Soon the time came that Rey, Ben, and General Organa decided it was time for Ben to be able to leave the room. It had been over two weeks since he arrived on board. It would do well for him to be seen by the rest of the rebellion, doing good deeds. They determined that he would train Rey. With Luke gone, Ben was all that was left. Before he had been seduced by the darkness, he had training as a Jedi that he would pass on, under his mother's supervision of course.

But there was also the matter of whether or not the relationship between Ben and Rey should be on public display.

"It would be a lot for everyone to handle. It's a very large jump from you being here and assisting us, to you and I being together." Rey sat across from him nervously twirling her fingers.

"I agree. I'm more than okay with keeping us private as long as possible. There's no need for you to be heckled along with me." Ben admitted.

"They won't heckle you." Rey took his hand in both of hers.

"Not a single person on board, aside from you and my mother, is happy that I'm here."

"Rita likes you."

"Rite likes everybody."

"So if she didn't like you then that would be worse. It'll be fine, they'll come around. Finn and Poe are open to the idea of you being here and helping us. And your mother has been making sure word is spread about you giving us all the information you can about the First Order."

Just as she said, Ben had been speaking with his mother and the other leaders on the ship, giving every bit of information he could to tip the scales in their favor.

The next morning, training began. Organa and a few other leaders walked Ben and Rey to the training center they had on board. All but Organa and her second in command left to take care of their duties.

They started out easy, Ben showed her a few formations. They were careful not to give anything away about the nature of their relationship, but they couldn't help but smile as he took her through formations and stances step by step. He helped her learn to balance herself and calculate her opponents next move in a fight.

It didn't take long before people began to crowd the enormous window to watch their former enemy train their greatest hope under the eyes of their leader.

Rey noticed that very few seemed to be angry anymore, most looked on with curiosity.

In a very surprising twist, Rey returned from a break in training with Poe, who tried to convince Finn to come along. But he just wasn't ready yet.

"Ben, Poe would like to ask you about training with you as well." Rey nervously asked. She knew the history between these two, and she used her eyes to plead with Ben, who immediately gave in for her.

"Of course." And he stuck his hand out.

Poe looked at the hand, and then at Ben for a minute before taking it.

"I'm more comfortable in a plane but I don't see any harm in learning to fight on the ground." Poe admitted.

Rey grinned and walked to a nearby corner where wooden staffs were stacked. She grabbed two and handed one to Poe. As skilled as she was herself, Ben had far more training and was an asset to them.

With Poe accepting help from Ben, more people gathered to watch and were whispering among themselves. Rey hoped this would create even more positive energy within the rebellion.

They worked for the remainder of the day, sparring with each other with Ben offering guidance and discipline.

Later that day, Ben and Rey were having dinner in his room.

"Thank you for today. I know it can't be easy for you." Rey said.

On the contrary, Ben felt at ease here. No longer under the watchful eye of Snoke, Hux, and the rest of the First Order. He was no longer afraid to disappoint a master and be punished.

"I just want you to know I'm not going to turn on you again." He said.

"Ben, I could never think that. You refused to fight me and you could have walked right out of here when you woke up in the infirmary."

"I just know I'm a little hard to trust."

Rey set her now empty tray aside and moved forward to sit next to Ben on his bed.

"Did you happen to see all the people gathered outside the training room today?" She asked.

"I didn't." He looked sideways at her.

"They we're watching us, whispering. I think they're getting used to the idea of you being here." She smiled at him.

"I think it's going to take a lot longer than you think." He smiled just a little bit.

He adjusted himself so that he could stretch out on his bed and gestured for Rey to come over to him. She obliged and laid her back against his chest, leaning her head back against him.

"It's going to be okay." She said, feeling herself drift off, completely relaxed by the rhythm of his chest moving up and down.

The next morning Rey woke with a start, the room around her wasn't hers. Then she realized where she was when she saw he arm draped over her lap and felt the warmth she was laying against.

Looking to her right, she saw a hand holding a book.

