Shorty

Her wavy, red hair fell loosely onto her forehead. It had been the first time for him to see her like that. On any other occasion they had met, her hair had been in a tight bun, and if he was being honest with himself, the moment she had let her hair fall down, had been the moment he had started taking an interest in her. Interest... but not much more. Her breath flowed calmly and steadily from her slightly parted lips. She was still deep in sleep and he almost felt sorry to leave the warmth of her bed. To stay here however was not an option. Even so he couldn't resist to pull her petite body closer to his chest and place a soft kiss on her temple. He would never see her again like this. She knew it and it had been she who had raised the subject the night before. She had not even called him by his first name and thinking about that turned his slight smile into a wide grin.

Poe sat up fully, pushed the soft white sheet away and started dressing as silently as he possibly could. This was not about developing a healthy relationship and it had never been. They were at war with the First Order and falling in love was not something he could not afford. Distraction was not something he couldn't afford. Not permanently anyway. Treading on the tips of his toes he silently crept to the door of the small room, his boots in one hand. The first rays of morning sunshine were slowly pushing through the curtains of the small window. Surely she would wake up soon and she would not be surprised to see that he was not there anymore. Grinning he stepped into the corridor and let the door glide shut behind him, before he put on his boots and stretched away the last reminents of sleep. He had needed a night like this. Urgently. And he was grateful for the missing complexity of the whole thing. It was not always like this and he knew it. Just as well as he knew that there were only a few people in the Resistance with whom he was compatible with like this. They both didn't want more than a shared night together and neither would miss the other too much or for too long. He had made that mistake once, when he had been in the New Republic's navy. Only once had he allowed himself to really, actually fall in love and a couple of months later Morap's fighter had been destroyed by the First Order with him on board. The memory of the young man he had loved still stung Poe in a way that made him realize, that he did not want to leave a note for the woman he had just left behind. He would never go there again.

Poe shook his head and went outside the small barracks on this base onto the edge of the paved landing strip. Immediately his eyes caught his X-Wing. A grin lightening up his face he strolled towards the relatively old fighter and stroked the black hull lovingly with the flat of his palm. It was something he had seen his mother do so often with her old A-Wing, which she had been allowed to take with her after the end of the Galactic Civil War. It had been the first ship he himself had flown.

When he was ten years old he had sneaked onto the fighter plane and taken off. The crash landing shortly afterwards into the newly erected barn had earned him the his first real spanking, but he had never felt angry about this towards his father. The memory of the horror, the suddenly sinking feeling, the awareness of everything ending within the blink of an eye still made him catch his breath today. His father had only meant well. And so Poe had become more careful and developed the skills he so desperately needed. He had asked his father for rudimentary flying lessons, which had been the only ones the man had been capable of. With a small smile Poe let his hand sink and stepped back a pace. Poe knew that he should pay the old man a visit sooner rather than later.

All of a sudden he felt a vigorous energy coursing through his veins. The thought of his always active father had that effect sometimes. Poe put his hands on his hips, let the air fill his lungs and took off his jacket, which he threw on the ship's closed wings. He turned around and ran over the small, not exactly meticulously kept lawn straight into the forest. Running would soon use up all his spare energy. He enjoyed the feeling of old dew damp leaves beneath his sturdy boots, which in hindsight were actually too heavy for this activity. He didn't care about that. Not today anyway. Today he felt like running, no matter what. At least until the first messages came in, which would demand his service to the Resistance. But until then he could and would run.

The sun had still not yet risen completely, but the first rays already filled the air with the smells of plants in summer. Which remotely reminded him of the planet on which he had been raised.

Deep in thought and diving through memories of green trees and the lush vegetation on Yavin 4, he did not hear the cracking in the underbrush. When the moss covered tree fell into his path, not three metres away from him. He tumbled backwards, breathing heavily. The next moment a huge, heavy beast broke through the bushes on his right, its brown fur shaggy and bloody from the hunt, carrying a much smaller lifeless creature in his ghastly fangs.

No blaster, Poe thought angrily, while trying to remain as motionless as possible while keeping his breathing steady. How could he have been so stupid and not take a blaster on a run in the woods of a planet he knew literally nothing about?! The beast snorted violently spraying its victim's blood onto the tree it had just toppled over. It slowly began to trot away to consume its catch in peace. Poe had just not seen that coming.

