Note: this takes place during TLJ, pre-hand touch. The other chapters will take place post-TLJ.
Thanks to sosanguine and phoenix for being my betas for this piece. Hugs to you both!

One: Bruised

Encounters with looters and other opportunistic scavengers on Jakku had trained Rey to sleep lightly and to keep her weapon close. Even after the most grueling days and meager meals, she had never permitted herself to truly rest, let alone to indulge in much dreaming.

Since coming to Ahch-To, that had changed. While her nights weren't completely peaceful, the island afforded her the safety of obscurity; she didn't have to worry about being hunted or ambushed among the Jedi Caretakers and their cantankerous charge. With her guard lowered, painful memories that had haunted her waking hours since childhood now manifested in colorful, dreadful nightmares.

Other visions multiplied in frequency and intensity too, ones which had surfaced after the bond with Kylo Ren had been unlocked within her mind. Those dreams troubled Rey most of all for the very fact that she wasn't scared or outraged by his presence. Instead - on more than one occasion - she'd extended an open invitation for him to join her.

Another rainstorm surged against the stone walls of her shelter as Rey huddled under a coarse woven curtain she'd repurposed as a blanket. She clutched at the threads of frayed slumber as the roaring surf and pelting rain alternatively lulled her into a familiar nightmare and jolted her awake to stoke the fire she'd built to fend off the chilled, damp air.

When the sounds of the storm cut away to silence and made her ears feel like they were clogged with water, Rey's eyes snapped open. She took a quick, sharp breath as she prepared to react to any threat, even as she realized what the muffled thunder and lightning meant: he was there.

Crouched across the hut, the intruder watched her through the glowing embers of the dying fire. The red light brightened the all-black ensemble he wore and highlighted the scar along his face.

The lightsaber flew to her waiting grasp in the time it took her to blink; she barely had to think about calling it to her. Without rising, she activated the weapon like a dog baring its teeth, holding it's snarling electric beam inches from her face to deter him from coming any nearer. The blue light temporarily blinded her, but not before she saw him flinch in response to her defensive action.

That's odd, she thought, taking note of the non-threatening stance in which he had positioned himself. Other than his wince, he hadn't moved.

Despite the late hour, it didn't look as if Kylo Ren had been pulled from his own bed, making her wonder what he'd been doing before the Force connected them. She waited for him to speak, to make some comment about the nature of their bond or offer some theory as to why they'd come together now, but he remained mute.

Finally, Rey said, "Why can't we control these meetings? There has to be a way to sever the link, to turn it off."

Dark eyes traveled to her face and traced the loose hair brushing against her shoulders. His head nodded minutely in agreement. "They're becoming too. . ." he searched for the right word, "intimate."

"A nuisance," she countered, exasperation coloring her words.

He raised a gloved hand toward the fire pit. "Our bond is evolving," he observed, splaying out his fingers as though warming himself. "I see everything around you. I can feel the heat of the fire."

That revelation triggered as much concern as it did fascination. With every interaction, the connection they shared seemed to grow and change in some way, strengthening slightly. Like repairing a tear in fabric, each time they met functioned as another stitch closing the gap to bring the two sides closer together. At some point, they'd touch.

As frightening as it was to be linked with a man who had affirmed himself a monster - a collar she had thrust upon him and he'd worn without resistance - Rey had to admit that it also left her feeling. . .invigorated.

Tightening her hold on the saber, she asked, "How long have you. . .?"

"A while," he admitted, then indicated her weapon with a single finger. "Long enough to prove that isn't necessary."

He spoke an uneasy truth.

What if their bond had grown strong enough that they could harm one another tangibly? There was no way to know without putting the possibility to the test. Even if he couldn't physically attack her within the bond, he could have taken other action against her while she slept. Only a moment would have been needed to invade her mind and discover the location of Luke's hideaway island.

And yet, he hadn't.

Kylo had done nothing to instigate her fear. In fact, he'd done as much as possible to mitigate it: keeping as much distance as the space allowed, kneeling in the dirt to appear at eye-level, remaining in place even when she woke up and drew her weapon.

Rey held no doubt about his lack of nefarious intentions, although her observations of his current behavior only loaned him a sliver of her trust, something she would revoke at the slightest signal that he wasn't being honest with her.

