Chapter Text
Rey can’t breathe.
It is too hot in this hotel room, hotter than one could ever imagine for a hotel room in the middle of winter in South Korea. The air is balmy, almost to the point there are literal minuscule drops of sweat flying around and it gets everywhere.
In her face, in her hair, on her skin.
Rey can’t breathe, and it is glorious. Her hair sticks to her forehead, neck, chest and normally she would hate it. Right now though, she has about four braincells and they are individually focused on; the way he lightly pulls her hair back to get better access to her neck, the way his lips bruise her own and force deep blue stains on her neck, throat and jaw, the way his hips grind against hers, causing friction against her most sensitive part and — what can be her favourite part — the way he grunts and moans and sometimes growl when he hits the part inside her that makes her leg perched up on his shoulder shake.
She grasps for sanity and finds one of the corners of the sheet that must have loosened somewhere in this drunken haze. She’ll have to remember to fix it later, if this ever ends. God, she hopes this never ends.
If she had known this was what was waiting for her when he knocked on her door earlier, she would have dragged him with her from the elevator without a second thought from the start.
The hands she checked out this morning take turn in stroking her jaw and grabbing at her breasts. Rey doesn’t have much of a cleavage even with her most trustworthy of bras, but she is almost sure she could have been blessed with breasts thrice the size and they would still be engulfed by Kylo’s paw-sized hands. He makes her feel tiny and secure. It is rare. It is liberating.
While one hand caresses her cheek, his other sneaks downwards along her ribcage and past her waist and hips. He doesn’t stop there but centers himself and zones in on her clit with his thumb. Rey mentally prepares for the usual tornado she has experienced before but is quick to realize how unfair and unnecessary it is, for Kylo is not like the teenage- or early-twenty’s boys she has slept with before. To the contrary, he knows what he is doing and he is receptive to her reaction to it.
When her body relaxes, she is soon struck with the sensation of an entirely other tornado coming her way. Scratch that. A tornado combined with an earthquake, if that’s possible. The way his hips snap against hers in a rapid speed and the calculated circling is quickly pushing her to an unfamiliar edge.
It takes her a while to understand the distant pounding isn’t from the bed hitting the wall, but from the door to the hotel room. And when it dawns on her, it’s like a bucket of cold water has dropped over her head and she wakes up alone.
“Rey, are you up?”
Rey has woken up plenty of times to the sound of Poe’s voice but she has never been so disappointed to as right now. The bed that was so warm seconds ago is now too cold and too large and Rey is all tangled up in the sheets alone.
With a grunt she — forcefully — throws the covers on the floor, adjusts her pajamas and stompers over to the door.
“Poe, it’s my day off. I planned on sleeping in today.” Rey tiredly glares at the two happy faces across from her. She runs a hand over her face to pull some of the sleepiness off and sees Poe and Finn wearing deep blue hoodies with red and white details and matching sweatpants. “And aren’t you two supposed to be at the rink by now?” The sleepiness is replaced with a pang stress and she checks the watch on Finn’s wrist to make sure she’s not reading the time wrong.
“Relax. The bus was delayed, it’s just coming around and then we’re off. Just wanted to check in with you before we left,” Poe puts his hands on her shoulders and smiles.
“Right, well, I’m going to go back to bed. Good luck today, call me after?”
With a nod and a few waves Rey closes the door and goes back to bed. Perhaps she is a terrible friend for not going there to cheer them on but it’s her day off and it’s not like she hasn’t seen both Poe and Nathan play before.
No, today is absolutely a fluffy robe-and-pajamas set-with-tea-kind of day. If she watches one episode of Grey’s Anatomy before going to the gym, she can grab lunch early and bring back to the room without anyone seeing her. At best, she can finish the season today and not neglect her work while at it—
Her phone dings by the bedside table and Rey flops back on the bed and reaches for it, ready to burry herself under the covers. Her pulse speeds back up by the first glance on the screen.
Within a moment’s notice Rey has scrambled out of bed and tripped while trying to put on jeans.
🦋🦋🦋
It’s an easy win for the american team and even if it wasn’t from the beginning, then the first minutes of the second period sealed the deal when Nathan sent the puck flying from the blue line and the board read 5-1.
Rey brought Aksel with her as a chaperone. Her social anxiety could never stand to sit alone in an almost packed arena.
One of the perks with a world championship is that most of the fans only know the players of their nation’s team and don’t care about foreign players. Of course, some follow the sport more intensely and so she and Aksel received a few double-takes when they sat down but other than that they were almost invisible among the crowd. Although, not even all eyes in the arena could weigh as heavy on her as Aksel’s did when Kylo went head first into the board in a nasty foul. She clenched her jaw to refrain from reacting and tried to seem indifferent when Aksel glanced her way but from the way her heart stopped when she saw Kylo lay face down on the ice, she can’t deny something’s going on. Definitely not after this morning’s dream. She felt a small pinch in her chest when she saw blood pour down from his nose and a little satisfaction when the referee ruled out a solid five minutes as well as a game penalty.
