Chapter Text
Ben
"Morning, Mr. Solo!" Rey sang as she blew into his office. She placed his coffee down on the coaster in front of him (the coaster that she had added to his office that read 'coffee should be black like my soul'). It'd be strong, hot and perfect, just like it was every morning. And just like every morning, his day had improved just because she was there.
"Ms. Niima." he nodded in response. She gave him a little eye roll with a small smile and placed a file down in front of him. As she did, the now all too familiar scent of whatever perfume she wore hit him. Something sweet and light that he associated with stupid feelings like contentment that were immediately brushed aside. He tried his best not to inhale but it was futile. He did the same every morning, why change the habit of a lifetime?
His assistant went about the same routine as she always did first thing in the morning. She opened his blinds and let the sun in because, in her words, he shouldn't 'live like a vampire'. She opened his window to let a fresh breeze in and asked him what he wanted for lunch from the deli. Then she berated him for getting the same thing as he always did (the sourdough veggie sub was good, there was no need to branch out). She told him about her evening (she went for a run and then watched Nailed It on Netflix) and asked about his (he... Worked. Kind of). If she ever changed any of her habits, he would know that something was seriously wrong. He made a note of the show she had watched so he could watch it later and talk to her about it. He'd watch just about anything to extend these small conversations with her.
Ben didn't consider himself as a man that made mistakes. He planned meticulously, his days rarely varied and his routine was always the same. He woke up, he worked out, he came to work, he completed his contracts and he slept. That was his life. It was monotonous, boring, predictable and fine. It was important in his line of work to have control all of the time otherwise things would go wrong exceptionally quickly. Surprises and changes to routine were unacceptable. He needed as much of his life to be as predictable as possible so that he could be successful. Which was why it was such a confusing and monumental oversight on his part when he hired Rey Niima.
He'd needed an assistant to help run his day to day activities. He needed someone to look after the few properties he owned, to book appointments, to sort his dry cleaning and make sure he left the office occasionally. Sleeping on the sofa in his office was not good for his back or his hips and he was tired of ordering shitty take out from down the road. However, what he didn't need was anyone poking into his business too deeply trying to be helpful and what he really didn't need was someone beautiful, capable and happy.
Enter Rey Niima.
6 Months Previously
He had put a fairly vague advert online for a personal assistant and had a few enquiries, all of which he hadn't bothered to follow up. But then Rey had emailed him and signed off with a little smiley face. It had piqued his interest enough that he had run a standard background search into her. Aged 24, previously in the foster care system, college courses on hold, living in one of the roughest parts of town. She had achieved well enough at school that he was assured she could do what he needed her to but the thing he kept coming back to was her social media.
It took barely five minutes to hack into her 'private' socials and what he found there didn't seem to match her background at all. Life had been cruel and unfair, a cycle of being kicked from home to home, school to school, run ins with the law and yet... She was vibrant. Infectiously happy in every picture. Her profiles were bright and full of a mega watt smile that had Ben's knees weak. She liked to eat, to go on adventures, to apparently drink her body weight in margaritas. She was everything he didn't need, the complete polar opposite to him; beautiful, alive, whole and fun. Which is why he never should have called her.
The interview had been a painful lesson in self control. He'd practically swooned when she spoke about her abilities and her goals and what she wanted to achieve. She'd made him laugh, a noise he wasn't sure he had made within the past few years, maybe even decade. He could have stayed there all day, asking her questions and learning about her but he'd strayed far enough from his list of questions that he couldn't reasonably circle back. When he'd finally drawn the 'interview' to a close, he'd offered her the job and the excited little jig in her chair and squeal of excitement was enough to make him both smile and second guess himself. She was sunshine personified which meant this was a mistake. Afterall, hadn't Icarus flown too close to the sun?
Within two weeks of his initial information gathering exercise, Rey had moved in to the desk outside of his office. She vibrated with nerves for her entire first week, asking him plenty of questions and getting herself used to the way he liked his outlook calendar to look (not with pink for appointments. Blue was ok, he supposed but he preferred grey) and how he took his coffee (black, scalding hot). Within two weeks, she seemed to have settled a little, needing much less assistance from him as the days passed. She was punctual, polite and already a pain in his ass with her cute three bun hairstyle and can-do attitude. Nothing was ever too much trouble for Ms. Niima, including his dry cleaning, and honestly, his life had already improved just by having her around. It was wholly unsettling.
