Work Text:
Rey had never had a proper, familial Thanksgiving.
She grew up outside of the States, so obviously there would have been no reason to as a child, and even after she moved, she didn’t really have much of a family to speak of.
So, when Leia Organa had bustled over on the Monday beforehand and asked, “do you have any plans for the holidays?” Rey could do little more than offer a tight-lipped smile and slow shake of her head.
Her friend group’s ‘Friendsgiving’ had already come and gone, and soon they’d all be leaving; flying home for the real deal with their actual families or those of their significant others. Rey would stay behind, of course, marking the actual date alone with a cold-in-the-middle frozen meal and the Hallmark movie channel.
“No, not really.”
“Perfect!” Leia beamed before Rey could even begin to recite the lie she normally told (she wasn’t much of the holiday sort, anyway, so there was no need to worry about her, really). “Dinner starts at six, but Han always starts to grumble that no one’s coming if people don’t start arriving by four, so, really, swing by as early as you’d like.”
Rey blinked, her mouth hanging open slightly as she tried to wrap her mind around what Leia had just said. “Are you inviting me to Thanksgiving?”
“I don’t think ‘invitation’ is the right word for what I just heard,” Han, the owner of the garage and Rey’s boss, chuckled as he approached. “Those sounded more like orders to me.” He wrapped one arm around his wife’s shoulders and kissed her between her (now furrowed) brows as she glared up at him.
“Han,” Leia frowned, shrugging out of his embrace. “This is a new blouse. Go wash your hands.”
Han, his posture gone suddenly very rigid, clicked his heels together and saluted. “Yes, ma’am, General Organa. Right away, ma’am.”
“I am inviting you, dear,” Leia clarified, checking the sleeve of her silk button-up blouse for oil stains with narrowed eyes as Han marched away. “And you are by no means ordered to come, but we’d love to have you.”
Rey plucked the oil rag from the back pocket of her coveralls and wrung it between her hands to give her body a distraction from the massive amount of emotion building in her chest. She really didn’t want to cry (not at work). So, she bit her bottom lip, blinked the tears from her eyes, and nodded.
“I’d love to, Leia,” she managed to squeak out through the tightening in her throat. “Thank you.”
The gleam in Leia’s eyes shifted, focusing into something much sharper than the bright enthusiasm they’d held only moments before.
“Wonderful,” she said. “Our son, Ben, will be joining us this year. We never know if he’ll be able to - his work schedule is always too unpredictable - but he has assured me that he’ll make it in time for dessert.”
“That’s nice,” Rey said.
She wondered what kind of desserts they would have. Pumpkin pie? Pecan? Bread pudding? Her mouth was already watering at all of the possibilities.
“I’ve been trying to get him to come by the garage for ages now. I think the two of you would really get along. He’s single, you know?”
Rey’s heart dropped into her stomach. Normally, she would have been able to smell a set-up (especially one as distinctly unsubtle as this) from a mile away but she’d been distracted by swirling, sugar-coated daydreams.
Leia was an evil genius. A mastermind.
Rey genuinely appreciated the Organa-Solos. Really, she did. She’d known them for less than a year now (having only started working for Han a few months ago back at the beginning of the summer), but they already treated her more like family than any blood relative she’d ever known. She just didn’t want to date their son.
She didn’t want to date, period, (it was messy and emotion-y and time-consuming in a way she didn’t really need), but she really didn’t want to date their son.
What if it didn’t work out? It wasn’t like Han and Leia would ever choose her over their own kid. The hole they’d (unwittingly) filled in her life still ached too much to be empty again.
She couldn’t afford to lose them (or, in a worst case scenario, her job), so it was really just best to avoid that can of worms entirely.
“You’re not seeing anyone, are you, Rey?”
It had fangs, that question, ones dripping with dangerous, paralyzing toxins.
“I, um, I -” Rey’s heart fluttered at the sound of the bell above the front door ringing, signaling a customer’s entry. “I should help them,” she said, already turning to rush out to the small lobby connected to the garage. “Thank you again for the invitation, Leia. I’ll see you on Thursday. Text me if I should bring anything.”
🍂🦃🍂
Rey remained as busy (looking) as possible for the rest of the morning. She changed oil and replaced mufflers and senselessly tinkered with things that weren’t actually broken until she could scurry out for lunch.
Part of her was relieved to have escaped Leia’s line of questioning when she did, but the rest of her knew that this wasn’t over. Leia was a determined woman - Rey hadn’t known her for very long, but she knew that much - and she wasn’t about to give up so easily.
Choosing to drown her sorrows in grease, Rey bit solemnly into a burger as she sat in her car in a fast food restaurant's parking lot and scrolled Twitter.
She was in the middle of liking one of the cute animal pictures a mental-wellness account she followed had posted when something one of her mutuals had retweeted caught her attention.
For a moment she was frozen, reading and re-reading the words over and over to ensure she understood what they said. As soon as that spell was broken, however, she clicked the profile picture connected to the tweet.
Kylo Ren’s account seemed normal enough. He had a few thousand followers (many likely gained thanks to his recent viral tweet) and his feed was mostly full of medicine-related retweets and pictures of dogs. She liked one he’d posted of a chocolate-colored labradoodle he called Chewie without thinking and mentally cursed herself.
Hoping he wouldn’t notice (his notifications had to be jacked by now, she reasoned), she scrolled back up to find that his DMs were open.
Her thumb hovered over the little letter-shaped icon for an embarrassing amount of time. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she clicked it and quickly typed up a message to send to him before she lost her nerve.
Hitting send, she reminded herself that the likelihood of him actually seeing her message was very slim. His tweet had garnered over one hundred thousand likes and his inbox had to be full of people (just like her) who were lonely or desperate enough to have a stranger call them and lie to their families.
She was shocked when he responded almost right away.
He was a little brusque, but Rey didn’t mind. She actually preferred the direct approach. It made her feel more like she was paying for a service than begging a stranger to help her deceive Han and Leia (and, of course, their son).
The payment upfront and refund refusal did put her off a little. What if this was a scam? What if he took the money and ran (metaphorically, of course?) Beggars couldn’t really be choosers, though, she supposed, so she reluctantly agreed.
Oh god, she was rambling.
They chatted a bit back and forth over texts, mostly ironing out details of their ‘relationship’ in case questions came up.
“Not in my experience,” Rey huffed aloud and rolled her eyes.
Her past partners (what few of them there were) had all been rather lacking in the affection department. Or, perhaps she had simply needed too much. It was difficult to say.
