Rey filled the tub with as much water as she could drink in a month, finding a temperature that pulled the weariness from her muscles. She poured in a handful of fragrant oil she found at the side. The oil sublimated into pure aroma as it hit the hot liquid, engulfing her with mingled scents she'd only experienced at Market, years ago.
She submerged in the water, covering her face and head, luxuriating as the grit and grime and stink of the last few days dissolved. There was enough room in this bath for all of them.
"We wouldn't all fit comfortably. We'd have to take turns." Kylo's thoughts came to her slowly, hazily, picturing the four of them undressed and shoved up against the sides of the tub like fish in a can. That led him to think about a fish dish he'd wanted to order. Then he repeated, "Fish dish" to himself over and over.
"How much have you had to drink?" Her own mind drifted in sympathetic intoxication. He'd showered while she and Finn had gone to talk, but was now considering joining her in the tub just to irritate her probably-boyfriend.
"Not nearly enough." He swung at a joke at having to deal with her two friends, but she felt most of his ire rolling back into his own mind. She'd encountered this dark pit of loathing inside him many times over the past few days, spitting at him with all his failures and all the actions taken and untaken. In his words and at the surface of his mind, he stood proud of all his foul work. Inside, there was a piece which saw what he'd willingly become, and it screamed. He'd hoped that the wine would silence the self-hatred for a while. Instead, he'd left himself open to all the things he spent his hours trying not to think about, and he shared them all with her.
Rey had nightmares, but she could wake. He was a nightmare.
"I don't feel sorry for you. I am never going to feel sorry for you."
"I never asked."
Despite the warmth and freshness of the water, Rey felt dirty again. She drained the tub. Two warm robes hung at the side of the tub. She wrapped one around herself and used a towel on her hair. Her steps were unsteady as she moved, a little from the heat of the bath and a lot from the presence in her mind.
She stumbled through the room, noticing one bottle empty and another half-full. She didn't need to taste the drink to feel the deceptively light flavor in her mouth, or the rush inside her veins. The lounging figure on the sofa did so for her. He smirked in her direction, and thought of a half-remembered song he liked which instantly jammed itself into Rey's mind.
"I really hate you," she said to Kylo as she lay down on the bed, head dizzy. Finn already lay there, a sweet if befuddled look on his face. He scooped Rey into his arms as they lay together, heads sharing one of the many pillows.
This was nice. She could fall asleep this way, comforted and warm, if annoyed by the lyrics repeating over and over in her mind. Finn's warmth radiated through her robe. She could feel that he was still angry with her, and puzzled, but the drink had dulled both.
Poe sat in one of the chairs across the room. "I'm never going to get you two out of there. We're going to spend the rest of our lives stuck in this room because you like that mattress."
"We could take the mattress," Kylo said, or thought, and Rey agreed.
He must have said it, because Poe fixed him with a stare. "We can't all fall asleep with him here. I'll take the first watch."
"We could tie him up," Finn suggested, his voice muffled by Rey's hair.
A sharp worry pierced through the pleasant cloud growing in her mind, which turned to interest. One of them pictured his wrists bound over his head, her body pressed against his and controlling every aspect as they rutted on the uncomfortable sofa.
Want filled her. Her own, Finn's, she didn't know. She turned her head, catching his mouth in a soft kiss. He woke from the stupor he'd drifted into and returned the kiss with a friendly smile.
"Not this again," said Poe, but as he stood to leave, Finn popped up his head.
"There's plenty of room."
"It looks too cozy for me." His eyes stayed on Rey. She expected jealousy, but that was mild, inconsequential. He bloomed with worry, naked inside his mind. He wasn't sure what she was becoming, or how much of who she'd been had been consumed by their greatest enemy. He worried the girl Finn had barely known was gone, and that something dangerous had replaced her and would soon destroy Finn as well.
"I could let you into my thoughts," said Rey. "You can see everything. I'm not evil, Poe."
"Everyone thinks that."
"Thanks, no. I've had enough mind-reading for the rest of my life. That reminds me, where'd we put that rope?"
