POE

"Stop!" Poe barked the command sharper than he'd intended, catching the attention of everyone on board.

The trip to the next planet had been a short one, but the crew was already relaxed and not paying attention. The commanders, if you could call this random gathering of pirates and aliens commanders, were already discussing having drinks to celebrate their discovery of Pryde's foiled plan to hide D'Qar.

The Red Advocate did not run a very tight ship. He stood on the other side of the room with his hands behind his back, and now turned his attention to Poe, at his outburst.

The Command Pilot glanced at the tall leader for confirmation and the Red Advocate nodded his consent. The ship came to an abrupt stop and the pirates ceased their loud conversation finally.

"Sir, we're getting gravity pull from an unseen source. I think we've reached the moon," the Command Pilot said.

"How did you know?" the Red Advocate turned to Poe.

Poe shrugged. He'd simply been paying attention, unlike everyone else. The pilot was adjusting for gravitational pull on one side and Poe realized it was a mass in space that wasn't registering on the sensors, which didn't make sense. They'd almost passed the cloaked moon without noticing it. In fact, they had passed it already, but were still relatively nearby.

"Isolate the gravitational pull readings to give us an accurate indication of where the moon is," the Red Advocate said.

"Yes, sir."

Poe walked over to the Advocate, who tensed at his approach. To his credit, the man didn't walk away this time. For the past ten minutes he'd been pacing with his hands behind his back, with a slight limp. And each time Poe came in his direction he paced the other way. This time Poe cornered him. It was obvious the Advocate felt uneasy around him and Poe was curious as to why.

"I recommend we don't land on the moon," Poe said to him. "It could be a trap. It might be better to send in a smaller ship ahead. I can take my x-wing-"

"No," the voice from the mask interrupted.

"Why not?" Poe narrowed his eyes at him.

"Do I have any volunteers to go down to the moon's surface?"

All hands around the command table went up.

Poe felt his face flush. He didn't like being ordered around, nor passed up for a mission. And he also didn't recall pledging any allegiance to this Red Leader. He didn't need his permission. He'd go if he wanted to go.

"Sir, we have a rover that we could send in," the Chief Tactical Officer said.

The Red Advocate walked away from Poe, trying to hide his limp it seemed. Why was he always trying to distance himself from Poe? He assessed the tall man. There was something familiar in his rigid movements.

"We'll send a drone," he said.

HUX

Hux ran his hands through his hair and sank down onto his bed. It had been over 72 hours since he'd last slept. The unlikely gathering of vagabond leaders were not opposed to Hux's suggestion of taking a few hours rest before they continued their mission.

The drone had not returned. He was glad he hadn't allowed Poe to go down onto the cloaked moon. There was no indication that anything bad had happened to the drone, it had simply disappeared. But there was also no communication with it anymore, so it was not considered lost. They'd decided to try another drone soon, after sleeping hours.

The ship was too quiet, without the continuous hum and vibration of the engine. They'd stopped a distance away from the planet and the cloaked moon, just far enough to be out of range of local sensors, should there be a Final Order presence on D'Qar.

The room sat in complete darkness, except for the blue indicator lights of the comm unit near Hux's bed. The captain's quarters were nice, but nothing compared to his quarters on the large First Order battle cruisers when he'd been a commander there. Yet he wouldn't trade his new position for any luxury in the galaxy.

He didn't recall falling asleep, only waking to the sound of the comm unit. He rolled over, his body stiff and his insides feeling loose with unfinished sleep.

"Report," he croaked into the speaker.

"Sir, the Resistance Pilot is in the hangar now, preparing his x-wing to leave."

Hux sat up. "Don't let him leave."

"Should I wake the others for reinforcements to stop him?"

"No, I'll go."

---------

Hux felt a wave of relief when he found Poe still readying his plane in the hangar.

"I thought you'd come," Poe said, not turning around from his inspecting the x-wing.

Hux didn't respond. He was tired and grumpy, yet even in his anger, that Poe was disobeying orders, he felt at a loss to reprimand him.

"Did you come to stop me from leaving?" Poe asked He continued to do his checks of the plane, not bothering to turn around.

"There could be Final Order soldiers on the moon," Hux said. "They may detect your plane before you detect them, and shoot you out of the sky-"

"They won't see me coming. The scrambling of signals from the cloaked moon are the same on either sides. I have the element of surprise if they're not expecting me."

"But there could be another vessel watching the moon-"

"Why do you care so much?" Poe turned this time, his eyes flashing with amusement rather than anger.

The abrupt change in topic threw Hux off guard. He didn't know how to answer.

"Are you going to save me a second time?" Poe asked. He was no longer fussing with his plane and kept his eyes on Hux.

"A second time?" Hux couldn't focus his thoughts, not with the way Poe was looking at him. The Pilot walked towards him and Hux held his breath, resisting the urge to back away.

"I won't go down to D'Qar," Poe said, "if you take off your mask."

Hux swallowed hard. There was no way he was taking off his mask. Yet the look on Poe's face had him unhinged. His head was tilted slightly to the side, a hint of a smile on his lips. He smiled and shook his head then.

