Stories Unknown

The Happiest of Memories

"Cinder," Kai whispered, his lips brushing gently against his wife's ear. His voice was soft in his attempt not to startle her, but she jolted awake nonetheless, as if he'd quite literally shocked her.

"What?" Cinder asked, eyes darting around the room as if to assess a threat. "What's wrong, Kai?"

Kai let out a sigh, then wrapped an arm around Cinder's waist, pulling her up against him, and Cinder sucked in a breath, unsure what to make of this. Almost every morning she woke first, dragging him from the realm of sleep and into the conscious world. She looked at him, eyebrows raised quizzically. But rather than answering her unspoken question, Kai pressed his forehead against hers, copper eyes meeting brown, and whispered: "Happy birthday, Cinder."

Cinder pulled back just enough to look at him—her brain interface immediately pulling up the date, which told her that indeed, Kai was correct. It was her birthday. Her real birthday.

When she'd been gifted the name Linh Cinder, along with her child-sized cybernetic limbs, she'd also been given a false birthday, so as not to arouse suspicion. Even now, celebrating her actual day of birth for the fourth time in her living memory, she still had a hard time with the date.

"Don't tell me you actually forgot," Kai said, mouth open in a dramatic display of his disbelief. When she didn't respond, he clucked his tongue. "Cinder, Cinder, Cinder. It's the most important day of the year—"

"Kai, we literally got married this year."

"Well, if you hadn't been born, our marriage couldn't have even been a possibility," Kai explained.

"But your birthday—"

"Is not as miraculous because we Earthens have come and gone for thousands of years while you Lunars are such a recent species. I'm really rather impressed that you guys have made it the couple hundred years that you have, what with everything that's been going on."

"You're a pest," Cinder hissed, though the corner of her mouth twitched up.

"Spoken like a true Lunar." Kai grinned wickedly, and Cinder—using the only foolproof method she knew of to put an end to his antics—leaned forward and kissed him.

Kai let out a small gasp, as if her kissing him were a shocking, once-in-a-lifetime experience—something to go breathless over. But he kissed her back all the same, just as he had done every time for the past four years, breathing her in as if he were dying and she was the last thing he wanted to taste, to feel, to know, before he perished into the unknown. The arm wrapped around her waist pulled her in tighter, despite their already close proximity, and his hand brushed at the strands of her hair, twisting them against his fingers as if they were a part of him, always meant to be there.

A sigh escaped Cinder as they broke apart, Kai's face hovering above her own as they panted in unison, unable to obtain oxygen, and hardly caring as they stared into one another's eyes.

"I adore you," Kai whispered. With careful fingers, he brushed a strand of hair from Cinder's eyes. "And I love you." He pressed his lips to her cheek, then the other. He watched her as if she were the last star in the galaxy, the concluding bit of light in a dark world, his final wish before the universe collapsed in on itself. Then his smile returned, more mischievous than ever. "And as much as I'd love to stay here in this moment forever, I have a whole day of birthday festivities planned."

***

They dressed for the day, Cinder in elegant black pants and a long-sleeved, fluttery, ice-blue blouse that reminded her of snow. Kai dressed in a similar fashion, as if he'd meant to match—which perhaps he had—in a black suit and tie in a similar shade to Cinder's top. She eyed him quizzically, but said nothing as to their analogous wardrobe choices.