Iko squealed. "Ooooh! This is so exciting!" Cress covered her ears. Sometimes Iko could be a little excessive.
Cinder glanced over at Iko, glaring in an almost teasing way. "This all started after Levanna had been removed from the throne and I had been crowned Queen of Luna. A couple days later, after you all had left, Kai walked in on me hiding from my new responsibilities in the throne room. He remembered me mentioning that I had never wanted to be queen. I told him about how I was going to abdicate the Lunar throne. He was surprised. And, he was talking about someday needing an empress."
Iko made another quiet squeak, possibly guessing what this is about.
"So, I decided I needed to sort out some of the details of the Lunar crown first." Cinder said with a small, hidden glance at Kai.
"Now, after the Lunar throne has been abdicated, Cinder has found some free time." Kai took over. "So, I figured, why not? I mean, she is free, at least for the moment. So-"
"Kai and I are getting married," Cinder blurted, clearly unable to keep it in for any longer.
Iko leapt to her feet, squealing. Cress looked over at Thorne, a smile on her face. But no one was happier than Kai, who stood, pulled Cinder to her feet, and kissed her. Cinder froze, then melted into him.
Scarlet, Iko, Cress, Wolf and Winter whooped and cheered. Thorne and Jacin gagged.
Thorne glanced over at Cress, a devilish grin on his face. He reached over and pulled her into a kiss. Iko looked around the cramped spaceship, annoyed at her friends. She threw up her hands. "Of course, you have to make me feel like the third wheel! Wait, is third wheel the correct term for when there are nine people?"
Cinder laughed, having pulled away from Kai. "Iko, you worry too much. I figured that this would be big, and there's no way around it because of it being the 'Royal Wedding'." she made finger quotes around those words. "Iko, I know that you would take this kind of hard because all of us have romantic interests, and so, I want you to be my bridesmaid."
Iko gasped. "You want me? To be your bridesmaid? Are you kidding me? Of course!" And she fell over. Everyone turned towards her.
"Iko?" Cress asked. "Are you okay?" Iko lifted her head and smiled almost sheepishly.
"You want me to be part of a royal wedding. So I fainted. Can you blame me?" She smiled. Everyone laughed. "I can't believe this. My friend, the one who didn't care about Emperor Kaito, is marrying him." Cinder looked at Iko, almost teasing.
"Iko, you and Peony were crazy about him." she suddenly teared up, finding it hard to speak. Kai spun her around and hugged her.
"Cinder, I know the loss of your sister is hard. You don't need to talk about her. Not trying to sound rude, of course," he added quickly.
Cress smiled, feeling happy for her friends, but also just a little jealous. Why couldn't Thorne be that nice?
Thorne broke her thoughts. "Well, this has been an eventful night. We might want to get some sleep before the secret slips out. If you thought the drama for Scarlet and Wolf's wedding was excessive, no one will want to try to live this one out."
Cinder just shot him an annoyed glance. "I already thought of that, and so, have accepted the fact that this will be huge. I mean, I'm Princess Selene, and he is the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth, so-"
Kai interrupted her with a hug. "So, even though this might disagree with some cyborg programming, we should listen to Thorne. He has a point, especially if we are going to announce to the world what this will mean for Luna and the Commonwealth."
Cinder glared at him. "Just because I don't like him doesn't mean it breaks my programming to listen to him."
Thorne rolled his eyes. "Wait. Cinder doesn't like me? Real shocker there."
Everybody laughed. Kai smiled at Cinder. "Come on, Cinder. You know he has saved your life on multiple accounts."
"Yeah. And the one time he did, he wanted to put rice in my head." Cinder pivoted on Thorne. "Or, he tried to open my control panel, completely freaking me out. So, ever so often, he drives me insane!"
Cinder gave one more small glance at Kai before continuing. "Anyway, as much as I hate to admit this, the criminal has a point. Let's go to bed."