Hello all! Thank you to everybody who read, favourited, followed, and reviewed. I loved the feedback! A big thanks to my beta reader, Beckah for her wonderful feedback! Enjoy!

"Cinder? Cinder!" Kai had been searching for over an hour now, but to no avail, his wife was nowhere to be found. He passed a few escort droids in the hallway, but one caught his attention. It was Iko. Her neon blue hair made her visible for miles and Kai had no problem spotting her.

"Iko, have you seen Cinder?" It was times like this that he cursed the fact that the palace was so big.

"Last time I saw her she was heading in the direction of the garage." That could only mean one thing. Kai had done his best to discourage Cinder to continue working as a mechanic, especially now that she was pregnant, but as she had explained to him multiple times, fixing things was what she did. It was one of her favorite things in the world.

Despite his complaints and concerns for her safety, she still came into dinner sometimes with grease on her nose, soot on her hands, and a grin on her face that could only mean one thing. He had yet to stumble across her actually in the act of fixing one of the multiple broken hovers, but he knew it was only a matter of time. She seemed to enjoy destroying them almost as much as she did fixing them.

"Cinder!" He called once again, a little more hopeful now that he was approaching her favorite place in the palace. Kai usually would have just left her alone and trusted her enough to come find him when she wanted too, but tonight was the night of the ball, the same ball where Kai had first discovered Cinder's big secret, almost seven years ago. He was already dressed up in his nicest clothes, but he knew that if he found Cinder where he thought he would they would definitely be late on account of her needing to panic, shower, then change. In that order.

The garage, although it was a garage, was still nicer than most people's houses with tile floor, climate control, big windows with a great view, and all the tools anyone could possibly use. Kai had yet to understand these additions. What would a hover gain from being able to see outside? And since when had anybody in the palace been willing to risk getting oil all over their fancy clothes? Well, besides, Cinder. Still, he supposed that since his wife seemed to spend quite a bit of time here he should be grateful that his ancestors had had way too much money.

He opened the door to Cinder's work area and the natural light made it too easy for him to see a long pair of cargo clad legs sticking out from under one of the hovers.

"Cinder!" He called pointlessly, just to see what her reaction would be when she saw that he had caught her. He was not to be disappointed. She let out a small yelp and made to get up, but since she was still under the hover he just heard the dull clang of her head hitting the metal plating. He started over to her to make sure she wasn't seriously hurt, but when Kai saw Cinder's expression he had to throw his hands over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. She rolled her eyes and it wasn't till he had given in and was bent over with laughter, unable to breath, that she cleared her throat and stuck out her hand, reluctantly asking him for help getting up.

She wasn't that big, on any account, but she was starting to find it hard to move freely, and Kai knew it was driving her crazy.

"Thanks for all your support," she stated in a dry tone. Cinder knew he didn't mean any harm and that if she had been seriously hurt he would have been a lot more concerned, but that didn't stop it from being annoying.

She paused for a minute when she saw what he was wearing.

"Why are you dressed so... Oh stars! Was that tonight?! What time is it?!" Kai could already see her brain starting to short circuit in panic, but he wasn't worried. Before he had met Cinder this situation would have driven him insane, but now it was just funny. He had learned that it was stupid to get so worked up about the little things. Who cared if they were a twenty minutes late to their own ball? Still, he knew that she worried about these things, and worried about them annoying Kai, so he reached out and pulled her into a hug, grinning into her hair as she hesitantly melted against him.

It didn't last nearly as long as Kai had hoped because soon she seemed to remember the predicament and had pulled away rushing to get ready to go.

It was only about fifteen minutes until the next time he saw her, already wearing the simple silver gown that had been designed for her to wear just to this occasion. Kai knew that Cinder wasn't wild about dresses in general, especially not wearing them in public, but he didn't disagree. The fabric hugged her curves, much more pronounced now that she was about six months along, and woke parts of him that were definitely not appropriate for the moment.

"You look beautiful," he whispered and she flashed him a quick and grateful grin.

"How's your head?" The grin fell off her face, only remaining in the small pinch in the corners of her eyes, and the slight upward tilt of her lips. She was attempting to put on her best poker face, but Kai knew her better than that.

"Great, no thanks to you." Her voice was sarcastic and exasperated, the tone she often held when confronting him.

"Are you ready to go?" She was practically pulling him towards their bedroom door. Kai knew that she hated to be late, it brought up bad memories of her first time walking into a crowded ballroom, and he wasn't about to complain. He didn't like drawing unnecessary attention to himself either.

They walked through the long hallways of the palace in the direction of the hover that Kai knew was waiting outside for them. On their way they picked up Iko and Winter, a reluctant and annoyed looking Jacin clinging to the latter's arm. Both girls were looking stunning in gowns meant to represent their position of power, Queen of Luna, and best friend of the empress, thank you very much.

Please review and let me know what you thought. It takes less than a minute and it really makes my day! By the way, does anybody have any good songs for Kainder? I'm having trouble finding some. Also, if anyone knows of any good Tenrose fanfic PLEASE let me know. Thanks!

readingsloth