The bed under the quilt had always been warm, but Kylo woke in the middle of the night feeling as if one of the heated bricks was radiating beside him. His left arm was trapped under Rey's shoulder, and his right was curled over her and resting …

… oh.

He tried to lift his hand off her breast, but she mumbled and grabbed it, dragging it back into position and putting her own hand over it to keep it there. Gently kissing the back of her head, he pulled her tight to him.

This is so safe and normal. I wish I could stay here with you. I wish I didn't have to deal with whoever is trying to find you, and your grandfather, and staying alive while the world goes crazy around us. If I wasn't who I am, and you weren't, and we'd met somewhere like a library or a coffee shop … He sighed, and kissed her head again. I'd like to say we can start again when this is all over, but I don't think we can. It's just … There's too much here that I don't think we can get past, but I'll always care for you.

She murmured something and turned in his arms. He hadn't said anything, just thought it. Hadn't he? Hoping he hadn't woken her, he froze.

Her arms slid up around his neck and she pulled his head down and kissed him.

"I care for you too, Kylo. Don't go." Her voice was low and as far as he could see, her eyes were still closed. Then, saying nothing more, she rolled back over and moved his hand to its previous position.

He fretted for a while, wondering how much he had actually said, but fell back asleep eventually. His dreams were filled with scenes of searching; of feeling as if he was being twisted and turned to see only what someone wanted him to see; of seeing her curled up asleep on the sofa downstairs and a gunman standing over her; and finally of looking down a deep hole and her sitting at the bottom, huddled up against the wall. He woke to a darkened room, an empty bed, and sounds and scents coming up from downstairs. Bacon. Maple syrup. Breakfast.

Kylo shoved the used tissues deep in the trash and grabbed his clothes for the day. He was running low – he'd need to do some washing – and he was going through the socks rapidly. And he desperately needed to be doing something. Anything that would stop him thinking about a slim, warm body pressed to him all night. If she hadn't been downstairs, he would have run out into the snowbank and tried lying in it for an hour. Except he knew she'd laugh at him, and then come and join him and …

Cold shower time. Definitely.

He was carrying his dirty clothes down the stairs when she yelled out from the kitchen.

"Breakfast in 5?"

"I'll be seven."

"Fine. I'll eat yours as well." She probably would. Kylo appreciated that here was a young woman who ate as she needed, and not to any fad diet. It looked like her beauty school had a decent philosophy about body shape, thank goodness. He dived in the shower for as brief a wash as he could manage, then dressed and hauled the washing into the laundry.

Rey was sitting at the table and hoeing into her pancakes as if she hadn't eaten for a week. Her notebook beside her, she was making adjustments on the plan she had drawn previously, but she gave him a bright smile as he sat down.

Before he could eat, though, he needed to clear something up.

"About last night …"

"Thank you." She reached over and squeezed his hand. "I don't think I've ever felt as safe, as protected, as I was. You're a very comfortable person."

"That's not what I meant."

"And I apologise for the furry wonder. I packed so quickly to come up here, and it was the only thing I could think of wearing to sleep in that would be as warm as my pyjamas." She grinned. "Although what sort of fox is pink, I have no idea."

"We shouldn't …" He couldn't find the words. "It's not … look, sleeping in the same bed is not safe."

"I disagree. Were anyone to come in, we'd be in the best possible position for you to keep me safe." She took his hand and kissed it, something no-one had ever done for him before. "And look at it this way. If someone comes in and you stop them, then Poppy doesn't need to know. And if you don't, well, I don't think we'd be around for the consequences anyway."

"That's no excuse."

"It's my excuse and I'm sticking to it."

A week together and they were bound together by the threat of her death as closely as if they had been matched by her grandfather's ambasciata. He tried one last time.

"You do understand about consent, don't you?"

"Yes. But if it's something we both want …"

"It is, and it isn't. I can't. Not while I'm working for you, or for your grandfather."

"But you'd like to." The happy look was gone. Her face was twisted, anguished.

"That's not the point."

"So you do want to. And that's the problem, isn't it?"

He sighed. "I'm asking you to respect my wishes in this matter. Last night was an anomaly, and it can't happen again."

"I don't regret it." She looked about to cry. "Please don't tell me you do."

"No, I don't. But it can't happen again." He held her hands tight. "I shall never forget the feeling of holding you all night, but that has to be it."

Her eyes flew wide. "Are you going to leave?"

"No. I'm here to protect you."

"And what about afterwards? When there's no threat to me. Are you going to leave then?" The fear looked as if it was turning to panic, and he couldn't answer her. When it was all over, he would be leaving. He had the information he needed, the proof to put most of the Palpatine Family behind bars, and he would be reverting to his own name and returning to Chandrilla if he could.

He must have let something in his expression slip, because Rey threw his hands down onto the table and stamped out.

