Chapter Text
They steal away to the garage to continue their tryst. After hastily dressing, Rey shows Kylo to a roughly-dug passageway that connects the pantry of the bar to a trap door just to the side of the tool cabinet. It and other tunnels had been constructed, she tells him, for nights such as these, when sandstorms make it impossible to travel above the ground. But few people know of them aside from her and Plutt, so it should be safe to use them.
The winds rattle the garage’s sealed metal doors, but Rey assures him that they will hold. Just in case, they climb into the Silencer and lay down together upon its backseat. Together, they rest, and they talk— Rey about her upbringing in her Eden House, Kylo about his childhood in the Fortress, and Snoke’s tutelage. They also copulate two more times: once with Kylo on top of Rey again, his hand pressed against the glass of the window; once with Rey on top, gyrating her hips, grinding down on him. That last time, she slows just as he’s getting close, and finally holds herself above him, every part of her tense and trembling as she digs her nails into his chest and lets out a long, rapturous cry.
Afterward, she lies on his chest, her head just above his steadily beating heart, her legs between his legs. She drowses there, just like that, in Kylo’s embrace. It’s a delicate thing, fragile, precious and pure. Kylo doesn’t want to sleep, because he doesn’t want to miss a moment of their time together. Even as Rey doses in his arms, he struggles to stay awake, to memorize the little wisps of hair that cling to her forehead, the smattering of freckles across her nose. Such a hard life she’s led, and yet somehow she still has enough softness inside of her to trust him, to allow him into her body.
But the act of filling her has left him spent, and he yawns against her ear, trying to contain it so as not to wake her. Rey stirs then, and seems to intuit why he’s fighting sleep. She brings her callused fingers up to his cheek and murmurs, “Ben. Rest.”
So he does, falling into a sweet and dreamless slumber, the likes of which he never thought he’d know.
In the morning, he watches as Rey binds her chest with a long, narrow scrap of cloth, pulling it tightly over her torso and forcing her small breasts flat. “Such a shame,” he tells her as she secures the cloth, leaning over to press his face against her side.
“Stop that,” she grumbles, a little sheepish. “They’re only in the way.”
“You don’t like them? I like them.”
“They are what they are. I just have to hide them.”
Kylo sighs and pulls away. She’s right, of course. They don’t live in a world where she can freely go about as she is. Small though her breasts may be, they clearly mark her as someone who cannot walk the path she has chosen.
Even as he dresses, he is thinking of a way to plead for amnesty on Rey’s behalf to the Great Leader. He imagines taking her back to the Fortress with him, and knows it won’t be easy to keep her true identity hidden. Perhaps if this union of theirs results in a healthy child, she will be forgiven for her transgressions. Perhaps he will be able to keep her safe.
Once Rey is decent, he opens the door of the Silencer and finds himself squinting into bright sunlight. The storm has passed, then. The day ahead looks clear and calm.
But he was sure that when they snuck into the garage the previous evening, the great metal doors had been shut fast against the storm. And when he brings up a hand to shield his eyes, he sees that Plutt and Nemo’s few other permanent residents have all assembled in front of the garage, waiting for them. Or perhaps just for him.
“Doing your final inspections, Ren?” asks Plutt. If Kylo were a stupider man, this might sound like nothing more than a friendly inquiry.
“Something like that,” Kylo says. He angles himself so that he can see the back door of the Silencer in his periphery. Rey hasn’t emerged yet. If he stalls long enough, she might not need to.
“Your vehicle is fixed. Best be on your way.”
“What is this?” Kylo asks, drawing himself up to his full height and affixing a glare on the assembled party. He wishes he had his mask, and not only for protective reasons. He is more menacing with it on; something less human. The overall effect should be understood regardless.
Indeed, some of the men behind Plutt murmur and draw back. Plutt flinches, but stands his ground. “Whatever trouble you’ve brought on yourself,” he says, “we don’t want it here.”
“I don’t bring trouble,” he says. “I enforce the law.”
“Is that so?”
“What are you talking about?” asks Rey, climbing out of the Silencer at last. She’s re-wrapped her scarf around her head, to hide her hair. Plutt looks at her, but doesn’t seem at all surprised to see her there. Kylo feels a pang in his chest at how she’s come to his aid.
“There you are, boy,” Plutt sneers. “Giving him a hand, were you? With the vehicle.”
Rey stiffens. Warily, carefully, she says, “He’s— keen to leave town.”
“He doesn’t seem that keen.” Plutt looks at Kylo. “Maybe he thought he could hide here until the storm blew over.”
“I don’t understand,” says Rey. “The storm only blew in yesterday.”
