Author's Note: Vaguely spoilery, but less so than early on.
So, I was going to have Rose and Finn show up in this chapter, but, um, this got away from me a little. They'll be here next chapter, I promise. Fluff ahead. Messy, messy fluff.
Disclaimer per usual – I do not own Star Wars or any aspect of the SW universe; just a fan with an idea. No profit here, just fun for me.
Poe wakes up relatively early the next morning. He's surprised that he fell asleep easily the night before, given the earlier-than-usual hour and what he and Rey had been up to before turning in. He blinks his eyes in the light starting to peek in through the blinds in his room, a slow, sleepy smile forming on his face. A moment later, he's startled completely awake by a thump and two things landing on his bed.
Before he can move, Shara is on top of him, and Bee is trying to push her out of the way. "Bee, stop. What you smiling at, Daddy?"
He looks up at Shara, who is currently sitting squarely on his chest. After thinking about it as quickly as possible (as indicating that he was thinking about making out with Rey on the deck the night before is maybe a little much for his four-year-old), he says, "I was thinking about yesterday, Share-bear. It was a nice day, right?"
She nods, curls bouncing, and she clambers off of him to snuggle at his side. Bee settles next to his other side, snuffling in a way that sounds downright haughty and irritated, making Poe laugh. Shara doesn't notice. "Yes. Best day ever! Miss Rey is so nice, Daddy. She sang to me and watched Chopped with me and she said she's gonna teach us to bake!"
Poe grins. He is hugely happy that Shara likes Rey so much, because he definitely likes her a lot too, if in a decidedly different way. "She said she'll teach me to braid your hair, too."
"Grandpa Kes tried before, Daddy." She peers up at him. "You not very good at it."
"I know." He smiles ruefully at her. "But maybe Rey will be more patient with me than Grandpa Kes was."
"I try to be more patient too, Daddy." She leans up and kisses his cheek. "But I not very patient either."
"Tell me about it." He rolls his eyes. He starts to tickle her, and she squeals, trying to fight back. Bee, clearly annoyed, jumps off of the bed and leaves the room. Shara squeals again, and he continues to tickle her for a while, her rolling on the bed but never really pushing away.
"OK, stop, Daddy! No more!" Shara shrieks, still laughing.
He immediately pulls his hands back, because he'll be damned if he's the one to teach Shara that no doesn't really mean no. He's been careful about it from the beginning, and he's had the conversation about it with his dad, too. They're both highly respectful with Shara, trying to teach her that she can always say when she's had enough or if she doesn't want something at all.
"So, are you happy to see your Uncle Wedge and Rose and Finn today?" He grins at her.
She bounces on the bed. "Yes! Aunt Rosie said she'll help me with my computer. I like to play games with Aunt Rosie on the computer. Maybe we can show Miss Rey too!" She goes quiet then, looking thoughtful.
"What's on your mind, Share-bear?" He gently rubs her little arm.
"Daddy, does Rey really have to go home? Can't she stay here with us?" She pauses and looks down. "I like having her here. If she here, she can just braid my hair and you don't hafta learn. And she makes us both smile a lot. I like it when she makes us smile."
He pushes himself up into a sitting position, and he opens his arms to Shara. She crawls onto his lap, hugging him. He wraps his arms around her. "Baby girl, it's not that simple. Rey has her own house, her own life. But she can be here as much as she wants to. I like having her here, too, but it has to be her choice, and changes like that take time for grown-ups."
"Do you want Rey to stay, Daddy?" She tucks her face into his neck.
"Like I said, it's not that simple. What I want is for Rey to be happy, and for you to be happy." Shara pulls her head back and gives him a hard look. He sighs. "OK, yes, I admit it, it would be just fine with me if she did want to stay a while. As long as she wants to, whenever she wants to be here."
"That'd be nice, Daddy." Shara sighs and snuggles into him again.
"Yeah, it would, Share-bear." He hugs her close.
