"You should sleep in your own bed more," Ket told Poe one day as he was switching out his old clothes for new. "Not that I mind having the place to myself."

"I figured you'd be glad to get rid of my snoring."

"I am. But I also don't want to lose the room because you were kicked out."

Poe paused. "Why would I get kicked out?"

"You're never here to study."

"I study upstairs, and Jacen has already taken these classes. Perfect tutor."

"I wouldn't get too hopeful about that. I hear he's on the borderline for getting shown the door himself."

Poe sat down. "Why are you talking to other people about my boyfriend?"

"Like I said, I don't want to lose my single. Besides, people always talk. You should learn to listen, and not just to guys like him." A series of hot words came to Poe's lips, ready to defend him automatically before Ket raised one of her right hands to stop him. "I'm sure he's great. He's also picked up twenty-eight demerits for talking back to the flight instructors. The Academy kicks you out after thirty."

"You've seen the things they try to tell us. I swear some of these guys have never left atmosphere."

"That doesn't matter. They're in charge, and if you keep talking back, you're going to wind up hauling ore for a Trandoshan instead of flying an X-wing. You're better than that. You're smart, Poe. You're already a fantastic pilot. You can go places with your career." She turned back to her terminal. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah."

He took his things up to the room he was increasingly thinking of as theirs and thumbed the entry open. Jacen got back twenty minutes later, which gave Poe too much time to stew inside his own head.

"Hey," Jacen started, and instantly dropped the smile when he saw Poe's face. "What's wrong?"

"How many demerits do you have right now?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I'd have to count. I think I'm at twenty-eight or twenty-nine."

"The handbook says they expel you after thirty. You told me you were aiming for thirty."

"Where's the fun in staying away from the line?" He grinned. "Seriously, Poe. It's fine. They're not going to expel me. I don't even have Dolu for the rest of my flight rotations this year, and most of them have been from him because I embarrassed him my first time out and he's never forgiven me. Bad news though. Your company has to put up with him instead, and your squad is on the first rotation."

Poe groaned. "Which means I have to be the one to play nice."

"You do. Some free advice: don't aim for thirty demerits before you graduate. With your mouth, you'll overshoot."

"I dunno. It might be fun to hit twenty-nine this year and ride the line for the rest of my stay."

Jacen made a face. "There are days I worry I'm a bad influence on you."

"Don't worry. You're definitely a bad influence on me."

"So," Poe said, not at all casually as he finished his history reading for the night.

Jacen was still at his terminal, finishing up his jump calculation homework. "So?"

"Mid-year break is coming soon." Two point five weeks of leave. He was counting down the days.

Jacen erased the full line and started over. "Yeah?"

"And there's a formal right before."

"I know you have a point somewhere in here."

"We could go."

"You can go. Have a great time and tell me all about it."

He sidled up to Jacen, who deliberately ignored him as he focused on his work. "It would be fun. The food is supposed to be much better than the regular crud. We'll get to see everyone in their dress uniforms and we can make fun of them together. There's dancing."

"I do not dance."

"You'd be a great dancer. I can picture you now." Poe closed his eyes and swayed. "And you'd have the best-looking date at the Academy at your side, which means you couldn't help but look even better."

Jacen rubbed his head. "New conversation. What day are you leaving for break?"

"The day after. I'd love to show my dad pics of us from the formal."

"I'm not going. You can go without me."

"I bet your mom would love pictures, too. You could send one to your sister, and to those uncles you mentioned out in Wild Space. Didn't you tell me you have this whole extended family? We could send pictures to all of them."

A look of mild horror crossed his face. "I swear if you don't stop talking, I will Force choke you."

Poe smiled sweetly. "You don't know how."

"I'll learn!" Calculations finished, Jacen closed his terminal. Then, irritated glare still in place, he took Poe's hands, pushed him onto the bed, and tickled him until he was gasping with laughter.

"Human fashion ideas are stupid," Ket said, twitching around in her dress uniform. "Are you sure it's supposed to work this way?"

"I think so?" Poe had dropped by to change his flight suit for a fresh one, and had been dragged into helping his roommate figure out the details of her uniform. Unlike her flight suit, this had been tailored for an Ardennian of her size and build. Like her flight suit, it was modeled off a pattern created with humans and near-humans in mind.

"This looks terrible, doesn't it?" she said, twisting around to see herself in the one small mirror, standing on various sets of arms to get a full look.

"You look fine. I didn't think you'd go."

"Why not? The food's supposed to be fantastic. Besides, Larnek from Zeta Company asked me to go."

"Aren't you technically married?"

"Aren't you asking a lot of questions?" she shot back. "Don't worry, I will keep far away from you and your date."

