for @huxloween
prompt: bonfire
„C’mon, son,“ Han says, cheerily, when Ben reluctantly follows him to the car with slumped shoulders. “It’s Halloween, enjoy yourself a little. Have a corndog, play some carnival games. I heard, there’s a soothsayer too this year. Could be fun, dontcha think?”
Ben nods half-heartedly and lets his hair fall in front of his face like a makeshift curtain. He’d rather hole himself up in his room, and usually his parents just leave him be when he lets them know in no uncertain terms just how unenthusiastic he is about going out to ‘socialize’, as they call it. But not tonight.
The whole town will be on its feet, to eat, drink and dance. Ben wants neither of those things. Nor does he have any particular interest in standing around the bonfire, which will most likely be what he’s going to do anyway. At least the fires are kind of pretty, and he does like the heat. Has been drawn to it ever since he was a little boy.
He's seventeen, almost eighteen now, and nothing much has changed. He’s still the odd one out. The quiet, moody one with a temper – the latter the only reason the school bullies tend to leave him alone. At least ever since he’s started using his free time – which he has plenty of – working out.
His mother has mostly given up on trying to make him mix with the crowd, or she’s just too busy with running the town, having been elected mayor a couple months ago. Whatever the reason, the result is the same, and he very much appreciates the freedom it’s given him. Or should have given him, because now Han’s on his case instead of Leia, which … not much better. Worse even, because he finds that he can say No to his mother’s disapproving yet loving demands far easier. Something about Han’s jovial approach, treating Ben like a friend he wants to hang out with instead of the wayward son, is strangely, concerningly disarming.
Ben doesn’t need friends. He doesn’t want friends. His solitude is by design, not lack of opportunity. There’s no one out there for him anyway. No one who would understand.
When they reach the carnival ground, Ben sighs deeply. So many people. The thought alone of diving into this ocean of moving bodies is nauseating. He can almost feel it: The push and pull, like tides. A current dragging him down into unknown depths and …
“You okay there, kid?” Han puts his hand on Ben’s shoulder and squeezes gently. ”Listen, if you really don’t want to go, I can drive you back to the house, no big deal. I’ll just tell your mom that you’ve locked yourself up in your room. You know she’s gonna believe it, right? So …”
Ben doesn’t know why, but he shakes his head. “It’s okay, dad”, he says. “I’ll just go watch the fires for a bit. I can head home on my own later.”
Han looks at him questioningly. “You sure?”
“Sure.” He forces a smile on his face. It pulls at muscles he rarely uses anymore these days. “Just go ahead. I’ll be fine.”
He watches Han disappear in the crowd and has to suppress a full-body shudder, when his father is swallowed up by the mass of people. How anyone can enjoy this is honestly beyond him.
The bonfire has already been lit. For security reasons, it’s set up in the far corner of the carnival ground, where, to Ben’s relief, significantly less people have gathered. Most are more interested in the spectacle around the lighting ceremony, not so much the fire itself. But for Ben it has always been something he’s been pulled in by.
He finds a secluded spot close to the flames, where the heat is so intense, it’s barely bearable. He can feel it like a brand on his skin, his eyes are watering, and his lashes are curling.
The crackling of the fire is mesmerizing, almost like a beat. The rhythm of a song only he can hear, and that the flames are dancing to. Flames, that sometimes seem to take the shape of …
Ben rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands, disbelieving. But when he looks again, it’s still there. A fiery being, standing in the midst of the fire, red-hot gaze firmly locked onto Ben.
It’s not really fully of fire, but not human either, that much he can say with certainty. The shape of it is lithe and narrow, yet distinctly masculine it its appearance, the skin a pale white with a tint of electric blue, not unlike the hottest part of a flame. The eyes, he notices now, are flickering between red and orange, and the hair … Ben leans forward to get a better look, and sucks in a sharp breath. The hair is pure, living fire, flickering and consuming.
While he’s still staring, the creature’s lips pull into a sharp smile, and it starts to sway, beckoning Ben with hypnotic movements, like a siren tempting a sailor lost at sea. With each twist and whirl, it whispered to him in a language he had no hope of understanding, inviting him into its fiery embrace.
Ben looks around, but no one else seems to notice anything out of the ordinary. Can’t they see? Is he the only one who can?
