—or au in which Ben Solo, now Kylo Ren, is a man estrange from his family. That is, until, he elopes with backpacker Rey and is forced to make good on his wedding vows and reconnect with his parents.
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title: to a stranger
genre: hurt/comfort, family
rating: t
fandom: Star Wars
couple(s): rey/ben, leia/han, squint-finn/poe
Inspiration: I read the first page of Courtney Love's mother's biography. It opens with Courtney telling her mother that she's married and pregnant and her life is going to be grand. Also, this is basically how my dad met my mom's parents. Yet, I was three months in processing already.
Otherwise: I posted this at 4 a.m., so I refuse to be held liable for grammatical mistakes.
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It's Sunday, Leia Organa is up early as is her nature from her military days. She makes tea, gets dressed and goes about her rare day off with endless possibilities. Her email pings with a few reminders and party invitations she would sort through later. She has a message from Han, left at three a.m., asking her if she would be interested in dinner when he gets back into town next week. She might accept, but dinner with her ex-husband rarely ends how she plans.
By noon, the day is turning out to be an uneventful one and she's reading a book when her phone starting ringing. She reaches for it blindly, but nearly drops the book when she glances at the screen.
The number is unknown, but Leia can't help the little jolt she gets when she sees it. The area code is for New York, and despite countless contacts, Leia can name only one person from New York she really wants to speak to.
She answers and is immediately met with a harsh voice, albeit hesitant voice, "Mother?"
Ben.
"Ben," she says, her awe seeping into her voice. She folds her book closed on the couch beside her. "You still have my number?"
"I, uh, I had to look it up. I tossed my old phone and everything in it when I left." He confesses, sounding guilty about the fact. She hangs on his silences, measuring them like she measured every year she went without speaking to him. "I wanted to talk to you. I'm going to be in town soon and I was wondering if you wanted to get together for lunch sometime this week?"
"Well, yes, yes of course," Leia says eagerly. She can feel her heart aching at his words. Her son, he's come back to her. "I would love that."
"There's something else," Ben says more slowly, almost painstaking. Leia waits out his hesitance and notes the edginess in his voice. "There's someone I would like you to meet."
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"He's what?" Han shouts over Skype later that night. It's bright, wherever he is, a stark white-out of snow and wind. Han has the hood of his parka up around his ears, but Leia can still see his furious pink face engulfed in all that fur.
Leia can relate to his initial outburst, but after having a few hours to mull it over, she's accepted the idea. "He's says they met when he was traveling."
"So, you meet a girl when traveling. That doesn't mean you marry her!"
Leia raises a brow at this. "You met me when you were traveling."
"Beside the point," Han says accusatively, speaking with his hands now. The bad connection capturing only occasional freeze frames of his motion. "We were together for three years before we tied the knot. How long did he know this girl? Three days?"
"Two weeks."
Han is quiet for a long moment, expression forlorn and portraying the same dread Leia had earlier on the phone with Ben. "Is she pregnant?"
"He said no. I didn't even have to ask. He just did that thing where he says all this important information in a rush and hopes I don't get mad." She is annoyed, but secretly happy about her son's irritating trait. Han looks less than pleased.
"I thought you said you were watching him."
"I was, but he's a grown man now, Han. It's not right for me to be keeping an eye on him like I had been." She takes a long drink of her tea. "And my last spy quit because he fell in love—apparently, with her best friend, as I'm told."
"He knew?" Han muses, shocked.
"He always knew." Leia put down her empty mug, rubbing her temples. "Can we really blame him, Han, for not wanting to share his life with us?"
"No, I guess we can't." Han says finally.
"I didn't want to upset him and have him change his number and contact information again. I just had to let him talk and invite me out to lunch, there was nothing else I could do."
There's a static of interference for a moment and when he's back into focus, he says, "I'm surprised you're not blowing a gasket."
Secretly, she is.
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Ben had said over the phone that he might move back to California. The thought has Leia almost giddy as she heads out and drives twenty minutes to the outside café Ben had suggested to her.
