Rey has no idea what to get Poe for Christmas. She thinks of what he likes, nice clothes, a fine scotch, cheap beer, and wonders what would a girlfriend get him that speaks to their relationship. Something that's not as impersonal as a stupid tie, but something that's not intimate. They've only been "dating" for six months after all.
They hunt through several stores and find various things for other members of the family. A lovely glass ornament at one store that Rey thinks will look nice on their tree. That one is for his mother. Impersonal, but pretty. She'll appreciate the gesture, especially as it has an image of the baby Jesus in the manger on it. A tie with "Go Navy" emblazoned on it for his father. He watches the games every year apparently and carries on for days if Navy loses. It's both charming and silly at the same time. Ben assures her he'll love it. Finn is easy. He loves that ratty old pea coat of his and in a thrift store on the outskirts of town, Rey finds one that's in nearly perfect condition for a steal. She can find new buttons for it and sew them on herself.
"What about this?" Ben asks as they're leaving the thrift store. This is a bright pink boa and she feels her cheeks grow red even as she starts to laugh.
"I'm not sure that's quite Poe's style." He's gay, but not a stereotype. He's not flamboyant. But she knows what Ben is getting at.
"Are you sure?" he asks and there's a strange light in his eyes.
"I'm sure." She pushes it back onto the rack and turns away from him. For a moment, just a tiny one, she envisions wrapping the ridiculous thing around Ben's neck and yanking him into a dressing room and having her way with him. She really really doesn't know how long she can keep this whole charade up before she breaks. "Come on," she finally says as she walks off. "I don't think we're going to find anything here."
"Suit yourself," he says with a shrug, but she watches as he reaches out to touch the boa and cringes a bit at the smirk that crosses his face.
They end up, finally, finding something completely inoffensive that she thinks Poe might like at a little shop near the end of town. She can't count the number of times he's lost cards out of his ratty little wallet. She finds a lovely one at a leatherworker's shop and for only a little bit extra, she can get Poe's initials engraved into the leather.
The worker chats her up while he's working and she's surprised when Ben grabs the wallet at the end and shoots the man a dark look. "She has a boyfriend."
Rey cringes, almost apologizes for him, but then they're out of the store and she's left to rush after his retreating form. "What the hell was that about?"
"Well, you do, don't you? The fabulous Poe." The last is sad with some amount of sarcasm and she almost…almost…rolls her eyes at him.
"Yes," she says instead, the word a bit more forceful than she had intended. "Can we just…" She waves her hands in the air. She doesn't know what she's even trying to say at that moment. …not," she finishes lamely.
He stops and watches her for a moment. "Let's get something to eat."
"Now that sounds like a brilliant idea!" Those are the magic words really. Food is always a priority and even Ben and his being a complete and utter ass about Poe can't destroy the magic of going someplace new and trying something new.
Which is how they, finally, end up going to Maz's Place. Frankly, she's been curious about Maz since they first arrived and Ben mentioned her. He seemed so…something about her. Concerned, panicked. She's not even sure. She should be afraid to meet her. Instead she's excited.
The place they walk into is dimly lit and not at all what she expected. It looks more like Aladdin's Cave of Wonders. Or maybe a pirate's treasure trove. There's stuff everywhere, a mix of mismatched fabric that looks like it was plucked off the clearane racks at a local craft store and cheap costume jewelry. Rey is pretty sure she sees a few taxidermied animals mixed in with the mess. She's staring around it when she hears Ben shift next to her.
"I told you she was eccentric," he mutters.
"Eccentric," she repeats. "Or amazing?"
Ben has no chance to say anything to Rey's awed response to the sheer craziness she's walked into. "Ben Solo!"
"Aunt Maz," he says as he turns toward the woman.
"Where's my…" she starts to ask before she notices Rey.
"Uncle Chewie's not…" His voice fades out as Maz takes a few steps toward Rey.
And it takes the absolutely tiny woman a few steps to get to her. She has to be all of about four feet tall. She peers up at Rey through glasses so thick that her squinting eyes are magnified to absolutely ridiculous proportions. There's no guessing the tiny woman's age. Her face is a mess of wrinkles and yet the gigantic eyes behind the glasses look bright and shrewd. She could be 60. Or she could be 100. Rey isn't even sure it matters.
"You brought a girl!" Maz says, clapping her hands together.
Ben rolls his eyes. "Aunt Maz, this is Rey. Rey, this is my…well, she's not really my Aunt…"
"Close enough, boy." Maz's voice is sharp and yet somehow still manages to be touched with affection.
"It's very nice to meet you," Rey offers up. She's not sure what else to say.
"I'm sure it is," Maz says and Rey has no idea what she even means by that. "Ben never brings a girl around."
"Maz." There's a threat behind his words but she's surprised to see that the ever grumpy Ben Solo actually has a tiny bit of a smile on his face. It makes him even more handsome, she realizes. She can't say he looks relaxed, but he looks, well, not quite so angry at the world.
"He doesn't," Maz goes on with, studying Rey. "Just what are you doing here with this big lug?"
"Shopping…"
Maz lets out a bark of laughter. "Oh, ho, you sure must have him wrapped around your finger."
"We're not…" Rey starts to say at the same time Ben says Maz's name again.
Maz narrows her eyes at Rey, looks over at Ben, and back to Rey. "Sure you're not." And then she turns away. "Come then, I'll get you a booth. In the back."
"We don't want the back, Maz," Ben says quickly.
"What's wrong with the back?" Rey asks.
But it's too late, Maz leads them to the back and the back appears to be a rather sweetly romantic little alcove tucked away from everything else.
