Chapter 1

Ben Solo, or as he liked to be called, Kylo Ren, woke up that morning to the sound of his alarm clock blaring. He slammed his hand on the off button. Summer vacation was over. Hell was starting.

Kylo slowly stumbled out of bed, messy black hair surrounding his peripheral vision. He changed out of his pajamas and into black skinny jeans and My Chemical Romance t-shirt. He needed to look his best for the first day of school. Like any other kid, he didn't want to go, but he might as well make the most of it. Hux would be there after all.

Kylo looked around his room. Posters of his favorite bands were everywhere; My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Twenty One Pilots, Pierce the Veil, Sleeping with Sirens, and other grade A emo bands. Sure, he was kind of a stereotype, but he didn't mind. It wasn't a phase.

"Ben!" He heard his father shout from the living room downstairs, "Come down here or you'll be late!"

"I told you not to call me Ben anymore Dad!" Kylo yelled back.

"Ben Solo get down here this instant!" His dad yelled back.

They didn't have the best relationship.

After arguing with parents and barely eating breakfast, Kylo grabbed his bookbag and left the house. He started walking towards Hux's house. They lived pretty close to each other, and it was along the way to the school so they could walk together.

Hux and Kylo had been friends since 4th grade. They argued a lot at first, but after they calmed down, they bonded. Then they just clicked. They were best friends ever since. They might argue a bit still, they were both so proud, so self-centered, of course they'd argue, but they were always still best friends in the end. They didn't have other friends. They were kind of loners in that way. But they had each other. Now they were going into their junior year of high school.

Kylo arrived at Hux's house. He sat on the front steps and waited for his friend to come outside. He didn't dare knock, because Hux's dad was even worse than his own father, which Kylo didn't think was even possible.

Soon the door creaked open. The ginger-haired boy walked out quietly, his school bag hanging from one shoulder.

"Hey Hux," Kylo greeted with a smile.

"Hey," Hux said back, the smallest of smiles appearing on his face for less than a second. Hux wasn't that into smiling. Neither was Kylo, to be honest, but Hux was, special, somehow. He didn't know what it was, but something about Hux made Kylo want to smile.

Hux was wearing a black button-down shirt and black pants, which was both similar and different to what Kylo was wearing. Similar because in both boy's outfits, black was the main color, but different because Hux looked so much more professional. Kylo thought Hux looked really good, especially in that button-down. He didn't know why he thought that however.

They started to walk to the school. The September day was kind of chilly, but it was a nice breeze. The autumn-colored leaves fell around them. They were silent, but it wasn't awkward. They were ok with it. They had been friends with each other for so long that words were no longer needed for them to enjoy each other's company.

"Who do you think will be in our classes?" Kylo finally said.

"I don't know," Hux answered dryly, "The usual."

The high school they went to was a small one, because the town they lived in was small. Therefore they knew basically everyone that went there. They weren't friends with them, they just saw them around and matched the names with the faces. They only personally knew a few.

They were silent the rest of the way, except for when they occasionally teased each other, and when Hux asked Kylo if he had done the summer reading. Kylo had not. Hux, of course, had.

They arrived at their school; The Force Awakens Academy. Everyone thought it was a strange name. No one knew what it meant.

At homeroom, the teacher called attendance. A bunch of people Kylo and Hux didn't care about were called, until there was the first name they knew personally.

"Dameron, Poe."

"Here!"

Poe was not a student they liked. His friend Finn was called soon after. Kylo glared at the two boys, sitting together, just a bit too close. They didn't notice his stare. Hux, sitting to his right, nudged him before they would.

Soon after that, the teacher called, "Hux, Armi-"

"You can just call me by my last name, Miss," Hux rose his hand and stated. The teacher merely looked a bit caught off guard, but then nodded and moved on. A couple snickers were heard around the room, Kylo assumed it came from Poe and Finn, but didn't bother to look.

A little while after, Phasma was called, although the teacher raised an eyebrow at her name. Kylo and Hux knew Phasma. She was cool. She talked with them and hung out with them sometimes. She wasn't annoying like the rest of the fools in their school.

The teacher called more names, the R names, and soon after that, the S names.

That's when the teacher called that horrible, dreaded name. That name Kylo hated.

"Skywalker, Rey."

"Here!"

His cousin Rey was in his homeroom class. His annoying, stupid cousin Rey, daughter of his aggravating Uncle Luke. Great. He might as well just go die. All three of the kids he hated were in his homeroom class, which meant they were more likely to be in his other classes.

Before he was able to properly react to this news, the teacher called, "Solo, Ben."

"Kylo, actually," Kylo raised his hand and said, "I go by Kylo Ren."

The teacher squinted her eyes at Kylo curiously, then said, "Well ok then," and moved on to that last few kids.

As the day went by, the teens went to their classes to meet their new teachers, correcting the same attendance mistakes. Unfortunately, Finn, Poe, and Rey were in many of Kylo's classes, as he suspected. Fortunately, Hux was in all of his classes.

