A/N: Holy shit, another chapter?! How many more of these are we going to have? Probably like, idk, 30-ish.


Rey woke to the cool sensation of a wet cloth against her brow and the sound of rain pounding on the window panes. A soft groan escaped her lips as she found herself leaning into the refreshing touch of the cloth, her throat as dry as if she had swallowed wind during a sandstorm. Her mind was hazy as she struggled to waking, vaguely knowing that something wasn't quite right, but she couldn't remember her bed ever seeming so soft or so warm, nor the blankets so heavy. Her body was aching and leaden as it quivered with the fever she had long been denying as something within her felt as if it threatened to burst from her skin.

Another dab of the cloth against her burning skin started to clear her thoughts as she caught the clear smell of sandalwood from the pile of blankets that weighed down on her. She didn't own a pile of blankets, she vaguely realized. No, she owned a thin wool blanket that was barely enough even on the warmest of summer nights.

Not my room… she thought weakly as her eyes cracked open to see a room decorated in deep grays and dark blues. It was as sparse as her own room was packed with little treasures she could never convince herself to part with, but this room was practically three times larger than her own. She swallowed hard as she tried to sit up, but she collapsed back into the foreign mattress, lacking the lumps that she had long become accustomed in her own. As she laid on her side, her heart caught in her chest as she saw who the room belonged to.

"Don't try to get up," Kylo insisted sternly as he placed the cloth he had in hand into a water basin sitting on the bed side table. He lacked the gentleman's attire from the night they had met, looking disheveled and tired. Instead, he was dressed in a pair of slate trousers, a simple shirt with his sleeves rolled up his elbows, and a pair of black gloves that ended at his wrists.

"Why… Why am I here?" she asked, her voice coming out in a hoarse croak as she felt like a child, wanting nothing more than to be in her own bed as lumpy and small as it was. She yearned for familiarity and warmth that this home didn't offer. Perhaps it was her illness, but even under the thick blankets there was a chill that clung to her, setting her on edge.

"You don't remember?" was his reply as he studied her with his dark gaze unreadable. "That's understandable… You've been in and out of consciousness for the last three days."

"Three days?" she croaked as she pushed herself up with a fierce determination. How had she been asleep for three days? She struggled to sit up with her arms quaking against her weight, but she managed before he could instruct her to settle back into the bed. "Finn and Maz… They'll be worried."

"They already know," he said simply. "Well, at least, Maz knows. I have no clue who 'Finn' is." He brushed away the mention of Finn as if he were an insignificant detail. "As soon as I brought you here after you collapsed in the rain, I sent a letter to let her know that you were recovering here. By her reply, she didn't seem particularly worried that you were here, and she made no request to have you brought back to her."

Rey felt her brow furrow and she shook her head. Finn, especially, wouldn't leave her alone with Kylo Ren as upset as she had been after her time alone with their club's odd new benefactor. Of course, he didn't know the reason why. He thought the man had merely slighted her and she had overreacted. Either way, if she had been gone for three days, he would have noticed.

He would have come. Maz would have told him and he would have come right away.

"They wouldn't… they wouldn't leave me here," she murmured, a pang of doubt striking her even as she spoke. Had anyone ever truly stayed with her? Throughout her life she had accumulated more people who had left her than had been a constant. Her father had left even before she had been born and most likely had no idea that she existed, her mother had left her with Plutt and never looked back, and General Solo had left in his own way. She blinked away the teary haze that threatened to overtake her.

"Drink some water," he instructed, the timber of his tone softening ever so slightly as he offered her a glass of water from the bedside table. She took it with trembling fingers before sniffing it carefully. "It's not poisoned, Miss Rey. Please, just drink it."

"I really shouldn't take anything from strange men," she said stiffly, but as he reached over to take it back, she rose it to her lips. She tried to sip on it as she remembered a few instances as a child when she had gulped down water so quickly that it had come back up only moments later. Her body craved the cold liquid, desperate for it, but she was careful. He had already seen her faint and watched her fevered sleep. Rey didn't want to add retching to the list.

"Better?" he asked as she finished the glass, taking it from her. Rey nodded as she pushed a few sweat dampened strands of hair from her face.

"I don't understand…" she murmured as she leaned back against the heavy oak headboard of the bed. They were nothing but strangers, yet she was laying in his bed and had apparently been there for three days. She had been cold to him before, pushing her own denial of what had just begun to change within her onto him. Even if he had been concerned for her sake only because of her magic, she didn't think he was the type of man to take an odd woman into his home. "I… I thank you for getting me out of the rain, but… I-I shouldn't be here. You should have taken me back to the Castle. I'll just end up getting you sick."

"You are my guest and will remain my guest until you are well enough to return to that leaky, damp club," he replied sharply as his eyes briefly appeared to glow with a dim amber heat. "Please do not mistake my hospitality for kindness. As I have put money into that shack, I don't need the headliner contracting pneumonia and losing more money on my investment."

The words should have stung, but as he glanced away and dipped the cloth into the water basin once again before wiping a bit of sweat tenderly from her forehead. His jaw tensed as he avoided eye contact, the tired bags below his eyes more apparent. Had he sat beside her for three days as she struggled through her fever? Rey still didn't quite understand why he would bother, but she felt her own iciness towards the man thaw.

