I've recently jumped onto the Star Wars bandwagon and I will say that it has defineitly resparked my imagination

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

A Promise Made

However they managed to remain hidden from Snoke and the First Order for this long, Kylo had never known. Nearing the 7th year of defecting from the Order, the former Master of Ren believed that either the Force or some other unknown power had to have kept the Supreme Leader from searching Tatooine for him, Hux and their son. Either that or the sheer remoteness of the planet had made them think it was not worth searching.

Tatooine was not the ideal planet - hot, little to no civilization, and very little water – but they had managed to make a living for themselves as scavengers, plundering ships and ruins of cities long gone for goods to sell. It was a risky business, especially with a seven year old boy to take care of, but it kept them feed and, in turn, happy.

Even though he barely had any material possessions, Kylo was the happiest he had been in seven years. Never in his time on the Finalizer did he think Hux would turn out to be the love of his life and that they would have a beautiful boy that he loved just as much as he loved Hux.

They had adopted Anakin on Dantooine a year after defecting from the First Order. While living in the poor areas of one of the major cities (to avoid detection), they had found Anakin with his dead mother, the woman cut down in a backwards alley. The child had been howling, crying for warmth and food. Drawn to the cries from their recent acquirement of compassion, the two men took the one year old boy to their own home. At the time, they had no intention of keeping him and planned to hand him off to the first family that wanted to take him. It was unfortunate that less than a week later, the First Order came to the planet searching for the two of them. Left with little choice, Hux and Kylo took the child with them onto the ship they had taken when defecting and left the planet. On route to the next planet, Kylo unintentionally grew fond of the little boy, sensing something about him. He grew so fond of him that when they reached Tatooine, the former knight wanted to keep him. Hux was a little less certain, knowing that neither of them had the means of feeding the baby, let alone knew how to properly take care of one for an extended period of time. He relented though, after seeing the state of Tatooine and growing a soft spot for the boy.

The first year on Tatooine was particularly challenging. They barely received any help from the non-human inhabitants, the vaporizer from where they got all their water malfunctioned frequently, Anakin suffered from heatstroke on a regular basis, and the scavenged items they brought to the trading post didn't yield much food, often leaving one of the adults with an empty stomach in order to feed the child. Near the end of that year, they had no food and the scavenging had brought up nothing for the past two weeks. Desperate to feed both Anakin and themselves, the two adults decided to sell Kylo's precious lightsaber; it yielded enough food for an entire year. From that point on, things got progressively better for the family.

Kylo was scavenging in the ruins of an ancient Tatooine city, thinking he could potentially find some gold or other goods hidden among the sand and stones. He had taken Anakin with him, the boy following him like a shadow, carrying the lighter items they had found earlier that day as well as their water canteens in a rucksack while Kylo carried the heavier items on his back. Although they were teaching him how to scavenge, they were doing it slowly, having the child scour for items on ground level or having him look around in spaces where Hux and Kylo couldn't fit in.

"Dad?" Anakin called, tugging on the man's clothing. Kylo turned around and looked at his son.

"What is it, Ani?" The boy pointed to what appeared to be an archway of some kind, majority of it hidden under sand. Upon looking more closely, it would seem that it was the pathway of an indoor river.

"Do you think there is something on the other side?" The boy asked.

"Maybe." Kylo began digging the sand aside, relieved to see that light came spewing out from the other side.

"Can I go look?" Anakin asked, nearly bouncing from the excitement. Seeing that he had no idea what was on the other side, Kylo didn't want his son to go in there by himself but the archway was much too small for him to fit through.

"Alright. But be quick about it, okay?" The boy nodded and climbed into the tiny tunnel. "Is something there?" Kylo called through the tunnel when he saw the child was out.

"It's some kind of big room." He called back. "Maybe a throne room?"

"A throne room?"

"Yeah, there's a really big chair of stone and a very large door too." Kylo heard a few loud bangs, knowing from the sound that Anakin was likely banging on the door. "It's locked."

"Just come back through here. We can come back and look around tomorrow."

