Title: The Smuggler and the Scavenger
Rating: PG-13/T
Originally posted: 4th May 2024
Originally written for: anr
Characters/Pairings: Rey/Ben
Notes: for May 4th Be With You 2024 on Dreamwidth and AO3.
They were in trouble. He had a bad feeling about the whole job before they ever started, but his father had been determined. Ben had learned long ago not to argue with the great Han Solo. It never ended well for anybody. Instead, he went in prepared for the worst, and so, when the Millenium Falcon suddenly found itself under attack from the people they tricked out of their share of the smuggled cargo, he was ready.
Not that it helped much. A secondary option for an escape route already plotted into the navicomp was good, but the Falcon's own special brand of circuitry failure meant they took a lot of unfriendly fire before they managed to get away. Ben was in the swivel seat, handling the laser cannons like the pro he had proven to be and laying down as much cover fire as he could until finally the Falcon's hyperdrive came back online and got them to safety.
The problem was where they ended up.
"What kind of ass-end of the galaxy place is this anyway?" Han asked crossly as he looked for a decent out-of-the-way place to land. "When you came up with this back-up plan, what did you do, pull the co-ordinates from thin air?"
Chewbacca made noises that proved he was equally underwhelmed by their current location and Ben rolled his eyes at the pair of them.
"It's a place nobody will think to look for us. I thought that would be what you wanted."
He sounded like a grumpy child and he knew it, but that was only because if he told his dad and Uncle Chewie the real reason why they were on this backwater planet, they wouldn't understand. He was well aware that any mention he made of The Force sounded like garbage to them, even though they knew it was very real.
He couldn't blame them. If he didn't have his abilities, he was sure he would find it as tough to swallow as they did. They weren't attuned to the Force the way he was. They didn't have prophetic dreams, the feeling of being called or drawn to a place or a person. Ben knew he could never properly explain, so he mostly didn't try anymore.
When finally, they found a decent spot to touch down safely, far enough from any kind of civilisation to not be spotted, but close enough they could walk into a nearby town and pick up supplies, Ben gazed out through the windshield and sighed.
Jakku. He never even heard of it until a few nights ago, when suddenly his senses were overwhelmed with the feelings of hot sun on his skin, sand blowing into his eyes, and a voice he had never heard before calling his name. He awoke in a cold sweat, sat bolt upright in his bunk, knowing only that somehow, for some unknown reason, he had to get to this place.
When his father talked about going to town, Chewbacca said he would stay behind to guard the ship and maybe patch up a couple of minor holes in the hull, caused by the brief battle with their former partners in crime. Ben was offered the choice to stay or go. As usual, he had his own third option he would rather choose.
"I'll scout the area, see if there's anyone or anything around here that we should be wary of."
He didn't say he would use the Force to his advantage, but it was implied. Though he had never honed his instincts or been trained in their use, he still had them all the same. Even his dad and uncle would admit he came in handy that way sometimes. It was why neither Han nor Chewbacca argued with him. His father just checked he had his blaster and communicator with him, then patted his shoulder, gave him a lop-sided smile, and they parted ways.
Ben set out walking with no particular destination in mind, and yet, he knew where he was going. More accurately, he knew who he was heading for. He felt her presence, heard her calling, in spite of the fact he was sure she wasn't actually yelling out loud. She wouldn't even know his name, not really, at least, he had to suppose she wouldn't. He didn't know her name yet, nor her face, nor anything about her, except that he was supposed to seek her out, that they simply had to find each other.
He must have walked miles, or maybe it just felt like it, and eventually, so distracted by his mission was Ben that he tripped on something hard in the sand and tumbled down a dune, head over heels, like a tumble-weed. When he finally landed, shaking his head to clear the confusion, he saw movement in the distance. A figure in ragged clothes. Scrambling to his feet, he dared to moved closer, noting she was younger than him, but a grown woman nonetheless. Quick on her feet, with good instincts herself, just as he expected. When she looked up at him and their eyes met, there was no doubt about it - this was the person he had been brought here to find.
