Chapter Text
Rey's alarm went off at an annoyingly early hour on a Monday. Her hand only exited the warmth of her covers to slap around in search of her phone's screen, and the tiny little part of her brain that was awake hoped she'd hit the snooze button.
She snapped into fully awake as her phone hit the floor.
"Shit," she muttered, rolling over and staring down at the block, hoping (praying) it wasn't shattered. Thankfully, it seemed the screen protector had held up better than its price tag had led her to believe it would.
She'd set up this truly idiotic thing where her phone would show her schedule when the alarm went off, and when she picked up her phone and unlocked it, Rey cringed at her weekly calendar. Bartending at Maz's, fixing cars for Plutt, five classes (officially making her Sophomore year the first in which she'd decided to overload her schedule), and, assuming she could pick up a client or two this week, an under-the-table computer repair gig.
Really, it wasn't a shock that Rey barely had time to breathe, and bless whichever employee at Chandrila University had decided to give her a scholarship because otherwise she wasn't sure how she would have paid for college. Her parents were in that weird, miserable middle ground of not having the financial ability to cut the University a massive check each semester and yet, also not really qualifying for much in the way of federal financial aid.
As it was, her scholarship didn't cover housing costs, so she worked the two jobs to cover her half of the rent for a relatively nice apartment shared with another woman her age - Rose Tico.
Rose was a student in the college's engineering program and she was beyond brilliant (at least in Rey's opinion). The woman was sharp, and kind, and she'd become Rey's closest friend within a week of them moving in together - always available to listen to bitching about a particularly difficult professor, customer, or, well...really, Rose was just a constant. Always there, ready to make time for a friend who needed her despite her own tasks that kept her busy, and Rey loved her for it.
The snooze setting on her phone prompted it to go off again, and she heard Rose grumble loudly through the paper-thin wall between their bedroom, "I swear to God, Rey-"
Rey had a bad habit of setting an alarm to go off every ten minutes or so, resulting in four or five alarms going off before she actually got out of bed, and Rose liked to screech at her about it. Luckily they were in that spot, as roommates, where they could call each other terrible names and snap all they wanted and not truly be mad at each other.
Even so, Rey shut off her alarms and climbed out of bed.
A mirror hanging off the back of her closet door suggested her still slightly-damp hair was a crazy mess, so she brushed through it quickly and put it in a lazy row of three buns because nobody had any right to expect more out of her if she was required to attend a 9 AM class on Concepts of Programming Languages. Maybe she'd cared during the first class or two of the Fall semester but after a solid month she'd completely given up and traded her cute outfits and flats for hoodies and sweatpants.
Finding a pair of sweatpants that was clean and not ridiculously large on her (those were saved for the nights when she and Rose would hunker down on their couch with a movie, pizza, and a couple of alcoholic milkshakes), Rey pulled them on and swapped the tanktop she'd slept in for a dark red University sweater, then rushed out of her room, grabbing the backpack she'd packed late the night before.
She'd barely have time to grab a coffee on campus before class, but if her schedule was correct she could eat between this class and the next one (assuming she could do so in fifteen minutes), before rushing off to Plutt's for a shift. Glancing regretfully toward the fridge that held leftover takeout she absolutely didn't have time to heat up, Rey left the apartment and ran directly into something warm and solid.
"Oh, shit," the solid thing muttered, and she almost fell backward trying to give him space, but he grabbed her shoulders to steady her.
Damn the stupidly narrow hallways of their apartment building.
Rey looked up quickly, an apology ready to go, but she stopped short when she realized who she'd walked into.
Bless the stupidly narrow hallways of their apartment building.
"Uh...hi, Mr. Solo." She blinked up at him, feeling herself blush. She didn't interact with him often, but as far as she could tell he was some sort of writer, or maybe freelance editor or something, and for some weird reason they seemed to be on the same schedule as far as laundry was concerned, so they tended to end up chatting while hogging the two sets of machines their floor of the building shared.
He gave her what may have passed for a smile, but what was (by normal human standards), a somewhat awkward half-lip-quirk thing, and he replied, "Good Morning, Miss Erso."
Call her crazy (and Rose had, multiple times), but this guy was arguably the most attractive man she'd had the pleasure of talking to, especially on days like this when he was in a tight white button up (buttons were straining and she absolutely hadn't contemplated how easily they'd come undone if she just tugged). Each of his features may have seemed a bit off individually, but they all blended together to create something drool-worthy, and really, she'd never understood the whole daddy thing, but this guy? Total daddy. He was the definition of the word (at least, the secondary definition that had absolutely nothing to do with offspring). Everything about him screamed that - the broad shoulders, the fact that she had to look up to him (and she was not short - in fact, she was taller than average), the confidence, the-
His voice, calm and deep, interrupted her thoughts. "Everything okay?"
