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If Ben Solo is totally honest, baseball is really not his sport.
He's not sure if it's the memories of all the failed bonding time with his late father that the game brings up, or the fact that he associates it with bring away from home at the Palace on tours in the Americas, or the fact that his mother has insisted on making it his sitting-with-the-commoners sport every time he attends one of these games - but he just can't stand it.
In fact, sitting underneath the blazing Oklahoma sun, amongst a crowd of gawking Americans, Ben Solo is pretty sure he would rather be anywhere else right now.
Popcorn is basically the only thing that makes the experience bearable.
Which is why the small child sitting beside him, picking out the most buttery kernels from his popcorn bag and popping them in her mouth, is really the sour cherry on top of this whole day.
He would pull the bag away, but he's viscerally aware of how many cameras are on him, and quite sure that literally stealing candy from a baby is not going to help his image problem. Besides, he kind of likes this kid's nerve. Every stolen kernel comes with another challenging squint through the girl's hazel eyes, just daring him to say something.
The kid makes it about half way through the bag before her mother realizes what's been happening, and then Ben is suddenly very alright with this whole situation.
"No, Hope! You cannot take other people’s snacks," says Hope's mother.
Hope's... gorgeous, stunning, and very British mother. Ben's vision is assaulted with a close-up view of freckled tanned skin, large hazel eyes, and an adorable chestnut brown bob cut. An English rose if he ever saw one, and so unlike all the dolled up aristocrats his mother puts in front of him to woo. Something about her earnest, plain face blows them all out of the water.
He has no idea who this goddess of a woman is, but she of course, immediately recognizes him.
"Your Highness, I am so sorry, I don't even know what to say--"
"It's quite alright," Ben says, cutting off her stream of apologies. He cannot let the first thing he does to this woman is make her upset. "Hope and I had come to a mutual understanding about the popcorn."
"Oh?" She laughs a little at that, and suddenly Ben wants nothing more in the world to make this woman laugh again.
"Yes, I said she could have some of my popcorn, if she would introduce me to her mother."
"Rey!" Hope says, and claps her tiny hands together. "Mummy is Rey."
"Well, it's very nice to meet you Rey," Ben says with a smile, and not the kind of smile he puts on for the cameras, but a genuine one, that tugs the corners of his mouth up almost against his will. "I'm Ben."
Rey laughs again at that, and she gives him a bit of a chastising look. "I… I know who you are."
"Of course," he says. "Do I even detect an English accent?"
Rey nods. “I’m from London.”
"What brings you to America?" asks Ben, taking a bite of popcorn, and offering the bag to her, as well as Hope. He can tell that she almost refuses out of politeness, but thinks better of it, and grabs a handful.
"Ah, well… we were supposed to be visiting Hope's father," Rey says, her pleasant face pulling down into a grimace. "But he cancelled on us again. These tickets were his little consolation gift."
Ben hates him, whoever he is. Any man who would look at the option of spending an entire afternoon with a woman this beautiful is certainly an idiot. He wants to say as much, but he doesn't want to scare her off, so he settles on:
"His loss." My gain , he thinks.
Rey's smile returns. "Well, baseball is a pretty unbearable sport so I do think it is somewhat our loss."
"I was just thinking how I would rather be anywhere else right now," Ben says, suddenly grateful to be in the company of a sensible English woman. "The only thing that’s made this game tolerable is the popcorn."
And now you , he thinks privately.
"Agreed," says Rey and she grabs another handful, passing a few to Hope.
Ben looks down into the bag, shaking it to move more of the unpopped kernels to the bottom. Between the three of them they've made good work of the bag, and the game is already in the seventh inning, which Ben knows to be towards the end of the game.
He's never hated more his inability to make small talk, because he has this horrible sense that the second his security detail whisks him away at the end of this game, he will never see this woman again.
Luckily, Rey does not seem to have the same lead tongue as he does.
"So are you allowed to cheer for one of these teams, or does your non-partisanship extend to sporting matches in foreign countries as well?" asks Rey, with only a hint of irony.
"No, ever since the English Civil War, when Oliver Cromwell had Charles the First executed for supporting Cornwall in the rugby tournament, monarchs have been forbidden from expressing all sports-related opinions," says Ben sarcastically. It garners a reluctant smile and very exaggerated eye roll from Rey.
"I seem to remember my history professor teaching that lesson a little differently…” says Rey.
“Ah well that was your first mistake then - not being privately tutored by your slightly insane Uncle who likes to simply make up stories about history to make it more interesting .”
“He sounds like a real charmer.”
"Not many would say so," says Ben. "What about you? Are you cheering for one of these teams?"
"Red team! Red team!" says Hope, answering his question.
Ben flips the sunglasses perched on his head over his eyes for a moment to squint down at the sunny field. There is indeed one team wearing red.
