At the Resistance base on Chandrila, one year after the Battle of Crait:
Rose peered down the hole with a flashlight, examining the wire bundles. Once she identified a cracked wire, she looked for her partner, a man with platinum blond hair wearing an orange vest and glasses. She found him reading, again, and grabbed his book, "Matt, pay attention! I found what caused the comm shortage to command station five. You wait with the tools."
"Give that back to me," Matt snapped as he positioned himself near the toolbox, ready to hand the necessary tools to Rose when she requested them.
"Later," Rose answered, shoving the book down one of her pockets before crawling into the hole to begin the repairs.
Halfway through the repair process, an angry female voice resounded through the hall where the technicians were working, "Benjamin Chewbacca Solo!"
Leia's back from Coruscant already? And, Chewbacca's Kylo Ren's middle name... Rose observed with a grin. She would never let him live that name down.
"You kriffing idiot! You have some explaining to do right now! You take over the galaxy, and yet...," Leia shouted before her voice trailed off. Rose did her best to concentrate on the delicate wires as the general argued with her son, the First Order's Supreme Leader that was currently undercover on the Resistance. Their voices were too low for her to make out specific words, anyway.
After a while, Matt, rather, Kylo, suddenly retorted loudly, "You've had all these political positions, and you couldn't do your job as a mother when—." A smack interrupted him and prompted Rose to wrap up her current task.
Rose quickly wriggled out of the hole and spoke up, "Is everything okay?"
"Rose, go get Rey and bring her to my office now," Leia commanded as she grabbed Kylo's arm firmly and pushed him towards her office. Rose noticed Kylo's wig now on the floor, and she picked up the toolbox and wig before walking away to find Rey.
Once she brought Rey to Leia's office, Rose realized that she could hear the voices coming from the room rather clearly. She pressed her ear against the door to listen, attempting to find out exactly what caused the general's sudden outburst.
While she concentrated on the conversation, she saw Finn walking down the hallway towards her. His dark brown eyes brightened when he saw her, and he began to greet her with a smile, "Hey—"
"Shh, be quiet, I'm trying to hear what they're talking about," Rose immediately shushed Finn before she gasped in shock at something she heard.
"What's wrong?" Finn asked with concern, "You shouldn't be eavesdropping on the general..."
"Come here," Rose beckoned to Finn, and she whispered in his ear what she knew of the current situation between Leia, Kylo, and Rey.
"And Leia just found all this out?" Finn answered in a whisper with a bewildered expression taking over his face.
"Apparently so," Rose said simply as she stepped away from the door.
Finn shook his head in disbelief, "Whew... You know these cakes I baked this morning? Maybe if we offer them the rest, it'll lighten the mood a bit."
Rose immediately perked up at the suggestion, "That's a great idea! I'll come with you and get the plates and forks."
Once Rose and Finn returned to the office from the kitchen, Rose knocked on the door, speaking up, "General Organa?" After a few minutes, the couple received Leia's assent for them to enter the room.
Finn presented the tray of Corellian rum cakelets topped with vweilu nuts, "I just made these today. Rose loves them, but there's too much for the both of us. Would you like some?"
"These look wonderful, Finn. I would love to try one, thank you," Leia answered politely. As Rose prepared the plate for Leia, Finn couldn't help but notice that Leia wore a considerably frustrated expression. He also noticed that Rey's eyes were red from crying, and her arms were wrapped rather protectively around her stomach.
Once Rose handed Leia her plate, she offered one to Rey. Sniffling, she took the cakelet from Rose and gave her and Finn a small smile, "Thank you. This is nice of you."
In the chair to Rey's right, Kylo scowled as he looked at the floor and rested his head in his right hand. He didn't budge at all while the pair served the sweets to Leia and Rey. Finn considered the dark side user's behavior typical. However, Rose cautiously poked Kylo in the shoulder and asked, "Um... M- Kylo? Cake?"
Kylo finally looked up from the floor and responded gruffly, taking the plate from her, "Thank you, Rose."
Before Rose and Finn excused themselves from the office, Leia spoke up once she finished a bite.
"Finn, where did you learn how to make this?" Leia asked with suspicion. Upon hearing Leia's question, Kylo covered his mouth with his fist and swallowed his bite quickly.
"Um, one of the guys taught me..." Finn answered nervously.
Leia raised her eyebrow and calmly explained, "My adoptive mother, Breha, taught me how to make cakelets like this, and I used Corellian ingredients as replacements when I married Han. Only one other living person knows this exact recipe. You got this from Ben, didn't you?"
Finn stammered, "I- uh... Yes, Kylo taught me after he caught me trying to recruit stormtroopers..."
Leia carefully reworded Finn's response, "After he caught you trying to undermine his army, Ben taught you to cook a family recipe and released you alive..."
"That's correct, general," Finn affirmed, trying to remain silent about Kylo asking him for relationship advice concerning Rey in exchange for his security and freedom.
