A/N: No one dies, I promise! Enjoy my musing and drop a review if you like it.
Rey slides around her kitchen in fuzzy socks and an oversized sweatshirt, singing loudly and slightly off key to the music blasting from her phone. She opens cabinets and the fridge gathering ingredients for her famous hot chocolate. It's been snowing for quite a few hours now and Rey decided it's a perfect day for a movie marathon, with all the right snacks of course. She's just about to throw everything together when she hears a shout outside and peers out the kitchen window. Her next door neighbor, Ben she thinks, is outside in his back yard but she can't quite make out what he's doing because of the wooden fence between their houses. She can't imagine why he's outside in this weather, though she now notices that it has stopped snowing. It looks like there is about two feet of snow covering the ground, give or take, and it won't be warming up anytime soon. She continues watching him as he stands for a moment, shouts again, then disappears beneath the fence as though he's bending down.
Her curiosity gets the better of her as she grabs her coat, throws on a hat and gloves, and slips into her boots. Her feet crunch down on the fresh snow and it just barely comes up to the top of her boots. She treks over to the fence, which stops at about shoulder height, and pokes her head over. The sight she is met with nearly makes her laugh. Her neighbor is marching around his backyard, surrounded by an army of snowmen. From their encounters and what she's seen, he's a few years older than her but obviously isn't too grown up for snowmen. She smiles, the hot chocolate and movies forgotten, and bends down to gather up some snow. Once she is satisfied with her snowball she launches it over the fence then ducks down so she isn't seen by her victim. The resounding splat and shocked shout that come from behind her is satisfying. She gathers up some more snow and silently walks towards the gate that joins their two yards that neither of them have ever used before. As quietly as possible, she flips the latch and eases it open. She doesn't see her neighbor right away but when she does it's too late. He's standing behind the gate door and dumps a pile of snow on top of her head. She yells out in surprise and rushes into his yard.
"Oh my god!" she squeals as snow skitters down her back. "Not fair!" she does a little dance trying to ride herself of the offending slush.
"All's fair in love and war, Miss Rey." Her assailant replies, chuckling.
She looks up at him, surprised that he somehow remembers her name, "It's Ben, right?" he nods as he walks closer to her. "Okay, well in that case, I won't feel so bad about this." She throws the snowball she managed to keep a hold of into his face. She giggles as she runs away, him rushing after her.
"Talk about unfair!" he shouts, scooping up snow as he chases her. He chucks it at her, hitting her in the back. She stumbles, both from the assault and the deep snow, and falls into one of his snowmen. She flips onto her back and looks up at him.
"I am so sorry." She can't imagine how much time he must have spent on them. She remembers trying to build some herself, how time consuming and hard they were, especially if you wanted to make them nice. His are very nice.
He kicks at some snow as he nears her, his hands behind his back, his face in a twisted frown, "It's okay but I can't let it go unpunished." He drops a large ball of snow onto her, covering her chest and stomach, a smile breaking across his face.
She lets out an ouff before dropping her head back in defeat. She waves her hands up at him, "No more. You win." Then she lets her arms fall by her side. He stands next to her, looking down at her face. He's covered up pretty well but his nose is bright red and his eyes, though dark, sparkle. He is also extremely tall. He drops to his knees and lays next to her. "I haven't had a snowball fight in…in ages." The last she can remember is nearly six years ago. It was just a few months after she had left the orphanage she grew up in. She'd moved north to this beautiful little town where it snowed, something she had only ever dreamt about. Growing up in the southernmost part of New Mexico, she'd never seen snow. She'd only ever known heat. When she came up here and finally saw the wonder of it, she nearly cried. Then someone blasted her with a ball of it and she joined her first snowball fight with some collage kids.
"I used to have them with my dad all the time." Ben says slightly sad. "Haven't had one in forever either." He looks over at her as she gazes up at the boisterous clouds above. It was twelve years ago; the last snowball fight he had. It was a day much like this, beautiful and cold with perfect snow. He was fourteen and school had been canceled because of the storm. His dad was off work, his mom too. He can't remember who prompted the idea but he and his father were out for a few hours, throwing snowballs, building snowmen, even built a sort of fort. It was a perfect day; one he'll carry with him forever. The day that followed he'll never forget either. The day his dad died. Because of the snow, the roads were icy, dangerous. His dad's car skidded and crashed off the bridge he was driving on into the frigid, rushing river below.
