Who: Poe Dameron & Michael Guerin When: Backdated: Saturday, May 2 Where: Poe's place What: Michael dreams of getting an exorcism Rating/Warnings: Mediumish because exorcism Status: Complete
Michael had been sleeping with Poe for a few weeks now. He didn’t usually keep coming back to the same person, opting instead for one, sometimes two night stands. But he didn’t mind it with Poe. The other man seemed just as happy with their casual sex arrangement as Michael was. Plus the sex was really good.
However Michael made it a point to never stay the night or have Poe stay the night at his place. So it figured the one night he actually fell asleep at Poe’s house he had dreams.
He was moved to a group home and angry as hell. Which of course met he was moving all kinds of things with his mind. Even threw the couch through the window. Which of course caused him to get yelled at more and in turn Michael threw more things with his mind- unable to control it.
The woman in charge of the home was convinced that Michael was possessed. She called a priest to ‘expel’ Michael’s demons.
Michael was tied down to the bed. He tried to break free, remove the ties with his mind, but having no control over his powers it didn’t work, instead he ended up throwing a lamp across the room. The priest made the sign of the cross and began to pray. There were more screams from Michael as wiggled around in the bed trying to break free. The night stand ended up bashing into the opposite wall. The priest moved on to more drastic measures. Taking medallions and burning the sign of the cross onto Michael’s arms.
“No!” Michael cried with a start. And then he was awake. Sweating and breathing heavily. His arm throbbing in pain. And he wasn’t alone.
Shit.
Poe had in fact been enjoying the arrangement he and Michael had fallen into very much. Yes, Poe liked being in a relationship, but he knew that relationships weren’t for everyone and he had no desire to push anyone who wasn’t ready and the arraignment they had certainly wasn’t a deal breaker for him.
Poe has also come to figure out early, quickly, that staying the night or having anyone spend the night wasn’t Michael’s thing, which was also fine with Poe, so when Michael did happen to fall asleep one night before getting the chance to leave, Poe didn’t exactly make the effort to try and wake him up and instead fell asleep himself not long after.
Sometime later Poe was awoken by Michael’s yell, causing him to bolt upright in bed, the sheets pooling at his hips as he looked around, half awake to figure out exactly what was going on, “Michael?” He finally reached over to turn on the lamp beside the bed, “What’s wrong?”
Poe sounded concerned. Which was the last thing Michael wanted. He quickly shot out of the bed flinching at the pain in his arm. With the light on he could see the burn marks of the cross were actually on his arm.
“Shit,” Michael said flinching again before scrambling to find his clothes and hoping Poe didn’t see his arm.
“I’m fine,” he finally replied to Poe’s questions as he got his boxers back on, trying to be as careful as possible when it came to his arm. “Just a bad dream.”
Lucky for Michael that BB-8 was powered down and charging in Poe’s spare bedroom, otherwise the droid would probably be rolling around underfoot, trying to figure out what was wrong and that probably wouldn’t have made the situation any better.
For his part, Poe could tell that this was more than simply Michael upset that he’d fallen asleep or just a bad dream. The lamp may not have illuminated the room completely, but Poe could tell that something else was wrong. Getting out of bed, he too pulled on his boxers, but made no other move to get dressed any further and instead moved around to where Michael was getting dressed, “I don’t think you are. What is it?” He didn’t try to reach out to stop Michael, but he got close enough that Michael knew he was concerned and he was only semi blocking the bedroom door.
Michael could see the concern on Poe’s face, could hear it in his voice. That was the last thing he wanted. Michael didn’t need anyone to be concerned about him. He was more than capable of taking care of himself.
“Bad dream,” Michael repeated because it was the truth. “Don’t worry about it,” he added not looking at the other man. For one he couldn’t handle seeing that concerned look, but also he needed to get his damn jeans on.
Poe couldn’t help but wonder what could have happened in Michael’s dream to cause the reaction it was in the other man, but Poe knew all too well what the dreams were capable of, “I know all about bad dreams. I was just mentally and physically tortured the other night in one of mine,” Poe felt his pulse spike slightly at the memories of Kylo Ren using The Force to tear information from him, but he took a deep breath and tried to push it from his mind for now because he was still concerned about Michael and it wouldn’t do either of them any good if Poe didn’t keep himself collected.
