Mirror
Author's Note: This is a gift request for someone who chose to remain anonymous. I'm not sure if you'll see this, but I really hope that you see and enjoy this fic! :)
Two notes to my readers. One, this is a Modern AU, and I had sooo much fun trying to figure out the background details. I'm curious to see what y'all think about it. Two, this is a Reylo fic. I don't ship Reylo, but in this universe, it works. Lol.
Even if you don't like the sequels... you might enjoy this little fic anyways. ^-^
~ Amina Gila
"Impressive."
She heard him coming, of course, and how could she not when she is so well-acquainted with the sound of his footsteps?
Leia Amidala Skywalker Organa Solo – that is her full name, though she only goes by Leia Solo – spins around, a smile on her lips as she sees her husband of three decades, Han, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He comes closure, posture casual, leaning down to give her a brief, fleeting kiss. "I'm home, sweetheart. It looks like you've been busy."
She hums, looking around the spacious kitchen and to the food overflowing on the counters. "The family dinner is tonight," she reminds. "I hope you haven't forgotten."
A flicker of a shadow passes across Han's face, but then, it's gone, replaced by the easy smile that he always wears. "Of course not."
And really, how could he forget the day when their only son comes home? They have no idea how long Ben will be gone when he leaves, and – and if they'll ever see him again. Being in the military, especially in the Special Ops, doing whatever secretive missions and assignments he's being given, there's no way to know when or if they'll hear from him again. It's been so nerve-wracking, and Leia has no idea how she's been able to bear it for so long, for seven years .
She had talked to Ben after he first told her his decision, but nothing she said had swayed him.
" I'm going to finish what my grandfather started ," he had insisted, dark brown eyes stony.
" And what's that? " she'd asked, bemused.
" I'll make the world safe. I'll bring peace and order. "
Some nights, his words still haunt her. Some nights, she wonders if she'll ever see her son again.
Leia pushes those thoughts to the back of her mind, unwilling to indulge in them and the depression that is sure to come with them. Now is a time to celebrate, a time to rejoice. Her Ben is coming home, even if only for a visit. But he had sounded so… hesitant on the phone when she spoke to him, when he asked if he could bring a friend with him. Something tells Leia that this friend of his is a big deal to him.
"Is anyone else here yet?" Han queries as Leia turns back to putting the finishing touches on the cake. Given the number of people who will soon be here, she needs to hurry and finish preparing dinner.
"No," she replies, "Just you."
He's a truck driver; it allows him to indulge in his desire to travel while still having a place to come back to, a house that he can call home. He's sometimes gone for days, but Leia knows that he will always come back to her.
"Luke called," she tells him. "Said that he'd be a little late. He had to deal with a minor crisis at the school." Her twin brother, Luke, started a school for troubled children, possibly because of their father. Well, definitely because of their father.
Their biological father, Anakin, came from a very troubled background. He and his mother had been ensnared in a human trafficking ring. Luckily, they had been rescued, and Anakin had been adopted by Obi-Wan Kenobi; they've never known who Anakin's father really was. To all of them, it has always been Obi-Wan. Anakin joined the military when he was nineteen, despite Obi-Wan's protests, and somehow, despite his life as a soldier, he had found time to marry Padme Amidala, their biological mother.
When he turned 23, Anakin had been sent away on an extended mission in the Middle East. Unbeknownst to him, Padme was pregnant with twins. She didn't survive the birth, and the twins had, for some inexplicable reason, ended up in foster care. Leia still suspects something underhanded and shady, but there has never been any evidence.
Luke was adopted by their uncle and aunt, while Leia had been adopted by the Organas, a childless couple. They had good lives, though they wondered about their biological father ceaselessly. Anakin didn't come back until they were already 7, and he had been damaged, mentally and physically. He's never been the same since, according to both Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, their aunt and Anakin's adopted younger sister.
"Aunt 'Soka is coming with him," she adds. "Why don't you go get ready? Clean up?"
Han tips his head back and forth, shrugging. "Sure," he agrees. "I know you don't want me to help you in the kitchen."
Leia swats his arm. "Only because trouble follows you wherever you go."
He outright laughs at that. "You love me for it," he teases, and she rolls her eyes.
"Yes, yes, I do. Now shoo."
