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They had been running Resistance missions together for so long that they all blended together. One day the three of them were sabotaging a First Order installation; the next they were smuggling intelligence through crowded cities under the noses of corrupt authorities. They lived close-in with each other, always speeding toward the next mission or away from the chaos they set in motion against their enemy. Finn learned to fall asleep to the lullabye of Rey and Poe arguing about the state of their ship’s hyperdrive, to make a game of finding new ways to cook the endless supply of Parmian potatoes in their store, to try not to be in love with either of his partners.
It was hard. Upon meeting each of them, he’d realized he didn’t want to be apart from them--not from Poe, with his easy smile and warm eyes, who didn’t blame him for just needing a pilot. And when he’d thought he should run away from the First Order, his only other thought had been to bring Rey with him, to be near to her.
The problem with loving two people was you stood to lose them both if you ever brought it up. Lots of people configured themselves into triads, but not everyone was into it, preferring monogamy. And for all Finn knew, Poe and Rey were just fine being unattached. Oftentimes, seeing how easy they were with each other, he wondered if they weren’t already together and just very, very discreet.
With so much to lose, and a little afraid of the truth, Finn kept his mouth shut and swam in the contentment of being near them, ignoring as best he could the possibility of drowning when they inevitably went away.
They had spent the afternoon spelunking into cavernous old buildings on Fyuros VII, a planet that had been entirely abandoned by its inhabitants soon after the advent of space travel thousands of years before. Poe had said it was one of the great mysteries of the galaxy, why everyone had left a perfectly good planet full of cities and natural resources. Archaeologists and treasure hunters came and went, but no one had resettled the place, a fact that Finn found creepier than the populace’s exodus itself.
Rey showed them how to set up their ropes on top of the dome of a massive skyscraper on a skyline that went on for miles. The silence from the streets below set Finn on edge. He caught Poe’s eye, and Poe mimed a shiver, shoulders hiked up to his ears.
Rappelling was easier than he expected, and then the three of them were wandering beneath the dome, searching for the cache left behind by their contact. They followed the trails left in the dust to an alcove and found a package on a shelf, the size of a hand, wrapped neatly with purple ribbon.
Rey rolled her eyes as she picked it up and stuffed it into her pack. “Maz has a strange sense of humor,” she said.
That was when they heard the First Order, whose goons had found their materials on the dome. This was followed by running away, following Rey as she led them down to ground-level using only her intuition and the Force. They were actually able to escape the building to the streets before being sighted, and then they were running in earnest from a squad of stormtroopers.
“How did they find us?” Finn panted.
“My money’s on our last mission,” Poe said. He fired a wild shot backward without slowing down. “I knew we didn’t cover our tracks well enough.”
They skidded into an alleyway, the streets still eerily quiet except for their footsteps and the stormtroopers’ boots on the cement. Poe would have given anything for the background hum of traffic, anything to feel less vulnerable. They ran into the shadows and found a tall pile of wood and scrap. Rey cleared it easily, leaping from the top to whatever was out of sight behind it. Poe followed, grunting when he landed. Finn was just about to clear the top when a phaser blast crackled past his ear, echoed by one that hit the base of the pile. Unbalanced, Finn fell.
He was not the sort to hold anything in, which was why he was surprised to hear not his own voice but Rey and Poe’s crying out in sync with each other. He twisted in midair, frightened that they had been hit, then he collided with the concrete on their side of the pile.
The impact gave him back his voice. “Oh, shit, oh, shit,” he chanted. “Guys?” He rolled around, waiting for the pain to abate, but it only intensified. Suddenly, he felt three hands on him and opened his eyes.
“Hang in there, buddy,” Poe said, gripping both his shoulders to stop his rolling. “Settle down, we’ve got you.”
Finn met his eyes, biting his lip to try to distract from the pain. Poe’s eyes were only on him, concern making them soft. He was also biting his lip.
He felt a squeeze and realized Rey was holding his hand. Instead of looking down on him, though, she had her blaster raised and was scanning the alley they’d just run through. The whine of landspeeders emerged past the ringing in his ears, but none actually appeared.
“I don’t think they realize we’re here. Those may have been stray shots,” Rey said. She squinted the way she did when listening to the Force, which Finn always found compelling in ways he couldn’t describe. Poe paid similar attention to her. “No,” Rey said, turning back to them and cocking her head as she noticed them looking at her. “They’re heading down the thoroughfare. But they’ll be back when they don’t find us. We need to take cover and get Finn medical attention.”
Finn already felt cold and sweaty beneath the pain. “What happened to me? Did I land on something?”
“Yeah, the ground,” Poe said. But he started feeling his way carefully up Finn’s legs, looking for punctures. Rey likewise began investigating from Finn’s head on down, only without touching him. Her hands hovered inches above his face, then his neck, shoulders, heart…. Finn swallowed, trying not to project how he felt about her, how he felt about being near her even when he was injured. She could practically read minds, although of course she wouldn’t without permission, but she probably couldn’t help it if he broadcasted himself all the way to the Outer Rim. He had to be cool, calm, collected. His desires had to be invisible.
The idea of it felt wrong. He had been invisible most of his life, every desire tucked away under layers of white armor and mental conditioning. He’d promised himself never to live like that again, but here he was, playing it safe.
~~~
It only took several minutes of scouting for Poe to find a place he judged safe from their pursuers. He was frankly surprised he himself had found it, and once they got inside, they could shutter it up tight. He ran back to where he had left them at the base of the rickety pile of wood and who knew what else. They were still alone, Rey crouched by an unconscious Finn, unactivated lightsaber in one hand. Her gaze kept going back and forth from Finn’s face to their surroundings. Poe wanted to take a moment to observe them both; he had this idea that the more he took them in together, the better used he could get to the idea of them eventually leaving him behind. But Finn was hurt and they were all in danger.
