Chapter Text
"Daddy!" The little boy ran into the room, jumping onto his father with all the energy of a 5 year old. "What movie dis?"
Ben carefully peeled his oldest off his front, setting him on the couch. He was dressed as a pirate today, well, mostly a pirate. The Woody cowboy hat didn't quite match, though he was a kid so of course it matched. "This is my favorite Disney movie."
"You and me together we'll be. Forever you'll see. We two can be good company you and me. Yes, together we two."
The boy frowned at the scene of a bride and groom dancing on the TV screen, it obviously not matching with any Disney movie the child knew. "Dat's you and mommy."
"It is." Ben chuckled, removing his mini me's hat and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. His very blonde hair covered head, which everyone guessed would gradually darken to perhaps his mother's dark brown. "This is a video of our wedding."
He gasped. "Like a real prince and princess!"
"Yeah, buddy." Ben chuckled again, watching he and Rey slowly sway and awkwardly twirl across the dance floor. Their wedding was at Disney World, the place where it all began, and it really was every bit the magical Disney movie it appeared to a child's eyes.
"You and me together we'll be. Forever you'll see. We'll always be good company. You and me. Just wait and see."
An excited squeal next to him broke Ben from his trance, making him jump.
"It's my song!" The boy exclaimed clapping.
Ben picked the still squealing boy up, lifting him high in the air.
"I'm Dumbo!" He yelled.
"No you're not!" Ben replied, lowering him with a raspberry to his cheek. "You're Oliver!"
"Daddyyyyyy!" He whined through his giggles as his father blew another raspberry on his stomach. "Mercy! Parley! Der's a snake in your boot!"
Ben was out of breath from laughter now, so he sat his boy across his lap and held him close while he calmed. "I love you, Oliver," he said as his thoughts trailed back, way back, to before Oliver was even born... to once upon a time, at a mad tea party at the Magic Kingdom...
Everyone went to the Magic Kingdom their first day at Walt Disney World. Nothing else compared to the excitement of scanning your Magic Band at the gate, walking under the train station, and seeing Cinderella's Castle standing tall at the end of Main Street USA. It set the mood for the entire experience because in that moment you were really, truly, in Walt Disney World.
From there, regular park goers would take off to their favorite attraction. Space Mountain was always popular with large groups making a beeline for Tomorrowland once the park opened, but Ben's favorite ride was the Mad Tea Party so he always found himself trailing after the families heading to Fantasyland. Why the Mad Tea Party instead of pirates or grim grinning ghosts or the wildest ride in the wilderness? Quite simply, he liked spinning the teacup faster and faster until he couldn't walk off the ride in a straight line. There was something thrilling about keeping up to the wild party music from the Alice in Wonderland movie. It was for that exact reason his friends ditched him. They couldn't keep up with him. They didn't want to keep up with him. Cowards.
Ben got in line and watched excitedly as the teacups spun around, sure he could make one spin faster, when his attention was caught by the girl in front of him. He tapped her shoulder and the prettiest hazel eyes looked up at him. "Hey, I like your bag!" He told her.
A big smile lit up her face. "You like Oliver and Company?"
"It's my favorite Disney movie."
"No way!" She pointed at her Minnie Mouse ears, which he just noticed also featured the movie. "I'm a bit obsessed with it. It's so hard to find merchandise. I had to order these ears from Etsy!"
The ride coming to an end interrupted their chat. Ben looked around to see who she was with. She seemed far from the people ahead of her so he asked, "Soooo... would you like to share a teacup with me? You look like good company."
She quirked an eyebrow at him. "How did you know I was alone?"
He shrugged. "I guess I've got street savoir faire?"
She smacked his arm and.... was that a giggle snort? "Oh my god that's so cheesy! I'm Rey, by the way."
"Ben."
"There you are! Please remain seated until your teacup comes to a stop then go off to the nearest exit. Bye bye!"
The ride announcement from Alice reminded them that they had been in a world of their own while in line so with one last shy smile at each other, they followed the people ahead of them through the purple fenced queue.
"Um," Rey began as the ride operator waved them through the gate, "do you have a favorite teacup?"
"Whatever I can get to first," Ben replied, stepping onto the saucer of a yellow teacup with a pink handle and gesturing for Rey to go first. "Your teacup, m'lady?"
