ಠ╭╮ಠ (the_scavenger) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-05 14:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, finn, rey |
Who: Rey and Finn
When: Sometime in July
Where: Closed race track, then the beach!
What: Trial run date :)
Rating/Warnings:
Status:
Finn tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he nervously chewed on his lower lip. He looked over at Rey, who he knew was brimming with excitement at this opportunity to test drive his cobalt blue 2012 Dodge Challenger. He forced a grin. This was a date. She was loving being in the drivers seat and so help him god he was going to suck up being on an enclosed track with his baby and trust his date knew what she was doing.
After all, she’d flown the Millenium Falcon through an impossible maze of a graveyard of Imperial ships. Though there had been a bunch of scrapes and near misses. But...that was a lunky old freighter. This...this was a car meant to be driven hard.
“Okay,” he breathed. “You ready?”
Of course Rey knew what she was doing. She was born to fly or drive. It was in her blood. Literally. “I think Ms. Sato wants to race this car sometime. She was eyeing it like she wanted to take it apart though.” She could appreciate a woman who appreciated cars.
Swallowing her nerves, Rey revved the engine. “Hold on!”
She floored it, and really they could use a catchy rock tune to go with how quickly the car accelerated.
“Ain’t nobody touchin’ or taking apart this car. Except maybe youuu!” Finn yelled out the last word as she hit the gas and he felt the force of acceleration pin him to his seat. “Ohmygodwe’reactuallydoingthis!” he yelled, watching as the asphalt raced beneath them in a blur and the fence went by equally as fast. Finn had never been on a racetrack. The closest thing he’d come was a NASCAR race a friend dragged him to once when they were stateside for a mid-deployment respite. Watching and being in the car that’s racing were two vastly different experiences. As they made the first turn Finn let out a yell, but it started turning into a whoop of joy. This was insane! But...insanely fun! And his baby really did take off at a good clip and so far was handling like a dream.
Rey laughed, the sound coming out more like an excited shriek as she slammed back into the seat. The power of the engine was really only rivaled by the Falcon, or maybe an X-wing, in her experience. She took to each of the turns like a natural, even making the car drift each time and kicking up smoke and dirt. She shifted into the highest gear, coming in at nearly 200 mph - or 315 kmh back home. Shit. Shit “Shit!” She let her foot off of the pedal as they approached the last turn. It was too sharp, to hard, but she had an idea of how to take it without wrecking Finn’s car. She’d never forgive herself if she did.
“HOLD ON!”
It’d felt like an episode of Top Gear when they had celebrities racing around their fabled track in whatever random car they had for the day. Finn supposed that made him the inexperienced celeb and Rey the Stig. And that feeling had been fine up until the final turn when Rey started swearing.
“What??” He said, startled out of his joyous high and suddenly saw what she did. They were coming into the turn too hot. White hot panic gripped him. Oh god, they were gonna die on their do-over date. “Oh god! OH GOD! REYYY!” Finn shouted, practically crawling up his side of the car as if somehow that would help him escape or brace for impact. He was getting flashbacks of their time in the Falcon and she’d banged the old girl up a bit with some of her hairpin turns. But they hadn't crashed so he was hoping for another miracle because this wasn't the Falcon with a whole lot of ship between them and the outside.
The car spun out, doing a two three sixty turns as it skidded along the track and Rey did some kind of magic with the e-brake. The car straightened out and shot down the straightaway again, and she let out an earshattering woop. She let off of the gas, eventually bringing them to a stop. Rey felt energized, and she grinned at Finn, all teeth and bright eyed. “That was so much fun!!”
Finn was dark skinned. And if a black man could turn ashen white in sheer terror, that would have been the color of his face. As it was, however, he couldn’t turn pale, so his body made up for it with a slightly drained look of pallor, extraordinarily wide eyes, and his lips slightly parted as if unsure whether to sigh in relief or scream belatedly. His body was stiff as if the car hadn’t stopped moving yet, slowly relaxing in the sudden silence as reality set in that they had indeed stopped.
With barely a glance at Rey, Finn fumbled with the seatbelt and the door a moment before rushing out, sprinting halfway across the width of the track before doubling over and throwing up.
Great.
“Oh.” Her grin faded, and she supposed a kiss would probably out of the question (though where that had come from she didn’t know). She got out and rushed over. Finn didn’t have any hair to hold, but she did awkwardly pat his back. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?”
