He sat across from her, openly hostile and mentally explosive, he was ranting on about some injustice or another, something about Hux probably. She was listening behind his words though. His thoughts were equally petulant and noisy, "I am not a child to be commanded. I am more than capable of-"
She listened silently to his string of defiant thoughts her fingers laced loosely in her lap. He was in fact letting out more than he knew. She saw his frustration, how long it had really taken him to extract what should have been a relatively simple piece of information from the captive resistance fighter, Poe Dameron. She saw the temper tantrum when he was informed the droid he had been seeking was not recovered. She had felt great unease after their last meeting, sensing the likelihood of such an outburst. He returned to Starkiller nearly as angry as he had been when they last spoke.
"Am I boring you?" He snapped, breaking her survey of his leaking thoughts. Though he wasn't able to see much into her mind, he was getting better at reading her form and habits. She had begun to gently flex her fingers one by one, her gaze focused just barely off of his every once and a while.
"Maybe that would have been a better tactic in your interrogation of Poe Dameron." She offered her grey eyes shifting to meet his. If looks could kill, she nearly flinched at the darkly cold stare she had earned, though not ultimately displeased with her results. "Let's focus elsewhere. You won't improve if you only practice on minds less capable than your own." He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, tempted to throw back what he quickly assessed would be a childish retort. She watched his rapid contemplation moderately surprised by his restraint.
"Keep me out." She said as she shuffled onto her knees leaning forward a bit. He said nothing but watched her dubiously she reached her ungloved hand towards his bare face. He didn't breathe for a moment but he also didn't pull back. Relaxing a bit, he closed his eyes concentrating on his breathing, on barricading his mind, preparing himself.
"Don't to let me in…" the gentlest version of her voice he'd ever heard touched his mind; he let the words roll through him relaxing him, their sweetness a false security. He realized the lapse too late as he noticed a cool sensation just below his temples like a fog rolling in. He pressed outward against her and what had been a fog became a thousand icy streams, weaving their way through to the center of his mind crashing against a barrier from time to time but continuing on none the less. He took in a ragged breath his throat tense, the air he took in felt frigid.
She pressed on looking for something particular, her own little game in this training. She came to what she was looking for, her pursuit turned to a frozen dagger and for the briefest second she saw it.
A roguishly handsome man, a woman with vigorous but kind brown eyes, a dark haired boy no older than 3 or 4 toddled between them before flinging his arms around the woman's neck as she fell back into the grass, her shoulders shaking with laughter
She felt a great force pushing back like Sisyphus scrambling his boulder up the cragged hill. Suddenly, she felt a great pressure in her own mind, her entire consciousness tightening against the onslaught. Instinctively, defensively, her finger tips brushed closer, making contact with his skin and he was pushed out like a great flush of air she swept him out of her mind. She became iron clad, retreating from his mind in an instant. He had gotten further than she thought him capable of.
A scream of a girl that cut straight to his core, the smell of ash and sweat, the warm soaked feeling of blood trailing down his arm, he had no image and no feeling to accompany the sense memories he had been able to grasp. Left with a deep feeling of having trespassed into very dangerous territory, he opened his eyes.
He met her steady gaze and a pulse swept through his chest, like a vacuum stealing a beat from his heart, and he almost looked away from those penetrating grey eyes. She slowly replayed the scene for him in a hazy distant form, the image far away with a glow around the edges, projecting feelings of love and light and innocence. Her fingertips remained on either side of his face sliding down from just below his temples to lightly trail along the hollows of his cheeks. He let out an exhausted sigh, his eyelids lowering tiredly, somewhat consumed by the vision. His head tilted to the side and she dropped one hand, the image beginning to fade. He reached a gloved hand up, covering her hand as it relaxed against the side of his face just above his jawline. His brow furrowed and he gently grasped her fingers, pulling her hand away, off to the side, gripping it firmly for a moment before releasing her, pulling his hand back slowly.
"You are impressive." He murmured flatly, looking up at her, his gaze cold and somewhat guarded. She looked away from him
"I think that's enough for now" She replied quietly, standing without waiting for his acknowledgement. She took a step towards her private quarters and he caught her wrist, standing swiftly as he did, twisting it out in front of him. His eyes ran along a long pale scar that began at her wrist and twisted around her forearm, growing wider, and darker as it wound around the back of her shoulder and began to fade, disappearing under her cloak. She refused to look at him but beneath his grip he felt her pulse quicken and her muscles contract. She pulled her hand from his grasp slowly but firmly.
"Maybe next time you'll be better prepared for a defensive strategy. It's easier to close your mind than to also press back against another." She said coolly holding her arm to her abdomen. He watched her disappear into her room catching the fall of her cloak, the rustle of fabric and the sinking sound of a mattress.
He watched until the door slid shut, then he scooped up his helmet, looking down at the face in his hands. It stared back at him and he could almost see her probing gaze reflected in it. He could still feel her fluttering pulse in his fingertips, see her stormy accusing gaze. He felt the warmth of her touch and the kindness in her expression of his own memories, the torturous contradiction in showing him such a happy time from the life he had betrayed. He stopped, realizing how tightly he gripped the mask in his hands. Jamming it over his head he pushed the conflicting feelings from his mind and left to deal with what he hoped would be slightly less arduous endeavors.