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Finn was pretty sure if he lived to be a hundred years old he would never met someone like Rey again.
He had been huddled in the back of the train, watching the landscape slip by when she plopped herself down beside him. At first he remained frozen, not quite daring to look over at her except out of the corner of his eye. But she started fidgeting and he had to look over.
“Can I help you?” he asked, hesitant because her skin was pale and her hair was twisted up elaborately.
“No,” she said and tried to hold herself still, practically vibrating with the effort of not moving.
Finn's eyes darted around the train seats, noticing it was mostly full, which must have been why she sat there. He pushed himself a bit further up against the window and fell silent again.
He realized he was now the furthest North he had ever been, the landscape still the same he had looked at his whole life. The hard sun overhead and the humid summer air were sliding past the train and maybe in a few more hours that would start to change.
His stomach started growling after a few more hours and he hunched his shoulders in embarrassment. He had spent almost all his money just on this ticket, and had hoped he could go longer without needing to eat. What he had would have to last for several days after all.
“Here,” a voice said and the girl that had been fidgeting beside him thrust a sandwich under his nose. For a moment Finn blinked at it before turning his gaze to the girl.
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“You're hungry,” she said. “I have plenty of sandwiches.”
It was simple, barely even a sandwich but it settled his stomach and he may have been wary but wasn't going to argue either.
“Thank you,” he said when he had inhaled it and she smiled at him.
He looked around, waiting for someone to turn around and glare at them, a white girl and a black boy sitting together and talking. It was dangerous, for both of them and he wanted to ask her if she knew, if she was aware of what she was doing to both of them.
But no one was staring and she started talking and he slowly was dragged into the conversation with her.
It started to get dark and he knew they were both orphans, that she was running just as much as he was to get out.
“It took me a long time,” she said, shifting. “I still—I kept waiting for them to come back, you know? They promised they would.”
“Who?” Finn asked.
“My parents, I think,” she said. “I don't really remember. I just remember screaming while the lady who runs the orphanage held on to me.” She sighed and Finn reached out, taking her hand to offer comfort and maybe have some for himself. She frowned down at the hand, her arm tensing like she would pull away before deciding to leave it. “But they're not coming back. And I hate it there.”
“Where are you going?” Finn asked.
“I don't know yet,” she said. “I'll see when I get there, I guess.” Her eyes flickered up to him. “Where are you going?”
“New York,” Finn decided to admit. “It's as far as I can afford to go.”
“Maybe I'll stop there too,” she said, brightening and Finn's stomach turned over like maybe he wouldn't be alone in the big city.
A few hours later she had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and he watched the distant lights stream past the window. They were almost out of the South and he stayed awake until they were in Virginia, about to pass the border.
-0-
“I found us jobs,” Rey said, bounding into the tiny hotel room that Finn was staying at. It would have been cheaper for both of them to stay in one room, but when Rey had pointed that out Finn thought of the way the owners would have stared at them and quickly shook his head.
Maybe he wouldn't be lynched in the middle of the city but he wasn't willing to take that chance.
Not after Zeroes had. It was the only final push Finn had needed to leave, to get as far away from where he grew up as possible.
“Both of us?” he asked, like he couldn't believe it.
“Yes!” Rey said. “There's this club, apparently they need the help. They wanted a waitress and a dishwasher. The owner says if you come in now they'll see if they can get you set up!”
Finn was tired, and a little dusty from where he had been down at the docks looking for jobs. “Okay,” he said, scrambling to comb his hair and find a clean shirt to put on.
He let Rey lead the way, following at a hopefully discrete distance. When she knocked on the door in the alley and happily gave the password, Finn felt his stomach drop. “Rey,” he hissed, catching up with her on the stairs. “Do you know what sort of place this is?”
“Yes,” she said, eyeing him, insulted he would ask.
“This sort of place is illegal,” he said and she snorted.
“But it's also willing to offer you a job,” she said and Finn came to a stumbling stop at the bottom of the steps.
Perhaps there were fancier places out there, more glitz and glamour. But the room that had once been a basement was beautiful and Finn's eyes were wide as he tried to absorb it. The rows and rows of bottles behind the bar glittered in the dim light, and there was a large dance floor in the middle of tables and chairs gilt in gold and mother of pearl.
