AN: This short chapter is just a bit of a filler, but it's also a quick thank you to those who have kept me propped up with encouragement. Now I have to get back to that website build and gift fic project, but I welcome any ongoing comments to help keep my inspiration afloat and brighten my day!

Conversations
Part XIII

.

"So, what exactly happened to Shira Ren?"

Rey's question catches Kylo off-guard, so much so that he slops his bowl of dindra sauce over his hands and onto the floor as he removes it from the nanowave.

Dropping the bowl quickly to the bench, he snatches up a handful of napkins to clean his hands before mopping up the mess on the floor, fussing in a way that makes her think he's stalling.

"Ben?" She winces before correcting herself; his other name grinding between her teeth with no small measure of resentment. "Kylo?"

He pauses in his cleaning then, shoulders stiffening as he draws himself slightly upwards. For a moment she thinks he's actually going to answer her, but then he resumes his mopping of the floor. With a sudden burst of vigour.

For a long moment, she watches him and wonders whether to let the subject go. But it's a question that's been niggling at her from the moment he handed her that awful black gown, and she decides she's going to get a damned answer out of him if she has to rip it from his skull.

Picking up a handful of fresh napkins, she joins him at floor level, haphazardly smearing red sauce around the floor while staring at him intently. It seems they wage a silent battle of wills as he holds his silence and patently ignores her, but finally, the weight of her stare causes him to raise his head; tumbled black locks curtaining his expression. Cheat, she thinks. Not that it's hard to guess at the scowl.

Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth in exasperation, Rey tries again. "What happened to Shira Ren."

"I've told you this already," Kylo says finally, the words a hiss of irritation. "She betrayed me. So I killed her."

Rey has the distinct impression he's trying to remember exactly what he told her of his Knight's fate - so as to avoid cross-contaminating his own story. After a moment, she swipes the tangled locks from his eyes with sauce-covered fingers, forcing him to meet her own.

"Yes, I know that much. But you never told me exactly why. Only that…" she tilts her head in exaggerated thought, "she tried to kill me, and you lost your TIE because of it all. To be perfectly honest, the story sounds unlikely. I'm sure you can understand why I question it."

A groan of frustration escapes him. He pulls away, grimacing as his hair falls back into place only to smear red sauce across his cheek. Throwing the napkins into a sodden pile, he scuttles until his back is pressed against the side of the bench; legs splaying out before him as if he's resigned himself to his fate.

"It's a long story," he starts reluctantly. As if thinking that's going to discourage her.

She snorts. "Well, we have a lot of time on our hands."

The scowl that pinches his face only causes her to grin. The smear of sauce has become a comical focal point; making his bad mood seem all the more ridiculous.

"You've got some…" She taps her own cheek with one hand while tossing a napkin to him with the other.

Ignoring the napkin, Kylo wipes the sauce with his thumb and considers it for a moment before popping it in his mouth, his face relaxing as he loses himself in the taste of his beloved dindra sauce.

Rey watches, lost in rapt attention as his tongue flicks the tip of his thumb before he draws it into his mouth. Full lips pulling softly over his thumb as his tongue works hard against it. Sucking it clean with a slurp.

Something shifts inside of her as she watches his tongue work over his skin. A shiver that builds in her stomach before burrowing itself deeper. It's only when she drags in a breath that she realises she's been staring at Kylo's goddamned mouth all this time.

And that he, in turn, has been staring at her.

Slowly he removes his thumb from his mouth, but the action only stokes the strange exotic shiver within her; sending it coursing beneath the surface of her skin like wildfire. Panic surges - chasing the fire as if to try and dampen it; only to act as an accelerant.

Can he see it, she wonders? Can he tell she's burning? Is her skin as aflame as it feels?

"Rey?"

She blinks and adjusts her gaze. Clutches at scattering thoughts to try and reign them back in.

"You were telling me…" she stops and clears her throat before sucking a deep breath into her lungs. "About Shira Ren."

"Oh for the sweet love…" Kylo sags back against the cupboard door. "You're not going to stop chewing on this, are you?"

"I'm like a ripper raptor," she smiles. Relaxing back into herself as the strange intimacy passes.

"Help me with this meal then," he says with a quirk of a brow, pushing himself to his feet before extending a hand towards her.

She hesitates, feeling suddenly as if she dangles over a precipice. Before allowing him to pull her to her feet.

They cook together in amiable silence. She, turning polystarch mix into light puffballs of bread (he just can't seem to stop himself from adding too much water) while he digs out a different sauce from amidst the First Order rations this time (it's like a ragu, Kylo says. But Rey has no idea what that's supposed to mean, and it just looks like dindra sauce, anyway.)

