According to my research (aka Wookiepedia) there was a Naval Academy that may have become the Imperial Naval Academy on Coruscant, but I like just Naval Academy better and went with that. It's my AU, I can have my fun!
Thanks for your great reviews you guys! It means so much to me that you like my character as much as you do and that you find her relationship with Poe to be believable and captivating. It's such a motivator to check my email throughout the day and see a new review, it makes me want to rush home and keep writing! I already responded to Souff3Girl privately, but...
SuperCocoLoco - I love that you love it! To be honest, I write my stories because they're the kind of stories I'd like to read, and...I do! They make me feel warm every time!
Firestar007 - I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I've still got some adventures planned for them!
Sam0728 - Thank you!
Zafrina - Thank you, I'm so glad!
This is the first sort of 'action' scene, I hope I did alright. I upped the rating to T for language, as I equate 'kriff' roughly to the f-bomb. I've also been thinking of starting a tumblr. Thoughts?
I don't own Star Wars. Consider yourselves disclaimed.
YAVIN-4
17 YEARS OLD
Rymer knocked loudly on Davlon's door as she passed it on her way to the kitchen. "Get a move on, little brother, do you want that speeder lesson today or not?"
"Coming!" the newly-twelve-year-old shouted back through the door. Rymer smiled and kissed her mothers on their heads as she rummaged through the pantry for a morning snack. After a short knock on the front door, it opened to reveal Poe's smiling face.
"Good morning Keen family!" He made a circle around the kitchen, kissing both Tali and Delu on their cheeks and ending his round with a soft kiss to Rymer's lips.
"Oh, gross."
Poe broke away laughing as Rymer rolled her eyes. "You'll get over it eventually. Ready for your lesson, little starfighter?" The nickname had transferred easily to the the youngest child when Poe and Rymer outgrew it, as the young boy who was entering the kitchen with a disgusted look on his face was determined to join the Republic Navy just like his sister, who had been accepted to the Naval Academy along with Poe for the following year.
"I still don't know how I feel about this," Tali said uneasily from behind her cup of tea. Delu laid a hand on her wife's arm reassuringly.
"He's older than they were when I taught them, and you know they'll keep him safe."
"That speeder is just so old..."
"We've taken excellent care of it," Rymer said, clearly insulted. "I ride it every day and you don't worry about that."
"Oh yes I do. I still don't understand why he can't learn on your mother's."
"Tali, we'll be giving ours to him when we leave, he needs to learn on it," Poe reminded her.
"I still don't like it."
"Mama, we talked about this," Rymer sighed. "The speeder is in great shape, I'll be right behind him to take over at any point, and Poe will be following on Mama Delu's speeder with enough bacta strips to treat an army. We'll be fine."
Unsurprisingly, Davlon turned out to be a natural. Rymer set the maximum speed to an easy cruise and leaned back, letting the boy steer without crowding him. Truthfully speaking she had let him do this once or twice before, but their mothers didn't need to know that.
They made it to the local market without incident, where Davlon struggled for the first time, with parking.
"No worries, Dav, you just have to remember to disengage the thrusters before you kill the engine. Good job, little brother." Rymer ruffled his hair affectionately, and he grinned, too happy with his experience to push her hand away.
"Hey you two, I'm going to go check with Tunga to see if that control panel came in. I'll see you in ten minutes." Poe kissed her on the cheek before loping away, leaving brother and sister to roam the stalls of fruit, vegetables, cloth, electronics, and various other wares. Davlon trailed by her side as Rymer bent to inspect a belt she thought Kes might like for his nameday next month.
She heard the failing engine before she saw it, the grinding drowned out only by the clanking rattle. Swiveling her head around, it was easy to spot the cloud of black smoke billowing from the engine of an ancient speeder the rider clearly had no control over. Turning to tell Davlon to stay close, she was horrified to see him several stalls down, directly in the path of the wayward speeder, rooted to the spot in shock.
She dropped the belt to the ground, taking off at a sprint, screaming for him to "Move, Davlon, RUN!" He stayed frozen in place, and she ran faster, legs pumping as the blood rushing in her ears drowned out every other sound.
