A/N: Love the cliff hanger lol Enjoy!

Lost

Chapter 2: Listen

"What do you think you're doing!?" she hissed as she slapped his face. He allowed her to do it and only sighed in annoyance. "I didn't realize you were that disgusting! How dare you!" she growled, curling away from him.

He stayed where he was as she retreated from him. Where did she get off thinking he was that disgusting? Couldn't she read him? They shared a dyad; she could see everything, even the things he didn't want her to see, yet she called him disgusting? He didn't know whether to be annoyed or hurt by her accusation. Probably a little of both was a good combination. He turned his sight back to her, face not showing the swirling irritation inside of him. "Your clothes are wet. I was trying to dry them for you."

She scoffed at him as she shivered. "Is that what you're calling it?" she spat, eyes glaring hard at him while her cheeks were redder than his saber.

Ben stared flatly at her. "Think what you will," he said as he turned off his saber. He walked to the mouth of the cave and stared at the rain getting lighter. But the steam from the hot part of it was making everything sticky and disgusting. He crossed his arms over his chest as he stared out into the darkness. He could barely make out growling noises and screeching. Great. As if the weather wasn't damaging enough. Now they had creatures to worry about. He heard her whimper behind him and he stayed where he was. His stubbornness wouldn't allow him to look at her, but he could sense her pain. "Whatever scratched your arm was poisonous. Not all of the poison is gone," he said, turning his head slightly, but not his sight.

"I can see that," she hissed as she grunted and shivered.

He rolled his eyes and tossed his saber to her. "Dry your clothes." He kept his back to her, staring out of the mouth of the cave. He sensed her hesitation. "Trust me. There's nothing I would want to look at." Liar! He frowned as his mind beat him up. He tightened his grip around himself and pushed that thought away before she could even catch wind of it. However, with her track record as of late, she wasn't too good at picking up on anything anyway, so what did it matter? He heard the slight rustling of clothes behind him and knew she was doing as he said. He pressed his lips together tightly, refusing to actually say his next words as he sent them to her through their connection. "My cloak is next to you if you're cold."

He felt the blush coming off of her. It was definitely palpable. The swirl of emotions she hadn't learned to hide through their connection yet was humorous. Giddiness, embarrassment, stubbornness, happiness, irritation. Such a flurry of emotions that made no sense at all to him, but amusing none the less. More rustling was heard behind him as she reached for the cloak and put it around herself. "Thank you." Her voice was tiny, but he heard it loud and clear in his head. All he heard now was the slight thrum of his saber as she dried her clothes and the rain crashing down around them. This was nice. There was no conflict at this moment. As if he had become deaf to the rest of the world around him. As if he was suspended in a peaceful silence that showed no signs of going away.

And she was here.

He allowed himself this brief moment to just let the silence overtake him and calm him. He'd always enjoyed the rain. Even when he was a child. He would always just listen to it. The white noise of it all was enough to make him forget any negative emotions he was feeling. And this time was no different. But out in space, there was no rain. His emotions were free to run wild in space. This planet offered solitude and peace for him now. It was a good reset for him. He'd gotten so lost in the sound of the rain that he didn't even realize how much time had passed. He just stood there, leaning against the mouth of the cave, watching the droplets fall to the ground heavily. The smell of the falling water hitting the earth brought him back to his childhood. When he was struggling at the temple with Luke, it rained one night. He stayed up and listened to the rain. Eventually, he ended up falling asleep, but when he got up the next morning, he felt refreshed. Renewed. Reinvigorated. And then, the task that was giving him a hard time... was easy. He'd always vowed to live on a planet with rain.

But he ended up in space.

He slightly wondered if she liked the rain, but he was much too stubborn and reserved to ask. As time passed, he felt the atmosphere get lighter and the rain start to fizzle out. Without him realizing it, she was at his side, watching the rain with him. "It never rained on Jakku..." she said softly. He didn't look over at her as he watched it start to lighten up more, slightly sad that it was going away so quickly. "I don't think I've ever been in the rain until that day you and I met on Kef Bir. If I did... I don't remember it."

He gave a small smirk. "That time on the island with Luke."

