AN: If you read this and begin to wonder why it's so intricately detailed and ridiculous, the reason is that I LIVED THIS LIFE. I STILL LIVE THIS LIFE. I've been going to summer camps for about 15 years, and I've been a camp counselor for five of those. A lot of stuff that's described in the fic is pretty anecdotal, and honestly I could ramble on for ages about how magnificent summer camp is. I'm really just a gigantic nerdy counselor.
This definitely isn't going to be a standalone fic. I have a lot of good ideas for this universe for spinoffs, so rest assured that there will be sequels!
Standard summer camp rules apply to Camp Resistance, as is par for the course. The week-long camp requires some semblance of structure, and most of the rules are straightforward. (They include, but are not limited to the required vast expanse of land separating the boys' and girls' cabins, the mandatory application of sunscreen, and camp-appropriate vocabulary and conversational topics.)
Of course the camp counselors abide by these guidelines, unwilling as they are to risk losing their jobs, but the unwritten code of conduct is just as important as the rules told to campers. Namely, Rule One: Under no circumstances will bug juice ever actually be referred to as fruit punch while on camp premises. Rule Two: A counselor's level of coolness is absolutely rated by the ridiculousness of their tanlines. (Watch tan? 15 points, easy. Sunglasses tan? Wracking up an embarrassing 30 points. But a sandal tan? 50 gosh-darn points on the spot.) Rule Three: The inappropriate Book of Quotes that resides in the staff break room and includes the most absurd, innuendo-filled statements that come from the mouths of unwitting campers and counselors alike, will never, ever be seen by a camper. Ever. And, most importantly, Rule Four: Color wars are serious S-H-I-T.
Rey Kenobi is legend among her campers. She's been attending Camp Resistance since before she can remember, one of the lucky impoverished children who gained a scholarship on a yearly basis to attend for at least one week every summer. Ever since she hit age 18 Rey has returned annually to inspire and encourage kids to have the best summer of their life. She's going on year four of being a camp counselor, now, and she wouldn't trade it for the world.
Honestly, there are few things she adores more. Living without technology for almost three consecutive months is a bit of a strain on the astrophysics major, but the clean, fresh air of the wilderness and the incredible visibility of the stars and the Milky Way at night due to the mountainous lack of light pollution is worth the trade every single time.
Her girls are always some of the youngest, a majority of them complete newcomers to the camp experience, and Rey can't help but grin whenever she converts a shy, wide-eyed, pig-tailed girl into a camp-song singing, dirt-covered ball of enthusiastic camp spirit.
And if Rey possibly begs Leia to be the young cabin camp counselor because they're too damn cute to ever get pranked by the other cabins, well, that's her little secret.
The only downfall to being the counselor to the youngest girls is the scheduling. Public Enemy #1 is the potential for the oldest cabin of boys to begin flirting with the oldest cabin of girls, and they are strategically separated so that the youngest girls are on the same schedule rotation as the oldest boys, and vice versa. It's an amusing scene when they partake in activities like archery, watching gangly teenagers tower over tiny little girls as they clumsily fire off arrows, but the boys are generally sweethearts to the girls and it's mostly adorable.
All of this would be well and good, except for the fact that Ben Solo refuses to be the counselor of any boys under the age of 14, which means that more often than not, she's paired up with him for their activity rotations.
If flirting girls and boys are Public Enemy #1, then Ben Solo is the mastermind villain of the century. He's sarcastic, caustic, and always seems to spark Rey's competitive spirit when they cross paths. Which is, unfortunately, every single day that she's working.
It's tough to hide her animosity towards him when they're in front of the kids and have to. It's even harder to restrain herself when he smirks condescendingly at her and always teases her about how the youngest girls don't ever win camp contests or games, but she's managed for the past few years and is up for the challenge this summer.
It's the night before campers arrive, the main building currently packed with camp staff, and Rey turns when she hears a twig snap behind her.
