Hux shot Kylo a look after they filed back on the shuttle. The Sith ignored him. He settled himself in his seat and shut his eyes, tuning out the world around him. From his posture, it was obvious he wasn't asleep. Probably doing something with the Force, Hux assumed. For Hux's part, he had work to do. Once they were off the ground and well on their way, he evicted the co-pilot from his seat so Hux could monopolize the communications equipment.

He continued working after they docked with the Supremacy, with a short break for sleep, until the next evening. He handed off command before he was too fatigued for what he expected to be the most difficult task of the day. Hux stopped by his own rooms to refresh himself before moving on to those of Kylo Ren. He drew himself up, shoulders squared, and depressed the buzzer for a long, single beat.

"Yes?"

"General Hux to see you, Supreme Leader."

The door opened. Kylo glowered at him. He was still dressed in his day clothes, sans gloves, so at least Hux had not interrupted his sleep. The scar across his face looked unusually inflamed, like it might be infecting. Kylo growled, "If this is about the repairs to the Supremacy-?"

"No, Supreme Leader. It is not. You were quite clear on that." Clear, and punctuated with a Force-enhanced shove to his solar plexus that had knocked the air out of him and ended his only other attempt to interact with the Sith since their return.

Kylo continued to glare briefly, then stepped aside. Hux walked inside. The doors shut behind him. "What is it then?" Kylo asked.

Hux swallowed, his throat still sore from the day before. He faced Kylo Ren directly and began his prepared remarks. "As the supreme leader, you have been receiving acknowledgements and pledges of loyalty from some few of your subordinates throughout the day. I would be remiss if I did not tender mine as well." He went to one knee in a formal fashion, one hand on his knee, the other at his side. "I, Armitage Hux, do hereby pledge my loyalty and allegiance to you, Kylo Ren, as the Supreme Leader of the First Order. I will perform all functions and duties as assigned to me faithfully and to the best of my ability, to uphold the honor and advance the cause of the Order, First in all things, before my own life, liberty, or interests."

Kylo gazed down at him silently with an unreadable expression. Hux had kept his eyes fixed to Kylo's belt during the oath. To say that it had been difficult for him to say such a thing to such a person was an understatement, but he had done it – clear-voiced, properly enunciated, with his head high and back straight. He raised his eyes now, to the man's face. Quietly, Kylo said, "I accept."

"There is usually a longer formal response-"

"It is unnecessary." Kylo cut him off, walking over to his desk and turning his back on Hux where he still knelt.

"Yes, Supreme Leader." Irritation flavored his voice. He couldn't even get through his damned oath of loyalty without the prick refusing to acknowledge it properly! He got to his feet, not even sure if he should, because it sounded like Ren thought the ceremony was over, yet he hadn't told him to rise, which came at the end of the scripted response, and-

Kylo looked back at him with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, I am angry," Hux said in frustration. "If you are reading my mind, then you know I wish to serve loyally and well and that can be difficult to do when I do not understand what my leader wants of me!"

Kylo Ren, Sith Lord, by all rights the most powerful man in the galaxy, turned to face him. His expression loosened and opened. He looked vulnerable, sad, and weak. "Everything that mattered to me was destroyed yesterday, Hux." The emphasis on his name was unexplained, but maybe it was that neither was using titles now. They were two men, not general and Sith. "Everything. It's all gone. Torn to pieces. I have nothing! Let it all burn!"

"It can be rebuilt. You have the First Order. You have me!" He hesitated, because all he'd initially meant was a rebuttal to 'I have nothing', yet the sexual connotations were impossible to miss. Kylo had already shown he had a weakness for that. Hux ran with it. "I am here to serve in any capacity you may need to get through this time of difficulty."

Kylo managed to say, "Any?" without seeming to move a muscle. Maybe the word only formed in Hux's mind. He didn't know.

