Music And Silence- A Reylo AU

Chapter 12- The Weekend Away

With Paige and Wesley's wedding imminent a birthday celebration for Phoebe had fallen at the wayside but Hux was on it and had planned a weekend away for everyone to the coast over the bank holiday weekend. They hired a house with a pool and hot tub on the Dorset coast, a beautiful place Rae had once worked after university- Weymouth. It would be a long drive from London and to ensure they didn't spend the entire weekend stuck in traffic they'd all agreed to make the long weekend even longer by taking the Friday and Tuesday off work. Hux and Ben had made it a long weekend for all their employees and closed the office. Everyone had been delighted, two extra days and not part of their holiday time, but under the knowledge that the following Friday the big Starkiller meeting was happening, so be ready.

They were going to travel down in convoy Paige, Wesley, Finn and Rose in one car, Phoebe, Hux, Rae and Ben in the other. Rae wasn't exactly thrilled to have to share the back seat with Ben for what would be at least a three-hour drive, but everyone else was a couple so she'd have to endure it, it was only fair. As it was the drive down wasn't as painful as she thought it would be. Hux owned a decently sized car, despite walking to work and living in London; how the other half live Rae mused to herself. A Toyota hybrid CH-R it was like a 4x4, with high seats and plenty of legroom and thank goodness otherwise she and Ben might be touching on the back seat. As it was Ben's hair brushed the roof, and he had to sit with his legs apart so that he wasn't kneeing Phoebe in the back. Phoebe had pulled her seat as far forward as she could without touching the dashboard, but he'd told her it was fine. It occurred to Rae that there were way too many giants in this car!

The journey down had been ok, not too much traffic and a decent selection of music, mostly acoustic rock- Incubus, Foo Fighters, Stone Sour along with others. The car sounded a bit like a weird karaoke as everyone sang along-everyone, and to Rae's surprise that included Mr silent- Ben. He had a pleasant voice; unsurprisingly, it was deep, and he sang along quietly, usually an octave below the actual song. At one point a song Rae loved came on, Incubus Drive and she sang it at the top of her lungs. Afterwards, Hux had commented that she was quite the singer and Phoebe interjected about the fact that Rae was quite the musician privately.

"What do you play?" Ben had asked.

Wow, he was initiating conversation.

"I play the piano, used to play the violin but it kind of sounds like I'm killing a cat these days."

He nodded.

"Ben plays the guitar. Done a few open mics, haven't you mate? " Hux had offered from the driver's seat.

Ben nodded again.

"Oh yeah me too. Thought you were shy?" Rae had said perking with interest at this thing they had in common.

"Music, singing, in particular, helped with my stutter in school," he responded.

"Yeah, I've heard that," Rae acknowledged. "Do you still do open mics?"

"Sometimes," he said, giving her a sidelong stare before gazing back out the car window. That ended that conversation but the atmosphere within the car didn't deteriorate as they continued singing along to the music.

..........................................

The house Hux had rented was incredible! An old farmhouse with gorgeous original features, fireplaces, thatched roof, huge farmhouse kitchen, unlevel floors and narrow winding staircases. The living room even had an old upright piano much to Rae's delight, at home in their tiny flat she had a keyboard, and it just wasn't the same. As the couple's eagerly shot-gunned the bedrooms in the central area of the farmhouse, Rae and Ben were left to take the narrowest staircase on the other side of the farmhouse to two rooms that were opposite each other. Rae reached the top of the stairs and stood in the extremely narrow corridor, opened both doors and looked at two pretty identical rooms, small but with a double bed. She turned to ask Ben whether he had a preference for the two bedrooms but stopped dead because Ben seemed to be nearly wedged in the staircase he was so big. She giggled, and as he continued to squeeze his way up the stairs, she started to burst into hysterics.