He heard her slam the front door, and cursed. With one regretful look at his almost-cold pancakes, he headed out the front where his charge stood staring out onto the snowy waste. She must have heard him, but she didn't move. He could hear her breathing, though – shuddering, as if she was trying to regain her composure and failing.

They stood there – him just behind her – for a few minutes. Kylo was cold, but Rey must have been freezing – she was only wearing thin inside clothing. She was standing in her socks and the porch was covered by a thin layer of snow that Kylo could see melting around her feet.

He wanted to hold her, to take away the pain, but there was no easy way to do it.

"You're right." She took a deep breath, and her voice steadied. "Consent. If you ask me, I should honour that. Especially because I care about you. I can't make you – that would be wrong."

He tried again. "Rey …"

"Everyone leaves." She shook now, her shoulders heaving and her arms wrapped around herself. "Every time I love someone, they leave. If I care for someone, they walk away. And so will you." She turned. "It's true, isn't it? You're going to leave me."

"I don't want to."

"But you will. So there's no point talking about it." She brushed fiercely past him and stalked into the house, to the lounge room where she pulled the dry washing off the clothes horse and flung her now-sodden socks over the fire guard. He came in behind her, his hand out to try and communicate, but she pushed past him again and took her clean clothes upstairs.

He left her for an hour, unsure what to do, but something in him felt she needed him more than she was rejecting him. Finally he ate the stone-cold pancakes, hung out his clothes then boiled the kettle. Taking a cup of coffee up, he knocked on her door.

"May I come in?"

There was a pause, then "Okay."

Opening the door, he saw her lying on her bed, her arms wrapped around the fluffy onesie she'd been wearing to sleep.

He put the cup on the bedside table, and sat on the bed.

"Are your feet all right?"

"They are now. They hurt for a bit." Her eyes were closed.

"We need to talk about this."

"Why?"

"Because even if I am going to go, we still have to put up with each other for the next little while, and I don't want it to be harder than it already is."

"What's so hard? You'll just go." Her voice was as icy as the air outside. "Pick up your bag and your gun, and walk out."

"It's not as easy as that."

"Why not?"

He risked putting his hand out and gently stroking her cheek. The sight of her so heartbroken cut him deep. He'd been sorry when he walked out of home, sad when he left the seminary and his friends, but here he knew he was hurting someone to an extent he'd not felt before.

"It's not easy, Rey, because I am very … fond ... of you." She didn't pull away, although he saw the tears start again. "You're a mass of contradictions. One minute you're the Bouncy Bubble Girl, then you're working out complex strategies. You're confusing, and bright, and thoughtful, and considerate, and utterly beautiful. But life isn't fair. I hate hurting you, but if we went on like … it would get complicated and awkward, and it wouldn't be safe. For either of us."

Her voice went very quiet, and he had to strain to hear it.

"I wish I didn't care for anyone."

He wanted to kiss her, take away the pain, but he knew he mustn't. "It would be easier, but the world would be so grey, so lacking in light and love. Knowing you care for me makes me feel special. Can we leave it at that – that we care for each other but we know it can't be?"

She reached up and wiped her eyes, then took his hand. "It would be hard spending the next however long here and having to avoid you. If that's all I can have, then I'll take it."

"All right." It would have to do. "Can I get you anything?"

She smiled, the wan smile that broke his heart so. "You already brought me coffee. No, I'm just going to take a little while to sort out my head. I should be right by lunchtime."

"You do that. I'll see you in a while." He squeezed her hand, then got up. As he approached the door, she called out.

"Kylo?"

"Yes?" He turned back to her.

"Thank you for coming up. I … I couldn't cope with everything. You were right to talk it through."

"I'll see you later." He left her there and went back downstairs.

By lunchtime she seemed to regain some composure, and joined Kylo for soup and toast. He breathed a quiet thanks to whatever logic had gone through her head. Once more the afternoon brought a touch of sunlight that, while it did little to heat up the outside world, at least gave the illusion of warmth. As soon as the soup was finished, he suggested getting the dead tree they needed. Her coat on and gloves at the ready, she waited while he struggled once more with damp boots.

"How are we getting the tree back here?"

"Rope. We'll both need to pull." Kylo pointed at the rope, axe and curved saw he had placed by the door earlier.

"Only one saw?"

"Just to trim off some of the branches to make it easier to drag."

"We should see if there's any boots for you in town, to give those ones a chance to dry out." Rey was out the door as soon as Kylo was standing up from tying the laces. "Or find something to make them waterproof. Your feet must be freezing!"

Kylo nodded and tried to ignore the gradual feeling of cold that started in his toes and crept up the entire foot. "I think we should go in tomorrow. I know we were there on Tuesday, but I want to check on your grandfather."

