Work Text:
Six Months Ago
Unexpectedly, Rey opened her eyes to a clear blue sky.
For a moment she felt the ghost of pain at her neck, though this disappeared as she took several breaths, her gaze concentrated on the birds passing across her vision.
The last thing she could remember was searching the abandoned warehouse just outside of town. The Djinn who had made the warehouse its home had gotten the jump on her, though Rey wasn't quite sure what had happened after. However, this sitting on a blanket in broad daylight...that had not been expected.
'Kira?'
She knew the voice as well as her own, and turned on the blanket. Her surprise mirrored his and yet her hand still gripped his more tightly. 'Kylo?'
'You're holding my hand.' He murmured.
'I'm holding your hand,' she responded, almost curious.
It was strange. She knew what had happened – the Djinn had transported her into a dream world, a world of wishes, and yet knowing that the man beside her wasn't real did nothing to slow her steadily pacing heart.
His eyes scanned hers carefully, though his smile took longer. There was some doubt in them that unsettled Rey and she wasn't quite sure why.
She sat up and her eyes caught on the large house at the end of what had appeared to be a garden. Her training was warring against what she was seeing, warning against taking an interest, yet still she stood, pulling Kylo with her.
He followed silently as Rey opened the door, pushing it open to a neatly decorated, but over-furnished interior. She couldn't help the giggle that left her – it was exactly how she imagined her house would be, though it was far more organised and cleaner than she had anticipated.
Kylo let out a short huff and Rey briefly looked up at him with a raised brow, but her attention was grabbed by the photos along the wall.
He followed as she pulled him along, quietened by the images. Photos of them together, of them with who she supposed were his parents...her parents even. The biggest was one where she stood by a gazebo in a white dress while Kylo was dressed in a tux.
'At least I have great taste in dresses,' she murmured, her hand still held firmly in his.
Kylo snorted and she looked at him.
'We are married?' She questioned.
'Yes.'
Her eyes went to their hands and Rey concentrated on how his eclipsed hers. She could feel his callouses rough against her own and there was a ring there, just like there was one on her own.
When she looked up at him again he looked nervous, his eyes scanning hers quickly.
'Is this—' Rey cut herself off, confused by how simple this all felt, simple and nice. Looking at the photos didn't fill her with some horrific fear. She was more worried of how much she liked it.
A fantasy life without monsters. Where she hadn't been left an orphan, where she wasn't alone because someone else loved her.
The tears came fast at the thought and Kylo's hand left hers and then lifted to her face, hushing her gently and his thumbs swiping at her cheeks. Even if the Kylo of her fantasies didn’t seem much different to the one she knew in real life, in this world he was hers, and she felt compelled to want him too.
'You love me?' She asked, hiccoughing.
And he nodded, not hesitating. 'From the moment I met you.'
It didn't settle her tears – they were far more forthcoming, but the loneliness she always felt threaten to consume her evaporated. Rey ignored that this wouldn't last, and that this place wasn’t real. Avoiding the thought that she could stay here and be happy. Happier than she was on the outside.
Minutes passed with Kylo watching her carefully, tentatively brushing her skin free of tears and pushing her hair back over her ears. When Rey felt her shudders settle, his shoulders relaxed and his brows furrowed. It was the serious expression that he wore so often that Rey almost laughed. He was even serious in her fantasies.
And yet even in a fantasy, she couldn't avoid the way her chest ached looking at him. That even despite herself she wanted to smile. And this was all in her mind…it wasn’t much more than a dream.
The fact that Kylo was surprised by the kiss should have alarmed Rey. She'd reached to pull his face towards her, her fingers coiling in his hair as she got onto her tiptoes.
And his lips were warm, soft, real. This was better than a dream, Rey considered.
'Just this one time,' she murmured against his lips.
He blinked at her, his expression one of overthinking, though he didn't pull away, his arms wrapped around her waist instead and Rey smiled, eagerly kissing him again.
Kylo reciprocated, hands bunching the shirt at her lower back as they melted against each other and Rey revelled in the soft curls between her fingers, feeling elated and free.
When he pulled back to look at her, Kylo was beaming, his eyes alight – like how they looked in the photographs – and Rey knew how true his words had been.
'As much as I like kissing you, we can't stay here.' Rey narrowed her eyes at his suggestion, and Kylo raised his brows in turn. 'What?'
'Where else would we go?'
Kylo hesitated, watching her carefully. 'Home.'
'This isn't your home?'
His expression changed again, and this one Rey didn't know, and even if she'd known what it meant, she wouldn't have liked it. Even though he didn't say the words, Rey felt the creeping realisation that he wasn't what she thought he was.
