A less than a dashing knight

Disclaimer: I do not own any of them.

…There was Ben Solo at her door.

Not that Rose Tico had had a bad day so far – she woke-up with sister Paige having ditched her again, they were apparently out of bagels in short-term at least, the weather was lousy, (Rose hated the tropics), there was a monster in the ATV she was supposed to repair, and now the mission's leader was at the garage door. Moreover, Rose was hungry, her hair was acting up, and was it mentioned that she had a bad day so far? Because if it was not before, it was now.

"Yes?" she glared upwards at the man in question – technically, he was in charge of their scientific station (in this Lord-forgotten South American jungle), and he overshadowed her literally, (and the monster had already made Rose feel small – Rose hated feeling small; she wasn't small, darn it, just height-challenged!), but, still, he wasn't as scary as the monster, and where did that thought come from?"

"I brought some leftover bagels because you're out," Ben said instead, sounding rather like a giraffe that is trying to be diplomatic. "Also, what's that about a monster? Is it real or did something get garbled within the circle of friendship?"

"What circle?" Rose snapped, even as she examined the bagels. They were of the wrong sort, but they were still bagels, and so she should try to be more polite to the leader of their mission for that reason alone.

"Let's see," Ben sounded genuinely contemplative here. "You called your sister, who called Poe, who called Finn, who called Rey, who called me. Circle of friendship, see? Better sounding than a broken phone line, I would say! Now where's the monster?"

Rose snorted through her nose. She was trying to keep herself angry and miserable, because otherwise she would just quit, go back to her bed and just stay there for the rest of the day, about as useful as a ripped kite, (the toy, not the bird), but somehow, staring up at Ben's placed face, this was proving impossible.

"You're really like your uncle Luke – in a good way," she added belatedly, remembering as to why she was scared of the tall man: somehow, his gaze could be just so scarily shivering… right. What were they talking about, again?

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Ben sighed. "Is there really a monster or did you get into a fight slash argument with Phasma instead and things got garbled up?"

"No, there is a monster," Rose muttered determinedly, even though her mouth was full of bagel – she loved her bagels, darn it – and there were bagel crumbs on her cheek. "It's in our all-terrain vehicle too, which is why I called Paige, because she and Poe are drivers, I'm the mechanic-"

"Right, let me see," Ben sighed, grabbed a couple of heavy gloves, (since both Tico sisters were heavily involved with cars and other vehicles, a lot of their clothing was for that purpose specifically, and neither of them was meticulous as to where they left it), and went to the car. "Where is it?"

"Under the seat," Rose muttered, aware that she should be providing back up, but the monster was too scary. Honestly! She took one look and backed away-

Ben Solo opened the door, albeit wearing gloves, and looked around the vehicle's innards. Sure enough, the monster slowly crawled into the light – the biggest hairiest spider that Rose has ever seen, the fact that it was dark in color only made it worse. Fortunately, the monster just chose to stand there, at the edge of the car's exit, raising its' front legs – and also fangs – threateningly, almost making a hissing sound – or maybe it was just Rose's imagination.

Instead of closing the door and just letting the monster be, Ben blinked, went back to the entrance to the garage, brought in some sort of a container (one of Phasma's, she was the one specializing in them natural sciences, which included monster spiders, apparently), put the monster in question into it, closed the lid and went outside, where he yelled loudly: "Oi! Phasma! Is that one of your catches?"

"Let me see!" Phasma, who came across as Brienne of Tarth channelling her inner Cersei Lannister, yelled back. "Oh! No! It is a wild one! Must've crawled in to escape last night's rain!"

"Going to release or to keep it?"

"I don't know yet! Armitage! Come over here!"

"You wish!"

"Well, since Mohammed doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain will go to Mohammed!"

"Is it a George Martin reference?"

"… Not everything is a George Martin reference!"

"Who are you and what have you done to Phasma? She is a walking George Martin reference-"

Things went downhill after that: when Rose peeked through the garage doors, (she did not want to share her trophy bagels with anybody), she saw that Phasma and Hux were running around the camp base – either Phasma was chasing Hux, or Hux was chasing Phasma, or both of them were just running around separately around the camp base in circles. Since it were Phasma and Hux, all of the above was equally likely.

"Is there anything else?" Ben looked down at Rose, as he, apparently, also had his fill of Phasma and Hux's antics for one morning.

Rose blinked and realized that she had shyly grabbed him by one sleeve. "Can you," she swallowed the rest of the last bagel, "help me search the ATV in case the monster has left its' eggs, or babies, or something?"

Ben just stared, silently, at her for some more. "Want to wash it as well?" he asked finally, sounding sarcastic, but not really, at last.

"Great idea!" Rose said brightly, even as she pulled-out the car-washing equipment, (which was a lot less low-tech than how it sounded). "Shall we begin?"

Ben sighed, and changed his clothing into something that was much more appropriate for a car-washing job. "Where's the soap?" he asked instead of arguing, (and boy, didn't that make Rose feel happy for some reason).

"Here!" she chirped, and together, they inspected the van, (and found it to be monster-free now, happily), and washed it – Ben with his usual face… like his uncle Luke, Ben didn't do emotions very well, but that was okay – now that the ATV was clearly monster-free, Rose could do enough happy emotions for both of them, and so she did.

…And abruptly, Rose Tico's day did not turn out to be so bad after all – but that was a thought for another time.

End