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Me, my husband, and my brother are reading The Lunar Chronicles together and discussing what we think fiction television and literature are like "Do they still have sitcoms? Did we lose the laugh track? Did Grey's Anatomy have a Letumosis season?"

spherical-empirical

Kaider headcanons part 2

Part 1 is here.

When she does come to earth, he makes sure she’s not overwhelmed with people - very limited staff and no journalists or cameras if he can help it. And asks the chefs cook everything he knows she likes. From the time she became queen of luna, he already has a suite picked out for her in the palace. For whenever, if ever, she comes to stay.

If Kai impresses her with something or goes viral on the net she always tells him not to forget her when he’s famous.

In Gilmore girls there’s a line where one character tells a girl who’s meeting her long-distance boyfriend in real life to “hold the phone up to her ear so her boyfriend will recognise her” and I definitely think a variant of this joke would have been said to Cinder when she goes to Earth.

Her glare still makes him feel like “a grain of salt,” so if he has to tell her something daunting or how he broke something (again), he’ll put a hand across her eyes and say it. But it only ends up making her laugh.

They’ll regularly eat off each other’s plates or take drinks from each other’s hands to share.

He wakes her up for a birthday with a cupcake with an unlit candle. Just a private moment between them two and to show how much he knows her, and it makes her feel better about things that are still hard to talk about.

He absolutely does not forget about the half-promise of dancing lessons that’s given at the end of Winter, and prior to the next annual peace ball, he sets time set aside to teach her as much as he can. I could go on forever about how amazing this is like it needs a 50,000 word fic but I’ll restrain myself.

Agree with the headcanon that she helps him during his most anxious moments. Puts a hand on his knee when she sees it bouncing or slips a hand into his under the table, both of their expressions unchanging but he gives her hand a squeeze as a discreet thank you. When at the beginning, she’s up on her own, giving a speech or leading a meeting and she’s still not used to it all, she finds him in the crowd - he’s already looking at her - and he calms her down.

There’s an old crack-canon from ye olden days on tumblr where someone says he accidentally calls her babe on national television and is beating himself up over it. This actually happens.

They often play chess together. It’s something he used to play with his dad and a game that cinder loves - OG strategist. They take turns beating each other and it forms a little healthy rivalry.

Much like Barack Obama and Michelle Obama being caught on the kiss cam at the pre-olympic basketball game, so too do Kai and Selene end up on the kiss cam on live television. Watch Ashton Kutcher’s and Mila Kunis’ kiss cam and that’s what I picture for them, with Cinder laughing probably more from being flustered and a bit embarrassed while Kai loves it.

As emperor and empress they visit lots of schools together as part of diplomatic missions and fundraising events, even participating in a lot of the activities. I think they jokingly race each other in one video and you can see Kai point behind her to make her look at something and he gets a split second head start and darts off while she has to catch up after him. It’s these sorts of moments that humanise them as a couple in people’s eyes.

They have play fights and she tries to use the tactics Wolf taught her. At the end of the day biology wins out and he still is stronger than her. She sulks after that.

They’re both pretty private but after many requests and when they’re an established couple, he recounts how they met in an interview, how they fell in love (maybe Thorne’s podcast??). He says he couldn’t stop thinking about her, he asked her to the peace ball and well…he smiles fondly, “we all know what happened after that.” Interviewer says no, what happened. “Oh! She rejected me.”

As practically the most famous person in the world, my darling Cinder ends up getting a lot of attention, both wanted and unwanted. She ends up having more admirers than she’s prepared for, even the sons of political party members or celebrities. There’s especially one guy, we can call him Adam, a son of one of the union members who’s not much older than her, and it’s obvious he has a huge crush on her. Cinder and Kai are both secure enough in their relationship that it’s never an issue but Kai does use it as healthy fodder for teasing. They’ll be planning the wedding and she’ll ask him if they should have shrimp and he says, I don’t know does Adam like shrimp? Or, do you think Adam would like egg-shell for the bathroom walls? Many similar jokes and definitely enough that she threatens to hit him.

He brushes the grease spot off her forehead. Every chance he gets. Even if there's nothing there, he has an unconscious habit of gently brushing the hair off her brow in that spot and she knows he's going to kiss her. It makes her wait in anticipation which makes him laugh and yeah. YEAHHHH

gaiabythesea

the phone thing is real. When I see my boyfriend after a long time I’m always struck by the sheer 3Dness of him. I imagine these two fools also go through that when they meet. Them teaching things to one another has to be the best.

I like to think that they develop a habit of fixing each other up all of the time. Messy hair, crooked tie, fallen dress strap, undone collar, bits of lint. All the little details. They are always touching each other in small ways in public.

Very KDrama coded but Kai will absolutely go out of his way to like. Serve her food or open her drink for her or mix noodles for her or place choice cuts of meat in her bowl. Cinder loves it. Everyone else in the rampion crew is baffled. In general he lays on the chivalry thick as molasses with her and to everyone’s surprise (no one’s surprise) she loves it so much.

