Twelfth Night | Reylo AU

Thirteen

Kylo stood in the mirror, pushing his hair back from his forehead. As he did so, his eyes immediately fell to the unmissable patches of sweat under his armpits. He groaned- he had only put this shirt on five minutes ago!

Even after pacing up and down his bedroom for half an hour, he still couldn't shake the feeling of nervousness squirming in the pit of his chest. His hands trembled as he pulled on his trench coat and tied his boots.

"Pull yourself together, for fuck's sake." He mumbled, fiddling with the zipper on his trousers as he struggled to pull it up.

Kylo whipped his head around to check the clock.

12:25

Five minutes until he would have to leave.

He slumped into his rotating desk chair and sighed, pulling out his phone to read through the email again, as if he hadn't done so fifty times already.

The email was from his mother- after they had written each other a few more letters, Kylo grew tired of buying stamps and decided it would be much more efficient to exchange emails.

And after that, they emailed each other almost every day.

Usually, their topic of conversation would only stretch as far as Kylo's progress at school, or distant aunts and cousins who had recently given birth, or the weather. But sometimes, his mother would cross the line ever so slightly, asking him subtle questions regarding his personal life.

He read through the email, thoroughly, as if the words on the screen had the power to shape-shift when he wasn't looking.

"It's okay. You'll be fine." Kylo whispered to himself, letting out a shaky sigh. "You're just going for a coffee with your mother. Your mother who you haven't seen for three years... No big deal!"

Kylo groaned, letting his head fall back and lull to the side, catching a brief glimpse of the clock on the wall.

12:30

Time to leave.

He sprung to his feet and kicked the chair out beside him, heading out his bedroom door and double-checking his appearance in the mirror once more on his way.

~

Kylo stood outside the coffee shop. The very same coffee shop he had walked into almost everyday- yet in this very moment, it felt unfamiliar... and not in a good way at all.

He craned his neck, trying to peer into the large shop window, and caught a brief glimpse of the scene inside.

People were standing at the till, ordering and paying for their drinks which Kylo, of course, was not surprised by in the slightest. It was only when he let his gaze drift towards his usual table next to the window, did he begin to feel himself breaking out into a cold sweat- just as he had done earlier that morning.

There she was, sitting in his favourite chair, reading a pottery magazine and sipping a small cup of what looked like Cafè Au Lait, was his mother.

Why on earth is she sitting in my seat? Kylo thought to himself, mentally and invisibly fuming. Does she know that that's where I love to sit? Did I tell her that in one of my emails?

Kylo paused for a moment.

No, of course I didn't. That wouldn't be very 'Kylo' of myself, would it?

He chuckled to himself as these questions prowled through his fatigued mind.

After brushing a hand through his hair and fixing his shirt collar one last time, Kylo took a deep breath and entered the shop.