Author's Note: Heyyyy, wouldja look at who it is! My new favorite ship to write!

It'll be interesting to see how long this Reylo obsession phase lasts. Usually when I watch movies on like Friday Night movie night, I'm super on-fire and wanting to write fanfiction. But by the time I wake up, it's all gone.

Kinda hoping all my inspiration for them isn't gone when I wake up tomorrow... but if it is I guess I'll still have these three fics :)

Kylo Ren didn't like holiday parties. They were crowded and stuffy and generally smelled like pine and food... which under normal circumstances would be fine, pleasant, even. But at holiday parties? No way.

At least Rey was there. Standing in the corner holding a glass of disgustingly sweet (but spiked) eggnog and watching her float around from person to person, practically glowing with holiday spirit and happiness, wasn't the worst way to spend an evening. Kylo found that at parties he was perfectly free to watch Rey as much as he wanted, considering that no one ever seemed to pay attention to him.

He didn't entirely blame the Rebels for avoiding him. He had destroyed quite a few planets and individuals before turning over a new leaf and helping Rey to save the galaxy. But some people (including himself, most days), couldn't see beyond the past. There would always be people on the Rebel Base that hated Kylo Ren with everything in them, and he had gotten used to it by now.

Thankfully for him, Rey was not one of those people. She was easily the most forgiving, loving, incredible woman he had ever met. And she was also, in his eyes, completely and totally off-limits. Because Rey was... Rey. She was a hero. She was the last Jedi. She was the one who should have been born into the Skywalker lineage instead of him. She was everything to the Rebels, and everyone loved her. How could Kylo possibly compete with everyone?

So he hung back on the outskirts of the loud, overwhelming holiday party and cringed through his eggnog, and wished that he had a chance with the girl of his dreams (both literally and figuratively).

Rey turned then, a smile still glowing on her face from the conversation with Finn and Rose she had just left. Her eyes caught Kylo's and he felt his cheeks heat up with embarrassment at being caught staring. He ducked his gaze and stared into his mug instead.

"Hey."

When Kylo looked up again, Rey was only a few feet away from him. How she had managed to get across the room and through everyone was beyond him. He cleared his throat, trying to get himself in order. "Uh... hey."

Rey grinned, the sort of uncontrollable smile she always gave him when he'd said something awkward or dorky (which happened a lot, honestly). "Enjoying the party?"

"No," Kylo admitted with a wince, though he had the distinct feeling that she'd already known that. "I, uh... don't know how welcome I am here."

"Don't let them get to you," Rey advised, reaching forward to awkwardly slug Kylo on the bicep. It was all very bro-y and cringy and Kylo winced again. "If they don't see you how I do then that's their problem."

Kylo smiled faintly at her, warmed a little by her words. "I.. appreciate that."

"Anytime," Rey shrugged, before glancing over her shoulder at the crowd. "Hey, wanna dance?"

His gaze shot up to meet hers, eyes wide with surprise. "Um... not really?"

"Oh." Rey's face fell and she scrunched her mouth. "Uh, okay. Never mind."

"It's not... you," Kylo said, making sure she knew. "If I would dance with anyone here it would be you. I just, um... don't really dance."

"Gotcha," Rey said, the smile returning to her face as she raised her eyebrows at him. "Then should we go get more eggnog?"

"The eggnog is disgusting," Kylo groaned, but quickly corrected himself when he saw the exasperation on her face. She was trying. He was not. What was wrong with him? He needed to stop resisting if he even wanted a chance of anything to happen between them. "Uh, I mean, yes, definitely, sure. More eggnog sounds... great."

Rey rolled her eyes, but turned and led the way to the bar. A few alien bar staff refilled their glasses, and the two of them turned to rest their backs on the edge of the counter and stare out at the party.

"I love parties like this," Rey said softly. "I mean, I spent so much time alone growing up. Seeing all these people who I care about in one place, all so happy? I just love it." She looked over at him. "And you, sir, were ruining that aesthetic. Why were you so grumpy over there in the corner all alone?"

"Because I was alone," Kylo blurted, glancing sharply over at her. "That is to say... because you weren't... with me."

Rey sent him a fond smile. "You could have come over," she said. "Finn and Rose are totally cool with you by now. I'm sure they would have loved to have another person to tell about their fledgling relationship. They've almost run out of people to regal with stories about their amazing first date."

Unable to resist, Kylo snorted with laughter. "You put up with a lot," he said. "From all of these people. And you just... take it, and still look so... happy."

