[for ben]

[strongerthanblood]

After Rey has come home from working on her bike, showered, and fed herself, she ends up being terribly bored. It's a little late but not that late, and she isn't really all that tired, so she does what she always does when she's bored and lonely. She opens the bond.

With a blink, she's standing in Ben's bedroom. He's sprawled on his back in nothing but his underwear with a book on his chest, fast asleep, and Rey's heart nearly bursts with fondness. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps, and she knows that she should probably let him rest, but she finds herself moving closer to the bed.

If she misses him, surely he misses her back, right? He'd probably be pleased to see her, even if it means being woken up.

At least she can make sure that it's a pleasant awakening.

Carefully, she plucks the book from his chest saves his place with the bookmark on his nightstand. After setting the book down, she crawls onto the bed and straddles his waist, leaning over him to press a few soft kisses to his face. One to his cheek, another to his brow, and one to the corner of his mouth.

"Ben," she whispers, grinning as she feels him start to stir. She kisses the tip of his nose and slides her hand down his flank, tucking her fingertips into the waistband of his underwear. "Ben, wake up. I'm bored."

Comments

[weakandfoolish]

Ben was already awake by the time she crawled astride his lap, laying motionless beneath her as he struggled against a smirk.

"Shouldn't you have come over, then? Or are you expecting me to make a dash across town, again?" He said, without opening his eyes.

[strongerthanblood]

“I’m not just going to come over uninvited,” she murmurs against his chin, knowing full well that she just climbed into his bed without any invitation at all.

She kisses him softly on the mouth as she shifts her hips so she can rock them against Ben’s, sighing happily as she reaches up to rest her hands against his chest.

“Are you going to make it worth my while if I run over there?” She pushes against his chest until she’s sitting up, rolling her hips lazily as she looks down at him.

[weakandfoolish]

"Really," he said placidly, opening his eyes and arching a brow. His hands found his way to her hips, dragging her closer, energy crackling between them everywhere they touched.

"There's only one way to find out."

[strongerthanblood]

“Mm, really?” Ben’s big hands settle on her hips and she wonders, not for the first time or even the tenth, what it might feel like to have him inside of her like this. “Is this you being a tease?”

She wriggles out of his grasp and slides down the bed, grinning up at him as she tugs the waistband of just underwear down just enough to reveal the head of his cock. She touches the tip of her tongue to it, nudging it under the foreskin before sitting up abruptly.

“Or maybe that’s me,” she says brightly, giving him a big grin and a jaunty wave before blinking out of view.

Her laughter rings through the bond as she pulls on leggings and a sweatshirt, and she stuffs her feet into a pair of sneakers before heading for the door.

Don’t start without me.

[weakandfoolish]

Laughing breathlessly, Ben stayed sprawled on top of the sheets, his hand going idly to his crotch. He touched himself distractedly, feeling her warmth and her laughter, grinning sleepily up at the patchy ceiling above his bed.

Blinking in the darkness of his room, he turned to look at the clock. After eleven.

It would take her a good fifteen minutes to make the walk, and not for the first time, he thought it was time to put an end to these late night dashes.

[strongerthanblood]

Jogging through the city with heat flaring between her legs is becoming an all too familiar occurrence. She doesn’t mind it, not if it means that she gets to see Ben, but if he thinks she’s going to keep doing this once winter hits he’s got another thing coming.

She just wants him to ask her. It’s gotten to the point where she worries that maybe he just doesn’t want to live with her. Maybe he values his own space, maybe this is enough—

As lost in her thoughts as she is, Rey fails to notice the crack in the sidewalk until it’s too late. Her toe catches the jagged edge of concrete and she goes sprawling, landing hard on her knees and palms as she skids along the sidewalk.

Pain flares through her and she hisses, whimpering as she rolls over onto her back and stares up at the night sky. Her palms are scraped up and bloodied, and she lifts her head to see that her leggings are destroyed, shredded at the knees and along one shin to reveal torn skin.

The last Jedi, taken out by a raised bit of pavement. She would laugh, if she wasn’t in such pain.

Ow.

[weakandfoolish]

Suddenly, Ben was no longer alone. She crashed down onto the floor next to the bed, crying out in pain, and before he knew it, he'd rolled off of the bed, landing in a crouch at her side.

"What is it, what's happened?" He demanded, thinking at first that she'd been attacked. He looked around instinctively, though he could not see where she was, or what sort of threats might surround her.

[strongerthanblood]

It isn't a surprise to suddenly see Ben at her side. He's there in an instant, crouched in a fighting stance in his underwear as he looks around for a would be attacker, and Rey can't help but to laugh.

She's embarrassed, cheeks flushed with it, but she can't cover her face because her hands are bleeding, so instead she just rolls onto her side with a groan.

"Calm down, tough guy," she says, leaving herself in a pathetic sprawl on the ground. "Unless you want to fight a bit of sidewalk."