She ignored the way she smiled as she typed her response. So what if the handsome (because, yes, she had studied his profile picture for far too long) internet doctor was funny? None of this was real.
“What’cha grinning at, kid?” Han asked from over her shoulder.
Rey whipped around and, like a child hiding a treat they’d nicked from their parent, held her phone behind her back. “Oh. Nothing.”
Han cocked one brow. “I think you’re blushing a little too much for it to be nothing.”
She fought off the urge to press her hands to her cheeks. It wasn’t like she needed to, anyway. She could already feel how brightly they were burning.
“I was just, um… texting my boyfriend.”
It was mostly true, at least. She’d only left out the ‘fake’ part. Did that absolve her of the lie she was about to tell? Probably not.
“Oh,” Han blinked. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone. Guess I never really asked, though, did I?”
Rey shook her head. “That’s alright. I was actually wondering - my boyfriend, would it be okay if he came to dinner on Thursday? I don’t mean to impose…”
“Of course, kid,” Han said, patting her shoulder. “The more the merrier.”
“... Really?”
“Absolutely. There’s already going to be too much turkey for all of us to eat in one sitting - especially if Leia’s brother is on another one of his meditative fasts,” he added with a snort. “On Thanksgiving of all days. Can you believe that?”
“No, I certainly cannot.”
“So what’s the fella’s name?”
“Kylo.”
Han tilted his head to one side and his face scrunched up into something confused - or curious, maybe. “Kylo, huh?”
“Yes,” Rey felt a pit forming in her stomach. “Why?”
“Nothing,” Han assured her. “It’s a unique name. Don’t hear it everyday. Same could be said for Han though, I guess,” he admitted with a laugh as he ruffled his fingers through his hair. “I look forward to seeing the two of you there. Bring your appetites!”
“I will, Han. Thanks.”
🍂🦃🍂
The Organa-Solos lived in a big, fancy house on a quiet, tree-lined street in a nice part of town.
Leia being a state senator and all, the revelation really shouldn’t have surprised Rey nearly as much as it did, but she’d always sort of imagined that wherever Han lived had to have been an extension of the garage - cluttered and chaotic, but warm and welcoming.
The building she stood in front of now, with its towering, white columns and carefully manicured topiaries, certainly wasn’t the former (and seemed a little too pristine to be the latter, in her opinion). Still, she knocked on the door and curled her other hand more tightly around the pyrex dish clutched to her waist.
Han and Leia had told her not to bring anything, but she just couldn’t arrive empty-handed. It wasn’t like the sweet potatoes she’d stayed up far too late last night preparing (because who knew they took so long to bake?) were any good. They were something, at least, and edible (probably), and that would have to be enough.
Leia, cheerfully decked out in an orange sweater and breezy, cream-colored trousers, threw open the door and greeted Rey with a hug before quickly ushering her inside.
“Don’t you look lovely, dear. Here, let me take that,” she grabbed the dish from Rey’s hands as she looked her up and down.
“Thank you,” Rey blushed. The forest-green, midi-length dress she wore, with its spaghetti straps and cotton ruffles, was, perhaps, not exactly late-fall-apparel (especially for how unseasonably cold the day had turned out to be), but it was the nicest piece of clothing she owned, and the only one that felt appropriate for the event.
“And what do we have here?” Leia peeked under the layer of tinfoil Rey had used to protect the food in lieu of a proper lid.
“Sweet potato casserole,” she said, hoping against hope that it all at least looked okay. Outside of instant ramen and the occasional Hamburger Helper meal, Rey didn’t do a lot of actual cooking (and she wasn’t even sure if either of those counted, properly).
“Oh, Ben will be thrilled,” Leia smiled. “That’s his favorite. I’ll have to make sure to save an extra big scoop, just for him,” she added with (what seemed very much like) a conspiratorial wink.
“That’s nice… My, um, my boyf-”
“I’m just going to bring this into the kitchen with the rest of the food,” Leia continued, interrupting Rey (seemingly) without meaning to. “Everyone else is in the den, watching the game. You should join them,” she added, waving towards an open arch at the opposite end of the hall.
And then, she was gone, leaving Rey with nothing to do but follow the distant sounds of chatter and American football commentary through the large house until she (finally) found the aforementioned den.
There, she met Leia’s twin brother, Luke, who’d just returned from a seven-week trek through the mountains on Ahch-To - and looked like it. His hair and beard, both shot through with a healthy amount of silver, were long and bedraggled, but his eyes shone with a bright spark of youth when he spoke of the view from Lanai peak.
An older, well-dressed man with a charming smile managed to free her from a rather unsettling story of Luke’s struggle to milk a thala at ten-thousand feet by sweeping her into a welcoming handshake. He introduced himself as Lando, an old friend of the family.
“An old scoundrel, more like,” Han called out from behind the both of them with a bark of laughter.
“Me, a scoundrel?” Lando chuckled. “I think you’ve got me confused with someone else.”
“Good to see you, kid,” Han said, drawing closer and pulling Rey into his side for a half-hug. “But where’s that boyfriend of yours? Leia said you arrived alone?”
“Oh, yeah,” Rey plucked at the sides of her dress to keep from wringing her hands together. It was here; the moment of truth - or, rather, the complete opposite. “He had to work, unfortunately. He really wanted to be here, but he said he’d call, say a quick hello to everyone over FaceTime or something.”
Or something, she said, like she and Kylo didn’t have every moment of his call already planned out and scripted down to the letter.
She glanced at the television. A little clock in the lower left corner of the game told her that she had just a few minutes left before her phone would start ringing, ‘surprising’ her. Her fake boyfriend had told her he likely wouldn’t be able to get away for a call until well after dinner, after all.
“Shame,” Han nodded sympathetically. “Where does he work?”
“Chandrila University Hospital,” she said, recalling the name Kylo had given her. It was where he actually worked, and while it had certainly surprised them both to learn that they lived in the same city, it made the lie all the more easy to sell.
Han smiled at her answer, seeming bemused and shocked all at once. “No shit? Leia,” he called back towards the kitchen. “Get this, Rey’s boyfriend works at CUH!”
Leia poked her head around the corner. “He does?”
“Where in the hospital? What department?”
“Um,” Rey swallowed. She glanced at the TV clock; two minutes left. “OR? He’s a surgeon.”
Han looked like he could be knocked over with a leaf. Lando chuckled in the distance about how small the world was. Leia’s lips were pursed, seemingly in thought.
“You’re kidding me, kid, right?” Han asked.
