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Releasing Claire from the hug, you place both hands on her shoulders. She is forced to look at you as you hold her in your gentle grip, making sure not to use any strength. Your gaze locks with her brilliant rubies for eyes, seeing all the distress and fear and pain locked within them. Slowly, you send minor ripples in the Force through your grip, little oscillating waves of energy flow from you to her. The pair of you mimic a circuit, your arms transmitting the current. Each of these minuscule flowing waves drift deep from your core, into her panic-stricken heart. You radiate warmth, friendship, happiness, joy, and laughter into her pounding chest in the shape of the good memories you have created together. You can feel the ice that has been building up in her soul melt, slowly eroded by the efforts, and a shy, embarrassed smile begins to grow on her scarlet lips that match her dazzling eyes.
You speak in a voice only for her, the rest of the world non-existent to the pair of you, “They might watch. And they might want this. But you are right, they do such terrible things and that cannot be allowed. Be safe, fly high and straight up.”
Claire softly blinks, keeping her eyes locked with yours. A flush colours her pale white cheeks a tender pink; you can feel your own cheeks heating up in embarrassment, turning the same hue. The connection allows you to feel her deep emotions, and you have openly shared your own; the intimacy of the action now dawns on you. As if zapped by a faulty power fuse, you recoil; no longer are your souls touching, hugging together in shared warmth. Running a hang through your slicked-back hair, you are slightly dazed; what just occurred was far from intentional, it was something that just happened with your mind on autopilot.
When your gaze stops scanning everything in eyesight, but the woman they were temporarily avoiding, you see Claire’s smile has gone from a shy grin to something of contented happiness, “I-
