Work Text:
“ Did you see Dameron earlier ?” The whispers started about three months after the arrival of Rey Niima at Alderaan Enterprises.
“ Absolutely despicable. It’s not like she hides that ring. ” She’d kept her head down for the first couple months, another quiet accountant - albeit a much prettier one than usual - not talking to anyone but her fellow accountant Finn, and the head of accounting, Ben (and the latter was only when she had to).
“ Well, it’s not like she told him to go away. If anything, I’d say she liked that he was flirting with her. ” The office had been mildly obsessed with the mysterious young woman, who politely but firmly rejected offers to get drinks after work, who ate alone at her desk, and who often peered at her phone during breaks and smiled privately to herself, a faint blush creeping up her elegant neck and spilling onto her cheeks.
“ They should both be ashamed of themselves. ” One noticeable detail that nearly everyone in the office had gleaned - the shining silver ring on Rey Niima’s left hand. Most assumed it was a wedding ring, and tucked that information away into their speculative gossip about the beautiful, young accountant.
“ They were probably just talking! What, you’ve never talked to anyone at work before? Honestly, you people.” Finn Trooper was her most stalwart defender - he refused to allow any gossiping about her past happen in his presence, and his girlfriend Rose Tico joined in with him on most occasions (although she did indulge in some non-cruel speculation with another engineer, Jessika, but mostly over how hot Rey’s husband was - and they both agreed to be married to Rey, he was probably super hot).
“ I’m honestly worried about her, dude. He’s pretty high up - it’s not like she can say no to him. Maybe we should say something to Organa? ” Temmin “Snap” Wexley, their best salesperson, was Dameron’s closest thing to a friend in the office - if the assistant manager was even allowed to have friendships with those who worked underneath him - and even he expressed concern over The Incident.
“ It was absolutely shameless. ” All of this had started when Poe Dameron, assistant manager, notorious bachelor, had walked from his office and done a lap of the engineering department, and then the secretary pool, and then the accounting cubicles - and he’d stopped, seemingly unable to help himself, to ask Rey Niima about her day.
“I thought Ben was going to pop a vein in his forehead. Everyone knows that he has a crush on her.” The head of accounting, Ben Solo, almost snapped a pencil in half when Dameron had perched on the edge of Rey’s desk and laughed brightly at something she said - it didn’t go unnoticed that she ducked her head while speaking to him, the back of her neck bright red, and anyone facing her could see that she wore a shy, pleased smile when Dameron laughed. What did go unnoticed was the matching smile on Dameron’s face, equally shy, equally pleased, when she leaned over lightning quick to squeeze his hand.
But, The Incident was marked, and it provided fodder for much of the office gossip leading up to the Christmas Party on the Friday right before the holiday. Poe Dameron had flirted shamelessly with a married accountant, and as far as the employees could tell, she hadn’t discouraged him in the slightest - which made her equally guilty in their judgment.
***
Rey walked down the hallway towards the supply room, her arms wrapped around her middle; tears filled hazel eyes as she fought back the shame and humiliation that she’d just experienced. Wiping her eyes with her hand, she ducked into the quiet, dark room and closed the door behind her, not bothering with the light switch.
She sniffled and stared at the rows of office supplies - she’d muttered something about we need more toner to Finn before standing up from her desk, and he’d offered to go get it for her (and Finn always smiled so kindly, was always so open about what he was thinking and feeling, and Rey burned with the secret she wanted to share with him, if only because she knew he wouldn’t use it to hurt her), but Rey had insisted.
Truthfully, she needed the break from the hum and hubbub of the office, especially after...Rey dashed more tears from her eyes and shook her head, anger surging, dark and full, in her chest. How dare they - but, no. It wasn’t worth getting angry over, was it? She needed to get a handle on her anger, on her embarrassment, or else she risked -
There was a knock at the door, and Rey flinched away from it, wiping her eyes and face hastily, praying that the darkness of the supply room would hide whatever misery she was sure was evident in her expression.
“Sorry!” She called shakily. “Didn’t mean to close the door.” Rey put a hand on the shelf nearest her, to pretend to fumble around for something.
