There he is. There. Kylo's very favourite thought, sliding through the tangle of all his buried hopes and insecurities to curl into the hollow, desolate space Kylo had set aside for all the rescues that never came and declare it home. Ronan, shedding his humanity, becomes the life-giving relief of water to desperately parched lips. Air to burning lungs. Light in the darkness. Help for the abandoned. Change to the inevitable.

And as it settles into place, this beautiful idea that causes all Kylo's impossible struggles to shift their shapes until they can accommodate two, the certainty of Ronan's existence as a being who chooses to stand with him in full knowledge of everything he is becomes something Kylo had never been able to find on his own: a belief in a way out.

He draws in a shuddering, steadying breath, stoops down to retrieve Ronan's sword from the mud, then turns back towards the farmhouse. It won't be easy, no. But they can do this. Together, they can accomplish anything.