Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone, alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me
"Just Like Heaven," The Cure
When Kylo pulls into his driveway, his heart jumps. Rey's in there, and as strange as the situation is—he can only imagine what Hux would say if he knew Kylo had taken in a homeless woman—he likes having someone to come home to.
"Guess what?" he hears her call out the moment he steps inside.
"What?" he asks, seeing her leaning on the breakfast bar again, a big smile on her face. Her feet dangle, bare.
"I got an interview. At Alderaan House. Tomorrow at three." She twists a strand of hair around her fingers. "From the director herself. Leia Organa."
She has no idea.
Her words kick Kylo in the stomach, and all his hope drains. Forget FO Tech. She has a job prospect that aligns with her priorities, and her priorities aren't his. He swallows. "Well, if it doesn't work out, let me know." It will work out, though. Rey is exactly the type of person his mother loves to hire. Passionate and fun. Not serious like him.
He heads past her, towards the stairs.
"How was work?" Rey hollers after him.
Kylo pretends he doesn't hear.
He lies in his bed, unable to sleep.
When he first ran away, he was relieved he didn't hear from his parents. He got to stay with Snoke, learn all that he needed to know. And then as the months wore on, fears shouted at him in increasingly shrill voices: they aren't looking for you. They don't love you. They're relieved that you're gone. It's what you always knew, isn't it? It's what you want, isn't it?
He means nothing to me.
At any rate, he means nothing to his father.
Frustrated with tossing and turning, Kylo climbs out of bed and pads down the hallway. He sees the door to her room is closed. Good. Kylo wanders down the stairs and plunks down on a stool, waiting for nothing. For the night to recede.
"Hey," a voice says from the stairway. Kylo jumps.
"Are you all right?" Rey inquires, cocking her head.
"Why aren't you asleep?" Kylo asks.
"I can't. I have chronic insomnia, I'm pretty sure."
"Me too," Kylo says, watching her watch him and liking how it feels. "Did you get to go swimming earlier?"
"Mm-hm." Rey pulls up the stool next to him. "Thanks so much. I feel—I mean, I don't want you to think I'm taking advantage of you or anything. The moment I get a job, I'll find a place to live and—or I can even make sure to get to a shelter early, tomorrow, if you want—"
"No, no," Kylo interrupts. "I don't—I mean, you're welcome to stay here. Doesn't seem like you've stolen anything or threw a raging party for all your friends while I was at work, so—" He's trying to joke and isn't sure how to craft it. Should he tilt his tone up? Deadpan?
"I don't really have many friends," Rey admits. "I mostly worked. To make enough to live, I couldn't afford many days off."
Kylo can relate. "What was your goal?"
"Surviving." Rey shrugs. "And, maybe someday, college."
"Do you have any family?"
She shakes her head. "You?"
You're interviewing with my mother tomorrow. "It's complicated. We're... estranged."
"I'm sorry." Rey's foot accidentally brushes against Kylo's calf, and something tingly shoots through his leg, up his thighs. She mumbles an apology and he doesn't want the apology; he wants to feel her again. Which is wrong of him. He remembers what he saw the night before—those two men, attacking a woman—and cringes.
"Are you okay after what happened last night?" he ventures. "With those guys?"
Rey shrugs. "I'm trying not to think about it." She covers her mouth with her hands. Kylo takes the hint and rises.
"Did you even have dinner?" she asks him.
Oh, shit. "No. Did you?" he asks, suddenly panicked. "Or lunch? Did you have lunch?"
"I do have a minimal amount of cash left, so yes. I walked to a Subway."
"So... you're just asking about me?" Out of concern? Kylo blinks.
She raises her eyebrows.
A hollow sensation gnaws at his stomach, a sensation he would have ignored if it weren't for her bringing it up. "I might make something after all." He thinks he has yogurt. And some fruit. "Do you want something?"
"I never turn down food." She says it jovially, but it makes Kylo cringe to think of the implications. "About your family. Why don't you contact them?"
"It's complicated," he repeats as he sets bowls down on the counter. "Some parents are just disappointments. They don't know how to be parents." Kylo does not want to think if what's going to come tomorrow, because his stomach is twisting and tightening and he won't be able to concentrate if they continue down this route. "Let's change the subject."
"Fine." Rey leans across the counter. "When you take days off, what do you like to do with them? Besides taking in girls who throw coffee in your face."
"I don't really take days off. If I do, I probably just sleep. Or try to sleep."
"Lame answer." Rey straightens.
"You?"
"I go to the beach. I like the ocean."
Kylo wrinkles his nose.
"What?"
"The beach is always so crowded."