Finn nodded wordlessly as he coughed and spat, resisting the compulsive heaving that throwing up always brought with it. A track attendant, having seen everything ran out with a roll of paper towels and a bottle of water. Finn took the water gratefully and watched with deep embarrassment as the guy cleaned up the mess. Taking a few swigs of water he said to Rey once the guy jogged off, “I survived crashing in a TIE….twice, and flying in the gunners seat in the Falcon, and with this NOWI throw up?” He smirked at her before taking another long drink of water. “That was some badass driving.” He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry about...that.” He shrugged a shoulder towards where he’d just been bent over.
“I’m so sorry,” Rey said. She rubbed at his back, in a slow, circular manner. “I lost control just a little bit there at the end, but I realized I could turn us into the spin and get us out of it. I would have felt really bad if I wrecked your car.”
Rey's hand on his back was comforting and Finn decided to milk it with some puppy dog eyes. He looked over at her and gave her a faux queasy smile (though if he thought on how close they came to wrecking it’d be a real queasy smile.) “I'm okay I just need a minute.” He drank a little more water before capping it. “You did great, Rey. You’d give The Stig a run for his money.” He smiled and clapped a hand on her shoulder before moving back to his car. He gave his blue beauty a quick inspection before pulling open the rear passenger door and ducking down, rummaging through something in the footwell. He procured a travel sized toothpaste and brush. “My Go Bag. Always have one.” he explained to Rey, wiggling the two items as he headed to the bathroom.
As he brushed his teeth in the men’s room, Finn was grateful that he had stowed that away in the back of his car. As a military man, he’d learned the value of having such a bag in case of various emergencies. And throwing up during a date counted as one, right? Right.
After a minute or so he popped back out onto the track, all smiles again. “Minty fresh.” he joked.
A go bag wasn’t actually a bad idea. Rey had something similar, though it was at home. It was more or less ‘things just got bad here and I need to move out overnight’ type of things. “Good man, Finn.” she clapped him on the shoulder, then cleared her throat because that was awkward, wasn’t it?
“Uh. Sorry. I got enthusiastic.”
It was a little weird being greeted more like a friend and then being clapped on the shoulder by your date, but then hadn’t Finn just done that himself? It seemed they were both going to have to just take their time and figure out how to navigate dating each other - with Finn’s limited experience and Rey’s well, complete lack of it.
“It’s okay, you don't’ have to keep apologizing. That was kinda what we were going for with this, pushing limits and enthusiasm, right?” he smiled at her fondly. “Now, I know I just upchucked on the track, which probably killed your appetite, but I think the next thing on the list was a picnic on the beach?” He cleared his throat with a little leftover embarrassment that he’d kinda screwed that up now. “We could still at least do the beach part. Y’know, if you’re not hungry.” Moving to the car he put the brush and toothpaste back, then moved to the drivers’ side. He paused and frowned a little. Maybe Rey would feel better if he showed he trusted her to drive them to the beach without things turning into something out of Fast and the Furious.
At that thought, Finn smirked to himself and walked around the front of the car. Nodding his head for her to go ahead to the driver’s side he said, “All right, Letty, we got some sun to catch.” He hoped she caught the reference. Being a car oriented girl, he was sure she did.
“Finn.” She put a hand on each of his shoulders, and looked him in the eye with the most serious expression she was capable of. Like she was going to bare her soul. And she said, “You have seen my appetite, haven’t you?”
‘Not hungry’ and ‘Rey’ didn’t belong in the same sentence. She winked at him, face suddenly brightening up like the sun. “I’ve been looking forward to that part almost as much as driving your car!”
She moved over to the driver’s seat and got in. “I promise I’ll drive like a normal person.”
Finn should have known better than to question Rey’s appetite, but he had been certain he’d managed to kill it. Seemed that wasn’t the case.
He chuckled at Rey’s promise. “All right, then let’s go.” The food was in a small cooler in the other footwell in the back of the car. He’d packed sandwiches and drinks and whatever other foodstuffs he could cram into it. He’d never done this before so it was all guesswork.
Once they were on the road, Finn pulled sunglasses down from the secret compartment in the overhead between them and - putting them on - laid back, trying to chill. “So, how was your week?”
Finn certainly looked really chill, and Rey occasionally stole a look while she was driving. Just to see how he was doing, that’s all. “Pretty boring, all told. Some shopping with friends. Mostly I worked. I managed to get a good project going that will pay pretty well!”
