A/N: So I saw a few of these knocking around and thought I'd give it a go. One-shot modern AU. So I started writing this a few months ago. Oops. Should have been up by now. No spoilers from Last Jedi. I haven't seen it yet (going to a late night showing on 16th). Sorry for the shit ending to this, I couldn't think how to end it.
The metal cutlery rattled against the new plates in one of the cardboard boxes in the back. Dread knotted in her stomach as her fingers tightened around her phone. Her dad glowered at the cars. All of them going nowhere, driven with impatient parents trying to squeeze themselves into any parking spot. Not there was any so much of a road, more of a massive jam.
"I hate moving day." Luke Skywalker grumbled to himself. "You could stay at home."
Rey shot him a look as another car started to turned around. He kept trying this. When would he understand? As much as she loved her dad, she wanted a chance to be independent, to live on her own.
It wasn't as though she wouldn't see him for weeks either. He was a mechanics tutor and a part time chaplain at the university's faith centre. He did used to work full time at their local church but after her mother's death… No. That was a train of thought that she didn't want to continue. She did kinda hope that he wouldn't expect her to keep going to church every week.
"Finally." He mumbled as he started to turn the car towards a parking spot. Someone was just starting to reverse out of it.
"Let them get out first." She said, glancing down at her phone. The bland webpage read 'Building: 3. Apartment: 6. Room: 1.'. She was nervous though. Her first time living on her own. With people she didn't know in an apartment surrounded by people that she didn't know. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered. Was it too late to buy a tent somewhere and just live in the forest on the edge of campus? Where she didn't have to worry about anyone but herself. Or pay rent. She could steal the university's wifi.
Luke switched the engine off as he finally managed to park. He grabbed her hand.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
Her dad smiled. It was a bit hard to see through his mostly grey beard. She wished he would shave it.
"Your mom would be proud."
Her eyes burnt with tears. "Thanks."
There was still doubt in the back of her head. Her mum had been a famous dancer, studying at the Royal Ballet School in London while she was here to study physics with a minor in mechanical engineering. Unlike either of them, she hadn't killed anyone or exploded a building (sorry dad).
With a heaving sigh, he opened his door, got out and headed round to the boot. He popped it open. She swung open the car door and stretched her legs out in the cool air. There was a faint pop from them. They'd been sat in the car for almost two hours and it felt like one of her calves was going to start cramping. Fuck. Maybe they should have gotten McDonald's, just for the walk from the car to the building.
"Can you grab one of your suitcases?" Her dad asked, grabbing one of the cardboard boxes from the parcel shelf.
"Sure." Rey replied, planting her combat boot encased feet on the brick floor of the car park and stood up on slightly weak legs. She headed round to the boot of her dad's beaten up car. It wasn't as bad as her uncle's car from the 1920's. The boot was piled high with boxes of her stuff, two suitcases full of her clothes and her laptop case. One day she'd been able to afford a proper gaming desktop, one capable of rendering VR. If her student loan gave her enough money to live on and pay rent, she could get one.
She pulled one of the suitcases out and swung her laptop case onto her shoulder.
"I'll go get my key." She told him.
He nodded.
The private street was cluttered with new students and their parents taking all sorts into the brick apartment buildings. It was very loud. Her ears roared slightly from it. She swallowed. It'll be fine. It will all calm down soon. If not, just get unpacked and spend the rest of your night in your room. Alone. Without dad. Suddenly it was like a lead bar had been dropped into her stomach. The large brick wall that ran the length on of the on-campus apartments had a shiny grey and navy sign that labelled this one as apartment building 3. The wooden gate was propped open with a brick.
A man was stood at a makeshift desk outside of the building in the university polo shirt. Someone walking past let out a loud cackle of laughter that hurt her ears. The man said something. She could hear his voice but the words slipped over her. Everything around felt just a bit too much, the hair on the back of her prickled.
"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?" She asked politely, rubbing one of her ears.
"Sure. What name?"
"Rey." She answered.
"Last name?"
She hesitated, already seeing his surprised expression in her head.
"Skywalker." She mumbled.
