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

"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.

More laughter and more smiles are very, very welcome if he can see his way fit to bringing them to her. She looks over from her own practice to see how he's doing from time to time. "Do you want me to try throwing stones for you again?"

Eventually, maybe. Can't push for too much in one day.

He's getting the hang of hitting targets that don't move, so giving moving targets another go is the next logical step. "It won't be impressive."

It's definitely already been a big day.

"You wouldn't need the training if it would be." Do you really think she's going to judge you for that?

She bends down to pick up a decently sized rock and then looks at him for confirmation that it's okay to throw.

Um, yes? He didn't become the feared nightmare that was Kylo Ren by being unimpressive.

He settles into a stance, raises the blaster, and nods. No force this time.

She also doesn't like him for the nightmare Kylo Ren thing. She does appreciate competence, but he already has that in other areas. She doesn't expect people to be good at everything all the time. It's brave to learn new things and be bad at them, but still try.

She gives the rock a nice hard throw.

Funny. He feels idiotic, not brave.

None of the three shots he gets in before the rock lands hit. On the bright side, he kept himself from using the force. Also? He's about as good as the average stormtrooper.

He scowls at the rock because it has personally offended him. He does not crush it with his mind like he would like to since this is just as much about control as it is learning to use a blaster. "If I used the force, I would be able to hit it blindfolded."

"You did okay without it. Better than you would have done an hour ago. Your target will probably be bigger than a rock I can throw."

But...

"You could always show me the blindfolded shot with the force." Maybe he could use a little win and she's curious.

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

<3

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