4/12/2

It's not late. By Kylo's clock it's twenty minutes past the usual end of dinnertime.

And it's not the first time he's had dinner alone in recent memory. There are nights the pile of crap in his inbox is so high, and so frustrating, that he works through. There are nights where he eats with company, but not Rey, because he's working with his Generals.

But…

"Grand Marshal Frakes, Master."

He looks up, surprised. He and Jon don't have an appointment.

Jon follows C8 in. He's in his casual relaxing clothing. "Come on. Get up, get changed, we're going out."

Kylo blinks.

"No one in the universe is better off with you sitting around here moping. So, up you get, and out we go."

"Uh…"

"Poe's meeting us up on the F-Deck. Have you heard of the term, 'Boys' night out?'"

"Never."

"Well, get dressed, you're having one."

So, Kylo gets up and goes off in search of his 'out with the boys' clothing.

"So, this boys' night out thing. It seems to involve a lot of standing around in elevators," Kylo says as he pulls on his sweater.

Jon rolls his eyes. "Yeah, if only one of us had an apartment on the F-Deck, and knew of a nice, quiet bar that makes good drinks and snacks a few hundred meters away, and the other one could magically get us there in a tenth of a second."

Kylo, head through the neck, most of his hair still in the sweater, looks at Jon and says, "Right. I'm…"

"Moping. It's one night, Kylo. She's not moving to New Alderaan, never to be seen again."

"Yeah, I know… I…"

"Can talk to her with your brain, too."

"She's sleeping."

Jon rolls his eyes. "You are being a big baby about this."

"Probably true. I just…"

Jon squeezes his hand. "Miss her and your nightly habits, yeah, I know."

They're in Jon's apartment a moment later. He looks up at Kylo. "You doing the do-not-recognize thing?"

He shakes his head.

"Well, here's your chance. Poe doesn't know you're coming with me, so, you're going to Creither's. Get to the market section, make a left, hug the wall, and it'll be the third shop. Doesn't look like much, but I've warmed a seat there enough that one of them has a permanent cast of my bum. Poe's waiting. I'll come a bit behind you. Let's find out how the spell works."

Kylo admits that's of interest to him. He pulls up the spell, and heads out, aware of Jon a few moments behind him.

It's very much a small bar. Not that Kylo's had much to do with bars, small or otherwise, in the past, but this fits his mental image of one. There is, of course, a bar, on the right side of the room, and a collection of tables on the left. It smells… clean. And there aren't a lot of people in here.

He's honestly only been in a bar a few times, and most of them were not for fun, so being hit in the face with the scent of bar wax, floor polish, and the tang of some sort of juice and alcohol is a surprise.

He sees Poe. He's at one of the tables toward the back, obviously waiting. There's a heartbeat where he looks a bit pleased to see him enter, and then his hopes are dashed. Apparently, he may indeed be blonde, because he knows that's what Poe focused in on, first, and then noticed the rest of the person really wasn't who he was looking for.

Kylo heads straight back to Poe's table and slips into the seat across from him.

Poe looks mildly surprised. "Look, it's not that I mind the direct approach, and on a different evening I'd at least share a drink and shoot the shit a bit, but tonight, that seat's taken."

Obviously, the spell works with his face. He tries his voice. "Doesn't look like it."

Poe sighs, and then perks up because the real Jon is entering the bar, smiling at him, and heading to the counter to get them drinks. He nods to the bar. "See the blonde. Not only is he coming here next, he also outranks you by a light year. So, out you get, and let me have a nice drink with my boy, okay?"

Kylo's very amused by that. Not just the pride in Poe's voice at 'outranks you by a light year' but the warm, possessive flare of 'my boy.' He just smiles at Poe.

"Seriously, Tall, Blonde, and Can't Take A Hint, get the fuck up. You're in the wrong place."

Kylo smirks, and glances over at Jon, then back to Poe. "I don't think so, your boy invited me. Though now I'm wondering if I should bow out because I think I'm crashing your date."

Poe's mouth drops. "Kylo?"

He smiles. "What do I look like?"

"What do you mean what do you look like? Wait… How? Shit, this is a Force trick, isn't it?"

Kylo nods.

Poe looks at him a lot more closely. "Oh… That's… weird. It's… Almost dissolving, I can see through it now. Huh. Uh… Well, actually, you do look like you. The face isn't all that different. You're holding it differently though. Not one of your usual expressions, and that changes things a lot. No scar though, and big spectacles. It's the hair. It's… uh… short and the most wrong blonde color you could possibly put on your face. It looks like you bleached it yourself to an orange color, and then laid some blonde dye over it. It's just really wrong."

Kylo rolls his eyes. "Lovely."

"And you're wearing an orange jumper and a dark green kilt. Really?"

"No, not really. I'm in my usual black."

"Kilt?"

"Okay, technically, it's black and gray."

Poe blinks for a second, decides there are deep, unplumbed depths in the psyche that makes up Kylo Ren, and then says, "Good, I was about to think the galaxy was going to explode. The idea that you'd intentionally purchase, and then put on your body, something orange is shattering."

"Even as a disguise?"

"Even as a disguise." Poe takes a moment and thinks and says, "Right. Alderaan. That's why Rey's not with you."

Kylo nods. "I've been told we're having a 'boys' night out.'"

"You say that like it's some sort of exotic species you've never contemplated before."

"That pretty much wraps it up."

Poe sighs. And then looks behind Kylo and smiles brilliantly. And then budges over a bit, making it clear which side of the table Jon's supposed to be sitting on.

Jon does slide into the booth next to Poe, and lays three drinks on the table. His is something perfectly clear in a small tumbler. Kylo and Poe have pink concoctions in tall glasses with fruit sticking out of them.

"I got both of you the floofiest thing Zurie knew how to make." He takes a sip of his own drink. "Bottoms up."

Poe sniggers, and takes a sip, and Kylo just looks at his, attempting to figure out how to drink it with all of the… stuff… sticking out of it. He's about to ask, "Do we eat the fruit," when another thought occurs to him. "How can a drink be floofy?"

"Just means it's got lots of juice, or mixers, and you can't really taste the alcohol," Jon says.

"It means you've still got some taste buds left, and don't feel the need to show off how much shaft you've got by drinking straight paint thinner," Poe replies, nudging Jon's drink.

Kylo stares at the two of them, and then his drink, and back to them. "Why is that floofy?"

Poe shrugs. "It wasn't in the world we grew up in. On Yavin you'd drink whatever the hell it was you liked. Dad's favorite was a citronen juice with vodka and some ginger fizz. Really tasty. No one was ever going to question how narrow for women he was. Granted, no one also would have cared." He nudges Jon, "But where he grew up…"

Jon sips his tequiya blanco. "Ladies and floofs liked pink drinks. Men drank clear or brown ones."

Kylo looks at his very pink drink. With some sort of chunk of pink fruit. It smells good. He removes the garnishes, and lays them on the table, and then takes a sip. It's good. Sweet and a little sour and if there's alcohol in it, he can't taste it, though he can sort of feel it as it slips down his throat.

"So… why are you still drinking a clear one, and if you prefer things that taste good, why are you going through the brandy at my house straight?"

Jon lifts his glass and takes another sip. "First of all, I actually like vodka. Like most other things, if you put the work in to learn about it, and really taste it, you can appreciate and enjoy the nuances. That said, tonight this is tequiya blanco, which goes really well with the food."

