2/14/2
Kylo thinks that Poe had a good idea. Get a present for Rey. She went way out on a ledge for him, and has committed to staying out on that ledge, so the absolute least he can possibly do is find some sort of thing she'd like to show his appreciation.
The problem is, it's not just that he's out of practice on presents, it's that he never was in practice. As a young child, there were Lifeday gifts (Wookie tradition) and small bags of cookies and treats were exchanged on Concordance Day (which also, just happened, to be his birthday) so he was, as a young boy, used to getting presents.
So, once upon a time, he was good with presents.
And then he joined Luke.
And the presents went away.
Young Ben was extremely irate when Concordance Day ABY 14 rolled around, and there were no presents for him.
Because Jedi didn't do presents.
And eventually, he realized that part of not doing presents was about not wanting, not getting attached or excited or… whatever. And part of it was, while it was true there were a collection of people who would happily get Ben Lifeday gifts, M'Gll and several of the others didn't have those people.
And Luke didn't want some kids getting to his place and getting goodies from home, and others getting nothing.
Leia eventually wormed her way around it by sending gifts for the whole group of them, and if they happened to be the sorts of things Ben liked, oh well. He didn't resent her, too much, too often, for it. Mostly just when Concordance Day would roll around. After all, his father was a fucking smuggler. It's not like getting a little lifeday present to him wasn't an option.
His first idea for a present is repainting his room. He thinks about that, fairly pleased for a few minutes. She's mentioned she likes all the colors, but he knows she's likes greens, too, and it'd probably be a nice surprise to come home one night, and everything is bright and open and…
He's looking around.
His eyes narrow.
Lots of green might be nice, but he doesn't know what greens, and… Maybe the all black furniture could be… not all black. Still some black, after all, it's his home, too, but…
He's standing in his room, looking around thinking that, if this is going to work, they should probably do it together.
(It's a few hours later when it occurs to him that doing something he was going to do anyway likely doesn't count as a present. That said, he does ask C8 if they've got a book or something of paint colors and gets told that physical plant can replicate any color they can be shown. So, no, there's not a book or something.)
Instead of having lunch brought to him and working through it, he decides to head up to the F-Deck. He knows for a fact that there is food up there, and likely things that could work as presents.
As he's strolling around the F-Deck, his do not recognize spell up, things all around him, and a handheld pasty doing lunch duty, it also occurs to him that presents are easier if the person you're getting one for is a thing sort of person.
There are things, in shops, all around him.
And he supposes that Rey would like a lot of them. As much from the novelty of getting a present, and for something new than for any desire for any of these things.
He wouldn't mind buying many of them, again, because it's new, and it'd be a gift, from him, to her, but…
None of them are really leaping off the shelf, yelling, Buy me for Rey! She'll love me!
He wonders a bit if getting some sort of sexy pajamas for her qualifies as a present.
For him, probably.
He lets himself imagine her in sexy pajamas. Okay, definitely a present for him.
Then he wonders if she'd be interested in seeing him in sexy pajamas. That doesn't hit him wrong. It's certainly a thing he could do. And that'd… be significantly more likely to be a present for her.
She liked his silky white shorts… Maybe something, not exactly like that, but… He spends a moment thinking about it, fairly sure there has to be sexy pajama-type-things for men, but his mind isn't exactly bubbling over with ideas of what they might be, other than his current pajama pants, but in a sheer, silky sort of fabric.
He's looking around the F-Deck. He knows for a fact that there are places on this ship, on this deck, that sell sex-oriented things. One could likely get sexy pajamas at a place like that. For both of them, maybe… (After all, just because he's getting a present for her doesn't mean he can't get one for him, too…) He's just… continuing to look around… has no idea where. Nothing within his view has anything like what he'd consider sexy clothing in it.
And he's got another twenty minutes before he's got to be in his office.
His eyes narrow in frustration. The datapad that has the Supremacy directory is also back in his office. So, whatever else is true about this plan, it's not happening today.
As he thinks about it, he does know where the adult section on the Finalizer is, and… An extra layer of anonymity doesn't bother him at all.
Tomorrow or the next day. He's got to have at least an hour that doesn't have something else scheduled in it. Lunch if nothing else.
Still, even sexy pajamas… They don't feel like… enough.
He suspects locating and trying them on, and obtaining them will be fun, and he has a feeling showing them off will be more fun, and that'll be good, but…
She's shifting her whole life for this, and a concoction of silk just doesn't seem to be quite on the level of that.
Granted, he's not sure anything, other than making sure he's worth it, is.
They're in the bath, relaxing a bit in the time between dinner and bed, when he says, "So, if we were to paint this room, what color would you like?"
Rey blinks at him. "Uh…"
"I've been told that Physical Plant can produce any color they can see, so… Our place on Lirium is white and cream mostly… What… should this room be?"
Rey sits up from her lounging float and looks around. He can feel her thinking.
"And… I don't know, but… Maybe the furniture doesn't have to be all black, either. I'd like to keep some of it black, but…" He thinks for a moment. "Like… I'd like the bed to stay black, but maybe the sheets and blankets could be something else."
Rey nods at that, and continues to look around. "Maybe… The floor and ceiling could stay black, and the bed, and wardrobe… Maybe new colors for the bath and table and chairs?"
"We could do that. Any… ideas, for colors?"
She half smiles and half winces, and he can feel what's going on. She's excited at the idea of bringing colors in here, but she's never picked colors before. Everything in their home in Lirium is something Chewie picked out, or something he brought and left. She's never… made a home, other than in the most literal sense of having physically built one.
"Any color they can see?" Rey says to Kylo.
"Yeah."
"There were a few shops on the F-Deck that sell pictures. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, we could go look at them, and if one of them has colors we like, we could get it and use it to figure out what goes in here."
He pulls her close to him, and kisses her soundly. "I like that."
2/16/2
When Master Ren and Mistress Rey of the Maji spend and evening perusing the art galleries of the F-Deck, the gossip goes wild.
Apparently, Mistress Rey likes images with bright colors, vibrant contrasts, sharp geometric shapes, and non-photo realistic images.
Master Ren, apparently, has more classical tastes, leaning toward landscapes of forests and fields, sunsets over oceans, still lifes of exotic flowers, and human portraits and nudes, in black and white.
Impressionist landscapes are, apparently, the sweet spot where both of their tastes converge.
Rene D'Vallier will be informed, in a few months, when he checks in with the gallery, that his Sunset Over Vayria was purchased by the Master, and he will tell anyone and everyone who is capable of listening about that.
And one day, over tea, he'll chat with one of his friends, who'd gone to art school with him, an Orlac Calrissian, who will not actually spit his tea out when he hears that the once-upon-a-time Ben Solo, now Master Ren, is, apparently, buying art.
2/18/2
In his office, with most of his furniture, because apparently, painters like to take the easy to move stuff out before applying paint to most of the surfaces of your room, Kylo isn't working.
He's not entirely sure how, exactly, he agreed to a mostly beige and coral colored room with a few blue accents (With black floors and ceiling.) but the picture is pretty, and he likes it. And that's most of the colors in the picture. Something in his bones seems to resonate with deserts. He thinks that's something to do with Vader. He hopes it's not vestiges of Luke. There's the sense that Vader… Anakin, said… something about deserts, but… Anyway, he's woolgathering.
He looks at the data pads that are not, miraculously, getting to be a smaller stack. Apparently, he's been woolgathering a lot today.
Part of it is the disruption of the painters.
Part of it is the niggling idea of sexy pajamas, and sort of a sense of… calling Rey to him, room done, everything new and him all laid out…
He grins at that idea.
And the grin falls as he looks at all of those pads.
