Chapter Two

Rey accompanies Kylo to an interrogation. Some of Hux's stormtroopers managed to capture a high-ranking Resistance officer named Tesha Surranei, a middle-aged woman who, even after hours of torture, still carries herself like a queen. She hasn't given up any information, and Rey can't help but respect her for this.

"Watch carefully," Kylo tells her, "because the next one will be your responsibility."

He speaks to Tesha for a moment, extending the opportunity to give up her comrades voluntarily. She refuses, and then he begins.

The interrogation can't last more than a minute, but to Rey it feels far longer. Tesha's screams echo off the metal panels of the walls as Kylo probes her mind. It isn't anything like the mental invasion Rey experienced at his hands months ago. She realizes, now, how careful he had been with her that day. How gentle.

There is nothing gentle about this.

After it's over Kylo reports his findings to Snoke.

Rey doesn't bother going to her own chamber. Half the stormtroopers on Starkiller Base already suspect that she shares Kylo's bed. What does it matter if someone sees her entering his room?

She takes a shower, then dresses in one of Kylo's older tunics, its faded fabric now closer to grey than black. The shirt is soft and warm, and it smells vaguely of him.

Rey lies on Kylo's bed, looking up at the ceiling, trying not to think of anything, but it's impossible. She can't stop seeing Tesha's interrogation, can't keep from hearing her cries.

He said the next one would be hers, but Rey isn't sure she's capable of inflicting that kind of pain on another person.

If I'm not useful, I'll never find out what happened to my family, she reminds herself. And Snoke might have me killed.

Perhaps Kylo would carry out the order. He may desire her, might even have some kind of affection for her, but he's dedicated his life to the Supreme Leader. If Snoke told him to kill her, Rey imagines that he'd snuff out her life in an instant.

Kylo finds Rey lounging in his bed, dressed in a shirt that has seen better days. He removes his mask and sets it on a table, and she immediately meets his eyes, her expression now hungry. Rey loves to look on his face, and if he's honest with himself, Kylo knows that he enjoys it too. For some reason it feels good to be exposed before her. He decides not to examine why that may be.

He undresses and joins Rey in bed. They're quick and ungentle this time. She scores her nails along his back when he kisses his way down her body, pulls his hair when he puts his mouth between her long legs. Later, he holds onto her tightly, fingers digging into her shoulder while she works her mouth up and down on him.

After it's over he can still feel the sting of scratch marks on his skin, and a pretty bruise blossoms blue where he gripped her. He kisses the place softly, a silent apology, even though he knows she doesn't mind being marked. She's told him often enough that she loves it when he's rough with her.

They still haven't taken the final step. They both want to, he's sure, but neither of them has been brave enough to initiate it—yet.

This has been going on for weeks now, and Kylo has no idea what any of it means to Rey. For his part, he feels a certain sense of possessiveness. She's his, and the thought of anyone else having her makes him livid.

There's more to it, though. Rey's presence comforts and calms him, and being with her brings him closer to contentment than he's ever experienced before. In this regard, it doesn't matter what name he carries—as Ben Solo, as Kylo Ren, he's never known something like peace, until now.

They're lying on their sides, facing each other, no more than a foot of space between them. Kylo reaches over and cups her cheek. Rey leans into his touch, so eager for contact, always.

He opens his mouth, a confession on the tip of his tongue, but either cowardice or common sense stops him from speaking.

"What were you going to say?" Rey asks.

"Nothing," he says. "Nothing at all."

The next morning, as he watches Rey sleep, Kylo realizes a simple, terrifying truth: he loves her. He knows this with a foreign kind of certainty. Usually he doubts his own feelings, questions his decisions long after they're made, but not where Rey is concerned. He's sure of this, sure of her.

But Kylo doesn't know what to do with this knowledge. She doesn't feel the same way, and when she discovers the truth about her family she may hate him. He'd intended to wait to tell Rey about her parents until she was too dedicated to himself and the Supreme Leader, too consumed by the dark, to care any longer about the mother and father who left her on Jakku. Now he thinks she may never give up on her family.

Then there are other complications to consider. Love is a weakness, and Rey already pulls him toward the light, whether she means to or not.

Her first interrogation is a disaster. It takes half an hour to extract the information she's looking for because she tried to go as gently as she could. In the end, this only caused the Resistance soldier further trauma and extended his pain, because Rey had to use more and more force until she finally pried the necessary intel from his mind. She'd thought nothing could be crueler than Kylo's methods, but she was wrong. Her own were worse.

Rey sits with her head in her hands, locked in her bedroom, breathing deeply, trying to calm herself. This isn't what she'd planned. She thought she'd have the information she sought by now. That she would be free of Snoke, of Kylo Ren. That she'd masquerade as a follower of the dark side until the moment she could escape, her true self in tact.

