CRESSWELL: The Lunar Chronicles

Chapter 1

Cress sat curled in a ball in the co-pilot's chair of the Rampion's cockpit. She was watching footage of Cinder's battle with Lavana, before and after Cress had arrived, in the throne room. She saw Levana waiting for Cinder with Thorne. He looked so calm.

She saw Cinder's face when she saw Thorne, knowing that Lavana would use him. Cress kept watching.

"Tell Cress I meant it."

Cress froze. She uncurled herself and quickly paused the video. Meant what? she thought. It was after they were seperated at Lavana's coronation. And after Thorne offered her a job...kind of. She shook her head of the thoughts and played the video.
She came to the part where she came in and shot Thorne. And then when he stabbed her. She felt the bandage on her stomache. The wound was smaller now, but the pain was still there.

Cress finally stopped the video when some guards took the bleeding Cinder away. Then she heard the sound of clapping behind her. She squeaked and whipped around in her chair. Hissing from the pain in her stomache she gasped, "Captain!"

"Best netshow if I ever saw one." Thorne's smug face turned to guilt and worry as soon as he saw her face and kneeled next to Cress, "Sorry, Cress. Ididn'tmentoscareyou. Oh stars, Cress I'm-"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Cress managed.

When Thorne finally got himself together her stood back up and stared at the netscreen. "Why were you watching that?"

"Well I wanted to know what really happened in there. I know Cinder doesn't want to talk about it. Scar and Wolf weren't there for the whole thing...so I hacked the palace security footage and watched it," Cress said nonchalantly.

Thorne gave her his one sided grin that still made Cress blush. "Of course you did. But why so late? Its two in the morning. We're going to be arriving in the Rebublic in about three hours. Besides, that was nearly a month ago."

"I couldn't sleep," Cress shrugged.
"Well you need some rest. Come on." Thorne scooped Cress up and started walking to her room. Thorne had made a habit of carrying her everywhere. She thought it was his way of starting to make up to stabbing her. But he didn't mind and she definitely didn't protest.

She nuzzled up next to his chest. He smelled like the Artemisia Palace soap. Like ice and rosemary. Or at least that's what the packaging said. She had never actually seen real rosemary.Thorne made a big deal of stocking up on the stuff before they left for the American Republic to deliver lutumosis antidotes.

When they got to Cress' bunk, Thorne gently set her down on her matress but she still winced a little from pain. "Sorry," he whispered, still holding on to her. She nodded and he sat down at the foot of her bed, staring at her stomach. Cress knew that look.

"Stop."

Thorne met her gaze, "Stop what?"

"Stop blaming yourself. I see it in your face." Cress pushed herself to sit up.

"I'm sorry, I-I just can't help it," Thorne said, shaking his head of the thought. Cress scooted up so she could lean her head on the back of his shoulder- or at least she tried to. Even sitting down, she was so short compared to him.

There was silence after that. It wasn't an akward silence, but a peaceful one that warmed Cress to her toes. Cress had started to slowly drift off to sleep when suddenly Thorne shifted. He took Cress' chin in his hand and turned her head so she could see his blue eyes. Then he leaned in and kissed her.

Cress thought she would melt. She reached her arm around to take his hand so that she could turn him more towards her. The other lazily rested in his shoulder. They broke apart and Thorne laid down on his back, bringing Cress with him. She snuggled next to him and placed her head on his chest. Sleep finally came to her with Thorne's fingers playing with the ends of her hair.

§§§

Cress awoke to her room shaking. She sat up, hair falling in front of her face, and felt something fall from her shoulders. She looked down at it and saw it was Thorne's leather jacket. She smiled at it and put in around her shoulders. She got out of bed and shakily made her way to the kitchen.

Wolf and Scarlet were already there, eating some protein bars from Luna.

"Good morning, Cress," said Scarlet, clearly not affected by a shaking ship. Wolf, on the other hand, looked like he could throw up at any second. He sat in one of the chairs, holding on to the counter for dear life.

Cress sat down next to Wolf and gave him a look of sympathy. "What's happening?" she asked.

"Thorne is trying to land this stupid ship," explained Scarlet, really emphesizing, trying.

Cress heard some shuffling from the cockpit. "Woah, woah, WOAH. What did you just call my ship?! My baby is a work of art. For all she cares, she doesn't even need you taking up space here."

Scarlet yelled back, obviously amused, "She's not even your ship yet!" She turned back to Cress, "For the last 30 minutes, he's been trying to land. He's missed the landing pad twice already and has to keep circling around."

"It's the fog!" Thorne yelled.

"And that's his excuse. Want some breakfast?" Cress shook her head, got up, and started walking to the cockpit to meet Thorne.

She saw him in the pilots chair, a concentated look on his face. "Good mor-ning, Cap-tain," her words broken up by the trembling of the ship.

"Good morning, Cress." he said, keeping his eyes on the ship controls. "Oh, before you do anything else, you should probably sit down before you-" Thorne was cut off by another jerk in the ship, and Cress was flailed onto her stomach. She slid into some boxes filled with canned goods, which toppled over and practically crushed her tiny legs.

She heard Thorne finish "-fall." He cursed and suddenly Scarlet was storming in the cockpit. Before he knew it, Thorne was thrown out of his chair so that Scarlet could take control. "Go ahead and throw the girl out the ship, Thorne! You've already stabbed her, now this!"

Thorne opened his mouth to fire something back but he turned to look at Cress, wimpering on the floor. He cursed again and stooped next to her. "Cress?" he turned her over.

Cress couldn't bring any words to her mouth, so she nodded in repsonse, squeezing her eyes shut in pain. It felt like her wound was had opened up again and her legs were burning. She tried to be brave, forcing the tears to stay down, but they broke the wall and came gushing out.

Thorne scooped her up, mumbling things like, "sorry Cress," "im so so so sorry," "aces Cress, does it always have to be me?"

When they got to the doorway, Cress opened her eyes a little to see Wolf hanging on to the wall, but looking a bit relieved that Scarlet took over. There was something else in his eyes. Admiration, maybe. He looked at Cress in Thorne's arms. Then looked at Thorne. He sensed that what Scarlet said to Thorne was a little harsh.

Thorne whispered, "I don't know how you do it."