Poe Dameron squinted in the early morning light that was filtering into his sleeping quarters through the solitary window near the corner. Thinking back he couldn't remember that last time he'd seen the sunrise, usually choosing to sleep through this daily miracle since his sleep schedule was already shoddy at best. But today he had yet to go to sleep and he just prayed nothing urgent would come up later that required him to be at full awareness since he wasn't sure if he'd be able to pull it off. Sprawled out in the tiny bed beside him, head in the pilot's lap, Finn was finally beginning to stir. He had nodded off just before the night sky began to lighten, broadcasting the approach of the first sun, and had slept soundly. As he came to he breathed deeply, impossibly dark eyes blinking and squinting and widening as they adjusted to the room which had been cast in shadow when last he looked at it. With a yawn he looked up at Poe and a goofy smile graced his face.
Poe thanked the Light that Finn was still likely half asleep and therefore too out of it to run through his usual routine of apologizing for falling asleep in Poe's bed again. It happened so frequently at this point that the best pilot in the galaxy had begun to contemplate asking the ex-stormtrooper to move in if only to conserve space and spare them both the added rush every morning. Finn's modesty and habit of running off at the mouth when flustered was the only thing that had kept him from asking already. Already he seemed unable to handle the sly looks and elbow nudges from Poe's fellow pilots whenever they saw him making his way back to his own quarters early each morning.
It was quiet in the room save for the soft beeps that BB-8's charging station made as the tiny droid juiced up for the coming day. Finn yawned again and turned on his side, face now turned into Poe's stomach. The pilot took this opportunity to place a hand in his boyfriend's hair. Finn didn't have the type of hair you could run your fingers through, but Poe still enjoyed digging his nails in and scratching lightly at the younger man's scalp. It worked to calm and excite the touch-starved youth all at once and at that moment it served to pull him further out of unconsciousness.
"Are you ready to try again?"
Finn looked ready to answer in the negative before he heaved a long sigh through his nose and nodded, eyes drifting shut again as his body resettled. "I think I'm ready."
"Okay, here we go," Poe chuckled, moving his free hand to rest over his bed mate's shoulder. "Piloto."
"Pilot," Finn translated immediately, a smug smile stretching his cheeks as Poe chuckled again.
This is what had kept him from sleeping.
A few days prior Finn had entered his boyfriend's chambers to catch the tail end of a transmission the pilot was receiving from his mother. The ex-Stormtrooper had been fascinated by the unfamiliar words that flew rapidly back and forth between the two Damerons and had immediately begged Poe to teach him. Poe had initially refused, stating it was practically a dead language only used by a few remaining humans, likely adopted long ago from a galaxy far away. Finn had been adamant, however, and Poe found it hard to resist the man's large brown eyes when they were aimed at him in full force. The night before had been their first round of lessons and Finn had insisted on practicing long into the early morning.
"Puerto," he moved on to another review word to see how much Finn had retained after a few hours of sleep. His response, much to Poe's joy, was instantaneous.
"Door."
"Chaquete." On this word Finn hesitated, brow furrowing in thought before smoothing out again, another smile spreading wide.
"Jacket."
"You're sure?" Poe teased, recalling how the word had caused a bit of an issue the night before with Finn repeatedly mistranslating it as petite. Now, though, he nodded his head confidently, his cheek rubbing against Poe's sleep pants.
"I'm sure."
"Three outta three," was the proud response. Finn preened, eyes still closed, and Poe was struck by how much the young man craved praise. "You did alright."
"Well, teach me a little more," the trooper insisted, rolling further still so that he was on his stomach, face obscenely cushioned on Poe's thighs. The pilot tried not to squirm as he searched for words that would actually prove purposeful to the younger man. As he thought he let his hands glide over his boyfriend's upper body. As he passed over his face another sigh from the boy had warm breath ghosting over his palm.
"Calor."
"Heat."
"Anoche."
"Last night."
On its journey across the wide plain that was Finn's back, Poe's hand encountered the edge of his scar from Kylo Ren's saber. The majority of it was covered beneath the black tank-top Finn spent much of his down time in, but the top most edges of it were just visible over the curve of his shoulder. Poe outlined these edges lightly, keeping an eye trained on Finn's face to gauge his reaction. The wound was all healed over now, the skin taut and leathery beneath his calloused fingers. The only sign Finn was uncomfortable was a small grimace as Poe pulled the fabric of his top aside to expose more of his biggest battle scar.
"Dolor."
"Pain."
"That's right." Finn let out a huff as if a weight had been lifted from his scarred shoulders and Poe rested a soothing hand over as much of the wound as he could. He didn't like to remind Finn of his fight with Ren about as much as he didn't like to recall his own encounter with the former Ben Solo. He rubbed a soothing rhythm into his boyfriend's scalp. "Llamame."