Rey wanted to say yes. She wanted to admit to a joke whose punchline she didn’t even half understand, but she couldn’t change the story now. How would she explain that to Kylo? It wasn’t as though she could whip her phone out now (in front of everyone) and shoot him an emergency text - and, even if she could, there was absolutely no guarantee that he would see it before calling her.
“No,” she admitted. “That’s where he works.”
“Our son works in the OR at CUH,” Han said with a wide smile.
“He does?” Rey squeaked, her stomach plummeting through the soles of her boots and straight through the Earth’s crust.
“He does,” Leia agreed. She wasn’t smiling. Her head was tilted to the side and her eyes were narrowed, like she was studying something very closely, but Rey was too dizzy to even try to figure out just what that was.
“Oh.”
Oh god.
Oh fuck.
Oh no.
Her phone started to buzz inside of her jacket pocket. She looked at the clock again. Right on time.
“Think you’re getting a call, there,” Lando said.
They were all looking at her. She felt like she was going to catch on fire from the heat of their stares.
“Is that him?” Han asked, seeming eager.
“Yes,” someone with Rey’s voice answered.
She couldn’t answer the phone.
Not only did Ben and Kylo work in the same hospital, they worked in the same department within that hospital. There was no way they didn’t know each other and, thus, there was no way Ben wouldn’t be suspicious of Kylo’s mystery girlfriend that he had just conveniently neglected to ever mention.
Or, even worse; what if Ben knew about Kylo’s little twitter scheme? What if they sat together in the staff room and laughed at the desperate people in Kylo’s DMs?
Unfortunately, she also couldn’t not answer the phone.
How suspicious would that have been?
With the weight of a room full of eyes on her, she had no choice. Pressing and swiping the little green symbol at the bottom of her screen, she sealed her fate and watched the scene unfold from outside of her body as the call connected.
“Hi sweetheart, sorry I couldn’t be there,” Kylo said a moment after his face appeared on the screen. “Turn me around, let me see everyone.”
Mind foggy with anxiety, she did as he said.
There was no saying who gasped first.
Maybe it was Leia, who snatched the phone from Rey’s hands, squealing that she had ‘known it all along’.
Maybe it was Kylo, who began muttering a string of confused expletives like he’d been tasked with listing every single one he knew.
Maybe it was Rey, who, upon putting two and two together, finally snapped out of her daze.
Ben didn’t know Kylo. He was Kylo.
Leia beamed down at the very bewildered image of her son on Rey’s phone. “What is this? Your clever way of telling us you’re dating?”
“Um, yeah,” Ben said after (what felt like) an over-extended pause. Rey watched him fall back against a wall somewhere in the hospital. He ran his free hand through his hair and sighed deeply. “We wanted to surprise you.”
“Well, you certainly did that,” Leia chuckled. “Though, I had my suspicions something was up when I caught you giggling at your phone at lunch the other day.”
“Mom!” Ben huffed. “I was not giggling.”
“No,” Leia agreed, rolling her eyes in Rey’s direction and winking good-naturedly. “Of course not.”
“Must’ve been Rey’s idea,” Han said. He took the phone from Leia’s hand and held one end up to his mouth. “Was this Rey’s idea?” He shouted into the receiver.
“You don’t have to yell, Dad. You're on speakerphone.”
“Yeah, Han,” Rey said. “I was all me.”
She didn’t know why Ben was still keeping up the lie at this point, but she wasn’t about to throw him under the bus she’d driven them both here in. His eyes met hers briefly through the screen and shined appreciatively.
Han snapped his fingers together at her, seemingly pleased by her admission. “I knew it. That was a pretty clever trick you pulled, using ‘Kylo’ as a fake name. I’m surprised you told her about your little make-believe games though, kid.”
“It’s called ‘Dungeons and Dragons’, Dad, and that’s not -” Ben pressed his lips together in a tight line and sighed. “Listen, it was nice, um, surprising you all, but I have a consultation in, like,” he glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Five minutes, so I have to go.”
“You’re still coming here after work, right?” Leia asked. “I mean, I assume so, seeing as your girlfriend is here…”
Ben looked directly at Rey again and swallowed hard. “Yeah,” he said eventually. “I should be there around nine.” He smiled, then, just a little, and nodded, and it seemed like it was just for her. “See you then.”
🍂🦃🍂
🍂🦃🍂
Compared to the call, dinner was relatively easy - though, in Rey’s opinion, the same could likely have been said about first-time brain surgery.
There were questions, of course, but at least at the table Rey had turkey and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole to shove into her mouth as she stalled, racking her brain for an answer.
Still, the three hours between the start of dinner and Ben’s arrival were slow ones - mostly because Rey couldn’t stop checking the time on her phone.
Eventually, after everyone had moved to the living room for coffee and quiet as they allowed the massive amounts of food in their system to digest, the clock struck nine. The front door opened. A deep voice called out a greeting down the hall.
“Mom? Dad?” A pause. “... Rey?”
Rey’s head whipped towards the sound and she clutched the warm mug in her hands to her chest like a security blanket as her heart stuttered and stopped and started again.
“He’s here,” Leia said, standing. “Finally,” she added, as though he hadn’t been perfectly on time. “We’re in the living room, darling.”
Rey was glad she’d remained seated when Ben rounded the corner to join them, because she was pretty sure the sight of him alone (all six-foot-something, broad-shouldered, and thick-armed) combined with the tryptophan in her system would have been enough to take her out at the knees were she upright.
“Hi,” he glanced around the room and shook a decent amount of snow from the full, dark waves of hair atop his head. “It’s really coming down out there.”
“Is it?” Leia asked, worry furrowing her brow as she helped him remove the scarf from around his neck and the coat from his back. “Was the drive bad?”
“Not at first,” Ben answered, taking his things from his mother and folding them over one arm. “It was getting a little dubious there at the end, though.”
“Ben,” Leia chastised, gently swatting him with the backs of her fingers. “You know I hate for you to be out in weather like that.”
“You’d rather I didn’t come?”
“Please, Ben,” Leia huffed. “Your safety is much more important to me than any party.”
“Sure,” Ben’s brows quirked disbelievingly. He turned to Rey. “Hi… sweetheart,” he said as he approached, his arm wrapping around her shoulders when she stood. Lips hovering just a millimeter (maybe less) above her hairline, he murmured, “sorry about this…”
“It’s okay,” she whispered back, her heart in her throat.
He smelled good. A little like antiseptic, sure, but beneath that was cedar and amber and clove. She had to force herself not to inhale too deeply as her face was pressed to a warm wall of hard muscle covered in clean, black scrubs.
