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The sky was dark grey and churning with storm clouds just waiting to burst with rain and lightning, most of the pilots had already landed rather than continue drills in a flight hazard waiting to happen. Poe however, was still up in the air doing all of his routine dives and maneuvers in atmo. It was only when the lightning chose to strike across two clouds right beside his ship that he finally landed on the empty runway. He scrambled out of the cockpit as quickly as he could while the wind picked up and the rain turned into fat and heavy droplets rather that the cold mist that began the storm. The puddles on the landing strip splashed up into his boots when he ran towards the nearest entrance. Rey was waiting for him with a towel and a glare.
“What exactly were you doing up there?” She wasn’t actually angry, she knew he could fly under even the worst conditions. “I get that you were training, but wasn’t that a bit excessive.”
“I get it Rey, you were worried.” Poe toweled off his hair with a shit-eating grin,
“Yeah, that’s what it was,” She grabbed the towel back and wiped off BB-8’s head “Come on, kitchen’s empty and I know you haven’t eaten yet.” The pair headed off with BB at their heels along the hallways.
Fifteen minutes later Poe is headed back to his bunk with an armful of food minus one jedi and robot. Rey had decided to visit the indoor sparring area with her staff and have BB-8 film her drills. The rain was still heavy outside and very few people that weren’t essential to base operations were around. Poe could feel his feet dragging a bit. The pitter-patter of the rain on the roof of the building was almost hypnotic and his tired eyes were already starting to close while he walked. He hadn’t realized how far he had gone until he looked up at where his room number should have been on the door and found one an entire hallway past his own. He shook his head in disbelief and spun around in place for a minute trying to see where he went wrong.
“Hey Poe!” The voice came from a few feet behind him.
“Finn! Hey buddy, what’s up?” He stifled a yawn hanging on the end of his sentence.
“I just got back from Rey, she lent me this awesome holo of 'Space Battles'…” He took in Poe’s drooping eyes, “Hey, do you want to come in? You look really tired.” Poe immediately blinked further awake and smiled.
“Sure, yeah, sure.” He nodded along with his words, still blinking heavily and tuning in to the rain without meaning to. Finn reached past him and unlocked the door, leading the way into his bunk.
A decent sized holo-screen sat in the corner turned towards the bed with a soft looking quilt on top. There was a dresser and desk on the opposite wall where Finn set his jacket, and an open closet where Poe could easily see the plethora of clothing Finn had been given when he arrived. Also on the dresser was a small med-pac filled with what could only be the salve Finn used when his back injury flared up. Poe felt hot with anger for an instant at Kylo-Ren and all he had done to the galaxy and to Poe’s new family, but the anger dissipated when Finn beckoned him over to sit on the bed. He reached over to the holo-player and popped in the drive. Lightning flashed outside the window above the player and the base shook with thunder. Poe was exhausted at this point and could barely keep his eyes open long enough to register Finn plopping down next to him. He could feel his eyes drooping and closing, more and more.
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The entire room vibrated with the next crash of sound, the howling wind and pouring rain were more violent than ever. Poe’s eyes popped open when he felt Finn jump nearly out of his skin beside him. They had ended up flopped backwards into the pile of pillows Finn kept on his bed, Poe was on his back and Finn on his side facing him. Their hands had ended up intertwined in their sleep and the room was pitch black. With every flash of lightning Poe could see Finn’s face light up in surprise and shock. The thunder was deafening even inside the room and the lights were out for the foreseeable future. The sky cracked open again and Finn nearly jumped into Poe’s lap.
“Hey, you ok there?” They were both sitting up now, and Poe turned to face Finn.
“I’m fine, I just-” Finn was cut off as the next clap of thunder ripped through the room. His head dropped instinctively and he crashed all the way into Poe. Finn’s hands fisted into Poe’s shirt.
“I’m sorry, I’ll be fine in a minute..” He tried to make his fingers unclench but he couldn’t seem to let go.
“Finn, have you ever been in a storm like this before?” Poe had been outdoors all his life, a thunderstorm-even one that knocked out the power-wasn’t too concerning.
