Title: Polarity
Paring: Rey X Reader
Warnings: lesbians, some nudity, fluff, angst, cutesy
Spoilers: no, none!
_______________________________________________________________________________
In the twin moonlight, dim, and streaming through the clouds and window, you open your eyes, awake. You're not sure why you're awake, or what prompted your body to rouse, yet, without answers, you are here. Awake. In the bed you sleep in, the sheets are rucked up, wrinkled to oblivion, and kicked away. The other side of the room is bare of the body of your friend that had lay on the other mat. The window, ajar the curtains flowing like silk rivers in the night breeze. Somewhere, from outside, you hear a noise. Click-clonk.
Perhaps that is what woke you.
A foot from the bed, and then another, you leave the warmth behind, and from there, leave the confines of your room. If this was an attack, you would hear more than the sound of something soft in the night-time. There would be blasters blazing, explosions and battle cries. You are Resistance from the blood in your body to the breath you breathe, born and raised. Your planet allied themselves with it generations ago, distrusting the Galactic Republic's intentions from the time of Darth Vader. You are your planet's only hope, and hidden away, you, the lost princess, spending your days upon the isles of Ahch-To, kept in exile with Jedi Master Skywalker. Safe, from all the danger, prepared for when the battle requires you to step forth and rule what is yours.
The dreams Master Skywalker's sister had of you had meant you were more than just a human princess. The details had not been shared with you, yet, your father agreed to falsify your death to the people of your planet, and hide you away to train with Master Skywalker and his Padawan, Rey.
The noise continues, and still, your bare feet carry you toward it, toward where the persistent click-clonk originates, continues inconsistently. You follow it, until you're halfway down the hillside of the isle you live and train upon, and in the moonlight, you see her.
Rey sits upon the edge of the shore, legs crossed. She wears one of your nightdresses, made of a thin silvery material, and in the night wind, it floated around her toned body, her hair in its buns stayed still. Her hands were full of pebbles, and with every breath that left your chest, every moment that passed, another pebble was selected, and tossed. Selected. Tossed.
"You're upset, aren't you?"
She turns to you, eyes wet with silver rivulets that trickle down her cheeks, falling slowly, softly. In the near two years you had spent with her, you had never seen her cry, well, never in unhappiness or discomfort. She would cry when you tickled her, or perhaps, when you surprised her and Master Luke with seasonal gifts from your home planet's main holiday. It tears your heart to see her like this, miserable.
She does not answer your question. Her silence does.
You place your hand in hers, and wordlessly, sit beside her. In the night air, your hair dances to the breeze's song, and you and the woman you love look across the water on the planet the both of you call your new home. She makes a noise, and unthreading your digits from her hold, you work the bands of leather to loosen around her hair.
Rey mewls as you release the pressure of her tied hair, and with a deep breath, she rests her head upon your shoulder.
"I have to be ready," her voice would be lost to the night, the words are spoken so quietly, but your ears are keen, and you catch the words. "I fought against him then, and I need to fight against him again."
Rey is a strong fighter, a stronger woman. She has lived through hard years, seen things nobody should have. "Have you ever disappointed yourself?" you ask, your hands threading through her loose strands of hair, dissolving any tangles that might be there.
She is silent once again. Then, "Too often."
You sigh. "It's a heavy burden," you place your hands upon your lap, turning to look to your fellow student, "I know all too well about being a part of a plan greater than yourself. We are as involved as each other for this future they seek, they need," you glance out to the sea, where the archipelagos lay glistening upon the water, scattered in the moonlight like treasures left to be hunted, abandoned. "I have a family I am dead to, I have a monarchy that is upturned because of my absence," you whisper. "You...you are not alone in these fears of yours."
Rey sighs, exhaling deeply. "Thank you," she says.
You smile to yourself, and thread your fingers with hers, interlacing them as so in the night air you cannot tell where your hand ends, and hers begins, and like your fates, you cannot see a difference but in your origin.