He did a double take of her, his eyes widening slightly.
"Really?" The guy asked, forgetting about the list in front of him.
She nodded.
He seemed to collect himself, running his eyes over the list in front of him until he found her name and ticked her off. He plucked out of the keys off of the desk. It held a small black fob and two silver keys, a big one and a small one, that shone dully in the British summer sun.
"Here you go. You use the fob on this door. The big key for the apartment door and the small one for your room. Apartment 6, room 1. It's the one next to the stairwell. So I suggest buying yourself some earplugs. Good luck with your first year."
"Thanks." She smiled, shrugging her laptop bag further onto her shoulder and taking the key. "Have a good day."
She walked towards the clear glass door and reached out to swab the small black access pad next to the intercom when the door was pulled open.
Startled, she jumped and blindly reached out but instead of coming into contact with the cool glass of the door, she brushed against someone's skin.
"Sorry." She murmured, ducking beneath their outstretched arm and feeling her face heat up. "Thanks."
Her apartment was on the third floor of the building. The room was more like a cell with white painted walls made of cinderblocks. A single bed with mattress still wrapped up in the pocket. A wardrobe, a desk that ran the length of the room and a single shelf. The en-suite was a tiny wet room instead of a bathroom. The toilet was next to the shower. Somehow she knew that she would fall over it. The door was painted with a navy gloss paint.
She dumped the suitcase and laptop bag onto the bed.
"Rey!" Her dad called from the stairwell. She rushed out to see him attempting to carry her other suitcase up the stairs while carrying all of her boxes. Parents were loudly talking on all of the other floors. Their voices were echoing and bouncing off of the black tiles. This was going to keep her up at night.
"You're getting old." She joked as she took the suitcase off of him.
"Why isn't there a lift?" He gasped out.
"Why did you bring everything out?"
"I wanted to get everything out in one go." He explained lamely.
Rey rolled her eyes as she led him through the plain hallway (the same white painted cinder block walls and a laminated 'wood' floor)
"This is nice." Luke attempted to smile as he entered and looked around the tiny room. "Better than what I was imagining."
"It's a cell. But it's better than it could be." She reasoned.
"You've got your own bathroom. Don't complain until you've been to a university in America." Her dad told her, dumping all the boxes on her bed.
She knew all of his stories about the horrible American dorm rooms, the expensive tuition and compulsory meal plans that was practically made to empty your pockets.
He perched himself on the edge of the mattress.
"Have you met any of our room mates yet?" He asked.
Rey shook her head as she opened one of the boxes - that one had her pillows and quilt. No, not that one. She shoved it off the top of the pile and opened the one beneath that. Crockery, cutlery. Yup that was the one. She picked it up and looked at her dad.
"You coming?"
He heaved himself up.
"How's your back doing?"
"Nice of you to remember." He joked as they left the room. "It's alright for now."
His back had started giving him problems when he had received a massive electric shock through his body in his early twenties. It had started as a niggle during the winter.
"Do you have your key?" He asked.
"Yeah." She said, holding it up as she closed her door.
Nobody came out of their rooms as they walked the hall but she could hear people talking loudly behind the closed doors. As she pushed open the kitchen door, the sound of two female voices met her ears. One younger and louder, the other older.
The kitchen had a bit of a funny smell about it. Probably just bleach. A girl, wearing the large-sized university hoodie (the one that they sent out to everyone who got accepted) came down to her knees, her brown hair pulled up into a ponytail as she put some food into a freezer drawer. The mother was shoving something into one of the cupboard's near the stove. Her brown hair was bobbed short, wearing skinny jeans and high heels. Rey opened her mouth to something but her brain felt like it had suddenly frozen and her tongue wasn't cooperating. She couldn't get the words out.
"Excuse me?" Her dad piped up, recognising her nervousness. "Are there any cupboards free?"
The two of them whirled around. Rey suddenly felt self-conscious of herself. Of the three bun hairstyle, one of the few that her dad had been capable of when she was younger, her favourite style. Of her baggy, slightly grubby grey top and not-artificially ripped jeans. Not for the first time, she wondered what she looked like from someone else's point of view.
