happy holidays @kaisder!!
@kaisder MERRY CRISMIN BINCH ITS ME!!! YOUR SECRET SANTA!!!! BET YOU NEVER SAW IT COMING HAHAHAH!!!!!
Anyways here’s the soulmate fic you only kind of asked for, whoops, it’s a little bit self-indulgent on my part and very badly written and much longer than I meant for it to be but oh well. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
EDIT: this fic is inspired by this post with @nicolewrites
Most kids didn’t really scribble or draw on their own bodies. They mostly settled for walls or desks as canvasses, preferring the crayons that wouldn’t leave a mark on skin. Middle and high school was mostly the same - the occasional harried note on the wrist, a little doodle on the elbow - but everyone liked to use planners instead, trying to be more responsible than they actually had to be.
College, however, being such a total shitfest, was chock-full of people who barely had the energy to even write down half the assignments they had. As a result, everyone practically had shirtsleeves of ink.
Of course, the fact that your soulmate’s marks on their body showed up on yours could have been cute if it didn’t just confuse everyone all the time. Despite the marks fading after a couple hours, since most people’s soulmates were close to their age, it often meant double the schedules, double the notes, double the scribbles, and double the confusion.
That was the silver lining Iko always told Cinder, anyways, and the latter always just laughed. It was only when the perky best friend had left the room would Cinder look at her forearms, so blatantly full of nothing, not even her own scrawling handwriting. She’d valiantly attempted to communicate with her soulmate when she was younger, scribbling all over her arms, but the disappointment and the lack of faith had set in before long. She’d been so disappointed for so long she couldn’t even feel it anymore - it was more of a detached pity, looking at her tanned arms and the metal hand at the end of the left one, glinting at her.
Maybe it was a good thing she didn’t have a soulmate - she didn’t want to disappoint someone else, too.
Cinder nearly dropped her pliers on her foot when Iko barged into the mechanic shop.
“I’ve arrived!” Iko announced, in tandem with the bells chiming over the door. “And you won’t believe what Emilie wrote to me today!”
“Let me guess,” Cinder grunted, trying to twist in a final bolt, “It’s something so cutesy it’ll make me barf.”
“For your information, it was,” Iko scoffed, then leaned over the desk partitioning the workshop from the front, “And I know you’re a huge softie for cute stuff anyways, so nice try.”
Cinder laughed in concession.
“Cinder! Your poor soulmate is probably getting grease all over their arms!” Iko reprimanded, sliding over the desk and maneuvering through oily machinery strewn around her.
“I don’t think it works like that, Iko.” Cinder said, sighing. “Besides, we’ve been over this.”
Iko huffed and brushed away dirt on a stool before she sat on it, a vain effort to keep her pants clean that Cinder had given up on entirely. “Yes, we have. Just because your soulmate doesn’t write anything -”
“- Doesn’t mean they don’t exist, yeah, got it,” Cinder said detachedly. She almost felt numb saying it, having repeated it to herself for so long it didn’t have meaning anymore.
Iko opened her mouth to say something but got cut off by the ringing bell at the front.
“Hey, Cinder! I just met your soulmate on the street, he’s got no teeth and lives in his mom’s basement, a total catch -” came a loud voice from the front.
“Shut up, Thorne,” Cinder said, “I’ve already met him, and he spends his life mansplaining on tinder.” She swiveled on her chair, met with Thorne’s incessant grin.
“Oh, Cinder. You sure we’re not soulmates?” Thorne pouted, perched on the desk at the front. This had been a running gag ever since they’d met, when she’d fixed his car and he’d told her the worst pickup lines known to man.
“Let’s check, shall we?” Cinder grabbed a pen and drew a quick doodle on her forearm, pointing with the tip to Thorne’s blank one.
“A tragedy,” Thorne said, leaning back dramatically with his hand on his heart.
Iko tsked as she took Cinder’s arm and peered at the drawing. “Really, Cinder? Real mature.”
Cinder tilted her head. “If I actually do have a soulmate, I think they’ll appreciate it.”
“First year of college, Cinder, aren’t you excited?” Iko crooned, swinging her purse and twirling on the rain-drenched pathway to the entrance.
