Warning: Spoilers for The Force Awakens

Seriously, if you don't want key information about certain characters or plot points revealed, click the back button and read no further.

I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't been fortunate enough to see it yet.

Rated K because for once I'm not toeing any lines, writing anything dark and controversial, or trolling someone like only a Hunter from Destiny can.

I don't own Star Wars. Disney does.

And hopefully that's enough lines of space between the spoiler warning and the fic for anyone who doesn't want spoilers to turn back, because I'm starting the fic now.

Heartbreaker

It really wasn't Poe Dameron's fault that he went around breaking hearts like there was no tomorrow. It wasn't something he actively tried to do. In fact, Leia knew for a fact that it was something he actively tried not to do.

But, like turning heads, it was something he couldn't help doing. Dashing good looks and roguish charm drew other recruits and Resistance fighters to Poe like Skirilik gnats to tree sap. And his skill and fame preceded him, making him even more desirable. But what clenched it was that he was, well, himself. He was charming and polite, and had the easy confidence of someone who always considered himself among friends. He was kind. To everyone. Fiercely loyal to his friends. Openly affectionate. Sweet. The list went on and on. And then there were all those moments that you saw him doing random things and it just made you stop and melt a little. Like playing fetch with BB-8, or the many other ways he showered his pet droid with attention. Or how he'd stop what he was doing to carry something heavy for elderly maintenance workers.

Leia didn't think people meant to fall in love with him anymore than Poe meant to charm them. But she saw it happen over and over again. To his credit, Poe always let them down as easily as he could. But rejection was rejection, and a broken heart was a broken heart.

For a while after that, there was the inevitable awkwardness between Poe and his rejected admirer. She could see that he knew how badly he'd hurt them, and could feel how sorry he was, but he couldn't change his lack of romantic interest in them, and wasn't so cruel as to lie to them and pretend to feel something he didn't. That would only make it worse in the end. Often the rejected admirers would ask to be reassigned. Leia allowed this, whenever she could. She sympathized with those poor broken hearted souls.

Because her heart broke a little bit too every time she looked at Poe Dameron.

No, she wasn't in love with him. She was old enough to be his mother.

That, actually, was where the problem lay.

Because Leia was a mother. To a roguishly good looking, black haired, dark eyed boy. But that was where the similarities between Poe and her Ben ended. And she had no idea how she'd gotten it so wrong.

Poe was everything Leia wished her son could have been. And it hurt seeing him grow into the kind of man that her own son should have been. Ben had turned away from her and the love she'd given him, the lessons and kindness she'd tried to teach him, and turned to the Dark side.

And she hated herself a little bit sometimes, because there were days she wished that Poe really was her son.

Those happened more and more as time went by. The struggles against the First Order were never ending. Capable people were promoted through the ranks of the Resistance. It didn't take Poe long to move from being known as one hell of a pilot to being known as the Resistance's best pilot. With that distinction came rank and responsibility. His own squad of X-wings to lead. Clearance. Meetings with the Resistance's highest ranking leaders.

And as much as Leia wanted to keep Poe at an arm's length, she couldn't. He was too good at what he did. Like she, and Han, and Luke had all been, back when they were young. The kind of person she realized that she could rely on for anything.

In time, Leia came to depend on the young pilot. To trust him in a way she'd never trusted her own son, or even Han, as much as she'd loved them both. With Han, even before things got bad between them, there had been so many times she'd felt like he always had one foot out the door. As for Ben, he'd never proven himself worthy of what trust she had given him, much to her constant sorrow. Leia might not be a Jedi, or well trained in the use of the Force, but it was strong enough with her to let her know who she could really trust.

And much to her chagrin, she realized that Poe was the man who she could trust. Whether it was a stealth mission or a losing battle, Poe was the one who would always be her first and last gun in the fight. The one who would never let her down.

It just broke her heart a little more every time she found herself feeling pride, or affection, and yes, even motherly love for the boy who wasn't her son.

I'm a sucker for family fics. And while sparrow racing in Destiny last week (sparrow equals speeder for those who don't play Destiny), one of my friends made the comment that it had to mess with Leia's mind, seeing Poe everyday, in all his wavy-haired glory, because Poe looks so much like her son, and is filling the role that should really be filled by Ben. Then I crashed my sparrow off a cliff while my heart started breaking. And she won the race. I'm pretty sure she did that on purpose. She knows how character feels affect me!