[ For a full few seconds, surprise spills into Rey's expression as he volunteers himself. It's born of a memory of Hanabira, saying he should have joined her in the Mountain Clan, talking of how she had worked with Thrawn there instead. And — well, there's the connection that causes understanding to replace it.
No, this isn't about her. It's about him. That's probably for the best — if it had been, it wouldn't have been about Hanabira anyway. It would have been because he didn't trust her and wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't screw this up for them too. ]
You should. [ She says only once she's removed herself from that equation. And then — well, he's done with his tea. She's officially lingering. She takes her cup up again and is more generous in gulping some down. But she's not going to chug it, alright. ]
[Kylo watches her gargle her tea after the surprised expression fades off her face. She's still not wearing pants, and he's still shirtless -- that doesn't bother him, but it bares mentioning. They're never going to talk about this night again.
That's ok with him.
But now he has an empty cup in his hand and silence, so he passes the former between his hands thoughtfully.]
Long enough to make an impression, anyway.
[He couldn't imagine that an 'elective' mission was in pressing need of a bruiser like him. But he knows enough about making appearances to feign involvement.]
[ Probably she should leave. It's a good time to excuse herself. They're both going on the same mission — that's a promise of the next place they'll find each other. The need to cling to this connection they have is a burden lessened by that assurance.
Yet she can't bring herself to let go of this. To get up, to dress herself, to actually leave. Even as she finishes her tea and sets it aside on his night stand again, she doesn't move to get up. It feels like walking out that door will break the spell. That's silly, of course; the spell was broken from the moment they got out of the bed.
But if she walks out that door, it may as well have been a very pleasant dream. Lost.
So she prods him, instead. ]
An impression on who?
[ Not following his 'they will probably not need bruisers' logic. Is he trying to just menace Thrawn with his mere presence? It seems likely tbh. But she'd never been able to pin down what percentage of his menacing was an active effort and what percentage was just his entire personality. ]
[He stops passing the glass and holds it in the center of himself. He thinks his statement happens to be fairly self explanatory -- but then he remembers that Rey is a sand gremlin and has no concept of The Game.]
Our participation will be noted by command. [Pause. No. Wrong terminology.] By our leaders.
[Would they be noting absences as well? That would be deceptive, under the guise of an 'elective' mission. But Kylo Ren doesn't doubt they are taking note of that too.]
[ The flat look she gives him seems ready to snap at the way he defines the word elective for her. But then he gets on with it — the implications he sees in that, and the opportunity. Positioning themselves as assets, possibly putting them in a better place to implicate Thrawn.
She should have thought of literally any of that. She hadn't. But then again, she also hadn't tried to march to Thrawn's room to brainwash him last night, so Rey feels comfortable that they both bring their individual strengths to this weird partnership.
Even that thought sends her recoiling like it's too close to trying to define what their weird connection is in real person terms. Allies? Friends? Friends who sleep half-naked and cuddle together all night? No. Nebulous and complicated is just fine. ]
Oh.
[ No sense in hiding that she hadn't considered it. But she wants to get words out so she doesn't get trapped in the sandpit of her thoughts and feelings. ]
Good thinking.
[ Is she allowed … to flatter him now … without being called out …
No, that's back into the sandpit. Evaluating how their interactions have changed after last night is definitely sandpit material. She'd never get herself out. ]
[There is a noise of acknowledgement, rather than an offering of thanks. It seems that she is allowed to flatter him without being called out this time. His facial muscles even relax a bit in response. His ego is still just as easy to stroke. Go figure.
He holds out his hand for her cup. If nothing else, it'll give him something to do.
Dismissal seems...final, in a way. And all he is going to do is sit around on his bed until he feels the need to go hit something, and then it will be off to training.]
[ She grabs the cup off the night stand and passes it to him. Just as she has sat in his half-naked company for all this time without losing track of her thoughts, the ensuing contact of fingers in the hand-off doesn't fluster her as it once might have. The thrumming uncertainty seems to have settled, and now that contact, the exposed skin, brings her instead a feeling of peace, like it brings her back to last night. ]
Do you have anywhere you need to be?
[ One part general curiosity now that she has recognized the holes in her understanding of him, but also one part trying to give him the opening to usher her out if he wants to. She crosses her legs in front of her, hands on her ankles as she sits up a little straighter to watch him move around the space. ]
No. We lack very many responsibilities on this ship.
