Archive of Our Own ^beta

Crash. Thump.

Finn woke up with a start—heart hammering in his chest, hands instinctively reaching for the blaster under the bed. He fumbled the lock box, hands out of practice and sluggish with sleep. Still, he was armed and ready before he could even pinpoint what woke him.

It was early in the morning, if the faint blue glow of the room was anything to go by. The chrono on the bedside table confirmed it—0622—hours before the alarm was set to ring.

In the low light of dawn, Finn scanned the bedroom, searching for anything amiss. He saw dirty clothes that hadn’t quite made it into the laundry bin, worn books stacked precariously high, and pairs of boots piled up by the door, and although everything was in quite a disarray, it was just as he had left it last night.

The only sound was the soft patter of rain against the roof and Poe’s rhythmic snoring as he slept on. A plasma cannon could go off and that man wouldn’t notice.

Despite the apparent calm, Finn couldn’t shake the stomach-churning unease. Could he have imagined it? Was it just a nightmare?

He glanced over to see Poe sleeping mere inches away, utterly unaware of Finn’s panic. His face was lax with sleep, half hidden by riotous curls. He looked so at peace, Finn was loath to wake him if it was truly nothing.

Thump. Smash.

That was definitely not nothing.

“Poe,” Finn hissed. He put a hand to Poe’s shoulder and firmly shook him from his sleep. “Wake up. There’s someone in the house.”

Poe was slow to rouse, but when he blinked his eyes open and saw the blaster in Finn’s hands, he immediately sharpened. Soldier’s instincts kicked in and despite the confusion in his eyes, ten seconds from waking he was ready for a fight—not bad all things considered.

Finn kept his eyes on the threshold as he pulled off the covers and swung his feet to the floor. “Get the door for me,” he whispered to Poe, who was already on his feet. “I’m gonna check it out.”

Poe counted down on his left hand…3…2…1…before turning the handle with his right and silently pulling the door open. Finn crept into the hall, blaster raised. He didn’t turn on the lights—no use giving up the advantage of surprise—the dim light and the Force would be enough to guide him.

A little more awake now, Finn could sense a lifeform in the living room. It definitely wasn’t human—it wasn’t anything he’d ever encountered before, and he tried not to let that rattle him. He inhaled a steadying breath before turning the corner to face it.

His eyes immediately found the intruder, silhouetted by the windows behind it. Perched on top of their dinner table, it was a lot smaller than Finn expected. But he wasn’t naive enough to assume that it wasn’t a threat just because of its small size. Finn squared his shoulders and trained his blaster in its direction, ready to fire.

“Hey!” he shouted at the creature, deep and authoritative, but its only answer was an unnatural howl that turned his blood ice-cold.

Poe inhaled a sharp gasp behind him, and Finn reflexively tightened his grip on the blaster. Suddenly, the overhead lights flashed on. Their abrupt brightness forced Finn’s eyes shut. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision, but it took a few seconds for his pupils to adjust.

In the bright light, Finn could finally see the intruder. Bright green eyes were the first thing he saw—the eyes of a predator, with vertical slits that tracked Finn as he stepped forward. The beast was covered in short gray-black fur, wet and spiked from the rain. Its long tail was raised in the air, giving the impression of a creature much larger in size. It let out another bone-chilling yowl, revealing a mouthful of sharp, white teeth.

Finn steadied his aim, grateful that he hadn’t listened to Poe when he’d asked him to stop stashing weapons in the house. Finn knew this day would come, and he thanked his lucky stars that he’d been ready for it.

It was that momentary lapse in focus that had him distracted enough to not notice Poe come up behind him until he had already passed him by. Attention snapping back into place, Finn lunged forward to pull Poe back away from the beast. But Poe had always been faster on his feet, easily slipping out of Finn’s reach and moving closer to the beast.

What the hell was he doing?

“Get back behind me,” Finn shouted, fear cracking through his voice.

