Both men gaped at Ben like he'd lost his mind.
"You're hungry?" Finn asked, confused by the sudden change in not just the man across from him but the atmosphere of the whole room.
"I was too nervous to eat breakfast and too busy for lunch, so yeah, I'm hungry." Ben shrugged, feeling much more relaxed now that Rey's friends were no longer contemplating his murder. Using the Force he tapped the green button on the console by the door.
"Galley 23." Came a voice from the tiny built in speaker.
"Send an abundance of whatever's ready to eat to General Hux's personal lounge, please." He called toward the speaker.
"Right away, sir!" Came the response.
He tapped the button again and looked around at the trio of stunned faces. "What?"
Finn was the first to find his tongue, but the other two were right behind him.
"You have changed." Finn said in wonder.
"Hux's lounge?" Rey gasped.
"Where is that mangey little womprat?" Poe asked.
Ben smirked at each of them as he answered. "Yes, I have. Yes, it was. And I don't know, you'd have to ask the droids that mopped him up off the floor after he shot me." He responded to all three with a humorous flippancy that shocked them all back into stunned silence.
Poe, the first to recover, asked, "Hux managed to actually shoot you?"
"He disagreed with my plans for the fleet." Ben shrugged, unwilling to discuss the matter further.
"He must have been one lucky bastard." Poe shook his head with a rueful grin.
"Well, if you want to have his kind of luck you just say the word and I'll make sure you wind up as a puddle of bloody goo on the floor, as well." Ben said with an amused glint in his eyes.
It took the others a second to realize he was joking but when they did they all four started laughing.
'I've never seen this side of you!' Rey thought and hugged him affectionately. 'I like it!'
"Hey, how come you never hug me when I tell a joke?" Poe teased, with mock scowel.
"Well, if you ever tell a funny one, I promise I'll hug you!" When the laughter died down again Rey said, "By the way, guys, I'd like to introduce you to Ben Solo."
Finn looked at Rey, his face a study in confusion, a lifetime spent as a stormtrooper hadn't prepared him for social intricacies and this one elluded him completely.
Poe understood it though. "It's damned nice to meet you, Ben." He stood up and walked over to shake Ben's hand. "It's kinda funny though, you look just like this guy I used to know." Poe gave Ben his cockiest grin and squeezed Ben's hand a bit harder than strictly necessary. "He was a real pain in the ass."
Ben gave Poe's hand a mildly painful squeeze before releasing it and saying with a grin, "Yes, he was."
The food arrived then and all four of them piled plates high from the selection provided by the boxy buffet-style serving droid before returning to their seats.
"Got anything to drink on that thing?" Poe asked around a mouthful of still warm bread.
Ben used the Force to tap a button on the front panel of the droid and a cold drawer on the side opened. "What'll it be?" He asked using the force to lift various bottles and cartons up then set them back down after he identified their contents .
"Got any beer?" Poe asked hopefully.
"Yep, anybody else?" Ben looked around at his dinner companions.
"Oh, yeah! Right here." Finn said with enthusiasm.
"Yes, please." Rey mumbled around a bite of roasted meat.
"It's unanimous, then." He smiled and levitated a bottle to each of them, removing the caps and disposing of them as the bottles floated toward their intended recipients.
Finn plucked his out of the air and looked at Ben oddly.
Poe took his and looked at Rey, "He comes in handy, huh?"
Rey frowned and looked at Ben, thinking, 'Should you be using the Force for such trivial stuff?'
'Once you take the mysticism out of it, all the Force really is is an energy field that certain people can manipulate. Add the mysticism in and it's still the same thing but with a philosophy attached. Light side has one philosophy, Dark side another.' He explained while putting a dent in the mountain of multicolored food on his plate and watching her do the same. 'Which do you think covers levitating an innane object, like a beer, to someone who wants it?'
'I don't know.' She gave him a startled look, surprised by the question.
'Is it evil to send your wife and her friends a beer?' He asked, pausing to take a drink.
'I wouldn't think so.' She frowned thoughtfully and took a big bite of a sweet purple vegetable that she couldn't even identify by name.
He stole a forkfull of the plum tubers from her plate. 'Mmm, I should have got some of this.' He winked at her. Before she could protest with more than a 'Hey!' at the theft he asked, 'Is it good to send your wife and her friends a beer?'
'Probably not.' She eyed his plate and pondered the larger question for a moment. 'So, you're talking about neutral usage?' Her fork snaked out and speared a bite of his spiced citrus dressing.
