"And how do the new recruits fare?"

Looking up from the X-Wing he stood beside, he placed a hand on the side of the fighter jet and quirked a brow, looking to the General as she approached him. She wore a simple green pantsuit with her long hair tied on top of her head. She dressed exactly like the others in the Resistance, but the way she held herself was that of nobility. Of course, he knew exactly who she was and her history, as did everyone on the planet where they had made their home.

"Well enough," the pilot responded to General Organa. "They can keep up with my pace and they seem to have a good eye for shooting, but some of them struggled. No doubt they will need some extra training, but I'd be happy to help them if I can."

"Glad to hear it," the replied to him. "However, that might have to wait for a while. I happen to have a mission for you."

"A mission?" Poe wondered from her, his hands dropping to his hips over the orange jumpsuit he wore. "What kind of mission?"

"One that we can discuss later on," Leia informed him, sensing that he was growing impatient and she didn't pretend not to know why. It was written all over his face. "I suspect there is someone who is waiting for your return first?"

Chuckling, the pilot nodded his head and looked to the ground, a smile forming on his lips at the mere thought of returning to see her. He had done his best to keep their brewing romance a secret, but the General was not blind. She had seen the way he looked at the young teacher from D'Qar. Ever since he had laid eyes on her he had been unable to forget her.

"Rosella has been to me a couple of times in the past week," Leia confided in him. "She asked me when you would return. No doubt she has almost finished teaching by now."

"Then I shall report to you this evening?" Poe checked and Leia chuckled, shaking her head back and forth as she watched Dameron with intrigue.

"No," she said. "Take the evening off, Dameron. You will be back on duty tomorrow morning and we shall discuss your mission then. A night shall make no difference to it."

"Thank you, General," he nodded, grateful for one night off as the woman moved away from him.

A whirling noise from the ground dragged him from his thoughts as he bent his head down again to look at the little unit.

"You recharge here for the night, BB-8," he declared, patting the spherical droid near his antenna before he dared to stand up again. "Besides, I doubt you want to be with us this evening."

BB-8 let out a low whirl and the pilot laughed at his sarcastic tone before whistling lowly to himself and moving off from the hanger, getting claps on the back and calls of thanks for his help as he went. He returned them all with the usual easy stare and smile, occasionally throwing in the odd wink as he wandered off from them.

He still wore his pilots uniform, but he didn't bother to go and change before he wandered through the Resistance base, knowing exactly where he was heading off to. He came to the hangers exit and looked over to the field of grass before the forest, noting the outhouse there which looked as though it was in the middle of having a new glass window fitted to it. Two mechanics stood there, holding the pane as a woman stood behind them, her hands holding her opposite arms as she watched the glass be lifted in.

Gaggles of children moved by Poe as he brushed past them, occasionally speaking an odd hello to those who dared to greet him. Some cockily said how they admired him, whilst others remained silent, gaping in awe at the sight of the Resistance's best pilot. He would have chuckled at them had they not look so awestruck. He finished walking through the crowd of children as they made their way back to the base, no doubt in search of their parents and families for the evening.

"And how did it break, Rosella?" one of the mechanics asked the woman stood on the grass as she rolled her eyes and drummed her fingers against her skin.

"You know what children are like," the woman responded, her voice light and carefree as she brushed off the incident. "They were seeing how far they could throw rocks and it seems Manden has a stronger throw than anyone else in the class."

The two men chuckled before quickly fitting the glass. They fitted Resistance jets, a small piece of glass was no problem for them. They were doing in a matter of seconds, brushing their hands together and stepping back to admire their handiwork.

"That better, Rose?" one of them asked and she nodded, patting his upper arm, all of them oblivious to the pilot behind them.

"Much better," Rosella nodded. "No doubt I will be calling you back out here when they break something else."

"We'll give it a day," the other man said jokingly, turning on his heel with the toolkit in his fingertips, only to freeze at the sight of the pilot behind them.