Speaking of chess, these two would totally spend their entire honeymoon playing long matches of games like chess and go and mahjong in between other intimate agenda items. The matches are long because 1) them knowing how the other thinks makes for intense strategising and 2) them talking and talking and talking between plays. They spend hours in the balcony of the little cottage they are staying in just playing in between conversations.

spherical-empirical

Your brainnn! Yes, I agree with everything, especially how attentive they are to each other. Kai being a k-drama bf. There's nothing better than the dynamic between a character who has always been overlooked and their love interest who was built in a lab to spoil them. Yes to the honeymoon board games. It's sometimes cute and sweet but sometimes they are out for each other's blood, which to me IS cute

spherical-empirical

Dear friend, you always spit bars whenever you post your kaider thoughts. Do you have any that you've been cooking up recently, if you'd be willing to share? 🤔

AHHH ty ty, okay I definitely lean more analytic aka character analysis than creative (headcanons). There’s a reason I've never posted headcanons and it is because I’m very bad at them so please make room for that in your heart.

Okay oops there will be Part 1 and Part 2, I got too into it.

This one sort of ties into a longer, Cinder-focused headcanon but I always picture her finally getting a mechanical engineering degree after stepping down as queen. When Cinder was first adopted by the Linh family she begged to go to school. She has a real propensity for learning and is naturally very intelligent but was denied by Adri. Even Garan would find ways to gently let her down as he’s quite skittish when he first adopts her, and would think possibly the less people who saw her the better. A lot of her concepts were self taught and she secretly always wanted to get an engineering degree, even dabbling in some projects for her own enjoyment. I see her leaning heavily into advanced concepts like theoretical physics and mathematical sciences. She does some work with larger companies as a mechanic because she’s quite sought after and her work sometimes overlaps with that of an engineer. Everyone can tell she enjoys it. Senior engineers even encourage her or place her forward for young engineer scholarships and honorary achievements but Adri always forbids it - both because time spent studying would mean a dent in business hours and revenue but also because she is steadfast in denying Cinder things that she wants. After Cinder steps down as queen, she gets accepted into the same engineering course that she had looked at a hundred times. Kai is so unbelievably proud of her. He knew from the start how intelligent she is and how much of a private dream it was for her, encouraging her to do it multiple times.

With her quick interface and natural intelligence, she gradually picks up more languages than him. Each time she switches to a different language (speeches, conversations with other political figures), he’s captivated. I definitely that in a lot of her self-teaching in her long hours as a mechanic, she tries to attain a fundamental understanding of the most common languages which comes in CLUTCH as a diplomat.

The imperial palace has a MASSIVE indoor pool and one of the forms of exercise the young prince does is swimming since a life in politics does not an athlete make. Kai turns out to be a very talented swimmer, and it’s one of the only forms of exercises he actively does regularly. He’s fully aware of Cinder’s fear and…incompetence in the water (not her fault, she’s literally built to drown). He commissions a prosthetic leg with her measurements, built out of something lighter like carbon fibre that will weigh her down less. She still fights him each time he begs her to go in with him but he finally wears her down. Eventually they’re both in the water and he’s beside her, calmly guiding her through every swim, with a hand under her, enough pressure so she knows he’s there but letting her get the hang of it cause he knows she can. Eventually he calms her down enough that she’ll put her head under. Side note: the first time they all go to beach or the river near Scarlet’s house, Thorne does bring little kiddie arm floaties for Cinder. When they’re all swimming together, Kai always has a hand near her.

I do love the whole dynamic of Kai teaching her things because she is such an impressive person that these moments are few and far between. Kai would love it too. The beginning of her reign is hard for them as a couple as they have to cope with the distance but he’s her one-stop call for all stupid questions and insider tips. When they’re together in person, he makes her practice her speeches in front of him. I think of Cinder as a confident but slightly introverted person, and more quiet around people she doesn’t know. Public speaking (when not absolutely essential and facilitated by the adrenaline of a revolution) is a struggle for her. Kai makes her look him in the eye while practising, eventually moving closer and closer till she can’t keep looking away. He has anxiety but truly no social anxiety, and is a natural public speaker. There’s a lot of Kai making her laugh, words of encouragement, Kai doing serious improv as outrageous reporters or party leaders until they both can’t keep on track.

More than once, Kai is pictured with a hair tie on his wrist. Stylist team are aggrieved each time.

Kai asks Cinder to the next annual Peace Ball at the end of Winter and we see that he’s relieved and happy when she finally says yes. I think he also asks her not to betray and publicly humiliate him this time and she says sorry etc etc but she is in politics.

He calls her Cin. Without a doubt. Not even a question in my head. And he calls her Linh when he’s teasing her. I try to think of nicknames she has for him and I think later in their relationship she does call him things like love or honey. But at the start, he so rarely is referred to by his name by the people around him since his parents passed, and he just wants to hear her say Kai.

