Hello there!

Thank you all soooooo much for checking out my story! If you like it, it's very inspiring to me if you let me know in some way, and thank you in advance for every fav, follow, or nice review; they're my own version of caffeine. :D :D :D :D :D

For those who really wish I would write a one shot of their idea or would just really like to see a certain story bump up to the top of my rotation, check out the pinned post on my Facebook page, TheLoneRebel's Stories, for info. You can also find my updating schedule there and blurbs from some of my chapters. :D

Disclaimer: I don't own any Star Wars characters and any OC's that resemble real people are entirely coincidental.

There is an explanation of how my calendar works and a list of helpful translations for my commonly used Star Wars words in 'Flame of Hope - Everyone' if you're curious.

A/N: I'm dedicating this story to my very good friend, Ryan, who's going through some really tough times right now. This version of Poe Dameron's origin story is loosely based on Ryan's actual life. He is the bravest boy I've ever met and I hope he finds his real life Mira one day, just like Poe. Love you, little bro.

Also, to anyone not familiar with the Flame of Hope universe, it more or less follows canon events until 5 ABY and then things start changing drastically thanks to Ezra and the World between Worlds.

The Pilot and the Mandalorian Jedi

a Flame of Hope story

The Pilot's Prologue:

Poe Dameron was born with the need to fly in his blood. It thrummed through him like a siren call any time he was stuck on the ground and thrilled him to the very bones whenever he was in the air.

Flying was his life and he did whatever he had to make sure it stayed that way.

Poe came by the addiction naturally, via his mother's side of his bloodline. Shara Bey grew up watching her father race on the galactic pro circuit and learned to fly as soon as she was big enough to handle the controls of his modified Delta-7 Aethersprite Interceptor. She never raced, herself, but the love of flying had certainly been instilled in her. To please her loyalist mother, she'd enrolled in an Imperial academy and became a TIE pilot. There, she met and fell in love with a stormtrooper sergeant named Kes Dameron.

They went AWOL from the Imperial military when the rumours that the Empire had deliberately blown up Alderaan proved to be true.

Kes was from Alderaan.

For the next three years, Shara and Kes hid out in a small colony in the last place they thought the Empire would bother to look for them; Yavin 4, which contained an abandoned Rebellion base. They got married and had Poe during that time. But after Poe was born, Shara couldn't bear to just sit at home and do nothing anymore after seeing news of planet after planet being oppressed and taken over by the Empire. So she contacted her father (who was ecstatic to hear from his missing daughter) and asked if he would take care of Poe while she and Kes joined the Rebellion.

Of course, Raynar Bey said yes. His racing career had just come to a screeching halt anyway when the Empire outlawed all Pro, Amateur, and even rinky-dink backwater circuits in an effort to quell the rising tide of rebellion. That effort backfired when most of the racers joined the Alliance as fighter pilots instead.

Poe didn't see much of his parents after that, but he did enjoy his grandfather's stories about racing very much. And he literally crawled all over the old black Interceptor as Raynar tinkered with it. Nothing made the toddler happier than to be taken up for a flight around the planet while sitting on his grandfather's lap.

Even better was whenever his mom came home and took him for a ride in her RZ-1 A-Wing Interceptor. There was only one starfighter that Poe loved more, and that was of the X-Wing. He first saw one in news footage of the Battle of Endor when he was only two years old. But the distinctive X and spearhead shape of the fighter never left his mind and he doodled it constantly on all of his school work as the years passed.

Finally, after hearing about things like Endor, Death Stars, Jakku, Cinder, Skywalker, and Princesses, his parents came home to stay when Poe was six, having finally had enough of fighting even though there were still Imperial remnants out there causing problems for the New Republic.

And for some reason that he didn't understand until years later, his mother brought home a tiny little tree to plant in their yard, only saying that it was very special.

Poe only got two years with his mother before she suddenly passed away of a heart attack. Not that he didn't love his father also, but the boy was devastated when she died, because they had the same love for flying that his father just didn't. She was only twenty-nine and he couldn't understand how the universe could be so cruel to do that to those who loved her dearly.

Poe nearly killed himself taking her A-Wing out on his own without permission after her funeral, flying too close to the red gas giant called Yavin when tears had blinded him.

He was grounded from flying for a month after that.