"Like I said, we don't want the back." Ben's voice is half-amused, half-annoyed. He turns to Maz then, putting his hand on the tiny woman's shoulder and dear God that hand is just massive resting there. "Maz, Rey and I aren't together."
"Are you going to break my heart, Benjamin?" Maz puts a hand dramatically over her heart.
"Nothing is going to stop that heart from ticking."
"Don't you break it, Ben Solo. Don't you dare." She waggles a finger at him and he releases her, taking a step back.
"Fine," he mutters, throwing himself into the curved booth.
Rey is just about to sit down when Maz reaches out to touch her arm. She turns back, leaning down close to the woman to hear whatever she has to say. "Benjamin has never brought a girl to me." And then she's gone, leaving a couple menus and the silence of complete and utter awkwardness.
She sits then and stares at Ben.
He stares at her.
"I should have told her I'm dating Poe."
"No," he says quickly.
"Why?"
"Just…it's better if she thinks…" He waves a hand between us. "Just trust me."
"Fine," she shoots back. She has no idea what to say to that anyway. Does Maz know? She's certain Ben does, though he seems to be playing along to the best of his sarcastic ability. She's been doing everything in her power to make them believe that she's really Poe's girlfriend, but Ben clearly isn't completely buying it. He's seen Poe, after all, making out with a guy. And she wants to keep defending him. Poe's bi. No really. He is. It's ok. I'm totally cool with it. She would be cool with it, if it were true. But he's not and he's made that completely clear to anyone who questions him.
"So," Rey says.
"Yeah…so…" Ben seems to be equally at a loss for words. He picks up his menu and makes a careful study of it.
Rey starts to do the same but then suddenly puts it down. "Solo?" She doesn't know why she hasn't quite put two and two together. The last name had been familiar, certainly. No one who works on cars isn't familiar with the Solo name. But the connection hadn't dawned on her until now.
Ben flinches. Actually flinches. But he doesn't say anything.
"Han Solo? You're Han Solo's kid?" She knows Han. Everyone knows Han. Or at least, all her coworkers do and the others in her automotive classes and anyone who's anyone in the car business.
"I didn't do it," he says quickly.
"Do what?"
He shakes his head. "You know who my father was, but you don't know anything about it?"
"About…" And then she remembers. The rumors, the speculations. Han Solo had gone out in a blaze of glory, crashing his Falcon in a most spectacular fashion. Chewie had been with him and had somehow managed to walk away from it all with nothing more than a loss of the memories leading up to the crash. And his son had been there. He'd been injured too, though the injuries were minor. He claimed to have lost his memories as well, but there had been too many threads left open for the press not to have had a heyday. "Oh," she finally says.
"And there it is," Ben mutters. "You think I'm a monster."
The way he says it makes Rey's heart ache a little. Like it's a reaction he's used to. When he started to turn away, she reaches out a hand to touch him lightly on the arm. And there's that spark. She feels it deep down in her bones.
"Why so serious over here?" comes Maz's voice. "Isn't this a date?"
"It's not a date," Ben and Rey say at the same time and she's surprised to see his cheeks turn a bit pink.
"Hmmm," Maz says. "I beg to differ." She says nothing further though, just takes their orders. She's almost laughing by the time Rey gets hers out. A double cheeseburger, fries, a large chocolate shake and after Ben tells her that Maz is known for her amazing meatballs, she orders a few of those on the side too.
"How have you not had a heart attack?" Ben asks.
"Good genes," she shoots back with a grin. She glances over to where Maz disappeared and then looks back at Ben. "I don't think you're a monster," she says at last.
He seems to relax at least a little. "Well, good. I guess that means I don't have to kill you and shove you in the trunk of my car."
He says it with such seriousness that Rey's eyes widen. And then the moment is broken by a small half-smile on his face and her laughter.
And she's wondering if Ben Solo is maybe not the total asshole Poe has said he is. There's something else there. Loneliness, fear, the rumors and hatred from all the people who loved his father. She finds her heart aching, just a little.
The rest of the meal is only somewhat awkward. Maz brings their drinks and their food and imparts her special brand of wisdom every time she does. No matter how many times she or Ben tell her that they're not a couple, she just ignores it.
Until Rey starts to get frustrated.
And finally she turns to Maz after her latest bit (Treat her right, Ben, my boy, she's a good kid…). "I'm not dating Ben. I'm dating Poe."
The words fall heavily into the silence that follows. She can see Ben grimacing out of the corner of her eye.
And Maz? She's just staring at her, eyes wide behind her coke-bottle glasses. And then she laughs. It's a strange, wheezing sound, but it is definitely laughter. "Poe?" she finally manages to get out.
Her next words are buried beneath Ben's leaping up and clamping his hand over the tiny woman's mouth. "Whatever you were going to say next, don't."
He releases her and Maz, still laughing, shakes her head. "Oh Ben, you have your work cut out for you with this one." And then she leaves again, disappearing into the back room.
And Rey knows she knows. Bloody hell, everyone knows here. Everyone except Poe's parents. And she still has to keep up this ridiculous charade, even if part of her thinks they should drive Ben's sleek car out to the middle of a field and just get it on already.
"Sorry about that," Ben mutters. He's watching her with a look that sets her on edge. Pity. There's a look of pity on that long face of his. And she realizes, in that moment, that maybe it's not so much that Ben isn't buying her dating Poe. It's that he thinks she believes Poe isn't using her as some sort of cover, a way to hide that he's gay from the world. That she honestly and truly is "dating" Poe. And he'll break her heart eventually. Oh fuck.
She remembers, somewhere in the back of her mind, some tale of woe about one lie leading to another. And here she is, digging herself a nice little pit of lies that she's not really sure how to dig herself out of.