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Chapter Text

In all of his grandfather’s infinite wisdom, Kylo could not –and perhaps never again— resonate so clearly with the statement that sand was the bane of all existence. Coarse, rough, and gets everywhere indeed. As he finally crossed the threshold of a mechanic shop, he could taste the sand and just knew he’d be spitting out the grit all week.

He strode into the shop, perusing the crowded shelves for the part he needed and lamenting the –exceedingly apparent— lack of organization. Nothing was sorted by part, and when he checked the models found that it wasn’t even grouped by ship type. An X-Wing sparkplug would rest snugly beside a B-25 air filter.

Wonderful.

Kylo closed his eyes and reached out with the Force. He pictured what he needed, could feel its shape, its weight, its material, and allowed the Force to guide him to it. He walked slowly, inching step by step as he followed the connection, trying to keep it taut like a line pulling him in.

It was a useful skill, but perhaps not the most ideal when in a cluttered shop with precariously stacked merchandise strewn about. That much was clear when his elbow bumped into something that shattered upon impact with the ground. He wasn’t sure what it was, too fragmented in its destruction, but had the sneaking suspicion it was expensive.

He quickly ducked into the neighboring aisle and was about to continue his search when a voice rang out from behind.

“Hey! You broke it!”

Kylo twisted around, saw no one, and looked down to see a tiny, young girl barely on the cusp of ten.

“You break it, you buy it.” She sang in what was clearly a rehearsed rhyme. Kylo grimaced as she extended a grimy, sand coated hand. “Pay up, Mister. 220 credits!”

“I didn’t break it.” Kylo ordered, suffusing his words with the will of the Force. He turned away to continue his search among the cluttered shelves only to be stopped by the girl racing in front of him. She planted her feet wide and thrust her arms out, forming a pitiable barrier with her scrawny body.

“220 credits!” She repeated, louder.

“It was already broken. I owe you nothing.” Kylo said, firmer with his command. He focused on encasing each word with his intent and planted it in her brain like a seed. Satisfied that even someone as stupid as her would finally get it, he turned away but was halted by a surprisingly sharp tug on his cloak.

“Liar! You big fat liar! You broke it! I saw you!” She screamed, yanking down on his cloak with every word.

“Knock it off.” Kylo snarled as he jerked the cloth from her grip. She overbalanced and was sent reeling onto the floor. He caught a flash of red on her scraped palms and worried for a moment that she’d start crying, because the last thing he needed on his mounting pile of annoyances was a wailing child. However, she bit her lower lip and wiped her palms against her stained shirt, wincing as the rough fabric stung her tender skin. She brought her arm to wipe it across her teary face and Kylo noticed a dark spot on her wrist. On a second look, it appeared to be a brand of some kind. Her arm was back down before he could identify it further.

“I’m telling on you.” She sniffled through the tears and spun around.

In her haste, she nearly smacked head-first into the edge of a fuel tank that jutted out from the shelf it sat on. However, just before impact, the metal slid back to avoid her head. For a moment, Kylo had thought he’d maybe mistaken the distance, but the unmistakable screech of metal against metal that he definitely hadn’t imagined confirmed it.

That heavy piece of metal had moved to avoid her.

He raced around the corner the girl had disappeared behind and saw her rapidly approaching the store counter. Unthinking, Kylo flung a carburetor off a nearby shelf and released it, letting momentum do the rest. And before it reached her back, it stopped, hovered in the air a moment, and collapsed to the ground with a resounding clank.

In that moment, Kylo remembered how she’d ignored his commands so easily. That, and what he’d just witnessed made it so clear he what he was dealing with. And for a Force Sensitive child to be so adept at such a young age! Did she have a Master?

A wild, frantic thought that Skywalker may have taught her was rightfully ignored after a moment’s reconsideration. If Skywalker were anywhere in this entire system, Kylo would have noticed. He’d never forget the distinct Force signature of that man. Of that, he was certain.

So, what then? She was just a natural talent? If that was the case, then she had incredible potential. Potential that was wasting away on this garbage planet, growing brittle and weak like the bleached bone under the sun from its disuse.

Or maybe her power would consume her first, suffocate her on its intensity without anything else to direct it to. Sure she may destroy this waste of a town in the process, but to lose such a promising Force Sensitive in the process…

It was like coming across a chunk of Mustafar diamond lodged in a boulder. It was probably more trouble than it was worth removing it, especially considering he really had no need for such a gem. But to be presented with such an opportunity to only squander it. No. It was better to have her at hand, should she prove to be useful, than to regret not acting.

Kylo located the necessary distributor for his ship and carried in towards where he remembered the front of the store to be. As he approached, he could her the girl babbling, her speed and intelligibility growing and growing until cut off with a sharp slap.

Kylo turned the corner in time to see the girl, one hand covering a bright red cheek, shuffle away from the counter with a broom in her other hand. Meanwhile, a man settled down into a chair and lazily flipped open a magazine.

“So, how much for the distributor?” Kylo asked as he set the part down on the counter, shoving aside some food wrappers and a loaded ashtray to make room.

“60 credits.” The man drawled without even looking up from the glossy pages. Kylo took in the exposed chests of two female twi’leks embracing with a grimace. Clearly he was dealing with the best and brightest today.

“And for the girl?”

That at least got the man to look up. “Wuzzat?”

“The girl, I need an extra set of hands on the ship and she’s small enough to get around the engine room. How much for her?”

The man sat forward, placing his hands on the counter and furrowing his brow in an attempt to intimidate. More affronting was the rank breath as he growled at Kylo, “not for sale.”

“How about 800 credits?” Kylo offered. Maybe if he started high enough, he could bypass this entire interaction.

“She’s worth a fair bit more than that.” The man snorted as he collapsed back into his rickety seat. “Stop wasting my time.”

“700 credits, or I’ll inform the Republic about the Spice production going on in the backroom.” Kylo threatened.

“Who told you about that?” He snapped. If Kylo couldn’t have smelled it on his breath, then that definitely would’ve cinched it. Did living on a desert planet, baking underneath the scorching rays of its sun just gelatinize the brains of its inhabitants, or was Kylo just lucky enough to keep running into exclusively idiots?

“I have my ways,” Kylo huffed before sending out his intentions with the Force, seeping into the man’s brain like water through cracks in the pavement. He latched onto and drug to the surface any and all negative thoughts related to the girl: how much she cost to feed, the strange feeling of unease he felt around her, the way things broke when she got angry. Kylo used those associations to support the suggestion that maybe the man would be better off to just take the money and get someone else. Someone older. Maybe like one of those girls from the magazine.

“Okay,” the man murmured in a daze. “700 for the distributor and the girl.”

“Deal.” Kylo passed his datapad over the scanner, digitally sending the credits to the seller. He hefted the distributor onto his shoulder and grabbed the wrist of the girl with his free hand.

“Let’s go.”

“Wait, no, I, I wait!” She scrambled under his grip. “Who are you? Where are you taking me?”

“My name is Kylo Ren. And I’m here to set you free.”

“Free?” The girl whispered, like if she verbalized it too loudly it wouldn’t be true.

“Yeah. Free. Just like how my Master set me free, I’m going to set you free.”

She stared up at him, wide-eyed, and when he gave another tug, she followed. The way she stumbled seemed to suggest a stunned shock more than willing cooperation, but he would take what he could get.

---------------

The girl had sat quietly on the floor while Kylo replaced his distributor. She was similarly silent during take-off.

Kylo should have known it was too good to be true.

The instant they’d broken the atmosphere she jumped to her feet and scrambled around the immediate area, slapping at buttons to open doors and sticking her head in every crevice and recess she could find.

“Where’s the escape pod?” She screamed at him, as if he’d just tell her. He stood in the doorway and watched her continue to kick at the locked door behind which rations and other miscellaneous supplies were stored. It wasn’t until one kick resulted in a suspiciously dented surface that he was forced to bodily pull her away.

She thrashed under his grip until she managed to twist her neck far enough to sink her teeth into Kylo’s wrist. Instinctively, his handhold slipped and she broke away, racing down the corridor towards the engine room. By the time Kylo reached the entrance to that section, he heard an unusual clanking that didn’t fit the typical rhythm of the machinery. He reached out with the Force, peering into every nook and cranny to find the nuisance.

Eventually he located her, wedged between the auxiliary fuel chamber and tertiary turbine. He stalked towards her, cursing when he arrived to find a tangled mess of wires and a broken fuel pipe. Luckily it wasn’t part of the main fuel line, so he’d make it back to the First Order without it. More annoying was the childish raspberry the girl blew, echoing throughout the engine room with irritatingly perfect clarity, as he was forced to start the search for the little cockroach back from square one.

With a flashing burn of empathy, Kylo wondered if this is what Hux felt like only to toss it aside with an audible scoff. When Kylo rampaged, it was because of the sheer inadequacy of the people around him or due to his bitter rage against a universe that always seemed to be against him. With this brat, she was just throwing a tantrum.

A noisy, messy, infuriating tantrum.

His grandfather was right.

Absolutely nothing good came from desert planets.

Chapter Text

That girl, Rey, was a kriffing menace.

When she wasn’t crying and screaming in the middle of the night, she was pouting and mocking Kylo during his lessons. And that’s if Kylo were lucky enough to know where the hells she even was. As often as she was lashing out at him or making a mess, he’d come back from missions to find no trace of the girl beyond the pitiful stashes of snacks and mechanical parts she had hidden throughout his quarters.

 When he got back from his short trip to the nearby moon of Xervin-2, his search for her turned up a small jug of oil beneath the refresher sink, three protein bars taped to the underside of his right desk drawer, a box of gears, springs, and cables in a hollowed couch cushion, and a half rotten apple behind the lighting panel she’d unfastened from the wall.

But no sign of Rey.

This was utterly ridiculous. A Sith of his stature reduced to chasing around some insolent whelp around the halls of the ship he commanded, no co-commanded.

Great, now he had the insufferable image of his Co-Commander rooted firmly in the back of his mind. Just what he needed. To be assaulted by the joint headaches that were a selfish brat who had no idea the opportunity she was throwing away and a frigid general who was under the delusion that he had anything of use to offer anyone.

He stalked the corridors of the Finalizer, following the winding echo of Rey’s presence until he was, ultimately, led back to his own quarters. With a sharp rebuke for wasting his time on the tip of his tongue, Kylo opened his door and promptly choked on his words.

Sitting, at his rarely used desk, were the exact sources of his two greatest irritations. Said selfish brat had strewn her mechanical garbage across the desk surface and was proudly itemizing every piece to said frigid general sitting across from her. Upon his entrance, Rey perked her head up and fixed Kylo with a wide, eye-squinting smile that he’d never seen her display.

“Mr. Kylo! Look, it’s General Sucks!” She beamed, gesturing to the man as if Kylo could have possibly missed his presence. “You were wrong, he’s actually really nice!”

Kylo tore his gaze away from Rey’s eager grin and brought it up to General Hux. The man sat there, straight backed and regimented as ever. His stare was icy and bright, more like a glacier than eyes, and the thin smile plastered across his face was tight. You didn’t have to be a Force user to sense that it was both fake and unpracticed. How, though, he was able to fool such an innate talent such as Rey was beyond Kylo.

“That’s quite a hidden treasure you’ve got there,” Hux said, keeping his eyes firmly on Kylo. Out of the corner of his eye, Kylo could see Rey giggle from the praise, but all Kylo felt was a chill trickling down his spine.

“Rey,” Hux called, and Kylo could feel his mouth pitch down as the girl had the gall to readily respond to it. “I have to discuss some things with ‘Mr. Kylo’ here. I don’t want you to get bored though, so would you prefer to play with this?”

Hux extracted his datapad from his greatcoat and held it out for Rey to take. She stared at the device, craning her neck to examine it from every angle before –cautiously— accepting it.

Hux stood up slowly and Rey’s eyes darted up from the datapad screen.

“We’re just going into the next room,” Hux said, pointing to the bedroom. “We don’t want to distract you, but we’ll leave the door open in case you need us. Ren.”

Hux gestured him to follow with his head, and while Kylo was loathe to obey even barest suggestion from the man, he grit his teeth and stomped after him. The instant he crossed the threshold, Hux rounded to face him with a stare that could chill liquid nitrogen.

“Take that off. I’m not discussing this with you while you’re wearing that.” Hux ordered with a blithe wave of his hand.

“You have no right to-”

“Yes, yes, yes, no right to command you.” Hux sighed before affecting a severe exaggeration of his Imperial Accent. “Could you ever be so kind as to please remove your bucket, Kylo Ren?”

His mouth tasted bitter at such blatant mockery, and Kylo allowed the ire to strengthen the grip he encircled around Hux’s throat. Hux kept an admirably straight face despite the Force cutting off his airways, but even he was starting to tremble as Kylo, slowly, removed his helmet. He took his time, physically walking to the nightstand and setting it down before striding back to Hux in a careful, measured step.

His lips were turning blue, and his eyes were wider, but his back was as straight as ever. Even when on the cusp of unconsciousness, he still managed to look down at Kylo. Such unfounded pride in a completely ordinary man.

Kylo released his grip on Hux’s throat, and he sucked in a deep breath immediately. Kylo took in the slight tremble of the General’s knees and considered giving them a careful nudge, enough to make the smug man collapse at his feet. That’d be something that could probably fix his foul mood.

Before he could act on the impulse, however, Hux was stable again. Firm in his stance and glare as ever.

“Is she yours?” He finally asked, his voice only a little hoarse from the choking.

“You found her here, didn’t you?” Kylo snapped. He really had no time for the round about questioning Hux was so fond of. It was a game rooted in politics and subterfuge, neither of which had ever interested Kylo. Not even when he had been Ben.

“No,” Hux corrected. “I found her in Sector L-201 trying to remove a capacitor.”

“And what makes you think she isn’t from your little Trooper Program?”

“Pardon me for seeing a Force sensitive child destroying my ship and immediately thinking of you.”

Kylo could practically feel the dig settle in his gut, writhing like an angry beast and only serving to heighten his irritation. As usual when speaking to the general, he was already wishing he could just kill the man to save on the trouble.

“And well, saying that I couldn’t touch her because ‘Mr. Kylo bought me’ certainly clinched it.” Hux stared at him, like he was physically disgusted. “Really, Ren. At first, I thought you had some illicit affair, but buying a child? I refuse to ignore this.”

“Wait, I didn’t buy her.”

“No?”

“Well, I mean, technically I did, but not like, it’s just that, I didn’t buy her as a slave. It’s just the only way I could get her.”

“And why was it so important that you get her?”

“You said it yourself, she’s Force sensitive.”

“So? We have more than enough Force users gallivanting about in the First Order, if you ask me.”

“Well, I didn’t. Besides, she’s different. She’s,” Kylo paused, trying to find the words to tell someone who couldn’t just feel the way the girl was so utterly entwined with the Force. “Strong.”

“Unlike you, I suppose?” Hux smirked.

“Different than me,” Kylo snapped, exasperated by Hux’s unending semantics. “She, it’s, I can’t describe it to you.”

“I’m not surprised. Communication isn’t exactly a strong suit of yours.”

“Like how power isn’t one of yours.”

Kylo could feel a little thrill of victory as Hux’s frown pitched down, edging towards a snarl. “It’s more efficient to cultivate and utilize others’ power.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Kylo hissed, closing in on the man. “Because right now, only one of us has the power to kill the other right now. And it’s not the one who hides behind an army of child soldiers brainwashed to-”

“General Sucks?” A voice pitched from the doorway. “Are you okay?”

The two turned to see Rey standing, half hidden behind the doorframe. She held some metal pieces in one hand, a makeshift knife now that Kylo looked at it, and she was trembling.

“You feel…unsteady, like you were about to fall.” She articulated carefully.

“I’m perfectly fine, Rey, thank you for asking.” Hux replied, his voice at once warm and comforting. Draping his lies across her tiny shoulders like a well-loved cardigan.

She stayed where she stood, staring. Perhaps she was able to see through this façade.

“Would you like to come in?” Hux asked with a wave of his hand. “We’ll be finished soon.”

She nodded once, slowly and delicately, and walked into the room on tiptoes. She edged towards the bed and sat on the unmade covers without pause. Her gaze flicked between him and Hux, and her grip on the knife didn’t loosen.

“Now then,” Hux said, bringing his attention back to Kylo once Rey had sat down. “You are out of your element, Ren. I’ll be taking her.”

“What?! Like hell you will!”

“Ren, you don’t know the first thing about raising a child. Admit it.”

“And you don’t know the first thing about cultivating the Force. You want to take someone with that much promise and turn her into another mindless drone? And I thought you were supposed to be a great tactician!”

“Have you placed her on the appropriate malnutrition recovery diet? Have you taken her to medical for vaccines? What about proper schooling? Can she read? Write? Where is she sleeping? How have her nightmares been?”

“H-how do you know she has nightmares?”

“Of course she has nightmares, Ren.” Hux sighed, the roll of his eyes sending a new surge of rage through Kylo’s already frayed patience. “Anyone in her situation would.”

Kylo cast his mind back to the weeks of irritation in trying to teach a little girl who refused to listen. Untrained as she was, her Force signature was a heavy, unfocused presence that percolated throughout his quarters like a thick fog. At best, it just made the hairs on the back of his neck quiver. At worst, it gave him the frantic paranoia of an enemy closing in. Until she finally learned how to properly wield it, Kylo would lose his only sanctity.

However.

However. The solution wasn’t just to cast her aside to be someone else’s problem.

He wasn’t his mother. He wasn’t his father. He wasn’t his uncle.

With his help, she was going to be so powerful.

Kylo stared down Hux, drawing his shoulders back to take advantage of his full height. Hux didn’t falter, like he’d anticipated, but he at least seemed aware of their size difference. It was a start.

“Okay, so I don’t know what I’m doing. But giving her to you isn’t the solution. She’s special, Hux. You can’t waste that in the Trooper Program.”

Hux clicked his tongue once, as though he were disappointed but utterly unsurprised at Kylo’s stance on the issue. Without acknowledging Kylo’s reasoning, he turned to face Rey. She stared up at him, focused but at ease.

“Rey,” he began, his voice impossibly gentle. “Do you like living with Mr. Kylo?”

Her eyes darted from Kylo back to Hux. Her shoulders were drawn up tight, but there was no uncertainty in her voice. “He’s okay.”

“Do you want to live somewhere else on the ship? Or would you feel safer here?” He asked and waited with surprising patience as Rey fidgeted and faltered before finally answering, in a cautious whisper: "I don’t wanna move again."

“I understand.” Hux nodded and Kylo stopped just short of laughing aloud at the general’s assumptions that he’d be preferable in any way.

“Are you okay with me coming back to see you?” Hux went on to ask.

Though to Kylo’s annoyance, Rey nodded all too quickly at his offer.  

“Alright. I still have work to do, so I’ll come back in a few hours for dinner. Is that okay?”

