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“Rey, c’mon, I’m beggin’ ya~” Poe beseeched.
“But Rose said she would teach me stage two of mainframe-hacking today.” Rey said as she continued marching onward, unsympathetic to his plight.
“Okay, but you can do that anytime, and the camping trip starts today.” The pilot argued as he walked in reverse in front of her, glancing behind himself to make sure he wouldn't trip on anything.
“Mmm, I was really looking forward to part two,” the jedi said as she crossed her arms, but started to slow her pace.
“I understand, and I wouldn’t be asking you unless it was necessary. I’d go myself, but they said the terrain is too intense for non-force users, so that rules me out.” He said, trying to hold back his frustration.
“I still don’t see why you think it’s necessary.” Rey finally ceased ambulating altogether, looking like she was close to cracking.
“I just need to make sure Finn is safe. I know he can handle himself just fine in most situations, but with Kylo in the mix? I don’t know, I have a feeling that guy’s up to something.” Poe said with more than a touch of suspicion coloring his words.
“What if you’re just worrying over nothing?” Rey posited.
“Well then they’ll just have some extra company on their training trip and you might even have a good time yourself. No harm, no foul.” The orange-clad one reasoned. “C’mon, don’t you want to make absolutely sure Finn is safe? He’s your friend too.”
Dammit, he played the friend card! “Oh alright, fine! I’ll go.” she relented. “You wore me down.”
~•*•~
“Sorry for the holdup; my dads kept trying to add more things to my bag.” Finn chuckled embarrassedly as he jogged up to a Kylo who was waiting for him, each of them carrying a pack of supplies.
“Don’t worry about it,” the fair-skinned one waved off the apology before straightening the black poncho he was wearing. “now let’s get going befor-”
“Oh, I am so looking forward to the views and fresh air!” Rey said as she pushed her way past the two, carrying a supply-laiden pack of her own.
“Rey? Are you… going somewhere?” Finn asked in confusion.
“I’m coming on the training trip with you two.” She said as if it were obvious. “Now come on, we’re burning daylight!” Oh Poe so owes me for this, she thought with a grimace the others couldn’t see.
Kylo and Finn turned to each other with mirroring confused af expressions. Finn eventually sighed, resigned to the fact that Rey was not to be deterred. “Let’s just try to make the best of it.” he mumbled in dejection before they reluctantly began their hike.
~•*•~
Okay, that was the 17th time she caught Finn looking over at her apprehensively (usually accompanied by him wringing his hands), erroneously assuming she wouldn’t notice.
Even Kylo was throwing the occasional odd look her way. Although those appeared more annoyed than anything else. Plus the two kept whispering to each other!
Okay, Poe’s instincts might’ve actually been right, as there was definitely something going on.
She’d finally had enough of their suspicious behavior and suggested they stop for lunch.
-
The three of them sat around the makeshift dining room, Rey sitting on a log opposite the one Kylo and Finn shared, the stump they were using as a surface to set their drinks on serving to separate the parties.
They ate their meal in awkward silence; usually Finn was the one to keep conversations flowing, but seemed too tightly wound for it at the moment. He did, however, jump at the chance to start whispering to Kylo the second Rey started rummaging through her pack, using the noise as cover. Unfortunately Rey could still hear him just fine.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take!” Finn whined to the other.
“Yeah, it is getting pretty awkward.” Kylo agreed.
“Um, do you- do you think we should tell her?” Finn asked hesitantly.
“Hm… think she can keep a secret?” He asked, getting a nod from the other. “Then yeah. Otherwise this whole trip will be all but wasted.” He crossed his arms.
“Good point.” Finn nodded, trying to convince himself whatever he was about to do was the right course of action.
The whispering ceased, and Finn waited until Rey was done with her pack before clearing his throat loudly.
She looked up, pretending to be surprised he was requesting her attention.
“Heyyy, Rey, buddy, if I tell you something can you promise not to tell anyone else?” Finn asked with his hands clasped together in front of him in a pleading gesture.
“Depends what it is, I suppose.” She replied.
Finn turned back to Kylo to see if that was good enough, getting a shrug in response. That was yes enough for him.
“Okay, so there was a specific reason why we wanted to come out here-”
“Aside from training,” Kylo interjected, as they had still planned on getting some of that in amongst their… other plans.
“Right, there was a reason–aside from training–why Kylo and I wanted to come out here, by ourselves. And we’ve decided it’s time we came clean.”
