author's note:

For thevagabondthoughts who has been kept waiting on this prompt for literally 10,000 years. Literally. The earth was a lot cooler and less crowded when she prompted me with an Arabian Nights esque AU.

Rey's new husband had told her the guards were there to protect her. She didn't believe him for a second.

No, the escort of heavily armed and supernaturally inclined guards that shadowed her every step through the palace were there for one purpose and one alone: to keep her from running away.

Five hours. That's how long it had been. They had been married for less than five hours, and now she was already her husband's prisoner. This was worse than she had been bracing herself for.

Their ceremony had been gaudy. Tactless and appalling in its grandeur. Rey hadn't wanted to be there. Hadn't wanted to marry at all, let alone be married to him.

Her family had needed her to do this, though. Marrying the Crown Prince of Alderaan would secure their collapsing future. They had all come to the wedding. Her uncle, her friends, and a slew of cousins both near,distant, and presumed but not proven to even be truly related to her. They had all been in attendance for the momentous occasion of watching her marry a prince when she would rather be out in the desert wastes picking through wreckage.

Her new husbands wives had also been there.

That had been the final straw. That's when it had crossed the line from 'I'll do it because I have to' all the way to 'I hate you and I'll never forgive you for this'. Rey had known that the Prince had been married before, but there were dozens of them. Every look they gave her on her way down the aisle was a calculated smile covering up focused malice.

Maybe the guards had really been there for her protection after all?

"This way, m'lady."

It was the first time the guards had spoken, despite Rey's first initial attempts to coax them into smalltalk. If she could make them like her… maybe they would let her go. Maybe they would let her run away. Or maybe at least they would give her a longer leash to hang herself on.

Rey picks up the pace again, following them when it's clear that escape will have to take another way. The halls of the Alderaan High Palace were vast. A seemingly endless network of twists and turns. Easy to get lost in. Easy to hide in.

It offered her possibilities.

"Are we close?" she asks, hugging herself.

Rey pulls her dressing gown tighter as the cold starts to seep in through the layers of silk. She wasn't wearing much under it. The attendants hadn't let her wear much. All the better to present herself as a present bought and wrapped tonight.

The head guard, the one that had spoken all of three words to her, nods. Speaks no fourth.

At least none of the harpy eyed sister wives were around to enhance her misery as she's escorted in monotonous silence.

Their wedding ceremony had ended abruptly and on a sour note for both the newlyweds. To any of the multitude of onlookers, they had kissed behind the shield of her veil and formally sealed her fate. Only she and her 'husband' knew the truth that she had turned her head at the last moment. Let him kiss her painted cheek rather than her lips.

He'd pulled away and the look in his eyes had told her he wasn't happy. Pity.

"To the right, m'lady."

They had reached a crossroads in an open courtyard. High above Rey's head shines the moon and stars, and the paths under her feet is smooth white brick cutting a line through plumes of flowers. Their heady scent hangs low in the air, making for a pleasant break from the dark bleakness of the earlier halls.

Should Rey survive the night without murdering her husband and condemning herself to a life on the run, she would like to come back here.

The next part of the palace is different. It skips the cold austerity of the earlier halls and replaces it was something more intimate. The walls are lined with velvet. Velvet. Rey has never seen something so decadent and she can't resist running her hand across it as they walk. It's both cool and soft against her fingers. Welcoming and-

Rey pulls away as a warmth rises to her cheeks. If her impeccably trained guards take notice, they hide it well.

There are voices here too. Women's voices that echo with laughter or low, hushed tones of talk. Rey listens as they walk, trying to catch even an edge of a conversation.

Her name. The new wife. That lowland trash picker.

Rey's cheeks begin to burn for a whole new reason. Her heritage was a sore spot for everyone except for herself. And, seemingly, for her husband. Kylo had picked her out personally. He had taken a shine to her right away, literal desire at first sight. Out of all the young women she had been presented with, all decked out and lined up waiting with breathless hope or bitter don't you dare, he had just had to choose her.

Right now, if she hadn't just gotten wedded, she would be out in the desert picking through trash. Her skin would be chapped by wind, her fingers numb from the cold and sharp edges, and she would be free.

The women's voices rise higher. Another bend in the hallway and Rey can see deep red light spilling out from an open door. As the guards bring her past she pauses and they stop with her.

