Laughter filled the great hall as Prince Benjamin 'accidentally' got Prince Walter's suit full of the cake that had been made to celebrate Lilliana's birthday in advance. "He'll make a great king someday," Scarlet Benoit commented, pointing at him with her fork diagonally from across the table.

Carswell Thorne, who was sitting to the right of Benjamin, leaned towards him. "You know, kid, if you don't want to rule anything, just give me a call. I mean, there is a reason to why Thorne has the same letters as throne." He winked.

Benjamin looked down sheepishly with a mischievous grin as he said, "You're not the only Thorne in the room, Carswell." Everything stopped, silence filling the large room, except for the sound of Lilliana Thorne choking on her grape juice. They all got what he was implying. Cinder face-palmed, despite the lack of etiquette, and mumbled how Benjamin had been spending far too much time with Thorne. Iko, on the other hand, 'awwed'.

"Anyway," the emperor said, clapping his hands together, breaking the awkward silence. "It seems we all enjoyed the ball... I suspect you will all be staying a few days?" he asked the families.

"Maybe," Jacin replied. He didn't say anything else. He turned to Walter, who was sitting next to him, directly in front of Benjamin and next to Michelle. "Would you wish to stay?" he added, looking from Walter to Winter.

"Most certainly, father. We haven't been to New Beijing in a while, after all."

He looked back at Kai. "I suppose I could arrange for us to stay a bit more. I don't believe there are any appointments I must attend to or important meetings for Winter."

Winter smiled. "I really do enjoy my stays here," she said to the king and queen.

"Just one thing, Uncle 'To," Michael started, setting his fork down and cleaning his face with the cloth napkin in his lap. "Can you make age adjustments for the ball? Because, quite frankly, we don't get to go."

"You want to go?" Benjamin asked with disbelief. "That thing's for old pe-- I mean..." He stopped all completely, hiding his face behind his glass.

"Benjamin, be polite," Cinder warned with a smile and glare.

"Yes, ma'am!" he replied, saluting.

"Hey. If anything, you should be saluting to me, your captain," Thorne objected, looking from Cinder to Benjamin.

"Now, Carswell, you can't just give the prince orders," Jacin Clay scolded.

"Says the doctor?" Carswell scoffed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Who's the doctor that discovered the cure to Letumosis? Right." He paused then looked at Cress. "With the help of your wife, of course, but still."

"You just don't like me," Thorne said with a pout. "Although I don't understand why. Everyone likes the Captain!" Jacin rolled his eyes and went down to his plate. "Right, guys? We all like me?"

"I do!" Genevieve exclaimed from down the table, at the same time Iko said the same.

"And I appreciate that, Vieve, Iko." He glared playfully at Cress and kissed her on the side of the head.

Wolf cleared his throat. "Speaking of appreciating..." He turned to Michelle. "I don't appreciate the fact that I found you trying to make the lights go out during the ball."

She shrugged innocently, and rolled her eyes. "Can we not discuss this now?"

"You really shouldn't be doing things like that, Michelle," Cress offered in her soft voice. Michelle only shrugged.

And so the rest of the evening went by, ending in the king and queen escorting everyone to their chambers. The Clay family was last, right across the hall from the Thornes, despite Jacin's protests.

"Thank you for coming, again," Cinder said with a smile.

Winter smiled back, pulling her in for a hug. "We wouldn't have missed it for a thing. Right, Jacin?" She pulled away to look at Jacin, who was shrugging in nonchalance, but smiling nonetheless.

Kai bowed in goodnight, and Cinder did the same, before the door closed. They turned to walk out the hall and into their own sleeping quarters. And right as they were about to turn the corner, they heard a yell from the Thornes' room.

"Cress! Have you seen my other sock? I just took them off a minute ago and now I only have one of them!" Thorne yelled.

"Is it still on your foot like last time?" Cress replied, Lilliana laughing in the background.

A pause, then, "Never mind... Thank you."

Cinder looked to Kai with a sheepish smile, as if to say sorry I escaped prison with him. But she wasn't sorry, because Thorne was the brother she'd never had. And all of the people present, minus Peony and Garan, had been the family she had never had altogether.

Kai pressed a kiss to her cheek and they continued down the halls. He put an arm around her waist. "I really am surprised you haven't complained about the length of the dress all night."

Cinder laughed. "I figured I'd wait till now to complain. Otherwise Iko would start to scold me on how 'queens don't complain'."

"Although, really, queens do complain actually."

"Yeah," Cinder scoffed, "You try telling her that."

"I will. As a matter of fact--"

"Cinder!" a metallic voice yelled, running down the halls, blue hair flying everywhere. "You-- You have a comm from Pearl."

Cinder groaned. "I'll be there in a second," she mumbled. Then mischievously added, "Kai has something to tell you." And then she left to talk to her stepsister.

Iko's lifeless eyes went to Kai. "What is it? Did you finally realize you love me more than Cinder?"

"No..."

Iko shrugged happily. "Yeah, I didn't think you would have. Well? What is it?"

He began, regretting this already. "Well... You see..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Whaaaale... That's done with. I'll admit, that this was really, really, really (Holy spades, aces, and stars... did I really just use the same word three times in a row?! Tsk tsk, Odette) fun to write! I'm going to miss this fanfiction. *Wipes tear from eye* They grow up so fast! *Runs backstage crying*

So anyway, I'm about to do one of the many things I never do: I'm going to advertise myself ;)

A WINKY FACE?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME TODAY?!

Whereas I am done with THIS story, I have two other Lunar Chronicles fanfics that I am currently working on. So if you haven't done so already, I'd really appreciate it if you checked them out.

I really do hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing this (hopefully evn more).

Until next time, my fellow Lunartics...

~ Lunar_Squid (Odette)

P.S.: Really hope this fulfilled the request, LectoraFever (: