Kylo awoke to the sound of heavy rain hitting the single, small, high window of his room. He rolled over onto his good side, curling tightly and then stretching out to his full height on his back. There was no telling what time it was- late, early- but it didn't matter when one had no schedule, nowhere to be, and nothing to do. He couldn't be bothered to go out in the endless rain to look for anyone who might extend a bit of credit for rendering his services to take care of their unsavory deeds. He had a bit in reserve from a particularly gruesome job he'd just finished, and it was enough to get him by. His needs were simple enough for now.

The point of light that was Rey called to him. He could feel her all the time now, a star over his shoulder no matter which way he turned. The beacon of her presence was stronger sometimes than others, and right now it seemed particularly noticeable. He knit his fingers behind his head and closed his eyes, meditating on the feeling of her. There were a few select individuals he could sense most or all of the time - his mother, Snoke, and now her. The feeling was distinct for each of them, and varied considerably in how mutual it was. Snoke's bond with him was more obviously one-sided, and at the moment, effectively dead. He could detect nothing of his master since his departure from the First Order, and he knew Snoke was deliberately cloaking himself.

He had never shuttered himself that way from Leia, partly out of obligation after his father had disappeared and partly out of self-serving need to keep track of the Resistance, making him indispensable to the First Order. Her Force-sensitivity seemed like more of a burden to her than anything, and as he'd gotten older he had learned to leave her in peace. As a child it had been a bane to them both, particularly as things had begun to sour between his parents. The fact of his own Force sensitivity had drawn a line in their family, and once you two versus me was established, it had seemingly hastened the crumbling of his parents' bond that much more quickly.

His felt the bond with Rey was… uneven, certainly, but that could be rectified with training. Still, he felt on more equal footing with her than either of them; he was confident that while he could periodically see into her mind, he was sure she was not able to see into his from this distance. Nor could he read her easily. It was only at select times when she seemed to forget herself and think of him that he could really see her thoughts.

But, oh, her thoughts… Kylo shifted onto his side, feeling his arousal beginning to stir at the memory of how she imagined him touching her. It was strange to think he- or some notion of him- was the catalyst of her desire, but so it was.

Her star pulsed brightly, and his brow furrowed momentarily as he gauged the feeling. It felt as though she was moving. He sat up and swung his legs off the edge of the bed. The bond hummed as his sense of her grew steadily stronger.

She was coming. Here.

He stood and began dressing.

By the time their unmarked shuttle touched down in Xucphra City, it had been raining for nearly three days without pause. Chewie and Rey stared glumly out at the water sheeting down the cockpit window, sluicing in small rivers across the duracrete, and puddling in every uneven crack on the landing pad. Rey sighed deeply as she looked at the mess. D'Qar's warm, gentle rainshowers were a welcome respite from the parched conditions at home, but this…

Chewie roared in irritation, This planet is such a shithole! I can't believe Leia sent us here. Why would Ben be hiding here?

Rey said nothing, looking at the ship's controls. She was acutely aware of how near Kylo felt to her now.

"We shouldn't be seen together," she said shortly. "Do what you have to in order to secure the supply, and I'll do my piece. Alright?"

Chewie looked at her curiously, but nodded. Meet me back here?

"Back here," she affirmed.

Rey left the ship in a brief interlude from the rain, but was caught out in the deluge just far enough away not to bother turning back.

She followed her sense of him like a hunting dog after prey, feeling it more and more strongly after a few wrong turns as she pushed her way between the wet hoards of people scurrying from awning to awning in the tight quarters of the packing district, rounding up their essential items as night fell. She cowered in the lee of a building under a blinking sign advertising the companionship of alluring, willing off-worlders, trying to avoid the rain as much as possible when she suddenly lost the scent completely.

Rey squinted through the downpour, hand shielding her eyes, foolishly hoping she might somehow simply catch a glimpse of him. Several minutes of standing still was only getting her more soaked, and she moved away again into the stream of people, buffeted by them as they carelessly jostled her in their haste. Everyone seemed to have a place to be, and ignored her completely. She was moving slowly at the edge of the walkway when someone grabbed her from behind.

She tried to shriek as she was lifted off the ground, found her arms pinned uselessly to her sides by arms that wrapped around her, swung and kicked her legs every which way in panic, but her voice would not respond. Her assailant staggered a bit as her struggles threw them off balance, but she was carried steadily down an alleyway and around a corner where no one could see them. She arched her back fiercely against the unseen attacker and pushed with the Force, tumbling hard against a building as she broke free of the hold, but as she whirled to face her opponent she was shoved back flat against the wall by rough hands on her shoulder and throat.

