Chapter Text
Five years later
“Open yourself to the energy of the Force. Do it without judgment—just sit, breathe, and feel it moving through you. Then, when you have an idea of it fixed in your head, I would love it if you shared that perception with me.”
Rey moved up and down the rows of students, correcting meditation postures here and there. Her pupils ranged in age from six to sixteen and possessed varying levels of Force sensitivity. Nancy, seven years old and prone to meditating with her eyes screwed shut and her forehead creased in a glower, was the most recent addition, having been referred to the Solo Force Academy after an unfortunate incident involving a levitating Loth-cat. Nic, the eldest, had been studying with Ben and Rey for four years now, as long as the school had been open. She dipped frequently into the dark side of the Force, but with Ben’s guidance, she’d been managing the balance well.
“I see it,” Nancy said, her brow furrowing even more. “It’s a tree.”
Rey crouched down before the little girl, intrigued by the description. “You see the Force as a tree?”
She nodded. “With white and black leaves. It’s a good climbing tree.”
“That’s excellent,” Rey said, marveling again at how diverse her students’ visualizations of the Force were. Spiderwebs, oceans, starfields, circuitry… now apparently a tree. “Focus on the leaves of the tree. Study both the white and black ones, and think about the wind moving through them and how the tree’s life force connects all of them.”
The door at the back of the classroom opened, and a grin bloomed on Rey’s face as she saw a familiar, black-clad figure silhouetted there. Ben’s broad shoulders filled the entrance. It was raining outside, and he stopped to wipe his boots off and shake his hair out like a dog. Then he moved soundlessly to the side of the room, leaning against the wall to watch. Rey blew him a kiss, smiling when he snatched it out of the air.
Rey tended to run the meditation sessions, since she had more patience for it than Ben did. Ben taught history and politics, and they both worked with the children on combat, philosophy, and Force powers. The curriculum was flexible and changed frequently, depending on the interests and needs of each child. There were currently twenty children enrolled, most of whom lived on the premises of the sprawling complex on the outskirts of Labryyk.
They’d chosen Myrtah as their new home for a few reasons. There was a Force nexus in the surrounding forest, and the planet was undeniably beautiful, but Rey also appreciated the chance to give back to the community after destroying the concert hall. Besides, this was where the First Order had finally been broken—it felt right to start a new beginning here.
And the Solos definitely wanted this to be a new beginning—not just for themselves, but for future generations of Force users. They taught balance, encouraging their pupils not to fear the dark, but to learn how to navigate it. To avoid the abandonment issues that had pushed Ben towards Snoke, the Solos insisted that parents visit their children frequently, and students spent their summers at home. Those without happy homes to return to were, of course, welcome to stay at the Academy, where they spent the summers playing and rambling over the forested campus. It was Rey’s personal mission to ensure every pupil had a healthy, happy childhood.
The Academy had had a slow start, since many parents were loathe to trust their children to the unusual combination of the last Jedi and the former Supreme Leader of the First Order, but as time passed and the Academy garnered nothing but positive reviews, the mistrust had settled. Now, five years after they’d destroyed the First Order, the Solos were highly respected members of the community and employed many Labryykan locals.
Myrtah wasn’t the only world that had settled into comfortable new rhythms. The galaxy was at peace at last, now that independent governance had been re-established on the worlds the First Order had conquered. Democracy wasn’t universal, and, as always, the wildly disparate individual worlds often struggled to negotiate and collaborate, but overall, things were running smoothly. Leia Organa was a crucial voice in the newly re-established Galactic Senate, although she always made sure to spend a few weeks a month at home in Labryyk, close to Ben and Rey, who lived on the grounds of the school in a cozy cottage surrounded by Rey’s favorite flowers.
Rey wrapped up the meditation session, and the children opened their eyes and stretched, talking in excited whispers about what they’d seen in the Force and what they were looking forward to that day. Aurora and Jenthyr, ten-year-old Lekku twins, squeaked when they saw Ben and rushed at him, demanding “giant hugs.” The little Lekku were infatuated with the man they’d christened their “giant,” and Ben might roll his eyes about it in private, but Rey noticed the pink flush that raced over his cheeks any time they demanded hugs. He enjoyed the attention, even though it still baffled him that children could trust him so implicitly.