It felt like hours but was really only seconds before she dove for him, slamming her shoulder into his abdomen and shoving him away just before she felt the crushing weight in her right leg followed by a blinding pain. Her head slammed into the ground and pain blossomed through her skull, and she could only be grateful as her vision went black.
The lights were dim when she blinked her eyes open, and for a moment she was confused. What had happened?
She remembered being scared, and being in pain. Her leg, and her...head? Her leg was just a dull ache now, and her head felt fine. She blinked again, and slowly lifted her head to see her mothers and brother sitting around her bed. She was in the medical clinic, in a care room.
"Mama Tali? Mama Delu?" They were at her side in an instant, hands fluttering around her face and hair.
"Oh Rymer, honey, how do you feel?" Tali asked through unshed tears while Delu leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"Um, okay? I'm confused, and my leg sort of hurts."
"Do you remember the speeder?" Delu asked. "In the market?"
Rymer's brow furrowed as she thought. Wait... "Yeah...yeah, the engine was busted, he was out of control...Dav!" She looked to him with frantic eyes, reaching out to beckon him closer. "Are you okay?!"
He was at her side in an instant. "I'm fine, I promise. You saved my life." His eyes were red like he'd been crying, and he sniffed sadly. "I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be sorry, Dav, I just hurt my-" she glanced down at her leg for the first time and then did a double take. "-my...my leg..."
Below her right knee, the blankets fell to the mattress she lay on, a stark contrast to the outline of her left calf and foot.
"I'm sorry!" Davlon flung his arms around her, crying again, and Rymer forced herself from her shock to hug him tightly. "I should have run, but I couldn't! I'm sorry!"
"Don't, don't you dare be sorry." She pulled away and waited until he looked her in the eye. "I would do it over and over again because I'm your big sister and it's my job to look out for you and keep you safe. It's just a leg - I've still got one of my own and I'll get a cool cybernetic replacement for the other. I'm fine, Dav, and you have nothing to be sorry for or ashamed of. Okay?" She waited until he nodded before pulling him into another hug.
He let go when he'd calmed down, only to climb into the bed beside her and lay his head on her shoulder. Rymer kissed his hair before looking back to her mothers.
"Where are Poe and Kes?"
The two women looked at each other, and Delu cleared her throat.
"They're...not here, sweetheart."
Rymer was clearly confused. "What? Why, why wouldn't Poe be here?"
Tali took her hand, speaking quietly. "I don't know, Ry. He was hysterical when he commed us and he could barely sit still when we got here. He saw you for a moment after they removed your leg, then he just took off. Kes went after him. I'm not sure where they went."
Rymer let her head fall back to her pillow. "That makes no sense, why would he just leave me at a time like this? I don't understand."
She didn't see them exchange another look, this one knowing. They understood.
They were saved from answering when the doctor walked in. "You look well Ry! How do you feel?"
Ry tried to smile - she like Dr. Atahsoro. The Twi'lek had been treating her injuries, both large and small, since childhood. "My head is fine, but my leg still hurts some."
Dr. Atahsoro nodded sympathetically. "I know, that's to be expected. I'll give you another dose of pain meds soon. I'm going to keep you overnight and give you one more bacta treatment in the morning, then we'll fit you with your cybernetic replacement and you'll be good to go. You're welcome to have someone stay overnight with you, of course. Do you need anything?"
"No, thank you."
"Alright. Try and get some rest, I'll be back soon with those pain meds."
After the doctor had left, Tali turned back to her daughter. "Sweetheart, about Poe-"
"I don't want to talk about it."
Tali and Delu both blinked, surprised. Rymer had never refused to talk about something with them before, especially when that something was Poe. "Ry, are you sure?"
"Yes. He should be here to talk to me himself."
Poe didn't come see her that night, or the next morning. Her cybernetic was fitted successfully and aside from the tiniest of seams, she could hardly tell it wasn't her own flesh and blood. She was quiet throughout the procedure, only murmuring responses to Dr. Atahsoro's questions, and riding home behind Delu with her head resting like a weight between her mother's shoulders.
