Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot idea.

.:Kylo Ren:.

Chapter Three: The First Day.

People always said grand things about Luke Skywalker - about the things he had accomplished and the trials he had overcome. They went quiet when asked why he had disappeared, abandoning his friends and those to whom he had promised protection, but after a little while they went right back to praising the Jedi.

He might have been impressive, once, but Skywalker's home was anything but awe-inspiring.

Rey blinked at the meagre stone hut ahead of her, already comparing it to her own home back on Jakku. They were surprisingly equivalent.

Squat stone walls supported a round, hat-like roof, grass sprouting like fur from cracks in the stone and thatching. A wooden door, so old it was more like boards strung haphazardly together, blocked her entry - at least, visually speaking. One kick and it would have caved, but the symbolism still held strong.

Skywalker stepped past her with a soft grunt, his eyes casting a questioning look from beneath his brown hood. "I don't bite." He remarked, and she could have sworn he smiled slightly - albeit wryly. "And neither does my house, so you can come in when you like."

Rey nodded wordlessly, frowning after his retreating figure.

A moment ago, he had been all blankness and strangely intent stares. Now he was joking with her. The weakness always stayed, apparent and easy to read, but everything else about the Jedi was confusing.

It was the creak of the door closing that broke her from her thoughts, and Rey scrambled to catch it before it fully closed. Heat swelled over her as she entered, and she looked up in time to see a floating orb of dripping fire fall into an old fireplace, drenching the dry wood there in flame.

Skywalker was framed by the warm light, his back to her, wrinkled hands folded at his spine. Rey stepped tentatively forward, unwilling to speak, but disliking the silence. Thankfully, the Jedi broke it for her.

"Are you hungry?"

Her response was automatic, prompted by the glimpse she caught of his less-than substantial food basket. "No, thank you." She lied.

Pale blue eyes speared her, and the air seemed to chill. "Hm." He grunted nebulously, and then warmth returned Rey's surroundings. She stared at the Jedi before her, trying to ignore the way tingles danced up and down her forearms, prickling through her hair.

Confusing or not, Luke Skywalker was undoubtedly very powerful. She'd never felt something like this before - this feeling of obedience in the air, as though every speck of dust or whisper of breeze would bow to the Jedi's command if he asked. Rey was the only thing in the room that was not bending to the man's every glance, it seemed. That made her nervous.

Skywalker took no notice of her for a while, after that. He didn't offer her a seat, he didn't speak, and he most certainly didn't make eye contact. Rey only watched as he prepared himself a meal of watery soup in a well-used wooden bowl, surprised at how normal his cooking style was.

Why she was surprised, she didn't really know... had she expected him to cook in some special Jedi way? Well, he had lit the fire with a ball of flame... it wasn't out of the question that he would use some sort of force for his soup as well.

Finally, her curiosity became too great for her cautious awe to contain. Rey cleared her throat a little, shifting uncomfortably. Blue eyes slid straight into hers, penetrating and expecting, one eyebrow quirking upward, and she nearly swallowed down the question she had prepared. Instead, she stiffened her shoulders, sinking painfully down on stiff limbs into a crouch, and met his stare.

"Can you teach me about the force?" Her voice was slightly cracked from previous silence, and she looked down at the floor, pursing her lips in embarrassment.

The floor tiles were just as dirty and decrepit as the rest of the home, but they echoed Skywalker's chuckle nicely. It was a pleasant sound; deep and soft, like thick black feathers and melted chocolate. Rey was shocked to hear it - her head jerked up, and she gaped at the old man opposite her.

He was smiling. He had a pleasant, crinkle-eyed smile, but there was a coldness in it that chilled Rey to the bone - a bitterness that stung painfully at her. The horrible contrast suddenly sickened her, and Rey found she could not look at it anymore. Her gaze dropped, and she gulped down her nausea with difficulty.

His voice was as soft as his laugh, when he spoke, but it fell like muffled thunder between them.

"What good is the Force to you?"

Rey blinked, head rising as she stared. "...What?"

"The Force is nothing to a girl who comes looking for someone like me to teach her." The Jedi's gaze was fixed on hers, the light from the fireplace dancing in his eyes. Shadows had carved out his face, hollowing his cheeks and darkening his features. He looked like a corpse... a cross-legged, robed corpse with bright, shard-like eyes, and a dribble of soup on his beard. "I'm no teacher, and you're no student. You're just desperate for someone to teach you - anyone, so long as it is not Kylo Ren." The name fell heavily from the Jedi's lips, muffled by his beard. "What you don't realize is that Kylo Ren's teacher was none other than myself. Do you think you will avoid him just by looking for a teacher in his mentor?"

It was enough. Rey's hands were fists, tight and white, and she could feel the grind of her own teeth, gritted firmly. "No." She bit out, glaring. She was practically shaking with rage - her bones were stiff and her muscles screamed, but she didn't care.

"I'm not trying to escape that monster." She hissed, slamming a fist to the ground - barely noticing when it stung painfully. "I'm trying to understand why I can do things - why I can hear voices and use a sword I'd never learned to hold! I'm trying to understand why I saw visions when I touched your saber, and why you won't so much as touch it!"

Blue eyes looked at her with a strangely dead expression, neither arguing nor denying; just empty and watchful. Rey didn't care - she had survived too much to stop now and wait for his justifications.

"I want to know why you promised you would answer me, if this was what your answer would be all along. Why tell me I could help you? Why offer me the chance?" She demanded.

The Jedi's expression sharpened suddenly, beard bristling in a frown. "Why ask me if I could teach you when I had already given you your answer?" He countered. "Your impatience damned you, and you failed my test before it had even begun. You look at life as though it is running by, but to be a Jedi, you must see it as it is - as the slow swell of creation around you. I have no skill to teach you - only experience with which to show you where you are unsuited for my lessons, if I could give them."

Rey's nails were cutting into her palms, and she could feel her eyes stinging. "So you won't teach me because I asked a question before I had taken your test."

"It was a mistake to even offer you the chance - a mistake made out of foolish fantasies, and one I won't make again. Your impatience just reminded me of my stupidity." He corrected, hooded head swiveling away as he gazed into the fire. "You will leave by morning, Rey of Jakku. There is nothing for you here."

She was on her feet, tears stinging shameful trails down her cheeks. Her body shook with rage and disappointment, her breath coming raggedly in hisses between her teeth.

In a few stomped steps she was at the door, but Rey could not step through - not without turning one last time to look at Luke Skywalker.

Her words came fast and acidic, spat from tight lips. "I came to find a lost man. He was my last hope - the last person who could help me. I didn't think I'd find someone who wanted to be lost."

She left, boots thudding against the grassy slope, Skywalker's lightsaber dangling heavily at her waist. Silence followed her, apathetic and cold.