Pothos and the Neikea

8. I find your lack of company disturbing

Christmas breaks are the worst. Everyone has a family to go back to, somehow, except for Rey. Finn usually stayed with her, but this time he would spend his break with Poe's family, finally meeting his parents. Rose, even though her family didn't celebrate (they lost her sister a while back and were still grieving) still went back, too. And Rey was felt behind in an almost empty campus, going through a breakup.

It was lonely.

And when you're lonely, you do stupid staff. She knew she shouldn't ever talk to Hux again. For his sake, she should leave him in peace. But she just told herself it was a couple of things she wanted to get off her chest. She wasn't going there to get back together. Nor to tell him why they really broke up. Just to let him know she never wanted this. Just to tell him she still thought about him. Just to hear his voice…

She was wandering around the labs, trying to remember where Hux worked. She didn't even know if he was still there for Christmas, but she was willing to take a shot. She reached the engineering team's lab and she felt pretty certain with her choice. This must be it.

"Rey?"

Yeah, that was it. Because Hux wasn't the only one working in engineering. The deep voice that echoed through the hallway made her shiver. How could she have forgotten about him?

She turned around, and just a few meters back stood the grandiose mass of Kylo Ren. His look was one of confusion, but she immediately noted that all the usual hatred was absent. And the heat that his look sprayed over her body made her think: had she really forgotten he was there? Or was she secretly looking for the man that haunted her dreams with bittersweet memories, instead of her ex-boyfriend?

The man took just a couple of steps -his legs were so tall- and there he was, right in front of her.

"What are you doing here?"

Rey looked around her. There was no one, but she could hear voices coming from one of the closed doors. "I just--"

She felt something warm touch her upper back, and she almost jumped of surprise. Kylo's hand almost spread over her whole body, as he gently pushed her forward. She didn't like it, because the gesture was not aggressive, nor nasty, it was almost kind. She wasn't used to that. And the way it made her panties already slick was scary.

He opened a door and pulled her in. Then he closed it quietly behind him. The room was empty, but she couldn't really tell what kind of room it was. It looked like a mixture of a lab and an office. Perhaps that's what their break rooms look like?

"Are you looking for Hux?" He looked at her in the eyes again and put his hands on his hips. Rey gulped. He frowned a bit, a hint of disappointment in his eyes. "Did you guys…?"

She shook her head. "No. No, I-" she trailed off.

He looked at her from head to toe, taking in her form and all the details his brain had started to forget. He hadn't seen her in weeks. But that didn't mean he had stopped, even for a day, thinking about her. About what had happened between them, about the guilt, but also the pleasure he felt. Thinking whether she still hated him with every fiber of her being, or had accepted the attraction that pulled them into each other's orbit. Thinking if she ever thought about him, too, even with spite.

"I just wanted to talk to him," she finally said, sounding a little disoriented.

He nodded. "He's not here."