She realizes now how naive that was. The dark is insidious, and the longer she waits for the truth, the farther she falls into its grasp.

Worst of all, there's a part of her that doesn't want to leave. That grows less and less interested in the past that's so far behind and more concerned with her present. Her life alongside Kylo. He's leading her into the shadows, step by step, but it doesn't stop Rey from wanting him. He's as seductive as the darkness itself, and despite her best efforts, she's growing to care for him.

Sometimes she thinks he might feel the same way. He'll look at her with such tenderness, touch her so gently, that even if he doesn't say the words, she knows that she matters to him. But Kylo is still loyal to Snoke, and Rey is certain that if she displeases or disappoints the Supreme Leader, this fragile thing that's developed between them will collapse.

One night, when they're tangled up in bed together, sweaty and flushed, Kylo plays with a lock of her hair and asks, "Why do you care so much about finding your family?"

"You saw how I lived on Jakku," Rey says. "Always hungry, always alone. The only thing that kept me going was thinking that someone would come back for me someday."

"But they never did," Kylo says. "So why should you care about them?"

Rey frowns and pulls the sheet up to cover her nakedness. "Are you saying they had no good reason to leave me behind? That nothing stopped them from returning for me?"

"I'm not saying anything about where they are, or why they didn't come for you. I just want to understand you better."

It surprises her, a little, that his motivation is both so simple and so personal. Somehow it feels even more intimate than the touches they traded earlier. He wants to know her.

Rey bites her lip. "What about you? Do you have a family?"

Kylo stiffens and says shortly, "No."

This isn't the truth. Rey can see it on his face. "You're lying."

The look he gives her is sharp, angry. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Why not?" Rey asks. She isn't sure why she's pushing him, exactly.

"Because they're my past," Kylo says. "I was a different person then. That family belonged to the boy I was, not the man I am."

This is the first time he's ever even mentioned the life he had before he became Kylo Ren. She knows that isn't his real name; all of the Knights of Ren were rechristened by Snoke once they came into his service. She's wondered about his true name a thousand times, but Rey is certain he would never tell her.

As the weeks pass, Kylo continues to train her in the ways of the Force, to teach her how to embrace the dark side. Some lessons are more successful than others, and she can feel his frustration growing with her slow progress.

Today they have to sit through a strategy meeting with the high officers of the First Order. Rey barely listens, distracted by the sight of Kylo with his hands steepled, throwing out the occasional disparaging comment—usually directed at Hux. She tries not to smile, but it's difficult, and she wonders whether he's smirking at the general's expense. There's no way to know, of course, not when he's wearing his helmet.

It never ceases to amaze her, the difference in Kylo when he's unmasked. How much more human he appears when he isn't hiding behind black durasteel. Rey loves him this way, seeing his emotions playing across his handsome face, the way his dark eyes follow her every movement. She feels like she's privy to a secret when he reveals himself to her, as if she can glimpse a hint of the boy he used to be, before Snoke molded him into Kylo Ren.

Still, there's a part of her that's fascinated by him when he's wearing the mask. The distorted tone of his deep voice, the mystery of his expression. When she's forced to interpret his mood through body language, Rey notices the formidable way he carries himself, how he tilts his head as he examines something.

Kylo is strong, but when he removes his helmet he allows her to see his weaknesses too. She desires both: the boy who fights the light in himself, vulnerable and powerful all at once; and the man in the mask, always fierce, always commanding.

Now Rey watches him, listens to the cadence of voice, and by the time the meeting is over she's so restless and wanting that she takes his hand, pulls him out of the war room, and pushes him into the nearest utility closet.

"What are you doing?" Kylo asks.

Rey pulls her shirt over her head, then her bra, unfastens her pants and steps out of them. She can feel him watching her through the mask, and it doesn't surprise her when he turns her around, so that she's facing the wall, and pushes her against it. He yanks her underwear down her hips, and they tangle somewhere above her knees, out of the way enough for him to slip a hand (now ungloved) between her legs and touch her.

She hears the sharp inhalation of his breath when he feels how wet she is, and then he's thrusting two fingers inside of her, working her just the way she likes. Rey moans, pushes back against him and says his name, half-begging, because this is almost exactly what she needs. Almost, but not quite. It's so good, but it's not enough.

"I need you," she whimpers. "I need you in me now."

She hears the sound of rustling clothes as he frees himself from his pants, and then he's turning her around again, lifting her into his arms, and pressing the blunt tip of his cock against her. Rey holds onto him, wraps her legs tightly around his waist. She wishes she could see his face right now, but he hasn't bothered to take off his mask. As much as she'd like to kiss him, something about fucking him this way thrills her, makes her want it—want him—even more.

