Chapter Text
Summer days had a way of turning the world into reverse. In paradise, they brought people closer in spite of their desire to run as far as they could from the heat, and the summer nights did little to cool them off. The hottest season of the year somehow managed to do little to deter tourists from pouring into the city of Barcelona, which provided the perfect cover for someone who was decidedly not a tourist and desperately needed saving.
Spy work was complex, innovative, and always changing. Protocol shifted left and right, and enemies could become friends and friends could become enemies in the same minute. Complete strangers could suddenly become one’s biggest ally and the reason they lived to see another day.
Such was the case at a bar in an upscale hotel near downtown, where Ben Solo was taking a casual sip of a mojito as his nerves ran wild inside him. Outside, the sounds of explosions filled his ears—explosions from charges he’d set—followed shortly after by more--had he set those too? He couldn’t remember—and then the sounds of screaming. All this in the name of taking down one of the First Order’s enemies, and one that was relatively low on the threat ladder, too.
His heart started to race as he realized he didn’t have much of a way out. Police sirens were already beginning to sound, and the people running from the blasts were blocking the exits to render him thoroughly trapped. Getting out wasn’t really an option, but he might not have needed to. As long as no one had spotted what he looked like, the spy was going to be just fine.
Feeling his nerves calm a bit, he took another sip of his drink, and watched as a bunch of confused tourists poured into the hotel, followed shortly after by police. The sight of them filled him with dread, like he was about to be arrested if they just looked at him. He needed to calm down, but his chances at an exit were rapidly dwindling, and they seemed to keep getting lower the more men in blue walked in.
Glancing at the bartender, Ben gave him a well-practiced grin. “You’d think the man they’re searching for is here.”
The man behind the bar laughed. “They think he is,” he said, then he picked up a glass left behind by another tourist, and began to scrub it clean with a towel. “Overheard them talking a second ago. Said they’re looking for tourists traveling alone.”
Shit, that description matched Ben to a tee. He was traveling alone, and masquerading as a tourist. Slight panic set in as he watched more officers walk in, followed shortly after by someone that seemed to make time stand still for a moment.
The woman who followed them looked just as confused as he felt. She wore a similarly panicked expression that she was trying to conceal with a friendly smile at passersby with her flowy, white dress, and she, like him, stood out solely because she was a tourist traveling alone. At first he thought that assumption was perhaps inaccurate, but then he saw the lack of a wedding ring on her finger and she didn’t seem to be searching the room for any friends she might’ve traveled with, and he knew she was exactly like him.
They were both screwed if they didn’t get out of there quickly, or they would’ve been if time hadn’t run out for the woman he was staring at.
As he watched, two police officers approached her, and he couldn’t hear much of what they were saying, but the words, “traveling alone,” were definitely uttered.
His heart was racing in his chest fast enough for him to feel it. Already she looked trapped by the police, and though she was still smiling, still talking as if nothing was wrong, he felt guilt swarm within him. He couldn’t let her go down for something he’d done, even if he had technically been trained to let the local law enforcement blame it on anyone but him. Something in his gut said that letting her be captured by the authorities would be a grave mistake.
With a nervous breath, Ben stood straight, and downed the last of his mojito before setting it down, and running a hand through his hair as he walked up to the woman. “Hey!” he shouted to the police, then he felt relief as their heads turned in his direction, and he caught the woman’s eyes with his. For a few seconds, his world became pure hazel, an array of greens and golds that captured him completely as he walked forward, and hoped that his intent was conveyed with a stare.
Understanding seemed to fill her eyes, and she gave him a nod so subtle, he wasn’t unsure he’d imagined it. She was on the same page he was. Whatever he was about to do, she was going to play along. This was going to be easy.
“ Est bien, ” he told the police on his approach, then he slipped his hand into hers, restraining the shiver that threatened his spine as he held her hand for the first time. It was warm, and soft, and her fingers laced perfectly with his as if it was what they were made to do, and there was a look in her eyes as she squeezed his hand that had him wondering if she’d felt it, too. “She’s with me.”
The police looked skeptical, staring between the unsuspecting pair with confusion in their eyes. “With you?”
“Yes,” the woman replied, revealing a deep, British accented voice to his ears. “Babe, I’ve been looking for you everywhere, where’ve you been?”
Ben laughed, and ran his thumb over her hand—perhaps an unnecessary gesture, it wasn’t as if the police were staring intently at their hands—as he came up with his response, then he decided to answer honestly. “I was just at the bar having a drink.”
