The boat ride is unpleasant. The jarring smack of the hull over icy Alaskan waters makes Rey grit her teeth and pray for it to be over. It's too noisy for any kind of conversation below shouting-volume, so there's no distraction from the heaving open water. Rey watches Ben pilot the craft instead, trying to focus on the mechanics of driving a boat and not on all the ways drowning would be a horrible death. Are there sharks this far North? If she fell overboard, would they eat her?

Mostly she's baffled about why they're even on a boat. Why anyone lives in a place most conveniently accessed over the water. It's unfathomable.

Still, at least it's not a long trip.

When the boat slows and she finally lets herself look up to locate their destination, it's all she can do to stop her jaw from physically dropping. The house is perched on a peninsula, barely peeking through a fortress of pines standing sentinel along the dramatic buttress of bare cliff-face. The house is enormous and sprawling, and she can see a barn and a guest house and another structure that definitely looks like it houses an indoor swimming pool.

"Welcome home!" Padme says cheerfully.

Rey has never seen anywhere that looked less like a home in her life. This looks like a hotel. Like a luxury hotel only the super-wealthy can afford, on a huge estate where they can lavishly spend their excess money.

Ben docks the boat like an expert, like he's been doing it his whole life, at the fancy little slip at the fancy little boathouse at the bottom of the cliff. He probably has been doing it his whole life, and for some reason this makes Rey feel unreasonably incensed. She's been fighting off guilt all this time? Guilt for treating this spoiled rich kid like he's no better than the rest of them? She has nothing to apologize for. She's had to fight tooth and nail for everything she's ever gotten in life, and he's just coasting along on enormous privilege. If anything she should have been harder on him.

There's a railed walkway zigzagging up the side of the cliff, and Leia and Padme start up it immediately after disembarking. Ben grabs the bags while Rey unclips her life vest and scrambles out after them. She's once again surprised by Padme's energy. For a woman of 90, she's incredibly spry.

When the little assembly gets to the top, Rey's eyes nearly pop out of her head because the house and its surrounding grounds are even bigger up close. This definitely isn't a real place. Not a place a kid grows up in. She suddenly envisions a small child of Ben's general features running naked and wild around this remote corner of the world, privacy ensured by the vast palace built to shield him from a harsh world. Pain and anger flash through her again.

She whirls in her tracks, and Ben stumbles to a stop before he can run right over her with their suitcases. She pokes his chest, keeping her voice to a low hiss so his mother and grandmother won't hear. "Why did you tell me you were poor?"

"I have never once told you I was poor," he remarks dryly.

"Nagging me for a raise?"

"I'd be an idiot to not ask for a raise after all the crap I do for you."

Her eyes narrow. "You're getting a real mouth on you now that you're—"

"Being coerced into committing fraud for you? I know. Really frees up all those pesky constraints of professionalism, don't you think?" He smirks and Rey's blood boils.

"Why didn't you tell me you were rich?" She motions at the house.

Ben's glance flicks up to it, and he shrugs. "I'm not rich. My parents are rich."

"That's something only a rich person says," Rey grumbles, turning around to march on up to the ridiculous house.

It's kind of astonishing that someone born into this much privilege has lasted this long merely being an assistant. A trust fund rich full grown man working for an inexperienced twenty-something woman who has only recently climbed out of the quagmire of being dirt poor. Why did he put up with it? Surely he knew he was destined for better things. Maybe he went to Dagobah because he thought his uncle would put him into some cushy executive position. Maybe he's been quietly burning up with resentment all this time that Luke decided to teach him about humility and made him an assistant instead.

"Hey, Ben!" someone up ahead calls, and Rey looks up to see a thin man with red hair and a crooked grin strolling out of the house waving. "Welcome home!"

"Hux?" Ben sounds confused. When they get to him, the two men briefly embrace.

"What's up? Did my mom invite you?" Ben asks as they part.

"Yeah, man! It's a party!" The red-head says with a grin.

"Mom," Ben calls over to Leia before she and his grandmother can disappear inside.

She turns, hands already on her hips, defense at the ready. "Oh, relax, Benji. It's just a little welcome home party for everyone who loves you and has missed you for the last three years. No big deal."