"Okay." The boy called. Kylo heard the pitter patter of his running and watched as the child came crawling back through the tunnel. "Dad! Dad!" he called through, his tone suggesting he was about to explode from excitement, "Dad, look what I found!" As soon as he was out of the tunnel, his clothing shedding sand, he held up a necklace made of gold. Kylo gawked at the sight of the necklace. That was at least worth forty portions! The man let out a laugh of victory and ruffed the boy's strawberry blonde hair.

"Good job, Ani! You'll make a fine scavenger one day." He praised, embracing the boy tightly. In all honesty, Kylo didn't want his son to become a scavenger. It was not a secure job and whether or not you had food was all down to luck. Besides, the boy was not scavenger material. It was a harsh job that required harsh personalities; Anakin did not have that. The merchant had more than once taken advantage of the child's politeness and shyness, giving the child one portion for an item worth five. To ensure it didn't happen, they made sure that either he or Hux were with him when the trade happened. Unfortunately, this was not something they could do forever.

When they went to the post a few hours later, Kylo could see that the merchant's mood was ripe for tricking his son so he remained close. When it eventually was their turn, Anakin put all his items on the counter first, keeping the necklace in his bag. The merchant looked at each item and carefully considered their worth.

"Half a portion for you today. Unless you got something better than this junk." He grumbled, slamming the tiny package onto the counter. His face falling from disappointment, Anakin looked up at his father and the man nodded. The child reached into his bag and held up the necklace.

"How much is this worth?" He asked, handing it to the merchant. He stared at the necklace in awe, looking at each possible angle as if he didn't believe it to be made from gold. After his initial examination, he reached under the counter and began grabbing pile after pile of portions.

"50 portions for the necklace."

"Thank you!" The child squealed, eagerly grabbing the portions and shoving them into his bag. Kylo couldn't help but smile at the child's eagerness but it disappeared as soon as it was his turn to turn in his items, which yielded one portion.

"I don't think the merchant likes me." Anakin said as they walked away from the post to head home.

"What makes you think that?"

"He's so rude."

"That he is." The man concurred, pulling the child to him and embracing from the side. "But he just can't stand the fact that you're such a wonderful boy and scavenger." The child gasped and stared at the man.

"Really?"

"Really."

"I'm the best scavenger in the galaxy!" He shouted, his voice echoing many times into the sandy distance. They made jokes about the merchant the rest of them way, stopping when they came to the hill that lay close to their home. Once around, Anakin dashed downwards towards the little house in the distance. "Dad!" Anakin called to the figure moving around the outside of the house. The figure stopped and waved to the boy. He kept running, nearly tripping once but he quickly regained his footing, running into the open arms of Hux an embracing him tightly. The man picked him up and held him close. "Did you miss me?"

"Very much." Hux replied, kissing the boy's cheek.

"Dad, you'll never guess how many portions I got today!" Anakin exclaimed once Hux put him back down.

"How many?" The redhead asked eagerly. Anakin opened up his bag and showed the stack of portions.

"50!"

"What in the name of the Force did you find that you got that many portions?" Hux exclaimed; the last time they had a yield like this was when they sold the lightsaber.

"A gold necklace." The child announced proudly and proceeded to explain about the ruins and how they had found the necklace. "Before I forget." He said once he was done with the story, beginning to rummage through his bag. "I found this too and I wanted to give it to you." He placed a gold ring in Hux's hand. The man nearly shed a happy tear and he put the ring on with a beaming smile.

"Thank you." After he kissed the child's cheek, Anakin ran into the house to put away his loot for the day. The two adults watched him dash away before they greeted each other with a tender kiss.

"I haven't seen Ani this excited since the day he found out he could use the Force." Hux commented. Kylo nodded in agreement, looking through the window into their house, where he saw Anakin dash around. His attention was pulled away from the child when Hux spoke again. "Did you find anymore gold in there?" He inquired.

"Not that Ani could find. Why do you ask?" Kylo could've just read Hux's mind but he had promised the man he would never do that to him. Besides, he had rarely used the Force since coming to Tatooine; the only times he did was to give demonstrations to Anakin when teaching him how to use the Force, which was something he did at a minimal rate. He didn't want to risk his son turning out like him.