"I am happy," Rey told him with a shrug. "And the fact that Finn and Rose are so happy makes me happy, too. If they want to tell me about their relationship then that's fine, because I'm just grateful they're in my life." She shrugged again, and looked over at Kylo with that same fond smile. "I'm grateful you're in my life, too, by the way."

Kylo swallowed almost audibly. "Uh, I- I am... grateful. As well. For you," he replied stiffly, unsure of how to order his words in the same easy way Rey just had. "And the Rebel Base, as... trying as it may be to live here some days."

Rey's smile turned a little more sympathetic, and she reached over. She was just about to touch him when Finn and Rose appeared through the crowd. "Hey guys!" Rose greeted brightly, her hand entwined with Finn's. "How's it going? Kylo, are you seriously drinking that eggnog? It's disgusting."

"It really is," Kylo agreed, relieved that someone else felt the same way. He quickly put the glass down behind him on the bar, ready to be rid of it. "Uh... how are you two?"

"Oh, we're great," Finn said with a grin, looking over at Rose with a lovey, contented look on his face.

Rose nodded her agreement, smiling back at him. "We were really just coming over here because, you know... if you were just gonna waste good mistletoe by standing under it and not kissing, we figured we might as well bump you outta the way."

Rey suddenly started coughing and Kylo's gaze shot up to the ceiling. Sure enough, there was a sprig of mistletoe hanging above them, unnoticed by both. He felt a blush creeping up his neck, making the itchy red sweater he had forced himself into (there was no point in giving people yet another thing to silently shame him for. He couldn't control his past, but he could look festive) even more uncomfortable.

"So...?" Finn urged, still grinning as he took in the looks on their face. "You guys gonna kiss or can we have your spot?"

"I mean." Rey glanced over at Kylo and he was surprised to see how bashful she looked. "I mean, we could. If you... want."

"We could kiss?" Kylo confirmed dumbly, feeling his entire body seize up with panic. It wasn't that he didn't want to kiss Rey (he really, really did), it was more that... here, with so many people watching, was not exactly where he had envisioned their first kiss.

"Um... yeah," Rey agreed awkwardly. She took a half-step forward and looked up at the mistletoe. "I mean, it's mistletoe, right? We kind of have to. Because it's mistletoe. And the holidays. And... yeah."

"Right," Kylo replied. He cleared his throat and put a semi-stiff hand on Rey's shoulder. She glanced down at it with a raised eyebrow and he tried to relax a little. "Um, so..."

"Oh my gosh would you two just kiss already?" Rose pleaded and Kylo jumped. Somehow he had managed to forget that she and Finn were literally standing right there, staring at them.

Kylo cleared his throat again and then ducked down to press his lips quickly against Rey's.

Or, well, it was supposed to be quick (because, again, they were in public and this was weird and people would talk and-), but Rey's hand came to rest on the back of Kylo's neck and suddenly she was deepening the kiss and by the time they had actually pulled apart there were quite a few people staring.

Rose grinned widely. "Well that was quite the show," she snickered, before offering up her hand for Finn to high-five it. "Good job orchestrating, love."

"Team effort," Finn replied graciously, accepting the high-five.

Rey stared at them incredulously. "You- but how could you- you couldn't plan where the mistletoe was gonna be."

Finn shrugged. "Well, we put it up everywhere, just in case. If we had needed to do some shoving that would have been fine with us, just as long as you two ended up underneath that mistletoe." He rolled his eyes at Rey and Kylo's expressions. "Come on you guys. You think you're the only one suffering because you haven't gotten together? No. Everyone is suffering." He started to back away dramatically. "Everyoneeeee..."

Once Finn and Rose (who was laughing a little too hard, in Kylo's opinion) had disappeared back into the crowd, Rey turned back to Kylo. "So..." she said, brushing her hair behind her ear awkwardly. "We, uh... fell into their little trap, huh?"

"We're really that obvious?" Kylo asked to no one in particular, still stuck on the fact that Rose and Finn had noticed his feelings for Rey (that were apparently returned) that they had actually orchestrated them kissing under a mistletoe.

Rey snorted. "I mean... I wasn't exactly trying to hide it," she admitted, before reaching out and taking his hand. "And I guess that wasn't so bad, huh?"

It most certainly was not. In fact, none of this was that bad.

Even the holiday party.

Author's Note: Dang that was LONG for this story!

I'm starting a drabble series with the two of them (that I'll probably start posting after the holidays because we have enough craziness as it is right now), and I might cross-post this story there. Just because... tbh I don't think anyone's going to find this story unless they follow me and happen to like Star Wars and see the chapter title.

Sigh... I so wish I was on AO3. I could add soooo many shipping tags to this story. But WHATEVER... XD