"Elf" - A Reylo AU

Mos Eisley Department Store

Cassian nodded his head in thanks at the barista as she handed him his coffee. It was barely seven in the morning and he was already headed into work. He really hadn't been lying last night when he told Sabine he was behind on work. After the 'elf incident', he wasn't in the right mind set for work and the rest of the day had gone in the trash. However, today would be different. Today it would be back to business as usual. He would start the day off by checking the numbers followed by some story boarding. Yes - a nice, normal day at work.

He was too engrossed in his thoughts about anything besides work that he didn't realize he had reached the dozen display windows of the Mos Eisley Department Store. Brightly wrapped gift boxes were displayed next to various mannequins to advertise the holiday goods Mos Eisley had to offer. While he walked past these displays five days a week - seven on a bad week - he had never paid them no mind. That was until today.

He backtracked five steps past the third window he had just passed.

"You've got to be kidding me...." He grumbled to himself as he gazed in the window.

Fast asleep and curled up in a tree skirt was Rey. A dusting of fake snow clung to the skirt. She was still wearing her pink and red elf outfit.

Still paused in front of the window, Cassian bobbed his head in an attempt to see if there was any sort of security officer he could flag down from within the store.

How she was alerted to his presence outside the window he would never know.

"DAD!"

Startled - Cassian jumped, nearly dropping his coffee.

Rey had awoken and had both hands pressed up against the glass like a puppy in a pet store window.

"DAD!!!" She cried out again, knocking her hand on the glass to get his attention. "Dad, it's me!!!"

Cassian's mind blanked and he immediately turned on his heel, beginning to speed walk towards the crosswalk.

X0X0X

Rey untangled herself from the tree skirt and darted as quickly as she could to the nearest exit. Ignoring the blaring sound of the emergency alarm she had just triggered, she raced outside and onto the sidewalk. She looked up and down the street for any sign of the tan leather jacket her dad had been wearing. Nothing. Just the sights of the busy New York streets with the Empire State Building in the background.

That was it! The Empire State Building! He had to have gone there. Without looking, Rey began to cross the street - causing a large yellow taxi to blare its horn at her. She yelped at the sound before hastily yelling an apology as she hurried towards the other side of the street. Once there, she stood nervously outside the revolving doors. Through the glass doors she could make out the two men who had removed her from the building yesterday. If she walked in, they would just send her back to the department store. She would have to find another way in.

She continued down the sidewalk and the length of the building. She skidded to a halt as a delivery truck backed up into an alleyway. A side door to the building opened up and a red hired man stepped out to greet the delivery driver. While they were occupied with unloading the truck, Rey snuck around them and into the building.

This part of the building was unlike the fancy lobby she had been in yesterday. Instead, she was faced with a series of hallways and doors, everything concrete and gray. Rumblings of mechanics filtered down from one hallway. A completely different, yet familiar sound echoed down the other. Ignoring the cement staircase in front of her, she turned down the hall and towards the soft sound of woodwind instruments.