Rey slid around the bench as she pulled her backpack off. "Me too. I mean, I like all the colors so whatever is closest."
There was one terrible downside to Ben's favorite ride and that was the fact it was not designed for anyone tall. His knees were already beginning to scream in protest as he attempted to awkwardly straddle the cup's wheel while he sat on the narrow, slippery bench. But his favorite ride made it worth it. Rey's smile made it worth it.
"Hello there! Welcome to our unbirthday party! For your safety, please be sure to remain seated with your hand, arms, feet, and legs inside your teacup and watch your children. To spin your teacup, just keep turning the silver wheel to the right or to the left. The faster you turn it, the faster it spins! Well it seems our party is about to begin. Have a most wonderful time! Tata!"
The whistling music began after the Spanish announcements and off they spun around and around the Doormouse in his teapot.
Alice's lilting voice came over the speaker way too soon for Ben's liking announcing the end of the ride. Just as he thought, his legs ached and wobbled as he carefully stepped off the teacup saucer.
Rey slipped her bag over her shoulders, hopping off the teacup's saucer. "I can't believe you fit in that teacup! How can you even feel your legs?"
He couldn't. That was the answer he didn't say because his weird walk made it more than obvious. They clung to each other laughing and out of breath as they stumbled away from the ride. Ben was grateful for the support, for someone to lean on during this trying time of teacups against tall people.
He doesn't think he's ever smiled so big, though maybe he could blame the dizziness for his current mood. "Perfect isn't easy."
Rey, somehow gathering her wits quicker than him, pulled him to a stop that was a little too fast for him at the moment. "Do you have an Oliver and Company reply to everything?"
She was still holding his hand and he was so happy he swung their arms a bit. Definitely the dizziness. "I have no one else to say them to."
Rey grabbed his other hand and squeezed. "I think you can say them to me forever. Just wait and see."
And with that, Rey gave his hand a final squeeze before blushing and bounding off towards the Storybook Circus, leaving Ben behind grinning like Cinderella when she realizes the prince wants to find her.
"Come on!" Rey called out, waving him over. "Let's get ice cream! What's an unbirthday party without food?"
That snapped Ben out of it. He had only just met her, but he already knew he would do anything she asked on her unbirthday. On her birthday, too, as a matter of fact.
They found an empty spot on the brick wall to sit near the snack stand so they could chat and eat their Mickey bars. Rey texted her brother Hux to let him know she was taking longer at the teacups. It was technically true.
She bit part of an ear off her ice cream bar. "So why Oliver and Company? Are you a Dodger?"
Ben focussed intently for a moment on his ice cream, pursing his lips at the condensation on the frozen chocolate coating and wondering if it was as much at risk of melting as Rey finding his answer silly. "Would you believe a Jenny?"
Rey bit into the other ear. "Jenny? How so?" She asked, voice full of curiosity.
"Well, Jenny was so excited to make a new friend in Oliver. I guess I can relate because my parents weren't around much. I got lonely in that big house until they got me a dog. I named him Chewie because he chewed on my mom's shoes. He got lost one day sort of like Oliver did, but I found him."
Rey frowned a bit at the sad story, not commenting as she bit into Mickey's earless head.
"How about you? Why do you love Oliver and Company?" Ben asked, going for an ear. It was the most logical place to start with these bars.
Rey continued chewing, her eyes watching people walk by for a moment. "My birth parents abandoned me when I was little and I bounced around wondering where my home would be until Jyn and Cassian adopted me when I was 9. They had already adopted a boy a couple years before me, Hux, so he's my older brother now. We came here to celebrate my college graduation, but they wanted to go to the Tiki Room and I wanted to go on the teacups. It happens whenever we come here." She shrugged as if it couldn't be helped. "I'm afraid of birds."
"They're animatronics, Rey."
"Yeah, well... Anyway, Oliver is just like me. He was lost until he found a home."
Ben reached over, his arm apparently disconnected from his brain, and swept his thumb over her bottom lip. "You had some chocolate....."
