PublicPrivate

by Keryl Raist

This is the third book in the Tao-of-The-Force-verse series. If you haven't read Tension/Balance or Rumors/Gossip, it's not going to make a lick of sense. If you have... We're starting off right where we left off. The First Year parties are ending, the Order is coming into it's own, and Rey and Kylo...

43. R&R: Sensual

4/4/2

It's occurring to Kylo that while he might like falling asleep in a cold room, burrowed under a million blankets, snuggled up close to Rey, it's the worst possible way to get up in the bloody morning.

There is not a single iota of his being that thinks getting out of their bed is in any way, shape, or form, a good plan.

It's just not.

It's cold out there. And here, under the blankets, it's nice and toasty warm, and his favorite person is wrapped around him, and maybe they could just sort of stay here, cuddled together in perfect, sleepy contentment.

Warm and snug and cozy, and really, really having to pee.

He mentally rolls his eyes.

There are times when he thinks he's in danger of coming into contact with the ephemeral nature of love, the divine ideal of it, and then his body barges on in and refocuses life onto it.

Another mental eye roll. Maybe, after all, that is the meaning of life. Keep his, and her, and eventually any bodies their bodies may create, happily located in those bodies. Maybe it really isn't any loftier than that.

It's too damn early to be contemplating the nature of life. And his bladder is way too full.

And the air is too damn cold.

He's awfully glad that he can just port himself back to their room on the Supremacy, and take care of business in a room he can't see his breath in. More glad about being able to return to their home, before Rey wakes up, with a hot breakfast, dressed from head to toes, and not at all glad to realize that he can see his flipping breath inside their home because the cooker is not actually designed to run all day and all night with the door open and the bloody thing died while they were sleeping.

---

Sometimes, the Force, really is nice.

And, though Kylo doesn't exactly love contemplating it, sometimes the education he got with Luke comes in handy.

Namely, he's fixed, or at least been near fixing, a busted cooker before, so how hard can this be?

And this is why, when Rey actually does wake up, and wraps herself in several blankets, and wanders into the kitchen to investigate the noise she's hearing, she finds Kylo, on his back, with the stove hovering over him, as he's (and she winces) ripping out components, intending to take the time to see if they work, later.

Rey's first instinct, when she heads into the kitchen, and sees Kylo on the floor surrounded by pieces of cooker, is to shriek. He's just tearing through the thing, willy-nilly, with fragile, valuable parts all around him, and…

She makes herself bite her lip. Kylo lives in a world where you just figure out what the broken part is, and then buy a new one. She supposes, at this point in time, she does, too.

So, she doesn't yell. She doesn't hit him with a high-pitched, terrified, what are you doing? She takes a deep breath, and sees breakfast at the table, steaming in the cold air, and decides nothing is better on an empty stomach, so she starts to eat.

After a few more moments of him ripping parts out of the cooker, she says, keeping her voice mild, "Do you want help with that?"

"Nah. Not sure what's busted. Figure I'll take them all out, test them, and then put the working ones back."

She eyes the parts. One of them, a heating coil, is very obviously broken. The others all look fine. "If I had to guess, that heating coil that's frayed on the end and black would be the culprit." Her voice may be a tad sharper than necessary, but most of the parts he just yanked out work significantly better if they don't get yanked out of where they belong.

He nods, still pulling pieces out. "Probably. Just want to make sure it died from overuse and not a short or malfunction from somewhere else. Plus, it'd be good to make sure it didn't take anything else with it."

Okay, that's not unreasonable, especially if you can't just lay hands on something and sense where it's broken. After all, just by looking, Rey knows that they had the cooker going too long, and the door was open, so the thermostat kept increasing power to the heating element to try and reach the correct temperature, and the damn thing just failed. It can only, literally, take the heat for so long, and then the alloy fatigues to the point that it no longer works. But, it's occurring to her, that Kylo likely can't tell that just by looking.

He scoots out from under the cooker, and gently hovers it over to the living room section, so it doesn't land on the parts around him.

Then he sits next to her, pulling his part of breakfast to him, wrapping his hands around the hot coffee mug with pleasure. "You're thinking loudly, but I'm appreciating you not saying it out loud. Dad would have grabbed the heating coil, only the heating coil, replaced it, and then acted surprised when the cooker blew three days later." Han couldn't tell what was busted just by looking, too.

Rey gets a deeper level. That's true to a certain value of true. He had a decent sense of what was working and what wasn't. Probably a stupidly good one for someone who wasn't Force sensitive. But, like her, he grew up poor and spent most of his life on the edge, so anything that was still working, he kept in service until it died because he wasn't entirely sure when he'd have the credits to get a new one.

She gets another blast of memory with that. "And your mother would have complained at him about how they could afford a new cooker, so they might have just as well bought one, and not burned the kitchen down with his quick fixes."

Kylo nods at that, too. He glances at her, too. "And I figured you'd likely have a heart attack if I suggested just scrapping it and getting a new one, too."

Her eyes narrow a little. "Not a heart attack."

"But you would have thought it was horrifyingly wasteful. And you would have given me that look." It doesn't come out a lot, but there are times where he'll do something without thinking, like attempt to throw out a portion of food they're not going to personally eat, and then the look will be aimed at him. "And unlike this where you could bite your tongue, it would have made you fuss."

She nods, getting an entire new cooker because of one busted heating element would have involved what he calls fussing. (She calls it, doing it the right way.) But, appreciating the compromise position, she decides to nudge him a little closer to the right way. "So, do you have any idea what to replace that heating coil with if that's the only thing that's busted?"

He shrugs at that, too. "They've got to sell them somewhere, right?"

She kisses the tip of his nose. "They do, but we've also got a spare parts cupboard in the barn with the Faviers, so if you felt like braving the cold, you could walk to the far side of the settlement and just grab one."

He glances at the parts scattered across the kitchen, and nods. "And my morning just filled up."

---

"So, you and Rey are having a 'night out?'" Jon says with a smile, scooping stew into his mouth as the two of them sit on a crate of some sort of unnamed building supply in the middle of the newly cleaned out and soon to be beginning construction ZZ deck.

"That's the idea."

"They were booked for 18:00, but I was able to get 20:00," and he taps his datapad. "All the details are in your file."

"Thank you," Kylo scoops up his noodles and looks around before saying, "Uh… tips?"

"Oh, gratuities, yes, that's common. Ten percent is just being polite, fifteen is common, twenty for above and beyond. I've already covered it; I know they'll go above and beyond for you."

Kylo blinks. "That's… good to know, but I meant, do you have tips for a good night out. Not like we do this a lot, you know?" Jon's about to answer, and then Kylo says, "Wait, what do I owe you for this?" It's occurring to him he's got no idea of what this sort of thing costs. The times he's visited Specs in the past, he didn't pay. He didn't think about it, at all. He went and did things, and people around him just… coped. Now he's wincing, wondering if some poor girls got the glorious good time that was him in his Jedi Killer days, and got stiffed on the costs.

"Trust me, you'll take it better after."

Kylo just stares at him.

"Look, I know you're good for it. C8'll take care of the details, and I'm not going to be missing any meals during the intervening times."

Kylo chews on his lip as he continues to stare at Jon, halfway between grateful and horrified. Finally, he says, "I'm theoretically in charge of this ship. I should probably know what things on it cost."

"And I'm not saying you shouldn't know. I'm saying after, when you know, viscerally, what you paid for, the price won't seem so exorbitant."

"Holy Force."

"Kylo, you don't shop, and you really don't shop for pleasure. Any number I tell you will seem off. Hell, do you even know what you get paid?"

He shrugs. "I can find out."

"Exactly. If you think of it, I'll tell you tomorrow. If not, I'll settle accounts with C8."

"Fine. So, tips?"

Jon ponders for a moment. "Don't gorge on dinner? Visiting the specs, no matter what you get done, always feels better on a not overly full belly."

Kylo doesn't roll his eyes, but that one, to him, was fairly obvious.

"I don't know. I've never been on a date with you. Or Rey. Or you and Rey. Do things you enjoy, together."

Kylo sighs a bit. "I guess that's really what I'm asking. We're still… learning… what fun is. You know? We've taken a few days off, together, twice, and this is the first time, since I've been a child, that I've had completely unscheduled time to myself. So… what's… fun?"

Jon gets that look he sometimes does, that Kylo has categorizes as 'mentally slapping the shit out of the people who raised you.' Then he says, "Beyond getting massages, do you have anything planned? How vague is your idea?"

"It's the before massage part that's empty. Eat. Okay, good, we like eating. Not sure where or what, though. Massages. After… I mean, you're sending me to the fun section of the F-Deck, right?"

Jon smirks brilliantly. "Oh yes, I am. If it were Lane and I out on the town, there are a few clubs I could… Hmm…" His eyes narrow a bit and he rolls his lips. "Er… Well, I can suggest them, but… How comfortable are you with men making passes at you?"

"About as comfortable as I am with women making passes at me." And they both remember Jon swooping in to rescue Kylo all those months ago when he was at the first formal supper of the Order and a few lovely, young things had been attempting to get Kylo's attention via the wants of his shaft. "A good night out for me isn't dancing with Rey while other men try to pinch my fanny."

Jon looks very curious at that. "I wasn't aware you came equipped with one."

Kylo stares at him blankly for a moment. "You don't mean what I mean by that, do you?"

"Apparently, not."

Kylo inclines his head a bit. "Whatever it means, I'm unlikely to enjoy that. Also, because I'm not exactly good at dancing." He doubles up on that mental note to get some time with Poe soon.

"Okay, in that case, I do not have any clubs to recommend to you." Jon thinks for a moment. "But I do have a restaurant." He grabs his pad, hits a few buttons, types a few things in, and then hits another one. "Okay, you're set for dinner, and info is in your system. After massages, you've got plans set?"

"I've got… Yeah. Probably. Uh… There are sex shops there right?"

Jon's face is about to crack in half he's smiling so widely. "Oh, yeah… There are."

"In which case the post-massage part of the night is planned."

Jon's giggling, and elbows Kylo in the side, before saying, "I bet it is."

Kylo smirks back at him. Then he says, "Can I test something on you?"

"Sure."

Kylo brings up his do-not-recognize spell. "What do I look like?"

"You, you look like you."

"Shit. You know to expect it. I'll have to try that later."

Jon raises an eyebrow.

So, Kylo explains, "My do-not-recognize spell. I was hoping you could tell me what I look like, beyond blond and wearing an orange jumper."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry, I just see you." Jon takes a sip of his broth. "Oh, tips! It's customary to get little presents for your beloved before going out for a good time, and… It's been a billion years since this happened, but I know I used to like it when Lane would pick an outfit out for me. Something to set the tone for the night. And he enjoyed getting to dress me up to his liking as well."

