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Poe scans the text once more, tries to decide if he should have added something along the lines of P.S. We should adopt the puppy together, and then get married and raise Bea Bea because Jesus, Finn, apparently I believe in love at first sight now. He decides against it, that kind of revelation needs at least three texts back and forth.
Poe hasn't been able to get Finn out of his head all night. It hasn't been helped by Bea Bea talking constantly about how amazing her rescuer was, and how nice he was, and wasn't he handsome, Papa Poe? Poe has noticed, he's definitely noticed. He's not felt like this about someone since the ex, he didn't know he still could.
He flops back on the couch, drops his phone to the floor and lets out a melodramatic groan, covering his face with his arm.
“Are you being dramatic, Papa Poe?” A little voice asks from the end of the couch.
Poe lifts his arm up, lifts his head and peers over to Bea Bea.
“What are you doing up, little miss?” Poe asks.
“I had a dream, and I was lost and you weren't there and there was a monster and he ate my legs!” Bea Bea's bottom lip is wobbling, there are tears streaking her little face and she's clutching her favourite bear, Yub Nub, like he’s a lifeline.
Poe hops to his feet, rushes to her and scoops her up. She clings to him, whimpering into his shoulder. He shushes into her hair, “It was just a dream, baby girl. I'm right here, I'll always be right here.”
“Better be.” She mumbles against his neck.
Poe smiles, “Nowhere else I'd rather be. You want the potion?”
Bea Bea nods into his neck.
“Okay, you go get into bed, and I'll be right in with it.” He kisses her head, puts her down on the floor. She pads off into her room, while Poe heads into the kitchen and sets about making 'the potion'.
The potion is warm milk and honey, simple enough, but it always used to calm Poe down after a nightmare when he was a kid, and help him drift off to sleep again. He’s told Bea Bea it's a magic potion from the fairies, a special protection spell to keep her safe in her dreams.
He pours the drink into her magical fairy chalice - a sparkly mug with her name on, specially painted for her by Auntie Jess – and takes it through to the bedroom.
“The fairies present this most humble of gifts to her excellency, the beautiful Lady Beatrix.” Poe says, dropping to one knee, head bowed.
Bea Bea giggles as she takes the mug from him, and settles back against her pillows with it.
“Thank you, Papa Poe.” She says, polite as ever.
“You welcome, m'lady.”
She drinks her milk quietly, offers a little to Yub Nub, and she's yawning in no time.
“Have you shook out the bad dreams?” Poe asks, gesturing to her pillows.
Bea Bea shakes her head, “You always do it better.”
“Got it.”
He pulls the pillows from behind them, and gives them a good shake, wiggling his whole body as he does to make her laugh.
“Okay. You've had the potion, we've shook out the nightmares. Think you're ready to head back to dreamland?” Poe asks, tucking the pillows behind her head.
“Yep!” Bea Bea announces brightly. She bounces her way down the bed, curls up tightly in a little ball and pulls Yub Nub close to her.
“Goodnight, baby girl.” Poe says, kissing her head, “Night Yub Nub.”
“Night Papa Poe.” Bea Bea says, through a yawn, “Love you to the moon!”
“Love you to the moon, Bea Bea.”
He flips her light off, and slinks from the room, satisfied he's defeated the monsters for another night.
---x
Finn is in his dreams, front and centre. He's gorgeous, resplendent, glowing. Literally glowing, like an angel. He's wearing nothing but Poe's favourite jacket, and a smile. He's a goddamn vision, and really Poe is screwed.
He's on the fringes between sleep and wakefulness and it would be so easy to take hold of himself, let dream Finn do whatever he wanted to him.
But it's Sunday morning. Bea Bea has a birthday party this afternoon, and Poe had foolishly told her they could make cupcakes with Auntie Jess to take along. The last thing he needs is Bea Bea walking in on Papa Poe having some filthy fantasies about her new hero.
Poe groans, opens his eyes and wills himself to think about anything other than Finn. It's a task made easier when his cellphone starts to ring, a terrible rendition of “Dameron, I Wish I Was Your Lover” as performed by Snap that he really needs to change.
He grabs the phone from his sidetable, grunts into it.
“Good morning sunshine!” Jess is far too chirpy for whatever time it is on a Sunday morning. He looks at his phone, 9.04. Euw.
“Whayyawan'?”
“I'm on my way over, so you might want to put on some pants and feed your daughter.” Jess tells him, “Ideally in that order.”
“Jess, it's a Sunday.” Poe moans, rolling onto his stomach and burying his face in the pillow, “I don't do mornings til double figures on a Sunday.”
“What does Bea think about this?”
“You're not Bea Bea, you can't guilt me into consciousness.” Poe lowers his voice.
“But think how lonely she must be without Daddy. He works all week, she never sees him, and now on his days off, he's lazing in bed…”
“Not working.”
“You're a horrible father.” Jess teases.
Poe grins, “The worst.”
“I'll be there in about twenty minutes. I will steal little Bea if you're not up.”
“I give it three days before you're begging me to take her back, because Game of Thrones is on and she needs a cuddle.” Poe tells her.
“Darling, that's what DVR’s for. I'd last a week at least.” Jess says, brightly, “Go see your girl, I'll be with you soon.”
She hangs up. Poe thrusts his head into his pillow and grunts.