Without doubt, she was the one. The significance she would have in his life would be great, that much was clear, but none of the how's or whys or wherefores were there yet. All Ben knew was he was destined to come here, fated to meet this scavenger girl. Of course, he hadn't realised she would have him at weapon's end when they met or be looking to maybe kill him in the ten seconds that followed.
"Who are you?" she asked, glaring at him over her pike, the sharp end now trained menacingly on his throat.
"My name is Ben," he told her, hands held up in a sign of surrender. "I don't want to hurt you. I was just..."
He didn't know how to tell her. It should be easy enough, just make some excuse. He had done it before with others. His father was actually proud of how well he could twist the truth and get himself out of a jam. Like father, like son. It worked well in their line of work, but this wasn't the same. She wasn't just another person that didn't matter. She was so far beyond that.
But how to explain? How to tell her he was here because he heard her calling to him in the night, in a dream that showed him her desert home but little else. She probably wouldn't believe him. At best, she would think he was crazy. He realised too late she probably already believed him entirely insane, just standing there staring like a fool.
"Do I know you?" she asked then, a crease of a frown appearing between her eyes.
His mouth opened to tell her no, then to tell her yes. Neither one seemed to be the correct response. Suddenly, Ben wished he hadn't taken this on alone. He could've talked to his mother, at least, maybe even Uncle Luke. Though he had never wanted to be trained in the ways of the Jedi, perhaps Ben ought to have had some better understanding of what his Force abilities truly entailed. What he was capable of, if he ever changed his mind about harnessing his gift.
"What is your name?" he asked softly then, taking a breath, meeting her eyes, projecting peace and calm the best he knew how.
"Rey," she told him, almost looking surprised that she had.
"Rey," he echoed back, smiling as he did so. "Like the sun."
She seemed confused by the comparison, or perhaps it was more about her own admission still. She hadn't meant to tell him who she was. She hadn't meant to lower her weapon either, he suspected, but Ben was sure he hadn't forced her hand or her voice into anything they didn't want to do. He only wanted her to know she was perfectly safe in trusting him, something he seemed to have gotten across, somehow.
"I don't understand," she admitted then. "Why would a stranger...?" she trailed off, shaking her head. "You're injured."
Ben was startled to realise she was right, following her gaze to his shoulder and noticing the rip in his jacket that was also in his shirt, a wound beneath that was oozing blood. He hadn't felt a thing when he fell, but did so now that he saw the gash. If he didn't know any better, he would almost think it was her presence that distracted him so easily from everything, even his own pain.
"You should let me clean it," she said, moving closer, her staff now loose in her hand as the other came up to better survey the damage at his shoulder. "There's no telling what might be in there, and out here... Come on, this way."
She led him the short distance to a burned-out freighter stuck into the sand dunes, a shelter of sorts, he supposed, and clearly the meagre place she called home. All her supplies were there, a sad collection of items, barely enough for a human to survive, but it was hers. She was protective of it all, Ben could feel that very strongly, and strangely, as she sat him down and crouched behind him to tend his wound, he almost felt she was protective of him too.
"You've never been to Jakku before, have you?" she said as she worked.
"No," Ben forced out, his throat seizing up the moment her fingers touched his skin, and his mind following in a second.
It was more than human contact, more than anything he had ever felt before. He still wasn't sure why he was there, what it was he was supposed to do or say when he finally met Rey, but he did know there was something remarkable between them. Some connection that made no sense and absolute sense all at the same time.
"It's so strange. I could have sworn I'd met you before, but obviously not."
There was humour in her voice, incredulity, a need to dismiss what she was feeling, because she couldn't quantify it, but she felt it. She felt the same thing that Ben felt, long before they ever met. Ever more so when they finally faced each other. Never more so than now as she patched up his injury, her breath tickling his ear as she leaned into him, finishing the job.
