Finn couldn't help but notice the absolute ruckus happening in the main area of the rebel base before he was even within a hundred feet of it. What in the heck was going on?

When he finally passed the threshold it was to the sight of Kylo, Rey, Poe and even Chewy having what appeared to be a heated argument, yelling over each other and everything.

Hokaaaay.

Finn turned his head to see a bunch of on-lookers, including his old quad and Rose standing off to the side. Nines and Zeroes were eating popcorn. He quickly made his way over to them to find out what exactly was going on. "Hey guys-"

"Shh!" Rose put a finger to her lips. "I don't want to miss any of this."

Finn leveled the engineer with an unimpressed af face–not that she was paying him enough mind to notice–and moved on to the next rubber-necker. "Psst!" Finn tapped Slip on the shoulder from behind.

"Hmm?" Said dude turned to Finn with a brow raised in question.

"Can you tell me what the heck is going on?" Finn whispered.

"Oh, they're arguing about you." Nines spoke up/informed between bites of popcorn, not taking her eyes off the scene in front of them. "It's actually pretty impressive;" She shoved another handful in her mouth.
"they've been going at it for quite a while." Nines finished, groping around for a few of the other's popped kernels distractedly as he continued watching the shouters go at it.

"About me?" Finn asked in confusion before turning towards the noise-makers and listening hard enough to make out the individual overlapping sentences.

"You were training him this morning, I haven't gotten a chance to take him up since two days ag-!"

"Well I only got three hours with him yesterday, so I should get to train him when he gets back from lunch with his fathe-!"

"That's rich; it's obviously my turn next, as my training is the most important for hi-"

"Hey, what's the Wookie saying?" Slip breaks Finn's concentration with his question. A question that made Finn wonder why he hadn't noticed what Chewy was yelling yet. He then focused in on his tall friend's loud growls and whines specifically for a few seconds before answering with a chuckle. "Okay, he's not actually saying anything; I think he's just making noise cuz he wants to be part of the argument."

"Yeah, that sounds like him alright." Said a Rose who was suddenly by Finn's other side now, reaching past him to steal some popcorn.

He ignored her and focused on the yelling once again. Yelling from people who hadn't yet realized the subject of their argument had entered the building, no less. Figured.

"Which is why I should get him for the rest of the da-"

"You should be the last one to train him; you were the one who put him in a coma!"

A few gasps could be heard in the large room, followed by a sudden silence. "... I apologized for that." Kylo eventually admitted at a much lower volume than had been used up to that point, looking remorseful.

"Oh, and you think a little 'I'm sowwy' is gonna make up for nearly killing him‽" Poe bit out harshly, actually garnering a wince from the black-clad figure in response.

"Woah, Poe take it easy." Rey spoke up, surprised by the pilot's acerbity. Chewbacca made a surprised noise of his own as well.

"I know it's not enough;" Kylo said, voice low. "Training him is one of the ways I'm trying to atone."

"Well forgive me if I doubt your sincerity, but I'm having a difficult time believing you're just doing this to ease the conscience you suddenly claim to have. My money's on there being an ulterior motive; people like you don't just change." He glared.

"Okay, that's it." Finn spoke to himself before inhaling deeply. "Alright everyone, break it up!" He shouted, grabbing the attention of the four in the middle of the spacious room, who seemed surprised by his presence. "I'd like to have a word with Poe." he said while looking pointedly at the pilot.

A morbidly amused "Ooooooh~" was chorused by multiple spectators.

"Alone." Finn said, giving them a look over his shoulder that brooked no argument.

"Aw man, we're gonna miss the juicy shit." Nines whined as he–slow as molasses–started for the exit.
"Dammit, this is why I get up in the morning." Zeroes threw her popcorn to the ground as she followed, dragging her feet.

"If you two are so bored why don't you just go play a prank on someone to entertain yourselves?" Slip said from beside the two with a them-weary sigh.

Zeroes and Nines suddenly slow, heads turning toward one another as matching mischievous grins grew on their faces. Just then Rose popped up between them, giddily announcing that she knew the 'perfect target'.

Oh boy, that did not bode well, Finn thought as he saw the disaster friends zip away with the trigger-happy engineer. Luckily that wasn't his problem though!

"How long has he been there?" He heard Chewbacca ask a Rey who merely shrugged in response as they made their way out.