Rey felt the belt of her robe untie. For a moment, only a moment, she thought Finn's hands were slithering the knot open, but his hands were on her arms. She could stop this, stop her robe from falling open as the belt slid away and flew over to drop at Poe's feet. She chose to kiss her best friend again instead.
"That's not a bad trick," Poe said, grabbing the soft cloth. "I guess you did learn a few useful things from that arrogant ass."
"The arrogant ass untied it for you," Rey said. "Right now, he's enjoying the idea of someone tying him up."
Poe made a face and dropped the belt. "Never mind."
Kylo said, "Think of this as your one opportunity to resolve your infatuation with my mother. I can struggle if you like."
"That is not... You." He sputtered. "I don't care what you think you heard inside my head. Normal people don't terrorize other people and steal their thoughts." He had offered several death threats but only now was Rey seeing Poe truly angry. "Why can't you act like a normal person? Why did you have to go all Dark Lord Genocidal Maniac?" He made a painful laugh. "You don't remember, but I met you when you were four. There was a function for some of the old Rebellion types. Even back then you thought you were better than everyone else in the room. You're not. You're nothing. You're still that same little snotty kid who never grew up."
"There were two parties."
"One."
"Two. At the first one, the adults made us all dress up like prim little dolls. You hated every minute. You even convinced some of the other children to go with you to another room to play. I didn't go. I knew most of them, and they didn't like me. The feeling was mutual. I stayed at the stupid party and pretended to be normal while everyone asked my parents why my uncle wasn't there."
Poe didn't say anything.
"The second was right before we moved. My parents wanted me to have one last birthday party at that home, but none of the children I knew would attend. Mother invited her friends and their children instead. You didn't stay long. That sad business with your mother happened shortly after. I'm not surprised you don't remember. But there were two parties."
"Don't tell me you went to the Dark Side because no one came to your birthday party."
"No one came because the other children could tell I wasn't like them. The adults didn't want to know. You saw what I was, and you were right to stay away. Don't you feel clever?"
"Maybe people would like you more if you stopped acting like the backside of a narglatch."
"They weren't going to like me. No one in the Order likes me, either."
"That's true," muttered Finn, face resting against Rey's. She could feel him breathing in the scent of her hair. "Everybody calls you a violent nutjob behind your back."
"I know. They're afraid of me. Fear is respect."
Kylo's dizzying inebriation bubbled in her own bloodstream. The spell Luke had tried to work hadn't drawn away his darkness or wiped away his misdeeds. It had set them out in front of him where he couldn't hide away. The strength of his own personality had pushed the knowledge back as he'd come this far, but the last of his own pretence dissolved with the same bottle he'd hoped would quiet the noise. Nothing stood between him and his past. He couldn't go back to the Order. He couldn't go to the Resistance. As soon as the mission was complete, he'd fire a blaster into his own mouth and end this.
She had to find a way to break this bond before he did.
"I'll make it fast. You don't need to suffer."
Finn kissed her again, drawing her away from her mind and from her fears.
"More Stormtrooper spit. I feel ill."
She ignored his mental whining. Finn's hand rested on her waist, the only part of her skin he'd let himself touch. The robe was practically useless at this point, only emphasizing her nudity. She moved his hand to warmer skin, and Finn let out a soft sound in his throat. He pulled away from the kiss.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I need to go to the 'fresher right now." He bumped past her getting out of the bed. Rey wrapped the robe back around herself and watched him shut the door behind himself.
Kylo shouted, "Brush your teeth while you're in there!"
"Poor little fluffken," Poe said. Something had passed out of him, anger or sorrow. He sat down on the bed away from Rey. He said to Kylo, "You people really did a number on that kid. Libido suppressant in the food? You recruited him as a child."
"We were all recruited as children."
Rey closed her eyes and touched Finn's mind. He was occupied.
"Oh." His thoughts were jumbled, soaked in an unfamiliar marinade as he touched himself. He didn't want a repeat of their first night. He wanted to hold her. Not only her. She'd known, of course. She'd seen the truth before in Poe's mind, and confirmed it in Finn's.
