Work Text:
Poe is hunched over with his elbows propped on his knees when he feels the presence of Finn-his husband–oh boy. It was gonna take some time getting used to that. Finn was his husband. He had a husband. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would actually get married. He’d certainly wished for it, but reality always set in. It wasn’t supposed to be in the cards for him. Yet here he was, sitting next to his husband on a transport vessel to go see his father for the first time since the war ended.
Finn rests his hand on Poe’s knee, and that is when he realizes he’s shaking it, tapping his heels anxiously. His thoughts had been circling back to his father over and over again. He should have told him. He should have called and invited him to the wedding even if it was just over holo. The two of them had been so caught up in the moment–one minute they were going to die and in what seemed like the next minute they were in the middle of a wedding ceremony. Poe didn’t even think about his father. It was all Finn in that moment.
“What’s he like?” Finn asks. Pulling Poe out of his rushed thoughts and rumination. Poe finds Finn’s eyes, something curious that turns a little sadder when he adds, “I didn’t exactly have a father. I don’t know what to expect other than what I’ve read.”
Poe’s lips tighten into a smile at the thought of Finn being a reader. As soon as someone gave him his own datapad, he was constantly reading whatever he felt interested in or wanted to understand. Apparently, when he was with the First Order, he read “illegal contraband” in the form of fictional comic books and the like. That was just another reason Poe adored him — a rebel at his very core.
“He’s…” Poe doesn’t know where to begin with his father. “He was a pathfinder, a ground soldier. He fought so that he could have a peaceful life with my mother and me.” Poe trails off in a moment of silence out of respect for his late mother. He remembers the smell of her shampoo, fruity with a hint of spicy musk underneath. As a child, he played with her under the tree she’d received as a gift from a jedi long ago. Even now when he dreams of her, he feels the distinct tickle of her longer curly hair against his face. “Clearly, it didn’t work out because she died and I left and now he’s just there alone.”
Finn nods slowly, absorbing the details and filing them away for later use. “So what does he do now?” Finn asks. He clears his throat and shrugs his shoulders a little uncomfortable as he sits up a little straighter. “What do people do when they’re not fighting a galactic war?”
Poe sighs. “Well, he might not have gotten the happy ending with his wife and son that he wanted, but he has quite the homestead. Last time I stopped by he had a bountiful garden, rolling orchards, and tip-yips free-ranging the land.” Poe was actually looking forward to seeing the homestead. It seemed that every time he visited, his father was growing a new fruit or building a new garden box.
Seeing his father was a different story, though. Kes, as much of a green thumb as he was, was a bit rough around the edges when it came to interpersonal relationships. Er… now that Poe thought about it, Kes got along great with almost everyone. Just not always Poe.
In fact, he and Poe tended to butt heads. Maybe now that Poe was a post-war veteran who’d gotten married in the heat of everything, they would see more eye to eye. At least, after Kes got over the whole… no-wedding-invitation thing.
“Finn—” Poe opens his mouth to tell Finn that things between him and his dad might be tense, but the speaker announcing their immediate landing interrupts him. They’re very promptly rushed off the transport to the main port on Yavin IV.
~~~
To Poe’s surprise, there are no immediate differences that he’s able to notice as he enters the homestead. Kes’s guard droid comes out to bark at them until it recognizes Poe and stops only to examine Finn. Poe waves him off and pulls Finn along. “He’ll be around here somewhere.”
“You told him we were coming, right?” Finn asks. “Cause it seems like every time we go visit an old rebel unannounced, they great us with a blaster pointed at our heads.”
“That’s half of the fun,” Poe chimes in, causing Finn to roll his eyes. They make their way around the small house and into the garden hiding behind it. There are at least a dozen garden boxes full of luscious plants of many colors and varieties. “Daaaaad?!” Poe calls out.
A distant and short “what” could be heard faintly from somewhere in the garden. Poe is leading them towards the sound when a man who looked like a much older and wider version of Poe pushed himself up to his feet by one of the garden boxes. “Poe?”
“Hey, Dad,” Poe says, coming to a stop. It’s in that split second that Poe realizes how long it’s been since he’s seen or even spoken to his dad. He barely recognized him with all the grey and the wrinkles and the saggy sunhat covering most of his face.
“Are you real?” Kes says, his eyes big, edging on the side of paranoid like he was seeing a ghost or something. He walks up to Poe, squinting at him in disbelief. Poe didn’t mean to stay silent, but seeing his father so old and frail up close was… a bit shocking. “Kriff, you got old.” Poe almost panics, thinking he’d said it out loud, and that issn’t the tone he wanted to set for this visit.
