—or au where Rey moves to America after eloping with a businessman on a backpacking venture turned romance novel. She now must navigate her new life with marriage, family and what her last name is now.

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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 wanted to see what Rey thought of all this crazy happening in the family. Rey and Kylo being domestic is my cocaine.


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She practices writing out her name on a separate sheet of paper when she's applying for her dual citizenship.

Rey Ren in inky black scrawl, messy and untrained cursive. She bites her lip tries again.

Rey she pauses and, tries another name on tangent. Rey Solo. Rey Organa. Rey Organa-Solo.

Kylo watches her progress with a raised brow. She smiles at him, and sticks out her tongue. "Love you," she says and kisses the corner of his mouth; his frown quirks into a smile. "Just experimenting."

"Whatever you want."

With a steady hand on the dotted line, she writes: Rey Ren. She pushes the paper back over towards the tired looking man behind the counter and he rattles off a list of wait times, possibilities, and finally 'good day'.

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"If you really don't want to, you don't have to."

"It's time," he sighs into his pillow. "What if someone dies and then I'll feel horrible."

She scoffs and presses her cold foot against his warm leg, making him jump. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

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Rey stands in the doorway of the New York apartment, listening to the conversation from the other side of the door. Her hands are burning from the ceramic coffee mugs she had just prepared, Ben's sweetened with cream and sugar, and hers bitter to wake her up.

She daintily sips at it as she concentrates on Kylo's voice as he talks to someone over the phone. His mother. She calls him Ben.

She knows that Kylo has had problems with his parents in the past. She knows it was hard for him to talk to them, but Rey refuses to let herself feel bad about it. She wants him to be happy and somehow she worked it into her mind that Kylo would never be happy unless he at least tries to reach out to his family.

" . . . I'm going to be in town soon and I was wondering if you wanted to get together for lunch sometime this week?"

He and his parents just had problems connecting that, with the added pressure of a wildly successful family and Kylo's general moodiness had not helped.

Such problems are what caused him to be estrange from his family for so long, leaving home at nineteen to go to college and then pursuing a career working at Snoke Enterprises, being groomed as the next head of the company and backing his boss's vicious mayoral campaign. His boss, a Voldemort look-a-like, had gifted Kylo with an additional three weeks off to settle into marriage life and demanded that they make an appearance at the company holiday party.

Rey shivers at the memory and quells her fear with another sip of coffee. It doesn't help. The man was a creep and nutter and Rey never wants to be within a fifteen-foot radius of him.

He had also been the one to send the flowers that arrived for her the very same day they visited. Kylo's co-worker, Hux, had sent the Keurig. Which Rey loves and has composed a thank you note for.

She is drawn from her reverie by hearing Kylo say, "There's something else. There's someone I would like you to meet."

Rey body checked the door in her rush into the bedroom, trying not to spill coffee or trip over a decorative pillow that had rolled off the bed in the middle of the night. She scrambles to stand in his line of vision, vigorously shaking her head and mouthing to him no, no, no!

Her husband ignores her.

"I'm married."

Rey feels the world cave in around her and she wants to scream.

"A few months ago, I just got back from Europe." He goes on explaining in a voice that is both sure and cutting, but terrified. For a moment, Rey doesn't even think that Kylo's mum—her mother-in-law—is even asking questions anymore. There's just a livid silence that cuts at Rey's confidence that this will all go well.

"You are terrible," Rey hisses to him. Kylo stares at her, expression deceivingly blank. "I am pitching everything you love. And your coffee."

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She leaves the coffee on the dresser for him because Kylo looks close to exhausting himself and Rey sits in the bedroom reading while she waits for him to calm down again.

Kylo is not exactly partial to panic, but there are certain situations that are triggering. This is one of them.

The conversation that progresses is awkward to say the least. Rey sips her coffee from the other corner of the bed and listens as Kylo continues the conversation from the en suite bathroom. She can hear him just fine as his voice seems to rise every now and again to make a point.

