EPILOGUE: Quickening
BEN
He woke with a start, jerking upright and looking wildly into the gloom. Outside, pale newborn light was starting to ease the intensity of the night sky, but sunrise would still be an hour away, at least.
Ben's gaze darted around the dark room for the source of the sound he'd heard - or thought he heard. His psychic senses expanded even further than his eyesight, but could detect no intrusion or threat. Everything was peaceful in his little house. Maybe the sound had been in his dream. Was it even a sound? Or just a feeling? And for that matter, what had he been dreaming about, anyway? He couldn't remember. He'd been sleeping so much better the past few months, untroubled by nightmares, and sometimes he dove too deep to be able to recall any dreams. It was a foreign feeling, but he liked it.
This dream, whatever it was, had shattered the moment he heard that...whisper? Murmur?
He glanced over at the still form in bed beside him, only the rhythmic sound of her breath stirring the silence of the room. He wasn't the only one sleeping better. Since their life together had "officially" begun, she'd started sleeping so deeply that sometimes Ben had to check that she was still alive.
Like now, for instance. She hadn't heard the sound or stirred at the movement of Ben waking in sudden violence. She was sprawled on her stomach, arms tucked beneath her pillow, face smashed halfway into it making Ben wonder how she could breathe at all. Her hair was wild around her head. An amused half-smile tipped his lips.
Maybe she had made the sound in her sleep. That wouldn't be unusual. He was well acquainted with the little hums and sighs she sometimes produced in her slumber. In fact, he'd developed a thorough knowledge of all her sounds and murmurs since they'd said their vows on Ahch-To. It probably wasn't her then who had woken him. He was used to hearing her, but this, whatever it was, had jarred him.
But nothing felt amiss. No malevolence threatened the stillness of their quiet house. It probably was some phantom from a dream, he decided.
Mollified, he relaxed back against the wall behind their bed and let his gaze travel over the lines of Rey's naked form, bold in his unconcealed appreciation. If she should wake and catch him eyeing her like that, he'd probably have to persuade her to make something of the morning. Not that she would need much persuading. All the new frontier they'd physically explored together since marrying had done nothing to sate their appetites. In fact, it seemed to awaken a hunger in Rey that she never anticipated. Ben was pleased to indulge that new side of her, and pleased to let his own, which had always existed in a well-guarded prison inside him, be unfettered at last.
But she didn't wake now, and so he was content to just enjoy the view for a minute.
Ben had been gone for over a week, to deal with First Order business and to hunt down an old book of Force lore he'd learned about. Rey had chosen to stay this time. Mostly she would accompany him on business with the First Order, Ben knew she liked sometimes playing with that feeling she got by scaring the wits out of his subordinates. But she had half a dozen students expected to filter in and out over the next few days, so she let him go alone. It wasn't unusual for them to be apart for brief periods like that — since marrying her, Ben had been able to find balance in the need to be in her presence versus the need to conduct affairs apart from her. Their teenage need to be together every minute was finally maturing.
Still, Ben was always glad to return after their escapades split them up temporarily.
The reunion last night was…enthusiastic.
An itch to kiss the smooth plane of her back was growing, so he got out of bed and went to the window.
The morning fog hadn't risen yet, so the fading night was clear and calm. Rocky highlands sprawled before him, his view unbroken for miles. A few woolly Tusksheep grazed in the distance, getting an early start on their breakfast. Between them and him, there was the training arena he and Rey and built together. Perhaps built was a generous word for it. They'd cleared some land and levitated in some enormous boulders, as both obstacles and foes.
A soft, contented noise escaped Rey in her sleep, drawing Ben away from the window again. He pulled the blankets up and over her bare shoulders and then went to find his own clothes. It was a chilly morning, but he still chose a white training tank and grey pants, throwing a long black hooded jacket over it all until he got warm enough to ditch it.
He left the little house they'd found here, once belonging to shepherds of the Tusksheep, and struck out into the pre-dawn gloom. It was no use trying to back to sleep anyway. He was awake and ready to get to work.
In another little structure several meters away, a converted grain house, slept Rey's current two students. Ben didn't know them, but Rey had spoken of them last night after he arrived. One was a young human kid from Coruscant, a teenager who Rey described as definitely being Force Sensitive, and an elderly Mon Calamari woman, who didn't have any special gifts but who had heard of Rey's lessons and wanted to come try to commune with her departed loved ones.
They wouldn't be up for a while, Ben knew, and so he had the place to himself.
