Cold Heart - Book One

Chapter Three

He returned the smile. "Of course," he replied. He began walking away and motioned for her to follow.

"This," he said pointing at a row of small, grey-ish green tents,"this is where the guards sleep." There were only about 12 tents and each one of them looked a bit dirty, like no one really cared about them. The next destination, a few rows filled with pilots, mechanics and people of the sort, looked much better. These tents were still the grey-ish green color, but they were larger and appeared to be much better taken care of. Lastly, he escorted her to a row of much bigger, red tents. Finn explained that these were for the higher-ups and excitedly announced that he was co-squadron leader, alongside Poe.

"That's wonderful!" she exclaimed, hugging him. She released him after a few seconds and decided that hugs weren't her thing. "Where is Poe, anyways? I see you've still got his jacket."

"Yup!" he announced proudly. "I don't know where he is, though. Maybe talking to the guards about shifts?" he looked around for a minute, but couldn't spot him.

"So, I uh, heard you and Poe have been hanging out a lot more lately," she began hesitantly. If he did have a crush of Poe, it was okay. She just didn't know how he would react to the question.

"Yeah, we have," he smiled brightly. "Oh, there he is now!" He looked past Rey's shoulder and waved at the man walking up to them.

When Poe came up to them, Finn engulfed him into a giant bear hug. Poe looked a bit taken aback, but didn't pull away. Rey supposed that Finn was trying to make up for the many years without affection from anyone. After a few moments, Finn stepped back.

"Rey, glad to see you here," he said.

"You too, Dameron," she smiled.

He looked from her to Finn for a few seconds and then raised an eyebrow. "So," he cleared his throat and looked at Rey awkwardly. "What are you doing here?"

Rey laughed. "It isn't anything like that, Poe. I'm here to help the interrogation with Kylo Ren. Finn and I are just good friends."

"Oh," Poe said, his smile returning to his face. "Makes sense," he shrugged. He scratched the back of his head nervously. "Finn, can I talk to you?" he asked. "It'll only be a second, I promise."

Finn smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sure." He gestured into the tent.

Poe let out the breath he had been holding in. He followed Finn into the large blue tent. Rey, not knowing what to do, sat next to the tent. She wasn't particularly planning on listening in on their conversation, it just kind of happened.

"So, what'd you need?" she heard Finn ask.

Poe coughed and Rey heard the shuffle of fabric. They had sat down. "First of all, I need to ask you a question."

She heard nothing from the tent for a few seconds, so assumed that Finn had nodded.

"So, you got your eye on anyone here?" Poe said. "Anyone from anywhere, actually."

There was a pause. "Yeah, actually!" Finn said. "I like someone here. A lot, actually." Rey knew it wasn't her, she only liked him as a brother and the feeling was mutual.

"Who is it?" she heard Poe ask. She could sense hope in his tone. "You can tell me anything, Finn. I won't judge you."

"They're a higher-up here, I suppose. A great pilot, too," he said. "I don't know whether to make a move or not. I'm sure they deserve someone better than me."

"Go for it!" Poe exclaimed. "I'm sure the person, whoever it is, will really like you." Pause. "They might even like you, right now."

"You're right, Dameron," Finn said. "I'll make my move."