he bell above the door chimes, jolting Rey from the near half asleep stupor she'd been settling in at her desk.

Blinking sleepily, she stands and stretches her arms above her head while yawning like a cat. "Is it tomorrow already?" she mumbles incoherently to her coworker.

Ben Solo lets the door leading outside close behind him with a slam. "No." He doesn't take his eyes off of her as he walks to his own respective desk on the other side of the room and sets his things down. "It's today."

His morose expression finally comes into focus as Rey's brain sluggishly awakens. She groans and rubs at her eyes, head throbbing a little from lack of sleep. "Sorry. I haven't left since you left last night."

Ben's morose expression turns quisitive as he swivels his head to get a look at the smoldering cauldron hanging by the massive fireplace in the corner of the room. "Does Leia know the new recipe she requested is giving you so much trouble?"

Rey would bristle if she wasn't already so used to Ben and his barbs. "The new recipe isn't giving me trouble, Ben. It's a love tonic, which you know are my specialty. Leia wants a tweaked recipe so the effects last a little longer. Which means it has to simmer in a cauldron for hours and hours over low heat. I can't just go buy a blender from Big Lots and whip up four batches in an hour like you do for your guardian draughts—"

Ben grows so angry so quickly Rey has to cover her mouth to hide her grin. "It's a fucking professional grade Vitamix, of which you are well aware. And I won't apologize for being efficient with the way I make my potions while you're still pouring over frou frou spells in centuries old spell books like we're in Hocus Pocus!"

Rey leaps to her feet, all amusement having leaked from her body, when a gurgling noise comes from the cauldron. Rosy smoke begins to billow from the tonic, filling the room with a sweet, sweet scent. Rey breathes it in deeply before exhaling the smoke in a pleased sigh. The tonic is done and it smells perfect.

This means that all Rey has to do is quickly vial up the now completed tonic and send it off to Leia for distribution. Then she can finally go home and get some—

"Wonderful." Ben's voice sounds calm from where it's coming from the other side of their shared office. "Now the whole room smells like Cupid's asscrack."

Two days later and Rey has finally returned to work after some much deserved time off. It's one of the many reasons why Rey likes working for Leia and Alderaan Spells & Potions; the woman always knows when her employees have earned a couple of extra paid days off. She's easily the most fair boss Rey has ever had. In fact, Rey would argue that Leia Organa is easily one of the best people she knows just in general.

Leia's son, however, is a different story.

Ben is gruff and huffy and rude, and Rey isn't sure how she got stuck sharing an office with him in the first place. The two of them couldn't be more different with their brewing techniques, or what they even like to brew, for that matter.

She will give the man one thing, he at least keeps his space neat and cleans up after himself. Something Rey will admit she's not always the best at doing.

She's come in a little early today so that she can take a picture of her new tonic for the Instagram account she has to promote her tonics. She's discovered that the small shelf of books on her desk paired with the fireplace in the background can make for a lovely photo op.

Rey pulls up the camera on her phone and arranges a steaming cup of herbal tea she conjured just so, before popping open a fresh vial of her new tonic with her free hand and pouring it into the tea. She starts clicking rapidly, capturing several photos of the steam turning pink and swirling into a perfect heart shape.

As soon as the steam dissipates Rey scrolls through her new pictures, grinning at several fantastic choices she'll have for her Instagram.

Several text messages come in from Finn informing her that there's been an emergency down in the restorative elixir department and could she come at once to help out?

Rey doesn't need to be asked twice and disappears out the door a moment later to help her friend.

An hour and a half passes before Rey returns to her office, only slightly exasperated and sweater only slightly singed. Ben is there, watching calmly as a batch of his guardian potions transport themselves from his fancy blender into empty vials. He barely glances at Rey as she shuts the door behind him.

"You reek of smoke," he says with a haughty sniff.

"Yes, well Poe blew up another cauldron—"

Ben snorts.

"—so Finn asked me if I could come down and help, which I did."

Ben's gaze darts to the burnt sleeve of her blue sweater. "I see that worked out well for you." He taps his desk and a sleek notebook shuffles its way out of a drawer and in front of Ben, falling open to a page only half full of elegant notes. "I don't know why you bother, Dameron is sure to blow up something else in an hour or so. I have no idea why my mother keeps him on."

