Work Text:
“Stupid! Stupid,” Finn muttered, running into the drug store. “Of course, it’s October thirty-first. What in the hell was I…” I hate Halloween! He spotted one last bag of Halloween candy sitting on an empty shelf in the middle of the store. He dashed for it.
As his fingers slid onto the bag, he felt a hand clamp over his. “No. No way.”
Finn turned to see a beautiful man with a determined look on his face standing next to him. For a split second, Finn got lost in the guy’s eyes, but then he remembered. “Sorry, I got here first.”
“Like hell you did,” the guy said. “Our hands hit the bag at the same time, buddy.”
“I am not getting egged again this year,” Finn said, pulling on the bag. “That kid, Bee, from down the street, has egged me every year for the last three years and it ends tonight.”
“With one crappy bag of,” the other man tugged on the bag, trying to read the label, “Lando Calrissian’s Super Sweeties? I don’t think so.” He shook his head and then tugged again. “And anyway, I’m not showing up to Rey’s Halloween party empty handed.”
“Take something else,” Finn hissed.
“Pay the kid off,” the man shot back.
The two of them locked eyes, neither one of them letting go of the bag.
“Let go,” Finn said.
“No. You let go, buddy” the guy said.
“No, buddy,” Finn said. He then closed his eyes. “Please.” He gave his head a little shake. “It’s been a rough year and I just want to give out a little candy.” His voice broke a bit at the end.
The other guy was just about to hand over the bag when he watched Finn open one eye to see how the performance was going. “Nice try.”
Finn gave the guy a wink. “Can’t blame a guy for trying, can you?”
“Yeah, but if you think I’m letting go now, you’re out of your mind.”
One of the employees came over. “Sirs?” She frowned at the bag being held between them and then rolled her eyes. “Every year,” she muttered. “We’re about to close for the night. If one of you could let go of the bag?”
“You heard the lady,” Finn said.
“So did you,” the guy replied.
The woman closed her eyes. “Tell you what, if one of you lets go, I will fix a bag of candy for you with some of the stuff from the front register, okay?”
The two men considered it.
“Okay,” Finn said.
“I guess,” the guy said.
Neither let go of the bag.
“Let go,” Finn said. “She’s going to give you candy.”
“No, you let go. You take the register candy.”
The woman growled and snatched the candy out of both of their hands. “That’s it. I’m ripping this in half and you can split it.” She marched to the register, opened the bag, dumped one half into one plastic bag and one half into the other. “You each owe me three bucks.”
The look she wore on her face was scary enough that neither said a word, but once they were both outside, Finn muttered, “I hope you’re happy.”
“It’s your fault,” the guy said. “If you’d just let go…”
“Well, why didn’t you let go?”
“Why didn’t you?”
Finn huffed, clutching his pathetic plastic bag of candy to his chest. “Happy Halloween,” he said.
“Right back at you,” the guy said, storming down the street.
# # # #
Finn jogged home, getting there just in time to see Bee standing out in front of his house, casually tossing an egg in the air and catching it.
“Here,” Finn said, shoving the entire bag at her. “Take it.”
Bee looked inside the bag and frowned. “What’s this?”
“It’s all the candy I could manage to get,” Finn said, sitting on his front steps. “I forgot it was Halloween and then when I remembered, the drug store was closing and there was only one bag left and…” He turned to the girl, “and I hope you’re happy because I fought a guy for that.”
“Really?”
“Well, we traded some terse words.” Finn let his head fall forward into his hands. “I cannot believe I argued with a cute guy over a lousy bag of candy.”
Bee took a piece of candy out of the bag and examined it. “Yeah, this candy sucks.”
“Great,” Finn said, flopping further over. “Just don’t egg the second floor. I don’t have a ladder to get up there.”
Bee’s mouth twisted. She wasn’t given to acts of charity—she had a rep to protect, after all—but this guy was pathetic. “I’m not gonna egg you, Finn,” she said.
“Really,” Finn said, looking up.
“Really.” She smiled. “But if you know where the mystery guy lives, we could go egg his place?”
