for @ahsokatvno , a little fic based upon a real-life, exceptionally hellish baseball game i attended.
“My phone is dying,” Ben says grumpily. He’s slouched down in his seat with his baseball cap pulled over his eyes, arms folded over his chest like he’s trying to ward off the very sun itself with his very intimidating expression.
Rey rolls her eyes. “Don’t be such a baby, Ben. You’re fine. Just relax and try to have some fun.”
“Fun?” he says ironically. “Never heard of it.”
“I know you haven’t, dummy.” Rey elbows him in the side. “That’s why I wanted you to come out with me tonight.”
“To a baseball game. In Atlanta. Where’s it’s ninety fucking degrees, and at least that high a humidity percentage.”
Rey shrugs. “Yes?” she tries.
And he looks down at her face and can’t help laughing, even though, “Jesus fuck, Rey, my thighs are sticking to the seat.”
“Well maybe you wouldn’t be as hot if you’d worn the shorts I suggested instead of jeans,” she sniffs, but then she lets her eyes drift over his body and mutters under her breath, “Then again... maybe not.”
“What?” he says. His eyebrows furrow as he tries to figure out if he actually heard Rey hitting on him or if it was just an innocent comment on his clothing choices and how they might relate to his body temperature.
“Oh, it’s the seventh-inning stretch,” Rey says as she stands up. She tugs on his hand until he stands with her, and Ben looks around bemusedly at the rest of the crowd as they sing. He’s not sure how they learned what to do. Was there a class in school that he somehow missed out on? “How to Behave at a Baseball Game 101”? “Have you never been to a game before?” Rey asks.
“Oh-- uh, no,” Ben says. “My parents... weren’t around enough for that kind of thing. They were busy,” he adds quickly. He doesn’t want him to pity her.
Rey turns to face him and smiles sweetly. “I didn’t go to a baseball game until I was nineteen. Finn and Poe took me and Rose, insisted we had to go. It was the most fun I’ve ever had, and I remember for the first time, feeling like I had friends.”
She hasn’t let go of his hand, he notices belatedly-- and gratefully, so he can squeeze it and tell her, “We’re friends, Rey. I’m your friend. If-- I mean-- if you want me to be, that it.”
“Yeah,” she says softly. There’s a little bittersweetness in her smile that he doesn’t understand, but it’s gone before he really has the opportunity to think about it too much. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
The crowd is sitting back down around them, so he sits, and a few seconds later, Rey sits, too. “At least the sun’s going down,” she says, “so it won’t be in our eyes anymore. That was pretty terrible.”
Ben snorts. “Yeah, that’s a mild way of putting it.”
The game continues on despite Ben’s lack of real interest in it. Every now and then, he sees a small kid-- or not-so-small kid-- across the screen in Galaxy Wars gear.
Rey leans over and whispers, “The stadium does theme nights. Tonight is Galaxy Wars. There’s going to be fireworks after the game.”
“Hm, okay,” Ben says. “Are we... staying for that?”
Rey cackles. “Ohhh, yeah. We are so staying for that.”
Ben glances at the scoreboard. “Just out of curiosity, uh... baseball is nine innings, right?”
“Yep.”
“What happens if there’s a tie at the end of the ninth innings?”
“They keep playing until there’s an inning that doesn’t end in a tie.”
“It’s already--” Ben pulls out his phone, “--nine o’clock. At night. Isn’t there... a time limit? Like, they have to call it a game at ten or something?” He looks up at Rey hopefully.
And she just laughs. “Nope,” she says, far too cheerfully. “I’ve been at games that have gone til eleven. And really, with the way things are going, it’s looking like another one of those!”
Ben buries his face into his palm. “Oh, fuck me,” he mumbles.
Rey says something that sounds suspiciously like, “If you like,” but when he asks what she said, she just says, “Oh, look!” and points at the field.
There is something happening, although Ben isn’t quite sure what, and he’s not quite sure he cares. Then the scent of Rey’s shampoo hits his nose as she leans over him to see better, and he’s definitely sure that he definitely doesn’t care. Something warms curls up in his belly and he breathes deeply, feeling suddenly calmed.
But Rey goes back to her seat and Ben’s heart goes back to a normal rate and the game goes back to its normal, slow state. Slow and long. “Are we seriously going into an eleventh fucking inning?”
Rey grins at him like she’s feeding off his (admittedly less-than-serious) irritation. “Yes, we are.” He really can’t begrudge the game’s length; despite the heat and humidity and his phone’s impending death, he’s with Rey.
And so of course, as he’s staring sappily into Rey’s eyes, the camera focuses on them. He wouldn’t have noticed, except the girl sitting next to Rey nudges her and says, “You and your boyfriend are onscreen!”
“Oh,” Rey says weakly. She looks at Ben and smiles awkwardly. “You know what a kiss-cam is, right?”
He chuckles. “Yes, Rey, I do know what a kiss-cam is.”
“We don’t have to...” she says, glancing down and tucking a bit of her hair behind her ear. “Really, they’ll get bored eventually.”
“I don’t mind,” Ben says-- a little too quickly, maybe. But it’s fine, it’s fine.
“They’ll probably move the camera away faster,” Rey says, leaning in a little closer to him. “If we kiss.”
Ben leans in a little closer. “Probably,” he says, and then she’s kissing him, and she tastes like the soda she’d been drinking and her lips are really, really soft, and so is her hair that he apparently is touching now. Who knew?
The camera moves off them pretty quickly, but Rey and Ben are still kissing until someone behind them shouts, “Hey, lovebirds! Get a room.”
Ben jolts away from her, but Rey’s hand on his neck keeps him from going too far, and she presses her forehead to his as she laughs. “So. Uh. I liked that.”
“Oh,” Ben exhales with relief. “Yeah, me too.”
“Maybe we should try that again?” Rey says. “Like, during the fireworks? I think that’d be a nice, uh... first date?”
“Yes!” Ben exclaims. He winces. “I mean... I’d like that.”
Rey smiles and presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth. She settles back in her seat to watch the rest of the game, but she doesn’t let go of his hand.
They practice during the fireworks. And then a little more when they get back to the hotel. And then a little more in front of their friends the next morning, though not entirely on purpose. But that’s okay. Kissing Rey was quickly becoming one of Ben’s favorite things to do, so it was worth it. Poe’s slight discomfort was really just a small bonus.