"If there's enough gold there, we can barter passage on a ship and get out of here. Start new. This life has kept us alive and feed but it's not a life I want for Anakin. I want to be able to go to sleep without worrying whether or not he's safe from the Order or if there'll be food in his belly." Kylo sighed. Hux had a point and a valid one. This lifestyle was not ideal but helped them survive for the past years. Leaving would mean starting from the bottom once more and running the risk of Snoke detecting them.

"Where can we possibly go where the First Order won't find us?" He tried to reason, "We're in the most outer rim of the galaxy; if we go in, they'll find us."

"Ge." Was all Hux answered.

"Ge?" Kylo had never heard of the planet.

"It's a planet in the Barth system." Hux explained, "I was born there and a close friend of mine is the Queen; she'll help us."

"The Barth system? We may as well paint a target on our chests." The system was closer to the center and was close to both the New Republic and the base of the First Order. It would be near impossible to travel that far without being detected.

"I know it's risky." Hux acknowledged, "And it would take a lot of money to make sure they don't hand us off to the first Order ship but if we do make it, we'll be safe. Ge is protected by a shield infused with a rare metal that is nearly impenetrable."

"Nearly?" Kylo repeated, not at all comforted by the word.

"It can't be penetrated by anything at the disposal of the First Order." Hux assured. "I know because I've tried to do it."

"Do you have a solid plan on what to do should we run into the First Order?" Kylo asked. If Hux could answer him 'yes' with absolutely certainty with this question, he would not hesitate to go to Ge. Hux smirked proudly.

"Several actually." He announced.

"Alright." Kylo said after a moment, nodding, "Let's do it." After sharing a kiss, he grabbed his bag and went to the vaporizer to refill his canteen.

"Going to the ruins?" Hux inquired.

"Where else would I go? If we want to leave," Kylo explained, "We'll need that gold. By tomorrow morning, scavengers from all over will be here to try and find some. The more we can get now, the better." Once his canteen was full, he rose, going back to Hux to give him another kiss.

"Alright but don't stay away too long. You know Anakin hates it when you don't eat dinner with us."

"I know." They kissed again, Kylo trying to keep it going for as long as possible as he knew Anakin was watching them and likely making a face of disgust at them. When they part, Kylo headed towards the window from which the child had been watching and ruffled his hair. "I'll be back soon."

"Before dinner time?"

"Before dinner time."

"Promise?" The child asked, holding u his pinky to the man, a little tradition between the two. Kylo chuckled and wrapped his own pinky around it.

"Promise." He kissed his cheek and headed off, waving to his family before going around the sand hill.

He made it to the ruins shortly before sundown, moving quickly to find the tunnel through which Anakin had crawled through, finding not a single soul among the ruins. He found the archway and tried to think of a potential path to the door from this vantage point. His first path led him to a dead end but the second lead him to the door. It was an extremely old door – he could tell from the chipping - but it was still sturdy and the lock appeared to be in good condition. He attempted to kick it down but it didn't budge. He had only one other option after that but he wasn't sure if it would work.

He shut his eyes and tried to focus on the Force, trying to feel the energy around him. He lifted his hand and boom… the door slammed open. With a proud smirk, Kylo strode into the room, his eyes peeled for any glimmer of metal on the floor. He found a few small items like rings and earrings but nothing as valuable as the necklace Anakin had found. He searched the floor over and over but he found no other items in an hour of searching. Exhausted, he sat down on the throne and drank the remainder of his water canteen. A few gold rings would not be enough to barter passage to Ge for all three of them. He would have to try again tomorrow, he decided; he was tired and it would be challenging to keep searching in the dark. Plus, he'd rather be at home with his family than out at night in the cold.

Safely storing the jewelry in the bag, he headed back towards his home, walking at a quicker pace than usual; he'd rather avoid the cold. By the time, he neared the hill, his nose was red from the cold and he was losing the feeling in the tips of his fingers. Looking up, he smiled at the sight of the stars and the gray string of smoke wafting up into the sky. No doubt it would be nice and warm inside.

When he emerged from around the hill, nothing seemed wrong at first sight. There was light emanating from the house, inviting him to come bask in the warmth and love of his family. But upon a closer look, he froze in his spot. There were jagged black stars in random spots in the sand, black smoke rising from them; remnants of blasters.

