AN: Hey guys, just wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you who reviewed the last chapter! I know it was a bit of a sad chapter and I was really happy to see you received it so well...so thank you thank you xxx

Rey pulled the sleeves of the dress up her shoulders. Slowly, the left hand first, and then the right. She took a deep breath, let it out. A single tear rolled down her cheek, she left it there, the wetness of it all too familiar. She didn't bother to wipe her tears anymore, they had become too often an occurrence. She hadn't cried that much in the years after her parents had left her, perhaps because she hoped they would come back; but now, it seemed that ever since she had found BB-8, she had spent her time crying. It was exhausting.

She smoothed her hands over the black, traditional dress, ran her hands over her torso. Rey hated the dress, she hated the colour, hated what it represented. She balled her fists, roughly grabbing the material with her hands. She took a deep breath: in and out. She opened her fists, let the material escape her fingers and smoothed her hands over it once again. She took a few steps towards the mirror.There were dark circles around her eyes. Her eyes themselves were red and irritated; mostly tired. She ran a hand through her hair that was loose down her back. She then pulled the hair away from her face and braided it.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, momentarily fogged by the mist of her breath, before it cleared again. The mirror fogged again with every exhale of air. It was a constant cycle, mist and clarity, vagueness and sureness, the known and the unsure. It felt accurate, like a metaphor. There were a few things she knew for sure: that today was Leia's funeral, that her chest felt heavy and broken, and that the whole of the Resistance had been shaken up to its core. The things she could only be half sure of were these: that Leia was at peace, that the Resistance will find new hope, that she will be alright.

Rey lifted her finger and drew a line on the fogged mirror; in moments, it was gone. She breathed on the mirror, drew the line, but it disappeared again. That's how chasing after Ben had felt like for the past couple of days. She had reached out to him, so many times, reached out to try and understand what he was feeling. Sometimes, she felt she was close, really close, to establish a connection, to see him through the Force; it never went through in the end. Other times, she felt like she could reach out to him, to what he was thinking, what he was feeling, but she had never had confirmation, and she wondered if maybe she'd put those feelings into the ghost of him that she'd created. The truth was that she hadn't been able to reach him since she'd helped Leia connect to him. She had been there for the first minutes of their Force bond, when their connection had been too frail to only rely on Leia's strength; but she bad completely let go when Ben had taken over, so eager to help his mother. It had given her hope; she only hoped it wasn't in vain. After speaking to her son, Leia had lived a few hours longer, finally breathing her last when she was surrounded by all her dear friends, with Poe and Rey holding her hands and Chewie by her side. It had been a glorious and sad moment. Rey had felt her become one with the Force and hoped she was at peace, she had told everybody that she was; it had felt like the right thing to say. She could carry the burden of unsureness all by herself.

Rey opened the tap and washed her face with cold water. It was time to face the music. She punched in the code and the doors of her room slid open;outside of her bedroom was an eerie silence. It had settled in the night the Princess died, and Rey didn't think it would go away any time soon.

A*A*A

Rey walked besides the large, mahogany casket. Her steps were small and determined, in line with those carrying the casket. The ceremony demanded they walk the whole way to the cemetery, where they would burry her body and read an honorary note written by the general. Leia had been the general, there was nobody there to write an eulogy for her, so Poe had done it instead. Right now, he was supporting the casket on the opposite side of Rey, his gaze ahead. She was realived he didn't look to her for comfort, because in this moment, she doubted she could provide any. She stared ahead as well and focused on walking straight; there was still a while to go. She tightened her hold on the flowers in her hand and breathed, in and out; just a little while longer.

The humming in her ears started of so faint, so hesitant, that she thought she had imagined it at first. But then it grew louder, more persistent, a constant sound in her ears that accompanied the vibrations in the Force around her. Again, very faint and weak in the beginning, but gradually, they had transformed into an even rhythm, the pulsation of a heartbeat. She felt the cord inside of her stretch out and extend to the man now walking besides her; quietly and in sync. She held her breath. Ben was walking besides her, dressed in a white tunic, his gaze ahead. He glanced sideways at her, a silent hello, before he returned his gaze to the road. Rey let the air out of her lungs in a shaky breath.

Rey turned sideways a bit, just the slightest bit, to be able to look at him properly. He was dressed in something that resembled Jedi clothing, but she assumed that's not what it was. It must have been what he wore as a boy, what he had worn as an apprentice. He had chosen to honour his mother by giving up his dark clothing, his black hood and gloves, if only for today; but Rey was grateful. She was grateful that he had done that, grateful that for today, for now, Ben Solo was alive, back to them, back to the Light.

In a moment of wild hope, Rey let go of the flowers she was holding with both hands and let one hand, her left hand, the one that was next to him, fall to her side. Their fingers brushed against each other slightly when she did so, a feather like touch. She swallowed hard; so did he, neither of them looking at the other. Rey felt a desperate need grow in her heart, the need to know she was not alone, the need for him to tell her so. Helpless in the face of such need, Rey's pinky finger reached out to Ben's hand. The tip of her finger brushed against his skin for a few seconds, a rhythmic motion, back and forth, before she lost the courage and retracted her hand altogether.

Ben missed the warmth of her skin instantly. The touch of her hand had been so brief that he wondered if he had imagined it, if that whisper of a touch had all been in his mind. He had to know for sure, clenching his jaw, he willed his fingers to find hers. They did, her hand closer than he had thought it would be, his fingers bumping into her hand. He wondered if she knew, if she understood that he had wished to touch her gently, yet the emotions inside of him were too forceful, they had always been. In that moment, he had felt so awkwardly angled, so full of sharp edges, edges that would scratch and dent the surface of her smooth skin.

But Rey didn't care about that. She had opened her palm fully, taking in all of his hand, the callouses on her skin aligning with his. It was as if she was saying, Look, I've got sharp edges too.

His fingers started exploring the inside of her hand, the tips of his digits tracing the lines in her palm, each one of them a road he wished to explore. It was insane, a distortion of reality, how close he could feel to her with so very little contact, and how at peace. Ben closed his eyes momentarily, letting out a deep sigh. She had almost made him forget the aching; almost. His fingers stopped their exploration and just stood there, motionless against her own.

Rey interwove her fingers with his, closed her palm around his, locked herself to him.And it had been as simple and as complicated as that.

AN: soooooo, I really hope you like it and...I'm just gonna put it out there...there is a surprise coming up in the next chapter! As always, let me know what you think about this chapter :) I love reading your comments xxx