"Yeah, but it's fun. You should try fun sometime." Rey winks.
An hour later, with vanilla yogurt and raspberries in their stomachs, Rey excuses herself to try and sleep again. Kylo climbs into his bed and closes his eyes, and almost instantly the fact that he's forgotten for the past hour—that the conference is tomorrow—slams into him.
Kylo sits back up, resting his chin on his hand. He should ask Rey more about Lor San Tekka in the morning. She might trust him now.
Kylo drifts off as the orange glow of dawn shimmers in through the curtains. His alarm goes off, and he drags himself out of bed. To his surprise, Rey's awake early too.
"Heard your alarm," she informs him. "Your walls aren't soundproof."
"Good to know." He hesitates. "If I brew coffee, am I safe?"
"Probably," Rey says, smirking at him.
"So…" Kylo begins as he empties coffee beans into the pot. "What do you know about that old man I was asking you about?"
"He's an old man. With a beard. Who looks like a monk." Rey leans against the counter, and Kylo suddenly realizes that her hair dangles loose and wavy. He likes the look. "He was sitting with some other man—younger one, maybe a year or two older than you. The other guy had a dog and got run over, probably by some drunk driver."
And that should be plenty to go on. Phasma, your victim wasn't a nobody after all. The coffee machine churns and the scent wafts up into the air. "Thanks."
"Why?" she asks.
"That man knows someone whom I need to talk to."
"So FO Tech has PIs?"
Kylo smiles. "Not quite." It's far less innocent than that.
You're a dog, and you do what Snoke wants and nothing else. Literally, his job description might as well read "selling weapons, but also tracking random people and threatening them if necessary. And helping the CEO with anything and everything that you may or may not have experience in." Snoke's bitch boy.
Only temporarily. It's necessary. He learns by following.
He grabs a mug and then another one. "Do you want coffee?"
"Sure." Rey bites her nails. "Why do you work for that crazy company?"
"It's not so bad."
"Which is why you looked miserable when you came home last night," Rey counters as he offers her a cup.
He almost drops it. "How can you—"
"Your emotions are written all over your face." Rey sips the drink. "Better than Niima's," she observes.
"I just—the conference is today. It's important." In way more ways than a typical conference. Kylo stares at the brown liquid swirling inside his mug. I could see my father today.
"Well," Rey says. "Good luck."
He should say the same to her, for her interview.
He can't.
"She's coming in today," Leia tells Han over the phone. "Rey Jakku."
"Good." Han sighs. If she seems like a good fit—and personality-wise, she seems like it—maybe that can help convince Luke to come back.
"I'm sure she will." Leia sighs. "Han—if you see our son—"
"I'm going to, Leia." Han blows out his breath. "I promise. I'll try. Text me about whatever you decide about Rey Jakku, okay?"
"Of course. Chewie's with you?"
"Yes," Han lies. Chewie's not. Instead, Chewie's meeting with Lor San Tekka, but Leia doesn't need to know. Not yet.
Because they might have found Luke.
If it's not him, Han doesn't want Leia disappointed. If it is him, though… maybe, just maybe, stars are finally starting to align. Maybe they can get Luke back and their son.
It's a foolish hope, the kind of hope Han gave up on when he was eight years old and realized his parents were dead, and death really was permanent. No one was holding his parents prisoner, and he wouldn't be some great hero who rescued them. They were gone.
Luke might come back. Ben might come back.
They aren't dead yet.
Han stalks into the hotel. Fancy people mill about, men and women draped in fancy dark suits. Sunglasses obscure the eyes of several stern looking men off to the lobby's right.
"Hey," a voice interrupts.
"Huh?" Han spins around to see Chewie standing there. "What are you doing here? I gave you a job to do."
Chewie shrugs. "I'm interested to see the kid, too."
In other words, you figured I needed you, Han thinks sourly. He knows Chewie like Chewie knows Han: the unsaid things between them are never really unsaid.
"Lor's going to call you," Chewie adds.
"Fine."
"I'll hang back," Chewie grumbles, but Han notices the way his friend's dark eyes scour the crowd of people, looking for that black hair, the face he's afraid, like Han, that he might not recognize.
Han remembers all those afternoons Chewie would spend babysitting, teaching Ben chess even as Ben got frustrated with how he kept losing.
"If you want to win, you have to learn," Chewie informed his son as Ben scowled. "And you learn by losing."
But Ben didn't pout or refuse to play. Two months later, and he beat Chewie for the first time.
And there he is. Han's heart stops in his chest as he sees that hair, still boyishly long, that face that's a perfect mix of his own face and Leia's.
