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Rey frowned at the two women in front of her. Rose was seated on the bed of the temporary Chandrila apartment she shared with Finn and Poe. Kaydel stood by the door with her arms crossed, lips pursed in displeasure.
They were treating Rey as though she did not fully understand the importance of this event. She did. More than that she recognized why everyone insisted it should be formal. She could do formal. She had before. What she absolutely, positively, refused to accept was the sudden and inexplicable requirement that she wear a dress.
"Bantha poodoo!" Rey spat, crossing her arms over her chest. "I have been to seventeen formal events in the last four years and I have never once been asked to wear a dress."
"Oh we're not asking," Kaydel tone was as dry as a sand dune.
Rose chuckled nervously, getting between the two women. "What Kay is trying to say," Rose canted her head in Kaydel's direction and added, "badly," before turning back to Rey, "is that this is an important event. Possibly the most important one of your life."
"More important than the peace summits that ended the war?" Rey pursed her lips, a bad habit she'd picked up from the king of sour faces. "All three of them?"
"Rey," Rose pleaded.
"Or the gala in honor of the reformation of the senate?" Rey added. "Or those annual fundraisers for the Stormtrooper repatriation efforts, the Outer Rim relief fund, the Jedi Memorial Galactic Orphans Coalition—"
"We get it!" Kaydel grumbled. "You go to a lot of formals."
"I do," Rey mused, though she was less than amused. "All of which have intergalactic importance and attention. None of which I have ever worn a dress to!"
"They were parading you around for the publicity!" Kaydel rolled her eyes. "If you look like everyone else then how will donors know you're some magical Force user? That's why they let you wear pants and that weird robe thing. Did you see any other females in pants?"
"As a matter of fact I did and some males in dresses." Rey was about to continue when she glanced around the bedroom. "Where's Rose?"
Kaydel paused, also scanning the room. "I don't know. She was just here."
The door to the hallway opened and Rose stormed back into the room, dragging Finn by the sleeve of what was once Poe's leather jacket. Somehow it had survived the war and Finn wore it every time they got together as a group. A happy reminder of the bonds they'd formed in such a dark time.
Rey glanced past him into the hall to where Ben was peeking down the corridor, jowls crinkling. A mixture of curiosity and terror wafted off him, not that he was making an effort to hide it from her. She smiled at him and some of the fear abated. He gave a weak smile in return before the door slid shut on him again.
Finn stared at the closed door with a knowing smile. "You ever studied black holes?"
"What?" That brought her attention back to the room around her. They were alone.
"Black holes? You ever seen one?" Finn plopped down on the bed with a huff, waving her over to sit with him.
"I haven't, though I've read about them." She replied, taking a seat.
He was there to talk her into wearing a dress. It wasn't going to work. She'd hear him out, but her mind had been made up on the subject for years. If Leia Organa couldn't get Rey into a dress no one else in the cosmos was going to.
"Good enough." He patted her knee and grinned. "Black holes do funny things to gravity. The closer you are to one, the more intense the gravity gets and the faster it pulls you in but the slower time is actually moving."
She nodded, though she wasn't sure what any of this had to do with dresses.
He made a serious face, looked her directly in the eye and said, "Watching the two of you is like watching an object descend into a black hole."
Rey snorted.
"I'm serious. The further away you are the weaker the effect, but put the two of you in a room together and you just suck each other in. You know, you miss like half the conversations that are had with you when you're sitting next to each other right?"
"We do not."
"You do!" Finn nodded with zeal. "It's like you're in this little bubble of the Force."
Rey cocked an eyebrow. "That's not how the Force works."
"Thank you for reminding me how much I regret telling you that story."
"You're welcome." She beamed. "But what does that have to do with you convincing me to put on a dress? Which is never going to happen, by the way, but go on."
Finn wiggled his eyebrows, grinning maniacally. She knew that look. It was his crazy plan look.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Rey groaned.
Poe felt terrible. Normally, when Ben and Rey were in the unfortunate position of having to organize an event, they had a whole team of support staff. Not on this one. Ben was having a rough time of it.
