He keeps looking over at Rey worriedly over their nearly finished breakfast. As his mom and dad squabble, her revelations about Jakku and her parents keep replaying in his head and he wants to get her alone, talk to her.

That she'd lied to him about where she grew up, well … it hurts. But he's far more concerned with how she's beginning to look overwhelmed. As she glances back and forth between his parents, she seems like she might start to cry.

The sharp sting of shame pricks him; he'd never thought to consider what it would be like to lose his parents. Instead, he's always struggled with them so mightily. His father is always on some job and this is the longest time he can remember that he's been with his mother without being interrupted by some aide or one of her little proteges.

"Son," his mother interrupts his thoughts. "After breakfast, I'd like to see you in my study. We need to discuss what happened at the training temple." Her voice is stern, and he sinks down in his chair; it was too much to hope that she would leave it alone.

As if his previous musings had conjured him from thin air, a short, portly man slips into the breakfast room. "Senator, I know you said that you weren't to be disturbed, but there's an issue with the delegation from Chandrila."

Leia throws down her napkin and sighs loudly. "It's always something with them. They think because that's your home planet it gives them some kind of favor," she says to Ben.

It's Ben's turn to sigh. "It's fine. Go deal with it. I'll show Rey to the guest quarters." He tells himself he's used to this. But he never is.

"And I'll just go check on the Falcon—" Han begins to say but Leia cuts him off.

"Oh no, you old scoundrel, we still need to have a little chat about our son and what bring him back alone means."

Rey looks stricken and Ben cringes. "Mom, you really don't get it. Rey is staying with me."

"We'll discuss it later," Leia says with finality, making Ben's hackles rise.

"No, I think you need to understand—"

The aide clears his throat and Ben jumps to his feet, grabbing Rey's hand. "Come on Rey, I know when I'm not wanted," he spits, and he pulls her swiftly from the room.

"Wait," Leia says, but Ben closes the door to the breakfast room swiftly behind them as he tugs Rey away.


He stalks down the corridor, with Rey hurrying to keep up, the sound of his father arguing to let him go following them. He knows he should slow down, but he's too angry. No, he's not angry, he's hurt. His life has just been thrown into chaos and even now his mother doesn't have time for him.

And he can't shut out the terror that his mom will actively try to separate him from Rey. What does she really want to talk to Rey about at their tea?

"Ben, slow down!" Rey exclaims and he immediately slows his stride.

"Sorry," he mumbles.

She stops them in the middle of the hallway and moves to stand in front of him. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"It's everything!" he seethes. "That, what happened in there? Her assistant barging in on us like that? It happened my whole childhood. She never, ever had time for me. Oh, she'd go on about how she'd make it up to me, but it never happened. The galaxy always had to come first." Then he grimaces, realizing how selfish he must seem to her and he takes in a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I'm sorry. That was insensitive of me."

She puts her soft hand on his cheek and says, "Just because I lost my parents doesn't mean you aren't allowed to have feelings about your mother."

"Yeah, but I didn't even know about Jakku. Why … why did you lie to me?"

Rey's face pulls into a sad and guilty expression. "I don't really know," she whispers. "I panicked."

"Do I frighten you so much?"

"What I feel for you does, but that's not it. It's complicated," she says. He's getting really sick of her saying that.

"It's always complicated," he says with asperity. "Why wouldn't you tell me about Jakku, about your parents?"

Her brow crinkles in anguish. "I didn't know how. I only learned my parents are dead recently. It … it was too fresh."

Her pain makes him rein himself in. He doesn't want to cause her further suffering and he sighs. "Let's go to the conservatory; we can talk there."

She makes a face. "Do we have to?"

"Yeah, Rey, I think we really do.


Rey gasps as she looks around the light-filled room, taking in all the blooms and ferns. She glides her fingers over one of the orchids and sighs, "It's breathtaking."

He's never spent much time in this room, but somehow, he'd known Rey would like it. She's always been drawn to nature.

"Most of these plants are from Alderaan," he offers, hiding in trivia to keep from having to restart their conversation. He may be impatient to understand, but somehow the need to make Rey happy feels more important.

"They're all so beautiful." Then she looks out over the city through the huge windows. "Did you really grow up in places like this?"

He'd never really thought about it. It was just his life. "I guess."

"Wow." She wraps her arms around herself. "I can't even imagine … Jakku was …"

"I know, I was there, once."

Her eyes fly to his. "You were?"

"Yeah, I was about 9. We needed a part for the Falcon; no surprise there." He goes up to her and gently unfolds her arms, taking her hands. "I wish I'd known you were there; I would have taken you away right then and there."

Rey shakes her head sadly. "Even if I'd been there, I wouldn't have gone with you."

"But I thought you grew up there?"

Her eyes widen. "I meant even if we'd met."