A few flakes start gliding down and the wet coldness starts creeping into Rey's skin. Her teeth start chattering as she remembers the abandoned hot chocolate in her kitchen. "Hey, do you want to come over for hot chocolate?" she asks, sitting up.
Ben follows suit, "Another childhood favorite." He chuckles as he gets to his feet, offering Rey his hand. "I'd love to." He helps her to stand and trails after her as she makes her way back to her house.
"It's funny, you know, that after living next to each other for almost four years, we haven't actually interacted very much." She comments while stripping off her coat and boots, tossing her gloves and hat on a nearby chair. She turns around, smiling. Ben is standing there, awkwardly holding his hands. She can't tell if the red in his cheeks is from the cold or something else. "Sorry, you can put your stuff on that chair or wherever you want. Don't worry about the snow or anything. I'll take care of it later. Please make yourself at home."
He nods, "Thanks." And slowly starts taking off his unnecessary gear. When he pulls of his hat, an unruly mop of black hair falls out. Even though he is a grown man, all Rey can see is a little boy just in from playing outside. "Nice socks." His face breaks into a smile, his actions becoming less unsure as he throws his coat onto the chair, his boots falling next to Rey's.
"Thanks!" she laughs, wiggling her toes clad in pink and yellow stripped socks with pineapples. She slides over to the abandoned hot chocolate fixings and starts making it up. She stands up on her tiptoes as she opens a cabinet up high and pulls down a bag of mini marshmallows. "I usually don't put these in but today seems like a good day for them."
Ben eases himself into one of her stools that line the breakfast bar. "I'm sorry. It's kind of my fault." Rey looks over at him confused before he finishes. "I mean about the not interacting. I'm not a very outgoing guy."
"Says the grown man building snowmen in his backyard." She throws a marshmallow at him.
"Hey, I'm not the one who snuck into my neighbor's yard only to assault him." He retorts, throwing the mallow back at her.
"Do you really want to start that again?" she asks, whisking away at the chocolaty goodness on the stove.
"If I recall correctly, you started both fights. That smells heavenly, by the way."
"Thanks. It's an old, secret recipe from when I was a kid. I'm kind of famous for it." She grabs two mugs from her dish drain.
"Your mom's recipe?" he asks as she sets a steaming mug in front of her. "Thanks."
"No, just one I came up with." She doesn't tell him about her parents or the orphanage. She sharing hot chocolate, not her tragic past.
He takes a sip, his eyes widening, "Wow. This is fantastic!"
She smiles over the cup, "Thanks." The silence that settles between them is not uncomfortable but there are so many things that both want to say, to ask. It just doesn't seem like the right time. Once she's about halfway done, Rey breaks the silence, "I was actually going to watch a movie-"
"Oh, sure. Yeah, I can go." Ben interrupts her, setting down his mug.
She starts laughing, grabbing onto his arm, "No, silly, I don't want you to go. I was going to ask if you wanted to join me."
"Oh." The redness returns to his cheeks. "Okay." He smiles sheepishly. "What did you want to watch?"
"Okay, don't judge but I'm kinda a big sci-fi nerd. Have you seen Galaxy Quest?" she asks, hesitant.
His face breaks into a bigger, more genuine smile, "Heard of it? I friggin' love that movie!"
"Good! Great!" she laughs. "That's awesome. Growing up, no one I knew was a big fan of anything like that so it's nice to finally meet a fellow Galaxy Quester."
He extends his hand towards her, "Ben Solo. Galaxy Quester and snowball fight extraordinaire."
"Rey Kenobi, hot chocolate master and sci-fi obsesser. Very pleased to meet you." They shake hands before bursting out in laughter. "Would you like another cup before we start?" she asks sauntering over to the stove to fill her own.
"I would indeed. Thank you very much." He sets his cup down next to her and their eyes meet. Both of them know this is the start of something and both hope it will last a very long time.