After another troubled night, they decided to start the search for a suitable cave together. The storm had continued to shake violently on the sides of the hut during the darkness, and the rain was constantly clapping against the windows, and both - Rey and Ben - were all too aware of each other's presence, this had made falling asleep barely possible.
Towards morning, the storm finally subsided and it didn't rain any more. But the temperatures had dropped sensitive. Ben therefore exchanged the selected leather jacket for another fur-trimmed jacket from the fund. "You should also adjust your clothes to the new temperatures," he said, glancing at Rey's functional, but not warming clothes, "we may be traveling a long time today and you might be overcooling."
Rey was surprised that he had even thought about her well-being. Since he had talked about the tasks to be tackled the night before, he had ignored her. She had actually been tempted to penetrate in his mind to find out why he was so retiring. But then she wouldn't have been better than him and done exactly what Rey had asked him not to do to her before. So she confined herself to ignoring, which of course was impossible.
'He's probably just afraid he might die, because I could fall dead because of a cold.' She thought frustrated. However, she had to secretly agree with him about the temperature outside the hut. So she went to the pile of clothes and looked for something warm, which at least somewhat matched her size. However, most of the clothes were just huge compared to her petite body. Because of their quick departure she hadn't been looking for clothes for any occasion, and the ship standard equipment was apparently meant for tall men. She sighed softly in frustration.
"How can you be so tiny?" Ben interrupted her attempts at dressing with his deep voice and with an imperceptible smile on his face. She hadn't noticed that he had stopped moving and had begun to observe her looking for a jacket. She got a little embarrassed and blushed. It was not easy to interpret his expression. Was he making fun of her? Was he amused? Rey let out a frustrated breath and looked grudgingly: "It's not my fault, that the transporter equipment seems to be just for giants ..."
Ben came up to her, grabbed a dark blue fur-lined jacket with a purposeful look, and said, "Put it on, you can wear it like a coat if you put your belt over it." She looked at him doubtfully, then slipped into the huge jacket that reached to her knees, removed the belt of her tunic and tied it over the jacket, around her waist. However, the sleeves of the jacket towered far beyond her hands, which looked pretty silly.
She looked up at Ben with a raised eyebrow and waving giant sleeves. When their eyes met, the comedy of the situation was simply unbearable and both had to laugh. "Come here, I'll beat 'em around you, so you have your hands free." He began to pluck at her sleeves, still a relaxed smile on his face.
'How young and gracious he looks when he smiles,' she thought fascinated. She also enjoyed the fact that he cared about her well-being, even though he probably did so for practical reasons. It was nice that someone was interested and made sure she was fine. No one on Jakku had been interested in whether she was alive or dead. She had her first experience of caring after meeting Finn. That was a vanishingly short span of her life so far.
And now just Ben - do not forget, he is / was also Kylo Ren! she told herself - worrying about her condition was even more confusing, but also a beautiful feeling. However, the moment was over quickly when he finished his work. "That's the way it should be," he muttered, turning to examine his equipment.
Ben quickly turned away from Rey to re-discipline his feelings. Her sight in this oversized jacket, which almost completely covered her delicate figure, but made it even more attractive, confused him more than he wanted to admit to himself. In addition, this shared short moment of laughter, because of her too-large sleeves, had touched him directly at a place of his soul that he thought was already lifeless for a long time.
He began to relax too much and trust her, also he starts wanting to protect her, this was dangerous. He could not let her influence or manipulate him! He had to pull himself together, damn it! He straightened his shoulders, his usual opaque expression on his face, and turned to hers. "All right, let's go."
They left the hut and turned towards the rising ridges. The soil was rocky and humid in the earthy places due to the previous rains. The wind had abated but was still there and icy cold.
Rey quickly got used to the initially unfamiliar additional layer of clothing and was glad after a while to wear it. She was able to move very well and freely, thanks to the belt, and was even happy about the physical effort. She'd worked almost every day in the past to her physical limit and sometimes beyond, so she had no trouble keeping up with Ben, although the pace was fast.