Her subterfuge proved mildly unnecessary when the door opened to reveal the one person she’d most hoped wouldn’t find her. Poe let himself in, and closed the door behind himself, but Rey winced when the brief shaft of light hit her in the face. And of course he saw, of course he saw her red-rimmed eyes, puffy from her stifled tears, and she heard his sharp intake of breath as he crossed the small room towards her.
“What happened?” He demanded, his brisk, professional voice not slipping. “Who did this?”
“No one,” Rey muttered, turning away from him. Poe drew up short of her, and she could feel his eyes on the side of her face. “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Dameron.”
“Hey.” His voice was softer now, sweeter, and she could feel the shift. Rey squeezed her eyes shut and prayed to be home, where she could let her guard down more easily. “Talk to me. Please? What happened out there?” When she didn’t answer, he took another hesitant step forward, and Rey jerked her head to indicate that they should walk further back into the supply room. They went all the way back to where the hundreds of reams of paper were stored, and there, where the air was slightly musty and the darkness at its peak, Rey finally let out a sob.
Poe swore and held his arms out, and Rey stepped into them, anger and shame roiling, tangled medusa-like inside her gut. He began to rub her back soothingly with an open palm, his other hand cradling her head against his neck. Rey worried distantly that she was ruining the silk of his shirt with her tears, but Poe made a slightly indignant noise when she pulled away to check, and she sank back into his embrace once more.
He let her cry for a few minutes in the silent, dark supply room, and she eventually gathered herself enough to straighten up - Poe made no effort to stop her - and wipe her face once more. Poe offered her his handkerchief, which she accepted with a watery smile before leaning against a nearby stack of paper. “Thanks. And sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” Poe peered at her in the darkness, and she could just make out his concerned expression. Rey just shrugged miserably, sure that he knew what she meant. Poe made a soft noise, and held his hands out. She placed her hands in his, and he stroked his thumbs over her knuckles slowly, gently. “C’mon, sweetheart. What upset you so much?”
“It’s not important.”
“It’s important if it upset you.” Poe took another step in, and Rey let her head rest on his collarbone. She could feel his heartbeat under his shirt, quicker and stronger than normal, a sign of his anxiety. It was his agony on her behalf that encouraged her to open up to him.
Shaking her head but not lifting it from the solid warmth of his body, Rey told him. “I-I went to the bathroom, and I heard a couple...people talking about me.” She sniffed and winced. “About us.”
“What about us?” Wariness crept into his voice, and Rey swallowed as well as she could, trying to clear her throat, so she could continue.
“Just...they saw us talking the other day. Or, they know someone who saw us talking. And...I mean, everyone knows that I...well, they’ve seen the ring.” Poe’s thumb found the silver ring in question, sitting as contentedly as usual on the fourth finger of her left hand, and he stroked the metal lovingly. “They just...they thought you were flirting with me.”
“I was flirting with you,” Poe mused, his voice soft and thoughtful, and not cheeky at all. Rey smirked, affectionate even through her sadness.
“You were. And I flirted back.” Rey lifted her head and smiled at Poe in the low light. “And that was the problem. They were fine with you, of course. I guess you were sort of the office flirt before I showed up.” Poe opened his mouth to argue, but Rey lifted a finger to lay across his lips and shook her head. “I don’t care. You’re great at flirting, and hell, I’m sure all that practice helped you get better at flirting with me.” She could feel his lips twitch into a smile, but her own smile faltered. “No...their problem was mostly with...me.”
“With you?”
“They…” Rey cleared her throat again. “They said that a married woman has no business flirting with a man at work, and that I should have shooed you away or something.” Poe scoffed. “I’m supposed to start wearing a scarlet letter now or something. They think I’m the office slut.”
“They said what ?” Poe asked sharply, bristling with quiet fury. It was Rey’s turn to soothe, and she leaned in to press her lips to his cheek. When she pulled away, Poe looked upset but not angry. “Who said that?”
“I’m not sure, I was in the bathroom.” That wasn’t true - she was in the bathroom, but she’d recognize Beth and Amy’s voices anywhere, as they were always answering phones in the front of the office. But, she didn’t think it was worth ratting them out for saying something that technically couldn’t even get them written up. It’s not like they said that to her - and they both looked moderately horrified when Rey had walked out of her stall, spine straight, and expression neutral, to wash her hands next to them at the sink.