Ben passes a hand over his face, eyes rolling shut in a look of supreme exasperation.

The other man laughs. "It's not a crime, Benjamin. Just fifty of your closest friends and neighbors. Nothing wrong with that."

Ben grimaces. He seems to remember the reason for this homecoming and finally motions to Rey. "Hux, this is Rey, my fiancée. Rey, this is Hux, my best friend since high school."

The guy sticks out his hand with a big grin. "Pleasure to meet you, Rey."

She shakes it as she would any other distant professional. She's a little surprised that Ben's best friend in high school was someone so gawky and awkward looking. She had this vague idea that her giant assistant would have just associated with built athletes. Was he even an athlete himself? She's never actually stopped to ask. She just assumed his giant frame made him some kind of prized high school linebacker or something, since Americans are always throwing their larger-than-average boys into sports.

Her attention doesn't linger on Hux or Ben's possibly athletic past for long, though. Apparently this one introduction is the first of many, and now she's full of dread. Her gaze shifts from the ginger to the enormous house behind him, apparently full of people to meet. Great.

Hux follows her attention. "They'll be polite. Don't worry."

Polite isn't really the issue. It's this stupid lie she's got to sell for a bigger audience.

At her lack of reply, Hux gives Ben a reproachful shove. "You didn't think to warn her?" He clucks disapprovingly. "Now that's no way to treat your orange."

"I didn't know there was going to be a grand introduction," Ben growls, pushing past him, and something about the gravel in his voice sounds territorial. Rey wonders at it as she follows him up to the house.

"What the hell is an 'orange?'" she asks, glancing back over his shoulder.

"People up here have this...expression," he replies begrudgingly and he sets their suitcases by some chairs on the porch. "They refer to your spouse...or fiancé, sometimes as the 'other half of your orange.' As if everyone is just half an orange, and you're looking for the other piece that fits exactly to you. There's only one that will fit. Like a soul mate kind of idea. I don't know why the orange got brought into it. It's just the expression."

Rey laughs. "People actually believe in something as stupid as soul mates up here?"

"Yes," Ben says with a frown. "They do. I know it's hard, but try not to insult my family and friends with your cynicism, okay?"

"My cynicism?"

"Yes. Your heartlessness."

Her eyes narrow. "Whoa, pal, you wanna try calling me heartless one more time?"

Ben leans down, getting right in her face again, and his eyes are flashing with something wicked. "You know what everyone around the office says about you?"

Before he can get it out, the door whips open and Ben jerks to a stand, whirling to see his grandmother shaking her head at them. "Ben! You can kiss your fiancée all you want later. Right now you have a lot of guests who would like to meet her, so come on!"

Rey jerks reflexively as Ben's hand finds hers, but he's holding on too tight for her to get away. A moment later she's being pulled through the door into a crush of people all enthusiastically greeting Ben with the kind of warmth and love Rey has never felt in her whole life.

They're eager to shower it on her too, it turns out. As Ben introduces her, they gush about how happy they are, how pretty she is, how lucky Ben is, how long they've waited for him to find his orange half. And maybe the warning did some good because Rey is careful not to laugh again, careful not to mock these remote Alaskans for the absurdity of the idea that there is one ultimate, divinely appointed partner for every person. She can see all that nonsense lives bright in the minds of most these people, so she holds her tongue and deftly maneuvers out of their hugs when they try to give them.

Just get through this, she tells herself, and you'll have a green card.

Somehow in all the chaos, she and Ben get pulled apart. They're swirled away from each other in eddies of enthusiastic well-wishers.

"It's lovely to meet you," one woman says with a genuinely kind expression. Rey blinks at her, disoriented by all the new faces. She does conferences. She networks. She knows how to navigate a crowd. But these people aren't here to talk books or business. They keep trying to ask her about herself, or ask her about her relationship with Ben.

The woman before her smiles and extends a hand. "Welcome to Theed. I'm Zorri."

Zorri is beautiful in a way Rey thinks maybe doesn't belong to Theed. She's too pretty for this place. She has the look of someone who belongs on the stage, or on the screen. She smells lovely too, gentle like chamomile. She'd do well in a big city.