Inside is… is a place like none she's ever seen before. The room is dimly lit but altogether inviting. Incense hangs in the air, its smoke reflecting off the fire and the tinted lanterns. Soft music plays and oh, that's where the other wives have gone to.

Curiosity bites at Rey's heels and she takes a step closer, craning her neck to see in. The guards stay rigid in place, each of them having their head dropped and gazing at the floor between their feet. Truly well trained indeed.

Another step, and Rey can see around the corner pillar. She bites back a gasp. Many, not all, but many of the women are naked or nearly so. Some are decked in jewels with nothing else. Other are wearing simple dresses even more sheer than the one Rey has on herself under her robe.

But it's not the romping nudity that surprises her, it's the activities they're indulging in. Two men, both dressed like very high ranking Alderaan nobility, are seated along a plush couch that runs the full length of the far wall. They are surrounded by the wives and being… touched by them. One has her head in the man's lap and his hand is tangled in her hair. The other has her back to Rey but there is an unmistakable sort of movement to her body and-

A blonde woman, tall and voluptuous and wearing nothing but a glittering necklace that cascades down her ample chest, steps of from the sidelines and blocks Rey's view. She smiles at her, but there is absolutely nothing warm or welcoming to the expression. Predatory, almost. She closes the door in Rey's face, leaving her in the quiet dimness of the hallways once more.

She hadn't seen her new husband in there. At least there was that. Otherwise Rey isn't sure what she would have done but it would have been very poorly thought out.

But he shares his wives with other men? Rey hadn't been expecting that. Would that be her fate as well then?

Her husband, it seemed, was a filthy, greedy pig. She hated him and she didn't want to lay with him tonight.

Tough.

No one cares about that.

"Let's go," she whispers.

The guards move again, bringing her to a bedroom door far closer to the entrance to the harem than she would have preferred.

Then they leave her, departing once she has been safely tucked inside her new bedroom. The sound of the door locking behind her before silence is quite possibly the worst noise Rey has ever heard in her life.

Her heart starts to pound in her ears as she takes in the conditions of her new cage. It's a beautiful and opulent room, of course, but the windows have bars over them. So her husband may be cruel, but he wasn't an idiot. He knew she wanted to fly, fly away. Rey had really rather hoped he was an idiot. It would have made things so much easier.

There's nothing of her here. Nothing that she likes or wants. The shelves are covered with musical instruments or cosmetics or paints and paper. Activities for those with a vapid mind and better manners than she ever learned.

And there's a single rose laying on the pillow of the bed, it's bright pink petals contrasting strangely with the heavy black brocade of the sheets. No message, no sign, just a gift from her new husband.

Rey can't bring herself to crush it like she wants to. It was pretty. Had she found it in her old life, she would have kept it. For that reason alone she consigns it into a drawer where she won't have to look at it as it fades Now all that is left is to pace and wait for her husband to return.

Somehow she's sure he won't keep her waiting for long.

"I will not be one of your painted whores. If that's all you see in me, then send me away now and let's end this charade."

Kylo's face remains the same portrait of cold detachment, but Rey can feel a shift in the air between them. This apparently was not the wedding night conversation he had in mind.

"You have too much malice for a newlywed, my dear Rey. I take it our wedding was not to your liking?"

Rey crosses her arms over her chest. Despite the heavy fabric of her dressing gown and the fire in the corner, all Rey can feel is the iciness between them.

Everything about her husband infuriates her. From the way he came into her bedroom without even a knock to how he had disregarded each of her insults to his character. The encounter with the other wives, brief and mute though it was, had left a bitter taste in her mouth that had made it all too easy for her to say what she really thought of him.

"You're selfish, you're lecherous, and you're greedy," she spits. "No woman should have to endure a husband such as you."

Kylo tips his head and nods. He circles her slowly and Rey squeezes her hands into tight fists to keep herself from cringing when he reaches out.

"What else?"

His hand is warm on her shoulder, though. He tries to turn her to face him and she holds her ground, staring rigidly ahead.

"What else?" she raises an eyebrow but pulls her chin free of his hand. "Do you really want me to list all of your flaws, husband? If you were expecting anything else, perhaps you should go to one of them tonight and leave me in peace."

Kylo pulls away then. She stares at him from the corner of her eyes, her scowl deepening begins to pace back and forth.

"Oh is that what this is about, wife? You're jealous of the others already?"

