Poe rounded the corner, feet pounding against the floor as he ran into the hangar. The large area was unusually quiet, with no one in sight the room seemed to have doubled in size. There was nothing but empty flyers, and the heavy stench of chemicals burned his lungs, the smell left over from their ship's routine cleaning. His throat was already a bit sore, and he was starting to feel waves of exhaustion wash over him.
It was getting late, and Poe had been running around for almost an hour now. Why? Because after cleaning up his ship and chowing down on whatever the heck that green mush was that the resistance cafeteria was trying to pass off as food, he was going to turn in. This in itself was perfectly normal, the part which concerned him was the lack of a certain droid as he stepped into his living quarters.
The only time that BB-8 and Poe had ever been separated was the instance in which he had had to entrust BB-8 with some of the information pertaining to the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. Otherwise, the droid was always somewhere near by, from the day that Poe got him to the very day that they were reunited. Many people seemed to find his relationship with his droid odd, and perhaps a bit more than a little off putting, but to Poe BB-8 was much more than a droid. Hence his panic at the machine's absence.
"BB-8!" A rush of air passed through Poe's lips, something like a sigh that had been affected by the quick and tiring movement of his feet. The extent of his lack of energy showed just how long he had been running around. Poe felt as though he had searched every crevice of the base, the panicked feeling in his chest rising to his throat. "BB-8!"
And suddenly the silence was cut by the soft sound of binary that echoed through the large room, and as quickly as the noise came Poe's energy was renewed. His legs took him as fast as they could towards that noise, only beginning to slow at the sound of a voice uttering basic.
"You know I can't understand you. I wish I could bud."
BB-8 let out another soft string of beeps, and the other voice gave out a breathy laugh.
"Guess I don't really need to know what you're saying to understand you, huh?"
Poe slowly rounded the corner, feet stopping cold in their tracks as he took in the sight in front of him.
Finn was laying with his back against the dry ground, face up to the sky. BB-8 was close by his side, projecting a starry night up against the dull backdrop of an overcast atmosphere. The small lights slowly rotated, showing off each individual little glowing ball and gliding smoothly across the surface of neighboring planets. One of Finn's hands slowly reached up, fingers ghosting through the holographic sky above him, looking on in wonder on a vision that Poe had grown up with. The sky above was the one that he had marveled at as a child on Yavin 4, and one that he had had BB-8 save into his memory so that he could never forget it.
Poe felt his eyes begin to burn, but his mouth turned up in a soft smile nonetheless. He wondered, had Finn ever been able to marvel at the vast starry sky that held the universe above them?
"Your hand is running through Alderaan."
Finn sat up with a start, twisting back quickly until his eyes settled on Poe's figure.
"Poe."
His smile widened, and he walked over, easily taking a spot next to Finn. His left hand came to rest on the dome of BB-8's head, and the droid let out something akin to a small coo. Poe lifted up his other hand, gently letting it drag through the image of the planet.
"Alderaan. This is a picture of the sky above Yavin 4. My mom added in Alderaan because she said that it was a very important piece in the formation of the resistance. But it was destroyed before I was born."
Finn's hand fell to his side, his eyes turning to Poe. "Destroyed. That takes a lot of power, it's not easy to destroy a planet." Dark eyes shifted back to the picture above them. "I would know, I was working on a base built to harness more than enough power to easily wipe a planet out of existence."
The pilot hummed. It wasn't often that Finn brought up his time within the First Order. The subject wasn't pushed, figuring more often than not it was a part of Finn's life that didn't need to be brought up again. The younger man was infinitely different from his peers, he had a pure heart and a strong moral compass that made him so much more than what he had been weathered to be. Poe couldn't see how Finn had ever been a stormtrooper at all. For one, he had much better aim as exemplified by their escape from starkiller, and when Poe thought of Finn the first image that crossed his mind was a brilliant smile that he couldn't even fathom being covered by a stoic mask that forced him into a conducive and homogenous crowd.
