Yes, now, ok, before you Cresswell and Kaider shippers come at me with swords and pitchforks allow me to explain. I only own the first two books in the Lunar chronicles, so those are the ones I read the most frequently. And while reading those, I realized that Thorne and Cinder have a lot of chemistry. So I start to wonder, how would the confident, cocky Captain Carswell Thorne react to a smart, sarcastic, capable, cyborg lunar princess? Maybe, sparks would fly. Also, I kinda wanna piss some loyal canon shipper off.
It's been six days since Scarlet and Wolf had joined the crew on the Rampion. The "crew" being him and Cinder. Anyway, in that time, Thorne had found a lot of time to think.
Scarlet and Wolf had spent most that time alone together in one of their rooms, doing a lot of who knows what, and Cinder had spent that time practicing her Lunar magic or tinkering with the various devices on the ship, or the Rampion itself. Not to say that's all they did. They still had the majority of their meals together, and they still spent a lot of time all together, talking and planning for what was ahead.
It was the middle of the night now, and Thorne lay sprawled across his bed, still very much awake. He blew a tuft of his dirty blond hair out of his eyes. He was unable to sleep. You'd think that deserting the army, escaping Earth, and plotting to dethrone crazy lunar queen with a trigger-happy french women, a mutant lunar warrior, an android with an over-developed personality chip and the cyborg, lunar princess would be non-stop excitement, with no time to the luxury of sleep. But really, it was a whole lotta planning and a soul-crushing amount of waiting.
Thorne flipped his pillow over onto the cool side, and settled into his bed, vowing to go to sleep. But as soon as his eyes closed, all his thoughts came flooding into his mind again.
He had gotten to know Scarlet and Wolf somewhat. Wolf was kind of the strong and silent type. They haven't spoken that much, but Thorne still found him a pretty good ship-mate, and Scarlet was pretty fun too. She was a lot louder than Wolf and he had tried to prank her once ot twice, but really the only things he's gotten is an earful of threats or a gun to the chest. She wasn't that bad, but Cinder was still far more fun to tease.
Thorne groaned and flung an arm across his face. Cinder. An image of her flashed in front of his eyelids. Her brown wispy hair that she always wore in a ponytail, her dark chocolate brown eyes that seemed to look right through him, her caramel skin, her heart-shaped face, her soft lips…..
He sat up with a start.
"Shit." he hissed. He rubbed his hand across his face and sighed. He hadn't had many friends in his life, especially not female friends that were just friends, but he was positive this isn't how they think about each other. He also knows that interacting with someone in a platonic relationship, shouldn't bring on an erratic pulse, sweaty palms, heated cheeks, and the struggle to string together coherent sentences and make intelligent conversation. And he understands beyond a shadow of a doubt it is not acceptable to wonder about what it would be like to kiss one's friend, especially when she is obviously in love with someone else.
Thorne falls against the bed with a thup. It doesn't seem to matter what his mind knows, his heart doesn't seem to listen. And his heart seems determined to let everyone one else know too. He dosen't know how many times someone has caught him staring at her, or flubbing his words in front of her, defending her or making those little faces Scarlet told him he makes whenever Cinder talks about Kai. He hated the knowing looks he got from Scarlet and Wolf, and the slightly confused glances he received from Cinder.
He felt his thoughts begin to drift towards Cinder again. Her smart remarks, her capabilities with mechanics, the way she would look at him, one eyebrow raised, arms crossed in front of her chest, an incredulous look in her eyes. The way her lips would curve into a beautiful geninine smile when she thought no one was looking. The way she was ashamed by her cyborg parts even though Thorne found them beautiful, just as how he found every part of her beautiful.
Yep he was hopeless. He never would have thought he was the sentimental type but, she did something to him.
He knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep as long as she was on his mind, so he rolled out of bed, planning to gey a glass of water. He contemplated putting on a shirt, but then decided not to. It was unlikely anyone would be up and in the kitchen at this hour. He silently made his way out of his room and towards the kitchen.
The automatic doors open and he takes a step in, only to see Cinder there already. She had looked up as he entered the room, and was now making eye contact with him. He froze. The faint blue lighting emanating from all the little whirling machines in the kitchen was making it seem as if she was glowing. He gulped. He also wished he had just put on the damn shirt, and prayed that she couldn't see his blush under the dim lights. She looked him up and down once, and raised an eyebrow in his direction. He quickly collected himself, and forced what he hoped was a suave smile.