[He answers shortly before turning his back on her and moving the cups back to where they had come from. They could be washed later. He still hasn't gotten a chance to visit the refresher for the morning -- he'd skipped the shower from the previous evening. He doesn't really want to skip it again. So he crosses the room and presses his hand to the door frame of the refresher.
He had invited Rey inside -- forcing her out is against how he's wired, in so many different ways. She was his guest, only not in the forced-prisoner-interrogation sense this time.
But he knows what her real question is, so he answers it:]
[ This is not reassurance for his sake; if anything, it's somewhat acidic. Something about that framing feels slimy and reminds her of the forced-prisoner-interrogation sense. Now that she has it, she wishes she'd just gone instead of asking about his plans for the day at all. In part, probably because she now feels somehow defensive of the fact that she'd not necessarily wanted to leave, and all this was a result of her lingering.
But he's hovering in the refresher doorway now, so she's gotta either commit to waiting for him or leave like she took his permission. But like also … she had been looking for an understanding if he wanted her to stick around or not. So in a way she was asking for permission. This bothers her because Rey also struggles with the nuance between those things. Lack of social skills and all. So now that she lays it out she's like ? ? ? I guess I was asking permission ? ??
She gets off the bed then, making her decision. ]
Anyway, I'll be in the training sim later. [ Then she heads for the pile of her discarded clothes. ] Shout if you want to join in.
[So that was o b v i o u s l y the wrong thing to say, but he isnt going to analyze it all that deeply. She has clearly made up her mind as to what she wants to do, and he knows what he is going to do for the next hour at least.
He licks his dried lips in thought, pulling the lower between his teeth — her declaration didn’t really require a response, but he is definitely thinking about it anyway. And all the other times they had trained together.]
I’ll consider it.
[But otherwise, he is going to take a very long shower. He disappears inside the room and starts one for himself. He likes his showers like he likes his tea: heated by dragonfire. So steam slowly seems from beneath the door almost immediately, because he isnt a crazy person who takes ice baths unlike some people who could be named.]
[ The saga of wrapping her arms takes the longest, but even then, she's almost done dressing by the time the steam starts pouring out from under the door.
The hair on the back of her neck prickles in some kind of awareness of her proximity to his nakedness, but she clears the thought out easily in the absence of his actual presence. And because she has now mis-wrapped her sash around herself twice and she needs to focus on it.
It's only once both her boots are on that she realizes she can't find her hair ties, and she hunts around for a few minutes before accepting that they're probably still in the corner of the refresher. She's not going to wait to get them back when she can get others from the mall. Once, leaving anything behind would have been unconscionable to her, but …
She'd barely done anything with the money either ALASTAIR or Hathaway had paid her because of that exact habit, so you know. Not a worry.
Instead she slips out the door and tries to cut a path back to her room that's outside her usual. She doesn't want to run into anyone she knows on her way back from Kylo Ren's quarters. ]
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no subject
No, this isn't about her. It's about him. That's probably for the best — if it had been, it wouldn't have been about Hanabira anyway. It would have been because he didn't trust her and wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't screw this up for them too. ]
You should. [ She says only once she's removed herself from that equation. And then — well, he's done with his tea. She's officially lingering. She takes her cup up again and is more generous in gulping some down. But she's not going to chug it, alright. ]
no subject
That's ok with him.
But now he has an empty cup in his hand and silence, so he passes the former between his hands thoughtfully.]
Long enough to make an impression, anyway.
[He couldn't imagine that an 'elective' mission was in pressing need of a bruiser like him. But he knows enough about making appearances to feign involvement.]
no subject
Yet she can't bring herself to let go of this. To get up, to dress herself, to actually leave. Even as she finishes her tea and sets it aside on his night stand again, she doesn't move to get up. It feels like walking out that door will break the spell. That's silly, of course; the spell was broken from the moment they got out of the bed.
But if she walks out that door, it may as well have been a very pleasant dream. Lost.
So she prods him, instead. ]
An impression on who?
[ Not following his 'they will probably not need bruisers' logic. Is he trying to just menace Thrawn with his mere presence? It seems likely tbh. But she'd never been able to pin down what percentage of his menacing was an active effort and what percentage was just his entire personality. ]
no subject
[He stops passing the glass and holds it in the center of himself. He thinks his statement happens to be fairly self explanatory -- but then he remembers that Rey is a sand gremlin and has no concept of The Game.]