"Call me."
"Azul."
"Blue.
"Amame."
"...Love me?" Poe smirked, having intentionally chosen a phrase that they had only briefly discussed, knowing Finn would doubt his answer and thus pose it as a question. A question he was inclined to answer. "Perhaps I do."
Poe knew Finn well enough to know that had he been breeded with a lighter complexion, he'd have been blushing then. He smiled shyly, briefly pushing his face to the pilot's stomach before rolling onto his back. His eyes were cast low as he rested his hands over his lower abdomen. His breathing was even and calculated, clearly in an attempt to keep his slight embarrassment at bay as Poe continued to gaze at him. The room was getting brighter.
"Well, how do you say 'kiss me'?" Finn finally asked shyly, the silence having stretched between them for a few comfortable minutes. Poe smiled fondly, brushing the other man's cheek lightly and drawing his eye.
"Besame," he provided, eyelids drooping as he imagined kissing Finn in that moment. The former member of the First Order appeared to be thinking about it as well since his breathing hitched slightly and his hands clenched. He didn't break eye contact though and Poe was almost unreasonably proud. He'd come a very long way.
"And how do you say 'hold me'?" he went on.
"Abrázame."
The two continued on like this for a while exchanging innocent and not so innocent translations. Poe tried to recall that Finn may need this some day if he met Poe's mother and so should know the true basics of polite conversation, but he couldn't help making his trooper squirm. Eventually Finn got them back on track, asking Poe to translate phrases he said back to him so he could get an idea for how they sounded. Simple things like 'My name is Finn' and 'This is my boyfriend, Poe Dameron'.
The X-Wing fighter had toyed briefly with the idea of switching the word novio with the word esposo. However,this thought was immediately followed by a mental image of Finn introducing himself to Mrs. Dameron and saying 'Hola, me llamo Finn. Soy el esposo de Poe'. He figured getting a husband without his mother's knowledge wouldn't go over well and that marrying Finn without his permission would be a bit rude. Deciding he would be found out soon enough, he did his best to keep his translations true to word. This went on and on with Finn letting words fall from his lips in a seemingly thoughtless manner.
"I don't know what to do now that I've found you." The serious statement took Poe by surprise and he paused in his examination of the shell of Finn's ear to look at him. The dark skinned youth wouldn't meet his eye.
"Yo no se que hacer ahora que te encontre."
Finn gave a half smile as Poe continued to translate for him, but the pilot could tell he was really troubled. He waited quietly as his boyfriend gathered his thoughts, hands folding over each other repeatedly with each passing moment. The two were no strangers to shared silence and Poe especially didn't mind the quiet that had settled over them. After all he spent months of silence at Finn's bedside waiting for him to wake up after his battle with Ren. There had of course been times when he filled the void with chatter, imagining that Finn heard every word, but more days than less were spent just watching the younger man rest. Watching him now was better than then since Finn was awake, yes wandering and fluttering as he tried to gather the courage for whatever he wanted to say.
"It's just...what will people say when they see me around you?" The question was so out of the blue that at first all Poe could do was blink and in his stunned silence, Finn found room to begin rambling. "The other pilots. General Organa. Rey! What're they all gonna think-?"
"Of you?" Poe interjected, a stab of hurt piercing his chest as his brow furrowed. He was beginning to think Finn was ashamed of their relationship, likely from years of conditioning that any form of love was wrong, but as Finn caught hi expression his sat up, shaking his head profusely.
"Of you!" he corrected, reaching and large hand out to grip Poe's shoulder before releasing and letting it slide down his chest. He looked torn, face crumbled in a way Poe knew meant he was struggling with a new concept that was turning into a hurdle. "What if they think you being with me makes you weak? Or less of a man! What if they stop sending you on missions and-"
"Hey, hey, hey," Poe soothed, reaching forward and taking Finn's face into his hands. His once sleepy eyes were wide with panic and the pilot realized the younger man had probably been mulling over this thought for some time. He stroked his cheeks with his thumbs, shushing him gently every time he went to utter another ounce of worry. "You don't have to think about stuff like that."
"But, Poe-"
"I'm serious," he cut over the man, releasing his face in favor of taking his hands, "Nobody here would ever look down on me or you like that and even if they did I wouldn't care." Finn snorted, somehow managing to make even that skeptical noise sound half hysterical in his state. He looked at the greatest pilot in the galaxy as if he were insane, head tilted at a comical angle.
"Of course you would! You've spent year building up this awesome reputation and I could trash it!"