Kylo's mouth opens and closes at that. Jon's vividly remembering the play of desires that went with those outfits and those memories feel good. And Kylo can understand why he might suggest that. On top of that, he has bought clothing for Rey, that is still in his closet waiting for the right day to come out to play. He liked doing that, a lot. And he could continue to do something like that. That fades a moment later as it occurs to him that he knows literally nothing about where they're going, and part of why you'd pick an outfit to 'set the tone' is because the place you're going has some sort of dress code.

"The restaurant, how do you dress for that," Kylo finally asks.

"Nice informal."

"That means nothing to me."

"Your formal blacks are too nice, the Padme trader costume isn't nice enough, and that chalk suit that you like to pretend is white would be fine if you open the jacket."

Kylo rolls his lips, wondering if his previous purchase can go with this. "I bought a leather kilt, because… well… Uh… That last shopping trip, where I asked you about Rey's size, uh… No tunic, and the Padme jacket isn't very long, and…" He hopes he doesn't have to be more explicit, but he figures he doesn't because Jon's got a shaft too, and knows how they work.

Once Jon understands what Kylo's saying, he's hunched over, laughing so hard he's in danger of rupturing his spleen. Kylo sighs and rolls his eyes, and lets Jon have his laugh.

When he can breathe again, he says, "What are you, seventeen?"

"Bloody well felt like it on that trip. It was… intense. And doing it with Rey, post-massage, that's likely to be intense, too. So, it's leather, pretty heavy, hangs down, covers everything."

Jon nods. "Uh… Yeah, if you've got a shirt with a collar, and say a vest, you put that with a kilt, and you'll be okay."

Kylo nods back at him. "Rey?"

"Any dress she owns or you pick out for her, will likely be fine. Just keep all of her bits covered, and make sure she can comfortably sit on a pillow on the floor, and all will be good."

"Okay."

Jon checks his chrono. "Shit."

"Late?"

"I will be if I don't get a move on five minutes ago. Have I mentioned this ship is too fucking big?"

"You have. Any updates about the dreadnoughts?"

"Uh…" Jon blinks. "Yeah, shit… A while back… I think they said they got the second set of payments and were proceeding along, but…"

Kylo waves that off. "Talk tomorrow?"

"I'd like that." And then Jon's off, and Kylo's sitting on a box, in what will, eventually, be the landing dock of his diplomatic wing, what should, eventually, be the first view of The Order that anyone sees coming here, sipping his soup, wondering what to get Rey.

---

This time he's roaming around the F-Deck cloaked. It's just… easier.

(Though he does idly wonder what would happen if the Master were to be seen, out and about, shopping for pretty things for his lady? Maybe next time. Or maybe when Ellie finds somewhere not the Supremacy for them to go wander about on.)

Part of him is thinking of heading directly to the fun part of the F-Deck, and go seek out some more fun underthings for Rey. Part of him is very much enjoying that idea. Or maybe just presenting her with the fun underthings he already got. Part of him is insistently enjoying that idea. Part of him is starting perk up some and while he's fairly sure he can go back to his place, take care of himself now, and still be good for tonight, he's also thinking that this anticipating part is really nice, and he'd like to stay here, now, enjoying it.

Sort of like stroking himself in the shower, this is about… learning how to make himself feel good and just enjoy it.

And the idea of getting pretty things for Rey makes him feel good.

---

When Jon was remembering Lane picking out outfits for him, he was mostly feeling the desire of those moments. The… joy of being exactly the way his beloved wanted him to be for a night. The deeply personal cherishing that went with those moments. Lane's attention to detail, to Jon, to… Kylo doesn't have words for those feelings, just that they were deeply content, and very pleased, and that Jon still aches for their loss.

And, to a degree, Kylo understands that he's probably intruding too deeply into Jon's personal life by letting himself feel that. But, to a different degree… this is probably in the deep chasm of things he should have learned by the time he was fifteen, but he didn't, and unfortunately for Jon's private life, he's got something of a surrogate father/older brother role, and that involves filling in bits of the chasm from time to time.

It'd be nice if Kylo already knew and understood all of his desires, and how they worked, and how to feed them, and what they liked best, and all the rest of that, but he doesn't so… Tips.

And, at least for the moment, imagining Rey in some of the pretty things he's petting as he walks through the shop seems to be feeding his desires nicely.

---

He's waiting for her. She's working with the kids, shifted things with Rose, so Rose has dinner, and she had lunch, and right now, they're still in the kitchen wrapping up… Oh… How to set up and read an eco-survey, which he supposes is probably going to be a useful skill in the not wildly distant future.

Rose is laughing with her about her 'big night' and Rey's confirming that in the next week or so, they'll take Paige so she and Finn can go out. That perks up Kylo, too. It's been a while since he's had some baby snuggles, and he wouldn't mind that happening again.

Snooping? He hears in his mind.

Anticipating.

"Eagerly?" she says, out loud, in front of him, a pleased and amused look on her face.

He pulls her close. "Very much so." And then kisses her. And then his hands are over her eyes, and he's gently nudging her toward their room.

"Kylo?"

"It's a surprise. No peeking."

"No peeking? What…"

"I think you'll like it," he says turning her so she's facing away from him, letting go of her, very rapidly stripping out of his clothing, and into his 'going out' outfit. "Okay, that's me done. Keep those eyes closed," And then he's pulling off her jacket.

"You getting me naked is the surprise…"

"I'd hope by now the idea that I'd want you naked is never a surprise." He unclasps her shirt, gently pulling it off of her. "And, as much as I'm enjoying the view," he kisses her shoulder, before slipping off her breast band, "this is a necessary part of the plan."

"The plan involves me getting naked? Are we just having sex?"

"Not just." She laughs at that, and he kneels before her, tugging off her boot.

"Do I need to get a shower?"

Kylo stands up, and presses his face to her throat, inhaling. She smells like skin, and whatever vanilla cake-y sort of thing she was helping the kids cook. "Nope. You smell good." He kneels back down, taking care of the last boot. Then he reaches up for her trousers.

"You really are getting me naked?"

"Certainly looks that way from where I'm kneeling." He replies, kissing her belly. "Though, it's occurring to me, I've never properly undressed you before, and one of these days, that's going on the list."

"The list?"

"This is what happens when I have too much free time. I end up making lists of things I want to try at some point."

"Really?" She looks amused even with her eyes closed.

"Okay, no not really, but I am thinking about it."

Even with her eyes closed, she threads her fingers through his hair, stroking his scalp. He makes a tiny, "Mmmm…" sound. "Distracting me."

"Do you want me to stop?"

"Not really, but this'll likely go better if I'm paying attention."

She removes her hands from his hair. "We'll put more of that on the list, too?"

"I'd like that." He sits back on his haunches. She's naked save for her panties and socks, and he's enjoying the view. He smiles to himself, pleased by this.

"Kylo?"

"Love?"

"It's cold."

"Right." Hard nipples, goosebumps, this probably wasn't the place to do this. He gets moving. The dress is in their bathroom, and he heads in there to grab it. "Arms up."

"Arms up?"

He just flashes her the mental image of her with her hands high in the air.

"Wait, are you… going to put clothing on me?"

"I might," he says as he makes sure the opening of the dress lines up properly with her arms and head, and then smooths it down her. "Yep. Looks like I did it."

Rey wiggles a little, feeling the garment draping over her. "This is… new?"

He's standing behind her, and kisses her shoulder. "Yes. One more minute."

Rey hears him rustling around while he fetches the boots she bought back on that first, find stuff she likes trip with Jon. They're too light and soft and pretty to be worn in the snow here, but on deck… They're perfect for on-deck. It takes him a moment to figure out how the zip works, but once he's got that down, he unzips the first boot, gently takes Rey's foot, and slips it into the soft gray suede. Once he's got it zipped back up, he kisses her knee, and then does it again for the other foot.

Then he stands, rests his hands on her shoulders, and pulls them to their room on the Supremacy in front of the mirror next to the bed. "Okay, open your eyes."

The first view is of herself. The dress is a soft gray, and the straps are a light blue green floral pattern. There's a soft, flowy sleeve on the left side, and the skirt is higher there, brushing her thigh. On the right, there's no sleeve, and the skirt almost touches her knee. It's… different.

She's not sure if it's the sort of thing she'd even look at twice, let alone pick out for herself. It's soft. Very soft. And that's when she gets the idea of what must have happened. He likely used his eyes to narrow down the options, and then used his fingers to pick the final dress.

He's standing behind her, hands on her hips, fingers splayed across her waist, and his thumbs stroking up and down gently, feeling the fabric on her skin.

"Do you like it?" he asks, sounding a little nervous.

"I don't dislike it."

"But it's not instant love, is it?"

She shrugs a little and then looks at him. Her eyebrows raise as she notices, in the mirror behind her, bare legs. That gets her interested. Then she turns and looks him up and down. "Oh." He's got on the black and gray leather kilt, a white shirt, and a black vest. She nods slowly, enjoying this a whole lot.

"Oh?"

"I like that. You got… a leather kilt?"

"Uh…" He smiles a bit. "Plans for tonight are… risqué, and… I might want something a bit more concealing than trousers."

The kilt does hang down, and she gently touches it. Like her dress it's so soft. Though her dress is a fine knit of some sort, and his is smooth, supple leather. "I like that, a lot."

She feels Kylo add, get leather clothing for Rey, to his mental to-do list. She grins up at him. "Risque?"

He grins back down at her and kisses her. "Uh huh."

She licks her lips. "Okay… Uh…" She wiggles a bit. "Kylo,"

"Yeah," he breathes against her neck, nuzzling where her ear meets her neck.

"Breastband?"

He straightens up and blinks. "Oh… Uh… Do you need it?" (If asked, Kylo would have to admit that he's got no idea why Rey wears one. He understands the bra thing that pushes everything up and out and whatnot. That he gets on a visceral level and rather enjoys, but her day in and day out breastband is just sort of there.)

She takes a few steps, and he appreciates the jiggle and the brush of her nipples against the fabric. The fabric is so soft that it just kisses her skin all the way down, and he's loving the effect of this on her.

She nods at him. "Yeah. Concealment." She wiggles a little, and his eyes track the motion of her breasts. "I enjoy the way you're watching. Not sure I want all the other people who like women doing the same."

He only mentally pouts at that, before saying, "Okay." Then he rushes to the wardrobe, locates one of them, and wiggles a finger to indicate for her to turn around. He uses his Force to lift the dress as he stares at the band in his hand. It's true he's taken them off a few times, but he's a little sketchy on how getting them on works.

"Just hooks and eyes," she says as he's looking at the edges of the band.

That also gets some nodding, and then he fits it around her chest, with only a little petting on his part. He'd like to stay here and play more, but he also knows that dinner reservations are creeping up upon them rapidly, and while it's true that Kylo Ren can likely show up whenever the fuck he likes to dinner and have a place ready for him and his Lady, Ben Amidala is a rather different bucket of bolts.

