Title: Water
Category: Movies ยป Star Wars
Author: Ziggurat Rolsovitch
Language: English
Rating: T

He had saved her she thought as she coughed up the burning, salty sea water from her lungs onto the sandy beach beneath her hands. For some reason that she could not possibly comprehend Kylo Ren had saved her. The moment that those knights had forced her over the edge of the cliff he abandoned his duel with Luke and dove in after her. He knew she couldn't swim. Of course he did. He had slipped into her mind and stolen that information from her during her interrogation as he had other private thoughts of hers.

She lifted her gaze to him where -instead of killing her- he was stripping off the top of his now soaking wet uniform along with his boots and what was beneath it was not what she expected. Not what she imagined. There was no cold and heartless machine under there. No. None of that. Instead it was flesh. So surprisingly human. Her eyes traveled across his shoulders and then down between his shoulder blades, paying attention to the way his muscles moved with each inhale and exhale of breath.

It came to her then how curious she was about him. She had never seen a human male shirtless on Jakku and for some reason she couldn't stop looking at him. It was a very girlish sort of curiosity that nearly demanded to be stated.

His face. It was unusual, but that was what made him interesting. It wasn't the conventional type of face that people found attractive, but somehow that was exactly what made it attractive. His face was long. Perhaps a bit uneven. His aquiline nose reminded her of the bust of an ancient mandleorian emperor that a man had traded for rations back on Jakku.

As he leaned down to pick up his waterlogged surcoat his hair fell into his eyes. His commanding eyes flashed like lightning. Deep set, dark eyes, in which there seemed to be a kind of divine power. Strong and, yet... somehow vulnerable at the same time. Intense. Something kind. It was unmistakable. There was something kind there.

Abruptly he turned towards her and she tensed up. As if she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing. She wasn't. She most certainly wasn't supposed to be looking at him like that.

As he took a step towards her she was once more aware of the size difference between the two of them. He was huge. A six foot three mass of muscle. His shoulders broad and his hands large. He was intimidating and elegant in his movement. He reminded her of the sand panther that lurked in the jagged and rocky region of Jakku. She had been curious about the beauty of that creature too, albeit in a different sort of way, but it had been dangerous and more than willing to eat her alive. Just like he might if she wasn't careful.

She was convinced he was just as strong as the dangerous and beautiful beast on Jakku, but despite all that there was also something... a little awkward about him under the surface. As if perhaps he felt uncomfortable in his own skin. He seemed as if he was torn between languidity or bursting at the seams with energy. He was unpredictable like an animal and could lash out at any moment.

Yes. That was exactly what he was. A panther. Beautiful and yet deadly. Fine to admire from a distance, but not safe enough to get near.

But he hadn't. Yet.

Instead he was just standing there and staring at her. Saying something. Had he been talking this entire time? From the look on his face she must guess that yes, he had been trying to talk to her this entire time and she had just been staring at him. Were he anyone else she might have been embarrassed.

"Did you hear me?"

"What?" And then her mind called to the front the mangled image of a scavenger that had tried his hand at salvaging the downed ship near the sand panther's cave. Remembering the damage something as untamed as Kylo Ren could do was enough for her to snap out of the revere. "Stay away from me..."

She realized that she was defenseless. She had neither her staff nor the lightsaber. It didn't mean she wouldn't go down fighting. At best if she had to die she would take him down with her. She thought her best option was to stand and fight, but the moment that she stood she was overcome by a wave of vertigo and dropped to her hands and knees. That was right. She had hit her head on the way down.

Then he was there, kneeling in front of her and offering her a canteen, but she immediately slapped it out of his hands and watched as the precious water spilled out onto the sand. The survivor in wanted to cry out at the waste. Still she resisted the urge.

"I wouldn't take water from you if I were dying of thirst in the desert." She snarled and expected that perhaps he might lose his temper... go into a rage and hit her.

He did none of these things and instead remained silent as he stood and went to retrieve the canteen. As if he had a point to prove he dusted off the sand from the opening and took a drink.

"You may as well be in the desert." He gestured out to the ocean. "You're from Jakku... so I wouldn't expect you to know it, but you can't drink sea water. The salt will kill you."

"I..." She cast a glance out over the ocean and knew that he wasn't lying. Except... she wished that he would lie to her. That he would give her an excuse to call him out and hate him even more.

"Here..." He held out his hand. It was an offer to help her up, but again she slapped his hand away from her and forced herself up to stand on her own. She wouldn't... couldn't accept his help.

She didn't understand why he was still trying. She thought that by now she ought to have made it very clear that she didn't want anything from him. That she didn't need anything from him.

It seemed that he finally took the hint because he turned and walked away from her to kneel by some driftwood. He ignited his saber and at first she was worried that perhaps he was about to lose that temper of his, but again he didn't. He only used the sparks from his unstable blade to get a fire going.