And then there were two.

He turned to the one who wasn't dressed like a traffic cone. "Kylo, I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

The caped figure just nodded in response before heading off.

Finn couldn't help but notice Poe glare at the caped figure as the pilot tracked Kylo out the door with his eyes.

Good grief.

"Poe," Finn called out to him.

"Yeah?" Poe responded, expression doing a 180° as he turned his attention to Finn.

"Could you do me a favor?" Finn asked with a coy smile.

"Yeah sure, anything." Poe smiled back as he made his way closer.

"Could you maybe take it easy on Kylo?" Finn put his hands on his hips, standing akimbo as he morphed his expression into a stern frown.

"What?" Poe asked with wide eyes; that was definitely not the favor he was expecting.

"Listen, I'm not asking you to forgive him." Finn sighed. "For what he did to you, or me." He specified. "I'm not asking you to trust him either. Heck, I'm not even asking you to like him. But I genuinely feel that Kylo has turned a new leaf and is trying to make up for past wrongs, so do you think you could at least trust me to know what I'm doing?"

"I do trust you, Finn." Poe replied without hesitation, grabbing one of the other's hands with both of his own in a gentle hold. Finn smiled, then after a few moments raised an eyebrow expectantly. Poe lasted for about 2 seconds before giving in. "And yes, okay fine, I'll try to-" he cut himself off on a sigh, then amended "I'll back off. As much as I'm able." He finished with a wry smile.

Finn returned the expression, knowing that was the best he was going to get from the pilot.

Hey, it was progress.

~•*•~

One week ago

Finn's eyes widened as Kylo swung at him with a blade that was as deadly as a Star Destroyer in his hands. He managed to dodge it, as well as the next few swings that were executed in quick succession, before launching an attack of his own, which was easily deflected by the caped figure, who only continued his unrelenting advance.

Finn was starting to regret his life decisions.

Quick as lightning the blade swiped out in an arc toward his shins and Finn jumped just in time to avoid getting hit, then instinctively ducked an attack from the same weapon now swung toward his side, then used the momentum to spin around and strike at the caped figure's suddenly unprotected back. He cursed internally as his wrist was caught just before his hit made contact. It's like the guy had eyes in the back of his freaking head!

"Very good." Kylo said as he released Finn from the firm but gentle hold, then tossed his wooden sword off to the side–where it sunk deep into the loamy ground from the sheer force–signifying the conclusion to their sparring session, before turning around to face the ex-trooper.

Finn for his part leaned on his own wooden sword for support as he tried to catch his breath. He was almost surprised by how long he lasted this time. And he didn't even get hit! #MajorProgress

"… Finn," Kylo said, instantly grabbing the other's undivided attention with his unusually hesitant tone.

"Yeah?"

"I, uh-" Kylo began, looking down while actually wringing his hands together. "I've been wanting to apologize for what I did back on Starkiller Base." He admitted, looking back up as Finn's eyes widened in surprise. "During our duel you landed a solid hit on me. A feat none had managed for many years before then. The fact that someone had been able to get past my defenses–someone without saber training no less–sent my blood boiling, which is why I went as far as I did. And while I know we were on opposing sides at the time, I still feel the need to say this: I'm sorry for severing your spine."

"..."

"..."

"... Wait, my wh-" Finn blinked. "My spine was severed?" He all but yelled, incredulous. "Then how was I even able to move, much less infiltrate the First Order ship when the base was being evacuated?" And here he'd been thinking he'd only gotten a concussion or something this whole time. That explained why his back kept hurting up to a few days after he awoke.

"Because you healed yourself." Kylo explained. "You're more powerful than you realize." He took a step closer with an intense expression and they stared into each other's eyes from not 6 inches apart for a long moment, before Kylo finally broke the contact, gaze falling down and to the side. "So, do you accept my apology?" He asked on a murmur.

"Oh right, um, yes. Yes I do." Finn stammered out, not having considered it even needing to be said. "And also… I forgive you."

Kylo's eyes snapped back up to meet his, surprise clear in them. He obviously had not been expecting that. He spoke his next words softly "Thank you." He couldn't help but think that Finn was a better person than Kylo would ever be, before reaching behind his back and grabbing something, then holding it out for the ex-trooper to take. "Here; you're ready."

