Work Text:
Kai's Perspective:
Kai walked down the hallway, unbuttoning his suit, as he pulled the port from his pocket, scrolling to find the Palace menu for dinner. Wondering how he, the Emperor, was forced into following the food schedule, and then thought about how it was probably his mother, who had come up with this system, and no one wanted to argue.
Spicy King Prawn.
Well, he would have to thank his Ma for having made such a wonderful menu. Cinder’s favourite, to be exact. Speaking of his wife, she’d already be at the dinner table, so he thought it was futile to walk to their bedroom. But taking one glance at his white, wrinkled shirt that he’d worn from one meeting to another, he chose to change into something more comfortable.
“Ugh,” he heard a loud groan coming from the bed, scaring the shit outta him.
“Damn, Cinder. You’d give a man a heart attack,” Kai chuckles as he pulls the tie around his neck loose.
“Like I care,” she mumbled, and Kai didn’t pay heed, as he searched for the black slacks that he remembered throwing in some corner this morning.
“What’s wrong?” Kai asked as he walked through the bedroom, expecting Cinder to be eager to walk out of the room. Instead, she was sprawled on the bed, still in her work clothes, hair resembling a bird’s nest.
“Life,” Cinder scoffed, and had the circumstances been calmer, Kai would have joined in on the remark. He chose to overlook it, shifting in the bed, as he leaned near his wife, “Cindy, what happened?”
“I don’t want to talk.”
“Too bad, because we’re not leaving until you talk, and it’s your favourite dinner.”
“Don’t wanna eat,” she grumbles again, hiding her face deeper into the forts of pillow she’s made for herself, and that’s enough sign for Kai to know it’s been a bad day. Probably one of those, where someone questions her authority due to her special gifts. Kai has grown tired of people calling his wife names, but Cinder is too independent to let him stop it.
“Fine, I’d be back in an hour. You’d probably feel better by then,” Kai says, pushing himself off the bed, as he walks away. Putting his port for charging, as he takes out slippers from the rack, expecting Cinder to be at his throat at any moment.
“Are you leaving me alone, Kai?” Cinder asks, now sitting upright, shocked at his words.
“Didn’t you want that, babe?” Kai calls from the other room, looking for the calming hair oils Cinder uses, but thinking better of it, he picks a few-
“What’s wrong with you?” She says, irritation clear in her voice, and if he’s not before her in the next minute, she’d be madder at him than all the other people she was mad over in the last hour or so.
“You wouldn’t talk with me,” Kai points out.
“You didn’t try hard enough for that. Have fun eating your dinner!” She yelled and pulled the duvet above her as he walked back into the room. He smiled at her antics. It was always fun to get her riled up.
“Very well,” he whispers, pulling off the covers, and getting her to turn around, “-what are you doing?”
“Trying harder,” Kai says, kissing her forehead, and then the left cheek, and right cheek. He’s about to capture her lips when she swats him away, “-I’m angry, remember?”
“All I see is you being a baby,” He chuckles, and then captures her lips, and she doesn’t argue, sighing in the embrace instead, her fingers pulling at his roots, as she pulls Kai closer. And when they both break the kiss, in search of air, she hides in the crook of his neck.
Kai doesn’t push for a conversation; Cinder’s a talker. She ends up sharing her worries later rather than sooner; he needs to wait it out. So he finds himself drawing oil from the bottles he’s carried into bed.
“I’m gonna move you a lil, ok?” Kai tells her, and, getting no rebuttal, he shifts position, so she’s sitting before him, her knees pulled to her chest, her chin resting on its crown. Kai notices how small she looks, in rumpled sheets and brown hair that’s tangled in knots that will take hours to straighten. Her pink polo shirt from the morning is no longer tucked into white dress pants, which are surprisingly not stained with grease.
“Kai, you’re staring.”
“Oh, sorry,” he mutters, a little embarrassed, 4 years into marriage, and he still somehow gets enraptured with her in the smallest of moments. Thorne gifted him a tee that read “Cinder’s Lovesick Boy” as a joke, but he ended up cherishing it more than the actual gift Cress and Thorne had bought for his birthday.