Kylo felt the clawing urge to destroy something, anything, when Rey nodded again, all eager smiles and adoring eyes.

“Excellent. I’ll see you tonight then. You can keep the datapad to play with.”

Leaving Rey on the bed, Ren followed Hux to the door. The dark side whispered sweet fantasies of ending the wretched man right then and there in his common area, but it was purely through the orders of his Master, who somehow managed to see something of worth in this pathetic man, that stayed his hand.

“You can teach her my actual name while I’m gone.” Hux intoned as he slung his greatcoat over his shoulders in a pitiful attempt to appear larger.

“What,” Kylo jeered. “Does General Sucks bother you?”

Hux, to his disappointment, seemed thoroughly unimpressed. “No, what bothers me more is your sheer lack of creativity. Honestly, Ren, I’ve been in the military all my life. Do you really think I haven’t heard that before?”

He left without another word, and Kylo turned to see Rey hovering at the doorway to his bedroom again, this time smiling softly, hesitantly.

“I like him.” Rey declared, her voice far more certain than her expression.

Great.

Chapter Text

Dinner that night turned out to be a mundane affair.

Hux had arrived promptly, neither late nor early, and took his meal at Kylo’s desk while Rey sat at the coffee table and Kylo on the couch. That is, he had his meal set aside while he focused on the secondary datapad he brought with him. Signing documents maybe, or perhaps harassing various sector managers because he was a complete control freak. Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t eating; and he even had the gall to tell Rey to not ignore the vegetables on her plate.

Hux did, however, drink. Not much, just a few sips from a flask tucked away somewhere in the bountiful folds of his oversized greatcoat, but Kylo suspected it would have been a more generous helping were he in his usual quarters for the night.

When Rey was finished, holding her licked clean plate up for Hux to see, he stood, patted her head, and passed her some kind of wrapped treat. She tore open the foil and barely examined its contents before stuffing it down her throat.

“We’ll be in the next room, Rey.” Hux called out as he strode towards Kylo’s bedroom, not even bothering to check if Kylo followed.

Kylo purposefully dithered in the main space, taking time to slip into a meditative state so he could calm himself just enough to prevent slaughtering his Co-Commander. What Master Snoke saw in that weasely man was simply beyond him. Maybe this was all some roundabout means to test Kylo’s unwavering loyalty; wait and see if his apprentice would trust his judgement and not murder such a worthless person on his word alone.

Eventually, Kylo stood and made his way into his bedroom, unsurprised –if a tad disappointed— to see Hux typing away without any indication of annoyance.

It just wasn’t normal to be so calm all the time.

No, not calm. Even a Force null wouldn’t use calm in any capacity to describe General Hux. No. Controlled really was the only word. A coiled spring, a faceless gear, a placid lake. Fulfilling a function without any greater purpose.

But sometimes, when Kylo focused, he could sense it within Hux. Between the crisp words, an undercurrent of pride. Underneath the icy stares, a heated malice. Behind the firm salute, an aching pain.

Yet all those flickering moments that Kylo got a glimpse of only served to emphasize the blatant nothingness Hux exuded. The words of a liar. The mind of a coward.

And he honestly wondered why Kylo hated him.

“What is it this time?” Kylo huffed as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

Hux, still standing, paused what he was doing and held his datapad out for Kylo to take. “I’ve integrated her malnutrition recovery diet into your existing meal plan. Double check that I’ve gotten the delivery times correct.”

“Awful lot of trouble you’re going through.” Kylo muttered, covering up his irritation at Hux –somehow— knowing his eating habits. What a creep.

“Not particularly. I’ve simply placed her on the same plan as other malnourished eleven-year-old females.”

“Wait, she’s eleven? How do you know?”

“Cognitive development, though I admit I’m mostly guessing. Once we get her screened by Med Bay, we can get a more definitive answer.” Hux plucked his datapad out of Kylo’s hand and tapped a few orders in. “Take her at 10:00 tomorrow. That should be well after your usual morning practice, yes?”

What a creep.

“You said others,” Kylo instead focused on. “You taking after your old man or something.”

As expected, Hux bristled ever so slightly at the insinuation. Kylo could feel the room tighten under the strain of Hux’s reigned in rage. He allowed himself to smirk, which only made things more difficult for Hux to control.

Yes. Be human like the rest of us.

“Congratulations for finally coming up with something more insulting than your childish nicknames.” Hux eventually said with an icy grin. “But, as you well know Ren, I run the Trooper Program.” The grin became harsher, a sneer at Ren’s naivety. “Did you honestly think that the type of parent to hand their child over would be giving them the necessary care in the first place? It’s not like anyone here is from the decadent Core Worlds. Well…except maybe for one.”

“Kylo Ren has no ties to the Core Worlds.” Kylo bit out, his teeth aching from the strain of his jaw.

Hux chuckled, the derision practiced to perfection. “It must be nice to just cast aside everything you ever were.  Tell me, does it make life easier to be able to just run away from your problems?”

Kylo clenched his fists, fighting back the tempting –so utterly, captivatingly tempting— urge to simply hurl the general into the nearest bulkhead. Maybe if he was lucky, the force of impact would be enough to lobotomize him, render Hux as a useless and feeble shell of the man he was. If he played it off well enough, there was even the chance that Snoke wouldn’t suspect Kylo of permanently handicapping his rabid mutt of a general.

Unlikely, perhaps, but it was nice to dream.

“Oh,” Hux hummed as he physically pulled back from their argument, “speaking of Republic scum, most of our newest recruits undergo a parasitic screening as well.”

Hux tapped away on his stupid little screen, presumably adding that to tomorrow’s visit. Kylo didn’t exactly know what a parasitic screening entailed, only that he was certain it’d somehow result in a headache for him.

“On second thought, I just remembered that I have to be somewhere tomorrow. A mission, actually. For Master Snoke. You take her.”

“I already am taking her, Ren.” Hux sighed. “We’re both taking her.”

“Wha- if you’re already going, then why do you need me?”

“In case some Force related nonsense occurs, of course. If she’s taking a page from you, then I fear the state of our Med Bay.”

“Shut up! I’ve never even done anything to the Med Bay.”

“Because you’ve never had the chance to do anything in Med Bay. Why do you think you’re always being sedated when you go?”

“Wait, I thought, you mean that’s not standard procedure?”

“It is standard procedure. For you. And it will be for her should she prove as uncooperative as you.”

He felt his cheeks flush warm at the idea that everyone was in on some kind of joke about him. The First Order really was populated by a bunch of sycophantic assholes; he could feel a growl building in the back of his throat. “Well if I have to be there, then why do you?”

“Because she doesn’t trust you, Ren.” Hux replied. Plainly and simply. Like it was obvious and absolute.

“And she trusts you? I’m the one who took her off that dump of a planet.”

“That may be, but you’re also the one who ripped her away from the only home she knew and isolated her in a strange environment. It’s no wonder she kept lashing out.”

“Are you seriously finding a way to blame me for her damaging the ship?” Kylo spluttered, almost impressed –in a masochistic way— by the general’s ability to pin anything and everything on him.

“The point I’m trying to make, Ren, is that she doesn’t trust you. She trusts me. So I’m going to try and keep her calm.”

“Tch, I’ll bet you have a lot of practice brainwashing children to trust you. Tell me,” he spat Hux’s taunt back at him, “was it any harder fooling a Force sensitive?”

“I’m not fooling anyone, Ren. It’s my job to inspire and cultivate loyalty.”

Always so quick with words. Always ready to parry an insult or return a threat. But not this time. Kylo wasn’t going to back down like all the other spineless drones on this damned ship.

“It’s your job to raise human meat shields, and I’m not going to let you do that to Rey!”

He heard the slap before he felt it, stinging sharply against his cheek. And before the echo could finish reverberating around the room, Kylo returned the strike two-fold with a punch to the jaw. Hux stumbled back, but remained upright. He licked his lips, wincing when he made contact with the split skin. But the blood didn’t seem to concern him. If anything, his eyes flashed a little hotter as his tongue darted out to lap up the fresh trickle before it reached his chin.

Kylo thought he might have caught the glint of something silver in Hux’s hand before Rey barged into the room, distracting him with her clumsy entrance.

“Wait!” She screamed, physically shoving herself between them. Not exactly a difficulty with the space lingering between them.

When Kylo glanced around Rey to look at Hux’s hands, they were empty.

“Don’t fight. Mommies and Daddies don’t fight.”

Wait. What? No. No. Nonononono.

“Rey, we’re not your parents. We’re not even married.” Kylo tried to explain as calmly as he could. It resulted in a somewhat terse explanation, but it was the best he could do after being accused of something as horrendous as being married to General Hux.

At least Hux looked as equally discomforted, insofar as Hux ever allowed himself to visibly show discomfort.

“And we’re not fighting.” Hux added, holding up his hands to show they were empty and harmless. Previous slap notwithstanding, apparently.

“You were gonna.” She argued with a huff and crossed her arms over her chest. “You were saying mean things and made each other sad.”

Sad? Is that what she wanted to call Hux actually getting heated enough to physically react to an insult? Is that what she thought Kylo felt when his insides were boiling with rage?

He really needed to teach that girl how to fine tune her sensing.

“You gotta apologize when you say mean things.”

Kylo made eye contact with Hux over Rey’s head, and he wondered if Hux was thinking the same thing he was: where the hell did she learn that?

“Go on,” Rey urged them with a gesture of her hands for them to step closer. Kylo didn’t see the need. If he wanted to apologize, which he didn’t, he could say it from where he stood. Besides, it’s not as though Hux would-

Hux took one step forward and, with a glance down to Rey, looked directly at Kylo.

“Ren, I apologize.”

No way. Had Kylo somehow been knocked out by a single slap? Was he dreaming? Because there was no other possible explanation as to what-

“I apologize for insinuating that you are a lazy upstart with no concept of accountability, who rose through the ranks of the First Order through luck and nepotism, and for suggesting that you would poison a bright young mind with your self-destructive tendencies and baseless devotion to mysticism.”

Ah. Nevermind. Everything checked out.

“And I apologize for saying that you were a sniveling coward who has only seen battle from behind the backs of the child-soldiers he’s spent his life brainwashing.”

Rey looked back and forth between them. She didn’t seem fooled in the slightest, but possibly sensed that it was the best she was going to get from them. With a single nod, she grabbed one hand in each of hers and tugged them towards her, closer to each other.

“Good, now hug it out.”

“No.” Kylo snapped along with Hux.

Rey smiled and laughed at their unison, in that way kids just sometimes laughed at nothing because they were stupid.

“I think I’ll take my leave.” Hux patted Rey on the head and she looked up at him like he scattered the kriffing stars across the galaxy. “Good night, Rey. Sleep well. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Goodnight,” Rey chirped and waved at his back until he left the room. Once he was gone, she turned around and stared up at Kylo. She stared and stared and stared until Kylo was almost certain he was being accused for something.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She said and finally turned away. “Good night, Mister Kylo!” She raced out of the room and to the fresher to, hopefully, brush her teeth. Kylo considered following her to remind her about it, but instead collapsed onto his bed. If Hux wanted to butt into everything, fine, let him. He could worry about all that stuff now.

Chapter Text

“Alright, just sit tight and I’ll take some blood for testing.” The medic cooed as she tied off the tourniquet on Rey’s left arm.

Rey whimpered and her rapidly approaching screams were quelled when Hux placed a hand on her shoulder.

“General Sucks, it hurts,” she whined, clutching tightly to Hux’s free left hand.

“No, it doesn’t. You just think it does.” Rey squeezed tighter and Hux sighed, but didn’t pull his hand away. “See the needle’s already in. The worst is over.”

“But it huuuuurts,” she wailed before turning her head to bury her face in the crook of Hux’s arm.

It was almost worth the trip to Med Bay and Rey’s near tantrum at first sight of a needle to watch Hux curl in his lips at the mere existence of emotion.

“You’re doing a good job,” Hux replied, pairing the blatant lie with a pat on her shoulder. “See, they’re already done.”

Rey pulled her face away and watched the medic remove the needle and label the handful blood tubes for appropriate testing. Once she left, Rey turned her brown eyes up to Hux, the potentially cute face marred by the ugly splotches of red bloomed from her distress. 

“Are you coming back for dinner tonight, General Sucks?” Rey asked through sniffles of a narrowly avoided bout of crying.

“Rey,” Hux heaved a heavy sigh than made Kylo inversely pleased, “that’s not my name.” Hux glared over at Kylo, who didn’t see a reason to give Hux’s accusative stare any attention.

“It’s not?”

She stared up at him with big, shining eyes. Perhaps it was this reminder of tears still armed and at the ready that kept Hux’s typical vitriol in check. Instead, he breathed in evenly before speaking in a deceptively gentle voice.

“It’s not. My name is General Hux.”

“But Kylo doesn’t call you that.”

“I know he doesn’t.” Hux did something almost like a smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “But he isn’t exactly a good example to follow.”

“No, I don’t call you that because I’m not one of your subordinates.” Kylo corrected.

“Sub-what?” Rey asked.

“Subordinate,” Kylo explained, “means slave.”

“No, Ren, it doesn’t.” Hux sighed. “Rey, everyone on this ship is part of the same team. But in order for everything to get done, this team is broken down into smaller groups. Some people are in charge of food. Some with medicine. Others with safety. Within these small groups, there is a leader. This leader is someone who is the most experienced at what that group is doing. Working under the direction of the leader and following their advice are the subordinates. Since I’m good at coordinating, I am the leader of all these different leaders. Got it?”

Rey hummed, rolling her head from side to side as she considered this information. “Soooo, you’re like the dad?”

“No. I’m the General. That’s what this job is called.”

“But you’re in charge of everyone like a dad. Can I call you that?”

“You may not.” Hux replied, his tone like the floor mats in the training room: firm, but forgiving enough not to really hurt.

“Why?” She managed to enunciate around her protruding lower lip.

Hux sighed and Kylo bit down the chuckle that threatened to bubble up from his frustration. Well worth the trip to the Med Bay after all.

“I’m not your father, Rey.”

“But you’re taking care of me.”

Hux opened his mouth, likely to object, before closing it with an audible click of his teeth. It seemed as though he couldn’t argue when the food and medicine and attention spoke against him.

“That may be, but I’m not your legal guardian, Rey. So it would be incorrect to refer to me as such.”

Her head tilted to the side. “So then why can’t you?”

“Why can’t I what?”

“Be my legal guardian?”

“Because Ren is your legal guardian.” 

“So?” Her brows furrowed, giving her confusion a certain flavor of idiocy. “Lots of other kids have two parents. Why can’t I? You could be Dad and Kylo could be Mom.”

“No.” Kylo made sure to shut that shit down real quick.

“But you’ve got long hair and a dress.” Rey huffed, as if that meant a damn thing.

“They’re robes.” Kylo tersely explained, feeling his face grow hotter as Hux smirked at him.

“As charming an image as that is, Rey, I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Ren and I can’t share a joint custody since we aren’t married.”

Her head tilted to the other side. “So then get married.”

“We can’t.”

Rey groaned, throwing her body back so it stretched across the in-patient bed. “Why not?” She wailed plaintively.

“I can’t speak for Ren, but for me it’s because I don’t like him.”

“And I hate him.”

Rey lifted her head up enough just to pout at them, but the doctor came into the room for the physical before she could start whining anew.

---------------

After the lengthy physical, in which it was determined that Rey was almost halfway to eleven years old, the three retired to Kylo’s quarters. Hux lingering presence on his couch was an oddity, one that proved distracting enough in his Force lessons that he moved them into his bedroom. However, he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t amusing to hear the general chewing someone out who wasn’t him over the comm when he and Rey emerged for dinner.

During the meal, most of the conversation drifted towards schedules, much to Kylo’s remaining tendrils of patience. He really didn’t understand what was so difficult about it. He’d teach Rey about the Force while he was here, and when he was off on a mission, Hux could just do whatever. Apparently Hux didn’t appreciate the generous offer of freedom towards Rey’s studies, launching into some ceaseless rant about the importance of stability in a child’s life and the need to form a proper basis of understanding so she could keep pace with her peers.

Which were, apparently, new recruits of the First Order

“I told you, she’s not becoming a trooper.” Kylo hissed as Rey was distracted by whatever wrapped treat Hux had offered her that night. Glancing at the crumpled wrapper proved it to be some kind of nutrient bar.

“Officer Academy.” Hux crisply corrected.

“Same difference. A faceless drone serving the will of the First Order.”

“As opposed to you,” Hux smirked, lazily flicking his ungloved fingers towards the mask Kylo had set on the desk.

“Yes. Because I actually matter.”

“Oh really? So you not having killed me yet isn’t because Snoke specifically told you not to? It's not because I'm still useful to him? What, do you secretly like me?” Hux scoffed as he strode over to Rey and reminded her to go wash up for bed.

Kylo seethed as she did as he asked.

“I could get away with it.” Kylo snarled. “I just don’t want to go through the bother of a replacement’s learning curve.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Hux dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Force User, very important, I get it. But, apparently, your connection to the greater universe doesn’t include listening to my words. I never said we were enlisting Rey into the Officer Academy. That involves taking her off ship, which would be ill advised given the nature of her parentage.”

Kylo glared at Hux, waiting for him to just drop the pointless filler and get to the point.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to separate her from you, Ren. I just finished telling you that she needs stability. But just because she’s on this ship doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be afforded the basic education received at the Academy.”

“Which is what?” Kylo asked, half expecting curriculum involving bootlicking and brown-nosing nestled cozily between schedule crafting and general assholery.

“Well, reading, writing, and arithmetic, for starters. Basic sciences, first aid, sharpshooting. I’d imagine you’ll include combatives with your Force training?”

“Naturally,”

“And she has a lot to catch up on.” Hux glanced over to where Rey exited the fresher, her face pink from scrubbing and licking her teeth like she always did after brushing, like she couldn’t get used to the texture or taste of a clean mouth.

“I’ll draft up a schedule for her and send it to you tomorrow.” Hux said as he collected his coat from the couch arm.

“Are you leaving, General Su- General Hux?”

Hux knelt down so he was at eye level, but wasn’t quite able to fully remove his officer persona. The way his clipped tone and calculating eyes clung to him like the saccharine residue of a sweet on one’s tongue only served to exacerbate just out of place Hux was.

“I am, Rey, because it’s time to sleep. Don’t you feel tired?”

“No,” she protested through a yawn.

“Go on, go to sleep. The sooner you sleep, the sooner the next day will be here. And tomorrow’s a big day.” Hux’s voice even ticked up at the end, as if he were truly speaking of something exciting. Honestly Kylo was less surprised by the promise of something fun spilling from Hux’s mouth and more by the fact he could, in fact, modulate his tone if he so chose.

“It is?” Rey seemed suitably doubtful.

“Of course. Every day is a big day on a starship, and tomorrow, I’ll take you around to see all of it.”

