Note:This happened right after "Assigned", but I feel it is more suited to be posted as part 3. The Finnlo actions seem slow burns, I admit. Though, tbh, there are a lot of issues for these two to work through to have (something resembling) a relationship. It is fortunate that we get to see a kiss in the first story at all :P
Warnings: Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Child Soldiers, Violence, Underage Weapon Usage.
Electrified
When Kylo had first brought Finn to their safe house hidden in the middle of nowhere, Finn was riding high on fever and medications. The temperature was too heated for his irritated skin and wounds as his shirt was slowly dampened with sweats. Hardly registering where they headed, Finn dozed intermittently, and occasionally shuddered at every turn and rocking motion - wondering whether Kylo had found an appropriate hole to dump his battered body, and how he came to survive Kylo's craftsmanship.
Finn dreamed of Rey in his haze, small and frightened but taught to stand her ground, growling even with her knees shaking. The vicious, desperate glint in her eyes cut her infantile face into something terribly young and feral, the proof of the Order's cultivation clear on her terrified, innocent beasticality. Finn grieved for her, for his promise of returning. Both abandoned because Finn was too weak to pull through.
Curling into his despair and pain, Finn did not notice the car had stopped until he felt fingers clutching to his chin, and his feverish eyes were locked on Kylo's pale features deviled by the dark he wore. Something in that penetrating, cold stare of a ruthless hitman burned something defiant in Finn, making his jaw squared even when his teeth wanted to chatter.
A brief silence passed, thoughtful and unyielding. Suddenly, Finn was hauled off the car, and they both laboriously treaded across a small clearing towards the loom of a house, rising amongst the coverage of shrubs, trees and slopes. Finn could only memorize its foreboding dull of grey, and promptly passed out when his head hit something soft and embracing.
Finn woke between fits and starts, not for long and always in intense agonies. He glimpsed possibly insignificant things, and heard sounds that made absolutely no sense to his addled mind. Once, he was conscious enough to take in his new confine, broad with high ceiling and generous windows that remained curtained at all time. He mused how Kylo could stand such openness, even though the effort in occupying gaps was apparent.
Finn stared absentmindedly at the IV dripping blood into his vein, unwilling to move beyond the current blankness - faintly acknowledging one bad shift would erupt his body in pains. Stiffened at the door's being opened, Finn only relaxed when Kylo came into sight, and was surprised to see a bruise blackened just below his left eye, strange scratches littering his cheeks.
"You have a kitten?" Finn said hoarsely, stunned, having never before witnessed such damage to Kylo's physicality, however minor. Kylo sent him a scathing look that absurdly made Finn bubble up with laughter, which regrettably strained his injuries.
Kylo seemed satisfied by his hiss, the terrible asshole, and proceeded to check over his dressings. Seeing him work, efficient and impersonal, Finn's tongue was heavy with inquiries. But he bit back his questions, thinking of Rey and the brisk hallucination of her manifested from his remembrance.
How many days had passed since he left her alone to go confronting Kylo's mastery; how horrible it was to singly struggle for survival when you were too little to a big, bad world.
A lone tear trailed down his face, the burning hot grief inside almost making Finn convulse from being heartsick. Kylo quietly watched him crumbling under all of that weight, not judging but terrifyingly staying indifferent. It shamed Finn like no others, for letting Kylo see him in such a state, for allowing Kylo to know Finn had cared at all.
He wanted Rey. He missed her so much. He was so sorry.
Under Kylo's unwavering attention, Finn dry-wept himself into oblivion.
When wakefulness roused again, Finn felt utterly drained. He restlessly questioned Kylo's intentions, and then discarded probabilities as meaningless. All he should do was getting out of this bed, and trying to find Rey.
Rey.
Finn endeavored to heave himself up, but quickly collapsed as his body was too weakened to bear the action. He blinked at the ceiling, agonized and hapless. He should just try once more.
Unexpectedly, there were hesitant knockings on the door, but no one entered. Finn was greatly confused because Kylo would never bother with useless politeness; and to his acknowledgement, besides the two of them -
The knocks insisted, and it took Finn a moment more of bewilderment to realize the Morse codes tapped to the wooden surface.
You there? Finn deciphered, yet not answering. He would not be sure what was behind the door. Quiescence followed the unfilled breach of a reply, and soon, as though in stubbornness, another message came. Finn's heart skipped a beat in his chest.
Finn. That name was like a siren call, unknown to so many, and rarely held in such familiar certainty.
His hand was shaking as Finn knocked back against his headboard, loud enough to catch if one press their ear to the room's door.
Who? Rey?
When the answer arrived, it did with urgent confirmation and barely-contained joy. Amidst the surging trembles of astonishment and happiness, Finn felt it echo clearly:
Yes.
Kylo was slippery to Finn's relentless askance, refusing to buckle under the pressure Finn built up to Kylo's silence. Finn wanted to scream at him, wanted to fly apart because Rey, Rey was just mere seconds away. But a firm palm pressed to Finn's neck eased his hysterics, not due to the threat it posed but the calm brought by trigger-worn calluses.
Finn swallowed underneath such surety, arrested in the clashing of their eyes. He looked at the healed marks and faded bruise caused by tiny nails and fists, feeling proud Rey had managed to defend herself to some extents. Meanwhile, Kylo traced the movement of his Adam's apple with strong fingers, seemingly contemplative and fascinated.
"I'll rest," Finn promised, not hating Kylo, but impatient for more. "And then you let me see Rey."
The day he could step out of bed found Finn sprawling on the floor, heavily breathing through his nose and gritted teeth. The cooling wood was a solace to his bunched tendons. Kylo hovered over his process, not helping, but always watchful.
Finn did not ask for assistance anyway.
He tried to uncurl from his defensive lump after a fall. Once he got accustomed to the aches and stretches of his limbs again, Finn pushed up against the wall and used its support to move forward. He half-leaned, half-walked to the room at the end of the corridor, crawling when he was too tired to stand.
Rey was sleeping with her back to the headboard and her front curled towards the door as Finn dragged his exhausted self in. He held his breaths when she stirred, and dared exhale sensing her settling again. Not desiring to disturb her with his noisy struggling, Finn contented to just fold himself at her door, observing her in the half dark.
Her form barely rose and fell from respiration, covered warmly and protectively by her blanket. Finn wondered if she dreamed of childish peace or haunting monsters as his eyes blurred.
Finn quietly cried into his hand; and Kylo bore silent witness to such relieved torments.