Nonlinear Timeline

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It All Goes Wrong Till It's Right

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2 weeks to Christmas...

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Kylo Ren was a massive class A twat… no wait, not a twat, a twat is a vagina and they are pretty fucking awesome. No, Kylo Ren was a huge, miserable, muscle-bound cretin who had unfairly amazing hair and what sounded like an awesome family who for some reason (oh yeah, maybe because he was a colossal dick) he apparently hated.

Rey was currently decorating their living room and muttering to herself under her breath as she did it.

They had just had a row over her Christmas decorations and music, Kylo Ren is seemed, was a total grinch. Perhaps Rey should have worked that out on her own though, considering the last six months of flat sharing with him, (such a terrible idea, she was tempted to strangle Poe when she next saw him… though she had had that idea about three times a day since she moved in and hadn't done so yet,) she should have realised Kylo would hate anything remotely happy.

Well, he would need to suck it up and deal with it, because it was Christmas and Rey would be celebrating it whether he liked it or not.

Rey had a moderate size bedroom and they shared the open plan kitchen and living room, where as Kylo had a huge bedroom and adjoining room all to himself, and that was where he could stay if the decorations disgusted him so much.

Sometimes he reminded her of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, skulking in his dark room, dressing only in black, skin pale from lack of sunlight. At least he didn't have an obsession with shiny things or strangling people, at least there was that.

After Rey had refused to take the decorations back down or turn off her music, he had kicked the small Christmas tree making it fall over and stormed back to his room, slamming the door and turning up his own music so she couldn't hear hers.

Sometimes Rey wished she could see his birth certificate, just to check he wasn't actually a teenager, because he sure acted like one.

She rescued the tree and set it up again, still muttering. It wasn't even that big, or used much space, it wasn't real so there'd be no needles dropping and it didn't have crazy flashing lights or anything, so she really couldn't understand his problem… well, other than him just being a horrible krampus. That made her giggle a little to herself, maybe she should start calling him Krampus Ren.

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Once she had everything to her liking, she made herself a cup of Christmas tea and settled on the floor in her room to wrap up presents with noise cancelling headphones firmly jammed over her ears. She had found after just a few days of living with Kylo that normal headphones just wouldn't cope. To be fair she had known he was in a metal band but what hadn't occurred to her was how loud and penetrative electric guitar could be. Thank goodness he wasn't a drummer.

So she now spent a lot of her time with her expensive but necessary headphones on or earplugs in, just to stay sane.

Still, the rent was very reasonable and she lived in a far nicer area than she would have otherwise been able to afford. The flat was close to town, close to work and most importantly close to her friends. Plus, at least Kylo was clean and tidy compared to most guys and he had his own ensuite bathroom so that was never an issue either.

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By the time she was done wrapping presents she had calmed down enough to find herself smiling back at her reflection in her mirror as she did her make up for a night out with her friends.

Although it was Poe who had introduced her to Kylo in the first place, when she needed a place to live, he and Kylo seemed to mostly hang out in different groups, and she was more than fine with that.

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~'~*~'~

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Kylo fucking hated Christmas and Rey was practically shoving it down his throat. It was impossible to escape it outside his flat, but until now that had been a Christmas free zone. Until Rey.

And she been burning fucking candles again. The living area had smelled of cinnamon and orange, she knew how he felt about candles, even though he couldn't see the offending item, he knew there had been one.

He growled to himself in frustration and punched his leather computer chair, knocking it over, which irritated him even more.

Kylo cranked up Slipknot and lay back on his bed huffing a sigh, at least her stupid cheerful music was easy to drown out.

If Rey and Poe weren't so chummy, he would think that Poe had suggested Rey move in with him to spite them both. Yet they still seemed to spend a lot of time together so Kylo had to conclude that Poe was a bloody eejit instead of an evil genius.

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He dozed for a bit, fading in and out as he idly mused over possible lyrics for a new song he was writing.

Once The Gray Chapter had come to an end, he got up and took a shower, then wandered out to the kitchen to consider dinner options.

He found a pizza and as he waited for the oven to warm up, he made himself coffee and put Rey's offensively Christmasy tea bags in the top cupboard so she couldn't reach them.

Her door opened just as he brought his arm back down and he turned to look at her, enjoying her cheeks flushing and her eyes quickly darting away from him when she registered that he was only wearing a towel around his hips.

She didn't comment, she never did and in truth he probably would have stopped doing it if she had asked him to, but her reactions were too amusing - she was such a prude.

He watched her as she went about gathering her coat and gloves and keys. She looked good, she usually did but he found his mouth a little dry over the top she was wearing. It was black with sparkly silver things on with a plunging V neck exposing a large expanse of smooth skin and the slight curves of her breasts. Her hair was loose for a change, instead of haphazardly pulled into a bun... he found himself wanting to run his tongue from the bottom of the V all the way up to her throat…

Kylo quickly turned away from her and put his pizza in the oven, trying to will his cock back to sleep and wondering who she was dressing up for.