Poe doesn't really believe that, but he doesn't challenge it. He does say, "I'm not about to barge into your house, rifle thought your stuff, and mix my own drinks. You have straight booze, and it's not like I'm unfamiliar with how it works, so that's fine. You'll note, when I'm pouring at home, I'll mix it."

Kylo thinks about the doctored coffee. "Oh. I thought you just didn't want us to notice we were drinking." He takes another sip of his drink. "Something like this would have worked better."

"Yeah, well, I didn't have a liter of watermelon juice at home, and I was trying to sneak the booze into you and Finn because I knew you wouldn't drink otherwise, and if I'd put something that looked like this on the table, he would have known what it was in a heartbeat."

Kylo acknowledges that with a tilt of his head, and then says, "And Jacen would have asked for two or wet his pants from laughing at it."

Poe nods. "Likely, the former, but I don't have too good a feel of where he's from, yet. He tries not to talk about it too much."

Jon looks from the one to the other, and then back to Poe, "Why are you getting them stealth drunk."

"We were sitting the boys down for the chat, and he and Finn are already tense with each other, and add in what we're talking about, and how neither of them were exactly eager to expound upon the glories and mysteries of adult male life, I figured that lubing their brains a bit would help.

"But, like I said, tense, with each other, and neither of them would have taken a sip in the presence of the other if given the chance to say no, so… Coffee, rum, the facts of life. It worked."

Jon looks supremely amused at that, but before he can say anything, the server comes over with a plate covered in small crispy crackers, and three bowls of some sort of dip. "Thanks, Zurie."

"No problems, Jon. Keep the drinks coming?"

He nods, and points to him and Poe. "For us, yes." He nods to Kylo. "For that one, his next round is ginger fizz."

Kylo raises a brow at him as Zurie smiles at the three of them and heads off.

"You're going to take it easy and pace yourself. This is an area where Poe and I have experience that you don't. So, ginger fizz is tasty, non-alcoholic, and won't leave you wishing you were dead in the morning. Later tonight, you want more alcohol, fine, but I'm not drinking you under the table on the second round."

Kylo nods at that. "Thanks. What are these?"

Jon just blinks, and then slowly says, "Chips?"

"Yeah," Kylo replies.

Jon rubs his forehead, and shares a look with Poe, one that immediately translates into, mentally slapping the shit out of everyone involved in raising you. "They're disks of ground maize, water, fat, and salt, rolled out thin, and fried up crispy. You use them to transport" he takes a chip, and dips it into a red sauce, "the salads into your mouth," and demonstrates.

Kylo's looking at the bowls with the "salads." They're a lot wetter and drippier than anything he'd call a salad. He'd likely have classified them as soups.

Poe grabs a chip and likewise has some. "Red one is sort of sweet and garlicky, the green one is thick and creamy with a little heat, the yellow one is a fucking bastard, that first taste is fruity and sweet, then the heat kicks in and peels the skin off the roof of your mouth." Then he grabs another one and gets some of the yellow salad. He winces as he bites, and chases it with the drink, but looks pleased as he says, "I'm going to regret the fuck out of this in a few hours, but… Oh… It's good!"

Kylo follows along in his head. It's not as easy as with Rey. He can't just effortlessly pull the flavors out of Poe, but he does feel the searing hit of pain that goes with the sauce, and decides to yank his senses right back out of Poe's head.

"Why did you do that to yourself?"

Poe shrugs. "If you're wired for it, it feels good."

"And in a few hours?" Kylo asks.

"It's really not. I'm going to be slorping down antacids like there's no tomorrow and cursing the universe that I'm not twenty anymore, when I could do shit like this and not wish I hadn't, but now," he takes a good swallow of his drink. "Now, is good."

Kylo peeks again, and does get the sense of a shot of rush that goes with the burn. Poe's kind of floating on top of the pain. It hurts, he knows it hurts, but it hurts good.

Jon also has a bite of the yellow salad. "Not everyone is. Lane hated stuff like this. My guess is it's not your idea of a good time, either."

Kylo eyes it, and settles a little closer in on how Jon and Poe are feeling…

Poe can see him contemplating it. "Try the green first. If you like how that feels, go to yellow."

Kylo eats a chip by itself first, getting a taste of what's going on. He can see why people like them, and he's likely to bring Rey here at some future point to try them. "Rey's not big on hot things." He puts some of the green on his chip. "So far, it doesn't bother me." He tries a bite and… Okay, salty, crunchy, the green salad is a bit squishier than he prefers his textures, but it's not terrible, likely because of the crunchy chip under it, and the flavor is… sort of… green, and creamy, little sour, there's some citronen in this, and some salt, that herb Rey doesn't like because it tastes like soap to her, and as he swallows the heat sort of blooms in his mouth. "This is good. I guess, I'm easier with flavors, and she's easier with textures," he glances at Jon, "and cooked levels. I… uh… don't do rare or raw meat."

Jon blinks. He knows Kylo's telling him something. Then blinks again. "Fish! You don't do raw fish."

"Yeah, the texture just… It tastes fine, but… We lucked out and Kiro was willing to cook mine, because otherwise I'd have been in the refresher puking. Cold, squishy things… meat, especially meat, just… gets to me."

"Oh shit!"

"Yeah."

Poe's looking between them.

Jon shrugs and looks a bit embarrassed. "I didn't know, and I sent them to a jarquterie for a nice dinner out."

Poe laughs so hard he coughs. "Oh no."

Kylo puts a chip into the yellow sauce, just a tiny little dab of it. He knows it's going to hurt. He doesn't know if it's going to feel good after. And Poe's absolutely right, the first few seconds are just pleasant fruity and sweet on the salty chip, and then his entire head is on fire, and he is choking, and he does not like this at all and…

Poe's handing him more chips. "Just eat the plain ones, and take a drink of… shit…"

"Zurie, could we get some water?" Jon asks.

She sees Kylo dying, and smirks, "Sure, Jon."

A moment later she's got a small pitcher of water and cups for their table. "Newbie?"

Jon nods. "Yeah. Never had salsa before."

"Oh my," she looks at the tray. "Oh, good, you've got the mild."

Kylo's gulping down the water. When he's finally able to talk again, his eyes feel red and swollen, and his nose is runny, and his mouth is never, ever going to forgive him. He feels like he intentionally attempted to fellate his lit lightsaber. "I don't like that."

Jon and Poe nod. "Yeah, you don't look like that's a good time for you," Jon says.

Zurie comes over with another plate. "These may be more your speed."

Kylo looks at a platter covered with more… chip like things, though these are smaller, thicker, and fried a deep golden brown, surrounding a few more 'salads.' "What are they?"

"Tostones, fried jamranths," Zurie says, with something of a purr in her voice.

Poe nods. "You'll like them."

Jon smiles at Zurie, a warm, flirty, pleased look, and she preens at it.

And Kylo does not, for an instant, miss that Poe would prefer that look aimed at him, and now he's wondering if Jon's slept with Zurie. Kylo's not sure if he should, but… Yes. She's remembering it fondly right now, and planning on seeing if he's up for something after her shift. He thinks back to Poe. Poe mentally, groans, and thinks back Not helping. That confuses Kylo, because none of the emotions Poe's experiencing right now are any that he'd expect. You aren't jealous? Poe rolls his eyes, and says, "Jamranths are sort of like... potatoes, but they're a bit on the sweet side, and grow on trees. They're fried, sweet, and salty, and especially good with," and he dips one into a golden brown sauce. No, I'm not jealous, I'm envious as hell, but not jealous.

Kylo attempts to contemplate that while he has a tostone. "You're right, they are good." Why aren't you jealous?

