A/N: Welcome to Part 4: The Finer Things! This one will be three chapters total, and please accept the longer chapters as suitable recompense for the delay :)
Ben walked out of the cockpit to find Rey scrolling through a datapad in the common area. They were hurtling along through hyperspace to another job in the Mid Rim, and had a few hours to kill. AD-83 was powered down in the corner, and Ben figured it was time for them to get some rest, too.
"Anything interesting?" He swung a leg over the back of a chair and opened a nutrient drink.
"Not really."
His personal comm suddenly lit up with an incoming call from Senator Organa.
Ben nearly dropped his drink as he scrambled out of the chair. "I have to take this," he tossed over his shoulder as he hurried to his bunk.
He accepted the call with a knot in his stomach. His mother didn't contact him unless it was something important.
Only it wasn't his mother. Another woman popped up in the hologram, and he recognized the New Republic emblem on her sleeve. He barely suppressed an eye roll.
"This notification is for Benjamin Naberrie Organa Solo. Please confirm."
"Yeah, that's me."
"Thank you, sir. You are formally invited by Senator Leia Organa to attend the 19th Annual Amidala Foundation Charity Gala. The gala will occur on the fourteenth day of the sixth month Galactic Standard. You would honor Senator Organa with your presence. What answer may I give the Senator?"
"It's not like I have much of a choice," he grumbled, barely audible.
The assistant blinked at him.
"Yes, obviously. It's always yes. Wait, when did you say it was?"
"The fourteenth day of the sixth month Galactic Standard."
"The fourt—" Ben glanced at the calendar on his datapad. "That's in less than a week! You couldn't have mentioned this sooner?"
"We apologize for the delay in extending your invitation." The words were so impersonal that he knew she had nothing to do with when the invitations were sent out. "Shall I still pass on your affirmative response?"
Ben sighed. "Yes, I'll be there." It was better than that one year he was told the day of. He wished they'd pick a set day, like a holiday.
"Very good, sir. Will anyone be accompanying you this year?"
That was an excellent question. He'd never had a consistent partner, especially someone like Rey… "Let me check. I'll be right back." He didn't wait long enough to hear the woman's reply.
Rey was still thumbing through the datapad and looked up as he walked back into the common area. "What did your mother want?"
"It's an assistant, actually. So, there's a charity gala on Naboo, and—" He rubbed the back of his neck, now realizing how awkward this question might be. "Well, I wondered if you'd want to go with me."
"What is it like?" There was interest in her eyes. That was good.
"It's, uh, it's a party, with a lot of rich people, and food, and dancing, and drinks, and more rich people showing off. I have to go, but it would be—yeah." He cut himself off with a swallow before he could tell her that it would be better if she were there.
"Why do you have to go?"
"It would be dishonorable if I didn't attend."
She wrinkled her nose in amusement. "Dishonorable to who?"
"My mother." He chuckled. "If it was only me, I wouldn't bother, but…let's just say Senator Organa is not fun to deal with when she's displeased."
Rey smirked. "I can imagine. What would I do if I didn't go?"
He forced himself to give a casual, one-shouldered shrug. It was a fair question and didn't mean she didn't want to go with him. "I could drop you off in any system and pick you up when it's done. You could explore Naboo, which is lovely." He blew out a long exhale. "You could stay on the ship, which is admittedly the least exciting option."
"Will Thalia be there?"
He really hoped her answer wouldn't be dependent on the other woman's presence but couldn't lie to her. "Probably not. She usually doesn't go to those events. We might run into her fiancé, though, since he is one of Naboo's senators. If you go, of course."
Her smile widened. "I'll go with you."
A shiver of relief and something else ran down his spine. "Really? That's great! Let me just tell the—" He didn't bother to finish the sentence as he ducked out the door.
Ben found the assistant still there, looking bored. He hid a chuckle as he stepped back into view and the woman's posture and expression stiffened. "Yes, there will be someone with me this year. Her name is Rey."
Any surprise on the woman's face was quickly schooled back under her professional mask. "Very good, sir. What is her family name?"
…blast. She couldn't go without one, not when everyone there would be sporting at least two, including him. "Yep," he managed, before all but running back to the common area.
"They want to know your family name," he said as soon as he was in earshot.
Rey's brow furrowed. "But I don't have one. Can't I go without?"
"I know, but no. We need to give them something to say. It would be noticeable to not have one, and not in a good way."
"I could use yours."
It must have been record time for the blush to turn his face and ears to flame. "Ah, no, sorry," he stammered. Get a hold of yourself, Solo. She didn't mean it like that. "That would be if we were—" married? "—siblings, and everyone knows I don't have a sister."
"Oh." Her brows furrowed. "What about 'of Jakku'?"
"That's—"
"Or Niima! No one likes Jakku, but most people probably haven't heard of Niima Outpost."