“Still.” Poe squeezed her hands and snorted. “I’ll put out an office memo. Anyone who messes with Rey Niima’s going to have to report to me.”
“No! No, Poe, please, that’s exactly why we haven’t told anyone.” She tilted her head and sighed at him. “No special treatment.”
“This is all because I couldn’t keep away from your desk.” Poe groaned, his shoulders drooping. “I am so sorry, Sunshine. I just had that crappy phone call with the First Order, and I needed to see you, I needed to ground myself. It was so selfish.”
“It wasn’t.” Rey smiled ruefully into the darkness. “I’d personally love it if I were able to flirt with my fiancé whenever I wanted.”
“Yeah?” Poe leaned in a little more. “Well, we’re alone right now. No one to judge us here.”
“Incorrigible.” Rey accepted his kiss regardless of her reprimand, and she was the one to deepen it, to card her fingers through Poe’s carefully styled curls, knocking them free from their neatly gelled status. Poe moaned lightly and pressed his fingers into her hips, holding her close but reverently, his smile evident throughout the kiss.
“Damn,” Poe laughed when they separated. “I’d love to do that all the time, too.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen.” Rey tapped him on the nose while he pouted. “Even if we told everyone, it’s not exactly workplace appropriate.”
“Hmm.” Poe ducked down to kiss her neck gently, right between her jaw and her ear, the place that always made her gasp and hold him more tightly. “That’s true. But, what if we did?”
“Make out in public?” Rey giggled and shook her head. “I think that would make hiding our relationship kind of a moot point.”
“No.” He kissed her nose and smiled at her sweetly - she couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. “No, what if we told everyone? Leia already knows” - and Poe hadn’t even lasted five minutes with Organa, he’d walked in on Rey’s first day, and Leia had called him out immediately - “So, we don’t have to worry about anything.”
“Are you sure?” They’d both agreed back at the beginning that it was for the best that no one know about their engagement. Poe and Rey had been together for almost two years, but after Rey left her crappy job at Jakku Corps, she’d heard about an opening at Alderaan. She got the job entirely separate from Poe’s influence - Ben had hired her, and another assistant manager, Kaydel - but they agreed that she should establish herself at the company first, let everyone see how competent she was, to discourage any naysayers from claiming that she got the job through nepotism.
“Yeah. I mean, if people are saying such horrible things about you…” Poe shook his head, the tension in his jaw evident when Rey ran her fingers along it. He sighed and relaxed, turning his head to kiss her palm quickly. “I want to let them know. As soon as possible. And who knows, maybe we can even invite a few of the decent ones to the wedding if they know.”
“Finn!” Rey said automatically, bouncing on her feet. “I actually wanted to invite Finn already! And Rose, I do like Rose.”
“Yeah.” Poe laughed and kissed her again sweetly, and Rey relaxed even more. She was so glad Poe had followed her in here. “They can come. I hope they don’t mind having only a three months’ heads up.”
“Eh. They’ll get over it.” Rey nuzzled against Poe’s cheek and hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”
“Of course, sweetheart.” Poe hugged her back, and they held each other quietly for a few moments. “Want to let them know at the Christmas party?”
“Oh, God, yes.”
***
The Alderaan Enterprises’ Christmas party was a roaring success as usual. The food was delicious, the decorations tasteful but decadent, and Leia Organa even performed one song on karaoke, by popular demand.
What truly shocked most of the guests, however, was when Poe Dameron, assistant manager, notorious bachelor, called for a toast, and spoke at length about how grateful he was for his office, his supportive manager, his father - who had been invited to the party, and waved merrily at his son from his corner, wearing his hideous Rudolph light-up sweater - and most extensively, his fiancee.
Fiancee? The word buzzed around the gathering quickly, people nudging each other, eyebrows raised. Few noticed the smirk on Leia Organa’s face, or the beaming smile on Kes Dameron’s. The gasps of shock and mortification were incredibly apparent when Poe Dameron called his fiancee up to the front of the party to be toasted, and with jaws dropped, the employees all lifted their glasses as Rey Niima, the shy, beautiful accountant walked to the front of the room to stand next to Poe Dameron.
And if Ben Solo dropped his glass, muttering obscenities while turning the color of a stop sign, well, that could be next year’s gossip.