“How was dinner?” He asked, pulling back to put a respectable (but hopefully not suspicious) amount of space between them.
“It was wonderful. Delicious.” Rey’s mouth was very dry all of the sudden. She licked her lips and swallowed. “We made you a plate. It’s in the kitchen,” she added, feeling a little silly as she did so (because where else would it be?) “You finish your hellos. I’ll go grab it for you.”
It was a weak excuse to leave the room (and probably just as transparent) but it was the only one she had - and getting to fresh air not marred by the intoxicating scent of his cologne had been an absolute necessity.
She popped Ben’s food in the microwave, set it to run for a minute, and braced herself against the marble lip of the counter with both hands. Hoping it would be enough to clear her head, she took a deep breath and held it until the little digital timer beeped.
She’d known what Ben looked like from his profile picture, so the fact that he was (insanely) hot hadn’t been a surprise. The shock to her system had been his presence, the overwhelming nature of it. As it turned out, a few pixels on a screen and a real life, flesh-and-blood man were two very different things - sad that she was only realizing this now, but there it was.
“So,” Rey spun around at the sound of Ben’s voice, doing her best to suppress the sharp gasp that threatened to escape her as she did so. “You’re the new ‘kid’ at the garage my dad talks about all the time.”
Han talked about her? All the time? It was a struggle not to get misty-eyed.
“I guess.”
He leaned back against the island, his arms crossed over his chest (tightening the pull of his already-strained sleeves). “I have to admit, I really thought you were a guy. Not sure why.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“Trust me,” Ben smirked, giving her a slow, smooth once-over with his eyes. “I’m not disappointed. Did they give you the third degree?”
“Sort of,” she said, shrugging. She could play it cool. Even if her heart was currently trying to beat its way out of her chest. She could try to, at least.
“They’re a lot - but I’m sure you already know that by now.”
“They mean well.”
“Most of the time,” Ben conceded. “I used you as an excuse for getting out of going on a retreat with my uncle this spring, by the way. If he asks, we have a trip to Theed planned in June.”
“Do we?”
“Yeah,” he grinned. Rey’s stomach did a somersault. “Thought I should let you know. I didn’t really have much choice. The last time I let him take me anywhere we ended up roughing it in a swamp for two weeks, climbing trees and meditating.”
“Sounds like fun.”
Ben snorted. “I must not have described it properly. Is that mine?” He nodded at the plate sitting in the open microwave.
“Yes, it is - sorry, I -” fumbling for words, she handed it to him, her face on fire. “Leia had me put it together. I wasn’t sure what you liked - besides sweet potatoes - so I just gave you a little bit of everything.”
“Thank you,” he said, his grin spreading as he speared a piece of turkey, dipped it in the well of gravy in the middle of his mashed potatoes, and brought the fork to his lips. “So, how did we meet?”
“Sorry?”
“They must have asked you,” he said, swallowing around another bite. The bob of his Adam’s apple was unfairly distracting. “What did you tell them?”
“Oh, we met on the internet.” Ben chuckled at the revelation and she shrugged. “I figured it was best to stick as close to the truth as possible.”
“Probably,” he agreed with a nod. “I’m sure my mom loved that.”
“She was tickled by the idea of you on a dating app. I take it you’ve been resistant in the past?”
“I don’t really date,” he admitted, pushing a bit of food around on his plate. “At all.”
“Neither do I,” she said, and, for the first time in a long time, she sort of wished that that wasn’t true.
Ben looked up at her and smiled, though the gleam there didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“We’re a perfect pair then, aren’t we?”
“Of fools, maybe,” she joked. Ben laughed and that (the sound of it, perhaps, or the mere fact that she had brought it out of him) made something inside of her glow.
“This is good,” he said, scooping up a second heaping forkful of toasted marshmallow and orange-ish puree. “My dad never makes sweet potato casserole anymore.”
“Oh,” Rey could feel blood rushing to her already-heated cheeks. “I made it.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. I hope it’s alright. I’m not much of a cook, really.”
Ben’s dark eyes gleamed as he grinned. “It’s perfect, Rey.”
The air in the room shifted when Leia entered, it depressurized - and Rey hadn’t even noticed it growing thicker until her ears popped as it began to thin.
“Well, it’s official. No one is leaving here tonight,” she announced with a serious frown.
Ben blinked twice and shook his head. “What are you talking about? We have to go home.”
“Oh, no. If you think I’m letting any of you drive in weather like this, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“Where are we supposed to sleep?”
“The Super Eight off of the interstate,” Leia said dryly before rolling her eyes. “Here, of course. It’s not like we don’t have the space to put you all up for the night. Lando will take the guest room, Luke’s going to sleep on the pullout in the basement, and you and Rey can stay in your old room.”
Ben’s eyes darted quickly to Rey’s, wide with panic. “Mom…”
“Now, don’t ‘Mom’ me,” Leia said, rounding on her son. “You’re staying here, and that’s final.”
Ben, who (by Rey’s best guess) had to be at least a few years older than she was, looked down at his mother and then over at her, an expression of pure helplessness on his face.
She felt him shove the situation into her hands. ‘This is your call,’ his eyes said.
There was a bay of tall windows in the breakfast nook just off the kitchen. Rey walked over to them, her stride a little too quick to be called casual, and looked out to see a thick layer of snow covering the ground. It was still falling - would likely continue to, if the dark clouds hiding the stars above were anything to go by.
“Shit,” she cursed quietly to herself.
Rey was terrible at checking the weather and had come to rely on Finn’s assessment of her outfit choices each day before braving the world outside of their apartment. But he was in Yavin, celebrating the holiday with Poe’s family, and so, she’d left this evening in a cotton-weave dress and leather jacket and with no idea it was going to snow at all.
“What was that, dear?”
“Leia’s right,” she said, turning around to face them.
“Are you sure, Rey?” Ben asked.
The unspoken implication of her agreement and what it would mean for the both of them tonight laid between them. Acknowledging it fully, Rey nodded.
“I am,” she said with a bit more confidence than she actually felt inside. “It’ll be fine.”
🍂🦃🍂
The moment the door to his childhood bedroom door had clicked closed behind them, Ben had rushed over to a small walnut-stained dresser and began rummaging through the drawers.
