freya shepherd ✧ rey skywalker (thatsameforce) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2020-10-12 22:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | freya shepherd, kyle roth |
Who: Freya Shepherd and Kyle Roth
What: An outing and a discovery that they have something else in common
Where: London, not far from Freya’s flat
When: Backdated to Saturday, August 22nd, 2020 (late afternoon)
Warnings: Probably none
Busying herself with her things, Freya pretended not to watch Kyle leave their latest training session. It was easier that way. Usually. While there were no more fights that caused either of them to storm out, his departures were still so abrupt that Freya often felt strangely unmoored as he left. Like she was suddenly untethered, though their bond was intact and she knew it wouldn’t be long before she saw him again. Sometimes, these days, only a few hours. And yet.
It should have gotten easier, preparing for those moments when he decided to leave. It should’ve become as commonplace as anything else they did together now that they were friends and not… whatever they were before. But it didn’t. Instead, it was only getting harder, and this time, once he was out of sight, Freya finally admitted to herself why.
She didn’t like watching him go.
Freya paused in the middle of digging in her bag, biting her lip. The thought was troubling, if only because the words that came to Freya belonged to another Solo and the woman he always walked away from. Troubling, too, were the feelings behind it, most of which were as difficult to sift through as any she’d ever had about Kyle. Every reminder to herself that they were friends now and feelings of attachment were natural was followed by a warning: this attachment was different. Deep, and getting deeper every day.
Giving herself a slight shake, Freya resumed picking through the contents of her bag rather than the mire of her mind. It was easier to find her street clothes and pull them out than it was to follow her thoughts through to their natural conclusions regarding attachments and why the Jedi were so adamant in forbidding them. That way lied unknowns and inevitabilities in equal measure, neither of which she was interested in thinking about right now. Or ever, preferably.
Also easier? Thinking about why she’d packed her street clothes in the first place. She had an errand to run after her meeting with Kyle. Nothing urgent, but one she preferred to do in normal clothes, and today rather than tomorrow when she was planning not to leave her flat at all. Just like she always did on that particular day. She changed quickly, replacing the exercise clothes she’d been wearing for their training since summer started with a green sleeveless top tucked into denim shorts, an outfit that would help her stay cool while she walked to her destination. As she re-tied her sneakers, a new thought snuck up on her. A tempting one.
Though she was used to doing it this way after years of unchanging, solitary habits, this wasn’t necessarily an errand she had to do alone. And, if she hurried, she could probably catch him.
Throwing the rest of her things into her bag, Freya slung it over her shoulder and ran not for the elevator or the stairs, but for the fire escape. She’d made a lot of improvements to the abandoned building where they’d been training over the past few months – now large and moderately dangerous holes plunged through the floors to give them more challenges – but the location of the fire escape was one she’d kept to herself, in case the worst happened and she needed it. But it hadn’t, and she doubted it ever would, and so revealing its location was hardly a loss, if he happened to notice it.
Ripping the tarp from the access window, she was climbed through onto the rickety fire escape and tried not to look down. Only a few stories up, her fear of heights threatened to stall her descent, but before she could second-guess herself, she swallowed, climbed over the guardrails, and let the Force guide her in a calculated jump down to the next level. Two more jumps, and she was on solid ground again – a little shaky, yes, but not even out of breath. The training was serving her well.
Freya took off as soon as she hit the asphalt, clearing the corner of the building and turning towards the service door that acted as their private entrance. She caught sight of Kyle’s back just as he stepped on the sidewalk of the nearby road. The early stages of a Saturday evening's bustle were already apparent, though this area was at the tail end of a strip of various shops and restaurants. Not much of a crowd yet, so she could still see him as he walked past a few other pedestrians, but it wouldn’t have mattered even if the sidewalk was packed. She would always be able to find him.
Besides, he was awfully conspicuous in all that black.
“Kyle!” With an extra burst of speed, Freya ran to catch up with him. One hand clutching the strap of her bag, the other reached for his shoulder as she closed in. “Hold on a second, I have a question for you.”