MONOCHROMATIC [A POE DAMERON X READER STORY]

part 3; chapter five

Poe felt an absurd amount of pressure on his lungs before he fell. He hit the ground and gasped. The first thing he registered was how heavy the air was down here. The second thing he registered was his beeping droid right beside him, and the third thing he registered was the disappointing clank of metal that told him that whoever had fallen behind him wasn't ___, but it was C-3PO. 

He got up on his feet and pulled out his flashlight. In the dim green light it gave off, he turned around. "___!? ___!?" he yelled, and then as the silence fell on him, he added fearfully, "Rey! Finn!" 

"You didn't say my name, sir, but I'm alright," C-3PO said. 

Rey let out a cry of pain as she fell through the sand. Poe rushed over and held his arms out, giving her something better to fall on than the hard ground at the bottom. He set her down and she looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. 

"Are you all right?" he asked. 

She nodded. "Where's Finn? Where's Chewie?" 

"I don't know. Where's ___?" he asked. He got up and looked around, gripping his flashlight tight. "She was right next to me!"

"I'm good," Finn said, stumbling out of a crack in the wall. "I thought we were goners."

"This isn't the after-life, is it?" C-3PO asked. 

"Where is ___!?" Poe shouted. He whirled around. "___?!"

Suddenly Chewbacca dropped and hit the ground. Rey rushed to his side, and then Poe heard a loud gasp. He turned and watched you drop to the ground. You hit your back too hard and your jaw dropped as you felt the shooting pain up your spine. 

"___!" He was leaning over you now, gently putting his hands underneath you to pull you up. "Are you okay?"

"You couldn't have been there to catch me, Dameron?" you asked, rubbing the back of your head. You would definitely have more than a few bruises.

"Not that time," he said, his lips twitching into a smile. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah," you said, and you let him pull you up onto your feet. You brushed the sand off of your clothes and then felt the absence of your blaster. "Darn." 

"What?" 

"My blaster is gone," you told him. 

At the same moment, it broke through the sand, and Poe caught it. He spun it in his hand and held it out to you. "Here you go."

You grinned and rolled your eyes as you put it back in the holster. The flashlight in his hands flickered out; he smacked the bottom of it until it emitted more light. 

"Stay close to me," he said.

You nodded and swallowed hard. Your throat was dry; you felt like you had followed a mouthful of sand. You probably did. Your entire body felt gritty with the stuff. Holding Poe's hand, you could feel the roughness of his palm, coated in course sand. But he gripped you tightly and you felt better holding him like this.

"Hey," you said, voice dropping, "what were you going to ask me?" 

"What?" 

"When we were sinking, you said that you never got to ask me," you said. "What was it?" 

"Oh." He looked behind him, where Finn and Rey were talking with their heads close together. He grabbed your elbow and lead you a ways away nonetheless, wanting to give all of the privacy he could within this dark cave. "It's just... it isn't a surprise. I think I've mentioned having a future enough that you know where this is heading, but... yeah. I wanted to ask if you'd marry me once all of this is over."