Eventually, the eight year old boy recovered his fun-loving and vibrant personality with the help of a new friend three years his junior (but already nearly as tall) called Ben Solo. Ben had accompanied his mother, a Princess of the destroyed Alderaan that Poe's parents had known, when she showed up a few weeks later to pay her condolences. The younger boy had been drawn to the now two metre tall tree in their front yard, and Poe had followed him out to find him staring at it in wonder as the adults did the 'so sorry for your loss' thing inside.

Confused as to why that tree would garner such a reaction, Poe meandered up to the black haired boy, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he scuffed the ground with a toe. "Watcha doin'?"

Ben glanced at him with shining brown eyes. "Can't you feel it?" he whispered almost reverently.

Now Poe was even more confused. "Feel what?"

"The Force! This tree, it glows with the Force!"

"What's the Force?"

Ben turned, gawking at Poe instead of at the tree. "You don't know?"

Now feeling like he might be stupid, Poe kicked the dirt pathway again. "No. Never heard of it."

The other boy's expression sobered quickly. "Oh, well, I guess since you don't have much of it, that kinda makes sense."

"Don't have much of what?"

"The Force, you nerf!" Ben said is if that had been obvious. And maybe it was, now that Poe thought back.

"So what is this… Force?" Despite himself, Poe was starting to get intrigued. Either Ben knew a really cool secret or he was missing a few powercoils in the engine, so to speak. Both made the other boy hella interesting, no matter which proved to be true.

Ben put on the must adult expression Poe had ever seen on another child. "It's an energy field that binds the entire galaxy together and it's in everything. Every tree, animal, person, and planet has it in some degree or they wouldn't be alive. Like you, and normal trees. But then there's people like me and my family and that tree; we have it filling our very cells to the brim, which is why I can do this."

Poe gasped as Ben held his hand out and suddenly there was fist-sized rock from the edge of the path floating above Ben's hand. "Whoa! You're like a wizard!"

Ben laughed and tossed the rock at Poe without ever touching it. Poe caught it out of reflex and just stared at it for a few seconds as the younger boy grinned at him. "Yeah, something like that. But we prefer to call ourselves Jedi Knights. My grandfather was the strongest Knight in the galaxy a long time ago. He's dead now, but I still talk to his ghost all the time."

Again, Poe would have thought Ben crazy if he hadn't just seen him float a rock. "Ghosts are real?" Poe squeaked out.

Ben shrugged and looked at the tree again, putting his hands in his pockets like Poe had to start with. "There are a few. Only strong Jedi that have passed, as far as I know. Their essence lives on in the Force, at least, that's how my Uncle Luke explained it."

"What…" Poe gulped. "What about normal people. Like my Mom? Do they live on too?"

Ben glanced at him and smiled. "Yeah, yeah they do. Up in Force Heaven, as Grandpa calls it. Grandma was just a normal Human like you, with only a little Force, and now she and Grandpa are together again up there. Only… he can come visit me because he's strong with the Force and she can't. But your mom? I'm sure she's up there waiting for you and watching you. Auntie Soka says we're never alone because our loved ones live on in the Force and the Force is in all of us, so we're always connected."

Poe was honestly having to fight back tears at what he'd just heard as what felt like a massive cloud of sorrow was lifted from his narrow shoulders. "Thank you," he whispered, sniffing. "You have no idea how much that means to me."

Ben only glanced at him and then pointedly looked at the tree again, respectfully giving Poe space to pull himself together. "Actually, I do. I haven't personally lost anyone yet like you have, but I can feel your emotions, and that is a pain that I hope to not experience for a long time."

"I hope so for your sake, too," Poe whispered gruffly as he clenched the rock tightly for a second and then tossed it back down to its approximate previous location. "Losing a parent sucks nerfballs."

"I bet," Ben whispered back.

Poe squared his shoulders, beyond done with crying after weeks of it. "Hey, you like starfighters?"

Ben turned and his eyes lit up again. "Do I ever! Why, you got one?"

Poe ginned wickedly. "I got two."

"Sweeeeeeet," Ben breathed in awe.

"Come on, I'll show you."

And thus, a long-distance friendship was born, kept alive by hours-long comm calls and a shared love of flying.

Poe sympathized when Ben's parents left him to be raised by nanny droids more often than not.

Ben sympathized when Poe tried to kiss a girl for the first time at eleven years old and got himself punched in the eye instead.

Poe supported Ben's decision to move to the Jedi school on Lothal instead of living with his parents. He believed that Ben should live the life that would make him the most happy, and if properly training to be a Jedi with others of his kind was it, then staying home where he wasn't happy or understood made no sense at all.