"—I was on a business trip in Ireland for the company and we started traveling together." She listens to him pause Rey is reminded of her own explanation she had had to give to Finn and Poe when she rung them that morning two month ago. The raised eyebrows, and Rey, are you sure?

"She's not pregnant."

Rey's gut twists from the rest of the conversation and she wonders if she made a mistake.

Marriage has never been a priority for her, she never has been the kind to fall over her feet for a boy, but Kylo had been different. Then again, that's what everyone says when they fall in love—or take a particular fancy—that of all the ducks in the pond, this one is different. She one is hers. But he is and Rey still cannot understand it. When she looks at him and sees a man, who's strong and funny and smiles at her like she's the sun.

Either way, she's a married woman now and getting her life on track has become the priority.

The only real regret Rey may have is how she would meet Kylo's parents.

They're not going to like me much. She thinks, cuddling her cuppa to her chest. I'm just a stranger to them, a stranger married to their son.

She voices this distress when Kylo gets off the phone, though his shoulders are tense, Rey cannot help but rage and he just takes it.

"Everyone's a stranger when you first meet them." He reasons, lying on his side in their bed, arms wrapped around her middle, looking like a sullen child. She rolls her eyes because he's a drama queen, and Rey isn't having it.

"That's beside the point Kylo, and you know it." She snaps and feels brief satisfaction when she sees him flinch at her words. She drives deeper; using her words to cut through whatever reverie has him caught up now. "Kylo, I want them to like me. I didn't want your parents to meet me like this, I wanted you to talk to them first and then—"

"—and then what? Drop the boom-shell when we start acting nice again?"

"Can you see this from my point of view?"

Kylo finally pulls himself out of his own turmoil to realize what he's done and looks at her, and he mumbles his apologizes into her hip. Rey transfers her mug from her hand to the nightstand and crouches down, wrapping her arms around him and pressing kisses to the top of his head, his brow, his cheek, his lips, his neck. "I'm sorry." He whispers and Rey pulls him close so that his head is tucked under her chin.

"It's alright," she says and it's the truth. Even if Kylo's parents decide they don't like her, she'll live. She is starting a new chapter in her life in a new place, with new people and a husband. That's all she really needs. She has a family. She doesn't need the approval of her husband's parents to start one. She married Kylo, not Han and Leia. "Are you sure you want me to go with you?"

"You're the only force on this earth that's making me go." Kylo says drowsily. "I want you there. I've changed a lot in these last ten years. They're meeting me and they're meeting you. You're the newest part of me."

There's silence between them, and she asks, "When do we meet them?"

"My father is out of country on business," he murmurs, and throws his leg over hers, holding onto her like a koala. "We'll meet my mother on Wednesday for lunch."

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One more day in the city left, they walk around the Upper East Side neighborhood, window shopping and stopping at a Starbucks for coffees. Rey orders a dolce cinnamon latte and convinces Kylo to get one too. "I thought all British were supposed to like tea best." He joked.

"Well, I'm the exception. I belong here."

"Have you heard back from MIT yet?"

Rey shrugs. "I called this morning, but the dean of students was out again. My transcripts have been transferred in, I talked to financial aid office, blah, blah," she slides off her huge carpenter coat as they seat themselves at a booth, and Kylo smiles a little.

"You're excited."

"I am," she says, feeling a little giddy at the thought. "It's the best engineering school in the country."

"That's why you applied."

"It's also expensive."

"Scholarships."

"And expensive."

"Don't worry about that now, try getting in first." They had already had this conversation when they had still ben arguing about her applying. Kylo, it seemed, spent every waking moment he wasn't speaking to her, thinking up ways to get her into college that year. Dually, impressed and thankful, Rey let him give her the needed push to hit 'send'. She watches the slowly melting whip cream seeping into a forthy mush on top of her latte and decides she can finally drink it.

