Part V

It was day two hundred and fifty-five and Rey was standing in an abandoned corridor on the base. Kylo sat splayed out and relaxed in front of her, he only sat like that on his throne and his face rested in his hands. Rey remembered a saying she read a few weeks back, heavy is the head that wears the crown.

He sat up a little straighter in his chair when he felt her come in through the bond. Not knowing how long they had, he stood and shifted to the side of the massive throne, opening a small compartment built into one of the arms and pulled out a medium side package wrapped in plain brown paper. He passed it to her with a deep bow of his head. "For you."

As soon as Rey's hands touched the package he disappeared and she was left holding the rough brown wrapping paper in her hands. Tucking the package under her arm, she went to her quarters to open it in privacy.

She had learned now to read the note before seeing what was within the small gifts.

One day I plan to wrap you in silks, lace, and the finest linens, but for now, I only want you to stay warm.

Winter is coming and I eagerly await to see your cheeks rosy with the bite of the cold.

Always your,

B

She traced his words a few times before setting the note down on her dresser and tearing into the brown paper. Within was a deep muted green knitted cowl. Picking it up in her hands, she feel the quality of the wool, soft and dense, not scratchy like many of the other fabrics offered in her current situation. It was long enough to come down below her bust line and slanted to the left, to cover her arm she suspected. The right side of the garment was cut shorter, and she mused that it was to keep her saber arm free. The neck of the cowl billowed, large enough to create a hood to come up over her head.

Rey had never owned anything so fine before, and although the color wasn't flashy or the material extravagant, it was perfectly her, and unassuming enough to not draw attention by the other Resistance fighters. Bringing the garment up to her face, she took in a deep inhale. It smelled like him and she missed that scent. The pillow he had left for her stopped smelling like him months ago and she was too embarrassed to ask him to trade another with her so that she could be surrounded by his warmth each night.

It was only six days later that the bond connected and stayed open. Day two hundred and sixty-one was upon them and Rey was relaxing in her quarters after supper with her friends. She was in a light mood, having spent the last hours laughing at Finn's antics.

Rey sat up in her bed and they just looked at each other for a long moment, waiting for the bond to fizzle back out but when it didn't, she smiled up at him, "Hi."

He relaxed, shoulders coming down some and he smiled back, "Hey."

She got up and moved over to her dresser, picking up the small box of sweets and coming to stand before him. Reaching out her free hand, she wrapped her fingers around his and sunk to the floor, pulling him with her.

Sitting on the floor was usually easiest, as they didn't have to move furniture around their environments, even though Rey had taken to keeping a small stool in her room for that exact purpose.

Pulling the lid off the box, his face dropped, "You didn't like them?"

Rey smiled, "I thought we could try them together."

Kylo hoped they were still good, as he had given them to her over a week ago, but usually, chocolates kept well.

"Tell me about them," Rey asked as she held out the box again.

He shifted his position, sitting crossed legged and got comfortable. "Well, this one…" he pulled a dark chocolate piece out that was dusted the cocoa powder. "Is the most bitter of the bunch, but the middle makes up for it."

Holding the truffle out for her, Rey didn't take it from him, just leaned forward, bitting it in half and her lips drug against his finger tips. She chewed for a moment before smiling. "What is that?"

"Marshmallow," he said in a dry voice, the sensation of her mouth on him went straight to his groin and he had to shift again. "Do you want the rest?" He offered selfishly, wanting her lips to come around his fingers again.

"No, you eat it. These are your favorites and I don't want to have all the fun."

Kylo nodded and then popped the other half of the treat into his mouth. "Which one next?"

Rey pointed to another dark one with clear crystals dotting the top. This time she picked it up and studied it. "Good choice," Kylo said.

She took a bite out of it and straight up moaned, "Oh my Gods! I might just be in heaven. What is this?" Her tone was joyful and for the first time in over a month, she felt truly happy.