"I'm not going. Jacen doesn't like dances."

"Sounds like a personal problem to me. Fine," she said with a deep sigh. "You can tag along with me and Larnek, but stay out of our pictures."

"I'll think about it."

She waved one hand at him. "Go, don't go. It should be your decision. You don't have to do everything with your boyfriend. What are you going to do after he graduates? Mope around for the next two years?"

"I said I'd think about it. Are you done?"

"I guess. Can you help me unfasten the back?"

"I've got transport lined up for tomorrow," Poe said to the hologram of his father. "I should be there two days from now."

"I can't wait to see you." Dad's face was one beaming smile. "You look like you've grown another two inches."

"It hasn't been that much," Poe said, a little embarrassed, and a little happy he'd noticed even over this flickering connection.

"Is Darius well?"

"We split up a while ago."

"Sorry, you told me and I forgot. Well, you need to spend that time on your studies."

"So everyone keeps telling me."

"When it's the right time, the right person is going to walk into your life, and they're going to be lucky to meet you. You don't have to rush into meeting them today."

Poe smiled, but this was a long-distance communication, and he'd rather tell his dad everything in person, even without a picture from the formal. He'd gone back and forth with what to say. "You remember when I told you General Syndulla's son was in my class last year?" Or, "Did I mention Jacen and I are spending a lot of time together?" Or most likely, "This isn't the best picture, and his hair isn't this bizarre metallic red any more, but this is Jacen, and sometimes he's kind of a jerk and most of the time he's my best friend, and I really want you to meet him."

For the moment he said, "We've got so much to talk about when I get home. After I sleep for the first week."

Dad laughed. "Fair. I'll see you soon. Love you."

"Love you, too."

The transmission ended. Poe cleared out of the comm cubicle. He was almost packed. He had one more class this afternoon, then he would finish up. His ship departed first thing in the morning. He sighed, making his way to Tactics with the same edgy distraction everyone around him shared. Half of them were excited for tonight, and the rest were eager just to get out of here for a while. The instructor either took pity on the class, or else she knew they wouldn't retain anything from today's lecture, and she let them go as soon as she could. Evening PT had already been cancelled.

Poe went back to their room. Most of his possessions lived here these days. He'd even put up a couple of his posters on the walls. He'd have to remember to drop by his old room later and make sure he hadn't left anything important.

When he opened the door, multiple things were awry. First, his bag had been moved to the side, which was fine, he shouldn't have left it in the middle of the floor. Second, Jacen was wearing his own dress uniform. Third, Poe's uniform was laid out on the bed, the creases stiff as though it had been pressed today.

Poe's mouth popped open.

"Well, put it on," Jacen said, with a mixture of impatience and nervousness. "We've got a few hours, but the fasteners for these things are ridiculous, and we'll want to get dinner before we go."

Poe dropped his class bag, grabbed his boyfriend, and kissed him hard.

"How much time did you say we have?"

"Not that much time. But you do owe me for this. There is dancing in my immediate future, and it is all your fault." Jacen fake-shuddered then stroked his cheek playfully. "We'll have to think of a fun way for you to repay me."

"I am already coming up with ideas." Poe picked up the uniform. "Help me get naked so I can put it on?"

"That is an excellent start."

Poe only slept for two days, climbing out of his bed for meals before passing out again.

"You are taller," Dad said when Poe was finally awake enough to carry on a conversation. "I'm starting to wonder if it's because you're always asleep." He ruffled Poe's hair, which Poe was too old for, and he loved it anyway.

"I haven't been getting a lot of sleep. All caught up now, though."

Dad gave him a look. "A message came through for you this morning." He pulled it up and showed it to Poe.

"I miss you. See you soon." Dad could read the grin on Poe's face well enough, and gave an exaggerated sigh.

"You're supposed to be studying."

"I do study. And they're finally letting me fly."

"That's good. It's about time you got to show them what you can do." Pride beamed in every word. "Just promise me you'll spend more time on your academics than on your social life. If you want to be a pilot in the New Republic Navy, you need to be an officer first."

"I can do both." It was a deflection and Dad wasn't fooled for a moment, but Poe had already gone to his bags and dug out his prize. He handed his father the picture of the two of them in their dress uniforms, white-gloved hands clasped. "See? I even look like an officer." He'd barely looked at it before now, but as he tilted his head to see the picture in his dad's hand, he noticed he was beaming at the holocam while Jacen's impish yet fond expression was aimed solely at Poe. A weird warmth touched him, part embarrassment, part something else.

Dad examined the picture for longer than Poe was comfortable with. "Your mom would be so proud of you." He gave Poe a kind, sad smile, then handed it back. "You look really happy."

