To Do the Next Right Thing

Part 7

To Do the Next Right Thing

Chapter 7

Instead of going through the entrance, Rey opted to find an opening big enough for the three of them, somewhere in this crumbling structure. Of course, this had Armitage confused.

"Why not use the entrance?" he asked. "BB-8 could easily hack into an old and unused door from years ago."

"Damn right I could," BB-8 piped up, and Rey shushed him.

"Look, you know I don't mind the language, but Poe does. And he'll blame me if he hears it from you," she pointed out, still gazing around—aha.

"We'll have to carry BB-8 inside, but this will do." A few paces down from the entrance, there was a crack in the wall big enough to fit the three of them, but BB-8 would have to be lifted into the opening.

"You still didn't answer my question," said Armitage, but he followed Rey regardless.

"I'd rather be deeper in the academy and have BB-8 hack into a directory that leads us to the mainframe computer," she replied, trying to pick up BB-8. "Come on and help me with him."

Armitage raised a brow, looking behind him. "This isn't very far from the entrance," he said. Still, he did as he was told and helped Rey hoist BB-8 up into the crack. Rey followed behind, hoisting herself over BB-8 to land. When the droid rolled down, Rey tried to catch him on her own, but fell instead with an "oof!" He landed on her stomach, so he was unharmed, which would make Poe happy. She, however, was going to need a few moments to recover.

When Armitage followed, he hadn't seen how Rey fell. "That wasn't a far landing," he said. "You should have waited for me."

"I forgot how heavy he was," Rey grunted, moving up onto her elbows. For a Jedi, that had been a pretty ill thought out move. But Armitage, to her surprise, leant her a hand that she quickly took to be hoisted back up.

He yanked a little too hard, and, off-balance, she knocked right into his chest. "Sorry!" she exclaimed, but made no move to step back just yet. She always thought he was on the shorter side, especially compared to Chewie and Kylo Ren, but right against him, she realized there was still a bit of a height difference.

His hand was warm.

Clearing his throat, Armitage was the one to step back first. "I overestimated your weight; I apologize," he said, trying to hide the clear blush threatening to spread across his face by taking the lead.

"It's fine!" she called, gesturing for BB-8 to move ahead.

BB-8 avoided puddles on the ground from rain pouring from holes in the ceiling. He brushed ahead of Armitage, looking for any sort of doorway that he could hack into, to get a map of the place.

"The system is pretty old, but I think I can get a directory," said BB-8. "But I need a light first."

"Oh!" Rey jogged up to her little droid friend, realizing the only source of light she had on her was, well, her lightsaber. Still, she activated it. Out of her peripheral vision, she noticed Armitage still wandering ahead slowly, almost in a trance.

"Wait..." Rey realized as BB-8 started to tinker with the old door, holding her lightsaber high so it wouldn't graze him. "Don't you have a light attachment?"

"I do," he admitted. "But I like the sound of your lightsaber more. And it's yellow now, so I can see better."

Rey scrunched her nose. "You cheeky little—"