Rey chokes on her next breath. She spins to glare at him, feeling her temper rapidly spiraling out of hand.

"Jealous? How could I poss- what would I have to be jealous of? Your kennel of well groomed playthings have nothing that I could ever possibly want. "

Something occurs to her then, as she watches her husband pace with a barely contained show of annoyance. Kylo's father had not been king, but he was infamously known. Regarded by many as both a hero and a vagabond, while it had been her husband's mother who had achieved the greatest fame and support of her people.

"How many wives did your father have?" Rey asks, changing direction. "As many or maybe even more as you, I would wager."

Kylo swallows. Rey watches the swell of his throat bob up and down. For a fleeting moment, she thinks she sees more in him. That there's someone deeper in there behind his cold mask.

"Just the one," he finally says, "my mother. They loved each other, but their relationship was difficult. Sometimes I wonder if they weren't… if things could have gone differently.

He turns to her then, closing the distance between them until Rey has to crane her neck up to meet his eyes.

"Do you know why I chose you, Rey?" he asks. "Why I picked you out of the hundreds of other women my kingdom presented to me?"

Rey narrows her eyes. Glares at the moon peaking through the bars in the window. Just a week ago she could have felt the light on her skin during one of her nighttime scavenges.

"I suppose it was because I caught your lustful eye, wasn't it?" she argues back. "Perhaps you wanted a new toy in my color, or maybe you simply could tell I despised you and you wanted the challenge."

Truth be told, Rey has no idea why she was chosen. There had been so many other girls who could have better suited his needs, though she doubts the last of her accusations. He seems to be genuinely perturbed by her dismissal of him.

"No, Rey, my wife." His hand falls on her shoulder and bounces with her as she tries to shrug him off. "It was because I saw you the day before you were presented to me. You were out there in the open desert, leaping from one towering pile of wreckage to another without even a flicker of hesitation or fear. You were brave. You were beyond brave. And you were very beautiful."

He narrates his story with a sweep of his open palm through the air almost as if he's trying to make a shadow reenactment.

Rey frowns, noticing that he's leaning closer and closer to her space.

"What about it?" she says. "That is my life. That's what I had to do to survive and help my family."

His hand drops. It falls close to her own but doesn't touch.

"I had watched you as you disappeared into the distance, and immediately I sensed a connection. That's why I had you brought to me. I'd asked in the village for more about you, and it was your uncle himself who told me all I needed to know. He showed me that you were both brave, and loyal, and very clever. These were three things that I have come to highly prize in a wife."

Any mention of his other wives flashes her mind back to the ease of anger.

"How many of the rest of them are like that?" she says, hastily backing away again. "How many more will you need after me?"

Kylo smiles. It's the first time she has seen him smile. He certainly wasn't smiling during their wedding. In fact, he had been rather dour and somber throughout the whole spectacle affair.

"Do you not think we are the same, Rey? Because I see you as my balance, despite our differences. Why can't you extend the same courtesy to me, when you only know my reputation and not my truth?"

Loathe as she is to admit any weakness to her husband, his words confound her. What value could any of that nonsense he just spouted have to him?

"I don't understand," Rey says with reluctance.

Kylo husband leans closer. Close enough that Rey can smell him. Perhaps it just because she's used to the stink of sweaty flesh laboring in the sun, but in contrast he smells quite… not unpleasant.

"That was why I chose you, Rey. I chose you because, even from that distance as you leaped from one level of the ship to another, I could see the fire in your eyes. I knew you were different. And then, when you were presented to me, you were the only one that met my gaze with anything other than need. A need for my money, a need for the security of position. No, you looked at me with a challenge. Daring me to risk choosing you."

Something twists inside Rey's chest. For a second she forgets how to breathe, then she exhales in a short snort of indignation.

"So that's it, then? I'm a challenge? That's why I was chosen? So you would have the thrill of breaking me?"

Kylo reaches out to stroke her cheek and she slaps his hand away without thinking about it. Then she gulps and freezes. Striking a prince, even if he's her husband, might be considered grounds for a rather drastic punishment.

"There it is, Rey," he says lowly, his gaze darting from her eyes to her lips then back. "There's that same look you gave me when I tried to kiss you during our ceremony. Truly you will make a fine wife."

