Chapter Text
Someone is stroking Rey's hair, and it's not unpleasant, the hand is large and gentle and the motion quite soothing, but she is warm and there is a heavy, utterly comforting weight slung across her middle and she would rather stay asleep for a while longer.
"I can tell you're awake, you know?" Ben's deep baritone rumbles close to her ear.
"Mhm, go away."
The weight starts to lift as Ben pulls away from her, and she quickly brings her hands up to keep his arm around her.
"I thought you wanted me to go away, sweetheart," Ben chuckles.
"I clearly can't be trusted this early in the morning," she retorts, squinting up at him through half-opened eyes.
"I'll have to remember that," he places a soft kiss against her forehead. "But we do have to get up."
"Don't wanna."
"Rey," he says, gently, and she sighs.
"Another minute?"
"Ok," he grins against her hair, "I think I can allow that."
Rey pulls his arms closer around her waist and rolls over, until her face is buried in the valley between his pectorals.
"You smell good."
"Mhm, thank you," his chest vibrates when he speaks and underneath it all she hears the steady thrum of his heartbeat. It is a sound that she will never get enough of.
Ben starts placing kisses on her forehead, the side of her face, down her chin - infuriatingly only skirting the edge of her mouth - until he reaches the pulse point under her ear. He sucks and laves at the soft skin there, careful not to leave a mark, and Rey can't entirely stifle her moan when she feels him begin to harden against her thigh.
He pulls away suddenly, leaving her bereft.
"Ben?" she whimpers.
"If," he clears his throat, "if I don't stop now I won't, uh, you know, stop, and we do need to get ready."
Ben is right. She knows he is right, but that doesn't stop her from being disappointed. She rolls onto her back, sighing dramatically.
"You're evil."
"Not anymore," he chuckles. "Come on, get up, sweetheart."
Ben swings his legs out of bed and stands in one fluid motion. His cock juts out, proud and flushed, and he looks down at his straining length with a mournful expression.
"In case that is unclear: I don't want to stand up either," he says with a smirk.
Rey gives him a lascivious smile as she rises to all fours to lean forward and place a kiss onto the tip of his cock, darting out her tongue to lick at the drop of precum that has gathered there.
"Oh, Rey," he whimpers, "not fair."
She looks up at him, all innocent doe eyes, as she slowly and deliberately licks her lips.
"You can always come back to bed."
But Ben, who clearly has more self control than people give him credit for, just laughs and shakes his head.
"Or I could go and shower," he says and tousles her hair, "get ready, sweetheart, you'll thank me later."
Rey grumbles that she will do so much more than thank him later, but dutifully rises to get dressed while Ben slips into the 'fresher.
A little later Ben emerges from the 'fresher in only his pants, his broad chest bare and glistening with a few scant drops of water. He raises an eyebrow when he sees her wearing her customary wraps.
"Is that what you're going to wear?"
"Would that be a problem?"
"Uh," he blinks owlishly, "no, of course not. It's just not what I expected."
"It's not, I'm going to change in a minute," Rey answers. "But I appreciate you saying that."
Ben merely shrugs.
"I couldn't care less what you wear," he says, softly, before sitting on their bunk with his legs splayed. "You're what I care about. The clothing will come off later anyway," he adds with a wolfish grin.
"Come here," he says, patting the space between his legs.
That she does, and gladly, sitting with her back to his chest and leaning into his solid bulk. Ben wraps his arms around her and breathes into her hair for a second.
"I love you, you know?"
She nods. Yes, she knows.
'I love you too', she sends to him over the Bond, just because they can do that now.
He chuckles, and she feels his breath ghost over her scalp.
"We could just stay in bed, you know?"
"Nuh-uh," Rey shakes her head, "now I'm dressed."
"You just said that you were going to take it off in a minute anyway," he says, a little petulantly, and she laughs. It is tempting, to just turn in his arms and kiss him, to see where that will lead, but today isn't just any day and there are people waiting for them outside these four walls that they call home.
"Braid my hair, Ben."
"So bossy," he chuckles, but he dutifully pushes her torso forward, so that there is enough space for him to work on her chestnut locks.