“Sure,” Cinder grunted, pulling her bags as well as her friend’s, “It would be if I didn’t have to work my ass off for every second I stay on campus.”
“Oh, pfft.” Iko said, waving the very thought off. “Everyone has to do that.”
They stilled as a black limousine pulled up to the curb, photographers materializing next to it. A chauffeur got out, opening the door to a figure blocked to Cinder’s view by the paparazzi.
Cinder nodded in the car’s direction. “Not that kid, I bet.”
A sudden weight landed on Cinder’s shoulders, making her wince and grounding her to a full stop. “Those douchebag trust-fund rich kids, am I right?” Thorne said, fingers tapping on Cinder’s collarbone. “Insufferable.”
“You’re a douchebag trust-fund rich kid, Thorne.”
“Well not anymore I’m not.” Thorne clenched his jaw. “Dad cut me off after I quit the ROTC.”
“Oh. I - I’m sorry, Thorne.”
Thorne shook his head. “Nah, don’t be. I have my ways.”
It was just then that the photographers cleared a hole and she managed to get her first glimpse at him.
Iko’s gasp was almost exactly what her heart felt like. “Oh, my god. I think - I think I’ve seen him somewhere. Quick, Cinder, do you remember that guy on that magazine -”
“I don’t,” Cinder said, forcing herself to rip away her gaze from him, “ and you’re going to have to be more specific.”
Thorne grunted. “Looks like I’ve got competition. He’s going to be a problem.”
Cinder sniffed, shouldering her bags. “Whatever. As long as he’s not mine.”
As it turned out, this kid very much was her problem.
He was in her political science class, sitting at the very front while she perched herself at the back and to the far right. Once class begun, she wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse that she had a clear view to him and his stupidly captivating expressions whenever the professor talked about something he seemed to like.
She decided it was a curse when she left the class and realized that she hadn’t paid attention to a single thing the professor had said except that it was all critical information for a quiz next week.
But she couldn’t get rid of him. He showed up in her bioengineering class, clearly completely out of his element. Shooing away the chauffeur - or maybe a personal secretary, or something - he slipped into the seat next to hers, shooting her a quick smile before opening up a sleek, state-of-the-art laptop.
She resolutely ignored him, as well as the fluttering feeling in her stomach, until he tapped her on the shoulder at the end of class.
“Hi, uh. Could you - help me?” He said, eyes large and pleading.
“Well that’s quite an introduction.” Cinder mused, smiling slightly, stuffing her left hand into her pocket as discreetly as possible.
“Sorry. I’m - I’m Kai.” He stuck out a hand, his smile blinding despite the guilty look on his face.
“Cinder.” She waited as he stared at her for a moment, stuffing her hand in deeper out of reflex. “Sorry, um, what did you need help with?”
“What? Oh,” Kai shook his head out of his reverie and chuckled, “Well, to be frank, I didn’t understand a single thing of what went on in that class. And you seemed to know a lot, so -”
“You’d like me to tutor you.”
“Well,” Kai said, rubbing his neck, “Um, yes.”
Cinder tilted her head, scrutinizing him. “Okay. Sure”
He perked up immediately, his eyes lighting up. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, um, what should I pay you? Sorry, I’ve never really -”
Cinder thought about it for a moment. She’d never done this before either, but it could be a way out of long, sleepless nights at the workshop and odd jobs done just to scrounge up some money.
Then she felt like she was some sort of charity case and decided against it.
“Actually,” she said, “I have a proposition to make. I tutor you in bioengineering - and you tutor me in political science.”
He processed this for a moment. “Sure.”
As Cinder walked away a few minutes later, his number burning in the contacts on her phone, she couldn’t help but feel happier than a normal person would after agreeing to give up 9 hours a week at the library.
“So, essentially, the wire has to be calibrated to the frequency of the electricity going through your neurotransmitter.” Cinder pointed at the textbook that Kai was squinting at.
“Oh - oh, I get it. Alright.” He leaned back, satisfied in his eureka moment.
Cinder’s watch beeped. “Well - my one and a half hours are up. Time for politics.”
Kai grinned, rubbing his hands together in mock anticipation as Cinder brought out the textbook from her bag. They were only a few pages into the chapter when Cinder stopped paying attention to the words and started paying more attention to the look in his eyes as he explained it to her.