"I like that. I think it would work." He studied her. "You're okay with that?"
She nodded.
"Rey Niima it is, then. Be right back," he said with a lopsided grin.
Once he had given the name to the assistant, and strictly instructed her not to include the long pauses between his answers to his mother, Ben strolled back into the common area and took his seat again.
"So when is this party?"
He sighed. "Next week, on the fourteenth."
Her eyebrows shot up. "Next week?! What about the job?"
"I think we're good enough to do both," he grinned.
She rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the datapad. "We'll have to be really good. Are you sure you don't want to call the contact and postpone it?"
"Hey, I keep my word with what I say I'll do." He leaned forward on the back of the chair. "Reputation is everything in this business."
Rey muttered something that sounded like arrogance, then looked up and smiled brightly. "I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, with all your Force ability, you'll probably be able to retrieve whatever it is with your mind, no problem."
"That's not how the Force works," he mumbled. "I suppose with our luck, everything would backfire from the moment we arrived."
"Our luck?"
He snorted. "My luck. Maybe I am like my father."
"When did we say we'd meet the contact?"
"Uh…in fifteen hours."
"And how long do you estimate the job will take?"
"If everything goes to plan? Probably one to two days between mapping and completing the job."
"And the odds of that?" Her eyes sparkled with suppressed amusement.
He ran a hand over the back of his neck. Never tell me the odds, his brain cheerfully supplied. Not helpful, Dad, he groused back at the intrusive thought. "Middling to good?"
—
She should have known things would go sideways.
To begin with, Ben recognized their client, Grishar Kidella, a wealthy businessman. He whispered the man's name to her with a puzzled frown as soon as they stepped inside the extravagant villa that was their meeting place. "Whatever this is, it's going to be illegal," he added.
She could tell what he was thinking. Not the best if they were pulling illegal jobs right before they were headed to a gala filled with senators and other government authorities.
Thankfully, the man didn't seem to recognize Ben. When they finally got around to talking business after a lengthy introduction and refreshments, he informed them that he was looking to expand his industry into ship manufacturing but needed a little something to get him going.
That something happened to be about fifteen kilos of coaxium that apparently was just sitting around in a warehouse on one of the planet's moons.
"Now, coaxium, as you know, is volatile," Kidella told them, waxing long about the job. Ben hadn't said anything in the last hour, but she sensed that he was as anxious to get going as she was. Unfortunately for their limited time table, this guy wouldn't stop talking. "So it's important that you don't mess with that shipment or open the container. Wouldn't want an explosion on our hands!" The man laughed at his own joke, his laughter fading as he realized he was the only one.
"We can handle that." Without waiting for him to begin talking again, Ben stood. "We'll let you know when we're returning with the cargo. Rey?"
She nodded and smiled in Kidella's direction before also standing and following Ben out the door.
"Good news, this probably won't take too long," Ben told her as they walked back to his ship. "Bad news, we'll still have to deal with him when it's done."
Rey chuckled and shook her head. "I thought he would never shut up."
"He's probably still talking." Ben grinned.
They spent the rest of the day planning the job. Using blueprints of the warehouse that AD-83 had pulled from the HoloNet, they plotted how they would bypass the security and cart the cargo out of there, preferably without bloodshed.
Planning was the easy part. The doing was where things usually went wrong.
With plan in place, they headed to their destination and found the warehouse in short order. Ben knocked out the gate guards using the Force while AD-83 remotely overrode the security system, and they crept inside.
Ben had been teaching her what he knew about the Force over the last couple months, but he had been right, he was no expert. Still, she practiced his lessons every chance she got. Now, she was able to handle the next set of guards, also knocking them out with the Force as they continued through the maze of corridors to where they were pretty sure the coaxium was being held.
It was quiet. Almost too quiet.
The silence, unfortunately, gave her a lot of time to think. About the gala, about Ben, about if their partnership would ever progress past friendship…
The two of them made an impressive team, if she did say so herself. Not to mention that he was still the best fighting partner she'd ever had. No one that she'd talked to had quite the same connection with their partner as she and Ben did, and she didn't know if it was because of the Force—or something else. Maybe they fought so well together because they were meant to be partners in more ways than one.
It was something that came to mind from time to time. Ben was handsome, and there were times that she wondered… But surely he would bring it up first if he felt the same way, right?
Approaching footsteps shook her out of her melancholy.
Ben's eyes met hers—he heard it too. Their blueprints showed that this corridor had side compartments for maintenance and storage, and he pointed for them to split up and each take a compartment. The panel had barely closed behind her when she could see a small group of guards through the tiny gap in the door. They marched past, all in dark, heavy armor, blissfully unaware of the two of them inches away.
While she and Ben probably could have taken them down, they were trying to sneak in without bloodshed. A loud commotion and more trouble were the last things they needed.