"Thank you," Rey says, hoping she doesn't as worn out as she feels.

"So you work with Ben at Luke's publishing house?"

It's unbelievably offensive how the people here talk about Dagobah Publishing, like it's just Luke's quaint little bookshop, rather than one of the biggest and most influential publishing companies in the world.

Rey grits her teeth and forces a smile, nodding once.

Someone calls Zorri's attention and she excuses herself. Rey immediately relocates Ben a few clusters of people away. She manages to make her way over to him without being pulled aside by anyone else. He's chatting to some older gentleman who lets Ben go when he sees Rey approaching.

"Why didn't you tell me you were so popular?" she hisses softly when he turns to her. "I'm starting to agree with your friend out there, you should have warned me you were some kind of Alaskan Kennedy."

"First of all, I didn't think I'd have to introduce you to half the island until Gram's birthday party," he hisses right back. "I thought I'd have time to prepare us both for the task. And second of all, when would I have had the chance to tell you anything about my life? For the last three years, I've been nothing to you but an extra set of arms to help you multi-task better."

"That is not true," she grinds out.

"It is, but you don't like hearing it out loud because it reminds you that you step on people to prove to yourself that you're no one's inferior."

She seizes his bicep and drags him into an adjoining room — some kind of den or library, maybe — where there are far fewer people, and bodily shoves him behind a giant potted plant for a modicum of privacy. "You know what? This is not the place to hash out my issues or yours. This bickering between us? It has to stop or no one is going to buy this story, and that aggressive INS agent is going to interview all of them and this whole thing will have been for nothing. People need to think we're in love, or else what are we doing here?"

"I'm not sure you're capable of pretending to have feelings," he says. "Can you manage it?"

Good lord, she really hates him right now. She sucks in a steadying breath through her nose. She's dealt with all kinds of crises at work, all kinds of difficult people and impossible situations. She can deal with this now too. She will survive this, and to survive it, she has to adapt. So she will adapt.

"I can act," she says coolly, her features smoothing into a nasty little smile. "Can you?"

"Better than you," he says with a responding smirk.

"We'll see," she steps back and offers him her hand this time. He takes it.

A couple of young people stop them almost as soon as they get back into the big living room where most of the guests are milling about with refreshments in hand.

"Ben, hi!" one of them — a young woman — chirps first. "Welcome home!"

"Rose," Ben greets with a fond smile. "Finn. How are you?"

"So good," says Finn, man at Rose's side. He grins at her. "You gonna introduce us?"

Ben lets go of Rey's hand to slide his own to the small of her back. "Guys, this is Rey Johnson, my fiancée. Rey, this is Rose Tico and Finn Storm, they're some friends of mine from high school too."

"Actually it's Finn Tico now," says the man with a grin. "We sent you the invitation. It was last year."

"That's right, I forgot that happened. I'm so sorry I couldn't make it, guys," Ben says, and he sounds genuinely sorry.

Ben's touch is distracting enough that she almost didn't catch it — something here about him missing a wedding. But before she can figure out if that's her own fault, Rose is already asking her another question, so she quickly loses her train of thought.

"So you're an editor at Dagobah, right?"

Rey nods. "I'm the director of RESIST. It's an imprint of Dagobah."

"Oh my gosh, I love Resistance books!" Rose's eyes grow big and round with wonder. She leans forward. "Did you do Kismet?"

Oh. Books. Yes, Rey can talk books. She can talk books all day. For the first time since this all began, a genuine and eager grin unfolds over her face. "Oh my god, are you kidding? One of my favorites of all time."

"Me too!" Rose gushes, her eyes sparkling. "I ship Kisthilien so hard I draw fan art of them in my spare time."

Finn laughs. "She really does. She's actually amazing at it too. You guys should hire her to be an illustrator."

"Finn." Rose looks at him with horror, color sweeping over her cheeks. "That puts them in such an awkward spot, don't do that."

"I ship them too," Rey says with a conspiratorial whisper. "I'd love to see your art sometime. I can't promise a job, of course, but I really want to see it."

"Okay!" Rose's smile is back now, infectious and sunny. She glances at Ben. "Did you work on that one too?"

