It wasn't the first time they'd touched, due to the changing nature of their shared training. It wasn't even the first time they'd touched through the Force, given the way they'd first met. Kyle still vividly remembered a painful kick to his side from the experience.
This was different.
He hadn't expected her to turn her hand over in his, and Kyle looked down thoughtfully at their joined hands at the same time as she did, at the way her hand barely covered the top of his. Kyle, who normally recoiled at the very thought of being touched, found that he didn't mind hers. It was... comforting. At the same time, it also stirred feelings inside him that Kyle couldn't immediately rectify alongside everything else.
The first time Kylo and Rey had touched through the Force, it had felt powerful in ways he had never experienced before, like touching a live wire. A shock of electricity that cut through the deepest parts of him, and Kylo was unable to pretend he hadn't been affected by it. And yet, this touching of hands between them, while still significant, was also noticeably dulled in comparison. The connection he felt with Freya now was just as raw and powerful as theirs had previously been, so it surprised him that he didn't feel more of her. Surprised, and after a moment he realized with some measure of shock, almost disappointed.
For all of Kylo's planning where Rey was concerned, he hadn't planned for that. For the undeniable truth that lay beyond the strong connection they shared. They were alone until they'd found each other. Kyle had been alone until he'd found her. Seeing her reciprocate his actions, instead of reject them, brought a stark relief to him that he felt in his bones.
And with that relief, came an even deeper uncertainty.
His gloves were what kept him separated from the rest of the world. Kylo had worn them of course, but Kyle had adopted the look for his own reasons. Ever since he was young he'd never liked to be touched, never enjoyed the feeling of skin to skin contact. He'd been too sensitive, too full of power he didn't understand or could control. Being touched by anyone felt like an unwelcome invasion, and even long after he'd learned how to control his powers, he still wore them. They were a comfort too. A sure thing. He knew they would keep him safe from any unwanted contact.
Kyle looked up at her, visibly hesitating. If he allowed her this small thing, he was willingly giving up ground to her. Allowing Freya closer, even just this close, it could compromise everything just as it had compromised everything before. He knew that. Ben Solo hadn't been strong enough to resist. He should be pushing her farther way, not letting her in, but something about the way she asked made him feel disarmed.
There had been no journey into a cave for Freya to come to the conclusion of how alone she was, but Kyle felt inevitably drawn to her words all the same. The story of her family, how she felt both before and after the loss of them. Kyle had never felt that even when his family was alive, he'd always felt alone and unable to connect to something real. Unsure of his place in the world as much as Kylo, born into a legacy he felt inadequate to fill and then loathe to after Luke Skywalker's betrayal.
Freya had come from somewhere else and still arrived in the same place as him, both alone and searching for answers that only the two of them could find. Together. The connection he felt to her in that moment went beyond any dyad, but Kyle brushed that aside as he finally nodded. "Yes."