He doesn't need to be told twice.
Once he's gone, Leia goes back to making the finishing touches on the elaborate dinner. It's their first true family reunion in years , and everything has to be perfect. She's more than a little nervous, admittedly, when she hears the doorbell ring. She knows who it is. Luke is going to be late, and her father and Obi-Wan most assuredly will as well. That means… That means it's probably Ben and his mysterious friend.
Wiping her hands on her apron, Leia hurries to the front door, heart pounding in anticipation. It feels like yesterday that Ben was a troubled teenager getting into mischief or even a child first going to school. A wave of emotion washes over her when she sees him on the other side of the door. He looks the same as the last time she saw him, but his dark brown eyes are harder. His black hair is long, nearly touching his shoulders, and there's a scar along the right side of his face. Even without asking, Leia knows that he'll never tell her anything.
At his side is a young woman, probably a decade his junior, her dark brown hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. She's dressed casually, though she seems nervous.
But Ben comes first.
"Ben," Leia murmurs, relief cascading over her when she sees that her son is alright.
"Mom," he replies, nodding. Leia steps back, letting him enter, and he does, one hand on the girl's back, guiding her inside with him. "This is Rey."
Leia studies them, wondering how they met, and how close they really are. Ben has never brought friends home with him before, not since he was in high school. "I'm glad to meet you, Rey," Leia says with a warm smile, taking the girl's hands in her own.
And then, she turns towards Ben, ignoring his mumbled protests as she pulls him into a tight embrace. "How I have missed you, my son," she whispers, kissing his forehead. It's ridiculous how much taller than her he is.
When she finally steps back, there's a spark in his eyes, a spark that was missing previously, and she's glad to see it. He's been affected by his years in the military, but it's nothing that won't heal, given time. "I've missed you too, Mom," he admits.
"Make yourselves at home," Leia says, more for Rey's benefit as she turns back to the kitchen, "And I would like to hear how you met."
She doesn't miss the way that Ben silently reaches for Rey's hand, entwining their fingers together and tugging her after him into the kitchen. Hm. So, they are probably not just friends then, but she'll wait before saying anything. "It was just after an operation," Ben begins, and Leia moves around the kitchen dishing food out to be served while listening to him, "And there was a delegation there, politicians and the like. Rey was there. She didn't want to be there, I could tell. She looked bored to tears and very uncomfortable, so I managed to get her out."
Rey's cheeks flush pink, and she shoves him. "It was not that obvious."
Ben's eyes sparkle, a look of fondness there that Leia is intimately familiar with. Han looks at her that way, or he looked at her that way when they were younger, and their relationship was newer. "Sure, it wasn't," he agrees easily. "I've been trained to read body language. You weren't hiding it as well as you think." With his other hand, the one not holding hers, he reaches out, lightly tucking a hair behind her ear.
"Who are your parents?" Leia asks curiously, noting the way Ben seems to tense a little.
Rey merely smiles at her. "Dathan and Miramir Palpatine," she answers, and Leia's blood runs cold. Palpatine? This girl looks nothing like a Palpatine.
"Sheev was your grandfather?"
She's the granddaughter of the disgraced, imprisoned president . It doesn't even seem real, and Leia hates that her first instinct is to distrust her. But after what the President put Anakin through, separating him from his family, sending him off to war where he lost his body and his soul, Leia can never forgive him. Her life was ruined because of it, because of his schemes and machinations. The name Palpatine is cursed.
Rey's expression falters. "Unfortunately," she agrees. "My father was quite estranged from his father. They never truly got along, but President Snoke chose Dad as an ambassador. I know that our family name has a bad reputation and for good reason. I've been trying to escape from it. My parents have let me choose a path outside of politics."
Ben must see something in her past her name for him to be so taken with her, but Leia doesn't know if she can trust his judgment. He was so driven to follow his grandfather's footsteps and look where Anakin's judgment got him . As hard as it will be to have someone with the name Palpatine in her home, Leia will not throw her out. That would be cruel when Ben brought her and when she's undoubtedly the reason that he looks so content right now.
"What are you interested in outside of politics?"
"Rey hates politics," Ben informs her as the young woman laughs lightly.