“That was intense,” Aksel jokes when he and Rey slowly follow the crowd outside after the third period.
“Extremely, it was almost half a moment where I didn’t know how it would go for them,” Rey replies dryly with a one sided grin.
“Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?” Aksel holds out his hand for her to take when the narrow hallway gets more packed, and leads them forward.
“We have a last tactical later but other than that I’m free. I think I’m going to the gym for a bit, run a little. Are you good for tonight?” Rey has a firm grip on Aksel’s hand and holds her head down as she squeezes through two groups of US-fans.
“Yeah, I think so. We had a tactical yesterday after our ‘unofficial practice’, you know, to gather the team and all that, and everyone seemed excited so we should be good. We have some first timers on the team so there’s always a risk they’ll go rogue under the pressure but Coach seems to be on top of it.”
“That’s good. Are you nervous?”
“Nah,” Aksel dismisses while scouting for the nearest exit. “I don’t exactly have the highest hopes for us, it’s just fun to be here and switch environments for a while. How about you?”
“Kind of,” Rey releases Aksel’s hand once they’re outside. “I think we could have a shot this year. Gustaf has a really healthy mindset he’s trying to implement on the team and is so supportive towards the younger guys. Like you said, if we can prevent anyone from going rogue then we should be fine. I’m not going to worry about it.”
“Good! You’re coming tonight then?”
“Come on, what do you think of me? Wouldn’t miss it,” Rey bumps him in the shoulder and smiles. “You’ll hear me and Nathan and Poe — and I guess Finn as well — cheer on you from the top of the bleachers as loud as we can.”
“Oh no, please don’t. You singing is more torture than supportive,” Aksel laughs when Rey puts her weight behind the push this time.
🦋🦋🦋
The plan to go to the gym for a bit turned into an hour long jog followed by a much needed sauna session with a sauna all to herself. To Rey's surprise — and possibly dread — the saunas are all mixed, accessible from the pool area and she is hesitant at first, not having it in her to chitchat with some bonehead, but the longing for something to ease up her tense muscles gets the best of her and after taking a lap to see if anyone else is there she relaxes and stretches out on one of the benches. She goes through all types of offenses in her head and tries to compartmentalise everything she knows about key players on the opposite team so to figure out where the weak links are. She has already sniffed them out on her own team and is thankful none of them are in her formation. One benefit of the championship is they have everything to win from the beginning, because if the season back home is a marathon then this is a sprint. Here she can be explosive from the second the puck hits the ice since the goal is only about a week away, and it has a thrill to it. She has a plan and after today’s tactical she and the rest of the team are caught up on the set vision.
By the time Rey has showered and gotten dressed she begins to hear voices from the men’s changing room and it doesn’t take long to identify them as players on the american team. They’re nothing but loud. She doesn’t think much about it though, not other than it has to mean Poe and Nathan are back too. Hopefully they have some gossip to share with her, otherwise where’s the fun in bringing players from around the world together?
Rey takes the left elevator and prays she doesn’t bump into anyone with her still wet hair pulled back in a tight ponytail — making her look disturbingly similar to Zlatan Ibrahimovic — and puffy face.
No luck today.
She makes it to the first floor before the elevator comes to a stop with a mocking ding! Stepping to the side to make room for her newfound travel buddy she fixes her look up towards the ceiling, not wanting to stare at the person on the other side of the slowly opening doors nor seem approachable. It’s the tsk-ing that catches her attention. In an instant the small annoyance she felt is gone and her frown eases into a small smile.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Kylo greets in a cheery mood and with a tug of his lips.
“Meeting like this or meeting at all?” Rey throws him a teasing side eye before fixing her eyes back on the ceiling. She has to keep the ogling to a minimum otherwise she’s at risk of displaying it all. She feels him eyeing her though but he gives her no answer and she doesn’t think about it.
Kylo steps in beside her and the spacious elevator immediately turns less so. Rey could take another step to the side, but she was here first. If he wants more space to himself, he can move.
They stand side by side as the elevator climbs and it’s so silent between them the faint music almost turn comical. Rey tries to think of something to say, but her mind is all on hockey and it’s about the last subject she wants to talk about with him. What she really wants to know is if he would like to hang out sometime. Although that might not look good back at home, opponents and mortal enemies and all that, maybe they can go to dinner or take a drink while they’re here, like a loophole. Chandler and Monica make a similar deal when they start hooking up in London in Friends. Given, that deal doesn’t turn out the way they want it to. But this could.
