In Your Arms: The Late Night Encounter

The Late Night Encounter

Rey was having trouble sleeping that night, something that was not strange to her. She'doften had trouble sleeping most of her life and now even more due to the recent events that had changed her life forever. For once ever since her parents abandoned her on Jakku, Rey had a family. And not only that, but also a destiny that she had only begun to understand. Everything was so confusing and she knew almost nothing for certain, and these thoughts were often what kept her up at night.
Suddenly, an idea came to her. It was just a passing thought, but she was surprised as to where this had suddenly come from? She shook her head trying to toss it away, but now that it had happened her curiosity was too great to get rid of it. "He's probably asleep anyway..." she thought to herself. Did she even want to talk to him after what happened in the throne room? After Ben's and Rey's last Force Bond on Crait before she closed the door to the Millennium Falcon, she figured that he would retreat from her. And it was true, he hadn't shown up since then and it had already been months, but she sensed that the bond between them through the Force was not severed, as much as she knew that their destinies were even more entwined with each other than ever. Finally, after sitting for several moments pondering on what to do, she decided to brave it and look through the Force to Ben. She was secretly hoping he wasn't awake because she was still afraid of his reaction to their next connection, even though she'd never admit it. She closed her eyes and opened her mind. It was surprisingly more easy than she thought it would be without Snoke's supposed interference.
Once she felt her mind locked in, lick the click of a closing door, Rey opened her eyes to a dimmed room and found herself sitting on different sheets than the dingy white sheet and blue and rusty gold on her bed. She took a moment to inspect her surroundings; everything seemed dark. Not just the atmosphere, but the walls and the floors were almost completely a glossy black with a big oval window revealing a starry space outside.
Suddenly her other senses kicked in and she heard a soft breathing very close to her. She turned halfway around and saw Ben laying there on the bed not two feet from her, sleeping soundly. One thing that surprised her however, was the large poofy pillow he held clutched almost desperately to his chest. "What?" She thought. "He doesn't even sleep on his pillow?" She didn't know why this puzzled her so much, but a soft smile spread across her face as she admired how cute he looked all snuggled up like that, as if he was embracing a teddy bear or other stuffed animal.
Rey turn her body towards him and sat cross legged and continued to watch him for a while. She was surprised at how content she was and even began to feel a sense of drowsiness setting in. Suddenly, a noise from Ben drew her attention awake and she leaned closer to see if she could hear it again. After a second, he grunted and mumbled something incoherent and hugged the pillow even tighter. It almost sounded like he'd said something in his sleep. "What?" She said out loud for no reason. She waited, but there was no response from the sleeping Ben, and just as she suddenly realized how silly it was that he would reply to her when he wasn't even conscious and started to lean away, Ben once again spoke and this time she heard the words clearly: "Rey..."
Rey froze. A torrent of emotions stirred in her; shock, confusion, disbelief, and maybe even a sense of sympathy she didn't know the reason for. She blinked in realization as she noticed the tears welling up in her eyes. Rey was surprised not only to hear that she was the subject in his dreams, but also to find that a single tear was falling down her face....
All of a sudden it was like her body was no longer hers, and before she knew it she was moving almost involuntarily towards Ben and she ever so carefully removed the pillow from his clutches and lifted his arms to take its place in his arms. His arms instinctively wrapped around her while his sleep was undisturbed. Rey lay there in petrified excitement while questioning her own sanity. "What have I gotten myself into??" She asked herself. What if he woke up with her in his arms? What would be his reaction? Would he hate her even more than he probably already did? She frowned at the thought of even wondering why she cared that much.
A motion from Ben drew her attention back and he suddenly shifted and his grip on her body changed, making her gasp in shock as he slid down and pulled her up until he settled with his face pressed to her chest, a leg wrapped over her body and his arms clamped around her back in an unbreakable grip- he was indeed holding her like a cuddly pillow. Rey's heart began to race in a way she had never experienced in her entire life and she felt heat rise to her cheeks...
But when she heard him heave a soft happy sigh and settle against her completely relaxed with a little smile, her fear dissipated and she let her head drop to the bed and wrapped one arm around his shoulder and buried her other hand in his soft dark curls, enjoying the softness of it as she slowly ran her fingers through his hair.
After a few moments, Rey herself became drowsy, and finally drifted off to sleep. Just before she closed her eyes for the final time, she wondered if she would disappear once they were both asleep, if the Force even worked that way? She felt a little guilty for taking his pillow away and how he would wake up without it, but she decided that was just silly and there was nothing she could do about it now anyway, Ben obviously wasn't planning on letting her go anytime soon -and she began to dread what he'd think of her if he woke up now with them like this. The heat returned to her cheeks and she decided she'd better fall asleep quickly, but before she did, she gave him one last little kiss on his head then closed her eyes and was asleep in no time.