She smiled. "Right. But it wasn't memorable." He glanced over at her. How was it not memorable? She'd experienced rain for the first time in her life, and it wasn't memorable? "Without anyone to make it pleasant, what good is a memory?" she asked, glancing up at him. Their eyes locked and he felt their dyad reignite. It was like it was asleep and now it's wide awake and ready to go. He felt their connection as strong as ever. He was trapped in her gaze, every fiber of his being refusing to look away, as if this one moment meant everything.

And it did.

She smiled wide and then looked back out at the rain. "Thanks." She handed him his saber back with a small smile. He took it and hooked it back to his hip, now looking back a the retreating rain. "And... sorry." He looked at her incredulously. She blushed as she tapped her cheek. "For hitting you earlier..."

"When do you ever apologize for hitting me?"

Rey shrugged and kept her sight off of him, holding the cloak closer to her. "You know what I mean."

"Do I?" he asked, his own version of playfulness laced in his voice.

She grinned and looked back at him. "If you don't, then you're an idiot."

He allowed himself a small chuckle as he returned his sight back to the forest. "Fair."

Her cheeks burned as his laugh was burned into her brain forever. It was such an amazing sound. She'd only seen him be angry and stoic, but never laugh. He was such a strong person. Perhaps too strong at times. But this was a side to Ben that she hadn't seen. And it was amazing. "Ben..." she said softly. He offered a small huff under his breath in reply. "What are you going to do when we get off this planet?"

His silence was deafening as reality set in and sobered the situation immediately. This was nice... but the next time they met, they'd be enemies again. But he didn't want that. Not anymore. If he could just disappear and live his life where the First Order or the Rebellion couldn't find him, he would be happy. He would be overjoyed if he could just stop running. If he could just be true to himself.

But what was the truth anymore?

"Ben?" she called, leaning closer to him to see if he was spacing out. He blinked several times, looked at her for a brief moment and returned his hard sight to the forest. "Ben-"

"I think we both know the answer to that, Rey." His voice had a ring of sadness to it. As if he didn't want to return to his old ways. Working for the First Order was taking its toll on him. He knew that. She knew that. But he had to keep going. He'd come too far now to stop.

"We don't have to go back to how things were before!" she said as she grabbed his hand. "Ben, you can come back with me and-"

"And what?" he hissed. "Spend my life in prison? Or better yet, get killed on sight as soon as I leave the ship? I'll pass," he said as he took his hand back from her.

"They wouldn't kill you!" she argued, her voice getting louder as the situation got heated. He glared over at her, not believing her in the least. "I'm sure you'd have a fair trial!"

"And what makes you so sure, Rey? Huh? That idiot pilot of yours? The defector? What about anything I have done is fair?!" he growled, slamming his fist into the cave.

She gasped as she realized he was kicking himself as badly as he could. She saw a glimmer of hope just then. Maybe... maybe she could help him. "Ben... you can start over. You can-" She grunted as she felt her arm starting to act up again. She winced as her other hand went up to guard the wound.

"Let me see it," he said as he shoved her hand out of the way and took the cloak off of her. He gently unwrapped her wound and saw that it had gotten as bad as before when she collapsed. "It spreads really fast. We need to find an antidote..." He looked around for a moment and frowned as he realized they were already so far from the river. He should have collected rain in some way. He ripped another part of his cloak and set out to collecting rain that spilled in on the cave floor. He wiped the oozing again, cursing under his breath when he realized that as quickly as he was wiping it away, the faster it was coming back. The rain had stopped. There was no water available to them now. And at the rate of infection, she wouldn't make the trip back to the river.

Their eyes met and she saw his uncertainty as he saw her fear. It became painfully evident to them that this was a bad situation and she could quite possibly die. "Ben..."

"I know."

"It's ok," she whispered, gently reaching out to touch his face. He hesitantly held her hand there, realizing that this quite possibly could be it for them. She was going to die and he would feel like he wanted to join her.

"You're not going to die," he said sternly.

She gave him a small weak smile as the dizziness came back full force. She collapsed to her knees and he caught her before she could hit her head on the ground. He held her in his arms as she struggled to breathe normally. And then, as if things couldn't get worse, he heard footsteps approaching and a foreign language being spoken. The natives. He grabbed his saber and ignited it as they entered the cave. He pointed it at them threateningly. "Help her," he hissed, the natives looking at the saber and then at Rey, their hands in the air in surrender. "NOW!"