Color My Heart, Paint My Soul | Reylo
a/n: really hope you enjoy this soulmate AU!!
warnings: minor mentions of death
Rey peeked out from behind her grandfather's legs, the 6 year old was not interested in the art camp he had signed her up for. It wasn't that she didn't like art, it was just that she didn't like the idea of leaving Obi-Wan for so long, plus he'd always been the one to teach her everything she knew when it came to art. The thought of someone else taking his place was scary to the little girl. He was one of the nicest people she'd ever met in her short life, no one could ever replace him.
"Rey, I promise you my friend Luke is very nice. His nephew will even be there." Obi said kneeling down to her level. The man was in his early 50's and each passing day made his joints ache even more than the last. Guess that was what happened when you were a war hero.
"But Grandpa," She whined.
"It will be fun, you'll make some new friends!" Obi told her brushing back the hair that was loose from her 3 buns. "Come on, there's Luke."
The older man led Rey over to a slightly younger man who had a young boy pouting behind him as well. The boy had black hair and big features. Rey's favorite were his eyes though, even though she'd already said she didn't want to be here, the young girl already seemed to be changing her mind and wanted to draw this mystery boy.
"Obi-wan." The man said greeting him. He had sandy blonde hair that was beginning to go grey and a bright smile as he greeted them both. "and you must be Rey."
"Good to see you old friend." Her Grandfather said from behind her before nudging her forwards. "and yes, this is Rey."
"Hi." She squeaked out shyly and managed to get the boy's attention from behind Luke.
"Welcome, I'm sure you'll love it here over the next two weeks. This is Ben Solo, my nephew." Luke said pushing 'Ben' forwards. "Why don't you two go find the other kids huh?"
"That sound's like a great idea." Obi said kneeling down to give the young girl a hug. "Goodbye Rey."
"Bye Obi." She said softly, not necessarily wanting him to go but also wanting to be a big girl.
"Ben will you take her?" Luke asked and the moody boy nodded before walking off. Slowly, Rey picked up her feet and followed the boy.
When they arrived in the brightly colored room with laughing and screaming children of all ages, Rey looked around in panic. They'd already established their own little groups, and didn't seem too open to inviting an outsider in. She watched as Ben took a seat in a black bean bag leaning against the wall in the far corner of the room. She found the young boy intriguing and decided to follow him, plopping down in the yellow one adjacent to him.
"Hi Ben." Rey said, he didn't say anything back to her. "I'm six, how old are you?"
"I'm 8." Ben muttered out moodily. Who knew an 8 year old held this much attitude.
"I can tell you don't want to be here." Rey said with a slight pout. "But honestly, neither do I my gramps is the best teacher in the whole wide world. I'm only here to show him that I can be a big girl and prove him wrong."
"Wow, 6 sure is big." Ben said with a roll of his eyes.
"You're kind of a meanie." Rey said with a scoff. "You know what, I'm going to be super nice to you, and we're going to be super best friends."
"Why not just friends?" Ben asked with a smirk. He had to admit, he was enjoying the goofy young girls presence more than he enjoyed most people's.
"Because super best friends are better." Rey said as a matter of factly."
"Ahhh." Ben said making a sound of understanding, when finally his Uncle Luke came in the room.
"Welcome! For those of you who are first timers at the Skywalker art camp, my name is Luke. I'll be your teacher on this two week journey." Luke said smiling brightly at every face new and old in his camp. "Today, is all about getting to know each other- your dorms are assigned and dinner is at 6. For now, get acquainted, these are your peers for the next two weeks, get to know the people around you, play some games, make friends and I know this will be an amazing experience for us all."
--
Over the next two weeks, Ben Solo and Rey became friends. Even if Ben didn't want to admit that Rey might be right about being Super best friends. The fact was they did everything together, and wherever Ben Solo was you were sure to find little 6 year old Rey tagging along behind him. One of the final things they needed to do as Art Camp winded down was set up an art show where parents could walk through and view the progress their young ones had made.
