Chapter Text
It was a now a good few hours after sunset, and Ben and Rey had spent much of the day in meetings with Poe, Finn and a few of the Alliance’s intelligence officers, thrashing out ideas for locating and apprehending Hux. Ben had suggested embedding some operatives on Aurelia to monitor activities there, while Rey mentioned the possibility of making contact with Invigio, and determining his receptiveness to helping them.
After sitting in a stuffy room for close on six hours Poe stood up and rolled his neck, “Right I think that will do for today.” The Alliance officers collected up various data pads and took their leave. “Luckily for you two, and me, they are very good at putting together reports.” Poe said, shooting a grin towards Rey and Ben. Rey resisted the urge to throw something at him. Poe clapped his hands together with finality, “Right then. Let’s get some dinner, I’m starving!” “No complaints from me,” said Ben, standing and stretching.
Leaving the others to make their way to Poe’s part of the estate, Finn ducked into his apartment to see if Rose had eaten yet.
“I had been waiting to hear from you” she said with a slight note of irritation. “But you forgot to ping me on the comm to say you’d be late and tell me to go ahead and eat. Paige is all fed and down… for now.”
Finn looked sheepish, “Sorry, things got away from us a bit. We’re just on our way down to Poe’s dining room; he’s gone to see if Chef will rustle up something for us.”
“Good luck to him”, laughed Rose. The head chef was notorious for being a stickler about meal times. Often they’d had to resort to taking things into their own hands and fend for themselves. Unfortunately the only thing the chef hated more than non adherence to his designated mealtimes, was interlopers in his kitchen. Not a day went by when a passive aggressive message was relayed to them regarding the sanctity of his pantry and ingredients. Rose suspected that more than half the time little tidbits went missing it was Poe, the rest of the time, it was unquestionably the children.
“He’s taken Ben with him, I think Poe’s hoping his imposing presence will be enough to weaken Chef’s resolve.” Rose stood up laughing, “You know, I’m not sure that even an envoy consisting of Kylo Ren, Lord Snoke, and Darth Vader himself would make Chef waver.”
“You may be right, but Poe will have to make do with Ben and his best glower.” replied Finn with a chuckle as he checked on Paige’s room monitor; tying it into his comm. He offered Rose his arm, “Shall we?”
Dinner was a small informal affair. Chef had relented. But refused to prepare any more than two courses, which more than suited the diners; and was in fact somewhat of a relief. The spreads the chef usually insisted on laying out were often more than they could handle, especially given their previous culinary experiences; consisting as they did of Stormtrooper rations, Resistance MREs and veg-meat and starch-carb ration portions. In the end he threw together a rice and pulse dish with various peppers and chopped gourd flesh; someone had eaten all the cold meats, he had grumbled darkly and somewhat pointedly. As they ate, they wondered aloud as to what the Chef would do if ever confronted with the meals they'd endured in what, now, seemed like another life.
“What about higher up the chain, Ben. What were your meals like?” Rose asked.
Ben, who had kept silent for most of the meal, nudged a particularly spicy pepper around his dish, and looked up at being addressed directly for the first time.
Sweet Rose, thought Rey to herself, glad that her friend was making an effort to engage Ben and try draw him into the easy camaraderie that they enjoyed. She leaned over and snagged the pepper from Ben’s plate, popping it in her month while giving him a wicked grin.
He took a deep breath and looked directly at Rose, “To be honest, it wasn’t really much better than what the troops had.”
“Oh really?” Said Poe, incredulously. “I don’t see Hux as a plain meat and stew kind of guy.”
“He probably isn’t,” conceded Ben, "but I never ate with him. I never spent any time with him if I could help it. It’s more than possible that he was enjoying quite lavish spreads. I was content with simple, nutritious meals.”
“Bland,” interjected Rey, her mouth full of hot pepper.
“Exactly,” agreed Ben with a small smile.
