The soft clank and hum of the air purifier kicking into gear jostled Cress awake. After a year of living on the Rampion, she had gotten used to all of the little noises that emitted from the ship, but every now and then she was still surprised at the odd noise, especially when the rest of the world was silent.
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she looked around, a little disoriented. She did not remember making it to her bedroom last night and as she pulled the covers off herself, she realized that Thorne must have carried her there after she fell asleep at the console. She tugged on a curl and smiled to herself.
Cress walked softly to her door and checked the time display on the comm panel. 6:04 A.M. Earthen Time. It was earlier than she normally woke up but today was different and she took her time as she gathered her things to shower. She examined her dresses one by one and stopped when she got to the tiny purple dress patterned with little white flowers. She thumbed the soft, worn cotton and couldn't help but remember the day Mistress Sybil had given it to her.
It had been the week of her thirteenth birthday and Cress was so touched that Mistress had remembered that she almost cried. She didn't though, knowing the distain Sybil had for displays of emotion, but after Sybil had taken the routine vial of blood and left, Cress had put on the new dress and twirled around her satellite in delight. It had taken Cress a full year to realize that Mistress Sybil had not remembered her birthday at all — that it had simply been a coincidence. Still, she loved the dress and wore it often, especially when she would spend entire days dreaming about a different life than the one she had.
She had worn that dress when she day-dreamed about being adopted by a nice Earthen couple who didn't care that she was a Lunar Shell. She had worn it when she saw an Earthen space-cruise ship float by and hoped with all her might that they would see her tiny satellite and come rescue her. She was convinced that they would let her live on the ship and be apart of the crew and eventually, she would have a one act show and croon old Earthen songs to the happy people on vacation while they laughed and danced.
She had even selected that dress on the day she was finally being rescued from her satellite, exactly one year ago. She was surprised it had survived the trek through the unforgiving desert, rough nights of fevered dreams, and being kidnapped, but it had made it through just like she had.
Cress ran her fingers softly along the wisp of lace that lined the Peter Pan collar of the dress and pulled it off of its hanger. It was by far the least impressive article of clothing in her closet, especially when the rest of her clothes had been gifts from Emperors and Queens, made by royal seamstresses and princesses. Some items were purchased from fancy shops in Paris and Milan and others were fashioned from worn button-down shirts from her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend.
She grinned.
Even now, the word seemed foreign to her. They never did label themselves as such, but she suppose he was her boyfriend. It had not mattered to her what they called themselves because she knew that she was his and he was hers. Just like the moon and the stars belonged in the sky, she and Thorne belonged together on the Rampion.
Cress gathered her things and quietly tip-toed towards the bathroom. She stopped for a moment just outside the captain's quarters and pressed her ear against the door. The cool metal kissed the shell of her ear and sent a shiver down her spine. She bit her lip to keep from yelping and tried again, this time more careful to avoid pressing her skin against the cold metal.
On the other side of the door, she could hear the faint sound of snoring and she smiled to herself as she pictured Thorne sprawled out, hair ruffled, his blanket bunched up at his feet and threatening to fall off the bed completely. She placed a soft kiss onto her index finger and then pressed it against the metal door between them before tiptoeing away.
The bathroom steamed up quickly as Cress set the temperature to as hot as she could stand. She let the heavy droplets hit her and she shivered in delight. She was always mindful to keep her showers under ten minutes, but today she would allow herself the indulgence.
She grabbed the pink bar of soap that sat on the ledge protruding out from the metal wall and lathered it up in her hands as the scent of roses and mint wafted towards her. She inhaled deeply and was transported back to the little Parisian soap shop that Thorne had tracked down on a recent trip to France. He had held her hand tight as he pulled her down winding street after winding street, stopping only once to buy her a bouquet of daffodils that she had been admiring while they waited for a hover to pass so they could cross a cobblestone street.
Inside the shop, Thorne had made her smell every single bar of soap and questioned her over which one she thought complimented his "manly musk" the best. Stifling plenty of laughs and eyerolls, she had indulged him and after thirty minutes of sniffing soap that smelled like orange peel and eucalyptus, cardamon and pine, grapefruit and gardenias, Thorne had presented her with a paper bag filled with not soaps for him, but bricks the color of honey, fiery sunsets, and vibrant lilacs. All for her.
As Cress lathered up her hair, she could picture Thorne's eager smile and the way he brushed off the sweet gesture by telling her she didn't have an excuse to steal his soap anymore. She smiled as she dipped her hair under the shower head and felt a curtain of suds slide down her face.