“Really!” She bounced on the balls of her feet, and Kylo has seen Hux threaten to space people for smaller lapses in control. Instead he did something close to the vague idea of a smile and nodded towards the couch she’s been sleeping on for the past few weeks.

“Indeed, but in order to get to tomorrow, you have to go to sleep.”

“Roger that!” She said, making some gesture close to the vague idea of a salute. Those two. Maybe putting them together was the worst idea Kylo has ever had. But what’s done is done. And judging by the vigor in which she put herself to bed, Kylo had the chance of having a decent sleep himself that night. And if he could finally have a dreamless night without screaming nightmares or accidental Force projections, then really it was all worth it.

Kylo turned and headed towards his bedroom, not even pausing when he heard Rey call out her good nights to the both of them.

But he may’ve mis-stepped when he thought he might’ve heard Hux reply back.

Chapter Text

There were many things Kylo hated about Hux. He suspected that he could write a book about the subject, or at the very least the sort of research paper that could get him one of those fancy, pedantic degrees about a subject no one really cared about.

Though if he was forced to choose only one thing, the single most detestable thing about his weak, cowardly, pompous, smartass of a Co-Commander, it would be this: Hux was, at his core, a liar.

Endless pontification about Kylo’s anger all while he walked the corridors of the Finalizer containing such murderous ire. He couldn’t stand such blatant hypocrisy. And then there was, perhaps, the most closely guarded secret Hux had: his inflaming speeches weren’t mere rhetoric. Every word, every gesture, every ounce of emotion came from a place of honesty buried deep within. He truly felt the rage, the pride, and –most disgustingly—the hope their military fought for.

And yet even then, at his most honest, it was still a lie. An ocean of passion that was brought up a bucket at a time and presented as if that were the extent of his caring. Wasteful. Deceptive. All that feeling roiling around within and he just ignored it.

“It’s called control, Ren.” Hux huffed when Kylo had brought it up over dinner, in an attempt to teach Rey what it meant to deny yourself. “Something, you could stand to learn.”

“It’s not control. It’s a muzzle.”

“A muzzle? Those things you put on animals? How dramatic.” Hux scoffed.

“No, actually, I think it’s a rather appropriate accessory for a rabid cur such as yourself.”

Hux frowned at the recitation of Master Snoke’s words. “This ‘muzzle’ you speak of isn’t for me, Ren. It’s for my emotions.” He turned away from Kylo to face Rey, who met Hux’s gaze with an infuriating focus. “It’s important to keep your emotions in check so your judgement isn’t clouded.”

“Stop it.” Kylo snapped, slamming his palm on the coffee table to break the attention between the two. “Stop lying to her. Rey, denying yourself leads to deluding yourself which leads to cutting yourself off from the truth.”

“And what’s the truth?” Hux asked. He leaned forward over the desktop with a hungry smirk, perched and ready for Kylo to stumble over his words and be vulnerable to his next attack.

But Kylo was ready. He knew the truth. He’d learned it nearly a decade ago when he’d destroyed all that had shielded him from it, burned it to ash so he could finally see.

“The Force.”

Kylo couldn’t choke Hux to cut off his cold laughter, but he could shatter his wineglass. The laughter didn’t completely stop, as he’d hoped, but it did at least pitter out. Though the look of amusement Hux shot him across the room only fanned the flames of rage inside his core.

“Just like I said. No control.” Hux purred as he stood and closed the distance with slow, measured steps. He plucked Kylo’s wineglass off the coffee table with a smirk, as if Kylo had actually wanted that bitter crap, and took a deep drink from it. Faintly, Kylo recognized that the placement of Hux’s lips on the rim overlapped with where his own had. Hux seemed to notice him staring and grinned like a satisfied cat, licking his upper lip to catch any residue of wine.

Against his wishes, Kylo could feel himself grow even hotter. And it made him all the angrier to not even know why.

---------------

Learning was hard. Rey could see why her old boss had never bothered.

During the day, she’d sit for hours on the hard floor. Sometimes in silence, sometimes while Mister Kylo lectured. Often times in the dark.

She usually didn’t understand what he was talking about, but she did know that Mister Kylo got mad when she asked ‘why’ too often. She could feel the spikey edges of his irritation like a warning to hold her tongue, and even then, his edges retained a dangerous, jagged form.

Some days the sour odor that permeated from him was enough to make her nauseous, but that –at least— didn’t happen very often. She suspected it to be related in some way to something called ‘Skywalker’, as that was a common phrase that echoed in the spaces between his lectures on such days.

Today, fortunately, was not such a day.

“The Dark Side is a side of passion, Rey. Whatever is it you yearn for, take it and let it fuel your power.”

Rey nodded. She understood each word individually, but not really how it formed together to assemble into something of sense. She knew what the Force was…sort of. Mister Kylo said it was something that connected everyone and held the universe together. It kind of reminded Rey of gravity.

Gravity was something she’d learned from General Hux, amongst many other things. Lessons with him usually came in the mornings, while Mister Kylo was training, and the evenings, before and after dinner. Sometimes even during, if she was able to ask him the right questions.

Learning from General Hux was hard too, but it was a different hard.

Mister Kylo was confusing. Simple words that stacked together to make complicated, precarious structures that she was afraid of examining too closely, lest it collapse and crush her with the weight of its meaning.

General Hux was challenging. Complex systems broken down to singular components that fit together in a beautifully intricate machine that was designed to be disassembled, studied, and put back together in working order.

Learning from Mister Kylo was digging a hole in the sand during a storm: frustrating and without result.

Learning from General Hux was piling rocks in the desert: time-consuming but rewarding.

Even their minds were so different. While Mister Kylo’s mind was burning and bright and erratic, like a raging fire that threatened to consume anything nearby, General Hux’s mind was cold and dark and focused, like a machine built for one purpose and fulfilling it flawlessly.

Mister Kylo was feeling and anger and bleeding wounds.

General Hux was numbers and anger and old scars.

Often times, when she glimpsed into General Hux’s mind, she saw water. Endless waves of it like the dunes of Jakku. In his memory, the water was dark from its depths, it’s bottom –assuming there was one— untouched by the sun’s rays, and chill to the touch all year round. Perhaps the only thing that appealed to Rey more was Hux’s memories of water falling from the sky, sometimes in sheets so thick you could hardly see your hand before your face, other times sparse enough to count each drop as it kissed your cheeks.

And, strangely enough, that sky water could sometimes even be warm. Those memories, hazy and soft from the passage of time, were her favorite to bask in.

Going from General Hux’s machines and water to Mister Kylo’s ager and fire was almost like going back to Jakku and laboring under the bitter sun, knowing what she knew now about the fantastic possibilities of the greater universe.

It was hard. It was unfair. But in the end, Mister Kylo had bought her, and she had no choice.

Though that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Chapter Text

That evening, they had a meeting with Snoke.

The summons Master Snoke doled out often came unexpectedly and at random, but Hux seemed to have an up-to-date progress report at the ready all the same. The first few times that had happened, Kylo had been close to suspecting some measure of Force sensitivity in his Co-Commander. A sense, perhaps, that warned him of the looming interaction.

It hadn’t been long before he’d realized such preparedness was an anal retentiveness typical of the general. However this was the first time in Kylo’s memory that he could ever recall being thankful for that fact. If only to buy him some more time to seal away any thoughts of Rey.

“Therefore, the Dhavinoar System is the most viable option for expanding our mining efforts for future ship construction.” Kylo could hear Hux conclude with his typically crisp finality, as though daring the listener to find a single fault in his airtight reasoning.

Snoke seemed to be in agreement as well and turned his eyes –his deep, dark, resonating eyes, he knew, he knew— onto Kylo. He was pinned underneath that knowing gaze, suffocated under the sheer power Snoke was swathed in, even as far away as he was physically. He slipped between the cracks of Kylo’s mind, as insidious and chilling as mid-winter frost, and searched ravenously for any sign of failings in his pupil. Kylo fought to keep his mind calm, ostensibly open for viewing as any loyal apprentice would keep it.

However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The barest whisper of Rey’s existence –the existence of an outside Force sensitive unbeholden to Master Snoke’s direct teachings— would doom her to a swift death, and he’d be damned if his hard work raising the brat would be for naught. He’d crafted detailed memories of his own training to play in the back of his mind during Hux’s report, but now, when they were at their most important yet most vulnerable, these memories crumbled underneath the intense pressure of Snoke’s searching, prying focus.

In a panic, Kylo thought of the only other person he’d had any recent memory of: Hux. The way he looked standing on the bridge, the timbre of his voice directing an attack on rebel forces, the exact sigh he heaved when correcting progress reports late into the night, the smell of his pomade when he leaned in just a little too close. Sometimes he thought he caught the hint of menthol just underneath-

“And what do you have to report to me, Kylo Ren, on the search for Skywalker?” Snoke finally asked, after completing his thorough search.

“I have visited three planets with rumors of his presence, but have found no trace of him.” Kylo replied to the ground, his head bent as he knelt with proper supplication. “However, I was able to remove a hideout of surviving Jedi practitioners on Jharth IV during my search.”

“Did you question any for any connection to Skywalker and his teachings?”

Shit. Kylo hadn’t even thought about that. He’d really just stumbled on their encampment in the dead of night, saw the bright green blade of the night watch activate and…and…everything had sort of gone red after that. All he really remembered for sure was burning six corpses the next morning.

He forced a swallow past his dry throat before speaking again. “I did not have the chance, Master.”

“You should have made the chance.” Master Snoke sighed, like he the more in the wrong for having assumed Kylo would succeed in making the obvious choice. Kylo could feel his stomach sink with the shame, and he fought the urge to slam his face into the stone flooring to appease his nagging thoughts of failure.

“General,” Master Snoke intoned, “you are dismissed. Kylo, I wish to speak with you alone.”

Hux bowed low and strode out of the room, his footsteps echoing at a perfect staccato until the blast doors closed behind him, sealing Kylo in the room with Master Snoke’s looming hologram.

“You are distracted.” Master Snoke stated, going straight to the point like a predator to a jugular.

Kylo, meanwhile, didn’t have such singularity in his response. He couldn’t very well deny, not when Master Snoke so very clearly saw through his mental blocks. Begging for forgiveness usually didn’t work on Master Snoke, as he had a habit of meeting desperate promises of greater strength with harsh penalties. Kylo still wasn’t quite sure if what he was punishing was the original failure, the withering attempts to make up for it, or the sheer gall to hope for better.

The idea to play ignorant crossed his mind, for a while at least as he tried to gleam what exactly Master Snoke had parsed from his thoughts. He opened his mouth to do just that when Master Snoke cut him off with an idle twitch of his fingers.

Even from this far away, Kylo could feel the tendrils of Master Snoke’s Force graze across his throat in warning. He dutifully fell silent.

“Think no more of the general.” Master Snoke warned him. “You have more important things to focus on.”

“I, I’m not…yes, Master Snoke.”

“Good. You are dismissed.”

---------------

“So what did you do to upset him this time?” Hux asked the instant Kylo stepped out of the chamber.

“Nothing, he just noticed me thinking about you.”

“What, was I in saucy outfits or something?” Hux asked, his chuckles so genuine Kylo was momentarily thrown by it. “Why would it matter if you think about me? We work together, after all”

“Because attachments of any kind are a weakness. But it’s better he assumes I’m harboring unrequited feelings towards you than letting him find out about Rey.” A sudden, harrowing thought tore through him like a blaster shot. “Wait, you weren’t thinking about her, were you?”

Hux furrowed his brows, indignant at the –reasonable— accusation. “No. I have a long-standing habit to recite pi when I meet with the Supreme Leader.”

“Pi?”

“Yes pi, it’s infinite you know.”

“You expect me to believe that you have that memorized? I know you don’t have a life, Hux, but even I think you have better things to do.”

“I mean that when I do run out of the memorized numbers, I can just make up the rest for the duration of the meeting with none the wiser.” He strode past Kylo, pausing just long enough to place a condescending pat on Kylo’s shoulder. “You might want to try thinking sometime, I promise it doesn’t hurt.”

Kylo smacked his hand away and gave Hux a light shove with the Force, just enough to send him stumbling over his feet as he headed back towards the bridge. The burning ire in his gaze was enough to make Kylo feel a little better, and he walked back to the training rooms with a smirk hidden behind his mask.

Chapter Text

“Someone wants to kill you.” Rey announced one night after dinner.

“Hm, I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific,” Hux replied, not even looking up from his paperwork.

“He’s an old guy, way older than you, and he’s,” Rey paused, nearly scowling in her efforts to focus, “he’s been angry for a long time, bubbling like boiling water but also, tense like a serpentine belt.”

“Probably someone who’s known me a while then,” Hux hummed as he made an annotation.

“I don’t think you should go home,” Rey warned, meaning his separate quarters.

Hux placed down his stylus and interlaced his fingers, looking down to where Rey sat on the floor dismantling a mouse droid that he’d gifted her yesterday. He stared at her with an intensity befitting a junior officer proposing a novel attack strategy. “Where do you suggest I go then?” He asked.

“Stay here,” she replied without any hesitation.

“Alright,” Hux capitulated with equal speed. Kylo had to admit he was surprised at the surrender until he realized that the reason Hux didn’t care where he spent the night was because he didn’t have any intention to sleep through it.

The next night, Rey warned Hux of the same threat and he agreed readily. Kylo saw him swallow a few pills with his tea before returning to work but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t really his business.

The third night, when Rey had suggested the same thing, Kylo wondered if Rey had some ulterior motive. This wasn’t the first time someone onboard had imagined killing the General. Knowing how insufferable Hux was, Kylo doubted this would even be the first time someone attempted to follow through. So he was puzzled as to why Rey was latching onto this particular threat with a tenacity befitting a rabid dog. Was it because she was getting stronger and only now picking up on these dark thoughts around her? Or was there something she was grasping with her innate sensitivity that Kylo, by being constantly around such threats to Hux’s life, was blind to?

However this time, Hux declined Rey’s offer. When she tried to turn it into an order, he outright refused. When she started to throw a tantrum, he packed up his things and left, leaving behind a crying apprentice for Kylo to deal with. And with that, any iota of worry Kylo had for Hux’s safety went out the airlock. Asshole could die for all Kylo cared.

And the next day, Kylo’s wish was nearly granted.

---------------

“You were stabbed?” Kylo shouted the instant he stepped into the private room Hux had been sequestered in.

“Ren, please, watch your volume.” Hux grimaced as he massaged his right temple. “And I was only lightly stabbed.”

“Four times!”

Hux sucked his next breath between his teeth. “Ah, I see Dr. Halvet already reached you then.”

“You can’t call being stabbed four times lightly stabbed, Hux!”

“I can if they were all shallow. It’s like he wasn’t even trying to eviscerate me.” Hux muttered, as though the only reasonable thing to be disappointed about was the finesse in which he was almost murdered.

Kylo scoffed at Hux’s attempts to underplay his very near brush with death and Hux resolutely ignored Kylo by burying his attention in the datapad he’d likely threatened some lower enlisted to deliver to him.

With him distracted, Kylo took a brief moment to casually assess Hux’s health. He was sitting up in the bed, which in itself seemed to be a good sign, but all positive indicators seemed to stop there. While Kylo couldn’t see the wounds, hidden as they were beneath the thin hospital garb and, beneath that, tightly wrapped bandages, there were many other signs of visible strain.

Pallid skin that glowed a sickly yellow-green under the fluorescents, bruised eye bags like color of overripe plums, dry lips that cracked when Hux bit them absently in thought. Granted those characteristics weren’t necessarily outside of normal. There have been many days Kylo saw Hux on the bridge looking exactly as he did in this hospital bed. Even the heavy slump of his shoulders wasn’t anything new now that he’d seen Hux often enough in his quarters after shift.…of course all of this brought to question whether Hux really was ever well.

Something that was new, however, were Hux’s collar bones. Prominent under the stretch of his pale skin, as sharp and perpetually hidden as the dagger up his sleeve. It had to be the novelty that kept Kylo from turning his eyes away.

“Ren, did you hear me?”

Kylo blinked, seeing that Hux was now looking at him expectantly. “Um, which part?”

Hux cast his head back onto the pillows he was propped against, the tendons of his neck a drawn, elegant bow, and sighed wearily. His right hand, the one without a nutrient drip, came up to rub the bridge of his nose, an errant wrist joint popping softly as the movement. His wrist twisted as he continued massaging with his long fingers, his veins a shock of icy blue underneath porcelain skin.

Well, problem solved. He wasn’t staring at Hux’s collarbones anymore.

Kylo waited, wondering if Hux was going to pose his question again or decide it ultimately wasn’t worth the effort of repeating (Kylo’s preferred outcome). The general could take all the time he wanted, for all Kylo cared. It gave him plenty of time to keep-

No, no, stop that. Why was he even staring? It wasn’t even particularly interesting. It was just hands. Just a neck. Just a body. And yet there was something so deeply intimate, no, something different about seeing Hux’s hands bare.

And his wrist.

And his forearm.

And his bicep.

Kriff, whose idea had it been to make the in-patient tunic short sleeved? They deserved to be spaced for it. Weren’t there, like, diseases in a Med Bay. They needed to keep their patients as covered as possible to prevent infection.

“I asked,” Hux began, bringing his hand back down, “where Rey was.”

Kylo shrugged. “Back in my quarters.”

Hux sighed again, this one at a different pitch to his usual I’m dealing with idiots sort of sigh. “Not sure if I want her finding out about this, but it’s not like I can hide it either. Does she know I’m here?”

“I didn’t tell her, but she has a knack for sensing these sorts of things.” He would know. Anytime he ever lost to the training droid or against one of his knights in a spar, Rey gives him a pitying pat on the shoulder and a ‘you’ll win next time’ whenever he comes back to his quarters. Kriffing pisses him off every time, and he’s almost certain she knows it.

“I won’t be discharged for another cycle. Will you be alright with looking after her until I’m back?” Hux asked as he tapped something onto his datapad.

Kylo cast his gaze to the ceiling, searching for patience. He found none. “She’s not going to drop dead after a day without you.”

“There are times I doubt that.” Hux smirked, having no right to look so imperious in a kriffing hospital bed looking like the dead with four stab wounds.

“And there are times I doubt you won’t just drop dead too,” Kylo sneered. “Maybe if I’m lucky, it’ll even happen tonight. While you sleep.” Kylo loomed over Hux, waiting for the threat to settle in.

Hux blinked slowly back at him before the barest of a smile graced his face. “Oh Ren, I’m afraid that, much like my attacker, you’ll have to try a little more than that.”

The datapad swiftly flew from Hux’s hands, shattering to piece as it collided with the durasteel bulkhead across the room. Kylo didn’t know what face Hux made as he stormed out of the room, but the small, displeased groan was enough to sustain his good mood for the remainder of the day.

Chapter Text

Despite what he’d said to Hux that day in the Med Bay, he really didn’t want Hux to die.

Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that Hux’s use outweighed his terrible personality. Not only was he imperative to the functioning of the First Order, the military and bureaucratic aspects of which had no interest to Kylo, but it had been clear since day one that Hux really did know what he was doing with Rey. She was gaining weight, having fewer nightmares, hiding less food, and even, miraculously, actually listening to Kylo’s lessons (granted she wasn’t really improving in them, but that was another matter).

The point being, Kylo finally felt like he understood why Master Snoke was adamant about keeping Hux alive, for now. And Kylo would be lying if he said this knowledge didn’t make him feel a little closer to his Master and a little further above Hux, knowing what he did about Hux’s guaranteed, yet no less precarious, existence.

Therefore, despite how pleasing it might be in the short term, Hux’s death was something to be avoided. So then came the question on how.

Hux may not be lucky enough to make it to medical for treatment next time, especially if his enemies chose to be a little smarter and shove the general into an airlock after they shot him. Or maybe they would be even more clever than that, and try something more insidious and less direct, like poison. Kylo had to find a way to deter them from even trying at all. Find something that would keep them from attempting due to a perceived risk.

But what sort of risk was suitable? With Hux’s rank, Kylo doubted there were many above him that could enforce any sort of disciplinary action, like a court martial or whatever they called it. And he knew that Master Snoke didn’t favor Hux enough as a tool to protect him outright. So with no protection of a higher power, what could possibly threaten dissenters enough to back off?

As Kylo stalked past some Lieutenants, who suddenly fell silent for fear of disturbing him with their presence, it became so laughably obvious. Of course. What better way to utilize the fear he’d cultivated over the past years in the First Order?

Then again, it wasn’t exactly feasible, or desirable, for him to be at Hux’s side at all hours to guard the general’s life. He had to find a way to display his protection over the general even without physically being there. What he needed was a way to ensure that everyone knew he was on Hux’s side, that he’d retaliate against any who sought to harm him. And by the time Kylo had reached the training hall, the means by which to do that had come all too easily.

---------------

"Excuse you,” Hux sneered from where he sat at the desk. Technically he was breaking the parameters of his recovery by being out of bed, but Kylo decided not to bring that up in the spirit of their conversation.

“I told you. Marry me.”

“Ren,” Hux took a deep breath, before continuing in a tone suited for speaking the painfully obvious, “for most people that’s a question not a demand.”

“Well, we’re not most people.” Kylo shrugged, stating the equally obvious.

“Even so, I have standards.”

“What, were you expecting a ring?”

“Oh please,” Hux rolled his eyes. “It’s like you hardly even know me.”

“Well excuse me for not finding the time to go to the armory and special order you a new dagger, but we’re kind of on a time crunch, what with your would-be murderer still on the ship.”

Hux sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I still fail to see your logical progress here, assuming there even was one. Marrying you is somehow going to make me safer?”

“It’s going to make people second guess whether it’s worth the risk to kill you.” Kylo explained. He really hadn’t foreseen Hux’s inability to see the connection. If he could have counted on Hux for anything, it’d have been his sharp mind.

“No. It’s going to make people second guess whether they should kill you too.” Hux stressed his point with a surprisingly forceful jab of his forefinger to Kylo’s solar plexus.

“They can try it,” Kylo growled. “But you have to admit, Hux. Between the two of us, who’s the easier target?”

Hux narrowed his gaze to something sharp. “Careful, Ren.”

“I’m not trying to insult you, Hux. Obviously anyone who actually knows you understands you’re a threat, but to everyone else all they see is a young man who’s too naïve for his position. They are going to assume. And if enough people keep trying, eventually one is going to succeed.”

“I know what probability of success is, Ren,” Hux snapped. “I’m not a fucking child.”

“So then I shouldn’t have to explain this to you! What’s so difficult to understand?”

“It’s not difficult to understand, maybe I just don’t want to be married to you!”

“Nothing is going to change, Hux!”

Kylo could feel his voice rising; it began to tear at his throat. He faintly remembered sending Rey into his bedroom, but was certain that if she wasn’t actively eavesdropping, she could definitely hear them now.

“Yes it is, you imbecile! Maybe you can’t hear it since you wear that ridiculous bucket on your head, but people talk. Especially people on ships. Do you even know what marrying you would do to my reputation?”

“That’s exactly why I’m suggesting it!” Kylo gestured with his hands as Hux finally managed to get the kriffing point without actually getting it.

“People aren’t going to be afraid of me because of you, Ren! They’re going to disrespect me!” Hux dug his hands into his hair, tugging on strands as his foot tapped a rapid staccato against the floor.

“They’re going to think that I’m a sentimental fool that lets my heart govern my head. Or maybe that I’m some submissive pet who obeys only you. They won’t listen to me, because they’ll think I answer to you, so why even bother with the middleman? All these years of climbing the ranks and playing the game and doing whatever it took wasted.”

His voice only grew faster, keeping time with his restless foot. The way he pulled on his own hair seemed to hurt, but it didn’t look like Hux had even noticed. Too focused on the suspected agony to come in a future event that may not even happen. Was it because of the pain meds? Or the brush with death? Or…was he just like this? Is this how he thought when he was back in his quarters, alone?

“Hux, no one is going to think that.” Kylo tried to keep his voice low to contrast from Hux’s agitation. The usually placid lake of Hux’s emotions, normally flat enough to seamlessly join the horizon was swirling and angry and roiling. The kind of waters old-world mariners created myths about, blaming monsters and gods in some frantic bid to make sense of the deadly waves. He had to calm the other back down, or he was never going to agree to anything.

“It’s exactly as you said, Ren. People assume.” His voice was sharp, but brittle. Poised to cut, but ready to break in the process.

“Your soldiers respect you too much to think that.” Kylo offered.

“Oh, and I suppose you know with your-” Hux derisively wiggled his fingers in the air in a facsimile of his Force manipulation.

“I don’t need it to know that. And I think you know it too.” Kylo paused, taking in the spiraling thoughts that fed on themselves within Hux’s brain. They spread from the recesses to the forefront as it grew like an insidious weed. It poisoned his rationale, choked out his logic until it died and served as fertilizer for more panic.

He really was in no state to be considering this.

"Just, think about it, okay?” Kylo relented with a sigh and left the common room to check on Rey. As expected, she was scrambling away from the door upon his entrance. Though the lengths she went to in feigning ignorance, going so far as to ask ‘who’ when he’d mentioned Hux, were a little much, he couldn’t find it in himself to be upset by her antics.

Hoping maybe to project some calm onto Hux in the other room, Kylo led Rey in a simple meditation. It was an old relic passed down from the traditions of sitting in ancient woods and convening with the Force in a bid for enlightenment. Its aim was to center and ground the user, remind them of their existence in the greater tapestry of life and the impermanence of it. Your accomplishments would pass. Your troubles would pass. Your life would pass.

It was a notion that had always secretly comforted Kylo when he felt particularly useless after a failed mission. And while he didn’t have any grand ideas about it magically curing Hux, he thought he could at least sense Hux’s mind settling a bit in the next room over.

Maybe his proposal had been a little hasty. Maybe marriage wasn’t the right solution to this problem. He’d start thinking of a new, better idea tomorrow, and really take the time to make the right decision.

---------------

“Fine.” Hux suddenly said three evenings later, long after Rey had fallen asleep.

“Fine what?” Kylo mumbled.

“I’ll marry you,” and Kylo jolted awake at those words. He opened his eyes to see Hux hovering over him, his focused gaze nearly suffocating in the dark of the bedroom. He leaned in closer, and Kylo swallowed a gasp when felt Hux’s chest bump against his. Their bodies pressed together with every steady breath they took, and the only thing to distract Kylo from that was the gentle lips that grazed across his.

“I accept your proposal, Darling.” Hux enunciated the word so carefully, taking the utmost care in illustrating to Kylo how much of an insult it was.

And it was at that moment, that Kylo knew that he was fucked.

Chapter Text

There had been no ceremony, no service, not even a special dinner. Nothing to indicate that anything of significance had occurred other than Hux opening his third worst whisky and sharing a glass with Kylo after signing the civil union documents. And he only knew it was Hux’s third worst whisky because he’d made a point to tell Kylo so while pouring it.

But despite the whisky’s burn, Kylo couldn’t forget the feeling of Hux’s lips against his that night. He caught himself thinking about it whenever the general spoke, could almost feel it as he lied awake into the late hours. It was distracting, to say the least, and to his dismay as the days went on, the memory only lingered longer. If it kept progressing, it wouldn’t be long until that almost-not-quite-kiss is all he could think about. He was almost certain that was the conniving bastard’s exact intentions. Probably having a proper laugh at Kylo’s expense, if he even knew how to.

And sure, being married to such an asshole kind of sucked. Not that Kylo had ever thought about marriage to any extent before, but now that the option is gone, wasted on someone like Hux, he couldn’t help but feel a little cheated. Adding on to that the complete and utter lack of celebration, and Kylo was faintly starting to regret his spur of the moment proposal to a person who took everything too seriously. Yes it may have been an idea he initially suggested and vehemently argued for, but that was the past. This was the now. And the now sucked.

But it wasn’t a total wash, at least. One of the perks of marriage apparently included a re-assignment to new, larger quarters upon the finalization paperwork. It boasted two bedrooms, a shared fresher with a shower that ran real water, an office that Hux would hopefully confine himself to, and there was even a common room that had a small kitchenette attached.

The moment they stepped over the threshold of their family quarters, Rey spun on her heel, dropped her single bag, and pointed directly at Hux, who stopped short of stabbing his gut on her protruding finger.

“You don’t have any excuses anymore!” Rey laughed.

“Um,” Hux stared down her arm and met her victorious face admirably, in that he managed to hide most of his confusion at such a random statement. Kylo noticed Hux’s eyes dart towards him, but he made no change in face, preferring to stay out of whatever nonsense Rey was starting. But not so detached that he didn’t want to stop watching.

Hux brought his attention back down to Rey, but before he could get a guess or question in, Rey planted her clenched fists on her hips and beamed up at Hux.

“I’ve been thinking for a long time,” she began and swiftly closed the little distance that remained between them. She tugged Hux down to kneel with a yank to his hand. It was a slow, measured descent on Hux’s part, and he hid the hiss of pain behind tightly closed lips. Either Rey didn’t notice the lingering ache of Hux’s injuries, or she was too excited by her apparent announcement to care.

“I’m gonna call you Papa now.” And she wrapped her arms around Hux’s neck in a weak chokehold of a hug.

And the look of sheer panic that stretched across Hux’s face was something Kylo would treasure for the rest of his life.

---------------

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

How could things have gone this bad in such a short time? One moment he was heading towards a meeting with the budgetary committee and stopped just long enough to keep some wayward child from scavenging his ship, and the next he was lying in bed next to the single worst person on the entire ship.

Kylo Ren. He was married to Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren, born under a different name into a life of luxury with power beyond most anyone in the galaxy and still wasn’t satisfied.

Kylo Ren, master of the Knights of Ren, who supposedly murdered all of his schoolmates to achieve that title.

Kylo Ren, an out-of-control Darth Vader wannabe who had abilities beyond scientific comprehension and utilized it on a semi-regular basis to destroy his own ship.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was a father now. An honest to gods legal father to a literal child. He’d never planned to become a father. He didn’t ever want to be a father. He wasn’t equipped for it. He couldn’t do it. Training troopers was one thing, sure, but this? This?!

It wasn’t ever his intention to become that to Rey. Sure he’d stepped in, but that was just to ensure he wasn’t going to have a second Force user running around and making a mess of his Starship. One Ren was enough, there was no need for a Ren 2.0.

And everything after that, well, it just made sense. The girl was clearly not getting proper nutrients, so he fixed that. He remembered what it was like to be hungry, after all, and it’s not like he doesn’t do that with every malnourished child who joined the Trooper Program. Same with the medical attention. Diseases spread rapidly on Starships, even ones as large as the Finalizer. It had been in the interest of public safety.

The education may have been unnecessary, but even infantrymen had to know the basics of reading and writing and mathematics. It wouldn’t do to have a soldier who couldn’t read directions or approximate enemy forces. Not teaching her would have been a waste of the resources at his disposal.

Granted, he didn’t need to teach her how to repair mouse droids. But those things broke constantly, so it was a handy skill to have. Plus studies have shown a correlation between mechanical aptitude and improved problem solving.

And yes, perhaps giving Rey her own astromech –BeeBee she affectionately called it— was a bit much, but it was an old BB series that was going to be trashed, so he wasn’t reallocating resources just for her. Besides, she was a very energetic child who needed something to interact with when he and Ren were busy, lest she disassemble more sections of his ship in search of entertainment.

So it’s not like he was trying to be her father. That hadn’t been the goal. Hux knew his strengths. He knew his weaknesses. And caring for people, genuinely caring at the level which is deserved. He couldn’t do that. Didn’t know how. And most likely never could.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Chapter Text

This marriage had been a mistake. Grave and horrible mistake. Not only was Hux around even more to irritate him, but now he had more opportunities to sink his tendrils into Rey too easily and mold her into a mindless drone of the First Order.

He had to find a way to reach Rey fast. She’d already been under his –their—care for four months now and had little to show for it.

And he really only had Hux to thank for that.

Always distracting Rey from her lessons with talk of robotics. Instilling within her a sense of doubt to the legitimacy of the Force. Endless pontification about the virtues of collaboration and integrity. How was Kylo supposed to teach her about the power of letting go when she kept asking him “but what about my squadmates”? It was infuriating. It was insufferable. And it was all the worse that for every inch he fought for with Rey, she gladly went a mile with Hux.

And that was why he had to act fast, now, while Hux was away on some briefing or conference or whatever the hells had taken him off the ship for the next week. Whatever it was didn’t matter, only that he had seven days to try and undo the damage Hux had done on his apprentice.

“Good, now reach out.”

Rey stretched her arm out.

“No, with the Force.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

Kylo frowned at her tone. It sounded far too familiar. Haughty and curt, just barely short of aristocratic. Day by day, his two biggest annoyances were becoming one.

“You feel it, Rey, you feel it. The same way your arms prickle when you’re cold, it’s not something you consciously do, but something you perceive.”

For now, that is. He wanted to detail all the incredible ways she could, eventually, utilize the Force, do more than merely perceive it. But for that to happen, she needed to acknowledge and observe its existence.

She sat still and listened when Hux was taking apart droids for her to see the circuitry and hardware within. So why couldn’t she do the same when Kylo tried to show her the very thing that tied the universe together? Did she really not get how special she was to be able to sense the Force? To affect it? Did she not know what a gift she was squandering all so she could play with some robots?

“Rey,” he tried again after a deep breath. “What is the Force?”

“It is the energy of all life that binds the universe together.” Rey dutifully, if dully, recited.

“And what do you think that means?”

Rey shrugged and Kylo could take solace in the fact that she at least wasn’t copying Hux’s more regimented movements. Yet.

“Rey, when I tell you the Force connects to everything, what do you think that means?”

She shrugged again and Kylo was this close to dislocating her kriffing shoulders. “I dunno. You, me, Papa, the stormy guys, your knights.”

“What else?”

“Ummmm, those people Papa are always talking to, pilots, technicians,”

“Good, keep going.”

“The cooks, the sanitation crew, the nurses, the doctors, BeeBee,” Rey flushed, her eyes wide as her mind swiftly corkscrewed into a panic. “I, I mean, no, not BeeBee, cuz he’s just a droid and, and, and he’s not a person so he-”

“Rey, BeeBee is part of everything.”

“Wha- really?”

“Yes, really. People, animals, plants, machines, planets, stars, fate,” he cut himself short before he could get too far into the metaphysical. “The Force connects everything. Look.”

With an outstretched hand, more for her sake to physically see his intent, Kylo called the nearby helmet from his desktop to his lap. He held the object up to Rey’s eyelevel. “Is this thing alive?”

“No,” she replied, smiling as if Kylo were silly for asking such a weird question. He steadfastly ignored the fluttering in his stomach at her bright grin and the responding twitch of his own mouth. Better not to enable her more childish, senseless inclinations now.

With a snap, the lights went out. With another snap, they flickered back on. “How about these lights?” He snapped them off and on again as Rey’s smile only grew.

“No,” she practically sang.

He opened a closet door with a flick of his wrist and brought one of Hux’s spare jackets to settle around Rey’s shoulders.

“That coat?”

“No,” Rey giggled as she slipped her thin arms into the sleeves. The fabric pooled around her, but she looked very happy and entirely un-Hux like. A Force sensitive in a First Order uniform. Maybe he should combine the two contrary ideas again.

He summoned over the circuit board she and Hux had been mapping out yesterday. He switched the light on and off for Rey to see and held out the hardware for her to take. She shoved up the excess fabric of her sleeves up and cradled the circuit board with a somewhat reverent hold. Stars forbid she ever look at Kylo’s lightsaber in that same way or give his lessons the same import, but at least she was focused now.

“Hold this in your hands and close your eyes. Think about the circuitry and how electricity would normally flow through it. Think about that and tell me when you think it’s on.”

She nodded and closed her eyes. Her lips pursed and brows furrowed in concentration. Kylo waited until he was certain she wouldn’t peek, and he flicked the light on without a sound.

“Ah!” Rey shouted, jumping to her feet as her eyes flew open. She stared down in wonder at the lit bulb and practically danced around in little circles. “It’s on! It’s on! How’d you do that?”

“I used the Force.”

“But, but Papa told me about closed circuits. He said that if there’s a gap, the circuit’s open. And there’s a gap cuz we took the battery out. How’d you close it?” She slipped her fingers into the space a battery would have gone, but found it as empty as it looked.

“That doesn’t matter. The Force is beyond the limitations of science.”

And instead of looking awed or dumbstruck or even just plain impressed, Rey looked at him with utter disappointment.

“That’s dumb.”

What.

WHAT?!?

“You’re dumb!”

This was it. His lowest moment. Not being abandoned by his parents at the Jedi school. Not awakening to see his uncle above him, lightsaber drawn. Not surrounded by the bodies of his classmates after throwing away everything he ever was.

It was this.

“Your face is dumb!” Rey fired right back.

How? How had it come to this? Why had it come to this? He was trying to give this girl power beyond comprehension, but she kept throwing it back and spitting in his face. He was close, so close, to just giving up and letting her become the Hux wannabe she so obviously craved to be. But if there was one thing worse than suffering this brat’s screaming tantrums and stupid insults, it was Hux’s smug pride when he won.

So fine.

He’d tried to teach her. Tried so hard to express in a way she understood. But if that wasn’t going to work, if she was just going to fight him every step of the way, then he’d just have to show her. Feeling and instinct worked better with the Force anyways.

“No. You’re stupid,” Kylo snarled, “stupid for ever thinking you mattered. Did you honestly think we were some happy little family? That we wanted you? I bought you, Rey.”