He gently pulls his Force away, and the dress settles on Rey. "Feeling better concealed?"

"Yes," she says, looking up at him.

He offers her his arm, and she takes it. "Dinner?"

"Dinner," he replies.

"What are we having?"

"I genuinely have no idea."

Rey's looking surprised at that, but she walks with him toward the elevator, and tonight's adventures.

---

"One day, we should probably just walk from one side of this to the other," Rey says, as they're heading through the F-Deck, Aft 18, Subsection 10.

Kylo tries to quickly think that through in his head. "Week. I think you mean week."

She raises a brow.

"Aft 25, all the way at the back, is the full sixty kilometers across."

Rey sighs. "Right. This one is…"

He shrugs… "I don't know, fifty? More than I want to walk."

She twines her fingers with his. "So, we're not doing this whole floor. What do you think the highlights are?"

He nods. That's a better, and doable, question. "We'll ask?"

She nods back. "So… uh…" She doesn't say, 'where are we going?' but it's clear she's thinking that.

He answers anyway. "Not precisely sure. It should be around here, though." They're in the right subsection, and according to the map, they should be right on top of the restaurant. He hopes. The gnawing feeling that he might have them in the wrong hallway or subsection is beginning to creep up on him as they continue to stroll down the hallway.

Finally, though, he catches the sign. It's on the far side of the market plaza, which is why he was having a difficult time finding it. Bindaro's. "There."

Rey nods. "Well, the name isn't helping."

He raises a brow.

"Me figure out what dinner is going to be."

"Oh. Uh… Jon booked it. So…"

"Wait, did you get Jon to set this up?"

"I fully intended to set this up on my own, but I asked for suggestions because…" He doesn't need to finish that sentence. "Next thing I knew, the first half of the date was booked, and I'd been told in no uncertain terms was I to attempt to figure out what it cost until after."

Rey's brows raise. "Oh my."

Kylo nods again. "Yeah.

---

If Kylo had been paying attention, 'sit on a pillow' would have given him at least one hint about the meal. It'd be eaten on the floor.

If he'd really been thinking that might have encouraged a second thought, along with the fact that this is the place Jon picked knowing this was a date night for them, namely, that this is a romantic eat on the floor sort of place.

But, somehow, it does catch him by surprise when they open the door to a space about the size of his office, with a… bar… he's going to call it a bar, in the center where people are doing things with… food… That's definitely food.

Around the bar, tucked into curtained off nooks, are a collection of small tables, with pillows on two sides of them. Apparently, this is a place where people go in couples for romantic dates. On the floor. A quick glance shows that all but two of the tables have people at them, so it's apparently a rather popular one at that.

A server notices them immediately, and heads over. "Amidalas?"

Rey nods. "Yes."

"Excellent. Come on in." She waves them toward her and one of the empty tables. "Have you been to a jarquterie before?"

Both of them shake their head as they follow her to the table.

"Then this'll be fun. We do have a menu, but most people will tell you the best way to do this is to just let Kiro set the menu. Unless there's something specifically you want, he's going to steer you better in relation to what he could get at the markets today."

Rey smiles at that. "Then we'll have what he's making."

"Great." She gestures to the teapot on the table. "The tea is brewed and ready, but if you'd like wine or a cocktail, we can accommodate that."

"Is there… a drink suggested with dinner?" Kylo asks.

"We can arrange that. Bar tending isn't exactly Kiro's area of specialty, but he does have preferred wines and cocktails to go with each plate."

Rey hears that and says, "Plates?"

The server smiled. "You really haven't done this before, right. Sorry. If you opt for Kiro's dinner, you'll get five to seven small plates, each with a portion of whatever looked especially good today."

"What's a portion?" Kylo asks, thinking about Jon's don't fill up too full suggestion.

At the same time, Rey says, "I'm sure tea'll be fine." She knows five to seven glasses of wine is vastly too much, even if they split them.

The server holds one hand cupped into a small serving. "About that much. Usually a few morsels."

"Oh. Good. And… one glass of wine. Whatever matches the meal as a whole." It's not that Kylo's feeling nervous or anything, but being a bit more relaxed might be nice, and he'd like to get the idea of how the flavors are supposed to mix.

"We can do that." The server smiles at them, and Rey and Kylo get settled.

Almost. Rey sits first, and then Kylo plops himself down, catty corner from her, legs sprawled out. There's room under the table for the one, but the other's sort of next to where Rey settled herself. She's tucked her legs in under her, and is sort of sitting on her one hip, leaning toward him. Once she's looked away from the teapot and the tea she's poured for them, to Kylo, she starts to giggle.

"What?"

Her eyes drop in a very expressive sort of way. "Your shorts are showing," she whispers with a smile.

He blushes a little, spends a moment trying to figure out how to sit, and then crosses his legs and tugs the kilt down in the front. He knows, because he put it on, that it's almost two meters of leather that wraps around his hips and clasps at the top, but what that meant in terms of how to sit without flashing everyone his undies is was something of a mystery.

Her hand lands on his knee. "Aww… that wasn't you teasing me with a glimpse of what's to come."

He laughs a bit, and then nods emphatically. "Yes. That's absolutely what that was. It was completely intentional and totally not any indication that I've got no idea how to sit if I don't have trousers on when I'm in public."

That makes her giggle, and lean in a little closer so her cheek is against his shoulder. "What got you… I mean… It's… I like it, but…" He waits for her to attempt to finish that sentence. She doesn't.

He pours the tea for both of them, and then thinks. Like I said, tonight's plans are risqué. This seemed… prudent.

She's fingering the hem of the kilt, tracing her fingers gently over the edge of the leather, thinking about how it split over his lap. Looking for… easy access… prudent?

That rushes hot and heady through him. He hadn't thought of that, but… She's in a skirt and so is he, and all they'd have to do is just push clothing out of the way and… He leans into her, nuzzles against her ear and cheek. "I hadn't been thinking in that direction, but I am, now."

"So… like when we went to the cinema? Did you find a… romantic… movie for us?"

That's a thing they could and should do again, too.

He picks up her tea cup, and offers it to her. She takes a small sip, and he focuses on her lips on the edge of the cup.

"I didn't find a film."

"Hmmm…" Fun with blind corners?

He thinks about the sorts of things he hopes they'll get at the shop. Depending on how exciting shopping may be… Maybe. He gently bites her shoulder. But… I'd prefer we hold off until we get home. It'll… hopefully… be worth the wait.

She turns to kiss him, and for a moment, it feels very private. The curtains around the nooks block the view from three directions, so there's some feeling of being the only people in the place.

It's not a deep, or particularly passionate kiss. Mostly just a happy one. Together, out, with each other, having fun.

The server coming back with the glass of wine kills that.

She sets it on the table between them. Her stare isn't censorious, but there is a certain level of you're in public, behave behind the eyes. Kylo's got the sense she's whipped that look out at a lot of couples here. "It's a Greeden White, should match most of the meal well, though skip it on the second course, it'll clash with the sauce."

They both nod seriously at that.

Kylo scoots closer to sitting upright, less in Rey's space, and lifts the glass to his lips. It's… not what he was expecting. Most wine tastes to him like grapes that should have been eaten a few months earlier. Its not bad, but not his favorite. This is… "Melon?" he hands Rey the glass.

She takes a sip and shrugs. "I've had melon maybe twice, maybe."

"We'll have to fix that, too. Do you like it?"

She nods. "More than most wines I've had."

"Yeah, me, too." He twines his fingers with hers. "You ever think about making a list of things to try?"

"No. I… No."

"I'm thinking, maybe, when we get a list of the places they intend to send us, that we should… Spend some time figuring out what's there, and… Try things."

"What kind of things?"

He shrugs. "Don't know. Probably depend on where we're going, but… We're adults, Rey, we should… know what we like. Normal people have hobbies and things they do for pleasure—"

Each other.

He grins at that. "Okay, yes, that's my favorite of the bunch, but… Other things, right? What does Rose like to do when she's not working?"

"Read, play with Paige, spend time with Finn, sketch."

He's nodding along at that. "Do you miss tinkering with things? I could feel how you were watching me work on the stove. And, again, I appreciate you not jumping in and telling me I was doing it wrong, but… Was fixing things fun? Would you like the chance to do more of that?"

Rey thinks about it. "It was satisfying. Fixing things feels good. I'm not sure about fun, though. I've always fixed things because they were broken, and not being broken made life easier for me. Do you miss… calligraphy?"

"Not exactly. I sometimes miss the discipline and release it provided. Sometimes I… want something tangible and beautiful I made. That's… like your fixed things being satisfying, right?"

"Probably." She's about to say more when the first plates come. They're small, about the length of Kylo's hand, and on each one is two morsels of food.

"Kimirichu," the hostess says, but that's not terribly enlightening.

It's a small square of some sort of bright orange protein. Probably a meat of some sort if the fatty looking veining is any hint. On top of it is a tiny salad of little greens, and on top of that is a drizzle of a sauce, and a cluster of small black spheres.

Rey's intrigued. It looks good to her. She's got her chopsticks and is digging in.

It's… amazing. Salty and meaty, and there's a bright, sharp sweet flavor, and the little spheres burst on her tongue in tiny explosions of sea-water salt, and this is awesome.

Kylo's on the verge of throwing up. It's a plate with two tiny pieces of raw meat salad in front of him, and Rey is eating it, and moaning in pleasure.

He gulps the wine, breathes slowly, mentally berates Jon for doing this to him, and tries to figure out the quickest route to a refresher if he can't sit through this meal.

"You have to try this," Rey says, nudging his plate closer to him.

He closes his eyes. I really don't.

He feels her hand on his cheek and turns his face to her, really hoping she's not going to try and feed the… whatever that was, to him.

She doesn't. He feels her lips on his, and okay, kissing, he's good with kissing, and then her tongue, and… Okay, yes, the flavor of whatever that is is quite pleasant, but…

It's raw, Rey. This isn't slightly undercooked. This has never been introduced to a heat source at all!

So's my tongue, Kylo, and that's never bothered you.

He rolls his eyes, but they're closed, so that's not exactly doing much for the situation. Instead he gives her tongue a sharp nip. Not the same thing, at all.

She pulls back, with a snerk, but he still doesn't open his eyes. "I thought we were trying new things."

"I'm fairly sure the only thing I'm going to be trying if I eat that is to find a refresher faster than anyone ever has before."

He hears chewing, fast. The sound of chopsticks hitting the plate. More chewing. "Okay, you can look again."

The plates are clear.

Kylo's not thrilled to do this, but he waves the server over. She comes, looking attentive. "More wine, sir?"

He glances at the glass, apparently the gulp took care of half of the glass.

"Maybe. Uh…" He rolls his lips. "My friend made the reservation for me, and… He doesn't know that I don't get along with raw meat. Is… everything… like that?"

