Chapter Text
"Oh my God, Rose, check this one out."
They'd been laying on Rey's bed for most of a lazy Saturday while her neighbor and best friend queued up the entire fifth season of Brooklyn-99 (she'd been horrified to find out Rey hadn't caught up on their favorite show), and at some point they'd gotten on the subject of Rey's dating life. That devolved into Rose trying to convince her to install Tinder.
After an hour (Rey mourned the two episodes they hadn't paid attention to), she'd given up protesting and installed the app. A few strategically angled selfies later, and Rey's account was up and running. She'd discovered quickly, and much to Rose's chagrin, that she'd been swiping the wrong way for at least a few men, but shrugged it off and started bugging Rose whenever she found a new right swipe.
Rose let her head roll in Rey's direction, and the girl side eyed her. "Is this another guy who's put pictures of his dog in, but no selfies? Dogs are cute, but if a guy has zero pictures of himself, it's not a great sign."
"No, no, not another one of those," she waved. "No direct pictures of his face, but this guy is built."
Rose snatched the phone she held out, narrowing her eyes at the screen. She tilted her head at the picture and hummed. "Kylo Ren, huh? What sort of name is that?" She shuffled through the few pictures the man had put up and nodded. "Okay, he's hot. I'd swipe right to ask what sort of conditioner he uses."
She handed the phone back to Rey, laid back against one of the pillows on the bed, and then perked back up. "Wait, I didn't even read his bio. What is it? Tell me he's not one of those guys who brags about how much he can lift."
"Uh... nope." Rey was both surprised and curious once she read through it. She'd almost swiped right the minute she saw the first picture—his full upper body was on display, covered by a tight dark gray t-shirt, but with the angle she didn't have a good view of his face. Possibly the most striking picture, though, was a sort-of profile showing a sharp jaw, plump lips, and an aquiline nose. Thick, dark hair hung over his eyes, and the whole picture was in gray tones, and-
"Are you going to share with the class, or just keep staring at the guy?"
Rey's attention snapped back to Rose, and she rolled her eyes. "So, he's older. Ten years older." She frowned. "Is that weird?"
The girl shrugged. "Maybe if you were barely legal. But it's not that weird. C'mon, share the rest."
Nodding, Rey cleared her throat and read off, "Kylo Ren, 31. I prefer books to people, but wouldn't mind the casual company of someone I could spoil…" Rose nodded, but tilted her head when Rey trailed off and blushed. "Question. If he says he's looking for a kitten, I'm guessing in this context, it doesn't mean small, baby cat, right?"
Rose let out a choking laugh. She sat up on the bed and grabbed her glass of iced tea off Rey's nightstand, taking a long drink before snorting. "Gimme that." She took the phone back and read through the profile. "Oh my God, Rey, you definitely summarized this bio. I don't care how subtle he's trying to be, this is kinky as fuck. Is this guy a sugar daddy or something?"
"Ooohkay, maybe you should swipe left-"
Rose jumped off the bed with the phone, a wicked grin on her face, "Not a chance." She swiped right before Rey could grab the phone back.
"No, wait-"
It was too late. Rey sighed.
"You have to message this guy," Rose instructed. "He's crazy hot, looking for something casual, and wants to spoil someone in the process? Why would you swipe left?"
"Because I'm not for sale!" Rey exclaimed, appalled. "Are you out of your mind?"
Her friend rolled her eyes. "Okay, don't let him buy you stuff. That doesn't mean you can't hook up with him. You have to admit, you were planning on swiping right before I mentioned anything kinky. Plus, maybe I'm interpreting it wrong! Message the guy and say hi. What's the worst that could happen?"
Rey considered it, then remembered Rose had already swiped right on her behalf, and groaned. "Okay, okay, fine. But let it be known, I thought this was a terrible idea."
"Sure," Rose drawled. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. Now come on, I think we missed like three episodes. You still have a lot of catching up to do."
"You are such a bitch sometimes," Rey muttered, tossing a pillow in her friend's direction.
Rose laughed and smacked her shoulder with the pillow she'd caught. "Whatever, you love me."
"Yeah, I love you, but that doesn't mean you're not a bitch."
"Takes one to know one."
Rey sighed again. "Touche."
