A/N: Fill for a prompt on tfa-kink; betaed by amyfortuna.
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The first thing Finn registers is the heat, stifling and horribly familiar. He squeezes his eyes tighter, hoping against all hope that it's a dream. But despite his best efforts, he finds himself gradually gaining consciousness, and with it, awareness of his immediate surroundings. His hands curl tighter around armrests, as the smell of burnt metal wafts through the air. His body aches, and he doesn't feel ready to get up.
Then Finn senses movement, and reluctantly opens his eyes.
Kylo Ren hovers before him, too close for comfort. His mask is gone, and the scar across his face makes Finn's stomach flip. He doesn't seem too happy that Finn's awake - though, Finn has never seen Kylo Ren in a good mood before. Then again, Finn is often the cause of Kylo Ren's unhappiness.
As soon as he processes who's in front of him Finn jerks backwards, and his head hits the headrest of his chair. He blinks and starts to look around but Kylo Ren leans closer, filling up Finn's vision.
"What do you remember?" he demands, eyes narrowed in suspicion - or perhaps it's because the angle causes a thin ray of sunlight to shine directly into his pupils. That can't be good for him, Force-user or no.
"Uh." Finn desperately thinks back. The last thing he remembers is trying to walk as quietly as possible as he infiltrated the First Order base on Rishi. He'd just turned a corner when he felt a blow on his head and then crumpled, losing consciousness. His eyes widen. "Wait, you kidnapped me? Why are you keeping me alive?"
"None of your business, traitor," Kylo Ren snaps.
Finn surreptitiously looks around. They appear to be in some sort of wreck - he's surrounded by twisted grey metal, with tiny slivers of sunlight slipping through the cracks. Presumably, Kylo Ren crashed their ship. Of course. "You need me for leverage," Finn says, attempting to get more information. "You're baiting Rey with me. So what went wrong?"
"Quiet! You're still my prisoner," Kylo Ren says. But he shifts, and looks away, and Finn knows he's not telling the whole truth.
Finn begins to ask another question, but Kylo Ren bursts out, "Alright, you're my prisoner, but I may, possibly, sort of - only a little - require your . . ." he struggles a bit ". . . assistance."
"Why should I help you?" Finn says. He tries to stand but realizes he's still strapped in. For a moment he pauses, at the mental image of Kylo Ren wrestling his limp body into a shuttle and taking the time to buckle him up. He feels oddly touched, and also a bit creeped out.
Kylo Ren snarls impatiently, swipes at Finn. Finn recoils but Kylo Ren was only ripping off the straps with all his impressive strength. Finn tries to hide his surprise by standing up.
"I don't know what planet we're on and the entrance of the shuttle is blocked," Kylo Ren admits. "I need you to assist me in moving the metal."
"Where's your saber?" Finn says incredulously. Kylo Ren sneers, turning away without responding.
One side of the shuttle has completely crumpled, so they sidle their way through with difficulty. But finally they reach where the entrance should be. The door is crushed, impossible to open normally. Several indentations are already smashed into the surface, precisely the size of an angry Force-user's fist.
"You punched it?" Finn says, staring at the marks. "Why can't you just, you know, use the Force and -"
"I can't do that when I don't know what I'm moving, idiot," Kylo Ren mutters. "This ship didn't even have a safety ejection system, who knows what else is wrong with it. One wrong move and it could collapse."
That's oddly reasonable. Finn examines the door. "So we're just going to - bend it."
Kylo Ren nods.
"Even though it could still collapse," Finn says.
Kylo Ren nods again, eyes moving skittishly this time.
Finn sighs. "Do you really need me for this?"
Kylo Ren scowls more than his usual amount. "Look. I went to the trouble of capturing you, and I'm not going to abandon you now. There is a chance we'll die from this, but at least this way, I - and you too, I guess - also have a chance to survive. If we're lucky enough."
Well, at least he's honest. Finn shrugs. It's not like he has any other options. "Alright, let's do this."
Kylo Ren's eyes flicker with surprise for a second, then it disappears. Brusquely, he says, "Hold onto that corner. I'll hold onto the other, and we'll bend the door up simultaneously. It's still hot from the crash, so it's malleable. Be careful, though - I'd hate to lose such a valuable prisoner."
Finn glances down at his hands, winces at the idea of being burned, and hopes his gloves are thick enough. He's got no other option. He goes to the corner of the crushed door, and grasps it. The heat is frighteningly pervasive, and he knows he can't hold onto it much longer.