"Salted caramel," Kylo said with a smile, loving seeing the delight across her face. Before he could react, she was holding the other half up to him between her thumb and forefinger. Leaning forward he wrapped his full lips around her fingers, pushing his long tongue between them and using it to drag the chocolate into his mouth.

Rey's breath caught in her throat and she was now the one shifting uncomfortably as heat pooled in her belly.

The next two when about the same, one was filled with crunchy toffee and the other vanilla cream. In the end, Rey had grabbed his wrist as he pulled his hand away from her lips and she placed his thumb back into her mouth, licking off the melted chocolate and some of the cream that had seeped from the liquid center.

She groaned at the sweetness of the candies mixed with the taste of his skin. Her eyes shot open as Kylo gave off a pained moan and she didn't know if she should be scared or flattered by the intense and needy look on his face.

Still not quite sure what to do in this instance, or not knowing if she wanted to do anything about the heated aura that pulsed around them, she released his wrist and folded her hands in her lap, squeezing her fingers together to stop them from reaching back out to him.

Kylo pulling his hands back too, lifting one behind him and kneading at the stiff muscles at the back of his neck, "So have you uh..." he closed his mouth and swallowed, "tried your saber as a two-handed weapon?" In all the times he had watched her train, it was always was the saber as a staff.

"What?" Rey asked in confusion. She used two hands with her staff all the time.

Kylo's eyes went wide with the realization that she didn't know the saber came apart to create two weapons. This also meant that she had not seen the custom work he had commissioned for the base of the hilts.

Rey was already reaching out with the Force to call her saber to her hand. She held it just over her lap studying the seam at it's middle, having always thought it was part of the design and not functional. She looked up at him with wonder in her eyes, "They come apart?"

He just nodded in confirmation as he watched Ray work to separate the two pieces of the saberstaff. Kylo had hoped that he wouldn't be around when she found his other little gift to her, but it seems he would have to sit there patiently while she discovered another piece of his soul.

Finally figuring out the push and twist locking mechanism that held the two sabers together, Rey lit up with the elation as the staff became two."This is amazing," Rey beamed as she turned the sabers over in her hands, now inspecting where they came together. "What's this?" She asked seeing pea-sized stones set into the recessed bases of the hilts.

Kylo squirmed in place again knowing that he would have to fully explain the little detail. Rey stared down at the bases little harder, holding the two next to each other before turning her face towards him, her eyes asking for an explanation. "Diamonds are forged under pressure, in the darkest of places. But once they are unearthed, they shine with the light of a million stars and are the most precious of things in the galaxy."

Rey squinted her eyes to read the inscription circled the stone. "Across the stars…"

Kylo took in a deep breath before continuing, "The ruby represents home, the heart, passion… love."

Her eyes shot up to his at the mention of that last word before her gaze came back to the saber reading the script around the blood red stone. "You are my home."

"Oh Ben," she whispered with tears in her eyes. Shifting her position forward and rolling up onto her knees Rey threw her arms around his neck.

Kylo...Ben staggered in surprise but quickly circled his arms around her back, returning the gesture. She sniffled into the crook of his neck and he gently stroked the curve of her back in the most comforting manner he knew how.

After a long moment in the awkward position, Ray pulled back so that she could look at his face. Hers was red and tear stained and in that moment she didn't care. Her sabers were still clutched in her hands, crossing each other between his shoulder blades."Thank you," she said between hiccups as tears still slid from her glassy hazel eyes.

Ben shifted his hands, one resting upon her hip as the other came up to wipe tears from her face. "It doesn't matter if we are in the same room or if we are universes apart, you will always be my home and you will always hold my heart. There will never be anybody but you."

Rey studied his face for just a brief second before she released the sabers in her hands, hearing them clatter to the floor behind him. In the next instance, she held his face between her small hands, pulling him towards her, breathing out one last shaky breath before their lips met.

His large hand still cupped her right cheek, his thumb grazed her delicate skin as her lips moved softly against his. When her tongue ran against his parted lips and she moaned into the kiss, his hold onto her hip tightened and he pulled her towards him.