"Hey, pretty lady," Poe says as he approaches. It's getting cold now that the sun's gone down, and Poe is about to shrug his jacket off and offer it to her politely before she stops him with a shake of her head.
"I'm fine, I love the cold. Much better than the heat of the desert."
"Still doesn't seem right to leave a lady shivering."
Now that he's mentioned it, Rey does feel a bit chilly. She runs her hands up and down her arms in a gesture of hopeful warmth. "I'll head inside soon. I just love looking at the stars."
Few things are as magnificent as the night sky at Resistance, and she never truly tires of the glorious, endless expanse of the sky above her.
Poe makes an agreeing noise. "Makes you wish you could fly up that high, right? Just pilot around the stars and explore?"
"Yeah," Rey comments, breath puffing out in a cloudy huff. "Maybe someday."
"Well, make sure to take pictures for me when you're a NASA-trained astronaut, alright? Let's head inside, I'm cold just looking at you."
She laughs, but concedes and follows him back inside the warmth of the main camp building. In honor of the first week of camp, all of the staff has arranged a gigantic sleepover in the living room of their biggest cabin, and the excitement in the air is palpable.
Sundays always pass quickly. Kids arrive sometime in the early afternoon, and the departure of their teary-eyed parents in a trail of dust is usually a painless process. Most children are ecstatic to go to camp, and their unbridled excitement serves as a strong method for ushering parents away.
The biggest priority on Day One of being a counselor includes learning campers' names, and Ben's handing out pieces of masking tape and a permanent marker so that his kids can make name badges when they first arrive. Learning the names of the twelve or-so kids seemed daunting, once upon a time, but he has experience now and he's positive he'll know them all by tomorrow morning.
Despite the fact that he managed to avoid attending his mother's camp for the majority of his life, her pleas to have him work for at least one summer sealed his fate. Turns out that being a camp counselor is, well, fun, and he's well-past the begrudging phase of admitting that.
His boys for the first week seem like a fun bunch. They're old enough to handle his sarcastic wit, which is fantastic because Ben can't stand the crying of younger kids.
One's already come up to him conspiratorially to ask, "So, when can we prank the other cabins?"
Ben can't help the smirk. "Not too early in the week while everyone's still getting settled, but I promise we'll have some fun."
The boy, who has a hastily-scrawled Joseph taped onto his chest, grins. "I can't wait!"
Mondays are Rey's favorite day, mostly because the youngest girls are scheduled for a nature hike and those are her preferred camp activity. The greenery surrounding them is wondrous, so exotic compared to the rare flora of her arid homeland, and her campers always seem captivated by her words as she teaches them about the local plants.
"Here we are," she says, breath only slightly heaving from the exertion of the uphill climb. Her girls are tired, though, panting in the thin mountain air, and she gives them a moment to catch their breath. Thankfully, she had enough foresight to encourage them all to bring their own water bottles.
"We've made it to the highest point of our hike, and it gives us a great view of all the pine trees. If you look at the tall trunks, you can see that there aren't many branches lower down on the trunk. Does anyone know why that is?"
A curly-haired redhead is avidly waving her hand up in the air.
"Go ahead, Avery."
"Because of fires!" the girl eagerly says.
"That's right! Great answer," Rey explains. "The older a pine tree gets, the taller it gets. When it gets old enough, its lowest branches die and fall off, and what's left is that tall trunk without any branches. Since a fire starts and travels mostly on the ground, it makes it harder for a fire to catch onto the tree and burn it down."
The girls make ah and oohing sounds, looking out at the vast forest beneath them. It's a great view, and Rey makes a point of bringing all of her cabins up to the vista at least once per week. Below is a sea of green, tall trees filling the valley as far as the eye can see, and because it's a clear day the vivid blue of the sky complements the forest well. The sun shines high in the sky, and in the distance is the vague outline of a neighboring mountain range.