Finn froze as he stared in disbelief at the proffered item. "Is this… is this what I think it is?" He asked as he gingerly lifted it from the other's palm.

"Try it out." Kylo said as he took a couple steps back to give the other room.

Finn turned on the saber, and the shaft of light that extended upward was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen; it looked like a mini aurora borealis in his hands, the water of the kyber scintillating magnificently as the colors danced before him. "Wizard." He said in awe, absently noticing Kylo's face tighten the slightest bit in response to his reaction, but whether from trying to suppress a smile or a cringe, he was too distracted to parse. "Why does it look like that? I've never seen or even heard of a lightsaber with more than one color." He asked, unable to tear his gaze away from the multi-chromatic blade.

"I assume you've heard of Order 66?" Kylo began, and at Finn's confused nod he continued. "Well, after its execution, the lightsabers of the fallen Jedi were gathered up, and the kyber crystals from them fragmented into shards to be repurposed. There were still some left in the vault of the Star Destroyer, which I grabbed before evacuating when you and your friend were setting the place to blow. I managed to fashion them into a full-sized crystal for your saber, figuring it was time they were used for something worthy of their nature." He explained.

"Wow." Finn ran his eyes over the glowing blade with a renewed appreciation, before retracting it. "Thank you Kylo, I'm honored." He said as he locked eyes with the other, making sure his appreciation came through in his tone.

Kylo looked caught off-guard at the gratitude, letting out a small cough as he turned his face to the side. "Like I said, you earned it."

Finn smiled as he looked back down and ran a thumb over the fine details of the construction before a thought sprang to the forefront of his mind. "Wait, since the crystal is a bunch of pieces stuck together, does that make it fragile? Do I have to be careful with it?"

Kylo–who seemed to have gotten over his sudden bashfulness–took a step closer and held out his hand. "May I?"

Finn handed it over, only for Kylo to immediately yeet it into the wall of a nearby cave, hard enough to create a non-insubstantial crater in the rock, with spiderweb fissures spreading out from the saber before it fell to the ground with a thump. Kylo then stuck out his hand and summoned it back to him with the force, catching it easily, then turning it on and performing a rather advanced maneuver with it before looking back at a stunned Finn, then turning it off and handing it back to him, unscathed. "It can take a hit, you don't have to worry about dropping it." He said while clearly trying to suppress a smirk. He didn't do a very good job though, as Finn could easily see right through it.

"You know, you could've just told me that; I didn't need a demonstration." Finn huffed, keeping the part where he almost soiled himself, to himself.

"I find a hands-on approach to be more effective." Kylo lighted with a one-shouldered shrug. "Want to give it a test-run?"

"You read my mind." Finn said with a grin.

Finn was quickly discovering he much preferred the dulcet tones of saber striking saber to the harsh clank of most other melee weapons as his and Kylo's blades clashed together many times in quick succession.

As they dueled Finn couldn't help but notice that something seemed off about Kylo's blade though, and his eyes suddenly widened when he realized what it was. "Wait," He disengaged his stance, instantly bringing their spar to a cease. "what happened to your cross guard?"

Kylo paused and eyed the blade in his hand as he began to speak. "My saber was originally constructed with 3 kyber crystals; one regular-sized crystal for the main shaft, and 2 miniature ones for the cross guard. I removed those 2 and put them in there." He gestured to Finn's saber. "Alongside the shards."

What? He looked at his blade to note the beautiful red hues dancing amongst the myriad other colors. "But why?" He knew how much Kylo loved his cross guard.

Kylo hesitated, a faraway look overtaking his features before he turned to Finn and responded. "I figured you might be able to do enough right with them, to make up for all the wrong I've done." He admitted, voice nearly breaking on the words. His expression pinched as his gaze fell.

Finn tried not to let emotion overwhelm him at the revelation. "Hey," he said, stepping up to the taller figure and putting a hand on his arm, causing him to look back up. "I think that together? We can." He avowed. The two locked eyes for a few moments before a small smile broke out on Kylo's face and he gave a nod.

~•*•~

Present time again

Poe's eye twitched as he noticed his current least favorite person enter the room. And he'd been having such a good time recalibrating the thrusters on his X wing.

He wiped his hands of grease with a rag and threw it down with more force than was strictly necessary, then turned to address the room's newest occupant. "To what do I owe the honor of your presence?" He asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Finn wants us to hang out." Kylo responded lightly.

