A Month Of Kaider

Twenty Five: Everything Is Obvious

Cinder can't stop fidgeting.

She doesn't pay attention to whatever her English teacher is trying to say, knowing that she's probably going to fail her exam but not really caring.

She doesn't even bother to unpack her stuff, keeping her bag on so she can run out of the room once the lesson is over.

Cinder almost crashes into Kai as the two of them reach the same corridor.

"Woah, slow down, empress." Kai smiles.

"Kai, I..."

"I know."

Cinder just groans, "I want to kill Simone."

"You're still a student, please don't."

Cinder laughs, but it's a dangerous laugh. It's the kind of distracted laugh people do when they're secretly thinking of something else and trying not to make it obvious.

"Cinder, you're thinking again."

She winks at Kai as she bell goes, the two of them separating once again.

At this point, her teachers all know she's not going to pay attention, so it's not a shock to anyone when she just stares out of the window for the whole math lesson.

"Hey, Cinder?" someone asks.

She turns at the door, looking for whoever the voice belongs to. It's the boy with curly, pitch black hair that's probably never been touched with a comb.

"You are?"

He shakes his head. "A friend of Kai's. Ask Simone about her father," he advises.

Cinder's so busy frowning that she doesn't notice him slipping out of the classroom. Shaking her head, she pushes the boy to the back of her mind.

Cinder slides along the hallway, trying to remember which classroom Kai's last lesson was meant to be in. She almost goes straight past the room he's in, having to stumble backwards.

Her eyes widen.

Kai and Simone are spinning around each other. She assumes they're dancing, then remembers that common sense is a thing and tries to figure out what they're actually doing, which is fighting.

The two of them are exchanging punches and kicks the way Cinder and Thorne usually exchange insults.

As she watches, Kai blocks a punch from Simone and pushes her back, spinning on his left foot and lifting his right in the air so that it catches Simone's jaw. Simone shrieks but jumps back up, knocking out Kai's knees and elbowing him. Kai coughs but kicks her shin and she buckles just enough for Kai to whack his head onto hers.

Kai waits for her to get up, raking a hand through his hair. When she doesn't try to attack him again, he murmurs something to which she scowls.

"Fine, you win this time." Simone makes a show of wiping the dust off her dress. "You can't win forever."

"I've not had any problems so far and I don't see you getting much better any time soon." Kai folds his arms.

Cinder can't help laughing.

Both Kai and Simone turn to her, but only Kai runs to her and hugs her. "Hey, empress!"

"Stars, you can fight," Cinder laughs.

Kai grins, and Cinder spends far too long admiring his dimples, before turning back to Simone.

"You better keep your end of the bet."

Simone grits her teeth but nods. "You won, I accept that."

"Bet?" Cinder asks once Simone's angrily stormed out of the room.