Slowly, she released the pressure on the pad and recalled the blade of light into the cylinder. She placed it on the ground beside the stone bench she used as a bed - there if she should need it, but far away enough to communicate she was granting him a chance.

"If this happens again, don't watch me sleep," she said, propping her head in her hand.

The corners of his mouth tweaked as his eyes flicked to hers. "Concerned about what your dreams will reveal?"

His comment warranted a firmer demand: "Stay out of my head."

"There's no need for me to peer inside your mind to know what makes you claw at your covers."

Her mind raced with images, as if to swipe through and erase them from her memory before he could infiltrate her secrets. She huffed, voice full of vitriol, "Any dream involving you is a nightmare."

He shook his head, trying to dislodge the smirk that must have felt as foreign as it looked on his lips.

"What?" she asked, momentarily distracted by the sight of him, caught wondering when this man had last allowed a genuine smile to escape him.

"I never said anything about me."

Rey realized her error and tried to backpedal, sputtering, "It - it isn't what you think."

Something like amusement tickled the back of his throat.

"What?" she repeated, so infuriated by his smugness that she forgot any sense of embarrassment.

Kylo glanced up at her, humor lingering in his eyes while it disappeared from the rest of his face. "I expected a scavenger from Jakku to be a better liar."

She couldn't let the comment slide.

With a flourish, Rey tossed the makeshift blanket to the damp ground, starting to spring from her stone bed with every intention of slapping that mischievous expression from his face.

Her body had other ideas.

It screamed at her to stop, each nerve ending along her right side and spine throwing up a cry of "cease and desist." Inhaling a hiss of aggravated pain, Rey fell back to the thin bedroll. She applied firm pressure to the epicenter of the flare up - an apology to herself for forgetting the nasty fall she'd had while training that morning on the slick and rocky surface of the island. Gradually, she released the weight of her hand, letting the muscles settle and relax.

He cleared his throat quietly to regain her attention. "You're in pain."

Rey's gaze met his, surprised to see the look of understanding that she found there. No trace of mockery reflected in his eyes, nor did she feel his remark judgmental, a criticism on her display of weakness. What she saw registered as something softer: concern, perhaps empathy.

His unexpected expression threw her off-kilter. The memories she carried of Kylo Ren juxtaposed with the man crouching in front of her didn't align. This was the same person who had tried to kill her on Starkiller Base, among other atrocious actions. Now he worried for her welfare? She rebuffed the idea.

"Maybe you don't recall from your training: mistakes hurt," she ground out, carefully lifting her legs back onto the stone bench. The nerves in her side had quieted, yet a dull throbbing remained, warning her not to try anything like that again.

"I remember," he stated simply. "I also remember learning to heal myself using the Force."

Her interest piqued in spite of her notions to create distance between them. "That's possible?"

In her brief lesson with Master Skywalker, Rey had learned about the creative and destructive powers of the Force. For every action, another equal in magnitude but opposite in effect occurred. Where death tilled the soil, life planted the seed. For every joy bloomed an accompanying sadness. The universe cycled, a perfectly weighted sphere spun in perpetuum by an invisible force. It made sense that this encompassing, omnipotent power could be used to heal as well as harm.

Rey wished she had intuited that fact on her own instead of having to hear it from a rival like Kylo Ren - apprentice to the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke.

The gap in her knowledge was apparent to him too. "Skywalker hasn't even -?"

She spoke over him. "Offensive maneuvers are what matter."

Anger tinged his voice when he disagreed. "There are times even the greatest warriors need to retreat and lick their wounds." His fingers clenched into fists at his sides. "Any decent teacher would have explained that."

He inclined his head, assured of his own superiority to that of his uncle. Flickering light from the embers played over his cheeks, bouncing off the scar that stretched from his forehead to his jawline before disappearing beneath his high collar. Rey thought back to their fight in the snowy forest, visualizing his determination to keep attacking even though the bowcaster shot to his side had hindered him. He'd certainly had no plan to run away and face her wrath another day, as he suggested she learn to do.

"You should take your own advice," she told him, adding, "and I'll keep doing things my own way."

He rose yet stood in place. "Let me teach you."

Again, he offered. Again, she declined. "No."

"Why?"

"We're on opposite sides of a war."

"And, when we next see each other," he expounded, "when faced with that battle, I want you at your strongest."

She parroted his previous question. "Why?"

"Snoke believes you're my equal," he responded. "I want you to prove it."

