Our Best Times (The Fiction Awards 2016)

I. Meaning

i

"We should give it some meaning," said Kai, his breath fogging the air as he talked. 

There was only the sound of crunching snow beneath them for a moment. "I agree, but your idea of "giving it meaning" is a bit over the top," Cinder said. Her hands were shoved in the pockets of her green snow jacket to keep them warm against the chilling winds.

Kai gave her a look. "I only suggested the name Wire Cutters," he said. Cinder sighed.

" Kai. . . We are not naming our child after a tool," Cinder said gently.

"It's a special tool in our relationship, Cinder, and it brought us close!" Kai said. He looked down at her and stopped walking to put his arms around her waist and pull her against him. "Like this baby will," he murmured.

Cinder refused to take notice of her speeding heart beat whenever he did this. Put his arms around her. Pulled her close. Whispered things so close she could feel the words against her face. No, she would not fall for his go-to method of winning their arguments. He had started doing this in the middle of arguments after realizing just how much of an effect he had on her. 

She put her hands on his chest to gain purchase. She pushed herself off of him, but stayed close to him and stared into his eyes. "I think we bring ourselves together just fine," she whispered.

Kai sighed, but agreed with Cinder. He hugged her, and then, holding her hand, continued to walk with her to their apartment.  Cinder thought she was saved from having to curse her future child with the name Wire Cutters. The thought of Kai, her husband of three years, actually naming a child Wire Cutters because it had sympathetic meaning made her core a little warm because of just how adorable his dorkiness was to her. She remembered back when she had first met him in the beginning of ninth grade, when he was a popular and handsome sophomore of her school while she was just a little girl who knew how to fix a car engine. How he had liked her was unknown to her mind, but whenever she asked him he would always remind her that she was perfect to him, grease-stained forehead and all. 

"Do I really have a grease stain on my forehead?" She had asked, furrowing her brow and rubbing at spots on her forehead. Kai had laughed and gently took her wrists, guiding her hands back down to his neck. "All the time," he murmured and kissed the spot between her eyebrows. "But it's weirdly attractive."

However, she wasn't about to name her first child Wire Cutters.

Cinder opened the apartment building door after she kicked the snow off of her boots and onto the ground outside. She walked inside, a few steps before Kai, and went across the lobby to get in line for an elevator. 

He caught up with her and they got into the elevator. "So, anything you're excited to go through with in this pregnancy?" he asked her, smiling down at her. Although he didn't tower over her, he was still three inches taller than her. 

She hummed in thought. "Well, since it's our first time being pregnant, I'm kind of scared. Scarlet told me everything about her pregnancy, and it sounds like it really sucks," She frowned. "She also made actually having the child with her and raising it suck as well, though, so I really don't know what to expect."

"Yeah," Kai shrugged,"But she had Z's baby, while you're having mine. Their baby took after their parents in becoming a wild kid. Imagine how docile ours will be."

Cinder laughed and hugged his side again before pulling him down so she could kiss his cheek.

"Kai, you know that you can be a hand full, too, right?" She grinned. He hummed and hugged her. She tucked her head beneath his chin and put her arms around his waist.