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midnightartemis · 4 years

Text

Chapter One (Part One)

She learned that life was a game of survival from a young age. First, it was the religious fanatics— the ones with the locked fridge and the forced prayers and the idea that children were the spawn of Satan to be beaten and starved into godly angels. After them came the Johnsons. They were a young couple, hopeful and naive, and completely unprepared for the half-feral, skin and bones desert commune child that the government dumped in their laps. She didn’t last long there either. But they hadn’t let her starve and they hadn’t hit her and Rey tended to put that down as a plus in her book. It was why she started speaking (though in a British accent much to everyone’s surprise) and it was why she still kept their last name. Even when they gave up on her. After them… It was years in the system until she came to be in the hands of Unkar Plutt.

She learned how to survive. Learned how he always hit her where no one could see, but he only did it when he was raging drunk and he only was raging drunk a few times a month. She learned his tells, knew that some nights she was better off stealing a slushie from the 7-eleven and camping out at the skatepark until it was late enough to go back home.

As long as she did her chores and didn’t give him trouble, Plutt let her be. Rey was okay with that. She could survive that.

She sat on the lip of the park's bowl as the sun set, casting riotous shades of pink and purple and red across the cloudy sky. Summer had only just begun and while that met school, which she hated, was over, it also met more time with Plutt. More time in his shop. More ways to mess up and more drunken rages to avoid. She often wondered if he kept her around as something to look at or because she knew how to keep her mouth shut and balance his books. Both sets.

She’s been coming to the park for a while now, at least when the weather was decent. The weather was always decent. There was something comforting about the sound of wheels and boards on concrete, the whoops and hollers of the skaters, the warmth of the sun on her skin. Reminded her of the desert- only the best parts. People left her alone.

They learned after… Well, after they learned what happened when they didn’t. A few bloody noses. A few broken boards. Cause and effect.

The only ones who ever paid her any mind were Kuruk and his small band of nerdy boys in black. Even then it was only a few words here and there. She respected their space and they respected hers. And after the broken nose incident, she’d almost become an honorary member of their group. A staple of the skatepark. She’d never had anywhere to belong before.

It didn’t mean anything and you could fuck off if you thought it did.

Rey watched them lazily, sipping on her stolen slushie as Cardo and AP kept biffing it on the same rail trick with a loud “fuck!” Every time.

There were a few other people around, but like usual, most had left as it started to get dark.

“Hey! Hey!”

Rey snapped to focus, frowning as she realized Kuruk had been trying to get her attention for a while and was now slowly jogging over to her. He held his board at his side and there was a lopsided smile on his face. He wore black baggy jeans and a baggy t-shirt like the rest of them and he always kept his dark hair buzz cut like he thought about joining the military but only committed to the hair style.

“What.”

Kuruk laughed. “You’re a Rey of fuckin sunshine, you know that?”

Rey rolled her eyes. It was only the millionth time he had used that line on her. “What do you want, Kuruk?”

“The guys and I are headed to the loft. We wanted to know if you wanted to come.” He gave her that look that he always did that only told Rey he was trying to get in her pants. She was pretty sure the guys had a bet going on it.

She sighed. “You better have the good vodka this time. And better smokes. Those last ones tasted like dried out ass crack.”

“Yeah, yeah. Totally. One of my buddies is coming back from Chandrila and bringing the good college town shit.”

She didn’t know much about college towns but was fairly certain that “good” college town shit didn’t exist. She nodded anyway. “Fine. But imma kick your ass in Mario Kart.”

“Bet.” Kuruk offered her a hand and Rey let him pull her to her feet. She practically flew off the ground and threw them both into the bowl. It wasn’t that Kuruk was supernaturally strong or anything- she had seen him shirtless and seen that unfortunate happy trail- it was just that she was built like a skinny prepubescent boy with an eating disorder. Rey landed in Kuruks chest and scowled, shoving him off before he could say anything. Some whistles echoed over the park. She grabbed her melted purple slushie and flipped off the rest of the guys.