“Shut up!” She screamed, her eyes glittering with tears threatening to spill.

“You think I want you? You’re worthless. You can’t even do this one thing right! No wonder your real parents sold you!”

The tears were pouring out. She sniffed and whimpered and scrubbed her snotty nose and watery eyes with Hux’s jacket sleeve. She buried her face in the cloth, but her shaking shoulders gave away whatever she was trying to hide.

“You think Hux wants you? He doesn’t care about you, Rey. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He’s just using you.”

“No,” she whimpered into the folds of Hux’s coat.

“So what are you going to do, Rey? What are you going to do to a universe that doesn’t care about you?”

He waited for her to stand up and scream. To lash out with anger and ire and hurt. Let her raw passion fuel her power to make steel crumble beneath her feet and fire erupt from her fingertips and glass to shatter under the intense pressure of her rage.

It was time for her to let these powerful, intense, real emotions take control and lead her beyond what she could have ever dreamed.

She took a deep breath, wet and shaky from her tears, and Kylo braced himself as she finally came into her own and accepted the Force and all it had to offer her.

Instead, her knees went limp, and she collapsed to the ground, crying.

Oh.

Shit.

Chapter Text

This wasn’t good.

This really wasn’t good.

He could feel her sorrow spreading like a thick miasma, percolating throughout the living room. It was the kind of sadness that made you feel heavy and breathless, absolutely insignificant and worthless compounded by the self-loathing to have ever dared think otherwise.

He had to stop this.

Kylo stood and approached the door, but hesitated before activating it. Would she even want him to come in? Hux had insisted on giving Rey the second bedroom instead of claiming it for himself. Something about her feeling safer with her own space. If he entered that space now, after saying what he did, was that going to ruin it? Like he ruined everything else he got involved in?

He stepped back and resumed pacing the living room.

The cloud thickened and soured, becoming something pungent and rotten as the sorrow twisted in and fed on itself. Fear shot crackled through, like lightning through a storm cloud. Fear of her own inadequacy. Fear of her safety. Fear of her family. People who –Kylo realized like a hot, stabbing pain— she had truly thought loved her. For once in her life.

He had to solve this. If not for his own sanity, then before Hux came back. If Hux came back and found Rey like this, then…

No, Hux didn’t factor into this. Even if Hux did come back and magically solve everything and lord it over Kylo, that was just business as usual. Kylo could survive that. What he couldn’t survive, was knowing he’d failed his apprentice so monumentally.

He can’t fail his daughter.

He stalked to the door and activated it. It opened with a pneumatic hiss, audible only because he knew to expect it. The only sound to actually be heard was the heaving sobs that echoed in the dark room like the wails of a wounded beast.

“Rey I,” she hmphed and rolled over so she was facing the bulkhead. When Kylo sat on the edge of her bed, she tensed into a tight ball so he stood back up.

“Rey I want to, um, apologize for what I said to you.”

Rey only whined and burrowed in deeper under her covers, like some kind of depressed sand shriv. Kylo flexed his hands to try and relieve some of his nervous energy before barreling on.

“I…didn’t mean what I said.”

“You did.” Rey moaned, her voice muffled under the blankets. “You meant everything.”

“No, I,” Kylo ran a hand through his hair, trying to ground himself to the feel of blunt nails against his scalp. “Rey, I, I, well just because I said it, doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“But my parents did sell me. You did buy me. I, I can’t do anything by myself. And Papa…” her sniffling grew wetter and Kylo grimaced at knowing they were going to have to wash the sheet with all the tears and snot that were surely running free under there.

It reminded him a little too much of a different kid. An awkward, gangly child who’d tried to cry quietly into his bedroll the first night his parents had left him at a temple full of strangers.

“Rey, I don’t know what your parents thought. I don’t know what your previous guardian thought. But I do want you.”

“Liar.”

“I’m not, Rey. Yes, I bought you, but that’s because it was the easiest way to get you off that planet.”

“But why?” Rey snapped. She jolted up in bed, threw off her covers, and glared at Kylo with red eyes and glistening cheeks and runny nose. “Why? You keep saying that the Force is important and that I’m so strong, but why does it matter?

“Because you matter!” Kylo shouted back at her, drowning her doubts with the heavy intent behind his words.

She stared back at him, mouth closed, eyes wide; suitably balked for once. Finally.

“You matter, Rey. And whether you like it or not, you are connected to the Force. It is part of you. And you deserve to know and respect all aspects of yourself.”

“I,” whatever she wanted to say died in her throat and for a brief instant, Kylo was worried about what had been wrong with what he said.

She sprang forward and wrapped her entire body around him and pressed close. “Thank you,” she murmured, voice muffled from where she’d smooshed her face into his neck. But she didn’t need to speak. Kylo could sense her happiness.

And he surprised himself by wrapping his arms around her and hugging back. He chose to blame it on the emotions surrounding them. And no one could prove otherwise.

Chapter Text

“Kylo, hand me the soldering iron.”

Kylo looked up from his datapad, on which he was reading a downloaded text on a sword fighting style from Fhveria. For a second he thought he’d misheard, but Hux’s hand was still outstretched.

“Are you talking to me?” He asked, feeling dumb but at a genuine loss for what else he could say.

“I said your name, didn't I?” Hux replied without looking up from the mechanism he and Rey were bent over. Tonight it was a scout droid they were dissecting, a viper probe if he had to guess.

It had been nearly four weeks since Hux had returned from his mission. During this time, Rey had finally learned how to lift her first object: BeeBee. The manner in which she’d danced around their quarters was exceedingly undignified, which brought a frown to Hux’s lips, which brought a smile to Kylo’s.

She had also started on combatives, under Hux’s suggestion that Rey would learn better when moving. And it seemed to be true. He would recite Sith texts to her while stretching and found her more accurate in recitation. They discussed the meaning of power and how to attain it while gliding from one memorized form to another. He was thinking about moving on to weapons soon, and was still debating whether to teach her the bo staff or sword first.

Meanwhile, the development between himself and Hux was much smaller. Assuming there was anything at all. Perhaps there was less arguing for arguing’s sake, but that’s not to say they painted the picture of a happy couple. They never agreed on attack strategies. They never greeted each other in the morning and wished each other a good night.

They never kissed, no matter how often Kylo had since awoken in the middle of the night and imagined Hux hovering overhead again.

“Kylo, the soldering iron.”

Kylo blinked himself from his stupor and rose from his chair to retrieve the tool from the toolbox stowed near the closet. He deposited it in the palm of Hux’s outstretched hand, and found himself rooted to the spot at Hux flicked the device on and showed Rey how it worked.

Not out of interest for the tool or for the process.

But for the way Rey’s tongue stuck out between her teeth and she concentrated on burning a single seam. And the way Hux stared at her with the tinniest crook of a smile on his face. And for the way content seemed to settle around them like a warm, weighted blanket. One that extended enough to wrap around his shoulders as well and included him in this small, inconsequential moment of happiness.

Kylo turned on his heel and marched out of his quarters, grabbing his helmet on the way. He couldn’t stay a moment longer. Not when the two of them together were so steeped in the Light.

Chapter Text

Kylo had been gone for a few days. Papa told her that he was on a mission, and grumbled about lack of accountability under his breath. But he had promised her that Kylo would be back. And she trusted Papa. And Kylo. She was very happy to have so many people in her life she could say that about. People who she loved. And loved her back.

That’s what made it all the worse to wake up in the middle of the night to the looming, pressing dread of death. The taste of blood sat bitter on the front of her tongue. Anger seeped throughout her room, muffling her ears from its intense pressure.

Anger that was bubbling like boiling water but also tense, like a serpentine belt.

It was him.

She was out of bed in an instant, sprinting out of her room and across the living room to her parents’. She practically slapped the access panel and was slipping through before the door was fully open.

“Papa!” She shouted before using the Force to fling the shadowy figure into the adjacent wall.

The body collided loudly, the blaster in his hand clattering to the ground, but he was on his feet in a second. Rey was struggling to decide whether to move the blaster out of his grasp, or to shove him against the wall again. In the end, she had time for neither as the man snatched the blaster up and aimed at her.

“Fucking bra-” he was cut off as a hand latched onto his jaw, its fingers hooking into his agape mouth and yanking his head back. With a flash of silver, a dagger sank into the soft flesh of his exposed neck.

“Don’t you dare touch her.” Papa snarled as he twisted the blade in deeper.

The man flailed desperately, but his frantic movements only served to widen the wound. Blood spurted out, coating his front, the floor, and Papa’s hands. Rey could feel the heavy panic seeping from the man like an oil spill, coating the room in his cloying fear of impending death.

All the while, the undercurrent of Papa’s emotions raced through like a lightning bolt. A hot pulse of his anger echoed throughout the room like a heartbeat. An acerbic flavor of his disgust coated the tip of her tongue. The euphoric tingle of his pleasure settled beneath her skin.

Papa yanked the dagger out and spun the man around. He watched with bright, alert eyes as the man died in his hands. Spurts of blood splashed across Papa’s face as the man’s heart vainly continued to pump, trying to compensate for the lower pressure, unknowing of its futility.

“You should have just stayed in your place.” Papa rumbled, his voice calm and almost soothing in its chill. He watched, unblinking, as the body he held went through its final death rattles and fell limp.

Papa allowed the body to slip from his hands and stepped over the corpse without a second look. He crouched in front of her, the blood on his pale face making his green eyes strand out strikingly. He absently brushed his red hair away, smearing the blood on his hand across his brow, and considered Rey from multiple angles.

“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” His hand came up, possibly to physically check to confirm what his eyes saw, but the bloody hand hovered between them.

A muddled fog of shame enshrouded Papa’s earlier emotions of rage and pride, and Rey caught a brief slew of memories attached to the bloody hand

–fist fights in dark rooms, makeshift weapons held tightly in the showers, the cold press of steel underneath a sleeve, wet blood pooling on hands, hot blood warming his fingers, tacky blood hiding beneath his fingernails, blood staining his clothes, blood staining his hands, blood on his hands, on his face, on his teeth, on his tongue, the iron flavor better than it had any right to be, nothing could wash away the feeling, the texture, the taste, always blood, always—

Rey tried to sweep away the memories with a blink, tried to refocus like Kylo had taught her to.

It helped when Hux tucked hands away from her line of sight with a grimace. “Uh, let’s get you back to bed, alright?” He stood up and gestured for her to follow him, while blocking the dead body from her view.

“Do, can you stay with me?” She asked, remembering so vividly –despite having seen him die— the bottomless, cloying rage that surrounded the attacker and how it could have drowned Papa if she had been one second too late.

Papa paused in the doorway. “I,” he paused again, looking back into his room and taking a deep, careful breath. He brought his attention back to her, his strained smile doing little to hide the clouded shame and prickling anxiety sprouting up. Some part of her whispered a connection between her presence, Papa’s murder, and the dead body, but she couldn’t quite parse out what the meaning of it was. Perhaps Kylo would now.

“I have something to take care of first. When I’ve finished, I’ll come back and read you a story. How about that?”

The something was quite obviously related to the body; Rey didn’t need the Force to tell her that. She sensed a fleeting consideration by Papa as to whether or not to pull his gloves on, and once again came a premonition that he intended to move the body. It made sense. Papa couldn’t stand it when Kylo so much as tracked mud in from his planetside missions, so a dead body was simply unable to wait until morning.

“Okay,” Rey relented. She was about to turn into her room, but at the last minute decided to head back into Papa and Kylo’s.

Papa clicked his teeth and the somewhat sour taste that often preceded a lecture dissipated throughout the room, but no words came. Rey settled in the soft bed, laying her head on Papa’s pillow, and watched him grab the jacket of the dead man and start dragging him out of the room.

Rey couldn’t help but notice that Papa had forgone gloves.

She wanted to say goodnight as he backed out of the room, but swallowed the words, choosing instead to say them when he came back and lied down beside her. Rey stared at the doorway Papa had disappeared from, and her eyes unintentionally followed the trail of blood back to the side of the bed. She ordered the lights off, but could still see the blood, shining bright red in her mind’s eye.

Rey also saw Papa, painted in that crimson as he watched the man die with a look of cold distain. That image settled beside that of his warm eyes and encouraging words as she reassembled a cleaning droid.

Intrigued, but strangely unafraid, of this new side of Papa, Rey turned onto her stomach and burrowed her face in his pillow. Still warm from his interrupted slumber and smelling like him, it was almost like a hug. And Rey allowed that comfort to settle throughout her body and lull her into a peaceful sleep.

Chapter Text

Kriff.

Kriff.

Kriff.

Kriff.

Kriff.

This couldn’t be happening. 

It shouldn’t be happening.

“I’ll make this as simple as I can.” Hux declared as he dropped the dead body at his feet. “I am a busy man. We all are. There is too much to be done on this ship, and for the First Order, to be interrupting my sleep cycle for paltry attacks to my person. So, if anyone else would like to remove me, do so now.”

In some way, Kylo was relieved to have raced back after sensing a disturbance to find Hux alive and well. Although the mere fact that he felt relief was bad, in and of itself, the other emotions monsooning around inside him only compounded the problem. 

Hot.

That relief from before, settling into his bones like a warm bath and soothing an ache he hadn’t realized had been there until addressed.

Hot.

Said ache now identifiable as physical strain from his worry.

Hot.

Anxiety flared behind his eyes, its heat spreading down to his teeth, his throat, his chest. Where was Rey? Was she safe? Was she hurt? Who hurt her? Was that him at Hux’s feet? Were there others? Who was guarding Rey now?

Hot.

Fear rested across his tongue, cloying and bitter, and made his extremities buzz from the rush of adrenaline. Fear he wouldn’t make it back. Fear for Rey’s safety. Fear percolating from the crowd around him as they were challenged by the bloody General.

Hot.

A bright burst of mania thrummed in the recess of his mind, beating like a heart as he took in the body at Hux’s feet, its throat mangled from the tearing of a knife, and the blood splattered across Hux’s face.

Hot.

Pride glowed like a coal in the center of his chest. It seeped into his bloodstream to run molten throughout his body, battling against the chilling anxiety that still griped him with the tenacity of a reaper’s icy grip.

Hot.

Kriff he looked so hot. He could see Hux’s corded musculature, taunt from his own adrenaline surge no doubt, flex as he gestured to some nearby Junior Officers to drag away the body he himself had brought onto the bridge for no reason other than to strike fear into anyone foolish enough to still oppose him.

His green eyes were at once glacially lethal and burning with a rage that was just barely tucked behind cordial words and a regimented stance. With such a gaze turned to someone other than him, Kylo could admit that it was quite a captivating stare.

Hux’s hair, more orange than red when against the rusty brown of the dried blood smeared across his brow, hung in a disorganized mess. And his cowlick. Hux had an honest to gods cowlick that resulted in several locks floating aloft in a flagrant display of insubordination. Kylo had the sudden urge to bury his hands in it, see if it could possibly become even wilder.

There was an errant splatter of blood across Hux’s chin. While it was still wet, it had trickled down his neck and pooled at the hollow of his throat where it dried. Kylo wanted to taste it, chase its flavor up to his lips, see if any had landed on his tongue. Kylo hadn’t realized he’d licked his lips until he felt the chill of the air conditioning breeze across the moist flesh.

He wanted to pull Hux close, and have his blood-stained hands grip his shoulders, his back, his hips. He needed those teeth to bite fewer words and more of him.

What would he sound like as he came?

Kylo turned around and left the bridge.

He couldn’t do this.

He shouldn’t do this.

He had an Apprentice to check on, and a Master to answer to. The Dark Side may have rewarded those who gave in to their deepest desires and strengthen passions to great heights, but that didn’t mean every basic, trivial urge had to be indulged.

But that fact did absolutely nothing to keep him from wanting.

---------------

“What’s that you’ve got there?” Hux asked him the next morning, when Kylo pretended to come back to the ship then and not a handful of hours prior.

“It’s what I went on the sudden mission for.” Kylo lied. It had, in fact, been pure luck that led him to a dilapidated temple. Or, as he hoped, perhaps it was the Dark Side guiding his hand as he’d placed the coordinates to the distant system in which he’d found the ruins.

Hux furrowed his brows and studied the black, vaguely geometric object in Kylo’s hands. “It doesn’t look like the other relics you’ve brought back.”

“And how would you know?” Kylo asked as he searched for the best place to stow the artifact where a pair of tiny, too curious hands couldn't find it.

Hux shrugged his great coat on, giving a tug on the collar to settle it over his shoulders. “Because,” he explained casually, “I’ve examined all your little Sith toys.”

“You what? You have no right! Those are priceless artifacts beyond your understanding!” Kylo stomped right up to Hux, who barely blinked at his close proximity or threatening tone.

“I have every right to know what comes onto my ship.”

“Our ship,” Kylo corrected. “And you have a right over First Order related equipment and supplies. Not these.”

“As leader of the First Order, everything Snoke does falls under First Order interests. Besides, it’s not like you don’t have access to all First Order equipment invoices.” Hux sighed, as if he was the only one to ever suffer when they exchanged words. “Listen, I’m only bringing this up in the first place to try and help.”

“Help? You?”

Hux clicked his teeth contemptuously. “I was led to believe that’s what partners did.”

This gave Kylo pause. It had been the first time since their marriage that Hux had referenced their union. Not a word or a tease otherwise. And now that he was bringing it up, he didn’t say husband, or spouse, or –ugh— lover. It was partner. Which Kylo felt viscerally to be of some significance, but its exact connotation was lost to him.

“What could you even do?” He settled on asking.

“Reverse engineer it, perhaps. Or at the very least, determine if and where there are seals or openings.”

“What, like I haven’t already checked?”

“The naked eye can be easily fooled. I was thinking of conducting a full exterior scan to start. Then an x-ray imaging to see if there are any hollowed sections inside. Maybe some NMR, UV vis, Raman, atomic absorption spectroscopy, mass spe-”

“Stop, stop, stop,” Kylo waved away what was certainly gearing up to be a headache of a lecture. “X-rays? Spectroscopy? Won’t those damage it?”

“Kylo, I’m sure whatever elements you found this thing weathering did more damage than a few electro-mag waves ever could.” Hux reached for the relic, but paused. He retracted his hand until it hovered halfway between them, palm up.

“May I please conduct some scans?”

Nothing about the Force was especially drawing him to the relic, indicating that handing it over wasn’t a bad choice, and if Hux had indeed conducted such examinations before without damaging the artifacts, then he could, reasonably, be trusted to do the same in this instance. And it wasn’t like Kylo had any clues how to open the thing once the usual tricks had failed him.

And so, to match the unexpected civility Hux was displaying, Kylo handed the relic over.

And Hux, perhaps surprised himself by the action, replied through a thin smile, “thank-you.”

Chapter Text

He stepped into their quarters a few days later and saw Hux in the common room, preoccupied with a hologram of the Sith artifact. The pale blue glow of the projection rounded the contours of his face, casting him in a deceptively gentle frame. His hair seemed a bit messier than usual, as an errant hand absently running through it proved to be the cause. He held a stylus between his teeth and muttered around it as he twisted the hologram to examine its features.

