They bathe in the first creek they find. It's shallow and cold, but refreshing at the same time. She's not shy about stripping down in front of him now. He still is and she enjoys watching the way he blushes as she studies him.

"You weren't so shy that first time," she points out as he attempts to cover himself before wading into the deep part of the creek.

He turns even redder and she laughs as he plunges in, shivering in the frigid water. "I thought your reaction was interesting," he says when he's hidden up to his waist in the water.

His chest is still on display, much as it was back then, nipples puckered as he wraps his arms around himself. She can't help but watch. She couldn't then, either. He's an attractive man, tall and strong with eyes that see right through her and lips that she now knows are almost sinfully meant for kissing.

And for other things.

She wades in after him and lets out a little shriek as the water hits her calves, her thighs, and finally comes up to just below her breasts. He's almost studiously avoiding looking at them, meeting her eyes and then looking slightly over her shoulder. "You can look." The words are soft and he finally does, glancing down and then back up quickly. "Ben," she says with a laugh. "After all we've done?"

"I told you…"

"I know." And this is said with a kindness, a softness she feels she needs to approach him with. "How was that even possible?"

He shakes his head at that, his lips turned downward in a grimace. "You ask that? Of me?" One hand swipes in the air, from head down to toes. She knows what he means, but she doesn't understand it.

"Yes." It's almost more a question.

"Finish bathing," he says and the words are firm, but not harsh. "And we'll talk."

"I was an awkward child," he says by way of introduction to the topic. They had finished their impromptu bath in the frozen creek, dressed, and went on their way without another word. She wasn't sure he was really going to open up about anything, but here on this strange planet, after all that had been shared between them, she thinks maybe it's possible. "And an even more awkward teenager." The words are a little rueful. "I was trucked off to him at a young age and went between being star pupil and the most troublesome one. I was…haunted."

"By Snoke," she says softly.

"By Snoke," he confirms. "And my own demons." He's quiet for some time and they continue their walk. It's easier this time. No rush to be somewhere, no worries about what this place is doing to them. No one else in their minds.

"Demons?" she finally ventures.

He doesn't respond.

"Ben?"

"I think that says it all." The words are tight and she chooses, perhaps wisely, not to pursue that line of questioning. He's said more in those moments than he ever has before. Opening up isn't easy for him. It's not for her, either, if she's honest, but she's opened up to him before. You're not alone. And she's still certain she's not. He's always there, on the edges of her mind.

"Ben?" she says after nearly a half hour of walking. He turns his head to look at her and she links her arm through his. "Thank you."

He nods and she feels the relief flow across the bond. Maybe someday she'll understand him, but she suspects there are so many layers of demons that she may never be able to break through them all.

It's as they settle down for their second night of making camp that she realizes she doesn't want to part ways from him and she wants to find all those demons and defeat them. She's not sure what that means exactly. There's a turmoil deep inside her and yet it's soothed every time he puts a hand on her, every time her eyes meet his.

It feels right to be with him.

It feels right to fight at his side.

They make love by the firelight and it's soft and slow, none of the rushed nature of their first time, none of those frantic feelings of is this really us or are we really doing the right thing. The bond flows through them, sizzles on their skin, and when he takes her this time she knows that it's the right thing.

It can't be anything else.

The Force has connected them, bonded them, as if they're soulmates.

Maybe they are.

As they lay there in the aftermath, she opens up her mind to him and lets him feel her contentment, her happiness. "Ben?" she ventures tentatively.

"Hmmm?" He's lying on his side, lazily playing with her hair. His eyes are half-shut and he looks like a great big beast who just ate a large, satisfying meal.

"Luke talked about balance…" She sees him tense up and reaches out a hand to soothe him. It's getting easier these days, the feel of her hands, the openness of the bond. It seems to settle him when nothing would before. "In the Force?"

"Did he now?"

"He did. 'Powerful light, powerful darkness.' I could feel it, there on the island. It was all around us."

"Where were you anyway?" he says with a small quirk of his lips.

"Ahch-To," she answers honestly. There's nothing left there for him or anyone in the First Order to destroy. Luke is gone, one with the Force, and she has the Jedi texts. What could they do there but destroy a bunch of innocent porgs?

"That makes sense," he murmurs.

"It was…wet," she says with a small laugh. "I'd never seen so much water in my entire life."