Rey set hers up nice and neat, all of her work was up there with the exception of one sketch that was a gift. She kept that one neatly tucked away in the pocket of her coat. She wandered the halls of the small fair, admiring everyone's work until she found Ben angrily taking his pieces off of his side of the booth. She looked at him confused.
"Ben!" She cried out. "What are you doing?"
Ben stopped briefly looking at the young girl who looked appalled by his actions, before continuing to remove his artwork from the walls. "I'm taking this down. There's no point."
"Why?" She said. Rey was almost on the verge of tears. She admired Ben Solo's work and thought everyone should view it.
"My parent's aren't coming, they'd rather work." He said angrily, he just wanted the approval from his parents that he was doing a good job. "They never come, no one wants to view this crap. It's not like I'm their only kid or anything."
"I like your art." Rey said quietly. "I wanna see it."
"Thanks Rey." Ben said quietly. "You should get back to your own booth, I'm sure Obi-wan is loving your portrait of him."
"Wait!" She said wrapping her arms around the waist of the boy who was significantly taller than her. She reached into her pocket before pulling out the folded piece of sketch book paper. "I made you something."
When he didn't say anything she let go waving sadly. "Goodbye Ben, I really hope I'll see you next year!"
"Goodbye Rey." He said unfolding the paper. It was them from the first night. Rey had drawn them sitting on the bean bags, she colored every fine detail. From the bright sunshine yellow of the bean bag she sat in to the angry scowl on his face that was tinted red. It was a sweet gesture from the kid. On the back there was a little note.
To my Supr Best Frind Ben
Next to her name she drew a little sun. Ironic considering she was a little Rey of Sunshine around the place and Ben seemed significantly less moody when she was around. He smiled widely, placing the item in his pocket much more carefully than he had been handling his own artwork. Hopefully, he saw her next year too.
When Rey was 9, it was her 4th year of going to Luke's art camp. She kept improving every year. Luke even had told her if she kept working really really hard, that she might get into a prestigious art school when she was older. When she walked through the doors for the 4th year, Obi-wan had wished his granddaughter goodbye and spoke a couple words to Luke before leaving.
Rey found Ben at their secret spot they'd claimed as their own during her 2nd year of camp. It was simply an old storage closet they'd found one year and the next year is was mysteriously decorated cozily with their bean bags, a small desk, a couple of string light, an easel, along with shelves of paints, pencils, crayons, pastels and any other art supply they could possibly think of.
After seeing the two kids bond so well, and knowing how hard it was for Ben to make friends Luke set up this spot for them. Allowing them to do whatever they wanted for the most part as long as they showed up to the lessons.
"Hi Ben!" She cheered. He was 11 now, a big middle school kid. She was still in the 4th grade.
"Hey Rey." He said focusing on the painting he was working on. He had been attempting to better his skill with water colors but they just weren't working with him at the moment.
"Whatcha painting?" She questioned plopping herself down on her beanbag and watching him intently.
"My dog, Artoo." Ben says adding blue to the collar of the dog, blending it with grey.
"You have a dog?" Rey asks bewildered. "We're super best friends and you didn't tell me you had a dog? I'm hurt Ben."
"Are you now?" Ben asked her, his back was facing her and she couldn't see the smirk that laced his lips.
"I am. Ya know, I've always wanted a pet, but Grandpa Obi says I can't have one because I'm already enough to handle and it would be just like bringing another kid into the house, and he says he's too old for that. I even tried getting him to compromise and get me a fish, but that didn't work either because he said I'd forget to feed it, or even over feed it and he'd have to clean the tank which he really doesn't want to do if the fish will end up dead in a month."
He smiled slightly, as the young girl rambled on and on about absolutely anything and everything and he set his supplies down, listening intently to every word she said. Eventually, the dinner bell rang and they were forced to vacate the closet in order to go eat, either way- they found an empty table and sat down, eating the mac and cheese and drinking some chocolate milk. Ben even traded Rey his brownie for her fruit roll up, stating he didn't like chocolate (even though he did and this was just a ploy for the 11 year old to watch her eyes light up with joy and inevitably get chocolate all over her face, that he had full plans of sketching later).
