Work Text:
Poe was itching to get out of the shop. Don't get him wrong, he loved his job. The hours were great and he loved working with Snap. Still, there was someplace he'd rather be right now.
He heard his phone ring under the din of Rose's obnoxiously upbeat indie pop. He got that it was her shop but jesus, she had questionable taste in music. Poe wiped his hands on his coveralls and grabbed his phone, swiping to answer the video call.
Jess smiled at him on the screen, pushing her sunglasses up on top of her head. "Dude, you are totally missing out," she said. "You and Snap had better hurry up and get your asses- ow!"
Karé smacked Jess's stomach, and Poe heard her say something about little ears. He laughed, and Jess stared him down through the screen.
"How's the water?" he asked.
"Amazing," Karé answered. "Warm, and not too choppy."
He saw Jess smirk before she flipped the camera around, showing him the ocean. "Christ," Poe practically moaned. The water looked inviting as hell, with medium waves crashing gently onto the shore. "Snap!" he shouted, repeating himself until his friend rolled out from under a '69 Chevy CST-10. "C'mere, I've got Jess and Karé on the phone."
Snap stood, dusting himself off and heading over to Poe. "Hey honey," he said to Karé, who had leaned over into Jess's space. "Are the boys behaving?"
Karé nodded, "yeah, they're doing fine, building a sand castle with Libby." Her eyes flitted upwards and she smiled, "speaking of the little devils-"
There was a jumble of noise, Joey, Eli and Libby shouting greetings and stories at them. "Woah woah woah," Snap motioned for them to slow down. "One at a time," he chuckled.
"We're building a mega castle!" Joey exclaimed, a wide grin showing the gap where his front tooth is missing.
"It's gonna be so awesome dad," Libby added, eyes bright and round.
Poe nodded, feeling a pang in his chest from all the fun he was missing. "I'm sure it will be, kiddo."
The kids went back to their sand castle then, and Jess asked "what's the plan for you guys?"
"We're here 'til noon," Poe glanced at the clock, "that's another hour. I figured about half an hour to close up and get back to Jess's. Finn dropped Bee off with you guys this morning so I won't need to go get him, and I told him to meet us at Jess's about 12:30. Then it's just time to change and get down to the beach access..."
"So we'll be there about 12:40, 12:45," Snap finished.
"That's too long," Jess whined.
"Yeah yeah," Poe glanced at Rose who was giving them a lighthearted glare. "I gotta get back to work, but we'll be there as soon as we can."
Jess nodded, passing the phone off to Karé. She and Snap chatted for a moment about their kids, the cookout grocery list, how much sunscreen they had left under the kitchen sink and other standard boring grown up stuff, then said their goodbyes and hung up.
"One hour, then we're free," Snap said.
"Hell yeah," Poe answered, going in for their handshake. "I'll be counting every damn minute."
"Back at it you two," Rose called to them. "Work fast and I might close up early."
Poe whooped, and Snap slid back under the beat up Chevy, "now that's an order I can get behind."
* * * * * * * * * *
They ended up closing about twenty minutes early, after a girl rolled in a beat down '67 Chevy Impala gifted to her from her grandfather and asked how much she could get for it. She had heard that Rose would pay cash for old, beat up cars because she loved to restore them, and the girl really didn't need this one seeing as she already had a newer, more functional vehicle.
Rose went absolutely batshit- something about her favorite TV show- and paid the girl $1,000 for the car, which Poe thought was very gracious seeing as the damn thing wouldn't even start. She called the two of them out into the reception area, "I've gotta call Kaydel, she's gonna lose her shit over this." Kaydel Connix was Rose's business partner and long time fiancé- now wife. Together they restored and refurbished classic cars, both for profit and for their own enjoyment.
"Go on to the beach," Rose told them. "My gift to you, and to me."
Snap was equally as confused as Poe, but he just grabbed his friend by the elbow as soon as they were out of their coveralls and pulled them out of there as fast as he could, without so much as a goodbye to Rose who was sweet talking the car. Poe was pretty sure he heard her refer to it as "Baby" and he worried momentarily for his boss's sanity, but then he was outside and the warm sun was caressing his skin and he couldn't even remember what was up with Rose in the first place.
