I have returned to writing Star Wars fics! The Force Awakens has rekindled my love for writing in this universe, not to mention these characters are just so fun to write. This does contain spoilers for the movie!
It's Finn who does it first. Of course it is.
Rey is eating in the mess hall in the Resistance's shiny new base when Finn walks in, looking jumpy and nervous. He spots her immediately and when he speed-walks over to her, Rey sighs and puts down her fork, ready to listen to whatever he has to tell her this time.
Finn sits down across from her. "Okay," he says without saying hello, "I think I may have made a mistake."
Rey offers him some of her salad and tries to look encouraging.
Finn shakes his head at the food. "So... you know how a lot of people have two names? Like, a first one and a second one?"
"A last name, yes," Rey says. She used to have one, she knows, but she was too young to remember it. She's just Rey now. Padawan Rey, which she really likes the sound of. It sounds like purpose, like a future.
"Yeah, that," Finn says. "Well, apparently there are a lot of places that need a last name for certain species. When we were on Raxus Prime for that mission yesterday, I needed a surname to get into that doctor's office so I could take a look at the medical records, right? And... I don't know, I panicked okay? I probably shouldn't have done it and I don't know what to do now, what if-"
Right, this is going to take years if she lets him go on. "What did you do?"
"I... used Poe's last name," Finn admits. "His was the only one I could remember off the top of my head."
Rey considers this for a minute. Finn Dameron. She's not an expert on last names either, but that doesn't sound bad. "Finn Dameron," she tries out loud, then grins at him. "It suits you."
Finn smiles back for a second before his features crumple into misery again. For stars sake. "Do you think Poe would be upset? It is his name."
"Maybe you can borrow it from time to time," Rey decides. "Like his jacket. He didn't seem to mind that, did he?"
Finn picks at the sleeve of said jacket. "Well, no, but- Rey, this is his name!"
Rey looks longingly at her food, which has been abandoned during the conversation. "You're making much to big a deal out of this," she tells him. "It's a nice name, it was one situation, don't think any more of it. Now, are you going to join me and eat?"
Finn finally gets up to go get some food of his own and Rey goes back to her salad. Jakku never had food this good. And for free, even.
The next time, it's Rey.
It happens when she's trying to rent a motel room on Lethara for the night. She's spent most of the day being chased by stormtroopers, trying to keep a Resistance package safe and she's too tired to do much more than drag her feet into the lobby ask for a room.
"Name?" asks the check-in clerk. Duros sound bored all the time, but it's 3 am and this one seems especially lifeless.
"Rey," she says, trying to look like she hasn't been running from authorities for the last twenty four hours. This is a pretty seedy area, she doubts the clerk will care much anyway.
"Got a last name?" drones the clerk.
Oh, right, humans are generally supposed to have those. Rey's so tired, she doesn't even think about it. "Dameron."
She tips him heavily to ensure his silence, gets a room and passes out for eight hours, blaster within reach and package under her pillow. Whatever's in there that the Resistance is desperate for had better be important.
Rey arrives the next day at the south tower of the city for extraction and to her surprise, Poe is the one waiting for her. What she did at the hotel the night before flashes through her mind and she shoves all feelings on the matter deep down to deal with later. Master Skywalker would not approve, but he probably doesn't have the same family abandonment issues haunting him from childhood either.
Poe greets her with a friendly smile and a wave. "About time. I was gonna leave without you."
"You wouldn't dare," Rey says, climbing into the disguised transport. She shakes the package. It's about the size of a datapad and around the same weight, too. "What's in here, anyway? They wouldn't tell me."
Poe drops into the pilot seat and twists around to look at her. "Well, you didn't hear this from me, because obviously it's classified, but I've heard it's coordinates to the last cave of kyber crystals in existence." He smiles at her confusion. "Luke Skywalker thinks you're ready to build a lightsaber of your own."
Rey sits straight up, gaping at the package that now seems as important as diamonds. "No. Are you serious? You're not making this up?"
