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He pretended he didn’t know her routine. How she’d slowly walk up to the cookie counter and wait for the attendants to turn their backs, then speed up and grab two samples of the latest cookie they were trying to push. He would pretend not to watch her through the mountains of merchandise as she entered the blue and yellow store. He pretended he wasn’t listening for her light laughter when she greeted the young customers that would flock her way. Ben Solo pretended not to notice the girl in khaki pants elbow deep in ribbons and bears.
“Did you hear?” Phasma nearly yelled into his ear.
“I can’t hear anything over this kriffing loud music,” Ben scowled as he rang up another black shirt.
Hot Topic, it was the only place in the mall that would hire him based on how he looked. His hair was too long for department stores, and his mix of gages and eyeliner didn’t fit in at the Disney Store. Not to mention the god awful music they played at most places. At least here it was decent, even if the volume was so loud he could hardly hear.
“Do you want to know the news or not?”
“Yeah, knock yourself out.” Ben’s eyes scanned the door, and he told himself he was looking for new customers, not across the hall at the girl with three buns in her hair.
“Three words, Star Wars bears!” Phasma’s gaze drifted to where he was pretending not to look, Build-A-Bear Workshop.
“Please, Ben would never risk his bad boy persona to step foot in there. Even if he is the biggest fanboy in this store.” Hux joked while he folded band shirts.
“I think you’re right Hux, Ben wouldn’t risk his ego to buy a stuffed teddy of Darth Vader,” Phamsa cackled as she slinked by Ben and into the store room.
“Not to mention that he’d have to talk to a certain brunette.” Ben’s pale face flushed red upon hearing that his infatuation with a certain mall employee hadn’t gone unnoticed by his co-workers.
“Don’t act like you don’t want one of those bears either.” He scans the storefront window to see the latest limited edition bears being put on display. “They have them in stormtroopers too. I know you and Phasma would go gaga over those.”
“Tell you what, I’ll give you money to go buy the stormtrooper bear during your lunch break. I know an avid collector like you won’t want to risk your favorite character going out of stock.” Ben’s ears flush red again, only this time in anger.
Before he could respond, Phamsa came back out with a certain shirt size a customer needed and her on thoughts on the matter. “I’ll give you money too, for reasons I would not like to go into, I’m not allowed in that particular location anymore.”
“You two are insufferable. I’m not spending my lunch break buying stupid bears!” Ben seethed, while possibly scaring two tween girls looking at Disney princess merchandise.
“Oh you are, otherwise I’m telling that girl you like your little obsession with her.” Hux taunted.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Aw, someone has a crush!” Phasma played along in a sing-song voice.
“It’s not like you watch her arrive and leave, and it’s not like you tried to get the same work hours as her’s.”
“You memorized her schedule? Wow, stalker much Ben?” Phasma joked on her way to greet new customers.
“I hate you both!”
+++++
There was nothing Rey hated more about her job than the stuffing machine. It was loud, hot, and almost always needed fixing after the day was done, but she was the only one who could consistently get it to work so she was stuck with it for most of her shift.
It should be noted that while Rey absolutely hated the stuffing machine, she liked her job. There was something about bringing a stuffed animal to life, while watching the joy on someone’s face as she did, that brought her happiness. It also helped that her closest friends, Poe, Finn, and Jessika worked alongside her.
“Oh wow! I love the animal you chose.” Rey couldn’t help but smile when a three year old came up to her clutching a bunny.
“Bunnies are my favorite,” her small voice said as she peaked out from behind her mom’s leg.
“Go ahead and pick a heart and repeat after me.” After a heart was chosen Rey ran through the heart ceremony she knew by heart and helped the little girl stuff her rabbit.
“Hey Rey!” Finn called from across the store.
“Yeah?”
“Do you say ‘now rub it on your toes so it’ll be totally awesome,’ or ‘now rub it on your toes so it’ll be toe-ally awesome?’”
“Both, I like to mix it up.”
“I’m sure you could recite the entire mantra in your sleep,” Jessika joked bringing out a new box of Star Wars bears.