When he pushes his cock inside of her, it doesn't hurt, not much, not the way she's heard it can for some girls. There's only a feeling of fullness, of being stretched to her limit, as her body accommodates his. Kylo rocks with her, slowly at first, his movements gentle, controlled. But then his rhythm grows rougher, more erratic, and every thrust sends a shock of pleasure through her.

"Rey," he says, and even through the voice modulator she can hear how desperate he is.

It only lasts a few minutes more, just long enough for Rey to get close, to teeter on the edge of a climax without actually finding her release. Then Kylo is coming inside of her, shaking all over, and she's never heard anything as beautiful as the choked gasp he makes.

Her sex aches, sore from the roughness of their fucking and throbbing with unfulfillment. When he sets her back on her feet, Rey's legs tremble and almost buckle, and she has to grab him to keep from falling.

"Please," she says. She doesn't care how needy that sounds, because pride is a small thing to sacrifice in a moment like this.

Kylo touches her, those long fingers precise and punishing, slick with her wetness and his own come as he rubs slow circles against her tender flesh. Rey bucks against him, making the sort of shameful noises that ought to be embarrassing. Begging him to hurry up with it, to stop teasing her.

When she finally comes, it feels like shattering from head to toe. Like he's broken her into pieces and made each portion his own.

Rey makes her first kills on their mission to Djavin, where they're ambushed by five Resistance soldiers. Kylo beheads one, eviscerates another, and injures the third so grievously that he'll die within the hour. When he turns around it's to see Rey standing over two bodies, her saberstaff shaking in her hands. She drops the weapon, turns, and throws herself at him. Buries her face against his chest, crying quietly.

She's not made for this, he thinks. Darkness isn't much in Rey's nature, no matter that he's led her down its path.

Kylo wraps his arms around her, providing whatever comfort he can through touch. "You did the right thing," he says.

They return to the Scion, and when the ship lands on the bay of the star destroyer, they immediately go to his quarters. Rey strips out of her clothes, turns to him, and says, "I'm taking a shower. Come with me."

Kylo undresses and joins her under the spray of hot water. Everything feels close and warm, confined in a stall filled with steam. Rey clings to him, kisses him. He presses her against the tile wall and gives her what pleasure he can, hoping to distract her from the events of the day.

After they've dried one another off, she sits on the edge of the bed, naked, head in her hands. Rey stays this way for a long while, until she finally looks up at him and says, "Tell me where my family is."

"You know I can't answer that," Kylo says. "Not yet."

Rey stands, pushes him in the chest. "I'm not asking this time."

Kylo feels a sharp pain behind his eyes, the sense of an intrusion in his mind, and before he can stop it, a flood of memories surface. Mother brushing his hair away from his face and saying, "It's all right, Ben, your father will be home soon." Killing the Jedi initiates at his uncle's academy, consumed by fear and power in equal measure. Kissing Rey, holding her…

She takes a step backward, and the connection between their minds is broken.

"You—you love me?" Rey asks. She sounds half shocked and half afraid.

She probed his mind, saw things that were none of her concern, and now she has the gall to ask him this. "It doesn't matter," he says.

She steps closer, lifts her hand to his face, cups his cheek gently. "It matters to me."

He leans into her, too eager for her touch to remain aloof. Kylo catches her wrist, kisses her palm, then the sensitive skin over her pulse point.

"Ben?" she asks, hesitant and unsure.

It hurts to hear her say his name, but the ache is strangely sweet.

"Don't," he whispers. "Please." Kylo doesn't mean to beg, but he knows that if she calls him Ben again it will weaken him.

"I can't stay here," Rey says. "This place, Snoke, the dark side—it's killing me. And it's killing you too."

"What are you saying?" Kylo asks, frowning.

Rey takes a deep breath. "I'm leaving, and I want you to come with me."

"Because I know where your family is?" Kylo asks, and he can't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice.

She shakes her head. "No. Because you're all I've ever had, and I couldn't bear to lose you."

He could ask, order, or beg her to stay, but Kylo knows nothing can stop Rey once she's made up her mind to do something. Besides, there's no future for her here. If she stays, the dark will destroy the Rey he's come to love. It's just a matter of time, and Kylo doesn't think he can stand to let that happen.

Author's Notes: This ended up way smuttier than I intended, but I can't say I'm sorry about it. Once again, Next to Something pre-read all of this and fed me lots of awesome feels. Please blame her for the masked!Kylo smut. She gave me the idea and it was simply too hot to ignore. :P