The two weeks following Kylo's visit passed treacherously slow for Serela.
Everyday she woke and went about her chores and errands, teaching the children, tilling the garden, preparing the food and consuming it, and everyday she looked around every corner hoping that when she id Kylo would be back early and ready to kiss her again.
She still flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and excitement when she recalled the kiss. Based on what she had been told by Lana and other village girls, the one they had shared was quite chaste. Knowing this still didn't stop her from fantasizing about repeating the act, the thought leaving her with an unfamiliar warm, tingly feeling all over.
Reha still avoided the topic of Kylo in general as much as possible, offering her opinion infrequently unless asked for it. In many ways, life had resumed the same as it had been before.
That morning he had left with Serela she'd watched from the window the entire time, from the door shutting and them taking a path through the ferns, to her daughter finally, thankfully returning an hour or so later, her face still red.
She had been so worried, watching Serela walk off with him, knowing what her daughter had told her, but still knowing even deeper in her heart that she could not foresee the future. While her daughter might be possibly the purest Child of Light in existence, she could still be a fallible human being, blinded by her emotions and the brown eyes of a cute boy, regardless of his obvious unsuitability.
Serela walked around the cottage and her surroundings in a dreamlike state, flitting from place to place with the air of someone so overwhelmingly happy it permeated her every action.
Her lessons with the children were now filled with questions about him.
"How is Kylo?"
"When is Kylo coming back?"
"Will we see Kylo at the festival?"
She answered these same questions over and over again, always amused that the children were almost equally as excited about his return as she was.
As she and the young women of the village rehearsed their steps, her steps, the importance of the festival took on new meaning for her. This was her chance to show him her home, and all the people in it, for him to see her planet and her people as more than untamed pioneers in a vast forestland.
"Someone must be excited for the festival in a few days," the women teased good-naturedly. Word spread fast in a village of this size and children are terrible at keeping in exciting news. By the time Kylo had flown off the morning after meeting the children everyone in the surrounding area had already known he was there.
Hoping to give him more anonymity in a sea of rustic folks, Serela had scrounged up some old clothes of her father's to help him also blend in on his infrequent visits. His Senator's robes would have been too auspicious in a place where most families had three sets of clothing to choose from, and upon his death her mother had packed the few shirts and pants she'd kept for him and put them in a box up in the barn, out of sight now that they were out of use.
Serela had uncovered the box, blowing the years of dust off the top before opening it to pull out the plain brown work clothes worn by so many men of Takodana. She held up the garments, trying to guess if they would fit Kylo. Her father had not been nearly as tall as him, and Kylo stood almost a full foot taller than Serela herself.
An old memory surfaced, of her hugging her father on his last visit here before word reached them of his death. It had been her 16th birthday and he'd managed to get away for two whole days, giving his wife some unknown excuse for what could call him away from his work and family for that long, but it had worked.
They had walked for hours together in the woods, her questioning him incessantly about his life on Naboo, his wife, her half-brothers and sister. His other daughter had made him a grandfather the year before, and she'd listened with rapt attention as he described the baby in detail, from her tiny fingers and toes to the way she held his thumb in her whole fist and blew bubbles with her spit.
She had hugged him when he left, a long, hard hug as he apologized for being away for 6 months this time, and promised that he would visit again sooner, 3 months at the most. He had died one month later, but she still remembered that visit and their final hug with such appreciation. As far as goodbyes went, although she did not have much experience with them, it had been a good one.
Her tree was still a refuge for her, and she meditated under it everyday, still consulting with her inner voice that Kylo had called 'the Force.' It almost felt to her that knowing the correct name for it now strengthened her connection to it. Every day as she sat there it was as if the air around her hummed with energy from the Light, seeping into her pores and filling her whole body til it felt fit to burst.
The day before the festival was the first time she considered that he might not come. The horrifying thought occurred to her as she looked in vain again outside her kitchen window that morning, hoping to see Kylo's tall, dark silhouette striding toward her front door with a smile.
Sighing, she sat down on the kitchen bench, pressing her cheek against the warm wood and trying not to leak a tear at the sudden bout of insecurity. She didn't want to misjudge him, but she didn't want to be naive either.
