"Perhaps you should shut that window for now," he suggested with a roguish grin on his face.
"Why?"
"Do you want the whole base to hear what I'm about to do to you?"
She obliged and closed the window, set down her mending, and walked over to where he sat on the bed. She was just about to sit down next to him when he stood up and wrapped his arms around her. She couldn't help but melt into his embrace. It felt so wonderful to feel his heart beating so close to hers. She even loved the masculine way his skin smelled.
He reached behind her head and yanked one of her hair pins out, which didn't quite release all of her hair, but she knew what he was going for and reached back herself to yank out the last couple pins, letting her hair spill down her shoulders and back.
He had always wanted to see what her hair looked like down. He had seen it in three buns down the back of her head when he met her, and more recently in a braid, but he had always secretly imagined being able to run his fingers through her chestnut tresses. It was as soft as silk and smelled of sweet shampoo as she had just showered before he came to her room. He was suddenly disappointed he had missed out on that possibility.
"Rey, you're beautiful," he whispered in her ear, and she felt gooseflesh rise up on her neck, his voice alone almost enough to send her into a heated frenzy. She leaned forward and seized his mouth in a warm and passionate kiss. She could feel his hands sliding down her body, along every curve, then back up under her night shirt.
"No ripping my clothes! I can't spend all my time fixing things," she protested when she felt his hand seize onto the fabric.
"You don't seem to be wearing much. That's good, I'm not a patient man," he said as he lifted the shirt gently over her head and admired her bare breasts. He knelt down just enough to seize a taught nipple between his lips and she instantly let out a groan of pleasure. She slid her fingers through his thick black waves of hair and felt a burning need between her legs as his tongue lapped at her in ways that made her want him more.
She gasped as she felt his hand run up the inside of her thigh, as his long fingers began to stroke her soft fold through the fabric of her panties. She could feel herself growing wetter by the moment and couldn't suppress the desire to feel his long gentle fingers reach inside of her.
Perhaps he sensed her desire through the bond because he began running his lips lower down her stomach, and she watched as he snagged the waistband of her panties between his teeth and slowly moved them down. He used his hands to pull them further, just down around her knees, then reached back up and slid his hand along her wet heat. She shivered at the thrill of this touch. "Oh, Ben," she cried as she felt him slip in first one finger, then two. He used his thumb to work slow circles around her nub as he gently worked his fingers back and forth along her inner walls. He could feel how terribly wet she was, and he knew he would not be able to wait much longer for her. He could feel his pants cutting off his circulation from the throbbing of his erection.
He could sense through the bond just what rhythm she needed and gave her just enough to leave her hot and panting, but whenever he felt her getting too close to the edge he purposely pulled back just enough to leave her wanting more.
She could feel him toying with her and it was driving her mad. "Please, Ben, I need you," she begged. He stood up and drowned her in another deep kiss. She grabbed his tunic and pulled it over his head, desperate to feel the warmth of his skin against her own, and letting her panties drop the rest of the way to the floor. She ran her fingers along his hard stomach, and then lower, until she could feel his straining bulge. He growled hungrily as he felt her seize him through his clothes.
"Take it out," he asked her, and she began working his belt open. He nearly wanted to explode as she teased him by slowly working her hand down the front of his pants, grazing his cock only once and reaching further to cup his balls.
To her surprise he pulled back from her, then took her by the shoulders and spun her around so that her back was pressed into his chest. He reached around her to wrap one hand softly around her throat, tilting her head back against him as he worked his other hand down between her legs. She could feel him working lazy circles around her nub again and she couldn't bear to be teased anymore. "Ben," she pleaded.
He slid his warm hand from around her throat and pressed firmly into her shoulder, forcing her to kneel into her bed. She was about to climb further onto the bed when he stopped her with his grip. "Stay," he asked, and she could feel his hands running down her back, over her hips and begin cupping and squeezing her ass. She could feel him rest one of his large warm hands along her waste and she knew he was reaching for himself with his other hand.
He leaned over her, holding himself up with one arm, while he reached around her with his other arm and snaked his hand between her legs again.
"Do you want me, Rey?" he breathed into her ear.
"Yes, yes, I want you," she begged as he drove her mad with the gentle strokes of his fingers.
He stood upright again behind her and suddenly she could feel his stiff manhood sliding up the inside of her fold, but still he would not give her the relief she needed.
"Ben, please, I need you," she begged again.
She felt him nudge just past her entrance, she wanted to push back and impale herself onto him, but he held her hips firmly in place. "You're mine, Rey. Tell me you're mine. Tell me you belong to me. I want you to belong to me," he asked in a voice half commanding, half pleading.