“Mmm, well, you could’ve come to my rescue sooner.” She laughed as she placed a hand on his chest, and leaned into him, laying on the happy couple act for the officers as if she were a professional. Who was this woman? Some sort of actress? Whatever she was, she was damn good at pretending. “We wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” he said, then he leaned down to whisper but not whisper into her ear. “Maybe I can make it up to you upstairs.”
The officers shifted uncomfortably as they watched the exchange, then one of them gestured for them to move aside, and Ben gave them a quick thank you before leading the woman toward the hall containing his room. She gave him a relieved sigh as she leaned against him, continuing the facade even though they were now out of sight from the police. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a room here?”
“I do actually.” He turned them onto the hallway, and kept walking by her side until he reached his room. “This one.”
“Okay,” she whispered, sounding slightly out of breath as she glanced over her shoulder as if to make sure they weren’t being followed.
“I’m Ben,” he told her as he fished the key to his room out of his pocket, and tapped it against the little sensor above the door knob. A green light flashed at them, and he grinned as he gripped the knob, and pushed it open.
She waited until the door was closed, then she let go of his hand, and offered her other one to him. “I’m Rey.”
“Nice to meet you, Rey,” he said, finding it odd how much he loved hearing that name from his tongue.
“Nice to meet you, too.” She gave him a warm smile, then she leaned back against the door, fanning herself in an attempt to dry the dewy sheen on her skin. Christ, he’d forgotten how hot it was outside, and with the near miss they’d both just had, of course she was sweating. Hell, if he thought about it, he certainly felt a little damp at the back of his neck and his forehead.
Just another summer day in Barcelona, really.
“So what the hell were you doing out there by yourself?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he walked away from the door, and into the rather spacious hotel room, observing the curtains that hung from the walls, concealing them from the view of the street. “You almost got arrested just standing around.”
A scoff. “So did you.” He heard the sound of stilettos on a hard-wood floor, then he turned around to see her walking toward him with a smile on her face. “What were you doing out there by yourself?”
Ben laughed. “I’m traveling, I figured I might as well use up my vacation days while the weather’s nice, you know?”
“It’s hotter than sin, but okay.”
“What about you?” Ben stepped forward, feeling emboldened by her walking into his space. “What brings you here?”
“Business. I’m a lawyer. Old friend of mine summoned me out here to help him look over a minor charge.” She shrugged as she stepped forward again, forcing him to tilt his head down to look at her. “Figured I’d spend some time in the city while I was at it.”
She said it the same way he always gave people his alibis. Her voice was a touch too casual, as if she thought that somehow by sounding more blasé, he wouldn’t notice that it was just a cover.
Whatever she was doing, though, he figured it was none of his business. He was a complete stranger to her, after all, and for all she knew, he was lying as well. Technically he was, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Well, Rey the lawyer, we might be stuck here for a while,” he said, then he crossed the room to a small, wooden cabinet, and opened it whilst holding her gaze. “Care to join me for a drink?”
A sly grin blossomed on her face. “Depends on how good of a bartender you are.” She sat down on a nearby white armchair, gripping the gold-trimmed edges of it in her fingers as she shrugged. “But honestly it’s so hot out, I’d take a drink made by a Taco Bell worker.”
He chuckled as he grabbed a bottle of tequila from the cabinet. “I think that may be an insult to Taco Bell employees.” Setting down the bottle, he then reached back inside the cabinet for two glasses. “But you’re in luck, I used to bar tend in college.” Not a lie, either. He was the best bartender at New York University back in the 2000s.
Rey hummed her satisfaction, then sighed contentedly as a breeze blew in through the curtains, and blew her hair back from her face. His fingers were trembling involuntarily as he unscrewed the cap of the liquor, then he nearly spilled it as she tilted her head back, allowing him to glimpse the tempting skin of her neck as she leaned into the chair.
Focus, Ben told himself, then he focused his vision on pouring the tequila into the glasses. Slowly, his hands began to steady, and he let out a shaky breath as he finished, then reached into the cabinet to grab grape juice. He had no clue whether his company liked to drink her liquor straight, after all, and he was a touch too nervous to ask her.
Once he finished making their drinks, he brought hers across the room, and handed it to her with a wink that she was— thankfully— receptive to. “Careful, Ben, if you keep going like that, I’ll start to think you’re flirting with me.”
A blush crept up his cheeks as he walked over to the wall on the opposite side of the room, and leaned against the windowsill. “Maybe… maybe I’m okay with that.”
“I might be, too,” she admitted, her voice softening as she stood up from the armchair. Rey’s eyes held his as she walked toward him, sipping her drink casually while thoughts danced behind those hazel irises. “But we should get to know each other first, shouldn’t we?”
“Perhaps.”