She was so lost in her daydream that her elbow knocked a lamp over, and she shot out a hand to catch it reflexively.
She didn’t realize that she had used her left hand until Kai was staring straight at it.
She cursed, retracting her hand, but Kai caught it. “I didn’t know you had a metal hand.”
Cinder sighed. If he was going to run away revolted, she might as well give him the whole reason. “Half of my left leg is, too.”
Kai furrowed his eyebrows. “It’s -”
Closing her eyes and biting her tongue, she closed the textbook and shoved it into her bag. “Disgusting, yeah, I know. I don’t need the reminder.”
“No, I - where are you going?” Kai looked up as she stood, hefting her bag on her shoulder.
“Well, I figured you didn’t really want to work with a - well, a -”
“A really cool girl with a really cool hand.” Kai raised an eyebrow, smirking. “The only reason I’d be mad at you is because you’re practically cheating at bioengineering.”
“I’m not cheating!”
“You’ve got half of the concepts attached to your arm!”
Cinder smiled, the tension releasing from her shoulders. She found herself happier than ever to open the textbook and start studying, ignoring the fact that it was maybe because her chair had shifted closer to his.
Cinder woke up to rain hitting her window so forcefully the frame nearly shook. Checking her phone on reflex, she didn’t even fully comprehend the time that was glaring back at her until a few seconds later.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit,” Cinder said, hastily removing the covers and getting up before taking another look at the darkness outside her window.
“Screw it,” she said, opening her messages instead. She’d only just sent the apologetic text to Kai, saying she couldn’t make it to the library, when someone knocked on her door.
Half expecting it to be Kai, she whipped the door open to find Iko, bouncing on the tip of her toes.
Before Cinder could even open her mouth, Iko started. “You know that guy you’ve been tutoring? Kai? Well, it turns out his dad is a super famous lawyer and politician - like, extremely influential - and Kai’s super famous too and -”
“And he’s coming over in a couple minutes,” Cinder murmured, reading his most recent text on her screen.
“He’s - what?” Iko screeched, “And you look like that?”
“I think I look fine.” Cinder quickly looked up and down at her sweatpants, ratty bun, and oversized t-shirt. “Nevermind.”
“Quick, change before he -” Iko was cut off by knocking on the door.
Cinder almost winced as she opened the door and Kai gave her a small wave. “Sorry this was so last minute, but my dorm is just next door, so...yeah.” He shrugged, smiling.
“No, it’s not a problem. Sorry that I’m, ah, such a mess.”
“No, you look - um -” he looked her up and down, an inexplicable red rising in his cheeks, “you look great.”
Cinder scoffed. “Yeah, alright.” Feeling Iko creep up behind her, she moved aside. “This is Iko, my friend.”
“Nice to meet you, Iko,” Kai said, offering a hand.
“And you,” she said, taking it and shooting a quick thumbs-up at Cinder behind her back.
As Kai stepped into the room, Iko slinked out.
“Iko? Where are you -”
“Oh no, I’d rather not be in there when you two start doing some, ah, not-so-PG stuff.”
Cinder felt her face heat up. “Iko!” She yelled down the hallway.
Iko just winked in response.
Cinder walked into the library to find Kai wearing a large, slightly oversized hoodie over a mustard-yellow sweater and nearly choked on her coffee.
“You look like a hobo.” She giggled, the laugh burbling up her throat until she nearly started tearing up.
“Well, I’m cold!” Kai said defensively, the whine in his voice just making her laugh harder.
“Alright, alright.” Cinder said, not able to keep a smile off of her face as she sat down and opened the textbook, smoothing out the page. As Kai stared at the page, she murmured “It looks cute, anyways,” under her breath and prayed that he didn’t hear - but the pink blooming at the tip his ears made her think he did.
---
“I’m sorry, I - I don’t get it,” Kai grumbled, rubbing his forehead.
Cinder bit her lip. “Okay - let’s try this.” She rolled up her sleeve and placed her forearm in the table, only slightly recoiling upon realizing it was her left arm. Surprisingly enough, she found she didn’t care enough to retract it completely.
