A/N: guys, fluff. so much fluff. also, i am probably not going to change the name of this fic. I'm sorry for being so fickle and for confusing you. (read after for more notes)

-Val

The first thing she feels is a throbbing ache in her side.

The dull pain pulses out of her ribcage, demanding all of her attention. Her other senses fade in gradually. She notices the temperature next and it's freezing. Then, a tingling sensation runs its way from her fingertips to her spine, the same coming from her toes shortly after. Her mind and her body feel disconnected, like somehow there is an actual, physical distance between the two. It could be minutes or it could be years, but her senses eventually come together with her body and she is hyperaware of it when it happens.

When she does finally gain some semblance of control over herself, she wills herself to open her eyes. The effort is tremendous and it feels unnatural. Her eyelids crack slightly, just enough for speckles of white to leak through her eyelashes. After a few more moments, Rey presses her lids together once more before opening them completely, allowing light to flood her vision.

It's blinding, disorienting even. She can't even make out shadows or shapes yet, just a white haze drowning out everything else. There are tiny, iridescent spots that begin to speckle the haze. She hears beeps in regular intervals. It sounds like a monitor of some sort.

Her vision focuses and Rey instantly becomes conscious of her surroundings. She knows this ceiling, having woken up to it several times before when visiting Finn. The knowledge shocks her into realization – she must be in the med bay.

She cranes her neck to the right, first seeing the hanging drip attached to her arm and just beyond that, Finn, lying in his bed as usual. She's in his room, bedridden as well, and she feels like she weighs as heavy as a bantha.

Panic sets in next. She's in a hospital room feeling worse for wear, bleary-eyed and her gut tells her she has been asleep for a while. Despite the sleep, she is exhausted.

If she thinks long enough, Rey can vaguely remember being chased in Corellia, surrounded by stormtroopers. She wracks her mind for more, for something to explain how she got here, but she comes up with nothing. Her breaths get shorter, signaling her distress.

Inhale. Exhale.

Something must have notified the droids of her awakening because suddenly there are they are all around her, probing her, making beeps and toots of excitement.

Rey exerts all her effort into her forearms to push herself upwards into a sitting position. The droids try to assure her to stay down, to relax.

"T-that's okay. I'm fine, really," Rey rasps out, her throat sore from disuse.

A sharp pain shoots from her side and she winces from the shock. She slides the thin blanket off her torso and applies pressure to the side of her waist and flashes of being shot run through her mind. Rey peels back her medically issued shirt and flinches at the scar marring her oblique.

"We grafted what we could, but we couldn't completely prevent the scar. It is healed, though."

Rey snaps her neck up and is greeted by General Organa. She's grinning, but not without that smug look that's always in her eyes.

"It's good to see you - awake that is," General Organa jokes.

"Hi," Rey manages.

The familiar face appears to alleviate some of Rey's panic. Leia, not the General, strides to the side of her cot and squeezes her hands.

"Oh dear, your hands are like ice,"

"Well, that's what happens when you're asleep for a long time," Rey quips.

Leia's eyes widen a little before they squint into half-moons, adorned with laugh lines.

"Did the Force reveal that to you?" Leia asks, amusement in her voice.

"Maybe. I also saw Finn over there and figured that I'm probably in a similar state if I'm in the same cramped room as him."

Word must have spread quickly considering the amount of people appearing outside the room. Rey can see them through the glass walls, all with excited expressions on their faces.

She scans the crowd and picks out Jessika, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. There are a few of the mechanics she works with whenever she's tinkering with Falcon in the hangar and a couple of other people she recognizes from being around the base. R2-D2 is chirping, its small lights blinking on and off to show his excitement. C3PO looks like he's bullying R2, as usual, but he looks joyful, too.

Chewbacca isn't in the swarm of people, and neither is the man she's truly looking for. She searches and searches, unable to find him.

However, she does recognize a familiar mop of grey hair approaching the doorway. Master Luke, with his weathered face and scraggly beard, enters with a genuinely gleeful grin. He strides in, coming to stand next to Leia, and touches his mechanical hand to Rey's shoulder.

"I can say I'm truly delighted to see you up, Rey. We've missed you," Luke chuckles after the statement. He appears to have a more relaxed demeanor than what she normally sees.

"Thanks," Rey laughs nervously.

Everyone is looking at her with this wondrous expression and no one is conversing anymore. It's awkward, to say in the least, to have everyone outside watching this whole exchange. Leia, observing her discomfort, steps outside and shoos the bystanders away with promises of being able to visit later.

"Is, um, Poe around? Is he okay? I just remember getting shot and he was there and it's all black after that."

"He's fine, Rey. Chewie and Poe are the reason you're alive. You've been asleep for just two months and he was waiting here everyday for you to wake up. Leia sent him and Chewie on a small recon mission just yesterday."

Rey is shocked at the amount of time she's been out of commission. She imagines Poe coming in everyday, planting himself between her and Finn. She thinks it would be just like when she and Poe would visit Finn: meals and stories over an unresponsive body. It must have been lonely.

"I see." She doesn't mean to be disappointed, but she is nonetheless.

"He wanted to be here, Rey. He did," she assures her, "I literally had to force him to leave," Leia remarks whilst leaning against the frame of the door.

Rey perks up at that, her mouth tilting up at the image of Poe being shoved onto the Falcon by the general.

"He'll be back soon, don't worry. I'll be sure to let him know you woke up."

Rey bites her bottom lip and offers Leia a tight nod in response, trying her best to mask her disappointment.

"In the meantime, get some more rest. I want to see you training again soon." Luke says offhandedly.

They leave her in the dull room, Finn still unconscious a few feet awat from her, and Rey discovers she knows this feeling well.

