As Cinder finally began to wake, she saw Kai sitting on he edge of the bed. His hand rubbed small circles into her back. She was on her stomach, with her face aimed at the wall. Seeing her boyfriend's face – gentle and content – she couldn't help but smile.

"Hmm, hi Kai," she mumbled.

He chuckled at her, continuing to massage her back. "You lying when you said you were fine."

She refrained from groaning too loudly. "What gave you that idea?"

He looked her dead in the eye and said, "People who are fine don't sleep for two days straight."

For a microsecond, she thought he might have been joking. His solid expression told her otherwise.

She shot up from her sleeping position, and nearly pulled a muscle doing so.

Before she could leap into the shower and bolt to the throne room, Kai gripped her cyborg hand. Even after months of being together, she couldn't help but feel ... unnatural when someone touched her hand. Especially Kai, who held it as though her hand was real.

He took her hand in both of his hand pulled her back to the bed again. "Iko handled the press conferences for the infiltration to the Lunar palace, and I assisted. Cress's notes for Winter were spot on, and Winter did a great job of speaking to the courts. Many of them are already saying a republic on Luna would be a great chance to advance society on Luna."

He wrapped her up in his arms and dragged her back to the head of the bed. He set her down and tucked her back under her covers. "And yes, Winter made it to Luna in time for the first court session. The chip implant is working great. No more hallucinations for her. And she brought gifts for all of us, but won't let us open them until you're all better."

Cinder sighed in relief, and leaned back against the headboard. Kai smiled at her, like he knew the feeling of waking up with such urgency and then being told the issue has already been taken care of.

Maybe that was why Torin was always so worried about Kai. Because he knew how worried and stressed Kai could get in a split second.

Kai answered a knock at the door, and in came Winter, Jacin, and Iko. Iko held a breakfast tray with orange juice, waffles, and bacon. "Morning Cinder," she said cheerily as she placed the tray on her lap.

"Hello, little Selene," Winter greeted. She revealed a small box from behind her back. A neatly tied, green bow sat on the top. "This is for you."

Cinder took the present as her cousin handed it to her, and she untied the bow. Lifting off the lid, she saw the glint of silver flash in her eyes. Inside laid a palm sized object with two beaded loops. One had a long silver rod the length of her index finger. Little divots in the metal caught beads in the opposite loops.

"It's ... nice," Cinder admitted. "But what is it?"

"It's an only jewelry piece design from the Second Era. They're like fancy ponytails." Winter plucked the piece out of the box and held it before Cinder. "May I?"

"Sure."

Winter maneuvered behind Cinder and put a knee up on the bed for balance. With one hand, she gathered up Cinders hair, and used the other to put the ponytail pin into place. "There."

Winter grabbed the closest hand mirror and angled it so Cinder could see her new hair style. "What do you think?"

"I think it will be a nice alternative to having regular ponytails for formal events."

Winter giggled, and Iko joined her. Her cousin took the box from Cinder and told Iko, "You can go tell the others they can open their presents now."

"YES!!!" Iko screamed – right in Jacin's ear – before darting out the room.

Jacin grumbled, cursing under his breath. "She's been nagging about her present for the past two days. She wouldn't stop asking when she could open it."

"I think she knows what's inside, and that's why she wants to open it," suggested Kai. "Iko can almost sense when ballgown is nearby."

Everyone laughed, save Jacin. Who hardly laughed at anything. Deep down, Cinder knew Jacin had some odd talent that was not strict or serious or related to his duties of being a guard. She'd yet to see what that talent was, but she knew it was in there.

They all had hidden gifts and desires. Soon, until she gave Luna a republic, she could give Luna her gift of fixing things – like the government.

Once Luna was truly free, she could live her desire of going back to Earth, and living somewhere she could be free herself.

Maybe she could stay in touch with Kai too.

................

As Cress was detached from the life support system, her first instinct was to go see her sister. Against the opinions of the doctors, Cress was permitted to go into the next room to see Goldinia.

In her hospital gown, Cress walked to her sister's room to see her in her bed, toying with her cyborg hand. Wires were exposed, and metal was breached. Cadmar sat at her side, scolding her and telling her not to mess with it.

"You're going to break it," he nagged.

Goldinia rolled her eyes. "It's already broken. I can't make it worse."

"That is literally what you're doing right now."

