At Last I See the Light (Lunar Chronicles Fanfic)

Chapter 9: Always Be

After a while, everyone had settled in - including Kinney, who decided to stay another couple days. In the training room, everyone sat talking, except Wolf, who was in the kitchen with Rose. They were giving the two "some alone time."

Thorne was feeling a lot better, but then again, that could just be the medicine Jacin had forced down his throat. Already, however, the pain of reality had begun to set in. Kai was cuddled up next to Cinder with one of her hats over his face, already asleep, and Winter and Jacin sat side by side, hands wrapped around each other. Scarlet was resting her head on Iko's shoulder. They all looked... happy. Iko and Kinney were both staring at the ground with their knees pulled up to their chins, but he could tell how they both felt. Though Thorne didn't want to ruin the content stillness, he couldn't possibly take it anymore.

"What time is it?" Carswell groaned.

"8:00," Cinder replied. Kai stirred beside her, but then went right back to sleeping.

Thorne sighed, and the silence returned for a couple seconds before Winter spoke up, "Don't worry Carswell, she'll be back by morning."

He gave Winter a small, toothless grin, and stood up to leave. "I think I'm going to head to bed early, see ya tomorrow," Thorne grumbled.

A few moments later, Kinney stood up and left too, claiming to be tired from the flight. While their destinations may have been different, Carswell and Kinney both spent the next few hours doing the exact same thing: staring at the ceiling and feeling alone.

By about 9, however, only one of them had scavenged through a couple drawers and the closet of the crew's quarters.

****

"So how have things on the farm been?" Winter asked, causing Scarlet to snap out of her thoughts.

"Oh... everything's going pretty good. Wolf has been a huge help, and maybe now Rose can also come stay with us too." Scarlet looked up, and her eyes seemed hopeful, but also a bit nervous. Winter probably would've said something to ease her mind when-

THUD.

Kai snapped awake and removed the cap he was using to cover his eyes, revealing a quite disoriented expression accompanied by his disheveled hair.

"Wha-" he started, but Scarlet held a finger to her lips. Almost silently, she rose from beside Iko and crossed the room to grab something- anything. Her shotgun was the first thing to catch her eye as she scanned the room. Moving in a stealthy manner, Scarlet tiptoed to the hall in search of the noise.

Nimbly, Iko leapt to her feet and caught up with her. And as Scarlet rounded the corner, a hand from behind her wrapped around the gun.

"What're you doing?" Iko hissed.

"I'm going to find whatever just probably broke into the Rampion, and I'm going to shoot it," Scarlet smiled, loading her gun.

"Stars, put the gun down. It was probably just Thorne or Rose and Wolf in the kitchen." Scarlet's expression stayed locked on the wall of the hallway. "Scarlet-" Iko started before trying to take the gun from her. "Put-" Her grasp stayed firm. "it down."

THUD.

Scarlet flinched, allowing Iko to wrestle the gun from her grip. "I'll handle this." Reluctantly, she gave the gun back to Scarlet to take with her back to the training room. Somehow, Iko had a pretty good feeling she knew who was behind that wall.

As she rounded the corner, she began to raise her voice, "Thorne, look. I know you're upset and you miss Cress, just come back out here and talk. It'll make you feel better, I promise. You don't have to sit in here all alone-" She stopped dead in her tracks as the man sitting, bouncing the tennis ball against the wall of the crew's quarters was not in fact Thorne. Kinney's face softened as her eyes met his.

"Sorry... I'll stop," he mumbled scratching the back of his head. Now instead of chucking the ball, he rolled it across the room away from him and laid down on his back. Restlessly, he ran his hands through his hair.

"You good? 'Cause it looks like you might be going crazy."

"I'm just great," he snapped back, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Iko went over to where he was laying and spread herself across the floor in the opposite direction, so their faces were side by side, but their bodies weren't.

"I'm... I'm sorry," she whispered. She tried to push down her nerves, but it was impossible. "I had no reason to act the way I did, if anything you should be mad at me. I guess... I guess I was just confused. What I really wanted to say was - "

She wrapped her hand around his. Kinney flinched and recoiled. He did hate her.

"Yes," she blurted, turning her head so she could see his face.

"What?" Kinney asked, suddenly less comfortable and more confused.

"Yes. Yes, I'd love to go back with you." She could hear him release the breath he'd been holding in. "If you can forgive me, I'll try to forgive you."

His face was now flushed with pink and he sat up, still holding her hand. Iko did the same and took his other hand into hers. Now facing him, Kinney smiled for a second. Then his expression changed. "What about not getting attached?"

"I think it might be a bit too late for that." Iko carefully leaned in, her lips colliding with Kinney's as he met her halfway. He pulled her into a hug, and Iko couldn't help but feel his heartbeat flutter.

They sat for a while, trying to conjure up the right words. After the hug had become slightly awkward, they pulled away and scooted a bit farther from each other. It was as if a silent agreement had been made - that leaving now just wasn't right. Frankly, Iko was scared that if she did, he'd vanish into thin air. A couple minutes passed and Kinney had shattered the silence.

"Who was she?" he began.

"Hm?"

"Peony?"

"Oh," Iko sighed. She tried to continue on, but found herself at a loss for words. Quickly, she scurried over to the corner the tennis ball had rolled into. "Well, she was my best friend, for starters." The tennis ball thunked against the ground and bounced towards Kinney's hands. "Stars, if she was any kinder I think her heart would've burst." Again, the tennis ball bounced, this time, back at her. "When Cinder was brought to Earth, Garan adopted her - you probably know the whole story - well, he already had two girls: Peony, the youngest, and Pearl. Peony, unlike Garan's oldest daughter, welcomed Cinder with open arms. She was like a real sister to her. To me."

*****

"What was that?!" Wolf shouted. Him and Rose both bursted through the door a couple seconds after the noise stopped.

"Probably just Thorne," Kai answered from beneath the baseball cap.

"We'll see about that," Scarlet muttered, still clutching her shotgun.

"Where'd Iko go?" Cinder looked up, noticing she was gone.

Scarlet disappeared down the hall, first to Thorne's room, with everyone else trailing behind her. But when they flung open the door, he was sound asleep, snoring much louder than the thud they'd heard. Just to mess with him, Cinder walked across the room and knelt down beside him.

"Oh, would you look at that! Cress is back early!" She whispered. Despite her voice being barely audible, Thorne's eyes shot open.

"Wha- where... where is she?" he nearly yelled. He scanned the room, eyes filled with hope, only to find it empty. The medicine Jacin had made him take was beginning to wear off, and he could feel the soreness in his throat returning. Thorne sat up and began coughing, causing his head to throb. With another strain of coughs and a couple swears under his breath, he flopped onto his side and tried to go back to sleep.

Even though they had darted out of the room, Cinder could hear him. His voice was raspy and with every cough she couldn't help feel a twinge of guilt - aces, if only he wasn't so easy and enjoyable to mess with.

Next, they crept down the hallway to the room Iko had claimed.

Empty.

They checked all the rooms in between before finally reaching the crews quarters. This time, they found that the door was already open.

Scarlet walked in first, her shotgun pointing into the room.