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In her defence, Rey didn’t even notice it happening. She would be sitting down in front of Medical after checking up on Finn and a sad-looking droid or two would tap her shoulder and ask her if she would fix an antenna, or an arm-plate that’s hanging off to the side. Since she had nothing better to do with her down time, she would fix it, and send the droids away with a kind word and a pat to the head.
After one of her daily visits, she stepped out of Medical to find a whole line of droids with BB-8 at its head, beeping happily and looking none the worse for wear.
Rey feigned a world-weary sigh. “You told them all about your antenna, didn’t you?”
For a droid, BB-8 put on a convincing display of contriteness. Rey sat down, hiding a smile, and began straightening out the nearest droid’s antenna.
Soon enough, this became a habit, and Rey would find a few droids lurking near her quarters, or a long line of them outside Medical, some with no conspicuous mechanical damage whatsoever. BB-8, whenever he was around, would shoo away these droids with a few well-chosen beeps.
“Oh, don’t get jealous. You’ll always be my number one droid, and you know it,” Rey remarked, laughing at the little ball droid’s antics. BB-8 spun around, looking unimpressed, and left her to her “droid clinic”, as it came to be known around the base. She later learned that in terms of droid following, she was second only to the Resistance’s golden boy Poe Dameron, who had not only charmed the entire base with his winning smile, but the droids as well.
Rey found it a soothing way to spend her free time. She would often talk at length with the droids while she was fixing them, learning more about their masters and the tasks they handled on the Resistance base. This companionship was a welcome change from the utter desolation of Jakku, and the seemingly endless days spent waiting, just waiting…
It was then that she noticed that behind the last droid in line - BB-8, looking hale and hearty as always - there was someone who was very much not a droid.
Orange and white, yes. But there, his similarity to BB-8 ended.
With an innocent as you please face, Poe Dameron held up his helmet. “Will you fix me too?” he uttered, grinning broadly at Rey’s bemused face.
He burst out laughing when Rey said nothing and continued to look at him as if he’d lost his wits.
“Okay, okay, I’m not trying to make fun of you or anything. I couldn’t find any of my droids so I set out to look for them. I had a hunch they’d be around here.”
BB-8 made a series of soft beeps, too fast for Rey to interpret. Poe glared at the little droid, gently kicking him until he went quiet and rolled away with what Rey was sure was an irritated huff.
“No, it’s alright. I think BB-8’s been gossiping about the time I fixed his antenna. Now all the droids in the base look for me to fix them,” she replied with a small smile.
She had only talked to their best pilot once before, although she’d heard much about him from BB-8 and Finn. Away from the melee of the briefing room, she felt the full force of his presence, his disarming sincerity and the unwavering gaze of his warm eyes.
Poe laughed again. “He excels at that sort of thing,” he said, looking at the ball droid with fondness. BB-8 preened, spinning around Rey making happy beeps.
“Well, what do you say, BB-8, let’s do something nice to make up for all the trouble you’ve caused her,” he said, giving Rey a warm smile. “I hear you’re a pretty good pilot yourself. Would you like to fly one of our X-wings some time? I could show you around if you’d like.”
Rey had already toured the Resistance hangar on one of her solitary strolls, but she was yet to fly one of their mighty X-wings. A little instruction wouldn’t be unwelcome, she supposed. Neither would some company, she mused, searching Poe’s face, and finding that she still liked it, especially with that wide, sincere, and frankly beautiful smile.
“That sounds wonderful,” she replied, with a matching smile.
BB-8 rolled around both of them, softly beeping something suspiciously similar to ‘idiots’.