FOUR YEARS EARLIER

Rey is only half listening to Leia at the moment. Her new boss is jabbering away at her as she leads Rey down a wood panelled hallway lined with portraits of famous and not-so-famous magic folk who have worked here throughout the centuries.

This place has an impressive history, considering the outside of it resembles a run down Poptart plant to anyone who doesn't know better. Rey had driven past the building several times this morning while searching for this place.

Leia points out the gorgeous painting of a regal looking woman decked out in a glittering headpiece and eccentric makeup. "That's my mother, Padme Amidala, a true one-of-a-kind witch and a remarkable woman to boot." Leia smiles up at the picture fondly as they walk by.

Rey's cauldron, large and old and fiercely loyal for a non-sentient object, gently bumps against her elbow in excitement. "Yes, yes," Rey swats it back, peering over her shoulder at the cauldron and small box of personal items that are floating along in the air beside her. "We're almost there."

"Yes, we are," Leia agrees, coming to a stop in front of a seemingly nondescript door. Leia's hand is wrapping around the doorknob when a loud bang coming from inside the room, followed by a lot of furious swearing, makes her pause.

"Is my office mate a goblin?" Rey asks, feeling curiosity brim up inside her. "I've never met a goblin before—"

"No, not a goblin. Just my idiot son." And with that Leia opens the door to Rey's new office and strides inside, leaving Rey still standing at the threshold frozen in shock.

Ben Solo is her new office mate?!

Rey has met Leia's son a handful of times during the two years that she's been creating her tonics independently at home and selling them in bulk to Leia's company. He's always been a bit standoffish and, aside from noticing that he's handsome despite never smiling, Rey hasn't had a lot of one-on-one interactions with the man.

She's certainly heard a lot about him, however.

"Rey, you coming?"

Nodding dazedly, Rey walks into the room, her cauldron and box of things bobbing inside behind her.

Leia points to a large desk and work table area. "This is where you'll be working…" The older witch begins to rattle off where the break room is as well as the storage room for ingredients, but Rey finds herself being unable to listen.

Ben is siphoning smoke from the room using magic, and while Leia seems completely undisturbed by this Rey is watching him with wide eyes. The man moves about like a storm, casting about heavy energy wherever he goes. His brown gaze flicks over to her and Rey feels herself stand up straighter under his scrutiny.

And then Leia is shaking Rey's hand and wishing her the best of luck before zooming back out of the workroom and into the hallway. She is a busy witch, after all.

Once the door shuts behind Leia, Rey gestures to her new desk. She and Ben watch quietly as her cauldron flies to its new spot on the worktable, while Rey's box of personal effects begins to unpack itself, each individual item zooming out to its new home at various places on her desk.

Rey finally shifts her attention back to Ben, clearing her throat and reaching out her hand for a proper greeting.

Ben slides his palm against her own, pale skin smooth and cool. Something tinges in the back of Rey's head, a feeling that maybe this is the beginning of something potentially life changing. Rey has never considered herself a hopeless romantic, despite her affiliation for love tonics, but maybe this man—

"That's your cauldron?" Ben drops his hand from her own, and the slight condescension in his tone makes all the warm fuzzies in Rey's chest evaporate. "It looks like you got it at the Spirit Halloween store."

Smirking, Rey crosses her arms over her chest. So it's going to be like this, then. She's worked with worse. "Since it looks like you're making draughts using a blender that came from the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart, we're just two peas in a pod, aren't we?"

Rey watches in mild delight as the tips of Ben's ears turn red.

And so it goes.

NOW

It's been about two hours since Rey discovered that Ben drank her love tonic and since then he's eaten a lot more candy and barked at her for letting the ladybugs escape again.

"If their wings get into my blender then the integrity of my entire concealment potion will be compromised." His eyes are narrowed at her from the other side of the room, and usually Rey would have her own narrowed right back. But she's hardly been able to think straight since she walked into this room and found that stupid teacup empty.

"Sure thing," she mumbles, clearing her throat and humming a soft tune. The ladybugs that had gone rogue fly back over to her side of the room, drawn to her gentle magic. She opens their jar and quietly directs the ladybugs back into their home.

Rey has always thought that Ben has disliked her.

Well, alright. That's not true.

She didn't really think that Ben disliked her, but she never thought he liked her either. He always seems annoyed with her for some reason or another, and he has the tendency to snap at her often while they're working.

But...Rey does the exact same thing to him.

And, now that she thinks about it, as annoyed as Ben might get with her, he's never made her feel like an untalented witch. He teases her methods, sure, but she in turn teases his. And neither of them are ever cruel with their jabs.

And he does always drift over to her when they both have to be at the same work function.

And he always cleans up the insane messes she makes without asking and without any form of complaint.

And Poe has mentioned multiple times that Ben has never tolerated an office mate for this long before, nor has Ben ever badmouthed her to any of their shared coworkers. And as much as Ben has driven her crazy in the past four years, Rey has never found herself actually wanting to transfer to another office. She's never bemoaned about him to Leia, either.

Now that Rey really thinks about it, she and Ben even have their own tea rituals, for fuck sake. That's part of the reason why she's in this current predicament.

