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Rey
She would find him again. In another life, where soul touched soul, forever bound beyond the infinite measure of time and space. Across chasms of dark and transpiring upon beacons of light, they would meet time and time again.
☪
Beneath the stoic expression, that exterior of armor that shielded his heart, she could sense vulnerability. Fear. With every glance, she could see the tumultuous swirl of emotions that shifted in his striking eyes. Anger. There was so much anger, melded with regret and self-loathing that overwhelmed her senses when her mind dipped into his.
But in the early mornings as he slept on her chest, his breath released steadily and his heart beat in tune with hers. Through the slightly parted blinds, muted hues of morning light glazed upon his speckled face. An image of tranquility that she saved to be tucked away in her memory.
In his sleep, the hard glint in his eyes eased, the furrow in his brow smoothed, and the tension in his muscles lifted. Here was when she felt a new feeling arise from his lull. In the tiniest cracks of his unguarded mind, there was hope.
☪
When he traced his fingers along her scars, he did not only touch the ones upon her flesh. He caressed the scars hidden from the eye, hidden deep within her mind and heart. The greatest fears she had buried from even herself. She confessed only to him. Within the encompassing length of his arms, she found sanctuary. Safety in the tenderness of his eyes that would roam over her like a moth drawn to a flame. It was as though he thought she was a dream, afraid she would fade from his arms into nothing but stardust, scattered away with a mere breeze.
With him, she would never fade. When she ran her fingers through his hair, he would let out a deep sigh of content, pulling her closer. For the first time in her life, her existence was not a mere thing to be thrown away and forgotten. For the first time, she truly meant something.
☪
Was this love? She had never known how it felt to be loved. Nor did she know what it meant to be cherished or wanted. She had gone through her lonely life, trekking across abandoned wastelands and trudging through steep mounds of sand, alone. Everyday she would push onward, quick on her feet so as to not sink into the unseen depths beneath her. She knew to keep moving, lest she get buried in the rubble of her emotion. Through storm and desert, there had never been a soul to walk beside her. Through the chill and ache, she had never known comfort.
Love was a fantasy. Passion was an afterthought. And yet, he was a dream. An enigma that flooded all of her senses, making her lose reason of control and practicality.
Even in a room of people, she was attuned to his presence and unconsciously swiveled about to find him. Her eyes were drawn to his every feature. From the tall length of his poised stature, the raw intensity of his fighting form. The gentle calculations of his callused hands.
When she saw him standing there, the full length of him awkwardly shuffled. Yet, there was a hopeful reservation upon his gentle face. A wide grin burst from her flushed cheeks, bashfully covered by the palm of her hand.
She had gone her lonely life with no love from another and with no love to give another. But with him, she felt whole. A person that she was meant to be. She would remain by his side til morning light if it meant the lines of sorrow on his face would smooth. She would walk with him til death if it meant the hearth in her chest would continue to keep her warm.
Yes. This was love. She was in love, and she was deeply loved.
Ben
He was made for her as she was made for him. One did not exist without the other. The day's sun did not shine without the white of the moon in the night. The green of the earth did not grow without the water from the sky. And he did not feel alone with the gentle caress of her hand against his cheek. Such was the way of life.
He did not ask the world for anything more. Not for the greatest riches deep within the earth of boundless planets. Nor the worship or reverence from millions.
He felt serenity with her, and that was more than enough.
The loneliness seemed to melt away at the sight of her beaming smile. He saw as much as felt the same lingering loneliness ebbing off of her frame. He could see it in her distant gaze as he watched her stand alone against the backdrop of black, illuminated only by the waning moon and winking stars. When she sensed him peering from the distance, she looked over her shoulder and beckoned him forth with a shy smile. An invitation to cure their habitual solitude together.
☪
The incandescence of the stars of galaxies upon galaxies could not compare to the radiance of her. Her light could reach the darkest depths of despair, the fragility of life, touching its edges and reviving it anew. For him, to taste the sweetness of spring, and the passion of summer upon her lips was what it meant to be alive.
☪
They were held together by a thread of destiny. A thread that led him back with each step he took away from her. It was a pull that tugged at the very fiber of his being, guiding him to find her. He had searched for her unknowingly all of his life. Once they were together, there was nothing that the forces of the world could do to tear them apart.
With her small hand grasped in his own, he wrapped the other around her waist and held her close. Chest to chest, heart to heart they stood beneath looming gray skies, punctured by flashes of lightning. Bitter rain pelted down upon them. But she laughed. Oh, he couldn’t help but smile, for it was such a glorious sound.
Still hand in hand, she spun away from him and grinned in delight at the foreign sight of the tempest. She pulled him forth, spinning and tramping with him in the muddy waters.
A waltz in the storm.
☪
A child in a mask, he was called. Tossed aside and ostracized, until he was finally bequeathed to a firm hand and harsh tongue. He had fought hard to prove them wrong, to prove that he could be a shining beacon of light, untainted by passion, unmoved by anger. A pure soul devoid of dark.
And still they balked in hushed tones and apprehensive stares as he wandered down empty halls, the echoes of his soles the only companion to console him. He would shut himself away in his lifeless room, a mere child curled under thick sheets to muffle the voices of his mother and father. Though, the underlying current of trepidation ever present in their tones had been seared into his mind long ago.
Perhaps if he stayed under those thick blankets, he could quell the air and cease the oxygen from entering his lungs. Only then would he be freed of the cruel voice residing within his own mind, the thrum of hateful mantras no longer pounding against his skull. But, he was still a mere child, fearful of his own hands and heart. The voice remained.
Was it no surprise to them when he had relented? When he had relinquished himself to the dark? He could not help it, for it was in his nature to be forged of the extremities of the Force. Tendrils of shadow had curled at the edges of his mind since birth. Persistent and forceful, they had rooted themselves into his subconscious until he too, believed that he was destined to sin.
She had called him a monster before. And yet, the warmth of her hope had clutched onto him firmly, hauling him from the conflict of his heart, no longer laid to waste under the choking pressure of the dark. She thought him to be cured of anger and loathing, but that he could never be cured of. He had found his way back to the light, but he could never deny the truth that he was forged from both light and dark.
Now, his eyes glinted a darker shade as she rolled her hips beneath him, her gasps of pleasure caressing his ears. And he knew that he wanted nothing but to have her as his own, forever. A hitch of breath caught in his throat as he watched locks of her hair shift and tangle, framing her adoring face. He cupped the nape of her neck then, pulling her up so that her lips met his own starved frenzy, biting her soft flesh. He was a selfish thing, overflowing with desire and possession. But she knew that, for what resided in his soul was the same that she hid in her own.