Stitches | Poe Dameron

xviii

"Poe and Mage wanna meet us in the canteen." Esma came up to our locker area. I placed my coat in my locker and closed it as Esma stood waiting.

"Again?" I asked and followed her out of the room. "Why can't they understand that medics eat in the medic ward?"

Esma laughed, which confused me because I wasn't trying to be funny. We walked out of the medical ward.

"Why are you laughing?" I ask.

"There's no rule saying we have to eat there." She pulls on my elbow to lead me towards the canteen.

"Easy for you to say," I scoff, "you don't have to deal with the looks from other people."

"That's because I don't have the best pilot in the Resistance wrapped around my finger." Esma teased and nudged my shoulder. I roll my eyes, that was completely untrue.

"Poe is not wrapped around my finger." I say and nudge her back as we approach the canteen.

"Oh please," we walk through the door and head towards Poe and Mage. "Poe would steal an X-Wing for you."

"Poe would steal an X-Wing for himself anytime." I dismiss her example. Esma huffed as we approached the table.

"Fine, fine." Esma sits beside Mage as I walk around the table to Poe. "But my point still stands."

Poe wraps his arm around my shoulders as I sit down beside him.

"Hey Stitches!" He sends me a big smile and I half smile back. "I have an exciting afternoon for you."

I cross my eyebrows and accept the food that Mage pushed towards me. Her and Esma immediately indulged in their own conversation.

"What do you mean?" I ask and take a bite out of my salad.

Poe removed his arm from my shoulder and took a bite of his food.

"Well I thought that I could teach you a bit about what I do." He said.

"But I know what you do," Poe raises a questioning eyebrow at me. "Sort of."

Poe shakes his head.

"Why did you even come to the Resistance?" He asks.

I shrug my shoulders and look at my food.

"Safest place in the galaxies." I look at him. "And I don't like bad people."

Poe smiles at me.

"None of us like bad people, Stitches." Poe pushes his plate towards me. "Want some?"

I look at his plate and notice most of it is meat, I politely shake my head.

"No thanks," I smile a little. "I'm vegetarian."

Poe looks confused and he pulls his plate back.

"You are?" He asks and I nod my head.

"All Grenians are vegetarians." Mage interrupts our conversations and Esma and I nod in agreement.

"Plants are a really big thing on Grenene," I inform Poe. "I've never had meat."

"Neither have I." Esma says then her and Mage go back to their conversation.

I watch the two of them for a bit and noticed something. Esma was twirling her hair, a move that I noticed she used when she was attracted to someone. Perhaps she wanted some alone time with Mage. I turn to Poe who happily ate his lunch.

"When can we get started?" I brought his attention back to me and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"What?" He asks and I finish up my lunch. Jumping up I grab his arm and lightly tug it.

"I want to see what you planned for us to do." I coerce him to follow my lead. Poe reluctantly leaves his food on the table and rolls his eyes before standing up. I bid the two girls goodbye, flashing Esma a knowing look to which she winks.

"Why the sudden interest?" Poe looks at me weirdly but nonetheless follows me out of the canteen.

I flash him a teasing smile but don't tell him why I wanted to go. Instead I slip my hand into his and intertwine our fingers.

~*~

"Nope, no, definitely not." I stated and cross my arms over my chest.

"Come on, Stitches." Poe laughs and smiles from the top of his X-Wing. "It'll be fun."

I shake my head vigorously and stand my ground. No way I was going into that flying death trap. I could mess things up, I could accidentally break it, there were so many things that could go wrong.

"I understood what it is you do, isn't that enough?" I sigh to Poe. He just laughs and jumps out of the X-Wing, in his hands were an orange jumpsuit identical to the one he was wearing.

He took a couple steps towards me and stuck it out.

"Put it on." His eyes sparkled and he pouted as I looked at him. "For me? Please?"

I sighed in defeat and took the jumpsuit from his hands, oh the things this man can make me do. I quickly put on the suit - although it was slightly large -and trudged towards the ship. Poe leaned against his X-Wing and looked me over.

"You look great in the suit, babe." Poe smirked and I blushed intensely and stared at the floor. Poe walked over to me and grabbed my hand to pull me towards his ship. "There's only room for one so it'll be a bit squished."

I nodded and climbed on the ladder into the cockpit, Poe followed after me and I stared at all the consoles and levers and buttons. Never before have I been so dumbfounded. Poe climbed behind me and sat in the chair - the only chair. He waved his hand for me to come closer.

"Where do I sit?" I ask and look around to see if there was any other place to sit. Poe grinned.

"With me of course." He took my hand and pulled me down, I fell onto his lap.

"This is not safe at all." I said and shook my head, but Poe's arms around my waist prevented me from moving. He moved his legs so that I sat between them instead and then removed his arms from my waist. A second later he placed a helmet on my head, which was too big and instantly tipped forward. "Poe this is a Death wish."

"Calm down, alright?" His arms then came from behind me and proceeded to show me what everything on the control panel does.

It took about 20 minutes for me to properly tell him how to hypothetically start and fly the X-Wing.

"Amazing, Stitches!" I could hear the smile in his voice and I was internally proud of myself. "Now do you wanna try for real?"

My eyes widened and I retracted my hands off the panel and shook my head.

"Please no, I don't want to." I said and turned back to look at Poe, the helmet falling over my eyes again so I couldn't see. Poe lifted the helmet off my head and placed in beside him. "Please don't make me." I said softly.

Poe shook his head, wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

"Don't worry," he said, "I'm not gonna make you fly it."

I sighed in relief and let myself lean back into Poe's chest. My eyes closed and I felt his lips lightly kiss my temple. I smiled.