Once the pizza was in he took himself back to his room to dress, and Rey was gone by the time he came back out to the kitchen.

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6 Months, 3 days ago...

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Kylo had mixed feelings about the idea of having a female room mate. On one hand, they'd probably be clean and easier to deal with than another guy, but on the other hand, they'd probably fancy him and have a problem with how many girls he brought back, get jealous or something… still, Poe had persuaded him to at least meet the girl in question who was apparently having trouble with a stalker and she needed to move somewhere safe as soon as possible.

They were having a casual meet up in the pub, Poe was already with him and they were catching up when there was the nervous sound of a throat being cleared and he looked up to see a slightly scruffy but pretty girl standing a few paces away from their table.

Poe grinned and shot to his feet pulling her into a hug before turning to Kylo, "Rey, this is Kylo Ren, Kylo, this is Rey Heike."

Kylo got to his feet so he could shake her slender hand, her eyes widened as he got to his full height and he held his amusement inside, he was used to the reaction but it seldom failed to give him a rush.

That was her only acknowledgement of his appearance though, which surprised him but he didn't dwell on it as they sat back down and discussed rent and what that included.

He made sure he remembered Poe's request to not mention to her that he was doing this as a favour rather than because he really needed a flat mate - apparently she was too proud to accept 'charity', even from her friends.

By the time he had to leave for band practice, they had agreed that she would move in in three days time and he had taken a deposit on rent and given her his spare keys.

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~'~*~'~

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Poe had been rather vague on details but Rey had jumped at the chance to move out of her dingy studio flat in the seedy back end estate on the edge of town. And it was nice to think she was helping someone else out too, Poe mentioned this guy was desperate for a flat mate in order to stay where he was after being let down by someone.

He'd also told her she shouldn't mention that as the guy in question was a little proud, Rey had smiled over that and nodded, a little amused.

When she found them at a table in the Caroline, she had done a double take, surprised that Poe hadn't mentioned what this guy looked like. Poe may be happy and all gooey eyed at Finn these days, but he never failed at spotting talent and this guy had it in spades… plus he was bloody huge.

His hand engulfed hers as they shook and his voice when he spoke was like dark, warm molasses, the timbre of it sending a tingle down her spine… she mentally shook herself and pushed any rising feelings of interest away as they settled down and talked details.

The rent price he gave her was only a little more than her current place and it included bills. It almost seemed too good to be true, and it made her think there had to be some sort of catch, but he was an old friend of Poe's so she doubted he had anything awful to hide. He seemed nice enough, quiet when compared to Poe's bounciness, a bit introverted. He mentioned he was in a band and would practice at home a lot but she was fairly sure she could live with that after putting up with her current unsavoury neighbour's screaming matches, fights and aggressive make up sex.

She left Poe soon after Kylo departed, eager to get home and start packing up her things.

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6 months ago…

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"This all you taking Peanut?" Finn asked her as he and Poe entered her studio and looked around, eyebrows raised.

Rey shrugged and grinned, "Yup. Kylo said my room already has a bed and a desk and stuff, so I'm golden. Now, let's get the fuck out of this shit hole."

She picked up a duffle bag and a box and would have skipped if the box wasn't full of books and really heavy.

They loaded up Poe's truck quickly and swung by her letting agent to hand in her keys and sort out the return of her deposit.

She hadn't actually bothered to look at Kylo's place before she moved in so she was surprised by how nice the building was when Poe pulled into a space outside.

Finn whistled, "Looks like you've gone up in the world, Peanut."

Rey could only nod as they got out and started unloading things to take in. She felt her eyebrows rise even more when they entered the lobby to find it had a lift… she started worrying all over again about what Kylo could be hiding, he didn't deal drugs did he?

As they didn't have to take the stairs, they collected everything from the truck before jamming it all in the lift and going up to the top floor. Rey felt nervous now, butterflies fluttering about in her chest cavity. Finn and Poe had taken the stairs as there hadn't been room for them all and Rey knew which things could cope with being squished.

When the lift doors opened they revealed Kylo, he gave her a nod as he reached in to grab two boxes, then turned and made his way down the corridor to an open door. He wasn't wearing shoes and looked like he had just stepped out of the shower, dark wet hair still dripping down his back, his black vest damp.

Rey shut her slightly parted lips and started removing things from the lift.

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~'~*~'~

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Kylo had thrown on a vest and jeans when Poe text him to say they had arrived. He had almost forgotten that Rey moved in today and he was relieved he had at least had a shower.

