(Before Kylo Ren) (Ben is 9)
Kids younger than twenty shouldn't have lightsabers, Poe determined early on. Blasters, vibroblades, and sharp objects should also be prohibited in special cases. Ben was a special case.
Early morning wakeup calls were an occupational hazard in the academy. The upper ranks picked on the cadets, dragging them out at odd hours for the stupidest errands. General Solo seemed to think that sleep deprivation was "good training". Poe had been given night shift and morning duties just to be sure he could do his job with his eyes half-shut. And if things seemed too relaxed, a friend was always willing to wake a comfortable snoozer with a bucket of squirmy tadpoles.
This time, Poe's morning alarm was the panicked screeching of a nine-year-old.
"Dameron, get your kid out of here!" his bunkmate moaned, turning over to kick the wall.
"It all came off! Why do I do? Mother is going to be furious!" Desperately Ben shook Poe's shoulder until the cadet rolled upright.
"Wha – what happened?" Poe mumbled. "R'you hurt?"
"It came off!" Horrified, Ben held up a hank of black threads.
"You cut off your hair?" Poe blinked to focus and rubbed his eyes, checking to be sure. Tching in pity, he looked up at Ben and winced. "Ow."
"Don't say that! Just tell me how to fix it!" Ben prodded the chunk against his uneven bangs, attempting to tie the strands together.
"Ben, it's cut," Poe said sympathetically. "Severed. Not going back." Peering closer, he brushed the crisped ends close to Ben's scalp. "Did you burn yourself during training?"
"It wasn't my fault!" Ben exclaimed. "Chewie wouldn't give me my lightsaber back, so I tried Uncle Luke's."
"You 'acquired it without permission'," Poe guessed.
"That's not the point! Just help me!" Ben brandished the hair expectantly.
"Can you please work your miracles outside?" the upper bunkmate pleaded. Poe rapped on the bunk in retaliation. Like I'm getting any sleep here.
"Okay." He sighed, standing and motioning for Ben to follow him to the 'fresher. "I can minimize the damage, but you're telling your mom what happened."
"I can't tell her!" Ben gasped. "She'll kill me!"
"She's a general – she's not allowed to murder her subordinates. Sit down."
Biting his lip, Ben perched on the edge of the sanisteam. He fiddled with Luke's lightsaber until Poe nudged his hand aside, wary of spontaneously activating lasers.
"Hold still," Poe cautioned. He crouched beside Ben and carefully aligned the burnt hair on his scalp.
"What are you doing?" Ben said in alarm.
"Just trimming," Poe murmured. "Don't move, okay?"
"That's a laser cutter!" Ben protested.
"I don't have scissors. Do you want your mom to see this or not?"
"If you kill me, I'll Force-haunt you and make you crash," Ben snarled.
"I promise you won't die – it won't even scar." He'd be haunted enough if Leia ever learned about this. Fine-point laser cutters weren't exactly intended for manicures. "Hold stil…. Just a sec… Done."
Shuddering, Ben raised a hand to his head and felt the spiky line. "You destroyed it!"
"I trimmed it," Poe corrected. "It's even now. You can tell your parents you wanted to try a new hairstyle. Trust me, you'll be in less trouble than if they learned what you were really doing. Now put that back." He pointed to Luke's lightsaber and clarified, "No one saw the accident, right?"
Stunned, Ben shook his head.
"Good." Yawning, Poe nudged the kid towards the door. "I'm going back to bed. Next time your lightsaber is confiscated, go bully Captain Antilles about blaster lessons."
"Only soldiers use blasters." Ben gagged.
"You're a divine inspirer," Poe said tartly. "I'll remember that at the shooting range."
"Not you, Poe," Ben hurriedly corrected. "You're supposed to use a blaster. You're a pilot."
"Not going to dissect kid logic right now," Poe stated. "Shoo. I'm tired."
"But you're always tired!" Dragging his feet, Ben trudged out of the room. Before he cleared the hall he was racing for Master Skywalker's room.
