For you to want to stay.

Rey had whispered through the connection between them, the words not something she could voice aloud-not bravely. That feeling rooted her to him, and she wondered how much of it had influenced her decisions thus far, how much arguing she had done with the resistance to keep him nearby.

It'd been a lot, and yet she didn't feel as if she had made any progress. He was still their enemy and no amount of begging and pleading could waver their opinion-at least not yet. She only hoped that Ben would stay if just to see it. See that Ben Solo did have a life somewhere, had been given a second chance like so many others.

Like her.

They would trust him, eventually.

She nodded down the corridor, gesturing that they move out view and away from wandering ears. While she didn't reach for his hand this time, her fingers did curl against her palms into loose fists instead.

As expected and with what was almost obedience, he trailed after her down the corridor into a secluded corner. While similar to the one she had shared with Finn earlier, the exception was that both were equally private conversations, but meant a great difference whereas the resistance was concerned.

His hand subconsciously reached for hers, but she had folded them in front of her instead. Dejectedly, that same hand returned to his side, fingers twitching for a comfort that wasn't there, and a small pang of guilt pricked at her instead.

The two of them slid into the small cramped corner to hide, obscured from view. Ben leaned into it, and Rey cleared her throat.

"I mean that I would like for you to stay. I'd like for the resistance to see you as I do. The real you; free from control." She ducked her head, eyes gently grazing over his chest, flickering down to the bare centimetres of space between them. "I just want them to trust you like I do. I want you to trust me and know that I didn't mean for any of this."

"I trust you." The affirmation felt right, a revelation that she hoped that he had confirmed even in his days as Kylo Ren. That he always knew, even if they were on opposite sides. He had yielded every fight, had allowed her to pierce him through on the remnants of the Death Star. She was a weakness that he couldn't really let go. "And I know where my place is in the resistance."

"You do?" She slowly looked up, just to see him in their small secluded corner, standing so close, hovering just above her. His head dipped to meet her eyes, gaze lingering just below her nose and back up again, as if he were mulling over a possibility, a want that he couldn't bring himself to explore.

"With you," Ben finished. "I don't want to stay with the resistance, but I want to stay with you. That's why I followed you back here. Why I am still here." Deft fingertips gently brushed over her fist, and she opened her hand to meet it.

Rey had been a scavenger from Jakku the days before Kylo Ren. Nobody of importance. A lost child waiting for parents who would never come.

Hopeless.

Had it not been for BB-8 happening upon her life and Finn quite literally crashing into it, she would not have become involved in things much greater than her, would not have been led to right here and right now, and she would be a nobody; still sitting on Jakku digging around the skeletal remains of ancient ships, watching the sun rise and set beyond the horizon. Still waiting, and never coming any closer, adding yet another notch into the wall that mocked her with an ever growing number of tallied days.

So many days wasted.

So many days still going by.

Days that felt a lifetime ago compared to how quickly they passed now.

While the resistance had given her a place, Kylo Ren had given her a purpose. He unlocked the very roots of her strength, her courage to do what was needed-the all consuming and persistent part of her life whether in his struggle in his own darkness or clawing toward the light. It would be foolish to deny that they had been through a lot, and he'd come to know every part of her-the ugly truths and the very corners of her deepest fears. Except he'd never turned away.

Ben Solo had become the very home that she'd sought for her entire life, and standing so close now, it was difficult to spend any more time running from her feelings. When he'd stood with her against Palpatine, there had been more worth fighting for. When he had brought her back alive from the In-Between, there was more left to live for. Abandoning him just wasn't an option.

The force did not have to show her the way to know that. Every single time, the choice would be clear. Ben or the resistance, even if the very end of the stars came into balance.

Her thoughts were unbridled and running rampant, her hands trembled as they crashed through the floodgates of her mind and passed to him. She barely felt the graze of their fingertips until they thrummed against her senses, suddenly hypersensitive and drowning out the pounding of her own heart.

The gentle brush of his fingers against the back of her hand made hers turn over to meet his on instinct, their palms pressed together, the feeling of rejection from moments ago dissolved almost instantly.

And whether it was the cloudiness in her head or the effect that his proximity had on her, Rey braced herself against the cool bite of the ship's wall behind her against her back, his towering form over her, his stare sweeping over her so thoroughly.

"I just want you to have a home, too." She admitted, almost inaudibly.

"Home isn't a place, Rey." Ben murmured in response. "Wherever you go, I go if you willed it to be."

"Wherever I go, I want you with me too." Their fingers laced together, hers fitting in between his so perfectly, held up beside them but only for the two of them to see.

Ben pulled his hand away from hers, instead with the most gentle touch brought it to her face. He ran his thumb across her cheek "I still owe you an apology."

