I.

Rey was tired of the fighting.

It had been over a month since the Battle of Exegol and the destruction of the vast Sith fleet. Resistance forces had been out on dozens of smaller missions, cleaning up the last pockets of the First Order still maintaining their stranglehold on dozens of planets. And parsec by parsec, the galaxy was realizing its freedom from tyranny. Some planets rose up on their own, others called for help. The Resistance—smaller than it was after most of their aide at Exegol returned to their own homes and battles to be fought—did all it could to help.

It had been over a month and they were constantly busy—fighting, flying, constantly replenishing supplies and slowly beginning to plan for the future. Everyone was exhausted, and many were still dealing with injuries and personal losses, yet in general, the base on Ajan Kloss was good, full of hope and hard work, friends and allies. They needed a more permanent place to begin the process of rebuilding, and Kin was doing his best to find one and suggest a move. Rey had always liked it on Ajan Kloss, but now…

Rey was tired of the fighting.

At first, she'd thought that everything would be perfect, as she'd held her two closest friends in her arms as soon as she'd returned from Exegol. They'd been inseparable for days, especially Finn and Poe, and it had been nice, a comfort to them all after their long, hard battle for freedom. And then she'd gone to Tatooine, only to return a week later to confusion.

They disagreed. They shouted. They ignored each other for days. Apparently, it had started while she was gone, after Poe had led a sortie to answer a distress call from Lah'Mu. They'd come back with another victory, though Poe had reinjured his arm, and Finn had criticized him for jeopardizing the future of the Resistance.

"You're not a Spice Runner, for Force sake! Poe, you're a general now. You can't go flying off on every call we get, we need you here!"

Rey hadn't been there, but she could only imagine the confrontation. Finn had stewed for days about Poe's unexpected past on Kijimi and never missed a chance to say something about it; the more comments he made, the more Poe grew frustrated, and the less he shared about it. Apparently, Poe had ignored Finn's rebuke and taken what was left of Black Squadron back out for supplies the next day. Two days later, Finn had left with Company 77 to answer a call from Ord Mantell. Rey had come back and walked right into the middle of the first of many arguments between them.

"You could have been killed down there, Finn! That place is a cesspool of criminal gangs vying for jobs in the Outer Rim."

"What, so you get to run missions, but I'm stuck here in the jungle?"

"Someone needs to be here, we're in charge—"

"Exactly, we are in charge, Poe. Not me, both of us. Only you're off playing at being a flyboy instead of a general!"

Rey thought they sounded like one of the old married couples she'd seen on Jakku, always arguing with each other, then walking away holding hands. Except Finn and Poe didn't hold hands. They didn't laugh together anymore, didn't smile. Something during the mission to defeat the Emperor had come between them, and in spite of their victory, they couldn't move past whatever hurts and fears had settled deep in their souls.

Sometimes Rey thought they were being stubborn; other times she understood the source of their fear perfectly. The stress of rebuilding only made it worse, offering excuses for clipped tones and snapped responses. What was both frustrating and amusing was that neither of them saw it, or knew what to do about it. They should have been supporting one another, but instead grew more and more distant.

"What if he doesn't come back, Rey?" Finn asked her after another rant about Poe's so-called irresponsible flying. "What do we then? He's our leader, and we need him here!"

He didn't seem to realize what he was really saying about needing Poe. Neither did Poe.

"We need someone here on the ground, Rey," Poe told her once, though he was less angry and more sad as he watched Finn and Jannah board the Falcon for a second mission together. "He's a good man, and a natural leader."

They were both right, and both wrong. Yes, they needed to lead the Resistance into the future together and guide the rebuilding. Yet the larger fight wasn't quite over, and they were both too good to lock in a conference room with nothing but data pads and holo-coms. They were needed at home and in the field, and neither seemed able to find the balance.

Somehow, through unspoken agreement, they'd managed to at least time their missions so one of them was always on Ajan Kloss. Which meant that they rarely saw each other, and when they did, there was more fighting.

Rey was tired of the fighting.

