AN: This is a Christmas present for all my Reylo lovelies. Sorry it's a bit late.
Most of the students were dancing, but one group of surly Slytherins hung around in the darkest corners they could find. Unlike most of the school, they were dressed all in black and were probably only there because Snape forced them out of the dungeon so they could suffer with him.
"Kylo," a blonde hissed, using the codename for Ben Solo. "What are you staring at?"
"Nothing," he lied as he shook his hair out like a Madam Cupid's Hair Potions commercial. His eyes still followed one of the Gryffindors on the other side of room. She had hair in three dark bumps and was wearing a nice white dress that flattered her nicely. Next to her was a black boy in robes that were obviously borrowed by the boy on the girl's other side. He was wearing a hideous orange set of dress robes, but fortunately, his companions didn't seem to care.
"Are you sure?" A red haired boy who was a Weasley cousin asked.
"I'm fine, Hux," Ben insisted.
Rey Jade stumbled off of the dance-floor red-faced and laughing with her "boyfriends'" arms linked in hers by the elbows. They sat down at the side tables to catch their breath when Finn stiffened.
"What's wrong?" Poe asked.
"Solo's staring our way," Finn replied.
Rey groaned. Leave it to the Knights of Ren, the emo worshippers of You-Know-Who, to ruin a perfectly good time. But instead of letting them ruin it for her, she decided to take fate into her own hands and turn the tables. She got to her feet, fists clenched with handfuls of her second-hand dress. Poe and Finn snatched her arms.
"What do you think you're doing?" Finn asked.
"Just taking care of some pesky flies," Rey said in a falsely cheerful voice. "Be right back."
They let her go and she stormed off. She weaved in and out through couples and groups of giggling Beauxbatons girls, never letting her eyes leave those of Ben Solo.
"Kylo, that Jade mudblo-"
"I see her, Phasma," Ben said coolly. He watched as the angry girl hiked up her skirts and stormed towards them. Despite the clearly seething Gryffindor, the Knights of Ren stayed put.
"What were you going to do?" Rey demanded as she approached Ben.
"Nothing, Jade, sorry to disappoint you," he drawled. "Although may I say that dress is surprisingly flattering?"
"For a mudblood, you mean," she retorted.
"Well, actually, for anybody, especially you," he said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rey folded her arms over her chest. She felt vulnerable in her first strapless dress, but her mom suggested that she go for it. Then again, her mom wore skimpy items all the time, so what did she know?
"Just that while you usually have a certain air to you, that dress seems to inflate it," he said, stepping closer to her and farther away from his group of friends. They were whispering and staring with dumbstruck expressions.
"Are you saying that I'm pretty, Solo?" Rey asked, raising her eyebrows. He winced at the name.
"Please don't call me that," he said.
"Then what do you want me to call you? And it better not be your stupid code name your friends call you? I also noticed you didn't answer my question," she replied.
"You're annoyingly observant," Ben muttered as he stepped even closer, until he was an inch away. "But fine, you can call me Ben, and yes, I meant that you look pretty."
"I guess I should thank you then," Rey admitted.
"Perhaps to do so, you could dance with me?" He asked, taking her scarred hands into his admittedly smooth ones.
"Dance with you?" She said, her eyes flicking back to where Poe and Finn were talking. They were giving her the look that asked if she needed. She gave them the look telling them no. "Fine. Better not step all over my toes."
"Oh, I promise that I won't," he said with the trademark Solo smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. "Come with me, milady."
She reluctantly followed the Slytherin onto the dance floor. To her dismay, it was a slow song that was played next. Also to her dismay, she was the one stepping on his toes. In front of a Slytherin, and one of the ones who she'd hated since the train to Hogwarts in her first year.
"I'm sorry, I guess I'm not that much of a dancer," she muttered. Again, she felt really inadequate compared to her mother, who took plenty of the best dancing classes in her childhood with the Rosiers. Her mother was a striking dancer who wore all sorts of girly things, but she was just a tomboy who had a thing for mechanics and magic that was a total klutz.
"Maybe I could teach you," Ben said.
Rey raised her eyebrows.
"Come on, step to the left when I do," he said. "See, now, back, then forward, to the right."
After a bunch of stiff movements, Ben was smiling at her.
"See, you've got it," he said, and he spun her around. She was then spun into a tight embrace. Her heart was racing at the idea of being so close. At first, she thought it was animosity, but when she looked into his coffee-dark eyes, she knew that she was feeling something different. It reminded her of something her mom had once told her.
"There's a very fine line between love and hate."
Maybe that's why she went for it. The kiss. After all, there was plenty of mistletoe hanging for the ceiling (although which twit in the staff thought that was a good idea, Rey had no clue). It was Christmas, too. Wasn't this the day for armistices?
When she pulled away from the kiss that tasted of snow and ice (Rey adored the cold, coincidentally) she saw his face curl into a smirk again.
"You planned that, didn't you?" She accused.
He nodded, and went in for another.