"Yep," he says. He sounds affectionate. "It's a good one."

"What exactly do you two do, anyway?" Finn wonders. "Is a book editor like...the one who catches typos and stuff and makes sure it's ready to print?"

"That's a good question, Finn," says a rough voice coming up behind them. "I'd like to know that answer myself."

They turn, and Rey immediately knows this is Ben's father. He's got this smirky little grin, which is not really a nice grin at all. It's got bite in it. It's exactly like Ben's.

"Dad," Ben says stiffly.

"Ben," his father replies. He looks at Rey and extends his hand. "Hello, I'm Ben's father, you must be Rey."

"I am. Nice to meet you Mister Solo."

"I suppose you should call me Han, shouldn't you? If you're going to be in our family now." He shoots Ben this look, and Rey has no idea what it means but a flare of protectiveness rises within her and she wants to step between them.

"So, Ben, tell us — what do you do exactly, besides taking writers out to lunch and catching typos?"

"The lunch part sounds fun," Rose grins. "No wonder you like being an editor, Ben."

"Oh, no, Rose," Han cuts in quickly. "Ben isn't an editor. He's an assistant. Rey's assistant, actually."

"So you're Ben's boss?" Rose blinks in surprise.

Finn gets this funny grin and then laughs. "Wow, so this relationship has all kinds of fun power dynamics, doesn't it? Is it rude of me to ask who tops?"

Rose smacks him. "It absolutely is! Rey, I'm so sorry, excuse him. We go way back with Ben and...well, you know how it is with old friends."

No, she doesn't, but she gives Rose a reassuring smile anyway.

Ben is hardly paying attention to them because he and his father are locked in a kind of begrudging staring match. Finally his father shakes his empty glass, the ice clinking.

"Think I'll go get a refill," he drawls and saunters away again.

Ben's gaze immediately darts to Rey before he stalks off after his father, fists balling.

"Don't mind them," Rose assures her with a light, comforting touch to the arm. "They're always like that. They have been ever since Ben was a teenager. They antagonize each other. Personally, I think it's awesome that you're Ben's boss."

"He actually is an editor now," Rey manages to say, seized by the terrible urge to go to Ben and save him from harm. "He's not my assistant anymore. He's really talented and great at his job. Excuse me, I'll be right back."

She hurries off to stand surreptitiously near the hors d'oeuvres, close but not too close to where Ben and his father are currently arguing in hushed tones. It's a dizzying spread of food, but Rey barely considers anything in front of her, too fixated on the exchange.

"Actually I think you're going to like her," Ben's saying under his breath. "If you'd stop being an asshole for five minutes, you'd see it."

"Am I? What on earth makes you think it's okay to bring her here? This woman you've been an indentured servant to for three years. The reason you miss your friends' weddings, your mother's birthday, every holiday — this girl you've complained about rare times your mother manages to get you on the phone. Why did you bring her?"

"Because we're getting married and I wanted you all to meet her."

"Yeah, your mother told me about that garbage. I laughed so hard almost popped a hernia. My son, sleeping his way to a mediocre job at a company run by his own uncle."

"Dagobah is one of the biggest companies in the world, Dad, there's nothing mediocre—"

"Damnit, Ben, grow a spine. Make something of your own for once in your sorry life. Stop following everyone else around and stake your own claim in this world."

"You don't want me to do that, Dad, you want me to follow you."

"I want you to stop kowtowing to some cold-blooded princess protege of your uncle and find some sense of personal pride."

"That woman is one of the most respected literary minds in the industry. Anything she touches turns to publishing gold. Luke was right to make me her assistant. I've learned a lot from her, and I'm not ashamed of the work I've done or who I've done it for."

"She's your booty call and your fast pass into a promotion, and you've brought her home to meet your mother because that godless city has robbed you of any sense of shame."

"She's my fiancée, Dad, and if you talk about her that way one again I'll—"

"What? You'll fight me? Want to put me in the hospital again, boy?"