There was a loud noise then, and the frames began to fall from the walls. Everything went quickly – the paint peeled and flaked, surfaces melted and reality began to cave in on itself until it was darkness.
It was still dark when Rey blinked awake, her head and neck aching.
Kaydel was glowering at her and Rey realised she was hanging from an old swing set by her wrists. The other agent cut her down and that's when Rey noticed the body of the Djinn crumpled on the floor and then Kylo still unconscious beside it.
'I swear I'm going to gut the pair of you. Are you insane?' Kaydel shouting wasn't enough to attract Rey's gaze who stared resolutely at the slowly awakening man. 'You're so fucking lucky the Djinn was distracted sucking Kylo dry, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to kill it.'
Rey swallowed and Kylo moved, his head tilting and turning until he was meeting her startled eyes, his own sullen.
'Write me up,' Rey murmured, grabbing for her dropped machete. 'I'll take the blame.'
She started walking and ignored Kylo's calls as she went. Once she reached outside she began to sprint, running as far and as fast as she could until she had collapsed on the sidewalk of a suburban street she didn't recognise, forcing herself not to cry.
~
Now
The stakeout was taking too long.
Rey chewed on another red vine, her jaw aching from the sheer number she had eaten and the vigour she was using. The attempt to distract herself from thinking about the Djinn and Kylo was a failure as usual. The scar on her neck had mostly faded, yet the sensation of being drained of her life always stayed profoundly clear, and Rey used it as a way to block out the other memories she’d made that day.
Three days sleeping in her car outside of a vampire den was not exactly Rey’s idea of a good time and she was sure that her lack of sleep would probably get her killed, yet she also knew that Kylo was doing the same and he wouldn't win in this game of chicken. Not like the last time with the werewolves, or the time before that with the shapeshifter. No, Rey wasn't going to be embarrassed at the next debrief. Not when the last still throbbed at the forefront of her mind.
Kylo had gotten to the debriefing room first, as usual, and he had smirked as he’d pushed over the last maple doughnut. If Rey was capable of controlling herself, perhaps she wouldn’t have fallen for it again, and yet she exposed her greatest weakness so flagrantly that the donut was already digesting by the time the rest of the team had filed in.
The other agents stuffed their faces with coffee and pastries, while their team leader Holdo went through their last assignments, explaining why Kaydel was absent – concussion – and then she’d looked directly at Rey, her lips pursed in a frown.
‘Agent Kira, excellent work with the Arachne, though the loss of your vehicle is...not insignificant. That is the third in a year.’ Rey avoided the eyes of the others, her hand clutched tightly on the handle of her mug.
‘Perhaps it’s about time Agent Kira got a bike,’ Hux said under his breath with a chuckle.
Despite his low voice, everyone heard him, and there were stifled laughs around the room, with Rey feeling the embarrassment threatening to drown her.
‘I’m happy to share my car – we can partner until it’s replaced.’ Kylo spoke up.
The sniggers continued, and Rey was very aware that they were of a different sort this time. Kylo had allowed the suspicion of their relationship being more than just colleagues to continue unwittingly, though even then, when her eyes met his, it seemed as if he knew. There was just a little too much fire in them.
‘I am against that idea.’
Holdo frowned, her fingers meeting together as she looked between them. ‘This is the last time, Agent Kira.’
She nodded quickly, and the team leader seemed satisfied.
It took several minutes for the conversation to move from the pair of them, though Rey had stewed in her frustration for the rest of the day, and those that followed after. Even three days in a car on a stakeout had not rinsed it from her mind.
Rey adjusted in her seat, ignoring her stomach grumbling from all of the canned food she'd gotten through and she took out her binoculars, watching as her target moved across the rainstriken street, a suspicious black bag tossed over his shoulder.
Her phone blinked awake once more – Kylo was calling again. The eighth time over the course of the day, the fifteenth since Wednesday.
Rey’s hand moved towards the passengers seat, fingers wrapping and locking around the handle of her gun, thumb flicking the safety.
Kylo had at least been useful for something. He'd given her his supply of silver bullets last year after an altercation with a Banshee and Rey still had a mag full. Despite how much she tried to fight the man, even she wasn’t foolish enough to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Her head snapped back and Rey jolted when her car shook, something slamming against the passenger door, leaving a trail of blood streaked across the window. She was out the door a moment later, pulling her wooden dagger from her thigh holster, and holding it above her gun as she moved into the night, and rounded her car.
Kylo was kneeling beside the door, a hand pressed against his waist, blood spilling between his fingers. He didn’t smell right, and the coppery scent of his blood barely cut through the acrid odour that filled the night air. Vampires.
