A Disturbance in the Force
Those thoughts stayed with her long after Poe and Finn found their own beds, after she’d checked on Little Poe for the seventh time, after she’d examined that pesky crack above her bed to distraction. With a sigh, she admitted the obvious: she wouldn’t be sleeping that night.
And if she was secretly thrilled as she pulled on a thin wrap - the temperature had finally dipped, a little preview of fall - and headed out toward the courtyard, well now wasn’t the time to parse those feelings, now was it?
She’d been so preoccupied - with the strange feelings the evening had brought up, with her own hurry to get out to the tree - that she hadn’t noticed the steady drumming of rain until she was already outside, stopping herself under the overhang just short of getting drenched.
No, no, no, she thought as the rain came down in sheets, the inky darkness of the night sky obscured by clouds. She needed to see the sky and stars, sit under the tree, maybe with some company…
“Fuck,” she whispered to nobody in particular, the word feeling sharp and daring on her tongue. That was twice in one day. If she wasn’t careful, it would become a habit.
The voice came from her right, deep and familiar even in the dark. But that familiarity didn’t stop her from jumping at the surprise, the “Fuck!” out of her mouth before she had a chance to think better of it. See, a habit.
She looked down in time to see Poe’s little smile at her reaction.