Chapter Text
It was high noon outside, but Rey wouldn’t have known.
Her room was still submerged in darkness when her phone lit up, painting the old furniture a deep shade of blue. She grumbled into her pillow, trying to drown out the unbearably upbeat tune of her alarm and the rattling of the prehistoric end table that threatened to give up and fall apart under the persistent buzzing. It couldn’t be time to wake up. She had slept for ten minutes, for crying out loud.
Only she hadn’t. It was midday, and she knew any hesitation to wake up now would mean showing up late to work.
Again.
Sighing heavily, she swatted her tangled hair away from her face, dragging herself out of bed one leg at a time; eventually commanding both to take her to the bathroom. The light blinded her for a second, and she blinked rapidly, bringing her hand over her eyes. When she regained her vision, the woman squinting back at her in the mirror made her sigh. Today, the issue wasn’t the hopelessly knotted hair nor the puffiness under her eyes, though, but the redness spreading through her temples, blatant even against her tanned skin.
The tell-tale signs of having ripped latex prosthetics less carefully than she should have.
“Shit,” she cursed under her breath, reaching for the mildest cleanser she had on the collection next to her sink. The water felt icy against her skin, but Rey still took her time rubbing the remainders of her skincare off her face, her fingers feather-light as they massaged her forehead. Patting her face dry on a clean towel, she went back into the bedroom, reaching for the big silver case that sat under her old vanity.
The clasps came undone with a loud thud, and she opened the case carefully, kneeling in front of it before she fished out a small white jar. With another long sigh, she got up again, dragging herself back to the bathroom. Under normal circumstances, she’d save the La Mer moisturizer for clients whose bills justified the obscene amount of money she had spent on those 3.4 fl.oz. These weren’t normal circumstances, though, because she knew she would never hear the end of it if her skin wasn’t pampered today. Carefully taking a pea-sized amount of cream from the jar with a brand new disposable spatula, she applied it to her face, massaging the skin on her temples.
“There, happy?” she mumbled, patting the reddened areas gently for good measure. She then returned the jar to her case, pushed it back under the vanity and reached for the yellow Carmex tube that sat on its worn-out wooden surface.
“No makeup today, then,” she said to herself, applying the balm to her lips. Not until her skin decided she was forgiven, she thought as she walked towards the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee.
It was nearly one o’clock when she finally grabbed her keys from the coffee table and made for the door, throwing her shopper bag’s well-loved leather strap over her shoulder. Fumbling for the right key, she threw a quick glance at the mirror on the wall, and the sight made her scrunch up her nose. There was something missing, she thought, eyeing the white t-shirt she had tucked into some comfy mom jeans. Maybe a pop of color on the shoes? She stared down at her white Converse, pursing her lips as she wiggled her toes. No. Way too comfortable. Sighing, she buried her arm in her bag, feeling for bullet-shaped plastic.
It was there. She knew it was. Somewhere around… Aha.
Pulling the lid out with a pop, she twisted the base of the lipstick, leaning closer to the mirror to coat her lips in crimson. Can’t go wrong with Ruby Woo, she thought, shoving the lipstick back into its hiding place before she finally made it out the door.
***
The subway ride to Rebel Broadcasting System was long, but unusually calm in the early afternoon. When the train doors opened, Rey managed to grab a seat by the window, pulling her phone out of her pocket. Her lips curled into a smile as she scrolled through notifications - mostly likes and comments on the picture she’d posted two days before.
A successful post, at last.
It was a simple glam look she’d splotched with what appeared to be a huge watercolor stain, spreading from her right temple down to her nose, covering her eye. It wasn’t watercolor, however, but diluted eyeshadow carefully painted onto her skin with the most delicate of brushes. It had taken her hours to get it the way she had envisioned it, but she was proud of the result – which was more than she could say for the damn Pan-like creature she’d tried to create the previous night. She’d probably have to cave in and admit that one would require some latex work on her brow, too, she thought, mindlessly double-tapping a picture of Poe’s corgi.
Rey yawned, thinking about the four hours of sleep she had gotten courtesy of her makeup fiasco as she opened Twitter. No notifications there, so she just scrolled through her timeline, finally stopping when a familiar video popped up.
There was aprehension in her eyes when she looked over her shoulder, as if one of her friends might materialize out of thin air to call her out at any moment. No one did, though, so she turned her attention back to her phone. By the time she hit play, a satisfied half-smile had settled on her lips.
No one was there to watch her smile down at Kylo Ren, after all.
In her defense, watching the man trick Senator Moden Canady into incriminating himself technically didn’t breach her moral boycott against First Order Network.
Technically.
Dragging her thumb across her lower lip, she watched the senator stutter and turn bright red as he tried to explain that, no, he’d never used campaign money to bribe a former business partner who’d been threatening to expose a money laundering scheme both men had set up in the late 90’s.
“And who said anything about campaign money, Senator?”
Rey couldn’t help smirking when the interviewer said the words in that rich, velvety baritone of his, his face impassive as Canady stammered and choked.
“Do you need some water, Senator?”