He makes himself a promise. Tomorrow. They say the paint will be wet and smelly today, and not to be in there until tomorrow, so…
Tomorrow. Today he'll get these bloody pads done.
Tomorrow, Operation: Break In the New Bedroom.
He likes that idea.
2/19/2
Kylo is beyond intimately acquainted with Rey's body. He knows her curves and flats, better than he knows his own. He is also aware of the fact that, should he attempt to buy some of the pretty silky things he's dreaming about putting on Rey, he will need to get them in the right size.
And though he is, as previously stated, beyond intimately acquainted with her form, he is also beyond nebulous on the idea of how that translates into clothing sizes, so… As his free hour draws near, and step one of Break In the Bedroom is about to get into play, he realizes that he's going to need some help on this.
He comms Jon.
"Jon, if I wanted to buy clothing for Rey, what size is she?"
"What kind of clothing?"
Kylo blushes a little. Right, there are kinds of clothing, and it's likely that what he wants will have specific measurements. "Uh… The sort you don't get to see."
Jon snerks. "Uh huh. Okay. Check your personal datapad in about five minutes. I'm sending you a collection of numbers. Take them with you, and show them to whomever helps you."
"Thank you."
"Do you know where you're going?"
"On this ship, no. But I have an idea of where I need to go on the Finalizer."
He can feel how amused Jon is by that. "Okay, then. Have fun."
Kylo's about to comm off, when he realizes what he asked for, which is not exactly that present for Rey, and then he says, "Uh… what size am I?"
He can feel Jon vibrating as he laughs silently on the other side of the comm. "That'll be in the note I'm sending you, too."
"Thank you."
Kylo is aware of the fact that there are shops that sell sex-oriented things in the same way he's aware of nebulae. He's seen them, from afar, in passing, but he's never been in one.
When he was stationed on the Finalizer he visited the Specs a few times. So, he knows, in that he walked by them, that there were shops near the brothels, and those shops sold things, and that's likely the kind of place that sells the sorts of thing he's interested in.
Probably.
He never actually went in one. He did, while wearing his mask, look very intently at several of them over the years, but his life never slotted into any sort of shape where there would be a reason to enter one. After all, anything that might be in one of those shops was something he likely wasn't supposed to play with. Just visiting the Specs was a sign of weakness, one he'd indulge when he just couldn't stand not indulging any longer. Anything in one of those shops would have been… He's not sure how to even begin to think about it. Wrong. It would have been wrong.
It's not wrong, now.
So, he's readying himself for Operation: Break In the New Bedroom, he keeps thinking of all the sorts of things he might want to see Rey in. Granted, that's not the goal of this mission, but… Well, he's got ideas of what he might want to see Rey in. He doesn't exactly have anything in the ways of ideas of what he might put himself in.
He strips out of his command blacks and into Padme-who-is-now-Ren, and pulls his hair back into a haphazard knot.
He licks his lips. He's got his Ben Amidala credit stick. He's got his trader gear on. He pulls up his do not recognize spell and layers a quick do-not-see over top of it. He's ready. He ports himself directly to the hallway with the Spec shops on the Finalizer.
He drops the do-not-see. He knows he's going to need help for this mission, and it won't work if they can't see him. So, right here, right now, he's just Ben Amidala, in his off-duty wear, having a bit of a stroll in the R&R section of the Finalizer.
It's pretty similar to how he remembers it. Or, at least it looks similar. It feels different: crowded, randy anticipation and lust threaded through with drunkenness and the relaxed glow of recent release. He can't remember it feeling this way, and he doesn't know if he had his own empathy shut down so far he couldn't pick this up the last time he was here, or if Snoke had it shut down to keep him walled off from this.
Either way, he's appreciating it now. Just being here is giving him a lift and making him feel good. That likely makes sense, he's in the middle of at least a few hundred randy people. He's wryly thinking about how taking Rey here will feel, and… yeah, probably really good.
They run hot enough for each other, and with this background current of everyone around him… Yeah… That'd be good.
Maybe one day they should come here, get worked on together. Getting really rubbed down again is something they should do, soon. Hell, he's the fucking Master, he can probably get a few Specs to come to them. Though if they come to him, they'll miss out on how this feels.
He shakes his head. He doesn't want them to miss out on how this feels. It's not exactly that glow from Paige being born, this is decidedly and intensely more sexual, but it is similar in the euphoric feel of it. The connection to the literal, physical, root of life.
He heads towards where he remembers there being a shop. One not selling food or drink. And, it takes him a few moments, but then he finds it. He lingers outside of it for a moment, looking at the blatant double entendre of a name and the blacked-out windows, debating getting Rey and doing this with her, but…
He does want to surprise her. And he's fairly sure it'll be okay on the other side of the door, but if it's… gross or seedy or unpleasant, he doesn't want to drag her into it. And if he's horribly misjudged what's in here… Well, he doesn't need to drag her into that, either. And if it makes him blush too hard, well… Maybe next time he won't blush too much.
He steps in, and… Okay… His eyebrows don't go shooting up, but only because he's making them stay put. If they had their way, they'd be at least a centimeter above his hairline.
Uh… So… yeah… Pretty, silky things. Uh… Yeah… He's glancing around at things, and other things and… he's honestly not even sure what the fuck that thing is, let alone if it's designed for humans, which isn't to say he knows what the other stuff is, but he can at least, sort of, guess, but that's…
A flash of emerald green catches his sight from his peripheral vision. There, the pretty, silky things are there.
He turns 90 degrees and heads directly toward the silky stuff. The… oh… Uh… He squints a bit. Well… They're… triangles of fabric, with a sort of band that goes around the waist, and another string in the back, and… He's fairly sure that The Salty Seaman isn't precisely a subtle pun, so he's expecting this store to cater to men, but… Those look like something more for Rey than for anyone shaped like him.
He gets closer, and gets a better view of what caught his eye, and… Right. Okay, well… While he may not know what size Rey is, he knows her shape down to the millimeter and she's not built to fit into the… he's going to call them panties, but… They appear to be designed for people with penises, so that's not what he's looking for either.
Probably. His eyes narrow a little as he stares at them, chewing his lip. He knows how much he likes panties on Rey. Her usual shorts are good, too, but… Little, snug silky things are better, so…
He was thinking more like… silky pajama pants, or like his white shorts, and these are…
Not like that. At all.
But… she might… like them.
"Can I help you?" The woman running the shop is standing next to Kylo, looking at him with a pleased expression on her face. "I'd guess you're probably going to need a large." She looks a little longer. "Eh… maybe a medium. Your waist is pretty trim." She checks his butt. "Or not. Maybe a medium on a thong and large for anything with a back. Most of the fabrics are stretchy, after all, a pouch like that shouldn't be too constraining, but you might want to try things on first."
Kylo blinks slowly and rubs his lips together. "I'm looking for my wife," goes tumbling out of his lips.
She's still grinning at him. "Great, what does she like? Everything all up front and packaged up nicely," she gestures with her hands in a way that makes him blush from the tips of his ears to his collarbone, "or more discrete and tucked under."
He bites his lip, makes something of a whimpering sound, and manages to say, "Shorts?"
"Oh, yeah, of course," she turns and takes him a few steps further into the store. His eyes trace across another shelf, and… It's out of his mouth before he can stop it, "Are those bras?"
"Not exactly, but some men like a little extra support, and some just like to feel dressed up and pretty." She eyes his chest. "You'd certainly fill one out nicely. Do you want to do a fitting?"
He can feel she's just fucking with him right now. He doesn't need a fitting, they only come in four sizes, and he's obviously the largest of them, but she is enjoying his blushes. Apparently, most of the clientele she deals with in here are a little more experienced and or jaded with this sort of shopping trip.