'What the fuck, Kylo?' Rey hissed, only lowering her gun slightly. 'That better not be a fucking bite, or so help me god—'
He chuckled, clearly in pain. 'Nice to see you too Kira.' He swallowed, wincing and looked up at her through damp too-long black hair. 'I'm gonna have to owe you one for this.'
'Why—'
Rey didn't get to finish her question before she was tossed away from the car, slamming against a nearby tree. The air was knocked from her, and she felt her ribs shriek at the force of it. It took too long for her to recover and the vampire had set upon her, teeth bared and its claw-like knives held out like a weapon. Blood coated its nails and Rey realised very quickly what Kylo’s injury was.
She twisted out of the way as the vampire struck again and saw from the corner of her eye Kylo stumble up, picking up a wooden pike from the wet concrete.
This close her gun was useless, so Rey slipped it into her waist band as she rolled to standing, and grabbed for the spiked whip that was her belt. Kylo was up once she'd pulled it through the loops, and she nodded once, flicking the weapon out and around her once, threatening the creature.
Kylo stumbled, but managed to position himself as the vampire backed away and he struck. He missed anything important and Rey hissed, and struck with the whip, hitting the vampire's shoulder, and tearing through his clothing and skin.
The vampire shrieked and Rey was very aware that the rest of the nest had likely heard the sound.
She moved forward quickly, slashing with the dagger as if it were steel and Kylo pressed inwards again. The creature was stuck between them and this time the pike went through his stomach. The debilitating blow enough for Rey to shove the dagger through his chest and heart.
Putrid blood flowed over her hands and she wrenched the weapon free as Kylo retrieved the pike and hit the floor, shuddering.
'Get in the car,' she grunted, shoving him up and quickly moving towards the trunk to remove her crossbow.
Before she could, Rey felt claws slash through her leather jacket and as her back hit the closed back door, she grunted at the pain in her side, the pain there doubling.
'Kira!'
Of course he hadn’t listened to her when she'd said to get inside. Instead he was tackling the vampire, grappling as another one of them descended on the pair.
Rey was ready this time, sending a bullet straight through its chest. The resulting scream made heads turn her way and Rey cocked her gun quickly, firing off three more rounds into her incoming attackers.
The pungent odour of dead vampire filled her nose and Rey choked as she took up Kylo's pike, thrusting it through the last that held Kylo in a death grip. Kylo ducked and rolled out of the way before the blood could completely drench him, and then he was silent, eyes on the dark sky, breathing heavy.
'I'm going to fucking kill you.'
He started laughing, half-wheezing, clutching his waist as Rey grabbed his jacket collars, pulling him up from the wet tarmac. She barely resisted slapping him, but instead huffed, realising that was the closest shave she'd had since the Djinn.
'I'm glad you were here. I was almost dinner.'
She frowned. 'I've been here for three days staking out this place and you fucked it all up. You could have gotten both of us killed.'
Kylo closed his eyes, breathing heavily and Rey noticed his pressure on his wound was weakening.
'I really hate you.'
'I know,' he muttered, and it sounded resigned.
Before he could fall unconscious, Rey helped him stand and slid him into the back of her car.
Despite the slick streets, Rey managed to get back to the nearest safehouse in ten minutes. It was a struggle, but she got the quickly weakening man inside and onto the table in the house’s small rec room.
Kylo groaned when she cut through his t-shirt and the Princess Bride characters printed large across the front, knowing well enough that the item of clothing was one of his favourites. Though Rey was at least nice enough to pull his jacket from his shoulders.
'Like what you see?' He slurred, and Rey snorted as she injected him with an antibiotic with little preamble.
The injury – a cluster of five deep stab wounds just above his hip – still oozed blood, and much of his lower stomach was red with it.
Rey cleaned it away as best as she could, pouring half a bottle of antiseptic in the wound. She expected him to react, though his eyes had fluttered closed, and he laid immobile.
She frowned, kicking over a stool and pulled on a pair of latex gloves. It was an easy suturing job, and Rey was done after fifteen minutes, four neat stitches in each wound.
When Kylo came round, Rey was washing her hands in the sink and he had an IV in his arm with a fresh bandage over half of his stomach.
'Kira?'
Rey turned, sighing. 'What even happened?' He blinked slow and looked to her as she approached, taking the stool again.
'Would you believe that I was actually jumped?'
She laughed. 'What? You were taking a jog with a pike?'
He seemed to consider it and then nodded casually, causing Rey to laugh. 'You’re ridiculous. You know our rivalry doesn't work if you're dead.'
Kylo smiled, the action just as slow. 'You know that's just my excuse.' He murmured. 'Usually by now you'd have kicked my ass and run off. We're never alone unless surrounded by our colleagues or corpses.'
