The first thing Rey does after Ben disappears into the back of the store is text Finn please fling me off a cliff and then about seventeen upside-down face emojis.

When Finn does not reply as promptly as she would like, she frowns at the home screen of her phone before realizing with a jolt that it's nearly three in the morning. Finn is likely passed out asleep.

And Rey is stuck as wide awake as ever, with a boss who is likely having an existential crisis over her, probably. She groans and rubs at her temples, willing away the headache that is creeping up.

With a sigh, she tucks her phone into her pocket before rolling her shoulders and marching off toward the back. She briefly tries to convince herself that it's simply to grab an extra blanket, but no.

It's to check on Ben.

The store is dark and quiet as she approaches the back, and even though she's spent more hours apart from Ben tonight than with him, somehow Rey feels lonelier than she ever has before.

He knows how you feel and immediately made an escape attempt as soon as you were done confessing.

When she reaches the back her hand lingers on the doorknob while she attempts to collect herself. It would probably be best to turn around and curl up in one of the squishy reading armchairs with a few fleece Pokemon blankets they have sitting in overstock. It would probably be best to just forget about how enthusiastically she'd told Ben Solo that she wanted to lick his ears.

Instead Rey pushes the door open, letting it loudly slam shut behind her so that Ben knows she's here. She peers around, eyebrows furrowing when she doesn't immediately see him. She ducks into the small corner office, expecting to find him hunched over some paperwork but…

He's not there either. Ben isn't in the back at all.

Pace quickening in growing confusion and a trickle of concern, she makes her way out of the back and nearly walks right past the bathrooms before hesitating.

Being an employee here means that she's had to clean the men's bathroom during closing shifts numerous times, so she doesn't bat an eye when she pushes open the door and walks right inside.

And there Ben is, leaning over the sink and splashing water onto his face.

He straightens in surprise when he sees her. "Rey—"

"Are you okay?" She can't help but interrupt. Ben is quite pale. Well, paler than usual. "Did you throw up?"

He shakes his head, shuffling over to the paper towel dispenser and grabbing a few sheets to dry his hands and face with. "No." His voice is low, tired. "No, I thought I was going to, but I didn't. Just, uh…just dry heaved a little."

Rey feels the corners of her mouth tilt upward, as if her body is trying to reassure him without her even having to signal it to. "I'm glad you didn't puke."

Ben's head is still down, not quite making eye contact, and Rey watches as a drop of water drips from his hair into the collar of his shirt. He tosses the used paper towels into the trash and laughs, but it is completely without humor. "Well, clearly I'm still a mess."

He sniffs, finally tilts his face up so that he can look Rey in the eye proper. "I'm a mess over you." And then he shrugs, defeated.

I'm a mess over you.

It had been overwhelming, the way Ben had been looking at her in that moment.

Which is why Rey, instead of stepping up to him and brushing his damp hair away from his face and assuring him that she's a mess over him too, had stayed riveted to the spot and said, "Would you like some water?" in the squeakiest voice imaginable.

Ben had said yes, and the speed in which Rey had flown out of the bathroom is simply embarrassing. She's not sure why, but she just—she feels—

It's a lot.

She grabs two water bottles from the cooler up at the front of the store and then makes her way toward the back again. Rey is nervous now, hyperaware of how hot her cheeks feel and how her gate is antsy. She is both dreading what's about to happen while also being immensely excited for it. Whatever it may be.

She finds Ben sitting at the break table where they'd both taken shots together earlier in the evening. So much has fucking happened since then, and Rey can tell that her fingers are trembling when she hands him his water bottle.

He accepts it meekly, watching her closely as she pulls up a chair and sits down beside him. Rey uncaps hers and starts sipping, enjoying how cool the water feels against her dry throat.

Ben gulps down over half of his in under thirty seconds before capping it and setting the bottle down on the top of the table. And then it's like, it's like he can't take his gaze off her.

His lips part, the fingers of his right hand curl inward in anxiety, and he sucks in a deep breath. He's gearing himself up to apologize, to tell her he's sorry for all his shitty behavior toward her over the past year, how he didn't realize, and that he had been stupid. Rey can tell, because she's never seen him like this before. Toward anyone.

Ben Solo just doesn't tell people he's sorry.

But he's about to tell her.

So Rey does what seems like the most logical action in her brain. She stands, leans over Ben, and kisses him before he can say anything at all.

He doesn't move at first, probably because Rey has shocked him. But then he gasps, a sound that goes straight to the bottom of Rey's spine, and leans forward. He sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and his palm slides against her hip, yanking her closer so that she's standing between his legs.

And just like that Ben has taken control of the kiss. His tongue slips into her mouth, breath heavy and eyes closed. Rey finds her hands landing on his shoulders just to steady herself, just to make sure she doesn't sink to her knees when her legs feel like they're about to buckle. Ben moans just a little, fingers digging in roughly to the skin around her hip bones.

Rey does what seems like the next logical step, considering all the ridiculous turns this night has already taken. She breaks the kiss and slides a tiny step back, much to Ben's disapproval, then kicks off her shoes and wiggles out of her black leggings before she can lose her cool.

Ben's eyes widen and zero in between her legs. Rey is wearing a white pair of panties and she hasn't trimmed down there in at least a month. Her wetness causes the cotton to cling to the shape of her cunt, to clearly show the soft brushing of dark hair. Ben's chest begins to rise and fall erratically.

He dips his head, leans forward, and mouths at that damp spot between her legs. Rey widens her stance so he can access her better, whimpering when his tongue darts out to press between her lips, to taste her.