Cadmar was now in regular clothes. Well, regular for him. A giant t-shirt, long sweatpants, and black sneakers. Goldinia sat in her hospital bed with the standard cloths of a patient, the same as Cress. Cress amused herself with the idea that they were doing a Second Era custom called "twinning".

Goldinia did not listen to her friend, and kept rearranging the wires in her hand. Cress was sure that if she could reach her foot, she would be doing the same to it.

Cadmar tried to swat her hand away from the exposed parts, but she only swatted him back. In not time at all, they were playfully smacking each other and screaming "Cut it out!" to one another.

Cress got to watch her sister – and who she assumed to be her boyfriend – acting like children. Real kids, like Cress had watched in her net dramas. It was nice to see her sister smiling for once, and not torn apart or in mourning like she had been earlier.

"Goldinia?" Cress piped up.

Her sister and Cadmar froze and snapped into positions facing Cress. Where Cadmar was frozen, awaiting Cress's words, Goldi took the opportunity to smack Cadmar on the back of the head. Thankfully, Goldinia did not use her metal hand as Cinder would have on Thorne.

Cad grunted and rubbed the back of his head. "Hello, Crescent. How are you?"

"I'm better, thanks." She walked into the room and stood at the foot of Goldinia's bed. "How are you guys doing?"

Cad turned back to Goldi and gave her a look Cress recognized. It was the same one Kai gave to anyone who was about to start spouting lies.

Goldinia smiled to Cress. "I'm fine-"

"Wow," said Cadmar. "Either you hit your head hard than you thought or you are still the same-"

"Can you ever let anything go?" asked Goldinia. She threw her covers off her and her legs over the side of her hospital bed. "I am fine."

"Goldi, don't you da-" Cadmar called out, in vein. Goldinia was already getting off the bed and standing on her own. She straightened her arms out for balance and wobbled a tad.

When she didn't fall over, she grinned in triumph. "See, I'm fine."

She took one step forward and fell flat on her face.

Rather than face palm or laugh as Cress's friends would have done with their significant others, Cad calmly stood up from the bed and went to Goldinia's side. Against her will, he helped her up and sat her back down on the bed. He even tucked her back under the blankets.

"I don't need to be babied!" Goldi protested. She crossed her arms over her chest and puffed, blowing stands of hair away from her face.

Cadmar stuffed the corners of the blanket under the mattress. "I know. You're fine."

Cadmar sat back on the side of the bed, "Goldi is suffering from malnutrition and some internal bleeding. Her bones and muscles are also under-developed and her condition was made worse by getting ... bitten and running around the palace."

"Cad!" Goldi struggled to get off the bed again, but found herself restricted. The blankets Cadmar adjusted were too tight around her, and she couldn't get up. She growled in protest. "Let me up!"

"So you can fall on your face again and break your nose this time? Let me think ... nah."

As Goldinia stifled her own scream and did her best not to fume, Cress couldn't help but grin. Cress hummed and tilted her head to see her sister in another light. "You guys are just like Scarlet and Wolf."

At that, Goldinia's dispositions fell away and left her face blank. Cadmar froze up for the second time, and quickly flicked his gaze to Goldinia, as if for approval, or to assure himself she wasn't about to kill him.

Yeah, Cress thought. They are just like Wolf and Scarlet.

"Um, what do you mean by that, Crescent?" Goldinia asked, almost scoffing. "Are you saying I'm a loose cannon that hangs out with a former LSOP agent? Cause that was obvious."

Cress giggled and shook her head. "No, I mean they're relationship. You and Cadmar are super close, and he cares about you a lot like Wolf cares about Scarlet. Plus, you bicker like them too. But it's because you love each other. Right?"

The perpetually hanging jaw on Goldinia's face and the wideness of Cadmar's eyes made one thing clear to Cress. Something she probably should have asked about rather than simply assuming it to be true.

They weren't dating yet. They might not have even known they were in love with each other yet.

If they ever did bring it up, now would be an okay time to do it. Nothing says "Ice Breaker" like your little sister barging in and announcing your obvious and blatant crush on your best friend.

As Cress had see a thousand net dramas with similar scenarios, she thought she could have had the slightest idea of what to do. Sadly, nothing good came to mind, and she ended up with-

"Well, if you're not dating, you guys really should because I think you'd be great together and you guys deserve to be happy bye!!!"

Cress backpedaled out of the room like Thorne did when he caught Cinder and Kai kissing and Cinder was still armed with her dangerous cyborg attachments.