#konn torin

[impossiblesuitcase]

Hope In It

“The queen is dead! The queen is dead!”

Imperial Adviser Konn Torin’s hand paused mid-air from where it had been directing bodies to a bay of ships.

“The queen!” screeched the young woman, rushing into the crowd of diplomats. She was plainly dressed in a beige tunic—the rank of a servant, and Torin didn’t think he’d ever seen one of Luna’s maltreated servants acting of their own volition.

The clatter of Lunar aristocrats and frightened Earthen leaders filled the loading docks. Since the emperor had threatened to bomb the protective biodomes, the crush of people were practically clambering over one another to board the ships. They hadn’t heard any updates on the situation unfolding in the throne room since Kai had raced off to find Linh Cinder.

“What? What does she mean?” reverberated off the walls. People stopped on the ramps of the ships, watching on curiously.

“Queen Levana is dead! She was shot!” the servant choked out. Her cheeks were coated in tear tracks, her eyes manic. Torin wondered if this state of delirium had arisen from loyalty to the queen, or rather, disbelief that the tyrant could be truly dead.

“No!” cried an older man, whom Torin recognised as from one of the Lunar families. His age was only apparent from the startled slip into his natural, worn voice. Recomposing, he asserted, smooth and youthful, “This is just speculation!”

“Princess Selene shot her!” She circled aimlessly, recycling the news to every guest that would listen. “The queen was shot! She’s dead!”

A hundred murmurs repeated those words under their breath. The Lunars connected eyes in horror—and some—feigned sympathy. 

The Earthens barely held back raucous cheers.

Torin’s ears tingled. He was not a man wont to extreme emotional fluctuations, but this news almost stopped his heart. Could it be true?

Realisation swiftly cloaked him. Kai went in search of Linh-dàren. If the Princess did shoot Levana, what other blood might have been shed? 

Kai.

He abandoned his position as sentinel and reached a fellow Commonwealth representative. “Ensure that everyone remains here until you receive an all-clear,” he instructed. “We cannot yet substantiate this claim. I will go and locate His Majesty.”

“We will wait for your return,” the man replied, bowing.

Torin shook his head as his mind paced two, three, ten steps ahead. Leaving this dock now could very well risk his own life. “I may not be able to. Lend me your portscreen and I will comm Representative Li with updates.” 

The man nodded and unclipped the device from his belt.

Taking it, Torin marched ahead, ignoring the whirlpool of sentiments trying to suck him back in. The cacophony was barely distinguishable, but laughter and crying and cheers spoke much of its meaning. Fury. Rejoicing. Anticipation.

———

The trek to the throne room was much shorter now than it had been an hour ago. The once packed hallways were now absent of officials, flashy nobles, servants, even guards. It was almost ludicrous to imagine that the coronation had been on that very same day when so much carnage and destruction had occured in such little time.

Fierce shouting grew louder as Torin neared the throne room. He began to run, turning the corner to a swarm of bodies blocking his path. Doctors and nurses wearing bloodied scrubs were huddled, shouting, “Pulse is weak! We need oxygen, stat!”

He came to hover nearby but could not identify the victim past the doctors’ tight shoulders. His own pulse faltered as it led him to the worst scenario. Where was Kai?

“He’s inside.”

He spun on his heels towards the magnificent mahogany doors. The voice was heavily accented—American—and weary. 

Torin composed himself. “Thorne-jūn,” 

Carswell Thorne had not struck Torin as a serious or even responsible man in the brief time they’d met. Yet the man in front of him now looked broken and old. He was covered in blood, his clothes ripped. 

“He?” Torin ventured to ask.

“Kai. He’s inside the throne room.” Carswell’s heavy eyes scrutinised Torin—flitting from his white dress shirt down to his dark pants. Pulling an arm from behind his back he revealed a black suit coat draped over his elbow. “I think this is yours.”

Indeed it was. Torin had lent it to Kai’s young friend Crescent, hoping to calm some of her hysteria. But if the small, frightened girl was not wearing it, where was she?

“I had no intention of reclaiming it,” Torin said, taking the jacket into his hands all the same when proffered to him. It was damp and left redness in the creases of his palm. “Where is Darnel-mei?”

“She was hurt,” Carswell said, voice barely audible and tinged with…shame?

He chose to not enquire further as to what this implied. As Carswell’s hazy gaze attached to the retreating backs of the doctors, Torin wondered if the victim was Crescent. And if Carswell Thorne was somehow responsible for what had befallen her.

Partly relieved but not yet satisfied, he straightened. “Is the emperor all right?”

“Dunno. They wouldn’t let him follow her.”

His brow furrowed. Kai did seem to care for Cress, but not enough, he thought, that he would abandon his search for Linh-dàren.

The two exchanged a nod. Carswell staggered away in the same direction as the doctors. He may be in need of a doctor himself, or at the very least, a glass of scotch.

Once the young lad was out of sight, Torin cast the jacket to the ground and thrust open the heavy doors.

A figure lay sprawled on the marble floor. Getting closer, Torin’s blood congealed. It was Kai. Blood pooled around him and over the throne near where he lay, dark like the black strokes of a Japanese ink painting. The stone of the backrest was cracked in the centre.

“Your Majesty!” he cried, racing over and halting just before crashing into Kai. He slid to his knees, examining his body with burgeoning dread. “Where is it?!”

Completely dazed, shock written over his face, Kai murmured, “What?”

He seized his hands into his own. “Where were you injured?” 

Appearing confused, he squinted blearily before following Torin’s gaze to his own torso. His white coronation outfit was bright red, his skin slick with blood.

“Oh,” Kai answered flatly. “Not me. I wasn’t…It’s Cinder’s.”

Torin pursed his lips. …Cinder’s?

Kai tried, weakly, to wipe it from his arms.

Blood. Cinder’s blood.

Torin shifted his hands to the boy’s forearms, pulling him to his feet. “Where is Linh-dàren now?” 

“They just took her.” Kai’s empty gaze drifted to the doors. Ah. It was not Crescent that he’d seen being carted away.

He recovered his sensibility rather remarkably. “Shall we follow them, Your Majesty?”

Kai rubbed at his eyes. Torin hadn’t seen the boy this shellshocked since the death of his mother. “No…I don’t know if Cinder…they wouldn’t let me follow her.”

He scoffed, guiding Kai to the entrance. “You are the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth and the King Consort of Luna. You can go where you please.”

Kai dully shook his head. “Was King Consort.”

As they reached the doors, he retrieved the black dress coat from the ground and draped it over Kai’s stained shoulders. “If Princess Selene survives—as she will—you very well may become King Consort again someday. We will not let mere doctors stop us.”

Slowly, a light filled the boy’s vacant eyes, as if waking up from a nightmare. Without notice, he took off.

Torin fell into step, trying to match Kai’s steady pace. But Kai had transformed, emboldened by the promise of again seeing his princess. Flickers of a rowdy ten-year-old and then a slouching fifteen-year-old returned to Torin; along with his reminders to walk orderly, like a prince should.

But this determination was nothing childish. This was the gait of a man in love.

———

Blood had dribbled on the marble floors like proverbial breadcrumbs for their quest. Streaks dragged through it, suggesting fast footsteps. Neither Torin nor Kai knew where the medical wing was located, yet the second they saw that crimson evidence, Kai began running.

Slow down, Torin wanted to call for both their sakes, because the emperor would overexpend himself, and Torin was not a young man. But such a request would be cruel to him now.

They were not the only ones running. Servants fled the hallways while others huddled in trios with nervous murmurings. Just as Torin was about to reach into his pocket for his inhaler, Kai skidded to a halt. A crosspath emerged—to the left, a lavish hallway of purple carpets, ancient moon sculptures and a grand piano at its end. The right, stale white walls, dim lights and no such frivolities. In between these two was a large reflectionless window, slightly ajar. Cries of battle and howling slipped through from below.

“Your Majesty, should we perhaps—”

Kai chose right and sprinted. This time, Torin could not keep up.

As he bumbled after him, he passed Carswell Thorne, standing at a distance from a different mob of doctors. They surrounded a gurney, and when Torin saw a gleam of a shimmering orange skirt, he now knew where Darnel-mei was. Slumped against the wall nearby was a disorientated red-headed girl, cradled in the arms of one of those ghastly wolf soldiers. Torin choked on his tongue but then recognised the particular shade of green in the beast’s eyes. This was Kai’s ally, whom he had met when they concealed the Rampion in their ship on the journey to Luna. He reproached his own thoughts for the snap-judgement, especially when the man held the girl as though she were the finest bloom in a garden.

Turning the corner, Torin found Kai beside a flashing red operating room sign, motionless as a nurse explained the imperativeness that he do not impede their recovery efforts.

Resigned, he bowed his head. “Do your best, please,” came his weak voice. He watched—jealously, Torin thought—as the nurse whisked behind the large double doors.

The port at his waist pinged, an unfamiliar chime that reminded him it was borrowed. He punched in the override access code, opening to a comm from an Eastern Commonwealth officer.

“Kai,” Torin called, gently. “Her Maje–Her Highness, Princess Levana has been confirmed as dead.”

Staring at the closed hospital doors, Kai nodded. “I know. I saw her.”

And then, the memory of the throne returned to Torin. Certainly Cinder hadn’t been seated there. But it too was tainted with blood, and that pool contained much more than a single body could have produced. He drafted the cracks in the seat in his mind, the point of impact small and precise.

Princess Selene shot her.

Her body must have been taken away before Torin had arrived. But not before Kai had seen it.

The raging battle below their feet niggled at his thoughts. Hesitating, he recommended, “I suggest we declare temporary control, until Her Majesty The Queen’s status is known.”

Another slight nod. “Tell them…as King Consort, or…whatever. Just direct them to stop the fighting.”

He bowed and turned. He would first comm the Eastern Commonwealth officials to handle the loading docks, then contact their own fleet of security to instate control. Perhaps they could reason with the Lunar guards to help as well. The wolf soldiers would be impossible to restrain, but if they could at least remove the thaumaturges…

He compelled his muscles to contract, to walk forward, unsuccessfully. His feet were solid beneath him, his conscience arguing.

Torin heard a shaky exhale.

He could not leave Kai.

He spun back around and covered the distance. “Kai.”

Kai’s gaze arrived, weakly, in that of his mentor’s. It was the little warning he received before Kai buried his eyes in his wrists, sobbing.

“I can’t…” he choked. “I can’t…”

Torin planted stabilising hands on his elbows as they trembled with his shuddering breaths. 

Anyone in New Beijing Palace could have attested to the fact that Konn Torin was not known for having a propensity for affection. But Kai, he realised bleakly, guiltily, had hardly hugged a body since the late emperor’s demise. That was unacceptable.

The distance discarded, his shoulder offered, Kai collapsed into him.

“It will be all right,” Torin promised into his hair. “She will be all right.”

