Small hands laced through the thick fur and clutched tightly to it as the Wookie rumbled a laugh. He looked down at the floor and felt his head spin at how high off the ground he was. The hands held on tighter as he shut his eyes tightly.

"Chewie, I think he's scared of the height," his mother's soothing voice sounded behind him.

He shook his head, and his dark curls fell into his eyes. "I'm not scared!" He glared at Leia but quickly had to close his eyes again.

"Nah, you aren't scared, are you, bud? Ben just wants to play with his blaster." He nodded vigorously, and Han took him from Chewie's arms.

His feet touched the floor, and he ran across the Millennium Falcon, his three-year-old legs pumping furiously across the moaned something to Han as Ben grabbed his toy blaster. He pressed a finger against the trigger but paused as the familiar painful pressure converge on his head. He nearly dropped the blaster as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Ben Solo…

"Ben? Honey?" Leia knelt next to him and wrapped her arms around his small body. He gripped her white shirt and felt a tear slide down his face against his will.

The pain returned almost daily as Ben turned five. Han and Leia's raised voices floated through the shut door. He curled up in his bed as his head pounded, hugging the stuffed Ewok to his chest.

I can help you.

The shouting grew louder, and Ben caught snatches of "the Force isn't helping him! He can't make friends like normal kids!"

They don't understand what it's like to be special. To have your abilities. Only I do.

He stared at his reflection in the mirror. His face had lost the chubbiness of childhood prematurely, and his dark hair framed his pale features. Han had left again, and Leia trusted her ten-year-old to stay by himself in their apartment she attended to some matter of state.

They don't care. They think you a monster. Why else would they leave?

He could acutely feel Han's disappointment every time he displayed any of his Force abilities. Even his mother was wary of how he could lift fully grown adults or easily read the emotions of others. His eyes fell on the holographic trophy for junior marksman. An event in which he had beaten boys several years his senior. An event in which Han had been absent.

Perhaps you're not as special as I thought. A pity. I thought we could grow together.

Ben shook his head and raised the cooking knife he had taken from the kitchen. The blade sliced through the top of his hand, and he numbly watched the line of blood drip down his skin.

"Ben!"

Leia's scream spread throughout the open space in front of the base. Kylo Ren turned to see his mother on the ground, a blaster hole smoking from her chest.

Hux's lips curled into a sneer. "So good of you to lead us straight to the Resistance." He shot twice more without a glance at Leia, and a roar ripped from Kylo's lips. He was on top of the general in an instant, his saber raised to kill when suddenly it was Rey underneath his weight. He faltered, and Rey bared her teeth in an uncharacteristic snarl and pressed the blaster pistol against his hip.

He fell back against the ground, sticky blood pouring from the wound that he oddly could not feel. A green Twi'lek grinned over him, her eyes sparkling with lust. Her knee pressed into the wound as she straddled his waist. "I always get what I want." He could not lift his arms, could not move a muscle, and her lips neared his.

Kylo started from his sleep, his heart hammering in his chest. His fingers curled around the sheets beneath him, and he shut his eyes as he tried to control his breathing. His head pounded, and he pulled on the Force to reassure himself that Snoke's presence was indeed gone for good.

"Kylo…" Rey's voice sounded groggy next to him. Her hand drifted lightly over his back, and she pulled one of her blankets over his shivering body. They lay in silence for several moments, and Kylo dug his nails into his palm. The sharp sting of pain convinced him that Rey was not a dream. He had a wife, four young Force-sensitives were loyal to him and the Jedi Order, and he no longer served a dark master – if he did not count the Senate.

The nightmares had gotten so intense in the past week that they had needed to move Arian out of their room. The child picked up on Kylo's distress, and because he did not know the terror came from the dreams of another person, none of them got much sleep.

His hand slipped down to press against the rounded scar on his left hip. It was old now, but he distinctly remembered Hux shooting him. The First Order general would have died if Kylo had a functioning lightsaber at the time. "They're getting worse…"

"I… I dreamt you almost killed me," Rey whispered softly. Her hand stopped running over his back. "I shot you…"

Kylo turned to face his wife and slowly ran his fingers through her loose hair. "That day she died…" He swallowed past a lump forming in his throat. "Hux turned into you…"

His heart still thudded loudly in his chest, and he took a slow breath that shuddered, much to his dislike. He tipped his head to glance at the new chronometer next to the bed. "Go back to sleep. I'll be fine."

Rey sat up slowly and brushed her hair away from her face. "You won't sleep. I doubt I will either." She took his hand as he moved to sit up next to her. "Tell me about it?"

Kylo shrugged, feeling the tension in his shoulders and back as he gripped Rey's hand tightly. "It was what I usually dream, except it continued to that day… and then Kilnetel…"

Rey's hand tightened around his at the mention of the Senator, and she ran her thumb lightly over the scar running across his skin. "She… tried something?"

Kylo's free hand dragged through his hair, and he realized just how much he had moved in his sleep as his fingers caught in tangles. "I would never allow that to happen, Rey."

She snorted softly and pressed a soft kiss to his jaw. "You're far too smitten with me to play along with a creepy Twi'lek who can't keep her eyes to herself."

His lips pulled into a smile, and he turned to kiss Rey gently. She let go of his hand and slowly brought it up to the base of his neck. Her fingers kneaded gently into his muscles, and Kylo rested his forehead against hers. "You know me so well."

"Poe tried subtly hinting that you're terrifying when she came here with Arian," Rey laughed softly before her expression turned serious. "I think that backfired a little."