But Poe didn’t listen, just got closer and closer. He moved slowly, as if to not frighten the thing (as if the beast wasn’t the most threatening thing in the room), and spoke to it in a soft, rumbling voice. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said.

The beast turned its stare to Poe and prowled towards him. Finn had never felt so helpless in his life. “Get away from it,” he pleaded.

But Poe only stepped closer, reaching out his hand slowly to the beast. Finn held his breath, ready to fire when it attacked. He watched as the creature sniffed at Poe’s fingers before touching its face to his hand.

“Poe, please.”

Poe finally looked up at him. His calmness, unnerving in the face of clear danger, only deepened Finn’s anxiety. Poe raised an eyebrow. “We’re hardly in any danger,” he said with a chuckle. “You can put the blaster down.”

Finn lowered his arms, because the thing was so close to Poe he was really just aiming at his husband anyway, but didn't relax a single muscle. “What the fuck is that thing?”

Poe looked at him like a two-headed runyip. “It’s a cat,” he said. As if that explained anything.

“A what?” Finn was still kind of shouting.

He and Poe stood there staring at each other for a beat, with matching expressions of confusion, until it became abundantly clear that they had stumbled upon yet another gap in Finn’s worldly knowledge, courtesy of the First Order. In the early days, it was a frequent occurrence—Poe having to explain anything from certain interplanetary politics to how to haggle at street fairs. But by this time, it was quite a rarity.

Poe had always been exceedingly patient about explaining anything new and unfamiliar to Finn, and although it had been a while, this time was no different. In order, Poe pointed out that 1) no, we’re not in any danger, 2) yes, you can put down the blaster, and 3) wait a minute, do you keep a blaster under our bed?

They tabled the ‘why do you keep weapons where we sleep?’ discussion for a less ungodly hour in the morning, before Poe patiently explained that a “cat” is a companion animal that people often keep as a pet in their home.

Okay. That explained what the beast—the cat—was, but it still didn’t explain what it was doing in their home, or how it had gotten in for that matter.

Finn trusted Poe with his life, and heard him when he’d insisted that there was no danger, but even still, Finn couldn’t shake the ice-cold grip of fear around his heart. Hoping to settle his emotions, he searched the house for anything else amiss, checking over all the windows and doors to see how the cat managed to get in.

He easily found the point of entry—the old laundry room window with the rusted latch he’d been meaning to fix; it had finally given out. He closed the window the best he could with the broken lock. It would hold for now, until he could replace the piece. If he was lucky there’d be one lying around the house somewhere; this one wasn’t the first that had broken.

Feeling more secure about the whole situation, he took the blaster back into the bedroom to lock it away under the bed, getting dressed for the day while he was there. Despite the early hour, with all the excitement, there was no way he’d be able to go back to sleep.

Down the hall he could hear Poe cooing at the cat like a newborn babe. “What a sweet, gorgeous girl you are…”

He walked back into the living room to see Poe sitting at the table, drying the cat’s damp fur with a kitchen towel.

“The cat came in through the laundry room window,” Finn said, the new word sounding awkward in his mouth.

Poe looked up and flashed him a fond smile. “Ah, I knew that latch would give out someday,” he said before turning back to the cat. “What a clever girl you are,” he cooed, “breaking in to get out of the rain.”

It chirped back as if in response and Poe let out a delighted laugh that rang through the house. Finn couldn’t stop the smile tugging at his lips at the sound of Poe’s joy. But dread still sat heavy in his stomach, even as he watched Poe interact with the cat completely at ease.

“Did you ever have a pet cat?” Finn asked slowly, now curious. Poe had lived a whole life before their crash landing on Jakku, and even after all these years, there was still more to learn about that time.

“Not as a pet, but growing up we always had a few barn cats on the ranch to keep away pests. They were always shy around strangers, so I’m not surprised you never saw them,” Poe said with a shrug.

