Chapter 10

Kylo wasn't sure how long he had sat there before a knock came on his door. For a brief moment, he both feared and hoped Rey was on the other side, but Rose was the person he sensed.

"Hey Matt, I heard you and Rey had a fight. Are you okay?" Rose said. "And don't pretend you're not there or you're asleep, I can see your shadow underneath the door."

Kylo raised an eyebrow at that. "I'm here," he admitted.

"Can I come in?" Rose asked. "Not to be rude, but it didn't seem like you had any friends, and I get the feeling you could use one. And, well, I don't really have a lot of friends either, so maybe we could help each other out."

Kylo couldn't deny that Rose had a point, but he had not expected friendship with her. She seemed an unlikely choice with her bubbly do-good personality, but she was honest and meant well, and she wasn't Rey or his mother, and he could use someone new on his side.

Kylo slowly pulled himself up and almost unlocked the door when he recalled that his wig and glasses were off. "One moment," he said. He did not want to mess with her memory more than he had to. He got his disguise back in place and let Rose in.

"Hey, thanks," Rose said as she stepped in and Kylo closed the door behind her. "By the way, I put out the ad for the new radar technician after lunch, and we already have an applicant. The interview is tomorrow morning. Want to tag along? Normally Finn does, but he's…" Her voice trailed off and sadness filled her face for a few seconds. "Anyway!" she said and smiled brightly. "I would love some company that speaks basic, and you are my apprentice, so I thought it would make sense."

"I can come with you," Kylo said.

"Really?" Rose asked with an excited grin.

"I said I could," Kylo reminded her.

"Thanks! So what happened with Rey?" Rose asked. "Wait, is it weird that I'm asking? I just remembered that I'm technically your boss, and that could be really weird, and I don't want you to feel weird, but I do want to help, and-"

"It's okay," Kylo said. He wasn't sure how much he could say without revealing his identity. However, he smiled slightly knowing someone wanted to hear his problems despite believing him a nobody. Of course, the conversation would go quite differently if she were aware of his identity.

"It's okay?" Rose asked.

"It's okay," Kylo repeated.

"Okay. So what happened with Rey?"

Kylo paused. "We had a disagreement regarding how to teach the self-defense group. The disagreement extended to how we treat others."

Rose frowned. "Like what?"

Kylo studied Rose both with the force and his own judgment. "Are you someone I could trust with a secret?"

"I think so," Rose said. "What kind of secret are we talking about?"

Everything Rose said had radiated honesty and sincerity, and Kylo was sick of not having anyone outside his situation to talk to. "Rey knows this, as does the General, but no one else, so you must be quiet."

"Okay. What is it?"

Kylo took a deep breath and realized he was nervous. He could not recall ever having to tell someone he was force sensitive before. Somehow, everyone had always known. "I can use the force."

Rose's jaw dropped, she brought a hand to her mouth, and then squealed into it as her face broke into delight. "That's so cool! Especially with you and Rey…" Her face fell into disappointment. "Wait, so is that the reason you and Rey seem to have something going on? You're just both jedi? There's nothing else?"

"I'm no jedi," Kylo said quickly. "I'm more of a gray area these days."

Rose processed this and shrugged. "You don't seem like someone I should be afraid of. So what's the deal with you and Rey fighting?"

Kylo drew his eyebrows together at her assessment, but saw no reason to point out how incredibly wrong it was. "I used force suggestions on the self-defense class to help them focus and learn more quickly. Rey disliked this."

"That definitely qualifies as a gray area. So Rey got upset?" Rose glanced around the room and eventually settled into sitting on the very edge of his bed..

Kylo followed her eyes and was relieved to note that the food mess had been cleaned up while he was gone. He did not want to explain that again. He sat back down on the floor with his back against the door.

"She wanted to know if I would use the force to influence her or her friends. I said I would, and she was angry."

Rose's jaw dropped. "Matt! Of course, Rey was angry. You don't do that to people for just any reason… Wait, have you ever done this to me? Would I even know?"

Kylo hesitated.

"You have, haven't you? Why?"

Blocking Rose's memories of their current conversation suddenly seemed like a very good idea, but Kylo had promised Rey he would stop doing so frivolously. "I meant to help you," Kylo said after a moment. This was true enough.

"Really?" Rose asked. "How can messing with my head help?"

Kylo sighed, wondering how much he should tell Rose. This whole conversation was incredibly uncomfortable, awkward, and unlike anything he was used to. "I saw how much your attraction to Finn was hurting you, and I commanded you forget it."

Rose's face twisted with confusion. "But I haven't forgotten… wait, lunch. At lunch, I told Finn I wasn't attracted to him! That was your doing? But that doesn't make sense. I remember my feelings now. Are you really bad at this or something? Or maybe there was a timer? How does it work?"

