The Lunar Chronicles Oneshots (OPEN FOR REQUESTS)

Without You, I'd Surely Be Bleu

"Remember when you didn't care about me," Kai reminisced over the good old days, smiling at Cinder. It was her work break from her stepmother's café, Continental Coffee (or as Cinder preferred to call it, Continental Cheese, due to her secret and possibly illegal side-business that involved mechanics and a secret cheese menu). The two were sitting in a pastry shop a short walk away, Cinder having insisted that she didn't need nutrition, only chocolate.

Kai was beginning to regret having given in.

"Who's to say I do now," Cinder said, shoving another pastry in her mouth. Sometimes he wondered if she even liked him, or just his excessive knowledge of the best patisseries in New Beijing.

To be fair, if it were the latter, he couldn't blame her. They were exceptional.

"Me, I'd hope," he teased.

"Okay," she said around a mouthful of croissant. "I'll take that into consideration. I think the only opinion that really matters is mine, though."

Kai shrugged and, eyeing the bag of cheez-its sticking out of her bag, ("Emergency snacks!" she always said. Kai just blamed it on her obsession with cheese.) smiled slowly. "If I make cheesy puns will I win you over eventually?"

"Sorry?"

"Well, I don't know anything that gouda," he said, casually picking up a piece of the pain au lait they'd ordered. "But with your parmesan I could at least try." He winked, grinning at Cinder's dumbfounded expression. She had never seen this side of her boyfriend before, which might have been a good thing. Torin liked to tell him that his puns rivaled Thorne's, even.

Taking Cinder's silence as a yes, Kai continued. "I really didn't think you'd stazaar long, you know. I was so annoying, it must have been like being in the devil's gluch."

At this point Cinder had finally leaned away from the pastries and was watching Kai with a number of emotions, only some of which he could discern. Confusion, certainly. Amusement. Perhaps a little bit of endearment.

"I'm not usually that inept," he said with a sigh. "It's just that I was so infatuated with you, the thought of being without... I camembert it. Cheesy puns are the only solution."

"There are plenty of other solutions," Cinder groaned.

"There aren't!" he protested. "You just make me melt! I can't resist, and it's the best I can do. Seriously, I can't do cheddar."

"Why are you like this," she muttered, slouching down in her chair as if the other people at the nearly abandoned café could hear him.

"If you wanted a normal boyfriend, you should have known I'm nacho man."

"Well, obviously. You're an emperor. Not to mention just your personality. Like, in general."

Kai feigned an offended look. "You'd feta take that back. I could have you thrown in prison, you know, so you gouda brie kidding."

Cinder frowned. "Okay, now you're not even being creative. I bet half of these puns are going to involve gouda or brie, they're such easy cheeses."

"I'm not that creative, I don't know anything that gouda! And if you're such an expert, why don't you try."

"No, thank you," she said wryly. "You're doing great, honey."

"You mean, I'm doing grate?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows incessantly.

Rolling her eyes, Cinder facepalmed quietly. "I take it back. You know, some day I'm going to be telling our kids about this-"

"Aw, we're going to get married?" Kai asked, his heart soaring in his chest. He knew they were serious (despite Cinder acting as if she hated him in times like these), but still. It was sweet. "To havarti and to hold? You mean it?"