Too close. Far, far too close.

Manna kept thinking those words again and again as she stared out the window of her quarters, over the expanse of snow-covered trees and endless icy plains that made up 90% of Starkiller Base. They were humming in her head like a constant lullaby: too close.

That's what she had been to losing her coveted spot as a systems technician, the one she'd worked so hard for. That's what she had been to being sent to reconditioning. Manna had hated the original conditioning enough that the idea of going through another, stronger cycle made her skin crawl.

It was also what Commander Ren's mask had been to her face. Far too close.

Close enough to hear the wheeze of his robotic breath and not feel it on her cheek. How exactly did his mask work, anyway? And what was hiding behind it? She combed her fingers through her straw-colored hair absently, working out the workday's inevitable knots with slow precision.

It was nighttime, dark. Manna had stayed late at her position to show her supervisor (and Hux, should he return — which he didn't) that her dedication to her duties was not up for debate. It was nearly 0100 hours when she'd finally reached her quarters but she found herself unable to sleep. Too many thoughts running through her head.

The trees looked pretty beneath their glittering coats of snow. Moonlight glinted off the frost like a thousand fallen stars —

"You seem not to have fully grasped my earlier message, MN-8486," said a synthetic voice from the doorway of her quarters. Manna, for the second time that day, was caught off guard; she whirled from her position at the window, so lost in thought that she hadn't even heard the door open.

She'd managed to spend most of her time on Starkiller avoiding the Commander (as had been strongly advised before her transfer) yet every time she saw him in the flesh something inside her seemed to freeze over. He was just so imposing, like he brought the frost inside with him and it spread across the cold metal with every step.

"Commander Ren!" Manna expected him to cut her off, that's typically how a conversation with General Hux unfolded, but he chose not to speak and she realized she had no more to say.

She became suddenly and painfully grateful that she hadn't yet undressed from her work uniform for bed. Manna reasoned if he had access to her quarters this late at night he had access at any time, and if he'd caught her in her panties —

He put one leather-gloved hand up in a sharp gesture — stop.

"You think," Commander Ren growled through his mask, "too much. And too loudly. I believe I made this clear in the cockpit."

No. He hadn't. Except... that decisive mental poke, the one she'd felt so many times before... had that come from him?

The idea had seemed preposterous before and yet Manna recalled all the rumors of the Commander pulling stormtroopers across rooms with a flick of his wrist. She'd never seen the Force in action, had no reason to believe in it to begin with and yet did she have a reason not to —

"You're. Not. Listening." He took three steps into her room, one for each word. His boots clicked menacingly.

Her quarters were not large; they were less than a few feet from each other now. As Commander Ren stepped away from the door, deactivating the motion sensors, it slid quietly shut behind him.

"I'm sorry," Manna blurted, pressing her back against the window in an unconscious way of furthering the distance from her commanding officer. "What — what do you mean I think too loudly?"

And what the hell was Kylo Ren doing in her quarters past midnight?

"I'm 'dealing with a situation,'" the Commander said, echoing the General's earlier words about Manna's infraction. His synthesized voice sounded tight and controlled despite his clearly growing irritation with her. "That's what I'm doing here. You try sleeping when the thoughts of a silly technician are battering around your brain like a trapped, particularly stupid bird." He paused, and then she could practically hear the smirk in his voice when he added, "I suppose you know that feeling quite well, actually. Thus, why you're awake yourself."

It was a lot to take in all at once. Commander Ren could... read her mind? But it wasn't that simple, her thoughts were actually distracting him, bothering him, keeping him awake in the dead of night. And that last part — that last part had been an insult!

She was almost too shocked to say anything before something occurred to her, and perhaps it was that shock that allowed her to make such a foolish mistake.

"It's your fault," Manna murmured, gripping the cool metal windowsill to ground herself.

She couldn't read the face hidden behind the mask, of course, but the pause that followed was not a good one.

"It's your fault," she repeated, because she felt it necessary to add, "You're the one who's been... poking around up there. In my head. You must've... set something off. Or turned something on. You're the reason I almost got reconditioned yesterday!" Manna said those final words with a surprising lilt of accusation, considering who she was standing off with in the tiny cramped space of her quarters.

"Yes," he finally responded. She wasn't sure to which part.

Poke.

"That's — that's very rude, to do something like that!" Manna instinctively shut her eyes and shook her head, trying to shoo him off like a fly from warm food, appalled she had spoken in such a way to her commanding officer.

"It was too tempting to resist," Commander Ren said, his tone almost infuriatingly matter-of-fact. "So much happening in there." She felt the beginnings of a warm blush creep into her cheeks. She wondered when he would leave her alone.

"Well, now you've done something. Started... an echo chamber. That's not my fault! I can't... not think!"

"I will leave you alone when I get some measure of peace." Another step towards her, another click. "Such a silly thing, awake at all hours thinking about trees and snow and..." Step, click. "...me."

"Your mask," Manna corrected instantly. Why did these things keep popping out of her? She had a smart mouth, sure, there was no denying that but all of it stayed in her head where it belonged; one couldn't be a stormtrooper with an attitude, and she'd learned that fast. So why? Why was she speaking her mind to, of all men in the galaxy, Kylo Ren?

"Because I am allowing it." She couldn't see it but almost felt the narrowing of his eyes. Again, supposing he had them behind those black and silver slits. "If you could, you would lie, but there is no use for it with your thoughts crowding against mine. It would be like... verbal feedback." He chose his words carefully and Manna realized he was actually trying to figure this odd situation out — it wasn't a joke, it wasn't intimidation. He was confused and looking for answers.

That makes two of us, she thought, and he scoffed a little.

"You may as well speak every thought aloud. I hear them that clearly." He tapped the smooth black forehead with one gloved finger. "And I would like it to stop."

"Maybe you shouldn't have been poking around in a place like that to begin with," Manna sneered. Oh how she wished she could at least conceal the way she felt, cut back the utter disrespect in her tone, but she was helpless; it was all pouring out like water from a crumbling dam and Commander Ren was just standing in the wake of the flood. "I have no privacy in this place as it is, I never have, the only haven I have is my mind and now even that has your... sticky fingerprints all over it!"

An image of herself standing at the window in only her panties, bare breasts prickled with goosebumps from the chill of the endless winter outside, flashed across her mind though she tried to stop it. It was a mental association — privacy, which lead to the fact that she had none, which lead to Kylo Ren standing in her quarters, which lead to 'what if he had shown up when I was in my normal state of dress this time of night', which would've lead to something far worse except Manna clamped down with everything she had and cut the thread there.

A long, sinister silence lingered between them. She swallowed thickly.

She had begun to wonder if Commander Ren wasn't human after all, that some of the rumors were true and he was actually a very advanced droid masquerading as a man; perhaps he had powered down because he had been standing there deathly quiet for such a long time when finally he said,

"Oh?"

Step. Click. He was only a few inches away now.

"It would've happened, you say? Are you so sure? Something... far worse?"

Before Manna could say (or even think) anything in response Commander Ren slammed his hands on either side of her head against the window, closing the gap between them, pressing his chest to the swell of hers. She yelped in surprise and closed her eyes, waiting for the blow, but it never came.

Instead, there was a feathery light touch between her legs — a sudden, alarming intrusion, and yet it coaxed a weak moan from her all the same.

This had been why she'd cut that damn thread. But not in time, it seemed.

Ren placed the mouthpiece of his mask directly next to her ear, the robotic crackle of his voice sending a shudder through her already quivering body.

Too close. Far, far too close.

"Perhaps," the Commander murmured, "I simply need to give you something else to think about."