'What are you trying to say?'
'You should let me buy you dinner, or at least coffee.'
'And then what?'
Kylo groaned as he shifted on the table, his eyes on her. 'You'd fall in love with me and tell me your real name.' He sighed, delighted by the words. ‘Then we’d get married and I’d treat you so good, I’d be so good to you.’
'I clearly gave you way too much advil.'
He shook his head. 'I'm serious.'
Frowning, Rey stood and awkwardly adjusted the IV bag while looking at how much fluid remained. 'Trust you to bare your soul when you're half naked and covered in blood.'
'How long have you known me?'
Rey didn't want to answer because she didn't see the possible reasoning for the question. Five years was a drop in the pan.
'I almost died,' he said solemnly, almost out of the blue.
She hummed and nodded, moving up the table towards his head. He watched her carefully and she lifted his head, her fingers moving deftly over his scalp, looking for an injury.
'I'm not confused or deluded, Kira. I'm serious.'
Rey laid his head back down, carefully rearranging his drying hair before she sat again, looking at him tight-lipped.
'Is it so hard to believe that I care about you?'
She closed her eyes at the word, as if it could strike her. 'No,' she mumbled, and it was the truth.
Even before the Djinn, the pair had circled around each other for years. Trying to one-up the other, barely scraping by with their lives and doing the most to do so. Even when they partnered on jobs, it was always a competition. Their colleagues had joked that this was sex for them. That they fought to build tension and when they both lay, exhausted and covered in blood, that was the afterglow.
Rey hated hearing it. It was a distraction from her work, and distractions meant death or serious injury.
Kylo was frustrating and regardless of how serious he was about the stakes, he disregarded her plans and ideas. He always wanted to take the lead and he would take the fall when things went wrong. Making it look like it was her fault everytime and he was just covering for her.
'Just feel grateful I was there,' she said, frowning.
'I am.'
He was still staring at her, his brows furrowed in worry. 'You need to get your back checked.'
'It's just some bruising.' Rey stood, breathing out.
Kylo attempted to turn to sitting at the edge of the table, and winced as he did, his hand against his waist.
‘You’re gonna be out for at least two weeks. Make sure you redress it daily.’ She began to clean away the rest of the supplies, awkwardly tucking her hair behind her ears as Kylo watched her move around.
‘Let me at least look at it.’
‘For fucks sake, Kylo, just leave it alone.’
His lips were in a firm line until Rey audibly sighed and removed her jacket, grimacing as she pulled it from her arms and tossed it on a nearby chair. Bruising had already started up her right arm.
Kylo stood, despite Rey’s complaints, he pulled the IV over towards the fridge-freezer and after a quick sift, found several ice packs.
‘Sit on the table.’
‘You really shouldn’t be walking around. You lost a lot of blood.’
‘I’ve lost more before.’
Rey sat on the edge of the metal table, stretching out her muscles and feeling the bruised skin of her back. It was red hot. When Kylo made it back, she pulled her t-shirt over her head and he studied the bruise with a frown.
‘You might have cracked your last rib,’ he said and Rey jumped when he pressed the ice pack to her back.
‘Just concentrate on your own injuries,’ Rey replied, taking several breaths to check the quality of her own breathing. She’d only just recovered from a broken rib, so didn’t need another.
‘Do you have to always say something?’
Rey pouted, and decided to distract herself by looking over her arms for any injuries. She didn’t find anything more than a few grazes on her hands, and then she sat still in silence as Kylo held the ice against her back, his touch light.
‘There were ten in that nest.’ He murmured.
‘I know.’
‘They’ll follow my blood—’
‘— shut up.’ Rey didn’t mean to sound as annoyed as she was, so closed her eyes and counted backwards from five. Truly she was frightened, moreso than usual, and for the both of them. ‘I’m not going to leave you.’
‘This is my fault.’
‘I know, and you’re not going to say it is when we ring this in.’
‘What does that mean?’
Rey swallowed. ‘You’re going to say that we got rid of the entire nest very easily and you later fell in the park while feeding ducks, and that’s how you were injured.’
‘I think they’d believe that you stabbed me more than that.’
She faked a laugh and pulled away, turning to look at him and pulling the ice from his hands. ‘What were you thinking?’
His jaw shifted. ‘I was thinking you were dumb to take on a nest of ten as a solo assignment.’
She closed her eyes and huffed. ‘I am just as qualified as you are.’
‘This is what happened to me against one vampire. You try and improvise everything, and sure you’re not dead yet, but one day you’ll miss something and that will be it.’ He hesitated before continuing. ‘I meant it before, last year when I said we should partner up permanently. We do better work together and at least we’d have each other's backs.’
