The next day Kylo wasn't able to use force lightning like yesterday again, even when he tried it with the help of the dark side.
He could only produce small sparks on his fingertips, but obviously he needed to train it more, or be in a combat or at least in some kind of rage fit.
So after some hours of frustrating attempts he decided to take a break and strolled over to Luke and Rey's training ground.
He hadn't seen Rey train since they arrived and he had only seen her fight in stressed situations, like on starkiller base, the arena or yesterday.
So he was really curious about her development and seeing her fighting style the first time without any distraction.
When he arrived at their training ground he sat himself on the grass some meters away and watched them. Luke was levitating stones into her direction,
while her eyes were covered with a piece of cloth and she had to ward them off with her saber.
She was able to deflect most of them, at least when it was just one stone coming at her.
But when Luke increased the number of rocks flying towards her she always was too slow to parry the ones coming after the first one.
She already had some scratches and bruises on her face and arms from being hit by the sharper ones.
When she was too frustrated Luke stopped the stones coming at her and levitated them around her body, whilst she was to tell him in which direction they are going. Apparently, she knew exactly where they were and she could always tell, even if Luke increased the speed.
So why was she not able to hit them with her saber when she exactly knew where they are? Kylo thought.
So he walked over nodding at Luke, as a sign of asking him, if it's ok and positioned himself right next to him, watching her intensely while she started to deflect the stones again with her lightsaber.
Kylo stood there in silence watching her every move, while Luke was telling her to focus on the force and correcting her footing.
After some time Kylo spotted a pattern behind every failed attempt to deflect the stones.
When she successfully hit the first stone and wanted to parry the second one, she always slightly tilted the hilt of the saber first, then spun herself around trying to strike it too, but was always too slow, which was because of her first move. It was the smallest of gestures and it was easily overlooked.
But ones he saw it, he couldn't unsee it and it just happened every time she failed.
Kylo cleared his throat and silently asked Luke: "May I?" He just nodded: "Go on."
"Rey?" he said with a louder voice in her direction. She pulled down her blindfold and smiled at him. "Yeah? What is it?"
"Back then on Jakku, did you have any other fighting experience?" he asked while crossing arms overs on his chest.
"Yeah, couple. I had to fend off other scavengers and thugs pretty often." she shrugged her shoulders.
"Ok. You certainly used some kind of weapon. It wasn't a blaster, judging from your poor shooting when you tried to kill me back then on Starkiller base."
Kylo teased her.
"It wasn't that bad!" she pouted. "But yeah, I'd normally use my staff back then."
Kylo smacked a hand on his forehead. "OF COURSE! That's it! You had a staff! I knew it! Wait a second!" with that he ran off to some nearby trees,
ignited his saber and cut down a large branch, of which he also cut down some smaller twigs and leaves.
Rey looked over to Luke questioningly, he just shrugged his shoulders and also waited for what will happen next.
When Kylo was done he came back with a long, thin, nearly straight branch in his hand and handed it over to her, while taking her lightsaber from her hand.
Then he kneeled down three meters away from her with so much anticipation in his eyes she was confused. "Put the blindfold back on and show me!"
She hesitantly put it on again, mumbling something about why this should be of importance to her saber training, but she obeyed anyway.
Luke nodded to Kylo, now understanding what he was trying to find out and started levitating stones into her direction again.
Directly at the first attempt, she was able to parry all incoming stones, as the little tilting gesture she always did with her weapon, wasn't slowing her down anymore, but was helping her to deflect them even faster now with the other side of the staff. No stone came through anymore and she danced around them like she has never done anything else. She spun the branch over her head in fleeting motions and let it switch between her hands so fast it was easy to miss.
As she was dancing around, her body moving on its own, Kylo couldn't help but watch with utter amazement. His eyes followed her every move and he felt his heart swell up with pride for her as he saw she already was an expert at staff wielding. When he imagined her not wielding a staff, but a saberstaff like that, he felt his heart pound with excitement against his chest as she would be so incredibly good at it.
As Luke stopped the levitating stones very pleased with her performance, she pulled down her blindfold and looked confused back and forth between the two men.
"I still don't quite understand. How shall this help with my saber training? This is something entirely different."
"No, it's not. You just don't have the right saber. You need a double-bladed one." Kylo answered with a grin on his face.
"Double-bladed? Seriously? Like a staff but with two blades? There are saber's like that? I didn't know - I...I just thought they all look like swords of some kind!" she called out now equally excited.
Luke held up his hand to lower her excitement: "Yes there are other kinds of lightsabers. Most force users use the original sword form, but there were a few who used different kinds, like the mentioned saberstaff. As much as I'd like to agree with Ben, I don't have the parts here to let you build one, so unfortunately you have to keep training with a normal lightsaber while you are here. But one day in the future you will wield your very own double-bladed lightsaber."
After this revelation, Luke and Rey kept on training until the evening. At first Kylo watched but after some time he returned to his own training where he was absolutely unsuccessful because his mind drifted too often to Rey's previous performance.
When it was already dark and Luke was in his hut, Rey and Kylo decided to take a stroll together around the island. The sky was clear and they could see millions of stars above their heads. They talked about their training and Kylo explained to her how he built his lightsaber and what kyber crystals are and how Jedi typically obtain them.
As he revealed her that his crystal is split, she found it rather fitting to his whole personality. At some point in their conversation, he started to take her hand in his while walking. She was a little baffled at this and looked at him in a strange way. When he asked her about it, she just stated, that he never seemed like a guy to hold hands with anyone. But then she corrected herself as in stating that he actually also never seemed like a guy who would fall in love.
He tensed at this and stopped walking instantly. "You think I fell in love?" he asked her with a shocked expression.
She felt hurt by his sudden outburst as she was sure, he feels like she does. "You did not?" she uncertainly asked now.
"Love and compassion are such strong emotions. Since years I have been trained to not feel these, which made me strong.
I don't even know if I am capable of these things. Loving someone makes you weak, as in others can destroy you with threatening your loved ones.
I prefer to not love anyone." he answered without looking at her.
"Uhm. Okay." she mumbled, as her eyes started to water. She could feel her chest tightening. She let got off his hand and silently kept walking next to him.
Their conversation halted at this and an uncomfortable atmosphere laid between them since his last words.
She couldn't take it anymore and just stated that she is going to bed now because she feels tired.
He let her go and didn't follow.
As she readied herself for the night she started to cry. She practically implicated how she feels towards him and he devastated her with just one sentence.
Normally she is this strong, independent woman, but not being loved back, being left standing like that, it just felt like being left on Jakku, without anybody telling her she matters or that she is loved. It hurt. A lot.
She started to cry into her pillow and after what felt like hours she finally fell asleep with red puffy eyes. Kylo never came to their bed this night and she didn't understand what she did wrong.
In the middle of the night, she woke up as she felt something. Some kind of presence. In the dark she tried to look around and patted her hand next to her, but still no Kylo.
But she could swear she felt him just seconds ago. She drifted back to sleep feeling overwhelmingly sad.