Light 'Em Up

...

> Sees it’s mostly ship stuff and anxiety-inducing speculation

Rey listened intently as she finished up on the last of BB-8′s updates. She shut the hatch she’d been working in and pressed the top of BB-8′s head. The droid whirred to life and beeped happily, twirling around in delight. “Why bombers?” She asked curiously. “What and we’d become three galactic nomads, floating from place to place?” She asked. 

“Well, you have a family legacy too. Your parents were both legendary fighters, that must have come with some pressure.” She commented as she picked up a new tool and continued her work. She smiled softly when he told her he was glad she’d stayed. “I think if I tried, you and Finn would come and find me.” 

Poe shrugged. “I guess? Not until I went to Academy, and it was mostly with my professors. Mostly people thought I’d fly bombers.” He could’ve--it was where he’d gotten his start flying--but he’d always loved X-Wings, ever since he was a little kid.

“Clearly.” Rey joked as she looked up at the sky. Despite it being night, it was still hot but the stars above were as beautiful as ever. She smiled as Poe recounted his time in the academy. “I used to dream about getting to go to a real flight academy. The closest I ever got was when Unkar Plutt made me test fly the ships he thought were most likely to explode or stop working in the sky.” 

He was about to ask if she was at least paid for that, but based on what she’d told him about Jakku...probably not.

Rey looked up, pausing in her work for a moment. “Of course there is. You’ve been in this fight for years, you must have some thoughts and feelings about it or what’s the point.” She muttered when he said there was nothing to talk about. She sighed softly and nodded. “I get that. Sometimes I feel like I have to be here, that it’s my family’s legacy to be in the fight. Every time I think about disappearing on everyone and just going back to being nobody, I can’t imagine it past getting into the cockpit of a ship.” 

“So, they took the risk of being poisoned for money?” She asked. Even now, Rey didn’t get the concept of money. She’d dealt in portions of food her entire life and there was never enough to go around. The idea of paying someone to eat something was foreign to her. “What was flight academy like?”

“I didn’t say we were smart.”

“They ate a scorpion?” She asked curiously. She wondered how you would even prepare such a thing, roast it? Rey finished wiping away the sweat from her brow and sighed heavily, desperate for a long drink of water. “The ones on Jakku would definitely poison you if you ate them.” 

Rey fiddled with the internal wirings of the droid. It was nothing big, just a firmware update to keep him running. She listened to Poe against that he was a little overwhelmed by everything that had been happening over the past few months. She nodded in agreement. “If you want to talk about it, we can.” She added softly. 

If he was silent, it wasn’t because he was trying to dodge the question. More that he was trying to gather his thoughts.

“Naboo…” Phasma considered a moment. The planet name was familiar, and it was only a moment before she remembered scrubbing through the archives on Brendol Hux’s ship, learning the intimate details of the culture she’d been thrown into the mix with.

“Wasn’t that Emperor Palpatine’s home planet? I’d be curious to see them both. I was never dispatched on missions to either location.”

“I will?” Rey answered, semi confused. She was a little befuddled as to why anyone wouldn’t look where they were going whilst going through a forest. She chuckled and shook her head when he apologised for talking too long. “Don’t, I like someone talking to fill the silences, reminds me that I’m not alone. But you sound tired, are you okay?” She asked as she continued to work on BB-8, doing some maintenance on the droid.