"Don't say a word to Snoke about this!" Hux snarls to Phasma as they drive away with Nines scowling in the backseat.
"About what? The fact that all your efforts to babysit Kylo Ren are futile?"
"Shut up, woman!"
"Don't talk to her like that," Nines interrupts.
"No, man." Phasma glares at him. "I let you talk me into doing this and it turned out just as poorly as I expected. We can't go rogue. That's exactly why you hate Ren."
"I hate him, sure. But Snoke needs him for whatever reason." Hux shrugs. The contempt dripping from Phasma's tone burns him like acid. "I'm trying to save his ass from doing something incredibly stupid for Snoke, for FO Tech. I'm trying to finish the mission he can't even complete because he's lazy or whatever."
"No, you're doing it for yourself," Phasma counters. "If you sacrifice everything, even your personal hatred for Ren, for the good of Snoke, maybe he'll somehow notice, intuitively pick up on it. You're wrong. He won't. And even if he does, he won't care."
"Don't talk about Snoke like that—you hardly know him—"
"I'm not criticizing Snoke. I'm criticizing you."
Hux bites his tongue so hard he tastes blood. He swallows the bitter taste, wishing he could spit it out.
He pulls back in FO Tech's parking lot. "Go."
Nines scrambles out of the car, but Phasma doesn't move. "I said go," Hux snarls.
"You know that Snoke's going to find out what you've done," Phasma says without looking at Hux.
"How?"
"You know he's got people watching you just as he's got that secretary watching Ren. Watching your computer files, probably tracking your phone. And if Ren can't do anything about it, don't expect yourself to be able to do anything, either. You're trapped in a mess of your own making."
"Why would you go along with it, then?" Hux cries out, panic crashing over him in waves. He, who prides himself of being cool, collected, calm in the face of… anything. Everything.
Feeling is for the weak.
Feeling is weak.
And now, he's adrift and at Snoke's mercy, and he hates it.
"Because I thought you would succeed," Phasma retorts.
She thought I would succeed?
Hux isn't sure whether he wants to pull a Kylo Ren and put his fist through glass to stab the shame of not succeeding out of him, or to grasp onto the rope she's dangling—that she believed in him.
"What do we do now?" Hux asks, staring at the empty blue of his steering wheel.
"You should probably go explain yourself to Snoke," Phasma says. "And if possible, leave me out of it." The door slams, and she stalks away.
"Fine," Hux says, even though she can't hear him. He watches her hips sway as she walks and closes his eyes, leans his head back.
You can't fail.
"I'll call my sister," Luke says grimly as he loiters in the lobby of Poe's building. "Meet you upstairs. Artoo, wait with me." His dog stops sniffing at Beebee-Ate and lies down.
"That's not going to be a quick phone call," Poe points out.
Luke waves his hand as if to say it doesn't matter. Poe hobbles into the elevator. His nose throbs, and he presses against it. Is it broken?
At least he's found Luke. Sort of. Well, Luke found him.
"Oh my God!" Finn yelps when Poe staggers in, Beebee-Ate on his heels. "What the hell happened to you?"
"FO Tech happened," Poe gripes, even though he shouldn't. "And then Luke Skywalker happened."
"Are you kidding me? What the—what?" Finn marches towards the fridge, yanking the freezer door open and pulling out an ice pack. "Luke Skywalker?"
"Yeah… we found him. Sort of." Poe accepts the ice pack and details the afternoon's crazy events.
"What kind of work do you even do for Alderaan House?" Finn wants to know, because of course he does.
"Uh… I don't quite work for Alderaan House," Poe admits. "I mean, I do. Kind of. They're hired me. But I used to be an agent. For the government."
"Are you serious?"
Poe cracks his eyes open to see Finn gaping at him. Finn's hand rests on Poe's shoulder, strong and warm even though the thin cotton of Poe's shirt. "I wasn't satisfied. I felt like I was a tool and like they were turning a blind eye to things. So when Leia got in touch with me and told me she wanted to find her brother, wanted to bring FO Tech down, I leaped at the chance. I do some advocacy work, which Leia pays me for, and then I do my own investigation, which she pays me for from her own funds, not the company's. She and Luke were buddies of my parents, you know. My mom died on Luke's last mission."