"Yep," she lied.
The honest answer was that it'd been a solid two months since her last hookup and she'd been having a reoccurring dream about that mouth and the things it could do to her, but since she had at least a semblance of a filter, Rey admitted none of that.
Dark eyes stared down at her for the briefest moment before he cleared his throat. "So, you do computer stuff, right? Can I hire you to fix mine?"
He said it in the same tone that her parents did when they asked her to take a look at their slow internet connection whenever she went home, and it made her want to smack a hand to her face because that tone so clearly indicated that he was probably truly clueless about computers and everything that went along with them.
Oh, gods, he was probably the type to list all his passwords in a word document, saved as "Passwords" on his desktop.
Reluctantly, she nodded, telling herself she could probably make some easy money if he needed work done.
The man sighed with relief. "I think I've got a virus. I downloaded something, and it started acting funny. I have a few antivirus programs running and I paid for a computer cleaner software, but it was still acting weird. I got this guy on the phone from Microsoft who was helping me and I gave him my card info-"
Rey groaned. She was not drunk enough for this. "Did you really give someone your card information? Over the phone?"
"Uhh...yes?"
She took a deep breath.
"Let me get this straight," she said politely (hopefully), disregarding the fact that she was absolutely going to be late to class, "You have multiple antivirus softwares running. You downloaded something questionable that made your computer act odd, and then you called a number - and, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing this number was in a pop-up?"
He nodded. Oh, gods.
"And you called it, and gave them your card info?"
He hesitated, and added, "First I let them have remote access to fix the issue, but they weren't able to, so I gave them my card info for advanced support.."
"Oh good," Rey laughed sarcastically. "That- that's great. Ah, Mr. Solo, I can almost guarantee that was a scam. I don't mind taking a look at your computer and I'll do what I can, but I think you need to call your credit card company."
"You're kidding."
She sighed, and glanced up at him, answering dryly, "Now you know how I feel." With a snort, she said, "Drop it off tonight? I'll be home a little after eight, but I've got to get to class. We can figure out prices and stuff then?"
"Sure, sure," he answered, seeming relieved and completely oblivious to how terribly he'd screwed up his poor computer. "See you then."
Three days later and his computer was still a fucking mess.
Really though, she shouldn't have expected anything else from someone who had his username and password taped to his laptop on a sticky note (username: Ben_Solo, password: BenSolo111988), especially when she was pretty sure his password was actually his birthday.
It was a relatively new computer but somehow the guy managed to have Clippy, a little feature she hadn't seen since her mom was still using a computer from the '90s, and dear lord the guy had about a dozen toolbars installed along with at least three types of antivirus software, two of which were sketchy at best.
Rey flopped back on her bed and worked on homework (a stupidly simple Python program) while setting the various nightmare programs to uninstall. It took half the night just to clean up the poor machine, and after she was done uninstalling all the random crap, she restarted it, reminding herself to give the laptop's owner a firm talking-to about adequate passwords as she typed his in.
It started up normally, with only a slight delay, and just as she thought she'd possibly helped, three or four things popped up, and Rey groaned again.
One was the pop-up he'd undoubtedly seen ("Alert! Your computer has a virus! Call this number for assistance!), a bunch were your typical spam, and one-
What-
What the-
Her jaw hit the floor. Sort of. At the very least, she fish-gaped at the screen for a solid minute or two, reading over the text of the word document that had popped up for no apparent reason. Had she accidentally clicked on it?
Rey didn't think she had. It had the innocuous name of "Stuff" and it seemed to be saved directly on his desktop, but she didn't think she'd clicked on anything.
The contents were a little shocking. Sort of. Possibly the most confusing part was that she had no context for the list. The items on it were...interesting.
Fool around in the elevator.
Sex in public.
Go on a date.
Oral while on video-conference with fucking Dameron.
Tie someone up.
Marathon.
Have someone stay over
Anal.
Sex in the car.
Facesitting.
It kept going from there, but after a moment, Rey realized she was looking at some sort of sexual-ish bucket list.
Though, really, it was odd that "Go on a date" was right between sex in public and oral while on a video-conference with fucking Dameron, whoever that was. It seemed pretty clear that he hadn't put the list in any sort of order and she had to wonder, exactly what the fuck was this and why hadn't he crossed things off?
Surely the man had been on a date. Surely the man had a woman stay over now and then. She scanned part of the list (her eyebrows raising at more than one item), before finally coming to one that answered all her questions.
