If Rey was being honest, she had never met a vampire.

"Does he ever, like, bite you?" It was a stupid question to ask, this she knew, but it was blurted out over the lid of her iced chai with soy, shyly taking a small sip as Rose gave the most devious look.

"I'd be surprised if he didn't, and a little disappointed." Rose sipped her own overpriced soy foam cappuccino with two extra shots of espresso. "I'll be honest, the Internet really dumbs down how good it feels while also not explaining how finicky some guys can be."

"Does he have like a preference or something?" Rey had assumed that all humans tasted the same, but by the look Rose gave her, she was very wrong,

"Does food taste the same to all of us?" Rey shook her head, "Of course they have blood preferences Rey!"

Rose had a habit of making Rey feel like an idiot sometimes, and this impromptu coffee date was just another to add to the list. But she wasn't doing this because she was deep friends with Rose, or simply enjoyed wasting what little money she had on a $7 drink, but because her long time friend Finn had started dating Rose a few years back and he thought them being friends would be a good idea.

"Does he feed on Finn too?"

Rose took another hearty sip and waved a frivolous hand through the air, "We have a schedule; I give every other weekday and Finn is weekends. Poe's super specific on his feedings so I just let him plan it out and go with what he says."

Rey nodded and ran the tip of her finger along the plastic clear rim of the glass, "So you're happy, with Poe?"

"I've never been happier, Rey." Rose had downed the drink and clicked her stubby nails on the plastic table.

"But enough about my love life, how have you been? We haven't lived together for what, a year now? Gosh, it feels like ages. Did you ever get that place in Hoth? I know you said it was like waaay out of your price range but like, I mean… you know?"

Rey stared for fifteen seconds, trying to compute the multiple questions she'd been asked, "I'm…"

Good? Decent? Average?

These were all understatements to how bad she was doing.

The place in Hoth had been $1800 a month and Rey barely made 1/5 of that, not even taking into account food—she'd cut out her cellphone bill, deciding that a flip phone with prepaid minutes was good enough.

Aldeeran Tech had officially kicked her out last semester; unpaid tuition and basically no income meant no more school, and loans were too risky. But the school had offered her admission back if she paid the $1300 owed, but that didn't look like it'd be happening anytime soon.

So like the liar she was, she gave Rose a wide, bright smile and blurted out,

"I'm doing pretty good, Rose. I didn't get the Hoth place, some asshole with upfront cash beat me to it but I found an even better place that's way cheaper."

Everyone knew Jakku was home to drug dealers and gangbangers, with multiples of vampires looking to drag away their victims in the dark of the night. But the shady area also had very, very, very affordable housing. But Rose didn't need to know the area she lived in.

And Rose gave a soft-eyed smile, reaching one hand out to grip Rey's, "I'm glad you're doing alright. Finn and I worry about you sometimes but I'm glad to hear you're okay."

It was a beat of silence between the two women before a light bulb went off over Rose's head.

"Oh! I almost forgot, Poe was asking if you wanted to come over this weekend. He kind of feels bad that he hasn't met Finn's best friend so like, maybe Saturday, if you're cool you can come over for drinks?"

It was slightly humorous that Rose had called her Finn's best friend, as if she wasn't Rose's as well. And Rose knew Rey didn't like to drink; something about being an underfed child and barely eating adult didn't make alcohol her best friend.

"Sounds like it'll be fun. Saturday afternoon? Is 4 good?"

That would give her enough time to get off work, run home and change.

Rose cringed back, "Ehhhh, maybe like 7? He mentioned bringing one of his friends and the guys only been taking UV supplements for a like a couple months so the sun is still a little irritating to him."

Rey sighed internally; she'd hoped to be heading back by 7, seeing as buses ran less frequently at night, and there was a higher chance of something striking her in the dead of night at a time like 10 than 7.

She made sure not to let it show that meeting not one, but two vampires would be a lot for one night, and it wasn't like she was racist against vampires or anything…

She'd just never met one.

But this would be good.

Hopefully.

Rose and Finn lived in the Bespin Village; moderately overpriced but still enough for the working Joe to live a decent life. It was close to the middle of the city, which meant there were bustling streets and various indie shops with overpriced vegan drinks that tasted like dirt.

It had taken Rey two buses with a short train ride to arrive at the pristine glass door of the Bespin Village apartment complex; 58 stories high with glass windows all around. The door wasn't locked, and a sign on the front read 'UV Resistant Glass' and under that was 'V Friendly Complex'.

Their apartment was on the 19th floor and their address number was 1978, and the glass door was cleaner than any glass in Rey's cabinet. Her finger dipped into the doorbell indent, putting on a smile as an unfamiliar man greeted her.