Ben and Rey weren't the only Force users in the galaxy. In the years since the war ended, others had stepped forward, many more were still popping up every day. Some had been well trained by hidden pockets of what Ben called 'Force legacies.' Most weren't. Ben and Rey had sort of taken these people under their wings. In doing so, they become the poster children of whatever it was they were trying to do. They hadn't exactly picked a name for themselves.
Now Ben was on his own planning a big shindig. Rey was no help at all with these things. After the first few planning sessions, which ended with her shouting "Hang the whole galaxy!" and walking out, Ben had stopped asking for her help.
Poe glanced over at Finn, who'd returned from Rose's bedroom and plopped down on the couch next to him.
"What was that about?" Ben asked.
"I've been sworn to secrecy," Finn replied.
"Secrecy?" Ben bristled. "There's no room in the budget for secrecy."
"Easy, buddy," Poe chided. "I'm with Ben. Start talking."
Finn glanced at Ben, then at Poe, before leaning in conspiratorially. They leaned into Finn.
"The thing is, this is a great opportunity for the galaxy to see you two as something other than the last of the Jedi legacy." Finn waved his hands in small circles. "Kaydel thinks it's the perfect photo op. It'll humanize you, you know?"
Ben snorted. "We're not human enough for the rest of the galaxy?"
"Some days you're not human enough for anyone," Finn muttered.
It was a testament to how far Ben had come since the end of the war that he no longer got offended by comments like that. Ben pursed his lips in annoyance, but let the dig pass.
"That's not the point." Finn continued. "All these other events you do, you come out looking like someone different, separate. This is a chance to show the galaxy you're just like everyone else. You're one of us."
Poe nodded. He wasn't good at public relations like Kaydel was, but even he could see the appeal. A couple of photos snapped, the right circulation and Ben and Rey stopped being faraway, magical, war heroes. They become normal.
"Then what's the problem?" Ben glanced back toward the hall like he could see her. Maybe he could. Poe had no idea how those things worked. "She wouldn't say no to that."
"Kaydel wants her to wear a dress," Finn replied.
Poe laughed out loud. His mind immediately filled with the image of the puffiest, most heavily decorated dress in the palest of pastels and skinny Rey in the middle of it like an angry twig in ruffles. It was ridiculous. Everyone knew Rey hated dresses. There was no way. None at all. Kaydel was going to lose this battle. Hands down.
He was just about to say so, but Finn was making eyes at him. Nodding in and eye-pointing in Ben's direction.
Ben had that spaced-out look he got when he was too close to Rey, or staring across a room at Rey, or secretly talking to Rey when they were on different worlds, or just in different rooms.
"Are you asking her now?" Poe asked.
Ben snapped out of it. "What? No." He shook his head. "No. I'm not–- No. It doesn't work like that." He returned to his spreadsheets and contracts, a bit too quickly in Poe's estimation.
"The Force doesn't work like that?" Poe cocked an eyebrow at Finn.
"I hate all of you." Finn shook his head, glancing once more at Ben who was slipping back into that thousand-meter stare.
Poe furrowed his brow at Finn, a thought forming in his head.
Finn gave him a tiny, encouraging nod.
Poe pointed his eyes at the bedroom then cocked an eyebrow at Finn.
Finn winked and pointed his head slightly at Ben.
Ben was too far in his own head to notice either of them.
"So," Poe asked, turning toward Ben. "How'd it go? You think she'll do it?"
"Actually, she's agreed to it provisionally," Finn began.
Ben's head popped up immediately. "She what?"
"I asked her to try it on. Just once, to see how it feels. She's been saying no for years, but she'd never actually worn a dress." Finn shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe she'll love it and start wearing them all the time."
Ben's eyes went wide. Poe was pretty sure his brain was about to short circuit.
Poe's brain had nearly broken at the thought of Rey in a dress. She and Ben had a different kind of relationship entirely and, unlike Rey, Ben had grown up around women in dresses. Ben was seeing things from a whole different perspective. Probably in vivid technicolor.
Kaydel had expected a fight, she'd expected fire and lightsabers and the beginning of the next intergalactic war. She didn't need the Force to know Rey was nervous as she wandered the waiting room of Naboo's royal dressmaker's private shop on Theed.