After school, Hux went to Kylo's house, anything to not be at his own house. Hux's father was a strange mix between uncaring and caring too much. He didn't care what Hux did. He didn't care what he did as long as it didn't involve him. Hux could probably go live with Kylo for all he cared, based on how much he went to Kylo's house to avoid his dad. His father didn't love him or support him or really do anything with him, but if his grades dropped below 95, Hux wished he'd be just as distant. Hell, even if he got a 99, he'd never hear the end of how he didn't get a 100 and how he was an utter failure and how he was a disgrace to his father's name. His father had great expectations for Hux but never bothered to help him achieve those expectations.

It was partially easy to achieve his father's expectations however, since Hux was at the top of his class. Not near the top, he was number 1 out of all of his 10th grade last year with a 98.7% average. Apparently it was still not enough to please his father, who yelled at him on the last day of school; the usual speech about being a failure to the family.

And he didn't have a loving mother to help him either. Hux had never met his mother. He was an illegitimate child, and his father kept him for some unknown reason. It didn't seem like he wanted him around.

Kylo agreed that Hux's situation with his dad was worse than his, but he still talked about how annoying and terrible his dad is, or more so, his whole family is. His dad, his mom, his uncle, his cousin, just all of it. None of them understood him. He just wanted to be himself and they didn't want him to be. He just didn't want to do homework or go to school or follow the rules but his parents would scold him and tell him to be a good kid and do the right thing. But he didn't want to be a "good kid". It just wasn't who he was.

Kylo never paid attention in class. He failed tests and just barely passed classes all the time. His parents begged him to just come home with a 70 at least. They said they knew how he felt but he needed to care about his future. Kylo would say back that no, they didn't know how he felt, they never would, they'd never understand him. Then he'd lock himself in his room and listen to the music he liked and maybe punch the walls or break a lamp or something. The repair bills the Solo family got were many.

Hux found Kylo's parents not that bad in his opinion, especially compared to his father. Sometimes he thought Kylo's parents were perfectly fine and that Kylo was the problem, but he never dared to say something like that to him.

The only thing Hux could say was bad about Kylo's parents was that they fought a lot. Not too much, not enough that they hated each other, but they fought a significant amount. Hux wondered that maybe that was why Kylo wanted to be who wanted to be; the "bad kid", the rebel stereotype. And then his parents hated him for being like that, and then his parents fought about that, which would make Kylo angsty, and so on. It was a vicious cycle.

The two boys arrived at Kylo's house around 4 o'clock. Kylo opened the door walked inside, Hux at his heels. His parents weren't home yet. They both finished work at around 5:30.

Kylo and Hux silently went to Kylo's room to play video games. Hux didn't have many games, despite enjoying them. His dad didn't let him get any games. He thought they would distract him from his studying. But what did he think Hux did at Kylo's house? Study? With Kylo? Yeah right.

Hux's father never actually bought Hux anything except for food and Apple products, which he said were "strictly for school purposes only", although Hux didn't just use them for school. But his dad didn't get him any games, any clothes he wanted, not even books. All of the many, many books Hux had read about historical wars and war strategy he got from the library.

His dad didn't even get him any music. And Hux liked the music Kylo had shown him. Not as much as Kylo liked it perhaps, but he did liked it. His father just played classical, which Hux thought was fine at first, but it got boring after a while. And there's nothing Hux hates more than being bored, except for maybe being wrong or not knowing something.

Kylo had let Hux play all the games he had. Hux really liked puzzle games and strategy games, especially war games. His favorite game series was Fire Emblem. He also liked an MMO called Space Xplore Online, one of the few games he owned one his computer that he had without his dad's permission. On the other hand, Kylo liked fighting games and beat-em-ups. His favorite game series was Super Smash Brothers.

"Let's play Smash," Kylo said to Hux, holding up the game's box. They sat on Kylo's bed, queen-sized and covered with galaxy-themed bedspread, that faced the TV in Kylo's room. He had a Wii U, a PS3 and a PS4.

"We always play Smash," Hux complained, "I'm bored of it. Let's play something else."

"Smash isn't boring! You just don't wanna play cuz you always lose!"

"Kylo, I beat you more than half the time." Hux wasn't just good at the games he liked, he was great at all genres. He was a sharp, quick thinker. He truly was a genius, at school subjects and in all forms of strategy.

Kylo was silent. He knew that was true. "Please?"

They played Smash. Hux beat Kylo 7 out of 10 games.

"I don't wanna play anymore," Kylo said defeated.

"Good, me neither," Hux said with a small, sly smile on his face.

"What do you wanna do?" Kylo asked, lying down on the bed, his soft black hair falling around him. Hux stared at him for a while, then looked away. Kylo thought nothing of it.

"I don't know," Hux replied honestly. Kylo had so much cool stuff, he couldn't make up his mind.

