Empress

A Day at the Market with Kaider

Cinder POV:

I look out the window, it is pretty, the city. And then I look back over to Kai and he is the real looker, better than the city. I sigh. Kai looks up at me from the otherside of the hover. I am not really sure why I am sitting across from Kai instead of next to him but eh.

"What," Kai says looking interested in the answer.

"I don't know it just feels relaxing to be out of the palace." He nods and I know he feels guilty to for marrying me but I don't really mind as long as I can take a break when I need it.

The hover lands and I hop out taking in my surroundings, not much has changed since before the rebellion. Before I was the Queen. Before I was the Empress. When I was just Linh Cinder, the world renowned mechanic in my tiny messy boothe. My boothe.

Kai POV:

Cinder takes of leaving me with no choice but to follow her. "Cinder," I call and everything stops. Cinder, the marketplace and me all come to a stand still. Cinder is not a common name in the commonwealth, but everyone know the story of the world's best mechanic who turned out to be a princess and then married the Emperor. Everyone knows about that Lunar, that cyborg, the princess. Everyone knows about Cinder. 

A woman a stopped midway, holding a loaf of bread out gasped, "Your Majesty?"

I glance over at her and then back at Cinder, she flinches and everyone goes back to their business. LIke the royal couple wasn't amongst them. Like nothing had happened, but something had happened. Cinder had manipulated everyone in the marketplace. Cinder had risked her reputation because of me and my stupid loud mouth. I walk over to Cinder trying to calm my raging inside down.

"Cinder-" I try to apologize, but she cuts me off. Staring at something down the road.

"Look, Kai, it's my home." Her what? I look up from the ground and I see what she is talking about. Standing ever so dirty is Cinder's mechanics booth. 

"Your booth! That's why you were running."

"That's why you called my name." She turns her head and smirks at me.

"About that Cinder-" She stops me again.

"You can apologize later, but right now we are on a date." She kisses me lightly on the lips before jogging off into her booth. I jog after her feeling like an idiot.

When I enter the booth Cinder is just opening the booth, letting the light pour in, warming the humid space. I watch her as she moves around looking at each and every item on her packed shelf. She picks up a metal ring that has obviously been made from many other scraps. She grins at it and the moves it that I can see it better, it  one of the few things that does not look greasy in the booth.

"I was going to give this to you as a parting gift, but then I remembered that you were the crowned prince, I was just a dirty mechanic. And that our relationship couldn't grow into anything," She frowns at the ring and then looks at me the glimmer returning to her eyes. Warmth rushes over me and I smile. I stride over to her to get a good look at the ring. It is gorgeous in it's own way and you can tell that Cinder has made it. The work is so neat that it could have only be a piece made by Cinder. She lets me take it from her fingers and examine it.

It is wires wrapped together in a tight little circle like a halo meant to be the body of the ring. And then around the ring there are little metal bands welded together ensuring that the wires do not fall apart. I gasp, "Cinder this is beautiful." I push my finger into it and it slides on easily, too easy. "Why does this fit perfectly," I say looking Cinder in the eye.