Ray shifted slightly on the bed as Kate opened the movie on her laptop.
The small screen cast a pale blue glow across the dim cabin, mixing with the soft yellow light from the lamp beside the bed. Outside, the campfire gathering had grown louder. Laughter and distant music drifted through the open window, but inside the cabin everything felt quieter.
Kate pulled her legs up onto the bed and sat beside him, setting the laptop between them.
"Okay," she said with the seriousness of someone introducing a sacred ritual. "We're starting from the beginning."
Ray glanced at the screen.
"This better not be six hours long."
Kate shot him a look.
"It's a cultural experience."
Ray leaned back against the wall behind the bed, stretching his legs out slightly while the opening of the movie began playing.
For a few minutes neither of them spoke.
The room filled with the familiar orchestral music from the film as the opening scene began. The light from the screen flickered across their faces while Kate watched attentively, clearly waiting for his reaction.
Ray kept his eyes on the screen.
After a moment, he spoke.
"So the old guy with the beard… he's the main character, right?"
Kate turned slowly toward him.
The look on her face suggested she was reconsidering every life choice that had led her to this moment.
"It's Qui-Gon Jinn," Kate said, not taking her eyes off the screen. "And yes, for now he's the main character. Now shut up."
She adjusted the laptop on her legs, trying to get comfortable while the movie continued playing. The small screen tilted slightly as she shifted, and she leaned back a little against the wall.
Ray moved just enough so the laptop wouldn't slide.
Their shoulders brushed.
Neither of them reacted to it.
They were sitting very close now, the glow from the screen lighting their faces in the dim cabin. Kate was so focused on the movie—and still mildly furious about Ray's complete lack of Star Wars knowledge—that she didn't seem to notice the distance between them had almost completely disappeared.
Ray, on the other hand, definitely noticed.
But he didn't say anything.
He simply kept watching the screen, occasionally glancing at Kate as she stared at the movie with intense concentration, like she was making sure he absorbed every second of it properly.
About an hour passed.
Kate was still completely absorbed in the movie, occasionally pausing just long enough to explain something to Ray whenever she felt he wasn't fully appreciating what was happening.
The glow lit both their faces as the race scene finished.
Ray leaned back slightly and shrugged.
"So the kid just won the race," he said. "Figures."
Kate slowly turned her head toward him.
Her eyes narrowed.
The look she gave him could only be described as murderous.
"Don't insult Anakin Skywalker… in my presence," she said, pointing a finger directly at him.
Idiot.
Ray looked at the finger for a moment.
Then back at her face.
He raised his hands slightly in surrender, amused.
"Alright, alright. My bad."
Kate huffed quietly and turned back toward the laptop, though the dramatic seriousness of her warning lingered in the air for a moment before the movie pulled her attention back in.
Another twenty minutes passed.
The cabin was quiet except for the voices from the movie and the distant sounds of the campfire outside.
Ray had been watching in relative silence for a while now.
Then suddenly—
"Why would they not train the boy?!" he shouted.
Kate nearly jumped.
Ray sat up slightly, pointing at the laptop screen.
"Like—motherfucker's literally stronger than that gremlin over there!"
Kate froze.
Very slowly, she turned her head toward him.
Her expression went blank.
Completely blank.
For a long moment she didn't say a word.
Then she inhaled slowly through her nose, like someone trying very hard not to commit a crime.
"That," she said slowly, dangerously calmly, "is Yoda."
Her eyes narrowed.
"And you will respect him."
"From now on he's Master Gremlin," Ray said teasingly.
Kate didn't respond.
She kept her eyes on the screen, arms folded now as the movie continued playing.
But inside her head, an entirely different scene was unfolding.
For a brief moment she seriously wondered if committing a crime would be legally justified in this situation.
Her jaw tightened slightly as she stared at the laptop.
Ray, completely unaware of the storm forming beside him, leaned back against the wall again, looking far too satisfied with himself.
As the movie neared its end, the room had grown quiet again.
The laptop screen flickered softly across their faces while the final scenes played out.
Ray glanced over at Kate.
Her eyes were glossy.
For a moment she didn't say anything, just staring at the screen while the music swelled in the background.
"It's like I have to live the funeral of Qui-Gon over and over again every time I watch this," she said quietly.
She blinked a few times, trying to keep her composure, but the emotion was still there in her voice.
Ray looked at her for a moment, slightly surprised.
After all the arguing, teasing, and yelling earlier, seeing her this genuinely affected by the movie caught him a little off guard.
The laptop continued playing the final moments of the scene while the soft sounds from the campfire outside drifted through the window.
As the subtitles began rolling across the screen, the music slowly fading into the background, Kate turned her head and looked at him.
She waited.
Ray noticed immediately.
"It was… alright," he said.
Kate stared at him.
He could tell she was waiting for something more dramatic—some revelation, some emotional speech about destiny and lightsabers.
But that was the best he had.
Ray braced himself slightly, expecting another explosion.
Instead—
Kate smiled.
"Obviously it's only alright for now," she said calmly. "We'll see after the third movie."
A small smirk appeared on her face.
Before Ray could even process what that meant, she clicked something on the laptop.
The next movie began loading.
Ray blinked.
"Wait—"
Too late.
The opening music of the second movie started playing as Kate settled back comfortably against the wall like she had just committed them to a sacred marathon.
Another hour passed.
The cabin had grown darker as the night outside settled in, the only real light now coming from the laptop screen glowing between them. The distant sounds from the campfire drifted faintly through the window—laughter, a guitar strumming somewhere in the background, and the occasional shout from someone who had probably had too many beers.
Kate was still explaining things to him.
Every now and then she would pause the movie or lean slightly forward, pointing at the screen while giving Ray another quick explanation about a character, a planet, or something that had happened in the previous movie.
Ray listened.
Surprisingly, he didn't mind it at all.
In fact, he was starting to enjoy it more and more.
The movies themselves… well, if he was being honest, they weren't the best thing he had ever seen. At least not yet.
But watching Kate react to everything—seeing how invested she was, how seriously she took the story, how she got excited explaining every little detail—was strangely entertaining.
And if he was honest with himself, he liked seeing her like this.
So he kept that first opinion to himself.
No reason to make her mad again.
About an hour and fifteen minutes had passed.
At some point during the movie, without either of them really noticing when it happened, they had shifted closer and closer together.
The laptop had slowly slid between them as they adjusted their positions, and now they were almost leaning against each other while watching the screen.
Ray had one arm resting behind him against the wall, and Kate sat close enough that their shoulders brushed whenever one of them moved.
Neither of them had mentioned it.
But eventually the movie reached the scenes on Naboo.
The soft music, the quiet moments between Anakin and Padmé, the awkward romantic tension playing out on the screen.
And suddenly—
Kate noticed something.
She became very aware of how close they were sitting.
Very aware of the warmth beside her.
Her posture stiffened slightly.
A faint blush appeared across her cheeks.
For the first time in a while she wasn't really paying attention to the movie anymore.
But neither of them did anything about it.
They stayed where they were, close enough that their shoulders still brushed lightly now and then, while the movie continued toward its end.
The cabin was quiet except for the voices from the laptop and the faint sounds of the camp outside.
When the credits finally began rolling, Ray stretched slightly.
"It was better," he said. "But still…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Ray glanced at Kate.
He had expected another explosion.
Some passionate speech about how he still didn't understand the greatness of the saga.
Instead, Kate just sat there.
Her cheeks were still red.
And somehow that told him a lot more than an angry rant would have.
After a moment she cleared her throat and looked back at the laptop.
"Let's get into the third movie," she said.
Then she glanced at him briefly.
"I'll let you live… this once."