He went first to the third structure they were building: a temple, of sorts. It wouldn't be big — it didn't need to be. But it would house their sacred books and have rooms where Rey could take her students during inclement weather. Right now she just used the converted grain shed, but it was a tight squeeze if she had more than one person here at a time. And anyway, it was more the symbol of the thing, having a Force temple here.
Ben could have harnessed his abilities to stack the rocks they were using to build the walls, but he preferred doing it manually. He pulled off his jacket, letting the chill of the morning sting his arms. He began hauling rocks, one by one, and placing them on the already half-built walls. Every few layers, he stopped to lay cob between the rocks before stacking more. It was a menial task, but he liked it. It was good to work his body like that, and he savored the stretch and pull of his muscles. It was like the physical training he used to do under the service of Snoke, except this was much more fulfilling.
By the time he finished, he was sweating and dawn had broken, drawing with it the morning mist. It closed in on the highland, muting the dazzling sunlight streaked on the the horizon.
This place was shrouded in fog most of the time. But then, they knew it would be — they'd seen it in their shared vision on Ryloth. And Ben liked the melancholy nature of the perpetual fog. It lent a dramatic air to what they were doing here, which he appreciated. Rey liked using it as a visual metaphor to help her students.
He picked up his cloak and headed to the training ground. After lifting rocks, a change of pace would be nice, and he didn't get to use his lightsaber often enough these days. The itch was terrible.
He was still at the training ground when Rey finally found him an hour later.
He pivoted and swung, bringing his crackling blade down in a frenetic hiss. The stone enemy before him cleaved in two, the halves crumbling to the ground. Extinguishing the saber, Ben wiped sweat-slick hair back from his eyes as he made his way towards her.
She was at the edge of the training ring, wrapping her palms in strips of linen.
"Every time you come back from being gone for a while, you have to go destroy our perfectly good rocks," she commented, a cheeky grin robbing the reproach from her words.
"As if this place has any shortage of boulders to replace them with." He kissed her gently in greeting. "Good morning. What's wrong with your hands?"
"Nothing," she responded, allowing him to take one and turn it over for his inspection. "I got a blister when I was training yesterday."
"A blister?" He almost laughed. Rey's hands were some of the toughest he'd ever seen, used to all kinds of labor as they were. She could grab rough metal edges or spend all day whipping a lightsaber around without ever showing a mark of wear. A blister? Ben would have thought she was beyond such things.
She shrugged. "Yeah, I don't know."
He contemplated her for a moment, puzzled. Maybe this life was too soft for her. Maybe not having to scavenge or train for war was causing her body to finally allow some weakness.
"Are our guests up yet?" he asked, nodding his chin in the direction of the grain shed — which was thoroughly obscured by fog.
"No," she replied. "I checked. Still sound asleep."
He was hoping for that. He knew Rey liked to get up early for her own training before spending the day with her students. He almost always joined her. Fighting beside her, and against her, was the best part of any day. He eyed her practical, charcoal colored training attire, the hair she wore down brushing her shoulders, the flash in her dusky desert eyes, and corrected the thought. It was almost the best part of any day.
She nudged him. "Hey, stop ogling. Let's get warmed up."
"I happen to like the view, and I'm already warmed up," he teased.
"Then you can help me." She jogged past him, and he turned to follow.
They didn't have the fancy holographic equipment the Resistance had provided them on their base, but that didn't much matter. Ben preferred using only their natural environment and each other. He grabbed a couple of training staffs — they usually sparred with those unless they wanted a really good fight — and followed her out into the ring.
Rey jogged around for a minute, climbing on and leaping over some of the boulders to get her muscles moving before she came back to Ben and grabbed a staff. Their opportunities for real combat had faded considerably since the war ended and the First Order was almost entirely dissolved, but they stayed sharp anyway. Occasionally they intervened in matters that required aggressive negotiations, but not often. If they accepted too many requests for help in every troubled system, they'd quickly become known as the galaxy's mercenary police. Neither of them wanted that.
He was deep in thought about this when he realized she'd murmured something to him. He glanced back up. "What?"
"What?" she repeated, startled.
"I wasn't paying attention. What did you say?"
"I didn't say anything. Actually, I thought you did."
"No." He frowned, giving her a puzzled look. He had heard a distinct sound — like someone saying something. Hadn't he? "Your students?"
She shook her head, looking around. "I don't think so. It was close, and they aren't."
Disquieted, Ben let his gaze travel around the arena. He remembered the strangeness that jolted him out of sleep this morning. This felt the same - something his mind had heard, or processed, but not understood. Maybe it hadn't been a dream after all.
