#stormpilotweek2017

As the years passed and there was no sign of this oddly named soulmate, he’d sometimes wondered if it was a droid. That would have been interesting. The idea that droids have souls would have been like throwing a bomb into the Senate building. The idea had both amused him and horrified him. Eventually though, he’d stopped wondering about his soulmate, too busy with first the Republic Navy and then with the Resistance. He’d been firmly convinced that he would never meet someone so improbably named.

But then he was captured by the First Order, tortured and tormented, his mind pulled inside out by Kylo Ren and then rescued by a nervous, frightened but so very brave Stormtrooper. When he climbed into the TIE fighter, he had to stop himself from giggling like a little boy. He’d always wanted to fly one of these ever since he’d been allowed to sit inside the one they had on display in the museum on Coruscant when he was a boy. The General… Princess as she’d still been back then… had made the arrangements to allow him to do that.

“Hey, what’s your name?” he said, once they were clear of the star destroyer, half turning to catch a glimpse of the Stormtrooper who had rescued him.

“FN-2187,” came the reply and Poe was too caught up in prepping the fighter and fighting back the pain from his injuries for it to register at first.

“F… what?” He stuttered to a halt, feeling like he’d been punched in the chest.

The Stormtrooper continued on, unaware of Poe’s sudden inner turmoil. “That’s the only name they ever gave me.”

Poe pulled himself together, reminding himself firmly that they needed to escape first then he could have a meltdown over who and what his soulmate was. He did allow himself to feel the outrage that naming people with numbers raised in him.

“Well, I ain’t using it,” he said with indignation. He groped for something right, a name, not a serial number. “FN, huh? Finn! I’m gonna call you Finn. Is that alright?”

He could almost feel the delight and wonder from the back of the TIE fighter. “Finn? Yeah. Finn. I like that!”

As the Stormtrooper – Finn – said that, Poe felt a jab of pain from his ribs where FN-2187 had been emblazoned for so many years. He wanted to look and see what had happened, he wanted to say something to Finn but now was really not the time. So instead he settled for introducing himself.

“I’m Poe. Poe Dameron.”

He didn’t hear Finn’s sudden startled noise over the sound of the engines but he did hear Finn’s reply.

“Good to meet you, Poe.”

He thought there was something extra, some timbre of the man’s voice, that meant something but they didn’t have time for questions right now.

“Good to meet you too, Finn.”

And boy, was it. Of all the circumstances he’d imagined meeting his soulmate, this wasn’t one of them. There was so much he wanted to say, so many questions to ask but there was also a damn star destroyer right behind them and they were not out of the woods just yet.

The subsequent argument, such as it was, about returning to Jakku for his droid was cut short by the hit to their engines and the resulting crash landing also drove it out of his mind, lost in the desperation to get to safety and his grief for a soulmate lost and found within minutes. It wasn’t until he was back on D’Qar in his own quarters after having spilled out the whole story to the General, including the fact that Finn had been his soulmate, that he had a chance to stop and do more than just react. She’d been sympathetic and sent him off to first medical to be checked out then back to his room.

He heaved a sigh of relief once the door to his room closed behind him then he leaned against it with a renewed jolt of grief and frustrated anger. He’d failed his mission – though the General had been adamant that he hadn’t (he didn’t believe her) – and he’d lost his droid and his soulmate.

He sighed and pushed himself off the door, heading immediately for the fresher. He stank and he itched with dried sweat and blood and dust. He stripped off his clothes mechanically and all but crawled into the shower. He let the hot water run over his head as he braced himself against the wall and tried to let it wash away the horrible feeling of failure. Finally, after deciding that drowning himself in the shower wasn’t a productive use of his time, he grabbed the soap and scrubbed off the collected filth and blood from his capture and escape. He then climbed out of the shower and dried himself off perfunctorily.

He wrapped the towel around his waist and headed for the door and it was then that a flash of black in the mirror caught his eye. He came to a halt and stared at his reflection. There, written where FN-2187 had once been but still in that familiar cramped handwriting, was one word – Finn. He gaped at the name etched into his skin and brought one shaking hand up to brush his fingers over the name of his soulmate.

Soulmate names disappeared when one of the pair (or more) died. He knew that. He’d seen the Shara Bey on his father’s collarbone slowly fade after his mother had died. It had been significantly fainter even after only a few hours and completely gone within three days. He remembered how it had added to his father’s grief.

He rubbed the name and continued to stare at it in the mirror’s reflection. Given the amount of time that had passed since they’d crashed on Jakku, Finn’s name should have been fading. But it wasn’t. It was as strong as it had ever been and an almost desperate hope bloomed in his chest. Finn wasn’t dead. He was alive and probably stuck on Jakku. He needed to go back!

Poe scrambled out of the fresher and yanked on some clean clothes and a new flight suit. Just as he was reaching for the door handle, the comm system blared to life.

“All X-Wing pilots report to the hanger bay. All X-Wing pilots report to the hanger bay. Commander Dameron, please report to Command.”

Poe stared at the ceiling for a moment in annoyed frustration then yanked the door open, a litany of curses spilling from his lips as he went to do his job.

******

Poe jumped down from Black One and handed his helmet over to one of the ground crew. The mission to Takodana had gone… as well as could be expected. Maz’s cantina had taken a hell of a lot of damage but they’d given the First Order something to think about. However, Poe had been glad to head back to D’Qar and he was now marshalling his arguments to present to the General about heading back to Jakku to find Finn. They were going to have to be good because Takodana had also brought back Han Solo into the mix and she always got a little grouchy when he was around.

But before he could do anything, he heard a familiar whistle and whipped around to see BB-8 rolling towards him across the tarmac, whistling and beeping enthusiastically.