“Don’t they know I’m a recovering galactic dictator?” he’d grumped after the first time a child—rambunctious, mischievous Riri—demanded a piggyback ride. But he’d given the piggyback ride with galloping enthusiasm, and it was at that moment that Rey had decided she definitely wanted children with this man.
The students filtered outside to play and practice Force levitation with each other, none of them particularly minding the rain. Rey watched them go fondly, then shut the door behind them—and locked it.
“Well, well,” Ben said, a smirk tilting his plush lips. “Looks like you have plans for—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence, because Rey ran at him and leapt into his arms, smashing her mouth against his. He staggered back against the wall, laughing into her impatient kisses, and gripped her ass to hoist her higher. Rey wrapped her legs around him, grinding against his already-stiffening erection. She plunged her fingers into his damp hair and traced the tips of his ears.
“Did you miss me?” he asked, chuckling against her lips. “I was only gone for a few days, sweetheart.”
He’d been on a “boys’ trip” with Finn, Chewie, Paul, and Poe, which Rey was still rolling her eyes over. Ever since the bachelor party for Poe, Finn, and Rose’s wedding four years ago, the men took a few days off every year to engage in a variety of irresponsible shenanigans. One year had featured a womp rat sniping competition, another had included pod racing, and all of them had involved alcohol.
“A few days is too long,” she told Ben, peppering his face with frantic kisses.
He seemed to agree, because he slid his tongue deep into her mouth, devouring her with ferocious hunger. He carried her to a pile of meditation cushions and set her down, quickly settling between her legs and caging her in with his arms. He rolled his hips against her, and Rey gasped at the sharp shock of pleasure that rocketed through her.
“I missed you so much.” Ben broke away from her lips just long enough to strip her gray tunic off, launching the breastband after it. Rey reciprocated, tugging his tunic off over his head. Then it was skin-on-skin, their bodies moving in familiar rhythms as they eagerly soaked each other in.
“So for Kirsten and Nic’s upcoming quest to explore the dark, I was thinking—” Luke, the school’s resident Force ghost and another instructor, broke off with a yelp. “Seriously? Again?” When Rey glanced to the side, the glowing blue outline of her former mentor had his hand over his eyes.
“Do Force ghosts ever knock?” Ben wondered out loud, and Rey buried her laugh in his shoulder.
“Do you two ever get tired of fornicating like porgs all over the place?”
Ben considered for a few moments. “No.”
Luke shook his head and laughed. “I’ll come back later.” He vanished, and Rey resumed attacking Ben with her mouth and hands.
“I love you,” she told him between frantic kisses.
He trailed a hand over her back, then cupped her ass, pulling her more firmly against him. “I love you, too. Coming home to you is like seeing the sun again after days of rain.”
At the sweet words, Rey burst into tears.
Ben stilled, then drew back to look at her face. Upon seeing the sheer amount of liquid pouring from her eyes, his expression became alarmed. “Sweetheart? Is everything all right?” He sat up, tugging her with him until they knelt facing each other.
“Everything’s amazing,” Rey sobbed. Her shoulders shook, and she couldn’t stop smiling even through the deluge of tears.
“Okay…” Ben still looked baffled and a little panicked. He pressed a hand to her cheek, then touched her shoulder, then stroked along her side, as if he couldn’t decide what would be the most comforting. “You say everything’s amazing, but you’re crying like it’s not.”
“I know.” Rey laughed, then hiccuped, then cried some more. She shook her head at how ridiculous she was being, but she couldn’t stop. “You know how I’ve been moody lately?”
“Yes?” Ben’s brow furrowed. “But that’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re still only half as moody as me on my good days.”
Rather than attempting more words, Rey grabbed his hand and pressed it flat against her stomach. Ben’s brow furrowed as he studied his fingers… and then his eyes shot comically wide. He looked up at her with the most excited, nervous expression Rey had ever seen on his handsome face. “Are you saying… is that…”
“Yes!” Rey grinned and nodded, a fresh wash of tears blurring her sight. Then she was being tackled back onto the pillows, Ben’s strong arms wrapping around her.