Waiting. She is back to waiting.

Poe sits in the cabin, reading over some files on his holobook. BB-8 is in low-power mode, tucked into the corner of the room. Chewbacca has been organizing crates and other items in one of the ship's holds for the past couple of hours.

The trip has been uneventful, so far. They have been in hyperdrive for a little over a day now and they plan to arrive in Takodana in another day or so.

The material on the holobook is dry at best and Poe slips in and out of sleep, only jerked awake when his head bobs toward his chest. Static buzzes out of his comlink and Poe lazily flicks on the transmission to respond.

"This is Commander Dameron," he drones.

"Commander, this is General Organa speaking."

Poe snaps up at this and quickly composes himself. He clears his throat and runs his hands though his curls even though she couldn't possibly see his state of dishevelment.

"Yes, General. What can I do for you?"

"Relax, this isn't related to your mission. I'm just calling to let you know Rey has woken up."

Tension fills his shoulders and Poe almost drops the comlink. He releases a breath and his body eases up. It dawns on him that he wasn't there when she woke and his heart breaks a little.

"How is she?"

The general sighs, "She's a little shaken up, but she's taking it better than most would. She asked for you." Leia reveals.

Poe is happier than he is worried, even though Rey is probably confused and unsettled with the whole situation. He envisions her hazel orbs, glossed over from months of sleep. He thinks about her brown tresses, cascading over her shoulders and her wide smile, accompanied by her dimples. He wishes he could have seen her.

But he knows his duty.

He wants nothing more than to halt their journey and race back to her. He's shaking, he notices, when he accepts that he has a task to finish. He's Poe Dameron, Commander and and the best damn pilot in the resistance. He's a man on a mission.

"Tell her I'll be back soon."

"Will do, Commander. See you soon."

He hears the disconnecting buzz and the line goes quiet.

Rey is back on her feet four days later.

They expected it to take longer, but not because she was injured. Other than some pretty severe soreness, she was fully healed. The issue was that she hadn't moved, let alone walked, in months. Her muscles had atrophied and her coordination was basically nonexistent.

But Rey is stubborn and on the day she woke she decides to walk. Being the way she is, Rey ignores all protests and pleas for her to rest more. It doesn't go so well, to no one's surprise. She knocks her knees together in an effort to remain balanced, only to slip and fall right on her ass. Her attempts mimic that of a toddler learning to walk. She doesn't let it discourage her, of course.

A couple more days and a few bruises later, Rey takes her first steps.

It's ironic, really. She's the hope of the galaxy, Rey the next Jedi, padawan of the legendary Luke Skywalker. And yet, here she is, panting after a few measly paces on the cement floor.

Luke scolds her for rushing her recovery, to which she argues that she spent two whole months recovering and that she is just preparing to train again. He quirks his eyebrows at her backtalk, but he acknowledges that he was much the same when he was training with Yoda.

Naïve.

Bold.

Impatient.

But Luke lets it slide on account of the fact that Rey is also dedicated and kind; he admires her resolve.

She almost cries when she successfully walks around the room one whole time without tripping over her toes. Rey grabs Finn's wrist and turns it over to give it a high-five and giggles in excitement over her progress.

That's how Poe finds her: laughing to herself, unaware of him staring at her in awe.

When she does finally sense him, she drops Finn's hand and twists herself around to face him. The movement is too sudden and dizziness blurs her sight. Rey presses a hand to her head and her other hand clutches the railing of Finn's bed to keep her from falling.

But Poe already has his arms around her, his face buried into her hair, before she could collapse. She doesn't seem real, but she is. She smells like disinfectant and stale air instead of grime and grit. He misses it. He misses it like he missed the earth on her skin, the sweat on her brow and the stars in her eyes.

He missed her.

She has let go of Finn's bedframe now, clutching onto him instead.

"You're back," Rey whispers.

"Shouldn't I be saying that?" Poe teases.

"Perhaps."

Poe knows she's aware of what he's feeling, that she can perceive his thoughts if she wants to. He doesn't mind.

He pulls back from her and pushes a stray strand of hair behind her ear. His gaze is intense and Rey can tell he's battling with himself over something. Rey hones in on his emotions and her heart gets caught in her throat once she has caught onto his thought.

"Do it."

They meet each other's eyes, anticipation boiling over for the both of them. His forehead presses against hers and his eyes start to shut. Rey's own eyes flutter close and his nose brushes against her own. They are so close. Their breaths mingle together, ghosting over their lips.

The first kiss is barely one at all. It's chaste and tentative, both of their nerves evident in their hesitation. Poe opens his eyes and regards her reaction, full on beaming when she pushes up on her tiptoes.

The second kiss holds more passion than the first. He kisses her with more fervor and eagerness and she does the same. His hands rest on the small of her back, pressing her closer to him. She tugs at his bottom lip, urging him forward. Poe takes her invitation and teases his tongue along the line of her lips. Her mouth opens to allow him in and she moans at the connection.

They break apart, mostly because they require oxygen to live, and Rey settles back onto her heels. Her hands are still clasped together behind his neck and his hands trail from her elbows to her wrists. Their breathing evens out and Poe finally lets out a hearty laugh.

"I can't believe I waited so long to do that," Poe divulges.

Poe moves to let go of her, but she tightens her hands on his shoulders.

"Don't," Rey reacts, "I might fall if you let go."

Rey's cheeks are flushed in both embarrassment and exasperation and Poe's heart swells at her admission.

"Don't worry, I won't let go."

thank you so much for reading this work! i know this fic could probably be longer and explore more of their relationship, but if I decide to continue it then I will publish this as a series instead. I have so many more Damerey ideas and fics in store and I really want to dedicate myself to them.

xoxo

Val