"And I'm in desperate need of some fresh fruit and vegetables." Rey followed Kylo as he walked directly out from the cabin instead of to the north of it. "A shame the library won't be open. How much more is there to the town apart from the main street?"

"There's the gas station to the south, on the road we came in on, and a motel to the north. Sheriff's office behind the Library, but there hasn't been a Sheriff for years now. They rely on the next town – Mos Eisley – but it's always pretty busy there so they don't come to Corelllia that often. Church is on a side road, and it has a residence attached. I think that's it."

"So we're not going into town much at all, except when we do?"

"I did say that I was inconsistent."

"Changeable. Like the wind." She pulled ahead of him, taking long strides through the snow.

Despite it being only an hour past noon, their shadows stretched a way in front of them, outlined by the glittering ice crystals on the snow. Less than a quarter mile from the cabin, a dead tree stood out from its companions, its branches grey and white. Kylo stopped beside it and banged on the trunk twice with back of the axe.

"What's that for?"

"To wake up anything living in it." He looked up and down on both sides. "It's been dead about twenty years. Probably from the fire again – you can find a lot of old, dead trees around. Look at the slope behind the house."

"You're right – like spindly silver fingers reaching up out of the canopy."

"Most of them were giants, the oldest of the trees, and the woods around them haven't yet grown up to their height. Gives you an idea how long it takes a tree to grow here."

"And we're allowed to burn it?"

"The Park Service prefers it. If I hauled in wood from Naboo, it might have insects that would escape when it caught fire that aren't native to this area. No, we're allowed to take wood for personal use so long as we don't sell it or take it out of here." He looked back up at the tree. " I think that's enough notice. There's no obvious hole at the base or halfway up, so I doubt if there's anything large with a home inside. We'll double-check when it comes down. How do you feel about holding on to the end of a rope?"

Kylo looped the rope up, and tossed the end over a large protruding branch about fifteen feet up. Or at least he attempted to. The first two times it didn't quite reach to the branch, getting stopped by smaller branches below. The third time, the end flew over the branch, but didn't fall down the other side, instead slithering back to sit in coils at Kylo's feet.

Rey came and took the rope from his hand. Tying a broken piece of wood to the end, she motioned him back then used the extra weight to give the rope a healthy swing that took it up and over the branch and sliding down the other side in a rain of twigs. The grin of triumph on her face when she did it was worth the humiliation he felt at her better solution. And pride that she knew a better way.

"Would you like me to tie it around so it's holding on up there?"

"Where did you learn to do that?"

"Poppy sent me to Girl Scouts."

"Go ahead then." Kylo stood back. Rey tied a firm knot, then paced back far enough that the top of the tree would not land on her when he cut it. Hefting the axe, he took a wedge out on the side where Rey was, then another lower down on the opposite side while she kept the tension on the rope. It took very little time before the tree was lying in the snow, waiting for their ministrations.

Kylo was about to loop the rope around the top of the tree and haul it, when Rey came up with the saw.

"You have an idea?"

"Try this." She cut through two that were particularly curved, and tied them to form a pair of parallel runners below the tree. "They'll help it slide better. Lowers the coefficient of friction. Takes five minutes to do and saves us at least that much time with dragging."

"Humph." Kylo tied the axe and saw onto the middle of the tree, then, each taking one end of the rope, they started sliding it back to the cabin. He had to admit she was right – the pulling was a lot less arduous than the last time he did this, and they were back at the cabin faster than he thought possible. They took the tree around the back and left it beside the porch to be dealt with in the morning.

"Wait. I want to show you something." Kylo retrieved the implements and leaned them against the back porch, then took Rey's hand and led her out to the south side of the cabin.

"Do you see the snow has a patch then valley going down that way?" He pointed to where the low sun picked out the channel quite clearly.

"Your drains?"

"And the septic underneath. There's always a bit of heat coming up from them, even when there's no-one here running hot showers and washing up."

She nodded comprehension, then turned and gasped. When he looked, he could understand her wonder

The sun, just above the treeline at the back of the cabin, was bracketed left and right with a pair of bright mock suns. The halo around the sun linked through the side lights, and there was just a touch of colour visible in their wraith-like spots. Rey stood silently and watched as the sun sank below the hill, taking the apparitions with it.

"Have you ever seen sun-dogs before?"

"No." Kylo started ushering her inside, as the loss of the sunlight meant the temperature was dropping rapidly. "I've heard of them, but never actually seen any."

"I shall remember those forever." The shining look in her eyes was mesmerising, and he stopped at the top of the front porch stairs, his eyes locked to hers. Their faces moved closer together, until he remembered just in time, and instead put a finger to her lips.

"Remember you were with me when you saw it, Kitten, and I will too. Now I believe it was my turn to make dinner?"

Her shoulders sank a little and she turned to go in. "How long do you think?"

"Half an hour if the packet is to be believed."

"We are definitely getting fresh food tomorrow."