Fluff prompt: Kylo to Hux, earnestly - “You are my love” and Hux to Kylo, taken off guard and maybe even scared - “You are... very endearing when you are... um... half asleep?”
[Fluff Starters - Sorry this starts off a little dark. CW for coercion.]
Hux kept the lights in the ‘fresher set to low, just enough to see his reflection, but not so bright that they would wake the man sleeping in the next room. He needed to see to understand this gift.
Sight didn’t seem to help, nor did the rhythmic pattern of his palm smoothing over the rich black silk. Nothing about this made sense.
Things ha changed rapidly once Kylo became Supreme Leader.
As a basic survival tactic Hux had spent years learning to shield his innermost thoughts from Force users. When he’d be dealing with Snoke that had mostly meant hiding his disgust and irritation with the decrepit old fossil but with Kylo it meant something much more difficult.
Despite his impulsive rage-driven actions Kylo wasn’t actually the idiot he sometime appeared to be, so he picked up on the holes in his General’s thoughts almost immediately.
It began after the choking in the throne room. Kylo didn’t seem to know that Hux had almost- with half the flagship burning outside the viewports- pulled his blaster on him, nor did he seem to know why Hux had hesitated. He certainly knew that there had been a sizeable redacted portion of Hux’ thoughts when the Force closed around his throat.
Hux hadn’t exactly had many relationships in his thirty years of life. Precisely none in fact. So when he’d seen Kylo training shortly after he joined the First Order, Hux had put his reaction down to lust. The way his heart raced in Kylo’s presence was just arousal, nothing more.
Such a beautiful man, so much strength, so much agility, those lips, that hair. Hux had seen his calligraphy and who would ever imagine that fingers like that could hold such delicacy.
He only realised his self-imposed distance was a lie the third time he instinctively talked his co-commander out of getting himself killed. Hux suddenly realised how dull his life would be without Kylo in it, and by then it was far too late to cut the emotion away.
For four years Hux had carried a half smothered flame in his heart for Kylo Ren, and when he nearly died at the man’s hands that flame almost tore its way out of his chest. Almost.
It was humiliating. Kylo knew something was wrong but not what. He no longer trusted Hux and insisted on keeping his General at his side. Not just at his side but in his bed.
Wasn’t that just what Hux had wanted? Hadn’t he thrown himself into that half of matter with business-like enthusiasm? The sex was fantastic, even by his own limited experience, wasn’t that enough?
It wasn’t love, it couldn’t ever be love, and Hux would never go so far as to admit to or ask for the return of his affections - but wasn’t this the next best thing?
His mother had loved his father once, and look what that had gotten her. At least here he was well treated.
Kylo even bought Hux gifts- gaudy things worthy of the ‘Supreme Leader’s concubine’ as some of the former Imperials called him where they thought he couldn’t hear. Rich beautiful sumptuous things, all white and gold and silver, the robes of a courtier not a General.
Hux wore them to remind himself that he was owned, as if that would ever change his behaviour. He was not a man known for his fine instincts for self preservation.
Forced to be in close proximity with Kylo’s command decisions Hux found himself intervening more than he should. “That’s enough”, “careful, Supreme Leader”, “the mission”, “our objective”, short phrases that should have seen him killed- they did see him thrown more than once- but over time Hux had seen more and more how they could calm Kylo’s heart rate. A few words to bring order out of chaos.
Without realising it he’d taken to using some of them in bed. An unconscious way of linking pleasurable reward with better behaviour in Kylo’s mind like he was a beast to be trained, and oh but didn’t Hux feel shame about that.
The tactic seemed to be working, even if Hux had stopped once he’d realised what he was doing.
For three months now there had be peaceful- the Resistance had vanished and the First Order was making ground with the scattered remnants of the Republic. The rest of the galaxy was falling in line with the First Order’s aims. Victory seemed to be on the horizon, and now… this.
Hux had found the box in his personal changing room, starkly black and plain amongst the rails dripping with jewels and satin. At first he’d almost expected it to be a bomb, but the actual contents surprised him far more than any explosion might have done.