[weakandfoolish]

Blowing out a breath, he said, "Oh."

He coughed, the sound if it suspiciously similar to laughter, though it was directed more at himself than at her.

"Okay, that's enough of this," he said, resting a hand gently on her shoulder. With his other, he reached for her bloodied hands, wincing with sympathy. "How attached are you to that apartment?"

[strongerthanblood]

Rey lets Ben take her by the wrist and pulls herself into a sitting position. The question is so out of left field that it takes her a moment to even process it, and then she looks up at him in surprise, mouth falling open in vague outrage.

"This is what gets you to ask me?" She huffs and pulls her hand from Ben's grip so she can get to her feet on her own, brushing bits of dirt and gravel gently from her knees before straightening up. "Out here, while you're naked in the street?"

A man jogging by turns to give her a quizzical look, and Rey huffs and waves him off irritably before he can stop. He shrugs and keeps running, passing just behind Ben, and she barely waits for him to pass before she continues. "Because I'm clumsy?"

[weakandfoolish]

"Because you're bleeding," Ben said, a confused frown creasing his brow.

"What, were you waiting for me to ask? You could've asked," he said, his voice rising with his own growing indignation.

Had she been testing him? Why?

[strongerthanblood]

"Of course I was!" She puts her hands on her hips and then winces, shaking them a bit as she stomps her foot instead. "I wanted you to do it!"

It's easier to be irritated than to admit her own insecurities, and that isn't the only reason anyway. She thought that maybe he needed the space after all he's been through, that maybe she would be underfoot too much.

"I wasn't testing you," she huffs out, taking a guess at deciphering the confused indignation in his expression. Her shoulders slump and she stares down at her hand, frowning as she digs a small piece of rock from her palm with the edge of her thumbnail. "I just wanted you to want me there. I was willing to wait for that to happen."

[weakandfoolish]

"I want you there, Rey. I've always wanted you there," he insisted, unable to explain why he'd waited.

Perhaps, after pressuring her so much to join him, to take his hand, to rule with him, he wanted her to know that she was allowed her own space. Her own decisions.

He sighed.

"I don't know what I'm doing."

[strongerthanblood]

Rey refuses to let a little thing like having no skin on her palms slow her down.

The day after her little spill, she spends a few moments in the morning pondering just resting for the day, but she doesn't have it in her. Even when she can spare the time, she can't really let herself be completely idle.

Instead, she lets her palms breathe for a bit and then bandages them again before dragging Ben over to her apartment to pack up her things. Even after living there for the better part of a year, she doesn't have too much. All of her clothes fit into one duffel bag, and everything else gets sorted into a few boxes. After informing the rental office that she'll no longer be living there, she and Ben indulge in the rare luxury of calling a cab just to move all of her things.

And just like that, in the span of less than twenty-four hours, they're living together. All it took was her tripping and falling for them both to stop being so ridiculous about it.

Two weeks later, and it's going pretty well, she thinks. They set the spare room up as sort of an office, with a workbench for Rey's tinkering and a comfy chair and lamp in another corner for reading. It serves as a little getaway if either of them need their own space, and they're both good at not taking offense if one of them retreats to it. As much as they care for each other, they still need time to themselves.

One morning, Rey manages to sleep in, and Ben is gone by the time she drags herself out of bed. He's off working, and Rey sends him a quiet hello through the bond as she makes herself some tea. It's during her shower, when she's scrubbing herself down, that she notices how pink and fresh her hands look. The last of her scabs are gone, and hops out of the shower to dry herself off.

The injury hadn't slowed her down too much, but she had to be careful. She wore gloves when working, and tackled smaller tasks that didn't require too much dexterity. The worst, however, was that she had to keep her hands to herself more than she would like when she and Ben were intimate. She couldn't keep them all to herself, not entirely, but her grip was affected and that made certain tasks a little more difficult. But not anymore.

She spends the day busying herself at her workbench, and perks up when she senses Ben approach. She's there to greet him when the door opens, smiling warmly when she notices that his hair is nearly plastered to his skull thanks to the hard hat he has to wear sometimes. She kind of likes the look of him, all sweaty after a hard day’s work.

"Look!" She shouts, holding her hands up in front of his face. "All healed!"

[weakandfoolish]

Ben was tired, and a bit moody, by the time he made his way home, trudging up the stairs with a bag of groceries in one hand. He'd stopped by the shop to pick up a few things, immediately regretting it after nearly getting in an altercation with someone who'd attempted to cut in front of not only Ben, but the old woman behind him.

So, he braced himself for her exuberance even before opening the door, feeling the crackling hum of her through the Force nearly from down the block.

She shouted and he winced, but still managed a smile despite himself. "I hadn't realized you were counting down the moments," he teased, catching her by the wrist and brushing his thumb over the new, pink skin on the meat of her palm.