The surface became steadily rockier the higher they went up the mountain. The vegetation became barren, the soil less moist and firm. They walked silently for some time. Rey had decided to follow Ben because she didn't know the planet at all, and to trust that his memory would guide him accordingly.
Both watched closely around their surroundings to avoid overlooking rocky outcrops or half-hidden columns or entrances in the rock. The cold also increased with each ascent. But as they were in constant motion, they didn't care.
Then Ben stopped so suddenly that Rey almost ran into him. She swayed briefly to keep her balance as he turned to face her quickly and with frustrated expression in his dark brown eyes.
"What's going on, why did you stop?" she asked him.
"We can not get on like that, so far we have not discovered anything and the day is progressing very fast, I also tried with the help of the force to detect traces of water or changes in the rock, did you do that too?" he looked at her questioningly.
"I'm not sure," she replied sincerely, "I do not usually call the force on purpose, it intervenes when I really need it, yes, that roughly explains how it works with my communication in the force. So far, I've only used the force once consciously when I removed the stones from the cave on Crait, but that also worked directly. "
"Interesting," now he looked at her like a research object to be discovered, "we should try something, we should try to use our force together, it would be exciting to see if we have more success with the search, or if it does not work. "
Rey looked nervously at Ben, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" He shrugged. "We will not find out if we do not just do it." She thought about it for a moment. He was impulsive in his decisions and to be honest, very much like his father. She did not say that out loud, so as not to upset him, but merely nodded and replied, "You're right. Let's try it."
Both put down their supply rucksacks and face each other. This time, Rey just had to raise her head slightly to see in Ben's eyes as she stood a little bit raised on a larger stone.
She took a deep breath and then reached forwards with both hands. He looked at her amused. "Do you think we need to touch each other to share the force?" Rey blushed but did not embarrass herself, saying, "So far, the reactions and our visions have been strongest when we've touched each other, so I think it's the most sensible thing to do if we try."
She fixed his dark eyes defiantly, unwilling to show fear or weakness towards him. He stared back and replied, "That sounds reasonable." And rather than she could take another breath, he cupped her upturned palms with his so that they virtually disappeared in his much larger hands.
The moment of contact was like a small electric shock. As both had openly and unconditionally made the connection, their thoughts and powers immediately flowed back and forth between them. Rey sank into the dark pools of Ben's eyes as he in hers and everything around them came to a halt, as the energy raged inside them.
Ben tried to concentrate, though the connection to Rey threatened to bring all his discipline to collapse. Too powerful was the effect on his overly human senses and desires. It required him to gain the upper hand in this connection, to secure the leadership. But these strategies did not work and did not allow a common expansion of their force.
Rey struggled against him, as her powers instinctively sensed his motives. So he pulled himself together, holding back, seeking the compromise. And immediately her two energies joined together and he had the feeling on the spot to feel the entire mountain. Every stone, every rock, every irregularity. He said with some effort: "There, a few hundred meters east of here, can you feel it? There seems to be a big crack in the rock and there is open space behind it!"
Rey could only stare further into Ben's eyes, but otherwise could no longer move. She also felt the cave, but was unable to process the strong connection as well as Ben. She began to shake uncontrollably and tried to get her hands out of his, but she did not succeed at first. Her eyes started to flutter.
Ben did not notice Rey's overexertion until the uncontrollable trembling began. He withdrew from the observation of the terrain by their two minds and tried to break the connection. Her both hands, however, could not be solved. When Rey threatened to tip over, Ben brought down his entire group division and managed to break the connection with a jerk. Rey fell over in front and he had to catch her in his arms so she would not bump into the ground.
Startled, he held the unconscious Rey in his arms and stared at her pale face. He had gone too far, used their energy too ruthlessly. She was not yet fully trained to endure all these energy spurts.
He shook her lightly and addressed her: "Rey, come back to you!" Now it was up to him to feel that deep fear of a serious injury, the way Rey had felt when she had found him seriously injured. He took her in his arms as he had once done, long ago, and hurried to the discovered cave.
It had started to snow a bit at this altitude and he did not want Rey to be endangered by hypothermia. He looked down at her even face, tightened his grip on her limp body and quickened his pace...