Up On Ahch-To Hill (A D&D AU Fanfic)

Breakfast on Ahch-To

Real-life Remii appreciated routine. In fact, unless she was on a trip, it irked her to break her daily mold. Every real world weekend had a plan - Starbucks and downtown strolls. Was today currently a Friday? A Saturday? A Wednesday? Who could tell? Today felt like a Saturday.

Remii awoke long before Grogu, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as a brand new Ahch-To morning greeted her with golden sunlight. The first in a while, in fact. Despite how horribly she'd been able to fall asleep the night before from her public defender duties (and the distractions), Remii awoke well rested. She wasn't exactly jumping at the idea of the day's brand new roster of physical labour but a proper breakfast would help. She suspected she'd fall victim to hangry tendencies soon anyway. So, Remii started preparing something Finn had offered - some sort of muffin pancake hybrid. Remii didn't question where he'd gotten it from. All she needed to know was that it smelt like real food and that would be enough for her.

As Remii left a little kiss on Grogu's stinky little head and grabbed the muffin-cake, a familiar sensation washed over her. One that had started off more alien and gradually became more familiar. Comforting, even. She felt his presence before she saw him as the hut's capacity suddenly increased by one.

He inhaled. She exhaled. It wasn't uncomfortable silence per se, but it was hard to tell what he was thinking facing away from him. Until...

"Morning." He didn't sound entirely grumpy, there was a twinge of genuineness in there. In fact, he sounded more sleepy than anything else. It made Remii smile.

"Morning," she mumbled back, trudging over to him at the table. Remii was still so sleepy in fact that she hadn't even noticed what Ben was wearing. Or, more specifically, what he wasn't wearing.

"What's for breakfast?"

Remii glanced down at her muffin-cake with a tense back. Her bones still ached a bit from her tossing and turning on the bedrock. "Something squishy and soft," she began. Only then did she finally look up at Ben. "I've called it-- chest!"

Ben's brows creased together as a suspicious smile - yes, a smile! - spread across his lips. Ben kept his eyes promptly on Remii as hers scattered around his figure. She'd never felt her eyes move around so quickly. Every time they fell to Ben's chest she desperately flew them back up to his eyes, though, doing that flustered her just as much.

"Wait--shit--I mean," she began, Remii's face growing red hot instantly. And yet another surprise...Ben chuckled.

"How did you sleep?"

Admittedly, Remii was pleasantly surprised by his tenderness. Maybe he'd dropped the façade because he was currently alone. Remii would gladly take it.

"Not as well as I usually do, thanks to you."

"Thanks to me?" Ben repeated. He hid his smile behind a mug that had materialized with him as his gaze dropped. "Is that so?"

Remii licked her lips, picking at her breakfast mindlessly. "Yep."

"Hmm." Unbeknownst to Remii, Ben's eyes watched every move she made. At some capacity, Remii knew he was doing it. That, among many other things, flustered her tremendously. "Well, I'm not exactly sorry."

"Oh I know."

It came out faster than Remii could stop it, but she didn't exactly feel sorry for that, either. It was true. Maybe it was just a Ben thing. Usually Remii was the one apologizing (constantly), so it would've been nice to hear a genuine one. But such was wishful thinking, she knew that. By then, Remii had a feeling his apology on the hill wasn't entirely genuine, but she still appreciated it nonetheless.

Ben licked his lips too. His expression didn't change much, but it did soften. His eyes danced around too, but from Remii's left eye to the right. He was reading her. "What's wrong?"

The truth was key but which one would she voice? Remii settled on the less obvious. The much less obvious. She didn't want to fight with him if she didn't need to.

At this point in the timeline, Remii knew the discovery of the mirror cave was approaching. Or, it should be. This timeline seemed longer, with elements and moments that never existed in the movie. Her and Ben meeting in the hut had happened (she'd pictured him eagerly gliding across the floor and couldn't help but feel her heart flutter), but she swore that him shirtless in the dark should've happened by now. Right? The cave happened after—or was it before?

"Damn..."

"Remii?" Ben blinked, studying her curiously.

Remii shook her head, muttering, "there are some things...I...I've been having visions about you."

Ben's silence spoke volumes. When Remii looked back at Kylo Ren, she was looking into Ben Solo's eyes. Innocent and delightfully curious.

Remii's face flourished with colour again. "I-I mean, you're in them, you're in all of them. You're there, is what I meant."

"I see," he teased. "And...what am I doing in these visions?"

By natural instinct, Remii began tearing apart the muffin-cake, offering Ben a piece. He accepted it without hesitation, tearing into the yeasty chunk. How to explain this... "I'm not mentally in control of these visions. I just know that they...see into the future. Probably."

The playful curiosity in Ben's eyes hardened then into something more serious. Unintentionally, it was a cheeky little lead up to the potential of their future elevator conversation. Ben waited patiently for her to continue. Remii inhaled. She couldn't exactly spill that she knew where he ended up in the movie's timeline of events, he'd think she were crazy and he also probably wouldn't believe her. She wouldn't exactly blame him. This wasn't Outlander, after all. But she didn't want to lie, either.

"The most prominent visions show you, probably in a day or two. But, you know, it could just be you farting around in my brain, poking your nose around in more internal thoughts."

Ben smirked again as he opened his palm, awaiting another piece. Remii gave him a larger chunk this time. Only this time while she was kept off-guard, Ben gently but firmly closed his fingers around hers. It was like holding hands with a giant. Immediately Remii's face flourished as the heat from his skin encompassed hers. Remii wasn't expecting it at all. The thud in her chest felt like her heart thumping an extra beat, her skin tingling as if charged with sparks of energy. Remii being a crybaby, her eyes immediately felt the familiar but unnecessary burn of weepy delight. She was getting better at taming her tears though. Immediately Remii placed her free hand on top of his, securing and maybe even reaffirming his grip. Maybe this timeline was squeezing in more room for these little moments.

"You had visions like this when we were younger too." Ben spoke softly. He understood that she probably didn't remember but he was open to telling her whatever she didn't know. Kylo was the same, though some of his truths were in an attempt to bring her to the dark. Ben's fingers grazed over Remii's before scooping up her free hand too. "You used to wake me up in the middle of the night."

"I'm sorry," Remii smiled sheepishly. Internally, she was unconscious right now.

"I think you were checking to make sure I was still there," he whispered. Ben was usually hard to read as Kylo Ren but the way he spoke...it was such a minuscule memory that should've been an irritation, but somehow...it meant something to him. And in turn, it meant a lot to Remii. Another fragment of herself.

Remii wasn't really sure what to say next. Told you so? Sorry? So instead, she just looked at him, looked into his big round eyes as he studied her. Remii watched as Ben then slowly brought Remii's hand to his lips. He hovered her fingers there, looking into her eyes as he laid a kiss across her knuckles. Remii should've felt the need to fangirl and combust but for the first time in her Star Wars journey, Remii fully understood how real this was. How real he was. Her heart raced wildly yes and she may have been unconscious in her mind but in that moment, Remii didn't stutter or fumble or jitter. Instead she just looked into Ben's eyes with the gentle, mesmerizing wonder of a thousand stars. She loved him terribly.