Author's Note: Hehehehehe GUESS WHO REMEMBERED THAT SHE WROTE THIS AND NEVER POSTED IT?! MEEEE don't kill me please-

Summary: Ben is sick but he tries to get through the day anyway. It doesn't exactly go well.

"Man, you look awful," Finn said with a snort as he and Poe joined Ben in the hallway headed to the mess hall.

"He's not wrong," Poe agreed.

Ben rolled his eyes. In all honesty, he felt about as awful as he had seen himself look in the mirror that morning. But it was just a stupid cold; it might have even been allergies. And Ben was planning on dealing with it in the same way he'd been dealing with feeling awful for the past decade: By completely ignoring it.

"Thanks," he replied sarcastically, rolling his tired eyes. The three of them walked into the dining area, the smell of fried food hitting them even this early in the morning. The scent usually made Ben's stomach growl eagerly, but today he could barely stand it. He didn't feel sick, exactly, but the idea of putting anything fake and manufactured in his mouth made him cringe.

Poe and Finn headed to the hot lunch line to load up on breakfast like they always did. Ben debated following them, to keep up appearance, but he was honestly just tired. He wandered over to a table, grabbing an piece of fruit along the way, and sat slowly down on the one of the long benches. Finn and Poe found him a few minutes later, and Finn raised his eyebrow. "Dude. An fruit? For breakfast?"

Ben just looked at him with his patented dead-eyed stare and began to pick at the thick peel of his fruit. He tentatively put the first piece on his tongue and swallowed it. The acidity made his throat burn and he coughed a little, putting the fruit back down on his plate.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Poe asked, reaching across the table and nudging Ben in the shoulder. "You're always pale, but you're basically a ghost today."

"I'm fine," Ben grumbled, ripping up the peel that was laying in his plate.

"Oh, dude," Finn spoke up after a few seconds of inhaling his breakfast egg dish. "I bumped into Rey before breakfast and she said that after you're finished to meet her in the woods because she wants to train or something."

Ben barely resisted a groan. Not only would Rey take one look at him and his Force signature and realize that something was up, but even if she somehow didn't... in short, Ben could barely keep up with Rey on normal days, much less when he was feeling like this.

"But seriously, if she knew you were sick I'm sure she'd let you off the hook," Finn was saying when Ben tuned back into the conversation.

Ben glared darkly at him. "I'm not sick," he growled. Then he stood up, ready to face whatever he was going to have to with Rey.

Almost immediately, vertigo slapped him in the face. It took every ounce of Ben's self control (along with a fair amount of his Force abilities) he took himself upright.

"Hey," Poe said, nodding a chin at him. He kept his voice light, but there was a furrow between his eyebrows that belied his concern. "Man, why don't you just take the day off? One day."

"I'm-" Ben's voice caught and he had to stop speaking to avoid breaking into a coughing fit. He turned and stepped over the bench instead, walking rapidly out of the mess hall.

Ben walked slowly to the forest at the side of the Rebel Base. The area was Rey's favorite place to train, whether she was meditating or practicing with Force or training with Ben, and so he knew exactly where to go. He was unsurprised to find Rey sitting crosslegged, floating couple solid feet in the air. She was rotating slowly, her eyes shut.

"Hi," Ben spoke up, standing in his usually gangly way in front of Rey.

She did a graceful backflip and landed soundlessly on the ground facing him. "Hey, Ben." Then she frowned, finally opening up her eyes and taking a good look at him. "You alright?"

"Fine," Ben grumbled. He knew he looked bad, but he really wished people would stop asking him that.

Rey squinted suspiciously at him, then her face smoothed out. "Okay," she said simply, and in the next second her lightsaber was flying into her hand from who knew where. Ben startled, though he should have seen the move coming (it was one of Rey's favorites), and was barely able to get his own lightsaber in his hand in time to block Rey's strike.

Their sabers clashed with a hiss. Ben felt off-balanced and like he'd already expended all of his energy. His arms trembled and he quickly shoved Rey's lightsaber away so he could take a few steps back.