Rey jerks her head up sharply in surprise, only to find herself staring directly into the dark eyes of a handsome man with black curly hair, warm olive skin and a swarthy shadow of stubble over his sharp jaw. He grins at her. "You should try the salmon," he says, motioning to some crackers. "Can't come to Alaska and not try our famous salmon right from the source."

"I'm not a fish person," she says, hoping that will end the exchange.

"You'll love it," he says dismissively, putting a cracker on her plate and pushing it into her hands. "Trust me, you've just never tried the right fish."

"No, I'm not—"

"Are you allergic?"

"No, it's more of a texture thing." Rey glances behind her. She wants to hear Ben and his father, not talk about fish, but this guy is pretty insistent and she's lost track of them anyway — they moved off somewhere else. She stifles a disappointed sigh. There were layers to Ben here that she wanted to uncover. Eavesdropping is rude, but it's vastly preferable to trying to ask him about it herself.

"I'm Poe," he says with that charming grin again.

She supposes this is as good a meaningless conversation to get into as any. "Good to meet you, Poe. I'm Rey."

"I know." He glances around, leans forward, and whispers. "You're all anyone here can talk about. It's a pretty big shock that Ben found a girl to call his wife, to be honest. We all kind of thought maybe he'd die alone."

She steps back, frowning. "Why'd you think he'd die alone? Was he shy in high school?"

She knows this is another childhood friend. He's the right age, and this island isn't that big.

Poe laughs. "No, not shy. Well, reserved, I guess. But it more had to do with what happened between him and Zorri. I know New York is a big place, but after they broke up we were all pretty sure he was destined to be alone. We knew he was never going to find anyone as amazing as Zorri. We all thought they were — well, you know. Perfect. But I'm happy to be wrong!"

He adds this last part hurriedly, like he doesn't want her to get offended.

Rey's eyes dart to the woman she met earlier, the really beautiful one, and something in her chest squeezes tight. Her skin feels itchy. Zorri and Ben? They're...exes?

"Friends, I have an announcement!" Leia's voice cuts through the room, commanding the attention of all her guests. Ben's head pokes in from the kitchen, and Leia motions for him to come. She cranes and searches until her eyes land on Rey next, and she repeats the gesture.

Rey doesn't bother excusing herself from Poe. She sets the uneaten salmon and cracker on her plate down onto the table and threads her way through the crowd towards mother and son.

"My mother's birthday party will be on Sunday, and I expect you all in attendance," Leia is busy telling everyone. When Rey gets there, she takes her hand in one of her own, and one of Ben's in her other. "And I know most of you have heard, but in case you hadn't, I wanted to make it a formal announcement so you know why we're busting out the champagne. My son is getting married! Ben and Rey are engaged, and we're so thrilled for them. So come get your glass because this is a day of celebration."

A cheer and murmur of approval moves through the guests. Waiters immediately discharge from the kitchen and begin to distribute the celebratory glasses.

Rey's cheeks are warm, but not as warm as Leia's hug when she turns to give it. "I'm so happy for you two," she whispers before flitting away to join her guests.

She's replaced by a crowd of well-wishers who hadn't had a chance to talk to them yet. Ben's hand reaches out and catches Rey's, pulling her into his side in a gesture that feels unmistakably protective. Normally Rey would resent this kind of treatment, but right now, with so many strangers and their effusive displays of affection around, she'll take it. She half-hides behind his body, remembering how he seemed like an enormous shield when Pryde was yelling at her.

"Ben, hi."

"Zorri." Ben doesn't sound surprised to see her. Maybe he'd already spotted her. Maybe he's been paying attention to her this whole time. "How are you?"

"I'm really good. Life is nice right now. It's so great to see you again."

"Yeah, you too. I'm glad things are going well." He turns slightly, and Rey is less-hidden. "Zorri, have you met Rey?"

"We did meet, yeah." Zorri's green eyes are warm and friendly. She doesn't look at Rey like a rival. Like someone who stole her man. "I'm really happy for you guys."

Rey isn't so noble. She wants this stunning, elegant, homey-smelling woman to disappear. She wants her to sink into the crust of the earth and never emerge. An ugly, territorial thing surges in her chest and she actively fights the urge to step between this interloper and her fiancé.

Not my fiancé, she reminds herself carefully. This is all a lie.