It was early July so he left his hair as it was and went to wait by the lift so he could give them a hand with Rey's things. Hopefully if he helped, it would be done quicker and then Poe and his irritating boyfriend, Finn, would leave.

When the lift door opened any greeting he had been about to offer dried up on the sight of Rey, squeezed into a small space, dressed in shorts so small he wasn't sure they could be called shorts and a tight vest top. Her golden skin was glistening with sweat, her hair was pulled back in a messy bun and her face was clear of any make up, but… he gave her a nod and grabbed the first two boxes he could reach before retreating.

Of course he realised as he entered his flat that the sensible thing to do would be to empty the lift first, then bring stuff inside. Too late now.

He'd get used to her, he decided as he dumped the boxes in what was now her room and made his way back out to the corridor, she wasn't his type anyway, no matter how toned her legs were.

Not his type at all.

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5 months 24 days ago…

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Rey seemed to only own scruffy ripped jeans and tiny shorts, apart from the tight black trousers she wore to work, Kylo reflected, as he ignored Phas and Hux arguing over a set list, instead trying not to watch (and failing) as Rey bent over the counter top in the kitchen area, her ragged denim shorts riding perilously high up her thighs, as she discussed a recipe she was looking at with someone on the phone.

"If you aren't going to take the bait, Kylo, I will," Blaise drawled and Kylo's eyes snapped away from Rey to see the his bassist get to his feet and saunter over to where Rey was still obliviously leaned over the counter, her back still turned to them.

He folded his arms, unsure whether to tell Blaise to leave her alone or watch what happened.

He had not expected Blaise to just go and smack on her the arse though, otherwise he would have stopped him.

Rey let out an outraged yelp and without missing a beat or turning round, she brought one of her feet up and connected soundly to Blaise's groin. He gave a surprised but agonised groan as he sunk to the floor, while Phasma and Hux pissed themselves laughing.

Rey was by now facing them, her cheeks flushed with fury as she glared down at Blaise "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" When the groaning man didn't answer coherently she looked up to scowl at Kylo, "If he ever does that again he won't ever get to procreate," and with that she took her recipe book and her phone and disappeared into her room, slamming the door behind her.

"I like her," Phasma declared, grinning.

Hux shook his head, "If she didn't want smacking on the arse she shouldn't have it on display like that."

Kylo winced just before Phasma punched Hux on the arm, she was their drummer and built like a brick shit house and Kylo knew from experience that being punched by her hurt.

"Guess you'll be taking a lot of cold showers from now on, Kylo," Hux said as he rubbed his arm and glared at Phasma who just grinned back.

Kylo shrugged, "She's not my type."

Hux rolled his eyes, "She isn't I'll grant you, but you're going to be seeing that everyday. You've got eyes."

Kylo shrugged again, "Familiarity breeds indifference, give me a few weeks and I won't even notice she's a girl."

Phasma and Hux exchanged a look, then Hux said, "One ton says he bangs her within a month."

Phasma tilted her head as she looked at Blaise who was now getting gingerly to his feet, then nodded, "I'll take it."

They shook on it as Blaise rejoined them, gently sitting himself down, face a little pale as he winced, "She does that again and I am bending her over and spanking her like she deserves" he hissed.

Kylo shook his head, even as he secretly thought how much he'd like to do that himself, "No, you aren't. My house, my rules, you deserved that, just leave her alone from now on."

"Face it Blaise, you got owned by a pocket bint," Hux said, smirking.

Blaise just glared at him.

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~'~*~'~

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5 months 19 days ago…

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Rey was still furious over the arse slapping incident. Even more so, because Kylo hadn't apologised for his friends behaviour. She was beginning to see why the rent was so low - his bandmates were rude and loud, he kept very unsociable hours, whether he was practicing or playing music it was LOUD, and he had all the social graces of a badger in a sack… but she had coped with way worse than this so she carried on, counting her blessings and thankful that she now slept in a room that wasn't covered in black mould and peeling yellow paint; it would have to get a lot worse before she missed her studio.

For a man of his size, he moved surprisingly quietly when he wanted to, and he only ever seemed to want to when it meant it would startle her.

She had climbed onto the kitchen counter and was kneeling on it, trying to reach something in on top of the top cupboard when he spoke from behind her and she almost fell off.

"That's not very-" he cut off and steadied her before carrying on, "That's not safe, you should have stood on a chair or asked me." As he said this, he nonchalantly reached up and pulled down the bottle of lemonade her fingers had just been closing on, and placed it on the counter next to her.

"I was fine," she muttered angrily, hating his oh so condescending tone and even more irritated by his insistence of helping her back onto the floor.

He smirked at her, "Sure you were," and grabbed a can from the fridge before going back to his room.

"Not all of us are bloody giants," she threw at his back, but he either didn't hear or didn't care to respond. He was insufferable.

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