She moved as he directed her, sliding over him until she was situated in his lap. His lips tasted of chocolate and she drove her tongue between them to taste more of him. Rey's hands now desperately griped the curled hair at the base of his neck. Attempting to envelop herself into him.

Kylo wrapped his arms completely around her, pulling her so close that her back bowed in order to keep their mouths together. He lavished the sweetness of her lips thinking that he would feed her chocolates and whisper the most delicate of words to her every day before feasting on her. Unwilling as he was, Kylo broke away from her in order to take in a much-needed breath, but then started his open mouth assault on her jaw and neck. His name, his given name, fell from her lips and was the sweetest torture.

Rey's nimble fingers moved from his shoulders and started to work at the clasps at the front of his surcoat. Something primal and deep inside her was telling her that she needed to feel more of his heated flash against hers.

Just as his large calloused palm found the underside of her tunic and slid firmly to her lower back, pulling her hips in closer to his, the bond snapped shut. Rey shrieked not only at the loss of contact and warmth, but also she was left free-falling almost a foot right onto her backside. Her arms shot out behind her in an attempt to help break her fall.

She sat in this reclined position for a long while. Contemplating the new level that she had brought their relationship. Her lips were swollen, her pupils blown, her heart rate and a wetness had seeped in between her thighs.

Just like when they had been interrupted in Rey's hut on Ahch-To, Kylo's hands lingered, suspended before him as if he concentrated hard enough, he could still feel the soft skin of her back under his fingertips. His brain, heart, and lungs seem to start working again all at the same time, rushing through what had just transpired between Rey and himself.

She was receptive of his gifts, even moving her to tears. She had embraced him and then beyond his wildest dreams, she had brought her lips to his. She was not disgusted or mocking of his feelings. She had not pulled away or rejected him. She had appeared to need him just as desperately as he needed her.

Looking down upon himself, Kylo noticed half of his surcoat hung open and a very noticeable bulge situated in his lap. His mind swam with the idea of Rey undressing him and he was almost apprehensive to think of how far they would have gone together if the bond had not intervened.

For now, though, all he could do to provide his keyed up body some relief was to take himself in hand, thinking about Rey's sweet lips upon his. As he pumped himself harder, the fantasy that he shifted to was the glorious feeling of her lips and tongue working against his thick fingers. He whispered his Empress' name out into the dark confines of his quarters when he reached his climax.

When Rey finally felt steady enough to stand on her own two feet, she collected her saber hilts from the floor, looking down again at the beautiful words that were meant only for her. With a snap and click, she latched the two pieces back together before setting the staff back onto her dresser. Taking out her nightclothes she moved to the fresher, still feeling like she needed relief for her overheated body.

While she was still innocent and slightly naïve to intimacies between a man and a woman, her twenty standard years in the galaxy had not been void of self-gratification. The cool water felt heavenly over her body but soon her desire demanded heat. The same heat that rolled off of Ben in waves.

Turning the dial again, the scolding water left her skin pink and heated. She worked her hand down between her thighs, rubbing and stroking in a manner that she knew would bring her over the edge. With her head thrown back and his name still on her swollen lips, Rey called her orgasm out to the stars.

The next few weeks were a whirlwind of activity. Kylo was finishing up his campaign to rid the Rim Systems of the oppressive cartels and spice runners. Rey was still existing in her mundane life of training, meditating, and fixing spacecrafts.

The one highlighted moment within the Resistance was the announcement of Finn and Rose's engagement. Rey had been subjected to Rose gushing over the simple ring Finn had presented to her. It was frustrating for Rey to hear the proposal story retold time and time again, all the while she had a declaration of love from the most powerful man in the galaxy hanging on her hip and she could not utter a word of it to anyone.

After a few failed missions, the Resistance was due for some good news and Finn and Rose provided that in spades. Unfortunately, that feeling of hope and normalcy disappeared on day two hundred and eighty-five when 3PO went to deliver the General's breakfast, it was discovered that she had passed away in her sleep.

