I remembered my Hux/Rose pretend marriage fic and added a new chapter. The scam is off, the "couple" could go separate ways again, but then the arrival of an enemy forces them to work together for a while longer.
Now the holograms of the other parties sprang into being.
On Ajan Kloss, Rey was sitting in a tent, surrounded by blurred out Resistance members, one of them listening in, the others going about their business. That shadowy figure was most likely Ben, but he wasn’t fully identifiable via the duo’s resuscitated and now barely clinging to life holocam.
On the Finalizer, Finn, Poe and Mitaka were seated around an end table in the Captain’s private quarters, datapads and tea cups between them.
On Kef Bir, Armitage and Rose were hunkering under the same blanket in the kyber-lab’s antechamber, sharing warmth and emotional closeness.
“You…” Mitaka turned to look Finn into the eyes. “You told me they were a couple. Then you told me they are not. Now I see they are. But tell you what: the baffled look in your face comforts me a little.”
Hux didn’t pay that assessment of his love life or lack thereof much heed. With the holos surrounding him, he could only think about how bad the situation was for the First Order: He was sharing a room with Rose and every breath of Mitaka’s was witnessed and interpreted by both Resistance Generals. Only the Resistance, safe in their headquarter, had no element of the other faction in their midst, what gave them a huge advantage. Only they could plot in peace.
“Anything else that came from your expedition?”
“In fact, yes! I suggest to use the Death Star instead of the marriage as our alliance’s unifying element. It would be less of a person-cult and more of a symbol: for the First Order of what came before, what we have to elevate ourselves over. And for the Resistance of something their predecessors have destroyed. We should establish a base here, rotate personnel in and out. The usual proceedings.”
Hux felt Rose shuffle by his side. Was that a reaction to what he had said or would she have shifted position anyway? And if it was a reaction, than in what way? For some reason the man didn’t dare turning his head and just checking his companion’s mimic.
“Well, I must say that the original plan would have worked”, Hux addressed Rose after everyone had logged off again. “But there’s no more need to pretend to be in love.”
Rose nodded eagerly. “We’re free now.”
“Do you understand what that means?”
Freedom? No direction. Chaos. Separation.
“That you can leave”, Hux said. He hadn’t expected Rose to smile at that. Maybe he had only imagined a bond growing between them. When he was brutally honest with himself, then he had to admit that his own socialization wasn’t much better than Ben’s and that one had gotten raised by a crazy monk in isolation from his tenth year on, only to get taken under the wing of an incomplete clone of the Emperor’s. So what did he know!
Rose pulled free from the blanket, but the moment she was no longer constrained by it, she reached out and wrapped it around her companion, saying:
“Free people can make choices.”
“How do you make sure they make the right ones, if not by limiting their options?”
Rose’s smile turned wistful. “That is the question, right? There has to be some sort of framework, not to constrict, but to support and protect. Armitage Hux! I WANT to discuss this with you and I wish to get to know you as a person. It would be so much more than we believed you to still be capable of.”
Hux’ yawning was timed inconveniently, it made him look as if dismissing Rose’ words, but he managed to smooth the lapse over by producing a smile of his own and besides, Rose would have noticed that he was sleepy, not bored.
That night Hux went to sleep in the room next to the artificial crystals, that were not tainted, but not as stable as one wanted, and an enemy, but felt safe like he hadn’t in longer than he could recall.
