5 YEARS, 11 MONTHS BBSB

Auralee didn't come into contact with Poe again until a few weeks later.

She had been fiddling around with a blaster she'd been attempting to fix for the past couple of hours or so when he poked his head in the doorway of her work area. His eyes scanned quickly through the room, glancing briefly at the various tools scattered around the desk and then finally landing on the engineer at work.

CI-4 noticed him first. The droid's head swiveled around as it felt another presence in the room and quickly emitted a series of beeps that said he was pleased to see the pilot.

Hearing her droid, Auralee dropped the screwdriver she was using in surprise and lifted her head up. "Cipher, what are you -" Her eyes fell on Poe. "Oh! Commander Dameron," she stated, quickly standing up and giving him a small smile. "I'm sorry, I didn't even realise you were here. You weren't standing there long, were you?"

"Not at all," Poe smiled at her actions. "And it's Poe, by the way. You don't have to call me Commander."

"Poe," she repeated. "Got it." A somewhat awkward silence fell between the two and so Auralee abruptly turned back to her desk and began to tidy up her tools. She didn't really have to, of course - she was going to be continuing her work once Poe left - but she felt she needed to do something to keep her thoughts on track. "So, what brings you to my controlled mess of a room?"

Poe chuckled. "I'm here for your expertise."

"Oh, really?" Auralee asked, turning her head to glance at the pilot and tucking a stray piece of her dull brown hair behind her ear. "What do you need?"

"I'd like you to build another a droid." He explained.

CI-4 beeped, disgruntled.

"Not to replace you, Cipher," Poe smiled down at the droid. "It'll be for me. For my Starfighter."

"You speak Binary?" Auralee questioned, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

"It's one of my better traits," Poe said - mimicking her words from their previous conversation - and Auralee felt her cheeks heat up.

"And you have a good memory," she continued, nodding to herself. "Good to know."

"I'm a man of many talents." Folding his arms across his chest, Poe walked further into the room and leaned himself back to rest against the wall. "So, what do you say? Can you build me a droid?"

"Don't all you pilots already have one?" Auralee asked, "what happened to yours?"

"I never had my very own," he replied with a shrug. "Plus none of them really worked out." Poe moved in closer and lowered his voice as if he were going to reveal some top secret information. "That K3 unit has a serious attitude problem."

Auralee snorted. "Let me guess. It kept telling you that it could do a better job at flying than you could."

Poe's brows came together in surprise. "How did you know that?"

"I had to fix its arm a couple of days ago. It complained the entire time and said it was better off fixing it itself," she explained with a frown. "Damn ungrateful robot."

The pilot shook his head in despair before glancing doing at CI-4 who had moved closer to the pair. "You'd never be that audacious, would you, Cipher?" The droid beeped in refutation and shook his domed head from side to side. At his response, Poe looked back at the engineer in front of him with a hopeful look in his eyes.

Auralee stared back for a moment before her resolve crumbled and she let out a sigh. "Fine." Poe's face lit up with a grin. "But it won't be easy!" She continued, pointing a finger at the man. Poe tried his best to wipe the smile off his face and keep his expression neutral at her words. He wasn't doing very well. "It took me months to build Cipher."

"That's fine," he accepted, placing a hand on her right shoulder in thanks. "Take all the time you need."

"And I'll need some details first." She continued, reluctantly turning away and opening the top drawer of her desk. Using her hands to rummage around inside - Poe raised his eyebrows at the number of items packed into such a small space - Auralee managed to find a pad of paper and a sharp pencil.

"Take a seat," she instructed, gesturing to the seat she had abandoned when Poe had come into the room.

"No, you take it. You've been working hard," Poe answered with a shake of his head. He still chose to join Auralee at the desk, however, he chose to sit himself on top of its surface instead. "I'm happy here."

Rolling her eyes graciously at his gentlemanliness, Auralee plopped herself down on the chair and leaned back, finding relief in the support it gave her. She had been leaning over that damn blaster since she had woken up and her back was beginning to cramp up.

"So," she began, quickly scrawling the words 'POE'S DROID' on the top of the page and underlining it twice. "Is there anything specific the droid should be or have?"

"Well, it'd have to fit in my Starfighter so I guess it'd have to be a suitable size," Poe said and watched as Auralee took note. "One without an attitude would be great," he added, referring to the K3 unit once again. Auralee figured that that was a fair request and scribbled it down too.

"Any specific colour?" She asked.

Her companion paused in thought before shaking his head. "I don't think so. I trust your judgement."

Auralee - appreciating him having faith in her to build something that was good enough - began to drag her pencil across the page in a series of circles and twists. "I think a BB unit would be best for you," she mumbled, teeth sinking into her bottom lip as she worked. It was a rough sketch, and the final product would probably only slightly resemble it, but it would have to do for now. Holding out the pad to Poe, the engineer waited as he took it in his hand and glanced down at the drawing.

"A BB unit?" He repeated with a questioning tone.

Auralee gave a short nod. "Yep. It's a good model. And it should be small enough to fit in the droid socket of your spacecraft." She stopped. "Well, I'm assuming. I'd probably have to come and check it out first."

"You wanna check out my fighter?" Poe asked, setting the paper next to him and looking at her once again.

"If we mere nerfherders are worthy enough, Commander," Auralee jested with a slight quirk of her eyebrow.

The pilot smirked and stood up from the desk. "I'll have to see if I can fit you into my very busy schedule first."

"I await with baited breath," the girl answered with a lazy grin, her eyes following his figure as he made his way to the exit.

Poe's smirk turned into a genuine smile. "Thank you for doing this. I know you're already pretty busy with, well..." He waved his hand in the general direction of Auralee's 'to-do' pile which included yet another blaster and a pilot helmet.

"Don't worry about it. It's what I'm here for." Auralee shrugged. "Now get outta here, Commander. I've got a droid to build."