Oh man, I'm tired. But I'm glad i commited to the bit and actually finished this, full color and all! It was an uphill battle, because of the power outages almost daily, how many details i added, busy life, my mental illnesses lol But! Is finished, at last! Self indulgent, i know.
Matthew Stover in ROTS novelization: This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It is already over; nothing can be done to change it.
When I decided to make lanyards for my shop, I had two demographics in mind: educators and con attendees. Obviously there are lots of other folks who love lanyards, but I thought they’d be super fun for teachers to add a little pop of fandom to their classroom attire and for folks who wanted to match their lanyard to their cosplay.
I’ve since made so many lanyards! So I wanted to drop all my lanyards in one post. And don't forget you can use code TUMBLR15 for 15% off most accessories! Shop is here.
more below the cut!
Translations:
The Aurebesh on the Vader/Anakin lanyard: “peace • freedom • justice • security”
The Aurebesh on the Kylo Ren lanyard: “blow this piece of junk out of the sky”
The Domabesh on the Jyn lanyard: “I rebel”
The Domabesh on the Bodhi lanyard: “I’m the pilot”
The Aurebesh on the Naboo Handmaidens lanyard: “we are brave, your highness”
The Dishabesh on the High Republic lanyard: “for light and life”
Poe Dameron + first kiss - technically this is a requested Fall Fluff Ficlet for @steven-grants-world. I am so sorry it is years late and out of season!
Fall Fluff Masterlist | Poe Masterlist | Main Masterlist
notes: Poe thought you were dead. You're not. Angst/fluff/friends to lovers | gn!reader | wc: 3.3k
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A warm rush of air swept through the cantina as you wiped down the tables, preparing to close. You heard the swinging door, rolling your eyes to yourself and trying to muster some courtesy for whoever was barging in after closing time.
"Sorry, we're closed," you managed neutrally, avoiding allowing your voice to drip with disdain or condescension. Better to not stir up trouble.
"I know," a man's voice replied, "that's why I'm here."
It only took one sentence to change your entire life.
"I need to talk to your boss."
And another to make you believe hope was still alive.
"Poe?" You blurted, without thinking. You hadn't seen him in so long. Not since your ship crashed here, leaving you stranded two years ago, before the war even ended.
"Who's asking?" He fired back, eyes shifting this way and that, hand resting warily on his blaster. A new sprinkling of gray lined his temples and rough stubble covered his chiseled jaw. Handsome as ever.
He didn't recognize you. Did he forget you? Or was your disguise that good?
You'd hid and tucked parts of you away, keeping just dirty enough to avoid getting fired over complaints about how you smelled. Kept the creeps away, for the most part. You drifted around invisibly, did your work and slept in an absolute dump, to save every possible credit to buy your way out of this hell hole one day. You should have enough to leave in another year, if your master would let you go, and if the price of basic flour for bread making kept from creeping higher each quarter.
You swallowed thickly, wondering how to proceed. "Boss is gone for the night. We're closing up."
"Where is he?" Poe demanded, glaring at you. "I need a location."
If this was anyone else, you absolutely would not tell them. You'd rather take your chances with a stranger than incur the wrath of your boss. But this was Poe. He wouldn't hurt you.
Tossing your sponge aside, you crossed right in front of him to the main entrance. "Let me lock up and I'll show you."
"So you can walk me into a trap? No thanks."
"Do you want to find him or not?" You huffed, pushing your way past him and barreling through the kitchen to the back door, hoping Poe would follow.
He did.
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You informed him of the short walk to the hovel you called home, insisting you needed to make only a momentary stop to help find your boss.
Poe lingered three or so steps behind you, hand gripping the hilt of his blaster. His stare bore into the back of your head, nearly wilting you with each step. Even three paces away, even that was too close. You could smell him - all mechanical oil and leather and something like the moss of his homeworld. Had he returned to Yavin IV after the war?
Your eyes drifted closed at the sound of his breaths, huffed rhythmically in and out with the thump of his boots.
Could he ever remember you?
"It's just here," you breathlessly uttered, punching in the code to your door which whooshed open. "I'll only be a few moments. You're welcome to wait inside."
"I'll wait here, thanks," he cautiously responded, but after considering that you could be contacting your boss or calling for reinforcements, he followed you inside anyway.
You whirled around to close the door behind you, placing your body square in his path. He bumped into you, abandoning his defensive posture and reaching for your elbows to steady you from falling.
