged. "Okay," he acquiesced. "Take all the time you need. It's not like you haven't got over a month's worth of hours saved up for breaks and whatnot."

Cress shot him a thankful smile as Cinder turned to her. "Meet me at the shop at noon. I need to be getting back." She raised herself onto her tiptoes and kissed her husband's cheek. "Try not to break another computer whilst I'm away."

He gave her a rueful smile. "I'll do my best."

She patted him on the shoulder and sashayed out the door. Kai stood there awkwardly for an instant, before nodding at Cress and walking out. Kai had inherited the company from his father, and Cress had heard some of the older employees whisper that he didn't have the same charisma, the same self-assurance, that the late Rikan had had. He wasn't meant for this position.

And yet, despite the criticism, he'd still found himself in a happy marriage, with the presence of true love.

"You're so lucky," she whispered to the air, as the door swung shut.

This will be mainly Cresswell, but there'll be lots of Kaider and Wolflet as well.

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