Thread by @vtradescant2

The Gator Prince of Alderaan County 🐊

Rey needs something to keep her students busy. Her roommate’s boyfriend has “got a guy”. Only problem is the “guy” is the reclusive son of the local Gator King. Desperate place, desperate times, she guesses.

#GatorPrince

Inspired by a *particular* photo and the shenanigans in the cursed thread below 👇
#GatorPrince

https://twitter.com/kylorenvevo/status/1392591603936595970?s=20

Somehow I took a weird summer fever dream of mud, denim, and swamp gas and lit it up like an illegal firework.

All the 💚 to
@mytbrisgrowing
@AA_Unit
@feralsandgremln
@driverfever
@reybencyera
@irridesca
@kylorenvevo

This is my first text fic so manage expectations accordingly.

#GatorPrince 🐊

Content warnings and a little note:

CW Swearing, scaly/slimy critters 🐍🐸🐢🐊
Softer and fluffier than I expected...what even happened?
🔞NSFW tweets will be flagged but expect significant snake-based innuendo
Updates whenever the hell I get to them.

#GatorPrince 🐊

Alright let's go!

1. New elementary teacher Rey Johnson takes a job in Alderaan County on the GA-FL state line. This Atlanta girl is NOT thriving with country life. The nearest Target is an hour away. The only grocery store is the lone Piggly Wiggly. And she’s surrounded by swamp.

#GatorPrince 🐊

2. The only thing keeping her sane in this godforsaken place is her college friend and now roommate Finn, the high school girls soccer coach, who moved a couple years earlier and helped her get her job. His boyfriend, on the other hand, is NOT helping her sanity.

#GatorPrince 🐊

3. Poe's vocation is...undetermined. Seems to be the kind of guy that is doing a little bit of everything. But he IS a problem solver.

4. Oh the signs. JFC the signs are everywhere. You can't escape them. Two big billboards on the highway. And they're pasted on anything in town that sits still long enough. It's the only tourist attraction in the county.

#GatorPrince 🐊

5. Not the guy from the signs. What a relief.

Oh maybe not.

#GatorPrince 🐊

6. Poe’s guys are highly vetted and qualified. 👌

#GatorPrince 🐊

7. Oh so he's *royalty* 👑 Well that changes everything.

Looks like Rey needs to request an audience.

#GatorPrince 🐊

8. Let’s get the vibe right with a song.

open.spotify.com/track/0gVTOC19…

#GatorPrince 🐊

9. It’s Ben’s favorite time of day. Early afternoon-- alligators and turtles in the creek are finding their way onto logs to bask in the sun. The post-church crowd will start trickling in soon, but he’s got a few minutes to relax before he heads to the emporium.

#GatorPrince 🐊

10. Long legs propped up on his porch rail, he can see over his boots and clear across the creek and wetland to his parents' house and the emporium next door. It’s closer than he’d thought he'd ever want to be, but well, things are different now.

#GatorPrince 🐊

11. The arm of the rocking chair vibrates as his phone pings next to him. He sighs. Only one person ever texts him, and it’s always a bad idea to answer.

#GatorPrince 🐊

12. Sure enough. Another favor. Like the last time he brought animals to the school. Andor had no control. Mass chaos. He’s not doing that again.

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13. Oh......oh. The thought remains unfinished. As does the message.

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14. Ben is...processing some things.

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15. Ben has questions. And suspicions. Learned the hard way when it comes to Dameron.

#GatorPrince 🐊

16. Ben pockets his phone. At least half of Poe Dameron's plans never come to anything so who cares? But if he looks at the photo a few more times that day, and for the few days that follow, no one needs to know.

#GatorPrince 🐊

17. Here we go again. Let’s kick it off with some musical vibes.

open.spotify.com/track/2BH76TIF…

Also double entendres ahead, so in the wrong context maybe NSFW-ish? And should have mentioned earlier that alcohol is both used and referenced throughout this fic.

#GatorPrince 🐊

18. Rey is groaning on the couch. It’s been a long week of standardized testing. Third graders trapped in desks for hours. Number 2 pencils worn to nubs. They’re exhausted and wired in that way only kids can be, and she can hardly face the next week.