A rustling directs her attention away from the view, and Rey turns to see a few deer prancing over their trail. The girls quickly catch on and start loudly commenting on the wild animals, who make their way past the gaggle of campers and into the thick bushes.
They're all so excited about everything around them that Rey doesn't have the heart to tell them that their loud voices are scaring the deer away. The girls are endearing in their innocence, and it warms her heart to be the one teaching them about nature and the world around them.
Sometimes, she wishes she could do this forever.
The day passes quickly, though, and before she knows it Rey and her girls are cleaning up after lunch and preparing for the upcoming few hours of free-time, where the campers can choose what they want to do.
She unleashes them within the boundaries of the campground, seeing that several of her girls are going to the nail-painting station while many rush over to get string for friendship bracelets, and she keeps an eye out for Poe or Finn.
Her friends are scheming this summer, that much is obvious. Finn is clearly avoiding her, even when she commands her girls to attack him in a gigantic group-hug, and it's much too suspicious to let go. He can't bear to be alone with her, and it's early enough that she makes an internal wager that she can get him to talk by Wednesday.
Campers always adore Finn, and it's not hard to see why. He's incredibly compassionate and always engages with the kids, even if they aren't part of his own cabin. Rey's lucky that her kids are too young to really develop serious crushes on any of the staff, that's Poe's real curse as the camp heartthrob, but the sheer idolization they have for him never fails to put her in a happy mood.
Finn and her have been friends for years. They met at camp, both orphans allowed to go to camp through the scholarship fund, and even though in their youth they lived in different cities, having the foundation of summer camp to reunite on a yearly basis has shaped Rey's life significantly.
Now, though, they live together along with his boyfriend, and the both of them are such important figures in her life that she can't imagine her world without them.
Poe came highly-recommended by Finn, and though he's newer to the whole camp system, only a camp counselor for two years with no camper experience, he's become an instant favorite. Especially by Phasma's oldest girls, who always manage to sneak him love notes despite the strict no-boy/girl-drama rule set in place by camp. And, as if the camper-counselor crushes weren't enough, rumors constantly fly about how close Poe and Jessika are, and when they circulate it never fails to make Rey chuckle. If only their 14-year-old campers knew how gay he was for one of their favorite counselors.
She honestly isn't sure why so many people like Ben, though. He's always a total jerk to her, and even though it's easy to play it off in front of the kids as a competitive friendship, she doesn't see a lot of his redeeming qualities. Yeah, he's great with his campers, but he's never gone out of his way to be nice to her, and Rey doesn't feel like she should extend the same courtesy. He'd taken a year off from working a few years back, and the amount of whining, "Why isn't Ben here? Is he at least coming to visit?" requests from campers never ceased to bemuse her.
He's Leia's son, though, and because Rey essentially worships the woman, she avoids being cruel to him.
She's gotten lost in her musings, but Rey snaps back into reality when she sees one of her girls attempting to teach Finn how to french braid hair on another camper of hers.
Camp is the best, if only because it's one of the only places where everyone forgets about societal standards and what others will think of them in favor of just being themselves and doing what sounds fun.
Her campers look positively joyful as they teach him, and Rey turns to see Poe standing beside her.
"I'm feeling a little bit jealous," he admits as he jerks his chin over to the spectacle.
"Me too," Rey jokes. "My girls don't even like me that much. I never got any french braiding lessons!"
Poe raises a single eyebrow at her standard three-bun hairstyle. "I think your girls have discovered your deep, dark secret of being unable to do anything but the hairstyle you're currently sporting."
"Hey!"
"Am I wrong?"
He's not, and she can't really deny it. Sue her for being the kind of girl that doesn't even know how to apply makeup, but it never seemed important in the grand scheme of things. "Learn anything?" Rey asks Finn, redirecting her attention away from rude men named Poe as he makes his way over to them.