"How come you never told me?"
"We haven't known each other all that long," Poe mutters. The ice burns and he lifts it from his nose and tries to sniff. Nope. And everyone kept telling me not to trust you.
"Do you get hurt a lot?" Finn ventures, fiddling with the edges of his jacket. Poe's jacket.
"Not hit by cars," Poe jokes, only to see Finn's eyes lower towards the floor.
Does he know more than he's saying about that?
Stop being paranoid, Dameron. Poe doesn't know what happened that night, but he does know Finn.
"You should be careful," Finn tells him, meeting Poe's gaze. "FO Tech can do some scary shit."
"I know. But I can't fail Leia. And now I haven't, so."
"Leia or your parents?" Finn questions.
Poe swallows, leaning the side of his head that isn't bruised against the couch. Finn's face is inches from his own, and Poe can't tear his eyes away. "Both," he whispers.
The door swings open and Rey comes in. Finn looks away from Poe, looks up, and Poe curses internally.
"Damn, Rey," Finn says. "Am I going to play nursemaid for both of you?"
"What happened to Poe?" Rey, clad in oversized, shredded jean shorts and a black bikini top, peers over the couch. "Oh my God!"
"Oh my God yourself," Poe retorts. "If you wanted to try lobster so badly, Rey, you could have asked. You didn't need to try and become one."
"Seriously, Rey, do I need to google the symptoms of sun poisoning?" Finn wonders, reaching for his laptop.
"I'll be fine." Rey rolls her eyes and hesitates. "I went to the beach with Kylo Ren."
"What the fuck?" Poe yanks the ice pack away from his nose. "Kylo Ren?"
"I thought you handed his ass to him last night!" Finn protests.
"I kind of did… but neither of you were willing to go with me. And I didn't want to go alone. And he called me and apologized, and it seemed sincere—"
"Oh, did he say he was going immediately to Han's place to prostrate himself at his father's feet and a-fucking-pologize?" Poe demands. "Because how else do you think he's sincere?"
"I don't know." Rey winces as she examines her arms. "He's an asshole for sure, but he's also kind of nice. To me at least." She drops onto the armchair and tells them about the night on the bench, when she kicked those men away and when Kylo helped her.
"And he didn't expect anything?" Finn asks, eyebrows raised.
"If you're implying I slept with him, I'm offended. No. He didn't."
Poe opens his mouth and closes it. You invited Finn to live with you knowing you're attracted to him.
It's not the same thing. At all.
"His voice message…" Rey plays it for them. Poe shudders. "I think he's lonely. And I know what that's like. I mean, he's a jerk in so many ways—a monster, really—but he's not at the same time."
"I know loneliness too," Finn says, voice tight. "But I don't push away people who try to come near me, like my own father. Not that I have one."
"For some reason, he's not pushing me away," Rey says. "Why not?"
"Don't look at me," Poe groans. "Because I had another little encounter with FO Tech today—"
"You're not obligated to do anything with or for him," Finn says as Rey gapes at Poe in horror.
"I don't feel obligated. I just—I don't know. I care about him. How can that be wrong?"
The door creaks open again. "You should know better than to leave it unlocked," Luke intones.
"Sorry," says Rey.
Rey excuses herself to take a shower as quickly as possible. The water pricks her skin like needles. She slathers aloe on her body after and still cringes as she slides on a beige t-shirt. It feels as if it's peeling her skin front her bones. Her fingers close around the shell, and she stares at the sparkly gold. Did you order Poe's attack, too? She's almost afraid to text him. But she does.
She pads out of the bathroom and finds Luke still there, sitting with Poe and Finn. His dog and Beebee-Ate snuggle.
Luke Skywalker. Is here. In her apartment.
"You," Luke calls. "Rey."
"Yeah?" She freezes. I'm not a monster.
But his smile disarms any defenses she's grappling for in her brain. "So you've been hanging out with my nephew."
Rey remembers what Kylo told her earlier, about living with his uncle. They were tired of me. Was that the same reason her parents abandoned her? "Yeah. While you've been…?"
Poe's jaw drops. Luke narrows his eyes. Rey's too burned and too tired to care. She settles onto the floor. "I won't tell him you're back, if you don't want me to."
"I don't," Luke says.
