Chapter 3: A Boy Like That

It was a calm and peaceful night just a few day cycles later, and it found Rey on a landing platform looking up at the stars. Supplies had been funneled covertly to the jungle moon from its mother planet of Ajara, so there was reason to celebrate this evening and hope that the rest of the abandoned Rebel base would soon be better fortified.

Rey had not seen Ben through the Bond since the night they had shared their first kiss. Making out and heavy petting - neither of which she had been versed in - had been involved, and his touch still made her skin tingle. But she had completed writing another letter to him just that afternoon cycle, and passed it off to Leia, their middleman. If the old woman knew that the Jedi was writing her son in secret, she didn't let on. No questions had been asked about the envelopes being beamed back and forth through the General's hologram comlink. Rey wasn't inclined to worry. As long as Leia's hands were the only ones those letters passed through on the way to her love, she had nothing to dread. And besides, even if Poe or any one of Leia's deputies got the idea that the holomail should be seized and searched, there wasn't anything in her letters to Ben that would brand her a traitor. She had not leaked secrets to the enemy - not even where they were based - and most importantly, Ben had never asked. They were love letters, first and foremost, innocent flirting, although, Rey considered with a blush, there were a few things in her pages of script that she wouldn't want anyone else reading. She had never kept a diary when she was little - on Jakku, she had had little time to herself - but this was the closest to it.

There was a chittering as BB8 came rolling up to her, nudging into her knee. "Hey," she smiled softly, giving him a pet.

"He really likes you."

Glancing up, Rey saw Poe Dameron sauntering over to her. She should have known that if BB8 was here, his master couldn't be too far behind. Huffing, the pilot lowered himself down next to her, his feet dangling off the edge of the landing platform. He had a bottle of Coruscanti whiskey in his hand, half-empty. He held it out to her, the grin a little too dazzling, on the borderline of dopey.

"Wanna swig?"

Rey begged off, cheeks turning pink. "No, thanks. I don't drink."

Poe shrugged. "More for me, then." He took a long pull from the thing, then leaned back, gazing up at the stars. Rey was content to also stargaze in silence. She had never spent any significant time with Poe up till now. Sure, she had heard plenty from Finn, who had always spoken highly of the man. The pilot was charismatic, passionate about the cause. Handsome in a roguish way, but as handsome as Ben... well, maybe not.

"We're glad you're here, you know." Poe's voice was soft as she turned to him. "What you did on Crait was... amazing."

Rey couldn't help but flush at the praise. "It wasn't all me. Chewie helped."

"Banthashit." She frowned in slight disapproval at his colorful language, but decided to let it slide. She'd known plenty of men on Jakku who had filtheir mouths, especially when inebriated, as Poe clearly seemed to be.

And he also seemed to have drifted closer to her, so that his hip was almost touching her. Though his eyes were a little unfocused - almost emerald with flecks of gold in them - Rey recognized the look in them. The gaze of lust fueled by the bottle.

"With you, we'll kill Kylo Ren for sure."

Rey's heart almost stopped, but not for the reasons Poe would have hoped for or supposed. Kill Kylo...? Kill... my Ben...?

The thought had distracted her so much, she wasn't aware of Poe's lips being on hers until half a parsec after they had touched. Eyes bulging, Rey wasn't sure how to push him away, or how she might hurt him if she did. Her arms felt like lead, stiff at her sides, and when she felt Poe's arms encircle hers, she whimpered a little.

All at once, she felt the tug behind her navel, the blurring between time and space, and her whimpers became a little pitchier. Oh no, oh no...

Ben was coming here. If he saw her with Poe, or... Oh, Maker above, what if Poe saw Ben...?

Poe had drifted away a little bit, though Rey could still feel his alcoholic breath on her skin. There was a chill in the air, and not from the night. That shivering, goosebump feeling that they weren't alone.

"Rey...?"

She panicked. Grabbing Poe and yanking him close, she kissed him thoroughly, even as she all the while she imagined that she was kissing the man whose faint outline she could see just over the pilot's shoulder. A rumble of rage burned across the Bond, though mercifully the connection snapped quicker than normal.

As soon as Ben disappeared, Rey released Poe with a small POP! Shocked and disgusted at herself, she turned away to gaze, unseeing out at the canopies of the trees in the distance beyond.

Nothing. She felt absolutely nothing. Kissing Poe had felt like kissing durasteel, or Tatooinian bulsa wood. A sob bubbled up from her throat and she curled into herself, unable to look at Poe's eyes still on her.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." he stammered, strangely flustered for the first time since she had met him. "Did I bite your lip or something?"

"No," Rey moaned, shaking her head. "Poe, I... you'd better go. Please." The last was but a whisper.

Poe ceded to her request, rising from the platform and lumbering off, his expression dazed and confused. Biting her lip, Rey let the tears fall, and she bowed her head in between her knees and wept.

She felt unfaithful... so unfaithful...

Rey wandered the jungle trees for much of that night, procrastinating returning to her room. There was no telling when the Bond would open again, so if she had to explain herself in a letter to Ben, she would do it... but it would be the hardest letter to write.

Emerging onto a grassy hillside, doused by the cool wind, Rey hugged herself against the chill. By the light of Ceres, Ajara's largest and brightest moon, she could see dewdrops clinging to the grass blades at her feet... or was it her own tears, slipping down her cheeks to water the ground?

A sudden pull behind her navel made her tremble in terror, then the squelching or time and space. Time between Bond sessions had never been this short, and she didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified by that. Still pondering the ground resolutely, she managed to pipe up in a small voice, "It wasn't what you think."

