"Are you gonna stay in here forever or just until we land on Luna?" Cress leans against the door frame with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed; it's an action that just doesn't seem right coming from her.

Kai doesn't look up at her, his eyes trained on the baseboard of the steel-blue wall across from his bed. His knees are pulled to his chest and he's not really looking at anything at all. "Shouldn't you be guiding Thorne around?"

"He's taking a nap," She says, unhappy with the sudden change of subject. "You know why I'm here, right?"

"To pester me since Thorne isn't up?"

She furrows her brow as she steps into the room, shutting the door behind her. "That wasn't very nice." She presses her back against the wall and slides down it, her eyes level with his gaze once she's settled. "Do you know how horrible this is making Cinder feel?"

Kai drops his glower to the edge of the military-issued cot, "Look, it's complicated."

"So, talk to me about it."

"Cinder doesn't need more stress in her life. That's what I am, Cress. I'm stress. Look at all that I've put you guys through already." He drags his fingers through his hair and buries his face between his legs. His voice drops to a nearly-inaudible mutter, "I can't believe I didn't trust her."

Cress adjusts her position, splaying her legs out in front of her, "Even if she didn't have to save you for this plan to work, she still would've. Do you have any idea how much sleep she lost because she was up all night worried that you would be killed during our escape?"

Kai bristles and sets his head against the wall, his eyes focusing on the bars of the top bunk, "Either way, to pursue any kind of relationship with her now – with everything that's happening – would be wrong. I'm not sure if she would even care that much anyw–"

"Stop," she snaps. Her voice sounds wrong. Unnatural. "Have you a single idea what she's gone through for you? And you think you still care more than she does?" She knows she's being redundant, but how else is she supposed to make him understand?

Kai's eyes close, "I don't know, Cress. I don't know. She has so many other things to worry about."

"And somehow, you're still on top of her list." She pulls herself up off of the floor, "I'm no professional when it comes to love and the only real experience I have with it is Second Era dramas, but–"

"–Thorne might have to disagree with you."

"This isn't about Thorne and me," She says, crossing her arms, though not at all surprised that he brought up Thorne. "As I was saying, I'm no pro, but Cinder cares more for you than she does herself, Your Highness." She spits the last word like venom at him.

"Just Kai," he mumbles, opening his eyes and glancing at her again.

"You love her," she accuses. "You do, I get it. I can see it. I can see that she feels the same, too. Though I can hardly understand why."

He moves to cross his legs and leans against the wall, "I don't-I don't love her."

Her laugh is harsh and it makes him jump. "I'm not blind."

"You're starting to scare me, Cress," says Kai.

She regains her composure and scuffs her shoe on the ground, feeling her face warm. She's starting to scare herself, too, and lowers her voice considerably, "Just, please go talk to Cinder. Please. Ignoring her is only making it worse."

He looks away, "I'm not ignoring her."

"Sorry, avoiding."

He scoots to the edge of the bed and drops his feet to the floor, "Fine. I'll go talk to her."

He brushes past her to the door and heads toward Cinder's room, four doors down. He knows she's there; she practices using her glamour alone now that Wolf is too injured to fight.

He knocks lightly and hears her groan in the dimness of the room, "What?"

"Can we talk?" His voice is low and hardly sounds the same as he speaks through the crack in the door.

Cinder pulls it open, "So you're back to acting like I exist now?"

His breathing hitches as their eyes meet and suddenly all he can feel is guilt. He tries to laugh a bit to dispel the mounting anxiety in the back of his mind and it doesn't work. "I'm sorry for ignoring you, Cinder. I know I'm being selfish."

She says nothing and sets her jaw.

"It's – I want – I think – it's just that I can't come to terms with believing that this is really happening. That you're here and I'm here and, for the moment, we're… sort of, kind of, at the very moment, at least." He chuckles again and he drags his fingers through his messy hair, scraggly from the past five days on board the Rampion.

She doesn't say anything, and part of him wonders if she's biting her cheek because she's concealing a smile or if she wants to say something and can't bring herself to it.

"It makes me feel stupid," he continues. "I screwed up all of your plans, and I've been screwing up all of your plans since the day we met, and yet you still care."

Cinder scratches her left wrist, the phantom sensation of fabric resting there still bothering her. "I admire the skill you have."

"In what?"

"In ruining my plans." She drops her gaze to the door jamb. "But this is really happening."

He laughs again, the blush spreading from his ears to his face. Kai can't decode the subtle emotions that cross her face. "It's terrifying."

"I know."

His breath catches in his throat at her admission and he reaches out and she stiffens as his fingertips brush over her waist.

She moves to rest her forehead against his shoulder, but she does not wrap her arms around him the way he does her. "You're an idiot, Kai. But you're not stupid – yes, there's a difference, and you've done everything you can under the circumstances. Besides, it's not like we can go back in time and change anything." She steps out of his grasp and runs her human fingertips across his jaw. A chill spreads down his spine. "For the record, I don't blame anything on you."

He leans into her touch and squeezes his eyes shut, "I blame everything on myself."

"We have a lot in common, then."

He starts to open his eyes before they close on instinct, because she's kissing him now and yet she's still not touching him and Kai thinks his chest has caught fire.

Their lips part and his eyes flutter open to see hers staring back, brown and vibrant and alive.

"Don't avoid me anymore," her fingers flutter up his arm and around his neck. "Okay?"

He kisses her cheek, "Okay," and then her jaw, "I won't," and then her lips, "I promise."