A/N: And here is the happy ending :)

Rey extinguished her lightsaber, and swung her eyes up to the hills.

She was sure it was him, causing those faintest of ripples in the Force.

It had been impossible to tell if he was still alive, on Exegol, after the battle. She was so weak, in body, mind, and soul. She couldn't reach out to him.

Later, she'd tried, but gotten no answer, and then she had – briefly – feared the worst. The rest of the galaxy assumed that he was dead, but she hung on to one thing: even if she got no response from the other side, their Force bond was still there.

She did not believe the Force dealt in coincidences.

With confidence, she followed the trail into the hills, unable to explain to BB-8's questioning beeps what she could feel. They walked for a while; Ben had hidden himself well, and Rey had to push herself to find the trace of him she'd felt before.

She wasn't subtle about it, either, and she worried that he would try to avoid her.

But she needn't have worried. Apparently, he'd decided he was done running from her.

She rounded a corner, and there he was, sitting with all the appearance of calm on a red rock, facing away from her.

"Ben," she said, and she saw his muscles tense beneath his shirt, but he said nothing.

"It's good to see you."

That seemed to crack him.

"Why?" he asked, still not turning to look at her.

Rey opened her mouth, and then found that her words would not come. She stared at Ben's profile, helplessly, and watched his shoulders drop, his head bow – and then she snapped.

She reached into her side of the bond and tore it wide open. She poured everything she couldn't say into it, left her mind bare.

He was looking at her now, breathing harshly into the still air. The world didn't exist outside of the two of them anymore.

As slowly as she had been sudden, he opened his side of the bond and let her in.

And she saw everything.

They had never exchanged so much of themselves at once before. Rey felt tears gathering at the onslaught, and she saw that Ben was equally affected, as the bond gladly thrummed into fullness with devastating euphoria.

"You're an idiot," she said, as soon as the tight feeling had left her throat.

"You'll have to be more specific."

She felt his wry amusement echoing down the bond, and she wanted to strangle him. And kiss him.

"You could have told me. After Snoke."

"It was only a suspicion at that point," he said, shaking his head. "You wouldn't have believed me, and you were too… open."

He wasn't wrong. Luke had trained her well, but she hadn't learned how to allow the Force to truly calm and hide her mind until Leia took over her training. If Ben had told her that he thought Palpatine was alive and that he intended to find him and kill him, she would have given them away. Her grandfather would have read her mind like an open book.

But Rey hated giving in so easily.

"You don't know that," she said, stubbornly. "You would have helped me."

He gave her a smile, fleetingly, and as soon as it was gone she wanted to chase it down and put it back there forever. He must have felt the sentiment, across the bond, because his brow wrinkled again.

"Why?" he asked again, so quietly she only heard it with the Force.

Rey didn't understand. What was there to question? The bond was open. He knew what she felt, and that it was given freely. She didn't see – oh.

"You're an idiot," Rey said, again.

The confusion stayed on his face when she moved to stand next to where he sat, turned into surprise when her hand came up to cup his cheek, and then Rey didn't care for anything his face did except for the movement of his lips against hers.

"This is foolish," he whispered, somewhere in between gentle kisses.

"I don't care," she whispered back.

He pulled away, at that, and Rey felt him reach into the bond, hesitantly searching her out. She didn't move, waiting for him to find what was true. She knew he'd found it when he gazed up at her with wide eyes.

"You –," his voice cracked, and he paused to clear his throat, "you love me."

Rey wanted to laugh, but she smiled instead.

"Yeah, I know," she said, her voice behaving as well as his had a moment ago.

The smile that had run away from his face came back, and he laughed, quiet and low, sending shivers through her.

He looped an arm around her waist, and pulled her into his lips again, his response coming through their bond.

I love you.

She'd known that, too.