(Before Kylo Ren) (Ben is seven)
"Here."
His fourth Life Day without his parents, Poe was willing to forget the festivities and try "the good stuff" that Ech'ban had smuggled from Captain Antilles' quarters. He had found his own dark corner, far away from the cheerful glitter of red and gold, and had just chipped the lid off with his teeth when a lanky-haired shadow blocked the entrance.
"I made it," Ben said shortly, flapping a package in Poe's direction. "Take it."
"Uh..." He was crouched against the wall, clearly wanting alone time, and the Solo kid was suddenly gregarious enough to offer him a present?
"What's it for?" Poe asked uncertainly. His mother-trained-conscience twinged. That was rude.
"I mean..." Sighing, he reached over as far as he could without shuffling from his position and scraped the package into his hand. "Thanks."
Ben tucked his hands behind his back and shifted his feet.
"Do you... want me to open it now?" Poe asked dubiously.
"It's your present," Ben snapped. "Why do I care?"
Touchy. Twisting his mouth to the side, Poe casually spun on his rear until he was facing the shadow. The bottle rolled closer to the wall, momentarily forgotten. "Okay. Here goes."
Turning the blob of shredded paper and knotted string, he tried to find the 'starting point'. Ben made an exasperated sound.
"Would you just open it!"
"I'm on it," Poe placated as he flipped his knife out. The old blade with its knicked handle always came in handy. Slicing through the strings, he ruffled aside paper fragments and finally unwound a plastic model.
"An Imperial Shuttle?" he said in surprise.
Ben scowled. "They didn't have any X-wings."
"Life Day rush," Poe acknowledged. He waved the model experimentally and forced a smile. "Thanks. You put this together?"
"Father helped," Ben mumbled shyly. He fingered the edges of the closet doorway and waited.
"It's nice," Poe said, wondering what it would take for the kid to be satisfied. Didn't he have more interesting thing to do than to bother a gloomy cadet? There must be presents abounding for the son of two war generals.
Still Ben waited.
"Are your... friends waiting for you?" Poe tried again.
Ben shrugged.
"Okay..." Poe set the model beside him. He gathered the shreds of paper, attempting to "neaten his nest", and finally tossed them in front of his boots. No sense cleaning up the mess when the heater fan would just blow it into a flurry again.
"You're supposed to give me a present," Ben said blatantly.
Poe blinked. "Beg pardon?" He hadn't actually planned something for the kid. It wasn't like he knew the Solos all that well.
"I gave you a gift," Ben stated. "You're supposed to return one."
Oh, yeah. Life Day customs. Poe wondered if he had remembered anyone this year. He probably had a small stack of unopened packages in his room to make up for.
"Present..." Searching his pockets, Poe counted the random treasures of the day. A swirly black marble, two screws he'd pocketed after dropping the repair kit, half a squashed jelly pastry, a cut wire, a discarded metal circle that he imagined would work well in a droid, a small hydrospanner, ignominious pieces of lint, and a handful of sticky candy wrappers.
"Here," Poe offered, cupping the marble and hydrospanner into Ben's hand. "Happy Life Day."
Ben grinned. Suddenly the dingy closet felt oppressive, and Poe wanted out.
"Kay. Party," he grunted, rising from his crouch and shooing Ben away from the entrance. "Does your mom know you're here?"
"She said to get you," Ben said brightly. Inspecting Poe's stance, he shoved his hands in his pockets and stooped his shoulders.
Kriff, I'm becoming a role model, Poe thought as he instinctively straightened. The action was mimicked in turn.
"Great. One of these days I won't even be able to cuss properly," Poe muttered, following the child to the great room filled with lights.
"So what does it mean when you say..." Ben spat out a word and Poe clapped a hand over his eyes.
"Daft - just say daft. It means someone's really stupid."
Ben perked up. "Father never says it like that." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "It's a good word."
"Party. Now." Herding Ben towards the celebration, Poe resolved to watch his tongue from thereon.
He had the uneasy feeling that he was going to become permanently involved in Solo matters.
(Aftermath)
When Kylo Ren contacted again, Poe wasn't ready.
He saw food fights and entranced brown eyes as a starship mobile bobbed overhead. He saw Leia tutting fondly as two boys bickered over who had the better crayon. (Poe had chosen yellow. Ben insisted that green paired perfectly with silver.) He saw loneliness as a child watched his parents fly away, wondering if they would ever return.
He saw everything but the killer's mask.
When Kylo Ren tossed his helmet aside, Poe could only see Ben.
