"Miss Rey… Niima, was it?" The red-headed man peered at her over her resume.
"Yes, sir." Rey nodded with a bright smile, smoothing her grey linen skirt and ignoring the fact that he hadn't confirmed her name until halfway through the interview.
"And you've worked as a personal assistant before?"
"Yes, sir, for Unkar Plutt at Jakku Enterprises."
He narrowed his eyes. "They're an engineering company. This is one of the best ad agencies in the world."
"Yes sir, but being a personal assistant is all about making the boss' life easier, and as someone who's efficient and organized, that's definitely something I'm familiar with." Rey replied as confidently as she could.
"Hmmm." Hux frowned at her. "Your references seem in order, I suppose. What would you say are important traits in who you'd be assisting?"
"Well, I'd be happy to assist whoever needs it, but my ideal boss would be someone who's warm, kind, friendly, and really great at communicating what they need."
A malicious grin grew on Hux's face. "Oh, I think I know exactly the right place for you."
…
"Welcome to SnokeCorp." The older Human Resources manager who introduced herself as Ms. Dickie told her in a tired monotone. "Here's your badge, employee code of conduct, and paperwork. No personal calls or surfing the Facegram or whatever you kids do on computers these days. When you're here, you work. Clear?"
"Yes, ma'am. Crystal." Rey told her, trying to exude professionalism.
"Not ma'am. Ms. Dickie. And where did Hux say he assigned you?" She asked, already about to dismiss her from her mind.
"Uh, to the eleventh floor, to a Mr. Ren?"
Ms. Dickie suddenly paused, then made full eye contact with Rey for the first time. "Kylo Ren? He assigned you to assist Kylo Ren?"
Taken aback (and slightly worried) by the abrupt attention, she nodded hesitantly. "Yes?"
Letting out a long sigh, the HR manager shook her head, then motioned to the stack of papers in Rey's arms. "Well, if you last the day, then you can fill those out and give them back to me. If you don't, don't bother."
As Ms. Dickie waved her hand in pessimistic dismal, Rey headed to the eleventh floor with wide eyes, wondering exactly what she was getting herself into.
She found out fairly quickly.
No sooner had she settled in at her desk when the elevator pinged and loud, angry steps came marching towards her.
"Those damn Correllians and their damn cars." A tall (almost absurdly tall) man with dark, curling hair stomped past her, reaching for the office door. "Nothing's ever good enough or shiny enough for those arrogant bast-" He suddenly halted his mutterings and blinked at her.
"Who the hell are you?" He demanded, furrowing his brows.
"Rey." She answered, then winced and added, "I'm your new personal assistant."
He narrowed his eyes. "Hux sent you."
Nodding, she attempted a charming smile. "Yes he did! Is there anything I can do to help you?"
He scowled, then bit out, "Yes. You can leave," slamming the door behind him.
Rey sat for a moment, then turned back to her computer with a wry twist to her mouth. "That went well."
…
Hours later, she was staring at the plethora of milks, creams, and sugars, glancing between them and the mug in her hand.
"You look a bit lost," a friendly voice commented from her left.
She turned to see a dark-skinned man smiling at her and grinned in return. "Is it that obvious?"
"Unless you're trying to commune with the half-and-half, I'm guessing you're trying to make someone else a cup of coffee."
"You guess right. I'm Rey." She stuck out her hand.
"Finn. Welcome to SnokeCorp."
"Any chance you know if Kylo Ren puts cream or sugar in his coffee?"
Finn's face paled. "Kylo Ren? That's who you're assigned to?"
"Um, yeah. Why does everyone look so scared when they hear that?"
"Because you're the… twenty-seventh, I think? PA they've hired for him in the last six months."
Rey gaped. "Seriously? Why? Is he a perv? Or a creep?"
"Nothing like that, he's just… difficult."
Straightening her shoulders, Rey responded a bit defensively, "I've handled difficult people before."