“You didn’t have to agree,” he said, his back still turned to her. “If you want to change your mind, even now, I’ll back you up. You don’t have to -”
“I’m shit at driving in the snow.” Not to mention the fact that her car’s tires were just about worn down smooth. “Plus,” Rey continued as she surveyed a nearby poster covered in illustrated fantasy beasts she only vaguely recognized. “I figure, we’re both adults. We can handle sleeping together for one night without it being weird.”
Ben paused, looked at her over his shoulder, and, with a heart-stopping pang of embarrassment, she recognized her slip up.
“I meant ‘share a bed’,” she said, willing her body to not betray her actual desires. “We can share a bed without it being weird.”
Because, truth be told, Rey wouldn’t mind sleeping with Ben. She’d like to, actually. Very much so. He was attractive and it had been a long time since she’d been able to get off with anything but her own hand and trusty vibe, but there was a time and place for these things. Unfortunately, his childhood bedroom just down the hall from her sleeping employer was neither of those things.
“Right,” he said simply, turning back to whatever he’d been doing previously.
Desperate for a distraction, Rey turned her attention to a nearby display. The shelf (attached to the wall just above his computer desk) was covered in tiny figurines. The creatures seemed similar in design to those on the walls.
She reached out to touch one with her finger (a purple elf with blue hair and white eyes wearing, what looked like, a metal bikini) but stopped, breath caught in her chest, when she heard Ben clear his throat.
“Did you ever play?”
“Play?” She repeated, turning aground and fisting her hands into her skirt, determined to keep them to herself.
“WoW… nevermind,” he added quickly, color rushing to his cheeks. “Here,” he held out a wad of clothing in offering. “I figured you’d need something to sleep in. The bathroom’s down the hall if you want to change or shower or… whatever. Second door on your right.”
“Thanks.”
It took Rey a minute or two to figure out the taps on the wall (were any two showers ever the same?), but the moment she stepped beneath the delightfully hot stream, she sighed, her body releasing tension she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding.
She closed her eyes as she washed herself, and that was a mistake, because the moment she did, the hands running over her body ceased to be her own. Suddenly, they were larger. Warmer.
They explored her like they didn’t already know the soft places she dipped and curved by heart; roughly groping her breasts and plucking her nipples before trailing slowly down her abdomen to where she was throbbing with want and -
“Fuck,” she pulled her hand away from herself and slapped it against the tile wall, stopping herself before she went too far. Before she pictured a face or said a name or did something she couldn’t come back from.
She had to face Ben again. She had to sleep next to him. And she was determined to do both with a straight face and a clear conscience.
The rest could be saved for when she got home. At least there, she could come and not have to look the object of her fantasies in the eye ten minutes later.
After her shower was done, she dressed - or, she tried to, at least.
The sweatpants Ben had lent her were far too big and no matter how many times she rolled up the waistband, they refused to sit on her hips without sliding down. Luckily, the t-shirt (an old, worn one with a hole in the armpit and the chemical symbols for fluorine, uranium, carbon, and potassium on the front) was also quite large, the hem hitting her mid-thigh. So, after a quick peek in the mirror to ensure her underwear couldn’t be seen from behind, she decided that would have to do.
When she returned to the bedroom, her hair wrapped up in a towel atop her head, she found Ben already in bed. The shirt he wore was similar to her own (this one had a cartoon strand of DNA asking a strand of RNA if it was ‘still single’) , though the fit on his was considerably worse.
It was tight everywhere - his shoulders, his arms, his chest. It looked downright uncomfortable.
Tell him to take it off, an unhelpful voice in her head supplied. Or, it continued, better yet, take it off for him.
He looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her exposed legs, and (if Rey wasn’t mistaken) licked his lips.
“Sorry,” she said, gesturing to the unused pair of pants in her hand. “They didn’t fit.”
“That’s, um,” he shifted uncomfortably, rearranging the pile of sheets over his lap. “That’s fine.”
She moved over to the empty side of the bed and slipped in as quickly as she could, quickly flipping the duvet over her hips to hide the flash of silk under her shirt’s hem.
Her arm brushed Ben’s as she settled in beside him (both of them sitting up, their backs against the headboard). She hadn’t tried to - honest. There wasn’t a lot of room to begin with (the mattress seemed to be an extra-long double - maybe a queen, at most) and he was just so big.
“Thank you, by the way.” Ben glanced at her as she spoke but said nothing. “For keeping up the lie. You didn’t have to do that. Shouldn’t have had to - not to your family.”
“Are you kidding?” Ben laughed quietly. “I should be thanking you for the same thing.”
“What?”
“It’s not like I want them to know about my little side hustle - my mom would freak out and my dad would never let me live it down.” One corner of his lips quirked up into a soft smirk. “So, thank you, Rey.”
“Yeah, well,” she stroked at the soft edge of an exposed sheet, poking at the little atomic symbols decorating it. “It’s almost over, right?”
“Right,” Ben agreed - and he couldn’t have actually been as morose about that fact as he’d seemed. Rey must have been making that up. “I had a really nice time talking to you this week.”
She blushed. “I’m sure you say that to all of your fake girlfriends.”
“No, I really don’t.”
He looked directly at her as he said that, his eyes (melted chocolate drizzled in warm honey) were so close - and getting closer.
He was getting closer, his body canting towards hers very slightly, the mattress dipping between them with the movement.
Or maybe it was Rey who was leaning forward, the magnetic force he exuded too strong to resist.
The semantics didn’t matter. What mattered was that the space between them was slowly, but very surely, closing.
“I don’t talk to them at all, not really.” His voice was very quiet now, but that was okay. Rey’s focus was so intensely honed in on him - on his face, his lips, the way they moved - that she heard every word. Loud and clear. “Not beyond the initial introduction and information gathering. I don’t memorize lists of nicknames for them. I don’t flirt with them.”
“You were flirting with me?”
He was even closer now. Rey could feel his breath on her face. “I couldn’t stop myself,” he confessed, his eyes hooded and dipped low, his sights set somewhere beneath her nose. “I kept looking at your profile picture. At your smile and your eyes and your… I couldn’t stop,” he repeated, at little forlornly this time, almost. Shocked. Awed. Confused.
But that was okay. Rey felt all of that too.
“Neither could I,” she said.
It was true. How many times had she pulled up his profile, read his stupid, irreverent bio (Surgeon. 34. I hate it here.), and blown up the little pic of him in the light blue shirt with his hair all dumb and perfectly tousled? Too many to count.
The fact that he’d been doing the exact same thing made her feel brave. Bolder than normal. Maybe a little foolish - though that remained to be seen.
She reached out under the sheets and set her hand high on his thigh. It was a test; to see if he'd flinch away. If she would. Neither of them did.
