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Poe could still feel the sting of Leia’s slap on his cheek as he stormed off the bridge.
How could she say that? he thought bitterly, They were heroes. They were heroes.
Blind with fury, he almost passed right by his new quarters, and right by Finn would was waiting by his door.
“Poe?” he asked, sensing the pilot’s temper.
“Hi, pal.” Poe replied, attempting a smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Good as new,” he said simply. Poe didn’t need the details when there was clearly something else going on. Taking a risk, he asked him, “Poe, what’s wrong?”
Poe opened his door and the façade melted from his face. Finn had never seen him look so small.
“I’ve been demoted,” Poe said shortly, not wanting to get into the details or embarrass himself in front of Finn.
“What? Why?” Finn asked, bewildered. The thought of Poe Dameron being anything but promoted and cheered was as foreign to Finn as his First Order indoctrination.
Poe huffed. “The General thinks I was too rash in my mission. Beyond directly disobeying her orders, I cost the fleet all of our bombers.” He ran a hand through his curls absentmindedly. “I don’t know… maybe she’s right.”
Finn took a small step towards him. In the heat of battle, it was so easy to make contact— you’re all rushing around and occasionally collide. But this was different. This was quiet and sincere and he was in Poe’s room surrounded by Poe’s things. And the man himself, who looked like he was about to cry.
He had to say something. Something good.
“Poe, you are the bravest man I know.”
Poe looked him in the eyes, bewildered. “But what if it’s not enough?”
He said this with such a heavy sadness that his voice cracked from the weight of it. He slumped down on his bunk; his face in his hands.
Finn moved closer to him, but didn’t touch him. Not yet. He wasn’t sure his touch would comfort someone who had lost so much.
Poe looked up to see Finn hovering near him looking very concerned, and immediately reached out to take his hand. Finn has enough burdens, he thought, he doesn’t need mine.
The touch sent an almost painful shiver down Finn’s healing spine. He tried not to wince; he didn’t want Poe to take his hand away for anything.
Poe closed his eyes, helped by the touch as much as Finn was.
“So many people died, Finn. I just wanted to complete my mission. And they died.”
“This is war,” Finn reminded him. “People die every day. You took out a major asset to the First Order, and your people died believing in that mission.”
Poe Dameron had never felt the urge to kiss someone quite like this. His whole body felt possessed as he looked into the comforting eyes of the man who had saved him once again— first from death and now from despair.
He leaned towards the younger man with a look of hunger thinly veiled by exhaustion. “Thank you,” he said. Finn just nodded, his pulse quickening.
One inch away from his friends face, Finn started looking worried. Poe smiled at him, and drew him into a hug.
If this is all there is, he thought, it would be enough.