"Hop in buddy," Snap called to Poe. It was only then that he realized he had been frozen for a minute or two, soaking in the sun.
"Alright," Poe jogged over, "I'm coming."
He and Snap spent their extra time sitting on Jess's porch, knocking back a beer while they waited for Finn. Ever the stickler for punctuality, he arrived right at 12:30, parking his yellow jeep in the last open space in Jess's driveway and hopping out. He wore red swim trunks and no shirt, the dark skin of his stomach looking very nice in the bright sun.
Rey was with him too, dressed in a cute little two piece patterned with green cartoon dinosaurs, windblown hair falling out of the neat buns she had put it in.
Jesus, Jess was going to have a fucking aneurysm when she saw that.
"Hey buddy!" Poe grinned, pulling Finn in for a quick hug. "You ready to hit the beach?"
"Hell yeah," Finn said, bouncing on his toes.
"This is the only thing he's talked about since you invited us," Rey told him, sounding conspiratorial, and Poe was pretty sure he saw Finn kick her ankle lightly as if that was a secret bit of information just for the two of them.
Poe just smiled and punched Finn's arm, "I'm glad you're excited."
They gathered their things and headed down to the beach access, making a quick pit stop at an ice cream truck parked in the public access parking lot because who could resist a nice firecracker pop on the fourth of July? Not Poe, that was for sure.
"We come bearing gifts!" Poe shouted, holding out the frozen treats in his hands for everyone to see. Jess whooped, standing to grab her cherry italian ice and the spoon that came with it.
"Mmmmwah!" she made a funny noise as she placed an exaggerated kiss on his cheek. "Dameron, sometimes I swear you're a godsend," she said, tearing into the package.
"It's cause I am," he replied.
"Daddy!" Libby ran smack into him, wrapping her arms around his hips. "Did you get me a fudge bar?"
"'Course I did Libs," he showed it to her, but held it just out of her reach for now. "Go let Auntie Karé wash off your hands, then you can have it."
She bounced over to Karé, who was using a bottle of clean water to wash the sand and sticky salt residue off her sons' hands.
"Alright, we've got a firecracker pop and a fistbump for Eli, cause he's got taste, a fudge pop for miss Liberty Rose, an orange push pop for Joey, and a Klondike Bar for one Karé Wexley." He handed out the treats, "get 'em while they're cold, cause they won't last long!"
"You're telling me that," Finn retorted, looking dejected at his half melted strawberry ice cream cup.
"C'mere," Jess pulled him into the shade of the umbrella, "that should be a little better."
Bee, who had been sitting patiently by Jess's side all but tackled Poe as soon as he sat down in the sand. "Aw, hey buddy!" He used the hand that wasn't holding his firecracker pop to scratch behind Bee's ears, resting their heads together for a second. "I know, I missed you too!" Be rolled over into the sand, offering up his belly. Poe gave him all the scratches his little heart desired as he hurried to finish his firecracker pop before it melted.
As soon as it was gone, he was up. "Who's coming swimming?" he asked.
Jess immediately stood, stretching out like a cat. "I'll bite," she said. As soon as Jess was up, Rey was too, and then Finn. Snap and Karé decided to stay back, watch their things and watch the kids, who were still working on their mega castle.
The water was warm and nice, in that calm-but-not-too-calm kind of way where the waves would send you floating up but wouldn't overpower you. Rey stood about ankle deep for a while and Finn waded in slowly while Poe and Jess threw caution to the wind, diving straight into the waves. When they resurfaced, they waved to the other two, beckoning them in.
"When are you gonna ask Finn out," Jess inquired quietly, twisting her wet hair into a quick messy braid.
"When are you gonna ask Rey out?" he retorted, and Jess splashed him in the face. They would've fallen into friendly bickering if it weren't for Finn popping up beside them.