Slowly, her gaze flickering between his eyes and his lips, searching for any kind of discomfort (and finding none), she kneeled up and hooked her legs over his until she was straddling his hips with her own.
“What are you doing?” He asked, his voice gravel-rough and breathless.
She didn’t have an answer for him (not one she could verbalize, at least), but maybe she didn’t need one.
Maybe all she had to do was throw her doubts and fears of mistakes and messes and cans of worms out the window and just give in to this fire she felt burning inside. She could swear he was radiating with it too, that hot, all-consuming need.
Though she waited for it, moving as slowly as the rapid-fire beat of her heart would allow, he didn’t stop her as she leaned forward and placed a kiss on just the corner of his mouth. Perhaps that seemed cowardly, not rushing in for the full thing right away, but it certainly didn’t feel like that.
It felt terrifying and thrilling and wonderfully, horrifyingly intimate.
Ben sighed against her cheek and tilted his head to capture her lips with his own.
It was a relief. An inevitability. The release of a breath they’d both been holding all night.
The kiss had started soft, gently, exploratory, but it hadn’t stayed any of those things for very long.
Ben’s tongue was at the seam of her lips before long, licking along the slit, begging entry. Eagerly, Rey let him in; allowed him to slide his tongue against her own, to acquaint himself intimately with the inside of her cheeks and her soft palette, before capturing it between her lips and sucking.
She was quick to divest him of his t-shirt, pulling it up over his shoulders and tossing it back into the blurred-out room beyond without a thought as to where it would land.
The skin on his chest was warm and smooth and firm and speckled with the same beauty marks that covered his face like stars. Rey let her hands wander about for a while, exploring the rounded peaks of his shoulders and the hard ridges of his abdomen and the deep V pointing down, down, down to her heart’s content.
She learned that he was sensitive. Her thumb brushed across his nipple and his hips thrust up into hers, seemingly beyond his own control.
Grinding back down in response, she felt him there; hot and hard and straining against the tight confines of his sweatpants - and all hers.
She reached down between them and pulled his cock free.
“God,” she whined, taking in the sight of him. “Fuck, Ben. You’re -”
He was huge - which shouldn’t have surprised her. Ben was big all over, so, really, his dick was just proportional to the rest of him. Her cunt clenched in anticipation at the thought of all of that inside of her, filling her to the brim.
“Beautiful,” she purred, sliding her hand up the length of him.
She kissed him again, greedily swallowing his moans as she gathered the precum beading at the tip of his cock before resuming her slow, steady strokes with a newly-lubricated palm.
“Oh shit ,” he grunted, his hips bucking up into her palm. “Rey, I - I don’t - I’m going to -”
“To come?” Rey grinned, picking up the pace with her hands. “That’s kind of the point, Ben.”
“Not yet.”
With a groan, Ben took hold of Rey’s ass and used it as an anchor to flip their positions so that her body was pressed to the mattress and his was over hers, caging her in.
He began kissing a hot trail down her throat and across her collar, murmuring praise against her skin all the while.
Ben’s hands were on the move too, charting a path up from her thighs, to her hips, to her waist, dragging the hem of her (his) shirt along with them.
“Fuck,” he cursed as he caught sight of the ruffled silk briefs she was wearing. “Did you wear these for your boyfriend?”
Rey bit her lip and nodded. It wasn’t the truth, of course, they both knew that. When Rey had dressed this morning, she hadn’t planned on anyone seeing her underwear besides herself, but the lie was hotter.
“So pretty.” Shifting downward, he caught his thumb under the elastic band around her right leg, lifted it, and let it snap back into place. She yelped sharply at the sting of pain and he looked up at her, his eyes dark with liquid want. “Shh,” he said, his big hand spanning across the whole of her lower abdomen. “You’ve got to be quiet, sweetheart.”
“Oh, no,” Rey giggled, nervous and excited. “Not the nicknames.”
Ben hummed and kissed the inside of her thigh. “Sugar pie,” he said.
He kissed the juncture of her thigh. “Angel.”
Along her pantyline. “Sunshine. Dreamgirl. Lovebug.”
“No,” she laughed, her head rolling back against the pillow. “That’s awful.”
“Awful?” Ben paused, pulled back slightly, and raised one eyebrow. “Do you want me to stop?” He asked, his thumb gently ghosting over the gusset of her panties, letting the deep-maroon silk grow damp with her arousal.
“N-no,” she repeated, desperately grinding her hips further into his touch. He removed his hand and she nearly cried. “Please, Ben,” she said, her fingers tangling in his hair as she tried to pull him closer. “Please don’t stop.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. He hooked his fingers beneath the fabric of her underwear and began to slowly pull them down her thighs. “I don’t plan to.”
Once her bottom half was fully bared, Rey reached down to grab the hem of her shirt, but Ben stopped her with a hand on her wrist.
“No,” he said, his eyes dark as he took her in. “Keep it on. I like the way it looks on you - my shirt.”
Rey shivered and nodded, her hands returning to her sides and fisting the sheets tightly there, bracing herself for what was certainly about to come.
“Mine,” he growled - and Rey wasn’t sure if he was still talking about the shirt or not anymore, but she didn’t have many thoughts left at all as Ben gripped her legs and spread her wide open.
He eyed her hungrily for a moment, a sharp canine digging into the plump meat of his lower lip, before leaning forward to press a hot, open-mouthed kiss to her dripping core.
“God, Ben,” she gasped when the tip of his tongue caught her clit - just grazed it, really - teasing the little bundle of nerves and sending a wave of pleasured shock through her tightly-wound system.
Her body had been aching to come since the shower and she was close to shaking with need now.
Ben, unaware of the depths of her desperation, licked lazily up her center and hummed. “Delicious,” he said, catching her eye and smirking against her folds. “Best thing I’ve tasted all night.”
The sounds he was making as he messily explored every inch of her pussy were absolutely lewd. Disgusting. Obscene. And each one of them only served to make Rey wetter.
She clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a cry when he pushed a finger inside of her and curled it upwards.
“Wish you didn’t have to do that,” he said, as he added a second finger. “Want to hear you. I want you to scream for me.”
A third finger joined the first two and Rey bit down hard on the meat of her palm to keep from shrieking Ben’s name.
She still whimpered it, the tiny, pitiful sound escaping her throat as he set his thumb to working tight circles on her clit.
He reached up and palmed her breast through her shirt with his free hand and gently coaxed her towards orgasm.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” he said, his voice soft and deep and melodic. “Just let go.”
