Work Text
“It’s overly commercialized!”“It’s sweet!”“It’s lost all meaning! Businesses just want you to buy their overly sentimental greeting cards and buy their overly expensive jewelry and eat their overly . . . red . . . heart-shaped boxes of chocolate.”“Or – if I may be permitted a rebuttal – it’s a wonderful opportunity to tell your sweetheart how you feel when you can’t find the right words yourself by buying the overly sentimental greeting card. A chance to let your sweetheart know how sweet they are by giving them chocolate and trinkets. It doesn’t even need to be jewelry, just something nice, something that they would enjoy. It’s a chance to show your sweetheart how much you care,” Poe says, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek before moving his mouth to her ear and whispering, “sweetheart.”Rey’s never really been one to blush, at least not before she had met Poe, but she can’t help the flush that springs to her cheeks at that whispered endearment. She huffs out a sigh when she sees that Poe has noticed, a slow grin spreading across his handsome face. She rolls her eyes even as she smiles, amused at Poe’s enthusiasm for the holiday.“I’m sorry, but I just think the holiday has become such a cliché.”“Maybe so, but how can you say no to an opportunity for chocolate?” Poe asks as he flops down on the couch, his hands making grabby motions at Rey until she settles down next to him, leaning back until she rests against his chest.“I know for a fact that you have about three pounds worth of different types of chocolate and candy in the kitchen cabinet.”“Yes, but I don’t have – how did you describe it – an overly red and heart-shaped box of chocolate.”“Aww, poor baby,” Rey teases, even as she’s tilting her head back for a kiss.They kiss for a few minutes, soft and slow, until Poe pulls back a little, his hand smoothing over her hair as he gazes at her. She’s content to let him look and to look in return.“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Poe says, softly. “We can ignore the holiday completely or have dinner here if you want. Or if you want to try, we can go all out, flowers, dinner someplace nice, chocolate, and stuffed animals. Whatever you want. I’m cool with whatever, as long as I have you.”Rey’s touched by his comment, but she can’t help quirking an eyebrow in amusement at one thing he said. “Stuffed animals? Is that actually a thing people enjoy receiving on Valentine’s Day?”“Some of us do,” Poe says in mock indignation. “But if you’re not into it, we can leave the stuffed animals for Beebee.”She traces a finger along his jaw line as she thinks. “Maybe we could just have dinner here? Something quiet, nothing fancy?” “Sounds perfect,” Poe says, as he tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and smiles at her.She feels safe and warm in their little cocoon of their own making. So, she thinks she wants to tell him, to have him understand why, that it’s not just a dislike of the holiday and the consumer culture that surrounds it, but that it’s something more, something rooted deeper into her.“It’s just – I’ve never celebrated Valentine’s Day before. Well, not until two years ago when I met Finn and then we just went to the store and bought all the discount candy on February 15th and gorged ourselves on sweets. I couldn’t stand it the years before, seeing everyone acting all gooey and over the top that day, practically oozing all the clichés while I was just trying to,” survive, she thinks, “go about my life.” She pauses. “All that day does is remind me how alone I was. I can try, you know that I’ll try for you, but I just don’t know if I can really celebrate that day.”Poe leans in to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Thank you for telling me that. We’ll only do as much as you want to. If it’s too much, say so, and whatever it is, I’ll back off.”“A dinner in sounds nice,” she says, relaxing back into the couch and his side.“It does,” he responds as his arms go around her to hold her close.“No candles, though.”Poe’s chest rumbles with laughter. “No candles.”--She has no idea what she’s doing.Rey hates Valentine’s Day. Can’t stand it. She had promised herself long ago that she would never give in, never become like one of those people who reduce love and affection down to gaudy jewelry and expensive meals and the overly showy but useless baubles. She had seen them come through the coffee shop where she worked as a barista in college, had seen them when she passed the restaurant windows, had just barely managed to escape being knocked over on sidewalks by oblivious lovers. She even hated the day when she had Finn and Rose - before those two had officially started dating - and they would just sit there and gorge themselves on cheesecake and ice cream and gripe about the holiday.She just hates the day.So, she has no idea why she’s walking up to Poe Dameron’s house right now, her arms full of the most cliché of Valentine’s Day gifts.Scratch that.She knows why. She absolutely knows why she scoured the local stores at the last minute for the perfect, most cliché gifts. And when she settles herself down enough to knock on the front door, the reason why answers it.