He doesn't have time to study it. He steps forward, propelled not by Leia's request, not by his story, but by his own desperate need. "Ben!"
"It's not a problem at all," Poe assures Finn as he leads him into Alderaan House's headquarters. "Jess just told me that Leia's meeting with another candidate now, and then she'll meet with you."
It's not weak to accept help when you need it, Finn reminds himself. It's okay. It's okay.
The door to Leia's office opens, and Rey pops out.
Rey.
"Holy fudge!" she gasps. "Finn! What are you doing here?"
"Rey!" He stands and throws his arms around her. She stiffens and then relaxes. "I'm looking for a job."
"You and me both, then," she says with a grin. "Niima fired me."
"Oh no!" Finn gapes at her.
"So now I'm here," Rey says with a shrug. "We might be working together. How crazy is that?"
"Crazy in a good way," Finn agrees. He's experienced way too much crazy in a bad way lately.
"Did you ever get the dog back?"
"Yeah! Yeah, I did—actually, Poe Dameron, the owner—he works here. I'm rooming with him now." Finn grins. He and Poe seem to be getting along just fine, although Finn can't deny that there's a part of him that's waiting for Poe to realize that he lied, that Finn isn't such a great person after all.
"You don't happen to need another roommate, do you?" Rey jokes. "Because I lost my apartment. I've been staying with a… friend for the past couple nights."
"Actually, we kind of do," Finn tells her. This way he can help Poe, and if Poe figures out the truth, he at least won't be totally screwed. Rey can stay.
A throat clears, and Finn turns to see a small woman who barely comes up to his shoulder smiling at the two of them as if they were her children. "So you're Finn."
"Um, yes," Finn stammers. This woman commands an almost intimidating presence, but not the same kind of intimidating as Phasma. It's more like respect, like Finn is suddenly awash in the sense that he never wants to let this woman down. "I am."
"Come in, if you please."
"Wait outside for me?" Finn requests. "I'll call Poe when I'm done—we'll talk it over."
"Okay," she says, smiling shyly as she drops into a chair to wait.
Leia Organa's office is furnished with an elaborate bookshelf, loaded with all sorts of books—classics like Jane Austen, harlequin romance novels, fantasy books, political textbooks, and even what look like comics. If her bookcase is anything to judge by, the woman's lived a lot of life. Two photo frames rest on her desk—one, Finn can see is of a younger Leia with her arms wrapped around two men—one tall and dark haired, one lithe and blond. The other photo, Finn can't see.
She begins by explaining about Alderaan House and how they work with refugees from all over the world, with resettlement and adjusting to life in D'Qar. "Now," Leia says, leaning back in her chair. "Tell me about yourself, Finn."
"Well," Finn begins, sweat starting to prickle at his temples. Not now, dammit. "I recently quit working for FO Tech Industries."
"Yes, I saw that on your resume, and Poe told me about it."
Finn blinks. "He did?"
Leia leans forward and nods. "He did. And he told me you were one of their scholarship engineers, as well. And yet you chose to leave. All of that makes me very curious about you, Finn."
Curious. Not angry. Not disgusted. Finn breathes out. "Well, I just—I saw the news, about that massacre, and I just—I couldn't keep working for them. I never felt like I fit in very well anyways. They're very utilitarian. Empathy's frowned upon. That didn't really work for me."
"Empathy…" Leia picks up a pencil and twirls it between her fingers. "I think that was brave of you. To leave what you know."
"Well—thanks," Finn mumbles.
"We don't necessarily have need of an engineer right now, but we'd be able to put you through an ESL training course, if you're willing to assist one of our teachers." Leia bites her lip. "Doesn't pay much, but—"
"It's something," Finn says with a grin. "Yes, yes—I'll take it."
"Wonderful." She holds out her hand. "Welcome, Finn. We're excited to have you."
Her phone rings. "One second, and I'll have you sign some paperwork." She answers the phone. "Hello?"
Finn watches as the regal woman's jaw sags, and gray creeps into her pallor. "Chewie?... hospital? Why? What kind of—what?"
Finn glances at the books again, studying the titles and wishing someone would invent a vanishing potion, because he could use it right about now.
"I'll be right there," Leia says, hanging up the phone.
"Is everything okay?" Finn ventures as she sinks back into her chair. Apparently not.
"Not quite," Leia manages. "I'll have Jess bring you the paperwork. I'm afraid there's a bit of a personal emergency." She manages a watery smile at him. "I am very glad to have you with us, Finn."
The lady's in pain and she's still taking time to be kind to him. Finn nods, a lump in his throat. "Thank you."
Thanks for reading! Sorry for the cliffhanger :)