Rey went with them with the promise that life would maybe suck less for a little bit with them. At the very least they treated her to free booze and a toke. Inebriation was about the only thing that made Trudge and Ushar’s misogynistic idiocy palatable and Kuruk’s advances maybe not the worst thing in the world. It was nice to be liked. To be wanted. Even if it was just to win a bet. She’d never let them know that. Maker end her if they ever found out. She had enough self worth to know it would never fucking happen.

They skated through the darkening streets of Coruscant, slow enough that Rey could keep up on foot. It wasn’t hard. None of them could go ten feet without tipping a trash can over or trying to nail a trick off the curb. No one cared as they loudly made their way down the street, making themselves known to the world in the one way they could. Rey trailed after them in the dark. They left the cracked and degrading streets and dipped through a hole in the chain link fence, passing through a barely used rail yard and a dry culvert until they reached a small mostly abandoned warehouse.

A few years back some real estate guy had bought it and started trying to convert the place into condos. He got about half way done before, probably, coming to his senses and realizing that no one on the south side of Coruscant wanted to buy a luxury condo. Even if there was exposed brick and industrial aesthetic, there was also high crime rates and a hatred of outsiders and gentrification. Scared off most of the investors and the rest vanished after the recession hit and never seemed to leave the south side. Buying the one completed loft back from the city was the only smart decision the guys ever made. Even if they only did it to piss the cops off who kept kicking them out for trespassing.

Part of Rey wishes she had seen the encounter instead of hearing about it every five seconds from one of the guys. The other part of Rey wondered how they were even smart enough to come up with that plan, let alone execute it.

The Loft as they called it consisted of a giant open area that functioned as a gaming room and kitchen, the most disgusting bathroom Rey had ever stepped foot in, and three bedrooms which had once been split between all of them till Cardo got his own place and Vic moved in with his pregnant girlfriend. Three bedrooms became six after one drunken night where Ushar had taken a sledgehammer to the wall and broken into the abandoned half-finished apartment next door. As far as Rey knew, they were arguing between turning that living room into a sex dungeon or a pool table room. The vote was fifty fifty since Rey refused to participate and Trudge refused to pick a side. The whole place constantly smelled of weed and Kuruk’s weird incense.

Rey would never admit it, but she secretly loved the place. The ceilings were at least twelve feet high and there were huge metal framed windows that looked out over a field of dead grass to the lights of the city.

Kuruk dug through the mess of a freezer pulling out a half bottle of Everclear and a mostly empty bottle of captain morgans, which Rey snatched from him without a word. She found an unopened can of coke and poured it straight into the Captain's bottle, swishing it around before taking a large sip. No one blinked an eye.

Across the room, AP cursed as he tried to get the projector working. It wasn’t that old of a projector, but it had been purchased from some seedy electronic store that definitely looked the other way on where they acquired their products. Gaming was about the only thing they ever spent their money on and they had almost every game and system out there. That was the other reason Rey secretly liked this place. Secretly liked most of them.

Rey carried her bottle with her across the room, stopping AP before the short haired black kid started to rip the machine apart in frustration. If she was being honest, AP was the only guy she ever thought about letting win their stupid bet. He was shy and generally quiet and never really said much to her, which Rey prefered. He gave up the projector to her with a frustrated grunt and sat down on the giant sectional couch to roll a joint with the last of their weed.

After Rey popped open the lid of the projector and blew out the fan and circuitry, the projector came to life with a small whine. She popped the lid back on and adjusted the focus so it hit the stretched sheet across the room right.

She hopped down from the chair and took the lit joint from AP for a deep hit before passing it back. Trudge and Ushar eventually moved from the back rooms howling to each other and fighting over who would play COD first.

“Hey, dickheads. The lady’s already chosen Mario Kart.” Kuruk slammed a shot glass on the table. “Loser finishes the everclear.”

“She always fuckin wins.” Trudge groaned. “She always picks rainbow road. I fuckin hate rainbow road.”

Rey smiled to herself as Trudge and Ushar groaned but ultimately complied with their ringleader’s orders.

She could kick their asses at Mario Kart with a blindfold on. Rey snatched up the Wii remote and easily beat Trudge, Ushar, and Kuruk on Mario Kart’s three hardest courses. Even when Kuruk sat beside her and Trudge tried to tackle him over the back of the couch. Happy with her victory and at the sight of Ushar and Trudge gagging down straight everclear, she released them to fight over endless rounds of COD.