"I don't want anyone to know who I am," Hux said, taking a step back. "It's best if they don't."

"I'm not anyone," Poe replied, a glint of challenge in his eyes.

Poe stepped forward and reached up his hands to remove Hux's mask. Hux set his gloved hands over Poe's to stop him.

"I'm loyal at keeping secrets," Poe said. "... Hux."

Hux stopped breathing for a moment. How had he known? Then he hit the release buttons on either side of his helmet and it unlatched from its hold. Hux lowered his hands and Poe removed the helmet.

"I knew it was you," Poe said. This time he didn't seem as energetic as the last time he'd said those words, but the impact was just the same.

Hux moved his unruly waves out of his eyes. The last thing he'd expected was that he'd be removing his helmet in front of anyone today, or any day, so he'd skipped using hair product to keep his waves in check. Now his untamed waves no doubt were sticking out in all directions. Normally he'd never want to be seen by another person this way, so lax and unprofessional, the way Poe chose to look on a daily basis. And yet it felt so liberating to be disorderly, as though openly defying the protocols and expected standards of the Order.

Poe took a step back, hugging the helmet now and gave a nod of approval.

POE

For a moment there, Poe had worried he'd been wrong and it wasn't Hux. When the mop of red hair and unkempt waves fell onto the Advocate's forehead, Poe didn't recognize him at first. His skin was ghostly pale now and the colour of his eyes seemed watered down as well. But his hair was a vibrant red, unmanaged by any style to keep it tamed according to commander protocols.

"How did you know it was me?" Hux asked. He'd seemed uneasy again and looked away. Poe had sensed his unease in the command center as well, but then he'd assumed it was because Hux didn't want to be found out, and was worried Poe would guess. But now Poe wasn't sure what made Hux so nervous around him.

"Who else could it be?" Poe set the helmet down on a barrel and took a seat on one of the supply crates against the wall. He patted the crate beside him to invite Hux to join him.

Hux hesitated. "Are you no longer in a hurry to sneak away to the D'Qar?"

Poe put his hands behind his head and leaned back. "I was just preparing the X-Wing for tomorrow. I have it on good authority that the Resistance still on D'Qar are safe for now, and just have a small group of stormtroopers holding them captive. Stormtroopers who have already joined our side, thanks to our newest member of the Resistance, an ex-stormtrooper who liberated others from the First Order in the past."

Hux seemed baffled by this. The change in conversation helped him relax a bit and he took a seat beside Poe. "How do you know all this?"

"Because Babu Frik just sent the drone back to us, as I was getting ready to leave. He put the information on it with a password lock that only I would know as the Resistance Acting-General."

"Babu Frik?"

"You wouldn't know him."

"Acting General..." Hux crossed his arms. "Why not, General?"

Poe shrugged. "We didn't get to the inauguration part yet." He stifled a yawn. When was the last time he'd slept? It had been days. "It's good news though-"

"It can wait until sleeping hours are over." Hux stood to his full height. "No need to wake everyone early. There's no immediate emergency."

Poe stretched. He knew Hux was saying this because he'd noticed how tired Poe was. But he was right. There was no need to go immediately. He stood, too, and rubbed his hands over his face. He was never too tired to fly his plane, so he must have been more overtired now than he realized, since he was actually considering getting some rest first before flying to D'Qar.

"Glad to finally have you on our side," he said to Hux, holding up his hand for a high five.

Hux glanced at it suspiciously. "I'm not on any side," he said. "Only my own."

"I like it!" Poe kept his hand up, hoping to get Hux to let his guard down a bit. He couldn't remain an uptight General if they were going to work together, though the unruly hair was a good start.

"Are you about to take an oath?" Hux asked.

Poe laughed, freely and heartily. He hadn't laughed so genuinely in a long time. When he was done he kept his right hand up and said, "I pledge to teach you the art of a high five."

"Is it a type of Jedi trick?" Hux asked.

Poe laughed again. "Do I look like a Jedi to you?"

Hux seemed out of his element, as though he didn't know how to engage with someone who wasn't serious or all business.

Poe's right hand was still up, and with his left he took Hux's wrist and held up his gloved hand to place their palms together.

Hux's face reddened, finally gaining some colour and Poe let go of his hand.

"You're supposed to hit palms together," he said. "Like this." He smacked Hux's palm and Hux startled, blinking hard.

"Is it a form of reprimand?"

Poe smiled and shook his head. "It is not," he said. He slung his arm around Hux's shoulders, which made Hux hunch forward with the weight of it. Then they started walking back to the hallway.

"It's a show of camaraderie," Poe said. "Like a small act of celebration to say, awesome, we're happy that this turned out in our favour. Or, nice job!"

Poe stopped walking and let go of Hux's neck.

Hux nodded. "The drone was successful in letting us know the situation on D'Qar," he said. Then he held up his hand, somewhat reluctantly and glanced at Poe.

Poe smiled then smacked it, harder this time than before, and Hux startled again.

"There you go!" Poe said. He turned to walk away, definitely ready now to get some sleep. "You'll get it eventually," he said over his shoulder. "See you in the morning, Red Advocate. And don't forget your helmet."