Chapter Text
“This is all your fault,” Ben accused the enraged expression on his face utterly at odds with the soft clasp of his hand curled around her much smaller one.
She didn’t see his furious face, however, twisted away in her attempt to break free, the breakroom table an awkward obstacle between them.
“My fault?” she shrieked back.
“Yes,” he seethed, reiterating between his clenched teeth, “your fault. Did I stutter?”
She answered with a shocked outcry, tugging that much harder on his hand in her desperation to escape. It was no good. His fingers grasped tighter.
“Actually,” a prim, sharp voice interrupted, “you’re both to blame.”
It had been a long night. A long couple of nights, if Rey was being perfectly honest. While she was beyond happy for her roommate’s blossoming romance, their newly developed relationship was far from quiet.
Perhaps it was petty, Rey couldn’t say she was particularly proud of her actions, but Poe was just so obnoxiously proud of himself at the breakfast table each morning that the need to swipe his smug smirk from his ruggedly handsome face had overcome her. This morning he had licked the butterknife after using it on his toast, eye-fucking Finn obscenely as he did so.
Finn was her best friend, more of a brother than a roommate, but if she was kept up until the early hours by his breathy moans one more night, she would rip her hair out. She really was ecstatic for him. She just didn’t want to hear him getting fucked senseless by his boyfriend in such excruciating detail.
Rey didn’t think she was being unreasonable to want a full night’s sleep uninterrupted by wild sex sounds.
It had been a harmless prank, to begin with.
She had always had a knack for potion brewing, enough so that she now led the potions development team at Organa Remedies, and frequently created new elixirs on the fly. Nothing was quite so inspiring as spite and sleep deprivation, so she quickly composed a noise-sensitivity potion to slip Poe before bed. She left the small vial of pearlescent, pale blue liquid at her workstation before leaving for lunch. Rey didn’t consider how similar it looked to another potion that was in production at Organa Remedies, namely a drought for curing headaches.
Poe would be kept up by every slight sound: the ticking of his watch, Finn’s heart thudding in his sleep, the refrigerator humming in the kitchen. Maybe then he might comprehend how detrimental constant noise was to sleep.
She enjoyed paninis with Kaydel and Rose, Leia’s personal assistant and the head of marketing respectively, not at all concerned that she had left her lab unlocked, just as she would any other day.
Rey was stunned when she returned to her lab less than an hour later, lagging from the carbs and ready to continue working on the newest line in development, only to find a large man collapsed next to her workstation in the fetal position. She rushed over in a panic, her heels clicking loudly on the sterile tile flooring, the man flinching as she approached. Rey mentally cataloged all the hazardous materials he could have come into contact with but there were too many to list.
“Sir,” she crouched over him, gently shaking his shoulder. “Can you tell me what you touched?”
He groaned back, a low keening sound in the back of his throat, his features twisted in pain. His hands clapped over both of his ears, his body curling further into itself.
“--s too loud.”
Rey glanced at her workstation in realization, the potion she had brewed for Poe earlier was missing. She winced. He must have mistaken it for a headache cure, only to have taken a potion that would amplify every minuscule noise by ten times.
She cursed under her breath. She didn’t have an antidote on hand for this, she had only just developed it this morning. Scrambling to her feet, she crossed the room into her storage closet and snatched two doses of the actual potion he had been looking for. Hopefully, the extra dosage would counteract the effects of her potion.
When she returned to him a moment later, he accepted the potion in small sips from the corner of his full mouth. After finishing the first vial, he was able to sit up with a petulant scowl, wordlessly taking the second dose from her.
Rey opened her mouth, fully prepared to ask him how he felt and if he was alright when he interrupted with a harsh snap.
“What the fuck was that?”
She stiffened, pursing her lips. If anyone should be asking questions, it was her! Who the hell was he, invading her lab and taking an unlabeled potion from her station? It could have been something much more dangerous than a noise-amplifying potion--he could have died.
“What kind of idiot takes random potions?” she snarked back, “I don’t even know you, you can’t just barge into my lab and test out my potions willy-nilly.”
