As the starkiller base was crumbling and exploding beneath him, the last thing Hux thought about was the loss of his suppressants. It didn't even register until later that night when he went to take them. He groaned as he let his head thump against the mirror in his refresher. That was the last thing he needed. They always said things happened in threes. First, Ren let the scavenger girl escape, then the destruction of the starkiller base and now his suppressants were gone. His day couldn't possibly get any worse. He'd have to ask one of the other shifters if he could borrow some of their suppressants. One night without them wouldn't hurt, or so he hoped. He thought nothing of it again as he got ready for bed. He slipped beneath the covers and lay on his side as he awaited sleep to claim him.
Hux groaned as he turned over in his bed. His limbs were heavy and his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool. He groaned again as the realisation hit him. He was at the beginning stages of shifting. He buried his face into the pillow below him and sighed heavily. It was more of a handycap than it was useful. He should have asked for the suppressants yesterday whilst he had the chance. Shifting into his other form would waste a lot of time, each shift could last anything from a couple of days to a week. And since he had been taking suppressants for the last twenty-odd years, then the build up would be greater thus his shift would last longer than it was supposed to. Much longer.
There was no way he would be able to work on the bridge in this condition. He'd have to tell someone, someone he could trust. He rolled over and dazedly scrabbled around for his comm on his bedside cabinet. Once he had it firmly in his hand, he contacted the only person he was close to and trusted.
He couldn't stop the smile that crept across his face at the voice that answered, 'General. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?'
'My supressants were on the starkiller base, so -'
'Let me guess, your shift is starting? Why didn't you have suppressants in your quarters as a backup'.
'I dont know. I guess I thought nothing would happen to starkiller. Anyway, I won't be on the bridge for the foreseeable future. I need someone to keep an eye on Ren, make sure he doesn't tear my ship apart'. He glowered at the chuckle he earned from his remark. 'I don't know what you find so funny Captain, he acts like an overgrown child having a tantrum. It's unbecoming of any officer in the First Order and especially onboard my ship'.
'I'm not disagreeing Hux, but you certainly have a way with your words. I'll keep an eye on Ren and the other officers, stop worrying about that and worry about your own problems'. Before he could retort back with a snarky comment, she ended the call.
From past experiences, he knew he had enough time to have a quick shower before his shift started. He threw the covers aside and gingerly got out of bed, regretting the action immediately as he swayed on his feet. He stumbled into the steel wall to his left as he overbalanced. He shuffled along the wall towards the refresher, using his left hand to aide him.
He slumped against the shower wall and grappled around blindly for the shower controls. Once the shower was at the right temperature, he closed his eyes and tipped his head back, allowing the water to cascade down his face and chest. He sighed with satisfaction as the water cleaned away the dirt and sweat from his sticky, overheated body.
The journey back to his bed was worse. He had to clutch onto the wall as he shuffled forwards in a hunched position. The pain was all over his body, even reaching as far as his extremities. He forgot how painful a forced shift could be. He continued awkwardly shuffling towards the bed until he finally reached it and all but collapsed onto it.
He snarled as his whole body felt like it was on fire. His limbs burned as they snapped and shortened and his head exploded with pain as it shrunk and reshaped. He let out a garbled gasp as his body reformed and finished shifting. He lay in the centre of his bed as his now shrunken body quivered in pain and distress. He was exhausted from the shift and instead of getting back up, he just lay on the bed and let his mind slip into unconsciousness.
Hux blinked his eyes open slowly and grumbled about the ache behind his eyes. He paused at the mewing sound that he made instead. He peered down at his body before he let his head fall back onto the bed. The memories of the night before resurfaced as he took in his temporary appearance. He had shifted. He was officially a cat for the foreseeable future. He didn't even have the satisfaction of being a big cat like a lion or a leopard. No, he was a small, ginger housecat. He mewed his complaint to the empty room.
It had been decades since he had last shifted, circumstances making it so. His father had always believed that shapeshifters were far more superior to humans, but he soon changed his mind about that once he saw what his only son changed into. Hux didn't think his father had had a housecat in mind when he thought about fierce shifters. Soon after the incident, Hux's father's opinion changed and he stated that 'shifting was a weakness and that it would be best if he started taking suppressants if he wanted to get anywhere in life'. So, trying to please his father and show him that he was serious about his future career, he took the suppressants without complaint, and he has never been without them since. Up until now of course.
