( It's a brand of honesty that he leaves him feeling more centered than he expects, despite the lack of deeper meaning involved in asking it in the first place. She reads him, and Kylo reads her and detects no deceit or ulterior curiosity, just as he presents and offers no strategic interpretation of his own restive tendencies. They have both been bred to fight in their own ways, and acknowledging that in each other has always given him peace of mind in some capacity, for however warped and convoluted it had started, despite what he had shown her on Yaga Minor or offered her on Starkiller. One thing they can see eye to eye on, at least. )

Mm. ( And then, because a hum does not constitute as an actual reply, Kylo parts his mouth to open it enough that he can tumble down the sarlacc pit and into bittersweet memory. ) There was always some errand, some undertaking to see through. We were kept busy. I assume because Snoke probably believed that if I was bored enough I might start thinking a little harder about the way things were. ( The string at her hip wraps around his finger and breaks with a soft sound. ) Eventually something will happen again, and it will be another mad scramble, and there will be little time for being bored, but in the meantime -

( Because just as well as Rey can sense the severity of his thoughts without waiting for him to express them, Kylo can follow the tangent of less serious routes of her own where her intentions are concerned. And because she weighs next to nothing to him, it's very easy to curl an arm behind her knees and around her back and stand without stumbling or knocking anything over, hitching her up in one fluid motion. ) - I could tell you all about the article on Mandalorian armor that I've been reading while you were scolding me all afternoon.