"What's wrong?" Finn asks as soon as the door is shut behind the three of them.

Rey ignores him. Really, this is between her and Poe. Finn is on the periphery of it certainly, but this was a deal between her and Poe and no one else. She rounds on Poe. "I can't do this anymore."

Poe stares at her for a moment, a furrow between his brow before understanding seems to dawn in the slow way his mouth opens and closes and the way he blinks once or twice. "What do you mean?"

"I mean this needs to end. This 'relationshp' needs to end." She hates air quotes. She uses them anyway. "We need to come clean."

And Poe looks absolutely panicked, his eyes flitting from Rey to Finn and back again. Finn looks worried. This will all come down hard on his shoulders if she comes clean about it. "No. Wait, Rey. Why?"

She sighs, bites her lip.

"Oh God," Poe says. "This is about Ben."

"I like him," Rey admits. And that's the truth. It's not just that she finds him attractive. She likes him. His sarcasm, his ridiculous snark, even his bitterness at the world. The latter she understands. She's generally a sunny person, or tries to be at least. But there's still this thread of bitterness that runs through her life, coming to the forefront every time someone talks about family. Even here, seeing Poe's parents and the lies they're telling, make her wish she even had parents to lie to. It's a bitter pill she's had to learn to swallow over the years.

Poe sits down and runs his hands through his hair, a gesture she's come to associate with Ben. It seems somehow out of place here, but she can see in that moment at least a bit of a resemblance between the cousins. "Look, maybe you could just jump him and get him to swear not to tell anyone?"

"Poe." She hisses the word at him.

"We've managed to be discreet, peanut," Finn says.

"Hardly," she tosses at him. "Do you think anyone really bought your 'we fell down the ravine' story?"

Finn has the good graces to look at least a little embarrassed.

"Look, Poe. This isn't about wanting to jump him." Poe starts to say something and she holds up her hand. "I admit it started that way. But it's more than that. I want to get to know him better. And I can't if your family thinks I'm dating you."

Poe looks a bit like he's been left staring into the lights of an oncoming train. His eyes are wide open but it's like he's not seeing anything. "Wow," he finally manages to get out. "Ben, really? Ben Solo? My asshole cousin?"

"He hasn't been an asshole to me," she says softly. "He took me to this lovely town and we met his aunt..."

Poe blinks then and shakes his head. "He took you to meet Maz?"

"In a way, I guess."

"That explains why you were gone so long," Poe mutters to himself.

"Who's Maz?" Finn asks, looking back and forth between them.

"She's the only bit of family Ben will talk to. She's not really family," Poe points out. "But she's as close as Ben gets to family. He never takes anyone to meet Maz."

"That's what she said."

"You didn't tell her you were dating me, did you?"

Rey cringes. "She laughed. I mean, really laughed. I thought she was going to have a coronary."

"She knows."

"Everyone knows, Poe." Rey can't help the exasperation that creeps into her voice.

"No, I mean, I've talked to her about it before. She…um…" His face turns bright red.

"Oh, this oughtta be good," Finn says, leaning forward to take Poe's hand. "Come on, Poe. Spill it. What exactly did Maz do?"

"Look, you don't know Maz. She was the kind of lady who was open to anything. When I told her I was gay, in high school, mind you, she just took one look at me and said 'of course you are' like she'd always known it. So when I had a boyfriend…"

"Mr. Johnson?" Finn says with a grin and Rey high-fives him, just a little bit of spite there.

"No," Poe says with a grimace. "I never slept with him. There was this other kid. I know I told you about him, Finn. My first real relationship. I went to Maz. She gave me condoms. And lube." He laughs at that. "I had no idea why at the time, but it made a hell of a lot more sense later. She was a no nonsense kind of lady. And she didn't care that I was gay. She was a safe house when I felt safe nowhere."

Rey can't help but smile at that. She's known that Poe felt the pressure at home to be straight, normal as his parents would call it. Having someone like Maz must have meant a lot.

"I think Ben feels safe there too." And she realizes the truth of the statement.

"Probably," Poe confirms. "I think she was the only one who believed…" His voice trails off.

"I know about his father."

Poe's eyebrows shoot up. "Seriously? No one knows about his father unless they were there. He told you?"

"I figured out some of it," she admits. "But yes. He told me."

"Wow." Poe is quiet for a moment, then – "So you really like him?"

"I do."

He nods at that and she glances over at Finn, who is looking increasingly worried. "Poe, if you come clean…"

"I know." He reaches out a hand to take Finn's, entwining their fingers for a moment before giving Rey a serious look. "Rey, please."

"Poe…"

"I know this is hard for you. I know it is." He sucks a deep breath, releases it. "I didn't think it would be. I figured you could play the role and we'd sneak off while you got some alone time and everything would be just fine."

"You didn't count on Ben."

"No one likes Ben," he admits. "I didn't think it would even matter. I've brought plenty of friends over when Ben's been around and not one of them, male or female, wanted to have more than a few minutes of conversation with him."