#GatorPrince 🐊

19. After a deep glass of wine that phone number is lookin' real good. If only to pawn off the kids’ attention for an hour. She doesn’t want to admit that Poe was right, but she’s desperate and it’s time...

It’s time to ask his royal highness for an audience.

#GatorPrince 🐊

20. There’s a response. And a lot more questions than she expected...

#GatorPrince 🐊

21. Well, this is taking an unexpected turn.

#GatorPrince 🐊

22. It’s a simple request really. What is she willing to do to make him come?

#GatorPrince 🐊

23. Honey, the amateur pyrotechnician🎆is not gonna help you put out this fire.

#GatorPrince 🐊

24. Apparently, there is a point to all this besides her discomfort.

#GatorPrince 🐊

25. Yes, who *is* Ruby?

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26. WHAT?

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27. WHAT?????

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28. WHAT?????????????????? 👀

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29. One reaction wins out….for now.

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30. No way in hell she'll touch that. She's pretty sure. Almost completely. Like 99% positive. There's nothing on God's green earth that would make her....

Nothing. Right?

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31. A plan has formed. And Rey...

Well, Rey needs another glass of wine.

#GatorPrince 🐊

32. Y’all thought you were getting a text fic, but apparently I’ve decided to curate an *experience*.

open.spotify.com/track/3BaF7lOz…

(👆 for my Southern elder-millennials. If you know, you know)

Manips ahead by the lovely @RenTinFinn

#GatorPrince 🐊

33. For someone whose phone often ends up in the emporium’s lost and found, Ben Solo has been touching his back pocket an *awful* lot today. But he can’t risk dropping it when he’s knee deep in Pen #2 with the juveniles skittering around in the water.

#GatorPrince 🐊

34. See, the thing is, he never really has a reason to be on his phone except to manage the emporium’s online presence. “Talkative” has never been used to describe him--in fact, “taciturn” was the word Holdo wrote on his report card back in fourth grade.

#GatorPrince 🐊

35. And anyway he never actually *wants* anyone to reach across those radio waves that his weird uncle Luke doesn’t trust.

And yet...

He had liked talking to her.

#GatorPrince 🐊

36. He’d pushed her a little--for good reasons, he tells himself. But he’d also wanted to see what would happen.

She had been playful. Fucking “danger noodles.” He smirks now. Something about her quick retorts, her humor...

Caught him.

#GatorPrince 🐊

37. When his back pocket vibrates and beeps, he reaches back so fast he nearly slips into the water. Heart leaping at his throat only to fall through his diaphragm with a groan when he sees the screen.

It’s not her.

#GatorPrince 🐊

38. Damn it, here we go again. His disappointment deepens.

#GatorPrince 🐊

39. If the money isn’t tempting enough, maybe the memories are.

#GatorPrince 🐊

@RenTinFinn

40. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Southern single man of the advanced, geriatric age of 28 is a hopeless bachelor in want of a wife and children.

#GatorPrince 🐊

41. She just wants you to be happy, Benjamin.

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42. Getting it from all sides and finding no quarter.

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43. With a growl, Ben slides the phone into his back pocket. But his hand stills.

And his fingers don’t let go.

#GatorPrince 🐊

44. At the school it’s lunchtime, and Rey slumps back into her seat after shushing the rowdy kids yet again. It’s gonna to be a long week. Mentally, she’s scratching days off on a wall. Next Wednesday is the last day of school. And Friday…

Ben Solo is coming.

#GatorPrince 🐊

45. Her phone vibrates on the table. And when she sees the screen, a wave of heat washes over her.

#GatorPrince 🐊

46. Oh yes? Oh no? Can one both anticipate and dread the same event???

#GatorPrince 🐊

47. On Wednesday it happens again. Sweet baby Jesus, what is a girl to do?

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48. “Princes?” She had laughed at his joke and its irony before she could stop herself, and now she’s squinting at her screen, reading it again. Is he...? And is she enjoying this? From HIM?

But it's too late to do anything.

It’s almost Friday.

#GatorPrince 🐊

49. Looks like Friday finally came.

open.spotify.com/track/2gXCRNuq…

#GatorPrince 🐊

50. Now, the story of how Rey ended up in Alderaan County changes depending on who’s asking. For some folks, it’s “just such a charming place!” For parents, it’s “the school’s stellar reputation.”

