Cinder was elated from her time with Kai, of course she was. It had gone perfectly, a hundred times better than she would have imagined. None of the disastrous scenarios she'd created in her head had happened, worst of all being rejected - yet the next day she still found herself knocking on Thorne's door.

He didn't seem surprised to see her there, but then again, he didn't look as if he'd been awake for more than five minutes. He was only half dressed and he hadn't brushed his hair, nor had he shaved.

"Cinder?" he asked, drawing her in with a loose grip on her arm. He slouched down onto the sofa pulling her down on top of him.

"Cinder?" he asked again.

"It's mid day Thorne, you've got to stop sleeping in so late and get a job or go back to school or something," she said, but it was becoming hard to speak with him so close, his breath on her neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Her breath hitched, and she leaned back against him.

"Why do you come here if you disapprove of me so much?" he asked, running a down the length of her body, his fingers lingering in places and skimming quickly over others.

When she couldn't stand it anymore she turned to kiss him, but after a moment of letting her at his lips he pulled away, resting a hand on her cheek.

"Why do you come to me at all Cinder?" he asked, leaning forward to brush his lips against hers, making her shiver against her desire. He placed a kiss at the corner of her mouth and another on the burning skin next to his hand. All Cinder wanted was more - more of Thorne's kisses. She wanted him to shut up and kiss her with as much force as he could; she wanted his hands all over her, she wanted him to touch her until she couldn't breathe.

"Tell me Cinder. Iko told me about Kai, so why do you come here?" he asked, but she didn't know. She just always seemed to come back here when she felt alone, when she felt nothing was as it should be, when she just wanted the escape, even if that was no more than a kiss on the lips.

It was stupid relying on him like this. She should be able to talk to Iko and Cress about everything she felt instead of running off to Thorne, but it had become too difficult now, and she felt as if there was no turning back.

He kissed her again, nibbling at her bottom lip and pulling her closer. He pushed her down on the sofa and didn't resist as she wrapped her legs around his waist, but he didn't let her kiss him when she tried, waiting for her answer.

"I don't know," she said, too distracted to think. Her heart was racing, and Thorne was so close she could feel his against her chest, steady, as always. She knew she didn't have the same effect on him as he did on her, but she didn't particularly care. He would kiss her nonetheless, and that's what she wanted; she didn't care for an emotional attachment with him as she wanted with Kai, no, she wanted his lips: nothing more, nothing less.

"Tell me Cinder," he said, "then we can continue."

She thought for a moment, tearing her eyes away from him and looking at the blank wall instead, running through all the possible reasons until she picked one.

"I just want to get away from everything sometimes," she said, and as she finished Thorne's lips descended on her neck, kissing her until she was trembling beneath him.

"To get away from what?" he asked, drawing back again, hands on her shoulders.

"I don't know," she said, "school, life, everything." He kissed her again, gently, and pressed closer to her, his breath mingling with hers. There was such little space between them and Cinder was glad for it. She enjoyed feeling each aching pound of her heart, each hurried breath, each muscle shifting and melting as his fingers slid over her collar bone.

"I knew you got bullied," Thorne said, and Cinder noticed the hitch in his breath as he said it, the struggle to let the words slide smoothly, and she decided she liked that; right then he seemed almost as weak as her. "I just didn't realise it was that bad," he finished.

"It's not just that," Cinder said as Thorne's lips pressed against hers, seeming almost desperate. Maybe she had more of an effect than she thought.

"Then what is it?"

"I just hate thinking about the future," she said, her body tensing as Thorne slipped his fingers under her shirt sleeves and pinched her bra straps between his fingers. He'd never done that before, and though he made no further move on her she wanted him to.

"I'm not the right person to talk to about that," Thorne said, lowering his nose onto hers, his lips not millimetres from hers.

"I'm not here to talk," Cinder said, pulling Thorne down and letting him kiss her once more. His lips moving with hers until her head span, his fingers running over her body until she couldn't breathe.

---

"So do you think he likes her?" Cress asked Scarlet for the millionth time.

"I don't know, I've never met the guy," Scarlet said in reply, laying back on her bed and scrolling through her tumblr feed.

"Yes, but from what Iko said, do you think Kinney likes her?"

"Thorne said he has a girlfriend," Scarlet said bluntly.

"You're no fun Scar, you know that," Cress said, laying down on her stomach next to Scarlet and waiting for the other girl to turn her phone off.

Cress was so close to her it made her gaze falter. Her eyes accidently slipped down Cress's body, but Scarlet didn't think she noticed, she hoped she didn't notice. She sat up, and Cress sat up with her.

"What do you do on there?" Cress asked, tapping the screen of Scarlet's phone.

"What do you do on that top bunk?" Scarlet asked, watching as Cress's lips shifted into a deadly grin.

"I'll show you," she said, grabbing Scarlet's hands and pulling her up, signalling for her to follow up the ladder.

They were squashed tightly against each other at the head of the bed with Cress's laptop on both their laps, the warmth of the fan soothing against Scarlet's legs.

Cress typed something onto the screen, and though Scarlet didn't understand what it meant, she was pretty sure it was coding.

"Wait a moment," Cress said, leaning towards the screen and biting her lip in concentration, continuing to type until a screen popped up, looking like the school website, but from someone else's view.

"What is it?" Scarlet asked.

"I hacked the school database," Cress said, beaming proudly.

"You... what?"

"I hacked into the school database, oh and..." Cress said, pulling out her phone from under her pillow, "I hacked into Thorne's texts."

"What? why? how?"

"It gets easy enough after six years, my dad left me home alone a lot, and - well - I kind of just got bored and thought Thorne's life might be more interesting," Cress explained, flicking through Thorne's texts to Kinney. "Wait, why am I telling you this?" Cress asked herself.

"I'm not entirely sure," Scarlet answered for her. "Cress, you didn't..."

"No, I haven't touched your phone, or any of your accounts for that matter," she confirmed, sliding the phone back under her pillow.

"That's... impressive," Scarlet said as Cress shut down her computer. "And no one's noticed?"

"No," Cress said, "and you're the first person I've told."

"What has Kinney been saying then?" Scarlet asked, suddenly interested, or maybe it was just the feel of Cress's shoulder against hers that made her talk.

"Thorne asked him, and he said he missed her," said Cress.

"What does that mean? Have they been together before?" Scarlet asked, pressing closer to the other girl with the hopes that she wouldn't notice.

"I don't know, but it sounds like it," Cress said, and to Scarlet's surprise, she leaned into her too.

"Well that's good for Iko, maybe they'll get back together," said Scarlet.

"Maybe."

---

A/N: I feel like all the kaider and cresswell shippers are going to hate me for this chapter

If you hate me say it out loud!

So yeah, I don't think I went too far with the ThornexCinder scene, but if you think I did just say and I'll keep it more innocent next time.

But if everyone's fine with that (since it was pretty mild tbh) I'll keep going the way I am, but I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable or anything so I'm just checking

I've had my hair in a ponytail all day and I just took it out and now my head hurts...

Does anyone here actually ship ThornexCinder because I'm starting to...

Has anyone got any recomendations for TLC fanfiction?

Also, should I start a TLC comms book? Because I've read a ton and they seem really fun and I want to have a go because I'm an expert at both coming up with origional ideas and stealing other people's ideas!

Who's wedding do you thinks going to be in stars above? Has Merissa Meyer said yet, because otherwise I'm guessing Kaider.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed

Thank you everyone who has voted or left a comment, I really appreciate it and I hope you're still enjoying this book!

JOIN THE RESISTANCE!