Why should I be?

Zurie wanders off, and Jon quietly says, "Stop talking about me in front of me."

Poe sighs. "Good friend of yours?"

Jon smirks at him. "A few times." His eyes follow her at the bar, and it's clear to Kylo that Jon's hoping to make Poe jealous, but apparently that's not working, assuming there really is a difference between envy and jealousy.

Kylo turns to look at her, and… She's nice. In a way he feels bad about noticing. He immediately slams his eyes forward.

Fortunately, Poe distracts him by asking Jon, "Is there anyone on this ship you haven't slept with?"

"Me," Kylo says.

Jon laughs. "Not for lack of trying, though."

Kylo blinks, completely stunned. Yes, he noticed Jon was interested, at no point did he ever notice Jon was trying.

Jon waves it away. "I was pretty sure you were narrow for women the first time we met. Tried a few tentative passes that one," he nudges Poe with his shoulder, "would have picked up on in a second, but when the first two went whizzing right by your head without even a hint of a dawning of recognition it was happening, I knew you weren't up for it. I found out about Rey later, and…"

"Aren't good Imperials supposed to be mopey and forlorn if a fling doesn't result in marriage bands and fat, happy children?" Poe asks, watching Zurie and thinking about a few times.

"My mom certainly would have been," Jon takes another sip of his tequiya. "But a lot of people on this ship aren't and never were good Imperials, and… Well, anyone with a number instead of a name never got those lessons, and adjuncts like Zurie come from all over." He shrugs a bit. "You two can see she's not human, right?" They both nod. Zurie is certainly human shaped, mostly, but neither of them missed the ears or the violet undertone to her skin. "Zurie would have never had the chance to be a good Imperial." Jon sips his drink… "And we weren't supposed to be Imperials, not anymore, right? We were all happy New Republicans. And the Republic was… relaxed… about some things that the Empire wasn't." He's again looking at Zurie. Any sentient was welcome in the New Republic, but the Empire only wanted humans. "And some of those things worked out well for me, and some…" He taps the drink. "Some of them may have been such a big deal to my family and how I was raised because it was a way to signal which team I was part of. Walk into a bar, order a vodka or a whiskey neat… It's a signal." He flashes Poe a look. "A subtle sign of resistance."

Poe smirks at that. He touches his black vest, and the shirt under it. It's occurring to Kylo that the style looks a whole lot like something his dad would have worn. Thirty years ago. During the Rebellion. "Yeah, I might know something about that."

Kylo watches them, and realizes that these are the sorts of things that Ellie wants him to be able to read. That he should be able to sit down with people and understand the messages their clothing and food and drinks offer him.

He supposes his natural empathy should give him an advantage on this, but mostly right now what it's picking up as Poe and Jon talk about blending in, or not so much, and being on the 'losing' team, is multiple metric tons of barely, barely repressed sexual tension and desire.

He wonders idly if this is what sitting next to him and Rey feels like to another empath. He supposes he could find out, but the only one he's even remotely comfortable asking something like that of would be Jacen, and that level of empathy's not in is toolkit.

He decides likely not, because part of the tension for Jon and Poe is that they haven't crossed that line yet, so there's a lot of anticipation that he and Rey just don't have anymore.

Jon's whole body thrills when Poe brushes his hand as he's grabbing a chip. And Kylo knows he and Rey don't affect each other that way anymore. He adores her and her skin, but a brush against the back of his hand isn't, in most circumstances, going to make his shaft twitch. Though maybe if they go shopping for fun stuff again…

They could come here, have some chips and whatever it is he's drinking, and then go off exploring again…

That'd be fun…

And apparently, he's visibly moping, because Poe breaks into his plans for him and Rey with, "Holy, fuck. It's one night, Kylo. You can go a night without getting your fuck on."

Kylo glares at him, and takes another drink. "It's not about sex."

Jon snerks.

"Okay, it's a little about sex. Sex is part of it, but… not all or even most of it."

The other two are not buying that for an instant.

"Really. It's… the sweet at the end of the meal. And maybe that's my favorite part of dinner, but it's not the meal, and it's not like I can't cope without my dessert."

They're still both looking at him with expressions that most readily translate to bantha shit.

Kylo rolls his eyes and takes a good swallow of his drink. "You know this," he says to Poe, then he looks to Jon, "And I guess he doesn't unless you told him."

Jon looks curious.

"Apparently, not. I was celibate for almost thirteen years. Okay? Like, really celibate, not pretend celibate. Not, just didn't-have-penetrative-sex-with-women celibate. I had sex, any sort, with myself or someone else, fewer than twenty times in that more than a decade." Jon's jaw literally drops and metaphorically hits the table. "One night… Not a big deal."

When Jon gets his jaw off the table, he says, "Were they drugging you?"

"It'd have been a hell of a lot easier if they had been."

"Gods, no wonder you were in such a fucking bad mood all the time. I'd be breaking shit right and left if… No, I wouldn't. I couldn't do it. I'd… I'd… Just… Couldn't do it."

"Yeah, well…" Kylo rolls his eyes. "It wasn't exactly a choice. On one side, Luke Skywalker's talking about how it was okay to do it, occasionally, as a way to increase wisdom, but really after the first few times you'd probably learned all you could from it, so there was no need to do it again, and giving into your wants was a surefire way to the dark, so… Very risky, very little reward, and anyway, if you'd let it, your body would just take care of it on it's own, with no risk to your soul and light at all."

Jon's staring at him, and then he shoots back his drink, blinks very slowly, and then says, also slowly, "Luke Skywalker was under the impression that you could wank a few times, and learn all you needed from it, and that was that?"

Kylo takes another sip of his drink. "I honestly think he was asexual. At least by the time I knew him."

The other two men, nod, slowly.

Then Jon blinks. "Snoke was worse, right?"

Kylo nods, swallows more of his drink. This really is nice. Sweet, sour, something in there with a little warmth… He'd happily have this again.

"Oh."

"Yeah… uh… he… liked me breaking things and angry all the time and… Well, like you said…"

Jon opens and closes his mouth. There are things he could say about that, but he doesn't think any of them would come even close to helping.

Kylo nods. He takes another drink, and scoops up some of the greenish stuff on the chip. "Anyway, if it's just about getting tuffed, I've got… coping mechanisms, and…" He offers up a somewhat naughty smile. "I'm… uh… a little behind when it comes to… accumulating wisdom in regards to taking care of myself, so… time for occasional experimentation is… nice." Kylo smirks a little. "Contra Luke's advice, I'm fairly sure there's still a lot to learn on that matter."

The other two snigger at that.

"Unexplored depths?" Poe says with a giggle.

"It's not virgin territory," Kylo replies, smirking widely and finishing his drink before he says, "but I'm certainly interested in a deeper and more thorough exploration." He sniggers to himself, and thinks about Rey exploring, and how it feels to be in her hands, her care, and turns a bit more inward, and less naughty. "But I can't snuggle myself, and… I sleep like shit without her. I just… My brain whirls too fast, and yes, I can meditate it into submission, some." He glares at his drink. "The focus necessary to keep the meditation going means I'm too focused to really sleep. It's just better if she's curled against me. I can shut down, and then actually sleep, and… Apparently, I'm something of a raging asshole if I don't sleep, so…" Kylo raises a brow at Jon, pulls Poe's drink to hand, and Poe smacks his hand, so he hands the glass back, and says to Jon, "I've got it from the context, but I have no idea what the term pussy-whipped actually means."