"No."
"No problem, if you change your mind…" And she's at a series of shelves with shorts in every color and fabric and shape that he's ever imagined. "Okay, top shelf, those are tighter and'll often have a built-in pouch for extra support or showing off. They get looser as they go down, and plain boxers are on the bottom."
Kylo nods. "Pajamas?"
"Next shelf over."
"Thank you."
"Great, just holler if you need anything."
He gets a moment of looking at the shorts before she's back, handing him the emerald green panties. "If your woman has eyes, she'll like you in those." He gets hit with a very intense, and apparently desirable, image of him in said panties. The lust is in her mind, but she doesn't let it get to her face or voice because she thinks it's ridiculously cute that he's doing this for his wife, as she says, "The color'll be good on you, and they'll show everything off."
He blinks and nods. Well, the way she's imagining him in them is heating her up in pretty much exactly what he's hoping for Rey, so… "Should I… Try them on?"
"Probably. Changing room is in the back. Keep your shorts or whatever on. It won't be exact, but it'll give you an idea if they're even close to fitting." She heads off for a moment, grabs another one of the emerald ones. "Okay, you've got large and medium now." Then she grabs a cobalt blue, and vivid violet. "Those'll probably look good, too."
He's holding them, not sure what to do, so he says, "Thank you."
She's grinning at him.
Kylo mentally rolls his eyes, and then, quietly, under his breath, while waving his hand says, "You need to do something else right now."
"I need to check the stock," she says and wanders off.
He stares at the tiny bits of silk in his hands. They feel nice. Like his other silky shorts, which he's wearing right now, they'd probably feel really good… on him.
They're really tiny though. Really. Okay, he's not… huge. Not like some of the guys in the pictures they look at together, but… He's not sure how all of him will fit in something like that. And, while it is true that he kind of likes it when Rey's got a bra that some of her chest slips out of, he's also fairly sure that having part of his shaft sticking out of this, especially if he's not hard, is just going to look stupid.
She's not looking at him, having become absorbed in rearranging a display at the front of the store. He tries to snug his fist into the pouch, and is surprised to see the fabric does stretch to accommodate it. He presses in a little deeper, pulling the pouch up to his wrist, and… Yeah, they're really stretchy.
Well… It's really not what his mental image of sexy pajamas was, but… Rey'd probably like them. Or maybe just be amused. He's not sure how one goes about showing off panties like these. Does he just stroll out of the refresher in them? Yank off his trousers? Go to bed a little before she does, and just lounge around in them until she comes in…
He's getting ahead of himself. Try them on. Make sure they don't look frightfully stupid.
In the changing room, with the first of them on, he's feeling a bit silly and a lot turned on. Silly is probably because he's got his shorts on under the panties, and, well, that just looks stupid, but… He can imagine how it'd look without the shorts and… Well, she wasn't kidding about 'show everything off.'
He's… especially in his current state of half-hard, on display in a way he just can't get on his own. And, again, without shorts, he can kind of imagine, at least for a little while, the thong aspect of this might feel good. Probably be annoying for more than a little while, but for playing… He doesn't mind a little extra stimulation back there.
So, the only real question is, would Rey think this was sexy?
He traces his fingers over himself in those emerald green panties. Yeah… That feels good. And she's certainly never laughed at anything else he thought was sexy. At least, not in an embarrassing way.
Sooo… He's got credits.
Worst comes to worst, they end up living in the back of his underwear drawer.
He gets all three shades.
On the way back to the counter, he notices that the lady who keeps the shop is still fascinated by her display re-arranging, and he's got a little extra time, so he wanders into the aisle that has the dildos.
There are a lot of them.
An entire aisle of nothing but dildos.
In every shape, size, color, and texture he'd ever imagined, and a whole lot he hadn't. Apparently, he's not the only man interested in playing with something like this.
He winces a bit, but, in a sort of morbid fascination, he does pick up the one with the head bigger than his fist, and sort of stares at it, wincing harder, before putting it back down. He doesn't pick up the one with scales. He does idly wonder how one goes about cleaning something like that.
A few steps down are what he considers normal sized ones, meaning a bit smaller, or at least thinner around, than he is. Length doesn't matter much to him, after all, they can use as much as they like, and just hold the rest, but girth seems less negotiable. Likewise, these are all smooth. Some of them are human colored and textures. Some look like they're made of plexiplast or glass.
He actually really likes the glass looking ones with the swirls of colors within. He's not tentative when he picks one of them up. It feels good in his hand, heavy for it's size, smooth, cool.
He put that one down and looks around for a fairly narrow one, because when Rey uses her fingers on him, she normally does… one? two… at most… he thinks, and that kind of burns, in a good way, but burns still, and the easing into it is not exactly comfortable, so…
He's eyeing a few of them, when he remembers Rey talking about playing with one, on the receiving side of things, and possibly she'd want something bigger than two of her fingers, because… well, again, he's bigger than the dildos he's contemplating, so…
Which gets him also thinking about what she'd do with it. If he were there… It doesn't take his brain too long to figure out a few options, and require him to shift himself around in his trousers because his shaft really likes the idea of both of them sucking each other, and him using a dildo on her while he does it. Just the mental image of the idea's got his shaft hard enough he can feel his pulse in it, and he's reaching for one of the glass ones, which are pretty and feel nice in his hand, when it also occurs to him that, like their home, maybe Rey would like to be part of picking one of these out, and… There are no straps here. No belt, and if she's going to use it on him the way the lady in the video did…
Okay, this is not the place for that shopping trip.
But, eventually, both of them together… He grins at that.
At the counter, he's waiting while the lady tallies them up, looking at a basket with a collection of thin strips of leather with a lot of snaps… They're… oddly shaped. Obviously, they go around something but he's got no idea what.
Okay, he's got an idea, but he can't imagine why. Finally, he says, "You sell leather bracelets?"
She giggles at that. "Uh… Well, I suppose you could wear them around your wrist." She glances at him. "Well, not your wrist."
He bites his lip again. He was right about where they go, probably. "Okay… where are you supposed to wear them?"
She's smiling at him. "They're cockstraps." And again, he's fairly sure she's not talking about male chickens. "You wrap them around the base of your cock, under your stones, and snap it shut."
He winces a little. "Why?"
"Blood can go in, but not get back out until you release it. So, everything gets harder, fuller, more sensitive, but it's harder to climax with one on. I've been told it lets you feel on edge a lot longer than without one. Partners tend to like them because things are bigger and last longer. And some guys think they look nice. Everything big and proud. And a lot of older guys like them because it makes it easier to stay hard once they get that way."
"Errr…"
She can't keep her eyes from dropping to below his waist, but she is quick about it, and then says, with a smirk, "Yeah, I know, not an issue for you."
He blushes harder, wishing he'd worn a longer jacket.
"Okay, so that'll be 62.58." She's looking at him, waiting for his credit stick.
He grabs one of the straps, too.
She grins at him on that one, too. "Good choice. Uh… Don't keep it on for more than half an hour, though."
"Why?"
"Same reason you don't want a too tight ring on for too long. For a little while, it's fun. For too long, you're looking at gangrene. That's why this kind has the snaps, you can get it off easy."
Kylo blinks slowly. "There are ones without snaps?"
"Oh, sure. The plexiplast ones, like these, are pretty safe. They're stretchy, so just take it off. The metal ones can be tricky."
He blinks again. "They make metal ones?"
She gestures to a different shelf. "Like I said, some guys like how they look. Good time jewelry. Some of them have locks and… well, new meaning to the term marriage band," she smiles at him, glancing at his ring, "right?"
