(Pre-wedding - on a spaceship somewhere between Earth and Luna)

Cinder was nervous. Her life as a monarch had just ended, with her abdication of the Lunar throne and the forming of the Lunar Republic. But soon after, Kai had proposed, at Wolf and Scarlet's wedding, no less. Of course, she had agreed to marry him. She loved him. But now, she wasn't so sure. What if she was a terrible leader? A terrible empress? Or worse, a terrible wife? Cinder knew that Kai loved her, but still.

"Cinder!"

"What??"

"Are you awake?"

"Yes?"

"That's the third time I've called your name!"

"Sorry, Iko. I'm just... distracted."

"Sure you are, your imperial majesty!"

"Shut up Kinney!" Iko and Cinder shouted at the same time, much to the amusement of Kinney, who chuckled.

"I'm not taking orders from a robot!" His tone was light, joking, but Iko had had enough.

"I'm! Not! A! ROBOT! You imbecile! I'm an ESCORT DROID!"

Grabbing hold of one of the enraged droid's arms, and using the moves that Wolf had spent hours drilling into her, Cinder flipped Iko over onto one of the lavish couches that filled the main area of the 'royal' Lunar ship. Interesting story about the ship. It was Levana's ship, the royal space transport for all occasions. Cinder had pulled a Thorne and named the ship the official ship of the Ambassador to Earth (that's Cinder and Winter), and no one had argued with her. Funny how that worked out.

Back in the present, Iko was struggling to her feet. "WHY is he even here?" she screeched, her voice filling the spacious room more than a human voice would.

"Because, I nominated him my official guard, remember?"

"I still don't understand why it is here," Kinney drawled from across the room, looking ridiculously relaxed, his legs crossed, feet up, reading something on his port.

"I am the official wedding planner, thank you very much! And the Maid of Honor!"

"Both of you shut up! I'm trying to finish my vows!"

Ignoring the snickering of the immature guard and ridiculous android, Cinder stalked out of the room, and down the corridor, blindly wandering through the ship. Eventually, Cinder found herself in the engine room, her favorite place to be. She found a corner, tucked between pipes and wires, and finished her vows, before returning to the endless state of anxiety that had consumed her for days.

Comm from: Winter

The green text scrolled past her eye, and Cinder blinked to accept the message.

Cousin! We've made it to the Palace! Kai is very kind, I can see why you're marrying him. Jacin is being a worry-wart again, and Scarlet-Friend is coming soon! Don't go hide in the engine room, my dear Selene, everything will be fine. Kai told the press the wrong date, so there will be no reporters when you arrive. I told you he was kind. Jacin tells me to 'stop worrying princess,' but YOU need not worry. Everything will be fine. Cress and the Captain are already here as well. Cress locked him in their rooms for flirting with the staff. We are all having such fun! Kai hired her on the spot as head of intelligence. We should all become spies! We will see you soon! Can you believe the wedding is only two weeks away?

Cinder laughed to herself, the comm had all the energy and personality of Winter. Somehow, it made her feel better, even though Winter was hundred of miles away. But the ship was getting closer to Earth, to the Eastern Commonwealth, with every passing second.

She typed a quick response, deleted all the spam from gossip sites, and slowly began to relax. An hour later, Iko came down to the engine room, knowing immediately that is where Cinder would have taken shelter, to find her doing idle maintenance, laying flat on her back under the engine, fixing something with wire cutters, and humming the wedding march.

Instead of saying anything, Iko simply walked away, smiling, hoping to find and annoy Kinney.