"I don't know why they're not following us, but I don't trust it," Poe said as we flew through hyperspace.
Chewy relayed something.
"The landing gear's busted? How busted?" Poe sighed. "Brace yourselves!" he called to the back of the ship.
Our crash landing onto the little planet of Kef Bir was less than comfortable.
As the Falcon skidded to a stop, Poe let out a noise of pain. It was his arm where he had been hit by the stormtrooper's blaster.
"Poe, you need to attend to that," I said.
"I know, I know," he mumbled, annoyed at the state of the ship.
Poe removed his scarf and attempted to tie it around the wound but couldn't do so with one hand.
"Here, let me help," I said, taking the scarf from him. I rolled up Poe's shirt sleeve to a rather nasty looking wound then took up a canteen of water and cleaned his arm, wrapping the scarf around tightly.
I could feel Poe's eyes on me as he watched my hands tending to him. "Try not to move it around—" I had started to say when Poe began speaking at the same time.
"Back there—" he stopped. "Sorry, what were you going to say?"
"Oh, uh try not to move your arm around so much once I'm finished," I said. "Just until we can get proper dressings . . . What were you going to say?"
"It was nothing," Poe said quickly.
We sat in silence for a moment.
"No, it wasn't nothing," Poe continued. "I was going to say . . . Back there, you know, when we were about to die . . . I kissed you and then you kissed me and—was that just because we were about to die?"
I finished wrapping his arm and put my hands in my lap.
"Do you want it to be?" I said at last.
"What?"
"Less complicated," I answered. "I just thought it looked like you and Zorii had a thing going—"
"No, that wasn't—it isn't," Poe sighed. "What I mean is, I like you. Like really like you, since before I even knew what love is. Back on Yavin 4, when we would play games and were partners in crime, I knew I wanted to have you in my life forever . . . then you disappeared and, I guess I forgot about that dream . . . But now," Poe took my hands in his, "we can be together. Maybe you don't want to and maybe I'm an idiot for thinking so and—"
I squeezed Poe's hands within his leather gloves. "Let's just . . . table this for a moment. Just until everything dies down a bit."
"Yeah . . . okay," he said softly, as if in thought.
I cupped my hand gently against Poe's cheek, feeling the rough patches of a beard coming in.
Finn entered the cockpit suddenly.
I pulled my hand back.
"Hey, we're gonna go look at the ridge, see what we can see."
As the group of us exited the ship and crested the hill, we were met with a dark, tumultuous ocean crashing dangerously on the rocks below us. Far off in the distance, as if creating its own island, was a decrepit metal structure sitting still amongst the roaring waves. It was the remnants of the infamous Death Star.
"It's gonna take us years to find what we're looking for," Poe said, looking across the sea.
Rey produced the Sith blade from her bag, examining it. Then, she held it up horizontally, looking out to the edges of broken metal, stopping when the ridge matched to the groves of the blade.
"The Wayfinder's there," she said.