"There," she said, pressing her hand firmly but gently against the make-shift dressing. "That should hold for a while, but if you can get some real medical treatment, you should."
He turned around to look at her then, met her eyes and marvelled at what he saw in them. She was beautiful. Not just on the outside, but deep within her soul. He saw it. He felt it. The strength in her. The pain she had been through, the loss and the torment, none of which had ever managed to break her. She was more than she knew and he wished he could tell her, but Ben didn't have the words. If he could just let her know some other way, he was sure that he could...
"Are you absolutely sure I don't know you?" she asked again, eyes searching his face, mind reaching out tentatively to his own, but backing off at the last.
He felt her retreating, before she ever got to her feet and moved away, turned her back, tried not to think, not to feel. He knew why. She was afraid of what was happening. He wished he could convince her not to be, but saying too much, trying too hard, he risked pushing her further away. Ben knew already he would never, could never do that. Not now, not ever.
"You don't know what you're capable of, do you?"
He didn't mean to say it out loud, hardly knew he had until she turned sharply to look at him one more time.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Ben shook his head, about to say it didn't matter, when the communicator in his pocket suddenly crackled loudly. Making a grab for it, he put the speaker to his ear, trying to make out what was being said. It was nothing but garbled sound. Hitting the button, he hoped perhaps he could send a message even if he couldn't receive. No such luck. No matter how many times he yelled into it, nobody seemed to respond. All he could hear was static, save for a few words in a language he didn't understand. Must be crossed signals somewhere.
"The sky is turning," said Rey, taking his attention from the device in his hand. "The dark comes down quickly and brings the cold with it. If you set out looking for your people now..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "You could stay here for tonight, and then, in the morning, I'll take you wherever you need to go."
It was an extraordinary offer for a stranger to make, most especially a young woman to a man that had dropped into her life, unannounced and injured. Not that they were really strangers, not entirely, even if neither one knew exactly how to explain that. Maybe it didn't matter. Perhaps that was the point.
"Thank you," he said, smiling across at her, feeling warmer by degrees when she smiled back, despite nightfall coming down fast, just as she said it would.
The moment ended as quickly as it began, Rey suddenly in motion, laying down blankets, essentially making two beds for them, side by side on the ground. It wouldn't be the first time Ben had camped out in a such a place, but certainly the first when he was certain sleep would never take him, not with her so close by.
It was one of those rare occasions when his feelings about a situation were entirely wrong. Far from feeling on edge with her body barely three feet from his own, he began to feel calmer that he ever had in his whole life. Their breathing seemed to fall into synch without either of them making any effort to do it, and soon, Ben slipped into a deep and dreamless sleep, perhaps the best of his life.
Rey woke up feeling safe and warm in a way she had never known before. There was a calmness in her chest, a sensation of complete and all-encompassing peace throughout her entire being. She shifted to sit up and didn't even panic when she realised she was pinned down. No, that wasn't it. She wasn't being held against her will, encumbered by an unwanted weight. She was in the embrace of someone who wanted nothing but her safety and her comfort.
"Ben," she said softly, almost without meaning to, smiling even though she could never explain why or how it had come to be.
He was a stranger, her mind knew that, but her heart, her soul, something bigger she didn't even have a name for seemed to know better, to know things that she couldn't or shouldn't be aware of. It was not the first time she had wondered how she knew things, but it was certainly the first time she had been so sure of another person like this. So very, very certain.
Her hand moved over his arm that was wrapped tightly around her waist, his breathing and heartbeat were steady against her back, and Rey revelled in that feeling. This was what it was to belong with someone, to truly have a place in the galaxy. The realisation brought tears to her eyes. She hastily wiped them away, the moment the communicator crackled beside her. It woke Ben too and his arm slipped away from her. Rey sat up quickly, put all her focus on the device that was soon easily tuned to a channel where a voice could plainly be heard. It was calling Ben's name and he looked confused as she held it out to him.