“Okay,” Rey prompted with a raised brow.
“It’s um, admittedly something really stupid.” He glanced sideways at Kylo.
“Incredibly so.” Kylo tried to suppress a light blush as he returned the glance. It didn’t work.
“But, the thing is, um,” Finn began wringing his hands as he attempted to explain. “We’ve been having these, um, these uh…”
“Urges.” Kylo supplied.
“Yeah that.” Now it was Finn’s turn to blush. “And we’ve been trying to suppress them, to just stop feeling these feelings, but that’s only made them stronger.
“And we know the others wouldn't understand.” Kylo clenched a fist at his side.
“But we’ve decided it’s not fair to keep denying ourselves.” Finn turned to face Kylo.
“We’re done holding back, resisting.” Kylo turned toward Finn too, locking eyes with the shorter man.
“Through with ignoring who we are.” Finn leaned in closer to Kylo.
“And what we truly want.” Kylo leaned closer as well, the distance between them lessening.
Rey's jaw dropped. “Oh my god, Poe was right.” Something being up, confirmed. Probably just not what he was expecting.
“What?” They both turned their heads toward her in surprise, almost as if they’d forgotten she was even there.
“Nothing, just go ahead and say it, I want to get this over with as soon as possible.” She said, forehead now resting in her palm.
“We want to have a force rock fight-”
“We want to go force rock sledding-“
They blurted out at the same time.
…???
“I thought you said we were gonna go sledding first.” Finn turned to Kylo with a look of betrayal.
“Yeah, but we already passed up the hill for that a ways back and there are plenty of rocks right over there.” Kylo explained, gesturing to a rather substantial pile of stones nearby.
“Oh, good point.” Finn ceded with a look of approval, eyeing the stone pile.
“And why, exactly, do you have to keep that a secret?” Rey asked, not seeing what the big deal was.
“I would no longer be able to strike fear into the eyes of anyone who knew.” Kylo informed evenly.
“And I would never hear the end of the ribbing I would receive from my old quad.” Finn said with a grimace.
“If they saw us doing this dumb shit they’d never let us live it down.” The ex-sith reasoned.
“… I see.” Rey could already picture it in her mind’s eye, and was leaning towards agreeing to keep what she’d heard to herself. But first, “Can I speak to Finn for a moment? Alone.”
Kylo looked to Finn, who gave a nod which the ex-sith returned before heading off somewhere to give them some privacy.
Once Rey was sure Kylo was out of hearing distance, she asked her friend why he didn’t at least tell Poe about all this (not mentioning that said pilot was the reason she’d even tagged along in the first place, as he’d asked her not to mention his involvement). Finn then said it was because if Poe knew then he would use it as ammunition against Kylo, and he already had more than enough animosity between those two to deal with as it was. “You know how they get.” He sighed.
Unfortunately, she did. “Okay, your secret’s safe with me.” She agreed, before smirking mischievously. “On one condition.”
~•*•~
All the air was forced from Kylo’s lungs as he was flung backwards by a coconut-sized rock nailing him center mass.
“Ooh, that is definitely going to leave a mark.” Rey winced.
“Good job.” Kylo wheezed with a thumbs-up from his now supine position on the ground, congratulating Finn on getting one past his guard, all the while attempting to recover his breath.
“Oh shoot!” Finn worried as he ran over to check on his friend. “Are you oka-” He was interrupted by a rock knocking him to the ground.
“Hey, not cool!” Finn and Kylo shouted in unison at a Rey who’d used the opportunity to take a cheap shot, before teaming up on her.
Soon all three were cackling like maniacs while rocks soared through the air en masse.
This continued for about an hour before-
Exhausted, they all plopped on the ground in a circle with their heads nearly touching and realized this was probably the most fun they’d ever had in their lives. “Hey, who agrees we make this a thing?” Rey suggested. “Like say, once a month?”
“I am so game.” Finn responded without hesitation.
“Same here.” Kylo easily agreed.
The rest of the day was filled with similar activities, including the much anticipated rock sledding, as was the next day.
~•*•~
Rey had a big grin plastered to her face and a thick layer of dirt plastered to the rest of her when she clapped a confused-looking Poe on the shoulder, saying “You have nothing to worry about. Trust me.” before passing him up.
“... What the hell?” Poe wondered aloud, ending up with more questions than answers.