"Yes." The older woman replied, a beam stretching across her face as she gestured to the two next to the fridge. "These are free."
"I'm Lydia." The girl introduced herself. Rey nodded.
"This is Rey." Her dad said.
Heart pounding in her chest, she glared at him. Luke shrugged innocently. She could introduce herself, thank you very much dad. Lydia's mum turned to her, a smile still stretched across her face. Fake, she realised now. Here it comes.
"What made you want to study in England?"
Yup. Everytime. Strangers who spoke to her dad first were always asking her how she was finding England. Oh, it must be such so different to what she was used to from living in the states. Did she like the NHS? Did she like the royal family? Then she opened her mouth and her British accent came tumbling out.
It had been funny for a while. Their eyebrows shooting up to their hairlines as they realised. But after a year, it stopped being funny and started getting annoying. What did they want her to say? 'No different than I'm used to. But we did just come back from a year in Dubai, didn't we dad?'
It had been awhile since they had come back from Dubai. It had been an experience. The oppressive heat, sand that got everywhere. It must have reminded her dad of his childhood with his sister in California. Did California have sand? She'd only been once, when she was a small child. But that had been back when her mum was alive. She'd meet her grandad for the first time. Too much family history to go back now. Her aunt, uncle and grandad (when his health afforded it) called and skyped often. It had been a few years since she saw them in person. That had ended in complete disaster with her arse of a cousin.
Her new room mates mum was still looking at her. Oh. She hadn't answered, been too lost in her thoughts.
"No different than I normally find it." She replied, plastering a fake smile on her face.
The older woman blinked.
"You're English." She said after a moment.
"Yes." Rey agreed, checking over the next drawer. This one was empty. She dumped her cutlery in it.
"My wife was from London." Her dad explained.
"Oh, why isn't she here?"
She cringed inwardly. Did this woman not here the past tense? Was she not going to shut the fuck up?
"She died a few years ago." She answered, saving her dad the explanation. That wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation. Please don't ask how she died. Please don't ask how she died.
Someone must have decided to give her a small mercy because the older woman kept her mouth shut. Now as long as she didn't start flirting with her dad like some of the older women usually did. Gag.
A small fluffy white thing came skidding into the living area, it's paws pitter-pattering against the soft laminate flooring, then made a run for her, yapping at her boots. Rey blinked. They weren't allowed to keep dogs in the dorms. So who was this?
She bent down and scooped him up. She thought the dog was a he… But she didn't want people's first impression of her to be checking whether the puppy had a penis or not. It had a bright orange collar so he belonged to someone. The name tag read 'BB'.
"Bee Bee?" She asked him, holding him up to her face. "Is that your name?"
The puppy licked the tip of her nose. He reminded her of their dog that they'd had to leave at home for the day, Artoo. She'd said her tearful goodbyes to him last night. He was an ancient thing, first belonging to her grandparents. Then getting moved between her dad and aunt as they got older before finally staying with her parents.
Loud thumps from the hall caused her to look up as Bee Bee licked her nose again and started to happily wag his tail. Two men came running in. One was taller with deep olive skin and shoulder length wavy black hair, wearing a brown leather jacket. The other was a slightly shorter black man with buzzed black hair. He was dressed more formally in black slacks and a light blue button up shirt.
"Thank you. I'm sorry if he was a problem." The one in the leather jacket said apologetically.
Huh, he was American.
"He's adorable." She held him out with a smile on her face. Bee Bee started to wriggle around uncomfortably.
He reached out and took him from her grasp, enveloping him in his arms like he was a baby.
"Thanks." He grinned back at her, showing perfect teeth.
"Are you both studying here?" Lydia asked them.
"Er, yeah." The shorter one answered, adjusting his shirt cuffs nervously. "I'm Finn."
They were both American. Not what she expected.
"I'm just the boyfriend. Poe by the way," The guy holding Bee Bee laughed.
Lydia's mum's eyes widened.
"Are you staying here?" Luke asked.
"For a week then I have to get back to work." Poe explained. "I'm a pilot."