Michael saw that anger flash in Poe’s eyes. It was a relief. A break from the concern. Maybe even a distraction. They could focus on Poe’s dreams and not his. “Why? By who?” Michael asked a flash of rage coming over him. Pissed that someone would do that to Poe. Even in dreams.
Poe took another deep breath as he watched Michael and ran a hand through his dark, sleep messy curls before speaking again, “This guy called Kylo Ren. He was looking for the same thing we were looking for. I found it first,” He didn’t want to go into too much detail, because he didn’t want to make this about him, but he wanted Michael to know that he wasn’t alone, “I wouldn’t give him the information he wanted so he finally used this thing called The Force to rip it from my mind.” Poe honestly wasn’t sure which had hurt more; the physical torture or the mental torture.
Michael frowned as Poe talked about his dream. He could practically see the pain on the other man’s face as he spoke. Michael may not understand what the force was but having something ripped from your mind sure as hell sounded painful. “Shit,” Michael breathed slowly moving closer to Poe. “I’m sorry.” It sounded lame but it was all he could think of to say.
Poe’s dark eyes watched Michael as he moved closer and while he still wanted to touch him, comfort him in some way, he refrained for the moment, “You don’t need to apologize, Michael. You didn’t do it to me.” He continued watching Michael and spoke softly, “But you’re not alone. You’re not the only one having nightmares.” He was unsure of what Michael’s next move would be, but part of him hoped that he wouldn’t be in such a rush to leave now.
Poe was right. It wasn’t Michael’s fault. And honestly if Poe had said the same to him Michael probably would have been pissed. An apology for someone else’s actions didn’t do shit. He knew better than that even if he was at a loss for what to say after hearing about Poe’s dreams.
“Yeah,” was all Michael said agreeing that he didn’t need to apologize and that he wasn’t alone in the shitty dreams category. “You got any alcohol left?” No way was he about to go back to sleep after that. He needed a damn drink. Or ten. “And uh maybe something for a burn?”
Poe was a big believer in not apologizing for something that was beyond your control so he didn’t see a reason for Michael to apologize in this instance, but he knew that sometimes it was simply a gut reaction. People apologized for lots of things they didn’t do simply because it was something they thought they had to say.
“Yeah, I do. To both.” Poe quirked a brow when Michael mentioned the burn and now he was beginning to understand why the other man may have reacted quite the way he had when he’d woken up, “Is that what happened in your nightmare?” Poe had picked up quite a lot of first aid skills in the Navy and was no stranger to the occasional burn himself from working on his planes.
“Yeah,” Give or take an exorcism not that he really wanted to talk about that. Though the second Poe saw that his burn was in the shape of a cross he would probably realize it was a little more than just Michael simply getting burned. Maybe he should go. Take care of this himself back at his trailer before Poe could ask too many questions. And yet he couldn’t seem to bring himself to keep getting dressed.
Poe licked his lips as he looked Michael over as best he could in the low light of his bedroom before reaching out, slowly and touching Michael’s wrist, lightly, “Let me see.” If he could help Michael now he’d feel better than letting him leave and not knowing exactly how he’d taken care of the burn himself, because something told Poe that Michael had no intention of going to the hospital or even the dreamer clinic that Poe had heard about on the Network. “I’ll get you a beer if you let me help.” He quirked a brow, tone light as he spoke.
Michael didn’t really let people help him. He preferred to take care of himself. But his arm really fucking hurt. He knew it needed to be taken care of. Poe was right that he wasn’t about to go to a hospital for it either. “Fine,” Michael agreed, letting Poe look at his arm and hoping he didn’t ask why it was in the shape of a cross. “But only because you promised beer.”
Poe couldn’t help but smirk a little as Michael agreed, but that soon changed as his brow furrowed upon seeing the burn on Michael’s arm, “Shit.” He wanted to ask what had happened, but he also didn’t want to pry too much and cause Michael to decide to leave after he’d already decided to stay for the moment. “Lets get you that beer then I’ll fix this up.” He gestured towards the bedroom door, still holding Michael’s wrist loosely.
Even in the low light of Poe’s room, Michael could practically see the question in his eyes. But he didn’t ask which was a relief because Michael sure as hell didn’t want to talk about it. And Poe’s assumption was right he probably would have walked out of there if Poe pressed the issue. “I like the way you think, Dameron,” Michael said instead even attempting a smirk of his own. Because if he was going to deal with this, either alone or with Poe, he was going to need all the alcohol he could get.