"I'm sorry -" you both uttered. You quickly withdrew due to the unclean smell of your body, your heart thundering in your chest after the brief touch of gloved hands on your skin.
"Please sit, I'll be quick," you called over your shoulder, grabbing a few items of clothing before disappearing into a tiny, grimy refresher room. As rapidly as you could manage, you shed your clothes and hat and washed yourself, making as little noise as possible.
You scrubbed the dirt from your cheeks and returned your hidden hair to its normal style before dressing in clean clothes that felt more decidedly you.
"What are you doing in there?" You heard Poe call, impatiently. "You contacting someone? I don't have time for this."
You quickly emerged back into your one room dwelling to find his blaster trained on your body.
"Poe, please. It's me. I was disguised," you rushed to explain, hands held in the air non-threateningly. Seeing his dark eyebrows shift in confusion, you dared one step forward. "Do you still not recognize me?"
He was the wildly famed Commander Dameron after all. General, actually, by war's end. By that time, your mission had gone awry and you were stranded in this cesspool of a world.
His lip trembled as he slowly lowered his blaster. With shuddering breath, he whispered your name. "It can't be. It can't be. You're...dead."
"I'm not," you instinctively responded. "I'm here. I've been stranded here."
Holstering his weapon, he shook his head, eyes misting as he repeated your name. "It can't...I looked for you. I looked everywhere. For a year."
Your cheeks flamed with heat at this revelation. You'd not been forgotten, and maybe you'd even been missed. So you explained how you crashed. How you made your way to this port city, how you disguised yourself, keeping clean enough to hold a job but repellant enough to keep wandering hands off your body. How your only wish was to purchase your way off this horrid planet and find someone that you used to know - anyone from your old squadron or the Resistance.
Poe's typically warm, open gaze darkened into an anguished storm. "You couldn't contact me?"
Drawn to him like a moon to its planet, his presence lured you forward. "I tried. I didn't know where you were," you sadly replied.
He crowded in close, grasping your arms. "I would've come for you. I tried to come for you. I even looked here, in this system, anyway."
The revelation shot straight through your heart. But there was no time for too much sentiment, so you pushed it down.
"Poe...is there any way you can help me escape? Please." You swallowed hard, eyes misting. "It's been so lonely here. So hard."
Wrapping his arms around your body, he pulled you against the solid warmth of his chest. "Of course I'll help you." His stomach twisted with worry as you wilted into his embrace, murmuring, "Thank you, thank you," over and over.
After an indulgent moment, he eased back to catch your gaze. "Tell me if they hurt you. And tell me who. Names."
Shaking your head insistently, you pressed your palms against his chest. "I don't care about that. I just want to go. I have money saved. Not enough for no-questions-asked passage yet, but I have some. We have to go before my boss notices me gone tomorrow."
Poe frowned. "But your boss is the reason I'm here. He's been trafficking war refugees. I came here for some hard proof so he can be arrested."
"No," you frantically replied, "he's too dangerous. We have to go, right now. We have to find another way. We can't stay here."
"I can help you," Poe insisted. "I'll help you get out but I have to see this through -"
"No, please," you begged, grasping his leather jacket in your fists. "Please don't do this. He'll hurt you and he'll discover who I am. Please Poe, I can't stay here. And I can't lose you again."
"Shh," he soothed, cupping your cheek in his hand. "Hey, it's okay." His heart broke at the sound of your anguish. "It's okay. I promise I'll get you out."
Swiping a tear from your cheek with his thumb, Poe touched his forehead to yours. "I'll never let them touch you again. Or keep you here."
"They didn't hurt me. I made sure of that," you let him know, "but you have no idea how much suffering I've seen. How many people he did hurt while I bided my time."
"Come here," he said sweetly, pulling you back into his arms.
You held onto him for dear life. You'd always adored Poe, but nothing ever went farther than flirtation. The war kept you so busy on separate missions and you felt you could never take him seriously because he flirted with everyone. Since you didn't want to wait in a long line of admirers vying for his attention, you never said anything.
And since, in his mind at least, you brushed off every attempt he made to flirt his way closer to you, he never said anything either.
But now, here you were in his arms. Alone, in this room, after he thought you dead.
"Please, let's go," you whimpered, gripping him tighter. "I'll tell you everything I know about my boss. I-I'll give you all the money I have saved. Please."
