A/N: Thanks to TheOriginalSuki and the-east-sea (check em out on Tumblr) for beta-reading this chapter. :)
I'm posting this ahead of Sunday's schedule because I thought those who've been following this story might like another chapter to add to this week's lockdown reading list. (Is everyone else still in lockdown in your neck of the woods? Who isn't?)
I'll still be popping a new chapter up on Sunday. I hope you enjoy this one - I'd love it if you could pop in a comment if you have time, and let me know what you think of this fic so far. :)
The Enemy (of my enemy is my friend)
- Chapter 3 -
.
Tucking themselves deeper into heavy foliage, Rey and Kylo peer through large leaf fenestrations as an airspeeder glides overhead.
Kylo is right. The occupants are Trandoshan. Their reptilian features are unmistakable. One sits behind a blaster cannon in the front of the vehicle while two scouts lean against the rear cage, scanning the surroundings with slugthrowers resting loosely in their scaled hands.
"Now," Kylo breathes after the vehicle passes, but Rey is already half out from beneath their cover and picking her way across the forest floor, weaving and ducking to stay out of sight of the scouts.
Following the trandoshans is easier said than done. The airspeeder glides high enough to avoid the tumbling roots and fallen logs that cause a never-ending array of obstacles for Rey and Kylo to leap over. And while the trees grow large and spread their branches wide enough for the vehicle to easily pass through, it must frequently adjust its direction to navigate the low twisting limbs and thick hanging vines.
"I think we're losing them," Rey huffs as the vehicle slips further from sight, doubling over as nausea washes over her anew.
"It doesn't matter. They'll be back." Kylo grunts, tugging his cloak from a branch. "We'll find a safe place to rest for tonight. Tomorrow, we'll figure out what the hell is going on."
"Sounds good to me." Rey slows and slings herself across a low-hanging bough, closing her eyes as she drags in a breath. "So long as this safe place involves access to a 'fresher, a bottle of Corellian whiskey, and a warm bed. In that order."
"Corellian whiskey, huh?"
Rey cracks open an eyelid, "Your father ordered a crate of it aboard the Falcon right before you invaded Takodana," she admits, "I've slowly been making my way through it ever since."
Kylo is silent and Rey wonders what kind of memories the mention of Han has brought up for him. The idyllic childhood that he so carelessly threw away? Of travelling the galaxy upon the lap of his father? Or the moment when he plunged his lightsaber into the older man's chest and sent him toppling into the core of an exploding planet?
She waits, quietly preparing a retort for some kind of 'don't call him my father' rebuke. But he surprises her by holding his tongue.
A safe place to rest for the night. Easier said than done, Rey thinks, as the shadows begin to lengthen and the press of the forest becomes tighter. When dusk falls upon them, it does so quickly; plunging the forest into a heavy gloom as they move deeper into the thicker areas of vegetation where they assume the craft can't follow them.
"I'm beginning to think we should have taken our chances out in the open," Rey mutters, half to herself.
"I'm beginning to think you're afraid of trees," Kylo says dryly, though there's a lightness to his tone that causes her to smile, despite herself.
"Yeah, you're not wrong, I suppose," she admits with a shrug, "after a lifetime of open-air and sand dunes, the rain forest makes me feel kind of..."
"Claustrophobic?"
"That's the one."
The silence that resumes between them is a little more amiable than previously. Kylo clears his throat, "I know what you mean. I've spent so much of my adult life on star destroyers and... um..."
Rey shoots him a sidelong glance as he stutters to a halt, no doubt recognising the dangerous territory he's walking into by trying to relate his life to her own.
"You know, forget it," he says finally, grimacing as he increases his pace.
"Uh-huh."
The chitters and squawks that have accompanied them throughout the day drop away as the forest's animals prepare themselves for the approaching night. In turn, new creatures begin to make themselves known; their strange, throaty cries coming from ground level, as though rising from the muck of the rainforest floor.
Rey sticks out her tongue, chasing droplets of water from the tips of large waxy leaves as she passes; the moisture a crisp relief to her parched throat. Hungrily, her stomach gurgles, reminding her of its emptiness now that the nausea has passed.
"Just wait," she scolds.
"Huh?" Kylo catches his step and slows.
"Not you, my stomach."
He turns to regard her quietly. "We might have some luck in catching toads?" he offers with little conviction.
"It's alright," she murmurs, waving him onwards, "it's nothing I'm not used to."
Kylo pulls his gaze away, biting his lip as if troubled by her words. Straightening her back, Rey readies herself against any sympathy he might have the nerve to offer. But he nods, turning on his heel towards the path he's been cleaving through the undergrowth.
"Hey, look," he stops short suddenly so that Rey has to sidestep him, "animal skrat."
"Animal skrat?" Rey peers into the direction he's pointing. "What's that, something edible?"
"You could try." Nudging the hard lump with the toe of his boot, Kylo kicks it towards her. "Your scavenger's palette might enjoy it."
Her gaze falls upon the wad of pebbled dung at her feet. "You're an asshole."
"I'm sorry," he offers after a beat.
Rey blinks. It almost sounds genuine.
