╔═══════ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐍𝐄
'𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭-𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬' ════════════╝
the wedding, pt. I
━━ -ˋˏ★ˎˊ- ━━
...D'QAR, ILEENIUM SYSTEM
𝐈𝐓 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 of the afternoon to set up all of the lights. Reeve, with the generous help of Rose and Paige Tico, managed to drag no less than eleven crates of strand lights and ten more lamps out from maintenance storage. Aliyah and Lyra stayed outside in the cool breeze, busily hanging up strands as the rest of the wedding supplies were brought out. By some miracle, Reeve had wrangled Elgie into helping, and the little droid was puttering around using a retractable tether to help pull loads back and forth.
Lights were strung up in the air and tied around a cluster of six trees. It created what would be a well-lit altar at dusk, and it would also double as the reception area. Eleni had eventually agreed to help with the sound system and took over general organization, which was not Poe's intent. She was busy barking orders at Ellis who was trying his best to help her set up tables in a perfectly straight line. Dash Pellian and a handful of other pilots who had volunteered to help had been goofing around with the microphone, but as soon as Eleni saw them she went straight into Major-mode and started yelling, if you don't want to help, go back inside and fix a ship!
It all spilled out from the cement edge of the runway and into a small clearing that was the perfect size. The original idea had been to wrap the trunks of the trees with lights, but they realized that they wouldn't have enough for it.
Georgie placed the last of his strategically-organized lamps on the ground and stepped back to admire his work.
"That looks good, Georgie," Lyra said as she opened another crate. Eden was the only one not outside, deeply concerned about her family after her home system had been destroyed. Lyra and Aliyah had helped her set up transmission scans the previous night, but so far, it was fruitless. No contact had been made.
"Thank you," he nodded. "I've been to a fair share of upper escalon weddings back home. Those were all mostly for money. This is far more fun of an occasion."
"I bet the food was better at those weddings, though," Reeve said with her hands on her hips. "Shit, I'd kill for cake that wasn't dry as dirt."
"That's the spirit, Reviera," Georgie told her with a shit-eating grin.
"I don't know who's idea it was to let you access the Resistance's personele data registry." Reeve's face contorted with disgust. "I told you to stop calling me that!"
"Did you?" Georgie feigned ignorance. "Bugger, I must have forgotten."
As soon as he walked away, Reeve said, "He can eat my shoe."
After Lyra had strung up one last strand of lights, she hopped off of her little step ladder and admired her work. Aliyah stood next to her with a hand on her hip, chin tilted up toward the trees.
"You guys tested the lights before you started putting them up, right?" Reeve asked, in the middle of stacking up the empty crates so they were out of the way. When Aliyah and Lyra just blinked at each other, Reeve picked up her head and narrowed her eyes. "Right?"
"Well," Lyra coughed. "I thought Jess said she was going to do it."
Jess, who was a ways off helping Poe with chairs, lifted her head and yelled, "I did not! Don't throw me under the speeder, Lyra Endellion!"
"Whoops."
Reeve tilted her chin up towards the sky in utter disbelief. "So neither of you checked any of the lights that you just spent two hours hanging?"
"No." Aliyah shook her head, making her red hair swish back and forth.
Lyra dug her heel into the ground. "Definitely did not do that."
"Pilots," Reeve muttered, but she couldn't keep her face serious for very long. She started laughing like a maniac. "You guys are supposed to be in charge of our covert operations, but you can't properly hang lights?"
"I swear," Aliyah muttered to Lyra, leaning in close. "If the lights don't work she's never going to let us forget it."
Lyra looked at the extension cord that was still lying on the very edge of the tarmac. "They'll work," she promised.
"Oh-kay!" Reeve shouted, holding the cord above her head. She now had the attention of everyone in the clearing, including the guys who were bringing out more chairs for the tables. "Time to test the lights!"
Reeve plugged the cord in and nothing happened. She turned to glance at Lyra. "You're in big trouble now."
"Unplug it and try again," Lyra told her. This time, she tried to sense the electricity. It vibrated in the air, just waiting for a spark. Through the Force, Lyra breathed deep and summoned enough power to make the lights glow. The fear that had tightened in her chest constricted and then let go.
As soon as Reeve plugged in the cord, every single light flashed on like a thousand tiny stars in the daylight. Jess whooped and Eden gave a little clap at the sight of it.
