Summary: Following the events of The Force Awakens, Rey finds herself focusing on her Jedi training and isolating herself from the others on the base-especially with Finn in a coma. When Luke orders her to seek a balance between maintaining relationships and her training, she finds herself out for drinks with none other than Commander Poe Dameron / Damerey

A/N: This is my first fanfic so I hope it isn't too atrocious! I'm absolutely in love with Damerey and I whipped this up in a couple of hours. Hope you enjoy~

Disclaimer: I don't own anything woot

Even during a galactic war, people always find a way to live as normally as possible. They laugh and smile, banter over meals in the mess hall, do whatever it takes to push forward. Frankly, it's the little things that help everyone hold onto hope despite the crushing reality of the war.

Unfortunately, Rey doesn't have that luxury as she spends every waking moment training to be a proper Jedi. She could probably find an hour or so to spare to bond with the rest of the Resistance, but it's easier to stay aloof and pretend she's busy learning with Master Luke rather than put herself out there amongst strangers to make friends. Maybe if Finn were awake, him being her only real friend—not to mention her first—Rey could muster up the courage to meet the people around her. But Finn isn't awake and she isn't feeling very courageous today.

Or at least, that's what she thought when she woke up this morning.

The first thing she hears is a squeal reminiscent of that of R2D2's when it's in a panicked fluster. Rey slaps the snooze button on her alarm whilst cracking one eye open to check the time only to realize there was light pouring through the grimy glass of her window.

"Damn, I was supposed to meet Master Luke for meditation by sunrise!" Rey groans while haphazardly throws on whatever she manages to find on the floor of her quarters and scurries down the hallways of the Resistance base and out to the forest to find Master Luke.

The dew sits undisturbed on the leaves, and even after two months of seeing this phenomenon every morning, Rey still finds herself in awe of the gleam of the rising sun reflecting off the droplets of water all around her. Jakku never relented from its constant arid heat and Rey never understood the meaning of refreshed until she came here.

She feels, rather than sees, Master Luke getting up from their meditation spot by the pond at the edge of the forest and quietly steels herself for her well-deserved admonition.

"Don't be so nervous, I was waiting for you to slip up eventually Rey." Luke confesses. He seems to be in particularly good spirits this morning, or maybe it's her imagination.

"I'm so sorry, Master Luke" Rey apologizes, "I don't really have an excuse, but it won't happen again."

"You needn't worry. Honestly, I'm surprised this hasn't already happened. You never failed to show up from day one, despite the early hour, and I have to say I'm more worried that you haven't been late before rather than this minor tardiness."

"I must be missing something—do you want me to mess up?" Rey tries to push down the anxiety of failing her master. Being the only Jedi-in-Training comes with its pressures, but the reality is Rey spends day and night training so that there won't be a reason to worry about failure.

"No, no Rey! I just mean, you don't spend any of your extra time with your peers. Of course I admire your focus and dedication to becoming a full-fledged Jedi, but isolating yourself will open up pathways to the dark side. There is a balance to be met, and you needn't push yourself to the limit."

"Well, I'm going to be honest. That is not at all what I expected you to say." Rey reveals.

"I'll tell you what. Tonight, your assignment is just to relax and spend some time with some of the others around the base. It'll be good for you. Don't think I haven't noticed that your dedication to becoming a Jedi is also a way for you to avoid any social obligation." Luke gives her a pointed look before continuing back towards the base. Rey stares at him before letting the reality wash over her. She thinks this is probably the worst assignment he's given her, including making her use the force to count how many spiders there were in that damn tree across the pond.

Walking back to her quarters, Rey tries to discern how to go about this whole situation. She never thought she'd make friends, let alone be forced to do so.

I suppose I could just spend time in Finn's room and tell Master Luke that's how I 'relaxed'. The truth is, she knows she just has to bite the bullet and embolden herself to pluck up the courage to put herself out there.

"I've fended off Rathtars and fought Kylo Ren! This is no big deal. It's not." she says to convince herself more than anything. In her flustered state, she bumps into Commander Poe Dameron—star pilot of the Resistance. She recognizes him from all of her visits to Finn in his intensive care quarters. They probably haven't exchanged more than a handful of words, but she can see that he cares a lot about Finn.