“Rey, oh Force, kriff, fucking fuck—” He reared back in alarm. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t be manhandling you—”
“It’s fine,” she assured him, tugging him closer. “I won’t break.”
He rocked her back and forth, babbling incoherent sentences against her hair. “My beautiful girl, oh holy fucking shit, you’re—you did—and I—there’s a baby in you!”
Rey laughed at the way he nearly shouted those words. “There is. I found out yesterday when I went to the doctor.”
He kissed her hard, then pulled away to look down at her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there with you.” Now his eyes glistened with tears. “I should have been there.”
“Shh.” She traced his beloved face with the pads of her fingers. “This way was fun, too. It was exciting having this big secret—although I had planned all these elaborate ways to tell you, but then my hormones got in the way, and I ruined it by crying all over you.”
He shook his head. “You could never ruin it. Force, Rey, I’m so happy.” His cheeks were pink, and his goofy smile matched her own. “I’m amazed it happened so fast.”
“Well, we have been trying rather enthusiastically.” Not that much more enthusiastically than normal, to be fair—neither Ben nor Rey had lost their insatiable appetite for each other—but they’d been having so much sex over the last few months that occasionally Rey had found herself walking bowlegged and wincing through combat drills.
“We’re going to be parents,” Ben breathed. “I never imagined I would be a father.” A flash of pain abruptly crossed his face, and Rey knew he was thinking about Han.
“You’re going to be a good father,” she told him, raking her fingers through his damp hair. “I have no doubts about that.”
“But what if—”
His sudden vulnerability hurt Rey’s heart, so she gripped his face in both hands and forced him to look straight into her eyes. “What if nothing,” she said firmly. “You are the best man I know, Ben Solo, and you’re going to be the best father. You and I are going to shower this child with so much love. They’ll never know hunger or deprivation, and they’ll never feel less valued because of who they are or their Force abilities.”
He nodded, and some of the distress on his face bled away. “You’re right. We’ll give them everything.”
She kissed him softly. “Honestly, Ben, I think what you’ve been through—what we’ve both been through—will make us better parents. We know how dangerous and lonely this galaxy can be. We know what it feels like to grow up in less-than-ideal circumstances. And who could protect a child better than us?”
“No one,” he vowed fiercely. “I’d butcher anyone who tried to hurt my kid.”
Rey giggled and kissed him again. “We might not have to jump straight to butchery, but that’s exactly the point. She’ll be so safe—”
Ben’s jaw dropped, and his eyes widened. “She? ”
“Oh.” Rey bit her lip and smiled up at him. “Did I forget to mention that? The doctor says we’re going to have a little girl.”
Ben looked dazed. “A little girl,” he repeated. “I’m going to have a daughter.”
“I hope she has your hair.”
“I hope she has your everything,” Ben said vehemently. “You’re so brave and wonderful and strong and… oh, fuck, Rey, I think I’m going to cry again.”
“Me, too.”
They held each other for a long time after that, alternately crying and laughing, kissing whenever they weren’t speculating about what their daughter would be like. One thing was clear: she would never be normal, not with parents like Rey and Ben.
No, she would be extraordinary.
“Ben,” Rey said in the lull between kissing and talking, “I really did want to have sex with you.”
“Oh!” Ben propped himself up on his elbows and grinned down at her. “Then by all means, let’s finish what we started.”
He stripped her with reverent care, then shucked off his own trousers with less ceremony. Once they were naked, tangling limbs and tongues and minds together, he rolled over until Rey was on top. “Like this,” he said. “But you have to sit on my face first.”
Rey laughed, her heart soaring like an X-wing even though her body pulsed with earthier needs. She scooted up gladly, sighing blissfully when Ben seized her hips and tugged her down to his mouth. He was as enthusiastic as ever, his licks, nibbles, and sucks accompanied by groans and filthy compliments. This time, though, the dirty talk included a mix of giddy sentiments that Rey probably would have found funny if she hadn’t been so close to orgasm.