Kylo's got no idea what to do with that. He nods, and finally says, "How much?"
"Oh, right."
A minute later, he's got a new total, and a small bag that he's tucked into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Two stores down, he's found the land of pretty, silky things for women. And he's not blushing, at all. He really is wishing he'd worn a longer jacket, though.
Everything he sees he wants to buy and put on Rey. The fact that she keeps him in line when they go shopping together is likely important. Because right now, without her, and with his credit stick, he's just grabbing things, running his fingers over them, thinking of them on her, and peeling them off of her, and kissing her though them, and the feel of the silks on his skin, and shit, there's another one in a new color, and… ooohhh that one's translucent, and… oh my… that one has sparkles… and… ohhh… sooo soft… and…
He's irked to think about it, as he's grabbing yet another piece of ridiculously light and soft fabric, but, just possibly, the Jedi might have had something with wanting things can make it easy to make stupid decisions, because right now he wants, but if he buys all of this, Rey is going to at least mentally smack him for a monumentally stupid decision.
That said, he's thinking of their eventual trip to Canto Bight, the one they likely should see about, eventually, putting into play, once he's got some fucking free time again. He sighs. But once they get there, he's winning at least one big hand, and putting that into his, 'buy pretty things for Rey' fund. He sees a concoction of light pinks and iridescent blues and… a big hand.
It's true that he wasn't great at math as a kid. He's still not great at math, but that doesn't mean he can't do enough basic arithmetic to come up with a decent estimation of the cost of the massive pile of silky things in his arms, and sigh…
If he brings all of this home, she's not just going to smack him upside the back of the head, she's going to do it with her staff.
He makes himself put most of them back. He keeps the black stockings, and the silk nightgown, and the silk robe, and the scarlet silk gloves, and the completely, utterly impractical shoes that he's not even sure humans can walk in, but for some reason he really wants to see her wear with the stockings, and apparently stockings need something to keep them up, so he's got to get them, and… okay, he grabs some panties and a bra and… Starts making himself put things back again.
He's not the only person in the shop, so he doesn't immediately end up with a sales clerk right next to him, but eventually, "Are you finding everything?"
"And then some. Finding isn't the problem, not buying too much is."
The clerk laughs at this. "First time buying pretties for your sweet?"
"First time getting these kinds of pretties."
"Yeah, you've got the look of a man who can't decide which one of the candies in the store he wants most."
If Kylo had ever bought candy before, that would have likely been an apt metaphor, as it is, he thinks that's likely true, he just doesn't know it's true.
"Do you… need help narrowing it down?"
He sighs a bit, looks at his most recent attempt to get down to just a few things, and then nods, "Probably."
"All right, what does your…"
"Wife…" And again he gets hit with a wave of how cute. It's a really bizarre sensation to have strangers staring at him, approving, of his attempts to be sweet to his lady. He assumes most of the men in a place like… He glances around. He's the only man in the store. Oh.
"What does your wife like?"
"We're figuring that out."
"Okay. Sizes?"
He rattles off the numbers he memorized from Jon's note.
She's nodding. "Okay, so, she's slim, small chest, well balanced, her waist is trim, but not that much smaller than her chest and hips… She'll look good in pretty much anything, and you can get very light and sheer tops because she doesn't need a lot of support."
"That sounds like you're saying her size isn't exactly narrowing it down."
"Yeah, sorry." She looks at the pile of lingerie in his arms. "And, let me guess, me saying, 'Well, what do you like,' isn't going to narrow this down, either?"
"I like this entire store."
She cracks a wide smile at that. "Oh, you're fun."
He sort of half-smiles at that, not sure what to do. He doesn't think anyone, ever has called him fun before.
"Let's try this, if you don't mind an invasive question, is this for wearing or playing? Lingerie that looks pretty can feel good. Lingerie that looks particularly sexy often isn't all that comfortable for longer term, or, at the very least, it can be distracting."
Ultimately, he was kind of thinking both, but if it's a one or the other sort of thing… "Playing?"
She nods at that, and begins taking things out of his arms. "Most of these are comfortable, and pretty, and easy to wear, so they aren't bad choices, but… They're not the little sleek number you put in your purse and step away to put under your date night dress just as you're about to go home."
He's got no idea what a date night dress is, but from context, he's thinking he might want to get Rey one of them, too.
She starts laying out the pieces he's got left, putting them into outfits. "Given what you've got here, and your wife's shape, you've got two ways to go. These," she gestures to bra-like thing that he thinks would cover Rey to the bottom of her ribs, and a pair of panties cut into a sort of deep v, "will make her bust and hips look curvier. Give her more of the illusion of an hourglass figure." He can feel what she's thinking of with that. "Or," and here she's got the shoes, the stockings, the things that keep the stockings up, and a pair of panties so tiny they make the ones he got himself look voluminous and roomy. She eyes the panties and the shoes, shakes her head, scoops everything but the shoes up, and says, "Go play with the perfumes. Pick something that smells good to you. I'll be back in a minute or two."
He blinks at that, hadn't even noticed there was a scent section, but locates it, and… FORCE! There are like fifty different types of scents on this wall and… He's got no clue what to even begin doing with them.
It's almost worse than the pretty clothing, because now he wants to rub all of them on Rey and see how they smell, and then make sure she rubs all over him, so he can smell like this, too, and…
The bath. The first time he saw her somewhat naked, she was in a bath, and the water was blue, and it smelled of flowers, and… He's got no idea what. Floral, blue. Some of the bottles here are blue, so he goes and sniffs them.
None of them are the same, but, there's one… It's not a floral. It's… got flowers in it, but that's not the main thing going on in this blend. It's light, and airy, and there are flowers, and under or through that, something warm. Sunshine near a garden, maybe…
It's nice, and he's liking it, but…
Orange. Orange and browns, and a sort of dusty burnt color. He reaches for that one. Heat, dry, warm spices and hot air, sunshine, but this is the deep, lazy sunshine of full summer. This is the sun that lives in the tan of her skin, and the freckles that dot her shoulders. There is something orange about this, and not just the bottle, a vague undercurrent of citronen, and something that makes his mouth feel warm, like he's taken a bite of spice cake and a sip of coffee…
This one. This one is coming home with him.
"Desert Sunset. That's a good choice. A lot of people like that one," she says as she's back. "Come on. Let's see if you like this." She leads him back to the counter where the shoes he picked out still are. There are stockings next to them, but these apparently hold themselves up. They're black, with a thin forest green ribbon up the back, tying in a tidy bow at the back of each leg. Apparently, it's clear from how he's looking at them, that he's not sure how they stay up. "The stockings have a band at the top that keeps them up." Kylo nods. The shoes he picked were black, shiny leather with a high, forest green heel. The stockings are also black with the ties in green. With them is… He's staring at it, unable to figure out what it is for a moment, and then it suddenly snaps into place in his mind, and oh. They're a deep green satin that are like the other pair of panties he'd picked out somewhat V cut, but these don't have a… bottom part. There is, however, a string of black, shiny beads that connect from the front to the back, and uh… He makes himself not say, "Pearls for her pearl?" He can't, however, make himself not think about it. And how that's got to feel, nestled up against her, and… He reaches out and touches one of the beads. It's cool and smooth and… He's biting his lip, in a good way, now. Images are forming in his head, fast. There's no bottom on those things, so he could likely just sort of push them a bit to the side, so she could be wearing them while they… do… whatever… anything, and… His index finger slides over the beads again. They'd feel good against him, too.
He can see it in his mind. Rey on her hands and knees, rear to him, those pearls nestled between her maomao lips. He could, just tug the back a little, make them press against her. Make her back arch, and her lips part with a low, soft moan.