The adrenaline from earlier was wearing off and Finn could start to feel the effects of being woken hours before his alarm. He shuffled to the kitchen to make some caf, measuring out the grounds and starting up the percolator. When he was finished, Finn turned around to lean back against the counter and watched as the cat rubbed its tiny face into Poe’s beard, more gray than black these days. Poe petted through the mottled gray fur along its back, and Finn realized that they made quite a matching pair.

Poe looked up at him with a broad smile, clearly besotted by the little beast. “She’s really friendly,” he pointed out. “I bet there’s a family out there who’s missing her.”

He reached across the table to grab his datapad. “I’ll post a local alert and see if we can find them,” he said, and then began typing out the notice, squinting at the screen as he did.

Finn rolled his eyes at that, glancing around the room to find Poe’s reading glasses. Poe was terrible about losing them, still hadn’t gotten used to even needing them. But Finn was tired of listening to grumbling over headaches, so he set out to find them, disappearing down the hall in his search. Poe’s glasses were hiding in their usual spot—on his desk, left abandoned alongside empty caf cups and the star charts he’d been poring over all week.

Finn stacked up the cups to take back to the kitchen. Meanwhile Poe continued talking, apparently not having noticed Finn slip briefly out of earshot. Finn caught just the end of what he was saying. “...telling me just last night about the kath hound she’s been seeing in her backyard. No wonder this sweet girl was looking for somewhere safe to hide out.”

Finn held the glasses out in front of Poe, who flashed him a smile in thanks before sliding them onto his nose and going back to typing. Unable to stop himself, Finn brushed his fingers through Poe’s hair in a futile attempt to smooth his bedhead, but gave up easily, instead leaning down to kiss his husband’s untameable curls.

Finn would have lingered, but he retreated back to the safety of the kitchen as the sweet girl (intruding fiend) in question walked back over to Poe and nudged at his hand until he gave it chin scratches, chirping happily when he complied.

“We’ll keep you safe from those scary hounds until your family can get you,” Poe cooed and his concern for her was so immediate and strong that Finn’s chest ached with affection. Kriff, he loved Poe’s big heart.

Poe looked up at Finn then, a question clear in his eyes: could they keep her until then?

Finn didn’t want the cat in their home, but knowing the danger outdoors, it didn't feel right to leave it outside to fend for itself. They’d have to keep it until its family was found. Finn sighed in resignation, nodding in agreement.

The percolator then dinged as it finished brewing, so he took down two mugs from the cabinet (Save an X-Wing, Ride a Pilot for Poe and I Saved the Galaxy and All I Got Was This Lousy Mug for himself) and poured out the caf.

Finished typing out the alert, Poe went to work making up the house for the cat. He laid a folded blanket down on the floor for a bed and filled a shallow bowl with water that he set next to it. “It’ll do for now,” Poe explained, “until I can go into town for some more supplies.”

Finn didn’t want to be left with the cat and offered to go instead, but Poe waved him off, correctly assuming that Finn had no idea what constituted necessary supplies for hosting a cat.

Finn handed Poe his caf (black, one sugar) and leaned back against the counter. He took a sip of his own (splash of milk, no sugar) and instantly felt more awake. Mug in hand, Poe sidled up next to him and leaned back too. He crossed his arms across his chest.

Keeping his eyes on the small beast, Finn took a sip from his mug. He knew his fear was unreasonable, but the creature’s unblinking stare as it surveyed the house unnerved him. Everything from its piercing eyes to its silent footsteps screamed predator, and under its gaze, Finn felt like prey.

Poe broke Finn out of his thoughts with a nudge to his shoulder. “Are we standing here drinking our caf instead of sitting at the table, like we always do, because you’re afraid of our new friend?” Poe asked, raising his mug to where the cat was still perched on top of the table, watching them with curious eyes.

“I’m not afraid of it,” Finn lied. Badly.

“Okay,” Poe replied, bringing his mug back up to his mouth, and from the corner of his eye, Finn could see the smile he was failing to hide. “Just checking.”

They drank in silence, shoulder pressed to shoulder, letting the caffeine slowly wake them up.