"I'm not, I swear!" Poe says with a laugh. Rey can feel through the Force that there's truth in his words and excitement starts to bubble within her. A lightsaber of her own. She's been dreaming about this for ages.
"Hey. Promise me something," There's a serious look on Poe's face and Rey glances at him warily.
"What's that?"
"Promise me that when you build that saber, you'll make something that'll make even Kylo Ren jealous," he says, and she remembers then that he, too, was tortured by Ren. They share a look of remembered pain for a long moment, then Rey nods.
"I will."
As far as last names go, if she couldn't have her family's, Poe Dameron's would be all right, too.
(Rey builds herself a double bladed lightsaber. Take that, Kylo Ren.)
It becomes a thing for the three of them to eat together at dinner. It started out as just Finn and Poe and when Rey finally returned to the Resistance with a grumpy Jedi Master in tow, Finn invited her to sit with them too. It was a little awkward at first, Poe was Finn's friend, not her's, but Poe is funny and friendly and the second he asked her what it was like to fly the Millennium Falcon, Rey lit up and the awkwardness vanished after that.
Even better, Poe quickly figured out that both Finn and Rey had very lonely, hard childhoods with not a lot of luxuries and took it upon himself to introduce them both to the finer things in life, like holofilms, video games, his own favourite foods, and the most popular sports of the outer rim.
And just like that, Dinner is no longer about just eating to fulfil a need, but about companionship, learning and relaxing after a challenging day. Sometimes they sneak into the rec room during mealtimes to watch holofilms (Rey and Finn both think Poe has a questionable taste in films, but Rey does like the action/adventure ones), or they skip dinner altogether to go outside and play sports. Often, they just sit together in the mess hall while Poe tells them about the places he's been, where he'd like to go and stories about his travels. Finn buys a deck of cards and introduces them both to the games he used to play with his squadron in the First Order. He beats both of them spectacularly at every game for the first two weeks, but Rey can't find it in herself to be that upset about it, not when Finn looks that happy every time he wins.
It feels a little like belonging, this friendship she has with them. It's new and exciting and maybe she's still mourning the family that will never come back for her, but this- this is enough to start to fill the void in her heart.
Three weeks after the last name incident finds Rey in the rec room with Finn and Poe, watching a Mon Calamarian action film from over eighty years ago that Poe told them was "one of his favourites". Naturally, that means it's going to be cheesy and horrible and Rey is going to spend most of the next two hours criticizing the plot. However, dinner tonight is bantha stew and nubian salad, so the evening isn't going to be a total writeoff.
To her surprise, this film is actually rather good. It has a simple plot, a smuggler trying to sneak a band of refugees to safety in a war-torn galaxy, complete with lots of space battles, which explains why Poe loves it so much.
"I don't get it," says Finn, about halfway through. "This guy has been alone and pushing people away his entire life, but these four refugees come along and suddenly he's dropping everything to help them? I mean- don't you think that's unrealistic? Nobody would do that."
Poe shrugs. "I wouldn't say that. You experience enough with another person, you become kinda like family. Bonds forged through fire and all that."
"I wouldn't say like family." Rey speaks up for the first time. "Family can be unreliable. Unpredictable. They can turn on you. I don't think family isn't a very good term at all."
Poe gives her a curious look. "You know, family isn't always your own blood relatives. They can be people you chose, or even those who chose you."
"Aren't those just friends, though?" Rey asks. There are so many social rules and tricks outside of Niima Outpost that she has yet to learn about. The fact that you can have more than one family is just one more.
"Well- yeah, but they're also more. They're the people you'd do anything for, who'd always have your back, who you could trust with anything." Poe smiles a little. "Sometimes bad things happen, people get dealt a bad hand when it comes to family. So they just... make their own." He turns to Finn. "See? Not that unrealistic. Besides, you should be paying less attention to the characters and more to this speeder chase that's coming up. Here, watch this part."
