Chapter 11

As the days at the Organa-Solo house turned into weeks, Rey fell into a routine in her temporary home. It gave her purpose and kept her busy. All her life she had functioned on a schedule and there was no reason for her to stop now just because she was a guest in their household. In fact, she saw it as a way to give back, a way to say 'thank you' without words for their hospitality.

After Rey had settled in, Ben and her adhered to their previous routine together, with a few adjustments. Each morning instead of waking up alone, Rey woke with her boyfriend wrapped around her. Though he had had no issue with rising for her before she lived with him, she quickly found he wasn't a morning person, so she took it upon herself to make the coffee each morning, for which he was grateful.

Each morning when she woke up, she'd tip toe downstairs to take Artoo and Threepio out in the backyard. While they did their business, she'd get them fresh water and fill up their food dishes. By that time, Ben had gone through his five alarms and was usually stalking into the kitchen.

Which led to Rey's next task — making the coffee. Once she had discovered how easy it was to brew her favorite drink in their Keurig, she loved experimenting with the machine. She found she liked mixing the hazelnut and regular so the sweetness wasn't overpowering and she found Ben preferred the dark roast with a hint of her leftover hazelnut.

Her stitches needed a full three weeks to heal, per Dr. Kalonia. Rey visited her at the hospital once a week to check the area and make sure there was no risk for infection.

"It's healing up nicely," the doctor told her, happily when Rey stopped in about two weeks after the incident at Plutt's. "No scarring. You should be good to get them removed next week."

Rey had been relieved. She was growing wearying of having to explain why she had a vertical line bisecting her face. Ben usually answered for her, knowing she was self-conscious about the mark and trying to spare her from having to explain herself for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

She was more comfortable when she was back at the house, where no one asked about her face. Rey had never been one to worry about her appearance, but each time someone questioned the mark on her face, she was reminded how it had gotten there. Those memories weren't ones she wanted to revisit ever. Ben understood and tried to make her time spent at the house as relaxing and welcoming as possible.

Friday nights were her favorites. Cassian, — she was getting over how weird it was to call her former teachers by their first names — Jyn, Baze, Chirrut, Bodhi, and even Mr. Eso (he did not liked to be called Kaytoo), came over at the end of each week and the crew had a picnic potluck of sorts. Each dinner was immediately followed by rounds of drinks, from which both Ben and Rey sustained, and several hands of poker.

Rey was wary of alcohol, even in her new safe environment. The effect it had had on her life was not one she wanted to repeat...ever. Ben respected her decision and abstained as well, though she suspected it had more to do with how intoxicated Leia got each time she drank than anything else.

Ahsoka came by every Sunday with fresh baked goodness and her own warmth. She had told Rey she could come back to work, but only if she manned the cash register instead of being in the back where sweat or flour could affect her stitches. Rey had gladly accepted, appreciating the extra money, as well as a distraction from being in the house with Leia.

She and her old principal had had a rocky week following Leia's confession. Rey stuck to the backyard and her room for a majority of that time, limiting her interaction with Ben's mother. Leia didn't press her. She accepted Rey's need to process on her own terms and kept away when she knew Rey in the kitchen or another part of the house.

Ben stuck to Rey's side, accompanying her to Snip's each morning. He'd study in the back office while Rey and Ahsoka worked until it was time to go back home. Some days, they would stop at the park and take a walk together, just for some alone time. Other days they went right back to the house and Rey would find him waiting for her under her sheets when she stepped out of the shower.

"You're insatiable," she laughed as he pulled her down the one afternoon.

"Mmmm, I waited a long time for you, little one. I'm making up for lost time."

The first time they had had sex was in Ben's treehouse, which made her glad she had gotten an IUD when she had first went back to visit Dr. Kalonia.

Ben had surprised her that night after dinner by leaving a note for her to come find him. She knew the only place he'd hide was his childhood fort and proceeded into the backyard, climbing up into the treehouse. When she threw the trap door back, Rey gasped.

The place was lit up by an assortment of candles. Ben had clustered them into groups around the space so she could clearly make him out, as well as make out the bed of blankets he had positioned in the middle of the room.

"You found me," he grinned at her from where he knelt in the center of it.

"I did," she responded, hoisting herself up the rest of the way and closing the door. "What's all this?"

