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English
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Published:
2021-12-09
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1,691
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1/1
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Gingerbread Wishes

Summary:

Exhausted from traveling to visit his parents for Christmas, the sound of childish giggles and gruff laughter pulls Ben from his sleep. When he goes to investigate the noise, Ben finds something entirely unexpected in the kitchen.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

The sound of childish giggles and gruff laughter drifting into the room woke Ben from a deep sleep. Several minutes passed as he lay cuddled against Rey in the too-small bed, trying to decide if it was worth getting up. When the noise continued, Ben sat up with a resigned sigh.

It was probably past time for him to check on the girls anyways, and there was no way he wanted Rey to be disturbed right now. It had been hard enough for her to get a decent amount of sleep over the past few weeks. The week-long visit at his parents' house with the uncomfortable bed and packed schedule was not going to make it any better.

It took some wiggling to get free of the tangled mess of blankets, and when he tried to shift off the bed, Rey clung to him, refusing to release her sleepy grip on his waist.

“Where are you going?” Rey grumbled against the pillow when he finally managed to stand up.

“Shh, go back to sleep, sweetheart,” Ben whispered. He pressed a soft kiss against her forehead before searching for the clothes that had been hastily discarded on the floor in the middle of the night. She grumbled again about the bed being too empty without him, and he couldn’t help but smile at the image Rey presented sprawled across the bed.

God, his wife was so gorgeous. They had been together for almost a decade and had two – soon to be three – children, yet in all that time, Rey had become even more beautiful.

Everything in him wanted to just crawl back into bed with her so they could spend the morning snuggled together. Maybe, if they were lucky, he could convince Rey to leave the girls with his parents so they could sneak off together for some alone time. He might even splurge on a hotel room just to make sure they would have a few hours together without any mood-killing disruptions.

His father would tease them relentlessly about it, but glancing at Rey one last time before he slipped out of the room, he knew it would be worth whatever came their way.

He was quickly reminded that it was far earlier than he wanted to be awake as he slowly made his way down the stairs towards the source of the noise. His body ached from the old mattress in his childhood bedroom, and he was still exhausted after a long day of driving with two grumpy little girls and a very sleepy wife.

It didn’t help matters that Ben was too damn big and clumsy to navigate the house when he was tired. He bumped into everything as he went from the nutcrackers on the shelf to the garland lining the doors. His mother always went overboard in December, and Christmas decorations were overflowing from every surface, doorway, and railing.

What he found when he eventually made his way to the kitchen, though, was completely worth the inconvenience and disrupted sleep.

Ben swallowed a laugh as he stood half-hidden, peering around the kitchen doorway. Both of his girls were sitting at the table tucked into a corner of the kitchen while his father helped them assemble their own gingerbread houses. The whole room was a disaster covered with various gingerbread house pieces, tons of frosting in several different colors, about seven bowls filled with all sorts of candy, and sprinkles that were scattered everywhere.

Despite the mess and the chaos of both girls vying for Han’s attention at the same time, Ben couldn’t remember the last time his father had looked this happy. He would never have thought that his usually gruff father would turn into a complete pushover around his granddaughters. But looking at the scene before him, he was obviously mistaken.

“Nonno, how much longer?”

“Padme, we need to let them sleep for a little longer. Remember how long the trip was yesterday? Your mom and dad need to rest after all of the driving.” Han smiled, tousling her hair before turning to look at the gingerbread houses in progress.

“Fine, Nonno,” Padme sighed dramatically, propping her chin up with her hand while flicking loose sprinkles across the table.

“Nonno, I need help,” Breha almost yelled when she struggled to keep the sides of her house together.

“Here, Breha, I think you need a little more icing over there.” Han passed her the icing as he moved around the table to help fix the wall that was about to collapse.

“Thanks, Nonno.”

“Nonno, help me now.” Ben shook his head when Padme suddenly became very interested in her gingerbread house the moment his father went to help Breha.

“Give me a minute, Padme.” Han smiled over at her before turning his attention back to Breha. A couple of adjustments later, Han said, “Okay, Breha. That side looks good. Do you want to start picking out the decorations for the roof?”

“Can I have the green gummies? I want to cover the whole house with them cause Mom and I love green.”

“Sure, take all the green you want.” Breha’s brow furrowed in concentration as she pulled a bowl over to find all of the green pieces of candy.