Rey knocked her training staff against his. "Hey, come on. Don't worry about it. We built a sanctuary for the Force in a spooky fog world. Maybe it's some Force Ghost here to haunt us. It'll manifest soon, if it's anything. In the meantime," she cut a combative stance. "Fight me."
He grinned and squared off against her, ready to begin the dance - when he heard it again.
His body stiffened. It wasn't really a whisper…or rather, it didn't seem to have the quality of a voice. He didn't hear it with his ears, but with his soul. Like a tremor in the Force, light enough to only be a breath.
Rey quickly straightened too. She'd also felt it, then. She glanced at Ben and he saw the same knowledge on her face that he himself had just recognized — this wasn't coming from some relative beyond the grave. This had the feeling of a living presence.
Ben's sense of danger skyrocketed. They weren't alone. Someone, or something was here. Rey moved away from him, towards the perimeter of the training arena. Ben stalked off to the other side to do the same, sweeping his gaze and his perception along the edge of boulders and twiggy scrubs. Detecting nothing, he continued moving, gripping the staff tight, ready to use it or his lightsaber at the slightest provocation. But the feeling - or sound - or tremor, did not touch him again.
Rey mirrored him on the other side, circling opposite him while investigating the border of their ring, a lioness staring into the fog for prey. When they'd searched the whole thing, she turned back to him with a puzzled expression. She hadn't found anything either.
Ben was just as mystified as he was concerned. It had been a disturbance in the Force, hadn't it? And not something cosmic and grand, but something immediate and - like she said - right here.
Rey jumped, whirling around, eyes wide.
It was near her.
Ben swallowed the distance between them in a few long strides. Only when he drew close to her again did he feel it too — but this time it had something of an echo. The same feeling, but twice in rapid succession. Like two feather-light touches just barely brushing his consciousness.
What was that?
Rey glanced from Ben into the fog again, her brows low and drawn together. She backed up and slid sideways, and he recognized that she was trying to triangulate with him so they could be prepared to meet something should it leap out at them. The faint feeling withdrew as she edged away, directly in tandem with her movements. Ben felt its absence like a cold draft seeping through an open door. In a flash he stepped forward and pulled Rey back. The incomprehensible murmur returned.
"It's you," he realized.
"No, it isn't," she said defensively, cutting him a disturbed look.
But Ben knew he'd guessed right. Somehow. Whatever this was had attached itself to her. And for a brief moment, he tensed, cold fear flashing through him that some malevolent presence had fixated on her like a parasite. Like Snoke had done to him as a child. But this worry was fleeting. Whatever these blips of the Force were, they didn't have the chill of darkness.
"Yes, it is, it's you," he said again, softly. He reached up to brush his fingers to her temple. They'd not needed such primitive methods as physical touch to see into one another's minds since that very first encounter, but he did it now anyway to ensure there was no error in his investigation. She glared at him but allowed it.
Something about the way the Force moved through her was off. Had she developed some kind of energy hiccup? He couldn't figure it out. Her image in his awareness was bright and steady as ever — actually brighter, much brighter. She was a blazing beacon of light, a hot star blinding to comprehend. But every once in a while, Ben detected random flickers interrupting her shine.
"You've got a short in your wire," he said, hoping to lighten the mood, though this unusual manifestation of her Force had them both concerned.
She frowned, her brow furrowing as she extended her hand towards one of the boulders and flexed her Force muscles, testing her strength. A sonic boom burst from, knocking Ben to the ground and disintegrating all the rest of the stone enemies in the arena. He stared up at her, astonished at the immense power surge resulting from a simple stretch.
Rey was instantly beside him, alarmed and worried. "Ben! I'm sorry!"
He let her help him to his feet. "Rey…" he said, bewildered. His heart was beating too quickly, and he didn't know why.
She looked at her hands. "I don't…" her words trailed off, but her mind finished it for him anyway. She didn't recognize the fit of her own power.
Ben shook his head. When had she gotten so strong?
They felt it again, that tremor in double. It pulsed through them both, now very clearly originating in her. But not, Ben decided, in her mind. That was a steady well of strength, and these flutters came from elsewhere. From her, but not from her.
Driven purely by instinct, and almost as if a daze, Ben sank to his knees and held her gently at her waist, staring at the smooth plane of her abdomen. A tingle of suspicion ran down the back of his neck. It couldn't be….?
"What are you—" she started to demand, but cut it off sharply when they felt the blips again.
