Archive of Our Own

Rey hears them before she sees them, because of course she does.

She’s used to the kids, by now. Kids are loud. They can be, anyways. But that’s what you expect with kids. Because this is Disney World, after all, and if Disney World doesn’t bring out all of the most endearingly annoying traits of childhood, then it wouldn’t be Disney World, would it? So yes, kids can be loud. But she’s used to that, by now.

But these don’t sound like kids. Well, not the sort of kids you’d normally find in a theme park, anyhow. They sound like they’re around her age- fellow college students in search of summer, no doubt- but judging by the volume of their voices alone, Rey would be willing to guess that they’re just as immature as all the toddlers and pre-teens she normally interacts with while on the job. Their volume is about all she can hear, though. They’re still too far away to make out any individual words. But they’re getting louder, which means they’re getting closer. The lines must be running short today if they’re this close already. Rey groans a little, and checks her watch. Only 10:15. This is going to be a long day.

She starts at nine. Nine in the morning isn’t too terrible of a start time, even though she’s normally up by eight, but “terrible” becomes woefully inadequate when taking into consideration what it exactly was that she has to start at nine in the morning.

Because at nine in the morning, she and her coworkers have to bring the mighty artificial mountain of Disney’s Expedition Everest in Disney’s Animal Kingdom to life. And for the rest of her day, Rey ushers passengers into and out of the rollercoaster, the screeching of the cars and the screams of the children weaving a tapestry of sound that teeters on the verge of total sensory overload for her.

Sometimes it’s just a bit… too much.

A.hand comes down on her shoulder, intent on offering her its condolences. Rey scoffs out loud, but inside she’s smiling.

Rose, who’s technically in charge around here, gives Rey a reassuring smile and a pat on the back. Rey wishes she could be annoyed at the shorter girl, but deep down she knows she can’t be. Not for long, anyhow. After all, Rey herself would like to think that she has something of a sunny disposition too- when she isn’t working, that is. Rose is clearly better suited for this, though. This line of work.

“Rise and shine, Rey!” Rose calls. “Can’t have you falling asleep on me now- time to make some magic!”

Behind them, Rose’s sister Paige is quickly stuffing a handful of Expedition Everest-themed pins into her pockets, taking advantage of the temporary lull in activity to restock her supply. Rey knows that some cast members get really into pin trading with park goers, and it’s encouraged by upper management, but it’s never really been her thing. The Tico sisters seem to enjoy it, though. They seem to enjoy working here in general.

Rey doesn’t. Not really, anyhow. She’s just never seen the same magic here that they do.

Besides, it’s hard to see magic when you can’t even hear yourself think. Which brings her back to the problem at hand. She still can’t see them- not yet, anyways- but the voices have now gotten so close that she can finally hear what they’re saying.

“-but that’s the thing, see, the mountain that the ride takes you through isn’t actually Mount Everest, right? It’s actually supposed to be a journey through the Himalayas, by way of the fictitious Forbidden Mountain pass, which is why the full name of the ride is actually Expedition Everest- Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. Did you guys know that?”

Rey did not know that. Then again, she probably could have gone her whole life without knowing that tidbit about the attraction where she worked and still been satisfied. Still, she can’t help that it’s the first thing she happens to overhear from the voice that seems to be doing all the talking. Immediately, she’s taken aback by how frantic the speaker seems- he’s unmistakably excited, rambling breathlessly in an octave his voice doesn’t seem suited for. And yet, at the same time his voice betrays an unsteady desperation to be heard, almost as if he hasn’t ever been heard before.

“No, Ben, we did not,” another voice replies with an intriguing combination of sarcasm and sincerity. This one sounds much more like he’s accustomed to being the center of attention.

Ben. That name certainly fits the first voice. Rey silently tries it out on her tongue.

“I’m sick of just hearing about it- when are we actually going to ride this thing?” a third voice, much higher than the other two pipes up. Nasally, too.

“Hux, chill out dude. There’s literally no one else in line,” a fourth voice laughs.

“I am chill, Finn!” Hux snaps, putting a sarcastic emphasis on his friend’s name, so much so that it almost sounds like he’s spitting.

Ben laughs, and suddenly Rey can see him now as he comes around the corner and into view for the first time, his friends in tow.

He’s tall. Taller than she is, anyways, and sturdy. Despite his stature, though, he walks awkwardly, like he still hasn’t grown into his body yet. But somehow, just like with his name, the rest of him just seems to fit.

And he’s smiling, his lips stretched into a nervous grin. For some reason, Rey feels nervous now, too.

“I’m pretty excited,” Ben blurts out to his friends as he approaches the gate. “I haven’t been on this ride since I was a little kid. Well, uh, I haven’t been to Disney since I was a little kid, either, but-”

“Yeah, okay,” Finn jokes. “Sure thing, Solo.”

“No, really!” Ben protests. “Finn, I-”

“Dude, don’t worry. I believe that you haven’t been back here since you were little- what I have a hard time believing is that you were ever little in the first place,” Finn retorts.

“He was, though!” Hux laughs. “Ben didn’t hit his growth spurt until sophomore year of high school.”

“No way,” Finn says, shaking his head.

“Poe, tell him,” Hux says, gesturing to the only face in the group that Rey hasn’t paired a name with yet. “He’ll only believe me if it comes from you.”

“It’s true, all of it,” Poe says, obviously taking great delight in Ben’s obvious discomfort. “I remember back in kindergarten, he was so small-”

“Let me guess, I was so small that the teachers made me walk first in the lunch line to avoid getting trampled?” Ben asks, running a hand through his hair with a mildly infuriated sigh.

“Actually, I was going to make a joke about you having to stand on a phone book to use the kiddie urinal, but that works too,” Poe counters.

“That literally never happened!” Ben exclaims, tossing his hands up into the air in exasperation, and now all four of them are laughing as they finally arrive at the gate, where they all lean against the railing, waiting for a train to take them to Mount Everest- to the Forbidden Mountain, she corrects herself- so they can start the ride.

Rey realized that she wasn’t sure why she had bothered to correct herself back there there. Maybe it was because it felt rude to Ben and that anecdote he’d prattled on about for his friends.

It wasn’t like he’d said all that for her benefit, though.

“Alright, who’s sitting by who?” Poe asks, assuming authority over the conversation again.

“I’ve got dibs on Hux!” Finn hollers.

“You just want to annoy me,” the redhead whines.

Rey watches Ben standing there silently, arms folded as the others converse loudly, looking as if he longs to join in on the raucous revelries but can’t bring himself to potentially interrupt, as if he’d be imposing on these people who are clearly his friends. Rey thinks she catches him looking at her, but she dismisses the thought. To him, she’s probably just a part of the scenery, just another faceless cog in this machine he knows so much about.

Rey looks up, and sees the red lantern in the ceiling has started flashing. An empty roller coaster car should be on its way any second now. When she looks back, she sees that Ben is staring at the lights, too.

The gates swing open, and the boys scramble through them, bolting towards the cars.

Fifty-four seconds is how fast Rey needs to be able to load a car during peak operating hours. If each roller coaster car isn’t loaded in fifty-four seconds, then the rest of the ride has to slow down to overcompensate, or stop too long in one of the show scenes, which creates a “bad experience” by Disney’s egregiously high standards of quality. Today is not peak operating hours, because the brand-new Avatar-themed section of Animal Kingdom just opened, but Rose had insisted that they all still practice on the fifty-four second time table to help Rey get used to the usual operating intervals of the ride. Fifty-four seconds is not a lot of time, and loading the cars always leaves Rey stressed.

This time, though, there are only four passengers to worry about. No big deal.

Ben and Poe climb into a car near the front, Hux and Finn filing in right behind them.

“Nervous?” Poe says to Ben as Rey pushes down on their lap bars, lingering by Ben for just a second longer than she should.

And with only fifty-four seconds total, she doesn’t have a lot of seconds to spare.

“A little,” Ben admits as she walks away, trying her hardest to keep listening. “It’s just that the last time we were here, I was so young…”

“You're worried it won’t live up to your expectations,” Poe finishes.

“A little,” Ben confirms. “I just remember it being so intense. It was incredible, really- we must have rode it non-stop all day! Seven times, at least. And I’m just worried that… I don’t know, I mean, I was so scared of the Yeti that I had to ride with my dad every time.”

Poe reaches out and hugs Ben with one arm, and before Rey can figure out why, the blue light that means it’s time to go starts flashing, blinking in tandem with the red one, and her fifty-four seconds are over, and the train rushes out of the station, leaving her behind.

—————

“Okay, that was pretty cool,” Hux finally concedes as they step off at the unloading zone, his fiery hair disheveled from the ride.

“I know!” Finn agrees.

Poe, silent for once, is staring at him now. Ben already knows why- his friend has to be worried by what he said just before they disembarked.

“What did you think, Ben?” Poe asks carefully.

Ben ponders the question, trying to find the right words.

“It felt bigger before,” he says.

“Oh,” Poe says in return.

“Everything does,” Finn adds, trying to be helpful. “Everything feels bigger when you’re a kid. Scarier, too.”

“It’s mostly just forced perspective,” Ben admits, resuming his rambling ride spiel now. “That’s how they make the mountain look so big. I guess when I was younger, it really felt as big as it looked.”

Poe frowns, unsatisfied with Ben’s answer. “You said you rode this, what, all day with your dad?”

“Seven times,” Ben confirms.

“Then we’re riding it seven times too,” Poe says solemnly, pulling Ben into another one-armed hug. “As many times as it takes for it to feel big again.”

Hux rolls his eyes, but a glare from Poe stops him from opening his notoriously large mouth.

Finn whoops. “Dibs on sitting with Poe for the next one!”

“What, now you want to sit by me?”

“I never said I didn’t!”

“How come you sat with Hux last time, then?”

Ben rolls his eyes at the sound of Finn and Poe lapsing comfortably into another bout of bickering. As they meander back toward the start of the line, his mind starts to wander. Truth be told, though, he isn’t thinking about Han. He thought about Han when he woke up this morning and watched the sunrise through the windows of his room in the Polynesian Resort, the same place his father took him for their first Disney vacation all those years ago. He thought about Han when they walked past the Tree of Life, remembering how it was his father who first told him that the central icon of this Disney park was built around the skeleton of an old oil rig, and why Disney parks even had icons in the first place. But he isn’t thinking about Han right now.

Because, truth be told, he’s thinking about the girl who was operating the ride. His favorite ride.

