the Dalaverse

Title: Anywhere I Go, There You Are
“So when were you planning on telling me that my daughter has two boyfriends?”
Luke and Leia reconnect by spying on the kids.
Author: Dala
Fandom: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Pairing: Finn/Poe/Rey; Luke and Leia gen
Rating: PG/General
Words: 1613
Written for: the Star Wars Fic Fest (for my own prompt, even)

AO3 link here


Luke’s been holed up in the room assigned to him for nearly the whole week he's been back, so when Leia feels a nudge of the Force moving toward and then past her office, she follows.

She follows him up the stairs - only two sets, fortunately, though there are many in this crumbling palace they've adopted as a base (and far fewer working lifts; it's been a lot of fun for her knees). He comes to a halt at a large vaulted window, turning his face up to the rays of the late afternoon sun. She can almost feel the kiss of a desert wind on her face. He must be missing it, even if that idea would have made him collapse into laughter three decades ago.

“So when were you planning on telling me that my daughter has two boyfriends?” He speaks without turning his head.

Leia joins him at the partially open window. It looks out on a courtyard garden, one of a dozen scattered about the grounds. No doubt they were beautiful once, but most of the flowers have been choked off by weeds and vines. At least this one seems to be in better condition than the others; the grassy square at its center is clear, if overgrown.

She wonders whether it was Poe or Finn who discovered this hideaway. It wouldn't have been Rey. As soon as she landed the Falcon, she had declared that her duty to the Resistance was now discharged and she would be happy to find lodging elsewhere if necessary. She'd met Leia’s eyes with her chin held high and her face pale but for the spots of color on her cheekbones, her stiff demeanor doing little to conceal the roil of emotions Leia could sense as surely as she felt the joy emanating from the pilot and tech at her back.

“Everyone’s been taking news so poorly around here lately, I wasn't sure where to start,” she says now, her voice a bit sharper than intended. No, she reflects after a moment: it was just sharp enough.

She'd realized it at once - Luke had finally told the girl the truth, and judging by her reaction it had not gone well. Not that there was really any way to make it easier. Sure enough, he'd come down the ramp behind her like a dejected shadow, nearly as shaggy as the Wookiee at his side (who was grumbling under his breath that this was exactly what he'd warned them would happen).

Poe was somewhat distracted by the return of the great Jedi Master from his childhood, but Finn had eyes only for Rey. Their concerned questions echoed down the corridor as they trailed her to her quarters - or rather to Dameron’s quarters. Where she has, so far as Leia knows, remained cloistered ever since. This has at least had the unintended effect of quashing the rumor mill. Since neither Rey nor Luke is ever seen, it’s been collectively assumed that they’re off training in a catacomb somewhere.

“She won't talk to me.” Luke stares down at the garden, clenching and unclenching his mechanical hand.

“They've closed ranks,” Leia points out. “Finn does a pretty fair job of avoiding me, since I'm not technically his CO. Dameron would never be insubordinate outright, but he talks to the air just above my head and won't look me in the eye.” Just like he'd done as a teenager with a crush; he never could hide his feelings. It had amused Leia once upon a time, but now it only makes her sad for him. It’s a hard thing, learning your heroes are human.

He’s holding court for the others, strumming the battered guitar his father gave him years ago. She can’t quite make out the tune from this distance. Something from Yavin, probably, although he knows some old Alderaanian ballads too. Finn leans on a chipped fountain and Rey leans back against him, his arms encircling her, his chin propped on her shoulder. Their eyes trace Poe’s long fingers up and down the strings.

“He’s too old for her,” Luke mutters, crossing his arms over his chest.

Leia raises an eyebrow. “I’ve known that boy all his life, fought beside him for nearly ten years. This is a course he’s never charted. Don’t you remember how Kes and Shara were with each other?”

Poe glances up from playing to smile at his audience, illustrating Leia’s point quite nicely, in her opinion (though Luke only snorts, unimpressed). Finn responds with the wide, easy grin that was hidden under a mask for far too long. Luke, she notes, hasn’t questioned his commitment; she doubts anyone would, not if they could see his eyes shine when Rey takes his hand.