"No," he responds with, serious. "You wouldn't have." They fall silent for a moment and Ben finally heaves a sigh. "Luke Skywalker never talked about balance when I was a Padawan. The dark side was to be feared. It was to be avoided at all costs." There's a bitterness there that she's not sure she'll ever be able to make sense of. "If I even used the Force in some way he deemed 'dark' I was chastised and punished. I reminded him too much of my grandfather apparently. It's just too bad I didn't know how much like him I was."

"They didn't talk of him?"

He lets out a snort and gathers her into his arms. "I didn't know that Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were the same person. Luke said very little about him. And my mother and father? Nothing. It was like he hadn't existed."

"That's…" She doesn't have words for what it is, exactly. The entire galaxy knows of Darth Vader and his return to the light thanks to Luke Skywalker.

"Yes."

"They kept it from you. On purpose?"

She feels his jaw clench against the top of her head. "I don't know if it was purposeful or one of those things where no one knew how to tell me. And then it was too late. I found out from someone else, same time as the rest of the galaxy."

"I'm sorry," she murmurs and he just holds her close.

There's nothing more that she can think to say and so she just lays there, his strong arms circling her, feeling his heartbeat even out against her cheek.

They arrive back at the shuttle, both exhilarated and exhausted at the same time. It's been a long trek there and back. Days of walking, days of making love on their way. Ben seems more carefree than he has before, but there's still an edge to him. He's still too quick to anger, too quick to grab his lightsaber or to throw a cutting remark.

She feels his remorse and his confusion coming across the bond through most of the days they've trudged through the forest to find their shuttles.

She's sure hemust feel her worry about what the future holds, where they go from here. They have to leave together. His shuttle is never going to fly again. She suspects it will eventually shift further and fall down the cliff to slowly decay far away from prying eyes, one small mark of their time here.

When they finally break through the forest back into the clearing, she breathes a sigh of relief and feels him tense up next to her.

He stops there. Stops and stares and when she turns to look at him, his face is almost completely unreadable. She says his name softly, tentatively, and he just shakes his head in response.

"Is there anything you need from your shuttle?" she says as he starts to move forward again.

"Nothing I can't leave behind." There's a grim acceptance behind the words.

She puts a hand on his arm for a moment and then steps away. "Then let's see if this thing will work now?"

He nods. "I think it will." And still he sounds so grim, but he follows her anyway, his boots heavy on the ground as he moves behind her.

The shuttle feels less cramped this time, even though he's still just as large as before. Maybe it's that she's more at ease with him, even if he's clearly not at ease. He paces the small cockpit until she reaches out a hand to stop him and tries to force him into the co-pilot's seat.

He sits with a huff. "I don't know which I'm hoping for." There's a small, rueful quirk of his lips.

"You want to stay here?"

"Here there's no one who wants me dead."

"You think," she says and laughs. It feels good to laugh.

"I don't think you ever wanted to kill me," he says and the words are serious. "You had your chance. More than once."

"I never would have taken it," she whispers.

"Nor I." His words confirm what she always wondered. Even back on Starkiller base. Oh, he had been wounded certainly, but she doesn't fool herself for a moment. If he had wanted to kill her, she wouldn't be here. Instead, he'd offered to teach her and then let himself be taken down when the Force filled her and her rage outpaced his.

He's the one who reaches out this time, his hand touching hers gently. She turns hers so that her fingers entwine with his, somehow more intimate than anything they've shared so far. She doesn't know why, really. She remembers that first brush of fingers, the first time they touched skin to skin, and just how sharp and painful and beautiful it was.

This is far more so.

Fingers entwined and the feeling of the bond's contentment at the contact.

They say nothing more and she turns, one hand still in his, to begin the start-up sequence. Her finger hesitates over the button to begin the launch and she turns to look at him.

"Do it," he murmurs. "We can't really stay here."

The corners of her mouth turn up slightly. She knows the smile doesn't reach her eyes. "No, I suppose we can't." She presses the button.

For a moment nothing happens.

She releases a breath and she's not sure if it's a sigh or a huff of frustration. Maybe something slightly in between. She'd at least like the choice of staying or leaving.

But then the shuttle vibrates under them and lifts off the ground. Ben offers her a tight smile and releases her hand so she can maneuver them out of the planet's atmosphere and into the vacuum of space above.

