Who: Rey and Finn When: Sometime in early August Where: Finn's place What: Finn has a romantic evening in store Rating/Warnings: Low, vague mentions of a previous intimate encounter Status: Complete
Finn was a nervous wreck. This date had to be perfect, as perfect as it had been in his head. Ever since their unexpected intimate night on their camping trip he'd been thinking of setting something like this up for Rey. That moment in the middle of the woods, beneath the canopy of their tent as the sun set outside and there was only the dim glow of the lantern light between them, he and Rey had suddenly found themselves inexorably drawn to give in to a desire that had been simmering beneath the surface for what felt like forever.
Only things hadn't gone as perfectly as one would expect. Finn had hoped their first time making love would have been full of passion and the stuff you saw in the movies. Instead, it had been a series of sweet moments intercut with awkward ones, where neither of them knew how to read the other well. He knew it had been Rey's first time, and Finn had been nervous - the last time he'd had sex was as a teen prior to joining the Navy.
He triple checked he had everything set for Rey's arrival: place settings? Check. Wine glasses? Check. Candlelight? Check. Food? Absolutely checked. He was keeping it warm in the oven even though it had just been delivered.
“Music,” he suddenly realized and scrambled around the living room looking for the remote to his Bose stereo. “Come on...come on where are you??” He heard the doorbell ring and panic set in. Then he remembered and patted down his pockets. Procuring the tiny black remote from his pants pocket he sighed and hit play, the soft sounds of smooth jazz drifting into the air.
He took a moment to breathe, straightened his shirt and answered the door with a bright grin. “Hey,”
There’d been some laughing, Rey would be the first to admit. But it had been good laughter, that kind of sweet giggling of being in a new, intimate situation. She’d made sure that her giggling had not been at Finn, but at the pine needle in her butt.
Still, she was really nervous today and she didn’t know why. It was just a date, they’d had a few. But she was dressed up (and it felt weird, but Finn would like that sort of thing) and walking up to his door and there she was knocking and it felt like their first kiss and they hadn’t even kissed. But then there he was and she beamed at him. “... Hey!”
Finn had gotten his shirt stuck over his head momentarily, back in the woods in their tent in that moment. It was both hilarious and embarrassing. Some smooth guy he'd turned out to be.
All that was forgotten though, as Rey appeared on his doorstep, and Finn couldn't help but openly gape. She was stunning. She looked like a goddess in that dress, which he saw exposed just enough skin at the hip to make the whole gown look to him like a single piece of fabric that would fall off at the touch.
He almost wanted to suggest skipping dinner altogether, but he knew Rey well. Food was practically her aphrodisiac.
“Uh...hey.” he said dumbly, and after another moment of staring he said, “Wow. You look...wow.” He felt sorely underdressed for the occasion, even if technically he wasn't. Finn moved forward and kissed her lips, placing a hand on that exposed gape of dress, fingers touching skin and disappearing partially into the fabric. “Oh, sorry. Sorry.” He pulled his hand away. “I didn't mean to, y'know.” He gestured at where his hand had been. Yeah sure they'd had sex but it didn't mean he didn't still respect her personal space. “Um,” he gestured as chivalrous like as he could for her to head in. “M’lady.” Okay now he was sounding like a complete dork.
“Hey,” She repeated, lifting a hand to brush back hair behind her ear. Her nerves hadn’t settled and there were butterflies in her stomach, but Finn looked good.
She was caught a little off guard when he leaned in, but his fingers on her skin were the good kind of burning and she kissed him back after a split second of surprise. Then she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him again, only deeper.
When she pulled away, she gave him a smile and said. “I’m no lady. In fact, I’m starving!”
Finn hadn’t been expecting the second kiss, and for a moment was caught off guard himself. But he easily went with it, enjoying the moment. When Rey replied to his dorky gesture, he chuckled. “It just got here, got it warm in the oven.” He then disentangled himself from her arms and took her hand, leading her into the house. The smell of the food was wafting lightly through the air - the unique fragrance of curry. He’d ordered Thai.
“You didn’t cook it yourself? Finn! I’m disappointed, I had my hopes up for a home cooked meal by yours truly…” She grinned at him, her expression one of profound innocence despite the teasing nature of her voice.
It had not even occurred to Finn to cook for Rey. Even after him mentioning it to her several times the past couple of weeks. He just wanted everything to be perfect, and when he cooked, the kitchen looked like a bomb had been dropped. He didn’t want that. Now he felt like an idiot for not thinking about how much more meaningful and romantic it would have been if he had created a meal just for Rey. He said sheepishly, “Sorry? I just, wanted everything to be perfect.” And at that moment he led her into the dining room: the table bore a nice white cloth perfectly starched, with two lit candles in the middle, accompanied by a bud vase with a few roses in them. The table settings were all there and a bottle of wine sat ready to be opened.
“It’s fine! I was teasing you.” She squeezed his arm, then let go as she saw the dining room. She hadn’t expected anything quite so fancy, just for the two of them, but she was touched. Right now, she’d forgotten the things that plagued her, and could just be Rey, the mechanic who was very fond of her Finn. Even if she wasn’t quite ready to say what was in her heart, anyway.