“What are you doing right now?” Kylo abruptly interrupts the silence.
“I’m… riding the elevator? With you?” Rey answers like the idiot she is and turns her head to glance at him.
Kylo snorts and rolls his eyes at her. “No I mean, are you doing anything right now? Do you have any plans?”
“Oh— oh, eh, I’m going to Aksel’s game later but other than that I’m free. Why?”
“I was just thinking if you’re free— maybe you’d like to go to dinner? Early dinner,” he corrects himself, earning a chuckle from her.
“Like a date?” She asks suspiciously, her heart skipping a beat and one brow raised in question, and tries to hide the hopeful tone. He hasn’t brought up that suggestion since the first time she shot it down. If she’s sorry for it, is not yet known.
“No,” Kylo is quick to say, although in a less cheerful tone. “Not if you don’t want to.”
Rey thinks about it. Didn’t she just think about exactly this? She is kind of hungry and if she denies his invite she’ll either be forced to order room service, stalk up any of her roommates or eat alone. She feels like none of the options but doesn’t want to get dolled up to go out for a bite. “Do I have to put on makeup?”
Kylo frowns, “why would you have to do that?”
“I don’t know, to look presentable, I guess?” Rey shrugs.
He shoots her a look. “You don’t need makeup for that, Angel.”
“Gee, Kylo, is that a compliment?” Rey teases him and lightly pushes on his shoulder, never been one to know how to react to compliments.
She looks up at his face and finds him gazing down at her and all teasing is gone.
He takes her breath away quite frankly. Looking like that. Looking at her like that. She follows his hand intently when he raises it and brings it close to her ear to bring back a strand of hair that has escaped her ponytail. She shudders as his fingers continue to trail down the side of her neck, light as feathers and she thinks it’s marvellous such calloused and large fingers can treat something so light.
“I’d say it’s the truth,” he mumbles and if she’s not imagining it, his eyes flicker down to her lips for a nanosecond.
Rey contemplates reaching up a little bit to see what would happen if she did, but timing isn’t a friend of hers and the elevator announces its arrival to her floor before she can act. She swallows her sigh and picks up her bag from the floor to leave.
“So that’s a ‘yes’ then?” Kylo confirms from behind her.
Rey looks over her shoulder and sees him casually leaning back against the elevator wall, watching her with a look as if to dare her to chicken out. “Meet you in the lobby in thirty?”
“It’s a date.”
The last thing she sees of him before the doors close is a pair of dimples framing his half-sweet, half-wicked grin. It makes the alarms in her brain go off and question if it’s wise to go out with him, but Vee’s usual urging to “do it for the plot” and the way Rey’s legs tremble when she returns to her room seal the deal. If nothing else, she’ll get a meal and a story to tell the girls from it.
🦋🦋🦋
Despite Kylo telling her she didn’t have to get dolled up and ready, Rey figured she at least could dry her hair a little bit and put on something else besides her tracksuit (a bra, for example). And put on some extra deodorant. And her favourite perfume. Just in case he bumps into her. Okay she curled her eyelashes too, but that is only because her lashes in their natural state point straight out. Like daggers.
Since she explicitly told him they’d meet in the lobby she almost jumped on the spot when she spotted him walking her way as she made sure the door to her hotel room closed properly. The sneaky bastard used his thirty minutes to ready too; discarding his cap and american flag hoodie for some hair gel and… well another hoodie but a black one. Paired with dark blue jeans, it’s disturbing how sophisticated he looks. While Rey’s sure they together look like beauty and the beast in reverse.
Kylo had already called them a cab before they went down to the lobby and to not risk bumping into anyone they know they took the side exit. The ride to the restaurant took no more than fifteen minutes, they could easily have walked there but with the amount of fans pilgriming to the arena for the game they wouldn’t have come very far before someone recognised them.
The restaurant slash diner is minimally larger than a hole in the wall and with its dark brick facade Rey wouldn’t have noticed it if Kylo hadn’t led the way. It’s located in a slim alleyway and the only colored speck around is the bright blue wooden door, which Kylo kindly holds open for her. It’s more spacious than the eye can tell from the outside and a hell of a lot more cozy with lanterns hanging off the walls, dark wooden tables and spacious armchair-sized chairs and small cut flowers in vases on each table. To sum it up; it’s damn romantic — too romantic for her t-shirt, sweater and straight jeans. She fumbled with the zipper and cast anxious glances at the other guests when the waiter led them to their table.
“How long do I have you before the game?” Kylo asks when they’ve sat down and the waiter has left them with two menus.
For as long as possible.
Rey checks the watch on her wrist and tries to take the time it’ll take her to get to the arena into account, “Um… two— two and a half hours.”