But she’s troubled still; Leia can see it on her face, feel it beyond the flood of longing and regret and guilt that threatens to pull her under. Luke has been on his own for so long that he doesn’t realize how hard he’s projecting, or else he’s just protecting Rey at all costs and letting Leia flounder. Which is fine; she can take it.

Finn, it seems, has come to a similar conclusion. Stretching out his arm, he gathers up a handful of fallen leaves and stuffs them down the back of Rey’s shirt.

She yells in indignation and springs to her feet. Finn dances away from her grasp, pleased with his prank. When he nearly puts a foot through the guitar, Poe removes it to safety before sighing and hurling himself after them.

Leia smiles as she watches them chase each other around the garden, reaching for Luke’s forearm. His muscles go taut as a bowcaster line but she holds on.

“We may be her blood, but that’s her family - the family she chose.”

Poe catches Finn about the waist and pins his arms back while he puts up a show of struggling. Rey digs up a chunk of thick, yellowing grass before pausing to consider her retaliation.

“We have to give her time, Luke.”

“I’ve lost so much time already.” He presses his fingertips to the glass.

Rey has spotted something interesting in the grass and bends down to pick it up. Finn drops to his knees, hollering loud enough for his voice to carry two storeys: “Not the worm!”

Leia wrinkles her nose in sympathy. The worms here are purple-hued and slimy, growing as long as her hand and thick as her ring finger. Rey dangles it over Finn’s nose and he cringes back onto Poe’s boots.

“Okay, I give, I give!”

Her crow of triumph is cut off with an oof as he yanks her to the ground. She flails for Poe’s wrist, bringing him down with her.

Luke is shifting from foot to foot and Leia is blithely ignoring his discomfort at being touched when he suddenly freezes. The bright sound of Rey’s laughter drifts up through the window.

“I haven’t heard her laugh since…” He shakes his head, his face alight with wonder. It makes him look twenty years younger. “She sounds like her mother.”

Leia closes her eyes, remembering the urgency in Han’s voice, his palm warm on her cheek. It’s her, Leia. Luke’s little girl. I don’t know how she’s alive or why she was on that junkyard planet, but I knew her.

All the tension drains out of Luke’s spine. He bows his head. His hand - the real one - fumbles for hers, and she squeezes it hard.

Down in the deepening twilight, Rey lifts her head from where it’s pillowed on Finn’s stomach. She peers around as though she senses someone watching. Luke and Leia duck back at the same moment.

They look at each other, caught like guilt children, and she lets out a chuckle. After a moment Luke’s mouth twists up at one corner. It’s not quite a smile, but it’ll do for now.

“They’re nice boys,” she assures him. “And good men - my best, in fact.” She can’t help a glance over her shoulder, hoping there are no wayward pilots wandering by to hear the general play favorites.
Luke rubs the bridge of his nose. “I still don’t like it. But I don’t have any right to raise an objection, I guess. I’m just her teacher right now - or at least, I was.” He glances down at the lightsaber hanging from his belt.

Leia leans cautiously out to check on the trio in the garden. They’re sprawled out on a blanket: Rey tucked up against Poe with her head on his arm, Finn curled on her other side, his hand splayed over her hip. Someone’s jacket is draped over their shoulders - Finn’s, she thinks, thought it was probably Poe’s to begin with.

Poe lifts his arm and for a moment she’s afraid he spotted her, but he’s pointing to the first stars that appear in the sky. The tale he’s telling must be tall indeed; Rey smacks his shoulder lightly and Finn argues with an arc sketched through the air. She can read Poe’s protest on his lips - It’s true, I swear! before he shrugs and kisses them each in turn. It works as well as it always did on Han.

“She’ll come around,” Leia says, hooking her arm around her brother’s elbow and tugging him down the hall. “Besides, you can start with me.”

He cranes his neck to look at her, blue eyes wide. “Really?” She can’t fault him for the surprise; this is an old argument, one that always ended in a stalemate. But given everything they’ve lost - and what they’ve gained, too - she thinks maybe it’s finally time.

“On one condition: lose the beard.”