A Million Petals • Reylo AU (on hold)

Chapter 7

"Ben..." Rey whispered the name under her breath slowly. "Ben..." she repeated the name once again, a smile soon appeared across her face.

She still couldn't believe she found him. Him.

It was a reality almost too good to be true. Watching herself in the mirror Rey pinched harshly at the skin on her arm. Maybe if she pinched hard enough, she'll wake up a realize that it was all a dream, that Ben Solo was a mere fragment of her sick imagination. But she already knew he wasn't

She finally found him.

"Ben."

Rey muttered his name once more to herself as she took one last glance at her reflection in the mirror. Then heading out she attempted to push the memories of yesterday's meeting to the edge of her mind.

It was a temporary fix for when she spotted the return of her old boss, she almost lost it.

"Leia! I mean — Ms. Organa! I haven't seen you in a while."

"Hello Rey," Leia simply smiled at Rey, hugging her grocery bag close to her chest.

"So what's up?" Rey asked, walking besides Leia as she went to put her groceries in her car.

"I went to visit someone in the hospital, I —"

"It was your son right? The one you went to visit?"

Rey's words seem to have struck a chord in Leia for the moment the words escaped Rey's lips, she froze.

"You know him?"

"N-not really. I just heard it was a family emergency and I heard you had a son...that's all."

Leia nodded slowly, her eyes still sad.

"He was quite something you know? Used to be quite the happy child when he was younger, always so eager...it was my fault his accident happened, Han and I...we started to fight and that seemed to strike something in our once happy son. Then he stated to —"

Leia started to choke up on her words and Rey didn't bother to probe for answers any longer, instead she held the older woman in a tight embrace.

"It's not your fault don't worry..."

•{•}•

Later that evening Rey decided to pay Ben Solo another visit. Hopefully he would be awake this time.

Maybe she'll get the chance to get some actual information out of him.

"Your stop, kid."

Rey nodded at the bus driver before bounding down the worn stairs of the bus. After making her way to the hospital doors it suddenly dawned on her that she didn't know what to ask him.

She'd been receiving his petals all her life yet Rey didn't have a good question to ask the boy.

It's not like she could say, "Hey my names Rey and ever since I was young I've been receiving petals marked with a letter and I think they're coming from you so have you been getting petals too?"

She almost laughed at the thought, it was a foolish thought anyway. He'd probably think she was absolutely insane for proposing quite an idea but then again the idea of having someone's state of health inscribed on a rose petal was quite weird as well.

"It's now or never Rey, you could do this." She murmured those last words of encouragement before walking through the hospital doors and towards Ben.

"Room 435 here we come."

Her eyes scanned the numbers next to the many doors on the floor.

432, 433, 434, 435...

She stopped at the sight of the familiar numbers. Hoping that no one was visiting him she walked through the door.

Seeing him so weak and broken in that bed made her eyes water with both guilt and grief. Rey wanted to reach out to him, to do something. But she couldn't.

"Who's there?" The same broken voice from last night cut through her thoughts.

"It's me, t-the nurse from yesterday."

"I'm guessing you haven't changed yet right?" Ben looked up at the ceiling, his voice slow.

"Yeah...well do you think you're getting better?"

"You asked the same question yesterday..."

"You gave a pretty vague answer yesterday Ben."

"That's not my name..."

"Isn't it the one on the door? You know, on the clipboard?"

"It is, but it's not my name..."

"I see...what's your name then?"

"It's Kylo Ren."

"Kylo Ren huh..."

Rey let the name echo through her mind several times before deciding she didn't really like it as much compared to Ben.

"What's your name?"

"Rey, my name is Rey."