Saving the Monster

Chapter 48

Rey followed Kylo along stark white hallways, past closed doors and flashing control panels until they reached two doors stood side by side.  Kylo turned to her then and Rey watched as he swallowed hard, seemingly struggling for words.

"You may stay in my Generals quarters, it's been cleaned".  Kylo pressed a button next to the door and it hissed open.

Rey glanced inside, "Your General, the spy?"

Kylo inhaled sharply.  Rey had clearly hit a nerve.  Keen not to upset him, Rey asked simply, "Where is he?"

Kylo looked down into her eyes, unblinking,  "Gone.  We don't have to concern ourselves with him anymore"

Rey frowned, wondering how he could be so sure.  As if reading her mind, and perhaps he had, Kylo answered her question in a steady voice, "His body was burned last night, I was a witness"

Rey nodded quickly, fighting to keep the image from her mind, not allowing the side of her that thought he more than deserved it, to win.

She stepped past Kylo, into the room and looked around, the door closing behind her.  It was stark white.  Shelves on one wall, a bed on the other with crisp white sheets.  Rey had never been in such a place and she wandered about, her hands reaching out to touch things, the different fabrics, the shiny surfaces. 

She stopped at a door in the wall and turned to look at Kylo quizzically.  She found that his face showed just the slightest hint of amusement as he stepped forwards and opened the door with a loud swish, revealing the room beyond.

Rey peered inside, her eyes round, taking it all in. She was too embarrassed to admit that she had no idea what the dials on the wall near the toilet were, nor the metal thing hanging on the wall above the clean tiles.

"It's a refresher, you wash there" Kylo said from behind her, the slightest hint of amusement now in his voice. Rey's face flushed and she quickly turned. A move that Kylo seemingly hadn't bargained on. As Rey turned he didn't move and she crashed face first into his chest.

He was solid, unmovable and Rey was sent stumbling backwards, Kylos gloved hand shooting out to grab her wrist, steadying her. Breathless, she glanced up to meet his eyes and realised for the first time just how close they were.

His breaths were heavy, his lips parted, his gaze intent. Rey felt her cheeks grow warm again and she nodded once at him, expecting him to let her go, but he didn't.

He held onto her, her wrist small in his large hand and let his eyes roam her face. Rey watched, half afraid, half filled with an intense desire to lean in and kiss him.

This close she could see the flecks of green in eyes that from a distance had appeared totally dark. Just like him she thought, dark from afar and warmer, more complex when you got close enough to see it.

Rey inhaled, surprised by the shudder in her breath, "Thank you Ben" she whispered.

He swallowed and his voice was breathless when he spoke, so close still that his breath tickled her face, "For what?"

Rey's hand rose to touch his rough cheek and he flinched, drawing back slightly, but still never releasing her hand, "For this, for all of it, thank you"

"I know how it feels to be abandoned, sent away because you're different" he murmured, his eyes never leaving hers as she caressed his cheek.

They were the words that Rey so desperately needed to hear, that she wasn't alone, that there was someone in this galaxy that actually understood her.  Without another thought she slid her hand behind his head, drawing him down to her.

She felt him hesitate, freeze for just a split second, and then he was allowing her to pull him into her, their breaths dancing with each other's, their eyes closing.

When Rey's lips found his she felt him shudder and just the knowledge that she was affecting him like this sent a heat directly to her core.  His hand left her wrist as the kiss deepened and came to settle on her hip, pulling her to him, his fingers pushing roughly into the flesh there.

Rey knew little of men and she allowed him to take control of the kiss, his tongue pushing into her mouth, an intrusion so unfamiliar to Rey that for a fleeting moment she wanted to push him away. She didn't, she accepted him, her tongue meeting his, her hands raking through his hair, the dark strands sliding through her fingers. The kiss broke apart for a moment and they groaned in unison, Kylo ducking his head so he could suck and nibble on the soft flesh of her neck, sending shock waves through Rey's body, drawing another moan from her. His lips and tongue worked their way back up her neck, onto her lips, resuming that desperate kiss, the one that showcased their unfulfilled desires, their needs that had been unattended for way too long.

Finally they broke apart, "Urgh Rey, I've wanted you since the first time I dreamt about you" Kylo whispered breathlessly, before trailing his tongue down her neck again.

He'd dreamed about her?  That sentence snapped Rey out of the fog of passion that surrounded her and she leant back away from him slightly, just as he leant into her again.  "You dreamt about me?"  Rey whispered, one of her hands smoothing his cheek and the other resting on his broad shoulders, which were rising and falling rapidly with each hot breath.  Kylo nodded, leaning in so that his mouth was brushing against hers when he answered,

"All of the time, I'd seen you a thousand times before we met in the woods on Takodana"

Rey's mind settled on an image of him, lying in one of the stark white beds, thinking of her, dreaming of her.  Was this what it meant to be a Dyad?  That you would see one another in dreams and visions before you ever even met?  Rey remembered her vision in Maz's castle, remembered seeing the man in front of her.  No she thought defiantly, that was not this man, not this man who moments before had been kissing her in such a way that she had felt as if her knees would buckle and give way at any moment, no that had been the monster. 

This was the man.