Hi readers! This is a Reylo fanfic, I just love the idea of what the two might be together. It's going to be romantic, but also angsty and very dark in later chapters, so if you're not in the mood for that, read something else for now. (Oh, and there will probably also be smut later on). Our story starts a month after The Last Jedi ends, so there will be many spoilers from the two films. However, Snoke isn't dead, and Rey is a prisoner of the First Order, so some things are quite different. Hope you'll enjoy it, you're very welcome to let me know if you do!

Kylo could hardly focus on where he was going; just a minute ago, he had received a call from a rather curt General Hux. Supreme Leader Snoke had finally decided that the time had come for Kylo to return to the base. He was a lot more excited than he should be - his heart was beating fast, and he was gripping the yoke of his jet-black Starfighter so tight that it hurt.

He let out a deep sigh and tried to relax. He knew that he wasn't supposed to feel this eager to go back after just one month away; had his excitement stemmed from the fact that he would now be able to play an active role in bringing down the Resistance, it would have been understandable. However, something completely unrelated to fighting was on his mind; he was finally going to see the girl again. He was going to see Rey.

Ever since the day that she so bravely arrived alone at their base in his father's ship, Kylo had been longing to see her again. He'd been furious when it turned out that Snoke had been the one connecting them by use of the Force all along. It was slightly embarrassing for him to admit to himself that he had fully believed that there was something special binding them together, something that the two of them shared. He had feared that this something might have been a shared bloodline, but Rey had turned out to be the unwanted child of a pair of gamblers. They'd sold the poor girl on that dismal planet, Jakku. What Kylo had hoped was a special bond, unique to the two of them, had just been a tactical move by the Supreme Leader.

While Kylo felt sorry for Rey, he could not help feeling a bit pleased by this newly found knowledge of her parentage. He'd only just had the time to tell her the truth, before Snoke sent him and Hux off to fight the Resistance on Crait and a group of stormtroopers took her away. When he returned with the news that the Resistance had managed to escape, Snoke had decided to punish him for his stupidity and failure. Although he wanted nothing more than to stay at the base and prove his worth, hed was sent off on a mission to solve a political conflict on Cantonica following the rebel led destruction of some rich weapon dealers' property.

The mission had been tedious and boring. Over and over during long discussions between narrow-minded businessmen, Kylo's thoughts had drifted off. In his mind, it was her brown eyes he saw, and they were always full of her characteristic hope and determination. She was the only person who truly believed that he could be something other than what he was.

When she first started appearing in front of him, Kylo had been shocked, but also intrigued by her. His head was full of unanswered questions: Who was this girl, why did she radiate power comparable to none that he'd ever encountered in someone so young before, and, the most incomprehensible question of them all, why did she believe that he - a man who had murdered his own father in cold blood, could be redeemed? Although her stubbornness and self-righteousness had left him fuming time after time, he held her in high esteem. Deep down he understood that she was fighting for a cause she believed in, just as he had when he first became Snoke's apprentice. This, he admired and respected her for.

For so long, Kylo had sought to become immune to the temptations of the Light. During those conversations with Rey, however, something had been awakened in him which he thought he'd lost forever. Most importantly, she had made him feel guilty. Guilty about killing his father, who had never been able to connect with Kylo, but who had loved him in spite of their differences, and who Rey had looked up to so much. Guilty about forsaking his mother, although she had always been caught up in her precious Rebellion, enough to abandoned him with an uncle he hardly knew. In Rey's eyes, he saw them both in a new light, he saw how - in spite of the injustice they had done him, they were really the heroes people believed them to be.

X

When Kylo finally arrived at the hangar bay of the Supremacy, the mega-class Star Dreadnought from which the First Order was currently operating, he was greeted by rows of stormtroopers neatly lined up in expectation of his arrival. To his great displeasure, he was also met by the pasty face of General Hux, whose red hair stood out in a sea of white masks. Kylo acknowledged him with a quick nod. Hux returned the gesture, and took a quick step towards him: "Welcome back," he said, with his usual air of reluctance to show Kylo the respect he deserved. "The Supreme Leader is expecting the both of us immediately," he continued, eyes expressionless. Kylo let out a deep sigh in annoyance, not audible from below his mask, and followed the man.

As they walked in silence down the corridors of the large spaceship, Kylo recalled the last time he had been face to face with Supreme Leader Snoke. His mother and the remaining group of people still supporting the Rebellion had been right where he wanted them, yet they managed to slip through his fingers. It had been an embarrassing fiasco; Luke Skywalker had played games with him as if he was nothing but an inexperienced child. He had been mocked and humiliated; yet deep down he felt a tiny bit of relief knowing that his mother had made it out safely - he didn't feel completely ready to let go of her yet.

Snoke had been extremely displeased by his failure. He did not express his disappointment out loud, but Kylo could feel the anger radiating from him before he even entered the room. Kylo had been sent off with the message that once Snoke saw fit for him to return, they would begin turning the girl to the Dark Side. In the meanwhile, she would remain locked up and undisturbed; perhaps some time alone would make her desperate enough to do anything to get out, Snoke claimed.

In his mind, Kylo deeply doubted this; he'd seen the determination in her eyes, and knew that nothing would make her change her position and turn to the Dark Side. A month of solitude wouldn't be enough to break the spirit of this fierce Jedi. She was used to feeling lonely, that much he knew. He had detected it during his interrogation of her on Starkiller Base, and again during their brief Force meetings. The feeling was painfully familiar to him; before he had embraced the Dark Side, he had felt it often. A loneliness so horrible that it made him feel as if a fist was clenching his heart, trying to wring out every last drop of happiness inside him. He would feel unable to breathe, but at the same time want to scream his lungs out in despair. Snoke's training had taught him to embrace that pain, transform it into anger, and then into pure, unlimited power. People usually shrink into nothing when they are unable to express their loneliness, but Kylo had faced it, knowing – by the guidance of Snoke – that it was just another weakness he needed to root out. Embracing the darkness inside him had enabled him to grow much more powerful than the Light ever could.

Since his thoughts were still circling around Rey, Kylo forced himself to clear his mind before he entered Snoke's throne room with Hux by his side. The Supreme Leader was sat on his throne, expecting them. The light reflecting off the walls of the grand room drenched the alien in an omnious red light, and Kylo – though used to the sight – felt himself tense as he walked closer.

To his relief, he didn't have to act as if Rey hadn't been on his mind for long, as Snoke instantly brought the girl back to his attention. Kylo could feel the Force flowing from his master, as he demanded that Kylo began convincing their prisoner to become Snoke's second apprentice immediately: "Gain her trust," he rasped, "torture her if you have to. Bend her will. Show her the advantages of the Dark Side." The alien looked down at both of them and slowly started smiling: "With the girl by your side, the three of you will conquer the galaxy."

X

Rey was curled up on the floor in the corner of her cell. Calling it a that was actually a bit of a misrepresentation; it was a bedroom with a bathroom attached to it, more than she'd ever had before. Nevertheless, she kept thinking of it as her cell. The door was locked from the outside, after all, and she knew that two armed stormtroopers were guarding it day and night.

In her hands she was clutching two small dolls. They were made from a bit of fabric that she'd torn from the bottom of her trousers, the same trousers that she'd worn ever since she left Ahch-To. She'd often made dolls like these as a child. She used to play with them during the long, lonely evenings, when it was too dark to scavenge through junk to find something valuable, but too early to go to sleep. She had pretended like they were her parents, and made up elaborate stories about their adventurous and heroic lives. Her stories had usually ended with them conquering whatever evil they were fighting and returning to Jakku, to be reunited with their beloved daughter whom they'd missed so dearly. Now she was lying on the floor of an enormous battleship belonging to the First Order, making up similar stories.

Her new stories took different directions than the ones she used to make up, though; she no longer fantasised about her parents, who had turned out to be no one after all, just a couple of gamblers who had no love in their heart for her. No, her new stories were about people who really cared about what happened to her; Finn, General Organa, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, and yes, even Han Solo from time to time, alive and well in the safety of her mind. They were on their way to save her right this moment, she would imagine, and never would she have to return to this hellhole again.

Rey's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of someone speaking to the stormtroopers outside her door. She was overwhelmed by a feeling of fear; It couldn't have been more than a couple of hours since the last time they brought her food, so if someone wanted to enter her room, it could only mean one thing. He is back already, she thought. It was difficult to keep track on the days in here, but she knew that there were usually more than a couple of days between his visits to her cell, and he had been here just last night. I can't handle this. Not again.

She was still curled up in the corner, frozen in place, when she heard the wooshing sound of the doors sliding open as he entered her cell. She knew that she should be on her knees, awaiting his commands, but she was overwhelmed by fear and couldn't possibly face him.

Something felt different this time, though. He didn't come closer, didn't say anything. It felt as if he'd stopped dead in his tracks the second he'd entered the room. She was breathing hard, clutching her dolls to her chest.

"Rey?" the person blurted out.

Her heart stopped beating for a second; she could recognise that deep voice anywhere. She immediately sat up and looked at him. By the door to her cell stood a tall dark figure draped in a long cloak. Her eyes searched for his face underneath the black hood, but found only the intimidating metal mask which he had worn the first time she'd met him. She drew a sharp breath.

Kylo Ren.

X

Kylo had been so excited to see Rey that he had stormed off straight after the meeting with Snoke without paying any attention to the look of disapproval he received from General Hux. He decided on the way that he was going to keep his mask on, to avoid the embarrassment of her noticing how extremely nervous he was about seeing her again. He already felt insecure about his looks, and sweating like a teenage boy wasn't going to help him. With a tight grip on his lightsaber he entered the room, convinced that she would put up a fierce fight as soon as she saw him, just as she'd done multiple times before. He stopped as soon as he was inside the room. It was.. empty?

Where the hell is she?

