Chapter Text
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All through the night
I'll be awake and I'll be with you...
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"What are you going to do now?"
Poe supposed he should have been expecting someone to ask him that question. The war was won. The First Order had been resigned to the same dark history as the Sith and the Empire. It was time to look ahead to the future.
But he'd expected the question to come from his father or Finn or one of the remaining Resistance pilots.
Not from the girl who'd saved them all.
When he glanced over at Rey, she wasn't looking at him; her gaze was fixed on the bonfire at which they sat, neither one able to sleep. If not for the fact that they were the only people awake, he wouldn't have been entirely sure that she was even talking to him.
The celebrations after the Battle of Exegol had taken their toll. All around them, people lay where they had passed out or fallen asleep, whether it was from sheer exhaustion or excessive carousing.
Poe wanted to join them in oblivion, but he suspected that if he were to sleep now, his dreams would be haunted by all their friends who hadn't returned from Exegol.
He took too long to answer and Rey finally tore her eyes away from the dying flames in order to look straight at him. Bandaged, with bruises already blossoming on her arms, she seemed much older than she was, not a girl anymore. It was there, in her eyes.
Something had changed her.
"I don't know," he finally said, giving her the truth rather than a lie that someone else might have gotten from him. "I might go back home for awhile."
"Where's that?"
"Yavin 4. My father still lives there." Poe shrugged. "Seems like a good place to figure things out."
Rey nodded, but after a moment, she said, in a determined voice that almost broke his heart, "I will never go back to Jakku."
"You don't have to," he said. "Rey, you can go anywhere now." He pointed up at the stars. "Pick one." When she gave him a look, Poe shifted closer towards her, trying to ignore how she tensed up. "I'm serious. Pick one."
Rey let out a little sigh, but played along. "Fine." After a cursory glance of the sky, she indicated one bright spot. "That one."
"An excellent choice," Poe said. "I approve."
"What's it called?"
He shook his head. "No idea."
For the first time all evening, Rey smiled, flashing the dimple he hadn't seen in so long. Poe's throat closed up and he had to look away for a moment. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Go there and find out."
Several minutes of silence passed. Poe was just about to end the awkwardness and call it a night, when Rey spoke again.
"Actually...I was thinking about Tatooine."
"Tatooine?" He frowned. "Isn't that just Jakku with organized crime?"
"Luke lived there," she told him. "I just...something's just telling me to go there."
Poe nodded, as if this made sense. "Okay. Well...Tatooine then."
"You don't approve?" she asked, wryly.
"I didn't say that. Besides..." Poe scratched his chin with his shoulder. "What does it matter what I think?"
Rey considered this for a second. "You're my friend."
They were simple words spoken with obvious sincerity and they worked on Poe like a gallon of Corellian whiskey, warming him from the inside out.
And yet, as much as he valued her friendship, there was a part of him--a part that he'd buried so deep in his mind in order to get through the war--that had been hoping for something more. From the moment he'd emerged from the cave on Crait and seen her surrounded by the rocks she'd levitated to save them all, she had been his favorite "what if?"
Still, he was lucky to be her friend and that would be enough.
"I think you should go," Poe said. "But as your friend, can I ask you for one favor?"
"Of course."
He flashed her a grin. "Don't be a stranger. Okay?" Rey's bandaged brow crinkled. "I mean, you'll always have a place to stay wherever I end up." Still, she frowned. "Rey, I'm just saying that I don't want to lose contact."
"Why would we lose contact?" she asked, genuinely confused. She held one up one hand. "I have more fingers on this hand than I have people left in my life, Poe. The only way we'll lose contact is if..." She hesitated. "If you want to."
Poe reached out and lifted her chin up to meet his eyes. "Not going to happen," he promised.
She blinked and nodded rapidly, fending off what he suspected were tears.
"Hey," he said softly. "I've heard dozens of stories about Exegol tonight. Want to tell me yours?"
Rey lost the battle with her tears and they spilled down her cheeks in rivers that shone in the firelight. "I can't," she whispered. "Not yet."
"All right." A moment passed. "Want to hear mine?" To his relief, she nodded. "So, we followed your signal to Exegol and the second we came out of hyperspace..."
As he talked, the first strains of dawn began to appear, signaling the end of the long night and the start of a new chapter in all their lives.
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TBC