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The Friday that Rose and Armitage finally call off their divorce after he comes clean about the marriage certificate debacle, Rose’s last message in the group chat is: Armie’s taking me on a second honeymoon!!! Leaving right now, don’t expect me for drinks tonight!
In a separate group chat, the one that’s thus far been used exclusively for Jannah, Kaydel, and Rey to debate how best to support Rose whenever she starts breaking down in the main chat, Jannah praises every god known to humankind and moves to postpone Friday night drinks indefinitely, until their systems can recover from the past few weeks. Kay and Rey are quick to agree, and Ben is even quicker to reclaim Friday for date night – until Rose returns from her impromptu second honeymoon two weeks later and insists they have a girls’ night out to celebrate.
They end up at Maz’s again, as they always do no matter how many cute new spots Kaydel suggests they try out, and from then on they’re just a few glasses of wine away from inevitably getting sloshed. At least this time Rey doesn’t have to hold in her tipsy giggles out of respect for Rose’s heartache.
No, this time Rose is the one who laughs the loudest of all, drawing stares that she doesn’t give a single crap about. And really, why should she? All is right with the world once more, Rose and Armitage are back and together forever the way they should be, and those boring people sitting in booths and slowly sipping at their drinks can glare all they want, Rey will just glare back at each and every single one of them for trying to rain on her friend’s parade.
Finn, tonight’s honorary guest and designated driver, snaps her out of her latest staring match with a light swat to her arm. “Hey peanut, maybe ease up on the death glare, okay?”
Before Rey can justify her death glare, the girls burst into another round of laughter and turn her way. “Oh my god, Rey,” Rose gasps between fits of giggles, “remember– ‘member when– when–”
Jannah, only slightly tipsy in comparison, takes it upon herself to clue the other two in. “Remember freshman year, when the guys were so stupid about their crushes on you two that they got all jealous about Finn?”
Even Finn joins in on the laughter at the memory of Ben and Armitage being completely oblivious about his then-budding relationship with Poe. “Oh my god, remember when they thought I was cheating on both of you with each other and tried to convince me to do the right thing and come clean?” He can barely get that last part out, slapping his knee as Kaydel shrieks with laughter.
Rey remembers it clear as day, her sweet dumb Ben getting all flustered and tongue-tied in front of her, mumbling something about how she deserved better, cheeks and ears pink and then red when he’d finally found out the truth– “It was so embarrassing,” she blurts out, even as her heart does this weird little squeezing thing at the memory of young Ben, before he started growing his hair out to hide his ears and grew into his frame and got comfortable around her.
Her husband is still cute, but he was positively adorable back then. If time-travel were a thing, Rey thinks she’d travel back to freshman year just to squeeze those cute little teenage Ben cheeks and kiss his pink ears.
They still get pink sometimes, all these years later. He gets embarrassed easily, her sweet Ben. Mainly because he’s so embarrassing all the time, with his sweet forehead kisses and his words that make her heart feel too big for her chest and his little surprises just to make her smile–
“Oh, oh!” Jannah chimes in, getting tipsier – and louder – by the minute. “And remember how they both literally ran out of the café after Finn knocked some sense into them?”
There’ll be plenty of time to think about Ben later. For now, Rey chugs down the rest of her margarita and rejoins the fray. “And then they both got stuck in the doorway because they were shoving each other to get out first!”
He’s so embarrassing, her husband.
She loves him for it.
They end up spending the rest of the night reminiscing about embarrassing college moments, moving first from Ben and Armitage’s courtship blunders to all those times Finn and Poe were caught in the act to Kaydel’s drunken antics.
At the end of the night, when Finn finally drops her off at home, Rey’s mind is still buzzing with all her favorite freshman year memories.
Okay, her mind is just buzzing period, but that’s probably normal, right?
“Right,” she answers herself out loud, drawing out the single syllable to really feel the movement of her tongue. Tongues are funny things, when you really think about it. Rey read somewhere once that there is no comfortable and natural way to rest your tongue, and now she gets weirded out whenever she remembers that.
Like right now. “Ew,” she mumbles, sticking her tongue out so that it won’t sit awkwardly in her mouth. That’s better.
“Are you doing that thing where you get weirded out by your own tongue again?” a laughing voice suddenly asks, shocking her so much she immediately snaps her tongue back into her mouth for safekeeping.
Rey snatches up her bag from the entryway table before cautiously venturing farther into the apartment, figuring she’s got enough things in there to do a decent amount of damage to the mystery intruder who’s rude enough to ask about her tongue. There’s only one person who has all-things-tongue-related privilege, and it’s–
“Ben!” she squeals as soon as she spots her smiling husband sitting on the couch, and her makeshift weapon is quickly tossed aside in favor of launching herself into his arms. She’s been wanting to cuddle him for ages, ever since she went from giggly tipsy to sleepy tipsy.
Maybe “tipsy” is a bit of an understatement.
“Oof,” Ben mumbles under his breath as his arms wrap around her, steadying the both of them before Rey can pull him down to the ground with her. That could be fun, though – rolling around on the floor with Ben. They’ll have to try it next time.