"Yes, yes, I'm yours," she confessed and released a cry of bliss as he finally thrust himself deeply inside. She saw stars; she almost came for him in that one stroke.
He released a feral growl, reveling in knowing the power he had to give her such pleasure, how close she had just come, and she had nearly dragged him to the brink too, but he wanted more and would not stop until she was fully his.
He started with slow teasing strokes, sometimes leaning in over her to draw lazy circles around her nub, to run his lips down the back and side of her throat, to breathe her name hotly in her ear. She could feel her whole body trembling and panting, desperately needing more.
He could sense her building climax, and he couldn't restrain himself any longer, soon he was pounding into her, marveling at how wonderful she felt around him. He leaned in again to bury his face in her hair. "Rey, you're mine. You belong to me!" he asserted as he continued to thrust into her with wild abandon, she was so close. Then she felt him yank her hair away from her neck, and felt his lips upon her throat, with one hard thrust he bit into her tender flesh, not enough to break skin, but enough to bruise.
She screamed out in both pain and exquisite ecstasy as she felt an orgasm so powerful she felt her heart would explode and all the world would crumble around her. She slowly realized she had not just felt her own climax, but his as well, both as one through the bond.
She lay face down on her bed, trying to catch her breath, with him still on top of her clutching her fiercely to him in his arms. Eventually when the room stopped spinning she rolled over so that she could face him and look into his beautiful dark eyes.
He gave her one very gentle kiss, just to feel the softness of her lips against his. He pulled her tighter to him. "You once told me I belonged to you, now you belong to me. I won't be parted from you, Rey. I can't be, I need you."
She smiled, feeling sleepy and still floating on the afterglow of their passion. She traced her fingers lazily along the side of his face and the scar she had once given him. "We're together. We belong together, to each other. You…don't mind being in a relationship with me?" she dared to ask.
"You are mine, and I am yours, and I would proudly shout it through this whole base…right now if you like?" he offered as another roguish grin seized his face.
"I'm…pretty sure they heard already," she couldn't help but laugh. She suspected closing the window hadn't helped much.
She tried very hard not to blush at all the attention they had received that morning. She wasn't used to being noticed, but most people on the base by this point knew who she was, and when they saw her having breakfast in the mess hall with the mysterious new stranger, and walking around holding his hand, it didn't take long for the gossip to start like wildfire.
She could tell it made Ben uncomfortable too, but that only made him clutch her hand all the firmer. He had spent the past sixteen years hiding behind a helmet, imposing fear and authority wherever he went, and part of him still commanded that level of respect. He was tall, brooding, and his scars clearly showed that he had been through more than his fair share of battles, though few knew that the most prominent one across his face had been caused by Rey herself. He seemed to exude an unapproachable tough guy exterior, and a few wondered what Rey saw in that, but others just concluded that she was one of those women who gravitated towards the bad boys. There were also more than a few disappointed young resistance soldiers who were rather hoping to eventually approach Rey in a more amorous manner, but seeing her clearly with a new significant other had squashed any of those hopes. There were even a handful of ladies on the base, who were more than a little jealous that Rey had already laid claim to the tall dark and handsome new stranger. The resistance base on Takodana was like a small tight-knit family community, and most everyone knew everyone else's business.
Rey and Ben were just about to make for the forest to start the day's Grey training, when BB-8 rolled up, chirping enthusiastically. He informed Rey that there would be squadron practice that day, and was asking her, on behalf of Poe, if she would be attending.
Rey knew that Poe had sent the little droid, rather than come personally, because he wasn't quite up for facing the man who had once interrogated him, and she understood and didn't hold it against him. Part of her wanted to go, she felt the undeniable itch to get behind the controls of the Grey Wolf again, but she didn't have much time before she had to set out on her next mission and Ben needed her guidance in the Grey way before his volatile temper caused trouble. The last thing she needed was for him to cause an uproar on the base, or worse, jeopardize her mission.
"Thank you, BB-8. Please tell him, I'd like to, but I can't right now. I'll be leaving for a mission soon and I have quite a lot to do before then, but let him know I'll visit him at the hanger later today after lunch."
The little droid gave another delighted chirp and rolled off. She could already sense a jealous anger brewing within Ben.
"I spent most of my life alone, Ben. These people are the first people who ever welcomed me. The first who ever truly made me feel as if I belonged."
"You belong to me!" he argued.
Rather than being mad at him she just shook her head. They certainly would have a lot to work on together. "I'm more yours than anyone's, but you're going to have to learn to share at least a little. If my happiness means anything to you, you'll have to understand what my friends mean to me," she chided.