“Oh yeah? What’s the project?” Finn genuinely sounded interested. Mechanics had never been his thing, but he’d always held a great level of respect for those who excelled at it, and he enjoyed it whenever Rey explained her projects.
Rey shrugged her shoulder. “Just working on cars, nothing special.” She’d just called it a project to make it sound more interesting than it actually was. Well it was interesting to her, anyway!
Finn chuckled, pulling down the sunglasses a notch to look at her over them. “Well of course it’s cars! But the question is: what kinda car? If it pays well, we talkin’ a Lamborghini or somethin’? Please tell me it’s a Lamborghini.”
“I wish.” Rey pulled off the freeway, taking them towards the beach. She was getting increasingly nervous, the closer they got. “It’s more of a rebuild! Old hot rod.”
“Nice,” Finn grinned. “What kind?” He could see the beach now and felt a small knot in his stomach. It wasn’t a return so much of the nausea as it was nerves. Ever since he’d finished his dreams, he’d worried about the giant scar on his back Kylo Ren’s lightsaber had left. He’d woken up to it one day and needless to say wasn’t happy about it. Now he’d have to brave being shirtless and was wondering if he could go through with it.
“The old kind,” Rey joked. She pulled into a spot and cut the engine, leaving them in silence. She was still gripping the wheel, because now it was do or die. Now or never.
She’d rather face a squad of Stormtroopers. “Well. We’re here.”
“Yep, yes we are.” Finn said, lapsing into silence again. He drummed his fingers on his legs a moment until the pause bordered on an awkward silence. “Um...so I’ll go get the cooler.” He manually unlocked the door and stepped out, going to the back seat of the car to retrieve it. Finn wasn’t sure what Rey was nervous about, as generally he’d known her to be confident and bordering on brusque.
“Good idea.” Rey got out of the car. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to strip down here or not, the beach was down that way. She looked around, and saw most people were going down in their swimsuits, so she shrugged and pulled her t-shirt off, then bent over to pull her pants down.
Finn had just rounded the backside of the car with the cooler in hand when he saw Rey pulling the shirt over her head, revealing more skin and curves than he’d seen in either the dreams or here. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared mutely as she bent over to take off her pants; by then he’d lost all ability to think.
He dropped the cooler with a hard thud of plastic on asphalt. It took him a long moment to react and his brain struggled to catch up to what his eyes were registering. It was with a great bit of fumbling before Finn was able to pick up the cooler and an equal amount of verbal tripping over himself before he could form words. “Wh...wow. Okay. Um. Wow. We’re doin’ this here, okay.” Well if she was willing to take it off, there was no way he couldn’t now. Setting the cooler upright carefully (now they’d have to wait a while to open those sodas), Finn stood and grabbed his shirt at the hem, pulling it up and over his head in a single movement.
Rey straightened, and tossed her clothing into the back seat of the car. “Let me help you with that….cooler.” She was staring. Okay. This was a thing. In fact it was the kind of thing she wasn’t exactly used to. “Hnmn.” Rey coughed, stepping past him to get the cooler and have an excuse not to look.
Finn wasn’t sure what to do with himself as he felt Rey’s eyes on him, so he just stepped aside, desperately trying not to stare as Rey grabbed the cooler. He tossed his shirt into the car and closed the door, trying to make sure she didn’t see his back.
“So um, ready?” he finally mustered proper words.
“Ready!” She cheerfully walked past him, patting his shoulder as she did so. Just… get to the beach, get set up, try not to embarrass herself too horribly. She could do it. “This was a good idea. How’s your stomach holding up?”
Finn was grateful that Rey was so quick to be able to move past any sense of awkwardness. Lord knows he wasn’t that smooth. He started to follow her, and answered, “Fine, so far.” when he realized something. “Oh crap, the towels!” He’d forgotten! “Be right back!” He gestured for the keys from her and then trotted back to the car, quickly digging up the beach towels and sun tan lotion (just in case Rey needed any) before rushing back to catch up with her. “Clearly it’s been awhile since I’ve been to the beach.” He smiled wryly.
“Well, you’ve been here more often than I have. The only time I’ve seen sand is in the desert.” And while she didn’t hate sand quite to the level that her grandfather had, she would prefer avoiding it. Green had become her favorite color - it was a pity her secret attempts to garden kept ending in failure. She spread out the blanket, because that was what one did in the movies she’d watched to figure out what beach going entailed, then sat down.
