The drive back was both more normal and more unusual than either of them expected it to be. They weren't completely sure what they expected, but things had happened in those three days—a lot of things.

Cinder saw her sister deathly sick, without any indication of when she'd get better, if she'd get better. Cinder and Kai stayed in the same hotel room, something more casually intimate than either would admit. Kai met Iko in person for the first time; Cinder saw Iko for the first time in months. They went to a beach, and the Getty, and Kai got Cinder to wear matching shirts. They stayed up to 4 am. They'd shared their first kiss. And as of a few minutes ago...

As of a few minutes ago, they were dating.

Kai wasn't completely sure if he could believe it yet. Sure, he'd asked her in part to avoid Levana, but that was more of the last straw. He'd already been meaning to ask her again.

He wanted to say it on the balcony, but it'd been too much at the time. He'd already admitted to too much.

The real question was, what now? What did dating even mean, really? He dated a few times in the past, though he'd always been so busy and never very interested. He stopped at some point when he realized he was hurting the girls, even though he'd accepted at first because he couldn't bear saying no.

Being a couple...that meant giving gifts, right? And maybe holding hands? He couldn't really imagine holding hands with Cinder. Going on dates? Movies? Did this mean she'd meet his friends? Would she have to meet his parents? How would they tell people? How would they tell the public?

What about pet names? Getting to know each other better? There was so much he didn't know about her. There was probably even more she didn't know about him.

The long drive to the Bay Area was just long enough to think of questions and try to answer them, but not enough to make any decisions. His head swam. He wanted to talk to Cinder, to ask her what next? But she probably didn't know either.

They bought dinner at an In-N-Out drive-thru, and Kai attempted to keep driving while simultaneously eating a burger. He was failing spectacularly.

"Want to pull over at the next rest area so you can eat? I think there's one nearby," Cinder said, putting her own burger down in her lap. "The sun already set, so there's no rush anymore."

The sunset was Cinder's favorite part of the drive. It always seemed to last forever, a drawn-out darkening of the sky, a glimmer of colors over the fields, an open road ahead and behind. Just them, the car, and the sky. But between one blink and the next the colors bled out, and they were in the dark.

It was 6:40, and they anticipated another hour or so of driving. Cinder could tell Kai was exhausted, even though he seemed to be pushing through well. She didn't know what was going through his head, but she imagined he had a lot to think about.

He never told her what exactly he needed to return to, but it had to be pretty big if he cut their trip short right away. And, of course, there was the matter of...

Well, the matter of them dating. That was the word, right? It seemed so strange to her. Her. Dating. For the last 12 years, Cinder Linh had been pretty convinced she'd die alone. Not in a particularly sad, helpless way. She was resigned to it. It was a fact.

But there was a guy in the driver's seat, only a foot away, and he was watching the road, and it was very possible he was thinking about her, and here she was, thinking about him too.

That wasn't even the weirdest part, really. He was the son of a huge CEO. He was rich, had sway in the world. When he did something big, people paid attention—also partially because he was attractive and single. She'd done a quick search of him on her phone, a little guiltily. She could've just asked him, but she didn't want to admit how little she knew.

She found out that he was in line to inherit the title of CEO if anything happened to his father. She learned he was showing great promise and enrolled at Stanford. She'd already known that, but it was different learning it second-hand.

Smart, clearly. Rich. Attractive. Strange, yes. Almost suspicious. Why her?

They pulled into the empty rest-stop. Neither of them made a move to step outside. They left the car light on.

"Maybe we should just stay in here," Kai said, already reaching again for his food. "It's probably cold, and I'll admit the dark makes me a little nervous."

Cinder nodded, then paused. If she wasn't sure about something, shouldn't she ask him? She'd messed things up because she was too scared to say how she felt, too scared to put any purchase in her feelings. But trusting others meant letting other people trust you, right?

"I'm just wondering," Cinder said, foot bouncing against the car floor. "There's not another reason you asked to date me, right?"

It was an easy answer, right? But he didn't answer right away. She stopped herself from fiddling with her hair, but her stomach was already dropping, already falling.

"No," he said, and she sagged with relief. "But I'd be lying if I didn't also say yes?"

Cinder tensed, head turning.

"What?"

He took a deep breath, looking away from her, then finally met her eyes. He looked nervous.

"I wanted to be your boyfriend," he said. "I want to be your boyfriend. This is something you can trust. But...there's something else too."

"What?" Cinder repeated, wishing she could say more than one word.

"You see, I'm reaching marriageable age. There's been more pressure than ever. I don't mind too much, except now there's been a proposition I really, really can't deal with any other way unless I want to doom either our company or my entire future, and likely both."

Kai paused, but Cinder nodded and he continued.

"The CEO of Café Eclipse is single too, but she's ten years older than me. There has been tension between Imperial Coffee and her company for a very long time, and now she's proposing to merge the two businesses. She's also...asking for my hand in marriage."

Cinder sucked in a breath.

"What?"