Rey and Rose were wandering between the displayed dresses. Rey would touch the fabric and wrinkling her nose. Rose would lean in a mumble something that would make Rey smile, then they'd pushed on to the next one. The cycle began again. Rey considering a garment with trepidation. Rose whispering encouragements.
Yram Zapalo had been the one to make Leia's funeral dress. It had been part of the Princess' will. She'd wanted to be cremated in a dress from her birth mother's home planet. Something simple and serene.
After Leia's funeral, the dressmaker had expressed an interest in dressing 'the Jedi girl' in the future. It was a small mistake, but one Kaydel had quickly corrected. Rey didn't like to be referred to as a Jedi any more than Ben did.
Years later the Naboo dressmaker was the first person Kaydel had thought of for the task of making Rey her first – and possibly only – dress. One of Alderaanian make would have been more appropriate, but their fabrics were thicker and heavily layered. Rey would feel too restricted. The people of Naboo had a variety of fashions that were thin, light, and frighteningly similar to the motifs Rey favored in her manner of dress.
"Miss Yram will see you now." They all turned to the girl in the archway, Yram's assistant. "Please follow me."
The girl led them through a corridor filled with open fitting rooms of various sizes. One of them larger than Kay's whole apartment. At the end of the hall the girl waved them into the final fitting room. It was easily four times as large as Kay's apartment and she spied the royal seal of Naboo over the tri-fold mirror.
"Are we in the royal fitting room?" Rose choked.
Rey paled, eyes going wide as she took in the plush seating, heavy drapes and intricate design work along the crown molding.
"Of course you are!" Yram replied, coming in with a flourish.
Her silver hair was bundled atop her head in a latticework of jewels and her deeply tan skin was smooth, but beginning to show hints of her age. Wrinkles around her mouth and eyes crinkled when she smiled. Her burnt orange dress, swished around her as she swung her hips making Yram look like a shimmering orange serpent slithering toward them.
"It's not every day I get to dress the most alluring woman in the galaxy."
"The— the what?" Rey had turned a lovely shade of pink.
"Oh yes." Yram sided up examining Rey's face like a buyer inspecting a particularly expensive statue. "Is this your usual coloring, darling?"
Kaydel stepped in. "She gets a lot of sun, but has strange tan lines. You'll want to look at that."
"What do you mean strange?" Rey asked, yipping when she realized Yram's hands were around her waist. "Excuse me."
"It's quite alright, darling," Yram replied. "Now lift your arms for me."
Rey glanced around, completely bewildered.
"Up." Yram smacked the girls elbows and she lifted her arms. "Yes, yes. It's perfect." Yram turned Rey around and lifted the back of her tunic. "Hm. Bigger than I thought, but that's fine."
"Excuse me!" Rey said again, wriggling free. "Could you please not touch me?"
Yram clicked her tongue. "It's my job to touch you, darling." She waved Rey forward. "Come, come. Come see it."
"See what?" Rey asked.
"The dress!" Yram exclaimed.
"You made it already?" Rose asked, glancing at Kaydel.
That was news to her too. Yram wasn't supposed to have done anything without Rey's approval. She didn't even have measurements. Yram rolled her eyes at the lot of them.
"I've been doing this thirty five years. Trust me." Yram took Rey's arm and steered her toward a side door. "If she doesn't love it. I will sell it for seven times what it's worth because it's styled after her. But don't worry. You'll love it."
Kaydel and Rose stepped forward to follow but Yram tutted at them.
"No, no. Just her. One dress. One woman. One opinion." Yram's smile thinned to a threat. "You two wait out here."
They exchanged a confused look then checked with Rey.
"It's alright," Rey said, more calmly than Kay expected.
They disappeared into the side room and shut the door. Ten minutes passed with no shouting and the assistant came back to offer them drinks. Twenty more minutes passed and the girl returned with a plate of fruit, cheese and bread. Another fifteen passed in silence. So far there was nothing coming from the back room. Nothing shook, broke or flat out exploded.