"I don't think I quite have french braiding down yet," Finn admits. "But I have learned that white is definitely not my color." And he holds up his hands, wiggling his fingers dramatically to display that they have been painted white.
She giggles at the sight. "Such a shame. I bet you'd look lovely with a blue or grey."
Poe takes Finn's hand as he carefully inspects the freshly-applied nail polish, though Rey knows it's just an excuse to touch him in front of other campers.
The three of them stand there in comfortable silence, supervising the free-time activities as kids play dodgeball, make friendship bracelets, and hula hoop to their hearts' content.
"Finn," Poe murmurs pointedly as Rey's attention is drawn away by a kid who has fallen and scraped her knee. "You have no idea how hard it is to convince Leia that giving Rey and Ben the same night off is a good idea..."
"But... ?"
"But, I am a magnificent genius."
The plan is set in motion, then. Thank god.
"I'd kiss you but there are eleven-year-olds playing Mafia about ten feet away."
"It's the thought that counts, babe."
Rey returns to Poe's side, putting her first aid kid back into her ever-present, counselor-essential backpack. "Camp appropriate, guys," she says, nonchalantly so as not to draw attention from the kids playing around them.
Finn faux-gasps in indignation, holding a hand up to his mouth to complete the dramatic motion, and with his nails painted it's an absolutely ridiculous picture.
Rey is winning Cleanest Cabin of the Week when the unthinkable happens. It's Wednesday, almost time for camp activities to start wrapping up so that the kids can go home with their families on Friday night, and her and her girls are just coming back from a lovely nature hike when she opens the door to their cabin.
And sees that it's an unmitigated disaster, sleeping bags and pillows strewn about haphazardly while toilet paper streams across the ceiling. On the farthest wall, closest to Rey's bunk, is a duct-taped smiley face.
Her girls, her aged-seven-to-nine girls, have been pranked. And Rey is positive it's no coincidence that the second-place cabin for Cleanest Cabin of the Week happens to be the oldest boys.
This calls for revenge.
"Squirrels," she says, because she lets them all pick out a nickname for her to call them at the start of the week and that's what Ami, a taller girl with short blonde hair had cried out excitedly when she'd brought it up, "We must brainstorm a good counter-prank."
The resounding squeals of excitement from around her are the real reason she does this job, Rey thinks.
Ben really does try to keep a straight face as his boys march belligerently towards the dining hall for lunch. He's spent years learning how to school his expressions and this really shouldn't even be a difficult task, but there's just something so innately hilarious about the fact that none of his campers, himself included, have a single pair of completely-matching shoes adorning their feet. Their walk of shame to their table is done completely in silence, and Ben really doesn't want to be the one to break it with an ill-timed guffaw, so he's incredibly thankful that he manages to stifle the laughter.
And, lo and behold, the youngest girls' cabin is a giggling mess at their table, overshadowed only by the loud peals of laughter coming from their commander-in-chief. Rey isn't even trying to deny responsibility for the prank, in fact Ben's pretty sure she's almost in tears at how dejected his cabin looks at being one-upped by a group of little girls, and he can't hold it in anymore.
His sharp bark of laughter is enough to break the tension within his cabin, and before he knows it, it sounds like the entire camp is shrieking in amusement.
One of his boys is standing up on a chair, giving some ridiculous speech about the injustice of walking into his cabin only to find out that a single shoe from each pair of shoes he's brought to camp has mysteriously gone missing, and how cruel his counselor is to tell them that shoes are a mandatory requirement for any and all camp activities. The spectacle has Ben's shoulders shaking and eyes leaking from how well-executed the prank was.
When his mom finally comes out to greet them all and announce that lunch is ready, the camp has finally reduced their contagious laughter to a quieter level of giggling and snorting.
His mother looks at him with amusement sparkling in her eyes, and Ben can only offer a casual, almost-innocent shrug. It really isn't his fault...