Shouting chased them from the closed doors; elevated alarm from hard-wearing professionals that made Kai gasp. Torin covered the boy’s ears. He needn’t know what lay behind those doors. Because none of them knew. There were no protocol-issued, well-worn documents assuring that Selene would live. They could only rely on her demonstrated stubbornness and talent of living to spite all naysayers.

But Kai’s father had been determined. Kai’s mother had been stubborn. And they were both dead. Torin had lost two great friends but Kai had lost his parents. If he let this spread to his heart, he may never awaken from this grief-stricken stupor.

“Kai,” Torin breathed, “You must live.”

“...What?” Kai whispered, confused.

He pulled back, hardened eyes peeling away to reveal softness. “No matter what happens to her, you must live.”

Kai looked to the ceiling. “I know…my people…”

“No. You must live for her. And for yourself. Only then can you have the strength for your people.” He wiped the tears away with his sleeve. “She needs you right now.”

“I can’t do anything for her right now, Torin,” he argued miserably. 

Despite it all, Torin smiled. “Do you really believe that?”

Kai’s sharp inhales syncopated with the beeps and clangs from within. Torin had always answered his questions. ‘Towin, why can’t I play with Daddy in his meetings?’ ‘Torin, why do I have to go to the gala?’ ‘Torin, why is Mama sick?’’

This question, only Kai could answer.

As those eyes had managed every time before, they reached a horizon point somewhere over Torin’s shoulder, and the determination crystallised. Torin masked a sigh of relief. For a moment, he truly believed this time might be so severe that there could be no return.

Another embrace, this one Kai initiated and pulled away from resolved. “Call off the fighting and order the thaumaturges back into the palace. I’ll collect the Eathern leaders from the docks and have them organise the crowds. We need to remove the wounded from the battlefield.”

“Shall I divert medical resources to those groups?”

“Yes,” he ordered, turning on his heel and his feet moved in step with his thoughts.  “Repurpose as many rooms in the palaces as needed. Send”—he paused, briefly, slipped a look at the closed doors, and righted himself—“Send our own medical staff as well.”

Torin followed dutifully. “And…you’ll leave Linh-dàren?”

“This is what she needs me to do right now.”

In this moment, Torin was walking beside his dear friend Rikan. This boy, this emperor, galvanised for a new purpose. To prepare Luna for its queen. To carve out a space for Linh Cinder to fill. To aid her as a friend, an ally, a partner.

The closer they got to the docks, the louder the shouting became. Frantic servants and muddled aristocrats still cried the refrain: “The queen is dead!”

No. The queen would live, and Torin dared to hope in it.

Bonus

Sometimes, Cress felt like she was getting the hang of this being around people thing. Sarcasm was becoming more obvious. Body language more telling. But then there would be a little quirk of human interactions that would demonstrate just how unaccustomed to everything she was. Today, she learnt about sneaking up on people.

Cress was halfway through closing the door to her suite when a voice purred, “What perfect timing.”

She gasped and flung around to the apparition.

“Captain!” she exclaimed, clutching her stomach. The jolt was not kind on her still-tender stab wound. 

Thorne grinned, all purple button-up and dimpled cheeks and bergamot cologne, materialised in the spot that was seconds-before empty. “Hey darlin’.”

Cress pried away her hand before he noticed it serving as an anchor and got that guilt-tinged frown. Any reminder of his (unwilling) role in her injury was a doleful experience for them both. Still, at least she could now walk without fearing her intestines would unravel.

“You scared me half to death.” She batted his shoulder.

A pleased look spread over his face. “Stealth is one of my greater qualities.”

She blinked at him. Repeatedly.

“Okay,” he relented, tone faltering. “Not necessarily.” He jutted a thumb at the door behind him. “But my room is just opposite.”

“So that gives you the right to near knock my soul out of my body?”

“I was simply coming out to say hello. I can’t believe that you’d accuse me of trying to catch a fright from you.” Thorne rested a hand on the door frame, pressing her back to the door as he craned his neck towards her. “I wouldn’t do that to my girl.”

His girl. Her heart began dancing an Irish jig for an entirely new reason. At least if she swooned from giddiness, he was in prime position to catch her. “Did you come to tell me something?” she murmured, unable to meet his eyes.

“Oh, you know,” he drawled. “I was checking out Cinder’s new place, all the bells and whistles. It’s not bad.”

“It isn’t bad,” she agreed. “It’s magnificent.”

“It’s no Rampion.” He retracted his hand from the doorframe to take hers. This time, she could look at him. “I stumbled into the gardens—nice, sure—but something was missing.”

“A waterslide?”

“Your hand in mine.” he corrected. He kissed that hand. “As long as you’re up to it, would do me the greatest honour and accompany me for a stroll?”

Her stomach throbbed. She shouldn’t walk for more than ten minutes at a time, and she’d already walked all the way to and from the dining hall for breakfast that morning. But her excitement rang louder than the ache.

“I know, it’s tough to think of an excuse not to go,” he said. “But I promise it’ll be fun. I even brought a token as a security deposit.” Reaching to his back pocket, Thorne procured a single rose, pink in its petals and tinged with brown at the base.

Cress pulled it into her fingers, awed. “It’s beautiful!” she cooed, burying her nose in the creation. “It’s a rose, right?”

He looked surprised, but only momentarily. “Indeed. You’ve probably never seen one before.”

“No.” She twirled it in her fingers, eyes fixed on the rich, fathomless colour. Oh, now she understood why roses were romance personified. She noticed that they were thornless, though she wouldn’t have minded if they weren’t. She happened to like Thornes a good deal. “Do they have more?” she asked, eyes gleaming.

“Hundreds, sweetheart.” He looked smug. His plan had succeeded beyond expectations. She was too happy to care.

“In that case, yes, of course.” She turned to the door, saying, “I'll just pull on a jacket,” when a knife twisted in her gut. She clutched her side, gasping as Thorne stole her shoulders into his hands.

“Cress! Are you okay?!” 

She gritted her teeth, hissing and attempting to take air into her lungs until the pain finally subsided. “I’m fine,” she said wanly.

He frowned. “No, no you’re not. You should’ve told me the pain was acting up.” He wrapped his arms around her sides supportively, sighing. “You need to lie down.”

“No!” she protested. “No, I want to come.”

He cast her a grim stare then pecked her cheek. “Tomorrow, okay?”

She scowled. Her injury was a poor wingwoman to her romantic life. “Okay,” she conceded, only slightly mollified.

“Here. I’ll help you get into bed.” Thorne pulled a hand away from her waist to push open the door.

Prickling erupted on her skin. She suddenly remembered what lay inside. “Oh, no, I’m fine. It’s not that bad—I can just—”

“Nonsense.”

She barely cried a “wait!” before the door swung open and the evidence spilled out in a rich floral perfume.

Thorne walked them both inside, gaping at the garden on the centre table. A mammoth bouquet of lilies, peonies, gazanias and foliage reached almost up to the ceiling. He plucked the creamy white card from the base and read it aloud:

In hopes of a swift recovery. Best Wishes, Konn Torin.

Thorne hadn’t yet blinked. Cress just about felt his token wilt in her hand. “I still love your rose,” she assuaged.

Thorne lowered the card, staring dejectedly at his intimidated rose. “I need to up my boyfriend game.”

She laughed. Cress tucked the rose behind his ear, giggling at his quizzical look. She leaned up, thirty excruciating stitches be damned, and planted a firm kiss on his lips. She pulled away. “Let’s start with that date tomorrow.”

Notes

This one's for me and @hayleblackburn, maybe the only members of the Konn Torin fan club. We're a small but loyal pit crew 😔✊

@cindersassasin @hayleblackburn @spherical-empirical @salt-warrior @just2bubbly @gingerale2017 @kaider-is-my-otp @slmkaider @luna-maximoff-22 @kaixiety @snozkat @mirrorballsss @skinwitch18 @bakergirl13 @wassupnye @linh-cindy @therealkaidertrash21

#lunar chronicles #tlc #the lunar chronicles #konn torin #emperor kai #carswell thorne #linh cinder #levana blackburn #cress darnel #wolf kesley #scarlet benoit #emperor rikan #cresswell #kaider #the lunar chronicles fanfiction #lunar chronicles fanfiction #tlc fanfiction #cresswell fanfiction

[therealkaidertrash21]

For some reason I have an hc that the kaider kids would do modelling campaigns here and because I’d imagine the three being GORGEOUS, coming from Kai and Cinder of course. Additionally, their parents are both tall, and with kai’s sharp features, I bet tons of businesses would want their kids (when they’re more mature) on their covers, or some agencies would scout them. But it wouldn’t be like a job or regular thing, more like an occasional thing, especially if the organization is supporting a good cause. Mind you, Kai’s had his face on a cereal box as a teen, so I don’t think him or cinder would be too opposed to the idea of their Blackburn kids being the face of something. It’s an iconic power move for that company though

I think Cinder would be a little against it first, when they're still toddlers but she would agree when they're a bit older. She doesn't want them to work so young. But she trusts Kai when he says it's fine, and she agrees because her children seem excited to do it. And when she sees the pictures she melts, because her kids ARE very cute. They probably send her the official pictures the brand is going to use, plus some in which the children are laughing and playing and those are her (and Kai's) faves.

On the other hand, Kai has no problem with letting them. He's actually kind of excited. But only because he will be there for every single minute of it. He goes with them every time and makes sure they are okay and comfortable. And he gets to decide which outfits he likes better.

Oh, and at least for the first ones, Torin demands to go too. He is the one that accompanied Kai when he was younger, after all.

#thank you for the ask! #sorry for taking so long anon #random fun fact: I could've been a child model but my mum said no lol #tlc #the lunar chronicles #lunar chronicles #thelunarchronicles #marissa meyer #tlc tag #cinder #linh cinder #selene channary jannaly blackburn #selene blackburn #emperor kai #emperor kaito #prince kai #prince kaito #kaider #tlc headcannon #konn torin #torin #anon ask #anon #anonymous

[ikosburneraccount]

torin and rikan were dating. to me like torin was a widow

#the lunar chronicles #mine #they were LOVERS #konn torin #emperor rikan #prince kai #tokan…is that their ship name

[salt-warrior]

Ok so basically Kai starts getting really bad headaches at one point not knowing why. (Like REALLY bad. Like makes him vomit bad) and he tries to just bear through whenever it happens and hide the pain, but sometimes he will be talking to torin or something and either have to stop talking or it gets hard for him to talk. Then one day it happens torin just pauses and goes “you know, your dad had migraines too.” Then Kai realizes what it is and goes to the doctor and also learns more about his dad

So I wrote half of this forever ago and then decided to finish tonight. Woohoo! I also took a lot of liberties with this prompt, but I like where it wound up, and I hope you do too:)

Burden

Summary: Kai feels like he's failing as an emperor. Torin reassures him. Set during Scarlet. (WC: 1.1k)

Kai pressed his palms to his eyes, trying his very best not to whimper. He had a two-hour digital conference meeting in less than ten minutes, but the idea of looking at a screen for even two seconds made him want to puke. His head was throbbing and his brain felt like a mess of knotted string and he just wanted to lie on the floor and cry.