She opened her mouth to scream when she saw that it was an unmasked Kylo Ren, but no sound came out. He leaned in close, the water trickling from off of his hood onto her. "Scavenger," he breathed, "Are you following me?"

He hadn't released his hold on her voice, so she could only stare at him and shake her head no, hoping her eyes didn't betray the truth. Their faces were mere inches apart and she stared at the long, thin scar that bisected his cheek. He was breathing slightly open-mouthed from the effort of having carried her, but his fingers were firm around her neck, his thumb and forefinger squeezing uncomfortably tight under the line of her jaw.

He peered at her, narrowing his eyes as though he were trying to decide whether to believe her. She felt a hot flush creeping over her cheeks at the realization of how many times she'd pictured exactly this scenario, but with a different ending than her current situation was likely to have.

He cocked his head to one side in the near-dark, and gently shook his head. "Of course you are," he said softly, his voice nearly lost in the constant static of the rain around them. His fingers eased at her throat but his fingers still dug painfully into the back of her shoulder where he held her against the wall. He towered over her as he leaned in even closer, his lips near her ear now. "I know you're following me, so don't deny it. I'm going to let you go, and it's up to you what to do- follow me, or don't. Understand?"

"Mmmmhmmm," she murmured, finally having the use of her voice again.

"Good," he nodded, "And Rey?"

"Yes?" She looked at him sideways and caught him looking down her body. A jolt of undeniable arousal shot through her, and she shuddered at her traitorous body's reaction to his leer.

A smirk played at his lips as he gazed at a point between her breasts and her hips. "I don't leave my gloves on for that."

He released her after a quick look in the eye, and she could feel her heartbeat in between her legs as she watched his back receding in the dark.

She counted to fifty, took a deep breath, and set after him.

Kylo was not surprised when he felt her dogging his steps again through the darkened alleys of the industrial city. Their bond felt like an ember that had caught fire again, and the flame was slowly licking up the edge of the kindling they'd piled on it. He could hardly think straight at the possibility of having her so easily, here in his safehouse, and while the notion of leading the Resistance straight to him dimly worried him, he decided it was a calculated risk he was willing to take.

He had just enough time to take off his wet cloak when he felt her right outside his door. Before she could knock, he opened the door and yanked her inside by her upper arm, dripping wet.

She cried out at how roughly he grabbed her, and turned away with a pained expression as she rubbed herself with her free hand. "You didn't have to do that, I would've come inside on my own," she muttered.

He said nothing, and moved instead to stroke his thumb down the inside of her elbow and upper forearm.

"They chipped you," he said, incredulous and unsurprised at the same time as he felt the telltale bump just under her skin. Her eyes flashed angrily at his touch, but she quit nursing her arm to mirror his gesture, kneading her thumb indelicately against him until she felt the same evidence in his body.

"And….?" she shook her head gently. "Does that bother you?"

"No," he said, but he could feel a tiny glimmer of jealousy at the thought of her with someone else. He didn't suppose, from what he'd seen in her recent mental escapades, that she'd really gone that far, but there was no way to know for sure. He glanced down at her and said, "You should take off your wet clothes." She was dripping on the rug that covered most of the center of the small room.

"Maybe you could…. help me," she suggested hesitantly, as though she weren't sure he'd oblige.

He sank slowly onto the edge of the bed and shucked his boots and socks, throwing them in a pile near the door, then unceremoniously drawing his half-wet tunic over his head and tossing it aside, too. He reached for her and pulled her towards him by her forearm, placing her hand on his shoulder as he drew her closer to him with his arm around the backs of her thighs. Her eyes were wide but she already looked heavy-lidded, and their connection hummed. She stared alternately at his face and torso, seemingly fixated on the scars in both areas.

With her standing between his knees, he reached up and slowly undid her trousers, easing his thumbs into the waistband, careful not to disturb her underwear as he yanked them down off her hips, pushed the material down her thighs and over her knobby knees so she could step out of them. He stroked his hands up the backs of her legs from her knees to her lower back, and her eyes closed involuntarily as she felt his fingers on the swell of her behind.

"Rey," he tipped his chin at her, indicating she should take her top off. He noticed how filthy her fingers were as she crossed her arms in front of her and grabbed the hem of her tunic, slowly lifting the material up and over her head, casually discarding it to one side before reaching behind her head to release her hair from its bonds as well. It fell just beyond her collarbones in thick, wavy wet clumps, the ends dripping slightly.

He inhaled sharply at the expanse of her torso in front of him, dotted with freckles and small scars, and traced his hands over the bottom of her ribcage and down her sides. She squirmed slightly at this, ticklish at the gesture, and she grabbed his hands to still them.