They treaded water, chatting and floating up over each wave. Some of them were crashing just a little farther out, and they swam over to the chest deep water. They made a game out of guessing which waves would crash, and which ones wouldn't. If they didn't think the wave would crash, they'd ride over it. However, if they did think it was going to crash, they'd dive through it.
Everyone picked their stance for each wave, earning a point if they chose correctly and losing one if they didn't. Whatever you picked, you had to stick with, even if that meant trying to ride a wave as it crashed on top of you.
"Alright, we've got me in the lead with ten, Jess behind me with nine, Finn trailing her with five, and Rey, poor girl, dead last with two points." Poe said, rubbing his hands together. "That is the championship wave, worth two points," he pointed to one about eight feet out. "I'm gonna go with ride."
"Ride," Finn decided.
Jess studied the wave for a split second, then said "dive."
Rey made some stressed out noises as the wave approached, then finally blurted out "dive!"
Seconds later, the wave was crashing on top of them. The rush of water pushed Finn and Poe together, tangling their limbs and they swam upwards. They surfaced caught up in each other, laughing and spitting out seawater. Poe blushed, feeling Finn's hand on his chest as they clung to each other, waiting for the swell of water to recede.
By the time they returned, almost an hour had passed.
At some point Snap left to get some last minute groceries, and Poe finished his glass bottle of Pepsi, clinking it down into the wagon. He stood up and stretched out, squishing his toes into the warm sand.
"Alright, I'm going on a walk," he said. "Anyone wanna come with?"
To Poe's surprise, Finn stood and laid his towel over the back of his beach chair. "I'll come, if that's alright."
Poe beamed and nodded, "of course buddy, as long as you don't mind, I tend to take really long walks."
Finn smiled that warm, genuine smile of his and Poe's heart fluttered. "Of course," he tucked his sandals under the beach chair.
Poe cupped his hands around his mouth. "Libby!" he shouted.
She turned around and he motioned her over, smiling softly. She ran up to him from the shallows where she had been playing with Joey and Eli.
"Hey sweetie," Poe reached down to tuck some hairs that had fallen from her ponytail safely behind her ear. "I'm going on a walk with Finn, so stay where Auntie Jess and Auntie Karé can see you. And if I'm not back before you guys leave I promise I'll be there in time for the cookout, okay?"
"Okay!" She turned to run back to the water but Poe grabbed her arm lightly, leaning down to place an exaggerated kiss on her cheek. "Daaaad," she complained.
"I love you," he told her.
She was already gone, but she called over her shoulder, "love you!"
Poe smiled, sent Bee back over to Jess, and then they were on their way.
They fell into easy conversation, chatting about Finn's work, his schooling, everything really.
"Opening a bakery was always a dream of ours, me and Rey," he explained. "We talked about it all the time when we were younger, but then after college she was living in L.A. with this guy she hated- abusive son of a bitch- and I was working as a chef in this little restaurant in San Francisco that I hated… it just seemed like it'd never work out, y'know?"
Poe hummed, "what happened?"
"She showed up at my apartment one day, beaten and bloodied, and crying too. She had finally gotten out. She didn't even have a car but she just couldn't take it anymore, so she took out her savings and took the train all the way to Seattle."
The sea washed over their feet, and Poe looked over at Finn. He had this far off look in his eyes, sad but hopeful in an oddly nostalgic way.
"We ran like hell, we never looked back."
Poe placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm glad you made it out, buddy."
Finn just looked at him, all soft and open. "Me too."
It was a nice moment while it lasted. They walked a few strides in silence, side by side, in step with each other. Being with Finn felt so natural, like home. But the quiet stretched out a little too long, and Poe felt he should say something, anything to break the air between them.
"It's hot as hell," he complained.
"Damn straight," Finn replied. Poe gave him a pointed look and they both burst out laughing. "C'mon man, you know what I meant."
"Yeah," Poe laughed, and jogged lightly into the shallows. "Come cool off with me," he beckoned for Finn to follow.
He saw as Finn began to wade into the water, then ducked under a wave. God, it felt nice to be in the ocean. When he surfaced and wiped the salty water from his eyes, he saw Finn opposite him, treading water and beaming brightly.
