Cinder wakes up to her lamp flashing orange, a sign that she needs to get up as soon as possible because she's slept through the first of the more gentle flashing lights she'd programmed as a substitute for an alarm clock.

She almost regrets staying up so late looking through some random boy's tumblr. Almost.

Groaning, she pulls herself up and uses the hair bobble already around her arm to tie her hair back, not caring that the ponytail is probably the messiest one in history.

She stretches on the way to the bathroom, satisfied when her neck and back click. She doesn't spend long freshening up, knowing that Pearl will wake up soon and throw a tantrum if she doesn't get immediate access to the bathroom for her morning beauty routine.

"Move," Pearl grumbles sleepily as she passes Cinder in the hallway.

Cinder rolls her eyes and sidesteps to reach her room.

She changes outfit as she gets back, still wearing the same clothes as yesterday because she'd never bothered – or had enough money – to buy proper nightwear. At least that means less laundry, or at least less of her own laundry in addition to Adri and her step-sisters'.

Avoiding contact with anyone else, she makes her way down to the kitchen, where she hopes Garan will be waiting for her.

And he is.

With a coffee.

Cinder sighs, having wanted to go get it herself, but then remembers that Kai actually goes to school and wouldn't be working so early in the morning anyway, and brightens up considerably.

"I have never seen someone go through so many emotions so quickly," Garan declares, laughing.

"Oh, whatever," Cinder mutters, sipping her coffee.

"You ready?" he asks, ruffling her hair.

She makes a face but smiles at him when he turns his back, following him to his car. Even though she couldn't care less about her hair, even she has to admit that starting the day without putting it up tightly and working in a garage isn't a good combination.

"Can't I drive?" Cinder asks anyway.

She can technically operate a car but he insists that he be the one to drive during rush hours so that they don't get arrested for her not having a licence.

Garan shakes his head. "You know you can't."

"Can I work on the mercedes?" she asks as they climb into the car, fixing their seatbelts.

Even as he starts the car, Garan shoots her that look – the one adults give out when they think they know what the child's motives are and why exactly they're doing whatever they happen to be doing.

"Is it that boy?"

"No!" Cinder replies quickly, scoffing, "He's just a random guy."

Garan hums, clearly not believing her but focusing on the road so they don't crash.

"Maybe?" Cinder offers after a few minutes of silence.

Garan smiles and turns to her. "Should I be worried about you getting mixed in with the wrong crowd?"

Cinder doesn't know if she wants to laugh or punch something so she chooses to frown. "It's not me you should be worried about."

A strangle unease falls over them so she stays quiet, looking out of the window and slouching in her seat as she finishes the coffee.

"Cinder?" Garan asks eventually, sounding remorseful.

"You're leaving again?" Cinder guesses bitterly.

His silence is enough of an answer and Cinder shakes her head. "Why do you even come back?"

By this time, they're at the garage and Garan twists the keys so the engine powers down, turning to her with an unfamiliar expression.

"I come back for you. I was trusted to keep you safe," Garan says.

Cinder sighs, "I am safe."

Garan shakes his head. "There are many different types of safe..."

"And?" Cinder asks, but not rudely.

"I'd just hoped you'd be a better kind of safe," Garan admits.

"I don't..." Cinder shakes her head, confused.

"Never mind," Garan says, now shaking his head.

"Worst comes to worst, I can put those martial arts lessons to use, right?" Cinder laughs, wanting to ease the almost palpable tension between them.

Garan chuckles, nodding, his posture visibly relaxing. Cinder smiles at him and uses two fingers to jokingly salute before getting out of the car.

"Hey, fireball?" Garan calls.

"What?" Cinder turns back, frowning.

"Workshop three." He winks.

She smiles at him despite being annoyed, knowing that he doesn't mean to leave her behind but he doesn't really have a choice.

Cinder half suspects him of being involved in something dangerous but she can never find any evidence for it so, like many times before, she dismisses the thought as she walks through the garage, half-heartedly greeting a few people but ignoring most of them.

Workshop three.

She sighs as she sees the damaged mercedes, unsure of why anyone would want to salvage it instead of simply buying a new one.

With a second sigh, she assesses the damage and gets to work, repairing the smaller things that don't require manual labour because she really doesn't feel like working with anyone else at the moment.

She zones out until there's a small, polite knock on the open door, at which point she stifles a shriek, whacks her head on the top of the door in her rush to leave the car, accidentally turns the windscreen wipers on, and causes water to spray in front of the car, exactly where Kai is standing.

Kai jumps, blinking water out of his eyes as he pushes his hair back. But he doesn't seem to care about his soaking locks, instead focused on how Cinder's rubbing her head with grimace.

"I'm so sorry!" he blurts.

Cinder lets out her third sigh. "It's fine."

"No, I'm awfully sorry! I asked at the front desk and they told me to come down here - which I thought was rather peculiar but it's not my place to question it - and I didn't mean to surprise you or-"

"Kai." Cinder puts her hands on his shoulders.

He stops talking immediately, frozen.

"It's okay, you don't have to apologise." She smiles at him.

He nods, then shivers slightly and slips his blazer off, rolling his shoulders back.

Cinder winces. "Sorry for soaking you."

"That's okay, it was more or less my fault."

She shakes her head. "It wasn't. It was mine. I'm sorry."

She's never apologised so much in her life and she's not sure why she is now.

He grins at her. "Don't worry about it, princess."

Cinder nods, then frowns. "So, what are you doing here?"

Kai's eyes light up.

Don't be mad, It's a safe cliffhanger... Hope you liked it! Also, someone on ffn asked about tumblr. If y'all wanna follow my specifically tlc blog (fairly new as i accidentally lost my old fandom blogs - don't ask), it's @smolsassykai (#promo, sorry ;p)  Until next time!