Chapter Text
Ben eyed the royal procession as his bride paraded through the city, her arrival a great party.
His future wife and future Queen, as far from his choosing as it could be.
"Take that scowl off your face," his father grunted by his side. "It could be worse."
He rolled his eyes, but he was right, wasn't he?
Naboo had never had a reigning King before, and it wasn't looking keen on having Ben as their first. The moment little Rey was born, far from the court as it was, his distant cousin was celebrated as his mother's rightful heir. A Naberrie woman, made for the throne.
He was five when it happened, old enough to understand exactly what it meant for his life and future.
"Speak for yourself, you are not the one being married off," he mumbled, irritated.
It wasn't that Ben didn't know he was supposed to get married, but did it have to be her?!
Rey was the most annoying kid he had ever met in his life! She had come to the court a few times when her mother was still alive, always attached to her father's hip, not behaving properly and just being annoying all the time! A little girl who couldn't even eat by herself was the one replacing him as heir?!
So, yes, Ben didn't like her.
"Well, more like she's being married in," he corrected him. "Rey is coming to live with us. She could as easily have asked that you go live with her in Niima, instead."
Ben grimaced. Niima, his grandaunt Sabé's state. Almost in the middle of nowhere.
"Rey is a nice girl," his father insisted. "She has agreed to come here, said she doesn't want to disturb your life."
"Or so she says," Ben interrupted him. "She might be lying and I won't know until I am legally bound to her and can't escape."
Han scoffed as he walked away from the window, done with watching that circus, following him right away.
"Stop acting like you are some little peasant with no power," he chastised him. "You are the Queen's son! Until you two are married and your mother signs that decree, she isn't even a princess. You have a lot of powers, married to her or not."
Ben shook his head quietly. His mother had planned it carefully, yes. Only the children and grandchildren of a living Queen could be princesses and princes. When Rey was born, his grandmother Padmé was already Queen, and she was simply Lady Rey. Queen’s heir or not, his bride was just a little Viscountess, heir to her grandmother's duchessdom.
He still had the upper hand.
"Give her a chance," Han sat down. "Dance with her, give her a minute to show her good parts. You'll have plenty of time to figure out what you hate about her."
Ben chuckled at that, eyeing him a bit.
"Blink twice if you're being kept hostage, father," he sighed, sitting down.
There was a ball being held to welcome his little bride and he was, of course, supposed to be the best host for her.
Han shook his head, frustrated, but said nothing.
Ben was a good son, a good prince. He would be welcoming to Rey, perfectly proper. But they couldn't expect him to be happy being forced to marry her in private, or bitter that he was being replaced when he was his mother's rightful heir and trained to be her successor.
But that was the life men were supposed to lead, wasn't it? Duty and sacrifice, even through unhappiness and unfairness.
"I'll welcome my cousin like a perfect prince should," he assured him. "You don't have to worry about that."
A knock on the door announced an arrival, and one of her mother's courtiers opened it.
"Your Highness," she curtsied to them. "Her Majesty waits.”
He stood up, adjusting his posture, and watched as Lord Hux, his head Lord-in-Waiting, stepped inside with his headpiece in hand, making him sit back down again, frustrated.
An old tradition.
They couldn't see one another before marriage, so Ben was supposed to wear a veil over his face, weaved into the braids on the sides of his temples. It was sheer enough that he could see through it, but not enough that she could.
Of course, the tradition wasn't usually kept by women, rarely they covered themselves more than a curtain of gold chains in front of their faces, and Ben was probably going to see her face right away.
Another double standard he had to live with.
He stood when Armitage was done weaving the veil tightly in his hair, securing it with the teeth of his circlet, but before he could start thinking of braiding his hair back away and away from his face. The veil didn't cover his ears, and the last thing he wanted was for the first thing his bride would see of him to be his enormous ears.
Ben walked down with his father by his side, and there wasn't even an attempt of making them get into the carriage Ben was always forced into when he was a boy and had to follow his mother anywhere so he and his father could be 'protected', and a courtier helped him up to his horse before doing the same to his father. When they rode further, his mother was waiting for him at the gates.
"Took you long enough," she quipped, looking at him.
He shrugged, but they didn't quite have the time to argue about it, just taking their way to meet his bride in the grand plaza of Alderaan.
People cheered for them loudly and happily, tossing flowers on their way, chanting his mother's name.
She was beloved, Queen Leia. Her only fault was that she only had a son and not a daughter.
Or maybe it was his father's fault. Or Ben's fault, for not being a girl.
He had heard a lot, growing up, seen a lot, and it was painful to him. He couldn't imagine having children and seeing them go through what he had gone through, he wouldn't let it happen, wouldn't let them hear a thing that wasn't full of love from anyone, anywhere.
They stopped by the large patch made to host a tent where his first meeting with little Rey would be, and Ben struggled to remember her face. Everyone said she looked just like her grandmother, and her grandmother looked very much like his grandmother. So did Rey look like Leia, maybe?
But he couldn't come up with it, not anything aside from maybe... brown hair?
He climbed out of his horse, the wind blowing on his face, and the veil was kept steady on his face by the lapis lazuli stones weighting it down - it was meant to help them overcome shyness and timidity, bring inner harmony and help with building affection and fidelity. If it was true or not, he wouldn't know.
Ben followed after his mother silently, waiting for his lady cousin. The Queen could make her wait, but she didn't have the same privileges.
“Her Majesty, Queen Leia. His Majesty, King Han. His Highness, Prince Ben.”
The curtains of her private rooms in the tent were drawn, and he watched as two courtiers made the way for his bride, and he was shocked at what he saw of her.
Rey had her face covered with the same kind of veil Ben had over his own face, making it hard to see even a glimpse of a silhouette of her face, but he was right about her hair - it was chestnut, very soft and shiny looking in her intricate braids - bride braids.
She stopped in front fo them, slowly sinking, curtsying to his mother as her group followed her.
"Your majesties," she spoke elegantly. "Your highness."
Rey rose slowly to her feet, and he followed her with his eyes. She was tall, taller than his mother, at least, although Leia wasn't much of a measure to anyone. His bride had a small waist, an alto voice, and that was all he could see of her.
It made him curious. Most brides he had seen would wear gold chains, not a veil, and wouldn't care for the lapis lazuli either, but there she was.
Maybe she was traditional.
He didn't know if that was good or bad.
"I'm so sad that my aunt couldn't make it," his mother walked to her, extending her arms to a hug, and Rey squeezed her close. "Welcome, Rey. We are so glad to have you joining our family in this new way."
Ben used the advantage of his veil and mask to scoff quietly.
She was most certainly speaking for herself.
"Ben," his mother called, taking his attention as his father walked aside, standing by her father’s side.
He walked to them, and Lady Rey turned to look at him, curtsying discreetly.
"Your Highness," she welcomed him.
"Lady Rey," he said simply.
She continued into silence for a moment, before appearing to shake herself out of whatever was in her mind.
"Thank you for such a wonderful reception," she decided, at last.
Ben nodded simply.
"The pleasure is ours."
Rey stuck her hand out, the only part of her skin he could even see, and offered it to him, the protocol being clear.
He took it and was a bit stunned for a moment.
Her skin was warm against his, her grip like a sweet embrace he had longed for since he knew of himself as a man, that he had craved throughout his whole existence.
Ben leaned slowly, pressing a kiss to her knuckles through the fabric, wishing in what felt like a thought originated from pure madness that it wasn't there, that he could meet her skin.
He wished he could smell her scent, feel her taste, see her with his own eyes.
Ben had never felt like that before. He wanted to feel it again.