Chapter 2: To Me, You're Matthew

Rey jerked her hand back to avoid the surge of sparks that fizzed from the outlet port.

"Careful, Jedi!" Matt barked. "Do you know the wattage that can go through this wiring? Keep that finger on a circuit too long, and you'll barbeque yourself for dinner."

Rey huffed and rolled her eyes as she examined the exhaust port in front of her. She and Matt had spent the better part of their first afternoon on Naboo tinkering with and checking the Falcon's main wiring. They were huddled in the trapdoor compartment, where Han made a career out of storing and smuggling stolen goods. A few feet away from her, Matt was huddled over a control panel, as he began to gesticulate blindly behind his back without turning around.

"Hey, can you hand me that... dog-legged clencher?" he asked of Rey. Rey crawled over to Matt's toolbox, which had probably every maintenance tool known to creatures and a few that even she didn't recognize. She picked up what she thought looked like what Matt was describing.

"No," Matt was now looking fully in her direction. "No. The one I'm pointing to. The one I'm... over there! By your foot!" He was clearly trying not to sound too exasperated with her.

Rey quirked an eyebrow as she held up what looked like a pipe-squeezing mechanism. "This?"

"Yes," Matt sighed in relief, and she tossed it to him. He set to work squeezing some wiring, then tucking it back in to the control box before replacing the paneling. "So," he took on a more conversational tone. "Where are you from?"

Rey paused, but only for a fraction. When Luke Skywalker had first asked her where she was from, she had been hesitant to say. A lifetime of scavenging had taught her to be cautious in revealing too much to strangers. Not to mention that there would always be a bit of shame in describing where she was from. But Matt posed the question in a way that made it seem innocent. So she was honest. "Jakku."

There was a clang as Matt tapped a tool against a compressor. "I've never been there," he admitted, and he sounded intrigued.

Rey snorted bitterly. "And I hope you never will. It's a desert dump."

"Huh," Matt took it in. "Like Tatooine, or those kind of places. Is it in the Outer Rim?"

"No. Inner Rim. By the Western Reaches." Rey wiped some grease off of her hands. Not wanting to appear rude, she hit the proverbial ball back over the net.

"So: what about you? Where's home?"

"Bespin," Matt replied simply, sparing her a quick glance.

The name certainly sounded familiar. And all at once, Rey felt a strange affinity for the place. As if she had seen it in a dream... or a vision... Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana briefly popped into her brain. "What's it like?"

"It's a gas giant in the Anoat system, part of the Outer Rim territories. Clear on the other side of them, though, leastwise, relative to Naboo here. I grew up on the streets of Cloud City."

Rey stared. "A city... in the clouds?"

"Yup. Whole infrastructure's powered by turbolifts - the largest ever built anywhere in the galaxy. I learned how to use my hands to survive - traded odd mechanic jobs for food. Free as a bird - I lived for myself."

Rey frowned. "You're an orphan?"

For the briefest instant, she saw a flash of pain flit across Matt's eyes. They were a brilliant shade of blue, she noted, probably like the skies surrounding this city in the clouds. "Yeah." A slight pause and then: "You?"

Rey could all at once hear Kylo's words on the Supremacy echo in her brain, and she drew into herself. "Yeah. Me too," she whispered. When she glanced up, she saw Matt studying her intensely.

"I might have known it. You have that look about you."

Rey wrinkled her nose. "What look?"

Matt's gaze was smoldering even as it was filled with solemn truth. "That abandoned orphan look."

She didn't know what to say to that, so the pair continued repairing the Falcon in silence.

As the Resistance settled onto Naboo over the next several weeks, Rey and Matt often met to maintain the Falcon. While Matt insisted that he didn't need any help, Rey was more than willing to lend a hand. Sometimes, they would talk for hours in the ship's hold; other times, they would work side-by-side in companionable silence.

Maintenance sessions soon expanded into friendly meet-ups when they weren't working. There was so much to see, do and explore on Naboo. Rey thought that she had never seen a planet with such beauty; it was even prettier than Takodana had been. On sunny days, she would drag Matt out to the grassy fields of what was known as the Lake Country, where they would walk side-by-side and chat.

"You have a last name to go with Matt?" Rey asked, the tall grasses brushing up against the long sundress that Leia had recently given her as a gift.

Matt shook his head. "Nope. I've been an orphan for as long as I can remember. Friends I knew in Cloud City tell me I wasn't even a month old when my parents passed."

