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They met in the lush emerald forest that separated their two kingdoms. Ben Chewbacca Amidala-Skywalker Organa-Solo, the solemn prince of Starkiller, watched in baffled amazement as the light princess of Jakku, Rey Kira Erso-Andor, floated ten feet above the ground. He had heard the tales of the strange princess and how her refusal to cry gave her the levity to defy gravity, but seeing her in real life was much different than hearing tales of her unnatural abilities.
He knew his king, the cruel Snoke, would demand him to slice her into ribbons, ridding Jakku of its last living heir. Despite his duty, Ben could not bring himself to draw his sword.
The princess slowly rose closer and closer to the heavens. She failed to notice his presence as she worked her way through the trees. Two long crimson scraps of fabric banging against a tree trunk caught his gaze. His eyes followed the fabric up to where they were draped across the princess’ torso.
Acting without thought, he took hold of the cloth, instantly halting her journey to the sun.
“You!” the princess scowled down at the man whose arrow she had narrowly dodged. “You shot at me, and I’m unarmed.”
“How can you be flying, like a falcon on the breeze?”
“I don’t fly, I float,” she corrected, fear crept into her stance. “What are you going to do to me? Let me go.”
“So you float? You’re in the air, perpendicular, or--” he used the fabric in his hands to manipulated her position as if she were a marionette. “Horizontal. Or--”
“Stop!” She tried to yank the strips of fabric from his grip but only succeeded in moving herself closer to him.
Paying no attention to her torment, he continued to play with her cloth anchors. “Whoa, rotational.”
She crossed her arms, completely unamused. “Yes, I’m very versatile.”
“How does it feel?”
“Feel?”
“To be floating,” he clarified.
No one had ever asked her that question before. In fact, she had never spared a thought for the sensation of her ability. She supposed it felt like nothing. She was lighter than a feather up in the air. Gravity had long since lost its control over her. Before she could answer, the prince began pulling her towards him and the ground.
Her eyes widened as her courage faltered. Under her breath, she muttered, “Please don’t hurt me.”
“It’s incredible, you don’t have wings, and aside from this, you’re almost normal.”
“Let me go, or-or I’ll kill you.”
Her threat would have been menacing, had he not been holding her in place. Now that she only hovered a few feet from the ground, he was able to get a better look at her features. For someone who had supposedly been locked in a tower for the majority of her life, a good number of freckles splattered themselves against her nose and cheeks. Later, he would have to ask her if the tower had many windows.
Later? How could he be thinking of a later when he should be killing her now?
But he didn’t want to. For the first time in his life, he questioned the orders of the king. All he wished to do was spend more time with this strange girl.
“Kill me? How can you kill me when you can’t even walk?”
Her face fell.
“So the physics,” he continued, ever curious about the cause of events he didn’t quite understand. “If I let go of this cloth, you would keep ascending until you were swallowed by the sun? Seems to me floating is not very versatile.”
“I don’t understand what you are doing.”
“I don’t either,” he admitted. Somehow, he felt like he could be himself with her, and not the fearsome knight Snoke had created him to be. “You’re my mortal foe, but seeing you so useless--I mean, hopeless. It makes me want--makes me want to smile.”
Rey watched as some of the solemn prince’s facade melted. His soft lips struggled to form a smile. His laugh, which had previously been long out of use, chimed like bells.
Something about the man seemed familiar to her. His eyes. She had seen those eyes in someone else before.
“Ben Solo?”
His eyes latched onto her’s.
Her face lit up. “You’re the son Han Solo, the storyteller. Oh, I used to sneak out of my tower just to hear his stories.”
His face clouded as she recalled her fond memories. He did not particularly care to hear her kindly speak of his absent father.
“What kind of lake is that?” he said, quickly changing the subject.
“Lake? What lake?” she tried to position herself in between him and the lake.
He gently brushed past her, staring at the precious body of water she had been trying to conceal. “The lake that flows out west to Jakku.”