“I have to admit…” Poe said after a while. “It was pretty hot how protective you got when you thought our lives were being threatened.”

Finn rolled his eyes. “I know you’re making fun of me.”

“No, I’m serious,” Poe said, sliding his hand up Finn’s shoulder to rest at the nape of his neck. Finn leaned back into his warm touch. “I haven’t seen you like that in a while—all focused and protective in the face of danger. It was very sexy.”

“Oh, yeah?” Finn asked, one eyebrow raised, still not fully convinced.

Poe put his mug down on the counter, stepping a foot between Finn’s and leaning in close. “Very hot,” he whispered, and Finn could see the sincerity in his eyes so he tilted his head for a kiss that tasted of caf and love, but mostly just morning breath.

“Retirement looks good on you, sweetheart,” Poe murmured when he pulled away. “But I do miss seeing you in action.” He gave Finn’s bicep an affectionate squeeze and then stepped back, grabbing his half-full cup off the counter and disappearing into the bedroom to get dressed.

Finn shamelessly enjoyed the view as Poe walked away, but a rustling in the kitchen drew his attention back to their intruder. Finn sighed. He wasn’t looking forward to being left at home with it, but if they both left, who knows what kind of havoc it could wreak. Poe was out of the room for just a few minutes and the beast was already getting into trouble, pawing at the bowl of fruit on the table with an outstretched paw.

Figuring the Force could help him out, Finn waved his hand in the cat’s direction. “You will get off the table,” he said. But it ignored him, continuing its assault on the innocent produce. He tried again. “Leave the koyo fruit alone.” But once again his suggestion fell on deaf ears.

It was weird; he should have been able to influence its behavior. It didn’t make any sense.

“That’s not going to work, my love,” Poe called from behind him. He turned to see Poe fully dressed and pulling on his shoes. “You told me once that mind tricks only work on weak-minded beings, and cats are just about the strongest-minded creatures in the whole galaxy.”

Finn frowned. That was going to make this a whole lot harder.

Poe approached the table slowly, and the cat looked up at him with its big eyes. He grabbed the fruit bowl and stashed it on top of the kitchen counter, out of the monster’s reach. “Make sure she doesn’t eat any of the koyo. It’ll upset her stomach.” Then he walked to the kitchen and browsed through the fridge, humming with approval as he pulled out some leftover meat from last night’s dinner. He spooned some out onto a plate and carried it over to the table as an offering. “You must be hungry, pretty girl.”

The cat was immediately interested, eagerly taking a few bites, even before Poe managed to set the plate down.

“Alright, sweet girl,” Poe cooed to it. “I’m off to get some food and supplies for you. Be nice to Finn while I’m gone.”

While Poe’s request was reasonable, Finn was fairly certain it couldn’t understand, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wouldn’t listen even if it could. He must have had some unsure expression on his face because he could hear Poe’s quiet snort of laughter. “You’ve got like 80 kilos on her,” Poe pointed out. “You’re going to be fine.”

With a kiss goodbye and multiple assurances that he’d be back soon, Poe was out the door and suddenly Finn was all alone with the small, furry beast. He glanced over to it, but it paid him no mind, feasting enthusiastically on the leftovers.

“Alright. We’re going to be just fine until Poe comes back,” Finn said, more to reassure himself than anything else.

The monster looked up at the sound of his voice and Finn felt pinned in place by its piercing green eyes. Predator, his mind supplied. Something in its sharp gaze unsettled him. But just as soon as it looked up, it dropped its head back down to munch at the food.

Finn could do this. He was a decorated war hero and a Jedi. Throughout his life, he had faced all kinds of challenges and enemies and come out on top. He could handle a cat.

But first he had to know what he was up against. Poe’s earlier explanation of what a cat is was a good start, though it lacked detail. Finn hadn’t earned accolades in strategy by going into battle or negotiations unprepared. It was time to do some research. He grabbed Poe’s abandoned datapad off the table (carefully, as not to provoke an attack from the little beast) and retreated to the kitchen. He loaded the holopedia entry for cats.