Ben supported Poe's decision to leave home at sixteen when a ship full of spice runners crashed near his village on Yavin 4, and Poe joined them, taking the now matte black A-Wing as his mode of transport. (The fact that there was a smoking hot girl on the crew had absolutely nothing to do with it. Really.) He'd been feeling as if his home held nothing of interest for him anymore. Ben wasn't so keen on the idea Poe becoming a smuggler, but he had to admit that his friend had the skills for the dangerous job.

And so it went as they grew up and their normal conversations became more and more about girls and less and less about flying and dreams.

Poe was never sure who had it worse; Ben, with his bonded soulmate who was ten years younger (a nightmare for any teenage boy) and his struggle with attraction to girls in his own age group while still wanting to remain faithful to Rey, or himself with his wretched luck with girls.

His first real girlfriend was Zorii Bliss (the hot one with the spice runners) and turned out to be the daughter of the leader of the group. She was a bit older than him, but he managed to win her over anyway after a few month's worth of proving himself to be worthy of her affections. And then all the hard work and dedication towards making her happy flew out the airlock to an instant death when Zorii's mother decided to turn her peace summit into an execution of all of the competition.

Poe refused to have anything to do with outright murder and instead helped the other criminal leaders escape. In the process, he was nearly killed by Zeva Bliss, but Zorii stood up against her mother and told Poe to run if this wasn't the life he wanted. He did, and he hasn't seen her since.

After that, Poe returned home to Yavin 4 for a short time, much to his father's relief. But he left again after his grandfather passed away in his sleep and his father tried to keep the fact that he was courting another woman a secret – which was almost impossible to do in a village that small – which Poe could understand, knowing his mother wouldn't want his dad to be lonely for the rest of his life, but he couldn't make himself watch it happen.

Poe had always wanted to fly an X-Wing and had come to the conclusion that the only way to do so was to enlist in the New Republic navy. So he did.

At seventeen years old, the navy taught him how to fly. Which was hilarious, considering he arrived in a heavily modified A-Wing, the most notoriously difficult to control starfighter in the galaxy because there was no room for an astromech on what basically amounted to a cockpit poised above two massive engines. But Poe happily sat through their classes and flight simulations, soaking in any and all new knowledge they were willing to give him. And at the end of the two month course, he finally got to fly his dream.

After his first flight through the test course, Wedge Antilles, his instructor, said he'd only ever seen two other people with such an innate ability to fly; Hera Syndulla and Luke Skywalker. (Both people that Poe knew vicariously through Ben but had never actually met.) Considering that one of those was a Jedi, Poe knew he couldn't have received a higher compliment and tried not to let it inflate his ego. Much.

Poe's natural skill with the starfighter and charismatic leadership qualities had him quickly advancing through the ranks. By the time the year 20 ABY rolled around, he was made Commander of Rapier Squadron and given his very own personal astromech droid.

BB-8 became Poe's second best friend after only one mission together and the man and orange and white rollie droid were basically inseparable after that.

Not long after that, Poe discovered that there was another faction of Imperial-like military trying to take over the galaxy. And that the New Republic not only knew about it, but seemed to be dismissing the First Order as nothing more than pesky mosquitoes.

They weren't mosquitoes.

Poe told Ben about what he'd discovered via some extracurricular snooping and soon found himself contacted by the Queen of New Alderaan, the same Princess who'd come to Yavin 4 so many years ago and brought her son with her.

She offered him a command position in her husband's fleet, which was sort of secretly looking for the First Order against the Senate's wishes, and he accepted eagerly. Providing he got to keep BB-8 and his custom painted black T-70 X-Wing, that is.

Leia Organa made it happen. (Something Ben said his mother was very good at.)

Poe's reliable (sort of) old A-Wing was also loaded up and stored on Admiral Solo's flagship, just in case he needed it. (As if he would leave it behind.)

Poe didn't have much luck holding onto a girlfriend during his time with either of the New Republic Defense Fleets. Many girls approached him, attracted to his smile and good looks and reputation as the best pilot in the fleet, but they left just as fast when they realized he would always love flying more than he would love them. Many accused him of being more committed to his X-Wing and his droid than he was to their relationship, and Poe would reluctantly admit that they were right. And then he'd be forced to watch them stomp off in a huff.

Ben said it was because he hadn't found his soulmate yet that he was having such a hard time fully committing himself to a relationship.