#GatorPrince 🐊

51. The truth is that it was her only job offer, and Finn convinced her it wasn’t so bad down in the swamp.

What a liar and a traitor.

#GatorPrince 🐊

52. Most of the other teachers are locals who returned after college for reasons beyond Rey’s comprehension. They know everybody, everybody’s mama, and everybody’s business.

#GatorPrince 🐊

53. So when they ask if it’s true that Ben is coming—when they mention he’d sworn off visits after Cassian’s class, when they hear she’s never met him and shake their heads with smirks that say they *know* things—it does nothing to ease her apprehension.

#GatorPrince 🐊

54. But as these events are wont to do, Friday morning passes both blindingly fast and achingly slow, and suddenly Tallie is standing in the doorway to watch Rey's class because...

He’s here.

#GatorPrince 🐊

55. (3 pics)

#GatorPrince

56. (2 pics)

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57. (3 pics)

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58. (2 pics)

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59. Later that day...

The emporium is busy, and it’s time to put all the animals back, but five long minutes need to pass before Ben feels ready to get out of his truck. He’s been staring at his hands on the steering wheel, the dark dirt under a few nails.

#GatorPrince 🐊

60. Hers had been azalea pink. He’d watched as she glided slender fingers over bumps, scales, and ridges. Delicate at first, then gentle, then firm, cradling, grasping, holding. Tentative, then confident. Her smile opened like a magnolia bloom.

#GatorPrince 🐊

61. Another long sigh comes from deep in his chest, then he gets back to the job he has to do. Back to the reality his rough, muddy hands were made for. And when his phone buzzes he doesn’t jump, because he knows it can't be her.

#GatorPrince 🐊

62. But someone can't drop it himself.

#GatorPrince 🐊

63. Poe is right. Again. Because he *is* fucked. He scrubs his hand over his face.

#GatorPrince 🐊

64. But before he puts his phone away, he needs to make a post. He’d been oddly looking forward to this one. Maybe because his mom had smiled rather than protest when he took the picture out of the frame to scan it.

#GatorPrince 🐊

65. Kaydel had said to do it daily, and it was actually working. A couple new followers every week. But now, scrolling through his phone, he’s regretful that he didn’t take any pictures of her. Of Rey.

#GatorPrince 🐊

66. He presses his lips tightly. Maybe it’s better this way. No reminders. Because that sort of thing, the thing he’s wishing for...

#GatorPrince 🐊

67. ...can’t happen every generation. Right?

#GatorPrince 🐊

@RenTinFinn

68. Something fun to get us going again.

open.spotify.com/track/5U1U50sY…

#GatorPrince 🐊

69. Of course, Poe is sitting with Finn when Rey arrives home, his shit-eating grin growing wider as she admits that yes, the kids loved it, and yes, it was better than a movie, and damn-it-all-to-hell, YES he was right.

It was a good day. A great day.

#GatorPrince 🐊

70. Maybe it’s just the summer heat that is making her palms sweat and her thighs stick together.

Or maybe it’s not.

But, she’s home now, and she flops onto her bed, pulling out her phone and staring at a *particular* contact photo.

#GatorPrince 🐊

71. “Thank you!” had felt insufficient, but that’s all she had time to call out over the excited jabbering of the kids about all the animals they touched and held. He’d nodded without a word, looking away, packing up his little companions.

#GatorPrince 🐊

72. She could say more. She could reach out again now. Say something about…

Well, about what exactly?

She blushes, and her finger hovers for a moment, but she taps and slides and soon another message is traveling out.