“I can’t do it,” Kai whispered to himself. He pressed his forehead into his desk, wrapping his arms about his head. “I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” Tears began to slip from his eyes. His chest felt tight with misery. Somehow, his head hurt even more than before.

A knock sounded at his office door. Horror washed over Kai as he scrubbed at his eyes, but the pain within his head stole most of his anxiety away. What did it matter anymore? He was failing everything. He was failing with the search for Linh Cinder, he was failing to make peace with Queen Levana, he was failing to give his people safety. And yet, Kai still didn’t want people to know.

“Your Majesty?” Torin’s voice called through the door. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Kai replied. “Yes, I mean. Everything is fine. I know I’m running late. I just . . . I just need a minute.” He balled his fists and pressed them to his eyes, trying to relieve the pain there. If only he could get rid of this pain. If only he could find a way to concentrate on something other than the gut-twisting, life-quenching pain he was feeling.

The door opened, and Torin stood silhouetted in the frame. He flicked on the light, but when Kai gasped, he shut them right off again. Quickly, he closed the door then moved to Kai’s side.

“Your Majesty,” he said, “what’s wrong?”

Kai looked at his advisor, barely managing the feat despite the darkness of the room. He wanted to be strong. He wanted to put on a brave face and tell Torin he had it under control. He wanted to be able to do everything on his own. He wanted to be his father.

He couldn’t be his father.

“My head,” Kai said. He pressed his palms to his eyes once again and tucked his knees up to his chest. “My head is killing me. I can barely think of anything other than the pain. And even if I could, looking at my port is agonizing. I don’t know why, but the light just . . . it hurts. And standing feels about as possible as winning this war right now.” He sucked in a breath, trying desperately not to cry again. “I can’t do it, Torin. I’m not my father. I���m a failure. The net is right. I’m too young and inexperienced. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m a failure, Torin. I am a failure.”

Torin pulled up a chair beside Kai, then rested his hands on Kai’s face. Then, without another word, he pulled Kai into a hug. A sob broke through Kai’s throat.

“You are not a failure,” Torin said. “You may not be your father, but you are not a failure. The Commonwealth needs you, Kai. I’m sorry that you were given a near impossible job—it is not what you deserve—but you are the only one who can do this.”

“But I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.” He patted Kai on the back and then sat back in his chair. Kai brushed his hands messily across his face. Torin watched him, a sad look in his eyes. “When’s the last time you slept?”

“I don’t know,” Kai said, rubbing his nose with a tissue. “Last night.”

“Not the last time you fell asleep. The last time you got more than a couple hours at a time. When was the last time you had a proper sleep?”

Kai laughed, though it was a mad sound. “Definitely not since before all of this.” Kai gestured at the desk, and while there was nothing there, Torin seemed to understand. “I don’t have time, Torin. People are dying every day of Letumosis, and if that’s not enough, now there are wolf-people from the moon attacking Earthens as well. We still haven’t found Cinder, and I’m not sure if we ever will. Levana is breathing down my neck for a marriage alliance. And I’m scared. There are billions of people looking to me to take care of them, and I don't know if I can do it.”

Torin leaned forward, elbows on his knees. Kai felt almost as he had as a child, looking up into Torin’s lined face, trying to understand why his father’s advisor was so serious, why his eyes always appeared exhausted. Now he was the one looking down upon his advisor, wishing for that seriousness—Torin’s wisdom—to bleed into his veins and pull him through this crisis.

“Your father was scared too.”

Kai scoffed, then coughed, choking on the excess phlegm in his throat. “Only at the end.”

“Always,” Torin corrected. “And his head hurt too. All the time.”

“No it did not.”

“Kaito,” Torin said, “your father was not a god. He was not a pillar of strength. He was just a man—like you. Life tore him down, and he chose to build himself back up. Over and over and over again. From the day he was born, he was destined to rule billions, and there wasn’t a day that went by in which that knowledge did not petrify him. Did not weigh upon him. Did not threaten to crush him.” Torin placed his hand on Kai’s shoulder. “In the end, his biggest regret was leaving you with that same burden. With the sleepless nights and headaches that feel like the end of the world. But he knew you could do it, and so do I.”

“But what if I fail?”

“Then this world never stood a chance.”

Kai let out a choked breath, then placed his hands over his face, wiping the moisture from his cheeks. Then, as if possessed by some strange, unintelligent demon, he laughed. “Stars, Torin,” he said, “how did we get here?”

“Now that is a question I cannot answer.”

Kai laughed even harder.

Torin stood, but the corner of his mouth quirked up. “I’ve had your meeting pushed back by half an hour. Close your eyes. Breathe. Build yourself back up. Would you like me to send Nainsi up with anything? Tea? Soup?”

“Tea would be lovely,” Kai said, leaning back in his chair. “Thank you, Torin.”

“Of course, your Majesty.” Torin gave him a slight bow. “I’ll send her with something for the pain in your head as well. It will only be temporary, but hopefully everything that’s happening will only be temporary.”

“May we all hope,” Kai said, closing his eyes and feeling strangely hopeful.

#tlc fanfiction #emperor kai #konn torin #canon compliant #salt warrior stories

[just2bubbly]

I know this can be a bit distressing but I want a story where Kai is older where he remembers his love what he still feels for Cinder, this is just a story please thanks for the answer

Masterlist

Thank you for sending in this ask, nonnie, it was a bit distressing since I couldn't find a new reason to make these two fall apart but not to worry about that, I used my big brain and was creative enough to make something up. Hoping it serves you well! :)

Old Roses on a Summer Breeze

Ship: Kaider

Words: 1.7k

Genre: Angst

A/N: SOSN isn't canon in this fic, Future fic

Kai's Perspective:

"Yes, Torin. Do make time on my schedule for this coming Saturday evening. There's an event at Tara's school." He informs, shuffling through the pages of the manuscript Torin had brought.

"Are you the guest?" 

"Ha, for once I'm not. They have some school performance, I'm going to see her," he says.

Torin smiles fondly, both the men thinking about the little kid that made Palace delightful. 

"Boo!" someone cheered loudly.

"Fu- oh my stars," he cuts his swear word as he sees Tara," we did talk about this, no coming here alone."

"But Da, I wanted to surprise you," she reasoned.

"I mentioned it multiple times, Da's office has important documents." 

"Well I came in to show you something," she said, trying to save herself from scoldings.

"And couldn't it wait till we sat down for dinner?"

"Maybe not," she goes, coming ahead to sit in the chair before him.

Kai nods at her antics, Torin eyeing him. 

Sighing he closes the document he was reading, "Then off it with, love."

"Can Torin-da give us a moment?" she asks politely.

"Tara, are you sure it can't wait till dinner, I have some work to complete."

"I'd take only 5 minutes," she begged, making puppy eyes at him.

"Kai, it's ok. I'd come back again in a while. Does that work fine for you Tara?" Torin chuckled, coming to rescue the child.

"You are the best, Torin-da!" she announced, giving him a cheeky smile.

Exasperated, Kai gave in to their schemes, signalling to his advisor that he would ring him once he was done with Tara. His daughter brought her precious thing to his table as soon as Torin was out of the room. 

"I drew us," she says with pride lacing her voice, "You, me and Mama."

"That's wonderful. Can I see it?" He requested.

"Obviously," Tara murmurs, her words carrying a trace of sarcasm, a trait she had inherited from him.

The picture she drew was wonderful and he wasn't biased towards his daughter. She had a certain level of artistic skills that was beyond her age. She drew pictures better than her parents, provided none of them were good artists themselves.

"You will be such a fantastic artist in the future. I have to admit you look very beautiful in this," he comments.

"You always say I look beautiful," she said accusingly.

"Because you always do," he chuckled.

"Would you like to hang it?" she questioned. 

"Maybe. We can put it in the drawing room or the living room."

"I mean in the office," she clarifies.

"Oh," he says," You think so?"

"Yes, you have a portrait of you and Mum and me when I was a kid. You don't have a family picture at your desk," she explains.

"That's quite thoughtful of you."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you are clever to notice I don't have a family photo at the desk."

She nods and remembering her manners she thanks him.

"I think my desk has too many pictures already, how about we hang it on the wall? So every time you come here you can see it."

"But you said not to come in here."

"And let's change that to when 'you come here accompanied'."

He cleared as they walked towards the gallery in his cabin, where he had hung images of significant events in his life. His parents and him, later his dad and him, Torin and his family, his wedding day, Tara's birth and so many uncountable events.

"We would have to remove something for this to fit in?" he said aloud.

"We could remove that one," she said pointing out to a frame in the top left corner.

"Let me see," he said looking towards the picture she pointed. It was the Rampion Crew on Scarlet and Wolf's wedding day, young people with dreams of immense happiness. 

"That has many of Da's friends. Maybe something else," he convinced, trying to not think much about the picture.

"I have never seen them. Why don't you invite them for New Year like we invite Mum's friends?"

"They live far away and are just too busy to come, Tara."

"Friends make time for each other, that's what Mum says," she countered. 

Having nothing to say to that, he changes the topic," Let's find some other picture."

"This one? " she suggested to the set of the same individuals in different places.

"Maybe we could take that one down," he concedes unwillingly.

They do remove it, much against his wish. Once they do, he smoothens the corner of his daughter's drawing to put in the frame. 

"Tada," she cheered when their work was done, both staring at the wall. 

"It does look nice," he admires.

"I'm born talented," she bragged, drawing a chuckle out of Kai. Tara is lost in her moment of glory and pride, her father holding himself from going down a path of nostalgia and grief. 

"Are you sad because we removed your friends from your gallery?"

"No darling, Da is so happy to see your drawing in his gallery."

"Then do you miss your friends?"

"Yes, Da is sad because he misses his friends," he says, trying to keep his sorrow from coming back to him. 

"Then you can call them and tell them you miss them," she suggests like a wise lady. He wishes he could find enough courage to do so.

"This New Year, we will invite them over. What do you say?" he asks, taking his child in his arms and carrying her to the couch. 

"Yes, I'm excited to meet all your friends," she cheered, her hands taking the old photo from the table and looking at it closely. 

"I know this lady. Teacher Yamin taught us about her. She is the Queen of Luna before forming a demo-mo something," she fumbles "--democratic government," Kai provides.

"Yes, she is the Queen Selene Blackburn of Luna, the last of her lineage," Kai explained, but to him, she was just Cinder, the mechanic, the revolutionary, one of his past mistakes- nothing that Tara needed to know. 

"I didn't know you were friends with the Queen, Da."

"I'm friends with the Queen, I'm friends with a lot of famous people. Even Queen Camilla."

"You don't have Queen Camilla's picture on the wall," she pointed. 

His daughter was a wise lady he thought.