"Whoa there! In a hurry?" He smiles an unnaturally charming grin as he grabs her shoulders to steady her.

"Sorry, I guess I'm not really in my right mind at the moment." Rey stills as he drops his hands from her shoulders, brushing them ever so slightly along her arms. "You're Commander Dameron right?" Rey questions.

"Uh, yeah, but just call me Poe. All those formalities make me feel old. You good?" His dark eyes implore hers for an honest answer, and he emanates a softness she hasn't felt since meeting Finn.

She hesitates to answer and he can tell something is weighing heavily on her mind. If he's friends with Finn, then she and him could probably get along right? At this point, she doesn't really know where to start with this quasi-assignment from Master Luke. Rey steels herself for the inevitable question already slipping from her lips.

"Okay," Rey starts, "Would you do me a favor?" Poe nods in encouragement to continue. He can see she's nervous and she seems to have good intentions. The pilot can't say he knows much about her personally, but she's clearly a decent person and he always spots her in the corner of Finn's room talking to him when no one else is there.

"If you're not doing anything tonight, would you want to grab a drink with me tonight? I'm short on friends here, and I could really use some liquid courage." She speaks her request no slower than a TIE-fighter and her fingers are fidgeting with the hem of her tunic. He can see her apprehension in her chestnut eyes and quickly realizes that she's probably never had to do this back in Jakku as a scavenger. It doesn't even take him a second to accept.

"I'd be glad to be in your company tonight. And since you say you're short on friends, I'll invite a few buddies of mine and we'll al have a good time. Sound good?" Poe sees the relief dance across her features and chuckles when she releases the breath she's been holding. The offer is more than she hopes for, and although she felt doubtful earlier, a sense of excitement boils up in her chest.

"Yes, thank you so much! You're a life-saver."

"Well don't thank me yet, Jessika is probably gonna want to drink you under the table for your first night out." What appeared to be mirth moves across her eyes before she composes herself and begins to walk off.

"11:00! I'll meet you at the canteen behind the hangar!" He exclaims as she smiles and turns the corner of the hallway.

It turns out Rey is no lightweight.

"Two swigs of this foul liquor off Yavin 4 should have you spinning! What are you made of?!" Jessika yelled. Rey likes Jessika Pava more than she expects to. Jessika may be petite, but she her personality extends far beyond her small stature.

"If we're being honest, I've never even had alcohol before this." Rey admits while taking another sip of the bitter, amber liquid. It burns down her throat and spreads in waves throughout her chest. But despite how much she drinks, she hasn't felt more than a slight light-headedness. The euphoria is a welcome escape from the heavy stress she has been living under.

"You can't be serious? What, no hard liquor on Jakku?" Poe playfully adds.

"Well there's barely any water and I can't say I went out of my way to scour for these types of drinks." Rey chuckles. It's nice to talk about it and not have everyone look at her like she was some poor orphan abandoned in the desert. It is what it is and she's not there anymore.

They've been drinking at the canteen for well over 3 hours and what began as regret slowly morphed into, well, fun.

Jessika, in her drunken stupor, constantly switches between singing horribly off-tune to melodies Rey doesn't know and reenacting insane pilot stories—most of which include Poe—with hand motions and childish sound effects. Drunken Poe, she learns, is a wicked storyteller. He always starts off slow with the most minute of details thrown in and takes you through a wild adventure, which has no doubt been exaggerated by the alcohol in his system.

Suddenly, Rey feels gravity fall off her shoulders and she knows this is what's been missing. The friendly camaraderie and lighthearted aura let her breathe again. It just feels better.

"As much as I would love to stay and chat, it's late and your favorite pilot, me, has an early morning simulation. So, I bid you guys good night." Jessika says as she mock salutes us in farewell.

"Yeah, I guess I better do the same since Master Luke hasn't relented on the early morning meditations despite his kind gesture toda-," Rey stops, observing that Poe isn't even awake to hear her. He sits on his bar stool slowly sliding off with his whole upper body sprawled out on top of the bar, mouth agape.