Stop being a 30 year old virgin.
Suddenly, she had a whole bunch of new questions and the answers to all of them were far more interesting than resolving whatever issues were still lingering with his computer, so she closed it up and jumped off her bed, feeling oddly brave as she swapped her sweats for yoga pants and a slouchy (but flattering) dark purple sweater.
The idea that crossed her mind was insane. Insane.
Still, she inspected herself quickly in the mirror, happy with what she saw, then snatched up his computer and charger and bounded out of her room, and apartment.
Mr. Solo lived in the apartment next to hers - she never really saw the older woman who lived directly across from her, nor the guy who lived across from Mr. Solo (though she was pretty sure his name was Finn, and while drunk Rose had admitted to her crush on him), and if Rey wasn't mistaken, her bedroom shared a wall with Mr. Solo's (or with his spare bedroom, depending on which one he slept in).
She was in front of his door less than a minute later, and she knocked at it before she lost her nerve. This was potentially very stupid, especially when she considered his apparent age and what that meant for her age difference. Doing a bit of math, she realized he was a decade older than her. Oh gods, what if he thought of her as a silly kid or something?
He opened the door before she had the chance to chicken out.
Well, no, that didn't quite describe it. He didn't simply answer the door, at least not in the manner she'd expected.
Dark gray sweatpants hung from his hips, low enough to show that elusive v only male models seemed to have and he was shirtless, and holy shit who knew the guy was shredded? She certainly hadn't known, and the revelation only made her more sure of what she was about to suggest. His hair was damp, suggesting he'd just left the shower, and beads of water trailed down his chest.
She wanted to lick them as the rolled down him.
"Oh, hi, Rey - is the computer all set?" he asked politely, apparently oblivious to the fact that she was going to suggest something highly inappropriate in mere seconds.
"Uhhhh. Sort of. Mind if I come in?"
His brows furrowed, curious by her non-answer, but he shrugged and stepped back, holding the door open for her.
The apartment was similar to her own, though much cleaner (they did their best, but she and Rose were constantly busy and struggled to keep up with organizing and cleaning). Just like theirs, it had an open-concept kitchen, dining room and living room, but most of his walls were lined with bookcases, each filled to the brim with titles she couldn't quite make out. The man was obviously a bookworm and somehow that just made him more attractive.
...did he ever wear glasses?
It was possible she had an undiscovered librarian kink, Rey realized, just as she remembered a particularly relevant item from the document - roleplay.
Biting at her lip, she set his laptop down on his dining room table, turning back to him and deciding to handle business first. "Ah, so...Mr. Solo-"
"Ben is fine."
Swallowing, she nodded. "Right. Ben. Okay, well, your computer is-" Rey hesitated, watching closely as he leaned back against his kitchen counter, listening intently while she was busy staring at the way his arms crossed over his chest, "-well, it's not good. I cleared up quite a few things, but I'm concerned with the fact that someone had remote access. I've thought about it, and I think it might be best to back-up your data and wipe the computer."
He hesitated, and sighed, running a hand though dark, damp hair. Rey watched closely as drops landed on his shoulders and rolled down from there, and barely paid attention as he said, "Okay. Whatever you think is best. I can't believe I gave them my info. I cancelled my card, so really, thank you. I feel like such an idiot.."
"Don't," she said quickly, "Obviously you shouldn't have installed what you did and I'd say you should be more careful with passwords and things like that, but people fall for this stuff every day. It happens all the time."
Ben offered her a faint smile, and she happened to remember the other thing she was there to talk about.
She could already feel the blush on her cheeks as she said, "So, when I restarted your computer a few things popped up. Things that included a document…"
When Rey glanced up to his face, she noticed his expression had schooled into something calm and unassuming. "Oh?"
"Mm, and there were some interesting things in that document."
His voice was low and almost a whisper as he asked, "What sort of things?"
Biting at the inside of her cheek, Rey figured she'd play it brave, and said confidently, "Things I think I could help you with."
It was silent, but while watching him she noticed him take a deep breath, and he took a few steps closer to her, tilting his head as he glanced down at her. The corner of his lips quirked up.
"Oh?"
Just judging on his reaction alone it seemed he didn't mind the idea, and she grinned up at him. "Uh huh. I think I could help you cross a few things off your list."
Leaning in closer - so much closer than she'd expected him to get this early, he stared down at her lips and murmured, "And what if I want to cross off more than a few things?"
"We can cross off all of it for all I care," she blurted out, before remembering she hadn't read the whole list. It was only when he grinned that she started wondering exactly what she'd just volunteered for.