AN:This is a sort of Modern AU. This first part revolves around Poe and his partner, the astromech BB unit droid. That is, until they meet a girl with all sharp edges, oil smudges on her clothes, who's absolutely beautifulthough she wears an odd hair style and—she wants nothing to do with them.

PER·i·SCOPE

ˈperəˌskōp/ noun / an apparatus consisting of a tube attached to a set of mirrors or prisms, by which an observer (typically in a submerged submarine or behind a high obstacle) can see things that are otherwise out of sight.

...

Cartridge 4448

Log: 07:28:14

Aid, assist, preserve, alliance.

BB-8 begins its first operation, the one assignment its kind are made to do.

There's a creature—human—a young man standing two feet away. He's wearing a uniform. BB-8 is informed by the older, bigger, heavier human beside the other who is holding the clipboard that this younger human is its new partner. And the young man's information is already in the small droid's system, it finds: Dameron, Poe. Parents: Kes and Shara Dameron. Species: Human. Age: 19. Birthdate: March 9th. Position is—

The droid is told that this is Dameron's first assignment and fifth test out of the required fourteen, and that the BB unit has become his permanent partner, that it was to aid and protect Dameron at all costs.

It sees that this too is programed in its system.

The small droid coos, looks up the expanse of the young human Dameron's jumpsuit, the helmet tucked securely under the bend of his arm, stubby 5 o'clock shadow darkening. The young man isn't smiling.

Log 16:48:24

Dameron likes flying, and aircrafts—any kind of aircraft. F-22's, fixed-wings, rotorcrafts.

BB-8 was there for his first bi-nary pilot testing and then his first active mission.

The human has difficulty with instructions, somewhat, and he had "winged-it," as the human stated, on more than one occasion. BB has told Dameron that doing so was not a part of the protocol, that it was not something their superiors would look fondly on, that the calculations could bring them both to complete and utter devastation—the human smiles and pats BB's head and calls it "cute."

The human does prove to have what is called "luck;" he passes and becomes a skilled pilot in record time.

Log 11:07:01

Dameron likes to plant. BB observes him on his days off; on most days, the human Dameron can be found from sun up to sun down in the spare room tending to various forms of greenery, some he takes into the kitchen and cooks and eats. But Dameron doesn't seem to know how to look after himself, and BB-8 has to remind him to do his laundry and to not let the dishes sit in the sink too long, and where the pest spray is to kill the critters that creep in afterward, and to not forget about the stove when he goes to "check on [insert vegetation here] for a quick second" that always turns into five minutes. A burner went up in flames once because of this—Sunday, on an October afternoon.

BB would whir "I told you so," and Dameron would roll his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah."

Cartridge 4321

Log 10:12:24

Dameron turns into a skilled pilot, having better hand-eye coordination than many others in the system, BB tells him one day after particularly disheartening news from a superior, a stretched woman named Deborah. Dameron then proceeded to a heated debate in the canteen with Matil Lumbar, another pilot. BB bleeps, telling of the statistically elevated percentage Dameron had in his profession, leaving Lumbar in the dust.

The human barely smiles, forces a twist at the corners of his mouth and grunts. He bites angrily at half of the energy bar he has left. He was on his way to answer to his superior now for the argument that broke out.

BB guesses that that is all the response it was going to get.

Log 17:14:04

Dameron misses his parents, but they're voices through a machine now.

BB eavesdrops one day, unintentionally—it was in passing—and sees its human talking to voices emitting from a phone in the wall. Dameron is sitting at the end of a chair, facing away from the door and the hallway and BB-8. It was the morning they were to go onto a major mission.

The droid catches Dameron's hand rise to his face. He sniffs. A female over the line gives him comforting words, his father sends words of good fortune.

It's been almost two years since passing the test and climbing to be the fourth highest ranked flyer. And still BB-8 notices that before every mission, Dameron phones his home and it's always the same thing—they talk, Dameron murmurs, words are exchanged, and its human would get suited up and BB would always watch just out of sight. Only this time was different—only this time—

Dameron spots BB. He jumps to his feet, lunges over to the walkway, and slams the door before the droid could finish its guilty explanation.