He cards his fingers through her hair, separating it into strands. It feels good, Rey decides, to have someone else do this for her. Someone she loves.
"How does it work?" she asks, and his fingers still, as he is trying to figure out what exactly she means.
"The braids," Rey qualifies. "Is this, like, one predefined hairdo or individual braids that each carry their own meaning?"
They'd talked a little about Alderaanian braids, when they had decided what shape today should take, but Ben hadn't really explained any of it in detail.
"Mhm," he says, resuming his work, "it's a little of both, I would say. Like this is how Leia taught it to me, Force knows why she thought I would ever need it, but I am grateful that she did. But there are some braids in here that would mean something, if worn separately. This one here, for example," and he tugs at the broad section of hair that he is artfully winding around the crown of her head, "means forever."
She thinks of her three buns and wonders if they held any meaning to her own mother. Rey may have some idea where her father came from, but her mother remains a mystery, and there is no telling if her culture had anything resembling this.
In the end she decides it doesn't matter. 'Let the past die' has become something of a shorthand for Ben and her, used whenever their conversation touches on those dark, lonely years before they found each other, and she thinks that maybe it is time to let those three buns die. And to simply remember her mother as a brave woman, who died for her daughter, and to look to the future instead.
"You've gone quiet," Ben murmurs, as he pins another braid to the back of her head. There's an edge of tension to his voice, as though he is afraid that Rey might change her mind about today.
"Just thinking," Rey answers, equally quietly.
"Good things?"
'Our future', she thinks, loud enough for him to hear, and she feels the tension leave his body.
"Alright," is all he says, very softly.
Soon the braids are done and Rey hops up from the bunk to examine them in the 'fresher mirror. She carefully traces the intricate swirls and twists of hair that now adorn her head, as though afraid that she will ruin Ben's handiwork.
"They're beautiful."
Ben steps into the 'fresher behind her and kisses her bare neck.
"You're beautiful," he whispers into the skin there. His hands snake around her body, skimming the underside of her breast and squeezing lightly, and Rey thinks that this could lead somewhere, despite Ben's insistence that they have a schedule to keep, but just then there's a knock on their door.
Ben groans and moves away from her.
"It's open!" he calls, as he reaches into his pants to adjust himself, before stepping out of the fresher.
Lando pokes his head in.
"Good morning, Rey," he says with a dashing bow, before turning to Ben and adding, "nephew."
"Morning Lando," Rey says, while Ben grumbles something similar.
"I trust I was interrupting something," Lando says with a grin and a waggle of his eyebrows.
"Yes," Ben retorts, somewhat testily. "We need another minute, please."
Ben's uncle puts on an exaggerated frown, and cocks his head.
"You know, if it only takes a minute, you need to work on your technique," he says solemnly. "I could give you some pointers."
Rey laughs, mostly because Ben's face is turning bright red, and Land blows her a kiss as he backs out of the door.
"I should go," he says from the safety of the doorway, "I've seen that expression on his father's face, and it never means anything good for me. I trust that you'll find me when you're... done, Ben?"
Ben grumbles something that might be a yes of course or possibly something a lot more rude, as his uncle closes the door.
"I thought my hair is ready?" Rey says, once Lando is gone, unsure why Ben didn't go with him as asked.
"It is," Ben mumbles absentmindedly as he searches through the papers that are scattered all over the desk in the corner of the room. Ben, Rey has learned, is quite fastidious, but in these last few days she had often woken to find him hunched over the tiny desk, muttering and scribbling on the creamy, thick sheets of paper that he uses for his calligraphy, only to crumple his work into an angry ball and toss it aside. As a result the normally tidy desk is a disorderly mess and Ben has trouble locating whatever he is looking for.
He finally straightens up, holding an ancient datapad in his hands. He switches the device on and searches of a moment, until he finds the entry that he was looking for.
"Here," he says, handing her the device.
"I know we said we wouldn't give each other anything, but, uh," he scratches his neck sheepishly, "this isn't technically speaking a gift. It's more something you already owned that I am... returning to you. So I think it doesn't count."