The sunny weather is keeping, despite the impending winter, so Leia covets a table in the far corner of the café and orders tea to wait. It was a more out-of-the-way place and she remembers the name for the countless take-out bags Ben had brought home as a teenager.
He wanted to meet on territory he was familiar with, in a place where he felt in control. Leia could sympathize.
Ten minutes go by, Leia's beginning wondering if they are going to show, when she hears the hostess greet a table of two and then a voice, a woman with an accent, say: "Our party's already here."
When Leia turns, she sees the couple approaching her. He looks different from the photos that had been given to her, in those, Ben had been all sharp suits and glaring eyes, on the move and plowing through city streets with purposeful, long strides. Now he looked more like himself. Her Ben, her son, tall and broad shouldered, dressed in all black with his long hair hanging over his ears.
"Hi mom." He says quietly, eyes taking her in as she does to him.
Leia pushes back her chair and stands. "Ben." She longs to pull him into an embrace, but Ben seems conflicted, posturing and body language reading a very clear message of no.
She forces smile. Another time, she promises herself.
Ben looks down to his hand, clasped tightly onto his wife's—her daughter-in-law's—hand as if he may flee otherwise. His knuckles are white with effort, but the girl's face portrays none of this and she leans against him, comfortably. She seems to be taking in the moment as well, both present and distant at the same time.
"Mother, I want to introduce you to my wife Rey." Ben leans towards her in a gesture, shifting the spotlight. She's nearly a head shorter than Ben, but her compact form made her seem smaller in comparison. She's pretty, Leia thinks, and hopes her smile reaches her eyes.
"Hello," Leia greets, unable to fend off her immediate caution, and the girl shakes her hand when she offers it. Her hands are callous, nails neatly clipped, and deliver a strong grip. Worker's hands, like Han's. Her hair is brown, shot through with sunlight, judging by her sun-darkened skin and her clothes were well-worn, tee shirt and jeans. And a pair of boots that looked like they had seen the military.
Leia catches Ben out of the corner of her eye, watching the two of them as if, at the first sign of trouble, he would grab Rey and flee the scene. "It's great to meet you."
"It's great to meet you." She says, her accent—British—catching at the end, nervous. "Kylo's told me so much about you."
There it is, Leia muses but is unsurprised that the girl knows Ben by another name. According to public record, Ben had not gone by his birth name for the last ten years. It had hurt, finding out that her son, Ben Organa-Solo had become Kylo Ren with a few clicks of a mouse and a couple hundred dollars. It was something she had to accept but this was her Ben. And this girl only fed to the gap between them, calling him by his new name.
Her lips part to say something, she's not sure what, but Ben cuts her off.
"She knows I changed my name." Ben says, hurriedly. "Can we just—?" He gestures to the table and they all quickly take their seats. The waiter comes by, takes their drink order, and Rey immediately busies herself with the menu as if it gives them privacy.
Leia fights her growing annoyance she feels at the girl's presence, and her intrusion in this moment she's dreamed about for years. She has to remind herself that these people aren't her soldiers; she cannot order the girl to leave. Especially since Ben wants her here so desperately, it's something else Leia would have to accept.
Currently, the pair is both looking down at the menu, Ben pointing out foods to her and whispering.
"How have you been?" she asks, and Ben jars, looking up from the girl's menu to stare at her.
"Good," he says voice deep and rough. He clears his throat. "Better. I have been feeling a lot better."
"That's good." Leia nods to this, gauging for more with her eyes and notes the girl's cringe.
"Traveling helped me clear my head a lot." Ben says, but stops as if unsure how to continue. "It helped me . . . realize things. How have you been?"
"Great." Leia wants to replay the last ten years for him, but pulls herself back, hard. She wants to tell him that her and Han are seeing each other again, that she finally bought that house she wanted, that she made five-star general, but she's afraid.
"This place hasn't changed a bit."
Leia's excitement gets the better of her.
"Will you be seeing more of it?" Leia asks and Ben looks at her, looks at Rey, and gets up, knocking into the waiter and sending three water glasses tumbling. Luckily, none of them fall off the tray and shatter, but Ben carries on apologizing and excuses himself to the restroom.
Leia watches him go, dejected and cursing herself for springing the move on him so soon.
