"Rey. I rule the galaxy."
She sniffs and adjusts his sweater a little, ripping off a loose thread on his shoulder. "Technically, we both do."
"Fine. But still. I'm the Emperor."
She takes a step back and smiles at him, her eyes tracing her handiwork. "Yes, you're the big bad Kylo Ren. And?"
"Don't you think this is a bit . . . odd? For the Emperor to do?"
Rey looks straight into his eyes and shakes her head. "You're still a human, Ben, and you can celebrate stuff like this like normal humans do. You look adorable. And it's not as if the entire galaxy is going to see you looking this adorable anyways. This is just for us."
He tugs at the wool and groans. "You're going to send pictures to my mom. And then she'll show them to Dameron and Finn," he takes in a deep breath — he doesn't think he'll ever like the man he still, at heart, considers a traitor, "and then the entire Senate organizing team will know, and it'll leak to the public."
"Is that really such a bad thing? All these magazines and holoshows are always looking for drama and an insight on our relationship, and this could be inspirational! A sign to show them how much you've changed."
She's sounding a little too excited now, so he sighs and looks down at the orange and grey sweater Rey had been working on for the past month and concedes. "We are not releasing these pictures to the public. If they happen, they happen. But not on purpose."
She smiles like she's won the fight — she knows she always does win them, anyways — and runs up to him to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before she runs out the door. "Let me get Berry. Then we can start!"
It's hard to keep the soft grin off his face when he sees her so happy, so glad to have a family for once. He hates these kinds of traditions, hates pictures and family photos, but now he thinks he can admit that that's mainly a product of his upbringing. His parents, when he was younger, had been all too fine with pushing him aside until they needed him; and for Leia, that often meant for PR photoshoots. He'd talked it over with her and they'd both forgiven each other's past mistakes, but the situation leaves a strange, hollow spot in his chest.
He pushes it aside for Rey. It's important for him that they work on making memories together, and if this is a part of it for her, he's all in. Besides their engagement and wedding ceremonies they haven't really done much celebrating in the past two years. There aren't very many holidays in the middle of space. Abstractly, he thinks about taking her to celebrate the harvest festival on Corellia next year. He hasn't been to his homeworld in quite some time. Perhaps they could visit where he'd lived as a child, if Leia still has his belongings.
Rey comes back in after a few minutes to him staring into space, Berry in her arms. The porg is also wearing a small sweater — although he doesn't really know why, he fits their color scheme already — and is cooing, face burrowed in Rey's chest. She hands him the sleepy creature while she sets the equipment into place.
"Let's use the window as our background — there's quite a few stars out there, it's nice to look at — turn sideways Ben — wake him up, he needs to be facing the camera — alright, perfect!" she runs up to them, wrapping her left arm around Ben and helping him support Berry's light weight. "Smile!"
He changes his face — smiling and laughing and sticking out his tongue whenever she asks him to, resigning himself over to a fate of matching porg sweaters and family photos. Eventually, Rey seems to be tired of the picture taking too — she runs over and shuts the contraption off, moving it to the side after connecting it to her datapad and watching the images start to load. Berry is wide awake now, groaning after all the light flashing in his eyes. Ben sets him down on the bedside table and slides down next to his wife.
"How are they looking?"
He nuzzles his face into her collarbone, but then looks up after a few seconds pass of silence. Rey's staring down at the datapad, her face a strange mixture of serene and shocked.
"Rey?"
She glances at him, this time, and gives him a weak smile. "They're perfect, Ben. Perfect. I'm going to frame them and look at them every day. And I'm going to send them to your mom. I don't care what you think. They're perfect."
He snickers into her shoulder. "I knew you were going to. It's okay."
A few more seconds pass, and he closes his eyes and leans further into her warmth only for her to swap him on the forehead.
"Ugh. That hurt."
"Don't start falling asleep on me now! We still have to cut the cake."
Moaning, he looked up. "A cake? You got a cake? For Berry?"
She sniffs at his slightly condescending tone. "Yes, I did. And we're going to cut it for him."
She looks completely earnest. He blinks. "Can he even eat cake?"
Berry eats anything, he's well aware, although he does have a certain affinity for fish. It's what he usually steals from the mess hall, anyways. He assumes. He doesn't exactly police Berry's eating. And the creature does enjoy chewing on wires. Despite that, he finds it incredibly hard to take the fact that they've got a cake for him seriously.
"Why—"
"It's his birthday, Ben. We talked about this!"
"It's not his birthday. We don't even know when he was born —"
A sharp intake of breath stops him in the middle of his sentence. Rey is staring at him with her eyes open widely and a strange, hurt look in her eyes. What did he say? Oh.
He thinks about what they've celebrated over the past years — their wedding, Finn and Poe's, the anniversary of Snoke's death, even — but never their own birth dates. He hadn't thought about his in a while. His birth had never, and still doesn't, feel like much of a cause for celebration. After Luke, after the academy, it hadn't crossed his mind once. And angsty, powerful, out of control Ben Solo had never really cared much for his before that, anyways.