He feels her nudge him out of his train of thought, and this time, he is sheepish, sitting on folded knees, he finds himself overlooking Cinder. Her brown hair resembled a nest from this angle, and he huffs at the challenge, oiling his hair to ensure minimal damage. Partitioning the hair into two parts, his nimble fingers untangle knots, one at a time.
There are no words exchanged between the two, just his focus on getting her hair tidied up, while she seems to enjoy the caress. From the way her head is loosely hanging on the edge, Kai’s convinced Cinder’s napping; he wouldn’t have minded if they both hadn’t missed out on dinner. However, he lets her rest, at least until her hair’s sorted out.
“You know, I wonder if you were a hair spa worker in some lifetime,” Cinder murmured, oozing a chuckle from him.
“You’re the only customer in this lifetime,” he replies cheekily, a quick kiss on the edge of a forehead.
“Very poor business execution.”
“I don’t need the money-”
“Way to go, Emperor! So humble of you,” she mocks, twisting to face him.
“We earn the same amount, my darling Empress,” he teases, fingers drawing against the curve of her jaw, while he gazes into her eyes, and he’d almost captured her lips-
“Ouch, what was that for?” He calls, nursing the not-so-light punch Cinder landed on him.
“You played with me-”
“When did I do that?”
“-Oh, you did, Kai. ‘I’m going to have dinner, you’d probably feel better in some time.’ Who was that?” Cinder parrots, launching herself on him, and he dramatically falls, puffing as if she weighed a ton.
“That did get you talking, didn’t it?” He replies, cheekily, and seeing how she’s wriggling her hair in all directions, goes, “-stop messing your hair anymore, I just worked hard to untangle it.”
Cinder wakes up as he pushes himself on his knees, only for her to come back with, “Are you gonna give me a shit for how messed up my hair is?”
“They’re your hair, and it’s not messed up anymore. I untangled them. If you sit still, I can braid them for you,” Kai offers. She’s sitting within a minute, making him smile, as he partitions the hair in 3 parts, swiftly making crosses.
“Have they made Spicy Prawns today?” She enquires, and Kai holds the laugh inside him, and in his most serious voice says, “I assume, yes.”
Cinder nods, expecting him to say something, but as a troubled partner, he lets her sit in the silence, as he completes the braid, fastening it with a band. One look at the work, before he hums in approval.
“C’mon, dinner is already delayed enough,” he exclaims, pushing himself off the bed. Now that Cinder is more composed, he freshens up, as he had intended to.
Walking back into the suite, he finds her in the same position, “Aren’t you coming?”
“I’m tired,” she sighs.
“It’s dinner—”
“— I know, but it’s been a stressful day,” she admits.
“I can ask for dinner to be served in our room,” he suggests, but she’s quick to refute it, “- I don’t like the smell of prawns in our room.”
“Cindy, you can’t just skip dinner,” Kai tried again, moving beside her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, head lulled in the crook of his neck, as his hands wrap her, “Should I give you a ride to dinner?”
“Will you?”
The quiet tone of her voice is enough indication of why she’s tried. He doesn’t verbally affirm her; instead, his arm is already under her knees, another on the back, as he walks out of the room.
She’s silent the entire way, face angled towards his torso, so she won’t have to make eye contact with anyone. Kai can feel the way her body is a tiny bit flushed, notices that someone is walking their way, and smirks.
“Your Majesty,” the assistant says, “I have shared the files with you,” his eyes staring intensely at Kai, as if not wanting to look anywhere else.
“Very well. Aren’t you going home?” He asks, and knows Cinder’s eyes close in realisation, without having to see it.
“Yes, sir, I was about to leave. I have a game night planned,” he informs, sheepishly.
“Have fun, Alan. Pray you win all the games tonight,” Kai wishes, and shifts Cinder a bit, enough to give her the attention she’s trying so hard not to have on her, “I won’t keep my wife waiting, we’re on our way to dinner.”
