She leaps into the darkness, following the figure, and an instant later a new spotlight illuminates her, clinging to the structure, parrying a pair of saber blows. She gains the advantage, and her opponent retreats again; she follows, through a series of increasingly impressive leaps, dodges, and parries. Eventually the figure just flees, and she chases him, practically flying through the air, now twenty feet up. She dodges one final lightning bolt, and comes to the climax of the performance, crouched on a shadowed figure at the pinnacle of the structure; she growls menacingly and cuts its head off, releasing it to hang a few feet below in a shower of simulated gore.

She holds her position for a few seconds, triumphant and menacing, then leaps gracefully to the ground, tucking into a tumble as she goes, lands neatly, and takes a bow.

Holy shit.

He slowly begins to applaud.

She grins, bows again, and goes to sit with him.

He has no words, at first. It takes him a minute.

"...I think I just fell in love a little bit."

She grins. "Yeah, that's one of my proudest accomplishments. Top three, definitely."

"It's amazing. You're amazing."

"Mmhmm."

"I really need to build that saber."

"Yup. I can put together a spare, if you want to get started; plenty of people train on a temporary one while they're figuring out what they want in theirs."

He nods vigorously.

"Yeah. Please."

"All right. Tonight if there's time; tomorrow if not." Shoulder-hug.

Shoulder-hug is gladly accepted!

"I'll try to keep all my limbs attached."

She chuckles, "yeah," and then looks thoughtful. "Sith'd be offended at the suggestion, but if you want a low-power 'saber that can't hurt you, I can make one."

"...that might help with practicing without maiming myself, yeah."

"Yeah."

"- switch mine over for sparring, maybe, I can put it back after."

...wow. He's not entirely sure but he feels like that's pretty significant, symbolically.

"That'd probably improve the experience of being stabbed. Staying-alive-wise."

She chuckles; if he's listening carefully he may detect a note of tension in it that wasn't there earlier. "That's the idea, yep."

Huh. He is definitely listening carefully, and he takes note.

(He's not sure what about what he said was wrong, and it makes him nervous.)

She peers at him. It probably doesn't help with the nervousness.

"I don't want to hurt you, and I don't - mind, exactly, making myself less dangerous to avoid that. But if you're going to make a big deal out of it, that I mind."

"...oh. I, uh...out of you making yourself less dangerous, or out of you being dangerous in the first place?"

His heart has dropped into his stomach. The way she's looking at him definitely doesn't help.

That gets another genuinely-amused chuckle. "First thing. I know how you feel about the second one."

"Yeah, you definitely do."

Internally, he is panicking just a little. He knows he'll feel differently about it just from her having asked, but what happens if it doesn't change enough? 

"Hey." She pulls him over, onto her lap; for a moment, as he lands, his back doesn't hurt, and the ache gradually fades back in over the next few moments; she pets him, tracing curlicues on his belly and ruffling his hair. "I could kick your ass, but I don't want to, I'm not looking for an excuse. If it turns out to be a problem I just won't do it. All right?"

Oh. That feels much better. The anxiety drains away quickly.

"I'm not worried that you're gonna kick my ass."

The pain is grounding, and the touch out of nowhere is incredibly reassuring, and he finds himself able to speak.

"I'm worried that I'm not worth keeping."

"Well." She ruffles his hair a little more emphatically. "Keeping someone's a pretty big responsibility. But I do want to."