Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kylo Ren first noticed it one during one of his de-stressing exercises.

He was on the main control deck, with it's pristine and monochrome panels and bland steel tables. The room alone was more than enough to make him want to add a little color in the form of flying sparks and red melted chunks of metal simmering and heating the cold room, so it was a no brainer to come here and destroy the place when he enraged. He was busy wreaking havoc to one of the control panels, when he glanced back for a split second, and right there was General Hux, arms crossed and bristling. Kylo smirked underneath his helmet and struck the control panel once more, this time his mind elsewhere.

All he could think of now was how Hux looked when he was mad. He rarely showed emotion, so every expression that managed to cross his face was to be treasured. It was amusing; maybe he could get him angry again. Kylo continued wrecking the place. Sparks flew, vicious and hot, until Hux spoke up.

“Lord Ren, is this really necessary? You’re destroying a control panel because of some search group turning up empty?”

Kylo turned to see Hux had turned his face back into the picture of apathy. Dammit. He had been legitimately mad about the failed search but now, just like he had been taught, his anger was a weapon. He continued to destroy the already ravaged hole of smoking and smouldering metal, not pausing even when he heard Hux’s frustrated huff and clicking shoes as he left the room.

But even after Hux had left, Kylo’s mind was fixated on him. He was so used to the blank expression he always wore, that he was caught off guard by this change in repertoire. Eyes rested on the warped and torn metal on the wall but didn’t take in the sight, instead his mind was memorizing the anger that was strewn across Hux’s face: the lips, slightly parted; eyes seething; nostrils flared; brows furrowed.

Kylo left the deck, not focusing on his legs moving him to his room. He was intercepted in the hallway by a Stormtrooper alerting him to an upcoming meeting he must attend, and he brushed the recent occurrences from his mind, at least for now.

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He next noticed it at a speech Hux was giving.

He was on a large platform, raised before a gathered crowd of almost all the Stormtroopers on the ship. Kylo Ren was standing next to him, a few feet away, watching Hux give a rousing rhetoric to move the hearts and souls of the first order members. He was never particularly good at it, although no one would know, with the Stormtroopers being masked, but he did his best. But what he always was good at was emoting.

Kylo watched his expression, his mouth moving in harsh and sharp motions, and his voice loud for the gathered crowd to hear. Kylo saw how emotion and passion shaped his face, how his eyes seemed alive, brimming with life and vitality.

What Ren failed to take in, was the speech, and when the General had finished he barely registered it. Kylo blinked a few times, looking over to the crowd who saluted, and then back to Hux, who was leaving. He got up and followed in suit, cloak billowing around him.

He caught up to him, walking side by side, and said, “Why do you even give speeches?”

“Well, with how many storm troopers and first order officers you’ve killed in a blind rage, I think they need to remember why they’re really here instead of thinking their sole purpose is to be one of those stress relief squeeze toys for you,” Hux replied, not even caring to look up at him.

“I don’t kill people for no reason, I only kill the ones that fail and are of no use to me.”

“Uh huh,” he replied, and rolled his eyes, “I'm sure that’s what you do.”

“I do!” Kylo, said loudly, his helmet turning it into a growl.

Hux glanced up at him, lips tight and thin and eyes emotionless. Then, he turned a corner and went off into a different direction. Kylo didn’t bother following him, he was busy thinking about the General’s face.

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Kylo last noticed it in the training room. Sweaty, gross, and tired, he was still attacking the dummies in the room. They were strategically placed to aid the story going on inside his mind. A few had been placed behind small barriers, others were out in the open, with fake weapons to make it more realistic. The drab browns and beiges of the training room also helped the imagination blossom, or rather, bleed out. In his head, all the dummies were really young Jedi's from the training camp so long ago.

He ran towards the first one and knocked it over with a powerful shoulder shove. In the far corner were more Jedi’s. He rolled behind a barrier, then vaulted over it, towards one of the assailants. His foot made contact against the tough fabric of the doll, knocking it down; he used the leftover velocity from his vault to barrel into the next Jedi in training. He was unstoppable.

