Chapter Text
Before he noticed months have passed since he had been tortured by Thrawn and Poe realized one thing, if he wanted to get back to his lover he’s gonna need some help. He hates asking for help. He feels as if the sole phrasing it will make him look weak in the eyes of the others. But there’s no other way. He has to find the best bounty hunter. And he might actually know one. Or rather his father does.
Poe sighs realizing that he has to go give his father a short visit. He does talk with Kes and write to him quite often but it’s different than meeting in person. He hasn’t seen his father since he joined the resistance right after the academy. Even though the older Dameron asked him to come home several times for Life Day. Poe just can’t help seeing the ghost of his mother in his childhood home. Every corner reminds him of her.
But there is no other way. Either he finds his dad and this bounty hunter or he can forget about seeing Thrawn again.
He was trying to fill in the void with Finn. But he realized he doesn’t feel anything romantic for that man, only platonic feelings, friendship. To say that Finn didn’t take the news well would be an understatement. He disappeared without a trace for weeks until he told Poe via datapad he’s gonna train with Rey in her newly rebuilt Jedi Temple.
No one can ever replace Thrawn. He’s special. He can’t really say if the good kind of special or bad. He’s just unique. Poe is aware of his own hot-headedness, and what he finds in Mit the most attractive apart from his appearance and controlling is his cold, strategic attitude. He would never admit it out loud but when it comes to bed related issues he likes being bossed around. He likes the thrill of being punished, it feels just like being in the cockpit of an X-Wing going full speed. He can’t ever tell how it will end, what will happen, and it always sends a jolt through his body and makes him feel ethereal. Thrawn makes him see the stars without going in space.
After setting the course to Yavin IV he decided to create at least a draft of a plan. The Empire is long gone therefore he can’t just find the Chimaera and enter on board. He doesn’t even know the location of her. As far as he is concerned she could even be in another galaxy. Not even this skilled bounty hunter can get him there.
He sighs and unconsciously plays with his mother's ring that hangs from his neck. Hell, she would definitely disapprove of him falling for an imperial admiral. Especially for Thrawn of them all. But that’s another thing he can’t help. Maybe if she saw how happy he was around him she would eventually change her mind, but unfortunately she got taken by the Force way before the First Order started building their troops.
Poe sighs again and looks at the map. It’s gonna be long five hours.
***
He jolts awake from his nap awoken by his ship’s communicator alarm.
"To the pilot of the unauthorized X-Wing entering the atmosphere. Identify yourself”
Poe blinks a few times trying to get the sleep out of his eyes and sits up looking for the comm link button. And having found it he grunts into the microphone: "Uh… It’s General Poe Dameron, BB8 will transfer my access code to you.”
Everything is still bizarre after the First Order’s or rather Final Order’s fall. People are overly cautious and unwilling to trust others. Those wounds won’t heal quickly, probably even till the next generation. And the galaxy can just hope no other war will consume it. Since the start of the Clone Wars there relatively was no sufficiently long period of peace for the people’s morale to rebuild.
"Everything’s clear. Welcome home, General.” The voice from the comms announced and Poe turned the autopilot off to take over the controls and prepare for landing.
He decided to leave his ship in the old resistance base hangar in case some newly acquired fanatic of his decides to get closer and go mad. After the battle of Exegol and dealing with the Final Order’s residues his popularity across the galaxy drastically increased. Sometimes he contemplates how Leia managed to survive being the role model of so many people, not only her family, but of children and adults all around the galaxy, if not even further. He feels as if the whole world was watching and waiting for him to slip. Though, he decided not to give any of them the satisfaction.
The walk to his old house was short. He remembers taking his dad’s speeder and sneaking out at night to play a rebel in their old base. The sneaking out got so bad his dad had to close the garage and lock the house every night before sleep. He even installed an alarm system for anyone that crossed the fence before dawn. Before the reinstatement of the rebel base Yavin IV was a community of farmers. His dad and a bunch of other ex-soldiers decided to settle there and start a new life, but then the First Order destroyed everything. Thus, there was no need to put an alarm system if Poe had been an easy child, but he wasn’t, not since Shara died.
