"You came here for a book?" Poe asked incredulously. He scrubbed a hand quickly through his hair while he turned to the king who sat beside him, an apologetic expression on his face.

Luke opened his mouth to answer but the jedi beside him butt into the conversation.
"Poe, you know us, why are you treating us like prisoners?" Rey protested, slightly squirming around in her shackles.

"You don't get to talk." The pilot pointed a finger at the girl, before turning his hand towards himself. "I get to talk. You lost your chance to talk when you illegally landed on this planet."

Rey kept her mouth shut as Poe let her jedi master explain that the book had cryptic directions on an ancient technique in fighting. A technique that was frowned upon by jedi and used only by sith. He feared that the information could get into the wrong hands.

"Do you still have the book? It's the one I gave you after Shara died." Luke's voice was filled with urgency.

"I-" Poe looked down at his feet, furrowing his brows before looking to meet Luke's eyes. "Of course I do."

His loyal droid whirled over to Poe's feet, a compartment opening, revealing the small and very worn book. The pilot reluctantly grabbed it, patting BB-8 on the head in thanks.

"Here," The pilot placed it on the table, eyeing the book with a fixed glare before looking down at his hands.

Din had the trio of criminals unshackled, allowing Luke to approach the table.

The jedi skimmed through the pages carefully as Poe tapped his right hand skittishly across the table in waiting.

"There are pages missing." He announced quietly, his index finger running down the spine of the book, the tell tale sign of ripped paper left in their trace.

The pilot leaned forward, his hand balling into an angry fist.
"What?"

-

Poe hastily tossed a duffel bag onto the ramp of the Millennium Falcon, turning around and nearly colliding into someone.

"Why won't you talk to me?" There was hurt in Finn's eyes, making the pilot feel rather guilty.

"You embarrassed me." Poe had a fixed glare on his face, looking over his friend's shoulder at the Mand'alor's ever nearing figure. He went to move past Finn to greet him before a hand stopped him.

"Hey,"

"Don't, Finn." Poe murmured quietly, locking eyes with the man. "You need to understand that the life I've created here is important to me. I can't have my friends breaking into the planet I'm supposed to help rule." He explained right before the king along with the armorer neared them.

"Look, we'll talk about this later, 'kay?" Poe smiled, placing a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I'm coming with." Din announced, arms crossing over his chest.

The pilot let out a laugh, shaking a finger at the man. "That's funny. You're not coming."

There was a beat of silence.

"Wh-No, you're not." Poe scoffed, the smile on his face quickly dropping. He turned to look at Iva. "He's not."

There was yet another moment of quiet as Poe glared at the man's visor.

"Come with me." Din spoke, turning to leave, expecting the pilot to follow after. Poe's shoulders sank as he turned to look between Finn and the armorer, rolling his eyes before jogging after the other man.

"I don't think you understand how dangerous this is." The Mand'alor's voice was just above a whisper when Poe moved to walk alongside him. His visor didn't meet Poe's eyes, instead, his helmet was focused on where they were headed.

"I've been through worse." Poe hummed as they entered the privacy of an empty flight command room.

He noticed that Din grew visibly more frustrated when they were away from prying eyes. "I don-I just need to be there." He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at Poe. "With you."

"You weren't with me for the past 35 years of my life and I've been fine, haven't I?" Poe muttered, annoyance evident in his voice as he glared at the mandalorian.

"But I'm here now." Din snapped, a sharp edge to his voice Poe hadn't heard before.

He reeled back slightly, clearly taken off guard. His eyes danced across the man's beskar helmet for a moment.

"...What's that supposed to mean?"

Din didn't say anything for a moment.

"It means what you think it does." He said cryptically.

The pilot's swiped his tongue across his lips, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at the man's visor. Din let his shoulders sag, assuming that Poe would be complacent and speak civilly. He was wrong.

"I don't know why you're telling me this now." The pilot had seethed, moving forward to point an accusing finger into the other man's chest.
"I-I don't even... Kriff, you don't know how much you aggravate me sometimes." Poe moved his hand away from Din's chest, it quickly balling into a fist. The fact that the mandalorian hadn't said anything yet pissed him off even more.

"I understand." Din nodded numbly, tilting his head at his spouse. "You want to join your friends again. Join the stormtrooper."

Poe's teeth gritted against each other as he violently shoved Din, making the man stumble.
"Fuck you." He hissed out, keeping a hand kept at the mandalorian's collar.

"Is that not the truth?" The king's voice was gritty and held little emotion. It made it feel like a serated blade had sliced it's way between them.

"You don't know anything." Poe kept his face blank, though his eyes betrayed him. He was hurt, though he wished he wasn't.

"Then tell me." Din pressed, leaning closer, making their faces mere inches apart.

Poe's thumb dug into the other man's collarbone lightly, rubbing invisible circles as he thought for a moment.

"It's-I never expected you to be... nice." He cringed, trying again. "You were supposed to be an awful person, at least that's what I had expected."

Din nodded slowly, urging him to continue.

"But you're," Poe sighed as he looked up for a moment, collecting his thoughts, before he met Din's visor again.
"You don't yell at me for talking your ear off, your kid is really cute, and the-" He waved his hand around his face "helmet kinda' does something to me."

A small laugh filtered its way through the mandalorian's helmet.

Din's gloved hand softly met the side of Poe's neck, gently smoothing the goosebumps adorning his skin.

This was a start.

A really, really, good start in Poe's opinion.