Rey gave up on trying to parse out his motivations and put forth the underlying reason for her hesitance. "I don't trust you."

The words deflated him; he seemed to shrink on the other side of the hut, shoulders drooping and curving inward. His gaze fell to the palms of his upturned hands, staring at the shiny black leather as if he could see the stains of his transgressions anew. If he possessed any argument for his defense, convincing or otherwise, he failed to present it.

"Give me this," he intoned instead, seeming to know just how much he asked of her but begging her indulgence anyway. "Just this, Rey."

The whisper of her name crossing his lips made her reconsider. Silent moments passed between them as she debated her options: reject his proposal or allow him to show her a side of the Force she hadn't before experienced.

More than her desire to learn another aspect of the strange power dwelling within her, Rey's curiosity rested on the man who had appeared in her hut. In the face of her decision, he was no longer the man she had called a murderous snake. Pleading eyes and a somber expression implored her to choose to see the good in him, to believe his motives were pure. Could this be Ben Solo shining through the guise of Kylo Ren?

Rey exhaled deeply and lowered her head down to the bedroll. "It's only a bruise," she breathed. "There's not much to do about it."

He approached at her implied invitation. "All that huffing and puffing for a bruise?"

A rush of blood flushed to the tips of her ears. Even if the marks on her side were erased, Rey doubted his lesson would help to soothe her wounded ego. The unfamiliar terrain of the island had bested her in a humbling way. She'd never dreamed of picturing Jakku's desert environs as soft or forgiving, yet the rocky outcrops of Ahch-To had proven more ruthless and unmerciful than the sandy junkyard of the galaxy.

He stood next to her bed, hovering near her hips. His proximity unnerved her.

"Well?" she prompted.

He cleared his throat but didn't look down to meet her puzzled expression. "I need to see what I'm dealing with."

"Oh."

She wouldn't expect the Resistance's medics to treat her injuries without revealing the site in question, so she couldn't explain why she thought it would be different with Kylo using the Force to the same end.

Sudden anxiety gnawed in the pit of her stomach. She could still stop this, tell him to back off and go away. She could say she'd changed her mind and didn't want to go through with it if it meant baring herself to him in this way.

Rey refused to be deemed a coward.

Her fingers closed around the hem of the utilitarian tunic, rolling it up and pulling it toward her head until the fabric bunched in the crook of her armpit. Underneath her tunic, she was naked; she'd removed the linen she typically wore around her breasts, unable to endure the restrictive and tight garment rubbing against her damaged skin. Though her shirt still covered her breasts, she cupped the one closest to the bruise in her left hand, pulling the tissue taut so she had a better view of what he was about to do.

Kylo watched her movements, concealing whatever discomfort he may have felt over her bare skin under a stoic facade. His eyes assessed the mottled, discolored area which stretched from the top of her hip to the bottom of her rib cage. At the center, the bruise was still a deep, inflamed red; the edges had started to turn varying shades of blue, spreading like the imprint of a hand along her side.

"It's a wonder you can move at all." Admiration dripped from his voice, atonement for the teasing of his prior remark.

"Where I'm from, if you don't move, you don't eat."

He didn't comment on the unforgiving nature of her home planet, focusing on his task instead.

Kylo didn't remove his glove before skimming his hand over the expanse of her bruise, not quite touching her, tickling the fine hairs across her skin. She could feel the warmth of his body above her own, sensations neither of them expected to be able to perceive through their bond. Testing their connection even further, Kylo pressed three fingers against a dusky blue area of her bruise.

Rey drew away quickly, regretting the movement almost instantly as another series of stabs pierced along her spine. Her face contorted as she fought to hold back a string of expletives.

Kylo's hand retracted in response to her visceral reaction. His fist closed, and a shadow crossed his face. "Tell me," he began. "Is it my touch that repulses you?"

Of course he would make this about him. The hurt etched across his features stung her as well, though Rey couldn't decipher why.

Her eyes pierced him with a warning, but her response was kinder. "Gently."

Dark eyes searched hers before he asked, "May I proceed?"

At her approving nod, a single finger ghosted over her skin, tracing the rim of the bruise as if mapping it in his mind. He never ventured into the red, angry heart of her injury which throbbed in time with her pulse.

Rey grit her teeth as his inspection continued. Even though he barely applied any pressure, her body twitched with each stroke of his finger. He'd complied with her request to the letter, yet his tenderness drove her mad.

