The trip down to Poe's place is one huge conversation about his family. Family dynamics, pictures, things that a girlfriend should know about Poe. It's not like she doesn't know him or anything, but she doesn't know know him like Finn does. And so she listens studiously. When she starts taking notes, Poe laughs and slaps her hand away from it.

"If my mother saw that…" he warns and Rey tucks it back into her book.

"So no All About Poe story? Damn."

"No. Ok let's go over this again. My mother…"

"Her name is Shara. I'll call her Mrs. Dameron. Your parents usually prefer that from your friends."

"Good. Father?"

"Kes…is that short for something?""

Poe shrugs. "No."

"Interesting names. I would have expected something a bit more…" She waves one hand in the air. "Biblical, I guess?"

"They're born-again," Poe mutters. "Neither of them grew up with religion. They found it together later."

Rey makes a face. It's not like she doesn't have an appreciation for mysticism and religions. The idea has always intrigued her. But she has no affiliation. It's more that she feels something…some force…tying the universe together and balancing it. Good, evil, life, death, they're all a part of the world and there has to be some sort of balance to keep it going.

"Don't do that," Poe warns. "I told her you were a good Christian girl."

"Oh God," Rey says. "Do I need to know the prayers? Or like, the songs or something?" She feels the panic in the way the butterflies in her stomach take to wing. "They're going to know…"

"I told them you were Lutheran."

Rey's eyes widen. "I don't know anything about that."

"Just think hard work and Bach."

"I have no idea what you just said."

Finn smacks his boyfriend and Rey tries to keep the rising panic down.

"Just relax," Poe says. "Everything will be fine."

The rest of the trip passes uneventfully. She listens to Poe and Finn recount stories of his parents and tries to absorb as much as she can, but there's only so much she her mind can keep track of. They arrive, really, far too soon for Rey's tastes.

It's only a week. You can do this.

The dread doesn't stop though, that weird feeling of anticipation and waiting for it all to go, well, quite literally, to hell.

"Come in, come in," booms the voice at the door before they even see the speaker.

"Dad!" Poe shouts, stepping forward to hug his father. The other man is just a hair taller than Poe, but trim and fit. His hair is cropped short, greying around the edges, quite the contract to his son's wild curling locks. He carries himself with the regality of the staunch military man that Poe has told her he is.

He likes when people salute him, that's what Poe says. And so when he lays eyes on her, she immediately salutes. His eyes light up. "Ah, those were the days." And then she is enveloped in a bear hug too.

"Darling," comes a voice from behind him. "Do set her down." Rey can't see anything, but is thankful enough for whomever the voice belongs to as Poe's father does as the voice asks.

"You must be Rey," his father says reaching out to shake her hand with a bone-crushing grip.

"I am," Rey says, her voice quieter than usual. "You must be Mr. Dameron."

"She's good, Poe!"

"Dad, I called you Dad."

His father frowns. "Now don't go insulting your girlfriend's intelligence. She must be very smart indeed if she snagged a prize like you."

She hears Finn choke next to her and she's not even sure what to say. But Poe puts his arm around her and says "That she is, Dad." She has to remind herself that this should make it look natural, but she still feels awkward there with Poe's arm around her waist. She's never been a touchy-feely sort and the handful of boyfriends she'd had over the past few years had quickly disappeared when they realized she wasn't really that interested in being touched by them.

College kids…always just after a piece of…

"Well, don't just stand there kids, come on in!" He reaches out a hand to grab Finn's and she watches as her friend grimaces a little at the force of his handshake.

"Poe, I swear you get more handsome every day," his mother says and pulls him in to kiss his cheek. She can see where Poe gets his looks now. He's built like his father, but he has his mother's coloring and thick curling hair. The resemblance between them is strong. His mother gives Poe one more pat on the back and then turns to Rey, who he is still clinging to for some God forsaken reason. She steps away to greet his mother, breathing a sigh of relief as she puts some distance between them.

Fuck, this is awkward…no…not fuck…God, this is awkward…wait?...can I say that here? Fuck…

"Rey you are just as cute as a button. I knew my Poe would land himself a good girl one of these days. Always running with the wild kids, that one was. I'm so glad to see that he's settling down." She gives Rey a quick hug.

"Mother," Poe says. "I wouldn't quite go that far."

"Poe Dameron," his mother says and there's a warning in her voice. "You don't just go around saying such things."

"It's ok Mrs. Dameron," Rey says quickly.

"Shara, dear. Please. You don't know how long we've been waiting for Poe to bring a girl home." Her voice is warm, sweet as honey. Rey almost feels guilty over the deception.

Instead, she turns to Poe with a smirk on her face. "Poe, sweetheart, you've never brought a girl home? I can't believe that."

Poe grumbles something unintelligible.

Rey tries to hold in her laughter as she turns back to his mother and smiles.

"You must be something really special if he brought you home, my dear," his mother says. "We're really looking forward to getting to know you."

Rey just inclines her head. She's here on completely false pretenses, but she can't lie to herself. Having a family? People who care about her? It's not even real and it still feels good.

