The only reason that Rey's outside of her room is because she had taken the chance of leaving between common meals to go to the cafeteria and eat a hot meal for the first time in days. She'd been taking prepackaged things from the cafeteria and stocking them in her room, getting ready for whatever is coming and just to avoid her mind being read because honestly, the memories stolen from her because of candy hearts were bad enough. This? She really has no patience for what the barge is doing now, especially because it seems like she's one of the few people who aren't affected. Her head only has her own thoughts in it and it's something she's very glad about.
It's on her way back that she has to stop in her tracks or trip over a can of food, and she bends down to pick it up and frowns at the packaging for a moment. She's not had a peach yet, but she does know she likes apples, and the fruit on this can looks sort of like an apple. She's tempted immediately to keep the can, to stash it in her pack and keep walking, but when she looks up and sees Max and their eyes meet it becomes clear it doesn't belong to her.
She's still tempted to keep it. Her hand grips it tightly, but somehow she forces herself to cross the room and somehow, she holds it out to him. She'll regret it the second the can leaves her hand, but he did catch her red-handed.
Max had watched her from start to finish and hardly moved a muscle. This should be a very easy situation to handle: pull a gun, get the can back, run. But that's not acceptable here. It's not even rational here, and he knows that, even with famine looming ahead.
So he'd watched her and waited to see if she would look him in the eye and steal from him. He'd understand that reaction a good deal more than when she, instead, gives it back. He takes it carefully, like he suspects she's rigged it with explosives, and he doesn't take his eyes off her even after it's back in his hand.
And that is incredibly familiar, but this time instead of being a comfort it just makes her feel cold all over. It's an action straight from Jakku, two scavengers who know they have something good and it's time to decide if you're going to die fighting to keep it or cut your losses and try to find something else far, far away from the person you've just met.
Everything she's done the last few weeks has been to stay alive, so her choice is pretty much made for her. And she fought, and she thought she found a new home, but she'll never leave Jakku after all.
"Rey," she answers evenly, and she wonders if he sees in her what she sees in him. Someone that defaults to the desperate drag out fight to survive, not the fight to stay amenable in cramped places like this ship. "Who are you?"
He straightens very slowly, not even consciously aware that he's waiting for her to draw a gun on him. It's just habit. It's just a reflex he developed that has kept him alive, that's all.
"Max." It still feels strange to say his own name. And he still hasn't lowered the can or put it back in his pack, even though he knows he should. Or, if he were a better person, he'd give it to her. He would have done that once, but now...he can't make his hand cooperate.
But he has a next best thing, something to satisfy his need to survive and the shame he feels at having fallen back so hard on his scavenging. "Someone tried to spoil some of these. Mn...here," he turns, shows her a plastic container full of pear slices. "Have to eat them or they go bad. Once we lose power, they'd be poison."
But they're okay now. And he has two dozen two forks, so he offers her one and keeps one for himself. If he can't stomach the thought of giving away food, he can at least share, one scav to another.
She doesn't know how many names are shared here, how many men are named Max on this ship, but once she knows his name it's not hard to make the connection that he's got to be Furiosa's Max. That makes something in her shoulders relax a little, it gives him an extra leeway he might not have had if it weren't for Furiosa.
And then he offers her a spoon, and his food that will go bad if it's not eaten, and maybe she isn't trapped on Jakku after all. This would never happen there. She watches him as she spears one of the slices of fruit, as she brings it to her mouth and eats the whole thing in one go.
There's a part of her that still thinks it might be a trap, but she's trusting Furiosa on this.
"Furiosa mentioned you," she says while she chews, but she does at least cover her mouth. "You're from her world?"
The mention of Furiosa does the same thing to him that the connection had done for Rey: his shoulders relax a little, he stops hunching over the food like at any minute he and Rey will have to start biting at one another for it.
"Helped her with a job," he nods, which is a peculiar way of explaining that mad rush with the wives. "You work with her here? The greenhouse?"
The war rig is sort of like Furiosa's way of testing compatibility: if you can grasp the importance of that sliver of her homeworld, you stand a chance at understanding her. So Max nods, and his expression loses some of its edge. "Means she likes you."
His personal opinion is that Furiosa likes people too easily, but there's so much that's familiar about Rey, so much that he can read and understand, that he thinks Furiosa was right to show Rey the rig.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2016-04-21 04:10 am (UTC)It's on her way back that she has to stop in her tracks or trip over a can of food, and she bends down to pick it up and frowns at the packaging for a moment. She's not had a peach yet, but she does know she likes apples, and the fruit on this can looks sort of like an apple. She's tempted immediately to keep the can, to stash it in her pack and keep walking, but when she looks up and sees Max and their eyes meet it becomes clear it doesn't belong to her.
She's still tempted to keep it. Her hand grips it tightly, but somehow she forces herself to cross the room and somehow, she holds it out to him. She'll regret it the second the can leaves her hand, but he did catch her red-handed.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-22 04:42 am (UTC)So he'd watched her and waited to see if she would look him in the eye and steal from him. He'd understand that reaction a good deal more than when she, instead, gives it back. He takes it carefully, like he suspects she's rigged it with explosives, and he doesn't take his eyes off her even after it's back in his hand.
"Who are you?"
no subject
Date: 2016-04-22 04:56 am (UTC)Everything she's done the last few weeks has been to stay alive, so her choice is pretty much made for her. And she fought, and she thought she found a new home, but she'll never leave Jakku after all.
"Rey," she answers evenly, and she wonders if he sees in her what she sees in him. Someone that defaults to the desperate drag out fight to survive, not the fight to stay amenable in cramped places like this ship. "Who are you?"
no subject
Date: 2016-04-22 05:20 am (UTC)"Max." It still feels strange to say his own name. And he still hasn't lowered the can or put it back in his pack, even though he knows he should. Or, if he were a better person, he'd give it to her. He would have done that once, but now...he can't make his hand cooperate.
But he has a next best thing, something to satisfy his need to survive and the shame he feels at having fallen back so hard on his scavenging. "Someone tried to spoil some of these. Mn...here," he turns, shows her a plastic container full of pear slices. "Have to eat them or they go bad. Once we lose power, they'd be poison."
But they're okay now. And he has
two dozentwo forks, so he offers her one and keeps one for himself. If he can't stomach the thought of giving away food, he can at least share, one scav to another.no subject
Date: 2016-04-22 05:42 am (UTC)And then he offers her a spoon, and his food that will go bad if it's not eaten, and maybe she isn't trapped on Jakku after all. This would never happen there. She watches him as she spears one of the slices of fruit, as she brings it to her mouth and eats the whole thing in one go.
There's a part of her that still thinks it might be a trap, but she's trusting Furiosa on this.
"Furiosa mentioned you," she says while she chews, but she does at least cover her mouth. "You're from her world?"
no subject
Date: 2016-04-22 05:49 am (UTC)"Helped her with a job," he nods, which is a peculiar way of explaining that mad rush with the wives. "You work with her here? The greenhouse?"
no subject
Date: 2016-04-22 06:18 am (UTC)It's not that she forgot the name, honestly, it's that she still can't believe that thing that had had such an accurate name.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-23 05:08 am (UTC)His personal opinion is that Furiosa likes people too easily, but there's so much that's familiar about Rey, so much that he can read and understand, that he thinks Furiosa was right to show Rey the rig.