X
Rey is looking up at the ceiling, thinking about the night before with what can only be described as a stupid smile on her face, when she hears a bump at her door. The door swings open, and she can hear squealing laughter down the hallway as an indignant Bee comes in and jumps on her bed, a doleful expression on his face. Rey giggles and scratches his ears. "Good morning, Bee."
She then slips out of bed to go investigate. She's wearing some modest sleep shorts, slouchy ragg wool socks (her feet are always cold), and an old Boston University t-shirt, and she deems herself covered enough. She grabs Poe's hoodie and shrugs into it as she slips into the hallway, Bee at her heels. As she moves, she's happy to note that she's neither dizzy nor in pain.
The squeals, clearly from Shara, are coming from Poe's room. She can see that the door is partially open, so she heads for it, curious and feeling a little more emboldened after last night.
As she gets to the door, she hears Shara ask Poe to stop, and she can peer through the opening and see that Poe immediately does. That makes her oddly happy. She had a boyfriend in college who thought tickling her even after she'd asked him not to was terribly funny. That was one of the big reasons he wasn't her boyfriend for long.
She hears him ask her about their friends coming over today, and she's about to push the door open all the way when she hears Shara ask him if she has to go home. She feels tears spring to her eyes as she listens to the conversation, stinging slightly with guilt for the eavesdropping. It's one of the sweetest conversations she's ever heard, and she loves how careful Poe is with Shara – letting her feel what she wants to but also making sure that it's clear that only Rey can make the decisions for herself.
She's about to knock on the door and open it when she hears Shara ask Poe if he wants her, Rey, to stay. She has to bite her lip and blink back more tears when he says he wants her to be happy but yes, it'd be just fine with him if she wanted to basically be here whenever and as much as she wants to. She wraps her arms around her waist, composing herself briefly before she knocks.
When she knocks, Bee pushes ahead, nosing the door wide open. Poe and Shara both look her way in surprise, Poe's eyes locking with hers. A light flush colors Poe's olive-toned skin, probably at the likely stunned look on Rey's face and the sheen of tears, but Shara is oblivious. She jumps off of the bed and runs to Rey, hugging her legs. "Good morning, Miss Rey! You feel better?"
Rey focuses on Shara, crouching down to hug her fully. "Much better, sweetheart, and good morning to you, too."
As she straightens up again, Poe sits up and swings his legs off of the bed, and it's not lost on her that his eyes rake down her body, smiling again at his hoodie but eyes widening as they take in her bare legs. He clears his throat. "Good morning, Sunshine."
She nods a little, suddenly feeling a little awkward. What if he's changed his mind, wants to slow them down? She doesn't think she likes that idea. "Good morning."
"Share-bear?" Shara looks at Poe. "Can you take Bee downstairs and let him out? Turn off the alarm first. You can go out with him if you want to, fenced yard only please."
Shara hugs Rey's legs again and says, "OK, Daddy. C'mon Bee, let's go outside!"
The girl, oblivious again to the tension between Rey and Poe, leads the dog out of the room and down the stairs. After they hear the alarm disarm and the door open and close, Poe approaches Rey, an intense expression on his face.
She looks down shyly for a moment. When she looks back up, her eyes taking in his own bare legs (as he's dressed similarly to her), he's right in front of her. "Nice socks." She smiles faintly, and her eyes meet his. He starts to reach up tentatively. When she doesn't step back, he slides his hand into her now very loose braid. "This OK?" He asks softly.
She nods, not trusting her voice. As he leans in, she finally finds it again. "I have morning breath."
He snorts. "Me too. I can take it if you can?"
She smiles and nods again, biting her lip, and he leans in, his hand tightening in her hair as he kisses her. She's the one who deepens the kiss this time, clinging to his t-shirt and pulling him closer to her. He backs them up until her back gently collides with the wall. His free hand hits the wall next to her head, the other hand still in her hair.
