AN: Everyone knows I don't own Star Wars. This is a sequel of sorts to my fic "Unexpected Love," though you don't need to have read that fic to understand this one. Both fics take place in the AU I share with my friend RensKnight. Basic jist: Snoke is driven out of Ben's mind when he's little and he grows up to be a Jedi doctor and marries my OC Ara, a non-Force-sensitive mechanic (Rey still exists, but she's Luke's daughter, so no romance between her and Ben in this 'verse).

"Meeting the Solos"

By EsmeAmelia

Six months.

Ben's teenage self who got tongue-tied when trying to talk to cute girls would never have believed that one day he would be in a steady relationship for six months and counting. Okay, maybe he shouldn't say "and counting" - they could break up tomorrow for all he knew - but it didn't feel like they would. Still, he quickly squeezed his father's lucky dice in his pocket just in case the thought might jinx things.

But there she was, sauntering into the club's lobby, wearing a light blue low-cut dress that matched the sky blue of her eyes, her black curls falling over her shoulders.

Ara Greer.

His girlfriend.

"Hey, sweetheart," she said, giving that smile that had made his stomach flip ever since the day his speeder broke down and he'd taken it to be fixed at the shop where she worked. "Happy six-month anniversary!"

"Happy six-month anniversary of the best speeder breakdown of my life," Ben echoed, wrapping his arms around her and inhaling her flowery perfume before kissing her lips. "You look beautiful."

"You don't look bad yourself," said Ara, running her fingers through his hair before pulling out of the embrace to look into his eyes. "Come on, let's go in. You're gonna love this place."

"Lead the way, love."

She took his hand and led him into the dance room. Unlike many nightclubs, this dance club was brightly lit and the band in the center of the dance floor was playing at a volume that didn't make Ben want to cover his ears. The carpeted dance floor rotated around the band at a gentle pace, fast enough for the dancers to feel the motion but not fast enough to make people lose their balance. The smell of the flowers hanging on the walls penetrated Ben's nose, triggering memories of meditating in the grass at Luke's Jedi Temple.

The couple made their way onto the dance floor, instinctively finding a place among the other dancers and wrapping each other in a loose embrace, swaying to the soothing music. Ben's heart was thumping as it often did when he was around Ara and the gentle rotation of the dance floor made it thump harder. His fingers brushed through her black curls, savoring the softness of her hair and pondering the question he'd been planning to ask tonight. When they'd been dating for six months, it seemed like the right time for this, but still he hesitated, though he wasn't sure why.

No, he knew why. Ara saw him, not the son of two famous war heroes, and though she'd expressed interest in meeting Leia and Han, she also said she could wait until he felt comfortable introducing her to them and she had never pressured him about it. Would actually meeting the famous war heroes change that?

As for Leia and Han wanting to meet Ara - well, Han had asked when they could meet her after their very first date and even though Leia said that Ben could introduce them whenever he felt ready, he could always sense her anticipation whenever he talked to his parents. Had they built Ara up in their heads to the point where the real Ara would disappoint them?

Maybe that was why he was hesitating - because he liked things the way they were and didn't want them to change. He liked the routine of going out together every week or so to dinner or the holocinema or dance clubs and then spending the night in one or the other's apartment. It was beautiful and simple.

But didn't all relationships change?

The band's Rodian singer was belting out a song in Huttese and while Ben couldn't understand all the lyrics, he could pick up the general mood about savoring the times with the ones you love. Ara's head leaned forward, resting on his shoulder and causing his heart to flutter even faster - to the point where he almost wondered if his heart was beating as quickly as those of patients he put under observation for rapid heart rate.

"Ara?" he finally forced himself to say.

"Hmm?" she said, looking up at him.

Ben's mouth suddenly felt dry, his stomach doing a flip. Don't throw up, he found himself thinking. Don't throw up.

"Ben?" said Ara. "Are you all right?"

The Jedi doctor inhaled through his nose, feeling once more like that awkward teenager who couldn't talk to a girl without stuttering. "Ara . . ." he began, staring into those sky-blue eyes, "I . . . really . . . really . . . like you."

Now she was grinning, wrapping her arms around his neck as the other dancers made their way around them. "I know."

Ben let out a long, whooshing sigh. "You said that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Well, you've told me the story about your parents in the carbon freezer enough times," she said in a sly voice. "Besides, you seemed on edge and you sounded like you wanted to say something super important, so I thought it would lighten the mood a little."

Despite the circumstances, Ben found himself grinning a bit. "All right, you did lighten the mood." He cleared his throat. "But seriously, I do really like you and . . . well . . . speaking of my parents . . ." He took a deep breath. "It's been six months and I know you'd like to meet them, and well, ever since I told them about you they've been dying to meet you . . ." Don't throw up, don't throw up. "So, I was thinking that maybe . . ."

There was that smile as she wrapped her hand around his wrist. "Ben, are you finally ready for me to meet your parents?"

Another deep breath. "I'd have to call them first, but maybe we could arrange for something next week . . ."

The next thing he knew, Ara was throwing her arms around his neck and engulfing his lips in a passionate kiss.

AN: This will be a two-part story. The next chapter should be coming soon.