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"You ready, kid?" Han turned to Rey with a crooked smile, then tucked her hand into the crook of his arm.
Rey looked around her, overwhelmed with emotion. She was getting married today to her other half. Her Ben. He was more than just Alderaan's prince... he was her prince. They had been best friends since childhood, more like frenemies early on, but they both hadn't wanted to admit that they actually liked each other.
"Of course I'm ready," Rey told Han. "I've been ready since you took me away from Jakku when I was 7 years old."
Han cracked another crooked grin. "You sure about that? I remember Ben pushing you into this very lake. How old were you?"
"We were 8," Rey reminded him. "And it was partly my fault. I told him the fish would be far better classmates than him." It was true. They constantly competed in school, vying for the teacher's attention and top grades.
"If you love the water so much, why don't you go live in it!?" Ben taunted, scrambling ahead of Rey to get off the boat first.
"I think I will!" Rey hopped over the gap, nervous, but she couldn't let Ben know she was afraid of water. "It's quiet and you're not there."
"You could go right now."
"I think I will!" Rey jutted out her chin defiantly.
"Fine."
"Fine!"
And Prince Ben Solo shoved Rey hard, knocking her into the lake with a graceless splash.
"But then he realized I couldn't swim," Rey fondly remembered this next part that came after her desperate flailing in the shallow water. "He jumped in to save me and taught me to swim that summer."
Rey held her long flowing skirt up a bit so she wouldn't trip as they made their way up the winding stone steps from the boat dock.
"After a full year of putting up with the two of you screaming at each other, we haven't been able to separate you since," Han commented.
Ben and Rey realized in the moment that Ben pulled Rey out of the lake that they didn't hate each other, but simply misunderstood. They were both lonely children, Rey never recovering from the hurt of her family abandoning her despite finding a new family in a huge palace and Ben desperately trying to seek the attention of his, but constantly denied. Somehow, they got each other's attention instead.
This meadow just a quick boat ride from the palace on the island of Alderaan's capital city Aldera was their personal sanctuary, especially when they became teenagers and could go there alone. It was an escape from the pressures of Ben's royal duties and where he went, Rey went, except when they were 17 and she almost didn't go to Coruscant with him.
The lone floral pink tree in the middle of the meadow came into view, the very tree Ben and Rey spent countless hours sitting under.
Rey ran her fingers through Ben's thick black hair, his head in her lap. "You know I don't want to be a politician," she explained again.
"I don't either," he mumbled miserably, shifting to get more comfortable. "Come with me."
Ben was scheduled to leave tomorrow for Coruscant to join the Apprentice Legislature representing Alderaan as a junior senator, as he vowed to do the previous year on his Day of Demand. But Alderaan's crown prince was instead sulking in a meadow, under a tree, with Rey and refusing to go.
"And what would I do there?" Rey asked him again. "I'll be here when you get back. Luke is going to train–"
But she didn't get to finish her sentence about Luke training her to fight with a lightsaber and study meditation. The Jedi training that both she and Ben had started at 10 years old to learn to control their Force sensitivity, but didn't pursue it further. Rey was still in search of her belonging in the galaxy. Maybe she could be a Jedi knight?
Ben abruptly sat up, jostling her and pulling her face to his to meet their lips in a hard, searing kiss.
"Please," Ben said breatlessly after they separated. "Please," he repeated against her lips then peppered her face with kisses. "You never wanted to be a Jedi either."
Rey's eyes fluttered under her eyelids, a familiar ache building between her legs and tingles dancing up her spine along the path of Ben's fingertips. How could she survive a whole year away from him?
"You know what?" Rey opened her eyes, letting out an incredulous laugh. "Luke doesn't even want to train me."
Ben smirked, smug. "You're kidding."
"He said I'm too much like you." Too much darkness that Luke had only seen in Ben, but Leia convinced him to try with Rey.
"He didn't." Ben's eyes danced mischievously.
"Stop that." Rey playfully jabbed him in the stomach with a fingertip.
"Stop what?" Ben grabbed her wrist and lifted her hand, placing a tender kiss on her knuckles.
