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“You’ve still got it, huh?”
Rey’s raising her eyebrows at Finn, who's taking his usual seat at the chemistry lab bench. He’d been holding onto hope that nobody’d pay attention to the orange-and-white Resistance High varsity jacket slung over his arm. But nothing seems to get by Rey.
Finn sighs. “I was gonna give it back to Poe as soon as I saw him. Unfortunately, I have not yet seen him today.”
“So you’re carrying it around with you,” Rey adds. “Very subtle.”
“Hey.” Finn grimaces, scrambling to hang the jacket on the back of his chair and smoothing it out as inconspicuously as he can. “What else am I supposed to do with it? It felt like some kind of crime sticking it in my backpack, where all my books and pencils and probably some leftover snacks are. And it’s not like I could, you know...wear it.” Just the thought of wearing Poe’s jacket again makes Finn feel like somebody’d turned up the temperature in the classroom twenty degrees hotter.
Rey nods in response- as a fellow new kid and newcomer to romance, she usually gets where Finn’s coming from. It’s been almost two months since Finn had started at Resistance High, and he won’t deny that being new still kind of sucks. But having Rey around makes it way better. With all its homework, intimidating teachers, obnoxious emo kids like Kylo Ren and Hux, and sports fans by the millions, high school is the kind of place where it’s nice not to feel alone.
“Bet it kept you nice and warm last night, though, huh?” Rey finally adds, grinning.
Finn elbows her. “It helped me survive the cold weather, yes," he says, trying to make his voice as monotone as possible.
“I still think that’s gotta mean something, don’t you?” Rey asks. “I mean, in typical teen movies and stuff, giving somebody your varsity jacket is a Big Deal.”
“Believe me, I know.” Finn sighs. “And I feel like Poe knows what it means too. Or I hope he does, anyway. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but ever since we first met I feel like we’ve had this…” He waves his hands ambiguously, searching for the right word. “This connection or something. That sounds cheesy as hell, but you get the picture.”
“From what you’ve been telling me, it sounds like you do too,” Rey says. “I’d tell you to ask him out, but...you know.” She grimaces. “I have no idea how people do that.”
“Me neither.” Finn shudders. “I mean, we’ve been all vague about hanging out sometime, like ‘it would be cool to do this!’. But I haven’t actually invited him to do something, and neither has he. I’ve thought about it a few times but...it’s scary.”
Rey fiddles with her pencil. “Yeah, I gotcha. He could be afraid to ask you out too. Maybe that's why he hasn’t done it yet.”
Finn purses his lips. “I’m not sure if Poe would get afraid of things like that. He always seems so chill.”
“You never know.” Rey shrugs. “I still feel like you should give it a shot. He seems like he really does want to hang out with you. And you obviously like him.”
To anyone else, Finn would’ve denied it for fear of embarrassment. But he trusts Rey with his life- or at least with information about his crush. “Yep. I really do.”
Rey seems deep in thought for a few seconds, and then pulls out her phone. “I have no idea what kind of first date to suggest, so I’m going to consult Google for advice. Hey, here we go. ‘21 First Date Ideas’.”
Finn snorts. “Oh boy.”
Soon, Rey and Finn have given up on brainstorming possible first dates, and instead are laughing at option number two: take a cooking class together. “My cooking’s the absolute worst,” Finn says. “I burned instant mac and cheese once. Whoever’s in a cooking class with me would probably run out of the building after the first fifteen minutes.”
Unfortunately, their fun is soon interrupted by Mr. Snoke entering the room, slamming his books on the table and taking a seat at his way-taller-than-necessary desk chair. Snoke glares at the class and waves his hand, indicating that they all should quiet down. Finn shares a grimace with Rey, then leans back in his chair, mentally preparing himself for another hour of Snoke’s boring-as-hell lecturing.
It isn’t ten minutes later before Finn realizes he’s absentmindedly stroking one of the jacket’s sleeves. Quick as a flash, he draws his hand away, hoping with all his might that nobody’d seen.
Well, shit.
By pre-calc class, Finn’s hands are jittery. He still hadn't seen Poe in the hallway. Maybe Poe isn’t even at school today, and it had been his evil plan all along to leave Finn with the jacket and enough anxiety to power a monster truck.
If only Finn had asked for Poe’s number at some point, instead of being too wrapped up in talking to Poe to ever sneak a look at his phone. Then he could at least text Poe something along the lines of, I’ve still got your jacket from the game last night. Please meet me somewhere and take it back before I curl up and die.
Or, obviously, something less extreme. Whatever it takes.