They stayed together that whole day. Luckily Rey's family and Ben's friends were all understanding which meant they could go on their favorite rides and eat way too many snacks without fear of disappointing anyone. Ben told Rey about his job as an attorney specializing in family law. "I wanted to help people like my parents who struggled being married," he said while their Peoplemover car sped through Space Mountain's dark tunnel. He couldn't see her reaction, but he felt it when Rey looped her arm through his.
"I get it," she said over the screams of the ride surrounding them. "I mean, sort of. Parents are a complicated subject." They were quiet until they emerged from the tunnel, Rey's smile brighter than the sun. "Wanna go shopping?"
"Enjoy the rest of your day and have a great big beautiful tomorrow!"
"Sooooo..." Rey ran her fingers along a shelf of princess mugs inside Mickey's Star Traders. "Who am I keeping you from today?"
"No one, I mean," Ben cleared his throat, stuffing his hands in his pockets while he trailed behind her to the Star Wars section. "My friends Poe and Paige and her sister Rose. They said I was working too much and needed a break."
"Were they right?" Rey asked, holding up a black t-shirt to his front. "You have to get this!" She flipped it around so he could read what it said: Judge me by my size, do you?
Ben took the hanger from her with a grin so big his cheeks hurt. "Yeah, um... they were. They were right."
Rey told him about her business degree so she could eventually take over her father's antique shop. She swung their arms between them while waiting in line for Space Mountain babbling non stop about how she loved finding old, valuable things. "Like a scavenger?" Ben asked when she told him how she once dove into a dumpster after seeing a really pretty clock sticking out. "I had to fix the mechanisms, but that clock was worth over $2000!"
They were next up. Rey took the ride car's front seat, Ben behind her, and soon they were shooting off into space or perhaps something more.
🎆🏰🎆
Everyone met up later for dinner at Tony's Town Square. This delightful little nook often got overlooked by park goers opting for the more infamous Cinderella's Royal Table or Be Our Guest for Disney's fanciest princess fare, but Tony's had classic charm. This restaurant had popped straight out of the movie and Rey loved getting there early to sit on a plush red sofa in the lobby and watch Lady and the Tramp or play movie trivia. Once led to their seats, Rey thoroughly read over the menu even though she ordered the same thing every time because naturally, a plate of pasta and meatballs was the best way to get the full Lady and the Tramp experience. Even better, however, this time she shared it with Ben as he sang quietly into her ear between bites, "This is the night, it's a beautiful night, on this lovely bella notte." It made her heart flutter and her stomach do somersaults that had everything to do with this man's effect on her and not possible food poisoning from Disney meatballs.
Rey's mother pulled her into a hug as they left the restaurant. "Seeing you fall in love makes me so happy, my Stardust."
Rey pulled away and gasped. "Mum! I just met him!"
Jyn only smirked and pushed her daughter in Ben's direction, where he was standing along the curb on Main Street chatting with Cassian, lightly swinging his blue Disney Parks shopping bag containing the shirt she found for him. Oh was she judging his size. His massive size and how it made her reflexively squeeze her thighs together.
"Go pick out a spot for the fireworks. This is our first time seeing the new Happily Ever After show. We'll start planning your wedding tomorrow."
"MUM!" Rey absolutely could not think massive size thoughts around her mind reading mother because she knew. Jyn Andor always knew.
But her attention was thankfully drawn away from her mother's premature wedding planning to her brother arguing with Ben's Dole Whip hat wearing friend Rose.
"Seriously, Armie. How do you not like Dole Whip?"
"I told you, it's Hux and I don't understand how that tart concoction is so popular."
"It is a Disney DELICACY, Armie!"
Rey shook her head as she walked by. Maybe their mother would have another wedding to plan. Leave it to her brother to fall for his complete opposite.
That night Ben stood behind Rey with his arms around her, skillfully avoiding getting a face full of Minnie Mouse ears, as the park crowd's chatter around them quieted and the lights dimmed. It was time for the fireworks and everyone was excited for the new projection mapping on the castle exterior. They got their first glimpse with pixie dust swirling out of a keyhole and around the turrets.
"...And they all lived happily ever after. Each of us has a dream, a heart’s desire. It calls to us. And when we’re brave enough to listen, and bold enough to pursue, that dream will lead us on a journey to discover who we’re meant to be. All we have to do is look inside our hearts and unlock the magic within..."