A dense and dark fog settled over the Resistance base. High Command held an emergency meeting to discuss the order of promotion. Rey was not privy to any of these meetings so instead, she sat alone in her quarters and wept for the only mother figure she had ever known.

The bond snapped open more violently than it ever had and Kylo frantically looked around the small room attempting to sense for any danger. He had felt a disturbance within the Force and was been deathly worried about Rey all morning.

She sat, curled up upon herself, on her cot. Her face was tear-stained, blotchy, and her nose was raw. Kylo immediately moved to her, sliding to his knees in front of her and gripping at her hands that were wrapped around her shins.

"Rey," he called out to her, attempting to get her far off gaze to focus on him. He reached out with a shaking hand and laid it on her cheek, taking one of her many tears under the pad of his thumb. "I felt a ripple, a disturbance in the Force and I was so worried that something happened to you." Now with her focus back on him, Kylo attempted to check her body over for injury the best he could with her curled position.

Seeing no apparent outwardly wounds, Kylo's eyes came back up to hers, his expression pleading for answers to the feeling that woke him suddenly in his bed and her current state of hysterics.

Rey took in a long steady breath, her diaphragm spasming from the morning of tears and her exhale came out in small spurts. Knowing Kylo's sorted history with his parents, but not feeling this was a time for careful words, Rey did nothing to appease his normal state of denial towards his maternal connection to the General. She just took in another shaky breath before stating the words she never wanted to deliver to him. "Your mother died last night."

Kylo's expression was unreadable, an overall feeling of nothingness falling over his features. He sat back on his heels as if his body no longer possessed the strength to hold him in his kneeling position. After a few moments, he could no longer hold Rey's saddened gaze and his line of sight dropped off into the void.

"Ben I'm so sorry. The doctor said she didn't suffer."

Without raising his eyes and not even knowing the words were moving from his lips he said, "How did it happen?"

Rey now shifted her position and knelt on top of her cot feeling the intense need to touch and comfort him. "They think she had a stroke in the middle of the night. There was nothing that could be done and the doctors assured us that she passed peacefully in her sleep."

He gazed off for a few more moments before his resolve reappeared and his now hard gaze shifted to her. "I need to inform my counsel. We should make a move on the Resistance now before they have a chance to regroup."

Rey felt as if she had been slapped in the face. During all of their connections, they had never discussed any First Order movements against the Resistance. It wasn't that they were in denial to the fact that they were on different sides of the war, but mostly when they talked about politics it was Kylo getting her opinions on running the galaxy, even though she was worlds away and hadn't officially agreed to join him in his pursuit.

"Ben," Rey tried to refocus him. "Your mother has just died…you're allowed to take a moment to grieve."

"I want to end this war once and for all." His expression was softer now, almost pleading. "Only once this war is over can we truly become what we were meant to be."

Rey pulled a face before speaking, "And what exactly were we meant to be?"

"First and foremost we are supposed to be together."

"We've talked about this Kylo. We can't be any more than this until after the fighting has ended."

He pulled at the roots of his hair in frustration. "Which is precisely what I am trying to do. Without my mother's leadership and the backing of the famous Leia Organa, the Resistance is sure to fall." He grabbed at her hands again and looked at her desperately, "Do you even know what they are fighting for anymore?"

Rey was taken aback again. After many of their late-night discussions about Kylo's ideas for the New Order, Rey wasn't sure where her loyalties aline. She was torn between the love of her friends and the love of the broken man before her.

"You belong at my side, being my light, guiding the galaxy, and ushering in a new era of peace. With our powers, we have a responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves. You of all people should know that."

"Being connected to the Force does not give us the right to assume dictatorships." Rey pulled her hands from his.

He watched as she stood from her cot and started to pace the room angrily. He also stood but remained stationary, watching her movements with his dark eyes. "The Force gives us the ability to be conduits of change. The Force works through us and brought us together because the galaxy needed change." She had stopped pacing in order to look at him after his speech and he was not going to waste an opportunity when she was willing to listen. "I don't want us to rule the galaxy forever just long enough to make the right changes so that it can self sustain peace for longer than our generation."