Rey takes the datapad and curiously looks at the text on the yellowed display.
It's a journal entry. From Leia Organa-Solo's personal journal, dated more than twenty years ago.
Rey looks at Ben quizzically, but he only motions for her to read it.
The text is fairly short, but written in a way that calls the general's raspy voice to the forefront of her mind. Despite the prosaic events that the journal chronicles, there is something to the words that lets Leia's crisp diction and often sarcastic tone shine through.
When Rey is done she frowns, looking up at Ben again. If there is something of significance in the text, she doesn't see it, although the description of a day of leisure, spend during a vacation on Naboo, and the small glimpses of young Ben that it gives her, warm her heart.
Ben is shakes his head and takes the datapad back.
"Yeah, of course it doesn't mean anything to you," he mutters, although he doesn't seems at all put out. "I keep forgetting that while you can read my mind, that doesn't mean that you actually are."
He sits on the their bunk again, reaching out to pull Rey into his lap as he does so.
"I remember that day," he says, as he winds his arms around her waist, his left hand still holding the datapad. "We were staying on Naboo for maybe a week, and it was special, you know? Because Leia never took that much time off from the senate. I think she and Han had already decided to send me off to Luke's, but they hadn't told me yet, and this was their way of saying that they're sorry? Because Force forbid anyone in my family ever actually talk about their feelings."
Rey thinks of the Han and Leia that she met, and she thinks that those two people were quite different than the parents that Ben remembers, but then again Ben is also different from the little boy that they send away. People change. Han and Leia changed for the better, she thinks, and in the end the same goes for Ben. She is about to say as much, when Ben continues talking.
"Anyway," he says, "you'd think that I remember that vacation because it was the last one that I had with them, but that's not actually it. I mean, I was ten, and I didn't know yet that it would be our last time as a family, kids don't remember Bantha poo like that. What I do remember is that one day I was out in the gardens and..."
Ben presses a kiss to her shoulder blade before continuing.
"...and suddenly I had this feeling. Like a star igniting. Or maybe like somewhere, far away, a counterweight had been created, anchoring me in the Force. Again, I was ten, and I don't think my thoughts on that day were anywhere near as grand, I probably just thought that it feels nice. I felt good, whole, and I picked my mother a bunch of flowers. Then I went to bed and I really didn't think of it a whole lot until, well, until I met you. And that felt a little similar, you understand?"
He taps his index finger to the datapad, on the section where Leia remarks that her son brought her flowers, rather out of the blue, and that she is looking forward to finding out what exactly little Ben broke or lost to warrant this sudden gesture of affection. Then he briefly touches the date at the top of the page, almost reverently.
"I think that was you, being born," he says quietly. "I can't be sure, because twenty years is a long time, and memories fade, but you're about ten years younger than me and it stands to reason that I would feel it. Feel the other half of the Dyad come into being."
He shrugs and kisses her shoulder.
"So, if you want it to, that could be your birthday."
Rey is struck speechless.
She doesn't know if Ben is right, although she can feel in the Force that he certainly believes that he is.
There are a million other things he could have felt that day, chief among them her conception, or the first time she subconsciously used the Force as a baby. What matters to her is this tangible proof that she and Ben were connected from the start. All the light-years separating them, all those lonely years, and they were never truly alone at all. He was always there, at the other end of an invisible string, waiting for her to find him.
She feels tears spring to her eyes and turns in his lap as best she can.
"Thank you," she says as she winds her arms around his neck and kisses him soundly. "I love you so much." She whispers against his lips.
"I love you too," he replies, kissing her back. "Good surprise?"
"The best," she mumbles into the crook of his neck as she mouths at his Adam's apple, before trailing kisses up to his mouth.
They get lost in each other for a little while then, nipping and licking, tongues sliding wetly against each other, but before if can lead anywhere interesting Ben gently slides her off his lap, away from the growing tent in his pants, and stands.
"I, uh, should go find Lando before he comes back," he mutters as he pulls his tunic over his head.
Rey pouts, but nods.
"I'll see you soon."
"Yeah," he says, turning with his hand already on the doorknob, "soon. I can't wait, sweetheart."
