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The telltale scratch of Finn’s key sliding into the loff comes as Poe is recording the grade on the latest marked essay. He glances at his watch and blinks, watching Finn try to get his shoes off while BB-8 greets him as enthusiastically as always. “You’re home early.”
“Yeah I probably should have stayed longer but all I could think about was coming home. Besides,” The fabric of Finn’s button-down goes taut as he stretches. “If I need to practice exams I’d much rather manhandle you than anybody there.”
“Well that’s good to hear, I’ve never felt more secure in our relationship.” He puts his hands over his heart and laughs when Finn kisses him hello. He grins when Finn pulls away. “Hi,”
Finn drops onto the couch, pressing his face against Poe’s thigh with a sigh.
He slides his fingers into Finn’s hair and scratches at the base of his scalp. “Long day?”
“Mmm, just the usual.” Finn mumbles. He rolls onto his side and catches Poe’s gaze. “Better now that I’m here. How are you?”
“Good. Managed to have a pretty great discussion about representation in one of my classes. I’m really proud of those kids.”
Finn grins, the heavy bags under his eyes having no effect on the warmth in his gaze. “They’re lucky they have such a great teacher.”
He breathes a laugh. “Oh - I made some chicken alfredo tonight, there’s some in the fridge if you want it.”
“Thanks baby,” Finn jumps up and jogs to the kitchen. “I’m starving.”
“Yeah, somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
--
Finn returns to the couch a few minutes later with a full plate and settles in beside him. “So I spoke with Rey today. She invited us to her derby match next week, it’s the last one before playoffs.”
“Oh? When is it?”
“Next saturday, I think.” Finn smirks. “She said we could bring Jess too, if we want.”
“I wonder when they’re finally going to admit they’re into each other. It’s painful at this point.”
“Yeah, that’s what I told her. She told me - and I quote - I’ve permanently lost my right to judge after she had to watch me moon over you’.”
He scoffs. “We weren’t that bad.”
Finn stares at him.
“We met on a blind date, we literally started dating the night we met.”
“Technically, sure,” Finn grins. “And at the end of that night I distinctly remember somebody saying we should ‘be casual and just go with the flow’, and spending months pretending like I wasn’t madly in love with you.”
“You were just about to start med school. What was I supposed to say?” He takes Finn’s free hand and traces a finger over the lines of his palm. “The important thing is that we did get here, even if our path wasn’t as straightforward as it could’ve been.”
Finn squeezes his hand. “Yeah, it worked out pretty well in the end.”
--
They take BB-8 for a walk together before settling in for some Property Brothers before bed. They’re tangled together on the couch, Poe on his back with Finn tucked into his side, half draped over him, a warm, perfect weight pressing him into the couch.
“What kind of house do you want?”
Poe opens his eyes and takes a moment to try to remember when they closed in the first place. “Hm?”
“Your dream house. If we could get anything and didn’t have to worry about the cost or, y’know, reality.”
He runs his hand over Finn’s shoulders as he thinks. “A big master bedroom, obviously.”
Finn snorts. “Obviously.”
“A nice master bathroom, too. With a tub big enough for us to fit in it together.”
Finn hums.
"A state-of-the-art kitchen so I could cook big meals for our friends and family and you could microwave some hot pockets -”
Finn whacks his belly. “- Hey,”
“- And it would be big enough that we could do it at the same time. Lots of natural light, too.” He bites his lip. “Open concept, so I could be in the kitchen and keep an eye on our kids while they play in the living room.”
Finn pushes up onto his elbow and smiles. “That sounds pretty wonderful.”
He grins. “It would be. You’d have an office, but I’d use it sometimes too. We’d have a couple guestrooms too so people could stay with us - not all the time, but we’d always have space if someone needed it. A huge yard for Bee and the kids to run around in with a garden at the back.”
“A pool too?”
“In a dream house, sure. But it’s not really a must-have, I don’t think. Pools are really high maintenance, and as long as we could go camping in the summer I’d get my fill of swimming.”
“You mean a cabin?”
He grins. “That would be fine too, but there’s nothing like being in the middle of the woods with nothing but you and the gear on your back.”
“Totally exposed to the elements, not to mention the bugs.”
“That’s just part of the experience.”
Finn frowns. “Lyme disease is just part of the package?”
He waggles his eyebrows. “I’d be happy to check you for ticks anytime.”
Finn snorts.
“What about you? What’s your dream place like?”
“Yours sounds pretty great.” Finn nuzzles into his chest. “Wouldn’t hurt if we could get that five minutes away from a good hospital.”
“That’s kind of a tall order we’ve got for ourselves, hey?”
Finn sighs. “Yeah, I don’t think that’ll happen any time soon.”
