Darius officially broke up with him the next week. Poe wanted to feel terrible and instead felt relieved. He liked Darius a lot. He was smart, handsome, and a lot of fun when they found time to share a bunk. If they ran into one another again out in the galaxy, he could see them falling into each other's orbit, and each other's everything else. They just weren't good right now.

Ket didn't want to hear about it.

"On my planet, you find out who you're going to marry when you're still learning to walk."

"I'd hate that. You don't even get to decide for yourself?"

She looked him up and down. "Given your decision-making processes, I'd think you'd find it comforting."

"Very funny."

He waited until study hours the next day. He showered, shaved, combed his hair, and put on a clean uniform he did not intend to stay in long enough to wrinkle. He told Ket, "I may not be back tonight. Don't wait up."

"I won't."

He snorted and left. Despite the constant teasing, the pair of them got along much better than he had with his last two roommates. He would see how things worked out for the rest of this term and next, and he'd ask her to room together again for their third year. Fourth years got their own rooms. Convenient.

Ignoring the twisting flutter inside, Poe knocked on Jacen's door, putting on a smile he'd practiced in the mirror after his shower. He waited about a minute, hopes falling. Most cadets were in their rooms studying now, but not all of them. Fourth years had harder classes they should spend this time on but they also got more freedom to attend extra clubs or get in more flight time. Knowing Jacen, he was halfway to orbit right now.

The door opened partway. "What?" Jacen had thrown on a cover that didn't cover a lot.

"Uh, hi," Poe said, trying not to stare, and wanting a look inside the darkened room. "Are you studying?"

Jacen blinked in the bright light of the corridor. "No."

"Who is it?" asked a voice from inside. Poe's hopes fell through the floor and landed all the way down past the plebes and into the basement, where they rolled over and died. Here lies Poe Dameron's chance of getting laid tonight, may it rest in peace.

"Just a friend," Jacen said over his shoulder, then to Poe, he added, "Is this important right now or can we talk later?"

"Later," Poe said. "Sorry for bothering you." He turned away before Jacen could read his face, and if he was reading Poe's thoughts, it served him right.

For one second, he wondered, thinking as loud as he could, "Kind of hate you right now." He half-expected a hand on his shoulder stopping him. Instead, he heard the door shut.

He considered going to the floor where Darius lived and knocking on the door until he managed to convince him to take Poe back. He considered looking up the guy he'd broken up with to start seeing Darius. Then he went back to his own room.

"You're back early," said Ket.

"New plan," Poe said, slapping a new smile on his face far more brittle than the last time. He opened his terminal. "I'm going to try studying for a change."

"Good plan."

It took him a long time to see the words on his screen before he finally got to work.

In the morning, he got a message at his terminal: "I'm free tonight."

Poe deleted the message.

"When you're finished being mad at me, drop by."

Poe glared at the screen and dismissed the message. He had been ignoring Jacen for over a week, which mattered less when they had no classes together and their squadrons weren't rotated to the same hangars at training time. Anyway, Poe had better things to do with his time than worry about some cadet he hardly spent time with. Anyway, Poe was already polishing up his charm for a Togruta girl in his Military History class who was in another company. Anyway, Poe wasn't mad and had nothing to be mad about.

He ignored the message.

"You're cute when you sulk," came a message the next day, followed up by, "but not that cute."

Poe waited until study hours, and avoided Ket's curious look as he stomped out of the room. He wound up at Jacen's door again, almost turned around and went back, and instead knocked on it once. If there was no answer, he was going back to his room to study and he was going to avoid Jacen until he graduated.

The door opened. Jacen's hair was wet, and it was a different color than it had been the last time Poe had seen him. He was wearing more clothes now, too. He pushed the door open. Poe nearly left. Then he walked inside.

"Isn't brown a little boring for you?"

"Very. But it's a typical human color, and I've got to give a presentation in front of three human Admirals later this week." His mouth twisted. "I'd love to believe none of them will suggest a higher grade on my presentation if I look like a typical human, too, but I've been here long enough to know better."

"You look great," Poe said, and wished he hadn't.