“BB-8, my buddy!” he said with open delight and he crouched down. His little droid was still whistling and beeping ecstatically and he laughed and patted her. “Whoa! Slow down, buddy.”

He broke off as BB-8 beeped excitedly about Friend-Finn and Friend-Rey and how they had helped her and got her back.

“Finn?” Poe said urgently. “Finn found you?”

BB-8 whistled an affirmative and then added several beeps. Poe turned to look towards where the Millenium Falcon had landed and… there he was. He got to his feet and started walking towards Finn before breaking into a jog until he could all but throw himself into Finn’s arms. The hug was everything he could have wanted.

“What happened to you?” Finn demanded.

“What happened? I got thrown from the crash. I woke up at night, no you, no ship, nothing. BB-8 said that you saved them.”

“No, no, it wasn’t just me…”

“You completed my mission.” Force, there was so much more he wanted to say but that was the first thing that came to mind. Then he realised something. “Finn… that’s my jacket.”

Finn immediately started to remove it, looking apologetic, but Poe stopped him. There was something about Finn, his soulmate, wearing his clothes that made his breath catch.

“No, no, no. Keep it. It suits you.” He bit his lip to stop himself from continuing or from leaning forward to kiss Finn. “You’re a good man, Finn.”

Finn then leaned in a little. “Poe, I need your help.”

The explanation that came next was slightly garbled but Poe understood enough of it to realise what it meant and he immediately led Finn down into Command to where the General was. He nearly panicked when she made the comment about needing to talk to Finn because just for a moment, when he introduced Finn, he saw a gleam in her eyes that he was sure did not bode well. But instead the talk turned to Starkiller and Finn’s friend and what they were going to do.

Eventually, they were sent on their way by the General as she issued orders to have Starkiller base scouted by one of the pilots (“Not you, Dameron,” she’d said firmly, tilting her head the barest amount towards Finn. “You have something else to take care of.”) and rousted the Intelligence officers out to prepare for a briefing in a couple of hours. Poe sent Snap off to do the scouting then escorted Finn further into the base. As he did, he realised he wasn’t sure what to say.

He looked over and saw how jittery Finn was and he bumped the man’s shoulder with his own. “Hey. It’ll be okay. We’re going to do this. It just takes a bit of organisation so we do it right.”

Finn gave him a wan smile. “Yeah… yeah, I know. It just…”

“Doesn’t make it any easier,” Poe finished for him with a sympathetic smile. He felt the first jitters of his own at how concerned Finn was for this girl, Rey. He wasn’t sure what it meant and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

“Yeah,” Finn said then he hesitated. “Um, Poe? Can we… can we talk?”

“Sure,” Poe said, shoving away the faint feelings of trepidation that rose at the question.

“Somewhere private?”

Poe nodded and led Finn to his room. He closed the door behind them and leaned against it as casually as he could manage.

“What’s up?”

Finn licked his lips and shifted nervously for a moment. “Um, well…”

He looked anywhere but at Poe for a moment then he pulled down the collar of his shirt far enough for Poe to see what was etched into the skin on his left pectoral. It was Poe Dameron, stark white against Finn’s dark skin and written in his spiky slanted handwriting.

Poe gulped and stripped off the top of his flight suit. He turned slightly and pulled up the shirt he wore underneath to reveal the Finn on his ribs. He managed a small smile. “Me too, buddy. Me too.”

He was completely, utterly and totally unprepared for the force of Finn’s brilliant, bright, happy smile and the way it seemed to shatter any attempts at composure he might try for. He could only return it and let the hope he’d been carefully sitting on break free within him as he let his shirt fall back down.

“They… they told us it wasn’t real. That soulmates weren’t real,” Finn said, almost babbling in his excitement. “That it was a remnant of a time when people were slaves. But I…” His smile segued into something soft and wondering. “I never really believed that. I didn’t want to.” He frowned a little and gestured towards Poe’s side. “But… it says Finn.”

Poe had to swallow hard before he could speak. “Yeah,” he said hoarsely then he cleared his throat before he continued. “It… it used to say FN-2187.”

Finn’s eyes widened and he rushed forward before suddenly coming to a halt right in front of Poe. He hesitated for a moment before reaching out with one hand and placing it on Poe’s side, right where his name was written. Poe shuddered as the warmth of Finn’s hand seeped through his shirt.

“Finn,” he said hoarsely. “Can I… I need…?” He yanked his composure back around him a little. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yeah,” Finn said equally as hoarsely.

Poe brought one hand up to cradle Finn’s face then leaned in and pressed his lips against Finn’s. For a moment, Finn was still against him then he returned the kiss and Poe sighed. As they kissed, they could both feel the soulmate bond start to form between them. That seemed to spur Finn into action and Poe quickly found himself crowded against the door with Finn’s body hard against him. He clutched at Finn’s shirt and moaned into a kiss that was rapidly becoming more and more heated.

They finally parted when they realised that they needed to breathe and came to rest with their foreheads pressed together. It took a little longer for Poe to open his eyes again and when he did, he found Finn watching him with a small happy smile.

“So, soulmates,” Poe said, returning the smile.

“Yeah.”

Poe suddenly laughed. “You know, my Dad’s going to say it’s just typical that I had to be captured by the First Order in order to find my soulmate. He always says I never do things the easy way.”

Finn’s reply was interrupted by someone banging on the door, causing Poe to jolt forward into Finn in surprise. He was caught against a solid body and held tight and just for a moment, his brain stuttered to a halt.

“Commander Dameron?”

Poe sucked in a breath. “Yeah?”

“The General’s calling everyone in for a meeting.”

Poe sobered. “Thanks,” he called. “We’ll be there.”

He slowly, reluctantly pulled away from Finn. “We should go. Snap must be back from his scouting run.”

Finn reached out and caught his hand. “What about… this? Us?”