Hello everyone!

Written for the RFFA Valentine's Exchange.

Prompt: Rey and Kylo meeting up at some point after the last jedi, and this isn't the first time.

Reviews are welcomed!

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Kylo could feel her in this crowded market place where his men stormed, leaving destruction in their wake. He stood still in the stifling heat, his men swarming around him like ants. He reached out through their bond for her familiar signature. She was crushed beneath floorboards, having found a small crawl space. Her eyes briefly met his. Fear. She wanted to run, but in doing so she'd give herself away.

Like a predator he stalked forward.

The building was a shack on the outside of town, barely standing, yet it was searched. He'd ordered no stone left unturned. Kylo parted the sea of white easily. No one stood in his way. They hadn't before, they certainly didn't now.

"Get out," he demanded when he reached the threshold. "All of you."

He remained still as the men quickly followed orders. When he was sure they were gone, he let the thin door close behind him.

"Rey."

The worn trapdoor was tossed open and the thin woman scrambled to her feet, saber clutched in her hand. Her breath came in short gasps, feet planted and ready for battle. She was a cornered animal, ready to rip him to shreds.

He never admired her more.

"You've healed?" Kylo asked, gesturing with his chin to her torso.

"No thanks to you." She snapped, hands tightening on the saber.

"I believe I was the one who found you mauled in the dirt."

Her rage nearly bowled him over. With a strangled cry she launched herself at him, saber roaring in the small room. He met her strokes easily. She'd been training – he could tell. Her strokes were more controlled and refined than they were the night she cut him down in the snow. Even then he found her awe-inspiring. The more successful he was at fending her off, the angrier and sloppier she became. He'd wait for her to tire out. The small shack rattled and groaned around them, their sabers slicing through the walls and destabilizing the already straining structure. He'd maneuvered her around, so her back was pressed against his chest. Before he could wrap his arms around her, a sharp elbow caught him in the stomach. An undignified wheeze left his mouth as she scrambled away.

He wasn't sure why they always met with sabers drawn. Deep down Kylo knew he wasn't capable of cutting her down, and he knew she felt the same. If they were to fall, it would not be beneath the other's hand.

With a swipe of his leg he took her down hard. She fell to the floor with a sharp cry, and he was suddenly there, pinning her down. She was a ball of fire and he could hardly expect to get her to hold still without using his own form.

"Get off!" she hissed, saber forgotten beside her as she pummeled him with her fists.

Kylo caught her hands in one of his, restraining them above his head as he tore his glove off his free hand with his teeth. Rey paused for a moment as he slipped his hand beneath the hem of her tunic, his fingers warm against her stomach.

"What are you doing?" she hissed through her teeth.

"If I asked how your injury was doing you'd try to lop my head off, so I'll take a look myself."

Kylo leaned back still keeping her hands trapped in his grasp. Her flat stomach had two large pink scars running across her skin. His fingers traced the scars.

"No lasting damage?" he questioned, knowing some of his worry had weaved through his words.

"No."

He'd given her enough room to draw her leg back and plant her foot firmly in the center of his chest. She was across the room before he was fully sprawled on his back.

"Why did you do it?" she demanded, hair coming undone around her face.

"Why did I do what?" he questioned, hauling himself from the floor.

"You massacred an entire herd of blurrgs on Ryloth and burned hundreds of acres of land!"

"Hux did."

Kylo watched some of the tension leave her body.

"He follows your orders." Rey countered.

"No. He selectively follows my orders and then makes up his own. He's been slowly gathering troops to move against me."

Rey's breathing had slowed. As her anger abated, she was unsure of what to say to him. The intensity between them was vibrating in the air and it was only a matter of time before something gave way. Kylo's thoughts drifted to the moment he'd found her Ryloth and he knew she could feel him through the bond.

When he landed on Ryloth for a recon mission, he was astounded to feel her down below, wandering through the forest – a forest notorious for being filled with dangerous predators. He'd easily slipped away from his ship to search for her. He'd only seen her from a distance since the throne room debacle. This would be the first time he'd find her alone. Just as he stepped foot into the forest, hand at the ready on his saber, her pain sent him to his knees.

In a flash he was running, drawing attention to himself and not caring.

He found her stretched out beneath a tree, tunic soaked in blood. Kylo dropped down beside her, drawing her dazed expression.

"I scared her." Rey panted, hands slick with her own blood.

Kylo glanced a moment behind him, finding a blurrg feasting on a fresh patch of shrubbery.

"I came around the tree too fast." Rey explained, eyes far away as she stared up at the canopy of trees.

Blurrgs were often used on farms or as modes of transportation. Those bred in captivity were more docile than those in the wild. They were mostly gentle creatures, but like any animal, they lashed out when they were scared. He could see her now, wandering through all the green that attracted her like a thief to a jewel. She'd be too lost in the moment to be aware of her surroundings.