He could hook his finger into them, slide them over just a bit, just enough for him to slip his shaft into her. Just enough for his body to rub against them. Enough to feel the smooth roll of them against him, and as he moves, they'll move against her, too.
Each stroke, deep and steady, moving the beads over her, over him…
One of his hands wanders into his pocket and is holding his shaft down, because otherwise the damn thing is going to leap out, buy this bloody outfit on it's own, and then march over to Rey and put it on her.
Eventually, his eye wander a little higher up on the counter, and he notices that there's no top to this. Not that he can see. There is, however, a… again, he knows it's not a bracelet, because it's too bloody big for that, and it's five strands of those beads, one on top of the other. They come together in a clasp, and… Looking more carefully at the size of it, he can see it's some sort of necklace that lays snug to the neck, from there, thin fine chains, and more of those pearls cascade down, to nestle between her breasts and drape over her belly and waist.
The sales lady is very pleased at his reaction to this. She's more pleased by him just blindly thrusting his credit stick at her, and there's a very content layer on top of that that she just got him to buy the most expensive outfit in the store.
He biggest problem with doing this during the middle of the day is that he's got bugger all for focus on anything other than his new goodies afterhaving done it.
At one point, Schiff is really attempting to tell him something important, and it's just not filtering through the haze of what's tucked into the top drawer of his desk.
"Sir…"
Kylo's just staring in the direction of his room.
If he were paying attention, he'd feel Schiff debating what to do about this, looking at him carefully, debating more about what has him so distracted and… somewhat pink cheeked, but… well, he's not paying attention.
Just to make absolutely sure, Schiff, being something of a brat, does slip, "And then I authorized a payment of seventy-six trillion credits into my own personal account, and as of tomorrow Kinear and I are taking those credits and eloping away to the—oh bugger it all, this would be vastly more fun if you'd start paying attention, but… Shit, what the hell are you thinking about, man?" and then gently, and maybe not respectfully, but well aware of the fact that Kylo could literally break him with his mind, he kicks him in the shin.
That gets a jerk and blink out of Kylo, along with a curious look in Schiff's direction.
"Are you well, sir?"
"Uh…" That pink on his cheeks goes flushing deeper and redder and…
Schiff just sighs. Then he shakes his head. He knows what he's looking at now. "Just… go… get her. Or go to her. You're doing no one any good this distracted. Go scratch the itch, and come back when you can focus on your job."
Kylo sighs at that. "Is it that obvious?"
"It bloody well is, now. Just, go."
Kylo glares at him. "I'm an adult, not some randy teen who can't control himself."
"Tell me one thing I've said in the last twenty minutes, and we'll keep going, otherwise this is just burning my time."
Kylo desperately tries to attempt to remember what the fuck this meeting is even about.
Schiff gives him a big, smug grin. "I have thirty minutes tomorrow afternoon. An hour if you can come to me or if we comm it."
"Comm it. Your ship gets nervous when I'm on it."
"No one enjoys having the Boss breathing down their neck. They don't enjoy me being on it, and it's my ship."
"I'll… take your word on it."
Schiff gets up, pulling his datapad to him. Kylo can feel he's mostly amused by this, because… Oh… Baby-making sex. That's… apparently… a once a month thing, which Kylo didn't know, and Schiff's assuming today's the day that Rey's fertile…
Kylo makes a mental note to look that up, because Schiff seems very certain about that one day a cycle and needing to hit it thing, and the man's got multiple children, so, he likely knows, but… that's not anything he learned when Luke sat him down, but… He already knows there are huge gaping holes in his information base on that.
He's just about out the door as he says, "You know, Joshia is a good name."
Kylo rolls his eyes at that. "Noted."
He certainly didn't mind when she did it to him…
And he does have… two free hours in his schedule now…
So…
It's not like there's a law that they have to wait until work is done… right? And even if there were, he's the guy who makes the laws, so he can probably break them, too, right?
"C8, no disturbances until I let you know I'm seeing people again."
"Certainly, sir."
Their room certainly looks different. He's not entirely sure if he likes it, and he's also not exactly focused on it. But, if, when he is focused on it, it's not a winner and they want to change it again, it won't take a massive amount of effort.
He puts the bag with her stuff in it in the back of his wardrobe. He's thinking they can wait for another day. This is a present for… her… he hopes.
He's tugging off his clothing, eyeing the bag of goodies for him. The strap is on top and…
He's feeling… nervous, excited, giddy, and… a slew of other things he's not exactly familiar with, but is enjoying. Physically, just on the anticipation of doing this, he's feeling like his shaft just can't get any bigger without someone touching it, so…
He probably doesn't need the strap. He's holding it in his hand, just staring at it. It's light, soft, except for the snaps. He's got to keep track of time if he wears it, but… Honestly… They rarely go more than thirty minutes.
He eyes it again, rubbing his thumb over one of the snaps.
It might be fun.
He starts to put it on, figuring that if it feels odd, he can just take it off.
It takes a moment to figure out which snap is the right one. The first one he chooses is very obviously too tight, and the next one he over compensates and has it too loose, but eventually… It's… snug. Not in a bad way, but… He's not sure if he likes it. He's sort of starting to feel like his shaft is falling asleep, that pins and needles sensation, and that's not great, but… It also does feel… fuller… more sensitive… It… could be good.
He grabs the top pair of panties, the green ones, and slips them on and… "Oh." He's so surprised that he says it out loud. The silk moving over his shaft is… He squirms a bit… flushing at the feel of that. "Yeah…"
Okay, getting Rey to touch him like this. He's starting to feel his pulse in his shaft, and generally, when that's true, he's a lot further along, so… This is either going to be very fast, or very good, and he's hoping for the latter.
Those two little bottles of cologne are sitting in his wardrobe. He opens it up, glances at them, and then goes rummaging through Rey's goodies. Warm desert spices. That's a Rey scent, and he wants to smell like her.
Intensely tied to your sexual response. Jon wasn't wrong about that.
Yep. It's nothing she's ever smelled like, not around him. But it's warm and light and blends into his skin and it makes him feel like she's here, with him. It's a scent cloud of the feel of Rey all around him. He's nodding, this is good. It'll probably be better on her. He tucks it back in the wardrobe. Give it to her later.
Let her rub it off of his skin and onto hers. That lights him up inside.
Rey. Can you come here? He's not entirely sure what to do with himself. Lay on the bed, lean against the wall, stand there like a nerf with his shaft leading the way?
Are you okay? There's alarm in how she's thinking at him. He's never done this before, so there's no reason for her to automatically assume that if he's calling for her in the middle of the day, all is well.
I really am. He's pretty sure that's the same thing she thought at him when she jumped him as Paige was being born. He drapes himself on his side on the bed, and hopes she likes this.
He trails his fingers up and down his shaft, so, so lightly, eyes slipping shut, and bites his lower lip, slowly exhaling, focusing down on that sensation and blasting her with it.
When he peels them back open, she's there, staring at him, eyes wide, mouth open, stock still.
"Good?" he asks with a smile, and a hand outstretched in a come play with me sort of gesture.
She nods very slowly and licks her lips. Her pupils are blown wide, and he can feel her pulse picking up. "Oh…" Breathes out of her as she absently yanks off her jacket, tossing it aside, "Kylo…"
"Poe thought… Well, I'd have likely thought about it if I'd thought about things like that, but… Anyway, he suggested I get you a present, because…" This is too much talking. She's staring at him, eyes tracing all over his body, going back to that stretched green pouch over and over, as she's pulling off her clothing. "Is this a present?"
Her eyes dart back up to his. She nods very slowly. "You are so… fucking… gorgeous."