Rey felt her insides twinge, and her heart went out to the young man. Conscientiously, she tucked a strand of her brown hair back behind her ear. "I was a little girl when my parents... left me."

Matt stopped dead in the grasses and whirled to face her, looking slack-jawed. "They left you? How could they?"

Rey shrugged. "For passage off of that rock. And drinking money." As she had ruminated Kylo's claims over and over in her mind, searched her feelings through the Force, she had come to accept that what he had claimed was true.

Matt was regarding her with a new respect. "What did you do?"

Rey shrugged, picking at a blade of grass. "I worked as a scavenger. Scrounged around for parts. They were plenty to go around. One of the last stands of the Empire was made above Jakku; they were scores of old Imperial Star Destroyers in the sands. I used an old quad jumper speeder." Her gaze grew wistful, sad. "I really liked that speeder. Customized it myself."

"Was it orange?"

Rey blinked in astonishment. "Yes," she whispered. "It was. How did you know?"

Matt grimaced. "Most quantum jumpers are orange in color. It's just the style. Don't ask me why."

Rey found herself smiling, even laughing a little, at the continued expression of discomfort on his face. "I take it you don't like the color orange?"

Matt visibly shuddered. "Hate it."

They were returning to the hangar bay now, which both of them could see was teeming with life after the midday meal.

"Hey, Matt!" Finn called.

"Howdy, Matt," Connix greeted.

Rey and Matt strolled up to the Falcon, stopping on the gangplank. "So, what else don't you like?" Rey teased.

She was surprised to find that she seemed to have hit a nerve, as Matt now affixed her with a sheepish expression. "I don't like being called Matt."

Rey pursed her face in thought. "Well... how about this? From now on... to me, you're Matthew."

Matt beamed. "I'd like that."

It was one morning several weeks later, when Rey met Matt at the entrance to the Naboo hangar bay early. The sun was just coming up, and the doors to the hangar were still closed.

Right away, Rey noticed how the dark circles under Matt's eyes had accentuated. He had been skipping the dinner meal recently, holing himself up here in the hangar and saying that he needed to complete some complex, involved repairs on the Falcon. Apparently, he often worked long into the night before returning to his bunk in Theed Palace.

"Rey," Matt began shyly. "There's something I want to show you." He started to open the hangar door, but then turned back around. "But first: you have to close your eyes."

Rey eyed him skeptically, her frown somewhere between wary and amused.

"It's a surprise," Matt explained. So Rey finally did as he asked and closed her eyes lightly. She heard the hangar doors being flung open, then felt Matt taking her tiny hands in between his calloused palms - they felt warm to the touch - as he guided her into the hangar.

"Can I open them?"

"No, not yet. Wait here." And Rey felt him release her hands. Sharp light danced over her closed eyelids, and she felt the flooding warmth of added sunshine. "Now can I open them?"

"All right... now!"

Rey opened her eyes and gasped, both hands going to her mouth in astonishment. For there, resting before her, was a quad jumper speeder just like the one she had had back home on Jakku. And it was even orange!

"I can't believe it! Did... did you build this yourself?"

Matt blushed. "Yeah, nights. You... you like it?"

"It's wonderful!" Rey breathed.

"Then it's yours!"

Beaming, Rey threw her arms around him and even pecked his cheek, not noticing how elated Matt looked.

Matt watched in fascination from his seat in the grassy plains of the Lake Country, as Rey finished repairing the legendary Skywalker lightsaber. Growing up as a child on Bespin, he had heard the stories about how the weapon had been lost following Luke Skywalker's duel with Darth Vader on Cloud City.

Now, as Rey successfully activated the plasma blade, he watched as she performed sweeping motions with it, cutting the air. Her moves were so graceful, allowing Matt to appreciate the gentle slope of her arse, the flexibility of her long thighs...

"I wish I had the Force," Matt commented, accidentally aloud.

Rey paused in her practice with the blade. "How come?"

He blinked rather rapidly in surprise at her question. "Well, because, then I would feel special."

Rey digested this curiously, her brown orbs glittering confusedly. "You are special. You're special to me."

That night at dinner, the Resistance was on a rationing system, due to a temporary food shortage. Matt readily gave up some of his portions to Rey, scraping potatoes and carrots onto her plate. "You need it more than I do."

She stared at him gratefully. "Why are you so good to me?"

Matt's brow furrowed, as if the answer is obvious. "You're my girl."

Rey smiled affectionately. "I'll always be your girl."