Her and AP quietly pass the last joint back and forth, her eyes growing hazy as she practices blowing smoke rings into the air.

“God you fuckers are rank.”

Rey grips tightly the mostly gone Captain’s bottle in her hand at the unrecognizable voice. People stopped by the loft constantly, but it was always someone she knew. She was halfway to smashing her bottle and brandishing it as a weapon when the guys broke into a flurry of motion, leaping over the couch and flying at the voice as they howled. Rey jumps in the opposite way, watching as the stranger was set upon by the guys. It took a moment for Rey to realize that they weren’t actually beating him up. She took a long swig of her drink.

Out of the male-bonding wrestling pit emerged one of the tallest, broadest men she had ever seen. He wore all black like the rest of them, but there was something different about him. Long black hair came to his shoulders and Rey fought off the sudden urge to run her fingers through it. His pale skin was covered in smatterings of moles and freckles and his long nose was hooked from a break that didn’t heal right. It wasn’t until his eyes caught hers that the world seemed to break away under her feet. She felt his intense brown eyes from across the room. They dropped down before traveling back up again. He met her with eyes with a smirk and Rey scowled back. Something flashed across his face, too quick for Rey to tell what it was. Confusion, maybe?

Kuruk caught him staring at her and puffed out his chest in some sort of testosterone filled dominance display. The stranger's eyes didn’t leave her. Rey did the only thing she could think of to win whatever battle she was having with this asshole and downed the rest of the Captain's bottle without breaking eye contact. The corner of his lip tweaked up.

Kuruk cleared his throat. “Kylo - Rey. Rey - Kylo.”

#reylo fanfic #rey x ben #kylo x rey #reylo au #ben solo deserved better #reylo fiction #reylo fanfiction

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midnightartemis · 4 years

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Chapter One (On AO3 Now!)

She learned how to survive. Learned how he always hit her where no one could see, but he only did it when he was raging drunk and he only was raging drunk a few times a month. She learned his tells, knew that some nights she was better off stealing a slushie from the 7-Eleven and camping out at the skatepark until it was late enough to go back home.

As long as she did her chores and didn’t give him trouble, Plutt let her be. Rey was okay with that. She could survive that.

She’s been coming to the park for a while now, at least when the weather was decent, which it almost always was in Southern Cali. There was something comforting about the sound of wheels and boards on concrete, the whoops and hollers of the skaters, the warmth of the sun on her skin. Reminded her of the desert- only the best parts. People left her alone.

They had learned to after… Well, after they learned what happened when they didn’t. A few bloody noses. A few broken boards. Cause and effect.

The only ones who ever paid her any mind were Kuruk and his small band of boys in black. She respected their space and they respected hers. And after the broken nose incident, she’d almost become an honorary member of their group. A staple of the skatepark. She’d never had anywhere to belong before.

It didn’t mean anything and you could fuck off if you thought it did.

Rey watched them lazily, sipping on her stolen slushie as Cardo and AP kept biffing it on the same rail trick with a loud “fuck!” Every time.

There were a few other people around, but like usual, most had left as it started to get dark.

“Hey! Hey!”

Rey snapped to focus, frowning as she realized Kuruk had been trying to get her attention for a while and was now slowly jogging over to her. He held his board at his side and there was a lopsided smile on his face. He wore black baggy jeans and a baggy t-shirt like the rest of them and he always kept his dark hair buzz cut like he once thought about joining the military but only committed to the hairstyle.

“What.”

Kuruk laughed. “You’re a Rey of fuckin sunshine, you know that?”

Rey rolled her eyes. It was only the millionth time he had used that line on her. “What do you want, Kuruk?”

She sighed. “You better have the good vodka this time. And better smokes. Those last ones tasted like dried out ass crack.”

“Yeah, yeah. Totally. One of my buddies is coming back from Chandrila and bringing the good college town shit.”

She didn’t know much about college towns but was fairly certain that “good college town shit” didn’t exist. She nodded anyway. “Fine. But imma kick your ass in Mario Kart.”