Finn shook his head. “I didn’t even get his name.”
Bee frowned and sat next to him. “No pertinent data?”
“Only that his friend Rey was having a party and—”
“Rey? Rey Skywalker? The one who lives on Jakku Street?”
Finn shrugged. He had no idea who that was.
Bee stood and grabbed his arm. “Come on. Follow me.”
The two of them wound their way through crowds of trick-or-treaters until Bee pointed to a house, three blocks away, where there was a big party going on. “That’s Rey’s house. I like her. She always has good candy.”
Finn groaned. “I tried, Bee.”
“Come on,” the girl said, grabbing Finn’s arm and dragging him forward.
“What?”
“Just follow my lead,” Bee said, already up to the front porch and walking into the house.
# # # #
Rey lifted an eyebrow and looked into the bag. “What…” She looked up at Poe. “What is this?”
“Candy,” Poe said, leaning against her kitchen counter with a sigh.
“Ummmm,” she gestured around at the table full of snacks and food. “Did you really think I wouldn’t have…”
“I got stuck at work and I was running late, and I just wanted to bring something to be nice and then there was this guy…”
Rey smiled. “This guy?”
“No, it’s not like that,” Poe said. “He was a jerk. Trying to take the last bag of candy from me.”
“Oh,” Rey said, her forehead scrunching up. “That’s mean.”
“Well, to be fair, we both reached for it at the same time and…”
“Poe,” she swatted his arm. “Please tell me you didn’t fight some guy for,” she winced, holding up the bag, “this?”
“We didn’t fight,” Poe said. He pushed off the counter and walked to her fridge, grabbing a beer. He opened it and leaned back. “Fine. I might have been a bit petty, but I was running late and I wanted to bring you something and…”
“Rey,” a voice carried across the party.
Both Rey and Poe turned to see a pre-teen girl dragging an obviously mortified man towards the kitchen.
“You,” Poe said, pushing off the counter.
“You,” Finn repeated.
“Is this the candy thief,” Bee asked as they entered the kitchen.
“Yes,” Finn said.
“I’m not a candy thief. You’re the candy thief,” Poe said.
Rey tried to hide her smile as she said, “Hi, Bee. Who is this?”
“This is Finn. He lives three blocks over. Never has any candy.”
Finn groaned. “I tried!” He looked at Rey. “I swear I tried. After three years of getting egged, I promise I tried.”
“Bee,” Rey said, in mock terror. “Have you been egging this man’s house?”
Bee shrugged. “He never has any candy.”
Finn leaned his head against the doorframe. “I tried,” he muttered.
Rey held her hand out. “I’m Rey. And this is Poe.”
Finn nodded, without moving his head from the doorframe. “Finn.” He sighed. “I’m sorry we came bursting in to your party, but Bee wanted to meet the candy thief, and I remembered he mentioned your name.”
“I’m not a candy thief,” Poe said, indignant.
Rey shot him an annoyed look and then thrust the bag of candy Poe had given her at Bee. “Here you go. Have Poe’s share of the candy.”
Bee gave her a large smile. “Thanks.”
“Hey,” Poe said.
Rey shook her head. “And take some more on the way out.” Rey pointed to a huge bowl of candy next to the front door. Bee was already running towards it.
“I should probably follow her,” Finn said.
Just as he made to move, someone else at the party shrieked, “Bee!”
A tall man with golden hair pulled the girl into a hug, “What are you doing here, sweetheart? I thought you were out trick-or-treating with your friends.”
She pointed to Finn. “I was helping Finn track down a candy thief.”
Finn nodded to the man and walked over. “Finn Smith. I live over on Starkiller Street.”
The man laughed. “Ahhhh. The infamous Finn.”
“Infamous?”
The tall man said, “Go wait at the door, Bee.” He leaned over to Finn and said, “I think my daughter has a crush on you. We hear lots of stories.”
Finn’s entire face went red. “Oh.”
“Anthony Threepio, by the way. We live over on D’Qar Street.”
