Revamped!

[This chapter was hard to write, not emotionally because it's the last chapter in Cress' first arc.]

Beyond the Crescent Moon: Part Ten

Scarlet leans forwards on the restaurant's counter, chewing on her thumbnail as things seem to be getting intense with Cinder and Kai. Her distance from them is far enough that they have their privacy but she can't hear a word they're saying, yet close enough that she can't read their faces and see their mouths moving. If only Scarlet was better at lip-reading or Cinder and Kai were louder talkers. Sometimes her mind would wander to Wolf outside. Is he thinking about taking her on a date or will she end up making the first move?

Scarlet hears a phone ring. Her hand goes to her back pocket but feels nothing. Usually, her phone vibrates when it rings but her phone is still. Her eyes then dart to Cinder and Kai's table. She sees Cinder get up with her ringing phone in her hands. Almost immediately, Scarlet jumps over the counter and runs over to their table to grab Cinder's phone from her hands.

"Hey!" Cinder exclaims.

"I'll take this for you," Scarlet says.

Before Cinder could object or even say a word, Scarlet scurries off to the kitchen to take the call. She doesn't even look to see who it is before holding the phone up to her ear.

"Hello?" Scarlet asks.

"Cinder?"

"Nope."

"...who's this?"

"Scarlet, her friend. Who's this?"

"Louis, her boss."

Those words don't even faze Scarlet. "I'll be glad to take a message. Cinder's busy on a date."

Louis: Okay, well, is she going to be able to make it to work today?

"Of course. That's the only reason why her date is so early."

Louis doesn't say anything. He hangs up the phone. Scarlet puts Cinder's phone in her pocket and walks back outside to see Cinder and Kai back to having a conversation. She could watch this date all day, that is, until she hears a customer come in. Scarlet rolls her eyes at this interruption, especially since she sees that it's Wolf. At least he left his car.

"What?" Scarlet asks. "Here to take me on a date? Sorry, dear, but I'm busy."

"I got hungry," he responds innocently.

Scarlet rolls her eyes. "I refuse to serve you unless you take me on a date."

"You just said you were busy." Wolf smirks but Scarlet glares. "C'mon, Scarlet, pretty please with sugar on top. Speaking of sugar, I could go for a doughnut."

"Coming right up!" Scarlet exclaims with a fake waitress charm.

Wolf knows that something is up since her voice was purposely squeaky. He watches Scarlet go to the kitchen and come back with a paper bag in her hands. She hands him the bag and Wolf takes it suspiciously. He unrolls it slowly and pulls out a normal chocolate glazed doughnut with a giant bite in it. Wolf gives Scarlet an annoyed look as she licks the icing off her lips.

-o-

Thorne wakes up to the smell of cinnamon. He slowly rises. When his eyes adjust, he looks around and has no idea where he is. All he knows is that he's inside a super clean cinnamon-scented mansion with classy yet modern furniture and decor. Thorne sits and doesn't know what part of the forest he's in now. His first guess is that he died and this is the afterlife but then he hears Winter's singing from the kitchen and it all comes back to him. He and Cress escaped the forest and somehow wounded up in the Blackburn backyard. Then, Winter let them in her house where he and Cress passed out on the couches.

Thorne looks at the adjacent couch and sees Cress sleeping on it. Her arms are crossed and her legs were propped up while her short hair was lightly brushed over her face. The longer Thorne watches Cress's chest move up and down, the more he remembers about their time in the forest together, especially that kiss they shared. Kisses, actually.

Thorne's lips tingle as he questions his feelings for Cress. He knows that she's in love with him and has been even before they met. Thorne isn't at that stage yet but he knows that he could get there eventually. All he wants to do with Cress is go on adventures (and kiss her a lot since he really enjoyed that) and get to the point where he can say that he's in love with her the same way that she is with him.

Winter peeps in from the kitchen. "I made breakfast for you and Cress although it's almost noon. You like cinnamon toast?"

Thorne nods. "Thanks, Winter, not only for letting us sleep on your couch but for making us some food."

Winter smiles and heads back to the kitchen. Thorne gets up from the couch and stretches before going over to wake up Cress. He pokes her and calls her name but she's too fast asleep to react; even shaking her did nothing. Thorne decides to get on top of Cress and try to wake her from there.

"I'm up, I'm up," Cress slowly grumbles. She brushes her hair out of her face and sees Thorne basically on top of her, his legs around her waist. Oh stars, it's this dream. "What are you -?"

