Chapter 1

Grey dawn was, at once, both the most peaceful and the most unsettling part of the day for Kylo Ren. It was an uncomfortable blurring between the sharp reliefs that he had followed throughout his life, those reliefs that had always been far more comfortable.

Especially now, with what the grey light illuminated in his chambers onboard the Finalizer.

The svelte silhouette of a young woman lay draped across his mattress, cocooned in blissful sleep. Her brown hair spread in a pool around her head, cradling her angelic face that had an utterly content smile upon it, as she dozed and dreamed.

It had not started out this way, to have the young Jedi woman in his bed and in his arms every night. To reach this pinnacle of adrenaline, to pluck this highest of forbidden fruit, had taken time. Many, very much lonely nights - nights of Kylo writhing and moaning, pining for her and the mysterious Force Bond that had already seeped into his skin and soul like drugs through a syringe. But for many weeks after Crait, after she had fled from him off the Supremacy, she had shut him out. And perhaps she had every reason to. He had made the wrong choice; Kylo could see that clearly now. Power had lost all meaning to him, only adding to his misery, not taking away from it.

The first time the Bond between him and Rey opened again was probably quite by accident. Kylo was alone in his room, trying and failing to meditate on something, anything besides her bewitching face when suddenly -

All sound seemed to be sucked from the vicinity, almost with a squelching noise. The shapes of things blurred, like a paintbrush spreading its brushstrokes too hard across a canvas. Except for one shape. Her shape.

For there she was. She was surprised, and not at all happy to see him, at first; that much was clear from her face, and it made Kylo surmise that perhaps she had not meant to activate the Bond at all. Perhaps he had summoned her subconsciously, even though he had been trying very hard to not dwell on her just moments before.

But now she was here. And her presence paralyzed Kylo with fear. Yet still, still, it did not paralyze his movements, as he rose with purpose from his chair and strode over to her, bore down on her, his face hardened with a deep resolve after having only made a split second decision. He was terrified, yes, and yet it mattered not, for he knew what he had to do. No more wasted time. No more denials. What was it that his Uncle Luke had once taught him, about the meaning of courage? It's when you are petrified to begin, but you begin anyway, because you must do what must be done.

Rey must have recognized the look in his eyes, or read his thoughts like a book fallen open on the ground, for she began to back up, little realizing her surroundings or where she might run into obstacles. This merely played into Kylo's favor. The pair circled each other - well, they had always been circling each other, in some form or another, ever since they had met - but this circling was far more potent. The space between them, rapidly shrinking, was like a bomb that had to be defused, though neither one was willing to make the first move towards that defusion.

Rey finally backed into a wall. Like the expert trapper he was, Kylo stepped into her personal space, pressing both palms into the panels immediately on either side of her. She couldn't run now...

Her eyes flitted down from his, in the direction of his shoes. Or maybe some other destination below his waist... "Please stop," she whispered. Even the sound of the plea was weak; Kylo could hear it in her voice.

"No," he snarled. "You know this has to happen. Neither one of us will get any peace if it doesn't."

The fluorescent lights overhead sparkled on Rey's hazel eyes, clearly accentuating the glistening of tears there. She pursed her mouth in a taut line and shook her head, though the motion seemed to pain her.

"Please don't do this, Ben... I'm not yours to be conquered..."

"Only in your imagination!" Kylo had growled. And then the bomb exploded. Seizing her wrists and pinning them above her head, he swooped down and kissed her wildly on the mouth.

Rey gasped in shock. In retrospect, Kylo had expected her to put up some kind of fight, but she didn't. She just stood still, speechless as Kylo's lips danced across hers.

And then... she moaned. She leaned into him the slightest bit, and returned the kiss, sighing at how they finally, after months of foreplay, physically joined in this way. It was true magic, more magical than anything the Force itself could have wielded.

Rey flicked her wrists, snapping them away from the wall, so that her hands were free to sink, caress through Ben's midnight black locks. Her eyes closed with the heavy finality of a freighter door. Their mouths parted for each other simultaneously, tongues and teeth clawing, biting for dominance.

All the while, the Force sang around them, and Kylo concluded that this must be the balance the mysterious energy field had been seeking all along. For what could possibly be better than to have all the power and all the peace in the palms of your hands all at once? A soothing fire, not a burning one, blazed in his heart and all across his bloodstream and he wanted more, more - he would scorch alive if he did not get it. And Kylo could tell, from how Rey clutched at him and her loud, unmistakably carnal thoughts, that she felt the same way.