"I never have slept a whole night through," she admitted in explanation. "When I woke up late in the night, I started playing with the wiring. I've always been good with this sort of thing. I didn't know if it was really fixed, until now."
She smiled as she put the communicator into his hand, then got to her feet, brushing sand from herself as she moved away. She had no idea who was calling for Ben. He could have a gang, a group, a family even. All Rey knew for sure was that he was going to leave her today. He was going to talk to his friend, his partner, his boss, his father, whoever the man was on the other end of the line, and then that was it.
She felt colder than ever before at the very idea, hugging herself for any scant warmth she could find, but it did no good. Not until she felt his sudden presence at her back once more. Rey's eyes closed a second before he spoke her name.
"Thank you for fixing the communicator. My father's ship is close-by, he should be within sight before long..."
"That's good," she said too loudly, turning to face him with the world's biggest, brightest, fakest smile on her lips. "You can go home."
That should have made him happy, but his eyes were troubled. He stared at her so hard, she was sure he could read every thought from her mind, every scar on her heart, the very real ache that ran right through her soul at the idea of his going. Maybe he really could. She would believe him if he said so. She truly would, no matter how ridiculous it seemed.
"Rey, would you...? You could come with us, with me," he said, his hand reaching out to her.
"W-why would I want to do that?"
She wanted him to tell her, because though she wanted to say yes, Rey had no idea why that was. She wished that she knew, that she had a concrete reason for the strange feeling he invoked in her. Trusting her instincts was how she had survived this long, and she did want to trust him, based on that alone. Still, to leave everything she had ever known, however unappealing it was to continue on as she was, it was too much to ask. Too much without an answer to her question at least.
If Ben had one to give, she was not destined to hear it. Moments before the shouting and laser fire began, she felt the coming of it, but not soon enough. It was too late, they were under attack and evasive action must be taken.
Of course, she recognised them. The Teedo she had chased off the day before, liberating his quarry who did not deserve to be captured by the brute. He had brought some friends, all much bigger species than himself, to make her pay for what he saw as insolence. Rey would like to think she could have fought them off alone, but six against one were not odds she much liked. With Ben at her side, she had not one ounce of fear in her.
He wielded a blaster with aplomb, and with staff in hand, she put her back against his own, as they fought off the attackers. One by one the enemy fell into the sand, and little by little, they stopped getting back up. When finally, there was only one left, Rey and Ben faced him together, the largest of the posse looming over them. Ben aimed his blaster, but it jammed. Rey raised her staff and readied herself for the fight of her life, when suddenly a blaster bolt cut through from the left and the giant toppled like a felled tree.
Rey turned quickly to see an older man stood there, his blaster still in his hand. Behind him, a Wookie wielding a bowcaster spoke up.
"Hey, I'm sorry you missed out on your chance to get into the fight, but I guarantee we'll find ourselves in plenty more. We always do," his human companion said ruefully. "Besides, it was my son's life being threatened."
Rey looked between the two strangers and Ben, putting two and two together with ease. Moving aside, she cleared the path between the two men, watching with interest as Ben's father approached him.
"You have an amazing knack for finding trouble, son," he said, holstering his blaster and looking pissed.
Still, two seconds later, he was pulling Ben into his arms, hugging him tightly and slapping his back. His eyes fell on his wounded shoulder then and he tutted at the sight of the bandages.
"Come on, let's get you back to your mother. She'll skin me alive when she finds out about all this," he grumbled, leading his son away.
Slipping out from under his arm, Ben turned back to look at Rey, who was just then beginning to give up hope. When their eyes locked through the haze of heat and smoke from the fire-fight, Rey knew she was wrong to ever doubt him. Ben would never forsake her as her parents had done, as so many others had done since then. Never, ever.
"She's coming with us," he told his father, though his eyes never left Rey's own.
She smiled in agreement, making hard work of her approach, as she noticed the blood trickling down her leg. She wasn't expecting help, unused as she was to being offered any, but in a moment, Ben was there, literally sweeping her up into his arms like a true hero. Perhaps she didn't need quite that much help, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him so, instead just locking her arms around his neck as he carried her effortlessly.
