Shed Some Light

End of Me (Apocalyptica ft. Gavin Rossdale)

Ben woke to the sound of Rey's phone ringing. He cursed when he recognized the ringtone as Finn's. Frankly, Ben wasn't looking forward to hearing whatever dumb reason Rey gave him for not coming home that night. He couldn't wait for the day that Rey decided to tell everyone. "Rey, get up and answer your phone," he grumbled, pushing her to wake up.

"Fuck, its Finn," she quickly got out of bed. "Hey Finn," she answered, trying to act normal. "Sorry I didn't text you last night, we fell asleep during a writing session," she lied. "I'll be home this afternoon," she promised.

"Okay, we were just worried about you," Finn said, skeptical of her response but not wanting to believe the alternative. "I'll see you later."

When Rey hung up Ben's brain couldn't seem to filter his thoughts directly after unexpectedly being woken up, "You know, sometimes it feels like Finn is your boyfriend and I'm your side piece."

"You know it's not like that," Rey replied sadly. She had thought he'd accepted their relationship being a secret, but it was clear that he was hiding his true feelings. "You promised we were okay."

"We are," he said, though neither of them completely believed his words. "I'm sorry, it's just taking me a while to get use to it," Ben got up and moved to her, pulling her back into bed. "I'm working on it."

"It won't be forever," she told him as she pressed her face against his chest.

"You know what might help?" he grinned as he pulled her further up his body as if she weighed nothing. "Morning sex," he told her, pulling her in for a kiss as he tried to forget the rest of the world and her stupid excuses as to why they couldn't just bet together like a normal couple. Before they could get very far Ben's phone rang, causing him to groan. "It's my mother," his words immediately killing the mood.

"You better get it then," sighed as she rolled off him. It was already a frustrating morning.

"Hey mom," he tried to sound as normal as possible and not like he was frustrated by her call. "What's up?" he asked, hoping to get off the phone as quickly as possible so he could make breakfast and hopefully rekindle the mood before Rey went home.

"I have a favor to ask," she told him. He didn't say anything, he just waited expectantly for her to continue, "You remember that instrumental band you worked with about a year ago, The X-Wings?"

"Yeah, what about them?" he asked. He knew one of their songs with a featured singer, Cassian Andor, had made it big. They were cool guys that were fun to work with, but they hadn't really kept in contact since completing the album.

"Well, Cassian just found out he needs to have emergency surgery and cannot perform. He's on bed rest for at least a month," she explained and he did not like where it was going. "They're supposed to perform the song at the Grammy's, I was hoping you'd fill in for him."

"You're serious?" he asked, it was clearly not his day.

"If you don't they'll fill they're spot with someone else and rumor is that it'll be Star Killer. They just released a new album and it's not going over well, they need the publicity. I don't think your feud with Hux is helping them any," she told him. "Please?"

"The Grammy's are literally a week away, that's not a lot of time to practice. I know the song, I wrote it, but that doesn't mean I'm performance ready. It's been a long time," he argued. "There isn't anyone else that can do it?"

"No one that knows it like you. Don't give me stupid excuses, you're always performance ready."

"No need for flattery, I'll do it," he sighed. "You just had to throw Star Killer in there," he mumbled.