The cat is a non-sentient species of carnivorous mammal. It is a hyper-optimized predator adapted to killing small prey such as rats and other rodents. Cats are predators most active at dawn—

Movement in Finn’s periphery drew his attention away from the screen. He looked up just in time to watch the cat jump down from the table and land on all four feet with surprising grace.

He kept his eyes glued to the beast as it started to explore the house, for fear that if he took his eyes off it for even a brief second, it would attack or bite or something. But it didn’t do any of those things, evidently satisfied just exploring the room.

Finn went back to reading.

—and dusk, hunting using their night vision, keen hearing, and senses of smell. They have sharp teeth, retractable claws, and quick reflexes. The cat is native to Coruscant and can now be found in most systems. Cats are valued for their companionship as well as their hunting abilities. There are an estimated 500 million cats in the galaxy…

Watching the beast move, Finn could understand how it could be an effective hunter. But it still didn’t make sense that anyone would choose such a predator as a companion. Not that he really understood why anyone would keep any animal as a companion. They didn’t have pets in the First Order, and the various Resistance bases were hardly the type of environment for companion animals. It wasn’t until years later that he first came across any housepet—a sweet and fuzzy chitlik that loved to play.

But a cat as a companion? Finn couldn’t wrap his head around it. Cats are ‘hyper-optimized predators.’ Surely you wouldn’t want that kind of animal in your house—it just spelled danger.

Maybe Poe could explain when he got back; he’d seemed absolutely smitten by the furry beast. But his husband’s kind heart also went soft at all sorts of odd things: gnarled trees and rusted-out droids. So, who knows?

He’d ask, when Poe returned. Until then, the least he could do was fix the broken window. With a quick glance to make sure the cat wasn’t getting into any trouble, Finn set about searching for a spare closure. He remembered stashing a few away…somewhere.

He rummaged through drawers filled with loose energy cells, old datachips, and all sorts of miscellaneous junk accumulated over the years—they really needed to organize everything—before finding an extra latch in a box with some old war medals.

Latch in hand, he shoved everything back in the drawers—reorganization could be tomorrow’s problem—and startled when he turned around. The cat was standing right behind him, its silent steps letting it creep up to him unheard. It didn’t move any closer, so Finn waited, unwilling to make the first move. The cat had no such qualms, resuming its quiet approach, as Finn watched on in fear.

“Please stay there,” he begged.

The cat ignored him like it had every other suggestion, its limber body stalking closer to him. ‘Meow.’

It reached his feet and Finn held his breath, holding still as it rubbed its body against his bare shins. Its fur was softer than he would have expected, and it tickled a bit as its tail curled around his leg, sending a shiver up his spine.

When it became clear it wasn’t going to leave him alone, he tried to slowly back away from it, careful not to trip on its tiny body (because it seemed like the damn cat was trying to get stepped on).

He made a hasty retreat to the safety of the laundry room, grabbing his toolbox from the closet on the way. Once inside, he looked over his shoulder, relieved to find that this time the cat hadn’t followed him.

Replacing the broken latch was easy enough, just a matter of unscrewing the old part and subbing in the new one; the whole thing couldn’t have taken more than five minutes. He lingered in the laundry room after, starting a load of laundry, folding the dry clothes from the dryer, and definitely not hiding from the cat.

But about halfway through the chore, Finn started to get a bad feeling. The house was quiet. Suspiciously quiet. He peeked his head around the door jamb to look down the corridor, but the cat wasn’t there.

A sudden clamor in the kitchen sprung him into action, and he raced down the hall in time to see the recycling bin topple over, scattering bottles and cardboard across the floor. The beast stood among the mess, back arched, head stuck in an empty biscuit box.

The cat pulled back, clearly trying to get the box off its head. But the box stayed on and the cat just ended up backed against the wall. When pawing at it didn’t work either, it started to thrash, desperate to be released. In its blind panic, it knocked into a couple of bottles, sending them skittering across the tile floor.

