#ben feat. rey ➤ paintedmegoldenx

[thursdaygrl]

Usually Ben would be satisfied with minding his own business, he's never really been one for small talk and especially not with strangers. It's no wonder he'd tried to slot himself into a position that didn't value it within his professional life. Really, he didn't intend to prompt Rey for an explanation but he couldn't seem to shut himself up. He pictured it, what that kind of childhood would be like and instantly felt guilty for asking. "Oh." He nodded understandingly, averting his gaze to the dock for a moment instead of her. "That's... fair."

He hadn't been expecting her to take him up on the offer of putting her feet in, but he shifted a little more to turn and watch her as she reluctantly gave into the water for a moment. The corner of his mouth twitched, almost prompting a smile but he didn't get that far. "Feels nice, right?" He called out. Could he teach her to swim? Would she ever even want that? Ben would never be the type to insist, so he left that particular topic there for a moment, letting out a sigh before he slipped back in the water, laying back to float on the surface for a moment. It was his favourite thing to do, when the water blocked the sound and he shut his eyes to the bright sky, his mind emptying for a moment.

"I grew up in the foster care system in Arizona," Rey explained, looking over at Ben where he was propped up on the dock. "None of the families I was with ever offered... I don't think they had the means for them." She hated the way it sounded a bit like a sob story when she said it, but she had made peace with her past. It was what it was, and she typically just left it alone. "I always thought I would learn, I just..." she trailed off. She supposed there was nothing stopping her, but it just still seemed... scary.

She considered what he said about putting her feet in the water. In theory that was simple enough, but she'd always found a way to get herself into one scrape or another. Hopefully this was not one of those times. She stood gingerly and slid her feet out of the flip flops she'd been wearing before stepping carefully across the sand, trying to avoid sharper-looking rocks. When her toes met the cool water, she sighed, enjoying the feeling as it moved across the tops of her feet and to her ankles.

[thursdaygrl]

The feeling of Rey's eyes on him wasn't uncomfortable, much to his surprise, though he supposed it should have been. Ben didn't usually spend time around others shirtless, but the water gave him enough coverage that he did his best to not overthink it. As she answered his question with a surprising answer, his brows rose curiously. "No?" He echoed, a little confused, but then as she elaborated, he found he understood why she'd be hesitant, though it meant more questions popped into his head. Not knowing how to swim as an adult wasn't totally out of the ordinary, but it wasn't something he was expecting from her.

"Did you not have lessons or... were you scared and refused?" Ben couldn't help asking, head canting to the side. "Do you wanna learn?" As soon as he said it, he wondered if it sounded like an offer, which... it wasn't, but he supposed he couldn't take it back. "I think at least it could be safe to put your feet in."

Rey's lips parted as she watched Ben clasp onto the dock, his arm muscles tightening as held himself steady in the water. She couldn't get herself to look away no matter how hard she tried. She was certain he'd catch her staring and that would add a whole other level of weirdness to their already complicated interactions. She clasped hers hands together, wringing them in a nervous tick she'd had since she was a child. She wasn't sure what made her feel more anxious in that moment, though -- the open water, or him. Ben's voice interrupted her thoughts, sounding a bit softer than it did up at the house. Her eyes found his and she stumbled over her words.

"Oh, um... no, " she paused, her cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment and a touch of anxiety at the thought of revealing a secret to him. She wasn't sure what made her reveal it, but it poured out of her before she could stop it. "I don't know how to swim." She broke her gaze from his as she looked down at the shoreline, full of rocks and sand that she had been eyeing for the last few days, wondering if maybe she could be brave enough to dip her toes in.

[thursdaygrl]

The water was like a palate cleanser, a shock to the system as Ben first dove in, but as he moved his arms through the water his body got accustomed to it. He swam hard, practically circling the dock and back again until he wasn't thinking of anything at all. His mind was empty and his body moved on instinct, legs kicking and arms slashing through the water, the muscles he'd developed from late nights where he couldn't sleep spent in the gym working exceptionally hard. When he did happen to come up for air, he breathed out harshly, reaching up to push back the dark, dripping tendrils of his black hair.

