Who: Finn, Rey, and Xan What: chilling out When: during the winter fair Where: outside at the fair. Rating: low.
Xander had reached out to Rey about going to the winter fair and maybe they could invite Finn as well? He’d like to get to know Finn better and knew the loss of Poe hurt Finn. So, while a date sounded fun, this would be a good opportunity to get used to something in this world.
He told Rey that he’d pick up the pair. After living in this town for almost three years, he’d purchased a car. While riding in the Millenium Falcon had been a dream come true, the human thought a car made more sense.
After arriving, Xander walked to the front door, which he thought was more gentlemanly than texting Rey.
BB-8 rolled up first and offered a greeting with some beeps and boops. Rey followed after him with a small laugh. “BB-8’s been looking forward to seeing you all morning. Something about Leo’s droid driving him crazy.” The BB unit rolled around Xander once like an excited dog. “It seems like a nice day for a winter festival. Considering last month, I’m glad for it.”
She closed the distance and went to hug and kiss Xander in greeting, though didn’t linger too long but only because it wouldn’t be appropriate in front of Finn whom she knew was on her tail.
Finn wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about Xander in the Falcon, but Rey had wanted him there. He was a decent guy, it was just a bit weird. Finn didn’t dislike the guy, but he had a bit of trouble connecting with people. He hadn’t really made any friends past the other two yet. He’d hung out a bit with Peter and Ned for a while, but they seemed to have things happening in their lives. He didn’t want to intrude on them. He spent most of the time that day getting his kitten prepared to be alone for a few hours, before stepping into that room and nodding a bit of a greeting to the other guy.
“So what’s this festival now? Another holiday?”
Xander laughed at the excitement from BB8. “Hey BB8!” He gave the droid his full attention. “BB8, I’ve been looking forward to seeing you too.” The human rested a hand on BB8’s head for a second and then turned to look at his girlfriend. “Hey you,” he responded as Xan returned the hug. For Xander, he knew that his riding in the Millenium Falcon may have bothered others from Rey’s world since he wasn’t. But he wouldn’t give up the experience.
“Hi Finn. Nope, not a holiday. Just a festival celebrating the bright parts of winter.” Xander smiled at Finn, always happy to see Rey’s friend. “Delicious food, fun activities, something nice the Dome does in exchange for all of the very unfun things.”
“If there's a festival then it usually means that at least for a while we won't experience anything… stranger.” At least from experience. Of course, the Dome could surprise them, but this was near the end of the month so she assumed they just needed to worry about March at this point.
“I heard there's some Indigenous events. I'd like to see them.” Rey was learning about different cultures and the Indigenous people of Earth's North America were one that she had a lot of interest in.
He watched BB8 with a momentary and quiet hint of distant sadness. The droid reminded him of Poe. But he looked up at the pair and shrugged it off. “Think we had something similar.” Though again, he hadn’t gotten to experience it. He was struggling with that a bit recently. Everyone there seemed to know who they were, know what their pasts were like. Experienced things like that. Everything for him was a first as far as he knew.
“Indigenous events?” He asked with a raised eyebrow as he put his hands in his pockets and just waited for them to lead the way to this thing.
Xander could understand the droid reminding someone of Poe. Even Xander thought of Poe when he saw BB8 and the pair hadn’t been close. “Let’s hope the Dome keeps up good things until the end of the month.” Not that Xander ever counted on such things.
He opened the door to lead them to his car. “I am interested in the Indigenous events too,” Xander commented. “Indigenous are people who were here in US, like our town, before white people showed up and started stealing land and resources from them.” Not to mention the poor ass water reserves experienced, something he knew about having lived close to the Canadian border.
“They’re like Wookies and Ewoks from our world.” Rey supplied. Most of the galaxy thought of Ewoks as simple and Wookies as odd, but they were tribal like the First Nations of Earth and Rey found a lot of the similarities. She thought Chewy would like to meet them.
Once they got to the festival, Rey couldn’t help smiling. Even if she had never quite been to one of these, she liked the feeling that festivals like this here seemed to have. People seemed to be relaxed and willing to simply enjoy the events. It was nice and something she hadn’t had a lot of back home.
“I heard there’d be hot chocolate here.”
Finn glanced at the leather jacket on the way out. Grabbing at a different one that actually wasn’t Poe’s for the first time. He was feeling a bit sore toward the dome regarding it’s taking of his other best friend. He didn’t feel like wearing that jacket. He felt like finding an identity that wasn’t Poe’s, but he didn’t really know where to start. So he just followed Rey with a bit of a nod. “Huh. I guess I didn’t realize how many things are similar to our world too.”
He followed behind them, hands in the pockets of his own black leather jacket. One he’d bought just the day before. He was trying to find his own look now one step at a time.
Festivals were a perk of this place. After three years, Xander felt like he could judge. And he liked the festivals a lot. “Who could turn down hot chocolate?” Xan asked as they entered the festival. Living in the Pacific Northwest, Xander didn’t really experience winter. “I have a feeling a lot of similarities exist in worlds if we think about it enough.”
Xander noticed Finn’s jacket. “Like the jacket, Finn. New?” He could understand needing to find one’s identity, because it took him a while and the burning of his father’s old fishing boat to find his own.
“So what should we do first? Get hot chocolate and walk around? Go do a winter activity?”
“If we get a snack and walk around, we can figure out what it is we’d all like to do.” Rey wasn’t exactly prone to going into something with a big game plan, but she’d argue back home most of the time she just didn’t have the time to prepare. Here, at least right now, it was doable.
“Maybe we can try skating. I’ve heard a lot of people like that.” Rey was determined to try to find something that made Finn smile. She wanted the best for her friend and he had such a hard go of it here.
He stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat as they chatted, and he looked up with a nod. “Mm. Thought I should probably get more than just the one.” And one that was his own, not just Poe’s. He loved Poe, but it was so much that the jacket served as a reminder of what he lost now.
Dark eyes watched Rey and Xander interact with a distant curiosity. They got along so easily. Finn struggled to really make any connections, and he had no idea why. Maybe he was just meant not to have that. He glanced over at a hot chocolate place in the distance. “There’s a place up there.” He motioned with a hand. Looking over all the different booths and things, he raised an eyebrow as they passed by a stand that read Psychic. “Guess this place has everything?” He stuck close to Rey. it was a little like home. Different vendors strung about.
Xan didn’t question his need for a new jacket, but assumed maybe the other man would like one for different weather. He shook his head. “You two enjoy skating. I’ve done it enough to know not only do I suck, but I hate it. Though, you know I’ll cheer on you both if you want to skate.” While Xan usually was up for anything his girlfriend wanted to try, even the idea of holding her hand while they skated didn’t sound enticing enough.
One of the reasons Xan could get along with Rey well (or anyone) had to do with bartending. The years of bartending and chatting with people helped the introvert become more of an extroverted introvert. And, he’d been patient with Rey. The pair needed time, dates, and activities to reach this point.
“This place does have everything, but please don’t spend money on psychics. They’re not good.” Except Pamela and she’d gotten sent home. He fell behind the pair as a stall selling mermaid home décor caught his eye. He smiled softly, missing Maddie and Ryn a lot in that moment. Xander purposefully didn’t think of Ben.
She laughed softly at the psychic comment. “It’s funny to hear you say that in a place like this.” Even though Rey was well aware there were charlatans around. “Whatever we do, I promise it’ll be fun for all of us.” This was a commitment Rey was determined to make. She wanted today to go well.