#GatorPrince 🐊

73. Talking to Finn and Poe will just lead to more crowing over being right. And more snake jokes. What she needs is a sister. Now, if she can just convince Rosie to look past the scales and rough parts…

#GatorPrince 🐊

74. The face helps a lot. The face, and the hair, and the…well, the everything.

#GatorPrince 🐊

75. Sounds like the Gator Prince’s outreachin’ worked. Did you know these herptile facts, Rosie?

#GatorPrince 🐊

76. Oh no, indeed.

#GatorPrince 🐊

77. Kids half price on Memorial Day weekend! Bring the whole family!

#GatorPrince 🐊

78. Hello, Jabba. Still not petting you, great dad or not. Creepy-ass mouth.

#GatorPrince 🐊

79. Aww. 😍

#GatorPrince 🐊

80. Hi Ruby! Fancy girl, I-- NICTITATING MEMBRANES?!

#GatorPrince 🐊

81. Rose Charlotte-Grace Tico is enjoying this a little too much.

#GatorPrince 🐊

82. Yes, *who* indeed?

#GatorPrince 🐊

83. Rey is still trying to process whomst exactly is making unreasonably cute reptile Instagram posts, but Rosie is back on track, not to be distracted by any more nictitating membranes. Or DILFs.

#GatorPrince 🐊

84. A pattern emerges.

#GatorPrince 🐊

85. It’s about as much of a blessing as one could expect given the circumstances.

#GatorPrince 🐊

86. She frowns at Rose’s message and stands, pulling her dress off in a huff. She just *cannot* cool down today, and anyway she needs to change before she heads to the soccer field with the boys.

#GatorPrince 🐊

87. She’ll sit there like she always does—watching Finn shout plays while she nurses a La Croix that she wishes were a cocktail and eavesdrops on Poe’s wheeling and dealing with other townies.

#GatorPrince 🐊

88. Rosie is probably getting ready to go out right now, she thinks bitterly. Maybe grabbing drinks in Little Five or Decatur with the rest of the girls. And Rey will be stuck staring into the distance and wishing she were anywhere but Alderaan County.

#GatorPrince 🐊

89. Well, a high school soccer game is about the closest thing to a social event around here, so she’ll go. What else has she got to do? Although…

She’s never seen Ben at one.

Would he come if she asked? She could invite him…

#GatorPrince 🐊

90. *Sigh* She was never very good at this anyway.

91. Now if we had to pick a tune for Poe, it would probably have to be this one from a favorite Georgia son.

open.spotify.com/track/7DJsL4jy…

#GatorPrince 🐊

92. Twenty-eight years and two months, if Poe had to guess. That’s how long he’s known Benjamin O. Solo. And that’s probably how long he’s been Benjamin O. Solo’s best friend.

#GatorPrince 🐊

93. For Poe, growing up the only out bi kid in the middle of fucking nowhere was pretty damn hard. For Benny, growing up the skinny, smart, sensitive son of the notorious Gator King was damn near as hard, and he reckons that’s why they always got along so well.

#GatorPrince 🐊

94. Now, Poe knows Benny about as well as his own family does. And in all twenty-eight years and two months of knowing him, the one thing Benny has never been when he is into something is *subtle*.

And Poe knew that this something was gonna be different.

#GatorPrince 🐊

95. So even though he’s been told to “drop it,” the expected texts start rolling in within a couple days.

#GatorPrince 🐊

96. The Baddest Bitch was Poe’s 1992 Buick LeSabre. He inherited her at 16 when his parents took his Abuela’s keys away after she drove the wrong way down Kenobi Ave. Bent antenna. Orange pinstripe he added himself. 210k miles. His pride and joy.

#GatorPrince 🐊

97. Benny turns BB down because...denial. And 308 miles north, Rose Charlotte-Grace Tico is not faring much better in her efforts than Poe.

#GatorPrince 🐊

98. Jesus, it’s Prom 2010 all over again. You’re a grown-ass man, Benny, ask her out already. How many days are we gonna do this?

#GatorPrince 🐊

99. At least a couple more days apparently...Poe’s happy to make the assist, but this is getting ridiculous. Interventions are under consideration.

#GatorPrince 🐊

100. An opportunity presents itself. And Poe is nothing if not an opportunist. It's just kismet that he happens to be in a rocking chair, feet in his boyfriend’s lap, on the porch of a certain house when said opportunity arises.

And who is Poe to deny fate?

#GatorPrince 🐊

That's it for tonight. And sweet baby jesus somehow I'm already at 100?? This has really gotten away from me bc apparently everyone need lots of BACKSTORY and CONTEXT. I'm a mess and I'm sorry. I'm putting a jump to the top in the thread if you need it 👇

https://twitter.com/vtradescant2/status/1397726971623247877?s=20

101. A song by a FL native for tonight:

open.spotify.com/track/0AWTnLjs…

(I love this song so much, and it has always screamed Reylo to me in a weird, Southern way)

#GatorPrince 🐊

102. To be fair to Rey, this particular Instagram account is...attention-grabbing. So it’s not her fault when she doesn’t hear Poe the first time he speaks.