"This is Rey," he explained, walking alongside his father and the Wookie.
"And she's coming with us, yeah, I got that part," his father said for him.
Over the next rise, a ship waited, one that Rey recognised, though she had never seen it in person before. Her gasp was clearly audible, though she hadn't meant for it to be, as she realised what she was seeing, who she had met.
"You... You're Han Solo," she said to Ben's father. "The famous smuggler! This is the Millenium Falcon! You made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs."
"Twelve," he corrected her sharply, though he seemed pleased enough to be recognised, hitting a button to lower the ramp so they might gain entry to the famous ship. "Welcome aboard, Rey," he said then, rubbing a hand across his face. "I don't pretend to understand what any of this is about, but hey, if Ben says you're good people, I know it's true. He's never wrong about these things," he said, with a knowing look.
As Ben brought her onto the ship, Rey was also properly introduced to the co-pilot, the surprisingly friendly Wookie who Han told her was named Chewbacca. The pair headed straight for the bridge to take them out of the world, while Ben brought Rey into a ramshackle medical room and placed her carefully into a chair.
Immediately, he fetched supplies, then sat close by and began to clean and patch her wound, just as she had done for him the night before. Just as she would do again, here aboard the ship, where they had better antiseptic and bandages than she had to hand planetside.
As Ben worked on her leg, his fingers against the skin near her wound caused the same sparks Rey had felt when she had patched his shoulder. Something more than simply the human contact she had been denied too long. Something deep and strong and good in ways she didn't have words for, only overwhelming feelings she could never explain.
When finally the job was done and Ben looked up, meeting her eyes, Rey knew she could never tell him everything nor ask all the questions that swirled in her mind. None of it mattered, not really. Her heart and soul knew better than her head. She didn't need him to tell her anything at all, well, except perhaps for one thing.
"What are you?" she asked, unsure she had phrased it right, but somehow sure it wouldn't matter.
"A smuggler..." Ben told her, just this side of awkward as he continued his confession, "who is a little Force sensitive," he admitted, squirming before correcting himself. "Maybe a lot Force sensitive."
Rey nodded her head. She knew that. She would say she didn't know how, but that wasn't true either. Whatever sensitivity he had to the Force, there was a good chance that she had it too. What other explanation could there be for how they had come to meet like this? Of course, their great cosmic connection was not the reason for all the feelings that Ben evoked in her. After all, he was tall, dark, and handsome, good in a fight, yet gentle as anything when he tended to her wound, when he held her in his arms last night...
She was hardly aware she was leaning closer or that he was doing the same, until suddenly Rey heard a voice behind her. She pulled very decidedly away from Ben, just as his father entered the room.
"We got away clean," Han explained. "Hyperdrive's actually in pretty good shape, so we should be back home in a few hours. Everything okay here?"
"Yes, thank you," Rey said fast, just as Ben muttered; "We're fine, Dad."
There were a few awkward moments when he looked back and forth between them, then one single nod and he turned on his heel, exiting the room as quickly as he came in. Rey let out a breath she hardly knew she had been holding, not knowing how to draw in another when she turned and found Ben much closer than before, right there in the next seat over.
"I told you what I am," he said softly. "What are you?"
Rey swallowed hard and shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted shakily. "I've never known who I am or where I belong."
The tears building behind her eyes were beyond her control, ever more so when he asked her his next question and held out a hand for her to take, if she wanted to.
"Do you want to find out?"
Without hesitation, Rey nodded her head, a smile on her lips as she placed her hand into Ben's own, startled, thrilled, and steadied all at once by the feeling that passed through her then.
Their journey would be a long one and they shared a bad feeling that they were going to uncover secrets that wouldn't be pleasant for either of them. Still, at the end of it all, they would have the truth, and they would always have each other from now on, so it would be worth any trouble that came their way - Ben and Rey were both equally sure of that.
The End
