garbageship | That's no moon... Wait, no, it's a moon.

There's no way this will go well. Ben Solo—Kylo Ren, it doesn't really matter which incarnation of him is referred to in this context—is a walking disaster, and if he was a decent human, he would warn Kitty off before anything terrible happens.

Since he's not, he won't.

"I'll try." And probably fail, but it's worth the effort. He presses his lips to the top of her head. If anyone's watching, that shouldn't disturb them any more than the hugging.

"Me too." She closes her eyes and can't help but find the tender way he does that to be incredibly sweet. It's probably the most dangerous thing he's ever done with her.

She holds him and lets him hold her back a moment longer before growing increasingly aware of just how this all must look. She withdraws slowly and gives Ben a soft smile.

"You know you're not getting out of training that easy."

Tenderness is something worth exploring while there's no rage to burn down all of the subtler emotions and while he's not actively destroying everything in himself that he deems weak. Maybe something will be learned from all of this.

Maybe that something will be don't become emotionally involved with unstable weapons of the dark side, but maybe not.

Even though he doesn't return her smile, he isn't as irritated with blaster practice as he was before. "You'll need to show me how to hold it again."

Eventually the odds have to be that something works out, right? Even if she makes the worst kinds of bets?

"I can do that." Her finger brush his arm gently before coaxing it back into position. "Spread your stance just a little more too for stability. Remember what I said about relaxing and absorbing the recoil. Don't anticipate it."

This is the worst of the worst bets Kitty has made. She'd better have Han Solo levels of luck.

Okay, now he's going to stop being distracted by little touches and take this seriously and show her how effective her tutelage is. He adjusts his stance, relaxes, and takes another shot. He clips the rock this time, so... progress?

The kind of luck where she is frozen in carbonite for awhile?

"Yeah." Seem pleased with that result. "You're good at taking direction. Just keep at it. You'll get a feel for it and your aim will improve."

Yes, exactly. Not quite as bad as her current run.

He lines up another shot, but doesn't fire. "I hate blasters."

"That's a pretty strong feeling to have about a tool." Which makes it sound a little childish.

He's a little childish. "How many times have you been shot with one?"

"Kind of rare. Most things I can phase through." And training that helped build the instinct to phase didn't normally come from weapons like these. But the question does earn him a concerned look. "How many times have you?"

"Most?" Not so long ago, he'd want to know what her weaknesses were so he could exploit them. That doesn't feel like his motivation now.

"Enough." Enough times to learn how to stop bolts with both the force and a lightsaber with almost unerring accuracy (except for when he's being distracted by multiple opponents, as happened recently). He preempts her reaction to his answer. "Don't pity me. It was the fastest way to learn."

"There are exceptions." It's not a thing she lists off easily. Maybe in time.

"I had some pretty rough training myself." But she imagines it was harder for Ben. Logan cared about her even if he was willing to let her get hurt to learn. Snoke wouldn't have. "Time to change your relationship with them though so you don't have to feel that way."

That isn't the answer he wanted but, in a remarkable feat of patience, he lets it go for now.

"It worked well for you, too." She's talented. He has seen no evidence to support the notion that tough training isn't the most effective way to teach, and maybe this whole exercise would go better if there was an actual threat to face. This is a kinder and gentler world, though. Grudgingly, he takes aim and fires several times, eventually getting in a hit that would have taken the rock down if it had been a threat.

"I've also had a lot of field experience." So hard to say what most led to the finished product he's seeing, but the training let her survive (most) of the experience. "You're improving. It's a good thing to focus on."

So have I, he wants to say, but so much of his field experience has involved being intimidating and telling stormtroopers who to kill. Nothing to brag about, and not necessarily the kind of experience that builds anything beyond brutality and coldheartedness.

"Slowly." He may be accepting that this isn't something he'll master in half an hour. "Not redirecting the blasts is difficult."

"Yeah, not phasing in a fight is hard for me too. It all just becomes instinct. You'll be better for it though." She raises her own blaster back up to take some shots. This is training for her too after all.

He's content enough to practice next to her, occasionally stopping to correct his stance or to remind himself not to tense up before firing. The lack of immediate improvement isn't as frustrating with company, even though that company is considerably better at this than he is. Maybe it's just Kitty. He likes the way her presence feels.

After a while: "How do you turn off your power?"

"I have to concentrate to use it. I've trained myself to slip into it on instinct so I just have to stay very aware of what I'm doing so I don't naturally slip into it. I guess I could also just get really drunk. But that wouldn't be very good for anything else either."

She smiles over at him.

That was a joke. He isn't sure that he finds it particularly funny, but it's hard not to return a smile when you're in a passably decent mood. Smiling is also something that he's getting better at.

Except he catches himself doing it, which is embarrassing.

Ahem. He'll just... shoot this rock again.

"You're cuter when you smile." Her apologies if saying so makes you miss a shot. And, yes, it's true he can still be a little awkward when it comes to smiling, but there's something cute about that too.

His next shot passes a good meter above his intended target. Thanks, he missed the entire moon.

He becomes intensely focused on aiming. "That implies that I'm cute when I don't smile." Which is obviously not true. Kylo Ren has been called many things and none of them are cute.

She smiles a little brighter at the effect that had. She shouldn't, but she's already accepted the mistake if it's going to be one. "I guess it does." She's not going to deny it.

He is way too old to be this thrown off by mild flirting. Are his ears red? They probably are. Don't even look at him.

The next blaster bolt misses, but less spectacularly. Let's consider this an exercise in keeping cool under pressure. "Now you know why the mask was necessary. I needed to be taken seriously."

That was a straight-up joke. Don't let the serious delivery fool you.

Okay, that gets a full laugh. She has to take her hand off the trigger for a moment. "It's all starting to make sense." Can you feel the fondness?

He can, and making someone laugh is a novel experience. Not entirely unpleasant, even though it's not something he's going to make a habit of doing. He doesn't really know where to go from here, either.

Practicing seems like the only way to go. There's only so much dignity he can sacrifice in the name of humor in one day.

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not actually this icon but it's in the right spirit so?

<3

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