"You cheated," Reeve muttered, leaning in close to Lyra so no one else heard. She knew what she had done.
Lyra shrugged absently. "I don't think that counts as cheating."
"This looks amazing everyone," Karé exclaimed, stepping off the runway and admiring all of the lights. She was practically glowing with happiness.
"Karé!" Jess admonished, running up to the other pilot. "You weren't supposed to see it yet! I thought you were getting ready."
Karé shrugged with an uneven smile. "It's my wedding, Pava. I wanted to make sure everything was under control before the ceremony instead of finding out when it was too late."
"Smart move," Eleni nodded. Poe gave her a swift punch in the arm, and she kicked him in the shin right back
Jess tried to usher Karé back inside, insisting that there really was no reason for her to be outside any longer. Slowly, the activity that had been concentrated inside the base was drifting out as more and more people came to check the progress of the wedding preparations. General Organa had strategically only scheduled patrols for the daytime hours, leaving the evening free for every person who wanted to attend the wedding. They wouldn't be defenseless, but for a few short hours, it would feel like there was no war.
Elgie rolled up across the grass, chirping a brief statement about there being more than enough people to help, and informing Lyra that the droid would be heading back inside to charge.
"Whatever you say, Elgie," Lyra grinned with approval. "You've been very helpful today, I'm proud of you."
If it were possible to huff in binary, it would be equivalent to the dismissive noise that had come out of Elgie's processor. Helpful was an insult to the green-striped droid's reputation.
Reeve and Lyra moved the remaining carts to the side before they headed back in. It was all going fine, Lyra was just putting a forgotten lamp out on the ground when Reeve's mouth opened and the words came out.
"Is there anything you wanted to tell me, Lyra?"
Reeve knew. Somehow, word had gotten out that she was Luke Skywalker's daughter and Reeve already knew. It had only been a day, but Lyra had kept secrets for lifetimes and it was nothing compared to the weight of this. If Reeve knew, it might actually be a relief.
"About what?" Lyra breathed, afraid of the answer to her question.
Reeve shoved her in the shoulder, pointing to a Poe who was unhurriedly hauling a set of speakers behind him on a wheeled maintenance cart. "About Dameron, dummy. You're so oblivious sometimes, it's astounding."
Lyra's heart rate slowed back down and she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. If she was going to keep losing it like that, her secret wouldn't say that way for very long. "No," she said flatly.
"No?" Reeve parroted, surprised. "Really? After everything, there's really nothing going on between you two?"
"Reeve," Lyra began, keeping her voice soft so it fell on Reeve's ears and her ears only. "That's the problem. I can't let go of everything that's happened. I can't--" Lyra shook her head once, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. Han falling in the red light flashed in her mind, and she saw the crimson flames of a fire. "I can't keep letting him so close if I know in the back of my head that something is going to tear it all to shreds."
Lyra was the risk, she was the person who was carrying around a secret so large, it would soon split the galaxy in two. A half life could never be fully lived.
Lyra watched as the joint efforts of Poe and Jess finally got Karé to head back into base. Karé glanced behind her one more time, shaking her head at the two of them. Bee zipped around under the lights, rolling back and forth like he was having the time of his life.
"I'm going to keep telling you this over and over again until it makes its way into your head and stays there," Reeve whispered. "You don't have to have everything figured out to deserve love and to give love."
Lyra had built an entire life for herself with the Resistance, creating something that would survive war even if all that was left was an empty shell. That was why it was so hard to realize that even her best-laid plans might not work out the way she wanted them to. She thought of Rey, who was sitting in the med bay, waiting for Finn to open his eyes. Lyra thought of the half-map to her father that was still just sitting idle in the command room and how soon, it too would begin to collect dust. Too many things were different.
"But everything is changing," Lyra told her, looking at the pilots and technicians who all knew that soon, D'Qar would be in the rearview of their transports as they left.
Reeve shrugged. "Everything changes, every single day that we fight this war, things change. That's why we're fighting, so one day, we can have more days like this. Days where things feel a little more stable."
Reeve was right, just like she always was, but that didn't change the last nagging thought at the back of her head. The one that reminded her of how he didn't seem to want anything more. The kiss on the cheek had given her hope, but there was nothing more to it. Any time something that would push them further from friends started to happen, either he would shut it down or it just wouldn't work. It was frustrating to no end, and anyone who believed in fate would say it wasn't meant to be.