He tossed his wet clothing up onto a log to make an attempt to dry it. Good. The sooner he was out of here the better. She wanted him to just go already.

Though it seemed he wasn't going anywhere. He stayed where he was and they stayed in a silent stand-off with one another, but after some time she gave into the cold and found she had no other choice but to join him near the fire. Reluctantly. So very reluctantly. She knew that she could potentially die if she didn't get warm and this was why she risked going near him.

He gave a glance at her out of the corner of his eye, but he knew better than to speak to her or even look at her directly. Perhaps he was smarter than she had initially given him credit for if he knew exactly how to avoid her wrath. It was an uneasy, temporary alliance. They were separated from their people and they had to survive until backup arrived. She hoped hers before his.

She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but when he reached for his cape she realized it must have been quite awhile for it to have dried. She expected him to pull it on for some warmth. He didn't. Instead he turned towards her and pulled the cape on over her shoulders and she reacted instinctively and violently by shoving her hands against his chest to keep him at a distance.

"Don't touch me!"

"You were shivering..." He justified his actions as a kindness and it made her angry. Brought about conflicting feelings as if she wasn't already conflicted as it was. "Why are you... why are you being like this?"

His expression reminded her of a kicked porg. Like he was hurt by her reaction to him. The anger brought on by all of this... everything that she had been through... the loss of her mentor... him... Luke's reluctance to teach her all bubbled out of her.

"Because you're so... human... you're flesh and you're bone... and I hate it." her fingers flexed against his bare chest and she absolutely hated just how human he was. She hated the heartbeat she felt. When she first met him she expected some machine. A monster. Hardly human, but he wasn't metal and wires and oil. He was flesh and bone and blood.

If he was a machine it would be easier to hate him. If she didn't feel his pain and inner turmoil it would be so much easier to hate him. To continue to call him a monster, but she couldn't do that anymore. He was so similar to her. It was startling.

She knew everything about him just as he knew everything about her. She was afraid to leave because of her parents just as he was afraid to leave due to Snoke's cruelty. She was lonely on that planet just as he was lonely and isolated in his room which he stayed when not needed.

To Snoke he was a tool. To be kept locked away when he was unneeded. He was a tool to be used. To Snoke he was less than human. To Snoke he was a machine. Because of that... she couldn't look at him that way anymore. That just wasn't fair.

He turned away from her without a word and grabbed up the rest of his clothing that had dried and started to redress. She wondered what she would find in his mind if she searched it. Would she find the pain of rejection? Undoubtedly.

She flexed her hand that had touched him. It almost... burned... like she still felt his skin beneath her fingertips. A painful reminder of what he was.

No matter how hard she tried... she couldn't hate him. Though he had turned away from her to redress... though he had put space between them she stood up and closed some of that distance.

"What did you do to me?" She demanded answers and he turned to her abruptly. The anger was written all over his scarred face.

"I could ask you the same question." It seemed he could only stand so much, but then perhaps his anger and him suddenly lashing out was because she had hurt him. He had been very patient with her all things considered. "Do you think I don't feel it? I feel it. I feel all of it. Everything."

"I don't... know what this is."

"Yes, you do. I know you've felt it. I know how you would lie awake at night... how you felt that you were missing something. I've felt it too. You are what was missing." He took a risk and reached out for her hand. She hesitated of course, but she took that step forward and took his hand and he brought it up and placed it over his heart where his surcoat remained open in the front. "We were made for each other. Search your feelings. You know it to be true."

She wanted to deny it. Her lips parted as if she were about to deny that very thing, but then she immediately closed them and knew that she couldn't deny the truth. There was something between them. It was as if The Force had created them for each other.

His heart under her hand thundered with nervousness. He was afraid that she was going to turn him away. Reject him. Just like everyone else had, but she couldn't. It would be a lie if she did and one could not build a foundation on a lie.

"I know." She reached her other hand up and lightly grazed the scar on his cheek. It was as if she had faced her fear and touched the sand panther on Jakku without the consequences, but before any further revelations could be made there was the unmistakable roar of an engine behind her and she turned to find the Falcon behind her on the beach's edge.

The ramp lowered and Luke stood in the doorway and waited there for her. It wouldn't be long before First Order ships arrived and she took a step back from him because she knew that she had to go to avoid capture. She doubted that he would let her get away twice if his people arrived.

"Rey..." He spoke up and she turned as she stepped up onto the Falcon's ramp. "For what it's worth... you don't deserve someone who comes back for you. You deserve someone who never leaves."

She felt Luke reach for her hand to help her aboard and she watched him through the gap in the closing ramp. He only stood there. Those words his parting farewell. But despite physical distance... he was there in her mind through the bond between them. He was the one that would never leave her. Maybe she shouldn't find that as comforting as she did.

One way or another they would meet again. For better or worse.