Luke and Rey, post Kylo Ren

[garbagepilot]

To say that Kylo Ren's appearance had been a shock would be vastly minimizing the impact. Luke feels that he's been hit by blindside after blindside since coming here mere weeks ago. And the one bright spot has been Rey.

Who's kept something pretty big from him. He should be used to this.

He's kept it more or less together while they got things squared away, but as soon as they leave the infirmary his hand is on her elbow. It's not a strong grip, more a need to anchor himself to something. And to make sure he has her attention. Which he realizes is stupid. If anything, she's as shaken as he is. He can feel it. He just doesn't understand.

"You knew," he says, and he almost can't go on. "You... you don't just know him. You know who he is. What he's done. This is what you weren't telling me."

There's no accusation in his tone. There's confusion. There's hurt--at what he'd learned. And there's a great deal he just can't put a name to, yet. He needs to go work through his emotions, but he can't, not until he knows what's going on.


Rey had been dreading this, exactly this, because she knew if she waited too long to be truthful with Luke something like this would happen. It had felt so wrong to keep it from him but each time she had gotten close to telling him about Han, something new would stop her. It didn't help that she wasn't ready, but she shouldn't have waited. It was selfish and stupid and now one of the only people she's ever considered a friend is going to hate her.

She's still running on adrenaline and fear, feels like she's going to throw up or pass out or burst into tears or maybe all of those things. She still doesn't like to be touched, almost tears herself out of his grasp, but she forces herself to be still. After all the lies, she can allow him a hand on her elbow.

"I'm sorry." Her voice rings so toneless even to her, walls snapping up, but that's not fair to him. She has to fight to try again, but she still can't look at him. Her eyes stay on the floor. "I was going to. We shouldn't do this here."


Luke pulls his hand back, feeling her resentment of it and regretting the action already. Like so many things. No. There are too many things to feel for him to catch hold of any of them.

She blames herself. That breaks through, to some degree, and it adds to Luke's confusion. There's one thing he does know, and it's that her last statement was absolutely correct. The connection between them is, as always, open, and now Ren's added to it, and Luke can sense himself on the verge of overload.

He needs her with him, not off in a corner thinking she's let him down, this he knows. He can't, doesn't want to, do this alone. Doesn't want her to, either. That's easy, that's something he knows without knowing anything about what's actually happening, because that is his truth.

"Yeah," he says. "Rey. Don't be sorry. Don't... shut me out. Just... my cabin ok?"


Her eyes cut to him and glance away quickly, but she nods. She can't understand quite how can say those things, how she doesn't feel anything like anger from him, but... maybe he's just better at these things than she is. That's easy enough accept.

And she doesn't want to take him to her room, not when it looks like the Falcon. That's not a place for this conversation. As much as she wants to stay right here and make sure Kylo Ren doesn't go anywhere or hurt anyone else, helping Luke understand what's happened is more important.

"I'll follow you."

So she can watch his back, just in case.


It's not far. Just one deck up, on level one. They don't speak as they walk--there's just too much between and around them to begin while they might be found by someone else. He can feel her eyes on his back, but he doesn't understand.

Luke's cabin looks like something he might imagine a Jedi's should look like, having seen Yoda's and Ben's homes. The door slides shut behind Rey and something in Luke visibly sags, as if whatever appearance he wants to keep up, he doesn't want or need to in front of her. The fight hasn't taken anything out of him physically. But emotionally? He has no idea where he stands.

He doesn't know where to begin.

So he moves to the small kitchen area, retrieves two glasses of water. They're both from desert worlds, they both consider a clear, plain glass of water a luxury. He hands her one, and takes a deep breath. He can't sit, not yet.

"Rey," he starts, and he's not sure where he's going until he starts talking again. "I'm not angry with you. I know you think I should be. I know you held back. I'm equally sure you had your reasons. I know you're scared, and I know you're upset, and I know this is hard." He looks at her now, as he's been unable to since the hallway. "I know it'd be easier if I just let you go now, but I'm sorry. I need you to tell me what the hell's going on."


As they walk she divides her mind into paying attention to their surroundings and trying to find the fastest, easiest way to explain everything in a way that will make this hurt as little as possible, but still fill him in completely. As much as she hates the way it feels to reach out for Kylo Ren's presence she does it anyway, making sure one last time he's where she left him before the door to Luke's room closes and locks them both safely inside.

