AN: Done to fulfill elenlith's tumblr prompt: Rey is the owner of a dainty little café. One day Ben stumbles in, almost by accident, all leather jacket and bad boy attitude. In the pastel-coloured café he stands out like a sore thumb, but he discovers the coffee is excellent…and the blinding smile from the pretty girl behind the counter leaves him speechless. Since then he's been returning every day… he's awkward as hell and stares at Rey when he thinks she's not looking.
Frigid rain pours down from the sky in sheets, and Kylo Ren thinks, not for the first time, that he should have brought an umbrella. Not that an umbrella would really be necessary once he makes his way back over to his bike and drives home, but the walk back to his motorcycle seems endlessly long as the sky opens up above him.
He's just finished a rendezvous with a kid who is being paid far too much money to infiltrate and spy on the Resistance. But the teen reports to Phasma, not him, and he's making contact with him as a favor to her, anyway. The neutral-ground bar they meet in is filled with cigarette smoke and its smell irritates him, so he leaves quickly after gleaning as much information as possible.
His bike is parked just in front of some kind of locally-owned coffee shop, and the delicately-printed sign that reads Rey's Sunshine is almost endearing, if not exceedingly flowery and completely out of place in the grey haziness of the stormy weather. The thought of a hot drink is immensely appealing right about now, though, and Kylo takes a half-step toward the building before he can register it. He'll just order something quick, drink it fast to warm his body up, and head home.
As he steps into the café, the warm air surrounds him, and although his clothes are sopping wet it's a relief to be out of the cold weather. Kylo runs a hand through his drenched hair, internally sighing at how ruined it likely looks, before he actually sweeps his gaze around the interior of the café.
It's a lacy, pastel-filled monstrosity of a café, and Kylo almost spins on his heel and leaves after he hears the door jingling lightly. The walls are all painted a soft pink with strips of a darker pink riddling the interior, and a light green counter-top showcases some frilly-looking cakes and desserts set off towards the left of the room.
The floor spanning the rest of the room is filled with what looks like antique pieces of furniture, all looking disgustingly appropriate given the atmosphere of the place. It makes him scowl, and he feels like he's made some kind of mistake until a feminine voice calls out, "Hey there."
The girl behind the counter is gorgeous in some bizarre contrast to the sickeningly saccharine café she's inhabiting, and Kylo actually stops for a moment to take her in. He's scowling, and it only deepens when she makes some jibe about him needing a towel, but it's a good expression to maintain as he drinks her in. She's young, definitely younger than him, with cherubic features and a blinding smile. Draped over her upper body is some loose, flowing white shirt that reveals her collarbone, and even as he vaguely thinks that the clothing is inappropriate given the onslaught of pelting rain outside, he reads the handwritten name-tag pinned that says, Rey.
Kylo realizes that he hasn't given her a response and that the grin on her face is beginning to wane, so he gives her a noncommittal grunt as his shivering recedes and he drips unceremoniously onto the polished wooden floor of her establishment.
At least he'll have something pretty to look at while he consumes his coffee.
Rey is caught up in a book theorizing about alien life on other worlds when the small bells tied around the front door tinkle. Potential customers have driven by, feigning interest in the quaint café before being deterred by the harsh rain, and this is her first customer in a long while. She looks up at the drenched, leather jacket-clad man that walks in, and has to refrain from smiling bemusedly at him. He's scowling, as though the downpour is a personal vendetta against him, and she almost forgets to be bright and bubbly to a potential paying customer.
"Hey there," she says, as he turns his glowering expression towards her own grinning visage. "You look like you could use a hot drink. And possibly a towel or two."
He grunts a response, which is just great, but Rey is nothing if not professional when she's in her café. (Maybe she's rude when outside its walls and venting about asshole customers who complain that they ordered a venti, not a large, but she only does so in the safety of Finn's apartment, and this guy is looking like he may be prime bitching material.)
Thinking that maybe he'll loosen up when he dries off a bit and stops looking like a drowned dog, Rey rummages around underneath the counter to search for some towels. The tiny tea towels she finds aren't exactly the ideal problem-solvers for this specific instance, but it's slow inside the café and Rey has nothing better to do than go above-and-beyond for the few customers she's had all day.