“Rey?” Poe asks. His face flashes through a myriad of expressions, though the primary one appears to be confusion.Rey gets it. After all her talk of her dislike – well, hatred, really – for the holiday, all the careful discussions of her wariness of celebrating the day, well . . .Well, she’s standing in Poe’s doorway, holding out towards him the most garishly red, most oversized, most heart-shaped box of chocolates she has ever seen in her life. A giftbag dotted with little hearts and stuffed with pink and white tissue paper is draped over her forearm.The pièce de résistance is behind her, however. She sees Poe’s eyes flick over the box of chocolates and then the giftbag, only to widen in amazement as his eyes finally drift past her.A massive stuffed bear, well over four feet tall (and Rey suspects at least that wide around its soft, overstuffed tummy), rests on the ground behind her.Poe may have said that he was fine with them not taking the traditional approach to Valentine’s Day, that he was content with an understated dinner at home, but she had seen the tears in his eyes when she had caught him watching some sappy Valentine’s Day themed movie, where the hero had indulged in all the clichés and the couple lived happily ever after.So, if she had felt a little tug at her heartstrings then, a desire to maybe give him a few of the clichés, well, you couldn’t blame her, could you?Poe’s eyes jump between the gifts once more, each time lingering on the frankly ostentatious teddy bear behind her longer than the rest, before resting on her face. He visibly swallows once, then twice, emotion lining his face. “Rey, what is this?”She shrugs in an attempt to appear nonchalant. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Poe.”His answering smile is soft, if still a little confused and overcome with emotion. “Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too, Rey. But that didn’t answer my question. I thought you didn’t want to do the typical Valentine’s Day thing?”She shrugs once more, suddenly feeling a little shy. “You seem to like this part of Valentine’s Day. And,” she trails off struggling to find the words. “And I like you. So, I thought that maybe I could ignore the mass over commercialization of certain things,” and she doesn’t miss Poe’s grin at her reference to their usual argument concerning the holiday, “if it makes you happy.”Poe’s grin breaks into a brilliant smile at her last comment, even as she catches a tear forming in the corner of an eye. He steps forward and cradles her cheeks in his hands, pressing a tender kiss to her lips before pulling back just a hairs breadth. “This is wonderful, Rey,” he says, softly. “You are wonderful. Thank you.”A small yip breaks into their sweet moment and their attention is pulled to the corgi who stands on the front stoop gazing in concern at the very large stuffed animal.Rey bends down, lets Beebee nuzzle her palm before his attention turns back to the bear once more. “It’s alright, Beebee. It’s a new friend. And I got you a gift, too,” she says, patting her bag with her hand before standing back up.“It’s cold out here. Let’s go inside,” Poe says, placing his hand on the small of her back to guide her into the house.Once over the threshold, she sets her bag and the giftbag and chocolates down, and lets Poe help her with her coat. Her nose twitches at the delightful combination of scents filling the house, even if she can’t pinpoint the exact sources of the aromas.Poe sees the movement and grins. “I’m so glad you went a little overboard. I may have, too.”“Poe! We agreed on a quiet dinner in, nothing fancy,” she says, though any concern about his statement is decidedly without heat. She sighs. “There better not be candles.”