“Good night, Your Majesty,” Alan greets, and there’s a pause, not remarkable but obvious, before Cinder replies, “Good night, Alan. Wish you luck!”
Without even looking up from her cosy position, or opening her eyes for that matter. Kai knows she’s truly mortified right now.
“You did that on purpose,” she accuses, once they enter the elevator, eyes wanting to meet his. As a good husband, Kai stares at the door, no care in the world of her sharp glare.
Ding
“You should put me down,” she demands, as they reach their floor, knowing there will be more people on it.
“You were tired.”
“I can walk”
“I know,” Kai mentions, as he crosses the distance, smiling politely at all the servers, who have no regard for this affectionate exchange, for it’s the most normal of Tuesdays for them.
“Kai, this is -”
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed over. All of them know I love you,” he challenges. That does shut her up, which is enough for now. He forgoes the table for the small couch they had brought in for casual dinners, where there weren’t people to host, but just Cinder and him, too tired after a busy day to sit on stiff chairs. Proping himself such that she sits close, feet tucked to the side, so that they’re leaning sideways.
“You know, they don’t even stare at us anymore,” he points out, once the food is served. Cinder, having chosen to ignore him, digs into her plate.
“That’s good, I hated how they stalked us every time I came to visit you as the Queen,” she says at last.
“They didn’t stalk us, it was all you, madam—”
“Why would they stalk me?”
“Your ignorance amazes me,” Kai chuckles, “You were the revolutionary, remember, everyone wanted to see the girl that killed Levana.”
“They saw me in rallies and speeches-”
“True, but it’s different to see someone in a professional capacity, and find the said person doing something domestic. They didn’t want to see the Queen; they wanted to see you.”
“That’s very profound. Do you ever stop being the philosopher?” She retorts, cutlery pointing in his direction, as she pauses her slicing.
“Do you want me to?” He questions, wiggling his eyebrow, in some boyish charm, his 15-year-old self had learned, and forgotten to let go.
“No,” she replies, “I love my thot husband.”
And now it’s Kai’s turn to be flushed, colour travelling to his eartips, and in the way he sees the maids giggle among each other, he knows they still stalk them. The rest of the dinner is all about the day’s mishap, sharing little jokes that happened throughout the week, and everything about policy making and wanting to crash in bed, and retorts their sass self can’t help but make.
“Madam,” Hina, their new baker, says, “Cheesecake, like you’d wanted.”
“Cake for what?” Cinder asks him once she knows Hina is appreciated for her work.
“Does there have to be any reason to eat cake?” Kai replies, shrugging his shoulders.
“Not really, but I just thought—”
“Well, if you do want one, we’re celebrating how fabulous my wife is.” He’s smiling abashedly at her now, and the way she’s flushed enough not to meet his eyes is enough for Kai to take matters into his own hands.
“Open your mouth, we gotta finish this, and go back,” he orders, spoon ready at her lips for her, but she’s had enough of his toying, as she counters, “Why, eager to get me in your bed are you, Emperor?”
“Indeed,” he admits, a smirk tugging his features, as Cinder eats from the spoon.
“— I know they’re staring now.”
“Let them, we gotta focus on the cake,” as he takes a bite himself, “— damn, this is crazy, we need to have them make it every day.”
Cinder laughs, sprawling on the couch, as she lies against Kai now, her earlier embarrassment of being watched entirely gone.
“Thank you,” she whispers, before he feeds her. To an outsider, it would look like she’s thanking him for the cake, but Kai’s known her for 8 years. It’s about making her feel seen, especially among the staff who always end up talking more than they ought to.
“Next time, just say it,” he says, and she nods, raising herself to capture his lips, and they taste of blueberries, chapped lips, and whatever sickening taste love has.
“Kai,” she murmurs against his lips, and he hums her to continue, foreheads touching, “- carry me back to the room too.”
Smiling against her lips, he whispers, “I will,” before closing the gap, as he kisses her to heart’s contentment.
---
fin