This time it was Poe, taking out his frustration with Finn after an intelligence mission to Lothal had uncovered a small pocket of First Order defectors looking to join their rebuilding efforts. It was rapidly devolving into their worst argument so far, and Rey could feel the disturbance from the other side of the base, where she was trying to eat with Rose and Kin. She set down her fork, rubbed her temples, and stood up.

"I'm sorry, I'm going to go knock some sense into our co-generals. Excuse me."

They watched in astonishment as she stormed across the base, her irritation fueled by the fear and resentment she felt pouring from her friends. How could they not see it where it came from? How could they be so blind?

"They left the First Order over a year ago," Finn was telling Poe when she entered the room where they were still arguing. "We need all the help we can get!"

"We need people we can trust," Poe said, his exasperation clear. Rey sensed it was fear that was motivating him, and not fear of First Order defectors.

"We can trust them," Finn insisted. "You trusted me."

"That was totally different."

"You trust Jannah and her crew."

Poe grimaced, revealing some of his fear. "No, you trust them. And I trust you with them."

"Then trust me on this!"

Poe blew out a breath. "I'm trying, buddy, I am. I'm worried that the more former First Order we bring in, especially so soon, the more we risk creating it all over again!"

"They left," Finn repeated. "They've been living peacefully on Lothal and want to help rebuild, make up for what the First Order did. Because that's not who they are anymore, what they believe."

Rey stepped up quietly, her voice calm. "I think we should give them a chance," she said, and both men turned toward her in surprise, too wrapped up in their argument to have heard her come in. "Like all the others. Like me, and Finn."

Poe stared at her, and she saw written on his face the impulse to argue, but also the desire to trust them and move on. He was a man of strong emotions, and most of them were easily read. Others he held tight reign over, and she admired him for that even though she found it difficult and knew it ultimately weakened him. If he would only accept those feelings rather than bury them, he could be even stronger than he was now. And certainly, much happier.

His eyes closed and he nodded. "Fine, we'll give them a chance," he said, his voice resigned. Finn looked back and forth between them in surprise.

"You didn't do that Force thing on him, did you?" he asked. "Because I really need to learn how to do that." His eyes widened with panic as he realized what he'd said.

Rey had known Finn was Force-sensitive for a while. It had taken several days for him to come to her about it after Exegol, and he'd been both nervous and excited. When they had time, she talked to him about it, showed him the things she had learned from both Luke and Leia. But as his relationship with Poe grew more tense, and Finn was gone more often, they had less time together.

She knew he hadn't told Poe, though. He'd told her straight up he was too scared to tell anyone. It all came down to fear, like Master Luke had warned her about. Fear held one back, led to hurt and anger. She'd seen it in herself, and she saw it in Finn and Poe, and she saw it in the way they fought now. She wished she could ease their fears, but they had to accept them on their own.

Finn stuttered a reply to his slip. "I mean, it'd be nice to—"

"—to get some real training since you're Force-sensitive?" Poe asked. His voice was flatter than usual, and Rey wasn't sure if he was bitter, or hurt, or something else. He didn't seem like the envious type, and she couldn't imagine he was scared of Finn using the Force. He was just scared of Finn in general, because of how he felt about him. How they clearly felt about each other, but refused to acknowledge. She braced for another round of shouting; this was something that had hung between them for weeks, along with Poe's past.

"You knew?" Finn asked, and he looked terrified. She wanted to smack her friend on the head for not telling Poe earlier. "How long?"

"Few weeks," Poe said with a shrug, not meeting their eyes. "All the comments about having a feeling, you two running off whenever you could." He shrugged again. "It's fine, Finn. It's great. Only it would have been nice to know."

And there was the hurt. Hurt and fear. It was all that defined Finn and Poe these days. Where was the hope, the friendship, the love? Rey wanted her best friends back.

"I'm sorry," said Finn. "I wanted to tell you, I did, but I needed to talk to Rey first, and then I…I didn't. I couldn't."