“Wait, seriously? You’ve never been to the beach? Anywhere?” He busied himself with settling his own towel down on the sand before sitting down. Kicking off his sandals he leaned back and took a moment to survey the scene before them: all the people, doing just as they were, scattered throughout the sandy beach, umbrellas dotting the landscape, children squealing in the surf, people sunbathing. “My gran didn’t take me much. But we went a few times, usually late afternoon when most people were done.”
“Not a real beach anyway. Didn’t have much time when i was a kid, and then I was landlocked for a long time.” Her eyes fell on his back, and the scar there. Her throat grew tight, and her heart clenched. That was her fault. He’d tried to protect her because she hadn’t accepted her destiny. If she had, maybe he’d have been okay. She crawled across towards him and sat behind him, placing her hands on his back. “I’m so sorry.”
Finn sat up, brow furrowed in uncertainty when he saw Rey crawling over to him. He could see that look on her face, that familiar expression of quiet distress. He couldn't figure it out until he felt her fingers graze the scar and settle on his skin.
Just when he’d managed to have forgotten about the damn thing for a minute.
He held his breath a few heartbeats, caught between the sudden simple intimacy of the moment and the flashes of dream memories in his mind's eye. Kylo tossing Rey like a rag doll into a tree. The angry demonic red glare of his tri-blade lightsaber lighting up the falling snow. The blue flare and resonant hum of the borrowed lightsaber Finn had wielded in that moment of truth. He’d never wanted to kill anyone up until that point. Up until Kylo had messed with Rey.
“It's not your fault, Rey. It's his.” Finn’s voice was gentle until he got to the end, refusing to name their dream nemesis. “You did what you could. You saved me in the end.” He twisted around slowly to look at her, looking her right in the eyes as he took one of her hands in his. “And I'll always be grateful for that. No one from my old life would have done that for me.” He squeezed her hand and smiled, trying not to tear up. He had half a mind to kiss her knuckles but realized for the girl who didn't date, that might weird her out and ruin the moment.
She leaned forward, resting her forehead against the back of his shoulder. It helped her hide her face, even if it didn’t alleviate her guilt. “My first friend and I almost lost you. And that’s...that’s not fair. And I feel selfish for saying that. I mean, it’s your life, after all.”
Her lips brushed gently over part of the scar. “I almost killed him.” Her voice wavered, filled with pain and anger. “And I would have given into the rage and found a way to make him pay if you’d died.”
Finn was quiet as she spoke and said nothing for a spell after she finished, the gentle sounds of the surf and people enjoying the beach filling in the silence. “I’d have done the same if it’d been you.” He finally said between them. He intertwined their fingers together as he let her lean on him. After another quiet moment he smirked and said, “I thought BB-8 was your first friend.” He teased, grinning broadly and white toothed even if she couldn't see it, hoping to lighten the mood.
Rey laughed, grinning against Finn’s shoulder. “First organic friend, is that fair enough?” She was in no particular hurry to move. Or felt like she needed to. Finn was comfortable, the sound of the surf and people playing was almost relaxing.
“Sure. Though you might want to work on your greeting. Starting with calling a guy thief and whacking him with your staff is a helluva introduction.” And he nudged her gently, chuckling. He didn't want to move either, enjoying the feel of Rey against his sun warmed back. It felt right, in this moment, the two of them just enjoying the other’s presence.
After a while, however, Finn could feel himself getting a bit drowsy; he got now why his grandmother's cat enjoyed warming itself in the sun. This kind of sun was nice. The kind he’d endured in Afghanistan and even on Jakku in his dreams were brutal compared to this. Even so, he didn't want Rey to burn. “Hey,” his voice was low, nudging. “Did you put sunblock on? You wanna hit the water?”
“BB8 was quite insistent,” Rey said. Though why she’d believe a droid so easily and quickly was a matter for debate - a droid had never hurt her or betrayed her. A droid could be relied upon and its loyalty second to none. She could appreciate that.
She was half asleep herself, and lazily nuzzled his back. “Mmm? Mm that’s probably a good idea.” She was usually covered up in the sun. Rey felt almost naked.
Reluctantly Finn shifted enough to reach for the sunblock. He turned his head, saying over his shoulder, “Here you go.” holding out the bottle to her. “Don’t want you to burn, desert girl.” He teased gently. He hadn’t put any on himself, believing the myth that people of color didn’t need sunblock. But a part of him wondered if he should anyway, as his limited exposure to sun was nearly the same as Rey’s. He’d always had gear on during his deployments. Last thing he needed was sunburn the day after.