Poe splashed him, a playful grin etched onto his face. Finn splashed him back, mirroring his joking demeanor. They went on like this for a while, laughing and playing around. Poe took to ducking under the water, swimming around and popping up somewhere a bit farther away, so Finn would have to chase after him if he wanted to keep up their little game.
At some point they stopped splashing like children and simply swam around, enjoying each other's company.
Poe was floating on his back, waves gently rocking him while Finn fretted about him.
"How can you do that!" he nearly shrieked.
"Simple," Poe answered, "you just let go and float."
Finn sighed like a long suffering teacher, and Poe laughed quietly. "No, I mean how do you do it here, in the ocean? Won't you like, float away?"
"No, I try to keep an eye on the shoreline, swim back every couple minutes," he told Finn. "You should try it! It's really relaxing."
Finn considered it for a moment, then let himself begin to float. He took Poe's hand, "if we float away, we float away together," he said.
Poe had the urge to say something about the fact that he'd never let Finn float away, but that felt a little too vulnerable, so he kept it to himself.
After a while, Poe had the thought to check his watch- he had invested in a fully waterproof one a while back, very helpful- and saw that it was already almost three thirty. Reluctantly, he let go of Finn's hand and righted himself.
"C'mon, we gotta go," he told Finn. "It's already 3:27 and the food's supposed to be done at five. I suspect it'll take us a good thirty minutes to walk back, and we usually start our game of phase ten about an hour before we eat so Snap can still have time to grill. I don't want to miss it, I've got money on that game."
"Oh?" Finn said, quirking an eyebrow as they waded out of the water.
"Long story short, last year we finally taught Karé to play and she kicked all of our asses," Poe explained. "Jess had never lost a game of phase ten before that day, and she's been playing with me and Libby like once a week ever since in hopes of beating Karé this year."
Finn laughed, "that sounds exactly like her, honestly. So, who's your money on?"
Poe's lips quirked into a small, sly grin. "Karé."
They took the boardwalk back towards Jess's place, where Poe was sure Karé was pouring out glasses of red wine for the adults, Snap was serving sparkling grape juice to the kids, Jess was obsessively shuffling the phase ten deck, and Libby, Eli and Joey were playing hopscotch with the neighborhood kids. The cookout traditions were starting without him, but Poe couldn't truly find it in himself to care. His daughter was in good hands, leaving him to spend some quality time with Finn. Plus, he knew they'd never start phase ten without him.
"Well," Finn started, "I told you about me, maybe it should be your turn now?" He turned to Poe, the look in his eyes warm and curious, if not slightly nervous. "If you want, that is."
Poe had a thought then. Finn was a light, brighter than any he had seen before. Poe wanted that light to fill him, wanted it to reach every dark, dusty corner out his mind, his heart, his soul. It had been so long since he wanted someone like this. He wanted to be known, he needed it desperately. So when Finn asked, there was no refusing him. Poe couldn't say no, and he didn't want to. He didn't know which was worse.
"Of course buddy," he knocked their shoulders together. "Ask me anything, I'm an open book."
Finn hesitated, then gestured loosely at Poe's chest. "Those necklaces, they come with stories?"
Poe nodded, "yeah, both of them, actually. Which do you want first?"
"Whichever you want to tell," Finn replied easily.
Poe didn't know whether he was greatful or annoyed. On one hand, he now got to choose the order in which he told the stories. On the other hand, however, he wasn't really sure what order to tell them in. One was fairly lighthearted, while the other felt a bit too much like a tragic backstory.
Somewhere in the back corners of his brain he realized he had been silent for a little too long. He shook his head and started to tell the story.
"So this one," he held out the shorter necklace, thumbing over it's little wooden pendant, which was carved to look like a compass, "was a gift from Jess. I don't know if you've noticed, but she wears one too, a matching one."
"That's sweet," Finn said.