She began humming, softly at first, as she washed the shampoo out of her hair. But as it happened so often with her while she stood under the shower, her hums turned into words and soon she was belting out one of her old Italian operas — the one she had sung what felt like a million years ago in a tiny hotel bathroom in Kufrah. She half expected Thorne to charge into the bathroom then, just like he had when she finally reached the climax of the song and her lungs were threatening to burst.
She was glad when he didn't though, because she would have yelled at him now as she had back then. Still, she felt her cheeks grow warm at the memory and how vulnerable the two of them had been in that moment.
She turned the shower off and while the last droplets of water fell from the shower head, she let the final notes of her song echo around her. She wrung the water from her hair and wrapped a warm, fluffy towel around herself, mentally thanking Thorne for insisting they install a towel warmer in the bathroom.
Cress stepped to the mirror and wiped away the steam so she could examine herself. The face looking back at her was one that she was only finally getting used to seeing. While Sybil had never exactly starved her, she hadn't realized how wonderful real food could taste. Her cheeks had a healthy glow to them and she was surprised to see how her body had filled out. She had once been jealous of Scarlet's dangerously sexy curves and although she knew she'd never obtain curves like that, the contours she could trace with her eyes made her smile slyly.
Feeling slightly embarrassed at checking herself out, she picked up a comb and began to work the knots out of her hair. Twisting the damp ends around her fingers, she only then noticed how long it had gotten. It was now sitting just past her shoulders and she wondered if she should get a trim. It would be a while before their schedule had them returning to Luna, but maybe she could ask Iko for a quick cut while they were there.
Realizing her hair was long enough for it, Cress began to pull it into a French braid and let the end of it drape over her shoulder.
Finally deciding she had spent way too long in the bathroom, she quickly dressed and made her way to the cockpit, stopping outside Thorne's door for just a moment before moving on. She couldn't make out any sounds, but the Rampion was beginning its systems checks for the day and the various hums and clangs that accompanied it began in earnest. If Thorne was still asleep, he wouldn't be for long.
Sure enough, as soon as she sat down in her co-pilot seat and pulled up their delivery schedule for the day, she heard heavy footsteps down the metal corridor and three minutes later, the distant sound of a shower turning on.
Cress double checked their schedule and their coordinates to make sure they were on time, she pulled up their cargo manifest and made notes of items they needed to stock up on. She placed orders for cereal, coffee, and rice to be picked up at their next stop and because they were going to have a day off in Tokyo next week, she began searching places for them to visit. Perhaps she could talk Thorne into visiting one of the temples with her or even splurging on a hotel room complete with a Japanese soaking tub. The idea of having a leisurely soak in a tub made her lean back in her seat and sigh.
She sat up, realizing that the shower was still running and smirked while adding refill water reserves to their list of things that needed to be done at the next port. While she worked, she hummed, and soon enough she was so engrossed with her activities that when a quiet beep sounded on one of her screens, she jumped, nearly a foot out of her seat. She quickly turned off the alarm and looked up, her eyes adjusting to the light outside the large viewing windows of the cockpit, just in time to see the blazing sun creep along the curve of the Earth.
She watched as fiery orange light caressed the swirling clouds below her and the clouds blushed pink from the sun's touch. She watched as sparkling yellow lights began to blink out, one-by-one, to be replaced with a golden curtain that coaxed out hues of green and blue from the surface below.
Cress sighed.
No matter how many times she watched this, she would never get tired of it. She loved how the light slowly revealed swaths of Earth that she was dying to visit and she could spend hours daydreaming of all the adventures she and Thorne would have. As the Rampion rotated with Earth's gravitational pull, slowly, the great Sahara desert crept out of the shadows.
Cress stood up, standing on her tip-toes to take in as much of the vast ocean of sand as she could. Her eyes dragged across the rolling dunes and she could still recall the roughness of the sand and the merciless heat that had once surrounded her. She tugged on the end of her braid, surprised that the habit still remained, and let out a long, slow breath.
Today was the day.
It had been exactly three hundred and sixty-five days since she had first met Thorne, when he had come to rescue her from her satellite and they had plummeted to Earth and survived a crash landing, all before proper introductions had been made.
She tugged on her hair again.
She could hear banging in the galley and realized that Thorne was done with his shower. She wondered if he had remembered what today was. Sure, he had experienced the horror of the fall and the desert alongside her, but perhaps to him, it was just another harrowing adventure he lived to tell. Or perhaps the experience had been so terrifying that he tried to erase it from his memory all together. She wouldn't have blamed him. She could still remember the horror etched on his face when they had realized he had lost his eyesight. She remembered him cursing in frustration when he didn't know she could hear. And, as silly as it had been, she could still remember the aching pang in her heart when she had deliriously confessed her love for him and how he didn't believe her, wouldn't believe her.
