5. Chapter 5: Rain

5. Rain

"Come back! Please, come back!" Rey strained to run after her parents, but Unkar just started dragging her away. "No! No, let me go!" The sand weighed down her legs, and she wanted to collapse onto the ground and cry.

But then the desert washed away and it was cloudy and raining, and the stone felt slick under her feet. She'd never felt the rain before and it was the most wonderful thing, to have all the water she needed. She tilted her head back and tried to ignore her feelings of loss as the rain pelted her.

Something shifted, and she wasn't sure what it was until someone stood on the rock beside her in the rain. Kylo, in his nightshirt, shivering. "What is this?" He took in their surroundings, confused. "Is this real?"

"I'm... I think I'm dreaming," Rey said, jarred into a sense of awareness.

"Oh." He looked around with a little more interest. "Nightmare?"

She squinted at him through the rain. He looked chilly and miserable, but she relished the feel of the rain on her face. "I love it here," she said quietly. "It's so much better than Jakku."

He glanced at her. "It's the island, isn't it?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes."

The sea spray crashed up into their faces, and although the salt stung her eyes, Rey smiled. She could almost forget about the first part of her dream.

"You feel lonely," Kylo said, quietly. It felt almost nice, standing here with him in the rain. He was shivering uncontrollably, but she didn't want to presume to put her arm around him.

"My parents abandoned me, and they're probably dead," she told him. "I can't stop dreaming about it."

His emotions were more noticeable right now, maybe because this was a dream. He didn't feel angry or dark, just weary and sad. And cold. She took a chance and slipped her fingers into his hand, which was icy.

He flinched, but he didn't let go – if anything, he shifted closer to her.

"Doesn't it hurt?" he asked her, so soft the sound of the sea almost drowned it out.

She hesitated. "I… I still haven't thought about it," she admitted. "I don't know how."

He actually squeezed her hand, and she looked at him in his thin, soaking shirt, his hair slicked back and away from his face. She realized that now, in the middle of the night, when they were meant to be asleep, he was more willing to be vulnerable than he would usually be.

"You should," he told her.

"Why?" she said, chuckling a little. "So I join you on the Dark Side?"

"Would you?" He raised an eyebrow at her, indicating he knew the answer.

"Probably not." She wrapped her poncho tighter around her shoulders and traced a line in the rock with her foot. "I just… I've spent my whole life avoiding it. I don't know how to stop."

Kylo let go of her hand, which surprised her, but then he sat down cross-legged and she followed suit. They joined hands again by unspoken agreement. It wouldn't really help Kylo stay warm, but it was all he'd allow her to do. He sighed, picking up a pebble from next to him and turning it in his fingers. "You can't let go of the past if you don't take the time to accept it for what it was."

"You're one to talk," she said wearily. "You've got a festering wound, Ben, and all you're doing is hanging onto the pain."

He shifted, looking away. "I'm not really a big fan of the 'forgive and forget' method."

"I noticed."

He glanced at her. "I wish you had come with me," he said. "We could have left it all behind."

"I couldn't leave my friends to die."

He felt a touch angry, but also a little envious. Mostly weary. "I don't understand."

"I know."

The rain had fully soaked through their clothes by now, but it had become warmer and softer, and the waves didn't crash so much against the rocks. Kylo was still shivering, though, so Rey took a risk and let go of his hand, slipping that arm around his waist instead.

He went insanely stiff, like a dead man, but she didn't let go. She needed the comfort even more than he needed the warmth, she thought.

"I… We shouldn't do this," he said lowly, voice shaking just a little. But he felt as lonely as she had, so she thought that maybe for once they could just be here. Maybe since it was a dream that meant they weren't compromising anything.

"I'm afraid," she whispered. "I don't know who I'm supposed to be."

He snorted, and surprised her: "Neither do I."

They didn't say anything else, just stayed like that until the connection and the dream faded back into the darkness of sleep.

A/N: Kylo's gonna be very mad at himself next chapter. That one may be from Rey's POV too. Dunno. For the record, I don't normally post this fast, although I'll try not to let this one fall by the wayside. I'm a busy person, friends.

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