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Poe was on his back in the bay, tinkering with the X-Wing's undercarriage, when footsteps sounded in the hangar, even and firm. "One 'sec!" he called. He smoothed a strip of insulation back into place and stuck it down with electrical tape, and jiggled it to make sure it held – good. Closing the belly, he swung upright.
"General!"
"Pilot," General Organa-Solo said. She was in her off-duty clothes, which in Poe's experience usually meant an emergency or a really brilliant stupid idea was about to happen. "Could you…stand up straight, please?"
Poe jumped to attention, and she smiled. "Thank you." She walked around him. "Yes, I think you'll do quite well."
"Ma'am?"
"At ease," the General said. "Could you meet me in the little council room in fifteen minutes, please – and wear, er, whatever you've got that's nice."
"Ma'am."
They saluted, and Poe scurried off, wiping the grease from his forehead.
Six months after officially joining the Resistance, he still couldn't believe he got to see General Leia Organa-Solo every week, exchange a few sentences with her if he was lucky – never mind the reason he'd joined the Resistance, she was the reason he was a pilot at all. He still couldn't believe she was a breathing human being, whose hair started to wisp out of its braids in the afternoon, whose skin looked a little thin up close, who got cranky after midnight but still argued brilliantly and who once had snapped, "Discipline, Dameron!". Poe couldn't believe General Leia Organa-Solo knew his name.
Poe didn't have anything to wear that was nice, really, but he pulled on his cleanest formal trousers, a fresh shirt and his favourite jacket, and was at the little council room in fourteen fifty-five. To his surprise, the General was alone.
"We've just heard from a contact on Tranio, who has information on the First Order they want to pass on."
Poe closed his eyes briefly and pulled up his mental map of the galaxy. "Tranio – baby little water planet just past Coruscant?" He frowned. "Shouldn't be a problem. I'm always happy to fly you, General, but it's a straight shot and not too far – might be a good chance for one of the new graduates to get some space time?"
"Not quite," she said, "and please – for this, call me Leia." Poe swallowed, and nodded. "Tranio society is highly structured – class and social differences are strictly regimented, as you'd expect from a tiny rich planet next to an important capital." Poe didn't know enough about planetary social dynamics to expect that, but hey, that was why he was the pilot and Leia was in charge of everything. "Our contact has requested a meeting at the Pearlflower Ball next week, where most of the planet's families will be in attendance. It's a good choice – it means there will be enough guests to avoid attracting attention." She smiled, and Poe's stomach flipped over. "It also means I need a date."
***
The best part, Leia had explained, was that it didn't matter if Poe danced badly or made a small error of etiquette, because "fortunately you're good-looking enough that it will be pretty obvious why you're here with me".
Poe had grinned cheerfully, stuck his thumbs up and said, "Understood, General!", and speedwalked back to his room, where he had jerked off immediately. That wasn't an option now that they were actually about to walk into the ball, so he breathed in, and tried to pretend he was the kind of person who went to elegant parties with Leia Organa-Solo all the time.
Most of the attendees were wearing various shades of white, opal or pearl, but Leia had picked out all black for Poe: tight trousers with a bit of stretch, and a structured short jacket that ended just below his waist. It felt light, and expensive. Leia was wearing a white dress, like she did whenever he pictured her fighting in the first Rebellion, but with hints of iridescence.
She put his hand on his arm – this happens all the time, Poe told himself – and they stepped down the staircase into the room.
Poe was more than happy to play the part assigned to him, smiling vapidly at Leia, laughing uproariously at her jokes, and fetching her drinks. He didn't know a lot about style, but a handful of other guests were wearing black too, and after observing them Poe realized Leia must have dressed him as a servant, or a paid companion.
Goodness.
They were approached by a humanoid with wide slitted blue eyes, who curtsied and said silkily, "Ambassador Organa! Such a surprise to see you here, looking so well."
"Lady Dymx," Leia said warmly, "the pleasure is all mine."