"He's really nervous." Rey says quietly. She has her menu closed on the table and is leaning back in the chair. "He tried to bunk out this morning." Leia's mouth twists at the British slang, but turns her attention back to the girl—Ben's wife—her daughter-in-law—a perfect stranger. Their relation was hard for her to wrap her mind around.
"He does that." She admits, recalling a particular occasion when Ben had refused to attend his own birthday party.
"I know," Rey says, she fights a smile and then her expression becomes very serious. "General Organa, I just want to let you know that I don't mean to intrude at all in your reunion, I, he asked me to come here with him today. For moral support."
Leia nods and, she'll admit it helps, but Leia is not sold on the idea of her. The girl has shown up married to her son that she had not seen in almost ten years, it was not an amiable position. "He told me that you wanted him to do this." Leia ventures and senses that the girl is not as sensitive as Ben is on the issue. "You told him to call me and schedule a meeting?"
"Yes,"
"Was it because you wanted to meet the parents, or?"
"I thought it would be good for him." She says, sounding, at first, unsure.
"He said you very adamant to it. And I know Ben; he doesn't do anything unless he wants to."
The girl blushes a little. "I never had a family of my own. I've been bounced around foster homes until I was eighteen." Ah, Leia waits for what's next, the longing for a family, the disappointment of finding her at the end of it. She is not expecting, selflessness. "I wasn't going to let my husband give up on a family when he has a chance to have a relationship with them."
My husband, she says it with a claim of ownership, of love. As if she's a guardian instead of a spouse; keeping Ben safe from himself.
"He must love you very much." Leia says, but it sounds unkind and coarse. She surprised to see the girl wind up so quickly to defend herself; the, at first, kind hazel eyes igniting with fire.
"He does, and I love him." She declares, eyeing Leia like she expects her to challenge it.
The tension dissolves when the waiter returns with three new water glasses and a quick nod before retreating again. Ben is still nowhere in sight.
"I think he's afraid. Of what exactly I'm not sure, but I've never seen him like this." Rey says slowly, the tautness ebbing from her voice as she speaks. "Kylo's never been scared of anything. He was scared to come here today and I think that's because of you and his father." She pauses. "I think he's afraid of messing up, so he's looking for a way for the day to mess up before he can."
"I noticed." Leia watches the girl, threading her fingers. "He'll be worse when he sees his father."
The girl meets her for match. "Then I'll go with him to that meeting too, and he'll get through it."
Leia studied her again, the way she sat, how she held herself. Her shoulders drawn, her chin stuck out in defiance, the girl sat prepared for scrutiny the moment Ben left the table; she must have known her presence would not be well-received and prepared for it. She holds herself like she's used to it, expecting it, and Leia is, for a moment, affronted by this. Then again, it was smart to suspect it.
It seems, Ben had found himself someone resilient, a fighter. Leia wants to laugh.
"You probably weren't expecting this when you two got married."
"No, he told me. He told me everything and I made it one of the conditions that when we got married, he would meet you and his father again."
"Conditions?" Leia inquires.
"We realized that it was crazy that after two weeks we wanted to get married. So when he proposed, while also saying it was a flight risk, we decided to ask ourselves what we wanted in a partner and we went down the list of what we could and could not be for each other. We wanted to be married, but we also wanted to be smart." Even now, her face scrunches up. "It was all very scientific when it was happening."
"So the conditions of your marriage?"
"I said I would not marry a man that could not have a relationship with his parents."
"And his?"
"His conditions were that I would go back to college and finish my degree." Rey's cheeks darken. "And that I cannot divorce him after I realize what a prat he really is."
At this, Leia laughs. "He said that?"
"He's so insecure sometimes." Rey shakes her head. "Sometimes it's funny."
"He is dauntingly insecurely confident."
"I know."
With the tension decreasing into idle chatter about Ben, he magically appears, his hair tousled and shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, but his expression is one of calm, almost meditative. He takes his seat by Rey, reclaiming her hand after a moment. "What did I miss?"
"We were talking about how we met." says Rey and that brings the first, honest to God smile to her son's face that Leia had seen in a long time.