“With how often I’m stuck on stuffer duty I bet I could,” her snarky reply came.
“It’s not like we break the machine, it just doesn’t like working for us.” Finn said as he defended his lack of stuffing time.
“It’s legitimately a button and a pedal, and 90% of the time the kids push the pedal.”
“And yet 90% of the stuffing accidents happen when we’re using it.” Poe pointed out.
“If you two would spend less time flirting and more time paying attention to the bear then it wouldn’t happen!”
“I pay plenty attention to the job, the machine just doesn’t like me,” Finn grumbled as he watched the little girl pick out a dress for her bunny.
“Jessika I’m going to need you on the other stuffing line, so let’s aim for no accidents today. Look who just walked in.”
Just when she thought the day was starting to come to a lull, a big group of kids walked in with parents who paid more attention to their phones than the havoc their children would wreck on the store. Rey should have known better, new release days are always met with big crowds.
“How can I help you?” Poe walked up to the group with a big smile and fear in his eyes.
As they almost always do, the kids ignored Poe and ran straight for the bins filled with unstuffed animals. Rey could almost picture the mess they would leave behind now. One ran up to the stuffing machine and pressed his faces against the glass, mesmerized by the falling stuffing. When he was called back to pick his animal, there were marks left by his cheeks and nose.
Through all the chaos of rowdy children with a lack of supervision, Rey noticed someone she never thought would step foot in a Build-A-Bear Workshop. He was somewhat familiar to Rey. After all, she had seen him most days across the mall in the Hot Topic.
She didn’t know what to think of him. His jeans, gages, and eyeliner screamed teenage angst, but his face and hair didn’t match her initial age estimate. She nearly laughed out loud at his overall presence. His overall demeanor completely contrasted with the store’s.
Rey couldn’t help but spy at the Hot Topic employee as he carefully craned his neck down in search of something. It did not completely surprise her when he picked up a Darth Vader bear, for his lanyard was covered in Star Wars buttons. However, it did puzzle her on why he needed two stormtrooper bears. Maybe he just really liked stuffed animals. Rey couldn’t help but giggle to herself at the thought of a man like that having a collection of stuffed animals.
“Did you find the perfect friend today?” Rey asked in a chirpy voice when he came up to the stuffing station.
“Uh yeah,” he mumbled handing over the bears to her. Only Rey wouldn’t accept them just yet.
“Your bears need hearts silly, go ahead and pick one out for each of your new friends.” She gestured over to the bin full of red, satin hearts.
He quickly plucked the first two off the pile, then took time to pick out the third. As he did so, Rey couldn’t help but read the name off his lanyard, Ben. She was struck by how ordinary of a name it was. In her mind she thought he’d have an edgy name to match his edgy persona.
Ben then went to stick the hearts into the bears, but before he could she once again intervened. “I need you to repeat after me.”
+++++
Ben Solo felt like an idiot standing in that store. He towered over everything, and he nearly had to go on his knees to comfortably get the Darth Vader bear in the best condition. As for Hux and Phasma’s bears, he just took the ones on the top of the pile. He didn’t think he could embarrass himself anymore, but a certain brunette with a wide smile and a nametag that read Rey was determined to fix that.
“Repeat after you?” Ben hadn’t been to a Build-A-Bear before, so the entire process was foreign to him.
“Your new friends have hearts, but before they can go into the bears you have to do the heart ceremony for each one.”
“Heart ceremony?”
“I take it this is your first time to perform one. Don’t worry it’s not hard just do what I do and say what I say.” Rey picked up a heart herself to demonstrate. “Now rub it on your head so it will be smart.”
“Wait, what does that have to do with a heart?” Ben demanded looking across to see if his insufferable co-workers were watching him make a fool of himself. Sure enough they were watching and Ben suddenly realized the reason he was sent to get all of their bears.
“The heart is the soul of these bears, so it’s very important that we do this.” The look of seriousness and determination on her face was so cute Ben couldn’t help but comply and rub the stupid satin heart along his forehead.