Nearly an hour after it closed, the side door reopened and Yram stepped out with a predatory grin on her face.
"What did I tell you?" Yram asked, waving her arms wide as she slithered toward them. "She loves it! I knew she would."
Rey shuffled out a moment later, wearing the same clothes she had been when she walked in. Her hands were clasped in front of her. She stared at her toes with an awkward, close-lipped smile.
"Well?" Kaydel asked, heart in her throat.
Rey shuffled from boot to boot.
"Spit it out!" Rose cried. "I can't take it."
Rey was fighting back a grin and her cheeks were definitely turning pink. She looked so odd squirming in embarrassment. She was never embarrassed about anything, especially the things she should be embarrassed about. Kaydel felt like she was having an out of body experience.
"I love it," Rey mumbled.
"Yes!" Rose hopped up, pounding a fist into the air before rushing forward. "Really? You're gonna do it?"
Rey nodded, taking a deep breath as though steeling herself for battle.
Rose threw her arms around Rey and laughed. "Yay! Oh I'm so happy for you!"
Kaydel canted her head, trying to make sense of what was happening. "What the hell did Finn say to you?"
Rose gasped at her holo as Rey twriled in her new dress. "You look beautiful!"
"This is insane," Rey whined, low in her throat. "What's my back-up plan again?"
"You don't have one, remember? You told me not to let you back out. No back up plan." Rose leaned closer to the projection. "Turn around. I want to see the back again."
Rey turned. "Yram said she wanted to wrap my arms in—"
"Wait!" Rose's head popped up at the telltale signs of Finn's light steps in the apartment. "Finn's here."
Rey lurched toward the projector, hand hovering over the off switch. "Bye, Rose!"
"Bye!"
The holo disappeared just in time for Finn to come through the door. He looked at the surprise on her face, then the holoprojector, then her face again. "What were you doing?"
"Talking to Rey."
His eyes went wide. "And?"
"It's beautiful! She's beautiful. It's happening."
"It's happening." Finn let out a deep breath. "So, can I see it?"
"No!" Rose chided, pushing past him into the hall. "No one's supposed to see it."
"You saw it!" Finn called, following her out.
"The dressmaker called me because she was freaking out. I talked her off the ledge." Rose wandered into the kitchen to make dinner. "If not I wouldn't have seen it either. It's a surprise."
"For Ben. Not the rest of us," Finn argued. "Come on. At least describe it to me."
Rose shook her head, scrunching her lips together to drive the point home.
"Please! If it weren't for me she wouldn't even be wearing that damn dress."
Rose shook her head again. Rey didn't want anyone to see it. She was really self-conscious about the whole thing. She'd spent all that time building it up as something she'd never do and now that she was doing it she had a complex. The sudden rush of media attention probably wasn't helping.
That's when Finn employed dirty tactics. He pouted, wide bottom lips thrusting out in her direction and trembling slightly.
"Don't you dare!" Rose warned. "You put that thing away this instant!"
He stepped closer, thrusting his lip out further, chin wrinkling under it. He batted his eyes sadly at her. It didn't take her long to crack. She couldn't withstand Finn's pout no matter how serious.
"Damn you," she muttered. "Fine, but you better act surprised the first time you see it. If she finds out I showed you this she's going to kill me."
"And she's a Force user. She could do it from across the city."
Rose rolled her eyes, hating herself for having to say it. "That's not how the Force works."
Finn didn't find it particularly hard to pretend to be surprised when he first saw Rey. She looked absolutely gorgeous. In a weird way she looked like a completely different person, face all painted up like that. Her hair up in a series of intricately interwoven braids that were apparently the custom. Leave it to the Alderaanians to have a hairstyle for every occasion no matter how obscure. When she caught his eye in the mirror she smiled, all teeth, and that was the Rey he knew.
"Wow," Finn said, hurrying to shut the door behind him. "Where is everyone?"
"Rose went to get me alcohol and Kaydel is with Ben working out some last minute logistical issue." She glanced down at herself and back up at him, utterly panicked. "Am I really doing this? Is this happening?"