He'd said it wasn't right to listen in to other people's minds just because she could.
"He cares about you, too," she said to Poe. "You have to see that."
"Doesn't matter. You're the one he can't stop thinking about. You're the one he chose the moment he met you. Humans fall in love with one person. That's just how things work."
"I am going to vomit," Kylo announced.
Poe snapped at him, "You don't have to be such a drama queen all the... Oh. Never mind." Rey's stomach roiled in sympathy. At least he'd made it to the trash bin in time. He washed his face in the sink in the kitchen area and spit out a full glass of water to rinse his teeth. Her own tasted of the sick until he brought her a fresh cup of water.
"No more wine for you."
"Agreed." He lay down beside her, hand resting on her robe. He looked at Poe. "Who told you humans only fall in love with one person?"
"Everyone knows that."
"Ever been to Corellia?"
"No."
"Lots of plural marriages there. About seventy percent, if you believe the unofficial polls." He shut his eyes. He wasn't ill now but he was very tipsy. "Some humans never fall in love. Some fall in love with half a dozen people at a time. Apparently you can't help it. I've heard." She heard his thoughts and felt him drift off. Finn would be back soon, and she'd thought they'd curl up here together. That wouldn't be easy with a would-be Sith Lord passed out in the middle of the bed.
"Help me move him."
Poe stood with the cord to her robe. "Sure. We can push him onto the floor. I'll tie him up. You cut his throat."
"Just shove him to the side." She felt Finn in her mind finishing his private moment.
"That works, too." He helped her roll Kylo to one side of the bed, leaving them an enormous space. Poe worked on tying one wrist to the side of the bed just in case. "I know some people in plurals. It's not stable."
"His parents had a plural marriage for years."
Poe froze. "They did not."
"They did." She didn't share the identity of the third. She was still processing that information to herself. Love destroyed as effectively as fury, and burned more on the way down. "You're thinking that's why he's so twisted."
"Top thing I don't care about right now: this pile of dung. Rey, Finn's..."
"Finn's what?" asked Finn. He saw Kylo in the bed. "Seriously? I was gone five minutes."
"Finn's going to be back any time," Poe said smoothly. "Feel better?"
"Much. Sorry about that."
"Your idea?" she asked Poe.
"It works for me. Now I'd say I'm leaving you two alone, but you have a guest."
"Stay," she said, and she pushed him with her mind. He wanted to stay with them. She coaxed him.
Kylo's body was asleep, but his mind rested inside hers. "Everything is easier this way."
"Yes."
"Stay here," said Finn, and he squeezed Poe's hand.
Later, she would remember the rest of the evening as a heady jumble of images and feelings.
Finn's kisses were gentle, no longer hurried along by his hormones. He took his time holding her, getting nervous as she peeled off his clothes. Her own need had grown. She traced each muscle on his arms, sharply defined by years of hard training. She met Poe's eyes over his shoulder, and watched Finn shiver as soft kisses rained down his back.
Kissing was the best, was her favorite. She felt him at the edge of her mind, not able to engage her here yet, but willing to learn. Everything was learning with him, was newness, was sweet.
She held his thighs with her hands, steadying him. With care, she rose up, and settled slowly onto him as he moaned into her mouth. Poe's arms wrapped around him from behind, holding him safe as Rey rose and fell in front of him, careful not to injure or bruise.
"Did you get this far?" She let out a soft laugh, enjoying the stretch of him inside her, feeling the good burn of her own legs setting an eager pace.
"Not quite," Poe said, kissing his neck. "Hadn't worked up to it." His own body moved back and forth, rubbing against Finn's back.
"Don't you three make a nice sight?"
"Go back to sleep."
"You like how thick he feels inside you. You like how strong his hands are on your waist. That awed look on his stupid face."
Rey breathed out. "Wait. Wait one moment." She pulled away from Finn, brushing his face with her hand. Then she punched Kylo, feeling the blow in her own jaw.
"Ow."
She kissed Finn again, who said, "I don't want to know."