"Come again?" That was certainly not what he'd been expecting to hear.

"He said you need to stop 'constantly being at my throat' and I need to stop 'treating you like a bug." Kylo shrugged, putting down his air quotes.

"And spending more time together is supposed to help with that?" Poe asked with a brow raised skeptically. The way he saw it, the less they saw of each other, the better.

"If you don't like the idea, take it up with him; it was his suggestion." Kylo pointed out, unconcerned.

Dammit. He couldn't outright ignore a request from the ex-trooper. "Okay, you listen here," Poe began as he marched toward Kylo as menacingly as he could. "Finn may seem to trust you, but I don't. And no matter what happens, I'll be keeping a close eye on you." He finished, glaring into the other's face from not a foot away.

"Fine with me."

"Yeah, well I don't give a womp rat's a- wait, what?" It took a moment for the pilot's brain to catch up with Kylo's actual words.

"I'm glad to hear it; he deserves to have people on his side who look out for him, and put his well-being above even their own." Which is what you're doing right now. Kylo thought in amusement, noting the pilot's distinct lack of weapons vs Kylo's, well, self.

"Uh," that was something Poe couldn't argue with, which made his brain stutter, as agreeing with anything Kylo said was not something it was prepared to process. It made him uncomfortable… Time to change the tactics. "Why do you even care about him so much?" He asked, crossing his arms. "I thought someone like you didn't care about anything except for themself." He finished with a sneer.

Kylo infuriatingly (for Poe) did not rise to the bait, instead he turned his head to the side and a faraway look came to his eyes as he responded levely. "He showed me that there was a way out. If it wasn't for him I'd still be back there, still acting as Snoke's lap dog. I owe him a lot. More than I can ever repay." His expression suddenly morphed into a smirk as he locked eyes with the pilot. "Plus I can always count on him for a good time."

That definitely had the intended effect, he noted smugly, as the pilot's eyes soon widened and he began to sputter. Before Poe had time to get too worked up though he continued, deciding now was as good a time as any to rip off a certain bandaid. "I owe you an apology for what I did to you after the raid on Jakku." He spoke evenly.

The sudden subject change was jarring, but Poe quickly recovered, eyes narrowing. "Oh, you mean when you dug into my mind, searching around, forcing your way deeper and deeper and deeper as I screamed in agony, begging you to stop until I screamed myself hoarse? Is that what you're talking about?" He was all but yelling by the end.

"Yes. I did things I'm not proud of. Things I now regret." Kylo said, eyes briefly dropping. "If I could go back and do everything differently, I would. But I can't and dwelling on the past does nothing good, so I'm going to make sure that going forward I don't do anything worth regretting." He proclaimed, now steadily holding the other's gaze.

Poe couldn't help but notice that Kylo didn't actually apologize, but knew that he himself wasn't making things easy, so he supposed that was the closest he was going to get. He let out a deep sigh and decided to continue on with life. "So, what's the plan? Play a game of Dejarik, laugh and cry together at holo-vids, bond over shared stories of our past while doing each other's hair?" He asked sarcastically, as his hair was too short to do much with.

"Actually, I was thinking something more along the lines of a race." Kylo responded, surprising Poe.

"Come again?" The pilot asked, intrigued.

"Know a good place for a flight?"

They end up taking Poe's favorite 2-seater starfighter to a place filled with natural structures that work wonderfully as an aerial obstacle course. First Poe does it with Kylo in the passenger seat behind him so he can learn the route and see how it's Done™. After a lap they swap seats so Kylo can pilot while Poe makes sure he doesn't take any shortcuts, and after finding out that he didn't even come close to beating Poe's time he demands another try. They go a few more rounds with Poe providing commentary and advice (mostly to annoy Kylo) until it starts to get late and they have to head back to base.

~•*•~

"Hmm," Finn hummed as he lifted a couch to look under it. "Not here." He set it back down and continued his search.

He was staring at an air vent, contemplating if it was worth climbing into when Kylo suddenly strode up to him and held out a little doohickey. "Here."

"Thaannks." Finn said as he accepted the little object. "But I didn't get you anything."

Kylo merely raised an amused eyebrow at him before explaining. "It's a tracking device, for your missing lightsaber."