Poe returned the same smile. "I am."

Classes kicked off hard as soon as they were back. Poe had thought he spent a lot of his time studying before. Now they were up past lights out while finishing homework or going over notes before passing out, too tired to do much more than fall asleep together. Free days were less of a break and more of a chance to catch up on lagging assignments.

"I've got two ships reserved for tomorrow," Jacen said with a yawn. "We can go out for a few hours first thing, then work for the rest of the day."

Poe looked at the pile of notes. "I don't know if I should."

"I know I definitely shouldn't, but if I don't get out there for a while, I'm going to lose my mind. Stretching your wings a little would do you some good, too."

It wasn't hard to talk him into it. Poe already felt the stress roll off his shoulders as they stepped into the hangar at first light. The fuel crates were in the wrong position again, and Jacen glared at them. "Come on. Let's move those out of the way." Poe helped him move the antigrav carts to the far side of the hangar well away from the ships.

"Why does Dolu do that?"

"Readiness drills. Your squad will start them next. Readiness won't help anyone if they're dead." He shrugged off the bad mood. "Come on. I'll race you into space."

"You are on."

Readiness drills started the next rotation. Every pilot also had to be trained in every duty for ground crew, including emergency fueling.

"You have to be on the spot, ready to get those ships back into the air," droned the instructor. "Your quick action may make the difference for winning the battle."

Poe bit his tongue and went through the exercises with the rest of the squad. Third year cadets brought their ships in, and their squad got them refueled and out again. Ket was the fastest at pushing through a ship, her team regularly clocking in a full minute sooner than the others.

"The lesson is, speed wins the day," said Instructor Dolu.

Poe said, "Looks to me like the real lesson is, hire Ardennians because they're the best." That earned him a laugh from a few members of his team, a nod from Ket, and one demerit. Worth it.

The training course on the planet's surface was better for learning how to maneuver quickly. They'd gone out again, even though the free hours would have been better put towards a project Poe had due tomorrow in his military history class. "I came to the Academy to be a pilot," he'd said, and it wasn't as though Jacen would argue the point with him, despite papers of his own due tomorrow in two of his classes.

"You have to be more careful when you bank," he said to Poe over the comm. "You're not pulling up soon enough. This course has repulsors in the walls. You try that in a real scenario right now, you'll splatter yourself on the side of a mountain."

They went through the course again. This time Poe paid attention to where Jacen turned, and tried to copy the exact same spot, and felt the rubbery bump of the wall repulsors again as he made it through the corner. "I turned when you did. Why didn't you hit it?"

He heard a pause. "Because I'm me. Use your nav systems. That's why you've got them. Go through that corner again. I'll hover and watch from up here."

Poe grumbled and made another pass, now keeping his eyes on his nav system's readout while at the same time keeping his vision on the walls surrounding him. He almost made himself dizzy crossing his eyes that way, but he made it through the corner without bumping.

Back on the ground, Jacen clapped him on the shoulder. "You're getting really good at those corners. Believe it or not, there are cadets in my squadron who still bump the repulsors. You're already outflying them."

"How long did it take you?"

Jacen waited until the hangar door was closed and they were alone in the corridor heading back. "That's different. I always know where the walls are."

Poe snorted. "Right. I wish I could do the same things you do." He closed his eyes and held out his hand mysteriously until Jacen snorted and batted it down.

"That's not how it works. Anyway, you don't need to be like me. You're a fine pilot on your own."

"But I'd be even better if I was like you."

He shook his head. "You don't want to be like me. People like me get murdered for being like me." For a moment, a shadow passed over his face, which he pushed away as he grabbed Poe's hand and swung him around. "I am far more interested in you being exactly like you." He kissed Poe, distracting him from asking what the hell that was about.

They went back to their room. Poe was always worked up into a buzzing glow after flying. He wanted to use this desperate, frantic energy to pound his boyfriend into the mattress, already half-hard at the prospect of sliding into that smooth, tight heat. His project was waiting for him, though, and if Jacen didn't write those papers he was going to wind up flunking both classes. Sex was all well and good, but Dad would never forgive Poe for washing out of the Academy because he was too busy getting laid to finish his homework. He could only imagine Jacen's mom's expression as he explained the same issue to her.

On the other hand, Jacen had the same thrilled desire that Poe felt now written all over his face. As they both stripped off their flight suits, Jacen not so casually moved the pack of flexithins where they would be easy to reach from the bed. Poe pretended to ignore him, and with the same lack of casual ease pushed the bottle of slickoil closer to the flexithins.

What was one more hour?