“Rey, I found a place,” he announced, moving to the pile. “It’s not far. Help me find a board we can use to carry Finn.” The pile shook unsteadily as he rooted around for something that would work.
“Poe, no. That thing is going to fall and kill us all. Let me take care of Finn, and you lead the way.”
Poe turned, wondering how she was going to carry their friend--she had the Force, but he wasn’t exactly going to fit over her shoulder. Rey had her arm outstretched and that look in her eyes, like she could see to the most faraway places. All around, pebbles and dust rose up off the ground, and to Poe’s amazement, Finn did too. He lay straight and horizontal, chest rising and falling shallowly. Rey exhaled, and the pebbles and dust dropped, but Finn remained perfectly supported at shoulder height.
“Have I ever told you that you’re amazing?” Poe asked. He had to catch his breath.
In the dim light, it was almost as if Rey blushed. “From time to time,” Rey mumbled. More clearly, she said, “Lead the way?”
With regret, Poe turned his back on them and retraced his path back to the building he’d found. It was several blocks away, and big. He hadn’t been able to circle the perimeter because each side was about four blocks wide. The edifice was of marble, going up hundreds of feet, with swirled columns every few meters decorating the exterior, and cursive writing in a language he didn’t recognize engraved in irregular patterns. He thought perhaps it was a library or a government building. In the darkness that had fallen since their escape, it looked like a grey hulking tomb, though perhaps in daylight it would be more colorful. With the planet abandoned, everything had an air of decrepitude and a deep layer of dust.
He brought them to a door hidden by thick brush and closed it behind them, sealing them in complete darkness until he pulled his flashlight from his belt.
He led her into a large hall with heavy doors that reached a vaulted ceiling, then closed the doors behind them. They locked from within using a massive bolt. By the time he finished turning it, Rey had Finn lying on the floor and was was in full meditation state. They had been through this routine once before when a Resistance pilot had been shot near their position during heavy fighting on Kashyyyk. With the medics too far out, Rey had instructed Poe to treat his wound while she promoted healing with the Force.
“I’ve only ever seen you fight,” Poe had said. “And you’re very, very good at it. Where did you learn to heal?”
Rey had waved her arms in a way that did not inspire confidence. “I’ll learn right now, if you’ll trust me,” she’d said.
If she hadn’t been with Finn already, Poe had known the two were heading that way, which was the only thing keeping him from waxing poetic about the depth of his trust. Instead, he had shot her his most reassuring smile and squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I was just asking. Do your magic and I’ll work on the wound.”
The pilot had survived and was still flying, as far as Poe knew. Now he knelt by Finn and set to the grim work of removing the shrapnel embedded in his hip. Rey set herself up with the flashlight hanging off her arm above them and closed her eyes.
~~
Rey released herself from her trance into a moment of dizziness, falling into strong arms and a reassuring murmur. Poe held her safely while she reoriented herself. Like the time on Kashyyyk, the act of healing such a serious wound had weakened her. That time, she had fallen straight to the ground in an embarrassing faint. Poe had been at her side moments later, eyes round and worried. He’d helped her up, and she had pretended not to enjoy his attention. He and Poe were clearly smitten with each other, and she had no intention of getting in the way of their happiness.
The same held true now, for better or worse. Poe had clearly remembered her fall from last time and positioned himself to prevent her injury. He was such a genuinely good person, just like Finn. They were perfect for each other. A part of Rey thought that she was perhaps perfect for each of them, despite not being very special herself. But it had been a couple years fighting the First Order, and nothing had changed in their little group except for all three of them growing so close together that she could barely imagine them breaking apart.
With a sigh, she extracted herself from Poe’s arms, only to see Finn staring up at them from the floor. In the diffused light of the flashlight, his skin was clammy but his eyes were lucid.
“Finn,” she said stupidly. It was a relief to see him awake and clearly out of pain. She dropped to her knees beside him. “How do you feel?”
Finn looked from her to Poe and back. He scrunched his eyes closed and took a deep breath. “Sorry, I sort of suspected, but I never, you know, saw it….”
Rey looked up at Poe, who was clearly baffled. “What are you talking about, buddy?”
“You and Rey, of course. You never talk about it; it’s the one thing you’re both polite about. I just assumed you don’t want me to feel left out. But it’s okay.” He lifted himself up onto one elbow. “We’re fighting a war, you guys. You shouldn’t let me get in the way of some tender moments now and then.”
Rey felt her face go hot.
“Finn, let me check for a fever. Or maybe a concussion. Rey, did you get the sense he hit his head?” Poe asked. His face was flushed.
Finn only closed his mouth and looked determined, as though he’d said his piece and was going to stick to it.
Rey ran his words back over and over again in the space of ten seconds. “Wait, Finn. Are you and Poe not together?”
“What?” they both replied.
“Well, I just assumed, with how close you are, and Finn, you still wear that jacket even though it’s seen better days, and… why are you looking at me like that?”
Poe scratched the back of his neck. “I was positive you were with Finn, is all.”
They all took a moment for embarrassed silence.
“Well, I’m not,” Rey said finally, and then mucked it up by continuing, “not that I wouldn’t want to be; Finn is wonderful. But so are you, Poe. I just, I think I love you both.”
She snapped her mouth closed before she could ruin it even more, though how that could be done was beyond her; she just knew she’d find a way if given the chance. Could the Force help her out of this situation? Maybe she could create a chasm that would swallow her while leaving the others unharmed. She’d actually begun feeling around for the wisps of Force hiding under the floor when Finn and Poe each took one of her hands. They were so warm. She raised her eyes and found them each smiling at her. When they took each other’s hands, she smiled back.