Poe thought he just needed to get better at acting as if the girl actually was more important than his missions. He just hadn't felt inspired enough to do so for some reason.

At least he had the hunting of First Order baddies to keep him distracted from his depressing failures at holding onto a girlfriend for more than a week.

But even that came to an end a couple months later after a Knight of Ren made the mistake of capturing Hera Syndulla and brought the wrath of the New Jedi Order and all of their many allies down on his Master's head as they tracked down their beloved mother figure and friend.

Poe was part of one of the four fleets that surrounded Snoke's First Order ships and was highly disappointed when the group of approximately fifty Destroyers and Cruisers surrendered without a fight.

Granted, Snoke was already dead at that point, and Grand Master Tano had already taken over his flagship, the Supremacy, so there was no real incentive for Snoke's minions to sacrifice their lives for him. According to Ben - who was very mad that he wasn't there just because he supposedly wasn't old enough to fight at fifteen years old (Padawans used to go to war at fourteen!) - Snoke had been killed by Hera Syndulla and she had been killed in return at the same time, devastating the many who loved her. He'd also said that every one of the commanding officers and Knights of Ren had been killed in battle or executed except for one Knight who'd gotten away.

Which meant there was basically no one left to hunt down and Poe's job had become exponentially easier.

And kind of boring, if he was being honest.

So when he stumbled on a racing circuit on a routine patrol of the outer edges of the Mid Rim, needing a refuel, Poe found himself stopping at the ocean planet of Castilon to watch. Then the winner of the last race, a hotshot green Rodian who couldn't be any older than Poe at the very most strutted himself up to Poe and eyeballed the Navy pilot and his black X-Wing with disdain. "You any good, mudscruffer?"

Poe and his pride of course said, "Hell yeah. Better than you, nerfrag."

The Rodian, named Fazon, as the announcer had said many times, planted his hands on his hips. "Wanna prove it, scumbucket?"

"You're on."

"Good. And no cheating. Which means no astromechs and no munitions. And… that's about it."

Sooooo, anything else goes? I can work with that. Poe glanced at his droid and shrugged. "Sorry, buddy."

Ignoring BB-8's beeps of warning that he was going to get himself in trouble, Poe flew his X-Wing over to the starting platform while Fazon talked to whomever to make another race happen. Minutes later, Fazon's bright green G30 racer was in the slot next to Poe and the countdown was on.

"Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Go!"

The clamps let his ship go and Poe was off, flying side by side with Fazon as they made for the first ring they had to pass through to stay on course.

There was only room for one ship to fit through the rings at a time. You miss the ring, you had to circle back and were almost gauarnteed to lose the race. Try and squish through with another ship, you both crash into the ocean and probably die.

Poe was determined to be the first to the ring. And every ring after that.

His fighter wasn't designed to be a racer, but it had been built for speed and agility, and Poe used every bit of that to his advantage as he extended the S-foils in attack position and gunned it for the ring.

He slid through a half second before Fazon, and whooped with sheer joy at the risk.

The course of rings took them past or under the fueling station known as the Colossus four different times (three of which Poe was in the lead for), way out over the empty ocean, and even up into space, where they had to pass through a ring that triggered a shutdown of all systems, leaving them to freefall back down and aim for a ring on deadstick steering that had Poe's heart racing with adrenaline.

Poe passed through the trigger ring first and he was able to restart the engines just in time to avoid crashing into the water below. His eyes were already pinned to the last ring even as his precious fighter roared back to life. "Okay, baby, let's win this thing."

With Fazon all but attached to his tail and making solid attempts to push him off course, Poe kept the controls steady with determined hands and the figurative pedal to the metal as he pushed for every last ounce of speed from his fighter.

He passed through the last ring at the max limit of 1100 kph a full second before Fazon.

"Yes!" he cried, flying a victory lap around the Colossus as the watching crowd cheered, throwing in a few aileron rolls just for the fun of it. He vaguely noticed that Fazon flew into a hanger and the door closed behind him, probably going to sulk at his loss.

Poe landed back on the platform where he'd left BB-8 and leapt out of the fighter, leaving the engines idling, since he was very late to report in. His blood was thrumming and a grin split his face in the biggest expression of happiness he'd worn in like, ever.

His droid rolled up to him, beeping things about 'insane' and 'great flying' as Poe fell to his knees and all but hugged the rollie. "I know, right, buddy? Stars, I think I might have to change careers."

"There's a place for you here if you want," a man called out.