As she laid there with her head on the table, she reminded herself that she did not know him very well, and if he did not return, it might be the Light sparing her from something far worse than a broken heart. Even though she did not want to admit it to herself, her mother's admonition to ask him how many lives he had taken lingered in her mind, always at war with the Light part of him that she saw so clearly every time they were together.
Yes, she would survive without him if he did not come back, life could and would go on, and her mother would certainly be happier for it, but the question was, would Serela?
He landed the TIE fighter further away this time, trying to leave it closer to the ruins of the castle to give him the element of surprise, in case she was periodically checking his former spot for the ship.
The vibrant greenery fluttered all around him as he trekked through the forest, millions of leaves quivering wistfully in the breeze.
Kylo had left his mask in the ship, but in the absence of owning any clothes other than the black ensembles he wore everyday he had come in his normal robes.
Even though he had logged the coordinates of her cottage in case he had trouble finding it again, today he was able to follow the path from memory, retracing each of their steps with ease from the charred remains of his last makeshift parking spot to the ferns they had traipsed through in the space surrounding much of their homestead.
A flash of white caught his eyes as he neared the property, and as he came closer he saw it was Reha and Serela, their slender arms hanging up sheets on the clothesline. He smiled as the memory of his first vision flashed in front of him, Reha doting over a baby Serela whilst pinning the clothes on the line, her characteristically absent father standing nearby, there for one of his rare visits as his infant daughter cooed and babbled in a basket at his feet.
It was ironically Reha who saw him first. He watched as she seemed to say something out of the corner of her mouth to her daughter, and he saw Serela whirl around towards him, her eyes seeming to light up as she forgot about the sheet she was hanging and looked at him.
Kylo smiled and lifted his hand in a wave, already feeling the last two weeks of anger and darkness beginning to ebb away from him.
Surprising all three of them, Serela impulsively picked up her skirt and ran towards him, her long hair freshly unbraided that morning and bouncing as she did.
He wrapped his arms around her as soon as she reached him, holding her close against his chest and bending down to smell her hair. She smelled of new-tilled dirt, clean clothes and wildflowers; a heady combination.
Kylo wanted to kiss her again now, but knew that Reha was watching not so discreetly from behind one of the sheets. Instead, he opted to give her a warm smile, his insides melting a little when she took his hands into hers.
"Hi," she murmured, her cheek against his chest listening to the soft drumming of his heartbeat.
"Hi."
"I thought maybe you weren't coming," she admitted.
Alarmed, he looked down at her, "Am I too late? Did I miss it?"
Serela laughed, a beautiful sound, "No but I just started to worry after two weeks of not hearing from you."
Kylo released a sigh, holding her tighter to him, "I told you I would. I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
Releasing one hand but keeping the other firm in her grasp, she started to lead him back towards the cottage where he mother stood, hands on hips, waiting for them.
The rest of the late morning he spent helping the women in the kitchen, watching as they chopped, cut, measured and poured, and trying his own hand at mixing things to the right consistency as they instructed.
Reha told him that everyone who came to the festival from the village was supposed to bring one dish per adult in the family, and he noted with some guilt that they were making three things in the kitchen today: a plate of scones that tasted better than any pastry he had ever eaten in his life, a soup made of vegetables grown entirely from their garden, and a black pudding, which he couldn't help but feel was made to signify himself and his dark presence in their house and what Reha obviously viewed as a plague upon her daughter's life.
Serela and him did their best to ignore her mother's hostility toward him, and when the cooking was done and the laundry put away and the garden tended and all the chores Reha could possibly think up were done, they set out into the woods together for a long walk, talking and laughing more than either had done for weeks.
When they were far enough away from the cottage that they could no longer see her mother's shadow in the kitchen window staring off after them, he turned to face Serela and brought his hand to cup her cheek, "I missed you."
He wanted very much to kiss her again, and she wanted very much to be kissed, but neither had wanted her mother to see them and sour the moment.
"I missed you too," she smiled up at him, waiting to see if he would do it.
He bent his head lower and pressed his forehead to hers. They were so close, and she could feel his warm breath on her face and his arms around her back, hugging her body to him tightly.
