Running Away- finnpoe

Chapter 9

Finn woke up in bed. Not on the starship. In his apartment. He was home. Someone was standing over him. Not Poe. Rose. But Rose was dead.

"Rose?" Finn bolted upright, rubbing his eyes. Rose did not move. Instead, she smiled at him.

"Hey. You're finally awake, man. I thought you'd sleep forever."

Finn gently reached out a hand, shaking. He took Rose's hand. She was real. Tears pooled in his eyes, heart hammering so loudly in his chest he was sure she could hear it. "But you.. got shot."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "I'm not shot." She said, widening her arms to prove that, in fact, she was not shot. When a single tear streaked down Finn's cheek, she sat beside him, still holding his hand. "It's just a dream. See? I'm fine!" She wiped the tear away, her familiar friendly smile plastered right on her face.

Finn sat up properly, and wrapped his arms around his friend tightly. "I- I- I was so scared. You got shot in this riot, and I ran away with this guy.. and I met a bunch of maniacs who killed loads of pilots. And then they put me in this cell, and I thought I was gonna die.. and, and.."

"Finn." Rose insisted. "It's not real." Her voice lowered slightly, and for a moment she sounded like someone Finn knew, although he couldn't put his finger on it. "It's not real." She whispered, and the two of them held each other, Finn crying into Rose's arms.

"I love you." He babbled, tears still coming, Rose still wiping them away.

"I know." She told him, her voice returning to normal. "I love you too." She leaned forwards and gently pressed her lips against Finn's. They shared a kiss for a brief moment, before pulling away and gazing into each other's eyes.

"Finn!" A voice called, but Rose hadn't spoken. Finn tensed.

"Who is that?" He asked quietly. Rose looked confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Who said that?" When Rose shrugged, Finn pulled away from her slightly.

"Who said what? I didn't hear anything?"

"Rose." Finn said. "You heard that. Someone called my name."

Rose stared at Finn. "There's no one else here." She said slowly. She looked at the kitchen door. She looked at the bathroom. Both doors were open, and there was nobody else inside the apartment. "I'm sure you imagined it. You just woke up, after all."

"Maybe." But Finn was starting to think. "Rose, why are you here?" Rose smiled gently at him.

"Remember yesterday? You had that note to see this guy and you looked really worried. You didn't answer any of my texts or calls so I thought I would come to see if you were okay."

Finn pressed himself against the wall, breathing hard, trying not to panic. "Rose." He asked, voice shaking slightly. "How did you get in?"

Rose shrugged. "I used your spare key." Finn stared at her.

"I don't have a spare key."

---

"Finn!" Poe called. Finn's eyes snapped open, and he cried out, confused. It took him a minute to register that Rose had gone, and he was now looking at Poe, a face who had become very familiar to him in the past couple of weeks.

"Poe?" Finn asked quietly. He could feel the tears on his face from his dream.

His dream. His dream about Rose. Rose, who was still dead.

He looked down to find that Poe was holding his hand. "It's okay." The pilot whispered. "I'm here."

The two of them exchanged a quick hug, before Poe asked, "What happened? You were thrashing about in your sleep. Are you ill?"

Finn shook his head sadly. He wasn't sure if Poe and the rest of the soldiers dreamt at night, but he sure did.

"Nightmare." Was all Finn had to say. He smiled sadly. "I'm sorry. I know that sounds stupid."

"It doesn't." Poe insisted. When Finn turned away slightly, ashamed, Poe added, "I get them too."

Finn turned back. "Really?"

Poe nodded. "Yeah. I got tortured by the First Order a while back and while I'm fine physically.." He shuddered. "I get them pretty much every night. I scared my entire squadron once. Took a nap and woke up screaming. And because we're at war, they panicked a bit."

"Tortured?" Finn asked, eyes wide.

"Yep." Poe said. "They wanted Resistance intel. I told them precisely nothin'." He grinned as if he was proud of himself.

"That's horrible." Finn whispered. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm good. It's not me you need to worry about." He gave Finn a look. "Guess it's not just me who sleeptalks."

Finn's eyes widened more as he understood. "You were the voice." He said. "God, I was so scared." He suddenly felt embarrassed. "Did I talk much?"

Poe shrugged. "Only a lil bit." Finn wasn't sure how much he believed him. "I'll go now." Poe said. "Let you get some sleep."

"Wait!" Finn called, before he could stop himself. "I mean, don't wait.. or, uh.. you can, uh.. like, you don't have to.. I just, uh, I wasn't, I mean-"

Poe raised an eyebrow. "Alright. I'm probably not gonna sleep anyway, but you might wanna make up your mind. Do you want me to stay here or-"

"Yes please."

Poe smiled and sat back on the end of Finn's bed. "You don't wanna sleep now, huh?"

Finn shook his head. "You know my friend.. the one who died? I dreamt about her. She was sitting with me. It was the day after I was given that letter. I guess I'd never gone to meet you, and.." He paused. "I'm sure you don't care."

Poe looked surprised for a moment. "I- I care."

Finn looked tired, but he was not going to go back to sleep anytime soon. He never wanted to see Rose's face again. It only made him feel guilty, as if her death had been his fault. "Could you tell me about.." Finn thought for a moment. "Flying?"

The smile returned to Poe's face. "Yeah, what do you wanna know? Just flying in general or what?"

Finn tried to think of something Poe would want to talk about. "You could tell me about your X-wing?"

For the next half an hour or so, Poe talked Finn through endless controls of his X-wing and the modifications it had gotten, he compared the slightly outdated T-65 X-wing model to the newer T-75 X-wing which was more commonly used in the Resistance, he explained what BB-8, his loyal astromech droid, did to help him when flying, the list went on. When Poe began to slur his words and eventually stop speaking altogether, Finn looked up to find that he had fallen asleep. Finn smiled. He got out of bed and laid Poe down. He did not stir once, and Finn wondered how long his friend had been in his room for. Despite what he had said, Poe was probably exhausted. Finn carefully ran a hand through Poe's dark curls, thinking.

He was kind of cute, but Finn blocked off those thoughts immediately. Poe was his best friend, and Finn was in love with Rose.

Except Rose was dead. And Poe was not.

Tired and confused, Finn fell asleep.