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"C'mon, Ben, what's taking you so long?"
Lying prone on the roof of his house, Poe peered over the edge to grin down at the boy struggling up the wall, who met his smile with a glare.
"You know I can't climb as well as y-"
Ben's foot slipped off a windowsill and with a yelp, he fell back to the earth. Laughing, Poe folded his arms under his chin and watched his friend scramble to his feet, dusting grass off his pants.
"Hey, maybe sixth time is the charm," he teased. Ben huffed, brushed the hair out of his eyes, then ran headlong at the wall. For a moment, Poe thought he might crash into it, but he jumped instead, struggling back up towards the roof.
By twelve years old, Poe had become a master climber. His father didn't allow him to fly anything suitably airworthy (yet, the boy always reminded himself), so in order to be close to the sky he'd resorted to climbing trees. The Force-sensitive tree in his yard had been his first success, and he'd taken naturally to it: his hands and feet seemed to have minds of their own, finding grips with ease and carrying him effortlessly upwards. No tree had defeated him yet; even without thick branches or solid footholds, Poe found a way up, and each time he broke through the uppermost leaves to face nothing but the vast and endless sky felt like the sweetest victory in the universe.
Ben, not wanting to be left behind, had begged Poe to teach him how to climb, and Poe had done his best. But Ben - taller than Poe, unfairly, despite being two years younger - didn't have the kind of coordination over his limbs that a good climber needed, and more often than not he ended up on the ground at least twice before managing to follow Poe up a tree.
Theoretically, the climb to the roof of Poe's house shouldn't have been hard for Ben. The house had no branches, sure, but there were plenty of handholds if you knew where to look, and you could even see the end of the climb from the ground.
But Ben had never taken to climbing like Poe had, and from the looks of things, he never would.
"Put your hand there, right there," Poe instructed, impatient. Ben did, but shifted his weight too soon and lost his footing, falling once more to the grass with a thud. He glowered up at Poe, rubbing the back of his head as his ears turned pink.
"You're doing this on purpose!"
"I'm not, Ben, really!" Poe sat up, folding his arms across his chest. "You just need more practice."
Ben didn't look convinced, but he got back to his feet and dusted himself off yet again.
"Okay," he finally answered. "Are you gonna come down?"
Poe couldn't resist a smirk. "No." As expected, Ben pouted. Poe knew this had never been about the lovely view from the top of the house, the comfortable way someone could stretch out on the flat and sunny roof - no, this was all about proving something.
"Come on!" the younger boy huffed. "That's not fair! You can't just stay up there forever!"
"Yes I can," Poe grinned. "I can and I will."
Instead of having another run at the side of the house, Ben stood still, thinking. Then, he took up some kind of stance, stretching his hands up out through the air at Poe. For a moment, nothing moved but the wind. Then Poe felt a tug, as though someone had grabbed him by the collar in an attempt to lift him. It took him a moment to realize what was going on.
"Hey, you can't use the Force, that's not fair!" he called down to Ben, who had his face screwed up in concentration.
"I can too!" he managed, his dark eyes still focused.
"You know I can't do that kind of stuff," Poe sighed, shaking his head.
"Well I can't climb," Ben retaliated. "So it is fair. I'll pick you up and move you to the ground instead."
That intrigued Poe. He'd known Ben for long enough to have learned about the Force and about Ben's abilities, but although Ben had never been shy about showing off to him, he'd never seen the other boy do anything more impressive than float a few rocks or a toy X-Wing through the air. Moving a person seemed like something far beyond Ben's abilities. And yet...
"You can't move people, can you? You've never even tried," Poe observed, feeling another tug, this time a gentle one on his arm.
"I'm trying now!" Ben snapped. His normally pale face had gone pink from the effort of concentrating. Poe watched, thinking.
In the past, challenging Ben had always produced results. The other boy didn't like being told what he could and couldn't do, and had Ben continued to attempt the climb to the roof, that would have been Poe's next move. C'mon, Ben, he could hear himself saying, you managed to climb that Massassi sapling last weekend, so this shouldn't be all that hard. And Ben would rage at him but keep trying, over and over, and eventually he'd make it to the roof and they'd lie back and laugh about it.
Now, he'd just have to make use of this knowledge a different way.
"Ben, you barely picked up that broken branch yesterday. I weigh at least three times that." Poe shook his head slowly, wearing an exaggerated frown. "Might as well just give up, you're just going to disappoint yourself."