"Maybe you could give me some lessons?" Rey asked him hopefully.
Her dad had refused to teach her how to fly. Han had unfortunately listened to her dad, probably only because he'd have an earful from Leia if he did. Her grandad had offered but that had been quickly vetoed.
"Maybe when you graduate." Luke replied quickly before Poe could answer. If, her mind added quickly. Thanks brain.
There was a frown forming on her dad's face as he studied the pilot.
"You look familiar." He finally said. "What's your last name?"
"Dameron."
She knew that last name but she couldn't place it. Her dad's eyebrows shot up. Clearly he recognised it too.
"Any relation to Kes Dameron?" He asked.
Poe blinked. "Yeah, he's my dad."
"I've worked with him. Small world."
Whatever Poe's response was, Rey didn't get to hear it as her phone trilled with a series of twitter notifications. She pulled it out of her back pocket and unlocked it.
CoruscantNews CoruscantNews
Breaking news! Mass graves found on US soil! Unknown symbol found on the bodies. Warning: Gruesome imagery
[1 attachment]
Snap Wexley SnapWex
Replying to CoruscantNews
Looks like the symbol of that new neo-nazi group.
Jessika Pava JessPilot
Replying to CoruscantNews and SnapWex
Which one?
Snap Wexley SnapWex
Replying to JessPilot and CoruscantNews
The Second Order, I think it's called. They had a rally near me a few months ago. My brother wanted to stink bomb the venue.
Jessika Pava JessPilot
Replying to SnapWex and CoruscantNews
[Gif attached]
Korrie KorrieSella
Replying to SnapWex, JessPilot and CoruscantNews
The First Order. They're supporters of President Palpatine!
Jessika Pava JessPilot
Replying to KorrieSella, SnapWex and CoruscantNews
Seriously?! Dicks.
Snap Wexley SnapWex
Replying to KorrieSella, JessPilot and CoruscantNews
I'm surprised that anyone can say that they still support him nowadays! Most people say that they have no idea about him.
Connix Kaydel Connix
Replying to SnapWex, JessPilot, KorrieSella and CoruscantNews
Want to bet that the news channels are going to ignore all of this?
Jessika Pava JessPilot
Replying to KorrieSella, Connix, SnapWex and CoruscantNews
FoxNews NBCNews Are you going to report on the #FirstOrderMurders?!
[Gif attached]
Connix Kaydel Connix
Replying to CoruscantNews
If the images are that gruesome, why did you attach it to the tweet?
Korrie… That picture looked vaguely familiar. Didn't she work for Leia? She went back to her twitter feed. The top one caught her eye.
HosnianPrime News HosnianPrimeNews
BenSkywalker-Solo caught with known member of the alt-right group First Order, BreandanHux
[1 attachment]
Jessika Pava JessPilot
Replying to HosnianPrimeNews
Alt-right? They're nazi's!
HosnianPrime News HosnianPrimeNews
No word from LeiaSkywalker or her husband about BenSkywalker-Solo and BreandanHux
HosnianPrime News HosnianPrimeNews
No word from #LukeSkywalker about BenSkywalker-Solo. Again.
Jessika Pava JessPilot
Replying to HosnianPrimeNews
Seriously?! He's practically missing and you're tweeting about him not tweeting about his dick of a nephew?
HosnianPrime News HosnianPrimeNews
Caught on camera! General AnakinSkywalker about his grandson BenSkywalker-Solo Watch Here: watch/8f5d2fddfgdwes2/
Trending topics:
#FirstOrderMurders
#BenSkywalker-Solo
Practically missing that was a bit of an exaggeration. Her dad didn't have social media. Her presence on-line was limited - she had accounts under her first name only, never put out a status and had everything privatised. She rolled her eyes.
Coruscant and Hosnian Prime were regions of her dad's home town. Her granddad was from one of the poorest regions, Tatooine. It was the only one in that was laid in the desert wastes. Most people either forgot about it or pretended it didn't exist. Like the police. Ruled by the fearsome Hutt gangsters, crime was rampant. That was how any of them were here in the first place.