Serela bit her lip, wanting so badly for him to close the last few centimeters between them and kiss her like she had dreamed about every night these past two weeks. As they stood there, foreheads touching and her arms tentatively wrapping around his waist, the very air around them seemed to go still and quiet with the poignancy of the moment. It was as if all the woods were holding its collective breath, and when he finally kissed her it exhaled.
At first the kiss was gentle, sweet and chaste like the one before, and she had pressed herself against him out of sheer instinct, wanting only to be as close to him as humanely possible. Against her stomach she felt something hard that seemed to be growing larger, and she felt an exhilaration though she did not understand why or what it was, she only allowed her stomach to rub against it once more, to see if she could determine it.
Then something changed in Kylo. He deepened the kiss, and her world seemed to suddenly shift, as if being suddenly turned on its head with the force of his mouth. His tongue traced her lips and she parted her mouth in surprise, allowing it entrance. He proceeded to invade and devour her mouth with it, his hand on her cheek moving to the back of her head to hold herself to him as his other gripped her waist, a burgeoning need inside of him to take the moment even deeper, but knowing this was not the time or the place.
Reluctantly, he pulled his face away from her and held her face in his hands. Serela's lips were swollen and parted, looking as though she'd just been interrupted from a deeply pleasurable dream she was not ready to wake up from.
Both panting, Kylo used every bit of willpower he had to put his hands on her shoulders and back away from her for a second, trying to recompose himself before they did something rash.
Unsure of what to say, Serela looked to him to see how he would respond, wanting to kiss him again and feel her world turn over and over as she held on for dear life, but knowing that there was something deeper to the breathlessness they both felt, as though this were only a precursor to something much bigger and greater. Something much more powerful than just kissing.
"That was... incredible," Kylo finally spoke, his usual composure returning now. Once he knew he had himself under control he offered his gloved hand to her, pulling her close to him, but not too close.
"Yes," she breathed in agreement, still feeling dizzy.
"We should get back soon, before dark or your mother will worry and came chasing after us."
His light-hearted joke broke the tension and she laughed, squeezing his hand and following his lead as they turned back down the path towards the cottage, the last lights of day slowly fading behind them.
That night Reha made Kylo sleep in the barn again, and she had made sure Serela did not leave the house with him to walk there. She reminded her daughter that it was not as though he needed an escort anymore since he surely knew the way by now.
Perturbed, and disappointed at the thought of not getting another kiss, Serela stayed in her room, humming and stitching a needlework she had started last week, wanting to be in her own company for awhile she had explained.
Reha tried to tamp down the noise in her heart and head that said this visit would be somehow pivotal in her daughter's life. Something was about to shift the course of her future irrevocably, and although she wanted to stop her daughter with every fibre of her being from making a huge mistake, she remembered her own mother's words when she had told her she wanted to leave.
"Your father and I don't think it's a good idea for you to go."
"But, Mother..."
"BUT, you are a young woman now, and you must make a young woman's choice and a young woman's mistakes, but understand that they will come with a WOMAN'S consequences. The world will not give you mercy for mistakes because of your age, so think carefully through your choices and then be prepared to stand behind them come what may."
The words which had rang so true for her, as she'd begun an affair with Titus, and decided to choose her daughter over her freedom, still resonated now.
Serela would have to make her own choices. A young woman's choices, and no matter what Reha did, sooner or later if her daughter was going to choose this dangerous man, she would choose him. Reha could do everything in her power to separate them, but at what cost? Perhaps the loss of her daughter.
As she peered through the open crack in her daughter's doorway she studied her beautiful face, deep in concentration with her work, but also clearly in distress. Reha could almost see the thoughts tumbling over and over in her daughter's mind as she covertly watched her.
When she finally retired to bed, she called goodnight from the kitchen and put out the fire in the hearth, listening for a goodnight from Serela as well which never came. She went to investigate and discovered her daughter already asleep, her body on top of the covers and her candle melted almost all the way down to the stick.
Shaking her head with a smile, she turned down the covers beneath her daughter and covered her with them, pinching the wick of the candle and casting out the last light in the room before returning to her own.
Lying there in bed, Reha resolved that tomorrow, she would do better in her interactions with Kylo. There was no way she would trust him, or indeed, even like him, but for her daughter's sake and whatever was to come from her relationship with him, she knew her daughter would need her to be there, and be strong for her.