The server looks daunted. "Oh. Well… Yes. It's a jarqueterie."

Kylo nods. "Is… anything here… cooked all the way through?"

No. Comes across very clear in her body language as she says, "I'll talk to Kiro."

"Thank you. I'm… sorry to be a bother. My friend… I've never said, and he didn't know, and…"

"It's not a bother. It's your first time here, and you didn't know. Trust me, you are not the first person who's had this issue."

Kylo finds that bizarrely reassuring. Until he can feel the eyes of someone, likely Kiro, seeing as those eyes belong to an imposing man standing behind the bar, holding a very large knife in his hands as he looks at the two of them.

He just stares. Kylo can feel… His spell is holding, Kiro doesn't know who they are, but… He knows… something… Is going on. The server's body language is saying that she's used to doing this, and Kiro normally just boots out the person who doesn't like raw food, but for some reason… His eyes narrow a little, and again, he's just looking at Kylo.

Kylo feels it click in Rey's mind before it clicks in his own. Jon.

Right.

Grand Marshal Frakes made the reservation. Grand Marshal Frakes who probably likes this place and is a good customer here. They may be personally cloaked here, but the fourth highest ranked member of the Order made their reservations so…

So much for flying under the scanners, he thinks to Rey.

She shrugs a bit. Different scanners. We're important guests, I guess.

Something like that.

The server comes back, with a different glass of wine. "We can accommodate you. It'll take a little longer. How much time do you have?"

"We've got to leave by 19:30."

Rey raises a brow at this. "Your surprise has a time frame?"

"It does," he replies. "Does that work for this?" he asks the server.

"It will." She returns to Kiro, says something, and again Kylo and Rey feel eyes on them.

"Not exactly what you were planning on for tonight's adventures?" Rey asks.

"I'll admit, no. The idea that people would go to places where they don't cook the food also never occurred to me, so…" He shrugs a bit. "I'm glad you liked it."

"I really did."

He looks at the empty plates. "Jon did say to not eat too much before… the next bit."

She looks amused at that. "So, this mystery next bit… Any hints?"

He likes the idea of this game. "Hmmm… Okay… It's on the… fun part… of the F-Deck."

Rey's a little confused for a second, and then her eyes light up. "The fun part."

He grins at her. "Yeah."

"Oh my. Have we ever… done anything like this before?"

He sips the wine. The new one still has that somewhat melon-y flavor, but it's drier than the first one. He thinks he likes the sweeter one better, but this is nice, too. "Maybe… Some of it."

She thinks about that, and sips the older wine. "Does this plan have… parts?"

"I certainly hope so, but… Obviously, you can say no at any time."

"Are you saying there might be things I'd say no to?"

"I don't anticipate anything like that, but I also didn't anticipate raw meat on the table here, so… Just making sure that… This is fun."

She smiles up at him. "I think it will be."

"I really hope so."

---

It's a few minutes later when the next plate shows up. Rey's looks a lot like the last one. Sleek white, some sort of small piece of something with a bunch of other somethings on top of it, in a very artistic little pile of flavors.

Kylo's is sizzling. It's black and square and the server has hot pads on her hands, and doesn't look completely comfortable holding it, and he's never so much wanted to grab something with the Force away from someone for selfless reasons before.

"Don't touch the plate," she says as she sets it in front of him.

He nods. On his plate there is also the little pile of what he'd previously referred to as meat salad. Like Rey, he's got a three small circles of… something. Her's is blood red. His is grayish, with a golden brown sear. Probably, whatever the blood red stuff is cooked on one side, sitting on a sizzling plate, cooking through in front of them.

He looks up at her, eyes wide, and says, "Thank you so much, this is perfect!"

She nods. "If we can get good lamb or beef, we'll use this. He's never done it with fish before, but…" She waves that off. "Eat fast. Tuna's much better raw than cooked, and way better rare than well done."

Apparently, the red stuff is tuna, which is not enlightening to Rey or Kylo, neither of them having run into the concept before.

It is… good… maybe… Rey really likes hers. Kylo, by dropping into her head to get the flavor, can understand what the server meant by, 'it's better raw.' That said, he's VASTLY happier with the texture of cooked meat, no longer in any danger of having to sprint off to throw up, and it's not bad per-se, it's just… well, she's right, it tastes better uncooked.

The citronen sauce on the tuna is so good he wants a bottle of it to take home and put on EVERYTHING. And were it not for the fact that the plate is probably 250 degrees, he would have attempted to lick it off. (He's pretty envious of Rey, because she can run her finger over her plate to get every drop of the sauce.)

---

By the next course, he can feel the chef is actually starting to enjoy this, or at least doesn't hate it. He's grabbing bits of what is apparently fish, that might not be totally suited toward what he's making Rey, and would otherwise not find it's way onto a plate here, and thinking something along the lines of 'tongue-dead heathen' (Kylo's not entirely sure what language he's thinking in, and Rey refuses to translate for him.) as he's making stuff for Kylo that's…

Well, actually, he really likes it. Tongue-dead heathen he may be, but he's a happy one.

This whole concept of sit around, talk, drink, and have people bring you tiny, very hot plates, with a few really yummy bites on them is something he could easily get used to.

"This is… fun?" Rey says, bite of scallop en route to her mouth.

"I'm liking it. You?"

"I always like food," she says with a smile. They watch the chef as he's cutting and plating and arranging. "Think trying to do this might be fun?" she asks.

Kylo keeps watching. "I like playing with knives. You do the meat; I'll do the veg and sauce… I bet it would be fun. Did I tell you I attempted to cook yesterday?"

She looks amused by that. "Didn't see you in the kitchen."

"I almost attempted to cook at our place. Decided once I got here, that having a clue what I was going to attempt to cook, and where to locate the ingredients was probably important."

She laughs at that. "How about this, in addition to sitting in on lessons, maybe you can join me at taking a turn keeping eyes on the kids while they cook. Make sure they don't burn anything down."

He takes a bite of his, cooked, scallop. "I can do that."

---

They are finished supper by 19:30 on the dot. Which is probably good, because the directions for where they're going next are… sketchy.

Jon's note had said, F-Deck, Aft Hall 24, Subsection 19, Third Hall, Red door.

The F-Deck, which goes the full width of the entire Supremacy, is, like the ship, a huge triangle. There are twenty-five Fore Halls, twenty-five Aft Halls, and twenty subsections. Each subsection is three klicks long, containing two klicks of housing, and one of markets. Each hallway is half a klick wide, with the market section being a wide open place, with a huge courtyard in the middle filled with places to eat and mingle, and the living halls broken into two five meter wide hallways with apartments on both sides, and one fifteen meter wide hallway with more apartments on both sides that the trams can do down. Forward 1 only has one subsection, 10. Aft 25, the longest and last of the halls, has all twenty subsections, and is the full sixty meters across.

So, from Jon's sketchy directions, Kylo knows they're going to one of the 'living quarters.' Though, it's his understanding that no one lives on Aft 23, 24, or 25, subsections 18-20.

They hear the "fun section" long before they get to it. Loud music, loud voices, loud… everything.

Likewise, they can tell they're getting closer a few halls before they get there, too. The people around them are… shifting.

On any given hall of the F-Deck there are Order officers out and about doing their thing. As they get closer to the fun zone, the 'thing' they are doing is becoming more and more apparent. Manners and posture are getting looser. Dress code is becoming more… revealing. Kylo never thought he'd be overdressed in a kilt, but as they get closer to the 'fun zone', he's not, by a long shot, the only man with visible legs. And, at least on this part of the ship, had Rey forgone her breast band, she would have just fit in.

He's watching the people around them, and some of them just live in this area, because they're still on Aft 22, but a lot of them, moving the same direction they are, are dressed to party.

"Has this always been here?" Rey asks.

He shrugs. "I'd assume so. The whole time I was on the Finalizer, they had a fun zone, so…"

She nods.

"Not sure who decided that the First Order needed some sort of… recreational spaces, but whoever it was probably had been, or understood soldiers."

"Soldiers like to party?" Rey says.

"Apparently," they're far enough down now they can see where everyone is going, and…

---

They finally step out into Aft 23, Subsection 18, and just about get knocked over by the music. It's loud. There's some sort of dance party going on in the middle of the market area, or maybe just, when the music is this loud, everyone just dances. That's probably closer to true, nothing about the mass of people in front of them looks even remotely organized.

And it's also true that both Rey and Kylo find it just about impossible to not move with the beat. They may be walking, but it's in rhythm with the music.

Like the other market areas, there are shops all along the walls. Kylo's making a mental note of them, scanning for somewhere to go later. Apparently, they won't be lacking for options, and why Jon laughed when he asked about sex shops is glaringly apparent.

Maybe a quarter of them appear to be some sort of sex shop. And there are dance clubs all over. The reason the music is so loud, and so… unorganized is they're listening to probably fifteen songs simultaneously pounding over and through each other. Sooo, many bars… And carts selling more drinks and snacks and… Kylo's not sure what that cart is selling, it's obviously a recreational pharmaceutical of some sort, and at least thirty people are queued up to get some, but…

There are several places that have a lot of… really interesting art on the windows. And, Kylo's brows furrow as he feels it, blasts of pain inside. He looks at Rey, and she just shrugs, also not sure what is going on behind those windows. It takes both of them a moment to figure out that those are tattoos shops, and that unlike Jacen, who didn't get his by choice, some people intentionally put marks on themselves.

He thinks about the swirls Rey drew on his arm and chest, and glances at those windows again. Maybe?

She shakes her head. I like your skin the way it is.

That seems relevant to him. They continue deeper into the party. Noise, lights, apparently some of the clubs have flashing lights in addition to the loud music, more people, more… everything.

Kylo exhales, loudly. This is on the verge of painful sensory overload. The Finalizer with its much smaller fun zone might be a good choice for an entirely different reason.

He feels a sort of general numbing all of a sudden, and realizes that Rey's shielding him.

"Thanks." There's not a single chance in hell she heard that. Thanks.

She nods. This is intense.

He nods back. Yeah. I didn't quite envision it being this crowded. Though the number of specs should have been a hint that it'd be packed in here.

It's okay for me. She grins at him, and he can feel that she's enjoying this. He grins back at her. It's… like being second-hand drunk. I get to enjoy the buzz, but I'm still in control.

He likes that way of looking at it. Good. He checks the chrono. Five minutes to find, "The Red Door."

---

On any other section of the F-Deck, this would be officer housing, but Kylo can't imagine anyone lives here. It's quieter as they start to get away from the main market area, but that doesn't mean it's quiet, and there's a lot of foot traffic.

Each door they pass, instead of just having a number on it, has some sort of business name, and many of what would otherwise look like apartments have windows with a view as to what may be inside.

