Chapter Text
Light filters through the open blinds that she had forgotten to draw closed last night, effectively rousing her out of her sleep and causing her to press her face into the pillow one final time before opening her eyes. One glance at the clock on the nightstand dispels any plans of going back to sleep, still she doesn’t get out of bed just yet.
Three days have passed since she had arrived at her aunt and uncle’s estate, a lavish mansion fit for royalty since, well, they technically are royalty, even though her aunt’s current prefered title is General. It does have a better right to it. General Organa. Even though her uncle, Han, still insists on calling her Princess, though it’s more than obvious that he does it in a teasing fashion as opposed to anything else.
She has yet to see him since Han had embarked on a “transportation” mission several days before her arrival, although the way Leia emphasized the word transpiration makes her wonder how legal it actually is since she’s fairly certain that Han has smuggled his fair share of people across the border, for humanitarian reasons, of course. Still, according to her, Han should be back within the next couple of days, or weeks, definitely not months, she’ll have plenty of time to spend with him before she must leave again (and learn how to drive his pickup truck like he had promised her last time she had visited).
Her hand comes up to toy with the necklace around her neck, a sapphire hanging from a delicate silver chain that her father had given her the day she was born despite the fact that it had been too long for her then, reaching her stomach when he had first put it around her neck. She smiles to herself, something between happiness and longing because while she understands that her father is one of the best fencers in the whole world, she still misses him every time he has to leave to train a new league of fencers.
A harsh knock at the door pulls her out of her thoughts. She’s on her feet immediately, drawing a robe over her nightgown and opening the door. Ben stands before her, already dressed and ready for the day despite it not even being past seven yet.
“What’s wrong?” She asks, looking up at him in concern. “Did something happen?”
Ben shakes his head as he pushes past her, entering her bedroom and sitting down on the love seat directly in front of her bed without uttering a single word. When she looks at him after shutting the door, she doesn’t miss the troubled expression on his face or the way his eyebrows knit in silent worry as their gazes meet.
“Ben, what’s wrong? What’s the matter?” She asks again as she sits down next to him, her eyes falling to something, a piece of paper, clutched tightly in his hand.
“You can’t tell my mom.” Is the first thing he says and it takes her a moment to agree, even though she isn’t certain that she can keep that promise, especially now that she’s suddenly terribly worried and on high alert.
“Alright.” In her defense, it’s barely a promise.
“I got this letter yesterday,” His fingers fidget with the envelope, hesitating before thrusting it in her open hands. “It’s not the first one.” He adds after another moment of hesitation.
Rey pulls the letter out of the envelope and unfolds it, bringing it closer to her face in order to read the scribbled handwriting:
You haven’t taken my warnings seriously, I see.
I’m still watching you, Ben, I’m always watching you, and I know your uncle is training more padawans as we speak. Will they be any better than you?
Is the girl better than you?
-Snoke
A chill runs down her spine as she reads the last line, knowing that it could only refer to one person. Me, she thinks, and when she looks up at Ben again, his expression mirrors her own. Someone is watching them. Someone has been watching them.
“We have to tell Leia.”
“No.” Ben protests immediately, snatching the letter from her hands and stuffing it inside the pocket of his jacket.
“Ben,” Her expression shifts to a far more serious one as she puts a careful but comforting hand on his knee. “We have to tell her. This is serious. Someone is watching us. We can’t just ignore it. What if they try to hurt us?”
“I would never let anyone hurt you, Rey.” He says immediately, looking at her with the kind of determination that makes her smile because she believes him, she wholeheartedly believes him, but even so, this isn’t something they can overcome together. It’s not like the time when Rey was ten and Ben helped her climbs the giant oak tree in the backyard or that they when she was fifteen and he stole his father’s car so they could drive around until she no longer felt homesick. This is bigger and more dangerous than anything they have ever faced and if Ben is dead set on protecting her, then she can’t do anything but return the favor.
“I know you won’t.” She smiles reassuringly. “You have fencing practice, don’t you? Why don’t we talk about this later then?”
---
Rey finds Leia in her office, an enormous room that is almost never empty and could hardly classify as an actual office. She’s on the phone when Rey walks in, her face lighting up at the sight of her, although that may also have something to do with the new boots she is sporting, courtesy of Han for missing her arrival.
“Good morning.” She greets as she hangs up the phone with a curt goodbye, moving towards her to bridge the gap between them and pull her into an affectionate embrace that Rey immediately returns. That’s one thing she’s always loved about her aunt, her infectiously caring demeanor. “What can I do for you?”
Rey falters at those words, her smile fading and being replaced by the same anxious worry from before, something Leia catches on to immediately and reaches for Rey’s hands in a futile soothing attempt. “Rey, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
“I have to tell you something.” She says as though that much isn’t obvious, but it gives her the courage to pull out the letter she had stolen from Ben when he had hugged her before finally leaving for his practice.
Leia looks up at her in confusion for a brief moment before taking the letter and pulling it out of the envelope. When she finishes reading, she looks paler than before and something akin to guilt builds inside her chest, making her wonder if maybe Ben was right, if maybe he should have let him handle this himself.
“Did Ben tell you to give me this?” She asks, but her dubious tone is answer enough which is why she sighs audibly when Rey shakes her head.
“That boy is too damn chivalrous for his own good.” Leia pockets the letter before moving back towards the desk in order to pick up the phone again and request that Ben be sent up to her office.
“You did well by coming to me.”
It’s almost as if she could read her thoughts, Rey thinks, because those words alone make her feel a little better about completely disregarding Ben’s wishes. It’s for his safety (and mine), she continues to remind herself.
---
Ben is less than pleased when he walks into her office, and even though Rey isn’t actually sorry, well, not sorry enough to take back her actions, she flashes him an apologetic half smile as Leia asks him to sit down in the chair across from the love seat where they are currently seated.
“Ben, you should have told me.” Leia gives him a pointed look when he tries to interrupt. “This is serious, alright? Now, I’ve already alerted the police about the situation and they said they will do everything in their power to find whoever has been sending you these threatening letter, which by the way, I need the rest of, but in the meantime I think we need to take more preventive measures.”
“Preventive measures?” Ben echoes back in slight annoyance. “Like what? Never leaving the house again?”
“No, you have duties to attend to and so do I, so do all of us,” Leia replies. “But I do think we should increase security and limit trips outside the estate as much as possible.”
“Why don’t I just change my name to something stupid like, I don’t know, Kylo Ren and relocate to some remote island until the police arrests them.”
Rey scrunches her nose and laughs because that’s honestly one of the most ridiculous ideas she has ever heard except for the part where it’s not so ridiculous since it could technically work. It definitely could work but Leia’s deadpan expression translates into a very big no. Ben almost looks disappointed but not quite as disappointed as when he hears his mother’s idea.
“I’m going to hire you a bodyguard.”
“Couldn’t I just be his bodyguard?” Rey suggests because it’s not as absurd as it sounds. She has remarkable fighting skills and no one would suspect someone of her size as being anything more than a fragile princess.
“No.” Leia shoots down the idea immediately. “And not because you can’t do it, because I know you can, but because if you injure someone they could sue us. Tomorrow morning I’m going to make some calls and-”
“But mom,” Ben tries to interrupt, only to have Leia cut him off immediately.
“And find you a suitable bodyguard. End of discussion.”
Rey averts her eyes to the floor but she can still feel Ben glaring at her from across the table.