So wholesome

Ahh, you have to continue. It's getting serious now!

This is good so far. Took me a while to read each chapter. I kept breaking out in tears, and I rarely cry. Actually its difficult fo r me to cry even when i'm sad. and here I am balling. So emotional. Keep it up.

this is great so far! will you continue?

I love this story! Please continue!

i dont think rey should feel guilty at all for her feelings. i hate to be cold or disrespectful, but its been years. its ok for her to move on. i get the thing about sam being a little strange but really its not something thats important to me. reylo is the name of the game here.

THIS IS SO SWEET! Honestly, this gives me fucking life.

Warm feedback: Again, super super sweet. I love Damrey and Reylo alike so the set up for this is great.

I love Ben; he's just slightly awkward in the best of ways. Because he knew about Rey and Sam, it was easy to imagine that instant fondness he felt for them when he realized who they were. He has promises that he intends to keep and the fact that he has feelings for her makes him all the more determined to so. It's a wonderful process to see. And though we see little of his relationship with the kids in his classroom, what we do see is great and it's so fun to imagine the antics he gets up to with them. He strikes me as the kind of teacher who will see kids who's parents will dress immaculately and pretentiously and deliberately try to plan as many messy projects as he can.

Rey has been written as the perfect mother, given her circumstances. She holds herself together to the best of her ability for Sam. I think that with Ben entering her life as he has, and know knowing that he served with her late husband will help her immensely. He understands exactly what she's gone through more than anyone else could even try. Following the next chapter, I'm looking forward to seeing how the family dynamic changes because for all intents and purposes, Ben is a new piece to their family so there will be some adjusting for them to go through.

Moving away from the characters, I love that you're paying homage to our military. Not only is it a great acknowledgement towards Adam Driver's own armed service and his work succeeding it, but it warms my heart personally as well. My grandfather was a marine during WWII and my brother is a Navel Officer. I can't imagine what it was like for Rey to have gotten that letter telling her Poe had died in service.

Cool feedback: Pace is a little fast, but I can role with that easily; not everyone is a slow burn kind of person, just be careful. While it's perfectly okay to move quickly, there are certain scenes that could have been drawn out just slightly because every once in a while, the shift of emotions can be feel very sudden.

There was a single, short passage in an earlier chapter that was from Sam's point of view, about the picture he was going to give to Ben, that confused me. The story doesn't tell almost anything about him, other than that he's bright and has a great admiration for his father. That single passage, in addition to knowing that he talks to Poe and supposedly hears him back, made me feel like I should know more than I do. He has a maturity and observance that puts me off because there hasn't been a time, so far, where we see what he's thinking. We just see him do or say weird things.

This is a great story and I hope you update soon.

Heartbreaking chapter but you did it so well. Excellent job!

Woooo, you're back! Always a very pleasant surprise.

I'm glad we got to hear exactly how Poe died. It gave Rey's character some closure. Though it did seem like you brushed over Rey's thoughts on how he died. Losing a loved one is huge; not "it needs its own chapter" huge, but a big enough deal to warrant a couple of extra sentences. Like having her take a few moments of silence, maybe have her sit down with Ben holding her hand or something. Just a few extra moments between Ben ending his story and Rey realizing what it was that Poe wanted for her. Without it, it her actions seem emotionally compromised and not genuine, even though we know that's not the case.

Other than that, this was a very meaningful chapter. As I said earlier, it provides closure and makes it easier to accept the transition from one relationship to another.

I'm glad you got your muse back, however temporarily its return may be. I always look forward to reading this story.

Before anything else, where did olive juice come from? If it's something you just came up with, that's really cute, but if there's a story, I need to hear it xD.

Since Sam is going to be away for the evening, I'm excited to see what happens with Rey and Ben. Now that she knows for sure that Ben knew Poe before he died, she'll have questions and I'm curious as to how the emotions will run through that conversation. The situation presents itself as a setback in their relationship at the moment, but it'll no doubt ultimately bring them together in a uniquely touching and special way.

You're actually doing a good job with the pacing; even though I make comments about the pacing throughout the story, when you put it all together it makes perfect sense. The push and pull of Rey's feelings is intriguing while aslo a bit tragic, especially when combined with Ben's emotional investment in her. Ben doesn't know about her emotional conflict, only that she grieved

Cute as always, but this is the second time I've been thrown off a bit by Sam (the first being the sort of random single line from his point of view in the second chapter). I understand that he's definitely a mature and intuitive five year old and your previous explanation for his behavior made sense, however I'm having trouble picking that up in-story. A chapter that spells out the years Rey spent raising Sam and how he and their relationship developed or a chapter from Sam's point of view might be very helpful, though for the latter, getting into the headspace of a child might be difficult. It's just that without that context of understanding how Sam thinks being written in the story, it's difficult to see his behavior as normal for his age. Sometimes it feels like he's ten, what with his matchmaking attempts O_o.