"Hi, Levana," Thorne says.

Cress looks over and sees that Levana has entered the living room and is staring at them. Thorne and Cress start blushing profusely and Levana's stone-cold poker face doesn't budge one bit. Thorne laughs nervously as he gets off of Cress and Cress just covers her face with her hair to avoid eye contact with Levana.

"I've seen worse," is all Levana says, leaving the two teenagers speechless.

-o-

"So, how has Commonwealth been to you so far?" Kai asks Cinder.

Cinder looks down at her half-eaten pancakes that drown in a pool of syrup. She pretends to have her mouth full as a way of not responding since she couldn't come up with an answer to Kai's basic question. The problem is that she can't answer anything too basic or anything that will kill the conversation; both she finds to be challenging.

Cinder fakes a swallow. "I just got used to the time difference."

Kai laughs a little. "Really?"

"There is a seven-hour difference between Commonwealth and Artemisia, Artemisia being seven hours ahead. It's a pain. Winter and Levana still wake up super early in the morning but that's just who they are."

"Speaking of waking up super early," Kai says, quickly spotting a look over his shoulder. "Scarlet and Wolf got up early to spy on us."

Cinder nods. She looks over at the two of them who are chatting with each other at the counter trying to be nonchalant about spying. Cinder scoffs a little, already knowing what was happening the moment they walked in. Not only was Scarlet being super obvious but they knew that Wolf was nearby when she stuck up the middle finger at someone out the window.

"Want to have some fun with this?" Kai asks.

"How so?" Cinder questions.

"Play along."

Kai gets up from his side of the booth and slides into Cinder's side. He wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her close. With his free hand, he scoops up some of Cinder's pancakes with her fork to feed her. Cinder laughs, not only because Kai's feeding her, Scarlet slapping Wolf excitedly due to this, Wolf choking on his doughnut due to Scarlet's reaction or because her face is covered in syrup and powdered sugar; but because if Kai was doing this to her without the intention of getting a laugh from Scarlet and Wolf's reactions, she would thoroughly and genuinely enjoy it even more than she already does.

-o-

After going back to get their bikes and going their separate ways, Cress walks home with a bright smile. She's still tired from staying up all night but rethinking of what happened between her and Thorne fills her up with energy. She had her first and second kiss in one moment with Carswell Thorne and to top that off, not only did she wake up with him on top of her but he confessed to her last night that he was starting to know what it was like to start falling in love.

She opens the front door and is faced with her father. It suddenly hits her that a week is passed and he came home last night when she wasn't here and now she's back the next morning which looks awful on her part. His face is currently a combination of old age, stress, and anger. Cress stays silent as she leans back on the door to shut it.

"I was this close to calling the police," Sage tells Cress, pinching his fingers together to emphasize his point. "Where is my daughter, Crescent?"

Cress knows that he's making reference to her new look which almost makes her unrecognizable. "Still here, just with shorter hair and pierced ears."

Sage eyes her, waiting for an explanation. Cress groans as she slides down against the door.

"Dad, I'll be honest," Cress starts. "When we left Luna three years ago, I was so excited to get on a plane and just be in a new town in hopes for a more exciting life. But to be honest, I had more fun in this past week than I've had in the past three years."

"With Carswell Thorne?"

Cress smiles to herself, looking down at her shoes. She doesn't bother to ask her dad how he knew she was with him. Possibly Levana.

"He showed me the sights I've always wanted to see beyond the crescent moon," she says.

Sage sighs, understanding where Cress is coming from because he raised her. He approaches Cress and hugs her tightly. She's happy not to be in as much trouble as she thought she would be.

"I just want you to have fun yet be safe," Sage tells Cress. "I don't favour that Thorne boy but as long as he follows those rules, then I don't mind you hanging out with him."

"Thank you so much."

-o-

Later that day, Cress hears her phone ding. She walks over and smiles when she sees that it's a text from Thorne. As she reads it, she lies across her bed. Her smile finds a permanent residence on her face.

Captain Thorne: Please tell me that your dad isn't forever locking you up in a tower because then I'll have nobody to go on cool adventures with.

Cress: Dad said that as long as I'm happy and safe then I can see you.

Captain Thorne: … are you?

Cress: :)

[What a cute ending. The next arc will be up early February 2018. Until then, feel free to guess who the next arc will belong to and let me tell you that I'm VERY excited for it.] [2020: Also excited to go back to it.]