This is short and painfully fluffy. Like, my teeth hurt from writing it turned out so sweet.
There was sleep, and then there were dreams.
Kylo Ren knew this was a dream. The wind was too subtle for this place, the clouds above just so slightly too ideal. He was no perfectionist and he appreciated the beauty of nature and her idiosyncrasies. This place, though, this place was too appealing.
It wasn't his dream.
She liked things this way, the air a certain temperature, the sea calm but audible, the wind making light suggestions about her hair. Her footsteps were in the sand, moving from the waves to the hills across the beach. He knew why. This much water amazed her, it always had. She saw this place in his memories and she reconstructed it perfectly.
He found her atop one of the higher peaks, seated in the grass amidst the evening primrose. She looked content, almost happy, gazing out onto the ocean.
"They open to the moon," she said softly when he approached, tenderly catching a blossom between her fingers. "It seems romantic the more I think about it."
"Flowers that bloom at night?"
"They only see what they devote their lives to once the stars rise. They hide their faces from the sun, ashamed." She gestured for him to sit beside her and he obliged, careful not to disturb her flowers.
"Maybe one day they'll be less worried about if the sun sees."
"I think they quite prefer the night."
Her metaphor was getting drawn, but he humored her. "What makes you think that?"
"It doesn't matter where they are at night since they always bloom together." She inched for his hand with hers, laying her fingers gently over his. "As long as we sleep, I know you're safe."
He sighed. "Don't…don't worry about me."
"It's hard not to. Few people have affected me enough that I've feared losing them. And most of them have slipped away." Her voice grew distant, whisked away with the wind. "The last thing I want to do is lose you too."
He took her hand in both of his, drawing patterns on her skin. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
She drew back and curled up, hugging her knees to her chest. "It's not a promise you can keep. I want you near me, beside me, not on the other side of the galaxy being used as a disposable prop in some military agenda."
He felt the stirring of his temper. "I'm not disposable or a prop."
"You're neither, but I fear that's how you'll be treated. I'm sorry. You know our views are conflicting. Which makes this yearning even more rubbish." She chuckled; a sound that was more melancholy than delighted. "Never thought I'd be caught up in love, especially with you."
"Nor did I. A terrible yet wonderful twist of fate." And he meant it; he was captivated by the way the starlight hit her skin, of how she pressed on through the worst of headwinds.
He had…never calculated this outcome. Hadn't given it a second thought the first time they interacted. She was beautiful then, but that was all. A pretty little bird trapped in his talons. But she fought back and she grew, blossoming into a Corosian phoenix. He came to love her determination before he loved her, and he would still consider it one of the greatest reasons he fell.
"Reminiscing again?" she asked after teasingly prodding their Force bond.
"I don't know why I keep getting so hung up on the past and the future when you're here with me in the present."
"I'm not here, but I wish I were."
"True, you could be a little closer." Ren pulled her to him, eager to feel her warmth. She folded so well into his arms it was hard to imagine they were both sleeping lightyears away. "How did this happen?" he asked into her hair, the smell of snowblooms floating around her.
"The dream connection? When you tried to pierce my mind we got stuck together."
"I know that, but I meant this. Us. Two people from different factions, different goals and moral beliefs."
"I'm convinced your morals are still a little…loose."
He rolled his eyes, hugging her tighter. "Even so, here you are on your own free will."
"No, here you are, this is my dream." She wrapped her arms around his, hands playing with the sleeves of his coat.
"My grandfather did something similar to this when he was younger, loving a girl he never should have. The Jedi were forbidden attachments and he broke that rule in colors."
"And you broke Snoke's attachment rule."
"Without a second thought."
She wriggled around to face him, automatically snaking her arms around his neck. "Your scar is looking better."
"Admiring your work?"
She kissed the start of it where his eyebrows met, lips lingering on his skin. "I want to will it away, not admire it." She traced down the bridge of his nose with feather light fingers, outlining his lips, the curve of his growing smile. Rey followed the pattern with her mouth, her kiss tender and loving, fingers lacing easily into his hair.
He didn't need to be an expert to recognize all the feelings and desires she was sending over their bond. He reciprocated in kind, trying to coax the butterflies in her stomach to double, teasing her about her fluttery reaction.
She pulled back and he leaned forward, not ready to stop. "A few more minutes," he pleaded, his hands resting on her small hips.
"I have to go, Ben."
He shook his head, frowning. "Not that name, not yet."
"Soon?"
"Soon." He sealed his promise with a peck on her lips. "Once you are mine beside me outside of dreams, I will be your Ben."
"You know I love you," she said softly, resting a fading hand on his cheek."
He sent her a reciprocal response made of warm sunlight, soft rain, and mountain air—things he knew she treasured deeply. "And you know words fail me."
"One day I'll get that sentence from your mouth."
"If anyone can, it's you."
• • •
He stirred in the dark of his room, rolling over to the cold side of the bed. It had been months and months since he'd last felt her heat in his arms at night. His chest was sore with forbidden heartache, but the smell of snowblooms saw him back into a gentle sleep, his lover peppering his thoughts with hot touches and affectionate smiles from across the stars.