Oh, the memes that line had inspired. Chuckling softly, Rey slouched back on her seat, adjusting her earbuds. To be fair, it would have been hard to find a line in that interview that hadn’t been memed to hell and back. Three months had gone by, and people still seemed to find Canady’s demise as funny as it had been that evening.
She couldn’t blame them.
“Psst, hey!”
Rey drew in a sharp breath when a hand touched her knee, and her head jerked up to find the blonde girl sitting across from her trying to get her attention.
“Yes?” she said, sitting up straight as she removed an earbud.
“Is that Kylo Ren?”
Furrowing her brows, Rey nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Gorgeous, isn’t he?”
Great. A headphone-etiquette-inobservant Kylo stan. Rey did her best not to roll her eyes.
“If you like that type.”
“What type?” the girl asked, leaning closer with a conspiratorial glint in her eyes. “Gorgeous?”
“Evil,” Rey dead-panned, making to put het earbud back on.
The woman wasn’t about to give up, though. Rey should have known. Kylo stans had a penchant for stubbornness.
“Have you seen the size of his hands?”
“Guess you need big hands to do Snoke’s dirty work for him,” Rey said nonchalantly, turning her eyes towards the red lights flying past the train’s window. “That’s a lot of dirty work to do.”
“C’mon,” the girl insisted, leaning back on her seat. “He’s not that bad.”
“He spent the best part of a decade shredding people Snoke dislikes to shreds just for the sake of it,” Rey said curtly, lips pursed. “Some of them were good people, you know? Good people who had their lives ruined for inconveniencing that fascist raisin.”
“Well, they went on Kylo's show willingly, didn’t they?” the girl said defensively, one brow cocked.
Rey couldn’t help huffing out a laugh at that.
“What choice did they have? Saying no and being called a coward on the internet forever?”
“Well, he never makes stuff up, does he?”
“No.” Rey shook her head, looking back at the girl. “But he twists stuff. Manipulates information. He’s just as bad as his boss, if you ask me.”
“Not his boss anymore, is he?”
When Rey didn’t answer, the girl shot her a triumphant smile, shifting on her seat.
“I guess not,” she finally said, looking down at her phone. The video was almost over. She could tell by the shade of purple of Canady’s face.
“It was brave, wasn’t it? Facing Canady like that on Snoke’s network.”
God, how could his stans be so blind? Rey resisted the urge to sigh as she paused the video and shoved the phone back into her pocket.
“Or maybe Snoke asked him to do it.”
“Do what?” the girl chuckled, an amused glint in her eyes. “Get his friend to incriminate himself on national television?”
“Maybe Snoke and Canady weren’t allies anymore,” Rey retorted, crossing her arms. “Maybe there’s bad blood there.”
“Then why did Kylo get sacked?”
The truth was Rey had no idea, but she still tried to look nonchalant as she shrugged.
“It’s Snoke.”
“Snoke’s evil, not stupid,” the girl said, brows furrowed. “Kylo's ratings were insane.”
“Well, guess we’ll never know,” Rey replied, doing her best to offer the girl a small, sympathetic smile. Let she who had never crushed on a bad boy throw the first stone.
“Yeah, guess not," the girl answered, returning Rey's smile with a shrug. "What's your name, by the way?"
"Rey. Yours?"
"Dany."
"Nice to meet you, Dany." Rey smiled, and the girl smiled back before her gaze strayed out the window. They sat in silence for a minute before Dany spoke again.
"You think it’s true he’s been blacklisted in the industry?”
“Wouldn’t put it past Snoke. He is still unemployed, isn’t he?”
The girl offered Rey a resigned shrug, fiddling with the zipper of the backpack on her lap.
“Maybe someone Snoke doesn’t have power over will take him in. Can you imagine Kylo with the Rebels?”
Rey laughed wholeheartedly at that, shaking her head.
“No,” she said, wiping the corner of her eye. “No, I really can’t.”
“That’d be awesome.”
Rey’s smile faltered as the mental image of Kylo Ren yelling at her on the daily over concealer shades barged into her head.
“Yeah, no. I don’t think that would work.”
***
Upon walking through the revolving doors of RBS, Rey found Artoo and Threepio bickering at the front desk. She smiled brightly at the familiarity of it.
“Hey, you!” she chirped, waving at them as she made a beeline for the elevators.
Rebel Broadcasting System was an influential network, but one wouldn’t say so upon entering their studios. The entrance hall was furnished modestly, as was the rest of the building. The leather couches on the sitting area had definitely seen better days, and the same could be said of everything else, from wobbly coffee tables to the outdated cameras inside the studios. Rey’s own makeup trunk was no exception. She’d had the presence of mind to smuggle some key products she used on private clients into the case she used at work, and that had made things a little easier, albeit far from ideal.
It wasn’t Leia’s fault, of course. The president had explicitly asked Rey for a complete list of the products she needed, but she had purposely omitted some of the most expensive ones. Even before she'd been hired, she knew RBS struggled financially. Then again, Rey didn’t mind it at all – a quick glance at First Order Network’s finances and their content was more than enough to prove Leia was absolutely right to be picky about her sponsors. Smuggling Laura Mercier powder into work seemed like a very low price to pay for artistic integrity, Rey thought, smiling as she walked into the makeup artists’ lounge and opened her locker. The room was empty: the morning team must have already left, but her people should be here by now. She furrowed her brows as she looked around the room, glancing over at the door just in time to see it fling open, as if she’d wished her friends into existence.