Finn was already shaking his head. "Not like him. He brings in the best accounts, so Snoke lets him do whatever he wants, and he takes the term 'moody' to a whole new nuclear level. I was originally assigned to him before Phasma pulled rank and reassigned me to her team. He calls me 'Traitor'. She calls me 'Scum'." He paused, then gave her a sarcastic grin. "It's a fun place to work."
Rey winced in sympathy. "Sounds like it."
Frowning at the coffee cup, she gestured helplessly to Finn, "So, any guesses on how he likes his coffee?"
"Like his soul," Finn told her in an ominous tone, then smiled. "Black. With organic, fair trade beans. And hot. Like, center of the sun hot."
She dumped the now cold coffee down the sink, then refilled the mug from the carafe labeled 'organic'. "Thanks for everything, Finn. I'll see you around."
"You know, I hope I do." He waved encouragingly. "Good luck!"
…
She returned to find Hux in Kylo's office, and a very loud argument in progress. Hux stalked out, looking oddly pleased, and Rey suddenly heard a series of alarming thuds and smashes coming from behind her.
Once the noise had died down, the door jerked open, causing Rey to jump.
"Where the hell were you?" He snarled.
"Getting you coffee?" Rey offered, holding out the mug as a cautious peace offering.
He grabbed it from her, then dropped it in her trash. "It's cold. Useless. Pathetic."
Forcing herself to take a calming breath, Rey plastered on a smile, then asked as professionally as she could, "Is there something else you'd like me to do?"
"Yes. I'd like you to find a way to stop the damn Correllians from rejecting every design we've sent them, and to figure out what the hell they mean by 'sleek' and 'edgy'. But since you have no clue about anything that goes on here, and know nothing about contracts, or advertising, I don't think you're going to be any help at all."
Shrugging on his coat, he sneered, "I'm going home. Clean that mess up."
Rey watched him go in silence, releasing her anger through visualizing multiple hits to his giant, stupid head with her bo staff.
Once she was assured she wasn't going to break anything, she went into his office and starting sorting through the disaster area Kylo had left behind. After chucking the pieces of at least two coffee cups in the trash, picking up his chair, and replacing his phone and nameplate back on his desk, she sighed at the amount of papers scattered everywhere.
Fortunately it was easy to tell which ones had come from the kicked over trash, seeing as how he either ripped them up or crunched them into tiny balls before he threw them away ("Someone has some serious anger management issues," she muttered to herself), so now all she had to do was tediously collect and reassemble the hundred page contract he had apparently thrown into the air.
Two-thirds of the way through, she stopped and stared at the section entitled "Stipulations for Alterations to Scope of Work". After hunting down the following two pages, she read the entire section through three times before a slow, mischievous smile stretched across her face.
…
Kylo trudged into work the next morning, still in a dark mood from yesterday's snide lecture from Hux about how efficiency with the Correllians, one of the biggest car companies in the world, clearly wasn't one of his priorities, and how his lackadaisical attitude must be such a disappointment to Snoke.
"Smarmy bastard," he growled as he punched the button on the elevator. "Lucky he still has a face."
It wasn't his fault that the damn rep kept pushing for more changes. Wasn't his fault that every proof the design team offered was rejected. In fact, he was fairly certain this was all Hux's fault somehow. Maybe that's what he would do unless of getting involved in this dumpster fire of a-
He stopped suddenly.
She was still here.
The disconcertingly pretty assistant hadn't fled at the thought of working for him a second day. He wasn't sure if he was annoyed or faintly impressed.
Upon his approach, she looked up with a bright, friendly smile, as if nothing from the previous day had made any impact. "Morning!"
Nevermind. He was definitely annoyed.
He ignored her and retreated behind the walls of his office, only to halt the moment the door closed.
Everything was spotless. His monitor had no smudges of any kind, his chair no longer squeaked, and his desk was so neat it practically gleamed. He sat slowly, suspicious of what kind of mindgames this level of organization meant.