"Kids," Poe mumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. "If I was ever this bratty to my mom, the Force has a dratted sense of irony."
"Go to sleep, Dameron!" the bunkmate yowled.
(Aftermath)
Rey was the only one who could possibly relate, and even she couldn't understand him.
"Why would you want him back?"
Poe stretched back in his chair and crossed his ankles under the table. The kid used to complain that I slept too much – or was that snoring? Did I yawn too loudly? Whatever the case, Ben would have had something to say about Rey's insatiable appetite. She was always snacking on something – jelly, juicy, salty, crunchy, sweet, crumbly, tart, sloppy, doughy, leathery – it was as though she was making up for Jakku by scarfing down anything remotely palatable. Some of the combinations had sent her to the 'fresher retching (blue milk and salted pickles was ill-fated for the digestive system), and Poe felt queasy just imagining the taste.
"It's … complicated," Poe stated, nudging a bowl of canron towards the mound of emptying sample dishes. Rey nodded curtly and grabbed it, cramming spoonfuls into her mouth. Huh. No wonder Kylo likes her.
"It doesn't make sense," Rey said when he failed to explain further. "He means to corrupt the galaxy. He murdered his own father."
"Don't remind me," Poe snapped.
Rey swallowed slowly. "You know I miss him, too," she said awkwardly. "That's why I can't understand this. Why would you want to save him?"
Scratching his chin, Poe tilted back in his chair. "I… knew him as a kid." Sort of.
"So did I," Rey blurted. When Poe shot her a look she admitted, "I think I saw him once, when I was a child. He was still taller than me. I hated it."
Dumfounded, Poe laughed. "Well, at least I'm not the only one struggling with memory loss."
Rey's full spoon clanged into the bowl. "You still haven't told me what happened."
"There's nothing to say." He was defensive, and he didn't know why. There was no reason to uphold Kylo Ren.
"Don't hide behind your hero façade," Rey accused.
Raising both eyebrows, Poe posed, "Did Ech'ban tell you that?"
"Jessika Pava," Rey said. "She says you're a heinous communicator."
"I divulge any information that is required for the mission," Poe corrected.
"About yourself as well?" Rey countered.
"Only if it's need-to-know." Kylo Ren did not qualify as 'mission interference'. (Except for when he contacted Jessika and ordered her to 'initiate the first move'… And the time he transmitted a scandalous hologram to Snap's droid with footage of … Shuddering, Poe shook the image out of his mind.)
Raising her hand, Rey hesitated before laying it over Poe's. She was still practicing 'touch communication'. Poe didn't have the heart to tell her that in public, this gesture was a little too deep for 'just pals'.
"You think you're stronger if no one knows," Rey said, "But you're not." She was simple like that. No extraordinary, life-altering phrases from the Jakku scavenger. "You should speak to someone, Poe. You can't be alone forever."
Sighing, Poe patted her hand in acknowledgment of the gesture, earning a tiny smile before Rey tucked her hands around her bowl again. "Noted," he said casually. "I have a friend I can unload all of my troubles to. I'll talk with him tonight." BB-8 was a good listener.
Proud that her advice had been so profound, Rey nabbed another creamy dish and stuffed her face. Poe returned to the safe topic of the modifications to his X-wing, which Rey commented on gregariously. Finn must get so lost during these conversations, Poe imagined as Rey intensely dealt out why the hyperdrive of the Millennium Falcon persistently malfunctioned. Come to think of it, Ben hated machinery, too.
Kylo Ren was way out of his league with this girl.
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BAD WOLF 1221 suggested the "cut hair" scene for this chapter, and JunJunyil was hoping for a scene with Poe and Rey.
Thank you to Elleth of Mossflower, Pricklefritz, BAD WOLF1221, FreelyBeYourself, CrazedFangirl13, SilverclawRose, Pinky-chan2, hannahinthesky44, JDantes15, Lazerkat, time2read, Brievel, nerdyninjaunicorn, Queenie23, hellraiserphoenix, Replica Velocity aka X5 714, Miss Corrine, and JunJunyil for reviewing!