AGH I've had this half-written for days trying to find time to finish it. Real life: screw that noise. THANK YOU so so much for the continued feedback, seriously, I so appreciate every one of you :')
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"…Ah, fusing pen, please?" Tali blindly reached a hand back towards Nia, who obediently dropped the required tool into her palm.
"How's it looking in there, dear? You sure your arm's feeling well enough for all this?" The nurse asked for what felt like the millionth time. Tali blew a few stray strands of hair out of her face in mild frustration before pasting on a smile (man, I miss my scarves… could scowl all day under those, no problem) and sliding sideways, shifting to meet the older woman's eyes over her shoulder.
"I'm just fine, Nia." Looking up at the fluorescent lights of the operating room made her squint, and Tali turned back to the pried-open wiring access panel. She stretched her neck a bit before shuffling back under the defunct droid's splayed metal arm. "And this guy should be all set in… just another minute…"
The awkward position on her back on the chilly floor, dragged half under a modified FX model medical droid, wasn't exactly comfortable for any part of Tali's desert-abused body (least of all her still-healing shoulder). But she'd be damned if the cheerful woman's concern for her health thwarted her chance to be useful in this small way. Letting out a pensive breath, Tali peered into the robot's mechanical guts. Stupid thing's almost fixed… I hope. Flipping the fuser in her hand, she gritted her teeth and sliced a couple of wires together.
Due to the nature of the Resistance as a secret force whose upkeep and operations depended largely on donations from concerned senators, much of their supplies were, in essence, Republic or even older Rebel Alliance hand-me-downs. The multi-armed droid healthcare assistant was in pretty good condition (other than the electrical problems Tali had been working on for the past hour), but it was also more than thirty years old. So the Resistance medical personnel, who weren't trained in mechanics anyway, hadn't known what to do when the relatively old-fashioned system shorted out a few days earlier. Cue Tali, Mistress of Obsolete Junk.
While she was getting her arm checked, she'd overheard an orderly complaining about it, so Tali had volunteered her services. And as luck would have it, she (well, sort of) recognized the machine's basic structure and felt confident enough to attempt rewiring. The medical personnel seemed impressed so far, Nia even unduly grateful. Here's hoping I actually manage to boot this thing back up. Apparently with the escalating conflict and emphasis on combat starships and droids, more routine maintenance of everyday machinery got shuffled to the backburner. Tali had a feeling that the age of the droid wasn't helping its chances of successful rehab either. Hero for the common people and their old stuff, that's me. Turns out even Jakku-bred tech skills come in handy sometimes. Holding the pen between her teeth, she reconnected the newly-fused wire, tightening a screw. Pretty sure that's right…
Absorbed in the completion of her delicate task, Tali didn't notice the heavy booted footsteps approaching her spot on the tiled floor. But there was no missing Nia's besotted voice.
Startled when the woman let out a sudden near-squeal, Tali jerked her head back, almost smashing her skull on the open access panel door.
"Oh, Commander! You're back! Successful, I take it? Well of course you were—" Oh. …Poe? "Need your bruises looked at?" The older woman's voice was just a touch overeager. Ha. Definitely Poe… goddamn, Nia, the man could be your son ya floozy. Tali felt the corners of her mouth lift in amusement.
"Ah, thank you, but I think they'll be alright actually." At the sound of Poe's unmistakable warm voice, Tali's expression broadened into a smile. But then… did he come here to see me? Whatever the reason, she was glad he'd shown up. Not that she'd been worried or anything. Okay, that was a lie. After all, the last time she'd seen Poe fly a fighter, the thing had ended up a smoking pile of rubble. Submerged in quicksand. She still wasn't sure how he'd managed to stumble away from a crash like that.
Anyway, Tali had grown rather attached to Poe in his alive and non-concussed state. Plus, she well knew what the First Order was like, how merciless they were… her smile faltered. I burned so many bodies. She mentally shook herself. Still, apparently he's the literal best, I'm sure the guy can handle whatever they throw at him. And apparently he had.