Finn couldn’t stop the snort of laughter that escaped his lips at the scene in front of him. “Some fierce predator you are.”

The cat let out a pitiful yowl in response, resigned to its fate, and that’s when it sank in. The cat wasn’t some awful beast trying to cause harm—she was a tiny creature, scared and stuck.

Finn remembered what it felt like to be seen as the enemy, to not want to do any harm, but still be feared. And yeah, maybe she had broken in, but he remembered that too, the desperate need to get out of a bad situation and find safe haven, to be alone and in need of help. In that moment he’d found Poe, who put aside fear for trust and took a leap of faith. Maybe now, years later, Finn could try the same.

Shaking off his trepidation, he crept towards the cat, reaching out one trembling hand to grasp the box. This time, when the cat thrashed, Finn pulled gently back, and then suddenly she was free.

She shook her head before looking up at Finn with her big eyes. ‘Meow.’

“Okay. I know I just rescued you,” Finn placated, palms open and raised, “but we are not friends.”

The cat just stared back, watching Finn as he righted the recycling bin and began to levitate the mess back into it. She pawed at empty bottles as they sailed by her head, and Finn couldn’t suppress a smile as they started to spin in midair.

After, he took the bin outside, not wanting the cat to get into any more trouble. When he came back inside, he dropped heavily onto the couch, the early wakeup and busy morning catching up to him. The cat followed, jumping up onto the couch beside him.

Trying to put some distance between them, Finn slid over on the couch, but as he moved, the cat followed, taking a few steps towards him. Finn continued to slide farther away from her, but she kept following after him. Eventually, Finn hit the armrest and ran out of space. The cat walked right onto his lap, chirping a few times before sitting down.

Finn held still, unsure of what to do. He didn’t want to move in case she decided to attack. From this close, he could see the sharpness of her claws and teeth. As clumsy as she was, she was still dangerous. He was forced to wait her out, hoping that she’d eventually move. Unfortunately, it seemed like she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

He didn’t mean to fall asleep, but the couch was comfortable and the rising sun was warm against his back, and before he knew it, his eyes were drooping shut.

The next thing he knew was the soft thud of the front door closing and the sound of Poe’s footsteps—he’d recognize them anywhere. Finn blinked away the sleep in his eyes and stretched out his spine. That’s when he noticed the warm weight still in his lap.

He looked down. It was the cat, curled up across his legs, whirring like an overheated droid.

Poe’s voice came from behind him. “Hey,” he said softly, and Finn glanced up to see Poe watching him with his big brown eyes.

“The cat’s making weird noises,” Finn said, at a loss to explain why. “I think she’s malfunctioning.”

Poe huffed out a laugh, equally charmed by the scene of Finn cuddled up with the cat and amused by Finn’s inaccurate description. “She’s not broken, baby. She just likes you."

Finn looked back down at the cat, frowning as she slowly blinked her eyes. Oh.

A week passed by in a blink, and despite the many ways he and Poe tried to find the cat’s family, no one had yet reached out about her. On the eighth day, they called the local vet and made an appointment to have her checked over.

The next morning, they spent 30 minutes trying to get her into their newly-acquired cat carrier. Ever the problem solver, Poe distracted her with foul-smelling cat treats while Finn wrapped her body in a towel and dropped her into the carrier, closing the door before she could escape. It was a team effort.

“Any cats that come through here get a registration chip,” the vet informed them, once they were in the exam room. The vet powered on the microchip scanner. “If she has one, we’ll be able to find her owner.”

Finn nodded, waiting for the vet to complete the scan, feeling strangely like he couldn’t breathe. A part of him feared they’d find a chip. He wasn’t sure he was ready to hand her over to anyone, even her missing family.

Despite the rough beginning, a lot changed in a week. It quickly became clear that Finn’s minor rescue had endeared him to the cat—she took after Poe that way. Because evidently a rescue from a cardboard box was just as good as a rescue from the First Order.