"Thank you," Rey says instead of doing any of the violent things in her head.

"So I don't think I heard the story. Did you already tell it?" Zorri grins.

"What story?" asks Ben.

"The story of how you proposed!"

From a comfortable spot on the nearby couch, a shamelessly eavesdropping Padme chimes in. "I know my grandson. I taught him impeccable tase. I know he proposed in a most tasteful way." Her wicked gaze sharpens as she levels it on Ben. "Didn't he?"

Ben clears his throat. "Ah..."

"I'd like to hear the story too, actually," Leia says, settling down next to her mother and handing her a glass of champagne. "Please tell us, Ben."

A few others standing around murmur eagerly, the little crowd settling in for a good retelling. Rose and Finn have joined them too. That ginger from outside, Hux, he's there as well, a tall woman beside him with hair so blond it's almost white. There are a lot of expectant faces staring at them now.

Rey's heart flutters anxiously in her chest and now she wants to disappear herself. She glances at Ben, who glances back at her. They should have worked this story out. Of course they should have. Krennic would likely ask something similar in his interviews. This was maybe good dress rehearsal, except they had no lines prepared. No script.

"Um..." Ben is definitely floundering. It's not a normal look for him. Rey has seen him keep his cool when authors are screaming at him, demanding explanations for why their cover art doesn't look like they imagined, or wanting to know why their royalty checks are small. She's seen him improvise to woo agents or appease disgruntled employees or schmooze retailers. He's developed a cool head over the years. But right now, he looks completely lost.

"You know what? Actually, Rey likes telling this story," he says suddenly, and she can see his panic shift to smug triumph as he punts the problem over to her.

Nope. She does not want the spotlight. These are his people. They don't know her, she doesn't know them, and she's not about to be put on this stage right now. But Rey is good at improvising too, and for as cool as Ben is in sticky situation's, she's cooler. She won't hold this hot potato. It's up to him to catch it in time.

She manages to conjure a deep blush and glances around at everyone. "Ben, I'm not sure..." she demurs, making herself coy and sweet.

His brow lifts. He knows she's up to something. Good. "Go on, baby, you're a great storyteller and it's always so much better when you talk about that night."

"Um, well..." she presses two cool hands to her cheeks. "Okay, I mean, so this was technically the first time he proposed, and it really was sweet — he was all doe-eyed and blissed out, chatting away like he was high, talking about how great we are together, how we should get married — but then, he always gets like that after we have se—"

"NO!" Ben barks, his whole body lurching forward to catch her around the waist and swing her around behind him, hiding her and her horrible story from everyone else's view. "No, no, no, she's kidding, no. That's not — I mean that isn't—"

Rey can see the tips of his ears through his dark hair turning pink, and satisfaction curls in her gut like a contented cat. She smirks. There's a ripple of laughter through the room. They aren't that scandalized. Ben rakes a hand through his hair. "No, okay, the real proposal actually happened at work."

Rey steps out from behind him to scrutinize his face. He's thinking fast, but he looks certain. Like it's a memory and not a hastily worked up story.

Padme frowns in disapproval. "At work?"

"I know, I know, Grams," Ben says, hurrying to reassure her. "But hear me out. We were the only ones left at the office, working super late on a big book we knew would be an instant best-seller. There was a lot to organize surrounding its release."

That happened a lot, actually. This was a believable premise. Rey was impressed.

"I had it all planned out. I knew we'd be the only ones working that late, so we'd be alone. And I knew this was my moment. I ordered takeout from our favorite place — no, it's not super romantic. They're street tacos from a shop where the old lady who makes them only speaks Spanish. Rey loves them."

She does love them. They're her favorite. She chews her lip, something funny squeezing tight in her stomach.

Ben's on a roll now. "So I whip out some candles because I want this to be right, and tell her we should turn our late night into a date night. And we have wine and street tacos and we talk about the book. Near the end of it, I pull out this tattered old copy of Emily of New Moon, by Lucy Maude Montgomery, you know? It's Rey's favorite book in the world. Has been since she was a kid. I found a first edition. So I give it to her. I tell her everything I admire about her, like how incredibly brilliant and resourceful she is, how she doesn't get intimidated by anyone, how she's funny without meaning to be, and how she does this thing when she's feeling particularly vulnerable but she doesn't want anyone to know, so she kind of bites her lip — all the things that made me fall in love with her. And I told her that, just like how the book is about finding home when you're all alone in the world, I hoped she could find a home with me. And then she opened the book and the ring was right there."