"Come on, don't pretend you don't like what you see."
She rolled her eyes at him, and he took it as an invitation to set down next to her, conscious of exactly just how close she was.
They sat in a comfortable silence for awhile, and then Cinder said,
"I want to go rescue Kai."
"What?" Thorne said, slightly too loudly, confused at the topic of conversation. He looked at her, eyes wide. Her face was as impassive as ever.
"I want to go rescue Kai" she repeated. She turned her head away from him, looking straight ahead.
"We can't let him marry Levana. Not only would it make far more difficult to fight her, it would-"
"-break Loverboy's heart." he finishes for her. Her head whips towards him, surprise cleary etched across her delicate features. Thorne was trying to stay reasonable, but he couldn't keep the bitterness from his voice.
"Thorne," She starts calmly, but he can see the slightest bit of irritation beneath her skin. "That's not fair, I'm just trying-" Thorne interrupts her again, standing up and raising his voice slightly.
"-to put everyone in this ship in unnecessary danger by attempting a suicide mission to get your boyfriend back" That was terrible. He internally flinch as he finishes, but keeps eye contact with her. She stands up as soon as he finished speaking, and he knows her cooling system must be working overdrive because her face is slightly flushed with anger. Anger had sharpened her features and she appeared almost fae-like. Her eyes glowed with fury. She took a step towards him and jabbed him in the chest with her hand, to distracted to even realize she had used the cyborg one. Thorne realized just how close their faces were. Cinder growled and then started to yell.
"I am not just doing this for myself! This isn't just so I can meet up with Kai, this is for the good of the Commonwealth, the world!" Cinder had gotten louder over the course the sentence and was dangerously close to waking up Scarlet and Wolf. He tried to interrupt her, but it only made her louder.
"Cinder, you need to-" Thorne whispered loudly and somewhat desperately. He raised a hand to put and finger to his lips and gesture for silence, or even cover her mouth if he had to. But she pinned his arms to his sides with an iron grip.
"No, Cadet, you listen to me, I mph!" It was at that moment that Carwell Thorne, deserter of the American army, fugitive of Earth, made the stupidest decision in his life. He had silenced an angry Cinder by covering her mouth with his.
He felt Cinder gasp, and, now that silence had been reached, moved to remove his mouth from hers, embarrassed at the way his heart was thumping. Pulling away, he saw Cinder's shocked face. He immediately began to apologize.
"Cinder, I'm so hmph!" Only to have her yank his head down and smash her lips to his. The kiss was desperate, forceful, and full of passion. Pent up emotions spilled over on both sides as they continued to embrace.
His hands were on her lower back pulling her towards him, lifting her slightly. Her hands were at the back of his neck, playing with the baby hairs she found there. Their mouths opened and the kiss intensified. Cinder pulled away and began to place light, whispery kisses down his neck and along his jaw. He groaned and set her down slightly, grabbing her cyborg hand and bringing it to his lips. She gasped as he kissed the pad of each finger and her palm. She let out a tiny squeak as he pressed his lips to the scar tissue connecting the metal extremity to her arm.
"Shh," Thorne teasingly whispered, smiling slightly. "It's still the middle of the night you know." Cinder growled slightly, unamused and roughly connected their lips again.
After some time, they broke apart. She looked starstruck, and he knew he was grinning like an idiot. Thorne couldn't help but laugh softly at her swollen lips and messy hair, knowing he looked exactly the same. But seeing her like this, that made it real, and not some dream or fantasy.
Thorne picked up her cyborg and again placed another soft kiss on the back of it, enjoying the way it made her gasp.
"Beautiful." he whispered knowing she would be blushing if she could. He leaned towards her and whispered into her ear.
"Night, Princess."
Then he turned back and walked out of the kitchen and back into his room. He fell into bed and went to sleep almost immediately, dreams filled with the presence of a certain cyborg.
…..
Wolf groaned and tried to bury his head deeper underneath the pillow on his bed. Sleep was a luxury, and he was planning to enjoy it while he could.
"Wolf, Wolf!" a soft voice prodded as someone poked his arm. Wolf sighed and turned over to see Scarlet with a shocked and slightly bemused expression on her face.
"What?" he said groggily, wondering if he would be able to fall back asleep after this.
"Wolf!" she called again, recapturing his attention. She looked at him with the glint in he eye the he knew always meant trouble.
"Wolf, you'll never believe what I saw."