She was pretty.

That seemed to Ben like a woefully inadequate way of describing her, but those seemed to be the only words his brain could muster when describing this girl. Not inaccurate, but insufficient. He couldn’t really fault himself for that, though- his brain didn’t seem to work quite right whenever she was around. He remembered how his tongue practically tripped over the words flowing from his mouth when he realized that she could probably hear him, and what was he saying, and why did everything he was saying sound lame the second after he said it? He remembered how he thought he saw her looking at him as they waited for the ride vehicles to return to the loading station, how she pressed down on his lap bar while seemingly staring directly into his eyes...

Was that a double entendre? He didn’t think so. Not that he would know if it were, but still.

This time, as Ben started working his way through the cue, he planned his words very carefully. The odds that she would ever actually talk to him were practically non-existent- and it wasn’t as if he had the courage to talk to her himself- but maybe if he mentioned an anecdote about the ride that sounded smart, she’d think he was smart too. If she overheard him, that is. She probably thought he was an idiot, after how he and his friends had been acting last time.

But if he could say something clever, something insightful about the ride where she worked every day, maybe she’d be impressed. By him.

It was worth a shot.

—————

“No, really, it’s so cool. They actually have a whole museum devoted to actual Yeti artifacts and sightings and everything!”

Rey hears him before she sees him, because of course she does. Because of course he just has to come back and ride it again, his eyes darting left and right wildly, back and forth, taking in every miniscule detail in the scenery. Staring at everything.

Everything except for her.

But it’s fine. She shouldn’t even care. She doesn’t. Not about the ride, and not about Ben.

She should really stop calling him that in her head. She doesn’t know him. Not really, anyhow. He doesn’t even know her name. She feels guilty for having overheard his.

Almost subconsciously, Rey undoes the buns in her hair, adjusting her long locks so that they hang down over her park-issued name tag, covering it completely and obscuring it from view.

“So that’s why there was all that junk in the building back there?” Hux asks incredulously after Ben finally finishes speaking. “This hardly feels like what we came here for.”

And of course he had to bring his friends with him. Rey feels more infuriated by their presence than she thinks she should be. Maybe if they weren’t around, she might actually stand a chance at striking up a conversation with the enigmatic dark-haired stranger. Maybe if they weren’t around, she’d be less shy. But every time he runs out of breath, they’re there to fill in the silence. Because of course they are.

“It’s not junk!” Ben argues defensively. “It’s honestly incredible, is what it is- the attention to detail that was put into the theming for this ride alone is probably some of the best in the entire park. Did you guys know that the Imagineers actually took a trip to Nepal so they could study the architecture there in order to make the ride more accurate? They brought back almost 8,000 artifacts from the trip, all of which are on display in the Yeti Museum that they just built into the cue so people could look at the exhibits while they wait in line!”

“That’s a good idea,” Finn replies, looking a bit overwhelmed by the surplus of information that Ben is spewing in his general direction.

If Ben wasn’t desperate to be heard before, he certainly is now, talking animatedly as he makes his way through the line and towards her at a furious pace.

“It also works brilliantly with the theming of the ride- the area around the mountain is a part of the fictional village of Serka Zong which was invented by the Imagineers, so of course a tiny mountain town right by the Himalayas would make a museum to profit off of their local legend and simultaneously warn travelers of the monster that they actually believe in! I mean, sometimes I wish we could walk through the cue slower just so we could take a look at everything,” Ben adds, and Rey thinks he’s staring right at her when he says that.

Maybe that’s why she does it.

Maybe she’s mad at him, because she feels like she’s being teased every time he glances in her general direction when she knows that he isn’t looking at her. Maybe she’s mad at him for being so loud. Maybe she’s mad at his friends.

Maybe she’s mad that, despite the odds, he still believes in the magic of this ride, and she doesn’t. Maybe it’s everything about him.

Maybe that’s why she does it.

Maybe that’s why, as Ben sits next to Hux and prepares to disembark on the ride, when she goes to check their lap restraints, she slams down on Ben’s lap bar as hard as she possibly can, right as he’s just finished telling his friend about the fake steam that used to come out of the smokestacks on the train’s caboose whenever it pulled into the station.

And for the first time, she knows for sure that he’s staring at her, his eyes wide and his mouth agape in total shock at her audacity.

But before he can say anything, the blue light flashes, her fifty-four second are up, and the train jolts out of the station again. Rose stares at her funnily, but Rey couldn’t care less.

She knows he’ll be back, of course. Maybe this time, he’ll finally have to say something to her.

Maybe that’s why she did it.

Maybe she wanted to see if she could push him away. Maybe she wanted to push him away before he had the chance to leave, like everyone else in her life had. And maybe she wanted to see if he’d take the magic with him when he did. Because he would leave her, in the end. It was an inevitability. He had to- he was just a stranger to her, right? Just another guest at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. That was why she had taken her hair down, after all- to cover her nametag. She didn’t want him getting attached, because she didn’t want either of them to get hurt, even though it was stupid to think that he was attatched to her. Or that he ever could be, for that matter.

But maybe, just maybe, Rey wanted to see if he would even leave at all.

And as the train pulled out of the station, Rey realized that she didn’t want him to.

She wanted him to stay.

—————

Hux is still roaring with laughter and clutching his sides as they start the climb up the first hill of the ride.

“What?” Poe yells from behind them. “What happened?

“Did you see that?” Hux wheezes. “That girl just… she slammed the safety bar… straight into Ben… funniest shit I’ve ever seen!”

“Language,” Ben says stently, which only makes Hux laugh harder. “This is Disney World.”

“Why is she mad at you?” Finn hollers, trying to be heard over the wind.

“I have no idea!” Ben hollers back.

“Why am I not surprised?” Hux laughs.

“Well, it looks like we’ll just have to find out why,” Poe says solemnly as their ride vehicle finally reaches the top of the hill and hurdles over the side.

When the train stops at the first show scene inside the mountain, the one with the Yeti’s shadow, Finn and Poe both turn to face Ben. Hux turns his head too, that perpetual smirk still ironed into his face.

“Alright, buddy, now seems like a pretty good time to get this sorted out,” Poe says.

“There’s nothing to sort out,” Ben blurts, suddenly feeling defensive on her behalf. “It was nothing, honestly! Probably just an accident. She didn’t even seem mad.”

“She was mad,” Hux insists, crossing his arms. “It’s not hard, Ben- even I can tell when a woman is obviously upset by something.”

“Yeah, you’d know plenty about that,” Ben mutters under his breath, crossing his own arms in some sort of rebuttal to Hux.

“You don’t think it’s possible that she was trying to flirt with you?” Finn asks.

Ben shakes his head. “Not a chance.”

Not her. Not with him. No way.

“So then what’d you do wrong?” Poe asks. “Did you say anything to her? Anything you said that she could have overheard, maybe?”

“I literally haven’t said a single thing to her!” Ben snaps, though he knows he’s mostly just mad at himself for that. “And if I said anything to upset her, I probably wouldn’t even know anyways.”

“That is true,” Finn muses. “Your social skills are virtually nonexistent.”

Poe cocks his eyebrows and looks knowingly at Finn. “Then she’s flirting with him. There’s no other explanation.”

“No way! She’d have to be worse at flirting than Ben!” Hux hollers, still in conniptions over the apparent hilarity of the situation to him. “There’s no way.”

“As much as I hate to say it, Hux has a point,” Finn ponders. “She could have slammed the lap bar like that on accident, right? Maybe this was all just a misunderstanding.”

“An incredibly funny misunderstanding,” Hux clarifies, “but a misunderstanding all the same.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Ben groans in frustration.

“True, that may be so,” Poe argues. “But even if she wasn’t flirting with him… how do we know that Ben doesn’t want to flirt with her?”

Three heads turn around at blinding speed to face him, and Ben starts to sweat.

“Uh,” he falters momentarily, trying to find the words. “It’s not like that.”

“In fact…” Poe continues, ignoring him. “How do we know Ben hasn’t already been flirting with her?”

“I think I know what flirting looks like,” Hux retorts.

“But do you know what Ben flirting looks like?”

“It doesn’t look like flirting at all, you blathering buffoon- oh. I see your point.”

“Yeah.”

“Touché.”

“Indeed.”

“You guys really think she was trying to flirt with me?”

“It’s a possibility we can’t afford to rule out,” Poe declares authoritatively. “Ben, buddy… you got a game plan for this?”

“Game plan?” Ben echoes.

“You're gonna say something to her about that, right?”

“Should I?” Ben retorts. “I mean, it still could have been an accident.”

“Right, but Ben-” Poe stops short to press two fingers to his temple and mutter something under his breath in frustration. “Okay. Let’s break this down. You like Everest Girl, right?”

Ben feels the tips of his ears getting hotter by the second. “Right.”

“You think Everest Girl is cute. Right?”

“R-right.”

“And given everything that you are, there’s no way in hell that you’d ever even think about striking up a conversation on your own. Right?”

“Language. And right.”

“Then you implicitly concede that even if she wasn’t trying to flirt with you, and even if this was all just an accident, said accident still provides you with an excuse to talk to a girl you find attractive that you wouldn’t have the confidence to approach under any other circumstances. Right?”

Ben falls silent and stares down, considering Poe’s impeccable rhetoric. Without even noticing it, his thoughts begin to wander against his will, drifting back to the very first time he ever rode Expedition Everest. He’s small, clinging to his father’s hands in fear as Han explains to him that in life, all he ever wants his son to regret is the risks he never took.

Nothing’s changed since then. Not really. Ben still feels like that hopelessly lost little kid. Still scared, still reaching out for the comforting presence of someone who isn’t there to comfort him anymore.

In that instant, Ben makes his decision.

“Right?”

“Right,” Ben declares with something slowly beginning to resemble confidence.

The ride lurches forward, bringing their conversation to an end. The mountain doesn’t feel any bigger to Ben this time, either, but he barely notices. His mind is elsewhere- not with his body on board the rollercoaster, but back in the cue, already waiting in line. Waiting to see her. Planning what to say.

Game plan, Ben thinks. Right.

Discussion amongst the four friends dies off until they all disembark, Ben clambering out of the train car last, lost in thought. Was she really flirting with him? Was she really upset?

He doesn’t know. There’s a lot of things he doesn’t know, when it comes to her.