His whole life he had never shared with anyone what he shared with Rey. He knew he was being greedy again. He counted himself very lucky to have been given this new opportunity at life, an opportunity to be with her, to know her, to see her smile when she looked at him, to feel her welcome him through their bond, rather than push him away. His whole life he had been pushed away, or at least he imagined that he had been, she was like a magnet pulling him to her. He didn't want anything, or anyone, getting between them, but on the other hand, he genuinely wanted her to be happy. He would have done anything in the galaxy for her. She could have asked anything of him, anything at all, he could deny her nothing. He reluctantly decided to relent and not interfere with her resistance friends, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He knew he would be hopeless at controlling his jealousy when it came to her.
"If associating yourself with these…friends," he nearly gagged to say "makes you happy, I would not take that from you. I want you to be happy. I would do anything for you. I want you to smile when you look at me. The light within you shines so beautifully when you're filled with joy and peace, and it pulls me in. But," he added, "I cannot help how I feel…not yet. I can't promise you I won't still be jealous and possessive of you. I've waited so long to have you, for you to be mine." He stopped then, the word he longed to pronounce on the tip of his tongue – 'love.' He had always known it, though he had tried to deny it to himself for so long when he was still trapped within the darkness, now that he was here, with her, and she was looking at him, into the very soul of him, with her beautiful warm eyes, he couldn't deny what he felt in his heart, but he was afraid. This could still all be a dream. It had to be, why else would someone like her ever give herself to someone like him? What if she didn't want to love him? He couldn't blame her if she wouldn't want to, for all that he had done in his life, for all that he had been…a monster. He knew he didn't deserve her. He didn't deserve a fraction of what she had already freely given him. He knew if she denied his love it would destroy him. He couldn't live without her and the thought of her rejecting his feelings filled him with more dread than he would have ever felt if he had had to confront Snoke a thousand times.
She could sense the sudden sadness engulfing him, but she couldn't understand what had prompted it. "One small step at a time," she thought to herself, happy at least, that he had relented somewhat when it came to the issue of her friends. As long as he didn't act out on his jealousy, she could tolerate it. Even if she could help him to become Grey, she knew she would have to accept that there were some facets to his personality that may forever remain the same. She had a feeling jealousy might be one of them, but at the very least she hoped to quell his temper and volatile moods.
She reached up to place one gentle kiss to his lips. He closed his eyes and savored the taste of her, instantly feeling his fear and doubts recede at the softness of her touch.
"Come on, it's time to learn about being Grey," she said as she pulled back from him with a coy and warm smile.
She had begun by explaining the same principles of 'the path' that she had explained to Master Luke when she had first emerged from the silver light. She could feel him tense up when she had explained that the way to eliminate hatred would be through an equal or greater love. A deep fear within her roiled at the thought that maybe love was something someone like him was incapable of, maybe even for her, but no, she forced that hurtful thought back. She had felt his love for his parents, even his uncle, and she could feel a deep river of emotion always seeping at her through their bond, she hoped for what it could be, but was afraid to ask. She wondered herself though, did she love him?
She peeked at him as he sat in front of her meditating. Their first lesson would be to find the path between passion and peace. She could sense him focusing himself on her almost all the time, and he would have to learn to counter that passion with moments of peace; a state of meditation where he would be forced to push everything from his mind…even her. She could sense him struggling with it, as if he were afraid to sever his tether from her, even if only for a moment.
She spoke softly to him through the bond.
Pulling away from me long enough to know this peace does not mean I'm gone forever. You must know that when you open your eyes I will still be here. I'm always here. It is safe to let go.
Finally she felt him relax enough and slip into the proper stage of meditation; separating his mind from all emotions and connections and just being. He would have to learn to obtain this state of mind whenever he mediated from now on or his passion would consume him.
She should have been meditating too, but she couldn't help but stare at his unusual, yet beautiful face. He looked so peaceful with the gentle breeze blowing his dark hair around his forehead. He was not what would be considered conventionally handsome, but she had never particularly been interested in the 'pretty' type anyway. She couldn't help but smile as she realized she even liked the way his ears seemed to stick out. But did she love him?
Being with him filled the loneliness within her heart. She had carried the sadness of abandonment her whole life, and she supposed, so had he, but together they felt whole, complete. She knew she needed him as much as he needed her. She had always wanted to belong to someone, and she couldn't help the thrill in her heart at knowing that at last, she finally did. It didn't really offend her when he spoke of her so possessively, she wanted to be his. She wanted him to want her…to love her. She searched her feelings and felt that perhaps that might be true. She certainly knew he cared for her, and she knew she cared for him. But could a lonely scavenger love? Really love? She wasn't even sure if she knew what love meant.