There's a collective coo from their listeners. Rey's jaw clenches tight, her heart hammering in her chest like it wants to escape. Her eyes are stinging and she wants to shove Ben off a cliff into the Alaskan sea because how dare he tell a story like that?!

"And she said yes," he finishes with a soft laugh.

"Ben, that's so beautiful!" Padme crows, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "What a gentleman."

"Kiss her!" someone shouts.

"A story like that should end with a kiss!" someone else agrees.

Everyone immediately latches onto the idea, and a chorus of "Yeah, Ben, kiss her!" rises out of them.

"You won't have taco breath this time!"

"Do it!"

"Kiss!"

They start to chant together and Rey is definitely sure she's gonna lie down and give up the ghost. This is a nightmare. She's still swallowing back a surge of emotion she did not want to feel and he's still looking at her the way he did when he was talking about all the things he loves about her, and she last thing she wants to do right now is kiss him.

"No, no," Ben says, glancing at the rest of them. "That's not for your nosey eyes."

"Come one, Benji," his mother cajoles.

"Just one little kiss, Ben!" Padme rejoins. "Such a beautiful story. End it the right way!"

The chanting grows more instant, and Rey is more and more flustered.

"Don't you do it," she growls under her breath, because she can see his resolve crumbling.

He slips an arm around her and pulls her in, ducking to plant his lips on her cheek.

Their audience groans.

"What was that?" Leia demands. "A proper kiss, Benji!"

But the cheek kiss was enough to knock Rey off her mental footing. She's suddenly remembering how his lips felt on her neck, hot mouth sucking that stupid hickey into her skin, his very presence drowning her in a feeling of comfort and safety and home. His lips on her cheek now were soft and inviting, his face so close to hers. She's a little dazed when he looks at her again, and this time instead of protesting, she gives the tiniest of nods. Because there's something here that she needs just a little more of. She's helpless to resist.

Ben shudders almost imperceptibly, his dark eyes soft and nervous as he pulls her to him again. His hand cups her chin, tilting her face up to him. Rey's heart is in her throat again, drumming a frantic escape attempt, and her mouth parts as she exhales a shaky breath. He brings his head to hers, dark gaze darting from her eyes to her lips and then hesitates, just a millimeter away. His breath ghosts over her mouth. She surprises them both by closing the gap, meeting him in what is arguably the most awkward kiss in the history of kisses.

And oh, it's so weird. And sexless. And horrible. Weird having his mouth on her mouth. But the awkwardness is all mixed up in something else too, like the velvety softness of is lips, and she gets a little of it when his mouth parts just a little. There's this slide, and suddenly she can taste him — and her mind explodes. Logic and higher function shut down, and there's nothing in the world except chasing more of this kiss. No one else exists. She's suddenly got her arms around his neck, kissing him like he's water in the desert. He's right there with her, pulled as helplessly into it as she is, crushing her tight to him in what feels like desperation. The taste of him is lightning in her blood.

Mine, she thinks in blind panic. And as if he can sense it somehow, his grip tightens more. He's strong. His body could hem her in, could keep her down as he does the sexiest things to her, could protect her against anything trying to hurt her. And she wants that, she realizes with helpless fear. Her body and heart both demand it. Something inside her that she doesn't recognize cries out for him. Ben, love me. Ben, keep me. Please, Ben.

She breaks off abruptly before literal tears can start, both aroused and confused and desperately sad at the same time. Because that kiss wasn't real. Because Ben isn't her's. Because he won't keep her. That isn't this arrangement. And she should not be having that reaction to him.

"Wow, what a kiss!" Poe shouts, and people are cheering them and toasting their glasses.

But she's staring at Ben, and Ben is staring at her. And while he looks as stunned as she feels, there's something more in his dark eyes.

Something hungry.