Kylo slept on as Hux hurried past him into the ‘fresher, ignoring the splayed out snoring form of the Supreme Leader in favour if the thing in his hands.
His fingers stumbled over the once familiar clasps and buttons, buckles fastening a little looser than once they might have done, but despite all that the garment went on with astonishing ease.
He stared at himself in the dim light. His hair was still rumpled from bed and there were bite marks just visible over the edge of his collar, but…
For the first time since Kylo became Supreme Leader Hux saw himself in the mirror. All of himself. Not just some half hidden reflection but everything he’d even been or had the potential to be.
The uniform was black silk. Abstract vines swirled cross the chest in thread just as black, so the texture was barely visible in by the dark lights above the ‘fresher mirror. The gloves, boots and coat were all made of leather as soft as butter; and at the cuff of his left sleeve a rank band Hux had never seen before.
“Why?” After all these months of ostentatious fripperies dressing him up in a toy on the Supreme Leader’s arm…
Just behind him a voice rumbled, thick with sleep. “Because you are my love.”
Hux turned to find Kylo standing naked in the doorway. He was watching him with eyes that would be hungry if he could just keep the lids open for ten seconds together.
“You are… very endearing when you are… um… half asleep?” Hux stammered, taken off guard by the apparently sleepwalking figure now blocking the exit.
Kylo stepped forward- trapping Hux against the sink by placing a hand against the basin on either side of his hips- and peered down at him like he was trying to memorise his face.
Hux tried to look away, certain that all his secrets were on display, but he found that he couldn’t break contact with those dark eyes.
“I’m awake. More awake than you think. Do you know that you monologue to yourself when you think you’re alone?” Kylo asked, then smiled when Hux’ hand automatically flew to his mouth. “Not outloud.”
The leather between his teeth tasted strongly of natural oils and some plant essence that Kylo alway used on his hair.
“We’ve been working at cross purposes, you and I,” Kylo went on, “Now I see how much. I knew you were unhappy but I thought that was the effect of the war, not us. You think of yourself as a captive in a cage you walked into.”
“Yes.” The word left his lips before he could stop it. Hux bit down harder on the fingertip of his glove to keep any more betrayals from slipping past his filters.
“But you don’t object to me?” Kylo asked, one hand moving from the basin just long enough to indicate all six feet of scarred muscle. “You desired me before? You still have feelings under all the control I tried to break through with gifts and bribery?”
Hux could only stare at Kylo, too scared to take the leap his heart wanted for fear that it was a trap that would finally break him. The gifts had actually been meant to… woo him?
“You do,” Kylo said with all the confidence of an emperor. “I heard it in your own words. In this room. You think of me often. I wish you’d speak to me the way you think of me.”
The hand that had gestured to himself now rose to trace the line of Hux’ cheekbone.
“That’s why I got you this, Grand Marshal.” Kylo’s voice was still slow but his gaze was clearer now. “Since you do not know that you are free I will make it clear. We’ve shared a bed for all these months and the worst you’ve done is bruise my flesh. But you’ve tamed my mind. We, the First Order, would not be here if it weren’t for you, and while I know that you know this, I want you to hear it outloud.”
Hux glanced at the unfamiliar rank band again. His mind half expected it to say ‘Sloane’ in keeping with the other memorial markers, but instead it said simply ‘Hux’.
“You can go back to your quarters if you wish. You can wear this every day if you wish. You can…”
He didn’t bother waiting to find out what else he could do when he’d already made up his mind.
Hux caught Kylo by the back of the head and pulled him down into a kiss that had to be hard enough to bruise. When Kylo returned the kiss Hux deliberately let go of all his barriers, giving Kylo all his thoughts free of any filter.
There was a moment that felt like the entire universe glitching then a flood of answering emotions poured into him in return. The sensation was much like drowning, but neither of them was willing to break the kiss until they were both thoroughly breathless.
As Hux finally moved his head back Kylo glanced down and laughed.
Hux followed Kylo’s gaze. Instinctively protecting his uniform Hux’ free hand had planted itself firmly against Kylo’s hip to keep his naked skin away from the delicate fabric.
“Let me take this off,” Hux murmured, “and we can try that again.”