“Great, that’ll give me just enough time to get you to spill all your secret tactics for your game tomorrow,” Kylo winks playfully at her from over the edge of his menu.
Rey’s a little taken aback from the playfulness radiating off of Kylo tonight, having gotten the sense he’s more the brooding and silent type. Don’t get her wrong, he is very much that man but tonight he feels more alive than he did the night at the bar back home. It’s new and very intriguing and Rey wants to know what more there is to him. “Good luck with that,” she laughs, eyes still glued to her own menu laying open on the table, chin in hand as she ponders if she should go for noodles or bibimbap.
Alcohol is out of the question but a soda won’t hurt, although she would really like a glass of wine right now to ease her nerves regarding the fact she’s sitting close enough across a gorgeous man for her foot to keep bumping into his under the table. The first time she apologies for it, the second through fourth times she blushes and casts apologetic looks his way but after the sixth time he replaces his foot closer to her body, their knees fitting together. It’s pathetic how much she blushes from that but she hopes the lighting’s dim enough he doesn’t see it or the fact she throws her hair up in a ponytail to cool her sweaty neck and unzips her sweater when the waiter comes to take their orders and Kylo is busy trying to pronounce number nine on the menu.
“Fuck it’s hot in here, isn’t it?” Kylo exclaims and drags a hand over his forehead and through his hair.
“Hmm could it have something to do with the fact you’re dressed for Siberian winter?” Rey suppresses a smile and Kylo rolls his eyes at her. The joke’s on her though because he pushes his chair back slightly to get more room to pull off his hoodie, and the temperature in the restaurant shoots through the roof by the sight of his inked arm and the black t-shirt stretched over his broad chest and shoulders.
Clearing her throat, she sneaks a glance at the other guests to make sure they’re not watched. The last thing she needs is for someone to notice them and spread the word about how she’s drooling over the sight of the american team’s captain’s bare arms. She’s not full of herself, it’s just that similar things have happened before. She knows all it takes to make headlines back home is for some low-profile trash news site to pick up on their ’perhaps date, perhaps not’-thing and put a spin on it and before she knows it it’ll have caught the media’s attention and — worst comes to worst — grown out of proportion.
“Relax Snowflake,” Kylo drags her attention back to him, a grim expression dancing behind his facade. “No one’s looking.” He lifts his glass to take a sip, breaking eye contact and Rey feels guilty for being so obvious in her anxiety.
“I wasn’t— It’s not—” she tries to form a sentence that doesn’t say I don’t want to be seen with you because although it’s true, there’s more to it than he can know.
Kylo doesn’t respond but nods and directs his eyes on the glass in his hand. He twirls the glass and the movement catches her attention to his sleeve.
Not wanting to dive into the subject, Rey follow the lines scattered all over his arm, full of intricate patterns and various symbols. Some seem odd, others more measured but it’s a particular one that catches her eyes. A vine appears from under his shirt and is draped around the swell of his bicep and wraps around the length of his arm, forming a line by his wrist where the sleeve ends, full of leaves in different sizes with a larger leaf blossoming at the base of his thumb. It’s majestic in its simplicity and after spending perhaps a little too long following its lines Rey quickly decides it’s her favorite of the visible ones. When focusing on the leaves she sees some have what appears to be writings in them but from across the table they're too diminutive for her to read. Curiosity killed the cat but she can’t help it, “what are your tattoos?”
Kylo looks up at her as though she’s interrupted him deep in thought before looking down at his arm and twisting it so the ones on the side are visible. “In short? They’re memories and decisions from when I was younger.”
The way he says it has her asking, “Good memories and decisions?”
He snorts more to himself than her and meets her eyes again, giving her a fleeting smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Some.”
Rey doesn’t push him and when she settles back in her chair again he visibly relaxes.
“So,” she calls for his attention after the waiter has filled their water glasses and they are alone again. “What is Kylo Ren’s secret weapon on a date?”
“My secret weapon? What make you think I have one?” He muses and leans forward on his elbows.
“Come on, good looks will only get you so far. How do you seal the deal?” Rey doesn’t miss the glint in his eyes but denies the surge in the pit of her stomach from it.
“This may surprise you Snowflake, but I don’t have a secret weapon.” Kylo traces the rim of her glass with his finger, the corner of his mouth twitching.
“Liar,” she accuses.
“Sorry to disappoint but I have been on perhaps three first dates in my life.”
Rey prepares to scoff it off but he lifts his eyes to stare directly into hers. “Why?” It may be a cross question but she has trouble grasping the realness in it.
Kylo shrugs his shoulders and seems to think about it but in his eyes is the somewhat familiar glint of mischief. “Honestly? It doesn’t do anything for me. I’ve found there are quicker ways to get what I want… but that’s a conversation for another time, in another setting.” He answers with a sly grin.