"I think you know," he chuckled, taking her hand and gently pulling her over to where he sat. Rey knelt before him, letting his hands caress her face and brush down her neck. "I don't want any interruptions."

"Did young Ben Solo ever consider his first time would be in this treehouse?" Rey teased.

"Young Ben Solo thought girls had cooties," Ben informed her.

"Maybe I do," she flashed him a coy smile.

"Only one way to find out," he told her, already tugging at the hem of her tank top.

They made quick work of their clothes, helping each other strip down until they were both bare before one another.

Ben's gaze ran the length of her body, tracing every inch of flesh she had revealed to him. He had seen her naked dozens of times over the last couple of weeks but Rey still felt shy in her own skin. In her nervous state, she opted for humor.

"See any?"

"Hmmm?"

"Cooties? Do you see any?"

Ben's eyes lit up, as he took in her expression. "No, but I should be more thorough," he commented, moving to loom over her. "Don't want them to get you."

Rey started to respond with a snappy comeback, but Ben silenced her with a kiss. He stole away her breath along with her words, as he dove in, his tongue immediately seeking entrance.

She felt waves of heat spreading out from his chest. It was a different kind of temperature than the warmth she felt in the summer air. This heat was electrically charged.

Ben's hands grasped her hips, hauling her to him and eliminating the space between them. Their bodies aligned together perfectly and Rey found herself once again thinking they must have been made to belong to one another.

She tilted her head back slightly and Ben's mouth moved from hers down her jawline to her exposed throat. He pressed wet, sloppy kisses in a trail down to her collarbone which had her feeling both chilled and roasting at the same time.

Rey shivered against him, gasping when she felt his hardness pressing up against her belly.

"I want you, little one," he murmured against her skin. "I want to make you mine."

She raked her fingers through his hair, gently scraping along his scalp. Ben moaned.

"I'm already yours," she promised. "Do it."

Her consent was all he needed, it seemed. Ben tucked one arm behind her back, while the other palmed her breast. As he worked it in one hand, his mouth latched onto her opposite breast. He sucked in her nipple, flicking his tongue across the erect point. Rey grabbed his shoulders, feeling a shockwave course through her.

Ben continued pleasuring her, as he repositioned then on the blankets, laying her down on her back. He had a leg on either side of her hips and when he withdrew his hand from her back, he snaked it down between them to her center.

"I want to hear you, little one," he crooned between playful bites under her breast. "We're alone up here, far away from the house. Don't hold back."

"Ben," she panted. His words were causing her to unravel and his fingertips were dancing teasingly over her slit in time with his demands. He was going to drive her mad with want.

As if he could read her thoughts, he kept his ministrations to her outer lips, moving temptingly close to her clit, but never touching it. Rey bucked her hips up, desperate for him to rub her where she needed to feel him the most.

While he played with her, seemingly testing her boundaries, he continued to lavish her breasts. Her nipples were hard and her chest was as flushed as her face with desire.

"Ben, please."

"Please what, little one?" He purred.

God, what had happened to shy, joking Ben who had been scanning her for cooties? When had he morphed into this confident sex fiend? Then Rey recalled how assertive Kylo had always been. Perhaps he should have been a succubus instead of a shadow demon.

"Please let me feel you. I need you."

Finally he gave into her, easily sliding a finger into her. There was resistance, but not as much as the first time he had entered her. Yet, she wanted more. She liked the feel of his massive hand on her, but they weren't what she hungered for now.

"Ben," she whined.

"Shhh, I know," he responded, his thumb applying pressure to her clit. Rey cried out and he thrust another finger into her cunt. "You're being so good, little one."

He lifted his head up, kissing her neck and then her lips. "So good." His words brushed over her mouth. "Just for me."

"Yes," Rey nodded, feeling the pleasure from his efforts taking over her. She was beginning to lose herself again, filled with his fingers and enjoying the texture of his wide tongue licking her skin.

There was something stirring deep within her. Her core clenched around his intrusion, the muscles seizing around him. She could feel each knuckle as Ben moved and when he hit a spot deep within her she saw fireworks.

Her release didn't come though. Ben slowed his pace, while focusing on her heaving chest. He took her nipple between his teeth and pulled. Rey let out a yelp, her back arching off the blankets. Ben placed a kiss to her red bud, soothing the area over with his tongue before repeating the same treatment to her other breast.

