more than friends

chapter two

Rey's POV
  
    "That should be better," I say in response to BB-8's happy beeps. BB-8 looks over my shoulder, and I hear someone clear their throat behind me. I turn around and see who I'm remembering as Finn's friend. He's the infamous pilot for the Resistance; the one who took out the Dreadnought.
"Uh, hi," He says, looking rather flustered.
I stand up and meet his gaze.
"Hi," I reply. Shit, just introduce yourself. But before I can, he extends his hand.
"I'm Poe," he meets my gaze and there's no mistaking the fact that his cheeks are flushing profusely. I accept his hand, and shake.
"Rey," is all I can say. I would say a last name, if I had one.
He seems to be studying me, like he's impressed with me or something. He then breaks out in a toothy grin.
"I know."
Something like that would normally creep me out, but he seems really genuine. Our hands linger, and neither of us breaks the handshake. That is, until Leia calls for him. He drops my hand.
"Duty calls."
And with that, he zips out of sight towards the main hangar bay. I chuckle a bit to myself, for it was clear by Leia's tone of voice she was about to rip him a new one. I lean back down to tend to BB-8 some more, but he rolls after Poe, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
        I decide to look for Finn. We haven't spoken since our reunion a little while ago. In fact, after our embrace he rushed back towards the remaining Resistance personnel. He seemed really eager to see someone. I look in the weapons system. He's not there. I try the cockpit but all I see is Poe, who gives me a little wave as Leia gives him a small smack on the chest for being distracted from their conversation. I finally end up in the medbay. There he is. But he's sitting bedside to someone. A girl. I watch as he pulls the blanket further up the girl, and tucks her in. I decide not to ruin this obviously emotional moment, so I back out quietly. I almost make it out before Lieutenant Connix notices me.
"Rey! Long time no see." She brings me into a tight embrace, and I see Finn's head snap around to look at me.
"It's so good to see you," I reply in the most friendly way I can before Finn comes over to me. Connix looks between us.
"Oh, I best be going," she says awkwardly and exits the room. I decide to speak first.
"Who's that?" I gesture to the small girl he was tending to.
Finn looks over at her with pity and hurt in his eyes. There's something else, too. Regret.
"Oh, that's Rose. Rose Tico. She helped me try to stop the hyper-space tracking."
"Hyperspace tracking?! That's impossible!"
"So we thought," he replies.
Finn continues to tell me all about their journey to Cantobyte, and then to the main Star Destroyer. The way he talks about Rose is amusing.  It's so weird to see Finn like this.
"And then we crash landed on Crait. Thank god Poe was gracious enough to tell them to stop open-firing at our ship."

He pauses when he mentions Crait. The regret fills his eyes again. He then proceeds to tell me that he was willing to sacrifice his life to stop the battering ram cannon.
"Rose saved me, at her dispense," He says this with regret, and it makes me wonder what it is about this girl that makes him so down. He takes a deep breath. He plasters on a big goofy smile.
"Anyway, are you like a Jedi now?"
I laugh at his cluelessness.
"The Jedi ended with the departure of Skywalker. We're in a new era now."
Finn smiles proudly.
"So you're a Jedi master by default. I betcha never thought of it that way."
"I guess that's pretty cool," I say, only really half-listening.
My mind is with this Rose girl. I can tell that Finn likes her. But as a friend or more than a friend, I can't tell.