Long Distance

Part 5

Cinder's portscreen pinged.

She jumped and whipped it out, almost slamming Kinney in the back of the head.

Kinney dodged her and the podship swerved. "Oi, watch it, Your Majesty," he said, leveling the ship."You're gonna take out one of my eyes."

"Sorry," Cinder replied absentmindedly, pulling up the comm link. It was awkward for her, using a portscreen, because she always used to use the link in her head. Trouble is, the one in her head didn't do vid comms, so she had to get a port.

The face of Princess Winter filled the screen.

"Winter?" Cinder gasped. "I was about to comm you, are you still in the castle? Is Kai with you?"

Winter laughed lightly. "Yes to everything, cousin. You needn't worry, your Emperor is with me."

Cinder's brow furrowed. "Can I talk to him?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"I'm afraid not," Winter replied sympathetically. "He has requested to apologize in person."

Cinder rubbed her temple. "Fine, fine. Tell him I have some choice words for when I arrive."

She turned off the portscreen, and Kinney laughed.

"Boyfriend trouble?"

"Shut up, Kinney," she snapped, then sighed. "Sorry."

"It's alright, you're still better than Levana." He smiled at her, then his expression wavered with uncertainty. "Hey, Your Majesty, I was wondering where that android of yours was. I haven't seen it around the castle."

"She's still been on the philanthropic mission to the outer sectors. She said she'd continue the reconstruction efforts after I'd returned to Artemisia. Why?"

Kinney sniffed, his face stone cold again. "I just don't want that android running around ruining anything, that's all."

Cinder raised an eyebrow at him. "Right."

"So, you gonna give lover boy what for when you see him?" Kinney said, obviously trying to change the subject. Cinder was a little quizzical, but she shrugged it off and stood.

"I guess. I just don't know what to say." She walked around the small podship cockpit, her hands in her pockets. "I don't want to just straight up call him an idiot, even though that's what he is."

"Punch him," Kinney suggested. "With your metal hand. I'd like to see that."

She shot him a glare. "How 'bout I punch you?" she retorted, then sighed again. "No. He's an idiot, but he doesn't deserve that. I'm sure he was just trying to be nice. It just didn't work out."

Kinney shrugged and fiddled with the podship's controls. "It doesn't seem like you're that mad at him anymore."

"I guess not," she sighed, then looked back up at the back of Kinney's head. "Why did you want know where Iko was again?"

She saw his shoulders tighten. "I already told you," he said, too quickly. "I don't want an android milling about where she could screw up something."

"She?"

"What?"

"She, you called Iko 'she' instead of 'it'."

"So!?"

Cinder didn't say anything, ducking to hide a smile.