“No.” The one word response was almost drowned out by the rumbling of the clouds, but it got through to the pilot.
“Well, there’s really nothing to worry about, it’s only rain and a little electricity floating around out there.” He tried to sound nonchalant, even though what was outside was actually concerning him a bit if it had managed to knock out the power in the base. He looked down at the ex-stormtrooper, hoping that his ease had calmed Finn down a bit, but it turned out that he was very wrong.
Finn had a white-knuckle grip in the fabric of Poe’s shirt now and his breathing was starting to come in ragged and heavy. His eyes were squeezed shut and his head was dropping lower like he was trying to curl into a ball without letting go of Poe. The sky lit up again and Finn flinched again, curling closer to Poe.
“Finn, buddy, are you ok?” Poe’s hands came down on Finn’s shoulders trying to get him to look up. “I need you to breathe alright? Hey, look at me.” He placed a hand on Finn’s jaw, gently pulling up his face to look at his eyes. Finn pried open his lids and stared desperately into Poe’s gaze. Poe took a deep breath in and out.
“Could you feel that Finn?” He did it again to show what he meant. Finn nodded jerkily, still hyperventilating. Lightning flashed outdoors again and his eyes flickered wildly towards the window. Poe squeezed his shoulder gently to bring him back. “I need you to breathe with me, ok?” He took a deep breath and held it for a second, then let it out slowly. Finn followed as shakily as he was able to. They repeated the exercise for a minute until Finn could do it without following Poe.
“Good job buddy, keep going just like that.” Poe rubbed circles around Finn’s back, encouraging him to breathe and calm down. “You’re in control, you’re doing great.” Finn’s breathing was finally normalizing and he stopped taking the exaggerated breaths. His hands loosened in Poe’s shirt and he slumped forwards in exhaustion. Poe allowed the momentum to carry them both back onto the bed, holding gently onto Finn and bringing him closer.
“I don’t know what that was, that’s never really happened to me before..” Finn was quietly talking to Poe over the now soft rain. The attack had passed with the storm it seemed, now everything was calming down.
“You never really went off-base when you were a stormtrooper did you?”
“No, and inside was massive so I was never outside much either. Come to think of it it was all climate controlled as well.” Finn sounded a little sheepish.
“That means that the most extreme weather you would have experienced would have been when we were fighting on Starkiller Base, and that was far off in the distance from you.”
“I guess all of the noise and flashing was just overwhelming. I didn’t feel safe here for the first time.” Both of the men were feeling tired again, and the now gentle rain was lulling them back to sleep. Poe had drifted almost completely off when he heard Finn.
“I feel safe with you, though.” A soft smile made it’s way onto his face, and he and Finn went back to sleep.
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Rey headed out of her room with BB-8 as soon as the power came back on to check on Finn and drop off the droid to Poe, she would have left sooner but BB needed a more thorough drying off after being soaked in flight drills. She was happy to do it anyway, BB was as much her friend as Poe’s. Sidling up to his door she knocked, but after receiving no answer BB-8 opened the door anyway. There was no one in the room so the droid rolled back out and tagged along to check on Finn. The pair made it to the next hallway over and knocked gently on the door, there was no answer, but BB unlocked the door without even glancing at Rey to confirm whether or not she wanted to go in.
“Finn? You ok in there?” She called it out quietly since the lights were off but she could see the glow from a holo-screen in the corner playing the drive she had lent him. A look at the bed showed why he hadn’t answered the door; Finn and Poe were absolutely, positively, dead to the world. The two of them had managed to become so entwined that between their lower halves and the sheets there was no distinction. Their torsos were exposed and Rey couldn’t help cracking a grin at the way Finn had a hand loosely balled in Poe’s shirt. Poe’s hand was in Finn’s hair and the two were pressed together with Finn’s head on Poe’s shoulder. Rey backed out of the room, beckoning to BB and shut the door as quietly as possible before she walked away.
“Well BB-8, let’s head back to my room. It’s about time those two sorted it out between them.”