For now, she’s happy to snuggle into her husband’s warmth and nuzzle at his jaw while Ben’s soft lips move against her forehead, saying words she should probably be paying attention to. Something about having fun, and home late, and missing her–
Rey snorts at that last one. “You’re so embarrassing,” she giggles into the crook of his neck, her sappy husband who misses her even when she’s only gone for a few hours.
(And okay, sure, maybe Rey missed him too, but they’re not talking about her here.)
“And why is that?” Ben wraps his big, warm hand around the back of her neck and slowly guides her to look up at him and his cute little crooked smile, so cute she just has to reach up for a quick kiss before she calls him out.
“Because… because everything!” she informs him, nearly hitting his face when one arm flings out to encompass… all of Ben, or at least most of him. It’s not easy to do anything that involves all of Ben, because he’s a rudely large man, but that’s okay. Rey loves him anyway. Even though–
“Remember when–” The thought alone is enough to make her laugh again, hard enough for a little snort to escape her. Ben raises a single eyebrow at that – ugh, she hates him for being able to do that – but at least he doesn’t interrupt her.
Rudely large, but still polite.
And also embarrassing. “Remember when– when you had a huuuuuuuuge crush on me and everyone knew? Everyone, Ben! It was so embarrassing for you!” Even Han knew. Rey can still remember the way he waggled his eyebrows at Ben the first time Ben introduced her as his friend when his parents came to visit.
Oh, that’s where Ben gets his eyebrow skills from! She’s just about to share this life-changing realization with Ben when she realizes her husband has gone completely quiet… and is looking strangely red in the face? Oh no, she didn’t mean to embarrass him for being embarrassing–
Rey quickly brings up both hands to cup Ben’s cheeks, smushing them a bit to get a good grip. “It’s okay, baby, don’t be embarrassed–”
And that’s when a loud, loud laugh suddenly bursts out of him, so loud his whole body starts shaking. She feels a little wobbly, but Rey knows Ben would never let her fall, not even when she’s perched on his lap while he laughs his butt off.
Still, she wraps her arms around the back of his neck just to be safe. Like a seat belt.
“Sweetheart,” Ben says after a good, long while, still laughing with his eyes bright and his cheeks red and oh, she just has to kiss those cute little embarrassed cheeks. He doesn’t seem to mind, if the way he continues to talk while Rey peppers kisses all over his face is any indication. “Sweetheart, we’ve been together for nearly ten years. How is that embarrassing?”
Rey gapes at him, slowly realizing that her husband might be a teensy tiny bit silly in addition to how mortifying he is. “Ben,” she says, looking him dead in the eye and delivering her words as slowly and clearly as she can. “You were so obvious about liking me. How is that not embarrassing?”
Like that time he left her a cup of coffee on her desk before class started the morning after the whole Finn reveal incident with a silly little smiley face and a lopsided heart and her name written in cursive – cursive! – on the cup. Or when he asked her out in front of all their friends. Or all those times she would catch him looking at her from across a room while her friends giggled at them.
So embarrassing.
She waits patiently for Ben to finally come to a realization, but he never does. Instead, he cups her cheek in that big, warm hand of his and gives her the softest, sweetest smile and reminds her of why she loves him anyway, embarrassing crush and all.
“Rey, I’ve never been embarrassed of my feelings for you. I’m proud to love you.”
It’s his fault she’s getting hot tears everywhere and can barely see his face and ends up kissing his nose instead of his lips. “I’m proud you love me too,” Rey wails, before hiding her face in his neck.
God, they’re both embarrassing.
But it’s okay, because now Ben’s holding her and playing with her hair just the way she likes it and at least they can be embarrassing together, they get to do everything together now, ever since the day–
Rey snorts to herself at the memory.
“What is it now?” Ben asks with a long-suffering sigh, even though he’s actually smiling when she looks up at him, barely able to contain her giggles.
“Remember when you proposed to me in your parents’ backyard and everyone saw you doing it? God Ben, that was so embarrassing for you!”
In the morning, she’s happily burrowed under the covers while Ben strokes her hair and curls around her to block out the sunlight that seems intent on invading their room through tiny cracks in the curtains. Rey doesn’t know why the sun itself is in cahoots with her splitting headache to fill her with regret for last night's drinks, but at least she has Ben to protect her.
Until he suddenly chuckles under his breath.
“What?” Rey croaks warily, reluctantly peeling one eye open to give her husband a warning look. He better not be entertaining any funny ideas about flinging the curtains open or making her get out of bed or–
“Remember when you got up in front of all our family and friends to tell them how much you love me and want to spend the rest of your life with me?” Ben asks, his lips twitching with a barely suppressed grin. “Sooooo embarrassing,” he says in a poor approximation of her drunken drawl from the night before, drawing laughter from the both of them.
She’ll snap at him for making fun of her tipsy self later, but for now Rey just shakes her head and wraps her arms around her husband. “Ten out of ten would do again,” she tells him, and smiles as his lips find hers.