For the first twenty minutes she spent chatting with Kylo Ren, long after Rose had gone home, Rey'd been nervous. It was simple stuff, though. Was she seeing anyone? Was she okay with the age difference? Was she looking for anything other than a casual hookup? Did they need to exchange any personal details other than names and phone numbers? (No, Yes, No, No).
He seemed… nice. Reasonable.
But on a whim (or maybe a dare), she'd read Fifty Shades back in her Freshman year, and the kinky things Rose had mentioned kept flipping over in her mind. So after the basics, she sent him a questionable message.
>Any sex dungeons I should know about?
His response was probably what someone would type out if they were desperately trying to swear without swearing and had swallowed a thesaurus. He was well spoken and was very clear about having no proclivity toward anything in the realm of pain or discomfort.
The reaction was a relief, but his follow up made her blush.
>I admit I'm curious. Why do you ask?
It took her a moment to type up a response that wouldn't be embarrassing if it turned out that Rose had misinterpreted his bio.
>Uh... kitten?
Kylo Ren's response was a quick one.
>Actually kitten, you'd call me 'sir'.
She dropped her phone, but she picked it right back up and… didn't correct him, or ask him not to call her that. His texts oozed confidence and something about it made her shiver and think it was worth exploring. Worse case scenario, she'd chalk it up to a weird experience. She played along, and after a day or two, she'd given him her number.
They chatted casually for a few days until summer was almost over. Rey was bustling around her little on-campus studio apartment, finally getting some last-minute deep cleaning done before she wouldn't have time to, and her phone beeped, alerting her to a text. She dropped the cleaning spray and paper towels she'd been holding and reached over to get her phone off the kitchen counter.
It was from Kylo Ren.
>Good morning, kitten.
Rey gulped. Three words, and she was tongue-tied. Maybe it was a good thing that she didn't need her tongue to text him back. She typed out a quick "Good morning", and bit her lip as she tacked on the word "sir," and hit the send button before she could delete the entire message and overthink the whole situation.
She hadn't told Rose anything about it, except to mention that they'd been talking, but she hadn't mentioned the names, or that Kylo had suggested they meet. He'd told her they could wait until she was comfortable, and that was the biggest reason she was considering it.
Chewing at the inside of her cheek, she swapped over to her text conversation with Rose and typed out "Mind if I invite Kylo to karaoke night? I want to meet him somewhere public."
The response was immediate and mostly comprised exclamation points. Rey frowned at the text, wondering if there was any point to trying to decipher it, but before she could, her phone started ringing.
It was Rose, probably calling to gloat about how she'd been right to convince her to try out Tinder.
Rey sighed and answered, "Yes, you were right. I like him, and I want to meet him."
"Okay, first," Rose huffed, "That's not fair, I deserved the chance to say I told you so."
"Just say it," she laughed.
"I told you so!"
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway. I know Poe and Finn already decided we should all head to Maz's for karaoke night before senior year kicks off, but do you think they'd mind if I have Kylo meet us there? He seems nice, but it's smarter to meet him in public, with friends, you know?"
"What, you didn't want to meet him in a dark alley and let him drag you off to his sex dungeon?"
"He doesn't have one of those. I asked."
Rose sounded shocked as she asked, "Did you really? You asked a stranger over text if they have a sex dungeon?"
"I did," Rey laughed. "I think he was more surprised than you are."
Her friend groaned, "Oh my God, Rey, are you insane? You asked a stranger if they have a sex dungeon?!"
"I was doing my due diligence," Rey shrugged.
"Due diligence?!" Rose almost-shrieked, then burst out laughing. "Oh, yes, please invite this guy. I want to apologize on your behalf." She laughed before muttering, "Due diligence, Rey, I love you but oh my God, that's hilarious."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I'll see you later for pizza and you can laugh at me more. I'm going to text him and see if he's free to meet us at karaoke."
"Sounds good," Rose giggled, "Later."
Rey grinned, shaking her head at her best friend, "Later."
Hanging up the phone, she thrummed her fingers on the counter, then sucked in a breath and tapped back over into the chat with Kylo. He was gorgeous and seemed sweet—funny, and smart were added benefits—and it had been quite a while since she'd hooked up. Without letting herself hesitate again, she typed out a text with the time, date, and warning that it was karaoke night, but that she had little intention of singing herself.
Not thirty seconds later, he texted back.