5 Months Previously
"What exactly is it that you do, then?" she had asked at some point during her first month. "I mean, I know you have properties, but do you do anything else?" she asked, finishing off the last of the cookie she was eating while they discussed the week ahead. Maybe he should have been worried. He didn't need someone digging around in his business and what if she had been sent by a rival to scope him out? But he already knew deep down that nothing about her was dangerous. Not even the cute little way her nose scrunched when she drank the rest of her now-too-cold latte. He'd even run a few searches on her work computer but the only thing out of the ordinary was the fact she'd googled cat videos and the best and cheapest restaurants in the area. He considered his answer carefully while she wiped the crumbs off of her dress.
"I terminate contracts."
"Oh? What kinda contracts?" she asked. He liked her accent. Despite being in the US for years, she hadn't lost her English twang. He hoped she never did.
"Various types."
"So, you're a lawyer?"
"I work in a form of law, yes." he said. That wasn't strictly true, but it was neither here nor there. It was justice all the same. She seemed to pick up on his tone and nodded, turning the meeting back to their respective schedules. She didn't ask again what else he did. It was vital she never found out.
3 Months Previously
"Ms. Niima, what is this?" He asked, eyeing the new addition to his office desk wearily. She popped her head around the door and grinned.
"It's a cactus."
"I can see that. What's it doing here? On my desk?"
"I thought your office could use some colour and life."
"My office has colour-"
"Black isn't a colour."
"It'll die. Things have a tendency to die around me." He said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes at him, as she often did and gave him what seemed to be a long-suffering sigh.
"It won't die. It's really hard to kill a cactus."
"I have many skills in that area that may surprise you."
"You're so dramatic. Look, just water it once a month. Or don't, I'll water it for you. But make sure you chat to it, ok?" She said, as though that was a perfectly normal thing to suggest. As though she wasn't asking arguably the most dangerous man in the state to talk to a fucking plant.
"Did... Did you just tell me to talk to a cactus?"
"Yeah. Plants grow better when you talk to 'em. Anyway, here you go." She said, handing over his lunch with a note pinned to the top that said 'don't overwater your new friend'. It was a relief in some respects that the muttering he often heard from her desk was her talking to the vast array of plants on her own desk and not some private call to a rival. Or worse, a boyfriend. She had taken the minimal space available for her and created a vibrant jungle of sorts, a bright and happy area in direct contrast to the black and grey of his own office. He didn't mind it. He actually quite liked it. Maybe not the 'motivational' poster that said 'I can do hard things' because he was sure she could and it definitely didn't make him sweat thinking about that.
Present Day
It had been six months since he hired her.
Six months of her humming slightly out of tune while she tippy-tapped away on her computer. Six months of her pencil skirts and blouses and that damn three bun hair style. Six months of her laughter and her smiles, of her brightness and her sunshine. Three of those he had spent definitely never talking to a cactus that was now bigger than it was when it was placed on his desk. And so fucking what if he'd bought it some plant food? Rey didn't need to know, despite the smug little smile she gave him every time she glanced at the damn plant.
They'd somehow grown closer in that time and now she ate her lunch with him every day. Apart from Thursday's, when she had lunch with her friend. He told himself he enjoyed the silence of those days. Because he did. Definitely. And he absolutely did not save the little notes she put on his own lunch on those days (last week it was 'I like your tie, it's almost colourful :) - he had been wearing a grey tie that day). He liked silence, he worked better that way and he never once watched the clock or counted any minutes while she was gone. He didn't perk up when he heard the office door open, signalling her arrival back in the office. Nope. No way.
"I think that's everything, but let me know if you were looking for anything else." she said after explaining the contents of the file.
"You say that every time and every time it's perfect." he replied, taking a sip of his coffee, delighting when her eyes widened. Just like always.
"You'll burn your tongue drinking that when it's still so hot!"
"You say that every time, too."