He doesn’t know how, or why, but Ben has the strangest sensation that they’re linked somehow. Him, her, the ride, all of it. It was crazy- stupid, even- to think she could be. It was stupid of him to even think about talking to her, when he was certain she had no idea he even existed.

But his father had done stupider things in pursuit of the cutest girl he’d ever seen. And it was in Han's honor that his friends had finally been able to drag him back to Disney World, after Ben had spent a lifetime avoiding its siren song- avoiding it for fear that he wouldn’t find the same magic Han and Leia had shown him when he was younger.

He owed it to himself to try. It was worth a shot. For dad’s sake, anyways.

—————

Rey doesn’t hear them coming this time. That’s because they’re talking quietly, speaking in hushed whispers. She knows that much, because while she can’t hear what they’re saying, she can see the four of them clumped together, their heads all trying and failing to walk towards the front gate in tandem. They stop just shy of where she’s standing, still whispering to one another.

Suddenly, Ben breaks away from the huddle, shoving aside the hands trying to hold him back. He’s coming towards her.

Rey feels her blood run cold in the Orlando heat. He’s coming towards her.

It takes all the courage she has to stand still as he comes closer, closer to her. She could have walked away, pretended not to notice him. There was a broom nearby. She could have picked it up, aimlessly started sweeping up the stray trash littered around the loading stations.

But she didn’t. She stood there, staring down at her feet, eyes darting up to watch Ben awkwardly shuffle towards her. He’s mostly staring at the floor, too. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was nervous about their fast-approaching confrontation.

“Thanks,” he says out of nowhere, and the other three guys instantly lose their minds.

Rey blinks, taken aback. “What?”

“Thanks,” Ben says. “When you pushed down on my- uh, the lap bar last time, you were pretty... forceful, to say the least. And, I, uh, appreciate your commitment to safety.”

She’s staring at him now, openly. The audacity of this idiot. This sweet, wonderful, miserable idiot. She literally just committed a serious infraction, a major violation of park decorum- and he knows it. He has to, she knows he does.

And instead of being upset about it- instead of being mad- he has the audacity to thank her for it.

“Really?”

“Really,” he reassures her, jamming his hands into his pockets.

“Wow,” she says, sarcasm evident. “Gee. Thanks.”

Rey wasn’t sure why she sounded so cross with him. Because she wasn’t, not really. Not anymore. Besides, she didn’t think she could ever truly bring herself to be mad at him. She was just frustrated- frustrated that, even now, she was nothing more than an employee. To him, she was a concerned cast member of Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, just doing her due diligence. Doing her job. And clearly, that frustration was affecting her attitude towards him, at least externally.

The red light flashes, and the gates open. Ben’s friends tackle him, forcing him on board the train before he can say anything else to her. Fifty-four seconds are on the clock.

Rey comes over to check the ride’s restraints, slamming Ben’s into place with a disproportionate amount of force, again, because she’s still upset with him for some irrational reason she still can’t comprehend herself. And as she presses down on the lap bar with all the force she can muster, Ben looks up, stares straight into her eyes and utters the following, concentration and confidence unbroken:

“Did you know that the Yeti animatronic created for Expedition Everest was, at the time of its opening, the largest animated figure in the world? Unfortunately, due to complications with the mechanical axis it hinges on for lateral movement, the Yeti has been in B-mode for years, sat motionless and illuminated only by strobe lights to create the illusion that it lunges toward the ride vehicles on the final drop.”

Rey can’t help herself- she rolls her eyes and audibly groans at the anecdote. She’s not sure why. Truth be told, Rey rather likes all of Ben’s stories about the ride where she works. She had never much cared for her job before, but it wasn’t so much what Ben was saying that made his speech so magnetic to her. It was the passion with which he was saying it, the genuine excitement.

She knows it’s stupid, and corny, and cheesy, and stupid, but some part of her still wishes he could be that passionate about her. Which is why as soon as she’s done checking on each of the ride cars, she turns around abruptly and shuffles away from him as fast as she possibly can, trying desperately to ignore him and the almost sorrowful look in his eyes.

“Hey!” Rose speaks up, startling both her and Ben. “I didn’t know that.”

Ben smiles nervously, turning to look at Rose with an expression that reads as unmistakably grateful for her interruption, then back to Rey, his eyes practically begging for the same show of approval.

But before she can answer his unspoken plea, the blue light is flashing in tandem with the red one, and her fifty-four seconds are up, and Ben is pulled away from her once more, his head craned backwards so he can stare at her as the train takes off down the track.

“I didn’t know that either,” Rey whimpers to Rose as he disappears from view, almost as if in protest. As if she has to prove she really was going to say something- that she really wanted to say something. To him.

“Oh, honey,” Rose whispers, embracing her in an all-too-brief hug. “If I didn’t know that, there was no chance you would.”

Rey laughs, a little bit. Because Rose is right. She never cared about this ride, or her job, or the magic of this place that she never knew she needed. Not until she cared about him.

She didn’t know why she was still so upset with him. He’d talked to her, after all. But only because she had been upset with him. Maybe that was why she was still so mad- because he only seemed to notice her when she was. Mad, that is. And maybe he was upset with her, too. Maybe that was the only reason he’d talked to her in the first place. Maybe he was mad because she was treating him like this for no reason. For no reason at all, and not even one she understood. Maybe, unlike her, he was just too nice to let it show.

But Rey would rather have him be mad at her than not notice her at all.

—————

This time his friends don’t even wait for the train to pull out of the station. They’re already laughing.

“Ben,” Poe wheezes. “Buddy. What the actual fuck was that?”

“Language,” Ben mumbles incoherently, for what feels like the millionth time today. He feels like a broken record, spitting out the same sounds and stories and phrases and theme park anecdotes as he spins wildly out of control, clinging to the one method of communication he can remember.

It’s not his fault he can’t remember how to talk after he’s seen her.

“Hey! Come on, guys,” Finn chastises the others, his show of disapproval clearly intended to be in defense of Ben. “He’s obviously trying.”

“It’s obviously pathetic, is what it is,” Hux pipes up. “She’s not even a little bit interested in him.”

Hux is the closest thing he’s ever had to a brother, but Ben still briefly considers throwing him out of the rollercoaster.

“Hux,” Poe warns.

“He doesn’t even know her name!” Hux shrieks.

“Yeah he does. Everest Girl, remember?” Poe jokes.

“Everest Girl,” Ben murmurs aloud, trying it out on his tongue. He liked how it sounded. In lieu of her actual name, it’s all he has of her.

He wonders what it would be like. For her to be his Everest Girl.

But that would be impossible. To her, he’s just another cog in the machine where she’s lucky enough to work every day. He’s just another paying customer she’s paid to interact with. Just a part of the scenery, another face in the crowd, lost in a sea of people stuck in the endless cue of Expedition Everest.

“Look, dude,” Poe starte, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry. That was a dick- that was a jerk move, okay? We’re just giving you a hard time. You really don’t have to keep at this if you don’t want to. Last time you tried to talk to her was… rough, yeah, and you were awkward. But that’s just you. That’s how you are. You’re our friend, and we like you that way, awkwardness and all. So if she doesn’t like it, and it’s not worth the trouble to you, then you don’t need to torture yourself by going ba-”

“We’re going back,” Ben declares.

“Oh, it is so on,” Finn grins, pumping her fist. “We are going to war.”

“With Everest Girl?” Ben asks, subtly taken aback by the violent connotations of Finn’s statement.

“With Everest Girl,” Finn confirms.

“It’s a war of attrition,” Poe elaborates, explaining what Finn had meant.

“Yeah, it’s not like that,” Finn agrees. “This isn’t just some conquest or something. Because this isn’t just some girl…”

“It’s Everest Girl.” Ben finishes, smiling slightly at the ridiculous nature of the words that just left his mouth. “And she’s worth it.”

“Mere exposure, that’s all it is,” Poe reiterates. “It’s only a matter of time before she finds your… uh, particular brand of charm to be endearing.”

“Like acclimating to the atmosphere on a mountain,” Ben realizes.

“Exactly,” Poe reassures him. “Just keep climbing, buddy.”

“Until she likes me?”

Poe squints at him, as if Ben is some sort of rare specimen of idiot. Ben decides not to ask why.

“So we’re just gonna keep riding this over and over again?” Hux complains.

“As many times as it takes,” Poe states firmly.

“We already did this,” the redhead groans. “We already agreed to do that. To keep riding the ride all day. Because the ride felt small, or whatever bullshit Ben pulled the first time around.”

Despite his attitude, Hux was right, in a funny sort of way. What was once an attempt to help Ben rediscover the magic he thought he’d lost after his father’s passing had become something else entirely.

Ben had discovered magic, all right. Just not the kind he was expecting.

“Language,” Finn pipes up, prompting Ben to give him a solid high-five.

“But I’m hungry,” Hux whines. “We skipped lunch to ride last time.”

Now Poe seemed to be considering throwing Hux out of the rollercoaster.

“I’m hungry too,” Ben suddenly agrees, coming to Hux’s defense and saving him from certain Poe-related injury, if not death. “We can grab tacos really quick if you guys are up for it. I know a place that’s pretty close by with my favorite food in the park.”

“Finally,” Hux exhales. “I’m starving.”

“Practically famished, aye?” Finn elbows Hux, mocking the redhead’s slight accent.

“Can it,” Hux hisses.

“Make me,” Finn barks.

Poe groans and claps a hand on Ben’s shoulder.

Ben barely notices, lost in thought, again. He’s too busy thinking about Everest Girl.

He wonders what the cue is like without them there.

He wonders what she’s having for lunch.

—————

The cue is dead, which means they aren’t coming back. Not yet, anyways. Still, it’s left Rey feeling all torn up inside. She feels awful, for how she treated Ben. She wouldn’t fault him if he never came back. Those new Avatar roides had just opened, after all. Maybe he was going to try one of those. Maybe he was going to leave her behind, after all.

“You okay?” Rose asks, stroking her hair.

Rey sniffs. There aren’t any tears in her eyes, so it feels like an empty gesture. She doesn’t even feel like crying, but even if she did, and even if there were tears in her eyes, it’s too hot to cry.

“I don’t know,” she offers in reply.

“Is it that boy?” Rose presses further, prompting Rey to blush profusely.

“Rose!” she scolds. “It’s not like that, it’s just…”

“He hasn’t even noticed you,” Rose finishes. “That’s frustrating.”

“It’s not his fault,” Rey admits.

“So there is a he in question!” Rose exclaims, pouncing on Rey’s implicit concession.