He wasn't quite startled by Rey's presence on the stairs, but he was certainly surprised to see her there and not find himself alone with the water and the sounds of nature. He swallowed, still a little awkward but then nodded. "Yeah." He replied simply, swimming over to the dock so he could hold onto it, eyeing her. "Do you plan on coming in? Or... were you just curious?" At least he didn't sound argumentative or weird. He almost sounded like a whole person.

Rey settled into an outdoor chair right in the thick of the sunshine, opening up the book again to resume her page. She loved the feeling of the hot sun on her skin. It comforted her in uncomfortable situations in her life, and it felt good now as she was trying to decipher the mystery that is Ben Solo. She heard the screen door open and glanced up to see him walk with intention towards the stairwell to the water. She tried to go back to her book, but was surprised when she heard him ask about it. She was about to answer him when he bolted away again. What in the world? It frustrated her that she couldn't track what their interactions were at all. Did he want to talk to her? Did he really not want to talk to her but felt he had to be polite?

For whatever reason, she couldn't leave it be. She got up, placing the book on the chair before walking to the top of the stairs to peer down at him. She was surprised to see him already in the water, the muscles of his back flexing as he swam through the lake. It was hard to look away, and she found herself walk down a few of the steps before settling in on the bottom stair. She was always nervous to get too close to open water. She hadn't told a soul in her life that she couldn't swim, typically avoiding any situation where she could be near it. When she'd taken Luke's offer to come here, she figured she'd just never head down to the dock. But as she tried to figure out this stranger she had only heard horror stories about, the urge to decipher him surprisingly felt more important.

When he surfaced again, her eyes found his and she offered a small smile. She rested her forearms against her knees as she looked out across the empty lake. "Is the water warm?"

[thursdaygrl]

Ben's head lifted, eyes narrowing as he found himself catching on Rey's words. Didn't know how to what? He almost turned around and asked for clarification, but she was already saying something else that he was missing, so he nodded and watched her go before getting back to his food prep. Had he been rude, not explicitly asking her if she'd like to join him? He could only imagine what his mother would say. Sighing, he got back to packing his cooler and eventually found himself stepping out into the yard, needing to make his way past Rey to get to the stairs that led down to the pier. As he passed her, he subtly spied the book in her hand, hesitating as he reached the top of the stairs to peer at her. He didn't even almost ask her if she wanted to come, instead he blurted out something else entirely.

"Is that good? The book." Ben motioned to it, before completely regretting saying anything at all. "I've heard it is." He added, feeling dreadfully awkward and took his opportunity then to surge forward and descend the stairs, disappearing onto the pier where he dropped his things, shed his shirt and dove into the water fairly quickly, wanting to escape thoughts of how incapable he was of human interaction.

Rey internally cringed at his reply ("That's the plan"), realizing that maybe the olive branch (albeit a SHORT olive branch) she thought he was extending her wasn't an invitation to chat more. She stood a bit frozen for a moment before taking a large gulp of her coffee to finish it off so she could escape the awkward interaction between them. She silently placed the mug in the sink, walking towards the fridge to grab a chilled individual bottle of iced tea to take with her and further avoid running into him. Maintaining the distance was probably for the best. Clearly she didn't click with him, and it wasn't worth making them both more uncomfortable than necessary. Just as she placed her knuckle between the pages of her book to mark the page and pick it up, she heard his voice again. She paused, noticing he didn't bother to glance her direction when he spoke.

"Uh... well, no. I don't know how to---" she trailed off, deciding that last detail was more than he needed (or would care to hear). "I like to stick close to home." She thought it best to leave it there, walking towards the screened door out to the yard. She figured she'd read in the sunshine for a bit to get some air. "I'll see you later." She didn't wait for his reply, instead stepping out and sliding the door shut gently behind her. The faster she got out, the better.

[thursdaygrl]

The initial irritation at a stranger being so comfortable in his family's lake house had cooled by now, or maybe it was just the sleeping pill he'd taken last night to get some actual sleep without waking in the middle of the night worried he'd missed some deadline despite the fact that he was on leave. Either way, he was managing to put up a front of normalcy, at least as long as Rey was in the kitchen. Of course, he had assumed that amount of time would be far less than it was and when she hung around, asking him a very obvious question, he pursed his lips and nodded slowly. "That's the plan." He said, not quite cold, but still struggling with the small talk.