“Oh,” Rey feels a tiny bit deflated but hides it with a sip of her soda.
“However, I find it all depends on the date in question. Don’t you think?” Kylo tilts his head slightly and his gaze pierces through her. “So, I guess we both have to see what my secret weapon is.” He finishes and blinks at her and Rey silently wishes for it too. She twist in her seat and clears her throat, searching for something — anything — to say.
Thankfully Kylo is in a more talkative mood tonight and breaks the silence. “What about you? What is your secret weapon?”
Rey chuckles bitterly. “If I had one I would tell you but it’s the same for me. Maybe we should help each other out, you know, see if we can figure it out for one another. Practice makes perfect, right?”
“Right,” Kylo agrees lightly but there’s a harshness stretched around his mouth and Rey gets the feeling she said the one wrong thing. She figures she has to say something to smooth it over, but before she manages to the strain is gone and Kylo winks at her. She relaxes in her seat.
Rey swirls her straw around while her eyes wander over the other guests. It’s easy to get lost in people and forget one's company and while she normally feels obliged to hold conversations to fill the awkward silences, she now feels perfectly content simply sitting across from Kylo with neither of them saying a word.
Outside the window is a small group of tourists, judging by the way they dress and take pictures of everything in sight, and Rey smiles when she sees one of the women posing for a picture next to a world championship poster. The woman holds up her scarf with the Canadian flag and laughs when a group of bypassers cheer at her.
It’s on occasions such as these Rey’s reminded that she is part of something bigger, something which unites strangers and brings them joy and a sense of belonging. It certainly did to her when she was younger. And then there are times when she’s reminded of the backside she tries to ignore but is still there; the toxic climate within different teams, never-ending competition, hateful comments and threats. Like the first night, for example. The reminder nestles its way to the back of her throat and Rey has to swallow several times to prevent it from choking her. But much like last night she has a feeling Kylo would come for her rescue if it did, and the bile is dislodged by the sense of gratitude towards the man across the square table.
“Thanks for… that night in the bar,” Rey says earnestly. “For, you know, defending me against that guy, Bonn.”
When he constricts his brows she feels like an idiot. Perhaps he hadn’t defended her at all, but he’d simply set they guy straight about female athletes in general. She opens her mouth to wave it off.
“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.” His baritone voice holds nothing but sincerity, as does his expressive eyes. Rey looks at him with her mouth still open, caught off guard. “I meant it; you’re twice the player he is. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.” Kylo tells her and nods in a way that’s final, before he looks away and takes a sip from his drink.
Rey watches him as the words sink in and a blush creeps up her cheeks. “Still, I appreciate it.” She tells him, feeling the need to make him understand the rarity of it, and she has to avert her own gaze to not become an even worse blabbering fool than usual from the tickling feeling in her gut when he looks at her and quirks his mouth like that.
The divine smell of food has her stomach growling and she hurriedly clutches her hands over it to drown it out. Kylo lets out a surprised chuckle and Rey blushes under his amused gaze. He’s about to say something but is cut off by the waiter bringing their plates in. As soon as they’ve said their thanks and are alone again they dive in greedily and gracelessly, letting the food silence them until the worst hunger is settled.
He asks her about where she went to school and she asks him how he met the ‘knights’. She nearly chokes on a noodle when he tells her the story of how he met Vicrul and nearly strangled him on sight after having to dodge a puck when opening the door to their mutual dorm, against which Vicrul had practiced slap-shots.
He then asks her about her family and she takes notes on the way he’s reluctant to answer when she asks him about his. He briefly mentions having a sister and a nephew living in Italy but he clamps up when it comes to his parents. To not make him uncomfortable she instead asks what he does on his spare time and at first he looks at her as though she’s grown three heads and then he insists he doesn’t have spare time, that his mind is focused on hockey at all times and when she asks if that is true his eyes soften and he answers that hockey hasn’t been the only thing occupying his mind lately. And to save herself from receiving a crack in her heart she doesn’t ask him further on the subject, finding bliss in ignorance.
Continuing his inquiry, he turns her question back to her and openly judges and ridicules her when she tells him about her love for romcom and fantasy literature with guaranteed HEA. In return she promises to hit him up with one of her best recommendations back home and he nearly strokes out, spilling a mouthful of fried rice in his lap in result. The sight is almost enough for her to send the soda in her mouth right up her nose and there they sit; him with food stains on his pants and her with soda dripping from her chin and onto the table.
In the back of her mind she figures she’ll have to leave soon. There’s no clock in the restaurant in sight when she looks around but Kylo’s large silver watch on his wrist shines from the light when he picks up his phone momentarily. “What time is it?”
He looks up from his phone before locking it and placing it upside down on the table. “It’s still early. We have time,” he reassures her with a smile.