It was easy to imagine Hux as a civilian, in that moment. Perhaps as an aerospace engineer working on his latest project. Though, if he understood the schematics Hux sometimes worked on late in the night, that wasn’t too far from the truth.

“Ah, Kylo,” Hux said, straightening and setting down the stylus. “Come over here and take a look at this.”

Kylo stepped to Hux’s side and followed his gesture to look at a section of the hologram. It looked absolutely no different from the rest of it.

“Unfortunately, the material was too dense for an x-rays to show through, but I’ve at least characterized the compound of its exterior. And from that, I think I’ve found a few sites of attack. These are the areas with the lowest energy confirmation,” with a tap, said areas lit up a bright white.

“I’ve been running a few analytic programs on these sites to try and predict its confirmation changes. It’s turned up a few suggestions, but unfortunately I have yet to pin down the appropriate activation method.”

Kylo took this all in, sorting the more technical jargon from the basic explanation. “So you haven’t found anything.”

Hux clicked his teeth in disappointment. Judging by his somewhat contemptuous look, it was directed at Kylo, which, rude.

“Not quite. I’ve concluded that none of the bonds are especially hydrophilic, neutrophilic, or electrophilic. I also couldn’t detect any trigger bonds either, so we can rule out all those methods of affecting its configuration. How have you tried opening it thus far?”

“I’ve used the Force.”

“Yes, I had assumed as much. But what exactly does that entail? Heat? Pressure? Energy? Are you adding to areas of low energy confirmation or releasing from areas of higher energy confirmation?”

“It is whatever is needed.”

“Okay, but what is needed?”

 Kylo didn't reply. There really was no way to describe the intricacies of the Force to someone who couldn't feel it themselves. It was like trying to explain color to the blind or sound to the deaf, beyond the full compression from those that lacked the sense.

With a sigh, Hux dismissed the hologram and strode to the couch. He sat down with a quiet sigh, his exhaustion gently billowing out like his exhale. He gestured to the artifact that sat on the coffee table beside his projector. “Are you sure it’s Sith? I was being serious when I’d said it looked different from the other artifacts.”

“Well it’s certainly not Jedi.”

Hux plucked the artifact off the coffee table and turned it over in his bare hands. Kylo stared at the stretch of tendons under the taunt skin until Hux’s next question snapped him out of it.

“And how would you know?”

"Because,” he snatched the relic back before Hux could distract him again. “It doesn’t feel like it has any ties to the Light.”

"Right, and those are the only two options? Jedi and Sith?”

Feeling a bit tired himself from the long day, Kylo sprawled over the chair across the table from Hux. "Yes. Jedi and Sith. Light and Dark. Balanced as they have always been and always will be.”

“Well not if you keep murdering them, they won’t.” Hux chuckled before propping his elbows on his knees and interlacing his long fingers into a graceful arch. He perched his chin upon it. “And, technically speaking, dark and light aren’t a true dichotomy.”

“What?”

“Dark isn’t a physical thing that exists like light. Ergo, it’s not really an opposite thing.”

“Yes it is.” With a blink, Kylo interrupted the electrical circuits and cast the room into pitch black. “Seems pretty real to me.”

He couldn’t see Hux’s face, but he could feel the cool balm of his indifference towards the display of his power. “Dark is merely what we call the absence of light, Kylo. It can’t be measured in and of itself. It’s like cold."

Kylo allowed the lights to flicker back only so Hux could see the disappointment on his face at Hux’s apparent idiocy. “Cold’s a thing too, Hux. It can be measured. They even have a name for such fantastic machinery. It’s called a thermometer."

“Cold refers to the absence of heat. Dark refers to the absence of light. You don’t measure how dark something is-"

Kylo groaned, but Hux just kept going, speaking louder to be heard over his consternation.

"-you measure how much light there isn’t. Same with temperature. It’s science, Kylo, you can’t argue against it."

“Fine! Jedi and Sith are like two sides of the same coin! Happy?"

Hux stared at Kylo, a placid lake against the huffing and puffing of an approaching cyclone. “…technically-"

Kylo jumped to his feet and kicked the chair he’d been in, relishing in its metallic clatter across the floor and the residual ache in his foot.

“- a coin doesn’t have two sides. A coin is a cylinder, albeit a narrow one, and, because of its curved figure, is described with the term ‘faces’."

Kylo rounded on Hux. “Am I correct in assuming you have a point beyond semantics?"

“A cylinder, therefore, has three faces, not two sides. The two opposing circular faces with a lateral face between them.

“Are you going to get to the point?"

“I will, if you would stop interrupting me. Kylo, if the Jedi are one face of a coin, and the Sith are the other, what is the third face?"

“Nothing.” Kylo stated, emphasizing the conclusive period as much as he could.

“Nothing? Hux seemed unimpressed, and almost certainly disappointed. “Are you sure?"

“Am I- oh, I’m sorry, you must have become an expert in the Force after only three days. My mistake.” Kylo scoffed.

Hux sighed and went on in that infuriatingly patient tone he often used with Rey. “Kylo, please, I’m just trying to understand."

“Well maybe what you need to understand is that there are some things in this universe that you can’t. So just stop trying."

The silence after his words echoed heavily between them. A physical presence imposing on them. No matter what Hux’s pedantic terminology said, this particular nothing existed. Loudly. Uncomfortably.

It was finally broken when Hux clicked his teeth and stood. He folded his hands behind his back and appraised Kylo with a cold, glacial stare that Kylo only realized he hadn’t seen in quite some time. It’s absence only noticeable now in its sudden presence. Hux probably had a fancy word for that too.

“I know, Kylo. I know that. I understand that I won’t ever understand what it’s like to see radio waves. Or how to coordinate six arms. Or how an Alderaan sunset feels. Or what a proud father acts like. Or what a happy mother sounds like. Or what a loving marriage looks like. But I had thought, for a moment, that I could maybe understand you."

He got up from the couch and headed for his office, his back straightening and his walls building back up with each step. Kylo couldn’t figure out how to make his feet work or his mouth to move.

Hux paused at the door, turning back to him with a flat mouth and cold eyes.

“I’ll be in my office. Don’t wait up. Darling.”

Chapter Text

This was bad.

This was really bad.

It was a very different kind of bad then with Rey, however. By virtue of being young, she expressed herself freely and without reticence. And by virtue of being an untrained Force sensitive, her emotions were pressed upon others to the point that even a Force null would feel a pull to their stomach at her sadness or a skip in their heartbeat at her joy or a hot rush of blood at her rage.

But with Hux, it seemed to be the opposite. Already quite reserved, he only turned inward on himself further. Kylo no longer saw placid waters with an infinite depth. It was just a blank slate of grey without texture or boundaries. Neither cold or hot, solid or ephemeral, it was just a wide expanse of nothing.

And that was if he ever got close enough to sense the man. If it weren't for Rey, whom he still gave lessons to and ate dinner with, Kylo doubted he'd ever see Hux. They no longer crossed paths in the corridors or shared time on the Bridge. They hadn't spoken a direct word to each other since that night. Kylo would even go to sleep and wake up alone, unsure if Hux had even gone to bed at all. 

He really needed to. Hux didn't sleep well enough already, he couldn't afford to lessen his sparse hours.

During the afternoon twelve days after Hux had stopped talking to him, the door to his bedroom opened. He looked up from where he sat on the floor, half expecting to see Hux march through even though he could sense very clearly that it was Rey who had been approaching.

She stepped into the room and plopped down onto the floor beside Kylo. She folded her legs like he'd taught her but didn't close her eyes. Instead she stared up at him. Wide and unblinking and somehow knowing, in that strangely sensitive way she had.

"You upset Papa," she said.

"Yes," he replied, because there really was point or way to deny it.

"But he's still sad," Rey added. She furrowed her brows and pursed her lips, sorting through what she sensed and considering each input with a level of care that Kylo had never been able to learn.

"You made me sad," she eventually went on to say, "and then you were sad, so you fixed it. And when you made Papa sad, you got sad again. But now you won't fix it."

"It's more complicated than that."

"How?"

"We have a, we've known each other for a while and it, it just makes things more complicated."

"But if you've known him for a long time, doesn't that make it easier to say sorry?"

"We knew each other Rey, but we weren't ever friendly."

"You weren't friendly with me either. You yelled at me all the time. You thought I was stupid. You were really mean. But you still said sorry."

"Yeah, but you forgave me. Hux won't." Kylo leaned back until he was resting against the foot of the bed. Rey mimicked him, still staring up at him.

"How do you know?"

"That's just the way he is. He's ruthless and spiteful and prideful. An apology would probably just insult him even more."

Rey nodded and after a moment closed her eyes. She tilted her head back, so she'd be looking at the ceiling if her eyes were open, and for a brief instant Kylo felt the bright desert sun and the rough grit of sand between his teeth as Rey cast her mind back to a memory.

“One time, I found a little stray cat. I watched him try to steal some food from an alley, but the owner came out and kicked him into the wall, just kept hitting and screaming at him. He was hurt really bad and I tried to help him, but every time I reached for him, he'd bite or scratch at me. He thought I was going to hurt him more…you remind me of him…Papa sometimes too.”

She opened her eyes, looking at him, begging at him to understand what she was telling him. And Kylo looked down at his daughter, taking in her big brown eyes that saw far more than he'd thought, and heard her.

“You know. You’re really smart, Rey. Smarter than me.”

“Yeah, that’s what Papa says.”

Kylo hadn't meant to laugh, but the sound had escaped him before he'd noticed it leaving. “Honestly, I’d be more surprised if he didn’t.”

“Papa also says that when you do something wrong, you need to take responsibility for it.” Rey added.

“Of course he did. Any other words of wisdom from Papa?”

“Hmmm,” Rey scrunched up her face as she canted her head back to stare up at the ceiling. She looked back at him, eyes bright with remembrance. “He said the right form was DA-509!”

Kylo heaved a back-breaking sigh. “Of course he did.”

---------------

The form was a headache and half to muddle through and it took the better part of the afternoon to finish, but he managed to complete it and submit it to Hux before dinner.

It was only twenty minutes later when Hux stormed into their bedroom, waving his datapad that, likely, showed the very form he'd just sent. Kylo watched him rant from where he sat on the edge of the bed.

"And just what the hells do you think you're doing, Ren? Hm? Is this a joke? I don't have time to entertain your pitiful attempts at a-"

"Sorry."

Hux stopped, he seemed to be frozen in place before a blink brought him back online. His eyes immediately narrowed. "Excuse you?"

"That's what I'm doing. I'm apologizing. I thought that was the right form."

Hux sucked in a breath between clenched teeth, his left hand going up to massage the bridge of his nose. Fortunately he was wearing gloves this time, so Kylo was focused enough on the conversation to hear Hux reply: "it's a DA 905 that covers workplace mishaps."

...

"Well that explains why the form was so hard to fill out."

It looked like Hux tried to conceal his laugh behind a scoff, but there was no hiding the faintest thread of amusement that wound through his mind. In fact, Kylo might not have noticed it had all had it not been so grey and flat for so long.

"I do mean it. I am sorry."

"Are you? What, did Rey have a little talk with you about that stray cat she found?"

"Only to get my ass in gear." Kylo chuckled, only to realize..."wait, you know about the stray cat?"

"She told me about it last night, along with a tearful plea to make peace with you."

"And I see how well that worked." Kylo smirked.

"I have nothing to apologize for." Hux stated and tossed his datapad onto the bed. He strode to the closet and began to unfasten his jacket. With his back facing him, Kylo felt a little bolder.

"Nothing?"

Hux glared over his shoulder.

"Okay, maybe nothing about our last conversation, I'll give you that. But it's not like you make it easy with the way you talk to me."

"I don't speak with you any differently than I would anyone else." Hux said as he hung up his jacket and smoothed out the worst creases with his hands. Once it was to his liking, he turned to face Kylo as he stripped off his gloves. "But is that what you want? You want me to treat you differently because you're insecure?"

"No! I just, it's, I'm upset because you just, go around acting like such an asshole about everything, and then you're right and it just pisses me off because it shouldn't be like that. It's not fair for you to be so good at everything."

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Kylo, but life isn’t fair.”

“You think I haven’t learned that?” Kylo snapped. “I know life isn’t fair, but it still sucks every time I’m reminded of it! And you've done nothing but do exactly that ever since you got involved with Rey!"

Hux only scoffed and offered a shrug. “What can I say? Guess I’m just lucky to have had a father to show me exactly what not to do.”

Kylo huffed, certain that was supposed to be a joke but was in no mood for humor.

“And well,” Hux started, softly, a touch of shame blotting the front of his mind like the blooming spread of watercolors. It was an emotion that startled Kylo and had him staring to absorb kind of expression that could match such a feeling. The only noticeable difference, however, was in the eyes. Askance, hesitant, a disturbed lake surface in its shifting green hues.

“I had a lot of practice, you know. The Trooper Program is a success now, sure, but at its start…my first class had had a high rate of mood disorders, depression, behavioral abnormalities. The suicide rate was about 1 in 20. I didn’t know what to do. At first, I had thought the problem was with the soldiers. Too weak willed to make it. Then I had thought it was the instructors. Too blasé to care about their recruits. Then I’d realized it was me. I taught myself more psychology, sociology, physiology. I contracted specialists, adjusted my methodology. Every year I learned, and every class I improved. There is a lot of trial and error behind how I treat Rey.”

“Well if you’re so good with people now, then why do you treat me like shit?”

 “You tell me. You started it.”

Kylo swallowed his response once he’d recalled his and Hux’s first interaction. He’d been fresh from his initial training with Master Snoke, the wounds of his old life still fresh after being torn into again and again until he could peel it away to reveal Kylo underneath. Things were confusing, painful, and he’d lashed out at anybody who’d made it worse, including himself.

On that day, he’d blamed Hux for setting him off. But he hadn’t really ever thought to consider the exchange from Hux’s view, as a Force null who knew nothing of what he was meddling with.

“I was, having a bad day.” He waited for Hux’s harsh mockery at such a lame excuse, only to blink at Hux’s soft chuckle.

“And all the days after that?” He smirked.

“Well, it’s not like you’re completely blameless, you know.” Kylo huffed.

“You’re right.” Hux sighed, his ready admission shocking Kylo into silence. “I could tell, well, not at the time. But after I’d met Snoke myself and began to feel the effects of his presence, I’d started to put the pieces together between him and you.”

“If, if you knew then why…”

Why did you treat me like that?

Why did you make it worse?

Why did you hate me so much?

“I’m afraid I have a bad habit of burning bridges. It’s just, I’ve spent a long time trying so hard to prove myself to someone who loathed me. When I eventually broke out of that habit, I may have overcorrected. Now, when someone hates me, I give them a reason to.”

“Bad first impressions are a death sentence to you, huh?”

“I suppose. It’s done me good thus far.”

“Yeah, I can feel how dead I am.”

Hux turned to him and in an instant was looming over him, just like that night he’d accepted Kylo’s proposal. He leaned down until their chests touched and moved in tandem with their shared breaths. Hux’s lips brushed against his ear as he whispered, “that can be arranged”, all while a bare hand brushed against his stomach and slid lower, and lower-

Kylo blinked and saw Hux standing exactly where he’d been, staring at Kylo expectantly.

“What was that?” He asked numbly.

Hux sighed but seemed more amused than irritated, as though Kylo had only proved a point. “I said that I was so lucky to be married to one so sharp of wit.”

“Ah,” was all Kylo could muster in reply, still stunned by that vision. Was it from Hux? Had he been projecting? No. That couldn’t possibly be the case. Hux wasn’t like that. Was it from himself? Maybe. Perhaps that time he’d come across Hux on the bridge, covered in his would-be assassin’s blood, had affected him more than he’d initially realized.

He was jostled from his thoughts when Hux sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. He didn't say anything though, just leaned over to remove his boots.

"I'll be going to bed soon." He said in what was almost a question. Kylo wanted to label it as hesitant, but wouldn't dare assume.

"Okay, I'll, I'll make sure Rey eats dinner then, and put her to bed?"

Hux didn't reply, just hummed affirmatively.

But in his mind, the calm surface of a deep lake was back. And it was warm to the touch.

Chapter Text

He was this close. This close to just giving up on the damn thing already.

Kylo stared at the Sith artifact in his hands, turning it over as he reached out with the Force to try and activate its abilities or change its shape or divulge its secrets or, or, or to just DO SOMETHING!

“When you attach an oxygen atom to a benzene ring, it will form a phenol ring.”

Kylo turned to the doorway, staring as Hux entered the room with quiet, measured footsteps.

“It’s the molecules’ preferred state. You can force them into different configurations for a time being, but ultimately they will regress back to their true form.”

“Is there a point to this?” Kylo sighed.

Hux eased himself down to the ground across from Kylo. Having never seen the general sit on the floor, Kylo was momentarily transfixed by the way Hux folded his long legs underneath himself, graceful yet economic in his movements.

“You’re right, Kylo. I don’t understand the Force. I never have, never will. However, I understand different laws of the universe. Mathematics, physics, chemistry; and within that realm, there is an underlying order to everything.”

“You’ve interrupted me for another science lesson?”

“Kylo,” Hux sighed. “I’m trying to suggest that maybe the Force and science isn’t as separate as we both try to make it out to be. I know I’ve always regarded it with a certain…”

“Mysticism,” Kylo offered, more than a little bitter.

“Mm, perhaps. I can’t possibly remember all the terms I’ve used to describe it over the years, but I treated it like something that didn’t follow rationale and therefore didn’t really exist. You believe in it, clearly, but you also approached the Force like it was separate from science.”

“Because it is. It’s beyond anything we can define or understand.”

“You know, it was once said that magic is simply science that we’ve yet to understand.”

“So what?”

“So, I was thinking. Maybe the way you’re approaching this artifact should be like making a phenol ring.” Hux leaned across the distance and grasped at Kylo’s hands. Hux kept his head down, focusing on the artifact as he arranged their joined hands above it and –hopefully— not noticing Kylo’s frantically beating heart or sweating palms.

“Just add the ‘oxygen’,” Hux hummed and looked up, right into Kylo’s eyes, “and let it happen.”

Kylo swallowed and tried to do as Hux suggested, though the sensation of warm skin against his own and the scrape of calloused fingertips against the tender underside of his wrist didn't make things easier.

He took a steadying breath and connected to that part of himself that was beyond himself. More than his mind and body and soul, the part of him that was the Force had existed before him and would exist after. No matter where he was in life, thrilling highs and wretched lows and surging joy and ruthless anger and bitter sorrow. It was the promise of a rising sun and the terror of the deepest pit and the inevitably of a black hole and the resiliency of a weed.