Not one to be left out, Padme declared, “Green is boring. I want yellow and blue and purple and orange…” She reached over the table to haphazardly dig through a large bowl of candy and pulled out all the different colors. Han had to quickly move them out of the way when Padme tried to stuff several large gumdrops into her mouth all at once.

“Here, let’s stop eating the candy so we can finish putting the walls up, Padme. Then we can decide which color gumdrops you want to use as decorations.”

“Nonno.” Padme sighed loudly again as she crossed her arms. From his position in the doorway, Ben quietly laughed at how dramatic his little Padme could be.

Both of his girls were so precious.

“What’s this?” Rey asked, her voice still husky with sleep as she slipped an arm around Ben’s waist. He tore his gaze away from the scene in the kitchen to glance down at his wife.

“The girls are keeping Dad company.”

“Yeah? That’s nice.” Rey snuggled into his side, struggling to keep her eyes open.

“You really should go back to bed, Rey.” Even as he spoke, Ben slid a hand down to rest on her adorably large bump as he kissed her cheek.

“Can’t. The baby is currently trying to kick their way out of my uterus,” Rey complained, yawning as she rubbed her lower back.  

“Do you need anything right now?”

“No, not unless you can suddenly start making smaller babies. I swear they keep getting bigger with each pregnancy.”

Ben smirked. “Can’t do anything about it this time, Sweetheart, but we could always practice some more. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind some more practice right now.”

“Oh, Ben,” Rey laughed, shaking her head when he started wiggling his eyebrows at her. “Maybe we can find some time later.”

With a grin, he pulled her back out of the doorway so they wouldn't be seen and leaned down to capture her lips in a soft kiss.

Rey clung to his shoulders as the kiss dragged out longer than either intended and when they eventually parted, Ben wrapped his arms around her as they turned back to watch his father help Breha and Padme decorate their gingerbread houses.

“Daddy!” Padme shrieked several minutes later when she noticed her parents standing in the doorway. “Look, Nonno is helping us make candy houses.”

“I see that.” Ben strode across the room and swung a giggling Padme up in his arms. “And how many sweets did Nonno let you eat?”

“I don’t know,” Padme said, a guilty expression on her icing-covered face.

“Lots and lots,” Breha chimed in helpfully.

“Dad…”

“What?” Han shrugged. “That’s what grandparents are for, aren’t they?”

“Uh-huh. Well, I know who gets to watch them when they are grumpy later because of the sugar crash.”

“Oh, Ben,” Rey chided as she moved next to where Breha sat. Their daughter mostly ignored them as she dug through the different candy bowls to pull out the remaining green pieces.

"Don't you know that the best part of making gingerbread houses is eating the decorations as you go,” Rey teased before grabbing several gumdrops from the bowl. Her cheeks puffed out adorably when she popped all of the candy into her mouth at once.

“Fine,” Ben conceded, shaking his head in mock resignation as he grinned at his wife.

After not so surreptitiously sneaking a few more pieces of candy, Rey offered to help the girls, but both Breha and Padme insisted that only Nonno was allowed to help them. The girls then declared that the gingerbread houses should be a surprise and that their parents needed to come back when they were done. Han shrugged again, grinning over at Ben as he helped Breha cover the roof with gumdrops.

Assured that the girls would be distracted with the gingerbread houses for a while longer, Ben ushered a giggling Rey back upstairs. He was determined to take advantage of the moment and get some much-needed time together.

When Han finally declared that the gingerbread houses were completed, Ben wasn’t sure who was more proud – his father or the girls.

Leia hadn’t even protested when Han cleared some space to make sure that the lopsided gingerbread houses were prominently displayed among the rest of the decorations.

Han made every guest that stopped by look at the girls’ creations. They weren’t allowed to move on until they oohed and aahed at least twice. He even brought some pictures with him to show off the gingerbread houses to everyone when they stopped by Uncle Lando’s Christmas Eve party. It didn’t matter if they had already seen them. Han insisted that everyone look at just how talented his granddaughters were.

Ben just observed the whole thing with a fond smile. Breha and Padme certainly had his dad wrapped around their little fingers.

Notes:

This Christmas fluff was based on a #24DaysofReylo prompt. I posted a shorter version on Twitter a few days ago.