Rey snatched her hand back from Prince Charming. "Pretending you're so surprised that your uncle thinks you rubbed off on me."
"I think I've done more than rub."
"Ben!" Rey halfheartedly shoved him, not moving him one bit. "You already know."
Ben's eyebrows shot up. "I do?" He grinned, victorious. "Ahh, I do."
"Yes," Rey finally gave in. "I'll go."
Rey stepped into their meadow, her arm hooked through Han's and the breeze fluttering her ivory dress. She gasped, gripping her bouquet. It was the future she envisioned still solid and clear, down to the blue butterfly on Ben's shoulder. His eyes smiled back, filling with tears.
That first time they came to their meadow without adult supervision was when they were 14 years old. Ben had held tight to Rey's hand, looking over the field of pink wildflowers stretching all the way to Alderaan's famous snow-capped majestic mountains. It was a far cry from the desert where she had been abandoned. Her parents were dead in a pauper's grave, but that would not be Rey's fate.
"I'm going to marry you one day, Rey," Ben told her, breaking the silence.
Rey turned to him curious and teasing. "How can you be so sure?"
Ben looked down at her, having shot up in height during the past year. "Because I've seen it." He placed a sweet kiss on her forehead.
Rey sighed happily, allowing herself to breathe in the floral scent that carried on the breeze before looking back over the field. She could see it too. Ben standing just ahead in long gray robes accented in blue as a blue butterfly fluttered onto his shoulder.
Rey felt tears forming in her own eyes, though not enough to fall. She followed the same path from years ago, the one from her very first family picnic in this meadow and Ben wanted, no demanded, the last cookie.
"That cookie belongs to me!" Ben yelled, chasing after Rey.
But Rey was fast. This strange boy she just met wouldn't catch her. Afterall, she had learned to run on sand.
"Children, there are more cookies at the palace!" Queen Breha called out.
"I just don't understand what has gotten into him," Princess Leia commented to her mother. "He's always been a difficult boy, but well-behaved around others."
All the adults thought Ben and Rey would be fast friends. They were wrong. But Rey would take this conflict before anything Jakku threw at her. Scavenging for scraps, hunger, the loneliness... she could handle this boy who thought everything was his. Han had given Rey that cookie. "You're stuck with us forever, kid," he had lovingly told her, handing her the heart shaped sweet. And on that thought, Rey was determined. She spun around and tackled his worshipfulness Prince Ben to the ground.
Everyone special was here, only the most important people, including their new friends they made that year on Coruscant. Well, friends Rey made. Between her and Ben, she was the most outgoing, and outside the walls of Alderaan's royal palace she could actually meet other people. First was Finn, a young man who had been orphaned as a child and was looking for a family like herself. Then came the Tico sisters Rose and Paige. They had escaped from their home planet Hays Manor to get help for the atrocious conditions of the planet's mines. Lucky for them, Rey had connections. They all became friends, eventually with Ben too who for all his sullen loneliness, was a tough nut to crack and extremely shy, though never shy with Rey.
As Rey and Han got closer to Ben, he held out his hand, though it wasn't empty. Rey handed off her bouquet to Finn as Han gave her a slight nudge closer to the groom. "A cookie?" She asked, taking it with a teary chuckle. "You sharing now?" It looked exactly the same. A pink iced heart with the word forever written on top.
"I wouldn't want you to tackle me again over baked goods." Ben's lips twitched and he took her face in both hands, giving her a quick kiss and licking crumbs from her lips. "I think I prefer sharing."
"Of course you do." Rey nuzzled the side of his face, melting into his tight embrace and nibbling on her cookie.
"I do," Ben whispered in her ear, squeezing her tight. "I do."
"Not yet, kids!" Han called out.
Ben huffed, not letting Rey go. "What? I said I do!" He pulled back slightly, looking down at her. "Rey, say I do."
"It doesn't work like that," Rey laughed.
"Why not?" Alderaan's future king pouted.
Rey cupped his cheek. "I love you, Ben. Forever."