Most people ignored the slavery. Pretended it didn't exist. As though slavery was some ancient thing that's all gone. Shmi had been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. Their granddad's father was unknown. He had never wanted to know but some of that could have been from the fact that up until he was in his teenage years, her great grandma had told her son that he had no father at all because she had no idea who he was. She… She had been… No. Rey shut down that thought immediately. That wasn't somewhere she wanted her thoughts to go.
But for fuck's sake, Ben. She rolled her eyes. Sometimes it felt like her cousin and Cheryl Tweedy - Cole… Whatever the fuck her last name was now, were the definite yes to the question, if you're pretty enough will people forget about your racist assault charge?
She thought pretty enough. His fan girls obviously thought he was attractive. She, on the other hand, didn't… She did wonder how pretty they'd find him if she told that about that time Ben had eaten grass on a dare or sneezed in her hair.
She didn't click the video link. Her granddad was going to be furious when he found out that someone had put him on-line. He hated that Ben trying to repeat his mistakes, throwing his grandmother's sacrifice under the bus. He still loved his wife even though she'd been dead since her dad was ten. That was probably what that rant was about. Though it was rare that the media remembered her dad or his dead wife. She had a feeling that they didn't even know about her which was nice. Sometimes it felt like journalists had a little Skywalker family tree in their office, just waiting for them to pick a target and dig up some dirt.
Though she was surprised her father's arson record hadn't been brought up yet.
"He's clearly a dick." Finn said, eyes turning from spying on her phone to Lydia. She was looking at her own phone.
"But he's attractive." She insisted.
No. Fuck. No. This was so much worse. A fan-girl of her cousin! Shit. Not another one. Abort! Abort! Was it too late to say that moving in to on-campus was a mistake and she'd happily live at home with her dad?
Hours later, when the sun had set, Rey was stood out the door of her new apartment with Luke. Tears in both their eyes. Her fingers on her right hand trembled. He pressed a whisky kiss to her forehead.
"Goodbye." He said it with such finality that made the pain in her throat grow. "Ring me every night."
"I will. Promise." She said thickly, a watery smile spreading across her face. "I'll see you in some of my classes. I'll come visit."
"I don't care." Her dad insisted. His blue eyes were burning red as he tried not to try. "I'm going to miss you, Rey. The house is going to be a lot quieter without you. Also ignore Lydia. Just put your earphones in and block her out. I don't like this. It feels like dumping and abandoning you. You should go now so you don't have to see me leave you." He told her, a tear leaked out of his eye. He wiped it away.
"Okay." She breathed. "I'll call you tonight."
Then she forced her heavy feet to move back inside the hallway and closed the door behind her. The tears fell from her eyes. She sobbed and sobbed, her fingers shook against the apartment lock.
"Are you okay?" Finn's voice met her ears.
She hastily tried to wipe them away as she looked up to see Finn and Poe with concern on their faces.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm alright." She attempted to smile but it felt more like a grimace and it probably looked like it as well. "I've just never lived on my own before."
"Want to hang out with us? Watch some TV?"
That didn't sound like an awful idea. They seemed friendly and they weren't fans of her cousin at least.
"Sure. I have some DVDs with me if you want to take a look."
"Got any sci-fi?" Finn asked.
"Firefly."
"Yes! Let's misbehave." Poe grinned.
It was a few weeks later, as she sat at the kitchen bar working on her weekly equations, tapping her pen against her teeth. Her phone started to beep. She glanced at it. Twitter notification.
Frowning, she opened it. It was Leia.
Leia Skywalker LeiaSkywalker
This day, ten years ago Mara Jade-Skywalker passed away. She continues to be dearly missed.
[2 attachments]
She'd seen the first photo once before. It was of her mother when she was pregnant. Leia had clearly taken in. Her dad, back when his mop of hair was still sandy blonde instead of grey, was sat on the sofa with her mother. Her long brown hair was swept back into a ponytail. He was in the middle of placing a malteser on her pregnant stomach. She knew that. Some people said that a baby could kick it off of the mother's stomach.