In my head, during the events of Cinder and before the ball, they spend more time with each other at the market. It’s a bit of a tricky situation because she knows its not right and will only lead to their imminent self-imposed separation being harder for her. She feels she’s not appropriate for him but he can’t help wanting to see her, especially after his father passes and staying in the palace feels more alone and suffocating than ever. Anyway, she teaches him to drive (she self-taught very young due to her business) and he criticises how fast she goes while she maintains she’s just a confident driver. It’s a joke between them that he’ll never get in the hover with her again. At the shop, he hangs around even though she tells him to go home. There are long stretches of talking, and long stretches of her working on her various jobs for clients and him reading his own documents. And they’re comfortable like that. In my head there’s a sort of shabby back-room/office since this is the place Cinder spends all her time. (All mechanic shops have a garage for people to drive in cars so I really think the place is bigger than we think.) He loves it there. She jokingly gets him to help out under the guide of it being “good for him.” He doesn’t mind at all. Being there, it’s the most he’s felt like himself in months. It’s sort of this time that he thinks about more and more when he thinks he won’t see her again after the events of Cinder. She still won’t ever let him buy her lunch even though he sees she’s there most of the day without eating enough. She walks into her shop one day, he’s not around but there is food and a cup of coffee on one of the small work tables.

There’s a street dog that periodically roams the market that gets very attached to Cinder. Was a puppy when she first started there so it’s been years that she’s seen him. Sometimes he comes into the shop to sleep on the ground and she lets him, giving him whatever food she has. He’s an absolute sweetheart and its usually him, Cinder and Kai somehow all in the shop at the same time sometimes. It breaks her heart to leave him when she’s planning for her escape from New Beijing, but she knows some of the other shopkeepers will look out for him as they usually do. He’s tried to follow her home a couple times which makes Adri furious. She doesn’t see him for a long time but sometime in her reign as queen and on a diplomatic mission to the commonwealth, maybe even one that brings her closer to the market as people want to see her revisit it, Kai has put out the word for someone to find the dog, and when he sees Cinder again he goes crazy with joy. Cinder is also a bit overwhelmed. And it definitely becomes a viral clip with the dog jumping all over her and Kai grinning. And yes, Kai adopts him into the palace for her.

impossiblesuitcase

LOVE LOVE LOVE. Of course, Cinder does a mechanical engineering degree at some point. I mean, c'mon, that's basically canon. She's not gonna throw all her mechanical skills away!

Also for YEARS I have dreamed of Kai helping Cinder learn properly how to swim (and get over the trauma of drowning) except in my brain it was in an outdoor pool. But let's be real: New Beijing Palace probably has multiple pools, both indoors and outdoors. And yes to him teaching her things and guiding her! Too often we depict Kai as the less useful/competent one in the relationship which is a war crime! He is very intelligent and surely a great teacher. And of course he calls her Cin. Anyone who disagrees, I'm sorry, we're kicking you out of the fandom.

The hc about them hanging out at her booth is so sweet. It reminds me of this AU I had where they meet much earlier and have moments like that--just getting to know each other. Sigh, such a shame the timeline of the first book is only two weeks. If only.

spherical-empirical

Hahaha TYY for the ask! These are so basic but I had to establish what was canon in my head first.

Yes to Kai's inaccurate misrepresentation! Cinder leans on him A LOT during the books when she does have him and he's almost always very confident and self-assured while Cinder is the one feeling awkward haha. I picture him being a very secure and calming teacher.

It's still kind of insane to me that it's only about two weeks before the events of the ball go down. No hello or how are you ahh. I yearn for more time for them to get closer and get to know each other more especially because they're both so lonely with his father and then Peony passing. They're essentially going through the same hardship. But it would be a bittt unethical for them to grow much closer than they did while Cinder is hiding the fact that she's lunar and cyborg. The reveal would have been worse. In my delusions, I ignore this factor and that always works for me

cyborgcourt

After reading this post, I’ve come to the conclusion that Cinder would look absolutely gorgeous in photos taken of her and Kai sitting court side at some game. I feel like many pictures taken of celebrities in this spot show them in a more casual and laidback look, and I think it would really highlight her natural beauty. Plus we all know she rocks a good ponytail, and paired with some natural light makeup and a cute casual outfit, you cannot tell me she wouldn’t look so beautiful.

Kai is caught smiling at Cinder in every. single. picture. Just turned to her and grinning from ear-to-ear with his pearly whites. These pictures begin circulating on Pinterest and she becomes a trending inspo pic for that natural ethereal going-out look.

Cinder is just naturally a trendsetter

spherical-empirical

It's giving Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prince Jr at a basketball where he's looking at her like she hung the stars in the sky. Possibly a bit too much PDA for the royals but I think Kaider would internalise this energy (esp the one where he's kissing her hand??). People are like how was the game and he's like there was a game?

And yes to Cinder's natural beauty being enhanced when she looks most like herself - If no one got her, that ponytail got her. She's only 16 during the series and I think she gets prettier as she hits 18 and then her early 20's.

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