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Cinder

"The noble race of the lunars began with Nero Blackburn, a great and powerful wizard dedicated to finding why the light of the moon affects werewolves in such a way as to turn them into the vicious monsters that have slaughtered so many people on numerous tragic occasions."

Cinder rolled her eyes as Professor Gertman continued to drone on and on about the rise of the lunars. What a load of propaganda! And she was pretty sure that Nero Blackburn was a dark wizard.

She turned to look at the desk next to her where Kai usually sat, but it was empty. It was very unlike Kai to miss a class, but Cinder still hadn't seen him since breakfast. It was worrying to say the least.

She looked up at the teacher. He seemed pretty occupied with all the smarmy lies pouring out of his mouth. He probably wouldn't notice a quick, hushed conversation, would he?

Leaning forward, Cinder tapped the shoulder of the student sitting in front of her.

"What do you want?" Jacin muttered.

"Do you know why Kai's not here?"

He shrugged. "Maybe he's sick. Or maybe he didn't want to suffer through Gertman kissing up to the headmistress."

"He's not sick Jacin, I saw him at breakfast."

"So he has food poisoning. Can you shut up now? I'm trying to look like I'm paying attention."

Cinder glared at the back of his head. "Would it kill you to be polite for once?"

"No, but it also wouldn't kill me to actually listen to Gertman's lecture, yet I'm not."

"Miss Linh! Mr Clay!"

Cinder groaned quietly and looked up at Professor Gertman.

"Would you like to share what you're talking about that's so interesting?"

"We were discussing the impact of moonlight on wizard DNA." Jacin lied smoothly, not looking up from his exercise book.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "In that case, you should be able to tell me how moonlight differs from sunlight."

Thank Merlin, Cinder actually knew this one! "Moonlight is softer than sunlight and more easily absorbed by magical items and beings."

"That's… actually correct." Professor Gertman admitted. "Ten points to Titanium and Regolith for your outstanding work ethics. Now, on with the lesson! At first, only Nero and his children were genuine lunars, but over the course of the centuries…"

Finally. The lunch bell went and Cinder gratefully packed away her things and left the classroom. She hurried to the Great Hall, but instead of heading towards the Titanium table like usual, she went to the Gold table.

Since Jacin had turned out to be completely useless when it came to finding out what was going on with Kai, Cinder figured that the next step was to ask Thorne. They seemed to be pretty good friends, maybe he knew why he was ditching class.

"Cinder!" Thorne called, grinning at her, "What's up?"

"Hey Thorne. Do you know why Kai didn't show up in class today?"

He shrugged. "Nope."

Cinder cursed under her breath. "Do you know anyone who might know?"

"Yeah, Kai."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"What, it's a valid suggestion! Look, he's probably in Regolith tower, right? Just go there and ask him!"

"I'm not a Regolith Thorne." Cinder told him slowly, as though she were speaking to a toddler, "The barrier won't let me through."

He waved this off. "Ah, you just have to borrow a cloak off some Regolith, that usually is enough to trick it. I mean, it's a wall for Merlin's sake Cinder! Walls aren't very smart."

"Did you just call yourself a wall?"

"Oh, ha ha ha."

Cinder fidgeted uncomfortably with Jacin's cloak as she neared the black regolith wall. It's just like getting onto platform 9¾, she told herself, or going into your own dorm. The wall's just made of a different material.

Wrapping the cloak tighter around herself to better conceal the colours of her titanium uniform, she ducked her head and stepped through the wall.

Already it felt completely wrong. Walking through the Titanium wall, or the barrier at King's Cross felt like walking through air. But the Regolith barrier seemed to know something was wrong with this latest intruder, but it just couldn't place what. It felt like walking through suspicious molasses. Cinder held her breath, instinct telling her that breathing in this stuff would not be a good idea.

It was a struggle to push through to the other side of the barrier. The air felt strangely empty after the confining regolith. Her face broke through and she gasped for air.

