The stove light was the only thing on when Ben stumbled out of his room, drawn by the soft clink of a spoon against ceramic.
Rey was perched on the counter—knees drawn up, bare feet braced against the cabinet door, a bowl balanced in her lap. She was wearing his old academy t-shirt, the gray one with the cracked logo, hem pooling around her thighs. Her hair was down, wild from sleep, and she didn't even look up as she shoveled in another spoonful of cereal like she hadn't a care in the world.
"You're going to fall off the counter," he said, voice rough with sleep.
"I have excellent balance." She finally glanced at him, eyes bright despite the hour. "What're you doing, sneaking around at 2am?"
"So do I. On this counter. Eating your cereal."
He leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, trying very hard to look anywhere that wasn't the long stretch of her legs. "That's the good stuff. The expensive stuff."
"Mm." She took another bite, entirely unrepentant. "Should've hidden it better."
He crossed the kitchen, opened the cabinet beside her head—close enough to catch the smell of her shampoo, something like green tea and the cheap vanilla candle she burned every winter—and grabbed a second bowl. "Move your feet."
She didn't move her feet. He set the bowl down next to her anyway, close enough that his knuckles brushed her ankle, and poured his own serving of the cereal she was decimating.
"You can't be mad," she said, watching him over the rim of her spoon. "I couldn't sleep."
A pause. Something shifted in her face—softer, quieter, the 2am kind of honest that daylight never allowed. "I don't know. Just restless. Thought food might help."
"Not really." She bumped her knee against his arm, small and easy, the kind of touch that had always lived comfortably in the space between them—except tonight it didn't feel comfortable. Tonight it felt like a live wire. "But the company's nice."
He looked up at her, cereal forgotten, and for one long moment neither of them said anything at all. The fridge hummed. Rey swung her legs over and off the counter, her bare foot pressing lightly against his hip where he now stood between her knees, and neither of them moved away.
"Rey," he said again, quieter this time.
"...Nothing." He picked up his spoon. "Eat your cereal."
She smiled down into her bowl like she'd won something. Maybe she had.
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