"I kind of want to know," Poe said.
Rey slid up and took Finn's prick into her hand, guiding him back into her, impaling herself with slow care. Finn scrabbled inexpertly inside his mind, overcome with the return of sensation. This was what Rey knew, what she liked, this mingling of two bodies for comfort between storms. She was safe in his arms as she moved with him, rising and falling in a steady rhythm, and kept him safe in return as Poe rutted against him slowly. Perfect.
"Dull."
"No."
She pushed him more eagerly, fierce in her need for more skin, more contact. She dropped into Finn's mind like an acrobat dropping to the ground, and she felt Finn's sudden recoil.
"Feel me," she thought at Finn. "Feel what I'm feeling."
"It doesn't work that way." The thought was Kylo's.
She kissed Finn desperately. She could feel him getting close again, and they would have to explore the advantages in how often he was ready to go. Next time. There would be a next time. She'd teach him to join his mind with hers, to share the fire of every nerve in her body. She felt his nerves now, felt a nearby mind bursting with pleasure as Poe went hot and sticky against Finn's back with a moan.
"It's okay," she said. "I want you to come." With the last word, she felt him shiver into her, felt the echo of his climax inside her. She reached between them, stroking herself to join him, close behind and aching to finish.
She felt another hand, warm and steady and not attached to her, slip under the blanket to engage in a light stroke on himself, enough to push back through her and send her tumbling over the edge.
"You're welcome."
"I hate you." She kissed Finn again, and for once, she was glad he couldn't read her mind.
Leia woke with cold water on her face. One of Snoke's lackeys stood in front of her. She didn't know him and couldn't feel his mind, therefore she didn't care.
"Wake up," he snarled.
Her wrists were bound together, and her body ached as though she'd slept in the same position for too long. No injection sites for any drugs. No immediate injuries she could identify other than a painful head. Someone had punched or kicked her while she'd been out. Nothing unusual there.
"I'm awake." She sat up gingerly, stretching her shoulders. They would expect her to worry about her friend, about herself. They'd expect her to make haughty demands.
She stayed quiet.
"You have been lawfully detained by the First Order on charges of treason."
"Lawful? The First Order are a pathetic group of renegades who can't accept that the Empire is finished. You don't have any say over the law."
"In the absence of the Senate, Supreme Leader Snoke has declared himself the rightful ruler of our galaxy."
Leia couldn't help it. She laughed. "I see. Then you should know that I hereby declare myself Queen of the Sparklemint Sticks."
The underling punched her. The blow landed just below her teeth, rattling her jaw. Amateur.
"You have been tried in your absence. When we arrive, the Supreme Leader will personally see to your execution. In the meantime, you will tell us everything you know about the Resistance."
"Really, I'm not going to."
"Then we'll take the information out of your friend's furry hide."
"Chewbacca escaped an hour ago."
Leia tilted her head. She looked at her would-be torturer, but there was no way he'd sound exactly like her twin brother.
"He won't tell you anything, either." She leaned forward. "Let's cut through the googosh spit. I'm not telling you anything. You can try whatever you like to get information from me. Be as creative as you'd like. Back in the day, I was tortured multiple times by Darth Vader himself, and I'm a lot meaner now. So pull out your hot irons and get your kicks, or admit you're just the warm up act and send in the real interrogator. You need a mind reader to get through to me, and you've only got one on your staff who can overcome my mental shields. I know that. You know that. Send him in."
She pushed back her legs to curl up on the hard table they'd given her as a bunk. "I'll be here waiting."
She expected the kick, which was why she'd positioned herself carefully. The First Order was a fearsome military power, but their work staff were idiots.
"You can tell your secrets to the pain droids."
"I wouldn't bet on it." She watched him walk out. "Are you still here?"
"Yes. I'm always here."
"I can't see you."
"You can learn to see again."
If she lived that long. "I'm very angry with you," she said quietly, touching her own emotions like pressing a finger into an open wound. "I know why you sent me away. You shouldn't have. We were always strongest together."
"You're going to have to be strong on your own again."