"Then what was it?"

There was no modulator to his voice, so he wasn't wearing his mask, as he hadn't since their first Bond after Crait. But the fury was still lacing his words.

"Poe was drunk. He caught me by surprise, I didn't know how to let him down easy, and then you showed up..."

"Why would that matter?"

That got Rey to finally look him in the face, beautiful brown eyes blinking. "Huh?"

"Why would it matter if I showed up?" Ben stepped closer to her. Her heart clenched in pain, stung. Still, she seemed to immediately know what he was thinking behind the question.

"Poe could have seen you, and I didn't want to risk how he might react if he did. He could have killed you, and we still don't know all the Bond's rules, how it works, or how powerful it is..." She was rambling, making excuses, she knew it, but that didn't mean the excuses had no merit. The possibility - however uncertain - of Poe seeing Ben just as clearly as she knew Ben could see Poe was what had caused her to panic and kiss the pilot back. Even though she hadn't wanted to.

Ben was stonily silent, and Rey searched his eyes heartbreakingly.

"What did you feel when you kissed...?"

"I felt nothing," she spat it honestly, and firmly. "It felt like I was kissing the outside hull of the Falcon."

Encouragingly, she saw Ben's lips upturn into a small and smug smirk. Rey weakly smiled back, floating nearer to him.

"Would you please kiss me? I need to wash off the taste."

"It was that... disagreeable, was it?" Though there was strained mirth in Ben's voice, his eyes remained dubious. Softly, Rey touched his face.

"It was a mistake. And I'm sorry that it hurt you."

In a display of how far he had come just from seeing her in secret, Rey felt Ben's anger wash away, though a dull ache of pain still throbbed deep down in his soul. All the same, he nodded, taking her in his arms. Smiling brightly, eyes shining, Rey craned up to kiss him, looping her arms about his neck.

"If... Hmmm... if you want me to apologize further in my next letter to you, I shall," Rey teased.

"I'd rather not," Ben chuckled, nose nuzzling her chestnut hair. "When will you next write me?"

"It's on its way; I sent it this afternoon cycle."

"I still can't believe we're passing notes through my mother. It's like we're schoolchildren," Ben mused. "If your words weren't so heartening, I would think it undignified."

Rey giggled, leaning back out of the kiss to let her fingers play with the hair tucked behind his ear. "I... I need you. More than I've ever needed anyone," she confessed in a murmur.

Ben's grin was dazzling and beautiful, like a sun Rey wanted to bask in. "Put that in a letter, why don't you?"

She laughed musically at his dry wit, nestling against him. "If you want me to, then I will," she flirted.

"Do," Ben beamed, tugging her close and kissing her. When she didn't pull away, he began kissing her face - on her lips, her nose, her eyelids, her cheeks, on her mouth once more.

There was the tug behind her navel again, and Rey felt Ben fading away in her arms. "So... are we OK?" she asked desperately.

Ben just kissed her nose again. "You are forgiven, my pet. I trust you completely." And he faded away on the air.

Left alone on that hill, Rey turned away for home with a blissful sigh... and then froze when she saw who was halfway down the sloped embankment, gawping at her in stunned silence.

Rey's very blood chilled. "Rosie... Finny..."

The technician and ex-Stormtrooper were holding hands, apparently having also come to this hill so they too could have a moment of privacy. Rose's tan skin was flushed in some halfway land between white and red - though not exactly pink. It was almost as if she couldn't decide between running in terror or flying at the Jedi in a rage.

Rey's lip trembled. "I... I can explain..."

Before she could, Finn dropped Rose's hand and stormed off in a huff. Rey watched him, stricken. "Finny, come back!" She was intercepted in her attempt to go after him by Rose.

"Don't you know what he is?!" Rose's scream was almost shrill; Rey had never seen the happy-go-lucky sparkplug of a girl so enraged. Still, Rey tried to keep her face placidly calm, making peace with having been found out even as she hoped against hope that Finn wouldn't go running to Leia.

"All right. Now you know."

"And you clearly don't... he killed my sister! He is one of THEM!"

"No, Rosie..."

"YES! A boy like that, who'd leave his mother! Forget that boy and find another! One of your own kind!"

Poe's face swam in Rey's mind, but she cast it aside, even as Rose continued to scream at her. "A boy who kills has no heart! A boy who kills cannot love! But he gets your love and your heart!"

"Rosie..." Rey's voice was choked with tears. "I have a love of my own, and it's all that I have. Right or wrong, what else can I do? You're in love too, or so you say." She took a deep breath. "I would never betray you, nor have I. The Force has decreed that I be with him, and I must obey. Can't you understand that?"

Rose clenched her fists... but then let them drop. Hanging her head, letting out a growl of frustration, she nodded heavily, blinking back tears. Smiling weakly, Rey embraced her, though Rose made no move to return the hug.

"Thank you."

There was a huffing and puffing as Finn arrived back on the hill. The girls broke apart.

"Come on, Rose! I thought you were following me!"

Rey had to bite her lip to hide her amusement.

Turning back to her own lover, Rose cocked an eyebrow. "I would have thought you'd be back to base by now." Finn could only shrug sheepishly. Rose stuck a finger in his face. "We speak of this to no one."

That was when Finn's jaw dropped. "But, Rosie..."

"Finny: don't argue."

Clenching his teeth, Finn finally nodded painfully. Even as he muttered darkly, "I have a bad feeling about this..."