Meet Me in the Grey (Reylo fanfiction) (COMPLETED)

Chapter 21: Gratitude

A note from your humble author: Here's a nice loooong chapter to get you through the weekend :D Also, some lemon, you're welcome! ~_^  

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"I owe you two, and I pay my debts. What can I get for you, anything, name it!" offered Lando the next day as they joined him and Rando for breakfast in his luxurious apartment. Lando had not stopped thanking them since the rescue and both Rey and Ben were being made uncomfortable by so much praise, nor could they think of anything that they particularly wanted. Lando had been poorly treated while a prisoner of the First Order, but after a few solid meals, the attention of a medic, a good night's rest, and a private talk with his son, he was looking and feeling much better.

"I'll bet you're one hell of a pilot like your old man!" commented Lando, trying to reacquaint himself with the son of one of his dearest friends. Lando Calrissian had not seen Ben Solo since he was a young boy, and he couldn't help but notice how much he reminded him of Han. Word had reached Lando in the past year of Han Solo's death, and he had been devastated by it, as he and Han had been friends for a long time. They had both been generals in the days of the old Rebel Alliance.

Lando remembered when Han would bring Ben to visit Cloud City, back when he was just a boy and his own son was still in diapers. He was a strange child, sometimes happy, sometimes somber, but he would always get a sparkle in his eye at the mention of piloting or anything to do with starships. Like father, like son.

Han had once confided in him that his son was being troubled by something, something to do with the force, and that he felt powerless as a father to help such a clearly gifted child. Lando would later know that own struggle when he discovered the same abilities in his own son. He had heard that they sent him to Luke Skywalker for help, and that after a few years the academy had been destroyed, and that Ben was missing. As a father he sympathized with Han and Leia in their time of loss. He knew that Ben had been missing for many years, but that Han and Leia seemed to believe...to know...that somewhere he was still alive. He had wondered if it was just the futile hope of devastated parents, but now before him, after so very many years, he could see the face that resembled the father, and the dark knowing eyes of the mother. It seemed, Ben Solo had returned from the dead. Indeed, he had thought he was looking at a ghost when the young man first greeted him, a shadow of Han returned from the grave, but when the young man had said he was Ben, he could hardly believe it. He wondered why Leia had not told him of her son's return, such momentous news; he was a little hurt that she had not shared it with him. He would have celebrated for her, but he sensed that there was much that had happened in the years he had been gone that he was not open to discuss, and that Leia must have shared that sentiment, or he would have surely known sooner.

Lando had chosen not to ask Ben about where he had been, or what had happened to him, though he was sure to inquire with Leia the moment he saw her again. The most he had dared to ask Ben, was what he had been doing since his return.

Ben had been grateful that Lando had not pried too much into what had happened since he 'ran away.' But when he had offered him condolences for the loss of his father, it was hard to mask the pain it had caused him. He felt ashamed to look Lando in the eye knowing that he had been the reason for his own father's death, and knowing that Lando would probably despise him if he knew the truth. Lando's question once again pulled that pain to the surface.

"He taught me well," was all he managed to choke out, and Rey could sense his shame and sadness through the bond. She reached her hand under the table and clasped his hand to comfort him.

"Well, I have some very impressive ships that I'll be sending along to the resistance now that this blockade is settled. I can't believe you guys found the Millennium Falcon, where did you find her? I'll bet Chewie is thrilled, she could probably use a tune-up, but I'll bet she's still the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy!"