Max nods again and he says nothing for a while. And then, maybe practicing, he reaches a hand out and squeezes her shoulder and pulls his hand back again.
"Tommy. He's good to you, mm?" That's another concern that's nagged at him for a while now, but there's never been a chance to bring it up.
She glances back at him with a small smile, half to tell him she appreciates the gesture and half just because she's pleased he's listening to her, but when he brings up Tommy in that context her smile changes, goes softer in a way she'd be embarrassed about a month or so ago.
That's probably enough of an answer, really, but she'll tell him out loud too.
"Yes. I don't think he expected this to happen to him here, but I think he's happy. I'm happy." And that's new for her, long absent for him, and it's something that means so much that it's a little overwhelming at times.
Max still has concerns, but they're things he can't explain to her any better than he could to Furiosa. However, he can't just wash his hands of it like he would have if they were on his world. He does care what happens to her despite himself, and they're together on this voyage.
"Good." He'll take her assessment and believe it. (It helps rather a lot that Tommy really hasn't done anything to validate Max's mistrust. He is less watchful now than he used to be; he's willing to let Tommy stay at his fire, in fact.)
"Happy doesn't happen around here. Not for most people." He's glad that she's happy is what he really means to say.
"I didn't really feel anything on Jakku," she says quietly while they walk, and this is absolutely something she wouldn't tell anyone else. Tommy may have guessed, as similar as they are, but it's something she's never said point blank like this. "My entire life was on hold because I was waiting for people who never came for me. I didn't realize it then, but it was like I wasn't even alive."
And then BB-8 had beeped his way into her life, and then came Finn and Han and everything that she was swept up in, and then just a few days later she was here, where everything was new, food was abundant, and people were like Finn, wanting to be her friend only because they had big hearts.
"It's hard to adjust to, isn't it?"
Being alive. Feeling things, and learning to be okay with feeling things.
"I don't know how." This is not the confession of a man who is sheepishly
trying and fumbling along. This is the confession of someone who doesn't
speak a language and can't even form the vowels anymore.
"But if this helps I'll do it. I don't want to fit with people. I'm not
like them at home. Don't want to be. Maybe it's how I keep waiting for my
people, my family, that's never coming back. But here...I can be more for
Eggsy. For Furiosa." A pause, an awkward hum that means to include Rey, too.
She glances over at him to see if she's guessed right about that hum and once she's sure she has, her hand moves to touch his. It's nothing that last more than a second, just a brush of her fingers over the back of his hand that says she knows, she feels the same, and that that's okay.
"What made you want to be with Eggsy if you don't want to fit with people?"
"First time he met me I was scavenging. He ran movie nights, helped people
relax. Saw me and gave me something he'd hidden for himself. His favorite.
Just gave it to me, didn't know me."
He still had the wrapper, actually and he shows it to her: a yellow peanut
M&M's wrapper that he's reinforced by laminating it. It holds odds and ends
for him now that the candy is long gone.
"Not a lot of people like him. And they don't talk to me, most of those
people. He did."
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no subject
"Tommy. He's good to you, mm?" That's another concern that's nagged at him for a while now, but there's never been a chance to bring it up.
no subject
That's probably enough of an answer, really, but she'll tell him out loud too.
"Yes. I don't think he expected this to happen to him here, but I think he's happy. I'm happy." And that's new for her, long absent for him, and it's something that means so much that it's a little overwhelming at times.
no subject
"Good." He'll take her assessment and believe it. (It helps rather a lot that Tommy really hasn't done anything to validate Max's mistrust. He is less watchful now than he used to be; he's willing to let Tommy stay at his fire, in fact.)
"Happy doesn't happen around here. Not for most people." He's glad that she's happy is what he really means to say.
no subject
And then BB-8 had beeped his way into her life, and then came Finn and Han and everything that she was swept up in, and then just a few days later she was here, where everything was new, food was abundant, and people were like Finn, wanting to be her friend only because they had big hearts.
"It's hard to adjust to, isn't it?"
Being alive. Feeling things, and learning to be okay with feeling things.
no subject
"I don't know how." This is not the confession of a man who is sheepishly trying and fumbling along. This is the confession of someone who doesn't speak a language and can't even form the vowels anymore.
"But if this helps I'll do it. I don't want to fit with people. I'm not like them at home. Don't want to be. Maybe it's how I keep waiting for my people, my family, that's never coming back. But here...I can be more for Eggsy. For Furiosa." A pause, an awkward hum that means to include Rey, too.
no subject
"What made you want to be with Eggsy if you don't want to fit with people?"
no subject
"First time he met me I was scavenging. He ran movie nights, helped people relax. Saw me and gave me something he'd hidden for himself. His favorite. Just gave it to me, didn't know me."
He still had the wrapper, actually and he shows it to her: a yellow peanut M&M's wrapper that he's reinforced by laminating it. It holds odds and ends for him now that the candy is long gone.
"Not a lot of people like him. And they don't talk to me, most of those people. He did."