The Commander sat in front of her in the only tavern in D'Qar, built hastily when the resistance established in the planet. Surrounded by equally hastily built houses, the only patrons to ever visit it– in fact, the only ones who seemed to live in D'Qar at all– were other Resistance fighters. The bar was even served exclusively by a stern Resistance medic, Holl Nebu, who made sure no one got carried away. That night, he'd made an exception for Poe.

Poe Dameron was a kind, strong man of around 32, and admired by everyone. Rylla admired him greatly, and often wondered if he should not be the Captain. Though she was sure of her own abilities, she knew she'd been put there only because of General Organa's favour. She'd known her and her family for what seemed to be her entire life, and they'd always been close. Her mother, a hydronautics engineer from Alderaan, had known her even when she was a Princess.

Poe had had more than five drinks past the one he should have stopped at.

"And–and I grabbed my com–oh, blast!–comlink, and told him–" he stopped to pick up the napkin he'd dropped, and hissed a few breathy, intoxicated chuckles, "– I, I said: Wait, what was I telling you?"

Rylla and the two other pilots in their table burst into laughter. She had already had her hand at her stomach when he'd started to tell jokes, but at his attempt of storytelling, he was awful.

"Ry–hick!–lla, what–what was I saying?" Poe stumbled. He tried to catch the last drop stuck to the bottom of his little shot glass, but Rylla gently took it and placed it beside her cup of tea.
"I was saying that it might be time to get you to the base"

"No!" he hushed. Poe tried to move a clumsy finger to her lips, but accidentally poked inside her nostril instead. Rylla quickly huffed and snatched her head away, but her shoulders were still shaking, and she couldn't stop laughing, even if she'd just had sweetened tea.

"Sorry" Poe simply said. He scratched the bridge of his own nose.
"It's alright", she smiled. "But let's get you home, Commander"
"Yeah, alright"

Rylla stood to pay, slid Poe her cup of tea, and let one of the other pilots hand him a clean napkin.

In the base, merely a short walk from the family's homes and the tavern, Camda Kieston placed his pilot badge to the portkey, and they all went inside. Poe stood his ground, walked himself inside, but crashed slightly into a shelf full of spare gloves. He quickly apologised, but his reflexes allowed him only to let more gloves drop in his attempt at catching the rest. Rylla placed her hand on his softly, and navigated him towards the barracks.

"They'd never let us do something like this. Let alone with the Captain", she heard one of the men behind them whisper.
"Poe is our best flyer" Rylla said, turning her head back to look at the other soldiers. "Maybe this can be motivation to start training harder, pilot"

"Or–or maybe, you'd like to be tortured– just a little bit" Poe added, his index and thumb finger pinching together, as though showing him an amount. He flicked his finger.
"You're dismissed for tonight, gentlemen" Rylla told them. "Present yourselves in the field at 06:00"
"Yes, Captain", they chorused. Rylla noted a slight limp in the blonde one's left leg, and made a mental note to inquire the following day.

"Off to bed, Poe" she said, finally turning to her friend.
"It's so early" he argued.
"Off to bed. Left, straight ahead, then right."
"I know where my room is"
"Just making sure" she grinned.

She decided to walk with him, in case he decided to drop, asleep, to the floor as another pilot had done only a few weeks before.

"What a fantastic day, wasn't it? Where do you think BB-8 is?" he asked, his words quick.
"Safe, I hope"
"With a friend?"
"Of course"
"Jakku is a junkyard"
"And hopefully someone knows the value of a good droid" she told him. "We'll find him very soon, Poe. You know how important this map is."

He stopped suddenly, his hand at his stomach, but he turned to her, and waited for the weird droid that cleaned the floors to roll by.

"Do you really think we'll find Luke Skywalker?" he whispered. His hand, she noticed, was still gently gripping her wrist for balance.
"Of course", she murmured back. She looked to the corner of the hall to make sure General Organa wasn't near.
"Have you met him?"
"Command–"
"They're gone. We're friends"
"Poe, of course I've met him" she whispered. "We've talked about Luke before"

It was true. When he'd joined the Resistance, they'd been two of only five pilots left alive. Back then, Rylla was still flying a T-70 X-Wing fighter, and she and Poe often flew together. They'd discussed the Skywalkers, and how she'd come to know them. Though Poe knew nothing of Ben Solo, it was only he who knew how close to Han and General Organa Rylla really was.

"Will he get rid of that scum?"

Rylla blinked at his drunken bluntness. Though she knew they all felt strongly about him, it bothered her greatly when expressions of it caught her off-guard. She could only offer him a weak reassurance that Luke Skywalker, indeed, would, and a slight nudge to his back so they'd keep walking to his chambers. Once he'd gone inside, she walked back towards the Control Room, found Princess Leia sitting in her favourite chair facing the map of the First Order's base, and pulled up another chair beside her, much like they did every night.

Again, thank you so very much for reading, following and favouriting 'The Rise of the Light". If you'd like to leave any comments, or suggest any changes, additions or corrections, I would absolutely love it and very very thankful.