"Red team it is then," he says, taking off his sunglasses again.
He spends the rest of the afternoon quietly cheering any time the red team, which he's figured out is not the team of the city he's currently in, does something that looks successful. He orders another bag of popcorn for Hope once she makes it through the end of the first bag. Rey keeps him entertained with stories of Hope’s greatest embarrassing moments, of which she has many, especially for a two year old.
It's refreshing to talk to someone so casually like this, who doesn't say "Sir" after every sentence, doesn't ask him a million and one questions about the palace or the jewels or the scandals. She just treats him like a regular person.
He gets lost in the fantasy of it so much that he's startled when his security detail taps him on the shoulder moments before the game is about to end.
"Sir, we must get going before the crowds start up in earnest," says Mitaka.
"But…" Ben looks from Mitaka, to the baseball diamond, and finally to Rey. He really doesn't want to leave without saying something to her, and for a moment her face shines with some kind of hopeful anticipation, like she too is feeling whatever this is. Fear and cowardice win out. "If I leave now I won't know who won the game."
"I will include the final score in your briefing notes tomorrow, Sir, now please follow me."
Mitakas word is final. Rey looks crestfallen but understanding.
"Say goodbye to the man with the popcorn, Hope," she says and squeezes her daughter around the middle.
"Bye popcorn man!" says the little girl, sticking out her chubby hand in an imitation of a handshake.
"Goodbye, Hope," he says, shaking her tiny hand , "goodbye Rey."
With one last fleeting smile to the both of them, he lets Mitaka scurry him away from the quickly forming crowds.
The rest of his week long American tour is uneventful, and torturous. Partly because he doesn't meet anyone that lights the same kind of joy in him that Rey and Hope did, and partly because he keeps being reminded of her everywhere he goes.
Apparently a video of them chatting and sharing the popcorn had gone " viral " and it was all the gossip sites had been talking about for days on end.
He resisted for a little while, but curiosity got the better of him and one evening when he miraculously found himself with nothing booked in his schedule, he found the video of him at the game and watched the entirety of it. He saw himself frown at Hope at first, then reluctantly offer her some popcorn, and then finally sees Rey catch on as to what’s happening.
Once that happens, all Ben can think about is how this video shows him smiling more times in ten minutes (thankfully the cameras hadn’t lingered on the two of them more than that) than he usually does in a year.
The article that the video is in mentions that the woman’s name is Rey Johnson, and she’s a school teacher in London. Reading any further feels voyeuristic, and already he feels terrible that this poor woman’s life has been dragged through every gossip mag in the country just because she happened to sit beside him at a baseball game.
Word of the video even reaches his mother, as on the last day of his tour he gets a personal phone call from the Palace.
"You can tell me she's no one all you want, Benjamin, but Artoo showed me the video, and a pretty face hasn't made you smile like that in quite a long time. Maybe ever."
Ben rubs his sore temples, after twenty minutes of trying to tell his mother that the whole thing was being blown wildly out of proportion, she still would not relent.
"Alright Mum, whatever you say," he says, finally giving in. "I just can't wait to be back home tomorrow. If I have to spend one more day in the Republic…"
"You've done a marvellous job, Ben. The Prime Minister has said that already the trade negotiations have been much smoother since you got there. And, we've got a big party planned for when you get back tomorrow."
"No big parties, please," says Ben.
"Oh it's just small, don't worry," says Leia.
"You just said-"
" Don't worry about the details," she says with a note of finality. "Good night, Ben. Safe travels."
It's a breath of fresh air being back on home soil, and at home in the Palace. He says a brief hello to his mother, with promises to tell her all about the trip later, and then heads up to his room for a shower and a nap.
He's feeling more refreshed by the time dinner rolls around, comfortable in his home and casual clothes. It's why he's all the more taken back when he arrives to the dining room to find the shock of his life.
"Popcorn man!"
Standing in the middle of the residence's private drawing room is none other than his favourite popcorn stealers - Hope and Rey.
"H-hi," he manages to stammer out, walking towards them quickly, his look of shock mirrored somewhat on Rey's features. It doesn't pass him by that even though she's much more dolled up than the first time they met, and even sporting a red form fitting evening gown, she still manages to carry herself with the sort of effortless energy that he felt so attracted to in the first place.
"Hello," says Rey. "Sorry, I know this is so strange. I got a call from the Palace a few days ago inviting me to dinner here. I thought it was a joke to be honest, until the plane tickets arrived in my mailbox, inviting us to cut our American trip short. Since Hope’s father had cancelled another three events… I figured why not. I thought that you-"
"-had something to do with this? No I'm...just as confused as you are. Maybe more. This has my mother written all over it though," says Ben. Quickly, at the sight of her expressive face falling into some form of disappointment, he follows it up with, "not that I'm upset that you're here. The very opposite. Hope too."