Rey focuses back on the movie, but half her attention is still on Poe's words. The idea that she could get a second chance at family is one she never allowed herself to think about- she clung to the hope of her family returning for her for so many years that it became her single focus. There's a new hope rising in her now. Maybe one day she'll find herself a new family.
It's a comforting thought, and with that, she tucks her cold feet under Finn's thigh, grinning at his shocked yell, and settles in on the couch to watch the film.
Somehow, the last name thing just keeps happening.
Rey doesn't mean to use it again, but there's really only so far you can get in some establishments without a last name, and the Dameron name is... convenient. It happens twice more before she tells Finn (but not Poe, because what would she even say?) and he has a small crisis about it.
"This isn't like the jacket!" he insists. "Why don't you use a simple common name, like Tu? Lots of people have that name. People that we don't know. At all."
Rey doesn't know why she doesn't, only that she can't. Even while living on Jakku, she never faked a different name, not because she couldn't but because she never wanted one unless it was her family's. Now, she can't have her family's name, so borrowing one of her best friends' name seems like the next best thing. That's all it is. Borrowing.
She can't say that to Finn though, so she just shrugs and says, "alright, then you use that name."
He doesn't. Of course he doesn't. And the next time they go on a mission, they end up both using the Dameron name to get into an exclusive club.
"So. Rey Dameron, huh?" Finn says as they weave their way through the crowded club to where their contact is waiting for them. There's a heavy tone in his voice, as though he's resigned himself to this particular fate of forever borrowing Poe's last name.
Rey elbows him. "Oh, shush."
It still isn't a big deal. It isn't.
The next time is Finn needing a last name for a cover story on Coruscant and then the time after that, they need another motel room. After a while, it just feels... natural. Rey and Finn Dameron. Sometimes their cover story is adoptive siblings, (Rey likes that one best) sometimes it's newlyweds (she suspects Finn likes that one best, he really does have an obsession with holding her hand when it's necessary and even when it's not) and sometimes they don't even need an explanation.
It's easy, and therefore, something was destined to go wrong.
The Resistance often does relief missions to planets in need. They send a transport full of food to the planet, escorted by a few fighter pilots, to make sure nothing happens to the weaponless transport, drop the food off, and leave again almost immediately. They're the missions even a ten year old could do, and so Poe is bored out of his mind.
He still isn't sure why General Organa sent him, along with Finn and Rey and not Resistance pilots more suited to the mission, but he has a suspicion that she just wanted the three of them out of the base for a little while. It's been a quiet couple of weeks and all of them were starting to get restless. Poe feels uneasy with nothing to do, Rey likes the change of scenery that comes with a mission and Poe is beginning to suspect that Finn doesn't sleep well without anything to distract him.
So, yeah. Mission, great. Supply drop off? Not so great. Poe tries not to let his attention wander too much, because Finn is flying the other X-Wing escort and although he picked up piloting pretty quickly, Poe wants to keep an eye on him in case he needs help.
"We're approaching the planet now," says Rey over the comms. She's flying the transport ship, with BB-8's assistance. Poe understands that she's a capable pilot too, but he could have done that just as easily. With his eyes closed. And one hand tied behind his back.
"Be careful," he tells the others. "The First Order retreated from Docilium a while ago, but we're still not sure what kind of situation we're headed into with the locals."
"They did contact us for help, they must not want any trouble," Rey reasons. There's a pause. "Wait... something's wrong."
Poe immediately checks his scanners, then checks them again to make sure. "I don't see anything."
"Negative on my scanners too," Finn says. "Everything okay, Rey?"
Rey sounds tense when she speaks again. "I'm- I don't know. I just... have a feeling."
Poe is all about pilot intuition, but this is probably the most boring mission of all time. There's nothing to have a feeling about, even the planet looks dull. "Everything's fine," he assures her. "Just stay on course."
They enter the atmosphere with no difficulties, though Rey is being unusually silent on the comms. Poe makes an effort to cheer her up. "See? Nothing to worry about after all."
