Chapter Text
Rey squinted her eyes shut a little harder. She knew their voices better than her own these days, but his voice especially. It was entirely unfair that a man’s voice could affect her so much. Her teeth clenched as she held back a shiver. Damn the King! Damn Poe Dameron! Damn everything that had brought him into her orbit! At least they would never notice her. Everyone assembled was far more important than her. She was only a lady in waiting. She needed to do nothing but stay silent.
She kept her breathing as quiet as possible, hunched in on herself as if she could disappear. She barely knew any of those assembled, her role in this court almost nonexistent. She wasn’t even sure why she had been invited. Well, that wasn’t truthful. Her connection to Sir Finn for one. And Princess Kaydel giving her the position, so here she was.
At least that was how she was trying to convince herself.
“It seems we are all here,” Sir Temmin announced, his voice booming, silencing them all. “It is time for our king to marry and we need to discuss who the queen should be.”
“Whether he likes it or not,” Lady Jessika added snidely.
“Volunteering are we?”
Rey’s eyes snapped open at the sound of glass shattering. She wasn’t sure who had done it, the room dead silent at the king’s words. “I was not aware you had a death wish, your majesty,” the head of the royal guard, Sir Finn replied.
The group laughed, the tense quiet evaporating. Lady Jessika would murder the king, even she knew that. Rey leaned further into her seat, letting the conversation wash over her. She did not need to be here; this was for the nobles to decide. Names were mentioned and discarded, most of the reasons petty. This was the way of royalty she supposed. She sighed, wondering if she could sneak off when the princess spoke her name. “What?” she blurted out, her station in life, her manners, everything forgotten as the words registered.
“You are of noble birth, or you would not be my lady in waiting,” she chided. “Why do you think I wanted you here this evening?”
She needn’t find a reply when the King did so for her.
“I’m the king of the world! I should pick my wife you assholes!”
“Less than 20 minutes, who called it?” Sir Beaumont interrupted.
“Me!” shouted Lady Kare. “And you look nothing like DiCaprio, Poe. You can’t pull off that line with your bubble butt.”
“Why are you checking out my ass? You’re a married woman,” Poe teased.
“And you guys wonder why we never get anything done,” Finn sighed loudly.
At the sound of my best friend’s voice, I finally caved and turned on my camera to give him a wave. Finn waved back, rolling his eyes exaggeratedly, earning the typical snorts and jibes from their group. “Give Rey a break, she’s new,” he continued once they’d quieted down. “There’s no way I’m torturing someone I love with Poe’s bull shit this early in. She’ll bolt for sure and then where will we be.”
This month’s king moved his head closer to the camera. “Whatever he’s told you is bull shit, I’m a great guy, Rey!”
“Lie!” several voices chimed in.
“Why am I friends with you guys?” Poe pouted, leaning back into his seat as the others laughed.
Everyone on the group call was still new to her but from what she understood, the group as a whole was relatively new to each other. A few were friends, some coworkers, and a neighbour; basically a friend of a friend type situation. But they were all trying to band together in the craziness of the current world. So, Finn’s suggestion was welcome. It certainly beat sitting in her studio apartment with nothing but Netflix and too much ice cream.
As usual, their attempt at role-playing devolved into chats about their lives. Or their not lives at the moment. Other than Finn, she had just had a few group chats with them, but real human voices were an improvement over her TV. It was genuine laughter, barks of dogs in the background, and the excited speech of too much wine. It was real life, not manufactured. She was more than happy to listen, figuring out the dynamics for herself.
She knew Temmin, no Snap, was with Kare and Kaydel was with Beaumont, fairly certain they were soulmates. Jannah worked with Finn, and she thought Poe, Snap and Jessika worked together. She was pretty sure Rose and Paige were Poe’s next-door neighbours, but Rose said little, and Paige was rarely there, being a nurse and often stuck on the night shift. Maybe she should message Rose, they seemed the most alike in the motley group.
The tinny cry of a baby monitor saw Kaydel and Beaumont leave, signalling to the others. People began to drop off the group call, their attempt to role-play some sort of scenario failing yet again. But she didn’t care, she never thought she would miss other people the way she did these days. She always was one of the last to go, staying to have a word with Finn. He usually stayed on later with Poe since he lived somewhere else. Mind you most of them did but that didn’t matter in the internet era.
She let the lull wash over her, knowing she would need to say goodbye soon when Finn’s phone rang. “Sorry guys, talk to you next week,” he breathed out in a rush as his square on her screen vanished. Leaving her alone. With Poe.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like Poe. She just felt a little … intimidated by him. They were far enough into the pandemic that they’d all given up on looking nice. She hadn’t worn anything but leggings and a tank top in months. She was sure her hair would stay in its messy bun for the rest of her life without any effort at this point. She was sure Poe was the same, his stubble always a little longer than used to be considered respectable and his hair always a little messier than the week before since he had no one to cut it but he still looked a little too good. It was a little unfair, frankly. It was impossible not to notice seeing as he was the only single man she saw these days not counting Finn was like a brother and the delivery guy from the Chinese place down the street who was pushing 60. Poe was hot, there was no denying it, so she might have a little crush. She never talked to him directly, not really. And they’d never been alone.
“So, I guess we’re getting married huh?” he drawled, breaking the silence.
And Rey did what she always did when faced with a man she liked - panicked, slamming the lid of her laptop down. And there went her social life.