“You taste so good, sweetheart… Fuck, I could lick this sweet pussy forever. You’re going to be the best mom, oh, fuck, kriff, I can’t believe I put a baby in you… Yeah, that’s it, move on me. Give me everything. I want to eat you alive, my gorgeous, amazing, wonderful wife, oh holy shit— ”
Rey broke when he slid two fingers inside her while nibbling at her swollen clit. She spasmed over him, drenching his chin, and he growled and lapped at her like she was the best thing he’d ever tasted.
When Rey finally came down, winded and throbbing, she tried to lift off him, but he just pulled her tighter against his mouth. Huffing out an amused breath, Rey tugged at his hair until he finally let go.
He pouted up at her, all glossy red lips and sex-hazed eyes. “I was enjoying that.”
“I was, too.” Rey grinned at him. “But now I want to ride you.”
His face lit up like she’d just announced an impromptu holiday that incorporated all his favorite things. “Whatever my wife wants, she gets.”
Rey would never get tired of hearing those words: my wife. She moved back until she was straddling his thick, perfect cock, and then she gripped him to hold him still while she sank down on him. She moaned a little as she took him to the hilt.
“Fuck,” Ben said, kicking his head back into the pillows. “Rey, this is… so...”
“I feel it, too.” They had done this a thousand times—probably far more than that—but every single time she felt a visceral thrill at how big he was and how perfectly he filled her. Her body stretched to accommodate him, and it was nigh-miraculous how their mutual pleasure swelled across the Force, building like a tidal wave.
She lifted up on her knees, her intimate flesh gripping him as if it didn’t want to let go. Ben made a choked sound, and when Rey sank back down again, he groaned loud and long. His fingers dug into her hips as she rode him, and she sensed the moment he panicked about touching a pregnant woman so roughly, because he jerked his hands back as if they’d been scalded, his eyes going wide.
Rey grabbed his hands and returned them to her hips. “Seriously, Ben. You have to treat me the same as you always have.”
“I am not going to challenge you to a duel.”
Rey laughed. “All right, maybe no more duels or extremely aggressive sparring. But Ben… this doesn’t change who we are. I’m not fragile just because I’m pregnant.”
Another grin burst over Ben’s face, brilliant as the rising sun. He squeezed her, then bucked up into her hard enough to make her gasp. “You’re very talkative right now. Maybe I’m not distracting you enough.”
“Maybe,” she agreed, but then Ben really applied himself to the work of distracting her, and Rey lost the capacity for speech.
His hips pumped, his hands guiding her movements. Rey braced a hand on one of the pillows, gasping at the way he’d seized control from the bottom. His fingers drifted to her nipples to pinch and twist, then dropped to her clit, and Rey was lost.
“Ben, please—” she moaned as she rocked against him, loving the intensity he’d abruptly unleashed. “Make me come again, please.”
He rubbed firm circles against her clit, and Rey found herself slamming down to meet his urgent thrusts. The hand that wasn’t braced against the pillow stroked his hair, his face, his scar. She’d never felt the future echoed so profoundly in the movements of their bodies. She was his, and he was hers, and now they had created another person to belong to.
“You’re everything,” Ben said as he worked Rey towards the orgasm of her life. “Rey… I never knew life could be this good.”
Me, neither, she thought across the bond as tears welled in her eyes and her heart sang a chorus just for him. I’m so happy, Ben.
I am, too.
They devolved into gasps and stuttered movements, both of them too close to the edge to maintain control. And then, and then, and then…
Rey burst into ecstasy like a ship breaking atmosphere. She was aloft, weightless, suspended in infinity as her body clenched and shuddered. The noises pouring out of her mouth were nonsensical, but she released them gladly. Everything she had belonged to Ben.
He followed with a few grunts and a long, strangled moan. Rey basked in primal possessiveness as his release pulsed into her. He had given her his essence, and although he’d done it before, each time was as sacred as the last.
They came down with gasps and passionate whispers, their sweat-slicked chests pressed together. Rey kissed Ben with her whole heart, marveling at the path her life had taken. From Jakku to the Resistance to Ahch-To to this.
Join me, Ben had said so long ago, his hand held out to her.
Now, Rey had. And in so doing, she’d finally found the thing she’d been searching for all her life.
A family.
