Ugh. I'm going to regret this.

Those exact words kept playing in his head as he hesitated on returning.

He felt regret. He felt shame. He felt all sorts of anger, all for himself. And the young woman, of course. He was way too stubborn to accept that it was all his own fault.

The hesitation was real. He had been standing there for quite a long time, with the ginger-haired man staring at him, bored.

"Are you gonna knock or not?" Hux asked, boredom streaked in his voice, while he crossed his arms, leaning against the wall.

"Shut up." Ren snapped, his frustration filling every corner of his heart.

"If you're not gonna do it, then I will."

There was a long pause, until the masked man finally sighed and groaned at the same time, finally giving in.

"Fine." He huffed, stubbornly getting off the porch, letting Hux walk on it and knock.

The knock sounded like echoes inside the silent house. The young woman was surprised someone would knock that softly, especially with everyone in the planet being very stubborn and rough, and arrogant. She put the manual book she was reading down on her working desk and walked towards the door, and opened it with a loud yank.

She was surprised to see rat face and the masked scumbag standing there. She raised her eyebrows in shock, but luckily was hidden behind her mask.

"Caaan I help you?" She asked, slurring her words on purpose——not that she was drunk.

"Oh yes, please. May we come in?" Rat face asked politely, as if they were long time best friends who haven't seen each other in years, while scumbag over there just kept quiet.

"Of course," she muttered, opening the door wider and stepping aside to let them in.

Once they were inside, she pushed the door shut, while dust flew about the room.

"I must apologize for my master's stubbornness, which caused us into great trouble." Rat face continued, clasping his hands together, sending his master a nasty glare, while the master rolled his eyes inside his mask.

"And we need your help returning to our base. Do you have any ways to contact a star destroyer?" He quickly said, getting straight to the point.

"Right now? No. Getting contact is something almost impossible to do, let alone transport."

"But you can make out a way, right?"

"Of course. It might take a while, including some money to get whatever I need, but other than that, I think I can do it." She nodded of assurance, her words all truthful and none of them mixed with any trace of lies.

"Thank you very much. Not only for your help, but also for rescuing us. We are very grateful, although my master didn't realize it earlier."

The helmet shook with her head as she nodded, but a single thought interrupted her good mood.

"How many did you kill?" She asked, glancing from one helmet's eyes to another.

Ren was taken aback by this sudden question, but they both knew that this question was somehow necessary.

"Several," he shrugged, as if it were nothing.

She sighed in disappointment, but knew that she shouldn't discuss it, or it would lead to the same thing they did before they parted ways.

"I'll be at the market. I need a few things for your transmitter. You two should stay here, I have some food over there, just eat it if you're hungry." She told them, and went towards the door, but was stopped by rat face.

"Umm, you can't go there." He scratched the back of his neck in shame, but continued on before she could question him. "He killed a weird looking person there, and the others ran away."

She sighed angrily and groaned in anger, "You just had to make it even more difficult than it already is, didn't you?"

It wasn't a question, but rather a statement. She hated him with all her guts, and helping him wouldn't satisfy her anger directed towards him.

"I'll be downstairs, in the basement. You two... Just—— just stay put." She huffed, before swiftly making her way down to her basement, where most of her precious works and tools were kept.

It was dimly lit, with only a lamp hanging from the ceiling above the main desk. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor was made of concrete. The small heels of her boots made deep clicking sounds while she walked.

She went to the other side of the room, where a large chest was, and opened it. The creaking sound of the old wood interrupted the silent ringing sounds in her head, and the dust flying everywhere filled her nostrils. The smell of heat and evaporated water streaked through the air. She loved the smell, honestly.

She scoured the chest for a few pieces of metal, of which would be useful in making a transmitter strong enough to transmit a message to nearest star destroyer. Even though she had lots of extra scrap, she still didn't have the few pieces she needed left.

- - -

"What are we to do while we wait, master Ren?" Hux asked, taking a seat on the couch, while Ren was seated on the bottom of the bunk bed.

"I don't know. I'll just go talk to this young woman. Why do you call her a young woman anyway? She doesn't look even half as old as you are." Ren replied, standing up.

"I just assumed she's not that young. Besides, her voice doesn't sound as young as she looks."

"She's using a voice alterer, Hux."

"Yes, well, I've heard her real voice, and seen a glimpse of her real face. I know for sure she isn't as young as you think."

That statement hit a certain spot——no, not a soft spot, nor a weak spot.

"You've seen her without her mask?" He asked curiously.

"Yes. It was an accident. She told me not to speak of it."

"And you're going to listen to her?"

"It's her face, her privacy. It's not my right to tell."

"Since when do you care about others?"

Hux was taken aback at that comment. He dared to pull a hurt expression in front of his master.

Do you need ice for that? Ren thought, feeling proud of his lame comeback that usually wouldn't hurt anyone, but he knew just how to affect this rat-faced general as if they had been long time best friends.

He quickly retraced the rude girl's steps and followed her shadow towards her basement, where she was highly busy working.

She was currently burning a certain piece of metal on another. If only I could see her face.

He grew curious of her. Heck he didn't even know her name, and he was planning to smoothly get her to talk about herself.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, and although her words seemed to sound rude, the way she said it was nice.

"Just checking up on y—the transmitter."

"Checking up on me? Aww, how sweet. I'm flattered." She said sarcastically, with a flat tone, noticing how he was about to admit the true reason why he was there.

He rolled his eyes, although he knew well that he did that to convince himself that he wasn't that pathetic to go check up on her.

"So how's the transmitter doing?" He asked, now standing firm beside her sitting figure.

"Not good, obviously." She sighed, not taking off her helmet like how he suspected her to. "I can't get the parts I need, thanks to you, and I can't go any further than creating the outer shell without the internal organs that I'm supposed to get from the market. It's your loss." She snapped, which wasn't supposed to sound rude, but it did anyway.

"Is this the part I apologize?" He asked, bored.

"No. It's your problem, not mine. So I have nothing to worry about."

"But if I'm still here, it means I'll keep on annoying you until you get the job done."

"Nahh... I bet I'll annoy you more than you annoy me." She smirked, walking towards the chest once more, going to grab more things.

"What are you doing now?" He asked, standing stiff in place.

"Not making your transmitter." She meant for it to sound firm and sarcastic, but it came out more like a question rather than a statement.

"You just have to make it difficult to communicate, do you?"

- - -

A/N

Lol so sorry I cut it right there. I'm kind of in the middle of a writer's block for pretty much all my stories, and I hate the fact that I can't think of anything bc my school is basically forcing me to learn useless things for my future, ruin any future that I want, and making me have no spare time at all.

And curse my mom for forcing me to always study. Lol. I don't mean it, it's just a joke :p

- teresa