Rey

Another battle won in the never ending war. Another day where I got to return to my friends, to my family, as they were the only family I had.

My room on base had an adjoining bathing room with an actual tub that I filled with steaming water and a few drops of lavender oil. I washed off the blood, sweat, and dirt from the fight, and soaked until the water was turning chilly. When I pulled the rubber stopper, I watched the brown-red water drain away and got up, wrapping a holey towel around myself.

As soon as I walked out of the bathing room, tucking my towel under my arms, I looked up and gasped so loud it was almost a shriek, seeing the back of Ben as he stood in the middle of my bedroom. Now? The Force saw fit to connect us now?

His shoulders tensed, and his head turned.

"No!" I cried. "Don't look!"

His head snapped forward with a jerk. "Why?"

"Im…." I looked around for clothes. Any clothes. "Indecent."

He sighed in annoyance. "Oh, you mean you're not setting a snare or booby trapping the room?"

"No." I snapped, going to my dresser and rummaging around in my drawer. "I was merely protecting you from…." I found a pair of white cotton undergarments. "Falling unconscious."

His hands balled into fists at his sides. "I doubt the sight of your naked body would knock me out."

"Not the sight of my body." I agreed, stepping into the panties. "But my fist certainly would."

"You couldn't knock me out if you tried." He growled, his shoulders flexing.

"I have before." I reminded him, spotting the old, threadbare gown I slept in on my bunk. His eyes were on it, too, I could tell from the slight angle of his head.

I took a few steps toward his back, arranging the towel across my chest so that I was covered. "Could you….uh….turn? So I can get my nightgown?"

I heard him swallow, saw his thumbs rub his pointer fingers, and he stepped to his left, looking at the wall as I hopped behind him and grabbed the gown off the bed. "That doesn't count." He said, grimly.

"Yes. It does." I argued, pulling it on and letting it fall to cover my mid thigh. I needed to get more appropriate night attire if he could just pop up at any time. I gulped. Could he just pop up at any time? I didn't quite understand the details of our weird force bond just yet.

"All right." I told him. "I'm dressed."

He slowly turned to face me, his dark eyes looking at my face, then sweeping over my body in such a way it made me shiver. He abruptly turned around again. "No, you're not."

I looked down at myself. "What do you mean?"

He cleared his throat. "Have you seen yourself in that gown?"

I rolled my eyes. "You think there are mirrors here?"

"No, I know there aren't." He said. "And until you know what that gown does and definitely does not cover, I won't look."

I self-consciously brought my arms up to cover myself.

"But, I take it back." He said, his voice like warm velvet.

"Take what back?"I asked.

"The sight of you, naked, it probably would knock me out."

And then he was gone.