That floods through Kylo with a warmth all it's own, ripe and round and flushed with sex and satisfaction and contentment and wanting and joy, and for a second he revels in it, but only a second, because Rey's on the bed with him, naked, fingertips, hot, hot fingertips hovering over his silk clad tip, and his body twitches at the sensation. A little, "Oh…" breathes out of Kylo at that. Then, "Gentle."
"Gentle?" Rey drags her eyes away from his shaft under that green silk, and the slowly darkening spot just over his tip, to his eyes.
Kylo licks his lips. "There's something under there that's new, too."
He can feel her thinking about new, and what he could have under there that she can't see through the silk, and the image of those little dildo-looking things from the video pops into her head.
He shakes his head. "Not that." Then he hisses, loud, as she lets her knuckles slip over him. Gently.
She jerks her fingers back.
"No. It didn't hurt. It's just intense."
"Good intense?"
"I'm still debating on that."
She closes her hand around him and he moans. "Feels like you're enjoying it to me."
His hips rock into her hand, and doing that means the… back… of these panties are also rubbing against him now, and… "It's… not unpleasant. Might be too much of a good thing."
She's staring at his eyes now, now his shaft in her hand, wrapped in green silk. It's clear from her expression that tell me more is what she wants.
She goes back to just, lightly, barely drifting her fingers over his shaft.
"It's… called a cockstrap, and… It… goes around the base of the shaft and stones… Supposedly, keeps things bigger and harder and more sensitive. Might make it more difficult to spurt, so… stay on edge longer."
"But you don't know." She bends down and licks the wet spot on the panties, and Kylo's hips jerk at that, trying to get his shaft into her mouth. She mouths at him, breathing over the head of his shaft, and it's so hot and moist and then she inhales, cool and intense and… She's staring at him again, expecting him to get enough brain cells together to somehow answer her, and…
"No. I… didn't know these were a thing more than three hours ago."
"But now you do."
He nods.
She grins at him. "And what were you doing three hours ago?"
"Looking for a present for you."
She looks back down at his shaft straining the fabric of his panties. "And this is what you came up with?"
"I really hoped you'd like it."
She grins up at him, pushing him so he's on his back, shaft doing it's best to point skyward, held snug in those green panties. "Oh, I do."
He wriggles at the sound of her voice, at the way she's looking at him, at her, naked, above him, adoring him.
She's on her knees, over him, not touching, but looking. He can feel the trace of her eyes over his skin, over the skin that isn't naked, and the kilometers of pale, moon-kissed flesh, quivering for her to touch.
"So, am I just supposed to… admire this?"
She's leaning over him, looking down, watching his body, and right now, Kylo's certainly not minding the admiring aspect, but… "Hands on appreciating?"
"I could do that, or… How sensitive is it?"
He blasts her with the feel of his shaft in those panties, the tight, full, tingly sensation of so much blood in his shaft right now, and the way every touch is just… more.
She shifts her weight, so she's straddling him, and rests her hands on his chest, and then slowly, gently, lowers herself so her delta is on him, her pearl right at the head of his shaft, and slides down him.
Both of them groan, loud at that.
His head is back, neck long, eyes shut, just feeling it. Again, please. He doesn't give it voice, doesn't think he can find his voice right now, not for real words, but oh fuck! she does it again.
It does feel a lot like being on the edge. Everything is so hard and full right now. Usually, this far along, he's not this hard, and the skin of his shaft can move over his shaft.
It also doesn't. He's got control. That sense of the tingles being a second away isn't tightening his stones and making his thighs clench.
Rey starts a slow, gentle roll over him, her skin wet, hot against the silk.
"Does it feel good to you?" he asks.
She nods. "Different."
She pulls back, and he doesn't pout because she wants to see. See the silk wet with her and him. See it cling to his body. See his shaft, full, high… hard… He knows it's got to have veins, because… well, all of his body does, but this is the first time they can see them, swollen under the skin, outlined in wet silk.
She scoots back, between his legs, and traces her tongue along the line of one of them.
Kylo collapses back against the bed, moaning, eyes shutting. It feels so good; they won't stay open.
"Can I take them off?"
"Please."
She's careful with it, and slow, gentle. The peel of wet silk over his skin is… Sharp and focused and exquisite. He can feel the pre-spurt leaking out of him as the silk slips back.
"You really like that."
He shares the feel of it with her, and watches the flush on her chest get deeper, nipples perking further. Nipples… He's definitely getting her a bra or shirt or something they can do this to her with.
Rey smiles a little, he just blasted her with that idea, and it's certainly intriguing.
What's below her hand is more intriguing.
She's only seen him this hard, this full, the one time she made him spurt with her hand. Every other time he's spurted with her, he's been inside her body, so she couldn't see it.
Rey traces her finger around the cockstrap. The leather and snaps are warm from his skin. "Any closer to deciding if you like this?"
"I think I do. You?"
She grins at him again. Then she straddles him, and with her fingertips points his shaft up. She's just kissing the tip of his shaft with her maomao. Light, almost sucking, wet slides of her body parting for just the top centimeter.
"Force!" He barely breathes it. No voice, all feeling. "Oh, Rey!"
"More?" She's watching him, eyes warm, body hot, loving the look of him completely sprawled out, at the mercy of her body and the pleasure she's giving him.
Yes. His voice doesn't hold for it. It's just a long, begging breath, and a deep, intense, needy feel/thought that aches through her.
Rey sinks a few more centimeters down. "Oh… I can feel the difference. This is nice."
Nice?
She lets him feel the extra stretch, the sensation of fullness. Nice. Then she starts to slide all the way down on him, and makes an almost surprised, "Nggh!" sound as her body comes to rest against his.
That jerks Kylo out of the haze of how good this feels. "Okay?" He knows it is, he can feel she's enjoying something more than expected, but…
She's rocking against him, a little tentative, and he's trying to focus on her and not, her sliding on his shaft. For a moment, he can feel her searching, and then she gets that exact right spot again.
"Ohhh…" slides out of her mouth, and he knows what happened. The snaps. At least one of them is in exactly the right place, right here, in this position, with her flush to him, for it to press against her pearl.
He shifts his hips a bit, grinding his pelvis against hers.
That gets a sharp inhaled breath from her. "Again."
He's grinning up at her, hands finding her hips, as he rocks against her. "Again."
It is different. They've done this before, him grinding against her, his pubic bone giving her something to get some extra friction from, but that's mostly for her. He certainly loves being in her, but these little circles with his hips are generally just okay. They don't feel nearly as good as a long, full-shaft glide.
It still doesn't, but this is different. He's more aware of her heat, and the way she's gripping him, and the texture of her insides, beyond just wet and snug. He doesn't know if that's part of nice or if it's him being more sensitive right now, but either way, he likes it.
But up and down is better than this grind, so eventually he remembers his hands, which are just sitting on her hips, and moves one thumb to her pearl. He begins a soft, easy circle, and she starts a long, easy up and down.
His jaw clenches at it. It's… "Fuck, Rey," another exhaled breath of a word. Like it's too intense for him to be loud. Like the pleasure is stealing his voice.
She leans forward, her lips finding his, and the shift in angle changes things again. The feel inside of her, the way her body is brushing against his with each stroke. He's got to change fingers, because his thumb can't do what it needs to, not at this angle.
But his fingers can.
Fast, light, slick, and she's up and down back and forth on him, and his hips are rocking against her. Fingers are fast, hips are steady, not slow, but not the kind of pace his fingers are setting.
She's clenching over him, again and again, riding the wave and he's… It's good. It feels so good but he's not there, not yet. He probably can't go all night, shouldn't try, but he also doesn't want or need to, but… Long enough to get another spurt for her…
He slows down, but doesn't stop moving. Re-centers his pace on long, slow, easy strokes as her body slowly calms down.