For days, maybe galactic years, the Supreme Leader and the Last Jedi had made out like two teenagers, before at last, Rey had wrenched herself free. But not, Kylo observed with smug satisfaction, because she wanted to.

"I have to... go to sleep..." And she slurred her words, as if she had consumed too much Coreillian whiskey. Just like that, she disappeared.

In the days afterward, an occasional thought from Rey would slip into Kylo's brain, as if crackling in from a radio frequency just out of range. And most of these blips of consciousness from her were about him. Regret. Anger at herself for giving in. Vowing never to do so again.

Of course, the head and the heart rarely, if ever, operate on the same plane.

The second time Kylo and Rey appeared to each other, he had been stalking down a corridor, brooding as he was wont to do. Upon seeing her, Kylo seized her with speed that could only be attributed to his Jedi reflexes, and dragged her into his chambers. This time, Rey had resisted, but it was very weak.

"Can't-"

"Can," he challenged, hoisting her by her thighs into the air and slamming her into the nearest wall. He mouthed down her neck, attacking the skin there, branding her with a love bite that elicited from her a shuddering gasp.

"Won't-"

"Will," he pronounced flatly, grinding his manliness into her center to illustrate his licentious resolve.

He sensed something sink and pool into Rey's stomach, could smell the scent of liquid flooding her - a liquid that was distinctly feminine. Her legs now spread wide, as if they were their own master.

"God, no, no..." Rey mewled, trying and failing to thrash her head away even as Kylo kissed her sloppily.

"Yes... yes..." Kylo hissed, the confidence oozing from his voice.

Her pants were down by her ankles in an instant, his cock in her hands and being guided, inserted into her wet folds.

Only a little while later, the windows of Kylo Ren's chambers aboard the Finalizer were fogged over. Suddenly, a hand slapped against the glass and slid away, leaving a dewey print. Upon Kylo's bed, Rey pulled Kylo closer. She and her lover were wrapped in each other's arms, kissing tenderly, their sweaty bodies undulating against each other. When they broke apart, Kylo stared at Rey in wonder, as if he couldn't quite believe that she was real. His body began to shiver violently, the absence of her warmth not even completely sealed against him leaving him chilled. Rey's palm caressed his face, her eyes full of loving concern.

"You're trembling..." she murmured.

"Don't worry... I'll be all right," Kylo breathed. And the pair shared another deep kiss.

That was the first time they had made love. The tête-a-tête tryst had soon become a semi-regular occurrence - not nightly, necessarily, for the farewell after each rendezvous was treated as if it was to be their last. Every parting had been conspicuously devoid of promises regarding when they would next see each other again. That suited both Rey and Kylo just fine, and especially Kylo. He had made a career out of promises broken, or at least promises never made. For at the end of the day, that was what the First Order excelled at - refusal to commit at best, open betrayal at worst.

And besides - Solos had never been able to make promises they could keep. So it was futile to try.

Now, in the early moments of dawn after yet another night of lovemaking, Kyo stared down at this woman that had made him feel more alive than he had been in years. He realized what was even more pointless than making empty promises: it was pointless to direct any hatred towards her. He only had hatred for the dawn, the rotation of the twin suns above Tatooine that had for the last several weeks been his and Rey's only timekeep to transform endless night into endless day and back again. He knew that he was probably committing treason, even betraying his grandfather's legacy, in sleeping with her. And here was the kicker: he didn't care. His thoughts now flew in a thousand different directions - towards her, towards his protectiveness and fear for her, towards his old Master, towards future missions, towards his position and the political arm he admitted to have lost interest in ages ago:

"Hey, kid - good morning. You look like an angel. I don't remember when we fell asleep. We should get up, kid - First Order's waiting. Look at us, lying here, dreaming, pretending. I made a promise and I took a vow. I wrote a story, and we changed the ending. Master, just look at me now! Hold on, facts are facts - just relax, lay low. All right, the panic recedes: nobody needs to know. Put on my armor, I'm off to Kamino. Back into battle till I don't know when. Swearing to Hux that I never was with you, and praying I'll hold you again. Hold on, clip these wings. Things get out of hand. All right, it's over, it's done. No one will understand... No one will understand...

