Boltedfruit Archive

The first time he sees her, she’s running, eyes wild and shining. She’s frightened, an erratic energy coiling all around her as she leaps and skids further ahead. It’s terror and excitement and habit all at once. Like an animal. Like prey.

He savors the first time she lays eyes on him. Even he knows he cuts a foreboding shadow, and he is used to others skirting his visage.

And yet.

Her brow quivers but she stares straight at him and he thinks maybe he’ll have a bit of a fight from this one. The lure of it, the temptation is great. It’s not often he does this. He can tell by the way she stands she hasn’t ever known the shame of the word coward. She’s too much herself for that and it has his mouth watering.

We will kill one another, he thinks, before chasing after her.

There’s some peace in that.

–

Fear is strange. It twists, it clings, it molds, then ruins. It can turn the most powerful soldier into something small, some nothing, and it boggles the mind to think such a horrendous turn possible.

His hands are shaking.

Infinitesimal but there.

He wants her to say his name.

The ghost of her reaching clumsy fingers into his mind plagues him before he finally rests.

He dreams of the dark and the light. Of a burnt man long dead screaming for family lost. Of stars colliding close enough to reflect off her skin.

When he wakes, he’s sweating, and wonders how long before death is due.

–

She’s gone.

She’s gone with nowhere to go.

It’s like watching the tide recede before a large wave. You know it will return soon, but that danger will come back with it.

It is this thought he has before he hears his name.

Ben.

Memories are like snapping creatures on the bellies of waves, reaching ever higher.

She’s there too. He can feel her despair as his father plummets over the side of the bridge. He doesn’t have to look up to hear her voice, feel her emotion. It’s everywhere. All around him like stardust, blinding and loud, and he’s distracted.

Pain, scorching and stabbing all at once.

He’s on his knees and bleeding because of her and oh, how he hates it.

–

He can feel it when they fight. She counters his blows, steadfast, withstanding, and strong. Any other would likely have been cleaved in two by now but no, not she. Not Rey.

Desperation paints his voice because he remembers what stars looked like against her skin and he wants that. He wants to know. And he’s lonely, he’s been alone for so long, and—

It sounds like he’s begging and it convinces her of the path he does not favor.

She has him on his back, his face split open.

He feels anger and joy and power lance all about her as she circles him. Prey become predator.

It’s that feeling again, she’s searching, trying to learn his thoughts but then the ground is opening beneath them. It’s too loud and there’s blood in his eyes. He can hardly manage to peer out through the dark to see her, but there she is.

She’s just staring back at him, waiting.

He knows she will ruin him, one day. And he will ruin her.

This is just the beginning.