She thought of the path between love and hate, and remembered how the thought of him had pulled her back from the darkness as she had rampaged against the Knights of Ren. Maybe they could find the safe path between love and hate together? Maybe he really was enough to save her from the darkness, and maybe she would be enough for him. She couldn't help but feel hope soar in her heart.
After several hours of quiet meditation, of which she had eventually joined him, they decided to move onto physical combat techniques.
It felt good to spar after several days of inactivity. They both could feel once tense muscles loosen up under the graceful motions of their offenses and defenses. She tried to go easy on him at first, as he had just been though a considerable amount of physical trauma and she wasn't sure if he was quite ready for combat just yet. But she could sense the thrill rising to a frenzy within him as his attacks became more and more earnest.
He loved combat. Sparing with his saber had always filled him with an overwhelming sense of power and purpose. Against most he had always maintained an upper-hand; there had hardly ever been anyone to truly challenge him, except his Uncle Luke, but Rey was different. She could more than hold her own, one moment he would be gaining dominance, the next she would be beating him back so furiously it was all he could do to defend himself, and he loved it. Sparing with her was almost as good as making love to her. Nobody had ever challenged him as she had; nobody had ever made him reach for his highest potential as she had. He truly believed that with her he could achieve anything.
Eventually they were forced to stop due to sheer exhaustion. It was impossible to determine who had come out ahead in their match, but it didn't matter.
"I…hope I didn't harm you…so soon," she panted between words as she slumped down exhausted by a tree. Ben joined her; he knew she was referring to his injuries.
"I feel better than I've ever felt in my life," he confessed as he wiped the sweat from his brow, and he meant every word of it.
They took a few moments to get their heart-rates back to normal, enjoying the cool breeze that made its way beneath the tall Takodana trees. Ben couldn't help but remember that this was the planet where he first saw her, when she first changed his life forever. He smiled.
"Luke certainly didn't teach you all those maneuvers," he commented. The Jedi leaned far more towards defense than he had ever liked.
"Master Luke was an excellent teacher, in the beginning, but like you I was never cut out to be a Jedi. I learned so much in the silver light. I'm glad you're letting me share that knowledge with you," she said as she lay her hand upon his where it rested in his lap.
He lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips. "You were probably a better student for him than I had been."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I felt ridiculous in the beginning, especially when he made me run all over the place, jumping and doing flips from boulders, climbing trees, all while he rode on my back and schooled me on how to release my mind and just feel the force flow through me. He's kind of heavy."
"Ugh, I hated when he made me do that! I asked him why I had to carry him on my back; he said it was how he had been taught, so it was how I had to learn."
They laughed together and stayed in the quiet shade of the trees until it was time to return for lunch.
After lunch Ben had decided he would return to the forest alone to practice further stances with his saber. He secretly hoped she would make time for them to spar again. He had felt that the meditation technique she had shown him had helped him obtain a sense of peace he had before thought impossible, and he was immensely grateful for it, but he also couldn't deny that sparing had still been his favorite part of their day…so far, as he recollected that night also had its amusements.
Rey found both Poe and Finn hanging out together in the hanger. They were sipping coffee and discussing the new recruits from Jakku when she arrived.
"How are they adapting?" she asked, as Finn poured her a cup of coffee.
"Well I can certainly see how you were strong enough to whoop my ass when you first meet me on Jakku," Finn offered, smiling as he remembered that fateful day.
"They're kind of a mean lot, not too friendly, but they're damn tough, and they're ready to tear the First Order a new one, so they're all right with me," declared Poe.
Rey couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride in the people she had once considered to be her own. She had not been born on Jakku, and she had accepted that she may never know where she truly came from, but both that planet and its inhabitants were familiar to her. She had both hated that world, and called it home, just as she had once feared and avoided its people, she couldn't help but feel kinship for them now.
"Any news on the blockade?" Finn asked, knowing that Rey would be heading the mission to root out the spy.
"C3PO caught me just before I came out here looking for you guys. He passed on word from the general that I might be leaving for Bespin as early as tomorrow night."
"What are you going to do with him?" asked Poe, with a clearly concerned look on his face.
"He did really well today, with the Grey Jedi training. I don't think you guys have to worry about him being a threat to anyone on this base, though he does still have anger issues…and jealousy issues."
"I'm more worried about him being a threat to you!" confessed Finn.