Ben moved one of his hands onto her stomach, spreading his palm over the area just below her navel.
Two faint consciousness trickled into his awareness, neither of them belonging to the woman in his hands.
Ben's lips parted in shock, a little breath escaping him. Rey gasped and wrenched away from his touch, staring at him as if he'd just touched a live current.
He rose to his feet again, his heart galloping renewed, wild rhythm in his chest as the impact of this discovery slowly settled over him. He couldn't think. His mind searched for something to grab onto, and found nothing. He searched Rey's eyes. Her complex prisms, gray-brown flecked with green.
The couple looked at one another wordlessly, for meaning, for understanding, for any sense of reality to ground them. But there was no reality — this — this was something incomprehensible. Ben felt untethered.
New. Faint. Soft. Two living beats. Two pulses of light. Strangers both, and yet…not. Somehow.
Rey reached for him and he caught her, steadied her. Then, overwhelmed, he pulled her in close and held her to him as if she were the one about to float away and he was her anchor.
"Did you know?" he asked helplessly, even though he already knew the answer.
Her heart was pounding even more than his, drumming through her whole trembling body. She buried her face into his chest. "No," came her muffled reply.
Even as he steadied her, Ben wondered who would steady him if he suddenly lost the ability to stand. His thoughts spun dizzily. How — how?
Well, he knew how.
But stars, how? This wasn't the plan. But they were both of them under informed and hopelessly naive, and now…
He expelled a shaky, unstable breath. Okay. Okay. He took stock of himself and his surroundings, trying to find some clarity of thought. He was fine. There was no threat. They were safe, and nothing was wrong. Rey didn't have a hiccup in her abilities. She was... fine. Fine? Was that the right word? Did that adequately convey her state of being, given what was happening inside her?
Suddenly he worried about all their trainings over the last few weeks. He'd been too rough with her. She'd pushed herself too hard. He thought of all her falls and scapes and how she always got back up when she made a mistake and tried it again and again until she got it right. That was bad. They needed to cool down. Take it easy.
But how could they have known? The impossible had never occurred to them. This…wasn't supposed to happen. He couldn't really even let himself think the words. To name the situation.
But no. No. Ben knew he was wrong. It had occurred to him once, what felt like a lifetime ago when they were rocked by that powerful Force Vision which showed them this place and showed them all those who would learn from them. He'd seen them, two, and beautiful, with dark eyes like his and dark hair like his but her face. Their mother's face. Daughters. He'd only perceived them to be what they were because when he looked at Rey in that vision, beside him, he saw her and knew what she was.
It had angered him, and terrified him, and made him want to keep Rey at arm's length because he could not allow that to become his reality. He wasn't going to let more Skywalkers come into this world. Or Solos for that matter. He had to be the last because...because...
Because his family was problematic and the galaxy was much better off without them.
But in all his feverish joy at her becoming his wife, he'd forgotten. They remembered the vision only in that it showed them the place that they would build their temple, but not the rest. He'd been to caught up in Rey, in adoring her in all the ways he didn't dare before, and he'd forgotten.
He did this.
But guilt was dim and faint compared to the breathless wonder trapped in his chest. He needed to feel it again. Just to be sure. He held her back and once more crouched to the level of her womb. This time he pulled her to him and planted a gentle, worshipping kiss.
Once again, the niggling, breathy little psychic touches came. Tapping against his heart. Real and alive and in double.
Rey yanked him up to his feet, something in her face which he could not begin to decipher. She opened her mouth to speak but he stopped her, snatching away her words with a kiss, drowning in a sudden rush of passion and incredulous, exhilarated joy. Whatever he'd said or thought before about fathering another generation was utterly swept away, driven back like the fog before the night wind.
Life thrived where it did not before. Rey was fostering it, growing it, within her own miraculous body. He had never been so in awe of her.
She wrenched away from him suddenly, fear welling up in her like volcanic magma. "No, no, Ben, stop it. You're happy? I thought…" she choked on the words. "I thought you didn't want this. You said we wouldn't do this."
He did say that. When he asked if she would marry him, she brought it up as a concern. He didn't even think about his answer then. It didn't think about the vision either. Or if he did, he thought they would thwart it somehow.
"I know. I meant it. But Rey, it doesn't matter what I wanted or what I said." He brushed her hair back from her brow, holding her face in his hands. "They're there. You felt them."