“Nice to meet you,” Finn said.
“Good to finally put a face with the name,” the man said. He then turned his attention to his daughter. “No, do not dump the whole bowl into your bag! Just take two pieces.”
Finn watched them leave and then turned back to the kitchen. “I’m gonna leave now,” he said. “Sorry for interrupting and,” he looked at Poe, “sorry for earlier. I just…” He shook his head. “I’m not good at this holiday stuff.”
“Me too,” Poe said.
Finn nodded and started weaving his way out of the party.
For some reason, Poe felt compelled to follow. When they were on the front porch, Poe asked, “So are you a recluse or something or do you not believe in Halloween?”
Finn shook his head. “No, I just…” He shrugged. “The people who raised me were super religious, so I didn’t grow up with it, and…” He looked back into the party. “Looks fun.”
Poe felt like a total heel. He grabbed Finn’s arm. “Come on.” He tugged Finn back inside. “You came all the way over here, the least I can do is get you a beer. You do drink, don’t you?”
Finn smiled and nodded.
# # # #
Ten minutes later, the two of them were sitting on Rey’s back porch staring out into her backyard.
“So how do you know Rey?”
“I work for her aunt,” Poe said. “And I used to babysit her when I was younger.”
Finn studied him. “How old are you?”
Poe laughed. “Thirty-two.”
“Thirty-two?” Finn shook his head and took a drink. “And still picking fights over candy on Halloween…”
Poe pushed his shoulder into Finn’s. “You started it.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.” Poe laughed. He took a long swig of beer. “Actually, I’m sorry about that, buddy. I was just… Ever have one of those days where everything goes wrong?”
“Uh, yeah? I’m pretty sure you were there,” Finn said.
“Yeah, well,” Poe looked down at his feet. “It’s still no excuse for acting like a jerk.” He smiled. “I mean, usually, I’m an okay guy. Heck, under normal circumstances, I would’ve asked for your number.”
Finn nearly choked on his beer.
“Sorry,” Poe said, “didn’t mean to put you on the spot.”
“No, I just…” Finn shook his head. “I thought you were cute too.”
“Oh.” Poe took another drink, considering that. He then chuckled. “Hey, I know about this great Halloween party tonight. Want to come with me?”
Finn laughed. “Sure. Should we bring something? Maybe a bag of candy?” He winked.
Poe groaned. “Just for that, I’m going to help Bee egg your house.”
Finn shook his head. “She took pity on me and promised not to hit me this year. Actually, she wanted to know where you lived.”
“Crap,” Poe said.
“And I wouldn’t put it past her to find out,” Finn added.
“Yeah, that girl is scary.”
“And apparently in love with me,” Finn added with a smile.
“Well, who can blame her,” Poe said.
Finn chuckled. “You’re just buttering me up so I won’t tell her where you live.”
“True,” Poe said. “Very true.” He leaned in, whispering conspiratorially, “How much candy do you think it would take to get on her good side?”
Finn shrugged. “No idea.” He then smiled. “Tell you what, take me on a real date tomorrow night, and I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“Deal,” Poe said. “But just so there’s no misunderstandings tomorrow, we are NOT splitting the bill.”
Finn laughed. “I guess that means I’m paying.”
“No, I’m paying.”
“It was my idea, so—”
“No, it wasn’t, so—”
“Seriously, Poe, just let me take you out to dinner.”
“No, Finn, I asked you out, so it’s my treat.”
From inside the house, they heard Rey groan. “Oh for kriff’s sake, I’ll pay for the date if it will shut you two up!”
“Thanks, Rey,” Poe shouted back.
“Yeah, thanks, Rey.”
They could hear her growl as she stomped off back to the party.
Finn leaned in, “I’m guessing we both need to be careful that Rey doesn’t egg us.”
“The women in this neighborhood are scary,” Poe said, smiling as his hand crept over onto Finn’s.
“That they are,” Finn said, squeezing Poe’s hand and thinking that maybe, just maybe, Halloween wasn’t so bad after all.