"We will be ready to play our parts," you whisper, "we have to."
Rey is silent. As you look to her, you see her head is slowly slipping from the perch upon your shoulder, falling as she is falling asleep to land upon your lap. You're left with your friend exhausted by the day, and yet, when you contemplate about using the Force to return her to the room you share, you too are tired. Instead, you lay back, nestling yourself comfortably, and count the stars until there are no more, or until your eyes lower enough to allow sleep to sweep over you.
The afternoon is warm, and like any other afternoon where after the session of training with Master Skywalker, you excuse yourself, and retreat to the secluded shores of the Eastern side of the island. It is a warm afternoon, more so than the cooler months of the year. Here, there were no calendars, no droids to keep track of time as it passed. Only scratches on the wall every nightfall, only memory. The water contrasted the burning air, soothing the aching muscles from hours of sabre practice, agility, and walking into the water, you leave your clothes discarded where the grass meets the sand, where the sand meets the sea.
You are not thinking of anything but to remove the heat from your body, to sooth the aches in your joints, in your chest. It's no use crying about what pain the day has brought as it would only occur again tomorrow, and the day after that, and you focus on submerging yourself in the water.
As the waves come in, ebbing, flowing, you let out breath after breath, trying not to focus on the stinging against the cuts on your body. The way the cold water touches your bare skin. Instead, you think of the way your fellow student Rey looked today; how she woke before you, her fingers tracing circles upon your skin as you woke together on the coastline, instead of the room you shared. How her eyes were kind, and cunning, and warm, and fierce all at once, and in training, how she knocked you down, how she picked you up, and how you did the same to her.
Your head submerges in the water.
But as soon as you come up, you're met with a cry, your eyes darting back to the beach. Rey stands there, her loose pants fluttering in the wind, eyes wide, a blush upon her face.
"I didn't know – I –," she places a hand over her eyes, she says, "I didn't see anything! I promise!"
You laugh. "It's just a body, Rey," you titter, and with all your might, use the Force to splash her from where you are in the water. She recoils at the droplets, but her hand stays there. "If you came here to cool off, then do so. Don't allow me to get in the way."
Her hand withdraws from her face. "Are you sure?"
You nod, hair slick against your body. "Quite sure. Unless you are wary of me seeing your body, that is." You say, and walking toward the seashore, she stammers, shaking her head. "Well, then, what are you waiting for?" You goad her, giggles filling the air.
You turn back to water, and diving down, you are met with the sight of the underwater world beneath the shallow depths. The current carries you slightly as you're under; you don't fret, as your fingers curl around a small shell.
"__________!" Rey is standing before you, her head above the water, hair dry. "You were under so long, I worried –,"
Your fingers surface through the water, and clasped in them, you show her the shell you had found. "It's pretty," you say. She looks at you strangely, and you add, "I didn't mean to frighten you," your voice is smaller, "I thought you would like it."
The shell in your hands is small, but in that, it is wonderous. It is shaped like a full moon, and the colour of the silk of spiders from your home world. Yet, in the sunlight that slowly fades away to cause afternoon to become evening, the pale silver shell has a sheen akin to the spectrum, and the rainbow shines upon the both of your bare collarbones.
"It's beautiful," Rey breathes.
You look from the shell, to her. There is a sheen of sweat from training upon her brow, behind her ears, where her hair is long enough to reach the water, to float around her like a brunette halo. Her eyes, brown, kind, caring look at the shell, her fingers touching the favour gently, carefully. You're close enough to feel her breath against your skin, close enough to see the details of every scar upon her shoulders, every line upon her lips.
"So are you," you tell her.
Her gaze meets yours. There is nothing bad in her eyes, no revulsion, no fear. All you see is a young woman, the same age as you, a young woman seeing another for seemingly the first time, taking her in for who her soul is, for who she is inside.
"__________..." she whispers, but her words are lost to the wind, gone.