"How long have you been awake?" She asked Ben, who was clearly awake enough to be reading.

"An hour. I didn't want to disturb you." He closed his book and wrapped his other arm around Rey, leaning his chin on her shoulder.

Rey closed her eyes and enjoyed the intimacy. She had never spent a night with him.

"You couldn't have been comfortable lying still for that long." She commented.

"On the contrary," he kissed her shoulder, "I was perfectly content."

"We have to get out of bed." Rey smiled at the chills she got from his kiss.

"I know, but it's early." He nuzzled into her neck. Without hesitation, she craned her neck.

His response was to place a few light kisses there. This was the first time either of them had gone this far in well over a month. The thought simply hadn't crossed their minds between him being shot, trying to figure out their relationship, training, and trying to convince everyone else on board to be okay with him.

But they were cut short by General Organa knocking to let her son know she was bringing breakfast in.

The two of them sprang apart and Rey hurried to a nearby chair.

"Good morning, son." She smiled. Then she noticed Rey. "Oh, good morning Rey. You're getting an early start."

"Good morning, we were just figuring out a training schedule." Rey lied.

"Oh, well about that. A handful of people are willing to learn from you Ben. But it's completely up to you. I realize this is all very difficult." She handed her son a tray of food.

"We still have to make time for Rey's training." He said.

"We can make time for both." Rey offered.

Ben didn't think it was a bad idea. He was tired of being confined to his room and the training center.

"Alright. How many so far?" He asked.

"Four, not including Poe." Organa answered.

And so that day Ben and Rey trained together for the first few hours of the afternoon, and the remainder was spent with Ben training a small class of rebel soldiers how to engage in hand to hand combat and with the wooden staffs that simulated a real weapon. He was a surprisingly good teacher, considering his usual temperament. He was very much one on one with the soldiers when he taught them.

Day by day, more joined. Even Finn made peace with the former First Order leader. Ben was finally able to walk among them, though never alone. He was always accompanied by either Rey, his mother, or another leader of the rebellion. He met in the ship's command center with all of the leaders on board and helped them strategize, proving more of his willingness to bring down the First Order.

But with his newfound ability to roam freely cane another struggle. He and Rey were having to constantly remember to keep their relationship to themselves, and it wasn't the easiest thing.

"Ben, anyone could be watching." Rey reminded him as he took her by the waist while they were walking up a flight of steps.

"It's innocent." He pointed out.

"I just feel like it might be too much of a shock right now." She said.

"My mother knows."

"Your mother is very understanding."

"That doesn't mean it wasn't a shock to her." He knew his mother, she might have acted like she was calm upon finding out about the bond between him and Rey, but she was entirely thrown by it.

"She handled it better than I expect anyone else here to." Rey turned to talk to him face to face.

"How bad could it be? Most of the people here accept me enough to allow me to teach them." He stepped closer to her.

She didn't move back, even though he was very much in her personal space and anyone who walked by would see that.

"No one will think you're insane for being involved with me, if anything they'll be even more convinced that I'm here with good intentions." He reached for her hand. She didn't pull it away.

She sighed, he was right. She didn't know when he became so reasonable, but she was being paranoid.

"Alright. But you know we can't simply flip from being student and teacher to...what we are. I'm not sure I'm ready for the world to know how close we are." She wanted to say that they were lovers, but she didn't want to scare him away. This was still new to both of them, they were figuring it out as they went.

What she didn't know was Ben wanted the same thing. He asked himself at least a dozen times a day about how deep their bond was.

"And what are we?" He blurted out.

Rey stared at him open-mouthed, caught off guard and unsure what to say.

Right then a group of people walked by, headed for the training center, which is where Ben and Rey were going before they stopped to have their current discussion.

Rey pulled Ben away and into a corner.

"Maybe we shouldn't have a dozen people find out all at once." She whispered, standing only a few inches from him and looking up.

He smiled indulgently and gripped her chin between two of his fingers, leaning down to kiss her before they walked off to train.