“Now rub it on your bicep so it will be nice and strong!” The charisma in her voice led Ben to think that she truly believed that if he didn’t rub the heart on his arm, the bears would be weaklings.
Once he completed that step, Rey had him rub his stomach so his bear wouldn’t be hungry, tap the heart to each of his feet so it’d be toe-ally awesome, and touch it to his ear so it would be a good listener. He hesitated at the next task. “Did you say kiss?”
“Of course! Give it a kiss and then hold the bear’s heart up to your heart so it will know how much it’s loved.” Rey demonstrated this without breaking the smile off her face.
Ben looked back at Hot Topic, and his suspicions were correct. Both Phasma and Hux had their phones out and were recording the whole ordeal. As the manager Ben was mad no one was watching the register, but he was even angrier being recorded doing something so humiliating. He sighed and followed her instructed and then handed the heart to the girl.
“And who is this going into?” Rey asked with her hand out stretched.
“I guess this one,” he handed her his bear first.
“Awesome! Now since this is your first time, I insist that you help me stuff this little guy.”
“I don’t think I’m qualified to do this.” Even Ben knew how lame of an excuse this was.
“Nonsense, even our youngest customers can push a pedal. It’s simple, all you have to do is push this pedal and when I say stop we’ll give this bear a squeeze and see if you like firmness of him.”
He looked over to the other side of the machine where another girl was helping out a little boy stuff a bear. Sure enough he was doing it all by himself. He quickly came to the conclusion that the less he argued about the childish things Rey was making him do, the faster he could get the hell out of the store.
“So I just step on this pedal?”
“Yes, easy as pie! Let me just put the bear on the nozzle, and when I say go you can step on it.” Ben watched as she maneuvered his bear around a pump. “Okay go!”
Ben had to stifle a laugh when he put on the pedal. Just the ball of his foot completely covered the machine. Even so he stepped on it and watched as the limp body became full with stuffing. “Go ahead and give him a hug.” Rey smiled up at him.
Ben awkwardly hugged the bear to his chest. His hand alone was nearly as big as its back. “Feels good.”
“Awesome, now let’s take care of the rest of your friends.”
+++++
“No way,” Rey’s giant customer protested when she gave him another heart to a ceremony with.
“Don’t you want your new friends to have a nice, full heart?” She asked him. In all honestly Rey was a little offended that the edgelord thought he was too good to perform the heart ceremony again.
“That guy is mine,” he gestured to the bear tucked under his arm. “These two are for my coworkers. They gave me money to come get these for them, and since they intend to use the video they took of me doing the heart ceremony as blackmail, I’m not to keen on giving them more material to use against me.”
“Well that’s not nice,” Rey frowns at his story.
“I know, so I’d rather not do the ceremony if you don’t mind.”
“I understand, hand those to me and I’ll finish them up real quick. Why don’t you wash your bear and then pick out some clothes.” She suggested to Ben.
“Thanks so much,” for the first time since he walked into the store he smiled. Not even a closed lip half smile to be polite. His smile was a full on grin that made her stomach do a funny flop.
“Y-Yeah, no problem.” Throughout his entire time in the store Ben had flushed different shades of red depending on how embarrassed he was, and with a simple smile Rey’s cheeks turned a slight pink that could only be noticed if one paid close attention.
Rey couldn’t help but glance up at him while she stuffed the two bears. It wasn’t hard, due to his height he towered over most of the displays. She bit back a laugh as he meticulously gave his bear a “bath.” He used one of the provided brushes and the air from the nozzles to carefully fluff the fur on his bear. After sewing up the other stuffed animals she carried them over to Ben.
“Here you go, have a nice day.” Rey gave him the same dazzling smile that she gave all her other customers, but it felt more genuine than it did all day.
“You too, nice to meet you Rey.” He flashed her half grin.
“Nice to meet you too.”
+++++
Ben nearly did a double take on his way out of the store. There, halfway concealed by a plant near the bench she was sitting on, was Rey. This was not part of her routine. Moreover, quickly getting up when she saw Ben was not part of her routine.