Jacen sat down in the chair by his terminal. After a moment, Poe sat on the bed. "Are we going to talk about this?"

"All right. You should think about going blond instead. It'd work better with your complexion." Poe gestured at his own ears; Jacen's were looking greenish tonight. With a flash of understanding, Poe knew he kept his hair as long as regs would allow and used the bright dyes to pull attention away from the rest.

"You're mad at me. Is it because Alcest was here when you wanted to talk?"

"Hey, you can have anyone over you want. It's your room."

"I wasn't asking permission. We used to see each other a few years back. Sometimes we get together when she's in town."

He wasn't sure why he felt relieved to find out this wasn't someone new. "It's none of my business."

"No, it's not, but you're mad anyway."

"I'm not mad. I came up to chat, you were busy, end of story." He saw the look forming on Jacen's face and said, "No mind reading. It's weird."

"I can't read minds. Ben can, by the way, if you ever run into him."

Poe scratched through his memory and pulled up a chubby toddler. Who, doing the math, would be almost old enough to enter the Academy himself. "Organa's kid?"

Jacen nodded. "I saw him and Luke over break after my diplomatic rotation was finished."

That shunted aside Poe's injured ego. He desperately wanted to ask about Luke Skywalker, ask if Ben's famous parents had been there, too, and if it was some big Jedi get-together and if so how many were there and did they all know each other even the ones who hadn't been part of the Rebellion? He pushed down all that curiosity. Asking would do no good. Jacen hated talking about Jedi stuff. "I'll keep that in mind if I see him."

"How's Darius?"

Poe felt his face give him away better than any answer could, and he saw the sympathy growing in reply.

"It's fine. It really is. He's focusing on his studies. I should be focusing on my studies too if I want to be an Admiral some day and mark down all the kids with green hair." The joke was pretty limp. "You just said, breaking up with someone doesn't mean you won't get together again later."

"I don't think I phrased it quite like that. Is that what you were coming by to talk about?" He kept buzzing back to the same question, no matter how much Poe would like to forget he ever dropped by that night.

Poe spun out a quick tale to himself: heartbroken over his break-up, he'd come to visit a friend, looking for advice and commiseration on the wounds inflicted by young love. That sounded plausible enough, and with a little nudge to his own memories, he could make himself believe it. "Yeah."

"Then I apologize for not having the time to listen when you needed an ear. Are we all right now?"

"I guess. Sure. I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have been mad at you because you were busy." The words weren't 100% true but they felt good to say, and he liked the smile they bought him.

"Great. The funny thing is, and you're going to laugh at me for this, but when you showed up that night, just for a moment, I was sure you'd come over hoping to score. Don't ask me why. It may have had something to do with where my brain was at the time."

Poe laughed, and he was sure it didn't sound uneasy. "That would have been awkward, huh?"

"Yeah. Alcest would not have gone for that at all and she'd have kicked my butt for even bringing it up as a suggestion."

A number of wheels turned in Poe's head, and a few of them were playing the holo version on the back wall of his mind. He hadn't even seen Alcest in the dark, and now his imagination started filling in for him. He'd already pictured Jacen naked enough times to have a start, and there Poe was himself, snug and happy between them.

"Have you, uh, suggested anything like that to her before?"

"I see her twice a year. I'm lucky if I'm allowed to suggest what we grab for dinner first before she decides what we're doing for the evening." His eyes were distant, stuck in a memory somewhere. He blinked and his focus was back here. "Which is more than you wanted or needed to know."

The mental holo continued, and Poe thought he would like to know a lot more. He had edged his way out of a hard conversation, and he could leave now, or he could press his luck and see where it got him.

Every pilot was a gambler at heart.

"For the sake of intellectual curiosity, what would you have suggested to her if I had shown up at your door hoping to get laid?" He offered up a grin which he'd been practicing for a while. Ket said when he did it right, he twinkled, and when he did it wrong, he looked like he had gas.

Jacen had been practicing longer. He had the twinkle part down perfectly. "Well, like I said, I wasn't doing my best thinking at that moment. I would have started by inviting you into my room."