She offers him the off-white towels as a peace offering, and somehow he manages to angrily stomp his way over to her to snatch them away. His reaction is absolutely ridiculous, and Rey can't prevent the snort this time. The shades of black he's wearing stand out in stark contrast to the delicate colors of her café, and his pissed-off look is the cherry on top of her freshly-baked cheesecake.
"What?" he growls, and if he's looking for a fight then Rey is going to do the exact opposite: she's going to customer service the shit out of him.
"Nothing, sir!" she pipes up, curling her lips into a polite grin. "What can I get you to drink?"
From his initial reaction, she's expecting a muttered, "Coffee, black," from the brooding, albeit handsome, man. Rey definitely isn't expecting the guy to flush slightly while averting his gaze and saying, "A large caramel macchiato for here."
Picking-a-fight Rey would laugh at the man's sweet tooth and rib him about it, but best-goddamned-service-of-your-life Rey only nods with a bright smile and moves about to make his drink. On a slow day like today, she'd usually make herself something as well and try to start up a conversation with a lone customer, but tall, dark, and brooding really isn't all that deserving of her presence.
He's settled on one of her pastel yellow couches, and as she brings his hot coffee to him, she can't help but think that his arrogantly regal posturing juxtaposes ludicrously with her decor. "Here you are, sir," she chirps, placing the drink on a nearby table and stepping away to give him some privacy.
His phone must have buzzed or something, because he doesn't even thank her before huffing an irritated sigh and saying sternly into the device, "Go."
She's not trying to eavesdrop on his conversation, but the café is quiet as the rain beats a steady background rhythm against the ground, and it isn't as though the guy's really trying to prevent his conversation from being heard in the emptiness of the coffeehouse.
There's a pause of silence before he responds to whoever is on the other end of the line. "You're fucking kidding me," he hisses. "No, Hux, I've told you before to handle those Resistance bastards. I tire of your failures."
Rey would be lying if she said her interest isn't piqued. She's been in town for a few years, now, and though she isn't privy to all of the details of the workings in D'Qar, she also isn't a complete idiot, and she's fairly sure that by those Resistance bastards he means the biker gang that has been feuding with another group by the name of the First Order for as long as anyone can remember.
Shit, he's wearing leather and she assumed he drove a bike, but gang activity certainly isn't the first conclusion that she'd draw.
It isn't really any of her business, but her best friend had fallen in with the First Order a few years back and has only barely wiped his hands entirely clean of the whole disastrous situation. She feels a bit personally invested because of it, so she carefully eyes the man as he talks into the phone. He had paid in cash, and hadn't given out a name, but he's tall enough that she's sure he stands out against the backdrop of the gang's other members. The man seems too young to be significant, but this is not the conversation of some low-tier grunt. Honing in on the name Hux, Rey mentally files it away as something to ask Finn later.
"I don't care how loyal you insist they are, they've been nothing but useless as of late. Fix it," he bites out harshly before hanging up, and Rey quickly averts her attention back to the book resting in front of her on the counter. She's glad she didn't consider chatting him up, because now she wants nothing to do with him, but he paid for his drink and hasn't actually done anything to warrant her kicking him out, so she settles in and concentrates back on her novel.
The prickling she feels on the back of her neck is instinctive, and she carefully slides her gaze up to investigate. Subtle isn't always her forte, but she's a survivor and knows how to look preoccupied while simultaneously evaluating any given situation. He's staring at her, face pale and intense, and Rey distinctly feels the potential threat of danger lurking just beneath his skin. His full lips embrace the white porcelain of his mug, and his dark eyes are still eyeing her in what she can only describe as a calculating way.
Now that it's quiet again in the café, the turning of her book's page seems loud as a pin drop, and she chews at her bottom lip while contemplating what to do. The guy could be planning something, and the closest thing she can use as a potential weapon is a broomstick propped up near the opposite end of the counter. Rey isn't some dainty waif that needs rescuing from a big bad guy, and if he tries anything funny, she is more than willing to give him a taste of his own medicine. She's been trying really hard not to antagonize him and doesn't feel in the mood for a fight, but preservation instincts run strong in her blood and before she knows it, he's standing up.
