Chapter Text
The message Finn had sent him reads, “It’s Rey – get down to Bay 6 right now!” What his boyfriend had neglected to mentioned, Poe notes, as he skids to a halt in the doors to the bay, poleaxed by the sight of the long-lost Hero of the Rebellion descending from the Millennium Falcon behind Chewbacca, is that Rey has brought Luke Skywalker with her.
Someone seems to have thought to mention this pertinent fact to the base’s top brass, however, because Leia and Wedge enter the bay barely moments after him. The two are carrying themselves in a much more respectable fashion than Poe’s pell-mell sprint, but Poe notices neither had actually been moving more slowly than he. They just seem to have more practice at being stately and speedy at the same time.
Rey and Finn are hugging, each talking a mile a minute (and Poe smiles fondly, because there’s no way either can possibly understand what the other is saying, but neither seems to want to stop), but Poe finds himself drawn to watch the other reunion going on in the bay before joining them. Where Rey and Finn had been all smiles and exclamations, the older Resistance fighters are much more subdued. Luke hangs back, half-hidden in the shadows beneath the Falcon, and Leia and Wedge have paused a few feet from him. No one says a word. Leia’s hand rests on Wedge’s shoulder, long white fingers splayed out against the blue fabric, and all three look tense – until Leia says, “Luke, you idiot,” and strides forward to embrace him. The old Jedi steps into the light to hug her, and as Poe watches, he closes his eyes, tears streaming down his face as he holds his twin sister close. Neither speaks, but after a moment, all the tension leaves their frames. When they break apart, Leia is beaming and Luke wears a small smile.
He looks up and meets Wedge’s eyes. Wedge is standing stock still, his muscles tensed as if to flee, and Poe thinks he has never seen his sometime-mentor looks so unsure. His shoulders are stiff under his uniform jacket and he looks small, dwarfed by the bay around him and the massive ship in front of him. Then Luke strides forward to him and folds his arms around him, and Wedge sags against him, rests his head against his husband’s shoulder.
“I missed you so much,” Wedge mutters.
“I’m sorry,” Luke says. He leans back and raises one hand to Wedge’s face, pushing back silver-gray hair from his forehead. He traces a thumb along the other man’s cheekbone like he’s relearning his face by touch. He’s looking at Wedge as if he’s never seen anything as precious as him before, as if the worn-down ex-flyboy in front of him is the most important person in the galaxy. “I’m sorry.”
“You damn well better be, Luke,” Wedge growls, and then he smiles, his whole face lighting up in a way Poe has never seen before, and pulls Luke forward into a kiss. Luke cups his face in his hands and they kiss like a couple who has been in love longer than Poe has been alive, as if no one else in the world exists. Or maybe as if neither cares whether anyone else in the world exists. It’s so intimate that Poe both feels uncomfortable and like he can’t look elsewhere, the honest depth of emotion on display impossible to turn away from.
Finn pokes him and Poe jumps. “Are you going to watch old people making out or are you going to let me introduce you to my friend?” he demands, and Poe laughs.
“I did already meet Rey, you know. While you were, uh, sleeping.”
“You mean while I was in a coma,” Finn says. “But also, c’mon. I used to be a stormtrooper and now all my friends are your coworkers. This is literally the only person in the entire galaxy I know better than you. You’re not gonna rob me of the chance to introduce you to someone for once.”
And Poe has no choice but to laugh again, because he’s self-aware enough to know that he loves the delight Finn takes in doing things that seem boring and normal to him, like making introductions. So he lets himself be dragged by the wrist over to Rey.
“So, this is the guy whose jacket you stole,” Rey says.
“Yeah, and that jacket is now mine, because this is my cute boyfriend,” Finn informs Rey. “Which, for the record, means I got a boyfriend before you did, Miss Single-and-from-Jakku,” and then Finn and Rey are off and Poe watches them with amusement. Behind him, he hears Luke, Leia, and Wedge begin to talk as well – a much more muted conversation than the bright banter between Finn and Rey, but no less fond or relieved. Maybe someday that will be them, he thinks suddenly, reuniting in a bay after some mission and so thankful to see each other alive. Hopefully not after so long spent apart, but then – they’ll make their own mistakes. And if the Force is with them, maybe they’ll be able to recover from them as well as Luke, his sister, and his husband have.