There was a stage taking up the far end, and already a group of men stood there, one in particular sitting on the edge of the stage, his curly hair untamed around his face. His head was tilted back, obviously teasing the other people on the stage with him.
Finn finally forced himself to start moving when Rey poked him. “That's the band,” she said, leading him over to where a woman sat at one of the tables, papers strewn around her and her greying hair twisted up to the back of her head. “That's the owner.”
Rey seemed to have no issues marching right up to her and gesturing at Finn. “This is who I was telling you about,” Rey said.
The woman looked up at him, and her eyes were bright and shrewd.
Finn sank into the chair across from her and somehow found himself agreeing to everything she said, answering her questions and assuring her he was a hard worker.
“It's rough down here,” she said.
“I understand,” Finn said.
Which was how he became a dishwasher at the speakeasy. They had their own house band and Finn could hear them through the walls of the kitchen, even over the sounds of patrons. “They're good, aren't they?” he asked the cook one night, receiving a grunt in response.
Finn had just never really paid attention to music before, but he was starting to think maybe he had been missing out on something. He couldn't quite figure out what the music made him feel, but it was a swelling feeling in his chest. Sometimes, if there were no dishes immediately in front of him he would wander to the door of the kitchen, sticking to the shadows as he peeked out.
The man with the curly hair he had seen the first night was the singer, crooning into the microphone each night with a smile on his face.
For the first time he could really remember, Finn was starting to feel happy. He had a horrible hole in the wall to live in, but it was his and it was home. Rey lived just down the hall, and he was usually greeted each night before work by her smiling face at his door. He wasn't making much, but for the moment it was enough.
And every night he could, he watched this man who sang like the world was beautiful.
“You like him,” Rey said.
“We've never talked,” Finn protested.
It only took a few weeks until Rey broke her serving tray over the head of one of the customers. When Finn heard her yell he dropped the glass he was washing and ran out to the floor. The singer was holding her back from where he'd jumped down from the stage as she snarled at a rotund man who wagged a finger at her and yelled about disrespect.
“Rey!” Leia barked, coming out of her office. “Come with me. You,” and she narrowed her eyes at the man. “Leave.”
The man blustered and stormed for the door, the singer finally letting Rey go. When she went to Leia, Finn followed her, desperate to defend her character to the owner.
When he slid into the office, Leia arched her brows at him. “I just want to say—” he started.
“I'm fairly certain I just asked for Rey,” Leia said and Finn flushed, ducking his head down. “But that's alright. So, why did you hit him?”
Rey was still practically snarling. “He touched me,” she said. “After talking about,” and her eyes darted to Finn and away. “All night he was saying the most disgusting thing, about what sorts of people we should allow into this country. And then he touched me and I just—”
The singer entered the office then, his movements liquid and casual. “I will vouch for that,” he said. “We could see it from the stage.”
“Yes, thank you, Poe,” Leia said, sounding both fond and exasperated.
Finn tried not to stare at him, but nor had they really been this close. Despite himself, his head turned slightly and his eyes kept flickering over. Poe's speaking voice was almost as lovely as his singing voice, deep and warm.
“It seems you have quite a following among my employees,” Leia remarked, her attention on Rey, who blushed. “However, I don't think it's a good idea to leave you out on the floor anymore. This may be the most dramatic incident, but it's not the first, is it?”
“No,” Rey said, ducking her head.
“However, I think the bar needs more help. Akbar has been protesting he needs someone who can mix a drink properly.”
Rey's eyes lit up.
“You'd still be dealing with people,” Leia said, almost a warning. “And I expect professional behavior. But at least you'd have a wooden bar between you and wandering hands.”
As they all moved to leave the office, Rey practically bouncing, Poe glanced at Finn. “I'm not sure we've been introduced,” he said.
“Not yet,” Finn agreed, feeling his stomach jump.
This was ridiculous, he told himself viciously. He had spent time around beautiful people before. He could even look at Rey now without feeling a jolt of fear and surprise.
“Poe,” the man said, holding his hand out with a smile and Finn had to shake it.
“Finn,” he said and felt compelled to add. “I'm the dishwasher.”
“I know,” Poe said and Rey had moved on ahead of them. For a second it was just them in the dim hallway in front of Leia's office. Finn could hear the sounds of the speak, the customers and the band playing an instrumental piece. “I see you in the doorway.”