Rey thought about his words for a long moment, her gaze shifting from the floor and back up to his face. "So our children will not have a throne thrust upon them? They will not be expected to rule?"

Ben felt as if he had been punched in the gut and had his mind swept, all in one move. It wasn't that he never thought of a future with Rey that included children, but it was the fact that she believed in the same future as him, that had him wanting to fall to his knees before her. "They can be accountants for all I care, but if the Force calls to them, they will want to help people…they will want to do what is right."

Rey really hated it when he was logical and was being the man she always hoped he would become. She was unable to argue with him if he was saying everything that she already wanted. She sighed in defeat, throwing her limp arms out to her sides as she spoke, "Command is meeting as we speak to appoint a new General. I think that orchestrating an attack on the Resistance now, in the wake of your mother's passing, would just stoke the fire. Plus the holonet will expect you to be in mourning and not bloodthirsty for your mother's people."

Ben sighed as well, knowing that she was right. His parentage had been made public shortly after he assumed the title Supreme Leader. He suspected that Hux had leaked the information in order to discredit Kylo Ren as a true supporter of the First Order. Of course, the plan had failed miserably as it was publicized that the Skywalker blood that ran through his veins also belonged to Vader.

He tentatively approached her, reaching his hands out to touch her face. When she did not recoil from him, he caressed her cheeks and tilted her head up to his. "This is why you are my Empress, my home, my heart."

"So you won't order the attack?" Rey whispered in the small space between them.

He smiled down at her hopeful face, "Not today and not any time soon..."

This was about as much as Rey could ask of him. She knew that one day, under the leadership of someone more fanatical than Leia, that Kylo would be provoked into retaliation. But today was not that day...today Rey just held a boy that had lost his mother.

With everything within him, Ben wanted to feel her lips upon his again, but right now he just pulled her to him, burying his face into her shoulder, her hair tickling his cheek. They stayed like this for awhile, even sinking down to the floor so that Rey didn't have to strain with their difference in height.

As Rey held him, stroking his thick black hair, she started to hum a song from a distant memory. It was a lullaby of sorts and Rey couldn't place where she had heard it before, but as she got to the third verse, Ben gripped her tighter and his shoulders shook with silent sobs.

Ben was taken back to being a young boy. Back before his father left to continue his smuggling career and before his mother became too busy with the Senate. Before his father failed to try to connect with his son and his mother became scared of his budding power and temper.

Back when he had been terrified of the voice in his head and would slip into his parent's room. While his mother had not formally trained as a Jedi, she was just as strong with the Force, and she would wrap her light around him like a security blanket. As she held him, rocking slightly back and forth, she would hum a song from a different era.

It hit him that he would never be able to reach out and feel his mother's Light ever again. He never reconciled with her, they never meet on an equal front, she would never know that he had learned to love, to put someone else's wants and desires before him own. She would never see how happy Rey had made him. She would never see the good that he was doing in the galaxy.

He gripped Rey even tighter, perhaps afraid that he would leave bruises on her back from his deep digging fingers. He wept again, Rey shushed him in a gentle way, saying comforting words about Leia being one with the Force and reunited with her mother…father…brother…husband.

Rey didn't know that her words were reminding him just how alone he was, no longer having any blood family left. What he would regret the most was not being able to tell his mother that he didn't hate her. That he didn't disagree with all of her beliefs. That he was thankful for the opportunities his pedigree afforded him. That he was sorry for the academy…and for Han.

Before he could fully think through his words, they passed his lips, "Rey, come to me. Please."

AN: Y'all are amazing and make my heart so happy. I'm glad that you are enjoying our love birds and are getting the growing love and trust of Kylo and Rey that we won't get in the movies.

Your comments are amazing and make me want to pour more of this story out of my head!

As always, thanks to my Muse for putting up with me.