"You didn't," Poe said, and he sounded so sad Rey wondered how Finn could possibly miss it. "But you could have. I would have understood."

"I know," said Finn, and he sounded equally miserable. "I was scared. Kind of like you were scared to tell me about being a Spice Runner."

Rey shook her head in exasperation as Poe's eyes widened; Finn had stuck his foot in his mouth now. "Finn, I wasn't scared to tell you about that. It's in my past. It was over a decade ago. I don't care that you know!"

"Then why didn't you say something about it on the way to Kijimi?" Rey was sure they'd argued about this at least ten times already, but there was something about it that Finn couldn't let go.

"Because I was thinking about other things!" Poe exclaimed. "About losing Chewie, about cracking open 3-PO's head, about running into any old acquaintances who might not be glad to see me." Rey had got most of the story from Zorii Bliss before she'd left, and it had been an entertaining one, though not nearly as lurid as she'd expected. Poe Dameron, Spice Runner, was not going to be top news or gossip any day soon, but he'd had his reasons to worry about returning.

"It would have been nice to know before we got there," Finn muttered, and Rey agreed that it would have been nice to know Poe had a past on Kijimi before they'd almost been killed by it. Yet it was over; Poe had left Kijimi years ago, and Zorii Bliss had come and gone. It was time to move on. Rey wondered why it still bothered Finn so much.

"Why, so you could throw it in my face like everything else?" Poe demanded. "Compare me to some other Resistance hero and find me lacking?"

Even Rey flinched from that one; apparently, Finn had said something horrible to Poe on Kef Bir after she'd left. He hadn't told her what it was, only that it had been awful, and that they'd come back to Ajan Kloss to find that Leia had died in their absence, which only made it worse. He'd apologized and Poe had accepted it, even made him co-general, yet apparently old hurts were harder to set aside than either of them thought.

"Hang on," said Poe, before Finn could even begin to respond. "That's what you meant, isn't it? That you and Leia knew what Rey was going through because you're both Force-sensitive. And I'm not." Rey had rarely heard him sound so bitter.

"I told you I didn't meant it, I was worried—" Finn started, but Poe stopped him.

"About Rey, I know. Because that's what you were going to tell her, that you were Force-sensitive. That's what you couldn't tell me. Huh." He took a step back and nodded slowly to himself, glancing between them. "I guess that explains it."

"Explains what?" asked Finn, genuinely confused.

"It's not like that." Rey jumped in quickly, hoping to stop that thought before it started. "At all."

"What?" exclaimed Finn, looking between Rey and Poe. "Come on, Poe. I already told you it's not like that."

"I wouldn't care if it was," Poe said quietly. "I just want to know."

So Poe was hurt that Finn didn't share his secrets, as Finn had been hurt by Poe not sharing his. Which meant they wanted that closeness, only they didn't know how to say it. They were both too scared. She thought about pointing it out and then letting them talk, but as Finn was about to respond, a young courier came running up and interrupted, looking upset.

"I'm sorry, generals," she said. "You're needed in the command center immediately. There's a situation on Akiva."

"Akiva?" Poe said, exchanging a worried glance with Finn before turning and following without another word. "What's happened? Have we heard from Wedge Antilles? Or Norra Wexley?"

He grilled the courier, who had no other answers. Rey followed with Finn, the tension growing as they entered the command area to find it bustling with activity. Something had happened, and it wasn't good. She only hoped that once things settled, Finn and Poe could continue to talk.

They weren't meant to be so distant, so angry, so unhappy. They should be celebrating their victory over the First Order together. Rey was determined to help them, before one of them self-destructed and took the entire Resistance with them—or left before they could.

Author's Note:

This post TROS set-up comes from the part of me that is constantly hearing various characters shout at one another in my head. Maybe I need to go do some shouting myself? There is more shouting in the next chapter, and probably the next. But my stories always end with hope, and this story is four parts and almost complete! I also like thinking about how and why things happen too much, and this story explores some things about Finn and Poe's relationship in TROS that seem to need some exploring. Thank you for reading!