Title: feeling for the rhythm
Fandom: Star Wars (Sequel Trilogy)
Relationship: Rey/Finn/Poe
Rating: G
Length: 1163 words
Content notes: None apply
Author notes: Title is from "Fall Into the Future" by Wolf Parade.
Summary: After the war, Rey finds herself at loose ends and unable to sleep.

It was easy to find oneself awake at all hours when one made a habit of hopping from one planet to another. Time ceased to have any real meaning when you could experience the same afternoon six times in a day. But complaining about seeing so many wonders of the universe in one day felt ungrateful to a girl who’d spent so long dreaming of seeing something, anything, just one thing other than the lonely sky of Jakku. Now Rey had seen lush emerald hills dotted with delicate purple flowers, she had felt bone-chilling cold on endless sparkling plains of snow, she had smelled spices for foods which had names still unknown to her during raucous and colourful celebrations, and now she could not sleep while the memories spun endlessly in her mind’s eye.

The constant movement in her head made her restless. She wanted to get up and take a walk, but putting more images of the galaxy into her head seemed counter-productive. She sat up in bed, frowning as she stared into the dark, willing her mind to go quiet.

“Rey?”

She looked over her shoulder. Finn pushed himself up to sit beside her, gently resting his fingers on her forearm. It was too dark to properly see his face, but she could feel his concern. “You okay?”

She sighed heavily, turning her face back toward the darkest corner of the room. “I’m fine.”

“Gnrrgh,” Poe snorted into his pillow on the other side of Finn. Rey and Finn glanced over at him and shared a fond smile.

Rey lowered her voice. “My mind’s too loud for me to sleep.”

“Mine, too!”

Rey laughed under her breath. Anyone else would have thought Finn was out of his mind to be excited about insomnia, but she understood. It wasn’t really the insomnia itself he was excited about; it was the connection the Force gave them, and not only with each other. For two desperately lonely people to grow up and discover how wide the world is and how much a part of everything they are was intensely thrilling, and never really stopped being so. It’d be nice if the novelty would wear off just enough to let them sleep, though.

But there was something else to it. She knew Finn shared the positive part of it, the wonder and joy and delight in beauty, but she wasn’t sure if the other side was something he knew, too—if it was something in the experience they shared, or if it was a creation of her own troubled mind.

“Finn,” Rey said, biting thoughtfully at her lip. “Do you ever—I mean, does it feel—”

Poe groaned, lifting his head inches from the pillow. “Why are we awake?” he asked, his voice groggy with sleep.

Finn leaned over to kiss Poe’s cheek. “Don’t worry about it, babe. Go back to sleep.”

“Mmnggh.” Poe didn’t need telling twice.

Finn sat back up and Rey continued. “I’ve got this...worry, I guess. Or—” She exhaled sharply. “I don’t know. That’s the problem: that I don’t know. I don’t know what to do now.”

Finn lifted an arm and Rey ducked under it to lean against his chest as he held her. “Now that we beat the First Order, you mean.”

She nodded. Her hair rustled against his chest as her head moved. “When I have something to do, it drowns the rest of it out. You know?”

Finn’s arms around her tightened. Of course he knew. Articulating their thoughts to each other often felt unnecessary and inadequate, but both of them were learning how it helped to talk.

“It’s—I mean, you know,” Finn said, speaking before he’d really figured out the words in his head. “But it’s so much, all of the time—”

“—and if you have one thing in mind, it’s bet—well, not better, but you know—” Rey interjected.

“Is this some Force thing?” Poe said, slurring his words together sleepily. In the dim light, Rey and Finn could see him squinting as he raised his head from the pillow.

“Yeah,” said Finn, at the same time as Rey said, “Yes.”

“Mm. Doesn’t the Force ever sleep?” Without waiting for an answer, Poe rolled over and put his head back down.

Rey giggled. “Poor Poe.”

“Yes, poor Poe,” Poe said petulantly, pulling the blanket up over his bare shoulder.

Rey looked up at Finn with a mildly guilty smile. Together, they reached over, Rey’s arms reaching past Finn to encompass both him and Poe, and Finn pressing his lips to the back of Poe’s neck as he wrapped an arm around his waist.

“We’re sorry,” Finn murmured, slowly kissing between Poe’s shoulder blades.

Poe hummed as he interlaced his fingers with Rey’s. “Suppose I’ll forgive you.” He turned over his shoulder. “Everything okay?”

“Mm.” Finn’s posture curved into a hunch as he shrugged one shoulder.

“What’s up?” Poe’s voice carried the soft concern of someone who expected they could solve the problem: comforting and strong.

Finn sighed. “We’re both kind of...lost. Without something to do.”

“Not that we don’t have things to do,” Rey clarified hurriedly. “But something...bigger.”

“Oh.” Poe rolled over to face them. “I get it,” he said, gently placing a hand on Finn’s face, then Rey’s. “I get it, I do.”

Poe’s reassuring touch was almost too much for Rey; someday she hoped to get used to being consoled. Or better yet, not need the consolation at all. Her eyes began to tear as she spoke. “I just don’t know what we do now, and I thought it would be nice to not have to do anything but—”

“—but we need it,” Finn finished.

Poe looked at them with such tenderness, Rey couldn’t keep the tears back any longer. Poe kissed first Finn, then Rey, his warmth flowing through them, slowly filling them to the tips of their toes. His stubble scratched and tickled, and Rey smiled into his mouth, tasting the salt from her own tears between them.

“I’ll get you something more to do tomorrow, I promise,” Poe said. “But I do have something for you both to do right now.”

“Is it letting you sleep?” asked Rey.

“It is letting me sleep.”

The three of them laughed, falling into a tangle of each other’s arms and legs. As the laughter died down, the room fell into a warm, comfortable silence. Rey didn’t realise it at first, but her mind had gone quiet. It was, even if just for a moment, enough, just to be with them.

Silently, they untangled and found their sleeping positions once again: Finn in the middle, Rey and Poe on either side, clasping their hands together over Finn’s stomach.

Poe kissed Finn’s cheek and squeezed Rey’s hand. “I love you,” he murmured.

“We love you, too,” Finn and Rey said together. Finn smiled as he turned to Rey, giving her one last goodnight kiss before they closed their eyes.