"My hands are dirty," she said sheepishly, shrugging as she looked at them on top of his own.

"Mine are too," he said thickly, "What are you afraid of?"

She shook her head silently, finally reaching up to brush a lock of his hair from in front of his eye to the side. "I'm not afraid." She withdrew her hands and shimmied out of her breastband, blushing as she stood all but naked in front of him. She took a step backwards and broke away from his grasp easily to move around him and lay down on her stomach across his bed. She rested one cheek against her forearms under her head, looking at him expectantly.

His heart beat hard in his chest as he looked at the long line of the side of her body, noting the small protrusion of her breast at the side near her armpit down to the bony lump of her ankle. Her lean, hard scavenger's body had taken on a softer quality since he'd last seen her, and he was surprised to learn the picture of herself in her mind's eye hadn't updated itself to account for this new shape that she had developed. Again, he felt the ping of envy that another might have been here first, might have looked at her like this and touched her the way he intended to. Looking at her now, it seemed unbelievable to think this was the same young woman whose hollow existence he'd seen in such abject detail just a few months before.

"Please," she whispered, "Touch me."

With a small groan he stood and did as she told him.

Rey's heart was pounding so hard she was sure he could hear it, and she hid her eyes against her forearms as she felt Kylo kneel gently over her on the bed. He pulled down her underwear, the sensation of his knuckles against her hips and down her legs making her shudder with want. She lay totally naked now, and she listened as he stood behind her, hearing the muffled swishing of his pants as he unzipped them and stepped out of them. She wanted to peek, but wasn't sure that would change the twisting feeling that had taken up residence in her midsection.

She jerked as he circled his fingers around each of her ankles and slowly spread her legs apart. She resisted momentarily until he said, "Rey, I'm not going to hurt you." The air was cool on her sweaty inner thighs, and the bed shifted again under his weight as he knelt again, trailing his fingers up and down over the backs her her legs. The sensation of being touched was enough to make her tremble slightly, but not as much as the realization that he was actually touching her everywhere but where she expected him to. His hands ranged over her low back, down the backs of her arms to her ticklish armpits, delicately over the edges of her breasts, lingered over the scar on her shoulderblade. She had never accounted for the solid feeling of him in her fantasies, and the weight he put into his caresses felt like an undertow pulling her down into the bed.

"How did that happen," he asked as he traced the line of the jagged scar on her back. She was aware that he was on all fours over her, his long lower leg nestled close alongside her thigh.

"My rope broke, and I fell," she shrugged, and finally turned her face to the side so she could see him in her peripheral vision. He only raised one eyebrow in acknowledgement as he gathered her hair at the nape of her neck and drew it to one side, exposing her ear and the side of her face. Without warning he leaned down and pressed his mouth to the skin just below her earlobe. Rey's eyes closed and she sighed deeply as he suckled at the delicate spot, his fingers trailing down her spine and tickling her at the top of the cleft of her rear.

He withdrew from the kiss and moved back down her body, placing kisses down her back and nipping occasionally at her skin. She arched into this and just as she placed her forehead drowsily back on her arms, he grabbed her ass cheek so hard it stung. The sudden slap of his hand against her startled her, and she jerked up onto her elbows. He had her whole left buttock in his hand, and he squeezed so tightly she could feel his fingernails digging into her flesh. She looked over her shoulder, grimacing in pain and surprise and found he was was looking at her darkly.

"That hurts!" she gasped, and he held her gaze evenly as he refused to let up. It wasn't until her breath hitched in what was nearly a sob that he relaxed his hand, her breathing ragged against the pain. She shivered as he then trailed his fingertips over the spot, the sensation one of sharp contrast, before slapping her again more gently on the same spot. His mouth quirked downwards on one side as he gazed at her, and she was surprised at the deep vein of desire that shot from that spot to her swollen, slick sex. He then moved his hand there, and she looked away in embarrassment to feel his fingers high against her inner thigh, then… on her, and easily slipping between the folds of her body. He only traced the tips of his fingers back and forth in her for a few moments before he lying next to her on his back.

She recognized this was his invitation, and she got to her knees next to him obediently like she'd done this a thousand times. Her ass still stung from his hand, and she was certain she'd be bruised from how he'd manhandled her.