Hux answered, "Any." He took a step closer to Ren. "I can't have you forcing yourself on my subordinates at random out of some kind of perverted Sith lust! It would be a disaster for morale! It would give every one of those generals who put you off today and didn't give you that pledge they were supposed to an excuse to never give it at all." Hux's teeth were bared, clenched together. "You don't want that! It will be civil war!" He jabbed his index finger at his own chest. "Take it out on me instead!"

"You have no idea what you're asking for."

"I have more than an idea," Hux shot back. "You showed me down on Crait." He waited a long beat, but Kylo only stared at him. "Clearly," Hux said with a roll of his eyes, "you need encouragement." He closed on Kylo, getting in his face. It was easy to work himself up to a spitting fury and give vent to things he'd longed to say. "I have to do everything around here. You are an incompetent excuse for a leader not worth the resources used to garrison you! You act like a toddler denied candy! You leave a wake of destruction I have to clean-"

There it was, finally – the Sith passion he'd been trying to ignite. Kylo Ren throttled him with the Force and then used it to throw him across the room. Hux slammed into the wall over the man's bed and dropped into it face down when gravity was allowed to take over. His neck had been wrenched painfully, in addition to bruising his throat enough that it hurt to breathe. He'd hit his head again and was disoriented.

Kylo thrust one bare hand up the back of his outfit, under his jacket, and hooked it firmly into Hux's pants and underwear. The other hand he used to pin Hux to the bed by the middle of the back. Then he yanked on the clothing. It was not made to be flimsy or to tear off the body, but whatever Kylo did (perhaps some Sith magic) caused them to rip along the seams on the side and peel back, exposing him.

"This is what you want?" Kylo said as jerked Hux's hindquarters up to make him accessible. Kylo climbed on the bed behind him, fumbling with his own clothing and being more careful about it than he had with his general's. Hux rolled his head to the side that he could without pain and looked back. Kylo addressed him, "Fuck the First Order; fuck you. Is that it?"

"As the supreme leader commands," he murmured. Laboriously, Hux began the process of shifting to lie on his back. The ruined pants did not make it easy.

Nor did Kylo. The man grabbed one of his legs and tried to put him back on his belly. "Stop that!"

"If I am ever put before a firing squad, Ren," Hux said as he yanked his leg out of the man's grip and put it back where he wanted it, turning his hips to follow the motion, "let me face my accusers. I would face them during that. I will face you during this." He ended up where he wanted to be, face-up, Kylo between his legs. Also, this way his neck didn't hurt him the way the other position did.

Kylo looked at him as if he just couldn't believe the man in front of him. "You are insubordinate," he finally said, with what sounded a lot like grudging respect. He looked down to finish the adjustments to his clothing. His penis was exposed, but nothing else was.

"Have me tried for treason, then," Hux said, utterly unimpressed. "You'll have trouble getting a quorum of my peers willing to dispense justice under the likes of you."

"You imagine there would be a court martial?" Kylo scoffed. He lifted Hux's hips and lined himself up. "I would execute you myself, and gladly." He tried to penetrate the man. It did not work.

Hux made a loud, complaining grunt at the pressure. "You have no, oh," he could not help himself from making noises as Kylo continued to try to find the right spot, and dry, "no respect for proper procedure. Ow." He panted. It was starting to hurt. "Use lubricant, you ignorant simpleton! Unless you intend to blast me from without like the cannon at the gates of Crait? Body oil, moisturizing cream, use something!"

The look Kylo gave him was priceless, somehow managing a chastised, yet murderous scowl. He raised his hand and a bottle of 'something' sailed across the room to smack into it.

"Have you never done this before?" Hux asked incredulously. If the man were really the rampaging sex monster Hux had imagined him to be, then how could he be this naïve? It had been a really rough week for the general. He realized he'd never heard any reports before of Ren taking advantage of people and despite being Snoke's apprentice, he'd had enough status to do it. Had he been wrong?

