•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

EPISODE XIV - I KISSED YOU

"But I saw him." Ben gasps as if fighting a cry of pain as Rey spreads more ointment on his back.

"Well, if you did, that doesn't really help my opinion of your grandfather. I don't like him very much." Red gashes, some still beading blood droplets, crisscross Ben's back in a sickening sort of pattern.

"I really thought they were going to kill you," she admits, voice catching.

"I'm sorry," he whispers. "Will you still-will we still be able to leave?"

"I hope so." Rey dabs more of the cloudy salve onto his wounds. "I'm sorry, I didn't have enough to buy bandages. The lady said that this ointment would prevent infection, though." She screws the cap back on. "Also, there's no dinner tonight. I traded our gruel for the medicine."

As she gets up, Ben's hand grasps her wrists. He pulls himself upright. Rey's eyes linger on the purple scar stretched across his side-from Chewie's bowcaster, no doubt. "But you'll be hungry."

"I've been hungry most of my life."

He looks to the ointment, to her face. "Thank you."

"Thank me by never doing that again, no matter whose ghost you see," she retorts. Something uncomfortable stirs within her-she feels warm, something like excitement is bubbling up, and it's strange and she doesn't want to let these feelings claim her. "You scared me."

Ben's eyes soften, and he bites his lip before asking: "Why?"

Rey doesn't know why she does it. She's certainly never done anything like it before. But she leans in and presses her lips against his-briefly, for the smallest of seconds, before pulling away.

What did I just do?

Ben fumbles for words. "Why-Rey-why did you do that?"

"I wanted to." Beyond that, she doesn't know. This man killed his father. This man stormed through her mind. This man took her, tried to bring her to Snoke...

But she sees the Light reflecting off his face, and it's intoxicating. She leans in again, and this time he kisses her back, his hands clutching her hair and her arms around his neck.

Until her hand falls to his back, and he gasps in pain.

Rey pulls away. He still stares at her as if she's the strangest thing he's ever seen, which can't be true given the events of the day. "Is-is your back okay?" she manages to ask.

He nods. "I'm-so sorry, Rey."

"I kissed you."

"No-for-for all of it. I shouldn't have let you."

"You don't have to let me do anything. I kissed you because-because I care about you."

"Weeks ago you hated me."

"I didn't hate you. Well, on the starkiller... yeah, I guess I hated you. But not since then. And I like you now, when you're not consumed with the Dark Side."

Ben's fingers trace his lips. He looks at her like he's never heard someone say that before, and it makes Rey want to kiss him again.

"Don't you see?" she asks. "This-the Light Side-that's where you're supposed to be."

He shakes his head. "I want to believe that, Rey. But there's still-the Dark Side; it's always been there. It's not going to magically vanish because you love me or-"

"You're jumping ahead of yourself there," she snaps. "It was just a kiss."

He raises his eyebrows.

"Fine. Several." Rey exhales. "Did you ever think for a minute, Ben, that maybe the Dark and the Light are meant to coexist inside you, and the only reason it's tearing you apart is because you keep trying to purge yourself of one or the other?"

"You want there to be darkness?"

"I think you should accept that there's going to be Dark, and there's going to be Light, and choose to serve the Light."

"How? Through you?"

She shrugs. "If that's what motivates you, fine."

His voice comes out naked and vulnerable. "What if you're not there?"

She leans in again, and Ben jerks away, wincing.

"I'll go work on the ship," Rey says, getting to her feet. Disappointment tugs at her as her face flushes. This doesn't make sense. None of this makes sense, she argues with herself.

But she feels it nonetheless. "Just so you know," she says as she ducks into the engine hatch. "I've never kissed anyone before."

Ben doesn't respond, and Rey tries to channel her anger into productivity. It's better than letting her tears flow.