"Yeah," he smiled to himself. "We were neighbors since we were born, literally, and best friends all the way up through high school. I'm talkin' sleepovers, secret hideouts, secret handshakes, the whole nine yards. Then college time came, and she was staying here while I was going to New York, and everything was just… changing. So she came to me on the day I was set to leave, and she gave me this necklace."
Poe looked out at the ocean for a moment, watching the waves as they crashed against the sand. Tumbling, swirling, always returning to the shore. "She said it would make sure we could always find each other. That I could always come back home."
Finn nudged him lightly. "That's really nice Poe," he mused.
"Yeah," Poe nodded, "yeah. It is."
There was a beat of silence.
"And the other one?" Finn inquired, looking over at him.
"This is, uh," Poe took a deep breath, not really sure if he'd be able to make it through the story. "This is my mother's wedding ring. She gave it to me a couple of weeks before she-" he trailed off, suppressing the lump in his throat.
"Hey," Finn paused, stopping and pulling Poe aside by his elbow. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."
"No," Poe told him. "It's okay."
It was so easy, talking with Finn. Poe found himself saying things he normally didn't, retelling stories he usually kept to himself. He went on to tell Finn about his mother, about her death.
Poe talked, and Finn listened.
"She was an air force pilot, one of the best. She retired a little while after meeting my dad, they got married, and along I came." He smiled a little, thinking back on the days when he was young. His mother would sit out on the beach on warm spring days and tell him stories of her time in the air force. He always regretted not asking her for more as he got older.
"When I went into high school she went back to working for the military. She and my dad were designing a new fighter jet together. Near the end of it she was going to be working a lot with her hands, so she got this long chain and gave it to me with the ring on it." The lump rose again in Poe's throat, his chest constricting ever so slightly. Finn placed a hand on his back, rubbing to soothe him.
"She, uh," Poe cleared his throat, "she insisted on being the first to run flight tests. They must have miscalculated the distance of the pins 'cause the engine stalled out and she went down mid flight." He took a beat to breathe, then added, "I was seventeen at the time."
Finn was silent, but Poe was used to that. He didn't usually tell people about his mom, but when he did it was all the same. Silence, and pity.
"I'm so sorry, Poe," he murmured.
It was fine, Poe was used to it. Then, Finn did something wholly unexpected. He took Poe's hand, squeezing it once. "I can't imagine what that must have been like."
Poe gave him a bittersweet smile, and squeezed back. Finn rubbed his thumb over the back of Poe's hand once, twice, then let go.
They walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence, hands brushing, shoulders bumping. Poe felt they were on the verge of something electric, something coursing with energy and light. Every brush of hands felt like lightning in his veins.
He had to do something, if he didn't, he was sure he'd spontaneously combust.
They arrived just in time to get their glasses of wine and be dealt into the practice round, which they used to teach Finn and Rey how to play.
"Now, the first phase is two sets of three," Poe said, leaning close into Finn's space to look over his cards. He had a great hand, already fully set with phase one. "You have that, see? So when it comes time for you to go, you're just gonna lay 'em down, nothing fancy, alright?"
When it came to his turn, Finn laid out the cards. Nothing fancy, just like they had said. Finn got the hang of the game pretty quickly. By round four he didn't even need Poe's guidance, although he kept asking for his opinion and suggestions. Poe wondered momentarily if he was doing it because he was nervous, or so he could lean in closer to Poe every once in a while. He shook that thought out of his head as Snap declared they were stopping the practice game after round seven.
Snap collected all the cards, shuffling them up and dealing them out.
"Karé, you know I love you, but you're going down," Jess said.
Karé scoffed, extending her hand to Jess. "We'll see about that."
They did a little version of their secret handshake, and the game was on.
* * * * * * * * * *
After the game of phase ten (which Karé won, and Poe collected on) was over and everyone had eaten, they were all scattered around Jess's backyard and the little sitting area she had under her house.
The sun was beginning to set, lighting the sky with unimaginable colors. Poe had been sitting on the porch swing with Finn pressed right up beside him, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. He didn't know when they had moved apart, but he did know that he sorely missed the contact. He moved his dessert around on his plate, not really in the mood to eat it anymore.