Her body tenses, a preparation for battle, but he merely walks up to the counter and drops off the now-empty coffee mug. Their eyes meet, and it's a little more difficult to affix the civilized smile to her face, but he nods at her before moving to the door and exiting with the soft jingling of the door's bells.
Kylo has too many responsibilities to be thinking of the girl from the café, but his mind apparently has other ideas. She's all that he can envision, and his mind is a fuzzy mess of satisfaction whenever he imagines her bright smile. It isn't quite common knowledge that he's an excellent scout for talent, and he could practically feel her potential vibrating from across the room as he'd observed her. She's small, and lithe, but the tension in her shoulders as he had left the café had indicated some awareness of physical fighting, and he's beyond tempted to see the full extent of her abilities. He wants her, the damning distraction that she is.
The meeting he's in with Hux and Phasma is dull and he can't even pretend to care about the Resistance when he knows that Rey is out there, smiling that gorgeous grin at some random customer. Even the mere thought of it annoys him greatly. He stands up abruptly, interrupting whatever Phasma had been saying, and leaves the room.
Why he couldn't calm down after Hux's call and attempt a conversation with her, he can't explain, but maybe another visit will help.
Besides, that caramel macchiato had been the best thing he'd tasted in his entire goddamnned life.
He comes in the next day while Rey is swamped with a line of impatient, coffee-starved customers. It's 2 o'clock on a Tuesday, and really shouldn't be this busy, and she doesn't even notice that he's in line until he's standing right in front of her. She's usually good with faces and names, and can recognize fairly early on who is going to become a regular at her café, but as she smiles and says, "Hey, welcome to Rey's Sunshine café, what would you like?" her hazel eyes have to climb until she's looking into the handsome face of the potential gang member.
For some reason, he hasn't said anything about his order, he's just looking at her bizarrely, and it reminds her of when he first walked into her café. He had looked like a drowning dog, then, but now the look on his features is something akin to a lost puppy, although he's thankfully not dripping rain water onto her floor this time.
It only takes a second to remember what his order is, and to spare herself from engaging in this awkward staring contest for longer than necessary, she chuckles nervously and says, "Same as last time, then? Carmel macchiato?"
Gratefully, he nods, and comes back to himself enough to pat his legs down briefly. She can't help but observe the tight shirt stretched over his chest, and it leaves little enough to the imagination that she can tell he's strong and likely works out. A lot. He's still dressed in all black, leather jacket tight across his shoulders, and he finally finds his wallet and hands a credit card to her. The card reads Kylo Ren, and it's an odd enough name that it immediately sticks in her head.
She's using paper cups today to keep up with the rush of customers and orders, and she marks his order before writing Kylo on his with a flourish.
When the line finally dies down, the man – Kylo – is still sitting in the back corner of her café and sticking out like a sore thumb. He's crouched into a chair that is definitely too small to house his large figure, but he seems like he hardly notices. His dark clothing does everything but blend in with the delicate colors of her café, and it really is an amusing image.
By no means is Rey a particularly feminine girl, but growing up in a life full of poverty has taught her to value the life that she's built around herself, and if she wants to open a coffee and sweets café that has lace-edged tablecloths and dainty, delicate teacups surrounded by a pastel landscape, then she dares anyone to say a word to her face about it.
And she loves it, loves the beauty of the space and the skill of her baker, an old, delicate woman by the name of Maz, and it has become a safe haven for her. She's beginning to gain a new appreciation for it, though, as the black-garbed entity sulks entertainingly in the corner as though repulsed by its lightly-colored surroundings.
Kylo spends the entirety of his time in her café watching her from his seat, and Rey pretends she doesn't notice. He looks a lot more harmless when he's not seething annoyance from unpleasant weather, and the danger that had radiated off of his body before has all but vanished.
He finally leaves without speaking a single word to her, and Rey contemplates on how much more handsome his face is when not lined by anger as she runs a cup under warm water to clean it out.
