A Royal Wedding

Chapter 8 (Cinder's Perspective)

Cinder was thinking about her last birthday. The birthday she turned nineteen. There had been a massive party in the Commonwealth and on Luna when she came back. There had also been a much more intimate party with all her close friends at the Kesley farm. Cinder couldn't remember a time when she had a birthday party, let alone three. It was nice to spend her birthday surrounded by people who actually liked her and not despised her like Adri and Pearl. Her stepmother and stepsister had not been invited to the parties and Cinder was glad for it. At the Commonwealth party Cinder had danced with Kai until almost dawn and there was no more music left to dance to. Although she regretted it somewhat the next day because her metal limbs seemed to be throbbing and her face hurt from smiling at Kai so much. At the party on Luna it was much less fun because 1, Kai wasn't there because he was on a diplomatic mission to the American Republic and she had no one to dance with until Luna's artificial dawn. 2, because everyone at the party was so serious and kept asking her why she abdicated her throne even though they knew very well why. 3, because the food was either too pretty to eat or it looked to grotesque to eat. And because everyone was serious that meant the music was serious. Cinder didn't really like to think about that party. At the party with all her friends she was the happiest she'd probably ever been. Scarlet had made her amazing lemon cake(and as tradition they all ate the cake off their own daggers) with the words 'Joyeux Anniversaire Cinder on your 19th year! We all hope for many years to come!' piped in metallic grey icing which Cinder had guessed was the work of Winter's delicate hand. The same hand that had done some of the embroidering on Cinder's wedding dress. The cake also had a couple moons, a couple little stars, a couple gears, nuts, bolts and wrenches to represent everything that Cinder was and is. The seamstress from the Commonwealth who had made Cinder's dress sent the dress to Winter so that she could embroider a message into the lining of the dress. Even though Cinder had had the dress in her possession for two weeks, Cinder still hadn't looked at the message. With the wedding in two and a half months Cinder and Kai still had a lot of work to do. Kai was doing most of the work because Cinder couldn't be on Earth whenever she wanted to be because she still had duties on Luna. Kai had recently sent her a comm that he needed help choosing the menu for the reception. The music had already been chosen and the seating arrangement was made. Cinder had thought that planning this wedding would be a lot easier than it was, turns out she was wrong. Planning the wedding had taken a lot out of Cinder so recently she had had a lot of migraines but she hoped that after the wedding was over as would her headaches. When Iko skipped in, stopped daydreaming and turned her attention to her android friend. "Yes Iko?" Iko grinned widely at Cinder and replied "Um Cinder you might want to come down to the port dock. There's someone here to see." Cinder was confused. "Who is it? I didn't think we were expecting  visitors today. Or in the next week actually."  Iko's grin became mysterious as she said, "Oh you'll see. I'm pretty sure you'll be surprised! Come on!" Cinder got up from her desk and followed Iko out the door...

A/N: Hey guys! Thank you for reading this far if you did! I just wanted to make this quickly just to give you some updates. First, I think I'm getting closer to the end of this story but not sure yet because I have to resolve quite a few things still in this story. Second, the updates may be sparse in the next few days because I am going up to my grandparent's house this weekend and whenever we go up there we're always busy with things and I don't think we'll be bringing the computer with us. I may be writing updates in my notebook or on my phone and not publishing them but we'll see! Thank you so much for reading! Love all you nerds! Byeee!