Seriously? Marry Me
Poe is as nervous as a virgin on prom night. He runs his hands through his hair, styling it with just a little gel. Rey told him his curls are a great asset and he should show them off. She also convinced him to shave his beard off and that’s a decision Poe regrets. He only did it about an hour ago so his face still feels weird. He takes one last good look at himself in the mirror. The short-sleeve blue plaid shirt is just one size too small and his jeans are also too tight in the ass but Rey insisted that he looked amazing.
“Fuck this is stupid.”
He walks out into his living room and puts on his sneakers, realizing how stupid even that is. It’s his own house, why is he wearing shoes? He checks the fridge to make sure the beer and Dr. Pepper (he saw Finn hauling a case of it upstairs last night so he must like it) are still there when there is a knock at the door. It’s thirty minutes before Finn is supposed to arrive so Poe grabs his money off the counter and answers. Once he’s paid and tipped the delivery guy, he goes over to his stove and starts dumping containers of General Tsao’s chicken into a big frying pan. Yeah, sure Poe, this is totally convincing.
He takes one last look around his apartment and smiles. It’s clean and everything is dusted. All this films and CDs and books are put away, except for two Rey left out on his coffee table as ‘decoration’—one about writing and a tourist book guide to London—which Poe bought to research a short story he wrote last year. He made sure to wash all the dishes so they could eat off real plates and he even set the table. He fucking set the table. Rey left candles there but he put them away the moment she left this afternoon but he left the placemats. He is pretty sure she brought them over because he doesn’t ever remember buying them.
He stirs the food and turns the heat down low to keep it warm. Finn said he’d be here at six and it’s 5:58. Usually Poe is operating on a permanent ten-minute time delay in life, but today he could really go for Finn showing up early. Like a bandaid, he just needs to get this over with quickly. He makes sure his VHS tapes are all ready to go. He checks the fridge a tenth time. He stirs the food. He runs into his room and changes out of his shirt and two minutes later changes right back into it.
When Finn finally knocks at his door, Poe nearly trips running to answer it.
“Hey,” he says, entirely the opposite of smoothly.
“Hey,” replies Finn, who is holding a white baker’s box.
Poe can’t help but stare. Pure sex is standing in his doorway. Fuck. Finn is smiling and his skin looks fucking flawless. He’s wearing a crisp light blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and dark jeans with a black belt and…
“Are those Stormtrooper slippers?” Poe asks.
“I saw them when I was shopping, I thought they were appropriate. Is it okay?”
“Of course.” And it’s also kinda sexy but Poe doesn’t think he should say that just yet. “What’s in the box?” Poe asks, taking it and putting in the fridge.
“Butternut croissants.” Finn follows him inside and takes a seat on a stool at the counter. “From the place down the block.”
“Seriously? Marry me,” Poe blurts out. He stops dead in his tracks and laughs nervously. “I mean, that was a very intense way of saying those are my favorite of all time.”
“I have to admit I ran into Rey downstairs this morning and asked her what you might like.” Finn flashes that million dollar smile. “I just wanted to repay you for all your kindness.”
“Anything you need, man. Say, you want a drink? I have beer and Dr. Pepper.”
“Seriously? Marry me,” Finn says laughing. “That was just a very intense way of saying that’s my favorite drink.”
Poe gets two pops and sits down on the stool next to him. “I made General Tsao’s, hope that’s okay.”
“Yeah, I love Chinese.” Finn looks around, eyes settling on the table. “I thought you hated doing dishes.”
“It’s a special occasion, you are about to finish the greatest trilogy ever made.”
“Is this a date?” Finn asks out of nowhere, barely taking a breath before continuing. “Because I totally meant it to be a date although it was really pushy of me to invite myself to your place to eat your food and watch your TV and I don’t even know if you are gay or…”
Poe puts his hand on Finn’s shoulder to stop him and the touch feels so good and right and he didn’t realize how good it would feel to make contact with the man. “Relax, buddy. It’s okay. I’m not gay so I could understand…”
“I should go.”