At that moment Finn jogged over, standing beside his chair. He leaned his elbow on Poe's shoulder in a comfortable way. The contact made Poe's stomach do flips. "Dude, remind me to never play corn hole again. I'm terrible at it."
Poe laughed, looking up at him, "nah man, no one can win against the Wonder Twins," he said, referring to Jess and Karé.
"God, I hope so," Finn smiled one of those gorgeous, genuine smiles and Poe melted. "That would save me from some embarrassment."
Poe needed, "you having fun?"
Finn beamed, and Poe felt his heart flutter in an all too customary way. "Yeah! The food was great, you know I love your friends, and you even let me bring Rey along." He reached down and squeezed Poe's shoulder, "what more could a guy ask for?"
Poe felt his stomach turn, was Finn implying what he thought he was implying? He summoned up all the courage he had. "Hey, uh, can I talk to you for a sec?" Poe asked, then added, "alone?"
Finn tilted his head a little to the side, but nodded. "Yeah Poe, of course."
Poe stood and- purely on impulse- took Finn's hand, pulling him around to the side of the house. It was quieter there, the music had faded into the background, and the chatter of all the people had dulled just a little.
"Listen, Finn," he started. "I don't really know how to say this-"
Finn's face dropped just a little. "I knew this day would come," he said. Wait, what? "You've got your job at the mechanic's shop, you're making enough money that you can take Bee back, and we won't be seeing as much of each other anymore." Finn sighed sadly, "its okay, I understand-"
"No!" Poe exclaimed, startling Finn. He quickly lowered his voice a level or two, shaking his head. "No no no, Finn, even when I can get Bee back, you'll still be a part of this," he told him.
Finn looked up at him, "really?"
"Yeah, of course! Buddy, I don't think you know it, but this cookout is pretty exclusive. We don't even let Jess bring her girlfriends sometimes, let alone their sisters." Poe didn't want to think about the fact that he had just compared their relationship to a romantic one, but he reached out to touch Finn's arm, squeezing it. "This kinda means you've made it in the circle. They like you, I like you, Finn we're happy to have you around," he smiled.
Finn let out a sigh of relief, "man is that good to hear." He straightened his posture a little, standing up taller, "so, what were you going to say earlier?"
Poe remembered why they were over here in the first place, and he felt the butterflies erupt all over again. Dammit Poe, he thought. You're a grown ass man, you've raised a daughter on your own for seven years, you can handle asking a cute guy out. He took a deep breath, sent a quick prayer out to whoever was listening, and just said it.
"I was wondering if you'd like to go out. On a date. With me. If you like, maybe?"
Finn's face crept into the widest, most genuine smile Poe had ever seen him give. He made a tiny, almost imperceptible noise somewhat akin to a squeal and threw his arms around Poe's neck. It knocked some of the air out of his lungs, but he couldn't care less. He just wrapped his arms around Finn and hugged him back, tight as he could.
"Poe Dameron, I would love to go out. On a date. With you." He said very close to Poe's ear, mimicking him.
Neither wanted to pull away, but after a moment they did. When Poe caught sight of the blinding smile still stuck on Finn's face, he blurted out- "god I could kiss you right now."
Finn ducked his head in a sheepish way, "at least take me to dinner first."
Poe felt himself blush from head to toe as he let out a mangled noise of embarrassment. Then, he felt Finn take both of his hands, lacing their fingers together and squeezing.
"I just want to do this right, take it slow, y'know? No shortcuts," he murmured, and how could Poe be embarrassed after that? Finn was being so open and honest with him, he felt it in his core. Finn leaned in and kissed his cheek, sweet and gentle. The simple action sent a pulse of energy radiating out from that spot to every corner of Poe's body.
"There'll be more where that came from, I promise," Finn whispered. "Now come on, they're probably getting suspicious."
That night they sat on Jess's top deck to watch the fireworks. Poe had one arm wrapped around Libby's middle, keeping her secure in his lap. With the other, he reached out in the dark and took Finn's hand. Finn turned to him, fireworks illuminating those big brown eyes, and smiled.