Rey lets him crowd her, leaning back into the wall and still holding on to his shirt. She moves one of her legs to slot between his, and he makes a sound that almost sounds like a growl at the skin-to-skin contact. All she can think is that if this is how he says good morning every day, she might stay indefinitely.
After a moment, cognizant that Shara is not far away and awake, she pulls back slightly, her head resting against the wall, his hand still in her hair and hers still gripping his t-shirt. After a moment, she says, a teasing tone in her voice, "So, no regrets about last night, then?"
He laughs softly. "You might say that." He looks at her with a ridiculously flattering amount of fondness. "How much of my conversation with Shara did you hear?"
She blushes. "All of it after you stopped tickling her. Good on you for that, by the way. I had an ex who thought tickling me was funny, no matter how much I told him I didn't like it." He frowns at that, and she looks down. "And I'm sorry for eavesdropping. I should have let you know I was there."
"The frown was about the ex, not about the eavesdropping, Rey." He uses two fingers under her chin to tilt her head back up to look at him and brushes her hair from her eyes. "Why didn't you let me know you were there?"
She's relieved that he doesn't sound angry, just curious. She sighs. "I guess I wanted to know what you'd say when you didn't think I could hear you. And I get the feeling you always are straight with Shara." She wraps her arms around her waist protectively. "I don't really have a lot of experience with reliable, open people outside of maybe Ben Kenobi, and even he was preoccupied all the time. There's a lot of self-preservation in it. But none of that excuses it, and I actually do trust you already, an oddity for me. I want you to trust me too, so I really am sorry."
He shrugs. "It's OK, Sunshine. I probably would have said the exact same things in front of you. I'm more of an open book than I should be sometimes." He kisses her forehead. "But next time, let me know you're there, OK? Lawyer paranoia and all that. I think it just makes me anxious, probably irrationally so."
"I will." She shakes her head, bringing her hands back up to grip his shirt again. "And you don't have to mitigate on my behalf. I was wrong to listen in. That's on me, and not liking it is allowed, Poe."
"It's not that I didn't like it, strictly. In a way, at least you have an idea of where I think I stand, now." He shrugs again. "And it's OK if you don't know where you stand yet, but until you do, we need to be pretty low key around Shara, you know?"
She blinks a few times. "I'm still processing all of this, Poe, but I can tell you now that I thought for a moment that you might want to pull up on the 'us' part of this, and I didn't like the way that thought made me feel. I worried a little last night, while you were up putting Shara to bed, about whether this is me falling for you or just me feeling very maternal towards Shara."
"And? What do you think about that now?" He cocks his head at her.
"Hmm." She flattens her hands out on his chest, and she can feel his heart under her right palm, beating faster than she'd expected. She slides her hands slowly up his chest, her fingertips lightly tracing his collarbones and then up the sides of his neck. The light touches make him shiver underneath her hands, but, ignoring the twinge in her shoulder, she just wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him down to her. She kisses him gently but with intent, pouring all of her jumbled up feelings into the kiss. His hands land on her waist, bringing her close to him again before sliding down low on her hips.
After a few moments, she pulls back. He touches his forehead to hers, and she softly replies, "In case you couldn't tell, while I already adore Shara, I am also falling very hard for her dad."
"I'm really glad to hear that, Sunshine, because I'm pretty sure I've already fallen for you, and just for the record," he pauses when she snorts out something about lawyers, "That would be true even if I didn't have Shara."
Her heart flips over at that. "How do you know exactly what I need to hear?" She moves back into him, burying her face in his neck.
X
He hugs her close to him, and he's struck by how well they fit together despite her only being slightly shorter than him. "Honestly, for the same reason I asked you what you thought about me versus Shara a moment ago. I would never bring someone into our lives just to be someone for Shara. We're OK, she's OK, with just me and Kes and our friends. She and I both deserve someone who wants us both, and that person deserves to be wanted by both of us, if that makes sense."
She nods, not letting go. "It does." She takes a deep breath and steps back. "So, what next?"