"Quit mucking around," she sighs, turning in a slow circle to stare through the shadows, "you may have neatly compartmentalised all your aches and pains, but I need a rest."
"Actually, the skrat may have helped us find the perfect place."
"I'm not making a bed in a pile of shit, Kylo."
"Really? Why not?"
Rey folds her arms across her chest and glares at his deadpan expression.
"Okay I'll explain," he says lightly, his tone surprisingly enthusiastic. "Whatever creature used this area as a lavatory has done so frequently. I bet you it had a burrow nearby. Perhaps we can borrow it for the night."
"Are you… Have you been chewing Thyssel bark?" Rey snorts. "Anything with a burrow big enough for both of us is bound to be bigger than us."
"No, I don't think so. The scrat is too small -"
"And anything that's been shitting and sleeping around here is bound to come back!"
"Again, no," Kylo shakes his head, "this is old dung."
He pauses at Rey's gaping stare, before deciding to elaborate. "I spent some time with Luke on a jungle planet before he built his Jedi temple. There wasn't a lot to do there."
"Except study animal dung?" Rey asks with a quirk of her brow.
A smile touches the corners of his lips, "amidst other things, yes."
"Well," Rey shrugs finally, "lead on then."
Nodding, Kylo pushes on through the dense undergrowth, his efforts made more determined by the invisible trail he now seems to follow.
Darkness draws a new array of scents from the forest. The floral sweetness of a nocturnal flower mingles with the rich earthy aroma of peat moss. Dampness hangs heavy in the air, leaving beads of moisture on the leaves that brush their clothing as they push past so that the chill of night presses deeper into their exhausted bodies.
"Kylo, it's too thick in here." Rey clenches her teeth to stop them from chattering. "Surely we've caused enough destruction to create a path for the hunters to follow with searchlights."
Her words are enough to make Kylo slow, but only to push aside vegetation with more care. "Trust me," his words carry back to her, "I'll find a safe… here we go."
Rey steps through after him, into a clearing of compacted earth and flattened vegetation. There's barely room to stand; the press of low-growing shrubbery seems to have knitted a tangled ceiling above them.
"Told you I'd find a safe place."
"It certainly smells... lived in, she mutters, stepping further in to examine the shelter with outstretched hands, "but not for a long time, I don't think."
"Perhaps the creature that lived here was nomadic," Kylo agrees, "it'll do for us, for tonight."
"There's no room for..." drawing a hand across the back of her neck, Rey kneads the ball of nervous tension she can feel forming, "... for us both to sleep."
"Would you rather sleep out there?" he calls after her as she steps back towards the opening. "To be woken to the teeth of a hungry momong at your face?"
"A momong?" Sceptical, Rey glances to the dark outlines of the wild, twisting forest beyond the shelter. "What's a momong?"
"Furry body. Long limbs. Likes to eat meat." Kylo's voice is vague; as if he's fallen into reminiscing. "At least, that's how Chewbacca described them."
Rey starts in surprise. "Chewie knows this planet?"
"When I was a child, he told me something of it. His people have a history with it."
At the rustle of movement within the shelter, Rey peers through the darkness and makes out the shifting shape of Kylo unclasping his cape and spreading it over the flattened foliage.
"You told me you have no idea what solar system we're in," she says tightly, unable to keep the sharp edge of suspicion from her voice, "let alone which planet."
"That was before I found out we have trandoshans hunting us." The shift of air at Rey's side causes her to draw back as Kylo moves towards her. "Now it all makes some terrible kind of sense."
"Uh-huh." A light touch upon her shoulder makes her flinch. The twisted plant stems of the shelter walls seem all the more pressing at the thought of sharing the space with Kylo. She sucks in a breath, wondering if he can hear her heart thundering as loudly as she can.
"Here, take my cloak. I'll take the entranceway." Kylo's words ripple over the stray strands of her hair as he shifts past and presses a bundle of thick cloth into her hands.
A protest forms on her lips, though with the cloak warm in her arms and the ground dry underfoot, she can't quite manage to form it into words.
"Please, don't suspect me of being chivalrous by offering the first watch - again," the Darksider says dryly, "I just don't want to have to carry you a second time if you pass out on your feet tomorrow."
"Fair enough," it's a compelling argument. Yawning, Rey drapes the cloak upon the floor and tugs free her boots. "I just need an hour or two, and then we'll swap."
"Of course." Kylo moves to sit in the entranceway, his head turned towards the forest as he wraps his arms around drawn-up knees. His silhouette impossibly awkward in the confined space.
The cloak is still warm from the heat of his body, and Rey burrows into it gratefully, drawing it over herself so that she's cocooned. The thick fabric smells - not unpleasantly - of man musk and earthiness. And the trace of something crisp and faintly botanical. First Order soap, she assumes, where the neckline has rested against the nape of his neck. It's strange to find comfort in such things. Yet somehow she does.
"Thank you," she murmurs into the plush folds of darkness.
Kylo is silent. Perhaps he didn't hear.
When Rey wakes, crisp dawn light has plunged its fingers through the shelter's woven branches.
And Kylo Ren is nowhere to be seen.