#go phantom of the opera all the way w that npc name

[petitsdieu]

cont. 𝒇𝒕. @nightmarefuele

“You call my implications accusatory?” Inscrutable, a monotone layer of disinclined voice beneath a mask. He rules the space above her without so much as tipping his visor. “Careful, princess ─ you already misstepped, and I only made an observation.” He idles at the behest of her family's crude technology. They've digitalized caches for their libraries, and networks communicate between the planet's nodal points, but these are not the systems built for reconnaissance or galactic intelligence. Kylo Ren stares into the frigid soul of a transmuting interface: blues on purples on blues, overlaid against the backdrop wilderness beyond verandas, and chilled springtime air, crisp on twilight's eve. He might be more patient with the panels if not for her fatuous pretense. He might be more patient with her if not for the panels. “For a royal girl who makes a public mockery of her name, you still encourage every parvenu who so much as looks your way. Do they whisper pretty words? Do you actually believe them?” When Kylo looks down at her, his tracery is sharper, cutting, electrified by the neon cold. His mask has been relieved of its cowl and now wears a crown of the dying suns beyond the sunroof. “I told you when those self-avowed politicians landed not to involve yourself. Whatever affairs you've arranged, end them.”

"No. You've overstepped." Romantic politics did not fall under the umbrella of his concern. Raoul had been the catapult back to her desire bone. The predecessor to the pedestal boyfriend. A glimmer of hope that all she once was and felt could be felt again. But he wasn't everlasting. The passion did not throb but dimmed. Nevertheless, the thread of chemistry that initially caught them must still buzz. She does not know how else Kylo would know there was something deeper than acquaintance or suspect anything had been arranged currently. The dialogue exchanged hadn't been flirtatious, had it?

It's sting to the salt when he brings up her repute in such a manner. And even his obvious jealousy does nothing to soothe it. At least not soon enough to soften the blow and the expression that flickers across her face before attempting to replace it with something more bare.

"You exude envy. It's all I feel from you right now. Do you believe it as you try to deny it? Because I don't think you do."

He reveals his face and her heart hitches. Verity rushes in and causes unsteady knees. She takes a half step back on impulse. But her chin tips up to meet his gaze as recovery. She's glad she's said what she could because, with actual eye contact, she feels less brave to address the man behind the machine. Or rather, be reminded that he was no machine nor monster at all, but just a boy. If Raoul was a catapult, Kylo felt like the hand she was thrown into. And it was pure fire. She was not afraid of him but afraid of how he made her feel.

"Consider any affair, new or old, ended. Now apologize."