Ben turns to the girl, hiding behind her mother's legs a little, looking extremely adorable in a frilly blue dress with her hair tied up in two cute pigtails.
"How do you do, Miss Hope?" Ben says, getting down on one knee to meet her level.
"We went on a fancy plane," she says, her eyes wide and cheerful. He's glad she remembers him as the popcorn man, kids don't usually take well to him.
"That must have been very exciting. Did they have any snacks on the plane?"
Hope nodded vigorously.
"Oh yes," says Rey. "Lots of complimentary popcorn in First Class ."
At that moment, Queen Leia decides to make her grand entrance.
"Only the best for the young woman who made my son's trip so enjoyable," says his mother, giving him a strongly raised eyebrow. He doesn't understand why until he realizes how he looks right now. In a nice suit, down on one knee. In front of Rey.
His mother must be having heart palpitations.
Ben stands and brushes off his trousers a bit, as Rey falls into a deep cursey.
"Your Majesty," they both say simultaneously.
"Please, call me Leia while we're at dinner. It would be awfully dreadful to be addressed so formally at this small gathering.”
“Leia,” says Rey boldly, but clearly uncomfortable with it. “Thank you for inviting me to your home for this lovely dinner. I don’t think I left my phone number with Ben before he rushed off… or my address… or even my last name.”
Leia meets Rey’s strained smile with a beaming one of her own. “Oh, Miss Johnson, you know I have my eyes and ears everywhere.”
Rey throws Ben a wide-eyed look and he’s torn between elation at seeing her again, and terror that if she spends even five minutes with his family she might just flee to America and never come back.
By some miracle though, dinner is fine. More than fine. Perfect, really.
Rey gets along with his family so much better than he thought possible. She answers every prying question from his mother with the utmost finesse.
Ben is far too nervous and awkward to say much of anything, but he gets to sit across the table from Rey and see every bright smile that crosses her beautiful face, many of which she throws his way. Besides, his mother offers up enough embarrassing stories about his life that he feels like she gets to know him a little more, even without him needing to say anything.
It’s late into the evening when Hope gives an almighty yawn from the little high-chair they set up for her beside Rey.
“Thank you very much for dinner, Your Ma-- Leia, but it seems I must be getting this little one home to bed,” says Rey.
“Oh nonsense, Rey, the nanny can look after her for a few hours,” says Leia. She gets up from her seat and the rest of them stand at attention. “Why don’t you and Ben go enjoy some time in the courtyard, it’s so lovely this time of year.”
“Mum, it’s February. It’s not nice out at all,” Ben says.
“Well, if Rey gets cold, you’ll just have to think of some way to warm her up,” Leia says, and Ben feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. His mother is… truly something else. He mouths “I’m sorry” at Rey but she just gives him another winning smile and mouths back “ It’s okay” .
Still, he’s not about to refuse his mother’s wishes, so he leads Rey through the halls of the palace and out to the courtyard, where it is indeed... freezing cold.
Ben tugs his jacket off and drapes it gently over Rey’s shivering shoulders. After that, he takes a step back.
“I’m... so sorry about all this,” Ben says. “My mother bringing you here, and being all… the way she is. It’s completely mortifying. I don’t want to make you any more uncomfortable than you already must be, so feel free to depart us any time you wish.”
“Gosh, no I want to apologize to you ,” Rey says. “Turning up here without you knowing, after we only briefly shared an afternoon together. You must think of me as some kind of harlot.”
Ben has to laugh at that. “Not at all, if anyone knows how persuasive my mother can be when she wants something, it’s me.”
“I can imagine,” Rey says.
“I hope that you had… a good evening still?” Ben asks hesitantly.
“Oh very much, yes,” says Rey with a smile.
They fall into a comfortable silence after that. Rey seems to be taking in the beautiful surroundings, but Ben, who has seen the courtyard a thousand times, has eyes only for Rey.
"For what it's worth… I'm very glad that I got to see you again," Ben says, barely above a whisper. Rey tears her eyes away from the greenhouses in the northeast corner to meet his gaze, her hazel eyes shining under the moonlight, and she closes the space between them slightly.
“I am too, Ben,” Rey says.
“And if this isn’t too forward… I would also like to see you again,” Ben says boldly. “And Hope too, of course,” he adds. “If you’d like to, that is.”
Ben’s heart nearly stops in his chest as she steps up right into his space, looking adorable tucked under his dinner jacket, and leans her head on his shoulder with a pleased sigh. Ben pulls her in close with one arm and his eyes flutter closed as he soaks in the peace and happiness in this quiet moment.
This , he thinks, is the happiest I have ever been . Especially when Rey finally says:
“I would like that very much.”