Lyra risked another quick look over at Poe. He was laughing at something, all the lines of worry completely disappeared from his face. She felt the grounding pull in her heart. All her life, she had thought that falling in love was supposed to be like flying through the clouds. But now, she knew how that wasn't what real love felt like. Real love kept your feet on the ground.
"Now," Reeve said, picking up the discarded crates. "Let's get inside before Jess finds something else to make us do. I'm using your refresher to get ready, just to let you know. I need to take a shower, I smell like mildew."
Lyra gave a throaty, genuine laugh as she followed Reeve's lead and walked back to the service entrance. Over her shoulder, one last time, she looked across all the cracks in the runway and across the grass that had been smashed flat by a hundred pairs of boots. Lyra's eyes settled right on Poe.
And Poe Dameron was smiling back.
-ˋˏ★ˎˊ-
𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐄𝐍𝐆 was wandering around the halls as soon as they stepped through the double door that led out to the old end of the tarmac. She was the last person Lyra expected to see, and what was even stranger was the crazed smile on her face.
"They weren't there!" Eden exclaimed, throwing her arms around Lyra and wrapping her in an inescapable hug.
"Who weren't what?" Reeve questioned, extremely confused.
In a rush to explain, Eden pushed the hair out of her eyes and said, "They weren't on Cardota! My sisters, my parents, I didn't know if they had gone back to Cardota when it was destroyed by the First Order. They weren't there, they're alive!"
Lyra wanted to cry in relief. In the face of it all, miracles did exist.
Eden's eyes were still rimmed red, but the edge of anger was replaced by exhausted joy. "I still can't believe it. I forced my sister to send me proof of where they were, just to make sure. But they're all safe and accounted for, and now I'm ready to sleep for the next week. After the wedding," she corrected. "Sleep can wait a little."
Reeve and Jess were used to using the communal showers that sat at the end of their dormitory wing. Lyra had been spoiled with a refresher in her officer's quarters for years, and she had taken it for granted. Reeve had taken it upon herself to attempt a new galaxy record for the longest shower. By the time the door was opened and the steam rolled out into the rest of the room, Jess was already complaining about how Reeve had taken so long and that I'm the one who's actually in the wedding, I needed the shower more than you did!
In celebration of the news, Eden had insisted on doing Lyra's hair for her. She had done it for her sisters all the time when they were young, and Lyra was more than glad to listen to Eden chatter about her family while she twisted her long hair up into a crown of braids.
When Eden left to go change into a dress, Lyra had drifted down the halls to the med bay to get Rey. She found the scavenger leaning back in one of the chairs, just sitting and staring blankly at where Finn lay encased in a flexpoly bacta suit. Lyra had a startling reminder of the memory of Poe sitting in the very same spot. After everything that had happened in between, that night felt like a fever dream.
"Why don't you come get ready?" Lyra coaxed.
Rey blinked her tired brown eyes. "I think I'd better stay here instead. Someone needs to keep an eye on Finn."
Mich, who had been sifting through files at the desk, looked up and said, "I'm on duty, Rey. I'll be in here to monitor him."
"But--" she began to protest.
"I'll radio out to Lyra if anything happens, good or bad," Mich said, predicting what was about to come out of her mouth. "Doctor Kalonia said his condition stabilized, there isn't anything you can do sitting in here."
Reluctantly, Rey stood up from the chair and lead the way out of the room. Lyra glanced over her shoulder and mouthed thank you to Mich. He just smiled back.
As they walked down the hallway, people were rushing back and forth, all of them chattering excitedly. They walked past Rose and Paige, and Lyra had seen Eden rushing back and forth between rooms at the end of the dormitory wing. It was a nice change from the sullen, downtrodden faces that had been filling the base for weeks.
As soon as Lyra pushed open the door to her room, she was greeted by the lovely sound of Reeve shouting at Jess.
"Stop running around and pick a dress, damn it!"
Jess, looking frazzled, brushed past Lyra and scooted out the door. "I'll be right back!" she shouted behind her.
"What the hell happened?" Lyra asked. Rey stepped into the room behind her and took in the sight of her small quarters with curiosity. "When I left fifteen minutes ago, no one was yelling this much."