"Your epiphany comes too late," Kylo Ren told him, having oiled himself and Hux to the point of dripping. This time, he entered. Hux gasped and grabbed the sheets. His eyes strayed from Kylo's for only a moment, to stare at the featureless ceiling as his body was violated. When he realized where he was looking, he forced himself to lock eyes with Kylo. He grit his teeth, but didn't bother to quiet the pained sounds every thrust ripped out of his throat.

"You're noisy even now?," Kylo said.

"You're big," he said through clenched teeth. It wasn't a compliment. "Brute force isn't … ah!"

It felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly with a very large, dull knife. The Sith moved within him steadily, with regular thrusts that left him gasping and uselessly clenching at the sheets. The man felt enormous within him and he was only partway in. With a grimace, Kylo struggled with Hux's legs and the ripped clothing, folding them forward so he could go deeper. There were so many parts of Hux's body that hurt from everything that had happened over the previous days. The shift in position made everything throb with pain. His eyes glazed, but he kept them trained on Kylo Ren's face. It was closer now as he pumped into him, hair hanging down around both sides, swaying as he fucked him.

Hux raised one hand to Kylo's face. He was still wearing his gloves, having never been properly undressed. No respect for procedure, indeed. Kylo bit him, teeth sinking into the leather and biting down on the two lead fingers. Hux found it within himself to chuckle darkly, because he really should have expected that. He flexed his fingertips to the extent that he could against the Sith's tongue. With teeth still holding him firm, Kylo shut his eyes and sucked at the fingers for a moment.

That was erotic. Electrifying. Hux couldn't feel the suction, not through the leather, but he could see the act - the hollowing of cheeks and sealed lips. A flash went through his mind of Kylo getting to his feet when he'd ordered it, and how the man had bowed to Snoke. Perhaps the beast could be tamed after all.

Kylo spat out his fingers and bared his teeth at him with a growl. He thrusted harder, deeper, all the way in now. Hux threw his head back and groaned. The Sith began ramming him harder, filling him with every stroke. Hux couldn't stop the whimpering noises he made. They were pitiful. Pathetic. But coming from his mouth nonetheless. He wondered if he was going to be irreparably damaged from this. As Kylo had warned, he'd had no idea what he'd been asking for. A moment later, he felt the man release inside of him, throbbing at his entrance. Kylo's breath came in quick, erratic pants as his hips made a few final bucks into him.

The supreme leader's flushed skin, reddened lips, and wet eyes were beautiful. Fragile. Fearless, Hux reached up to him again, brushing the dangling hair out of the way to better see. Kylo had been staring at his midsection. Now he looked up at Hux. His lips trembled. Very gently, Hux drew the leather tips of his gloved hand down the man's cheek. Moisture had streaked it on Crait. Something had happened in that empty room to put Kylo Ren over the edge. This was not a man normally given to such madness.

Hux could see awareness slowly returning to Ren's eyes. Kylo focused on him, then his brows drew together slightly. "Have you never done this before, either?"

Hux snorted, which made his belly clench, which felt very odd with a still-mostly-erect penis inside of him. "We are both pure, Supreme Leader. Officer training concerns itself with serving one's commander, not servicing them."

"You are skilled at both."

"Above and beyond the call of duty, Supreme Leader." Hux's voice sounded tired even to his ears. "What magnitude of mistake have I made with you?"

Kylo shifted back and pulled out, a bizarre sensation that had Hux grasping at his loins, concerned he had lost control of his bowels. He had not. It was followed by cramps and a deep ache, as though he now had bruises inside to match the ones that littered his skin. Kylo tucked himself away and then busied himself looking at Hux's damaged clothing.

"I must know," Hux insisted. Remembering what had worked on Crait, he added softly, "Ren?"

The man looked up at him and he looked like a man – not an animal, not a monster – just a person. "Come to me tomorrow night. And every night." He was quiet for a long moment, before adding, "And we will build something new."