“I wonder why I didn’t burn all the time on Jakku. Maybe something in the atmosphere blocked UV rays.” She shrugged, and started to rub lotion on her arms, face and legs, then playfully slapped some onto Finn’s back and slathered it all over. “Just in case.”
“Maybe because you were covered up like a mummy - GAH!” he tensed for a moment as the cold sunblock slapped against his back. He’d kept his back to her on purpose, in order to avert his eyes from watching Rey apply the stuff to her person. Because he would stare if he did. And well, that’d be awkward. “You did that on purpose.” And he laughed, letting her rub it in. But then he grew quiet again, the laughter fading from him as the sensation registered that she was running her hands over his back. Contact between them here had been minimal; in the dreams it’d been mostly grabbing of hands and running away from stuff, with the random OMGYOU’REOKAY hug thrown in here and there. But that’d been it. All Finn knew now was that if this kept up he was going to have to hit the water at a sprint, just to cool down.
“Hey, lemme get that.” he offered, clearing his throat a little while trying to clear his head. “May I?” And he gestured, meaning to help her apply the lotion to her back where she couldn’t reach.
She felt incredibly close to him. Nearly watching him die was enough for that. Though Rey wasn’t the most touchy of people on the best of days, she wanted to make sure he was really here. Even on the beach there was a sort of intimate privacy that she liked. But she laughed it off and held out the lotion, before turning around. “No funny business.”
“Me? Funny business? C’mon Rey you know me. Perfect gentleman.” And of course that was the joke. They really hardly knew each other, when you got down to it. Running from the First Order didn't leave room for that sort of thing. That was half the reason they were on this date, to truly get to know each other. The funny part was though, Finn felt like Rey already knew him better than anyone else he’d ever known, even Poe. Maybe it was their shared sense of loneliness and uniqueness in the environments they’d grown up in.
Finn realized he’d been lost in thought as he’d been applying the lotion; he’d been slowly rubbing it in the same spot between Rey’s shoulder blades and not much elsewhere. Snapping out of it he continued applying, feeling his face heat up in embarrassment. He was being very gentle as if Rey might shatter into a thousand pieces if he pressed too hard.
“There. All done. You are good to go.” He stood and offered her his hand to help her up.
“Uh huh.” Still, something told her to trust him. It could be the Force, it could have been just the kind of person he was. Or maybe Rey just trusted people too easily, despite how often she’d been hurt for it. She closed her eyes as he rubbed the lotion in, not really minding his distraction. “Thanks.” She took his hand and bounced to her feet. “Last one in the water is a toothless womp rat!”
“Wait...what?!” Finn made a face, unsure of what the hell a womp rat was, before dashing after her. He laughed as they ran pell mell for the water’s edge (though he stumbled a moment, swearing under his breath as he stepped on a piece of sea shell). Finn caught up with her, nearly breathless, ending his steps just a few paces into wet sand and waves that were receding around his ankles. He watched the movement of the water as it readied itself to splash up against the sand again, then looked over at Rey and held out a hand. “Ready?”
Rey had frozen, just where the first bit of wet sand met her toes from the surf. She watched the water lap up, and then fall back, the same way a man might look at a lion that was licking it’s chops. Weary, and just a little terrified. “....You know what, I should just work on a tan.”
“Whoa, whoa hold up.” He turned around and took the two paces back to where Rey stood just out of reach of the water. He could see the uncertainty on her face; it was that same sort of flight response he'd seen in the dreams, when she’d hesitated from wanting to stay away from Jakku for too long. It was what she was used to, it was what she knew, that dustbowl of a planet. But he also knew what her features had looked like when she'd seen Takodana for the first time. Awestruck, fascinated, beautiful. “Listen, it's okay. It's just gentle waves, the water's nice and warm.” He gently took her hand in his, interlocking their fingers. “I'm right here.” He smiled at her. “Remember Takodana? Just think of it like that - minus all the crazy that happened after we met Maz. All those trees, that water reflecting the sunlight.”
“I wasn’t going to jump into the water,” Rey pointed out. This was different than a shower or a bath (both things that she considered luxurious now. After some of her dreams she’d spend an hour in the shower. Just standing there and enjoying the water on her skin. She nodded, though, and took a few steps into the surf. This...wasn’t so bad!