The other photo was her parents wedding photo. She'd spent the first couple of anniversaries of her mother's death looking at it for hours before she and her dad had gone to the cemetery to visit her grave. Meanwhile her cousin and Hosnian Prime News had their own point of view of the day.
Ben Skywalker-Solo BenSkywalkerSolo
Today my aunt who tried to kill me when I was younger died.
Rey felt like throwing her phone against the wall. She had suffered with postnatal depression. Fuck you Ben!
HosnianPrime News HosnianPrimeNews
Today marks the day of alleged murderer #MaraJadeSkywalker died
[1 attachment]
It was her mother's mugshot. Screw you Hosnian Prime News. She didn't even consider looking at any of the comments. Seriously, fuck you. Fuck this assessment too now that she thought about it. Where was the alcohol?
She got up off of the bar stool and headed over to the fridge. She grabbed a can of Finn's six-pack of Strong-bow.
"Miss you mum." She murmured, raising the can in a toast. What a shit way to spend the anniversary of her mother's death. She'd call her dad soon. Maybe once she was sure that she wasn't plastered.
A month later, she was woken up by an obnoxious wailing noise. It took a few seconds for her brain to latch on to what was going on. Fire alarm. She didn't even think. She grabbed her phone, didn't grab her slippers and ran as fast as she could out of her room, out of the hall and into the stairwell. Her heart was pounding violently in her chest. She was moving on auto-pilot as she joined the crowd making their way downstairs. Her bare feet slapped against the black tiles of the stairs.
It wasn't until she was on the street in front of the apartment building when it was pitch black out did she realise that it was a fucking fire drill. She checked the time on her phone. It was four in the morning! She had a lecture at nine!
It was freezing cold as she hopped from foot to foot. Some guy dressed in a uni polo was going a list of names, checking everyone off.
"Apartment five." He called out. "Room 1?"
"Here." She answered with a little wave. Where was Finn?
The guy nodded.
She could practically feel the bags forming underneath her eyes when her phone began to ring. Who would be calling her at four in the morning? She glanced at the caller ID and then wished that she'd left it in her room. The word 'Dickbag' was emblazoned in simple letters. She wanted to press the end call button. Her finger hovered over it… But no. Then he would know that she was actively ignoring him. More than she normally did. With a heavy sign, she answered the call.
"Did you know?" The voice on the other end demanded before she could even get out a 'hello'.
"Do you know what time it is here?" She asked. How many hours was California behind London again?
"Did you know?" Ben repeated, ignoring her question.
Fuck my life.
"Did I know what?"
"About my mom!"
"I know that she's a woman, that she's your mum, that she has brown hair-" She started to list with no small amount of sarcasm.
"Cut the shit." He interrupted her angrily.
Maybe she could stab herself with her fencing sword… Oh, wait she'd had to leave it at home.
"Touchy aren't we? Is this about your meeting with what's his face? The nazi?"
"The First Order aren't nazi's." He insisted.
"Oh my god! Yes they are, you fucking twat. It's four in the morning here. What do you want?"
"Did you know that my mom had been considering running for president?"
It felt as though an ice cube had slipped into her stomach.
"What?" She croaked. "No."
Suddenly her cousin ended the call, as abrupt as it had begun. What the fuck? She started at the phone for a moment as the call ended screen faded away. Her life felt like a joke sometimes. As though she was spending her time in some bad reality show called Keeping Up with The Skywalkers and she wasn't even a main character. There was a reason why her dad had moved to London instead of her mum moving to California.
She leaned against the brick wall and closed her eyes, desperately trying catch some sleep but she kept shivering against the cold. Because she hadn't grabbed her dressing gown and was stood outside in her pyjamas that consisted of a pair of cotton shorts and a vest.
Why couldn't they just leave her alone? Seriously? She didn't give two shits about what Ben did. She wasn't his fucking keeper. She didn't want to keep up with the Skywalkers across the pond. She was pretty sure her dad, as much as he loved his family, wanted to live his own life. She was exactly the same. One day, they were going to find her and the press would never leave her be. It would only get worse if Leia became president. The daughter of the other Skywalker and a dancer/alleged murderer. Was she living in a soap opera?