He steps back then and, to her infinite annoyance, strides over to her bed and flops down on it, spreading himself out with an exaggerated sigh of great comfort.

"An equal?" she says. "No. You lie. No man who has dozens of wives is seeking an equal, he's simply seeking a stroke to his ego. Now get off my bed, your boots are getting dirt on the sheets."

She grabs his ankle and tugs. He flops his foot from side to side, then cross one ankle over the other.

"Sit with me," he says, reaching out and catching her wrist.

"No!"

She tries to pull away. He holds tighter. Waits until she really starts to struggle to tug her off balance and yank her down to the mattress next to him.

Then he lets her go and it would be an unacceptable show of weakness to sprint away now. No, she can't show him that he bothers her at all. She has so little power here that the least she can do is hold onto her indifference.

"You're an arrogant pig," she snaps.

"And you're a lowly garbage picker who doesn't realize yet that I only seek an equal, not a conquest."

"Do you really have such a low opinion of me?" he asks, voice quite causal despite the nature of his question. "I'm sure you shall correct me if I'm wrong, but I see nothing that I've done to foster such contempt."

Rey tries to recoil but his hand on her wrist holds her tight.

"You've taken me away from my family!" she nearly shouts. "From the people who actually cared about me! You will keep me here in a gilded cage even though you know this is nothing that I want!"

His hand lets her wrist go then. She pulls it close to her chest, rubbing her skin to scrub off the feeling of his touch.

"Wrong."

His tone is clipped, and his eyes are tired.

"No."

"You are, Rey. Very wrong. I have saved both you and your family. Through our marriage they will have safety and security and you will have a break from the life that has made you so bitter."

Indignation swells up in her. She moves to stand and he sits up, resting his palm on the inside of her thigh.

"You are afraid, Rey. I can see it and don't deny it. Maybe you think you are above me, then? Is that it? That we are not equals at all, because I'm too low for you now?"

He is doing nothing but resting against her, two layers of fabric separating her from the contact, but her face blooms into a deep blush despite herself.

"Or perhaps that's not it," his hand moves an inch higher, stopping when she catches it in her palm. "Perhaps you're afraid you won't be able to please me? Could that be why you take such exception to your new sisters?"

Oh- Now that-

"You are an arrogant pig!" she snaps. "Do you think any of those women actually want to be with you? I can assure you that they don't'! I can assure you that every last one of them-"

"Is only here because of the money and power and prestige their title gives them?" he interrupts. "Yes, Rey, I'm quite aware of that. Some of them are less greedy than others. Some are less lecherous in the simple needs of the flesh. But they are all vacant, cruel seductresses. Is it so wrong that I finally have realized I wish to seek something more?"

Rey twists her hand, trying to pick up his fingers to draw them off her. He simply threads their fingers together, linking their hands in a gesture far more intimate then their first failed kiss as husband and wive had felt.

"I think there are things you could gain from me as well, Rey," he continues when she falls silent. "I am more than simply my family's wealth and power. I could make a generous husband to you, if you would only let me."

His thumb strokes along her knuckles. Rey wonders if he can feel the pounding of her heart through her skin.

"You're trembling," he says quietly.

Then he leans forward, his forehead resting lightly on her shoulder, and his breath fans across the narrow stripe of bared skin along the collar of her robe.

She swallows, her throat suddenly very dry.

"I am your prisoner," she manages to say.

He shakes his head, his hair rustling softly against the heavy fabric of her robe.

"No. You're free to go anytime you like."

"I heard the lock when I was put in here."

"It locks on the inside out and it is for your own protection. My other wives- some of them were not so happy to hear of your impending arrival. And I have many enemies as a gift from my heritage. I will ask you to stay in the safety of your room, but I don't require it."

His hand shifts, wrapping over her own more completely.

"I can go?" she asks quickly. "I can go tonguing? I don't have to… to lay with you, then?"

Her husband falls silent. Rey can't see his expression beyond the wall of his dark hair.

"You are different than the others," he says after a long moment of silent. "I don't want you to leave, I haven't gotten bored of you yet."

When he lifts his head up, he looks like a different man. His face is colder, his gaze shaper. His hand holds hers tightly now, keeping her where she is as she tries to pull away.

"You may go, Rey," he continues. "But know that it comes with a price. Trust me when I say joining me in bed is far less of an evil then you willingly inflicting the shame and hardships of you abandoning your role upon your family."

