You

Soft and only

You

Lost and lonely

You

Just like heaven

"Just Like Heaven," The Cure

One year later

"Until death do us part," Finn repeats.

"Good." The minister, Maz Kanata, takes a step back. "You may kiss."

Poe takes Finn's face in his and kisses him. The sun beats down on their heads, and a ring of polished gold feels smooth and new, but fitting, around his finger. Waves crash in the distance as cheers erupt around them.

Poe laughs as he pulls away from Finn. "I love you."

"I know," Finn teases as Poe lifts their hands together.

"Run off into the sunset," Rey calls, raising her bouquet of daffodils and white roses.

"Wrong time of day!" Finn says, smirking. He surveys the faces surrounding him—Leia, Han, Jess, Snap, Threepio, Luke, Chewie, Lando, so many from Alderaan House. Ben. Artoo and Beebee-Ate, as the dogs of honor, asleep.

And everyone else cheers for Finn and Poe.

"Ever think you'd get married?" Finn teases Poe as they sit together at some small tables at a restaurant overlooking the sea.

"I hoped." Poe winks.

Finn never did. Not when he was in that FO Tech program. Not when he spent days lying paralyzed by a panic he couldn't reason away. Not when Phasma thrust her elbow across his throat and threatened him. He never thought someone would want him.

When Poe proposed, Finn almost thought he was joking. He wasn't, and now they're here, and it's actually happened, and they're married.

Finn shivers, grinning at his husband. A year of therapy, and Finn hasn't had an anxiety attack in almost two months now.

He'll probably have another one, eventually, but Poe will be with him to hold him, wait in silence for Finn to breathe again. I'm not alone.

"Hey," Rey says as she saunters over, wearing a soft green dress and with her hair pulled up high, accentuating her cheekbones. "Congrats."

"Don't trash the place while we're gone," Poe warns. "If we get back in a week from Hawaii and find that you and Ben have redecorated all in black and red, or thrown a rave or something, I will ban Beebee-Ate from loving you."

"Good luck with that." Rey winks.

They've assured Rey that they don't mind her continuing to live with them. Half the time, Ben stays over as well, although the other half of the time, he's been staying with his parents after selling his own house to help pay for his father's medical bills. A month ago, he finally accepted his mother's invitation and started training to be an ESL teacher as well.

"It's hard," Finn had assured him. "But worth it." And it is. It may not be what Finn studied for, and he may make a fraction of the money he could be making, but smiles are payment enough. Helping people, for now, is payment enough.

"Congratulations," Leia says as she strides up to them, Han following her.

"Any secrets for a happy, healthy marriage?" Poe asks, winking.

"Yeah. Fight often," Han advises.

Leia rolls her eyes. "Oh, for God's sake."

Finn laughs. He spots Ben chatting with his uncle across the room.

"Your parents would be so proud, Dameron," Leia tells them.

"Thank you," Poe manages.

They'd love you, Poe's assured Finn. And from what Poe's told Finn about his parents, Finn's pretty sure they would have. And he would have loved them.

Life's cruel. At least in some ways. In others… Finn leans in and kisses Poe.

"Hey now," Luke says, voice lowered. "I assume you're both aware of the rumors?"

Finn nods. "Of course."

"Seriously, Ben's not that great at secret keeping. It's a miracle Rey hasn't figured it out," Poe adds.

"You gonna walk her down the aisle?" Finn asks, arching his eyebrows.

"If she asks," Luke says. "Or Han will."

"You've actually been pretty great for her. You know. Once you guys resolved everything,"

Luke chortles. "Thanks, Finn." He smiles as he watches Han pull Leia onto the dance floor, watches them sway together.

A few hours of drinking and dancing later, and Finn and Poe bid goodbye. Finn grips Ben's hands and looks into his eyes. "Now or never, man."

Ben grins.

"Hawaii, here we come," Poe announces as he sinks into the limo next to Finn.

Future, here we come, Finn thinks, without any trace of fear.

Rey twirls around to face Ben. Flushed from two glasses of wine and the early evening sun, she pinches her own cheeks and wraps an arm around him. "They did it."

