Luke had to admit that being in space again had been pretty cool and it had felt good to be on a mission, but he was also glad to be back in Atlantis. Sometime in the past few months, he’d come to think of this city as his home. It was good to be back.
It wasn’t long after settling in that he found himself walking to Rey’s apartment and knocking on the door. She’d become more than just one of his trainees. Rey was a friend, possibly the one he felt closest to in all of Atlantis. Now that he was back, he wanted to see her.
Pausing in front of her door, he raised his hand to knock and hoped she would be there.
Rey had just gotten out of the shower when she heard someone at the door. Reaching out with the Force she felt Luke’s presence and she didn’t have the slightest idea what to do. Throwing on the pajama pants and the big t-shirt she slept in, she ran a comb through her wet hair and took a deep breath. She had been angry at Luke when he left and she had no idea why. There was no specific reason for her anger, but still it was there. Everything he said annoyed her and he seemed to enjoy flirting with other women and that was even stranger, why should she care? “I have no idea,” she answered her reflection in the mirror then looked at Wookie who was sitting on the floor looking at her. “You might want to stay in here,” she said, scratching the little dog behind the ears.
She left the room and went to the door and opened it. Sometimes Rey forgot how good looking he was. Sometimes she could convince herself that he was that old man on the island who had said not a word to her but that wasn’t true. Somehow that man had been this man at some point and Rey knew as she looked at him that is was time for her to admit that he was more than just a teacher or a friend, there was something underneath it all but she had no idea how to explain it. “Hi,” she said with a smile. “I’d heard that you all were back. Some of the ships came in to be inspected. Come in, have a seat.” Rey waved in the direction of the couch. “Can I get you something?”
“I was going to ask if you wanted to get a late dinner,” Luke said as he smiled back with her, “but it looks like you’re in for the night.” He paused, shuffling awkwardly from one foot to the other. “Are you sure I [...] I mean I don’t want to intrude if you....” He trailed off, not even really sure what he wanted to say. He also didn’t know why he was feeling so awkward all of a sudden.
He should have called first, let her know he was planning to stop by. Really, he wouldn’t blame her if she wanted him to go. Showing up unannounced like this probably wasn’t cool.
“Of course, I’m sure,” she insisted. “I was a little late getting home from work so I just hopped in the shower. I’m sorry I look such a mess.” Rey felt her face turn red and immediately wish she knew how to talk to people, specifically men, specifically this man a little better. “I want to hear about the mission and we’ll be more comfortable here than anywhere else.”
“You don’t,” Luke assured her as he stepped inside. “You look...” he paused, as if searching for the right word. “Comfortable.” That was probably the dumbest thing he could have said, but there it was.
Nodding, he let her lead him towards her sofa where they could sit and talk. He didn’t mind her not wanting to go out so much, since the real reason he was here was that he had wanted to see her.
“Comfortable, I like that. And I am so that fits,” she sat down in the corner of the couch where she usually curled up and looked over at him. “So how was it? It must have been amazing in space again. I miss it a lot even though I really didn’t spend that much time there all told but it was so much better than Jakku. And beautiful.” Rey couldn’t believe sometimes that so much had happened to her in just a matter of days before she’d come here. From finding BB8 to all that happened on the Finalizer, meeting Finn and Poe, finding Luke….it hadn’t been that long yet it seemed like it had been forever.
“It felt good to be on a ship again,” Luke admitted. “Even if the worlds we sent our teams to weren’t familiar than me, the feeling was familiar and it felt good to do something other than just training.” He enjoyed working with his students, some in particular, but being on mission gave him a stronger feeling of purpose. It reminded him a little of the work he’d done for the last couple of years before is arrival in Atlantis.
“I understand. I like what I’m doing but after the kidnapping thing and doing more training, I’ve been thinking about asking for a transfer, to join a team if they have a position available. I think I can do it, I believe I’m ready. What do you think?” She knew that Luke would be honest with her, and that’s why she asked him. Her fighting skills were as good as anyone’s having been honed from years of taking care of herself. There were some of the finer points that she wasn’t entirely confident in and she knew that the teams got into some interesting situations on missions sometimes.
“I think any one of the teams would be lucky to have you,” Luke said without hesitation. Rey might still have some things to learn, but Luke had been impressed with her strength and aptitude from the beginning. He believed she could do anything she put her mind to as he knew she was more than capable of handling herself in the field.
Rey smiled, she wasn’t always entirely certain about where she stood with him when it came to her training, he never said anything bad but he was always so serious that she was worried that there might be something she didn’t know. She hadn’t sensed anything amiss but he was certainly capable of blocking her if he wanted to. “Thank you,” she said and impulsively reached over and grabbed his hand. “That means a lot to me. I’ll find out who I need to speak to and see where there is an opening.” People were always coming and going in Atlantis and sometimes it was difficult to keep track so she had no idea what might be open.
“You don’t have to thank me. I said it because it’s true.” He might not say a lot during training, aside from the instructions he had to give, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t proud of her. Impressed, even. She was as strong in the force as he was, maybe even stronger. Beyond that, though, there was so much pure goodness in Rey. She had a good heart and she knew that would serve her well in the field, too.
“Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll be assigned to a mission together sometime,” he added with a smile.