“I’m bi.” Poe smiles. “I usually mess up other men’s gaydar because of that. But…I’m counting this as a date. I cleaned, I made the table. I bought new clothes and I even shaved my face.”
“I was going to mention that, it suits you,” Finn smiles. “Okay. I’m sorry. I’m ridiculously insecure and living in New York on my own for the first time since the dorms in college and I’m generally overwhelmed by life right now so I’m sorry for being so high strung.”
Poe removes his hand from Finn and mourns the loss of touch almost instantly. “Watching Star Wars on my couch with a guy wearing Stormtrooper slippers sounds like a great date to me. Now, you hungry?”
“Ever since I saw the delivery guy show up at your door.”
Poe shakes his head. “Well, there goes impressing you.”
“You didn’t exactly have to try,” Finn replies.
Fuck me, Poe thinks. I’m dead.
~
Once they’ve eaten, they take two more Dr. Pepper’s over to the couch and Poe starts up Empire Strikes Back from the beginning. He notices they both sit on opposite ends of the couch but that makes sense. It’s a first date. Poe doesn’t want to seem creepy and Finn probably doesn’t want to be presumptuous or maybe he’s not ready for being closer.
He learned a lot about Finn tonight during dinner. He currently works at a recycling center in Brooklyn but he wants to eventually find a job in graphic design. That’s what his degree is in. He would love to do CGI for action movies. Finn has an adopted sister, Phasma, who still calls him once a week and is convinced this whole gay ‘thing’ is just a phase. He loves working out and is looking for a 24/7 gym that he can afford because he likes to work out when he can’t sleep at night. He loves dogs, his favorite color is brown, he sucks at laser tag and gives his change to homeless people because ‘it’s the right thing to do.’
Poe told Finn about himself as well. He currently works at a hotel/convention center six blocks up as the wedding coordinator. He gives happy couples tours and deals with bridezillas complaining about the price of the food and changing their floorplans as often as they change their underwear, which gets a laugh out of Finn. He really wants to be writer and he’s working on a bunch of short stories about different people all in the same town. He also mentioned that when he can’t sleep he writes Star Wars fan fiction---something he has never told anyone ever—and posts it online under the stupidest name ever. He talks about how his mom, Leia, was the one who introduced him to Star Wars and until he was 13 he was convinced that the movie was about her. His father died when he was young and he doesn’t remember him much.
Poe looks over at Finn, who is intently watching the film. He smiles, feeling pretty darned awesome that this date is happening and that it’s going so well. He hasn’t been on a date in a long time and the last few didn’t go nearly as well as this. It’s been about six months since he last slept with someone and that was a drunken one-night stand with a woman whose tits were so huge and fake Poe did it mostly out of curiosity. Granted, this date did open with a marriage proposal but he hasn’t managed to get an awkward boner. Pretty good date. When the film ends, Finn takes a deep breath and a long exhale.
“You okay?” Poe asks.
“Han…he’s okay, right?” Finn looks worried. “He’s alive and Luke will rescue him, right?”
“Wanna watch the next one and find out?”
“Is that okay, it’s not too late?”
Poe shakes his head. “I don’t have a tour scheduled until ten and any changes to the wedding happening on Saturday I can deal with via email from my bed. Besides,” he stands up. “I don’t want this date to end just yet.”
Finn smiles and Poe’s knees go weak. Poe goes into the kitchen and plates the croissants, grabbing two beers this time. He pauses in front of the fridge, smiling like a fucking moron to his leftovers. He is so insanely happy right now that there is a fucking gorgeous man on his couch wearing Stormtrooper slippers and who doesn’t mind that he ordered take out and brought him his favorite dessert and who won’t fucking stop smiling at him with his sexy face. He sets the desserts and beers on the coffee table and changes the tapes, listening to Finn fanboy and speculate and it’s the best thing he’s ever heard.
Once the tape is going, Poe decides to just take the chance and he sits right next to Finn, only a few inches apart. He catches Finn look and smile out of the corner of his eye as they stare at the screen and start eating their desserts, Finn saying something about how he can see why Poe loves these things so much.