Our participation will be noted by command. [Pause. No. Wrong terminology.] By our leaders.
[Would they be noting absences as well? That would be deceptive, under the guise of an 'elective' mission. But Kylo Ren doesn't doubt they are taking note of that too.]
no subject
She should have thought of literally any of that. She hadn't. But then again, she also hadn't tried to march to Thrawn's room to brainwash him last night, so Rey feels comfortable that they both bring their individual strengths to this weird partnership.
Even that thought sends her recoiling like it's too close to trying to define what their weird connection is in real person terms. Allies? Friends? Friends who sleep half-naked and cuddle together all night? No. Nebulous and complicated is just fine. ]
Oh.
[ No sense in hiding that she hadn't considered it. But she wants to get words out so she doesn't get trapped in the sandpit of her thoughts and feelings. ]
Good thinking.
[ Is she allowed … to flatter him now … without being called out …
No, that's back into the sandpit. Evaluating how their interactions have changed after last night is definitely sandpit material. She'd never get herself out. ]
no subject
He holds out his hand for her cup. If nothing else, it'll give him something to do.
Dismissal seems...final, in a way. And all he is going to do is sit around on his bed until he feels the need to go hit something, and then it will be off to training.]
no subject
Do you have anywhere you need to be?
[ One part general curiosity now that she has recognized the holes in her understanding of him, but also one part trying to give him the opening to usher her out if he wants to. She crosses her legs in front of her, hands on her ankles as she sits up a little straighter to watch him move around the space. ]
no subject
[He answers shortly before turning his back on her and moving the cups back to where they had come from. They could be washed later. He still hasn't gotten a chance to visit the refresher for the morning -- he'd skipped the shower from the previous evening. He doesn't really want to skip it again. So he crosses the room and presses his hand to the door frame of the refresher.
He had invited Rey inside -- forcing her out is against how he's wired, in so many different ways. She was his guest, only not in the forced-prisoner-interrogation sense this time.
But he knows what her real question is, so he answers it:]
You may depart at your leisure.
no subject
[ This is not reassurance for his sake; if anything, it's somewhat acidic. Something about that framing feels slimy and reminds her of the forced-prisoner-interrogation sense. Now that she has it, she wishes she'd just gone instead of asking about his plans for the day at all. In part, probably because she now feels somehow defensive of the fact that she'd not necessarily wanted to leave, and all this was a result of her lingering.
But he's hovering in the refresher doorway now, so she's gotta either commit to waiting for him or leave like she took his permission. But like also … she had been looking for an understanding if he wanted her to stick around or not. So in a way she was asking for permission. This bothers her because Rey also struggles with the nuance between those things. Lack of social skills and all. So now that she lays it out she's like ? ? ? I guess I was asking permission ? ??
She gets off the bed then, making her decision. ]
Anyway, I'll be in the training sim later. [ Then she heads for the pile of her discarded clothes. ] Shout if you want to join in.
no subject
[So that was o b v i o u s l y the wrong thing to say, but he isnt going to analyze it all that deeply. She has clearly made up her mind as to what she wants to do, and he knows what he is going to do for the next hour at least.
He licks his dried lips in thought, pulling the lower between his teeth — her declaration didn’t really require a response, but he is definitely thinking about it anyway. And all the other times they had trained together.]
I’ll consider it.
[But otherwise, he is going to take a very long shower. He disappears inside the room and starts one for himself. He likes his showers like he likes his tea: heated by dragonfire. So steam slowly seems from beneath the door almost immediately, because he isnt a crazy person who takes ice baths unlike some people who could be named.]
no subject
The hair on the back of her neck prickles in some kind of awareness of her proximity to his nakedness, but she clears the thought out easily in the absence of his actual presence. And because she has now mis-wrapped her sash around herself twice and she needs to focus on it.
It's only once both her boots are on that she realizes she can't find her hair ties, and she hunts around for a few minutes before accepting that they're probably still in the corner of the refresher. She's not going to wait to get them back when she can get others from the mall. Once, leaving anything behind would have been unconscionable to her, but …
She'd barely done anything with the money either ALASTAIR or Hathaway had paid her because of that exact habit, so you know. Not a worry.
Instead she slips out the door and tries to cut a path back to her room that's outside her usual. She doesn't want to run into anyone she knows on her way back from Kylo Ren's quarters. ]