Flying Through the Flames || Poe Dameron [The Force Awakens + the Last Jedi]

I Hope So

When I woke up, my face was right next to Nyssa's on the mattress. Of all the space on the fairly large bed, Nyssa was still right next to me: she hadn't moved an bit from where I left her. I inched my face back from hers to focus, seeing her eyes were still closed, quite peaceful.

I was very happy to see her like that as opposed to how she was the night before, more distraught than I'd ever witnessed her.

Honestly, one of the first things that came to mind, was Nyssa looked so beautiful in the soft light of the morning, so relaxed and calm.

I sure as hell wasn't going to wake her up if I could help it, so I moved slowly to untangle myself from her.

I started straightening my fingers that were still encased in hers, inching my hand away. Just before I got up, I kissed her hand. Even though she was asleep I wanted her to know how important she was to me, before turning towards the door that connected our quarters.

It was quite convenient having our rooms right next to each other, which was partly because of our close ranks, partly because we were best friends and General Organa knew it. Plus, it didn't matter all that much where people's rooms were. I opened the door before stepping into my room, sighing out of relief to know I was less likely to wake Nyssa with a wall between us.

I quickly changed out of my pyjama bottoms, that I'd been in since the night before, and the brown shirt I'd yanked on hastily when Calista called me, and into my flight suit.

I knew today was the day Nyssa and I were supposed to teach the Antilles Intercept, which was a x-wing manoeuvre made up by Wedge Antilles when he assisted in destroying the first Death Star. After that we were doing hand-to-hand combat, which Nyssa was exceptionally skilled at.

I wasn't going to wake her to do it though, I wasn't going to let anyone, I wanted her to be able to wake up naturally, regardless of what we had going on today.

After what she did last night, she deserved to have a chill day in which she did whatever she wanted, even if that was just sleeping all day. After looking at the clock on my wall, I realised I really should've been at breakfast by then, so I took off at a jog toward the Mess Hall near the main base.

...

Before grabbing something to eat, I found General Organa in the main headquarters.

"I think Nyssa needs to sleep today," I started, holding my hands behind my back as I walked into the room she was in. "She had a pretty rough night."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I don't really want to get into it--" I stammered, but General Organa nodded.

"That's fine." She replied. "You'll teach by yourself, then?"

"Yes ma'am. Though, I might get Jess Pava to help me a little or Snap Wexley."

"Good."

"What do I tell the kids when they ask where Nyssa is?"

"Tell them she's sick."

"Alright." I agreed, smiling slightly before beginning to turn away.

"One more thing Poe," She called after me.

"Mhm?"

"Is she okay?"

"I sure as hell hope so."

...

I was expected that the recruits would ask about Nyssa, but I'd underestimated how concerned they'd be. The first part of the day went smoothly, people were asking where Nyssa was, the question I'd been able to dodge, during flight training.

Although, almost all the recruits, save for Callie and Strørm, didn't act how they did for the hand-to-hand combat portion of the day, after lunch. The recruits were much noisier that time.

The moment Jess Pava and I had walked in, we were met with immediate silence and then the room burst with questions, as to why Nyssa wasn't here for the hand-to-hand combat that she was great at, and murmurs.

To be honest, I couldn't blame them for being curious: Nyssa was always here.

I held my hand up for silence.

"That's enough!" I said. "Nyssa's taking the day off. Long night. Yes, she's fine and yes, she'll be in for the next session." I allowed a small smile. "For today, I'll be demonstrating on Jess. We're going to be talking about how to disarm someone and throw them down. My personal favourite is the 'disarm and shoulder throw'. Goes a little something like this."

I introduced the technique, nodding to Jess, who held out her practice-blaster that didn't actually fire, as though she was going to shoot me.

I made sure my feet were in a solid position before I wrapped my arm around hers and twisted, flicking my wrist to send the blaster flying in one swift motion.

Using the same arm I had control over, I twisted my hips to pull Jess closer, bending my knees as I threw her over my shoulder, her body hitting the mat hard as she executed a perfect break-fall. After Jess got up, I took a breath, looking back to the group with my eyebrows raised.

"Any questions?"

"Is Lieutenant Tanager even on the planet?" Called a boy in the group, making my grit my teeth.

"Yes. Any questions about the technique?"

"Sure." He responded, his hand still up, looking over his shoulder to see a certain redhead appear in the doorway of the training room.

She put her finger to her lips, signalling to me and Jess, the only ones who could see her because the trainees were facing the opposite way, to keep quiet.

"Why isn't Blue Leader doing this technique?" The boy snarked, clearly aware he was annoying me.

"I believe I heard Commander Dameron say 'questions about the technique'." Nyssa spoke up from the back, every person with their back to her turning to look. Murmurs ensued, as well as smiles. "So stop being a smart-ass. I'm here now, so let's do this technique."

With powerful strides, Nyssa advanced towards the boy, everyone in the room able to tell he was in for it now.

"Your break-fall better be good, kid." She added, gesturing for him to raise his practice-blaster.

When he did, Nyssa disarmed him and executed the throw with impeccability and grace, the sound of the boy hitting the mat sounding clearly throughout the room. He was barely any weight to her; he flew through the air like a bird.

A few "ooh"s were heard, as we absorbed what happened. Because his break-fall actually was quite good, he didn't get hurt, though I didn't think Nyssa would let him get hurt anyway.

"What d'they call you?" Nyssa asked, arching an eyebrow, extending her ropy arm to him, bare because she was wearing a green tank top.

"Atom." He responded, taking hold of her arm as she pulled him to his feet.

"Alright Atom, let's get to it."

A/N: Thanks for reading everyone! Special thanks to Padfoot4eva for helping me write this all the way back when we were road-tripping.

Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think!!

- TAAF_