"Well, excuse me for caring about my work and for trying to stop you from injuring yourself." she scoffed. This was relatively new, the banter and the gentle teasing. He liked it. Their relationship felt easy, something that he could fall into every day and use to forget what he was. What he was capable of and what he'd done and would continue to do. When he was with Rey, he was just Ben. He liked being just Ben.
"Thank you for my coffee and the file, Rey." he said. She smiled then, this time a real one that he swore lit up the entire room. He did what he did every time she smiled at him; ignored the racing of his heart and put it down to the mouthful of caffeine he had just drunk. It wasn't anything else. He wasn't capable of... Feeling.
"You're very welcome, Ben. I'm checking in on the apartment on 12th today, so I'll be out for a while but I should be back for lunch."
"Ok. Let me know if you need anything."
"Will do. You, too." she said happily before turning on her heel and exiting the office. He absolutely didn't watch her go, didn't even think about asking her to stay a little while longer. This... Issue with Rey was getting out of hand. His slight crush on her seemed to be permeating every part of his life. On his morning run, he would see a nice bit of the park and wonder if Rey liked picnics. When he ate dinner, he wondered if she would let him cook for her. When he woke on a Monday, he was excited for the week because it meant five full days of her. He needed to do something, to distance himself maybe. There was no use in getting any closer to her, it would only put them both in danger and Ben wasn't willing to put Rey at any sort of risk.
He sighed heavily before opening the neatly presented folder in front of him. Inside was a detailed blueprint of a building with the exits marked in pink, the windows in blue and the stairwells in green. There was a breakdown of the specifics of the building, including the number of residents and which units were occupied, the security detail, the age of the building and a list of the nearby buildings which were organised by height. As always, the information was perfect and as always, he felt a pang of guilt. Rey thought he was interested in purchasing the unit in the building. She had no idea what she was helping him to ultimately achieve.
He studied the information and pulled up a file on his computer of the owner of the unit. It was a vile man that Ben had known once upon a time. He wasn't sad that this was the next name on his list, nor that the client he was completing this for was someone he had known his entire life. In his line of business, emotion wasn't helpful and nor was it needed but even he could admit he would take great satisfaction in this job. He studied the files some more, thought back over the surveillance that he had undertaken the previous week and made a decision to carry the job out on Thursday. It would give Rey time to dry clean his clothes and his bike would be back from its service by then.
"Hello?"
"I'll terminate the contract on Thursday." Ben said. There was a deep chuckle on the end of the line, one that Ben remembered from his childhood.
"Not feeling any small talk today, my boy?" Lando asked. Lando was a friend of his fathers, one Ben once thought of as an uncle to him. But not anymore. He hadn't seen Lando for years and knew nothing of the man now. Just as he knew nothing of Ben, aside from the fact he could get this job done and done well.
"Is Thursday ok, for the agreed price?" he asked. He didn't need a trip down memory lane right now. This was a job, regardless of who was paying the cheque. Lando let out a heavy sigh and Ben could swear he could hear him shaking his head.
"Yes, of course. You know, it would be good to see you-"
"I'll send through confirmation." Ben said, cutting the call quickly. Whatever Lando was about to say, he knew it wasn't about the job.
"I'm off, boss!" Rey said, popping her head around the door as she wrapped a scarf around her neck. Rey always looked good, no matter what clothes she was in but Ben couldn't help but take pride in the fact her clothes had improved in quality since working with him. Her old, tattered coat had been replaced by a newer one that Ben still didn't think was warm enough but at least it didn't have holes in. The scarf she wore now was a present from him for making it through a made up probationary period. It was soft and thick, long enough to keep her warm even on the bitterest of mornings. He would keep her clothed in the finest, warmest garments if he could.
"Ok. Stay safe."
"I always do. And Ben?"
"Mmm?"
"Will you smile for me?" she asked. She always did. Whenever she left for an appointment and at the end of every day, she always asked him for a smile. He scowled back in response because he knew she would laugh and she did. It made the corner of his mouth twitch just a little as that light, tinkering sound of her happiness that he adored filled his office and remained in his head long after she had left.
He wished, like he did every single day since he had met her, that he was someone else. Someone that could ask her on a date, that could make her happy, that deserved someone as incredible as her. But he didn't.
Because Ben Solo was a hitman.