She was pale, hands clinging to his shirt. Her eyes were wide and fearful and desperate. "I can't….Ben, I don't know how…"
Ben saw that in the midst of his incomprehensible happiness, Rey was drowning in panic. "It's alright," he murmured gently. "It's going to be alright. We'll figure this out. Anything the Force wills, remember? We can face it together. And we don't have to do this alone."
Well, she would have to do the next part alone. But after, when two had become four. The people Rey had loved and been loved by would rally around her. Around all of them.
He saw movement in the mist and looked up to see Rey's two students making their way towards them. Ben kissed her forehead and promised to be right back, heading over to intercept the unwanted intruders in this moment of moments.
"H-hi," the teenager from Coruscant said nervously. "You're—you're—"
"Yes," Ben cut him off. "You're up early."
"You're Master Solo," the kid finished, cheeks flushing bright red.
"Master Skywalker told us last night that we were to find her when we woke because she was going to send us into the wilderness for some meditation," the old Mon Calamari woman said, her huge eyes turning from him to Rey sever al yards behind him. "She said she would lead us to the meditation spots, since the mist is so thick, and this fry can't see well in it."
The boy gave her a sour look. "At least my vision is still good for my species," he muttered. "And Master Rey didn't say dawn. She said we could sleep. You're the one insisting we bug her now when she's clearly in the middle of something."
The Mon Calamari woman was about to reply, but Ben waved his hand to cut them both off. He spoke swiftly. "There's been a change of plans. You know the way to the village?"
They both nodded.
"Can you get there in the fog?"
They nodded. The Coruscant kid lifted his hand shyly. "She showed us how to find it."
Ben dropped some credits into their hands. "Go there. Get some food and drink. Take your things with you, and when you are ready, find the pilot Court Kursa. She will take you home. Master Skywalker and I have business to take care of, so we will contact you when you may return for the rest of your lessons."
"Force business?" The kid said in awe.
Ben nodded.
The two guests looked at one another and then at Ben. He waved his hand to encourage their departure. Court did not like the misty highlands, so she'd found a place in the village where she could pal around with the locals and look after the shuttle. Ben was now grateful for her distance. He just needed them out of here. When they'd gone, he raced back to Rey's side.
She was shaking like a leaf, as if the temperature had suddenly dropped to freezing. One hand strayed to her midsection but flinched away again immediately.
"Where did you send them?" she asked, glancing at him.
"Home." He saw with alarm that there were tears pooled in her eyes. Quickly he gathered her into his arms and kissed her so gently, letting reassurance flow from him. She let him in.
"Don't cry. It will be alright, I promise. I know this is overwhelming. I don't have any answers for this," he whispered, pressing his forehead to hers. "And I'm sorry. I didn't…think about the consequences…"
He trailed off self-consciously. Then, pushing aside the dichotomy of feeling foolish for his naiveté and feeling absurdly, stupidly proud, he continued. "I can feel your fear. I can't take it away, and I know my own will catch up to me in a moment. But feel them, Rey. Do you feel it?"
Together they reached out with their shared mind and found the wispy, faint blips of light. And they were like magnets, drawing love out of Ben's heart , eliciting such deep feelings that it left no room for doubt or fear or him. Just awe. Rey felt it too, he knew. It took the edge off her terror, though it didn't sweep it away as it did for Ben.
He had never felt such a fierce protective instinct before. He knew immediately that he would stop at nothing to keep them safe. These three precious lives in this hands. Rey was already at work, through she'd not known it until now, doing her part for those two little pieces of them both. He couldn't help her with that — his contribution had been made. Kriff, why that flare of accomplishment when he thought of it? Now it was his duty to keep them from harm. To protect them from anything bad.
"No," Rey cautioned, pulling back and leveling him with a concerned look. "Careful. You can't think that way."
The warnings of the tale of Anakin passed through both their minds, cooling some of his fire. She was right. He had to moderate his feelings. If he obsessed, he would lose what he cherished.
But Ben didn't want to think about these gloomy warnings. He'd find logic and reason floating somewhere nearby and tether himself back to them soon enough. He'd be mindful and accept whatever the Force intended. Or at least he'd try. But right now he just wanted to bask in this overwhelming, dizzying glow.
Rey seemed to have swallowed back her own fear, at least for the moment, growing still in his arms at last. He knew she had never pictured this for herself. Had never yearned for it. Her own mother had abandoned her, lending no example she could lean on. Yet here she was, a being of divine creation, already at work on her living masterpieces. No wonder she was afraid. Ben knew his own terror would find him in time too. The nausea that would come from worrying if his children would resent him as he'd grown to resent his own father. The pressure of knowing they were both strong with the Force, as already evidenced. The understanding that he had no idea what he was doing, any more than Rey did.
