open post;

[alderaans]

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open post for pic prompts, starters, and texts. f/f + f/m for shipping.
please link nsfw images.
compatible through return of the jedi.

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[withinreach]

[ There's a lot that Poe admires about Leia, from her relentless dedication to the Rebellion and everything it stands for to the way that she asserts herself even among much older and more experienced commanders, but few things make him feel quite as fond of her as the rare moments when those harsher edges soften, giving just a glimpse of the warm heart of someone who cares so much more than she typically allows anyone to know. But he does. Because he feels it too, and he's never worked all that hard to stifle it, even when it's landed him in trouble now and again. He's seen it in her eyes, that sometimes he says the things she wants to say but can't. She's responsible like that. Could he possibly benefit from following her example more often? Probably. But he also thinks that they could meet in the middle on that one.

At least with each other.

She's pulling away from him, decisively this time, and he lets her slip out of his arms, still reluctant but more willing to resign himself to letting her go for now, now that they've firmly established that this isn't over. He's accepted that, trusts her unquestionably just as she's trusting him to follow through, but it still feels surreal somehow. He's wanted to hear this from her for so long, wondered if it was even possible between them, and now that it's actually happening he almost doesn't know what to do with himself.

Obviously he has to start with straightening his own clothes, running a hand lightly through his hair to bring some order back to the dark curls that she ruffled slightly. But his attention lingers on her, and where she's putting her guard back up he seems completely unconcerned with his own. He's got another minute to look at her with the kind of open admiration that he has managed to largely keep to himself when they're not alone. He's been aware for a while that he's already in hopelessly over his head with how he feels about her, and he doesn't think that it's news to her. It shouldn't be, if she were any less guarded, any less intimidating in person, he's sure that she would have just as many admirers as he does, if not more.]

You could never be 'just anyone,' Leia.

[ Not to him, or anyone else who knows her at all. ]

I'll meet you there.

[alderaans]

[ He has to know how something like that is going to linger on her mind as soon as he says it, that once she hears it out loud between them she'll be playing it over and over again even after she turns and leaves the situation room, that she'll be thoroughly distracted for the remainder of the day even as she attempts to focus through the rest of her mandatory meetings and conferences with the generals who want to give her various status updates and plans for moving forward post-mission. He has to know that she'll be flustered enough by the mere thought of where they'll be meeting by the time the clock ticks down to a certain hour and everyone takes their leave after the evening meal in the mess.

And yet somehow he makes himself scarce, perhaps purposefully with that in mind, either intentionally avoiding her so they don't cross paths until later or taking advantage of coincidental circumstances so that his notable absence makes her thoughts all the more inclined to wander.

She's almost too nervous to manage eating — although the flutter in her stomach can be attributed to a different sort of nerves, anticipation thrumming through every muscle in her body until she feels as though she's never been more aware of herself inhabiting the space, never been more conscious of the weight of her clothes against her skin, and perhaps even a part of her can still perceive the sensation of his lips on hers, because she catches herself running her fingers over her mouth several times throughout the day when she forgets herself enough.

And by the time she departs for her quarters, she can practically feel her heart ready to beat right out of her chest; she stops just before her door and draws in a steeling breath, mostly to check any remaining nerves here before she finally presses her hand against the pad that she had newly keyed to recognize one other apart from her own. The door slides open with a hiss and she walks inside, although there's no discernable evidence of his presence here that she can see; for a moment, she thinks she may have been the one to arrive early, and goes through the motions of removing her jacket, laying it over the back of the closest chair. ]

[withinreach]

[ For once Poe has been doing his best to avoid crossing Leia's path. It wasn't difficult, the flurry of activity around their most recent victory and the tense atmosphere that inevitably follows one of their triumphs means that he has plenty to do to keep him otherwise preoccupied. Not that it does anything to get her off of his mind, every time he allows his thoughts to wander at all he's thinking of that stolen moment in the communications room, which feels even more surreal now that he's back out in the comparatively normal goings on of the base. It's no exaggeration to say that he's been counting down the minutes until he's able to disappear without anyone important feeling the need to track down his whereabouts for a while.

It's easier for him than it is for Leia, even though they both have a reputation for staying up late into the night and appearing early in the morning, people tend to make assumptions about what he's doing when he's not in his own bunk at night. It just so happens that those assumptions have been wrong lately.

Up until tonight, anyway.

He wasn't entirely sure of what to do with himself while waiting for Leia's arrival, especially with the anticipation winding up more with every passing second. If this wasn't such a significant thing he might have made himself comfortable on her bed, or helped himself to a shower while waiting, but that wasn't what he wanted her to walk in on, not this time. So after pacing for a while he eventually ends up settling in at the table toward the back of the room, where he imagines she sits up late reading through reports rather than sleeping like she should.

He was set on not ambushing her at the door either, though that's seriously tempting, but as soon as she's inside and sliding out of her jacket — he's shrugged out of his own, leaving everything else on — he does clear his throat as he slides to his feet. ]

Yours is a lot nicer than mine. These days I'm lucky if I'm not sharing space with two or three other pilots.