"I'd pick you over some lousy reputation any day," Poe laughed, relieved and crestfallen at where Finn's mind had gone. He loved and hated how the younger man was always looking for approval because it sent his emotions haywire more often than not. He knew that he had to set a good example for the trooper to mirror and so at that moment chose to show himself as strong and unmoving. "I don't care what a single person outside of this room has to say about us, okay?"
He could see it in his eyes. The way Finn took stock and calculated everything he was reading off Poe in that moment with a soldier's eye. He noted how his breathing evened out again and he glanced away momentarily before his back straightened. He was trying to mimic Poe's position and so the pilot did his best to make it relaxed. Pulling his legs up from the edge of the bed, he twisted around so he and Finn were sitting side by side on the tiny mattress. He slowly put an arm around the man's shoulder, giving him plenty of time to pull away though he never had before. When Finn shuffled closer, he laid them both back on the sheets, bodies flush together in the small space they shared. He turned his head to face Finn, arm still trapped beneath his heavy body.
"It's you and me, buddy, no matter what anybody else says."
Finn finally seemed to accept his boyfriend's words as truth and settled down once more with a contented smile on his face. They went back to their lesson, Poe thinking of short phrases and words Finn could use around the base. Things like 'Have you seen my droid?' and 'I'm looking for my pilot'. Finn had laughed and floundered a bit when they began going over numbers and Poe decided they weren't necessary and went back to letting Finn pick what he wanted to learn. Things like 'Encantado, Señora Dameron' and 'No tengo un apellido'. The last one had got Poe to thinking how Finn really needed a last name.
"So how do you say 'help me'?" Finn piped up pulling Poe from his thoughts. He thought this was an odd translation to ask for since Finn rarely asked for help. Not from pride, but from fear of rejections.
"Ayudame." His eyes followed the troopers dark lips as they mouthed the new word experimentally before he moved on.
"And how do you say 'promise me'?" Poe managed to rip himself from Finn's lips to meet his eyes. Turning onto his side, he leaned over the man and breathed him in.
"Prometeme."
They were pressed close now in the early morning light and Poe found his mind repeating some of the less innocent words they had covered that day and wondering if Finn still remembered them. Unable to hold himself back any longer, he closed the space between them and buried his face in Finn's neck, breathing deeply as he closed his eyes for what felt like the first time in days. Having his arm still under Finn's shoulders meant that he was wrapped all around the younger man and he increased the sensation by throwing a leg over him as well. The former trooper shifted minimally, at this point use to Poe crowding his space and having openly admitted to loving it.
"Promise me something, Poe?" The pilot breathed a light 'anything' into his lover's neck. "Don't...leave me. I don't think I could handle...all this...i-if you left me."
Poe, who honestly had been beginning to drift off again, perked up immediately and raised himself onto his elbow to glare down at his boyfriend one last time. Moving his body totally on top in a slightly crouching position, he locked eyes with the man he perhaps loved. "I will always be here, Finn. Prometo."
He frankly did not want to know whether or not Finn believed him and instead was far more interested in taking advantage of the as yet uneventful base morning. Lowering himself down, he reacquainted himself with the crook of Finn's neck, but this time opened his mouth and planted an open mouthed kiss upon it. Finn huffed, body jolting as his shot up and grabbed the front of Poe's sleep shirt. The pilot continued with this line of action, lightly biting and sucking around the sensitive skin of his bed mate's throat. The younger man tried to stifle his moans and Poe found he did not like this one bit, reaching up a hand to scrape down Finn's broad chest.
That did the trick, the excessive touching always having an undeniable effect on Finn who'd craved it for so long. He groaned loudly, unconsciously thrusting up as Poe moved to straddle his legs. The older man reached down, yanking up the shirt he had lent Finn as he traveled south, peppering kisses all along his firm chest and stomach. His amusement hummed in his throat as he felt Finn jerk and heard him stutter, one of his large hands reaching down to grip the hair at the nape of Poe's neck as he traveled even lower.
"H-How do you say 'kiss me' again?" he stammered, whole body twitching when he felt a wet tongue slick around his naval.
"Besame," Poe purred against his skin, nose grazing the flesh he had just licked.
"Besame." The greatest flyer in the Resistance jumped to comply, launching himself onto Finn's lips, devouring him hungrily as the trooper practically mewled with pleasure beneath him. He loved this; loved having Finn beneath him, loved hearing Finn speak his language, loved Finn.
"And," Finn rasped between scrapes of teeth, Poe not letting him escape for more than a moment before diving in to capture his lips again, "How do you say 'always'?"
"Para siempre."
"Para siempre," the trooper repeated, breathing finally seeming to find a rhythm as he brought his lips back to Poe's, body hot beneath the other man's as they found a better way to spend their morning. 'Kiss me forever', that's what Finn had said and that's what Poe planned to do. The room was was filled with sunlight.