“My name is Ben Solo,” he replied with a tone that implied she should know who that was and be impressed.
“I’m Rey Niima, Lead Potions Developer,” she answered in a matching tone. She had no patience for self-important wizards who believed they needed no introduction.
“Where the hell is Maz? She would never allow such experimental nonsense…”
Maz was an excellent potions master and had helped Leia build the company from the ground up. She had also retired three years ago in favor of spending time with her several grandchildren, but not before helping mold her into the witch she was today. Maz had been a wonderful mentor and was well-known throughout the magical community. But she cast a long shadow and Rey knew her work would constantly be compared to Maz’s, the gold standard.
She could feel his piercing gaze look straight through her, judging in silence. She had been garnering similar looks of disdain for as long as she could remember--first in foster care, as one of the few magical users in Jakku, and later in school, in her grungy jeans, surrounded by wealthy witches and wizards that didn’t need a special scholarship to afford their textbooks. She wore flouncy blouses and pencil skirts under her lab coat, refusing to stand out like a sore thumb now that she had started a career.
She may have slipped through the cracks in the system, not taking her assessment until she was nearly fifteen, but she had spent every waking moment absorbing all the knowledge she could to compensate. Rey was at the top of her field, she had no reason to feel any shame.
“I am more than capable of leading my team,” Rey answered brusquely, brushing her hands down the front of her skirt to smooth the wrinkles. “Now if you could be so kind as to vacate my lab, I have work to do.”
“You have no idea who I am, do you?” he murmured, astounded by her blase attitude.
Rey didn’t care if she offended his sensibilities. “Nor am I interested in finding out.”
She might have been before he had so rudely barked at her. He had a magnetic face, one she could look at for hours, studying each mismatched feature to puzzle how they fit together so well, despite being awkward individually. If only he hadn’t opened that soft, pink mouth of his and ruined it.
“Rose,” Rey spun towards her friend, unable to hide her growing trepidation as she spoke in a flustered voice, “what are you doing?”
“Release us at once!” Ben insisted, giving her his most threatening glare.
“No can do, you two,” Rose grinned, deftly twirling her wand in her fingers before sliding it into a pocket along the inner lining of her blazer. “Once the spell is cast, it’s entirely up to the bound individuals to free themselves. I’m afraid my hands are tied…or rather, yours are.”
She giggled at her own joke, enjoying their predicament entirely too much.
“This isn’t funny,” Ben said with increasing alarm, “I’ll have my mother fire you for this--”
At that, Rose laughed from deep in her belly. “Oh, sweet, innocent Ben. Leia isn’t going to do shit.”
Even Rey found this odd. “What--”
“It was her idea,” she pronounced breezily, relishing in what had to be mirrored expressions of horror.
“At least tell us the parameters of the spell!” Ben growled, gesturing wildly with both hands and flopping her connected arm with them. “How do we break it?”
Rose looked between them pointedly. “I think you already know.”
Disappointment dropped into her stomach like a heavy stone. Rose was one of Rey’s closest friends, and she would have never applied to work at Organa Remedies if not for her insistence, but at that moment, she thought she might hate Rose just a tiny, little bit. Because she had an idea of what Rose meant and if Rey was right about the binding spell, she and Ben weren’t going to be separated any time soon.
No. This was about to get a whole lot worse.
Despite growing into a booming corporation, Leia Organa still went to the weekly department meetings each Tuesday. She usually observed each presenting department lead with all of the calm collectedness of a ruling queen.
It was at one of these meetings that the infamous Ben Solo reappeared. Rey had nearly forgotten about Ben in the two weeks since meeting him. Nearly.
It was difficult to forget eyes like those, even when they were narrowed in anger. She quickly remembered his rudeness before, frowning back at him. He sat to the right of Leia, his expression growing bored as he scanned the other members of the meeting. Ben clearly thought he was above the rest of them, and she told herself then that she wasn’t going to give him an inch. If he gave her a hard time, she would stand her ground.