[ He's barely thinking about what he's saying, it's just the first words that come to mind. Because all he can think about now is how much he just wants to pick right back up where they left off. ]

[alderaans]

[ She can be grateful, at least, for the distractions that enabled her to keep her mind off of the inevitable until there was no avoiding it anymore; part of her, though, feels like it may have been a dream, something her imagination conjured up as a product of her own anxieties, the worried state she'd been in and tried to not let on about manifesting itself in the fantasy of kisses, of a mouth hotly sliding against her own.

Reality disabuses her of that notion soon enough, because she turns — and almost as if she can sense a presence here in this room before she sees it, so she isn't even all that startled by movement in her periphery when he finally rises to his feet and she's turning to stare across the short distance that separates them. ]

Perks of the role, I suppose.

[ She's attempting a lighter joke in a levied tone, but it leaves her much more softly than she plans on when she notices him looking at her that way — the same way he'd looked right before he'd kissed her that first time — and the meaning of what they'd agreed on both meeting here for registers in her center with an awareness that she can't pretend she doesn't feel. ]

Were you waiting long?

[ For some reason, it suffuses her with a sense of satisfaction, a thrill that he might have been here a while, waiting for her to join him; she's only somewhat conscious of how she's already crossing the room to get closer to him, stopping once she's an arm's length away, her fingers running across the table as her gaze briefly drops to track the path her hand takes. ]

[withinreach]

[ Poe hadn't given thought to the idea that there might be an awkwardness between them after all that, though maybe he should have at least considered it, but ultimately it turns out that those feelings come rushing back to him as if no time's passed at all. He's still so aware of how much admiration and respect he has for her, for everything that she's done and is still doing for the Rebellion, for the trust that she's put in him even when things have been tense between them. to say nothing of the much more personal emotions that have persisted and only gotten more and more difficult to ignore.

That's why this means so much to him, it's nothing like the casual flings that he's had before. That people expect of him.

He has to find a way to tell her that, even if she already knows, given her uncanny ability to see straight through him even on those rare occasions when he's keeping his thoughts to himself for a change. Yeah, he's definitely looking at her in a certain way, feeling his pulse suddenly kick up several notches as she moves toward him, her fingers trailing across the table as she goes. He's barely aware of what his hands are doing until his own fingertips are grazing across her jawline, crossing that last distance between them without hesitation. ]

Long enough.

[ He has the fleeting thought that he should probably get used to waiting, going forward from here, but he's not thinking about that yet. Not when she's here, and that anticipation is as high as it was before. He has been waiting a long time, he's not even sure when it occurred to him that he wanted this, but he's known for a while. But he's not immediately pulling her into another kiss, instead he's letting his fingers continue their path back to her hair, seeking out the pins that he knows must be keeping it coiled so perfectly. He's sure that pulling them free would set it all unraveling. ]

Haven't you?

happy may the 4th

[alderaans]

[ It wouldn't be completely honest to say that she's nervous; there's anticipation for the moment itself, maybe, a shifted awareness that exists between them now that wasn't always there before — or it just didn't have anything that was so easily defined, nothing she could specifically point to and name until he'd finally kissed her. Whether she'd been denying it to herself up until now is another thing altogether, but extending the invitation to him to come to her room has all but erased her ability to claim any naivety. This is happening now, between them, even if there's still time and possibility for either of them to take it back or withdraw.

Somehow, she doesn't think he will, though, not when he reaches up to touch her and it manages to be both warmer and more gentle than when he'd done so in the briefing room. ]

I — [ She hesitates for a moment, giving genuine thought to his question, although the sensation of his fingers threading through her hair, loosing her braids from their carefully-wound and pinned placement, is making it difficult for her to do any deep pondering. Instinctively, she tilts her head into the sensation of it, first as the braids themselves slip free to drop against her shoulders, and then as they begin to unravel to leave the strands falling almost to her waist, the soft sound of pins pinging against the floor at their feet.

No one on base has ever seen her hair down, unless they come to her room in the middle of the night with a crucial report, but even then she takes care to wind it up, not leave it flowing down her back like this. ]

I... don't think I was so certain of what I was waiting for until now.

<3 <3 <3

[withinreach]

[ She knows Poe too well to expect him to back down from anything. It's one of his qualities that can work out in his favor, but also definitely one that could use some tempering at times, when he really should reassess before doubling down, and she's good at that. As much as they might disagree in tense moments, he's learned to admit that they're both better for influencing each other — and so is the Rebellion. This is different in some ways, this isn't a battle and it only involves the two of them and not an army, but the trust and respect that's grown between them means that it's not completely unfamiliar territory either. It's just more honest and intimate than they've allowed themselves to be before.

At least before this afternoon. That moment broke through the tension, which was probably inevitably leading to that point, because honestly? He knows Leia doesn't back down either, not when she's got her mind set on something. She's just more cautious about choosing her battles, once she has chosen one she's equally unflinching. And neither of them was ready to let this go, whether she was admitting it or not.

He's wondered before if it's uncomfortable having her hair bound up so tightly all the time, even if she's used to it, and much like her constant state of awareness and involvement with everything down to the day to day business of running a rebellion it seems that at the very least it unwinds some amount of tension when she's temporarily released from it. Once it's tumbling freely down her shoulders and back he's gently massaging his fingertips across her scalp, pairing that with a soft, slow kiss that's as much about affection as it is seduction. He can't deny that he wants her, but just being this open with her in a rare, quiet and private moment like this is something he's needed. That they've both needed, he thinks. ]

I could guess, but it might ruin the mood.