So sorry for the wait guys, this chapter was like pulling teeth with tweezers. Frustrating and painful. I was also initially planning to combine this chapter with the next since this chapter is just more sweet stuff without action, but its been taking too long and I don't want to keep you guys waiting any longer. If you're antsy for action, you're going to love/hate me for chapters seven and eight. Enjoy!

It had been a long time in Ree's memory since she had slept so well. No nightmares, no tossing and turning and no fitful feelings of loneliness and the need to search. Instead, she could faintly recall a beautiful place of colors and peace. It was amazing.

She immediately suspected that Ben had something to do with it.

It wasn't just because she could hazily remember a figure with head of black hair staying with her in her dream. No, it was because he seemed . . . different.

At first, everything appeared normal enough. Ree had woken up to the sound of Ben padding around his room, getting things ready to go to morning meditation. He ushered her out and the little girl quickly went to her own room to get dressed. It was still dark, so nothing really caught her attention at first. She noticed the difference when she opened her door and saw him waiting for her. It was in his eyes.

Whenever Ben spoke to others, he was visibly guarded. Ree could tell that he had improved over time, but he still carried a wary air about him. His eyes would be framed by a stern expression, revealing no other emotion besides boredom and distaste. With Ree, he was warmer. He let the stern look in his eyes waver and allowed himself to smile and relax just the slightest. Something, however, was always still closed off, hidden from sight deep within him.

But this was new. As the duo walked down the hall to the main doors, Ree would sneak small glances toward the older boy to process what she had noticed before. She couldn't find the words to really describe what she was seeing in him. The closest analogy her mind could make was that the wall Ben had put up shattered. His eyes were clear, brimming with an emotion Ree thought might be excitement. He was no longer holding back in her presence.

Ree's heart fluttered in her chest as her brain processed this realization. He trusts me. He completely trusts me now. What changed?

She was happy of course, but confused. Her mind was swirling with questions when they entered the training room and throughout meditation, making it difficult to connect and focus. Master Skywalker's words flowed in one ear and out the other. It was just so out of the blue. What did she do to suddenly earn such faith? Surely it didn't have anything to do with sleeping over. She did unintentionally kick him out of his own bed, after all. That was nothing to gain trust over.

When meditation ended and the students dispersed, Ree made her way to where Tierra and Vin were sitting for her daily hour of extended meditation. She was just getting ready to settle down when the source of her inner confusion walked up. She could see that the stoic wall was up again while the other two Padawans were present.

"Ree, I want you to come with me today. I have something else planned for your training," Ben looked only at her. Ree glanced between him and her two other friends. Tierra was already in a meditative stance, a small smile gracing her lithe features. Vin shrugged.

"We're okay with it, I suppose. Let us know how it goes, Ree." Ben nodded his head in Vin's direction, a small and rare sign of thanks in Ben's terse language with the others.

"Oh, okay," Ree stood up with Vin's dismissal. "I'll see you guys in Code study then!" The girl waved goodbye and turned to follow her dark haired friend out.

Vin watched them go before turning to Tierra.

"Does something feel strange to you or is it just me?"

The girl's smile widened. "Meditate with me and you'll see."

ox0XOX0xo

"Benny, where are we going?" small strides struggled to keep up with the large as Ben led them both up their usual hill. Ree had assumed Ben only wanted an early start on her lesson. Imagine her confusion when he walked right by it without a second glance and continued up the rocky mountain path.

"Someplace special." He slowed his pace and let the child catch up. Ree trotted beside him and looked at the path in front of them. She wanted to see if it led somewhere, but it curved around the hillside and out of sight.

"Come on, Benny, you can tell me!" Ben smiled and Ree grinned with joy when she saw how it reached his eyes. It reached his eyes! She didn't think she'd ever seen him look so genuine. His smiles with her were always warm, but this felt special. This felt deeply genuine.

"Why tell you when I can show you?"

That wouldn't stand for an impatient six year old.

"In that case," Ree sprinted forward. "I'll race you there!" She giggled and squealed with laughter when she heard the boy sputter with shock behind her. She rounded the bend with her small feet pounding the pebbled ground.

"You don't know where you're going! Get back here!" She could hear Ben running now. She laughed louder and willed her legs to increase their speed. There was no way she was going to let him catch her! The path started to incline, riding along the edge of the rocky slope. Ree was beginning to feel winded. Ben's footfalls were catching up quickly. Not today! She was at least going to make it past the bend ahead of her . . .

"Ree, wait!"

Ree rounded the corner, basking in the momentary glory of evading Ben for so long when-

"Oof!"

-she face planted into a rock.

The small girl bounced off of the boulder that had impeded her victory and landed on her back right as Ben came around the same corner.

