"Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves."

-Esquivel

She was all fire.

The force was a halo around them, as much pushing her away from him as pushing her deeper into his embrace. The electricity, so present that it seemed to be the very air they were breathing, veritably crackled.

"Do you feel it?" he whispered, breaking away from her lips, one hand running his fingers through her hair, and the other holding him ever so slightly above her.

"How could I feel anything else?" she whispered back, pulling him down again, working her own fingers through his dark and tousled hair. Slowly, carefully, she felt him open his mind to her. She entered, tentatively, seeing what he was showing her. The interrogation room. Her captured frame. His feeling of shame. His confused need. His desperate longing for help. She pulled away, rolling over in the snow, so that they were laying side by side. Keeping his trusting gaze, she gave him her thoughts too.

After a moment, she pulled away, watching the memories dance in his mind.

"I felt the same," she breathed out, the heat from her breath forming clouds that danced around them. As if awoken, they both seemed to understand how cold they really were. He pulled her close, then to her feet. "You're freezing," he exclaimed, through his own chattering teeth. "Oh you're almost blue!" Unfastening his jacket, he draped it over her shoulders. "Come," he said, leading her towards the base. Through frozen lips, she protested.

"What will you say, Ben?"

"That I found you. I do what I want, Rey. No one will think twice."

She stiffened. "And did you capture me?"

A laugh. "After this, you doubt?" he questioned. "It's you who captured me."

Gasping for breath, he woke from a nightmare. His mother, hurled again and again against the wall, her body falling each time harder and harder. He lifted his hands. In the dark, he thought he could make out the blood that must cover them.

She curled towards him, placing her head on his chest. Her fingers wiped away his tears, so gently. "Shhh," she breathed, barely awake. "The dark can't take you. I'm here." She drifted again, into a deep and peaceful slumber – but not before she had left him with a picture. The island was surrounded by a beautiful ocean. The deep waters were peaceful and serene, the waves untouched by storms. The blue of the ocean quieted his soul, and he relaxed.

Pulling her closer and resting his weary eyes, he drifted into her quiet sea.