Sex. There's a lot of sex inside those rooms. He's trying to not just stop and stare, after all, if the windows are open they expect you to watch, right…

Rey's staring at the windows they're passing, eyebrows high, and he'll admit his are, too.

"Uh… Are we in the right section?" Her voice cracks as they pass one window with some extremely naked people dancing around in front of them.

Kylo checks the note. "Probably."

"Uh huh… Kylo…"

He looks a little sheepish. "It seemed like a good idea at that time."

She nods slowly, watching an open window a little further down the hallway. The people in that one aren't human, and she and Kylo are very rapidly getting some thorough comparative anatomy lessons. "And… You said Jon set this up. Did he… understand… what you were hoping to get for us?"

He certainly thought he'd been beyond specific enough, but… They pass another window and… well, it looks like everyone's having a good time, but that's not exactly the sort of good time he'd been hoping to purchase for them. "I really hope so…"

Red door, great. He sees a lot of doors. None of them say Red Door.

Then it catches his eye from his peripheral vision. It's a red door, about twenty-five meters down the hall. Kylo feels the sigh of relief from the depths of his soul, along with a certain level of trepidation as to what's on the other side of that door.

When they get closer to it, they can see no windows, no name, no… advertising for what might be on the other side of the door. There is a keypad, and it says on it Name:

Kylo types in Amidala, and then door slides in, opening up on hallway filled with soft red textures, sofas, a fountain, and a striking woman in a very tight and formal looking gown.

"Welcome Amidalas, come on in!" She smiles at them, and Kylo's thinking that if this is Jon's friend, he's going to enjoy this quite a bit. He exhales in relief as they step in. It's quiet in here, just the burble of the fountain, and the woman asking, "Would you care to sit? Have some tea? Brandy?"

Rey shakes her head, and Kylo says, "We're good on drinks." She's looking around. This could be the waiting room of a posh spa or a fancy restaurant or… Any place that needed a place for people to sit comfortably while they wait.

I'm pretty sure Jon understood what I was looking for. Kylo thinks to her, and she nods.

Then she looks around some more. What were you looking for?

Kylo blinks. Right. He hasn't said, and has done a good job keeping his plan hidden in his mind, and she's not looking, and they just walked through 2500 meters of sex for sale. Massages. I wanted to get us both good massages, and Jon knew someone.

Rey smiles at him.

I asked him for help because… Well… I just wanted to get a massage for us, and… Didn't want to go wandering into the wrong shop.

After having seen a whole bunch of 'wrong shops,' Rey giggles at that. Good plan.

The reception lady says, "Unthar and Amilie will be… Oh, and here they are." And as she says that they see two people, one a tall, slim pale man, with ice colored eyes, white blond hair, and a woman, just as dark as he is pale, with black hair and dark chocolate eyes, and the kind of curves that Kylo may have imagined in the past but never figured he'd ever see in real life, join them in the waiting area.

Unthar is grinning at them, moving forward, hand extended. "Jon's friends! Wonderful, come on… oh… in." Unthar's warm smile doesn't exactly falter on that oh, but it does trip a little as his brain connects what he's seeing with what's under the image in front of him.

Rey catches that little 'oh' immediately. She knows exactly what the striking young man sees. They are, as the kids would say, busted. She glances to Kylo, wondering if he still wants to go through with this. She's game, a massage sounds really good right now, and both Unthar and his wife just radiate this sense that they'll be really good at this, so…

Kylo on the other hand, has missed that little oh because he's also starting at the striking young man in front of them. He's trying not to sigh or look put out, because… Jon never said, and he didn't specify, but… Okay, yes, he's aware of the fact that Specs come in male as well as female. It's just that his default image of a Spec is so firmly entrenched as female the idea that Jon (and he's mentally kicking himself for not realizing what he was walking into here) would not also have female as the default for Specs didn't even threaten to occur to him, until now.

He asked about men hitting on him. Which, of course, isn't what they're here for, so it likely never got close to occurring to Jon this might be an issue, either.

Jon's friend (should have asked for a fucking name) is offering his hand, and introducing himself as Unthar, and his partner… no wife… (Kylo's also mentally wondering if this is the most awesome family business ever, or if by day two of this, if he and Rey were to attempt it, he'd be killing people.) Amilie.

So, Kylo does the little hand squeeze thing, and cool as you please, Amilie takes his hand, smiles up at him, all warm affection and sensual pleasure in her gaze, and okay, he likes that just fine, as she's saying, "Jon's a pet of Unthar's, and I've always had a good time with him when he's asked me to join the fun, too. He tells us you and your Lady…"

And that's when Kylo realizes they are, as the kids say, busted because he can feel the capital L on Lady and… But, she's just gently moving them toward the massage rooms, and… shit… Touching you and paying attention… No one on Gidi Secundus would have even imagined Kylo Ren might walk in. Jon's pet Specs, who know him and likely his friends, and make their living by being very good at reading people and giving them what they want, even if they can't or won't ask for it, apparently saw through the spell in less than ten seconds.

He looks over to Rey, a quick spike of panic in his gaze. Are we still…

She's watching the sway of Amilie's hips in front of them, and thinks, I'm good with this. Are you?

They're in the massage room now, and as soon as the doors shut, Unthar lets go of Rey's hand, and takes a few steps over to a discrete urn against the wall, one with a small fountain therein, and does something to it.

Then he steps aside and says. "Lord and Lady Ren." He covers his mouth with his hand, but it's clear he's got a wide and amazed grin on his face. Kylo gets a very strong sense that Jon's getting one hell of a kiss the next time he comes in. "Oh my… Jon said he had friends who really needed to relax, but…"

Amilie's grinning up at Kylo, and then smiles warmly at Rey. "Oh… Do we bow? Curtsy?"

"Please don't," Rey says.

Kylo rolls his eyes a bit. "Part of relaxing is just being Kylo and Rey for a night."

"Right! Of course!" Amilie says.

"What did you do with the fountain?" Rey asks Unthar.

"Usually… A place like this, it's never an issue. But… Better safe than hurt. It's a security measure. Either of us says the safeword, and enough security to take over a minor outlier planet shows up in this room. But… To work… It's listening all the time."

Kylo's touched by that. That they'd be trusted. That Unthar would understand how much he does not want people to know he and Rey are here.

"Real privacy," Rey says.

Unthar nods.

"Won't the… front desk… get nervous with the security off?" Kylo asks.

Amilie shakes her head. "Not here. You pay us. We pay them for the space, amenities, and security. If we turn the monitoring off, they assume we know what we're doing. No one who works here is new to this game. And you aren't, by a long shot, the only esteemed guests we've had in here over the years who want real privacy."

"Oh." Rey says.

"And there are panic buttons in a few places hidden in the room, too," Unthar adds. He's quiet for a moment, really looking at them. "Do you mind if I ask how you're doing it? It's… confusing. There's… an image over the real you? Is it a field generator or something? I can see how anyone who wasn't looking carefully wouldn't see through it, but…"

Kylo intentionally presses his fingers to the cuff of his shirt. "Or something." And drops his spell. Rey sees him do it an mimics it. Not feeling the need to broadcast this Force specialty? Rey thinks to him.

That's the idea.

"Jon told us you were looking for a bath and massage?" Amilie says, and saying it, Kylo does notice they're in a room with a pool similar to his, and two comfortable looking tables draped with blankets.

"And any glow at the end, you'll provide for each other," Unthar adds.

Rey sniggers a bit at that, and Kylo doesn't blush. He supposes it's good to get all of the specifics out of the way ahead of time, but it does feel odd to talk about this in that level of detail.

"Now, we usually do the bath service naked, but… It's usually a full service affair, so… Would you prefer we wear bathing costumes or…" Amilie asks.

"So, this is a surprise for me, uh… What is the bath service?" Rey asks.

"And Jon didn't mention he was booking this to me, either," Kylo adds.

Unthar smiles. "Well, it's his favorite, so he probably assumed you'd like it. Bath service. We undress you, put your hair up, rub you all over with cleansing oils, use a somewhat rougher than usual towel to briskly rub the oils off of you, and then into the bath for a soak, drinks, we have tea service and a short bar," Amilie grabs a sponge from the side of the bath, and shows it to them, "a bit more scrubbing, hair down, full shampoo and conditioning," he steps a little closer to Kylo… looking at his jawline, "You can get a shave, but it doesn't look like you need one, likewise L—Rey, we can shave any bit of you that might want to be, then rinsing off, toweling off, a quick step to the drier, and then onto the tables for a conditioning massage."

"What's a conditioning massage?" Kylo asks.

Amilie answers that. "By the time we're done with bath service, we know your skin pretty well, so a conditioning massage means we make sure the oils we use are designed to make your skin as happy as possible. Right now, it looks like Rey's a little on the dry side, and Kylo, your skin looks a little oily, so we adjust what we use to make sure when you get off the table your skin is soft, supple, properly moisturized, and very happy."

"And the muscles under the skin?" Rey asks.

"Soft, relaxed, and glowing," Amilie answers with a smile.

"The whole point is that when you get off of that table you feel good all over," Unthar replies. "So, as we said, we generally do this service naked, but we don't have to. It's entirely about your comfort levels. All of this is. If there's anything you don't want us to do, or if something is too hard, or too soft, or just doesn't feel right, you just let us know, and we'll adjust."

"Where… does the cleansing oil go?" Rey asks.

"Usually, anywhere you'd put soap." Amilie replies, "But, if genitals or breasts, or buttocks are parts of your body that are just for each other, we don't have to touch them. Or we can get you squeaky clean from hair to toes and everywhere in between."

Kylo only looks mildly panicked at this, but Rey's more than caught it. Thoughts?

He swallows. I suppose if he's working with me, I won't get hard from being… cleansed. Though, speaking of brand-new experiences, having another man wash my shaft is at the top of the list. But… If I see her working on you, like that, the room could be on fire and I'm still going to get a stand.

Rey makes herself not laugh at that. And you'd find it uncomfortable to be standing proud while a man is cleaning you.

Kylo makes himself not roll his eyes. He's irked by feeling like this, but it's real, and if anyone gets the real him, it's Rey. Yeah.

And if he's working with me? You looked pretty tense when you noticed this wasn't two women.

I was... am… shit. Uh… He's looking at Unthar and… Shit… I'm not wildly enthusiastic about having a man rub me down, but I'm significantly less enthusiastic about watching one rub you down, especially if… cleansing… is involved, so…

You want to do this?

Yes? I don't know. Feels achingly stupid to be fussed that Unthar isn't a woman. This is a person who specializes in this sort of thing, likely is amazingly good at it, and I'll probably like it once I get going.

That's because under Lord Ren, you're a big, black lazy maomao who loves to lay around and be stroked and petted.

That may be true, but no one with a penis has ever been on the stroking and petting side for me, so I'm a bit wary of this.

Rey does laugh at that.

"Do you two need some time to talk?" Amilie asks.