“Bet.” Kuruk offered her a hand and Rey let him pull her to her feet. She practically flew off the ground and threw them both into the bowl. It wasn’t that Kuruk was supernaturally strong or anything- she had seen him shirtless and seen that unfortunate happy trail- it was just that she was built like a skinny prepubescent boy with an eating disorder. Rey landed in Kuruk’s arms and scowled, shoving him off before he could say anything. Some whistles echoed over the park. She grabbed her melted purple slushie and flipped off the rest of the guys.

They skated through the darkening streets of Coruscant, slow enough that Rey could keep up on foot. It wasn’t hard. None of them could go ten feet without tipping a trash can over or trying to nail a trick off the curb. No one cared as they loudly made their way down the street, making themselves known to the world in the one way they could. Rey trailed after them in the dark. They left the cracked and degrading streets and dipped through a hole in the chain-link fence, passing through a barely used rail yard and a dry culvert until they reached a small mostly abandoned warehouse.

A few years back some real estate guy had bought it and started trying to convert the place into condos. He got about halfway done before, probably, coming to his senses and realizing that no one on the south side of Coruscant wanted to buy a luxury condo. Even if there was exposed brick and industrial aesthetic , there was also high crime rates and a hatred of outsiders and gentrification. Scared off most of the investors and the rest vanished after the recession hit and never seemed to leave the south side. Buying the one completed loft back from the city was the only smart decision the guys ever made. Even if they only did it to piss the cops off who kept kicking them out for trespassing.

The Loft as they called it consisted of a giant open area that functioned as a gaming room and kitchen, the most disgusting bathroom Rey had ever stepped foot in, and three bedrooms which had once been split between all of them till Cardo got his own place and Vic moved in with his pregnant girlfriend. Three bedrooms became six after one drunken night where Ushar had taken a sledgehammer to the wall and broken into the abandoned half-finished apartment next door. As far as Rey knew, they were arguing between turning that living room into a sex dungeon or a pool table room. The vote was fifty-fifty since Rey refused to participate and Trudge, convinced he could have both, refused to pick a side. The whole place constantly smelled of weed and Kuruk’s weird incense.

Rey would never admit it, but she secretly loved the place. The ceilings were at least twelve feet high and there were huge metal-framed windows that looked out over a field of dead grass to the lights of the city.

Kuruk dug through the mess of a freezer pulling out a half bottle of Everclear and a mostly empty bottle of Captain Morgan, which Rey snatched from him without a word. She found an unopened can of coke and poured it straight into the Captain's bottle, swishing it around before taking a large sip. No one blinked an eye.

Across the room, Ushar cursed as he tried to get the projector working. It wasn’t that old of a projector, but it had been purchased from some seedy electronic store that definitely looked the other way on where they acquired their products. Gaming was about the only thing they ever spent their money on and they had almost every game and system out there. That was the other reason Rey secretly liked this place. Secretly liked most of them.

Rey carried her bottle with her across the room, stopping Ushar before the stout Mexican twin started to rip the machine apart in frustration. His brother, Trudge, was the same in almost every way- built like a tank and while they could be bright at times, they were oblivious to almost everything.

If she was being honest, AP was the only guy she ever thought about letting win their stupid bet. He was shy and generally quiet and never really said much to her, which Rey preferred. He was cute, too, with short black hair, dark skin, and brown eyes. But he was more like a brother than anything. He was insanely smart, which made him the brains of the operation, and about the only one with any real sense. He took up his usual position on the couch and started to roll a joint from their last bits of weed.

“Hey, dickheads. The lady’s already chosen Mario Kart.” Kuruk slammed a shot glass on the table. “Loser finishes the Everclear.”

“She always fuckin wins.” Trudge groaned. “She always picks rainbow road. I fuckin hate rainbow road.”

Rey smiled to herself as Trudge and Ushar groaned but ultimately complied with their ringleader’s orders.

She could kick their asses at Mario Kart with a blindfold on. Rey snatched up the Wii remote and easily beat Trudge, Ushar, and Kuruk on Mario Kart’s three hardest courses. Even when Kuruk sat beside her and Trudge tried to tackle him over the back of the couch. Happy with her victory and at the sight of Ushar and Trudge gagging down straight Everclear, she released them to fight over endless rounds of COD.

