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When Poe is nine, his soulmate is born.
He knows this because that's when his soulmark appears, shaky words that look as though they're written by someone who doesn't really know how to write.
“Dad!” Poe thrusts out his right hand, pointing at the question that runs down the side of his pinky and palm. “I'm asked!”
Kes takes Poe's hand and studies the lettering. “Can you fly a tie fighter? That's an odd question.”
“I want to learn!” Poe's eyes seem to shine.
“Well, I don't think there's going to be tie fighters available anytime soon.” Kes lets go of Poe’s hand. “But I can certainly teach you how to fly a lot of different things. Ships control very similarly, even across wildly different designs.”
Poe beams.
When Malen is born, his parents marvel at the answer written in confident, quick writing along his bottom rib.
“I can fly anything.” His father says.
His mother smiles. “He is answered.”
Three years later Malen is taken and his home village is burned to the ground. Whether his parents survived or not isn't known.
Malen’s identity is taken from him that day. He becomes FN-2187.
FN-2187 does not know what ‘I can fly anything’ means.
Poe has resigned himself to the fact that he's never going to meet his soulmate by the time he’s preparing himself for the mission to Jakku.
He's 32, he's old, and everyone he knows has met their soulmate already. It doesn't help that his soulmark is on his hand for everyone to see, and it certainly doesn't help that people ask where his soulmate is, because soulmates stick together always. Poe's heard it hurts to be apart from your soulmate once you've met.
Not that he knows that for certain, but it might've explained the ever-present pain in Kes’s eyes after Shara died.
It's a long hyperspace ride to Jakku.
“Maybe you're my soulmate, BB-8.” Poe says.
“Master-Poe, when have I asked you about flying a tie fighter?”
“You're right. Plus, I've never heard of droid soulmates.”
Poe's still reeling from Kylo Ren tearing his memories apart when he's dragged from the chair and lead through the hallways by a stormtrooper.
Poe barely processes what the ‘trooper is saying, brain still trying to pull itself together. One thing stands out to him, though, the phrase he has been listening for for twenty three years.
“Can you fly a tie fighter?” The ‘trooper asks.
Poe smiles. He can't help himself. He's been waiting. “I can fly anything.”
The ‘trooper, Poe's soulmate, grins.
They're right when they say that it hurts to be away from your soulmate.
Poe's chest, right where his heart is, is screaming as he stumbles into the control room on D’Qar. He steadies himself on the edge of the central holoprojector, staring down at the blood that he can't get out from under his fingernails.
“I don't have the map. BB-8 has it.” Poe closes his eyes. “The First Order didn't get them, though.” He sucks him a breath. Why was he torn from his soulmate so quickly? Finn was most likely dead.
“How did you escape?” Leia can tell that Poe's pain is far more than physical. He can hear it in her voice.
“A…” Poe breathes again. “A stormtrooper saved me.” It hurts to reduce Finn to just a ‘trooper.
There are gasps around the room. Leia’s eyes stay focused on Poe.
“I don't know if he survived.” Poe opens his eyes and raises his head to look at the faces staring at him. “But, he's… he’s not just a ‘trooper. I gave him a name. His name is Finn.”
Leia’s expression spurns him into the next sentence.
“His name is Finn, and he asked me if I could fly a tie fighter.”
Everyone in the room has seen Poe's soulmark on his right hand.
When Finn wakes, Poe feels finally, finally, whole.
“Han explained soulmates to me when I didn't understand why I was hurting.” Finn is lying in medical, bacta wrapped around his torso. “We were trained to not care about the words on our skin.”
“I spent so many years waiting for you.” Poe murmurs. His right hand is intertwined with Finn's left.
“No more waiting.” Finn promises.
Poe smiles. “No more.”