She woke on the cot, Ben's arm stretched out along its edge with his fingers resting quietly by her lips. She followed the arm with her eyes to his shoulder, to see him sitting on the floor, folded up inside a blanket, one of her books in his lap. He turned when he realized she was awake; his gaze went right through her like a bolt, and a slight, soft smile curled on his face. She thought again that he had the sweetest smile she'd ever seen.
He turned over onto his knees to look at her more fully, and he rested his chin on his upper arm, the book closed and forgotten on the floor. "Where should we go?" he asked, softly, as if she were the one who decided, the captain of his ship.
The answer was one she hadn't thought about before, but as the words left her, she realized it had been inside her since she'd left Naboo. "We can't go back. Someone will know you, and the two of us together …" She remembered how the Rookaroo had recognized her those months ago; the two of them, she and Ben, must virtually glow to anyone even somewhat Force-sensitive. They wouldn't be safe from eventual attack, no matter how well they could defend themselves. "Wild Space. The Unknown regions."
Ben nodded, suddenly solemn. She was right, of course, and who knew what might wait there for the two of them? Nothing lay behind them, not for Ben and not for her as long as she was with him – and she would never again let go of his hand. Belonging was ahead. "We'll chart a course," he said. "See what comes."
It didn't matter, of course. They'd each faced death; the only thing worse was a galaxy without the other in it. Rey grinned at him, stupidly, bafflingly, mawkishly in love.
He stood then, the blanket sliding off his shoulders. He was entirely nude, his utter lack of self-consciousness hilariously incongruent. She stretched her arms up to him, and he climbed, perfectly happy, into them.
THE END
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