But Rey — Rey doesn't know her birth date. She doesn't even know how old she is, really, although the med droids seem to guess she's in her early twenties. She doesn't know where she was born, what traditions to follow, any of it. He grasps her shoulder. "Rey—"
She shrugs out of his arms and stands up, leaving him in a mess of blankets, splayed across the sheets as her weight disappears. "Rey, I'm sorry—"
She ignores him as she picks up Berry, only to stop, back turned, at the door and whisper something unintelligible. Then she straightens her shoulders and huffs. "Berry and I are going to go celebrate his birthday, whether you believe it or not. Have fun with your dead past, Kylo."
He winces. That was a low blow; she only calls him by that name when she's really mad, a throwback to their less-than-ideal conversations when they'd first met. It's not hard, usually, to distance himself from Ben Solo when he's ruling the galaxy and Kylo Ren when he's with her. Kylo Ren is the Emperor, the strong but gentle touch, the one who makes decisions, who can be the kind of callous leaders must be. Ben Solo is hers, and the message is clear as air.
He scrambles out of the bed and runs out the door, where Rey is unveiling a cake covered in berries, ironically, Berry hopping up and down on her shoulder. She's laying it out on their table, making sure it's placed artfully. When she sees him standing in the corner, eyes repenitent, she sighs. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."
He walks up to her and kisses her forehead before looking into her eyes. "No, I'm sorry. You have a right to be mad. We'll celebrate ourselves. Both of us."
She grins. "The day we met. That can be our special day."
Berry pats his shoulder with a fluffy wing, and Ben twists his mouth at the screeching porg. "And yes, today is your special day, you little terror. Let's cut your cake!" He rubs the top of Berry's head, finding comfort in his soft feathers.
Rey gazes at the little display for a minute before moving out of his grip once again. "Make yourself useful and get the holovid recorder ready, Ben. We can sing to him."
His smirk enlarging, Ben moves back to their bedroom and grabs the equipment, briefly setting it up before moving next to his wife in its viewfinder, Berry sitting on the table in front of the cake. He looks like he's salivating, trying immediately to take a bite of it; only for Rey to stop him with a hand held out and a warning look that fails to stay serious.
After they finish singing, Berry unleashes himself into the cake, burrowing into it and spraying parts of it onto the two humans in the room. Ben blinks for a second, trying to get oi-ois out of his eyes, and smirks when he sees a bit of camby berry on Rey's nose, leaning down and licking it off.
"Hm. Tasty," he quips, and she laughs, swiping cake off his chin. "I don't think we're going to actually be able to eat any of it."
Indeed they don't. Berry manages to plow through the entire thing in minutes, eating what he can and leaving feathers in the pulpy remains. Rey turns up a nose and the remnants; notable, as she can usually eat almost anything. She walks over to turn off the recording, and he summons a towel from the 'fresher to run over his face, using it to get her's too as she comes back.
Berry sits, satisfied, in the middle of the remains of his conquest, and lets out a little porg burp.
They both burst out into laughter, crackling up as Ben wipes the remains of berries from Rey's face. Once she regains her breath, she smirks. "Now, time for your present!"
Berry perks up, opening up towards them, and Rey giggles.
Ben, on the other hand, whispers into his wife's ear. "Was I supposed to get him something?"
She looks at him amusedly. "Don't worry, mine is from both of us. Actually, it's kind of for the both of you."
He watches her as she runs into what he supposes is 'her' room, full of all her little trinkets, and when she returns she's carrying a bundle of wrapped paper in her arms. He's unsure what exactly it is, but her eyes are twinkling.
Berry lunges at it the minute she sets it down, frantically chewing through her careful wrapping. Something fluffy is visible when he finishes, and Ben blinks.
"Is that a bed?"
She gives him a proud smile. "Yup."
He turns his head. "How is this for me?"
"Oh. Silly. It's for your office! This way Berry can stay with you while you're working without staying in your lap."
As the sentiment processes, he can't help but be a little disheartened. He likes having Berry in his lap, most of the time. The little terror reminds him that not all living beings are terrified of him; it's a comfort.
He tries to hide it through the bond but Rey senses his thoughts. Even Berry, now settled inside of his new bed, looks up at him with wide eyes. She gives him a light smile. "You don't have to use it if you don't want to. I'm sure you're equally as comfortable as a bed."
He stares at the fluffy whiteness of the large pillow, wrapping his head around it. "I don't think so," he pouts.
Rey lets out an amused breath. "Berry," she leans in close, "will you still stay with Ben? In his lap? Sometimes?"
The porg coos again and lifts up, flapping his way onto Ben's forearm, leaving berry juice over his black cowl. Ben smiles as he squawks out a familiar tone and settles in to take a post-binge nap on his best friend.
"Aww," Rey smirks. "My two favorite boys in the world."
Ben gives her a stare that even he doesn't think is intimidating and moves Berry closer, whispering. "Happy Birthday, little terror."