“No candles,” he says, before guiding her around the corner and into the kitchen. He immediately leads her to the part of the kitchen counter where graham crackers, chocolate bars, and marshmallows sit. “But there will be fire, if you want. Or there’s banana cream pie in the fridge and chocolate chip cookie dough ready to go. Whatever you want.”She glances around her and realizes why she was unable to identify any of the scents that had hit her nose when she entered the house. The kitchen is filled with a wide variety of foods – plates and serving dishes line the counters, at least two pans sit on the stove still simmering, and something is clearly warming in the oven.She imagines her eyes are just about as wide as Poe’s were when he saw the massive teddy bear. She takes a slow walk around the kitchen, spying just about every single food she had ever mentioned to Poe as being her favorite (and she may be a bit prone to exaggeration listing so many foods as her favorites, but she just really likes them all a lot). She can’t even begin to imagine the time spent preparing all of these dishes, not to mention the cost, and now she’s the one whose eyes are getting a little misty.“Poe,” she says, her voice a little choked. “This is – amazing.”He comes up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing a soft kiss to the side of her neck, before resting his chin on her shoulder. “You like food,” he says, chuckling even as she elbows him gently in his side at the comment. “And I like you, and I thought this might make you happy.”Rey hasn’t had many home cooked meals served to her before, certainly nothing like this, and she’s honestly feeling a little overwhelmed. She’s grateful that Poe seems content to hold her for now, while she works to take it all in, until finally she tilts her head a little to press a kiss to his jaw.“Thank you, Poe,” she says, and he kisses her cheek in response. She clears her throat. “Well, I guess if we don’t want all this food to go to waste, we better start eating.”He chuckles and hands her an empty plate.--Rey’s not even sure how many times she got up to refill her plate. Every time she had promised herself just one bite more, that bite became two and then three, as she remembered yet another dish she just needed to try again. She’s not sure how Poe managed to put it all together, but she’s grateful and thinks she may have fallen even more in love with him for it.Poe sticks a marshmallow on a skewer and uses a torch to light it on fire before presenting it to Rey. “For you, sweetheart.”“Now this is the kind of candle I can support,” she says, letting the flame linger until the marshmallow has become a toasty brown. She blows it out and grins toward Poe.“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he says, leaning in and kissing her.“Happy Valentine’s Day.” She takes her marshmallow and places it on a graham cracker with a bit of chocolate and waits for Poe to complete his own.The s’more is the last of it for the evening though, as she flops back in her chair, resting a hand on her stomach and groaning. Poe follows suit, and within a moment, they’re both taking their full bellies and glasses of wine to the living room.“Oh, wait!” Rey exclaims, crossing the room to her bag and digging through it. Moments later, she pulls out a stuffed heart shaped toy and a dog treat. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Beebee.” The little corgi happily takes the toy to his bed, and trots back a second later to do the same with the treat, before settling in to spend time with his gifts.She can hear Poe moving around behind her, even as she watches Beebee and laughingly says, “Looks like he enjoys his gifts.” Only then does she turn around, and she can’t stop her soft chuckles from turning into outright laughter.Poe’s lugging the giant stuffed bear into the living room, moving it until it’s propped up against the couch. He just grins at her before he flops down onto the floor, half in the bear’s lap as he curls up into it. He holds up an arm, urging her to join him.She just shakes her head, still laughing. It’s his pout that convinces her though, his bottom lip sticking out comically far, and she can’t help but join him.It’s more comfortable than she expected, but honestly, she thinks that it’s more that she’s snuggled up with Poe than the feel of the plush, overstuffed bear beneath her. Her head is resting inches from Poe’s, and he’s got that soft, warm smile on his face that she loves.“You like it?” She asks. “It’s not too much?”Poe grins. “It’s perfect. I even know what I’m going to name him.”“You’re going to name him?”“Mmhmm. I’m gonna call him Big Bear.” Poe’s face stretches into a grin as he looks at her expectantly.A moment later her eyes widen in realization. “Big Bear . . . aka BB,” she says, shaking her head in amusement.“It’s perfect. He’ll be BB the Second. I feel like this could be the start of something great.”She shakes her head, feeling so fond of him at the moment. “I’m glad you enjoy it.”“I do. I love it,” he says. “I love you.”“I love you, too, Poe,” she says, and her eyes close as he leans in, his soft lips meeting with hers.