"Thank you…" She rose a hand to touch his bare arm in gratitude and froze. Pain shot through her as she felt as if she had been set aflame, her fever raging through her and seeming to reach out for Kylo, growing stronger their skin met. It was a repeat of her experience on stage, but the intensity was less a quick bolt of lightning and more of a current flowing between the pair.

Images arose as her hand instinctively gripped harder onto his arm, searching for something to keep anchored to consciousness. Simple and concise, they flashed across her memory as if they were her own.

A smile as warm as sunshine from a beautiful woman. She smelled of chamomile tea and favored white to wear. She was love.

Bright eyes of blue shining through the darkness of night, once trusted and warm were now twisted with fear and mourning. He was regret.

An extended hand that was decrepit and adorned with gold rings and assorted gemstones of every color, the smell of death clinging in the air even as harsh perfumes tried to hide it. He was cruelty.

Whispers in a chorus, louder than any scream filled the mind, swarming like a locust plague as shadows darken even the brightest afternoon. They are isolation.

Her mouth opened to cry out, but nothing more than a whimper escaped just as Kylo flinched away from her and freed himself from her tight grasp, staring at her with a hint of horror that broke his careful mask. Anger warped his proud features as he swallowed hard and his eyes darted over her, searching for answers that she didn't have.

"What did you see?" he demanded as he rolled down his sleeves quickly, lips trembling as he appeared to fight back heated words.

A rush of despair filled her almost overtaking the pain, but instead they only melded into one terrible sensation. Has this misery belonged to him or had it always been within her? She could get lost in its undertow, swept away by the rush of intense loneliness that was as recognizable and unfamiliar all at once.

"What's… what's wrong with… with me…?" she cried through gritted teeth as her body pulsed with an energy that she didn't understand. She pushed herself away from him, wincing with the slight movement even though everything in her wanted to reach back for him, her spirit craving him despite the pain that would surely follow. The tears she had been determined to conquer before overwhelmed her as she stared at Kylo for answers. Hazily, she remembered how she had grabbed his nose teasingly only to collapse on the night they had met.

Kylo took a deep breath through his nose as he buttoned the cuffs of his sleeves.

"You remember what we spoke about in that eggplant colored room," he stated as the anger he had shown moments before dissipated. His words were coaxing without being patronizing despite how he referred to one of the Castle's most prized rooms.

"It's… it's royal purple," she argued quietly despite herself. She didn't want to remember what they had spoken about as if that would only make things worse. It had been all too bizarre that night. Things moving on their own and that terrible dread that couldn't shake. She had gone into the back room so many times before to dance exclusively for a man or a party of men and easily performed, but the air rolling off Kylo had been so dark it had thrown her off her game and had made her skittish. The draw she had felt towards him had never completely dissipated, but the darkness she had felt in the wake of her collapse had left her afraid.

"The royal purple room, then," he allowed with an annoyed sigh. "You do what we spoke about, don't you?"

"Your sleight of hand and my head injury from fainting on stage," Rey said as her body tensed as if reacting to the lie. It had been dawning slowly within her as she had been aware of it in the back of her mind, but she tried to stifle it. "But… that's not… that's not what this is... or what had happened that night."

"No," he murmured with a curt shake of his head. "No, there is an energy surging within you, Miss Rey. I don't know if it's because you've been denying it your entire life or because it very well may be magically bound within you to keep you from using it. I think it may be the latter, but your magic is roaring within you desperate to be released."

"Then release it," she whimpered, frantically trying to remain conscious as she extended her hand weakly towards him. It hung off the edge of the bed, her fingers extended towards him. Later, she would be embarrassed by her begging, but in that moment this energy within her boiled in her veins. "Unlock it or-or unbind it… I-I don't want this… I never wanted this. It hurts so badly, Mr. Ren. Take it… Please."

"You don't understand—" He stared at her hand, his own gloved fingers twitching before he balled it into a fist as if the very idea tempted him.

"I don't need to understand," she cried as she closed her eyes tightly as she curled into herself as she tried to will the storm within in her to cease, her hand remaining extended towards him. If she could only find the eye of this storm so that she might have a moment to think. "I know who I am, and I am not this pain within me that I can't release. You said that you could take anything from me that you wanted. On that night, those words frightened me, but now… I would do anything to be relieved of this pain."

Slowly, he unclenched his gloved fist and reached out and took her trembling hand. She closed her eyes and waited for something to happen, for him to absorb the fire within her, but instead nothing came but the warmth of his hand. Rey welcomed it, the loneliness and pain that threatened to consume her ebbing slightly just at the gesture. She intertwined it with her own, squeezing it tightly as she waited for the moment to pass.

"Just know, I would take this from you if I could." His words came out deeply, sounding to her as nothing more than a gentle promise.

As she faded once more into a fevered sleep, he didn't remove his hand from hers. Even if he had cast no spell to free her, his presence was enough in that moment.


A/N: Aww... He'd take it from her if he could? That's so sweet. *sniffles* Oh wait, don't trust him, Rey—