‘I’m fine on my own.’
Kylo sighed, and Rey could see he didn’t believe it. Not even she believed it, but she wasn’t going to say that to him. 'Why is it so hard for you to let me in?'
Rey snorted softly. 'Do you forget what our jobs are?'
'No, and I'm not going to get to the end of the line with regrets. This isn't supposed to be us sacrificing ourselves for the greater good.' He hesitated and swallowed, clearly talking himself into saying more. 'I know how I feel and I know you try, but I know you can't forget about what that Djinn showed you. What we both felt.'
She looked away from him, her fingers tightening on her jean covered thighs, trying not to think about that day six months ago, yet it being wholly impossible.
It had been the third time they’d been teamed up, despite Rey’s protests, and despite Djinn protocol being a squad of at least three, Rey had gone in first. Steadfast and idiotic because she’d been annoyed and embarrassed about something Kylo had said to her – that’d she’d fallen into admitting they were friends, best friends even.
She’d been poisoned by the creature and her rashness had left Kylo in the same position; in a fantasy coma while the Djinn slowly drained their blood.
When they’d been in basic training their professor had made it very clear that the key to escaping a Djinn attack was being aware that what you weren’t seeing was real – that it was an individual’s dream world created solely by your greatest desires. And yet their greatest desire had been the same – to the extent that they’d shared the same world without Rey realising.
Rey had lapped it up, she had loved Kylo so wholly in that dream that even up to the moments after their liberation, she had reached for him. For her love, for her best friend, for her heart.
Rey had kept herself awake for weeks horrified – ignoring the reasons why she’d kissed him, why she’d dreamed him, why she’d cried, in favour of ignoring him, ignoring it until she could pretend it had truly been a fantasy. Because in truth, it was impossible. A life without monster hunting? A life together in a big house and to Rey, an irrational, overwhelming amount of love? Now it just made her scoff that she’d ever thought it was anything more than passing fancy. Yet the guilt still ate at her – the guilt that if it hadn’t been for Kaydel, they'd have both died. The guilt that she’d ruined their friendship.
She shook her head, slipped from the table and pulling her shirt back on. Even then she could feel Kylo watching her in silence and she ignored the terrible throbbing in her chest at his stare and her silent rejection.
Even once she had grabbed her jacket again and activated the alarm system, temporarily marking the safehouse as unusable, Kylo watched her passively. Rey hated it because this wasn't his usual state. He always got himself involved, he talked until you saw his side of things. He was unrelenting when things went wrong and it was your fault. He didn't quit, and to Rey in that moment, it felt like he was quitting, even when he wasn’t.
‘We can’t stay here.’ She murmured, her voice weak. Her mind was a mess and so she concentrated on the gun tucked in her waistband and the long knife strapped to her thigh, almost missing the sound of falling roof tiles. Her hand froze on the hilt and she looked up as wood creaked and then snapped.
Rey looked to Kylo and he had his jacket on over his bare torso, and was armed with a knife and her crossbow. He sifted swiftly through the duffel bag, removing a flask and slipping a wooden dagger through the loop in his trousers.
‘I—’
‘—Don’t. We’re not going to die, we don’t need to share our final thoughts.’ Rey interrupted him almost immediately.
Kylo chuckled, shaking his head. ‘I was actually going to say that I’d go first.’
‘Yeah fucking right. You keep behind me, you’re dosed up and injured.’
He hesitated and then nodded, his hand clutching the crossbow tightly.
'Looks like those vamps figured out what happened.'
‘I guess the whole element of surprise went out of the window.’ Despite his words, Kylo’s tone was serious, and he squared his jaw as he positioned himself so the wall stood to his back. He put a hand to his waist for a moment, before testing out his mobility. It wasn’t great. ‘I don’t — fuck Kira I’m going to get the two of us killed.’
‘No you’re not.’ She moved towards the window, peeking through the gap in the curtains briefly before stepping swiftly back. The creaking above them continued. ‘You’re going to have my back and I’m going to have yours. You were at least right about one thing – we do work well together.’
He was silently surprised, a smirk shifting his expression. ‘I never thought I’d hear that.’
‘Well you are welcome to rub it in if we make it through this night.’
Wood groaned again and then there was a loud crack, the roof caving in above them. Rey dived towards the small kichenette to avoid the falling debris, and rolled to a crouch, her silver dagger held in a steady grip.
Kylo glanced over at her, the crossbow aimed into the hole, the end of it balanced on his other arm, and a knife in his grip there.
‘Watch the doors,’ Rey whispered.
He nodded, and then the lights went out.
The sudden change meant it had become darker than both of their eyes could handle. The smell that followed – like rotting corpses – served almost as a distraction before another great wrenching sound tore through the small house, and then a shriek.
