Thread by @gloomylagoons

compensation / a #reylo text fic

(the fic where rey trades knitwear for weed. her new dealer, ben, likes her too much to mind 🧶)

🍃🔞 drug references and faint nsfw! don’t read if that’s not your thing :)

☁️ quick note! this is COMPLETE and i will post one part today, and the second part in the next few days.

☁️ a little interaction (about making deliberate mistakes in knitting) is inspired by the incomparable @AttackotDC

☁️ my first text fic—please be gentle 🧸

meet rey and ben, a couple of twenty-something liberal arts majors :)

1. It was probably a good thing that Snap moved away. Rey’s certain that his weed made her 𝘸𝘢𝘺 too paranoid. She had grown used to it—that loud, bright winding up before the eventual fall—up until the point when she hung out with Rose, and her weed made her feel so 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

2. Apparently you’re not 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 to get stuck in a sickening downward spiral of dissecting the innate ways you think, how you perceive the world down to its tiniest details, and then panicking that that’s just the way you think now.

So Rey got Rose’s dealer’s number.

3. Ben Solo, who never really stood out in a good or bad way, was surprised to receive a message from Rey Palpatine. The very pretty girl he noticed at orientation a year ago and promptly put her in the box of 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘵𝘰.

4. He pretended he wasn’t hyper aware of how close 𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘬 and 𝘶𝘱 were together. Because obviously not.

But when he thought more about Rey, he remembered Rose—that nice, loud girl who goes to the same coffee cart as him. If they were friends, she couldn't be that bad. Right?

5. In her dorm room, Rey let out a sound like rocks against an old washboard. Is this guy for real?

6. He barely knew this girl, and from the little information he had on her, felt like they were worlds apart. For some reason, his immediate response to that was to narrow his vocabulary down to something awkwardly, transparently basic.

7. It was an alliance he’d never have anticipated, one that maybe didn’t make sense. Like Inigo and Fezzik.

8. It was a couple of hours later, and Rey had spent almost the entire time wondering how to phrase her conundrum in a way that didn’t make her seem cheap, or like she was taking advantage. She took a long, deep breath.

9. Ben thought about the Rey Palpatine he had seen, heard things about—she was never 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳dressed, but it's obvious when something was a little bit 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳. The cut of a t-shirt. The subtle branding of denim. The last thing he anticipated was a conversation about money.

10. That’ll do it.

11. Unless… she’s not as nice as he thought.

Bummer.

12. A… what?

13. What was he 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 to think? How was he possibly supposed to take that if not with a flushed neck and an immediate feeling of creepy guilt? (He wondered how she'd look up close, if she'd actually taste like oranges, which was some weird concept he'd always had—)

14. ❓

15. Is this girl for real?

16. Strangely, the thought of turning her down and this being the only time he speaks to her made his stomach fizzle. Unpleasantly. Like he got a quick taste of something new and exciting, and wanted, desperately, to make it last longer.

17. Across campus, Rey’s own neck flooded a similar pink.

18. It took her a moment to process. God. Pull yourself together.

19. Ben didn’t really know how to discern a good knitter from a not-good knitter, so he had to take her word for it. The stuff seemed… good? Wearable. He guessed that was all that really mattered?

It was cute. It suited her.

20. 🎉

21. It took him a stupid amount of time to summon the requisite confidence to message her. It’s not like she was… a 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 popular girl. She was, from what he could tell, very nice. Very well liked. Smart.

Which somehow made her scarier.

22. Nice save.

23.

24. A sandwich? An extra layer? Someone to peel your grapes and turn your book pages for you?

25. 😮‍💨

26. They decided to make the swap on campus a week or so later. That’s fine, Ben thought. It definitely wasn’t like a first date or anything where it was “safer” to meet in a public place. With witnesses.

He’s definitely overthinking this.

27.

28.

that’s it for today folks!!! thank you so much for the likes/retweets :,) see you all tomorrow💞

(i'll also be posting this on my ao3 since twt has a cap on text alts zzzz)

29. In the weeks to come, Ben would never be the one to push any boundaries. Sometimes she'd sit with him in class, but never the other way around. He was still unsure, like she was illusory, that disturbing whatever vapour cloud she was made of would destabilise his universe.

30. On a Thursday morning about a month into their arrangement, Ben’s phone pinged.

31. Down, boy.

32. It could be said that… 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 he was looking for an excuse to message her. For reasons he refused to acknowledge.

Maybe it was like giving yourself a small wave in a mirror, just to confirm your reality. A reminder that something really exists.

33. Before he started backpedaling from the depths of the residual embarrassment that rose to shore after texting her a) out of nowhere, and b) in regards to something that had 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 to do with their arrangement, his phone buzzed again.

34. 𝘊𝘰𝘰𝘭, she said.

35. Eventually, he had to prepare himself to see her again.

She sent him her dorm address a few days later, and he was feeling some type of way about it.

36. Where did that even come from?

37.

38.

39.

40. (thanks @AttackotDC for the cute little idea💫)

41.

42. Something seemed to have shifted from there, because the two of them were far more liberal with their contact. Messaging each other when something noteworthy happened, rather than just sending vague texts (“🍃??”, “🧣!”) at the requisite time.

43. In fact, they were quick to extend their visits from beyond exchanging goods; that cup spilled over faster than he anticipated. Rey would occasionally summon him, insisting that she couldn’t smoke alone.

He could’ve asked why she didn’t ask Rose. He chose not to.

44. When she found out that Poe had seemingly gotten away with keeping a cat in their dorm room, Rey all but scraped his address from his throat, leaving it raw, and barged her way over in less than fifteen minutes.

45. Other times, she’d (devastatingly, unbeknownst to her) show him things she was working on. No amount of mental gymnastics helped him in deciding whether or not she knew their impact. Everything about the situation felt equally ridiculous and world-shattering.

46. It was a fucking trap. There was no way Ben could respond that would end up sounding good. Option A was an overly aloof asshole, and option B was being too transparent, too much of a floundering idiot. He took a while to respond, which maybe was a response in of itself, but—

47. Meanwhile.

48. They’d watch movies together (sometimes in person, other times just over text, in their own dorms), Ben having gently hinted at his interest, and Rey’s apparent inclination to absorb any Daniel Day-Lewis content at any given moment.

49. Maybe it was an unfair deal, but it was worth the stiff joints, the tenderness of her fingertips. It was worth cancelling plans with Rose and Finn and Kay to finish off his gifts. It was worth it when he unwrapped the presents and gave her one of his rare, crooked smiles.

50. He did come to be exceedingly grateful for the excessive knitwear; winter had well and truly hit. The wind was biting, the draphts all encompassing, and going outside was especially painful on his hands and ears.

51.

52. 🔞💗

53. aaaand🎬

💗a/n: thank you for reading! sorry about the prose heavy text fic and all the movie references. the last one is from a scene in phantom thread when after ordering a lot of food, alma delivers reynolds (dd lewis) the plate with a note that reads 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘺.