30 | the art of scraping through

"SO WHAT NOW, SPACE BOY?"

RESISTANCE BASE, ILLENIUM SYSTEM-

"I thought I'd find you in here."

Kyra turned her head from where she sat in the pilot seat of the Millennium Falcon, Han leaving the ship a couple of minutes before to deal with the aftermath of Leia. They had sat there for a couple of hours, quietly talking about small things that had no consequence to take their minds off things. "You sure it isn't the only reason you came on the Falcon?"

There, in front of her, was Poe. His gaze was just as comforting as ever, a soft smile at the edge of his face as he ran his hands over the worn down leather seats of the Falcon. There was a hidden joy and almost nerdiness that Poe tried to suppress as he inspected the ship, but the fact that he tried to hide it just made Kyra smile even more.

"Yeah, maybe that wasn't the only reason that I wanted to come on here. This ship- it's pretty much a legend in it of itself." Poe admitted, giving a hasty laugh as he gave a quick glance over to where Kyra sat, seeing her smiling at his awe.  He ran his hands over the buttons of the Falcon, looking at the copilot seat that was open, pointing at it. "Can I?"

"Go ahead." Kyra gestured towards the seat, throwing her hand at the chair carelessly. "Han's not here, and I technically have control over the ship until he gets back." She stated, vaguely remembering the words that the smuggler had told her. "He said he trusts me, as long as I don't take her out for a spin while he's handling Leia."

"Ah." Poe settled into the seat slowly, trying to savor every moment of him settling into the chair. The ship- it was a little run down, sure, but it was just how he had imagined it to be. The controls, the piloting system- everything about it was just amazing to even witness. He gave a small wince at the mention of what Han was doing, pity flashing through his face. "I would not want to be in his shoes."

"No one would." Kyra agreed, the stories of the encounters that Poe had with General Organa coming to mind. Some of them Poe had told her himself, while others had slipped out stories and jokes from all of Poe's pilots and other Resistance friends. "I've heard the stories from Snap of how many times you've gotten on her bad side."

"Guilty as charged." Poe chuckled hastily, trying to suppress the memories of all of the times that Leia had told him off for not doing the specific part of the missions that he had been required to do. Even before Leia in the New Republic's fleet, he had always been one to defy orders.

There was an awkward pause after Poe spoke, something that was uncommon for the two who normally had so much to say. Under normal circumstances, the silence would be filled with talking, or at the very least not have been this awkward. But there were things left unsaid- things that had to be addressed between the two.

"What happened after I- you know-" Kyra stopped, hoping that Poe was going to have some answers for her. She knew that her actions probably weren't the best reaction to the situation, but in her defense, having a bombshell like the one that she had dropped on her wasn't very ideal either. She wasn't exactly sure how to ask the question either, and hoped that Poe could understand what she was trying to say without her having to explain it outright.

"Well," Poe rubbed his hands together, giving a nervous look over to Kyra.He figured that it would be easier to rip off the bandaid rather than drag on the conversation, realizing that Kyra wasn't going to stop asking until she got answers.  "General Organa came clean about the whole you being a Skywalker thing after you left. Guess she figured it would be easier to tell us rather than have the pieces of the puzzle be put together by us."

"Huh." Kyra placed a finger on her lip, her throat only able to make the strangled sound before going quiet again. She wasn't sure how to react to all of this information exactly. She had expected it, sure, but hearing the words come out of Poe's mouth made it seem so final. Everyone she was close to knew the one thing that she had to figure out herself- barring Finn. Excellent. Just another thing to worry about and weigh down her decision about what she was going to do.

Fox would tell her to go, his loyalties to the new cause that he was under telling him to do the best thing for the Resistance. He would also want her to go and meet Skywalker because he was her father, and he only wanted what was best for her. It was sort of funny how predictable he would be in that situation- the only person out of the group that was easy to read about their reactions to the whole lineage problem.

Rey? In all honesty, Kyra had no clue what she would think about this whole situation. She would probably want what was best for Kyra in the end, as the young woman wasn't too involved with the Resistance just yet. Kyra wasn't really able to place her on a definitive side- which was frustrating when weighing the pros and cons of her decision.

With Han, she knew that he would support her with whatever choice she made. The smuggler and Resistance hero had made that point obvious enough in their discussion only a couple of hours before. He would back her up and defend her no matter what choice she made, and Kyra was grateful for that.

She had no clue what General Organa wanted- and that was what scared her the most.