You've also sped things up a bit again on the romance front. Rey going for a kiss from Ben was unexpected to say the least, especially since the emotional conflict was so strong in the last chapter (and front the beginning actually). I was totally expecting Ben to need to work for her affection due to that and the fact that he's still not telling her he knew Poe. To be fair though, you did say that you're still trying to find you're pacing for this because you didn't want this to be terribly long.

Again, cute as always and considering this is you're typically a smut after and that this is your first slow burn, it's coming along exceptionally well and is very enjoyable. In all honesty, this fic is one of the ones I look forward to seeing updated the most.

I wish I could say that this chapter made me fell all fuzzy and warm inside, but it really jus made me cry. Though in all honesty, I think most of the flashbacks will make me emotional for a while, at least. Hopefully we'll get to see more of them. I really want to watch how Rey and Poe me and fell in love. It would fold well into watching her as she struggles to accept a potential new relationship with Ben. It also bring a me back to love language; in addition to Rey still struggling with her loss of Poe, he and Ben are obviously different people who speak different languages, so even if the conflict is dealt with, there might still be some emotion struggles for both of them. Though Ben, being a teacher, may already have some idea of how read love languages, even if he doesn't know what that is.

You did a great job using the flashback to pull back from jumping into romance too quickly. It was creative and smooth and it showed off another layer to Rey's personality. The part of her that is neither mother nor mourner, but lover. I look forward to seeing the other layers come through and how they differ from Poe to Ben with time.

Also, I showed this fic to a friend of mine tonight (he's a preschool teacher) and he wanted me to tell you that he absolutely loves how you wrote Ben and his interactions with Sam so far. His only major concern was that he thought Ben going to their house and staying for dinner was inappropriate on his part since Rey doesn't know him very well. He said the best way to facilitate a relationship like this would be to find completely non-school related to bring them together. If he didn't know any better, he said he would have taken it as a sign that Ben was interested in Sam.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas, or a happy holiday! This truly made my Christmas weekend. You're a gem, Cora.

Oh no! I'm sorry your muse went away. This is a really good story. Not many people are into multi shipping, but it makes for such a great storyline. Especially here.

Sam is really cute, although I kinda wish there was more of him. Except I'm really concerned by him saying that Poe told him to do stuff because something so specific coming from a little kid would sound so scary to a mom. I would think he were schizophrenic or something if I were Rey.

I don't think Rey should feel conflicted over moving on. But she's also probably trying to honor Poe as much as she can and maybe moving on feels like betrayal in her mind, idk.

I hope there will be flashbacks. I really want to see what the romance between Poe and Rey was like and what going through the pregnancy was like for Rey.

Hmmm... I've been thinking, are you going to switch Sam's class at some point or will you be dragging this out last the school year? At least my district, kids can't be in a class that's taught by their parent/stepparent due to conflict of interest, although I don't remember how it works before marriage. And again, unless its different from district to district, the meet and greet at the beginning of the year is usually called Back to School Night.

Now, I don't know what kind of feedback you want (positive or negative), so I'll just give you everything. I don't think it's wrong for her to be conflicted, somce everyone greives differently and for varied lengths of time. But it does feel bit too soon to have her feelings for Ben to be so strong when she only just met him. If you toned it down just a bit, just to the point of her barely acknowledging the draw and the attraction, it would be perfect. We, as readers, barely know the characters in the context of this story, so you can't jump into emotional conflict real fast, or it may take away from the characters rather than add to them.

And on a similar note, we also don't know Sam. You mentioned that the reason for Ben's importance on their lives makes him happy, but why? I assume he was told many a story about Poe in his short life - looking at how much he admires him - and I can't see a child that's that proud of their father to be very keen on someone else taking on that role, especially since Sam seems to be able to communicate with him and would therefore be even more attached. Even if Poe's telling him it's what needs to happen, Sam's all of five (mature five, but still five), and five year olds tend to lead by emotion.

All that said, I'm excited to read more. We're only two chapters in, so there's obviously a whole lot I could be missing. Like how Sam is able to communicate with Poe in the first place. That threw me for a loop, but I'm willing to wait it out since there's still things to be revealed.

I will say that there are parts where I'm confused, but in like a really good way. Like I feel l'm meant to be confused, because in those moments, Rey is also kind of confused, so o feel like I'm taking this journey with her.

Ben is perfect. I don't know, there's just rarely anything I have to say about him, though that could be in part because I know exactly why he's so invested in Rey, beyond just being attracted. And all their conversations are perfect; this has some of the best dialogue I've ever seen in a reylo story and that goes all around, not just between Rey and Ben.

P.S. Have you read The 5 Love Languages? If so, I really want to hear your thoughts in relation to this story, and if not, I'd still love to talk about it!

I hope you're having a great holiday season!

Hi Cora, this is so adorable! Your writing is always great. This first chapter is so sweet. But I know you're going to give me some painful Damerey. Looking forward to the angst and love coming my way.