"You do."

And he smiled, both corners of his mouth upturned in the barest trace of happiness that Ben could ever bestow in front of someone. Dark brown pools showed the inner workings of his emotions, that want, that approximation of happiness that he so desperately grasped for. The pounding of his heart, the raw emotion that spilled through the thread that connected them and practically begged him to unleash it all. A part of him that had been clouded by the dark side and the First Order.

In the tight confines of the corner, he closed what little distance between them remained. Rey soaked in the light-that warmth that set the thread between them on fire. In the caves of Exogol, she had made the first move-something that she still hadn't made complete sense of-but this moment felt right.

Rey searched his face, relishing in the heat that flowed to her her just from his palm against her cheek. The eyes that looked at her now were nothing like Kylo Ren. Something stirred within them, alive and hopeful and when his mouth ghosted with the faintest hint of a smile, her heart pounded against her ribs. She was certain that she could hear the echo of it around them, filling what remained of the empty space.

There had been more emotion in that beat of a second than Rey had ever witnessed from him before. It was much more raw than the way he looked at her upon the elevator that fateful moment leading up to Snoke's demise. It was as fearful as it had been afterwards, when he had extended his hand to her for the first time, and as fearful as when she'd plunged a lightsaber through him in a fit of anger. She remembered seeing his relief when she took her first gasping breath of life in the Sith cavern, but there hadn't been enough time to marvel at the visible change in him then.

Even now, there wasn't enough time, but Rey stole the moment anyway for what it was worth. The biting of the wall against her back had been the last coherent thing that she could focus on. Their bodies fit in a way that whispered the universe's intentions for them-that they had been crafted for one another, one pair born within the stars, over an imploding nebula, across one opposing galaxy that manifested and conjured through time and space by the Force aiming for perfection. A Dyad, as they were.

There was urgency, but not like she felt during their practice session at the training course. She reacted recklessly then, but now there was only desperation, a primal response to something that she didn't realize how badly she wanted until now. She held onto him as if he were a lifeline, and he was.

His pulse echoed rapidly against her own, that connection between them more tangible than ever. She held onto him as if she could keep together all of his broken pieces. The idea of love was an abstract concept. Rey loved many things like the rain, seas of greenery, the feeling in her stomach when she lurched in and out of hyperspace, a warm meal not made up of old rations.

But she also loved the way her heart swelled in her chest in Ben's presence. How when she took his hand for the first time, every atom in her body quaked with recognition. Now, more than ever, she was sure everything about Ben was better than rain, better than the first time she breathed air that didn't belong to the desert.

Leaning forward, her forehead pressed to his, closing her eyes if just to breathe him in. "I've given you enough time to rehearse it." She whispered with a breathless laugh, looking up to admire the softness in his typically stoic features. She seared the image into her brain and held it there.

"Rey-" Ben began.

A low, exaggerated whistle resounded from behind Ben. It pulled Rey straight, her hands snaking down to her side, peeking around him and recognizing the orange and white BB-series droid. Before she could acknowledge him, he was already rolling towards Ben with his arc welding arm aimed and ready. "BB-8, no! It's okay!" She managed to halt the orbital assailant before he could zap Ben at the ankles.

BB-8 halted, swiveling his head curiously, a few slight inquisitive beeps up at them.

"We were… uh…" Rey fumbled for an answer to his curiosity, stealing a glance up at Ben. "Inspecting the corner." She finished lamely.

Rey did not miss the huff of a stifled laugh that caught itself in Ben's throat. Not once, but twice did she see the ghost of a smile take those lips for its own. Stars, she could look at his face for hours, she thought to herself. Thought to him. It seemed that the tether that bridged their minds was more tangible now, new emotions searing her veins. Of course she would keep her mind open and connected to his, his emotions as fluid as her own but more profound than before.

It left her with enough to make her tremble both with a fear and reassurance much too great for her small frame. At least he made no remark about their actual intentions, but he did take one step away from Rey in order to create a much needed distance-but still a distance that she didn't want.

With a mere nod in greeting to the BB-8 droid, he moved closer to the wall. "We were done." Ben conceded, casting one look in Rey's direction before stepping out of the safety of their corner, making a wide arc around the little droid. The halls were empty, and there was nobody to make their assumptions aside from BB-8 who clearly had some idea himself.

Heart thrumming in her chest, she took a moment to collect her thoughts. A spark of hope flickered inside of her chest, pulling a thread and for a moment she wondered if it would somehow unwind and ruin this moment.

She only silently begged that it wouldn't.