Greedily she took in the sight of him, trying not to stare but having a hard time not lingering too long on the details that caught her eye: the point of his elbow where he folded one arm lazily behind his head to prop himself up, the groove of his abdominal muscle where it curved down to his hipbone, the swell of his long thigh muscle. She bit her lower lip as he adjusted himself, wiping the bead of clear fluid that had been oozing from the tip of his cock onto her thigh. Nothing could have prepared her for this, no amount of reading or talking or wondering. It had become night outside, but an electronic sign on the street below cast an alternating red, then yellow, then red glow through the rain-streaked window.

She swept the flat of her open palm down his torso and asked, "Are you ready?" Her voice sounded husky to her, like she was sick.

He nodded in assent and held out his hand to steady her as she threw one leg over his body. She reached down and circled her thumb and first finger around his sex, her mouth wordlessly making a soft, round shape to discover how silky smooth he was, but how hard underneath. She tilted his tip towards her, leaning forwards to catch him inside the edge of her body. Rey held her breath as she sank slowly down, down, down onto him, filling herself until she reached a point where it became uncomfortable. She had not anticipated this, how sharp the pain actually was and how deep inside herself it felt. She glanced up at his face and found he was biting his lip too, watching her intently. He worked his thumb against her palm where he held her hand and said, "Try to relax, you're really… tense." She nodded and straightened up a little, taking him in more shallowly before pressing herself down again, this time making it further past the place where instinct had stopped her before. And again.

On the third try she was satisfyingly full of his cock, and it nothing like what she had expected. She leaned back from her crouch and even the change of angle brought her dangerously close to climax. Her whole lower core throbbed with unfulfilled desire, and she had twin urges to stay very, very still and to move around as much as possible at the same time. For the first time since she'd read about this most basic, instinctual act, she finally knew how these parts served their purpose. She moved his free hand to her breast, and shuddered as he cupped her in his palm and scissored her nipple between his long fingers. It felt as though an electric line were strung between her chest and her clit, and this motion completed the circuit. She was hyper-aware of every little brush of his body against hers, from her inner thighs against his sides to the arch of her foot that was gently wedged under the curve of his outstretched leg, and she fell forwards with her hand gripping his shoulder as she shook out her orgasm with a hoarse yell.

It seemed to go on forever, and yet the quality was very different than when she was by herself. Almost immediately she opened her eyes to look at him, and was terribly aware that he was still rock hard inside her and waiting for his own release. Before she could manage to ask what to do, he grabbed her around her waist and flipped them over, catching one knee in the crook of his elbow. He pinned her opposite arm over her head, his hand crushing her wrist.

He drove hard against her now with short, punishingly hard snaps of his hips that seemed to roll up his entire body over her, again and again. He buried his face against her neck and she clenched her eyes against the sensation of raw pain that was mounting between her legs. She couldn't adjust herself against it with him holding her leg captive, and he was fucking her so viciously now she had the thought that he might actually break her. What had been a pleasing sense of being too full when she'd been on top was now an unavoidable one of being filled repeatedly past the point of comfort, to a point where he was hitting some part of her insides that did not like this, at all.

Rey turned her head to the side and bit her lips to keep from giving him the pleasure of crying out, sensing that this frenzied pace could not continue long. She felt his teeth against her neck as he came after a half dozen more ragged strokes, a hot gush as he strained into her soreness one last, shuddering time. For several seconds the only sound was his heavy breathing and the rain hitting the window. Without a word, he released her arm, withdrew from her and stood without looking at her. He walked into his fresher, and shut the door behind him.

She curled into a ball on on side, drawing her knees up to alleviate the sting that lingered inside her. She drew the blanket half over her, covering her lower torso and winding her fingers around the edge of it.

For all her imagining, she had not expected any of this, this aching physical feeling she was left with inside, the fact that he had marked her body visibly and the feeling of their mellifluous, synchronous connection being broken only moments later. It didn't feel good like she had expected, it just felt…. lonely. She turned on her other side, away from the door as she heard it rattle open.

He stood silently for a moment behind her before she felt him crawl onto the bed and draw near.

"Rey," his deep voice was low. "Look at me."

"I don't want to talk."

He sighed and lay on his side, curling around her despite her admonishment. His fingers traced lazily on her upper arm, down her forearm to her wrist and back. He brushed his hand from her earlobe down her neck, to the point of her shoulder and back. Her eyes closed again and she was surprised to find a spark of desire was beginning to glow again in her low belly.

"Listen," he whispered, leaning over her so his lips were against the shell of her ear. "I shouldn't have been so rough on you, it's just… been a long time. But, a first time is only that- a first time, alright? It's a start, not the end."

She turned her face towards him now and looked at him keenly. "How do you plan to make it up to me?"

He stared at her lips for a moment before cupping her cheek and pressing his mouth to hers, sucking on her lower lip. "Why don't you teach me how."