Unexpected

Chapter Eleven

CINDER

Cinder had returned from the ball for ten minutes, had changed, showered and was on the bed brooding. Iko wants to find out but Cinder wants to sleep. Iko has been waiting for Cinder in the bedroom for a long time, and she wants to get all the details. Cinder is ignoring her.

"So? So? How was the banquet? Did you meet any new friends? Cinder, for the love of stars, stop ignoring me!"

Cinder rolled onto her tummy, staring at Iko lazily through her lashes. "It was fine. Dancing, food, you know. The ballroom was pretty. Lots of people. Lots of enemies. Lots of snobby people. Oh, I met this arrogant woman called Rosaline, she said right to my face she preferred Levana."

Iko's irises, sunny yellow a second before switched to a startling ruby shade. "She did what?" a shout, well a shout as close to a droid could release was soon ricocheting around the chamber.

Cinder yawned, stretching her arms and buried her face into a plush pillow. "It's fine. Also, I met a few nice people. This guy called Jared. Casper and Viviana. They're all in my court, so I thought it was a good idea to acquaint myself with them."

"And?" Iko probed, her face twitching in concern.

"Well, for one, Casper and Viviana are two people I am planning to stick with."

"Casper?" Iko sat up. "Male?"

Cinder rolled her eyes. "Duh."

Iko shook her head, blue curls flying as she gave Cinder a dirty look. "Is he going to ruin my ship?" she demanded with a tone of expectance.

"Your...ship?" Cinder furrowed her brows. "You have a ship? What?"

Iko waved her hand in annoyance, "No, no, not that kind of ship. But my pairing. My one true pairing is..." she pummeled the marble desk for a dramatic entrance, all the while beaming. Cinder just gave her a confused look. Iko sighed. "It's you! You and Kai! Kaider! My ship is Kaider! I want you two to be together, because if you're not, drama would be void!"

Cinder tilted her head. "I'm sorry, Kaider?"

"No, duh. Kai and Cinder. Kaider. I really don't see where you're going with this," Iko said slowly.

Cinder groaned, flopping back onto her bed. "Stars, you put a blend of my name and Kai's to create a ship pairing? Great. I would be blushing right now my damn synthetic wires won't let me!"

"Anywayyyys, back to the topic, my dear Cinder." Iko interrupted.

"There's a topic now?"

"It's better than continuing this awkward conversation where you wail and moan why your cyborg parts won't let you do this and that." Iko reprimanded with a dead stare. "Did your friends, Casper and Viviana judge you for your origins and uh, your cyborg-y parts?"

Cinder glared at her. "Smooth. Nice way to put that into one sentence."

Iko flushed. "Well?"

"No. They were actually quite admiring about it. They remind me of our friends, you know? For some reason, I thought all Artemisian aristocrats were pain in the butts and were snobby. Guess I was wrong with these two-they were very nice."

Iko smiled. "I'm glad. But you still have to introduce me to them," she deadpanned.

Cinder sniffed. "Do you promise not to fire some weird questions and act all creepy?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

Iko moved closer to Cinder and poked her arm. Cinder reeled back with a scowl on her face. Iko snickered. "So, have you done your plans? You're visiting Kai this week in his very own palace," she waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Cinder nodded, tucking back a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "I know. But I don't know what to expect. Has he changed? Distance can do things to people, you know. I'll never stop loving him but...I seriously don't know what to expect."

Iko frowned. "Are you kidding me? He is smitten with you. I know I'm not supposed to do this but..." Iko looked away with a guilty expression. Cinder frowned.

"What? What happened?"

Iko sighed heavily. "I may have, uh, kept a few calls Kai directed from New Beijing from you? I intercepted them before you could um, see it? So you wouldn't be distracted...from...your..."

"You did what?!" Now it was Cinder yelling. Iko cringed and backtracked a few steps away from the fuming Lunar Queen.

"Hey! In my defense, you were really busy. You were preparing for all sorts of things in Lunar conferences and Artemisian courts and you seemed really stressed and I didn't want to burden you with more-"

Cinder cut her off with a glare. "Okay. I understand that. But now what does he think of me? What if he thinks I ignored him and that I don't like him? Nothing would have been busy enough for me to talk to Kai!"

Iko offered her a weak smile. "I might have told him you were super busy with trying to fit in."

Cinder's glare sharpened to one that painfully stated, you're dead.

Iko coughed weakly, then whimpered as Cinder's features darkened.

"O-kay...I'm going to go now...have a good sleep, Your Majesty!" Iko squeaked before fleeing the room. She threw open the door and vanished into the hallway, and Cinder flopped back, sighing. She understood Iko's intentions. She really did.

But I still can't believe she did that without telling me. Cinder bit her lip, wondering if Kai would understand the next time she saw him...in approximately three days. She missed him. She missed him so much it made her head ache whenever she thought of his heavenly smile, the warmth in his brown eyes and the tousled mess of black hair.

A/N: Three days and counting down...before KAIDER REUNITES!!! Yay. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below! Next chapter (sorry) will be a bonus chapter part two. AND by the way, Clover is more like an annoying little sister to Kai so no worries, Kaider fans, no one is going to break them up.