“That would be interesting. I’d probably be nervous if that happened, afraid I’d make a mistake.” That wasn’t entirely true, Rey was confident in her abilities for the most part but for some reason she wanted to impress Luke, wanted him to notice her. “And I’d have to push all the women who flirt with you out of the way if I needed to ask you something.”
Luke just stood there, kind of staring at her. Women flirted with him? He supposed he had a few female friends in Atlantis - Rey and Mara among them, but he didn’t think he’d noticed any flirting. He was too surprised by her comment to even say anything.
Her eyes widened and she moved her hand and clamped it over her mouth. How could she say such a thing? Sure, she’d noticed that women flirted with Luke on the network and he didn’t seem to mind but why should that bother her? It wasn’t as if they were any more than friends despite the whole Kristoff and Anna thing and the drunken kiss on St. Patrick’s Day but to be fair, she’d kissed a lot of people that night, everyone had. The other thing was just Atlantis magic, it didn’t mean anything even though she thought about it every now and then. As for the night she’d come home from the kidnapping and he’d stayed with her, the night she’d fallen asleep in his arms, that was what she thought about the most. She wanted it to mean something but she was afraid to admit it.
Luke opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get any words out, she was apologizing.
“I’m sorry,” she said, moving her hand. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m really very sorry. Of course you can talk to whoever you want, and you’re friendly and….I’ll be shutting up now. Do you want some water? I can go get it?” She stood up quickly but didn’t get very far because she felt him touch her hand and she turned around.
“Rey,” Luke said simply, still searching for the right words. He sensed that there was more to what she’d said, some other feeling that had prompted it, but he couldn’t say what exactly that was without pushing further into her mind and he wouldn’t invade her like that without her permission.
“I don’t want any water. I want you to tell me what’s going on,” he said after a moment.
She couldn’t lie to him even if she wanted to. He obviously knew something was bothering her and maybe it was best that she just say it and be done with it. Sitting back down, she folded her hands in her lap and looked at him. “Lately I’ve noticed that I have these…...feelings. Like when I see you on the network and people, women actually, say things to you, it’s like you’re flirting with them. Or you’re being really cocky like when that person said oh my god and you said she could call just call you Luke. That wasn’t you, at least not the you that I’ve come to know.” Rey paused and took a deep breath.
Luke opened his mouth again, but she was talking again before he could get a word out.
“I know we didn’t get along at first and that was partly my fault because i was having a hard time with reconciling the man I had just seen with the man I met here. I don’t know what happened to make you run away from everyone but I was afraid I had something to do with it even if that was impossible.” Rey hadn’t even believed he actually existed until she and Finn had met Han but he did exist and he was sitting right in front of her.
This time, he waited patiently to see if she had more to say. As it turned out, she did and he let her.
“Then we thought we were other people and there was kissing and that confused the hell out of me. I don’t have much experience with that sort of thing, it’s not like there are a lot of options on Jakku, but I’ve had a few dates and they never ended well because they always wanted something that I wasn’t ready to give them and I had to smack a couple with my staff so after that, word got around and if there were any single men who were near my age, they were afraid of me.” she made a face and gave a little laugh. “But you’re different. If anyone’s afraid here, it’s me because I’ve never felt this way before and I don’t know what to do about it but there’s more here than just you being my friend, at least I think there is and I……” she took a deep breath. “Well I suppose that’s all I have to say.”
Luke was standing there, trying to process everything she’d just said. It wasn’t a question of whether or not he had feelings for her. He known the truth of that the moment she’d gone missing a couple of months ago. He hadn’t done anything about those feelings, though, because he honestly hadn’t been sure that he should.
She looked at him and tried to read his face but she was afraid to look too deeply so she looked at her hands instead. It would be easier to bear when he told her that he didn’t feel anything for her if she didn’t look in his eyes, she thought, because if she looked in those blue eyes she would be lost. Especially if she saw pity there.
He still wasn’t sure what the right thing to do was, but he couldn’t let her sit there and think her feelings were all one-sided. Dropping down to kneel in front of her, he reached for her hand and used the other one to gently tilt her chin up so she had to look at him.
“Rey,” he said softly, “there is only one woman in Atlantis I’m interested in like that and she’s sitting right in front of me.”
She couldn’t help but look at him and when she did, her heart turned over. What she saw in his eyes wasn’t pity, it was far from it and she gave him a little smile. “Really?” Considering how much she’d been babbling up to this point, even she was surprised when only one word came out of her mouth.
“Yes, really,” he said. Moving his hand over her cheek, he leaned up to kiss her and this time there was no kind of weird Atlantis magic behind it.
Rey returned his kiss, scooting forward a bit and resting her hand on his shoulder. There were no other people at the back of their minds this time, it was only the two of them and she couldn’t believe how amazing it felt.
When he pulled back several moments later, Luke was quiet for a moment as he just rested his forehead against hers. “This could be tricky. I’m still your trainer.” He didn’t know what sort of rules Atlantis had about things like that. It had just felt like a line he wasn’t sure he should cross.
“That’s true but there are other trainers who are involved with the people they train. We’re also not the sort of people to let our feelings for each other get in the way of doing what’s right.” she ran her fingers over his lips, still not quite believing that they had gotten to this point. “And I know that if you thought I wasn’t doing something properly, you’d tell me and I want you to. We understand each other, Luke. This is all totally new to me but I think it’s worth it.”
“I think it’s worth it, too,” he admitted before he leaned in to kiss her again.