It's a pleasant kind of teamwork. We fit, she thinks, as they finish serving up. And somehow that thought causes her gaze to be drawn to his mouth again, and she turns quickly away before he notices. Before he sees the stupid blush that flares upon her cheeks once more.

The dejarik board has become a tabletop for them to eat at, and she wonders if Han and Leia once shared their meals here too. Kylo meets her eyes across the table as if catching her thought. The sudden wistfulness on his face only serves to make her flush again. She wonders what the hell is wrong with her, while her mind asks, does he feel it too?

"So, Shira Ren." She almost regrets bringing up the Knight's name. But she needs the distraction.

"Was a Knight I sent to find Palpatine's observatory. Rumoured to be somewhere beneath Carbon Ridge." Kylo begins around mouthfuls. "She found it, but the old stormtroopers who defended it were resilient. They resisted her attempts at brute force, and without the skill to get into their heads, she couldn't manipulate them into telling her anything. She was useless. A lackey. Like all the Knights..."

"So you came to Jakku to sort it out for yourself," she prompts, anticipating the dark mood this brooding man is bound to fall into if left pondering the incompetence of his men.

"Yes. And then you followed." He pauses then, holding her gaze across the table. "I still don't understand why?"

"Hmm." Pulling away from his probing eyes, Rey throws her attention into the food in front of her, tearing off chunks of polystarch bread as if liking the stuff. "Me neither," she mutters, "I mean, when I sensed you were in danger… I guess I thought you needed me."

He digests her words slowly, face carefully schooled. "I still don't understand why."

"Why I'd dare presume you might need me?" She says sharply.

"No," he says quietly. "Why you'd care."

Lifting her gaze from her plate, Rey grimaces as she catches Kylo idly dipping a finger into his share of sauce.

"We're talking about your story. Not mine." She patently ignores the way he slides his finger into his mouth before releasing it with a satisfying pop.

"Fair enough," Kylo nods, one brow arched as he watches her watch him. "Shira Ren wasn't strong in the Force, but she had enough ability to sense you when you landed upon Carbon Ridge. You. So strong in the light side of the Force. Like a beacon, even to us."

She bristles then, at the way he says 'us'. At the way he so casually separates himself from her. And there she was thinking she was a beacon just to him.

"Shira took the Silencer," he continues, "she was going to kill you. I couldn't let her do that."

"Why not?"

Kylo blinks. "What do you mean?"

"Why not just let her kill me?" Rey shrugs with all the nonchalance she can muster. "We're enemies, right?"

"Enemies. Right." He pushes his plate to one side then. Appetite gone. "Well, that would've been ideal, wouldn't it? But that I need you. To open the Holocron."

"The Holocron. Of course."

Stifling a sigh of frustration, it occurs to Rey then that they're both just stumbling through some ridiculous dance that neither of them quite know the steps to. But, she thinks, perhaps she's beginning to learn.

With the guile of a Jakku scavenger, she pushes her empty plate aside and snags Kylo's half-eaten meal towards her. Feeling his eyes upon her, she slides a finger through the sauce before raising it to her lips.

She pauses as his eyes drop to her mouth, before sliding her tongue along the length of her finger. In a sudden act of courage, she plunges her finger into her mouth, sucking the sauce with the softest of satisfied moans; watching through half-lidded eyes as Kylo's breath hitches in his chest and his knuckles whiten on the tabletop.

"And then we'll go back to being enemies, right?" She says finally, dipping her fingers again to the sauce. Scooping it up with two this time.

"Uh-huh." He manages. Breathless and oddly strangled.

She says nothing. But raises her fingers once more to her lips.

Notes:

Random share: My 11-year-old daughter loves reading my fics, though I do tend to screen out the scenes where they get even vaguely UST-ish because... Well, she's 11! Like, the kind of 11 year old who still loves playing with dinosaurs and turns beet with embarrassment when her friends start talking about crushes. So even though nothing happens in this chapter bar innuendo, I'm still going to leave this chapter out of her reading list.

Which brings me to asking; anyone knows of any kid-friendly SW fics, please send me the recs! Seriously, I wish there was a kid-friendly fanfic archive *idly thinks about creating one*. I'm passionately interested in encouraging kids with their writing (the BA in Creative Writing I'm doing this year is to go towards a future teaching qualification) and fanfic is a great way to draw them into it, don't you think? *has gone way off topic*