“What are you doing tonight?”
All Ben gave her in response was a grin.
Hours later after the sun had set, he and Rey were sharing drinks on the water’s edge while a band played music in the background. String lights created a strangely romantic atmosphere, making the heat that lingered in the air feel more intense than it was as they clinked their glasses together. The liquid of their cocktails sloshed as they smiled at one another, and he realized that since he’d met her, he’d hardly been able to keep the corners of his mouth from twitching up.
Especially after the time they’d spent bonding, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to leave her behind in Barcelona. “To dodging bullets.” He laughed as he spoke, then he shook his head. “Sorry, I know it’s traditional to declare a toast before you clink glasses.”
“Don’t be,” she told him, then she raised her glass to her lips. “To dodging bullets.”
There was a feeling in the air as they sipped their drinks, and Ben found himself unable to take his eyes off of her as they drank in silence. Lucky for him, she had the exact same problem, and the two exchanged a heated stare as time passed. He wasn’t even sure what to say. What words could he possibly speak to her when the tension between them could be cut with a knife?
“So, we’ve spent all this time getting to know one another, but there’s still something I don’t know about you.” Rey straightened up, leaning over the table to take one of his hands in hers.
Heart racing in his chest, Ben’s eyes went wide as he looked down at their joined hands. He quickly calmed himself before speaking, softening his expression as he cleared his throat. “And what’s that?”
“Can you dance?” she asked, then she stood up from the table, and stepped in front of him as her fingers came up to brush his chin, sending more shivers down his spine. “Specifically, can you dance with me ?”
Ben didn’t say a word, he just set down his drink, and stood up with her. The look in her eyes could’ve lit up the room as she guided him out onto the dance floor, weaving them through the other couples who were already dancing.
Blood pumping in his veins, he waited until they’d found a suitable spot on the dance floor, then he tugged on her hand, and spun her back into his arms. She gasped from shock as he wrapped an arm around her waist, and began to sway gently. Picking up on his rhythm, she followed suit, resting a hand on his shoulder as they began a dance in close quarters.
The rest of the world didn’t exist at such a short distance. It had faded away into background noise. All that existed was him, Rey, the heat, and the beat of the drums.
“So he can dance,” she whispered lowly, then she shrieked delightedly as he spun her around again. “And show off.”
“Don’t act like you’re not enjoying this.”
“Shut up and dance ,” she replied, then their night whirled to life as they pressed even closer to one another, the lights blurring above their heads as Ben let Rey guide him across the dance floor.
The atmosphere shifted as they danced, both of them drifting ever so closer to one another through the slow passage of time. He swore he could feel the air pressure drop, and the temperature around him cooled as if a thunderstorm was approaching, but if he looked up into the sky, he knew he’d find only the stars.
Gravity, though, seemed to have other ideas. The music slowed, the tempo forcing them into a softer dance that allowed them to simply sway in one place on the dance floor. Without the fast tempo to distract them, they became drawn to one another, drifting closer until he couldn’t see anything but her eyes. Perhaps if he looked down, he’d capture her lips in his gaze, but he couldn’t move, he was completely, utterly captivated by the colors dancing in her irises. “Rey…”
He watched her swallow nervously, then she leaned forward, rising to the balls of her feet to press her forehead against his. “I think we both know there aren’t words for what’s happening.”
“No,” he agreed, lacing his fingers with hers as the lights swirled above them. “No, there aren’t.”
She laughed, then she leaned forward so that she was almost kissing him, her breath ghosting over his lips as she spoke, “Kiss me.”
“What?”
“ Kiss me .”
His breath left him in a shudder, starving his lungs of oxygen as he closed the gap between them, and kissed her. Rey’s lips were soft against his, fitting against him so perfectly, it almost felt like they’d been made for this. Though his lungs were begging him to take another breath, Ben deepened the kiss, using the arm around her waist to pull her tight against him as the music swelled around them.
It felt like something out of a movie, or maybe that feeling people wrote about in songs, and though it was just a kiss, Ben could already see an entire future spiraling out in front of him. He hadn’t ever thought love at first sight could be real, but with the way she was kissing him, he started to find himself a believer.
He broke the kiss ever so briefly to take in a quick gulp of air, then he went back in for more, living for the adrenaline rush through his veins that he got just by the way her lips moved against his. Judging by the contented hum she gave as her arms wrapped around his neck, she was feeling the exact same way. The same rush that was moving through him was running rampant in her, and he knew then and there he couldn’t just split with her in Barcelona. He couldn’t know Rey just for one night, he needed a lot more time with her than just a few hours.