Kylo turned towards another, and force choked it, dodging attacks from two far away Jedis-to-be and threw the now asphyxiated dummy at another one, knocking it unconscious. He jumped at another ragged doll and gave it a roundhouse kick, sending it flying towards the door, which was open?

Hux ducked in the doorway, his perfectly gelled hair getting ruffled by the dummy sailing past his head and out the door. There was a crash outside and some shouts of startled Stormtroopers, then Hux stood up and looked at Kylo, glaring at him. It took him all of two seconds to process that kylo was unmasked, wearing a loose tank top and shorts, and his hair was in utter disarray. It took him three seconds to turn away, subsequently red and blushing.

“What?” Kylo asked, annoyed.

“You’re needed in the control room.” Hux said, shaking the emotion from his face. Just because Force users became more powerful by tapping into emotions, doesn’t mean he should display them.

“Why did you come and get me,” Kylo asked suspiciously.

"Because I need you in the control room and Phasma refused to send another Stormtrooper in here for you to ‘accidentally’ beat the crap out of while you’re 'in the zone'," He said, mildly annoyed. Not fully annoyed, only partially. He was usually partially some emotion or completely apathetic, but his still beet red face divulged from the usual routine.

Kylo thought about that quite a bit, how he tried to hide the obvious by looking elsewhere, despite the fact it didn't hide anything, and it was all rather captivating.

But Kylo Ren just sighed loudly, and got up to retrieve his helmet and regular clothes. He changed behind a barrier and emerged looking like his usual self, dark and foreboding. But Hux was still flushed, despite his best efforts to hide it.

But Ren didn’t say anything, he simply followed him into the control room.

Chapter Text

It didn’t take many more encounters with Hux’s more sensitive side after that for Kylo to start experimenting with his emotions. And the first sentiment he decided to toy with was anger.

Enraging Hux would be simple. One of the things he was particularly adamant about was change, in particular change in his pristine office and work spaces. Ren started to disrupt this whenever possible, bumping into him and causing his papers to fall out of order, going into his office and hiding something he would need for the next day, and his personal favorite, moving an item on his desk just so slightly during meetings, not enough to be noticeable that he was doing it, but annoying all the less.

After a week of constant disruption, in the middle of an important conference, Hux lost it. He had looked down to discover his pen he had just placed back where he wanted it was tilted away from him, for the eleventh time this meeting. If you looked hard, you could almost see his soul breaking.

He exclaimed, “I can't work in these conditions!” And stomped out of the meeting room, face burning and fists clenched. Ren had to disguise his laughs as a series of coughs; good thing he had a voice modulator. He stood up and followed Hux without comment, and with the scene just displayed, he wouldn’t need one.

The straight and open hallways were easily navigable, and even without the force on his side, Kylo could have been on Hux’s trail in a heartbeat. Before long, the general was in plain sight, red faced and pissed as all hell. This was going to be all too enjoyable.

Ren closes a possible escape route with the force and gets all too close to Hux, another pet peeve of his. He glares up at the faceless mask before him and sputters out something about pens and order in the workplace. Ren says nothing, just stares at him, smirking where he can’t see, before letting out a sigh, stepping back, and asking for an explanation.

“It was the pen! And my papers on my desk, they just kept moving and wouldn’t stop! Every time I would look away they would change, it’s been happening for weeks, it’s like someone’s been doing it but how could someone do that without tou-” He cuts off, mouth slightly parted. “It’s been you hasn’t it.” It wasn’t angry, at least not on the outside. But Hux was emanating rage, and it was spectacular.

“Excuse me?” He responded. But it was too late. This was exactly what Kylo wanted. Hux’s neutral face cracked, and he straight up swing a fist at him. Kylo was so caught off guard it landed right on the side of his mask, and both the general and the knight reeled back in pain.