She sighed, probably louder than she had wanted to. She didn't like hiding things from Finn…or Poe, for that matter. And they had gone out of their way to tell her about their own situation, she owed them the same, though she knew it would not go over well.
"Well…you don't have to worry…you see…we're sort of…um…we're kind of…together," she mumbled the last word in her embarrassment.
She watched as both Poe and Finn's eyes shot open in shocked revelation. They seemed to gasp in unison.
But before they could say a word or argue she cut them off. "Please, guys. I know! I know! And I don't expect you to understand the force, or how the darkside works, and the horrible things it can do to people, or what it can make an otherwise good person do. But please believe me; he is stepping further into the light, more so with every passing day. He's here so that I can help him. I want to help him. And so far he's been making the right kind of progress. I know how you feel, and like I said before, I understand. I don't blame you at all for feeling how you do about him, but please, understand that he means something to me. He means a lot to me."
She could sense Poe and Finn defusing a little, though their concern didn't lessen any.
"Are you sure, Rey? Are you sure you know what you're doing? Is this really what you want? He's not just messing with your mind somehow – what do they call em…Jedi mind tricks?" asked Finn.
She couldn't help but smile at his naivety; it had always been one of the traits she had always found so enduring in Finn. "I'm sure. He won't hurt me, and I do genuinely care about him, and he cares about me. I'm going to help him, and he's going to help me. I'm not perfect either, ya know? He still has a long way to go, but I can do this. I hope you guys won't hate me for this."
"Rey, I hate that guy, but I love you to pieces. You're family. I trust you, cause I'm aware you know way more things than I know, especially about all this force stuff. So I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. If this is what you truly want, then I'll support you," relented Poe.
Finn looked on the verge of being the more stubborn of the two, but eventually he was forced to soften, he knew Poe was right. Rey's happiness meant more to him than any personal grudges he may hold against Kylo Ren. "Me too. We could never hate you, Rey," he said as he gave her one of his big enthusiastic hugs.
She was trying so hard not to start balling. To know that her friends cared about her that much, that they considered her family, she had never felt so fortunate in all her life. She hoped that in time she could prove to them that Ben was worth saving; that there was good in him that eventually more people would see than just her.
He was growing tired of waiting for Rey to return from her meeting with her friends. He could feel his jealousy boiling again, and for her sake he was trying to remain calm. He had walked back to the base, hoping to meet her on her way back from the hanger, instead he bumped into someone he hadn't been expecting, but should have.
"Uncle Chewie?" he called, as he spied the big wookiee doing a tune-up on the Millennium Falcon.
He had finally come to terms with both his mother and his Uncle Luke, but the lifetime friend of his father, who had served as an adoptive uncle to him ever since he was born, hadn't come around yet. And he knew it was time to apologize again for his crimes.
Chewie had heard Ben call him. When he looked up, at first he had been overjoyed to see him up and doing well. He had been terribly worried when he had carried his near-lifeless body around the Finalizer. The last time he had carried Ben in his arms, he had been a young boy. Chewie knew all the wrong that had been done upon Ben by Snoke, but when he looked up into his nephew's face, he saw again the man who had stabbed a saber though his dearest friend, and he couldn't push back the pain and betrayal that he felt as he relived that moment all over again.
"Uncle Chewie…I'm…" he started, but Chewie roared and cut him off. He turned his back and stomped away, back into the base, leaving Ben standing next to the Falcon feeling crushed and rejected, and he knew he deserved it. He knew he deserved it all. He leaned his head against the Falcon as he futilely tried to fight back the tears and pain.
Then he felt warm arms embrace him from behind, and her soothing presence through the bond. "I'm sorry, Ben," she said.
"I don't blame him. Everyone misses father, they know what I've done…but him…he saw it. He saw it all. I'll understand if he never forgives me," he said and she could feel him sob in her arms. She grabbed him and coaxed him to turn towards her.
"Chewie does love you, Ben. He helped saved you just as much as Master Luke and I. He just needs time," she said as she rubbed his back gently with her hands, pouring comfort to him over their bond. "Just give him some time, he'll come around. I know he will."
A note from your humble author: Can't expect him to get off easy with all three of them, can you? There's always gotta be the stubborn one, but don't worry we'll see more of Uncle Chewie later. Next chapter begins the exciting adventures of Cloud City. ^_^ I can't wait, I love writing exciting parts WMAHAHAHA!
Thank you for the lovely reviews and feedback, and all the new readers. You guys are awesome! Please let me know if you're enjoying the story. It really helps motivate me and feed my muse. So please FEEEEED MEEEE!