"Is Mother with you?" Kylo Ren asked tersely. His voice was quieter than normal.
Leia answered for Poe, gripping his shoulder. Courage, Dameron. "I'm here."
"You're not supposed to be." Kylo Ren's eyes flickered agitatedly. "I wish to speak to Dameron alone."
"We've had this conversation before," Leia chided. "I'm not going anywhere." Her eyes softened and she urged so softly that Poe could barely hear, "Come home, Benny."
Frustration and hopelessness flickered intensely before Kylo Ren averted his eyes. "You know I cannot."
"Why?" Leia prodded.
Anguish stole the dark one's breath. "Father…."
Faltering, Leia stepped back, shut her eyes, and then forced herself to respond without malice. "Your father believed in you. You're our son."
"I am nothing like the boy you knew." Wavering, Kylo Ren looked to Poe. "Ask him. He will prove it to you. You know what I did to his mind."
"Are we counting the Y-wing incident?" Poe quipped, if only to reverse the insecurity in Leia's eyes. "That was kind of your fault. And the time after that." He assumed he had hit his head again – something in the X-wing crash had triggered a memory.
Kylo Ren drew back, his face unreadable. "You could not remember," he said at length. "I incinerated your connections. Ben Solo no longer exists."
"That's where I got the scar, right?" Poe continued, indicating the white line in his hairline. "You really can't stand BB units."
"You do remember…." Kylo Ren murmured. He fumbled, looking more awkward and un-Sith-like than his first communication. "Then… you forgive me?"
Flummoxed, Poe leaned away from the console. Childish expectation adjoined the Dark Jedi to the trash compactor monster, and for a moment he saw Ben's cheeky eyes peeking out from behind a white mask. "I don't….."
He didn't forgive Kylo Ren. The sword of the First Order was unworthy of kindness. Passion flared white-hot in his chest and he wanted to sneer at the hologram and walk out of the room. For good.
"Poe…." Kylo Ren whispered.
"Poe? Wait, I didn't mean it! Poe, come back here! Poe!"
"I don't…." Squeezing his eyes shut, Poe forced down the memory. Counting to eight hundred while Ben slept in his lap. Waiting for the Falcon….
"I expected no less," Kylo Ren said with finality. He fingered his helmet and shook his hair back, raising the mask with heavy hands. "You win, Dameron. You were always better."
"Wait."
Kylo Ren hesitated.
Pressing his fist against the console, Poe recited the words like a mantra in his head, until they flowed out willingly. His last sacrifice of hope.
"Where would I meet you?"
"You would…?" Kylo Ren stammered silently for a moment. "You would see me in person?"
Uneasily Poe nodded.
"You trust me?" Kylo Ren's voice faltered.
That thin break of tone decided Poe's future. "You still know how to fly a B-wing?" he murmured.
"Poe, you know I can't fly," Kylo Ren spat. Understanding replaced venom and his lips parted in the ghost of a smile. "You do know that."
"Dantooine," Poe said curtly. "Forty-eight hours."
Releasing a shaky breath, Kylo Ren lowered his helmet. "You'll come alone?"
"I'm not dying for the First Order," Poe drawled. "Of course I'm bringing some friends. You don't shoot, we don't shoot. We all get along."
Kylo Ren scowled. "Hux's stormtroopers will not accompany me."
"Then we have no reason to quarrel." Poe shrugged. "Forty-eight hours – and don't bring the lasersword."
Mouth curling in a grimacing, lopsided smile, Kylo Ren tossed his helmet aside. "I won't need it."
There was no sleep that night for the general or her pilot. Doubt assuaged every thought. The only constant was Leia's proclamation.
"I felt the light embrace him." Leia spoke confidently, even while she charted battle plans with Captain Antilles. "He will return to us."
Fiddling with the broken wing of a model X-wing, Poe remained silent. He wished he could share her rhapsody.
.
.
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hellraiserphoenix gave the prompt for a "Christmas/birthday present"
That just about fills in my prompt space for the next series of chapters (all slots now taken), but I will keep taking ideas in case I write "deleted scenes".
Thank you to SilverclawRose, Fangirl4life2001, CrazedFangirl13, Brievel, Queenie23, JunJunyil, hellraiserphoenix, feelthatfire, Live4dancing, Relica Velocity aka X5 714, time2read, Miss Corrine, and guests Lunar Loon, Guest, and Percabeth14 for reviewing!
(In answer to guest Lunar Loon's questions: How did Kylo Ren come up with his Sith name? I have no clue. There's probably a book on that somewhere, or there will be in the future.) ;)