Saga - ST It's the Little Things (Poe, Rey, Finn one-shots, TFA spoilers)

Title: The Little Things
Characters: Poe, Rey, and Finn
Style: One shots, introspective
Spoilers: All of TFA

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Rey

It's the little things about Jakku she misses, sometimes.

She misses her speeder; she was so proud of that vehicle. She remembers days when she'd just ride it, feel the wind on her face and enjoy the thrill of moving at such high speeds. Those times were rare, because speeder fuel is expensive and she had to pay for it, like everything else, with the scavenged items she gave to Unkar Plutt.

She misses her helmet, the one that belonged to a Rebel Alliance X-wing pilot. She remembers the day she found it. She was out scavenging near the wreckage of a Star Destroyer and she saw an X-wing not far away. She went over to it, and there was the helmet. No body nearby; just the helmet. She picked it up.

She decided to keep it, instead of giving it to Unkar Plutt, because of the name stenciled on the side: Raeh. She liked that it was so close to her own name. It made her feel like a part of something bigger than herself. She remembers sitting at the foot of her home and wearing the helmet, imagining herself a pilot for the Resistance.

She even misses her arguments with Teedo, sometimes. That little alien was annoying and mean, but over time their fights turned into something that kept her from going crazy with loneliness. She never admitted it, but she liked those arguments, once in a while. Maybe she still does.

Some things, she doesn't miss. Unkar Plutt, for example. The guy was mean and cruel. She doesn't miss him at all.

But it's the little things about her new home that makes her realize it's all worth it. She can take her shoes off and feel the grass between her toes. She can feel the cool ocean breeze as she stands on the cliff and looks out over the beautiful blue water. Water on Jakku wasn't ever blue; it was, at best, a murky brown. It's so pure, here.

And she knows she made the right choice, leaving Jakku. She has friends now, and a purpose. And they're better than anything she had on Jakku.

She hears, and senses, him approaching behind her. She continues watching the ocean for a moment longer, and then slips her shoes on and turns around. Luke Skywalker stands behind her, waiting patiently. He nods to her and then turns and walks back down the stairs toward the stone structures below. She follows, after a moment.

It's time to begin her training.

 

Nice job, revanfan1. Home is home no matter how greener the grass is on the other side. I think you captured that concept well in this piece. As 'bad' as it may have been on Jakku, it was familiar. It was home.

But it's the little things about her new home that makes her realize it's all worth it. She can take her shoes off and feel the grass between her toes. She can feel the cool ocean breeze as she stands on the cliff and looks out over the beautiful blue water. Water on Jakku wasn't ever blue; it was, at best, a murky brown. It's so pure, here.

Water. Grass. Trees. These are foreign concepts for Rey. But, I most definitely see the wonder and awe in her at seeing and feeling them for the first time.

 

Finn

It's the little things about the First Order that make him sure he did the right thing in deserting.

He wasn't given a nickname by his squad mates during training. He remembers Slip and Zeroes and Nines, and others who'd had nicknames given to them. He didn't. He was FN-2187, or Eight-Seven. He always figured it was just because his numbers didn't match up like Zeroes', and he wasn't clumsy to earn a nickname like Slip. But no, he realizes now, they never gave him a nickname because he didn't fit in.

He is, and was, sensitive, helpful, and compassionate. Those qualities don't last in First Order training, but in him they never went away. So when he helped Slip out when the kid was below par, or when he volunteered to provide covering fire in training simulations while the others ran ahead, they saw weakness, not strength. But he knows that he isn't weak.

They tried reconditioning him, after Jakku. He didn't submit to that. He's glad now he didn't; he would've probably been killed on Starkiller Base. Or maybe, if he didn't defect, there would've been nobody to stop the base, and the First Order would've conquered the galaxy. He would've been part of that.

But he still doesn't regret his choice.

He doesn't regret his choice even though he's in a coma right now.

He knows he is, he just can't do anything about it. He remembers Kylo Ren stabbing him in the shoulder with his lightsaber, and he remembers slashing Kylo's arm in return. But then Kylo's hot lightsaber drags up his spine, bottom to top...and he doesn't remember anything else. He knows he must've been rescued, and he thinks he might remember Rey calling his name and burying her head in his shoulder and crying.

But he isn't sure.

The next thing he remembers after that is hearing someone say something about a heartbeat, and a bunch of medics working on him. Then one of them telling Rey that he's in a medically induced coma.

He knows he's in one of those lucid comas where he can hear and sense everything around him, but can't do anything about it. It's frustrating. It was frustrating when Rey told him goodbye and kissed him on the forehead and left, and he wanted so badly to go with her. It's still frustrating.

Sometimes, Poe comes to visit he. He tells him how brave he is, and that when he wakes up, the two of them will be great friends and Poe will introduce him to all his buddies, like Snap and Jess. Even in a coma, he notes the slight excitement in Poe's voice when he says Jess's name. He thinks Poe likes Jess.

"I met Rey," Poe says one day. "She's really something. You're lucky."

He wishes he could respond to Poe. But he can't. Sometimes, Leia comes to visit him, too. Once, Poe brings BB-8. BB-8 chirps excitedly when he sees him and tries to talk to him. But he can't respond, only feel that he is loved. Poe tells BB-8 that he'll wake up someday, and then the two leave.

He knows that little things like this are what make his new life better. He knows he made the right choice.

 

Very nice!

 

Yayness! Rey's musings on what she does and does not miss. Love the sense of home-ness. Finn - sensitive, helpful, compassionate - very lovable traits but not First Order compliant - love the support he gets from friends but I too feel his frustration. I cannot wait for him to wake up either.

 

Another Revanfan fic I have been meaning to review since you started, and I'm finally getting around to it before my winter leave is over.

The first sentence of your first entry sucked me right in when you first posted this. Rey, like Luke before her and Anakin before him, is realising that moving on to a new life doesn't mean you won't miss your old life -- especially when that old life was the only home you ever knew, and you had to abandon it all behind. I particularly liked the reference to the helmet -- she was longing to be part of something bigger before, and she finds herself in that situation now.

The entry from Finn's POV just stole my heart -- how he thinks of what he always was, and of what he is free to be now, even trapped in a lucid coma. I squeed at the idea that BB-8's visit makes him feel loved. Like Rey, he's discovering what it means -- or what it could mean -- to have a new, a different life, and watching him have to wait in anticipation of it is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

I can't wait to see what you come up with for Poe!