Jon looks startled because apparently Kylo just yanked that right out of his head, and generally, he doesn't do that, so… Granted, he also doesn't generally make glasses move across the table seemingly 'magically,' so…

Poe just smirks at him. "Boys' night out with the mind-reader. Brilliant plan. His mental walls get sloppy when he's drinking, and so do ours, and next thing you know, overshare, whether you want it or not."

Jon rolls his eyes and takes another drink. "It's what I sorely miss."

"Oh."

Poe looks quizzical at that.

Which Kylo responds to, as well. "He means belonging to someone not… not the pussy part of pussy-whipped… pussy…" He thinks he might like that term a little too much. It sort of slips off his tongue in a nicely sexual sort of way. "Pussy…" His lips caress the syllables, and he's enjoying that, and then wondering how the fuck much alcohol was in that drink. Poe and Jon are just staring at him. "That's a term for…"

"We all know what it's a term for, Kylo," Poe says.

"A minute ago, I didn't."

"I really need to slap Luke upside the back of the head," Poe says.

"I also don't know what it's not slang for."

"Pussy… Cats…" Jon's looking expectantly at him. "They're little furry things that live… pretty much everywhere. They eat rodents, like to live with humans, and purr when they're happy."

"Oh. Rey's maomaos. That's slang for pussy, from Jakku." He looks a little embarrassed. "Uh… That's what I'd usually call that." Though he's thinking of adding pussy to his list of terms. He just likes the way saying it makes him feel. "Pussy," he says it very quietly that time.

"Uh huh," Jon says, staring at Kylo. "How often does that happen?"

"Significantly more often than you'd likely expect," Kylo replies with a smirk. "I like words. I like being able to… want… and express wanting… stuff…" his voice drops a few dozen decibels, "pussy…" and returns to normal. "And Rey likes me using them. So, I like learning them."

"Did you not… have cats, or… a term for girl bits with Luke?" Poe asks.

"No cats. We did have some small dogs that would go after rodents, and herd the chickens around from garden to garden. As for girl bits, sexual education with Luke was really not what we did with the boys, and honestly, back before the two of us had our talk, I wasn't entirely sure that there even were differences below the waist. Then he gave me 'the talk' referred to it as the delta, showed me some very… medically accurate and confusing as fuck anatomical sketches, and that was that.

"Rey just about had a seizure she was laughing so hard when she realized I didn't know menses were blood."

Again, Jon's just staring at him, mouth on the table.

Kylo shoots him the stink eye. "Some of us didn't grow up with five sisters, you know?"

"Was Luke's school just boys?" Jon asks. By the time he was… he honestly doesn't know, there isn't a time in his memory when he didn't know how female cycles worked.

"No, but… It wasn't like we talked about it, and I knew something was shedding, but he referred to it as a 'lining' and like I said, anatomical sketch, so… We had snakes, and they shed skin, so…"

Jon looks horrified, and Poe's laughing so hard he's about to wet his pants.

"The girls never had an oops?"

Kylo shakes his head. He's fairly sure he'd have remembered if any of them were walking around in bloodstained robes. "Look, I have no idea what they did. I'm usually pretty good at sensing blood, and I didn't notice any sloshing around, and I do notice when Rey's on her cycle, so… Either something with me changed, or they didn't trigger my blood sense, or… I don't know. But… yeah. I didn't know."

"So, wait, you can just feel when Rey's on her cycle?" Poe asks.

"It's really not that difficult to track, Poe," Jon says.

"Well, again, some of us didn't grow up with five sisters, and some of us don't live with women as adults, so…"

"I'm… paying attention, so I noticed the subtle changes, too, but mainly, I can feel blood. In the past, people bleeding around me was generally not a good sign, so I attuned myself to it. It's a defense mechanism, one that's probably way too sensitive, but… Anyone within a few meters who's bleeding, and I'll notice it." He shrugs, takes a drink, and adds, "Plus… uh… her boobs are bigger a few days before and… that's… uh… nice, you know?"

Jon smirks, and Poe rolls his eyes.

Kylo rolls his eyes back, and says, "Like you wouldn't enjoy it if his shaft got bigger a few days a month."

Jon's laughing hysterically at that, and Poe groans. "And this is why we don't let you get too drunk. Seriously, you have no social filters, at all, do you?"

Kylo shrugs. "You would like it, though!"

"Kylo, if one of my partners ends up with his shaft getting bigger only a few days a month, I'm failing miserably." He eyes Jon suggestively. "With me, it's more like a daily sort of thing."

Jon looks right back, and says, "Is that a promise?"

"Oh yeah, Pretty Boy. As often as you like."

Jon licks his lips and then grabs his glass, wraps his lips around the whole rim, and shoots back what was in it. Kylo can feel Poe's mouth go dry, and see him squirm. He doesn't… can't… feel the force of that first hand, but he can feel what Jon's doing with it, and how it effects Poe, and he can sort of imagine what it'd do to him to see Rey wrap her lips around a glass like that. The perfect circle of her lips around something as round as a shaft.

Jon stands up, much too graceful for the amount of alcohol he's had, letting his body stretch upward, showing off how long and lean and tall he is. "Been known to enjoy big things from time to time." Then he gives Poe a little smirk, turns and… Kylo doesn't know what to call that sort of walk. If Rey's hips were swinging like that, he'd know what to do about it, though. They watch Jon head to the bar and order something.

"Looks like he likes making things big, too," Kylo says to Poe, not even remotely unaware of how that long stand and then walk effected Poe.

Poe leans back in the seat, bonks his head against the wall, and groans again. "He's going to kill me."

"Yeah, but in the best possible way, right?"

"Force, I really hope so."

It's really occurring to Kylo, that this may be a date, and possibly he doesn't need to be here. "Should I go?"

"Fuck no. I'm trying to not sleep with him," Jon's coming back, and it's clear Kylo's confused as all get out by that. "Explain later," and Jon's back with more glasses. "Really," Poe says, "Are we seventeen?"

Jon sets five shot glasses in front of them, two at his place, two at Poe's, one at Kylo's, a salt shaker, and a small bowl of green citronen.

"I think it's abundantly clear, that for all practical purposes, that one is, so." He hands the glasses around. "This is tequiya aniyo. It's one of the preferred drinks for this kind of food. I usually drink blanco, but this is what you'd use for this game."

"It's a game?" Kylo says.

"Sort of. We're just going to introduce you to it, not really play," Jon says.

"Why not?" Kylo asks.

"Because neither of us want to explain to Rey how we took you out and got you so drunk you threw up all over yourself, let alone had to figure out how to drag your 300 kilo ass home," Poe replies.

"I do not weigh that much."

"If you're dead drunk, and we've got to carry you home, it's going to feel that way," Poe says.

"Fine. How do we play."

"We're doing the… out with the boys version of the game, when all the boys are narrow for girls, and the girls are nowhere around, okay?" Jon says.

There's a pout on Poe's face, but Kylo can feel he's relieved.

"What's the version for the… fun part of the F-Deck?"

"I'll explain as we go. So," he holds up his left hand in a loose fist. "Lick," and he licks the flat between his thumb and forefinger. "Salt." He shakes salt on the wet patch. "Lick again," he licks the salt off of his hand, shoots back the tequila, and then bites the lime. He hisses for a second, and then sighs. "And done. The 'fun' version… Well, you put the salt wherever you like it, you suck the tequila out of your friend's navel, and who knows where the lime is when you nibble it off of them."

"You drink the tequila off of the other person," Kylo says.