Then, almost like a predator, he pounces.

Ben stands so suddenly he nearly knocks his head with Rey's, scooping her up and placing her onto the break table before Rey has any idea what's going on. He spreads her knees apart so that he can stand between her legs, as close as he can be for the time being, before bringing his mouth to hers with a kiss that makes her cunt clench around nothing.

An issue that Ben seems all too happy to rectify. He grabs at the waistband of her underwear, blindly pulling at them until they rip with a sharp yank. Then he's curling two fingers inside of her.

"Fuck." Rey breaks the kiss to gasp against his mouth, mind fucking blank as Ben sucks a mark into the skin below her ear.

Which reminds her…

She takes his face between her hands, startling Ben enough that his fingers pause momentarily inside her. Rey presses little kisses against his jaw as she works her way up the sharp line of it, until his hair is brushing against her nose, until—

Rey licks along the shell of Ben's ear with the hot tip of her tongue, then sucks the lobe between her lips and works the soft flesh gently with her teeth.

Ben lets out a groan, long and low and so sexy Rey can't help but scoot a little closer to him. She glances down and clearly sees the hard outline of his cock straining against his pants. She feels his jaw move underneath her chin when he rasps, "Please, Rey. Please let me fuck you."

Her trembling fingers start fiddling with his zipper in answer.

They both move hurriedly to get his cock out, and Rey squirms in happy anticipation when Ben gets his boxers and pants down enough so that it's free. It's—It's wet at the tip and red and quite big and he is clearly ready for her, just as much as Rey is ready for him and at the beginning of tonight this sort of thing would only ever happen in her imagination.

Then Ben is shakily saying that he doesn't have a condom and Rey is reassuring him that it doesn't matter because she's on the pill and Ben, I want you to come inside me please come inside of me.

Legs spread so wide it's almost uncomfortable, both Rey and Ben watch between their bodies as he places the tip of his cock at her entrance and starts to push inside. The angling is slightly awkward, given how Rey is perched at the edge of a table and Ben is looming over her, forced to hunch a bit because of their height difference. But then Ben pushes one of her knees up and Rey cants her hips just so and like that he's sliding all the way to the hilt with a slick ease.

Ben swears loudly; they both shudder at how completely and utterly exquisite it feels. Rey feels her body clamp down on his cock in excitement, as if her cunt is already determined to keep him inside of her for as long as possible. Despite the angle, she curls what she can of her legs around his waist and ass, enjoying the fullness.

He's so deep she feels him twitch inside before he pulls out and slams back in, setting a pace of short, deep, and brutal thrusts that have Rey mewling out high cries and obscenities in no time.

Panting, Ben reaches between them and starts to rub fitfully at her clit, making the deep-rooted pleasure she's already experiencing catapult her even further upward. With that, it doesn't take long before Rey's orgasm sweeps over her with quick, vicious efficiency. She screams with it, at a complete loss of control over her own body as her vision whites out and the muscles of her cunt clamp and unclamp sharply against Ben's length buried within.

It's proves to be his undoing.

"Rey—Shit." He buries his face into her neck, hips stuttering as his cock starts to pulse. A nearly scalding kind of heat blooms in her core as he releases, his body staying still inside her own, as if letting Rey's still twitching cunt wring all the pleasure out of him.

And then he's slipping out, stepping back, and Rey keeps her legs spread apart as they both watch some of his semen dribble out of her. Rey takes in how much of a mess he's made of her, and she rolls her hips and clenches her muscles to see if more of it will seep out. She smirks when more of it doesn't, really; he's come too deep inside of her.

When she looks up, she expects Ben to have his gaze still fixated between her legs. Instead, his eyes are pinned to her own with a vulnerable, open expression on his face that Rey can only describe as lovesick.

"This is by far the best night of my life," he breathes.

They curl up on the couch together in the last hours of the night, Rey sprawled out on top of Ben with her head tucked underneath his chin. She presses her cheek against his chest, enjoying the calming steady beat of his heart as it thumps gently against her.

He whispers his apologies for the past year, finger tracing circles into her lower back. Rey falls asleep to the lull of Ben's deep voice as he starts to tell her everything he likes about her. She keeps hearing his sweet words as she slips into dreams.

They both jolt awake in the morning to Rey's phone receiving about a dozen texts from Finn in rapid succession.

omg

sorry just woke up

just seeing your text

is everything okay?

a lot of the snow has melted already so I can probably try to come rescue you!

has fuckong Solo said some shit

okay my driveway is literally still ice but a bitch WILL WALK

I know Solo said somethin

I'M GONNA KILL HIM

please kno Rey that I would happily serve a lifetime prison sentence in ur honor!

I'm getting dressed

I'M COMING FOR YOU BABE

Ben groans and starts muttering sleepily as Rey grabs for her phone from where it's lying on the floor next to the couch. She's honestly shocked it still has any charge left. Ben watches her with one eye cracked open as she hastily starts to type out her replies.

no no everything is okay!

more than okay

I walked into the store yesterday with underwear on

and am leaving without them because *someone* tore them off

heh

She ignores Finn's instant response (which is a bunch of letters streamed together and about thirty different emojis) in order to turn to Ben and place a peck on the tip of his chin.

"Hey, do you want to go out with me?" She can't help but beam as she asks.

Her beaming brightens even more when Ben says yes.

A/N:

I'm so sorry for the long wait. I had like, a baby mental breakdown. But I'm feeling a bit better now, and with the trailer dropping yesterday I struck while the inspiration iron was hot.

I hope it was worth the wait ;)