"Queen Selene was better friends than Queen Camilla," he explained. 

"How is she?" she asked incredulously.

"Like all Queens are, Tara." He gave away nothing, Cinder had no place in his present especially not as a role model for his daughter. Daiyu was enough of a role model for her.

Before she could go on being a curious child, Kai decided to cut the conversation short. Glancing at the time and in relief said, "Your time's up, love. Torin must be waiting for me. I'd see you at dinner."

She said her goodbyes and walked out of the room, leaving Kai sitting behind on the couch. 

Going against his better judgment, he picked that photograph. It was years ago- when Kai's only worry was being able to follow in his father's footsteps. Cress had clicked it while Thorne and Cinder had teased him to no end about his first time eating street food. Those were some happy days, he remembered. 

He stood up, walked towards the wall and smiled proudly over his daughter's drawing. His eyes were drawn slowly to the other pictures on the wall, the ones he hadn't paid much attention to in the latter years.

Scarlet's wedding, Cinder's coronation, the first Lunar Ball, Kai's failed attempts at baking cakes- some scattered images of friendship and love all hung around on this very wall. 

With how slowly things fell apart, Kai didn't have much scope to pinpoint where things went wrong. One moment there were talks of forever and the other moment he had just never found time to know her, for her to know him. When visits became infrequent and talks always began with 'talk to you later', Kai knew it was a slow change but it had crept on them like dust being ladden on old clothes. And just like that he didn't feel so giddy about proposing and when they had opportunities to meet his excitement had a lingering feeling of impending doom. 

Kai was 18 when he fell in love with Cinder, 6 when he was fascinated with Selene and at 25 he had fallen out of love with both Cinder and Selene. Somewhere along the way she did too. No one to blame but themselves- not the distance or prejudice that separated them. Just not quite knowing each other after years of dating, "You were the best thing that happened to me, Kai." She had said the last time they had talked. 

From what he had learned, Cinder had moved on quickly too. Just because you find new people doesn't mean you stop loving old ones, Kai even after his marriage and children was still harbouring a soft spot for Cinder. No remorse over his situation now, he won't change his wife and daughter for anything in the world. He just felt sad over a possibility that could have happened if he was a simple man with basic needs. He had found his love in Cinder and his forever in Daiyu, his feelings for Cinder were just a recollection of the past like old roses on a summer breeze. Something pain strikingly beautiful but not meant for you. 

The phone rang and saved him from further getting carried down an old road he had memorised by heart. It was Torin.

"Yes, she went. You can come along. Also could you please arrange a box for me, I'd like to keep some things aside," he requested.

He collected all of the images of his friends and set them aside. If Tara continued her musings, he would need a bigger space to hang her paintings. Only one remained, Cinder's coronation with all of them smiling down at the camera thinking they had seen the worst of days.

_

A/N: This fic felt like writing about 'Sometimes Love Stays' from Kai's perspective and it's just better to accept things and move on than lament over it and I know it's easier said than done but it's the harsh truth, I hate it too.

Taglist: @gingerale2017 @salt-warrior @slmkaider @cinderswrench @cindersassasin @impossiblesuitcase @kaider-is-my-otp @cosmicnovaflare @fangirlforever0704 and lemme know if anyone wants to be tagged.

#kaider #tlc #fanfiction #tlc fandom #kai #cinder linh #konn torin #lunar chronicles #marissa meyer #just2bubbly fics #angst #original female characters #selene blackburn #asks #anon supremacy

[deprivedmusicaljunkie]

i think torin deserves a mental breakdown. in which he becomes Very Sexy and unhinged, and maybe his shirt is unbuttoned, and maybe he has explosive sex with. doctor erland

#marissa was so right to make almost every adult male a dilf #i need the person who wrote the thorne/jacin smut fic to write something for torin and erland #tlc #the lunar chronicles #konn torin #dr erland #torin x erland

[a-salting-the-world]

Kai: People say we learn from our mistakes, so that’s why I’m making as many as I possibly can.

Torin:

Kai: Soon I’ll be a genius.

#marissa meyer #tlc #incorrect quotes #incorrect tlc quotes #the lunar chronicles #prince kai #emperor Kai #konn torin

[voidartisan]

People who don't get paid enough to deal with this

Ornon

Konn Torin

Mace Windu

#feel free to add on #tqt #the queen’s thief #ornon #tlc #the lunar chronicles #konn torin #sw #star wars #mace windu

[joemerl]

I just finished The Lunar Chronicles. While reading Winter I amused myself by imagining her saying lines from the Buffyverse's Drusilla.

"Then the moon started whispering to me. All sorts of dreadful things..."

Winter: I'm naming all the stars. Jacin: You can't see the stars, Princess. That's the ceiling. Also, it's day. Winter: (smiles dreamily) I can see them. (frowns) But I've named them all the same thing, and there's terrible confusion...

(to Levana) Bite your tongue! They used to eat! Cake, and eggs, and honey! Until you came and ripped their throats out.

Winter: Do you love my insides? The parts you can't see? Jacin: Eyeballs to entrails, Princess.

(to Konn Torin, while meeting Kai's delegation on Luna) "This one's got cow eyes, big and black. Moooo."

Winter: My papa used to sing me to sleep at night. "Run and catch the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch." He had the sweetest voice... What will you papa sing when they find your body? Disturbed Child: I'm not supposed to talk to people. Winter: Oh. Well, I'm not a person, see?

(to Jacin) "I see you. You're a man surrounded by fools who cannot see his strength. His vision. His glory. That and burning baby fish swimming all round your head."

"Do you know what I miss? Leeches."

And a bonus Buffybot quote:

(meeting Jacin at the dais after his public lashing) "Jacin! You're covered in sexy wounds."

#The Lunar Chronicles #Lunar Chronicles #Buffy the Vampire Slayer #Winter Hayle Blackburn #Jacin Clay #Drusilla #Buffybot #Incorrect quotes #Incorrect Lunar Chronicles quote #Incorrect Lunar Chronicles quotes #drusilla btvs #Angel the series #Buffyverse #Konn Torin #Evret Hayle

[princessselene126]

I'm not including Iko in this bc she's a main character imo and not a supporting one.

Please reblog for a bigger sample size!

#lunar chronicles #the lunar chronicles #tlc #poll #my post

[4tarosho]

#im sorry im not including jacin /lh #lunar chronicles #the lunar chronicles #only including kai bc he's technically winter's stepdad #emperor kai #prince kai #dimitri erland #sage darnel

[impossiblesuitcase]

Fighting, and Loving

“Do you ever take those off?”

Cinder’s hands were hauled up at her chest and gloved. The thin fabric was white, though it was hard to tell when they were so heavily stained with grease and soot. He didn’t think he had ever seen her without them, but then again, she had always been working in the few times they had met.

Few times? 

Kai realised, with surprise, that they hadn’t spent even a whole hour together since meeting. It felt much, much longer.

Startled but defiant, she clocked him dead in the eye. “No.”

Huh. This girl got more mysterious by the second, yet simultaneously felt like the most honest person he’d met in years.

Plus, she was pretty cute.

It was warm in the elevator—or that could just be him. He was already simmering all over from watery grief and rage that morning when Levana stood on his balcony and cast her control over his people. Manipulating them. Brainwashing them. 

His eyes were now barren, stickiness dried on his cheeks. If Cinder had noticed, she hadn’t said anything. She regarded him with a quiet tenderness; a condolence, but not surface-level like that of so many other staff and guards and representatives.

Stars, he wanted her to come to the ball. Needed her to, now that he knew the filthy Lunars had planted the chip in Nainsi to extract information.

He was a prince. He rarely faced rejection. While he did respect her right to decline, something in him was convinced that her rejection wasn’t completely true. It never reached her eyes, as though some force was drawing the words from her mouth. Why did she hesitate if she seemed so comfortable with him? From the little he knew of her, she did not strike him as the type to indulge someone’s feelings if she did not reciprocate. 

What was holding her back? He was a prince. He had resources. He could make those obstacles disappear. 

“I think you should go to the ball with me.”

Cinder’s eyes widened. “Stars. Didn’t you already ask me that?”

“I’m hoping for a more favourable answer this time. And I seem to be getting more desperate by the minute.” 

“How charming.” 

That wasn’t the cadence of a voice that was about to accept. 

“Please?”

They went back and forth; Cinder’s responses were still vague, never giving him an idea of why she refused. Until:

“Well there are about 200,000 single girls in this city who would fall over themselves to have the privilege,” she reasoned drily, glaring at her feet. 

Wait, was she rejecting him because she thought herself unworthy? 

“Cinder,” he started, softly. Soothingly. “200,000 single girls. Why not you?”

Cinder looked torn. Insecure. “I’m sorry. But trust me—you don’t want to go with me.”

Trust me, I do.

The doors parted, she scrambled outside, and Kai internally whooped when he saw the audience.

If she thought she was unworthy, he wouldn’t hesitate to prove otherwise.

“Come to the ball with me,” he declared.

Cinder froze. The staff froze. Kai could practically already read the hundreds of gossip posts that would emerge from their gospel testimonies. 

Let the whole world know that Cinder was worthy of his attention. Then maybe she’d believe it too.

She turned around with a sharp expression, oddly reminiscent of his mother when a seven-year-old Kai shattered her crystal lamp copying Taekwondo moves from a netdrama. The expression warmed him.

Cinder manhandled him back into the elevator—which would kindly exacerbate those rumours.

The doors shut incriminatingly and she sighed. “Listen. I’m sorry. I really am. But I can’t go to the ball with you. You just have to trust me on that.”

He studied her. Her scowl spoke of irritation, but the firmly planted hand on his chest was at ease. 

She noticed his gaze and retrieved her touch.

“Why?” he appealed, almost whining. “Why don’t you want to go with me?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go with you, it’s that I’m not going at all.”

Aha. “So you do want to go with me.”

Kai was certain that he was seconds away from finally getting through Cinder’s barrier—assuring her that it didn’t matter if she couldn’t dance, trying to allay her doubts—when something…changed. Her whole body deflated as though he’d just delivered some terrible diagnosis.

“It’s my sister.”

“Your sister?” he questioned, puzzled. Was this sister selfishly barring Cinder from attending the ball due to some slight? 

“Yes. My little sister. She has the plague. And it just wouldn’t be the same without her, and I can’t go—won’t go.” Then, like it was the truest admission of them all, she murmured, “I’m sorry.”

The weight of his insensitivity pressed into him. Great going Kai, he thought, you got so caught up in yourself that you forgot people have lives. All that flirting and pushing, even in front of a crowd! And the whole time, he’d been disturbing her.

He took a step back, reconsidering.

If she didn’t come, that meant that the ball would proceed as dreaded. Entertaining Levana, disappointing the world with his announcement, feeling the final tattered shreds of hope slip through his hands.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

He nodded, but it was a lie. He had no incentive to lie to her. “Levana thinks she can play me like a puppet. And it just occurred to me that she might be right.”

