She had wandered off down the corridors, alone. Her parents were sure to be looking for her; being only six years old, they were not overly fond of her walking around on her own. They could never seem to keep her in check, however. The adventurous side of her personality had started to develop and there seemed to be no stopping her.

She was excited and a little frightened at the same time – as much as she wanted to explore her new home, the shadows on the walls that she was not familiar with were frightening and the lights that flickered that she had not figured out the timing for yet made her jump. She pushed on, though. She was determined not to let her parents know that she was homesick. She was determined to show them how resilient she was.

She reached an intersection in the hallways, and stopped for a moment to compose herself. She had no idea where she was going, and needed to make a quick decision. She saw a light on at the end of the left hallway, and her curiosity got the better of her as she quickly started skipping towards it. The familiar feeling of delight and anxiety filled the pit of her stomach as the light grew and she heard the sounds of tinkering in a room at the end of the corridor.

As soon as she reached the door, she stopped herself from going in. She suddenly became nervous – she had no idea what or who she would find in there if she opened the door. She heard the familiar sound of someone playing with toys, however, and she became curious to see what was in the room. Perhaps she could find some new toys to take back to her bedroom with her. Perhaps it would make it feel more like home.

She quietly stepped to stand in front of the doorway, and peered inside through the small crevice between the doorframe and the door. There was a dim light inside, and it illuminated a young boy sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing with what looked like a few small toy replicas of a space ship. She smiled to herself as she saw the boy re-enacting what looked to be an intense battle between the ships. She forgot where she was as she watched the boy play – he seemed to be so concentrated and focused on his game that he did not even realize that a strand of his curly dark hair had fallen in front of his eyes.

Abruptly, she felt a tingling in her nose, and before she knew it, she had sneezed. The action caused her to lose her footing a little, and suddenly she was standing fully visible in the doorway. The boy had stopped playing to see who or what was causing all the commotion, and he lowered his toys as he looked up at her. His eyes widened at the sight of her, clearly confused as to why she was even there.

"Who are you?" He asked, his voice much sharper than she had expected. It made her a little nervous, and her voice sounded a bit shaky when she answered.

"My name is Cara. What's yours?"

"What are you doing here?" He asked, obviously avoiding her previous question.

"Hiding from my parents." She said, not even bothering to think of an excuse. He looked at her for a moment, seemingly judging whether or not she was worthy of his conversation.

"Me too." He finally responded, after a full minute of silence.

"Why are you hiding from them?"

"Sometimes I think they're scared of me." He said, and she had no answer to his statement.

"Mine made me move here."

"Why?"

"I don't know. They never told me."

"Mine don't tell me anything either."

They were silent for a minute, and Cara decided that she had conversed with him enough to sit down. She sat down on the floor across from him, hugging her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. It was a defensive position she took whenever she was not sure about how comfortable she was with someone. She liked talking to the boy, but there was something strange about him as well. She still did not know his name.

"What are you playing with?" She asked, trying to make the situation less uncomfortable.

He smiled for the first time, and it instantly made her smile as well. He grabbed his replicas off the floor once more, and explained to her what each one was.

"This one is an X-Wing. All the best pilots fly in them! And the other one is a TIE fighter. You can't find those here,' he said, afterwards putting them down on the ground to pick up the biggest one of the three he had, 'and this one, this one looks like my dad's ship. He takes me along with him sometimes. It's called the Millennium Falcon!"

He seemed so excited, and his enthusiasm immediately rubbed off on her.

"Can I play with one?" She asked, a little worried that he would say no. It seemed like he was about to, but something had to have changed his mind. Maybe he could see how eager she was to use them. He handed her the TIE fighter, and she grinned at him as he carefully placed it in her hand.

"Be careful with it!" He said, worried that she would somehow break one of them. He had never let anyone touch his replicas before. What if he had made a mistake trusting her?

"Don't worry, I will be. I promise." She said, and she smiled at him again. Her words made him feel a little more relaxed, and soon they were re-enacting another battle between all three ships. The X-Wing and the Millennium Falcon won, of course, because the good guys always win. That's what he said to her, and she immediately believed him. He seemed so sure of himself.

When they finished their game, they sat in silence for a while, both enjoying each other's company. It was not often that they got to be around people their own age. It made for a refreshing change of pace.

"Are you here alone a lot?" She asked, breaking the comfortable silence they had.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I like it."

"Me too." She said, and she mimicked his sitting position, crossing her legs under each other. She felt more at ease with him the more time she spent with him.

He fell silent again. He was not used to talking to someone of his own age for this amount of time. He hoped that she would say something else though. He did not want to give her a reason to leave. Not yet, anyway.

"You have any other places that you hide in?" She asked, and he breathed a sigh of relief, strangely thankful that she had asked him another question.