He pushed the gate open entering the garden and seeing the columns of bluming flowers spreading around the fence and taking over the whole plot of land. Even some vines started growing upwards taking over parts of the house. He smiled softly when the wave of emotions hit him. He remembered helping his dad plant them when he was a kid. The view changed, but not enough for the house to be unrecognized. He continued walking through the front lawn and stopped at the door taking a deep breath before knocking. He was about to do it when the door swung wide open leaving him flabbergasted.
"Poe…” His father whispered with sparkling joy and unbelief in his eyes.
"Dad.” Poe stated a bit coldly but nonetheless also reciprocating the joy seen in his father’s eyes.
Kes looked him up and down trying to find any trace of something bad having happened to understand the reason to Poe’s appearance on his front porch, but he couldn’t find any.
"Please, come in.” The older Dameron frowned confused and trying not to scare his son away and stepped to the side giving him enough space to enter.
Poe took the queue and stepped into his old house feeling a wave of relief wash him. He might have been avoiding his house, but the undeniable feeling of calmness and security still persists within its walls. He looked around hoping he would find anything that would suggest a major change happening, but he didn’t see anything. Everything was just as he remembered, as if the time stopped in this place. Though, when looking at his father he saw the time catching up with him and his throat tightened. "How, how have you been, dad?” He uttered, not out of politeness, but truly worried. He really hoped the answer wouldn’t be any other than the usual one.
"I’m fine, son. I’ve been working in the garden much often and well…” he stopped and looked at his son „Trying to find any information about you, especially when you haven’t written to me in a while.”
Poe winced slightly. He did know that his dad would be preoccupied with his wellbeing, of course, he’s his father after all, but he hoped he wouldn’t worry himself to madness. That’s the only reason that kept him in touch with his dad. When the times got hard Poe’s first instinct was to cut himself off from all the relationships. He could die any moment so he wanted to prepare his father for that possibility and slowly started distancing himself from him. He thought he was being a philanthropist by doing it, but then he realized he was just hurting his dad. If he could just have more time with his mom - Shara - he would take it by any cost, and he assumes his dad would cherish it more if he spent more time with his son than the distancing he got if anything happened. But the near death experience on Exegol got him thinking.
"Oh, right. I’m sorry I’ve - You know, it’s been crazy out there” he sighed and looked at his dad.
Kes looked at his son and smiled softly. "I know I’ve been there myself” He sighed contemplating if to burst the moment, but he couldn’t resist, he needed to know. “Why did you come?” he blurted out and quickly added “It’s not that I’m not happy… It’s a dream come true to have you in our house again, but…”
Poe scowled slightly and sighed. Maybe after finding Thrawn he’ll mend things with his dad, but now the time is of the essence. “I need help. I need to find that bounty hunter you’ve been talking about years ago… The one that helped you… And mom.”
Kes sighed. He hoped Poe just wanted to spend some time with him. But it’s just foolish thinking. He’s glad that at least Poe visited him out of necessity, if he couldn’t bring himself to do it without any other reason. “Sure. I’ll help you, son. You know you can always count on me.” He smiled reassuringly and closed the door leading Poe to the living room. “He’s known as The Mandalorian. I can’t really tell you his name, but if you tell him you’re my kid he’ll help you, for sure.” Kes grabbed his datapad from the table and fiddled slightly with it trying to find the information about Mando’s current whereabouts. Poe can’t know but he kept in touch with him.
After moments of twiddling he found what he was looking for. “You should find him in the Ryloth system.” He looked up at his son and put the datapad back on the table. He hoped Poe won’t inquire about the way he got that information from.
“Ryloth?” Poe frowned. “Alright… Thank you, dad.”
Kes smiled softly at his son and bit his lip in contemplation. “Would you like to stay the night? I’m sure you must be tired after the flight. You could take off to Ryloth first thing in the morning.”
“I don’t know, dad…” Poe avoided his gaze, but then looked straight into his eyes. He’s hurt his dad enough. Maybe it’s time to make things right. “I guess staying the night won’t hurt” He smiles softly and he realized he made the right call seeing his father’s genuine smile reach his eyes. Maybe everything will be better now.