"I know, it's just as bad and crazy as it sounds." He rubbed his eyes with his hand, and the exhaustion came off him in waves now he had no more reason to hide it. "So you see, I can't be single. I can't let her think I'm refusing her offer for any reason less than true love."

"So that's what I am," Cinder whispered, looking back at her lap. "I'm the person supposed to push her away. Because any girl is better than her."

"Hey," Kai said, now worried. "Don't phrase it like that. If I weren't interested in you, I would've found a different way to solve my problem. I would never pretend to have feelings I didn't feel."

Cinder blinked, breathed.

"Look at me?" It was a question, not a demand, and that worried question mark startled her enough to raise her eyes to his and open her mouth.

"You promise?" she asked.

He smiled in relief. "Yes, I do."

The conversation in the empty rest-stop parking lot seemed like the breaker of a dam. There was still some tension, some awkwardness between them, but now they filled the space with words instead of silence.

"Favorite color?" Kai asked.

Cinder crinkled her forehead. "Does it matter?"

Kai guffawed. "Are you kidding? Of course it matters. What if I want to buy you a...um...a new wrench set? What color would I get you?"

"Somehow I don't really see you getting me brightly colored metal wrenches. This question has very little practical use."

"You're talking about practical use? Can't I just be curious what color my girlfriend prefers?"

Cinder sighed exasperatedly, though she didn't sound very annoyed.

"It's orange," she said. "Some days. The other days it's blue. What's yours, then?"

"Yellow."

Cinder made a face. "Your favorite color is yellow?"

"A very specific yellow," he corrected. "Egg yolk yellow, after it's been cooked. A soft, pastel yellow. It puts me in a good mood."

"You don't say," Cinder deadpanned.

"What?"

"Nothing, just leave it to you to have a three sentence description of your favorite color."

"Three short sentences." Kai shook his head. "Who do you make me out to be?"

"Hmmm," Cinder said, raising a finger in mock-thought. "Could you by chance be...really smart?"

"Being smart doesn't mean I act smart," Kai said. Cinder laughed at that, and he cracked a smile. "It's true. There are different types of smart."

"Then what type of smart are you?"

"Can't you tell?"

"Well, let's see." Cinder had taken psychology her last year of high school. It was one of her favorite classes, even if it made her uncomfortable at times. It fascinated her, really, that the mind could be broken down similarly to the gears and wires under her hands. It wasn't the same, not really, but the interest was just enough that she'd remember a lot more from that class than many of her other ones.

"Verbal-linguistic, probably. And logical-mathematical, if you're going to be dealing with all that economic stuff. I'd also guess interpersonal intelligence." She nodded, then smiled, as if she'd made up her mind. "That sounds right."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Referencing Howard Gardner?"

"Have a better way to approach the question?"

"Sorry, psychology isn't my strong suit."

"Do you know enough to guess me, though?"

"Hm," Kai said, tapping his chin. "I'd say you're very visual-spacial, with your mechanic stuff. I don't really know. Intrapersonal too?"

"Intrapersonal? Are you kidding me?"

He shook his head. "No, not really. You seem very aware of your own thoughts and emotions."

"Yeah, but that's only half of it. I still have no control over them."

Kai shrugged. "Maybe controlling them isn't the important part. Maybe it's about working with them, not around them."

"What?"

"Low emotions aren't inherently bad," Kai said. "They're often a sign that something's wrong, just like physical pain. So when you're feeling low, maybe it's not that you need to stop feeling low just for the sake of avoiding the feeling. Maybe it's that you need to solve whatever it is that's making you feel that way."

Cinder frowned. "Right. I'll keep that in mind the next time I want to rip my own hair out."

Kai sighed. "I know sometimes it's different. I can't fully understand anything, really."

"No," Cinder said, considering. "I think you're right, in one way or another. The problem is just that the solution is often hard to see."

"Or you can see it, but you can't see how to reach it."

Cinder nodded. "That about sums it up."

Cinder was half-asleep when she started to recognize where she was. They'd stopped talking, but the quiet had none of its earlier bite. They were just tired.

"We're almost there, right?" Cinder mumbled.

"It's another quarter hour," Kai said. His voice was a lot more alert than Cinder's, which was a relief considering he was the driver. "Feel free to fall asleep. I know you didn't sleep enough last night."

"You didn't...either..." Cinder said, head already slumping, and between one moment and the next, she was asleep.

Cinder felt arms under her, lifting her up. She should have said something, moved to indicate she was awake. But she was dead tired. She didn't want to open her eyes when she was in such a nice, sleepy state.

She was readjusted for him to knock on the door, and she vaguely heard the sound of the door opening, of Cress and Kai whispering briefly before she was set down in her bed. Cress retreated. She felt light pressure of lips on her forehead.

"Goodnight, Cinder." It was Kai's voice. "Sleep well."

And then he was gone, and the door closed, and she was warm and sleepy and tired and happy and she was gone too, under a darkness that had lost its claws hours ago.