She did.
Rey’s legs shook as she came. Her body twitched and writhed as a heated flush of pleasure (one only prolonged by the digits artfully massaging her inner walls) overtook her.
Ben watched her through each wave, his cheek resting against her thigh and his eyes hooded with lust.
“Gorgeous,” he said before slipping all three soaked fingers into her open mouth, offering her a taste of herself.
She sucked them clean eagerly, relishing the salty tang of Ben’s skin beneath her own sweetness.
“Fuck me,” she begged.
Ben sat up on his haunches, his mouth and lower jaw still shining in the low light with her juices, and ran a hand through his hair.
“I don’t have any condoms.” He glanced at the nightstand to Rey’s right, his face scrunched in contemplation. “I mean - the ones in there are probably expired, but maybe my Un-”
“It’s okay,” she assured him, her legs hooking around his hips in a desperate attempt to pull him closer. “I’m on the pill and I’m - well, it’s been a while since I was tested, but I haven’t been with anyone since, and I was totally clear.”
He stroked himself idly as he looked her over, his chest rising and falling heavily with a few slow, deep breaths.
“Are you sure, Rey?”
“Yes,” she nodded, tugging at him with her ankles hooked over the small of his back. “I’m sure. I want you to fuck me.”
Ben growled something unintelligible in response and deftly removed himself from her hold. For a moment, Rey was heartbroken (devastated, horrified, totally and completely embarrassed), but then he made a rolling motion with a single finger and said “hands and knees.”
It took a moment for the command to sink in, but once it had, she complied as quickly as possible, flipping and positioning herself with her ass high on display. She wiggled it a little, giving him a show, and Ben rewarded her with a sharp smack.
“Fuck,” he sighed, massaging the tender flesh to dull the lingering sting before sliding his hands over the curve of her hips and up the dip in her waist. “Look at you.”
He’d kept that shirt of his on her, but it had ridden up a great deal, exposing her back.
“Look so pretty like this,” he continued. “Here, lift your hips a little.”
Rey did as he asked, shifting her body and allowing him to place a folded pillow beneath her abdomen. She rested against it when Ben gently guided her back down towards the bed and grinned appreciatively at the support it offered.
“Comfortable?” He asked, his body settling heavily over hers. His voice was in her ear now, his hot breath fanning her cheek.
“Yeah.”
He began slowly grinding himself up into her, allowing his cock to spread her folds and coat itself in her slick. She whimpered when the head bumped against her clit and Ben responded to the sound by quickly repeating the motion.
“You like that, sweetheart? You’ll like it even more when I’m inside of you, won’t you?” Ben tugged on the shell of Rey’s ear with this teeth and wrapped one arm around her torso to hold her steady as he notched himself at her entrance. “Want me to stuff you full, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Rey said, struggling (in vain) to buck herself back into him. She nodded against the soft duvet and cried out when he finally pushed inside.
“Shh,” Ben cooed as he continued to press in and in and in.
It seemed never ending, the slow breaching of her body, but just when it felt like there was no room left inside, his hips met her ass and he was sheathed in her to the root.
“Oh my god,” she moaned, breathlessly (because there was no space for air left in her chest). “So deep. So full. You’re - oh god,” she repeated when he pulled back and quickly snapped back inside.
“Fucking perfect,” Ben panted against her ear as he began to fuck her in ernest. “Perfect, tight little pussy. Sweet little perfect tits,” he grabbed one beneath her shirt, as if in emphasis, and pinched her nipple, tweaking it this way and that.
“Ben,” she cried, unable to help herself. “Fuck, Be-”
A warm palm closed over Rey’s mouth.
“You need to be quiet,” Ben reminded her through gritted teeth.
He offered her his fingers again (just two this time), and coaxed her to open up with a few soft prods against her lips.
“Let’s put that pretty mouth of yours to good use, huh?” His voice was hoarse. Husky. Rough and dark and dripping with lust.
Eager to comply, Rey opened wide, inviting him in. She worked the digits with her tongue, sliding it between them and sucking hard as he continued to pump into her in a heady, relentless rhythm that made her almost dizzy.
It was overwhelming, the feeling of him filling her from both ends, and for a while, Rey just gave into it, allowing him to fuck her with his fingers and his cock, both, and slipped into that airy, weightless headspace she’d so rarely been able to achieve before.
“Are you close?” Ben asked after a few moments filled with the sounds of breathless panting and the slick slide of sweaty skin.
He was, she could tell, and she wasn’t far off herself, so she nodded and moaned around his fingers.
“Thank fuck,” Ben grunted. He pulled the digits from her mouth with a wet pop and curled them down around her stomach to rub furiously at her clit. “Been so good for me, haven't you? Taking me so well. Now I need you to come, sweetheart, think you can do that for me? Huh? Can you come all over my cock?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” she gasped. She could feel it building, that intense anticipation coiling in her belly, tight and hot and ready to spring. God, she felt like she was going to burst open wide.
Ben adjusted his angle, hitting her impossibly deeper (she could practically feel him in her throat now) and in just the right spot, and all of that tension inside of her released, exploding outwards from her center to the tips of her toes.
“God - fuck - fuck - Ben -” she rambled incoherently, eventually rolling her face into the mattress to help quiet the sounds she could no longer control.
Ben gripped her hips with bruising force and continued to pump into her at an absolutely frenetic pace.
“Can I come on you?” He asked after a moment, his voice raspy and wild. “Fuck, please baby. I’ve gotta -”
“Yes.”.
“Where?”
“Wherever you want.”
She gasped in shock at the sudden loss and emptiness she felt when he pulled out of her and waited to be rolled over or told to kneel (how she would do that when her limbs had turned to jelly, she had no idea) but that never happened.
She heard a few quiet, grunted curses, the furious slapping sound of skin on skin, and then she felt her back painted with spurts of wet heat.
Ben collapsed on top of her, his chest heaving against her back, and if he minded laying in his own cum, he didn’t mention it.
Eventually, he rolled off of her, and she watched him, unmoving, her face pressed to drool-covered sheets, as he pulled his sweats back on and headed for the door.
“Don’t move,” he said quietly from the now-open threshold. “I’ll be right back.”
When he returned, it was with a warm, damp towel. He cleaned her back and between her thighs with a gentle hand and then crawled back into bed, curling around her sweetly.
Rey recognized that they should probably talk (there was a lot that needed to be said, after all), but she was so exhausted and full and physically sated, there was little she could do besides allow herself to be cuddled and slowly drift off to sleep.