"Well, next, we go downstairs and get breakfast ready, then I think you teach us how to make a pie?" Her face falls a little, and he adds, guessing that wasn't really what she was asking, "And we maybe slip away every once in a while to make out today, and you let me have Kes watch Shara so I can take you on a real date on Friday night?"
She snorts, but he's happy to note that she brightens back up. "I'd like that. Both of those things. Especially the former. I haven't had someone to make out with in a long time."
"Me neither." He leans down and kisses her again. When he pulls back up, he says, "And really, I think I'd forgotten how much I like making out."
"Yeah." She smiles. "And Poe, don't feel like we have to exclude Shara for me on Friday. I like having her around."
"I assume that's a yes to the date?" She nods, and he goes on, "And I appreciate that, Sunshine, but I'd like to be able to flirt with you and do all that dating-couple shit like tasting each other's food and stuff, and I'm not doing that with Shara there."
She laughs out loud. "Well then yes, I'd love to spend the evening alone with you and do all that dating-couple shit with you."
He grins. "Good. You like Spanish food?"
"I do." She grins back.
"Good. Then I have a place in mind up in Portland, in the West End." He reaches down and squeezes her hand. "Now I'm going to go throw on some socks and sweatpants. Meet you at the top of the stairs?"
She shakes her head. "Meet you in the kitchen. I'm fine, Poe. Not even a headache this morning, and no dizziness."
He eyes her closely, and he swallows hard. His desire to protect this woman is nearly overwhelming, but he is afraid he'll push her away if he ends up making her feel smothered. "OK. Kitchen. Just go slow and use the rail, please?"
She reaches up and rakes a hand through his hair. "You're very dear. Did you know that?"
"No one's ever said that to me before, but I'll take it." He leans down and kisses her again. "Be down in a few minutes."
She smiles and slips out of his room, and he has to scold the slightly lecherous side of him when he's happy to see her go straight to the stairs, leaving her shorts on and legs bare instead of changing into longer pants. "Jesus, Dameron, don't be a jackass. She's not a piece of meat." He goes into his bathroom and stares into the mirror, trying to focus himself. Then he shrugs, giving up for now, muttering, "But damn, she's got nice legs," as he goes into his closet to change into sweats. On the way out, he notices that it's only 6:15 in the morning, and he rolls his eyes.
Less than ten minutes later, he heads downstairs, and the sound of Rey and Shara laughing makes him grin. He can also smell coffee, and he decides that he really does want her to just live here, especially if she makes Shara laugh like that and makes coffee that smells that good. He enters the kitchen to find Rey digging in the pantry and his waffle iron, flour, eggs, milk, sugar, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, and a mixing bowl out on the counter.
He winks at Shara and goes over to Rey. Making sure her head won't hit a shelf or anything, Poe leans in and says, "Looking for something?"
Rey straightens up quickly, and he makes sure she stays steady on her feet with a gentle hand to her arm. She gives him an irritated look, but he can tell she's amused. "Do you have any baking powder?"
He furrows his brow. "If I do, it's at the back, to the right of the spice rack on the eye-level shelf." She looks there, going up on her toes a little. A moment later, she emits what can only be described as a victorious squeak. She emerges with a cylindrical can that he's never seen before. "Huh. Dad must have left that here."
She looks confused. "You have a waffle iron, and baking powder is needed to make waffles."
"They make mixes for those, you know." He lifts an eyebrow at her.
She looks so affronted at that he has to laugh out loud. She just shakes her head and goes back to the counter, putting the baking powder there. She asks for measuring spoons and cups, and he points them out. He gets a cup of coffee, and he realizes that what smells so good is the cinnamon she added to it. He settles at the breakfast bar next to Shara, who has a cup of milk. "God, I haven't had coffee with cinnamon in it in years. This is amazing."
She smiles, taking a sip from her own cup. "It's the only way I really like coffee if it's not a fancy, frothy cappuccino or latte." She begins to measure and mix ingredients, and he watches in awe. After a moment, she notices. "What?"