And, because the universe hates him, the skies in front of him choose that moment exactly to erupt in blasterfire.
"That seems like something to worry about!" yells Finn.
Poe takes a moment to swear off comms every language he can think of before seizing command of the situation. "Rey, use those clouds down there as cover until we can figure out where this fire is coming from. Finn, do you have visual on the enemy?"
"Negative," Finn barks, and Poe watches his X-Wing dive lower as another spray of blasterfire batters them from above. He glances at his scanners again. There's still nothing there. What kind of ship can beat detection like this?
He gets his answer moments later as a starfighter swoops down on them. It's got an odd, triangular shape, with a ray-shielded cockpit, but Poe immediately knows what he's looking at.
"Blast it, that's an Umbaran starfighter," he mutters, banking to the right. He hasn't seen many, Umbarans tend to keep to themselves, but their technology outweighs that of most of the galaxy and he's only heard horror stories about what their military is capable of.
"Umbaran?" comes Finn's horrified tone. He's clearly heard the same horror stories. "What's an Umbaran doing way out here?"
Poe has a good idea about that one- the ship is too modified and battered to be regular military and there's only one of them. (So far. He hopes he'll only have to deal with one of them.) "My best guess is a bounty hunter," he says, trying to get a lock on the ship. This bounty hunter is a talented flier, whoever he is. Or maybe he just has a really good starfighter. Poe's just a little envious of that ship.
"The First Order used to employ bounty hunters all the time, to catch anyone brave enough to run," says Finn, catching on to Poe's idea. "Do you think-?"
"That's exactly what I think," Poe says grimly. "The First Order has a bounty on our heads. And I'll bet you any money this was a trap. Rey, try to get back up into open space, I'm gonna draw his fire. Finn, cover me."
Hands steady on the controls, Poe zig-zags his fighter in front of the Umbaran, with Finn on his six. This should have given Rey the perfect opportunity to start her escape, except that the Umbaran doesn't seem to want anything to do with Finn or Poe. Poe watches as laserfire streaks across Rey's ship and realizes that this bounty hunter isn't here for Finn or Poe, but for the one who sensed this all coming before it even happened.
"My shields are down!" Rey shouts over the comms and Poe can almost see her fighting for control of the ship, which is already starting to smoke.
"Poe, we have got to get this guy's attention," Finn says urgently.
"Working on it," says Poe, banking around, but he can already tell it's too late. The Umbaran comes around for another assault and with a round of cannon fire to the engines, the beaten-up transport finally gives up and begins it's plummet towards the surface of Docilium.
So much for that boring mission.
"Rey!" yells Finn. "Rey!"
"Come on, we've gotta stop that bounty hunter from getting to her on the ground!" Poe shouts, already putting his X-Wing into a steep dive. He can see that that's exactly what the Umbaran is trying to do and clenches his teeth, pushing his fighter faster.
"What if she's hurt?" Finn sounds almost panicked. "What if-"
"Worry about that when the guy who shot her down is taken care of!" He knows what Finn was going to say, and he can't let him say it out loud. "Did you see any weaknesses on that fighter?"
"It's fast, but not very good at banking, or slowing down," Finn says, still shaken. "Otherwise, it's pretty durable."
"Got it," says Poe, a plan already forming in his head. "Okay, I'm gonna distract him while you get to Rey."
"What makes you think he'll take the bait this time?"
"This guy already thinks he has Rey. He won't resist trying to get me too."
Poe might be bluffing a bit, but he's pretty sure he's right on this. He's proven correct as he skims the treeline and the bounty hunter's ship appears on his radar. He seems to have lost the need for cloaking now. That's totally fine with Poe.
Docilium has a wide mountain range spanning most of the middle regions of the planet and Poe plans to use this to his advantage. He weaves around the peaks, then dips down to fly low against the trees again. The Umbaran stays glued to his tail, firing at him the whole time, but Poe can and has taken worse. He doesn't think anything can rattle him after Starkiller base. It's inconvenient, flying without BB-8, but he can manage just fine, and when he spots what he's looking for, he grins a little and heads straight for the giant stone cliff directly ahead of him.
