Just wanted to ask if OP is alright with me adding Rey to the mix :) Part 2 to come later!
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It took all of Ben's willpower not to hop a ship right off of D'Qar to stage a one-man rescue when they found out Poe had been captured by the First Order.
Leia hadn't even trusted him enough to tell him--no, he had to hear it from Jessika Pava of all people, Jessika who he knew only tolerated him for Poe's sake, who looked up at him (way up at him, Jessika was quite short and Ben knew he was much too tall, which made for difficult conversation) with a lot of apprehension and a little bit of disdain curling her lip.
"I didn't want you worrying," his mother had insisted when he confronted her about it, and at the time, Ben had been too resentful to accept that explanation, but now all he COULD do was worry, and he knew Leia had been right. He didn't apologize for his anger, but he did come to her and stoop down to hold her when they were still uncertain of Poe Dameron's fate.
Poe and Ben had been... well, they weren't together, but there was something there. Or so Ben liked to hope, and Ben wasn't the kind to hope for this sort of connection without any real indication.
They were both good fighters (though Ben had an advantage over Poe with the training Luke had given him prior to his disappearance, and his abilities with the force), both excellent pilots, both with loved ones who they wanted to protect.
Even when Ben was forbidding and angry and the Resistance steered clear of him, Poe was kind, Poe was open and always happy to see him.
Poe didn't abandon him the moment he stepped out of line--when one day, he'd leaned in and kissed Poe on the cheek, something that he'd never done with anyone outside of family (he didn't even kiss his own father, though that was more his own apprehension since he got the impression Han would grumble about it but not really take issue), something that he knew Poe would know meant something.
Poe had looked so shocked in that moment that Ben almost made his retreat, and the whispers of fear and anger in his head seemed to pulse louder, but then that passed so quickly that he almost didn't notice when Poe got up on his toes and kissed Ben's cheek, close enough to his lips that he could feel it even after Poe had pulled away.
Things hadn't much changed after that, but the differences were felt when Ben's mind was plagued less by the darkness, instead replaced by his nervous optimism when Poe brushed his hand or kissed him on the cheek more often than before, smiling at him like he knew exactly what he was doing but softening that smile into something hopeful and nervous in itself.
But even that couldn't last as Poe was sent on a mission to Jakku for Lor San Tekka, a man Ben had liked and trusted when he was young and they had had many talks when he was accompanying his uncle Luke. They got word that the First Order had attacked, and Lor San Tekka had been killed by two knights of Ren, the village decimated by First Order stormtroopers.
The darkness grew stronger in Ben in the days following, though strangely enough, had become much less tempting. They were like a pulsing drum, a headache Ben could not block out but could very well ignore, his mind only focused on Poe, and whatever happened to him, and plans, one after another, to save him.
And then he came back, on a crappy old vessel obviously scrounged out of the junkyards of Jakku, and the darkness went silent.
FILL: Armfuls (1/2) Poe/Ben/Finn(/Rey?)
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It took all of Ben's willpower not to hop a ship right off of D'Qar to stage a one-man rescue when they found out Poe had been captured by the First Order.
Leia hadn't even trusted him enough to tell him--no, he had to hear it from Jessika Pava of all people, Jessika who he knew only tolerated him for Poe's sake, who looked up at him (way up at him, Jessika was quite short and Ben knew he was much too tall, which made for difficult conversation) with a lot of apprehension and a little bit of disdain curling her lip.
"I didn't want you worrying," his mother had insisted when he confronted her about it, and at the time, Ben had been too resentful to accept that explanation, but now all he COULD do was worry, and he knew Leia had been right. He didn't apologize for his anger, but he did come to her and stoop down to hold her when they were still uncertain of Poe Dameron's fate.
Poe and Ben had been... well, they weren't together, but there was something there. Or so Ben liked to hope, and Ben wasn't the kind to hope for this sort of connection without any real indication.
They were both good fighters (though Ben had an advantage over Poe with the training Luke had given him prior to his disappearance, and his abilities with the force), both excellent pilots, both with loved ones who they wanted to protect.
Even when Ben was forbidding and angry and the Resistance steered clear of him, Poe was kind, Poe was open and always happy to see him.
Poe didn't abandon him the moment he stepped out of line--when one day, he'd leaned in and kissed Poe on the cheek, something that he'd never done with anyone outside of family (he didn't even kiss his own father, though that was more his own apprehension since he got the impression Han would grumble about it but not really take issue), something that he knew Poe would know meant something.
Poe had looked so shocked in that moment that Ben almost made his retreat, and the whispers of fear and anger in his head seemed to pulse louder, but then that passed so quickly that he almost didn't notice when Poe got up on his toes and kissed Ben's cheek, close enough to his lips that he could feel it even after Poe had pulled away.
Things hadn't much changed after that, but the differences were felt when Ben's mind was plagued less by the darkness, instead replaced by his nervous optimism when Poe brushed his hand or kissed him on the cheek more often than before, smiling at him like he knew exactly what he was doing but softening that smile into something hopeful and nervous in itself.
But even that couldn't last as Poe was sent on a mission to Jakku for Lor San Tekka, a man Ben had liked and trusted when he was young and they had had many talks when he was accompanying his uncle Luke. They got word that the First Order had attacked, and Lor San Tekka had been killed by two knights of Ren, the village decimated by First Order stormtroopers.
The darkness grew stronger in Ben in the days following, though strangely enough, had become much less tempting. They were like a pulsing drum, a headache Ben could not block out but could very well ignore, his mind only focused on Poe, and whatever happened to him, and plans, one after another, to save him.
And then he came back, on a crappy old vessel obviously scrounged out of the junkyards of Jakku, and the darkness went silent.