She's kissing his shoulder. Not done, yet?
As if she needs to ask. Apparently. This okay?
He feels her nod against his shoulder, and then they're flipped, and he's on top. "Really, okay." She meets him long stroke for stroke, and for a few moments it just like that, long, liquid, pleasure sparking up his shaft, centering in his stones, good.
Her hands are on his ass, pulling at him. Faster.
He can do faster.
Faster is fucking incredible. He feels like his shaft's as long as his lightsaber handle, just as wide, and just as hard.
This time, he's feeling close, and his body is acting close, too. His muscles are tighter, movements less coordinated. He can feel Rey spiraling up to her spurt, too.
He's right… fucking… there… almost… so… close…
He can fucking see his spurt. He can feel it a hair beyond his grasp.
This is… new, and he's not sure if he likes this. Sometimes Rey struggles to get to her spurt, but usually she'll just ride along with him on his, and over they both go.
He can feel Rey. Rey on his body, wet and slick and clenching again. Rey in his mind, her body tingling and twitching and loving the feel of his in and on hers.
But he can't ride it through her, he can't get over.
"Please," he doesn't even know what he's asking for, just… something to get over. Just… he doesn't know, wetter, hotter, faster, or maybe slower, or something.
"Please, Rey, please, I need…" He doesn't know what he needs. Just that he needs. His shaft has never been so big, and so full, and so primed to go off without slipping over.
He can feel Rey doesn't know, either. For a moment, she's still in her spurt, still on the glow of her body, but that starts to ease off, especially with him fucking hard, and fast, and begging for her help.
"What do you need?"
"I don't…" His hair is plastered to his forehead and back, and he doesn't want to stop moving, doesn't want to slow down, because this feels… Amazing, but… It's not doing it for him, and he's never… Not been able to.
He feels Rey stroking his shoulder, looking at him, concerned, and then thinking, and then…
Then there's a hint of her Force, and the universe explodes and his vision whites out he spurts so hard he feels it in his eyelashes and toenails. That's not quiet. He's fairly sure the only reason a horde of storm troopers didn't just run in is the soundproofing is amazing in here.
He's panting, tingling, buzzing with his spurt, and the only reason he hasn't crushed Rey under him is she's holding him up with her Force.
He's still pulsing. That… never happens. A good spurt is maybe five or six pulses, and a few aftershocks. This is… He doesn't know, other than another small aftershock hits, and another, and… it's still going, slow, easy, more like a twitch than anything else, but still… He should probably roll over, but he's not sure if he can move, and he can't bear to think of slipping out of Rey right now.
She's still twitching slightly under him, so he doesn't know if he took her over a third time when he went, or if his time sense was fried as he was getting close to finishing.
Eventually, he gets his arms under him, so he can take his own weight.
Eventually, his breathing slows down and they both stop twitching.
Eventually, he says, "What did you do?"
"Took the strap off. You said it made it harder to spurt, so…"
He nods slowly, and gently nuzzles her cheek and jaw. They share slow, lazy kisses.
Eventually, he does pull out, hissing, and flops onto his back. He's generally sensitive after he spurts, but not this sensitive. Not painful sensitive. Even with the strap off, he does still look a little flushed and swollen.
Rey grins at him, and rolls onto her stomach, her chin resting on his chest. One of his hands finds her back, and beings to slowly stoke up and down her spine. "So, is this a present I'll get to enjoy again?"
He laughs, a little. "Not soon. I don't think I can walk right now, let alone fuck again anytime soon. But… The panties… Whenever you want."
"The strap?"
"Probably more of a special occasion sort of thing."
"I know you liked that."
"I did. It's just… Intense."
"I know." She's smirking at that. "Once I got it off, I got blasted with how your spurt felt, so… I know."
"Did you like it?"
"Oh, yeah." She almost touches his shaft, but he preemptively winces. "And that's why it's a special occasion thing?"
He nods. "Can you see the chrono?"
"Yeah. 13:22."
He rolls his eyes. "You're supposed to take it off before you hit thirty minutes."
"Thirty-two minutes."
"Probably why everything is sore right now."
She shifts, and very, very gently kisses the air a few molecules above his foreskin. He shivers. "We'll pay more attention to that the time next time."
He nods at that, too, and pulls her close for a cuddle. His face is pressed to her hair, when he says, "See, I got them during lunch, and that shot my focus to hell and gone. Then Schiff told me to just go and play. And, I can focus now, but I'm just so… content… I don't think I can move."
Rey laughs at that. Then she snuggles in closer, and breathes deeply. "Are you wearing cologne?"
"That's a present for you, too."
"You wearing scent?"
He shrugs a bit. "I mean, it could be, if you liked that, but I liked how it smelled, because it reminded me of you, so I got a bottle of it for you, but… It makes me think of you, so I put some of it on me before you got here."
She inhales deeply, and then licks his neck. "This is good."
He smiles at that, too. "Yay. I like buying things for you."
That gets a laugh. "You like buying sex stuff for me."
"I'll probably like buying non-sex stuff, too. I liked getting the painting with you. Speaking of which," he absently gestures to the room, without lifting his head or opening his eyes. "Thoughts?"
"You know. I honestly didn't notice. You were very… distracting… all laid out like that." She lifts up a bit, so she can see more of it. "This is nice." She looks around a little more. "It looks smaller now that you've got walls."
"As opposed to…"
"Space. Space with stars, space without stars."
His brain is just softly flitting about, not really landing on anything, but not quite dreaming yet, either.
Rey nuzzles against him and makes a little mmm… noise. Followed by a somewhat less content, "I've got to get moving again."
"Don't go." He'd hold her a little tighter, but that'd take energy, which he's in short supply of right now.
She kisses him. "Got to, baby." She's getting up and he's pouting at her. She bends down and kisses him again. "This is ridiculously cute, but I really do have to go."
He sighs. "I know." He thinks for a moment. "Uh… Got a meeting with my Navi training team at 14:30, so…"
"Get a nap, so you're fresh enough to focus."
He stretches a bit. Nap sounds really good. "I should be done by 17:30."
She smiles at him, and kisses him again. This time he feels the brush of her clothing against his skin. "I'll be wrapped up by 18:00. You like buying me things, so how about you take me out for dinner?"
He smiles back at her. "Yeah…"
And then he's asleep.
2/22/2
It's a few days later, when he's looking over another deal they've got possibly bubbling away, the security and meeting space for the Pnia/Lranian peace negotiations/wedding it hits him that dancing is often part of weddings.
It would likely be part of their wedding, too. Especially the one where all the people will be there, and they'll be trying to look like the Handsome Prince and his Lady.
Except, of course, he's not exactly, a dancer. At least in the sense that he's not even remotely comfortable attempting to make himself move to any given piece of music, with Rey, especially if he's not touching her, in something approaching a graceful or elegant sort of way.
But… That's not written in stone. He doesn't have to be bad at it.
Rey likes dancing. She was having a great time at that club. He had to get several of those rum drinks on the inside of him before he started to get over being self-conscious enough to enjoy it.
But… if he were good at it. He'd like it, sober, if he were good at it.
Bounce around with his sweetie and not look like a flaming twit doing it? He's nodding as the idea fills his head. Yes, that would be good.
And, okay, it's not taking on a life altering sort of job, but it's something that involves time and effort to become good at something she likes.
He'd have to learn how to do it, for real. Learn to read the music, and how the footsteps work, and… He learned how to fight and he learned how to fly, so making his body do things to a beat should absolutely be something he can learn.
