Entirely Different

Chapter Twenty Five - Oh, My Dear Friend - Part Two

**Kylo's Perspective**

Distance was something Kylo knew well. He'd mastered it in his youth, against his will. Distance was something he'd grown used to over the years, whether it was the fear of his inferiors or the jealousy of his peers, Kylo had grown used to being alone. Distance was something he knew well, but it seemed he struggled to distance himself from you. The past few weeks had been torture for him. Yes, the cameras on the Finalizer were in fact a very real threat to the discretion of your "relationship," but something Kylo could have easily navigated around, should he have chosen to do so.

No, he had more pressing issues to attend to. The Supreme Leader had ordered Kylo to train a successor among his knights, and despite their recent predicament – Cardo was the natural choice. Though, and perhaps quite childish of Kylo, he'd considered Trudgen and Kuruk as valid candidates also. Tensions were high, the knights didn't know what they were being evaluated for, and Kylo was growing weary of Snoke's near constant insistence that you be considered as a successor, as well.

Along with distance, Kylo also knew pride. Despite how far you'd progressed (and in such a short time), and despite your loyalty to the First Order, and despite Snoke's approval, and despite Kylo's personal feelings towards you – he was absolutely reluctant to consider you as an equal. On the one hand, he was jealous that Snoke seemed to have taken to you so quickly. On the other, to name you an equal would constitute more than he had been willing to admit from day one. If you were to be his equal, then he would have no excuse not to name that feeling for you.

That feeling he kept buried inside.

So, no. You were his subordinate, his pilot, his knight; and you would remain as such. Kylo distanced himself to gain clarity, to assure himself that you were nothing more than those aforementioned things. You were not an equal to be considered, not a potential successor or partner, you were a subordinate... his submissive. And though he found comfort in that given title over the last few weeks, he found himself craving the company of his submissive. This distance may have been created to kill those pesky feelings, but it seemed that it had fostered them instead.

Kylo was laying in his standard issue Finalizer bed, head resting off the edge so he could see the room upside down, when a brisk knock graced his quarter's door. He waved a hand, Force opening the hatch so that he might continue to wallow without moving, and his world turned upside down again as he watched you walk through the blast doors. Brows pinched together, he rolled to his stomach to look at your face. Your eyes were red, cheeks flushed, lips pursed in an unhappy way – you looked positively seething and so damn beautiful.

He kicked himself for that last thought as he cleared his throat and maneuvered to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. He allowed himself a brief preliminary glance into your tangled web of thoughts just enough to see that you weren't angry with him. Sighing in relief, his eyes met yours as you came to a halt at the foot of the bed.

"Who's gotten you so upset?" Kylo asked, the ghost of a smile hiding at the corner of his lips.

You scoffed.

"You sure you don't want to take a deeper dive and find out for yourself?" You asked, nose wrinkling at him in disgust.

Ah, so you'd noticed his not-so-discreet peek into your head. You were getting much stronger than he had realized.

Defiant, he brushed you off.

"If you don't want me in, don't let me in." He shrugged, seeming bored.

He hid that bubbling guilt very well. He didn't like upsetting you. Weak.

You huffed through your nose, arms crossing over your chest. He surmised another quick peek would confirm his suspicion that you'd just put up your walls.