Rey circled him, face creased thoughtfully. He felt through their Force-bond that she was about to attack and quickly dove to the left. But he'd gotten his footing all wrong and he tripped, stumbling over his boots. His hand shot out and he used the Force to stop his fall and push himself back to his feet.

Ben struck wildly, trying to end the fight as quickly as possible. Rey easily reflected the blow and delivered two quick slashes of her own.

They were easy parries, and Ben should have been able to stop them with his own saber. But his head was suddenly spinning, the flash of Rey's lightsaber making his gaze blur. He stumbled backward and the tip of Rey's weapon caught the edge of his arm.

"Oh Force, Ben, I'm so sorry," Rey gasped, turning off her blade and running over to Ben's side. He was leaning heavily on a tree, breath coming in pants as he arm burned.

"It's fine," Ben muttered through gritted teeth as Rey reached for his arm. "Just a graze."

"I went too hard," Rey replied, the self-hate evident in her tone. "I just- you're usually so on your game and you clearly aren't today. I should have been respectful of that but I was annoyed that you wouldn't tell me what was wrong, so I took advantage of it instead. Here." She had put her hand on his arm and shut her eyes. Slowly but surely, the intense pain in Ben's arm began to recede. The skin merged itself back together and became smooth again.

"You're going to run out of Life-Force eventually," Ben said, trying unsuccessfully to pull his now-healed arm away.

Rey wasn't looking at him, instead putting her fingers against his forearm. In a move so quick it surprised him, she lifted her hand and brushed back his hair to place it against his forehead. Ben unconsciously leaned into the touch, before he remembered what he was doing and took a few quick steps backwards.

"You're sick," Rey realized. "You have a fever."

"No I don't," Ben grumbled, wishing he sounded less like a petulant little kid. "I am merely overheated from our fight."

"Right..." Rey said slowly, raising her eyebrows. "Fine. Then let's get back to our bond-training from yesterday."

For the second time that day, Ben physically resisted the urge to groan. He and Rey had been working on merging their powers more fully together in Force to try and do things no Jedi had ever attempted before. Things like growing a full tree from a sapling in under three hours. In other words, things that took intense concentration and power-of-mind, which were both things Ben did not have at the moment.

Glaring halfheartedly at Rey, because he knew she was just doing this to prove that he was sick, Ben took a seat crosslegged on the forest floor facing her. Rey smiling calmly back at him, not revealing anything in her expression, and held out her hands. Ben places his fingertips lightly on her palms, and they both shut their eyes.

Immediately, Ben could feel Rey's Force-presence relaxing as she slipped into her meditative stage. He, on the other hand, was suddenly way too aware of everything going on in his body. He felt a trickle of sweat roll down his back, and the damp from the ground underneath him caused a shiver to shake his entire upper body. His throat burned and he needed to cough, but he was Ben Solo, dang it, and he would not give you.

Rey cracked an eye open. "You gonna join me?" she asked, her voice teasing.

"Working on it," Ben growled, not opening his own eyes. He took a deep breath and repositioned on the ground, trying to focus. Still, his sense of body wouldn't leave him and he couldn't tap into a meditation, no matter how hard he tried.

Rey opened both eyes this time. "Ben-"

"I- I can't, okay?" Ben suddenly exploded, pulling his hands from hers. Their connection was broken with a jerk and Ben hunched over. He hadn't realized how much unwell Rey had been taken from him until she was gone, and now it all came rushing back like a x-wing to bowl him over.

"Hey," Rey murmured, crawling over to him. She pushed a shock of lank, sweat-soaked hair behind his ear and felt his forehead. "Ben..."

"What?" he snapped, not looking at her. "Nice job, Rey, you did it. I'm sick. Happy now?"

"Of course I'm not-" Rey broke off in frustration. "I don't want you to be sick, Ben, that's ridiculous. I just... want you to trust me enough to tell me when you are."

He shivered again and her face went soft. Before Ben could stop her, Rey had pulled off her own cloak and draped it around his shoulders. Their size difference was pretty expansive, but the cloak was large enough to cover Ben's back. He swallowed and looked up at her. "Fine," he murmured. "Rey, I am unwell and am requesting a day off of training."