BB-8 is left screaming beeps through the door.

Log 23:12:28

Its human has difficulty expressing emotion and comprehensive thoughts in moments of stress, the droid notes. He's gotten into an argument with a superior, almost gotten into fights if there hadn't been a much-needed intervention, and had missed out on dessert that night and was too shy to ask the lunch servers for one.

But it's night now and the quarters are dark and silent, and there's the soft hum of the ship's air system, and BB-8 goes over its logs of the past three week, wondering, rolling down the echoing hall—

"Go to sleep, will you?"

The droid pauses, turns. His human is looking at him, stomach down in his own bed, eyes unable to see far in the barely lit room.

"I can hear you all the way in here, and I can't get to sleep with you rolling up and down the place!" Dameron can feel his fatigue, but because of this damn droid, he hadn't been able to get a lick of sleep.

BB-8 beeps, telling that it wasn't being that loud.

Dameron insists, quite brashly, that it was.

The droid objects.

Eventually both come to a compromise. Dameron asks with forced politeness, "fine. Can you please just—continue whatever it is in the morning and just plug yourself in your charging port?"

The droid rolls its head around as if giving a neck roll and bleeps sarcastically. But it goes over and inserts its charger to "sleep."

Dameron gives an audible sigh and feels his eyes closing...

Log 12:12:32

The next time Dameron has a day off, BB-8 makes sure to have a talk about his attitude. They had just came from a market, and the taller was carrying two bags piled high of recently purchased groceries.

"What do you mean? I was not about to start another fight!"

BB clicks, "yes you were!"

"No I wasn't. And there's no way I would have said anything like that to Diane. I'm not Phillip," Poe snaps, adjusting his hold on the groceries.

BB whirls another comment.

True, his human wasn't as vulgar as the one called Phillip, and that Dameron had been actively ready to get physical after defending Diane, but—

"And I am not cowardly!"

BB's head rolls around, another neck roll.

"Look, I'm complex, not shy."

BB clicks, "sure."

Cartridge 4215

Log 14:11:38

BB's human is shaking, BB observes from a safe distance and zooming in its vision. His higher-up shouts again and the human to the right of Dameron puts their weapon down. Now it's Dameron's turn.

Poe holds a gun for the first time.

And he's shaking, can't seem to keep steady.

His higher-up shouts. Dameron flinches.

He shoots a gun for the first time. And he misses.

BB shakes its head, whirling sadly.

Log 22:24:13

"Five...four...three...two..."

Dameron hasn't slept well in the past few weeks and BB realizes that it doesn't do much with telling him this. The bags under his eyes have grown more apparent and his stubble is no longer a shadow. He's going to have to shave before going back into work.

"...One."

BB watches Poe Dameron blow out the single candle atop the large, extravagant cupcake that has to be held with two hands.

BB whistles, confused. His human has said that he doesn't like chocolate and yet this three-inch high cupcake is made of nothing but it, a mixture of dark, milk, and white. But it was made from one of the bakers at Publix, a sweethearted older woman named Minnie who he regularly strikes up a conversation with and whom insisted the dessert and gave it to the pilot for half off upon finding out what day it was.

Dameron lifts the small cake from the tiny, stark white box and comments about its weight.

BB watches him take off a corner of dark frosting with a finger and brought it to his tongue, the sight automatically being recorded in another of the droid's memory cartridges.

Dameron turns the cupcake around, slightly inspecting it and commenting on the decorations Minnie put into it, the white chocolate wafer sticks, dark chocolate curled shavings, and tiny edible crown. "Do you know how old I am today?"

The droid remains silent for a beat, calculating, then beeps its answer.

"Yup," Dameron remarks. "Twenty-four. Twenty-four long, excruciating years." He takes a tentative bite into the pastry, chews. It's dark chocolate. He doesn't grimace this time—it's not bad actually. And there's sprinkles.

He grins.

Dameron remembers that Minnie once told that her granddaughter likes sprinkles because "they make everything happier."

