Chapter 1

Ten Years Later

He made it. Finally. He may be a couple of days early (or some might think, a few years too late) but Ben was finally home. He hadn't been sure if he'd make it through London's Friday afternoon traffic, but he had. After successfully ditching Artoo, his driver-slash-valet-slash-bodyguard, he'd quickly made his way to his family's country estate just outside the city on his rented BMW X5.

The driveway had been littered with a number of flashy cars, so he'd automatically headed for the service garage. He would rather not intrude upon his mother when she was entertaining, lest he be forced to endure the singular dullness of small talk. And so here he was, slipping in through the back door just like old times.

And he hadn't even taken a few steps into the house when he was greeted by another very familiar sight.

Rey was in Leia's old kitchen, taking her time and getting away from everything. She'd just gone down to the cellar to get a few more bottles of wine. She didn't really have to do anything (she could have rang Leia's staff, who were busy in the newer, bigger kitchen, for the task), but she needed some time to compose herself... to be okay with all this, knowing that if things were a little different, if she had been a little less broken, all this happiness could have been hers.

But it wasn't meant to be. Now her ex was engaged, barely three months after they broke up, and to someone whom she would not wish on her worst enemy. Well, scratch that. Who was she kidding? Maybe they deserved each other.

"Rey?"

She looked at the person calling her name and it didn't even take a second more before she was rushing towards him.

"Ben! It's so good to see you," she said as she hugged him to her and buried her face into his chest.

His arms automatically came around her in answer. He rubbed his cheek on the crown of her head too, in an unconscious thank you for the warmth of her welcome. In truth, he hadn't expected it. They haven't really spoken much in the last 5 years, and the 5 years before that hadn't been that great either. He'd been an angry little shit and it had taken years upon years of hard work to get to where he was today. And much of that was really thanks to her, because she had had the courage to confront him all those years ago. She had been the voice inside his head throughout most everything, and he always regretted the fact that he hadn't been as careful or as caring with her as she had been with him, especially with everything that has happened to her. He'd found out too late about her mother's death and her subsequent abduction — she'd been well into her recovery when news reached him and he couldn't have done anything about it except to offer her his sympathies from afar.

Maybe this could be a fresh start.

He kissed the top of her head and felt her burrow further into him.

"I've missed you," he whispered. It felt too good to not do it again, so he kissed her once more for good measure.

"So have I," Rey answered, as all the tension slipped away from her. She hadn't been thinking at all when she rushed to him. Maybe it was the unexpected surprise of seeing him again after so long that had dispensed with all the awkward barriers her conscious brain would have put in their way. When Leia told her a week ago that Ben was coming back, she hadn't known what to do or what to say when she saw him again. But now, she was truly thankful for how it had come to pass and was glad for the comfort of his presence.

They held each other for a few more moments, basking quietly in the assurance of each other's embrace, and finding the better parts of their former selves slipping back into place as if the loneliness and hurt of the intervening ten years had not happened. They would have gone on forever if it hadn't been for the sounds of his mother's party escaping into their little slice of solitude.

"So, care to tell me why you've been hiding out here when there's very obviously one of my mother's parties in full swing?"

She groaned, refusing to answer, knowing that it will break the peace she'd somehow found.

"Rey…" he prompted, not letting her get out of it.

"Leia offered to host the engagement party of one of her underlings in the Diplomatic Corps. She invited me to attend because she thinks I don't go out much. I said yes without really asking for the particulars because, well, you know how your mother is," she huffed.

Ben smiled into her hair. Some things never really change.

"Bad thing is," Rey continued, hoping that his shirt can muffle most of what she has to say next, "I just only now found out that Bazine is the one being engaged to the man your mom doesn't even know is my very recent ex and the very reason why I haven't been going out much in the first place."

Bazine, he knew to be her childhood nemesis, but it was this "very recent ex" that had given him pause. Something about her confession didn't read right. He gently raised her face to him so that he could see her eyes when she answered his next question: "So which were you: jilted lover or slutty sidepiece?"

The guilty sheen on her eyes, coupled with the half-mortified, half-angry expression on her face, told him everything he needed to know, but of course, he wanted to have the truth from her.

"Let's not kid ourselves here," he said, as he smoothed the vertical creases between her eyebrows. "You wouldn't be hiding if any of it had ended amicably and I'm reading a mix of resentment and shame here, so help me out."

"You're right," Rey sighed, now just remembering his uncanny ability to pinpoint her moods whenever he bothered to try.

"So?"

"Both" — she said, then quickly corrected herself — "No, more like he's a two-timing cad. There. Are you happy now?"

"No, of course not," he said with a determined look on his face. "You've been jilted by the scum of the earth and I won't rest until we get you some payback. So, take me to my mother and let me crash this party in style. We've got work to do."

"Are you really sure you want that?" Rey teased, knowing his long held aversion to his mother's social functions, even as she began to tidy him up a bit. She had not even finished dusting his shoulders, when Leia's butler barged into the kitchen.

"Miss Rey —" an elderly gent began to call out, but the shock of seeing Ben stopped him from saying more.

Ben smiled at the expression on the older man's face. C3PO's real name had been a mouthful for Ben as a kid, so Ben had taken to calling him by his initials instead. Han had reinforced the habit and soon, everyone, including Rey, had followed suit.

"Master Ben!" The butler exclaimed. "How... how wonderful! We weren't expecting you tonight. I take it Artoo will be coming shortly?"

"You know how it is C3," Ben said as he patted the butler on his shoulder. "Now bring us to my mother, old chap. You know how she gets when her guests" — he said, tilting his head towards Rey — "suddenly disappear on her."

The butler smiled as he guided the erstwhile duo out of the kitchen. "Right you are, sir. Right you are."