Nothing he did would change anything.

The warmth in Cinder’s gaze bandaged his wounds. He wanted to change everything.

“Imagine there was a cure,” slipped out unbidden, “but finding it would cost you everything. It would completely ruin your life. What would you do?” He leant closer, seeking some sort of surreptitious pardoning. An intimate assurance that, no, he didn’t have to marry Levana. It was completely fair for him to refuse and spare his own life.

Her face showed no hope. “Ruin my life to save a million others? It’s not much of a choice.”

Of course. Why was he even seeking that assurance? Cinder was a good person. Cinder was logical, as was he.

He would do the right thing. 

The right thing, 

the right thing,

She glanced at his lips and soon, he was doing the same.

An inner voice screamed at him. Now is not the time! You barely know her! Your country is on the brink of war and you have to find an antidote. Priorities!

But, being a teenage boy and all, priorities weren’t his friend when it came to pretty girls. 

“I’m sure this is horribly inappropriate, but… it seems that my life is about to be ruined.”

He couldn’t have changed his mind now even if he tried. Kai gently guided her elbow to have her facing him. He craned his head. It had been a long time since he’d kissed a girl and yet, he didn’t recall the thrumming of his heart ever being this loud. Cinder closed her eyes and tilted her head up. She thought this was the right thing too.

His pulse leapt up to his throat as they inched closer to each other. Her breath fanned his mouth, so hot her lips could already be on his own.

Then Cinder cried out and crumpled in on herself.

The band of tension snapped. Romantic distractions would turn into worried distractions, it turned out.

———

Kai could do with more distractions, he decided.

Despite the roughly eighty million pressing issues all demanding his attention, his thoughts kept sprinting away to Linh-mèi. Linh Cinder, who still wasn’t coming to the ball, who was still subject to some unspecified illness. 

Distraction. He pulled up his non-work related comms, hoping for a brand new alert that would pull him into something, anything. A ‘how are you?’ or ‘check out this vid’, or ‘dude, that levana chick be crazy. Stay away.’

His inbox was a barren desert.

Prince Kaito was loved by the world. Kai had no friends.

Cinder was a friend now, right?

Parted lips, her palpable jolt of surprise. Her scrunched eyes and tilted head.

Irrational disappointment gnawed at his chest. It was for the best. Kai had obviously been grief-stricken—no state in which to deliver a meaningful first kiss. Especially when for a whole second he’d looked at Cinder lying on the ground and found her face piercing and hypnotising and something was very clearly wrong.

She’d set her head in her hands, the spell broke, and he still had no idea what had come over him. Probably his sanity doing cartwheels.

Cinder hadn’t reached out. Still, he couldn’t resist shooting off a comm when he yearned for a friendly voice.

Hey, Cinder. I hope you’re recovering well. Like I said, if you need any tests done, feel free to come to the palace. We can’t have the city’s best mechanic in poor shape.  Yours, Kai.

A day passed, and nothing. She was probably resting. But an extra comm never hurt, right?

Hi Cinder, how’s things today? Any more malfunctioning androids? I’ll let you know if there are any in the palace—hopefully none of them are befalling the same fate as Nainsi. You know what I mean.

Three comms in, Kai realised he was a touch presumptuous.

“Your Highness?” 

Kai startled and flipped around to see a palace official in the doorway, head lowered in a bow.

“Ah yes, Park-dàren, a pleasure to see you.”

The woman extended a portscreen. “I have the final details for your coronation security checks. They require your approval.”

Kai shook off his distraction and strode over, once again falling into the skin of the responsible royal. When the official gave her condolences for his loss, he remembered that he would be assuming that role indefinitely.

He was professional with guards and servants, even Torin now. He wasn’t himself with anyone anymore. The Kai he’d been with his parents and classmates would be locked up somewhere in his mind. He didn’t know when he would see that Kai again.

“As you can see outlined in section eight, we are taking strict measures to ensure your safety. Once 80% of guests have arrived, we will instigate a cut-off time, in which no further guests can be allowed to enter. Citizens under criminal restrictions will doubtless attempt to enter under the guise of being late, assuming the name of someone who failed to attend—”

“Wait,” he interrupted. Clenching his fingers around the port, he deliberated. “Remove the cut-off time.”

A slow blink. “...I beg your pardon?”

Kai couldn’t help but imagine Cinder on the day, debating with herself if she would or wouldn’t come. What if she vowed to stay home, only to regret it more and more with the ticking of the clock until she raced over to meet him?

“It’s just, erm, with this time of mourning, many of the guests may feel overwhelmed at the thought of attending without my father present. But perhaps they may change their mind that very evening?”

The woman considered this—or perhaps was thinking of a way to gently inform him that that was a stupid idea.

“Of course,” she corrected finally. “Please accept my apology on behalf of our department. We had not considered that. I shall amend the protocol to allow for at least an extra hour.”

A smile tickled his cheeks, but understanding followed it, and at once he berated himself. Did he really just compromise their security for a girl? 

As he handed the port back to the woman he noticed her hands, well-kept and uncovered.

There was one person, recently, that he’d been himself with. 

“Excuse me,” he said before he could stop himself. “May I ask you a question?”

“Certainly, Your Highness,” she exclaimed eagerly.

He did not allow himself to back out now, despite the embarrassed tension caging his spine. “Do you ever…wear gloves?”

Her eyes widened. Her hands folded over one another as though self-conscious, and he studied their complexion. It was impossible to imagine Cinder’s scrappy gloves on such pristine knuckles and cuticles.

“Uh, not often, Your Highness. On formal occasions, mostly. I have a pair that I wear to the peace ball. I’ll be wearing them this year.”

He nodded, pursing his lips. “Thank you. I realise it’s a strange question. I just wondered if they would make a nice gift for someone.”

An amused smile. “Any gift from Your Highness would be an appreciated one.”

Once she had left, Kai paced over to the window to ruminate on this new idea. He was used to being welcome in any room he entered. He was certainly used to girls admiring him endlessly, and he’d grown skilled at politely declining their advances whilst secretly basking in the feeling of adoration. 

But Cinder wouldn’t be so easily swayed. She seemed stubborn and grounded and unwilling to betray her values, no matter who asked it of her. 

Kai unclipped his port from his belt and checked his comms. Still no responses.

What was he trying to achieve by this? Would she even like gloves? Or would that send the message that he was so clueless about women that her workwear was all he could think to buy her?

But these would be formal gloves, no, ballroom gloves. For the ball. He would give them to her, kiss her gloved hand and lead her down the ballroom steps. He remembered how that surprisingly petite hand had been so stiff when he’d kissed it in Dr. Erland’s office, as though his very touch had turned it to metal. 

He liked to think that she’d been romanced by it. He liked to think he had an effect on her.

Her hesitant glance at his lips. Her pull towards him in an unconscious magnetism.

Maybe she would like gloves, so long as they were from him.

———

He’d made up his mind by the time his seamstresses were fitting him for his coronation garb. They would give him the best advice.

“Say,” he wondered aloud, aiming for naturalness. “Where could I find some gloves for a formal event, perhaps, the ball?”

One of the older women, Kaminari, pulled a pin from her mouth without a glance his way. She had scolded a five, ten, even fifteen-year-old Kai many a time for wriggling during fittings. “You have a collection of gloves in your closet, Your Highness.”

“No, ah…” Treacherous heat covered his ears. “I was referring to women’s gloves.”

Now she looked at him over thin-framed glasses. Her eyes were scrutinising yet she graciously answered after a brief hesitation. “Well, the city’s department stores have the largest collections. You’ll find many fine pairs there.”

Kai enquired further, lacing his voice with casualness as though he was barely interested in such a trivial topic. Not because he feared rumours would erupt—Kaminari was a shrewd woman—but because that shrewdness enabled her to read him easily. There begged a question of why the prince would want women’s gloves, and ultimately, the most plausible conclusion was as a gift for a lady.

———

Kai sent Cinder another comm that night. She would be finished her workday, he assumed, and he recalled her mentioning a sister and a stepmother, so he waited until it was late enough that any family responsibilities would be completed.

It was also late enough that sending a comm would glaringly imply that he was thinking of her, now, at this late hour.

His previous messages were admittedly quite formal. This time, Kai hoped a laid-back approach would soften her digital wall of silence. 

Just a thought, if you feel like taking up dancing—for no particular reason at all—I’d be happy to be your instructor. I can practically see you rolling your eyes from here, but hear me out. You never know when those skills may come in handy.

The sent icon blipped on the right side of the screen. He stared at the left, drumming his fingers, waiting for the icon showing that she was responding. For the next five minutes, there was none.

Okay Kai, baaack it up a bit.

Sighing, he slid out of the app onto his netlink. Holding two fingers down, he flicked them away from himself so the feed appeared—lifesize—on the holographic projector before his bed. 

Kaminari’s recommendation was scrawled on his hand with one of her pattern markers. Saying it aloud brought an array of fashions to life, cycling one by one a carousel.

Kai’s back straightened. He shuffled closer on the bed. “All right. Display: gloves.”

He knew immediately that the particularly flashy ones that passed by would not work. Nor did peacock feather accents quite seem that of a modest mechanic.

He specified some criteria. Ballroom, elbow length, and then, classic. The pink and frills were replaced with simpler options. With no idea what colour dress she would be wearing* (if she was even coming*) a neutral colour would be the safest. With white, some were toned with ivory, rose gold or pink, and others a stark white. He liked silver best.

One instantly caught his attention. Elbow length, silver white, not gaudy but not as plain as her work gloves. The hem was rimmed with pearls for a touch of elegance. Cinder wasn’t elegant per se, but she did have a sort of unmatchable grace, uniquely characteristic to her.

Something about them felt…familiar.

Leaping out of bed, Kai tossed the port from his lap and jogged over to his closet. The lights flickered on as he opened the door, illuminating the long room that seemingly extended almost to the other end of the palace. The eighth cupboard down, third drawer on the left.

Laying neatly folded in lush velvet casing were three pairs of gloves. Kai fished past the navy and gold for the white pair underneath. He pulled them out, holding them up and inspecting them under the light.

They were ivory instead of silver, with diamonds instead of pearls. His mother hadn’t been all that fond of gloves. She always said a hand was better to hold if you could feel the touch of it in yours.

They still smelled vaguely of her perfume.

Kai held it to his face, inhaling the only remnant he still had of warm hugs and soothing lullabies and innocence. He had vowed as a child that he would never forget her scent or her voice or her smile.

No image of wide-spread teeth could come to his mind. He usually had to reference old home vids for the singsong murmurs.

Kai set them back in the tray, folded to match the others, and trudged back to his bed.

How would Mum feel to know that he would be forced to marry Levana? 

His portscreen was still there on his covers, glowing in the dimness. He bookmarked the tab of the department store and shut off the holographs so the blue light wouldn’t keep him awake. In vain, of course. His sleep had fled weeks ago.