Grabbing a couple pens, she began to draw on her forearm. “Look,” she said, drawing a blue line from her elbow to her wrist, “This would be ulnar nerve, connecting to the upper wire. And this,” she said, using a red pen this time, “would be the median nerve, connecting to the lower wire - that one, right there.” Biting her lip, she continued drawing nerves and wires, concentrating on her arm, until she realized Kai was looking at her, not her arm.
She turned him, making him jump. “Kai?”
“Sorry!” He said, ruffling his hair. “Sorry. I was just wondering - do you have a soulmate?”
Cinder’s outstretched hand clenched into a fist. “Well, I - it’s complicated.”
“Oh. Sorry for asking, I didn’t mean to -”
“No, actually, I - I don’t mind saying it.” Cinder needed someone new to say it to, and Kai didn’t seem like a bad audience.
“I’ve always tried talking to my soulmate, you know, doodling on my arm and all that. But they never replied, so I just stopped. Either I don’t have one, or - or they don’t want me.” Cinder looked down at the grain of the wooden desk, following the pattern.
“I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want you.”
Cinder’s head shot up, looking at Kai wide-eyed, before his face turned a light red and he put his head down on the desk.
“Sorry, I -”
“No, it’s -” Cinder bit her lip, fiddling with her sleeve. “It’s okay. Do - do you have a soulmate?”
He waited a moment before shifting his head to face her. “Yeah.”
Cinder felt her heart sink and gulped, shifting in her seat.
“I do, but I honestly haven’t heard from her in a while. Only the occasional scribble or doodle, and it’s not even meant for me, it’s just reminders for her. I don’t think - I don’t think she’s entirely fond of me.”
He licked his lips and continued. “But the worst part is I can’t even write back to her. Ever since I was a kid, actually, because being the kid of a politician - and a future politician myself - I don’t really have the space for romance. Any marriage, any relationship, could be better used as a tactic. So I just - I don’t write back because people are more likely to make these kinds of deals if they know I’m not attached. And I don’t write back because then I will be attached.”
He let it sink in for a moment in the heavy, quiet air.
“Well that’s bullshit.”
Kai laughed at Cinder’s resolute statement. “Oh, it is. Absolute bullshit. But that’s politics.”
“You should write back to her. Just - anything. You could even explain everything.”
“Yeah, that’s - that’s not a bad idea. Thanks, Cinder.”
Cinder smiled, trying to hide the lump in her throat. “No problem.”
For a couple days after, she checked every inch of her skin for a message, a stray ink mark, anything, but the only response she got was her heart sinking further.
“Alright, so then this -”
“Relays the information to the secondary joints, yes.” Kai finished, nodding.
Cinder looked at him, examining him. “Why am I even tutoring you anymore? You’ve got all of this.”
Kai nudged her shoulder with his. “Sure, but I may not in the future. You never know.”
Cinder nudged him back, stifling a smile.
In the past couple of weeks, they’d gotten closer and closer. Kai, in particular, seemed a lot more - physical, sitting closer to her or placing the occasional hand on her back as he opened the door for her. Maybe she was just imagining it all, but even if she was, she certainly didn’t mind.
But in the middle of the tingles that ran up her arm every time they accidentally brushed hands came that sudden, sinking feeling that he wasn’t her soulmate, that his messages were appearing on someone else’s skin, not hers.
She decided she’d enjoy it while it lasted, because it wouldn’t last long, not after his soulmate started replying.
She cleared her throat, anxious to change the subject. “Why are you taking bioengineering anyway? It has nothing to do with being a politician.”
He shrugged. “Well, no, but this region has a lot of engineering and science-related facilities. If I’m to govern properly, I should probably know a little about it, right?”
Cinder was impressed up until the moment when he leaned closer and said “That, and I picked a random science course to fill up the requirements.”
She laughed, only noticing him looking at her after a full 10 seconds.
“What?”
“Oh! Nothing. Sorry.” Kai shuffled in his seat. “I just like your laugh.”
Cinder felt her face heat up again, brushing one stray hair out of several behind her ear. “Th-Thanks.”
After a few moments, Cinder found herself speaking without meaning to. “I’m not actually studying bioengineering for a major, just engineering. Specifically focusing on aeronautics and mechanics.”