Rey rolls her eyes. “Yeah. But really, Rose, it isn’t his fault. I mean, I’m probably just part of the background to him. Just part of the scenery, I guess. And he already knows so much about it, and everything, and I just- of course he can’t see me as anything more than another employee.”

Rose frowns. “That is so not true. Look, if this guy is so clueless that he can’t even look around for once and see you- you, of all people, Rey, you’re a catch- then he doesn’t deserve you. Plain and simple. I mean, come on, Rey. He’s such a dork.”

“Theme park facts,” Rey mumbles, prompting Roe to laugh.

“Theme park facts,” she agrees. “I swear, if it was me- if I could, I’d knock some sense into that idiot boy.”

“I’m getting pretty hungry,” Paige offers suddenly. “Rey, you up for anything?”

Rey shrugs half-heartedly.

“Seasick Crocodile sounds okay to me,” she responds, prompting Paige to raise an eyebrow quizzically.

“It’s actually the-” Paige begins, but stops short. “Whatever. It’s not important. Rose, you up for a food run?”

Rose is staring off into the distance, too. Rey thinks she sees the hints of a devilish smile forming on her friend’s face.

“Yeah,” Rose replies distantly, as if she’s already gone. “Back in five.”

—————

“Maybe it’s the yeti,” Finn offers his suggestion through a mouthful of pulled pork taco.

The four friends are seated by a small table near the Smiling Crocodile, one of Ben’s favorite Disney food stops of all time.

“You said it used to move once, didn’t it? That thing still looks huge, even to me, so I bet it must have felt massive as a kid. Maybe that’s what’s making the ride smaller- it wouldn’t be the same without the Yeti.”

“No,” Ben shakes his head, swallowing a bite of his soft-shelled taco to speak. “The yeti was already broken before I was born. I never even knew that it used to move until Han told me it did, so that can’t be it.”

“We’re still doing this?” Hux asks, amused but clearly in better spirits now that his low blood sugar has been satiated.

“We never stopped doing it,” Poe says.

Hux gives him a sinister look, but continues eating.

“Whatever. These tacos are pretty good, though,” he admits. “Nice going, Solo.”

Ben is about to reply when he hears an unfamiliar yet unmistakably female voice from somewhere behind him.

“Excuse me,” she says. “You’re the guys who keep riding Expedition Everest over and over again, right?”

Ben’s head whips around to see a short Asian girl carrying a tray of tacos. He immediately recognizes her as the one who had actually been operating the ride. The one who’d actually responded to him.

“Oh! You’re-”

“Rose Tico,” she finishes for him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rose,” Poe says with a smile. “I’m Poe Dameron, and these are my associates: Finn, Hux, and Ben.”

“Ben, right,” Rose replies. “Trivia guy.”

Ben averts his eyes at her comment, mildly embarrassed that she remembered him. Hux stares at Rose with a look he can’t quite place.

“What are you doing here?” the redhead snaps, his attitude seemingly souring again.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Rose shoots back with just as much malice, sufficiently flustering Hux, whose face now looks to be about as red as his hair. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Eating, obviously,” Hux quips, but he’s a little less forceful this time, clearly unaccustomed to having his authority challenged by a complete stranger.

“Not that, stupid,” Rose says, casually pulling up a chair in between Hux and Ben. “What are you doing here? Why do you guys keep coming back?”

To Everest, Ben thinks, and shivers despite the nonexistent cold. To Everest Girl.

“We’re here on an impromptu trip in honor of Ben’s father,” Poe explains, casting a series of quick glances in rapid succession towards Ben to make sure that what he’s saying is okay. “He passed away recently, and Expedition Everest was his favorite ride, so we’ve been riding it in his honor.”

“Which is why it’s your favorite ride, too,” Rose says, turning to face Ben. “That explains how you know so much about it.”

“He was the reason I learned to love theme parks,” Ben mumbles quietly.

He doesn’t like talking about Han. Acknowledging the wound reminds him that it’s still there, that it still hurts when exposed to the air.

“I knew him pretty well,” Hux interjects, and Ben thinks that he’s just bragging to Rose now. “Poe, too, I guess. We both grew up with Ben, and the three of us met Finn in college, so…”

“Right, right,” Rose continues over him. “So it’s got nothing to do with Rey?”

He’s never heard her name before, but Ben immediately knows that Rose is talking about her. The name fits into place neatly in his mind, like the missing piece of a puzzle he couldn’t live without finishing.

Rey.

Everest Girl is Rey.

Her name is just as beautiful as she is, just as fitting. Like a ray of sunshine, she’s illuminated his life ever since he saw her for the first time, when he turned that corner in the cue and she appeared from behind it. Ben was worried he would cry at some point today, overcome by his grief for Han, but he couldn’t bear to be sad when his thoughts were of her.

It was strange to even think that she had such a profound effect on him without so much as speaking, let alone say it out loud, so Ben did neither. Instead, he repeated the same string of words to himself, over and over again, delirious with the happiness they brought him.

Everest Girl is Rey. Everest Girl is Rey. Everest Girl is Rey. Everest Girl is Rey.

“Rey?” Poe inquires, casting a sidelong glance at Finn.

“Rey,” Finn agrees, as if everyone at the table has silently come to a consensus that they’re talking about the same girl. About Everest Girl.

“You didn’t know her name?” Rose asks.

“Couldn’t see her nametag,” Poe responds, biting into his taco nonchalantly. “How come you knew Ben’s?”

“You guys talk loudly,” Rose explains. “I overheard it.”

“Makes sense,” Finn concedes. “So… Rey.”

Rose nods. “She’s been acting really weird ever since you showed up.”

Finn and Poe share a look, and Ben realizes that his friends have been covering for him, trying to stop Rey’s coworker from discovering his infatuation with her.

“That’s a shame,” Finn finally says. “We didn’t mean to make things weird.”

“Not you,” Rose groans, pointing in Ben’s general direction. “Him.”

Finn and Poe now turn to stare at him, and Ben realizes that their sacrifice was in vain. She already knows.

“Me?”

Rose nods. “You. I mean, it’s pretty obvious.”

Finn tosses his hands up into the air in exasperation. “That’s what we’ve been saying!”

Rose laughs. “Tell me about it. My sister and I were just saying the same thing.”

Poe takes a long swig of his soda, smiling though his lips are pursed around the straw. “We just weren’t sure if your girl felt the same way as our boy Ben here.”

Rose grins widely in return. “We were having the same problem, too.”

Ben gets the distinct feeling that he probably shouldn't be here for this. The adults, it seems, are talking. He just doesn’t understand what it is that they’re talking about.

Felt the same way? Could they be talking about-

No. Not her. Not with him. No way.

“What do you mean?” he asks, and now everyone is staring at him the same way Poe did, back on the train. Like he’s some rare specimen of idiot.

This time, Ben feels like one too.

Rose sighs. “I just couldn’t figure you out, that’s all. I mean, what’s the deal with all the theme park facts?”

Ben silently considers her question.

“It’s how I communicate,” he says, after a while. “People have a hard enough time paying attention to me anyways, no matter what I’m saying. It’s like I’m just background noise, just a voice in the crowd.”

“Part of the scenery,” Rose interjects.

“Exactly,” Ben continues. “That’s why I know all this mildly interesting stuff, all these tidbits about theme parks. I just know all this random stuff about my surroundings, or things tangentially surrounding them, no matter where I am, because it’s easier for me to talk to people that way. If I have something to offer, some insight, it’s easier for me to interject, I guess, otherwise I wouldn’t feel confident enough to say anything at all to anyone. But if I’m interesting enough, maybe they’ll listen to me. Maybe I’ll impress them with, I don't know, my incredibly niche array of knowledge, and then they’ll be impressed enough to even notice me, I guess. Or something”

Rose is staring at him more intently now, and Ben starts to sweat. He thinks he hears her mumble something under her breath, but he can’t be sure.

It sounded like “theme park facts,” though. To Ben, anyways.

“Besides,” he adds abruptly, “I like it. All the stuff I know.”

“Do you like her, Ben?” Rose asks quietly.

Ben stares at her, flabbergasted. He’s not even sure if he could ever find the words to describe how he feels about her- about Rey, about Everest Girl. But he has to try. Because Rose is fortunate enough, lucky enough to actually know her. To work with her. Here, of all places. His favorite place. And he didn’t want to weird Rose out by telling her how he really felt for Rey. But at the same time, he desperately needed her to know. Because if Rose knew, maybe Rey would know too. Maybe she’d put in a good word for him.

Ben cringes internally, thinking about how disastrously his only conversion with Rey had gone. Of course she’d disregarded his thanks- because to her, there was nothing to be thanked for. It was only her job. He was only her job. How could he explain that to Rose?

But if he did, maybe Rose could help him. Maybe she could tell Rey that he wasn’t so bad, or something. He didn’t know, but he was certain that Rose’s being here was no accident. It was a chance for Rey to finally see him.

This time, perhaps more so than any other time before, Ben chose his words very carefully.

“The way I see it,” he begins, “she’s like a mountain.”

Rose opens her mouth to say something, but then shuts it just as quickly..

“Like the mountain,” Ben furthers. “Like Everest. The REAL Everest. It seems cold, and dispassionate, but that’s because it has to be. It doesn’t know anything different. And it’s beautiful, too. But the beauty of it is in the savagery. The untamable nature of the thing.”

“You can’t conquer the mountain,” Ben continues. “You can’t conquer Everest. No one ever has, and no one ever will. Men since the dawn of time have tried to climb her, to stand atop the summit as if they’re somehow entitled to the glory of the mountain if they stick some stupid flag somewhere. And why? Because they can. Because it’s there. And that’s dumb. But everyone always forgets that the guy who was actually quoted saying that died trying to climb the mountain. George Mallory was a lifelong mountaineer, and he died on the north ridge of Everest on his third attempt to reach the top. Because it’s not something to be conquered. It’s something to be given, and once you’ve been given it, it’s something to respect. To cherish.”

Ben wasn’t sure, but he thinks there might have been a double entendre buried in there somewhere. He hoped Rose didn’t think it was intentional. It wasn’t, if there even was one there in the first place. Ben wouldn’t know.

“I will say, though,” Ben remarks, speeding up now to overcompensate for the mistake he thinks he’s already made, “that Mallory got one thing right. He died on his third try, and that wouldn’t have happened if he just gave up. The only reason he died on the north ride was because he never gave up. My reasons are different from his, but my conviction is one and the same. I’m not giving up.”

