all the colours of the aether (star wars | leia/rey)

[fiachairecht]

all the colours of the aether. star wars sequels, leia/rey. in the void there is leia and there is rey and they are everything. 500w, rated t. for hollowbolding.

The Force that curls warm at the base of Leia's skull gnaws at her with sharper teeth than usual when she's in space. She thinks sometimes it's because there isn't room for it in her heart, so full up it is already with absences and loss: holes where once had been Alderaan, Han, Luke, Ben — all scarred over with the tired necessity of war that there's hardly space for the lives she's fighting for, much less the Force in all its everything.

Other nights, safe in Amilyn's arms for a few stolen moments on the Ninka, she remembers the rush of power whenever she's let even a fraction of it into her heart, thinks about all the good that could come to their tiny fleet if she reached out to a few right minds and let them tip over with a silent click.

Leia knows exactly why the burning spark of the Force rests in her where it does.

When the bridge is blown apart around her, Leia has just enough time to think of who is still alive: Amilyn. Rey. D'Acy. Dameron. Ben.

And then there is nothing.

Nothing, but Leia is everything. There is nothing but the void around her because she has swallowed everything else whole, taken one breath and let galaxies flood her lungs, blinked and let all the stars collect and explode behind her eyelids.

There is not even air, and yet in the petrified dark there is still the Force, because there is still Leia and she is still alive.

And then there is Rey, too.

Rey and more, because while the Rey she remembers carried hope inside her like a flame it was always so carefully guarded, shared with the furtiveness of a scavenger still discovering that care could last longer than it took to next get paid.

You're not here, Leia would say if she could speak in this small bubble of air she's gathered round herself, but Rey picks up the thought anyway.

No, she smiles sadly. I'm not. But I'm never not with you, Leia, I couldn't stop feeling you if I wanted to. She holds out her hands, and it's as if she's reached right into the heart of Leia, right to the sharp-toothed burning that's spiraled down her spine, and dug her nails in and clung to something she can't help but recognise as hers too.

Come back, Rey says, and at her words Leia too reaches out. Easy now, in the vacuum that slips past her quicker than thought. Easy now, the light spilling from Rey's cosmic apparition illuminating her home no longer out of her grasp.

Easy now, want for a present pressed from Rey's hands to hers like a gift not quite bright enough to eclipse a hope for a future.

Rey isn't here at all, but she is kept safe in Leia's heart.

Rey isn't here at all, but when she kisses Leia her mouth is warm and her teeth are so, so sharp.