The Art of Broken Pieces

The Last Porgs Standing

It felt like there was more she should do. In the relatively cool hangar of the Massassi temple nearest to Poe's estate, Rey stood with her friends, giving RD a few final orders. She and Ari'Li had spent several days modifying the beauty droid's protocols so it would clean up after the porgs the children had unsuccessfully hidden on Poe's estate, and also clean up after the kids.

There had been a great deal of fuss made about bath times and bedtimes, and Rey had grindingly suggested to Poe that he allow the children to skip the latter only if they could disable the droid's mod themselves.

But now the whole group of them stood in the hangar, everyone Rey had left to care about: Finn, Poe, Rose, BB-8, Chewbacca, Vara, Sarissa, and the rest of the orphans, only Ari'Li was missing. And, of course, Ben.

The new ship sat before them, already packed and modded and loaded down with everything they could lay their hands on that might help in the search for Hux. Lunch and Spoon had been relocated—the latter by Ben himself, who'd cursed at the violent creature the whole time—to their new home aboard.

Rey could think of no more excuses to stay, beyond the very real ache already starting in her chest. She would miss her friends.

Though his last conversation with the Wookie had not ended in the bloodshed that Ben had feared, there was still an awkward tension between them. Ben was fairly certain there always would be. Chewie had been speechless when Ben had offered him the Falcon, and while they had managed to completely avoid the topic of Han, Chewie had asked him questions about Rey. Ben had been almost embarrassed to answer, but the large wookie had practically picked him up, set him in a chair, and forced him to talk.

Now, with all the preparations that they could think of finished, Ben was finding useless tasks to keep him busy in the new ship's interior, whatever it took to remove him from the situation outside. The hangar was filled with people that Ben was certain still didn't exactly want to see him. Tucking his heels up on the console of the cockpit, Ben leaned back in the comfortable pilot's chair, enjoying the clean lines of it. It was a far step up from the Falcon's patched and lumpy seats, and it felt like flying in style.

Through the transparisteel windows Ben could see Rey working outside, her friends clustered around. He was aware of her stormtrooper friend, Finn, glancing constantly up towards the windows, as though still aware of his presence. The boy was skittish, though he clearly tried to hide it.

Hearing a porgish squall of indignation, Ben sighed and unfolded from the seat, moving into the ship's interior to see what Spoon was so angry about now. The little porg had been aggressively exploring the ship, complaining about everything.

Ben walked in to see the porg screeching at the access hatch to the hidden smuggling compartment, a voice shushing the creature from within. The hatch opened, and a small blue arm shot out, seizing the little porg. A moment later, there was a muffling of screeches, and a small, girlish yelp of, "Ow! Stupid porg!" Then, after a moment. "I'll fucking eat you."

Ben smirked, sneaking up to the panel and crouching down beside it. Reaching out, he knocked on the panel politely. "Anyone home?"

There was a beat of silence, followed by a muffled squaw for help, and a frustrated sigh. "Sure," Ari'Li said. "Come on in. We're open."

Pushing up the panel, Ben poked his head inside and looked around. Ari'Li had created quite a little nest for herself, a pack wedged under a set of pipes and a small blanket clutched in her arms. The blanket was squirming and screaming in muffled porgish rage.

"What are you selling?" Ben asked, amused.

"Roasted porg," Ari'Li replied. "Well. You have to roast it. I can kill it for you, though." After a moment, she looked up at him, eyes narrowed a bit, chin defiant. "You have to let me come with you."