One of the creatures dropped through the ceiling, the wood splinters turning to dust at its feet, while the front door was wrenched open and the window to Kylo’s left smashed with a fist.
Another two entered the space, hesitating on the attack, but their teeth bared, blood-thirsty and angry.
‘You killed our brothers and sisters,’ one spoke.
Rey narrowed her eyes, her hand tightening on her dagger. ‘And we will kill you too.’
‘You are outnumbered and outmanoeuvred.’ Another said.
‘Is that what you think?’ Kylo asked.
The eldest one smiled, the line of it grim. ‘You are injured, and you hope to win against us?’
Kylo chose this moment to shoot off a bolt, Rey only able to react to the whistle of it before it connected with the plasterboard wall, the vampire having diverted away. They were quick, prepared, and Rey grunted as she defended herself.
Rey slashed with her knife as she avoided their claws, using the furniture as defence, though the creatures seemed to break through or climb over them with ease.
Kylo took one out with a well-timed crossbow bolt and then they seemed to reach a frenzy once it was only four. Rey heard Kylo hit the ground before she saw him and he was clutching his waist with one hand while another reached for a stake, the crossbow having bounced a distance away.
Heads turned towards him sniffing the air and pupils dilated with blood lust.
The cry that left Rey unbidden slowed the nearest vampire down, and Rey slammed her dagger into its stomach, injuring it. Kylo managed to drag himself up and he kicked out, knocking back one vampire, while the other descended swiftly on him. He faked it out and the stake slipped swiftly up and underneath its ribs. Still he hit the ground again, and Rey cocked her weapon, shooting three bullets into the vampire, its lips inches from Kylo’s throat.
A weight grabbed her arms, slipping underneath her armpits and pulling her shoulders sharply back. The pain there and in her back was relentless. The cold acrid breath of the creature was at her neck, and her blood thumped with fear, her eyes falling to Kylo as he reached in his back pocket.
There was a sizzle of burning and another high-pitched wail and Rey felt a dull piercing in her neck. Warmth slid across her skin and she forced herself to balance her weight, ignoring her ailing strength, and she pulled forward, throwing the creature off her and then slamming onto the wooden flooring. She immediately jumped upon it, plunging her knife into its chest, before rounding back on Kylo.
The final vamp – the one she had shot three times – looked back at his fallen brethren, his foul blood spilling onto the wreckage beneath their feet, his fangs still bared. Rey could smell the burnt flesh and when she moved to flank Kylo, half of the creature’s face had melted.
It was easy then – for the stake to splice the creature’s heart in two – and Rey forced her dizziness backwards, and looked to Kylo instead.
Blood stained his shirt once more, though he was able to keep standing, his eyes solely on Rey.
She wasn’t able to say anything before Kylo was hugging her to his chest, squeezing her too tightly, and repeating platitudes against her hair. When he loosened his hold, his eyes surveyed the bite at her neck, the blood flowing easily despite the shallowness of the wound. He poured the remains of the holy water on it and Rey closed her eyes to the sting, her hands clinging onto him.
He was quiet as Rey’s eyes went from one corpse to another, her skin cold and her clothing covered in blood – and she wasn’t quite sure what of it was hers.
Kylo was already at the computer, and then collected the duffel, his face serious. He didn’t speak as he took Rey’s hand, pulling her gently out of the destroyed front door and towards Rey’s car.
A sharp intake of breath left Rey looking to Kylo, and he had stumbled at the door of the car, his hand against his waist again. He nudged the material of his jacket to the side, and the bandage was red, the stitches ripped open.
Rey helped him inside the car and then moved around to the driver’s seat, her hands tight on the wheel as she took several deep breaths.
Blood was even crusted beneath her nails.
‘I never want to see another vampire again.’
‘Eh, you might turn into one, so I wouldn’t make those requests of the universe just yet.’
Rey glared at him. ‘I’ve always wondered how you got a perfect score for the written portion of the Agents exam.’
Kylo grinned. ‘I bribed an official of course.’
‘I wouldn’t put it past you.’
He sighed heavily and looked fully at her, turning despite the pain and holding Rey’s gaze carefully. ‘Am I allowed to be honest now? After everything.’
‘What’s wrong with lying to each other forever, Kylo?’
‘Ben.’ He said swiftly. ‘It’s Ben.’
Rey felt catapulted into silence and she stared at the man next to her, her eyes wide. ‘You’re — that’s —.’
‘Yes, that’s my real name, and I’m giving it to you.’ He closed his eyes momentarily. ‘Before I bleed out completely on your seats, I wanted to tell you this, and you can be angry at me for it, but...but it’s important.’ He looked into his lap, frowning. ‘I’m not going to wait until the next time we almost die.’