You're okay with this? Kylo asks.

I am. Rey replies.

"We're good." Enough. Kylo confirms. "Genital touching… That's just for us and each other. And… Swim costumes always look kind of uncomfortable to me. Are they… easily waterlogged and too heavy when wet and…"

Amilie doesn't say, "You poor thing, which benighted part of the galaxy did you grow up on?" though she appears to be thinking of it. She does say, "Oh no. They make fabrics designed for water. Our swim costumes are trim and slick, and they feel almost exactly like being naked in the water."

"Speak for yourself," Unthar says, and then he shares a look with Kylo, both of them understanding, without having to say anything, about how any wet, close fabric is not going to feel naked to a male body, no matter how light and sheer it is. Because, unlike female bodies, certain bits of the male body naturally float in water, and they don't do so in a snug swim costume.

"Naked is fine," Kylo says. Hoping he's not going to regret that. "Especially in the bath. Swim costumes… We didn't use them where I come from, so…"

"Oh, that's why your mental image of them is thick and heavy and… Right, a lot of places where people just swim in regular clothing or go without… That makes sense," Amilie adds.

Unthar smiles at them, and then says, "So, the only question left is, who does whom?"

Rey glances at Kylo, who doesn't exactly sigh, but does look a bit on the resigned side, though he does perk up some when Rey grins to Amilie, and she steps over to her, rests her hands on Rey's shoulder, rises up to her tiptoes and then kisses Rey gently on the forehead.

---

For about half a heartbeat it looks like Unthar may indeed attempt to kiss Kylo's forehead the way Amilie just did with Rey, but apparently he reads people more than well enough to know that that's a no-go. (Kylo does get the sense that Unthar's thinking for now.)

"All right, sweet, let's get you undressed," Unthar says to Kylo.

It's… different. It probably shouldn't be, but… It is. There's a person, and Kylo has to look down to make eye contact, but… when isn't that true? The last person he regularly got to look eye to eye with was Phasma, and… she's been gone a long time. Still, he's not looking down that far, and the voice is deep, and hands are almost as big as his… that's just… odd… but…

"You don't look like you're enjoying this," Unthar says.

Kylo half swats his hands away and finishes pulling his shirt off. "I'm adjusting. The last time someone with a baritone called me 'sweet' I was eight."

"And it's been even longer since someone undressed more than a bit or two of you, also?" Unthar doesn't glance at Rey, but it's clear he's meaning, undressed you in a taking care of you sort of way, as opposed to, part of sexy playing.

Kylo looks at Rey and realizes that he got himself undressed before he got hit with the plague, so Rey didn't have to attempt to wrestle him out of his clothing. (Thank the Force. He doesn't want to contemplate how big of a mess that would have been.) He shrugs a bit. They've taken clothing off as part of playing, but… "It's never come up."

Unthar does kneel down to start on Kylo's left boot. "If you prefer to undress yourself, you can. The idea of this is to enjoy it, not have me push you through things you don't want to do." Though, as he's saying that, he's getting the top buckle.

Kylo can understand why Jon would like this. Pretty man on his knees taking his clothing off. And he'd likely enjoy it if Amilie were working with him. He glances over, and she's gently pulling Rey's boot off, and… okay, yeah, he's enjoying that part of this, too. Pretty woman kneeling in front of his woman, taking her clothing off… That's a treat… Maybe if he just watches them…

He feels Unthar pause, and then say, "Love?"

Kylo blinks, and looks back down. Right, boot will come off significantly more easily if he lifts his foot up.

"Thanks, baby." It's clear to Kylo Unthar's going through his list of pet terms, trying to find something that'll stick or Kylo will respond favorably to.

Kylo swallows, and then rubs his lips together. "Kylo, please. Uh… The… endearments are… feel… weird."

"Sure, Kylo, no problems." He peels Kylo's sock off, and then starts on the second boot. "Is this okay?"

Which leaves his shorts and kilt.

And a man on his knees in front of him reaching for the clasp on the kilt.

"It's been a while since I've seen anyone wear one of these. Good choice though. The leather's nice."

The leather is nice. And Kylo does really like how it feels, but again, this is a man, in front of him, taking his clothing off, and "I'll get it."

Unthar just smiles at him and then steps around so he's at Kylo's back, which Kylo doesn't exactly sigh in relief at, but… It does make it easier.

He puts the kilt and shorts with the rest of his clothing, and notices that Rey's watching him, enjoying the view, and… apparently so is Amilie, her eyes are flittering over his skin and it's clear she's pleased, and… He doesn't mind that at all.

Except her husband is right behind him, getting a tie for his hair.

But they're sex workers so… This can't be an issue, right? He focuses on Unthar, making sure he's okay with… well, all of this, and… shit, he really is. Apparently, Kylo's in possession of what Unthar's thinking of as a 'delicious ass' and he's got no idea what the hell to do with that, but… Well, the guy isn't about to smack him because the way his wife is looking at him, so…

It shouldn't be this nerve wracking, right? This is supposed to be relaxing.

Rey grins at him. I'm having a good time.

Great. He offers her a half smirk/half smile. That was at least eighty percent of the plan.

You were hoping to have a better time?

Yeah, this is… rockier than I was anticipating.

"Here, Kylo, I need you to sit down for this part." Unthar pats one of the massage tables, and Kylo sits on the edge of it. A moment later, Unthar's standing behind him, and running his fingers through his hair.

As physical sensations go, this is nice. Actually, it's better than nice. Unthar's making soft, fast circles on his scalp with the tips of his fingers, and that's lighting goosebumps all along his body. Then he gathers up Kylo's hair, and runs his fingers through the length of it, from scalp to tips, and then back to his scalp, this time with firm, slow circles.

It's possible that Kylo might have moaned, a little, at it. Likely, even, given the immense smirk he can feel coming from Unthar, along with the thought, when it comes down to it, pleasure always wins.

Kylo's not sure if that's true, but he's not going to argue, because he sort of wants to melt onto the table right now and just let Unthar keep petting his hair, and he's really not going to make it clear that he can read Unthar's thoughts because they're so close right now.

---

Rey's probably onto something with the big, lazy maomao. Unthar is petting his hair. Supposedly he's putting it up so it doesn't get covered in oil or something, but mosty, he seems to have noticed how much Kylo likes having his hair played with, so he's standing behind him, massaging his scalp, running his fingers through his hair, and stroking it in a variety of ways that don't feel like they're doing much other than making him feel good.

But that's probably the point of this.

You're looking considerably more relaxed.

I'm feeling more relaxed. He can see that Amilie's gotten Rey undressed, and is in the process of putting her hair up, too.

Rey's eyes are closed, and her head is foreward, and Amilie's rubbing her fingers through her hair, and maomao comparisons may be apt for both of them because Kylo would swear she's purring.

---

"All right, your hair is up. You stand up, and I'll start on the cleansing oil," Unthar says.

As long as Kylo keeps his eyes closed, he really can't tell the difference. Unthar has soft, strong hands. They're bigger than any woman's hands he's ever seen, except Phasma's, and it's actually somewhat novel to have someone who can close his hand around his forearm.

It does feel good. The oil is slick and warm. It smells good, and Unthar's got… a really excellent touch. There are no ticklish spots, no too hard or too soft bits, his speed is on point. He keeps gliding the oil over Kylo's skin, taking long enough for everything to get "cleansed" but not long enough for Kylo to get self-conscious about anything.

The real difference, that he can tell, is that this time Rey's really watching him, and Unthar, and Unthar stroking oil all over him, as he stands there, naked, feeling a little silly, and wait… Unthar's naked too, and… He doesn't remember that, but maybe it happened while he was playing with Kylo's hair or something. He certainly zoned out for a bit there and just floated around on how good it felt.

Right now, the part that feels really good is how Rey's watching this.

You're really enjoying this, aren't you? He opens his eyes to look at Rey, who's also standing there, gleaming softly as Amilie rubs the oil into her skin, eyes on him and Unthar, an intense and very pleased expression on her face.

I really am. This is an amazing treat. Check both of you in the mirror? Can you see how gorgeous you are?

Kylo doesn't shrug at that. I can see how both of us have physically fit bodies, and he's got fairly rare coloring. I can feel how good you and Amilie look. And now that he's got his eyes open, he is enjoying the view, a lot. Amilie's got Rey's hair bundled up on the top of her head, and slowly rubbing the oil into and down her back in long, gliding strokes, and…

He closes his eyes again. He's not getting a stand while a man is working on him.

I really don't think either of them will mind.

He's touching me, Rey. I'm getting the occasional glimpse of what he and Jon get up to, along with him wondering if this is the sort of thing we get up to with Jon, or if at some point the five of us may play together. Trust me, I know, on a visceral level, that he won't mind. This is very much a man who loves his job, and would not be, on any level, fussed if I wanted to play with him in any possible way I could think of, and likely a few I'm not mentally capable of imagining, but he'd be more than happy to introduce me to.

He can feel how much that amuses her. Us with Jon?

He's wondering.

She thinks about that for a moment and then jumps to the next bit. What would all five of us do?

Kylo blinks. He's mostly just getting flashes of images and feels from Unthar. Honestly, I'm not sure. It's a lot of bodies all sort of tangled up. The bits where he was wondering about us with Jon made more sense to me. I could figure out who was where. He hits Rey with Unthar's image of her between him and Jon, and she flushes. And, though he's not sure what to do with that, or with the fact that he very much doesn't hate that image, he drops it and keeps on with, All five is just confusing. He's under the impression that it'd feel really good though.

Rey inclines her head a bit, glancing at the four of them. He can feel her starting to really think about it, and then glance back to him, but after the first blush of that, she tamps down that longing, because after all, this is making him uncomfortable to some degree. Rey thinks to him, Is that part of why you're feeling self-conscious?

Probably.

If he were only interested in women, would this feel better to you?

Kylo blasts Rey with how Unthar's admiring his lats and obliques, and how much he's enjoying touching them, and looking forward to getting his hands on Kylo's ass. It feels weird to have someone enjoying me this much. Honestly, a woman, who isn't you, enjoying me this much would feel weird, too.

You really are a treat to look at and touch. Why would a woman feel weird?

It just… does. He's already a little off about wanting women who aren't Rey, and having them want him back, especially if it's not just about manipulating him for his power or position… He hits Rey with that, how… uncomfortable the too tall, too gangly, oddly proportioned kid who eventually grew up into a man who fit his body better, but never really got used to the idea that it might be pleasing, or a source of genuine pleasure, especially for someone who isn't her. He's, just, sort of, on most days, getting to the point where he can see that he's okay looking… And he's feeling pretty good about her genuinely liking his body, and getting comfortable with playing with that, but getting beyond that is a step he doesn't know what to do with.

