1 You Were Written in The Stars

Ben tapped his fingers mindlessly at the gentle sound playing in his head, almost seeing the instruments assembling in front of his eyes. His grandparents' song, another one just for his ears. Maybe he'd hire people to perform it and record it to Nana Padmé; she was the inspiration of it this time, after all, and loved listening to his compositions.

The funeral had been different from what expected. There were tears from his mother mostly and uncle, his uncle Luke had held up just well as he thought he'd be, but Nana Padmé… she didn't cry. It wasn't to say she didn't look sad, she did. But she was smiling the whole time people spoke about Anakin, not happy, but as if she knew a secret no one else did. That was one of the reasons he was visiting her today, over two weeks later. That smile.

His phone rang, pulling him back from his silent wonders, and Ben fished for it in his back pocket just to read Phasma's name on the screen and sigh. Work, always work.

"Solo."

"They accepted it," his agent said simply.

His eyebrows joined in a frown.

"What?"

"The studio accepted your price," she repeated. "The one for the romantic film."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. Ben didn't write for romantic films, he never did, and would never do. The whole film industry knew that and the whole theatre industry knew that. Still, some newbie was obsessed with his previous works and wanted him in their trilogy. To dodge them, Ben had even asked Phasma to propose an absurdly high price, so high that no production would ever take him in their right mind.

They did.

"Phasma…" he sighed.

"Don't 'Phasma' me," she interrupted him. "I've done everything within my reach already, Ben. I even offered Hux to them. No one has rejected him since he won an Oscar competing against himself last February, and they have insisted you're the only one they want."

He was about to answer when his eyes caught his grandmother entering the library, and he stood up.

"I can't talk right now," he announced, ready to hang up the phone. "I'll call you later."

He turned off his phone to avoid any other call and kissed Padmé's forehead when she approached him with a smile and a warm hug.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," she sat on her armchair, right beside the one his grandfather would always be, and he did the same on the couch. "Dominic is finishing the cookies you like so much, Benny. He'll be here with them in a minute."

"You shouldn't have to worry, Nana," he took one of her hands in his. She was so small compared to him that it was almost funny. "I'm here to see you. How are you doing?'

She didn't lose her smile and rested a hand on his cheek.

"I'm well, my boy. It's a big change, but it's temporary. Cycles end and begin all the time," she affirmed, mysterious as she'd always been. "What about you? You don't seem to happy."

He breathed it, feeling his shoulders tense but knew better than to bother her so much with his problems. She was going through enough alone.

"Just work," he said simply. "This producer, or director, I'm not sure. They won't take no for an answer."

Padmé looked at him with confusion.

"What is wrong with that? I thought you liked composing. You've always played that beautiful song in the piano for me and Ani, I consider it very romantic."

"I do," he confirmed. "But it's a romance film. I don't write for romance films, Nana."

"Why not?"

He shifted on his place and looked away from her face. How could he even begin to explain it to her?"

"You wouldn't understand."

In response, his grandmother took her hand and covered his, staring into his eyes right when he moved his gaze back to look at her.

"I can try."

Ben breathed in, looking for words.

"I have…" he started, then stopped, and tried to start again. "I have a theme I wrote. The perfect love theme. It's not like you and grandpa's song, or mum and dad's song, it's… It's perfect and it's mine. I've dreamt of it every night. Every detail of it, each instrument and melody."

She watched him silently with interest, and Ben pulled his hand away gently to gesture with his it.

"My whole life, I've dreamt with this song and a girl," he told her. "With us, me and her, two side of a dyad in a crazy, Nana… With new planets, droids, lightsabers…"

"And Jedi knights," she completed his words. "In a Galaxy far far away."

His eyes widened.

"How do you know?"

Padmé smiled.

"I was waiting for you to come to me, Ben," she told him. "Our family has a gift, me, your grandfather, your mother, your father… You . We can see into our lives in the past, how we lived, who our soulmates wore, and we can find them again."

He stared at her with his mouth open in surprise.

"You mean…" he hesitated. "We… Really?"

"Your grandfather and I lived in the world you lived too," she told him. "I was Queen of Naboo, he was a Jedi. We were not supposed to fall in love, but we did. We got married, but he was taken away from me by the dark."

Ben closed his eyes. He remembered from his dreams, all of the things he did, trying to be like his grandfather, like…

"Darth Vader," he whispered.

She nodded.

"He just wanted to protect me, but that was what drove us apart that time," she told him. "This time, I got to have him for seven decades, since we were children."

Ben felt his heart beating faster, enough that it almost deafened him for a moment.

Then everything he lived, and Rey, and what he felt for her...

"You're telling me the girl…"

"She exists, Benny," Padmé smiled at him. "And if you dream of her, she dreams of you too."

Ben fell down onto the couch, resting his back on it and letting the fact run over his bones.

"I need to find her," he said, more to himself than to his grandmother, but looker for her eyes right after. "Nana, how do I find her?"

"Well," she thought for a moment. "The force gave me Ani when I was young. I met him when we were just children. Your mother and your father met on a set. The force will find a way to bring this girl to your life. You just have to allow it."