Kai settled back into his bed sheets, closing his eyes and willing himself to rest. Instead, his mind fixed on Cinder, and he indulged in a brief, fleeting fantasy of her reaction when he delivered his gift. Would she smile? Turn red in the cheeks and stammer out gratitude? 

Or, considering her clear vehemence against attending, would she scoff and toss them away? 

No, that wasn’t the Cinder he’d come to know.

Kai turned from his back to his side, smushing his cheek in his pillow. Even if it didn’t sway her a single bit on his offer, her smile would be repayment enough. It probably wouldn’t work. Really, he didn’t know why he was so determined to buy her a gift, but the best reason he could come up with was that he simply wanted to.

———

Imagining her reaction became a hobby of his. 

Kai woke the next day, quickly dressed and ate a lonely breakfast in the empty dining hall. He distracted himself by checking his schedule. A blank hour between meetings and preparations piqued his interest. It would be prudent to use that time to practise his speech for the coronation or catch up on his father’s unfinished work or spend time groaning over his next meeting with the Lunar Queen.

Instead, he decided that if Cinder was willing to go out of her way to return Nainsi to him herself, he should return the courtesy. It would take ten minutes to get to the store by hover, around thirty to weave through the crowds in the rush hour and purchase the gloves (fifteen, if he played the prince card), and another ten minutes to return. If he did play the prince card, he might even have time to deliver them now, but if not today, he would make the time. 

Kai scheduled a hover to be posted at the palace entrance at 12:00 and set an alarm to give him notice.

Right. Now he would…work.

Time passed agonisingly. Kai had no office and was adamant that he’d stay out of his father’s for as long as possible. It belonged to the emperor, and that was his father. It wasn’t his yet. Never would be.

Instead, Kai worked in one of his sitting rooms where Torin could locate him and inform him of his burgeoning reminders. But Kai knew his father’s—his adviser was refraining as much as possible, for his sake.

09:15. Reviewing the classified strategies the Earthern Union hoped to employ to gain control of Levana.

09:21. Realising that the strategies summated to ‘We don’t know. Let’s wing it.’

09:27. Cupping his chin, eyes wandering to the window, trying to recall exactly where he’d last left his sweatshirt.

09:30. Work. Memorising the final itinerary for the coronation.

10:00. Trying to recall if he’d washed the sweatshirt that had been worn in stifling humidity and he’d definitely been sweating—

10:11. Skimming the newest report on Letumosis figures. Heart dropping to his stomach at the figures. 

10:29. Thinking of the gloves.

10:40. Work!

11:12. Mapping out the fastest route to Cinder’s booth.

Kai rammed his fist into his forehead, steeling his thoughts into obedience. His wished his brain were a limb; his arm—he could force it down with the other. His foot—he could weigh down to stop movement.

His brain was where the old Kai lived, and like an infectious tune, she was what it strayed to.

Now that the Lunars were around, Kai wasn’t so enthusiastic about the words mind and control being in the same sentence, so instead he commanded his fingers. Pick up the stylus, put it to the port and work.

It obeyed. Kai managed to concentrate until the beautiful, blessed alarm chimed through the air.

He sprang up, beaming.

Torin entered, apology pencilled on his brow.

“What.”

“Your Highness, the queen has requested an audience with you.”

All the gravity in the room dialled up to eleven, dragging every molecule of his body down with it. Kai flopped back onto the chair, grumbling. So much for that idea.

———

Kai’s schedule remained unforgiving. An extra two comms to Cinder were fruitless, and no other free hours appeared. The gloves slipped to the back of his mind.

Two days before the coronation, Kai was closing the tabs on his port and saw the bookmarked gloves. He jolted upright, knocking the underside of the coffee table and startling the china vase. 

Kai gnawed at his lip, pulling up his schedule and flipping over meetings and duties in hourly and bi-hourly increments. There would be something, he convinced himself as Nainsi rolled in with a tray of hot matcha tea.

“Thank you, Nainsi,” he mumbled as he took the cup and sipped. The scalding water sloshed over the rim onto his fingers and he thrust it down, hissing.

“Are you injured, Your Highness?” 

He tucked his hand beneath his thigh. “I’m fine.”

Her sensor glowed yellow—what he’d always thought of as her version of a nod—and she began to roll away.

“Wait.”

Nainsi stalled and swerved her cylindrical body around.

“Nainsi, could you make an order for me?”

“I would be honoured, Your Highness.”

Kai sent her the details of the purchase which she processed without delay. “Where should I have it sent to?”

Kai had been busy reexamining the gloves, even when it was too late to change his mind. “Pardon?”

“I assume they are to be a gift since they would not fit you,” she observed in that ever-neutral robotic tone. “Should I have them delivered to the recipient?”

“No,” Kai blurted. Hesitated. “I’m sure I can find some time…”

He raced through his schedule for any open slot, knowing there was none. Every meeting and hour was dedicated to some very noble, very unavoidable cause. Except, he thought as his eyes stopped on an extra coronation rehearsal mere hours before the ceremony. He’d be fine, so long as he didn’t throw the crown like a frisbee at Levana’s head.

“Have it sent to me,” he decided, clicking the timeslot and sending out a note to cancel it. “I’ll deliver it myself.”

“Certainly, Your Highness.” 

As he closed his calendar the screen was replaced with a newsfeed—article after article on the protests in the Commonwealth. Guiltily he clicked on one and was instantly rattled to see the vitriol on their faces, but also the fear. They were right. Levana shouldn’t be here. He should be able to fix it.

“Would you like the gift to be wrapped in advance, Your Highness?” 

“Ah, no, that’s fine,” he murmured distractedly. Nainsi’s sensor glowed green with confirmation and she ambled away.

He picked up his tea, now cooler, and sipped as he looked through the feeds. The hysterical cries, scathing posters and critical journalists weren’t just a blow to the regal, world leader Kaito. They hurt the Kai locked away, too.

———

When his coronation day arrived, Kai was so overrun with visitors and preparations that he genuinely blanked when Nainsi informed him his purchase had arrived. 

The knock at his door jolted him out of his confusion. Kai sprung into action, rifling through his closet for the grey hoodie and wrestled himself into it.

The courier blinked in surprise when Kai came to the door to pick up the package, but all the same bowed and handed him the box as though it held the crown jewels. He had probably expected a servant, and certainly not one dressed for a winter marathon.

“Thank you.” Kai paused. It was a plain brown box. “Uh, was there any wrapping paper for it?” 

The courier’s mouth hung open. “...You requested it unwrapped, Your Majesty.”

Kai almost instinctually corrected him on the honorific but refrained. Technically, he would only be His Highness for a few hours more.

“Of course. That is my mistake. Thank you. Never mind it.”

The man ignored this, rummaging through his bags and producing a selection of paper and ribbons. “Do you like any of these?”

Kai picked out a gold foil and noticed a sturdy-looking white bow in the man’s bag. He pointed at it. “Do you have any more like that?”

The man cut a sheet of the foil and handed it over gingerly, avoiding crinkles. When he pulled out the bow, Kai saw it was already wrapped around a gift. Without hesitation, the courier unwound the ribbon and flattened it out.

“Oh no,” Kai attempted, shaking his head, “please don’t take someone else’s—”

The bow was forced into his hands. 

The right thing to do would be to insist he couldn’t possibly accept it. Conscious of the ever-dwindling time, Kai buried his courteous instincts, thanked the man, and rushed briskly past him.

As the elevator descended, Kai ran over his plan. He could always wrap the gift in the hover, except he would need scissors and tape. He didn’t even know where he could find them. Paper was scarcely used anymore, so scissors were solely for cooking or cutting hair or clothes making or essentially any activity that a prince never did. There was always a maid or servant delegated to that task.

It was very important to Kai that something for Cinder was something he did himself.

He quickly thumbed the doors-open button, landing him five floors above the ground level. As he emerged, the adjacent elevator opened to a group of maids. Seeing him, the man and two women bowed respectfully. Kai returned a kind nod. But when their backs turned, he called, “Wait.”

They turned around. 

“Pardon me, but would any of you know where I could find some scissors and, uh, some tape?”

The other two exchanged some surprise, but the shortest woman bowed again with confidence. “We can certainly locate some for you, Your Highness.”

It turned out that the servant supply rooms had everything a person could ever need, including a large, paint-flecked table. Kai assessed the supplies and got to work. He took his time, trying and failing to get a meticulous seal and clean fold. It was shabby but functional, so he moved onto the bow. One loop was larger than the other—his bow-tying abilities were strictly limited to shoelaces.

Kai remembered how his father would wrap gifts for his mother himself. It was never the finest job, and neither was Kai’s, but that didn’t matter.

Satisfied, Kai abandoned the supplies on the table and took the wrapped gift to the palace gate where the hover was waiting for him.

———

Cinder looked completely baffled when he presented the box to her. He might as well have brought her a strangled puppy for her horrified expression.

“What?” he protested. “I can’t buy you a gift?”

Cinder’s nose scrunched in disbelief. “No. Not after I’ve ignored six of your comms in the last week. Are you dense?”

Any regret for sending those comms dissipated. “So you did get them!”

Cinder huffed, turning away. “Of course I got them.” Her tone wasn’t angry. Of course I got them; Of course I read them. Enough, evidently, to know specifically that he’d sent six comms.

Hope awoke in his chest. “So why are you ignoring me? Did I do something?”

There was a haze over her, some kind of veil, and he just needed to lift it. “It’s just that I…” Cinder fingered the hem of her gloves contemplatively. Her mouth parted. She ducked her hands under the table and blurted, “Because you kept going on and on about the stupid ball!” 

Oh.

She was nothing if not obstinate.

Kai glanced down at his gift, startled. A laugh tore out of him at the irony of it all. “Stars, Cinder, if I’d known you were going to embargo me for asking you on a date, I wouldn’t have dared.”

Cinder looked away, grumbling.

He would be reasonable; asking a girl to be your personal guest at the most documented event of the year was more of a tenth-date level of request. This girl was mesmerising; intelligent, snarky, comfortable in her grease-spotted skin. But Kai knew how to read people. There was hesitation below that: anxiety, self-doubt. 

It needed to be non-committal. Casual. A first date.

He unleashed his winning smile. “Might I have the honour of treating you to lunch?”

As though she had a specific ‘reject any non-work-related activity involving Kai’ vendetta, Cinder continued to rebuff him.

She was deflecting, so he fought back. Ask the other vendors to tend to your booth. Ask your android. That last one seemed to irritate her the most.

His public speaking instructor would have told him here: when you’re at an impasse, there’s always something else to say. Another angle to convince them.

Cinder didn’t seem annoyed with him, but she wasn’t convinced, either.

It was all right. If she wasn’t coming to the ball, or she wouldn’t go to lunch with him, there would be other times.

Cinder regarded him in a way he thought—hoped—was almost regretful.

Could there be?