Rey, though secretly agreeing that Poe probably will blow something else up within the hour, bristles on behalf of her friend. "Leia keeps him on for the same reason she keeps you on despite your bad attitude - you're both extremely talented warlocks."

Ben answers her the same way he does every time Rey pays him a compliment - with a shrug and an eye roll. "Right."

Rey sits down at her desk and pulls out her own notebook, frowning and not quite able to look away from her vexing coworker.

"Anyway," Ben continues, a fountain pen soaring into his hand from a different drawer, "please remember to keep a better eye on the ladybugs you use, some of them escaped from their jar yesterday—"

That's when Rey notices that her teacup is empty. It takes a few moments for Rey's brain to register why this is significant, and when she does she makes a strangled noise and grabs at the teacup, turning it over and inspecting it as if that will somehow make the liquid reappear.

Ben notices her fidgeting. "Oh yeah, I drank that," he says, not nearly as alarmed as Rey thinks he should be.

"You what?" she squeaks, freezing in place.

"I drank your tea," he informs her. His eyes widen a little as he takes in the assuredly stunned expression on Rey's face. "What? You hate cold tea, you said I could have any tea you make if it ever gets cold, and that cup of tea had gotten cold, and I was thirsty. I can refill it if you want but the only thing I can conjure is black tea and you always complain that it's too strong which, you're incorrect but—Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm not looking at you!" Rey shrieks, teacup slipping from her grasp and shattering against the floor.

She and Ben both stare down at the cup fragments for a long moment before Ben narrows his eyes at her. "You're acting really weird."

"No I'm not!" Rey snaps her fingers and the teacup fuses itself back together perfectly before soaring to rest in its rightful place atop her desk.

"Yeah you are."

"No," Rey splutters. "I am absolutely not acting—I mean weirdness is relative, and I mean—You don't even know me that well so how would you even know that I'm acting weird? So yeah. I'm totally not doing that. I'm not being weird."

Ben Solo drank a love potion and I'm the one who technically served it which means he's supposed to be in love with me holy shit I can't deal with this right now he's going to be so upset with me when it wears off and he finds out oh my god but why is he acting the same—

He scrutinizes her for a beat. "Wow, okay. First, I've known you for six years and shared an office space with you every day for four, so I like to think I know you fairly well based on that alone. But also, I held your hair back for you while you hurled up everything inside your body at the Tico's Winter Solstice party last year—"

"That was you?!"

"—and I feel like knowing what your vomit looks and smells like puts me on a level that's slightly above acquaintance. So, yeah. I think you're being really fucking weird right now."

Rey swallows.

Ok but he isn't acting any different he's definitely still scoffing at me oh my god did the love tonic not work because he also hasn't exhibited my signature side effect so maybe it didn't work but if it didn't work then oh my god I sent off a totally worthless batch of tonics to Leia—

The crinkling of a wrapper flings Rey out of her frazzled reverie. "What's that?" she gasps, peering at whatever is in Ben's hands.

Ben pauses. "A Twix bar," he says slowly, as if Rey is both dumb and skittish. Which, given the way she's acted in the past few minutes, fair.

"But you hate candy," she says weakly, heart rate skyrocketing as the truth of the situation starts to set in.

Because Rey's signature side effect in her love tonics is a craving for sweets.

And Ben Solo hates sweets.

He shrugs, gives her a funny look, then bites into the chocolate. He refocuses to his notebook and begins scrawling into it with his free hand, perfectly intent to ignore Rey.

Rey, who has been tossed head first into an existential crisis.

Because Ben Solo ingested her love tonic. And Rey's tonics are strong and she knows that it's working because Rey is an excellent witch and and—

Ben Solo ingested her love tonic.

And yet Ben Solo is acting the same as always which means—

"You just drooled on yourself," Ben points out, sounding bored. When did he even look back up at her? Rey shuts her mouth quickly, barely registering that she's still staring at him.

He's treating her the same as he always has.

Surly, grumpy Ben Solo is really, truly in love with her.

A/N:

The original prompt for this fic is on the Reylo Curious Cat Prompt twitter and is as follows: "Ben accidentally ingests a love potion Rey was making for a client but he doesn't act any different than he normally does."

I sincerely hope the first part of this fun little ficlet made you laugh. The world sucks right now and I know how much we can all use a little extra silliness and joy in our days at the moment. I hope you are all staying inside and are safe!

If you liked PLEASE let me know! Especially if I made you laugh 3