"Yes." Poe says, "Though generally by the time you've had enough to think body shots are a good idea, you're also mostly just licking it off of them, because the likelihood that your hand is steady enough to pour well enough to only get it in their navel is pretty much non-existent." He salts his hand, and then licks the salt, shoots back the tequila and bites the lime.

"This is what parties were like when you were seventeen?" Kylo asks grabbing the salt shaker.

Jon shrugs a bit, leaning back against the booth, shutting his eyes, remembering. "Some of them."

Poe nods. "Get a squad of newbie fliers on leave for a few days, and generally the first thing they do is drink every cento in pay they've ever gotten. Then they go fuck whatever's around and willing. And then they collapse somewhere and beg for death when they start to sober up."

Kylo's looking at Poe, hand almost to his lips. "You know, I often feel like I missed out on a lot growing up with Luke, but…"

"Yeah, well, we're not going to kill a bottle between the three of us, so feeling like death warmed over is less likely to happen. Plus, we're eating, too," Jon says.

"Fine." He licks his hand, salts it, licks the salt, shoots back the tequila, just about dies, gasps a few times, chokes, sputters, and then chomps the lime. "I was not made for this sort of party game." (Though he can sort of see, maybe, how if you were to mix those three things together, they might make a pleasant cocktail. Maybe with more of the watermelon juice.)

He's debating asking for a mix of those drinks together, assuming he can't possibly be the first person to ever think of that idea, when Zurie sidles over with a glass of her own.

A glass of her own and intent.

He glances around, notices that the rest of the bar is basically empty, and gets the sense that she might have flipped the open to closed sign when they weren't paying attention.

"Can anyone join the game?" she asks Jon.

He grins up at her, scoots over a bit, spreads his legs wide, and pats his lap. "Well, you can get a drink with us."

She settles onto his knee, lifts his hand, licks it, salts it, licks again, and shoots back her down shot, before biting the citronen. She shudders a bit, and then grins at them, and kisses Jon. When she pulls back she says, "Now, I thought I knew all of your friends, so… You going to introduce me?"

For a second, Kylo's mostly paying attention to Zurie. To the little flash of pinky-blue tongue, to her mesmerizing violet eyes, to the points of her ears, and the easy way she's sitting on Jon's lap, or the comfortable way his hand rests on her hip.

This he knows feels a lot like being next to him and Rey, at least, when it comes to sexual attraction. Warm, eager, pleased. Real and ready.

Then he's hit with the fact that she's assuming that the reason why she doesn't know Jon's 'friends' tonight is because he's on a date, with both of them, and the game she's asking to join is whatever sex they're going to have later.

And then, on top of that, Poe's having something on the verge of a sexual meltdown, because he also understands the subtext of what's going on, and then that's crashing away as a real scramble to get his drunk brain up and working, because he's decided that Kylo's not up to the task of…

What… Poe't thinking about how he's a shit liar, and they need a lie, and… What…

Shit, NAMES!

He rubs his face as he feels a cold pitcher of water down his back.

Jon's still smiling pleasantly at her, looking from the one to the other. "You know that diplomacy thing I'm up to?"

"Yeah."

"Well, my liaisons from the Maji." He gestures to Poe and Kylo. "Short, dark, and handsome over there is Commander Dameron. Tall, dark," Kylo winces. Jon can't see the do not look spell and didn't remember that he's not black-haired tonight, except.. Wait… Zurie didn't just blink at all at that, and… She's looking at him… So… Fuck, how drunk is he and is the spell still up? "and panicky over there is called Ben Amidala."

Zurie raises a brow at that part of it. "Uh huh." She gently shoves Jon. "You always were a shit liar."

He looks appalled. "I'm a great liar." Then he really looks at Kylo, and squints. "Wait, are you still doing it?"

"I thought I was."

"Uh huh." Zurie says. "Amidala. Yeah. Right." She looks down at Jon, expectantly.

He offers her a half smile. "As for joining the game, this one doesn't fish in your lake," he lays his hand on Poe's shoulder, "and that one's the most married man on the ship, so…"

"Awww… That's a shame." She looks genuinely surprised at that, and Kylo understands that when Jon's brought men here she's liked, too, they've played together.

"Just a boys' night out," Jon says, staring at Poe, and everyone knows what he's saying there.

Kylo feels Zurie's mind shift. He almost sees the moment when she realizes what's going on with Poe. She smiles at that, and kisses Jon's cheek this time. "It's good to see you out and having fun again."

He gives her hip a squeeze. "Thanks, love. You mind if we linger?"

"Nah." Apparently, she's decided that she and Jon aren't fucking tonight, or… Oh… She was planning on playing with Jon's friends… friend… Kylo. She was hoping to play with Kylo near Jon while Jon played with Poe, not necessarily playing with Jon… Kylo's interested in that, a little, because he does sort of wonder how much she looks like a human woman under her dress. The parts he can see are nice. And her lips are blue edged pink, and her tongue was also blue with a pink tip, and he's wondering what her nipples and pussy look like… He stops thinking about that, because she sees Kylo, not Ben, and… Is she interested in him as a rather large, decent looking human guy, or as The Master? He wasn't paying close enough attention to figure that out, and she's not thinking about it now.

She stands up, and heads to the register. "I'm going to cash out. You remember what the keycode is?"

"Yeah. I can lock up after us," Jon says.

"Good. Enjoy your night."

Kylo stares expectantly at him. "Like I said earlier, I've warmed a seat here often enough there's a cast of my bum on it," he gestures to one of the seats at the bar.

"And the part where no one said anything, but a whole lot got said?" Kylo asks.

"She wanted to know if she could join in on our threesome, but you're not game for one, and he doesn't go for her sex, so… Not gonna happen."

"That part I got, but ten minutes ago I was sure you were going to get your ass tuffed from here to next week, and now…" Now, Zurie's wiping up the bar and getting ready to go home.

Jon smirks, and again stares at Poe. "She's not the one who's got that service on offer." Which is not enlightening to Kylo on why she's no longer interested in fucking Jon. But Jon seems to think it is.

Poe blinks. Then he rolls his eyes. Then he fists his hand in Jon's shirt, pulls him close, and kisses the hell out of him, while growling about teasing him and how he's going to fuck that ass into next month and beyond, and how every time for the rest of his life Jon is going to remember him when he sits down.

Then Kylo blinks. Poe didn't actually do it. He thought it so hard that Kylo saw it.

Kylo bites his lip. He blinks again, unsure of what the hell to do with this. Jon's still staring at Poe, all but daring him to go further, and Poe's quivering at the strain of not… well, doing anything that's going through his mind right now. He feels like he's got to do something, because right here, right now, between Poe and Jon feels… dangerous, and not in a good way. Right now feels like… a tipping point where things could tip very badly.

Kylo's not sure how to stop or shift it, so he gives a quiet, tiny, unspoken prayer that this is right, and then asks, "How does it work?"

That breaks the staring contest between Poe and Jon. Poe jerks slightly, and Jon visibly has to shift his brain from one train of thought to the other.

"How does what work?" Poe asks.

"Threesomes. Jon sent us to Unthar for massages, and he was thinking about it, too, but…" Kylo shrugs "He was thinking about a fivesome, too, but… That was just too confusing, too many body parts. Three I could track, but… Mostly, he seemed to be thinking that it'd just feel good."

He waits patiently for Jon and Poe to stop thinking about each other, and start trying to figure out how to respond to him. He mentally sighs, pleased to see that question worked, because if it hadn't, he had absolutely nothing to deal with this.

"I don't think it's anything you've got to worry about, Kylo," Poe says.