Heart beating heavily in his chest and breath coming in gasps, he leaned against the wide trunk of a nearby tree, where he slumped to the ground. "Shit...", he whispered. Despite his body being hot from the run, his insides were suddenly caught by a cold, which stole his breath. It could have all been over in mere seconds... "Poe Dameron, pilot in the Resistance... killed on a casual morning stroll..."

He laughed, suddenly relieved that he had escaped that fate. He could not help but be relieved. Even if he had to keep his eyes away from the blood.

He folded his hands on his neck, put his elbows on his knees and stared instead onto the deep black earth underneath his feet, trying to compose himself enough so he could return to the base. He was deep in thought when a quiet wailing noise made him start. Another animal? Poe let his hands sink and turned in the direction from where the high pitched wailing had come. There it was again. Crawling on all fours he pushed himself through the ferns towards the pitiful sounds. "Oh, please don't let this be true...", he begged, because he knew that he was moving towards the place where the beast had just killed its next meal. The smell of blood got more intense, but Poe could not possibly turn away. Even though he wanted to. He just couldn't. The sorrowful whimpering brought tears to his eyes even before he saw the tiny, black cub. Slowly, so as not to frighten the cowering animal even more, he sat up on his knees and stretched out a hand towards it without hesitation.

Poe barely knew anything about this planet's wildlife, but even a man like himself could see that the animal before him could not be older than a couple of weeks at the most.

His fingers brushed steadily but softly through the thick, unbelievably soft fur, while the animal looked up at him with huge amber eyes. His heart felt like it would burst with grief for the little, helpless thing. "Hey...", he murmured as calmly as he possibly could, but the animal, which had just lost its mother and was covered in her blood, did not move. It did not however try to get away, when Poe lifted it up to press against his chest either. The warmth seeping from the little furball was instantly palpable. He could not leave it here, he realized. Not all alone and without protection. Poe wiped his eyes with his free hand. The animal was trembling violently and he put his free arm protectively around the small body. "Hey...", he said again and sat back, pulling the animal closer to his own body. The cub apparently felt that it did not have to be afraid of Poe, since it did not try and wriggle out of his arms, but stayed put and relaxed somewhat. "Shit, I'm so sorry...", he whispered pushing his nose into the soft fur and breathing in its scent. The smell of blood was still clinging to the creature in his arms and tears shot into his eyes once more. "Shit..."

"Dameron, you can't keep that thing!"

It had not been the first time he had heard that. Shortly after he had taken Polly, the name he had given the motherless creature, back with him to the base, they had started asking why he wanted to keep the animal. How he could even think about taking care of it, why he wanted to. Poe had merely shrugged his shoulders. Polly did not have anyone. She was all alone. He had searched the Resistance's archives regarding the planet's wildlife, while Polly was curled up in his lap and had found nothing. This race was utterly unknown to the planet and no one on the Resistance's base had ever seen an animal like Polly here. And this completely dissolved any doubts Poe might have had. He could not leave Polly behind, not now that he had taken her in, not now that he knew she was all alone. He could not and would not do it.

Not a day passed on which the small, black creature followed him with pointed ears, paying attention to everything he did and walking on two clumsy legs. Beebee-Ate did not seem to mind Polly's attempts to chase him. As far as Poe could tell the droid even seemed to enjoy Polly's pestering, which demonstrated why she appeared to be the only one of her kind. She was positively incapable of hunting. On top of that she did not like eating many vegetables or roots and mostly lived on meat scraps from the kitchens.

When it was time to leave the base and Beebee-Ate was securely attached in the astromech slot in Poe's black X-Wing, Poe picked up Polly and one handedly climbed the ladder into his cockpit. "You'll have to stay underneath my seat like we practised, okay?", he whispered into Polly's pointed ears. It would not be the first time for her in the fighter. Poe had tried to make her as comfortable as possible with flying over the last couple of weeks and he was not too worried about her flying with him in hyper space.

"Dameron are you seriously taking that thing with you?" The laughing voice came from the pilot in the X-Wing next to him but Poe waved him off casually, before he let himself and Polly drop into the pilot's seat, where he held Polly on his lap for a moment longer.

"Don't listen to him, Shorty..."