She gave him an exasperated smile. "Of course. Now come on, let's get you to a medical droid."

Ben felt a surge of panic. He hated medical droids. They reminded him much too vividly of the many hours he'd had to spend with them in the First Order when his injuries were being patched up. In truth, anything as cold and metallic and stiff as the medical droids reminded him of the First Order.

"No," he said, maybe a little too vehemently. "No, I'll just return to my quarters to rest."

Rey looked dubious. "But-"

"Rey," Ben said again, looking at her imploringly.

"Fine." Rey let out a sigh and grasped at his arm, beginning to lug him to his feet. "Come on, let's get you up."

Ben allowed her to drag him upright, groaning a little as all the blood rushed from his head. He staggered, and immediately felt Rey's warm force-presence pressed into the side that she wasn't on, keeping him on his feet. "Thank you," he remembered to say after a moment as they walked slowly through the woods. "I'm... not used to this. To being... looked after."

"Me either," Rey said softly, pressing her lips to his cheek. "But anytime you need it, I don't mind."

He nodded, wanting to tell her that the feeling was mutual but not quite sure how. They made it back to his quarters without incident, and when they walked in Ben finally let the cough that had been building in his chest get out. Once he started, though, he couldn't seem to stop, and found himself leaning against the wall unable to catch his breath.

"Here," Rey murmured, and she pushed something into the hand that wasn't covering his mouth. Ben sipped gratefully at the water, forcing himself not to choke as he tried to swallow and cough at the same time.

The water helped and Ben let out a deep sigh, his shoulders dropping. "You should get some rest," Rey said, putting her small, warm hand on Ben's shoulder.

He glanced down at himself, taking in the heavy duty boots, black suit, and dark robes he was wearing. Really, with the amount of layers he had on, it was a wonder that he was still managing to be cold. "I should, uhh, change. First."

Rey's eyes went wide and all of the sudden her cheeks got very red. "Oh!" she cried. "Oh, right, yes. Duh, stupid me. I'll just, umm..." She coughed and quickly spun around so her back was to Ben, rocking back and forth on her toes awkwardly.

Ben allowed himself a faint smile at her back and slowly changed into his night clothes, discarding the outfit he had forced himself into only a couple hours before on a chair beside his sleep pod. When he had finished he cleared his throat. "I'm.. uh... I'm done."

"Oh," Rey said again, turning back around. Whether she was still blushing from earlier or she'd started again, her face was still incredibly red. "Okay."

They looked at each other, before Ben cleared his throat again and hesitantly got into his sleep pod. Rey walked over and brushed his hair back from his face, helping him to pull up his covers so he was completely cocooned in blankets. Then she leaned down at kissed his forehead. "Have a good sleep, Ben. Let me know if you need anything."

He nodded slowly, his eyelids beginning to slip down his face. Through bleary, half-dark vision, Ben watched Rey silently back out of his quarters and shut the door behind him.

Then he was asleep.

Rey knew the minute Ben fell asleep, because the tenuous hold he'd had on keeping their bond shut fell apart, and she was suddenly hit with the full force of the achy exhaustion he was experiencing. Rey stumbled a little, dizzy, before taking a steadying breath and clearing her head enough to put the parts of Ben's consciousness that had leaked into her own mind into a little box. She left the lid off, though, wanting to know the minute he needed her.

She wasn't exactly sure what to do now. Ben was sleeping, and hovering would probably just make him uncomfortable. She didn't like to leave him, but she supposed that she had work to do today, and she might as well do it.

Ben woke up unsure if he was still dreaming. Or maybe it was that he was unsure if he hadn't already been awake. He had dreamed a lot of things, spanning from getting up to get a glass of water to leaping off a cliff into a giant mirage of Snoke with a rainbow lightsaber held in his hands.

Ben swallowed, his throat thick and dry, and tried to sit up. At some point during his sleep, he had tossed and turned so much that the blankets around him were twisted into what looked like incredibly thick ropes. He kicked them off his feet and pushed himself into a seated position. There was something he had to do, right? Training. With Rey.

Right? Ben shook himself a little, unable to remember. He was pretty sure he had overslept for something, and it was probably training. Hopefully Rey wouldn't be too mad.