Rey knew she was likely the youngest in the room, the least experienced witch out of all the department heads. If he was nearly as important as he made himself seem, he probably knew as well. She could think of no other reason for him to hold her in particular disdain over anyone else, even after the mix-up in her lab--which was entirely his own damned fault.
She should be used to wizards looking down their noses at her but she stewed in silence as she waited for the meeting to begin, unable to enjoy her glazed donut or even pay attention to Jannah, who worked on venom antidotes for magical creatures, as she chatted about her weekend with Kaydel.
“Before we begin,” Leia stated, standing at the head of the conference table and drawing the attention of the room, “I would like to make an announcement. Before I do, however, I would like to introduce you to our new head of finance, Ben Solo.”
He rose in one smooth motion, towering comically over Leia as she gestured towards him with an open palm. A stilted round of applause broke around the room as everyone exchanged bewildered looks. What had happened to Han, their previous head?
“I was previously CFO at First Order Enchantments, so I am already familiar with the current market and have ample experience in the role. I’ll be meeting with department heads in the next week to discuss your current projects and expectations. My assistant will reach out to schedule meeting times later today.”
Leia gave him a bemused smile as he returned to his seat.
“Han has stepped down as CFO as of last Friday, in a rather impulsive decision to retire.”
The group laughed awkwardly when she paused, gauging the different faces at the table, She had hired all of them over the years, personally cultivating a team that felt more like a family. Perhaps more to her than most at Organa Remedies, who had actual families to go home to. That was neither here nor there.
“And in a year, I will be joining him. In that time, Ben will be preparing to take over as CEO of Organa Remedies.”
The room was stunned into silence. How could it be Organa Remedies without Leia Organa at the helm? Rey leaned back into her chair, at a loss for words. Her entire world was about to change and she had a feeling it wouldn’t be for the better.
She glanced at Ben again, her stomach falling out from under her when she discovered him staring at her from the other side of the table. A chilling sensation ran up her spine as she wondered how long it would be before he tried to have her fired.
He had made it obvious he preferred working with Maz, at least she could be comforted by the fact there was very little that could convince her to leave retirement. She had her precious grandchildren to spoil.
The meeting continued on with the usual agenda but Rey felt suspended in horror, his eyes never once looking away.
Ben Solo had no idea what he had done to deserve this. He was a decent human being, most of the time, and even though he didn’t always agree with societal norms, he did believe in having a moral code. Regardless of whatever Rey might think of him.
If it had been anyone else, Ben wouldn’t have given a single thought to being disliked. He might even have enjoyed it just a bit--he never claimed to be perfect. But Rey hated his guts. She thought he was a pompous, self-important wizard that was constantly casting judgment.
Ben never had been great at forming first impressions. With Rey, he wasn’t sure he could have done any worse if he had tried. After this incident, she would loathe him entirely.
He couldn’t imagine anything that would bring her less pleasure than being magically bound to him for the foreseeable future.
It had taken him only a moment to recognize the spell--it was his mother’s handiwork after all--after Rose’s pointed look, but it didn’t matter. There was no way he could break the spell. Not when it would ruin their tense relationship if he dared to call it that.
No, Ben would rather be stuck to her seething form than have to tell her what truly lay in the depths of his heart.
He wondered how bad it could really get. Regardless, it couldn’t be nearly as terrible as bearing his soul to a woman who saw him as being closer to a monster than a man. Nothing could be nearly as bad as watching how her lovely features would morph with disgust at realizing how deeply he yearned for her.
Maybe he would spontaneously combust and never have to admit to Rey that his heart raced whenever she entered a room, that her dedication to her work was more than just admirable but downright attractive. It was sexy, even, when she got absorbed in developing a new formula, her entire world falling away, and the entirety of reality was reduced to a short list of ingredients. She didn’t want to hear that, he knew very well.
She had already made her own feelings obvious.
Even now, trapped to him against her will, she couldn’t bear to so much as a glance in his direction. She had dragged him into her lab fifteen minutes ago, flitting one way and then the next in a flurry of activity, pulling him along the way as she gathered ingredients. He watched with shrewd interest as she worked with one hand, refusing to ask for his assistance when it would require acknowledging his existence. She clearly didn’t need it, aptly whisking her wand to heat a small, tabletop cauldron.