Anger seared across Ben's face, sharp and quick as lightning and before Poe could react to the sudden and frightening emptiness in his friend's dark eyes he found himself airborne, yanked up off the roof by what felt like a giant unseen rope tied around his chest. A half-second later and the feeling vanished and Poe fell, arms pinwheeling for something to break his fall as the ground rushed up at him. Time almost seemed to slow down and he caught another glimpse of Ben, pale with shock, his eyes now full of equal parts awe and horror.
The impact knocked the wind out of him with a crack and pain lanced up his left arm and for a moment the world spun violently around and the only thing Poe could do was shut his eyes and pray for it to stop. And then everything slowly settled, and someone was shouting his name but it sounded so muted, and when he opened his eyes the spinning had stopped and Ben was kneeling next to him.
"What was that?" he mumbled.
"Your head's bleeding," Ben answered, trying to wipe Poe's forehead with a sleeve.
"No, before..." Poe blinked. "What was that?" He caught Ben's gaze but the younger boy broke it quickly, his eyes filling with tears.
"I threw you off the roof."
"You what?" Poe tried to sit up and Ben stopped him with a loud sniff.
"Don't, you shouldn't move, I have to-"
"Ben, that was crazy!" Poe seized one of Ben's wrists with the arm that didn't feel like it was on fire, and Ben stilled, confused by the tone of Poe's voice. "You actually did it!"
"I..." Ben sniffed again. "I actually threw you off the roof?"
"Yeah!" Poe grinned up at him. "You've never done anything heavier than pebbles or branches or... or things like that, right?" He waited for Ben's small nod before continuing, "But this time you picked me up! That was amazing!"
Ben didn't look quite so convinced.
"It was an accident," he protested, now wiping his own face with his sleeve. "I-... I wanted to do it and then when it happened I got surprised and let go-"
"You still did it, though!" Poe interrupted. "Wow..." For one short moment, even, he'd been flying - really flying. "You still need more practice climbing, though."
That seemed to settle Ben a little more, and a grin cracked across his tear-stained face. "Stupid," he sniffed, standing to his feet and reaching down to help Poe up as well. The world gave another dangerous wobble as Poe stood and he leaned heavily on Ben's shoulder, less resentful for the younger boy's height now.
"I think I broke my wrist," Poe muttered as the two of them limped back around the house, "so you'll have to practice on your own for a little bit." Ben shook his head stubbornly.
"I'm no good without you," he muttered. "I still haven't figured out where to put my feet."
"Aah, you'll get the hang of it eventually," Poe reassured him. "Everyone does. It's the same with the... Force things, isn't it?" Ben nodded solemnly, and Poe remembered that brief, dark anger that he'd seen in his friend's eyes earlier. It had been a one-off thing, he decided. It was like he'd heard some pilots say - sometimes you had to push yourself beyond your limits using whatever means you had in order to do something incredible.
"So what are we supposed to tell your dad?" Ben asked. "About your wrist and your head."
"Oh, we can just tell him I fell out of a tree," Poe shrugged. "It's basically true."
"You won't tell him I dropped you?" Poe glanced over at Ben, hearing the worry in his voice. Ben always had a knack for looking exceptionally solemn for a ten-year-old, and Poe could see fear still lingering in his friend's expression.
"You'd get in trouble for something like that?"
Ben nodded.
"Then I won't tell him. Everyone makes mistakes." Ben nodded again, taking a deep breath.
"Okay. I'm sorry about your wrist."
Poe shook his head, "It's fine."
"And your head."
Poe rolled his eyes, "Apologize one more kriffing time, Ben, I dare you."
Ben blinked, hesitated, then spoke up again as he fought back a shaky smile.
"I'm sorry for your house being tall and for Yavin-4's gravity-"
"Ben, I just said-"
"I'm sorry that you are so aerodynamic-"
"I swear I'm going to punch you if you don't shut up-"
Both boys were grinning by the time they made it to the front door of the house to let themselves inside, where they both received a lecture about safety from an angry Kes Dameron as they waited for a medic unit to arrive. It was only weeks later - after Ben had returned to his parents' planet and Poe's wrist had fully healed - that Poe made the familiar climb back up onto the warm expanse of the roof once again. Looking down from on high at the spot in the grass where he'd landed, Poe wondered. He'd spent years learning how to climb. He'd never really considered learning how to fall, because falling had never been a concern of his before. Perhaps he ought to start practicing.