Luck was nothing if you didn't push it all the way, right? "I'm in your room now."

"So you are. Let's see, Alcest was already in bed. I would have had you walk over and sit down next to her while I introduced you both to each other."

"Right. Would you have introduced her as your girlfriend?"

"My lovely acquaintance." Not that Poe had worried. "I would of course have sat down next to you." He moved from his chair to the bed. This close, he was warm, and he had the nicest eyes Poe had ever seen.

"How would you have introduced me to her?"

"Ah, easy. This is Poe Dameron. I've known him since I was seven years old. He's an obnoxious know it all flyboy, but you do have a type. And she would have agreed and pointed out I have a type, too."

Poe wouldn't let him have it all his own way. "Breathing?"

"So far. No droids yet. You?"

Poe shook his head. He'd heard stories. "When do we get to the part where your lovely acquaintance kicks your butt? And are you both naked when this happens?"

"This is my fantasy now, and she'd say sure, she could be up for some extra fun with a handsome young pilot. Then I'd say, 'How about it, Poe?' Before you answered, I'd put my hand on your shoulder," he demonstrated, his index finger touching Poe's neck, "and I'd try to kiss you, hoping to convince you to stay." Poe wasn't the only one pushing his luck, and with both of them pushing this hard, they couldn't help but get lucky.

Poe leaned closer, until their faces were a finger's width apart. "It would have to be an awfully good kiss to convince me to stay the night."

It was.

Daily inspections meant Poe had to be in his own room by first call every morning except on free days. He could show up at Jacen's door as soon as study hours started and spend the first couple of hours studying industriously unless he wanted to get yelled at by his boyfriend for tanking both their grades. After their homework was finished, they spent the rest of the evening fooling around until they fell asleep fighting for the blanket. An alarm went off early enough for Poe to stagger back to his own room and get snarled at by Ket for waking her up. On free days, though, he could stay in Jacen's bed for as long as they wanted. Some mornings he woke Jacen up before breakfast with a warm, eager suck. Some mornings he woke up to the hot, wet swipe of a clever tongue against his bottom, his eyes drifting open as it delved inside while a firm hand stroked him until Poe had to gulp back his own shout. Some mornings rolled into early afternoon before they made it out of bed.

Jacen had spent enough time flaunting his two years of experience at the Academy over Poe that Poe had assumed that extended to the rest of his experience. Instead, it turned out Poe had slept with three more people than Jacen had.

"It's the species thing," he explained with a yawn when Poe asked. It was late, and they'd left the light on, but both were too worn out to climb out of bed to turn it off.

Poe pulled down the blanket to get a peek. Other than the hair on his head, which was streaked blue and purple this week, Jacen didn't have a single strand anywhere else. Poe had met plenty of humans who shaved all their hair off and plenty of humans who were mistaken for part Wookiee by suppertime. The greenish dapples under his clothes were unusual, but he could pass those off as tattoos. "You look human enough to me." He kissed his collarbone. "No offense."

"Twi'leks have a reputation, because we've been conquered and enslaved so many times. Women get it worse but I've seen Twi'lek guys get harassed, too. There've been a few times where someone only started being interested in me when they found out what I was. Then there are the people who think I'm fully human, and freak out when they find out I'm not. I've only been in a fight once because someone found out I was mixed species, and I don't want a repeat. I have to be picky about who I sleep with. I'd rather not be." He pulled in Poe's face for a kiss. "Hot people are great."

"Hot people are great," Poe agreed. "It's amazing two hot people like us found each other."

"It's a miracle." Jacen might be tired but his eyes were already gleaming with interest again. The impressive stamina was another Twi'lek stereotype, but Poe would eat his own elbow before saying so. There were many more interesting things to eat instead.

"We should get the light."

"We should," said Jacen. He looked at the switch, then he reached out his hand. The switch flicked off.

Poe laughed at him, part amusement, part delight. "You used the Force because you were too lazy to get up?"

"I did not. I used the Force because I'm warm and I'd like to do that last thing again." He rolled over, his legs straddling Poe's, pressing him into the bed.