Rey reciprocates with a smile of her own, relaxing in her seat by the fact that tonight doesn’t have to end just yet. Instead she continues on her quest to get to know him, at least as much as he lets her. It doesn’t go unnoticed by her the shift in him from the beginning of the meal when he seemed reluctant to divulge any piece of himself, to when he asks the waiter for another soda for them both before offering her a glint of his childhood of when he helped his dad build a treehouse in their backyard and it took less than a week for him and his cousin to break it. His impeccable posture eases back against the backrest with time and the frown and hard lines ease into creases by his eyes and visible dimples.
The night carries on, guests leave and new arrive and they sit unbothered in their corner by the window, entranced in a bubble. Rey eats up the attention he gives her. The attention this incredibly attractive — although slightly difficult — man gives her.
“Are you good at cooking?” Rey asks with her mouth full of one of the last pieces of her food.
“No, unfortunately not,” he says before taking a new bite. Not that Rey bewitchingly watches him devour his food right before her, letting her mind wander with the sight of his jaw muscles tensing as he chews. “My grandmother used to teach me—”
Focus, Rey. It’s just food. You have that exact food on your own plate, her subconscious reasons with her and it’s probably for the best that Kylo is busy trying to prevent rice from falling in his lap and therefore has his focus downwards because Rey is staring to her heart’s desire, no shame in sight. More precisely she’s staring at the little piece of sauce in the corner of his mouth and the tip of his tongue trying to lick it off.
Oh, to have that tongue— no!
Rey shakes her head and attempts to listen to the story about when Kylo’s grandmother taught him how to make homemade pasta. It’s a precious story, for sure, but Rey can’t for the life of her focus on anything else except him licking the tips of his fingers clean — a trait she would have found distasteful if anyone else had done it but now finds scolding hot — and the way his plump lips close around them as he looks at her. It feels almost criminal.
Please don’t drool.
But if you do he can lick it up… The devil on her shoulder disagrees with the sane part of her mind and flashes her a sneer.
“— but now I’m more of an eating out kind of guy.”
“Shouldn’t it be ’eating in’?” Rey blurts out because, with him demonstrating all the ways he can work his fingers and tongue have gotten her all hot and heavy, sex is currently the single thing on her mind.
Kylo pauses with his glass against his parted lips and stares at her in disbelief.
Rey looks back in mortification when it dawns on her she said it out loud — and that he heard it.
Her face is burning up.
The tip of his ear peeking out through his raven locks turns crimson and for a brief second before he finds his composure, he’s lost for words.
“I- I just meant—“
“What? You just meant what, Rey?” Kylo sets down his glass, puts his elbows on the table and cups his hands over his mouth, shielding his grin but the mischief in those eyes of his betrays him. “Hmm?”
“Nothing,” she mumbles and avoids meeting his burning gaze.
“Come on, it sounded like you had something on your mind.” She forcefully shakes her head. “No? Shame, I was really looking forward to hearing your ‘eating in’-theory. It sounded you that you had some interesting thoughts. Although I guess I could offer some thoughts of my own regarding your theory… but then we would be here all night,” he says it like it’s supposed to be a threat. “Another time then,” he finishes with a wink before casually taking a sip of his soda, as though he hasn’t just liquefied Rey’s insides.
🦋🦋🦋
“Come on, I never said that!” Kylo protests loudly on their way back to the hotel, too horrified from the story Rey just told him to watch where he’s going and when he nearly slips on a patch of ice Rey doubles over with laughter and clutches her stomach.
“Yes you did! People sent me the clip for weeks afterwards. It was mortifying!” She replies once she has pulled herself together, pivoting to the left to avoid slipping on the ice herself.
Kylo groans and hides his face in his hands. “Shit, I’m an ass.”
“Yeah you are…” Rey agrees and nudges his shoulder when he glares sideways at her. “Relax. If anything, it motivated me to get better so you’d have to eat your words one day.”
“Mission accomplished.” He peers at her with a mix of admiration and guilt. She doesn’t know how to answer that. So naturally she dismisses it with a scoff and a roll of her eyes at him. “I’m serious. There was talk back in Canada about recruiting you. The Sports Manager has followed your tracks since the Academy.”
“You’re messing with me,” Rey doesn’t dare to hope.
“No cross my heart, but if you tell anyone I’ll deny it.”
“Of course you will,” she laughs. “But wow, that would be amazing.” Rey mumbles mostly to herself and thinks it over for a second. “Do you miss it?” She remembers asking him before about the reason he left Canada and she vividly remembers his answer.
Kylo is silent for so long she thinks he didn’t hear her but when she looks over at him she sees him deep in thought. “Honestly? Sometimes I do. It is what it is but I have yet to regret my decision to sign with the Devils.” He smiles at her so his dimples appear and Rey is a little bit less cold. A little bit.