Rey had never felt so alive. Her entire body felt an electric sizzle lighting it up. It was as if she was feeling too much and not enough all at once. She never wanted it to end.

Ben scissored his fingers, causing Rey to jerk. The sensation was new and even though it sent pleasant shocks through her, the sudden change had startled her. Her eyes locked on Ben's. He released her breast, leaning back on his heels, placing his other hand on her hip to keep her still.

"Are you ready for me, Rey?"

God yes!

Biting her bottom lip, she nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak out loud.

"I want to hear you, little one."

Rey swallowed. She couldn't think beyond the sensations coursing through her form. Every inch of her was thrumming with energy. Her skin was flushed to the point a light sheen of sweat was now covering her.

"Rey."

"Yes!" She begged, her mind in a lustful haze. "Please, Ben."

Ben slid his fingers out of her and she groaned at the loss of the pleasurable stretch. It was only a momentary loss. The. The head of his cock was stroking up and down her entrance.

Rey lifted her head, half-lidded eyes taking in the scene before her. Ben was kneeling over her, propped up on one hand while the other held himself as he teased her slick folds.

"God, you feel so good, little one. Just for me."

"Just for you," she repeated, sensing the climatic build inside of her. The anticipation of how it would feel to take him in was causing her body to bristle with even more energy. She didn't want to wait any longer. "Ben, please."

Her request came out as a breathy whine and within the next second he was thrusting into her. Rey cried out, unable to control her vocal response. Ben placed one hand on her waist to keep her from shifting, he pulled back and thrust back in with a satisfied groan.

Rey clung to him as he canted his hips against her, drops of sweat falling from his brow and trickling down between her breasts. Neither cared. They were too lost in one another and the euphoric haze they had created for each other.

"So tight. So hot. So good." Ben spoke praise against her temple as he continued driving deeper and deeper into her.

He grabbed her for her legs one at a time, draping then over his shoulders. Rey cried out again, her fingernails digging into the flesh of his back as he pounded into her. The stretch was exquisite in a way his fingers could never achieve. As he relentlessly rammed into her, Rey felt the crescendo of her orgasm begin.

Then Ben hit her spot.

His eyes flew open and a curse spilled from his lips. Rey's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she let it a needy sound. Ben pulled nearly all the way out, leaving only the head of his cock within her before surging forward and hitting the same spot again.

"Ben!"

Rey screamed out his name. She was about to plummet, spiraling through waves of passion each more intense than the last and she did all she could to hold on.

"Come with me, little one," Ben instructed her, moving his hand to her center. "I want to feel you."

She couldn't respond, at least not verbally, but she locked eyes with Ben. In that second it was as if the entire world stopped around them. Rey felt him, everywhere regardless if he was touching her physically there or not. It was the most intimate moment of her young life.

The second ticked by and Ben snapped his hips one final time, sending them both descending into their joint release.

Rey felt boneless, as she laid back into the blankets, content if she never moved again. Ben lowered himself down on her, conscious enough not to collapse his full weight onto her. She carded her fingers through his hair, gently when he rested his head on her chest. She felt full and complete in a way she had never felt before. With Ben's weight on her, she also felt protected and safe.

He was all things to her and she had never felt as loved as she did in that moment.

They laid together in the quiet. The only sounds they were aware of was each other's labored breathing, as they slowly came down from their high. Ben recovered first, placing light kisses along her chest and every inch of her he could reach from his position. Rey giggled. Her body was spent and each kiss tickled her sensitive skin.

Eventually, they returned to the house, the practicality of their chosen spot to make love no longer escapable, as they both desperately needed to get cleaned up. They showered together in silence, still basking in their bliss, neither one willing to be parted from the other just yet. Afterwards, they slipped under the sheets, without bothering to dress and sunk into a dreamless, restful sleep.


Rey had't forgotten about Han's dice. When the Falcon was towed out of Plutt's Salvage and to the Organa-Solo household, Rey seized the opportunity to broach the topic with Ben once more. He had claimed he still had them and informed her he planned on putting them back in their rightful place — hanging from the rear-view mirror of the silver Ford.

Rey followed Ben to his room, watching as he went to his desk and retrieved the pair from the top drawer.