Behind him, the bounty hunter speeds up a little, clearly intending to corner him against the cliff, but Poe calmly stays the course until the last second possible, then pulls up hard, the wings of his ship scraping against the stone. The bounty hunter tries to follow suit, but his ship just isn't built for manoeuvres like that and he smashes head-on into the cliff, leaving behind nothing but a fireball.
Poe allows himself a second to catch his breath and thank the Force that his plan worked and he's not a splatter on the side of a mountain. He's about to fly back in the direction of the crash when a glint of metal in the distance catches his eye. He squints a little and can just make out a few tiny buildings, partially hidden in a shallow valley. A town. Poe makes a split second decision in his head.
"Finn, are you there?" he says over the comm.
It's a few seconds before he gets a reply. "Yeah, yeah, I'm here. I've got Rey, she's alive." Poe can hear the relief in Finn's tone and lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Course she is, she's too stubborn to die," he says. "What about you, are you okay?"
"I'm alright. Rey needs a medic, though, I think she might be hurt pretty bad and there's not much I can do for her here. How soon can you get back here? Did you get that bounty hunter?"
"Yeah, we're all good here," Poe says. He can see scorch marks on the cliff. "Listen, there's a town about sixteen clicks east of the crash site. I'm gonna see if I can find Rey some help. Will you be alright there till I get back?"
Finn doesn't even hesitate. "We'll be fine. Just... hurry."
"Good luck out there, buddy."
"Same to you."
Poe returns to the crash site as the sun sets with a medic team and speeder. There he's greeted by an anxious Finn, an unconscious, but alive Rey, and a slightly dented BB-8. It's mayhem for a while as the medics work to get Rey into the speeder without further injury, but they work quickly and efficiently as Finn and Poe check over their fighters to make sure they weren't too badly damaged by the skirmish with the Umbaran. It's almost dark by the time everyone is ready to leave. Rey hasn't woken up once.
Poe tries not to let his worry show. Rey will be fine, he's sure of it. The girl has a knack for making it through hard or impossible situations. She has to have a ridiculous amount of luck for her to have lived as long as she has.
Or, maybe the Force just likes her.
The town, a tiny clump of structures called New Orsa, doesn't even have a hospital, but a med centre that also performs surgical procedures. The head doctor, a sturdy Twi'lek wearing green scrubs is waiting when they arrive and immediately takes over. Poe can hear her barking commands as the doors close behind them and is reminded strangely of General Organa. Rey is in good hands here, he can tell.
And then, after hours of on the go, there's really nothing to do but wait. Poe and Finn slouch on hard chairs in the corner of the waiting room with BB-8 in low power mode beside them. Poe runs a hand wearily through his hair. He needs about ten hours of sleep and a drink, but he doesn't dare rest until he's sure Rey is going to be okay.
"I contacted the Resistance while I was in town," he says to Finn. "They're going to send a ship to pick up Rey tomorrow." Poe glances at the doors "They're also gonna look into the bounty hunter thing. General Organa and Master Skywalker both sounded pretty upset."
"Why just go after Rey?" Finn wonders. "Was it out of convenience, because she was unarmed? Or-" he lowers his tone- "is it because she's a Jedi? Is Ren still holding a grudge from Starkiller base?"
"I almost wish I'd taken the bastard alive," Poe says ruefully. "Would have been a lot easier to find out that way."
Finn shakes his head. "Hey, you did everything you could. Rey's alive, that's all that matters."
Poe wishes it could be that easy. "There will probably be more. If there's a bounty on her, one death isn't gonna stop the others from trying to collect."
"No," Finn agrees. "But we will."
Poe gives him half a smile. It's the best he can manage. "Yeah. We will."