🍂🦃🍂
Rey woke the next morning to an empty bed.
She blinked around for a moment, smacking her lips against the sleep still lingering in her system, and before her mind could even begin forming the question of where Ben had gone, he was backing up through the doorway, a steaming cup of coffee in each hand.
“Oh,” he smiled when he saw she was awake. He was fully dressed in his black scrubs again and took a seat on the empty half of the bed by her side. “Good Morning. Here,” he handed her one of the mugs. “I wasn’t sure how you took it.”
“This is fine, thanks,” she said, pushing herself up to sit against the headboard and taking a small sip, relief in the form of caffeine flooding her system nearly instantly.
“The snowplows were by early this morning, so the streets are mostly clear. I’ll help you dig your car out later when you’re ready to leave.”
“You don’t have to do that, Ben.”
“I want to,” Ben said. Rey smiled into the rim of her mug at the deep sincerity in his tone. His smirk shifted from warm to teasing. “Plus, my mom would chew me out if I let my girlfriend do that herself.”
Rey snorted. “She raised a real gentleman.”
“So she thinks,” Ben clinked his mug against Rey’s.
Just then, as though she had sensed herself being discussed, Leia burst into the room, flames burning in her eyes.
Rey gasped in surprise at the intrusion and, though she was still wearing Ben’s old t-shirt, reached down to pull the sheets up over her chest, preserving some perception of her modesty. Leia paid her no attention at all, however, her sights set on Ben.
“Benjamin Bail Organa-Solo,” she fumed, storming over to where he was sat on the edge of the mattress. “Do you care to explain this to me?”
Leia angrily thrust her phone into Ben’s free hand and his face went pale almost immediately. Rey leaned over, craning her neck to get a better look at what he was seeing.
There was a beat of silence. An awkward minute where the air seemed to still and the world stopped spinning.
Ben sighed, eventually, breaking the tense quiet, and shook his head in defeat.
“Well, fuck.”
🍂🦃🍂
They did their best to explain the whole situation to Ben’s family, though they did have to take frequent breaks to accommodate Rey’s bouts of nervous laughter.
Lando found the scheme itself completely fascinating.
“Now that’s a bright plan,” he wagging a finger in Ben’s direction, his eyebrows knitted together, clearly considering all of the logistics. “How much did you end up making, all-in-all?”
“Enough,” Ben said, evasively.
“I’ll bet if you rounded up a few of your doctor friends, we could make a killing next year.”
Ben laughed, seeming slightly uncomfortable. Glancing quickly at Rey, he shook his head. “Sorry, Uncle Lando. I think this was my last year in the fake-boyfriend business.”
“Shame,” Lando sighed. “If you do have any interested friends, though, send them my way. If we get this thing organized, it could be huge.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. “
Han thought the whole thing was hilarious of course, much to Leia’s chagrin.
“What do you want me to do, princess? Ground him?” He asked, shaking his head, an amused smile quirking his lips. “Ben’s a big boy. If he wants to call up a bunch of strangers pretending to be their boyfriend, then that’s his prerogative.”
Leia wasn’t happy with Han’s stance on the matter, but a stack of fluffy, homemade pancakes (his father’s form of apology, Ben explained) helped to melt her stony disposition considerably, and by the time breakfast was over, she was back to her normal (if slightly overbearing) self.
Ben refused to let Rey leave in the dress she’d arrived in.
“Absolutely not,” he’d said before fishing through his mother’s storage for clothing that would actually fit her.
One fresh t-shirt, a paint-splattered pair of Leia’s old joggers, and a sweatshirt celebrating the graduating class of 2010 later, he agreed that she was ready to brave the cold outside.
He dug her car out, just as he’d promised, and when he was done, he stood with her in the half-cleared sidewalk out front of his parents house, shuffling his feet, as they both avoided saying goodbye.
“How much did you end up making last night?” Rey asked, hopeful that her teasing tone would mask her genuine curiosity (at least somewhat).
Ben’s face was already bright red from the frosty air, but she could swear she saw him blush, even beneath that. “Enough for our trip this summer,” he joked.
“I look forward to it.” She picked at the hem of the down puffer jacket Leia had let her borrow. “Did you mean what you said - about not doing this again next year?”
“I did. Look, Rey,” he took her hand, warmed it in his larger, gloved one, and rubbed his thumb against the back of her wrist. “I know you said you don’t date - I know I said that - but I’d really like to see you again.”
It felt like a hoard of butterflies had been let loose in Rey’s chest. She bit the inside of her cheek to temper her smile. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, a few flakes of freshly fallen snow tumbling out of his dark hair and onto his scarf. “I’d like to take you on a date - a real one. Preferably with none of my family members present.”
Snow began to fall. It landed in Ben’s hair, soft white flakes speckling his dark waves, and it struck her just how beautiful he was, his eyes shining with anticipation and nervous dimples lining his mouth.
She knew she wasn’t wrong to assume things could get messy, dating her boss’ son. It could be a mistake - perhaps the biggest of her life. But, maybe the bigger mistake would be refusing to try things with Ben at all.
Because he was special. He made her laugh. She liked talking to him. He was handsome and gentle and charmingly grumpy.
She liked him.
So, yes, starting a relationship with him was a risk, but she decided it was a risk worth taking.
“What do you say?” He asked. “Would you have dinner with me?”
Rey smiled so wide her cheeks hurt. She placed a hand on either side of Ben’s face, pulled him down for a kiss, and nodded.
“Yes, Ben. I’d love to.”
🍂🦃🍂
Ben and Rey were married years later in a quaint ceremony the weekend before Thanksgiving.
In lieu of a traditional speech, Han told the story of how Ben and Rey met, complete with a slide show, voice actors (thanks to Poe and Rose), and a healthy dose of teasing.
The crowd (all family and friends who had heard the story half a dozen times by that point) ate the performance up, some standing up to shout along with Ben’s original tweet when it popped up on the screen. Everyone was a few glasses of champagne in by that point.
“You know,” Rey grinned over at her husband (her husband). “I never did get my money back.”
“It went to the ring,” Ben said, lifting her left hand and pressing his lips to the stone. “Plus, I had a very strict no-refund policy, as you’ll recall.”
“Sure,” Rey snorted, rolling her eyes.
Han finished his tale to a thunderous round of applause, but neither member of the happy couple were paying any attention at all.
“Did you really want it back?” Ben asked, his voice dripping with the teasing tone Rey had come to know (and love) so well.
“No,” she said with a simple smile. That hundred was the best she ever spent.