He was never good with people. For work he could pretend to be and he could certainly be the shark they needed when the time came, but he'd been looking forward to being alone. Actually alone, without constant work emails or missed calls from his mother. When he'd shown up to find Rey there he'd almost assumed she was a squatter or something, but it made sense that Luke would offer what was their family's to someone they didn't even know. He was always better at being kind to those who weren't him.

He began to make up his sandwiches, letting them stand in silence for a moment before he spoke again, feeling guilty for being cold when he'd been trying to be polite only a moment earlier. "Have you been down yet? The water isn't too choppy. If you stay close to the pier it isn't too deep, either." He said idly, cutting one of his sandwiches in half before he began to wrap it up. It wasn't an invitation, but he figured he'd ask anyway.

Rey was surprised at the way Ben spoke to her, a bit more relaxed and polite than when they'd first stumbled upon each other in the house a few days earlier. She'd been settled in for the night when she heard the doorknob shaking roughly and someone walking into the house. She couldn't remember the last time she was that scared, and, frankly, Ben was lucky that Luke had photos of him in his office and she recognized him so quickly. Otherwise he would've had an eyeful of pepper spray and the bruising of her mean right hook (compliments of the foster care system and her usual Sunday morning boxing classes).

When she saw his attempt at a smile, she tried one, too, nodding as she moved back towards her book. She still had a cup of lukewarm coffee to drink, and she supposed if he was up to talk, she was, too. While she'd been texting her best friends while she was away, it didn't come close to real and present company, no matter how used to being alone she was.

"Are you headed to the water?" she asked, watching as he moved around the kitchen to grab ingredients to pack his lunch. Admittedly she hadn't checked the lake out closely herself, despite it being walking distance away. She could see the water from the balcony off her bedroom, and that suited her well enough. Because getting too close could draw attention to the fact that she didn't know how to swim.

[thursdaygrl]

It wasn't as if Ben hadn't grown accustomed to people clearing out of places he entered. It'd been the norm since he was a kid. He was always off-putting he supposed. Too gangly. Too weird. Too focused. Too rigid. It was the norm for him to not fit into the norm, but it was a particular source of frustration to experience those feelings when he was trying to hibernate at the lake house and had to continuously run into the little protegee of his least favourite (and only) uncle. He was in uncharacteristically comfy clothes, still somehow feeling like a shell of a person as he walked around the house, hoping to find an empty kitchen, which of course, he did not. Pursing his lips, he hesitated as he watched Rey stand up, flitting over to the kitchen to wash her bowl. "It's fine." He said it a moment too late, considering she was already washing the bowl.

"You can just leave it. I'm about to eat and head out anyway." He had a small cooler hanging at his side and he lifted the handle, placing it on the counter. "I figured I would just grab some food. So. Feel free to stay. Or just do whatever." Being polite felt like such a damn chore sometimes that Ben tended to give up, giving a tight attempt at a smile before he averted his gaze and started to pull things from the fridge to make sandwiches.

closed for @thursdaygrl

Rey scooped up another bite of Captain Crunch from her bowl as she leaned over the counter to read her old, worn copy of Little Women that she'd brought for the trip. She'd been enjoying a peaceful morning on her own, and outside of hearing the shower running a few hours earlier, had not once run into Ben Solo. She figured she had another 15 minutes in the kitchen before she had to give him time to make breakfast, too. She'd been trying to stay away, give this stranger she'd only heard terrible stories about from Luke the space to enjoy his family home. He was certainly more entitled to time there than she was, and frankly she'd been grateful he hadn't tried to force her out.

She heard the creak of a floorboard and looked up to see Ben staring back at her, seemingly dressed for a day down at the lake. She briefly panicked, closing her book and quickly scooping another bite of cereal into her mouth. "Sorry, I'll go," she said as she chewed, bringing her bowl to the sink to wash it before she left.