“Finn, this is amazing!”
He grinned, that wide silly grin of his. “Yeah? It is?” He wasn’t used to this, trying to impress a woman, let alone Rey, who was so different than anyone he’d ever known. “I uh, figured it might be better than just, y’know, the restaurant scene.” He could sense he was about to start babbling nervously and so shut up and rushed over to pull out a chair for her.
“I appreciate it.” She wasn’t the best at the social scene. She’d been alone too long and her dreams had only made her hermit-nature stronger. Being around Finn and Cel helped, but she missed Poe. He’d helped too.
Taking a seat. Rey smiled nervously at him.
“Okay,” Finn said, smiling as nervously as she, hands fidgeting with each other. “Uh, lemme get the food.” He scurried into the kitchen and opened up the oven, setting the containers on top of the stove. He opened each one, then came back into the living room and took their plates. Doing his best to scoop the food out neatly (and not splatter on his clothes) he did Rey’s plate first, then his, clearly piling more food onto his girlfriend’s dish. The curry smelled amazing and it wasn’t until that moment Finn’s stomach decided to grumble and remind him he was really hungry.
He took a moment before entering the room to pause, breathe, straighten up and sort of look like some kind of a waiter. Head held high, he came in, trying his best to keep a straight face as he set down Rey’s plate. “Your food, madame.” The beginnings of a smile were tugging at his lips and he tried to stay serious. He set his plate down at the opposite end of the small round table and then proceeded to uncork the wine.
And of course, struggled with it.
Rey waited politely for Finn to feed himself, though she wanted to dig in almost immediately. She needed to put something in her mouth before she said or did something embarrassing. Or revealed how nervous she was. Which was silly, it wasn’t their first date, but it felt like their first date.
And his text where she’d ruined her phone was still on the back of her mind. Before the cork was popped she’d shoveled a forkfull into her mouth, then blinked and looked at him, cheeks bulging and fork hanging out of her mouth.
Finn finally got the cork going, and sheepishly set it aside, ignoring the burn in his cheeks of embarrassment. He poured his glass then hers, only to look up and see Rey had stuffed her face like a chipmunk.
His lips spread into that enigmatic grin. Then he laughed. The friendly sort of laugh of understanding. “Yeah, I’m starving too.” Finn smiled affectionately at her, then sat down and started to chow down himself so she wouldn’t be alone in the endeavour.
Partway through their meal, and saying it around his food (he’d learned long ago that eating with Rey involved not having to be quite so polite as to not talk with food in your mouth) “How’s the Falcon?” After the latest chaos, this time involving undead and demons, they’d put the old ship through her paces.
“Sorry,” she said, muffled around food and fork. She’d been working really hard to curb that habit. Sometimes she felt like it had gotten exaggerated out of her control and that bothered her, so she didn’t mind trying to change it.
“She’s a little banged up from the last adventure, but back in good order! I’m thinking I’m just going to move into her. Save on rent. And have fabulous views every night. Though I suppose I should have a place for her as an address. For shipping and visitors.”
Finn’s eyebrows raised and he lowered his fork. “Really? I mean, that's kinda cool but where are you gonna park her? And how are you going to keep people from seeing it? I mean, they might think it's a prop for that new Star Wars theme park or something.”
“There’s a warehouse, the same place I fixed her up.” The owner seemed nice but she didn’t want to impose. “But I don’t think that’s a good long term situation. It has to be somewhere out of the way. I could always use a PO box for small things. And your or Cel’s place if I need to order something large. If that’s all right.”
“So you're gonna live inside a spaceship that's inside a warehouse?” He tilted his head to the side, brow furrowed. It really shouldn't have surprised him that Rey wanted to live on the Falcon. She'd lived most of her life inside a hollowed out AT-AT in the dreams. Plus the Falcon was Solo's ship and after losing him he knew she wanted to be near the man in some form. After a moment he grabbed his glass of wine and took a sip. “You know, you're used to Jakku, which is hella worse than the desert here. You could just park her in a valley somewhere.” Then he smirked, all wiseass a moment. “Or we could move up near the [name] park and you could park her there.” And he laughed. “And don't worry about packages and stuff. I'm totally cool with you sending stuff here.”
“Not really. I was going to live inside a spaceship in space!” She hadn’t really thought all of that through. But she was sure there was a way to make it work. The Falcon felt more like home than any place she’d ever lived.
“Is that even legal? Parking in a valley?”
Finn gaped at her. “You wanna live in space and you’re asking me if it’s legal to park in a valley?” He blinked, sat back, and tried to process this. “Wait, hold up. So you wanna live in space. By yourself? In the Falcon.” It hadn’t occurred to Finn to even take the Falcon out into space, let alone let it sit there permanently as a floating mobile home. He tried to picture it, the view from the cockpit of Earth, a giant blue spinning marble wreathed in oceans, landmasses and clouds, surrounded by stars as far as the eye could see. It sounded...pretty neat actually. A smirk grew on his lips. “You know you’ll scare the crap out of the ISS right?”
