Poe Dameron (flyboydameron) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-02-20 23:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, anakin skywalker, poe dameron |
Who: Poe Dameron & Anakin Skywalker
When: Backdated: End of January
Where: A Deli
What: Poe realizes that he's already met Anakin
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
Anakin stood at the pick-up counter playing on his phone, air pods in, trying to pretend he didn’t feel every single person breathing in the room. Sometimes the Force was brilliant. Other times, like days when his ability to focus was worse than a golden retriever at a squirrel family reunion, like today, it was as persistently annoying as a younger sibling ‘not poking’ you. Today he wished he could shut it out completely.
The next best things were music and an app game.
But he could still hear when the person called his name for his sub. “Anakin”
He put his phone away and took out an air pod for the brief interaction to pick up his food, just to be courteous. He grabbed his food, said thanks, and turned to go.
***
Poe was still trying to make sense of these dreams that he’d had, trying to figure out what they meant, but so far there didn’t really seem to be any meaning behind them. They were simply a bunch of random dreams about a version of him growing up on a random planet that he’d never heard of before. A few days after his first dream he’d tried googling it, but had come up with nothing, so it definitely wasn’t a real planet. So where his subconscious had come up with that name, he had no idea.
In an attempt to keep the dreams off his mind 24/7, Poe was trying to keep to his daily routines, which was easy during the week when he was at work, but on the weekends it was a little harder because he had more free time so his mind tended to go to the dreams easily. Today was one of those days and as he stood in line at the deli he started thinking about Yavin IV once again; at least he had been until the person behind the counter called out a name. A name that seemed extremely familiar to Poe because it was not a name that one heard every day.
Glancing over he spotted the person who retrieved their order, brow furrowing slightly as he tried to place the face when it came to him suddenly, “Anakin Skywalker?”
***
Anakin turned back around when he heard his full name called out, air pod halfway to his ear. He was expecting to find a deli worker waving him back over.
But it was someone in line.
“Uh… ya?” He asked. “Can I- do I know you?”
***
Poe stepped out of line, not really caring about losing his spot; it wasn’t as if the line was very long to begin with. “Poe Dameron. We met a few years ago during a training mission.” A few years earlier, before his discharge, Poe had been part of a training mission with a younger group and Anakin had stood out to him, not only because of his unique name. Now that he was standing in front of him there was something else familiar about the younger man, but Poe couldn’t quite place it yet.
***
Anakin blinks at Poe a few times before the name comes back to him.
“Oh, right, right,” he says at last. His memory was clear now. He wondered if it was his skill that had stuck in Poe’s mind or his attitude. “You were part of the training team that came to the Academy... Are you stationed at Los Alamitos or Seal Beach?”
***
Poe nodded, “Yeah, I was. I was actually honorably discharged not too long ago, but I’m working in Seal Beach.” Poe had been surprised when they had offered him the flight instructor job, but he enjoyed it quite a lot, “What about you? Where are you stationed?”
***
Anakin nodded. But things got awkward very quickly.
He wiggled the fingers of his robotic hand. “That would, uh, be nowhere.”
So, moving on. “What are you doing in Seal Beach?”
***
Poe’s eyes widened when Anakin held up his arm, “Oh shit.” How he hadn’t noticed that the younger man had a robotic arm he didn’t know. It wasn’t like it was hard to miss or anything; then again he hadn’t really been focused on his hand until Anakin had brought attention to it. Part of him wanted to ask what had happened, but he didn’t want to pry too much just yet, “I’m, ah, flight instructor actually. Well, one of them.”
***
Anakin smiled as genially as he could. Because that was one thing the start of California wouldn’t let him do - get a pilot’s license. It wasn’t Poe’s fault that he couldn’t.
“Sounds like a great job.”
This was a great conversation reminding him of everything he only tried to talk about with his therapist.
He gestured at the line.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to keep you.”
***
Poe knew that he had inadvertently made things awkward and usually he would try to smooth things over, but in this case he didn’t want to keep Anakin too much longer since he knew that the other man had just gotten his food and he didn’t want to keep him from eating and it was probably better if he let the situation rest for the moment, “No, it’s fine. I’m not on a timetable or anything, but I don’t want to keep you from eating. I’m sure we’ll see each other around again,”
***
“Ya, sure,” Anakin said in that way this area was famous for, the way people just end conversations without the sincerity that they would actually see each other again. He didn’t assume Poe actually meant to see him again. They’d have exchanged numbers if so.
“Have a good lunch, don’t let the OC get to you.” And he turned to go.
***
Poe nodded and was about to say more or less the same thing when something suddenly slotted into place in his brain, “Wait a second. You’re part of that on-line, aren’t you? Valar.” He didn’t know what exactly had caused him to connect the dots, but suddenly he couldn’t figure out how he hadn’t realized it sooner. He’d been talking to Anakin on and off for the last month or so now.
***
That stopped Anakin and he turned back around and his glance over Poe was probably more intense than before.
“I am,” he admitted after he was done scrutinizing Poe. This was certainly a change in his demeanor. He was suddenly cold and calculating, as if a curtain had dropped and Poe was now privileged to see how much Anakin assessed every facet of his situation: their surroundings, the people around them, the noise. Anakin was not the So Cal resident in a hoodie and jeans but more that warrior he dreamed he was.
“Remind me some of the stuff you’ve said on there. I have ADHD so I’ll forget about the thing for a week or two sometimes.”
***
Poe noticed the change in Anakin’s demeanor, but he didn’t exactly blame him, “Your alien pets. Me learning to fly a spaceship.” There had been a few other times they’d talked, but those were the two things that stuck out to him at the moment. And now that he was standing there really looking at Anakin he noticed the scar that the other man had posted about receiving as a result of the dreams; something else he still didn’t understand.
***
“Oh, right,” Anakin said, facts slotting into place. “You never know when you’ll run into someone that sees the OC for what it really is… You’ve been lucky, it’s been pretty tame for a while.”
***
Poe didn’t like the way Anakin said that and while part of him wanted to ask him to elaborate, he felt like that would be a long story, “Yeah, I’ve heard some things, but don’t really know all the details. Maybe another time you could fill me in.” As much as he wanted to ask Anakin more questions about the dreams and other things, he meant it when he’d said that he didn’t want to keep him too long.
***
“Ya,” Anakin said, though he wasn’t sure if this salutation was any more sincere than the one before. Poe would definitely find out more the longer he stayed in the OC, he didn’t need Anakin for that.
“I’ll see you on the Network.” That was a sure thing, though.
***
Poe nodded, “Great. It was nice to see you again, Anakin.” Unlike the last time, Poe totally intended to let Anakin leave this time and besides he was now beginning to get hungry so he should probably get his own lunch, “Yeah, we probably will.”