A shiver running through her whole body punctuates it and she is painfully reminded of the chilly weather. “Next time, remind me to bring a damn coat. I can’t believe I forgot. It’s freezing,” she complains and shoves her hands down her pockets and forms them into fists.
“Next time?” Kylo’s voice carries an amused tone and Rey tenses even more.
Shit.
Her chin is down somewhere in the snow from her slip-up and incoherent blabbering erupts from her mouth in a pathetic attempt for a save. It just came out, she hadn’t thought about a second date. Or, of course she had thought about it, but it wasn’t what she had meant. If only she could formulate it to Kylo instead of stuttering, that would be great. She looks around them to see if there’s anything she can use as an excuse to change topic quickly. Her gaze falls on Kylo walking next to her and she expects to see his usual smug grin but is instead met with eyes that seem more alive than they have tonight and from the streetlight overhead illuminating his features Rey swears she can see a faint blush on the tips of his cheeks.
“I promise,” he says and Rey mentally thanks him for not laughing at her. “By the way, shouldn’t you be used to cold winters? Being from the cold, dark north and everything?” He teases and raises a brow at her.
“Ehm, excuse me? What about you? Didn’t you spend last season in Canada? The land of the moose?” Rey flings back with feigned hurt.
“You make it sound like it’s the land of the polar bear of something. And besides, I’m not the one complaining of the cold,” he points out.
“Perhaps not but don’t think I can’t see the goosebumps on your neck, mister.” To prove her point she pulls out her hand closest to him and places it on the side of his neck above his collar where the skin is all prickly.
“Mister? You sound like a scolding mother,” Kylo flinches from the touch of her cold fingers and grabs her hand to pull it off him, holding it a second longer than necessary.
“Oh yeah? Well what would your mother say if she saw you right now walking around a cold winter night wearing nothing more but a hoodie?” Rey asks with a laugh but it falls short when she notices the shadow that appears in Kylo’s face. Typically for her to speak before she can think. To be honest, she doesn’t fully comprehend what it was she said this time but it’s the same expression he got when she asked about his tattoos.
“I don’t know,” he answers in a low voice and with his gaze locked on the ground. Rey tries to read him but falls short. The shadows from the light and the scar across his face along with the purple bruise from the game earlier twist his beautiful features into something decadent. Right when Rey is about to open her mouth to try and salvage the up to now delightful evening, Kylo’s mask slips back in place and he offers her a one-sided grin. “But based on what I’ve heard of your mother I imagine she wouldn’t be too pleased with you right now.”
She doesn’t know how he does that. Whenever something hits too close to home, which she believes is the case now, she needs several moments to jump back from it but… It’s difficult to pinpoint and it might be a bit dramatic to say but at times it feels as though Kylo Ren has at least two different personalities and an internal war between the them. She gets the feeling the person who’s been sitting across from her tonight is one he doesn’t allow the world to see that often. And it’s a shame. And fortunate for her, because if he did then Rey would be in a whole lot of danger of falling for him. That’s a road she’s not keen on going down tonight though.
So she talks his ear off the rest of the walk home, being so caught up with stories about her mother and those cold winters in her childhood she accidentally bumps into Kylo’s shoulder several times. After a while she notices there are less bumping into each other and more of them walking so close the heat from Kylo’s body engulfs her own and while her muscles doesn’t completely relax she is more comfortable during the last kilometer than the previous ones. And despite how much she longs for taking a hot shower before crawling down under the covers, she is a little sad the night’s over. She has a gnawing feeling she’s forgotten something and she can’t for the life of her figure out what it is. Not even if it is an idea, a story she wanted to tell Kylo, something she should do… But she called her mother before dinner and she went over every possible strategy for tomorrow in the gym.
“Jesus,” Kylo shivers roughly once they get to the nice and balmy hotel lobby. “One more meter and I would for sure freeze to death.”
“Wha— I told you you were cold too!” Rey exclaims and slaps him lightly on the arm.
“I never denied it,” he points out and presses the elevator button.
“You never… whatever,” Rey mutters and rubs her hands together to get the blood flow back in them.
The elevator dings and Kylo motions for her to enter first. Rey cast him a sly eye and narrows her eyes at him when she sees him try to suppress a grin.
“Well hello.”
Rey immediately wants to turn on her heal and take the stairs while possibly dragging Kylo behind her because when the open doors they reveal no others than Poe and Finn. It’s quite possibly the worst combination right now and the energy Rey got from dinner dissolves immediately. All anyone can do is stare and it seems everyone is staring at Rey. She even feels Kylo’s eyes in the back of her neck.
No one says a thing.
No one.