Ben can’t be sure, but he thinks everyone seated around their little table at the Smiling Crocodile has misty eyes. He’d like to think that they’ve been moved by his stupid monologue, anyhow.

“So you’re just going to…” Rose murmurs, her voice trailing off.

“I’m just going to keep riding Expedition Everest.” Ben finishes. “Over and over again. As many times as it takes.”

“And so are we!” Finn whoops.

“Yeah!” Poe shouts in agreement.

In response, Rose silently stands to her feet and pushes in her chair, taking her tray of tacos with her.

“Y-you’re leaving?” Ben asks, afraid he’s driven her off with whatever he said in his impromptu soliloquy.

Rose nods. “Gotta get this food back to the girls. That's... kind of the whole reason I came here in the first place.”

“Oh,” Ben says, because that makes sense.

“It was nice running into you guys,” Rose says, as she turns around to leave. Ben takes a step after her hesitantly, then stops himself. He’s probably screwed this up enough as is.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

Rose turns back to face him for a single second, and Ben’s facial features instinctively wince, prepared for the worst.

“Good luck, Ben Solo.”

Ben can hardly believe his ears.

“I’m rooting for you.”

“What the hell is he doing?” he hears Hux ask Poe, the two of them still seated back at their table, watching Ben watching Rose make her way back to the mountain. Back to Everest. Back to Rey.

“Climbing,” Poe says.

—————

He must really like this ride. Enough to keep coming back over and over again, even after how she treats him every time.

That’s what Rey thinks when she sees Ben turn the corner with a bizarre look of conviction upon his face, his friends trailing behind him helplessly. Clearly, they’re trying to catch up, but it isn’t working. His legs are too long, and he’s outstriding them with ridiculous ease, crossing through the cue. He’s determined to say something, she realizes.

She considers running, pretending to be busy. Just like last time, only this time she thinks she really might. But it’s already too late. He’s already here.

“Did you know that the support structure for the roller coaster and the mountain structure around it aren’t connected? They come within inches of each other, but both steel frameworks are entirely separate.”

Rose is literally laughing, and Paige has to pretend to be busy.

“I didn’t know that!” Rose calls, because apparently she’s involved in this now. Rey feels betrayed by her best friend, who has seemingly switched sides ever since she went out to get them tacos.

“Neither did I,” says Poe, grinning like an idiot.

“I also did not know that!” Finn pipes up.

Rey decides she’s in too deep to back out now, and decides to double down.

“Is that supposed to impress me?” she asks, and again, her voice is meaner than she intends it to be.

“No. But that’s okay,” Ben says, tapping the side of his skull. “I have plenty more facts where that came from, and I’m not going anywhere.”

He says it casually, like it’s assumed to be a fact, but his nonchalance still sends shivers down Rey’s spine.

He’s not going anywhere.

—————

“You have a really weird way of flirting,” Poe says as the ride takes off with them on board for the fourth time today.

“Yeah,” Ben says, because Poe is right. This is weird.

“You’re one to talk,” Finn jokes, elbowing Poe. Poe elbows Finn back, and Ben wonders if Poe really is being a hypocrite.

“She’s right, though,” Hux offers.

“About what?” Ben asks.

“Is this supposed to impress her, or something?”

Ben frowns slightly at that. Hux could usually be a bit snippety, but this was a bit much, even for him. Come to think of it, his friend had been perpetually upset for almost the whole trip now.

What was up with him?

“Yes and no,” Ben finally answers. “She works here, so she probably already knows all this stuff. But maybe she’ll be impressed that I know it, too.”

“Can’t argue with that!” Finn laughs.

Hux frowns, again, for what feels like the millionth time today, and Ben has only about a second to wonder if his friend is okay or not before the rid vehicle dips down into the big drop, and all four of them are yelling at the top of their lungs while making funny faces for the camera.

When the ride comes to a halt at the bottom of the hill, and the adrenaline rush wears off, Ben wonders if Hux was right. Maybe he isn’t impressing her at all. Maybe he’s just annoying, and she’s been too nice to tell him.

Ben’s brain hurtles into overtime, overthinking their every interaction. Maybe this was why she’d seemed so upset with him. Maybe it was because she actually was. He hadn’t even considered that his entire existence could be bothersome to her.

And what a nuisance he was, always pestering her with facts she probably already knew about the place where she works. How could he have been so stupid?

He’d promised Rose that he wouldn’t quit, and he wasn’t going to. He didn’t want to, anyways. But if she wanted him to, he would. He’d walk away in a heartbeat, and never look back, because if her life was happier without him in it, he was already gone.

—————

Ben doesn’t have a fun fact this time. He gets onto the train silently, sitting by Hux, because it seems as if he and his friends have found something resembling a permanent seating arrangement. She can’t even bring herself to slam down on the lap bar this time, like she had every time before, and she’s worried that maybe she did something wrong to upset him when he speaks.

“I’m sorry,” Ben says.

She stares at him, just as confused as she had been when he thanked her.

“I didn’t mean to annoy you,” he continues, and now Rey feels like crying. “With all the stuff I was saying, I mean. If you want me to stop, I will, it’s just… I didn’t think about how you might feel, I guess- I guess I’m just sorry, is all.”

The blue light flashes, but Rey barely notices, because as the train hisses and starts chugging away from the station, she whispers her reply to Ben.

“Don’t be.”

She knows her voice is too soft, too soft to be heard over the roar of the rollercoaster as it rumbles down the track, but she can’t muster the courage to speak any louder. All she can hope is that Ben heard her over the sound of the train pulling out of the station, leaving her behind for the fifth time today.

Not that she’s counting, or anything.

—————

“Don’t be.”

Ben isn’t sure, but he swore those were the words he heard her whisper as their train took off. At least, that’s what he thought he heard.

It’s what he wishes he heard. But that’s probably all it is. A wish. Just wishful thinking.

“Congratulations,” Hux grumbles loudly as they start to climb the first hill for the fifth time today. “You’ve officially found a girl just as bone-headed as you, Solo. I hope you’re happy.”

And despite the bitter rejection he’s just faced, Ben is. Extremely. He’s happy he even got to know that someone as special as Rey exists, even though he's only known her for a day. And even if he’ll only ever get to know her for just this one day, he’ll still be happy.

But just isn’t sure what he should do now. He’s certain that what he heard was just wishful thinking. After all, how could it be anything more? She hadn’t accepted his apology, because of course she hadn’t. Why would she, after how he’d acted all day, imposing himself on her? He should have known repeat riders were an annoyance to the employees. He didn’t know why he even bothered.

So if she hadn’t accepted his apology, what more could he do?

The sun is only just starting to set as Ben silently disembarks the train and leaves the unload station behind, sobered by Rey’s rejection. Poe and Finn seem to sense his mood (having witnessed Rey’s reaction to him) and an eerie sort of calm descends upon the four friends as they walk aimlessly into the twilight hours of their day at Disney.

“Maybe it’s the Avatar stuff that’s making the ride feel smaller,” Poe offers in an attempt to cheer him up. “I mean, Everest and the tree were the only two big attractions in the park until they built that new Pandora thing. Maybe the ride feels less significant because there’s more to do.”

“I thought we dropped the whole ride feeling small shit so we could focus on Ben’s love life,” Hux sneers, his anger at its peak. “I mean really, how many excuses do we need to keep doing this when none of us really want to anymore?”

Ben doesn’t want to say it out loud, but he still doesn’t know why the ride feels small. He doesn’t know why his friends are still doing this, either.

“Hux,” Poe says sternly. “Knock it the fuck off.”

Ben decides not to respond to Poe’s sudden use of profanity. Just this once.

“But I-” Hux protests.

“No. No buts. We are here for our friend,” Poe says, gesturing to Ben, “so if he wants to ride Expedition Everest all day, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

“Yeah, dude,” Finn says, draping one arm around Poe’s shoulders while he gestures at Hux with the other. “Get on board.”

Ben feels like he shouldn’t be here for this. He doesn’t want to be involved.

“We really don’t have to do this,” he begins, but is immediately cut off.

“Do you want to do this?” Poe asks.

“You shouldn’t have to,” Ben replies. “Not for me.”

“We don’t have to,” Poe says. “We want to.”

“Speak for yourself,” Hux grumbles. “We wasted an entire day at Disney World for this?”

“You could have waited in the fucking hotel!” Poe snaps, almost yelling, and now Ben intervenes, grabbing his friend by the arm before Poe can get in Hux’s face, because it looks for all the world like he wants to. Like he wants to start something. Something serious. Something they can’t take back.

“Language,” Ben growls, separating the two of them forcefully. Snatching Hux by the collar of his shirt, Ben begins dragging him away from the rest of the group.

Poe, sensing he’s crossed a line, crumples slightly, holding his head in his hands. Hux has, for once, been scared into silence, clearly alarmed bythe nerve he seems to have struck.

“Ben!” Finn interrupts, running after the two of them. “Hold on, Ben. Are you sure this is a good idea? Where are you going? Ben?”

“To apologize,” Ben snaps, and he can see the shock in Hux’s eyes. Finn, too, is so stunned by Ben’s statement that he simply lets them go.

And as Ben leads Hux away from the rest of the group so they can talk in privacy, he can still hear Poe’s unanswered question ringing in his ears.

Do you want to do this?

Ben honestly didn’t know the answer anymore.

—————

Rey’s face is as red as the setting sun. She can’t believe she said that. To him, of all people. And what if he heard her? What would he say next time? He wouldn’t reciprocate her confession, because of course he wouldn’t. Why would he, after how she’d treated him all day?

“I’m going to the unloading station,” she blurts out, running away from the loading station platform, and Ben, and towards the opposite side of the ride queue before Rose can stop her.

It’ll be easier to avoid him further down at unloading.

“Take Paige with you!” Rose calls after her. “You’ve never worked unloading before, so she can show you the ropes!”

Rey doesn’t bother to argue. She’s fine with whatever gets her out of here. Away from the queue. Away from Ben. She can’t bear to be around him any longer, not when she knows he doesn’t care about her in the same way she cares about him.

—————

Ben drags Hux behind the building where there would ordinarily be a character meet-and-greet with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and all their friends from the Hundred Acre Wood. It’s getting late, though- almost seven, and almost an hour away from closing time, so most of the kids who would have gathered here are gone, leaving the two of them alone. Once he’s sure Finn and Poe haven’t followed them, Ben exhales slowly, finally letting go of Hux’s shirt.