*****
There's a knock on the door just as Rey finishes buttoning up her dress.
"Are you ready?" Finn asks, poking his head into the room.
Rey smooths down the fabric at her waist. She's suddenly feeling quite a bit nervous, even though there is nothing to be nervous about. Together, Rey and Ben have defeated an Emperor and killed a Supreme Leader. They have surmounted countless hurdles and overcame the trauma of their pasts to forge a new future, together. Seen from that angle, today is nothing more than an afterthought.
"Yeah," she nods, "I think I am."
Her friend smiles, noticing her flaring nerves, and motions for her to turn for him once, which she does.
Her dress is simple, ankle length white fabric with long flowing sleeves and a sliver belt that holds it together at her waist. It was Kaydel who showed her an old picture of Leia, taken at a Rebel ceremony held many years before Ben was born, and Rey had immediately decided that she wanted a dress just like that one. It suits her in its simplicity, she thinks. The once-scavenger from Jakku, who was the last Jedi before she was the last Jedi no more, has little need for finery.
"Do I look alright?"
"Uh, yeah," Finn blushes, "of course. Listen, uh Rey?"
"Yes?"
"If I tell you that you're pretty, your Sith, uh, boyfriend isn't going to skewer me with that lightsaber of his, right?"
Rey laughs, because Finn seems genuinely concerned that Ben might take offense. And she supposes that her Ben can be a little possessive at times, but if Rey is honest with herself she likes him all the better for it. She belongs to him, and if this mutual belonging of theirs is plain to see, then that is just fine with her. That is, she thinks, why they are here today.
"He's not a Sith."
"Yeah, sure, whatever you say," Finn deadpans. "What about the stabbing though?"
"Finn, I solemnly I promise that I won't let Ben stab you."
"Mhm, right," Finn grouses, "a lightsaber fight on your wedding day. At least that's something to tell the kids."
Rey laughs.
"I've dueled Ben so often, I think it would be nothing more than a footnote."
"Good point," Finn shakes his head and sighs, somewhat embarrassed by what he is about to say. "Ah, kriff Rey, Ben's not so bad, you know?"
"I know," her smile is goofy and a little love-sick, but she doesn't care.
"And if he ever hurts you I'm," Finn shrugs, "well, I don't think I could, uh, actually hurt him, but I'd give it my best shot."
"Thank you, Finn," Rey takes Finn's hands in both of her own and gives them a squeeze.
"And he's quite lucky, because you do look absolutely radiant," Finn gestures vaguely to her head. "You should wear your hair like that more often. It's pretty."
Rey reaches up and touches the delicate braidwork on her head.
"Thank you."
Finn offers her his arm.
"We should probably go, they'll be waiting."
*****
Finn walks her across the landing pad and to the edge of the forest.
Near the old bonfire pit a space has been cleared of underbrush and rocks. The grass is neatly cut and the trees surrounding the small clearing are bedecked with streamers and paper lanterns. A path leads through the neat rows of chairs, at the end of which a small altar awaits, with Lando Calrissian standing behind it, wearing a broad smile and a cape? Rey can't help but grin, because that is a very Lando thing to do, to wear a cape even in the sweltering heat of Ajan Kloss.
Then Ben, who has been standing in front of the altar talking to Chewie turns to face her and the awestruck, almost disbelieving look on his face steals her breath away.
He looks unbelievably handsome, standing tall and broad in his customary black (when she had rolled her eyes at that, he had patiently explained that black was the customary color for the groom to wear on his home planet of Chandrilla), with his pale, long face framed by his wind-swept, midnight-black mane of hair.
Ben gives her his best crinkly eyes smile and she swears her heart stops for a second. Even though she has had sometime to come to terms with the reality that Ben Solo, prince of Alderaan, would ask her, Rey of Jakku, to be his wife, it still seems like something out of a dream. That she could have something like this. This happiness.
She walks down the aisle, clutching onto Finn's arm for dear life. Her gaze is locked on Ben, but she still manages to see her friends out of the corner of her eyes.