“So then, Aurelia, what did you think of the place? ” asked Poe, leaning back in his chair, a glass of the local vintage in his hand.
Rey looked at Ben and puffed out her cheeks, “Overblown and decadent. You’d love it there.”
Poe laughed, “Well I’ll probably be due a vacation at some point. Might be worth showing up, throwing my weight around, shmoozing, sampling the delights…”
Poe waved his glass towards Ben, “I seem to remember your parents' friend, Lando, getting into some serious trouble for dealing in Aurelian Truffles.” At the mention of his parents, Ben tensed momentarily but it quickly passed.
Ben leaned forward “You remember that?”
Poe grinned, “How could I forget, we, I mean, kids were palling together to buy one between themselves and well…” He grinned.
“What are Aurelian Truffles? What’s the big deal with them?” asked Finn, confusion on his face.
Poe leaned back in his chair again, “They are quite ordinary truffles made with Aurelian liquor which just happens to be a ridiculously, insanely, potent aphrodisiac. Needless to say It’s illegal for them to be exported. Well it was back then.” He suddenly sat forward. “I’m not sure what the situation is now. I may need to check on that.”
Rose let out a shriek “Oh my gods! You had some as a kid, that explains so much!”
“No, that’s just me” returned Poe with a smirk. Finn and Rose crumpled up with laughter and Ben just shook his head, a grin stealing across his face. This is nice, he though to Rey. She squeezed his hand. His revelation that he had spent most of his free time, if any, while in the First Order, alone had made her heart ache for him. Their experiences, while so different, were so similar.
The laughter eventually subsided somewhat, and with a wicked grin, Poe turned towards Ben and Rey, “Well? By all accounts you two attended some pretty fancy shindigs while you were out there; did you try them?”
“Not by choice” said Rey. Poe raised an eyebrow. “Look, I’m a scavenger from a desert planet. I am not good at buffets!” She exclaimed, throwing up her hands.
Poe turned to Ben. “How many did she eat?” he asked, shaking his head.
Ben, who had had a glass of whatever, very drinkable, wine Poe had pulled from the cellar and was now beginning to loosen up a bit, decided to throw himself headlong into being sociable, replied, “Two, I think.”
Poe’s eyes widened.
“Two?!” exclaimed Finn.
“So what happened?” enquired Rose.
“Nothing!” said Rey and Ben at the same time.
Poe was incredulous, “Nothing? I’ve seen what happens when someone has less than a quarter of one of those truffles and you are telling me nothing at all happened.”
“Ben had me unceremoniously dumped in a cold bath by RD”. said Rey, not mincing her words at all.
Ben looked sheepish, “If it’s any consolation I went and had a very cold shower.”
Finn slapped his leg and laughed while Rose sputtered in to her wine.
Poe leaned back in his chair and gave Ben a long hard look. Raising his glass to him he said, “You know Solo, I think that fact, more than anything else, impresses me. You are a far better man than I would have been in that situation. I salute you!”
Ben bowed his head. Rey could feel, amusement radiating from him. She took his hand again and maybe it was the wine, or recalling that interesting shuttle journey home, she pushed back to him You can make up for that cold bath later.
As they got up from the table to retire out on the balcony for khav, Rose moved over towards Rey and Ben; and taking her arm gave Rey an enquiring look. Rey leaned over and whispered something in Rose’s ear. Rose’s eyes went as large as saucers and her hand flew up to her mouth. She looked from Ben to Rey. “He’s a keeper, Rey” she said. Rey smiled. “He certainly is.” “Thank you” added Ben, leaning over to give Rey a kiss on her temple.
Rose giggled, “I’m not so sure it would be safe to send Poe out to Aurelia. Can you imagine Poe after one of those truffles.”
Rey shot Poe a look, “I don’t think he needs them, he even has chemistry with a table lamp.”
Rose indecorously snorted. Poe and Finn who were walking ahead turned and looked. “Hey now, I'll have you know my light fixtures are very attractive” retorted Poe.