Poe stroked his chest, fingers resting on one muscle. "Have you ever used your powers in bed?"

He shook his head. "I don't tell people about that. Could be fun to find out together."

"I must be special."

"Must be." His hand found Poe's where it rested, squeezing his fingers.

Before this, Poe had dated broadly but not deeply. He was convinced that most relationships included giving tokens of affection like nice food or pretty blossoms or maybe that album from that Bith retro Jizz band someone couldn't stop talking about. Waking up to find his flight helmet dropped onto the bed beside him was not how things were supposed to go.

"Come on, sleepyhead."

"What?"

"Get your gear on. I brought us bars for breakfast." A wrapped rations bar dropped onto the bed beside his helmet.

"What?"

Jacen sighed. He was already in his flight suit, Poe's muddled brain worked out as he sat up. "I told you I'd have a surprise for you this morning."

Poe yawned. "I thought it was going to be that toy you're hiding in the cabinet."

Jacen went to say something, then stopped, then said, "That's a different surprise for later. Pretend you didn't find it." He tapped Poe's helmet. "This, believe it or not, is better."

"That's my helmet. If your surprise is that you're going to give me a lecture about wearing my safety equipment while I'm in the air, I'm going back to sleep."

"Do I look like I'm about to lecture you on safety equipment?"

"Maybe."

"Or do I look like someone who arranged for us to have four hours of flight time today."

"It's a free day."

"Which means the trainer ships aren't in use. I've got two reserved. Are you coming?"

Poe's brain finally woke up enough. "We're flying today?" His heart skipped, waking the rest of him up.

"In about fifteen minutes, if you eat and get dressed."

He was out of bed like a shot. Jacen had already pulled out his flight suit from where he'd hung it up yesterday, and Poe staggered into it. He tore open the wrapper from his breakfast and downed it in three bites. "Let's go!" he said around chewing the last bite.

"Small bites," Jacen chided. "Never take a bite so big you can't finish chewing and answer a question from your commander."

"That's only at the official dinners," Poe replied, and kissed him on the cheek. He left one or two crumbs behind as he did.

The early hour meant few other cadets were awake, instead enjoying their chance to sleep in until lunch. The usually bustling dormitory corridors were eerily quiet as they passed through, and the rest of the campus was subdued and still. Only a few early morning exercise enthusiasts broke the illusion that they had wandered into their own dew-covered and orange-tinted world with a morning built for two.

"You're smiling," Jacen said.

"I was just thinking how much I like being alone with you."

"That's good. We're alone together a lot."

Poe took his hand as they walked. "And it's nice every time."

The hangar was lit like usual. The maintenance techs were getting in, starting their own shifts to check all the trainer ships over, looking for worn parts and cleaning the remnants of close scratches and the occasional lingering trace of pilot stomach upset. No flight instructors.

"You're sure we're authorized for this?"

"Yep." Jacen had a datapad in his jumpsuit, which he showed to the techs on duty, who waved him off amiably. The orders had all the official sign-offs he needed. "I ask for extra flight time when I can. If you don't ask too often, they'll usually say yes. It's a great way to get in more hours." He didn't have to say he'd rather be up there than down here. Poe felt the same.

Poe still hesitated. He was almost one hundred percent sure Jacen hadn't forged or finagled this. Almost. Jacen read his worry. "I haven't stolen a ship since I was eight. I swear."

That sounded about right. Poe looked at the ships. "Which ones are ours?"

"These." Jacen led him to two antique A-wing trainers. "I'd love to get permission to take out an X-wing, but you scratch one of those and you never hear the end of it."

The A-wing cockpits were roomier than the ones in the X-wings. Poe went over his pre-flight checklist with a thoroughness underscored by giddiness. "Ready," he said over the comlink.

"Take the lead, Mr. Dameron."

Poe did one more sweep check of his vicinity, ignited the engines, and lifted off. He'd been out in these a few times with an instructor in the back seat ready to take the controls if he screwed up. Today he was on his own, except for his wingman in the ship coming up beside him smoothly. The controls fit to his hands like gloves. As he accelerated, the horizon zooming by, he knew this was where he belonged. All the rest, the command training, the tactical study, the mechanical engineering, all of it was there to allow him to do this.