And being strong was all she knew how to do.
The next day passed in a flurry of activity. From the moment they awoke, Serela and her mother busied themselves preparing things for the Festival. Serela's dress had to be fitted just right one last time, her hair double-checked for knots and the dancing flags and streamers inspected and approved before the show tonight.
Kylo walked down early, still in his characteristic black ensemble, and Serela remembered with delight that she had set aside her father's clothes for him. After some embarassed reluctance, Kylo agreed to try them on and Reha allowed him to use her room to change in.
He'd walked out and both the women had stared, noting just how different he looked in an outfit not entirely consisting of black. His pale skin in the basic brown tunic and loose-fitting pants seemed to warm under the earth tones, giving him a less intimidating appearance.
Even Reha seemed to warm up to him more.
"There, now you look more like a man and less like a harbinger of death."
Kylo smiled at the joke, looking down at himself and trying to remember the last time he had worn anything like this. It had certainly been years.
Soon they were walking to the village, Kylo pulling along the wagon carrying the food they had made, the costumes and dance props that Serela promised he would see in action when it came time to get dark.
The huts and other small cottages all lined the narrow streets and most were built very tightly together, the spaces between houses sometimes no longer than his height, but the children he'd seen her teach roamed the streets freely, weaving zig zag patterns along the road as they yelled out greetings to him and Serela, trying to catch each other in fierce games of tag.
"Kylo! You're wearing regularclothes!"
"Serela, my mother made 5 loaves of bread for tonight, she said her hands are going to fall off."
"Are you going to dance with all the ladies of the town tonight?"
"When can we start eating."
Serela and Kylo laughed and smiled at each other knowingly at their unending questions, Reha watching from behind them as she walked beside the cart, observing their body language with each other.
The road through the village turned left toward a large opening shrouded by more trees and devoid of anything the middle but grass and a wide assortment of tall torches poking out of the ground in an intricate pattern, leaving one large circle in the middle where Serela informed him the performances and dancing would be.
Long tables were off to the side with benches ready for food to be placed on them and consumed in a matter of hours. It wasn't long before Kylo was recruited by a few of the village men to use his height to help hang up decorations, great large banners and strands of multi-colored pennants adorning the trees and giving the place a definite festive feel.
Reha and her daughter were hard at work with the other woman setting the tables, laying out dishes and utensils and the food that people brought more and more as the sun began to set. Within a few hours the tables were all filled with hungry faces of children and adults alike, all waiting for the blessing to be given so they could dig in.
When finally old Toger stood and gave the blessing, so many stomachs were rumbling and his voice was so soft and frail that most could not even hear it, but when those closest to him began to pick up their food and eat it set off a chain reaction down each of the tables as the people began to feast.
Children who ate their fill fast stood up to run and chase each other through the tables and torches, some coming to Serela asking to sit on her knee for awhile and she always obliged them, sometimes offering Kylo's knee if hers were both already full.
By the time dinner had finished they each had one child on each knee and Reha watched the shift in his appearance as he sat there with her daughter. This was a look at the kind of life she had wished for her, a life that radiated peace and goodness, love and a fruitful marriage filled with many children. Things she had hoped her daughter would choose, and yet her mother's words hung around her like a shroud, reminding her of the importance of allowing her to make her own choices, and to help her stand by them if she could.
When Kylo was distracted for a moment with something the children had said to him, she leaned over and whispered in her daughter's ear, "I will be staying in town tonight with the Papool's, you will have the cottage to yourself" she watched Serela as the meaning of her words sunk in, "Please make whatever choices you think you will look back on fondly and not with regret."
Her daughter's mouth looked at her agape for the briefest of seconds before one of the children snuggled onto her lap groaned in her sleep and she looked down at her tiny face deep in slumber. This, this was what she wanted. A life and a family with a man she loved, here on Takodana, or maybe even somewhere else eventually. She wanted the choices to be easy, for life to spread out before her in an obvious direction of which path to take, but she knew from her mother's words that life would show her no such path, she would have to discover it for herself.
Eventually the parents began to come and claim their children from Serela and Kylo's knees, taking the especially young ones like the small girl who had fallen asleep on Serela's shoulder home to put in bed before returning for the fun.
