Be with me.

Even on Tatooine Rey dreamed of him.

Then again, dreaming of Kylo Ren was not new.

They had discovered to their mutual dismay that the unrelenting bond was always at its most powerful when both she and Ren were asleep. In fact, the deeper the sleep the more intense the shared connection because neither were in enough control to actively prevent it during exhaustion. This had led to several uncomfortable moments for both of them before and after their first Force related encounter and had only gotten worse over the weeks that had followed the death of Luke.

Three nights after the battle on Crait was the first time they both slept deeply. Ren sealed up his "end" of their bond as soon as she had denied him on Snoke's ship. The last thing Rey felt was rage and betrayal, and then a wall of simmering pain.

It was odd to think of their connection as something she missed, and now that it was gone, she found herself occasionally reaching out to see if he might also be lowering those boundaries. Of course, upon realizing that he was in fact just as angry and closed as he had been before, instant shame and regret would cross her mind.

He murdered Han, he'd attacked Luke like a cornered animal. Why did she feel so drawn to him? Why did she care if he lost what small amount of ground he gained while they communicated on Ach-To?

She couldn't claim to understand their connection but Rey had seen Ben, the person beneath the facade, beneath the darkness and the anger, and witnessed the boy who had been there before. Before Snoke, Ben Solo was a son, a nephew, a lost prince, a Jedi paradigm. She had felt the loneliness and the broken trust and yet had seen how beautiful he had been and still could be, if he chose the path of redemption.

She had seen a shooting star lighting up the skies only to burn out; he had gone dark to her.

So maybe day after day she reached out for him, and felt slightly less ashamed when she did.

Her bunk on the Falcon was small, made for convenience and the potential of crew on the ship. There was a much larger bed in Han's personal quarters, but Rey had never felt overly comfortable with using his quarters as her own no matter how often Chewie told her it's what he would have wanted.

Once a Scavenger always one.

Thinking about him only made it that more frustrating to find nothing where once there had been at least uneasy friendship…

You are no one. But not to me…

Rey sighed, curled into the fetal position and allowed her mind to fade out into the void.

Safe. Home. Warm.

These were the first things that she was able to process in those brief moments between awake and asleep, even apparently squashed against the inside wall of the bunk.

Her ear tickled; her arm was asleep from being out for so long rolled onto one side. Sleep brain was uncomfortable, flopping slightly to turn her face back toward the welcome slight breeze from the Falcon's air unit.

Someone grumbled at her movement. Mentally this ticked some alarms, but she was so tired, and the Force wasn't concerned. The same someone reached a massive arm around her, tucking her more firmly against their side. Blocking her view to the outside, and curling around her like a massive Loth-cat.

Still nothing from the Force. In her minds eye their presence glittered gently like stars. They prodded at her own aura curiously, though equally unconcerned. Circling and encircling; spinning as one.

Sleepy instincts, from years living alone on Jakku propelled her into some sort of movement. Her physical fingers reached into the darkness and finding a wave of soft, thick hair: messy with sleep and strewn around a long angular face. Rey felt more than saw his lips curve in reaction to her calloused fingers tickling curiously up his face.

"Ben?"

Her echoey voice tingled across his senses, little shimmers of laughing sun and flashes of a bright smile.

"A dream?" He asked back, drowsy voice low and unworried. Shifting he grumbled again, his strong hands dragging up her back and resting on her face clumsily. Her body shivered at the closeness; at the comfortable familiarity of his touch.

"Do you often dream of me?" He asked, teasing and soft.

"You don't seem to be so surprised yourself." She grumbled aloud

Startled, Ben opened his physical eyes slowly, a murmur of surprise threading up their connection. She could feel the fuzzy exhaustio of his consciousness.

This is new, He mused, We usually aren't able to keep up a physical connection in reality.

He was definitely asleep in his bed on his ship and yet,He could feel her skin pressed against his.

This wasn't a dream.

The most surprising part to Rey how his mere presence pushed aside the feelings of isolation.

"Are you on the Falcon?"

She nodded gently, the bond constricted slightly

He tilted his head back, taking in the limited vision she gave him. His energy in the force relaxed, and the conflict that was ever present in his spirit seemed subdued in the heat of their closeness.

"I used to sleep in this bunk as a child." His voice was deep, a murmur and he shared a memory, a lean, serious boy staring up at the stars while a a familiar leather jacket rustled gently. "I wanted to be a pilot… like my father"

Anger roared up their connection searing the haze of sleep like sun to a fog. To her surprise, he didn't pull away physically, but Rey could feel the walls rising.

"Goodbye Ben." And she was alone again.