All that would come, and probably too soon. But there was no room for that right now. His astonishment was too great, his excitement too unexpected.
"Ben," Rey said, drawing him back. She was watching him with a troubled expression. "Let's not say anything yet. I can't face it. I can't hear anyone else comment on it. But after...when I'm ready...can we go to your mother? I - I need her."
"Yes. We'll go." Whatever she needed. Anything for her, and for them. His mother wasn't the best example he could think of for how to deal with powerful children, but she was the one Rey wanted. And truth be told, Ben couldn't wait to see her reaction. He nodded. "But first—"
He effortlessly swept her into his arms as he had done many times before, only this time he thrilled with the strange knowledge that she wasn't alone in her own skin. And he was the reason. Carrying her away from the training groups, he took them back to their little house.
"I can walk," she said dryly.
"Nope."
"Ben."
He gave her a little smirk, shouldering the door open and carrying her into their bedroom.
"Strange, isn't it? This place was bigger than we needed when we found it," she remarked softly as he set her down. "Now we have the room for — for them."
"Is this where you want to raise them?" he asked, sitting next to her on the edge of the bed. He glanced dubiously out at the fog. "I assumed you'd want to find somewhere green and beautiful."
She expelled a breathless, incredulous laugh, scooting herself up so she was mostly sitting. "I have no idea, Ben. We've built this place - we're building our temple here, but this — they — alter the plan."
"Maybe, maybe not. We don't have to decide right now anyway. We have time." Unable to resist, he put his hand on her midsection again, on the place where the woman he loved was creating the children he never expected to have. His three miracles. She seemed so small and vulnerable to him all of the sudden. His hand was huge on her, and he felt a flicker of worry for what she would have to endure for their sake. His own happiness, he realized, was secondary to her emotions in this because this was her path, and he could not fathom what it would be like for her to walk it.
She put her hand over his, and her touch was warm. This time, she didn't flinch away when they again felt those wispy little hiccups in the Force. She looked up at him, searching his face.
"I'm just..." she searched for words and failed to find any. She drew in a deep breath and tried again. "You're happy, and it's bewildering. And I don't know what to feel right now."
"It's alright," he said gently. "Nothing you feel is wrong. Tell me what you need, and I'll do it."
"I need you to tell me why this is a good thing," She tapped her fingers against the back of his hand, indicating the two treasures that lay under it. "We are uniquely unqualified for this particular mission, Ben."
He smiled and brushed her cheek. "Rey, we've made something here we didn't intend."
"Other people?" she asked glibly.
He laughed. "A family."
Her face flickered at that, her eyes betraying the emotional impact that word had, and then her expression softened. She leaned into his chest, still keeping their joined hands in place on her body.
"A family," she repeated, soft and low. He could feel a ripple of happiness move through her psyche at last. "Ours."
And Ben fell in love all over again, his heart and soul aflame with the chance given to them to create what they'd both hungered for all their lives. Did that mean they might project their traumas onto these children and become overprotective, ridiculously affectionate parents to make certain their offspring always knew they were loved? Probably. Did Ben care? Not in the slightest.
Rey was right, they were totally unqualified, but he had never been more pleased to be wrong about his plan for the future. And he should have known, from the moment he met her his plans for the future had spiraled out of control. She was the gambit of unexpected change in his life, and this was the wildest turn of all. He loved it. He loved her. And he loved them, those little blips of light.
Rey looked up at him, a small smile playing at the corner of her irresistible mouth. Ben wanted to kiss her again.
"You're a man of extreme passions, Ben Solo. Do you ever have an emotion that doesn't carry you away?"
He smirked, pushing her over onto the bed and crouching over her prone body with a hungry glower. "No. But you already knew that about me."
She laughed, reaching up to clasp his face in her hands. "Yes I did."
Author's Note:
That's all, friends! No more on this tale of ours.
Give me your thoughts and feelings and let's process our grief together.
But as for writing Reylo, I'm not done. I'm so far from done. I'm writing a TROS fix-it fic, and also a little one-off to explore the emotional ramifications of what Rey experienced on-screen. I've also outlined an AU fic where Rey gets left with Mando and The Kid instead of Plutt. So hopefully I'll have some new stuff up soon.
Thanks for going on this ride with me! I'm sorry there was an enormous year-long stall in updates. My personal life took an unexpected, but happy turn. Thanks for coming back and finishing this out.