Today's meal is chicken nuggets and fries, and the kids look ecstatic as they rush inside to grab the food. Ben sits back in his chair at the end of the table, wiping at his tear-filled eyes. He's grateful that his hand is mostly covering his face, because he turns his head to look at Rey's table and feels himself freeze.
Rey's grinning at him, a look she never reserves for him, and even if it's the vindictive grin of a victorious pranker, Ben can't help the little flutter his heart gives. He swallows as his cheeks flush, and musters up enough courage to return her grin with a wink that's almost flirtatious. It certainly feels that way, that he's flirting carelessly with danger, but hey, his boys are definitely going to want to retaliate. Even if those younger cabin girls are adorable as hell.
They don't have much more time left in the week for pranks, but Ben's campers manage to splash huge buckets of water onto the girls when they're walking towards the arts and crafts area on Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday morning the youngest girls wake the boys up at 5:30 in the morning by making mountain lion and bear noises outside their cabin windows.
Ben's always known that Rey has a wicked sense of humor, but it's the first time she's really engaged with him, even through the proxy of their campers. It's thrilling, and it's the closest thing he's had to friendship with her, and he can't help but look forward to what they're going to do next.
Today's the day, and Rey casually slaps a blue, paint-slathered hand over her own face. The resulting handprint is a declaration of her allegiance, and she wears it proudly. Phasma's girls, the oldest female cabin, are decked out in blue as well, and they're hollering about girl power and trying to come up with good words that rhyme with blue. Girls are chattering in line in front of her, and she dips her hand back into the paint bucket and asks the first girl in line what kind of battle-paint she'd like.
"Stripes!" the small brunette chirps, and Rey obeys her request, using a finger to smear the blue paint across the bridge of the girl's nose.
The line continues in such a fashion until both Rey and Phasma's campers are covered in azure paint (mixed with sunscreen, of course, to ease the removal process). Apparently, the cheer they've managed to come up with is a Queen-inspired, foot-stomping, "Blue will, blue will, rock you!" and she grins as she looks out at the other teams.
Across the field, she can see that Poe and BB have a gaggle of yellow-covered children lined up as they distribute their own yellow paint.
Finn and Jessika are screaming at the top of their lungs about mean green, which means... Ben and Hux are red. Of course.
Huddled in one corner of the field are the boys in red, and their counselors look like conniving villains as they discuss some sort of game-plan.
The war hasn't even started yet and Rey's voice is already going hoarse from her team's chant, and she pulls her and Phasma's girls together as they discuss their own strategies.
Leia's hosting the first event, a cabin-wide tug-of-war, and Rey's grateful that her younger girls have the strength of the oldest cabin backing them up as they head over to take part. Their fight against Finn and Jessika is rough, not quite enough to beat the middle-age group of girls and boys, and Rey finds herself motivating the girls after their first loss. It's not too hard to reinspire the girls, and they soon dominate in the next event, a water-balloon toss.
Across the field, Ben and Hux crow in victory against Poe and BB as they win a round of capture the flag, and Rey gathers up her girls and gives them the motivational speech of a lifetime. It involves several mentions of the honor in victory, and how there is nothing more satisfying than beating a bunch of boys, and when it's their turn for the game the overeager girls absolutely dominate the other teams.
At the end of the morning, the blue team has won by a landslide, all events won except for their first, and Rey feels just as giddy with excitement as the rest of the girls in their group. Even Phasma, who is usually known as one of the more stoic counselors, is jumping up and down with her cabin, and the victory of week-one color wars carries them through the day.
Lunch passes with Rey and Phasma's group chanting Blue will, blue will, rock you, throughout the meal, and even the other groups reignite their competitive spirits as they sing and yell their own team cheers.
The afternoon is filled with archery, and Rey manages to avoid talking to Ben more than is strictly necessary. They both give instructions and show examples of proper and improper bow handling, and she makes a conscious effort to stay away from his cabin while the kids shoot arrows and attempt to improve their skill.