"Are they in here?" Rey asked, walking in after him.

It was her first time in his space. Since she had moved in, they had slept, showered, and stayed together in the guest room. They had never had a reason to use his room.

"Yeah, here." Ben dropped the golden dice into her hand.

Rey turned them over, inspecting the sides to see the markings. All that she saw where the typical dots, as if they were playing dice.

"What?" She turned them over again. She tried shaking them. She covered them up in her hands and then opened her palms to see them, but nothing changed. The dice remained normal.

Ben stared at her as she went about her process. After a few minutes, when her frustration started to be made known by her muttering of curses and other unsavory language, he placed his hand over hers.

"Rey?"

"They were etched into the dice," she insisted. "They didn't look this way before. Don't you remember?"

Ben suddenly blushed. "I...um...I never really looked at them much after you stole them. I was...," he trailed off, the red reaching up to the tips of his ears.

Had she not been so concerned about the changing markings, she would have known why. As it was, she was too preoccupied with figuring out the mystery of Han's golden token to understand Ben's embarrassment.

"Was what?"

He looked at her with the same disbelieving expression he had worn when his memories had come back. "I was too focused on you."

"Oh!" Rey's mind snapped away from her search and to the man before her. "Oh," she repeated again, quieter.

She stepped closer to him, cupping his face on her hands. "You always were there for me."

Ben turned his face into one of her palms, kissing it. "You're important to me. I never wanted you to be alone."

"I'm not anymore," she reminded him with a smile. "I have you."

"And you always will," he promised.


Even though Ben wasn't concerned about the markings, Rey continued to think on the mystery. It ate away at her for a couple of days before she decided she was going to the town library to try and determine the cause of the change.

On her day off from Snip's, she borrowed Ben's car to go to the library. It had taken a lot of convincing on her part for him to let her go alone. He was not prepared for what came at the end of the summer and as her move-in date came closer and closer, Rey realized she wasn't either.

Still, she needed to do this. She needed to know what power the dice had held. She wanted answers.

When she stepped into the library five minutes after it had opened, she was shocked to spot a friendly face behind the clerk's desk.

"Maz?"

"Rey!" The older woman greeted her with a pleasant smile. "Always the inquisitive mind. How are you dear?"

Her former principal looked as though she hadn't aged a day since Rey had graduated from Takodana Elementary. Nevertheless, Rey was excited to see the woman again.

"I got into Coreilla," Rey told her, proudly.

Maz beamed. "I always knew you were destined for great things." Then, noting Rey's backpack she raised an eyebrow. "Summer work or leisure?"

"Personal project," Rey admitted. "Do you have any books on markings? I'm thinking what I'm looking for maybe runes or hieroglyphs."

"I know just what you need," Maz motioned for Rey to follow her.

She piled Rey up with about seven different texts and showed her where the work desks were situated. "Call if you need anything, child. It's good to see you again."

"It's great to see you, Maz," Rey hugged her.

Once Maz returned to the counter, Rey got to work.

Rey drew out the symbols she could remember, studying them before she started paging through the books Maz had helped her find.

It took over an hour, but eventually she found a purpose for each of the symbols. The First was a triangular symbol with curved edges. According to the text, this meant Light. The next was a circle within a circle, which meant all things or in some translations, the universe. Then there was a square within a square which meant destructive power followed by a circle with a line through it. She couldn't tell if it was the symbol for man or woman.

She sighed, not feeling any closer to understanding the mystery behind the dice. If she had all the symbols from the dice she'd see the whole picture, but she could only remember a few.

Maybe if she had know who had given them to Han or why he had chosen to keep them in the Falcon with him, she'd be able to make sense of it all.

Maz came over to her table after Rey let out another frustrated sigh. "What is it, child?"

"None of this helps me," she complained. "I'm no closer to an answer than when I got here."

The old woman smiled over at her and patted her reassuringly on her shoulder. "Sometimes the answers we seek aren't behind us in the past, but ahead in our futures."

Rey wasn't sure what Max's guidance was supposed to mean, but she thanked her anyway.

"Out of curiosity, what were you looking for?" Rey pointed at the symbols she had drawn. "Runes?" Maz asked. "This style is ancient, older than what these books and documented."

"Do I need a different book?"

"No," Maz replied. "We wouldn't have anything that could help you with this. These marking are from a time long before you or I. Only a handful of people even remember them."