Surprisingly, he eats the entire cake, a tribute to the maternal baker.

"Remind me to thank Minnie next time we go to get rutabagas," he remarks, dusting his hands on his pants.

Log 11:45:24—two days later

But Minnie isn't there.

"She's been in the hospital all this weekend," another baker, a college student named Darwin, tells. "Heard she had a heart attack."

BB whistles dejectedly, then turns its head up to Poe's and sees his hand clench around the wire metal handles of the grocery basket, the tightening of his jaw, the twitch in his eyes as they widen, appalled, petrified, frightened.

"Oh. ...O-ok..."

BB-8 watches silently, the memory automatically being recorded and stored.

"Sorry man. You knew her?"

"Some...something like that..."

Poe and BB-8 get the rye bread they had come for and left. The rutabagas had all been bought. Poe doesn't take out the thermos of soup he had brought for Minine until they return home. He eats it for dinner instead.

Log 04:11:06

Nothing to note happens.

BB's human, Dameron, doesn't talk much that following week. Currently, he's getting ready for another getaway to work. He's in front of the mirror, finally shaving the short beard that had grown. BB reminds him to get breakfast which he ultimately doesn't.

Cartridge 4207

Log 11:24:48

There's a flower shop four blocks from his apartment that Poe likes to go to. If he wakes up early and grabs his coffee on time, and if it's sunny enough and he has enough change, he and BB-8 would take a walk.

Poe admits that he likes the bustle of people, a comforting change from the uniformed base back in D'Qar.

During these walks, Poe likes to talk. Sometimes BB responds, other times, this is being recorded in the background of its other running systems.

BB records the history of Poe Dameron's parents, his schooling, of his father teasing him when he won seventh place at a plant-growing contest, of his first crush. That he slept with a nightlight until tenth grade, of his mother's intoxicating perfume, his cousin's telltale finger-wag inherited from his uncle. Of sitting in his mother's lap as she took him on a flight in their small plane; the months he'd stay with an aunt or uncle due to his parents being away for work. Of the cat he and a neighbor friend, a friend who had been like a brother to him, found and hid it from their parents until dinnertime. Of the same cat being hit by a car. Of the tears shed and the small, makeshift funeral he, his friend, and their families held for the gray tabby. Of the cummerbunds that were too tight and the hand-me-down shoes that were a size too large, and the neighbor friend that moved away, and his first fistfight.

When they reach the flower shop, the talking usually stops. There's an older, grey man who works behind the counter—Giorgio, as in Giorgio's Flower Shop. Today, there is a girl working, a college student with crinkly brown curls for hair and dark hazel slits for eyes. This time, Poe cracks a half smile and walks up to the counter, beginning with a request for white lily flowers.

The girl informs that they were to get new ones next week and that she has a boyfriend.

Poe doesn't come back for four weeks.

Log 13:12:53

BB doesn't wake that morning. At first, Poe thinks that it's another one of the droid's tricks, of it being stubborn because he wouldn't buy the automated radio in the store. He had went the entire morning without noticing; it was only after having breakfast and lounging around for thirty more additional minutes does he go and check on the droid because it was being suspiciously quiet.

Poe nudges it with a sock-clad foot, scolding it while holding a mug of Brazilian coffee, six sugars, and he frowns.

"Stop fucking around. I'll turn you on myself if I have to."

The short droid remains charged for twenty more minutes before Poe fulfills his threat. Heaving a sigh, he squats in front of the silent BB Unit. There are no lights or beeping indicating that it is active; the charging port glints green, signaling the droid is fully charged. Poe's hands glide over the orange and white metal.

"Now, where's your ON switch..."

It would take him five more minutes to find it. And by that time, Poe will realize that this was definitely not a trick, and he would panic, and wheel the bot to the nearest mechanic as fast as he could move while towing a twenty-seven pound droid.

AN: Ask me any questions and I'll be very glad to answer them. And please don't forget to review, because that literally tells if people like what's here so far or not. Reviews say more than follow alerts because they literally speak and tell authors what readers think.

Note: I'm planning to have Rey show up next part. Yeah?