Reeve huffed, flicking her hair over her shoulders. "That was before Jess started freaking out that she wasn't gonna have enough time to get ready. When she wants to be, that girl is incredibly high maintenance."
Lyra laughed, biting back a retort about Reeve's ungodly long shower. She picked up Reeve's damp towel off the floor and hung it back on the hook. "I thought she said she had an hour?"
Then Reeve's brown eyes took on a suspicious glint, and she cocked her head to the side with a wry smile. "She thought so, until Dameron knocked on the door and told her she had about thirty minutes before they needed to head out. You just missed him."
"That's unfortunate." Lyra tried to remain unaffected so Reeve wouldn't be able to make her point.
Rey, who had already picked up on the situation, raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Were you looking for him, Lyra?"
Lyra pinched the bridge of her nose. Rey had spent far too much time hanging around Eleni. "No. I just meant that--"
"He sure was looking for you. That's the first thing he said," Reeve interrupted, crossing her arms across her chest with glee. In a terrible impression of Poe, she said, "'have you guys seen Lyra? I've been looking for her everywhere.' He sounded pretty desperate."
Lyra could feel the heat on her cheeks. She narrowed her eyes, trying to keep her lips twisted down in a frown. "He did not say that, Reeve."
Jess, with impeccable timing, stepped back through the door and said, "He definitely did. We both heard him."
"Better be careful, Lyra," Reeve continued, unable to resist. "Sounds like Poe Dameron might have a crush on you."
"A crush?" Lyra shot back. Her bright red face wasn't doing her any favors. "I didn't realize we were still twelve."
Jess clicked her tongue, ignoring the jeer. "If you really thought you could pull a fast one on me, Lyra, you're so wrong. I've called this for years."
"Okay, hold on a second," Reeve said, holding up her hand. "You haven't called it for years."
Jess waved her off. "I have, actually. You just didn't believe me."
And now Jess, Reeve, and even Rey were all staring at her with the same smug expression.
"That's enough," Lyra snapped, scooping her pillow up off the bed and sending it flying into Reeve's chest. "Why don't we focus on not making Jess late instead of you all being assholes?"
Reeve dropped the pillow and turned her attention back to Jess, who was carrying what looked like yet another dress in her arms. "Yeah, Pava. You don't wanna be late, or Dameron might come looking for you again and Lyra might have to actually talk to him."
Rey covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.
She ignored Reeve's comment entirely, keeping her expression calm. "If you want, Jess, you can go through my clothes. I know it's not a lot, but you might find something. Just don't take my blue dress, I'm going to wear it."
Jess heaved a sigh of relief, finally dropping the teasing act. "Thank you."
Lyra turned her head around so she could try and ignore the piercing stare of Reeve. "Come on, Rey, let me help you with your hair."
After only two more shouting matches with Reeve, Jess was out the door with five minutes to spare. Reeve sat out at Lyra's desk doing her own hair, while Rey sat on the stool in front of Lyra in the refresher. A pensive silence had descended on the room, so quiet that Lyra could hear the drip of water from the showerhead and the light tapping of Reeve's foot against the table leg.
"You know," Rey said, fiddling with the hem of her borrowed dress. "I've never been to a wedding before."
Lyra shook her head quickly. "I haven't either. In fact, there's a lot of people here who probably haven't. You'll find that most of us have had our sense of normalcy derailed in one way or another. You're not alone."
Rey smiled at this, turning her attention back to the mirror. Her hair brushed her shoulders, pulled back by the two strands Lyra had braided away from her face. Rey, wearing one of Lyra's old dresses, still looked incredibly sad. She was thinking about Finn.
"He'll be alright," Lyra said quietly. "I know it's hard to be happy, but you have to remember that everything is going to work out in the end," she finished wistfully, putting a gentle hand on Rey's shoulder.
Rey gave a small nod. "I know. I just hate to think that there's something else I should be doing, something I could've done to help him."
The Force was like a shared secret between them. Poe and Reeve at least knew about it, and Lyra had long suspected her squadron had turned a blind eye to it, but Rey was the only one who understood the true extent of it. She had been by Lyra's side when she learned the truth, and then Rey had been stolen by Kylo Ren and dipped into darkness like cold water.
Lyra set the hairbrush back down on the counter. "There are things that can't be stopped. No matter what the reason is, some fates are too powerful to change. And, there's an art to understanding that people make their own choices even when we want those decisions to belong to us. The least we can do is try not to put all that blame on ourselves."