When the night was finally dark, and Kylo could only see the faces of the villages illuminated by the lines and rings of torches, he felt Serela slip away with a smile, "Watch for me," she whispered, and was gone.
The villagers began to rise from the tables, heading in the direction of the open area alive with light from the large bonfire they had built in the center. A few minutes later, a silence fell as everyone turned their attention to the largest ring of torches, and Kylo heard the low beating of a drum.
It's cadence thrummed through him rhythmically, it had been so long since he'd heard music of any kind. The sound of a second drum joined the first, and then the melodic chanting of many of the villagers, beginning to sing a song in a language he had never heard but they all seemed to know by heart.
Gradually, from between each of the torches, a ring of young women appeared and walked toward the centre in unison, their bare feet shuffling through the cool grass.
One of them went into the centre of the ring, and Kylo recognised it as Serela, her long hair and the firelight giving her a wild, tameless look as she stood strong and beautiful, the reflections of the fire glinting in her eyes.
"We, the people of Takodana, as servants of the Light, offer up this, our performance to the powers of the Light, and hope that it will bring honor to it's power and authority, in the lives of all who view it."
The drums had increased in meter throughout all this and at the end of her words they suddenly stopped, and the women in the circle all bowed low to the ground, Serela included.
It felt like minutes stretched on as they waited for the music to begin again, but the dancers were only increasing the tension, allowing the anticipating to build before the first beat sounded.
When the first heavy drum beat sounded, the women all sprang up, their arms lifted to the sky, their bodies poised as if temporarily in flight. As their feet reclaimed the ground beneath them the drums set off on a dangerous fast tempo, the women jumped and pranced and flew from side to side in such synchronization there were times when he lost track of which ones Serela was, as they spun in circles and their long hair flew around them like a cape.
From the neckline of their dresses the women plucked the colored scarves that Kylo had seen in the cart, and holding one end in each hands the women wove together in a tangled web of color and motion, their bodies subject to the whims of the music and the beat of the drums.
At last the tempo increased to such a rapid pace that it left little doubt the song was ending soon. The dance become more erratic, their motions a haze of moving limbs and flying colors. Finally, the music reached its crescendo, and the women sank back to the grass, their bodies motionless and still.
Applause rang out from what seemed like every corner, even the trees themselves seemed to be clapping as a strong breeze came through, rustling the leaves so hard they almost seemed to rattle on their branches.
As the women rose from their places new music began to play and the rest of the villagers began to join in, the circle quickly filling as people began to enjoy the festival for themselves now that their food had long since settled.
Serela came up to him, and looking at him smile, her mother's words came up unbidden in her mind.
I will be staying in town tonight... you will have the cottage to yourself.
She pulled him out into the circle and urged him to dance, which he tried without much success. Wanting to enjoy this moment she had with him, she laughed and stamped her feet in accordance with the beat, his deep eyes watching her every move with an almost reverence.
When Glaf the barman came out, offering free drinks of Ebla fresh from the Inner Rim to all who were of age and interested, Serela reached out for two and handed one to Kylo.
"Just this once," she grinned at him, and swigged the drink without much thought, relishing the way her blood seemed to be lit on fire as it filtered down her throat. It felt, she noted, much like it had when Kylo had kissed her in the woods yesterday before he had pulled away.
She paused then, and he noticed and brought his drink away from his lips, looking at her doubtfully, trying to read her mind.
Serela dropped her half empty cup on the grass and reached for his hand, "Come with me," she ordered, and he dropped his to obey her without delay.
Author's Note. GUYS, the next chapter with be smuttyyyy. If you don't like, skip it, I can promise you won't miss anything except a whole lot of getting down and dirty. If you've only been reading this waiting and hoping for smut, you're in luck, because I'm about to deliver.
Also, please remember to star or comment on chapters that you like. I posted this a week ago on Wattpadd and in that time it's gotten 115 views. I posted it last night on and in less than 24 hours it's gone over 1000. (I mean, DAMN) While it's nice to be validated that there are other people out there nursing a big weakness for Kylo Ren in spite of his daddy issues, I'd appreciate so much a bit of validation that people are in fact reading because they like the story or hear their suggestions. Sooo that's it, rant over. Time to proofread the smut and post it! ;)