"Alright Poe, let's go. C'mon," she says while hooking her arm around his waist and hoisting his arm over her shoulder to walk him back to his quarters.

Upon arriving at his door, Poe manages to punch in his security code to unlock the door and drags Rey in along with him.

His room is much larger, she notes, and surprisingly tidy. Rey, by comparison, is messy enough where she can barely see the floor under all the clutter. She supposes there was never a need in her small AT-AT on Jakku to be overly neat. Her quarters weren't overly cramped by any measure, but she certainly didn't have the space to walk around freely. There are a lot of differences the more she looks. He has a large double bed, a less dingy window, and a personal 'fresher which must be a dream in comparison to the communal 'freshers on her side of the barracks.

Aside from the obvious difference, she also notices they have some similarities. He has small mechanical projects littered all over his desk accompanied with grease stains on his sketches of what appear to be x-wing blueprints. Although he's ridiculously neat, his bed remains unkempt much like hers.

During her observation of his living space, she stops paying attention to Poe who was chugging a glass of water. Realizing her intrusion, Rey quickly gathers herself and makes to exit.

"Oh! Sorry, I'll get out of your way." Before Rey can leave his room, he gently grasps her wrist.

"Hey, stay for a while. Don't worry I'm sobering up, I just thought we could chat for a little bit is all." Poe states.

"I should get going, it really is late you know." In this light, Poe looks more somber than usual. Even before tonight, Rey pegged him as the charming, laid-back type. He always put a smile on his face, encouraging everyone to be his or her best. But here, in the moonlight, Rey can sense his vulnerability. The bruises under his eyes seems darker and deeper than before, and his back is hunched over as he rests his elbows on his thighs. He looks…broken. She doesn't intend to, but she peers inside his mind and watches his memories flash by, lingering on a particularly painful one.

"Do you know what it's like to have someone invade your mind?" Poe whispers and Rey reels back out of his thoughts.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-,"

"Not you, I let you in. I needed you to see it, because I know you went through it, too. This may sound horrible, but I'm grateful you went through it." Rey flinches in shock at his confession, but she can tell his words have no malice. "I'm glad you suffered through this because it means there is someone else who gets it. I don't want to think of you in pain, especially if it's anything like what I went through, but I am haunted by the torture and what I said so he would relent."

His honesty is brutal and raw, and through it she can gradually feel a bond forming between them. Rey sets herself beside him on the edge of his bed and carefully grabs his trembling hands.

"I came out tonight with you guys because I was ordered to by Master Luke as a way of 'connecting with my peers'." Poe stares at her and urges her to continue. "With Finn in a coma, I don't really have anyone other than Master Luke and General Organa here. And they're great, but I only know them as my superiors. I can't go out and grab a drink with them, or talk with them like this. So consider me thankful, too. I'm thankful that I made actual friends, if I can call you guys that." Rey tells him all this whilst staring at the wall in front of her, afraid to face him.

"Yeah, I'd like to say we're friends." Poe reassures her. "But I'm going to be completely frank with you—I said I was sobering up I think we both know I'm still terribly drunk." Poe admits with nervous laughter.

"Oh, I knew it! Go to sleep!" Rey shoves him playfully as he chuckles.

"I'll take the floor—I'm not gonna make you walk all the way to the other side of the base to catch some shut-eye." Poe climbs, or rather stumbles, off the mattress and throws some extra blankets onto the floor.

With slight apprehension, Rey acquiesces and climbs under the covers whispering a measly, "good night, Poe" while facing away from him so she can hide the slight smile ghosting over her features.

Rey picks up a soft "good night, Rey" just before drifting into a peaceful sleep.

Rey wakes up to rays of light settling on her face, and she knows that she's missed her morning meditation with Master Luke. But upon seeing Poe desperately trying to block out the sunlight that is bothering him because of his "killer hangover," Rey succumbs to another whim decides to play hooky just this once. Poe begs her to help him and she's howling in laughter-to which he complains is only exacerbating his headache. She looks at him in all his hangover morning glory and Poe gazes back with a pained grimace. It dawns on both of them, that this is just the beginning.

The beginning of something great.