"Art," she replies, smiling. There's a sparkle in her hazel eyes that betrays her passion. "I love creating things. Drawing is very relaxing for me. I've thought about going to an art school."
"I'm sure your grandfather would hate that," Leia comments dryly. From her recollections, Palpatine was always very much about power and control, and for his granddaughter to choose an entirely different path… well, she hopes that he's turning over in his grave right now.
Rey actually giggles at her words, and from the adoring look in Ben's eyes, it's clear how much he loves her. "That's why I'm doing it. Politics is boring and drab. It's nice to have some cheer in things, y'know?"
Her eyes wander around the room, curiosity and joy shining in them, and when Leia catches her son's eyes, she mouths 'keep her' at him. His expression twitches a little, the barest hint of a smile on his lips, but he doesn't otherwise react. That's the only confirmation that Leia needs to know that the two are together. But she can't resist making a comment first.
"Isn't Rey kind of… young for you?" Leia points out, raising an eyebrow. Ben is thirty already – how time flies – but Rey is… not. She's younger, much younger, maybe barely out of her teen years. Twenty-one at most, she would guess.
"Mom, please ." Ben rolls his eyes. "You were nineteen when you and Dad met."
Leia hums noncommittally, even though she can't stop the smile. "I was twenty-three when we actually started dating."
Rey's eyes glint with amusement and mischief. "I'm twenty," she informs, "But I can keep him in line. He's a perfect gentleman."
"Oh, am I," Ben drawls, raising an eyebrow. "I distinctly recall you giving me some very different labels when we met."
Leia chuckles. "I'm glad to see my son happy," she says, and it's the complete truth. "I just wish that he would come home more."
Something like regret flickers through Ben's eyes, and he and Rey have a silent exchange that Leia can't quite follow. "I left, Mom," he blurts out, looking to her. "I left the army."
Dead silence follows the wake of that declaration. Even a pin dropping would shatter this stillness as surely as breaking glass.
"Since when?" Leia manages once she gets her mouth working again. Of everything Ben could have said, this… was not it. This is not something that she ever expected to hear no matter how ardently she has hoped over the years.
Ben shifts, seeming a bit embarrassed. "It was – it was spontaneous, actually. It – I – it was because of Rey." He looks at her again, and there is so much love and devotion in his eyes. It makes Leia happy, to see him so happy. "I – we want to be together, to spend time together, but we can't do that if I'm always gone."
Despite herself, she feels tears misting her eyes. "You have no idea how happy this makes me," she manages finally. "I have wanted this for so long. You know how I worry when you're away."
"I – I'm sorry, Mom," Ben murmurs. "I – I didn't want you to worry, but I thought – I thought I needed to do it, to… help. But I've found something I want even more now." He pulls Rey to his side, wrapping an arm around her.
"You are family," Leia promises Rey firmly, approaching her and laying a motherly hand on her arm. "It doesn't matter to me, to any of us, who you came from, who your parents are. You're not your grandfather. You will always be welcome here."
Rey's hazel eyes glisten with gratitude, with relief. She really had been worried that she wouldn't be accepted here. "I – I'm grateful. Thank you."
"Of course," Leia smiles, "And you can call me Leia. I look forward to getting to know you."
The doorbell rings again, and she hears Han's heavy footsteps approaching the door. "I'm getting it, sweetheart," he calls, as if Leia somehow didn't hear him. She smiles fondly, shaking her head. Some things never change.
"Why don't you go greet your father, tell him the news?" she suggests to Ben – and Rey – as the front door opens.
The moment Leia hears a dog, she knows who it is. Her father. And Obi-Wan. The dog, Artoo, is Anakin's guide dog. It's hard to think about what her father has become now, even harder because she knows how much it grates on him to accept the help of others. He lost his eyesight in the explosion that should have – and very nearly did – claimed his life. Artoo guides him, and Obi-Wan lives with him. They help each other.
" Careful ." Leia hears Obi-Wan saying, sounding a mixture of exasperated and annoyed.
"I'm fine ," Anakin bites back. "I can walk without you holding my hand, Dad."
"Then don't call for me if you trip and crack your skull on the floor."
"If I trip," Anakin states flatly from the entry hall, "It will be because you tripped me."
Oh dear. It will be a long night.
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