'On the Dark side it's forbidden to use the Force neutrally, it's considered beneath *the power of the Darkside* to use it for mundane things like passing out drinks. On the Light side it's forbidden because it's seen as an abuse of power that can lead to the Dark side. So, what do you suppose that does to the Force?' He stopped chewing and raised his brows in a questioning manner.
'Keeps it split between Dark and Light with almost no neutral to balance them.' She swallowed her food and grinned at him. 'How did you come up with that?'
He took a drink from his bottle then set it back down and grinned at her. 'Watching you play with rocks instead of paying attention to Luke during class.'
Poe and Finn exchanged a look. Poe said, "Are you two having one of those mind connection conversations?"
Rey flinched and looked at him. "I'm sorry! We actually were. Ben has an incredible theory about how to balance the Force."
"Forget I asked." Poe said and took a swig from his bottle.
"What's the theory?" Finn asked after swallowing a bite of food.
"Neutral usage." Rey was impressed by her new husband's theory and made no attempt to hide it.
Finn gave her a look that clearly stated he had no idea what she was talking about.
She set her plate down on the table next to her almost full beer. "Think of the Force like a lever. If the fulcrum is narrow the balance is easy to disturb, but if the fulcrum is wide the balance is hard to disturb." When Finn still didn't get it she turned to Ben. "Let me see your light saber." He handed it to her.
She held out one finger, parallel to the floor, and attempted to balance the weapon on it. It took several tries to get it to stop tipping in one direction or the other, when it was finally balancing on her finger she said, "As if it wasn't hard enough to achieve balance, look what happens when I disturb that balance." She lightly tapped one side of the unignited handle and it fell. She caught it before it hit the floor and with her hand facing upward she set the saber across her palm. "Look, balanced on the first try, and when I disturb that balanceā¦" She tapped one end. The saber stayed steady in her hand. She tapped it harder, it bounced up on the opposite end then settled back into her palm. On the third try she hit it hard enough to flip it out of her hand and Ben used the Force to pull it into his. "Much harder to unbalance." She said and looked at Ben adoringly.
"What does a lever have to do with the Force?" Poe asked, intrigued inspite of himself.
"The Force is an energy field that flows in, around and through all things." Ben set his nearly empty plate next to hers and explained. "All energy consists of three parts- positive, negative and neutral. If the Dark side is negative and the Light side is positive, then adding more of either will disturb any balance you might have. However, if you widen the fulcrum, by increasing the usage of neutral energy, the balance between dark and light should become more stable. I know it has in me."
"What do you mean it has in you?" Finn asked, his curiousity aroused.
"While I was Snoke's apprentice I wanted to be fully on the Darkside but the pull toward the light was a constant source of conflict within me. After Rey rejected me I wanted to turn back to the Light side but the pull toward the dark was stronger than I've ever felt it. I knew I had to do something to stop being torn between the two if I was ever going to have a chance to win her over."
Ben's tone became more animated the longer he spoke. "One night, missing her and unable to sleep, I started sifting through my reacquired memories of Rey, and an idle thought I'd had during a lesson with Luke caught my attention. Luke was lecturing us about the Force, explaining how it's an energy field."
He slid an adoring glance toward his wife.
"Rey was sitting in my lap at the time, bouncing pebbles way up over our heads and I'd wondered if bouncing pebbles for the amusement of a five year old counted as light side or dark side usage of the Force." He wrapped an arm around her back and gave her a light squeeze.
"Remembering that got me to thinking about neutral Force energy. I've been using it for more than half a year now and I haven't felt a pull in either direction in all that time." He finished speaking and set back.
"I see." Poe said, after a few seconds he added, "Out of curiousity, what brought on this mind to mind discussion about the Force?"
"She asked me if I thought I should be using the Force for trivial stuff like handing out drinks." Ben beamed a clearly smitten smile at Rey.
Poe laughed. "All that stuff about balancing the Force and neutral energy is the answer you gave for that question?" He tilted his almost empty bottle Ben's way and chuckled, "You really are Leia's kid." Then emptied the bottle.
Ben laughed then asked, "Want another one?"
"Sure." Poe said, setting the bottle down next to his empty plate.
Ben floated him another beer and Poe took a drink then gave Ben a look that spoke of his willingness to accept Ben Solo as a friend and ally. "Alright, tell me more about this federation idea of yours. I didn't catch much at the conference, I was too busy looking for an ambush." Poe said, settling comfortably into the fragrant leather sofa.