"No…" Kylo whispered in disbelief, beginning to run. It couldn't have been the First Order. It couldn't have been. "Hux! Ani!" He shouted but to his horror, no reply came. "Ani!" He tried again, shouting louder, "Hux!" He dashed into the house, finding it empty. "No, no, no, no, no!" He repeated the words over and over, running back out and looking out into the desert. "Ani! Hux!"

"Kylo." A weak voice replied. The man ran for the sound and his stomach dropped when he found his lover lying in the sand, a blast injury on his abdomen and a bloodied hand on his chest. Kylo ran to him and collapsed next to him, spotting how the man was gasping for breath. "They took him. They took Ani!"

"Hold still!" Kylo hissed, examining the injury on his abdomen while trying to keep his emotions at bay. It was bleeding badly but it appeared to have missed the organs, meaning Hux would live if he stopped the bleeding. He ripped some of his clothing and was about to put it on the injury when Hux grabbed his wrist.

"Don't." He gasped, removing the bloodied hand he had over his heart, revealing another blast injury. "You can't save me." Kylo shook his head, refusing to believe it.

"Yes I can!" He cried. Hux smiled a little.

"You know you can't. But you can save Ani." With his waning strength, Hux took Kylo's hand and held it tightly. "Promise me you'll find him." At first, the man shook his head, still wanting to deny that he would be gone soon and trying to lie to himself that they would find their son together. Hux held his hand a little tighter. "Promise me." He pushed. Finally, Kylo, amidst his tears, nodded and leaned his forehead against Hux's.

"I promise." Kylo whispered, a slight crack in his voice. He still didn't want to believe that his lover was dying but seeing the injury and how pale he was, Kylo knew it to be true.

"If you see Ani," Hux started, holding the ring their son had given him out to his partner, "Give this to him and…" He took a shallow, shuddering breath, "And tell him I love him." Kylo nodded once more and took the ring, afterwards taking Hux's hand again, seeing that he was running out of time. "I love you." He whispered, smiling when the former Knight let out a sound that was an odd mix of a laugh and a sob. He tried his best to kiss back when their lips met, feeling all the love the other man was pouring into it.

They remained in the kiss for as long as possible but eventually Hux stopped, Kylo feeling him breath out his last breath against his lips. When he pulled away, the man stared at his lover's face, his blue eyes staring straight ahead and void of all life. With a shaking hand, Kylo closed his eyes before burying his face in his chest, sobbing loudly into the scorched fabric. He didn't weep for long as indomitable hatred seethed through the man. As his tears turning to ones of anger, he took Hux' face in his hands.

"I'll find Snoke and I'll bring Ani back. I promise." He sealed the promise with another kiss, afterwards carrying Hux's body back into their home and laying him down on their bed, placing his hands over the injury on his chest. Forcing the tears to stay back, Kylo headed outside, to the back of their house and began digging in the sand, ignoring the small particle getting stuck under his finger nails. After digging about 3 feet, his fingers scraped against something hard. Smiling, he dug more frantically and pulled out the item: a wooden chest. He opened it, laying his sight of his mask for the first time in seven years. They had kept the items of their past to remind themselves to never go back to the men that they were. He took out the helmet, his black clothing and Hux's great coat, putting them all on, He then got some food and other necessities for his journey, not once looking at the dead body of his lover. Once ready, he looked at Hux through one of the windows.

"I love you." He muttered and he turned around, walking away from the house forever. He headed to the trading post, everyone dashing out of his way as he approached out of feat towards his menacing look; no recognized him to be the kindly Kylo.

"The lightsaber. I want it." Kylo told the merchant bluntly. The man stared at him for a moment before laughing, grabbing the lightsaber from its storage compartment.

"If you want this, you're gonna have to pay." He sneered, laughing for one brief second before he began choking from some invisible force. He looked at the dark man, one hand reached out in a choking position while the other was open, held out towards the weapon. It went flying from the merchant's hand into Kylo's free one, who released the choke hold the same instance.

He left the post without another word, the merchant sending no henchmen after him. Perhaps that was a good thing as Kylo would've killed them all. He would find his son and no one, not even Snoke, was going to stop him.

I'm posting the follow up tomorrow.

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