Her and AP quietly pass the last joint back and forth, her eyes growing hazy as she practices blowing smoke rings into the air.

“God you fuckers are rank.”

Kuruk caught him staring at her and puffed out his chest in some sort of testosterone-filled dominance display. The stranger's eyes didn’t leave her. Rey did the only thing she could think of to win whatever battle she was having with this asshole and downed the rest of the Captain's bottle without breaking eye contact. The corner of his lip tweaked up.

Kuruk cleared his throat. “Kylo - Rey. Rey - Kylo.”

Kylo. Rey glared. What was it with them and stupid names?

Kylo frowned at her glare for only a moment before shoving a black backpack into Kuruk’s chest. “I brought your shit seeing as that’s the only reason you wanted me back, fucker.”

Maker, his voice. Deep and rough liked smoked whiskey and thunder. She wasn’t high enough for this.

Rey sat back down on the end seat of the couch and tried to mindlessly watch as Trudge and Ushar went back to trying to kill each other. AP returned to his rolling board with the fresh bag of weed. Bag of bags Rey realized. There had to be several hundred dollars in a dozen different strains in there. She tried not to let her eyes drift to the newcomer. He stood in the kitchen pouring drinks with Kuruk. The muscles in his back stretched his tight black t-shirt as he moved. The bottle he held looked fucking minuscule in his hands. He talked to Kuruk with dark eyes and a scowl on his face, never stopping as he pulled bartending tools out of various drawers and cabinets. He knew the loft. He knew them well enough to waltz in and start digging through the drawers.

Rey looked away before Kuruk could catch her watching Kylo. It was barely a secret that Kuruk was trying to claim her— a fact that pissed her off to no end. But the last thing she wanted tonight was to start a fight. She just wanted to bliss out for a bit. Pass out on the couch so she didn’t have to wander back to Plutt until the afternoon when her shift started.

Her eyes kept betraying her, slipping away from COD to the man taking up a majority of the kitchen. Kylo had pulled several bottles of liquor and mixers from the bag and- was that a fucking lemon and lime?

Kylo’s eyes flickered up to meet hers. A little smirk formed on his lips and Rey kept her mouth in a firm scowl. She already had too many cocky assholes in her life. She didn’t need one more.

She looked away from him and poked AP with her foot. Without skipping a beat, he pulled her favorite bong out from under the table, packed it, and handed it and a lighter to her. Maybe she wasn’t completely surrounded by assholes. He knew not to give her sativas, not after the time he found her in the bathtub having a full-blown panic attack.

Rey adjusted herself and lit up, filling the pipe until it was opaque with smoke. She sucked the entire take deep into her lungs in one go, holding it there as she let her head fall back. She let the smoke out slowly playing with it and blowing double rings into the air to watch them drift lazily up. Kuruk wasn’t lying. This was the good stuff. A dark figure stepped into the corner of her eye and Rey looked up to find Kylo standing by the couch. He held a dark amber drink in one hand and a pale pink drink in the other.

“Trade?” There was a teasing quality to his question that pissed Rey off. No doubt the pink drink was meant for her. Rey smiled sweetly.

“Sure.” She pressed the bong to his ridiculously broad chest— no she was not noticing or thinking about it at all— and snatched the glass of amber liquid from his hand. A puzzled look crossed over his face and Rey pushed away the unwanted thought that he was kinda cute. For an asshole. A moment later that cocky smile was back and he set the pink drink on the table. Kylo motioned for the lighter and she handed it to him snatching her hand back like she was burned when his hand brushed against her own. Rey blamed it on the fact that she was half-way to Elysium when she openly stared at him as he took a hit as strong as her own and pulled off a proper French inhale.

It wasn’t sexy.

It wasn’t sexy at all.

A moment later he exhaled completely, their smoke combining to hang around them in a thick haze. His eyes never left her and Rey wondered if he could see into the darkest depths of her soul to see his own reflection. He handed the bong back to her, reached down for the pink drink and downed it all in one go.