Placing a hand to his chest, he laughed lowly as the others turned around.

"You scared me to death, Dameron," the mechanic declared and the pilot gave him a lopsided grin.

"Clearly not," Dameron responded in a drawl, "because you're still breathing."

"Cocky git," the mechanic mumbled as Dameron slowly turned his eyes from them and finally met the gaze of Rosella.

She struggled to keep her smile slim on her face as a hand moved to her hair, anxiously tucking it behind her ear as she kept her gaze on the pilot before her. He continued to watch her too, his eyes narrowed slightly as he observed her, checking that she was still the same Rosella he had left last week.

The two mechanics coughed awkwardly before walking away.

"We'll leave you two to it," they mumbled before clapping Poe on the shoulder and moving over the grass field towards the base as the pilot and teacher remained still.

"When did you get back?" Rosella was the one to ask as Poe advanced towards her and she remained still, allowing the pilot to wrap his arms around her waist, his hands splaying in the small of her back as he pushed her front against his, her hands having no option but to find his shoulders.

"Less than half an hour ago," Poe informed her. "The General told me that a woman had constantly been in the control room asking after me. I had no idea I was so sorely missed or desirable."

Scoffing at hearing him, she rolled her eyes and hit his shoulder lightly, avoiding his gaze as she looked at any available space of skin that she could see, making sure that he was not injured from the training exercise.

"Don't flatter yourself, Dameron," she warned him and he chuckled, his hands moving up her back to tangle into her unruly shoulder length blonde hair.

"I was just speaking the truth," he replied and that earned him a roll of the eyes. "Besides, Rose, you're not the only one who was missing someone."

"No?" she teased him.

"No," he repeated. "Because there's this teacher, you see, and ever since the best pilot in the Resistance met her, he's struggled to get her out of his head. Even when he's supposed to be thinking of nothing but the Resistance."

"Well, he sounds positively infatuated," Rosella responded and he nodded his head in agreement.

"Certainly so," he agreed with her. "But she's just as infatuated as he is."

Another roll of her eyes earned her a sharp jab in the side as she laughed at the motion and Dameron moved a hand towards her chin, tilting her gaze up to meet his. It was then when the smile disappeared from her face and she sighed, her hand moving to cup his cheek tenderly as her fingers tangled into his thick black hair.

"I was worried," she finally admitted to him, any trace of joking leaving her tone. "Your training missions are becoming longer and longer, Poe. A week…"

"Hey," Poe spoke, trying to soothe her slightly. "A week has gone by quickly. Look, I'm back now."

"But for how long?" she wondered back.

Poe bit down on his tongue then, unsure of how to tell her that he was leaving again in the next week, no doubt it could be sooner than that once he received his mission. Keeping quiet, Poe struggled to look her in the eye as he rested his cheek on the top of her head and she pressed hers against his shoulder.

"The General told me she has a mission for me," Poe declared and Rosella took a deep breath, as Poe felt the motion against his shoulder. "I have to report to her in the morning, but for now I'm back and we have tonight. Let's not argue about it tonight."

Rosella struggled to ignore him when he pleaded with her and so, for once, she didn't push the subject.

….

"It's amazing that they give you your own quarters," Rosella informed Poe as she sat on his bed cross-legged. She watched as Poe finished pushing a hand through his damp hair that he had just watched. The pants on his hips hung low whilst the shirt he wore was unbuttoned to his chest.

"Well, the best pilot in the Resistance does have some perks," Poe shrugged at her. "Do you remember when I picked you out of the dorms?"

"Oh, is that what happened?" Rosella asked from him. "I was the girl lucky enough to be plucked from the dorms to share the bed of the best pilot in the Resistance?"

Poe chuckled then and dropped the towel he had been using on the floor beside him, letting it stay there as he moved to his bed and sat against the headboard, lifting on leg up to bend at the knee as he looped his arms around it.

"Trust me, many other girls would die to be in your position," Poe joked with her.