Snapping the access panel closed, Tali awkwardly maneuvered her way out from under the droid. When she emerged, clutching the fusing pen with one hand and raising herself partially up with the other, she met Poe's dark gaze. Doesn't look much worse for wear... she eyed his tousled hair, lips quirking. "Hey! Er, welcome back." …Was that a weirdly formal greeting? What I meant was hi, glad to see you're in one piece, heard some women in the hall gossiping about you and how your face should be on recruitment posters after you left, not that I carefully eavesdropped or anything…
"Hi." A grin stretched across Poe's face, and he held out a hand to help her up. Memories of the multiple times on Jakku when she'd spitefully ignored his proffered hand rose in Tali's mind as her fingers met his warmer ones. Their eyes locked as he pulled her firmly to her feet. So is this trust, then, I guess?
Once righted, she cleared her throat, dropping her gaze. He's not letting go of my hand. "So, er, you found your droid then? Mission successful…?" It was only then that Tali fully took in his flight suit. She barely held in a snort, eyebrows raised. "Oh my god, and you weren't kidding about the orange!"
Grinning, she took half a step back to give him a once-over, their hands slipping apart. Poe held his arms out with a flourish, smirking unashamedly. "Like a glorious sunset."
Tali shook her head gently, still smiling. "Very… highly visible. Ha, sorry… Anyway." She brought her eyes back to his face expectantly.
Poe ran a hand through his disheveled hair as a string of rapid beeps sounded from behind him. The source was a spherical white and orange astromech droid that rapidly rolled into the room, stopping short right before it crashed into Poe's leg. He grinned down at it. "Hey, speak of the devil. Yeah, the one and only BB-8's back… that's one mission completed anyway."
Tali eyed BB-8 curiously. It (…he?) was probably the newest astromech model she'd ever seen. Sorta… cute. With the round body. She felt her lips quirk up. Whatever generation of Binary droidspeak the little guy was using, it was newer than the code used by vaporators and most other machinery she was familiar with on Jakku. But she caught enough to understand that he was pretty miffed at Poe, who held his hands up in supplication.
"…Yeah, I'm sorry, buddy, I know…" the spherical droid's indignant bleeping gradually quieted. "…But hey, this is Tali, the one who helped me off Jakku, so be nice, yeah? …And of course I'm glad you're back, yeesh, I wasn't leaving."
Apparently mollified, the droid rolled towards Tali, shiny photoreceptor tilting up to inspect her face. Okay yeah it's weirdly cute. A greeting in the form of a string of whistling beeps informed her that BB-8 thanked her and… was expecting her to be bigger? Did I understand that right? Tali couldn't suppress a chuckle. "Hey now, I could say the same to you, BB-8. And nice to meet you, too. I'm glad your mission was successful."
Apparently satisfied, the droid rolled back towards Poe, who was smiling softly at their interaction. BB-8 bumped lightly into his calf with a quiet bleep. Thing's like a damn dog.
A tensing of Poe's shoulders was barely perceivable as his amused smile faded into a grim line. "But anyway the Starkiller, the First Order superweapon, is another matter. Their sights are more than likely set on us, so right now it's recon time before we make a plan to disable it."
Oh shit. From what Tali understood from the medical personnel gossip she'd been privy to, the First Order had some kind of phantom energy cannon capable of destroying entire planets. Multiple planets. The magnitude of destruction was barely comprehensible…but she did now realize that the assault on Jakku could have been much, much worse. And that superweapon was going to be pointed towards D'Qar? Better hope the Resistance figures out a way to stop it. Or my budding career as old junk fixer-upper extraordinaire will be ending real soon… "Yikes." She swallowed convulsively.
Suddenly clearing his throat, Poe seemed to remember that they were in the middle of the medical bay. Glancing around the room a bit uncomfortably, he gave the infatuated Nia a tight smile before his stormy eyes found Tali's again. "Um, have you eaten?"
She leveled a blank stare at him, one eyebrow raising. We're potentially getting blown up. Annihilated. And you're hungry?