"Is there power in them?"

Rey had stumbled across magick in her search to determine how to unbind Kylo when he had still been with her at the salvage yard. Perhaps it was the cause of the dice's power over his demonic form?

"Indeed," Maz confirmed. "Each rune has a purpose and their combinations change that purpose depending on what they are matched with."

"So why would someone sketch these into a pair of dice?"

Maz's eyes widened. "You've seen these before?"

"Only in dreams," Rey answered. In fact it did seem like any memory she had of Kylo was fading away like a dream. Her time before coming to live at the Organa-Solo House was less vivid than the new memories she was making with Ben and Leia.

"Why does it matter to you?" Maz asked with a kind, knowing smile, "these markings? Why do they matter?"

"They called to me. They brought someone into my life who I care about."

"But you want to know why?"

"Yes," Rey nodded. "Why me?"

"Why not?" Maz countered.

Rey studied the woman, catching the amusement in her tone. "It was you!" She realized. "You were the one to give Han the dice!"

Max nodded. "When he was a boy he struggled a lot. He never met a disaster he didn't want to tango with but he was always able to scrape by."

"So what changed?"

Maz took a seat at the desk next to Rey. "He fell into some trouble when he was younger, before Leia got her hands on him and straightened him out." Rey made a face at that. "I worried about him so I carved the runes into the dice to keep him safe and away from any real harm."

"After awhile he started claiming they were lucky and he never went anywhere without them. They were in his pocket when he proposed to Leia and again when they got married. He hung them on Ben's crib when he was born and then in the Falcon...which is where I suspect you found them."

"I did," Rey admitted.

Maz nodded making a humming sound. "Come with me."

She led Rey away from her books and her desk behind the library counter into the back office. "I've kept this safe for a long time," she told Rey, shutting the door behind her, hurriedly. "If the dice called to you, then you are what will balance him, Rey."

"Him?"

"Ben."

Rey felt her heart beat increase as she stared at the older woman. "What?"

"Ben. He was as unbalanced as his father but the dice were always meant to balance the equation so they called to you. You are his. You calm him. You balance him."

She tried to comprehend what this woman was saying to her. She tried to make sense of what it Maz was alluding to, but Rey couldn't understand. How could she balance Ben when she hadn't known him? She had known Kylo. What did that mean?

"Rey?"

Maz must have read her confused face because she was reaching for her hand. Rey pulled back. There was a level of recognition on Maz's face she wasn't comfortable with.

"How? How did you know that?"

"It was his destiny," Maz told her calmly. "Surely by now you've felt it. Bens destiny was always meant to be another — one who understood him but could lead him to the light the same way his mother did to his father. After all, Ben Solo always had too much of his father's heart in him."

Rey took in a shaky breath. Hadn't she thought her and Ben were fated?

Yes.

Then why were Maz's words so worrisome?

Rey realized it was because nothing in her life had come without consequence. She had dove straight into her love of Ben because he was an extension of Kylo and Kylo had never let her down but what did she really know of Ben Solo? What did she know of them man who had claimed her heart and body?

"Don't be afraid, child," Maz comforted her. "This was destined long before you were born. Darkness rises and light meet it."

"What does that even mean?" Rey asked, too filled with emotion to think clearly.

"It means, child that while Ben Solo was given every thing, he was lost to us but you — you who suffered so great and lost so much — you were always meant for a higher purpose. You never allowed the tragedy of your life to consume you. You became your own hero, your own light. And by doing that, you became his as well."

Rey shook her head back and forth. "No, Ben saved me," she insisted.

"Did he?" Maz asked, amusement in her eyes once more. "Or did you save each other?"

And Rey saw the whole picture.

She saw each time Ben let his anger win over and how her presence was able to calm him. She saw how when she was mad or upset he was stable and unflinching — amazingly solid like a rock — serving as her foundation, just as she served as his.

Rey remembered each time Kylo had intervened on her behalf, seeing his intention to protect her as clearly as she could see Maz standing before her. She recalled how Ben had thrown himself at Plutt, getting between her and her foster father without pause. Nothing was as important to him as her and she realized with sudden clarity that nothing in her life would ever be as important as he was to her.

No one came close.