When they reached the house she bypassed it completely, instead ignoring her mothers' protests and moving directly for the treeline to follow the now-worn path she'd been walking every day for nearly her entire life.
He was there, tunic discarded in the grass as he bent over the engine of the A-Wing, the muscles in his back straining as he worked. She said nothing, but reached down to slip off her boots. Aiming carefully, she reared back and hurled one at him, hitting him squarely in the back of the head.
"What the! Kriffing-" She was already hurling the other as he turned around, this one ricocheting off his shoulder. "Ow! Stop it, Ry!"
Rymer crossed her arms over her chest, only ceasing due to lack of projectiles.
Poe sighed, eyeing her warily as he closed the engine hatch, picking up his tunic to wipe his sweat from his face and torso. He picked up his canteen and took a long drink of water before clearing his throat.
"How's your leg?"
"Do you care?"
He tensed, throwing her a dirty look. "You know I care."
"Then where were you, Poe? I lost my kriffing leg, for Light's sake!"
"You think I don't know that?! I'm responsible for that!"
"...what?!" Rymer sputtered for a moment. "You...you were three rows away, there's no way you could have gotten there in time to help either of us!"
"Exactly!" he yelled. "I should have been there to take care of you and keep you safe! I should have been the one risking my life, not you!"
Rymer gaped at him, furious and disbelieving. "So because you think you weren't there for me when I needed you, you decided to wallow around in self-pity instead of being there for me when I needed you?!"
Poe stopped in his tracks, looking to her in shock. "W...what?"
"Do you have any idea how kriffing scared I was, Poe?" Rymer was nearly screaming at him now. "I woke up and my leg was gone! But I can't even deal with that first thing, the first thing I have to do is comfort Dav because - what a coincidence! - the poor kid blames himself! And when I look around to finally get some comfort from the person that matters the most to me, you're not even there! I wanted you to stay there with me last night, I wanted you to hold my hand when they attached my cybernetic - which also really hurt, by the way."
Her voice had dropped now, sounding tired and lonely. "I missed you, Poe. I love you more than anything in the galaxy and you just left me do all that without you."
His jaw had gone slack now as he realized what she'd gone through, and in a moment he was crushing her in his arms, feeling her tears against his shoulder as she clung to him tightly.
"I'm so sorry, Ry... All I could think was that I let you down and I couldn't stand to see you looking disappointed in me. I should have thought about what was happening to you. I love you, I swear I'll never leave you like that again."
"You better not. If you do I'm really gonna make you regret it."
Poe chuckled, taking her face in his hands and kissing away the tears on her cheeks. "Trust me, beautiful, I regret this time plenty. Really though - how is your leg?"
"Fine," she shrugged. "It doesn't hurt anymore, just feels like a normal leg. You can kinda hear the mechanics sometimes."
"Yeah?" He looked intrigued, crouching down. She flexed her ankle a few times and he frowned. "I can't hear it."
"Really? Maybe get a little closer?" He crouched lower, bringing his head almost level with her foot. When he couldn't see her face, Rymer finally grinned and pushed her bare foot into his face, smushing her toes against his nose and mouth and knocking him over onto the grass as he groaned.
"Oh for the - get down here!" He grabbed her new leg, tugging behind the knee until she toppled onto him with a shriek of laughter. He encased her in an iron grip, holding her to his chest as she wriggled until she finally settled against him with a smile. They lay like that for a moment before Rymer spoke again.
"You do realize that we're joining the Republic Navy together, right? I'm going to be a starfighter pilot, just like you. You won't be there to protect me all the time. You need to trust me to take care of myself."
Poe sighed, giving her a squeeze. "I know, I know. I do trust you, you've proven our entire lives you can take care of yourself. You just - you mean everything to me, Ry, I don't have words for how much I love you. Seeing you all bloody with your leg torn to shreds, then lying in that hospital bed looking so small and pale, I just...I've never been so scared in my life."
"That may be a sight we both have to get used to."
He sighed again. "Yeah. I know that too."
"We just have to promise to always be there when the other wakes up."
He smiled at her now, kissing her softly. "I can do that."
This came out longer than expected, my inspiration kind of ran away with me. What did you think?