“Did you mean it?” Hux asks. “When you said you were going to apologize?”

Ben nods mutely, sliding down to sit on the ground, his back pressed firmly against the wall of the building behind him.

“Oh,” Hux mumbles, still confused.

“I’m sorry,” Ben says, and he means it. “You shouldn’t have to stick around and wait for me to figure shit out.”

Hux smiles weakly. “Language.”

Ben snorts.

Hux sighs, and stoops over to join Ben on the floor. “I’m sorry, too.”

Ben looks at Hux, somewhat shocked.

“I mean, you knew my old man. Backhanded compliments and snide remarks was the only way Brendol knew how to speak, and I’m even worse than he was. Hell, when it comes to this romance stuff, I’m even worse than you.”

“Gee, thanks. That’s a real compliment coming from you, Armitage.”

“I mean it. I’m sorry, Ben. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. It’s just… I mean, I just got... frustrated, I guess. And that’s not an excuse, but it’s like the whole fucking trip was all about you from day one. Like you were the only one who lost someone.”

Immediately, Ben understands why Hux was so upset.

Maybe Hux hadn’t just been bragging to Rose earlier, when he mentioned that they were close. Because they were.

“And Poe’s right, we came here for you, but- Ben, I practically lived at your house since fifth grade, whenever I was too scared to come home, and… I don’t know, I mean, I get coming here for Han, but it’s not as if riding that stupid rollercoaster over and over was about him, and then this girl comes out of nowhere, and it was all about Ben again, and I was just pissed because everyone forgot about why we came here, and who we came here for, and that he mattered to me, too-”

Hux’s voice catches in his throat, as if he can’t bring himself to say any more. And as his friend silently starts to sob, Ben wraps an arm around Hux’s shoulders, and says the only thing he can think to say.

“I know.”

Hux cries softly, tears running down his cheeks.

“...and it just felt like you forgot about him, too.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry, Ben. I just miss him so much.”

Ben’s eyes well up with tears. The wound is exposed again, and it hurts, thinking of his father like this, but now that he knows it’s hurting Hux, it hurts a little less. They were carrying their grief alone, convinced no one else understood. And now, they’re carrying it together.

“Yeah, me too.”

Hux sniffs, rubbing his eyes. “I guess I was so caught up in feeling like shit that I didn’t realize you probably felt like shit, too. Just in a different way.”

Ben nods. “I didn’t realize that, either. Thought you were just mad at me or something.”

Hux sniffs again, weakly. “Not a chance.”

Hux glances down briefly, then back up at Ben. “Oh shit, man, we gotta get going.”

“We can just go back to the hotel,” Ben says.

“Not if we want to ride Everest two more times,” Hux replies matter-of-factly, standing to his feet.

Ben stares at him, confused.

“You rode it seven times with Han, right?” Hux says.

“I don’t know if I can ride it again,” Ben admits.

“What, because of Everest Girl?” Hux asks.

“Yeah, because of Everest Girl.”

“She likes you. You know that, right?”

Ben blinks, confused. “No. No, I don’t.”

Hux smiles softly. “Trust me, Ben. Even I can tell.”

Ben frowns slightly. “But what about all the stuff you said? About it being disingenuous to why we even came here in the first place, and about her being mad at me, and-”

Hux frowns in return. “I was wrong.”

“I didn’t think you were,” Ben argues. “I mean, things didn’t work out between us today for a reason.”

“Just because I’m miserable right now doesn’t mean you have to be,” Hux says, shaking his head. “You like her, right?”

“Right,” Ben agrees.

“And you’re not just using her to get over Han?” Hux asks. “Because I’d be worried if you are. For her sake.”

Ben hadn’t even bothered to ask himself that, and he knows why. It would explain why he’s been so hung up on her, but an explanation that simplistic couldn’t even begin to cover how he feels for Everest Girl. For Rey.

“It hurts less to think about him when she’s around,” he admits. “But that’s only because it’s impossible to think about anything else besides her. She makes everything hurt less. I mean, Hux- you’ve seen how I… I don’t know, talk, I guess. To girls. To people in general, really.”

“You’re never this persistent,” Hux notices.

“Exactly,” Ben agrees. “Because I never had someone worth persisting for. I mean, I can barely even tolerate interacting with people without some sort of crutch, like the theme park facts or whatever, so the fact that I’m trying this hard for her means something to me, even if it doesn’t mean anything to her. I was worried that without dad around, this place wouldn’t feel as special anymore, but she made it special again. She’s…”

“Everest Girl,” Hux finishes, enraptured in awe. “You’re really that serious about her.”

“Yeah, but I just… I don’t know what to do. I tried to apologize to her, but she didn’t even notice me. Why would she?”

Hux shakes his head, snorting derisively. “I can’t believe you. Would you stop being such a self-pitying pessimistic pissant, Ben?”

Ben can’t help himself- he audibly chortles at Hux.

Hux groans, suddenly understanding the irony of his statement. “Granted, yes, I know that’s rich coming from me, but come on, man. She told you not to be sorry, remember?”

Ben swears he can hear his heart stop.

“You heard that?” he stammers.

“Uh, yeah? It was pretty quiet, but we were sitting right next to each other. I heard it.”

His heart hasn’t started beating again, and Ben wonders if he should be worried.

Not her. Not with… him. No way.

This could not be happening.

But maybe it was.

“Shit,” Ben whispers under his breath, running a hand through his hair. “What do I do?”

“Just… tell her how you feel,” Hux says simply. “The only reason things aren’t working is because you’re an idiot, and you haven’t even tried to talk with her- really talk with her- yet, because for some reason you can’t quite figure out that aggressively shouting theme park facts at a girl you like doesn’t count as flirting.”

“And how do I know things are going to turn out?”

“You don’t. Han didn’t, and even I remember those stories he told about Leia. If it’s any consolation, he was just as bad as you, in his own way. You just have to try, Ben.”

Ben smiles.

“Besides,” Hux continues, “If we don’t get back soon, I’m worried about what might happen. We’ve left Finn and Poe alone together for too long, and I’m worried that they won’t be able to keep their hands off of each other.”

Ben laughs sharply under his breath, which makes Hux laugh, too.

They’re still laughing inaudibly as they walk back to where Finn and Poe were sitting alone together and most definitely not doing anything in their absence.

“You good, man?” Poe asks, seemingly to both of them.

Hux nods. “Sorry. I was being a jerk.”

“Self-censoring!” Finn exclaims excitedly. “That’s a big step forward.”

Hux rolls his eyes, and Ben can tell that his friends are finally back to whatever semblance of normal they were before.

“Are we-” Poe begins, but he doesn’t get to finish.

“We’re going back,” Hux finishes. “Right, Ben?”

“Right,” Ben agrees, as the four of them set off for the now-desolate cue that leads to the ride.

“Okay,” Poe says, slightly taken aback now that Hux has taken charge. “You guys got a plan?”

Ben shakes his head, but says nothing. Poe quirks an eyebrow, but says nothing.

When they turn the corner of the cue, the sun is slowly creeping below the trees, and the lights strung from the wooden frame of the loading station are blinking slightly, and Rey isn’t there.

Rey isn’t there.

“She’s working at the unload station,” Rose says by way of explanation, as she stops them just before the gate. “We rotated positions because Rey wanted to trade shifts before the end of the night, so she’s down there now with Paige. You’ll see her when you disembark at the end of the ride.”

Ben nods, because that makes sense.

“That’s good news for you,” Rose continues, “because it means you should hopefully have more time to talk.”

Ben blushes slightly, but doesn’t flinch from her words, because after his talk with Hux, he’s no longer afraid of admitting to himself that he likes Rey.

“Ben,” Poe interrupts, clearly anxious. “Plan. Do you have one?”

“No more plans,” Ben says, tired of planning out every stupid story and anecdote ahead of time. “I’m just going to tell her how I feel.”

“That technically counts as a plan,” Finn adds over his shoulder.

“Then, technically, it counts as my plan,” Hux interjects, staring pointedly at Rose. “Right?”

Ben shakes his head, but he’s smiling profusely.

“Technically,” he replies.

Hux grins, elated by Ben’s concession.

“Technically,” Poe says, as if he needs to reinforce the fact that Hux isn’t actually responsible for Ben’s sudden display of bravado.

“It was all my idea,” Hux brags as they walk towards the train. “I told him, I said he just needs to come clean and tell her how he feels.”

“Uh huh,” says Rose, as she escorts the four of them to their rollercoaster cars. “Sure.”

Ben looks up into the rafters as Rose secures their lap restraints, and sees the red light suspended there, blinking silently.

He remembers something. Something he thought to himself at the start of the day, that he hadn’t thought to remember until now.

Fifty-four seconds.

The blue light flashes, and this time it’s Ben who’s watching it as the train rumbles off down the track. Only this time- for the first time- it’s not taking him away from Rey.

It’s taking him towards her.

—————

“He’s coming your way,” she hears Rose whisper into her walkie, her voice crackling.

Rey stares at the tiny black box numbly, then pressed down on the talk button.

“Who?” she asks, but she already knows the answer.

“Ben.”

On Rose’s end, she can hear something that sounds like a synchronized whoop coming from a chorus of idiots as they travel through the ride. Somehow, the sound of their screams is so loud that she can hear it here in the drop off depot, on the other side of Expedition Everest. Even now, though they're halfway across the artificial mountain, she’s doomed to hear them before she can see them.

“Traitor,” Rey growls, and shuts off her walkie.

It’s only now that she realizes what this means. That Ben’s coming her way. Towards her. Towards her, instead of going away like he always had before. Which meant he would have more time to talk with her. If he wanted to. And Rey wanted him to.

She really didn’t think this through.

—————

When their train finally pulls into the station, his hair has been thoroughly swept by the wind. The terrible heat of the day has given way to the cold of the night, descending upon the park in an instant and making throngs of tank-top clad vacationers shiver despite themselves. A cool evening breeze blows through the air and rattles the leaves of the trees, as if in smug defiance of the tropical temperatures that had reigned over the evening just moments before. It’s only seven thirty, but the sun has almost entirely disappeared, and what remains of the brilliant pink, purple, and orange hues it left behind in its wake are obscured by a thick layer of clouds, blown in by the same evening breeze from before.