Finn's eyes widened in alarm. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't—”
“It's fine,” Poe said warmly and turned to head back to the stage. He stopped at the end of the short hall, turning back around and still smiling. “It's nice to know someone wants to listen.”
-0-
Rey was much happier behind the bar, happily following Akbar around like a puppy, eager to learn his remarkably large back log of drinks.
One night Finn found himself sweeping the floor while she tested out new drinks on the band. Poe alone sat on the stage, smoke curling away from his cigarette.
“Come on, Poe,” Jessika said, waving her hand. “Don't you want something sugary and sweet?”
“No,” Poe said and lit another cigarette. “Not tonight.”
“Okay, fine, what about you?” Ello asked, pointing at Finn. Rey brightened at him and Finn shook his head.
“I don't drink,” he said, feeling like his stomach wanted to drop out.
“At all?” Jessika asked.
He shook his head, holding the broom too tightly.
“That's okay,” Rey said. “Come on, I want to try this other one, who's ready for the next drink?”
When Finn looked up, halfway across the room from where he had been, Poe was still sitting on the stage and watching him. “Why don't you drink?” Poe asked, because Finn was almost to him.
“Bad memories,” Finn said and Poe's mouth thinned.
“What about dancing?” Poe asked and Finn stared.
“Excuse me?” he asked.
Poe slid off the stage, and he was grinning. “Dancing,” he said. “I feel restless. I don't want to drink I want to be out somewhere.”
“Somewhere?” Finn repeated. He wasn't sure he could understand that mindset, where someone would spend all night surrounded by people and want to go seek out more. “Now?”
“Now,” Poe agreed. “Come with me?”
And Finn couldn't find anything in him to say no. They stepped out into the night together, the long hours after midnight and before dawn and Finn trailed after Poe as he lead him down paths he obviously knew. “You're new to New York, right?” Poe asked.
“Yeah,” Finn said.
“Have you seen Harlem's night life yet?” Poe asked and Finn shook his head.
“You're going to enjoy this then,” Poe said and led Finn through a dazzling array of clubs, jazz music and dancers swirling around them. Somehow Poe never lost him in the crowd, though several times he watched as Poe spun away into a frantic dance with girls in short beaded dresses. Finn stuck to the edges of the crowd, staring wide eyed at this new world around him.
Toward dawn, when light was already in the sky Poe took him down into another club. It took Finn's eyes time to adjust, to realize that all the couples left on the floor were made up of two men. He stopped dead and Poe turned his head slightly, something hesitant in his eyes.
“Do you know how to dance?” he asked.
“Not the Charleston,” Finn said quickly.
Poe was still hesitant as he held out a hand. “I can teach you some of them,” he offered and Finn took his hands, trying not to feel the jolt at how warm they were.
“I didn't know places like this existed,” Finn admitted and Poe's eyes were shining in the low light.
When he finally slunk into his apartment dawn had passed several hours ago and he had only crawled into bed when Rey knocked and let herself in. “Did you have fun?” she asked.
“Why aren't you already asleep?” Finn protested, pulling the thin blanket over his head.
“Wanted to make sure you got back tonight,” she said, patting his knee and leaving.
“I did have fun,” he said as she reached the door and peeked up over the blanket to see her smile.
-0-
“You have got to stop getting into fights,” Finn remarked, bandaging her knuckles.
“You're not going to defend yourself,” she said. “So someone else has to.”
He paused, looking at her. “What?”
“You hear what people say—”
“They've always said things like that,” Finn said. “It's not worth fighting over.”
“What is worth fighting over?” she demanded and he paused again.
“Something that will actually make a difference,” Finn decided on.
-0-
One night he was standing in the door, watching Poe sing when suddenly Poe's eyes met his across the room. Finn startled, hoping no one else noticed where Poe was looking. But Poe kept singing, smooth and warm right at Finn and he wanted to hold on to the door frame just to stay up.
-0-
When he finished the dishes, he came out to see if Poe was still there.
He was sitting at one of the tables with Leia. “You're being foolish again,” she said, making another notation in the marks.
“You want a man like Hux to get elected?” Poe snapped and Finn stopped, listening.
“No,” Leia said.