In a few hours, he would be emperor. If he were busy as a prince, he would have no time for respite now. And Cinder was…nothing more than a subject. A mechanic he sought a service from. She may have been willing to kiss him, but to let him court her?

One day—in the future. Maybe.

“Come on. I can’t take you to the…B-word; I can’t take you to lunch. Short of my unplugging the processor on one of my androids, this could be the last time we ever see each other,” he said nonchalantly, hoping there was no obvious tinge of disappointment.

Cinder stared at her toolbox. “Believe it or not, I’d actually kind of resolved myself to that fact already.”

Her words cemented it. No, he would not be able to escape his fate of marrying Levana. No, he would not be free to pursue a relationship with the only person left who made him feel like more than just a figurehead.

He didn’t allow her to give him back the gloves. All the same, he would treat her with kindness, and show his gratitude, and then perhaps she wouldn’t forget about him.

Pushing the box to her, he requested, “Take it. And think of me.” 

He smiled sincerely at her, hoping it would leave a lasting mark in her memory. Something just as indelible as she had become to him.

His mood soured when Cinder’s stepsister arrived, spoiling what may be his last interaction with her. And yet as he stepped back into the crowd, he turned once more to watch. The messy hair and grease-stained clothes and magnetising charm. That was what he'd remember.

———

Kai was an idiot.

Grade A idiot. World-class idiot. All his fans who called him charming and kind and benevolent were wrong.

At first, seeing Linh Pearl at the ball was just another nail in the coffin of the awful day that was his coronation. But her news struck an unexpected chord in his chest.

Cinder’s stepsister had died. The one she had mentioned in the elevator. The reason she hadn’t come to the ball.

Kai had completely forgotten that the girl was ill. And he’d marched up to Cinder’s booth, attempting again to get her to come to the ball; he’d even nagged her for ignoring his comms! Was he so dense?

Idiot.

For all the guilt, there was also a twinge of hope. Because if Cinder was in mourning, perhaps she wasn’t rejecting him. Perhaps it had just been the wrong time. So then if…

No. It was wishful thinking. Cinder hadn’t shown up to indicate anything. And tonight he had to announce his plans to wed Levana.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” said Kai to the girl, genuinely meaning it.

Pearl sniffed, though it was more haughty than mournful. “Thank you, Your Majesty. I know you truly do feel that in your heart. I can’t say the same of my awful stepsister.”

He blinked. “Pardon?”

“Oh, she is a monster. If only you knew what she’s really like. And don’t worry, I made sure she wouldn’t taint your generous gift with her filthy claws.”

“What do you mean? Those were a gift for her to use.”

Pearl’s sneer was frighteningly sincere. “Trust me, a creature like her doesn’t deserve them. You see, that awful, ungrateful wretch is a cy–”

A voice boomed over the speakers, spreading commotion amongst the joviality. Kai frowned at the interruption, too busy waiting to correct whatever nonsense Linh Pearl was about to spew. Then he heard the announcement.

“Please welcome to the 126th Annual Ball of the Eastern Commonwealth, a personal guest of His Imperial Majesty: Linh Cinder of New Beijing.”

Kai’s breath snagged, heart tripling in size. At the top of the stairs, Cinder stood in all her crowning glory. That being her version: a muddied, wet dress, mussed hair and—

Holding up the dripping silver skirt were silk-gloved hands. 

Every mouth hung as she descended the stairs. Heat rushed to his cheeks, then laughter to his heart. Cinder had come to the ball. She was wearing his gift. 

That had to mean something.

Cinder’s fierce eyes were trained on him as she marched forward. It didn’t even seem to bother her that her ballgown looked half dragged out of a sewer, the crowd around her staring blades and ice shards into her back. He didn’t know if she didn’t notice, or if she didn’t let herself. Kai rushed forward, blessedly excused from his delightful conversation partner. He was just preparing to meet Cinder halfway when she was intercepted by a woman. His feet stopped beneath him.

The two argued. Pearl scurried next to the strange woman to hurl accusations of her own. Cinder’s nostrils flared, and even the guards looked perplexed at whether they should intervene.

The woman raised a flat hand, Cinder flinched, and Kai saw scarlet red.

“Your Majesty!” the woman gasped out, as his firm hand locked around her wrist.

“That is enough,” he disciplined. He kept his fury contained, lest any shows of anger make Cinder even more afraid.

Pink filled the woman’s cheeks. “I am so sorry, Your Majesty. My emotions—my temper—this girl is…I am sorry she has interrupted…she is my ward—she should not be here…”

Her stepmother. “Of course, she should. She is my personal guest.” His tone was light, but commanding all the same. His eyes darted to Cinder. Traced over the shock on her face. The defused fear. The arms wrapped around her waist, cradling—or caging—herself.

He wished so fervently to strip that pain away.

Kai released the woman and ordered the merriment to resume, which everyone attempted half-heartedly. Then he pulled Cinder into his arms and into the most socially acceptable method to have a private conversation amidst a crowd: dancing.

Once having guided Cinder away, Kai was finally able to give her a closer inspection. That’s how he noticed the dark smudges on the silver silk gloves.

Okay. Maybe she had defaced his gift, but she was still wearing them. How could he expect anything else from the girl who had been so exponentially unlike anyone he’d ever met before?

Cinder gaped up at him, and while the damp glove was seeping cold into his shoulder, her waist was warm under his hand. It took only a heartbeat for him to realise that she was not experienced in the ways of waltzing. 

He chuckled. “You have no idea how to dance, do you?”

“I’m a mechanic,” she hissed, and it stirred a louder laugh under his sternum.

“Believe me, I noticed. Are those grease stains on the gloves I gave you?” he teased, because really, he couldn’t even make himself mad about it. He expressed that by twirling her under his arm, to which she stumbled and toppled into his chest.

A grin overtook him. Cinder cringed. She was wholly out of her element, and clearly uncomfortable by all the scrutiny. And yet, this flustered and dishevelled version of Cinder had come all the way to the ball for him, despite the opposition from her guardian. Despite her own self-doubts.

Then he remembered the other reason she hadn’t wanted to attend.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he started softly.

He momentarily thought that she might start to cry. “I didn’t know how.”

“I would have understood.”

The more he apologised, the more at ease she seemed. It was as though he was pardoning her, assuring her that being here would not dishonour her sister’s memory. She looked at him like she was seeing his face in whole for the first time; not just in pieces.

A voice came to him, Torin this time, lecturing him that this was a foolish pursuit; that he would still have to make his announcement of his betrothal to Levana. But it was a small heartache he didn’t dwell on it. Because something else Torin had once said came to him.

“Perhaps you’ll meet a girl at the festival. Have a whirlwind romance, a happily ever after, and have no more worries for the rest of your days.”

Cinder tied her fingers in the hair at his neck. She was here. Reasons she had rejected him didn’t matter now. He liked her. She liked him. There were no other reasons needed.

Somehow, ludicrously, Cinder being here meant everything.

As long as Cinder was around, he knew that the Kai locked away inside of him would stay alive. And, one day, return.

Fighting, and loving.

Notes

…And then everything crashes and burns spectacularly :D 

Writing Kai at this stage is so interesting because his life is falling to pieces and yet he is so effortlessly flirty with Cinder, making it appear that he's coping. Then you get to his povs and he is not coping, and when you read 'The Mechanic' you see how he wants to sound "witty" to impress her. He was holding in all those emotions so he could flirt effectively lol. Anyways I recommend reading these scenes in the actual book because I didn't include all the dialogue, just snippets to highlight Kai's perspective.

I am most indebted to @spherical-empirical for the line, "I can practically see you rolling your eyes from here, but hear me out." It was from a post from a long time ago, but I started this fic a long time ago. I am VERY happy that this is finished after TWO YEARS of it sitting in my drafts.

@cindersassasin @hayleblackburn @spherical-empirical @salt-warrior @just2bubbly @gingerale2017 @icarusignite @kaider-is-my-otp @slmkaider @luna-maximoff-22 @cosmicnovaflare @kaixiety @snozkat @mirrorballsss @skinwitch18 @vincentvangothic @bakergirl13 @wassupnye @linh-cindy

#the lunar chronicles #tlc #lunar chronicles #linh cinder #kaider #prince kai #emperor kai #emperor kaito #kaider fanfiction #lunar chronicles fanfiction #konn torin #nainsi! #she's probably never been tagged before

[enormousgrapefruit]

…has this been done?

#also #i’m sorry #the lunar chronicles #lunar chronicles #linh cinder #kaito #konn torin #levana blackburn

[ikosburneraccount]

my favorite thing that ever happened during the post-cress pre-winter drought was people bullying Marissa Meyer about her lack of lgbtq+ characters so she made KONN TORIN of ALL characters canonically gay 😭 like she tweeted it ONCE and never followed up on it EVER again

and then we got the suho-verse from the fandom, which is Torin's fan-made husband and then people took it a step further and created torin/suho children. and then proceeded to ship their children with the kaider children. like absolutely unhinged behavior

like typing this all out now seems crazy but this was a FR thing back in 2015/16 lunar chronicles fandom on tumblr

#what kills me is that I never even questioned it. I FULLY subscribed and believed in this fanon #like looking back 7 years later im so DEAD like we were DRY of content during that drought #konn torin #the lunar chronicles #mine

[salt-warrior]

A Whole Lot of Wanting

Summary: Kai is unsure of how to propose to Cinder, so he enlists Torin’s help. (WC: 1.4k)

Kai paced his study, muttering to himself as he did so, moving his hands as if he were having an actual conversation with an actual person.

"I love you...I want to be with you...always..." His brow furrowed at the last part. He wanted to tell Cinder how he felt—how much he loved and adored her—but he didn't want his proposal to be cliché.

He was the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth. He'd written speech after speech after speech since the time he could talk. He knew how to use words. He knew how to express himself. But for some reason, whenever Kai tried to think of how he would ask Cinder to marry him, the words just didn't sound right.

A knock sounded at his door. Kai flinched, then moved to open it, running a hand through his disheveled hair.

"Thank the stars," Kai said when he saw Torin. "I need your help."

"Your Majesty." Torin nodded his head.

Kai moved aside and ushered Torin into the room.

Despite the lateness of the hour, Torin looked as impeccable and stately as he always did, with his graying hair and pressed suit. Even his posture was perfect, his hands folded in front of him and shoulders squared back. Kai felt like a wreck by comparison—his shoes long since discarded, tie loosened and suit jacket gone. Not to mention the state of his hair and the quite possibly crazed look in his eyes.

"What is it that you need assistance with?" Torin asked, polite as ever, even after all they had been through. For years during Kai's childhood, he'd tried to crack the man's cool facade but had long since decided that it was an impossible feat. It was just the way Torin was.

Kai motionted for him to sit in the cushioned chair in front of his desk. In turn, Kai perched himself on the edge of his desk, unable to bring himself to sit in a seat.

