"You've changed your hair," Kylo said, not sure why the new configuration disturbed him at first glance. "And you're crying. Are you hurt?"
Rey wiped her eyes on her sleeves, then accepted the elegant black dinner napkin Kylo handed her from his table setting.
"No," she said hoarsely, "I don't really know why I'm so upset. I just had a lovely chat with your mum and she was so kind. Both your parents have been so kind to me, were so kind to me, Ben. You're so much like them, and your mum loves you so much."
Tears began to flow again, and Kylo was torn between comforting her and fleeing the awkward conversation.
He compromised by patting her on the shoulder, but she drew herself in until he held her. While her body shook in his arms, he examined her hair.
"How was she kind to you?"
"She said all these reassuring things about how I was wanted and valued, how my parents probably suffered from an addiction that prevented them from being able to care for me, that I have a family here now."
Kylo traced a complicated braid that ran across Rey's head like a band, holding the rest back. His heart felt heavy identifying it.
"And?"
"And we talked about how I haven't really mourned for the loss of my parents, who I thought they could be, the future I thought we could share if I waited long enough."
"I guess I put an end to those daydreams," Kylo said gently. "I don't regret it."
"No, but the general was right. This is the first time I've really slowed down and thought about it. And it's true, I may not have a homeland or a culture or relatives, but I have a family now."
"And it looks like they'll loan you some of theirs."
"What do you mean?" Rey asked, backing up enough to look him in the face with weepy eyes. Kylo ran his fingers over the bumps of her braid again, admiring the artistry.
"Did my mother braid your hair?"
"Mm-hm," Rey agreed. "I've never had someone do that before. It felt so soothing."
"This is a mourning braid," Kylo explained. "Women from Alderaan, they wear them after a loss. She may not be Alderaanian by birth, but the culture is important to her."
"I thought it was just a style. Your mum wears one all the time."
Kylo felt like he was going to be sick.
"She's grieving my father."
Rey bit her lip, and Kylo felt a complicated tangle of loss and regret and love.
"When I was young," he pushed on, "and Alderaan had only been destroyed a few years earlier, all the surviving women wore these large braids all the time." He gestured to around his head with one hand. "There was too much work to be done establishing a colony to lose themselves to grief. They kept moving, like Leia does."
"I feel like I could cry all night," Rey admitted, feeling not only her heartbreak but his.
"Here," he said quietly, scooping her up and carrying her to the bed. He laid her down gently in the middle, and curled up around her. It was by far the most intimate they'd been outside of dreams. "I only have an hour now before an evening meeting, but I'll come to you tonight."
Rey slept, not sure how long Kylo had been gone. He'd left two blankets on her to make up for his lost heat, and she didn't wake until there was a soft tap at her door.
"Ben?" she said groggily as the door opened.
"No, it's not Finn, dear, it's Leia. You missed today's brief and I wanted to make sure you were doing alright after our talk earlier."
Rey rolled over, realized Kylo wasn't there, and relaxed. Leia was dressed casually, more like a common soldier, only her signet rings betraying her rank and birth.
"Thank you, General, I was upset but I think I needed it. I'm sorry I missed the meeting."
"It's understandable, just don't make it a habit," the older woman said with a tired smile. Being maternal to Rey came easily, she soaked up the attention Leia had bestowed upon a chosen few since it had been rejected by her own child.
Rey stood, smoothing back her from where it had been mussed sleeping.
"I've probably ruined your pretty mourning braid, I'm sorry," she said regretfully.
A thoughtful expression filled Leia's eyes, thoughtful leaning towards troubled.
"Mourning braid? How... insightful of you to even know it was a thing to look up."
Rey spotted a slip of paper and a small coil of blue ribbon on the crate beside her bed a moment too late.
A token from your new family, of which I hope I may be considered a part. Alderaan-blue, to be plaited in.
The note was unsigned, but Ben Solo had not been gone so long that his mother couldn't tell his handwriting across a room.
Leia picked up the ribbon by the end, letting it cascade down.
"You don't have to tell me," she said firmly, wearing the voice of a general like a mask over her breaking heart. "I won't pry. But I hope you'll trust me enough to explain this."
Rey took the offered ribbon, feeling the silky fibre slide against her calloused palms.
"On Alderaan, young boys gave their sweethearts hair ribbons to initiate courting. This was the colour of my house."
"We've become friends, Ben and I," Rey blurted.
Leia locked the door, and gestured for Rey to sit on the bed. She took her son's note, held it tightly, watching the young woman compose herself.
"How are you communicating?"
"The Force connected us, though Snoke said he started it. After Starkiller, he'd just appear for a few minutes, and we'd talk. He- he seemed to understand me, even when all I could do was rage at him."
"What was Snoke's role in this?"
"He said he used Ben as bait to lure me in, that I wasn't wise enough to resist it," she said, feeling the stinging shame even now of being manipulated, a taste of what Kylo felt all the time.
"Bait how?"
Rey hesitated, but Leia pursed her lips, expecting her to continue.
"Snoke chose moments Ben was vulnerable and, I'm sorry, attractive, to make me think I could turn him, to want to turn him. Maker, I feel stupid."
"Rey, by your age I was already in love with a barely literate smuggler with a great smile and a smart mouth. I understand."
"Ben killed Snoke, but wouldn't leave with me. He wanted to stay, he asked-" Rey began to tear.
"He asked you to stay with him," Leia finished intuitively. "But you're still communicating?"
"At first we couldn't help it, even without Snoke, it seemed like the Force had us tied together. But now we're never really apart."
Rey wiped her eyes and gave Leia a steady look. "I understand if you think I'm a liability to the Resistance and need me to leave."
Leia took her hand.
"I have to think about it, no promises. But I do need to know, do you think he could turn? Rey I won't lie to you, if there's a chance of bringing him home I'll take it."
"He's so broken, it's hard to tell. I think Han almost had him convinced when his whole face changed, like something had possessed him. Maybe if you tried, now that Snoke is gone?"
"I once lived as a bounty hunter and infiltrated the lair of Jabba the Hutt to rescue Han. Solo men are hopeless, but I'd do anything for them."
The women talked and planned late into the night, bonded by their different loves for the troubled young man, and for his father.
"You know, Rey," Leia said, giving a finish pat to the complicated braid shot with blue silk that swirled over Rey's crown. "The amount of energy it must take the Force to bring you together across the galaxy could probably tear a planet apart, and here you are using it to flirt. Here's your mission: bring him home, any means necessary. The Force has bonded him with you, not me, so you're our best hope."
When Kylo finally returned, weary from numbers and bickering financiers, he relaxed at the sight of Rey in her bed. A tired smile crossed his lips when he saw the ribbon in her hair, not yet connecting the dots.
He stripped down to his pants, and slipped in next to her. Tracing the pattern of the plait, cold rushed through him, his stomach dropping. The pattern was a lover's knot, his mother's handiwork again. It was bridal.
Reaching out for the note he probably shouldn't have left, he checked to see if he'd foolishly signed it. No signature. Just four additional words scrawled in elegant, distinctive silver pencil.
I love you, Ben.