To try and keep his mind off the travesty that his life was slowly becoming, he decided to explore around the ship. It wasn't like anyone would recognise that the small ginger kitten was in fact General Hux. And as an added bonus, it was a sure way of keeping his mind and body occupied.
With his mind made up, he leapt off the bed with a cat-like grace and proceeded towards the door that would lead out into the corridor. Getting out of the room proved to be a bit more difficult than he originally thought, but he managed it by jumping up onto the plush leather sofa that was positioned just in front of the button that would open the door and leaping from the sofa into the button. He landed on his rear with a crash, his head spinning from where it had made contact with the steel wall. It hadn't been one of his best ideas. But it had done the job. The door to his quarters was now open. He walked out of his room, tail held high with pride.
Even though he was in his cat form, he was still pleased to see that the corridor was deserted. It seemed that everyone was where they were supposed to be, except himself. His good mood vanished as his thoughts veered to what he would be doing now if he had still been in his human form. He guessed he would have been on the bridge overseeing the working order of the crew. His mood soured even more and his hackles rose as he thought about Ren commanding his crew on the bridge. Over his dead body.
With a goal in mind, Hux set off down the corridor towards the lifts and after several false starts, was on his way up towards the bridge. It was only when he was stepping out of the lift that he realised that a ginger cat walking onto the bridge might raise a few eyebrows. But, it was something he was going to have to deal with as he was not going to let Ren parade around on his ship like he owned the place. Even though Captain Phasma had promised to keep the Knight in line, he knew from experience that it was always best to do things yourself to ensure you get the results you want.
He slipped through the doorway unseen and leapt up onto one of the computer terminals on the far wall facing the wide expansion of windows. He sat on the closest terminal and watched as his officers flitted around the room and worked diligently. All in all, it looked like a usual day on the bridge, the only difference being he was a cat and not a human. He noticed that even though to all appearances he wasn't on the bridge, his officers were exceptionally trained to just get on with their work. He nodded his small furred head in satisfaction. This was how a ship was meant to be run.
The only indication to show that Ren had arrived was the heavy uncoordinated stomping of his boots against the steel floor. Hux hissed in contempt. The man was an idiot and a child.
Ren snapped his masked head in his direction, like as if he had heard what he was thinking, but paused as his eyes met with those of a cat. He continued to stare at the ginger feline until Captain Phasma approached him from behind. The other man slowly turned to face her as she cleared her throat to catch his attention. Hux took this opportunity to vacate the room and continue his exploring elsewhere.
The first room he came to was the command room, but there was no-one in there so there was no point in stopping to investigate, so he continued to the next couple of rooms with the same result. He decided to have a quick snoop around in the training room before he would go back to his quarters for the rest of the day.
Except that there was a slight flaw in his plan. He had no way to get into his room. There was no point in jumping continuously as he just could not reach the keypad. His tail drooped and swayed between his legs in frustration before he sat down outside the door. He'd have to think of something fast before the hoards of officers materialise in the corridor.
He finally gave up staring at the door, knowing it was a pointless endeavour, and headed back towards the training room. He had spied a rather large stack of clean towels resting inside a cabinet in the communal shower room when he had been exploring earlier. If the rooms were still empty, he would be able to take one or two of the towels and make a nest in the corner of the training room.
As it so happened, the rooms were indeed empty, so he raced across the room and slipped through the door to the shower room. He craned his head back as he stared up at the stack of towels resting inside the cabinet. It was going to be a lot harder than he had originally thought. He was going to have to scale up the cabinet and somehow magically pull out a couple of towels whilst he was precariously hanging from the cabinet. Simple. He wriggled his backside as he prepared himself before he raced up the side of the cabinet, his claws sinking into the soft wood to keep himself from slipping. He took deep breaths as he clung onto the cabinet and prepared himself to commence the final stage. Now was the tricky part. He had to pull out a couple of towels from his awkward positioning. He stretched a paw across the space and swiped it onto a towel. He continued with this method a couple more times before a towel slipped onto the floor. He weighed up the option on whether he should try to get another towel but decided that one would be enough. He slithered halfway down the cabinet before he leapt onto the towel. He trotted to the edge of the towel and picked up the corner of it with his mouth before he started to drag it from the shower room back into the training room. He paused as he calculated which corner was best to put it in. He dropped it in the far right corner, the furthest away from the door that led out into the corridor. He poked and prodded the towel into a satisfactory position with his nose and paws before he crawled beneath it and wriggled his body around until he was comfortable.