He turned an easy smile to his side, shifting the conversation back to the slowly passing stars overhead, BB-8 sort-of cuddling into his side. The pilot's hand moved gracefully through the stars, gently touching the spheres of light as though they were small glass orbs, and the illusion above them would break with any less gentle a touch. Finn was seemingly transfixed, listening adamantly to each name, purpose, planet, moon, and constellation that tumbled from Poe's lips. His throat tightened as the view rotated around to a planet around which were 8 visible moons, lazily drifting around their centre. He knowingly skipped over the system, though it was far too big to go unnoticed.
"That." Finn lifted up his hand, arm coming up by Poe's and gently pushing it to the side until both of their pointing fingers were centered on the Yavin system. "I've never seen so many moons rotate around a planet before…"
The younger's face was illuminated in the light blue glow of the hologram, and the tightness in Poe's throat subsided as he took in the bright eyes staring up at his home. Poe gave a short nod.
"Yavin. There are 8 main moons that are in orbit of the planet." He gently grasped Finn's wrist, guiding his hand over to one of the larger moons. "This is Yavin 4."
"Your home…" Finn's voice was soft, so much so that Poe wondered if the man had said anything at all. "Do you miss it?"
That was unexpected, or maybe it wasn't, but it felt like a surprise to Poe, who had easily been avoiding the subject of his home planet for years. His eyebrows furrowed as brown eyes focused back onto the moon that housed the beginnings of the resistance.
"No." The corner of his mouth twitched. "Not so much anymore."
Finn hummed. Poe supposed it really wasn't something that he could relate to, the closest thing to home that Finn had ever had being the desolate and cold housing of the First Order. Suddenly something in his chest twisted, and he felt selfish for his answer. But, Poe thought, the justification for his feelings were something that should wash that kind of guilt away.
"Do you know why?"
Finn's brown eyes, shining with the reflection of the light above them, turned to Poe's face. His expression read complete focus on Poe's person, on Poe's words, on Poe. The twist turned warm and sweet.
"Because I have my home. That," He pointed back up to Yavin 4, eyes still glued to Finn's own. "Is the place where I was born and raised. But this, here," He dropped his hand once again to settle on the crest of BB-8's dome, the droid giving a soft hum at the contact he knew he was receiving. "This is my home. My life is here, with the people that I love. The people that would do anything for."
A quiet fell over the two, eyes still locked as the starry sky of the past rotated overhead. Finn seemed to be deep in thought before a slow smile crept onto his face.
"Me too. I mean," A hand came up to sheepishly rub at the back of the darker skinned man's neck. A cliche movement that made Poe reciprocate the gentle smile turned his way. "I don't really have a home like you do, but I do think of this as my home now. And I would definitely die for yo- the people here."
Poe decided to take a chance at that small slip. Now, the pilot was most usually an adventurous figure. Someone who wasn't scared of death, but excited for the chance to put his skills, his life, to use for the greater good. But as he leaned forward, his heart felt as though at any moment it might beat right out of his chest. Poe half expected Finn to pull back in disgust as their lips met. He could ruin the friendship that they had with this little move. Finn was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Finn was a light in the dark he hadn't known that he had needed.
That was when he realized that Finn had not pushed him away, had not yelled, had not hit him, had not stormed off. Poe started as the other man's arms came up to embrace him, effectively deepening the kiss. He felt electric. There was a current running through his body, a warmth pooling in his stomach, and a tightness in his chest which had him reaching out and pulling Finn as close as he could possibly get him.
The light around them seemed to intensify and Poe wished, fervently so, that he could give Finn the memories of his childhood. He wished that Finn had known a mother and father, a praise for his achievements, a shoulder to cry on. The pilot knew that he wouldn't be able to provide any of those things, not now. But what he did know, is that he could give Finn all of him. He would capture every last star for the man in his arms.
Every last star…
I'm sorry.
I hope you enjoyed, and feedback is always appreciated.
~Castor