"Quickly," Kylo Ren orders. "We've got to get out as soon as we can."
Finn bites back a 'Well, duh' and just strengthens his grip on the blazingly hot metal.
"One - two - three!"
They wrench the door up, Finn's muscles groaning in protest, then dash out of the shuttle. Finn looks back just in time to see the entrance collapse even further, the ship flattening into the sand -
Sand?
Finn wildly looks around him. Sand dunes everywhere, no sign of life. He tries to take a calming breath. It's probably not where he thinks it is. There are thousands of desert planets.
But Kylo Ren looks, if possible, even more furious. "Sand?" he roars. "I hate sand."
"Then why are we even here?" Finn demands. He's feeling a little faint, but he tries to keep a hold on himself. There are thousands of desert planets.
There are thousands of desert planets, and he thinks he might hate every one.
"We were shot down," Kylo admits. "By mercenaries." Before Finn can even react, he says defensively, "They came out of nowhere! And they were exceptionally strong. I wouldn't be surprised, actually, if they had a Force-user with them -"
"Whatever, I don't care," Finn interrupts. "We need to get off this planet. If we were shot down by mercenaries, then someone's looking for us."
Kylo gives him a look of disdain. "You don't give the orders around here, traitor."
Finn is thankfully saved from an argument when he sees a figure in the distance atop a sand dune. His heart thuds faster with hope. He's about to call for help, but Kylo Ren beats him to it.
"Please, save us!" he yells, waving his arms. "Save us from the sand!"
Finn doesn't cover his eyes in embarrassment, but it's a near thing.
The person approaches: a short little woman, with beady eyes and what's left of her hair pulled back in a bandana. She walks surprisingly fast for her age.
"Please ma'am." Finn steps forward, not trusting Kylo Ren to handle any social interaction. "If you could show us the way to the nearest town, and tell us what planet we're on, we'd really appreciate it."
The woman eyes them distrustfully. "What'll you give me, other than appreciation?"
"Uh…" Finn looks around him for inspiration, comes up blank. "Uh…" Reluctantly, he turns to Kylo Ren for help, and braces himself for the worst..
"We'll reward you by not murdering you where you stand," Kylo Ren says menacingly, and Finn grits his teeth. That's no way to talk to a sweet old lady.
Said sweet old lady spits near Kylo Ren's feet. "Fine," she hisses in her sand-roughened voice, and jabs a finger in one direction. "Town is that way. Not very far. And you're on Jakku."
Finn is already quite irritated. The heat, Kylo Ren, and the whole kidnapping-thing are already culminating into a headache. But as that terrible two-syllable word reaches his ears, Finn loses it.
"Jakku? Jakku? Why? Why is it always Jakku?" He turns to Kylo, his face crumpling like their shuttle. "What have you done?"
"I don't care about the planet's name," Kylo snarls back. "I hate all this infernal sand."
"You hate sand?" the woman says, sounding genuinely curious. "Why? It's part of life."
"No it's not." Kylo stomps forward, poking the woman threateningly. "It's rough, it's coarse, it's irritating, and -"
Finn, still rambling, looks up at the sky, appealing for help, or at least sympathy. "- and I'm stuck with him, of all people. It couldn't be anyone from the Resistance, or even a nice stranger, it had to be Kylo fucking Ren -"
"- and it gets EVERYWHERE."
"Fuck Jakku!"
"Fuck sand!"
"Fuck you!"
"What? Fuck you!"
"You're the one that got us into this!"
"Well - you make a fucking annoying prisoner!"
Finn grits his teeth. "I don't have time for this! I'm getting off this planet no matter what." He starts walking towards town, and hears Kylo Ren, still grumbling, follow after him.
They walk in silence for a while, and Finn feels his temper cooling off. Then Kylo Ren says, in a long-suffering voice, "I've got sand in my shoes."
"I didn't thank that woman for the directions," Finn realizes suddenly, ignoring Kylo Ren. He turns around but the old woman is already gone.
"I've still got sand in my shoes," Kylo Ren repeats.
"Great," Finn says. He feels too weary to argue. The trading stalls and smoke are coming into view, and he's feeling the worst deja vu ever.
Several minutes later, and they're nearly at the town. Finn is sweating furiously, and he can hear Kylo Ren's loud breaths as the knight walks beside him. Finn refuses to look over. Kylo Ren, after all, is the reason this all happened.