Once the guards had passed, they checked down the corridors for any other unwelcome company, before continuing on their way using the map AD-83 had transmitted.
Finally, thankfully without further delay, they found the compartment that should have held coaxium. But something was off, a faint hum growing louder the closer they got. Was it coming from the coaxium? She didn't think it could do that.
The air around them thrummed with energy as they opened the compartment, and she glanced at Ben to find his brow furrowed.
"Something isn't right. Do you sense that?"
She nodded.
"I don't think this is coaxium. Here, help me get this open."
"But Kidella said—"
"I know what he said. But he lied. Coaxium doesn't have a Force presence. That would be—" He finished prying the lid off the crate and his lips pursed at the contents. "Kyber."
She looked down to find the small container full of opaque crystals. "What's kyber?"
"They're the crystals used to power lightsabers." His frown deepened. "They're also what was used to power the Death Star, and thus highly illegal for anyone but Jedi to have them." He dropped the lid and ran a hand through his hair. "We can't deliver this."
"You mean, don't complete the job? We've done illegal stuff before, Ben, why is this different?"
He made a frustrated sound. "I don't know. It just is. Maybe because of my uncle. We should get these to him, instead."
Deep down, she knew he was right. She wasn't quite sure how she knew, but she did. It would be a grave mistake to deliver these to the rich businessman. "What are we going to tell Kidella?"
A smirk touched the corner of his mouth. "It would be a real shame if my mother or anyone else in the Senate found out that Grishar Kidella was dealing in kyber. A whole career, up in smoke."
She grinned. Maybe it would finally shut the windbag up. "Let's do it."
A handful of hours later, they were back at the man's villa. Kidella greeted them with a smile that disappeared when he saw they were empty-handed. "What happened? Could you not find it?"
"No, we found it." Ben stood up straighter and crossed his arms over his chest. "And it wasn't coaxium."
Kidella blanched. "You opened it? I told you—"
"Do you know the penalty for trading kyber, Kidella?"
"And you knew what it was," the man muttered. "Look, I wasn't going to sell it—"
"It doesn't matter what you were going to do with it." Ben loomed over the shorter man. "All kyber goes to the Jedi by New Republic law."
"I didn't think you were so interested in laws, Solo," the man wheedled. "They told me you didn't ask questions."
"I'm not asking. I'm telling. Kyber is off-limits. I suggest you keep it that way unless you would like the Senate to be informed."
Kidella's eyes bugged out of his head. "Senate? That—that isn't necessary," he stuttered, before regaining some of his composure. "Even if you did tell the Senate, it's your word against mine. Who would they be more likely to believe? I am a respected member of society, and you—"
"And I am Benjamin Naberrie Organa. Would you like to push this issue?"
The man's mouth opened and closed several times in an unintentional imitation of a fish, before he slowly shook his head.
Rey snickered, having watched this whole exchange with delight. It wasn't usual for Ben to throw his weight and family name around, but she was always impressed with how intimidating he was when he did so.
"I'll consider this matter settled, then," Ben said when Kidella remained silent. "And if you're thinking about using this to ruin my reputation, just know that yours will be history if you even try."
Kidella nodded and backed away. "It's settled," he echoed dully.
They left with a crate of kyber and the knowledge they had done the right thing.
Rey maybe preferred leaving several thousand credits richer, but this was a close second.
They didn't have time to deliver the kyber to Ben's uncle and the Jedi before the gala; as it was, they wouldn't be arriving on Naboo until the morning of, anyway. Ben promised they would visit Luke right after the gala and bring the kyber to him then.
Now, speeding along through hyperspace and using every trick Ben knew to arrive to Naboo faster, Rey found herself wondering again what exactly their relationship was expected to be for the party. She said so before she could think better of it.
Ben's hands tightened around the controls, so slightly she would have missed it if she hadn't been watching him for his reaction. "There may be certain…expectations," he said slowly. "But what other people think doesn't matter."
Expectations? She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant when he spoke again.
"What do you want us to be?"
There was nothing in his tone. It was so completely devoid of emotion it had to be deliberate.
"What are the options?"
"We could inform anyone who asks that we're business partners and nothing more. Or we could let people think you're my date."
They had been doing the former for months. Every time someone assumed they were together, Ben had been quick to correct them. But would that assumption really be so bad?
She chanced a glance at him again. His jaw was tight and the tip of his ear she could see peeking out of his hair was bright red. He was clearly embarrassed. Was he embarrassed to be seen with her?
She couldn't do that to him. After all, who was she among all these famous names? "Just partners, I think. That's what we always say, right?"
He cleared his throat twice before whispering a barely audible, "Right."
He was quieter than usual the rest of the trip. When she asked him about it, he claimed he was tired, and she decided to let him have the excuse.
After all, they were both tired. And this gala had her on edge. She could only imagine he was feeling the same way.