Something about the way she'd said that doesn't sit well with him, but he doesn't press. Instead he asks, "Why wouldn't you have come with me?"

"I was waiting. For my parents. I didn't know they were dead."

Imaginings of a little Rey, waiting in that barren wasteland for parents who were never coming makes his heart ache. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."

She shrugs and pulls her hands from his, turning and going to inspect more of the flora.

"Don't do that," he implores.

"Do what?" she asks with false calm.

"Pull away from me. You never want to tell me anything about you."

She shrugs. "What is there to tell? You've seen Jakku."

"But that must have been so hard. I mean, who even raised you?"

Rey snorts. "I did."

"But … I mean, who fed you, looked after you?"

"I did," she repeats sharply.

Her shell is so hard, and her pain is so close to the surface that Ben backs off. "Alright … alright," he says, coming up behind her, placing his hands on her biceps. Immediately she melts back into him and he wraps his arms around her.

He decides to take a risk and kisses her temple. Instead of making her uncomfortable, she sighs and settles even further into him.

"It doesn't hurt so much when I'm in your arms."

"I know what you mean. Everything feels right when I'm touching you." He wants to ask her if she knows why that is. He's never felt anything close to this when with anyone else.

He feels her nod but she doesn't say anything.

They watch speeders zip by and look at the tall buildings of the Hosnian Prime skyline, simply enjoying being close. She gives him little bits every day. He just has to be patient.


After an age, Ben says, "Come on, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."

"Are you sure I can't sleep with you?"

Untangling from her feels all kinds of wrong, but he doesn't know how long they have before his mother comes looking and he wants to make sure she has a place that's hers while he endures Leia's wrath.

"I don't like it either, but I'm more focused on making my mom see what you mean to me."

"What we mean to each other," she corrects.

"Yeah," he says with a smile, a warm bubble in his chest from her words.


He opens the door to the guest quarters and gestures for Rey to enter before him. She stops as soon as she crosses the threshold and Ben nearly runs into her.

"This can't be right," Rey says.

"Is there something wrong with the rooms?" There's a sitting room, a bedroom, and a 'fresher.

"No! It's just so … I didn't even know people lived like this. It's too much."

There it is again, her life of deprivation, and her hidden away stash of food takes on a much more sinister cast. He decides right then and there that he'll work day and night at the starport to keep her fed and surrounded with flowers. He won't let her add to the small scars on her hands.

He has a small stipend from his title as Prince of Alderaan that he's never touched. It would be enough to buy an apartment and he'd handle the rest, so she doesn't have to join him in drudgery. Rey will have the leisure and beauty so long denied her.

He steps around her and takes her face in his hands. "Rey, I need you to listen to me."

She nods up at him with large eyes.

"You will never go hungry again. I won't allow it. And this, somehow, I'll make sure you always live somewhere like this. Hopefully somewhere even better."

"Oh, Ben," she responds with a watery smile. "I don't need this. I just need you."

"Still. Jakku is behind you. I have you now and that, that won't ever be your life again."

"It's always with me," she says quietly, the ghosts of the dunes of Jakku walking behind her eyes.

"Well, I'll just have to fill you up with so many good memories that there's no room for how you once had to live."

She shrugs. "It wasn't so bad."

He pulls her into his arms and murmurs. "I can feel that it was. You don't have to hide your pain, not from me."

She shudders in his arms and whispers, "Thank you."

Now he shrugs. "It's just the truth."

He pulls back and looks into her luminous eyes. He's never managed to tell her how entrancing she is, and right now, she's never been more lovely.

"You're so beautiful," he murmurs.

She makes a face and says, "I'm nothing."

"No, no. Don't say that. You must know that you're everything to me."

Rey blinks and her eyes dart to his lips. He nearly groans at the realization that she's thinking of kissing him again. This time he's ready, descending his head to meet her there and his soul sighs in completion as their lips touch.

This kiss … it's slow and warm and it makes his whole body tremble with satisfaction and the overwhelming need for more. He keeps himself in check however, ignoring the desperate desire to thrust his tongue into her mouth and taste her.

Holding Rey close, kissing her, is how his mother finds them.

"Oh! I didn't mean to interrupt," Leia says apologetically, but Rey is already pulling away.

"Everything worked out with Chandrila," Ben says with an edge. He wants to go back to kissing Rey.

Leia frowns. "Yes. For now." She turns to Rey. "Why don't you make yourself comfortable? Your bag should be in the bedroom."

"Thank you for your hospitality," Rey says formally, her cheeks slightly pink.

"I know it must seem like I don't approve, but I promise you that's not the case. I just need to make sure that we're doing what's best for Ben."

Rey nods and says, "That's what I want, too."