"What do you think about all of this?" The words were forced out of Kyra's lips, the woman wanting her partner's input on the whole situation at hand. "I mean, you're going to be the one most affected by this, excluding me, of course. We've been able to spend and cherish the last few days together, and I don't want to leave you again out of the blue."

A deep sigh resounded from Poe in that moment. He had expected the question to come, sure, but he didn't really have a straightforward answer for the whole situation either. "I- Well, I probably don't have much input to say on this that will help your decision. I want you to stay here, with me and the rest of the Resistance, but I know how important it is to get Skywalker back."

"So then I shouldn't go." Kyra reasoned out, her eyes turning from where they were upon the sky to meet Poe's gaze. There was a desperate finality in her eyes, hoping that Poe would validate her answer.  "I don't want to leave you or Fox yet, and I just got the two of you back. I don't want to give it all up to go on a quest for Skywalker without even knowing if he's going to return."

"But Kyra, he's your father." Poe shared the other side, getting a groan from Kyra as he spoke. That was definitely not helping anything. "I know. I'm not making this decision easier for you." He reached out his hand, grabbing one of Kyra's softly, their eyes still locked. "But this is a chance for you to meet him. To see your father face to face. Isn't that worth giving everything here up?"

"Yes? No?" Kyra questioned herself, shutting her eyes as she gave another groan, her head falling as her mind was confused with more variables than it had been before. "I don't know. Everytime I think I get somewhere on this matter I end up circling back to where I began. I have to consider the Resistance and the entire galaxy, I don't want to make the wrong choice and have everyone else pay for the consequences of my actions."

"It's... a lot to process." Poe agreed, rubbing his thumb over Kyra's knuckles, the motion sort of soothing to the woman. In that moment, he just wanted to help lift her burden a little, even if it was a large and overbearing one to help take a load of. After all, that was what you were supposed to do for someone as significant as Kyra was in his life. "At the end of the day, it is your choice, Space Girl. This is your life that you're deciding, not anyone else's."

A small chuckle escaped Kyra's lips at the mention of her nickname, the former First Order member looking back up at Poe, his face lighting up a little more when she did so. "I can't believe you still keep that stupid nickname around for me." She smiled, shaking her head softly. It was sort of amusing to her, the fact that he was still using the name that she had been called in their first encounter so many years ago.

"Why wouldn't I? After not knowing your name for- what- four years? I think I have every right to call you Space Girl." Poe laughed with Kyra, seeing her blush a little at the mention of him not knowing her name for that long. If there was one thing that Poe could do for Kyra in this situation, he could take the bait of a conversation switch and take her mind off of it. It was the least he could do.  He wasn't going to just forget about the discussion, but he would put it to the side for now. "Besides, I think it fits." He complimented Kyra, his tone genuine and caring.  "You always love looking up into the sky and the space beyond in the galaxy."

"I suppose you're the Space Boy then." Kyra's soft smile spread into an almost devilish one, finding the nickname that had slipped out days before by accident almost fitting. "The Space Boy to my Space Girl." She placed her free hand over the one that Poe already had a hold of, looking fondly at the man across from her.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way." Poe agreed, his smile spreading as their lips met again. Leaning across the aisle of the Falcon, the two melted into each other again, Kyra keeping her balance ever so carefully. Her hands cupped around Poe's face, she used her feet to dig into the side of the Falcon to make sure that she didn't fall over- which somehow worked.

What she didn't notice, however, was that her foot pressed one of the buttons to help kickstart the Falcon, the engine roaring to life underneath them with a steady roar. Kyra gave a surprised yelp, losing her balance as the loud noises startled her. She almost tumbled to the ground, Poe barely able to catch her before she fell flat in her face.

"For the daughter of a princess, you aren't exactly what I'd call graceful." Poe chuckled, lifting her up to let her sit back down in the pilot's seat. The steady roar of the engine now was a sound in the background of their conversation, the flickering lights that indicated that the ship needed to be pressed to start flight flashing at the two.

"Who ever said I was graceful?" Kyra huffed, settling back into her seat and seeing the controls around her now lit up, life all around where she was sitting. "Woah. What the hell did I just do?!" She questioned, turning around to look at Poe with a confused look. Kyra had flown the Falcon before, with Rey, so she knew most of how the ship worked- but she hadn't expected that.

"Well, looks like you kickstarted something." Poe turned to look at the buttons that were in front of him in the co-pilot seat, the flickering lights more obvious to him than they were to Kyra. "The ship's on- and we know that- but there must have been a button for quick engine startup that was installed that you discovered. The ship's ready to fly."