The salvation almost comes when the doors begin to close but the expression on Poe’s face emits that there’s no version of this universe where he would let her off the hook that easy. The fucker doesn’t miss a beat before he stretches his arm out and prevents that from happening.
“Hello…” Rey mumbles out before taking a place in front of Poe and she can practically hear the look Poe and Finn exchanges when Kylo takes the place next to her. Meanwhile Rey pulls her strings to not look at Kylo. She gets the sense he’s not thrilled though, given his strained breathing.
“We’re just on our way back from the spa,” Poe fills them in. Rey has known him long enough to pick up on the subtle hint in his tone, telling her to not mistake this for simple smalltalk. “What have you been doing?”
“We’ve— we have been to dinner. A Korean restaurant—”
“Very rare for South Korea,” Kylo has the nerve to mumble and Rey wants nothing more than to tramp on his foot as hard as she can.
“Like I said, a Korean restaurant. You would have liked it. We can go there sometime before we go home, I had some noodles and—” Rey doesn’t need to turn around to know Poe’s currently looking over her shoulder in an attempt to see any sort of grimace.
“Just the two of you?” Poe interrupts, his usual lack of manners on full display.
“No. There were plenty of people in the restaurant,” Rey’s voice is monotone to not give Poe anything to interpret but she dreads where this is going.
“Huh… who?”
What in the sloth infested elevator is happening? Surely it didn’t go this slow the last time. The tension in the hellishly small quadrant is palpable and a quick glance at Kylo confirms he’s looking right at her, certainly not helping her case.
“Unfortunately I didn’t focus on taking their names and numbers.” Patience is a virtue but hers is running out.
“Really? What were you focused on then?”
Damn it. She walked straight into that one. And not a second after the elevator slows down — if that is possible — and stops on her floor.
“Well… this is me. I guess.” Rey points out the obvious, not sure how to handle the situation. Is this even a situation? Normally she would thank for dinner but the space around her is a minefield and the slightest tell that this was something in the date area will leave her sorry for weeks to come.
“I’ll walk you to your door,” Kylo offers.
Before he can take a step forward though, Poe blocks the exit. “It’s alright, I’ll do it.” And he’s out of the elevator, dragging Rey away before anyone — including Finn — can object or say anything else.
The last thing Rey sees before the door closes is Kylo’s murderous scowl and Finn’s suppressed grin, no doubt trying to compose himself so he can get back to his floor in one piece.
🦋🦋🦋
Rey almost drowns herself in a bowl of ice cold rice water once Poe leaves her room. The interrogation was surprisingly short though, she had dreaded it would take a while. Rey may or may not have used her ”big game tomorrow, got to rest”-card to make that happen but she had to swear to give him a proper disclosure of everything between the two elevator rides later. Nothing happened so she’s unsure why she didn’t simply give him the tea straight up, possibly indicating there’s something juicy going on. Honestly she wants to keep tonight to herself for a little while longer, before it’s dissected and interpreted. She will most definitely go through it a couple of times before she falls asleep. Listen to her, it’s like she’s sixteen years old and back at the Academy.
After making sure the door is locked right and her alarm is set, Rey turns off the lights in the small hallway, checks under her bed and is half a step away from laying down in her bed, which was her original plan for today, when there’s a knock at the door. She contemplates ignoring it but curiosity get the better of her and she trips over wearing her blandest of pajamas; worn-out t-shirt with a hole on the side of her breast and mismatched shorts.
“How did you enjoy the game?” Aksel stands on the other side of the door with his hands in his pockets and raised eyebrows.
Realisation of what it was she forgot earlier hits her like a semi. She is the worst friend in history right now, waiting for the devil to come up and appoint her. “Aksel—”
“It’s fine, but you can’t tell me anymore you don’t like him. You have never skipped an opportunity to watch a game for someone, least of all for a guy.” Aksel raises his eyebrows and gives her a meaning look.
“How did you—?”
“I ran into Poe on the way to my room.” He enlightens her with a small grin.
“Wow, news travels fast here…” Rey mumbles through her shame and scratches her neck where her skin is prickling from embarrassment.
“Yeah… It’s fine, Rey, just accept it. It happens to all of us.” He squeezes her shoulder. “Fortunately for you, you have a chance to make it up to me. Because I am in desperate need for a humbling analysis of what the fuck went wrong.”
“I take it it wasn’t a win for you then?” She examines him and holds the door open for him to enter when he shakes his head and grimaces.
Instead of turning in and obsessing over exactly every detail of the night, Rey grabs a notepad and pen and gets comfortable on the bed next to Aksel. It’s not like she’s in a place to pull out the same card with Aksel as she did with Poe. She can sleep and dwell away tomorrow night, right now she has to focus on being a friend. So they watch the game together and about all the interviews they can find while time escapes them.