Temptation Of Grey

Chapter 10 - Collaboration

After another troubled night, they decided to start the search for a suitable cave together. The storm had continued to shake violently on the sides of the hut during the darkness, and the rain was constantly clapping against the windows, and both - Rey and Ben - were all too aware of each other's presence, this had made falling asleep barely possible.

Towards morning, the storm finally subsided and it didn't rain any more. But the temperatures had dropped sensitive. Ben therefore exchanged the selected leather jacket for another fur-trimmed jacket from the fund. "You should also adjust your clothes to the new temperatures," he said, glancing at Rey's functional, but not warming clothes, "we may be traveling a long time today and you might be overcooling."

Rey was surprised that he had even thought about her well-being. Since he had talked about the tasks to be tackled the night before, he had ignored her. She had actually been tempted to penetrate in his mind to find out why he was so retiring. But then she wouldn't have been better than him and done exactly what Rey had asked him not to do to her before. So she confined herself to ignoring, which of course was impossible.

'He's probably just afraid he might die, because I could fall dead because of a cold.' She thought frustrated. However, she had to secretly agree with him about the temperature outside the hut. So she went to the pile of clothes and looked for something warm, which at least somewhat matched her size. However, most of the clothes were just huge compared to her petite body. Because of their quick departure she hadn't been looking for clothes for any occasion, and the ship standard equipment was apparently meant for tall men. She sighed softly in frustration.

"How can you be so tiny?" Ben interrupted her attempts at dressing with his deep voice and with an imperceptible smile on his face. She hadn't noticed that he had stopped moving and had begun to observe her looking for a jacket. She got a little embarrassed and blushed. It was not easy to interpret his expression. Was he making fun of her? Was he amused? Rey let out a frustrated breath and looked grudgingly: "It's not my fault, that the transporter equipment seems to be just for giants ..."

Ben came up to her, grabbed a dark blue fur-lined jacket with a purposeful look, and said, "Put it on, you can wear it like a coat if you put your belt over it." She looked at him doubtfully, then slipped into the huge jacket that reached to her knees, removed the belt of her tunic and tied it over the jacket, around her waist. However, the sleeves of the jacket towered far beyond her hands, which looked pretty silly.

She looked up at Ben with a raised eyebrow and waving giant sleeves. When their eyes met, the comedy of the situation was simply unbearable and both had to laugh. "Come here, I'll beat 'em around you, so you have your hands free." He began to pluck at her sleeves, still a relaxed smile on his face.

'How young and gracious he looks when he smiles,' she thought fascinated. She also enjoyed the fact that he cared about her well-being, even though he probably did so for practical reasons. It was nice that someone was interested and made sure she was fine. No one on Jakku had been interested in whether she was alive or dead. She had her first experience of caring after meeting Finn. That was a vanishingly short span of her life so far.

And now just Ben - do not forget, he is / was also Kylo Ren! she told herself - worrying about her condition was even more confusing, but also a beautiful feeling. However, the moment was over quickly when he finished his work. "That's the way it should be," he muttered, turning to examine his equipment.

Ben quickly turned away from Rey to re-discipline his feelings. Her sight in this oversized jacket, which almost completely covered her delicate figure, but made it even more attractive, confused him more than he wanted to admit to himself. In addition, this shared short moment of laughter, because of her too-large sleeves, had touched him directly at a place of his soul that he thought was already lifeless for a long time.