"Are you going to tell me what we're doing?" I asked, my arm wrapped around Kylo's, and my hands in the pockets if my jacket to ward off the chilly night air.
"We're meeting my Knights at the townhouse." He said smoothly, the same way he'd said it the other ten times I'd asked.
I sighed, fighting back a smile, and kept my eyes on the road ahead.
A blast of warm air hit me as soon as the door opened, and I smiled as a ring of greetings sounded when we walked in. The smell of garlic and herbs filled my nose and I inhaled, pulling off my jacket.
Cardo asked Kylo to help him with something upstairs, and they went, followed by Vicrul and Kuruk.
"How many Knights of Ren does it take to screw in a light bulb?" I called after them.
"It's not a light bulb." Trugden said from the couch. "Cardo was able to score a Superman suit for the party tomorrow, and wants to show Kylo. But, it's like a baby onesie that clips closed in the crotch."
"Are you helping him close his crotch?" I yelled up the staircase.
"Wouldn't be the first time!" Kylo yelled back down, and I heard the booming laughter of the other Knights.
Ushar snickered and looked over at Trugden. "Exodeen."
"I was just thinking about Exodeen." He said, smiling.
I raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know what happened on Exodeen?" And relieved seven yelled answers of "No!"
With a sigh, I went into the kitchen to find Ap'lek, his gaze on the chopping block in front of him as he diced, then minced an onion. He scooped it up onto his knife, and dumped it into a gigantic silver pot on the stove.
"You cook?" I asked, helping myself to a beer out of a cooler full of ice.
"We all cook." He said, and cut the top off of a bell pepper. "I'm just the only one who paid enough attention to actually know how to make this."
I rose up on my toes to look into the pot. "What is it?"
He began to chop. "Alderaan stew."
I gulped down so much beer my throat burned.
"It's a Halloween tradition that we haven't done since...well, you know." He wiped his hands on a clean kitchen towel and stirred what was in the pot with a wooden spoon.
Tell me more, I wanted to beg.
"What do you want to know?" He asked, stopping his work to look over at me.
I straightened. "I didn't say anything."
He brought a hand up and tapped his temple. "You didn't have to."
I chewed on my bottom lip as I considered. "What was she like?"
He went back to chopping. "Did you ever play tag when you were a kid?"
"Yeah." I told him, uncertainty creasing my forehead.
"You remember hiding from the other kid who was 'It', and running as fast as you could so that they wouldn't catch you?"
"Yeah." I said, again.
"And, you remember knowing that if you could only get to the tree, or the flagpole, or whatever, you knew that you'd be safe? That who was chasing you couldn't touch you?"
"Yes." I told him, my tone sharper than I intended.
"Well, our life was tag." He looked up, his blue gaze rooting me to the spot. "And she was home base."
My breath caught. "Is that why you tried to kill Snoke?"
He dumped the peppers into the pot, and stirred. "I never knew my birth mother. I bounced from camp to camp since I was five years old. By the time I found Ky and Vic, I was just an angry kid who'd never known love or affection or warmth and suddenly, I had a mom who made sure I was fed, and clean and was tucking me into my cot at night. Of course I tried to kill him." He frowned as he slowly moved the spoon around. "I have nightmares of the people I've killed, they haunt me just like they haunt the rest of us, but the thing I regret most in this life, the thing I'll never forgive myself for, is not being strong enough to save her."
A long, silent beat passed before he said, "I owe you an apology."
My forehead creased. "An apology?"
He nodded, solemnly. "I saw the shift in Kylo almost immediately after you got married. I've been with him for nearly twenty years, and I saw the second he lost that battle he waged with himself. And, it scared me, because I can't see him hurt again."
I shook my head. "I would never-"
"I know that, now." He said. "But, I haven't been fair to you. I haven't even been nice to you, and I'm sorry." His remarkable blue eyes hardened with sincerity. "I'd very much like to get to know you."
A smile tugged at my lips. "I'd like that, too."
Footsteps sounded down the stairs, and Kylo rounded the corner, walking toward us while the others migrated to the dining room.
"Knives?" He asked.
"Second drawer." Ap'lek told him, not looking up at him.
The drawer squeaked as it was opened.
"What do you need a knife for?" I asked, since Ap'lek obviously wasn't going to.
Kylo smiled at me, bringing a knife up. "Come and-" It slipped from his grip and it clattered to the floor.
"Most impressive, Supreme Leader." Ap'lek quipped.
Kylo ignored him, bending down to pick it up. "Come and see." He said, and walked into the dining room with the others.
Of all the things I was prepared to see, it definitely was not eight pumpkins sitting on a newspaper lined table.
"Dont touch my pumpkin!" Ap'lek called from the kitchen.
"Im gonna do more than touch it!" Kylo warned.
I stared up at him with wide eyes. "What are you going to do?"
"Rip its guts out and then carve a smiley face into its mutilated corpse." He said, as if it should have been obvious.