It was a valid point. “Yeah well...I bet you would have if we weren't so busy trying to get BB-8 to the Resistance.” Finn stepped forward with her - watching their feet - and looked up at her, giving Rey a broad, white toothed grin as the surf lapped at their ankles, pushing and drawing sand around their feet.
“See? Not so bad.” He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done this, and had to admit it felt really nice. Finn took a moment to watch the people playing farther out in the surf; kids squealing and splashing each other, adults with boogie boards, people just jumping about in the water having fun.
“This much water is a little terrifying.” It went on as far as the eye could see and she knew it went much farther than that. The thought was overwhelming. But if children could go into the water, so could she. She stepped out, stubbornly wading in to her waist.
“Now you know how I felt in the deserts of Jakku,” Finn teased. Same thing, different element stretching on forever. He went from holding her hand, to placing his hand at the small of her back; he didn’t want her to lose her sense of balance as the waves washed around them. He waded in step right beside her, surprised she was heading in as deep as she was.
“You gonna be okay this far out? You’re going to feel the movement of the water more, so don’t freak out, okay?”
“I’ll be fine.” Rey turned and elbowed him lightly, before leaning back in his arms. “As long as...we stay put. Staying put is okay, isn’t it?”
“Okay, okay.” Finn chuckled as he felt her skinny elbow nudge his ribs. “Yeah, we can stay put...just don’t stand stiff like a statue or the water’ll push you around. Just relax, chill, let it flow around you.” He stood with her as the waves gently pushed in from the sea to the shore, gently nudging them. As Rey relaxed in his arms, Finn smiled and looked over at her, then back out at the water. This was perfection, right here. But his brow furrowed a few minutes later when he heard the irritating growl of jetski’s and saw in the distance a pair of them hopping along the waves. Crap. This was going to get bumpy.
“Um…” he started, watching as the larger waves from the craft started to roll in, obviously bigger than the ones they’d been enjoying. “Rey, you might wanna hold on…”
“Shit.” Rey turned and buried her face in Finn’s shoulder as the waves crashed over them. It was just water, it wasn’t actually terrifying. It was just water. She had to get over this fear, so she turned again to face some more waves.
Finn stiffened with fear for Rey’s sake, though he nonchalantly braved the waves like he was standing in a kiddie pool with all of five inches of water. He’d gone through Navy SEAL training, and that made any interaction with water thereafter, seem like child’s play.
“You’re okay,” he said, as Rey clung to him through the first two waves, throwing his other arm gently around her protectively. He really hadn’t expected this much physical interaction with her, and really wasn’t complaining, but he had to admit he was surprised she was afraid of anything. After seeing the woman freestyle climb the docking area on Starkiller Base, he honestly hadn’t thought anything could get to her.
When Rey turned to face the waves, however, he grinned. I stand corrected. he thought. The water rose and fell, pushing at them harder so that even Finn had to take half a step back to steady himself. He chuckled, enjoying the near weightlessness, and buried his toes in the soft sand. “Fun, right?”
Heights were nothing to be afraid of. An unnaturally large amount of water however? That was a problem. But she could face her fears. She had on Starkiller, after all. And this was supposed to be fun (and people were nutters but that was okay). She laughed. “You’re nutters.” Okay so was Finn.
Finn laughed. “Now you see if I was ‘nutters’ I’d be trying to toss you in.” And he gave her a playfully mischievous look, as if he were ready to do just that.
She gave him a look, as if daring him to try. She dug her feet into the ocean floor in preparation.
There was a moment where neither of them moved, where only the water around them seemed insistent on action. Then in a flash Finn grabbed Rey and scooped her up in his arms, despite her best attempts at anchoring herself. “Ha!” he crowed victoriously, with a stupidly huge grin on his face. “That Navy SEAL training totally paid off!” He laughed. Finn was in exceptional shape, even if his small frame didn’t seem to show it off as obviously. He was stronger than he looked and held Rey just aloft of the surface as easily as if he were carrying a blanket.
He started wading out a little deeper into the water until it was just at the bottom of his ribcage. “Whatcha gonna do now?” He twitched his arms quickly as if he were going to drop her, giving Rey just enough of a sense of movement. In the back of his mind he knew one of two things: either a) this was going to be something to laugh about later or b) this woman was going to kill him the moment they were on dry land. Finn realized it was entirely possible she had her Force powers now but hell, it was too late now. If she wanted to force slap him upside the head there was nothing he could do about it.