“Hey, now. I’m a general. I’ve earned my worry lines, every last one of them,” Poe says.
Kes only laughs before pulling his son into the tightest, warmest hug he’s ever had with the exception of the ones he’s received from Chewbacca. “Oh, my boy. You’re alive. I can’t believe it.”
Poe can’t help the inner panic and confusion within him. The feeling of warmth from his father was so foreign to him. It almost doesn’t sit right. And then his heart sinks. Wait… He said “alive”. He can’t believe that Poe is alive? It was now dawning on him that no one had contacted Kes to let him know that his son was okay.
Kes pulls back, squeezing Poe’s face in his rough hands. “It’s you. You’re alive.” Kes says it a few more times, holding his son as if he were just a boy again. Poe couldn’t get any words out. Not only did he not tell his father about his wedding, but he also didn’t tell him he wasn’t dead.
Worst Son in the Galaxy Award goes to Poe Dameron.
“Did I hear that right?” Kes says, stepping back finally giving Poe a little room to breathe. “General? You must’ve really been on Leia’s good side for her to appoint you.”
Kes’s eyes finally glance over to Finn, and Poe doesn’t hesitate to introduce. “Dad, this is Finn. He-uh-also a General.” Kes gives his hand a hearty shake.
“Good to meet you, Sir,” Finn says politely.
“And you, General…” Kes leaves a pause for Finn to fill in but… Finn, being the innocent guy he is, doesn’t catch on and awkwardly glances at Poe.
“Usually, people just call him General Finn,” Poe says.
“Yeah. It gets confusing with the two of us. Just easier that way,” Finn adds on.
Poe feels his heart jump in his chest. This is it. This is the moment his dad finds out he is married and didn’t invite him to the wedding.
Kes blinks. “Two of you? Do you have a twin or something?”
“Two General Damerons,” Finn says, gesturing between him and Poe.
“Dad…” Poe trails off in defeat. “Finn is actually kind of my husband.” He runs a hand through his hair. “We’re married. He’s Finn Dameron, your son-in-law, by the way. I-” The edges of his vision were getting all dark and sparkly. He was forgetting to breathe, caught up in the nerves. Poe sighs and leans over, propping himself up on his knees. “I’m sorry, guys. I kinda messed up those introductions. I got nervous.”
Finn chuckles, patting Poe on the shoulder. “It’s okay. I can tell you tried your best.” As Poe feels the warmth of Finn’s hand on his back, reassuring and steady as always. Even if he could hear his husband and father laughing at his expense, at least he knew Finn loved him.
“Come on, son. You need to eat,” Kes says, jolting Poe by his arm and dragging him towards the house. Poe doesn’t protest, letting his father pull him along and nearly tripping by his boots getting caught in some of the long patches of grass on the way. “I’ll cook your favorite, tip-yip stew over rice. How’s that sound?”
Poe had been envisioning a lecture, a scolding, a cold shoulder… a myriad of things other than this. Poe is rendered mostly speechless as Kes makes easy conversation with Finn while preparing their meal. It doesn’t feel real. His mind is too busy racing, trying to figure out why Kes has changed. Where was the cold, distant man that he saw two years ago?
Finn moves around the kitchen to help however he can, as he always does. That’s why Finn was his husband, a gentle and helpful soul to the very depths. “Poe, could you show Finn where the knives are?” Kes’s words pull Poe out of his head and back to reality like a cold shower crashing down his back.
“Yeah,” Poe says, lurching forward into the kitchen, a small space Kes kept tidy and clean. The metal cabinets were old, beginning to rust, but Poe could see that Kes had started replacing them recently. He pulls open a rusty drawer with a new, shiny handle glimmering in the sun and gestures at the knives, giving Finn first pick.
“Thank you,” Finn says, offering Poe a pearly grin, reaching for the small pairing knife. It’s tiny in Finn’s hands, enough to be completely concealed if he needed to hide it in a fight of some kind. But no need for that today. The only things going up against that knife were some fresh green and purple herbs from Kes’s garden.
Poe glances around and spots some orange and white tubers on the counter between Finn and Kes. He grabs a large cutting knife from the drawer and takes one step towards the tubers. “I’ll help out-”
“Wait, Poe!-” Kes starts.
“Nononono,” Finn says, spinning around and whisking away the knife from Poe. He gestures with it towards Poe and scolds him. “No.”
Poe opens his mouth to protest, but Kes’s words silence him. “You know the rules, Poe,” Kes says.
“No knives for Poe,” Finn says.
“Not in my kitchen,” Kes agrees.
“Are you really going to team up on me like this? You just met! How am I already in trouble with both of you?!”