“You’re late again,” Rose said, not a trace of annoyance in her voice. Rey answered with an apologetic smile and a shrug.
“I know. Sorry. Late night.”
Rose walked past her with a bright smile, poking her in the ribs as she made for the drawers where they kept their brush belts.
“Hmmm, was it a Mr.?”
“Yeah, sure,” Paige chuckled, throwing her sister a sarcastic smile. “Our girl had a hot date with a pair of prosthetic horns. Look at her forehead.”
Rey’s hand flew instinctively to her temples, but not fast enough to hide them from Rose’s quick eyes.
“Oh, Rey, for the love of God! I’ll buy you a big bottle of spirit gum remover for Christmas this year.” She shook her head as she threw Rey her brush belt. “You’re ruining your skin.”
“It’s not that bad. And I have spirit gum remover,” Rey mumbled as she fastened the belt around her hips.
“Well, then use it more often,” Paige said as she caught her own belt. “It looks painful.”
“Yeah, right. Y’all done with roasting Rey o’clock? Is Finn ready for makeup?”
Rose nodded, smiling as she set her case down on her station.
“Yup, waiting for you in his dressing room. The guests should be here for us any minute now.”
“Good, don’t mess up anyone’s faces!” Rey sang, blowing her friends a kiss as she made for the door. They caught it midair and threw it back at her, making her laugh as she closed the door behind her.
Finn Trooper’s show was probably Rey’s favorite, and that was saying a lot, given the sheer amount of talent on RBS’ payroll. Maybe it was the way he smiled at her every time she walked into his dressing room, as if nothing in the world could make him happier than seeing her.
“Brawl with a bear?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow as he got up to pull her in a hug.
“Prosthetic horns.”
“It matches your lipstick. I mean, it’s a look,” he said, his smile widening even more. With a chuckle, Rey pushed him towards his chair.
“C’mon, no time to waste. I’m late.”
“Really?”
“Shut up,” she laughed, opening her case to fish out a bottle of hand sanitizer.
Rey’s job was tiring, as her sore feet and stiff wrists would promptly confirm, but that didn’t make it any less satisfying. How many people in the world could say they got to do what they loved and watch the best shows on television from behind the cameras, after all? And there was no doubt they were the best: Finn’s cooking, Gial Ackbar’s round table, Amilyn Holdo’s news broadcasting, Poe Dameron’s late night show. Every day here felt like a dream, and, as she listened intently to Ackbar’s analysis on the Jakku crisis that very same afternoon, she couldn’t help smiling to herself.
It dawned on her like that sometimes, with no forewarning – the fact that his was her family. The fact that this was home.
Rey was still smiling when Ackbar’s producer tapped her gently on the shoulder.
“Rey?” Connix whispered, covering the microphone on her headset and jerking her head sideways. Rey nodded, following her backstage.
“Everything fine with your forehead?” the producer asked as soon as she turned around to face Rey under better lighting.
“Yeah!” She nodded, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. “Just a rash. Nothing major.”
Connix bit her lower lip, nodding. “Okay, if you say so. Listen, Leia wants to know if it would be okay for you to do one of Poe’s guests today.”
Rey nodded again. “Yeah, sure. Which one?”
She would usually be in charge of the hosts’ makeup, leaving the rest to Rose and Paige, but it wasn’t unheard of for her to do a guest if they were A-list celebrities or important politicians. She was the senior artist there, after all. It was relatively normal. Connix’s hesitation to answer, however, was most definitely not.
“Listen,” she whispered. “This is very hush-hush. okay? Need-to-know basis.”
Rey agreed silently, bringing her hand to her mouth to nip on a loose cuticle.
Connix inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, closing her eyes before she answered.
“It’s Kylo Ren.”
Rey barely noticed that her hand had dropped to her side.
“What?” she mouthed breathlessly.
Connix just waved her hands impatiently, shaking her head. “Yes, yes, I know. Plot twist. You can leave Holdo’s studio before the show ends, alright? Do Poe earlier than you normally would and then go to Ren. He’ll be in the VIP dressing room.”
Rey’s blood was thrumming in her ears when she nodded, jaw slack and eyes wide. Her face must have looked pitiful, because Kaydel squeezed her hand apologetically before she marched back into the studio.
Drawing in a deep breath, Rey braced her hands on her hips and let her eyes flutter shut.
It was just an interview. Just another interview, like the ones Poe did every day. It didn’t matter that Ren hadn’t been seen publicly since the incident with Canady, did it? He would have to come out of hiding sooner or later.
Rey shook her head, trying her best to be rational about it.
It wasn’t that weird. It made sense. He’d have to work his way back under the spotlight eventually. This was just a first step. Just an interview.
Nothing to worry about, she told herself, trying to ignore the lump in her throat as she rushed back onstage to touch up Ackbar’s makeup.