“Like - rockets?” Kai said.
“Yeah. I want to work at NASA and all. I know it sounds stupid,” Cinder said, rubbing her shoulders, “my stepmother told me it was an idiotic pipe dream. At least, she said it until the scholarship came through.”
Kai frowned and rubbed her back. “It isn’t stupid. Or a pipe dream. I think it’s fantastic, and frankly, I don’t think there’s anyone else more qualified.”
Cinder smirked. “I literally haven’t even seen a rocket yet, Kai.”
“You will be, one day.” He smiled, and even that smile was enough to light her heart up.
She didn’t even notice his hand was still on her back until it dropped.
Cinder was walking through the grounds, umbrella clutched in her hand for the perpetually rainy weather, when a hand landed on her shoulder.
She gasped, ready to scream and throw fists, until she realized it was just Kai, face shadowed by his hoodie.
“I need your help.” He was gasping for air, looking like he had run all the way from his dorm.
She chuckled. “You know that’s the first thing you said to me, right?”
He smiled. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is.”
Cinder turned, facing him. “Anyway - what did you want?”
He took his hood off and she held up her umbrella wordlessly to cover his head. “Well, I was watching Mulan -”
“Mulan?”
“Yeah, and you know that part when the emperor is like ‘ she’s a blooming flower’ or whatever the hell it is -”
“That’s - that’s not the line at all -”
“I don’t know what it is, okay, I’m just rambling, I’m -” he sighed, dragging a hand through his slowly dampening hair. “Okay, let me get to the point. I just - I just realized I couldn’t let my soulmate get away, you know?”
Cinder felt her heart harden. “Yeah. Sure.”
“Yeah. So -” he looked at her, pleading through dripping bangs, “What - what do you think?”
“Think about what? I agree, you should ask her,” Cinder managed to get through clenched teeth before attempting to stalk away, but Kai caught her by the hand.
“Well I - I asked. She just hasn’t answered,” Kai insisted, but it just made Cinder’s heart turn into stone.
“That’s great. That’s just fantastic, Kai. Just wait a bit, I’m sure she’ll respond,” Cinder said as sardonically as possible, spitting the words out.
“No, Cinder,” Kai said, “You’re the one who was to respond.”
She stilled, her grasp loosening around the umbrella. “Wh - what?”
“You have to respond,” he said, holding up his hand to see a hasty question scrawled on his left hand, “Because you’re the one I asked.”
Cinder blinked, struggling to understand. “But you asked your soulmate. I’m not your soulmate.”
“Yes, you are. Look, just - look at your left hand.”
She held up her left hand, the metal harsh and dull and plating her heart.
They stood there for a moment, looking at each other, drenched in rain, before Kai started laughing.
“Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I’m an idiot. A complete idiot.” He chuckled, covering his face with his hands.
Cinder just put her hand down and clenched her jacket instead, ignoring the biting disappointment she thought she was immune to.
“Cinder, you didn’t get any of my messages because I’ve been writing them on my left hand, and yours - it’s metal hand. It’s not biologically yours.”
And finally, finally, as the rain slowed to a stop, it dawned on her.
“Oh. So you mean - oh.”
“Remember that time you drew nerves on your arm? Well it -”
“Came on yours too.”
“Yeah.”
“Why - why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t know, I just - didn’t have the guts.”
Cinder sniffed, not letting herself believe it until she could see it. “Prove it, then.”
Kai frowned. “What?”
“Prove it. Prove that we’re soulmates, right now.”
Kai fished a pen from his pocket and scribbled something on his hand before realizing his mistake and writing on his forearm. As he did, Cinder felt a faint tickling sensation on her own forearm. She pushed back the sleeve, almost scared of what she’d see, but was met with a black ink slowly appearing on the tanned skin.
When he was finished, she laughed.
“You drew that months ago, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
“Incredibly mature of you.”
“I thought you’d appreciate it.”
He laughed. “I did.”
The clouds broke as she looked up at him, taking him in like she’d never seen him before.
He sensed her hesitation and held out a hand. “Hi. I’m Kai. I’m your soulmate.”
She took it. “Hi. I’m Cinder, and I’m yours.”