Kes chuckles and turns back to his pot where he was searing some onion and other aromatic vegetables. “I like this one, Poe. He’s smart.” Poe is stunned, shocked as Kes continues to laugh, looking up at Finn with a glimmer in his eyes. “How many times did you have to save his life?”
Finn lifts his gaze from the fully chopped herbs, setting them off to the side as he trades his pairing knife for a chopping knife and grabs the tubers. He looks between Poe and Kes with a faint smile of amusement. He shrugs. “More than he’d want me to admit.”
Poe wants to argue, but all he has the strength to muster is a dejected, “I married my kriffing father,” which he knows Kes will find amusing.
Later that evening, after they’d had hearty servings of stew and rice, Kes served them up some homemade wine and gave Finn a tour of all his gardens until the night birds started howling. Poe finds himself sitting across from his father in the kitchen while Finn is in the shower, just the two of them. Now was the time to say something, to ask questions about what had happened since he last came home, or to ask how Kes was really feeling about all of this. But Poe was so tired, from everything—the stress of reuniting with his father, the long trip to Yavin IV, from being a General of the Resistance — no words were forming in his mind. If it weren’t for Kes’s ability to break the silence, they would have sat there staring all night.
“Poe, I want you to know…” Kes says, the words echoing strangely against the walls when it was that quiet at night. “... that I’m really proud of you and I’m happy that you have someone to share your life with.”
Poe could see something shining in his eyes, a sentimental yearning from deep within. Poe had what Kes had always wanted, what he fought in the war for. Poe had a partner that he loved. The war was over now. It was time for them to “settle down” though he and Finn weren’t sure they were quite ready to give it up just yet.
“Did you think I was dead?” Poe asks rather impulsively. Kes’s eyes shimmered a little brighter as they welled with tears. “Snap and I had an agreement that if either of us died, we would tell the other’s parents…” Poe realized he would need to find someone else to relay the message to Kes now that Snap was gone forever.
“Poe.” Kes’s voice is steady. He stands up, moving closer to Poe and leaning down to press a fatherly kiss to the top of his head. “I am so happy you are alive.” He grabs Poe by the sides of his face and squeezes his cheeks together. “And even more so that you brought home a reason for you to stay alive.”
Poe wasn’t sure he completely understood why his father wasn’t more upset with him for his lack of communication throughout the years. Maybe he would understand more with time and age. “Thanks, Dad.”
Kes smiles, sitting back down and putting his elbows on the table. “Don’t thank me. Thank you for making what I fought for when I was a rebel worth it.” His grin becomes a little carefree and devious as he shrugs. “Now you can bring me some grandkids.”
“Oh god,” Poe says, his face falling straight into his hands. “Dad, whatever you do, don’t mention that to Finn.”
“Why not?” says a voice from the entrance of the kitchen directly behind Poe. Snapping his head around to look, Poe sees Finn, shirtless, fresh, and steaming from his shower. His posture was easy and relaxed, with a blue towel thrown over one shoulder. “I don’t think kids are a bad idea.”
“Yes!” Kes cheered, throwing his hands in the air. “I like him more every day.”
Poe scowls at Finn. “That only makes one of us.” Of course, he didn’t mean it. He always found reasons to love Finn more every day. But there were moments when that man did or said things that drove him up a wall or downright terrified him.
“Finn, you are always welcome here. I am a great babysitter. No charge,” Kes insists. “In fact, consider this your new home. Just bring me a grandbaby.”
“You have BB-8!” Poe desperately chimes in.
“He’s a droid.”
“He’s adorable!”
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Finn says, offering a hand to Kes. Poe watches in horror as their hands clasp and shake on it. Finn turns to Poe. “Now, go shower and get cleaned up. You need to sleep.”
Poe had been worried about the wrong thing. To think he was afraid his father would be upset about his lack of a wedding invitation and here he is being shoehorned into having kids with Finn. He should have seen the signs. Finn was dedicated and meticulous and a kickass ground soldier and a damn good one at that. He was a reader and a foodie and so many other things that Poe could mention. But above all else, Finn was like Kes, a family-oriented man. And once he knew this was an option, “this” being domestic bliss on a bountiful homestead that lies on a jungle moon with a dedicated babysitter, Finn would dedicate himself to that. And far be it from Poe to deny him that after everything he’s been through.
Poe supposes there are far worse things than waking up next to Finn every morning with the tip-yips signaling it was morning with their calls. Or to the smell of eggs being fried up for breakfast. The slow pace of life would probably drive him crazy, but a part of himself always wanted the comfort of a partner and a home, and he was sure he could find hobbies that didn’t put his life in too much danger. And if he couldn't… well, Finn knew what he was getting himself into. They would figure it out.