She didn't blame him, of course. Even though they had shared the same experience, it had been much more to her. It had been her first day on Earth, her first day out of her satellite in seven years, her very first day of freedom.
She saw the blinking light flashing on her console before she heard Thorne's voice on the Rampion's intercom.
"Good morning, Darlin'. Could you come give me a hand in the galley?"
Cress smiled. "Sure thing, Captain."
She got up from her seat, stretched, and then walked along the quiet corridor towards the galley, wondering what on Earth Thorne could require assistance with. They had agreed a long time ago, after many failed attempts of cooking scrambled eggs without Scarlet's assistance, that they would stick strictly to a cereal diet, at least when breakfast was concerned.
When Cress entered the kitchen, her lips quirked into a smile and she raised an eyebrow, looking at Thorne in a pressed button-down shirt, sleeves rolled and tails tucked into a neat pair of khakis. He was casually sitting on one of the counters while the heel of his left foot tapped gently against the cabinets below. He had one of his signature dimpled grins spread wide on his face and…
Cress had to stifle a laugh. "Why are you wearing that bandana?"
Thorne's head quirked up. "Ah, there you are!" His grin remained as he waved her over.
She closed the distance between them. "What's going on?"
He held out his hand in front of him, his fingers wiggling tentatively, waiting for hers. "I needed a hand."
She smirked, obliging him, and when he felt her hand lay on top of his, he tugged her towards him. She squeaked at the sudden movement, but his free hand caught her by the waist and steadied her.
"Much better." He grinned and she had to agree.
"What's going on?" she asked, feeling flushed all of a sudden, very aware of their closeness.
Thorne ran the pad of his thumb across her lips. "Good morning." His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Good morning," she replied, just as quietly.
His finger ran up the delicate line of her jaw. "Happy anniversary," he said.
"You—you remembered?"
He looked as though he could hardly contain a laugh. "Of course I remember the day I heroically came to your rescue."
She rolled her eyes, annoyed that he couldn't see past his blindfold, and attempted to pull her hand away.
He tugged her closer. "Of course I remember the day you fell into my life, quiet literally." This time he did chuckle and she had to humor him and giggle along with him, even though she did roll her eyes once more and this time, poked him in the chest for good measure.
He took a hold of the hand that poked him and brought it down to meet her other one. His thumbs rubbed delicate circles against the inside of her wrists and she felt her cheeks growing warm. Thorne gulped then and licked his lips. The air of confidence around him had somehow evaporated.
"Actually, Cress…" he paused. "I could never forget the day you changed my life."
"You changed my life, too," she whispered. She wondered if he could feel her pulse quicken underneath his fingertips.
Thorne smiled. "The truth is, Cress, that I was blind even before I met you and it wasn't until I did that I finally began to see."
She squeezed his hands and felt him squeeze back.
"You've made me see what sacrifice is, you've made me see what a hero is." He swallowed. "You've made me see what love—real love, true love—is."
Cress felt a tear roll down her cheek and it was proof that he knew her too well because he lifted a finger to brush it away and she wondered if he really could see behind that blindfold.
"You made me see…everything in lights and colors I've never ever experienced before."
Her hands began to tremble. She could barely hold back her tears anymore.
Thorne smiled. "And you did that all by being you. Beautiful, smart, silly, adorable, hot-headed, brave, amazing, you." He cupped her face in his hands, pulling her even closer, his knees resting on either side of her now. He leaned in to softly kiss her eyelids, brushing away the tears that were threatening to fall with his lips.
Cress reached up to tug the blindfold down, revealing Thorne's sharp blue eyes, twinkling at her. He smirked then, clearly amused at how she was reacting to his speech and she wanted to poke him again for being so pleased with himself at turning her into a basket case. But what he had said was true because she had felt it too, every word he spoke was as though he were pulling them straight from her heart.
He reached up to tug softly on the end of her braid. "Well, this is new."
She blushed.
"I like it," he said before lifting the end up to kiss it softly.
She sighed and pressed into him, as if her legs had suddenly become jell-o.
He leaned in, resting his forehead against hers, nudging his nose against hers. She felt the warmth of his arms wrapping around her, his hands resting against the small of her back, and then a soft tug as if their bodies weren't already close enough.
"I love you, Cress."
Her heart ached because it was so full. "I love you too, Captain."
He smiled.
"Thorne," she added with a whisper.
His smile became a smirk and then he pulled her into a kiss that made her see stars.
AN: I had some Cresswell moments bouncing around in my head, so I hope you liked it. I could possibly be persuaded to write more... This one-shot is dedicated to the wonderful Mother of Robins™ herself, zissa, who has been kind enough to beta some things for me as well as finish her beautiful fic, Carswell's Guide to Family Reunions. I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet.
