The next day faded into the next, a week became a month, a month became a season; and Rey had long since snapped. Biweekly both she and Kylo were forced into the ring, both always winning their battles before being pinned up against each other. She would win some, he'd win the most, and their shared scars began to litter their bodies. Rey wished she didn't have to do this, but a punishment after a loss was the only way either of them could please their master; and Snoke loved to see blood. Kylo had warned Rey against speaking out against him or going easy on each other. From his vastly longer experience with the sadistic old man he knew that if his desires were not met he'd meet them himself with a worse fate.

Rey has yet to see for herself what type of torture the master likes to perform on his disobedient subordinates, and Kylo refused to share any details. All she knew what that it was painful enough to take anyone out of commission for at least a few days. That's why Rey had become so cautious of the man, always treading carefully around him. Sure it wasn't as if Rey had never been beaten before, Unklar Plutt would give her a fistful every week, but Snoke's methods seemed to be on a whole other level.

So she sat their quietly in her room, reading the books she was soon provided with once her literacy level increased, waiting each day for a meal to be brought to her; never once talking to her new servant. When her prison guard came in to take her to her daily training sessions, she would get up and follow without a word. No snarky comments would come out from her when Kylo or Phasma corrected her, she would just nod and follow their instructions. After that she'd sit in the bath and stare at her reflection in the water before heading back to her room. If she had ever crossed paths with Snoke she would bow and respond in kind if he ever made conversation.

More than once Rey thought of drowning herself in that bath water, and more than a few times did she attempt before she would push herself back up with some sick will to live, or rather, a fear of death.

Kylo would visit her every day at what she thought was four in the afternoon and work with her as her new teacher. When dinner was called he would leave to eat it in his room, and Rey would eat it in hers. Once the meal was finished and cleared she would chose between either reading a book; writing poetry, which she discovered she enjoyed quite well; or simply staring out the window.

Day in and day out this what her life was now composed of. Besides the fighting and near scrapes with death, Rey was living a comfortable life. For the first time she had enough food, clean clothes, medical treatment, education, and a soft bed. These should be all the components of a content life; Rey should be happy, grateful even. But she wasn't. She hated this even more than she hated her treatment back in Jakku; because it was all just a lie. The nice dresses she was given couldn't hide the scars; the hot baths couldn't wipe away the blood; and nothing good around her could make up for all the evils she's committed.

And what of Kylo? The one person Rey thought she could find grievances in no longer confided in her. He would only speak when it was necessary for him to do so. Months had passed and he has never once brought up the kiss that he stole, not so much as an explanation.

Rey was left alone to quietly suffer within her own mind; she spoke of nothing, acted on nothing. She just let her anger, fear, and hate hide under her thick skin. Ever since Rey had broken down she no longer cried or screamed, she didn't curse the life she was given, she simply accepted it. Rey had earned this life and it was her fault she was living this way.

Rey hadn't been good enough for her parents to keep. Rey hadn't been good enough a slave for Plutt not to hit her. Rey hadn't been a good enough fighter to win against Kylo Ren. And Rey hadn't been a good enough friend for Mashra not to leave her. Everything that has ever been wrong in her life has been due to he own inadequacies. Therefore she was reaping what she had sewn.

Time crawled on without her, from the view Rey had from her room she watched as the leaves turned color from vibrant greens to gold, orange, and red. Kylo had told her this was called autumn, a time when life around the world grew old and began to wither. In brought some kind of emotion to Rey to know that she was not the only thing dying. Next came a season called winter, as she had been told, the withered leaves fell from the trees in a silent death and a strange white blanket covered the landscape overnight. There was no more color as everything either died or went to sleep.

Rey watched dots of white fall gracefully from the sky, turning away from her studies as Kylo read a passage from their book. She didn't know what it was; she'd never seen it before.

"Rey?" Kylo called her back from her wandering thoughts.

"Huh?" She replied, turning around in her chair, "Sorry, where were we?"

Kylo eyed her for a second before turning to where she had been looking just a moment before. He seemed to understand her confusion and decided to answer her unspoken question.

"That's snow, a sign that winter has arrived." He told her, bookmarking the page and closing his book.

"What is it like?" Rey asked, a childlike curiosity appearing on her face for the first time in a long while.

"It's very cold and wet; it can be either soft or heavy." Kylo said, sanding them up and bringing her over to the window.

"Have you ever been in it?" Rey asked without thinking, cringing at herself when she realized how personal that question was.

"Before I was captured, yes." He responded as if what he had just said wasn't ground breaking to her.

Kylo had never told Rey the story of how he came into slavery; he acted as if it had been his entire life. Rey herself had been sold into it at a young age, others like Mashra had been born into it, but Kylo had been captured? That must mean that he had a different life before this, a family, friends, he had known what it was like to live a free man. Rey wanted to know what it was like; she wanted him to opened up to her, to talk to her again. This was shaky ground for her to walk on, but if a bridge was not built or mended Kylo would always be distant to her.

"What was your life like before slavery?" Rey questioned lightly, yet directly, making her question clear so he could not dodge it.

Kylo didn't answer her right away or at all at first. Minutes passed by as he stayed quiet and she waited patiently. She sat on the cushioned bench beneath the windowsill and looked out at the landscape as he did. The fire crackling in the fireplace, providing them with heat, was the only sound in the desolate room along with the howling wind that was pounding against the window.