"Let's just listen to music," Kylo said and got up to grab his laptop. He opened iTunes and put his playlist of all the bands he liked on shuffle. A Bring Me The Horizon song came on.

Kylo lied back down onto the bed. Hux lied next to him. They both just laid there, flat on their backs, and listened to the emo music that came from Kylo's computer.

At one point the song "Floral & Fading" by Pierce the Veil came on. "This song reminds me of you," Kylo said suddenly.

Hux didn't know how to respond, so he just nodded. Kylo smiled.

Kylo's dad came home at at 5:45. He heard the music coming from Kylo's room and walked upstairs to it. He knocked on the door, covered with various posters of the "Keep Out" and "No Parents Allowed" variety. "Ben, I'm home!"

"That's not my name Dad!" Kylo shouted.

His dad sighed, "I'll be downstairs. Your mom will be here soon. She texted that she's gonna be late."

"Ok cool dad you can go now!"

"See you at dinner, son." The two boys heard his footsteps at he walked away from the door.

"Can you believe he still won't call me Kylo?" The black-haired boy said exasperatedly.

Hux was there when Kylo was deciding on his new name. It was when they were in 8th grade. He had always hated the name he was given; "Ben". He thought it was such a plain and boring name. It was so common. He needed something cooler, something unique.

"Something like your name," he had said to Hux that day, "Your name is cool-sounding."

"No it isn't. You know how much I hate my name."

"You only hate your first name. I'm talking about the name 'Hux'. It's cool. Names with X's are always cool."

They thought for a while before the name Kylo was decided on. It took a couple days for Hux to get used to the change, but he quickly got the hang of it. He's called him Kylo since then, just like Kylo wanted.

"Yeah that must be annoying," Hux replied dryly to Kylo, the two boys still lying on the bed, listening to music

The music filled the silent air. It was a Twenty One Pilots song.

"Hey, you wanna have a sleepover tonight?" Kylo asked randomly.

"You know my dad doesn't let me have sleepovers," Hux said.

"God, your dad is so confusing! He doesn't care what you do and cares about everything you do at the same time! It makes no sense! Why doesn't he let you have have sleepovers?"

"He thinks that I'll be sleeping with some girl."

Kylo actually laughed out loud, "You? With a girl? Yeah right!" He laughed and laughed, but stopped suddenly, "Sorry, I didn't mean it like you couldn't get a girlfriend. I meant like you wouldn't want one-"

"Yes I agree."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think I'll ever want a girlfriend."

There was a brief moment of quiet. Ever the music paused because it was in between songs.

"What do you mean?" Kylo asked.

"I don't really find girls attractive."

Again, a bit silence, before the music started up again; a My Chemical Romance song.

"Hux, are you coming out as gay to me right now?"

"I might be gay. I'm not quite sure right now. I've researched it, and teens question their sexuality a lot, so I feel like this is perfectly normal."

"No, no, I agree, that's normal," Kylo's heartbeat sped up, "Sometimes I feel I might be gay too."

"I assumed that."

"What?!"

"On the Tumblr pages you showed me, your favorite 'bandom' accounts you called them? I looked into them. Almost every 'emo' person on that site is somewhat gay. Many are pansexual. You fit the emo type just perfect. It was only simple deduction."

"You sound like Sherlock Holmes."

"Yes. And thank you for sharing your Netflix password with me and showing me that show. I really like it."

Kylo chuckled, "You're welcome Hux."

At 6 pm Kylo's dad came upstairs to get Kylo for dinner. His mom had come home too.

"Ben," Kylo's dad opened the door, "Dinner's read- Oh, hello Hux. I didn't even know you were here."

"Hello Mr. Solo," Hux greeted professionally. Kylo simultaneously liked and hated that Hux's dad's serious and professional attitude rubbed off onto Hux. Hated because he felt it was stupid to be like a person you hate, but liked because, well, Kylo didn't quite know. It gave him a kind of, controlling vibe. But not in a bad way, like in an awe-inspiring way, if that made any sense. Whatever Kylo thought, he knew one thing for sure; that professional, serious, studious way was no act.

Luckily, Hux was different from his father in some ways, like Hux had a sense of humor, most of the time at least. Hux was nicer, well, to Kylo at least. To everyone else he was either mean or emotionless. Sometimes Hux was mean or emotionless to Kylo too, but Kylo knew he didn't mean it then. That was the Hux that Kylo knew and loved.

Liked, Kylo corrected in his head, he meant to say liked.

"Well dinner's ready if you want it," Kylo's father said, "And you have to eat at the table."

"But Daaaaaad-"

"No Ben, you're coming down here now."

Kylo sighed in the stereotypical angsty teenage way, rolling his eyes, "Fiiiiiiiiiine."

Hux had dinner with them. Kylo's parents said they were happy to see him. He watched some Netflix with Kylo, then left at 9 o'clock. He arrived home to his father asleep on the couch. Hux went to his room quietly, shut the door, and didn't fall asleep until midnight.