Poe shifted minutely, holding her gaze. His expression might appear blithe, but Tali thought she could make out a kind of pleading rawness lurking in the depths of his eyes. "…I mean, I know I'm starving. Do you want to maybe take a break here and head to the canteen, grab a protein bar?" …With you? Poe gestured towards the medical droid, which had blinked into reconfiguration mode after Tali had plugged the final wire back in. BB-8 turned towards the bigger droid curiously. "Looks like this guy's alright now." So it is. Nice! …Er, I had total confidence.
Tali glanced at Nia, whose wistful attention was still centered on Poe, and shrugged. "Um, sure. The droid should be all set." She replaced the tools in her hand on their tray, and Poe sidled up to her, inspecting them.
"Some light welding? Nice." His voice was light. "Glad we're putting your skills to work."
"Turns out I'm somewhat of an expert on decades-old tech," Tali intoned dryly as she finished straightening the work station. Poe made a hesitant motion by her side, and for a moment Tali thought he might be about to reach for her hand again. But he only ghosted a hand at her back for a moment, steering her towards the exit with a final smile at the loitering medical personnel. BB-8 followed at their heels with a suspicious whistle.
Tali gave Poe a critical sideways look in the hallway, and he brushed his hair off his forehead restlessly, one side of his mouth quirking up. "Nice lady, Nia, but goddamn I was getting uncomfortable under that stare," he muttered.
Tali snorted. "As if less people will look at you in the busy hallway?" She couldn't help but retort. And they're not staring because of the suit.
BB-8 gave an amused beep and Poe tossed both of them a withering look. "They don't look at me like that." Then his face broke into an easy smile, and he brushed his shoulder against hers. "Anyway, I wanted to hang out with you." Really? "Nice job on the FX unit by the way. Who knew familiarity with outdated equipment would be a marketable skill?" He teased lightly.
She couldn't help her answering smirk. "They don't make 'em like they used to…"
"…Thank goodness," the two of them completed in unison, Poe chuckling.
They turned a corner towards the spare cafeteria, Tali following as Poe led the way through mostly-empty tables, vacated in the mid-afternoon lull. A few passing Resistance members gave them curious glances. As he grabbed a protein bar from a tray, Poe's expression grew more somber. He gestured towards a table in the corner, waiting for Tali to claim a seat before he dropped himself into the chair next to her with a sigh, stretching his legs out in front of him. BB-8 rocked absently to and fro by his side.
Tali searched Poe's pensive face, the inwardly focused expression seeming out of character. He flipped the packaged ration bar between his fingers, and she surveyed the shadowed circles under his eyes. "You okay?"
Blinking at her words, Poe brought his heavy-lidded gaze to her face. "Yeah. Sorry." He cleared his throat. "…fuck, I'm being weird," he muttered under his breath, barely audibly, before glancing at BB-8. "Hey, buddy, you want to go check on the plans with General Organa?" The droid bleeped at him suspiciously, but Poe gave him a hard stare, raising an eyebrow in warning. After a few seconds of standoff, BB-8 rolled away slowly, loosing a string of resentful beeps. Tali watched with a curious frown.
Poe sighed, hands stilling on the protein bar. He set it on the table next to him, turning to face Tali and running a hand through his hair. "Sorry, I'm being awkward." His dark gaze held hers. "But I, ah, just wanted to talk to you before shit goes down, considering there's a… non-zero chance this attack on the First Order's gonna go tits up, fiery ball of death style. I mean, I'm pretty confident. But, still… I'm sorry that you got involved."
Tali swallowed. …Cheerful. Where is this going? Fuck, is he telling me I'm gonna have to leave if we don't all die? Is that sorry as in he regrets bringing me here? She shook her head, shifting to face Poe. Welp, I'm not just going to back down. Gotta say something—"Are you kicking me out? But… your droid's cute," she blurted, desperate to change the subject. Oi, non sequitur. Poe looked at her blankly for a split second, before barking a short laugh, eyes crinkling in a mixture of confusion and amusement. …You're cute.