Poe looked up and stood, nearly saluting as he instantly recognized the posture of a high level officer. But the older man with grey at the temples wasn't dressed in a uniform that he recognized, so Poe just barely refrained. At the man's side was a very pretty brown haired woman carrying an adorable looking toddler with the same slanted eyes, but in a grey shade that curiously matched neither parents' brown. (Probably a recessive gene from a grandparent.) "Pardon?"

The man smiled under his full mustache. "Sorry. I couldn't help but overhear. I am Imanuel Doza, Captain of the Colossus, and I said there's a place here for you if you want it. I'm looking for skilled pilots to not only represent the Colossus in races all across the galaxy, but also those with fighting experience to help defend against pirates whenever you're home. I can offer you seventy thousand credits a year, plus I'll feed and house you and fund all of your racing costs. What do you say?"

Since that was nearly three times what the Navy paid him, Poe blinked a few times, looked down at BB-8 who gave his version of a shrug, and then looked back at Doza. "I say I'd have to be flat-out stupid to pass that up. You've got yourself a pilot."

Doza smiled widely. "Excellent. Welcome to the Colossus…"

Poe stuck his hand out, "Dameron, Poe Dameron."

The woman inhaled sharply. "Kes Dameron and Shara Bey's son?"

Poe eyed the woman somewhat suspiciously. "Yes."

Her face broke out in a huge grin. "I'm Venisa. Your mother and I flew together many times for the Rebellion. She was a good friend. It would be great to see her again."

Poodoo. "I'm sorry, Mom's gone."

Her expression sobered instantly and she touched his arm gently as her eyes shone with sympathy. "I'm sorry."

Poe shrugged self-consciously. "It was a long time ago." He wasn't up to explaining any further than that at the moment as the old pain of loss rushed through him.

"I see," she murmured. "Well, we'd love to give you a home here with us."

So, despite the fact that he'd always planned to settle on Lothal to be close to Ben when he was tired of the military life, Poe resigned from the Navy and moved to the Colossus. (Fazon hated his guts for it for months before he reluctantly decided that Poe wasn't so bad and they ended up as cheerful frenemies.)

Thanks to his friendship with her son and his excellent service record, Queen Organa once again pulled a few strings and made it so that Poe could keep his X-Wing and BB-8 as part of his severance package. He moved his old A-Wing to the Colossus and then flew home to Yavin 4 to tell his father in person the new path his life had taken. He found Kes Dameron happily married and expecting his first child with his new wife, which Poe congratulated them for as the fact that he was going to be a brother slowly sank in. He promised to visit often so that his new sibling wouldn't grow up not knowing him.

Before leaving Yavin, his father insisted that Poe take his grandfather's old Aethersprite with him, since it was just sitting in the hangar and rusting there on the tropical moon. Poe was happy to do so, figuring having a third racer couldn't hurt anything. And the Aethersprite was beautiful in its simplicity.

He had to do some tinkering with it to get it running again, though, since it had sat so long. But once it was up in the air, Poe remembered just how much he'd loved flying in his grandfather's lap in this very ship so many years ago.

BB-8 flew the X-Wing to their new home and Poe stayed in the Aethersprite, smiling at old memories that he'd nearly forgotten, and remembering how Ben had told him that their loved ones were never really gone, but lived on within the Force and thus themselves. Poe believed it as a few stray tears trickled down his cheeks.

Poe's new life as a racer took him all around the galaxy from the Core Worlds to the Outer Rim and everything in between. He won many races and quickly earned a reputation as the guy to beat. He even won the famed Dragon Void race twice in the five times he entered it over the next six years and placed second the other three times, an accomplishment that had only ever been bettered by the infamous and practically ancient Loo Re Anno. (She won the races he didn't.)

Poe soon had fangirls trying to catch his attention wherever he went, but after the first few temporary girlfriends, he realized that he didn't like the feeling of only being wanted because he was famous, so he started to avoid them as much as possible. Yavin 4 and the Colossus became his sanctuaries away from the screaming and swooning females, where he spent much of his downtime playing with his half-brother, Tylar, and his 'adopted' little sister, Torra Doza. Needless to say, Poe did his best to instill his love of flying into both of them.

Sometime during his twenty-second year, Poe met a girl on the Colossus who had just moved there with her family. They were simple fishermen and the ocean-bound fueling station was a perfect opportunity to make a good profit on their trade.