But, nope, the jacket’s still on the back of Finn’s chair, vibrant orange and impossible to ignore, like a comfortable traffic cone.
Finn’s heard Poe’s been the star running back of Resistance’s team since freshman year. He wonders if Poe’d gotten the jacket that year or one of the following years...it doesn’t look that worn down, although there are already a few dirt stains on the sleeves, and one of the pockets has a little hole in it. Finn’s seen Poe wearing the jacket in school before; sometimes Finn’s caught sight of Poe hanging out with his teammates Jessika and Snap, all of them laughing in sync and wearing their matching orange jackets. He wonders if Poe’s ever worn the jacket right after practice as well, and that thought gets him a little light-headed.
And now Finn’s got the jacket, for Poe had given it to him last night at his game. The rest of the school hadn't lied: Poe was pretty good at the whole “football” thing. Finn had watched him speed down the field, outrun the opposing team, catch the majority of his passes, and cause the audience to scream in applause. During that game, Finn was proud to wear Poe’s jacket- and excited, and a little bit terrified of what it might convey, but mostly proud.
But that had been during the game, when he’d needed the jacket to stay warm, and this was the next day at school. And Finn couldn’t just put on the jacket now. He was terrified to. Maybe it had genuinely been an act of friendship from Poe, nothing more. After all, Poe had invited him to the game, and Finn would’ve frozen in the cold. It's only common courtesy that Poe'd give him his jacket to stay warm.
It probably doesn’t mean anything more, Finn tries to tell himself. Don’t get your hopes up.
But a nagging feeling within Finn reminds him that getting his hopes up isn’t exactly a long shot. He’d never believed in love at first sight, but there was something between him and Poe, there’d been that something ever since that fateful day in the hallway when he’d saved Poe from getting a detention. After finding out that Finn was new to Resistance, Poe had given him a bunch of pointers that had made life at school way easier- such as which bathrooms to use, which teachers to try and avoid, and the semi-secret passageway in the school basement. Poe’d told Finn about the science club, which was run by his favorite teacher, Mrs. Organa, and had invited Finn to the meeting next week.
And there had been the time Poe had told Finn about his dog. “Her name’s BB-8, after this robot in a sci-fi cartoon I loved when I was a kid,” Poe had said, face practically lighting up. “She’s an orange and white corgi, and she chases after whatever I throw for her- even vegetables. And she’s super friendly, I bet she’d like you. I’ll introduce you to her sometime.”
That kind of stuff, coupled with the jacket-giving, makes it seem like Poe really does want to spend time with Finn. Maybe it isn’t a stretch to think that Poe’s gesture means something more than friendship after all.
Finn takes a deep breath. Before he can lose his nerve, he takes Poe’s jacket off the back of his chair and puts it on. It’s fairly warm in the classroom, and his heart’s started beating a mile a minute, but his gut’s telling him that this is the right thing to do.
He’s started trusting his gut more lately. Transferring to Resistance from First Order Military Academy, befriending Rey, helping Poe; he’d made those decisions all on instinct. And so far, his instinct hasn’t steered him wrong.
With the orange jacket on and his stomach feeling a bit better, Finn faces the front of the classroom. He’s really got to find Poe soon, and he really hopes he won’t regret this. But for now, it’s time to try and pay attention to this lecture.
During Finn’s free period, he finally catches sight of Poe- or, well, the back of Poe’s head, as he’s rummaging through his locker. Finn takes a deep breath, trying to get his racing heart to chill for a second, and then walks up to Poe and taps him on the shoulder.
Poe glances behind him, and smiles at Finn. He closes his locker door and turns around to face him. “Finn, hey! Good to see you!”
“Hey!” Finn says. Despite his nerves, it’s impossible not to smile along with Poe. “I’ve been looking for you all day, actually. I never got to congratulate you on the big win.”
“So you did stay for the whole game?” Poe’s eyes widen, and then he clears his throat. “Well, congratulations, Finn. You’ve experienced your first Resistance football game. Thoughts?”
“It was very loud,” Finn says. “The crowd, I mean. Well, I guess the game was loud, too. There was lots of running, and throwing, and jumping on people, and I was scared someone was gonna die. I can see why you guys wear helmets now.”
Poe laughs. “Yeah, that stuff happens.”
“Rey and I had fun, though,” Finn adds. “We came up with very serious theories on why everyone wanted the ball so badly. My favorite one was that the football’s secretly a dragon’s egg, and everyone’s trying to break it open to get the baby dragon out.”
This time, Poe full-on starts laughing. “God. That’s hilarious. I wish that was the case, because then we could adopt the baby dragon and it would be our new team mascot. It could breathe fire at the other teams and scare them away; we’d be undefeated.”