Much to his surprise, she broke the kiss first, pulling away slowly enough that he was able to follow her initial retreat.
Laughter escaped her lips as she pressed a finger against his, then she leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “How far away is your hotel, again?”
All he did was smirk in response before offering her his hand, then guiding her away from the riverside, and back to the place they’d first met.
*
Rey woke up the next morning completely wrapped up in a white bed sheet. The slight twinges of a hangover were throbbing against her skull, but they were overwhelmed by a pure sense of bliss that made her smile even though she hadn’t opened her eyes yet.
The memories she had of the night before made her certain that she couldn’t leave Barcelona alone. She had to find out where Ben was from, had to keep him in her life somehow. Her job made having a personal life extremely difficult, but wouldn’t having a partner make maintaining a cover easier? The Resistance’s director had told her to do whatever was necessary to maintain the illusion of a normal life, after all.
All she had to do was keep the part of her life that involved explosions and gunshots a secret, and Ben wouldn’t suspect a damn thing.
With a sigh, she turned over in the bed, and reached out for the other body she knew would be waiting for her there, but found nothing in the space where she’d sworn he’d fallen asleep beside her. Eyes snapping open, Rey sat up bolt-right in bed, clutching the fabric of the t-shirt she’d fallen asleep in—one she remembered borrowing from him, since all her pajamas were in her suitcase across town—and the bed sheet in her hand as her eyes searched the room for him.
When she found nothing, sadness and panic began to slowly creep in. She’d thought that the night before had just been the beginning of whatever relationship lay between her and Ben. The way he’d looked at her, the way they’d talked; that hadn’t all been just an illusion, had it? There was no way he could hold her like he had and just abandon her the next morning.
Unless everything she knew about him was a lie.
Just before her imagination could start to run wild, the door to the hotel room opened ever so quietly. Fear replaced the sorrow she was feeling, and before she could even think, she was moving to find the knife she always kept strapped to her thigh, ready to take out whatever threat was encroaching on her space before it could begin to touch her.
Rey rolled out of the bed, grabbing the knife out from under the fabric of the dress she’d left pooled on the floor the night before. Without making a sound—even to breathe—she began creeping along the wall as the door to the hotel room slowly opened, and she held the knife low at her side as she moved closer and closer to the intruder, poised and ready to strike at any—
“You awake?” she heard Ben’s voice ask as he walked further into the room, then relief flooded her veins, and she hurriedly hid the knife in a nearby dresser drawer before he could enter the room fully.
She watched as he walked in, his arms full of a tray of food that smelled sickeningly sweet. Her heart soared in her chest as she realized that he hadn’t abandoned her; he’d just gone out to get them breakfast. With a grin, she stepped up behind him, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
Ben flinched from the initial shock, then he melted into her touch, tilting his head down to press a light kiss to her wrist as he laughed. “Good morning, Rey.”
“Good morning,” she sing-songed, then she let go of him, allowing the man she was quickly falling for to move forward, and set the breakfast tray down on the table. “Why’d you leave?”
“Room service wasn’t available, and I wanted to surprise you,” he explained, then he gestured to the tray he’d carried in. “So I might’ve walked a mile and a half to the farmer’s market instead, and…” A blush crept up his cheeks as she approached him again. “I may have stolen the tray from the bartender when he wasn’t looking.”
Her eyebrows rose high on her forehead. “I—How—?”
“I’ve got—uh—many hidden talents.” He gave her a nervous laugh, then he turned his attention on a white jug of milk. “They didn’t have coffee. Hope you like goat milk.”
“Goat milk?”
“Yeah, it was cheaper,” he replied, then he began pouring it into two plastic cups. “I just wanted us to have something to toast to.”
Rey laughed at him as she took one of the cups from his hands, then held it up in the air. “What are we drinking to this morning? We didn’t have to escape gunfire.”
“No,” he replied, then he took her free hand in his, and inhaled deeply. “But I have to ask you something.”
She nodded. “You can ask me anything.”
“Your accent, sounds like you’re from somewhere across the pond from me.” He stepped closer to her, then laced their fingers together—and god, would she ever get tired of him doing that?—before speaking again, “But is Britain still your home?”
“No.” She laughed as she looked up into his eyes, observing little golden flecks dancing in the brown she found there. It was almost hypnotic to watch. “I’m living in New York these days.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I’m New York, too.”
A smile blossomed wide on her face as she raised her glass. “I think we know what we’re drinking to.”
“So do I,” he said, then he clinked his glass against hers. “To our first real date.”
“To our first real date,” she repeated, then she set down her glass, waiting for him to do the same before she reached up, and threaded her fingers through his hair. “And to maybe someday learning how to make a toast before we clink glasses.”