One of the boys keeps insisting that he's Hawkeye from the Avengers, and it eventually devolves into an argument about who the coolest archer is, Katniss or Merida, and the only contact Rey has with Ben is when they have to pull their campers apart and discuss how it's okay to have differing opinions without fighting.
Her girls give Ben an incredibly high pitched, "Bye, Ben!" as they part ways and prepare for dinner, and Rey manages a half-wave at the boys' cabin when they leave. It's her evening off, and after having her girls change out of their dirty clothes and prepare for their final meal of the day, Jessika knocks on the cabin door.
"I'll take your girls now, Rey!" she says. "Have a good night!"
"Thanks, Jess," Rey responds as she grabs a clean pair of clothes and her shower supplies. When she's done, she makes her way to the corkboard placed in the staff lounge to see who else has the night off with her.
Somehow, it's only her and Ben. It's typically tradition to hang out with the entirety of the staff that is lucky enough to have a few hours away from the camp while another counselor covers their cabin, except it's Thursday night and for some reason Ben and her are the only ones listed on the schedule.
Rey finds herself staring at the staff board, unsure of how she didn't realize this sooner. She's freshly-showered, dressed in some of the only clothes that she brought in her suitcase that weren't emblazoned with the Camp Resistance text and logo, and nowhere to go.
"Uh," Ben says as he moves to stand next to her, undoubtedly thinking along the same lines. He looks different, dressed in jeans and a tight, dark tee. "Did you... want to hang out?"
She's about to bite out, Of course, Solo, why wouldn't I want to spend my only night off with a punk like you? when she forces herself to stop. The request had seemed genuine, and maybe she should make an effort to have a cordial outing with him. If it ends up going to shit, she can at least tell Leia that she tried. "Why not?" she says, instead, and the smile on her face feels so forced that she can see he's about to say something about it. "Wanna run into town and grab some not camp food?"
"Sure. Yeah, let's do that."
The conversation is strained and awkward without their usual competitive banter, and Rey already regrets agreeing. It's just for a few hours, though, and she grabs her car keys from her mailbox and says, "Come on, then, Solo. I'll drive."
Once they make their way out of the camp grounds, the car ride is, surprisingly, not horrific. When Ben isn't trying to antagonize her, he's not an awful conversationalist, and Rey finds herself caught up in their interaction.
"She called him what when they first met?"
"A stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking cow herder. He told me that he fell in love with her right there."
"Please," Rey laughs. "Don't tell me anything more, I can't handle having my impression of Leia ruined by her horrible banter with your dad."
"If you think that was bad, you should have heard them when they were actually trying to flirt. I think I'm still scarred from those arguments and their... aftermaths."
"Oh, god."
"Exactly."
They're in the middle of the expansive freeway separating camp from the nearest town when a loud noise has Rey immediately pulling over. "Shit, my tire," she swears, well-versed in the language of her vehicle and the tell-tale uneven tread of a tire issue.
When they pull to a stop, Rey makes a beeline for the passenger side of her car, and sure enough, the front wheel is flat. Dressed in her more expensive clothing, she really doesn't want to get dirty, but as she stands there contemplating the quickest way to replace the tire without getting her clothes too ruined, Ben does a decent job of goading her into action.
"Do you want me to put the spare on for you?" He's already out of the car, moving towards the trunk to presumably do her job for her.
"Do I look like someone who needs help?" Rey scoffs. She's used to people assuming she doesn't know a damn thing about the mechanics of a car, and her response is one formed from habit.
"Ugh, I didn't mean to insult you," Ben scowls at her as she pops open the trunk and hauls out her spare as well as the other tools needed for changing the tire.
"Too bad, every man thinks that because I'm a girl I can't fix a goddamn car," she grunts as she loosens the lug nuts with her wrench. "And it's fucking annoying."
"I was trying to help!" he responds, though it sounds more like an indignant whine. Rey contemplates throwing her wrench at him as she pumps the jack and the car elevates, but she likes her tools too much to waste them on Ben's stupid, albeit pretty, face.