When it came time for bed, Rey retreated to her dorm. This year she shared it with a tiny asian girl who had already unpacked all of her things.
"Hiya! I'm Rose Tico!" She said sticking her hand out immediately. Rey stood there in shock, this is the first time one of her roommates actually wanted to talk to her.
"I'm Rey Kenobi." Rey said shyly shaking the girls hand. "Is this your first year?"
"Yeah, my mom thought it would be good. She says I've been ruining my sisters wall by painting on them." She said with a shrug. "What about you?"
"This is my fourth year." Rey said taking a seat on her bed.
"Really? Dude thats so cool!" Rose told her excitedly grabbing onto her pillow. "I didn't see you when we were introducing ourselves, where were you?"
Rey blushed lightly. She didn't want Rose to think she got special treatment and make herself seem like a brat, but what else would she say.
"I was with Ben, he's my best friend." Rey told her.
"Isn't he Mr. Skywalkers nephew?" Rose asked talking so fast, the bun on top of her head bobbed up and down in a funny way. "I heard he was moody."
"Yeah." Rey said before defending her friend. "He can be, but he just doesn't like people. Except for me, because we're best friends!"
"Or maybe he has a crush on you!" Rose squealed excitedly. "What if you guys are soulmates and you get each others soul marks?"
"Soulwhat?" Rey asked. She'd never heard of soul-marks before.
"Soulmates!" Rose said pulling out a small ipod from her bag and jumping on the girls bed. "Look, when you turn 16, the name of your soulmate appears on your wrists! It's the person you're supposed to be with forever!"
"I think you're ridiculous Rose." Rey said with a scowl that could almost match Ben's. "There's no way Ben and I can be Soulmates, we're just super best friends!"
"Super best friends?" Rose asked questionably.
"Super best friends." Rey told her affirmatively. "Boys are gross"
"Sounds like soulmates to me." Rose said with a giggle before jumping back onto her bed with a squeal as Rey threw a pillow at her.
The next morning, Rey sat on a stool placed in front of an easel right next to Ben. Rose caught her eye from across the room and wiggled her eyebrows and made kissy faces. Rey glared at her teasingly and looked away. Suddenly Luke walked in, ready to teach the lesson.
"Alrighty kids, today we'll be working with Oil Paints, and making Portraits with them." Luke said explaining everything in fine detail. "Why don't you partner up, and use your partner as inspiration."
As always, Rey looked at Ben who looked at her. They'd already done this lesson multiple times during their previous years, now they had turned it into a fun game. Whoever could make the best portrait got the losers desert for the night.
Rey took in Ben's features carefully. When she began adding the final details, she made his nose red and shiny, and the tips of his ears red. She added hints of green and gold into his hazel eyes, and made his shiny black hair as soft looking as she could. By the time they finished they were covered in paint and their bellies hurt from laughing so hard. They turned the paintings around to show each other and beamed widely. Did their work belong in a museum? Not by any means. Was it more meaningful than anything in the entire world? Of course.
"Wow." Rey said as she took in his painting. There were warm tones throughout the entire painting, he had painted her in a yellow light, the tips of her nose was golden and her cheeks were a rosy pink, and her eyes looked extremely lifelike. The 11 year olds talent shocked her. "Ben that's really good."
"Yours is too Rey." Ben said with a smile. "I think we tied."
"I think so too." Rey beamed at him.
When Rey was 12, her grandpa Obiwan died. It devastated the little girl she sat off to the side during the visitation. She was sick of being in the front row, where everyone was giving her sad looks and whispering about the little girl who didn't have any family left. What surprised her though, was that Ben was at the funeral. He sat beside her wordlessly during visitation and put an arm around her shoulder pulling her into a comforting embrace. Afterwards, when everyone had left except him, Luke and two others she'd never met before he guided her over to the open casket to say one last goodbye.
"It's okay Rey." He whispered into her ear. "Take your time."
With that he walked away to sit on one of the pews, and gave her some space. When she came over she burst into tears and clung onto the boy who was now extremely tall and lanky. His hair reached his chin, covering the big ears she knew were underneath. They'd both changed so much over the years. Eventually a woman came over to them, placing a hand on Ben's shoulder.