“Mother fucker!” Hux shouted, shaking his hand off with a string of expletives before looking back up at force user. He was still red in the face, and his perfect stylized hair was a mess, some Iocks hanging in his handsome face. He grit his teeth and pointed at Ren. “I swear to god, if you ever go near my stuff again, I will have you hanged, drawn and quartered!”

Then he set off with a stomp and grimace, to return to the conference and salvage the rest of his pride (and maybe his hair.)

Ren rubbed his cheek under his mask and decided to never again make General Hux mad if he could help it. No, he would have to try the safest emotion to exploit in this game of his.

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Phasma saw the boys running down the hall fighting yet again.

“Ahhh,” she sighed. “Love works in mysterious ways.”

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His original plan was not to make Hux suspicious, but that seemed to be the affect his kindness was having. For a few days now Kylo has been following Hux’s orders to a tee. He was courteous, and even occasionally complemented his hairstyle.

It was hard work. Usually he'd laugh this hairstyle because, well, it look plain terrible with the way he slicks it back. It would look so much better loose, and maybe grown out a bit. And usually he makes jokes behind his back to the Stormtroopers, spreading bad rumors. But he's been quiet lately.

He was starting to doubt whether it would work, since there had been no pay off and now Hux was wary of him. He was about give up when one day in the cafeteria he saw something new.

Hux was sitting with a few of the other high up officials, when one of them made a stupid joke. Ren was surprised to hear the general’s laughter in the air, and when he looked over, he saw happiness and joy, painted across his features. It was beautiful.

Then Hux started to choke on his food and someone had to help him out. That was less than appealing, but absolutely hilarious, and Kylo lost it and let out a few loud laughs.

Regardless of the situation, Kylo wanted to make Hux feel like that. Or, rather, he wanted to see him laugh again.

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But try as he might, Hux trusted him less and less. He was really trying, really really trying. Until one day in the middle of training, Kylo was interrupted by Hux, Phasma, and flock of Stormtroopers.

Sweaty tired and panting, he turned his head to Hux slamming open the door, and barging right in, walking over the dummy corpses and charred remains of some other probably crucial training equipment Ren had just demolished.

“I am sick and tired of whatever mind games you're doing here Ren!” He shouted, pointing an accusing finger at him. “You and Phasma-”

Phasma gave Kylo two enthusiastic thumbs up.

“-have been acting incredibly weird and suspicious and driving me up a fucking wall! So how about you leave me the fuck alone!” He stormed off, as sudden as he had come he was gone. Kylo didn't mean to, but he memorized his expression. His glare, his sheer anger, his eyes slightly watering in frustration.

“Ouuuuuuch. That’s rough, “said Phasma, as she sneaked out the door. The pod of now gossiping Stormtroopers left with her, lingering a tad longer to stare and question to themselves.

Kylo Ren decided to leave Hux alone from now on.

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And so Kylo ignores him. He well and truly ignores him. He doesn't talk to him in the halls (although he feels him tense up as they pass), he doesn't look at him during meetings, he even avoids trying to glean how he's feeling off him with the force. He does nothing, but it does everything to him.

Because in the nights following he never once fails to have a dream about Hux. He's always there, even in the background. He smiles, and laughs, charming and handsome. He shouts profanities and expletives, cursing God, all that is holy, and his own mother. He blushes, his whole face and even neck reddening. But worst of all he tell Ren to leave him the fuck alone, before leaving, and Ren wakes up in his drafty room alone.

So Ren breaks more things. He doesn't know what else to do, so the only thing left is vent. He hates Hux for being everywhere. For being the way he is, a shell, a mask, a husk of a man, mechanical and analytical and cold, with no emotion to even seem human. He hates himself for thinking about Hux, why can't he stop thinking about him, why?
And he hates his dreams for not letting him get any good sleep.

But mostly, he just wants to see Hux smile.