---x
Bea Bea is laid out on the couch, playing with Yub Nub and her Merida doll. Yub Nub appears to be some kind of monster, and Merida is running away from him, yelling in the cutest attempt at a Scottish accent Poe has ever heard.
She's engrossed in her game, doesn't notice when. Poe sneaks up behind her and grabs her round the middle lifting her up in the air.
“And now the Daddymonster has caught brave Princess Bea Bea!”
Bea Bea is squealing and giggling, “Not the Daddymonster!”
He growls at her which only makes her laugh more before bringing her back down to the couch and tickling her, still growling and roaring at her. She’s giggling her little head off, flailing her limbs, bashing him with Yub Nub and squealing, “Uncle! UNCLE!”
“Oh the magic word to defeat the Daddymonster!” He lets go of her, falls back on the floor, clutching his heart.
Bea Bea giggles and clambers to the other end of the couch, looking down on Poe, who has one eye closed and is dramatically groaning.
She pokes him on the arm, “What's for breakfast?”
“Can't hear you, Bea Bea, I'm in the middle of a very dramatic death scene.”
Bea Bea huffs, “Grown ups!”
---x
Jess arrives half way through breakfast, which is toast and jelly this morning. Poe has pants on, and has fed his daughter, Jess should be proud. She should be honoured really.
Bea Bea throws herself at Jess' legs and starts telling her all about defeating the evil Daddymonster, and asking if she's going to help them make cool pirate cupcakes.
“You really think Papa Poe could do them without my help?”
Bea Bea looks between them, shakes her head, “We need you, Auntie Jess! Papa Poe's cakes are bad!”
“Love you too, Bea Bea.” Poe says around his mouthful of toast.
“Shouldn't talk with your mouth full!” Bea Bea shoots back, not missing a beat.
Jess high fives her.
“You are the worst influence on her.” Poe jabs a finger at Jess.
“It's my job as her Auntie. I have to wind her up, make her naughty and let you deal with it.” Jess explains.
Bea Bea nods in solemn agreement, “It's the law.”
Poe mock glares at the two of them, “This is not making cupcakes.”
---x
As the blue cupcakes are baking, Poe finally gets chance to check his phone again. There's still no message from Finn, and he's more disappointed than he thought he would be.
Poe wonders if he was imagining the spark, if there really was something there between him and the younger man, or if he just looked like a lecherous old queen desperate for a toy boy.
But then, Finn had asked for his number, had stumbled over his words, and he looked at him in a way Poe hadn't been looked at in nearly ten years.
Poe looks at the clock on the phone, it's only just gone 11AM. Maybe Finn just sleeps late, and hasn't got the message yet? Maybe Finn is just as ridiculously nervous about this whole thing as he is, and has been staring at the text trying to figure out how to reply?
Or maybe he and his gorgeous, tall, buff boyfriend are in the middle of a day of lazy fucking?
Poe rests his head against the wall of his room. He is so screwed.
---x
“You are so screwed.”
“Jess!” Poe hisses.
“Please, the kids, and half the parents are way too busy watching Jack Sparrow do magic to care about my potty mouth.” Jess says, takes another swig of her beer.
Poe had foolishly checked his phone again, just as they'd arrived at the party, and his kicked puppy face had alerted Jess to the fact something was wrong. She'd pressed, and pressed, and after establishing all of his family were okay, had decided he was clearly having romantic problems.
Not a moment later, Bea Bea had run over to him with a cupcake and announced that they'd forgotten to save one for Finn.
Now Poe and Jess are sat off to one side of the Deats garden, a beer in hand, while Poe spills his story of woe to Jess.
He sounds even more pathetic outloud.
“You are though. Monumentally, royally, magnificently screwed.” Jess tells him, “Love at first sight, Dameron?”
“Nobody said love at first sight.”
“You've practically been writing sonnets about how perfect he is for the past hour.” Jess teases.
“It hasn't been an hour. It's been twenty minutes, tops,” Poe insists, throwing his bottle cap at her, “And this is payback for every girlfriend, and boyfriend I've had to listen to you coo over for the past ten years.”
“Whatever, Poe. So what are you going to do about this desperate unrequited love affair?” She asks, “How are you going to cope when Bea Bea wants to deliver the cupcake to him, and you see his face across the room, and your heart skips a beat?”
“If I throw it at you, I won't have to.” Poe says, with a grin.
There's a sudden buzz in his pocket, a loud atonal chime. Poe has a text. He and Jess both look down at his pocket, as if the phone is going to explode.
“Well, open it! It might be your sweet babboo.”
“It might be AT&T.”
“Poe!”
He holds his hands up in defeat, “Okay!”
Poe digs into his pocket, pulls out his phone.
The message is from Finn. His name is up on the screen, and already Poe feels a million times better.
“It's from him.” He says, grinning at Jess. He takes a swig of his beer while unlocking the phone, and scans the message. He regrets taking the swig of beer as he chokes on it, reading the message.
“Well?” Jess asks, getting up to look over the message herself, “Holy shit, Poe!”
She claps him on the shoulder, “My friend, you are going to get so laid!”
Poe is still staring at the message, smiling to himself. Finn is into him, he's not a deluded old moron. He pulls up the keyboard and taps out a quick reply, hitting send before he can convince himself that replying this fast makes him seem desperate and picks up his beer again.
“Poe Dameron, you've still got it.” He says to himself.
“You are a fucking loser.” Jess reminds him.