Now she was sprawled before him, bleeding out.

He inspected her wounds – deep and ugly. Yanking her cloak from her bag, he wadded the material up and pressed it to her stomach causing her to cry out weakly.

"Hold this." He snapped gruffly, pressing her hands to the material to help staunch the flow.

"I've almost died before, did you know?" she asked softly, not really caring for his response. "On Jakku…so much death. But I've never actually believed I'd die there. Now…I thought I'd be scared to die…but I'm not."

Kylo was busy fiddling with her transmitter, tearing it apart his large and uncoordinated hands. He'd been taught by his barely there father how to reconnect a few wires in a transmitter to send a help signal to the receiver. There was some fancy terminology that went along with the wires and connectors, but Kylo hadn't bothered to learn the names, but he remembered where things should go. Even now, seeing her blood smeared across his hands, he could still see his father showing him how to firmly connect the wires.

Once the signal was transmitting, he gently hauled her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. If they could find her under ten minutes, they'd be able to save her. If not…if this was how it would end, he'd keep her close. He wouldn't miss a single second more of her. He was a sadist, wanting to hold her until the final breath left her body. He'd bask in her flickering light until it sputtered out, and with it she'd take his own light, however little that had managed to survive inside him all this time. Snoke had been right. With her death, his transformation would be complete. There would be no hope for him.

Rey stared up at him, her breath soft and too shallow. Kylo stared back while brushing her hair from her face.

"This wasn't how I thought things would go."

"Things hardly ever go the way we expect." He replied softly.

"The throne room…"

"No," he stopped her gently. "We don't have to talk about it, not now."

"You weren't asking me to join the Dark Side."

A beat passed between them.

"No," he admitted, watching his hand's progress across her forehead. "I wasn't."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

Footsteps broke through the still air around them. Kylo lifted his eyes in their direction as her name was called.

"They'll take care of you now."

Rey lifted her hand and pressed her fingers to his cheek. They both felt the thread of need pulse beneath the pain and dread that was consuming them. It had always been there, but they'd never talked of it, never acknowledged it. With nothing left to lose, Kylo lowered his face, pressing his lips to hers. She returned the pressure, her dry lips molding to his own. They held still for a long moment, relishing the connection. Rey sighed against his mouth as the tension that had been building in them for nearly a year now was finally released.

The moment couldn't last, not with her army heading in their direction.

Gently he eased her away and back to the ground. He was taken aback when her hand suddenly locked on his own desperately.

"Don't be afraid." He murmured, echoing some of the first words he'd spoken to her.

Before standing he brushed his mouth against hers once more, memorizing every detail. By the time he stood, she was unconscious. It went against his nature to leave her, but if he didn't move now, they'd mow him down before he could explain.

For a week he anxiously searched through the Force, looking for her. Just when he thought it was hopeless, that she must have slipped away and he'd not noticed, she flashed into his mind, tender and thankful.

He was choked with relief.

Rey shuffled awkwardly in the small hut, her face flushed.

He suddenly understood that the sudden flare of hatred she'd felt for him over the last few months was because of that moment in the forest. It was because she'd returned his kiss. It was because she enjoyed it. She didn't want to relish his touch and hated that she felt complete when the bond connected them. Rey couldn't come to terms with the fact that the person who understood her most in the entire galaxy was kept from her because of a war, because they were fighting for different things. She'd lost sleep trying to reconcile the man she spoke to in visions with the man whose name struck fear into an entire galaxy.

Kylo turned with his saber, hacking away at the back wall. Rey remained silent. When there was a decent sized hole, Kylo gestured for her to go.

"Do you have your cloak?" he questioned, watching as she nodded. "Good. Keep behind the shacks until you get back to your ship. They haven't found it yet."

Rey stared at him for a long moment before reaching for her bag beneath the trap door. She donned her cloak, pulling the hood up. She yanked the strap of her bag over her head, keeping her saber firmly in her hand. As Rey passed him, she paused and Kylo waited expectantly, but she slipped out of the rough entryway he'd created.

Before he could ponder the fact that she was leaving him again, she scrambled back inside. In an instant her hand was tangled in his hair, her mouth demanding on his own. They were uncoordinated and bordering on violent. He wrapped his fingers around the nape of her neck, forcing the hood back before his hand was in her hair, the bands snapping beneath his fingers.

This is how the first time should have been.

Just as her voice floated through his mind, Rey tore herself away. He drank her in, parted swollen lips and glowing eyes.

With a single exhale she is gone.

This would not be the last time they saw one another. He would make sure of that.

Kylo stepped out after her, following her form until she vanished around a corner.

He knew then that he'd tear apart every atom of the galaxy for her if she asked.

Through the bond, he could feel her assuring him that she would do the same.