Climbing out

Rey wasn’t entirely sure where to go, but standing around wasn’t going to help anyone. Arms crossed, she walked slowly out from the main chamber, nervously looking around.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted to find. While her ship would take her out of there, assuming it had survived the battle outside, it wasn’t exactly the first thing she wanted to find.

The one light she had, softly suffusing her surroundings with an eerie blue light, was Ben’s ghost.

She felt the cool a little more now she’d lost her layers. Carefully, she made her way through the built-over caves, a lightsaber hilt in each hand, coming to a stop as she reached a sheer metal wall.

“This way,” Ben said.

He moved back. Rey blushed and quickly spoke up.

“You first!” she said. “You, er, light the way.”

And not stand where he could see her. Her face reddened, and reddened more as she looked ahead. The way out of Exegol was up and out, namely up the ladder set into that wall. Her hands tightened, still clutching onto her own body.

Something bumped into her butt. Rey screamed, and blushed deeper when in a second Ben turned around to see what the fuss was about.

She shuffled around, moving to keep her back to the wall, and faced the thing that had touched her. It was the nerf. It looked up at her with wide, sad eyes.

Not someone else. That was… she wasn’t sure if that was good or not.

“I think it misses you,” Ben said.

Rey stared at the thing. Any eyes on her, even animal eyes, weren’t something she wanted just then.

“Do you think it remembers being my shoes?” Rey said in soft horror.

“I… probably not,” Ben said.

It nudged closer to her, head affectionately nudging her hand. It was just unfortunate that hand was all that separated her sex from the air. She yelped and stumbled sideways.

“We should go up,” Rey said.

“And leave it here?” Ben said. “I thought I’m meant to be the evil one.”

“We can come back and save it when we have a ship big enough to take it, a route out that doesn’t involve climbing stairs, and I’m not naked,” Rey said back.

Ben paused, conceding. Still, he looked pityingly back at the nerf before walking over to the ladder and reaching for it, preparing to lead the way. His transparent hand passed right through the first rung.

“I don’t know why I thought that would work,” Ben said.

“Can you… float?” Rey said.

“Maybe,” Ben said. “Somehow.”

She stared at him for a moment. He screwed up his face as though concentrating, but stayed firmly on the ground.

Rey sighed. That figured.

“See you again out there,” Rey said.

“Yeah,” Ben said. “I hope so.”

“And…”

“I know,” Ben said.

He gave her a smile that was pure Ben Solo, and only made her blush deeper. Slowly Rey moved past him, and reached for the ladder herself, unable to help a squeak as the friendly nerf bumped into her butt again as she started climbing.

Naked, Rey ascended the ladder, trying not to think about how much Ben would see if he looked up. It was awkward to hold both the rungs and the lightsabers, but she needed both hands on the ladder.

It was a long climb, but hopefully there wouldn’t be much left after.