She tossed in a syrupy, orange liquid he didn’t recognize, followed by a handful of newt eyes, some crushed scarab shells, and a handful of various dried herbs. The concoction bubbled, foaming as it dissolved the ingredients. Steam rose from the cauldron as she stirred it.
With grim determination, she poured the mixture over their joint hands, unphased by how uncomfortably hot it still was as it slid over their skin and slopped onto the tile floor. Still, their hands remained bound.
Ben exhaled slowly. “That’s never going to work.”
He didn’t think anything of it until she spun towards him in realization.
“How the hell do you know?”
Fuck.
His meeting with Rey Niima had gone badly. Ben was somewhat clueless when it came to social interactions but he was aware enough to know that much. Though he had managed to fumble his way through meeting with the other department heads, she had already formed her opinion of him long before stepping into his office.
Their fateful meeting in her lab hadn’t gone particularly well either. It was his own fault for assuming Maz still ran potions development, just as she had through his whole life. He had spent much of his boyhood at Organa Remedies, waiting for his parents to emerge from their endless board meetings. Rather than twiddling his thumbs for hours on end, he had popped in on Maz. She had kept him busy for hours, giving him the most basic tasks. He recalled grinding various herbs in her smallest mortar and pestle or crushing mugwort roots to extract the oils. Maz had inspired his interest in the field of Remedies more than his mother or father ever had.
He had resisted working for his mother, knowing too well what his colleagues would say. Ben wanted to prove he was more than his parents’ name, that he deserved the legacy they left him through his own merit. Not because it had been handed to him.
He hadn’t thought twice about entering Maz’s lab and grabbing a potion for his headache. He had done so many times before. Whatever had been in that vial, it wasn’t Maz’s cure for headaches.
He had barked at her--the pretty witch that came running to his aid, Rey-- before thinking. Ben never had possessed much control of his fat mouth. He’d ruined any chance he had with her before even knowing her name.
Ben had only made matters worse in their meeting. In what had to be the clumsiest moment of his life, he had sloshed a full cup of hot coffee down the front of her white dress. Angry as she had been about being doused by a hot drink, that was nothing compared to what happened when he tried to help. Apparently, if two people cast a stain removal spell on the same subject, it soaked the garment through, revealing the soft, pink underthings she wore beneath.
She hadn’t needed to say a thing sitting ramrod straight in her armchair, utterly drenched through. Rage emanated from her pores as cold water dripped to the floor.
Even her shivers did very little to subdue the fire of her rage.
“You can hate me all you want,” she had quietly seethed, “but you can’t force me to leave.”
Then she had stomped out of his office without a backward glance, their introductory meeting forgotten in her ire.
That had been a month ago. She had avoided him outside of the mandatory weekly department meetings and Ben would have assumed she resigned if not for the intimate knowledge that she had no intention to leave.
Until now. He stilled outside the employee breakroom at the sound of her lilting voice, his chest filling with bubbles that threatened to lift him off the floor. She was alone with Rose, speaking in low, harsh tones.
“--e’s really not so bad, Rey. I think you just need a fresh start, pretend he never--”
Rey interrupted her with a scoff. “Pretend he never belittled me?”
Rose sighed.
“Pretend he didn’t dump an entire cup of coffee on me, or…”
His eyes widened. She was talking about him. Ben swallowed thickly, ignoring the instinct to back away before he heard more of their conversation. If he had any sense of conservation, he would have.
“He didn’t so much as apologize for drenching me, did you know that? He just stared at me like I was the one to spill my drink.”
“Rey…”
“No!” she interjected. “I know you want me to just suck it up to make it easier on everyone else. I know you want me to be the grown-up in this situation. But I can’t, Rose. You should have seen the way he looked at me like…like I was a drowned rat or some other pitiful little creature that got caught underfoot--”
Ben blinked down at his shoes. He hadn’t meant…but it didn’t matter what he had meant to do, or not. Rey hated him.