She doesn't relax, though. She can't, shoulders stiff even as she accepts the water from him, but she does drink it. Habit has her drinking the entire thing straight away, and then there's an empty glass in her hands and she has no idea what she's doing. She barely even registers what his room looks like, aside from all the white. It's fitting, she thinks distantly. It works for him.

She really needs to get this over with.

"I saw him in a vision before I met him," she starts lamely, blurting it out in her hurry to get them on the same page, to get him out of the dark. "He was a monster. When we met in person, I was no match for him. He just- he deflected every shot I took at him and then he got bored with it and froze me in place."

Her thumb sweeps against the glass, but she's content enough with that start. He knows how unmatched they were, how much stronger Kylo Ren is- was, than her. It's a good start.

"I had the map to Luke Sky- to you, in my head, he knew it, there was a droid and it showed us the map, and so he took me instead of bothering to find BB-8. He felt something between us too but I don't know what it is." She's talking fast, staring at the little drops of condensation on her cup. She still can't look at him. "He looked inside my mind. He saw how I lived on Jakku and that I had gotten close to people he hated and that I had been alone for so long and that Han-"

And then she stops, her throat closing up on the name. There are tears starting at the corner of her eyes, she can feel them, but she ignores it stubbornly. She won't cry, not in front of Luke.

"He and my friend, Finn, they came to rescue me." Han never would have been there if it weren't for her. As much as it had meant, as much as she had desperately wanted anyone to come back for her, she wishes they hadn't. Han would still be alive. "Kylo Ren, that's his name. Han was his father. He killed him."


It's a lot to take in. So much that Luke can't drink, can't do anything but stare at her, riveted to the recitation of things he'd much rather never have known. But it's too late, and anyway he wouldn't change it. If this is his future, he has to own it. Rey has, so far, represented what his future holds and shown him one that is about respect and learning and triumph.

Now, he's not so sure. And he has no idea, anymore, how she could have looked at him as she had on the Deck.

Luke's crying now, not openly, and maybe he doesn't even realize it. But tears are trailing down his cheeks as he listens to his future crash down around him. Rey doesn't like to be touched. He reminds himself of this, consciously. It's one of the few things he's conscious of, in the moment, because he feels bereft.

"Han and Leia have a son," he says after a moment, as if needing to piece this together. "I trained him. He turned to the dark side, he hurt you, and he killed his father. While you watched." He chokes at that, and now he's aware of the tears, but he can't stop it. "Rey. Rey, listen to me. This is not your fault. None of it. He was right. I failed."

He turns away, finally, head bowed.

"I don't understand how you can look at me," he says after a moment, his voice low. "How can you see anything to look up to, given what you already knew, coming here?"


She doesn't like to be touched, it was still something she was getting used to, but she doesn't like to see people she cares about in pain either. She takes a halting step toward him, then another, and then she's close enough to reach out and put her hand on his shoulder.

It's not much, but she's trying.

"The choices he made aren't your fault, either." She says, giving his arm a gentle squeeze. "He chose to be what he is, that doesn't mean you failed him. He's the only one that thinks that and he's a monster. Don't listen to him."

She feels so strange trying to comfort him, but how can she do anything different? She has no experience in any of this, but she can at least answer him honestly.

"What I knew coming here was that you tried and you had a student that turned away from you because he was weak and wanted more power. And I... I came here for Han. My deal is for him." The family she'd never had, the father she had started to let herself want. "I see his friend, and my teacher, when I look at you. That's all." But that's not all, and she frowns. "I see someone who could be my friend, too. If this didn't ruin everything."


He wants to twitch away from the touch, undeserving, but he can't. He wants it. Needs the grounding of it. He should be comforting her, she's his student, his charge, even if that's not their relationship here.

He has no right to call himself Jedi.

"He's not a monster," Luke says, voice thick. "He's my nephew. My blood. And my best friend's. Maybe his choices aren't my fault, but they're the opposite of what I've been fighting for. I wanted, so hard, to believe you were my future. But Kylo Ren is, too? Isn't he?"


Rey wants to argue, she wants to say that Kylo Ren is a monster, he is horrible, but she remembers so clearly the look on Kylo Ren's face right before he made the decision to murder his father after all. She'd been far away but their words had echoed through the chamber, she had heard the admission.