You shake your head, "I am Princess __________, of the Teicarro system, heir to the crown of Rahiri, destined to rule Aemia and strike fear into the hearts of my enemies," you declare softly, "If you are afraid of what future we have to live, then live for it now," you tell her. "They took your life from you...don't let your fear take love from you also."
She says nothing. Her actions do. Beneath the water, her arms stir, one moving to rest upon your shoulder, hand drooping over your back, the other, cradling your jaw, your cheek. Time is an illusion, a false medium, yet, at once, it is all there is, all there ever will be, and it moves slowly as she brings her forehead against yours. You close your eyes, and it all freezes – the war, the polarity, the desolation – except for the distance between your lips and hers.
There is no distance. Just two women, standing in the waters of Ahch-To, connected by the Force, by the bond of hardship, their lips.
When morning comes, the twin moons settling into the horizon to accommodate the sun, your lips still are alive, tingling with the memory of yesterday. Your time away from your duties as princess of your home planet has made you reckless, has made you gluttonous for touch, for something more than what you were supposed to be. You were always to be __________, even as a baby. There was always words or actions fed to you like a bad potion, and even now, as a woman of only twenty years, you rebelled in all you could.
Instead of hiding away on Ahch-To like a scared little child, you forced the hand of your monitor, and had him train you to become as great a student as his Padawan.
Instead of waiting for the imminent marriage that would be forced upon you once the endgame had been played out, you sought love.
Instead of being what they wanted, you were what you needed.
The sun is up, and where you sleep, its presence is made known by the golden warmth that fills the room. It is not a room, as such, as a sort of hideaway from the elements; sealed by clay and willpower, it is a cave kept as the living quarters for yourself, and Rey. She is still asleep, limbs askew as sleep continues to keep a hold on her.
But it is not the sun that woke you. You see your teacher, Master Skywalker. His beard is flecked with grey, hair wild. He must have spent the night meditating in the open ocean air. His gaze is upon you, and Rey.
"Rouse her," he says, a wind brushing his cloak around his legs, "I have felt a disturbance in the Force."
By the time you have both risen, and made it to the pinnacle of the island, your thoughts are wild. You were never trying to be a perfect Jedi, just a master of your fate. You heard tales that Jedi could not love another, promised to a life of solitude and chastity, and yet, within the last day, you have broken that vow. Yet, you never vowed a thing when you came to Master Luke; just to learn. He is sitting, and hearing you both, gestures with closed eyes to join him upon the ground.
"What have you heard?" Rey asks.
You do not speak. You do not know what the disturbance is, and if you could, would prefer to not know. You had been by his side the last time Master Luke had had a vision through the Force, and the events which led to the legendary pilot Han Solo falling in battle happened.
"It will be soon," he says, eyes still closed. "We need to be ready." You agree with him, but before you can verbalise this, he adds, "I see you too are bonded...war is not to be taken lightly; it is good to have someone by your side to care for."
You glance to Rey, she to you. Wordlessly, you reach a hand to hers, and interlock your fingers together, threading the bond your Master spoke of together. Sealed. "Thank you, Master Skywalker."
He smiles, eyes opening. "The future will become today, soon. I am glad you two have established this tie now...before the opportunity has passed."
That night, your hands are joined to Rey's as you lay upon the sheets. Everything is still fresh in your mind, and in the warm evening air, with the moons rising over the horizon, you cannot find it in you to close your eyes, to sleep.
Perhaps it was because the girl of your dreams was not there, but laying before you.
"Are you afraid of your destiny?" she asks you.
You consider this, your fingers warm against hers. Are you? Were you ever? It was always there, like the shadow that followed your every daylight footfall. It was like another limb, and when the day came that it was fulfilled, you were sure that some part of you, however small, would miss it.
"I don't suppose so," you whisper back. "Not if I have you by my side."
The daylight is fading, yet, you see a smile consume her face, loving, soft. "Always."