The mental battle between his duty to put an end to this vile man's war crimes and you was no decision at all. It was you. You were alive. Poe melted at your broken pleas.
"I don't want your money," he breathed against your cheek
𓈒 ͜ ︵ ݂ ׁ✧𓈒 ͜ ︵ ݂ ׁ✧𓈒 ͜ ︵ ݂ ׁ✧
Poe agreed to get you off world without delay. The two of you stealthily darted through alleys and streets, making your way to Poe's ship, while avoiding any unwanted attention. Opposing mobs controlled everything here, including space travel. You had to know the right people or grease the right palms to ever change your circumstances.
But Poe assured you he could get you out, so you stayed focused, following his lead, while occasionally redirecting him to a safer alley.
"Almost there," he whispered, crowding in behind you as you peered down a final street. "It's not a straight shot, though. Too many eyes."
"I know a way. Come on."
You made quite the team, reading signals and hand motions not used since the war, since you were Resistance fighters, together.
"There she is," he excitedly uttered, nodding toward an old X-wing fighter. Like from-the-Allicance old. The cute dome of his famed orange and white droid whirled around and beeped at his owner.
"You came here in an X-wing?" You scoffed, turning to him. "Do you have a death wish?"
"Official business," he shrugged. "No reason to hide who I'm with these days." He flashed you a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. It was his most telling worried look. You remembered it well.
That's when it occurred to you exactly how many people fit into an X-wing. One.
"No," you gasped as the realization hit you. "Poe? No." You so desperately didn't want to be left behind, but no way were you leaving alone. You wouldn't trade places with him. At least you knew how to survive here. Your heart sank as you realized he would have to come back for you. And if your scheme was discovered in the mean time, death would be a welcomed guest after what you would be forced to endure.
Grasping your shoulders, he met your frantic eyes. "Listen to me. You have to go. I can still do some good here, but I promised to get you out." He nodded toward the ship. "You know what to do - how to fly it. BB-8 will go with you. It's not during like the war. Once you get off world, you're safe. It's a Republic protected ship-"
"No," you said emphatically, grasping at his jacket the way you had done back at your place. "No, I'm not leaving without you."
"You have to," he repeated, cupping your cheek in his gloved hand. "You go and send back help. I'll probably be right behind you anyway. Just gotta find a ship." He gave you a lopsided grin. "Might beat you there."
"No, no, no," you shook your head rapidly. "You don't understand my boss. I do. You go. I'll stay."
You threw your arms around him. It might be the last time you ever saw him or touched him before you fled back to your hovel, to your daily hell.
Your breath brushed his neck temptingly as he held you close, bodies pressed together at every possible point. His arm slid up the curve of your back to cradle your neck, his other arm still holding you securely. As you lifted your head to meet his gaze, he thought he might lose himself forever in the depth of your eyes.
"Let me do this," he murmured, pressing his forehead to yours to keep you from shaking your head in protest. "You're going."
Your resolve was breaking, but it wasn't fair to leave him here. "No."
His eyes flashed. "You're just as stubborn as you ever were. Get on the damn ship. That's an order," he growled, right up against your mouth, hands digging into your hips.
"War's over, General," you hissed back, wilting at the way his breath curled from his lips to yours in short, heated puffs of desperate want. "You don't give me orders. I-"
He stopped you with a searing kiss, pushing your body up against the wall like a domino effect from the bottom of your bodies to the top. It started with the wedging of his thick, muscular thigh between your legs. Broad hips pinned yours in place as his hands traced up your sides, running all over you possessively until he gripped your face in his gloved hands, holding you captive. Tilting his head, he gave you one moment to catch your breath and then sank into you in every way a body could while still fully clothed.
He put you at his mercy, invading your space, stealing your breath and swallowing down all your protests as his tongue curled inside your mouth seductively.
Every scandalous rumor you ever heard about Poe could not compare to this kiss. The heat of his body contrasted sharply to the cooling night air. His groans inside your mouth cancelled out the metallic clangs and whirs of the docked ships nearby.
He was softer and stronger and tasted better than any comfort you'd managed in all your time here - warm and alive and delicious and real.
Your kisses slowed as you gasped for air, holding onto one another for your last few moments together.
"I didn't find you and I'm so sorry," he whispered brokenly, the fight draining out of his soft, moonlit eyes. "Please let me do this. Let me get you safe."
