Chapter 1

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Hux lifted his head out of his textbooks on the desk as the class erupted in whispers relating to the new face entering the classroom. Hux found the brightness of his clothing so luminous it was starting to give him a headache just looking at it. The contrast of yellow and hot pink on the tall boy's shirt strained his eyes. Hux deduced that this boy was Internet-famous and wanted people to know how "edgy" he was. His hair was jet-black and ruffled; a side fringe covering his left eye and striped red at the ends of the bangs. He had a dark beanie barely clinging to the back of his head, and bright beaded bracelets covered both his wrists.

From what Hux could see through the tangled mess of hair, the boy wore thick eyeliner, had several facial piercings on his lip and nose, and earrings, though his lobes were inhabited by thick plugs.

He had a strong jaw but a young face, and a deep, soft voice that matched neither feature when the teacher called his name for registration. The boy's name was, "Kylo Ren," though it didn't match the name on the forms (which Hux always checked before the teacher arrived to class to mentally prepare himself).

Kylo didn't sit very far from Hux's own desk, and he could smell the overload of deodorant on his clothes. He obviously cared very much about his image to the rest of the students in school, even if that image was stupidly flashy, and Hux could respect that. It was then explained that Kylo had simply moved up in classes, and the rest of the lesson went on as normal, other than the scent of the new boy lingering around him.

Kylo had begun to notice that he shared each of his new classes with the thin ginger boy called, "Hux." Hux never raised his hand in class, and sat mostly in silence, scribbling down notes from large textbooks surrounding him like his own personal fort. He kept to himself, but people around him seemed to be wary whenever he did have to speak. His voice was soft gentle, and his manner was mysterious and unusual.

He wore a thin black turtleneck that hugged his figure respectively, and for some reason he seemed to smell of medical supplies, but a clean smell at that. His hair was slicked back and freckles lined his cheeks and over the bridge of his nose. It was strange how he could look so adult and yet so young.

Hux seemed to be interested mainly in science and biology in comparison to other lessons in which he didn't seem to care as much and the passion for the subject left his eyes.

Hux took his normal place in the cafeteria at lunch across from his only friend at the school, Phasma, who was an incredibly tall girl for her age, liked being organised, and shared Hux's stubbornness. Both of their lunches were packed from home in organised boxes and other various containers, though Hux always had a lot less in order to attend study sessions during lunch hour, or even find a quiet room just to read before next period started.

"Kylo Ren was asking about you the other day," Phasma began, causing Hux to scowl in confusion.

"The new boy that moved into higher classes?" Hux asked, though he definitely remembered, and Phasma nodded.

"What did he want to know?"

Hux hoped Phasma wasn't the type to give out other people's personal information without their permission.

"I'm not entirely sure, I heard him ask where you were on the corridor, so I told him I didn't know you."

Hux was relieved by this though he had become intrigued by what the strange new boy was asking his whereabouts for. Hux quickly ate the fruit in his lunchbox before leaving to attend a much needed reading hour to relax himself after a particular stressful day.

He found the spare room in the science building unoccupied, and occupied it, shutting the door behind him and setting a book out on the desk.

It took several minutes for Hux to realise his mind was too absorbed in thoughts about Kylo Ren to concentrate on the pages. He shut his book, agitated, and stared up at the clock. Hux didn't trust the cleanliness of the science room enough to finish his lunch, and he couldn't return to Phasma without having to explain his wandering thoughts.

He could feel himself losing some control, and he took a deep sigh to regain himself just in case the unknown feeling in his gut decided to remain there.

Hux made his way to the front desk, and pulled open some drawers to find what he was looking for. Before he left the room at the end of lunch, Hux had stuffed an entire box of medical gloves and a beaker full of scalpels into his black satchel.

Kylo's pink highlight seemed to turn a lot of heads in the first biology lesson of the new week, including that of Hux, who never really turned his head at anything. Even if his face showed utter disgust for it, Kylo classed it as a win. Kylo's face lit up even more when he found that it was an experiment lesson, and his assigned lab partner was none other than the disgusted ginger boy sat several seats away from him.

The class erupted in groans and sighs as they found their assigned partner, and even more when it was discovered to be a heart dissection. Kylo made his way over to Hux, who had already prepared the necessary equipment and was wearing goggles on his head and an apron over his black turtleneck. Kylo wondered if Hux even owned anything else.

"If you don't mind, I'd prefer to carry out the experiment by myself-"

"Of course!" Kylo smiled, and his cheeriness made Hux incredibly uncomfortable. Hux thought about mentioning what Phasma had told him, but felt as though doing so would be a bad idea. It already seemed as though he'd encouraged Kylo's strange behaviour, though he couldn't think of how. Perhaps it was just how 'scene' people acted.

Kylo paid close attention to Hux's precise cuts into the organ when the experiment was eventually started, the notes he took after each observation, and the way he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration behind the thick goggles. Hux's writing was beautifully neat and detailed, and Kylo felt stupid trying to understand the technical way he wrote.

Hux was incredibly uncomfortable with Kylo looming over his shoulder to look at his notes, but he allowed it because he wasn't messing with the experiment, and he also had a feeling that if he told Kylo to move it would probably just cause Kylo to giggle or something. Hux even felt slightly disappointed when the bell rang at the end of the lesson, as he'd almost grown used to having the the overlooking tall boy sat so close throughout the experiment.

As Hux packed up his bag, he noticed a bright pink sticky note (not too much different in colour to Kylo's new highlight) slipped under his subject book reading:

"Help me study? X"

with Kylo's address and the following Saturday's date and time underneath it.

Hux couldn't understand if the note was a joke or not, but he folded it into his pants' pocket anyway, leaving the classroom feeling odd without clear reason.