Rey took in Lyra's statement with a solemn expression. "It's hard, isn't it."
"It is," Lyra sighed. "I've never been good at it."
"But it gets easier," Rey nodded with a tight-lipped smile. "It won't always be this hard."
"Another optimist," Lyra grinned, looking at Rey through the mirror. A girl with ghosts not so different from her own. "I think you're going to fit in well around here."
-ˋˏ★ˎˊ-
𝐏𝐎𝐄 was waiting for Jess as patiently as he could. He had knocked on the door thirty minutes ago, looking for Lyra for no reason other than to talk to her.
Ever since the adrenaline from Starkiller ebbed away, the nagging feeling of discontent took over. He needed to do something to prove to himself that he could live without telling Lyra the truth, but so far he had come up with nothing. The kiss pressed to her cheek felt so far away, and all day he had only caught glimpses of her. Helpful for the lying-to-her-face situation but terrible for the being-in-love-with-her situation.
"Poe!" he heard Jess yell, weaving through the parked ships that remained inside. "I'm here, I'm here!" She jogged over to him, completely out of breath. Her hair was left down and long, and her purple dress glittered in the fluorescent hangar lights.
"C'mon, Pava. We can't have the wedding start without us."
Jess was so giddy with excitement, Poe had to almost jog to keep up with her. "This is amazing," she breathed, dancing around as she walked. "I can't believe they're actually getting married."
"You know, I can't really either. This couldn't have come at a better time."
It was still so strange to walk through the base and pass the dented ships that had carried them all off to destroy Starkiller Base mere days ago, dressed up for the wedding of two of his best friends. Karé, who Poe had known for years, was more excited than he had ever seen her. Snap was equally nervous, going on and on all day about how he was going to mess up the vows, or that something was going to go disastrously wrong. Part of Poe was looking forward to the wedding ceremony being over so Snap would stop losing his shit.
The sun was setting, streaking the sky with gold and pink. It looked like a million fireflies had come to life just off the edge of the runway where all the lights were set up. The breeze ruffled his hair, carrying away the light chill of the coming night. The evening was perfect for a wedding. BeeBee rolled on ahead of them, making his way into the neatly-gathered crowd. People were starting to make their way to the clearing and the noise of excited chatter drifting easily through the air.
After he assured the fidgeting Snap that the rings were indeed in his pocket, Poe made his way through the crowd. He had been trying to find Eleni, but then someone accidentally shoulder-checked him and he stopped in his tracks.
"I'm sorry–" Lyra started to say, but then she realized it was him. "Oh, it's you."
He had seen beautiful girls before, pretty people galaxy-wide. But this was different. This was Lyra Endellion standing in front of him in a light blue dress that hugged her olive skin and complimented every curve and edge of her muscular body. With her gold-toned, gray streaked hair pulled back in a loose crown of braids, she was breathtaking. He hadn't even had a sip to drink yet, but the same head-spinning intoxication pulled at his senses.
She beat him to speaking. "You look nice."
"You look–wow, you look really nice," he told her, pulling his scattered, love-struck thoughts into a terrible sentence.
"Your tie is crooked though." She sighed like she couldn't believe the audacity of it. "Here, let me fix it." Heat flared where her hand grazed his neck as she adjusted the fabric. Her face was so close to his, he could see the faint dusting of freckles over the bridge of her nose from time in the sun. She was so close to him and still he felt the miles of distance.
"Thank you," he told her slowly. "I need to talk to you about something."
"Dameron!" Jess shouted. Eleni, also up at the head of the crowd, was grinning like mad. "Get your butt up here!"
Lyra gave him a resigned smile, running the charm of her necklace along the chain as she spoke. "Better get up there before she drags you."
His feet wanted to remain rooted in their spot. Selfishly, he wanted to waste this night. The night he had so carefully planned for the last day was starting dim in comparison to this, to her. How terrible was it to want something so badly when your best friends were getting married?
━━ -ˋˏ★ˎˊ- ━━
a/n uh oh a cliffhanger 🤠
sorry that I've been MIA but in case you haven't heard I'm slowly disembarking from the struggle bus!! truly truly don't want to disappear completely, and keeping things on the dl is the only way I can maintain a media *presence* these days.
--nat <3