"It worked just fine," Kylo snapped, feeling the wound to his ego at her suggestion he hadn't known how to do it properly. "Rey reversed it after lunch when you came across us."

Rose's mouth formed a perfect circle as she processed this. "Those were my feelings, Matt! You don't just take away someone's feelings because they're uncomfortable for the person! Yes, it hurts to think about how he probably doesn't return them, but that doesn't mean I want to forget how I feel!" Rose ran her hands through her hair and closed her eyes as she took deep breaths. "Well, what's done is done. I know you meant well, but you owe me, and I know exactly how you're going to make it up to me."

Kylo raised an eyebrow. "How?"

Rose opened both eyes and grinned mischievously. "Spin the bottle."

"What?" Kylo asked as his heart thudded in his chest. Whatever direction this was going in, it could not possibly be a good one.

"It's a game, where people sit in a circle and take turns spinning the bottle, and whoever the bottle points at has to kiss them!"

"I know what spin-the-bottle is!" he said frantically.

"You're going to get me a smooch with Finn, and I won't tell if you sneak one with Rey too."

Kylo stared at Rose. "You want me to use the force to help you cheat at spin-the-bottle? What if Finn doesn't want to kiss you? What if he doesn't want to play? And I don't want to just kiss Rey, I want-" he stopped abruptly. He wanted Rey to be his partner in everything, and he wanted it to be mutual. Kissing her as the result of a game felt like an insult to that dream.

Rose smiled sadly and slid onto the floor to sit closer to Kylo. "You really like her, don't you? I get it. I want more than a kiss with Finn too, but I'm hoping he'll at least notice me as a woman if we've kissed once outside battle, and I know he'll play. Poe will play happily, and Finn always goes along with Poe. And I know just kissing Rey isn't what you really want, but maybe she'll take you more seriously after too."

Kylo shook his head. "I don't want to trick her into it. If Finn plays the game on his own, I will get you one kiss with him, but I want nothing more to do with it after."

Rose frowned. "You sound like you don't plan to participate."

"I don't plan to participate," Kylo said. He wanted nothing to do with that sort of thing, and he doubted Rey did either. After all, she had trained under Luke just as he had, and Luke had been very big on repressing sexual desires since they could interfere with the purity of the force. His stomach growled as he convinced himself that Rey would not participate. "It's time for dinner, isn't it?"

Rose stood up as well and stretched. "Not quite, but they should be serving food by now. Want to join me?"

"Yes," Kylo confirmed and stood up. He rubbed his neck and looked down at Rose. "I will help you with Finn for one kiss, but that's it."

Rose grinned big and hugged him tightly around the waist for a moment before letting go and grinning sheepishly. "Sorry, just, thank you. Thank you very much. It's so good to have a friend of my own for a change. I've been really lonely since my sister died in the bombing outside D'Qar, but sorry, I probably shouldn't have hugged you out of the blue like that."

"No, it was okay," Kylo said, though he was surprised himself at how little it bothered him. The hug from Rose was nothing special. She did not have the significance in his heart that his mother and Rey did. The embrace from his mother was intensely soothing and reassuring. Touching Rey even for a moment set every nerve in him on fire. Rose's brief hug, however, was more like having a warm fire in the room. It was comfortable without inspiring any stronger feelings. He wondered if this was why Rey hugged her other friends so easily.

"Well fine, I'll do it again then," Rose said and gave him another quick squeeze. "It's awkward hugging Finn, since he knows I like him… and since Rey and Poe are his best friends and only hang out with me because of Finn, well…" Rose sighed. "Anyway, I'm glad you're here, Matt. So let's go get food and get this party organized!"

"Party?" Kylo asked. Rose had only spoken of the spin-the-bottle game, not a party.

"Well, yea. You can't just randomly invite friends over to play spin-the-bottle. It's too obvious! We'll have to set up a party around it. Don't worry, I don't plan on it being more than just you, me, Poe, Finn, and Rey… and maybe Kaydel Connix if Poe insists. That would be good, actually, even out the boy-girl ratio."

Rose opened the door and led them out. Kylo shut it behind them, wondering how on earth he had ended up roped into this mad plan to use his force powers to cheat his new friend into getting a kiss from the traitor.

There! A lighter, semi-fluff chapter on a new budding friendship. Friendship is magic, y'all, even in Star Wars.

Doh! Did a name swap originally near the end. Much thanks to WhatIsThis'Sleep'YouSpeakOf for pointing it out so I could fix it!

Much thanks to the guest who pointed out that "Matt" and Poe probably met during the lunch. My memory for detail's seriously shoddy, guys.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review!