Rey studies him. A beard cloaks half of his face, but his eyes give everything away. Like uncle, like nephew. "Can we talk alone sometime?" she requests.
Luke folds his hands on his knee. "Well, I'm waiting for Leia to get back into town, which should take approximately two hours. Let's talk."
Rey looks to her roommates. Poe rolls his eyes and holds out his arm. "Help requested."
Finn laughs and hauls Poe upright.
"So," Luke says. "How did you meet Ben?"
Ben. Not Kylo. Rey tells about the coffee shop, about Han, about losing her job and Kylo helping her. And how she found out who he was. "I haven't told Leia." She bites her lips and winces, realizing they're burned and swollen too. "Will you?"
"That her son apparently has some sort of fixation on you? No, you can do that. Whenever you wish. I won't push you to," he clarifies.
"Fixation?"
"He's got a bit of an obsessive personality."
Rey twirls a wet strand of hair. "So do I." She swallows and looks back to Luke. "He said you were close to him when he was young."
Luke nods. "I was. But he didn't—when he got to a certain age, he started pushing everyone away. He didn't want me. He wanted his parents, and he hated them for sending him away, so he didn't want them at the same time."
"Why did they send him away?" Rey queries. Is it normal for everyone in this Skywalker-Solo family to open up right away? Rey's not used to it, but she envies them their ability to strip their skin so readily, while she's locked up with so many secrets she'll never drag out and so many questions she's afraid to ask.
"Ben didn't tell you?"
"Why do you call him Ben?" Rey asks, her face hot even though she isn't embarrassed. Damn sunburn. "He's legally Kylo Ren now."
"He'll always be Ben to me," Luke says quietly. "He was named for my dearest friend." He clears his throat. "There were death threats. Han broke a major story, and Leia's always been a controversial figure. Someone starting following Ben, taking pictures of him at school, whenever he would go out with friends, all of that stuff, with a clear message of I could kill your son if I wanted to." He sighs. "Ben knew, but he didn't quite understand all of it. They thought he'd be safer with me—I just had a desk job by then." Guilt winds its way through his tone, climbs to his eyes.
"You left because he left," Rey states. Why didn't you look for him?
"Precisely. I… fell into a depression. When I started recovering, it had already been too long—and when I found out who her son had become, I couldn't bring myself to break the news to her." Luke laughs. "You're easy to talk to, Rey. I think I know why my nephew likes you."
No one's ever said anything like that to her before. Rey shifts. Her teachers always said she was awkward, her foster parents that she was too brash. "You know what he did to Han," she says.
"Yes. And Lor San Tekka gave me your roommate's information."
"Poe's been looking for you?" Rey yanks out her phone and checks it, not caring how rude she appears.
Of course not! is his indignant response to her question about whether he ordered Poe beaten. I swear. I'm honestly not sure anyone from FO Tech did that.
She kind of believes him. Or, at least, believes the part where he doesn't know anything about it.
"Um—" Luke's eyes dart to Poe's closed door, and Rey starts to put the pieces together. "Yes. Poe and Han, and several others. I imagine."
Rey crosses her arms and winces. How is she going to avoid touching anything until this burn heals? "Why would Ben do that?" When she remembers the bruises on Han's face, his remorse seems limp in comparison, like a band-aid where there should be a tourniquet. "And why is he looking for you, too?"
He works for monsters. How long until he becomes one? Rey thinks of the toenail shell and feels the aloe on her skin and doesn't understand. But she can't be his friend if he's going to work there.
"As to your first question, Snoke. That man is persuasive. I know him. He wanted Ben since he met him. He can keep him as Kylo Ren, milk him for his obvious business talents, and then if Leia ever steps too far out of line—as she's awfully close to doing now—Snoke can expose who Kylo Ren is and ruin her. Snoke doesn't care about Ben. He's a weapon Snoke can store and sharpen until he needs to unleash it. Snoke is brilliant, Rey, and he saw a part of Ben we didn't see. He reached a part of him that Leia and Han and me—that we all didn't see until it was too late." Luke drains his glass of water. "As for why my nephew's looking for me, I imagine he thinks that if he finds me, I might be able to convince his mother—his father, even—to stop pressing for the FO Tech investigation. At least, I hope that's why he's looking for me. And I imagine FO Tech's looking for me to circumvent any risk of him doing just that. Snoke doesn't trust Ben. He'd be a fool to." Luke sighs. "But this is all just conjecture."