It's almost midnight by the time Dr Vi'rana sends out a med droid with a report for them.
"Miss Rey will be alright," it says. "She broke three ribs, which contributed to a simple pneumothorax, or, a collapsed lung, but we treated that right away. She also suffered a number of deep wounds, likely due to debris from the crash, but thanks to your quick actions at the crash site, she did not lose a significant amount of blood." The droid gives an approving nod to Finn. "She does have a concussion and probable head trauma, but we expect her to make a full recovery. The patient should wake up soon."
There's a pause as both Finn and Poe try to take in this information.
"Can we see her?" asks Finn anxiously.
"My apologies, but only immediate family are allowed to be with the patient at this time," the med droid says politely. "You will have to wait until she is moved into a public ward."
Poe exchanges a glance with Finn and knows that they're both thinking the same thing. For Rey to wake up, alone and pain in a unfamiliar place, would be unthinkable. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that she has abandonment issues, and this is not going to help matters at all. What are they going to do?
"We are family!" Finn blurts out. "Or, do... um... adopted siblings not count?"
Good thinking. Poe approves. The med droid, however, does not, and whirrs in confusion. "Rey. 19. Human female from Jakku. No adopted family on record."
Oh, yeah, Poe forgot that the First Order probably did some digging into her past when she was arrested. Her public info is now in a databank somewhere for any droid to access. It's time for some bluffing.
"It's too bad your information is outdated," he says. "Rey was adopted ages ago. Check your records again."
The med droid looks as confused as a droid can look. "I do not- last name, please?"
Poe doesn't even think about it. "Dameron."
Beside him, Finn's head snaps up.
Poe gives the droid a winning smile, while at the same time stepping on Finn's foot so he won't give the game away. "Is there really no Rey Dameron on record? You guys are getting sloppy, I'm going to have to speak to someone about this-"
"The patient is awake," announces another med droid, coming into the waiting room.
Damn it.
"Ask her," Finn says quietly.
"I beg your pardon?" the first med droid says.
"Ask her about her last name. That should be all the confirmation you need."
Poe resists the urge to step on his foot again, because honestly, there is no faster way to blow this entire scheme. How is a semi-conscious Rey supposed to be in on their nefarious plan? What is Finn doing?
The med droid seems to go through an internal struggle for a moment, before nodding to itself. "I will be back momentarily," it says primly, and clanks back down the hall.
"I still want to speak to someone about your records!" Poe yells after it, because he excels in overdoing things. When both droids are gone, he pinches the bridge of his nose, turning to Finn. "What are you doing?" he hisses, keeping an eye on the receptionist typing away at her desk at the far side of the room. "Are you trying to get us thrown out?"
"Trust me," Finn hisses back. "Trust Rey. It'll work out."
Poe really, sincerely doubts that, but he sits down on one of the plastic chairs again, coiled like a spring. Any second now, the droid is going to come back and call them on their lie, because Rey might be an ultra powerful Jedi-in-training, but he doubts she and Finn have learned how to telepathically communicate.
This was a terrible idea.
The door slides open again to reveal the med droid. Poe stands up, tense, but the droid just nods at him. "Apologies on behalf of the New Orsa Medical Center for our records mistake," it says solemnly. "You may go in."
What?
Finn nods and stands, pulling Poe up with him. "Apology accepted," he says equally solemnly, then grins at Poe. See? he mouths, and Poe can only shrug as the droid leads them to Rey's room.
He's going to have to rethink the telepathy thing.
Rey looks just as bad as Poe would expect from someone who'd just been in a ship crash a mere four hours earlier, but she still lights up upon seeing them.
"What are you doing here?" she croaks, reaching up gingerly to give Finn a hug. "The supplies- did you get them to the civilians?"
"It was a trap," Poe tells her, taking the visitor's chair as Finn sits on the edge of Rey's bed. "We think that bounty hunter was sent to capture you. I double checked with the Docilium authorities- the distress call sent out was false. There was never any need for supplies. Good thing, too, because they're toast."