As he basked in this aspect of his multitudes, he thought he could feel Hux's fingers twitch where they wrapped around his hands. He wondered what someone like Hux felt when exposed to the terrifying beauty of the Force.

He hoped he liked it.

And then, without a sound, the black box shifted and, like a flower bud in the morning sun, opened. The inside was as shiny and black as the outside, but nestled within a synthetic holster made of a smooth, dark-brown leather was a yellow crystal that glowed with an unmistakable brilliance.

"A kyber crystal," Kylo softly breathed. He plucked it from its stand and marveled at how warm it felt against his skin. It felt well-balanced and kind, none of the terror or bloodlust that had seeped into his own crimson kyber. Yet it lacked the light buoyancy characteristic to a Jedi kyber crystal. It was neither.

It was the third face of the coin.

"A kyber crystal?" Hux echoed across from him. "Isn't that what powers your lightsaber?"

Kylo looked up from his hands to see Hux staring at the crystal, focused and unblinking. He held it out, and Hux didn't waste a moment in taking it. He twisted it between his long fingers, held it up to the light and lightly tapped the surface with his fingernail. 

"Yes, they concentrate energy in a unique way. It's actually an old Jedi tradition to visit Ilum and mine your own crystal for your lightsaber."

"Energy concentration," Hux muttered as he stared intensely at the crystal in hand. His head perked up suddenly, eyes wide enough for Kylo to really notice how green they were. "Could I scan this? Please?"

"Oh, um, sure, just be sure to give it bac-"

And he was already out the door.

---------------

Hux had returned hours later, well after dinner, and had been in his office since. The door was open and he hadn't explicitly told anyone not to disturb him, but with the only two people in the vicinity being Force users it was kind of obvious.

So, without any lessons coming from Hux that evening, Kylo had taken it upon himself to start on a new lesson with Rey. In time, she should be able to use the Force to twist steel beams and collapse droids into a crushed ball of metal and circuitry.

For now, it was about bending a wire.

"It won't move." Rey huffed as she stared down her nose at the thin strip of copper wiring she'd scavenged from a discontinued droid Hux had supplied her with last week.

She'd been trying for nearly thirty minutes without result, and Kylo --remembering his own struggles earlier that day-- empathized with her frustration.

Of course, thinking about that called to mind the solution. And we'll, there was no harm in trying it again.

"Rey, just try to connect yourself to the Force and let the wire bend on its own."  

Rey screwed her eyes shut and, after Kylo tapped on her knee, she remembered to relax. Her shoulders fell and her face went slack as she opened herself to the will of the Force that swelled deep within. Time passed and he could sense the burgeoning power as she strengthened her connection and urged it to the surface.

The wire in her left hand began to bend and twist until one end was a tangled mess attached to the straight portion still clasped in her hand.

"I did it! I did it!" Rey cheered. She sprang to her feet, racing around the living room and completing almost four laps before ducking into Hux's office. Kylo followed her in, curious how Hux would react to the interruption.

As what was becoming expected, Hux handled it with grace.

"Papa, Papa, I made you a flower! I didn't even use my hands! It was the Force!"

Hux plucked the proffered "flower" from Rey's outstretched hand.

“Thank you very much, Rey. It’s lovely. This is much better than biological flowers too, since this won’t decay.”

Rey smiled up at Hux, at once bright and sweet, and raced out of the office, grabbing and pulling on Kylo's hand as she went.

"Come on Kylo, I wanna make more!"

And Kylo's heart certainly did not clench tightly at her utter excitement or the tiny hand holding his.

---------------

That night, as he lied awake in bed, staring at the ceiling and more aware than usual at the presence of someone beside him, Kylo just couldn't help himself.

“You know,” he heard Hux turn his head on the pillow beside him, "technically, copper will eventually decay.”

Hux laughed. Well and truly laughed and it sounded young and happy and halfway surprised at his own amusement. And it left Kylo wanting more.

Chapter Text

Kylo didn't know whether blame his marriage for creating new, spousal duties or his newfound closeness with Hux for his being planetside during a boring as shit Trade Negotiation.

Anything had to be better than sitting a table too big for the amount of people they had and listening to some aristocratic asshole and his circus of sycophantic advisors simultaneously persuade and deride Hux as they weaseled for a more favorable trade agreement.

"If they aren't valuable to the First Order, then just kill them and occupy the planet," he'd suggested to Hux as they shuttled down to the planet.

"We need their populace to work the mines and factories," Hux has readily answered, not even looking up from his datapad. 

"Then take control of them and cut out the middle man." He'd argued. "You may need workers, but surely you don't need their monarch."

"Well we have to give them some modicum of freedom."

"We have ordinance zeroed in on them as we speak."

And Hux had given him a thin smile, the kind he made whenever he was personally amused by something he knew, objectively, wasn't terribly funny. "The illusion of freedom is very real to those who don't realize it."

Vestiges of that amusement still lingered across Hux's face as he smoothly outmaneuvered every suggestion the king made about increased freedom in trading partners or reduction in tariffs.

"Well, if you're so certain about that," Hux smiled icily, "you could always request an audience with the Supreme Leader."

The Supreme Leader.

Master Snoke.

He'd been on Kylo's mind very much as of late. Ever since his sudden meeting with his master a little over a week ago.

It had started out like most discussions. Updates on the search for Skywalker. Inquiries behind new Sith artifacts found. Mission directives to be passed onto the other Knights. It had all been as usual. Until...

“How do you view your association with your Co-Commander?” Master Snoke had asked at the point in the meeting when Kylo had instead been expecting a dismissal. 

“He’s holding me back, Master.” Kylo had quicky answered and tried to focus on every irritating regulation, every spiteful argument, every soured mood that involved the general. 

But it hadn't been enough.

“Really? Because you seem all too willing.”

Kylo hadn't been able to do anything. He was but an untrained whelp compared to Master Snoke’s eons of experience and boundless power. And Master Snoke had wrung out Kylo's true feelings on the man in minutes. He had been left a panting, heaving heap on the floor while Master Snoke had regarded him with a sneer up above.

“Be wary of getting too attached to a rabid dog, my apprentice. At some point, they will have to be put down.”

He had stared down at Kylo then, his malice prickling down his skin like ice. And he'd smiled, thin lipped and cruel and utterly delighted.

“And anyone they might have infected."

Kylo was brought back to the present with a jarring slam of wood. It was the heavy double doors that led into the conference hall, and they were opened to allow the stream of armed soldiers to pour through.

"Our requests are now demands, General Hux." The king intoned as the armed guards surrounded them. "You can accept them, or die trying."

Hux blinked and turned to Kylo. Kylo stood and took his lightsaber off its holster.

“Take your lousy offer and go fuck yourself.”

 And ignited it.

---------------

Hux had always thought of Kylo Ren as beautiful.

In the same way one might watch a tsunami destroy a port town, or feel the blistering power from a supernova, Hux could recognize and even admire the awful beauty of Kylo Ren.

And, much like tsunamis and supernovas, Hux preferred them at a distance. Violent, cataclysmic forces had no place in a military, after all. More so if there was little to no way to control it.

As such, it was very much to Hux’s surprise that when Kylo bisected the man before him, he felt at ease. When Kylo roared with a burning ire as he slashed down his –their— foes, Hux only felt the warm serenity of a sunset. When the acrid stench of cauterized flesh coated the room with a grotesque miasma, Hux was reminded instead of a rolling fog drifting across the endless lakes of Arkanis.

Comfortable. Familiar. Safe.

He really shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t feel so calm when in the presence of such horror. But as Kylo stood there, surrounded by the singed remnants of those who’d dared defy him –defy them— while taking heaving, shuddering breaths as the adrenaline slowly eased from his body, Hux felt no qualms in approaching.

And when he placed his hands on either side of Kylo’s bloodied face, he did not burn. And when he pressed his lips to Kylo’s shaking lips, he did not drown.

However, it did still feel rather cataclysmic.

---------------

Hux kissed like was a starving man devouring his first meal. He pressed his entire body against Kylo, almost like he was trying to push into him, as he mouthed at Kylo's lips. Kylo was still breathing heavily from his fight, and it didn't look like he'd be getting it back anytime soon as Hux set to sucking it back out of him.

"What, what is, since when," Kylo asked breathlessly between kisses.

Hux pulled away after biting his lower lip hard.

“I’ve always been attracted to you. Physically I mean. Fortunately, your personality had kept me from wanting anything further.”

“Has it?” Kylo teased, pressing their bodies closer and rubbing evidence contrary to Hux’s statement against his own arousal.

“Well, it seems I quite like you like this.” Hux smirked as he snaked a hand around the back of Kylo's neck.

“Like what? Dangerous? Bloody? Dashing?”

Hux leaned in, his lips brushing against Kylo’s.

“Under my thumb,” he whispered, and pressed said digit to a spot right behind Kylo’s ear while the rest of his fingers gripped Kylo’s hair to yank him into another kiss.

Chapter Text

Papa and Kylo had left that morning for some special mission on the planet they were orbiting. When Rey had asked if she could go with, they had said no. Like a bunch of jerks. 

The evening before they'd left, though, they'd introduced Rey to a stranger so she wouldn't be a stranger come tomorrow when Rey was under her care for the day. Rey hadn't really been sure what to make of this "Captain Phasma". She was super tall and pretty stern looking with pale hair longer than Papa's but shorter than Kylo's. She also didn't seem nearly as surprised to meet Rey as Rey was to meet her.

She hadn't knelt down to speak at her level like Papa often did, but her voice had been naturally softer than his. Not cajoling. Not in the slightest. But where Papa often spoke with an edge, this woman had been more like a rounded stone: firm yet safe. Her mind had been rather like that too.

Now, dressed in a shiny, chrome armor that reminded her of Kylo's uniform with its towering stature and mask, Rey could see how the other kids around her might fear their captain. They couldn't hear her smooth voice through the vocal modulator. They couldn't see the curling smile behind the helmet. They couldn't feel the resolute security or comforting warmth of her mind.

She was a natural leader, and her word was law. That, though, they did know, and Rey suspected that's all that really mattered to them.

"Cadet Rey." 

Rey jerked out from her thoughts, sitting up straighter as all eyes turned towards her

"Recite the proper troubleshooting procedure for a standard issue blaster rifle." Captain Phasma commanded.

Oh, Papa had told her this. He'd even given her a little mnemonic device: S. P. O. R. T. S. It stood for slap, pull, observe, release, tap, shoot. She recited each word, along with the brief description of the action. Rey couldn't see what face Captain Phasma made at her as she answered, so in the back of her mind she saw Papa smiling at her excellent memory and, for added realism, she also imagined Kylo scowling to the side.

After a few more questions reviewing proper weapons handling and safety measurements, they marched down to the simulation deck to run team live fire drills. Rey was partnered up with another trooper in training, a boy slightly taller than her with dark skin and black, tightly curled hair that was cut very short. His name was weird, a few letters and numbers all mixed together. She asked if she could call him 'Finn' instead.

He made a face at her suggestion, and she could sense something stirring in his mind, like the sand when a snake burrows just underneath its surface but it settled quickly into the muffled, grey fog that it seemed every trainee had in their mind. He reiterated his name, firmer, and Rey shrugged the issue away

During their first drill they completed it without "dying". Rey was pleased to see the physical training she'd started doing with Kylo was paying off as she rejoined the line barely out of breath

So the second time, she tried to go faster. Then even faster the third time.

By the fourth, she'd slowed down.

By the fifth, she was getting bored.

By the 6th, lost in her thoughts she got "shot" and failed the round.

By the 7th, she was ready to go. Of course, Papa had told her to listen to Captain Phasma, and Captain Phasma had said they'd be drilling until lunch. However, Kylo had always told her to follow her instinct, that the force would lead her down the right path. And right now her instinct was telling her to find something else to do before she died of boredom.

It was then Rey felt the world, insofar as the starship was our world, shift underfoot as she realized that she could listen to one parent and still be right. Just like how Kylo couldn't get mad at her for listening to Papa, Papa couldn't get mad at her for following Kylo. It was perfect! She couldn't be wrong!

So with her universe of opportunities opened up before her, Rey carefully switched her blaster to safe, set it aside, and walked away. Any trainees who glanced at her, she told them in her mind --focusing intently on our words, like Kylo had said--  to watch the demonstration. She got the feeling that Captain Phasma would have been a lot harder to persuade, but thankfully she was too busy yelling at a trainee who had accidentally pointed his rifle at his battle partner.

Rey had finally made it to the door of the training hall when she felt a hand on her upper arm. She turned around while it simultaneously tugged her back.

"Where you going? We're not dismissed yet," her partner, FN-whatever urged her.

"I'm finished with training," Rey said, forcing every ounce of intent behind her statement.

FN blinked and the fog roiled again and parted ever so slightly before he blinked, shook his head, and the fog was back.

"Captain Phasma hasn't dismissed us."

"Yeah, but I'm not a trooper, so she's not in charge of me. I'm not her subordinate." Rey arguing, remembering what Kylo had said about Papa all those months ago.

"But you, hey, wait!"

Rey had yanked herself free from FN while he'd been thinking and rushed out the door. She raced down the hallways, giggling when she heard the clatter of footsteps behind her. She turned a corner, hid against the wall, and when FN rounded the turn, she used the Force to make him trip over his own feet.

"Mother karking piece of shit," FN growled as he stood up and lunged at her.

But she was ready from her combatives training with Kylo, and smoothly side stepped him. 

"Mother karking, that's a funny word. What does it mean?" Rey asked.

"It means we have to go back to training." He groused.

"But aren't you having fun? Your mind isn't even foggy anymore."

And it was true. Gone was the wide blur and in it's place was a beautiful field of sun and grass and cheer.

Memories of his home, Rey assumed. It looked beautiful.

"I, I don't know what you're talking about." FN muttered, rubbing his right temple.

"Come on, don't you want to explore the star ship? Maybe we can find the cafeteria and get lunch before all the good stuff's taken! You can teach me more funny words!"

"Hm, I don't know. Captain Phasma hasn't dismissed us yet."

Rey shrugged away his concern. "She didn't see us leave. And there's like over a hundred kids in your class. We'll have some fun and get back before she even notices."

FN paused, thinking carefully. With the fog gone, Rey could sense that he had a very linear thought process, but it was precise in a way that reminded her a little of Papa. 

Knowing this, she had a feeling they could be great friends.

FN opened his mouth, but the clang of metal echoed before he could speak. They glanced around the corner and saw Captain Phasma marching down the hall.

"Crap," FN hissed as they drew back. He grabbed her arm tightly, and she could feel the chilling tendril of fear slither down his back, and the pulsing in his blood similar to the an animal about to flee. But Rey stood her ground, and reached deep focusing and finding that part of her that was familiar and yet detached in its eerie otherness.

She didn't feel confident in planting a thought, so she replicated a sound instead. Her own laughter, something she'd grown oddly used to over the months and knew intimately. She copied and skewed it, bouncing it off the metal walls of the corridor ahead. She could sense Captain Phasma perceiving it, her recognition of the pitch shining like a light in her thoughts and serving as a beacon to guide her straight to her quarry.

When she was far enough away, Rey released the phantom sound with a sigh and sank down to the floor, her knees wobbly from the effort.

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" FN asked. "I could hear you but you're here?"

"The Force," Rey replied between catching her breath.

She could feel the pride blooming in her chest, warm and cozy and so big she could hardly contain it. It spilled from her with a smile and a laugh, a real one that FN joined it on. She wanted to talk about it, brag and be told how great her feat was. But as cool as FN was, he just didn't know the exact extent of what she'd done. She needed someone who knew. Someone who understood.

She couldn't wait until Kylo got home.

Chapter Text

Kylo returned from his planetside mission covered in tacky, dried blood, but in better spirits than he'd been in ages. Rey looked up at them as they entered and smiled brightly before racing to Hux to hug his legs. It was to his extreme surprise that afterwords, Rey moved on to hug him.

"Kylo, Kylo," she chirped, bouncing on the balls of her feet so energetically she was nearly vibrating. "I did it. I used the Force on a person!"

"That's great." Kylo congratulated, making sure to say this loud enough to cover Hux's inquisitive 'what' beside them. "Was it difficult?"

"Mmm, it was easier on the troops than on Captain Phasma. I couldn't put a thought in her."

"Wait, what are you teaching her to do to my troops?" Hux asked, inserting himself into the conversation.

"Nothing to worry about," Kylo interjected as he physically tried to elbow Hux out of it. Rey was finally taking an interest in the Force and he wasn't going to let Hux, as attractive and charming and good a kisser as he was, ruin it for him.

"I made all the troopers look away when I left the training hall, and then I made Captain Phasma hear a fake sound to follow, and then me and FN were able to go to the mess hall and be first in line for lunch. So I was able to get the red jello, which they're always out of, but then FN told me that the purple was better. And I tried some of his but it was so gross and-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Hux interrupted, shoving Kylo aside. "FN? Who's that?"

"FN-something, I don't remember all his numbers. But he's my trooper partner, and he's really cool. He's from a really pretty planet, and he knows all the best bad words from the older troopers."

"Rey," Hux said, cutting off what was sounding like a long winded tirade, "you shouldn't be intermingling with the troops."

"What? Why?" Rey asked, her face screwing up into a confused stare.

"Because you're on track to become an officer and you need to maintain the hierarchy of command."

Rey's look of confusion only grew more exaggerated. "But aren't you the one who sent me with Captain phasma to spend the day with the troopers?"

"Yes but that was just a temporary measure." Hux reasoned.

"But," Rey's lower lip began to wobble slightly, "but,"

"Hux is right, Rey. You shouldn't be forming attachments like this. They are beneath you." Kylo added.

"But that's no fair. " Rey whined as she stomped her foot to show the breadth of her consternation.

"Life's not fair," Hux and Kylo said at near perfect synchronicity. 

"But he's my friend," Rey argued, the tail end of which was cut off by the chime of their door. Kylo strode to the entrance while Hux remained with Rey to try and placate her. When Kylo opened the doorway, he was face with a Lieutenant that trembled like a tree in the throes of a tropic storm. He could barely get an articulation in as he handed Kylo a recording and bolted away from the door. When Kylo returned to the others, Rey was pouting sullenly on the couch, her face buried in a throw pillow.

"What's that?" Hux asked, nodding his head to the recording disk in Kylo's hand.

"Guess we got a hologram message while we were away." Kylo shrugged as he placed it on the coffee table.

Hux collapsed onto the couch, leaving plenty of space between him and Rey, and watched Kylo activate the mechanism. "Really, couldn't they wait just a few hours until we got back?"

"Apparently not," Kylo scoffed as he turned on the device and played back the recording. 

After a brief crackle of blue fuzz, the shadowed figure of Master Snoke could be seen, an image that had Kylo unconsciously sitting up straighter.

"I sense a disturbance in your loyalties, my apprentice." Master Snoke intoned solemnly. "I had warned you about attachments, so now you must face the consequences of your actions. I want you to report to the Supremacy in 48 hours with your husband and your apprentice. Do not disappoint me."

