Hope (Kylo Ren/Ben Solo x Original Character)

Reencounter

24 ABY

Takodana

Maz's Castle

One more night of work began at the Castle. Sara was happy for finally having convinced Maz to let her work there at night as well as during the day – after all she was already 18 years old. She loved to work in the Castle, it was noisy and crowded, full of the most interesting people in the Galaxy – she was never bored.

"Sara!" Maz called from the middle of the packed floor. "Big crowd incoming!"

"Ok. I'm on it!" she quickly prepared a tray with snacks and full glasses of flameout, meltdown cocktail and Geillian ale and left the counter towards the big crowd of masked guys that filled two tables.

"Night, guys." Sara greeted them, putting her tray on the table so that each man took his drink of preference. "First time here in the Castle?"

"Yes." one of them replied.

"If I knew such beauty worked here, I'd have come sooner." said another. "I'm Jon."

"Well, Jon," continued Sara, ignoring the last comment. "You can't really drink with your masks on and we have a no-masks policy here, we like to see our clients faces, so, please remove your masks. There are Demicot silk bags under the tables for you to store them while here." she took the empty tray back.

They all obeyed, removing their masks and putting them into the silk bags. All except one.

"What's wrong, Kylo? Doesn't want the pretty lady to see your ugly face?" joked one of the men.

Sara looked at the one who still had the mask on and her heart skipped a beat – she knew who was behind that black mask.

He slowly lifted his arms and disengaged the mask's lock on the back of the neck. With the mask in hands, the dark eyes she knew and loved looked at her, the shock of seeing him nearly making her drop her tray. Three years since she had last seen him; three years trying to understand what had happened that night at the Temple. Time seemed to stop as they stared at each other – all the noise in the Castle passing unacknowledged by Sara's ears.

"Sara!" Maz called, approaching her carefully, noticing something was wrong. She touched her arm. "Dear, I need your help at the counter."

"Yes." Sara answered, as if getting out of a trance. "I'll go there right away."

She forced herself to look away from him and walked to the counter, holding on to it, trying to keep herself from falling. He was there, she was having a hard time believing it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. For the next hour or so she worked preparing cocktails, filling and washing glasses, not once lifting her head to look at him. But she could feel his eyes on her.

"Sara." she heard a familiar voice calling her by the counter.

She mustered up the courage and looked at him.

"Kylo, right?" she asked sarcastically. "What can I do for you?"

"I... Can we talk?"

"No." she kept on working on the glasses.

"I have some things to tell you."

"They didn't matter three years ago. They don't matter now." she looked into his eyes. "Kylo."

********************************

"What's the deal?" Maz asked her, three hours after Ben had arrived.