Poe, sits in the front row, with Jannah and Rose on either side. In the rows behind those three she sees Beaumont Kin, Kaydel Connix and Enanan Supa and many other of her rebel friends, who have grown to be surprisingly accepting of Ben in these past six months since Exegol. There's so many that they spill over onto the groom's side, for the indomitable Maz Kanata is the only one among those present who can claim a closer acquaintance to Ben than to Rey without being actually involved in the ceremony. She sits in the front row, on a thick cushion to offset her considerable disadvantage in height, and gives Rey a cheery wave when their eyes meet briefly.
And then Rey is taking her place at the front, next to Ben who will be her husband soon. Finn gives her arm one last, reassuring squeeze, before he steps aside.
This is it, Rey thinks.
She walked down the aisle as Rey of Jakku and when she walks back to the base at Ben's side she will be Rey Solo. She briefly thinks back to her lonely childhood, and how much she had wished then for her parents to come back for her.
That particular wound in her heart had stopped hurting at some undefinable point between the throne room on the Supremacy and now, and she is no longer sad to be simply Rey of Jakku.
And she never was Rey Palpatine, not for one second. That old, vile man might lay some genetic claim to her ancestry, but he was never a part of her beyond a few, random strings of DNA.
But Rey Solo, that is something else. She had known from the second that Ben offered his name to her, to keep for all eternity, that that was who she was meant to be. She only needed for him to say it to fully realize that.
As a child Rey had not had a mother to tell her fairy tales of knights and dragons. Had not dreamed that a prince might come and take her away from the desert and onto a green planet filled with life and hope. And yet, Rey thinks, that is exactly what has happened, albeit not in a shape that any fairy tale could have foretold.
Lando clears his throat and Rey realizes with a blush that she had been standing here, staring at Ben with her jaw slightly agape, for some time now. Her eyes snap back into focus to meet Ben's, and he just gives her a warm smile, he himself being no stranger to getting lost in one's own memories.
"Dearly beloved," Lando begins, "we have gathered here today to join this man and woman in matrimony."
Rey has to wrench her eyes away from Ben to look at the older man. Lando looks every bit the part, bedecked in a cape, with his hair slicked back and a fond sparkle in his eyes. Once Ben had realized that, as the former Baron Administrator of Cloud City, his uncle was fully authorized to officiate a marriage ceremony, they had both agreed that Lando was the perfect choice to marry them. And Lando had readily agreed, for once uncharacteristically solemn in the face of their request.
"I have been asked by the groom to keep my words short and to the point, which I do with a profound sense of sadness," Lando continues, "for believe me, I have more than enough stories to tell of young Ben here, many of which would enrich this ceremony to no end."
He turns to Rey with a wink.
"You can ask me later, my dear," he says conspiratorially, "I promise you won't regret it."
Rey gives him a wide smile and shakes her head minutely. Ben makes a small sound, that could be a growl or a small laugh, but when Rey dips briefly into the Bond she senses nothing but fondness for his uncle, laced with a hint of nerves.
"So," Lando says as he straightens to face the front again, "I will say just this: I think I have seen my fair share of love in my life, kriff I've even tried marriage myself once or twice, and I don't think that I have ever seen two people more suited to each other than these two standing here before me. I say this fully knowing that they have spend more time fighting each other than not, but when I think of those that have come before them, I can not help but think that this is one of the attributes of a great love."
Han and Leia, Rey realizes, and she faintly hears that same thought echo through the Bond. It is not a bad thing, she thinks, to be compared to these two people, who meant so much to the both of them, and who loved each other very much, even at the very end.
"Now, before I continue, I understand that the bride and groom have chosen to say a few words themselves?" Lando looks from Rey to Ben and back, until Ben clears his throat and takes a step towards Rey.
He seems nervous, suddenly, and she realizes that his hands are empty, even though he spend so many nights laboring on his vows.
"I," Ben has to clear his throat, for all that comes out on his first try is a dry croak.
"I tried to find the right words, to tell you how much you mean to me, but nothing seemed enough, to encompass my feelings for you, Rey. What I am left with are imperfect words, for I could never say everything that you deserve to hear, even if I had a hundred years."
