After The Battle

"Standing in front of a group of people we don't know, to tell them we've decided to love each other forever..." Rey sighs against my bare chest. "It just seems so unnecessary. It's a personal decision we already made, that has nothing to do with them."

I run my hand over her back, the silky feel of her night clothes not nearly as nice as I know her bare skin would feel to touch. I look out the window of Rey's quarters at the stars outside. We're on our way to Jakku, but not at warp speed. There's no hurry to get anywhere now. Rey's hand rests on my chest as she plays with the ring on her finger.

"My mom says that's the way it's done," I tell her. "It's not their decision, but it affects them too, so a public ceremony is appropriate."

"Hmm..." Rey runs little circles on my chest, as though thinking. My heart beats harder and I hope she doesn't think anything of it. It's so hard to keep secrets from her. I've avoided speaking thoughts to her using the Force for the past three days so she won't find out what we're planning as a surprise for her. If it works out, that is. While Finn and BB-8 were sneaking around Snoke's ship looking for us, they overheard Snoke talking about the dark blue crystal planet. They found out Rey's parents were enslaved there and BB-8 got the coordinates from the ship's computer. Now Finn, Chewbacca and a small Away Team are out looking for the blue crystal planet. I don't want to get Rey's hopes up just yet. After almost twenty years on a planet like that I don't even know if her parents are still alive.

"We don't have to go to Jakku for the wedding," Rey says. "There's a nice gathering space on board." Each time she speaks, her breath tickles my chest and I'm tempted to forget about waiting until the wedding night and just make love to her right now. But we both did some research on wedding traditions of our parents and found out that we should wait.

"Jakku's your home," I say to Rey, trying to distract myself from thoughts of her undressed and sitting on me like she did back on Yavin_4.

"Wherever you are, is my home," Rey says, snuggling up closer to me. "It just makes me feel sad when I think about how lonely I always was on Jakku. And now I'm heading back there."

I hug her tight, turning onto my side so I can pull her even closer. She wraps a leg around me. I want to tell her all about our hope for finding her parents, but if I did she'd want to go with the Away Team. And she may only find their remains. I'd rather her not go through that. But if all goes as planned and Finn finds them, then the perfect place for us to be when Rey is reunited with her parents is on Jakku, the place where she'd waited for them for so long.

Rey pulls herself up, her soft breast pushing against my arm through her night clothes. "I still can't believe we've really got nothing more to worry about than just what we're going to wear to our wedding," she whispers in my ear. Her breath sends warm shivers down my side.

"I'm going to need some time getting used to just being..." I try to think of the right word.

"Common?" Rey offers.

"Yes."

She kisses my cheek and pushes me onto my back again, then climbs on top of me. I set my hands on her thighs. Nothing could ever feel so good as this moment does right now.

"You could never just be common place, Kylo Ben Solo," Rey says.

I laugh at the combination of names. "Nor could you," I say. "Rey Solo."

She leans forward, kissing me gently on the lips. I slip my hands up from her thighs to beneath her night gown, feeling the warm soft skin of her waist, then the smooth side of her breasts. She moans softly against my lips.

The bleep of the door bell indicator stops me from reaching around to the front of her night gown and cupping her breasts. Rey sits up fast.

"Who could that be so late?" She jumps off of me and I sigh.

"Wait," I say but it's too late, she's already at the door. It slides open and Finn stands on the other side.

"Finn!" she says. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh..." Finn says, trying not to look at her night clothes but failing miserably. "Is Kylo, I mean Ben here? I have some good news for him about our... diplomatic mission."

"Oh," Rey turns to look back at me, then to Finn again. "Really though, couldn't it wait until morning?" She sounds annoyed and it makes me smile.

Finn nods. "Yes. Just let him know that we're back and we were successful in our... negotiations."

"Okay." Rey steps back to close the door. "We'll see you at breakfast. I'm glad you're back safe."

Finn nods and the door slides closed.

I swallow hard. Rey's parents are alive... and they're going to be at our wedding...