Ben can hear the wind chimes tethered to the roof of the unloading station clinking together, the sound wooden and hollow. It makes for a perfect symphony of noise as he disembarks.

Rey is standing down at the other end of the wooden platform, holding a broom for some reason. She’s ignoring him. At least, Ben thinks she is, but after all the second guessing he’s done today, he’s gotten a lot better at guessing right the first time.

Hux, Poe, and Finn clamber off the train after him, end stand behind him, fanning themselves out. Ben turns to face them.

“Ben…” Poe begins, but stops himself. “Ah, you know what? Forget it.”

“Thanks, Poe,” Ben says, bringing him into a hug. “For everything.”

Poe nods. “I just wanted to help you, man.”

Ben smiles. “You already did. Today was great. I wouldn’t be here without you.”

Poe grins, sadness stretched across his face with the knowledge that Ben means what he said in more ways than one. “Good luck, buddy. You can do this.”

“Just keep climbing.”

Poe smiles, the hint of sadness gone. “Just a little further. You’re already there, right?”

Finn snaps into an exaggerated salute. “Go get ‘er, champ.”

Ben salutes back. “At ease, soldier.”

Hux reaches out to shake his hand, intent on being overly formal. “Ben.”

Ben smirks, and accepts the handshake. “Hux.”

Poe and Finn, sensing an opportunity, slowly walk towards the gate as Hux lingers by Ben’s side for a second.

“I was being serious, you know. When I said congratulations earlier. For finding someone as bone-headed as you.”

Ben’s face contorts into something resembling concern. “Don’t congratulate me yet.”

“Why not?” asks Hux. “Why shouldn’t I? I believe in you. Now go.”

And with that, the redhead is gone, leaving Ben alone on the unload station with Rey. Well, he’s not entirely alone. Rose’s sister Paige is standing by Rey, distracting her. Just like Rose said she would.

That gives Ben enough time to get closer before Rey could try to escape. He already knows what he’s going to say.

—————

Rey should have known that if one of the Tico girls turned on her, the other one would too. She shouldn’t have been caught off guard.

But now it’s too late to run, or pretend to be busy, and he’s here- Ben is here, and he’s leaning on the wooden slats of the fence that surrounds the unloading platform casually. Comfortably, like he’s not going to leave. Like he’s got nowhere he’d rather be.

And his friends are nowhere to be seen.

“Hey,” he says, and Rey shivers.

“Hey,” she fires back, still lashing out in confusion and fear. “Got any more fun facts for me?”

“As a matter of fact…” Ben quips, his voice trailing off on purpose. He seems more confident now, as if he knew what he wanted all along but was too scared to say it before.

For some reason, even though she still doesn’t know what it is he could possibly want from her, Rey still feels those same shivers run down her spine.

Rey shakes her head. “Don’t.”

Ben cocks an eyebrow and jams his hands into his pockets.

“If you’re going to try and impress me again, don’t. Just… tell me something I don’t already know.”

Rey feels her voice soften as she’s speaking, whatever tension there was between them slowly starting to thaw in spite of the chill that’s come over her.

She didn’t know anything he’d told her today, but he doesn’t need to know that. Not yet.

Ben stares directly into her eyes, as if he knows what he has to do and finally has the strength to do
it.

“When operating at peak capacity, Expedition Everest has to dispatch a new ride vehicle every fifty-four seconds. To help employees with the timing intervals, there are lanterns installed in cleverly concealed places lining the roof of the loading station platform. You already know that, though. You probably knew everything that I told you today, because it's part of your job. You already know all about the magic here, and you don’t need me to show it to you.”

“What you don’t know is that I know fifty-four seconds isn’t a lot of time. And I appreciate that you spent even a single second of those fifty-four listening to me today. I just wanted to thank you for your time, and apologize for wasting it.”

As he turns away from her ever so slightly, Rey feels the breeze whip through her hair and realizes that it’s no longer too hot outside to cry.

He’s thanked her before. He’d apologized to her, too. But now, he’s done both at the same time.

Rey feels like crying, because no one has ever been this… honest about their feelings with her. About anything. About some stupid theme park ride.

About her.

He really did see her, after all. She wasn’t just part of the scenery to him. He’d been seeing her the whole time.

And she was the one who hadn’t seen it.

—————

It’s the closest he can get to telling Rey he likes her, but it’ll have to do. He can’t bear any longer to stay, to say anything else, so he turns around to leave, when he’s stopped by a voice speaking so low that Ben can scarcely believe he heard it.

“You don’t have to be sorry, you know.”

But this time, Ben knows for sure that he did.

“I know,” Ben says. “You said so before. I just… am, that’s all. I’m sorry.”

Rey falls silent again, and looks down at her sneakers. “What if I needed you?”

She blurts it out, seemingly at random, the implications of her sudden statement taking Ben by surprise.

“Huh?”

“You said earlier that I didn’t need you to show me the magic of-“ she gestures all around with her hands widely “-Disney, or something, because I already know all about it. Because I already knew all of your fun facts, and I wasn’t impressed by any of them. Because I work here. But what if I didn’t? What if I didn’t know any of them? What if I needed you to show me?”

She’s looking back up at him now bashfully, and Ben knows he must look like an idiot now, because he’s smiling like one.

And before he can stop himself, he’s running- literally running towards her, and he’s taking her by the hand. He shivers as their hands make contact for the first time, taken aback by how small and soft and delicate her hand feels inside of his, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on that now.

“Then I’ll show you,” he says. “Come on.”

—————

They’re holding hands.

If you asked her to explain what was happening, Rey wouldn’t even know where to begin.

“Paige!” she shrieks, laughing as Ben drags her away. “Cover for me!”

As if by magic, Rose’s sister reappears from her hiding place and gives her a thumbs up.

“Where are we going?” Rey asks breathlessly as Ben leads her out of the unloading station.

“There’s still time left until the park closes,” Ben says. “You wanted me to show you magic, right?”

Rey nods, prompting Ben to smile even wider.

“Be honest with me, okay? Have you ever… actually ridden Expedition Everest before?”

Rey shakes her head, embarrassed, but that isn’t enough to stop Ben from smiling. He’s smiling so much, more than she’s seen him smile all day.

“That’s great,” he says. “Then this’ll be your first time.”

And now Ben is leading her back towards the cue at the front of the ride, explaining everything about the ride and its history to her and every fun fact he can possibly think of as fast as he possibly can. They sprint through the cue (still holding hands!) with Ben pointing out his favorite exhibits in the Yeti museum, since they’re going too fast to see them all.

When they come to the gate, Rose is standing there with a shit-eating grin on her face. Ben’s friends are there too, waiting for them, the same look plastered onto their faces.

And they’re all clapping. For them, Rey realizes.

“Finally! Took you long enough!” Poe hollers at them, hands cupped around his mouth.

Rey looks up at Ben (because she has to look up if she wants to see him) and realizes they’re both blushing furiously. She can see that the tips of his ears are just as red as her face, end the sight is so ridiculous that it makes her giggle just a little bit.

Ben pulls her closer to him, and makes his way towards the ride, putting himself in between her and his three friends who seem to have gone positively rabid. Rey knows there’s no real danger, but she still thinks it’s sweet.

The train pulls into the station, and the red light is flashing, only this time Rey isn’t worried about the time. She knows Ben isn’t, either.

She never wants to worry about only having fifty-four seconds with him ever again.

“Saved you the best seat in the house,” Rose says, pointing to the car in the front. “Feel free to sit wherever you want, though- not like there’s anyone else coming to join you.”

Rose is right- the station is totally empty at closing time. It’s just them. Just her and Ben, with all the time in the world.

Ben gestures towards the front of the train, as if he’s about to insist that she go first, so he can help her take a seat like a true gentleman would, but Rey cuts him off before he can even start.

“You go first,” she says with something resembling a smirk. “There’s something I want to do.”

And as Ben sits down, Rey slams down on his lap bar one last time for good measure. Ben winces slightly, but he still hasn’t stopped smiling.

“You sure you guys don’t want to come with us?”
Ben calls out after Rose has both of their restraints (not that it was necessary).

“Nah,” Hux replies, casting a sidelong glance at Rose as he leans against the railing casually. “I’ll catch the next one.”

Above their heads, the blue light starts flashing, only this time, neither of them have to worry about it, and then they’re off hurtling down the track. Together.

—————

“Was that a peacock?” Rey asks him as they turn a particularly sharp corner on the track and start to climb the first hill.

Ben nods, bobbing his head vehemently. “You’ve got good ears. Very perceptive of you. And yes, that is a peacock. You can hear them periodically on the mountain's artificial ambience track that’s playing on hidden speakers by the base.”

Rey stares at him, eyes fixed somewhere on his face. “You okay? You look like your nose is scrunched up, or something.”

“Oh, that,” Ben chuckles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I, uh… don’t really like peacocks. I’m scared of them, to be honest.”

Rey bursts out laughing. “You?” she shrieks. “Afraid of peacocks?”

“Don’t laugh!” Ben complains. “This is serious.”

“What could a bird that size even do to a guy like you?”

“Peck my eyes out, maybe?” Ben protests. “Those beaks are clearly made for eye-gouging. Besides, have you seen one of those things unfurl their tail feathers?”

“Isn’t it supposed to make them look bigger?”

“It actually does, though!” Ben yelps, desperate for her to understand. “They do look bigger. Nature documentaries always make fun of predators for falling for it, but, I mean, can you blame them? That’s terrifying?”

“So the scariest part of this ride for you isn’t the sight of a giant robotic Yeti statue, or something… it’s the sound of a peacock?”

“Animatronic,” Ben corrects her. “And yes. But can you blame me? This is the Animal Kingdom, after all- when I was younger, I was afraid that there was really a peacock out there. Just lurking in the shadows, waiting to attack me with those dinosaur feet.”

“That’s adorable,” Rey wheezes, still laughing. Ben knows she isn’t laughing at him, but he wouldn’t care even if she was. He just likes the sound of her laugh.

“Don’t worry, Ben,” Rey says as the ride finally reaches the top of the track, giving his hand a slight squeeze. “I’ll protect you from any peacocks.”

They still hadn’t stopped holding hands, Ben suddenly remembers, which makes him glad that he took the risk all over again.

The ride coasts down a small dip after the first hill, then comes to a halt in front of a broken section of track.

“Beautiful, right?” Ben asks, gesturing around at the night sky. “With all the lanterns, and the breeze, the mountain looks different at night.”