He slides his hand under Finn’s t-shirt, splaying his palm over the warm skin. “S’long as you and Bee are here I’ve got all my must-haves.”
Finn presses a kiss against his chest. “Yeah, me too.”
He pauses. “So you just need you and Bee then? Is that why you’re with me?”
Finn laughs. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” He noses at the top of Finn’s head. “I do.”
--
They manage to make it to the end of the episode without falling asleep. The next one begins without interruption, a new couple looking for a mansion on a shoestring budget. Poe mostly listens to it with his eyes closed. With Finn’s steady, shallow breaths they should probably call it for the night, but he’s not quite ready to not be tangled up with Finn even if he knows it’s temporary.
Instead, he absently trails his fingers up and down Finn’s spine as scenes of their future play out in his head. A few years ago he never would have thought he’d ever have something like this - having someone to love, that loves him just as much. Having someone to come home to, someone that wants the future he does - that wants a future with him. He never could have imagined getting to be so completely and utterly happy.
But he is here, sharing a couch and his life with the best man he’s ever met.
He wants to spend the rest of his life with Finn. That hasn’t been in question for a long time, but he’s painfully aware that Finn is only at the beginning of an arduous journey. Poe is going to stand by his side no matter what but he knows Finn needs to focus on this right now, so he’ll support Finn through the endless nights of studying and happily be his pretend patient as often as he needs one. He’ll be the best partner he possibly can be and maybe once Finn has decided what - and where - he’ll be doing for his residency it will be the right time to propose.
They’ll have a wedding, intimate, just them and the people they really care about. He’ll get to stand in front of everyone and tell Finn just how much he loves him and spend the rest of the evening celebrating the fact that he’s the luckiest man on this planet. They’ll dance and he’ll smoosh cake over Finn’s mouth after Karé gives a speech with at least two embarrassing stories.
It will easily be one of the best days of Poe’s life.
It will be worth the wait.
He sweeps his hand down Finn’s back, making random circles on the way back up. Without really thinking about it, the circles turn into the gentle slope of an ‘M’. He traces two words into Finn’s skin and punctuates them with a kiss to the top of Finn’s head.
Marry me
The muscles beneath his fingers tense. All of the air in the room seems to evaporate as Finn pushes up and stares at him. Poe can’t breathe, can’t move, there’s no way Finn understood that, he was asleep -
“Did you just -”
“I - I don’t - you -”
Finn frowns, he’s frowning - Poe just asked him to marry him and he’s frowning. This is bad. This is so bad. Of all the times he’s imagined this it’s always been romantic. It’s always been on purpose.
He takes a deep breath. “This should wait until you finished med school.”
“Uh,” Finn blinks. “Why?”
“I don’t - you haven’t picked your residency yet. I want you to make that decision because it’s what you want, not because you think you need to stay here for me or you want to make me happy.”
For a moment the room is quiet. Poe’s heart is beating against his ribcage, trying to push out of his chest under the weight of Finn’s gaze. Then -
Finn laughs.
A warm, hearty laugh that usually makes Poe warm all the way down to his toes. He cups Poe’s jaw. “Poe, it’s a few years too late for that.”
“Finn -”
Finn shakes his head. “You were always going to be part of the equation, whether we’re married or not. I want to make you happy, yeah, but it’s not just that. I want a life with you, and I want to pick a specialty that will be challenging and interesting but still let me have that. I want to have a career that will let me build a life with you. Have a family with you.”
Poe blinks. He laughs, shaky from the surge of emotion that rushes through him. “I love you too.”
Finn smiles, his eyes shining. “Ask me again.”
He stares at Finn. “Really?”
Finn nods.
He takes a shaky breath and cups Finn’s face in his hands, running his thumb over Finn’s lip. “You’re the love of my life, Finn. The past few years have been the best of my life, better than I thought it could be, and I want to spend the rest of my life trying to make you just as happy. I want to share everything with you - even when we’re just laying on the couch watching tv there’s nowhere I’d rather be.
“When I think of the future, I think of you. I don’t know where we’ll end up or what the future will bring but I know as long as we’re together I’ll be happy. This is it for me.”
He pauses. His heart is so full, is ready to burst at the slightest provocation. He stares at Finn, at the man he loves, at the person he's going to share the rest of his life with. “Will you marry me?”
Finn nods, smiling brilliantly. “Yeah, yes, yes.” Their teeth knock together with the force of Finn’s kiss. “Of course I'll marry you.”
“Okay, good.” He laughs. “I really want to marry you.”
Finn kisses him again, laughing until it's just a press of mouths, warm and heavy and absolutely perfect. He hugs Finn to his chest and thinks about how he gets to spend the rest of his days just like this.