They were almost the same height—and his black boots helped match her couple of inches on him, but if she ever wore heels he'd be done for. He had wavy black curls jelled back to his scalp that cascaded behind his ears. There was a warm but slightly guarded smile on his handsome face, decently muscular arms at his sides as they stared at one another.

He didn't look like a vampire, if that made any sense. There were no beady red eyes or large hulking fangs that barely fit in his mouth.

He looked like a normal guy.

"You must be the famous Rey. It's great to finally meet the one that Finn never shuts up about." He held out a tanned hand with a grin that crinkled his eyes, "I'm Poe Dameron. Please, come in."

She released his hand—it was slightly more chilled than hers—and stepped into the apartment, trying not to stare wide eyed at the IKEA furniture and marble counter. It was like walking through a dream where she had money to afford nice things.

"Rose is still getting ready but Finn should be around somewhere…"

Poe seemed to wander off to another section of the apartment, most likely to find Finn or Rose and drag them out to greet their guest, but in the meantime her eyes wandered around the crisp edges of the multiple fine wooden tables and resisted touching the few ethereal looking bowls.

The clicking of obnoxious heels alerted Rey to Rose's oncoming presence, with Finn and Poe trailing behind.

"Oh Rey, it's so great to see you again! You look—"

Rose looked her friend's moderate black dress with a cardigan and nude flat down with a cringing smile.

"—Good. You look great."

Finn ignored his girlfriend's slightly rude tone and rushed forward to hug Rey, "Oh peanut, I've missed having you around. No one around here laughs at any of my jokes."

Poe chuckled, "Cause they're not funny, babe."

"No one asked you, hon." Finn turned back to Rey, "It's really great you're here. I've been asking Rose to invite you over for some time and I'm glad you finally came around."

…

Huh.

It would've been only fair for Rey to ask him what exactly he meant by that, or mention that fact that his girlfriend hadn't called or seen Rey in months, or just leave the stupidly nice apartment that made her life feel like it meant so much less because she didn't make enough money for nice things or have anybody in her life who cared about her.

Instead of doing any of that, she said, "I'm glad I came around too."

"You know Poe, you're her first vampire."

Rose smiled so bright, as if she was contributing vital information that the whole class needed to hear, and Poe gave an awkward chuckle, "Sorry if I don't live up to your expectations. I'm much more 'blend into society' than others."

She nodded as Poe continued, "Now Ben is much more spooks and black clothes than me. He's a lot older but just started taking those new daylight supplements so he's been a little prissy lately." His head turned at a lightening speed to zero in on the clock above the mantle.

"He should actually be here in a few minutes. But let's not wait up for Mr. Grumpy, there's drinks and snacks in the kitchen if you'd like."

Rose shook her head with an irksome look.

"Honey, we know you don't like the smell of human food so I'll just put that away while you get to know Rey. Finn and I ate earlier while you were out, and it's 7 so Rey, you must've eaten earlier right? Just let me get you a glass of O and we can chat while Ben takes his time."

Rey's hungry stomach grumbled in anger at Rose's assumption, watching the other girl strut the kitchen and pack away the food, getting out a single champagne glass filled to the brim with blood. It was very much like Rose to assume she had already eaten and simply do things the way she deemed best, and it was one of Rose's worst qualities.

"Well, let's have a seat guys." Poe and Finn sat on one white couch—guess you could never eat on there—and Rey took the opposite side.

Rose exited the kitchen area with the steaming glass of red liquid and placed it in front of Poe, sitting on his other side and resting on hand on his thick thigh.

This felt like a parent teacher conference, except Rey was neither the parent nor the student. Her stomach grumbled in hunger but she ignored it, even if Poe crinkled an eyebrow—shit, he could probably hear her intestines screaming for food—but didn't say anything.

"So Rey, are you still in school?"

Rey decided to be slightly honest, "Not at the moment actually. I'm taking a year break to try and make some more cash."

Rose snorted, "That's what they all say at first and then they never end up going back and working as a mechanic or something for the rest of their life."

Rose knew she was a mechanic.

Finn at least tried to defend her, "Hey now, I took a year break to get my shit together and I turned out just fine, so let's not be so quick to judge."

It was a little funny to watch the sneer grow of Rose's face before disappearing in a flash, "Poe, why don't you tell Rey how we all met."

"Good idea, Rosie. It was about two years ago that—"

Rey watched as Poe's calm demeanor switched to that of caution, eyes darting to the front door and—

She gasped as he was suddenly grabbing the door handle and wrenching it open, her eyes having only seen a blur shoot from the couch. Finn and Rose barely noticed he was gone, turning to each other and talking quietly while Rey stared at the open door.

She knew vampires had certain strengths, abilities, but she'd never seen them up close and personal.

A minute passed before Poe re-entered the room, though sidestepped the doorway and motioned an arm inside.

"Hey guys, Ben's here!"