"Why are you-" My words trailed off when he sank the blade into the top of the pumpkin and started to cut around the stem.
Around us, the Knights were doing the same.
Vicrul batted a shadow away. "Can you call them off? I'm trying to concentrate."
Ushar gave him a blank look. "I'm sorry, they seem to be attracted to you."
Kylo cut a hole large enough to fit his hand, and reached into his pumpkin, coming back out with a fistful of orange entrails and white seeds.
Trugden laughed at my expression. "You're not carving one, Rey?" He plopped a glob of seeded goo on the newspaper by his pumpkin. "It's gonna be the only freak without a face."
Kylo sighed, bringing another fistful of stringy orange goo out. He put his knife down and picked up a metal spoon, then started shoveling, seeds and bits of pumpkin sticking to his arm.
"We haven't done this in years, so my face carving skills are rusty." Kuruk said.
"You just say that because your pumpkin is gonna look like warmed up road ass." Cardo crooned, and a handful of pumpkin was thrown at him, hitting him dead center on the S in the middle of his chest.
I stepped out onto the balcony, and put my snaggle-toothed pumpkin with the others, now all glowing with tea lights burning in them, then helped clear the newspaper and gore off the table to eat. After dinner, Vicrul put a movie on the holo-screen in the living room and the guys took turns trying to throw popcorn into each other's open mouths. I sat by Kylo, tucked under his arm as I watched the vigilante on the screen claw his way out of his own grave to avenge his love.
"Thank you." I told him when we were in our bedroom, well past midnight.
He glanced over at me. "For what?"
He'd let me into his friendships, his brotherhood. He'd shown me the broken parts of him that were healing, that were slowly coming back to life. He'd let himself remember his mother, he'd shared those memories and traditions with me.
I laid a hand on his cheek, my thumb stroking his cheekbone. "For loving me as much as you do."
His lips came down onto mine in a kiss so sincere, it left me breathless. I leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around me, crushing me to him. When he pulled away, I stared up at him, my chest heaving, and found vulnerability and fear in his eyes and the truth he couldn't bury.
"Rey, I-" He started, and my heart lurched.
I waited, wanting to hear him say those words more than I'd ever wanted anything.
Slowly, so slowly, he bent down and claimed my mouth with another kiss, and I could've sworn I tasted his confession on his tongue.
I clutched him to me, letting myself feel what he could not say. Each gentle brush of his tongue, each caress of his fingertips, was a promise of devotion, a vow of forever.
I didn't need words. Not when his love for me was so blatant in his every move.
The smell, the taste, the feel of him set my body ablaze. Need throbbed between my legs, aching for him, ready for him.
I lifted my arms above my head, and he broke away to pull my sweater off. He bent down, pulling the lace of my bra aside and took the whole of my breast into his mouth.
My back arched, a moan sounding in the back of my throat, my fingers fisting in his hair. He reached behind me and unclasped my bra, pulled it off, and dropped it to the floor, his hands sliding down my back to cup my ass, further down, to my thighs. He lifted me up, carried me the few steps to the bed, and laid me down on the mattress.
I worked the buttons of his shirt, needing to feel his skin against mine, and he pulled it off, then gripped my hips as his kisses trailed across my torso and down my stomach. He dragged my leggings down, along with my panties, leaving me wholly naked before him, and fell to his knees.
He ran a finger up my slickness, to my throbbing clit, and I whimpered, arching my knees as I spread my legs.
"You're so fucking wet." He growled, pressing a kiss to the mound between my thighs. "Are you always this wet for me?'
"Yes." I breathed. "You're all I can think about." My mouth flew open in a gasped moan as his tongue swept up my pussy to suck my clit into his mouth.
He was unhurried, worshiping my body with his lips, his tongue, bringing me over the edge with his fingers, his mouth, before pulling off his pants and boxers, and reaching into the night stand drawer for a foil square.
He hooked his arms under my knees, moving me to the middle of the bed, and tore the wrapper open, hovering above me as he rolled the condom down. Then, he slid in, his chest flattening against mine as he pushed into me fully, filling me, stretching me, claiming me.
My sharp intake of breath matched his hot exhale against my neck as he stilled inside of me, giving me time to adjust. His eyes locked with mine, and his hands pushed my knees apart, spreading me further before he slowly began to move.
Every slow thrust, every tandem breath, every cry of pleasure was ecstasy, his gaze unwavering as he made love to me. My thighs began to quake, cradling him between them, and he groaned, driving impossibly deep, hitting the walls of me, dragging along that spot inside of me. I moaned out his name as release tore through me, and I felt him pulsate before he buried himself, gasping out as he came.
He pressed his forehead to mine, our breathing collective as we held each other, trembling in the aftershocks, his heart pounding in time with mine.
He pulled away enough to gently push my hair out of my face, his eyes beseeching as they locked with mine. "I'm yours."
And, that was all that mattered.