Kylo shrugs. "Just because I'm unlikely to ever do it doesn't mean I'm not curious."

"Unlikely doesn't sound like never," Jon says.

"Remarkably unlikely. I…" Zurie's wiping down the bar, and they can see her legs and the lines of her back in her high and low cut dress. "know it's not going to happen. Probably. I mean… Shit… Uh…" He turns back to Poe. "She really doesn't do anything for you?"

Poe sighs. "Really not. She's got a nice body, but… Really, no." He looks at Jon. "You get a tingle when he sucked down that drink?"

Kylo shakes his head.

"Yeah, I find that just as boggling as you find me not being into her."

"And I can't believe both of you are so narrow," Jon adds. "It's just skin. The person inside the skin is the exciting part."

Both Poe and Kylo shrug.

"My shaft begs to differ," Kylo says. "Unthar was working on me, and it took a while to relax into it."

"What in the galaxy did he get you set up for?" Poe asks.

"Just massages. Unthar and I go back, along with his wife, and he wanted to take Rey out for a good time, and not the sort of good time that involves bodily fluids spurting about. So, I sent him to my favorite spec and his wife because I knew they'd treat them right."

Poe smirks, starting to find his sense of humor again. "You sent Kylo to a male sex worker?"

"And his wife."

Poe's sniggering. "And let me guess, you took one look at him, and then your brain froze solid, while Rey skipped around like a kid in a candy store with a credit stick?"

"It wasn't quite that dramatic, but…"

"Meaning, yes," Jon says. "I honestly didn't… I mean… The idea that a man rubbing your back would be a problem never occurred to me."

"Well, maybe if we hadn't all been naked when it happened…" Kylo says.

Poe's leaning back, more relaxed, enjoying this a lot.

"You're the one who used my shower, and then walked out with your towel wrapped around your hair and not your waist. I figured there was no possibly way that casual nudity irked you."

"I… It… doesn't… Usually. I just didn't want to drip all over your stuff!"

Jon just stares at him. "Uh huh…" He takes a sip of his drink, notices there's no drink in his drink, and then gets up to fetch a bottle of tequiya blanco for him and Poe, and two ginger fizzes.

He hands the one fizz to Kylo, and pours the second one in a glass, squeezes a lime into it, and adds a shot of the tequiya to it, for Poe.

"So, this imaginary threesome that's not going to happen. Other than you and Rey, who's in it?" Jon asks.

Kylo blinks at that. "Uh?"

"It works differently if there's two men or two women or three of a kind. I know you're not going for three of a kind, unless they're women, and you're just watching, and I assume you can figure out what to do with yourself if you're watching, so…"

Kylo swallows and then purses his lips. In Unthar's idea of it, it was him and Jon and Rey. But… right, three doesn't have to mean two guys. They could both be girls. He glances over, and Zurie's nowhere to be seen. He shifts a bit as his shaft takes note of the idea of Rey and Zurie and him. He coughs a little. "I think I can also figure out what you do with two girls."

Poe laughs at that. "No trouble imagining all the permutations of that triad."

"I may be a bit more interested in that. I definitely have more hands-on experience in that direction." He sips his fizz. "What'd Finn say, a holo of a guy with a girl on his shaft and face? I've done both halves of that, so it's something I have an easy time imagining."

"I've done that," Jon says, with a smirk. "It's… okay." He shrugs. "Kind of overrated, honestly." He stops to think about that for a moment. "If the girls are doing it for you, it's great. Full body, all over sex. Lots of fun. If you're watching it, pretending it's happening to you, it's excellent. If it's not just about you, if you're attempting to be good for them… It's too much to focus on." He shrugs a bit at that. "I'm better at giving head to men than women, though. So that might be part of it. It's… way too easy to slip off the target when it's smaller than the last joint of my pinky finger." He takes another sip of his tequiya. "And those little boogers are picky. If you're not totally focused, and don't have exactly the right technique they just lay there and pretend to have a good time. Meanwhile, if you've got a shaft in your mouth... Hell, in that case, you can just lay there, and generally the guy'll get off. If you've got any technique at all, things are usually good to go."

Poe seems to think that's hilarious. Kylo… commiserates. Because there are nights when he's just… not as focused as he likely should be, and it's a good thing that Rey can ride off of his good time, because he knows his tongue is just not, quite… enough.

"I like watching tops to tails better than doing it," Kylo says. "Well, assuming it's not just about making me feel good."

"You can either pay attention to the good time your shaft is having, or focus enough on your tongue to do a good job with it, but not both at once," Jon says with a nod.

Poe's just watching them.

"Not anything you've ever experienced?" Kylo says.

"Yeah… Like Jon said, even lame oral'll generally get a guy off if he's horny enough. And… if I can't find the target, I'm vastly too drunk to fuck." He tries to think of something vaguely useful to say. "Okay, not a huge fan of a guy sitting on my face, either. I mean… I'll happily lick a guy up one side and down the other, and in between as well, but I also like to breathe. If I'm doing that, I like to be on top of the situation, not under it."

The other two laugh at that.

They're quiet for a moment, sipping their drinks. Then Poe says, "Okay, what's it feel like? Girls, I mean. I've heard a billion guys singing pussy's praises like it's a religious experience, but… It's like a mouth with no teeth, right?"

Kylo and Jon stare at each other for a moment, and then Kylo says… "Well, I mean, for me, it literally has been a religious experience, but I think that's more about the person you're with and the emotional connection. By the time we got there, I wasn't really paying too much attention to our bodies."

Jon shrugs at that, very clearly indicating that's nothing he's got any experience with. "Mouth with no teeth… That's not… wrong… But it's not right, either." He takes another drink. "If you're wearing a slick, actually, that's a pretty good comparison, but… I mean, I'm assuming you're asking about skin to skin."

Poe nods.

"Okay, you're getting sucked down, and at first it's just wet. But as you're getting into it, the spit gets slippier and a little thicker," Poe's nodding, he knows that sensation from both sides. "And your guy sucks his cheeks in, so you get this wet, hot, slick sensation on all sides."

"So, it's like the best part of a blow job?"

"Sort of. But you can go deeper, and faster, and it'll squeeze and twitch around you, and there's absolutely no chance at all of getting bit or making her puke."

"No suction," Poe says.

"Don't need it," Kylo responds. "Don't get me wrong, I like the sucking part, but the closer to spurting she is, the tighter things get, and when she comes… well, it's just like you, the muscles twitch, but all around you, and unlike us, where if we're lucky, we get half a dozen twitches, she'll get like fifteen, twenty of them, and then aftershocks if you keep touching her, and it feels… just… It's really fucking good!"

"How's it compare to anal?" Poe asks.

"Different," Jon says. "The texture is really different. You don't need to prep for it. You can go from Hello to balls-deep in one stroke if you're with the right person. Wet, in a way butts just aren't." He stops. "In a way the lube I like just isn't. I don't know what you use."

"Slide Right."

Jon thinks about it. "Never tried that. Assuming she's having a good time, pussy's less tight. If it feels like an asshole, that's a woman who does not want to be fucking you. You can go faster and harder and longer. And you often have to, because, again, less tight."

"You have a preference?" Kylo asks.

Jon sighs a little, and takes a long sip of his drinks. "I… Yeah, but it's not about physical sensation. On straight, getting me off… That's going to be about what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I want pussy. Sometimes I want cock. Ass doesn't matter much because I can do that with anyone. Sometimes I just want to close my eyes and get fucked into next month and don't care which side of the equation I'm on." And all the time I want to be back with Lane, in his body and love, and him in mine and… His eyes widen and he stops that line of thought dead when he realizes he might as well have just said it out loud to Kylo.

