[text misfire]

[no_light]

[ It's the second time a message from Kylo Ren shows up in as many months, a new record! What joy!

But this misfired text message going public by morning isn't one he would have wanted to share. ]

you're SO pretty... like SO pretty

i never say nice things to you why do i never say nice things?

i want to write a poem about your eyes and how good you fight you're really special you know that? youre light and fierceness and danger and i was awful to you I'm sorry i never said sorry before huh

[ Such is the result of sampling too much of the local brews, and then experimenting with new technology.

Kylo, enjoy your hangover with a little extra, courtesy of the malfunctioning network. ]

Comments

[no_light]

[ Oh no, how cruel! His blushing is awful, and he hates it. You ought to pretend it isn't happening at all.

When she brings up moving in again, he sucks in air sharply. It takes willpower to focus on that question, when his mind just wants to keep straying back to all the ways they could warm another up. ]

Do you think it could ever happen... without us ending up hating another?

[sensitively]

[ ...nope, she's just going to keep watching that blush crawl up his cheeks and across the bridge of his nose, and smirking faintly because of it.

it's a powerful feeling, knowing she has this effect on him. ]

We don't hate one another now, do we? [ she breathes. as if to prove her point after another moment she shifts over the video feed, so that he can see as the shoulder of her tunic slipping a little bit and baring more skin. one of her collarbones is visible. ]

I think we're getting along quite well, as a matter of fact.

[no_light]

[ Oh. Oh. Now that is a very convincing argument for them not hating another. Very distracting argument, too. It's just a shoulder, but they're at this stage where any skin bared at all is incredibly exciting, and the promise it stands for even more so. If she's trying to make it a struggle to keep his eyes on her face, well, then she's succeeding. Always such dirty battle tactics, scavenger. ]

Ah. No. No. We don't hate another. [ He fakes a cough, as if there's any chance to pretend he was never distracted. But hey, there he is, looking into her eyes again. Success! ]

It could be an interesting experiment... in self-restraint. [ And there, at last, is some goading of his own laced in his smug voice. ]

[sensitively]

[ since their rooftop encounter, Rey has a new appreciation for teasing, for drawing out anticipation as long as possible. there's something to be said for doing so — it heightens everything, amplifies sensations. much more rewarding than instant gratification, she's finding out.

she went hungry on Jakku for a long, long time. she knows what it is to be patient. ]

Self-restraint. Of which you have absolutely none.

[ she doesn't mean to slight him, not really — only to tell the truth. Ren really isn't very patient. ]

[no_light]

[ He rears back visibly, taken aback first by what he perceives as an attack coming out of the blue, then all over again by the realization of her cheek. ]

You would be surprised! [ A snort of laughter. ] I think I've been showing more restraint here than I ever have before.

[ On the grand scale, restraining his fury and darker tendencies when it would ruin everything he's built in town, and on a more intimate scale with her. Oh, so much restraint with her. Treading lightly has never been his way of doing things. ]