She makes sure she's got eye contact with Kylo. That he's looking at her, and in her head as much as his own body, too. You are allowed to be desirable. There's nothing wrong, or bad, or… unworthy, of people wanting you. You're beautiful, and sexy, and your body is amazing, and… People should want to pet it. That's okay. You're eminently pettable, my maomao.

He mentally snerks a bit at that. I still think you like me too much.

So, what if I do? I'm not wrong.

I love you.

I know. Now, relax, and let the gorgeous man rubbing oil all over you play with you some so I can enjoy the… Eye candy. That's the term Jacen used.

Yes, dear.

---

Actually, that's the piece that slots everything else into place.

Relax and let Rey enjoy the view.

Because she's watching.

And enjoying it.

And he wants her to enjoy this.

It's a present for her, that he gets to enjoy, too, so… Make it a good one.

He closes his eyes, and lets himself sink into the feel of this. Of hands on his skin, slick and warm. Of Rey's eyes on his body, on the warmth of her affections, and the heat of her sexual desire.

What did Jon like about Lane dressing him up? That for a night, he got to be exactly the way his mate wanted him.

Kylo's eyes slip back open, landing on her, and she grins at him

And it's good.

---

Rey feels the moment it shifts in Kylo's mind. There's been this cloud of nervous static. A sense of energy ready to crackle and spring and the feel of someone holding on because he knows it's a bad idea to flare out.

And then it just smoothed out.

The tension didn't so much vanish as shifted. The… need… is still there, but it shifted direction into a sort of eager waiting.

Her man wants. He's standing there, watching her, open, naked, looking to be perfectly hers. Wanting to be adored because he's hers.

So, she does. She watches the play of the light on his skin, the gleam of it off the oil, the fine hairs on his belly raising and falling with each breath, and the warm smile on his face. She cradles him in how perfect he is in this moment, and how much she cherishes him.

How he is, perfectly, exquisitely hers.

And Kylo glows.

---

Once he got into the right mindset, being cleansed wasn't an issue. He just floated through it, enjoying the sensations.

Slick oil, warm hands, and then brisk rubbing with a somewhat rough towel.

His skin is warm, flushed, slightly tingling.

It's good.

He understands why Jon likes this, and the view of Rey pink and glowing is awfully nice, too.

Then comes the next part, get in the bath. Okay, easy enough. Unthar asks if they want drinks, and he knows they're here for at least another hour, so… why the fuck not?

"Yes, something that tastes good and has about a shot of alcohol in it."

Unthar smiles at that. "Very specific, Rey?"

"Whatever you mix up for him, without the alcohol."

That perks up Amilie, and she flashes a quick look to Unthar, he shrugs minutely, and both Rey and Kylo know they missed the context of something going on here.

"Is the water to your liking, Rey?" Amilie asks as Rey's glancing from her to Unthar.

Rey groans with pleasure, and Kylo's nodding at her. The water's just hot enough, and feels really good on freshly buffed skin. "Yeah, it's really good."

Amilie flashes another look to Unthar, and this time Kylo just lets himself feel what they aren't sure if they should ask about.

She thinks you might be pregnant. Apparently, hot water isn't good for pregnant ladies.

Rey blinks slowly. How in the galaxy did she come up with that? She glances down, and okay, yes, they did just have dinner, but she doesn't look pregnant.

Then they both watch as Unthar offers the drinks. Rey nods. No alcohol. Oh. Uh… Ideas?

Kylo takes a sip of his, and it's good. He uses that time to think but he's got nothing. None. I have no idea what to do with that. He sets the drink on the little table behind them.

Amilie says, "Let us know if you get too hot, okay, Rey?"

"Oh, not a problem. He's the one who overheats sometimes. I grew up in a desert, so heat and I get on fine."

There's another glance between Amilie and Unthar.

"It's just… easy to overdo it, so… Maybe you might not want to be in too long," Unthar says from the side of the bath, getting ready to slip in.

Rey rolls her eyes. "I've already had a glass of wine, and that's about as much as I like in a night. Nothing else going on."

"Oh. Uh… I guess that was sort of transparent," Amilie says. "Unthar can usually spot a pregnant lady at a glance. He knew I'd caught before I did, but…"

"But usually isn't always, and it's considered best practices when you're in early days to keep your body temperature as close to normal as you can," Unthar replies.

There's something that would have never occurred to Kylo. "You have children?"

Amilie smiles at that. "Two boys. They're three and sixteen months, and right now is past bedtime, so they're snoozing away, looking like perfect angels, but during the day, they're a handful."

"Lars sleeps through the night now, which means everyone at the Fresk house is a lot happier these days," Unthar adds.

"Finn and Rose talk about that," Rey says.

"Our friends," Kylo adds. "Their daughter is a little under a year. She started sleeping through the night…"

"Soon. They hope. Right now through the night is twenty to four, with a wake up for a bit of a cuddle around twenty-three."

Kylo winces. There was a time when that would have been vastly more sleep than he got on any given day, but right now the idea of having to get up at four each morning just aches.

Amilie's nodding. "That's really common for a little under a year. Lars started sleeping twenty to six about six weeks ago, but he had to switch from two naps to one before that got settled."

Neither Rey nor Kylo have anything to really add to that. But, apparently, lounging around in the bath with the Fresks is part of the package. Then it hits Rey. Anything that can feel good is supposed to feel good when this is done. On a normal job, they'd be getting petted and played with right now, but that's not part of this job, so right now is supposed to be pleasant and entertaining conversation and good drinks. So, Rey asks Amilie, "I hope this isn't rude, but how did you two get into this line of work?"

Amilie smiles. "It's not rude to ask people how they found their vocation. Perhaps when we've told our story, you'll tell us how you became Lady Ren?"

Rey smiles at that. "Perhaps."

"She was a client of mine," Unthar says. "And I got into this, because on Whelnor, where we're from, for those who are called, temple service is considered an honorable and high-status career, but, unfortunately, the maniacs who took over decided to 'erradicate the pagans,' us, and did everything they could to blot out our faith. There's no temples left for me to serve at, but Junrah knows that the buildings are not necessary, just the service."

That absolutely floors Kylo. His jaw drops and he just stares. Then he blinks a few times, pulling his brain back into his head, swallows, and says, "I might not have sprinted away from the faith of my youth if we'd had anything like that."

Unthar smirks at that. "It's not just that black and white."

"Just that black and white was also part of running away," Rey says.

"Temple service was about all levels of the healing arts," Amilie adds, clarifying things.

Unthar adds, "But different people have different talents, specialties, and abilities, and this is the one I most readily gravitated to. It's not just fucking, though in my specialty, there's a decent amount of that, too."

"Like most of his charges, I was tired, sad, lonely, burnt out, and desperately in need of getting out of my head, back into my body, and connecting to my physical body and another person," Amilie says. "I'm a slicer. Most of what I did was look at a screen all day and move tiny bits of code around. Doing that felt good, when the code would sing, but it was isolating, and over time I was pulling more and more and more into myself, and losing the human in the code."

"Most jobs, she doesn't work with me. I'm usually on my own. For cases like yours, or people who need or want extra affection, or where I need an extra person to help out, she works with me, but most nights, she's still a slicer."

Kylo cocks his head a bit. "Do you work for the Order?"

Amilie's amused by that. "No."

"Do you want to?"

She smiles, and gently strokes his shoulder. "You don't pay well enough to hire me, love."

"Oh."

With a warm smile, Amilie continues, "Anyway, in those days, before the Furgarathin had come to Whelnor, if you were feeling… sad, sick, off, wrong, whatever, you could go to the temple, pray, and seek healing. I knew I was feeling wrong, but I didn't know what I needed, and he saw me at my prayers, and…"

"And there are a lot of things I'm good at, but helping sad, lonely people feel alive again is what I'm better at than anyone else."

"And he is. Unthar can pull the sad and lonely right out of you with his touch."

Unthar smiles a bit at that. "Well, I can try. I'm good, not a miracle worker. Junrah works the miracles. Mostly, what I do is help people remember whatever it was they loved about themselves before they got lost, and help them get back in touch with it. And once they can feel it again, they can find the path to unlose themselves."

"So, we talk, and touch, and pray, and… And that was the best I'd felt about anything and everything for years. So, we meet again. And again. And then we're meeting outside of the temple. And…" She's smiling softly, gazing at her husband.

"Temple service…" Kylo starts… "What was… is… your… rank… title?"

Unthar grins at him. "You'll like this, Master of Sacred Arts of L'Rantan and Krillin."

Kylo's smiling back. "You're right, I do. Were Masters allowed to be meeting outside of the temple with their devotees?"

"Of course. The temple is… just a convenient place. The love… healing… That's within." He's really looking at Kylo, and thinking. "And let me guess, your faith didn't hold with this sort of thing?"

Kylo remembers Luke's lessons. "We were allowed unbounded love of all things, assuming we could do so without developing any attachment to them." Though that wasn't quite true. Luke wasn't sure about attachments. The Old Jedi were, but his own experiences had differed, so he relayed those ideas, but… Like with sex, or anything else that made going dark easier, he saw them as… challenges to be only attempted by masters.

Unthar winces. "That's not how we did it. Love, sex, pleasure, healing… They're free flowing and offered to any and all who need or want them. Loving Amilie, being deeply attached to her, doesn't make me less capable of taking care of other people. Our gifts, our healing services, are granted by the love of Junrah, and she would not be pleased with the idea that the love of one somehow damages the love of others. After all, if that were true, how could we heal others? Our love of her would defeat the purpose of loving her."

"Before we part company tonight, I want the name of anything you'd be willing to let us read about your faith," Rey says.

Unthar looks sad. "I'll be happy to give you what I know and remember, but…"

Amilie takes over. "The Furgarathin came, and they brought armies. The temples, the holy books, most of Unthar's brothers and sisters… They burned them all."

"Amilie was able to fake new ids for us. Slice right into the civil service records and hide us, and a few others."

"But ceasing to exist electronically is only part of the issue." She holds up her arm, and it's an arm. Rey and Kylo don't know what they're supposed to be seeing. "The Furgarathin marked themselves with ink and brands. At a glance, they could tell we were not of them. We left as soon after as we could."

"When did you join the Order?" Kylo asks. After all, they wouldn't be the first people who ran to the Order for a better life.

"Technically, we haven't joined the Order. And we didn't join the First Order, either. But," he shrugs a bit, "Armies like willing sex workers, so… We rented a place and got to it. It was seven years ago. We had a very long conversation about what to do, and where to go, and… If anyone needed more love and light and healing…" Unthar says.

Rey blinks. "Wait, you… moved to here? To try and improve it from the inside?"

Kylo thinks, but doesn't say, by having a lot of sex with my men? The shock of it is evident on his face though, and Amilie actually laughs out loud at it.

"Of course." Unthar replied. "We wanted somewhere we could do the most good, and not be murdered for our faith. That seemed to be here. Only a maniac would shoot at the Supremacy."