“Didn't you used to want to fight to change the world too?” Poe asked.
“I did,” Leia said shortly. “But those Utopian visions are done with. Fighting doesn't always mean you win.”
“You've only started talking like that since your brother—”
“Don't bring Luke into this,” she said shortly. “Or Han, before you go there either.”
“I wasn't going to go there,” Poe said, leaning back.
“Good,” she said and Poe noticed Finn, smiling at him and gesturing him forward. Finn came and hesitantly sat down beside him. “So what do you think about the elections?”
“I don't know,” Finn admitted. “I've never been able to register to vote.”
Poe and Leia both looked at him darkly at that.
“This is exactly what I was talking about,” Poe said and Leia ran a hand over her forehead.
“At the rate you run your mouth, you're going to get arrested,” she said. “If not for the other thing first,” and she gave Finn a piercing look he couldn't quite decipher. Poe for his part suddenly wouldn't quite look at him.
-0-
Finn ran into Poe one day when he'd gone out for the scant groceries he could afford. There was a crowd gathered in one of the squares and he had stopped, trying to figure out what it was for. When he realized almost everyone there was not only white but starting to glare at him, he started moving quickly the other way.
Poe was at the edge of the crowd and Finn stopped next to him. “What's this?” he asked and Poe glanced at him before turning his glare back to the man speaking on the raised platform on the other side of the crowd.
“It's a speech,” he said and Finn turned his head, finally starting to listen. What he heard made his stomach turn over.
“This isn't the South,” he protested weakly. “How is he still saying these thing?”
Hidden under his bags, Poe brushed the back of his hand with his fingers. “It doesn't matter where you are in this country,” he said. “People still say things like this.”
Finn felt like he had been betrayed. “What is he doing?”
“That's Hux,” Poe said. “He's running for mayor. He's backed by the Klan and everyone knows it even if they won't actually say it.”
“Please tell me someone else is running too,” Finn said.
“Sure, but they're not nearly so xenophobic and isolationist,” Poe said darkly.
-0-
On his nights off Finn started going to Harlem more and more. Poe's singing voice still had a special place in his heart, but he would sit in the back of clubs and just listen to the music, the black singers creating new rhythms and tempos as he listened.
He did not quite dare go back to the club that Poe had taken him to where they danced.
He was certain he could find it again if he really wanted to.
-0-
Poe and Rey were talking at a table when Finn finished. “What is it?” he asked.
“We were just talking,” Rey said.
“Anything I can help with?” Finn asked as he sat down.
“We were talking about Hux,” Poe said. “And the others like him.”
“You'll never be able to convince everyone,” Finn started. “The world won't ever listen—”
“Why are you willing to give up before even trying?” Rey asked.
“Because people are being arrested for speaking out,” Finn said. “Because I watched my best friend, I mean—he was my best friend but I don't think I was his—I saw him lynched by a mob. Fighting is dangerous—”
Poe reached forward, taking his hand and Finn felt his chest clench. It was the most simple comforting gesture and it made him want to lean over and cry.
-0-
Finn realized Leia had hired those who were outcasts or undesirable to the outside world. They were a mixed bag from countless other countries in a country build on the backs of them, but increasingly xenophobic.
He still listened every night at the doorway, watching Poe who still sang, despite looking more frustrated by the day.
One night he took out the garbage to the back and Poe followed him, a whiff of smoke surrounding him. “Finn,” Poe said, hesitant and determined.
“What?” Finn asked, turning to face him.
“I'm not sure I'm reading this right is all,” Poe said.
“Reading what?” Finn asked and startled when Poe took one of his hands, twining their fingers together. Finn looked at their hands before finally flickering his eyes up to Poe's face. “Okay, now I'm worried I'm not reading this right.”
Poe reeled him in and kissed him.
Finn clung to him, hands tightening in his shirt and Poe held him like he was precious. Poe's mouth was as warm as his singing voice and the kiss ended quickly. “Were we both right?” Poe asked and Finn nodded, wanting to dive in for another kiss and holding himself back. “Good,” Poe said.
“Have you and Rey figured out how you're going to change the world yet?” Finn asked and Poe's eyes went wide in the dark alley.
“We're working on it,” Poe admitted.
“Then I'm going to help,” Finn said and it a promise between them and the dark sky and Poe smiled.