"What if something happens to you?"
He shook his head resolutely. "Nothing is going to keep me away from you. Not again."
His breath ghosted your lips as your eyes drifted once again to his mouth. "If only I could've told you before...if only we had more time."
His forehead found yours again, his breath hot and tempting. "Time for what?"
You had nothing to lose anymore. He could know you adored him, just like everyone else did. That you were no different, no better. After that kiss, you could only pray that maybe he wanted you too.
"Time for us," you uttered, barely more than a whisper.
"Us?" His chest heaved, fingers pressing into your flesh desperately.
"Yes," you concluded for him. "Us."
His nose brushed against your cheek, breath trembling. "If you go, we'll have time. But you gotta go, sweetheart. If you say no again, I'll have to drag you outta here for desertion."
You knew he wasn't serious. The two of you shared a breathless smile and one final kiss.
It broke your heart, but you flew away from captivity, wondering if it was worth leaving your heart behind.
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It took some explaining as to why someone other than General Dameron returned in his X-wing, with his droid in tow, no less.
You were directed to a Republic military base for debriefing, wondering if this new galaxy was really as safe as Poe indicated previously. Some unfamiliar, official looking people offered you time to clean up, some clean clothes and a hot meal. They searched your meager belongings and took you to a room for questioning.
An intercom hummed and crackled, before a voice asked for your name, your home world, your occupation. Tired and terrified and nearly choking with guilt over leaving Poe, you managed some answers, growing more irritated by the second. Tears of frustration burned your eyes as you desperately attempted to not appear hostile.
During the middle of a question, the voice stopped, not completing a sentence and going quiet for several moments. While wondering if it was some sort of tactic, you put your face in your hands and let a few tears fall.
The door opened and you heard his voice.
"Hey," Poe said softly, kneeling down in front of you. "I'm so sorry. I'm here."
You wilted into his arms as he wrapped you close, pulling you off your chair. "Let's get out of here."
One of the men who got you ready for debrief scurried after the two of you, profusely apologizing to the general and to you.
Poe shrugged him off at first, but he seemed all too eager to force his way into the general's good graces. Stopping with a groan, he gripped your shoulders and looked into your eyes. "Gimme a moment."
Poe was shorter than everybody, but even looking up at the lanky, sweaty, overeager soldier, he was looking down on him.
"We don't treat witnesses as hostiles," Poe bit out, as if even making the effort to explain it was beneath him. (It was). "The war is over. Act like it."
"Yes, General," the over-eager man quickly replied.
"I just concluded my mission and closed a cold mission at the same time," Poe went on. "I found the head of the trafficking ring we've been tracking. I have a first-hand witness. And my missing pilot has been recovered. See to it that the files are updated accurately."
"Y-yes, General," he repeated, scurrying away.
Poe turned back to you, relieved to see a small smile on your face.
"Damn, you really love pulling rank, don't you?"
He shrugged one shoulder, giving you a lazy smile. "When I have to." Taking your hands in his own, he caressed your fingers tenderly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I was mostly worried about you. Leaving you there was maybe the hardest thing I've done, except for surviving that place. How did you get here so fast?"
He grinned. "Told you I would probably beat you here."
Wrapping his arm around you, he guided you toward a garage. You eyed him curiously as he led you to a speeder.
"War's over. I don't live where I work anymore. Come on. I'll take you home." He helped you inside, keeping a careful hold on your hand as he zipped through the beautiful, snowy mountainside of this new world.
You glided along in silence for a bit, with raindrops gathering on the glass as you zoomed along.
"You're not mad at me are you?" He asked, squeezing your hand.
You returned the squeeze gratefully, turning to study his profile. "For making me leave you there?"
"No." The corner of his mouth curled. "For kissing you."
"Oh," you laughed. "No. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. I was starting to feel left out. You've kissed everyone."
"What?" He almost crashed the speeder, he whipped around to you so fast.
"I'm joking." With a warm smile, you laced your fingers through his. "We just never could get our timing right, could we?"
"We can now." He leaned over and kissed your temple. "We have time."
𓈒 ͜ ︵ ݂ ׁ✧𓈒 ͜ ︵ ݂ ׁ✧𓈒 ͜ ︵ ݂ ׁ✧
Fall Fluff Masterlist | Poe Masterlist | Main Masterlist