It's a threat. Not even a veiled one, but close to outright.

However, the moment her expression changes from mortified and confused to afraid, his soften back in turn.

"I'm sorry," he whispers. "I'm sorry I can't be the husband you want. That I can't be a sophisticated intellectual above the matters like you are. But I'm afraid, dear wife, that you are stuck with me for the next month and I think we should find a way to make the best of it until then."

She frowns and pulls on her arm. This time he lets her go and she scoots back to the edge of the bed away from him.

"A month?" she asks. "What happens in a month?"

"Then I will let you go peacefully. Without consequences, this time. You will be free to use your title as my wife and go and do as you see fit. I believe you will find it will open up many doors for you."

Suspicion rises in her and she eyes him warily. He sighs and slumps back, resting on his elbows against the mattress as he watches her.

"You're lying," she accuses. "You're tricking me."

He shakes his head.

"No, Rey. I will make a deal with here and now: you will stay with me willingly for one month. Just one month. You will treat me as a wife treats her husband and then, at the end of this, I will give you your choice to leave. But I should hope by then I may have swayed you to stay."

She stares at him in open-mouthed disbelief. Is he telling the truth? Because if he's not then he's essentially stealing her virginity away from her then casting her aside.

"darling… you're catching flies."

He reaches out to lightly tap her jaw closed and cradle her cheek. She doesn't trust the heated look in his eyes. Doesn't trust her new husband period.

"Do you promise?" she asks.

"Yes."

"Swear to me."

His eyes harden, and again he looks at her mouth before back up.

"I swear, my dear shrewish wife, that you will give me just one month of your attention and then you will free to go and be gone forever."

He offers her his other hand. Rey stares at it, feeling off balance from the sheer weight of the deal she's about to make.

"One month," she repeats, reaching out tentatively.

"One month."

Her hand touches his. It's a weak handshake at best.

"Thirty-one days," she says, pulling back immediately. "How bad could it be? I could endure anything for thirty-one days."

Abruptly, he smiles. It's an almost silly smile, one that seems completely incompatible with the deep frown lines etched into his still young face.

"Thank you for that, Rey. Exactly what every husband longs to here from his wife on their marital bed. Now close your eyes, there's something more I still want from you."

His hand waves over her face, beckoning her to obey him. Rey scowls because it seems right. Scowls to let him know that, if he's thanking about flipping her over and ravishing her right now, he'd best prepare himself for a most cold physical reception indeed.

His lips are warm on her own, though.

A kiss. A proper kiss, this time, but just a kiss and nothing more.

The bed creaks as his weight leaves it.

Rey remains motionless. Then the lock to her bedroom door clunks and her eyes pop open of their own accord.

"That's- where are you going?"

He smiles at her question.

"Goodnight, Rey. Tomorrow I will send for you. Until then, sleep well."

When he leaves the door locks behind him. Rey freezes, waiting and listening. Nothing. No trap is immediately sprung, but that doesn't mean it doesn't await her at any moment.

She walks silently to the door, a quietness to her movements that she has honed over the course of many an encounter with a desert beastie. When she turns the doorknob, she holds her breath.

It clunks. It opens.

The hallway is dark save for a few candles burning high on the walls. In the near distance is the lyrical laugh of her new sisters.

Rey closes the door again and sinking to her knees, slumping against it.

She will try to keep her promise. Try to force herself to stay for a full month. She has a feeling, though, that it won't be at all as easy as her husband had made it sound.

Author's note:

So? Off to an interesting start? This fic is going to be a very irregular update schedule, unfortunately. I'm about to head out off the grid as I often do and this time it's at my family's log cabins in rural Idaho with no phones or electricity or internet but I'm taking my solar panels and alphasmart and will type and update when I can :)

We're looking at 3-5 chapters, I think. Maybe MAYBE up to 7, but right now my outline's at 3-5 and that feels right.

And, like with my other story today, I've made an accompanying pic for for this fic on tumblr. I can't post it directly here on fanfictiondotnet but it's on my profile at lost-inthesunlight dot tumblr dot com ;)

ps. And no, the bitchy blonde woman who closed the door on Rey's face wasn't Phasma, just had to make that clear because I love Phasma! No, she's just an OC who's going to stir up drama for Rey, so insert any blonde Playboy model type you dislike to your vision of her character ;)