“These are better than sex,” Poe groans over his first bite.
“Maybe you just haven’t had sex with the right person,” Finn says. “Wow. I suck at flirting. That was really…”
“Hot,” Poe says, looking at Finn.
“I was going to say rude,” Finn says, smiling to himself as he takes another bite.
The opening scrawl finally pops up on the screen and both men get lost in the film. Finn thinks the ewoks are both silly and adorable at the same time and Poe agrees. After they have finished eating, Finn shifts his body so that they are touching and Poe instantly grabs the blanket from the back of the couch to spread on his lap because fuck he is not going to creep out Finn by popping a boner. Finn asks if he can share the blanket too and Poe asks if he’s cold but he says no.
During the part where the ewoks make C3PO their King, Finn reaches for Poe’s hand. Poe tries to play it cool while he’s holding hands with Finn on his fucking couch but let’s just say he’s glad the blanket is covering his lap and that he hopes Finn can’t feel his heart racing. This is just so perfect, everything is just so perfect. Then Finn rests his head on Poe’s shoulder and holy fuck.
He thinks he’s falling for this guy.
The rest of the film is a blur, with Poe just concentrating on breathing and not freaking out. When the film ends, he turns his head to check and see if Finn fell asleep. “You with me, buddy?”
Finn looks up at him. Their faces are so close now that Poe could just lean down and kiss him. But he won’t. “The last one was probably my favorite. I can see why you love it so much. I want to watch them all again right now. Like eight more times.”
“We still have the prequels,” Poe smiles. “But yeah, it’s hard to beat Return of the Jedi.”
“I should probably get going, I have work in the morning.” Finn sits up and lets go of Poe’s hand and Poe could cry. “I had a great time.”
Poe stands and follows Finn to the door. “Yeah, uhm, that was really great.”
“I’ve never been proposed to on first date,” Finn laughs.
“And I’ve never had a date wear Stormtrooper slippers so I guess we both had fun,” Poe smiles.
“I would love to see you again. Are you free on Friday?”
Poe bites his lip, his lower lip, which he knows full well is his tell for ‘damn you are hot’. “I have my last staff meeting at 4 and should be home by 6. I do have a wedding on Saturday but I don’t have to be there until about 10 in the morning. We could watch Phantom Menace.”
“Is that bad? I mean, typically you do different things on dates, right? But…I really want to see the rest of them.”
“Nah, that’s totally fine. I could go for another night on my couch with you.” Smooth Poe. Not creepy at all. “I mean…”
Finn smirks. “Looks like we both suck at flirting.”
“I don’t suck, I just don’t like being creepy.”
“Trust me, you aren’t creepy. But can we make it a pajama party instead?”
“You better bring those slippers.”
“I also bought a Darth Vader fleece blanket.”
“That too.” Poe sighs and rubs the back of his neck. Fuck Finn really is the perfect guy for him. “Well.”
“Well. Yes. Goodnight Poe.” Finn nods and leaves the apartment, closing the door softly behind him.
Shit, Poe, just fucking do it.
Poe opens his door and sees Finn just about to enter his apartment. He rushes up to him and cups his face and just kisses him. It’s soft, sweet, slightly open mouth and breathy because he practically bolted the five feet to him and Finn was caught off guard. He feels Finn’s hands on his chest just sitting there and he moves his jaw just a little. Finn reciprocates. They kiss for maybe a minute, slow with no tongue, until Finn parts from him. He opens his mouth and is about to say something when that Kylo Ren guy comes walking through the hall. He’s wearing his usual black sweater and black longjacket and black cowl and he’s scowling as he usually does and it’s actually kinda funny.
“Get a room Dameron,” he mutters, going to the end of the hall and entering his apartment.
Poe steps back from Finn. “So, Friday?”
Finn nods. “Friday.”
Poe waits for Finn to close his door before he goes back to his apartment. He doesn’t bother cleaning up, he just sheds his clothes down to his boxers, turns out his lights, climbs into his bed and texts Rey.