His laughter echoed from the walls, filling their little hotel room with the wonderful sound of his delight before he leaned down, and kissed her again. She was still smiling as she melted against him, letting Ben’s arms wrap her into a warm embrace as he pulled her onto the tips of her toes to kiss her properly.
It hadn’t even been twenty four hours, but already kissing him felt like coming home. The kiss made her feel a sort of soft and sweet inside that she hadn’t felt with—well—anyone. They’d only just met, but she could tell that Ben was the type of guy she’d be with for the long haul, especially if he lived nearby.
With that thought in mind, she lost herself to the slowly intensifying kiss, determined to make the most out of their time in Barcelona before the Resistance demanded her return. They may have been fated to meet, but that didn’t mean reality wouldn’t sweep in to capture them in its claws the minute they touched down in New York.
Luckily for her—for them both —reality wasn’t powerful enough to crush what was happening between them.
Just six weeks later they were sitting in an upscale cafe in Manhattan, and she was crushing him with a borderline bruising kiss as he slid a diamond ring onto her finger. Had they moved a bit fast? Sure, but she certainly wasn’t going to complain. Some things became certain faster than others, and after meeting him, she knew there was no one else in the world who would make her as happy as he did.
Ben was the one for her, and she knew she was the same for him.
They were married just six months after that. The only reason they weren’t married sooner was because she wanted to have time to find people to pretend to be her family at her wedding. When they’d first met and bonded, she’d told him she had two parents and had grown up in a comfortable neighborhood with a dog she walked on weekdays and a church she attended once a week and was the darling of. In order to maintain her cover, she had to disguise the pain she consistently felt over the true story of her childhood. The story of the orphan who’d bounced from foster home to foster home hoping someone would love her enough to let her stay.
The man she loved could never know the truth about her past, no matter how much she desperately wanted to tell him—to talk to him about it.
When they had their first dance surrounded by their friends and family, she felt a tear escape from her left eye, streaking down her cheek as she looked up at Ben. She quickly averted her gaze to the actor she’d hired to portray her father, pretending that she was just emotional from the ceremony instead of the lie she was selling him as they swayed to Jason Mraz’s I Won’t Give Up .
“Are you okay?” Ben whispered, keeping his voice low so that no one watching them could tell anything was amiss. God, she loved him for that.
“I’m fine,” she told him, then she rested her head on his chest. “I’m just really, really happy.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. Dancing with him, swaying in his arms like they had the night they met made her more ecstatic than he could ever know. But the part of her life that he wouldn’t ever be allowed to know about? That broke her heart a little, even on the happiest day of her life.
Still, she supposed she was doing it for the greater good, wasn’t she? Lying to make sure the streets were safe, that bad guys were put in their place? That was an honorable reason to hide, right?
“Hey,” Ben whispered, pulling her from her thoughts, and forcing her to look up as he gently stroked the curls one of her coworkers—disguised as a bridesmaid—had ironed into her hair. “I love you, you know that, right?”
Rey beamed up at him, then she laughed as their song came to an end, and a fast paced one took its place. Their wedding guests flooded the dance floor as they continued standing exactly as they were in the center of it. “I love you, too,” she told her husband, leaning forward to press another, gentle kiss to his lips. “Or I wouldn’t have married you.”
“So you didn’t marry me for my good looks?”
Snorting her laughter, she shook her head. “Well, the way you look is a bonus, I’ll admit, but no, not just your good looks, and you know that.”
“I do,” he said, then she felt his hand caress her cheek. “I just wanted to see you smile.”
Unable to help herself, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling Ben into a tight embrace. She relaxed against him as she felt his warm hands at her back through the silk of her wedding dress, then she looked up, resting her chin on his chest as she watched the light reflecting in his eyes. “Thank you.”
He smiled. “No, thank you , Mrs. Solo,” he said, his voice so quiet it bordered on a whisper, then he smirked. “To the rest of our lives.”
“Ben, we don’t even have glasses.”
“I think we established from the beginning that neither of us knows how to do a toast properly.”
“Fair point,” she replied, then she looked around them, observing the life flowing from everyone around them as they danced joyously to the upbeat Bruno Mars song blasting from the speakers. “I think we’re meant to be dancing.”
“I think you may be right.” He then stepped back, and offered her his hand. “Care to dance?”
“I’d love to.”
There were stupidly wide grins on both their faces as Rey took his hand, and allowed him to lead her further into the dance floor. He looked at her like she was the stars themselves as they spun into the rest of their lives, hand in hand, both completely unaware of the whirlwind journey they’d already embarked on.