Finally, she fell out onto the black bridge that led to Regolith tower. Her body shook, with exhaustion and she panted, welcoming the sweet, sweet oxygen into her burning lungs.

Struggling to her feet, Cinder dusted herself off and stared up at the shining black tower at the other end of the bridge. It looked a bit foreboding on the outside, but maybe inside it was nice and cosy.

The inside was not cosy, and not nice. The walls were painted black and a plush black carpet sunk under Cinder's weight as she walked across it. The fireplace was built out of regolith and the sofas and tables were blinding white. It was like standing inside of a chess set.

Cinder walked up the black and white stairs to the boy's dormitories, trying to fight the urge to look out the windows into the world of colour outside.

Finally, she came up to the sixth floor. She strode quickly down the hallway, scanning the names written on the doors as she passed them.

Liam Kinney

Jerrico Solis

Jacin Clay

Ze'ev Kesley

Kaito Royal

She stumbled to a stop in front of the door with Kai's name on it. Suddenly nervous, She curled her fingers into a fist and raised it in front of the polished white wood.

"There's nothing wrong with worrying about a friend." Cinder muttered. And knocked.

She waited a few moments for an answer from within. When there was none, she knocked again. Still nothing. Sighing, Cinder turned away and started back down the hallway. Maybe she'd been overreacting. Kai had never missed a class before, but that didn't mean he couldn't miss a class ever. He was probably sick, like Jacin said, and staying in the med centre for the day. He was probably doing all of his catch-up work right no-

A loud creak snapped Cinder out of her thoughts. She turned on her heel and watched dumbly as Kai's door slowly opened. A head peered out through the opening and looked around, eyes widening with surprise as it's gaze found Cinder. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you. You didn't show up in class today and I was worried."

Kai rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm dealing with a lot of stuff right now."

"Anything I can do?"

He shook his head. "No, no I don't think so."

Cinder tilted her head. "You know, I said the same thing when you were asking about my sister Peony."

His mouth twitched. "I think it was a bit more angry when you said it."

"You know what I mean."

Kai sighed and met her gaze for the first time. His copper brown eyes had gone bloodshot and puffy. He blinked and a small tear traced down his cheek.

Cinder wiped it away with a single gloved finger and opened her arms. "Come here."

Kai stepped forward and hugged her tightly, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"I-I got a letter from the hospital this morning." His said, his voice suddenly shaky, "About my dad. He-he's dead Cinder. He d-died this morning."

A lump formed in Cinder's throat. "I'm so sorry."

Kai didn't reply, but Cinder could feel his tears against her neck.

Neither said a word for a while after that. The bells rang, signalling the end of lunch, but Cinder didn't move. Kai needed her right now; he needed her more than she needed a couple lessons. And she was going to stay with him.

Eventually, he pulled away and wiped away the tears lingering on his eyes. He was smiling. "Thanks Cinder. For… coming to see me."

She smiled back at him and shrugged. "That's what friends are for, right?"

"Friends?"

Something about the way he said it made her pause. She became very aware of just how close he was, and of her hands still resting on his shoulders. Her heart pounded in her chest and her magical hand and leg started to feel painfully hot.

Kai's head tilted forward, just slightly. His gaze flicked down to her lips. And then… pain. Racing through her nerves and boiling the blood in her veins.

Cinder opened her mouth to scream and sparks singed her tongue. Her left glove erupted into multicoloured fire. The last thing she saw before darkness closed over her vision was Kai's face, pale and contorted with fear and panic.

A/N: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH YOU GUYS WERE SO CLOSE TO SEEING KAIDER KISS! Man, I really suck.

Anyway, Kai's dad has finally died and Cinder was the one who went and comforted him. And then she panicked and passed out from the agony of her magical body pretty much malfunctioning. Will Cinder be okay? How will Kai react to this? Will I be able to survive long enough to post the next chapter before you guys kill me?

Please review!