"I didn't realize Ben taught you how to cook...," Rose commented in bewilderment, "But that explains why your cooking got so much better in only a few months."
"You wouldn't let Finn in the kitchen, so someone else had to teach him," Rey responded matter-of-factly.
Rose exclaimed defensively, "He kept burning everything, Rey! It's too hard to teach both you and Finn at the same time!"
Leia interjected firmly, "All right, that's enough. There's certainly more to what you're telling me about your time in captivity six months ago, Finn. Sit down over there. I'll talk with you when I'm done speaking with these two." After handing the food tray to Rose, the former stormtrooper took a seat near Rey.
Rose began to walk out away and said, "Well, I better get back to repairing the wire for the comm in the command center..."
Leia immediately commanded, "Rose, you stay right here. You share a room with Rey, I know you're involved romantically with Finn, and you happened to stop complaining about my son's, Matt's, incompetence a few days ago. I'm not letting you off the hook either."
Rose sighed and placed the tray on an empty side table near the door before she sat down in a spare chair. Just as Leia began to continue her conversation with Kylo and Rey, a knock on the door interrupted her.
"Seriously...," Leia groaned in exasperation before she called out, "Is this something that can wait? I'm busy right now."
Kaydel's voice came through the door, "It's urgent, General Organa. It involves Poe and General Hux from the First Order."
"Lieutenant Connix, if Poe blew something up again, I'll deal with him later," Leia insisted.
"No, it's not that," Kaydel said as she opened the door to reveal Snap holding onto Poe and Hux, who both bore handcuffs.
"General Organa, we caught Poe cuddling General Armitage Hux in the gazebo by the lake. Neither of them had their shirts on at the time. We have reason to believe these two are involved in a relationship that's a danger to the Resistance," Snap explained as he brought the bound pair into the room and seated them in the remaining chairs.
"No more dangerous than whatever Rey and Kylo have going on with each other," Poe scoffed in response to Snap's remarks, "Can you take these handcuffs off me now, please?"
Leia nodded at Snap to remove the handcuffs from Poe before she inquired, "Poe, I'll address your relations with Hux later, but you knew about my son and Rey?"
Poe responded, "I'll gladly explain what's going on with Hux. Still, I thought you already knew they had a force bond."
Leia nodded, "I knew that part, not the part where they got married a month ago without telling any of us."
"What?! Kylo, when the kriff were you going to tell us?" Hux exclaimed in shock. His response revealed to Leia that even the First Order was unaware of Rey and Ben's recent actions.
"I'm gone for one week, and everything's out of control..." Leia muttered as she rubbed her forehead.
The Resistance general took a deep breath and composed herself, "Now, before I ask each of you to tell your side of the story and answer my questions, is there anyone else in the Resistance that has friendships or... intimate relations within the First Order?"
Finn and Rose shrugged, while Poe pondered the question in his head. Rey and Kylo shook their heads.
Hux rolled his eyes and commented arrogantly, "If there were any other rebels that didn't arrive to my notice, I wouldn't be doing my job correctly. Who would blame them for coming to us, anyway? The First Order has the highest caliber of individuals."
Leia snapped, "Watch it. You were the one that ordered the destruction of the Hosnian System. I'm tempted to have you executed immediately. If you want to live longer than today or even think about getting out of this base alive, you'll behave."
"I see where Kylo gets it from...," Hux grumbled to himself before he responded to Leia, "Very well, then. I'll do as instructed while under your temporary custody."
Leia brushed off Hux's snide attitude and addressed Kaydel, "Lieutenant Connix? Please request caf to be brought here... Oh, and water, too, for Rey... But otherwise, I do not want any more interruptions unless it's an emergency. We will be here for a while. Snap, thank you. You're dismissed."
"Yes, General Organa," Kaydel assented as she and Snap left the room.
Leia addressed everyone once the door was securely closed, "All right, I have reason to believe that each of you is aware of the behavior of the others in this room to some degree. I only just returned to Chandrila two hours ago, and I'm exhausted. No interrupting. Also, if any of you have weapons, please place them on my desk. Ben and Rey, don't think of trying anything with the force."
After everyone placed their blasters, lightsabers, and taser on Leia's desk, Rose looked around the room and asked, "Who should go first?"
"I'll start. It seems like Kylo and Rey had quite the talk with Leia before we all came in here," Finn volunteered, eliciting a grateful look from his oldest friend in the group.
...
Note: This is the first chapter of a 3-4 work series I have been planning for a while... Well, technically, this takes place after these stories, but it sets up the premise for the stories that will be posted over the upcoming months! The updates for this series will be slow over the summer, but I hope to post weekly after that!
As always, all feedback is appreciated and do feel free to point out if there are problems with characterization, etc.
For those following War and Tinder, I got a writer's block while writing the latest chapter but hopefully, it'll be updated next weekend!
May the Fourth be with you!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or anything associated with it.