"I know. He's not easy to get along with. But Poe, I really do like him."

"Just three more days, Rey," Poe says. "Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and then we just have to get through Christmas. We leave the next morning. Hell, we can leave the afternoon of Christmas and stay in a hotel or get back really late or something. I don't care. Just please...can you hang on until then?"

"Poe…"

"I'll tell him myself, Rey," Poe offers. "I'll call him up on our way out of town and tell him where we are and tell him we were faking it the entire time."

"Will he ever trust me if I don't tell him myself?"

"I don't know."

"Poe." And then she reaches out to put her hand over his. "Can you remember the last time any guy interested me?"

"Of course…" His eyes almost cross as he seems to think about it a moment longer. "No, actually. No I can't."

"So Poe, please…"

He sighs and she knows what he's going to say before he even gets there. "You don't know my parents. If we come clean, we're going to be thrown out now and it's going to be ugly."

She knows he's right. There are tears in his eyes and Finn reaches out to grasp his hand tightly, offering the support that no one else can.

She really wants this to end. She just wants it over, so she can go to Ben with a clear conscience and tell him that she's single and free and was never with his cousin and maybe he'd like to have his way with her but also go out on a real date someplace. But she knows it can't, not yet.

"Ok," she finally says. Because what else can she say? This was all for Poe, she reminds herself. And it's not his fault she has a thing for his cousin. It's not like any of them could have foreseen this. She was warned, and warned hard against him before she even met him. But he's not exactly what Poe thought he was.

Poe breathes a sigh of relief and she watches as Finn leans slightly into him.

"But I need some time before we leave to talk to Ben so I can tell him the truth."

"Wow," Finn says. "You really like this guy."

"I really do." And there's no lie there. There have been a lot of men she's met during her life and most of them have had reactions to her being in automotive engineering school that ranged from complete disbelief to laughter to, in one case, his trying to show her how much more he knew about cars. And then being humiliated when that turned out not to be the case.

But not Ben. No, he had offered to not only let her poke around in the engine of his TIE, but also let her drive the car. He barely knew her and yet he trusted her to not destroy his beloved car.

He wasn't like them.

"Alright here's the deal," Poe says after a moment. "We play this up, at least to some degree. I won't really push it and I'll let you sit near Ben and talk to him and whatever else you want to do. We don't tell anyone and if my mother says anything, we smile and act like the lovey-dovey couple we aren't."

"Ok?"

"And on Christmas, Finn and I go pack up and you take Ben for a walk or something and tell him the truth and how you feel or whatever."

She shivers a little at the last bit. Does she dare? Or does she just tell him that it's all been a lie and see where it goes from there? Rey is not someone who is forward, really. Her relationships have been so few and far between. "I don't know how to…"

"To tell him?"

"Well, I have the whole 'I'm not Poe's girlfriend' thing down. I mean, I'm pretty sure he knows. Or at least, he knows you're gay and thinks I'm an idiot or something who doesn't realize that."

"I don't think he thinks that," Poe says and a slightly guilty look flashes briefly across his face.

"No?"

"No. He cornered me yesterday."

"You didn't tell me this!" Rey practically shouts the words and Finn laughs.

"I didn't have the time."

"No? What happened?"

"You'd gone to bed already and Ben just shows up at our room. Practically threw the door open. I had to try to act like Finn and I hadn't been…well…"

"Let's not go there," Finn says with a grimace.

"He comes in and gives me this look. Ben is always angry. I don't know what you see in him." Rey almost throws her hands up in the air at that. "Whatever…it doesn't matter. He says something like 'I don't know what kind of game you're playing here Dameron, but you're really being unfair to Rey.' I tried to protest."

"I'm sure you did." Rey can't help the way the words come out, dry and rather unamused.

"I did!" She says nothing to his outburst and he finally goes on. "So Ben says 'Look, I don't know if you've got her convinced you're straight or if you're doing some sort of pretend thing for your parents' sake, but either way, you're being unfair to her.' And then he slams out of the room."

"He gave me a look," Finns says with a shiver. "He knows about us."

Rey shakes her head. "Ben is smarter than you think he is."

"I never said he wasn't smart," Poe says, raising his hands. "I just thought we were better actors than that."

"Maybe you are, Poe. But I'm downright awful." Acting was never her forte. She tried once, in a middle school play. It might have been the only time she'd been glad to be moved from one foster home to another.

And she's pretty sure she didn't manage to hide much from Ben today.

"Ok, so we have a deal?" Poe asks.

Rey just rolls her eyes. "Fine, Poe. Christmas Day. I can tell him. And you and Finn can escape unscathed."

They shake on it. "You're the best, Rey," Poe says.

Finn rushes over to hug her. "You are, peanut. You really are."

"And don't you forget it." She's not likely to let them forget. Someday she'll need a favor and they better be right there ready to grant it.