Ben is hit with the troubling thought that if his mother somehow convinced her that she wasn't what he needs right now, that she'd leave so he interjects, "Well, Ben knows that Rey is what's best for him."

"I know you do, Son. But … let's go to my study."

Ben feels like a condemned man as he obediently follows Leia.


Seated across from his mother, Ben waits for the inevitable chastisement. But she surprises him when she requests, "Tell me what happened."

She seems open and he wonders if she's truly prepared to listen. Against his better judgement, he decides to try. "I lost control. Another student, Daxon … he said something awful about Rey and I …" His hands flail. "I hurt him."

"When you say, lost control, do you mean the dark side?" Leia asks keenly.

"I guess," Ben says. "But he deserved it! Maybe not as bad as it got, but he absolutely needed to be taught a lesson."

Leia's face grows troubled. "Luke said you almost killed him."

"Like I said. I lost control."

"It sounded worse than that."

"What do you want me to say?" Ben nearly whines. "I got kicked out, obviously it was bad."

"Yes, but Luke said—"

"Stop saying 'Luke said'. If you're just going to listen to him instead of me, then why did you even want to talk to me?"

Leia's eyes close briefly. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Look, I know what I did was wrong, so wrong. But you don't know what he said about Rey."

"Then tell me."

"It doesn't matter."

"I think it does," Leia says carefully.

Ben huffs out an angry breath, his fists clenching at the memory. "He suggested that he'd … he'd take her from me," he finishes awkwardly.

"Ah," Leia says. "I think I see."

"Do you? Do you understand what Rey means to me?"

"I know you're in the throes of first love."

"No!" Ben exclaims angrily, sitting up straighter in his chair. "It's not just some passing thing. Rey is it for me and I wouldn't let Daxon take her from me. I wouldn't let Luke take her from me. And I'm for damned sure not going to let you take her from me!"

Leia's face grows trouble and her lips purse. "Ben, I don't want to 'take her' from you. I'm just not sure having her stay here is the best thing for you."

"It's the only thing for me. You need to understand something. If you try to part us, Rey and I are leaving."

"Leaving?" Leia asks, true shock in her eyes.

"That's right. We're together no matter what, and if that means we go down to the starport and find work, then that's what's going to happen."

Stunned, Leia sits back on her settee, mouth gaping.

"Don't push me, Mother."

"I see," Leia says, folding her hands. "Well I suppose I'll need to get to know her better, won't I?"

Ben can't help but notice that she hadn't agreed. Is she going to try to convince Rey to leave him?


Ben paces his room, the fear that he's losing Rey right now only growing. HIs mother is exceptionally skilled at getting what she wants. Rey is fierce, but Leia Organa is in a whole other class. If his mother has decided that Rey has to go, she'll find a way.

He picks up one of his old model ships, and suddenly everything in his room, all of his treasures, just feel meaningless, and he throws the little X-wing into the wall, satisfied as it flies into pieces.

Before joining Luke, he'd destroy his room in fits of temper regularly, and his parents had started to seem genuinely afraid of him. The voice had always said that they were, at least. He's surprised the voice has been so quiet, but grateful for it.

Gods, what is his mother even saying to Rey? Is she telling her about how unstable he can be? Will Rey be frightened of him now? What if his mother turns Rey against him?

That's it. He just can't take it anymore and he sets off to the conservatory.


Concentrating hard on muting his Force signature, he carefully approaches the door. Gently, he lays his hands on the durasteel and puts his ear to the surface.

"—I think you need to tell him," Leia's muffled voice says.

"But what if that's what does it? The final step?"

"I should have trusted him more, talked to him more. Don't make my mistakes."

He hears Rey sigh and she's quiet for a moment. "I'll think about it."

"That's all I can ask."

Then there's a long silence and Ben's mind positively spins. Tell him what? Has she opened up to his mother? Finally explained why everything is so complicated? Does Rey know why the pull to her is so visceral? Final step to what?

Then they start talking again.

"I'm glad you trusted me, dear."

"I always have," Rey responds.

"I'm looking forward to knowing you this time. But let's talk about happier things. How about those baby holos?" his mother asks, making Ben cringe. He'd really hoped they'd forgotten about that.

He hears hands clapping together and Rey positively squeals with delight. "Oh, yes please!"

"Alright, this one is my favorite." Oh hell. Ben knows which one his mother is talking about and he just about dies of embarrassment. He's stark naked from the bath with his hair sticking straight up and his ears straight out. Why'd she have to start with that one?

Ben slinks away. He doesn't think he can handle the humiliation.

Besides. He has a lot to think about.


A/N: Thank you, ArtemisBare! How could I do this without you?

Thank you, Readers! Turns out my friend and her husband sleep in, so here's another chapter! Hanging with a fellow Reylo is an absolute blast. Thank you all for continuing to give your time to this little fic! Mwa mwa mwa!