It was tearing him apart, his struggle with the Light and the Dark. He'd said it himself, and Rey had been so fast to throw it aside because of her rage and her grief. If Kylo Ren can be saved, it would be Luke to do it. She doesn't have that kind of compassion in her, not when there's still a dark voice in her mind that calls for retribution, but there are people here, people who will be assigned to him, who can help him, and if Luke is supporting him too... Maybe it will work.

She still sees a monster, a creature in a mask, but she's seen glimpses of the boy he was too.

"He said he was struggling." She admits, because it's something Luke should know. Lamely, her hand moves on his arm, some attempt at a comforting gesture. It doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel like enough, but it's something. She just has to keep telling herself that. "I don't know what else to say. I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to tell you before he did. I never wanted this to happen like this."


Luke is shaking his head, denying her guilt in any of this mess. "I failed him," he says, and frowns. "Will fail him... I don't know. At some point, in my future, I let this happen. My sister's son becomes... this... and he hurts you."

He does move away from her now, crossing the room with his back to her, arms folded.

"How can you look at me like I have something to offer you?"


That doesn't sit right at all. She's not Kylo Ren's victim, she isn't anyone's victim, and being reduced to someone that was hurt like that's the only part she played in all of this is not something that she wants. If she had had support from anyone at all before now she might recognize it for what it was, just concern or compassion, but all Rey knows to categorize this as is being considered weak.

"Do you let the sun set too?" She asks him, mirroring his body language and wrapping her arms around herself. Her tears have gone, but she has no idea what to do with the feeling that she should do something, anything, about his.

She misses Finn. Finn would know what to do, what to say. How to fix this.

"And I told you, you're my friend." No more hedging around that, because he is and she's going to keep that true for as long as she can. It feels so odd to follow him when he's moved away but she does anyway, and when she lays a hand on his back she feels like she's entirely lost and this is the least helpful, most pointless thing in the world to try, her hand on his back, but she's not Finn. This is all she has.


It's exactly what he needs. It's just a hand but there's weight behind it, and Luke nods and turns around again. His hand moves as if to touch her, but he draws back.

"I didn't mean it that way," he says. "I don't think you're weak. Far from it. But my family... you were carrying all that around with you and I didn't know. I'm glad I do now, because you are my friend and you shouldn't be alone in this." He takes a deep breath. He's not nearly done dealing with this but he needs her and he needs to make sure they're in this together. "Let's just... agree to try not to blame ourselves because I know we both do and it's not going to get us anywhere."


When he reaches for her, that cements her next move. She hadn't known Finn for more than a handful of hours before she'd hugged him on the Starkiller base, so why should Luke be any different? He's not, and maybe they both need this, so when Luke reaches for her and stops Rey completes the gesture for him. She steps forward, puts her arms around his shoulders, and hugs him tightly.

That's all. She doesn't know what else to say to any of this except that she intends to protect Luke from Kylo Ren, that she'll deal with him if someone has to do it, but Rey isn't exactly sure he'll take that well. He's probably even planning the same thing, really. But it's not entirely true, she realizes, that she has no idea what to say.

"I'm sorry he hurt you."


He would not have taken that well. He's more experienced than Rey, older, and this, ultimately, is his mess even if he doesn't know quite how yet. It's his job to protect her, and not because he doesn't think she's capable. It's because he's been here before, and she looks up to him, and he needs to think he can still offer something.

But he leans into the hug, wrapping his arms around her like he needs this to breathe, eyes drifting shut. "No," he says, "don't." She smells clean and pure, like the desert, and that's comforting even if he hates deserts. "This isn't on you. You got pulled in. I don't know how. I don't know... anything, anymore, I guess. But I know you have nothing to be sorry for. He's angry, and delusional, and powerful, and you couldn't have known."

What if Vader had found him before he'd begun to find himself? He wouldn't have done anything like what Rey had.

He'd be dead, or worse.


"It was my choice. I chose to leave Jakku and help my friend and I don't regret any of it. Even knowing what happens, I'd do it all the same. It was important."