There it was again, the little twists of her stomach. Her reasoning for quitting college—not because she wanted to, but because she had to—was quite simple: money.

Dreams of aeronautical engineering weren't cheap.

She knew why Kylo was pushing her to take classes; she knew why he was hinting at moving to Massachusetts. He was just like her; he was convinced it would make her happy. And it would. Working on and with aeroplanes was her dream, she wanted nothing more since she was a little girl and up until her teens she had been very vocal about her dream.

One foster father had told her to just be a stewardess. Poe told her to join the air force. Kylo shoved an MIT brochure under her nose the moment they landed in JFK.

She pushes that thought aside and smiles, but Kylo keeps staring at her. "You'll get in and we'll figure it out from there. You'll be fine, Rey."

She tugs at the bun she tied her hair up in this morning and thinks about school, thinks about England. College credits worked differently here, didn't they? Would she have to re-do her associates?

"Rey, relax, everything will be fine."

Yeah, he had said the same thing about meeting his parents.

Oddly enough, when she made her plan to force him to reunion with his parents, she had never envisioned herself meeting them.

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They land in LAX early the next morning and check into a hotel to get situated and sleep off the lingering jetlag. They would drive down to Kylo's hometown the next day and stay in town. Rey was getting dizzy from all the traveling, but at least, they had had a month together in the New York apartment, recovering from backpacking through Europe and basically enjoying their extended honeymoon.

There have never been rose-colored glasses on their marriage. They fought too often for a chance to lounge in the illusion of marrying someone perfect. They had traveled together, Rey had seen Kylo climb stark naked out of the channel, howling like a newborn.

Rey knew from the out the gate that Kylo could get insecure, could get angry, could get anxious and second-guess himself. Kylo knew Rey could get distant, could get stubborn, and got quickly defensive.

They fought when they disagreed, but they were a great team when it came down to it.

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Kylo pulls the car into park, twists the keys, unclicks his seatbelt and eases back into the driver's seat. Rey takes his hand and doesn't say anything for a moment, just waits as Kylo gathers himself up and takes a deep breath. His expression is deceptively impassive, but Rey knows him too well. She's seen that look. "I saw her when we were pulling in. She's sitting at the corner table outside."

Rey nods, and waits for him to say more. "I'll be with you the entire time."

"I know," he says, closing his eyes and his brows pinch in frustration. "I know." He says again, anxiousness seeping into his voice this time. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, you're nervous. You haven't talked in ten years, I get it. It's okay." Rey squeezes his hand a little and catches her husband's eyes. "Just know I'm with you and I'll be here with you."

"Alright," he nods and leans over to kiss her, before turning back to the door and climbing out of the car. He walks to the other side, meeting her as she's getting out and they approach the café. It isn't too crowded like he thought it would be, it isn't empty though either.

Kylo holds the door for her when Rey steps inside, welcomed by the scent of coffee and fresh baked pastries. The hostess smiles at her, "Table for two?"

Kylo steps in behind her, taking her hand by threading their fingers together.

Rey looks to the left, past the indoor tables that are mostly empty and into the open half of the restaurant, where the wall slides up like a garage door, into a gated outdoor area. Alone at a large table in the very corner of the outdoor area, she spots a woman with steel grey hair. "No, our party's already here." She indicates and tugs at Kylo's hand, and he keeps pace with her, his hand tightening and loosening occasionally. She kisses his shoulder and rubs his arm as they approach.

"Thank you," Kylo whispers.

Everything will be fine, she coaches herself and the woman turns to face her. Her eyes are like her son's, wide and inquisitive, and they take Rey in like she's slipping under the water.


I love this too much. It's becoming a problem.

I prefer, Rey Solo or, even better, Rey Kenobi, but Kylo's not changing his name and Rey wants to change hers. Rey Ren.

Thank you for all the lovely reviews and if you have anything particular that you would like to see, let me know, I'll think about it, and if I like the idea enough, I'll write it.

—queenchesh