All that I ask for is one little corner. One private room in the back of my heart. Tell Snoke I've found one, he'd send out battalions to claim it and blow it apart. I grip and you grip and faster we're sliding. Sliding and spilling and what can I do? Stay in my bed, kid - take me inside you - I promise I won't lie to you. Hold on, don't cry yet. I won't let you go. All right, the panic recedes... All right, everyone bleeds... all right, we get what we need... and nobody needs to know..."

All of these musings, Kylo willed into Rey's mind, to share them with her. She stirred slightly, a tiny mumble escaping on her breath, but she did not wake.

Suddenly, the tranquility of the early morning, of the couple's blissful solitude, was interrupted by the last intruder Kylo had expected to guard himself against.

"Wow, kid - you sure ain't a kid anymore."

Even though he was lying almost completely prone, propped up only on his elbows, Kylo nevertheless jumped nearly a foot in the air, so that the thin blanket enveloping both him and Rey was launched slightly over them before fluttering back to re-conceal their forms. He summoned his lightsaber to him, his disbelief changing into a challenging snarl, his teeth bared like an attack dog ready to defend his territory. For he was defending his territory, in more ways than one.

The blue, ethereal glow possessing the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker circled the bed, peering down at a barely clothed Rey with something between surprise, amusement and... fear.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Stay back! No one touches her!" Kylo anticipated the worst, and threw his body over Rey's, his clenched teeth still clearly in view.

Luke stopped dead, raising his hands in a placating surrender. "I am only concerned about my apprentice."

Kylo gave a short bark of a laugh. "Apprentice?" he sneered. "She was with you for mere days on that rock of an island; she's told me. And she isn't yours - she's mine!" And his grip tightened about Rey's waifish form.

Luke shook his head. "She isn't yours, Ben - not totally. And if you cared one iota about her safety..."

"Don't you dare tell me I don't care about her!" And the growl sat so rough and low in Kylo's throat, he thought he might cough.

A victorious glint appeared in Luke's eyes, his face curling into a startled grin as he peered at his nephew. Kylo desperately tried to see anything ghoulish and evil in his uncle's expression, but he did not have the energy nor the justification to affix those adjectives to the way Luke gazed at him now.

"You love her!" And Kylo half-expected Luke to burst into laughter at the end of this pronouncement.

Kylo said nothing. He realized his mistake too late. Luke had not displayed concern for Rey herself, just her safety. If the young man did not know any better, it had been a trap. And he had humiliatingly fallen into it. Even more humiliating was how Luke refused to wipe the smile from his face; the old arrogant Jedi looked like a cat that had just eaten a canary. If it had been Snoke who had discovered this display, Kylo knew exactly what he would say. If the deceased Supreme Leader had not reacted in anger first, he would have been mocking - mocking Kylo's susceptibility to the Light, especially when it came in the form of a woman's tempting flesh: So... weak...

Luke's words now were not exactly the same as what Snoke might have said, but they weren't far off the mark, either. "You sad fool. You're already done. And you don't even know it." The chuckle in his voice was apparent. The Jedi Master nodded once in Rey's direction. "Get her home safely. See ya around, kid." And his body faded away, disappeared faster than the snap of a finger.

It would be several more minutes before Rey began to stir in earnest, making tiny whimpers and sounds, her Force essence flickering to life. Kylo bent over her, wishing to kiss her goodbye, but he never got the chance. As she woke, Rey's form too faded. That happened sometimes. Sometimes, the act of her waking would sever the Bond's connection. Sometimes not. Kylo felt a twinge. For the first time since their passionate affair began, he had been anxious to ask her when he would see her again.

As the Tatooine suns encompassed more and more space in his chamber's windows, Kylo remained in bed, pondering over the unwanted visit from his uncle. He had to hand it to the old man: both later in life and in death, Luke had become more skilled in knowing how and when to play his cards right. Han Solo - smuggler though he might have been - had never mastered such a skill, and that liability had ultimately cost him his life.

Utterly exhausted, and unable to think of anyone or anything other than Rey, Kylo flopped back onto his now empty bed - the bed still marked with the indentation of his lover - and fell back to sleep.

A/N: Like it so far? PLEASE Review as much as you can! I want to know your opinions, I really do.