Ben Solo was her first and only love and he would be her love until her dying day. It was a truth she couldn't avoid and had no reason to want to.

Yet, there was one more question.

"You gave the dice to Han? Why would they work for Ben?"

Maz's eyes gleamed. "Always the inquisitive mind," she remarked. "Did you know Han willed both the Falcon and the dice to Ben?"

"No."

"He did," Maz informed her. "He didn't want his son to be without luck, especially after what happened with Snoke."

"Who is Snoke?"

"Ben's tutor."

Rey's eyes widened in realization. Ben had told her what had happened, one of the events in his life which had shrouded him in darkness, the same darkness Kylo had been made of.

"That man was a snake," Maz spat. "And Han...well he was never good with his words. But he took action."

"He did?"

Maz nodded. "Ben didn't know, Han went to the state board of education and filed a complaint, before Ben confronted his father. Han never told him because the board refused to take action."

Rey didn't want to believe no one would intervene on Ben's behalf, but she thought of Leia's reasoning and how her middle school teachers had not stepped up for her when she had been bullied. She knew all too well how broken the system was.

"And once Han died, Leia had no drive left. She was a widow with a son in long-term hospice care. All the fights she had made in her past meant little when she was faced with the reality of being left alone."

"So Snoke is still out there?" Rey asked, scared at the prospect.

"He meant an unfortunate end," Maz replied. "Once news of Ben's encounter got out, his other past and current students came forward. They won their case against him two years ago and he was killed during a prison riot."

It wasn't the justice Rey had hoped for, but she was relieved to know the monster who had harmed Ben and the others would never harm another child again.

Rey thought on Maz's words — it was a lot to process — but before she could ask the question still plaguing her, Maz answered it.

"Ben needed you, whether he realized it or not. And you needed him. You balance one another. When you are together, the magick I laced the dice with isn't needed. You draw upon your own power from each other."

Rey shook her head. "How is that possible? I don't even believe in-."

"There are powers in this world beyond our understanding," Maz interrupted her. "I only claim to know a few, but I do know this. The dice wouldn't have reverted back to their original state, if it wasn't meant to be."


As Rey drove back to the house, her mind was swimming with all she had learned. While she and her answer on the dice, Maz's belief that Rey and Ben were the balance which cancelled out the dices magick has her wondering. If they were able to render the runes ineffective, what did that make them?

Maz had told her not to worry, when she had sent her own her way, but Rey was concerned. Now that she knew she possessed raw power, she couldn't unknow it.

Once she arrived at the Organa-Solo house, she made a beeline for the guest bedroom. Ben was there, as she suspected he would be. He had fallen asleep on the bed, a textbook strewn over his stomach and a notebook off to his side. The pencil was on the floor, probably from being pushed off when he stretched out to sleep.

"Ben." She nudged him, gently, in dire need of speaking with him about what she had uncovered.

"Rey?" He blinked away his drowsiness, patting the spot next to him for her to sit down. "What is it?"

"Maz," she answered. Ben raised an eyebrow and she launched into her tale of what had transpired during her time at the library.

When she finished, she sat back, trying to gauge his response.

"Maz Kanata? The woman who lives over by the elementary school?"

"Yes," Rey nodded. "Do you know her?"

"She practically raised my father. She's somewhat of a surrogate grandmother of mine," he told Rey.

"Did you know she...," Rey gestures with her hands, attempting to make a signal for magick. "Did you know she could do things like that?"

"No," Ben admitted. "I always thought she was a bit off, but not in a bad way. She just always had a way of knowing things. As a kid it was kinda annoying because she always knew when I was lying but now..."

"Yeah," Rey agreed.

They both sat in silence for a few moments — both taking in what this meant.

"So what now?" Ben asked.

"I don't know," Rey shrugged. "Did you put the dice back in the Falcon?"

Ben nodded. "This morning."

"Then they are where they are meant to be," Rey replied, somehow knowing in her heart that was where the token was destined to exist.

"And us?" Ben questioned, interlacing his fingers with hers. "What are we meant to be, little one?"

"Together," she promised, leaning in to kiss him. "We're meant to be together."


A/N: Good news, for those who are sad this fic is coming to an end, the Epilogue is already in progress AND *drum roll, please* the lovey Panda has been commissioned to complete a piece for this story, so you'll have that to look forward to.