Her brows furrowed deeply and she was shaking her head. ‘What’s more important than your name?’ She whispered.
Kylo watched her carefully and he reached for her hand where it gripped the wheel, her knuckles white. His touch eased her muscles slightly and Rey glanced at him, worried.
‘Rey,’ she murmured. ‘I suppose that’s only fair.’
And he smiled wide, ridiculously so, and Rey attempted to convince herself that she hated looking at him like this, hated his mirth, and yet in the face of the last handful of hours, she welcomed it.
‘Don’t smile, we’re both fucked.’ Her hand went to the ignition and she sat forward, hearing Kylo’s breathing stuttering and shallow. She felt herself laughing and Rey wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand before staring out of the windshield, and pulling onto the dirt path that led to the main road. ‘The biggest mistake of your life.’
‘If this is the biggest mistake of my life, then I think I’m doing pretty good.’ He mumbled, leaning back against the headrest.
Rey drove as quickly as she could, the roads empty as the night gradually grew lighter at dawn’s slow approach.
Kylo was still blinking beside her, though she could see he wasn't well and was flagging.
Her apartment was a thirty minute drive usually and she made it in twenty, entering the underground basement and half carrying Kylo to the elevator and up five floors.
Thankfully they didn't meet anyone on the way, because Rey was sure they'd call the police considering how badly the pair of them smelled and looked.
She walked them both into her bathroom and Rey sat him on the edge of her bathtub, helping to strip him of his clothes and following suit.
Other than their jackets and shoes, their clothes went into trash bags. By the time Rey got back with her med kit, Kylo was leaning against the wall, his blood beginning to spill into the tub.
On close inspection he'd only torn open two of five of the wounds and Rey knelt on the bathroom floor and made quick work of cleaning and suturing them closed again. Kylo remained quiet, watching her and twitching briefly at the uncomfortable press of the needle.
'Get into the bath,' she murmured.
Kylo followed her instruction, twisting his body and pulling his legs then body inside.
Rey left for a moment again and when she returned, she had a large towel in her arms and had changed out of her underwear and into a bikini instead.
Turning on the shower, she sat on the edge of the bath behind Kylo and reached for the shower hose and twisted the tap.
'This is a one time thing,' she murmured, soaking his hair and upper body.
Kylo merely hummed, smiling and leaning back. 'Now I get why Rose always goes on about spas.'
'I just don't want you falling in the shower,' she responded, with some struggle.
His hair was just as she remembered, and Rey quietened as she combed her fingers through it before adding shampoo. The water rinsed red and brown, a mixture of their blood and the blood of the vampires pooling at her feet.
‘You could have at least let me take off my underwear.’
‘No.’
‘So what are you going to do with them now? They’re wet.’
Rey grimaced. ‘I guess they’ll go in the trash too. Now stop talking, I’m concentrating.’
He was silent again, but not for very long. His eyes were closed to avoid soap getting in, and he concentrated as Rey gently rubbed his scalp. Eventually she stood, forcing him up with her and handing him the soap. Water ran over his stomach and Kylo winced as it did. Rey was watching it warily, her brow furrowed as his muscles twitched and pulled at the sutures.
Instead of cleaning his body of the stench of vampire, he reached for the shampoo and he squeezed it on her own dirty hair.
‘I think I can manage myself.’ She said, rolling her eyes.
‘This way you won’t owe me anything,’ he answered, shifting the shower head so it caught them both. The dried blood at her neck began to loosen and Kylo looked at the bite marks there, chewing on his cheek.
Rey reached to rub the solution into her scalp, though Kylo gently knocked her hands away and soaped up her hair. Her eyes were on him, wide and still and he smirked as suds began to drift down her shoulders. His fingers briefly stopped at her neck, dislodging the remaining blood and touching the numbed area. The venom had let her blood flow quicker, but it had also taken the pain away.
Rey didn’t quite know what to say or do, so Rey let him wash her hair and examine her. When he thought her hair was adequately soapy, he squeezed the soap into his hands and rubbed it quickly into his arms, chest and legs, carefully avoiding the puckered flesh at his abdomen.
To distract herself from looking too closely at Kylo's glistening and soaped body, Rey set to rubbing the shower creme into her skin, scrubbing at her hands and arms especially roughly.
Kylo directed the water at her, and she carefully watched the water drain, growing clearer by the second.
‘Thank you.’ Her eyes snapped to him, but at the lack of response he continued. ‘Can we...can you not avoid this anymore? Can you at least give me a proper answer?’ Her fingers stilled and Kylo thought she might respond, but she didn’t. Instead she pushed him under the stream of water, forcing him to keep silent until his hands stilled her from stepping out.