"Don't I know it," she said back to him.

"Luckily I only have eyes for one now," Poe replied.

"You know how to make me cringe, Poe," Rosella said, adjusting the long sleeping shirt she wore over her body as Poe laughed heartedly and moved a hand to his chest, faking injury.

"You wound me," Poe responded to her.

"Oh, I doubt it," Rosella promised him. "Anyway, how was the training mission? You haven't said anything about it since you got back."

Shrugging, Poe looked to the ceiling of the plain white room before noticing how Rosella was pushing the duvet to his single bed back that they were both struggling to sit on together. She crawled under the duvet, resting her damp head of hair in Poe's lap as he remained sat up.

"Good," Poe informed her. "A lot of the newbies have potential. They just need to be trained how to shoot and fly at the same time. Most of them seem to only be able to focus on one thing, not that I can blame them. A lot of them haven't flown their own jet in a battle before."

"And do you think it will come to that? A battle?" she asked from him, closing her eyes as she moved a hand to Poe's gripping it tightly inside of hers.

"I do not know," Poe admitted. "The First Order are stepping up their efforts so we have to step up ours."

"And then what? You both keep stepping up efforts…I…when will it just become a war? That is what they want, isn't it?"

"No, what they want is complete loyalty," Poe replied, his hand squeezing hers. "But no one will give it to them, let alone us."

"So by refusing there is bound to be a war?" Rosella checked with the pilot. "I may just be a teacher, Poe, but I know how the world works. I remember learning about the Republic…all of it."

"Hey," Poe tried to soothe her as he sensed her tone growing with anxiousness. "It hasn't come to that yet, Rose. If it does come to that then we will deal with it together, just as we have done everything else since you came here."

Taking a shaky breath, she closed her eyes and shook her head slowly, wondering exactly what would happen when that time came. It took her a moment to open her eyes, letting them roll back slightly so she could look to the pilot who sat above her.

"You're not helpless," Rosella informed him. "I'm just a teacher, Poe-"

"-A teacher who takes kid's minds from what is happening," Poe interrupted her. "You look after them and help them to forget the First Order…the Resistance…you help them just to be kids, Rosella. That's a pretty big order."

"Don't try to make me feel better," Rosella complained to him, moving to sit up as she placed her legs either side of Poe's waist, letting herself settle in his lap as she placed her hands on his shoulders and the pilot gave her a sincere smile that he only saved for her.

"I'm not, I'm telling you the truth," he assured her. "When you came here, Rosella…when you told us how you had got here…we were in awe of you-"

"-No," she shook her head, looking down and away from Poe's gaze as she went back to that memory and recalled everything that she had done. "I did nothing brave, Poe. If I was brave then I would have left months before…I would have escaped before…I would have saved those children…"

"You couldn't go against the entire First Order, Rose," Poe said, dragging her gaze back to his as he moved his head downwards, his forehead resting against hers as his hand gripped her waist. "You couldn't save every child from their grips."

"You don't understand," she balled her hand into a fist and allowed it to rest on Poe's chest as her head shook back and forth. "I taught their children…yes…they were children of First Order captains…lieutenants…generals…but they were still children and I let them be taken when they were old enough to train how to fight. I should have done more…their screams…I can hear them…they were still young…so young…"

Poe managed to draw her out of the incoherent sentences she was speaking, recalling how she would often wake up murmuring the same sentences. Moving his hands up her sides to cup her cheeks, he took hold of her in his hands, letting his gaze move to hers and whispering the only words he knew that could bring her out of the daze she was in.

"Come back to me, Rose," he whispered. "Come back to me."

He saw her eyes stop clouding over as she wrapped her arms around his neck, scrambling against his hold as he held her back and took a deep breath, wondering just how long the First Order would keep her in their clutches.

…..

A/N: So I already have a Kylo/OC story, but I could not resist a Poe/OC story. Do let me know your thoughts!