"Success," Ben confirms.

"See you later, kids," Han says as he approaches. He wraps Ben in a hug, and Rey wraps her arms around herself. So many tears sown over the past year, more arguments than they would have hoped, and still Han and Ben appear to be closer than even Rey would have guessed.

If her parents had lived, maybe it would have been likewise for them, for her.

Leia smiles at her, and Rey reminds herself that she does have a family now. She's chosen them, but the ties are just as strong as blood.

"See you for lunch tomorrow?" Leia asks, and Rey nods.

FO Tech's been destroyed, the entire company brought down judicially by the FBI and in the court of public opinion by Han's article—proofread and adjusted by Ben's input.

"I won't publish it if you don't want me to," Han insisted to Ben late one evening after his release from the hospital.

"I do want you to," Ben told him. "You need to. I just—I'm so—"

Ashamed, Rey knew.

Han held his son against him for an hour that night, letting him cry the tears he usually only let Rey see, the tears Ben wasn't sure he deserved to cry.

Although no one's been able to track down Hux or Phasma, as each month passes, Ben's started to believe her when she tells him she loves him. He no longer gapes each time she says it. He knows, now. Knows that she loves him not out of obligation, not out of a desire to fix anything because, hell, she can't fix anything, but because he's Ben and as messed up, as evil, as his actions have been, he's not all that. There's so much more to him, and he's changing. He wants to be better.

"Want to go for a walk?" Ben invites her as his parents leave, arm in arm. Luke grins at Rey, and she waves. They've begun exploring what could have been, a fatherly mentoring relationship, and now they both know it's not just what could have been, but what could be.

"Yup." She threads her hand through his as he leads her down the stairs towards the beach. Salt saturates the air.

"If you throw sand down my shirt, I will be pissed," he warns her. "I see that look."

"What look?" Rey asks innocently. She takes off her heels and kicks a teeny bit of sand onto his shoes. He crosses his arms, and she sees that look.

"Oh, hell!" Rey takes off, running through the sand as he chases her. Not that either of them can get very far. His longer legs eventually win out, and he catches her by the waist. She shrieks, half expecting him to carry her towards the crashing surf and dump her in.

But he sets her down on the sand and drops to one knee.

Oh my God.

"Rey," he says, looking at her as the sky hums with indigo and pink behind him. "I love you—so much. You're—the most beautiful, kind, ferocious person I've ever met, and—"

"Oh my God," Rey breathes out loud, dropping her heels. He looks up at her with his eyes glistening, and she feels like her heart's about to explode in her chest. She drops to her knees.

"What are you doing?"

We're on an equal level. "Giving you an answer."

"I love you," he repeats, and she grabs him and kisses him. He gasps.

"Did you drop the ring?" Rey wonders.

He searches through the sand and holds it back up, grinning. "Found it."

Rey laughs.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you," Ben says. "I know it's cliché, but I—do. You're—"

"I say yes, Ben. I want you, too. Every day. Every morning." Rey grins, sand gritty under her bare knees. "I won't throw coffee at you ever again, Decaf Boy."

"That," Ben quips as he slides the ring on her finger. "Is probably not true."

"Mm." She leans in and then falls back onto the sand, kissing him as he crouches over her, her hands roving through his hair, down his neck. Sand invades her hair and her dress. "We should probably go before we're arrested for public indecency."

"Probably," he agrees, pulling her to her feet. "We do have your apartment to ourselves tonight."

Sand snakes down her back, itchy and prickling, and Rey grimaces. "I think I get why you hate sand now."

"Well then." He smirks at her, his hair still perfect, and then he leans down and swoops her into his arms, carrying her bridal style across the beach.

Thank you all so, so much for reading. I truly appreciate all of your comments and feedback-seriously, it's so encouraging. Special thanks to entmaid521 for the prompt!

I'm working on a few other projects, mostly canon-verse fics for right now! I do have a three-shot that will go up pretty soon, and a longer fic that I'll probably start posting next week (although I'm having laptop issues, so we'll see!)