Ben got out of bed and slowly pulled his boots onto his feet. They felt much heavier than usual, like someone had come in while he was asleep and stuck thin stones into the soles. He threw on his cloak, not bothering to change the majority of his outfit, and headed out the door.

Maybe he would stop for some water before heading to training. There would be water in the mess hall, right? Had he had breakfast yet?

As he changed direction away from the woods to the dining area, Ben passed a group of Rebels walking down the hallway. His head turned to follow their movements, which seemed to be in slow motion, and the next thing he knew his toes were catching on the edge of a crate loaded for transport. He and the crate were suddenly falling together, crashing headlong onto the rough stone floor.

Ben rolled onto his back blearily, hearing fuzzy voices calling something and maybe even a little bit of laughter. Now that he thought about it, the fact that he'd just tripped over a crate was pretty funny, and a deep chuckle rose up from his chest.

But the laugh transformed just before it reached the surface and all at once Ben was coughing uncontrollably. His elbow slammed into the ground and he struggled to push himself off his back, unable to get enough air into his lungs. His ears rang, and something in his head pounded from where he'd hit it after his fall.

"Ben!" someone yelled, the voice right above him. Ben breathed in deeply and the scent of pine trees and burning kyber crystals filled his senses. Something buzzed at the back of his head, but it wasn't from the fall this time; it was pleasant and soothing, and worried.

A hand landed on his cheek, and Ben flinched a little in surprise. He squeezed his eyes tightly together and then opened them again, and his vision was a little clearer. Rey's face swam above his own, her eyes dark and serious.

"Hi..." Ben mumbled, smiling dopily at her. The ever-present frizz at the sides of her face had been curled by the humidity, and at such a close range Ben could see the sheer amount of tiny, pale freckles she had all across her makeup-less cheeks and nose. "So beautiful," he murmured, trying to reach up and touch her face. His aim was off, though, and his hand smacked into her nose.

Rey recoiled a little, a surprised laugh leaping from her mouth. She caught his hand and quickly pressed her lips to it. "Okay, Mr. Smooth, just lie still for a second."

Ben snorted a little at the nickname, watching Rey idly as she straightened up a little. He hadn't realized he'd been half-lying on the crate he'd fallen over until Rey dragged it out of the way and all of him rested on the floor. Ben shivered as the cold from the stone leaked through his thin night clothes.

"Okay, here we go," Rey muttered, putting her hand on Ben's chest. She stood up and Ben felt the air around him firming as he rose with her, like his chest was connected to her fingertips. Ben felt the bottoms of his feet land steadily on the floor, but just before his knees could give out Rey slipped under one of his arms and lead him to lean against her.

"Alright, I got you," Rey murmured in his ear, positioning him against her shoulder. "Why were you out of bed, Ben?"

Ben frowned a little as they started walking, barely registering the multiple clumps of people hanging around the edges of the hallway and watching him and Rey with wide eyes. Why had he gotten out of bed again? Or, right. "Training," he said, tripping a little on the edge of the stone floor and forcing Rey to stumble with them until she caught them with the Force. She was starting to get out of breath, and he realized how heavy he must be to her. "I had... training."

Was talking always this tiring? A small cough pushed its way out of Ben's mouth and he raised his arm halfheartedly to catch the germs.

"We already did our training," Rey told him gently. "So you don't have to worry about that anymore, okay? All you need to do is sleep."

Now that she said it, Ben did seem to remember heading into the woods that morning and getting injured in a lightsaber battle. He looked down at his arm curiously, but found the skin to be smooth. Maybe that had been a dream, then.

They had reached his quarters again and Ben heard Rey slide open the door. His eyelids were starting to droop and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw his sleep pod in the corner. Rey helped him over and he started to arrange the tangled sheets around himself as best he could, already mostly asleep.

"Here, hang on, hang on." Rey reaching down and tugged off his boots, before helping him out of his cloak and putting them to the side. She fiddled with the blankets and managed to straighten them out, pulling them over Ben for what he was pretty sure was the second time today. "I'm just going to hang out in here, okay?" Rey said, giving Ben a serious look. "I don't want you trying to get up again. I'm really glad I felt you moving or I don't know where you would have ended up."