“You’re a damn cheater!” Rey didn’t sound that upset. She was laughing. Having the time of her life with the man she considered her closest and best friend. “If you drop me so help me I’ll force toss you into the deeps!”
Finn laughed heartily. “Is that supposed to be a threat? You know I'll just swim back to you, right?” It was a cute threat, although he knew a very possible one. “I'm not gonna drop you, Rey, don't worry. I got you.” And he smiled down at her, the meaning deeper than just in this moment. Looking into her expressive, lively eyes his lips shifted into his trademark soft smile and he said, “I'll always have your back.”
She smiled at him, and after too long a moment of staring at his face (and his lips), she shimmied out of his arms. “I think I’ve had… enough water for now. Lets dry off and enjoy the view shall we?”
They’d had this staring contest before, back in the dreams, on the Falcon. It felt like deja vu. Finn obliged and let Rey slip into the water that was now almost chest deep. He watched her a moment as she waded back towards land before following. As the sea continued to ebb and flow around them, Finn thought he heard another rough wave coming for them from behind. Twisting around, sure enough it was breaking upon itself as it rolled in, much to the delight of the other swimmers. He wasn't so sure Rey would be so excited at getting bowled over.
“Rey! Look out!” He strained to run through the water, just making it to grab her from behind, wrapping his arms around her slender waist and planting his feet in a firm stance to brace themselves.
It was just a wave, and Finn was probably overreacting. But it was a wave and Rey was definitely Done With Water for the time being. Sputtering, she gasped. “And people actually like that?!”
“Yeah, most people do.” he replied, watching the water foam up onto the beach with a loud hiss. Belatedly he let her go, realizing he was still holding onto her as if the ocean might give it another go at them. But they were steps from being out of the water. Finn cleared his throat a little, realizing how overprotective he suddenly was being.
“But yeah, I think some time drying off would be good.” Making it onto dry land, Finn plucked shells from the sand as they walked along, dusting them off and rolling them around in his hands. They were ocean worn and smooth. One looked like it had been a scallop shell once. He offered them to Rey to look at.
Rey took them, turning them over in her hands as they walked back to their umbrellas and towels. She was suddenly really hungry again but she ignored that. The shells were interesting enough to distract her and honestly stomach she just ate! “I once found fossilized shells on top a mountain in western Arizona. Most of the western states were underwater hundreds of millions of years ago. Did you know that?” She held up the scallop shell. “I don’t think they’ve changed all that much, really. I wonder what this world will look like in a hundred million years.”
Finn raised his eyebrows at the trivia. “Really? Most of the West? That’s crazy.” He watched her as she studied the shells, her intense gaze scrutinizing them. He wondered if she had that look on her face in the dreams while scavenging. “I think they’ve got a documentary thing on that.” he noted, trying to remember the name. “It’s all CGI of course.”
They arrived back at their blankets and Finn flopped down, grateful to be drying off in the warm sun again. Reaching over he popped open the cooler, pulling out a can of soda and a sandwich. Really it was a section of a hero. He’d bought one at a local deli and had them cut them up into manageable slices. He figured they’d fit easier into the cooler that way and they could eat them without worrying about leftovers. He held them out to Rey first.
“Thanks.” She took the sandwich, grateful for the food. Maybe some day she wouldn’t treat food like a precious resource, but that would be a long time in the future. Rey gave Finn a light smile, before promptly devouring the food.
Finn chuckled softly to himself as she wolfed down the sandwich. It would never cease to entertain him how she ate everything as if it were her last meal for a while. He unwrapped his and bit into it casually, people watching as they ate. “Mm, this is good. Got this at a local deli.” He couldn't remember the last time he’d had a freshly made deli sandwich.
“So this isn’t so bad, for a date, right?” he finally said after a stretch of silence.
“It was...really nice.” Rey smiled brightly. “Thank you, Finn.” It was kind of a test date and she’d really enjoyed it. She still didn’t know how to work through the things she was feeling, but that wasn’t that important right now. She leaned her shoulder against Finn.
“You’re welcome,” he smiled back at her, and leaned back a little against her. While Finn had tried to figure out in the chaos of the dreams how he’d felt about Rey, from their first startling encounter to all the adventures afterwards, by the end of them he knew exactly how he felt. He could only hope that the next time he asked her out, she’d remember this day and say yes.