He rushed forward, taking her by the shoulders. "Breathe, Rey. You're doing this. Don't think about it. Ignore the people and the cameras and the whole crazy mess. Remember the black holes?"
She chuckled. "Yeah."
"Just find Ben and let gravity do the rest."
She nodded too quickly, too many times.
"Hey, you okay?" He ran a hand down her arm from the exposed skin to the pale grey silk wrapped around her arms and wrists. That crazy dressmaker really had been paying attention. If Rey was ever going to wear a dress, this would be it.
Rey nodded again, still not entirely convinced.
"Because it's not too late to run. I'll steal a transport. We'll get the hell out of here right now." He shook his head. "I know you two need money and support and all that, but there are other ways to do this, right? The Jedi didn't build their order in a day? You can start slower."
"I would never do that to Ben." Rey shook her head.
"Are you crazy?" Finn cried. "If I took you and ran he'd hunt me down. We'd have to take him too!"
She chuckled nervously.
"Though if he puts up a fight I'm going to need you to do all the punching. He'll squish me with his mind or something." He cocked an eyebrow, waiting for it.
She laughed then, some of the nervousness slipping away. "That's not how the Force works!"
He laughed too, letting the last of the tension ease from his muscles. As soon as he got out of here he needed to message Poe and tell him to nix the escape plan. They were going to be alright.
The door flew open and Rose rushed in with a glass of liquid courage in each hand. She handed Rey a tumbler with a dark red liquid sloshing at the bottom. Rey knocked it back in a single gulp.
Finn scooted closer to Rose, whispering, "How many Desert Blooms has she had?"
"That's her third." Rose shrugged.
"What's that?" Rey asked, pointing at the other drink, the bright yellow-green liquid looked like it was glowing.
"Corellian Twister," Rose replied, offering it to Rey.
Thankfully she didn't knock it back.
"Do you want to get your cloak on?" Rose asked. "Things should be getting started soon." She turned to Finn, corralling him toward the door. "You go get Ben. Where the hell is Poe?"
"Taking care of something for me," Finn replied. It wasn't technically a lie.
"Well find him too. You better not be late. The guests are already moving into the hall."
Rose gave one last push and he was out in the hall. He waved at Rey and she smiled back at him. She looked less nervous as the door shut, but that could have just been the alcohol.
When he found Ben he found a completely different mess. Kaydel was doing wonders at keeping him calm. They were the unlikeliest of friends, though that was probably true of every one of Ben's friends. Kaydel had bonded with Ben over Leia and all her little lessons. Having only had a boy, Kaydel had become one of the small handful of young women in Leia's life she doted on like a daughter. Kaydel still talked about Korr Sella like a sister, the young Senate aide who'd followed Leia into a life of war and given her life on Hosnian Prime.
"Finn!" Kaydel cried the moment he walked through the door. "Ben, I'm leaving you in capable hands. I need to go back out there." She took his hand and squeezed it. "You gonna be alright?"
Ben nodded the same way Rey had just a few minutes before. Kaydel shouldn't have taken it at face value, but there was a publicity nightmare outside and Ben couldn't make his entrance just yet, so she was the de facto General for the night. Besides, the second Ben laid eyes on Rey he wasn't going to be thinking about anything else.
As though he could read Finn's thoughts, Ben's head popped up, eyes focusing to laser points. Kaydel took the opportunity to scurry away while Ben was distracted.
"Poe's on his way. Just need him to move something for me."
Ben's eyes bore into Finn and the look on his face could have been shock or it could have been anger. It could have been happiness in the wrong light. It was hard to tell with Ben's face. At rest he just looked like he had gas all the time.
"So how'd you do it?" Ben asked.
"Do what?"
"Get her to wear a dress?"
"Is that what you're thinking about right now?" Finn asked, genuinely surprised.
"If I think about anything else I'm going to lose my mind," Ben admitted.
Finn shrugged. "I didn't."
"You did. Everyone says you did." Ben shook his head. "Even Rey said she talked to you and you convinced her to think about it. To go to the dressmaker and try it on. After that she…"
Finn was shaking his head steadily, smiling at the poor, deluded, behemoth. "No. I didn't convince her, you did."