"I hate sand," Kylo Ren says morosely. He's calmed down a bit, but it's not much better.
"What happened to your lightsaber, anyway?" Finn says. The only reason he's indulging in such a question - a question that could inspire murderous rage - is because he's probably going to die of heat exhaustion before they get to town anyway.
Kylo Ren just shrugs, moodily kicks at the sand. ". . . it exploded when we crashed." Maybe he can read Finn's mind, because he immediately adds, "Don't get any ideas. I'm still much more powerful than you."
If it were any other day, Finn would respond, probably with something inflammatory about Rey's clear superiority over the knight. But Finn's so exhausted that talking doesn't seem worth the effort, even if it's to take Kylo Ren down a peg. They trudge the rest of the way in silence.
When they finally reach town, Kylo Ren threatens a vendor into giving him a waterskin. Then he starts threatening people into giving him water. Despite his disadvantaged state, he's still very intimidating. Finn is too parched to do anything but shake his head in a weak form of protest - which, of course, goes ignored.
Eventually the waterskin is full, and they seek shelter in the shade of the tents, where Kylo Ren chugs more than half of it before grudgingly passing it to Finn. Finn gulps the water down, dehydration and deja vu making his head spin, but even then, he has enough sense to leave some water at the bottom, just in case.
A passing merchant stops next to them. "You're mighty familiar-looking," he says to Finn, all six eyes squinted in concentration. "You been around here before?"
Finn freezes, and he feels Kylo Ren tense next to him, preparing for a fight.
"Nope, never saw this place in my life," Finn says, laughing nervously. "We're here for, for -" his mind swings wildly "- sightseeing."
"Sightseeing?" the merchant says, as his mandibles start clicking excitedly.
"Sightseeing?" Kylo Ren echoes, sounding strangled.
"How do you two like it so far?" the merchant asks eagerly. "It takes a long, long, long while, but Jakku grows on you, it really does."
"Yes, it's, it's really something," Finn says nervously. "K- Kyle here, though, he's still trying to get a feel for it."
The merchant turns to Kylo Ren and says, cheerfully, "You'll get there, eventually. It took me ten years to stop hating this place, but it's worth it. It really is."
Kylo Ren attempts a smile, though it's considerably strained. "Well, it was very nice talking with you, sir, but Trey - full name Trey Tor - and I need to get going." Then he raises a hand, and before Finn can react, the merchant falls to the ground, strangulation bruises already forming on his neck.
They quickly walk away from the merchant, and Kylo Ren mutters darkly into Finn's ear, "You're turning out to be much more trouble than you're worth. You're lucky I'm here to cover our tracks."
"Let's not forget who got us onto this Force-forsaken planet in the first place," Finn shoots back, guiltily relieved that they got away from the merchant. "And leaving a corpse isn't exactly covering our tracks."
Kylo Ren shrugs. "A corpse can't talk," he says, and Finn gives up.
They head to the crowd of ships parked on the side of the town. "How do we get one of those?" Finn says, gazing at them. He's a bit more spry now that he's moderately hydrated - that's the only reason he's magnanimous enough to say 'we'.
"I have an idea," Kylo Ren says, sounding sure of himself. He strides forward, and strikes up a conversation with a tall humanoid emerging from one of the ships.
Finn supposes it can't hurt, especially since, for once, Kylo Ren is acting like a normal person: actually talking, rather than strangling anybody who gets in his way -
Finn immediately changes his mind when Kylo Ren raises his hand, choking the person to death. The body falls to the ground with a thud that Finn can feel echoing to his shoes, and Kylo Ren sweeps up the ramp into the ship - an ancient-looking cruiser covered with anatomically-incorrect pin-ups.
Finn hurries to follow, though he pointedly avoids looking at the corpse. When he enters the ship he sees Kylo Ren already at the controls, flicking switches and levers. The ramp closes behind Finn.
"That wasn't necessary," Finn says, though a bit half-heartedly.
"He wouldn't have given it to us otherwise, as you well know," Kylo says. "It doesn't matter now. Let's just get out of here"
That's definitely a sentiment that Finn can agree with. So he sits down, and as the ground falls away underneath them, and Kylo Ren flies the ship away from this horrible, horrible planet, he looks out the window, and hopes he's leaving Jakku for good this time.