She needed to distract him. “Now you must give me your sword. Only one of us leaves here alive.”
“Stop,” he groaned. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I won’t let you go back to Snoke with knowledge of this lake.”
He took note of her determination. He could easily let go of her ribbons and allow the breeze to carry her away. Yet, she had the audacity to demand his obedience.
“Dance with me.”
“What?”
“Dance with me,” he repeated.
“I have challenged you to a duel...and you want me to dance with you instead.”
“Pretty much.”
“Is this some kind of game to you?”
“No. You’re a beautiful girl, and I wish to dance with you.”
“Well, what if I don’t know how.”
“Neither do I,” he said pulling her down to his level, caring not to let her within arms reach of the sword strapped to his side. “But we can figure it out.”
“This is idiotic,” she groaned. “If I do this, will you agree to fight?”
“You’ll just have to see.”
She huffed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
Memories of watching his parents dance at galas rushed back to him. He positioned her hand the way he had seen his mother’s when she danced all those years ago. “Pretend within your hand you’re holding a glass made of crystal.”
“I’ll smash your face with it,” she mumbled to herself.
“Now with this hand,” he took her opposite hand. “Try and reach for those fragile apple blossoms.”
“With this hand, I’ll break your neck.”
Ben rolled his eyes, and continued, “Just arch your back--”
She let out an impatient growl. “Who do you think--let me go--do you think you are? Now, give me a knife, and I will slay you like a dog. Let me go! Do you think I am some great exotic bird?”
“No, you are Rey,” he uttered her name with reverence and awe as if it were the name of an ancient goddess.
With one hand on her hip and the other in her’s, he spun her around. He tried to remember the next steps to the dance, but a shroud concealed them from his mind’s eye. Had he never run away from his childhood kingdom to Snoke, would his mother have taught him how to dance?
She stumbled. “I don’t think--”
“Just look at me,” he said in a soothing voice. “Look into my eyes.”
“But, sir, there’s procedure in a war,” she reminded, eager to finish the dance and fight.
He switched topics to something lighter, hoping to take her mind off gutting him. “Did you go to school, or did you have a governess?”
“What?” she balked. “It’s incredible that I am above you, and you can still talk down to me.”
“You’re adorable.”
“And you’re meant to be solemn.”
“I know,” he agreed.
Fury burned in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t have time for this nonsense. She needed to figure out how to bring the lake back to her thirsty kingdom, and she could not let an inquisitive prince distract her.
But those lips.
She tried to brush the thought away, but she couldn’t deny his attractiveness. Especially now that he was smiling. Everyone was always much too serious for Rey’s liking. Seeing this man’s unadulterated joy was like a breath of fresh air.
Perhaps letting herself get distracted wasn’t such a bad idea. After all, what had her people ever done for her other than lock her away for most of her life and slander her name?
Ben stared at the princess in his arms. He tried his best to memorize every detail about his encounter with her. Not because he was going to give Snoke a report on her. No, this was for him. He wanted to remember every moment of their dance, from the soft curve of her cheek to the way she hovered inches above the ground.
If she got her way, and they ended up dueling, then he wouldn’t need to remember everything for long. But, if he weren’t mistaken, her resolve to kill him had begun to weaken the longer they danced.
Something bloomed within his chest. Something he hadn’t felt since he entered the care of Snoke.
This woman--this angel--was changing the world for him. And he knew that he would give anything to spend more time in her presence.
She sensed a change in him.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she breathed, fearing he had grown bored with her and wished to off her. She knew it was silly for her to beg that, seeing how she had been threatening to injure him ever since they met. However, if he did decide to kill her, she wished to have a fighting chance.
“I would never do you harm,” he forced as much sincerity into his words. He hoped against hope that she would believe him, for what he spoke was true. He could never harm her. He was hers to do with as she wished.
He knew the danger in giving himself to his enemy, but frankly, he didn’t care. He had finally found levity.