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Pack up your things, the General said. We've won... we're going home.
It was a question that was being echoed all across the ship. Where is home for you? Finn tried to avoid most people, to avoid the question entirely. He had been raised on a First Order ship; he had no home. Everyone had somewhere they were excited to get back to. Even Rose and Rey seemed to have some idea of what they would do now that everything was over. And Poe...
Anyone who had the misfortune of standing next to Poe for more than ten seconds knew how excited he was to go home to Yavin 4. He planned to teach the planet's interested youths how to fly.
"Someday," Poe had said with a smile and a wink, nudging Finn with his elbow, "they'll all be even better than me."
Finn couldn't imagine that happening, but the idea seemed to equally amuse and delight Poe, so he just smiled back and nodded, trying to ignore the sinking in his stomach that he didn't quite understand.
Rey's departure was hard. The first friend he had ever made. She promised they would keep in touch, that she would visit, but he knew that she would be busy training a new generation of Jedi. He would be lucky to see her once a year.
But if Rey's departure was hard, Poe's was agonizing. Though their first meeting had lasted only a few minutes, he had been there for what Finn had come to think of as his awakening. Fighting side by side with a man so talented and devoted to his cause was a privilege Finn treasured. He felt his throat closing up as he watched Poe's ship disappear at light speed, and for a moment his mind jumped to watching Kylo Ren force-choke those who angered him. But that was all over now.
"You know, for someone who spent a lot of time running, you sure are doing a lot of sitting still." Rose sat down next to him on his bed.
"I haven't tried to run since the Battle of D'Qar," Finn grumbled.
"I know." She elbowed him in the side. "I guess I'm just surprised you're still here. You never seemed the type for organizing a new system of government."
"I don't have anywhere to go," he said. He stretched his back before leaning against the wall. "I don't even know enough about the galaxy to know where I could go."
They sat in silence for a few moments before Rose responded. "Well, what kind of place do you want to be?"
Finn's mind drifted to all of the conversations he'd heard over the past few weeks. He thought of the spark of fire in Poe's eyes as he talked about his plans. His throat seized up again.
"Why aren't you going back home?" he asked her in an attempt to throw off her inquisitive stare.
"What, back to Hays Minor?" She laughed derisively. "Because it's a poor mining planet. There's nothing there for me."
Her right hand travelled up to her neck to fiddle with her necklace. "Besides, that place was never home. Not really. Home was wherever my sister and I were. And once I lost her..."
Rose turned to look at Finn with a sad smile on her face. "Well, home was wherever my friends were. The people I love."
Finn had never considered the possibility that "home" didn't have to be a place.
"I'm not sure how much help I would be... with Rey, I mean." Finn rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm no Jedi."
Rose rolled her eyes at him. "Finn... I think you and I both know who home really is for you." She put her arm around him and squeezed. "Go to him."
"Can't believe... stupid fucking lizard crabs... BB-8, buddy, help me out here, would you?"
The wrench in Poe's hand spit a shower of sparks and he jerked away, hitting his head on the bottom of his ship. Cursing, he pulled himself back out from underneath it and shook his hand as if that would get rid of the burn marks flecked across it. "You know what buddy? I'm gonna take five. You keep working."
BB-8 beeped agreeably, and Poe stalked off into the building. He looked around at the crumbling walls surrounding him and sighed. He hadn't expected starting his own flight school to be easy, but this was just so much. A broken down building, only one ship - and that one out of service thanks to some lovely local fauna - and his work with the Resistance meant nothing to the people who owned the inhabited land. This crumbling structure in the middle of the jungle was the only thing Poe could get his hands on, and fixing it up all on his own...
Fighting the First Order was starting to seem like a cakewalk.
He sat down on a nearby rock and put his head between his knees, threading his fingers through his hair. He was trying not to spend too much time doing nothing, because idleness let his mind wander back to the war. Thinking about all the people they lost was painful, of course, but it was worse when Poe's mind wandered back to dark eyes and curly hair and shoulders framed perfectly by his old leather jacket...
Fuck.
Poe's fingernails dug into his palms as he gritted his teeth. He was fine. He'd get up from this stupid rock and finish his survey of the building and surrounding area. If he could come up with a schematic of what he had to work with, he could start planning what he wanted the finished product to look like. The clearing out front could easily be converted into a landing pad with only minimal clearing work-
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of loose rocks clattering across the stone floor. He was on his feet in an instant, pulling out his blaster pistol and aiming it towards the doorway.
A hunched form lumbered forward, and Poe pressed his fingers lightly against the trigger, charging up his blaster to-
"Wait, wait! Don't shoot!" The figure straightened up and stumbled into the light, hands in the air.
"Finn!" Poe dropped his blaster and ran over, throwing his arms around him.
"You look like shit, man," Finn said, pulling away and taking in Poe's ragged clothes and the circles under his eyes.
"Missed you too, buddy." Poe looked at Finn's face for a moment before he pulled the other man back in and held him as tight as he could. "I really fucking missed you. What are you doing here?"
Finn smiled against Poe's ear. "I'm coming home, man." He pulled back slightly to look into Poe's face, then did what he finally realized was the easiest thing in the world. He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Poe's lips.