Rey hesitated and nodded. 'Fine. Fine.' She reached for her towel and pulled it around her shoulders. 'Just...just get dressed first.'
By the time Kylo had pulled on the clothes Rey had left behind – oversized boy boxers and one of her sleep shirts – she was in the kitchen dressed in loose trousers, a t-shirt and had a bandage at her neck.
He sat on her sofa before Rey could comment, and she passed him a glass of OJ and set to cooking a quick dinner in an attempt to help Kylo’s recovery.
As they simmered in silence, Rey couldn’t help turning over what he had asked of her. That she gave him an answer, and stopped avoiding him and the feelings that constantly threatened to spill. It wasn’t even as if it didn’t make sense – she could believe that he cared about her, and in some ridiculous way, it made everything he’d done up till now make sense too, and Rey considered that that perhaps was what made it so difficult. They knew how the other felt, and Rey’s unwillingness to admit it, to say it out loud, left them both in limbo eternally.
Because even at the worst of times, Kylo was the only friend she had – maybe even the best friend she’d had, even if their relationship had originally been built on the need to win over the other.
‘What are you thinking about?’
Rey shook her head, and dressed the salad, scratching the back of her neck before glancing at Kylo. He was waiting and watching. ‘Thinking about the ways I’ll kill you if I see another vampire.’
He snorted and leaned back, staring at the ceiling. ‘I think I’d rather be drained.’ There was a brief smile on his lips then.
‘Now why didn’t you just do that before?’ Rey arranged the food on two plates and then brought them over, handing one to Kylo along with a fork. He dug in almost immediately, and even rivaled her messy eating, which at least made Rey laugh. ‘Feeling better?’
'Now I do.' His focus was on her, placing the half-finished plate down. 'Be honest with me.'
Rey sighed, looking down at her hands, her thumb nail scratching at the nail of her forefinger. ‘I'm sorry,' she murmured. 'For being selfish.'
'You weren't selfish.'
She looked to him and his face was open, and Rey turned, folding her feet beneath her, breathing heavily. 'I should have said something afterwards, but I didn't know what and then time passed and it felt like I could just pretend it didn't happen at all.'
‘Do you want to forget it happened?’
‘No,’ she shook her head, and her hands reached for his. ‘You are important to me, you were important to me even before that. I just...I guess I ruined it.’
Kylo smiled. ‘You didn’t ruin it.’
Rey sighed and looked at their hands, hers clutching his tightly in her own lap. ‘Ben.’ She said his real name quietly, feeling it fill her chest with warmth, it bleeding into her smile.
‘Rey.’
Her eyes met his, and she moved forward, climbing into his lap, careful not to disturb his injury. Kylo’s arms wrapped around her, their faces inches away from the other.
‘Promise you won’t run away anymore,’ he requested as Rey’s thumb began to trace the silver scar that bisected his face.
She nodded. ‘Though this doesn’t mean I want to partner up with you.’ Kylo grimaced, and Rey chuckled. ‘Just because you can’t make it a day without me saving your ass.’
‘It’s all for attention.’
She snorted and sighed softly, their gazes holding easily, Rey’s fingers tangling in his hair. ‘You have my attention, undividedly.’ A breath separated them and Rey eased forward, eyes flickering down to his lips. Kylo closed the gap, and their shoulders both relaxed as they kissed.
‘You can’t take it back,’ Kylo warned, pulling briefly back. ‘I’m really difficult to get rid of.’
Rey grinned. ‘I’m very aware of that. Though I’d be grateful if you’d kiss me instead of talking. Especially considering we’ll have to explain away a destroyed safe house.’
‘Fuck, and the bodies.’
‘You’re just as bad as me now,’ Rey chuckled, her arms going around his neck. ‘Making a complete mess. Holdo is going to gut both of us.’
Kylo frowned. ‘Sick leave?’
‘What’s more suspicious than us both disappearing together?’
He grinned at the suggestion, his hand climbing up Rey’s back. ‘We might as well feed into the rumours, then.’
Rey jumped, suddenly ticklish and she climbed from Kylo’s lap. A quick glance out of the window and dawn had finally arrived, and Rey was very aware of the trouble they’d caused. Though even despite that awareness, the desire to curl up beside Kylo outweighed her logical brain and she paused in her escape, leading Kylo to crash into her.
‘I love you,’ she said quickly – sounding impatient and earnest as he straightened up.
‘Good, because I love you too.’
‘Then that’s it, it’s all on the table.’
He nodded curtly, though the pair could only stay serious for so long, before Kylo was pulling her closer, their lips joining again in bliss.