In a lot of ways, in too many to count. It freed her, in a way, and just that is enough to make everything worth it. The hug seems to be helping, she can feel Luke relaxing against her, and Rey lets out a soft, relieved sigh. As much as she wishes he'd stop taking on so much of the blame, so much of the guilt, Rey is at least relieved she can do this much to help him.


It's not just blaming himself, or feeling guilty. It's that the future he's trying so hard to build leads to this. It's helplessness. Not only is his past laid bare, here, his future is too, now.

But he has Rey, and she's something else. She's also the future, he thinks, reversing his statement. That has to count for something. He takes a deep breath, tears dried, and releases her.

"Thank you," he says quietly. "I would have done the same. Maybe... it's time to tell me everything."


That's fair, he deserves to know everything so that Kylo Ren can't surprise him with anything else. It would be best to take away the kind of power that would give him, so Rey nods and motions to where he had been sitting.

"You might want to get comfortable, it's a long story."

She starts at the beginning, with her finding BB-8 and Finn finding her, her decision to help return BB-8 to the Resistance. When she gets to meeting Han she falters a little, glancing toward him like she's worried about upsetting him, but she doesn't stop talking. Once she really gets into the parts of the story with him, being his co-pilot, she can't help smiling a little. It had been the best moment of her life, he'd asked her to work with him, and it had meant more to her than anything else ever had. Than anything else ever will, probably.

She pauses there, rubs a hand against her eye to sooth the sting of unshed tears, but it's only a small pause. She keeps right on going, tells him about Finn abandoning her and BB-8, covers the vision caused by the lightsaber, her capture by Kylo Ren.

What happens after that, she leaves vague. Luke doesn't need to know about her being strapped to a metal chair and having her memories ripped into. She gets more detailed again with the way she overpowered him, her escape, and then her throat closes up when she starts to talk about Han again.

Still, she forces her way through it. The confrontation with Kylo Ren on that bridge, the way she thought Han was getting through to him. The lightsaber coming on so abruptly that it had been hard to believe until Chewie started to shoot. Her and Finn shooting, and her and Finn escaping.

The fight with Kylo Ren. How she was thrown against a tree knocked out and Finn was forced to fight him. Finn's injury, and her using the Force to pull Luke's lightsaber to her from yards away. After that it's a quick description of the fight, how much stronger Kylo Ren was than her, how unskilled she was. When she tells him about closing her eyes and looking inward to find the strength to beat Kylo Ren, Rey looks toward Luke like she might find some sign it was a job well done, but the look only lasts a second.

After that, the rest goes quickly. She won the fight, Chewie saved them, she went back to General Organa to tell her what had happened only to find the woman already knew. The trip to find Luke, her piloting the Falcon with Chewbacca as her co-pilot.

"And then I found you," she says as she finishes, glancing toward him again. "We spoke a little about training, and then I came here."


He sits, but he doesn't take an iota of his attention off her, or retract his presence from her. His eyes stay fixed on her face, unflinching, because he needs to know this if he's going to deal with everything Kylo Ren represents.

He takes a deep breath, when she's done, and rises, moving to her.

"You," he says, and despite the sadness there's wonder, too, "are magnificent. You were completely untrained, new even to the concept, and you defeated a Skywalker. I don't think you understand what that means. How strong you are."

He wonders, again, where she came from. Who she is.

"Is Leia okay," he asks, concern for his sister almost palpable.


She looks uncomfortable with the praise he's giving her, but aside from a little bit of fidgeting she doesn't do anything to keep him from getting closer. She's making a conscious effort to keep her body language open, to do her best to avoid cutting him off again. She wants to support him, but it's something Rey has no idea how to do.

"I just did what I had to," she says it with a shrug, but there's no denying the bloom of pride to know she'd done well. At the question about his sister, though, her eyes go wide. "She's okay. She... Losing Han hit her hard, but she's strong. I promised to visit her when I can."


She's uncomfortable with the concept of support, he thinks. On both sides. He'll just have to show her different, as, he knows, the other people she mentioned will.

"She can take care of herself," he says. "But she shouldn't have to. I have another question." And he swallows, because he's taken in so much already today that he cannot process. "His name. It wasn't Kylo Ren, not before."


"No. Han called him Ben."

She and Finn had just barely arrived when Han had shouted the name, and it had, for that moment, changed the way she thought of Kylo Ren. Without the helmet on he had felt like an entirely different person, she could see Ben and not just the creature in the mask.

