reykt | open | WHY DOES SAND

[ Her training had taken something of a hiatus when word reached her that Finn had come around. She left, Luke Skywalker did not. It was well past midnight now. A glance up at the chronometer on the ship's idling display told her that she had been sitting in the pilot's chair for nearly ten minutes. At nearly the fifteen minute mark she got up and exited the Falcon.

Poe had greeted her on the airstrip.

She did not learn until very much later that the pilot Poe Dameron was the original owner of the Jacket. Now draped over the shoulders of its now third wearer with capital letters and all signifying what stitched and slightly signed leather had been witness two in the last several months. To Rey, Poe was a surprise. Poe had not even been properly introduced to Poe Dameron. Everything she knew about the pilot that led the attack on Starkiller Base had come from Finn. All hurried half-finished stories about their impromptu escape from the First Order and brief reunion on D'Qar. Poe greeted her warmly, but through all the platitudes one thought stuck to the forefront of her mind.

Finn.

It was then both she and Poe realized through this entire conversation Rey had been sneaking glances over his shoulder. ]

Is he around?

[ She asked, trying and failing not to looked embarrassed. This late she thought he wouldn't even be awake. It was a wonder Poe was. ]

[Pilots were notorious for keeping strange hours - and BB8 had been excted to see Rey again, anyway, so Poe had been keeping an ear on the comms. His grin wasn't quite a smirk but it was close.]

Inside. Come on, he's been asking about you since he woke up.

[Poe led her into the base. Near the medbay were a series of individual rooms assigned to recovering patients. A light tap and a "You got a visitor" was enough to get a groggy reply. Finn opened up the door, blinked a few times, and suddenly looked much more awake.]

Rey!

[They'd told him she was okay, she'd made it out, that she was even now on her way to get Skywalker--but he'd been afraid. For all he knew, she'd never made it off Starkiller Base, so without even consciously processing the thought he grabs her in a tight hug.]

You're all right.

[ Rey was all pins and needles when Poe led her into the base. His hand was warm and large on the space between her shoulder blades as he gently directed her where to go in a large building she hand't seen in months. It was a span of time with a lot of growing pains but she noted the distinct lack of fear of discomfort at having a hand on her on her back. To know kind gestures were a norm in other corners of the galaxy had been one of her first lessons.

He brought her to a room that was clean but the words sterile and cold seemed more appropriate. - And then she sees him. ]

Finn!

[ Every fiber in her being urged her to surge forward to race ahead and embrace her counterpart. As sure as planets rotated their stars and suns rose she knew Finn would catch her when she threw her arms tightly around him. ]

[It was the most natural thing to grab Rey mid-stride and hold her tight. He liked it here--liked it a lot--but there was always something missing, like a piece of his mind that was out there in the uncharted sector where Rey had gone in search of the missing Jedi.]

You've still got my jacket.

[He'd been afraid it was lost, scorched beyond repair. His back wasn't exactly beyond repair, but even with the best medical care the Resistance could provide he had a long way to go yet. At least he was up and about now, and his embrace was as strong as it ever had been.]

They said you were okay, but--

[It was one thing to hear, even from the General, but the utter relief Finn felt from holding her again, from feeling her against him and even smelling the leather of Poe's jacket--his jacket now, or was it theirs now that Rey had it?]

[ She squeezes back- harder this time. Idly, she wondered if holding someone was purely instinctual in how right it felt to throw her arms around Finn and finding it so comfortable to the point of it almost being nostalgic. When they finally let go her ears are ringing. ]

Your-

[ Rey looked down at the jacket she was still wearing his jacket - the jacket. Truthfully, once she had reunited with Finn she could have just as easily forgot to breath or know that there was a sun in the sky. ]

Oh, you left it on the ship when... [ When you nearly died, is the point, well, pointedly sidestepped. She turns her shoulders somewhat in one direction to show Finn where she had mended the long gash that had been cut from the shoulder to lower back of the jacket. The dark, leathery fabric stood out plainly from the rest of the jacket. Almost like a reminder. ]

It's seen a lot, this jacket. Didn't feel right getting rid of it over something as silly as a tear.

[ Rey had been a scavenge, after all. ]

[He'd thought it was gone, damaged beyond repair or lost back on Starkiller Base. Wonderingly, he runs a hand down the slash on the back in parallel to his own wound. It had cauterized instantly, of course, but the damage to his muscles had been done and the shock to his system had kept him down for weeks.]

It looks great on you, Rey. You look--

[Words fail him for a moment and he beams, smiling, and takes her hand.]

You look great. Are you? Are you okay, I mean?

[She'd gone off to find Skywalker, he knew that, and she looks fine, but he has to hear it from her.]