“Hmm?”

@RenTinFinn

#GatorPrince 🐊

103.

#GatorPrince 🐊

104. Let’s play a game called “How much water can Ben Solo chug and how many laps can he do around his house to sober up enough to talk to The Girl?”

It’s not drunk dialing if it’s texting and she’s the one that messaged him. Right???

#GatorPrince 🐊

105. Ben knows he gets chatty when he’s had a few drinks. It’s just about the only time he does—Poe isn’t wrong. But he can handle this. He can talk to her and not be weird. At least not *too* weird.

By the power of Autocorrect, he can do this.

Right???

#GatorPrince 🐊

106. Minutes pass.

Nothing.

Rey huffs and puts her phone at her bedside table and dresses in the old sorority shirt and shorts that pass for pajamas. She’s feeling stupider by the second when a quiet trill sounds.

#GatorPrince 🐊

107. And just like that, she’s grinning so hard the corners of her eyes hurt.

#GatorPrince 🐊

108. Ben, currently:
SHIT, I called her PRINCESS??!?!?!
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fucking Jim Beam. Can you delete texts??
Already Read??
Fuuuuuuuuck.

Rey, currently:
Oh my god, he called me…Princess??
If I touch more lizards, will he say it again?

#GatorPrince 🐊

109. Rey.exe not running.

Meanwhile, Ben:
Too much too much shut up shut UP. Gonna change contact to (do not drunk dial OR TEXT)
Fucking Jim Beam.

Fucking Dameron.

Shit.

#GatorPrince 🐊

110. Don’t go, Ben!

#GatorPrince 🐊

111. Oh no OH NO. Nictitating membranes and now this?? WHY does she Google anything?

Talking with Ben is always a journey of discovery…

#GatorPrince 🐊

112. He is talkative. Noted. Clearly a passion project.

And a full picture of His Royal Highness, the Gator Prince, is finally, *finally* coming into focus.

#GatorPrince 🐊

113. Mysteries are solved. Truths are revealed.

Poe.

Fucking.

Dameron.

#GatorPrince 🐊

114. Why, Rey? Why did you still invite him?
*sigh* Maybe she’ll find the guts eventually.

#GatorPrince 🐊

115. A foggy mirror has cleared. And now Rey can see... so much.

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116. Is she reading…is this…did he just offer…?

Is this actually going how she’d hoped?

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117. Rey has never been good at this. But she swallows around the lump in her throat.

And she writes what she means.

#GatorPrince 🐊

118. And just like that, he falls. Hard.

But in so many ways, Benjamin O. Solo is still that shy, skinny boy.

He was never good at this.

#GatorPrince 🐊

119. There’s no way she could mean it like *that*. Not after panty droppers like “accreditation” and “grant funding” and “bootlegging dad”. He shouldn’t read into this.

Right?

#GatorPrince 🐊

120. Those three dots are there for a loooooong time. Rey’s heart is in her throat. She *means* it as an open invitation. What is he going to say? Is he—?

Oh.

Oh. 😔

This is why she doesn’t reach out.

#GatorPrince 🐊

121. She growls and swipes. Is this really the way she thinks he’ll notice her? What the hell is she doing?

But he said she’d be good...

No, he said she’d be *great*.

Though it’s *definitely* the stupidest idea she’s ever had.

#GatorPrince 🐊

122. Ben pours another tall drink of whiskey into his chipped mug. Like all of his mugs, it’s surplus from the shop, but somehow the little face is more self-righteous tonight. A smug mug.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he snarls at it.

@RenTinFinn

#GatorPrince 🐊

123. A sigh. A long, deep sigh.

Goddammit.

God.

Dammit.

#GatorPrince 🐊

That's it for tonight, my gator princes and princesses!

A jump to the top if you need it:

https://twitter.com/vtradescant2/status/1397726971623247877?s=20

#GatorPrince 🐊