His eyes searched the room a second time. This time, something caught his attention. A bundle of grey fabric seemed to be lying in the corner of the room. Or was it a person?

"Rey?" he asked in disbelief.

She immediately sat up and looked at him. Kylo was speechless. She's changed so much.

The girl in front of him was much thinner than what he remembered from their brief encounters before the battle of Crait. She had always been slender, but she had seemed healthy and strong back then. The way she looked now, sat on the floor in front of him, she looked like she hadn't eaten anything for weeks; her clothes seemed loose on her, and they looked ragged and dirty as if she'd never taken them off. For the first time, Kylo saw how her hair looked when it wasn't tied back in that funny way she used to do it. It was wavy, a bit messy at the moment, he thought, and fell over her shoulders. The most noticeable difference from her usual appearance, however, was the metallic choker which she was wearing around her neck. A chain connected it to a pair of what he expected might be stun cuffs, binding her wrists together. Her hands seemed to be clutching something, though he couldn't see what it was from where he was standing.

Kylo eased his grip on his lightsaber. He knew that the choker was meant stop her from using the Force, but he was surprised at how well it was working. He could feel no Force presence besides his own in the room. Curious, he reached out with his mind, but as he'd expected, Skywalker had taught her how to protect her thoughts from other Force users, even when her own connection to the Force was limited. She probably did it unconsciously by now, just like he did.

In spite of the wall she'd put up around her thoughts, Kylo was still able to get a general sense of what she was feeling. He was surprised by the intense fear he sensed in her. When she had first faced him and his interrogation droid at Starkiller Base, her lack of fear in a position of complete vulnerability had impressed him. Now, the amount of angst he was detecting in her was strong enough to make him draw back into himself immediately, as if he'd been electrocuted. Has a month in this room done that to her?

"Don't be afraid," he said. "Stand up."

She shakenly did as he said. She had been staring at him with fearful eyes all this time, but in spite of his assurance that she had nothing to be afraid of, she now lowered her eyes to the ground as if she didn't dare look at him.

He took a step towards her, but to his surprise, she stepped back so quickly that she bumped into the wall in the corner of the room. Taken aback by her reaction, Kylo held up his hands as if to illustrate that he wasn't going to harm her: "I won't hurt you, Rey," he said, slowly and calmly.

Nevertheless, the girl still stood in the corner clenching her fists, eyes fixed to the floor. He realised that perhaps he should remove his mask, as she might find it intimidating. He recalled how she had once called him 'a creature in a mask', and he had taken it off to show her that he was human, just like her. Perhaps she needed another reminder. He lowered his hood, and slowly took the mask off with both hands, then placed it on the floor close to the door. As he was doing so, he noticed that Rey was now paying close attention to his every move.

Unsure what to do next, he said the first thing that came to mind: "Really, Rey, it's just me." He felt hurt that she'd be so scared of him. Used to everyone fearing him, he'd seen the girl's trust as pleasant change when they'd spoken to each other using the Force. That felt like a long time ago now.

Suddenly feeling the need to change the situation and lighten up the mood as quickly as possible, Kylo decided to remove the stun cuffs around her wrists. He raised his hands again, this time to use the Force. Rey, who had been staring at the floor, let out a small cry of shock as the cuffs fell to the ground before her.

"I'm sorry I cannot remove that," he said, and gestured towards the metal around her neck. "It would be stupid of me to allow you to use the Force. I'm sure you understand that."

Rey was looking at her wrists. They were red and bruised. They metal must have been cutting into her skin all the time she'd been wearing them. Kylo felt a pang of anger at whoever had decided that she needed to keep those on even though she was locked up and powerless. He made a mental note to find out who was responsible and make sure they'd regret it.

Wanting nothing but to comfort the hurting girl in front of him, Kylo took two steps closer to Rey, but quickly regretted it.

"Pl.. Please don't hurt me!" she whimpered, completely unlike her. She was speaking so quietly that he almost didn't hear what she said. When her words finally registered, he stared at her in disbelief.

"Hurt you? I've just taken of your cuffs and you think I'm going to hurt you?" Kylo exclaimed, exasperated. As the apprentice of a Sith Lord and the master of the Knights of Ren, he wasn't used to treating everyone as generously as he'd treated Rey these last couple of minutes. Doesn't she realise that?

It hadn't been his meaning to sound angry, but he could see how his words made the girl shrink in front of him. She glanced up for a second, eyes wet with tears. His outburst had shocked and scared her even more, it seemed.

"I.. I'm sorry," she whispered. He noticed that her lips were quivering as she added: "I didn't m.. mean to… offend you, Master…"

No words could have made Kylo feel more frustrated or, indeed, offended. He didn't understand what he'd done wrong. Where was her usual spark? Her fierceness? Her power? When they had spoken using the Force, he had felt like she trusted him, like he had gained her confidence. Now she acted as if he was going to start torturing her any moment. Confused by these changes, and deep down slightly offended by her sudden fear of him, he turned around, picked up his mask, and left the room without another word.

I'm already working on the next chapter so stay tuned!