As if she ever had any other option. Leia was so very tired. "Can you get me out of here?"
"I can't interfere. There are rules."
She huffed a laugh. The kick had been harder than she'd anticipated, or maybe she was just getting old. "Whose rules? Don't tell me you haven't already figured out a way around them." She let herself consider her options. "You said Chewie got away."
"He went for help," said a second voice in her mind. "He can't take on the First Order by himself, even for you, sweetheart."
A shift moved the grief which had numbed her limbs and darkened her heart these last several weeks. She couldn't see Han, but she could sense his love for her. "If they're going to kill me, you should tell him to stay gone. I'm glad he escaped."
Inside herself, in a quiet place even ghosts wouldn't reach, Leia thought she wouldn't mind dying, not now, knowing her two closest friends were waiting for her, ready to take her by the hand and walk away.
In the wee hours of the morning, Kylo untied the knot, stretching his shoulder until the life came back into it. He was a little surprised they hadn't kicked him to the floor, but this bed could sleep an army. The three of them piled over on the other side, tangled like cats and exhausted from their second try.
He felt ill again. He climbed out of bed to clean his face and to breathe. Rey lived inside his head, even now in her tired dreams cascading through images of death and love and fear: he felt choking smoke in his mouth and throat, and the blade she searched for was masked by steam. He felt all of her, including the shadows of her affections. What she wanted to believe was a sweet new romance with one. What she hoped was a solid new friendship and understanding with the other. He knew her wishes, and the lean of her heart.
He glanced at the sofa, then crawled back into the bed, dropping his own clothes to the floor. The other two would complain at finding him naked in the morning, which made it all the more fun. There was more than one way to torture someone, truce or not truce.
Rey stirred in the low light of the room, one arm draped over the man she wanted to love. He felt her wake up and watch him.
"You're awake."
"Go back to sleep. We have to get up in three hours and retrieve the ship." Then it was back into space, back to their goal, and he would leave as soon as they'd concluded their business. She knew as well as he did.
"Stay."
"No."
"Stay now. Come hold me."
He ought to get out of the bed and go pass out on the couch. Rey's heart was set on the man sleeping beside her, and her body was drenched in the scent of his skin. Her mind reached for Kylo, though, and after all, it was their wedding night.
He slid over to join her, wrapping his arms around her from the other side of where Finn and Poe slept. He kissed her hair. Without speaking, barely thinking, they moved against each other until he slipped himself inside her with a growl only for her ears. Tight and hot and wet and soft, and she didn't make a sound as her fingers joined his, pressing against where their bodies met, where every shared spark passed between them.
"Tell me a story about the Jedi."
"Once there was a boy, born gifted in the Force, the son of a slave." He told her the stories he knew, and the ones he guessed at, as they touched and moved. He told her about the lost boy, and he told her of the boy's children, and the driving line of love and loss that had distorted the galaxy by the sheer weight of emotion. He told her everything in a mind's blink. "The old Jedi were right about one thing. Love ruins all it touches. You're better off without."
Kylo left her fingers to their well-practiced dance. He clutched her against himself with one hand and reached the other behind her. He'd felt her curiosity as the two men sleeping next to her had coupled in the night. He pressed the tip of his own finger inside her now. She startled as he pushed into her body in both places, matching his own pace.
"Is this what you want?"
"No."
"This is what you want."
"Yes."
She yearned to be trapped this way, staked between her Stormtrooper in her arms and Kylo worming his way into her from behind. Her desire surged through him. She arched and squirmed, pulling away then pushing back to drive him in deeper. Rey shivered as she fell over her peak, silently twitching as her mind broke apart. He fed her his own hot pleasure, shuddering into her and biting down on his own lips to keep quiet.
If he lived to be a thousand years old, he'd remember this, remember the thump of her heart under his hand on her small breast, and the freshly-washed smell of her hair, and the sorrow of her soul teetering midway between Light and Dark while he thrust into her willing body again and again.
Finn's very first hangover was all he'd been led to believe.
"There's a medikit," Poe said, handing him some water and a few white pills. "Drink all the water."