Lady Dymx appraised Poe. "I heard you were with some sort of…military…organisation? You never can tell with the news, I know, but…?"
"Oh, heavens, no," Leia exclaimed, "I'm mostly retired."
"A relief," Lady Dymx said. "It's so distasteful, I find."
"I quite agree," Leia said, her tone matching that of her conversation partner. "Too many have lost the art of diplomacy – proper diplomacy, you know."
"Precisely," Lady Dymx said. "It's violence I can't abide. Oh, everyone goes on about how terrible the Empire was but you never saw anything here in the Core – except those horrible uniforms, and even those weren't so bad when you got used to them."
"You should have seen what was under them!" Leia squeezed Poe's arm – that was a signal. He threw back his head and laughed.
"Darling," he cooed, "you're too much!"
"And who is this little Antarean button?" Lady Dymx said. "A hostess gift, I hope?"
"I'm afraid not," Leia said, her hand tightening just a fraction, unconsciously. "I promised his parents I'd look after him."
Poe smiled blandly.
"Sweet thing," Lady Dymx said regretfully.
"Isn't he just," Leia said, and led Poe away towards the perpetual fountain in the corner.
"What the hell kind of place is this?" he muttered into Leia's ear.
She shrugged. "Collaborators, too comfortable to care either way as long as they're safe, does it matter? The one reassurance I tell myself is that they're much less dangerous than the ideologues – no one on Tranio will keep fighting a war they've already lost, unlike the First Order."
"Or us," Poe said.
Leia looked up at him sharply – and smiled again, a real, radiant smile. "Or us," she agreed.
What the hell, when was he going to get this chance again. "Shall we try a dance?" he offered.
"That's ambitious."
As Poe expected, he didn't win much general admiration, but nor did he embarrass himself; and when he did make a mis-step, Leia covered it over gracefully, turning the awkward movement into a seemingly intentional half-turn. By the end of it she was even leading him, lightly, and Poe was more in love with her than he had been at the beginning.
After an hour, their contact hadn't made themselves known, and Poe was worried about what his next reckless move-stroke-genius idea for their date would be. "Shall we step out on the balcony – maybe they'll be waiting to talk to us without people around?" he suggested.
Sure enough, a few moments after they went outside, while Poe was conscientiously unfolding Leia's fan for her, a small alien appeared in the doorway, and slithered over to Leia. It spotted Poe, and made a questioning noise.
"It's all right, he's a comrade," Leia said.
"Thank you for coming," the alien whispered. "It's difficult – but I'm lucky. I can, I have – here." It produced a small data box. "Maybe not much, but – "
"Everything helps," Poe said warmly. He accepted the box, and tried to shake the alien's appendage in friendship; but it scooted away, apparently with a little alarm.
Leia examined the box briefly, and slipped it into her handbag.
"It certainly does," she said. "Thank you. I think this will be very helpful indeed."
"Really?" the alien said. "It was worth it – that is – thank you – you have my utmost – good-bye!" And it vanished back inside.
"Curious," Poe said.
Leia smiled. "Yes, I suppose you might think so. Shall we head off and see what exactly we can do with this?"
They left unobtrusively, without goodbyes – "saying farewell is considered rude on Tranio, lucky for us," Leia said dryly – and half-ran to their little cruiser without bothering to change out of their party clothes.
"Fun night!" Poe said, settling into the captain's chair. He half-turned to face her. "Thanks for taking me out, General."
"Thanks for coming with me – I know it probably wasn't your first choice for how to spend your night off," Leia said. Poe couldn't find the words to express how wrong, wrong, wrong she was. "You were great," she said, looking down at him. "You looked just like – well, never mind."
A moment hung in the air, that Poe wanted to catch in his hand and keep forever. He took a breath.
"C'mon," he said. "I've heard the record for the hop back is – fifteen parsecs?"
"Thirteen," Leia said.
"I can beat that," Poe said, and turned around and put his hands on the controls.