It took until the sun changed position in the sky for Kylo to finally sit down with her, keeping two feet of space between them. Rey looked to him when he did so, expecting an answer, and watched as he lightly fidgeted in his spot. She could tell he was having an inner battle with himself at the moment, and could only wait it out with him.

"My life is none of your business." He finally answered, looking away from her and back out the window.

Rey didn't respond right away, searching his face to see if he was being serious. When she saw no sign of him giving in, she chuckled lowly and mockingly nodded her head.

"Yeah, it's none of my business." She spat bitterly, standing up to walk away to her bed.

"Wait, Rey I-"

"You what, huh?" Rey shot back, whipping around to face him, "You don't trust me enough? Care for me enough? Am I not enough for you?"

Kylo quickly shut his mouth, unable to say anything to her as she yelled accusingly at him. He looked away in shame, and that action only made Rey all the more furious.

"You walk around with your head so far up in your ass of self pity to see what is literally five feet in front of you."

"I do not pity myself!" Kylo shouted back, getting up from his seat in defense.

"Oh, really?" Rey scoffed, "Is that why you don't talk to me anymore?" Rey walked closer with each word until she was standing chest to chest with him, staring with fiery cold eyes. "Hello, I'm right here, you're not the only one who's gone through shit."

"You could never understand what it's like to have gone through what I've gone through. I was stolen from my family after a huge fight with my parents. I have to live with the guilt of seeing their faces everyday!"

"At least you had parents to fight with! Mine sold me away as a child without a second thought. You've known love; I've lived through nothing but torture!"

"I've lived through it too Rey! For the past fifteen years, that's just as long as you."

"This?!" Rey stepped back, gesturing to the room, "Is torture? I was forced to live underground in a cell, only being fed scrapes, and beaten just because my master felt like it."

"A couple punches are nothing compared to the sadistic tastes of Snoke!" Kylo howled.

"Then why won't tell me about it?!" Rey yelled, chocking on a sob.

The fury in Kylo's eyes immediately drained away as he watched her begin to cry, instead he looked at her as she too lost most of her anger and fell to her knees.

"You're the only one here who I could possibly talk to and would understand my pain, but you just ignore me and treat me more as a student than a partner you'd kiss." She cried, whipping her eyes with the back of her hands. "I don't get it, did I do something wrong? Why are you acting as if it never happened, why are shutting me out?"

Curling into a ball, Rey let it all out. Months worth of surprised doubts and fear and suffering spilled out as she let herself crack once again in front of him. How many times would she have to open up for his to finally let her in? Would she have to suffer even more for him to deem her worthy enough to be with?

As Rey said all these things she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and pull her close to him. She held on and let him hold her as she wailed. A calming hand rubbed circles into her back, and a serene voice called her out of her panicked state, leading her away from her anxieties as he calmed her down. When she was finally done, Kylo pulled back slightly to face her, cupping her face. His eyes were saddened but gentle towards her.

"I never meant for you to feel this way, Rey." He told her, "And it was my own insecurities that kept me from talking to you, I'm sorry."

"Then talk to me." Rey murmured, holding his hand against her cheek.

"Okay."

…

He was fifteen years old and spending the summer days with his mother and father at their lake house. Ben Solo had been acting up at school and home lately so his parent believed that some time away from both work and the city would do their family some good.

It had been six years since Ben had last been here with his family. His parents were constantly busy and had almost no time for their son anymore, what with his mother being a senator and his dad owning a shipping company. What had started as an attempt to get his parents attention again had turned into a way to vent his frustration and anger. Of course when Leia and Han Solo heard that their son had been getting into fights at school and hospitalized one of them they had been very disappointed. They had tried sending him to a therapist, but Ben refused to talk. So the next best idea was to take him away from the city and try to work out his issues themselves.

Han would take him fishing, Leia would play tennis with him, but Ben knew they were only doing this out of concern, not from love. He could see the slight hint of fear whenever he raised his voice or made a sudden movement. His parents had become scared of their own son.

As their one month vacation started to come to an end his parents began to lose faith that they could help him. One night, when he was walking out of his room to get a small snack, Ben overheard them talking about their worry for their son's behavior. Leia had suggested that they send him to her brother's academy on the other side of the country until graduation to see if Luke could help.

Ben, angry and scared that they would send him away, quietly packed his backpack, waited until his parents were asleep, and ran away to the nearest town. He wanted to buy a ticket to Coruscant and stay with his friend, but he didn't have enough money for a transit to take him there.

Deciding to walk there, Ben headed down the highway by foot until dawn, when he camped out on the side of the road to sleep. While he rested there a van pulled up beside him. He woke up in time only to see someone bagging him before knocking him out again.

When he woke up he was in a cage with three other people. Men and women in fancy clothes would walk by the cell, eyeing him before walking away to what he assumed were more cages. It was then that Ben realized that he had been kidnapped and was about to be sold.

He had brought this upon himself. His childish tantrum had led him to run away in the first place. If he had just opened up to his parents about how he felt he would never have gotten in that situation. And now he was about to pay for a stupid decision made by an angry and scared fifteen year old.

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Sorry it's been a while since I had last posted, I was visiting family and focusing on other stories, but I'm back. Sorry if there were any triggers in this chapter.

Do you see any parallels between them? eh eh eh?

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