KYLO REN

Kylo woke with a start at the sound of Rey's voice calling his name. No, not calling, but sighing his name...

He sat up in the captain's chair. When had he fallen asleep? The night time crew members didn't seem to notice that he'd dozed off. He turned on the small viewscreen at the armrest of the Captain's chair and entered his passcode. He had to check the trackers. He couldn't rely on his Force sensitivity at the moment to make sure Temiri and Rey were on board. He couldn't seem to sense anything.

All the sleeping quarters on the ship were now taken and Kylo had given his room to Rey, so he'd decided not to sleep. It wasn't a small ship, but there were 1,100 stormtroopers, 250 Cantonicans and then the flight crew, Generals, Commanders and Officials, not to mention the small Resistance crew. He could have taken a room on the maintenance wing, but those rooms were the size of his washroom on B-Deck.

He shook his head to clear it. He could normally go for days without sleep, but recent events had drained his energy. The more he thought about it, the more amazed he was that he'd healed someone from a fatal wound. It had left him weak, but he still felt powerful for having accomplished such a feat. Now he was having trouble accessing his Force powers, but he'd get his energy back soon. 

He hadn't even been aware that his mother was on board, until Temiri mentioned that he sensed Rey and the others close by. Kylo had been with him in his quarters at the time the others arrived, that insolent Hux hadn't even contacted him to let him know the ships had docked, bringing others on board. Kylo had Temiri in his quarters to give them both some distance from everyone. The boy was upset about having lost his racing animal and his friends on Cantonica.

Hux had wasted no time calling a meeting of all the Generals and Commanders from the First Order, the Resistance and the Rebel Leaders. But Kylo's mother insisted the meeting to be postponed until after everyone got some rest. It was something Kylo expected from his mother. What he hadn't expected was for Hux to actually agree with her decision.

Kylo flipped through the menu options on the viewscreen at his seat. He'd kept his distance from everyone, despite his mom asking to see him and Temiri. He wasn't ready to see her. He hadn't decided if he was going to keep her and the other Resistance crew as prisoners, or banish them all into space on a small escape pod.

The map of the ship came up on the small viewscreen and Kylo checked to see where Temiri and Rey were. Temiri was still in his room, but Rey was not in hers.

Kylo got up.

"Sir," one of the officers said. "We're having issues with the ship's systems on B-deck. The artificial gravity has turned off."

Kylo turned to look for Hux then remembered that his General was also resting in his quarters, like everyone else, except for the night crew. He left without responding to the Officer, anxious now to go see what Rey was up to. Why was she in the pool area? She was in such a deep sleep with pain medication earlier that she hadn't even woken to receiving the tracker implant. Could she be sleepwalking?

As soon as Kylo stepped off the elevator onto B-Deck, he felt the gravity change. He reached down to flip a switch at the back of his boots, which had adjustments for gravity fluctuations. He switched it to a light gravity setting and the boots settled heavily onto the floor. If Rey was here somewhere, she could get hurt when the gravity switched back to normal.

Kylo hurried down the hall with the heavy gravity boots.

The doors to the swimming pool area were open and Kylo was alarmed to see the large mass of water floating up above the pool. He reset his boots and pushed off the ground, floating up to look over the water. He was hoping he wouldn't see Rey there. The water would crush her when the gravity kicked in. What he saw when he floated about the water took his breath away. Rey had her eyes closed and head tilted back, chest pushed out. Her clothes were wet and sticking to her and she did a slow back flip. Then she sighed his name.

Had he heard her right? His gaze travel over her small form. She was perfect, with the body of a fighter, someone who had to fight for everything in life, even her own survival, growing up on Jakku among Crolute traders.

Rey's arms were spread wide and she had a smile on her face. Kylo had never seen her smile before. It made his heart ache. She didn't notice his presence, even though he was right next to her. She kicked her feet suddenly and spun in a different direction. A laugh escaped her, the sound so rich and satisfying that Kylo smiled, too.

Her spin brought her closer to him and he tried to move out of the way but his attempt at moving only resulted in the opposite, bringing him closer rather than farther and they collided. Rey's eyes flew open and she gasped when she saw him there. She lifted her legs up and kicked her bare feet against his chest hard, sending them both flying in opposite directions.

Kylo reached his hand out to the wall behind him but he couldn't stop his momentum using the Force. His shoulder hit the wall and he re-positioned himself, kicking off the wall again to go after Rey. She was no longer above the eerie massive ball of water. If the gravity kicked in again, the fall from this height would hurt her. He had to get her down to the ground.

"Stay away from me!" she yelled as he neared her again. Her sudden change in mood startled him. He was pretty sure she'd been smiling and sighing his name only seconds ago. She had her back to the wall and an angry look on her face. She turned and kicked off the wall and tried to bypass him, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist, which set them both in a spin. She cried out in pain and he almost let go, confused, then drew her in closer so he could get her back down to the floor with his gravity boots.

She fought him, kicking and hitting his hand which grasped her wrist. He switched the controls on his boots to a medium gravity setting and they immediately started to lower to the ground, slowly enough to keep them safe.

"You're hurting me!" Rey cried. Kylo let go of her wrist and grabbed her waist instead. She tried to push his hands away as they lowered to the ground together, but not with any great effort. Her hands seemed to be hurting her too much. Then he noticed that her sleeve wrappings were actually medical bandages. Had she gotten hurt in battle?

His boots made a soft clunk as they settled onto the floor. Rey hovered in front of him and they were both the same height, his hands grasping her waist. She was so small that his thumbs almost touched across her stomach, both his hands fitting around her small waist. Her eyes flashed with anger but she didn't try to pry his hands off of her, instead she lifted her legs and set her knees between them. His hands slipped behind her back.

"What are you doing?" she said. Her eyes searched his, but he had no idea what she was thinking. "You're different somehow."

He didn't reply. He was different. He couldn't read her mind, even if he wanted to. He'd lost touch with his Force sensitivity, but only temporarily. It had to be temporary.

"Is this a dream?" Rey asked him.

Kylo was about to say no, but then stopped. If he said no, she'd try to fight with him again. Maybe if he said yes, she'd let her guard down a bit. She acted different in dreams.

"Yes," he said.

His fingers touched her bare back where her shirt went up. Her skin was cold and her clothes were all wet. The skin on skin contact made his heart race. Did she notice, or was she too cold to tell? He hated not having any sense of how she was feeling. She wasn't trying to push him away anymore, but he had no idea what she wanted.

She closed her eyes and stopped pushing against his chest with her knees. Her legs slid down and they're bodies came together.

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To Be Continued....

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Author's Note: I really wanted to continue this but it's after midnight now and I can't focus anymore haha. (I'd been out of town all day, then we had a party in the evening :P ) But I will continue this on Monday/Tuesday. See you guys then!