Stories Unknown

A Hopeful Wish (Pt. 3)

Cinder slumped down on her couch, feeling completely and utterly exhausted. She smelled of cleaning products, which made her nose itch, and her body ached from a week of working. She wanted for nothing more than to close her eyes and drift off to sleep, but she couldn't— not just yet.

Kai dropped down beside her, his lids half-closed and his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. It was almost aggravating how, after a night of cleaning up his cousin's vomit and carrying her up the four flights of stairs to her apartment, he still managed to look incredible.

Both let out a sigh, then laughed when they realized what they had done, turning to each other with goofy, sleep-deprived smiles. It wasn't incredibly late, only about half past midnight, but after all the hustle and bustle of the last hour, it felt much later.

"So," Kai said as their laughter died down, "before Cress puked rather impressively, what was going on?"

Cinder's smile froze on her face, and suddenly she could hear the deep ba-bum of her heart echoing in her ears. Was he talking about their night of talking all together in the bar, or the closeness that they had shared, with breaths so close and faces nearly touching?

She said nothing, too afraid to guess wrong. He continued, "Because I, um, well, I don't know about you, but I've been dreaming of a moment like that for a while now. I just– I don't want to ruin anything, and if it was just a heat of the moment thing then I totally understand and we can just forget out the whole thing–"

"Stop," Cinder closed her eyes and held a hand up to end his rapid speech. "You're talking too fast."

"Sorry," Kai whispered. Cinder opened her eyes to look at him and saw him gazing back, his cheeks tinted pink. His body was turned to her, with one knee on the couch, just inches away from touching her thigh. She swallowed, wondering if this was all some sort of hallucination. Maybe she was already asleep back on her bed, and Kai had left their apartment. Perhaps this was all a dream. Or maybe a misunderstanding. Because if he was saying what she thought he was saying— no, he couldn't be.

Kai swallowed, opened his mouth, then closed it again. He never took his gaze from Cinder, though the look turned from questioning to painful, as if by looking at her he had discovered something that hurt him.

"Cinder," Kai started, and Cinder was startled to hear the quaver in his voice— never before had she heard him speak without confidence or joy. He sounded only scared and pained now. "I need to tell you something." He said the words as if he were about to tell her that the world was ending. "I thought I could live with it buried inside me forever, but I just can't stand it anymore. I tried to convince myself that losing you would be more painful than living with it. But even if that's true, I can't keep living like this."

"Living like what?" Cinder asked, almost breathless.

"Living with the fact that I am in love with my best friend," Kai mumbled, closing his eyes shut for a moment before they refocused on her. His hands were in his lap, clenched into white-knuckled fists. Cinder reached over and placed a hand atop them. Kai's whole body relaxed with that single touch.

"I'm in love with you, Cinder," Kai whimpered, his eyes glittering as they flickered between her own. "I've been in love with you for years, but I just... I knew you didn't feel the same. Or at least I thought that until tonight..."

He trailed off, looking at her imploringly, his eyes begging for her to say something. She wanted to say a lot of things— to ask him if this was a prank, or to declare her undying love for him as well. In all honesty, some part of her wanted to stand and whoop for joy. But she was frozen in this moment of truth. It was like that moment in The Empire Strikes Back when Leia professes her love, except in this rendition she's moments too late and Han is already frozen in carbonite.

"Are..." Cinder gulped, then tried again. "Are you serious?"

Kai deflated with the question, but nodded sullenly, head bowed.

"Okay," Cinder said, though more to herself than Kai. Her mind was whirring at the speed of light with this confirmation. Kai was in love with her. Kai was in love with her.

Kai was in love with her.

Cinder turned her own body toward Kai, her knee coming up to rest beside his, not just touching but pressing against one another. Her fingers searched out his, and twined with them, the ever-freezing limbs warm within his grasp.

"I..." Cinder let out a laugh, suddenly realizing just how absurd this all was. Kai had just confessed his love for her and was now terrified that she would never speak to him again— that she did not return his affections. "Kai, I've been in love with you since I was sixteen," Cinder said, her words slurred with laughter and happy tears.

Kai blinked, as if he were dumbfounded by this piece of information, then he began to laugh too. They laughed and laughed and then laughed some more, because it suddenly seemed so ridiculous. Were they both so clueless? Too blinded by their own emotions to see the other's clearly written in every action?

"Since– since you were sixteen?" Kai wheezed, leaning his head on Cinder's shoulder as tears of mirth streamed from his eyes. "Are you kidding me?"

"No," Cinder snorted— actually snorted. "I realized that I was in love with you over the summer before the start of my Junior year, when we pulled that all-nighter with Cress but she fell asleep so you said we should go out and look at the stars. Then we sat on the roof for hours, just talking about anything and everything until the sun finally came over the horizon."

Kai smiled, all laughter gone, but a completely dreamy look overcoming his features. Cinder could feel her face mirroring his, remembering that precious memory. That night that had been just the two of them under every constellation the sky had to offer.

"What about you?" Cinder asked, leaning her head against the couch cushion, just mere inches from Kai's face. "When did you know you were in love with me."

"About a year before you did," Kai said, sounding almost as if he were bragging.

"What?" Cinder smacked his arm lightly, though this only caused for him to laugh.

"Start of my Junior year, first day of school," Kai grinned. "We had P.E. together and that one boy— Wolf's brother, I'm forgetting his name–"

"Ran," Cinder supplied.

"Yes," Kai snapped his fingers. "Yeah, Ran tried to pants you, and you just turned and punched him straight in the nose."

"You fell in love with me after I beat a boy bloody?"

Kai smiled, the goofy sort of smile that included his tongue sticking out slightly between his teeth, and his eyes blinking slowly as he looked at only her. Cinder could feel her heart beating in her chest as he watched her. She could hear only their breathing, and see only his eyes as they flickered between her own, then fell to look at her lips.

Slowly, Kai brought his hand up to rest on Cinder's cheek, brushing stray strands of hair from her face. Cinder couldn't breathe as she watched him— felt the burning electricity pulsing between the few inches of space between them. It was almost as if nothing existed except for them, and in Cinder's mind, maybe it had always just been the two of them.

"I wanted to kiss you at Scar's party," Kai mumbled, his nose touching hers in their closeness. It was so tantalizing— Cinder wanted to close that breath of space between them and kiss him until they forgot everything except one another. "I was too scared though."

"Are you scared now?" Cinder asked, her words almost inaudible.

"Terrified."

Then their lips met, and it was nothing like Cinder ever could have imagined. For in her fantasies she had always been happy— overjoyed. But now, she felt just love, and it was somehow better than being ecstatic or delighted. It was overwhelming how wonderful it felt.

They broke apart, both smiling to their ears as they tried to remember how to breathe again. They were nothing but hands and heartbeats and that feeling of everything being right in the world at long last.

"I never thought–"

"I know," Cinder laughed. Then she grabbed his face, and kissed him once more, or quite possibly for forever. Because now that her hopeful wish had become a dream come true, she never planned on letting it go.