There was blood pooling on the floor. Rey glanced over to Ben and saw the source – a wound on his side. He barely seemed to notice it, but she knew she had to stop the bleeding soon. Ripping off the bottom edges of her tunic she approached him. He backed away, one arm up, keeping her at a distance.
"what are you doing?" his voice was barely there. The gravelly whisper tickling her ears in a delightful way. She pressed forward, until they were at the edge of the room.
"Hold still, I need to look at this."
She made the mistake of looking up into his eyes, and she was lost, sucked into their depths. There was confusion there, and something else. Something that made the butterflies in her tummy start playing and her toes curl. Something she wanted to respond to, but wasn't sure how. She felt the blood rushing to her face and quickly dropped her eyes to his wound. He had nowhere further to go. She reached out to put a steadying hand on his uninjured side as she wrapped the strips of her tunic around him. She felt his muscles tense beneath her, and watched his chest rise and fall rapidly. She dared not meet his gaze again lest she fall under whatever spell had frozen her, so she focused on wrapping the wound, on stopping the bleeding. She came to the end of her strips and tucked the end in so it would stay. She stood there for a moment, studying her handiwork, afraid to look up again.
A hand on her shoulder, however lifted her gaze once more. She looked into his fathomless eyes and was surprised to see her soul mirrored inside. The confusion she had seen before was still there also, and it broke her heart. Had it been so long since he had felt the comforting touch of another? Before she knew what she was doing, her hand had raised to cup his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into the touch, sighing. When he opened his eyes again the confusion was gone, replaced completely by that butterfly-inducing, toe-curling thing that she had seen. He stepped forward, and she back, dropping her hand.
"I- I- I should go," she didn't wait for a response before darting out of the room. Ben didn't follow her and she didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed. She got to the elevator when the force link opened momentarily.
"Thank you."
And she was alone again. She reached out a hand to steady herself on the nearest wall. Whatever this was, she didn't have time for it. They had a regime to overthrow.
Still, she took a moment to open the link once more.
"You're welcome."
