[Kaydel]
Kaydel watched as CL-0745 woke up and touched something at the top of her vambrace. It was the only piece of armor she had worn to sleep. Kaydel knew there were electronics built into stormtrooper armor, or which could be built into it. The suits looked the same, but they weren't. CL-0745 obviously had some sort of alarm in hers which woke her at whatever proscribed time she was supposed to rise.
The first sergeant sat up and looked around the room. Assuming the watch schedule had been kept to, then one of the FN troopers and Chewbacca were standing guard in the forward compartment. Finn and Rose had never left the rear one. Everyone else was spread out asleep. Kaydel was sitting on her mat combing out her hair. "Don't wake them," she asked.
The first sergeant's eyes had settled on where Poe and Hux were. Poe was rather boldly and flagrantly spooning General Hux, with an arm around Hux's waist and a leg partly between his. He wasn't tall enough for it, but that certainly wasn't keeping him from it. Kaydel supposed he was as determined and persistent in matters of love as he was in those of war, but she had yet to understand his choice of target (or to go after someone right now, in the middle of a mission).
"Them?" the first sergeant asked, obviously meaning Poe and Hux.
"They had a really long day," Kaydel said. "And they stood the second watch."
"They stood watch again?"
Kaydel smiled tightly. It seemed unlikely they were getting it on, but she really couldn't think of why else they kept waking up together to demand unscheduled guard sessions in the forward compartment. 'We just couldn't sleep' did not make sense given how exhausted both men must be. Which also argued against them getting frisky, but … she really had no explanation.
The first sergeant crossed her legs and shook her head, showing that she might actually follow Kaydel's suggestion. She didn't wake anyone up. She pulled over her helmet and fiddled with the settings inside it. Kaydel picked up her comb again and was about to go back to her hair when CL-0745 said, "What … what is … what they are doing, to you?"
"What?" The question was so disjointed she couldn't make sense of it.
CL-0745 swallowed and scooted forward a few inches, putting aside the helmet. In the black body glove of under armor, the dim lighting, and the black interior of the First Order shuttle, she almost disappeared. Only her eyes, teeth, and the highlights of her features were visible. "Commander Dameron. What he's doing with the general. You … people, the Resistance. You decide things together. You talk. You … do things. In the Order, I would never question who an officer slept with." She chuckled ruefully. "But you?"
Well. That clarified a few things – one among them was that the first sergeant had the exact same take on the situation that Kaydel did. Kaydel had wondered why there was no visible backlash to Hux for him accepting Poe's advances. It was because there was literally no one to call him on it and his subordinates weren't about to. But CL-0745 had figured out that wasn't how the Resistance operated.
Kaydel said, "I … think Poe is … a good man and he … will treat General Hux well." She said it slowly, finding that it sounded very strange to be endorsing Poe's love life to some stormtrooper. Poe owed her for this. Big time.
"No. That's not what I'm asking. Is it … treason? Will he be punished when your general finds out? Or will no one tell her?"
Kaydel shook her head. "No. That's not it. We won't- I mean, yes, we'll tell General Organa if it comes up but it's not treason unless he does something against the Resistance."
"This?" CL-0745 gestured at the two, still entwined in slumber. "This is not?"
"No. Is it to you?"
"No. But as I said, it is above my rank."
Kaydel nodded. "Well, that's good, because they're doing it anyway. Whatever 'it' is." She drew the comb through her hair.
CL-0745 watched for several strokes of the comb. Kaydel assumed she was lost in thought about the peccadillos of her superior officer until she asked, "How long … How long did it take you to grow that?"
"My hair?"
"Yes."
"Um … most of my life. I've had some trims from time to time and my mother told me I had my little brother cut it once when I was small." CL-0745 leaned forward, peering at her. Kaydel asked cautiously, "Would you … like to look at it?"
"Lights up ten percent." They dutifully brightened. "May I?"
"Yes." CL-0745 came over to Kaydel's mat, the one she'd maintained possession of by virtue of hiding it in the cargo hold. The first sergeant was looking at her hair like it was a wondrous thing. Kaydel handed her the comb. "Use this." She turned away, presenting the back of her head.
Slowly, tentatively, CL-0745 moved the comb into Kaydel's hair and clumsily pulled down on it. "Like this?"
"Yes. Just be gentle." After a few strokes, Kaydel asked, "What about your hair? How often do you cut it?"
"Droids cut it. Every week for troopers. Officers can have longer hair, within regulation." Kaydel heard her swallow. "I was promoted, mostly, a few weeks ago. Right after the Battle of Crait." CL-0745 breathed out heavily. "I am to be a lieutenant – an officer – as soon as I finish training FL-2216 to take over as section commander. If that will ever come to pass." Her voice got softer, quieter. "I already have a name picked out."
Kaydel sighed, finding herself feeling for the plight of a stormtrooper worried about her promotion when the entire ship of tens of thousands of people had likely been wiped out. "What was the name?"
"Lady."
"Lady?" Kaydel asked dubiously.
"Yes. It is a name for a woman of influence or power. Lady Carise Sindian was a famous hero from Arkanis, the same planet our general was born on. I would name myself after her."
Interesting – Hux's home world was common knowledge. How much else of his background was? Also interesting – Kaydel had never heard or imagined the disgraced Lady Carise Sindian, who'd betrayed Leia Organa and likely sold out the New Republic to the First Order, characterized as a 'hero'. But from CL-0745's point of view, she supposed that was how it was.
"What would you do as a lieutenant?"
"I might be in charge of internal security for an entire deck."
"Internal?"
"Yes. We never saw active combat deployment. That's not our duty."
CL-0745 was still brushing her hair and touching it gently with her other hand. Kaydel reached back and took a section. "Now I braid it. Want to watch?"
"Yes."
She sectioned it, twisted it, then folded and looped the sections around one another, collecting a couple pins that secured it at the end. "There. All done." CL-0745 made no response that Kaydel could see. She looked back to see she was brushing at where the furry tip of a bunch of hair stuck out just a little from the end. It wasn't a big thing. Had Kaydel used a mirror, she wouldn't have had even that much out of place. "Are you going to grow out your hair?"
"Yes. I don't think it will be like yours. Mine is not fine and straight, but curled. My hair is like that of Grand Admiral Sloane."
She'd heard of Rae Sloane – another Imperial villain, New Republic enemy, and if CL-0745's tone was any indicator, hero of the First Order. "I'm sure it will be beautiful."
"It may be, someday. But yours … yours is beautiful now." CL-0745's eyes lingered over Kaydel's face and the crown of braids she had put her hair into. Her gaze was intense, just like everything else about her.
That look and their proximity sparked something inside Kaydel. "Thank you," she said haltingly.
CL-0745 nodded and returned to sit next to her helmet. She began putting on her armor for the day.
Kaydel gave her a long look, trying to process what had just happened. That … that had been unexpected. It cast CL-0745's questions about Hux and Poe in an entirely different light.