Finn works at your local Tim Hortons to pay through university tuition, and Poe is the police officer who comes in 3 times day a for some fresh Canadian coffee and maybe to check out that cute guy at the register
The first thing Poe Dameron learned as a member of the Resistance was that a battlefield is never a place for love.
Darth Vader was born from the fear of losing his beloved wife. The fall of Senator Amidala came from her desperation to save Anakin Skywalker. A story his mother used to tell him was that of two rebel fighters dying in each other's arms. Everyone knew how Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa’s story ended. Poe refused to be that man. No, if he were to go down, it would be for his fellow pilots, his cause or General Organa.
At least, that's what he thought… until he met him.
Finn threw a wrench in everything. Suddenly Poe found himself thinking of the other male more than battle strategies. Instead of looking in the distance, Poe found his gaze drawn to Finn. He’d turn away right after he caught himself, but that didn't stop the blush coating his cheeks. He’d try to make himself focus on other things. He’d even tried tidying up both his X-wing and his quarters!
No matter what he did, Poe couldn’t stop himself from wondering if in another time, in another place, he and Finn could have lived their happily ever after.
“A battlefield is no place for love,” Poe thought, “but I can think about it a little.”
His eyes met Finn’s from across the room. Both men turned away quickly.
“He almost saw me,” Finn chastised himself, “What are you doing? There is no place for romance during a war.” He looked back over to see Poe laugh. He smiled, "But maybe I can think about it a little..."
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 16/16
Fandom: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Additional Tags: Military AU, DADT Era, nineties au, Period-Typical Homophobia, Trans!Poe, Homophobic Language, Casual Racism, Christianity, Don't worry, nothing really bad happens, minor fisticuffs, but no one gets hurt, lots of hand-holding, lots of nerd shit, Some kissing, Happy Ending
Summary:
For Stormpilot Week 2018: Historical AU.
Finn and Poe are Army Aviation reservists, thrown together as buddies for annual training exercises- the "two weeks in the summer" that the recruiting ads mention. This takes place circa 1998. That's only 20 years ago, but I'm calling it a historical AU because I think it is proper and correct to think of DADT as a historical era.
(A/N: I can't believe I finally finished this! I also can’t believe I thought I would have finished it by the middle of September, lol. This is the hardest I've ever worked on any fic or probably any writing project ever. Thank you so much to everyone who hung in there with the slow updates and cheered me on with your kind, wonderful comments.)
A little piece for Day 1 of Stormpilot Week. The theme was: Matchmaker Leia or Mutual Pining. I kind of combined the two of them.
The Millenium Falcon was not a big ship, something that was emphasised all the more by the number of people on board. For all that the Resistance numbered a bare handful now, they still made the old freighter seem crowded. It made trying to avoid people a little difficult but eventually Poe managed it, tucking himself away in a corner of one of the holds behind a bulkhead. He needed some time to himself, to centre himself and to think, and with everyone looking to him as much as they did to the General, trying to do that anywhere else was difficult.
He needed some time to build up his internal defences again. He’d never really considered how things were going to go when Finn woke up. He’d had some hopes that maybe that connection between them meant something, that he meant something to Finn, but he’d never let himself think about it beyond some vague hopes and daydreams. Those hopes and dreams had taken their first knock when Finn had woken up and he’d intercepted him in the corridor. Finn had barely seemed to register his presence, more concerned about Rey than anything else. But Poe had his own challenges at that time and everything else had ended up on the backburner until now.
Now though, they were stuck in a small ship as they made for an old rebel base that Leia knew about, to hunker down and hope that some of their allies sucked up the courage to join them and rebuild the Resistance. It made avoiding Finn difficult and worse, it made avoiding seeing Finn and Rey or Finn and Rose difficult. Finn always seemed more pleased to see them, more willing to spend time with them than he was with Poe and now Poe had to find a way to shove all those half-formed hopes and dreams back into their box and forget them. Which was proving to be easier said than done.
“There you are.”
Poe gave a start and leaned forward to look around the bulkhead he was hiding behind. “Leia?” He sighed. “What’s happened now?”
“Nothing,” she said as she came round and sat down on a crate in front of his little hidey-hole. “Your brooding was getting annoying.”
“I’m not…” He stopped as she gave him an unimpressed look and sighed again. He seemed to be very good at getting unimpressed looks from her these days. “Alright, I am brooding.”
Leia smirked at him faintly. “What I can’t figure out is why you’re sitting here sulking instead of going out and spending time with your man.”
Poe blinked. “I’m not sulking,” he said, deliberately avoiding the second part of Leia’s statement.
That earned him another unimpressed look. “Now you’re just being obtuse.”
“He’s not my man,” Poe replied, his unhappiness shining through for a moment before he shoved it down. “He never was.”
Leia sighed. “Poe, I may not be a Jedi but I can feel the Force and I can feel the thread that binds you two together.”
