#stormpilotweek2018

Now though, they were stuck in a small ship as they made for an old rebel base that Leia knew about, to hunker down and hope that some of their allies sucked up the courage to join them and rebuild the Resistance. It made avoiding Finn difficult and worse, it made avoiding seeing Finn and Rey or Finn and Rose difficult. Finn always seemed more pleased to see them, more willing to spend time with them than he was with Poe and now Poe had to find a way to shove all those half-formed hopes and dreams back into their box and forget them. Which was proving to be easier said than done.

“There you are.”

Poe gave a start and leaned forward to look around the bulkhead he was hiding behind. “Leia?” He sighed. “What’s happened now?”

“Nothing,” she said as she came round and sat down on a crate in front of his little hidey-hole. “Your brooding was getting annoying.”

“I’m not…” He stopped as she gave him an unimpressed look and sighed again. He seemed to be very good at getting unimpressed looks from her these days. “Alright, I am brooding.”

Leia smirked at him faintly. “What I can’t figure out is why you’re sitting here sulking instead of going out and spending time with your man.”

Poe blinked. “I’m not sulking,” he said, deliberately avoiding the second part of Leia’s statement.

That earned him another unimpressed look. “Now you’re just being obtuse.”

“He’s not my man,” Poe replied, his unhappiness shining through for a moment before he shoved it down. “He never was.”

Leia sighed. “Poe, I may not be a Jedi but I can feel the Force and I can feel the thread that binds you two together.”

“He’s not interested,” Poe said, firmly ignoring the hope that threatened to rise at Leia’s words. “He’s… I’ve seen the way he looks at Rey. And at Rose.”

Leia now looked exasperated. “Do you always leave your brains in the cockpit, flyboy?”

Poe frowned. “What do you mean?”

“That boy spends half his time pining after you and the other half trying to look good in your eyes,” Leia said, dryly amused.

“But… Rey?”

Leia chuckled. “Oh, he has a bond with her, it’s true, but it’s more like the one I had with Luke.”

Poe stared at her for a moment. “And Rose?”

“She’s his friend.” Leia gave him an exasperated look. “Get your backside out of that hole, General Dameron, and get your act together.”

Poe grimaced and began to climb out then he suddenly stopped and stared at her. “Wait… General?”

“Congratulations,” Leia said dryly. “You just got promoted.”

“But…” Poe swallowed. “I failed you. And the Resistance.”

Leia stared down at the floor for a moment then she got to her feet. “One thing you’re going to learn about rebellions and resistances, Poe, is that we all fail from time to time. We can’t win every battle and we don’t always succeed. Sometimes we even get brought down to our knees. It’s not the falling that matters, General. It’s the getting up and continuing to fight that’s important.”

Poe nodded slowly, lost in his own thoughts as he assimilated that. He didn’t notice Leia smile at him proudly and take her leave and he certainly didn’t notice her nod to the man who entered the hold.

“Poe?”

Finn’s voice startled Poe out of his thoughts and he stared at the other man with surprise for a moment.

“She made me a General,” he blurted before he could gather his wits properly.

“Yeah,” Finn said with a small smile. “She did the same to me. Said we were following in some time-honoured traditions but she wouldn’t elaborate.”

“The Rebellion threw people into leadership roles like that,” Poe said, still a little distracted. He then sloughed off that mood and looked at Finn. He swallowed hard before asking, “How’s Rey? And Rose?”

“Rose is recovering well,” Finn said with a hint of ruefulness that Poe would have loved an explanation for. He suspected it had something to do with how she’d been injured. “And Rey…” He grinned wryly. “Rey told me to get my head out of my ass and come down here and tell you how I felt before she did it for me.”

Poe gaped for a moment then he blinked. “Tell me how…?” He began to smile. “Leia was pretty much doing the same thing.”

“Yeah?” Finn said as he took a step forward towards Poe.

Poe matched that step. “Yeah.”

Finn grinned. “Then… can I…?”

“Yeah,” Poe said hurriedly, cutting him off. “Yeah, you can… you can do whatever you want.”

Finn laughed at his eagerness then closed the gap and pressed their lips together in a gentle kiss. Poe sighed into it and closed his eyes as Finn wrapped an arm around his waist. They embraced and just kissed for a while and when the kiss finally ended, they didn’t part, just stood there in each other’s embrace and rested their foreheads against the other.

“That was… great,” Finn said, his smile full of wonder.

“There’s a lot more where that came from, buddy,” Poe replied with a chuckle.

Finn laughed at him. “I’m looking forward to it.”

They swayed together for a moment then they kissed again, drawn together without thought or words. Poe let out a whine as Finn pressed him back against the bulkhead and things might have gone further then and there but the ship suddenly lurched as they dropped out of hyperspace. They broke apart and looked at each other.

“We’re here,” Poe said.

“Yeah.”

“We’d better…” Poe gestured towards the rest of the ship.

He’d admit he was pleased when Finn looked a little disappointed. “Yeah.”

“We’ll… come back to this though,” Poe said, leaning in to capture another quick kiss. “Soon.”

“Good,” Finn said with a smile before slowly pulling away and stepping back. He straightened his clothes then held out one hand. “Coming. General Dameron?”