For weeks, Kai had been looking forward to Scarlet and Wolf's wedding—to seeing Cinder. It had been nearly a year since he'd seen her in person, though they made sure to comm one another regularly. But it wasn't the same. He wanted to be close to her. He wanted to look at her face, and not through a screen. He wanted and he wanted and he wanted.

When Wolf had asked if the Rampion crew would hold an early surprise wedding for the couple, Kai had been excited not only for Scarlet and Wolf and the privacy they deserved, but for the time it would allow for him to spend with Cinder. They would be there for days, and without the media. He hadn't been allowed time with Cinder like that since his kidnapping.

And as Kai daydreamed of all this time they would have together, he began to think of the future—the good future—where they would never have to be apart again.

It was then that he had decided to ask Cinder to marry him.

"I...I need help," Kai said. "I didn't know who else to go to."

"What's the matter?" Torin asked, his features tightening with worry. "Is something wrong, Your Majesty?"

Kai shook his head. "No." He chuckled. "No, absolutely not. Everything is...well, everything is good. It's just that—I just..."

Torin inclined his head, brow furrowed.

Kai knitted his fingers together behind his head and took a deep breath. Releasing it, Kai said, "I'm going to ask Cinder to marry me."

Silence followed Kai's proclamation. Torin leaned back in his chair, his face taking on a contemplative look. He folded his arms over his chest and examined Kai. For a moment, Kai was worried that Torin was disappointed—that he didn't approve of Kai's choice in a partner.

Then he saw the way Torin's eyes were glistening, and realized that it was not disappointment on Torin's face, but a trembling sort of delight—pride. He was proud of Kai.

"The only problem is," Kai continued, "that I don't know how to do it. And I'm scared of messing it up. What if I botch it so bad that she doesn't want to marry me? Or even worse, what if she just straight up doesn't want to marry me?"

"Slow down," Torin said, raising a hand to stop Kai's torrent of questions. "First of all, I have perfect faith that when the time comes for you to ask her, the right words will come to you. Second, I've seen the way Ambassador Linh-Blackburn interacts with you, and while I am no expert on women—or people, for that matter—I think it is plain to everyone with functioning eyes that she is in love with you."

Kai let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I know that she loves me," he said, sincere. "But what if, I don't know, marriage is just too much right now? She only dissolved the Lunar monarchy six weeks ago. She's still an ambassador, but what if she wants a break from being royalty?"

"Those are all exceptionally valuable concerns," Torin remarked. "I'm glad to see that you're putting as much thought into this as you are, but I am incapable of answering any of your questions. There's only one person who can give you definitive answers."

Pressing a hand to his forehead, Kai sighed. "I know. I just thought..." Kai shook his head. "I just needed to get it all out. I've had these questions circling in my head for the past week, and I needed someone to listen to me." He looked at Torin. "Thank you."

"It is my honor and pleasure, Your Majesty."

They smiled at one another. And for a moment, Kai felt the way he always had after having a conversation with his father—like everything would be okay.

"Was there anything else you needed help with?" Torin asked, moving to the edge of his seat.

Kai sucked in his lips and nodded, dropping his gaze. "I don't know how to ask," he said, almost sheepishly.

"Ah." Torin smiled an uncharacteristically amused little smile. "Do you have any ideas?"

"I want to tell her how I feel," Kai said. He tucked a foot beneath his knee. "But all that I can come up with are the sappy, unoriginal clichés for love. I want it to be..."

"Special?" Torin supplied.

"Exactly," Kai said, scratching behind his ear. "I want it to feel as important as it is and not like I'm reciting from a how-to-propose manual. I want it to feel right."

Torin nodded, steepling his fingers together. Kai watched, transfixed by the action. It was something he'd often seen his father do. The thought made his heart hurt.

"Well," Torin said, "I think the only way for it to feel right is for you to not plan it—to let it be organic and from the heart. I know it's not your style to be unprepared, but I don't think that's what this is. You are prepared. You're ready. And when the time comes to propose, the words will find you."

"You really think so?"

Torin nodded, a kind smile on his face. Then he stood and clapped Kai on the shoulder. "Your parents would be very proud of the man and emperor you have become. You have solved the problems that they could not, and stayed true to yourself all the while. You have been the change they wanted to see in the world and so much more. They would be so excited for you now, and thrilled to see your choice in empress. I know that you and Ambassador Linh-Blackburn will be exactly what the Commonwealth needs."

Kai swallowed hard, fighting against the sudden swell of tears. "Thank you," he said, then pulled Torin into a tight embrace. "Thank you for everything. All the long hours. All the filling in for me. All the guidance and frustrating conversations. Thank you for being one of the few constants in my life."

"It has been an honor," Torin said, his own voice sounding tight. He patted Kai's back then pulled away, resuming his professional stance. "Is there anything else I can help you with this evening?"

"No." Kai shook his head, swiping at his eyes as he did so.

"Well then," Torin said, opening the door, "I guess all that's left for me to say is: Good luck."

Tag List: @healing-winston-pratt @kaixiety @fishbook123 @gingerale2017 @just2bubbly @shellyseashell @wassupnye @impossiblesuitcase @winterrhayle @hayleblackburn @sadolescence @grxceful-ly @spherical-empirical @kurlyfrasier @fangirlforever0704 @cinderswrench @cindersassasin @slmkaider @zephyr-thedragon @lani-sleeps @the-jewel-of-ketterdam @the-wee-woo-royal @kaider-is-my-otp @coracal @only-lonely-stars (Let me know if you want to be added or removed<3)

#prince kai #emperor kai #konn torin #marissa meyer #the lunar chronicles #lunar chronicles #tlc #tlc fanfiction #salt warrior stories #kaider

[just2bubbly]

Happy Fussings!

Masterlist

Summary: Cinder getting anxious over meeting Torin and his family over a lunch date, Kai being the unhelping but cute partner like always.

Ship: Kaider

Words: 1k

Genre: Fluff (mostly?)

A/N: Suho is an OC, here Torin's husband.

Cinder's Perspective:

"I can see the worry lines on your face," he jested.

"Cause I'm tremendously worried," she replied, no attempt to hide her said worry lines.

"Chill-," he muttered and before he could continue, she had turned around in her seat and glared at him promptly asking him to shut up which he effectively did.

"You have seen him so many times and not to mention you know Torin. I don't even know what you are worried about," he pointed out.

"Easy for you to say, I don't want them to hate me."

"Cinder, c'mon you are worried over a possibility that is as impossible as you being a queen again."

"I don't want to talk to you," she fumed and launched herself into the pile at her desk. Her willpower didn't maintain the charade for a long time as she voiced herself again.

"It feels like I'm meeting your parents and I have multiple expectations to fulfil," she explained.

"Cinder you met them multiple times."

"But never as your fiancee and never on a lunch date invitation."

"I don't see how it changes anything."

"Imagine you had to see my mum and seek her approval for marriage."

"I think the comparison of Torin's family to your mother is a little cruel, Cin. No offence but I think Torin will take offence there."

"Kai," she chided "I'm saying imagine."

"Well, my creative mind says that I would be more scared for my life rather than seeking a good rating from your mother."

Her mother, Queen Channary wasn't a just ruler nor was she much benevolent in person, Cinder had to admit comparing her mother to Torin was an inept scale.

"Still, you would be nervous about meeting my mother and I'm nervous about meeting your family too."

"Cinder, you're hyperventilating. It's better if you calm down, crack puns that make only Lili laugh, laugh at all of Torin's stories and speak nice about the food that's cooked and you shall get good acceptance."

"Not funny Kai."

"You don't even take criticism. All my advice is wasted on deaf ear," he grinned, mockingly shedding tears of irony.

She thought to herself for a while, scrolling through her feed to apprehend how she could be a polite guest. Honestly, she was extremely worried. She had Torin and Suho to impress, their daughters were already impressed by her so that was one point. Torin was still hostile towards her when she spoke against Kai's ideas but he had grown on her.

The real deal however was Suho- he adored Kai and Kai looked up to him far more than Torin in comparison. She couldn't deny how Kai had practically been raised in their household only to stop spending so much time when his lessons increased after his mother's death. She couldn't overstep their made-up family by just bombarding on their peace.

"Shall we buy them something?" she asked.

"That is a fine idea but keep it minimalistic. Suho doesn't like grand gestures of wealth and Torin doesn't like what Suho doesn't like."

There he goes making her feel like the outsider she thinks she is.

"Just flowers?"

"You could do better Cinder, we are the royalty."

"You said no wealth."

"But some wealth is okay."

"Says the Emperor who owns the state treasury."

"It's the state's treasury"

"You said minimalistic."

"I didn't say flowers either."

"Flowers are minimalistic."

"I mean not that minimalistic."

"Then you tell me what we should gift?"

"Maybe a painting," he suggested.

"Who is being minimalistic right now?"

"A painting isn't expensive," he said in his defence.

"Says the Emperor."

"We will buy an inexpensive one then."

"But it shouldn't look like we bought gifts 'cause we had to."

"Holograph photobook?"

"I think it is too elaborate. You could do that the next time you visit."

"What if there's no next time since they don't like me enough the first time?"

"Well you are going to be there, you are going to be wife. I refuse to not take my wife everywhere with me."

"You know if cybernetics would fail me right now, I would be blushing."

"Oh, thank you for the appreciation, my lovely fiancee." He said, a cheeky smile hiding the pale hue of pink on his flushed cheeks. She chuckled, Kai was very charming with the least of effort.

"Can't you give me some better insight than Suho Liking minimalistic things?"

"I don't know- I have never gifted him anything and they didn't gift me anything. I was the next in line, there is very little that a crown prince might not have and be gifted," He mentioned with little cheer in his voice, a gloom rather evident.

She might have consoled him but some things were better undiscussed than talked over with impending concern.

She understood his lack of gifting- Cinder herself was too poor to gift someone and too worthless to be gifted anything, Kai on the other hand was very rich to be gifted anything he couldn't have.

"Still, I want him to like me like he adores you."

"He doesn't adore me", he retorted laughing.

"He does and you absolutely love it."

"Well what can I say, everyone loves a decent fellow!"

"Oh, decent fellow would you enlighten us about all the magic you cast on your loved ones?"

"You should tell me the answer for that one darling."

Kai really might make her blush someday if machines could malfunction.

The knock on the door saved her from answering something witty enough.

"Your Majesty-"

"No need for formalities, Torin. No one here but for Cinder." He reminded Torin for the umpteenth time.

Before she could think over the idea she blurted, "I'd some favours from you, Torin. Before you announce the work you have brought, can I just ask a few questions?"

Kai eyed her sidewards, while Torin did little to hide his surprise.

"Yes Cinder-Daren, you may."

Kai shook his head, knowing exactly what she was about to do, "Take a seat, Torin, something tells me this might be a long afternoon and hand over the file, Id make the changes while you two go on."

__

A/N: All done for today, quite short but had it in my drafts for years now. Also not me trying to bring Torin in every fic I write ;)

Besides finally writing my something outside of angst, so leave some kudos!

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