And with that brief, but chilling, message, Master Snoke disappeared. Kylo turned to Hux, a cold sweat already gathering on the back of his neck, and was at once relieved and perturbed to see a similar expression of unease across Hux's face. It was over. Master Snoke knew. And Kylo was powerless to stop Master Snoke in whatever plans he held for the people Kylo had made the mistake of getting too close to.

"Kylo," Rey spoke softly. He turned to face her, and her big brown eyes. "That man said you had attachments."

"Yeah," Kylo replied, his mouth feeling too dry to get much else out.

"So, if you have attachments, but I can't. Does that mean you're a mother karking liar?" 

...

"Hux!"

"I didn't teach her that!"

---------------

Kylo couldn't stop pacing, unable to find any other way to expell the nervous energy that was thrumming underneath his skin like an electrical surge. No matter how many times Hux tried to reason him out of it, Kylo couldn't suppress the feeling, the innate, bone-deep feeling that something big was about to happen. The sort of big that didn't occur very often in one's lifetime. A sort of big very similar to the feeling he had before going to sleep the night before he awoke to his uncle above him, green lightsaber shining bright. 

Hux glanced at his watch on final time. He was afraid. It was impossible not to be. But he hid it well, pushing the fear down into the depths of his lake, where it's movement couldn't affect the surface and, effectively, didn't exist. It was an impressive feat, but one that Kylo couldn't shake the feeling was ultimately pointless.

"Let's go." Hux said, and activated the door.

The three of them walked into Master Snoke's throne room. The blood red surroundings didn't assuage Kylo's fears of what was to come, and the heavy, intense pressure of Master Snoke's presence only compounded to the unease that permeated the space. He saw Rey, in his peripherals, cling tightly to the edges of Hux's great coat as they approached the throne that sat in the center of the room. 

There were no guards, as was typically tradition for the Supreme Leader, but they were honestly more for show than protection. Master Snoke was powerful enough on his own, of that Kylo was achingly familiar.

"So, this is the whelp you have betrayed me for." Master Snoke intoned from his seat. Rey hid deeper within the folds of Hux's coat.

"Master," Kylo knelt down and bowed his head low, subservient, "I assure you my loyalty is to the Dark Side, and to you who has lead me to it. I only recruited this girl so that she may serve you later as a Knight."

"I should think, boy, that you would know better than to insult me with such a blatant lie." Master Snoke spat. 

Kylo only bowed lower, nearly touching his head to the floor. "I truly mean it, Master. I serve you."

"Do you?"

It went quiet, too quiet, and Kylo looked up to see Hux and Rey grasping at at their throats, fighting against a pressure they could not touch. Rey was doing well, managing to gasp tiny breaths when she was able to loosen the vice around her neck. Hux, meanwhile, was defenseless to the assault but held a brave face as he began to lose breath.

"What, Master what are you doing?"

"Pick one." Master Snoke ordered, his voice twisted with a cruel edge.

"Master I, I don't understand. Why-"

"Pick one."

"Master I...I don't, you need them both. They are both of use to you!"

"Pick."

Kylo looked to his left, and saw a little girl who was born into nothing and was expected to become nothing. A young girl who had her entire life ahead of her and all the wide possibilities and potential at her fingertips, without the blood on her hands. A child who laughed at dumb jokes and sometimes forgot to brush her teeth and ate too many snacks and argued against him too much.

To his right, was a man with far more ambition and drive than could feasibly fit into one body. A grown man who had fought against the world and clawed his way up to something, with nothing but his keen mind to propel him. A man who never slept enough and liked to chew on pens and was pedantic to a fault and argued against him too much.

Kylo reached for his holster and pulled his lightsaber out. He ignited the blade and turned towards Snoke. 

"I chose you."

Chapter Text

"Me?" Snoke chuckled, a cruel and wet sound that erupted deep from the back of his throat. "You dare point your weapon at me?"

Kylo didn't answer, didn't see a need to, and launched himself forward towards Snoke. He brought his arm back, readying his lightsaber to swing down in an arc of violent red directly at Snoke's neck.

But then everything went dark.

His body was gone. His mind was empty. His soul was lost.

All in an instant.

A cold fog swirled around him, coalescing into a thick miasma that sucked him in the further he fought to escape. It ensnared his limbs and yanked him down. It slithered down his throat, coated his lungs so each aching breath stung with an icy bite.

“-ylo!”

His body was shuddering from the cold, his thrashing got weaker no matter how hard he tried. Deeper and deeper he sank. Everything was going black. 

“Kylo!”

He couldn’t even feel his hands anymore. Lost his sense of direction; even if he could break free, he had no way of knowing where to go. In this endless expanse of nothing, with no way to know where it began and he ended, did he even really exist?

“Daddy!”

A single beam of light tore through the midnight abyss, searing Kylo with its brilliance.             

And he was back in the throne room, his head swirling in disorientation from the change. He tried to blink, bring everything back into focus, but his vision swam nauseatingly and what he could hear was muffled. He was able to feel the hand on his shoulder though, and its weight grounded him, gave him an orientation to find his way back. 

"Daddy!" Rey cried, shaking him again.

"I'm here, Rey. I-" Kylo bit back his words as another wave of nausea washed over him. He held his spinning head between his hands, hoping that would somehow keep everything still for just a brief moment at least.

It did not.

"Dad-" a crack ricocheted throughout the room. It's boom deafening and the light accompanying it blinding. 

"REY!" Kylo could hear Hux shout between the lingering echoes of the attack, and he realized belatedly through the heat of the strike and the stench of burnt flesh what had just happened.

"No," he muttered, and turned --nausea be damned-- to try and find where Rey had landed after the lightning had tore through her.

Hux got to her first, and knelt by her side. He placed his fingers to her neck and held his breath until he could find Rey's.

"She's okay," he murmured low, barely loud enough for Kylo to hear.

He tightening his grip on his lightsaber, swallowed the newest wave of nausea, and forced himself to his feet. The room wobbled around him, but slowly came into alignment. Kylo leveled his lightsaber onto Snoke the instant the room wasn't lopsided.

"Is that the best you've got?" He asked, hoping to distract his Master with the taunt.

And to his shock, Snoke smirked and got up from his throne. He reached into the bountiful folds of his robe and withdrew a curved handle to a lightsaber. When he ignited it, it burned a dark maroon, the color of dried blood. For the briefest instant, the feeling of death from that kyber gave Kylo pause, but he squashed down the instinctive apprehension and advanced.

He swung low, aiming to take advantage of his greater mobility, but found his strike falling short. He continued the momentum of the swipe and stepped closer, turning and swinging at an angle this time, only to find his strike pulling to the left. Kylo brought his blade back, taking care to guard his center, and stabbed forward, directly at Snoke's chest, but his blade went right and slipped right underneath Snoke's extended arm.

"Having trouble?" Snoke sneered and slashed down in a big, aggressive arc. Kylo brought his blade up to block, and his arms quaked from the weight behind the impact.

"Don't you get it." Snoke hissed into his face. "Your understanding of the Force is childish. I can use it to alter your body as it moves, make sure you never land a hit. I don't even need to fight you."

Kylo swung his blade to the side, knocking Snoke's lightsaber sideways in the process. With his center wide open, Kylo quickly swiped in for a slash to his torso, but found himself coming up short again. When he blocked Snoke's next strike and kept the lightsaber spinning from the force of impact to hit Snoke's outstretched hand, he caught it.

Kylo blinked at the sight. At Snoke holding the crackling blade of his lightsaber, within the palm of a hand coated in a writhing layer of lightning.

"Do you understand yet?" Snoke laughed. He held tightly to Kylo's lightsaber, and deactivated his own. With his right hand free, he held it up, between their bodies. Slowly, bit by bit, Snoke began to close his hand. And for every fraction of motion Snoke made, Kylo's right wrist began to ache, then hurt, then burn, until a searing wave of agony scattered throughout his entire being as his right hand was ripped from his arm.

Bone and muscle and sinew were all on display as Snoke, with a casual flick of his wrist, discarded Kylo's right hand, and the lightsaber clenched within it, to the side. Kylo collapsed to his knees, his body overloading from the pain and the blood loss and the disgusting invasiveness of it all.

"Have you finally learned your lesson, boy?" Snoke intoned above him. "Never forget your place, ever again, or you will lose more than just a hand next time."

Kylo tried to say something, an insult, a plea for their lives, but all that could escape his lips was a whimper.

"Answer me!" Snoke shouted, and forced Kylo's face to the ground with his foot. He ground his heel onto the back of Kylo's head, pressing harder the longer Kylo went without answering.

Until the crackling blade of a bright, angry red lightsaber sprouted from the center of Snoke's chest from behind.

“Take your lousy offer and go fuck yourself.” Hux growled, his eyes alight with a feral intensity.

Snoke gasped once, warbled and tremulous, and raised a shaking hand. Before he could turn his power onto Hux again, Kylo shoved aside his crippled agony with roar. A quick summon to his remaining hand, and Snoke’s lightsaber was his and turned against its owner. One swipe, and Snoke’s head rolled onto to the floor with a wet thump, his black eyes wide open and jaw slack.

The relief was palpable, and the next breath Kylo took had him collapsing, his body finally having reached its limit. Hux was at his side in an instant, kneeling on his left and looming over him. Kylo tried to raise his right arm to pull Hux closer.

“Don’t.” Hux sharply reprimanded as he shucked off his greatcoat. His jacket shortly followed, and, with a flash of silver, he began cutting off long strips.

“Rey?” Kylo asked, his throat scratchy from the screams that torn through it.

“I’m here,” a quiet voice echoed from above his head. Kylo tried to crane his neck to see and halted his movements when it a sharp pain ricocheted down his spine. He pulled in slow, even breaths, trying to sooth the agony into something more like a well-worn ache, and felt a small hand land on his shoulder.

“Daddy?” Her little voice warbled, wet and promising of the tears to come. Kylo forced a smile onto his face to prevent that.

“I’m fine, Rey.” He promised through the painful grin. She stared down at him with a frown, but nodded, choosing to believe his blatant lie. He opened his mouth to try and tell her something a bit more convincing, only to be cut off with a wince as Hux tightened the makeshift tourniquet he’d wrapped around his right arm.

“Rey,” Hux began very carefully. “I need you to be very brave for me and bring some medics here. Okay? The Med Bay will be in the same place as the Finalizer. Okay? Do you think you could do that?”

Never before had Kylo been so thankful for Hux’s blank face and tampered emotions, as his outward calm and inward control soothed Rey’s frantic nerves. She nodded once, shakily, and scrubbed her face with her sleeve. When her arm came down, her face was smeared with snot and tears and her skin mottled red from screaming, but her eyes were determined. She nodded again, certain.

She clamored to her feet and sprinted out of the throne room. Her shouts of “medic” could be heard faintly as it echoed down the corridor she ran.

Hux closed his eyes, and, after a careful breath, looked down at him.

“Kylo,” he began, his voice unsteady. Something between soft and reprimanding and amused. “I know you love your grandfather dearly, but did you really have to participate in this particular Skywalker tradition?”

And maybe it was the shock or the blood loss or even perhaps the giddiness of finally being free, but Kylo laughed. And laughed. And when he couldn’t breathe, he laughed even harder.

And when his consciousness finally slipped away, he went willingly. The image of Hux smiling fondly above him the last thing he saw.

Chapter Text

Kylo winced as a particularly cold bout of wind brought a new ache to his arm, exactly where flesh became metal. He tested the bend of his fingers and found them to almost close fully, an improvement to the previous model for sure, but no substitute for the real thing. He burrowed the mechanical hand deep into the pocket of his winter jacket, hoping to warm it up enough to forget it wasn't real.

He glanced up to take in his surroundings, hoping to find something suitabley entertaining to distract him, and noticed Hux meandering his way through the burnt ruins of their recent attack on the city. He watched the general idly toe a blackened support beam, who in turn watched the section he'd touched crumble as the burnt remnants collapsed in on itself. It was strange, in a way, how Hux unknowingly matched his surroundings with his crisp, black uniform and ginger hair, set aglow by the light of the sun shining overhead.

“Such a waste, dont' you think?" Hux asked once he'd gotten closer to Kylo.

"Yes, they should have surrendored when we'd given them the chance."

“Perhaps they needed more of an incentive." Hux replied, something innately suggestive about his tone.

"Is this about that weapon again?"

"If you mean Starkiller, then yes. This planet would have surrendored immediately if we'd had a weapon like that at our helm. Think of the resources we could save,” Hux kicked another burnt shell of a building foundation. "Or the lives we could spare."

Kylo hummed in thought, clenching his right fist again to check if the fingers were bending any easier. “Well, it certainly has its appeal. A weapon capable of neutralizing an entire system from a distance. Of course, that renders said system completely unusable for us either.”

“Yes, that’s true. However it could serve as an efficient deterrent. If we continue to fight with the conventional means, that is more lives lost in the long run. With Starkiller, one attack and no one –rebel or otherwise— would dare oppose us.”

“And what if we win the war before construction is complete? You projected five years for completion.”

“You tell me. The rebellion is heralded by Leia Organa, isn’t it? Is she the type to lose a war in five years?”

“You have a point. How soon could you begin building?”

“I have a few planets in mind. If we allocate one survey team for each, we should have enough data to make our selection after three months.”

“So we could start construction before the end of the year.” Kylo nodded.  “Is there any planet in particular you-”

“Daddy! Papa!”

Hux and Kylo looked up from their conversation to see Rey running towards them, her cloak not wrapped around her –still thin— shoulders to guard her against the cold, but gathered in her arms.

“Rey, put your coat on.” Hux admonished her as she deftly avoided the larger piles of building wreckage.

“You haven’t mastered temperature control.” Kylo added.

“But she needs it more.” Rey protested, her lower lip pouting with an impressive mastery.

“She?” He and Hux asked.

“Okay, so, Finn and I were clearing the wood line-”

“Finn?” Hux interrupted. “Who’s that?”

“He’s my stormy trooper friend, remember?”

“Rey, we’ve told you. The storm troopers are in a specific training program. You can’t distract them from their duties.” Hux reminded her.

“And you can’t allow them to distract you from yours.” Kylo added.

“But listen.” She whined. “We were clearing the wood line like we were told, but I sensed her. And Finn helped me rescue her. Can we keep her, please? Pleeeeeease?”

At that moment, as if rehearsed, a small head with bright orange fur popped out from the folds of the coat. A moment of silence echoed between the stunned adults and delighted girl before the creature opened its mouth, sharp teeth glinting in the sun, and meowed.

...

“You know. Perhaps we should be encouraging greater collaboration between the storm troopers and officer candidates.” Hux said.

“What?” Kylo snapped, but Hux didn’t seem to be paying attention, distracted as he was by the cat he was reaching for.

“So we can keep her?” Rey asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Kylo watched the cat rub the crown of its head enthusiastically against Hux’s palm. And you didn’t need to be a kriffing Force sensitive to tell what was going to come next.

---------------

A few days later, Kylo was testing the flexing capabilities of his new hand again while the photographer set up the background.

"I can take another look at that, if it's bothering you." Hux offered, having suddenly appeared at Kylo's right shoulder.

"It's fine for now." Kylo brushed him off and slipped the glove back on over his prosthetic hand. How Vader could have standed a body majoritively made up of such machinery, Kylo would never know.

"Yes well, the new Supreme Leader deserves more than just fine, you know." Hux teased.

"And the Grand Marshal had more important things to do than tinker with prosthetics." Kylo smirked.

Hux chuckled and approached his desk, where Rey was lingering over his schematics for Starkiller.

"Papa? Are you going to build this?" She asked.

"That's the idea." Hux replied as he began to pack away the materials.

"But it feels bad." Rey said, hovering at Hux's side as he cleaned.

"Does it?" He asked, casting a quick glance to Kylo now that the Force was being referenced.

"Most of your schematics have a bad feeling," Kylo clarified. "Since most of them are weapons and they, by nature, well, do bad things."

Rey shook her head, her multitude of buns --which she'd proudly done herself-- swinging with her head. "But this one feel reeeealllly bad. Like, the most bad I've ever felt before."

Kylo and Hux shared a look, unsure how to explain to Rey the amount of damage Starkiller could, theorhetically, cause.

Hux cleared his throat in preparation of the attempt. "Listen, Rey, sometimes in a fight, you have to do one bad thing to prevent more bad things from happening. Does that make sense?"

"I guess, but why do you have to fight at all?"

"Well, I guess the simplest answer is that we don't agree."

"But why?"

"We have different ideas on how things should be from the people we are fighting with."

"Okay, but why do you have to fight about it?"

Hux straightened up with a frustrated exhale. "Alright, Kylo, tag in." He patted Kylo's shoulder as he strode across the room to the photographer. Rey turned her expectant gaze up to him.

"Well," Kylo paused. "I guess we're fighting because we just can't agree."

"But have you tried? You and Papa didn't agree. But then you tried, and now you do."

"Rey, it, it just isn't that simple."

"But have you tried?"

"I mean, not me personally, but-"

"So can you try? Please?" Rey leaned in, clutching tightly to his robes in a white knuckle grip. "I really mean it, Daddy. This thing Papa wants to build is really, really bad. I don't want him to make it. Please."

"Okay, I'll...I'll try."

Her smile wasn't full, she perhaps sensed the hesitancy in his voice, but she trusted him enough to take him for his word. And for that reason alone, Kylo knew he had to live up to that trust.

The photographer waved them over, and Kylo scooped up Rey with his arms and strode over to the marker set up for them.

"Is this really necessary?" He grumbled again, mostly to try and wring another smile from Rey's face.

"Yes. News must be spread of the change in leadership, and the PR department recommended photos to go along with it."

"Mhm, sure, and this definitely isn't some grand scheme to get family photos without admitting you want them."

Hux only scoffed, like always, but once again didn't vocally deny the claim. The implication made Kylo smile.

"Alright, look at the camera everyone." The photographer urged, and took a picture once everyone was ready. He asked them to rearrange themselves a few times: standing, sitting, altering who was situated where. It took longer than any of the participating parites had expected, and over two dozen photographs later, everyone was feeling tired for the posing.

And then, just before the final shot a ball of bright orange fur jumped into frame. It was Millicent, named so by Hux, who was claiming her rightful place in Rey's arms, which she saw as a spot reserved for her, whether empty handed or not. The photographer tsked disapprovingly, and motioned for Rey to drop that cat and return to her position.

"Just take it as it is." Hux ordered the man. "In fact, take a few."

And it was the last one the photographer took that sat on kitchenette counter. A ragtag collection of an ex-Jedi, ex-Sith, third face Force user, a rabid cur of a general who was learning to loosen his muzzle, a little girl who came from nothing and meant everything, and their spoiled rotten cat.

All things considered, an unusal family.

But not one that Kylo would ever regret making.