Music And Silence- A Reylo AU

Chapter 17- Hot Chocolate

The meeting with StarKiller had turned into a bit of a party. Phoebe had turned up around 9 pm, and the StarKiller executives had loved her. They had wanted to convince her that modelling for them was a good idea, to which Phoebe kept saying I'm a lawyer, but it hadn't deterred them in any way, and numbers had been swapped. Around 11.30 pm, they'd finally left. Ben told everyone to head home and he'd clean up. Phoebe and Hux tried to hang back, but he insisted, and they went with Finn and Poe. Ben cleared everything away, and just before midnight, he grabbed his motorcycle helmet from the gallery, turned off the lights and set the alarms. Phoebe was staying over, as she did most Friday nights, so Ben planned to drive around and then go to Mary's before heading home. Tonight, in particular, he'd need the ride because right now, Rae was with Corey. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily, then continued to lock up the building and went round to get his bike. As he did so, he saw someone leaning against the wall, a familiar figure he felt he'd know anywhere.

"Rae?"

The figure moved away from the wall and turned towards him; it was her, and she looked different.

"Rae, what are you doing here?" As he walked towards her, he could see her face more distinctly; she seemed agitated and distressed. "Oh my god, are you OK? Did he hurt you?" he placed his hands on her arms and searched her face and what he could see of her body with his eyes.

"No, no. He didn't. I'm fine. Honestly." She looked at him, "I just have the worst taste in men."

He let go of her arms and walked back to his bike, opening his top box and removing his spare helmet that Hux usually wore. He returned to Rae, who was standing there a little bit like a zombie, staring into space. He walked over and plonked the helmet rather unceremoniously on her head. He checked it was on OK, and then, taking her hand, he dragged her towards his bike. He let go of her hand as he wheeled it out onto the road, straddled it, pulled his helmet on and started up the engine. He knocked the stand up and turned to look at Rae; she was standing there. He lifted his visor, "Rae," he said, reaching out a hand for her; she took it and mounted the bike behind him. He could feel her get comfy and look for something to hold onto, eventually deciding to hold onto the chrome bars on which his top box was mounted. He drove to where he'd been planning on going- Mary's.

It wasn't a long drive; the streets were busy with taxis and buses and the odd person who actually drove their car around London at night. That's why he rode a bike to avoid all of that. Rae shifted her weight perfectly as he glided through the traffic in the glow of the street lights. Ben parked up next to the floating barge and turned the engine off, putting the stand back down; Rae got off first and stood to wait for him without removing the helmet. Ben took his helmet off and peered down at her, then rapped her on her helmeted head.

"You gonna take that off?" he asked as he undid her chin strap.

Rae pulled it off and handed it back to him, still utterly silent, which was unlike her.

"OK, come on, Walker," he said. Ben steered Rae towards the entrance of Mary's late-night cafe, his arm around her back. Once through the door, he shepherded Rae towards his usual window booth that overlooked the river.

Mary shuffled over to the booth, "Hey, honey, usual?"

Ben looked over at Mary. She was short, really short, with the sort of glasses that magnified her eyes- milk bottle bottom kind of spectacles. She was great, and he liked her enormously; she was kind and wrinkled, like a great aunt.

"Please and a ..." he looked over at Rae, who was staring out over the river, "a hot chocolate, please."

"Coming right up," Mary waddled off to the counter area.