[strongerthanblood]

Once she's actually face to face with Ben, she realizes that he looks a bit dour. Well, more than usual, anyway. She looks at him with vague concern even as he takes her wrist in his giant hand, brow furrowing the slightest bit as she reaches up to briefly touch his cheek.

"Did you have a bad day?" She asks as she takes the bag of groceries from him, peering inside as she turns to take it to the kitchen. It's mostly necessities, which she appreciates, but she finds a bag of toffee cookies and another box of her favorite tea at the bottom, and it makes her smile over her shoulder at him before she starts putting everything away.

[weakandfoolish]

"It wasn't bad," he assured her, following her into the kitchen and leaning back against the counter while she dug through the bag.

"It was long. And I don't enjoy working for someone else," he admitted candidly, watching her intently as she moved about the kitchen.

[strongerthanblood]

"You? No, I can't imagine," Rey replies, smirking at him over her shoulder before bending over to put the cold items away in the refrigerator. Once everything is put away, she turns around and steps up to him, smiling softly as she reaches up to tousle his messy hair.

She missed him today, which she supposes is kind of silly considering that they are practically underfoot, both in and out of their heads, but she did.

"Why don't you go wash up, hm?" Her palms land on his shoulders and she gives them a squeeze before holding them up to wiggle her fingers. "And then I'll use my hands on you."

[weakandfoolish]

Her offer could have entailed any number of things, and while Ben’s expression remained largely impassive, he was clearly intrigued.

Stepping away from the counter, he moved silently towards the back of the apartment. He stepped out of his boots, pulling his shirt over his head and dropping it into the laundry basket. In the adjoining bathroom, he washed his hands, and after quickly brushing his teeth, he splashed a bit of water on his face.

While he sat on the edge of the bed to wait for her, a few damp strands of his hair fell over his forehead, shadowing his eyes from view.

[strongerthanblood]

Rey has been eager to get her hands on Ben all day. It's not as if she hasn't touched him since her injury, but she has had to be mindful of it, careful not to irritate the scabs. It's been a little bit like torture, frankly.

After tidying up her dishes from lunch, she heads into their bedroom. It makes her belly jump a little to see him sitting there, waiting for her. It makes her feel a little powerful.

Stepping up between his knees, she tips his chin up and sweeps his damp hair from his face, dragging her fingertips along his scalp as she does. Her hands trail then along the sides of his neck to his shoulders, which feel far too tight against her palms.

"Take your pants off and lay on your belly," she tells him, patting his arm as she steps away to give him room. "I'll give you a back rub."

[weakandfoolish]

Ben's brow twitched faintly, but he rolled over without complaint, stretching out atop the half-made bed with his cheek pillowed on his folded arms.

"Is this what you've been waiting to do, for two weeks?" He murmured, barely hiding his amusement.

[strongerthanblood]

“Get my hands on you while you’re at my mercy? Yep,” she says cheerfully, wriggling out of her khaki shorts to leave her in just her panties and tank top. She takes a moment to appreciate the long line of line, pale and wide and filling out black underwear so nicely, before she shakes herself and climbs onto the bed.

There’s a bottle of unscented lotion on her bedside table, another small luxury, and she grabs it before straddling base of Ben’s spine and settling down on top of him.

“Now, I’ve never given anyone a massage,” she says easily, while squirting a dollop of lotion between Ben’s shoulder blades, “but how hard can it be?”

[weakandfoolish]

"I suppose we're going to find out," he said, the words muffled as he turned to rest his forehead against his folded wrists, his nose pressed against the mattress. It wasn't quite as comfortable as a massage chair might have been, but having a strangers hands on him had never held much appeal.

This, however...

[strongerthanblood]

Rey smiles as Ben gets comfortable, and then turns her attention to his back. He’s so beautiful to look at, pale and sculpted, and she spends a few long moments simply letting her hands rub the lotion into his skin, trailing along to seek out tighter areas that need some attention.

After wriggling back to sit on the swell of his backside, she plants her palms into the small of his back and applies a little pressure, slowly dragging them up the long line of his spine and sweeping out across his shoulders. And then she does it again, feeling him relax a little under the slow, methodical movements of her hands.

Rey knows that she has Ben’s complete trust, but it still makes her warm all over to see that trust in full display, with the vulnerable nape of his neck bared to her. After sweeping away his hair, she cups both sides of his neck and works her thumbs into a knot of muscle at the base of his skull, moving them in slow circles until she feels it start to loosen.

“How am I doing so far?”

[weakandfoolish]

Biting down chest-deep groan, Ben shut his eyes, his focus narrowing entirely to the pressure of her hands, and the warm of her weight against his backside. He often didn't feel entirely present in his own body, called by the strength of his connection to not only the Force, but his connection to her.

It stood to reason that she would be the one to bring him back to himself.

"You're doing all right," he said, failing at his attempt to sound unaffected.