As they leave the planet's gravitational pull and everything becomes dark and peaceful around them, there's a strange beeping sound from the shuttle and she starts scanning through the read-outs that are appearing on the screens in front of her.

"What –" she murmurs and gets one of the pages to stop. "The D'Arsay System." The words come out far breathier than she is used to.

Ben leans forward slightly in his seat to read along with her. "The D'Arsay System? That's what they called this system?"

"It would seem so." More pages scroll by and Rey shakes her head. "It seems, somehow, they've given us…them." She sees pages with lists of what she assumes are names, births and deaths, pages of history, music, art.

"That's what this was all about," he mutters. "They lure people there, hoping someone will leave with them?"

"It seems so."

"Wow. But then, why…" She feels the blush creep over her cheeks and is surprised to see the same blush across his.

"Maybe…" He clears his throat, looks away, and she finds that she wants to laugh. No, not laugh. It's not funny really. But she finds this weird feeling she can't even explain bubble up inside her.

"Maybe that was what we had to do?"

"Break a curse?" he says right on the heels of her words.

"Is that what it was?"

"Korgano chases Masaka from the sky. And then it repeats."

She nods. "She dies and he rises in her place. But she said nothing about his death."

He looks pensive for a moment. "Perhaps we completed the ritual without even realizing it."

"Love saves the day," she murmurs.

And then realizes what she's said. She didn'tmean to, not exactly. But the words are there and she can't take them back. She looks away from him.

"Do you?" he says and there's an earnestness there, almost shy, and she can't meet his eyes.

"I…" What does she say? What does she know of love, anyway. Thrown away by her parents, left to fend for herself in the desert of Jakku, abandoned at every turn. She knows nothing of friendship and even less of love. "I think so?"

"I see," he says and there's a coldness to the words as he pulls away from her.

She turns to him, reaching out her hand to grasp his again. He feels cool against her skin, the palms of his hands clammy. "Ben, don't." She realizes what his reaction means and she tries to stop her heart from taking flight. "I know nothing of love."

He stops pulling away and meets her eyes. "Rey?" And the way he says her name almost breaks her heart.

"How would I? I've never loved anyone before. And no one has ever loved me."

"I love you." The words are simple. Just three tiny words and she feels her heart soar. She grips his hand harder.

"Give me time to understand?"

He cups her face and touches his lips to hers, briefly, nothing like the passion of the kisses they shared on the planet. "All of it," he whispers against her lips. "You can have all the time in the world."

She closes her eyes, rests her forehead against his for a moment. And then: "Where do we go from here?"

He stiffens slightly. "There's nowhere I can go." The words are slightly bitter. "The First Order wants me dead. I'm sure the Resistance doesn't feel much different."

She's not sure he's totally wrong. But his mother is still there and surely she could…

"She won't do anything," he mutters.

"Stop listening to my thoughts." There's no real ire behind the words.

"If you want to go back, we'll go back," he says with a finality that she's sure comes about from his belief that once he does, he's a dead man walking. There's only one person he believes wants him alive.

"Well," she says after a moment. "I would like to go back eventually."

He raises one eyebrow in response.

"But maybe not just yet? Maybe we need to find our balance first?"

He doesn't have to say anything in that moment. The bond hums between them, a contented thing as long as they're touching, as long as they're in harmony.

She leans forward and presses a series of buttons, leaning back as the ship makes the jump to hyperspace, the windows around them going blue.

"Where are we going?" His voice is almost conversational, as if they didn't just make a momentous decision.

She shrugs. "Somewhere in the Unknown Regions. It'll take at least a few days to get there from here."

"A few days," he murmurs. "And just what do you propose we do with all that time?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll think of something."

He's gathers her up in his arms before she can even say another word and she lets out a small shriek. As he carries her back toward the tiny pallet that they had slept on what seems like a lifetime ago, she feels a strange sense of déjà-vu.

"Have we done this before?"

He pauses for a moment and then shakes his head. "We'll talk about that later," he mutters and continues forward.

She's really not sure where they're going to go from here, where all of this is going to lead. But the only thing she knows is that they're going to do this together. She won't let anything tear them apart. Not the First Order, not the Resistance, not anything. They'll find their balance, somewhere, somehow. And once that's achieved? Well, anything is possible.