>See you there.
Three words, and her heart was thudding against her chest.
Apparently she was doing this.
It was only three days later when Rey let out a groan of frustration and threw herself face-first onto her own bed.
"It's not that bad," Rose reassured her, still rifling through her closet. "Don't be so dramatic. You have plenty of options and I don't see why you're stressing out about this. It's a first date. Wait, no, it's not even that. You're not planning on dating this guy, right? What are you so worried about?"
Rey muttered her response of "no" into the mattress. She rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed and shrugged. "I still want to look nice." She winced at a pink-halter dress Rose held up. It may have been cute online, but it wasn't flattering in real life.
Rose frowned and turned back to the closet, rummaging around for so long that Rey started to wonder if she'd found a doorway into a secret world back there. Then, with an aha!, the girl pulled out a black dress with a wide neck and short sleeves. "Here. This is perfect. It's not too casual, doesn't scream date, and I already know you look amazing in it."
She considered the dress, then saw the time and nodded, more because she realized it was time to go, and less because she agreed on the dress. It wasn't her favorite option, but it'd have to do.
Maz's bar was close, and Rey thanked her lucky stars she wasn't scheduled to work on the monthly karaoke night the place hosted. It was fun to be around as a customer, but the only thing worse than drunk and handsy clientele was drunk, handsy, and singing clientele.
They spotted Poe and Finn since the couple was already near the stage picking out their first song of the evening. The two had been dating since she, Finn, and Rose had been Sophomores. Poe had run into Finn in a library while he was panicking over a Physics exam, and as a graduate student in the Physics department he'd offered tutoring, though Rey had her suspicions that little tutoring had ever taken place.
Not that it mattered. The two were beyond happy together and even after a couple years they were still adorable and lovey-dovey. She could only be happy for them.
They waved her and Rose over to the karaoke stage, but she snorted and shook her head. "Nope, not a chance. I told you I wasn't singing tonight. Plus, Kylo should be here any minute and I doubt he'd still be interested if he heard me sing."
"Oh stop," Rose scolded, "You're great, but don't pick Journey. I've heard Don't Stop Believin' every time we've come here."
"It's still a no. I'm only here for the drinks and the company."
"You know you want to. Senior year starts tomorrow. Live a little!" She grinned, and added, "We can do a duet!"
"I love you, but you aren't getting me up on that stage."
Rose seemed ready to physically drag her onto the stage, but a low rumbling voice came from behind Rey, grabbing her attention.
"If you don't feel like singing, maybe I can buy you a drink instead?"
Her eyes went wide, mirroring Rose's expression, and Rey bit her lip. "Bye Rose, have fun!"
Rose winked and walked off, and Rey sighed in relief at the excuse to avoid singing. She was far more relaxed once that possibility was off the table.
At least she was relaxed until she turned around and found herself looking at someone's chest. It was a nice chest. Firm beneath a tight black long-sleeved shirt, though she was just this side of polite and didn't reach out to find out for sure. Slowly, her eyes traveled up to meet deep brown eyes, and she gulped, realizing who she was standing in front of.
His pictures were incredible, but they didn't do him justice. It was hard not to stare. His eyes were breathtaking, and that was only the first thing she noticed. All his features shouldn't have worked together, but they did, and they made for the most attractive man she'd ever met.
She was staring, and judging by the little smirk that played at his lips, he'd noticed. Rey felt herself flush, thankful for the dim light of the bar, and broke the silence that had settled between them.
"Hi, I'm Rey."
Just as she heard Finn and Poe begin to butcher Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", the man in front of her took her hand and leaned down, his lips brushing against her ear. She shivered.
"I know your name," he murmured. "Can I buy you a drink, or do you want to skip the drink and get out of here?"
Rey blinked. They'd texted non-stop since they'd matched but she hadn't expected him to be so forward.
She didn't mind.
"Mind giving me your address?" she worked out thickly, "I'd like to tell my friends where I'm going."
"Of course." Then he teased, "Being careful with a stranger who, I promise, does not have a sex dungeon?"
When she laughed and nodded, Kylo let out a pleased sigh as he looked her up and down. He hummed, and stared down at her with the dark eyes that were giving her chills, despite the warmth in the room.
He added something that shot the room's temperature in the opposite direction.
"Good girl."