Rey finds that her vision is getting blurry and she blinks rapidly to clear it. She gives her Ben a small smile, telling him to continue. Telling him that it really doesn't matter what he says, or how, because she knows that he loves her.
Ben reaches out and takes her hands into his much larger ones. She can't help but notice that he is shaking a little, and gives him a comforting squeeze.
"Rey, once, on Kef Bir, you told me that when I offered you my hand, you wanted to take it, but I think you got that wrong. It was never about taking my hand, Rey, whatever my name might be. It was always you, offering your hand to me. You believed in me, even when all hope seemed lost. You never gave up one me. Dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the light. Through it all that faith you have in me, of which I one day hope to understand just how I managed deserve it, shone through, reaching out to me in my darkness. So, if you would offer me your hand one last time, I promise to take it... never let go again."
Ben is giving her his best, crinkly eyed smile, and she thinks that he's never looked more handsome.
"I do. I'll always take your hand, Ben," she whispers.
At that Chewie steps forward, handing Ben a simple platinum wedding band. He takes it, and now his hands are shaking so badly that he has to hold her hand with both of his, as he clumsily slips the ring on her finger.
She looks at her hand for a few seconds, admiring the ring and how right it looks on her finger, before gathering her courage.
For now it is Rey's turn to say her vows. Thinking back to a few minutes ago, when she had been amused that Ben had looked so nervous, she now just wants to kick past-Rey, because of course he had been nervous. Her own heart is beating a million times a minute and she feels her hands grow clammy with sweat.
It is silly, she thinks, because there are no remaining questions, no doubt, no uncertainty. If there is one immutable fact in the galaxy, then it is that she loves Ben and Ben loves her. And this ceremony is nothing more than a footnote in the face of this certainty.
She gently pulls her hands from Ben's and turns to Finn, who steps forward to pass her a cloth-wrapped parcel.
Rey gently unfolds the cloth, to reveal a small cube of grayish polystarch portion bread.
"Ben..." and now it is her voice that is cracking, and thick with tears, but she's not even a little ashamed of that, "you already said everything that I could possibly want to say, and you expressed it far more beautifully than I ever could. So let me just add this: I love you more than life itself. Growing up on Jakku, I had nothing and no one, and now I find myself with everything that I could ever want... and it's you. Just you. You are my light. And my love. And my future."
She takes the piece of bread and brakes it in half. Looking up at Ben she sees tears glimmering in his eyes and understanding. Rey had been purposefully vague about what she was planning for her half of the vows, partially because she had been a little embarrassed at bringing this part of Jakku's traditions into this ceremony, and she had been half afraid that Ben wouldn't understand what she is asking of him now.
But she needn't have worried, really.
Ben gently inclines his head, bowing towards her reaching fingers, and suddenly Rey is struck by a thought.
It was never Ben reaching for Rey. Or Rey reaching for Ben. What was separating them had been the circumstances surrounding them, the war pulling them in opposite directions, their mismatched loyalties and histories, and yes, at times their own wretched stubbornness. But through it all the Dyad had always been searching for each other. Always reaching, yearning, towards each other, like two magnets. Never whole without their other half.
Rey closes the last few inches and places the tiny cube of portion bread into Ben's mouth.
"Ben, I would share food with you," she says, before lifting the other half of the bread to her own mouth and quickly swallowing it down, for only seconds pass after that before Ben surges forward to place a sound kiss onto her lips.
Rey faintly hears Lando spluttering that he was about to get to that part, but she hardly hears him.
It feels a little bit like the Bond has just opened, even though Ben is actually here in the flesh and there's no need for the Force to connect them now. But still the world seems to fade into the background and all she feels it Ben's lips on hers, applying gentle pressure, and his breath washing over her face. All she hears is the rushing of the blood in her veins, and the wet slide of his mouth over hers. And all she smells and tastes is Ben's unique scent, tinged at the edges with just a hint of polystrach portion bread.
It's a chaste kiss, even though it lingers. Just a steady press of lips upon lips, but Rey is not sad about that. They have an audience, after all, and they will have more than enough time for the other kind of kissing. They have, Rey thinks, their entire lives for that.