"Do you think we could request our postings over break together?" They were curled up, warm under the blanket. Poe fingered Jacen's hair, still damp from his latest experiment. The hot pink was nothing special, but the white streaks peeking out from under the top layer caught the eye in a pleasing contrast.

"I don't have a posting over break, remember? I don't get a break."

"You get your orders. I could request my posting for the same place you're serving."

"Not a good idea. I'll be a full officer and you'll still be a cadet. After I graduate, we won't be permitted to date."

Poe groaned. "For two years." He knew this was coming. He didn't have to like it.

"For two years," Jacen said, wrapping his arm around him, "we will have to be discreet."

"Says the guy with the neon hairdo. You don't do discreet."

Jacen kissed his head. "I'll learn."

Thinking back later to that day, Poe recognized the reasons why things happened the way they did.

First, a group of plebes was taking their scheduled tour of the flight hangar. This happened every several weeks, but each time, the new squad stood around and gawked at the ships and at the older cadets getting ready to fly them. It was routine for everyone here, but not for the first years.

Next, Poe's company had Instructor Dolu, who'd learned to fly at the old Imperial Academy and taught like they were all still there, minus the stormtrooper helmets and the creepy Imperial propaganda on the walls. He was slated to retire in another year. Poe was already looking forward to spending his final year without Dolu's droning, and often incorrect, lessons. The prospect was enough to keep him from pointing out the instructor's errors during their class. Later, he'd have to wonder if everyone had come to that same conclusion, had stopped challenging him for the sake of getting through their own day just like the techs did.

Jacen's squad had lost their regular instructor the week before due to a personal issue which the instructor had to take leave and deal with. That put their rotation this week into the same hangar as Poe's squad. He was glad it was this semester instead of last. Last semester he'd have spent the whole class time sneaking looks and daydreaming. This semester, they'd settled in something more relaxed. One peek was enough.

Later, he'd think through the lesson and the situation, wondering if he could have said or done something differently, and if he would have.

The plebes were watching Poe's squad, and Dolu basked in their enforced attention. "Readiness drills! You get the ships refueled and back in the air to fight."

Everything happened at once. Ket pointed out the ship coming in too hot, and one of the plebes shouted the wing was on fire. The techs on duty moved towards the hangar bay opening to direct the ship, but the A-wing didn't alter course. Later, Poe would know the ship was being piloted by a third year still nervous at the stick and an instructor whose backseat controls were fried, but right now all he heard were the screams.

The burning ship scraped into the hangar, ripping off the other wing, which flew wide, and skidding and bouncing towards the plebe squad and the fuel cannisters on deck beside them.

In one tenth of a second, the future spooled out in front of Poe's eyes, and it was very, very short.

The ship...stopped. It floated in midair, still burning, while the wing, which had been headed towards another squad, stayed in place.

On the other side of the ship, Jacen stood with his hands out. He held both the ship and the broken wing hovering in place, his body shaking with the effort.

The cadets panicked. The instructor in charge of the plebe squad stood there, as shocked as the rest were. No one was getting out of the way.

Poe shouted, "First year cadets! Double time out of the hangar, now! Gamma squadron, move those fuel cannisters!" His own squad moved towards the hovering, burning ship, and the fuel dangerously close to it, confusion slowing them down. The ship was floating? Was this another drill?

"Move it," Poe ordered, since no one else was giving orders. "Get those cannisters out of here! You people act like you've never seen a Jedi before." That was a word they knew, grabbing onto the strange, ancient word like a line back to sanity. Ket grabbed two anti-grav carts, reaching her arms wide. More cadets took the rest, moving them far away from the burning ship while Poe grabbed one of the techs and went for the fire suppression gear.

As soon as the fire was out, the ship set down gently. Two techs climbed to the canopy, using leverbars to pry it open. Someone else had broken from their paralysis and called for the medics, who hurried in to help the young pilot and the instructor.

They seemed okay from here, and Poe let that assessment ride through his exhilaration. He could afford one more demerit today. He turned to Dolu. "Are we ready enough for you?" Without waiting for the answer, he made his way around the ship. Jacen stood there, not moving, hands made into loose fists at his sides. If they hadn't been standing in front of all these people, Poe would have kissed him.

"That was amazing," he said, grinning from ear to ear.

He expected the rest of Jacen's squad to mob him, clapping him on the back and cheering the way the squads always did when one of their own did something particularly impressive. Instead, they stood back. Poe was too busy looking at the weird emotion on Jacen's face to pay attention to them.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." He didn't look okay. He looked like he was about to lose his breakfast all over the deck. "I have to go." The vaguely shocked expression flickered for a moment as he looked at Poe. "I'll see you later." He turned and walked out.

Barbin said, "What the hell just happened?"

Instructor Dolu said, "Back to work, cadets."