"It'll be a cold day in hell before I need your help with anything, Solo!"
"Fine!"
Rey thinks he might actually walk away from her car in anger and attempt to walk home, and she shrugs. This was bound to happen, really, what were they expecting? The process of taking off the lug nuts and fitting on the spare is easy, and it isn't long before she's releasing the jack and ready to drive again. It's only slightly surprising to see Ben leaning against her car.
"Thought you'd be going for an impromptu hike back home," she quips as she slams the trunk shut.
"Wore the wrong shoes for it," he says, wiggling a foot out to display his black Converse, and it makes her smile a bit. It's as close to a peace offering as she's going to get, and she really isn't so mean as to abandon him on the side of the road.
"Well, let's get going. I'm hungry."
"Let me pay for dinner, at least? Since you'll have to pay to patch or replace the tire." The request comes once they're driving again.
"You drive a hard bargain, Solo," Rey smirks at him. "But I will never turn down some free food."
They end up stopping at a local Mexican food place once they make it into town, grabbing burritos and huge cups of horchata. The food is delicious, especially without being financially responsible for it, and Rey realizes that she's having a good evening despite their rocky start.
"We'll have to head back soon," Ben says through a bite full of ice cream in the parlor they'd stopped at after dinner.
Rey nods in agreement as she takes a long lick from her cone of vanilla. "I should make you drive so that I can properly enjoy this gift from God," she sighs as she takes another lick. Seriously, ice cream is the greatest invention in the universe.
"Want me to?"
She snorts at him. He's like a goddamn puppy dog underneath all the snark. "It's fine, as long as I don't get another flat. If I do, you're pushing the car while I sit inside."
"So mean," he bemoans before shoving his spoon back into his cup of ice cream and sliding it into his mouth, and Rey does a fairly good job of ignoring how his tongue had wrapped around the pink plastic spoon almost sensually.
When they make it back to camp, it's dark out. The campers are probably in bed by now, and both Rey and Ben need to return to their cabins soon, so she parks and they head inside the main building.
"Well, Solo, we didn't burn down anything. Tonight was a resounding success."
"Even with the car trouble?"
"Oh, shut up. I bet you probably rigged my tire to pop to make me look bad." The words are meant in jest, without any of the standard bite she adds when she's usually talking to him, but he still frowns.
"I did have fun tonight," Ben insists, and there's something about his tone of voice that has her turning to face him after she plops her keys back into her mailbox.
"Yeah, it wasn't bad. Thanks for the food." And when her eyes catch his, he seems mesmerized her own features. Rey almost completes the half-thought about asking him if he's alright, but he looks like he's in a weird daze, and it never comes to fruition as he moves closer to her.
A hand – his hand, obviously, she realizes belatedly – is reaching up to card through her hair softly, and they're both caught in some weird, tense trance. Rey looks up at him, refusing to back down, and somehow Ben's close enough that she can feel his body heat emanating from his skin as he leans down to kiss her.
It's just a quick pressing of lips, which is regrettable because she really wouldn't have minded if it was a bit longer, but only a few beats have passed before Ben's physically pushing her away with an absolutely horrified look upon his features.
"I didn't mean to do that!" he says, voice a near-yell, and Rey wants to say, But maybe I did, but her voice seems to be caught in her throat.
"Uh," she chokes out, finally, but Ben's already retreating hastily and shouting out a, "ByeReyseeyoutomorrow!" as he bolts out of the room.
Wait, what?
The flagrant embarrassment in his eyes as he had moved away from her should have been comical, perfect fodder for their banter, but when she thinks about it all she can feel is the inquisitive wonder of why he did any of it at all.
Rey falls asleep in her bunk with her fingers pressed softly against her lips. Damn, who knew Ben could be so cute?