"I haven't found any yet. But I will. I've been exploring the base a lot."

"That sounds like fun."

She was secretly hoping that he would ask her to come along with him one day. She liked exploring a lot, but she figured it would be more fun if she had someone that would come along with her. Not to mention a little less frightening.

There was something about her that made him want to get to know her better. He did not have anyone else that he could play games with – and maybe it would be fun to find new hiding spots with someone else. Maybe it would be nice to share something for once.

Suddenly, he stood up, and she looked down at her hands, fidgeting with her fingers. She was worried that she had pushed too far, that he would just leave her here to find her way back to her parents by herself.

"You don't want to come?" He asked, startling her. She looked up at him, noticing that he was holding his hand out to help her up. She took it, smiling at the boy in front of her, and another curl fell into his face as he looked down at the ground, blushing slightly. She giggled a little at his reaction, pushing the curl back into his unruly mop of hair.

"What are you doing?" He asked, jumping back a little, letting go of her hand.

"I'm sorry! Your hair just fell into your face. I pushed it back."

"Oh." It was all he could think of to say. He had never had someone around him who seemed to be so comfortable.

"So what do you think we'll find?" She asked, clearly not noticing how confused he felt at her presence and the way she was acting. She was so relaxed. It was unusual for him.

"I don't know, but this place is huge. I bet we'll find some great hiding places. We can get away from our parents whenever we want."

"That sounds good." She said, turning around to walk out the door. She thought that he would follow her, but when she spun back around, he was not behind her. She poked her head back into the small room they were just in, to find him standing there, looking down at the floor. She held out her hand for him this time, hoping he would take it and follow her outside. He looked back up at her, his eyes wide again, and she realized that there were probably very few people that acted like this around him. It weirdly made her like him even more. She could be his first friend. They could be each other's only friends.

"Are you coming?"

He seemed to snap out of it, and gently took hold of her hand. She turned to go back the way she came, but he stopped her, pulling her in the other direction.

"Don't we have to go that way?"

"No, I know a shortcut." For some unknown reason, she trusted him. She let herself be dragged along, going further down the corridor and away from the only light source in the tunnel. Abruptly, he came to a standstill, and she bumped into him before she could stop herself.

"What are you doing?"

"Just trust me." He said, and it was all she needed to hear. He let go of her hand, needing both of them to pull the small hatch door open in the wall. She never would have seen it if he had not pointed it out to her. They stepped through, into another hallway. This one was better lit, and they walked around, opening doors on all sides to see what was behind them. They did not find anything of note until she came to the end of the corridor. There was a door on the right hand side that needed a little extra force to be opened. She stepped inside, and was extremely excited by what she found.

"Come see this!" She yelled, immediately getting his attention. He ran over to where her voice was, and joined her in the small storage room they now found themselves in. Surrounding them were old relics from different times – all toys that they could play with and collect. They blew the dust off of them together, the objects being lightly illuminated by the lights in the hallway.

"This place is amazing!" He gushed, and she was happy to hear him so excited.

"I think we can hide down here just fine." She said, his enthusiasm working infectiously.

"I think so too." He turned to her, and smiled once more. She could not help but smile back.

They ended up playing for hours, creating their own story-worlds and games from their imaginations. They completely forgot the time, and did not stop playing until they heard her parents yelling her name in the distance.

"I guess we should go. We don't want them to find this room." She said, saddened by the prospect of saying goodbye to her new friend.

"That's a good idea. We should keep this our little secret." He said, and she was excited about his use of the word 'our'. She had officially made a new friend.

They placed the toys and relics back where they found them and shut the door, barely leaving a trace they had been there to begin with. They walked towards the sound of the adults' voices, the boy showing her to a door she had not noticed before that once more led into another hallway. She was thrilled at the prospect of exploring the base – there were so many secret passages and corners to discover.

"You never told me your name." She suddenly realized.

"Ben, my name is Ben." He looked straight at her then, and she noticed for the first time that his eyes were a friendly shade of brown.

"Hi, Ben."

"Hi, Cara."

Slumped down on the floor of her cell from sheer exhaustion, smiling slightly at the memory as she traced the patterns of Kylo Ren's destruction with her eyes on the wall opposite her. It was the first time they had met. Their friendship had been almost instantaneous. There was never a doubt in her mind that she needed him just as much as he needed her. It became especially apparent a few months later when her parents had passed away. She could never have imagined that she would ever need anyone as much as she needed him the weeks after she had received the news. She could never have imagined that she would want him back so desperately now.

Things had changed a lot since then. In a million years, she never could have expected to end up here.

A/N: I'm sorry this update took a bit longer than expected, I was a lot busier than I realized! Hope you guys enjoy and any feedback is always welcome :) I promise I'll update soon!