"Woah. Okay." Kyra looked around at the ship's controls, instinctively reaching out to try and adjust the ship so that it could operate properly. "Alright, so if we found the secret button to kickstart the engine, there's got to be a way to turn it off."

"Well, now that she's up and running, I say we take her for a spin ourselves. I've always wanted to pilot the Falcon, and you're pretty experienced with getting her out of tricky situations." Poe suggested, his eyes giving a small yet noticeable pleading look over to Kyra. "We haven't been able to explore the galaxy together. I did say that I could take you across the galaxy, and I intend on keeping my promise."

There was a small internal debate inside of Kyra as she weighed the consequences of stealing Han's ship from him- especially after he had just gotten it back- but hey, they were going to return it, and it wasn't like they were going to wreck it. They were going to go for a small cruise, and that was about the extent of it.

"Fine." Kyra caved, a look of pure glee falling upon Poe's face as he started to fix and adjust the controls of the Falcon to prepare for takeoff. "But you owe me a spotcka at the first cantina we spot on whatever planet we're going to."

"I can make that deal." Poe agreed, a laugh of joy escaping his lips as he felt the ship leave the ground, the Falcon leaning a little bit unsteady as they hovered a couple of inches above the landing bay. Looking over at Kyra, there was a large smile on her face as she pressed the controls that were needed on her end.

"Where to first, Space Girl?" There was only one question on Poe's mind as they worked in tandem to help properly let the Falcon leave the Resistance base, eventually leaving the planet's atmosphere. The stars above them dazzled with bright promises of hope and happiness, Kyra wanting to bask in their hidden whispers of promises and secrets all day.

"Let's just see where she takes us." Kyra shrugged, all controls flying steady as she leaned over to Poe, giving him a small peck on the cheek as she looked out at the stars. The freedom of going wherever she chose was one of the best feelings in the world, her heart feeling fulfilled and filled with opportunity.

"Alrighty then." Poe smiled, reaching above him to flick down some switches to allow Hyperdrive to come into play. His hand rested over the switch, Poe inclining his head to allow Kyra to place her hand over his. "Whenever you're ready."

Wrapping her hand around his, Kyra gave his hand a small squeeze of love. She was ready for whatever journey that was going to come next with Poe- whether that be fighting battles on different fronts for the Resistance or working together. They had each other, and they would be ready for anything.

"Punch it."

<~•~>

we've reached the end, everyone.

my heart is full of sadness and joy and a ton of other emotions that I fully can't describe. I'll talk about a lot of more of what I mean in the afterword, but I really hope you enjoyed going on this ride with me with Poe and Kyra as much as I had fun writing it.

thank you all for sticking with me. it means the absolute world to me.

after credit scenes ( yes, I do them for every book ) will be released at 12 PM my time so that you can enjoy them, and the afterword will be posted soon thereafter.

they're going to be little short snippets of what's to come ( ish ) or things in between. think of them like the MCU after credit scenes, but for Star Wars in this sense.

I wanted to give y'all a little bit more content before taost comes to an end, and I figured that would be the perfect way to do so :)

I'll post a chapter when I DO post the sequel, and I will say, your input was pretty cool to hear about last time! I'm super excited to see all of your reactions to the sequel!

also, some of you DID make the correct guesses for what I'm going to do, and some of you guys actually had some ideas that I never even fathomed. it's amazing to see how much you all love kyra as much as I do, and how much you guys know about her- and I'm the author and I wrote the damn character

** also, just a friendly reminder**

if you ask me "I would love to see Poe and Kyra do (inset here)?" or anything that's in the form of a question for the sequel that's a SPOILER, I will simply tell you that it's not fair for me to share secrets with you and not everyone else who reads. I got asked if Kyra goes with Rey to get Luke, and like, cmon y'all, you think I'm just going to give that away?

so please, do me a favor and don't slide into my pms asking me those types of questions. I asked for your suggestions/ predictions, and I mostly got those last time - which was wonderful! it made me excited to see that you are enjoying this as much as I am, and I want to keep the mysteries up so that you can be surprised when you read :)

( please guys this is the second or third time I've had to say this and it's been ONE book over like less than SIX MONTHS. )

anyways, I think that's about everything from this sappy little sack of potatoes, I really hope that you all enjoyed and I'll see you guys in the sequel! 🤍