Kylo might be trying to protect his mother, Rey realizes. Kylo, or Ben? She'll have to ask him. "Thank you," she says. "For being so… open."
Luke manages a wry smile. "Thank you for listening."
"Where were you yesterday?" Hux demands as Kylo arrives at FO Tech the next morning, stiff. His shirt feels like a knife scratching his scorched skin. "Oh, sweet Jesus. Were you sailing or something?"
"I'm allowed to take days off," Kylo snaps, fury in his tone. Poe Dameron. He wonders if Rey believes him or not. He never had any intention of hurting the ex-agent. Who found him first? Only Snoke knew the name... but Snoke's not dumb enough to attack someone they need information from.
And he's her roommate. Kylo wants to vomit each time he remembers that.
"We have an important project and you need to pull your weight!" Hux yells after him.
"One day off doesn't—"
"No, but you never do take days off." Hux scrambles to follow him. "You can't afford to get distracted now. If you're really so bothered by what happened with Han Solo—"
"That's not it at all," Kylo snaps, turning around to face his colleague.
"Yes," Hux tells him, studying Kylo's face that looks as if it's been dipped in tomato sauce. "I think it is."
"Fuck off, Hux." Kylo unlocks his office door.
"It's that girl, not Han Solo," Mitaka's voice cuts in.
"What girl?" Hux asks.
"Excuse me?" Kylo glowers at his secretary, who shrinks in his chair.
"It was just a joke," Mitaka squeaks.
This is just fantastic. Now Hux won't stop until he tracks down every piece of information he can find on Rey. Which, given that Kylo gave Mitaka whatever information he had, it's a miracle Hux doesn't already know more about Rey than Kylo does.
If only Mitaka weren't Snoke's spy. Kylo would fire him. But he can't really give the man any sort of orders beyond "set up this appointment for ten o'clock."
Kylo slams his office door and leans against it. Some days, this palace feels like a prison, like he's in maximum security and solitary confinement.
His phone rings within an hour, and Kylo answers to hear Snoke's voice on the other end. "Hux told me you missed yesterday to hang out with a girl. A nobody, according to Mitaka, without even a degree—"
"She's a friend who needed help earlier," Kylo interrupts. And she's the girl he almost kissed yesterday. The girl he would have kissed, if he wasn't so afraid that he'd be so atrocious at it she'd laugh at him.
"She's not worthy of you," Snoke says dismissively. "You're an established businessman. I can't have you throwing the Starkiller deal away from some tramp."
"She's just a friend. It's nothing. I just took one day. I've taken days before—"
"When times were slow and allowed for it. When we're in crunch mode, it's very unlike you." Snoke pauses. "I need you to give me your best, Kylo Ren. For the next three weeks. Can you do that?"
Kylo presses his arm against a rough patch of wood on his desk, splinters scrabbling at his dying skin. "Yes."
"We shall see." Snoke snorts. "Don't let me down." And he hangs up.
Now he's lost visitation privileges, too. Kylo drops his head to his desk. His throat feels like sandpaper, and he rises to get some water.
"If he hasn't said anything yet, I'm guessing we're homefree," Hux is saying to Phasma. Kylo cocks his head, studying them. At the very least, he can give Hux a taste of his own medicine.
"Maybe." Phasma sounds doubtful. "But Finn—we shouldn't underestimate him. He's the type of employee who could have climbed high."
They did it, Kylo realizes. And there's nothing he can do about it except inform Snoke and hope his boss fires them both. Except, if Hux gets fired, that will put the entire Starkiller project on Kylo's shoulders. And he doesn't want that.
"I agree with Hux here, Phasma," Kylo interjects, thinking of Rey. "For once. Give it a rest."
Phasma gapes at him, but Hux's nostrils flare.
"Fortunately, you're not my direct supervisor," Phasma informs him, crossing her arms. In heels, she's taller than Kylo.
Something like black fire flames inside him as he stalks back to his office, chugging cool water. He reaches for his phone to text Rey. Time to find out if she blames him or not. Do you want to get dinner sometime?