into the darkness - kylo ren / ben solo

chapter nine - too close

Luna woke up with a splitting headache the next morning. She groaned and rubbed the back of her head as she sat up in her bed. She was still in her dress from the night before, and couldn't remember how she had made it into bed. Oh, dear. She hoped she hadn't consumed too much alcohol the night before and embarrassed herself in front of her mentor.

She was glad that she had a bathroom connected to her room, because she was nervous about leaving her room and having to face her mentor. After her shower, she threw her hair up into a messy bun, one that could barely hold her curls. She changed into a frilly white summer dress and finally plucked up the courage to leave the room.

As soon as she opened her bedroom door to exit the room, she was greeted with the smell of bacon. She realized that she was ravenous, and made her way into the kitchen. Kylo was there, flipping bacon on a grill. He had glasses of orange juice already set out on the table, and had already prepared buttered toast and eggs. Luna picked up a piece of toast and bit into it. It was still warm, and it was delicious.

Kylo looked very different today. Instead of his normal all black getup, he was wearing a dark blue dress shirt and black pants. His sleeves were rolled up, and he was wearing a watch. She found herself staring at him, admiring his figure. And then she snapped out of it. What was she doing? She needed to get ahold of herself.

"You feeling better?" Kylo asked softly, stepping away from the grill to look at her. He seemed to be...down. He had a melancholy look in his eyes that she had never seen before. She took a few steps forward, feeling concerned. Had she said something mean to him last night? Had she ruined their bonding trip? Her stomach turned as she watched him closely, trying to read his facial expression.

"Um, I don't remember much of last night, but I'm sorry for getting drunk. Did I do something bad?" She asked awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. He looked down and chuckled softly. He was about to say something when the smell of smoke hit Luna's nostrils. "Um, Kylo...the bacon is burning," she said quietly.

"Shit!" Kylo said loudly as he turned around and took the bacon off the grill. It was burnt to a crisp. "Damn it," he huffed as he tossed all of the bacon in the trash. "That was all of the bacon we had," he sighed, running his hands through his hair as he tried to calm himself down.

"That's okay! We already have plenty to eat. Come on, sit down and relax," Luna said as she ushered him into his seat. He sighed reluctantly and allowed her to push him into his seat. He sipped on his orange juice, clearly very annoyed at himself. He had allowed himself to get distracted.

"So what are our plans for today?" Luna asked, trying to change the subject as she applied jam to her toast.

"I wanted to take you to the flea market they have here. It was my favorite," he suggested as they continued their meal. They chatted a bit more about their lives, when Kylo's past came up again. He told her about his former name, Ben Solo, and she seemed very intrigued.

"Why'd you ever change it? 'Ben' suits you very well," she stated very matter-of-factly. She liked his former name, and it sounded like Snoke had influenced him the most with changing his name.

"Ben Solo is dead. He was weak. And I destroyed him. Let it go," he replied, beginning to raise his voice. He couldn't allow his apprentice to keep prying into his personal life.

"Well, I'm going to call you Ben from now on. Deal with it," Luna said with a smirk as Kylo rose from his seat and brought his plate to the sink. He glared at her as he made his way past her. "You know, you're not as scary as you think you are," she commented as she finished the last bite of her breakfast.

He ignored her and walked into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. He came back out a few minutes later and stood by the front door. "Let's go," he sighed, clearly still bothered by the conversation that has taken place a few minutes prior.