Freedom (Reylo)

Two

Rey's POV:

I sat quietly in the corner of Leia's hospital room, looking at an old text about the Jedi and the uprising of Vader that Leia had given me as my previous birthday present. I never officially had a birthday, so Leia just chose a day for us to celebrate. I still couldn't believe that Darth Vader was Leia's father, and that her adopted father was one of first members of the rebellion.

It had been a week since Kylo released me from the Star Killer base only a few hours after I was captured, but didn't release me himself. Hux dropped us off reluctantly at the nearest planet. I tried talking to Kylo through the force a few times since but didn't have any luck. I could still sense him as a being but couldn't communicate.

"Have you had any luck?" Leia spoke up, looking over at me with a weak smile. She wanted so badly for him to come home to her and be her little boy again.

"No, I think I struck a nerve with him." I was so disappointed when he said he couldn't leave. I couldn't imagine being the supreme leader would be worth never seeing your mother again, but he was a monster that killed Han.

"It's not your fault that he wouldn't come home. He's stubborn, just like his parents." She laughed light heartedly and started one of her coughing fits. She had some sort of virus that the doctors didn't catch in time and it was too late at this point.

"Is the medicine not helping?" I asked, getting up to get her a glass of water. The doctors decided that giving her medicine could help the symptoms but not the virus itself.

"Hardly," She coughed and started drinking the water like her life depended on it. I felt a small push in my mind and the familiar feeling of Kylo's presence started to grow stronger.

"Ben?" I said out loud and Leia's eyes darted to me. I was hoping he could hear me but everything was silent. "I think he's here." And just like that, the doors opened to reveal Kylo. He was accompanied by a few rebels that all had their blasters pointing at him.

"Put those down!" Leia shouted at them, sitting up in bed with tears beginning to run down her face. Kylo's face was stern and he looked pained, but his gaze avoided me. He wore his usual black attire, just didn't have his mask and as far as I could see he didn't have his saber either.

"Mother," Kylo muttered and walked over to her, pulling her into a tight hug. I took a step back to let them have their moment and looked over to the other rebels. They nervously watched him, one still held his blaster up in case he would try anything.

"Welcome home," Leia cried but Kylo pulled away, tensing up and stared at her. She looked so frail and broken.

"I'm not staying. I needed to see you, the girl informed me of you being sick." He said calmly, still not looking at me. I must've really upset him if he wasn't acknowledging me or even saying my name.

"I have a name." I said with an attitude, burning a hole in the back of his head but he still didn't acknowledge me.

"Could we have a moment alone?" Leia looked at me first then to the others. We all looked at her like she was crazy, Kylo killed Han without any hesitation, who's to say he wouldn't do it again?

"I'm not letting you stay alone with him." I spoke up first and that was when he finally looked at me with a hurt expression. I really couldn't trust him with her, after losing Han and spending months being with and taking care of Leia, I couldn't chance anything happening to her.

"She can stay." Kylo looked back at Leia and stood up from the bed, looking to the rebels. "I do not want word of me being here to leave us. No one is to know. I have an image to uphold."

They nodded nervously and left the room, leaving the awkwardness between the three of us. Here we were, the leader of the first order and supreme leader, the head general of the rebellion and the supreme leader's mother, and me, a scavenger from Jakku who happened to be one with the force and now a rebel.

I sat down in the chair I was in earlier and studied Kylo while they talked quietly. I hadn't been around him much and when I have been, it's been brief or something urgent was happening to where I couldn't pay attention to him.

He was taller and lean, probably a little over six feet tall, his jet black hair was long, coming down to his collar and was slightly wavy. I remembered back to when our force talks first started and I saw him shirtless, my cheeks almost immediately burned from embarrassment. Kylo turned back to look at me briefly, making a funny face and I could only imagine that he just saw me thinking about that. My face burned even brighter and I closed my eyes, shaking my head of any thoughts of him.

~~~~~~~~

Kylo's POV:

I sat idly beside my mother on her bed and watched her as she talked. She looked so sick, I could only imagine what sickness had taken over her body this badly. Besides looking sick, she also looked happy to see me and hopeful. I hadn't seen her since I was sent off to train with Luke, and I couldn't stop thinking back to the night that I turned to the dark side. I wish I would've never even started my Jedi training. They should've let the Jedi die with Luke as the last one.

"Are you listening?" Leia asked me and I shook my head, my attention brought back to her.

"No, I'm sorry. I got distracted." I focused my attention back on her but had some of my other attention absentmindedly on Rey. I could feel her staring at me, analyzing me and just as I tapped into her thoughts for a moment I was brought back to one of our first times using the force together while I was shirtless. I looked back at her momentarily, trying not to laugh and saw her eyes go wide and her face blushed a deep red.

"Ben," Leia said quietly and placed her hand on mine. It startled me and I pulled back without meaning to, I hadn't had physical contact with anyone in so long that it felt alien to me. I hadn't heard my own name since Rey last said it, and before that, when Han said it on the bridge. "What's distracting you?"

"I'm sorry. I was... just thinking of a few things I need to take care of," I lied and looked up at her. I could tell that she knew I was lying but she didn't press me on it.

"Do you think you could stay here? For a few days." She asked but I knew there was no way possible that I could stay here without it being noticed. The second Hux finds out that I'm at the rebel base without destroying it, he would overthrow me.

"I think the first order would notice that I'm gone. I couldn't stay even if I wanted to." I mumbled and thought of something I could do that wouldn't be too detrimental if anyone would find out. "I could stay today, but I would have to leave in the morning." With that, Leia's eyes widened and she got the biggest smile. It killed me knowing that all she wanted was for me to be good again, to take back everything that's happened and for it to just be our family again.

"Oh! I'll have the chef make something you'll love, maybe your father's speciality?" She said excitedly. Han never cooked, but when he did, he made the best steaks with a secret sauce he made himself. He refused to ever tell anyone what the secret sauce was except for Leia. As a kid, their relationship and closeness disgusted me. They loved each other so much, but at the same time, drove each other insane.

"That'd be nice." I said awkwardly. I hadn't thought of my childhood or any of my memories in the longest time, Luke trained me to separate myself from any feelings, good or bad. It was against the Jedi's ways to have any emotions, although the Sith and Jedi weren't too different from each other.

"I'm sorry if I'm overwhelming you. I just," Leia started tearing up. "I haven't seen you in so long and I never thought you would ever come home." She smiled and brought me into a tight hug. I noticed that I was stiff but forced myself to relax, wrapping my arms around her smaller figure and rested my head on top of hers. It felt wrong, and weird, to hug her knowing everything I've done but I held on for her sake. She needed this more than anything right now.