Kylo reaches across the table and squeezes his hand. He glances at Poe, and why Poe's not planning on fucking Jon tonight is achingly clear. Why he's putting himself through this waiting period, also crystallizes. Jon is immensely not ready to move on, and for the first time, Kylo's really getting it. He glances at Poe and nods to him. Poe nods back.

Jon clears his throat. "Now that we're done with our silent conversations…"

Kylo takes a drink, forces a smirk on his face, and says, "To quote Jacen, it's not my fault you both think so loudly."

"That's the line you're going with?" Poe asks.

Kylo nods. "That's what I'm sticking with. Anyway, I don't have a lot to compare it against, but… To me at least, pussy just feels right. It's the thing my body craves. I like oral. I like rubbing up against her. Hands are good, thighs and boobs, too. And variety is nice, and I've had an awfully good time with non-pussy sex, but maomao is just right. And… I guess you never feel that, and you… rarely?... do."

Poe pours a slug of straight tequila and shoots it down. "Face down, ass up, getting railed for days feels right. There's a speed and angle and… When a guy hits that on me… That's… I mean, it's all good. I like just about every kind of sex I've had, but there's just… a sweet spot, where it's just right. And that's where right is for me."

Jon nods with that one. "Yeah. I… know what you're talking about on that one. I'm… usually on the giving side of things…"

"I'm shocked," Poe says, deadpan.

Kylo's eyes narrow, there's context that he knows he's missing with this, but neither of the others stop to fill him in, and he doesn't want to stop the conversation to backtrack.

Jon just looks at Poe, and continues with, "But… there's something about the surrender of it. Of just lying back, and letting it happen, putting yourself, your pleasure in someone else's hands, and then having them completely take care of you. That's… exquisite." Again there's the image of Lane, but Kylo does his best not to notice it.

"Especially if they really get off on taking care of you," Poe adds.

"Yeah," Jon says, quietly. "And… On a pure physical sensation thing, I know what Kylo's talking about with pussy feeling right. I don't know… primal, genetic drive to fuck and make babies or something. The billion years of fucking that built me wants to keep at it, maybe? But that doesn't match the mental feel of letting go and taking it."

Kylo quietly sips his drink before saying, "You know women can fuck you, right? You can take and they can give and… It's not just about shaft."

Jon shrugs. "I mean, I'm aware of the fact that strap-ons are things but…"

Kylo waves that off. "Not how I meant it. You can relax back and let her take care of you. That's a thing, you know? You don't have to be… penetrated… to give it up."

Both Jon and Poe look deeply skeptical of that claim.

Poe says, voice tentative, "Kylo, you might be… missing… some of how this works."

He rolls his eyes. "I doubt it. Unlike Jon, I don't just know strap-ons are things that exist, I own one, too. That's part of things that are still being explored. That said, you can lie back and let a woman take you over without anything inside your body, and it's awfully fucking sweet."

Both Jon and Poe look skeptical at that.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to trying all the variations on that, but… You just lay there, and open your heart and head and she's on your shaft and in your mind and Force and just flowing and glowing with it, and…"

And it's clear he's shot well beyond anything either of them have ever even contemplated when it comes to sex. He can see both of them looking at each other, Boys' night out with the mindreader, huh? unspoken but understood between them.

Kylo tries to bring it round to something that might be more concrete for them. "Never laid back and just let someone ride you? They set the pace and depth, and you just relax and enjoy it? Or, you're half asleep and they wake you up nice?"

"Well, for me, that might be any given off day," Jon says.

"What do you do on your off days?" Kylo asks.

Jon shrugs a bit. "It's been so long since I've had one, I don't really remember."

Kylo eyes him. "That's got to change."

"Kylo, I physically can't do my job if I spend any less time on it."

Kylo's eyes narrow. "Hire more help. Get more Threepios if you need them. I don't care how you do it, just… do."

Jon rolls his eyes at that, but Poe's giving Kylo an approving look. Kylo shrugs a bit. "I want your secretary to have a chat with C8, too."

More of an eye roll. "You're more fun when you're my friend, not my boss."

"You mean you're more comfortable when I'm oblivious as to how you numb yourself. Too bad."

Poe sips his drink and decides to change the subject because he's the one who planted this worm in Kylo's head about getting Jon more off time, and says to Kylo, "You own a strap-on? You jump from no sex into fairly intense sex toys in two years?"

Jon, relieved to get off of work, and how and why he works, makes himself grin. "Now there's a mental image, isn't there?" He's imagining Rey wearing it, and he likes the image. Likes the image of Kylo all spread out and waiting for her, too.

"Stop that!" Kylo says. "That's mine."

Jon sniggers. "If you don't want me thinking about it, don't tell us it's something you do. I'm a visual thinker; you've got to know that, by now. If you say it, I'll picture it."

Kylo glares at him. Jon enjoying those images is… probably something he doesn't need to contemplate too deeply.

Jon takes another drink. "So, given what we know about you, if you ever do manage to have this extremely unlikely threesome, and there's another man involved, make sure you're in the middle."

Kylo doesn't wince, but he's not exactly looking enthusiastic about that.

"Trust me, you will like being in the middle."

He rolls his eyes at that. "As I found with Unthar, my body doesn't much care one way or another who's touching it. My brain is very stubborn, though, and it takes a lot of effort to get it to shut up on the subject."

Poe laughs at that. "Good way to put it. Eyes closed, just feeling it, I might like girls, because my shaft is kind of stupid and doesn't care much about anything but if what's going on feels good. My brain, on the other hand, is picky."

Kylo snorts a laugh at that. "And by picky, you mean the entire spectrum of male humanity?"

Poe looks appalled. "I have standards!"

"Just not a lot of them," Jon says quietly.

"Look, I haven't fucked three quarters of the Order. The Resistance, maybe, but…"

"Doesn't that total like, nine guys?" Jon says.

"Seventeen," Poe replies, but he's grinning. He stretches and checks his chrono. "Probably about time to break it up."

Jon raises a brow.

"Twenty-three fifty."

Jon nods. "Yeah, first appointment tomorrow is at oh eight hundred, and I've got at least an hour of notes to go over before we start. What are you up to?"

"Well, someone finally got me an apartment here, so mostly, I'm moving some of my stuff in."

Jon looks surprised by that, and Kylo's pleased. "Where'd C8 put you?" Kylo asks.

"Oh, you'll see soon enough. I'm dragging your ass over there as soon as you can spare the time. I'm up on I-Deck. He even squared me away with a 'Maji recruitment and organization center.' I've got a bloody map of what'll eventually be XX, where I… and Rey, will eventually figure out where to slap a temple."

"You got an apartment on ship?" Jon says, again, looking stunned.

"Yeah, feels a little weird. I haven't had a place that didn't— Oh. Huh. Well, I was about to say, I haven't had a place that didn't fly in more than eight years, but I guess this place flies, too."

Jon stands up and starts picking up the glasses, covering his confusion and whirling emotions at that bit of intel by cleaning up.

Poe and Kylo follow suit, also tidying up, carrying bottles and glasses to the bar.

While doing that, Kylo says, "We'd been talking about Poe working more on getting people out of places they don't want to be, and… Some brainstorming. The Order likely won't be welcome everywhere, but maybe slipping a church into places might… Get people out."

Jon nods slowly. "Master Poe of the Maji."