He peered at her form through one of the vertical windows that framed his door. She was innocently typing away at her computer, but that could be some sort of charade to throw him off. After a few moments, he grunted dismissively, then prepared himself to tackle another round of angry emails from the Correllian rep.
Reaching for his mouse, he glanced down at the papers sitting in the center of his desk, noticing that it was open to page 87, with a small blue post-it flag pointing at an underlined phrase.
"Designer's Fee includes 3 round of revisions, provided that such revisions do not require work exceeding the Scope of Work as defined in this Agreement. Designer may decline, or charge additionally for, work that Designer reasonably deems to be beyond the Scope of Work."
After twenty minutes of staring at the contract, Kylo finally stabbed a button on his office phone.
"In here. Now."
Through the window, he saw her jump a little, then shoot a look at the phone before standing up, smoothing her skirt, and walking in.
"You wanted to see me?"
He pointed accusingly at the document in front of him. "What is this?"
"I believe that's the contract you were working on last night before you left," she replied with a perfectly calm smile.
Ignoring the desire to flush a little, he waved the small sticky note at her. "I mean, did you make notes in this contract?"
She managed to look surprised at the suggestion. "Me? Make notes in the contract? Why on earth would I do that? I was simply cleaning up last night, as instructed. I don't know anything about advertising, or contracts, or that the Corellians have technically had five rounds of revisions at this point, which you could say is definitely beyond the agreed-upon scope of work and either charge them a bucketload of money or insist this last design is final."
As he gaped at her, he thought he saw the corner of her mouth quirk up a little as she added, "Or both, if you like."
Giving him another infuriatingly guileless smile, she continued, "As you said, I'm pretty clueless about what's going on here. But I promise to work my hardest to catch up."
They locked eyes for a long moment, both fully aware that she had essentially done his job for him, and that she was giving him complete credit for it anyway, which now meant that he owed her, a concept that fundamentally unsettled him.
"Did you need anything else?" She asked, her tone skirting the line between genuine and facetious.
He shifted, then noticed the empty spot on his desk. "Yes. I haven't had my-"
"Coffee?" She suddenly procured a ceramic mug from behind her back and placed it to the top right of his keyboard before heading back to her desk. "Careful, it's hot."
He watched her intently as she closed the door and settled herself at her desk, answering the phone as she sorted mail with a practiced ease, trying to understand why this all felt so… strange.
Perhaps it was because she wasn't afraid of him.
Everyone was afraid of him these days. Or trying to control him, like Snoke or Hux or Phasma.
She had helped him. And hadn't asked for anything.
Yet, he added mentally, watching her chat with that Traitor, who looked pleasantly surprised to see her.
Whatever she was up to, he thought as he reached for his coffee, he'd certainly have to keep an eye on her. She felt like trouble.
"Ow!" He yelped as soon as he touched the cup, and he swore he saw her bite down a giggle.
Definitely trouble.
…
As the cleaning crew came by, Rey had to tamp down her self-satisfied smile. Overall, she felt pretty good about today. There had been no tantrums, Hux had walked in smirking and left scowling, which she was quickly learning was a good sign in regards to Kylo's mood. He declared the coffee "passable", and if Finn's reaction was to be believed, meant that it was near perfection.
The door closed behind her, and she wiped off her smile and continued answering emails left over from at least four previous PAs. He walked past her, then paused.
"I'm going home." He said gruffly, "You should too."
Before Rey could react, he quickly headed towards the elevator.
"Good night!" She called out behind him, not even miffed that he didn't answer.
Humming a little as she packed up her things, she bid goodnight to the security guard and walked happily to her car. Once the door to her rusty Chariot slammed closed, she glanced around the parking lot before pressing her screen and listening to her phone ring.
A low voice answered, "Well?"
Rey watched Kylo's black TIE Silencer screech out onto the road before blowing through a red light, honking at the other cars in the way, then grinned softly.
"I'm in."