Chapter Text
I.
Their first meeting was awkward. Very. And not for the obvious reasons.
Not because Rey had never before met the man who was pressing her so tightly against him that her feet didn't touch the ground any more.
Not because she'd spent the past fourteen years banished to a scorching, filthy sand hole where physical displays of affection hadn't exactly been part of her daily routine.
It wasn't even because the sudden contact brought back thoughts of the last people who had held her this close. Finn who came back to save her and was now fighting for his life in the medical unit. And Leia who had lost so much in just one day that Rey wondered how the General was still standing.
It was awkward, because Rey found she liked it.
Maybe she was just letting herself be carried away by the high spirits in the control room. Maybe she needed something a little silly and light-hearted after the days she'd had. And maybe, just maybe after years and years of isolation and loneliness it was nice to find herself enveloped firmly by a pair of strong arms and safely tucked against a broad, warm chest.
She liked his smell. Even if the bright orange of his jump suit hadn't given him away before, his smell would have been enough to tell Rey that he was a pilot. He smelled like machine oil and sweat and the ozone that filled the air after a battle. And there was something else. He smelled green. Like raindrops on leaves. It was a spicy, rich smell that reminded her of the magical moment she had stepped out of the Millennium Falcon to take her very first breath of clear forest air on Takodana. Oddly enough, the smell faintly reminded her of Finn. She probably liked it even more because of that.
He took a step back then, releasing her from his arms and Rey was a little embarrassed to find that she wouldn't have minded staying like this for a little while longer. She lifted her head to look at him.
He was older than her, if the first traces of silver in thick, tousled black curls were anything to go by. His nose was slightly crooked, like it had been broken at some point. When he gave her an awkward smile she saw soft wrinkles around his eyes – witnesses of a life full of laughter and smiles that left Rey strangely envious, but with a smile of her own – and the tiniest gap between otherwise perfect, white teeth. It was a good face, she decided. Handsome. Friendly. She added it to the list of things she liked about this complete stranger.
“Uh, hi”, he mumbled and it was only then that Rey noticed the look of mild discomfort on his face and she realised that he was just as embarrassed as she was. “I'm Poe.”
She nodded slowly as the pieces began to fall into place. Poe. Poe Dameron. She was looking at the man who started it all. BB-8, Finn... It was his mission that set in motion the events leading her here. In a way he changed her life as much as any of the others she'd met those past few days and he didn't have the slightest idea. But while a part of her felt like he should know his role in bringing her here, she found like this was neither the time nor the place to tell him. This whole encounter was already weird enough as it was. “I recognise the name”, she said instead. “So you're Poe. Poe Dameron, the X-Wing Pilot. I'm Rey.”
“I know”, he said. “Nice to meet you.”
Of course he knew her. Everyone did. Rey had seen the way people kept looking at her. She'd heard them whisper as she passed by on her way to see Finn in the the medical unit. Yesterday she had been a nobody. Scavanger scum. Now suddenly she'd become this obscure symbol of hope. She didn't even know how word of her force powers has gone around so quickly – or at all – but the halls of the base were abuzz with rumours of the “Jedi Girl” and she found herself wishing she could go back to being no one.
Because no matter how she looked at it, Rey could see no scenario in which she wouldn't let everyone down. Because even if they found Luke Skywalker and even if he agreed to show her the ways of the Force, how were two Jedi – one and a half, really – supposed to take down the First Order? Suddenly being no one didn't sound so bad at all.
Poe Dameron was still smiling at her and Rey could feel some of that weight lift from her shoulders. Because he didn't expect anything from her – no Jedi tricks, no miracles, not anything. She wasn't even sure how she knew this – if it was the Force, intuition or just the way he was looking at her. But she did know and she probably liked him a lot for that alone.
“It's nice to meet you, too, Poe”, she said with a small smile of her own. “BB-8 has told me all about you.”