"Oh shit, Ree are you okay?" Ben dropped down beside the girl who suddenly burst into laughter. She rubbed her head as Ben helped her sit up, muttering feeble 'ows' in between giggling peals of laughter.

"That was the dumbest thing I've ever done," she said. Ben started snickering himself once he made sure Ree's head was fine.

"I agree. Good thing you have a thick skull."

"Hey!"

"Don't 'hey' me. I tried to warn you."

"Warn me? There's a boulder blocking this path! Where are we going all the way out here?!" Ben held a finger up. Ree realized he was pointing and followed its direction to see the top of the small mountain, roughly four meters straight up the wall of rocks that made up the mountain side. She couldn't see what was over the edge. "Up there?" Ben nodded.

"It's a special place I found when I was little. The other Padawans never usually came out this far and when they did, they would turn back because of the blocked path. I decided to climb up one day and it's been my recluse ever since." He stood up and pulled Ree to her feet. "I've decided that I want to share it with you." Ree's happy expression faltered into one that resembled gentle awe.

"But . . . why?"

"You'll see. Now," he crouched down and gestured to his back. "Hop on."

"What?! Why can't we just move the boulder? You can't carry me while climbing a hill!"

"I'd prefer to leave the boulder undisturbed and you're not that heavy. Come on, we're wasting time, do you want to see this place or not?" That shut Ree up. She carefully climbed onto Ben's back, wrapping her small arms around his neck and clinging for dear life when the boy stood up. Was he always this tall?! By the Force, he was like a living tower!

Once he made sure she was secure, Ben started to climb, testing different footholds and notches in the crevices of the hillside before putting his weight on them and pulling himself up. Ree could tell that he had done this many times before by how quickly he found spaces to grip in the rocky wall. He didn't even sound out of breath when he reached the edge of the top.

Ree wondered if something was wrong when she realized that Ben wasn't moving to pull himself up and over. "Benny, are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. But do me a favor and close your eyes." Ree pulled herself up enough so Ben could see her from the corner of his eye over his shoulder.

"Why?"

"Because this is supposed to be a surprise. Now," Ben hissed as he readjusted his grip on a rock. "Could you hurry up and close them? You may not be heavy, but some of these rocks are sharp."

"Okay, okay, they're closed!" Ben tilted his head to the side to see the child's face scrunched up with her eyes tightly shut. Satisfied with what he saw, Ben reached up one hand over the edge and internally breathed a sigh of relief when his fingertips dug into soft grass instead of sharp stone. He moved his leg for higher footing and pushed himself up, planting his second hand next the first and hauling himself up over the edge of the hillside.

Ree could feel Ben pitching over as he crawled over the small cliff. Blind, she was forced to trust him as he took them both a safe distance from the edge. It only took a moment before she could feel him crouching again. "Go ahead and climb off, Ree, we're here. Don't open your eyes yet." She felt one of his hands rest on hers as he helped her get down from his back. He directed her to face forward and took a step back himself.

"Alright. You can open your eyes." Ree did just that. For a moment, she couldn't see anything. The morning sun was approaching its afternoon peak, which made it especially bright to eyes that had just been screwed tightly shut. After blinking rapidly, her eyes then adjusted. And then Ree found herself walking in her dream.

What she had thought was just a large hill or small mountain was actually a plateau with a field layering its surface. A sea of green, speckled with clusters and masses of flora Ree didn't even realize existed, all swayed in the faint breeze of the higher air. Pinks, blues, yellows, golds, and every other color she had ever dreamed of. Soft spirals of white clouds floated among the ocean of blue that made up the sky. Ree felt her face go slack when a particularly strong gust of wind blew up some petals. It was like a rain of color. It was beautiful.

The edges of her mouth rose as her eyes widened. This was everything she had ever wanted to see. But how . . .

She had previously had suspicions, based only on her hazy dreams. But now she had confirmation.

She slowly turned to look at the boy behind her. Ben looked at peace. He was looking at her.

"You. It was you. You were in my dream. You fixed my dream." The boy looked surprised for a short moment before turning his head to the side, staring at a small cluster of flowers next to him. He appeared to be struggling with an explanation. He seemed to be, dare Ree wonder, embarrassed.

"You were thrashing lot, and, uh, it was keeping me up. I didn't mean to be invasive, you weren't supposed to know. In fact," Ben stared at her now with an expression that screamed dumbfounded. "How the heck do you know? It should have been impossible for you to see me." Ree's small shoulders raised in a shrug.

"I didn't see you at first. It wasn't until the flowers appeared that I saw you disappear." That seemed to satisfy Ben. As she spoke, though, she could remember more.