But little did Rey know that Ben was already awake- his consciousness stirred not long after she began stroking his hair and he opened his eyes
He couldn't see anything very well at first because it was so dark, but his eyes adjusted quickly and all he could see was a bit of skin and the V of a grey tunic engulfed his entire vision. At first he thought he was still asleep because the situation was to hard to believe that it was reality, but this didn't seem to be a bad dream as the many nightmares that plagued his sleep almost every night. "Why am I dreaming of my mother all of a sudden...?" He thought, because of the gentle sensation of someone stroking his hair- something his mother would do often for him to help him sleep or comfort him after a bad dream when he was a child. But then the rest of his senses started to kick in and he became aware of the feeling of his arms wrapped around a small human body and Heard and felt the gentle movement of someone breathing. He opened his eyes wide in shock and stiffened slightly at this new realization- there was someone in his bed?! With him?! Holding him, touching him! He still could hardly believe how someone had gotten into his quarters without the alarms going off AND climb into bed with him without him even waki- "... oh." He suddenly thought. He had figured out who it was that was embracing him, invading his space and his life without permission-or warning. Of course it was her, how could it be anyone else? He should have felt angry but to his surprise he felt a sense of... was it sadness? He could not find the reason, but settled into resign and decided not to reveal his consciousness to Rey.
Everything was quiet now, and yet so loud. As time passed he began to notice more and more the feeling of her chest rising and falling, her breath on his head, her fingers rotating through his hair and the scratching sound they made and how he had never felt this pleasure before.... he also became more aware of how his own body was connected to hers; his arms wrapped tightly around her and how his leg rested over her lower body and how tightly he had been pressed to her, he began to think... How exactly had they come to be in this position in the first place? He began to wonder as he studied the position of his body on hers. His arms seemed to be pretty firmly wrapped around her, and he didn't think she could drag his leg all the way on top of her like that with the position she was in.... could it be possible that he was the one who initiated this incident? And why hadn't she woken him up to stop him? All these things and more raced through his mind as he lay there trying to come to terms with the situation. A different movement from Rey drew his attention and he felt something soft touch his head for a brief moment and then heard her head finally rest on the bed. A new emotion had risen inside him when he realized what had touched his head; he did not know what it was and he feared it... yet he was also intrigued.
The only thing he knew for certain, which was the most troubling, was that he never wanted this moment to end. He wanted to stay here, held in her arms; the feeling of her breath going in and out slowly.... he had never felt a closeness to another person as he felt now with Rey. This girl, who had one day been a simple scavenger on a desert planet, then showed up in his life and completely turned his moral compass inside out; conquered him, defied him, fought him... and then something even more insane happened- she reached out to him; she showed him kindness and understanding, more than any other person in his life had. She gave him comfort and clarity to realize what needed to be done.... and then she left him. Like a fleeting shadow, she was gone. Left behind in the tarnished throne room, he felt once again the pain of betrayal. He thought he had lost her forever, and at first he tried to tell himself he didn't care, that it was ridiculous and useless to bother over some nobody.... but that had not kept her out of his thoughts. There now wasn't a day that went by that he didn't think about her. His mind screamed at him to forget about her, but his heart was even more deafening. It was the part of him that wanted to reach out for her, to see her and hold her in just the way he was now; that is why he wanted this moment to last forever, because he knew it would never happen again.
He shuddered at this thought and involuntarily hugged her tighter. He heard her grunt in her sleep and looked up at her sleeping face. She looked so peaceful and innocent, something he had never truly seen in her before. Letting your guard down is weakness, but he loved seeing her this way, and suddenly he realized why she had let herself be trapped in his arms in the first place, and for some reason he could not know, he found himself smiling at this revelation.
He loosened his grip around her back and moved his body upwards to level with hers. He stared in content at her sleeping face, strangely calmed by this vision. He hadn't noticed that his head was leaning forwards until his forehead touched hers and it sent a little jolt through him, but he relaxed immediately as she was not going to wake up anytime soon. He didn't want to stop looking at her like this and holding her close, but drowsiness was starting to set in and his eyes became heavy.
He knew that when he awoke in the morning that she would not be there, but still he grabbed the edge of the blanket and threw it over them and succumbed to its warmth and hers seeping into his body, as if they were becoming one. He placed one last cautious kiss on her forehead and surrendered to the comfort of the darkness, but not the same darkness as he had been hiding himself in for the years before he met Rey. This was a feeling of safety and comfort in a world that was anything but, and he knew that as long as they were tied together like this, there was nothing in the universe that could shake their bond, and that was his true refuge. With one last sigh, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
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