The image of Rey on the beach with Poe. He was standing there, just outside of the light, wanting. He wanted to dance with her. He wanted to push Poe away, because Poe got to be there with her, laughing and touching her and enjoying the evening. He wanted to be the one, with her, in the firelight, making her happy.
He turns that image over and over, shifts it, imagines joining her on the sand, imagines this possible, small, family gathering, the one for them, the one that'll happen on a beach, somewhere, somewhen, as the sky turns purple and the sun sinks below the water.
He'd have to find someone to teach him how to do it.
There's that image again. Poe, Rey, on the beach, dancing.
Poe knows how to dance.
Poe thought this present thing was a good plan in the first place.
Learning to dance, for Rey, for their wedding… That feels like a present. He can't give it to her at once, but… He's smiling at that, too. She'd like that.
Poe is… he thinks a moment, getting a feel for him… In his ship messing around with the fuel intake, again.
It's the middle of the day. He's never on Lirium this time of day, so no one would expect him.
He's in Micah before he's thought twice about it.
Poe stares up at Ren, eyes wide, shock numbing his fingers almost to the point of dropping his tool, but the feel of it starting to slip tightens them fast. "What are you doing here?"
Kylo explains, and that does shock Poe deeply enough that he drops the tool.
"You want me to—"
Ren nods. "I know you know how."
"Well, yeah, but… I've never… taught anyone before."
Kylo glances around Micah. He knows Poe's taken Jacen up in it a few times. And likely Critt, Savarah, Magiit, and Elias, soon. Probably once they hit sixteen. "You teach the children how to fly, how much more complicated can this be?"
"It's… okay… compared to that, not terribly, but… You really want to learn?"
"No, I'm asking to see if I can set you so far off foot you stammer at me and ask stupid questions all afternoon."
"Force…" Poe rolls his eyes. "No wonder Rey loves you; you're a charmer when you want something. You got every entitled asshole gene in your whole family tree, didn't you?"
Kylo rubs his lips together. "Sorry. I… hate asking for things, and letting people see me be bad at them is worse. Still… will you do it?"
"Why me?"
"I've seen you do it, so I know you know how. You're not part of my command, so I don't have to risk looking stupid in front of one of them and the gossip mills running wild. Plus, present-for-Rey was your idea, and this seems like a fine one. Lastly, I assume you've danced with a man before so my height and shape won't be awkward or weird for you."
Poe sniggers at that. "Well… yeah, you're right about that. What kind of dancing?"
Kylo blinks. He rubs his lips together again. Right… There are kinds of dances. "What's appropriate for a wedding?"
"Depends on the wedding," Poe says, settling back, looking like he intends to enjoy the hell out of this. "Our little shindig on the beach is going to be, hopefully, a lot different than your fancy-schmancy affairs of state ball." Apparently, Poe and Rey have talked wedding ideas, then.
"Hopefully." Please, Kylo prays. "Dances for both."
Poe smirks at that. "What do you know how to do already? I mean, you've danced with her at least once, right?"
"Hold on and sway to the beat, hold on and bounce around to the beat."
"Not much going on with your feet, mostly just flailing around with your hips and hands?"
"Pretty much."
Finn nods. "Okay, at least you aren't a virgin."
Kylo rolls his eyes. "It's been a while since that's been true."
Poe smirks at that, too, then he thinks. "Uh… This brilliant plan of yours, how's it going to work if Rey can't dance?" She caught on with what he was doing pretty fast, but he also didn't whip out anything more complicated than a box step.
Kylo smirks. "Only one of us has to learn. She'll read it off of me if I can do it, or vice versa, but since it won't be a surprise if I get you to teach her how to dance…"
"Fine. Okay, so…" Poe grabs a rag, wipes the oil off his hands, and gestures to the space in front of them. Kylo looks surprised. "What? I've got time. You've apparently got time. There's a floor and a device that plays music. We're good to go."
"Okay…" Kylo's looking a little nervous as Poe grabs his music cube.
"Something basic, a four beat, box step. That'll get you through most basic dances. Pretty much everything else builds off of this."
"Okay." He doesn't know the song, but it's not unpleasant. He's already standing, watching Poe, who steps up to him.
"Until you get the steps down, I'm leading. Once your feet know where they're going, you can steer."
That also sounds reasonable to Kylo.
"My hand here," Poe puts his hand on Kylo's waist. "Yours on my shoulder, other hand in mine. I'm going forward, you're going backward."
"You don't have to talk me through it, just do it, I'll get it."
Poe flashes him a challenging look, and then starts, and it takes about half a beat, but Kylo's following. It's a competent boxstep.
"How are you doing this?"
"I can feel where you're going to go/what you're going to do. Same reason you couldn't shoot me. I know what's coming and where you're going."
"And if I let go?"
"I'll be okay. If you get too far away, it'll be difficult. And if you were a droid, I'd be lost. That's why I'm not trying to learn this from a holo or droid. I read the feel of it off of you, because you're alive. Just giving me instructions will take until the end of time, and I'll still be bad at it."
Poe nods. "Nice trick."
"It has its advantages. So, we just move in a square?"
"For now."
"I've got this."
Poe smirks. "Uh huh." He steps back and messes with the music cube. It's still box step appropriate, but the music is more complicated and faster. "Okay, Master, show me what you've got."
And suddenly, in a blinding flash of a leather jacket, swagger, stubbly cheeks, the smell of ship's mechanicals, and fighter pilot's nerve, Kylo understands why his mother was so horrified at the idea that Poe was a substitute for him.
He blinks at it, and Poe takes it as nerves.
Kylo shakes his head and then listens to the music, finding the beat. "Am I leading this time?"
"Sure." They switch hand positions. "You steer with the one on my back, just let me know where to go by the pressure on my back, and remember, I can't read your mind, so gently move me around."
Kylo figures he can do that.
He leads this time, moving forward, turning them to the left, and after a few steps, Poe says, "You hold Rey like that?"
"Probably not." He's got Poe at the full extent of his reach and is barely touching him.
"Then practice. I'm not gonna pinch your ass."
He pulls Poe a little closer, and holds him a bit more firmly.
Poe just looks at him. There's a good fifteen centimeters between them. "This is how you dance with your bride?"
"Fine," he pulls Poe flush to him, and turns him through the box a few more times.
Poe's looking up at him, and then shakes his head and steps back a bit. "Feels dirty doing this with Leia's son."
Kylo bites his upper lip, amused by that on more levels than Poe's likely aware of. "You're teaching me to dance, not fuck."
"Yeah, well, given what you like, I wouldn't be much use for that."
Kylo smirks, and shakes his head. There's so much Han coming off of Poe right now.
"What? There's a joke in your head, and you're not telling it."
"I'm thinking about how if you had been any use for that, you'd likely be my step-dad, and that jerks us out of dirty into outright filthy."
Poe blinks in shock. "What… no. I… She… Oh…"
Kylo can feel Poe seeing a few memories of him and Leia in a new light.
"Oh." He's not wincing, but does look decidedly off foot as a whole series of memories re-slot themselves into new contexts. He blinks a few times, and Kylo can feel him thinking to himself, She knew I didn't go for women… That's likely why nothing ever got said, but… Oh… The memory of Leia telling him to get his head out of his ass and stop falling for guys who weren't for him is all but vibrating in neon colors right now. Gods, she was telling herself as well as him… Fuck.
Kylo nods, smirking at Poe. "Uh huh. So, there's more to it than this, what's next?"
Poe jerks slightly, back in the here and now, and decides that here and now is a much better place to be. "Ballroom, or on the beach?"
Kylo probably needs more practice for the ballroom, but he'd rather be good at dancing with Rey on the beach. "Beach."
Poe smiles at him. "Right answer."