One-Shot: Rey Proposes

They had been sitting in the darkness, chained to the wall, for days.

Rey and Finn and Poe Dameron had been captured by the First Order, a battalion led by Armitage Hux. The gingered officer had immediately submitted them before Kylo Ren, the Supreme Leader, who had ordered them locked up.

Poe was convinced that the Resistance would stage a rescue mission, and had used this tale to try and lift his comrades' spirits.

Rey, meanwhile, had tried to reach out to Ben Solo, also known as Kylo Ren, through the Force Bond they shared. But it had been in vain. He had shut her out, out of his thoughts. Now, she was beginning to think that the man she had come to love was lost to her forever.

All at once, the prisoners' cell was flooded with light as their door clanged open. And in strode none other than Kylo Ren, unmasked and his hands ungloved.

And who was now using those very same hands to loosen their chains. Rey stared at him in bewilderment, yet with a cautious bubble of hope and warmth filling her chest. "Ben...?"

He shushed her. "No time to explain. All of you, follow me - now!"

He cuffed all three of them, but Rey could sense - in her first foray into his mind in days - that this was just to keep up appearances, as he guided her and her friends back to the main hangar bay, where the captured Millennium Falcon had been impounded. The hangar itself was deserted at what Rey guessed must be deep night, but Ben nevertheless checked over his shoulder furtively before undoing the cuffs with a wave of his hand and the Force.

"Go!"

Hardly daring to believe it, Finn and Poe raced up the already-lowered ramp, casting nervous and disbelieving glances back at the man who was supposed to be their sworn enemy. Rey stayed with Ben at the bottom of the ramp. As she gazed at him, she could not help but smile proudly. She knew he could do it.

"You're a good man, Ben Solo."

He shrugged almost sheepishly. "Only because of you."

She looked up into his face. "Come with me," she pleaded, sounding like a child.

Ben just smiled at her, both this expression and his eyes sad. "Now you know I can't do that," he chided gently. "At least... not yet."

She peered at him, confused.

"If any of you are going to have a chance, the First Order needs to be brought down from the inside. If I ran now, I would be ceding all control to Hux, and whatever you think of him, he's dangerous all in his own way. I can stay here and bring him down and the entire operation with him."

Rey bit the inside of her cheek lightly, her heart splitting in two. She wanted him to finally break free of his life's chains, but she also understood what he felt he had to do. "When will I see you again?"

Ben sighed heavily. "I don't know. Soon, I hope." He now bent his face close to hers and breathed in a whisper, "No matter what happens, Rey, I am so grateful to have had you in my life." Rey could sense through their Bond that he wanted to say more, but coming tears clogged his voice. "Now, go!" he croaked out painfully, barely keeping the emotions in check.

This could be it, then. One last chance. It was either do it now, or forever wish she had.

So she took it.

Seizing Ben's face in her hands, she smashed her lips against his.

Her kiss was wild, and clumsy, which was only natural since it was also her very first. But, as she wound her arms about Ben and pulled him closer and closed her eyes in pleasure and slipped her tongue in between the split of his mouth opening to her, she could not imagine sharing her first kiss with anyone else.

At long last, she broke away, gasping, her thoughts so cloudy and fuzzy that the three words were sucked into being without her brain fully cooperating.

"I love you." As soon as the realization that she spoke those words aloud hit her, she stared up into his eyes, never more sure of anything else in her life.

Ben beamed down at her with the brightest smile she had ever seen on his face, his eyes shining with tears.

"I know."

With a strangled, triumphant, relieved gasp, Rey yanked him back into her arms and kissed him harder. She wanted to keep him here, where he rightfully belonged, hold onto him; she didn't give a damn that Finn or Poe might be watching.

She did not know what power his lips had over her, only that he must be really good at kissing, for when they broke the kiss again, Rey once again found herself saying something impulsive.

"If we ever get out of this alive, will you marry me?" The words spilled from her in a rush, and she felt her cheeks turn slightly, rosy pink. Even so, she knew that there was no one else she would rather share a life with. After all, both of them had been alone for so long, and had found each other at last. Why waste another second apart? Rey wanted to fall asleep by Ben's side every night, have him be the last thing she saw as she drifted off to sleep, and the first thing she saw when she woke up in the morning. She wanted to... Maker!... have his babies one day, although the subject of children was certainly something they would have to talk about. That is, if he even wanted to marry her at all.

All at once, Ben swooped Rey back into his arms and kissed her so softly, she felt herself growing dizzy. She whimpered into his lips - Force, he was a damn good kisser - and when he released her, he uttered just one word.

"Yes..." and it came out in a relished hiss.

Rey blinked once, twice, in utter astonishment. She, the Last Jedi, had just proposed marriage to the Supreme Leader of the First Order... and he had accepted her proposal. She found herself suddenly grinning, amused.

"Wait... did we just get... engaged?"

Ben smirked back. "Yes, we did," and he pecked her lips chastely once more before she could object. "Now get going, Jedi, or there won't be a wedding."

Rey beamed. "As you wish... my fiancé." She was satisfied at the low growl of pleasure that emanated from Ben's throat, even as she made her feet do the hardest thing they ever had to do and flee up the ramp, away from him. She pointedly ignored the gaping stares Finn and Poe sent her way as she took command of the pilot's seat. Both her comrades had questions, to be sure - and lots of them - but she was not about to bother explaining.

And as the Falcon took off out of the hangar and into deep space, Rey kept her eyes on Ben, her... husband-to-be, if all went well, until the last.

And throughout the whole flight, Rey kept replaying that one exchange, right after she kissed him for the first time:

I love you.

I know.

And she and Ben sent these words back and forth to each other, though their Bond, like a prayer.

Ben Solo finally did manage to bring down the First Order from within. He killed Hux personally, rounded up his Knights of Ren, and brought all of them and himself back to the Light Side of the Force.

And he kept his promise. Mere weeks after the war ended, he and Rey married in an intimate ceremony on the small island of Ahch-To, where the first Jedi Temple sat and where, together, Ben and his new bride would begin their new Grey Jedi Academy. He and Rey would train a new generation of Force-users, with the help of the former Knights and others. And with their marital union, Ben and Rey Solo would at last bring balance to the Force, as husband and wife.