Rey smiles broadly and Ben puts his face in his hand, dragging it down, but he was laughing all the same. A new waiter comes by to take their order before the story reassumes.
"—so, my friends and I are in this pub called Maz's in Ireland. And, we've been there, playing pool for a while, and we just saw Maz Kanata, the owner, and some workers boot out three men that were getting too rowdy. One of the barmen got thrashed pretty good, but he gets back to work, swearing and bleeding when this guy," Rey pats Ben's shoulder. "Walks up to the bar and demands a drink while the barman's trying to ice his face. So, of course, barman's not having it and starts threatening to kick him out too, Ben gets defensive, then the barman starts swinging and I have to jump in to save his life."
"You were crazy." Ben says accusatively.
"I'm not the American that tried to go to an Irish pub on Saint Patrick's Day." Rey punches his arm playfully. Leia is almost blinded by Ben's smile. "I did have to fend him off with a pool stick, but I saved you."
"Then you did, but I am confident that I would have won."
"Then after that you two just," Leia trails off. "Started traveling together?"
"Rey and her friends were backpacking across the United Kingdom, and I joined them." Ben says, shrugging.
The rest, it seemed, was history.
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Later that night, she Skypes Han who has been waiting with baited breath for the last sixteen hours since her last call when she confessed how nervous she was.
"She's British, from Westminster, I gather." Leia reports. "She's very smart, and funny, and well-traveled."
"Really now? He got himself one of those girls?"
"No, she's not one of those high-born types." Leia defends and tries to think of a way to describe Rey, but thinks better of it. "You'll see when you meet her. I think you and her will get along quite well."
Han makes a noise of agreement, but seems unconvinced. "They still honeymoon-in-love?"
"No more than you and I were, probably." Leia admits, thinking back on their exchanges as if she had not studied them with the inclination of a hawk. "They're comfortable around each other. They tease and play, but they seem to balance out, as Luke might say. Ben's always moving, but Rey seems, more steadfast."
Prematurely, Leia might even say that Rey is good for him.
"You like her." Han says quietly.
"Ben loves her. I think he really, truly does." Leia says, remembering her shock when she had realized it. The way Ben kept pulling her hand over to his mouth to kiss her knuckles, how he let her steal from his plate, how he smiled at her, all of his attention focused when she spoke. He was unabashed in his affection, and Ben had never been a fan of public displays.
"Leia, are you going to cry?" Han asks, measuring her silence. His face comes closer to the screen, eyes squinting.
"She brought our son back to us, Han."
Then Leia was crying, tears joy because of what happened today, what was happening now. This girl, Rey, had been able to do what they had given up hope could be done. She brought their son back to them, and for that Leia was sure she would be forever grateful.
"I'll be home soon." Han says, expression softening. "You think I'll like her?"
"You'll love her." Leia laughs, teasing. "Tell Chewie I said hi, alright?"
"Will do." The line cuts and Leia is left alone in her kitchen, but she's smiling as she shuts her laptop. Wiping away her tears, she threads her fingers behind her neck and sighs, content. She would have to call Luke soon and tell him how the meeting went. He had been so excited to hear about Ben's return.
Her phone buzzes, alerting a text and she's surprised to find one she had missed. Both from a new number she collected today.
Rey:
He wants to know when Han gets back :)
And then another that made her smile to herself.
Rey:
I want to thank you for giving me a chance today. It meant a lot to both of us.
I might write more if the mood takes me.
Lots of background in this AU.
Ben/Kylo left home after a series of nasty fights with his parents over the years. After a few years apart, when Leia and Han divorce, everyone just kind of blames themselves for it, and don't know how to reconnect. After a stressful last day on an overseas business venture, Ben meets Rey and proceeds to cash in all his days off he had not used (Basically, six months paid vay-cay).
Rey is an orphan who's never had a real family, despite her friends back in England. After making a venture out of her comfort zone/hometown, she meets a guy who's about to get hurt and decides to spend the rest of her life saving him.
Hate brings up my review count, motherfuckers. Blacklist Reylo if you don't like it, seriously.
-queenchesh