"What? How did you know it was missing?" Finn didn't remember telling anyone. "Also how do you already have a tracker on it?"

"I totally saw this coming, so I installed one when I was first constructing it. You and I both know how your quad is, after all." He explained.

"Oh yeah, this is not surprising at all." Finn agreed. At least they picked a day when he didn't have saber training to hide it from him. "Thanks a lot, man." He said with a grateful smile.

"Don't mention it." Kylo waved him off.

"Alright, well, I guess I'll go hunt it down then."

"Would you like some company for that?" Kylo offered.

"You want to come? I mean it'll probably be pretty boring." Finn pointed out.

"Eh, I've got nothing better to do." Kylo shrugged.

"Well in that case, wanna hear about my fifth favorite holo-vid on the way?"

"Fire away."

"Okay yeah, I never would've found that without the tracker." Finn said with his head tilted back as far as it could go. He could just barely see the very end of his saber poking off the edge of the hollowed out head of an AT-AT that hung from the ceiling of the hangar in what Finn thought was an odd sense of decoration, and wondered how the pranksters had even gotten it up there in the first place (he knew Rose certainly couldn't have thrown it). He wasn't even mad, he was just impressed.

"Want a boost?" Kylo asked from beside him.

Finn turned to see Kylo lower his hands and interlock his fingers with his palms facing together to create a foothold, brow raised in question.

"Oh sure, that'd be great, thanks."

Kylo lowered his stance and Finn stepped onto the small platform before being thrust into the air at the same time as he kicked off. Their aim was true and he landed exactly where he'd wanted, grabbing his saber and holding it above his head triumphantly as he let out a victory whoop. He didn't have much chance to bask in his joy though, as a concerning thought came to mind.

"Wait, how do I get back down?" He asked, nervously eyeing the distance between him and where he'd been mere moments before.

"Just jump." Kylo advised, as if Finn were a baby bird.

"What if I become a splat on the space linoleum?" Finn worried as he crouched down on his hands and knees, not wanting to accidentally slip and fall to an early (and embarrassing) demise.

"That's not going to happen." The caped figure asserted.

"But what if it does?" Finn whined, just his head peeking out past the edge.

"Okay, if it looks like you're about to die I'll just catch you. Sound good?" Kylo reasoned.

"Uh… I guess?" That actually did sound pretty good.

"Whenever you're ready." Kylo said patiently.

"Okay Finn, you got this." He murmured, psyching himself up.
"It's just like ripping off a bandaid. Except with a possible side-effect of death." Okay that was not helping. He decided to switch to an internal countdown. 3… 2… 1… "Well, here goes nothing." He jumped.

He actually managed to slow his descent a bit, but not enough; Kylo still ended up providing some remote assistance so Finn wouldn't break all his ankles.

When he touched down, he wobbled a bit and ended up turning it into a three-point landing, which he figured he could just pretend he did on purpose to look cool. He smiled up at Kylo who gave him a thumbs up.

Mission complete.

~•*•~

Finn savorered the bite of sandwich he'd just taken after telling Poe of the missing-and-then-found lightsaber affair.

"So where are you keeping the tracker fob now?" The pilot asked, taking a sip of his space shake.

"Oh, Kylo's holding onto it for me so it can't get stolen along with my saber, cuz then I would never be able to find it." He popped a chip in his mouth.

Poe pauses halfway through taking another bite of food. "But doesn't that mean Kylo can track you at all times?"

"Oh, I hadn't considered that." Finn said before stealing a sip of Poe's drink, unconcerned with the pilot's words.

"How about you have me hold onto it for you?" Poe suggested.

"Umm, no offense, but I don't think my quad would have any qualms about stealing it from you. It's safe with Kylo cuz they wouldn't dare go through his stuff."

Poe was not going to admit out loud that that was a good point, as while he no longer wanted to kill Kylo on sight, he still didn't feel comfortable with the guy being able to tell where Finn was anytime he wanted. Not much he could really do about it though.

"Oh yeah, then Kylo suggested we get ice cream and not invite my quad to spite them. The cookie butter flavor is to die for btw." Finn relayed.

It took Poe .3 seconds to realize that suggestion made absolutely no sense and Kylo was just tricking Finn into going out with him.

Poe changed his mind; he definitely wanted Kylo dead.