The Lunar Chronicle One-Shots, Rewrites, Etc.

Kai's POV Kaider Kiss(Chapter 61, Cress)

So this is basically when Kai and Cinder kiss while Kai is kidnapped on the Rampion. Well... enjoy!!!

I stared at Cinder dumb-founded. Princess Selene? Cinder? Are the same person?! I  was so confused that even my wedding sash slipped out of my hands and drifted to the floor.

  When the silence slipped toward awkward, Cinder cleared her throat. "And in case you weren't sure, I was being sarcastic before about all that 'great' stuff. Not that, I mean—I know you have your own things to worry about, so you don't need to ... I don't ... I'm fine, really. It's just been a rough few weeks with the whole"—she circled her hands wildly through the air—"Peony-ball-Levana-wedding thing. And now Dr. Erland is dead and Scarlet is gone and Thorne is blind and Wolf ... I'm not sure. He's so still these days and I'm really starting to worry about him. But I've got it under control. I can do this. I'm—"

"Stop. Please stop talking."

 She clamped her mouth shut.

The silence dragged on.

Cinder opened her mouth, but I held up my hand. She shut it again. Bit her lip.

"You?" I finally said. "You are Princess Selene?" Understandment finally dawning up on me.

Grimacing, she rubbed at her wrist. "Surprise?"

 "All this time?" All this time of searching who would've guessed it was the most-wanted criminal in the world.

 She ducked her head, suddenly uncomfortable at the way I was looking at her. "Um, yeah, technically. Dr. Erland figured it out first, when I was taken in for the cyborg draft. He ran my DNA and ... yeah. But he decided not to tell me until I was locked up in prison, which complicated a few things."

I guffawed, but not in a mean way. Inhaling a shaky breath, I rubbed the palms of my hands into my eyes. Then, as quickly as my disbelief had come, the comprehension came faster. "Oh, stars. Levana knows, doesn't she? That's why she hates you so much. That's why she's so determined to find you."

"Yeah, she knows."

"And it was you. This whole time, it was you."

"You're actually taking this better than I thought you would."

I dragged both hands down my face. "No, you know, it almost makes sense. Kind of." I scraped my gaze over her. "Although ... somehow, I always pictured the princess ... I don't know. In a dress."

Cinder laughed.

"And I always thought that when I found her, it would be so easy. We would just ... present her to the world and announce her as the true queen, and Levana would crawl away to some hole. I never imagined that Levana would already know. That she would be fighting it."

She quirked an eyebrow. "I'm beginning to think you may not know your fiancée very well."

I scowled at her. "That's it, Cinder. No more secrets. I don't know if I can survive any more big reveals from you, so if you have anything else to tell me, out with it. Right now."

Cinder rocked back on her heels, pondering.

With this new information, I never thought I would say it but I am love with her and now I am in love with a lost long princess. Crazy, the long, lost princess is the same mechanic that fix Nainsi a couple of weeks ago.

"I can't cry," she whispered instead, hunching her shoulders.

 I blinked, twice, then scratched my ear and looked away, embarrassed. "I already knew that."

"What? How?"

"Your guardian may have said something about it. And I ... I've seen your medical records."

"My—" Her eyes widened. "You've seen ... you know...?"

 "You were a fugitive and I needed to know more about you and I ... I'm sorry."