A/N: She drew a dick on her arm, if you couldn’t tell.
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3AM Bubble Fights
Summary: Disabled College!AU After a laundry mishap, it’s all out bubble war between Cinder and Kai
Characters: Cinder, Kai
Pairing: KaixCinder
Rating: K
Word Count: 1,550
Read On: FanFiction
Who doesn’t have time to start a new one-shot collection? Me. Who’s doing it anyway? Also me.
It was three in the morning, but Cinder could still hear rustling down the hall in the rec room and smell something from the kitchen. Shifting her small laundry basket under her arm, she used her forearm crutches to nudge the laundry door open. Stepping into the room, she blinked. The lights were a blinding white this late at night.
Cinder made her way slowly to the washing machines, dropping her laundry basket when she got to one. Huffing, she angled herself so that she could kick over her basket and maintain her balance on one crutch. When her little load of greys and blacks tipped and spilled onto the stark linoleum, Cinder unhooked one of her crutches and bent down to scoop up the small pile.
There wasn’t much Cinder could do now that she had prostheses for a leg and hand, but she didn’t let that slow her down from anything.
Sighing, Cinder threw her clothes into the machine, dumped in some detergent, and pulled out the few quarters she scrounged from her pants. There was a clatter, and the machine started to fill with water. Cinder smiled to herself. Miss Independent over here. She bent down to retrieve her laundry basket when there was a loud clang and the machine Cinder threw her clothes into started to shake, just subtly. The crutch that was leaning against the machine fell, and Cinder cursed.
The fallen crutch was the least of her worries though. In a heartbeat, the washing machine sputtered, and suds began seeping out of the top. Cinder cursed again, slightly louder, and dropped her basket. She carefully lowered herself onto the linoleum, unhooking her crutches and putting them against the wall, as suds soaked into her cargo pants. With a cursory glance, Cinder pulled dug in her pockets, pulling out a small everything tool. After a little fumbling, she managed to lay on her side to attempt and fix the rowdy machine. Since it was on, and dripping in sudsy water, there was only so much she could attempt to do. She tried to pinch the water supply, but it was tucked back at the edge of the machine, and whatever Cinder managed to pinch made water come out faster. A few choice words later, Cinder shifted, putting her face closer to the edge of the machine. Her pants were soaked, and her old green shirt was sticking to her back.
After fighting with the machine for several minutes, Cinder hit it with the tool in her hand, and tried to evade the attacking suds. Water covered the old linoleum and she could see it seeping under the door. Huffing, she figured it would be best to find outside help. Shifting so she was sitting in the suds, she grabbed the crutch that had fallen and pushed it against a separate machine, soap bubbles falling off of it. With a huff, she hoisted herself upwards, the soapy crutch slipping from her fingers very quickly. To try and save herself a fall, she threw her prosthetic hand over, dragging the other clutch towards her with a nudge.
“Hello?” A voice asked through the door, slowly pushing it open. Cinder could make out black tousled hair and caramel skin before her hand slipped from the foamy crutch and she slipped on the water covering the ground.
Her crutches hit the ground with a sharp bang, and Cinder dropped, landing heavily on her shoulder.
“Oh, God, are you okay?” the voice asked, rushing over to Cinder but skidding on the bubbles.
Cinder moved over, hissing when her shoulder throbbed. Warm hands grabbed her upper arms and moved her into a sitting position. Cinder could feel him squat in front of her, inspecting her for injuries.
“I’m fine,” Cinder said, opening her eyes. Kai Prince stared at her, his light brown eyes worried. Of course. Just her luck she’d be found by one of the most popular and well known guys on campus. “Can we just pretend this never happened?” Cinder asked, trying to find her crutches in the ever-growing bubble mess.
Kai looked around and chuckled. “I don’t think we’ll be able to do that,” he said, scooping some bubbles into his palm. “Not to mention it’s three thirty in the morning.”
Cinder shrugged, and regretted it immediately, her shoulder tensing. “Only time the machines are empty.” Cinder narrowed her eyes. “And if you’re going to scold me for murdering a washing machine at three thirty in the morning, what are you doing up then?”
Kai smiled. “Heating up noodles?”
