Shut Up, Cinderella

And They Were Roommates

They asked the next shoemaker, and the next, and the next, but of course no one knew anything about the origin of the shoes.

Of course not. That was the whole point. They weren't meant to know, none of them, not about the shoe and not about its owner. Gem's search was an odyssey, doomed to fail from the get-go.

Sometimes Cinder felt a little bad for making him go on this trip. He had given him false clues and a false hope, and now he was traveling all over the place searching with no hope of finding anything. A cruel prank, almost. Or would be, if Gem wasn't so stubborn that the whole thing was sort of his fault anyway.

All the same, as he watched him grow more and more dejected, Cinder couldn't help but feel like a dirty liar.

"Where the hell is he?" Gem huffed as they left yet another shoemaker's workshop without any new information. "He must've bought these stupid shoes somewhere!"

"Maybe we'll have better luck next time," Cinder answered, knowing full well that wasn't the case.

"He's hiding so well," Gem went on, ignoring his comment. "Why won't he show up? The whole country knows I'm looking for him!"

Cinder shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe he left the kingdom or something."

A look of horror dawned on Gem's face, and instantly Cinder regretted his comment. "But then he could be anywhere!"

"He bought the shoes here, though," Olive piped in, "right?"

"Looks like it. Maybe he was visiting," Cinder said, "his godmother or whoever. But if he left soon enough after the ball, he must've missed your search for him."

"But then he must've been some noble's guest!" Gem burst out. "I should ask all the noble houses after we're done with the shoemakers...He can't have gone that far! True lovers always meet again." He placed a hand on his chest and nearly fell of his horse as his loyal steed tried to go for a wayside snack. "Maybe he's right under my nose! Maybe he's hidden in plain sight and I just don't notice!"

Cinder squirmed; once again he was getting dangerously close to the truth. "Didn't you say you'd recognize him anywhere?"

"Yeah, but...I don't know. What if something's keeping me from recognizing him?" Gem's gaze drifted into the distance. "Or even seeing him. What if he's not actually a noble or even rich? He could be really poor. Maybe he has a terrible family who didn't want him going to the ball but his godmother helped him go in secret, but he had to leave again before his family got back or they'd have found out...and now he's hiding his identity but secretly waiting for me to come and rescue him!"

Cinder gaped; he had no words for such amounts of delusion. "What fairy tale do you live in?"

Gem turned around to glare at him. "Hey, it could happen!"

"That would be the most convoluted explanation in the history of nonsense."

"I already know you don't have a heart or a soul," Gem replied, "but looks like you don't have an imagination either."

"Imagination is for fools with too much time," Cinder shot back.

And for people who could imagine happy things without pain, he added in his head. For people who could daydream without breaking their own heart with the knowledge that it could never become reality.

"You're dry as old bread," Gem said, pouting. "You know that?"

Cinder looked ahead. "Old bread has its purpose too."

"Purpose this, time that. You only ever think about duties, huh?" Now Gem was looking a little more serious, a little more frustrated. "Don't you ever just enjoy things?"