Tentatively, but more than a little curious, he moves closer. The heat intensifies, but instead of burning him, it cocoons him in pleasant warmth. His hand outstretched, he dips into the flames, his fingers meeting the milky white skin, crisscrossed with veins of fire.
This time it’s the creature emitting a gasp that sounds eerily like a real breath of air. Then it breaks into a smile so radiant it fills Ben with more heat than the fire ever did, and he can’t help but answer it with a smile on his own. A genuine one this time.
Their eyes lock and never stray from each other until late in the night, when the hubbub of the carnival ground has quietened, and the bonfire is slowly dying down.
A cold hand settles around Ben’s heart. He’s not ready for this to end yet, and by the looks of it, neither is his fiery companion.
Hesitantly, it takes a step forward, but apparently is just as unable to step out of the fire, as Ben is to walk into it. What it does, though, is hold out its hand, palm up, so Ben can see what is lying on top of it.
It’s a ring made of black metal with a single, bright gem inlay, fluctuating in color between fiery orange, bright yellow and sinister red.
When Ben does nothing, it frowns and pushes its hand in Bens’s direction once more, and finally Ben understands.
Gingerly, he picks up the ring between his thumb and his index finger. It’s hot to the touch, but not so much it would burn him on contact.
“Thank you,” he whispers, and the creature smiles wistfully, before stepping back and disappearing in the dying flames of the bonfire.
“Wait,” Ben wants to call, but it’s already too late.
And Halloween night is over.
Without thinking, he slips the ring onto his middle finger. It fits like it was made for him.
“Hey, son!” It’s Han. He bounds over, clearly more than a little tipsy. “You’re till here. Color me surprised.” He nods in the direction of where he has parked the car. “I was about to head home. You coming with?”
Ben raises a brow. “You’re not going to drive like this, are you, dad?”
Han snickers. “Sometimes you’re worse than your mom, you know that, kiddo?” He pulls the car keys from his pant pocket and throws it in Ben’s general direction. “You’re driving.”
Ben catches the keys without difficulties.
He’s glad he knows the route home by heart, because all he can think of is the fiery creature from the bonfire. The ring’s gem glints in the light of the dashboard illumination.
The next morning – or noon, as a short glance at his radio alarm clock tells him – he wakes up to bright sunlight filtering through the shutters of his window, painting his room in a pattern of black and white.
He stretches lazily, but startles the instant his fingers touch something next to him on the mattress.
With a yelp, he pulls his hand back and scrambles up until his back hits the headboard.
The gorgeous redhead lying next to him – in his fucking bed, and naked no less! – groans, when he blinks his eyes open. “Kriff, my head is pounding.” His fingers dig into the shiny locks of copper hair that fall on top of his shoulders.
His skin is creamy white with dark freckles like tiny drops of paint splattered onto a canvas, and when he opens his eyes again, Ben can see they’re as blue green as seafoam, cresting the waves rolling to the shore on a stormy day.
And he looks eerily familiar, even though Ben knows for sure that he hasn’t taken anyone home with him last night.
“Oh,” the beautiful stranger says, when he notices Ben eventually. “It’s you.” A soft smile spreads on his face and makes him look even more radiant. “You’re wearing my ring. I wasn’t sure it, was going to work, but I’ve always wanted to visit your realm.”
“My realm?” Ben repeats, stupidly.
“Yes!” He makes an all-encompassing gesture with his hands. “This. The place you live. It’s so exciting to be here.” A shiver runs down the length of his body, Ben can follow it with his eyes. “It’s pretty cold, though. Could you maybe start a fire, so I can warm up? I’m Hux, by the way. And what’s your name?”
“I …” He has to clear his throat, and his tongue feels foreign in his mouth. “I’m Ben.”
“No,” he corrects. “Ben. With a B.”
Hux frowns. “I like Ren better. I will just call you that if you don’t mind.”
Ben wants to protest, but then he realizes that, for some reason, he really doesn’t mind at all. He’s fine with Hux calling him almost anything, as long as he keeps speaking with this cute little accent of his.
“So,” Hux speaks up again, his eyes shining with mirth “I’ve always wondered – what exactly is a corkscrew for?”