Now, though? After what he had done to Han? He's just Kylo Ren and she can't imagine thinking of him as anything else.


Luke's breath catches at that. Of course. He can feel Rey's anger, and he doesn't blame her. But he can't feel it the same way. Han is his best friend in the world, the person he loves most next to Leia, and he's horrified by what he's learned. But he cannot feel unequivocal hate. Because he also feels the man's conflict. Could feel him violently attempting to maintain his hatred of Han.

But where much of this is anger-inducing, most of what Luke feels is sadness.

"Ben," he says softly. He runs the back of his hand across his forehead. "Okay. We need to figure out what we're doing."


Her hands itch to do something to comfort him, one even lifts like she's going to reach for him, but the motion is aborted when she doesn't know where to touch him. It was easier when he wasn't facing her, when her only options were his back and his shoulder.

"You mean with Kylo Ren?" She asks, frowning lightly. She's not really sure she's following his line of thinking. "I want to keep an eye on him until he has a Warden."

She feels responsible for him for so many reasons, but all she can think of right now is Han. She's here for Han, here to bring him back, here to try to fix the horrible thing Kylo Ren did, but how she can care so much about Han and not for his son? Isn't it selfish to bring Han back to a world where nothing has changed? For her deal to mean anything, Kylo Ren has to graduate. She has to do what she can to make it happen.


He knows she feels responsible, but part of him just doesn't know why. "He's my nephew," he says dully. "He's my family. Whatever you need, whatever he needs... I'll do it. I don't know what I can do, with such hatred... But father came around, eventually."


She would tell him if he asked, now that he knows everything. The only reason she had kept anything from him before was that she wasn't quite ready for this conversation, but now that they've had it and she still thinks of him as her teacher, she has no reason or desire to lie to him.

"That's not something you have to do alone. It's... we'll both keep an eye on him."


"Yes," Luke says. He knows he'll need to figure this out, there's too much right now to think he really knows anything.

His nephew kills Han. His own father.

"Can you tell me," he starts gently, "can you tell me why you think him... your job."

He can feel it coming off her.


Rey looks down, her eyebrows coming together in a frown. She won't lie, won't hide anything from him, but that doesn't make this easier when it's something so new.

"The reason I grew up on Jakku wasn't because I was born there. My parents left me when I was just a child." Her voice is so even when she says it, but she never has before and it's a struggle to get the words out. "I was alone there for fourteen years, until Finn crash landed and we stole the Millennium Falcon. He and Han- they were the ones who came back for me. Not my parents, them."

Now she looks up, and her eyes are hard, set with this conviction to do the right thing.

"He killed Han, and he would have killed Finn if I hadn't stopped him. I won't let him hurt anyone else when I have the power to stop him."


Fourteen years. Alone. Without Owen and Beru, even who took care of him and loved them in their way even if he'd never appreciated them. Luke nods, slowly. "I understand," he says. "Just..." He puts a hand lightly on her shoulder. "Don't let this become revenge. Feeling anger is natural. Acting on it is part of why he became who he is."

He doesn't have to know the details to know this is true--it's raging all through Kylo Ren.


She doesn't shrug him off, but he does get a very shocked look in return. Does he really think that of her? It's never been about revenge. She could never do that to Leia, but she could never do it to herself either.

"I could have killed him during our last fight and I chose not to. I'm not going to change my mind, Luke." She lifts her hand to to cover his where it's resting on her shoulder, squeezes it gently. "I promise."


He can't miss the look. "It's not that I don't trust you," he says. "It's easy to think you're doing something for the right reasons. I'm sure my father did. I know I did, for a long moment. And now him... I'd say this to anyone in our position. It's something to guard against."

He feels so tired, now. Perhaps he's speaking as much to himself as anyone, though it will be himself he will need to forgive. It's good Rey has faith in him--his faith in himself has been shaken.


It's not bad advice, so Rey nods. She has so little practice, so little knowledge of what she's been doing mostly by accident, and she can't deny there had been a moment where a voice in the back of her head had called for Kylo Ren's death. She hadn't listened, she doesn't think she ever could, but he's right. It's something to guard against.

But just like he doesn't miss her expression, she can't help noticing his.