“No one controls space, it’s free … space!” Logically, she knew it wasn’t that simple, but there were treaties and such and Rey thought it would be a lot like living in a boat in international waters. Ultimate sovereignty.
“Only if they see me!”
He was smiling, popping pieces of naan bread into his mouth, but the smile faded a little at a thought. “But I'll miss you. You'd have to constantly come down through airspace. What if HomSec notices? Also...what if something goes wrong? I know you got BB-8 but...I dunno, Rey. It's not like there are space ports with vital parts. You'd be stranded up in a vacuum.” He was being too logical about this. He knew people from the other dreams had ships they flew into space. Maybe he should stop being so dramatic. But still…
His voice grew a bit quiet and he got that soulful look in his eyes. “I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you and I wasn't there.” Not to necessarily rescue her - he'd learned in the dreams real fast Rey was more than capable of handling herself. But just to be there with her. Even in a worst case scenario.
“I’ll be fine. The Falcon is a fine piece of machinery that’s survived much more than it looks like it should.” It was a hunk of junk but it was actually a really amazing hunk of junk and she’d fallen in love with it. “And I’ll land it regularly, probably for weeks at a time. We have so many weird things coming and going and no one has noticed yet.”
She reached across the table and took his hand. “Nothing is going to happen to me.”
Her touch was reassuring, and Finn squeezed her hand in return. He kept holding her hand as the continued through dinner, smiling up at her when they weren’t both stuffing their faces. He was really enjoying this - just the two of them, in a normal romantic setting, acting like a regular couple. Fancy dinner at one of their places. Music and candlelight.
“So, how’d you keep BB-8 entertained? Or is he just gonna go into sleep mode for the night?” Finn had never been good with droids, though he and the orange and white rolling ball of an astromech droid had become decent friends.
“The Falcon can pick up signal. Even internet. BB-8 will be fine.” She winked at Finn. She loved being with him, and she loved that she could talk about things she liked and he’d actually listen.
Finn couldn't imagine not having Rey in his life. Between the dreams and their time here together in the real world, he knew he'd found his soulmate. Cheeseball as it sounded. When she looked at him with those piercing, expressive eyes, or when she rambled on about rebuilding a motorcycle and all that entailed - it was something he could enjoy all day. Even if half of what she talked about went over his head.
Finn had finished his plate, save licking the damn thing. He was hungrier than he'd thought. A favorite song came on and he grinned that megawatt smile of his as he suddenly stood. Rounding the table he said, “I love this song. Dance with me.” Yes, this Storm Trooper could bust a move.
“I don’t know how to dance,” Rey admitted. “At least without flailing around like a wookie.”
Still, she got up and took his hand. First time for everything, right?
Finn chuckled. “Well fortunately this isn't a flailing song.” He suddenly had butterflies in his stomach (or was it the curry?); they hadn't done this before. He'd have to try not to step on her toes as he showed Rey how to do this.
Finn placed a hand at the small of her waist, while instructing her on the basics, “I put my hands here, and you put yours on my shoulders. Or around my neck.” He said this taking her hand and putting it on one of his shoulders. He then rested his free hand on her hips, while his eyes searched her face to make sure she was okay with this.
Hopefully it was butterflies but Rey wondered if it was the curry too. She followed the instructions, choosing to go for his neck rather than his shoulders. That felt more intimate. “Okay. Now what?”
“Well,” Finn took a step closer and pulled her in a little so it was less Dancing with the Stars and more realistic. He got lost in her eyes a moment before smiling and continuing, “Okay, wait. Right, I need one of your hands.” Duh. He felt his face burn a bit in embarrassment as he reached up and picked her right hand off of his neck. “Sorry, it's uh, been a while.” He held her hand in his out to the side a little. “Now, we take tiny steps. We'll move to the right a step.” And he took a small step to the right to show her, guiding her to move with him with the hand on her hip.
Rey followed his lead. If she cheated a little, using the Force to guide her and mesh her movements with Finn’s, she wasn’t going to say.
“This is kind of fun.” Rey leaned up a little, stealing the briefest kiss.
“Right?” he smiled. “Look at you. You got this.” Finn wouldn’t have realized she could use the Force that way. He was still learning how it worked and how it didn’t from what she would tell him. As far as he knew, Rey seemed to be a natural at this. He grinned at the stolen kiss, resting his hand on her waist again and letting her put her arms around his neck now that she had the hang of it. Swaying lazily with her as the music set the mood, he leaned down and kissed her lips, lingering there. He closed his eyes, resting his forehead against hers, immersed in the moment. They were alone. They weren’t fighting the First Order, or zombies, or helping stall some OC apocalypse. They weren’t running from anyone. They didn’t even have BB-8 there to unexpectedly pop in at a moment’s notice. It was just them, a really good dinner, candlelight and dancing.
The Force made her a natural, and she wondered if that was somehow wrong. She didn’t think it was. Like anything, it was all in how it was used, and she didn’t feel that cold wrongness that had enveloped Kylo Ren like a shroud. So she leaned into him, and let herself be whisked off like they were in a storybook ball. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to say what she felt. She just hoped that Finn understood.