The last kid has barely left in his parents' car when Rey jumps Ben. It isn't like their fellow counselors are ignorant to this week's developments, hell, Finn's been whispering crude innuendos at her all day, but Ben still seems shocked when she wraps her arms around his neck and stands up on her toes to kiss him.
She pointedly ignores the catcalls of her coworkers as she pulls away from his lips and looks up to flash a grin at him.
"I thought – after last night – " he's stuttering, as though her kiss as short-circuited his brain functions.
That's kind of a flattering thought, really. "Well, we did go on a date, and you even gave me a kiss goodnight."
"Oh god, that was a date?"
"You took me out to dinner, Ben..."
This flustered, adorable man is not the competitive rival that she's gotten to know over the past few years. He seems completely taken aback by her forward actions, but that's who she is, and if he can't handle it then this is doomed before it starts. Seeing this new side of him is intriguing. Rey doesn't want him to transform completely into a docile version of the Ben Solo she's been fighting competitively withfor years just because he's smitten with her,and she's always admired his quick wit and strong fighting spirit, but seeing both sides to the coin definitely catches her interest.
"But it was such a bad date," he insists, so earnestly that she can't help but laugh.
"Okay, then take me out for another."
And he looks down at her as his blush fades, really looks. They stand there for a moment, eyes locked in silent conversation, and he seems to relent first.
"Come home with me this weekend," Ben breathes. The request is endearing – because his mother owns Camp Resistance, his home is only a few minutes' drive away, and Rey considers the implications of his words before she taps a finger on his stubbled chin.
"Hm," she pretends to consider, and she sees how his face falls at even the mere thought of her rejecting him. "I'd love to spend the weekend with you."
And he looks legitimately relieved.
They still have the final staff meeting of the week to attend, though it is, quite possibly, the dullest one that Rey's ever sat through when the prospect of making out with Ben is in the foreseeable future.
Leia's debriefing about the week, complimenting everyone on their attitude, and Rey entertains herself by taking Ben's hand and tracing his long fingers with her own. With his wrist in her grip, she can feel his pulse pick up, and it's interesting to see that even touching him so casually has such an effect on his physiology.
It's certainly something to test, and she's tempted to slide a hand up the length of his thigh to see how he'd react to that, but Leia is in the room and Rey doesn't want to risk the repercussions of getting caught feeling up her boss's son in front of her coworkers.
She thinks about it, though, about the thick muscle underneath the shorts he's wearing, and how easily she could reveal the pale expanse of his skin.
Apparently her daydreams have helped to pass the time, because everyone's standing up and grabbing their things to head out for the night. Leia glances at the two of them, seated as closely together they are, and Rey pointedly does not make eye contact with her boss. This is definitely a situation where explanations can wait.
"Let's get going," Ben says softly into her ear, and fuck it, even if Leia's watching she can't help how his breath over her skin makes her shiver. Rey tilts her head to kiss him, again, and their lips press only for the briefest of moments before he murmurs a curse and grabs her wrist to pull her after him.
"Bye, lovebirds!" she thinks she hears Finn say, almost smugly, and she feels comfortable in the knowledge that no children are around as she flips him off and hurriedly leaves with Ben.
"If we're color war enemies this week, you're going down," Ben muses, and the post-coital haze that Rey's in evaporates faster than water in the heat of her desert.
"Say that again, I fucking dare you."
"You," he starts, rolling onto one arm to face her, "Are going to lose spectacularly when my cabin wins in every event this week." As if to make a point, he presses a finger to her nose.
It's almost worth the disgusted shove she gives him that has enough force behind it that it actually dislodges him from the bed and causes him to crash onto the floor. (Well, maybe his deep fit of laughter helps, but he isn't going to admit that from a naked, snickering heap on the floor.)
(And, on Thursday, as Ben sits there with seven little girls crowding around him and weaving flowers within his hair's curls while one paints his nails bright pink, he maybe regrets his issued challenge.)