He shakes his head. "Don't you need a recipe?"
She chuckles and goes back to what she was doing. "No. Not really. Ben, Ben Kenobi, taught me to make these. He did them from memory too. You do them enough, you learn. I often make myself waffles on Sunday mornings." She looks mostly at Shara. "Sweetie, do you like cinnamon?"
Shara looks at Poe, and he nods. "Share-bear, cinnamon is what's in Grandpa Kes's snickerdoodles."
"Yes!" She looks at Rey. "I love cimanun."
Laughing and smiling at Shara, Rey sprinkles cinnamon into the batter. "Cinnamon waffles it is." She looks at Poe. "Do you have any cream cheese?"
He nods, going to a bowl on the counter that's off to one side. "How much do you need? I softened some for some dips I'm going to make for today, but I have more than I need."
She grins. "Just four ounces?"
He pulls out a sharp knife and gets her the requested amount and puts it in a small mixing bowl. "Need anything else?"
"A hand mixer and some of the powdered sugar I brought with me." She points to her bags from home.
He nods and, after turning on the warming drawer under his oven, he goes back to watching her work. He is amazed to watch her navigate with near-perfect confidence. Once the first waffles are in the waffle iron, he asks Shara to set the table, one of her few chores around the house. He helps a little, handing her the plates and getting a heat-safe platter for Rey.
Rey is busy making what is clearly a cream cheese icing of some sort. He watches as she deftly sifts the powdered sugar and checks the waffles. When the first waffles are ready, he puts them in the now-heated-up warming drawer. A short time later, they sit down, Rey and Poe both with fresh cups of coffee, and dig in. After one bite of waffle drizzled with icing, Poe stares at Rey. "OK, this has to be lesson number two after the pie. These are the best waffles I've ever had."
Rey blushes even as Shara adds, "Daddy, these are even better than Grandpa Kes's waffles. And his waffles are awesome."
"I'm happy to teach you. If you want something more savory, Ben K. used to make some crispy bacon and crumble that in. It was amazing, but I can't quite get the bacon crispy enough." She frowns.
"Daddy makes gweat bacon!" Shara declares through a mouthful of waffle. "Bacon makes everything better!"
Rey shoots Poe a look, and he shrugs. "Is she wrong? I mean, bacon really does make everything better, Sunshine." She laughs and shakes her head, and he goes on, "But that can be our first quid-pro-quo. You teach me waffles, I teach you bacon."
"Perfect." She gives him a shy smile, one that makes something feel tight in his chest, and she reapplies herself to her breakfast.
A couple of hours later, Rey and Poe are still in the kitchen, both of them dusted with flour from rolling out pie dough, but it's worth it if the smells from the oven are anything to go by. Shara, though, spilled massive amounts of flour all over the floor and countertops, but she did, as far as Poe could tell, do a great job helping Rey roll out the pie crust. Rey even had some little cutters, and she let Shara make some heart and butterfly cut-outs in the top crust.
He already sent Shara up to shower in his bathroom, and he turns to Rey. "You can go get cleaned up, too. I'll do this and then go shower when you and Shara are both done. I'll take care of this." He motions to the mess they've made of the kitchen.
She's leaning against the counter, and she's dusted in white, even her bare legs. His hoodie, the one he lent her yesterday, is on the back of a kitchen chair in the dining area. He's fairly certain she took it off to keep it free of flour. "Poe, I can help."
He shakes his head. "I've got it. You did most of the work and it was my kid who made the mess." He turns to put something in the sink, and as he turns back to her, he's hit in the arm with a handful of flour. He blinks, looking at Rey where she stands with more flour in hand and a challenging, mischievous look on her face. "I can't believe you just did that."
She grins, glancing down at the flour still in her hand. "What are you going to do about it, Counselor?"