"What?" Ben blinked several times.
"I may not know how the Force works, but I know her and she's told me a lot about you." Finn propped an arm on Ben's shoulder. "What I actually said to her was simple. There are only two people in the whole galaxy she should consider putting a dress on for. Herself and you. You'd never ask because you know how weird she gets, but – surprise of the millennium – you're a normal male of our species. Girl you love in a dress?" He shrugged. "I told her I'd plant the seed in your head and all she had to do was wait and see what you really thought."
Ben's eyes went wide. "She…"
"She did it for you." Finn patted him on the shoulder. "Now all you gotta do is stand there and let gravity do the rest. Think you can handle that?"
Ben fell into the seat behind him, his black formal suit wrinkling. Finn figured he'd earned a few minutes. He'd be on his feet the rest of the night.
At that moment, Poe stepped into the room looking from Finn to the dazed look in Ben's eye and back to Finn.
"Do—" Poe pointed a thumb at the door behind him. "Should I go get that transport after all?"
Ben was kicking himself for ever agreeing to this fanfare. He felt like he was under a microscope. Video droids hovered in his periphery and dozens of the galaxy's most influential people were staring up at him. He tried to remind himself that he knew every one of them. They were friends, family, people he wanted there for this. The problem was he was standing at the head of a room filled with them and they were all staring at him like he was some interesting new attraction at the Chandrila fair.
Lando waved at him from the front row, his Twi'lek wife Kaasha sitting next to him. Ben's stomach dropped out from under him as a camera bot swiveled to Lando and back to capture Ben's reaction. Was this what the early Jedi had done to show the galaxy that they could be trusted?
No threat here. We're just like you. We won't steal your children and brainwash them, promise.
He shook the thoughts away. He needed to breathe. He needed to think. Neither of which was coming easy over the roiling in his stomach. He wanted to go home. He wanted Finn to go get that transport and they could all just run.
A hand touched his shoulder and Poe leaned in, nodding to the opposite end of the room.
Ben looked down the aisle in the center of the room ignoring the rows of neatly seated people on either side. He saw Chewie turn and felt Rey's presence draw near. She was as nervous as he was. He could practically feel her hands shaking but she was still hidden from his view. Several droids floated their way up the aisle to where Chewie was standing. As though following some silent signal Ben hadn't perceived, the whole room stood.
He was going to vomit.
Rey stepped out into the aisle, taking Chewie's arm. He saw a white cloak and the edge of her arm and the rest was obscured by droids. If he weren't absolutely certain trillions of people across the galaxy were watching he'd have crushed every one of them. After several tense seconds where the whole room seemed to be holding its breath, the droids began to float upward.
He could feel her doing it. She wanted them out of the way as much as he did, she was just smarter about it. The droids began to twitch in the air and she released them. They resumed normal operation, wandering away, but Ben wasn't looking at them. He was looking at Rey.
She was covered in a large cloak, with the hood pulled up over her head. The white cloak was stained black in places and it wasn't until she got closer that he realized what it was. His throat tightened. It was a poem, the first line of it painted down the front of the cloak and wrapping around until the last line met it on the other side. The dark splashes were stitched to look like calligraphic brush strokes. It was the first gift he'd ever given her.
His eyes found hers and the smile on her face melted away the last of his fear. They reached the platform and Chewie stepped around Rey to take her cloak. She pulled the hood back, letting Chewie slide the garment from her shoulders. Ben lost several seconds at that point because all he could think about was how beautiful Rey was. It wasn't as strange as he thought it would be seeing her in a dress. The style was simple, white silk with a pair of grey straps around her neck that wrapped around her waist. The same grey fabric looped up her arms. It was Rey in a very Rey dress and the braids that signified her intention to be married.
She stepped up onto the platform and took Ben's hands in her own, pressing her forehead to his.
Are you ready to do this? she whispered in his mind.
I'm ready, he whispered back. Then added, You're the most beautiful woman in the galaxy.
She smiled. Thanks. It was your idea.
Finn cleared his throat and they pulled apart, realizing that the officiant had already begun. They heard Finn mutter 'black hole' and they chuckled.