"Yep. Like you said, diplomacy stuff. Master Poe probably goes places with the Rens, and schmoozes and listens. Master Poe's good with rich fops and asking the right kind of leading questions while flattering away and making them feel special and loved. Hell, if he's feeling really frisky, Master Poe might go so far as to set up 'special' branches of the Maji that go to places with the rich and powerful and spin them happy stories of balance and tolerance that make them feel good about themselves and their place in the world. And then Commander Poe comes back here, and talks to some selected people, gets them up to speed with Rey's help on what the Maji is and does, and then sends them off to places where rich fops make their ill gotten gains, and opens churches. They engage in do-goodery, and if people who want to learn more have to take lessons on the Supremacy... Well, there's a ship ready to take them."

Jon nods slowly, setting the tequiya bottle back into place. Then he turns on the register, keys in Zurie's code, finds his tab, and pays it.

"Still seems smaller than ideal," Jon says, not dealing with the fact that Poe is moving here.

"Yeah, but honestly, I don't have the bandwidth to get it going bigger right away. We'll get there. For now, there's a lot that goes into looking like you've got a church, and Rey and I are going to be working overtime with all the rest of it to get this thing so it looks close enough to right to get us into places we don't belong."

"You think places that don't like the Order will let Lady Ren's faith in?" Jon asks.

"I think if they get the idea that allowing the Maji to spread the good word is a good way to keep the Order happy with them, without having to fully deal with us, they may decide to be flexible in that direction," Poe says, looking around, finding a rag, and heading over to wipe up their table.

"Or we may not exactly ask permission," Kylo adds, looking around for where to put the glasses, and eventually locating a dishwasher. "My guess is that if a Maji church just happens to open up in your neighborhood, and you're the kind of person who gets irked by that, you're likely also the kind of person smart enough to know that raising a fuss about it is a bad plan." Though there's a little sparkle in the back of Kylo's mind at the idea of someone making a fuss, and him having the chance to go in and take care of it.

Poe shivers a bit. He's not a stranger to enjoying destruction, but unfiltered Kylo dark is a bit much, even for him. "You're projecting, hard, Kylo. We're trying to get the minimum number of people dead on this."

He shrugs. "Punching bags and training droids get boring over time."

"I'm sure they do," Poe replies, wondering about long-term management of a dark warrior who's trying to be a peacemaker.

Jon's just watching them. He blinks slowly, and then nods, and then says, "You sober enough to port, or do you need to ride the elevator down?"

Kylo blinks at that. He's not sure. Only one way to find out. And a second later, he's on the other side of the room. "I'm good."

Jon's turn to shiver. "Kylo, what would have happened if you hadn't been?"

Kylo blinks. "Oh. Uh… Probably like the do-not-recognize spell. I'd just be standing over there. Maybe." He feels a little shiver down his spine, too. What if it didn't work that way? "Shit."

"Okay, this has been, fun," Jon says, looking around, making sure they've cleaned up properly. "But I'm thinking that I'm going to walk back to my place."

Poe claps a hand on Kylo's shoulder. "Danger's always been my middle name. Let's go."

"I've never been to your apartment."

"And it wouldn't matter if you had, it's empty right now. My ship…"

"Right," Kylo nods. "'Night, Jon."

Jon flicks him an extremely lackadaisical salute, and ambles toward the door. Kylo pokes Poe, "You gonna kiss him goodnight?"

"I heard that," Jon says, not turning around.

Poe rolls his eyes and pokes him back. "Let's go."

Kylo stops for a moment. He closes his eyes, he focuses, he realizes that every time he's ported himself to Poe's ship, he's pulled himself through by focusing on Poe and on the feel of Poe, not on the image of any of Poe's ship.

"Shit."

"Shit?"

"I don't… have a really good mental image of the inside of your ship."

Poe rolls his eyes. "Really?"

Kylo rubs his forehead. "Just, focus. See it in your mind, okay?"

"Wait, you're…"

And then Kylo's pulling the image out of Poe's mind, and a moment later they're in his personal quarters. Kylo looks around a bit. "This is your room, right?"

Poe nods, kicking some clothing into a corner. "I usually tidy up if I expect company."

"Oh." He's staring around as BB rolls in and starts chirping at Poe. Poe nods, talks to him a bit, as Kylo looks around at the small quarters. Big for a ship this size, but he could tuck three of them into his room on the Supremacy.

"You wanna stay?" Poe says, patting his bed, pulling his attention away from the machine in the corner that appears to be a torture device.

He sees what Kylo's staring at. "It's basically a full gym in one corner. You were wondering, very loudly I might add, about what I do with it, and yes, get sweaty is part of it, but not the way you were thinking."

Kylo blinks at that, too. "Uh…" His brain grinds around, trying to figure out what's going on. Poe's looking pretty relaxed, he's taking off his boots, and from the look of it getting comfortable. Stay. Poe asked if he wanted to stay before he got distracted by what he can see, looking at it now, is a contraption designed to allow Poe to shift a lot of weights around in a very small place.

"Why?"

Poe looks up and sees the look on Kylo's face, and then he laughs. "Calm down, big guy. That's not what I'm suggesting. You aren't my type."

"I thought your type was male." He gestures to himself. "Don't I fit?"

"I like 'em dark and pretty."

"I'm dark."

"You've got black hair, and I'm not talking about force signatures."

Kylo contemplates that. "Jon's not dark, on any level."

"I know, but Jon's special. He's… Anyone who likes men likes Jon."

"But not me."

"You know, for someone claiming to only be interested in women, you're vastly too put out by that."

"I… You're an asshole."

"You're going to feel bad about that when I explain what I meant."

Kylo's eyes narrow.

"You don't sleep well alone. Your brain doesn't shut down. It takes effort to get yourself calm enough to sleep, and you've got to focus to hard to get there, you can't relax enough to really sleep."

Kylo nods.

Poe looks at him expectantly.

Kylo narrows his eyes. "I don't think you being near would help me sleep."

"Don't you? According to Finn, you woke up from a dead sleep in the middle of the night with someone trying to kill you. You only have an easy time settling down when there's someone you trust right next to you, who you know can handle themselves against whatever might pop up."

Kylo blinks slowly at that. He never put it together that part of the reason why he can sleep with Rey is because he's literally got someone else to guard his sleep when she's near.

"Oh."

"So?" Poe says, looking at his bed. "I don't snore, I'm not a bed hog, and like I said when we started learning to dance, I'm not about to pinch your fanny, so…"

"You're right."

Poe looks curious, that's not an answer he was expecting.

"You're not an asshole. That's…" He's got no word to characterize what that offer is, but he's pleased Poe made it. "I appreciate it."

Poe's taking off his vest, and getting up to hang it up. "But I'm not hearing a yes, in there."

"Uh…" Kylo eyes the bed and wonders how weird this would be. "No. I… I'm in the middle of my own ship, surrounded by guards who are supposed to be loyal to me, there's only one entrance to the floor I'm on, and the elevator shuts down when I'm not receiving guests. My door and walls are hardened against anything short of a blast cannon. And if I choose to, I can sleep on a completely different planet, where no one knows the coordinates. Maybe it's time to see if I can get myself to relax on my own."

"Be safe in your own home?"

"Yeah. It's been… ten years. That's long enough to be afraid of a ghost."

Poe gives his shoulder a little squeeze. "Amen on that. But if not, you know where I am, okay?"

Kylo nods, and then, on impulse, because it feels right, he hugs Poe. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, big guy. Good night."

He steps back. "'Night, Poe'" and then ports home.