"We did not anticipate the level of mania the Resistance would offer," Amilie replies, voice dry.

Rey winces, wondering where they are in relation to the rift left from the Raddus attack.

Unthar's speaking, "One person is a small thing. But small things, and gentle nudges, that can lead to big changes. I don't know how much we helped in the wider range of things, but a lot of very angry, very hateful, sick, unhappy people left me better than they had been. We only work with officers, so everyone under them got the services of a leader who wasn't so angry, hurtful, hateful, or sick. Maybe it didn't do much, but it had to have helped some." Unthar just looks at Kylo, and then says, "I imagine you know this, you had to, but this place… The way it used to feel. It wasn't just black metal, and black plexiplast, there was real, genuine darkness here, so… We tried to help lighten the pressure of that on the people around us."

Kylo nods, slowly. He does know.

Amilie adds, "And then… After Starkiller and the Supremacy was cut in half, so many people here were hurting so badly. That's how we met your Jon. He was bleeding pain from every pore, and… Your people have nothing here to help with grief or mourning and… After that, we couldn't leave."

"And you started to make some interesting changes, and… well, then we didn't want to leave."

Rey knows she's going to do it before she knows what she's going to say. Just that it has to happen. "Would you want to reopen your temple?"

Both of them look surprised at that.

"I know… Obviously, it can't be the same, but… Your faith isn't ours, but it doesn't sound like there shouldn't be any reason for you to not start up a temple here."

Kylo's on board with that. "I don't know if Jon talks shop with you, but, he's working on setting up an entire city in the city, so to say, someplace for our diplomatic level, and there's no reason why there couldn't be temples there." He glances to Rey. Maji temple?

If I ever figure out what's involved in having one, sure.

"Are there more of you still alive?" Rey asks.

"A handful. Twenty-five, maybe fifty," Amilies says. "We scattered after we got out of Whelnor."

"Adults?" Kylo asks.

They both nod. "Some children."

"Well, that's more people than there are Maji," Rey says, "our faith, so… If you wanted to…" She can see them both looking at each other, very intrigued, wanting to talk more.

Unthar offers up a gentle smile. "We will certainly think and talk about this. And perhaps act on it. But you aren't here for that."

"We could be," Rey says.

"Our faith certainly believes that the Force leads us to be in the right place at the right time," Kylo adds.

Unthar shakes his head. And he rests his hands on Kylo's shoulders, squeezing gently. "But you aren't here for that. And you shouldn't be. You're here for a personal reason… and maybe this is part of a greater one, but there's also an immediate one, and given what he's said about his past, I've got the feeling that neither of you really prioritize taking care of yourself, at least, not to the level you should."

Both Rey and Kylo look a little guilty at that. "We're… better than we used to be," Rey says.

"Assuredly, you are here now," Amilie adds. "How about this, if it's not a rude question, what's inspired you to come to us?"

Rey looks over at him, and Kylo's about to say something like, "Long story," but as he thinks about it, it's not.

"I wanted to do something nice for my wife. It's been at least six months since we've done something like this, and free time is likely to become even scarcer soon, so… Time to relax, and enjoy our bodies and each other, and for a little while, just go play some, being Rey and Kylo."

Unthar and Amilie smile at that. "That is an excellent thing to do."

"Do you two…" It trails off as Rey thinks about how to ask or what to ask.

"Have playtime on our own? Of course," Amilie answers, as she shifts behind Rey, laying her hands on Rey's shoulders, and then beginning to take down her hair. "Less now because our boys do everything in their power to eat up our free time, but we still do normal family things."

"If sex is your job…" Kylo starts, feeling a little tentative.

Unthar smirks at that. "Sex is a tool I use in my job. Healing is my job. And yes, I do know a lot of other Specs have various issues about finding a balance between this as a job and what they do with their private lives and loves. But, this isn't a job, it's a calling, so… It's different."

Kylo's sort of staring at him blankly.

"You don't pick me up here. I pick you. Or perhaps a good friend sends you my way. That in and of itself shifts things dramatically."

"And you just… know who to pick?" Rey asks.

"Almost always."

You get any Force sense off of him? She thinks to Kylo.

Just the same general 'this is a living human being sense' that you are, but he's got something. Assuming he's anywhere near as good at this as he thinks he is.

He had you sitting on the massage table, purring in thirty-six seconds flat. He's better.

Kylo smiles at her.

"Have you been together long?" Amilie asks them as she gathers a pitcher near, fills it with warm water, and gestures for Rey to lean back so she can soak her hair.

"A few years," Rey says.

"I would have thought longer," Unthar replies, "you have that knack for knowing what the other one is thinking, right?"

"We… clicked with each other very easily on that," Kylo says. "Perhaps like you two?"

"It took several years to get this good with each other," Amilie says, pouring the water over Rey's hair.

Unthar has an appraising look on his face. "And I think that neither of us have quite the click you two do."

Kylo shrugs at that, and Rey doesn't reply.

"What did the Jedi say? All is possible with the Force?" Unthar asks.

"Something like that," Kylo replies.

"Indeed." He pulls a pitcher toward himself, and also fills it. "Let me guess, you like having your hair washed."

Rey laughs out loud at that. "Oh, he does. He'll melt in your hands."

Unthar grins back at her, and then to Kylo. Then he hoists himself up on the side of the bath, and gestures to in front of him. "You go here. Do you do anything special with your hair?" he asks as Kylo slides over in the bath, kneeling, back to Unthar, waiting for what comes next.

"Just wash and dry it. Put some sort of goop on it once a week."

Unthar looks to Rey, as his fingers begin taking Kylo's hair down. (Kylo hums appreciatively.) This wouldn't be the first couple he's met where the wife just gives her husband grooming products and he uses them rather than fuss about it. This is the first couple where the wife shrugs, too. "Jon's mom gave it to us. We use it. It makes hair soft."

"Ahhh…" Amilie says.

"Well, then…" Unthar adds.

Amilie reaches for a bottle and pours a thin stream of some fluid into her hair. It must be shampoo, and it certainly smells good. She spends a moment lathering it between her hands before she gently lays her palms on Rey's head, and then begins a gentle, foaming massage. Kylo watches as she begins to wash his wife's hair. He feels Unthar's hand on his shoulder and knows to tip his head back so Unthar can wet his hair.

This time, unlike when he settled into it for Rey, he extends his senses to feel what Unthar's really doing.

Making all the nerves in his body light up with pleasure as he washes his hair.

That's the top level.

Deeper… It's not Force work. It doesn't feel like that. Though it's akin to it. A deep, settled love and empathy.

It was there, in the Jedi books, love as a verb. As something above and beyond the rush of romance and the thrum of desire. There was love in the sense of caring, of cherishing. The ideal of the ability to spread that love throughout the galaxy, to feel the value of that which was around you, and to treat it with that value.

The Jedi strove for that, but felt that attachment to one love lessened the ability to feel it for all other loves.

He can feel it through Unthar's touch. This is the exact opposite. That through deep attachment, to his personal loves, to the love of his god, and the love of himself, he can feed his own empathy, his own love, and then spread it around, let it touch those near him.

And with it he can do amazing things.

It's not the Force, not Jedi style healing. He very much doubts that Unthar could close a cut with a touch, or calm a fever, or tell the cells of a broken bone to knit together faster and easier.

But for a tangled mind… For someone aching for affection and attention and love… For a person who desperately needed to connect with another human, and be cherished… His own well of it is so full he can offer it up to others, easily.

And basking in it, Kylo's fairly sure that's nothing he's ever going to have an easy time with, but it might be a goal, something he can seek to try to emulate. Dark side agape. Be so deeply, marvelously, passionately attached to his loves that his own well fills to overflowing, and he can offer it to others who need it.

He smirks a bit as Unthar's fingers rub through his hair. The Force might be an ass. It might stick him in stupid places and torment him for kicks and giggles, but it also does this. Puts him in the path of the people he needs to become the person he was meant to be.

He feels Rey's foot brushing against his under the water. She approves of this.

---

"Okay, time to lie down."

Kylo's on his belly, sprawled out over the massage table, which is a bit small for him. It's not quite two meters long, and so is he, so his feet stick off the end.

He can feel Unthar really looking at him, and then lay his hand on the scar where Rey ran the light saber through him.

"Any issues with this scar?"

"Totally numb."

"This one?" His hand is on the spot on his bicep where Finn bit him.

"They're all lightsaber burns. None of them have any sensation."

He can feel Unthar nodding, cataloging that away. "This straight surgical looking one?" He touches the line on his side where they fixed up Chewie's bowcaster hit.

"That one'll itch where I can't scratch sometimes. I think that's because the ribs, some lung, and intestines under there all had to be replaced."

You were fighting with a chunk of lung missing? Rey sounds shocked in his mind.

I'm really not kidding about my ability to pull off of pain. I'd never hurt so bad in my life, but that's what kept me going.

"You did not lead a safe life, did you, Kylo?" Amilie asks.

He doesn't open his eyes as he shakes his head. Rey adds, "All of them are from the same day."

"Bad day, then," Unthar says.

"From a certain point of view. I certainly didn't enjoy it at the time. But it set valuable things in motion, so…"

Unthar's nodding. "Transformative pain. We had Masters of that discipline, too, but it never called to me."

Kylo decides to ask. "People who… used pain to transform themselves?"

"Some. That's often where they began. But there were often temple services where one could be offered such pain if they needed it."

"People… came to you to get hurt?" Rey asks.

Unthar shugs a bit as he lays his hands on Kylo's upper back. "It was not my discipline. But, as I understand, some hurts can only be healed with more hurt, and some patterns can only be broken by pain. It… did not resonate for me, but for some…"

"What makes a poison is the dose," Amilie adds. "And every person has a different tolerance. So, what one person needs may not be the same thing as another, and what is damaging to one, may be medicine for another." She glances away from Rey to Kylo's scars. "Your love looks like he needed a higher dose than most."

Kylo's not sure what to think about that.

He does know what to think about Unthar's hands on his upper back, soft, warm pressure, the glide of slick skin across skin. Yes.

And that's all now needs.

---

Kylo feels gentle hands softly comb through his hair, lifting away from his scalp, something soft, dry… lips? He feels the brush of warm breath against his face. Definitely lips, press to his forehead, and then Unthar's voice, "Okay, Rens, we're done for tonight. Amilie and I are going to get dressed and head off. You've got the room for another hour, and Jon took care of the bill, so you can just leave when you're done."

Amilie's voice, and the feel of a soft hand on his shoulder, and the dry press of another set of closed lips on his forehead. "It was a pleasure working with both of you. I've laid our card on your clothing, so if you'd like to book us again, you'll know how to. We try to keep one appointment a night open for regulars, and early is usually easier to get than late."

And then it's just the two of them in a dim, quiet room, the soft fluid sounds of the fountain behind them.