When Kylo walks into the café to the increasingly-familiar soft jingling of the door's attached bells, he is annoyed to see that Rey isn't even working behind the counter. Instead, it's some man who's grinning and nodding along with whatever the customer in front of him is saying. It only serves to sour his mood even more, and he mutters a request for coffee when he makes it to the front of the line.
He's standing off to the side, waiting for his to-go order, when Rey steps out from a pastel green door with a scrawled Employees Only sign etched on the front. She's got a grey coat on and a bag looped around her arm, and she makes her way over toward the employee standing by the dessert case. The man looks to be around her age, skin dark with close-cropped hair, and he says something that makes Rey burst out into laughter.
The sound is beautiful, musical and genuine, and yet Kylo is infuriated. His anger simmers before boiling over as she leans over and gives him a hug, and he calls out, "Have a great afternoon, Rey!" as she leaves the café.
She hadn't even noticed him, and perhaps that's for the best, because Kylo hasn't felt this pissed off about anything for a very, very long time. His nails bite into his palms as he clenches his fists, carving thin, red crescents of blood into his flesh.
He leaves after that, drink left behind. The worst part is that the man behind the counter looks familiar, and it isn't until he's speeding down the road on his bike at an alarmingly fast pace that he realizes where he recognizes him from.
He was one of Hux's lackeys, a few years ago, before he had betrayed them and fled with a Resistance brat who had significant information about a planned attack on one of their drug ring leaders. Fathoming why someone like Rey would tangle herself up with him – and casually forgoing the knowledge that if she got involved with him, it would essentially be the same situation – Kylo finds himself so angry that he's demolishing the punching bag hung in his apartment until his knuckles are raw and bloody.
It strikes him when he calms down that the man – Finn, he remembers, from Hux's rare display of outrage – didn't recognize his features, and Kylo reasons that the man was low enough within their rankings to have never seen him without his bike helmet on.
His confidence feels shattered after he sees Rey interacting with that First Order traitor, and he doesn't visit the café for days afterward. It takes a few days (wherein Kylo is definitely not sulking) before Hux pulls him aside, looking entirely unimpressed with the figure he cuts.
"With all due respect," the redhead says, "get your shit together. If your head's not in this, the Resistance will be aware of our complacent leadership and take advantage of it."
Kylo certainly wasn't expecting Hux to be the person to inspire him, but the statement does its job. He is Kylo Ren of the First Order, and if he needs to woo a girl and take her for himself, then he's damned sure he can do such a thing.
It's somewhere around his fifth or sixth visit that Rey gets to see a new facet of the man's personality. He's been a glowering asshole and an eerily quiet semi-stalking weirdo, but today he has apparently decided to be some kind of confident ladies' man.
"Hey, you," Rey smiles at him, ever the polite barista and café owner. Kylo has come often enough now that she can greet him familiarly (plus, he generally tips well and hell yes Rey can put an additional smile on for a few extra bucks). "Feeling the usual today?"
"No," he says, and she's startled by the smirk that he gives her. She can't even recall him actually smiling at him, usually his face is this constipated look of concentration, so she pauses before responding.
"Alright! What'll it be, then?"
"I'm not sure you'll be able to serve me what I'm looking for," he sighs a bit dramatically before resting an elbow on the counter and running a hand through his dark, tousled hair.
"Uh," Rey responds intelligently. Has he been replaced by some kind of alien? "Try me?" There's a line building behind him, but he's taking his time with whatever this display is.
Kylo looks at her and does something weird with his eyes, tilting his head towards her and giving her an intense look involving his eyebrows and pouting lips. "What I'd really like is a piping hot cup of you, " he says.
Rey has never been more confused in her life.
He's pulling out all of the stops for her, and the blank, nonplussed look that Rey gives him in return demoralizes him only the slightest, tiniest bit.
Shit, he doesn't even like the latte he's sipping on now. Sensing that the smolder had been a failure of disastrous proportions, Kylo had frantically averted his gaze to some random item listed on the menu hanging behind the counter, and blurted it out loudly, too committed to back down.