"The woods," Ben explained. His jaw was tired and he had to take a break before speaking again. "Training."

"Of course," Rey agreed easily, nodding at him. She cleared off the clothes from Ben's chair and sat down, curling her legs up beneath her. "Go to sleep okay?"

Or, maybe that was what she'd said, because Ben was already asleep again.

Rey dozed off a little bit herself. She kept the back of her mind open, though, and so she could start to feel when Ben's fever began to break. He became restless and turned over a few times, trying to rid himself of his covers as his temperature spiked. Now fully awake and unsure of what else to do, Rey ran to get some water from the hallway's bathroom and put it on a towel before bringing it back to Ben. It didn't stay cool very long, but she thought the pained furrow between his eyebrows eased a little when she put the cloth on his forehead.

When Ben woke up again he was soaked through with sweat and felt considerably more lucid. He cleared his throat a few times to rid it of the gunk and the tickle and looked around him. The alarm droid on his table showed him that it was almost midnight. Rey was slumped in her chair, fast asleep, with a half-dry cloth held loosely in her hands.

Ben stretched and winced a little as a spot on his head throbbed. He reached up and rubbed it and found a lump through his hair. When had that happened? He could remember getting hit with Rey's lightsaber in the woods, but she'd healed that injury that afternoon. How had he somehow bumped his head without realizing it?

"You tripped over a crate," Rey said and he realized with a start that she'd woken up. She let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, slowly sitting up. "You were really feverish a few hours ago and wandered out of here, and ended up tripping over a transportation crate in the hallway and hitting your head."

"I don't remember any of that," Ben mumbled, shaking his head slowly. "How long have I been asleep?"

"A couple hours, maybe?" Rey guessed. "Your fever broke a little bit ago so I decided to try and get some rest. How're you feeling?"

"Considerably better," Ben admitted. He pushed himself up into a seated position, wishing that the base kept the shower facilities open at night so he could go clean up. "Uh... thank you. For looking after me. I must admit that I'm... not used to people caring when I'm unwell."

Rey's head tilted a little and she gave him an unreadable look before walking over to sit at the edge of his bed. "Just tell me next time, okay?" she murmured, pushing his sweaty hair back from his face and tucking it behind his ear before running her hand down his arm. Ben caught the hand and held it in his own. "I don't want to have to push you to your breaking point through the Force just for you to tell me what's wrong, Ben. Wouldn't it have been so much easier if you'd just said you were sick this morning and let me take care of you?"

Ben glanced down. "Rey, I don't think you quite understand," he murmured, one large thumb stroking over her hand. "If you get sick when you're in the First Order, you push through and you don't say a word or people make things even worse for you. I'm not used- I not used to this." He gestured between the two of them. "To someone waning to care for me like you do."

Rey reached up her free hand and wiped under his eyes, her finger catching a tear that had just starting rolling down Ben's cheek. She wasn't used to seeing him cry (it was usually the other way around), but Rey liked the show of vulnerability. "I do understand," she countered. "You think it was a walk in the park for me to show I was sick when I was a Scavenger? You show weakness, you get your stuff stolen, which means no food tonight."

She pulled back and little and put her hand on top of his, so all of their fingers were locked together and resting on Ben's thigh. "The thing is, both of us need to get used to not being alone anymore. We have the Rebels, and we have each other. So no more hiding when we're sick or hurting or upset, okay?"

"Okay," Ben breathed, and leaned forward to rest his head against hers.

Rey took in a slow, calming breath, sending those same emotions through the bond to him, and then pulled back. "I'm going to go get some real rest, alright?" she told him, standing up from his sleep pod. "I'll come check on you tomorrow. Take another day off, just in case."

"Yes ma'am," Ben replied with a faint, teasing smile.

She kissed him on the forehead one last time and squeezed his hand. "And seriously, Ben. Tell me if you need something."

Ben nodded, watching her head toward the door. "I will."

Author's Note: Ok ok I'm so sorrry but that might be the last one for awhile because I'm no longer inspired to write them D: I need to watch the movie again!