Kylo raised an eyebrow slowly as he felt Rey's fingers slide to his left shoulder. "Should I get a replica of my old mask?"

"Oh, I think you need to get your full Knight of Ren outfit." She shifted to use both of her hands on his shoulders. "We could both get masks and scare the green out of her."

He felt the tension slowly begin to dissolve as he gave a low laugh. How his wife managed to stay so positive and hopeful most of the time, he never knew. He could never do enough to fully deserve her.

They fell into a comfortable silence as Rey's fingers massaged down his back. Her hands hesitated as they reached the lace of scars running chaotically across his lower back. Kylo felt his muscles tense again in self-consciousness as her fingertips traced one that crossed down from his right side to his left hip.

Although their bond allowed them to share thoughts and images, Kylo carefully kept most of the memories of his injuries away from Rey. He did not need to trouble her with the life he had led before they met. He could feel her unspoken question, however, as his wife's hands worked over the scarred skin. "Snoke... When he noticed I had a moment's thought of defecting, he decided mental pain was too temporary."

If the room had not been quiet, Kylo would have missed the soft growl that came from Rey's throat. "He's gone now." Her arms wrapped around his middle from behind, and he felt her head rest against his upper back. "We should go away together for a few days. We haven't had our honeymoon."

Kylo's hand ran through his hair of its own accord. "I don't think we should leave the Padawans yet."

Rey kissed the base of his neck and moved to lean back against the headboard. "You're far too serious sometimes. Relaxing might minimize the nightmares. And so that you can finally mediate to find Eeth."

He looked back at her, sensing mixed emotions from his wife, and he realized Rey was shaken by her own dream of shooting him. He untangled himself from the covers and slipped on a loose shirt.

Rey crossed her arms over her chest. "And where do you think you're going at two in the morning?"

"We are going to the kitchen." Kylo took her hand, and Rey gave a soft laugh as he pulled her to her feet.

"I haven't eaten this early in the morning since I kept strange hours on Jakku," she whispered as they made their way down the hall. They passed the open sitting room, and Kylo caught a glimpse of two figures curled up on two separate couches. Crumpled blankets lay sprawled over the floor.

They found the other two Padawans as Kylo ducked his head to pass through the archway leading into the kitchen. Two glasses of blue milk rested in front of Jessika and Sonzy, and they looked up in surprise as they entered.

Kylo nodded to the two and addressed Jessika as Rey took a seat next to her. "Does Poe have any chav mix?"

Jessika snorted softly and stood to rummage through a cabinet. "'Does Poe have any chav mix.' He's addicted to the stuff." She pulled out two mugs and pressed the button on a water heater before she took two packets out of a drawer. "But what he doesn't know is that it's better with cinnamon." The Padawan set a small bottle of the spice on the counter before returning to her seat.

Sonzy took a sip of the milk and licked away a line of blue it left on his dark orange lips as Kylo poured the hot water into the mugs. "Couldn't sleep either, Masters?"

Kylo dumped the powder mix into the mugs and set one in front of Rey before he sat down next to her. He flicked his hand to stir the water with the Force and let the sweet taste linger in his mouth for a moment before he swallowed. "Are you two having nightmares?"

Jessika and Sonzy glanced at each other, and Kylo sensed their surprise through the Force. He felt a small pang in his chest that the two Padawans were experiencing something he had gone through most of his life. "How did you know?"

He wrapped his hands around the mug and let the head leech into his skin. "The Force is unbalanced." Rey took a sip of the chav and made a small sound of enjoyment. Kylo inwardly smiled that she liked the drink his mother had once made for him. "I think it's trying to tell us something, but I've only been dreaming of the past, not the future."

Sonzy slid his glass between his hands for a long moment. "I've been seeing Eeth, but it's only briefly. I'm not sure what it means."

"I've been seeing that Senator," Jessika murmured as she stared at her milk. "Kill-needle?"

The Togruta Padawan let out a loud laugh at her blatantly intentional mispronunciation of the Twi'lek's name and slapped his hand over his mouth as he glanced at the hall leading to the sitting room.

Luke had originally only asked Kylo to teach lightsaber combat, but with the chaos of the fire and with his uncle busy dealing with the Senate and the younglings, he knew had inadvertently taken on more than lightsaber training for the Padawans. He realized he had neglected to show them more of the power of the Force.

He took another sip of the chav and felt the warmth of the drink spread slowly down his limbs. "I think a mediation session is due tomorrow."

Sonzy nodded, his eyes glimmering in excitement at learning more about the Force. Jessika, however, groaned and nearly knocked over her glass. "Mediation? Can't we just go and 'subtly' display the powers of the Force?"

Rey's mouth spread into a grin, and Kylo felt his own lips twitch at the sight of her smile. "As great of an idea that is, I don't think any Senator would take well to that. Except maybe Kylo's new political friends."

Sonzy drained the last of his milk and bumped Jessika's shoulder lightheartedly. "I bet I'll be better at mediation than you."

"No way! You're already beating me with sabers!" Jessika finished her own milk. "Just you wait, Sonzy."

Kylo stifled a yawn and checked the chronometer on the wall. "Mediation isn't exactly a competition." He gave a soft chuckle at the expressions on the Padawans' faces. "You two should get some rest."

Jessika and Sonzy put their glasses in the sink and shuffled off to the sitting room, whispering quiet challenges between each other.

Rey looped her arm through Kylo's as they left. She took a long drink from her mug and grinned up at him. "You know, you owe me a massage sometime."

AN: Based off of a few prompts from Tripping55! Apologies if the dream sequence was a bit confusing, but, well, dreams make no sense sometimes. Thank you all for your support!