•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

EPISODE XV - I KNOW.

Kylo pretends to be asleep when Rey finally emerges from the hatch. As if he could sleep with the whip marks on his back smarting.

Instead, he replays Rey's kiss again and again. Why me? If she's truly never kissed anyone before, why did she kiss him?

She deserves better.

He cares about her. But now that she's kissed him, his mind gallops ahead to more kisses, to more of her-and he can't let that happen. She's supposed to become a Jedi. He won't stand in her way. He can't bring her any more harm. Because all he does is kill and destroy. The academy, his father, so many villages...

I won't destroy her future.

Rey needs to become a Jedi. And as for him, if he's to ever find his way back to the Light... he remembers the story of Anakin and Queen Amidala.

In the morning, Rey asks after his back.

"It's fine."

She sighs. "I need to put more ointment on it. If it gets infected, we're stuck."

"I can do it."

"You can reach all over your back? Don't be ridiculous." She places her hand on his shoulder and he settles back down, feels her fingers against his bare skin and the way the ointment burns against the gashes.

"Don't ever kiss me again," he says coldly.

"Fine."

Their scavenging and delivery is ghost-free, and Kylo can tell Rey's relieved. He prepares their nightly gruel while Rey works on the ship.

Of course Han Solo felt like the father she'd never had. She is so much like him, spirited and a talented pilot. Father must have really cared about her. Because under Han's gruff exterior, Ben knows his father's heart was soft.

For everyone except you, Kylo reminds him.

Kylo or Snoke?

Are you sure you were an exception?

Will you help me?

Anything.

Han's fingers, telling him in his last moments that he loved his son, that he was sincere.

Maybe he had given up on Ben in moments past. But in those last moments,, the ones that counted most, he hadn't.

Kylo hits his side again, slaps his hands against his back, feeling the gashes explode. He can't tolerate this. He kicks a loose rock and sends it slamming into a nearby ship. Half expecting someone to run out and drag him to the sarlacc, he waits, gulping the sticky air.

"Stop hurting yourself," Rey's voice growls from behind him.

He turns back to her. You're pathetic, Kylo Ren. "I'm sorry."

"Then don't do it, Ben." She nods at the gruel. "Is it ready?"

"It should be."

"You know," she says as she lifts the bowl to her lips. "Punishing yourself isn't going to help you heal. In any way."

The concern in her hazel eyes... no, it's not there, except it is there, but I don't deserve it-why, Rey, why? "I know. I'm sorry."

They finish in silence. Rey jumps back down the hatch. Within moments, Kylo hears hissing and crunching.

"Rey?"

No response. Steam rises.

"Rey!"

She pops out her head out, grinning. "I did it!"

"What?"

"It's fixed! It's fixed!" She pulls herself out and claps her hands in delight.

Hope sparks. "Are you sure?"

She smirks. "Do you doubt my piloting skills?"

"Not at all. You-"

"We can get out of here! Tomorrow! We'll have to break in and get our lightsabers, of course, but we'll be able to escape! We'll be free! No more King Prana!" Her giddiness is contagious, and Kylo surrenders to it, laughing.

Who cares if that means he'll be heading back to the Resistance base? She'll be with him, he'll be okay-he can escape Snoke there, make this right.

"We can actually do this!" Rey exults.

"We can!" he echoes, gasping as she throws her arms around him in joy.

"Oops, sorry," she mumbles, pulling back. "I forgot-your back-"

"It's all right, Rey. You-you did good-I can't believe you fixed-you're amazing-" Ben's thumb brushes against her cheek. She looks up at him, and he's not sure who kisses whom first, but he knows that he's kissing her and she's kissing him and it's all happening with an intensity he never realized existed. He forgets that he ever was Kylo Ren as she breathes his name-"Ben."

She pulls away. "I thought you said not to do this again."

"I-" Ben struggles to remember why. Oh, right. "Did Luke ever tell you what happened between my grandfather and my grandmother?"

She nods. "Padmé Amidala. The Senator. And Queen. He loved her."

"And it led him to the Dark Side."

"So... you're afraid I'll lead you to the Dark Side?" Ire constricts her voice.

"No. Not like that. It's just-I've already been to the Dark Side. What if-what if-if Snoke were to ever find out-"

"Ben," Rey says, her arm around his neck. "We're getting out of here. Tomorrow. We're going to D'Qar. We're going to be okay."

She believes it, and Ben believes her. He kisses her again.

"Are you sure?" she finally asks.

"I've changed my mind." And it feels so free, so light.

"Because I fixed a ship?" She's teasing, and it's been so long since someone teased him, spoke to him with that lilt in their voice, eyes twinkling.

"Because you're Rey." And because I might love you, and I'm afraid of it and I hope for it all at once. And instead of tearing me apart, it's knitting me back together.

She kisses him again, her hands traveling down his chest, under his shirt. Ben freezes.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

He nods.

She fumbles for his hand, pressing it against her chest. Heat surges through him.

"Rey-there's something-I've never-"

"What?" She's so close, her forehead leaning against his, one hand clinging to his hair.

"I've never been with a girl before." Snoke offered opportunities, but Kylo never took him up on any of them. He'd had too much on his mind for such distractions. But Rey isn't a distraction.

"We can figure it out together, then," she suggests, and giggles. "I have no idea what I'm doing either." She pulls him against her. "Don't be afraid."

Ben leans in again, and they're on the floor, and she's slipping off his shirt, mindful of the whip marks, and all he can think and say is how beautiful she is, and in her eyes he sees that she knows he means it, she trusts him, she knows who he is and she loves him anyways.

When they finish, she takes his head in her hands and kisses him on the top of his hair.

There's no going back. Not now. Not with Rey.

Kylo Ren is dead.

"I love you," he whispers.

She presses into his mind, and it doesn't hurt. Peace like he's always craved floods through his soul, and he hears her answer: I know.