happy valentine's day! here's some appreciation for poe, finn, and rey <3 

/ / /

For the first time in a long time, you felt like you could breathe. He was raised to fight for a cause that he never got to choose. All of his days were full of violence and pain, but the Force pulled him away from all of it and into the loving family he had made. It was just you, Rey, him, Poe, and of course BB-8 and Chewie --- and everything was perfect. The war was over, and while friends like Connix and Rose had gone their separate ways and started their lives of peace, the tight group of four best friends couldn't part with one another. 

Most days were spent traveling through hyperspace on the Falcon. There was nothing more exciting to you or Poe than to see the galaxy through the eyes of Rey and Finn. Finn, who was raised in a world of violence and order. Rey, who was trapped for nearly twenty years on the planet of Jakku, waiting for her family to rescue her. Now was their chance to see it all together. They did so hand-in-hand, with you and Poe teaching them that you knew. 

It was the end of the seventh day of the trip, and you were sitting next to Poe, his arm draped over your shoulders. Finn and Rey were in the cockpit, talking quietly. Your eyes were drooping closed as sleepiness overtook you. Your head leaned against the curve of Poe's neck and you slipped under. 

"Falling asleep on me already?" 

Poe's voice made you jump awake. He laughed at your reaction and you grimaced, pulling yourself out from under his arm. With a yawn, you pulled his brown leather jacket tighter around your body, shivering. The Falcon always had a draft nowadays; you couldn't remember the last time you were warm on this ship. 

"Not my fault I'm so tired," you mumbled. "You're the one that dragged us all to the beach at sunrise." 

"Don't act like you didn't love that," he said, rolling his eyes. "And you were the one that suggested we take them." 

"I don't want to hear it from you, Dameron," you said, even though he was right. It was your idea --- and it was completely worth it to see the faces on Finn and Rey as they watched the bright orange sun rise over the turquoise waves and paint the sky with strokes of color. You stood up from your seat and stretched before turning back to look at your husband. "Come on, I want to go to bed."

"You go ahead and go on," he said, capturing your hand between both of his. He kissed the back of your hand. "I'm going to make sure BB-8 is settled in for the night first. He probably needs to charge up." 

"All right," you said. You leaned down and pressed your lips sweetly to his, pushing your hair back behind your ear. "I love you."

His deep brown eyes swept across your face. His lips twitched into a smile as he looked at you. "And I love you, beautiful." 

Your hand slipped out of his as you pulled away. You walked out of the room and down through the narrow corridors. Your bunk was just at the end of it, but before you crawled under the thin covers of your narrow bed, you stopped by the cockpit. 

Finn and Rey weren't talking anymore, and when you stopped in the doorway, you could see why. They were turned towards one another in their seats, their knees nearly touching, their hands folded together, their faces tilted and inches apart. At the sound of your footsteps, they jumped apart, the lovesick smiles on their faces vanishing as they both stood in identical mannerisms. Their wide, panicked eyes almost made you laugh. 

"Uh, sorry," you said. "I just came by to say goodnight." 

"Goodnight," Rey blurted quickly. 

"Uh, yeah," Finn said. He nodded and forced a relaxed smile on his face. The smile was so forced that it looked the exact opposite of relaxed. "Goodnight. See you in the morning."

"Sure," you said, nodding.

You turned away, grinning from ear to ear, pressing your hand over your mouth to suppress your quiet laugh. You walked quickly to your shared bunk with Poe, struggling to compose yourself on the way. He was already there, pulling all of the blankets out and crawling into his side. 

"There you are," he said. 

"I was just saying goodnight to Finn and Rey," you said. You shut the lights off and crawled into bed next to him. As his arm went around you and he pulled the blanket over your body and his, you turned on your side, your back pressed against his chest. Poe shut his eyes with his face an inch away from your hair, his hand moving up and down your arm slowly.

The silence went on for a long minute as you stared ahead. You couldn't see a thing. 

"So," you said. "Finn and Rey are together now." 

"Hm?" he hummed sleepily. 

"I walked into the cockpit to say goodnight and they were kissing," you said. "They're together." 

"Oh, yeah," he said. "I caught them kissing three days ago." 

You sat up quickly and turned, looking down at Poe in disbelief. "And you didn't tell me!?" 

"What, like you're surprised that they're together? Come on." Even though you couldn't see him, you knew that he was rolling his eyes.

"No, I guess I'm not surprised," you said. You slowly laid back down. "But still, you should've told me when you saw it." 

"Sorry, babe," he said as he yawned. 

"I do think they're really perfect for one another," you said. "I'm so happy for them. They've both been through so much---" 

"You know, you were literally falling asleep on me like five minutes ago," he said. 

You sighed. "Fine. We'll just discuss this in the morning then." 

"Sounds great, sweetheart," he mumbled.  

You turned your head to look at him. When you were this close, you could just make out the line of his nose, the shape of his closed eyelids, the curve of his lips. It was often that you stopped to look at him like this. You would never grow tired of it. Every time you glanced at him, it felt like you were seeing him for the first time over and over again. Like you were falling in love with him over and over again. 

Your voice was a soft whisper, full of love and admiration. "I love you, Dameron." 

And that was enough to make his eyes open. "I love you too." He smiled and lifted his head, pressing his lips to the corner of your mouth softly. 

You turned your body around to face him completely and moved closer until your head rested on his chest. A moment passed and he still hadn't moved to lay back down, even as your breathing grew more slow and your mind slipped off into dreams. 

As Poe sat there, propped up on his elbow, sitting in the chilly darkness of the ship you all called home, he thought about what Finn had told him about Rey. When she looked at me, I just knew that I loved her. She looked at me like no one else ever had. Like she loved me too, even then. 

Poe had an inkling of what that was like.

And so he was more than willing to stare at you for just a moment longer. 

/ / /

finnrey rights

they're the only star wars sequels couple ever

happy valentine's day