For the whole week, she never left Finn’s side. Despite the many beds and pillows they put around the house for her to lounge on, her favorite spot was his lap. And after realizing how soft her fur was to pet through, Finn didn’t mind being her preferred cushion. One morning, he woke up to find her asleep tucked between his legs, and his heart nearly melted. She was a massive cuddler—she took after Finn that way.

She stuck to him like a barnacle. Regardless of the activity—reading, working out, even using the fresher—she wanted to be there too, sometimes just in the same room, but more often than not, she wanted to be right on top of him. And barring the one time she almost fell into a simmering pot of soup trying to perch on his shoulders as he cooked, Finn loved the company.

When she wasn’t snoozing in sun-soaked spots, she was curious and playful, wanting to investigate every inch of the house, and finding all sorts of objects to paw at. After watching Poe dangle and throw toys for her to chase, playing with her became Finn’s favorite activity. And Finn was more than a little smug that he was the one she demanded attention from, bringing him toys and chirping at him until he gave in to her wishes.

So he fell in love with her. How could he not?

The vet’s scanner suddenly beeped, and Finn held his breath, not knowing if the sound was a good thing or not. He wasn’t left waiting long.

“I can’t find a chip,” the vet told them. “She’s yours if you want to adopt her.”

Poe turned to Finn, eyes soft and pleading. “We have to keep her, right?”

It wasn’t even a question. Finn easily replied, “Of course we’re keeping her.” He slipped his hand into Poe’s, and felt his husband squeeze back.

Since the cat had no medical history, the vet did a full check of her health, taking blood samples and conducting a full body scan. Suddenly, the vet let out a surprised, “Oh.”

Finn met their eyes, fearing the worst. “What’s wrong?” he hurriedly asked. “Is she okay?”

“She’s perfectly healthy,” the vet assured, and Finn relaxed considerably. “She’s also pregnant.”

Oh. That was certainly a surprise. Finn looked over to see Poe’s wide eyes, clearly as shocked by the news as he was.

Finn breathed out a laugh and shrugged. “Well, we always said we wanted a family,” he said and Poe was on him so fast with affectionate kisses he nearly toppled over.

The vet cleared their throat and Poe stepped back sheepishly. He had a blush across his cheeks, but the vet seemed unphased by the display. “We’ll need to see her again in a few weeks, but she can go home with you today. My assistant here will schedule the follow-up and register her in our system.”

Finn thanked the vet for their time before turning to the assistant to set the follow-up appointment and go through the registration paperwork. Together, he and Poe filled in all the owner and address information.

“The last thing we need is a name for the cat,” the assistant said, scrolling on his datapad. “What do you want to call her?”

“Princess,” Poe answered at the exact moment Finn said, “Beast.”

And well, marriage is about compromise.

A few months later…

Finn felt Princess Beast climb onto his lap and without putting his book down, scritched behind her ears. She leaned into the touch and meowed before hopping down from the couch and running out of the room.

But Finn realized that there was still a weight in his lap and laid his book down on his chest. Right there on his lap was one tiny wiggly kitten. Her Majesty Princess Beast hopped back onto his lap with a second kitten held in her mouth. She dropped the kitten right next to its sibling before running out of the room again and returning with her last kitten. She dropped the kitten on top of the others.

‘Meow.’

“I know, gorgeous girl. You’ve got some beautiful babies.” Finn scratched under her chin and she twisted around until his hand was stroking down her back. She purred loudly, enjoying the attention. “Thanks for bringing them to me.”

The kittens really were cute. He was almost ready to forgive her for giving birth on his favorite sweater instead of in the special box they had prepared for her.

With one last purr, Princess Beast hopped down. He watched her climb up the cat tree Poe had built weeks ago (after he realized how much she liked watching the world go by). She lay down in the afternoon sun and closed her eyes.

“Hey, bastard,” he shouted after her. “I’m not your babysitter. Come back here.” But she ignored him. Typical.

Finn looked down at the three sweet kittens squirming in his lap, and thought, well maybe he could be.