"Why are you fine?"
"I didn't have much and I drank a lot of water already. You're dehydrated. Have some food and a shower, and we'll go."
Finn lay back. Poe yanked the covers off. "Hey!" There were two groans beside him. Rey's hair was tangled, and she looked as bleary as he felt, though she hadn't so much as sipped the wine last night. On her other side, Finn could see enough skin to know who else was unhappy this morning. He turned away, really not wanting to spend his morning greeted with the sight of his evil ex-boss stark naked and whining about a self-inflicted headache.
"Shower. Right."
The 'fresher didn't feature a sonic shower like he was used to, but spigots with real water pouring over his aching head. Ten minutes later, Finn felt much better. He managed to eat a little leftover food from last night. The others were already dressed, Rey and Poe in their old clothes, Ren in his borrowed ones. Outside their window, the city lights blinked out one by one as daybreak approached. Later, he realized he'd seen the extra shuttles zooming in the sky and never parsed that this was unusual.
As they poured out of their room, groggy in the early morning bustle, Finn spotted the guards already coming down the hallway. "Time to go," he said, shoving Poe quickly ahead of him the other way.
"They might not be for us."
"They are," said Rey, turning her face away and hurrying.
"Stop right there!" came the shout.
Ren said, "There are only four of them. I can dispatch them easily."
"Move," said Rey, shoving him towards the lift.
Poe said, "Stairs." He shouldered the stairway door open, climbing them two at a time as the others followed. "There's a shuttle pad two floors up from here."
Behind them were the sounds of pursuit. Finn's headache hadn't stopped, but he ran as fast as he could. As soon as they exited the stairwell, Ren lit his lightsaber and slashed the door into an unpassable mess. Rey did the same with the lift door.
"I might have been wrong about the shuttle pad," said Poe, but he led them through the corridor anyway, following the signs.
The patrons of this hotel could easily catch a jump shuttle and hop over to the next spire for a meal or a business meeting, saving them the hassle of taking the lifts down fifty or one hundred storeys to the ground and rubbing elbows or other appendages with the less elite. Much of the city's business seemed to be conducted high up in the air, and Finn pictured many-legged businesscreatures who spent entire lives never traveling below the twentieth floor.
There was a shuttle pad on this floor.
Three guards waited there.
These weren't Stormtroopers, not faceless soldiers recruited far too young to know what they'd been kidnapped to do. These had the look of city guards who had been given names and descriptions. The four of them hovered around the corner. Ren had his lightsaber unlit but ready, though clearly he and Rey were having a mental conversation. Her own weapon was still at her side.
"Fine," he said, clipping his. He stepped out.
"What's going on?" Poe whispered.
"If they're working for the First Order, they are looking for the three of us," she said quietly. "They won't know who Kylo is."
Ren wore his super creepy 'normal' smile and used his even creepier perky voice. "Do you guys know when the next shuttle to Spire Nineteen is? I've got a breakfast meeting with Lazlo and he hates when I'm late." The guards focused their attention on him.
Rey said, "Come on." Together, the three of them crept toward the jump shuttle on the pad, just out of sight of the guards. There was a shuttle waiting, already warming up for the first hop.
The guard said, "We need to see your identification."
"Sorry, must have left it back in my room. The wife's back there. I'll have her fetch it."
"Halt!" said another guard, spotting the three fugitives. Poe slammed on the Open Bay toggle. Winds whipped at them, whirling up like a vortex in the early morning thermals.
Ren punched the closest guard, but one of his friends began to fire. The third chased them.
Rey lit her own lightsaber, blocking the blasts. "Get on the shuttle!"
Finn wasn't about to get separated from her again. A second later, he had no choice. The third guard barreled into him, tackling him to the floor. "You are under arrest!"
He couldn't see what was going on around him, too busy with the heavy man struggling with him. Finn got in a good elbow, and he heard the alarm sounding.
"Next time, just let me kill them," he heard Ren snarl, and then Finn and the guard rolled off the edge of the shuttle pad into thin air. They fell into nothingness.
tbc