"Hi sweetie." She said. "I'm Leia, Ben's mom. Your grandfather helped my family out a lot back in the day, and I promise we'll help you with whatever you need. Especially since you have been such a big help with Ben these past few years."
"Thank you." She croaked as Ben rubbed her back gently. "I wanna go home now if that's okay."
"Of course." Leia said walking away from the pair.
"I don't know if I'm going to go to art camp this year." Rey muttered quietly to Ben.
"I think Obi would want you too." Ben told her. "He always loved seeing what you created during the fairs."
"It just wouldn't be the same." Rey said.
"Maybe not, but he loved seeing you happy especially when you were creating." Ben told her reassuringly. "If anything, honor him with it."
"He always did tell me to pour my emotions into my art" Rey told him quietly with a soft smile. "Maybe you're right."
"One more thing." Ben said pulling out a small box. Rey took it gently in her hands examining it. "It's for you, if you ever need me, just give me a call okay? This way we can talk more outside of camp."
"Thank you Ben." Rey said hugging him once more. "You're the best super best friend in the world."
"You're pretty alright yourself." Ben said with a smirk and she punched his shoulder lightly. "I'll see ya around."
"Yeah, I'll see ya around." Rey said before walking over to her new legal guardian Maz Kanata. She was a tiny frail woman, but another family friend who Obiwan trusted everything with (even to have her explain why girls had periods when that time came).
"You ready dear?" Maz asked and Rey nodded slowly. She took one last look at the coffin and walked out of the funeral home with the phone Ben gave her in her hands and watched as his family pulled out of the parking lot.
She'd be ready for whatever the world through at her.
__
By 13, Rey had developed a serious crush on Ben Solo. Puberty did the boy well. He was even taller than before, and not quite as lanky as before. His facial features became more accented and Rey had been thinking of every new way to capture his beauty in her art. Suddenly, her phone buzzed on her desk that was covered in messy sketches (most of which where admittedly Ben). She picked it up, seeing it was him who had texted her.
Hey, did you hear Luke's doing 4 sessions this year?
He is? She replied, eagerly awaiting the boys response.
Yeah, one of them falls on your birthday. Another one on mine.
Soon though, the wide smile that laced her face was replaced with a frown. There was no way she'd be able afford all the sessions.
I know what you're thinking, Luke's already agreed you're coming to all of them- no charge.
Yes you can. Luke loves you, besides he wants us to help him out with the younger kids. He's going to have his hands full this year.
Fine, you really have a way with words Solo.
That's why we're Super Best Friends, as a wordy 6 year old I used to know would say.
Never, he added a smiley face to the end of it and Rey sighed as her heart fluttered. She had it bad. Besides in a few months Ben would find out who his soulmate is and it wouldn't be the scrawny 13 year old that claimed to be his best friend.
During the fall session of Luke's camp, Ben finally turned 16. He refused to let Rey know the name on his wrists. Coincidentally he got really interested in the thick rubber bracelets with band names on them from hot topic to cover it so she couldn't snoop and see.
"Ben come on!" Rey whined tugging on his arms. She had turned 14 two months ago and was filling out nicely. She nearly matched his height (okay not nearly but compared to most, she was the closest with only 5 inches separating them!). "Why won't you show me?"
"I'll tell you when you're 16 Rey." He told her removing his arm from his grasp.
"Benjamin Solo that's 2 years away!"
"Technically, it's only 1 year and 9 months."
"You're ridiculous." Rey said rolling her eyes and pouting slightly. She wouldn't admit that she was a little upset, even though he knew. "Ben we're best friends. No! Super Best friends, we tell each other everything."
Ben sighed pulling the young girl in for a hug, lightly kissing the top of her forehead. Rey felt her cheeks heat up a lot, she only buried her head in his chest further hoping the blush would go away before he saw her face. "and I will tell you. On your 16th birthday, when you have a mark of your own."
"You're no fun." Rey told him scrunching up her nose.
"I'll give you my brownie at dinner."
"You're a little more fun."