Cinder recalled the smell when she first walked into the laundry room. “And failing, if the smell means anything,” she said, raising her eyebrows. Kai shrugged his shoulder sheepishly. “I’m not the best cook.”
“Clearly,” Cinder agreed, finally cracking somewhat of a smile. Kai smiled too, the tips of his ears a soft pink.
“You obviously aren’t the best clothes washer if this,” he gestured around the room, where the bubbles had finally stopped multiplying, “is the result.”
A laugh escaped Cinder’s lips. “I tried to fix it.” As if to prove her point, she fumbled around in the bubbles and revealed her very sudsy tool. “It didn’t work very well.” She dropped the tool onto her once-grey but now black cargo pants, and soap flew up. It splattered her face and Kai’s, who was so surprised he fell backwards, into even more soap.
Cinder was about to say sorry, when he sat up, a halo of white bubbles sitting on top of his pitch black hair. Instead, she laughed, harder than she had in months. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry!” she laughed through her apology. “But you should- you should see your- your face!” Kai, shocked, was gaping, staring at Cinder like he was a fish out of water. He cracked a smile when Cinder kept laughing, her face flushed.
“Wait,” Kai said as Cinder started to calm down. “You’ve got something right,” he leaned over, bubbles in hand, “here!” he shouted, smearing Cinder’s surprised mouth with bubbles. Cinder was absolutely quiet for several seconds, and Kai was afraid he’d crossed a line, when, in a flash, Cinder scooped up more bubbles and gave him a beard. Kai recovered quicker this time, and threw a handful of bubbles at Cinder.
“It’s war!” Cinder yelled, scooping up armfuls of bubbles and throwing them at Kai aimlessly, the pain in her shoulder, and her embarrassment, all but forgotten. When Kai stood up and took shelter behind a nearby dryer, Cinder deflated, her smile faltering and arms dropping to her lap. Kai peeked out from behind, wondering why the onslaught of bubbles had stopped, when he saw Cinder digging through them instead. He was about to ask her what she was doing when she lifted up a black crutch with a band and what looked like grips. Kai faltered, moving back from the dryer.
“I…didn’t realize,” he said, the laundry room suddenly very quiet.
“Yeah, no.” She shook her head. “It’s not obvious…like this,” Cinder said, gesturing at the mess of bubbles. “Don’t worry about it,” she continued, the room suddenly thick with tension.
They stayed like that, Cinder avoiding Kai’s eyes, and Kai watching Cinder like a hawk. When she managed to get her right arm through the crutch, Kai jumped into action, walking over towards her.
“At least let me help,” he said, eyes still bright. Cinder was inclined to say no, that she could do it, but there were bubbles everywhere, and she still needed to stand up. With a curt nod, Kai took her arm, looking as her prosthetic hand dangled. He helped to push her arm into the band, but Cinder inhaled sharply, and Kai was afraid he’d hurt her. “My shoulder,” Cinder clarified.
When Cinder was able to stand on her own, and the crutches weren’t sliding everywhere, Kai stepped back.
“You’re Cinder Linh,” he stated, grabbing a towel and mopping up some of the bubbles.
“My reputation precedes me,” she said, voice steady. Kai didn’t turn around, but continued clearing a path to the door. When he was done, he turned around and cleared his throat. “I had a nice night,” he said, smiling slightly.
Cinder looked at him for a minute before giving him a small smile. “I did too,” she said, making her way over to where he was standing by the door.
“Maybe we could…do this again sometime?” He asked shyly.
Cinder raised her eyebrows. “Have a bubble fight in the middle of the night?”
“No!” Kai floundered for a minute. “I meant, maybe we could go out. Get some coffee?” He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, his face warming.
Cinder contemplated for a moment, and Kai was sure she was going to say no when she answered, “Sure. Though I’m a tea person.”
Kai smiled, dropping his hand and sticking them in his pockets instead. “Great! I’ll meet you out front tomorrow?”
Cinder nodded, and the two made their way out of the laundry room.
They were just about to turn a corner, headed to the elevator, when Cinder stopped and started back tracking. “Where are you going?” Kai asked, confused.
Cinder kept going, her crutches clacking on the thinly carpeted floor.
“I forgot my clothes!”
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