“He’s not interested,” Poe said, firmly ignoring the hope that threatened to rise at Leia’s words. “He’s… I’ve seen the way he looks at Rey. And at Rose.”
Leia now looked exasperated. “Do you always leave your brains in the cockpit, flyboy?”
Poe frowned. “What do you mean?”
“That boy spends half his time pining after you and the other half trying to look good in your eyes,” Leia said, dryly amused.
“But… Rey?”
Leia chuckled. “Oh, he has a bond with her, it’s true, but it’s more like the one I had with Luke.”
Poe stared at her for a moment. “And Rose?”
“She’s his friend.” Leia gave him an exasperated look. “Get your backside out of that hole, General Dameron, and get your act together.”
Poe grimaced and began to climb out then he suddenly stopped and stared at her. “Wait… General?”
“Congratulations,” Leia said dryly. “You just got promoted.”
“But…” Poe swallowed. “I failed you. And the Resistance.”
Leia stared down at the floor for a moment then she got to her feet. “One thing you’re going to learn about rebellions and resistances, Poe, is that we all fail from time to time. We can’t win every battle and we don’t always succeed. Sometimes we even get brought down to our knees. It’s not the falling that matters, General. It’s the getting up and continuing to fight that’s important.”
Poe nodded slowly, lost in his own thoughts as he assimilated that. He didn’t notice Leia smile at him proudly and take her leave and he certainly didn’t notice her nod to the man who entered the hold.
“Poe?”
Finn’s voice startled Poe out of his thoughts and he stared at the other man with surprise for a moment.
“She made me a General,” he blurted before he could gather his wits properly.
“Yeah,” Finn said with a small smile. “She did the same to me. Said we were following in some time-honoured traditions but she wouldn’t elaborate.”
“The Rebellion threw people into leadership roles like that,” Poe said, still a little distracted. He then sloughed off that mood and looked at Finn. He swallowed hard before asking, “How’s Rey? And Rose?”
“Rose is recovering well,” Finn said with a hint of ruefulness that Poe would have loved an explanation for. He suspected it had something to do with how she’d been injured. “And Rey…” He grinned wryly. “Rey told me to get my head out of my ass and come down here and tell you how I felt before she did it for me.”
Poe gaped for a moment then he blinked. “Tell me how…?” He began to smile. “Leia was pretty much doing the same thing.”
“Yeah?” Finn said as he took a step forward towards Poe.
Poe matched that step. “Yeah.”
Finn grinned. “Then… can I…?”
“Yeah,” Poe said hurriedly, cutting him off. “Yeah, you can… you can do whatever you want.”
Finn laughed at his eagerness then closed the gap and pressed their lips together in a gentle kiss. Poe sighed into it and closed his eyes as Finn wrapped an arm around his waist. They embraced and just kissed for a while and when the kiss finally ended, they didn’t part, just stood there in each other’s embrace and rested their foreheads against the other.
“That was… great,” Finn said, his smile full of wonder.
“There’s a lot more where that came from, buddy,” Poe replied with a chuckle.
Finn laughed at him. “I’m looking forward to it.”
They swayed together for a moment then they kissed again, drawn together without thought or words. Poe let out a whine as Finn pressed him back against the bulkhead and things might have gone further then and there but the ship suddenly lurched as they dropped out of hyperspace. They broke apart and looked at each other.
“We’re here,” Poe said.
“Yeah.”
“We’d better…” Poe gestured towards the rest of the ship.
He’d admit he was pleased when Finn looked a little disappointed. “Yeah.”
“We’ll… come back to this though,” Poe said, leaning in to capture another quick kiss. “Soon.”
“Good,” Finn said with a smile before slowly pulling away and stepping back. He straightened his clothes then held out one hand. “Coming. General Dameron?”
Poe took his hand and grinned. “You bet, General Finn.”
As a pilot, Poe Dameron didn't see much land action. He was always up above fighting a different battle. When he wasn't in sky, Poe could be found back at the Resistance Base. He was never assigned work on the ground. He was never assigned to another base.
That was, until Hoth.
Sure, Poe was warned that it was cold, but he didn't know it would be this cold. General Organa guffawed when he tried to tell her. “You think Luke Skywalker buried himself in a dead tauntaun for fun?” She asked.
So here Poe was, miserable and cold. He hoped to never be assigned away from the Resistance Base again.
Finn seemed to be the only one who had some sympathy. “The Stormtrooper outfits weren't that warm either,” he explained.
First it was a pair of gloves. Then it was a hat. Poe wouldn't take his scarf. “You need to stay warm too,” he protested.
Finn paused before wrapping it back around his neck. “I’m really not that cold. You don't need to worry about me.”
Poe smiled, “I'll decide who I worry about, buddy.”
Later in the evening, Poe found Finn sitting alone near a fire. He walked over and draped a blanket over his shoulders.
Finn felt the material of the blanket and smiled. Poe sat next to him. “Will you share it with me?” Finn asked, “I'm sure we’ll both warm up sooner if we share our body heat.”