Finn lets out a laugh of his own. “Thanks, Poe. I think I understand football much better now.”
“You’re onto something with the whole baby dragon theory. Looks like you’re a football natural after all.”
“Oh, also...you were great out there,” Finn tells Poe. “I wasn’t always sure what the right thing to do was during the game, but you seemed like you were doing it. Everyone was cheering for you a ton.” Finn gulps. “Including me.”
Poe smiles at Finn and holds his gaze for a moment, and Finn doesn’t miss the way Poe bites his lip before he starts talking. “Thanks, Finn,” he says, then points to the jacket Finn’s wearing. “I see you’ve still got my jacket.”
Oh. Right. The whole reason Finn was looking for Poe in the first place.
“Yeah! I can give it back to you now,” Finn says quickly, rushing to remove the jacket and praying that Poe doesn’t think he’s creepy for wearing it. “Thanks again for lending it to me.”
“No problem! Really, I mean it,” Poe says. He hesitates for a moment. “You know, you can borrow it longer if you’d like. It looks great on you.”
It looks great on you.
Those words, the tentative smile Poe’s got on his face, the way Poe’s looking at him- they make Finn feel like his instincts were right all along.
He smiles back at Poe. “Okay,” is his genius reply. “Thanks.”
“Cool.” Poe nods, quickly turning back to take a notebook out of his locker before facing Finn. “Well, I’ve got to rush to Physics. I’ll...see you later, I guess?”
“Yeah! Yeah, definitely,” Finn replies.
Truthfully, Finn’s tired of these open-ended “see-you-later"s. He’s wanted more than that for a while now. And it seems like Poe does as well.
He thinks back to Rey’s words: He could be afraid to ask you out too.
Finn glances at Poe, who’s starting to make his way down the hallway, and gathers up his courage once again.
“Hey, Poe!”
Poe halts, turning back to face Finn. “Yeah? What’s up?”
“Do...do you want to hang out sometime?” Finn asks. “Like, over the weekend. We could go for a walk or something and I could finally meet BB-8, or we could get something to eat. There’s a place downtown, Kanata’s, that’s really great. Whatever you want to do.”
Poe beams again. “Oh man, yeah! Yeah, definitely. That would be awesome.” A thought seems to occur to him, and he takes his phone out of his pocket. “I’d say we should text each other but...I never gave you my number, did I?”
Finn shakes his head and gets out his own phone, his smile growing wider by the minute.
“I wonder how football was invented,” Rey muses, as she’s sitting beside Finn in the football stands about a week later. “Maybe some aliens got into a competition over who could throw their moon rock the farthest, and the tradition eventually passed down to our planet.”
“Or it could go way back to the dinosaurs,” Finn puts in. “They…hmm. They tried to figure out who could throw rocks the farthest with their mouth?”
“That one was terrible.” Rey raises her eyebrows.
“Hey, I was gonna say aliens, but you said it first,” says Finn. “Don’t blame me. Great minds think alike.”
Rey laughs, then nudges Finn. "Looks like warm-ups are about to start. Think we’re gonna win this time?”
“Poe said the Hoth Snowbeasts are tough to beat, but he thinks we’ve got a good chance,” Finn says, not failing to hide his smile.
Finn thinks back to his conversation with Poe an hour ago as they’d walked together on their way to the game. Poe’d told Finn all about the new play they’d been working on, and Finn could hear the excitement in his voice. Listening to Poe go on and on about football is one sports-related thing he can definitely live with.
And right before parting for the game, after wishing Poe luck, Finn had trusted his instincts yet again, tentatively leaned in, and kissed Poe gently on the lips. Poe had looked surprised, and a little confused, and there’d been about five seconds when Finn had feared the worst. But then Poe had smiled and kissed Finn again.
Their kiss had been fairly short and soft, but had still made Finn’s heart skip a beat. Once they broke apart, they smiled at each other tentatively; and then Finn had nervously cracked a joke about a kiss for good luck, which got Poe laughing. By the time Poe had to go into the locker room for warm-ups, they’d both been grinning from ear to ear.
That had been Finn’s first kiss. And he couldn't have asked for anything better.
Rey smiles back at Finn knowingly. As the players come onto the field to start their warm-up, the crowd starts cheering and screaming, and Finn catches sight of Poe as he sprints out among the rest of the team. It’s only Finn's second Resistance game, so he still isn’t quite used to football rules, but he supposes he’ll get there in time. At least he knows when to cheer.
Finn rolls up the sleeves of Poe’s jacket, and starts clapping along with the crowd.