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Rey doesn’t sleep like they do.
She’s tried. Really, she has. But she’s spent too many years as her own only line of defense, and no matter how comforting it can be to fall asleep wrapped in their arms, one or both of them snuggled up to her with skin on skin or bundled folds of nightclothes keeping them warm, she wakes and feels the need to keep watch.
So she does.
Finn’s the first one to notice, waking up not long after her one night soon after they start this thing between them and rolling sleepily to his feet. He pads over to her and settles on the bench beside her, rubbing at his eyes.
“You okay?” he asks, his voice quiet but just as warm and reassuring as always.
Rey nods.
“Not used to having this,” she says, knowing by now that both of her lovers feel better for some sort of an explanation. They don’t need the same sort of things explaining, but neither of them are quite so good with silence as she is. It bothers them. She doesn’t like them to be troubled.
“People sharing your bed?” Finn asks. “Yeah. I can see that. I’m not used to only sharing the space with two, but we didn’t cram into one bed.”
Rey shakes her head.
“No. No, I’m not used to having anyone else around at night. I’m not… Maybe I just haven’t got used to how soft everything is, yet.”
She hears the lack of talking from Finn and turns to face him, finding him watching her with the sort of care she’s slowly coming to trust.
“What?” she asks, when he still doesn’t speak.
“You aren’t used to having other people around to keep you safe,” Finn says. When she shrugs and shifts away, he moves a hand, not touching her but holding his palm up between them. An invitation. “Hey. I’m not used to being able to say what I want so much without checking to see who’s monitoring me. Habits are hard to break, right?”
Rey hesitates, and nods, and takes his hand.
“Yeah. Not sure I can break this one quickly.”
Now it’s Finn’s turn to shrug.
“So don’t try,” he says. “Not like you have to sleep when we do. You want to get up and keep an eye on things, then do that. We’ll be right there waiting for you when you want to join us again.”
They sit, their hands clasped together and no pressure for anything more, until Finn smiles and leans in.
“Seeing as we’re awake, why don’t we sneak some of Poe’s treats?”
Rey smiles, knowing how carefully Poe keeps the chocolates safe from everyone on the base, and leans in, nudging Finn until he rocks away and back. It sends a bubble of something she thinks might be safety through her, to know he won’t be pushed away. It’s starting to feel like happiness. Like home.
I don’t think he’d like that,” she says, but she finds herself looking over at Poe, where he lies on his back with one arm thrown over his face, the muscles in his arm a study in the kind of attractive Rey didn’t used to know existed.
“I think he’d get over it,” Finn says, but he doesn’t push it. Instead, he leans in even further and rests his head against hers. It’s the kind of weight that’s comforting. “So, you sit up and watch us often?”
Even as new to this whole being around people thing as she is, Rey hears the echo of a cheesy pick-up line in it, and she thinks Finn knows it, too. They’ve both been watching media and visiting the mess-hall with Poe. The few times they’ve been off world so far they’ve visited a bar or two, and Poe has joked and fed them lines, winking and smiling, each time.
She laughs, low in her throat.
“Pretty often. Yeah.”
“You don’t get cold?” Finn asks, and it is warmer with him settled next to her.
“A bit,” she says, and shrugs. It’s not like the desert at night. “I’m okay, though. I never used to find it easy to sleep for long at a time back…”
She almost said home, but Jakku isn’t home now. It hasn’t been for a while. She takes a moment and tries again.
“Back there, I used to drag a blanket with me up into a higher spot. There was one bit where I could see out to the stars without being in the open, and I used to get as warm as I could and wait it out there. Couldn’t sleep much, but it was…nice. I guess.”
Finn nods.
“Yeah. I kind of miss some things, too. It’s great here, and I don’t want to go back, but every now and then…”
And this is something Finn and Rey share that Poe doesn’t. Poe hasn’t left the life he knew, flawed and lonely as it was. Poe is right where he belongs, and Finn and Rey are maybe where they belong now, too, but that isn’t the same as being where they’re used to being.
She squeezes Finn’s hand again and shifts her head a little, feeling her cheek rub against his shoulder. They sit like that until she feels Finn start to drift, his head getting heavier, and she encourages him back to bed. She sits up and watches them for another two hours.
***
The next day, Rey comes back to their room to find a new chair in the corner of the room, and no sign of the bench.
She approaches it cautiously, head tilted, and finds a scooped seat with padding and cushions, a blanket draped over one arm. On the blanket rests one of Poe’s chocolates, in its individual wrapper. Reaching out a hand, Rey trails her fingers along the blanket and finds it’s soft and thick.
Footsteps behind her have her turning to find Poe watching, his expression calm and hopeful.
“Do you like it?” he asks. He nods at the chair. “Got that from a friend, and I added the padding. The blanket is new. Well, it’s from a supply run, but I traded for it.”
“It’s very nice,” Rey says, but she can tell the puzzlement must be clear on her face. “What’s it for?”
Poe smiles and steps closer.
“For you,” he says. “For when you can’t sleep. So you can be more comfortable watching over us. And look.”
He moves away, reaching for the lights, and plunges them into part-light. On the ceiling above the chair, lights spring up, glimmering in a constellation she remembers from Jakku.
“Pretty sure I got those right,” Poe says. “Let me know if they need changing. You know them better than I do.”
Rey stares. She knows Finn will be back in about an hour, and she wonders if this will make any more sense to him.
“But why?” she asks. “How did you…?”
Poe rolls his eyes, and this time he makes it all the way to her, opening his arms and waiting until she steps into them. He speaks into her hair.
“You aren’t the only one who wakes up sometimes,” he says. “I just like to lie next to you, or to Finn at least, and know you’re there. Last night, it was enough to hear your voices. But if you like sitting up, I want you to be comfortable, until you’re ready to come back to bed.”
***
That night, Rey sits wrapped in a blanket, a chocolate melting on her tongue, and watches both of her men sleep. They’re tangled up together, and although she looks up a time or two at Poe’s stars, she finds the sight in front of her is far more pleasing.