She turns in her chair, peeking at him out of the corner of her eye. His brows are drawn down in focus as he crushes moon herbs into a fine powder. He's rolled his sleeves up to just past his elbows, exposing the muscles of his forearms as he works.

Rey swallows.

She had thought that Ben was handsome even before she shared an office with him, but had never really entertained the idea of them beyond that first jab he'd made about her beloved cauldron. But now...now Rey has given up at only simply peeking and is now openly staring at Ben's very, very nice forearms.

She bets everything else he has is very, very nice as well.

The muscles in Ben's forearms stop their enticing movements, and it takes Rey a few beats to realize it's because Ben has stopped working altogether and is now staring at her too.

"Rey."

He's concerned about her, she can hear it in the soft tone of his voice. "I know you've been insisting all day that you're not acting weird, but you're beginning to scare me."

Me and you both.

But instead of being honest and voicing her truth, Rey stands abruptly and makes her way to the door leading out to the hallway. "I just - have to talk to Finn!"

Finn, her best friend in all the world.

He'll know what the hell to do.

Finn cannot stop laughing.

Honestly, Rey isn't sure why she expected a different reaction. "Finn," she hisses, "quit being so loud, people are looking!"

"Sorry!" he wheezes, grasping her shoulder and trying to catch his breath. "I just wasn't expecting you to barrel in here to tell me that."

He leads her over to his small but homey cubicle. The restorative elixir department is much larger than Rey's department, which is basically just herself, and Finn shares the floor with eight other witches and warlocks. Finn takes a seat in front of his desk. He offers Rey a seat as well but she declines with a shake of her head, having too much nervous energy to sit.

He clears his throat. "Okay, jokes aside, what's up?"

Finn and Rey stare unblinkingly at each other for several long, drawn out moments before Rey finally snaps. "I—Good god. As I said, Ben accidentally drank one of my love potions and he's just!" Rey waves her arms around, not even sure what she's trying to communicate or emphasize. "Acting the same as always!"

Finn presses his lips together and tilts his head back and forth, contemplating. "If he's acting totally normal around you then maybe you're wrong, maybe he didn't drink your tonic."

"But!" Rey can hardly spit words out, her thoughts are swirling around so violently in her head. "This afternoon alone I've witnessed the man eat a Twix bar—"

Finn goes completely still, eyes wide.

"—a Hershey bar, and a handful of those gross caramels that only old ladies eat." Rey lowers her voice into a whisper yell. "And what is Ben Solo notorious for never eating?!" She and Finn say the next part together. "Sweets!"

Joy lights up Finn's face and, to Rey's horror, he begins to sing. "My lovely friend, a man is in love with youuuuuuuuuuuuu—"

Rey clamps a hand over his mouth. "Quit serenading me! I need you to help me, tell me what to do!"

Finn wraps his fingers around her wrist and gently pulls her hand away. "Well, do you love him?"

Instead of answering Rey simply squeaks.

"Okay, okay, let's cross that bridge later," Finn quickly says, clearly trying to calm his spiraling friend. "Why not just ask him?"

"Ask him what?"

"Ask him if he loves you."

Rey scoffs. "That's a terrible idea."

Finn shrugs. "It's what I would do. It's what I did, actually. You can ask Rose. I just walked up to her and asked if she had feelings for me and she was honest and look at us! Happy as clams."

Rey can feel sweat starting to bead along her hairline. "I don't know if he'll appreciate me being so blunt with a matter like this, plus—"

Plus what if I'm totally wrong?

"I don't think he communicates with anything other than bluntness," Finn smoothly interrupts her. "Just be forthright and ask him if it's true. What's the worst that could happen? He says no and you both go back to being office mates? Pretty low risk, if you ask me."

If Rey hadn't spent the majority of the day on the verge of a panic attack she probably would have given more thought to taking Finn's advice. But something spurns her out of the elixir department and right back to the hallway leading to the office she shares with Ben.

It occurs to her that Ben doesn't just drift to her during shared work functions; they drift to each other.

It occurs to her that she leaves messes for Ben to clean up on purpose, because for whatever reason it makes her feel cared for, makes her feel like someone has her back. And maybe all this time he's been cleaning up after her to show her he does care.

It occurs to her that she makes tea all the time and purposely lets it get cold, knowing that that's how Ben likes it but also knowing he won't actually go through the humiliation of making it himself.

That's what's spurning me forward, Rey realizes. I want him to say yes. I want him to say yes because I love him too.

The door to her office swings open on its own accord, reacting to the whirlwind of feelings and magic inside of her. As soon as she steps inside, Ben rounds on her immediately.

"Where the fuck have you been?!" he shouts. He jerks a thumb over his shoulder, indicating her cauldron. The room smells of sulfur. "Were you aware you left something in there? Were you aware that, when left unattended, whatever was in there would explode—"

"Are you in love with me?" Rey asks it so softly that she's not really sure how Ben hears her. But he does hear her, because his mouth clamps shut in shock. His jaw works, and Rey can almost hear the wheels churning in his head over her own hammering heart beat.

Ben lips part and Rey's heart soars because this is it, it's been a crazy day but at least—

"No."

A/N:

LOL they're all so dumb.

Anyway, is it really a fic written by me if there isn't the tiniest amount of angst? Don't worry folks, it's a short fic so everyone's suffering will also be short.

If you liked let me know!