"Now, let's get you kids all set up for the night." And here's where Rey knows it will get tricky. She's a good Christian girl. He promises his mother won't even consider letting her stay with him, but does she pretend she expects different? Does she just hang back and wait? She's spared that much at least. "The boys will stay in Poe's room." Shara gives her a firm look and Rey just nods, glancing over at Finn with wide eyes. He's making a little fist pumping gesture while Poe stands by with a big stupid grin on his face. She steps in front of them and waves his mother ahead of her.

Shara doesn't notice the boys' excitement, moving past Rey with an efficiency she finds strangely admirable. There's no wasted movements from the elegant older woman.

She's shown to one of the guest rooms and Shara points out the bathroom, which is shared with everyone on the hall. She'll be staying by herself and she's thankful for that much at least. It's just a small twin bed, but it's hers for the time being. Hers in a home full of warmth and light and Christian charity. It shouldn't feel so damned good when it's so damned fake, but it does.

Guilt wraps around her like a glove and she flops down on the bed. She has time to unpack, but first she just wants to stretch out in the beautiful room. She's sound asleep before she knows it.

Dinner that night is an understated affair. They sit around a table with only a few elements of Christmas to it. A red and green table cloth, white candles that remain unlit throughout the dinner. The lights from the chandelier above them are bright enough. She doesn't quite understand the candles, but who is she to question them? Probably some sort of Christmas tradition thing she wouldn't understand.

Her mother places the casserole dish, lasagna as it turns out, into the center of the table, and Rey almost reaches for the serving spoon. It smells amazing and she's starving. Poe smacks her hand gently before she can even get it off the table and she turns to glare at him.

"Rey, darling, would you offer us a prayer?" his mother says.

Oh God. "I…um… that is…"

"Rey's a little shy, Mom."

Finn voices his agreement. "Maybe you could offer it up, Poe." There's a bit of mirth behind his eyes and Rey has to fight to not smirk. None of them are all that religious, especially Poe, who struggles with rationalizing his faith with his sexual orientation.

But Poe has been raised in this tradition. He slides back in like it's something he does every day and offers up a mercifully short prayer.

And then it's time to dig in, which Rey does with gusto.

"My gosh," his father says. "Poe, do you starve this poor child?"

Rey has a fork almost to her mouth when he says it and drops it back onto her plate at the words. She feels the heat creep up her cheeks. It's not like it's the first time someone has commented on how much she eats. It probably won't be the last either. But at the same time it's always so damned embarrassing. How do you tell people yes I was a foster child and sometimes there was no food to be had…

"Dad," Poe says and she's thankful for the admonishment in his voice. He knows. Finn knows, too of course. He'd been in at least two of the same foster homes, clinging to her even as she clung to him and wondering when their next meal would be, when they would be torn apart.

His father holds up his hands in defeat.

The rest of the meal is fairly uneventful. Rey helps put away the dishes with his mother afterward, even though Shara keeps trying to wave her away. "You're a guest, my dear. Go be with your boyfriend." And Rey can't tell her that she wants to give Poe some alone time with his boyfriend, so instead tells her it was just how she was raised.

There's no lie there, not really. Most of her foster homes considered her little more than slave labor. There had been one…well, no sense ruminating on the only time she had had a small sense of family. But besides that one, she was expected to clean up after meals and was left to it while the family, the real family, got to enjoy some quality time together.

Here at least Shara works alongside her, washing dishes while Rey dries. She worries about conversation but Shara chats easily about Poe and asks questions about Rey's life that aren't too pointed or humiliating.

She feels at ease with her.

And she almost…almost wishes that all of this were reality. It's a sad part of her world that even just a small bit of kindness and familial love makes her crumble.

"You're family is lovely," she tells Poe as the three of them head out for a short walk around the neighborhood. Apparently it's known for beautiful Christmas decorations.

"They're not that lovely," Poe mutters.

"I know…there's the whole anti-gay thing."

"Anti everything thing," Finn says. "Did you know they voted for…"

Poe gives him a dark look and Finn falls silent. "No talk of politics. Please. My parents and I disagree on a lot of things and it can get ugly fast if we're not careful. Just…let's let that one go and enjoy what little we have here."

"You mean like tonight?" Finn says and Poe, glancing back and realizing they're out of sight distance of his house, pulls him in close to him.

"Absolutely." He whispers something else in his ear and Finn's eyes go wide.

"Can we not do this right now?" Rey asks.

"Jealous?" Finn asks.

"Hardly." Poe laughs at the deadpan sound to her voice. "Just be quiet guys. If you're caught…"

"I know."

There's a park just down the road from their house and Rey sits on one of the swings, waving the boys off. There's a trail through the woods, Poe tells her, and she can take a hint. They need a little alone time. And frankly, she can use some too. She's not used to being around people quite this much and while she adores his family so far, she also needs some down time of her own.

"Guys, I'm going to head back!" she calls out. "You do…whatever you want to do out here. I'll cover for you." She has no idea what she'll say, but she's sure the inspiration will come by the time she gets back to the house.