An indeterminate amount of hours had passed when he was abruptly woken up by a hand stroking his towel-covered stomach. He scrambled to get out of the folds of the towel he had disappeared into, but all he managed to do was pop his head out of the soft fabric. He peered up at the person who dare awaken him from his nap. He scowled as he came face to face with Ren. It was like as if the man knew it was him and was haunting him.
Hux wriggled his way free from his confines, but before he could get far, he was picked up by a large hand wrapping itself around his middle. He hissed and scratched as he wriggled furiously to escape the hand, but it remained clamped around his midsection. He only gave up struggling when Ren cuddled him against the man's much larger, and admittedly warmer, chest.
Hux grumbled as Ren stood up to his full height and made his way out of the training room. He watched in trepidation as Ren twisted and turned down different corridors, weaving his way down them like they were rabbit burrows. If he wasn't so used to the layout of the ship, he was sure he would have become dizzy with the amount of different turns they were taking. And it was with his knowledge of the ship that he knew where Ren was heading. Ren's quarters.
He watched as Ren typed into his keypad before the door to his quarters opened. He blinked in surprise at the tastefully but sparsely decorated room. He was jolted from his thoughts when he was placed down onto the centre of the sofa that was situated in the middle of the living area. He sat and (watched) as Ren pottered around, tidying up after himself and taking off his black robes. Hux was suprised when Ren didn't just drop his clothing onto the floor and leave it there until he next needed them.
Whilst Ren was busy with putting his robes away, Hux took it upon himself to explore the rooms that made up Ren's quarters. His expedition took him to the kitchenette, bedroom, refresher and closet.
He eyed the bed that took up most of the bedroom before he decided to throw himself onto it. He yawned and stretched on the bed, surprised at the softness beneath his paws. He rolled onto his back and wriggled furiously at the niggling itch that had been annoying him for several minutes now.
He was interrupted when Ren leant against the doorway and chuckled, actually chuckled, at his antics. He stopped what he was doing and slowly rose up into a sitting position. He warily eyed the force user as the man pushed himself off the doorframe and edged into the room. It was at that point that Hux noticed that Ren wasn't wearing his mask. If he had been in his human form, he was sure his mouth would have been hanging open. The man that was stood before him was pure perfection. His hair was pure black and fell in waves down to his shoulders and his large brown eyes gave away every emotion that flitted through his mind. And don't get him started on those lips, fat and plump which lay just beneath his large crooked nose. He continued to stare at Ren's face. He knew that it was rude to stare, but he couldn't help himself. He truly did have magnificent features. They seemed to work on the other man's face, on anyone else and they would look awkward and possibly abnormal.
He mentally shook himself as he watched Ren head towards the refresher. He tried to think of something else, like all those reports laying abandoned on his desk back in his quarters. He tried not to imagine what Ren looked like in the nude. If he wasn't careful, he would soon be sporting a boner. And wouldn't that be awkward, especially if Ren found out it was him. But the other man hadn't said a word about the matter, so he assumed that was not the case.
He had several minutes to himself as Ren showered, so he continued his exploring and was suprised, once again, to find that Ren actually owned real clothing. Casual clothes, not those black drab robes that he took to wearing around the ship just to frighten people. He huffed as he thought about the Knight terrorising his crew.
He hadn't realised how long he had been standing in the closet doorway until a pair of legs appeared above him and continued on into the small cupboard-like room. Before he could think rationally, he looked up and instantly regretted it. Standing with his chest facing towards him, was a completely nude Ren. The scene before him was burnt into his retinas, so even though he looked away, he could still see the image clearly in his mind.
He fled from the room and dived beneath the bed. He would never be able to look the man in the eye after this. He would forever have that image in his head. He waited and listened as Ren performed his nightly routine, whatever that was. He was not going to leave his new hiding space anytime soon. Having said that, he squawked in surprise as his hind legs were grabbed by an invisible force and he was forcibly dragged from his hiding spot. He hissed and spat at the other man as he was dropped unceremoniously onto the plush bed. He tried to make his escape, but was stopped when Ren dragged his smaller furrier body back and cuddled him against his chest. He lay still for several minutes, listening as Ren's breathing slowly evened out with sleep. It took him a while longer before he could relax, but when he did, he drifted off to sleep rapidly.