Plutt nods to one of the other men, who hands him something. Then, he tosses the PreservBag down in the sand in front of him. Even from where he’s standing, Kylo can see that the seal has been tampered with.
“This was in his room,” Plutt says, but not to Kylo. To Rey.
“You have no right,” Kylo growls.
“You’re on my property. I have every right.” Plutt turns his head. He keeps talking to Rey. Why does he keep talking to Rey? “I was searching for evidence, y’see. For why he was overstaying his welcome.”
It’s one step away from the truth. Plutt was probably searching for any evidence that Kylo might be gathering to build a case against him. Rey must know that. But Rey doesn’t know that instead, Plutt has found something much more damning. She takes a couple of steps forward, in the direction of the bag.
“Rey,” says Kylo. “Don’t look in there.”
“Why?” she asks. Her eyes narrow. “Why shouldn’t I?”
“Just.” This is a losing battle. He can feel it. Everything is going wrong. Cold dread pools in the pit of his stomach, numbs his fingers. “Trust me.”
Rey gives him a sideways glance that he doesn’t think he deserves. She trusted him with her body. Why, why shouldn’t she trust him with this? But for whatever reason—perhaps because he told her she should—she doesn’t. With defiance, she stalks toward the bag.
When she peers in, her hand flies to her mouth.
“You cast your lot in with him,” Plutt tells her, “you’d better know what kind of creature you’re dealing with.”
Rey’s eyes widen. This is a sane reaction, Kylo knows. It’s what any person would do. But it hurts beyond hurt, seeing that expression on her face. “Who— who is that?” she asks, her voice shaky.
Kylo doesn’t answer.
“Ren,” she says, firmly now. A demand. “Who is that?”
He sighs. The full weight of over two decades in the service of the Great Leader suddenly feels very heavy upon his shoulders. He says, “A smuggler. He was running operations at the southern border, moving contraband into the country. And women out, we suspected— but we could never prove it.”
Rey takes a step backwards, but keeps her eyes fixed on him. She knows that isn’t the whole truth. He can tell by the look on her face.
So, he gives her everything.
“He was my father,” Kylo confesses. He feels as though she is already very far away from him. “And a criminal. The Great Leader demanded his head, as is the punishment for such crimes.”
“And you were bringing it to him,” Rey mutters. “Perfectly preserved.”
“It was…” Words seem to keep slipping through Kylo’s grasp. “It was the least I could do.”
A high, choked sound emerges from the back of Rey’s throat. She covers her mouth with her hand again. It is to her credit, he thinks, that she is not sick, that she does not faint. Even in at this moment, at the lowest of his lows, he can still find reason to admire her.
“He doesn’t have any associates who would avenge his death,” Kylo says coolly, to Plutt this time. “I wasn’t hiding here to wait them out, if that’s what you were thinking.”
“Why-ever you were here, I don’t think you have a reason to be here anymore,” Plutt replies.
Kylo looks at Rey. “Rey?” he asks.
She doesn’t meet his eyes.
“Rey. It’s what I was tasked to do.”
“You’re tasked to do a great many things,” she says bitterly. “I think I mistook you for someone who puts what’s right before duty. Your father!”
“I—” Kylo begins. His hand strays to his side, to the wound that now burns there as if fresh. He wants to tell her that he can change. He does not know if that is true. The truth is that he had given no thought to change, before he met her. Yet, having only known her for a week, he has been changed by her. He is sure of it. He is not the same man who killed his father. That man would have driven Rey to an Eden House three days ago.
But the only evidence Rey has in his favor is his word. She has a PreservBag full of evidence against him.
Kylo steps forward. A couple of the men move back. Foolish of them. He is unarmed, and they have the advantage in numbers. And besides, all he does is walk over to the PreservBag and pick it up. He is careful when he reseals it.
Rey is only a few feet away now. Her arms hang limply from her shoulders, her eyes are downcast. She is beautiful. He doesn’t know how he failed to realize that the first time he saw her face. She has been beautiful from the beginning, and she is beautiful now in loathing him. He wishes it weren’t so.
“I’m sorry,” he tells her.
It’s the first time he can remember saying that to anyone in over twenty years. It is not enough to change her mind. And how it hurts to look at her. She is like the sun: too bright, too warm, too harsh.
He goes back to the inn to pack his things.
When he sets out from Nemo not an hour later, he is alone but for the PreservBag on the passenger’s seat. His baton is at his waist again. He has his course plotted— a straight line back to the Great Leader’s Fortress. All is as it should be, as if none of this had ever happened.
But Kylo Ren, Chief Enforcer of the Order, keeps glancing in the rearview mirror of his Silencer, hoping against hope that he will see a red sand bike mounting the dunes behind him.