[ Her shoulders slump and she looks all the smaller in that patched up jacket. For once the oldest most loosely put together thing she was wearing. She watches Finn unconsciously draw a line down his back where bacta stitched him back together, and wonders what the scar looks like. What it feels like. When their hands squeeze together she feels that same sort of satisfaction when she found two broken pieces of scrap metal snap perfectly together into a stronger whole. This time the feeling warmer, more ratifying.

A light went off in her head. Rey looked back at Finn and in almost repetition of their last conversation at Maz Kanata's, Rey's says with a fervid and renewed hope, ]

Come back with me.

[At first Finn's worried when Rey gets that look - maybe she's not okay, maybe things aren't as good with her as he could hope. But taking her hand is the right move, he's sure of that, and she looks a lot better when she asks him a question in return.]

Okay.

[Wait, what did he just agree to?]

Back to the ship, you mean? You did come in on the Falcon, didn't you?

[Cause he's pretty sure he's not well enough to go find Skywalker, wherever that is. But he'd go with her anyway, if she asked.]

Yeah, it's - yeah.

[ She nodded with a dimming little smile as she motions to the area on the air field where she had left the Falcon with her wookie traveling companion. There was an impossible little hope she carried that this would have been as simple as asking.

Yet it might still be. ]

I made some adjustments, do you want to see?

[Really, it would have to be a very extreme request for Finn not to agree immediately, if it came from Rey. Still, he picks up a little on her nervousness as he follows her out and hopes everything's really okay with her.]

Sure. You've been pretty busy with it, then?

[He doesn't really think he'll even be able to tell the difference if she's made the adjustments minor enough, like adding in some new engine component. But he does like to hear her talk and be with her and listen to anything she's excited about. It's just been too long.]

Yeah. We pretty much had to up the entire on-board system up to speed by about twenty years.

[ Rey pressed her thumb between her lips until she heard the joint crack and felt the nail bend between her teeth. A classically nervous gesture as she led Finn up the ramp. Flitting through the familiar old desk of the Falcon as she explained the upgrades. Then hurriedly re-explained, unpacking her technical jargon into more reductive terms.

Eventually they came to the cockpit where she dropped down into the pilot's seat. Her seat. Even though she didn't fell very comfortable placing possession over it she was nonetheless very comfortable in present company. ]

How are - I mean, you're officially with the Resistance now, yeah? What's that like?

[ A stitched together doll made with patches of an old orange jumpsuit and pilot's helmet was back on Jakku slowly sinking into the sand, but Rey still went a little starry eyed when it came to the Resistance. ]

[Finn follows some of what she's saying, but whenever she isn't pointing something in specific out to him his eyes are on her. She's looking great, as far as he can tell--her trip seems to have agreed with her.

When she sits down, he takes the copilot's seat just to sit next to her.]

Yeah, I am. The General offered me a position, and--it's pretty great, I get to work on coordinating ground troops and telling people what I know about infiltration. [Which is a lot, actually. Stormtroopers don't just break conditioning and run to the enemy, and it turns out he knows far more about the inner workings of the First Order than any intelligence they'd gathered.]

I can't do a whole lot of training yet, but I'm working up to it. They're keeping me busy, for sure. [He smiles a little shyly at her.] I've been pretty busy, but I'm still sorry I couldn't go with you.

[You know. Because he was unconscious and all.]

[ Part of her knows the techno babble was all a second language and that she had the unfair advantage in a conversation going in that direction. Rey idly wonders if someone within the Resistance took the time to help Finn along with understanding binary or the common trade languages. Not everyone could be an omniglot and even Rey could never explain her own talent for language. Only there was something especially sad and isolating how the First Order denied their cannon fodder as something so humanizing as language. ]

That's amazing. [ Rey was awed by the very idea of being active within the Resistance. Even now she was breathless. White knuckled with her hands wrapped around her legs tucked under her chin like a child scooting closer to the campfire when the story turned thrilling. ]

No - no. We all have our part to play, yeah?

Edited 2016-04-23 01:34 (UTC)

[He can't help but be caught up in her excitement, even when it's something he thinks is perfectly normal. Or--if not normal, something anyone could do. Natural, that's a better word for it. Everything here feels like it fits, like it's the right thing for him to do. The only thing that's been missing was having Rey with him.]

Yeah, we do. I just wish I could have told you I'd be okay.

[And known for sure that she was okay, too. It had been the first thing he'd asked, even before where am I or what happened.]

--But I am, and I like it here. [He pauses, biting back his enthusiasm for a moment.] I think you'd like it too, Rey, but if you--if you have to leave again, I understand.

open | WHY DOES SAND

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