"I see. It's possible that your mind woke up slightly from my meddling enough to process my Force presence-"

"And then you came back."

. . .

"What?"

Ree wished she had an image recorder to capture Ben's expression at that moment. He looked utterly dumbfounded, confused and shocked all at once. The girl laughed and walked over to him, taking his hand and gently pulling him along with a passing comment on how 'silly Benny was'. Ben was still struggling to comprehend what the child just told him.

He never went back into her mind. He went back to sleep. Maybe Ree dreamed up another Ben? No, something was off. Ben didn't remember having any dreams. But something about this moment, right here, with Ree carting him behind her in a green field, seemed eerily familiar. Could he have entered her dreams in his sleep? That should be impossible. Despite his immense skill, he always needed some form of focus. There always had to be at least one conscious person to connect minds, the records and Jedi teachings explained this much. So how? Maybe he was aware and simply forgot?

"Ree, tell me what I did when you saw me again." She stopped walking and stared at the ground for a moment. Pleased with what she saw, she looked up and smiled. Ben was expecting a description of him being his usual self, perhaps just standing off to the side as Ree enjoyed her dream. He was wrong.

"We did this," and with that, the little girl fell back onto the flowerless patch of green Ben realized they were standing on. She laid there with her arms outstretched on either side, her eyes closed as the warm sun hit her face. One of her bright eyes peeled open. "What are you waiting for?" She patted the grassy space next to her.

Was she serious? Hesitantly, the boy followed her lead and stretched out beside her. Ree closed her eyes again. There was a moment of silence as the duo laid there. This was all Ben did? Relax with Ree? He should have found it foolish and a waste of time. And yet . . . he didn't feel like it was.

"It's so soft," Ree murmured, her light voice accompanied by the gentle breeze. "Softer than how I dreamed it to be." Ben turned his head to the side to get a better view of the girl's face.

"This was all we did?" Ben asked, voicing his inner question. Ree hummed in the affirmative. Her large eyes opened again and she rolled on her side to face him.

"Yeah, it was peaceful."

"Did I say or do anything else?"

"You didn't say much, but I'm positive you said something that sounded like 'not anymore'. Do you know why you said that?" Ben's expression didn't change. Instead, the little girl could see the emotion in his eyes. Her cheery expression faltered when pain and anguish flooded Ben's eyes. It was quickly shut away, but Ree saw enough. And Ben knew she did.

"I saw your nightmare." Ah. Ree figured that much. It would be hard to fix a nightmare if you never saw it. A sigh slipped through her lips and she rolled herself flat on her back again. This required an explanation. Ben had seen enough that she knew there was no point in keeping it under wraps anymore with him.

"My parents . . . were never home often. Mom worked with a security group on Catera and dad created droid personality cortexes for a company that spanned the system. They would work a lot. Which I would be okay with, but," she sighed again, deeper. "Something has been wrong for a long time. Ever since I could remember, mom and dad would . . . well, they would leave me alone for days on end. I would never know when it was about to happen since they wouldn't tell me until the last second. Sometimes I'd be left at a friend's house, sometimes in our own apartment. The record," she held up an arm with three fingers raised, "is three weeks." Ree lowered her arm and rolled her head over to stare at Ben. His face was guarded now, waiting for Ree to continue. She couldn't see his knuckles turning white from clenching his fists so tightly by his sides.

Ree gave a nervous laugh. "I know it looks bad, but I trust my parents. Before they would leave they would hug me and tell me that they loved me and that they would come back soon. And they would. They always came back. I guess I can't help but be scared that one day they won't. The thought was always in the back of my mind every time they left." Another moment of silence. "Why . . . do you care? You didn't have to help me. I get over it after a while, it's not that big of a deal." The rustle of grass reached her small ears as Ben turned on his side this time.

"Because I've lived that nightmare. My whole childhood."

Bright eyes widened in shock and Ree's head twisted against the ground to pin the boy with her gaze. Now Ree needed the explanation. If he was comparing his actual childhood to the terrors she witnessed many nights, then Ree had a valid reason to be deathly worried for her friend.

"You've probably heard of my parents. Her majesty Leia Organa and the great Han Solo," his dripping sarcasm didn't miss Ree's attention as she slowly nodded. Even on a remote city planet, Ree had heard talk of the Rebel Heroes. "Well, they never wanted me. Not really. You see, I was a 'surprise'. An unplanned event. And despite all of the claims of 'love' and 'support', things dissolved quicker than light speed. Dad was a free spirit and mom was a powerful leader. They were bound to butt heads." Ben's eyes closed, but Ree could see the tension growing in his forehead. "Every time they did, things grew more strained. Eventually the old man went back to what he did best and mom dove into organizing the government and the New Republic. After that, I was alone. I would never see them. I guess it's hard to spare time for something you didn't originally want. Then they shipped me off to Uncle Luke the moment he decided to accept students."

