Chapter Text
Ben died feeling warm.
The scholar in him was fascinated by this. All warmth should have drained from his body the way his life force had, sapped by his determination to resurrect Rey at all costs. He’d felt his strength fading and his vision growing dimmer, but not for one single second had he been cold.
The romantic in him wasn’t surprised at all. How could he have felt anything else in the glow of Rey’s grin? She was salvation in a smile.
He hadn’t let himself expect a kiss. Just holding Rey, feeling her alive and safe in his arms, would have been enough. Even when her gaze had dropped to his lips and she’d leaned in, achingly slowly, Ben held still. What he’d once threatened to take (“Whatever I want”) he now needed to be given.
That nobility had faded with the first press of Rey’s lips against his. His hands tightened around her and he pulled her into him. United, at last. The Force sang around them like a balm in the most desolate of places. The lair was a grim place, marked with evil despite Rey’s victory over Palpatine. Ben didn’t regret a single moment of what happened on Exegol, but he did know that Rey deserved to be kissed in sunlight that would pick out the light in her eyes and catch individual strands of her hair. Even so, for the first time in Ben’s life, he hadn’t wanted to be anywhere else. The galaxy had aligned to grant him – them – this one perfect moment.
But he knew what waited for him on the other side of their too-brief kiss. The happiness springing in his chest was almost enough to convince him that it was okay. That it was his time, that he didn’t need anything else. His death would have meaning. He would have died a thousand times, in the worst ways, if it meant Rey could live.
Ben spent his final few moments memorizing Rey’s face. The freckles that dusted her skin. The tiny scar on her cheek. The smile so wide it looked like it might split her face. Every second he’d ever spent in her presence without making her smile had been wasted. Force, he would have spent the rest of his life apologizing for every tear he’d made her cry. But the rest of his life was down to single-digit moments, so instead he smiled back. His breathless little laugh brushed across Rey’s skin.
I want to stay, he thought.
The last of his energy dimmed. His hands slackened and dropped. Ben focused on Rey’s slim fingers winding through his, gripping him with all the strength he had given to her. Finally taking his hand. Her love shone, lighting him from within.
Ben died feeling warm.
Ben wakes feeling nothing.