"…What?" He sputtered, crooked grin lingering. "I mean, yeah he is I guess… thank you? But uh, no, no… what?" He ended in a mutter, shaking his head at her, before his expression gradually sobered. "I just mean, I'm sorry. I feel like I got you involved in this mess. And you of all people really don't deserve to die in a ball of fire." He shifted towards her, their knees brushing together. "I just hope you don't regret helping me, or coming here." One corner of Poe's mouth rose in a warped smile. "…Or I hope that you'll live to regret it later, at least."
His dark eyes were wistful, almost brooding as he studied her wide-eyed face. "…Man, sometimes I wish there wasn't a war going on," he murmured lowly. Leaning forward, he carefully reached up to brush a lock of her hair, mussed from laying on the floor to fix the medical droid, back behind her ear.
Tali swallowed convulsively at the gentle contact, heat creeping to her face when his gaze dropped to her working throat. "…O-okay, so you're not kicking me out or anything?"
Poe's eyes snapped back up as he shot her an incredulous look, brows drawn. "Hell no! …I mean, too late now, anyway. But definitely no. I like you here." Oh? Tali's heart fluttered in her chest. "…I just, sort of feel guilty about it." That crooked half-smile briefly twitched to life on his lips again.
She felt an answering smile spread on her face. "…Are you forgetting that I was the one who talked you into bringing me back here? Pleaded, practically? And I don't regret it." He raised a wry eyebrow at her, and she continued, "regardless of possible fiery death. I mean, even that might be better than living out the rest of my days chasing loser pirates on Jakku."
Poe's lips twitched. "Fair enough, that desert hellhole is fuckin' dismal…"
Tali swatted at his arm with a mock growl. That's my hellhole, dickwad. But Poe caught her hand, smirking, and lowered it towards their knees. He's not letting go. "Hey, now… Anyway, what I was trying lamely to say was that I like you, I'm glad you're here, and I'm going to go blow some First Order shit up so I can come back and maybe we could, like, actually hang out or something? Without the threat of imminent death, raiders or quicksand? …Um, that is, if you wanted to?"
What? The absent caress of his calloused fingers on the inside of her wrist was severely limiting Tali's cognitive capacity, but had Poe just… asked her on a date? …Probably not, right? But his eyes are doing something seriously like smoldering right now—?
She opened her mouth to reply, but a shrill buzzing tore through the still air of the nearly-empty canteen. Poe gave a start, then grabbed the communicator from his belt, stormy eyes still on Tali's face.
A voice rapidly crackled through the comlink. Tali bit the inside of her lip. Aaand, boom, whatever the fuck moment that was: slaughtered. Poe's voice was hard. "…Affirmative. I'm on my way."
With a look that was somehow both heated and apologetic, Poe clicked the device off and replaced it on his belt. He stood swiftly, drawing Tali to her feet alongside him, warm hand still clasped around hers.
"Duty calls. Snap's on his way back... time to formulate a plan of attack that can take down a planet. No biggie," Poe informed her dryly. His eyes briefly dropped to the chapped lip she was biting, and Tali fought the blush that threatened. Fuck, reeeally gotta learn to control my face better. "…Guess you've got time to think it over," Poe continued lowly, lips quirking. Okay but did you mean, like, a date? Because: thought it over, the answer is yes, my God look at you—
"…Now c'mon, let's go watch a bunch of high-ranking officers argue around a hologram," he continued with forced brightness.
As he turned to leave, Poe tugged her after him. "…Wait wait hold on, will they even let me in the conference room?" Tali asked, somewhat breathless as he started to drag her along. Her heart was racing. Holy shit this weapon is major… please don't get blown up.
Poe tossed her a scoffing look over his shoulder. "Please. Of course they will—you're with me," he replied, with a self-assuredness that bordered on but didn't quite reach arrogance. He strode through the hall, completely heedless of any stares from passersby, while Tali hurried alongside him, avoiding their eyes and wishing again for her face scarves. Her hand was still clasped firmly within his, and the heat of his fingers seemed to be spreading up her arm to settle warmly in her tightening chest. She gave a lingering sidelong glance at Poe's strong profile.
…Am I?