"Are you seriously challenging me to a flour-flinging fight in my own kitchen?" He grins in spite of his attempt to look outraged. Instead of responding, she nails him in the chest with another handful of flour before turning to scoop some more off of the counter.
"Oh, it's on, Sunshine." He grabs some flour from the counter and nails her on the back as she turns and flings more at him, bracing herself on the counter.
"Bring it, Counselor." She moves like a damned cat, and he feels pretty certain that she's doing a lot better. With that, it's full on war, both of them laughing and flinging more and more flour. She is faster than he is, but she also has smaller hands. By the time he gets her trapped in a corner, they're both literally covered.
She tries to twist, making her t-shirt gap at the neck, and he dumps a handful of flour through the gap, making her shriek. She comes back around with more flour, but he manages to trap her hands with his, gently pinning them to the counter as he cages her with his much broader frame. They're both out of breath, and she finally says, blinking up at him, "Call it a draw?"
He looks at her, and he finds himself mesmerized by her. She's beautiful, but it's more than that. To him, her presence is like bringing light into a dark room. She's luminous, even covered in flour. He doesn't respond, just leans down and kisses her. She leans up into him, and he releases her hands, the flour forgotten. He moves his hands up, cradling her face as he deepens the kiss.
Her arms wrap around him, one of her legs hooking around the back of his, and she presses herself to him. Somewhere in his head, an alarm is going off, telling him they should stop, that Shara could catch them. But then one of her hands slips under his t-shirt, scratching lightly at his back, and his brain damn-near short circuits. He gives up on rational thought, losing himself in her.
There's no telling how long they stand there like that, but a voice makes them jump apart. "Well, this is new. You know, I don't remember the last time I caught you with a girl, kid. You were probably sixteen."
They turn to see Kes standing there, a bemused look on his face. "Dad." Poe's voice is a little strained, and he glances at Rey. She's blushing under all the flour, but he feels her hand move from his back to the counter, and he has to swallow a laugh, knowing what she's about to do.
A moment later, Rey nails his dad in the chest with a handful of flour. At the surprised look on Kes's face, Poe loses it completely, barking out a laugh. Rey giggles, and then she leans up and kisses him one more time before sashaying out of the kitchen.
She only stops long enough to lean against Kes, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek and leaving even more flour on his dad. "Good to see you again, Kes." She looks back at Poe and gives him a wink, and then she's gone.
Poe is still laughing when Kes shakes his head and starts trying to brush the flour off. "Mijo, that one's going to keep you on your toes."
Poe grins and shakes his hair out, flour going everywhere. "Yeah. She really will."
Kes cocks his head at him. "You're agreeing like that's a good thing."
"Dad, I think it may be the best thing that's ever happened to me." Poe laughs again, and he starts to clean up.
Kes joins him, chuckling. "You may be right about that, mijo." He gets quiet for a moment. "She reminds me of your mom, you know? Your mom would have started a flour fight, too."
Poe pauses, realizing that his dad is right. "Yeah." He looks at Kes. "I really like her Dad."
"I could tell. Judging by the fact that she let you put your tongue down her throat, I have a feeling she likes you, too." Kes lifts an eyebrow at him.
Poe's serious look seems to bring Kes up short, and Poe shakes his head. "No, Dad, I really like her. Like I've never liked anyone, not even Zorii."
"It's been two days, mijo." Kes looks concerned now.
Poe crosses his arms over his chest, looking hard at his dad. "How long did it take you to know with Mom? And you can't bullshit me, because I know the answer to that one."
Kes sighs. "Five minutes. It took five minutes." He nods. "Mijo, just be careful with each other. You've both been through a lot."
"Yeah, I know. And we will, Dad."
"Good." Then, taking advantage of being taller, Kes dumps an entire handful of flour in Poe's hair. "And you really need to improve your reflexes if you're going to keep up with her. I mean, she's injured and she appears to have kicked your ass."
Kes laughs as he heads out onto the deck, as Poe yells, shaking the flour out, "Not cool, Dad. Not cool."