"I can go if you need to be alone." She says softly. "But I can stay, too. If you... don't want that."


He will need to be alone, to try to begin to process this. But the thought of her walking out right now feels too lonely.

"Do you mind?" Luke asks, looking up. "Staying, I mean. Just for a bit." He moves to sit, hoping she'll sit near, which she kind of almost has to as his place isn't enormous. He just wants to feel close to someone, for a bit.


She follows and sits beside him and, somewhat awkwardly, offers her hand to him. She feels the strangest urge to apologize for not being better at this, for being unable to figure out how to comfort him in the best way, but pride has her keeping it to herself. He probably understands anyway, and it's not like she can help the fact that no one ever taught her touch could be pleasant.

It still feels like a failing, though.

"I'll stay for as long as you need me to."


Luke feels no less awkward than see, not a little because he can sense her discomfort. "You don't have to," he says. "I know the touching thing isn't easy for you. It's okay." He grew up without enough of it, but enough to know he wanted more, unlike her. "I wonder..." He bites his lip. "I don't know if it'd help or not, but if you want and don't mind... you could tell me about Han? And Leia? Just... anything you know."


She frowns at him, entirely stubborn and not at all angry, and reaches for his hand herself. She threads their fingers together, gives his hand a squeeze, and lets their clasped hands rest between them.

"I need to learn, it's a silly thing to be bad at."

And if she's going to get used to it with anyone, Luke is probably the best choice.

But what can she tell him about Han and Leia? She barely knew them, he undoubtedly knows them better, but maybe it isn't about that. Maybe he'd just like to share memories with someone who did know them as more than characters in a story they would never be a part of. She knew- knows, Han better, so that seems a good place to start.

"Han is incredible." There's no denying how highly she thinks of him, so she doesn't bother. "He hardly knew me, but he asked me to be part of his crew anyway. And he was tough as nails when he did it, he blamed it on Chewie liking me but I know it was him."


Luke stares for a moment at their joined hands. It does help, even if she is as stubborn as Leia sometimes.

As she speaks, he finds it helps as well. He's watching her face now as it lights up, just thinking about him.

"It must have been," he says. "Han didn't stop calling me 'boy' for... well he still thinks I'm an idiot sometimes." It's fond, now, of course, but Han had always been prickly. "If he trusted you to fly his ship, you must be good."

Or she just doesn't--didn't--rub Han the wrong way like Luke had at first. Which makes sense--Luke was never as serious as Rey, especially back then.


"He called Finn kid the entire time, so I don't find that hard to believe." She's never reminisced before, but she's finding it rather pleasant. And it's better, getting in practice talking about Han like he's still home waiting for her. He will be, because she won't leave here until her deal is finished.

"The Falcon is amazing," she continues, hand tightening just a little on Luke's. "Unkar Plutt put some of the dumbest modifications in it but once we undid his fumbling, it handled like something out of a dream." She pauses there, and chews on her lower lip a second before offering something she's wanted to since she arrived. "My room is based on it. If you wanted to visit..."


Luke wants to hear all about Finn, too. The thing is, sad as he is right now, Han is waiting at home for him.

He brightens at her suggestion. "Oh, is it?" he says. "That'd be... I mean, I could point out all the differences. I practically lived on that ship. I should have known he'd never get rid of her..."


"You're always welcome there. It's yours just as much as it is mine." More, maybe, probably, but selfishly she wants to cling to the place that's become her new home. "I could give you the code to the door, so you can go when I'm not there."

That's a big thing for her to offer, a massive sign of trust, but she isn't worried about him betraying her privacy or taking advantage of the Falcon being open to him.


"Thank you," Luke says, the meaning of that gesture not at all lost on him. In fact, it warms him considerably. "I just wonder... if you shouldn't have a place that's just yours. That's important, too. But even so... I wouldn't mind if you had the code to mine, either."


"The ship is big, and Chewbacca lives there too so it wouldn't be fair to call it only mine. It's his too, and... it's yours, you have a right to be there when you want to be." She shrugs one shoulder. "And the crew quarters isn't very private anyway, so having a guest wouldn't change much."

She's pretty sure he wouldn't just walk in while she was changing, anyway. She doubts he'd go into the more private areas of the ship with no warning first.

When he offers the code to his own room, though, her eyes widen in surprise and she glances around them.

