Meeting the Parents

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters here.

When Rose and Ben had arrived at the Organa-Solo household, (it was not located that far from the home of Phasma's folks, actually), Rose was surprised by what she saw: a clean, neat household – i.e., a private house with a small flower garden, over which a bunch of butterflies were actually fluttering on. There were trees, and a fence, and several dogs running around, and a man, whose family resemblance with Ben was quite obvious, was looking at them, appearing to be quite lost.

"Hello dad," Ben said, (rather woodenly, in Rose's opinion). "What's up? What are you doing here? Had a fight with mom?"

"Hello son, and love you too," the older man replied, as he and Ben shook their hands, however carefully. "Mom's inside."

"Great. This is Rose," Ben indicated her, even as he continued in the same tone of voice, just… more humane and excited, now that Rose was mentioned for real.

His father blinked and looked over Rose in a manner not unlike Ben's, again, whenever the latter was the boss, and not just the boyfriend, (or rather from before, when he was just the boss, and not also the boyfriend).

"Hello!" the older man continued brightly, doing his best not to be flat-footed. "Nice to meet you. I'm Han!"

"Hello!" Rose squeaked back, carried out by some inner sense – it certainly wasn't courage, now could it be? "I'm Rose! Tico!"

Han looked thoughtful. "You aren't related to someone named Paige Tico, now do you?" he finally asked. "I've heard of her from Poe, and Phasma, and Hux-"

"Yes, she's my sister – my older sister," Rose agreed readily enough. "Did she talk about me, some?" she asked, almost as an afterthought.

"'Some' sounds like a right word," Han agreed. "Frankly, Leia and Luke – that's her brother, my brother-in-law, Ben's uncle – have their differences, but we talk between each other, and about each other, while Paige-"

"What father means, is that we all argue between each other, a lot," Ben pinched his nose, (and now Rose could see that he had inherited it from his father too), "as in my parents between each other, me with my parents, me with my uncle, my parents and my uncle, and so on, see?"

"Now Ben, that's an exaggeration," spoke a cheerful, round-faced, middle-aged woman as she opened the door and looked outside. "We're a perfectly normal, lovely family-"

"Mom, you used to be a professional politician – the democratic edition, but still," Ben rolled his eyes. "That's not normal. Anyhow, can Rose and I come in, please?"

"Ben, are you going to start something?" Mrs. Organa-Solo seemed to huff up and inflate herself.

"No, because Phasma has also come home, and she brought Hux with her, and her parents have gotten you to watch after her dogs, and I don't want to be outside when that explosion occurs-"

"Oh Ben, you worry too much!" came the cheerful voice of the woman in question. "Hello, Mr. Solo! Hello, Mrs. Organa-Solo! Do not mind us! We're here just to get my dogs!"

"Hello," Hux added much less enthusiastically. "Mr. Solo? Phasma's father says 'hi' and-"

"I know; he says a lot of things," Mr. Solo, Han, said sourly. "So, how was your jungle mission?"

"It was wonderful!" Rose piped up, actually before Phasma. "There were birds, and tree frogs, and Ben here had rescued me from a spider monster-"

"It was a monster spider-" Ben actually caught himself and practically facepalmed. "It was just a spider, really. Can we try again?"

"Certainly," his mother said in a much more cheerful voice. "Everyone, please come in!"

/ / /

…And everyone did.

"So, you've been here a lot?" Rose could not help but to ask Phasma – she had to admit that she found the extravert big blonde-haired woman very helpful lately, especially in those awkward social situations.

"Hux's father is a piece of crud, and Ben and his family aren't nowhere as bad as he tells it, so yes, we got together in the backyard out there, lovely place, and you know, hanged around," Phasma agreed easily.

Hux muttered something under his breath. "Yes, Armitage, you also have started your SW club out there as well," Mrs. Organa-Solo, ("Please, call me Leia"), easily agreed. "You three were so dramatic!" Just as easily, she shifted gears and turned to Rose: "Young lady, welcome aboard! I hope that you like it here. I also hope that you like Ben-"

"I already do-" it was Rose's turn to catch herself and practically facepalm. "Can I try again?"

"Please do," Leia commented, as she sat the table, practically by herself, (her husband helped). "How did it all begin?"

Rose took a deep breath, and told of her heroic saving from the terrible spider monster by her dashing hero. The dashing hero was sitting right next to her and was stoically enduring every portion of the story, just alternating between being red, white and pink in color, because in Rose's telling, the story had acquired a lot of brand new details.

Phasma was giggling. Hux was smirking. Ben indicated to Hux, that he was dead. Hux disagreed. Ben did not back down. His parents were distracted by Rose's tale and failed to notice the uprising confrontation. Rose proved to be a good storyteller, actually. Things began to get out of hand.

"Boys, stop it!" Leia said in a maternal tone of voice. Things got back into hand. Phasma shoved the older woman an approving, thumbs-up gesture. Rose finished her story. Ben did not die from mortification. "You're certainly daughter-in-law material!" Leia said in blunt approval. "Han?"

Han took one look at his wife, (they had their own marital problems, by the way), and gave his paternal approval too. Ben twitched, but endured.

…It was then that Phasma's father, (who was not anywhere as bad as Hux's was, but he and Han had his own complex masculine relationship), and actually apologized…about the damage that his dogs have done to the Organa-Solo flower garden slash back yard. Things went sideways from there.

(…"So, do you want to get married?" Ben muttered to Rose in all the excitement. Rose just blushed and agreed).