"Stop squirming," he instructed.

"Then get on with it." Rey's breath hitched when he found a particularly sensitive spot near her lower back. "You're enjoying this too much."

Her comment lifted the corners of his mouth, tugging out a small smile. It departed quickly, replaced with a confession, "I don't know if this will work."

Her body seized beneath him as she fumed. "You're telling me this now?"

"You wanted to explore the limits of our bond," he reminded her.

"I wanted to disconnect," she corrected him.

Inquisitive eyes glanced up at her. "Aren't you curious? How far we can push the boundaries of reality?"

It would be a lie to say she held no interest. Deep down, she wanted to understand as much as possible about their entangled minds.

"Yes," she allowed.

With her permission, Kylo withdrew his fingers from her body and lifted his hand just high enough to hover over the curve of her side where the damage was the most severe. Then his tone shifted, and he became a teacher delivering a lecture.

"Healing with the Force is straightforward," he began. "Injuries are disruptions. They break, mar, bruise, or otherwise harm a connection between things that are meant to be bonded together."

A white light began to emanate from his palm, spreading down his fingertips and blanketing her body in rippling waves of energy that dissipated almost as quickly as they were generated. Rey watched the process with intrigue, noting his movements and trying to connect to how he felt in order to achieve this act.

In a hushed voice, he continued, "To fix what's broken, you reach out to the Force and visualize the connections repairing themselves."

While he spoke, the splotchy red patches discoloring her skin began to grow fainter, reverting to their usual hue. Erasing the unnatural color also alleviated the discomfort she'd been fighting since her fall that morning.

"It seems simple enough," she surmised, confident that she could master this technique just as she had all the other uses of the Force to this point. "I didn't realize the dark side had this kind of power."

Kylo frowned. "Healing through the dark side is inadvisable."

"I thought -?"

"The effects are temporary," he explained. "And the cost too high."

If he wasn't using the dark side to accomplish this restoration, did that mean he had called upon the light? She waited for him to go on, to elaborate on what price must be paid to harness such power, but he remained silent, focused on spreading the white light over the entirety of her bruise.

Rey noted the dots of perspiration which beaded at his temples. "What is it costing you to do this?"

The for me stuck in her throat.

"Energy. Strength," he listed, shaking his head as if to say he could spare such things without repercussion. "And I doubt our connection will hold much longer."

She had felt it wavering too. Like the final heartbeats of the embers, he would blink out of existence and become ash - the weightless memory of something both dangerous and nurturing.

The realization should have brought her relief, knowing he'd be gone. So why did the idea of parting with him create an ache she couldn't readily name? It differed from the loneliness she'd known on Jakku, yet it sprung from the same well.

An involuntary shiver rippled across her body.

"Does it sting?" he asked, perhaps attributing her reaction to the nearness of his gloved hand to her breast as he treated the tender area on her ribs.

The quiet question was a distraction for both of them. She followed his lead and focused on the sensation the light created within her. After a moment's reflection, she shook her head.

"It feels. . .warm."

He nodded in a knowing way. "The bonds are regenerating. That process gives off heat."

"It's nice," she commented, quick to tack on, "with the fire out."

One eyebrow raised, almost imperceptibly. "You don't feel cold."

Rey flushed - the color he'd wiped away from her side tinting her cheeks - as he pulled his hand back and looked down at the unblemished skin with pride.

Rey sat up, instantly noticing how much easier it felt to breathe. Still holding her shirt against her chest, she used her other hand to palm and pat the length of her torso. Her own fingers poked and prodded in a rough and uncaring way, going so far as to squeeze a section of skin to test if only the surface had been augmented.

He cleared his throat, loudly this time, and assured her, "Any lingering soreness will be gone by morning."

Her wonder turned to appreciation. She tried to dim her impulsive smile by biting down on it, hoping it didn't scare him away. "Ben -"

Whether it was the smile or the name, he stepped back as if she'd swung at him.

Before she could reach out to him again, she felt it: the fade.

As he departed, he left her with some more advice: "Be more mindful when you train. And don't neglect defensive action."

"Ben. . ." she started again, but he was already gone.

Rey crossed her legs and concentrated on chasing the connection down the narrow corridor that ran between them like a tunnel. She pushed out her thank you, hoping it would echo through the universe and find him at the dim light she could see in the distance.