"How do you feel?" Finn asks and Rey winces a little.
"Like I've just crashed a ship," she says ruefully. "What happened, exactly? Where are we?"
Taking turns, Poe and Finn fill her in on what happened after the crash. Rey takes the news that she's being hunted by the First Order surprisingly well, but it could just be all the painkillers she's on. Poe expects that someone is going to be on the receiving end of her temper once it fully sinks in.
Right. Speaking of temper.
"Skywalker was furious," Poe says, remembering the holographic meeting with General Organa and Master Skywalker. "He's going to personally look into this. I don't think he likes the fact that someone's trying to kidnap his favourite student."
"I'm his only student," Rey mumbles, but she looks pleased to hear this. Poe wonders if she's ever going to get used to the fact that she has people on her side now.
A med droid comes in to check Rey's vitals at some point, which reminds Poe of something.
"Hey," he says when the droid leaves again, "how did you know to use my last name? I don't think we ever talked about that."
To his surprise, Rey actually reddens a little at this. "I'm sorry," she says. "I won't do it again, I swear."
"No!" Poe says quickly. "I'm glad you did, they weren't going to let us in unless we could prove we were family. You using my last name ended up convincing them of my adopted siblings story."
There's a small smile tugging at Rey's lips now and she glances at Finn. "You... used your last name to create a cover story for us?"
"Yeah, but how did you know we were gonna do that?" Poe presses.
"I didn't," Rey admits. "I didn't even know you were here. When I woke up, they told me they needed a last name. So I gave them one."
Poe has a sudden moment of clarity. Rey, still half unconscious and drugged up on painkillers, had been asked for a name. Finn had been so sure she would know what to do. And she gave them the name Dameron.
"This wasn't the first time, was it?"
Rey looks down. "No."
"It was my idea!" Finn jumps in, and Poe blinks. Then blinks again.
"Just to get this straight," he says slowly, "you two have been using my last name? To-to get into places that need one?"
Finn and Rey nod, matching looks of guilt written on their faces and Poe just looks at the two of them for a long moment.
Finn and Rey the survivors of terrible childhoods who lost their own last names a long time ago to circumstances beyond their control. He knows both of them still struggle with the repercussions of those childhoods- Rey with family, Finn with identity. For them to feel comfortable using his surname... it's big for both of them.
And they look so terrified.
Poe is surprised to find himself grinning, and by the looks on his friends' faces, so are they.
"Don't do that again," he says, and they begin to nod immediately. He holds up a hand. "Until I can request some fake ID docs. You guys are gonna get caught and then I'm going to have to deal with it."
He's never seen Rey so shocked in all the time he's known her. "Wait," she says, brow furrowed, "you're... okay with this?"
Poe shrugs in what he hopes is a nonchalant way. "Well, I mean, it would have been nice if you told me from the start, but I get it. Having an identity is important." He hopes they understand he's talking about more than just ID docs. "Rey Dameron sounds a lot better than Rey Noname."
It's then that Finn seems to realize there's not going to be dramatic consequences for their actions. "I think Rey Noname sounds alright, actually," he says offhandedly, then grins as Rey glares at him.
"You can have that one then, Finn Noname."
"Hell no," Finn says with a laugh, then turns to Poe. "Really though... thanks."
"Yes, thank you," Rey says softly. "You don't have to do this."
Yeah, Poe thinks, I kinda do. Not out of obligation, but because these two are basically family to him, even if they don't see it yet.
"Don't mention it," he says instead. "If it's alright with you, I'll ask the General about those ID docs when we're back on base. We'll figure something out."
Finn and Rey nod. For a moment, all three of them sit there in content silence. Then, Rey suddenly fixes Finn with a hard stare. "We are not going with the married couple story on the docs," she warns him and Poe chokes on nothing.
Well, hey. If he's going share his last name with anyone, at least it's with the two who keep his life interesting.
If you liked it, please let me know. :)