A loud swear from Trudge broke Rey out of whatever hellish subspace she had been trapped in with Kylo. AP shot her a glance like he saw everything that happened and behind him in the kitchen, Kuruk looked close to murder. He had seen too.

“How long you staying, Ren?” AP shifted between the two of them, sensing the impending fight as much as Rey did.

“No fucking clue. Might stick around for a bit.”

“Awwww was college too much for you, Einstein?” Kuruk pouted mockingly.

“Nah. They’re blaming me for nearly blowing up the chem building. Academic probation since they can’t prove it wasn’t an accident.” Kylo held on to his glass and stared down Kuruk. AP went back to rolling his joints not wanting to get in the middle of it. This was bigger than her, Rey realized. Territory dispute.

Strange how they do that. Though girls tended to be worse than guys. Guys just wanted to sleep with her. Girls wanted to murder her. Sometimes it was cause and effect— either way.

“Was it?” It took a moment for her brain to catch up to her mouth to realize she had said that.

Kylo raised an eyebrow. “Was it what, sunshine?”

“Fuck off, dickwad.” Kuruk plopped down beside her and threw his arm on the couch behind her shoulder. Not quite touching her but still trying to stake a claim on her. As if he could. He smelt of BO and stale cigarettes and she couldn’t get the thought of that sad happy trail out of her head. She wasn’t in the mood to be the chess piece in whatever fucked up game they were playing.

“Touch me, Kuruk, and you’ll wake up without a dick.”

Mr. Tall, dark, and asshole snorts, but his eyes widen ever so slightly as Kuruk actually takes his arm away from her without complaint. She smirks a little, thinking back to the time when Kuruk thought she was only joking. He had figured out pretty quickly that Rey would follow through on her threats when he woke up with a knife hovering over his junk. It was clear to them after that that no one touched her without her permission. After a while, they just straight up accepted it. No one touches Rey. Kuruk was the only one to ever press that boundary.

Rey picks up her bong and goes back to practicing smoke rings. She’s been working on her triple ring trick for a while but can’t seem to get the timing down. It’s relaxing. She could focus all her energy on just that and let the rest of the world drift away for a while.

AP finished rolling his joints and packed her bong again before picking up his bag and taking off without a word. He’d be back in a few hours and about 500$ richer. Split between the six of them with the majority going to Kylo and AP, she’d maybe get twenty bucks out of it. Still twenty bucks was twenty bucks. Maybe she’d actually buy her slushie next time.

Her neck burned as if someone was watching her. Sure enough when she looked over Kylo’s eyes were unabashedly fixed on her and ignoring Kuruk’s pointed glares. Rey stared back at him, her eyes slowly caressing over his cheekbones and strong jaw. She found constellations in his freckles. He leaned back in his chair letting her observe him, a faint cocky smile ghosting his lips. She wondered for a minute if she should feel embarrassed for ogling him like this, but she couldn’t. Not when she felt so light and free. Not when nothing mattered. Not really. This must be what death felt like.

She wondered what he’d taste like. What his moans sounded like. If his touch would feel like fire against her skin. He looked at her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking and was wondering the same thing.

But why?

Why... when you’re nothing. When you’re no one. When you’re far too skinny and you have no tits and half-healed bruises on your ribs. When even the gentlest touch makes you want to puke. You’re nothing but a quick lay. Something to use and discard.

Rey frowned and quickly locked her emotions down in the darkest parts of her. Kylo frowned, too. His eyes flitted away from her but never strayed far.

Learning how to swim but the lands are dry Feeling like a shark, If I stop I'll die Things are lit and the blood's on fire Underneath the buzz of the telephone wire

All my friends are doing fine While I'm looking for a sign Is this body even mine? Feels good to be alive but I hate my life

So tied up and tired of this self-inflicted fight In spite of, I light up, to leave my demons inside Tell myself I'm fine while I'm looking for a sign Is this body even mine? Feels good to be alive but I hate my life

- Good to Be Alive, PVRIS

#reylo fanfic #reylo #kylo x rey #rey x ben #ben solo x rey #reylo ao3 #reylo fanfiction

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