Her name was Zatara and she was beautiful. Athletic, blond and blue eyed, funny, and incredibly sweet, she was everything Poe thought he wanted in a lifemate. They hit it off instantly and spent hours just talking and cuddling. He was in absolute bliss for days until she saw the weekend races for the first time. Her panicked, "You do that?!" sent warning bells off in his head. And her bloodless face and trembling hands after he landed from winning the feature race of the day told him that she could never be the wife of a racer. Not when most of his races were decidedly more dangerous than the relatively tame ones found on Castilon.

Zatara realized it too, just shaking her head at him and saying, "I can't, Poe. I can't watch you do that. I'm so sorry."

As much as it hurt him to say it, Poe only hugged her and said, "I understand. But I can't change myself for you and you can't change yourself for me, so I hope you find someone who can make you happy and keeps his feet firmly planted on the ground."

She'd laughed through her tears, kissed him on the cheek, and walked away. Poe avoided her as much as possible after that. Fortunately, the Colossus was roughly the size of a small city and it wasn't that hard to do.

With an aching heart, Poe decided it was long past time that he visit Ben on Lothal again. He'd only seen his best friend a handful of times in person over the years. Except for once a couple years ago when he'd done a quick flyby of the grassy planet on his way to a race on Garel, and met Ben at the spaceport while he was refueling, it had always been when Ben was visiting his parents while Poe was still with the Navy.

Ben was ecstatic to see him, and Poe couldn't believe how much more the younger man had grown and filled out. He looked way up at the nineteen year old giant that topped him by a full head and laughed. "Geez, buddy. Are you sure Admiral Solo's your dad?" he teased.

Ben laughed and crushed him in a quick man-hug before letting go. "Mom swears it's so. And Dad vows upside and down that I look like his father, sooooo, I guess I'm pretty sure." He gestured towards his house in a row of them near a tall communications tower. "Come on in. Rey's excited to see you and so is M.J. and Uncle Luke. A bunch of the other kids have come over too, eager to see my imaginary best friend. And their parents, of course."

"Sure, bud, sure. Gotta prove I'm real," Poe laughed and followed his friend into a very nice house that was currently packed with people, BB-8 at his heels.

Poe tried not to be overwhelmed and keep faces and names straight in his mind, but he was sure he'd get something wrong sooner or later. There was one name and face he was sure he'd never forget, though.

One girl, vibrant and beautiful in a nearly jaw-dropping way had Poe doing a double take when he first saw her in the crowd. She was slim but very fit looking in Mandalorian armour that was painted black with yellow and blue highlights. Had golden amber eyes that dominated her elfin face. Midnight blue hair that shone with royal blue and yellow highlights and tumbled down her back in curls and waves from a high ponytail. And was definitely too young for him to be looking at with anything resembling desire.

Despite this, Poe whispered to Ben, "Who is that?"

Ben followed his line of sight and huffed a sigh that said he knew exactly what sort of conundrum Poe was going through right now. "That's Mira. She's the first true Mandalorian Jedi in a thousand years or something like that. You don't want to mess with her. And you definitely don't want to get on the bad side of her parents. Her mother will eviscerate you with a smile, and her father will crush your balls with his mind if you so much as glance at her wrong. At least, that's the rumour. And… she's only sixteen, so put your tongue back in your mouth and forget you ever saw her."

Poe blinked as a purple and orange haired woman in Mandalorian armour - who looked enough like Mira to be her older sister but was probably the aforementioned gut-removing mother - sent him a warning look that sent a shiver down his spine. Poe politely nodded subtly and rested his gaze on the much safer territory of BB-8's round dome. "Copy that."

Poe did his best to not look at the girl for the rest of the gathering, and to not look for her during the week he was on Lothal. And then he lied to himself and pretended that he forgot all about her for the next two years, but she showed up in his dreams and every female he encountered after that was automatically compared to her and found wanting.

After one particularly vivid dream that had Mira doing delectable things to his body that left him aching and sweating when he woke suddenly, Poe had to admit to himself that he might actually be in love with a girl he'd never said more than 'hello' to. He also came to the conclusion that he might have to brave the wrath of her parents to meet her again and see if the attraction had any hope of being mutual, or live with the very real possibility that he might go insane from the dreams that seemed to intensify with every week that went by.

His only consolation with his suicidal plan was that she had to be at least eighteen and legal by now.

A/N: I've come up with a new way to determine what order my stories get updated in starting Jan, 2021! Check out my bio/profile page or the pinned post on my Facebook page (TheLoneRebel's Stories) for details!