___
When Rey was 15 she realized she was utterly and completely in love with Ben Solo. Which terrified her. Her soulmark would appear in less than a week and what if it wasn't him? It just had to be him. She didn't know what she would do if it wasn't. She had fallen in love with every little thing he did. Whenever, he texted he began to leave little smiley faces at the end of every text that made her heart flutter.
There was also his smile. Rey was absolutely positive that it was the best thing she'd ever seen on earth. Plus, the fact that she knew she was the reason it was there most of the time? Amazing! A feeling like no other. His laugh was music to her ears and there was no better sound ever. There also was that one time she walked in on him changing and saw him shirtless for the first time. That image was forever engraved in her mind and for that she was thankful. Ben had a nice body.
Still, her biggest fear was losing him to another girl. Maybe that's why he refused to show her his soulmark, that they didn't have each others names on their wrists because fate was cruel and thought they weren't meant for each other. That when she turned 16, a different name than his would appear on her wrist and he'd explain to her that he wasn't as madly in love with her as she was with him. That was life, she didn't always get what she wanted.
She'd been acting weird the entire first week of camp. This is something Ben had noticed. She'd started hanging out with Rose Tico more often than him, it had confused him. He knew they were friends but she always wanted to hang out with him. Now he felt like she was blowing him off. Yet, he was grateful. It allowed him to finish her birthday present. He was painting it, and it took more time than he thought it would but he knew it would be worth it.
He was recreating the first picture she ever gave him, on a larger scale. He was sure she'd love it.
__
As the minutes came closer to midnight Rey was practically burning a hole in the floor of the dorm she shared with Rose with her pacing.
"Rey, would you relax!" Rose cried out. "Everything is going to be fine."
"It just needs to be him Rose." She sighed. "It just has to."
"I know, but if it isn't it's not the end of the world okay? He's still your best friend."
"You're right." She looked at the time. 5 minutes until midnight. "Shit! I gotta go Rose, I'm meeting him."
Rey ran out the door and into 'their' spot. Ben was already in there. He had snuck one of the brownies from the cafeteria and placed a candle inside of it. He was in the process of lighting it when she burst inside.
"Hey birthday girl." He said with a smile.
"Hey Ben." She said panting as she tried catching her breath. That's when she looked down at his wrist. Instead of his usual band bracelets that decorated his arms a single wide red ribbon was wrapped around it tied neatly in a bow. "What's that?"
He looked at her shyly. "I told you, you'd be able to take a peek when you turned 16 didn't I?" He asked.
She looked at the time 11:59. Hesitantly she spoke. "Y-yeah."
"I figured this would be a fun way of doing it, like a present!" He said. She could tell he was hiding something. She just didn't know what. That's when his phone alarm went off. It was midnight. She felt a tingling on her arm, under the long sleeved shirt she slept in. She didn't look. She couldn't look. "Happy birthday Rey."
He held out his wrist towards her, the red ribbon hanging. Slowly, with trembling hands she took the ribbon in her hands delicately. Very carefully, she undid the ribbon letting it fall to the floor. There on his wrist was the name, printed in her messy scrawl of handwriting.
Quickly, as if she didn't believe it herself she looked at the name on her own wrist.
His name was written there in calligraphy, one of his many talents. Slowly she looked up at him in shock.
"You knew," She muttered. "You knew all this time. That's why you didn't tell me."
"It makes sense now, doesn't it." Ben said slowly, he grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to look at a blank tarp covering the walls. "It's why I also made this."
He reached around her, pulling the blank tarp down. She took in the image in front of her very carefully, looking at every beautiful detail he had made before turning around to face Ben. She reached up for his cheek and pulled him down to her level, encasing their lips in a kiss. The first of many. They were crying, as his hands pulled her as close as possible and she played with the hair at the base of his neck.
Behind them on the largest wall of 'their spot', the painted image of them smiled at each other. It was them now, no longer children, sitting on the beanbags hands intertwined with their wrists facing outwards, the names Ben Solo and Rey Kenobi, prominent for everyone to see and admire.
She was his, and he was hers.
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