“Hey!” She called up coming up to him.
“Uh hey!” Ben was keenly aware of the blush that threatened to migrate from his ears to his cheeks.
“So this isn’t something I usually do, but the curiosity was eating me alive. Well, eating all of us alive really.” She nervously tucked a piece of hair behind her hear.
“Wait, what do you mean?”
“The bears. I mean we can’t agree if you’re an avid fanboy of Star Wars, or if you have a secret stuffed animal collection and needed new additions.”
“Well what’s your money on?”
“To tell you the truth. I think it’s a bit of both. I think that you have more stuffed animals than people think you do, but they’re all Star Wars related.”
“Your theory is pretty close,” Ben chuckled. “However, I only collect Darth Vader.”
“Why is that?” she asked, and in that moment Ben saw an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“Why don’t I tell you over coffee. My shift just ended.” He noticed that this time Rey was the one with red ears.
“I’d like that.” Once again she flashed that dazzling grin that made Ben’s heart stop and his stomach drop.
+++++
A week had passed since they went out for coffee, and Rey insisted that she got to choose the next place. Ice cream wasn’t very practical in the transition from fall to winter, but for some reason they went back the next day. Before she entered Build-A-Bear she would look back at Hot Topic. Sometimes he’d be near the front and exchange smiles.
It was an awkward dance they were playing, neither had the courage to ask for a phone number. Although Rey had let her curiosity get the best of her and looked him up on online for causal internet stalking.
“You like him,” Jessika had snuck up behind her causing Rey to gasp in alarm.
“You’re pointing out the obvious Jess, but if we’re being obvious he likes her back.” Finn glanced over at Hot Topic.
“We’re just friends, cut it out!”
“Yeah, Finn and I started as ‘just friends.’ Less than a month in and I was taking him to meet my parents.”
“I don’t even have his phone number. We’ve only hung out like three times,” Rey defends herself.
“With plans for a fourth in the future I presume,” Jessika winked at her.
“That’s none of your business.” Rey paused. “My love life, or lack thereof, is no one’s business except my own.”
“Maybe it’s just your own, but I think you friend wants to be involved. He’s coming this way.” Poe nodded his head to the doorway that Ben was currently walking through.
Before she had a chance to react Jessika pushed her towards his direction. Causing her to trip over her feet and fall against his broad chest.
“Are you okay there?” Ben gently pushed her up by her shoulders.
“Yeah, my coworkers are just being difficult.” She shot them a glare. “Anyway, what do you need?”
“I’m actually here for collecting reasons, I heard some new accessories came in.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck as he looked around.
“Well you know where to find them.”
“Rey sit here, you’re on stuffing duty.” Jessika forced her to sit by the machine.
“What, nobody is even here!” she protested.
“No fighting, stuff. Oh look here comes a family now, you’re on duty!”
Rey eyed Jessika suspiciously when she walked over to Finn and whispered something into his ear. Their conversation was short, but both parties nodded their head in agreement. Rey’s stomach twisted up, for she knew that her friends were planning something to embarrass her.
She couldn’t afford to pay attention to her friends. Any mishaps on the stuffing machine would result in a snow like explosion that would take a while to clean up. So Rey focused on making it the best and fastest experience she could for the little boy who ironically enough, chose a Darth Vader teddybear. She looked over to the register while she sewed up the bear. Finn was grinning at Ben, meanwhile Ben just started at his receipt confused. By the time she had finished up the stuffing process, he had already left the store.
“What was that?” Rey whispered into Jessika’s ear.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. He bought a toy lightsaber and an outfit for his bear. Finn rang him up, and I was doing inventory the entire time.”
Rey scowled and looked back to Finn, ready to confront him. As luck would have it he was busy ringing up the family, but it wouldn’t take longer than a few minutes. She tapped her foot waiting for the moment to pounce.
The moment they left the store, Finn started talking before she could. “I didn’t embarrass you. I was just speeding things along.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wrote down your phone number on the receipt.”
“You did what ?!”