He had moved aside, giving her the space she needed in order to find her composure in the open air of the hallway. Her mind and body still hummed with its missed opportunities, and she had to fight to maintain focus on the droid that folded its weaponized arm and addressed her again, though still watching Ben, expression still judgmental despite not having a face.

BB-8 seemed to be more expressive than Ben at times.

He beeped and whirred a series of explanations that made Rey furrow her brows. "Conditioning? What for?" Her voice pitched with agitation.

BB-8 chirped.

"Resistance protocol. Because of what happened this morning." She confirmed. Of course, she'd been confirmed to have been there, even if she hadn't, not until it was over. Her tone fell flat, the moment passing much too quickly, reminding her of the actual stress of what was current rather than what she wished their reality could be. Shaking her head, tendrils of loose hair fell in her face. "Tell Poe I will meet with him shortly, please."

BB-8 hummed in response, and rather than take a wide berth around them, he rolled straight over Ben's feet instead making a point to express his indifference before he was gone, meandering along to whatever he intended to do next. Rey turned her focus on Ben again who had winced, the moment once again feeling marred by her responsibilities to the resistance. "Looks like we will have to continue this later." She wrinkled her nose.

It was a typical assessment, and truthfully she was probably over-due considering everything that had happened in the last few days, but the timing was for a lack of a better word, inconvenient. But it always would be. Any moment that forced her apart from Ben was one that she could do without, she decided.

"I'll see you after conditioning." Since taking a dip in the Bafta tank, his pain tolerance seemed somewhat more stimulated than before, but BB-8 definitely weighed more than he looked.

Noticeably they hadn't offered the same assessment for him, but considering his previous history she could understand their hesitation. Taking lives before had meant nothing to him, and while he held his own morals, she knew if it came down to himself, Rey, or whoever was unfortunate enough to stand in their way, she knew he wouldn't hesitate.

Ben took his place at her side in the direction of his quarters. There was no way that he would so simply be left alone, especially without any type of escort. Especially not after the supposed assassination attempt that left one of the resistance likely traumatized. Their whispering could be heard now, their judgement that this was no doubt caused by the infamous Kylo Ren who had actually been sound asleep and unknowing that someone was making an attempt on his life.

If not for her, he'd likely be dead by now. "I'm sure it will go well. Honestly, I don't think much of our day can go any worse." He scoffed, his hands snaking inside of his pockets so that she couldn't see just how much he was twitching, but she knew.

Lunch was out of the question. Being around people still felt demoralizing and more of a strain than it was worth. Rey could sense their displeasure over the thrumming of the Force if she reached out. She certainly did not want to subject either of them to having to endure that in a clustered group like the mess hall. And she also didn't want to further agitate Poe if she could help it.

With Finn's departure, the co-general was especially neurotic as he worked to handle running the base with a bare skeleton crew. It wasn't that she had been looking forward to conditioning-who necessarily would, but she couldn't wait to get it over with — and to find out where she truly stood within their ranks. A hero, she assumed, but how much had that been damaged after her more recent choices?

Finn wasn't there to save them, but she trusted he had soothed the tension and the insecurities that she could feel within the walls of the base. Try as she might to tell herself these small assurances, she could not help but feel the pressing weight of something ominous settle within her. Like standing on a plateau and awaiting the break of something beyond the horizon.

Ben's quarters were, regretfully, not far away. Rey wanted to buy them more time, or to steal enough of it to assure them both, but it wasn't plausible. Reminding herself again that it was best to not leave Poe waiting, she did stall briefly outside the durasteel door that encased his room beyond.

R2-D2 politely swiveled his head away after a beeping recognition of their forms at the cell. "I don't think our day was ruined for the worse," she replied after a stretch of silence, mulling over his words.

It hadn't started off as well as it could have with the intruder, and growing worse with their argument, to their botched sparring attempt, and then being caught up in that moment had made her react foolishly. All of it felt redeemed in the hallway, she confirmed within herself. As much as she had wanted to-

Rey felt her cheeks prickle with heat, the hint of a blush spilling down her neck as she cleared her throat and averted her eyes to the floor between them long enough to think and focus. Now wasn't the time to dwell, as much as she wished she could.

Conditioning, the truth serum, invasive probing, and repetitive questioning, she recited the annoyances she would soon face. It was a welcoming distraction from now, from Ben.

"I will come back later. If you want me to, of course," she didn't know how to say goodbye. The last time she truly had to part from him had been on drastically different terms. Since then, the very idea left her cold. With this promise between them, she reached out to touch his arm, feeling the tension of his twitching fingers buried in his pockets.

Then, with a tight-lipped smile over her still dirt-smudged cheeks, she ordered R2 to send for lunch and requested supplies for his refresher and cot. After, and with great reluctance, did she part from him as the steel door parted open to usher Ben inside.