Through the Darkness || Finn&Rey

Chapter 89

I can see the silhouette of her frame but not much more.
"Luke isn't out here," Rey whispers and it echoes through the silence. "Close your eyes..." I immediately do as she requests, without hesitation. "You really do trust me," I can feel her joy radiating around us and it makes me smile. She turns back around, my hand in hers as she leads me through the forest.

"Did you bring me out here to kill me?" I joke after we keep walking. She does not respond, but I hear the silence begin to fade as the rhythmical beat of water pouring down becomes noticeable. We walk in the direction of the sound and I feel the forest floor rise up at a steady incline. Walking up this hill is hard when all I see is darkness. When I hear the sound of gushing water become a roar the ground flattens out.

"No, I brought you out here for this..." I take that as a cue to open my eyes. I'm met with small candles in a beautiful arrangement leading to a lush patch of grass with some cushions and some blankets. We are high enough to witness the very subtle beginnings of the sun rising over the horizon, oranges and yellows spill into the sky. A few hundred metres to the left is a waterfall, cascading down into a beautiful pool of dark water, which I'm sure will gleam a topaz blue when the sun shines upon its surface. I look back to the ground and see a small basket on the grass filled with fruits and exotic orange liquid in a large glass bottle. She must have retrieved these from her mission because I've never seen anything quite like it.
I look at Rey and I don't say a word. I grasp one side of her precious face and capture her lips with mine. Our fingers find each other's and tightly join, her other hand clutches at my shirt, I smile against her lips, she smiles back.

"It's beautiful," I whisper when I pull back. The sun dances across her glowing cheeks, the rays twirl into her hair causing her to become her own sun. "You're beautiful," I add sincerely and kiss her forehead. She unexpectedly wraps her arms tightly around my waist and I hold her close.

"I missed you," she whispers and I smile sadly into her hair.

"So did I."
We both turn in silence and watch the warm sphere of fire splutter its light through the sky, illuminating our home. I rub my hand up and down her back and she rests her head peacefully on my shoulder.

The sun has nearly completely risen by the time she lets me go.

"You've never seen the sun rise before, have you?" She asks quietly, I think for a second and realise she is right. Even when I first left the Resistance I never sat down to watch the sun rise over the ocean, and I never left the hotel to witness the blue suns come above the endless buildings.

I shake my head. "I haven't, have you?"

She nods slowly. Of course she has. A decade on Jakku calls for many early mornings of scavenging, and unfortunately the possibility she didn't sleep at all. "But none like this. Not here," she whispers and I kiss her forehead. Such a deep tranquillity sets in my heart and I keep thinking to myself I'll never feel more at ease, but I am repeatedly proven wrong, or at least I've just not had the opportunity to feel peace so Every time I do it feels just as foreign as the first time.

"Is that why you brought me here, so we could watch it together?" Rey blushes.

"I wanted us to experience this together, for the first time," Rey tightens her grip on my hand. I smile lovingly at her and she softly tugs on my hand, leading me to the edge of the cliff, I do not feel nervous, even though just another step would have us falling into the mysterious water below. I turn to her and watch as she closes her eyes.
The atmosphere changes, the waterfall slows to a halt, the silence is abrupt and intense as the water is suspended in mid-air. Everything seems to slow down, almost as if the entire forest is holding its breath. I keep watching Rey as her eyes move behind her eyelids and her smile fades with concentration. That's when I notice what exactly is happening; I look down into the shimmering lake and see droplets of water rise from the surface. I glance at Rey and it almost appears like she is not breathing, the droplets rise all the way up from then surface to in front of where we stand. They dance around each other, a few fall back into the lake but more rise up until the sky is glistening with new stars. The sun turns the droplets to diamonds and they spin as they deny gravity. A few droplets rotate around one another, picking up speed as if feeding off each other, they cast small rainbows and start to join together and form larger drops of water. Rey opens her eyes slowly to see the beauty she has created. I'm unsure of her intention but she smiles at the sight of the water glimmering in the morning light, shining spheres of liquid hovering and dancing around one another. She bounces on her toes and I have the urge to pick her up and spin her around. I squeeze her hand and run my thumb along her skin. After a few moments of watching the droplets sparkle, she decides to create her own rain. She closes her eyes again and the large droplets separate again and they splash back into the lake, and the waterfall begins to flow and the roar breaks the ritualistic experience and she turns to me.

That's the first time I've seen her use her abilities for something so beautiful, something as simple and innocent as playing with water.
I wonder that there truly is so much I don't understand about her other life, but I know I want to understand it all.

She grins up at me and then tugs me away from the edge and over to the blanket and basket. The loud crash of water is soothing as we eat our breakfast.
Rey doesn't explain how she organised such a magical morning, and I don't want her to. She likes to be in control and I'm sure this was thoroughly organised; Poe was obviously in on it.

Rey giggles when I lean over and try to romantically place a small round berry between her teeth, but it turns out to be more of a force feeding experience causing Rey to spit the berry out and burst out laughing. I chuckle and she picks up another berry to show me how it's done. She leans forward and places the berry in my waiting mouth, her focus is completely on my lips and I tingle with happiness. I quickly eat it and close the distance between us. Kissing her deeply, my hands in her hair and hers on my legs, I let my hands slip down to her waist and I pull myself up and lean further into her, pushing her onto the blanket beneath us. Her chest rises to press against mine as birds sing over the loud sound of the waterfall; I roll off her, take her hand and look at the sky as they fly towards the rising sun. I grin to myself at the simplicity of our life now.

"What's this for?" Rey asks, leaning up and tracing my smile with her finger.

"No reason at all," Rey returns my smile knowing exactly what I mean. She snuggles back down into the blanket. Our hands locked and we watch the clouds move across the sky and the sun shines upon us.

"How did you find out about this place?" I ask quietly, almost not wanting to disturb the peace.

"Luke gives me breaks to wander and discover the Force for myself, and one day I found this lake. All I could think about was showing it to you," when I turn to look at her, her eyes are closed.

"I love it."

"I knew you would." She is smiling softly and I turn my head back to the sky and close my eyes.