“Uh,” Rey stammers, her voice wavering slightly. “There’s no more track.”

“Right,” Ben says, because he knows what’s about to come next.

“So we just- we just turn around and head back to the bottom of the mountain, right?”

Now it’s Ben’s turn to laugh. “Nope.”

“What?” Rey squeaks, her voice even higher now.

“Now,” Ben explains, “we go backwards.”

And with that, the artificial roar of the Yeti echoes from a speaker somewhere deep within the artificial mountain, and their tiny train jolts backwards.

“Hold on!” Ben yells as the train hurtles backwards, inside the mountain, where everything is pitch black.

And to his shock, she does. She’s holding his hand even tighter, trying in spite of the restraints to scoot closer to him- him, of all people- clinging to Ben by the shoulder like he’s the only thing stopping her from falling out of the rollercoaster.

She’s hugging him, he realizes.

And suddenly, the ride feels big to Ben again.

It’s her. The look in her eyes is unmistakable, despite the fact that she has them half-closed out of fear. Ben can still see the wonder, the excitement, the amazement, the terror, the magic. She’s seeing this, all of this, for the first time, and it’s wonderful to watch her enjoying everything about this thing that he loves, because he can tell she loves it, too. It’s exactly how he reacted when he rode Everest for the first time, and it’s exactly what he was missing.

It’s her. Maybe it always was.

—————

Rey finally allows herself to breathe once the train pulls back into the unloading station. She does not, however, stop holding Ben’s hand.

It’s him. Maybe it always was. She can finally see the magic of this place where she works, the thing she was missing all along. It’s there whenever she looks in his eyes and hears the passion in his voice, the passion he has for theme parks and the power they have, because the real magic of places like this is their ability to bring people like them together. The magic of Disney World is the memories you make with the people you care about, and she didn’t have any of those. Until today. Until she met Ben,

“That was…”

“Incredible?” Ben asks, staring at her as if he’s waiting for her answer.

Rey shakes her head violently. “Terrifying.”

Ben laughs.

“I mean it! Don’t laugh at me.”

Ben smirks. “Consider this payback for the whole peacock ordeal.”

“You think you’re really clever, don’t you?”

“I do, actually. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have tried to flirt with you through theme park facts.”

Rey stops. “Wait, you were flirting with me?”

“All day, actually, thanks for noticing.”

Rey blushes. “Maybe I was too. Ever think of that, smartass?”

“Language. And no, the thought never crossed my mind.”

Ben tugs at her hand, and Rey realizes that they’re heading towards the gift shop.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“To get some souvenirs,” Ben says. “Besides, I want to see how our pictures turned out.”

Rey forgot about that.

—————

The picture kiosk is located somewhere in the gift shop. Ben’s bought all six photos so far- something about wanting to preserve every time he rode Everest today with his friends- but he thinks the seventh might just be his favorite.

It’s just him and Rey. She’s got her eyes closed and her head turned inwards and her eyes halfway closed, hugging his arm tightly. Ben realizes he’s not looking at the camera. He’s looking at her, too.

“This is so embarrassing,” Rey says, staring at the screen.

Ben silently agrees with her. He hopes she doesn’t notice that the look of absolute adoration in his eyes is still visible, even when captured by the low quality flash photography camera on the ride.

But then again, he hopes she does anyways.

—————

He’s looking at her. In their picture. The first picture they’ve taken together, Rey realizes.

She hopes it isn’t the last.

While she pays for the pictures and charges them to her company account, Ben browses for some souvenirs, finally fixating on an antique-looking clearance rack that Rey knows is for older merchandise the gift shop can’t sell.

“Oh, cool,” he says, making Rey look up. He’s wearing a red quarter-zip sweater with the words “Forbidden Mountain” stitched into the fabric.

“I used to have one of these as a kid,” he says. “My dad bought it for me.”

Rey noticed he looks sadder now, and gives him a glance that practically begs for an explanation.

“He passed away,” Ben continues. “This was his favorite ride to take me on, too. That’s why I’m here.”

“I’m so sorry-“ Rey begins, but she’s cut off.

“Don’t be,” Ben interrupts with a sad but sincere smile. “I’m okay.”

Rey can tell that he means it, but she still doesn’t like to see him looking so sad. She looks over his shoulder and gives a look to the cashier behind the counter, a girl named Kaydel who she talks with on occasion. Seemingly getting the signal- or maybe not even noticing Rey at all- Kaydel is busy staring down at her phone, probably counting down the minutes until closing time.

Rey feels her heart beating in her chest. What she’s about to do to distract Ben from his troubles (or what she wants to do, anyways) isn’t technically illegal, right?

Besides, she can just pay for it tomorrow. She works here, after all.

“Put it on,” she whispers.

“Huh?” Ben asks, but he does as he’s told. It fits him snugly- a little tight, just enough to remind her how wide he is.

“The extra large was too big,” Ben says, by way of explanation.

“It looks good on you,” Rey muses, stealthily taking his hand again.

And before Ben can realize what she’s planning to do, Rey has already dragged him out of the Himalayan gift shop and onto the sidewalk.

“What are you doing?” Ben explodes. “That’s shoplifting!”

Rey laughs. “Don’t worry. We’re fine. I work here, remember?”

“True, but that doesn’t make it feel any less wrong. I can’t believe you just stole from the gift shop for my favorite ride in the entire universe.”

“We just stole from the gift shop. Together. This was a group endeavor.”

“No it wasn’t!”

“You’re the one wearing the jacket!”

Another frigid Florida breeze blows through the evening air, and Rey shivers, suddenly wishing she was the one wearing the jacket. It’s dark out now, and the streets of Serka Zhong are only illuminated only by the stars in the sky and the light of the lanterns littered around.

As if he can read her mind, Ben peels off the quarter-zip and hands it to her silently.

“What are you doing?”

“You look cold.”

“Nice try,” Rey says as she takes the jacket from him. “You’re just trying to make me put this on so you can incriminate me for stealing it and I’ll be the one to take all the blame.”

“You look cold,” Ben says again, this time more forcefully. “Put it on.”

Blushing for what feels like the fiftieth time today, Rey pulls the jacket over her head. It’s way too big for her, and the sleeves droop off her shoulders and cover her hands entirely.

Ben’s ears suddenly turn bright red again at the sight of her wearing the oversized sweater that she technically stole for him.

“I hope you’re happy,” she grumbles, but she’s not really mad.

“I am,” Ben says. “Extremely.”

Rey frowns, digging deep into her pockets, and pulls out a limited edition Expedition Everest pin. “I can’t just take this from you. Not without giving you something in return, anyways. Here. Take this.”

Rey’s never been a big fan of pin trading with park guests, but the look in Ben’s eyes as she hands him the pin in exchange for his illegally obtained quarter-zip makes her change her mind.

“Here you go,” Rey repeats, softer this time. “I’ll give your new sweater back, I don’t want to be one of those girls, I promise… but I feel bad about making you steal it, so… take this. A gift. From me.”

“Thank you,” Ben replies just as softly, taking the pin from her, the tiny piece of metal looking even smaller inside of his massive hands. “I’ll cherish it.”

Rey feels caught off guard by the way Ben reacted to such a simple gesture from her, but she decides it’s flattering. It must mean he cares about her.

“You can keep it, by the way,” Ben adds. “If you want. It looks better on you, anyways.”

She doesn’t know how this wonderful idiot fell out of the sky and into her life, but after everything Ben’s shown her today, she’s finally willing to admit that it might just be magic.

All around her, Rey can see the sparsely populated throngs of park-goers starting to flock towards the exit. Closing time crept up on her, out of nowhere, and she didn’t even notice. She noticed the time when she started work this morning at nine, but she didn’t notice it now that it was eight and the park was shutting down. Rey didn’t notice, because she was too busy having the time of her life with Ben.

“Time to go,” Ben says, running a hand through his hair sheepishly.

“Yeah,” Rey says, rubbing her arm and looking down.

Ben’s face turns bright red in anticipation, and Rey realizes he’s about to say something that he’s already embarrassed by. “I just realized that we never officially exchanged names.”

Now it’s Rey’s turn to blush. That is embarrassing- for both of them.

“I’m Ben,” Ben says.

“I know. I overheard.”

Ben nods. “Makes sense.”

Rey smiles. “I’m Rey.”

“I know,” Ben nods. “Rose told me.”

Rey groans. “So that’s why she was acting so weird.”

Ben laughs. “I guess, yeah.”

“Ben!” Hux yells from far away, somewhere close to the gate. “Come on!”

“I gotta go,” Ben mumbles somewhat sheepishly.

“Yeah,” Rey replies, because she doesn’t know what else to say.

And as Ben starts to walk away, she realizes that they haven’t exchanged their phone numbers, or Instagram accounts, or Snapchat. Or anything.

“See you tomorrow?” Ben asks as he turns around to face her one last time.

“You’re coming back?” Rey asks, almost unable to believe her ears.

“Well, yeah. I mean, we spent all day riding Everest, and my friends would kill me if we didn’t ride any of the new Avatar stuff, so we have to come back tomorrow to visit everything else on the park. But I could probably convince them to stop by Everest tomorrow a couple times. Besides, you’ve still got to give me back that sweater, if only so you can steal it from me over and over again.”

“After all…” Ben finishes following a lengthy pause to collect his thoughts, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Rey grins happily, because he’s coming back after all. She doesn’t know why she ever doubted it in the first place.

Because he liked her.

“Maybe you can show me more of your favorite spots in the park,” she offers. “When I’m not working.”

Ben grins in return. “You ever been to Dinoland, U.S.A.?”

When Rey shakes her head violently in response, Ben smiles even wider. “Great. There’s this time-traveling dark ride I can’t wait to tell you all about.”

Rey feels like crying now. But it’s too cold to cry now, and besides, these aren’t tears of sadness.

“Tomorrow, then,” she says, as Ben starts to walk away. And as he does, one last question occurs to her.

“Wait!” Rey hollers after him.

Ben turns around again. “Yeah?”

“What did you call me?” Rey asks. “Before you knew my name.”

Ben smiles. “I, uh- God, this is embarrassing, but I thought of you as just Everest Girl.”

Rey laughs. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Ben admits sadly. “Why? What’d you call me?”

Rey is still grinning, still dumbstruck by the stupidity of the coincidence. But then again, there were no coincidences in the most magical place on earth. Just happily ever afters.

“I always thought of you as Everest Boy.”