"Are you sure? It looks... it's a real home, not a ship."


Luke is still smiling gently. "It's not really the ship, though," he reminds her. "My cabin could look like the Falcon, if I wanted. It's your home, here, on the Barge. But... I would like to visit. And I want you to feel welcome, and safe, here."


Maybe it's the idea of the Falcon being her home, maybe it's being invited to his home, or maybe it's just that they've been holding hands for a long time at this point, but Rey is starting to flush a little. She had made a large step in offering to let him visit the Falcon whenever he wanted to, but being given the chance to the same in return is more than she ever imagined.

"I would. I mean, I do, it's..." She's at a loss, so she just gives him a quick, mildly embarrassed smile and stops trying to find the right words. "Thank you."


She looks flushed, and it warms Luke's heart a little. He's glad they talked, even if there's a darkness within, put there by Kylo Ren.

"I don't know how much you know of what's, I guess, distant history for you," he says quietly, at length. "I never knew my parents. My aunt and uncle did their best, but... I do not think I knew what family meant, our friendship, until I met Han and Leia. Before, even, I knew she was my sister. So you see, you're one of us, and we have to stick together."


By now, he has to realize what saying that will mean to her, but it still surprises Rey to hear it. It catches her off guard and she stares at him a little before her eyes start to fill with tears and she has to look away.

He's not a droid, so she won't be able to convince him she just has something in her eye when this gesture of acceptance makes her cry. Unlike BB-8, Luke will see straight through that lie.

"Thank you," she whispers, voice muffled she rubs at her eyes with the heel of her hand. This is a dangerous game, letting even these stray tears fall. There's been so much today, and on top of everything else she's been through recently, it all feels like too much. Moments of weakness are better had alone and she's a little worried that if she doesn't get this under control now, she might not be able to stop crying.


Maybe he should leave her alone. He's well aware she doesn't want to break down in front of him. He's equally aware that it won't change his opinion, and that she's probably had precious few venues to express herself to anyone else. If any.

He's also terribly selfish, in that he is feeling too much, too, and while he knows he needs to be alone, too, it doesn't seem the right time just yet. Rey is needy, even if she doesn't know it. And so far, Luke hasn't questioned the fact he wants to give her whatever she needs.

"Hey," he says quietly, and taking a risk, he puts his arms around her and gathers her to him. "I trust you. I trust Han, and Leia, and... future me. If you don't mind that Kylo Ren came from us, how can I ever doubt you?"


Because they've hugged once already, this isn't as awkward or unexpected as it could have been. Rey still feels strange being in this situation, but it's not bad. It takes a moment for her to relax and let Luke arrange her against him, but once she does, once she puts her arms around his waist and allows herself to rest her head on his chest, she can't deny how wonderful it feels to be held.

Something about it is so soothing she's able to take a breath and start to calm herself down, but if there's still a few tears soaking into his shirt Rey would bet anything Luke won't hold it against her.


Luke himself has been held precious few times in his life, but it's why he sees the value so clearly. The fact that she accepts it, and let him do this for her, means the world to him. Her body against his feels wonderful, solid and real and anchoring. And like he can still give something, still make a difference.

He doesn't know where he went wrong with Ben Solo. He doesn't know how to deal with the knowledge of Han's death, thirty years hence. But he knows that this means something, that they've met here for some reason. And that has to be enough, for now.

He doesn't mind the tears. Very much the opposite.


There's got to be a time limit for this, for how long she can be in his arms like this once her tears have stopped before it becomes something else, something less about comfort and more about intimacy. The problem there is that Rey doesn't know what that time limit is, how long is too long to let a young man hold her, and this time there's no Han Solo to break them apart.

She does know that it doesn't feel awkward yet, and that she isn't quite ready to pull away. It's easy to make the choice not to, to keep her eyes closed and her arms around him, but she will put some distance between them soon.

Just... not right this second.


Luke holds her, feels the comforting warmth of her for as long as he can (she smells clean, like the desert, and it's just this side of comfortingly familiar instead of annoyingly so) until she stops crying and he thinks, okay, he's starting to think about the fact of her being a girl and that's when he pulls way.

But not far.

They've both cried now, so he lets her wipe her face if she wants but he doesn't move from her side.

"I've got you," he says quietly.