They spent the first hour on the training course, practicing moves Poe was still mastering as they zipped through rings and banked through turns. Instead of making him redo flips like the instructors would, Jacen teased him until Poe redid them enough times to get the timing right.

"Not bad. Are you ready to break atmosphere?"

"You're sure we're permitted to take the ships that far?"

"I'm sure." He didn't sound sure.

"Jace?"

"I've never gotten into trouble for doing it before."

With Poe's luck, this would be the time. What the hell. "Let's go."

And they were off, soaring up into the sky as Poe watched light blue fade to dark fade to black and come alive with stars. He kept close watch on his altimeter, and a closer watch on his life support. These old things had been used in space and were designed for vacuum, but the vague creaks they made as they left the planet's thermosphere behind were enough to worry anyone.

Over the comlink, he heard a deep breath of satisfaction, which was nearly identical to a sound Poe had grown accustomed to over the last few weeks pressed into his mouth with a kiss, or hushed against his ear. Watching the stars slide by, he could relate.

"Where to?"

"Try that again, Cadet."

"Sorry," Poe said, with an extra dollop of irritation. "What's our heading? And you're a cadet, too."

"Yeah, but I'm the cadet in the lead. Catch me." Jacen's ship shot forward, and Poe instantly went on the chase, following his maneuvers as they headed towards the nearer of the planet's two moons, then reversed and dodged communications satellites.

He ought to be worried, he knew. If either of them made a mistake, they'd crash into a satellite, or into each other. But he knew they wouldn't. He'd always loved flying. His ship, old and clunky as it was, moved to his whim like it was part of him. Jacen showed him new moves, and Poe copied them like he'd been doing them his whole life.

"Nice," Jacen said as Poe executed a tricky double-slide. "I'm impressed. You may turn out to be the second-best pilot in the galaxy one of these days."

"Not me," Poe said. Then he banked and turned. This wasn't his best plan. He could see the move in his head, but he wasn't sure, not quite sure, how to pull it off. He gave it a shot, feeling the wings shudder as he spun, and praying to any nearby deities that he wasn't about to spin apart. He came to a stop by Jacen's wing.

"What was that?"

"A little something I came up with." He did not add, "just now" and hoped it wasn't obvious.

Jacen banked and turned his own ship. It wasn't a perfect copy of what Poe had just done; on the other hand, Poe wasn't one hundred percent sure he'd done what he'd tried to do, so it may have looked like that. Jacen pulled up along side him.

"It's an interesting evasive maneuver, I will give you that. Let me try it again." He repeated the trick, much more smoothly this time.

"Good job," Poe said, with as much patronizing condescension as he could get away with. Jacen laughed over the comlink.

They stayed out for as long as they could, finally heading back right before their flight time was up. Jacen didn't want to risk going back late and losing the privilege for next time. Poe paused his ship right before descent.

"What is it?"

Poe took a breath. "You ever get the urge to stay in the ship and just go wherever it takes you? Drop everything behind you and just go?"

"Every time I come out here."

He almost deflated, expecting Jacen to tell him everybody felt that way. But he didn't, and Poe wondered.

They brought the A-wings into the hangar, then performed their post-flight checks. Jacen took a look around the landing bay with a frown. He nudged the tech who took over his ship. "Why are those fuel cannisters out here? We talked about this."

"I know, sir. Instructor Dolu wants them on hand for quick access. He's in here tomorrow."

"But I'm here today."

The tech shook his head. "I can put them away, but he'll only make us bring them out again, sir."

The two of them headed back towards the dormitory, Jacen shaking his head. "The worst part is, you know the younger cadets will pick up the same habit."

Poe bumped his arm as they walked, still buzzing with excitement from their flight. "Then you and I will have to tell them to ignore it when their superior tells them to do something stupid."

They hit the showers. Instead of getting lunch after, they went back to Jacen's room and stayed there until dinnertime. They even spent part of an hour studying.

Free days were the best.