What is he even doing? Whenever he tries to talk to her, he turns into an immense imbecile, and the cool, collected persona of Kylo Ren dissolves until there's nothing left but a nervous teenage boy. Coming to this café on a regular basis has been a mistake, and he steels himself to say goodbye to her and never step foot in this ridiculously-themed coffee shop again. The coffee truly isn't fantastic enough to warrant the embarrassment, and even that lie feels desperately pathetic in the recesses of his mind. He's about to stand up and bring his cup to the dish tub at the end of the counter-top before Rey crosses his vision.
"So what the hell was that?" she asks as she plops down next to him, a glass of ice water clutched in one hand. He looks up, a query about why she isn't doing her job on the tip of his tongue before he sees some girl taking orders behind the counter. He sets his cup back down on the coffee table his knees are currently bumping against before groaning softly and covering his face with his hands.
She really isn't going to let him off easy, is she? The embarrassment of her blank face in response to his attention is already going to haunt him forever, and now she's come to hammer in the final nail in the coffin.
"Oh, come on, emo boy. I've resisted making fun of your incredible sweet tooth for at least a week now, the least you can do is pay me back by telling me what's going on!"
And maybe this is why he's never tried to hold a legitimate conversation with her before. His words spill out of his mouth like he's a drunkard, and he's confident that he could be standing in front of the entirety of the First Order and still manage to be the bumbling idiot he must appear in front of her now. He mumbles into his hands, "I – it doesn't matter. I believed that we could pursue some kind of relationship, but you are enamored with another and I've embarrassed myself quite enough for a lifetime."
He shifts uncomfortably, still unable to look at her, when his knee bumps into hers. The cup she's holding flies up, and in a slow-motion moment of horror, Kylo can see the water fly out of the glass and up into the air.
Rey squeaks as time returns to its normal speed and the freezing water splashes onto her shirt. It immediately soaks through to her skin, and it's unlucky that the café door has been propped open to invite guests in with the delicious scents of freshly-baked desserts, because the following breeze that whooshes into her shop sends her into a wrack of shivers.
"Fuck, I'm sorry," Kylo is saying, and he's slipping out of that notorious leather jacket before draping it gently over her shoulders. It is a contrast to his seemingly rough exterior, marred by the scabs on his knuckles and the semi-permanent scowl etched onto his face, and Rey can't help but smile as she slips her arms into the sleeves and thanks him.
His leather jacket dwarfs her, but it smells like him, and hey, maybe it's the romantic in her that considers giving him a chance. The strange attempt at flirting had felt like a train-wreck, but this confessing and abashed figure next to her seems much more genuine and likable. "I don't know how I feel about you believing that I could turn a gay man straight, but I'm very flattered," she laughs lightly. Definitely not within the realm of possibility, she thinks to herself, although helping you escape a dangerous and illegal life to be this cute person full-time does seem much more plausible. And okay, maybe she's a sucker for trying to fix anyone and everyone damaged that she comes across, but the blush painted high on his cheeks really is quite irresistible.
Kylo's mind is a dazed, possessive beast that growls satisfyingly at seeing his jacket over her frame, and it takes an embarrassingly long time to fully comprehend what she's saying.
"Come on a date with me," he says as his mind crows, She's available! and he clears his throat in an anxious effort to hide how close to a plea that command had sounded.
"I'm sorry, was there a request somewhere in that demand?" she says, and Kylo feels the stirrings of anger within his veins before he sees that she's smiling beautifully at him. She's fiery and has an attitude, and it only makes him want her more. Maybe foregoing his pride will be worth it in this case.
"Please go on a date with me," he amends, glancing around to ensure that nobody has heard how whipped he already is.
"I guess," she drawls out playfully, and Kylo can't bear this anymore, she's agreed and every fiber of his being is screaming to kiss this beautiful, clever creature. He stretches an arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer to him, leaning his head down to press his lips to her own.
He can feel her smiling against his mouth, and she kisses back, her tongue peeking out to trace the lines of his lips before she nudges him away.
"Not in my café!" she gasps, mock-scandalously, and then she leans back in to murmur, "But at my apartment later? Definitely not off-limits."
Kylo's a goner.