His brown eyes opened and met Ree's. The tension faded just the slightest. "I fixed your dream because I know how it feels to be cut off. I know that fear and pain and I wouldn't stand to see someone like you going through that." He chuckled in a half-hearted manner.

"Funny. You're the first person I've ever talked to about this. To think, the only other person I've met who could possibly understand how it feels, is a kid."

Ree, who had been uncharacteristically solemn the whole time, allowed herself to smile. So this was why his eyes had changed. He had found a kindred spirit in her.

"Maybe a kid was all it took to understand."

If this were another situation, Ree would have slugged Ben in the arm and told him to snap out of it. She would have told him to have more faith in others, that not everyone abandons their loved ones. But she could understand why Ben felt this way from her own personal experiences. And if Ben could wash away her demons, then she would smother the remnants of his.

She held her arm up between them, pinkie extended. Confusion settled on Ben's face and he stared at Ree for an explanation.

"I propose a promise. No matter what happens, no matter what we go through, we'll have each other's backs. Even if everyone else leaves us, which they won't," she raised a brow, "because I don't think you should give up on them so easily. But if they do, we'll still be there for each other. No more being alone, no more being left behind. Deal?"

Never before had anyone said such a beautiful thing to Ben. From the mouth of this six year old girl were the words that a younger Ben would have wept upon hearing. Ben was older now, he had surpassed his childish fears, but that didn't make the words any less powerful. He reached out and interlaced her pinkie with his own.

If he had known the consequences this decision would wrought in the coming months, he would have slapped her hand away. He would have saved himself from the pain and disaster to come. But his inner and suppressed child would have had none of it. Temptation was sweet. The child screamed inside him to take the precious offer.

On that late morning, secluded from the universe among the undulating grass and flowers, warmed by a distant star and cooled by a gentle breeze, a promise was struck that would change everything.

"Deal."

ox0XOX0xo

The mood lightened immensely after that heart to heart. Ben and Ree enjoyed their remaining down time on the field, occasionally teasing each other and succumbing to laughter. Ree could see the effects of an unseen burdened being lifted from Ben's shoulders, similar to the one Ben could see rising from Ree's. When the sun reached its peak, the two friends begrudgingly pulled themselves up from their grassy beds. Neither seemed very keen on returning to the temple for Code study.

Ben let Ree climb onto his back. He safely maneuvered them both down the cliff and back to the path. The trek toward the temple began when Ree piped up.

"We'll come back here again, right?" Ben scoffed.

"Of course we will. Like I said before, that's my recluse. We'll be going there often to cool off if I have to deal with too much stupidity from our fellow Padawans."

"They are not stupid! You just have too big of an ego to accept that they have skills too! That's bad for your Jedi training, you know."

"Whatever you say, squirt."

"Mop-head."

"Pint sized."

"Speckle face."

"Hairless Ewok!"

"Snotty Schnauzer!"

Their raised voices broke away into laughter again. It was hard to take each other seriously when they made fun of each other.

Ree was smothering her giggles when she felt something brush against her hair. She gently touched her head to feel something velvety and soft settled there among the strands.

"Did you just put something in my hair?" Ben kept his head forward and focused on traversing the path.

"Maybe."

Ree carefully pulled the object free from the back of her braid, discovering it to be a delicate dark purple flower no bigger than her thumb. Its richly colored petals speckled with silver framed its bright white center. It was a pretty little specimen. "I thought it looked nice," Ben said. "I know you like color, so I thought that maybe you'd like it. As a momentum." A sweet gesture, but Ree felt a twinge of sadness.

"I do like it, but you didn't have to pick it. Now it will die sooner instead of waiting for us next time we go." She brushed her thumb over the flower. "But thank you."

A narrow black eyebrow rose in a questioning gaze. "You're welcome. You do realize it's just a flower though, right?"

"Yes, and it was alive. Growing and blooming. I would have liked to look at it again back at the field." Her face slackened as she went into deep thought. It only took a moment for it to light up again. She beamed up at Ben. "You think it's pretty, right Benny?"

"Sure, I suppose. Why?" Ree put the flower back in her hair with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"I think I just got an idea." There seemed to be more pep in Ree's steps as she kept up with Ben. The boy shook his head with a smirk. The things that made her happy.

He decided to ignore the voice of his own pride and held out his hand. Ree was astonished for only a moment before grinning ear to ear and taking it in her own. They were just passing their usual spot on the hillside. It was like a parallel of their first time up there together, except Ben was the one to offer his hand first. This was the first time he had ever done that.

Funny, how people change when they finally open up.