"This is your secret base?" Through her obvious shock, Kylo Ren sensed the escapee was also slightly impressed. "I expected a cave, or a treehouse. Honestly, I never expected that you'd live like..." The scavenger stopped and glanced at her black-clad companion.

Like her. He thought slightly disgruntled. He was glad she was wise enough not to point out that this was something unfortunate they had in common.

In the very least it was shelter, salvaged from a very expensive and very high quality ship. It resembled the junkyard on Jakku: scraps of metal used as wall exteriors, ship parts strewn about, furniture placed about to make the base resemble a living quarters.

Kylo walked over to the stand-alone pilot seat and ran a hand along its soft exterior, bringing back memories of his past life.

He had considered living in the ship when he had first landing on this planet after abandoning his past life. However, every second he spent on the ship crippled his drive to embrace the dark side. As a whole, it reminded him of a life he no longer accepted as his own. So he did what had to be done to remove himself from his past life: severed any links, tore away the familiar, dismantled it and made it into something new, something his own, something in his control. No, he couldn't have lived in that ship, it wasn't Kylo Ren's, it was-

"Ben Solo"

Kylo whipped his head around to see the scavenger watching him, her piercing hawk-like eyes trying to see something beyond his exterior.

"This was yours wasn't it? I know scrap metal, and this base is of neither First Order ship parts, nor even the Empire. They're expensive ship parts which leads me to believe-"

"Enough." Ren demanded, straightening up and retracting his hand from the chair.

The scavenger took a step towards him, unafraid of his stern presence, brushing a hand over her sling up her arm to the knot. She tugged on it, testing its tightness.

She looked away, whether to refrain from giving away something in her eyes, or in attempt not to anger him, he could not tell.

"Who are you? Are you Kylo Ren..." She tugged again at the knot. "Or Ben Solo?"

He was quiet at first, turning to face the chair again. He slowly lifted his gloved hands, carefully removing his helmet.

They were both so quiet, breathing slowly, stillness in the air between them as if the raging winds outside were in a different world to their own. It howled galaxies away, the only sound between them was their own breath and the sound of Kylo's dark locks being freed from his onyx helmet.

"I am what I am." He placed it on the chair and moved to the corner of the room. "Get some rest, the nights are short, it makes it hard to get a good rest when the suns are out."

He crouched down, propping himself up against the wall and bringing his knees to his chest and closed his eyes.

"Child." She may have muttered, but his head was overflowing with Ben Solo. He needed to concentrate if he wanted to tame the waves raging inside. The cool waters of the light side, working to extinguish the fiery power of the dark side.

The water and the fire whirled inside him, twisting into themselves, around and around swirling and almost indistinguishable from the other.

Everything was water and fire for so long that Kylo was almost shocked to be awoken and brought back into reality by the scavenger's loud rummaging.

She had set up a blank holo as a light source and was searching amongst a trunk of old trinkets and clothes.

"Are Jedis taught to be thieves now?" Kylo asked with a grin, mocking her inability to refrain from scavenging.

The woman rolled her eyes and held up Ben Solo's padawan clothes.

"Do you need this?" She asked sarcastically, feeling the thickness of he material. He watched as she pulled the old baggy pants over her own and pulled another old jacket carefully over her injured shoulder, temporarily removing her arm from the sling.

"That's not yours." He eventually grumbled.

"Oh, is it yours?" She snapped back, rolling herself into a ball on the ground. He clicked his tongue and pretended to be incredibly interested in his gloves.

He gazed back at her, noticing how much smaller she looked curled into a ball. This girl had bested him on multiple occasions, yet she was so much smaller than him.

"Will you be alright?" He asked, eliciting a chuckle from the woman.

"Seriously?" She scoffed, "I've slept on worse."

But you're shivering, he thought, silently watching her. Despite the extra layers she had donned, he could still see her shake in the cold of the night. She is obviously cold, why won't she say anything? Is she really so stubborn that she'd rather freeze to death than admit she is cold?

Without a word he stood up and ignited his lightsaber. Rey immediately jumped to her feet and reached for her own saber but was stopped in her tracks when she witnessed Kylo Ren use his to tear off a section of his own cloak.

He extinguished the saber and picked up the heavy material on the ground, holding it out to Rey. "Here. You'll be warmer if you sleep with it." he offered, following up quickly with "If you don't take it I'm just going to throw it away."

Flabbergasted, she offered a quick thank-you as she walked over and took the cloth. Both of them sat down against the wall, each wrapping themselves in their own fraction of cloak.

They were so close, Kylo Ren couldn't help but notice. Even with his eyes closed he could feel the scavenger beside him, their shoulders less than an inch away. An unintentional intimacy which caused an unfamiliar stirring in Ren's stomach.

"You know..." The woman began, causing Kylo's eyes to flicker open - though he dare not look at her. "Your voice sounds nice... I mean- your real voice." She mumbled. "It's too bad you gave it up for the dark side."

His breath hitched in his throat. The sickness in his stomach was now taking over his heart. He tried to call upon the force to fix him, slow his heart, slow his breathing, do anything. But it didn't seem like this was something the dark nor the light side of the force could fix.

He took a deep breath and sighed. "Just go to sleep scavenger."

This seemed to somehow irritate the scavenger, making her shift uncomfortably. How did she always manage to get annoyed whenever he spoke? She almost had shorter patience than he did.

She turned her face towards him and disobeyed his request.

"Why don't you ever call me by my name? Do you not know it?"

He tilted his head to look down at her.

"Of course I know it. Didn't you listen to me before? Names aren't important. We don't have to know each other's names." He lied, names were incredibly important. He chose his specifically because of how powerful a name it could be. Kylo Ren was a name that held power, elicited fear and respect all at once. Her name... it wasn't a name he wanted to give power to.

"You're lying! You really don't know my name."

"Go to sleep, scavenger."

His attempt at indifference backfired. Wild things like her, her freckled face, her messy hair, her pride, they couldn't be tamed.

And so she pulled his hair.

"Ow! Wha-" She tackled him to the ground, removing her left arm from the sling and taking two handfulls of his hair and tugging at it.

"Call me by my name!" She demanded.

"Argh!" He cried, trying to grab onto her arms and pull her off him.

Her attempt at persuasion backfired. Arrogant things like him, his flashy clothes, his glossy hair, his pride, they would not give in so easily.

And so he kissed her.

Kylo Ren kissed Rey.

So it finally happened! *sunglasses emoji*

After over a month of writing and rewriting it is finally here!

Do not fear - the next chapter will contain a more detailed look into the kiss and how Rey reacts to it. With more free time I'll hopefully update soon and quench your Reylo thirst hahaha

Don't forget to show your love - or hate - through some feedback!